It’s Up! It’s Down! Play the NetShare game…
When Nullriver introduced NetShare, the iPhone app that allows you to tethter your laptop to it for internet access, appeared on the App Store, many were surprised. Then, without any explanation, it vanished.
On Friday it returned. Those who were smart downloaded it and were able to put it to use. By Saturday, the app had disappeared. Again. With no explanation at all.
While Apple’s control of the App Store can be viewed as a mostly positive thing, the NetShare debacle highlights what most of us suspected: When Apple holds all the cards, people tend to get steamrolled. In this case, the people are the developers at Nullriver. Most of what I’ve read seems to indicate that NetShare doesn’t vioalte the terms of the App Store in any way. So why ban it? And then why reinstate it for 24 hours, only to ban it again?
What’s going to happen to the users who have bought the app already? How are they going to get updates? Will they get refunds if updates aren’t provided?
Apple’s really been stepping in it lately, and unfortunately, this is just the latest example.
WWDC 2008
The WWDC 2008 keynote has come and gone, and much like the Macworld Keynote of 2007, it was all about the iPhone. “Snow Leopard” was referenced, but not discussed in the keynote, instead being covered in the NDA bound Mac OS X State of the Union later in the day.
By now you’ve read the coverage of the iPhone 3G, Mobile Me, and iPhone 2.0 Firmware. Here’s my thoughts on the news.
First, the iPhone 3G is going to become the new gold standard for mobile devices. About the only thing missing from the new iPhone that I was hoping for is a better camera. I guess they needed to save something for the next iteration. With a speedy network to ride on, the best mobile browsing experience just got better. The new additions to the iPhone 2.0 firmware look great. Of course, as always, there’s things to nitpick over. So here’s the nitpick list.
Although you get Exchange support in iPhone 2.0 if you subscribe to a business plan, which (you guessed it) will cost you $45/month for unlimited data (versus $30 for the new unlimited 3G data plan, a $10 increase over the 2G price). While I’d like to fault AT&T for this one, I suspect the extra $15 also helps Apple defer the cost of the Exchange license they pay Microsoft.
Next (and more distressing) is the requirement that all iPhones must be activated in store. This one is a bit more murky, as AT&T says in their press release that iTunes activation for the iPhone 3G is not possible. However, in another release, it is stated that you will be able to activate your phone when you get home if you like through iTunes if you buy from the Apple Store. This was one of the most pleasant aspects of purchasing an iPhone. I bought my iPhone on the day it debuted, and I literally walked in to an Apple Store at 11:30PM, and walked out with my iPhone at 11:34. The transaction took less than 4 minutes, and I was extremely pleased. I’m hoping I’ll still have the option of at home activation, because the last thing I want to do is hang out longer in the Apple Store twiddling my thumbs while my phone is activated. While I can fully appreciate the fact that there are some people who are just too stupid technologically challenged to handle at-home activation, I believe the ability was pulled due to iPhone hacking and not in an attempt to “simplify” the experience. Oh well. A subsidized iPhone purchase means that AT&T gets more of a say in how the device is setup.
One of the biggest things I was happy about was that the iPhone 3G has GPS. I was in the market for an in-car GPS device. I can now bypass that purchase and put that money towards the iPhone 3G. The bad news is that while the GPS technology is in the phone, you don’t gain turn-by-turn directions in iPhone 2.0 firmware. Google Maps becomes more accurate, and you can use their turn by turn directions, but you don’t get voice prompts or the 3D street view. Enter Tom Tom. They have already stated they will have a GPS app avaialble for the iPhone after the AppStore launches. What remains to be seen is how much it will cost. Anything above $20 will probably not seem worth it, since Google Maps handles about 60% of what I’d need from a GPS device.
MobileMe
A little background: I had been a .Mac subscriber since it’s inception as iTools. I dropped .Mac back in October of last year. I could no longer justify $99/year (well, actually about $75/year, the average price for renewal through Amazon) for email, iDisk and synching. With free alternatives like Gmail, DropBox, Box.net and a little Automator magic, I’ve been content since I left .Mac behind. The one feature I missed above all others though, was syncing. When I dropped .Mac, I lameneted that the one feature that could have brought me back was push email/calenders/contacts. Well, essentially that is what MobileMe is: Push email/calendars/contacts married with .Mac, and a new web based interface for all of the services features. I’m not sure if the general public will see this as enough to erase the bad memory of .Mac, but in my eyes it was. I purchased a .Mac family pack yesterday ($129 at Amazon) and look forward to it’s conversion to MobileMe in early July.
Third Party Apps
The third party apps demo ran for nearly half the entire keynote yesterday. Personally, I would have rather Apple debuted some new hardware, but it’s a testament to Apple’s belief in their developers (and this is a developers conference, right?) that they gave them nearly 60 minutes of keynote time to showcase their wares. It’s amazing to see what the developers have cooked up with just 3 months of time. The young Brit who demoed his app “Band” is about to become a millionaire. If he doesn’t walk away from WWDC with iFund money, I’d be shocked.
I believe in 6 months time the developer community will have cemented the iPhone as the third largest computing platform, right behind Windows and the Mac. I believe in 18 months time you will see the iPhone pass the Mac for a larger installed base, and essentially become the first new successful computing platform of the 21st century.
Back in 1996, before he rejoined Apple, Steve Jobs was asked if he were running Apple, what would he do to fix it. His answer: milk the Mac for all it’s worth, and get busy on the next big thing. Clearly, the iPhone as a computing platform is the next big thing. I don’t think the Mac is going away any time soon, but it’s pretty clear to see that the iPhone is Apple’s current darling.
Apple sells out (WWDC)
For the first time in the history of Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference, the event has sold out.
I attended the event last year, and the 4000 plus attendance was one of the largest showings to date. It’s pretty safe to say that this year’s record attendance is fuled by the dual punch of new iPhone developers and increasing Mac sales.
Great news for Mac users, as WWDC attendance is a great barometer for interest in the platform.
Posted: May 14, 2008 / Category: Apple, Developers, News
The iPhone is missing!
I was thoroughly convinced an iPhone update would be coming at WWDC. However, with iPhone supply drying up in the UK, and now here in the US, I’m not so sure that Apple won’t drop the 3G iPhone before WWDC. It seems crazy for Apple to go 2-3 weeks with no iPhone inventory to sell in it’s biggest market, doesn’t it?
Posted: May 12, 2008 / Category: iPhone
Pixelmator 1.2 “Draftsman”
Pixelmator continues it’s steady pace of adding features and fixing bugs with the new 1.2 “Draftsman” release. New for this version is a stellar implementation of guides and grids, along with some superb curves and auto adjustment features. If you’re looking for an image editor, the $59 you spend on Pixelmator may just be your best investment option.
Posted: / Category: Software
OpenOffice 3.0 beta
OpenOffice 3.0 beta has been released (click to download). Why do you care? Because this is the first version for Mac OS X that doesn’t require X11 to operate. OpenOffice 3.0 for Mac OS X features an Aqua interface, among the other new features present in version 3.0.
My initial impressions are:
- Finally!
- Damn, that’s a big file (167.4 MB)…
- and - man, is this thing SLOW!
Still, it is nice to see a native version of OpenOffice available for Mac OS X. Personally, I love iWork and it does a great job at handling my word processing, presentations and spreadsheet needs, along with conversion of Office 2007 and older docs. But one can’t argue with a decent free product that handles the same tasks. If the community can get OpenOffice 3.0 a speed boost, it may just become a hit on the Mac.
Oh, and why you’re at it, get rid of the icon. It sucks.
Posted: May 7, 2008 / Category: Software
NBC slumming with the Zune
So, after a public spat with Apple over pricing of their content on the iTunes Store, NBC is now schilling their shows on the Zune Marketplace at a hefty increase of zero dollars and zero cents. NBC ditched Apple when their contract expired in a public rift that seems to have centered on pricing flexibility. Apple wanted the programs to sell for $1.99 like every other TV show in the store, and NBC wanted the flexibility to increase the price on more popular shows. Although the programs are currently $1.99 in the Zune Marketplace, Microsoft states that NBC has the flexibility to increase prices if they see fit.
So, to recap - NBC pulls it’s programming from the #1 retailer of music and video content in the world, which serves up programming to over 100 million iPods, over a pricing dispute. It then signs a contract with Microsoft to offer it’s content to a marketplace that serves around 2 million Zunes.
In my world, we call that crazy.
Have fun with your “flexible” pricing NBC. I’m sure it will be real successful.
Posted: May 6, 2008 / Category: Digital Music
The Psystar Scenario
So, this company called Psystar apparently didn’t get the memo that Steve Jobs killed the Mac clones back in 1998. That, or they just aren’t really that smart. Either way, their site is back up and their $399 Open Computer (changed from Open Mac) is available for purchase. (more…)
Posted: April 15, 2008 / Category: Hardware
Adobe Photoshop CS4: 64-bit for Windows only
Adobe blogger John Nack has let it slip that the next version of Adobe Photoshop (CS4 for those wondering) will be 64-bit… but for Windows only. While I’m usually one to cast blame at Adobe’s feet for decisions like these, I have to admit Adobe is doing the best they can with the situation they’ve been dealt.
Last year at WWDC, during the Mac OS X State of the Union, Apple dropped a pretty significant bomb that didn’t get much attention (probably due to the whole NDA thing, I guess). While Leopard would be a 64-bit OS through and through, Carbon would not gain 64-bit memory addressing. This essentially leaves developers with Carbon apps stuck in 32-bit land, with the only other option being migrate to Cocoa. This was counter to Apple’s promise in August of 2006 that Carbon would be 64-bit.
When I heard this news at the session, I immediately thought that apps like Photoshop, Flash, Office were going to suffer, long term. As Nack points out on his blog, this decision really did throw Adobe a curve ball. They were in the middle of developing against the previous Leopard seed from August of 2006, which did feature a work-in-progress 64-bit Carbon. (more…)
Posted: April 3, 2008 / Category: Blog Watch, Opinion, Software
AppleTV updated to version 2.01
Apple issued an update to the AppleTV software this weekend, bringing it to version 2.01. The new version features a “Genres” option for searching through movies in your library. The update is free to AppleTV users through the AppleTV software update. At the time of this writing, there were no release notes associated with this update.