Category: Apple
Time Capsules Keeling Over?
Apple’s Time Capsule is a pretty slick device — it’s a router, a wireless access point and a backup drive. However, a growing number of reports show that the devices may be failing early.
The Apple Time Capsule Memorial Register is a site dedicated to tracking the issue by capturing info on failed devices.
By having users record their Time Capsule’s serial number, capacity, purchase and death date, the site has built a database of almost 400 dead devices, with an average lifespan of 17 month, 6 days.
Steve Jobs, on Education in 1995
Steve Jobs, in the Smithsonian Oral and Video Histories collection:
As you’ve pointed out I’ve helped with more computers in more schools than anybody else in the world and I absolutely convinced that is by no means the most important thing. The most important thing is a person. A person who incites your curiosity and feeds your curiosity; and machines cannot do that in the same way that people can. The elements of discovery are all around you. You don’t need a computer. Here - why does that fall? You know why? Nobody in the entire world knows why that falls. We can describe it pretty accurately but no one knows why. I don’t need a computer to get a kid interested in that, to spend a week playing with gravity and trying to understand that and come up with reasons why.
The Droid We’ve Been Looking For
Verizon’s now teasing their upcoming Android phone:
While this device is a collaboration between Google, Verizon and Motorola, the ad sure seems to pit Verizon against Apple — not AT&T. This is unique, and seems to further prove Verizon won’t be carrying the iPhone any time soon.
Apple Ships Mixed CD From Memphis
One of our readers recently received an unsolicited package from Apple. That alone is kind of weird, but the contents were even stranger: a mix CD titled “Boom Boom Pow,” complete with smiley faces and stars drawn in Sharpie.
[…]
Who knows how this ended up leaving the Apple distribution center in Memphis. Maybe it was just a little gift for being such a loyal customer over the years.
‘Don’t Upgrade, Buy a New PC’
There are good technical reasons why Microsoft chose this path. However, for average XP users and many businesses, such a difficult upgrade makes Windows 7 a non-starter. Users that are more proficient will make the upgrade at their own peril, just make sure you have application install disks handy.
Yes, you can upgrade from XP to Windows 7, but is it really worth it?
No!
Just buy an inexpensive new Win7 machine instead. Hardware has improved a great deal since many of our XP machines were purchased. Money for a Windows 7 upgrade is better spent on a new computer that comes with it preinstalled. In terms of time, trouble, and a happy user experience, this is the best way to get Windows 7.
Jackass of the Month
This month, it goes to Dong Ngo of CNET. He benchmarked Snow Leopard against Windows 7. While the results were a mixed bag for OS X, he closed his article with this:
Third, if you can get by with just software designed by Apple and if money is not a big issue, you will be happy with a Mac. Examples of these software choices are iTunes, iLife, QuickTime, Safari, iChat, and so on (and you probably won’t need much more than those for daily entertainment and communication needs). Finally, if money is not an issue–and it definitely is for most of us–you should get a Mac anyway. It’s the only platform, for now, that can run both Windows and OS X.
Snow Leopard Server Gets Reviewed
With Mac OS X 10.6 Server, Apple has made significant improvements to their server OS. Major new features like Address Book Server and Mobile Access Server complement the solid improvements in existing services. The addition of Push services for e-mail and calendaring finally allow Apple to more properly support its own iPhone product.
Ironically, Apple is so far ahead of most everyone else in supporting things like CalDAV and CardDAV that trying to use non-Apple clients with iCal and Address Book server is a mess of unfriendly clients, or random third party plugins to Outlook et al, and unfortunately, Apple isn’t much help for Mac OS X 10.6 Server administrators trying to deal with this problem. Hopefully that will improve over time, but for anyone supporting non-Mac clients, keep in mind that you may have some interesting times ahead of you with Mac OS X 10.6 Server.
10.6.2 Around the Corner
Apple is already distributing a third beta seed of Mac OS X 10.6.2 to developers, sources say. Called 10C527f, the build adds fixes for 13 different components of the OS. Of special emphasis are corrections for video errors, including several GraphicsDrivers problems which can cause screen flickering, crashes in OpenCL or stuttering while playing 1080p movies in QuickTime X. QuickTime itself has been fixed to allow some movies to play properly.
Backlight Dance
iSpazz is:
…a plugin for iTunes on OS X, controlling the MacBook Pro/PowerBook backlight keyboard and optionally the display backlight.
Here’s a video of it in action.
In App Purchases Get a Makeover
Apple, in a mass-email to iPhone developers this afternoon:
In App Purchase is being rapidly adopted by developers in their paid apps. Now you can use In App Purchase in your free apps to sell content, subscriptions, and digital services.
You can also simplify your development by creating a single version of your app that uses In App Purchase to unlock additional functionality, eliminating the need to create Lite versions of your app. Using In App Purchase in your app can also help combat some of the problems of software piracy by allowing you to verify In App Purchases.
Gruber, on Schiller on Windows 7
You might be tempted to argue, Well, of course Phil Schiller would say that, he’s Phil Schiller. That’s true, insofar as that even if Schiller believed that Windows 7 is going to adversely affect Mac sales, it’s not like he’d admit so in an interview. But the gist of his remarks isn’t that he expects the Mac to hold its own, but rather that he expects the Mac to continue to thrive. Why set such an expectation if he didn’t believe it?