Instant Messaging: There are a few options here but Meebo easily provides the best experience. It is essentially the same as the other options, however with Meebo you can use your existing account to log into multiple IM accounts at the same time. This however has a secondary purpose that makes it so great. When you’re instant messing with Edge there is a good chance you will get disconnected and miss parts of the conversation. Meebo enables logging when you sign up for an account, so you never miss any part of any conversation, and can refer back to it  at any time. http://meebo.com – automatically loads iPhone version upon visit.

Photo sharing: A sometimes forgotten feature of Flickr, Ringo, and other photo sites is the ability to add photos via e-mail. While this method isn’t as snazzy as iFlickr, you do have options of sending your photos with titles, descriptions, tags, and privacy settings. For your own e-mail upload addresses check in your Flickr or Ringo tools section. I suggest adding them as contacts with simple name like “flickr public” and “flickr friends.”

Netflix: While the iPhone does provide full access to the web, some sites are just a pain to navigate in a small screen. Netflix does not have an iPhone specific mobile site, but they do have a plain Jane one that allows full queue management and search functionality. The only drawback with using this site outside of it not looking pretty, is the lack of a webclip icon. https://www.netflix.com/Mobile/Login

Movie Times: Fandango and MovieTickets both have iPhone sites, but you may find them unintuitive and clunky, taking too long to find a movie in your area. Google however has a less pretty, but much faster solution – which is all the more important when you’re not on a WiFi network. Enter your zip and it shows movies, average ratings and reviews, and links to purchase tickets for multiple theaters in the area. http://www.google.com/movies?sc=1&hl=en&near=&rl=1

Your other option is Cinema – A newer webapp I switched to just today that has a great interface and is slightly easier to read than Google Showtimes. The drawback in comparison is the lack of reviews and IMDB links. http://themacbox.co.uk/iphone/cinema/

TV Times: A simple TV Guide is exactly what it claims to be. It allows you to sort by day or channels, change time zones easily, and search for specific shows. http://tv.comoki.com

Games: Unfortunately the nature of web apps limits the control you have for gaming in a browser, so you cannot expect much more than puzzle games and Myst-like point and tap adventures. There are  plenty of TicTacToe games and the like, but frankly it’s silly to do those games on iPhone when you can use a napkin or piece of paper without any load times. I find iSudoku, iPipes, and Bewjewled kill time the fastest in a doctors office or on the train.

Podcasting: To catch the latest podcasts without syncing your phone you can use Podcaster. You can add your favorites directly from your iTunes Library and find new podcasts within the app. The only downside of listening through your browser is that you cannot surf to other places while the file is playing. Some of my favorite podcasts are BuzzOutLoud, Gadgettes, Cranky Geeks and of course The MacCast (/shameless plug). http://podcaster.soprotech.com/

Passwords: We’ve talked about it many times, and now 1Password can sync to your iPhone and uses unique, secure bookmarks to autofill forms on websites. Your longwindedly secure passwords now don’t have to be typed out! 1Password has an extremely generous trial and is very affordable.

That’s all for now. I will follow up soon with more web apps and tips for making the most out of your iPhone. As as side note, users who bank with Bank of America have an amazing web app that gives you access to your account and finds ATM locations. Definitely worth checking out, even if you use another bank. The side is so good it makes me want to switch over from Commerce.

Today, Psystar tried to put all naysayers to rest by posting this video on their web site. They claim it shows their Open Computers running OS X Leopard, Ubuntu 8, and Windows Xp Professional. Now I am not refuting their claims, but as I watched the video I did notice some things that seem just too wonky not to point out. Besides I always love a good conspiracy theory.

As the video opens we see the alleged Open Computer running OS X on the far left. There is a bundle of small cables under the desk below the system and it looks like they are probably Ethernet cables. Nothing too unusual but, as you will see, they later seem to disappear. Even more unusual is the space below the desk on the right where there is an empty wire rack shelf system. Note that at this point in the video there seems to be nothing there. Also note that the area to the right of the display is empty. These two points will become significant later.

As the camera pans right we see the Ubuntu machine and the Windows box. Both have several cables coming out the side of the computer and running to the right toward the monitor.

Now notice the Mac system… no cables coming off to the right like with the Ubuntu and PC systems. Also notice that the bundle of Ethernet-like cables pointed out in the opening scene no longer seem to be visible.

Next the video transitions into showing the Open Computer supposedly running Leopard and the Mac version of Quake 4. What is interesting in this shot is there now seems to be an extra cable running from the right of the monitor toward the area of the desk where the empty wire shelf system sits. That shelf is also no longer empty as it looks like it now has a strange blue box sitting on it. At first I thought the cable near the monitor might be the mouse cable, but in the Quake demo scene you can clearly see the mouse cable moving with this mysterious second cable above it. The thicker cable does seem to be the monitor cable and it is going off to the right not the left. Remember, the Open Computer that is supposed to be running OS X Leopard is to the left of the monitor, not the right. Interesting.

Finally, the closing shot shows the exterior of the Psystar offices. When reports of Psystar and their Open Computer (initially called the Open Mac) first surfaced on the web, several reports noted that they changed their address as many as 3 times. Now that fact alone is strange enough, but throw in a phone number with an oddly high number of 6′s, plus the fact that they seem to want to keep things private and you have the makings of a full blown conspiracy.

Can someone ring up Fox and see if he is available to come down to Florida?

I’m twenty years old and a total geek, but I’ve only had owned mobile phone for about 3 weeks. My first phone was a V3 Razr, which was okay, but after owning the (hacked) iPod Touch and always thinking “I could click this number and call it if this were an iPhone” the Razr felt very limited. Even more so when browsing the web with the Opera browser or playing any games. Then came Sunday January 19th, the day I lost my iPod somewhere in New Jersey. The next day I went out and bought an iPhone.

Despite not owning a mobile in the past, I have spent quality time with Treos, Razrs, various Motorala models, and the iPhone. So my post isn’t completely without merit and experience. Browsing the web on those phones does not at all compare to the experience Safari provides on the iPhone. I would go so far to say that for the average consumer the only advantage they have are physical buttons, which allow you to dial numbers without looking when you’re driving… which we all do despite how dangerous it is. So in my fanboyish way I’ll check that off as Apple looking out for my safety.

A large portion of complaints I’ve heard are fixed, fixable, or just trivial. SMS messaging and overall performance of the phone has been greatly improved with the recent 1.1.3 update. The Software Development Kit (SDK) will be providing us with plenty of third party software without any hacks. Edge may not be the fastest, but isn’t nearly as slow as some people would have you think. iPhone does not sync with iTunes over the air, record video, send pictures and video messages to other phones, copy and paste, work with Exchange, have an easily replaceable battery, or have a slot for adding more memory. But the question I asked myself before buying was if I, or anyone, really needs those things.

Some complaints are like the lack of Exchange support are completely legitimate and crippling to some business customers. However the majority of complaints can, and likely will be fixed in future updates. The fact that the battery is not accessible to consumers is the biggest shame on Apple. If you’re going to spend 400 USD on a phone you should be able to access the battery without Apple/ATT getting involved. You will likely never seen an iPhone with a card slot to add a petty couple gigs of storage, and Apple has never released an iPod where you can easily access the battery. Perhaps this is just a train of thought we will have to get used to.

Apple has a decent chat client on OS X with iChat, so why this wasn’t available to us on the iPhone at launch is beyond me. When looking at the overall picture the iPhone keeps you connected in every single way your Mac’s default software does except for instant messaging. Doubtless this will be addressed by Apple in the future or by a third party, but Instant Messaging was a standard part of mobile phones well before the iPhone came to the scene. I’ve used the web-based clients and they are nice, but a native iChat client would allow notifications and a lot more features. You could list loads of apps that should be on the iPhone, but given how third party applications are just around the corner there really isn’t a problem. (Though I must admit I painfully miss Labyrinth and themes.)

The biggest problem is if you’re using the iPhone on anything but a Mac it can be a totally different experience. iPhone really is designed around iLife, so even if it works without flaw you’re not getting the same experience a Mac user is. Telling it to sync with Outlook and “My Pictures” just isn’t as intuitive and smooth. For example take a look at the Apple support forums; you will see plenty more threads from Windows users begging for help than Mac users. I am one of those people. I only own a PC at the moment, there is a Mac mini in my house. The problems were so annoyingly painful I decided to just sync to the Mac Mini until I get my own Mac. There are literally dozens of threads on the Apple support forums with people asking for help with the same problems over and over, getting no replies. Even if it is a small portion of the user-base, these issues are understandably annoying. This is the collective fault of Apple and Microsoft I’m sure, but the responsibility in my eyes is with Apple to provide a complete experience for any operating system they support.

This all said, I’m still fresh with my iPhone. As time goes on and we see more updates and the first third party apps you can expect to hear from me again.

Guitar Hero is a REALLY great game, and you can now jam comfortably in front of your Mac.

Here are the specs for those who wish to jam:

In the box

* Guitar Hero 3 software
* Guitar Hero X-Plorer wireless guitar controller
* Guitar strap

System Requirements

* Mac OS X v10.4.10 or v10.5 or later
* 2GHz or faster Intel Core Duo processor (2.33GHz recommended); does not support PowerPC processors
* 1GB RAM (2GB recommended)
* 6.1GB free hard-disk space (5.1GB + 1GB swap file)
* Video card: ATI Radeon X1600 or nVidia GeForce 7300
* Video memory (VRAM): 128MB (256MB recommended)
* DVD-ROM drive
* Macintosh mouse and keyboard

As you can see it’s a bit processor and RAM reliant. If you have the power then rock on!

I have heard a number of people express the opinion recently that Apple has changed the way that it announces products. This comes from the fact that Apple recently pre-announced two products, months in advance before you could even order them. The two products were the AppleTV and the iPhone. This has set the expectation for a number of people that they might learn about the next iPod or the next iMac in a similar pre-release fashion. This post is intended to discourage that expectation.

Let’s back up a bit and look at what this from Apple’s point of view. In general when Apple, or some other hardware company, releases a new product they are going through a product transition. So when they announce a new iPod they are trying to maximize how much money they make. A product transition has some risks for the company.

If they announce a product too soon and the product sounds very good then people may choose to stop buying the current product and wait for the new product. This is called the Osborne Effect after Osborne Computer Corporation which pre-announced a series of new products in 1983. The company went out of business shortly there after and the most common story has been that their sales dried up when they announced these new machines. (Whether this actually caused Osborne to go out of business is not universally accepted in retrospect, no one seems to argue that this was helpful to the company).

If a company still has old units in its warehouse when it ships the new product, these products will have to be sold for less money (or perhaps not sold at all). But, if the company guesses wrong how many of the old product it will sell in this transition and runs out of units in the warehouse then it may lose sales to a competitor. Combine this with a slip in the new product and you get the kind of scenario that can keep executives awake at night.

So why did Apple decide to pre-announce not one, but two products last year? The main reason would seem to be that they were not going through a product transition. They did not have a TV box when they pre-announced the AppleTV nor a cell phone when they pre-announced the iPhone. Why does this make a difference? The big difference here is that customers may in fact not buy some product that they were planning on buying and wait for the Apple product, but in this case it was not an Apple product. So with the iPhone, for example, what Apple wanted was for people to decide not to by that new BlackBerry, Blackjack, Razr, etc but to wait for the iPhone. What Apple did was create F.U.D. (Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt) about their competitor’s products. They did not need people to pre-order the iPhone so much as they wanted them to at least wonder whether they should wait and see. FUD is a very useful marketing tool. If you don’t have something sell, marketeers are trying to at least get you to wait before buying a competing product. Their hope, which worked in the case of the iPhone, is that if you wait long enough they will have a product you will want to buy.

So, will Apple pre-announce the next iMac. That is unlikely. But if they get into yet another consumer product business then it is very likely that they would pre-release that product.

This is a landmark case for the European Commission (EC) who seems to be actively pursuing large US companies with large market share in their respective fields, and it appears that Apple is next on the EC’s radar.

Apple and some of its music partners are currently facing investigation by the European anti-trust officials for the pricing of items in the iTunes store. The commission wants to discover the reasons for different pricing in different territories of the European Union (for people who aren’t in Europe, you can only purchase from the country which your credit/debit card address is located. Apple also has different prices in the different stores). This is no joke for Apple as the EC has power to fine a company up to 10% of there worldwide revenue.

Apple’s CEO Steve Jobs said recently, “We think prices should be the same. We think anybody in Europe should buy off any store.” but then contradicting this a Reuters report is claiming an Apple spokesman said, “there is nothing in it’s contract with Universal obliging it to operate national stores or to set a higher price in countries such as Britain”, so what’s stopping Mr Jobs from doing what he says he wants to do?

Many analysts and the commission believe the reason Apple takes this position is due to the record labels putting pressure on the company to operate the variable pricing structure in different EU countries. The trouble is it contradicts and is possibly in violation of the anti-trust laws which operate in the EU. The record labels claim they charge different rates to cover different royalty payment rates which are overseen by different agencies depending on the country and are negotiated on a country by country basis.

I live in the UK and feel it would be much better for consumers if we had one European iTunes store from which we could all purchase. It would be a lot easier for everyone, as content is not consistent along with the pricing.

Checkout the video below from iJustine (tastyblogsnack.com). It shows her opening her 300-page AT&T bill. It had to come in a box rather than an envelope?! Come on.

The issue is, even though the iPhone data plan is unlimited, AT&T itemizes every bit (and byte) of data along with it’s associated charge. That means when you load a page in Safari, every graphic, image, video, sound, etc. is listed line by line in your bill. Now luckily, iPhone owners can opt-in to receive their bills electronically. If you have an iPhone you should set this up immediately. Do it now, don’t wait.

My big problem with this is that AT&T (and Apple) should know better. With an unlimited data plan it makes no sense at all to itemize charges like this. Let’s hope they hear the complaints coming from their customers and change this practice soon.

This may not be anything terribly new, but it appears at least one company has put a half-hearted attempt at misleading Mac users. While looking up guitar tabs this morning I came across this:

You might say that including both a Windows interface and a Mac interface would be ingenious, except for it’s fatal flaw. The first giveaway is, of course, the large Fisher Price looking buttons sticking out like a sore thumb. The second is it not being an actual window you can interact with. You might say the ad is doing more damage to itself by alerting Windows users that something is up.

However annoying it is, I couldn’t help but chuckle when I saw the attempt. At the very least we can say Apple is finally getting more attention, maybe not the kind we want, but it’s a start.

[Email to the Maccast, 7/29/2007]
I actually converted my parents to Mac when I was in college. Two years ago I gave my mom my year old laptop that ran Windows when I purchased my Power Book for school. My parents are as far from computer literate as they come… they had a computer that was running Windows 98 and was turned on about 3 times a year before I gave them my old laptop.

I listened to my mom complain that whole year about the Windows laptop I gave her because she didn’t know how to use it for anything other than the same tasks she does at work and wasn’t willing to put in all the time to learn it (not to mention all the “tech support” calls I would get from her asking me to fix it… from 200 mi. away over the phone…)

A year later when I upgraded to the Intel chip Mac Book Pro I decided that instead of selling my year old Power Book right away I would give it to my mom to use and maybe start enjoying the tasks she wants to do at home. I spent the weekend at my parents place and sat down with her one day and introduced her to the OS and explained that anything she didn’t know how to do she could figure out on her own if she “thinks simple”.

After only one week and 2 phone calls for help my mom was off and running with her new Mac. The digital camera she bought was finally getting used as was the mini DV. She started a mailing list to family and friends, created a DVD for a family event, doing all kinds of photography and basically having fun with a computer! After those initial 2 calls I haven’t heard a word from her all year about needing help to figure something out or fix something.

Giving that computer to my family was the best thing I could have done. I escaped untold numbers of phone calls for help, my parents have started enjoying/understanding technology and other members of my family heard about it and have purchased macs for themselves.

Reprinted with permission

EA is answering the call by releasing at the same time in July Command and Conquer 3, Battlefield 2142, Need for Speed: Carbon, and Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix(believe it or not, but it looks pretty good). Bing also announced that they would also be releasing simultaneously their Madden and Tiger Woods games to the Mac.

ID founder John Carmack also made an appearance to show off some new technology they are going to be implementing into their new games which will be shown off at E3, it would be a safe bet to say it will have an OSX release, only what is it, plus the fact that they are at the conference gets me all excited.

So a huge announcement from EA saying they are going to give us Mac gamers what we want, and making it a timely release. Now we have to show them that we want this by supporting them, and purchasing the games.

What do you think about these new developments?

Live Maccast Chat: If you are reading this before or during the keynote and want to chat about it live join us on iChat/AIM in the room: maccast. To access it using iChat:

1) Launch iChat
2) Go to: File–>Go to Chat… and enter ‘maccast’m as the chat name.

See you there.

From Dale Mugford:

As always, there are surprises unforeseen or unlikely that Apple makes happen at each year’s WWDC. Last year for me, it was the 802.11 draft-N Airport Extreme, which was not even mentioned in the keynote but was included as an update to the online store.

This year, I am wondering whether, despite having little to no word or mention on any rumor blogs, whether the Airport Express will see some kind of revamping for N or not.

As others around the web have guessed, I think Apple’s coming out with a full force Leopard attack, to reverse the negative lull that inevitably followed the notice of its delay. They surely want to ramp and rev it up, get people excited, and unveil features which will make Time Machine look like a minor addition. Leopard, despite being still months away, is an important move for Apple, one which will hopefully build on the Intel transition and propel sales of Macs higher in the market.

And there’s that iPhone thing. One wonders whether Apple has been hard-pressed to pump out the hardware in production while pushing hard to finish up software aspects in time for release. Could there be anything else that the iPhone will offer?

Unlike Alex, I think the Mac Mini may be toast. If it isn’t, it’s going to belong in the new small square box family, adopting the form factor of the Airport Extreme and the  TV.

From Jack Hodgson:

FWIW, I considered writing something, but when I looked around, I realized that I had no real leads on what will be announced. I’m gonna be just as (pleasantly?) surprised as anyone else.

From (me) Alex Curtis:

My top three hopes/predictions:

• Newton-like Assist: If you’ve never had the pleasure of using an Apple Newton, you probably don’t know what you’re missing. One of the neatest features of the Newton, besides handwriting recognition, was an service called Assist. Assist, when asked, could examine the meaning of text and do things with it. So, if you received an email that had a lunch appointment in it, simply tap Assist, and the Newton would add the event to your calendar, with the appropriate person’s info (taken from their email address which it would associate from your Address Book), and add them to the invite list. Assist could also grab info from an email’s signature, and automatically populate an Address Book card with the info (for some time, I used to just send emails to my Newton, just so I didn’t have to type out all the info into Mac OS X’s Address Book). Google Calendar is only starting to provide these kinds of features, but it still has a long way to go before it catches up to the Newton’s technology, which is some 10 years old. It would be great if Apple remembered it had this technology and ported it to Mac OS X Leopard.

• More extensible Address Book: The wealth of information that users can store in their Address Book is really staggering. And even though many Mac OS X applications can pull from that data, it’s rarely used in advanced ways. For instance, each contact can be associated with one or many other contacts (even though currently, there’s no look-up query for those fields to make it easier to populate). By tying those associations into social network-like services (maybe through .Mac?) like LinkedIn, Address Book users could find whole new ways to leverage the contacts they’ve made—and built right into the OS. Family trees could be easily generated as well. Adding this kind of basic intelligence to AB would help other apps like Mail. Imagine being able to sort incoming emails by people associated with a specific person or family. Crawling your previous emails to find relationships between contacts that you didn’t previously realize?

• iSync Phone Plugin Creator: So many phones out there support SyncML in some way or another, but many manufacturers don’t bother to build support for iSync. Enabling more users to “crowd source” the problem would go a long way to more Mac adoption. There’s rumor that we may actually see this kind of app, let’s just hope it’s true! It would be nice if this app also provided ways to sync not only contacts and events, but music, photos, and video too.

From our fearless leader, Adam Christianson:

I personally think we are likely to only see a demo of the new Leopard and get a detailed overview of what is in the final release. I would also like to see Jobs announce iPhone and Apple TV development workflows, SDKs and support. I expect Apple to require development for both platforms go through matching certification programs. I think it is possible we also see the quiet roll out of new iMacs or Mac Minis during the week.

How about you? What are you hoping to see at tomorrow’s WWDC 2007 Keynote? Drop a comment below with your best predictions.

I have been in a few Apple stores and they are generally set up the same with the high end production software to the left of the register and the games, GarageBand loops, etc to the right.

I was perusing the latest additions to the Mac gaming world and over heard one teenager complain with a friend about the price of a game that is at least two years old, the name of the game I cannot recollect. He stated that the game was two years old, was already in the bargain bin at a local “Big Box” store, and was more than fifty percent cheaper. The question was; “Why should I pay more for something I can get for less?” His friend, who obviously was a Mac owner, looked around the store like a person who had just been publicly humiliated as his friends tone carried throughout the store. The Mac owner quickly retorted that playing on a Mac is better than playing on the PC.

At this point I was pretending to be interested in a foreign language teaching app so as to be discreet and not be seen being nosy. I had to hear the Mac owners reasons, I have my own but thought they would be different.

He said, “They look great with the Mac displays! Nothing looks better than an LCD screen.” He was arguing the case very good so far. “Did you know that the Macs have Intel chips in them?” The friend at this point looked like a deer in the headlights, he obviously didn’t have a clue about the new Macs having not only Intel chips, but Core 2 Duos. “That means you can run Windows, if you really felt the need, and play your PC games.”

I’m not going to say at this point that the friend went right up to the register and bought a Mac, but I will say that he was intrigued. He at least went up to one of the Mac specialists and asked questions about the graphics cards that came with them, and other options that could be had.

He may never own a Mac, but he will at least know why it’s fantastic to play games on the Mac. Think about it this way, the game you are purchasing may be two years old, but it’s has had patches and has had bug fixes that were not done at the very beginning, so in most cases you are getting the best product and not worrying if the program will crash. Because our PC friends have done all the beta testing for the Mac version for us.

Looking at the application dock just now it occurred to me that that was an interesting collection of apps. Maybe not. But for better or worse, here they are (show us yours too if you like):

Grab — We start right out with an oddball. This is the standard screen grab utility that comes with the Mac, and I basically NEVER use it. But it’s open now cause I couldn’t get any of my usual tools to grab the application dock. But Capture->”Timed Screen” did the trick. I quit it the moment after I took the shot, and probably won’t see it again for a long time.

Finder — Ah the Finder. At Merlin Mann’s suggestion, I tried Path Finder for awhile, but Finder is good enough for me. I’ve even gotten used to the left-hand-icon-sidebar of Tiger. Although I really wish we could get consistent about what a single- vs double-click does on an icon.

ImageWell — I only found this app since MacWorld, and now I wouldn’t want to live without it. It makes incredibly simple the process of grabbing, scaling, doing simple editing, and then uploading, of images for my blogs. I love it!

Transmit — FTP client. I’ve used more different FTP clients over the years than just about any other type of app. Interarchy, NetFinder, Fetch, Cyberduck, others I’m sure, now Transmit. Transmit is working well for me right now. I have no desire to change. And I hate to damn-with-faint-praise, but I can’t promise I won’t switch again. It’s me.

BBEdit — BBEdit is one of the 3-4 apps that are running on my Mac ALL THE TIME. Years ago I gave up doing any of my writing in MS Word. Now I write prose, code, journals, proposals, scripts, invoices, drafts of emails & blog posts, lists, reminders, just about everything, in BBEdit. It has a weird combination of simplicity and power. Hard to explain. But it’s the place where I write, and I write a lot.

OmniOutliner — I’m evaluating using this to organize my to-do list in a GettingThingsDone sort of way. The jury’s still out. OmniOutliner was included on my MacBook. I think it’s the full version, and not a demo. I’ll be bummed if it expires.

Calculator — I use this often, but don’t usually leave it running. It’s still open from a recent session of arithmetic.

Ecto — For posting to most of my blogs. I could probably set it up to post to this one too, but I haven’t yet. It’s a terrific tool for easily creating, formatting, and uploading blog entries to all the major blogging systems. One quibble: I bought a license for it a couple years ago. Then, in one of my system upgrades and/or machine migrations, it forgot that I’d paid, so now I use it in Demo mode and it periodically pesters me to pay (again). It’s easier for me to reset the demo timer (I’ll never tell how), than to try and find the registration info. My-bad.

Terminal — Every now and then you have to do the Command Line thing. Running on my Mac about half the time.

Software Update — Not usually running on my Mac, but last night I was checking to see if I have all the OS X patches installed prior to the early (and awesome!) arrival of daylight savings time. I also installed the new iTunes, more on that soon.

Quicktime Player — I’m part way through watching the latest episode of Diggnation. I could watch it in iTunes, but for some reason there are things that I prefer to watch, or listen to, in Player. Anybody else feel that way?

Mail — This is another of the apps that is always running on my Mac. For years (and years, and years) I was a Eudora user. Mail Version 1 was pretty bad, but when Mail v.2 came along it got a lot better. So I switched. I tried Thunderbird for awhile, and didn’t like it. Tried BareBones’ Mailsmith for awhile, and liked it, but not $100 worth, vs. FREE for Mail. Full disclosure, I also use Gmail for some of my mail. Both Gmail and Apple Mail have their plusses. But they’re two completely different things. Apples and Oranges, so to speak.

SpamSieve — This spam filtering program is awesome. I installed it a couple months ago when Mail’s spam filter inexplicably stopped filtering (still don’t know why). I tried the free demo of SpamSieve, paid the fee, and never looked back. Learns fast and very accurate. Highly recommended.

Firefox — Another app that’s running all the time. I run Safari as the default browser on my desktop (secondary) Mac. But on my MacBook (primary Mac) I run Firefox. I’ve tried most of the Mac browsers, and many of them are very good. But I’m comfortable with, and have all my bookmarks in, FF.

iTunes — Runs about 50% of the time. Use it mostly to listen to podcasts while I work (or pretend to be working). Just upgraded to the new version 7.1. I’ve yet to notice the difference. Although I leave iTunes running even when not listening to something, it’s one of the first apps I’ll quit when I need to recover memory or performance for some other purpose.

Awaken — This is something I’m evaluating for a possible posting. It’s a timer app that lets you program regular repeat reminders, as well as set a one-time timer. It seems to work just fine. Otherwise the jury’s still out. More later, maybe.

So those are the apps I’m running right now. I’m tempted to think of what apps I use that are not running right now, but then that would defeat the whole purpose of this posting.

What apps are YOU running right now?. Show us here

One of the early “Get a Mac” ads featured the Mac being able to communicate with a new digital camera while the PC just looked on, bewildered. Apple computers are supposed to “just work.” Yep, they “just work” with some peripherals if you happen to have a USB cable handy. Why is this the case?

Apple has always been an innovator. They dropped the floppy disk drive much earlier than other PC makers, included wi-fi in their laptops before many others and of course, Apple’s industrial design has influenced many other computer makers.

But for some reason, Apple has not integrated a media card reader into their laptops, nor their desktop lines. I own a MacBook Pro, and a couple of more slots on the side of the laptop would not look odd or ugly. iMacs could also benefit from a few slots for SD or CompactFlash cards artfully placed below the CD/DVD drive. It’s absolutely inexcusable that the Mac Pros do not have such slots. These are pricey computers; they should have features that are available on low-end PCs. However, I am not sure where on the Mac mini Apple could place easily accessible multimedia card slots.

You would think that since Apple is geared towards the creative, with software like iPhoto and iMovie, that there would be an easy, USB cable-free way to get the data on to your Mac so you can create. Who wants to search for cables when creativity strikes?

If you have a MacBook Pro and are dying to have a card reader, there’s a solution from Belkin that keeps your MacBook Pro’s form factor intact. You can view the product over at Belkin’s site. As of this writing, Belkin is out of stock of their multimedia card reader.

The MacCast always seems to get me thinking. This time, Adam, you got me thinking more and more about the topic of Digital Convergence. There are so many things going on in this area right now, I thought I’d share with you some of my observations.

The impact of the following issues are nothing less than dramatic . . .

• Professional music and video is now competing with amateur music and video (the democratization of content).
• New devices are being introduced daily that can support all different kinds of media.
• People don’t have any more TIME to spend on content/media absorption

than they already do today (most important).

• Viewing habits of an attention-span challenged generation are kicking in (people want shorter bursts of content).
• VOIP is now ubiquitious and PC video chat applications actually work.

Traditional media, brick and mortar retail stores, service providers, and new network-based services are all hardening for battle. The consequences of this battle will be severe and permanent.

How are things changing? Let’s look at some examples . . .
Many frequent travellers and just about anyone who is mobile has realized that they can take their media with them. Not just on their physical devices like iPods, but by leveraging easy access to media anywhere there’s a network connection. Look at the success of devices like the slingbox – people now have true location independence and can literally stream their own personal media where ever they are. A traveller, instead of watching a pay-per-view movie or other show on a hotel television, might download a movie or a missed episode of a favorite TV show from iTunes. That’s one less pay-per-view movie sold in a hotel and perhaps a few less shows watched on traditional network TV (where an individual is no longer exposed to advertising).

Services like YOUTUBE and iTunes are competing more and more with traditional content and delivery mechanisms. Networks are starting to feel the pain and are offering clips and shorts of their most popular segments to try and retain audiences. You will find most people starting to split their time among all these different sources of content (including, of course, The MacCast). And, this content revolution is centering on the mobile computing platform.

To the point . . .
What I find that people most often fail to realize is that this is that all these shifts result in a ZERO-SUM GAME. It’s no wonder that it’s got everyone scrambling – there are real dollars at stake. When you move to a different form of content or a different delivery vehicle, you often don’t go back. In the early days of the Internet FEDEX started moving customers to “self-service” on the web – it was instantaneous, it was open 24 hours a day, and it was extremely convenient (accessible right from your keyboard). How many people who starting using the web-based tracking tool do you think went back to calling on the phone? Virtually no one…

I get most of my content through my PC or MAC today. I enjoy watching programs WHEN and WHERE I want (even if I’m just sitting in an airport with my EVDO broadband wireless connection. I’m not likely to go back to buying those shiny round pieces of plastic (DVDs) at Walmart. We all know what has happened to the market for CDs (latest victim – Tower Records). People simply don’t want to buy pieces of plastic – they scratch, they break, and they get lost.

Even on NPR’s “Talk of the Nation” they got it wrong. Their “expert” predicted that the 15 minutes of fame for YOUTUBE was up and that the pendulum was swinging back to professional content. WRONG! This cat’s out of the bag and he’s not going back in…

So what’s the bottom line?
The first thing is easy to predict because it’s already happening – DILUTION. More players means that people are going to have to split their limited viewing times across more products. Products that are probably a better fit for them because their choices are expanded. That means that advertisers will have a field day and will enjoy lower rates with better targeted demographics (new opportunities will abound).

The second thing that is going to happen is that digital media will continue to converge. People will MOVE to devices that can deliver all their content. I don’t know that this will be one specific device, in fact it will probably be a lots of different types of devices that will meet the demands of their owners. This is all just an extension of the move to digital content. Just as we are seeing the disappearance of the record store and CDs, so will we see the disappearance of DVDs.

Remember also that special types of media need special types of media players. You can’t play a DVD without a DVD player, but you can watch a movie on your computer or other digital device without a motorized “spinning” piece of plastic.

Speeding toward convergence . . .
Bandwidth continues to propel the digital revolution. Did you ever think 5 years ago that you could have a 6Mb/sec connection to the Internet for less that $50 per month? I sure didn’t. I still can’t believe that I’m sitting here now with almost 2Mb/sec over EVDO wireless (from Verizon). My kids can watch streaming videos or play games on the Internet in the back seat of the car while I driving around town.

Obstacles . . .
Battery life for digital devices is one of the biggest problems that we face today. As vendors boost the capabilities of their devices and platforms they consume more and more power. In reality, I believe that battery technology is improving – we are just consuming the additional power as quickly as it becomes available (so we’re not actually achieving improved usable times).

Retail loyalties and politics will also come into play as groups ban together to slow the progressive move to increasingly digital content. Walmart was said to recently threaten studios who might make their movies available through iTunes. Target reportedly removed all of the Disney advertising displays from their stores due to the unfair pricing advantage of digital downloads on iTunes – $12.95 for the recent iTunes release of the movie “Cars” vs. the DVD cost which was substantially higher.

Digital convergence is well on it’s way. It’s all good for the consumer because it gives us what we want when we want it. I hope this helps provoke some thoughts and comments from your readers on the issue.

Just in the past few days, the digital protections (or DRM) in which TiVo wrapped its recorded programming were defeated to allow the content to be played on a consumer’s networked device of choice. And I’m sure I’m not the only member of the MacCast community who has been waiting for the TiVoToGo functionality, but I’m excited at the possibility of watching even more recorded content on the go.

What I find interesting is that in the few days since this hack was made available, some previously held DRM hostages are wishing they had never been freed. The Unofficial Apple Weblog posts their argument trying to explain that the this hack may be bad for Mac and TiVo users in the long run for two reasons : 1. that instead of spending time on offering additional and more flexible cross-platform features for its users, TiVo will spend the time repairing its now broken DRM; 2. that content providers and DRM approval committees like CableLABs will see this as a flaw with TiVo’s DRM and not provide TiVo content or certify its DVRs to receive protected content.

If you’ve listened to This Week in Tech or are active in these kinds of digital copyright debates, you may have heard these arguments before. They’re the same ones used as justification for passing the DMCA: copyright owners must have legal recourse against those who break the DRM that protects their works; if not, copyright owners will refuse to distribute their content online. Clearly podcasts, most of which are not-DRM’d, are proving that theory wrong every day. What’s new about this argument is to hear it from the same group of people who have been complaining about the limitations and restrictive characteristics of such DRM in the first place. Some Mac users who have been put-off by TiVoToGo are essentially asking for the restrictions to be put back in place. Perhaps we should call this psychological response the “digital Stockholm syndrome”?

What’s telling is that with this TiVoToGo hack, there’s little talk about piracy—moving the content off of the TiVo and distributing it all over the Internet. Maybe it’s because hacking the TiVo to extract recorded content was accomplished long ago, so those who really want to “pirate” TV weren’t stopped by this DRM in the first place. Instead, the discussions are mostly about enabling Mac users to watch more content on their MacBooks or iPods, just like PC users have been able to do via TiVoToGo for a long time now.

Even though the studios are trying to put the screws to Apple to make FairPlay even more restrictive, to me at least, it’s clear by this TiVo hack story that all Mac users want is to be able to watch more of the their legally obtained content on their device of choice.

Refreshed or Refurbished

Now another problem with this story is that while the headline on the Consumerist website clearly states it was a “refreshed” MacBook, most blogs picking up the story are reporting it as a “refurbished” model. The semantics are subtle but there is a big difference. A “refreshed” model is basically an “open box” return. It was returned to the store, but not because of any defect. Could be buyers remorse, wrong model, etc. In these cases Apple services the unit in store. They basically look it over, run simple diagnostics and then are supposed to run the system restore CD/DVD (that comes with the model) to get the machine back into factory condition. Now on the slim chance this story is true then the Apple Store employees obviously forgot to do this procedure. A “reconditioned” model however, is one sent back to Apple due to some sort of defect. It is put through a much more rigorous process, restored and tested at a centralized facility. Again, if the story is actually true then the distinction between “refreshed” and “reconditioned” may go a long way to explaining why this unit slipped by.

As for the quality of stories on Digg, don’t get me wrong. I love Digg and I use it, but sometimes we need to remind ourselves what Digg is. Digg is a great indicator of what is socially hip on the web at any given moment, but hardly a bastion of links to highest quality news stories. I’m just sayin’.

I’m sorry, but this is going to be a bit of a rant…here goes.

Today’s article in the Financial Times titled Studios push anti-piracy rules on Apple reports that the studios are pushing for tighter copy-controls on Apple’s iTunes movie distributions. They write:

After months of discussion, a sticking point has emerged over the studios’ demand that Apple limit the number of devices that can use a film downloaded from iTunes.

And in the very next paragraph, FT.com states that the studios want to avoid piracy—demanding that Apple introduce a new distribution model for movies.

This just gets me riled up, and I think it does the same to some of you.

As we Mac geeks may know, currently, music downloaded from the iTunes store can be copied to at most five authorized computers (computers all purchasing music with the same iTunes account), synchronized with an unlimited number of iPods, shared via streaming with five other computers on the same network within 24 hours, and the same playlist of tracks can be burned seven times to a standard CD format and ripped to remove any of these copy restrictions. Video bought from the iTunes store, on the other hand, cannot be streamed to other computers, nor can it be burned to a standard physical media to be played in a DVD player or other digital device. The point is, even though music is fairly locked down via the iTunes service, control over video is already considerably more restrictive.

According to the article, the studios are asking for even tighter controls on how consumers can use these videos.

If the reason for this additional control is out of a concern for piracy, shouldn’t there be at least some evidence for the existence of piracy of iTunes distributed video? If there were evidence, surely we would see how-tos posted on the front page of Digg, Slashdot, or maybe even here on the MacCast. But we haven’t seen that—not for iTunes video at least.

Regardless of whether this was the studios’ spin or the FT.com’s failure to ask more engaging questions—it all comes back to that ole red herring of piracy. Take another look at the quote: “…studios’ demand that Apple limit the number of devices that can use a film downloaded from iTunes.” The studios, in this context, aren’t so concerned about piracy—rather they are obsessed with control over every miniscule consumer use of legally obtained content.

Say what you will about the Zune, but it introduced the latest portable media innovation with wireless media sharing, but it was severely crippled—“three plays for three days.” If that’s not out of concern for the content industry, why can photos be shared without the restriction? I propose that this debate is really not about piracy, it’s about limiting what consumers can do, on their device(s) of choice, with the content they’ve legally obtained in the privacy of their own home (or personal network). Apple proved that you can compete with free with its success at selling $0.99 music tracks, and Apple, the content industry, and consumers have reaped the rewards.

Now I’m sorry for getting up on my soapbox in this post, but I’m almost done… I have come to expect this “piracy spin” from the content industry, but shouldn’t we expect more from journalists who report on this market. FT.com didn’t write about what consumers want and expect of their downloadable media. They didn’t ask the studios or Apple what drives demand for products in a market place. It’s innovators like Apple who have exploded the market for online media sales, and made the use of the media fairly flexible for consumers. Shouldn’t FT.com have at least questioned the track record of the content industry as the ones who have fought new online business models and technological innovation tooth-and-nail?

As a consumer and a blogger, I think it would have been useful for FT.com to ask the studio representatives more meaningful questions.

Much has been made of the delays in getting Adobe’s mission critical pro apps, including Photoshop, onto the Intel platform, a gating item for many PowerPC Mac users considering the move to Intel. The other software category experiencing major delays for MacIntel ports, perhaps slightly less mainstream, is that of audio plug-ins and software synthesizers.

Audio plug-ins are programs that run inside a host program, such as Logic or Garageband, and in many cases in “standalone mode” as well. Without major contortions, it’s fairly impractical to run PPC plug-ins inside an Intel-based host program and nearly impossible to run both PPC and Intel plug-ins in the same host at the same time (see this discussion thread on BigBlueLounge for a workaround that involves some third-party software). Plug-ins typically generate audio (by making sounds), transform audio (e.g., by adding delay or compression), or both, and represent a substantial after-market for the big audio programs

Plug-ins are also where much of the audio fun is at, and audio geeks usually have dozens or even hundreds of plug-ins to call on for specialized tasks. Garageband supports plug-ins, e.g., as instruments in the “Generator” selections or as effects in the other parameters inside the Details pane in the Track Info window.

With the Intel Mac platform, plug-in developers have faced some substantial difficulties getting their code onto the Intel Mac:

1. Many of these vendors are smaller development houses serving a niche audience, so resources are limited.
2. The large majority of plug-ins are cross-platform–a business necessity for products with such a small and specialized audience–and thus not as likely to be on an XCode code-base. Harder job to port.
3. Plug-ins present a labyrinthine support matrix, with multiple machines running multiple OS versions, both multiplied again by the number of audio host programs (Garageband, Logic Pro, Digital Performer, Cubase, Ableton Live, Pro-Tools, etc.). Users expect the plug-ins to work in all their host environments, which can represent a formidable challenge to smaller developers and their QA teams.
4. Standards for plugins have been chaotic, often driven more by vendor needs than user needs. There are numerous revisions to the VST spec, and incremental updates to Core Audio by OS/X version to contend with as well. VST was a stronger cross-platform standard before Apple released Core Audio, but these days many vendors now choose to support VST on Windows, AU on OS/X, and RTAS format (for Pro-Tools users) on both. All these support options mean more code and more testing.
5. Plug-ins push the envelope for both computational complexity and user interface. There’s some amazing innovation in these products, and they can be surprisingly complex. E.g., plug-ins may do “pitch correction” on vocals that perform very elaborate calculations on audio waveforms, and software synthesizers may precisely reproduce the user interface of legacy hardware such as old Moog and ARP synthesizers, right down to the funky knobs and patch cords. Plug-ins are different from other applications, and those other applications appear to get off much easier.

Apple beat its predicted Intel transition timetables to the street by months, and upgrading Mac users are of course an impatient lot. The “big hosts” have been ready for some time now. Logic and Garageband were updated quickly of course, but Universal versions of Ableton Live, Digital Performer, Pro-Tools, and Cubase 4 have been out for some time, ready and willing to take advantage of multiprocessor support on the Core Duo megamachine of your choice. So the move to Intel has been a customer relations challenge as well.

The plug-in vendors, however, still have some work to do. A small Canadian developer of software synthesizers, Applied Acoustics, recently posted a plea for patience to customers on its web forum: “These Universal Binary updates are so much work it’s unbelievable. We can’t wait to have this technology change behind us…” Their initial estimates in March called for Summer updates. Now they are aiming to release some updates by the end of the year, and won’t ship an update to their superb Tassman modular synthesizer until 2007.

German synth maker Native Instruments has struggled to meet its predicted dates as well, to the point of generating violent revolt in its customer base. NI’s plug-ins have also been delayed from original Summer 2006 timetables, and their delays have been timed with other marketing program decisions that have generated some rather awe-inspiring customer dissatisfaction on their own discussion boards and around the web. NI’s just this month made some peace offerings to its customer base, and has begun releasing UB versions of their products in a steady stream over the last few weeks. So far these new versions are looking strong on the Intel platform, and the company appears to be on a roll, with new Universal versions of Reaktor 5, Kontakt 2, and Kore 1.1 out in just the last 2 weeks, and its new products such as Massive having shipped Universal at launch.

Other vendors have fared a bit better. FXpansion, which makes percussion plug-ins such as BFD and Guru, as well as converter programs that, e.g., allow you to run VST plugins in AU hosts, has decided to narrow down its support matrix gradually over time, still offering broad, but less of the insane number of support options in current versions, in an attempt to deal with the proliferation of standards. Several of their programs are available in Universal versions today, with more in beta.

IKMultimedia just released the Universal version of its Sampletank software sampler and Amplitube guitar processor products, and expects the rest of its product line to be ported by early 2007. Waves plug-ins are rolling out with Intel compatibility over the year. Arturia is now shipping many universal versions, and Cycling ’74 announced that its entire line of plug-ins is Intel compatible as of September 22. Linplug has most of its plug-ins Universal, including the very wonderful Albino 3. Even Cakewalk, which has focused on PC audio software such as Sonar for over a decade, has shipped UB versions of two software synthesizers, Dimension Pro and Rapture, its first products ever featuring Mac compatibility. (Dimension Pro sounds great by the way…I think the Mac music community should reward a vendor for venturing into new territory like this…download the demo and see what you think).

A few vendors are still missing in action: one noteworthy example would be PSPAudioware, which announced Universal support in March as well, but offers no date commitments yet. But in general the vendor support is lining up, slowly but surely, on Intel compatibility. This last quarter of 2006 seems to represent the watershed moment for plug-ins. By early 2007, the holdouts will be ready to move to Intel, and Mac Intel users will have the majority of their plug-ins supported natively on Intel. If you’ve been waiting for your favorites, it’s been an exciting few weeks watching these new versions go native, one by one. The toolbox isn’t quite complete yet, but the vendors seem to be making progress and working very hard. Here comes the flood.