mip's scan

A Quick Look at the iPod Touch

So for the past while I've been enjoying the use of the iPod Touch.  There have been numerous reviews of this device and so I'm not going to do an exhaustive review of every little feature here.  Suffice it to say that the iPod Touch lives up to the hype.  Often with new technology, the hype around a new product grows so large that when the device is finally released it has no chance of living up to the hype surrounding it.  The iPod Touch (and first the iPhone) had a lot of hype.  I'm happy to say though that it all works as advertised.  Dive into the video review I've got below; there I'll step through some of some of the smaller, not often mentioned aspects of this device.  It is the little things, the small attention to detail that Apple gives it products, that really enhance the ongoing use of a product.

Awaiting the iPod Touch

Of course by now you know that Apple introduced a refresh to its iPod line and in that announcement, the also introduced the iPod Touch.  I can hardly wait for this device to arrive!  I didn't want to write anything about the iPod Touch until I'd actually received it, because I like to be able to give firsthand info about the tech I write about, and not just regurgitate the news.  And rest assured, I will do a detailed post on the iPod Touch when I receive it at the end of September / start of October. 

But I thought I'd would post a thought about one application I am really looking forward to using on my iPod Touch, an application that hasn't appeared anywhere in the demos or other press releases.  I'm looking forward to being able to use Typepad, the tool I use for posting my blog.  I read with interest the details this morning as I was working on some posts-in-progress.

I have a small Typepad app on my HTC smartphone that I've used from time-to-time, but I find it to be a very bare-bones, lackluster application that misses key functionality for me. The Typepad interface for the iPhone looks gorgeous, but more than that, it looks very functional.  It allows me to manage my blog and not just put out posts.  I like that a lot.  I have found that the Typepad application I use on my HTC is more like a simple text editor, while the one for the iPhone give a much richer end-user experience to make posting blog items as natural as when sitting down at your computer.  Of course, to use this on an iPod Touch, you'd need to be leveraging the WiFi rather than being to type up a post and then simply push it out.  But the reality for me is that I'm always around WiFi enabled locations, from my home, to coffee shops to being up at the cottage, so I don't see this as being an issue. I think being able to simply turn my iPod Touch on its side, have the screen automatically go into landscape mode and begin typing posts will be an absolute joy!

And so, of course there will be many many things for me to like about the new iPod Touch, but knowing I can blog easily from it is the icing on the cake for me.  The sad part is....the end of September seems so far away. 

Stay tuned for more!

Unlocked iPhone

It was the "unlock" heard around the world.  Cellphones are always being unlocked, and in most cases, it is a complete non-event.  But that isn't the case with the iPhone, a cellphone that was starting to look like perhaps it couldn't be unlocked (it took a while..as far as phone hacks go).  Today, Engadget posted details of a software "fix" that will unlock an iPhone so it will accept any SIM. 

I was of course, at hearing the news this afternoon, ecstatic.  I was already formulating a short trip down to the Apple Store in Buffalo so I could buy my iPhone, bring it back across the boarder, apply the software patch (available next week) and begin to enjoy the phone that has capture the imaginations of so many people.

Now, many hours since the afternoon's news, I sit at home thinking.  The initial euphoria has ebbed somewhat for me and I've begun to wonder about "what could go wrong" if I go this route.  The nagging thing for me is this:  Apple has an exclusive with AT&T and I think they won't take this hack sitting down.  If I were Jobs, I'd have my engineering team buy the software from iphonesimfree.com, figure out how they did it and then promptly break it with the next iTunes update.  That is my fear.  That I could buy this phone and be super happy, and then, each time I would sync it with my Macbook Pro, I'd be wondering "what if it doesn't work after this sync?" 

It isn't like you can go without syncing the iPhone.  That would defeat the purpose.  You have to sync to update contacts, calendar entries, music and videos.  And if each sync brings the possibility that the software fix could be broken, then that could leave people holding an expensive piece of plastic.  As much as I want an iPhone, I'm not willing to risk that.  I know, I know, I'm sure that if Apple breaks the fix, then the good folks at iphonesimfree.com will figure out how to fix it again and release the software.  But what if that takes a week?  Even if it took a day, can one reasonably go without a cellphone for a day? 

This is why I think that as awesome as the unlocking software seems to be, it isn't going to be a smooth ride for those trying to go that route.  I hope I'm wrong, but bet I won't be.  What this kind of patch might do, however, is accelerate Apple getting the iPhone legitimately into other markets. Here's hoping!

A Welcomed Addition to iWork: Numbers

A spreadsheet is a spreadsheet is a spreadsheet, right? I mean, what could Apple possibly do to improve upon the classic spreadsheet? The answer is, plenty. Numbers is a breath of fresh air in the cateogory of spreadsheet applications. it changes the way we think about spreadsheets, introducing a concept that I like to call spreadsheet objects. Rather than just having a spreadsheet, you get a 'canvas' that allows you to place spreadsheets atop it. It is kind of like dekstop publishing meets spreadsheets. I like it a lot and think that this will set a new standard in spreadsheets. They have made the user interface easy to use, taking away some of the complexity that non-power users of Excel might find.

Alas, while Numbers is a great first step for Apple's spreadsheet, it does have some areas that need imrpovement.
1) Apple needs to make it so you can cut, paste AND link a spreadsheet into Pages. this is something that Microsoft office users can easily do. Numbers needs to allow you to update the spreadsheet and have that change automatically reflected in the Pages document you pasted that spreadsheet.
2) Numbers can't reference cells in other files. In Excel, for example, I can reference the cells in other workbooks. This allows you to create some complex spreadsheets and sadly, numbers doesn't allow this. To gain acceptance in the enterprise, Numbers must add this feature
3) Numbers has size limitations. A large, 24MB Excel file wouldn't open in Numbers - the error message was File too Large.
All in all, however, Numbers shows some real promise. I look forward to continue to use it.

The iMovie 08 Disappointment

I received my iLife and iWork 08 software last Wednesday and have been busy using the various new applications. I will write about each app, but today we'll talk about iMovie 08, the weakest of the updates, in my opinion.

They have done some nice user interface things. The ability to 'skim' clips is nice. The ability to see visual clips of all your projects is nice. I like that they built in a way to get clips uploaded directly to YouTube. But these improvements / new features don't make up for what iMovie 08 has lost.

No ability to create chapters, no straightforward way to send to iDVD, no video effects, and most annoying of all, very poor backward compatiblity with project createdin iMove 06. Apple, what were you thinking? For the most part, the new iMovie is greatly watered down, and doesn't allow you to easily do what we have come to expect from the iMovie app.

I was thankful the installing iLife 08 that iMovie 06 was left on my Mac as well. Apple I believe knew that users wouldn'r be happy with the new iMovie. They are also making the iMovie 06 available for download on new Macs that only come with iLife 08.

New Products From Apple

Well, I'm pleased that my post from yesterday regarding Apple's press conference resulted in upgrades to dot-Mac, especially the fact that we've got increased storage - up to 10GB.  There were of course a number of other good news items. 

Update to iWork
It was about time that Apple released a spreadsheet application as a part of the iWork suite.  I love working in Keynote as an alternate to Powerpoint.  Pages holds its own against Word.  The corporate challenge though for iWork has been the lack of a spreadsheet. Yesterday, Apple introduced Numbers, its alternative to Excel.  From the information provided online and the short demos, Numbers seems to be an easy to use and robust spreadsheet.  I'm hoping to have my copy today and then will give you my thoughts on how well it works.   They key to Numbers' success will be its ability to import/open spreadsheets created in Excel.  This will be of critical importance to corporate users.  I'm not exactly sure how well complex Excel spreadsheets, especially those with macros, will fair when opened in Numbers.  Nevertheless, I'm thrilled Apple finally gave us a spreadsheet application, and I look forward to putting it to use.

Update to iLife
I won't go into all the details, but there have been a lot of new features added to the applications in the iLife suite.  I'm particularly interested in trying out the new features in iMovie, as the interface looks somewhat changed and there appear to be new tools or ways to view your video content to make the video creation process easier.  I also like the fact that you can upload items from iMovie directly to YouTube. 

New Hardware
As expected, Apple refreshed the iMac line.  I know a few people who were planning to buy iMacs for home - well, now is the time (aren't you glad you waited....like I told you to).  Personally, there isn't anything compelling in the new line to make me want to upgrade, but it is all good news for those just getting ready to buy an iMac.  I was really hoping for an iMac with an even larger screen, but we didn't see that.  The largest is still 24".  I won't get into all the technical specs, but you can see them for yourself here.   I think what is disappointing is that Apple still hasn't given us an iMac with inputs for cable TV.  What would it take to add a television tuner?  I mean, really, if this is going to sit in my living room and double as a media hub for me, then I've got to be able to hook up my cable or satellite to it.  If I were Apple, I would have done that and created some type of PVR capabilities.

All in all, some good stuff coming out from Apple.  I was hoping there would be some mention/confirmation on the release of Leopard, but there was no indication where this update to the operating system is still on track for October, 2007. 

Once I get my hands on iWork and iLife '08, I'll do some testing and be sure to post some follow on thoughts on each of these product suites.  Here's hoping that we actually get the boxed versions of these products today here in Canada.  As of yesterday when I went to the Apple store, they had none in stock.

VMWare Fusion - Officially Available

I've been using Parallels since it came out for the Mac as the best way to have a virtualized Windows machine on my Macs.  It has worked very well.  I tested VMware Fusion beta and actually used on one production machine here where Parallels just wasn't cutting it. 

Finally the beta has been dropped from Fusion and it is officially released and ready for purchase.  I'll be testing it in a few days, but thought I'd let those of you who were using the beta know.  I'll be looking, specifically, at performance and USB support.  I've found the USB support in Parallels to be hit and miss and somewhat disappointing at times (i.e., I can't get it to successfully sync my HTC smartphone in the Windows session).  All in all, I still love Parallels, but VMWare, with their deep experience in virtualization I'm sure has created a solid product.  Look forward to testing it and letting you know what I find.

Good News from Apple?

If you are a dot-Mac user today is going to have some bad news and hopefully some good news for you.  The bad news is that the service will be down today for a while.  The good news is that we might finally be getting long overdue upgrade/update to this service from Apple. 

I have always been a dot-Mac user, and when the service launched, I thought it was tremendous.  In recent times, say the last year, I still have found it to be of value, but kept wishing they'd evolve the service.  It was beginning to feel a bit stale.  Well there is speculation that today, at Apple's press event, that amongst the other new product announcements (such as new iMacs perhaps?) that the dot-Mac service will also be updated.

The conference will begin at 10am (PDT) so I suspect dot-Mac will go down around that time, but it is unclear for how long.  I really hope that there are some interesting new goodies in this service for us, and that they aren't things that are solely for Leopard to take advantage of. 

As a wish list, I think dot-Mac should:

1. increase the amount of storage, at least for email.  With large offering from the likes of Google and Yahoo, I think they must up the storage offering to remain relevant. Google gives me  2GB now for absolutely  nothing.  Apple should provide us with at least 5 to 10GB given the annual fee.
2. Allow for online calendars (that have been published from iCal) to be edited by people online.  That way if I share my calendar with a non-Mac user online, they can add events to the calendar
3. Improve Backup software.  I think there can be some improvements to Backup that allow for more data to be backed up online, and to allow for recovery through a thin web-based client

Here's hoping that the improvements are not a) just iPhone related (since we don't have them in Canada yet) and b) not just Leopard related (since we still have to wait two and a half months for that).  Failure to improve upon dot-Mac will continue to weaken this offering from Apple.  At a time where more and more interest in Apple computers and laptops is occurring, they shouldn't miss the opportunity to offer and fantastic online offering that leads the market, rather than follows it.

Windows Remote Desktop for the Mac

If you are like me and you use your Mac in a corporate setting, chances are that you might have to remote desktop to a Windows computer or server.  From Mac I have been doing this via Microsoft Remote Desktop Connection, which has worked well.  I wanted to post that they now have an upgrade, that is free.  It is in beta but works quite well.

The improvements to this version include:

• Universal Binary - finally!
• Works with Vista, and uses the new Remote Desktop protocol
• Multiple session support (which is really important for me...it was frustrating before to only be able to open one session at a time when you needed to be working on two servers)
• Better printer support
• Improved User Interface

If this is something that you have been using, or need to use, you can grab it here.

One Day to Go...And The Reviews Are Coming In

The iPhone is set to officially launch on June 29th at 6pm.  Reviews however have begun to trickle in from folks like Mossberg who have been using the iPhone for a couple of weeks already (aren't they special).

Its a good article/review so I thought I'd point it out to you; I especially liked his video review as well (which you can find embedded in this post after the jump below).  All in all, it isn't a perfect device...no device ever is, but it is a new experience.  To me, that is awesome.  Apple looks for ways to change the paradigm and it looks like the iPhone might be doing just that.  The question will be, however, whether the mass market snaps these phones up.  More importantly, though, will be how Apple works to outpace the competition, who will undoubtedly build new (similar) functionality into their phone offerings.  That is all good news for us, the end consumer, of course, but perhaps not for Apple.  They need to get devices into consumers' hands as fast as possible, or risk losing important segments of the market.  Technology like cellphones changes fast, and if they are too slow in getting phones to market, people will undoubtedly wait for newer models.

Those of us in Canada...well...we're patiently waiting.