The Cult of Mac blog is moving to a new address. The blog can now be found at www.cultofmac.com. And we're serious this time. We're still part of the Wired family, just decamped to our own domain to make some mischief. We even have several posts from this week, if you've been wondering where we've been...
Here is the new RSS feed.
We'll see you over there.
Lots of iPods have bitten the big one over the last six years. But never before have I seen so many totally trashed "breakthrough digital devices" in one place as at the great Pile of Photos of Broken iPods. Head over. Grab some hankies. Mourn. Reboot.
Via Digg.
Kudos to Alec Sutherland, who has put together the best fake ad for a real product I have ever seen in the form of "iPhone New York," a brilliant, professional spot that shows people of every language and culture raving about the iPhone. I almost teared up, and I'm all West Coast and stuff. Bonus points for use of "Young Folks" by Peter Bjorn and John, too.
I think Apple's very demo-oriented "Here's what it can actually do" campaign is perfect for the iPhone launch, but a treatment like this one could kill for a second phase. They should call Sutherland when the time comes.
Via Digg.
Of all the weeks to need to drive my car. As widely reported on the Net, most notably at Engadget, we've got what looks to be a legit iPhone sighting, courtesy of a snap by Mark Trammell. And not just anywhere, but on Caltrain, the San Francisco to Silicon Valley commuter rail I normally ride twice a day. But this is what happens the second you stop watching for it.
The Boy Genius Report suggests the user in question might actually be Mike Matas, an icon designer. I'm not sure the resemblance is strong enough...
No matter what one thinks of Safari for Windows (which has already been patched three days after launch and still can't render A LOT of sites), it's nice to see Apple attacking Microsoft's browser hegemony on its own turf.
Right?
Unfortunately, not really. As John Lilly, COO of Mozilla, points out, when Steve showed off a pie chart depicting his vision of Apple's Windows browser marketshare, he didn't depict MS losing any share at all. Instead, the image just eats up all the alternatives, including the still-rising Firefox. And while I have my problems with Firefox (it strikes me as a program only a software engineer could love), I only want to see Apple bite into Internet Explorer's customers, not the folks who have already sought out an alternative.
The computer world is not the American political scene, and there is room for way more than two players. And so it should be. The more browsers we have, the fewer "browser-specific" features develop and the more readily standards get adopted across platforms. We all stand to benefit from a diverse, competitive markets. A shame that Apple reveals they have no interest in the same.
John’s Blog » Blog Archive » A Picture’s Worth 100M Users???
The general consensus is that Steve Jobs' most recent keynote speech did not measure up to his typical standard. I'm not anywhere near so down on it (maybe because I didn't go and only watched the online feed during stolen moments at work). This Joy of Tech trip sums up the sentiment pretty well. But you'll have to click through to see the source of Steve's sudden suck. Clever, gentlemen. Clever.
Via Digg.
Technorati Tags: humor, puppy, steve jobs
With Apple sailing on an all-time high stock price and mere weeks from the launch of its absurdly anticipated iPhone, the serious business press is turning even more attention to the little-Cupertino-company-that-could than normal.
Take, for example, The Economist, which has placed Apple on the cover of its most recent issue for a story titled "Apple and the art of innovation." It's a pretty good story, nothing careful watchers of Apple don't already know. It does, however, get one aspect quite wrong, based on a simple misunderstanding of how Apple likes to work:
In fact, its real skill lies in stitching together its own ideas with technologies from outside and then wrapping the results in elegant software and stylish design. The idea for the iPod, for example, was originally dreamt up by a consultant whom Apple hired to run the project. It was assembled by combining off-the-shelf parts with in-house ingredients such as its distinctive, easily used system of controls. And it was designed to work closely with Apple's iTunes jukebox software, which was also bought in and then overhauled and improved. Apple is, in short, an orchestrator and integrator of technologies, unafraid to bring in ideas from outside but always adding its own twists.
This approach, known as “network innovation”, is not limited to electronics. It has also been embraced by companies such as Procter & Gamble, BT and several drugs giants, all of which have realised the power of admitting that not all good ideas start at home. Making network innovation work involves cultivating contacts with start-ups and academic researchers, constantly scouting for new ideas and ensuring that engineers do not fall prey to “not invented here” syndrome, which always values in-house ideas over those from outside.
Well, yes and no. Apple has largely gotten over its opposition to "not invented here" technologies, sure. Macs now use motherboards and chips found in virtually every PC on the planet. But it is a shocking mistake to claim the iPod is essentially a leveraged version of off-the-shelf hardware. At a component level, the iPod is quite obviously made up of chips and boards that Apple just buys. But throwing those components into a bag does not an iPod make.
Apple is a pure design-driven company. By that I mean that they rarely produce an idea that is truly new, but when they launch a product or service, it tends to be so much better than existing products in the category that it comes off as legitimately innovative and create new markets. Personal computers existed before the Apple II, but they sucked. The Macintosh was not even Apple's first attempt at a computer with a graphical user interface (that was the Lisa), let alone the first ever (the Xerox Alto). The iPod was far from the first Mp3 player, the AppleTV is not the first living room media set-top box, and the iPhone is about as far from the first cell phone as you could get.
Yet each product has been or could prove to be truly ground-breaking. Is it because Apple continually looked out to the world and saw a great solution in the world they could buy, brand and ship, as P&G famously did with the Crest SpinBrush? Of course not! The Microsoft Zune is a much better example of Network Innovation than the Apple iPod -- the Zune is simply a Toshiba media player with a slightly different interface, new software and Zune branding. The iPod was invented whole cloth, even if it used individual pieces of tech that existed in the world.
This is where Apple excels. They take ideas that people have invented -- adequate functionality, a modest market of hobbyists -- and turn them into innovations by fitting them into what people need. No matter the nascent market, once Apple gets there, their solution will be simpler, prettier and just more lovable than existing ideas in the market. And that's about building a better mousetrap, something Apple does better than anyone in the whole wide world.
It's awesome. But it's not a primary strategy of Network Innovation.
Delicious Library 2, which has a snazzy new UI based on Core Animation, wins an Apple's 2007 Design Award for Best Leopard Application. Still no screenshots of it though.
For discussion of Core Animation and how it might change interfaces, see here: Kiss Boring Interfaces Goodbye With Apple's New Animated OS.
The other winners are:
Best Mac OS X User Experience: Coda. Panic.
Best Mac OS X Developer Tool: CSSEdit 2.5. MacRabbit.
Best Mac OS X Game: World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade 2.0. Blizzard Entertainment .
Best Mac OS X Scientific Computing Solution: Papers 1.0. Alexander Griekspoor and Tom Groothuis.
Best Mac OS X Dashboard Widget: BART Widget 1.0. Bret Victor.
Best Mac OS X Student Product: Picturesque 1.0. Zac Cohen.
If you're among the many people in the United States who either can't use AT&T/Cingular or choose not to use the carrier's services based on negative experiences, take heart -- there still might be a way to use an iPhone without the company's blessing. The iPhone ships in four weeks. And though Apple is officially keeping the device exclusive to AT&T for five years, never underestimate the black market for unlocked phones.
According to Ars Technica, Pure Mobile is now claiming it will sell unlocked iPhones for an undisclosed (read: EXORBITANT) rate almost as soon as the devices hit the market. As a T-Mobile user, this is very heartening news, but I can tell you there is no way I'm going to spend $1,000 or more for an iPhone. Maybe when the iPhone nano hits in two years, and someone unlocks that...
Anyone willing to take the unlocked plunge?
For all of the complaining that has tripped down the wire about Apple's total lack of an SDK for the iPhone, a couple of entrepreneurial developers have already created iPhone apps to try out in Safari.
Shown above is David Cann's alternate interface for Digg. It's quite fun, and I actually find it a better way to navigate Digg than the real site. (Sorry, Kevin!) I especially enjoy the way it implements the "grab and fling" interface for the rest of us.
The other contender is OneTrip, a quick (though very elegant) grocery list program put together over-night by Neven Mrgan. Both apps are really nice and fairly clear evidence that sophisticated programs suited to use on the iPhone are possible. I think the new Apple strategy of "the web is the new SDK" is actually a wonderful one. They're pretty unlikely to crash, and really powerful development is a possibility.
Anyone want to lay money on how long it will be until Google issues a version of Reader optimized for the iPhone?
Technorati Tags: iphone, software, thirdparty
Miss the WWDC keynote? Other than a couple of the specific features of Leopard, don't bother. But you should watch the video above -- it's John "PC and also noted pseudo-intellectual" Hodgman posing as Steve Jobs and announcing the demise of the Mac platform. It was the opening act for real Steve. Hilarious.
Technorati Tags: get a mac, john hodgman
So what is Steve Jobs didn't introduce any new hardware in his keynote and the iPhone third-party application support is somewhat bogus? Core Animation, the new Desktop and new Finder or incredibly gorgeous, so watch Steve preach it on Apple's official stream.
Technorati Tags: keynote, steve jobs, wwdc
With all the excitement and, to be frank, disappointment that came with yesterday's WWDC Stevenote, I haven't seen anyone pick out the obvious with Apple's innovative new GUI element Stacks, which allows users to cluster files that would otherwise clutter the desktop into a discreet pile of files that blow out into a scannable list with a simple click. It takes the super-janky right-click a folder in the dock movement we're all used to now and replaces it with a sleek Dock launcher we can all get behind.
It's really cool. It's also a very old concept, one that Apple has had patented for 15 years. And this doesn't look to be a great implementation of it. Way back in 1992, Apple called the Stacks content "Piles," first demonstrating the new interface at the CHI conference. Gitta Solomon of Apple's Advanced Technology Human Computer Interaction Group created the fascinating interview, which The Register mooted was finally destined for Mac OS X way back in 2003. Only four years too early -- and 11 years too late. Click through to learn more about Piles.
Continue reading "Leopard "Stacks" Implement Ages-Old GUI Concept "Piles"" »
For a lot of Apple geeks, the love affair with Apple began at school, using an Apple II while playing Oregon Trail, the all-time best game where you could explore the wild west and see your whole family die of dysentery or snake bite, all before afternoon recess.
Silicon User has pulled together a fantastic article detailing the history of the Minnesota Educational Computing Consortium, creators of Oregon Trail, Number Munchers and Word Munchers. Those were the titles that proved that Macs were good for playing games, even back then. What I hadn't realized is that Apple enjoyed a very close relationship with the odd, government-owned corporation:
Throughout the 1980s, key individuals from Apple Computer attended MECC conferences as keynote speakers including Apple co-founder and then-Chairman Steve Jobs and Alan Kay (an Apple fellow) in 1982, Flord Kvamme (Executive VP of Sales at Apple) in 1983 and in 1985 John Sculley, then-CEO of Apple.
Check it out and get nostalgic.
Educational computing for the masses | SiliconUser
Technorati Tags: oregon trail, history
Having spent a day with the beta for Apple's much-ballyhooed Safari browser for Windows XP, I'm ready to pronounce it the fastest browser for XP that I've used on a regular basis. On the other hand, it also is riddled with the kinds of bizarre bugs only a public beta could expose. Sometimes, it's both the fastest AND the stupidest browser on all of Windows. If you're on the fence, click through to hear whether your working style is ready for this not-quite-ready for primetime browser contender while stranded in the Windows world.
Big shocker at WWDC today (seriously!). Apple is going to release a public beta of Safari 3 for Windows at its site this afternoon. I really didn't expect to see this happen -- a really bold move from Apple, especially if they can find some way to make it play nicer with iTunes than Firefox and Explorer do. And as a workplace Windows user -- I'll definitely download and play with it. It's no Camino, but then, what is?
Image via MacRumors.
Lest there be any lingering doubts about the total lack of authenticity contained in the supposed agenda for this morning's keynote by Steve Jobs at the Worldwide Developer Conference posted to a German Apple site over the weekend, consider this: The agenda hasn't gotten a single detail of the presentation correct.
Here's the early agenda, as proposed by the site, Apfelkueche:
� Greetings
� Sales figures and market share of the Macs
� Apple net curtain:
� new Retail store in Italy,
� first store on European mainland,
� new stores will open shortly, among other things Munich, Barcelona, Paris� iMac:
� Core2Duo selling great!,
� New Generation,
� new Design, which follows itself to iPhone, partly brushed metal
� even thinner,
� Santa rosa chip set,
� LED back light,
� Sizes: 20 ? and 24 ?
� Demo new iMacs
Here's what Steve has actually done, courtesy of our colleague Michael Calore's live blog:
Video with John Hodgman
Details of attendance at largest WWDC ever
Special award to Intel for contributions to Apple
Games demos with EA and iD Games
Overview of Tiger success
Details of Leopard features, none of which are enumerated on German site
I mean, I knew it was fake, but who could have guessed it was THAT fake?
It's a beautiful sunny morning here in San Francisco, and Wired News will be liveblogging Steve Jobs' keynote at WWDC. We have reporters. We have cameras, and we have press passes. Check it out here at 10 AM. Don't forget to refresh.
Wanna know the No. 1 sign that we're less than 12 hours from major product announcements by Apple? People are throwing up completely weak rumors that wouldn't even get mocked normally. Chief among these at this very moment is an alleged rundown of The Stevenote address, which includes some errors so obvious that it even harms the credibility of the rest of the list.
The Google translation from the original German at Apfelkueche is quite interesting, but take a look at the detail. The new iMacs are alleged to have LED displays at 20 and 24". Really? I'd be pretty surprised. After all, Apple just rolled out MacBook Pros last week, and only managed to go LED for the 15.4" models, not the 17" SKUs. Could Apple pull together a machine built around a display a full 7" bigger than a model they haven't even shipped? I doubt it.
The wackiest rumor of all is, of course, the iPhone@Home, an alleged 10" multitouch tablet mainly for movie-watching and Internet surfer. People have been throwing around rumors for years that Apple would release a tabletMac, and this is the same old rumor, repackaged as a pretend big brother for the iPhone. Who knows? Apple might be ready. But I can tell you this much: NO WAY ON EARTH is Apple releasing a machine called the iPhone@Home that isn't actually a phone and can be used anywhere, not just at home. The company is way too smart to use such a stupid name. Keep your heads up, kids, the FUD is flying right now.
Via Digg.
Technorati Tags: keynote, rumor, steve jobs, Steve Jobs
Steve Jobs has made a hobby out of letting the world know that people aren't interested in renting their music. We hear you loud and clear, Steve. One thing Steve has never claimed, however, is that people don't like renting movies, as Netflix and Blockbuster will attest.
On the eve of his WWDC keynote, the Financial Times claims that Steve is about to put Apple at the forefront of the digital movie rental business:
A film would cost $2.99 for a 30-day rental. Its digital rights-management software would allow films to be moved from a computer to at least one other device such as the video iPod or iPhone. The software would prevent movies being copied.
Interesting notion. After all, Apple has gone through hell trying to sign up movie studios to sell their films through iTunes. A lot more companies than Disney and Paramount will leap in if this is legit.
Via MacRumors.
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