Each time the company does this, I feel a little older.
Category: Apple
‘We Have to be Really Clear’
Steve Jobs, in this video linked to by All Thing D’s John Paczkowski:
This is a very complicated world. This is a very noisy world and we’re not going to get a chance … to get people to remember much about us. No company is. And so we have to be really clear on what we want them to know about us.
‘Promised too Much’
Dave Lawrence at Newton Poetry linked to the NYT’s original MessagePad review earlier this week. Here’s some of that review:
The bottom line on the Newton Message Pad is that Apple promised too much and failed to deliver a useful device for everyday executive chores. On the other hand, the Message Pad practically hums with untapped potential, and six months (or moths) to a year from now it is likely to be a popular executive tool.
Pages Gets ePub Export
Update: Liza Daly picks apart the new feature, outlining its strengths and weaknesses.
On Sleep Indicators
John Gruber linked to this article on Flood Lite today:
In July 2002, Apple filed a patent for a “Breathing Status LED Indicator” (No. US 6,658,577 B2). They described it as a “blinking effect of the sleep-mode indicator in accordance with the present invention mimics the rhythm of breathing which is psychologically appealing.”
The average respiratory rate for adults is 12-20 breaths per minute, which is the rate that the sleep-indicator light fades in and out on most Apple laptops. Older models such as the Macintosh PowerBook, however, use a blinking LED indicator, with discrete pulses in one-second intervals.
Apple to Host Music Event Sept. 1
Clunky
I love the simplicity of the MacBook Air — when I have to use someone else’s MacBook Pro, it feels heavy and clunky. Don’t get me started on how it feels to use someone else’s Window machine. It would be nice if my Air lasted for 20 years.
I agree. The Air is a piece of art. While it doesn’t meet my day-to-day needs, I really wish it did.
Many Features Do Not a Good Program Make
The new Mac Office 2011, currently in development, will easily best iWork ’09, and with every feature update demonstrates just how far behind iWork has fallen.
I’ll take iWork over Office any day of the week.
Analog Computing
The Apple Graphics Tablet
There’s no doubt that Apple’s iPad is a revolutionary computing device that’s ushering in a new era of tablet computing.
But in 1979, an earlier generation of Apple users used a different kind of Apple tablet, back when the word meant something else entirely.
The Apple Graphics Tablet was designed by Summagraphics and sold by Apple Computer Inc. for the Apple II personal microcomputer. (Summagraphics also marketed the device for other platforms as the BitPad.) To be clear, this tablet was not a stand-alone computing device like the iPad. Instead, it was an input device for creating images on the Apple II’s screen, and it predated the Apple II’s mouse by six years.
The MacBook Air Project
This here is a little blog to follow what I have termed the MacBook Air project. An attempt to turn a busted Apple MacBook Air into a computer in a keyboard.
While it is still a little rough, this is pretty sweet.
Same Song, Different Verse
All the hatred and frustration with AT&T will most likely happen again with Verizon several years down the road. The resistance against dumb carrier policies is a war that will go on indefinitely. Those participating in the resistance are often criticized as whiners and dreamers, as if their efforts are entirely fruitless. There’s a big difference between simply whining and complaining and working to raise awareness on a significant and troublesome policy change.