Apple Tops Smartphone Study

There’s a lot of comparing the iPhone to other smartphones, and typically those comparisons are non-users looking at the features. What a person who does not own the iPhone does not get about the iPhone is that it’s not just a simple feature set that makes you fall in love. It’s the overall experience... which cannot be described in a bulleted list of features.

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JD Power released their 2008 Business Wireless Smartphone Customer Satisfaction Study yesterday. Apple’s iPhone was considerably higher on the list than any other smartphone. The iPhone was 75 points higher than the BlackBerry... which was only 22 points above average, and only 59 points above the worst in the group.


The scores were derived from survey answers in five categories: ease of operation, operating system, physical design, handset features, and battery aspects.

Perhaps the feature comparisons should add “customer satisfaction” as a bullet.

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Some interesting notes in JD Power’s chart...

Samsung gets listed as “better than most” by being 20 points above average. However, Motorola is “about average” while being more than 20 points below the average.

Apple gets listed as “among the best” despite being alone at the top. Doesn’t the word, “among” imply there is more than one?

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Macs Are Not Toyotas

I hate car metaphors in computer reviews, but I can’t help myself: The old MacBook Pro was a solidly-built Toyota, and the new one is a Lexus. – Harry McCracken, New MacBook Pro Review

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I am slightly offended by this analogy. A Mac is neither a Toyota nor a Lexus. Sure they are known for their reliability/stability. But Macs are exciting machines, something Toyota knows nothing about.

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App Store Disaster

Mike Ash, a small time iPhone app developer, has written a piece about his hassles getting his app placed into Apple’s new iPhone App Store.

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Compared to the simplicity of developing and distributing a Mac app, Apple’s iPhone program is extremely convoluted and strange.

Mike describes a 22 step process (which includes “wait” as a step four times), and seems to be bothered by more than a few things along the way. He’s whining by step two...

I’m not done signing up with stuff yet! You see, although I signed up and clicked through the scary legal stuff and downloaded the SDK, I can’t actually install any software on my iPhone. I can read documentation, write code, compile it, and even run it in the iPhone simulator, but I can’t get it onto my actual iPhone.

Okay, I don’t know why Apple does this either, but it was an extra day in your development. Get over it, you should be coding anyway, not sitting by your inbox waiting for an email from Steve Jobs.

Still whining, we’ve hit step four...

Did I mention that the program is not free? And remember, this isn’t to distribute apps, it’s just to start realistically working on them. $99 to put apps on my own iPhone.

I guess it’s not okay for Apple to at least try to weed out some lame-o flashlight app developers. I find it hard to argue with a $99 admission fee. And once you’ve paid the 99 bucks, you can distribute the apps... assuming you can code good enough to get approved.

Steps five, six, and seven go over a process that is required to get the self-made app on to your own phone. Since all apps can only be put on the phone via the app store, there are a few things you have to do in order to get around that. He babbles on for a half-dozen paragraphs about how you have to cut and paste this, open that, run some Xcode nonsense, and then something didn’t go quite right. Basically, Mike just describe pretty much every development process... EVER. It never goes quite right.

So Mike finally gets his app written and, despite all the hurdles that he had to jump, he even gets it submitted to Apple for approval. Enter his “wait” step #2. After a week, it’s rejected. Mike and his buddy go back into the code, make some fixes and submit again. The “wait” step appears again. And his app gets rejected again. This time there’s a bug that he needs to fix. Resubmit, and wait. Again.

At this point, I can hear his voice cracking as he sobs on about having to wait one more time to get this stupid app approved by Apple.

In about a month’s time, the App Store went from zero apps to over 3,000 (that’s 100 approvals per day, Mike). Yet Mike seems to think Apple should have a plethora of coders just sitting around waiting for his app to come in and be tested. If one person can approve one app each hour, Apple needs 13 people on staff just to handle the approvals. That’s not to say anything of the apps they test and reject. I would guess these guys don’t get paid minimum wage. Something tells me that Mike is also complaining that Apple is going to steal 30% of his profits once he gets approved.

Finally, nearly a month after the original submission, the application is accepted by Apple and appears in the store. It spent longer going through Apple’s approval process than it did in development! And while Apple did find a legitimate bug, spending a month in limbo for a single bug is a very poor tradeoff.

When you see his repeated “wait” complaints, you’re led to believe this thing has been going on six months. I saw two weeks (half the total process) in there that could have been prevented by not having two separate bugs. Obviously I’m not saying my code runs bug free, but don’t blame Apple for delays due to your bugs.

This kind of story makes me sick. As a coder, Mike should have a better handle on what it takes to start and maintain an online resource like iTunes. Instead of being thankful for a new avenue to push his wares, he’s complaining about how demanding and difficult Apple is. According to him, one month of waiting is a terrible tradeoff for an instant 8 million attentive customers. Wonder how long would be acceptable in order to have your product placed on a shelf in Best Buy? He mentioned more than once that this was a much harder deal than distributing a Mac application. Hey Mike, have you ever had Apple list your Mac app on their insanely popular and successful iTunes store? Didn’t think so.

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iTunes Genius

Apple released iTunes 8 this week in their event that didn’t cost me any money. The big new feature is something they call “Genius”. Yeah, I think they use that word way too much as well. The concept is, Genius looks at your music and can make playlists that match a selected song. For example, I highlighted a song by The Killers. Genius made me a playlist of songs by Muse, Arctic Monkeys, Spoon, and Silversun Pickups. Nice. But, since I’m writing about it, you can assume I have some things that could make it better.

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(Hint: picture me using finger-quotes every time you see the word, Genius)

Right off, I’m not so sure about their related songs. In the example above, Genius did pretty well. Most of the bands they suggested actually were tagged similar by me. (I put in multiple styles in the comment box... like, Indie, Loud, Progressive, Garage, etc.) Even in this playlist, Genius messed up a little. For some reason, Genius added an Oasis track followed by a NIN song. I don’t think those two belong, nor should they follow one another. Sometimes Genius is too... obvious. For example, highlight Led Zeppelin. The second track in the playlist is always Robert Plant. That’s just silly. (By always, I mean that I tested it 10 times and it did it 10 times!) And Genius does the same thing with The Police/Sting. For fun, I should probably test it with Eric Clapton.

Where I really think Genius could be... more genius, would be a flowing playlist. What I mean by this is that instead of Genius making a playlist of 25 songs based on my current track, maybe it picks five songs. On the fifth song, it picks five more. Then you have a never ending playlist that moves slowly through your music. Like, say the first song is indie. The fifth song might also be indie, but maybe it’s a bit more garage. So the next few songs will have more of a garage flavor. Over a day, you could swing from indie to pop... but it wouldn’t be as harsh as say, having NIN follow Oasis.

At the moment, Genius is attempting to so something I’ve already accomplished with my comments and smart playlists. Since most people are not as anal/crazy as I am, Genius might be great. For me, it’s not quite there yet.

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iPod Event

So Apple has some big event tomorrow, and it’s suppose to “rock”. The hype machine seems to be louder than usual, so I am curious what could be so great about an updated iPod line. Hardly seems that a new iPod Nano is worth all of this. One rumor, the ability to sync your music remotely over wi-fi, is of interest to me. But these events always end the same for me... trip to the Apple store and an empty wallet.

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Ah... iPhone Goodness At Last

My month wait is finally over. Getting the new phone proved to be a slight adventure, as I expected. Last year, the wife was awesome enough to wait in a ridiculously long line all afternoon... in Southern California heat... with all of the kids... just to see that I was able to get a phone on day one. This time around, the wife was not going to volunteer for this duty, plus she was out of town and couldn’t help me out anyway.

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I stopped up at the local Apple store around 7:30 am, on my way to the office. I was hoping the line would be somewhat short and I could just sneak into work late. But the line was way longer than the previous year. I’ve included a map of the Apple store to show the length of the line just before store opening both years...



From the place in line last year, it took about an hour to get into the store. This was when there were no options or activations. Simply, “How many do you want?”

Obviously, I’m not waiting in this line and still making it to the office at any reasonable time.

At Pizza Friday, Gary convinces Craig to drive by the Apple store to see how the line was. It was a bit out of our way, but we figured we could make it. As we headed there we got stuck in a bad construction zone. We sat mostly dead stopped for a good 15 minutes, and finally Craig made the call to abort. We ended up being 30 minutes late from lunch, and never even got to see how long the line was. Based on later observations, it wouldn’t have mattered.

Throughout the day, news reports of sell outs at the AT&T stores were hitting the web. I found out that the AT&T stores were only getting shipments of 30 to 50 phones.

At 4:55 pm, I went back up to the Apple store. Now the line was slightly shorter than the blue line pictured above. I asked one of the uniformed trained professionals how slowly the line was moving. He said it was about a three hour wait at the end. “But,” he offered, “we are open until 11:00,” so I might be able to come back later.

I decided to do the normal Friday night routine – which is fast food and video games at Justin's, who lives conveniently close to the Apple store.

After getting thumped 4-2 in MLB 2K8 for the Wii (my pitcher fell apart in the 7th, and my dual one-run homers were not enough to rally the troops), I left Justin’s and headed back to the Apple store. I got there around 10:15 pm, and was told by the manager that she had to shut the line down at 7:00 because it was just too long and too slow. I pleaded with everything I could think of, including, “my wife will be mad if I come home without an iPhone,” but she wasn’t letting me in the line.

Now I’m in a quandary. It’s a bit of a trip from my house to what we refer to as, “down the hill.” And since there’s no way to determine how long the line is without going there, that was even more troubling. I could drive down and end up with the same four hour line as before. I really didn’t want to go through that.

For no apparent reason, I thought of calling the AT&T store that is somewhat close to my house. The guy on the phone said they still had some iPhones left, but he had no idea how many or how long they would last. Not wanting to be disappointed, I planned a trip to the Home Depot across the street and would “stop in” the AT&T store.

When I got there, there was no line.

This could be good because maybe no one in the “high desert” knew about the phone. It could be bad though, because maybe they were already sold out.

I walked in the door, and a slightly rude man, wearing an un-tucked brown stripped shirt and no name tag, ushered be back out. He said, “Everyone has to wait outside.” I looked around for this “everyone” he was referring to. Then I went outside and stood next to the door for about 10 or 15 minutes. As I stood there, four more people arrived. Two old ladies just wanted to pay their bill, one middle aged guy just wanted to know what he was in line for, and a Jamaican looking man with dreads wanted the new iPhone.

I’ve heard about people who get in line without knowing why, but I’ve never seen it before. No kidding, the third guy came in and stood with us for about 5 minutes, and then asked, “What are you guys waiting for?” I mentioned that I wanted the new iPhone and pointed to the display. The two old women said, “We just wanted to pay our bill, I don’t even know what this new phone is.” So the guy says, “Oh, what’s the story on this new phone?”

He left right before I got into the store.

When I got into the store, I asked for a black one, preferably an 8 GB, and was informed they had no 8 GB models left. I was just happy to not get stuck with a white one. I still don’t know if I would have given it back or learned to adjust. The clerk, Dan, asked for my phone number, typed in a couple things, and then scanned in a slip of paper that looked like a photocopy of the back of the iPhone box. He goes to the back room and comes back with the iPhone box. He then pulls the phone out of the box and plugged it into his computer (without removing the plastic film, mind you). I think it was running Windows XP. The phone made its signature bleep sound, he unplugged it and said it would be a minute.

As we waited, Dan asked me where I worked. I told him the name of the company, and he said, “Well... how about we say you work at Starbuck’s and it’ll get you 10% off your monthly bill?” I told him that I would, in no uncertain terms, deceive AT&T for a discount.

That’s a lie. I took the 10% discount.

Dan also told me that he had people wait over two hours in line the day before, only to be told they didn’t qualify for an AT&T contract. Suck.

After the minute, the phone magically turned on. Dan picked up the phone, handed it to me and said, “There you go. Have a nice day!”

Heck yeah, I just got my new iPhone. I do plan to have a nice day.

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My Favorite iPhone App

Apple released the new “iPhone 2.0” software update to all of their new iPhones, not just the 3G versions. One great addition is the ability to buy third party iPhone apps. You can buy these directly from your phone, or from iTunes on your computer and then sync it to the phone. Apple offered a free app on day one, Remote, which is by far the best app I have on my phone. (A close second might the new feature that lets me take screenshots of my iPhone for these types of entries!)

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In short, Remote is an application that controls your iTunes or AppleTV.

My setup at home is an iMac in the office (with a library of about 13,000 songs), connected to my Sony surround sound unit in the family room via an Airport Express. That allows me to play my iTunes on my iMac, but I hear it on the speakers in the family room. I did the math and found at that if I had a collection of CDs in my family room, I would have a stack of CDs that ends up being over 380 feet tall. Instead I have something like this...


(But my bedroom isn’t upstairs, and it’s a bit more private.)

Anyway, Remote lets me browse through all my albums, artists,


...playlists (note it even recognizes playlist folders), and more (literally).


My entire iTunes library from my iPhone. Since it works on the WiFi, it functions anywhere in the house.

Navigation is identical to browsing your music on the iPhone. Which, if you’ve ever used the iPhone, you know this is one of the best ways to navigate a collection of media – no matter how large or how miniscule.

One you select a song, you get a view of the current album art, along with full playback controls.


If you tap the icon under the battery meter, the album art flips over to display the songs for the album you are currently listening to, and the option to set a rating for the current song. One nice part of this feature is the ability to back out of a shuffle. I’ve been known to “shuffle all” until I find something I really want to hear. Switching to the rest of the album at this point is really quick and easy.

There are a few ways of looking at this new app. Either I have an amazingly cool remote that I can use to make calls... or I have the most expensive universal remote ever!

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New Computer

I was talking to a friend about keeping old email around. He sheepishly admitted to keeping email from as far back as four years ago. I figured I had at least that old, if not older, so I went into my mail and looked for the oldest message I had. February 16, 1999 (from my brother)...

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I’ve been doing a bit of digging recently into the new Macs. From everything I’ve seen, I really think the Apple Store has pretty good prices. I speced out a 350 MHz with 128 MB RAM, 6 GB ATA drive, 16 MB VRAM, CDROM, ZIP, SCSI card for less than $2200. At all of the catalogs, the prices were at 2500 to get into a 128 MB RAM machine. The caveat is that those boxes only have four memory slots, so the more you buy up front the better.

Hard not to chuckle about that. 128 MB of RAM. My cellphone has more RAM than that.

I got this follow-up 12 days later...

Well, dude, I bit the bullet. I order the mac tonight.

outpost.com had a special deal where the shipping was free. Plus, the machine they had for 2349 is listed at 2499 everywhere else. I need the 128 MB ram, and I’ll definitely be able to use the 12 GB of hard drive. I’ll be using the system to do direct to disk recording. I’ll be buying the digital I/O device this week as well.

My brother also mentioned how awesome it was to use e-file. I think my parents used e-file for the first time this year.

For the record, I never ended up buying my Mac then. I didn’t get my first Mac until five years later, when I got a 12“ PowerBook G4. It was a 1 GHz with 512 MB RAM, a 60 GB drive, 64 MB VRAM, DVD burner/CD drive... all for less than $1800.

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Paid-for iPhone Apps

Anita Hamilton from TIME wrote a piece on July 1st that rags on Apple for suggesting we pay for iPhone apps instead of giving them away with ads. Ad supported products do have their place, however let’s not forget how well ad supported Internet access (PeoplePC) worked.

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One Month Sans iPhone

If you don’t follow Apple news much, or even watch your local news channel, you may not be aware that Apple introduced some new software updates as well as some new hardware updates to the iPhone on Monday. The software updates will automatically be on every iPhone on July 11th. However, if you want the two hardware updates, you’re going to have to buy a new phone. The kicker is, the new phone only runs $200.

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The new hardware includes 3G support, which is a different cell-based Internet connection... more than twice as fast as the current Edge connection I have. The other update is a built-in GPS. While I argued early on that the iPhone didn’t need a GPS, now that the phone has it... I need the GPS!

For about 30 minutes following the announcement, I pondered how I can sell my current – now outdated – iPhone for any reasonable amount of money. Why would anyone want the old version if the new version is available for only 200 bucks?

The solution? eBay!

I carefully considered my auction price. If I can’t sell it for close to the new phone price, I will just hang on to my outdated iPhone. After all, Craig pointed out that the 3G and GPS were not that fantastic. And I agreed, I could probably live without those two features for a little while. I need to get at least $180 to go towards the new model, so I made that my starting bid. But I also need the phone to sell fast before thousands of other people put their phones online. So I added a buy-it-now price of $230... which covers the new cost plus sales tax.

At 3:37pm I listed my iPhone. At 3:38pm I got the confirmation email that the phone sold for my buy-it-now price. I had my phone sold before the office nags could come by and harass me for having the outdated model.

Craig mentioned to me the next day that when he went on eBay to consider selling his, there were about 4,000 iPhones listed with $130 starting bids.

Today I am clearing out my personal data, pulling out the original box and packaging materials (yes, I keep all my original boxes and packing materials), and I’m shipping the phone off to New York. Today starts a month long journey of life with no iPhone. I’m deeply saddened. It will be a long month.

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Dictionary

Long over-due, this is the final entry in the Leopard features series. Dictionary is an app that is included with the Mac OS, and is not very well known. I don’t think Apple has ever advertised it, or even mentioned that it’s a standard OS feature... something not available on Windows. But this is a tool that is so indispensable on my laptop, I find myself frustrated by the lack of a matching tool on my iPhone!

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The best method for looking up a word, is to simply right-click on a word and select “Look Up in Dictionary”. This can be done in almost any application. The initial view shows the common dictionary entry with pronunciation and all possible meanings...

By the way, each word in the definition becomes a hyperlink to view its definition.

Apple threw in more than a basic word lookup. You can also view the word using the built-in Thesaurus, as well as a database of Apple specific terms...

As with some of the other features I covered, Dictionary was in previous versions of the Mac OS, but Leopard provided a nice upgrade to the application. With the newest version of Dictionary, you can now view the entry for a word in Wikipedia...

Dictionary is an essential tool for those of us who are anal retentive about email.

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Update on Delicious Library

Shortly after I finished my entry on Delicious Library yesterday, I got an email from Terry over at Delicious Monster...

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I *suppose* we can fit one more person in for the beta.

After some rules on reporting bugs and what not, there was a beautiful link to download the Version 2 Beta. Within minutes I had Delicious Library 2 running, importing my old library. The import went pretty quick, and picked up all of my old items, details, and shelves.

There are two immediately noticeable differences. One, the old-school brushed metal is all gone. Poor Brushed Metal. Two, the item detail panel is now at the bottom of the application window instead of on the right.

I think the relocation of the detail panel is a mistake. This forces the detail information to automatically shift around based on the width of your application window. Having the details on the right side made more sense to the user, and was easier to scan through to find a detail you were looking for. There should at least be an option to determine where it resides.

That was the only downside I see in the new version. The rest was good news!

Most importantly, DL2 now has “smart shelves”. Much like a smart playlist in iTunes, you can now build a shelf of items based on certain criteria. I have smart shelves that mirror my actual book shelves. When adding an item to the library, I specify a location. Then I have smart shelves for each location. I was using this logic with the previous version, but I had to do it all manually. If you use the “borrower” feature, building a smart shelf for loaned out items would be handy. A shelf of late items could prove to be indispensable.

My second favorite update, you can now publish your library to your .Mac account or any FTP account. Right now there are two themes available for publishing, both with an iPhone version built-in. I expect there will be more by launch. Syncing with an iPod is still available, but a visual library on my iPhone will definitely trump the text-only notes files on my iPod.

Version 2 includes support for many more items... Books, Movies, Music, and Video Games were all in the previous version. The new version supports those plus Software, Toys, Apparel, Tools, and Gadgets. (I spent a good hour scanning in every useless item in my living room just to see what it could do).

Thanks Terry!

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Delicious Library

Every once in awhile you run across an application that may be very simple – even very limited – but absolutely awesome for the one thing it does. I mentioned grabUp a while ago, for example. Today I want to introduce you to a really cool application called Delicious Library. It’s primary goal is simple, but it does it well. The official description comes from their web site...

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Catalog, browse, and share all your books, movies, music, and video games with Delicious Library.

So the basic idea is a catalog of what you own. What you can do with the catalog, is what makes this app so great.


If all you want is a list of what you own, Delicious Library does a great job with that. My favorite feature is how you add your items. If you have an iSight (Apple’s camera that happens to be built-in to all of their newer iMacs and laptops), simply put the barcode of your item up to the camera, and it scans it just like the self-checkouts at Wal-Mart. After recognizing the barcode, a little “magic” happens, and a ton of cool information about that item is put into your library.

Okay, it’s not really magic... it just seems like it. Delicious Library actually passes the barcode information on to Amazon and retrieves all of the information Amazon stores. That pretty much covers every book, CD, movie, or video game ever made. And Amazon stores a lot of information... like the author, photo of the cover, detailed description, retail price, current value, release date, publisher, format, number of pages (for books), running time (for movies), ratings, and so on.

If you don’t happen to have an iSight, either go get a new iMac, or you can enter the UPC or ISBN information and Delicious Library will retrieve your information. If you have a rare item that is not listed in Amazon, you can enter all of the information manually.

Once you have your library going, the fun begins. For your own personal use you can view your library in a number of different ways. The on-screen browsing and searching is done very well, but not necessarily anything life changing. But Delicious Library syncs with your iPod, allowing you to carry around a complete list of what you own. There is also a printable version, that provides you with a list of everything you own, complete with a thumbnail of the cover.

Delicious Library will also help you keep track things you’ve loaned out. Let’s say you loan a video game, movie or book to a friend... perhaps you loan out your “book club edition” of Alan Moore’s Watchmen to your best friend. Using entries from your Address Book, simply drag the book to your friend’s listing and Delicious Library marks the book as “out”. You can even set a return date. That date is added to iCal to remind you to annoy your friend you need it back. When you pass the date, the book is marked as “late”. (In red, yikes!)

Delicious Library is currently at version 1.6, with version 2.0 due out “soon”. I’ve been begging them for a beta, but they haven’t answered me. Yet. I’m expecting some additional features, like smart bookshelves (much like iTunes smart playlists). Current price is $40, with a free upgrade to 2.0 when it comes out.

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For the record, Justin, I didn’t really set a due date when I loaned you my copy of Watchmen. Don’t think that was some subtle hint to give it back.

Another side note... I borrowed the product image from the Delicious Library web site. I’m telling everyone how cool your product is, so I didn’t think you’d mind.

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Spotlight

Part eight of my Leopard Features series, Spotlight is another older feature that Apple chose to improve rather than leave as-is. Spotlight is also Mac feature that gets mixed reviews from the Apple die-hards.

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[Spotlight is] searching software built into Macintosh computers. The Spotlight program builds a database of information about all the files on a computer by cataloging all items found when the computer is first started and any items added thereafter. When you type a search term into the Spotlight field, Spotlight checks its database for any files related to that term, and presents a list. While the initial cataloging may take a few minutes, subsequent Spotlight searches appear instantaneous.

Sounds pretty boring. That’s because it is. Or at least it was before Leopard.

In previous Mac OS versions, Spotlight would perform your basic search, not unlike something Windows would do. Spotlight now does some amazing searches and is a tool you will actually use on a regular basis. Trigger Spotlight with an easy keyboard shortcut, and you might end up with some searches like this...

Search for “Barack Obama” and Spotlight will list recent web pages you visited that mention him.

Search for “Brian Bendis” and you’ll get a list of books by Brian that you have saved in your Delicious Library. You can also search for “Bendis AND signed” to find the books you had signed.

Search for “Iron Man” to find a calendar entry you added to remind you when the movie comes out. Much faster than searching for the day in iCal. It will also show you the song by Black Sabbath, the Dictionary entry for an iron man, and an email you sent to a friend asking if he’s planning to go to the movie.

Search for “John Appleseed” to find this person’s contact information you saved in Address Book. Like the calendar event, this is much faster than opening Address Book and searching for the right contact. You may also see email correspondence with John, and even Office documents created by John.

Search for “flare” and you’ll get a Photoshop file that has a layer called “sun flare”. You’ll also see the Dictionary entry for the word.

One of my favorites, search for “can’t you hear my motored heart” and you’ll find the song by Foo Fighters in iTunes that contains those lyrics.

Spotlight also uses the “live search” technology, which allows you to start seeing results from only the first few letters you type, and more narrow results as you type.

Next up... Dictionary.

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Stacks

Part seven of my Leopard Features series, Stacks are folders that reside in the Mac Dock. But unlike normal folders, Stacks allow you to quickly view the contents of important folders in a few different ways.

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When you first start using Leopard, Apple gives you two Stacks: Documents and Downloads. I added three more: Desktop (which is useful when trying to find something on your desktop, but you have a lot of windows open), Applications, and System Preferences. Clicking on a stack displays a quick view of what’s inside the folder. The first view is called “fan”. This view works best when you only have a few items in your folder.

My preferred view is the “grid” option. Unlike the fan view, which shows you only the most recent nine items, grid shows you all of the contents. As the folder contents increase, the icons shrink in size to make room for all of the items.



Arguably the most useful option is the “list” view. This view doesn’t just display the items in your stack, but even allows you to navigate into the sub-diretories without having to open any folders.



For some reason Stacks didn’t get a very warm reception from Mac enthusiasts at its introduction. But it’s one of those features that you’ll have a hard time living without once you’ve had it.

Next up, another nicely updated feature... Spotlight.

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Easy Screenshots

Much delayed part six of my Leopard Features mini-series, quick screenshots are not new to Leopard. However, Apple decided not to rest on something they already did well, and added some nice improvements to the feature.

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Mac OS X has one of the best built-in screenshot utilities of any OS. There are four quick keyboard shortcuts for capturing screenshots...



The last is the one I use most frequently. Triggering the “selected area” capture displays a cross-hair cursor. After a simple click-drag-release, you hear a camera snapshot sound, and the contents have been dropped into your clipboard. I prefer this method because I don’t want screenshot files littering my desktop.

One additional feature Apple doesn’t list in the keyboard shortcut list shown above is the ability to quickly capture a screenshot of an entire window. After hitting CMD-SHIFT-4 (or CTRL-CMD-SHIFT-4), tap the spacebar and you see a camera icon. You can then select which window you’d like to capture...



Apple gave the screenshot a small tweak on this variation in Leopard. Now windowed screenshots show the same drop shadows that you see when using OS X.

Before Vista, Windows users didn’t get drop shadows on their application Windows. Apple adds subtle drop shadows to the open windows, and even makes it more obvious on the active application window to provide a hint as to which window is active.

Before Leopard, when you snapped of a screenshot of a window you didn’t see the shadow...



Now the screenshots look as good as the working window.

Next up... Stacks.

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Address Book/Mail Integration

Part five of the Leopard Features... similar to the previous entry, Mail and Address Book are much more integrated. Much like how Mail now automatically recognizes dates in your email, Mail also now recognizes addresses and phone numbers. When you roll your mouse over an address or phone number, you get the same dashed line surrounding the information...

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If you click on the address, you are offered the option to add a new contact or add this information to an existing contact. You then see the following dialog box allowing you to edit or add details where necessary.


The phone number recognition is equally as smart as the date recognition. Note that when I asked Mail to add this address as a new contact, it knows which phone number is the main number and which is the fax.

In the first example above, the sender’s name was grouped with the company name and address. In the following image, the sender separates his name from the company information. Now Mail highlights just the company information...


When you add the information, Address Book automatically recognizes this is a company, not a person.



Next up... Easy Screenshots.

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iCal/Mail Integration

Part four of my Leopard Features mini-series is likely the most productivity-focused feature added. I have been using iCal for a while now to set important reminders, which doubled its usefulness once I bought the iPhone. Now with Leopard, iCal becomes even better, as Mail now interacts directly with iCal.

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The smartest part of this feature is the way Mail recognizes dates in your email, and allows the date to be added into your calendar. If you get an email from someone reminding you of a task, roll your mouse over a date, time, or even a day of the week, and a line surrounds the word, with a down arrow to the right.



If you click on the “4:30”, for example, the option to add an event to iCal appears. If you chose to do so, you are presented a window that lets you set reminder details...



The email subject is automatically entered for the title of the event. Notice that it also automatically selected 4/19 for the date. Why would it do that when the email came in on 4/18? Notice in the email, shortly before the mention of 4:30, the writer specified the widgets need to be picked up on Saturday. The date on Saturday is 4/19!

This isn’t the only useful new Mail integration feature to be added in Leopard. Next up... Address Book/Mail Integration.

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Path View

Part three of my Leopard Features mini-series is a really small item called Path View. If you navigate very far into your files on your computer, you may find it difficult to navigate back to your originating directory. Windows Explorer attempts to solve the problem by offering an expanding folder view on the left of the window to present your navigation path. But the limitation there is that it displays every subfolder contained in each directory you enter. Four levels deep, and you end up with quite an extensive hierarchy to browse through.

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Leopard offers a tool in the Finder called Path View. When the Path View icon is selected, you are presented a list of the directories you’ve navigated through. As you can see from the example below, it’s a quick way to get back up to the iTunes folder, without having to start over.



Next up... iCal/Mail Integration

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Quick Look

Part two of my Leopard Features mini-series, we’re going to take a look at a feature called Quick Look. Though it can be used on its own, Quick Look is a perfect companion to Cover Flow, allowing you to view more information about each file in a directory. Using a keyboard shortcut (CMD-Y), a window appears with details about the selected file. As with Cover Flow, it’s a bit of overkill for basic files like applications or system files (though the large icon files look pretty sweet)...

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Quick Look really begins to shine with documents and images. A Quick Look on an Excel file, for example, allows you to view the entire spreadsheet. Quick Look even allows you to choose the sheet you wish to display...



A Quick Look at an image will show a thumbnail of the selected image. Selecting multiple images and performing the Quick Look, you can navigate through the selected images, or view an “index sheet” with thumbnails of all of the selected images...



For video files, Quick Look allows you to watch the entire video...



As do audio files, but audio files show the basic MP3 tag information – including the album art...



Targeting the designer, Apple has Quick Look show an even better font preview than provided by Cover Flow. Quick Look shows you the entire alphabet, allowing you to determine if this is the right font for you before installing...



One final feature of Quick Look is the ability to create and install Quick Look plug-ins. One of the best examples is the BetterZip plug-in, which shows you all of the contents of a Zip file, as well as the file size before and after compression...



All of these file previews can be performed without ever having to open a single application, which saves tremendous amounts of time and computer resources. Each Quick Look offers the ability to view full screen as well.

Next up... Path View.

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Cover Flow

Sometimes I forget that not everyone uses a Mac, so I decided to do a small series of some of the new features that Apple put into the latest version of the Mac OS, Leopard. First up... Cover Flow.

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If you’ve ever used iTunes, an iPhone, or even the latest generation of iPods, you may already be familiar with Cover Flow. The interface is basically a scrolling view of the albums you have by their covers. While it is arguably ranking high in the coolness factor, in iTunes it is more eye-candy then useful. With Leopard, Apple added Cover Flow to the Finder (the Mac equivalent of Windows Explorer), allowing you to view all of your files in a “preview” mode. For something mundane, like the applications folder, it seems rather superfluous...



But if you are browsing through certain folders, Cover Flow becomes an indispensable tool. Let’s say you are looking for a specific document. Cover Flow allows you to preview Office files and PDFs.


[Word DOC, left; Adobe PDF, center; Powerpoint, right]

For designers, Cover Flow allows you to sift through a number of similar images. You can select the exact one you need without ever having to open any applications.



Even browsing for the right font becomes easier, as Cover Flow shows you a quick preview of the type face.



Another amazing trick is the movie preview. Cover Flow allows you to actually play the movie in the preview mode... supporting most of popular video codecs.



Next up... Quick Look (the handy companion to Cover Flow).

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grabUp

The coolest app I have seen all week – possibly even all month – grabUp allows you to send a screenshot in just two quick steps. Step one, use the standard Mac screenshot keyboard shortcut (CMD-SHIFT-4) to capture all, or a portion, of your screen. Step two, paste the URL that was automatically added to your clipboard into an email or instant message. Did I mention grabUp is free?!

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Mac Clones

When Apple announced they were going to Intel processors, everyone knew it would only be a matter of time before someone came out with a clone box – a non-Apple machine capable of running their OS. Well today, Psytar did just that... claiming they have a machine that can run Mac OS X, and it’s only $399. Why would anyone want this pile of crap?

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Right off the bat, this 400 bucks doesn’t even include the OS. That’s an extra $155. And they say the computer will be ready to go right out of the box... as if that’s unique to their setup. For the record, my Mac was ready to go right out of the box. Secondly, the company encourages you to not install Apple’s updates. You can run the updates that are “not non-safe”, whatever that means. Just don’t run any non-safe updates.

Right.

If you want to spend $400 and have a tech support nightmare every day for the rest of your life, just buy an old PC on eBay that has Windows ME installed on it.

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MySpace Music Store

When the iPod was introduced, there were a number of now-famous quotes from people who called it a loser right out of the gate. Obviously those people were way off, and look pretty silly today. Fearing the same type of publicity, I am cautious about my predictions with this one. I am not convinced the MySpace can come close to – let alone topple – iTunes music sales.

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MySpace announced yesterday the creation of a music marketplace, operated by MySpace and three of the four major record labels.

EMI is the current hold out. The same EMI that cancelled their contract with Apple (now the largest music retailer). I’m not sure what is going on in the EMI board rooms.

Tech reporters are fawning all over about how no one has been able compete with iTunes – until now. MySpace has 110 million users, with 30 million of those actually listening to music on the site. These are impressive numbers, no doubt. However, Apple is rumored to have approximately 200 million users world wide. And of those 200 million, it is a safe bet that all of them are using iTunes to listen to music.

The problem here is that having 100 million users does not necessarily mean you will get any or all of them to buy music on your site.

How many users does Amazon have? I was unable to find a hard number on that, but they average 2.9 million visitors per day. Amazon currently holds 6% of the music sales worldwide (down from 6.7% last year), behind iTunes, Wal-Mart, Best Buy, and Target. Best Buy and Target only sell physical CDs.

I don’t want to belittle the deals MySpace has going. I think the potential to sell a lot of music is definitely there. But I don’t think it is a good prediction to suggest they can come close to iTunes.

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Removing the Keyboard

Sometime around 1982, my Dad bought the family a home computer (I believe it was a Timex Sinclair 1000). I remembering how amazing that was. It wasn’t that long after we had seen a full semi truck delivering a computer to a local business. Now in our home we have an actual computer. Of course none of us knew what to do with the thing. Mostly, I would use it to draw weird pictures by combining the bizarre ALT characters not available on a typewriter. Shortly after, I learned how to create the infamous “10 PRINT” program. There was no monitor, it connected to our television... which was black and white at the time. The most unusual part of the machine, however, was the keyboard.

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The TS1000, and its sibling, the Sinclair ZX81, didn’t have depressible keys. Sinclair had designed a membrane keyboard. It was almost completely flat, with only slightly raised edges for each virtual key so your fingers could find the letters. It offered absolutely no feedback when you typed other than what you saw on the screen. Compared to a modern keyboard – like the new Apple keyboards – it really isn’t that different. However, for 1982, it was way too early for this shift in the paradigm. For 100 years people had been forcefully pushing buttons and getting a noticeable response. Suddenly, there was nothing to push. Users could not adapt to this completely foreign input method.

But we have slowly been weaned off of the typewriter keys, and could easily adopt a membrane style keyboard if we had one today. So ready to adapt are we, that when Apple introduced its virtual keyboard on the iPhone, the only people to complain are the people who have never used one. Owners of the iPhone love the keyboard, and many secretly wish for their laptop or desktop to have the same input.

It’s time... the world is ready for a keyboard-less society. Sure, there will be some old-school, physical-keyboard-only people who are not ready to switch. That’s no different than the typist who had a hard time switching to a word processor in the 80s. But imagine the possibilities when you remove that one physical handicap. The iPhone recognizes the words you are typing, and adjusts the virtual space for each key accordingly. If there is a 90% chance the next letter is going to be an E, the W and the R virtually shrink, giving you an easier time to hit the correct letter. This is not possible with the out-dated physical button. Or perhaps the appearance of a key could change based on an option that was selected, or depending on the program currently being used. The options are endless, if we can only convince people to expand their way of thinking and be prepared to adjust only a little bit more.

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Microsoft Fanboys

I have a friend who loves to harass me about Apple products. It’s difficult to argue with him because he’s never actually used a Mac. And after a few interactions with him, it really is tiresome. You almost dread bumping into him because you know you’ll have to hear the out-dated, inaccurate arguments all over again... Macs cost too much, they don’t run any software, you can’t use them in a corporate environment, and so on. But I often wonder, if Microsoft/Windows is so great, why is there no “fan base”?

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Every Apple product comes with a pair of white Apple stickers, and Mac buyers love to put them on their vehicles. Have you ever seen a Windows sticker proudly displayed on a car?

When the Apple Store is “down for maintenance”, everyone gets excited about what new product might be released. Someone even created a web-based “Apple Store Status Badge” to notify you when the store was down, and back up again. When was the last time someone was excited about a Microsoft product release?

Every year Apple hosts the annual Mac World Conference. This is talked about on radio programs, blogs, podcasts, and even the national news channels. Have you ever heard of a Windows World Conference?

So, Microsoft Fanboys, either put up or shut up. If you’re not proud enough to sticker up your car, then don’t bother me with your false claims of a superior system. Go back to work on updating your virus protection while I get some work done.

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Microsoft Action Figures?

In a momentary bout of “what the heck were they thinking”, Microsoft introduced a group of Lego-esque action figures for some of their major products. There’s “Windows Vista Sensei” (who, from what I understand, gets beat up by his older brother XP quite often), “Office Master”, “SQL Server Gal”, and a number of others.

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These characters were available only to 5,000 registered developers that attended at least two live Webcasts or complete two MSDN Virtual Labs (or one of each), in a one-month timeframe.

By the way, in the Apple world there is a similar concept, but it wasn’t a lame promotion gimmick by Apple. Rather, this is more of a tribute to Apple from a fan. A talented, artsy fan.



These are limited edition, hand made dioramas of famous moments in Apple’s history, all made from Lego pieces. (Not sure why, but anything made from Legos ends up being better than the original!)

Lego Steve Jobs, cool. Windows Vista Action Figure, not cool.

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Mobile Browsing

Since the iPhone was introduced, I have been arguing that while it does not offer any specific feature not available on other smartphones, it’s all about how those functions work. A story in Financial Times yesterday validates my theory...

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Google on Wednesday said it had seen 50 times more searches on Apple’s iPhone than any other mobile handset.

Mobile web browsers are not new, how Mobile Safari works is.

The first noticeable difference with the iPhone is that the screen is flush with the front and goes all the way to the edges. If the screen is a fraction of an inch lower than the molding of the phone, it makes it impossible to use the entire screen real estate without a stylus. And considering every other phone interface has their scroll bars on the edge, scrolling becomes near impossible.

Beveled edge or not, scroll bars are not a problem with the iPhone. It simply doesn’t have them. Taking the “outside the box” cliché to heart, Apple dropped the old standard and designed a completely new way to scroll. To scroll, simply drag your finger in whichever direction you want the content to move, and it does exactly what you are expecting. Extremely intuitive. Reverting back to any other phone, you suddenly can’t figure out how to navigate.

The method the iPhone uses to display web pages is unique as well. Unlike any browser, Mobile Safari displays the entire page and allows you to smoothly zoom in and out on the areas you want to read. You can “pinch zoom” or double-tap. A double-tap zooms in specifically to the block you tapped on, such as the paragraph or photo you want to view. Double-tap again, and you zoom back out to the full view.

In addition, the resolution of the iPhone is so much higher than other devices, you can actually read content at a much smaller scale than you could on even your computer monitor.

Browsing on the iPhone is so simple, kids can handle it without needing prior instruction or help. Evan asked me the other day if he could use my iPhone to play a game. I went to a Word Search game I have bookmarked for him, and handed him the phone. A few minutes later I came up to him to get my phone back, and he had gone to Google and started searching the web for more iPhone games. He never asked me how to get to Google, never asked where the keyboard was. He simply made it work. That is amazing usability.

So while mobile browsing – like many of the other features – is not a new concept, Apple changed the thinking on how it should work. And that thinking has been proven correct by the significantly higher usage numbers over any other phone on the market.

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Customer Service

Once again, showing how great of a company Apple is, I was impressed with the customer service at the Victoria Gardens Apple Store. My five week old iPod Classic (in black) started acting weird. Being a good customer, I did all the necessary steps to make sure it wasn’t something silly. I formatted it, updated the software, and even tested the songs that acted up. No luck. Making an appointment, I speak with a friendly Genius. After a few minutes of something he called “testing”, he tells me he wanted me to have “a happy iPod” and gave me a new one. Thanks Apple.

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MacBook Air Misinformation

I keep reading reports about the new MacBook Air, and I’m getting quite frustrated by the writers inability to get their facts straight. This is in reference to the price of the Solid Sate Drive (SSD) option...

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Using technology similar to that in the iPod nano and other Flash-based products, MacBook Air introduces a solid-state drive. This drive has no moving parts and can access data more quickly than standard hard drives, so you’ll enjoy a boost in performance when starting up your computer and opening files and applications. In addition, solid-state drives offer greater durability and improved resistance to data loss in the event of an accidental drop.

As you can clearly see from this screenshot of the Apple store, the $1,799 base model MacBook Air comes with a 4200 rpm 80GB Parallel ATA Drive. As an option, for $999 you can buy the 64GB Solid State Drive.

Ars Technica’s review of the Air titled, “What does $1,300 extra really get you?”...

We picked up an SSD Air so that we could try it out, run some benchmarks, and report back to you on how much (or little) of a difference that extra $1,300 makes.

Then Engadget promptly reprints the bogus information...

All said, Ars says the extra $1300 for the SSD MacBook Air just isn’t worth it – but c’mon, you know that’s not stopping the people who are buying Airs in the first place.

Oft quoted Gizmodo, in an article entitled, “Adding a 64GB SSD to the Macbook Air? $1,300 Extra, Please.” offers this poor comparison...

I hope you didn’t have your heart set on that sexy 64GB SSD that Steve teased as an “option” during his keynote: the 1.8GHz version with the SSD drive standard costs a whopping $3,100. For comparison’s sake, adding a 64GB SSD to a Dell laptop with a 128GB SATA drive standard is a $1,000 option. At Alienware, you’ll pay $900 to upgrade to a 64GB SSD from a 320GB 5400RPM drive.

Gizmodo uses the above image to point out the huge difference in price, suggesting you go from $1,799 to $3,098 simply for the SSD option. However, they are not taking into account the second option shown also includes a $300 processor upgrade.

Gizmodo continues...

Those are probably 2.5-inch SSDs, however. The 1.8-inch SSDs used in the Macbook Air are pricier, with prices looking to be around $1,300 on their own around the web.

Continuing to point out their own ignorance, they mention that 1.8-inch SSDs are typically more money than the 2.5-inch SSDs offered by Apple’s competitors, yet Apple’s SSD option is actually $1 less!

Finally, Adrian Kingsley-Hughes, in his ZDNet hardware blog offers this opinion...

Is the $1,300 solid state drive (SSD) for the MacBook Air worth the money? Doesn’t seem so.

I would ask, did Ars Technica, Engadget, Gizmodo, or ZDNet bother to check their facts before publishing their articles? Doesn’t seem so.

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Unusual Example of Apple Besting Microsoft

In one of the more bizarre examples proving Apple is superior to Microsoft, compare how Apple’s new smartphone is so easy to use it doesn’t come with instructions, yet Microsoft has to provide directions for something as ridiculous as opening the Windows Vista box. Something is fundamentally wrong with the people in charge of design at Mircosoft.

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AppleTV - A Product Ahead of its Time?

When Apple introduced the AppleTV, I was ready to go out and buy one immediately. Unfortunately for Apple, I am married... which means I can’t just go buy every cool Apple product they decide to bring out. But I see a lot of potential in the AppleTV, though I fear it may have been introduced before some of that potential is available.

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First, there is the ability to buy and rent movies. Having kids, I am really excited about the idea of buying digital copies of their favorite movies. See, I have lots of kids. And they don’t always get the concept of proper care of DVDs. I’ve come home to find one of my boys using DVDs for “ice skates” on the carpet. Not good. Buying a movie and having it stored on a little box on top of the TV sounds perfect!

Renting movies using AppleTV is much like pay-per-view – both in cost and user experience. The advantage over pay-per-view is that you can choose from a larger list of options at any given time.

Second, is the TV in AppleTV. My friend, Wes, was complaining to me recently that the AppleTV doesn’t contain a DVR. He feels that Apple totally missed the boat by not including this option. Funny thing is, without realizing it, Wes explained later why it would have been a bad idea. Wes has been a long time TIVO owner and proponent, but he recently got a free DVR with his satellite service. He says that while his free DVR is close, but not quite as good as a TIVO, he would never buy a DVR again. Just the fact it is built-in to his satellite receiver makes up for any shortcomings the non-branded DVR might have. Interesting, I thought. He expects a DVR to be included in the AppleTV box, yet pointed out that people are just not buying DVRs anymore.

But I think Wes missed the big picture. The biggest untapped potential I see in the AppleTV is not with current television programming, but future television programming. I believe that in the not-so-distant future, networks will no longer broadcast shows as they do now. I see TV shows being released more like podcasts. You simply subscribe to a show, and it will download as soon as it’s released, allowing you to watch it whenever you want. Essentially this is how people watch TV using DVRs now, the networks just don’t seem to get it yet. The AppleTV is already ready to handle this type of timed released programming. Air waves are dead. Broadband is the future.

One last argument against the AppleTV is the resolution. My videophile friend, Gary, complains that it can only achieve a maximum resolution of 720p. Blu-ray, for example, can display in 1080p.

Basic explanation: 720p means it offers 720 lines, whereas 1080p offers 1080 lines of resolution. The more lines, the clearer the image.

But I think Gary is missing the big picture as well. Just as MP3s are insanely more popular than the (better quality) physical CD, the general consumer will sacrifice some quality in order to gain convenience. Much like the VHS vs. Betamax battle. VHS offered poorer picture quality, but won on convenience.

Physical media is going away quickly. While I think there will be a small niche market for Blu-ray discs, I am convinced that the average consumer will glom on to “no media”. Being able to have your video library stored in one small device is every bit as appealing as having your entire music library stored on one small device.

But was the AppleTV brought to market too soon? The latest update, allowing you to buy and rent movies directly from your TV, certainly was a step in the right direction. But I worry that the television networks are too dumb to realize their outdated method of delivery has reached its life-span, therefore never allowing AppleTV to take advantage of this great opportunity.

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MacBook Air

As you may have heard Steve Jobs recently introduced Apple’s newest laptop, the MacBook Air. This latest offering is an ultra-portable, which appears to be a misunderstood market.

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But the Air is nothing more than a thin, stripped down version of a MacBook and more expensive. – MyAppleZone.com

As with virtually all competing ultra-portable laptops, the price goes up as the feature list goes down. If you don’t get it, this isn’t marketed at you. It’s marketed towards the millions of users who want portability over everything else.

Now, there are only 3 things I look for in a laptop; Able to play my DVDs, play my music, and surf the Internet. The Macbook Air disappointed me on all three. – Hardware Junky (boomshiki)

This blogger truly misses it on all three. He complains about the missing ethernet port, commenting that he likes speed when surfing YouTube. I am amazed that someone who uses a laptop at all wants to be tethered to the ethernet cable. Isn’t the point of a laptop the ability to move around? The same point can be made with the lack of additional USB ports. If I’m plugging in a number of devices, I’m going with a desktop.

The second complaint was the mono speaker, which is not acceptable for listening to music. My laptop has stereo speakers, it is not acceptable for listening to music. Again, is this really what you buy an ultra-portable laptop for? Luckily for boomshiki, Apple offers a great solution... Airport Express. Look it up. It’s an amazing device.

Thirdly, his complaint moved on to the lack of an optical drive. My primary machine of choice is a 15“ MacBook Pro, which has the SuperDrive (CD and DVD burning capability) built-in. In the last year, I have burned a total of two CDs (for my friend Wes since I can’t plug my iPod in his truck), and I used a DVD once to install Office. That’s it. I think I could survive without it.

My aforementioned friend, Wes, also commented on the lack of optical drive. His take was that travelers want to watch DVDs when they are on the plane. I just don’t see a lot of people at the airport watching movies on their laptops. I see them playing solitaire! But not using their laptops as portable DVD players.

Continuing on...

in short, the MacBook Air is not for everyone. – Huffington Post

After quoting four notorious Mac haters in this three paragraph article, this is the conclusion Huffington came up with. Duh. No one product is for everyone. Not even the iPod, which is why Apple makes four variations.

The MacBook Air is simply a laptop designed and marketed towards the consumer who wants something ultra-portable. Clear and simple. Honestly, that person is not me. But there is obviously a large segment of the laptop buying public that this is marketed towards. If that weren’t the case there wouldn’t be five other manufacturers making a similar product, costing close to, if not more than, the Air. Most of them also lack a built-in optical drive.

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Update: PC World recently announced that it too considers the Air to be a failure for Apple. Surely this proves that the MacBook Air will be a huge success!

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