System Sounds

Neat little "song" made out of an assembly of Apple's system sounds.



Also a similar Windows Version

(via TUAW)

False Advertising?

Side by side video comparison of the iPhone 3G TV commercial vs. replicating it on the real 3G network. I love my iPhone, but these guys raise a good point...



Random aside: The use of on-screen stickies as captions is pretty clever :)

(via TUAW)

Pong!

Multitouch, Multiscreen iPhone Pong:



via TUAW

iPhone Navigator?

Possible surprises up Steve's sleeve on June 9?

Love the quote from the GPS president:

iPhone Nano, GPS Are More Important to Apple Than 3G: Analysis

I recently sat down with the president of a GPS navigation system manufacturer to ask him how he felt about the prospect of a GPS-enabled iPhone. "Scared [expletive]-less," he said.

Yet the iPhone has the potential to leverage true GPS functionality better than any other device. It already has a large, 3.5-in touchscreen interface, external speakers and an elegant Google Maps interface. All you'd need to add to a GPS-enabled iPhone is a suction-cup windshield bracket (sold separately, of course), and you'd have a fully-functional, pocket-portable car navigation device. People already pay hundreds of dollars in droves for this increasingly popular segment of devices, and the iPhone could essentially challenge an entire product category with one add-on feature.

Pilgrimage

I've just returned from a four-day holiday in the Greater SF Bay area (where fellow TowForm contributor BoRyan was my gracious host), with the pilgrimage-like goal of exploring every rail system found there; a full trip report with all its minutiae is outside the scope of this blog, but within the scope of this blog (with 15 posts tagged 'maps') will be a later post reviewing a few of the many transit maps I collected.

While waiting for that, behold the accompanying two pictures, taken personally by me during side-pilgrimages of this trip. :)

How Apple is changing DRM

Cool article on how the insistence on DRM by record labels drove Apple to dominance, and how Apple might change the rules to stay on top now that the labels are leaning towards no DRM.

How Apple is changing DRM

My first (clumsy) Apple Store purchase: Airport Extreme (N)

While most readers will know that I am far from being a MacOS convert (though I do appreciate the fact that MacOS X is now Unix-like, as opposed to proprietary previous versions), I do actually own Apple products:

An older (B/G) Airport Express, which I originally bought (not at an Apple Store, but [I think] at Fry's) because I'd read it could extend my Linksys-powered home wireless network, but then saw extensive use with AirTunes first by the developers at Voce, then by me at home;

An iPod shuffle, given to all Voce employees at Christmas 2006, which saw heavy use as my PMP until succeeded by my BlackJack II (see my previous post).

However mildly unenthused I may otherwise be about Apple, kudos to them for one of the least expensive and most user-friendly implementations of 802.11n, namely the latest generation of Airport.

As my first step into the 802.11n world, I went on April 5 to my local Apple Store and got an Airport Extreme (N) and another (newer) Airport Express (N).

First, for your amusement, a description of this first-ever visit to an Apple Store (I'd walked by, of course, making various gestures): I'd read the reviews and made my mind up, so I just had to pick up one of each and pay. Due to the well-laid-out store, the former was easy. The latter is where I came out as a clumsy Apple newbie. I looked this way and that for the cashiers. After two full rotations, a salesperson came over and asked if I needed help. 'Yes, where is the checkout, please?' 'Here on my belt!' and produced a small hand-held touch-screen POS. I didn't examine it too closely, but it was clearly neither an iPhone nor an iPod touch. It would be sweet irony if it were a Windows-Mobile-powered Pocket PC. 'Would you like your receipt printed, or emailed, or both?' 'Both please, apple(at)chuljin.com.' At first, the same blank stare as when Borders cashiers look up my Borders Rewards account by its email address borders[at]chuljin.com. Catch-all email isn't quite catching on, pun intended. Finally, I couldn't figure out how to carry the bag. Once I did, I thought it was a really cool bag.

Now the reviews:

Airport Extreme: Setting this up was simplicity itself. It was never going to be my main router (nor indeed even route); I was going to just use it as an ethernet switch and 802.11n(-only) access point. The configuration wizard had a 'path' for precisely this need. I soon added a USB hard drive, which it also then quickly and easily (but securely) shared out. Fortunately, it exposes any drive[s] as Samba shares, so you don't even have to have the Airport software installed to use them (but if you do have it installed, it thoughtfully automatically maps them for you).

Airport Express: Since I didn't have anything else supporting 802.11n (though I'll soon upgrade the internal cards in my laptops), and I didn't want the Extreme to be like the first person who had a telephone, I also got an Express. This is where the wheels came off (a little). I configured it to join the Extreme's new N-only network, and after it updated and rebooted, it had the happy green light, but could be seen by neither the configuration utility nor AirTunes on computers on the separate (but all-bridged-together) G network unless the Extreme was in N(G-compatible) mode. But I wanted the Extreme on 5Ghz (N5 or N[A-compatible]) mode (to take advantage of the less-crowded new airspace), so I gave up and joined it to my existing Linksys-powered G network. Otherwise, it works great, just like my Express 'G' I know and love. It even accounts for latency, it seems: I tried sending audio from iTunes (via 'Multiple Speakers') to the new Express, connected to my stereo, the old Express, connected to a pair of computer speakers, and my laptop's internal speakers, and the audio at all three was in lock-step. Whole-house audio, anyone? I admit a little disappointment at the N-vanishing issue, but still, it's a killer product, with a new feature I might eventually use, for no more than the original cost.

I recommend them both.

Why can't Apple and Microsoft play nice?

Having issues with iWeb formatting text that had me up most of last night:



Took me 90 minutes to figure out that it wasn't playing nice with copy/pasted text from MS Word (even if reformatted in iWeb). Probably a better way to work around this, but best fix I've come up with is copying, pasting into TextEdit, recopying to convert to plain text, re-pasting into iWeb, and reformatting. Not sure who's fault it is (Microsoft, Apple, or mine), but it sucks when I thought I was done and now having to reformat 70+ pages. Guess it's time for me to really learn how to code...

(I do find it hilarious in a painfully ironic way that Google's contextual ads look at this mess and decide to offer up "Download Adobe Acrobat 8")

1.1.4 & Starbucks Connection

Apple just dropped iPhone 1.1.4 moments ago; I'm upgrading as I type this.

Also, another story is floating around that Starbucks is closing all of their stores tonight at 5:30pm local time for a special 3 hour employee training session. Coincidence?

Coffee chain to close all 7,100 stores for employee training.

One BILLION Dollars

Analysts at Marketwatch speculate Apple is losing buckets of money due to iPhone unlocking:

Sacconaghi estimated that between 25% and 30% of the more than 4 million iPhone units already sold have been unlocked to work on other wireless networks, and that each unlocked iPhone results in Apple's missing out on $370 in earnings over the phone's two-year contract period. If Apple were to hit its 10 million-unit sales target, the unlocked devices would cause the company to forgo between $1.1 billion and $1.3 billion over two years, he said.

But a blogger at CNET.com disputes the math with much aplomb:

Which is why -- and, jeez, how many times does the Macalope have to say this? -- it makes absolutely no sense to say that Apple is losing this money. If these phones are in countries where Apple has no contract, the only thing you can say is that Apple should get an exclusive contract there faster (easier said than done). If they're being used by people who just don't like the exclusive provider Apple's signed with, then these are people they'll never get anyway.

(Quick little postscript: I'd never noticed the "live updating" stock quotes inside a story at MarketWatch before. Pretty slick.)

Counterpoint

Another side of the debate, from the other side of the pond.

I Hate Macs

"I hate Macs. I have always hated Macs. I hate people who use Macs. I even hate people who don't use Macs but sometimes wish they did. Macs are glorified Fisher-Price activity centres for adults; computers for scaredy cats too nervous to learn how proper computers work; computers for people who earnestly believe in feng shui."

iMovie is a dangerous thing

So I grabbed some footage and photos from a fishing trip to Mexico that had been sitting on my hard drive for a few years, fired up iMovie for the first time and 2 hours later here's what I did. Forgive the pacing and camera work. It was all done with my Fuji Finepix 3000.

Feedback on the iPhone Interface

Edward Tufte is reknowned for his books and articles on interface meets design meets data presentation. (search his site for the article PowerPoint and businesses)

Anyways, he just put up a posting on what the iPhone does right, and a few things he thinks could have been done better.

http://www.edwardtufte.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=00036T&topic_id=1

(make sure to check out the video link in the article for an actual demo)

And speaking of interface, with the new moveable home page icons, here's my latest first page setup:

After going through several iterations, I've finally moved my frequently used icons to the upper-right hand corner. This provides quick access for my right-hand thumb.

Macworld Prediction

Thought of this yesterday afternoon and wanted to get it "on the record" before the keynote. I have no insider information and have not seen this specific prediction elsewhere; it's just a personal guess based on the "There's Something In The Air" slogan and connecting a few existing dots.

-A MacBook (and/or the rumored subnotebook) with a built-in HSDPA modem for high speed data access on the AT&T network. It would leverage Apple's existing carrier relationships, give them a new slice of coveted subscription revenue, and simplify the usually clunky process of activating and configuring an aircard.

We'll see what develops soon enough. Feel free to mock or praise me in the comments.

Change the World

Bits and pieces of this have already been told, but an interesting "for dummies" overview of how game changing the iPhone really is.

The Untold Story: How the iPhone Blew Up the Wireless Industry

MadTV iPod Ad Spoof

Spoofing Apple and Feist simultaneously:

New iPhone Firmware 1.1.3

Since the majority of us have iPhones, I thought I'd post.

http://gizmodo.com/339055/full-video-demo-of-apple-iphone-firmware-113-features

What I like:

• Google Maps drop pin
• Multiple recipient SMS
• And moving around home page and dock icons (you can even create multiple home pages)

And yes, Google has finally returned the cell phone tower triangulation technology that last powered AT&T's friend finder. Why they just got around to it now, I'll never know.

iPhone Hacking as Internship

Apple hires author of the unofficial iPhone SDK

Lucas Newman of Delicious Monster has been hired by Apple as an “iPhone engineer” according to a post from “Chief Monster” Wil Shipley.

Newman is an avid iPhone developer who worked on the first native iPhone game, Lights Off and helped iPhone Atlas develop their initial 5-step native application install guide back in August.

(Above is paraphrased because, to quote the second commenter on the original article: "Please proofread your posts. This one is utter gibberish.")

Related: Wired puts Jailbroken iPhone on top 2007 gadget list

MacWorld Bloopers

Steve's First Letter

Now we know where Steve Jobs learned his PR style:

Courtesy of www.geekculture.com