10 posts tagged “apple”
From left to right, here we go, one-by-one, row-by-row:
SMS (Text) - It is pretty self explanitory. However, the SMS function itself is another re-invent by Apple. The interface is identical to that of iChat (if you have a Mac). When you launch it, you can add a recipient that pulls from your Contact list. Then type as if you were in a Chat session. You send, then wait for the response. IF you get an SMS message, you are notified by a semi-transparent window that pops up where ever you may be informing you of the message. It is subtle. Again the whole interface is just smooth.
Calendar - Again, taking some of the lessons learned from iCal (if you have a Mac). However there are some subtle twists to this interface that make it very pleasant to deal with. The top half of the screen is the calendar, viewable by Month, Week, Day. The bottom half is a daily list of the events of the day. The one cool thing that Apple has done is how you set the time in either a meeting, alarm clock or whatever. No more typing in the numbers. With this thing, Apple developed a rather cool "Slot Machine" type interface where there are 3 wheels. Hour, Minute, AM/PM. You simply spin the wheels to land on the numbers that you want to select. Easy Peezy.
Photos - Basically you have galleries of such to deal with. The pictures taken with the iPhone and the photo galleries that you sync from your computer. This interface is identical to that of the iPod. The only difference is when viewing pictures. First you can take advantage of the motion sensors in the iPhone to view Portrait or Landscape pictures by simply flipping the phone on its side or upright. Viewing photos are even fun. You move from one picture to another either by pressing the left or right arrows on the screen display, or make the controls dissapear and "flick" the pictres from right to left. Then the true thrill.... Zoom. Put your thumb to your forefinger, put them on the photo the spread them apart.... You zoom in! Squeeze your fingers back together again and you zoom out! Again..... Easy Peezy.
Camera - Although, many desire a higher pixel camera and to be honest, I do as well, but hey it serves its purpose. There is room to grow here. Higher pixels, video capability, the possibility is there. Now as with the other bits of the camera, the user experience is simplified and dressed up. When you launch the camera, a full screen closed shutter comes up with a bar at the bottom that has both an icon to the Photos as well as a little camera icon you touch to take the picture. When you do, the shutter closes down as a real camera would.
YouTube - A late addition to pre-rlease, this is your portal to the key filters on YouTube. You can see the YouTube filters for Featured, Most Viewed, Bookmarks, Most Recent, Top Rated and history. Pretty much all you need to become addicted to watching videos all day. The ones you like, you can obviously bookmark. When you select a video, the screen flips horizontal and begins to downloading the video. It of course begins playing while it downloads so no worries. there. From within the video controls on-screen you have the ability to email to someone. When the video is completed, you are flipped back vertical for a summary of the video you just watched with the ability to bookmark or "share" (email). There is one annoying thing. There is a search function. However when I tried to search for one my own videos, I could not find it. There seems to be some "higher" definition video encoding going on with certain videos that are available. ALL videos have tried searching for are just not available. Need to dig more into this one more.
Stocks - a simple widget, in line with the stock widget on a Mac. I didn't think much about it at first, but after the past week I have found myself addicted to this damn thing as I like to check out my watch list of stocks.
Maps - O.k, O.k, not GPS, but cool and functional nonetheless. Google Maps on the iPhone with a twist. Search for an address, business or whatever and little red stick pins begin flying into the map to mark locations. Press on a stick pin and the details about the location appear where you have the option to call, visit the website, bookmark or add to your contacts. In one simple press of the finger. Of course as with Google Maps you can chose Map or Satellite view. There is also the ability to click on a little car icon and it overlays traffic conditions on the map. Another click and you can get a point-to-point listing of directions. Only downside, I suppose.... no GPS. But hey, I haven't needed it so far.
Weather - As with the Stock icon, it is a widget, like on the Mac. It launches and you are presented with the current condtions for your pre-set default location plus the 6 day forecast. One small thing I stumbled across the other day was the ability to add more cities. Not that you will see them all in one screen because you won't. Taking lessons learned from the Photos, with a flick of the finger you wisk away your default city off screen while the next city smoothly flys into fill the screen..... Nice.
Clock - Yes it has what it says, but it is not quite that. The main function is a multi-city clock screen that you configure with the cities that you want. But wait! What is that along the bottom of the screen? Alarm, Stopwatch and Timer? Nice. Each one of the interfaces is smooth, functional, easy both to use as well as on you. Time setting as mentioned earlier uses the "Slot Machine" wheels.
Calculator - It is what it is. A calculator albeit a sexy looking one with a big screen and large buttons.
Notes - Now this one was a mystery to me at first and I will explain why shortly. This comes across at first as a post-it type application. Ruled, Yellow note paper is up and you type away. You can add notes and they fall in as if you were writing on a new page in your note pad. Icons on the bottom allow you to go forward, backward, email the note or trash it.
Settings - This is where you configure all of the settings of the phone. Very simialr to the options you would have on any other phone. The only difference is, you don't need a user's manual to locate how to do something like turn Bluetooth on or off. There are a ton of settings here. But the one that no one has really mentioned is a little setting I discovered where you can configure VPN. Virtual Private Networking is basicall a way to access networks through a firewall. In practice it is like being on the internet and connecting to our work network which would obviously be behind a firewall. You "Tunnel" through the internet/firewall to join the network which is off of the internet. This is yet again a little hint at my predictions posted last August of Apple's slow, silent move into the enterprise.
I want to take one second to go back to the whole Notes bit. You see, I read a comment recently about someone ranting because there was no To Do list on the iPhone! What? No! Impossible! But after checking, nope.... no To Do list! Whatever will I "To Do?" This was crazy and I couldn't imagine Apple would exclude this basic PDA type function. It took me about 20 minutes of mulling through this impossibility when it hit me. THOSE SNEAKY DOGS! Time for another Rik Prediction. The To Dos are there, you just can't see them because they are right in front of your face! The Notes! Huh you say? Think like Apple thinks for a moment. They are always looking out beyond the current release. What is up next in terms of a MAJOR release for Apple? OS X Leopard. The new Operating System for all Mac machines. Again, look at my August 8 post for details on Leopard. But one thing stands out. The new Operating System has a built in service that manages a new To Do capability. Meaning that from anywhere within the Operating System or Applications that use this service, you can create a To Do. But would you want To Dos all over the place? The Service handles that as well by pulling all of the To Dos from across your system conveniently into the Mail application for you manage everything you need to do. These Leopard To Dos look surprisingly identical to the Notes in the iPhone. Put two and two together and you come up with the concept that the notes you create on the phone will sync with the Mac and make available in the new Mail application your notes to mark up content as To Dos! Brilliant! It appears as if I was not the first to see this connection. So that is my prediction. In October, when OS X is released, the iPhone Notes application will become the To Do list on the phone.
That is enough for tonight. In the next edition, I will move into the bottom row of icons. Phone, Email, Safari (browser) and iPod.
The best part was that I was out at around 7:30pm the day it went on sale and the line at my local Apple Store here in New Jersey was not completely out of control. Sure I stood in line for about 20 minutes or so, but the overall experience was rather painless. That was the Apple experience.
Yes, I am Rik. Yes, I have a problem. I am an Apple Addict. The more things they come out with the more I end up with. The iPhone is probably the most interesting and amazing device from them that I own. Besides, I had to see if the hype was justified. In short... Hell yea it is.
This thing is amazing! I will get into the details and my experiences with it later, but I just had to let you know. Going to go discover more cool things to do with this thing. Catch up later.
I wanted to throw this out there after a rather passionate discussion this morning with my office "cube neighbor" who is also a long-time Mac user. The topic of the discussion was around the Media supporting the Mac Culture. Not the On-Line media, but the printed media. MacWorld, Mac|Life and others.
Dare I say those media sources where you have that full tactile experience of fresh paper sticking between finger and thumb as you flip through the pages. Yes, yes, being green and saving paper and all that aside, I was feeling a bit jipped this past week which is what sparked the conversation in the first place.
You see I commute from New Jersey into Manhattan every day of the week. In my efforts to being a bit more "Green" I decided that public transportation was much better all around to driving in and out of the city. The thing is, that with my focus not needed for driving I have found that I can digest more material into my brain on a weekly basis. I don't want crap, I want substance. So I got a subscription to TIME. I must say that this is the perfect "Weekly" to get. It takes me a full week of commuiting to chug through consuming every page of information. By the time Friday rolls around and I have set the current edition in the recycle pile another is on my desk ready for Monday morning's commute.
This week on Monday, I was pleased to arrive home and find my new edition of Mac|Life (Formerly Mac Addict). This week was going to be a little different as I had something to read I was going to enjoy. Tuesday morning I left the TIME in the bag and grabbed the Mac|Life on the bus. Wednesday morning I was back to TIME. Why? Well I had finished Mac|Life in what amounts to a total of 1 hour of commute time! WTF?!?! I have to wait another month for the next one.
Why is this I pondered, why is it that of these two magazines of comparitive size physically I can get through one in a day and the other in a week? I wanted my week's worth of Mac information. After all they have a damn month to put this together, not a week like TIME. Sure, scale, a pool of journlistic contributions to pull from yada yada yada..... but there has to be more to it. It has to be something lacking in the content.
That is when it hit me. Content. Mac|Life has content, but I now know that it is not the content that I want. It is geared more to the newer Mac Owner who is excited by large pictures and lots of colorful eye candy surrounding the articles, reviews, help colums and user feedback areas. Then there is the 10's of pages of Advertisements from Mac retailers. Look, if that is your thing, fine. I want more content. MacWorld attempts this to some degree, but there is a large chunk of their pages filled with reviews of products, which honestly I think should be left on-line for research and not in a physical magazine format.
There is one Mac Magazine that comes close to giving me what I want, however, it is more about keeping it as a reference source for everything you use on the Mac. That is iCreate; a British publication that is damn expensive and physically larger than it's U.S. counterparts. They do a very good job of breaking the Magazine into sections that focus on the "newbie" and the iLife suite before diving deeper into the Mid/Heavy production user by focusing on thier "Pro" Apps (Aperture, FCP/FCE etc).
Right now, iCreate is my favorite Mac Magazine, hands down, but at US$ 16.00 (with tax) per issue, it is damn expensive. No matter what, I will still get this magazine as the tips and how-to's alone are worth the $$. The only thing I wish they would give you as well is a small widget or something that would allow you to do a key-word search and provide you with the edition that a specific artile was in that addressed that topic. Like "show me all articles that contained 'Command + Unix + Terminal" and have it list out the editions that these keywords were present in.
Anyhow, I have decided that what is missing is a Mac magazine that gives me content, that I can read through, digest and maybe even spark some interesting thoughts around. Give me case studies on businesses and individuals who are using Macs in ways that I may not be thinking of. Tell me about the 12 year old aspiring film maker in Idaho who found that by setting up X-Grid on his families various Mac's he was able to render his Final Cut Express movies in 1/2 the time with better quality. Give me real-life, real substantial "Switch" stories of how a small Law Firm replaced all of their PeeCee's and stand alone Microsoft 2003 Server with an X-Serve/Raid package. Show me how they may see a return on investment based on Support Cost savings, Outage/Failure statistics, Remote Compute capabilities/Solutions. Show me Content....
So the question is.... What is your favorite Mac Magazine (Non-Online based)? And why? If there are failings in your current source, what would you want to see in a Mac Magazine? Am I alone in this thinking?
What is also awesome about this phone, or whatever you want to call it, is that it is a full touch screen operatable system. Phone, SMS, Camera, Calendar, Web, Widgets, Photos, Music, Contacts the works. iPod on steroids or whatever. The technology in it is new as well. To zoom out of a picture you "pinch" it, to zoom in, you open your fingers. Your turn it the screen automatically rotates, you put it to your ear and the display automatically shuts down to avoid your ear "pushing buttons" and saving electricity.
It is Eye Candy and then some. Apple has once again shaken up a market. Let's see what happens next. Head on over and take a look for yourself.
I am going to do it again and go out on a limb as to the direction Apple will move (albeit quietly) in the future. Ready for this? That which everyone says they would never do…..
They are going to quietly move into the Enterprise space.
Why? Both the new Hardware and a lot of the offerings in the new version of OSX (Leopard) next year.
I sat up yesterday and watched the WWDC Key Note Address by Steve Jobs (World-Wide Developers Conference) as this is one of the two big annual forums where Apple announces cool new stuff. I have linked to this presentation in my Blast and it is worth a look if you have some time and popcorn to watch the show. However, this one, many in the media found disappointing. I have been asked on several occasions if I was disappointed that there was not more "WOW" at the show. Why? Because there was no cool new iPod announced, or some new cool fun software or maybe the lack of a new iPhone? Come on people, look at the venue...... Developers.
There is only two things that developers go to that show for. To understand the Operating System and how they can develop on top of it to create the cool software, and what machines will they have to develop on. This show gave them both and then some. However, for me, there was a hidden message here, not as a developer but as an IT Guy who has supported corporate users for years now. A sort of hidden meaning in all of the pomp and circumstance.... there was a message for me to hear and now I share it with all of you; my Prediction of the future.
First thing, going in Key Note Presentation order is the Hardware. They are offering some seriously powerful desktop AND server hardware that is HIGHLY competitive in pricing to the equivalent offered by Dell or HP. As a matter of fact the new Mac Pro and the XServe are both cheaper for the same specs than any of the other Major Hardware players. For us, we run Linux on Dell Servers. Now this has to have many in the IT Infrastructure world thinking twice about price points, stability and manageability. License cost is also competitive for the Server Software which comes bundled with management software which others charge extra for.
Second the Software (OSX-Leopard)
This is more in my space, but the enhancements they are building in look very good for the end user, but what some are missing who are not familiar with Unix/Linux on the desktop are things like Workspaces or Spaces is what they care calling it. Basically multiple desktops you can switch between on a single monitor. Sounds cool, but in reality is something that a) Windows XP has but sucks, and b) Apple kind of forgot about. Well it is back.
Next is the BIG, I mean HUGE one. Time Machine Now at first glimpse it looks like another batch of eye-candy offered for the "Wow" or "That’s Cool" effect. But in reality it is some serious technology they have developed to deal with an issue that has haunted corporate America for years. Actually we get hit with people "missing" or "deleting" files by mistake all of the time. Most of the time it is on file servers where we have to go and retrieve the missing "Business Critical" files from tape or some back up source which takes hours and sometimes days to complete. Then when you factor in the current regulatory environment on keeping back-ups or archives of things this is a huge plus for them. The technology is new and the way in which they present it (sweet animated star warp type screen) is all to get people to appreciate the look and effect, but behind the scene it is powerful stuff in the IT world in terms of managing an enterprise user base. I would keep an eye on this one.
Spotlight also got a serious boost which some don’t see the importance of. Spotlight previously indexes everything on your hard drive and makes it available for you to find in real time. BUT, what has always been missing is the ability for it to do its magic outside of your single machine. The new version of spotlight will allow searching for things on the network. This means if you are in a corporation and have shared network drives Spotlight can also reach out to those to quickly index and find what files you are looking for. My guess is that this works hand in hand with Time Machine to make sure it always knows where things are and can get them for you quickly, another plus for the Enterprise. Oh, and not only on file shares also on other desktops/laptops you have access to.
Mail also sees some serious enhancements with a very powerful service added in it that is accessible to the entire Operating System. The first is just again eye candy for the average consumer which is the Stationery function which has been around for a while in different mail applications. However as is Apples true fashion for the artistic, there stationery is very cool and takes from the iWeb technology of dragging and dropping things into various windows in the template to add photos and text. The sweet thing here is that you can also customize your own templates and it was mentioned in the presentation the ability for businesses to standardize templates. Now that is an interesting thought. Corporate templates that standardize around a corporate image or marketing strategy. Another thing that large organizations struggle with.
Also within Mail is the new Notes function. Now working in the enterprise as I do, I always use my inbox as both a place to keep notes to myself (I often send my self mails to capture notes or things I need to get done later). The new version of Mail allows you to create NOTES, not mail that you have to send to yourself, but actual notes that are stored in a specific notes section of the mail client. Of course they also look like notes. J
Next in the Mail application and actually across the entire operating system is the new To-Do piece. Now this is some powerful stuff. Why well first of all it is developed as a "Service" which means a background process that is used by the entire system, which is to say that any application has the ability to take advantage of this service and use it. So what? Big Deal? Well it kind of is. In the Mail application whether it is in an email or a note, all you have to do is highlight the text you want to make a to-do from and simply click on a button (or right click on it) and create a to-do. The first thing it does is add a check box right before what you highlighted so you can come back later and check It off. The other thing it does is allow you to, in place, set a reminder, due date etc on a little drop down post it type thing that comes and goes as you want it. Finally as if having these things all over the place would be a nightmare, the new Mail Client also has a space where it lists all of the to-dos you have everywhere else in one place for you to manage them. Now how cool is that? Oh, did I mention this is a Service, not limited to the new Mail Application? That means in places like Office for Mac, or any other application that is designed to use this service can also be a place to keep track of things to get done. Another benefit to the Enterprise that, to be honest, Outlook tries to do but just can’t quite get it as integrated as what I saw on the demo of the early Leopard product.
Boot Camp: Now this has been out for a while and to be honest, I am not that interested in it as I want to use OSX primarily and not have to reboot every time I have to use Windows, which is why I use Parallels. In Leopard, boot camp will be shipped with the Operating System by default so they are going to support it going forward.
Another major thing that caught my eye as potential bait for the enterprise is what they are doing with the next version of iChat. They have had the Video chat function for a while now and with Tiger even introduced conferencing. They have seriously gone above and beyond that now by building in some fun stuff and some seriously cool stuff for the Business world. The fun stuff is just that. They have given you the ability to use the morphing features found in the photo booth software but now for real time video use in chats. Another "Fun" thing they have done is basically chroma-keying or "Green Screening." This was impressive. You basically turn the function on, step out of the view of the camera so it can register the background, then when you step back in, it blanks out everything from the background and replaces it with whatever pictures you want and more impressively moving video! That was really fun to watch and has some serious potential in the way of News, Podcasts, Corporate presentations or anything.
The big plus for an Enterprise would be the other change to the iChat system which is the ability to "Present" either a video or keynote presentation to a client and talk over it at the same time. This is some good stuff in the business world if you ask my opinion. Something that if used correctly would be a serious took in the arsenal of sales or marketing.
Well those are my thoughts around the WWDC Keynote Presentation and some personal views into trying to see the signs of what those folks at 1 Infinite Loop are thinking. In short, a stealth reconnaissance of the Corporate appetite.
"A scar on the face of Paris" - This is how the Louvre was described in the movie the DaVinci Code. I went to see it tonight and despite the various critics who have lambasted it, I thought it was pretty good. More on the concepts behind it another day. Today was about the beautiful glass structure that is the Louvre. I have never seen it personally and one day will, but in the movie it was georgeous.
Ironically enough the opening of the DaVinci Code was on the same day as the opening of my own persional museum of art.... an Apple Store. What is even more interesting is the fact that the DaVinci Code both opens and ends at the Louvre. Clear glass lit an opening in the ground that enters into a gallery of beautiful items. That is exactly what I thought as I walked up 5th Avenue and caught a glimpse of "The Cube." Here stands a huge glass cube brilliantly lit which sits above a large gallery of Apple computers and iPods.
I arrived there around 10:30pm and the line was around the corner and half way down the block. But it was actually longer than that because infront of the cube, the line snaked back and forth like a ride at Disney. By the time I left around 11, the line had gotten longer and cheers could be heard blocks away as people were allowed into the store in groups. Going in there were cheers, and for those coming out there were cheers. A very smart form of psychology. If you are in the line waiting and you know when you come out you are going to get cheered by Apple staffers, you better have an Apple bag in your hand or else you will feel a bit silly.
When I saw the line immediately knew I was not going to stand in the line to go in. So I stood there for about 15 minutes watching the crowd and spectators as the waves of cheering continued. Camera crews were walking around, some doing interviews it was a circus. As I stood there I overheard a conversation between two people who had been owners of Apple products only a mere 6 months or so. They were in awe of the event, but, they also commented on how now "The Get It." For years those of us who have stood by Apple have been blasted for being fanatics, but now the membership grows.
When I left, walking next to me was a man who obviously had no idea what was going on. He turned to me and simply asked "What is all of the cheering about." I told him, "The Cube." thinking he would know what I was talking about. He didn't. So I elaborated and simply said it was for the opening of the new Apple Store. He looked surprised and said "A STORE?" I grinned and simply said "yes, we all have our vices" as he looked puzzled wished me a good night and crossed the street. Those two encounters made me wonder even more... "What is it about Apple that makes intelligent people travel from far and wide to stand in line to see products that they either own or know someone who does?" For me? Why ask why? "Just because" is good enough for me.
The saminator has done it again. This time, she has gone upper class. She went for the Apple PowerBook cord. In the end, the cord won. But was injured on the play. I happened to notice while moving my PowerBook that the white block portion of the power cord that plugs into the wall was scorching hot. After looking closer, I found that Sammy had been in what could be described as a fierce battle with this little cord. Maybe thinking it would give as easily as the Thinkpad, but the Apple wasn't giving in so easy. First there is the extender cord that plugs into the white transformer block, this was had actually taken injury in two different place. One was cut 1/2 way through, but at no point was it a complete disconnect. Then there was the little wire between the PowerBook and the transformer. Took some minor damage, but again came out of it intact.
I was impressed. The little cord survived the Sammy attack. It still worked. I do think though that it suffered the loss of the ground return which is why it was getting so hot. Just to be safe, I celebrated by purchasing a new power cord. Much more expensive of course than the ThinkPad cord, but well worth it, if somehow Sammy realized that she could not win a battle with an Apple power supply! Another win for Cupertino!
My Groups
-
Life and Photos Updated: 7 minutes ago
-
Creative People Updated: 11 minutes ago
-
DINFOS Graduates (host) Updated: 31 minutes ago
Neighborhood
Explore friends, family, friends & family, or entire neighborhood.
