Articles for October 2011

For those who use OS X at its core level (UNIX, aka Darwin), a very handy utility is the Terminal.app. Terminal.app is a quick way to drop down to the UNIX level of the operating system and perform some deep level coding. Or it can also be a way to navigate around the operating system if point-and-click isn't your thing.

With Lion Terminal.app got a few cool features, one of which is making windows blur when in the background. This is especially handy when you have multiple windows open at the same time, but want to focus on one. However, there seems to be a drawback to Lion's version of Terminal.app and that is Lion's Auto Save feature.

Podcast Episode 62: iPhone Worth Every Penny. The Three Guys (Mark, Karl and Werner) discuss the autobiography of Steve Jobs, and the idea of Apple coming out with their own HDTV. What was Jobs up to with his pre-announcment/leak of such a product? Microsoft comes out with yet another horrific future ad, and much more in Episode 62: iPhone Worth Every Penny.

It has been difficult for travelers looking for good Internet access on the road. It was once hard to find a Wi-Fi connection, since most hotels only had an ethernet port. However, times have changed as most hotels have decided to add Wi-Fi hot-spots. The issue is no longer Wi-Fi access, but Wi-Fi service. It can be very frustrating for travelers who find a very poor or nonexistent Internet service at a hotel that advertises "High-Speed" Bandwidth. Some are starting to blame the iPad.

In a recent New York Times article, iBAHN, an Internet provider for hotels and the meeting industry blames iPads for poor Wi-Fi service at hotels. They say the iPad consumes more than four times the amount of bandwidth than an average smart-phone. But is this the whole story?

Start the countdown, because the next TV you are likely to buy, or want to buy, is going to be made by Apple. And it isn't just because this TV has some elegant design and brilliant looking screen, it'll be because the interface and content that comes right out of the box, and the way in which you control it, is going to blow you away.

Jobs Says So
The question isn't if, it's just a matter of when Apple's holistic television solution will arrive. Steve Jobs said as much in his autobiography, and his "I finally cracked it" comment and additional color on the topic, may be the only time during Jobs reign at Apple that he leaked a single grain of data about a forthcoming product. Don't think this is Jobs throwing in the towel or not caring because he was leaving us. On the contrary, this is perfect Steve Jobs start-the-hype stuff. It's all about the mystery and creating a pent-up demand for something we don't know we even want – yet. Jobs delivered a glimpse into Pandora's box, but since he's gone, we can't dig deeper, and since it didn't officially come from Apple don't count on Cook and company rapping eloquently about this any time soon.

I've been an advocate of Macs since my first introduction to a Mac Plus in dorm room back in 1986. Ever since then I've never seen the reason behind PeeCees — whether MS DOS or Windows. DOS was just plain ugly. I shutter to think if Apple hadn't brought us the Mac, then we'd probably all be running MS DOS version 31 — and would it ever be blazin' quick to see a directory! And then there is Windows. In my mind Windows has always just been a Mac user interface knock-off. Sure Windows improved on some items, but its essence is still a second rate knock-off. Let's not even get started with security woes or viruses (or is that viri?) that plague the PC world.

Yesterday I took some photos with my iPhone 4. When I got back to the office I plugged the iPhone into the USB connector and watched as my iPhone synced with iTunes and iPhoto...  or so I thought.

In the 60 Minutes interview with Walter Isaacson, the author who wrote the biography titled Steve Jobs, Isaacson is asked about Jobs' view of the afterlife. Jobs thought more about God or and the afterlife the closer he got to death's door. It was 50/50 in Steve's mind, but as he faced his mortality, the afterlife seemed to be a better reality than everything just ending with death of the body.

Isaacson said Jobs thought of the possibility of no afterlife like an on/off switch. We were on one moment and then off the next. This made Jobs uncomfortable, and is exactly why Jobs didn't allow any Apple products to have on/off switches. Look at your Mac, you iPod, your iPad or your iPhone and you know what? There isn't an on/off switch. There is a way to turn Apple products on and off, but isn't a simple switch — and now we know why.

Podcast Episode 61: Siri-ously. The Three Guys (Mark, Karl and Werner) discuss Apple's earnings, iPhone 4S, Siri and touch on how Android may be "activating" but is it relevant on devices people actually want? Much more in Episode 61: Click here.

Adobe created the PDF document format back in 1993. Apple adopted it as an operating system standard format for Mac OS X. Since then, PDF has become the multi-platform standard for storing and sharing documents on any device, and Apple's Preview application is arguably the best basic PDF viewer and editor on the Mac.

With the release of iOS 5 and Mac OS 10.7.2, Apple has added iCloud features to both operating systems. One of the applications that has benefited is Safari, Apple's default web browser.

Life after Steve Jobs is a sad thought for most of us who use products thought up, developed and deployed under his leadership. Whether it's the original Macintosh, the first iMac or the iPhone Apple under the leadership of Jobs was an amazing run of products and services which we all benefited.

However, here's the problem. Jobs was the only one on Apple's senior team who didn't finish college. As has been well reported, he was a college drop out after six months. He then was a "bum" who sponged off of the good graces of others for 18 more. When you look at the other executive bios they all have the formal training you'd expect for senior management at a Fortune 500. So now a bunch of "egg heads" are running Apple just like at IBM, just like at HP,...

Renton, WA, South Center Mall Apple Store: Over 200 people lined up to get their hands on one of Apple's newest – or less expensive (dare I say cheap or free!) – iPhones. Apple Stores are handing out voucher coupons similar to the iPad launch, but on a more sophisticated level. Apple employees need to know which carrier, configuration and color of iPhone is wanted. The Apple employee then hands out a voucher for that device (see image above).

The voucher program appears to indicate that Apple will not have enough iPhones on each carrier to meet demand. This does not match rumors that were claiming Apple had been producing new iPhones for well over a month in the 150k per-day range.

The MacMini is Apple's entry level Macintosh. It debuted in 2005 and has gone through many revisions over the years. The current model uses an Intel Sandy Bridge i5 or i7 processor with up to 8GB DDR3 memory.

The Mac Mini comes in three different models ranging in price from $599 to over $2000 for a maxed out server version. The base and server models come with only with an integrated processor Intel HD Graphics 3000, but the mid level version comes with a discreet AMD Radeon HD 6630M graphics processor. For those looking at the Mac Mini, the question is which is the best model to purchase.

Facebook, Twitter, Google +1,... and that's just the beginning of the list. There are well over a dozen different world-wide main-stream social media outlets one can use for free to get "their message out," and most everyone who is anyone is part of this social media trend. Even T–GAAP sports a Facebook page and Twitter account.

Yet someone is missing from this social media upheaval — Apple. Apple has deliberitly made a choice not to directly play in the world of social media. iOS 5 is loaded with goodies for Twitter users, but Apple, Inc. is absent. This seems somewhat bizarre given the fact that social media is especially popular with those under 30 years old — the same group that gobble up the iPad, iPhone and iPod products. So why would Apple not use social media to communicate it's own offerings to this crowd?

It happened to me again yesterday morning. I was giving a presentation at a conference on the subject of e-mail marketing. There was an HDTV in the room and I couldn't use it. Instead I used the projector provided by the conference. Why couldn't I use the HDTV? Cords.

Like Steve Jobs was, I consider myself very particular about presentations. How I look when giving a Keynote means as much as the quality of the content. If the messenger gets in the way of the message, the message falls on deaf ears because of distractions the messenger creates. For example, all the other presenters at this conference were using PC's and Powerpoint. As expected, their slides were boring, full of words and just plain awful. Each new slide was more of the same — lots of text, a poor graphics and then someone yammering for time to eternity about all the words... Wake me up when it's over.

There isn't much more that can be said about Steve Jobs, until his authorized autobiography is released  later this month. If you haven't had time to search and find some articles on Steve, here is a short-list to what we found to be the most profound columns about Mr. Jobs.

 Apple updated their mobile OS to version 5 this week. This new update has a number of great features including iCloud, which allows applications to sync files between iOS and a Mac. Yet, for some users, it still does not replace a file manager like the Mac's Finder.

There are many iOS applications that allow users to manage files on the iOS, but the best one is GoodReader by Good.iWare. That is why GoodReader is this week's App of the Week. It has a number of great features that include:

The shock of Wall Street not seeing the terminology "iPhone 5" on Apple's latest iPhone offering sent the stock careening in Tuesday's trading, down as much as $17 a share to $357.32 before bouncing back in late day trading.

Punditslooking for link-bait notwithstanding, the fears of some analysts and investors seem to be turning a corner today, from emotionally disappointed, to looking at the facts – Apple has put together a world-wide iPhone lineup that attacks every pricing segment head on with iOS devices:

 The Mac platform has three major Internet browsers: Apple's Safari, Google's Chrome, and Mozilla's Firefox. All three are very capable browsers that can run the latest webpages and web applications. Previous reviews have given Safari the edge, but all three have been recently updated. In light of these new updates, it is time to take a look at all three again and see how they compare.

Given that each is more than capable of browsing today's Internet, we will look deeper into the strengths and weaknesses to find a winner. The following list gives our browser ranking and a short review why they placed where they did.

Let's waste no time and just dive right into why Apple's 'Let's talk iPhone' special event is going to be huge:

In the 60's, after President Kennedy's assassination, Simon & Garfunkel brought us the Sound of Silence. That tone can be sensed again this week in for the form of Fire, that has all but gone out. Amazon's gushing moment came from their new line of Kindle's launched this past Wednesday. But since Friday, the absence of any enthusiasm and chatter about the devices, specifically the Kindle Fire, has been deafening.