http://theappleblog.com/2010/08/31/rumor-roundup-tomorrows-apple-event/
Tuesday, 31 August 2010
Rumor Roundup: Tomorrow’s Apple Event
Wednesday, 25 August 2010
Apple Special Event Taking Place September 1
Tuesday, 24 August 2010
Could Apple be preparing a competitor to Google Voice?
So what makes me think that Apple might be preparing an alternative? Three things:
1) It sounds very much like the sort of service that Apple might like to offer; it is a potentially complex service that offers opportunities for convergence between mobile and desktop hardware where exceptional design skills could deliver noticeable advantages over Google's offering.
2) Apple's rejection of the Google Voice for iPhone app might be seen as part of a long game that will end with the launch of an Apple iVoice product.
3) Apple's enormous new data centre, believed to be the power behind the rumoured iTV product, may also be intended as a base for an iVoice service.
This is all very thin and highly speculative, but from what I've heard of Google Voice an Apple alternative could be a really attractive service. We wait for news.
Monday, 23 August 2010
Author: Kindle eBooks Outselling Apple iBooks 60-to-1
http://www.cultofmac.com/author-kindle-ebooks-outselling-apple-ibooks-60-to-1/56015
Sunday, 22 August 2010
Minimalist living with Apple's iDevices
It has taken me a while to realise exactly what it is that Apple have accomplished. Setting aside the qualities of their traditional computers, the combination of iTunes, their portable media devices (iPod, iPad and iPhone) and Apple TV has delivered a complete system for the consumption (and, to a lesser extent, creation) of entertainment products (movies, music, books, photos and magazines). To the fan of minimalist living, for whom books are the bleached flesh of dead trees, DVDs are bits of elegantly processed plastic and magazines are a sort of high-res advert, the ability to handle these datasets in the digital domain is liberating.
Where once we collected objects as status symbols or testaments to our wealth or societal position, now we recognise that instead these items tie us to a single location, restricting our freedom and constraining us to act in manners prescribed by the vendors of these products. Apple, whether deliberately or as a by-product of their focus on design and ease-of-use, have created a product set that enable us to consume on demand without devoting resources to the storage and maintenance of the media.
If the rumours are to be believed, and Apple are planning to move the storage of digital media online (which might explain the construction of their mammoth new data centre), then maybe even the backup of our media is to be handled automatically by offsite agents, severing the last tie between the user and physical media. If even the backup is remote, untouchable and transparent, physical media are truly obsolete. Sounds good to me; now all I have to do is work out how to upload my books.
Marco.org - A smartphone retrospective
Saturday, 21 August 2010
Some more thoughts on Kindle v iBook
There were two real criticisms of reading on the iPad. First, the backlit LCD screen of the iPad was felt to have a disadvantage over the passive e-ink display of the Kindle. Second, Amazon's huge library gave them a head start in terms of content.
The first of these is likely to be a personal preference thing. I haven't spent any time with the Kindle hardware, but using the iPad for an extended period of reading isn't something I have found to be tiring. You might be different, but if you play with the settings in either the Kindle or iBooks apps you'll probably be able to find some combination of colour scheme and brightness setting that suits you.
The second problem is a bit more real. Amazon's library is larger and, for all the books I've checked, cheaper. This means that my default store for books is Amazon's website rather than Apple's iBooks store, even though, to be honest, I'd rather buy through iBooks. Apple's selection is also much smaller than Amazon's and it doesn't seem to be growing very fast.
So if you've got an iPad you probably don't need to buy a Kindle. If you've got a Kindle and you only ever want to read books you probably don't need to buy an iPad. However, if you've got neither, you can afford the iPad and you want to do something more than read a book, the iPad is the obvious choice.
Wednesday, 18 August 2010
Microsoft demonstrates compatibility features in Office 2011 for Mac
Monday, 16 August 2010
Photojojo lenses for your mobile phone
One alternative, which I hadn't really considered before today, is an external lens that attaches to the body of the phone. These things have been around for some time in the form of special cases, or impractical clip-ons, but Photojojo (http://photojojo.com/store/awesomeness/cell-phone-lenses/) have a new range that seems to offer a decent tradeoff between cost, size and quality. At $40 a set they're not all that expensive and the sample pictures look fairly good.
The only downside I can see at the moment is that you have to attach a magnetic ring of some sort to the back of your phone so that the lenses have something to which they can adhere but that probably isn't too serious, as long as the ring is low-profile.
Anyway, Photojojo have both fisheye and combo wide-angle/macro lenses in the range and they look pretty interesting; I hope to check them out later in the year.
Saturday, 14 August 2010
Makeshift iPad Stand; a battery, a desk and some tape
What this says to me is that a little imagination and some tape is enough to construct a usable working environment from an iPad and a keyboard. That gives me hope that, sooner or later (probably after iOS 4.0 brings multi-tasking to the iPad) I'll be able to dump the laptop on business trips and rely fully on my Apple Combo. Till then, I'll stick with the Lenovo.
Apple at Covent Garden
Except that, while I wouldn't want to engage in such behaviour, I do understand why people are excited. Apple's stores, especially the larger ones, are undeniably attractive. They deliver not only great products but also a great shopping experience (if you don't believe me, go and play with the iPhone in an Apple store and get a demo from a staff member, then do the same thing in a Nokia store and watch for the differences) and, after years of visiting stores where you can touch but not operate the high-tech gizmos and the sales staff are, at best, useless, it is a refreshing change to deal with Apple's knowledgeable, interested and enthusiastic staff.
Apple aren't the first electronics company to try their hand at retail (Sony have had shops for years and Gateway had a modest retail estate in the late nineties) but they're the first to make their shops as cool as their products and that, I think, is the key; not only are the products right, the whole experience is right.

Apple's Bluetooth Keyboard; first impressions after an hour of use
A more serious complaint is that the @ and " marks have been reversed so that the @ sits on the 2 key, which you would expect on a US keyboard but not on a UK keyboard. Then there are the shortcuts; quite a few of these work as they would on a normal computer (cmd-c for Copy, cmd-v for paste etc.) but there aren't very many of them so you can't, for example, jump to the address box in Safari without tapping the screen. This isn't a huge problem, and there's a reasonable chance that things will improve in iOS 4.0, but it does seem a bit strange.
Then there are a couple of minor niggles. You can't as far as I can tell, change the key repeat speed (I like my keys to repeat quickly). It's also glaringly obvious that Mail and Pages haven't been setup for use with a physical keyboard, so although cmd-backspace will delete a whole word (as you would expect) you will be left with a double space, or a space followed by a full-stop depending on your starting point. Again, not a big problem, just a modest lack of sophistication.
Having said that, there are a few cmd shortcuts and they work well. I like being able to delete whole words and sentences, or sections of text by shift-selecting with the cursor keys. Typing is definitely faster on a physical keyboard, but the iPad is still primarily a touch device and, sooner or later, you need to go back to the screen to make a selection. One unexpected example of this is the selection of a URL from the list suggested by Safari once you've typed in the first few letters; you can't use the cursor keys to move through the list as you would on a desktop.
So, overall, a great keyboard. It's light, easy to use and, unusually in my experience of Bluetooth-connected devices, reliable. Integration with iOS 3 is ok but not great, so although I would recommend the keyboard if you want to do a lot of typing (and there really isn't any other reason to buy a keyboard) you need to be aware that it has a few shortcomings. Apple have a great opportunity to address some of these complaints in the next version of the iPad's operating system (promised for the Autumn) so now we wait, eagerly, and hope.
Sunday, 8 August 2010
Microsoft losing to Apple on Campus

Also of interest is the table showing the number of Linux users falling quickly from a peak in 2004 (77 of 3,037) to 8 (of 3,156) in 2009. It seems that hair shirts are also falling out of fashion.
Friday, 6 August 2010
iPad and iOS 4.0 - we wait, hopefully
iOS 4 is supposed to hit the iPad sometime in the autumn, but that's about all we know. Roll on autumn.
Minimal iPad stand - neat, very neat
I wonder if it would work with one of Apple's new Magic Trackpads?One of these stands, a Bluetooth keyboard and an iPad and you have the ultimate minimal desktop computer. Very cool.
Wednesday, 4 August 2010
Article: New Syndicate trademarks filed by EA! WHAT COULD IT MEAN?
New Syndicate trademarks filed by EA! WHAT COULD IT MEAN?
http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/2010/08/new-syndicate-trademarks-filed-by-ea-what-could-it-mean.ars
(Sent from Flipboard)
Tuesday, 3 August 2010
Vitally important wallpaper message
Everyone knows where "Don't Panic" is from, right?