I’m sure you have heard about this. Apple has released the i7 iMacs. Yes, you heard me correctly. i7, perhaps one of the fastest chips known to date. After running several tests, MacWorld’s Jason Snell confirmed via Twitter update that the 27 inch iMac was the fastest stock mac they have tested to date, IE, the iMac is faster than the current Mac Pro.
Problem? Not necessarily, but to does raise some questions.
One of these questions is: “If the iMac is better than the Mac Pro right now, then doesn’t that mean Apple will upgrade the Mac Pro in the future?” I have an answer to this question, and I believe it is yes. But just because I am answering yes doesn’t mean I think that’s the best thing to do.
If you follow my Twitter updates you may remember a specific one which I suggested that Apple drop the iPod Shuffle from it’s line. I suggest this because it is simply irrelevant. I can’t imagine anyone buying it unless they are completely clueless about MP3 players or they simply want to have proof to back up them saying “I own an iPod”. It’s too cheap, and frankly, too usless (but not completely, I have to give Apple that.)
This may be the case for the Mac Pro now. I do understand that there are “super” people who need to pimp out with Mac Pro with 32GB of RAM and 8-core 3.2 Ghz Processors, and I do understand there are some people that need 4TB of HDD space, but with the iMac screen getting larger, and it being an all-in-one machine after all, don’t you see those possibilities within the near future?
Yes, I am suggesting that the Mac Pro be dropped, but not soon, not soon at all. I’m saying that the iMac is up there in terms of speed with the Mac Pro, and it only makes sense that you upgrade the Mac Pro, get rid of it if the iMac is testing faster than it.
But, I do know that Apple will update the Mac Pro, and this post is nonetheless, a thought.
NOTE: While I was writing this blog post Mark Jardine, a fantastic designer updated Twitter saying that the iMac i7 does slow as you use it more, here is the direct link.
Over a quarter-century ago, Xerox introduced the modern graphical user interface paradigm we today take for granted. 10/GUI aims to bridge this gap by rethinking the desktop to leverage technology in an intuitive and powerful way.
A friend of mine introduced the 10GUI project to me a couple months ago. I watched the video for a couple minutes, lost interest, and shut down the computer; It was late and I wanted to get to sleep. Yesterday I revisited the site, and watched the entire video. Please visit the website, read the information, and watch this ten minute video. It will be worth your time, I can guarantee it. Before I get into what my real thoughts about 10GUI are, I want to talk about the brief history of touch sensitive computing.
The first touch sensor was invented in 1971, from that year all thew way up to the beginning of the 21st century, I believe there was no improvement on a large scale. Sure, the sensors got smaller, sure they became more sensitive, and sure, the screens got bigger, but there was never a large advancement in usability, or interaction. This is because there are many problems that arise when trying to make a large change, which I will get to within the next few paragraphs.
I believe that Apple’s Multi-Touch, or Cocoa-Touch technology has been the foundation for touch screen computing in these past few years. Upon the release of the original iPhone, other cellular carriers designed and developed touch-screen phones like rapid-fire to compete with the iPhone. Droid, Storm, and myTouch all have their own “Multi-Touch” features, but it’s not like they would be here as they are if the Apple had not developed the iPhone with it’s own “touch” capability. Apple, along with it’s competitors has given us the opportunity to realize that touch-screen computing is the future, and for me, 10GUI is the future.
Touch technology did not take off so quickly in the computing sector because of the problems that arise. When you are using a touch computing mobile device, such as an iPhone, your fingers are not always on the screen when using an application. However, when using a computer, your fingers and hands are always resting on the keyboard or mouse. Therefore, if you were to enlarge the screen of a touch enabled mobile device and put on a desktop operating system on it, your fingers would always be resting on the screen; with your hands resting on the screen, much of your viewing space is taken up. 10GUI solves this problem by using a keyboard shaped pad.
Take a look at your current desktop, what do you see? If you are the “average” person, it is likely that you have more than one window open, one, being the browser window, which takes up a decent percentage of your screen size. Then you have the other windows that take up any remaining space, or are too large and must be minimized. 10GUI solves this problem by turning your monitor into one linear window. New applications will appear as they are launched, and navigation is possible by multi-touch gestures. As you switch Applications, different multi-touch gestures become available, and there are hundreds of combinations because of the number of fingers you have.
Imagine yourself as a sound technician in a recording studio. You are manning the equalizer on a non-touch screen computer. To adjust, you must use your mouse, and singularly move each dial or fob until satisfactory; this is completely different than using a real EQ, because you have all your fingers available to move the dials and fobs at the same time.
This is one of the main phenomenons about 10GUI. It allows the user to not be limited to “a single pair of coordinates”. Using more of your fingers will increase the speed of which you complete tasks. Since multiple fingers can be doing multiple things at the same time, this makes multi-tasking a breeze. The touch-pad also has three layers of sensitivity, which triples the number of actions you can do with your fingers, depending on the number you use, and the pressure that is applied. In 10GUI, more is more.
I’ve talked about this before, I’ve complained that Verizon should have the iPhone on their network, I’ve said AT&T sucks, I’ve said it should go on Sprint, and now I’m going to ask this.
Has anyone seen the commercials for Droid? It completely bashes the iPhone. To sum it up, they say this: “iAmbetterthantheiphone”. Yeah, they stole the “i” thing to make fun of Apple. But heres the thing, it really isn’t all that funny. Verizon, so many people want the iPhone on your network, and you seemed to have just passed that aside. Do you know how many people would be moving to your service if you guys had the iPhone? Thousands upon thousands! How in the hell did you think it would be ok to bash Apple on national TV, and then try to make a better phone?
Oh, and don’t think we forgot about Blackberry Storm. Another attempt to drag people to your network. I just don’t understand, no, I’m sorry. YOU don’t understand Verizon. Why are you trying to be better than the iPhone? You can’t! I’m sorry but you can’t! Nothing can. You may say that is a fanboyish statement, but it is fanboyism it’s self that makes the iPhone the best mobile device out there right now. That’s why so many people flocked to it in the first place, and now that it’s business friendly, you have a real fight on your hands.
Here’s a little diagram to lay it out for you guys.
VERIZON (YOU) has this many people on your network: 
AT&T (THEM) has this many people on their network:
This is how many people are iPhone users on AT&T:
Now, those aren’t exactly accurate results, but I’m sure anyone can speculate that a fairly large part of the AT&T network is there because of the iPhone. If you had the iPhone Verizon, you are in the ballpark to get lots more subscribers to your network, a lot more than you already have. So why the hell not? You’ll make some big money, and there is no doubt that you are in the business for money, like any other carrier.
That being said, why would you not try to get the iPhone on your network, instead of bashing the company that made it, and then try to make mockups of the thing on your network. How many touchscreen phones have you guys released in the past two years? Droid, Voyager, Voyager Titanium, Storm, Storm 2, Env Touch, HTC Touch Pro, HTC Imagio, Samsung Rouge, HTC Touch Diamond, LG Versa, etc…
This is my final message to you Verizon, STOP COMPETING.
So who is getting the iPhone? Sprint. Yep, sprint. Sprint is an underdog like T-Mobile, and I predict they will bid a mighty high price for the iPhone on their network to come out on top, most likely putting AT&T as an underdog, unless of course AT&T bids to have it stay, or Apple splits the deal and more than one carrier gets it.
We’ll see.
So, you heard the tethering hack was broken by iPhone OS 3.1 right? Well, that’s actually completely true. It did break the tethering hack. What it didn’t break was PDAnet tethering.
PDAnet tethering has been around for while, it provides tethering on Palm OS, Windows Mobile, and now iPhone OS. Actually, PDAnet has been tethering with iPhone OS since the first jailbreak, it has been around since the beginning, and still works.
After searching for hours on Google trying to find a way to get tethering to work with a jailbroken iPhone 3GS on 3.1.X, I found my answer on the Mac Rumors forums. My questions were answered by dhlizard, a highly active member in the iPhone section:
“Sorry, you were given the wrong info. Fuzzyband will not work on a 3GS. Besides that it has nothing to do with jailbreaking, just unlocking. As far as downgrading the firmware on a 3GS you can only do that if you have stored your SHSH on Cydia. If you don’t know what I am talking about, that means you did not do this.I will assume your 3GS is at 3.1 since you mentioned downgrading to 3.0.1. Apple quit signing the 3.0 and 3.0.1 IPSW’s so you cannot select them in iTunes, therefore you cannot restore to them. Since 3.1 is the lowest firmware that is still signed, you cannot go any lower. Just buy PDANet from Cydia store and use that to tether. That is what most others are using. You must be jailbroken to get and use Cydia. MMS is possible on 3.0 thru 3.1.2, but since you are at 3.1 and cannot go lower, that should not be an issue. You can jailbreak your 3GS on 3.1, just get Pwnage Tool 3.1.4 and get a tutorial from iClarified.”
Dhlizard gave more than enough information and explained everything. So, being the adventurous person that I am, I went ahead and jailbroke my iPhone 3GS using Blackra1n. Blackra1n is the easiest way to jailbroke any iPod or iPhone, excluding the iPod Touch 3G. Simply plug your device into your computer, launch blackra1n, and then; Make it Ra1n.
The process takes less than one minute. When the device restarts, you will see the Blackra1n icon. Tap it and install your client of choice, Cydia, Icy, or Rock. I just went with Cydia since it is the original and I had a problem restoring my iPod Touch when I had Icy (the thing is a brick now). Once you have your application installed, simply tap manage, sources, search, and type in “pdanet”. The package PDAnet should come up from modmyi, you can tap and install it. Keep in mind this is only a 14 day trial, but if you poke around google you can find older versions (PDAnet for iPhone was just originally turned into a non-free application).
Once PDAnet is installed you have some evaluation to do. Are you on Windows or Mac? If you are on Windows, click here, if you are on Mac, stay with me and I will explain to you step by step how to this working.
Click on the airport icon in your menubar, then create network.
Name the network whatever you want, and give it whatever channel you want. You can choose for it have a password, but it’s not necessary. Click “Ok” when you are finished.
Click your airport icon again and make sure you are connected to the network you made. Now pick up your iPhone and navigate to Settings-WiFi and connect to the network you created on your computer. Now just launch PDAnet and your iPhone and Mac will be connected and sharing an internet connection.
I hope this helps as many people as possible, I saw all this news saying that iPhone 3.1 broke tethering forever, but, it’s there.
JD
I just learned that the beta release of Onyx for Mac OS X Snow Leopard came out and likewise I downloaded it and began running scripts to keep my Mac clean, fast, and healthy. So, realizing that running all the cleaning and maitenence scripts take up to an hour to complete, I thought I should whip up a blog post, and it is going to be easy since I already have something on my mind.
So, earlier this week some folks say they have found some evidence that the Apple Mighty Mouse and Keyboard are going to be redesigned, as well as the iMac.
Take a look here:
I don’t care all that much about the iMac redesign but more the Apple Mighty Mouse and Keyboard. I really wanted a Mighty Mouse but I heard much bad stuff about it like hoe the rubber ball gets dust and oils caught in it and then stops working all together. I’m also a gamer, and the Mighty Mouse is not good for gaming because you cannot press the left and right mouse buttons at the same time, because they are the same button. The Apple keyboard drew me because it looks great and is wireless, just like the Mighty Mouse. However, I did not like the fact that it is not backlit.
So, seeing that both the Apple optical items don’t work for me I went for the Logitech equivalent. Here I have the classic Logitech Wireless Mouse and the Logitech backlit keyboard, not wireless, but it works.
What I would really like to see Apple do is implement backlighting into the Apple Keyboard and also keep it’s Bluetooth capability, so it runs completely on batteries. I would like to see the Mighty Mouse be completely redone. It should essentially be an iPhone’s screen but built as a mouse, completely multi-touch. Gestures and all.
I mean, the Mighty Mouse hasn’t had an an update since 2006.
If you follow me on twitter (just look to the right for my latest updates), then you probably know that I am fascinated by design and user interfaces. My interest in this area has given me the courage to pursue it.
So what does the future plans of the site have to do with me striving to be a talent UI designer? Well, it means quite a lot actually. To start off, there will be a new site, and this one will be going down the drain.
But do not worry, because I will still have a blog, and I will still be talking about the same content, it will just have a different look, domain name, and the main part of the site will not be a blog.
Let me give you a written blueprint of the new site; it will be mainly a portfolio showing my works, photos, films, icons, wallpapers, themes, skins, etc…, the contact or leave a comment page will be transferred over, as well as the about me page from this site. The blog will also be at the new site, but it wont be the home page. Well, kind of.
I’m going for a magazine style kind of theme so at the top there is the name of the site, then a menubar with the pages, then below that there will be a window that cycles through 4 different recent pieces or work. One will be an icon, the second will be a wallpaper, the third a photo, and the fourth, a blog post. They will cycle through in that order as well.Below that there will the titles of recent blog posts and a small summary of it, clicking on the titles will take you to the main post.
I have not decided if there will be advertisements on my site.
All of this will be on top of a nice looking magazine style theme, which is undecided at this point.
As for a name? I’ve been thinking Assorted Slices (Assorted meaning different pieces of work, photos, icons, writing, and Slices meaning Apple related). I at first had Jadeworks (Works being my work, and Jade being a longer way of spelling my name, JD), but the domain was already taken. I looked into a .ks domain but, Kosovo, the country that was expected to get the .ks domain, got .ko instead.
Tough luck.
If you don’t know what iTunes is, you have been living under a rock since 2000. In 1999, SoundJam MP was released by a company known today Casady & Greene, which shut down in 2003.
At the time, SoundJam MP was the second audio focused application for Mac OS, next to Audion, developed by a now popular Mac OS X developer company named Panic. Apple first approached Panic about working together on Audion to create a audio focused application that came bundled with the operating system. However, Panic had been talking to AOL and was never able to meet with Apple about the bundled audio application. Apple then moved to SoundJam MP, bought it, , removed a few features, revamped the interface, and named it: iTunes. By version 2, there was complete support for Mac OS X and the original iPod.
Version 4 released the iTunes store. Possibly one of the greatest decisions Apple has ever made. Apple quickly acquired rights from various record companies to sell their music, and give them a percentage of the profit. Apple also introduced iTunes cards, which were pushed out to thousands of stores across the United States. The cards could be redeemed for credit on the iTunes store, rather than being charged to your credit card.
When Apple added support for Microsoft Windows, iPod sales shot up dramatically. Apple became champion of the MP3 world. More and more features began rolling out, ratings, TV Shows and Movies, Cover Flow, Multiple languages, International iTunes Stores, Rentals, and then, Apple released the App Store for iPod Touch and iPhone.
The App Store update was just as successful as the release of the iTunes Store it’s self, companies not even associated with music began developing applications for the iPhone and the iPod Touch. Games, Social Networking tools, Medical tools, GPS and turn-by-turn, MS Exchange, and more were now all on the iPhone, and all of it had to be done with iTunes.
Though there are copies and competition of the iPods and iPhones there is surely nothing quite like iTunes.
Believe it or not folks but instead of doing a review on Mac OS X Snow Leopard, I’m actually just going to post a few photos from my T1i of the box and it’s contents, then give a brief overview of what I like so far.
One thing I really love about Snow Leopard is the presentation of the box. Instead of putting an X like they did on the Leopard box and Not really putting much else on, Apple put a real picture, of a Snow Leopard, onto the box, but leaving part of the foreground and the background, blank white, to symbolize more snow, along with the snow on the Snow Leopard. They then added black text with the name of the software and a nice little description below it, in bold black text, to stand out against the white.
Well done.
Upon opening the package, your going to see a disc (disk?) in a clear plastic cover that looks exactly like the box, except with a little more info on the right side, I believe system requirements.
You’re also going to find a nice little paper kinda packet thing that just talks about the major changes you can see, like Expose and Safari. One thing I do want to note, the new Expose feature, where you click in the dock, is just part of the expose, the old expose is still there, where the windows fan out.
So that’s pretty much it, just an unboxed overview kind of thing.
