I’ve been using an Apple aluminium keyboard at work for the last couple of weeks (after stealing it off the desk of a departing colleague), and can confirm that it is an amazingly comfortable surface on which to type. Only downside: The function keys are different from the ones on the laptop keyboard, so I keep hitting the wrong ones.
Apple’s “Coming Soon” facade for the new Boston Apple Store is fashioned after the Green Monster scoreboard. Well played, Apple!
I rely on virtual machines for testing Windows code — I cannot fathom how Mac developers can possibly be expected to deliver quality applications without snapshotting and rolling back OS images.
I hadn’t thought of this: Apple may have said they’ll let you give away apps for free on the iPhone Apps store, but why not charge a couple of bucks? Your apps will still be impulse-downloads, and you might make some serious cash.
Boston get-together to hit refresh on Gizmodo/Engadget/MacWorld and watch the news of next week’s Stevenote flow in.
EXCLUSIVE! Apple rumor
Our agents can exclusively reveal that, according to sources deep within Apple (ie. a “genius” at the store in Cambridge, who saw the photo of Clyde I have as my laptop’s wallpaper), dogs are allowed in Apple Stores.
According to our source, who cannot be named (because I don’t know his name), even though the mall bans dogs, if you park in the garage below the mall and take the elevator up, it’s only a 10 foot dash to the Apple Store, so the guards won’t spot you.
No indication was given at this time as to rumoured plans for what happens if your dog takes a crap near the iPhones.
Fuck Think Secret! This is where the real Apple gossip can be found.
Apple gives official route to creating your own custom iPhone ringtones. Of course, they only sanction it for “your original songs”, but it’s a big step forward from the lockdown a couple of months ago.
Apple webpage ad making creative use of the page layout.
Wow, I hadn’t noticed this had gone.
Digging deeper, it appears that you can only use Time Machine to backup to network drives shared using “Apple File Protocol”, rather than the more common SMB. Glad I have my Drobo hooked up to a Mac Mini, because that’s one of the main reasons I bought it.
The new Apple keyboards have a delay (at the hardware level) to prevent aCCIDENTAL cAPSlOCK.
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iPhreedom
There have been a lot of posts over the last week about Apple updating the iPhone in such a way that blocks third-party software from being installed.
This may be sacrilegious as a geek who values freedom, but I think it’s worth stating…
The applications that Apple has cruelly denied users from installing on their iPhones… weren’t very good.
Sure, they were cool. The fact that using reverse-engineering, undocumented APIs, and wicked-smarts, folks were able to turn out an IM app or a NES emulator is truly impressive, and a feat which should be applauded.
That said, the “platform”, such as it is, isn’t ready. Applications don’t work terribly well, or consistently. The things I installed that felt the most polished and useful? Were all games and timewasters.
For example what good is an IM app or a Twitter client which stops updating when you switch to another application? Or which gets confused and crash when you lose network connection?
When presented with the choice to upgrade my iPhone to version 1.1.1 (and get a louder speakerphone, the one new feature I really cared about), or to stick with my hacked and customized iPhone, it wasn’t even a contest. I upgraded that evening. And apart from the funky customization of my home screen (pictured), I haven’t really missed the hacks.
Will Apple open up, release an SDK and allow anyone to compile code and deploy to their cellphone? Perhaps. (Will Apple force developers to go through some convoluted approval and/or signing process? More likely). But they won’t do that until the platform of the iPhone is at a stage where the apps you can run will work stunningly well.
And while the locks may have been reinforced with this firmware update, I suspect the ingenuity of the apps created thus far will only strengthen the case within Apple to make a SDK freely available.
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Good breakdown of the FUD involved in the Apple “bricking” “scandal”.
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gizmodo
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Fake Steve on the iPhone 1.1.1 firmware: “If you always wait for the vendor to actually get everything working right, you’ll never buy any technology product because there is always something that isn’t quite right. The good news is that if you buy products from companies that support them well, like Apple tries to do, you will receive years of frustration and anger, plus the envy and admiration of all your friends.”
Good summary of what Apple would be up against even if they *wanted* to let you turn your MP3s into ringtones for free.
Free hacks are now circulating to unlock your iPhone so it’ll work with any GSM SIM-card. Think I might try this tonight, before Apple release a “fix” to stop you doing it.
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Best game so-far for the iPhone. And once again I say: If this is the awesomeness unleashed by reverse-engineering, imagine what might be possible if Apple ever get around to releasing a proper development environment for the iPhone.
$100 Apple Store credit for anyone who bought a pre-price-drop iPhone. There’ll still be whiners that think this isn’t enough, but from my perspective? Hey! Free copy of Leopard!
Apple make good use of their new high-resolution application icons in OS X Leopard. “Here’s to the crazy ones…”
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