After looking at the changelogs—both the shiny publicized one as well as the more technical support one—I realized that the primary changes that I had issue with were all covered under the phrase “an improved look and feel.” With respect to the geniuses at Apple, this is a terrible way of doing things. The largest way a typical user interacts with a program like iTunes, whether or not it has Home Sharing, Genius Mixes, and the like, is through its UI. We get very used to these interfaces. And yet, there are never any specifics given as to what the changes to the UI actually are. This itself must change.

I’m not saying that the old iTunes interface was perfect, but it was something we were all used to. To suddenly change things around in an interface that makes sense just confuses everyone. Take the new column view, for instance. It is useless to me to have a list of all my artists, and then a small window for the songs. I preferred the old way, when I could have albums, artists, and genres all along the top, while still being able to see the song list below. This doesn’t necessarily mean it shouldn’t have to be changed, but Apple should at least tell us how to make it look the old way. I only found the options for reverting the view by wandering around in the menus for some time.

The playlist and other icons were changed in the sidebar as well. I, personally, don’t really care about this one way or another, but again it brings up the question of why Apple would do this when the old ones worked perfectly well. Is an off-center note more trendy than one in the middle? Is a cut-off gear nicer than a complete one?

About fifteen minutes after upgrading, I had reverted most changes, and made my peace with the new changes that I couldn’t fix. Satisfied with my life, I clicked the green button to minimize the window into the Mini Player I always keep in the corner of my screen. The window simply jumped slightly. Huh. I must have pressed the wrong thing. I clicked again. And again. And again. My world exploded once again. That was the most useful feature of iTunes—to have the display become small and unobtrusive. Had Apple actually gotten rid of this? Luckily, this was not the case; I eventually discovered that you could bring up the Mini Player by pressing Shift+Apple+M. Although this made it possible, it still seems like a stupid idea on Apple’s part. Why make this so much more difficult to do? I’m all for keyboard shortcuts, but if my hand is on the mouse, it would be nice to click. At least, tell me how to make it appear, rather than, once again, making me hunt through menus.

So, I’m not against change. Many of the new features of iTunes are great (I love the new Genius Mixes, among other aspects), but just, tell us about them, okay? An “improved look” is not nearly descriptive enough for me. Make sure that I—and people with less patience for scanning menus—know how to make a program do what it had always done in the past. Progress should not come at the cost of information. We’ll like the updates more if you tell us what’s in them, I swear.

The upgrade process is, in the spirit of most Apple products, incredibly easy to figure out. I popped the install DVD into my computer after taking it out of the packaging. The packaging itself I was less than impressed by, for other than the snow leopards scattered around, there was little else specific to this release. True, there were pages in the booklet extolling the features of the operating system, but most were ones that could be found in 10.5 as well. Nevertheless, this did not stop me from continuing with the installation. The DVD’s minimalist window showed up on my screen, with three choices. Two were folders, and the only one I was interested in was the installer itself.

I double-clicked on the icon, and was presented simply with the choice to install or not. I continued through a few windows, and input my password. And that was pretty much it. Unlike some other installers, this didn’t even have to restart before initiating the install. It quit all my programs, and then I was left with nothing to do. It also took, all in all, a surprisingly short time. It estimated an hour, and it took a little bit longer, maybe an hour and fifteen minutes. Now, I chose to upgrade, rather than to wipe my hard drive and do a clean install. I don’t know how the timing of this would be different.

The waiting was the worst part, however. I was constantly watching for any sign of the petrifying greyed-out screen that signifies a kernel panic. Or even worse, a black screen (or perhaps even worse than that, the smell of burning plastic). But none of these appeared, and my trusty Macbook went through the process unscathed. The computer restarted itself and I was greeted with the same orientation video I saw a few years back when Leopard came out (still cool, but I could have done with something newer).

And then came the other fear: Did my computer still work? Did all my programs—and more importantly the system—still do what they were supposed to? The answer to this, actually, for the first few minutes, was no. My menubar was, for lack of a better word, twitching. Spotlight kept appearing and disappearing, and I couldn’t see the date, or any of the apple icons. However, with some quick Google searching I discovered that the issue was iStat menus, a very handy little program, but one that has yet to be upgraded for Snow Leopard. The only other big problem for me was that I noticed that, for some reason, I was doing everything much more slowly than usual. I then realized that my application launcher Quicksilver was no longer working, and so I was doing everything by hand. This upset me greatly, but once again Google saved the day. There were a few other necessary tweaks, but in the end it was a very painless process.

So far, I’m very glad to have updated. At least as of now, it’s the little changes that I didn’t know about that I find most useful. Exposé is tweaked to be more helpful. The Dock pop-up menus are on grey instead of white, and so fit better with the aesthetic. The menu bar can finally show the date. The list goes on, but needless to say, updating was the highlight of my day. Oh yes, one more thing. There are many desktop pictures of snow leopards. And none of them are angry.

First of all, you have to hand it to Apple that it is, indeed, thinking different. Instead of a simple, confusable, numerical system, there is something that is easier to take a hold of and understand. Especially compared to its main competitor, who—at least up to Vista—pretty much just named their operating systems after the years they came out. Even Linux, with even more separate versions of its OS, does not have any particular system for naming them. I have had, in the past, some confusion between Jaguar, Tiger, and so on, but it’s easier than thinking “Oh, was that 10.3 or 10.4?”

A comparison can also be drawn between the ideal features of an operating system and these cats that are their namesakes. A computer should be fast, sleek, and powerful, just like a jaguar, or a tiger. Maybe a computer could do without the meat-eating nature, or the jaws and claws, but the basic features should be pretty much the same. This was probably one of the big aspects of the cats that led Apple to use them for marketing. But the system also raises some questions. Is Apple alienating some of the cat-lovers of the world by designating a strict hierarchy? Are leopards from this point on consistently better than tigers? Are snow leopards better than normal leopards? (I agree wholeheartedly with the latter, but the former I’m not so sure about…)

Snow Leopard itself seems to be milking the system for all it’s worth, more so than its predecessors. It comes preloaded with many desktop wallpapers including some lovely pictures of snow leopards in nature (including the one shown above). At least for Leopard, and I believe the other earlier systems, the only cat connection they had was the name, not any images. There is also the fact, which I think is remarkably clever, that the new update is just significant tweaks to the OS, not a whole different animal. Therefore, it’s just another kind of leopard, rather than a different family of cat.

The system seems to be good for Apple, or at least not bad. It gives people easily remembered titles, and a lot of brand recognition. It differentiates Apple from its competitors, and the names show the ideal traits of the systems themselves. But I do sort of wonder how far this is going to go. Lynx and Cougar are the two predators that are supposedly already trademarked by Apple, but that would only get us up to 10.8. In theory, there would be at least one more model, if they’re using a full decimal system. As much as I love Apple, and am always happy to buy their new systems—Snow Leopard is on order as we speak—I still think I would hesitate at least for a few minutes when presented with Mac OS X 10.9: Snagglepuss, even!

I have received comments on both of my recent software reviews about the responsiveness and friendliness of the two developers involved. One was writing that their manner was just adding to an already wonderful app, and the other was improving on a program that was less than perfect, taking suggestions for fixes and features. And this got me to thinking. When I have loved a product, whether it was a game or a utility, what was it that really drew me into paying money, into supporting the app? And, in most cases, it was my communication with the writer of the program.

There have been many times when I’ve had questions about a program before buying it. And in most of these cases, I’ve emailed the company asking those questions. This of course only works with smaller companies, but in a way that makes it better. I felt so honored when I emailed Delicious Monster, the makers of Delicious Library, and got an answer back not only promptly but also from the Major-domo of the program himself. The personal connection just made me want to buy the program even more. On another occasion I had an issue with a certain backup tool. I emailed the developer, and got a quick, correct response telling me what I should do to resolve the problem. While it was written in a manner that my father describes as “friendly but with an edge of ‘you should know this already,’” it answered my question and made me more dedicated to use the tool—over and instead of the built-in Time Machine.

An argument can be raised, of course, that if an app is truly perfect, a user wouldn’t need to talk to the developer. No problems would ever arise, and so no communication or troubleshooting would ever be necessary. But there are two counter arguments to this. First, a program could hardly ever be this perfect. Second, one might want to contact the developers simply to thank them on delivering such a wonderful product, and encourage them to keep on going. I have done this myself many times. In my opinion, there is never a reason not to contact a developer, and in return, rarely a reason for them not to contact you. Being a friendly person, and even just a person and not a faceless company, is a wonderful way to promote an app, get people’s interest, and keep them coming back.

Hackers choose Windows machines because they are the low hanging fruit on the tree. There are ample ripe unprotected windows machines to spread viruses and they are the dominant machine by numbers in the market. This is the main reason that Macs are fairly safe. I would bet a talented hacker could write a virus to infect a Mac however the time and energy exerted would be far greater than writing them for Windows. Hackers, just like business people, will chase after the greatest reward for the least cost and effort. With the Mac base growing rapidly and Windows becoming more secure with Vista and Windows 7, some attention will likely be shifted towards the Mac in the coming years. Whether that equates to a successful virus will be determined in time.

There have been worms released in the Mac community. Months ago a worm was embedded in the latest iWork software that was shared through torrents. Anyone that downloads software illegally deserves to be infected in my opinion. There is also virus protection software available, however it’s hotly debated as to whether one needs to run it at this time. Some consider it a good protector for what could happen. My personal belief is that wise user behavior is the biggest deterrent for viruses. There are vulnerabilities in web browsers and operating systems that are patched all the time. To my knowledge the vulnerabilities still require the user to type in the administer password to allow the nasty virus entrance to the warm cozy confines of the mac hard drive.

This series is about my experience with the Mac at work and we chose at my work not to run virus protection on the Mac. For the companies windows machines we use an enterprise version from Symantec endpoint protection. That is controlled from a server that manages the virus definition files and will notify IT if a computer has issues or hasn’t been scanned for a while. I received a call from IT asking me to start up my Dell Laptop and run the virus protection scan so that it would be up to date recently. Its quite costly for a company to defend against viruses and I’m happy that I don’t need to participate in that process any longer, for now…

I would caution any Mac user to be very cautious about how you boast that macs are immune to viruses because once the target on the apple becomes big enough then viruses will be aimed at the target. Hopefully the recent and future advances in OS and browser security will continue to advance and make those attacks fail. So please make sure that your OS and all other programs are up to date, stay off the torrents, and clicking through sites wisely will reduce the likelihood of infection. Mac security and viruses is a story that is still being written and will never be complete.

My personal favorite kind of trial is the latter one, the feature-limited demo, but only in specific situations. Since the applications I tend to test out are games and not utilities or other programs, feature-limited trials are much less frustrating. Too many times I have been playing a demo, and gotten to the point right before a final boss, or a final move of a section, and the window shuts with the message “Thanks for playing! Your 60 minutes are up!” I much prefer games that allow you to play the whole first level or section completely, but nothing else. This occasionally translates into a shorter gameplay experience, less than an hour, but it’s much more satisfying.

However, feature-limited trials too can be incredibly frustrating. For utilities, such as system cleaners, video players, and so on, if a trial is feature-limited, then you can’t really get a good sense of what the application is like. Even if you know, in theory, all the great things it will be able to do when you buy it, you still don’t really know if it’ll work as well as they say, or whether it’s something you’ll actually use. For apps like these, it’s much better to have a trial you can use for a week, or ten days, or even just a few hours.

Compromises have, of course, been reached. There are many programs which allow you to do a certain function a certain number of times, for example fixing metadata of iTunes music, or removing duplicate files. This is not feature-limited, but also not a strict time limit, so the frustration and stress is lessened considerably. These are perhaps the nicest trials.

There is another aspect to this debate that must be brought up. Perhaps the developers do not want a trial to be perfect. My game experience, for example. When I’m cut off in the middle of a level, I want to (and often do) go right out and buy the game so I can continue immediately. And, for time-limited utilities, if it’s something like cleaning your iTunes library, maybe you can do it all within the seven-day trial and so won’t actually need to buy the application. Software trials are supposed to help the product as well as the consumer, and if the consumer can be satisfied without paying money, then that does nothing for the product. So trials are not perfect. But I don’t think they’re meant to be. They keep us on the edge, and just hooked (or angry) enough to go out and buy the full application. The developer’s know exactly what we want, and, through trials, they show us that they have it.

The way I see it, there are really three different types of desktops. One has the background picture as the focus, one has files as the focus, and one has data. My desktop has gone through all three of these stages over the years. Currently, it only has three icons—my hard drive, a single folder, and my backup drive. Anything that shows up is automatically moved into that single folder through the magic of Hazel. The primary purpose of my desktop is to see my background picture (a shot from the Musée d’Orsay in Paris). I also have a few tidbits of data put up in Geektool, which prints text directly on your desktop, such as what is playing on my iTunes, my battery charge, and IP address. Now, this is the set-up that works for me. I’m a messy person by nature, so I had to find a way to force myself to keep things clean. I used to have files all around, but now, with my increasing use of Spotlight or Quicksilver, I no longer have to see things to open them.

There is, of course, too much of a good thing. Using Geektool, in addition to what I have already mentioned, I also had five separate to-do lists, weather, and all manner of other interesting but unnecessary system statistics. This was great from a standpoint of being informed, but my desktop picture was completely obscured and this depressed me.

Other people I know integrate their desktop backgrounds with the data on them, hiding stats in graffiti, or subway message boards. Others go the complete opposite direction and have countless files that they find by knowing their relations to other files. Many productivity experts say that you should always have a clean desktop—nothing to distract you, a clean slate to start from—but I know for a fact that this doesn’t work for everyone; here’s an example from a tech support company in Norway:

The answer to the question I asked earlier is really trial and error, at least in my experience. There are countless tools available to make your deskop as customized as you want it to be—extra wallpaper, built-in clocks, and so on. See how you work with no files. See how you work with a plain background, or if you really want to see places you’ve been, people you’ve met, then stick a photo or two up there. Data is helpful, but don’t go overboard. Try things out. Play around. After all, it’s a great way to procrastinate. Your desktop may end up being completely different than mine, but I can hope that I at least made you think about it, and set you on your road to your perfect screen.

Final Cut Studio has been around for a number of years, gaining traction on it’s Avid counter-parts. Being used by large-production companies for feature films, or short goofy clips by high school and college students, Final Cut serves a broad audience with its suite of editing, creation, and manipulating tools.

*Note: To be fair, we haven’t yet gotten our hands on the software, this is working from the advertised feature list from apple.com

Final Cut Pro 7

Final Cut gets the bump to the big 7.0, and while it offers a number of small new features, I was hoping to see a stronger feature set for a big version change like this. Apple calls it “the year’s most stunning new release.” If this is the year’s most stunning new release, it’s going to be quite a disappointing year.

• Current Final Cut users will be happy to get an improved export system called “Easy Export.” This one was common sense: allow users to continue working on a project while it’s encoding in the background. I’m excited for this, but it seems like something that should have been done in the first place.
• Apple is heavily touting it’s ProRes codec family as a big feature, and while a more extensive codec family is useful when working with multiple types of clips, I hardly see it as a big feature.
• Apple is parading better integration with iChat and Cinema Tools, support for more formats, more effects and transitions, and blah blah blah… None of these features are so earth shattering I would pay $299 for the upgrade.

Motion 4

I don’t event know what to say about Motion. No major updates to the interface, no major new features, just more of the same tacky templates, particle emitters, and preset patterns.

• Lots of other small little useful tools Motion has had for years made better…

Soundtrack 3

Soundtrack got the most new features of all the apps in my opinion, which is sad for this video-centric suite.

• Soundtrack sounds like it got a bunch of tools to repair common audio problems with just a few clicks. This will be refreshing change, as before it could be clunky to make smaller edits in a large timeline.
• Soundtrack 3 improves integration with Final Cut to make it a more useful counter-part in the editing workflow. Make precision edits to dialogue levels on two tracks to that they match perfectly. Another great feature, but it always seemed like a feature destined for Soundtrack, nothing that will change how you use the advanced multi-track editor.

Color 1.5

A lot more of the same. Color grows up a bit, and gains… you guessed it: tighter integration with Final Cut.

• Not much to report. Come back next version.

Compressor 3.5

• Compressor gets a bit of a facelift, and I understand that it’s hard to improve an encoder. Compressor does a better job of handling batch jobs, gives you better batch templates to work with, and a great 3rd-party-plugin system to let you better write your own custom workflows.
• Compressor supposedly now gives “pristine” format conversion, including excellent SD-to-HD up-conversion. A plus, sure, but it’s hard to quantify what “pristine” format conversion means in comparison to what Compressor used to be.

DVD Studio Pro 4

• To be honest the Apple website doesn’t really say much about DVD Studio Pro of consequence. It touts features already available in the software for years, and just more of the same.
• Blu-ray support? I’m guessing (and your guess is as good as mine). Compressor supports it now, so it leads one to believe that you would be able to burn Blu-Ray images at least. No where on the site does it say that it does though, and no Macs currently support Blu-Ray media, or have drives to read/write the discs.

Conclusion

I’m honestly at a loss of words as for what to say about the new Final Cut Studio. By no means do I think they’re bad programs, I think they’re all excellent, but there are no compelling features to justify the upgrade. It adds better inter-app integration, it offers some improved sharing features for popular formats and services, and just improves over-all. There’s honestly not much to report.

Either Apple did a terrible job advertising new features on their website, or the new suite is just the slightly more-polished version of Final Cut Studio 2 it sounds like. If users were planning on buying Final Cut Studio already, they should go for it, there are some useful new fixes and tie-ins, but it’s not really worth the upgrade from the current version.

Many software review sites, including this one, now have a significant amount of articles on iPhone applications. This is of course because there are new iPhone applications popping up every day. Racing games, arcade games, even new games that create their own genre. But fewer and fewer articles, at least those about gaming, mention a platform other than the iPhone. I have nothing against new programs, and I think—as I’m sure the developers do too—that the iPhone is an exciting new way to think about applications, and has such great potential as a platform. What I think is happening, however, is that the developers are so interested and so obsessed with the new possibilities of a small touch screen interface that they are abandoning what can be done with a mouse and a keyboard.

Back in the day, the Mac was revolutionary. Games like Myst or Riven, for example, took the world by storm, and were fully Apple-centric—created on, and originally for, only Macs. But now, just as the Mac begins to gain market share, and games are developed and released simultaneously on both Macs and Windows (instead of having to wait through interminable periods of jealousy, watching your PC-loving friends play the ones that you couldn’t), it seems that Apple has created the agent of its gaming downfall. No longer are games on a computer screen the forefront of exciting new ways to play.

iPhone games are now where the revolution is taking place. The touch screen, the motion and tilt sensors, all of the little pieces and features of the gadget make it a wonderful tool to use for game input. But countless times now, I have looked through the web, eagerly read news on upcoming games, and then discovered the link to the iTunes music store at the bottom of the article, crushing my dreams of ever playing it. Now, I know that a huge amount of people have iPhones, and this is a market as eager as myself, but I also know that I am not the only person without one. The Mac is still an amazing computer, capable of doing amazing things—more so now than ever, with Core Image graphics, all the other features of Leopard, and so on—, but it’s not getting the attention it deserves.

The iPhone is certainly a wonderful piece of technology. But developers have to remember that it is not the only piece of technology. Bring back new, exciting Mac games! Become forerunners of innovation, creativity, and, most of all, fun! Remember that gamers have more fingers than just their two thumbs! Either that, or someone buy me an iPhone.

Earlier this morning at the Developer Conference in Brighton, Chillingo (one of the iPhone’s leading game publishers) announced their plans to create a social gaming network that would become “the de-facto social gaming standard for iPhone and iPod touch” according to Chillingo director Chris Byatte.

PocketGamer.biz reports that the network will be released under the moniker Crystal and is set to feature friends lists, achievements, and the ability to issue direct challenges to other gamers on the network. Equal parts Facebook and Xbox Live, Crystal is intended to offer up a way for iPhone gamers to stay in touch while deepening the gaming experience by offering new goals and challenges that place you in direct competition with your friends.

Like many product announcements, this morning’s unveiling raised more questions than answers.  Will the network only be available for titles published by Chillingo, or will the social platform be available as a sort of middleware that any publisher can license?  Can games that predate Crystal be patched to include it, or would they need to be rebuilt from the ground up?  Will Apple adopt this as “the de facto social gaming standard,” or will this launch a dozen imitators all fighting for the crown?

Chillingo isn’t the first company to attempt to craft a social gaming experience on the iPhone.  Competitor ngmoco launched their Plus+ network last month as a means for gamers to issue challenges, track friends and earn awards — exactly like Chillingo is planning to do.  It’s hard to gauge how well Plus+ will perform as it’s barely out of the gate, however early reviews from Star Defense players (the only game supported by the service so far) have been mostly positive.

Competition isn’t the only issue Crystal faces.  In its currently announced form, the networking platform does nothing to overcome social gaming’s greatest obstacle on the iPhone: a lack of online multiplayer.  Until Apple somehow makes it easier for online-enabled games to be developed with multiplayer in mind, social gaming on the iPhone is never going to attain the level of success that it has the potential to achieve.

There’s no word on a release date as of yet, but Chillingo has committed to keeping the service free for gamers and intends to integrate other major social networks like Twitter and Facebook.  There’s a lot of potential here.  We’ll just have to wait and see what, if anything, Crystal can offer that Plus+ can’t.

One of the most useful things about the Dock is that it tells you with a quick glance what programs are open. I can see that I have, for example, four different browsers running, and that’s probably what’s making my computer slow. Or, the reason I can’t find that window is not because I accidentally moved it but rather that the application quit itself. I can also easily see if there are files in a folder, using the Stacks. When this feature first came out, I was one of the people who were a little suspicious of its utility, but I have since been converted. I have a Temporary folder where I put things I have to deal with, and I can tell quickly whether or not there’s anything in there. I can also see whether I have to empty the Trash (a task that is much less arduous than its real-life counterpart, but still one I often forget to do). All of these tasks are very difficult to do with Quicksilver.

Now, you can move files through Quicksilver. You just have to find the file, usually by browsing through a directory, then tab over to the action panel, type in “move to,” and then tab again, and find the final resting place. But, with a few folders in the Dock, you can just drag the file straight in. I find this a lot easier, and a lot less time consuming. Although I might save time by using Quicksilver, I still open up the folders afterwards and make sure that the file was actually moved. That is one big problem with anything done through Quicksilver—opening applications, moving files, and so on—there’s no feedback. When you click on or drag something to the Dock, it bounces, or fades, or slides. You know something has happened. With Quicksilver, you just have to trust it.

But the biggest reason I keep my Dock around is for the sake of art. There are many programs out there, like Dock Library, SuperDocker, and so on, that allow you to customize the way your Dock looks. I can always be content that my Dock matches my Stack icons and the style of my computer by being “wooden.” You can customize Quicksilver too, but that’s only up for as long as you’re using it. With the Dock, you can also admire the well-designed icons of the world.

I wouldn’t want to compute without the Dock. It may not be my go-to application for launching applications, but it serves so many other purposes that it’s still worthwhile to keep around. Sure, there are scripts, programs, and hacks floating around the internet that allow you to do away with it, but I’m standing by my old friend. A launcher like Quicksilver is the easiest way to be quick, but the Dock adds style and utility to a desktop.

Apple will not distribute applications that contain inappropriate content, such as pornography. The developer of this application added inappropriate content directly from their server after the application had been approved and distributed, and after the developer had subsequently been asked to remove some offensive content. This was a direct violation of the terms of the iPhone Developer Program. The application is no longer available on the App Store.

But while Apple spokesman Tom Neumayr may have taken this stance in a comment made to CNN.com’s Wes Finley-Price, there are still questions that remain unanswered.  Why does the iPhone Developer Program allow developers to make changes directly from the server in the first place?  Shouldn’t there be a system in place that restricts any changes to an app without a formal Apple approved update?  And if Apple “will not distribute applications that contain inappropriate content, such as pornography,” then why do they issue a rating that includes the warning “Frequent/Intense Sexual Content or Nudity”?  What are they expecting?  Tasteful, non-pornagraphic frequent and intense nudity?  Outside of a breast-cancer self-exam or a medical app, I can’t imagine  an app with frequent nudity.  And I certainly wouldn’t expect an app like that to have a 17+ rating, would you?

Apple doesn’t want to be seen as condoning pornography, and that’s understandable.  But pornography is about intent.  Covered breasts or not, Hottest Girls was approved by Apple.  If that’s the sort of content that does get approved, I can’t see why they’d have an issue with a parental-controlled version of the exact same software showing off a little bit of the boob.

I think the program compatibility issue will be mostly resolved within a few years. Software companies will begin developing Mac compatible software for most windows only programs in order to grow their companies. This will only happen when there is a large enough customer base available to invest into porting the application over to the Mac. It doesn’t make good business sense until there is enough of a demand for the product to recoup their costs and generate profit. With the exploding popularity of the Mac and the iPhone finding it’s way into business their market share will only grow from here. The iPhone is a gateway gadget leading to the Macintosh computer. Many people using the iPhone that had not tried a Mac are being intrigued that there may be a better user experience on a computer for them. Visiting the Apple stores for their iPhone is generating more interest in the Computers which will drive growth. In addition, many of the applications that are installed on computers are being put into the cloud and accessed through the web browser. Google is leading the charge with their google docs push, and others are following. Faster broadband speeds, more sophisticated web development software and better browsers will push computer based applications to the web. This makes sense in a lot of ways where the application doesn’t need a lot of resources to complete the designed tasks.

The next big disadvantage is the lack of business support. I had issues with connecting my Mac to the windows domain. I called 1800-myapple and although they tried to help, they didn’t have the knowledge to solve my problem. Apple needs to alleviate some of the fear from users and IT staff by having better instructions and more knowledge available when we run into an issue. In their effort to help me they directed me to a document created by someone not related to Apple. Microsoft has a pay per incident team that will assist in solving a microsoft related problem until the issue is resolved regardless of how long it takes. From what I recall it was around $250 per incident which seems expensive, however there is no time limit to resolve the problem. In the upcoming Snow Leopard release Apple is integrating Exchange into the OS. Windows doesn’t have exchange integrated so it is quite obvious Apple is aiming for the business user. Apple needs to create a call center focused on the business user that is capable of solving business related computer/software issues.

Email is one of my biggest disappointments in making the switch. Microsoft doesn’t make an Outlook version for the Mac. There is a history where Outlook stopped development for the Mac and Entourage was left to pick up the slack in a relatively short period of time. They had to integrate exchange support into their existing program rather quickly with limited resources and have done a decent job with the latest version. That being said Entourage is well behind Outlook as far as a business class email client is concerned. They have similar concepts in grouping contacts, mail, tasks, and calendar into one program which I prefer, however It’s obvious where the development money is spend at Microsoft, on Outlook and not Entourage. When Snow Leopard is released I can move to the packaged apps in Mac OS X but then Contacts, Mail and Calendar will be three different programs rather than combined into one. I’m not excited about having to work between three different programs for my calendar and communications. Hopefully they will surprise us and allow us a single user interface that blends them all together into one user interface.

Connecting to windows servers is a little touchy. Many times I dont have issues connecting to the servers in the office, however there are times where they will not allow my Mac to connect. Usually waiting a short time and trying again will allow me in however this is an issue that should be fixed.

In Oracle on a windows machine the function keys are used to begin searches and or clear them as well. On the Mac the function keys dont seem to work the same. I have them setup in preferences to only be function keys when I press “fn” on the keyboard. This doesn’t work in Oracle. I’m forced to use the menu’s to start and clear searches and it does take extra time. Perhaps this is a simple fix but the answer has eluded me to this point. I am not able to get Safari to work with Oracle. I had to download Firefox which works very well.

This may be an isolated problem that I am having, but when I export files from Oracle they are exported as a .tsv file. In windows I associated the .tsv file extension with MS Excel and when I double clicked the file it opened with Excel. I’ve tried to associate .tsv with Excel on Mac but it wont allow me to select MS Excel as an option for the default program. If I open Excel and then choose to open the file from within excel it works fine. If I rename the extension .xls it will also open just by double clicking the file. As a work around, I created an automator script where I drag the .tsv file onto the automator program icon, it converts the extension to .xls and opens the file in excel. This isn’t a big hassle now that I figured out the work around, but it would be nice to just click on the file and have it open.

The software updates and patches are very big. For some reason Apples updates are quite large. Sometimes in the hundreds of megabytes and end up taking up too much bandwidth from our T-1 for others to continue working. Much of our work is done through the intranet and Oracle which are both hosted 2500 miles away. Now when there is an update to be completed I start the download when we head home for the day and complete it in the morning.

The cost of Macs are higher than a windows machine, but when one compares equal systems and benefit I think the cost is pretty close. The programs that come with the Mac as well as the superior build quality put the two much closer than many people think. I purchased the 24″ iMac for $1,500 which is likely 30% higher than a comparable Dell system, however averaged over the four year life cycle I’m willing to spend an extra $112 per year in order to have the superior build quality and beauty of the Mac on my desk. Besides I make up the extra cost in additional up time and productivity only found on a Mac.

The last issue that I deal with is from the web browser when navigating through our company intranet that was built in visual studio. First let me say that I created our company intranet a few years back so I’m intimately familiar with how it works. There are times when I’m not allowed to view the intranet from the inside of our firewall. I click on my shortcut link and it brings up a dead page. The windows machine next to me has no issues accessing the site. This has happened in the past with windows machines and the fix was to hardcode the ip address of the server hosting the intranet in the host file on the local computer. With the Mac I’m told there are command line adjustments I can make to the host file however I’m not comfortable with making those changes. My work around is to access the intranet by going outside of the VPN to corporate and back in. If anyone has any good ideas for me to fix this issue please leave a comment. This is an intermittent problem and I do have a work around.

So to recap there are areas for the Mac to improve. Most of the issues I have are from 3rd party software developers and not OSX or the Mac specifically. The exploding popularity of the iPhone and the apple experience will drive more people to the Apple stores and to Mac computers. Apple has responded with some price cuts and have Snow Leopard nearing its ship date. 3rd party software developers are taking notice and will respond in hopes getting in at the early stages and growing their companies. The next few years should be exciting to say the least.

I was going to cover security in the next post but would the readers like to discuss a different topic? Sound off and let me know.

Released this past December, Rolando’s iPhone tilting action and adorable personality quickly made it one of the platform’s must-own games.  Consistent critical acclaim and sales success had cemented it as one of the true cornerstones of the iTunes AppStore.  Taking that into consideration, it’s an absolute mystery why developer ngmoco has announced that Rolando is being removed from the AppStore this Wednesday, July 1st.

The pulling of this title from the AppStore, as well as it’s Lite counterpart, was a decision made to “make room for Rolando 2″ according to ngmoco representative mjmmoco.  In an announcement made on the TouchArcade forums, mjmmoco announced that both the regular and Lite versions of Rolando would be removed at the time of Rolando 2’s release.  I can’t even begin to understand why a decision like this would be made.

From a marketing standpoint, wouldn’t those checking out the franchise for the first time with Rolando 2 be inclined to go back and revisit the first Rolando, thereby driving ngmoco’s overall sales?  And if this decision wasn’t made by ngmoco but rather Apple, why would Apple want to remove one of the top selling games from their AppStore?  The game has been available for more than 6 months and still charts in the top 100 paid games in the App Store.

This whole situation reeks of confusion and poor decision making.  Regardless, if you were thinking about picking up the original Rolando, you’d better get rolling.  Unless this is all just a big marketing stunt to make a big fuss when they bring it back “due to popular demand.”  Existing Rolando fans can enjoy the new title Rolando 2: Quest for the Golden Orchid this Wednesday.

Google Chrome is a “fresh take on the web browser” according to Google. I would love to tell you about all of the innovative features in Chrome, or the awe-inspiring speed, or just how it’s a solid competitor to Firefox and Safari. Unfortunately, I can’t tell you any of these things as Google has yet to release Chrome for Mac. It has been close to 10 months since since Google released Chrome beta for Windows. Only a 3 months after releasing the beta for Windows, Google took the browser out of beta (Note: GMail has been in beta since its invitation-only release in 2004).

You must be asking yourself: where is Chrome for Mac? There must be a good answer right? Unfortunately, not really. Building a good browser is no trivial task. These days people expect a multitude of features to come standard, tight security, and quick browsing. If Google was truly building from scratch, I would give them more slack, but it seems that Chrome isn’t as fresh a take on the browser as Google claims.

Chrome relies heavily on a modified version of WebKit (Safari’s layout engine that Apple developed from pieces of the Konqueror browser). Google Chrome also draws pieces from Firefox, and 27 code libraries. Google is even drawing as far back as Netscape for code for their fresh, innovative browser.

Does it really take close to 10 months for the most powerful company on the web to use it’s nearly unlimited resources to port Chrome to the Mac? I realize that Google’s Mac department has never been it’s speediest division, but the fact that third-parties were coming out with rough ports of Chrome before Google is just embarrassing. Google did finally release a beta of Chrome recently, but this is not ready to be out in the wild. While most beta’s are usable with occasional bugs, this developer beta lacks major features (including the bulk of the security features… web browsers beware).

It can load a web page, but that’s about it.

Is it unreasonable to expect Google to have a Mac version out at the same time as their windows version? Mozilla seems to be able to do it, and their a non-profit (though to be fair, Mozilla does bring thousands of volunteers into the process to work with their staff). Even still, Google is a gigantic company, with some of the deepest pockets around, nearly 20,000 employees, and thousands of developers who help invent the web as we know it. I don’t think it’s unreasonable to expect a release by now, especially when it’s not nearly as “fresh” as they claim.

The beta currently lacks flash support, making it unusable for many sites including Google’s own YouTube.

In an interview with CNET News, Chrome Project Manager Brian Rakowski said that the company wanted to release the Mac version before the first half of 2009 is up. Well Google, it’s nearly up, so time for you guys to pony up.

First I show off Finder. Finder is the file manager and equivalent to Explorer for windows. I use finder in columns view so that it is easy to drill down through folders and see the hierarchy in detail as I drill down to a file several folders deep. This alone is a huge improvement over explorer. Explorer can drill down by expanding folders in a vertical fashion, but it’s a bit difficult to navigate. Finder expands in columns from left to right and will continue to add columns as you continue to drill down. I drill down a bit and find a group of files that are mixed in file type such as movie, pictures, documents and Highlight them as a group. Moving into my next demo I hit spacebar to show them spotlight. Of course I pause before hitting the space bar to build suspense and tell them to “Watch this, BAM!”. For some reason I cant resist the color commentary when demoing. A split second later a preview pops to the center of the screen. Arrow right down through the list from .pdf to .jpg to .mov and each file show as fast as I can push the arrow. I explain to them that OS X doesn’t need to open a program to view the file. If I would have done this in Windows it would have had to open each program associated with the file, loaded the program, opened the file then I would have had to close them all when it was done. On a Mac just hit spacebar for a quicklook.

Next I show off Spotlight. ?-Space “Boom!” More colorful vernacular of course. I explain how that set of keystrokes gives you a search field full of power. I start out by typing in simple calculations which responds dynamically with answers. Then I pick a random item to search for such as “quote”. The search results adjust with each keystroke and categorize my search for me based on resulting file type. I take it a step further and show them how to search for specific items. I type “kind:folder” and only folders show up, then I type my search term to narrow to folders with that search term in the name. To be fully honest I use textexpander so I only type “,sf” which converts to “kind:folder”. Textexpander constantly watches my keystrokes and when I type a specific set of predetermined characters in order, it will be replace with anything I’ve setup saving me many keystrokes. Next search, ?-Space “Numbers” and the application is highlighted for me to press enter to launch the program and go onto my next demo. At this point I’ve definitely got their attention.

Numbers is one of my favorite things to demo. As a long time MS Excel power user I’m use to being restricted to working within the grid of cells. One has to leave blank rows between groups of data, lay pictures over the top of cells that will need to be left unused, etc. Numbers is setup as a blank canvas and tables, shapes, pictures and charts are considered independent of one another and can be dragged around on the canvas and put in position where you want them. To keep the demo moving I insert a table, choose a style, convert the column and row to headers, type some numbers and labels in. I highlight the numbers and show introduce them to the drag and drop friendliness of OS X by dragging the sum balloon onto the table, I go back and grab avg and drop it in as well. I open up a web page and search for an image. I click and drag the image from the web page and drop it on my numbers sheet. I drag the picture around to show them the assistance I get with alignment in the form of blue snap lines. I drag another table out to show how easy it is to arrange the components. Numbers is important enough that I’ll spend a whole post on it in the future.

Screen capture is something I use every day. In an effort to communicate with people through email I often will capture a piece of a web site, email, picture, drawing, etc.. With windows it is a difficult multistep process to put a screen shot into a .jpg format. I would usually paste it into Word then create a .pdf which took several steps and was not nearly as clean for the recipient to view. Or I would paste it into an email and crop the picture to eliminate unwanted components which took a bit of time. With OS X ?-Shift-4 and the mouse pointer turns to cross hairs. I pick something and drag a box around it “Poof!”, Yes more color commentary, and it drops a .jpg image on the desktop. I highlight the file and hit spacebar using quickview to show them the results. At this point they are usually engaged in the demo and asking questions.

Having touched on the drag and drop friendliness of OS X I explain my perception as to why the menu menu bar is stuck to the top of the screen, and the program windows dont fill the screen as they do on a PC. I believe it’s to allow multiple windows to easilly be visible at one time so the user can drag items from one program to another. Having said that I drag the image file from my screen capture and drop it on the Entourage icon in the dock. A new email message is created with the file as an attachment. I drag the image into the Numbers document I still have open. I drag it down and drop it on the iPhoto icon in the dock and iPhoto opens and imports the image. Finally I have a printer alias setup on my desktop so I drag it over and drop it on top of the printer icon and drop it. Nothing happens, and they ask “What did that do?” A second later we hear the bizhub fire up and start printing the picture. Although this is a little gimmicky I think it shows just how drag and drop friendly OS X is.

Expose is another benefit that I share. I have my expose setup using hot corners. Each of the four corners of the screen can be setup so when the mouse is pushed to the extreme corner it activates a function. I have the bottom left corner setup with expose, and the bottom right corner setup for screen saver with password protection. So I whip the mouse down the bottom left corner and all the open windows spread and show themselves in full view. Move the cursor over the one I want and click to activate and bring to full size. Now I start getting questions such as “How much does a Mac cost?” and “Why aren’t Macs more popular since they are so cool?”

If I have my laptop with me at work I’ll pull it out and set it on the desk. The beauty alone is breath taking. When possible I’ll stack it on top of their Dell computers to show the contrast in beauty. The Dell is plastic, bulky, and cheap looking compared to the MacBook Pro. I always leave my laptop in sleep mode so I’ll ask them how long it takes their Dell’s to wake up when they open it. The usual answer is several minutes and from my experience thats an accurate answer. I open up the lid and start counting. By the time I get to 4 the computer is ready to use and by the time I count to 8 it has connected to the network and is ready to surf the web. That is the last demo that needs to be done to a business laptop user. One coworker sarcastically said “So I wont have to turn it on when I wake up in the morning so it will be ready by the time I’m done with my shower and breakfast? It takes 15 minutes to boot from the off position and 5-10 minutes to wake up from sleep.” At this point my face muscles don’t have the strength to hold back my huge smirk. They almost seem to get upset that Windows is so far behind and that OS X isn’t more mainstream. A few rants about viruses, virus scans, bloatware, frozen programs, reboots and they wrap it up with “My next computer is a Mac.”

I’m not even done showing them all the cool things about OS X so I share a few other tidbits of information that I find fascinating. I leave the laptop open and open up iPhoto to show how the trackpad and multi touch works. In the interest of brevity the touch pad will do different things with different strokes and gestures depending on the number of fingers on the pad at one time. One example would be rotating a picture in iPhoto by using two fingers and spinning in a circular motion. Another is two fingers pushed up and down to scroll and so on.

I get copied on all the quotes from our company. I have a rule setup in Entourage that identifies the email as a quote, moves it to a quote folder in Entourage and saves the attachment to a folder on the hard drive. With the speed of spotlight when a customer calls and gives me the quote number I can have it up and in front of me in 5 seconds. I’ll demonstrate the speed at which I can arrive at the quote. They are amazed and without question new Mac fans. If the company will let them get Macs as well, they will be sure to do so for their next computer. I move the mouse courser to the bottom right corner to activate the screen saver, demo over.

I realize that this post is a bit longer than I had hoped but it’s hard to not include some of the special functions of OS X that a windows coworker doesn’t know about. I have a passion for OS X and Macs and when I get going it’s hard to stop.

Although I love OS X it does have it’s flaws. Next post I’ll share some of the difficulties and incompatibilities I’ve ran into at work.

Now with the iMac unpackaged and beautifully poised on my desk it was time to get it connected on the network. Before getting into the connection I’d like to comment that the iMac draws quite a bit attention from people in the office. The windows users are surprised that everything is all in the monitor and there is only one cord coming out. one person asked why it doesn’t have a “jet engine” sounding fan blowing out the back like their windows box. They question why there are no windows machines that are that well crafted and beautiful. The brushed aluminum and slim keyboard definitely are quite aesthetically pleasing. I’d have to say there may be a bit of envy floating through the air. Wait until you hear their reaction in a later post regarding the actual functionality of OS X from my coworkers, its quite entertaining.

Connecting to the windows domain was something I figured out during my short trial with the macbook pro, but decided to explain it now for better continuity. I searched the web for instructions without any luck. I drove down to speak to the genius at the apple store and they couldn’t help. They suggested I call 1-800-myapple and ask them, and they didn’t have an answer however pointed me to an article they found on a non apple website that they thought might help. They were all very willing to help but they didn’t have the answers. I finally found a snippet on a website that led me in the right direction. There is a utility in the applications folder called “Directory Utility”. Once that is running you can type in your domain and credentials to add your computer to the domain. During the process it will require an administrator on the Domain to enter the network administrator password. This is different from the computer administrator password. Our IT department is in the home office so they had to connect through logmein to type in the password.

Now that the iMac was on the domain I wanted to make sure that I had access to the other computers and servers on the network. By default no one could see my computer, but I could see theirs. While browsing through the computers on the network in cover flow OS X shows a preview of the computer. If it were an iMac it would look like an iMac. MacBook Pro’s look like MacBook Pro’s and so on. We’ll since we only had windows computers on our network all the computers were depicted as tan CRT monitors with the blue screen of death (pictured above). That gave myself and our IT staff quite a chuckle. To give my iMac visibility on the network I had to enable file sharing in the preference screen. After enabling file sharing you can type in a name you want your computer to have on the network. It was quite easy.

Next up, Printers. I was dreading this part of the setup. Printers have always been a challenge for me. Fortunately for me OS X makes this pretty simple. We have a business hub in our office as well as a high volume HP laser machine. I went to preferences, clicked on printers and clicked the plus sign to add a printer and the HP was available to select. Apparently that printer was on the network using Bonjour which is a zero config protocal. I chose it and OS X installed the drivers and printed a test page. I dont understand how it could be that simple. It just works as Apple says. The business hub is a Xerox which needed a little more user assistance to install. I found the driver on the xerox web page however due to operator error I downloaded the wrong one. Luckily we have a service contract with our copier people and they remote connected to my computer, downloaded the proper driver, and got it working. All the same functionality is there just as it is with a windows machine.

We use exchange at work so I had to install Entourage and set it up. We contract through a company that hosts our email so downloading Entourage was free and rather painless. They had a series of setup instructions to follow and although I needed a little help from our IT staff to know what to type into the different fields it was rather painless. I would much prefer a Mac version of Outlook however with Snow Leopard integrating exchange into the operating system I may switch to the built in mail, calendar and contacts when it comes out in September. Entourage is functional, however miles behind outlook. I’ll explain the differences in a later post. For now it works well enough to not slow my productivity, but for a Mac application I expect much more.

I was sure to download and install all the operating system updates that were available. I installed Microsoft office because iWork is not fully compatible with office files. I’ll explain why when I compare MS Office to iWork in a later post. I installed iStat menu, growl, xmarks, and setup time machine. I had to install VM Ware Fusion as well as a windows XP client. This is straight forward and rather easy. With XP running and fully up to date I installed my windows only programs. VM Ware Fusion allows you to hand the DVD drive over to windows so I clicked the icon to give control to windows then installed the programs.

In summary connecting the iMac to the windows domain was rather easy, however information was hard to find when I ran into a problem. The Apple tech support people aren’t versed in Windows Domains and active directory. I believe Apple is on the verge of exploding into the workplace and this is one area where they need to improve their support. Its evident with the recent announcement of integrating exchange into the Snow Leopard OS that they are pointing their sites on business. They are poised to capture a very large piece of the windows world if they are able to support it. It only takes one Mac in a company to show everyone the benefits and Macs@Work will multiply exponentially.

Note: In Part 1 I mentioned David Allisons blog however I omitted the link.

In Part-3 I’ll talk about some of the immediate advantages I found with using the Mac at work. I found some new workflows that made me more efficient using automator and spotlight. I’ll also share some of the comments and reactions from my co workers while I gave them a tour of OS X and what it can do.

I have been a windows power user for a decade or more. I work for a medium sized company and am tasked with sales and manufacturing responsibilities. I have always looked for ways to allow technology to improve my efficiency and help move our business forward. I have built databases with MS access that see thousands of transactions in a year by many people, created our company intranet using .net that is accessed from all over the world, and was a Microsoft enthusiast.

When the first iPhone was released it caught my attention and I was very impressed, however I used Microsoft exchange for my work email and it was not compatible. iPhone 3G was announced and exchange would be built in. I started paying weekly visits to the local apple store to investigate and play with the old iPhone while I was waiting for the 3G to be released. While in the apple store I noticed these beautiful computers all around and remember thinking to myself I wish that someone would build a windows machine that pretty. During that time I started hearing people I follow on podcasts and on the web discuss their preference for the Macintosh over PC’s. I remember thinking to myself that all these people couldn’t be wrong so I started researching making the switch to a Mac myself. I found a blog from a David Allison that documented his switch from PC to Mac. I read it from top to bottom and it was the final piece of information that convinced me to make the switch to Mac.

Nearly a year after making the switch to Mac I’ve purchased for myself or family a 24” iMac, two iPhone 3G’s, two iPod touch 2nd generation, 15” Unibody Macbook Pro, 17” Unibody Macbook Pro, Apple TV, Airport extreme and a fair amount of accessories. It’s safe to say I’m an official ? fanboy. I can now understand the enthusiasm for the apple products and the mac way of life. Those of you who use a Mac at home and a PC at work will understand the sadness and frustration with having to log into windows every morning. No spotlight, no quick look, no iLife, no iWork, and no automator, to name a few. Add the windows deficiencies to the list of normal windows frustrations and I was missing my mac every day.

Now with the foundation in place we can explore, at least in my case, if a mac belongs at my work. I would think the process would be the same for anyone thinking about bringing a mac into their workplace. The first step in the process is to go through all the programs that one uses in the course of their job. Many of the functions I did in a day were done in Microsoft’s office suite or in a web browser which would work well on a mac. The programs I use at work that I found are only compatible with windows are the following: Autocad, Microsoft Visual Studio, our companies home built company quoting program, and Quick expense. I also use Oracle which could be ran on a mac, however I had no idea how well it would work. I would definitely need to run windows in a virtual machine such as Fusion or Parallels in order to run those four programs. I figure that I only spent 10-20% of my day using those windows only programs and the rest would be in OS X. Among those four programs Autocad is looking at building a mac version of their software, our quoting program has plans to be ported over to a web interface, and the quick expense program is scheduled to be replaced with an Oracle version.

Luckily I work for a company that has a very open minded IT group and they were more than willing to let me explore using a mac in our windows workplace. In fact one of the IT staff owns an iMac herself. I planned to use my macbook Pro 15” in a two month trial which lasted about a week. With our IT group on board I purchased a 24” iMac and Fusion for work. I felt that the small percentage of time I needed to use windows and the inevitable move away from the programs that only work on windows was a key factor in deciding to switch to Mac at work.

Now I have the 24” iMac unpacked and on my desk at work. In part 2 I’ll go through my process of setting it up and connecting to the company domain.

While the idea comes across as pretty tasteless, something of this nature aimed at those in the legal age range to purchase tobacco is something that I really have no valid reason to get uptight about.  But it’s not.  The game has officially been rated 12+ for, and I quote, “infrequent/mild alcohol, tobacco or drug use or references”.

Really?  A game where the entire object is to pretend like you’re smoking falls under the category of infrequent/mild tobacco use or reference?  It’s astounding that somebody out there though this was ok.  Even reading the instructions from the official website makes this sound like the actual act of smoking;

In order to puff smoke rings, You must first “suck” some smoke. To do this, try to suck the air out of the iPhone from its microphone at the bottom-right side of the iPhone, making some kind of “sssssh” noise

You can only get a limited amount of smoke at a time so don’t waste Your cigarette too much! You must see a reddish glow at the bottom of the screen if You do it right. When You think You got enough smoke, make a puffing noise like “Pft” or “Ph” until You see a ring!

Believe me, I’m the farthest thing from a reactionary alarmist. For the most part, watchdog groups make my stomach turn more than Smoke Rings ever could.  But in a world that is progressively becoming more and more aware of how tobacco use regularly kills both smokers and non-smokers, to see this app even exist (let alone be rated acceptable for adolescents) is mind-boggling.  For years tobacco companies have counted on drafting in legions of dopey teenagers to form life-long smokers.  An app like Smoke Rings will help foster that culture of tobacco acceptance amonst the youth.

Apple’s 17+ rating , which requires the purchaser to be 17 or older to purchase content, lists amongst its criteria the frequent use of “alcohol, tobacco and drugs which may not be suitable for children under the age of 17.”  I can’t imagine a title that more fits that description than Smoke Rings.  So how did it get through?  Who’s actually in control of these ratings?  And who is going to hold them accountable?

For more information on this product, visit the AppStore product page or TTrGames official website for the game.

Until recently the event isn’t something that most would have expected Apple to be associated with.  Now, with the iPhone and iPod Touch taking the premiere spot in the handheld marketplace, it almost seems inevitable that they’d be making an appearance.  So why aren’t they?  And what do they have planned in lieu of attending?

If you’ve been with us for awhile, you’ll likely remember the rumor that’s been floating around about a premium games store being added to the already flooded App Store.  The logic behind this is that premium iPhone publishers such as EA or Konami could release higher-end games that would rival PSP releases for a moderately higher price (likely $19.99).  My guess?  Apple will both make the official announcement and launch the store during E3 week.  Remember folks, this is just pure speculation.  But here’s what I’m going on;

1. E309’s worst kept secret is Sony’s PSP Go.  With no UMD drive, the Go will rely solely on downloadable content.  This means the PlayStation Store is about to become a whole lot bigger, offering premium content from major developers at the $15-$30 range.  This would be in direct competition with the Premium Games Store.  Overshadowing Sony’s expected announcement with a surprise launch is just good business sense.
2. Sims 3 for the iPhone releases on June 2nd; the first official day of E3.  Judging from the trailers and other videos available online this appears to be nothing short of the complete experience that the full version will offer.  I can’t imagine EA slapping a $7.99 price tag on this and calling it a day.
3. Sims 3 makes use of OS 3.0 (as per this video from the 3.0 Sneak Peek event), which means OS 3.0 should be launching this week as well.  If there are any tweaks that need to be made to the OS to introduce the Premium Games Store, what better time than now?

3.0 could mean some other changes for the games business as well.  I don’t really have any specific predictions per se, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see multiple save files introduced or internet-base multiplayer rather than the local-wifi or pass’n'play that we seem to be limited to now.

I’d also expect to see some additional publisher commitments for Mac gaming.  EA made a big push earlier this year to cement a name for themselves amongst Mac users.  If the Premium Games Store does come to frutition, I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised to find out the publishers benifiting from the iPhone may be contractually obligated to step up their Mac offerings.

None of this may happen.  Apple may have a quiet week, not try to overshadow the rest of the industry, and quietly go about their business.  But given their position of dominance in the handheld gaming market?  They’d be fools to not try and one-up the competition.

Last week, reports of the App Store breaking the 25,000 apps circulated around the web.  The proliferation of applications is astounding as consumer’s hunger for them.  Now Apple’s cohesive concept for easy access to applications is being duplicated by other phone OS’s such as BlackBerry, Nokia, Windows Mobile, Android and others.  Can Apple stay ahead?

Snowballing

A big user base feeds developers desire for quick profits, so the App Store gets bigger and bigger.  Witness brands taking to iPhone Apps to connect with users; companies like Ralph Lauren are showcasing their latest collection via an iPhone app.  From fashion to home automation to games, it seems almost everyone is getting into iPhone apps.  But does it have staying power?

Reports last month showed 1% of iPhone App Store app downloaders become longtime users.  This is largely due to the way we use our applications: be it for a quick fix or to stave off boredom when waiting for a train.  Many analysts expected the App Store to be a flash in the pan, citing users would get tired of Apple’s walled garden.

Walled garden, unless you complain loudly
Last week, Apple bowed to public pressure on the app Tweetie.  Apple rejected the app based on some foul language users could find in Twitters trends.  Developer Loren Brichter loudly complained on Twitter, got everyone talking about it and by the end of the day, Apple changed its mind.

Apple provided Brichter with an image of exactly why his app was being rejected.  Brichter pointed out other apps that have the same feature and are thus capable of showing the same objectionable language and demanded they all be in or all be out.  A bold move to be sure and one that seemed to push Apple’s buttons.

This kind of response begs the question, “has Apple created something it can’t control?”  Does public opinion, or at least influential bloggers, control what is in or out?  Should they or is it still Apples game?

Jailbroke solution?
Last week also saw the rise of an application store from Cydia for iPhones that have been jailbroken.  Apple contends jailbreaking is a crime but has yet to get confirmation from any legal authority.  The Cydia store would operate in a similar fashion to the App Store, but allow all apps, not just ones Apple gives the thumbs up to.

Sad, little App Store Team
Over at ARS Technica, an interesting post from an app developer had this to summarize:
“The sad truth about App Store reviews is that Apple seems to be overwhelmed and understaffed. Add this to the company’s complete lack of procedural transparency and its unwillingness to reply to most developer e-mails, and you end up with a situation where developers are willing to throw common sense out the door just to get to where they need to be.”

And here comes HTML5
Will the App Store matter in the coming future?  Maybe, maybe not according to this awesome video taken in Barcelona at the Mobile World Congress.  Google showed off a GMail application that is part cloud/part local thanks to the coming features in HTML5.  The features in HTML5 bring the capabilities to keep a database locally so GMail can be accessed like a native app when not connected.  Not only that, but the video shows how these applications become platform ambiguous as the OS no longer matters.  Interesting concept that is sure to rock our worlds shortly, check the video.

Summary
So with all this, the app store continues to snowball into bigger and bigger records.  Will it continue and fufill Job’s prediction of the biggest mark in his career or will this snowball implode as new technologies make native apps a thing of the past?  You can bet MacApper will be there, sheding light on what you need to know.

I love my iPod Touch. I’m one of those guys you see going about his daily business that never takes his earbuds out. Since picking up my Touch late last year, it’s become my go to device for mobile media, messaging, gaming and more. It’s become an integral part of my daily routine. Heck — it’s practically a cybernetic implant. So you can imagine how I felt when I woke up the other morning to find that an audio issue had somehow crept inside of my little life extension.

The audio on my apps, music and video were still working fine — but my podcasts? They were a garbled mess. There really seemed to be no rhyme or reason behind it. One day they were working, the next day they weren’t. At first I tried resetting the Touch. When that didn’t work I deleted and re-added all of my podcasts. Step by step, it eventually got to the point where I erased all of my data and settings to get the little guy back to factory fresh. It was useless. My podcasts were pooched.

Having dealt with Apple’s online repair service before, I knew it would be a simple process to get this fixed. Still, I’d have to go a few days without my precious. How was I going to cope? What was I going to stick in my ears? How was I going to check my mail? What was I going to play on my lunch breaks? I’d been unplugged from the Matrix, and I didn’t like it one bit.

But then again, maybe I did. Maybe a week’s vacation from being tethered to my pocket device wasn’t such a bad idea. I learned to start substituting one thing for another. I rediscovered local talk radio and got in touch with my community. I starting eavesdropping on other people’s conversations. I’d turn on the FM radio in the car and discover new music that my self-imposed iPod seclusion had sealed me off from — I’d then make a mental note to go home and buy it from iTunes. I had even set up Google Reader on my mobile phone to make up for my lack of Byline. Yes sir, it was a Brave New World, and I was living in it — iPod free.

Now my Touch is back, and I’m happy to have everything I’d been missing. But I think I’ve learned a valuable lesson. When you put all your eggs in the basket of limitless choice, you’ll often miss out on some of the sweeter things in life.

On most gaming platforms, when a game goes through an approval process there’s some rigorous legal testing in addition to quality control. That’s why you never hear about Wii or PS3 games being pulled from the shelves for copyright violations. But the world of iPhone/iPod Touch games? Apple treats it like the Wild West. So long as it passes quality control (some games don’t — just look at Yoot Saito’s Gabo), Apple doesn’t seem to have a problem with releasing a title to iTunes — often despite glaring copyright issues. Just take a peek at these few examples.

LED Football: Mattel LED sports games were all the rage in the late 70’s and early 80’s. I remember having a baseball one that I played to death. That’s why I was so excited to see the old Mattel classics coming to the iPhone in picture perfect recreations of the originals! But what’s this? The word Mattel doesn’t seem to appear anywhere in the game. OH! I GET IT! Mattel had nothing to do with these games despite being point for point clones.

Mattel would have a great case on their hands if they decided to pursue legal action. It’s not even like these things are out of production — Mattel has an active re-release of their LED classics on store shelves now. 99 cents on the AppStore is a far cry from the $9.99 MSRP of the re-issued classics.  There’s no way these can’t be hurting business.  Why would anyone take a $10 trip down memory lane when they can do the same journey for a tenth of the cost?

Monster Typer: While it’s essentially a mobile twist on Typing of the Dead, Monster Typer’s copyright concerns aren’t with Sega. They’re not with Mavis Beacon either. No, Monster Typer’s issue lies with Sony and/or the artist Roltio. You see, Rolito was commissioned to create the art for the Sony-published PSP game Patapon. To say the art in Monster Typer was inspired by Patapon would be a gross understatment. Regardless, Apple was more than happy to release this free typing tutor to the App Store.  It’s a shame too, because asides from the art theft leaving a bad taste in our mouths our review of Monster Typer couldn’t have been more glowing.  Why should it take the threat of a lawsuit from Sony to fix such a glaring violation of intellectual property rights?

And that’s just a sampling of the issues on the App Store now. Numerous past releases have been curbed from their renegade ways once the lawyers got involved;

Atari Shuts Down Breakout Clones: Breakout clones, in one form or another, have existed for years. Back in 1977, Breakout created a genre. As such it can be hard to determine what might fall under the category of copyright violation and what could be considered an evolution of the species. Games like Arkanoid, Break’em All and Magic Ball could easily be seen as seperate from the original Breakout franchise. BreakClassic and BreakTouch 3D however, were borrowing a little too heavily from the series title for Atari’s liking. After a brief lawyer intervention, these games were removed from the App Store.

Nintendo Shoots Down Duck Hunt: While some games might fall into something of a debatable gray area like the Breakout clones mentioned above, there’s no arguing what happened with the iPhone App Duck Hunt, which shared more than just a name with Nintendo’s own NES classic. In fact, Duck Hunt was a direct port. It was the digital equivalent of bootlegging. Nintendo felt the same way and demanded Apple take it down. Lawl Mart, the game’s developer, wasn’t discouraged. He intends to change the name and graphics and re-release the game as soon as possible.

THQ Didn’t Feel PhoneSaber’s Force: Sure it was fun to swing your iPhone around making lightsaber noises and running the risk of accidentally chucking it into the ground, but THQ Wireless, a company that held exclusive rights to Star Wars mobile properties, didn’t see the fun in someone stealing the IP rights to a license that they’d paid handsomely for. The original app was removed, and THQ actually reached a pretty good bargain with PhoneSaber’s developers — they bought it. Now you get grab PhoneSaber Unleashed, a free download meant to help promote THQ’s actual Star Wars iPhone game, The Force Unleashed.

Again — this is just a sampling. While the problem seems to be running rampant the vast majority of developers still take the moral highground by creating original content or getting permission from license holders. A great example of this is the team at Cowboy Rodeo, the studio behind the recently released Pinball Dreaming: Pinball Dreams. A straight port of the Amiga original, Cowboy Rodeo made sure to get the blessing of the game’s co-creator and coder Andreas Axelsson, who ended up giving the team access to the original source code. Better for them, and in the end, a better product for us.

Copyright infringement seems to be an ongoing issue on the App Store, yet Apple doesn’t seem concerned enough to change their approval process to make sure these items aren’t making their way to the store. Is it that they can afford the lawsuits? Or do they just pass the cost on to the publisher? What makes them so unconcerned, and what can copyright holders do to change this? And then there’s the most important question — what happens to us, Joe Consumer? If I spent 99 cents on Duck Hunt, do I get my money back when it’s yanked off my phone? Or do I get to keep it despite it being pulled down from the store? It’s a strange situation with far more questions than answers.

Apple will likely need to tighten up copyright abuse if they want to encourage larger publishers and developers to bring their wares into the mix, which is exactly what the rumored Premium Game Store is set to do. But will they tighten up their shabby treatment of copyright law to date? Or will my iPod Touch remain the place to go for classic games that aren’t tied to their parent companies?

Now I’m sure Apple has its reasons for the move. The public’s expectations for Macworld keynotes have always been unreasonable (to the detriment of Apple’s stock price). Apple wants greater control over its press cycle. Plus, with Adobe and others also pulling out of Macworld as well, it is easy to see how the cost of maintaining a presence at Macworld would be financially prohibitive in these tough times. Apple feels it can have a more direct connection with its base through its website.

Well, I have some news for you Apple: the people attending Macworld were your base. For decades they were your biggest fans. They were the ones ready to write and sell applications, and make a living off of your platform. They were the ones willing, if not eager, to report on your every product and detail. Those of us who couldn’t visit the show lived through their video and writing during that one week of every year. By leaving Macworld, you, Apple, are pulling the rug out from under the community that has supported you and loved you from the start. Without you at the show, Macworld Expo will collapse. It will be slow and painful to watch, but barring a miracle from Paul Kent and his expo team, the show will die without its core.

Adding insult to injury, Steve Jobs won’t even be delivering the final keynote address come Tuesday, January 6th. Instead, Phil Schiller, Apple’s VP of worldwide product marketing, will do the honors. While some feel that Jobs’ substitution is due to health reasons, Apple spokesperson Steve Dowling (via Time) explains that “Phil is giving the keynote because this is Apple’s last year in the show, and it doesn’t make sense for us to make a major investment in a trade show we will no longer be attending.”

Now I happen to like Phil Schiller. He’s a good guy and more than capable of putting on a show. But I would like to make a proposal: if you plan on attending Macworld 2009, do not attend the keynote address. That’s right, boycott the keynote. Mr. Jobs, by sending a subordinate in your place to deliver the last keynote at this event (an event that has played a major role in your company’s success), you are essentially telling us that you don’t care about your base. As a community, we are apparently too small and insignificant for you to grace us with your presence. We are an after-thought, and in this entire matter, there is nothing more tragic or insulting.

Jamie Diamond is a senior editor and the director of development for MacApper.

Fortunately for us, though, there’s hope. Here are some apps that, if the rumblings are to be believed, may see some solid releases soon:

Delicious Library 2.0
This is the long-awaited update to the library management software first released in 2004, and is easily the most highly anticipated Mac shareware app of all time. AppleInsider posted an exclusive in depth preview of the Leopard-only update to the application that spawned the “Delicious Generation.” The next version includes a brand new Leopard-style interface, as well as some great new features such as publishing your collection as a snazzy website. For more screenshots and details, check out the AppleInsider post.

AppZapper 2.0
This is the drop dead simple app that deletes applications and their related files in one fell swoop. According to developer Austin Sarner, “In all seriousness, AppZapper 2 is coming along well and I’m excited to get it out. Stay tuned.” A teaser page on the AppZapper website suggests a release this summer.

The “I Like Olives” Application
Although there hasn’t been any activity on the website since last summer, in my recent interview with Sophia Teutschler, of Sophiestication, the developer of CoverSutra, she mentioned that she is actively working on it with some Mac shareware legends, saying:
“Right now I’m very busy working on the ILikeOlives app, which I’m doing together with Wolfgang Bartelme, Austin Sarner and John Casasanta. I won’t tell what the app is all about, but I can tell that it will be one of those apps you can’t live without after using it.” (link to full interview)

The My Dream App Apps
No list is complete without these three elusive in-the-works applications.

What apps are you looking forward to?

You may have noticed, incidentally, that this article has a nifty new subtitle. This isn’t because we’re hinting that the new Macs are fruity; rather, the subtitle comes from the fact that MacApper is expanding its content to include editorial material — the first example of which is this very column, Apples and Oranges. News commentary, software experience reviews, and healthy doses of sarcasm will likely find their way into the column, which yours truly will henceforth inhabit.

But I digress. Back to the Mac:

New Books, Not-So-New Looks

It seems that Apple’s design team was busy watching the Oscars or something when they were supposed to be meeting to discuss possible design improvements. Either that, or they’re under the impression that they’ve reached a pinnacle of laptop design standards that has no flaws worth noticing. The impressive thing is that they may actually be right.

In any case, don’t expect any major design revisions with the new MacBooks; they look more or less identical to their freshly-outdated siblings of the previous generation. Sleek is still the power word here, and the MacBook Pro especially looks like something an aesthetically-conscious chef would use to mince vegetables with.

Or maybe I’m thinking of the MacBook Air. The mainstream MacBooks and their Pro counterparts are still about an inch thick, so while you might not be able to use them as competent cooking utensils (or envelope stuffers), you may be able to rest a bit more easily because you won’t have to worry about having them snap in half if you should sneeze too hard in their general direction. The weight has also remained about the same, with the heaviest of the bunch still weighing in at an admirably anorexic 5.4 pounds.

It would be unfair to talk about the MacBooks’ design without mentioning their nifty back-lit LED screens: the brightest, most energy-efficient, and environmentally friendly displays around. How can a laptop display be environmentally friendly, you ask? Well because the new LED variety found on the MacBook and MacBook Pro are now fully Mercury-free. Think of it like a “Low Cholesterol!” marking on that carton of eggs you just bought — it doesn’t actually mean anything, but it’s good advertising. Score one for the Apple Marketing Division.

The keyboards are as comfortable and soft as ever, with the MacBook’s keys sitting flush against the body for a nice low profile and typing that doesn’t make your $1200 laptop sound like an antique typewriter with arthritis. The unbelievably useful back-lighting is also back in force, with an intuitive sensor that can tell when you need the feature most: it lights up the keys whenever you pass your hand over the laptop, or lean forward; but keeps them resolutely off if you should, say, be in a dark place.

It seems as though, for better or for worse, the design team decided to take the old adage to heart: “Don’t fix what ain’t broke.”

That’s Touching, Really

Though some of the components look the same, Apple has managed to sneak in some brand new functionality. The track-pad is the example I’ve got in mind, and it’s truly one of those innovations that has a lot of potential.

Just like the recently-released MacBook Air, the new generations of MacBooks and MacBook Pros have advanced track-pads which feature more sophisticated recognition algorithms, meaning that you can now perform more complex gestures such as pinches and rotation to trigger various corresponding effects.

To be specific, you can pinch and expand to zoom in and out on photos, scroll by holding two fingers and sliding up or down, “swipe” by using three or more fingers and sliding across the track-pad, rotating images by placing two fingers on the track-pad and performing various uncomfortable motions with your wrist, hitting the “Control” button, placing two fingers on the track-pad and sliding them up or down to zoom the entire screen in and out…you get my drift. Clearly, this is a machine for the hands-on learners of the world.

Besides the obvious benefits to your productivity, this intelligent track-pad opens up a whole new world of interactivity for the Mac gaming world. Stop laughing, I mean it. “Marius, you naive idiot,” I hear you cry out; but I am quite serious. Just imagine the kinds of fun game developers could have if they started designing games to take advantage of this added level of interactivity: it’s like having a Nintendo DS built straight into your laptop!

Plug ‘n Play

One thing you’re familiar with, if you happen to be a happy MacBook user like myself (MacBook Pro, to be precise), is the fact that the laptop features a surprisingly complete palette of connectivity options considering its sleek and smooth design principles. 3 USB 2.0 ports (on the 17-inch model), 1 FireWire 400 and 1 FireWire 800 port, a Gigabit Ethernet Port, an ExpressCard slot, DVI-out, Audio in, Audio out…clearly, we’re dealing with one friendly machine here.

And the best part is that the new versions feature much-improved wireless network connection capabilities which conform to 802.11n standards — that’s 5x faster and supports twice the range of previous generations. This makes things like chatting and emailing a breeze, even when participating in crowded video conferencing sessions. Sending files to a wireless printer is effortless, and backing up your data wirelessly with Time Machine no longer requires you to go off and read a Dostoyevsky novel while you wait for it to finish.

And what would a discussion on MacBook connectivity be without a mention of their ingenious, ditz-safe power cord? It plugs in magnetically so you don’t have to worry about tripping over it and pulling your whole laptop down off its perch. The idea is actually brilliant and I have to confess that I spent a little too much time playing with it in idle fascination when I first unpacked my MacBook Pro.

My one biggest complaint with it is that it doesn’t actually make that satisfying popping noise that it does in the videos. I studied them and scrutinized, but no matter how I tried, I could not reproduce the satisfying sound when disconnecting the cord. It felt kind of like being a kid and waiting eagerly to play with a roll of bubble-wrap, only to discover that the bubbles just hiss feebly when punctured. I don’t know if maybe it’s just my specific machine that came pre-set with a pop-silencing feature, but I would have already written to Apple to complain if only I could keep a straight face while drafting the letter.

Penryn Performance

Let’s take a brief look under the hood and see the brand new guts that power Apple’s new generation MacBooks and MacBook Pros. The first thing that’s special is the new processors: Intel’s blazingly fast “Penryn” Core 2 Duo chip which, to quote the Apple site:

…runs on 45-nm process technology at speeds up to 2.6GHz with up to 6MB of L2 cache. Its SSE4 vector engine handles 128-bit computations in a single clock cycle, accelerating data manipulation by simultaneously applying a single instruction to multiple data.

In English, that means that it does the whole processing thing really really fast. Which is a good thing, because it means you can do all your complex video rendering, audio reverb calculations, and photo filter applications more than 50% faster than you could before. And let’s not forget the RAM, which can be upgraded to up to 4GB of DDR2, running at 667MHz (on the Macbook Pro. The Macbook can have up to 2GB).

The video card that powers the entire visual affair is NVIDIA’s GeForce 8600M GT (again, on the Macbook Pro) which can include up to 512MB of GDDR3 dedicated memory. With the ability to operate in a colossal 1680×1050 screen resolution, full-quality HD video viewing is no longer a worry — say goodbye to window re-sizing.

The hard drives have also been beefed up, so that you now have a variety of options for drive size and speed available to you for each of the various models of MacBook and MacBook Pro. Sadly, the highest speed is still just 7200-rpm, which is a bit on the stunted side when it comes to working with high-quality audio samples or reading/writing massive amounts of HD-video data to the disk.

Contrary to what you might expect with such serious hardware powering the system, the MacBook still claims to have a lengthy 4.5-hour battery life, while the 15-inch MacBook Pro can apparently last for 5 hours, including active wireless productivity.

Hello, World!

Thus, with open arms, I welcome the new generation of Mac notebooks as we look forward to seeing peoples’ responses to the updates that Apple has provided. In the meantime, more details about the new MacBook and MacBook Pro can be found on their respective product pages, which include detailed technical specs and far more professional custom graphics than my own.

Until next time,

- Marius “Macbook” Masalar

But 2008 has been an interesting year, and it all started with a comment at a small event, known as MacWorld from a Mr Steven P. Jobs (ever heard of him, I certainly haven’t):

“[Big List of New Stuff]…all this in the FIRST two weeks. And we’ve got 50 more weeks to go!” At the time, it stuck in my head. Is it just a passing comment, or does he really mean Apple have 50 more products (at least!) to bring out this year? To my amazement, he seems to have meant it. Look Back. Every week, without fail, there has been some kind of Apple update:

Jan 7 – Mac Pros
Jan 15th – Macworld – Duh! – Mainly iPhone software update, as well as Movie Rentals
Jan 22nd – Pink nano
Jan 29th – MBA Ships + New UK iPhone tariffs
Feb 5th – iPod Touch + iPhone upgrades
Feb 12th – Aperture + 10.5.2
Feb 19th – Xsan + iPod Shuffle

Admittedly, some of these are minor, however I think it shows Apple’s desire to be on top of the market and to lead the way in product innovation. But could this be the year in which Apple updates every Tuesday? Is that even possible?

This Tuesday should see the release of the long awaited ‘Mobile’ OS X SDK, and then we’re into March. That’s a full 8 weeks in which Apple has pulled something out of Infinite Loop and wowed us all. And don’t forget, the MacBook Pro is overdue for an update, and in recent times the MacBook has been updated within weeks of it’s big brother, so Apple is not short of new stuff that it can bring out. Looking further into the year we have iPhone 2.0 almost confirmed, and maybe even a sneak peek at 10.6 at WWDC.

Whatever happens, this is a big year for Apple. With the growth of iPod sales slowing, Apple must explore new markets to keep investors happy and the stock price high; we’ve already seen this year what a mediocre MacWorld can do… All this leaves me wondering: what is left for 2008? Will Apple stick to the current trend of an update a week? Keep your RSS feeds burning on Tuesdays to find out!

What it doesn’t generally do is force them to be more aware of their moral boundaries. One software developer, named Reza Hussain, decided to be a bit more ambitious in his design.

Much to the chagrin of numerous eager users, it was discovered that his seemingly-innocuous screen capture program called Display Eater had a much bigger appetite than they expected: if a pirated serial number was entered during registration, the software would delete the offending user’s home files; effectively killing their poor Mac.

Display Eater is intended as a very practical, easy-to-use and streamlined piece of software for doing live video screen captures and storing them as clips, which can later be compiled and saved as a QuickTime video. In addition, it includes the option to use custom cursors in the clips, or no cursor at all. All of this sounds like it would make for a useful program, but what isn’t expected from the get-go is that Mr. Hussain also included some questionable lines of code which perform the dirty deletion deed.

Hang on, you say, but isn’t that a bit archaic? Sure, pirating software is bad, but when did it become the responsibility of developers to include and execute such brutal punishments against their own users? Therein lies the problem, and the spark of a great deal of controversy which now surrounds this particular utility. The threat is included in the original license for the software, and many legitimate users who downloaded it were downright scared by such draconian methods; they began purchasing multiple licenses just to be on the safe side, and those who weren’t too sure what piracy even is avoided the software entirely.

Because this controversy first came up exactly one year ago, with the software’s original release, it has become difficult to find up-to-date information regarding the functionality of this bizarre app. It seems, from various sources that I’ve come across, that the developer responded to the numerous complaints and open letters by stating that the threat in the license was actually a hollow one, intended simply as a tactic to scare potential pirates away. Somehow, he didn’t expect that all the other users would also be scared — quite probably more so — by these threats. As one user, Mark Grimes, aptly commented, “Wow, he charges money for malware — that’s a novel concept!”

And he’s not the only one who shares that view. Blake C., another commentator, expands on that and points out a glaring logical error in the scheme:

Purposefully inflicting damage on a user should be a crime if it’s not already. Assuming it’s not, purposefully inflicting damage based on pure mathematics should be. How can the developer prove that the original licensed user actually gave away his SN to anyone? Assuming for a second that this app *does not* display the SN to anyone who opens the About box, how does the developer know that the licensed user didn’t just write the number somewhere and someone else grabbed it? And now, after months of paid-for usage, and no illegal action, the customer finds his home directory nuked.

Various other commentators have pointed out that, either way, such anti-piracy measures don’t dissuade software pirates: if they want to pirate the software, they’ll find a way to do it anyway, and then the only real result will be that the normal user’s experience with the software will be less positive. The focus, they argue, should be on providing more useful features as opposed to thickening the code with ultimately-ineffective fail-safes.

In an extremely useful entry on his blog, the commentator Blake C. from above dedicated some time to doing a massively-detailed, step-by-step deconstruction of Display Eater’s code in an attempt to figure out and explain exactly what’s going on there. The end result of that analysis was best summed up in the closing lines:

So there it is. Display Eater recursively deletes the contents of its own Application Support folder(but not the folder itself), and nothing else. If the user was silly enough to put anything in that folder, it would have been nuked. But in that case, one might argue that they deserved it. But that only refers to version 1.85 of the software. In an open letter to the developer, the question was posed of whether or not other versions of the software actually did do any serious deleting. The reply was prompt and to-the-point:

Version 1.85 was the only release to feature deletion.

Version 1.85 was released three times: Version 1 had no deletion, version 2 had home folder deletion, and version 3 had display eater preferences deletion.

So it seems that Display Eater’s notoriety was more the result of intentional bad press than actual truth. This whole story leaves us with an interesting look at what happens when a developer tries to take the law into his own hands to prevent software piracy. Clearly, the intent was noble enough, but the actual application employed draconian scare tactics which only served to destroy the reputation of the software and the developer himself.

As a last response to all of this turmoil, Reza Hussein decided to release a free key for Display Eater which would effectively make the software free. However, this apparently wasn’t enough: the home of this app used to be found at http://reversecode.com, but it seems that the site has since been taken down, leaving only a barren file directory which serves as a glaring message to all other software developers of the dangers involved in trying to be too judgmental with their code.

A quick Google search will reveal some remaining download locations for Display Eater, including the Apple Downloads site, and ZDNet for those of you who are still willing to risk a look. The trial will allow you one minute of recording per clip and the license originally cost $17.00. Until the open-source release, you can go here to find the Serial Number that Reza released for users to unlock the software for free.

If you happen to be looking for a screen-capture alternative that doesn’t require you to wade through piles of propaganda, then check out iShowU or Snapz Pro X.

Yes, the Macbook Air is quite sexy. I think that a lot of the Apple products get instant “wow” power, based on great design, and ease of use. But in the long run, is the Macbook Air a laptop that YOU would buy? Is it powerful enough for your tasks?

Let’s take it to the polls to get an idea.

As a power-user myself, I use a lot of processor hungry applications which deal with photo processing, audio processing, video editing, and more. The Macbook Air is not a product for me. The question that I am asking myself is: “Who is this computer for?” Is it for the internet savvy, with it’s lack of optical drive, and emphasis on wireless? Is it for the environmentally friendly, with it’s “green” design?

Is it for the traveler, for it’s small size? I would almost say all of those, but I find the price to be too close to that of a Macbook Pro to justify a purchase. I am asking you, the readers, who is this laptop for? Let us know what you think, and if you think the product is worth the price!

Unlike a lot of Apple’s bundled open source server tools, the wiki is a homegrown solution. Apple’s engineers have done extraordinary work, which is saying quite a lot considering we are talking about a wiki.

Wikis have been around for a while, and Wikipedia is a household name. After all, my mom reads Wikipedia. Creating an entry, however, is one thing my mom cannot do. But, if she was set up with a shiny new account on an Apple Leopard Server, she could wiki away to her heart’s content.

What sets Apple’s wiki apart from almost all others I’ve looked at is its truly intuitive editing interface. Unlike other wikis, Apple doesn’t have any kind of text-based markup language. The entire site is editable with a Microsoft Office-like formatting toolbar. Granted, this may limit more advanced users, but all the core necessities are there. Font styles, alignment, media file embedding and even a visual table editor are all included in the server. The pages are taggable, auto-generate RSS feeds and come with a variety of editable Apple designed templates. There are a lot of organizations out there that could benefit from the collaborative power of a wiki without the usual complexity.

Finally, a wiki my mom could use. If you haven’t already, check out MacEnterprise’s participant information page to get signed in for the live webcast happening today at 10:00 am PST (1:00 pm EST).