It's been a couple days since the keynote and I've had a bit of time to ponder. I think I can sum it all up with one word: Fantastical. I'm excited about the name change and the general direction of Apple. The 10 years since Jobs' return have been astounding: iMacs and iBooks, the shift to OS X, iLife, the iPod, the shift to Intel, and finally, the iPhone. Yes, it really is astounding. Given the content of the Jobs keyonte it seems likely that Apple's future is not only secure, but that it will continue to break away as a leader of design in many areas.

The iPhone and the Future of Apple Mobile
A mobile device that runs a version of OS X and incorporates an entirely new system of touch-based control is nothing short of groundbreaking. I wish they'd called it Apple Mobile which would better reflect the range of the device. Regardless, it seems obvious that there will be a series of iPhones, like the iPod, that will offer a range of prices, sizes, and feature sets. It also seems likely that the technologies in the first iPhone will make there way into upcoming iPods and perhaps a new class of mobile/tablet that does not include a phone. The iPhone is the first of a new Apple platform and as great as the iPhone will be, it is running on just the first version of mobile X. Get ready, this roller coaster is just pulling out. The first round of iPods, all of them till now, were just the process of standing in line and getting buckled in.

AppleTV and the new Airport Extreme
Back to the living room, not only did Apple release the expected AppleTV but also a new Airport Extreme. The news here is not the 802.11n which was the next logical step, but the inclusion of Airport Disk. According to Apple almost any USB 2.0 hard drive can be plugged into the Airport Extreme's USB port and then be easily shared via the network. Not only that, plug in a USB hub and share multiple drives and printers. Let's hope that Airport Disk will work with Leopard's new back-up system, Time Machine.

Leopard, iLife, and iWork
To everyone's surprise Jobs did not mention Leopard, iLife, or iWork. Not a peep. Many folks have expressed disappointment which is understandable. We've all come to expect new versions of these suites with each new year's MacWorld. Some have speculated that iLife and iWork apps will require Leopard technologies and so may be tied into it's release. It goes without saying that the Mac community is eager to get more details on Leopard and the iApps... hopefully we'll here something soon. I wouldn't be surprised to see a special Apple event soon.


Technorati Tags: Apple, OS X, Macintosh, Mac, iPhone, Airport Extreme, Airport Disk, AppleTV, Leopard

There are plenty of Apple oriented blogs and sites discussing the latest Apple developments and announcements so I often don't comment too much. Concerning the naming of the iPhone, why not just call it the "Apple Mobile"? Personally, I think the iProduct naming convention has gotten a bit old. Given the groundbreaking design of the iPhone as well as the fact that it is so much more than a phone, seems like it would make sense to break the naming convention as well.

Technorati Tags: Apple, OS X, Macintosh, Mac, iPhone

You gotta love Apple's style.

Technorati Tags: Apple, OS X, Macintosh, Mac

They said the days would come that Mac users would have to deal with the same virus problems Windows users have had to deal with. The day has come! Apple has released a nifty application that makes installing XP on your Intel Mac fairly easy. Boot Camp will guide you through the process of partitioning your Intel Mac's drive and will prompt you to burn a CD containing the drivers you'll need once you've installed XP. Apple's even given the Windows icon a nifty make over giving it a bit of style. Nice.

Of course you'll have to buy your own copy of XP and you'll want to heed Apple's warning about the attacks that will come with Windows on your Mac. Spend some money on Virus protection too.


Technorati Tags: Apple, OS X, Boot Camp

Yes, I know I'm a day late.

I've been using Macs since 1993 when I purchased a Color Classic. A big thanks to my neighbor J.P. who was a student in my apartment complex and who introduced me to Apple. He offered to help me along in my first days as a Mac user. Had he not been there I would have likely purchased a Windows-based computer out of ignorance.

I still have that Color Classic and have since happily owned and used various Macs: Performa 6400, Lime Green iMac, Blue iBook, 2 White iBooks, G4 Tower (QuickSilver), G5 iMac, and my main computer as of now, a 1Ghz 12" PowerBook (my second 12" PB).

While I'm at it let me roll in an even later birthday to OS X which was rolled out five years ago on March 24, 2001. I started using OS X with the beta and switched over full time with 10.0. As much as I loved the Classic Mac OS, there was no going back once I had OS X, even the slow and somewhat limited 10.0. In five years Apple has done a fantastic job of consistently producing solid steps forward and 10.4 is a pleasure to use.

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I've noticed that many of the Mac users I know personally do not check the various support pages at Apple.com when they have a problem. So, it's a simple tip today, if you are a Mac user don't forget to utilize the resources provided by Apple:
Apple.com Discussions
Apple.com Pro Tip of the Week
Apple.com Support

Technorati Tags: Apple, OS X, Apple Support

Apple has released the 10.4.5 update for OS X. Here's a partial list and summary of the changes:

-iChat video conferencing
-Safari rendering of web pages
-usability of Dashboard and widgets
-viewing of QuickTime streaming media behind a firewall
-printing to some Epson printer models
-iDisk and Portable Home Directory syncing
-time zone and daylight savings for 2006 and 2007
-VPN connections to Cisco servers when using NAT
-using and mounting Windows formatted storage devices
-compatibility with third party applications and devices
-previous standalone security updates

Get the details in this Apple Knowledge Base article.

Technorati Tags: Apple, OS X, OS 10.4.5

I'm a fairly happy and content Mac user. In the past couple of years most of my work seems to be centered on the small home or business office with a network of 2 or more Macs. As a result I'm always thinking about ways that we could be more efficient through collaboration.

1. An updated iWork with a spreadsheet. As it is now Pages and Keynote are fantastic applications that I would not hesitate to recommend to any student or small business user. Add a spreadsheet and I won't ever miss Microsoft Office.

2. Bonjour integration everywhere! Most importantly iCal and Address Book. Let me share and collaborate on my network! I'm truly amazed that Apple has not already integrated Bonjour into more of its own applications.

3. iTunes movie sharing. It's great that i can share songs but now with the iPod video and integration of video into iTunes take it a step further and let me share my iTunes movies along with the music I can already share. In addition, fix playback of movies in iTunes. As it is now it is slow and jumpy. Playback should be as smooth as it is in the QuickTime player.

Technorati Tags:Apple, Mac, Bonjour, iWork, iTunes

Amazing. No. Really. Amazing. While this is not verified or official information put forth by Apple it certainly seems logical and doable given Apple's development of OS X thus far. Here's the story... You see, there is a poster at Slashdot that goes by "As Seen On TV" who claims to be an Apple employee. Whether this is true or not "As Seen On TV" has recently posted on the potential future applications of Spotlight and I think the comments are worth noting. What it all comes down to is adding lots of metadata and designing a system that will be responsive to the way we function in everyday life: association and relation.

We're talking about highly advanced stuff here. It exists only in labs. So it's way too early to talk about specifics.

I don't want to blow anything out of proportion, but think of Spotlight as being kind of like the first bitmapped graphics. What we're doing with it right now is cool. But what's really important is what it enables us to do in the future.

GPS-based locational metadata is just one example. Automatic speech-to-text transcription for audio recordings is another. (You wouldn't believe what vector processing can do for speech-to-text. I saw a demo where a high-quality, noiseless audio recording of an unaccented speaker was transcribed at 20x real-time on a single 2.0 GHz G5.)

Example: You're doing a multi-party teleconference. A recording is made of that teleconference (each angle), and separate audio tracks are recorded for each participant. In real time, your computer transcribes each voice track and stores it as ancillary content on the recording, content that Spotlight indexes for you. At any time, you can type "meeting in San Jose" into Spotlight, and it'll take you right to the angle and track on which your co-worker Laurent talked about next week's meeting in San Jose.

Technorati Tags: Apple, OS X, Spotlight

If you are Mac user you may have already heard about Apple's new software announcements: iWork and iLife.

iWork is the new replacement for the aging Appleworks suite. It consists of Pages and an updated Keynote 2. I'll add here that I predict (and hope to see) a spreadsheet program added to this suite.

Pages is a new word processor which you can use to write letters or term papers. If you have a project that requires more advanced layout, perhaps a newsletter or brochure, Pages will help you get it done with themes and templates. Pages was created by the same folks that designed Keynote and will likely reflect it's ease of use and style. I've spent many hours using the first version of Keynote and I enjoy it greatly. If Pages is reflective of Keynote's quality I'll be a happy camper. Perhaps the best way to imagine Pages is to think of the most often used and important components of a quality word processor, then add to that mix the ability to easily format basic pages of text into incredibly stylish documents that will appear to have been designed by a team of creative professionals. I'm not kidding. Keynote is that good at making artful layout easy.

As for Keynote, it started out as an excellent program. Keynote 2 will likely bring great improvements. According to Apple Keynote 2 includes twenty themes, new cinema-quality transitions, nine animated text effects, new slide animation options, and animation controls. In terms of the presentation process Keynote 2 has second monitor preview that offers current and next slide, a timer, a clock and your notes. As with the previous version Keynote can export to Power Point, PDF, QuickTime and this time around Apple has added export to Flash.

This is a suite that has great potential for a diverse group of users. Of course students will find it useful but anyone that volunteers with a neighborhood organization will find it useful for creating newsletters and presentations. Small business owners will certainly benefit in many ways. In truth, the combination of iWork with the apps included with OS X rounds out to a very well rounded solution. Add in iLife (included with every new Mac) and it becomes clear that Apple is offering a package that goes far beyond any other. With the new Mac mini Apple cannot be beat.

Technorati Tags: Apple, OS X, iWork