John Siracusa discusses his OS X reviews.
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Docklings ⇢
My friend Thomas Brand rounds out yesterday’s article on control interactions within MacOS and OS X with a feature I totally overlooked.
The Control Strip
The original Macintosh shipped with a very simple control panel that allowed users to adjust their computer’s volume, mouse tracking speed and desktop background, among other things:
Today, System Preferences is a bloated mess compared to Susan Kare’s 1984 masterpiece:
However, the history from the original Macintosh Control Panel to Maverick’s System Preferences isn’t a linear one.
In 1994, with the System 7.1-running PowerBook 500 series of notebooks and the Duo 280c,[1] Apple introduced the Control Strip, which can be seen in the lower left of this screenshot:
(For you pedantic readers, yes, my screenshot is of 7.5.3., but as that’s the first version of the Mac’s system software to ship with the Control Strip enabled for all models of Mac.)
The Control Strip took commonly-changed settings and made them more accessible by putting them on the screen at all times. The entire strip could be collapsed or opened up with a hot key and could be moved fairly easily via the Control Strip Control Panel.
(Really.)
With System 7, the Control Strip was fairly simple, but over time it grew. By the time Mac OS 9 rolled around, these were the default Control Strip tiles Apple was shipping:
- AirPort
- AppleTalk
- Battery Monitor
- CDStrip (worked as a miniature audio CD player)
- Energy Settings
- File Sharing
- Keychain
- Location Manager
- Media Bay (for owners of PowerBook G3s with dual docking bays)
- Monitor BitDepth (to adjust color settings)
- Monitor Resolution
- Printer Selector
- Remote Access
- Sound Volume
- SoundSource (for use when recording audio)
- Speakable Items
- TV Mirroring (supported by some Power Macintosh models)
- Video Mirroring
- Web Sharing
Additionally, users could add their own Control Strip tiles, customizing the tool to meet their specific needs.
Many of these Control Strip tiles were representatives of Control Panels buried deeper in the system. A user could put their Mac to sleep or change between “Better Conservation” and “Better Performance” settings on a PowerBook using the Energy Saving tile, but fine-tuning sleep settings required a trip to a Control Panel. Likewise, the AppleTalk tile could make simple adjustments, but dealing with anything complex was out of the Control Strip’s reach.
That’s a situation that should sound familiar, as it’s how Apple’s menu bar applications work today.
Let’s take Time Machine as an example. Its menu bar application is really just a list of shortcuts, which are helpful, but any setting changes must be done within Time Machine’s preference pane:
Some of Apple’s menu bar applications have tricks up their sleeves, like the Airport menu, which shows additional connectivity information if invoked when the Option key is held:
For the most part, the spirit of System 7’s Control Strip is still very much alive on the Mac. While OS X’s menu bar can become crowded with third-party utilities that do all sorts of crazy things, Cupertino is continuing to do what it’s done for two decades in this corner of their desktop OS.
- The PowerBook Duos are cool machines for lots of reasons, not the least of which is their range of Apple-made docking stations. ↩
On Mac menu bar apps ⇢
Zach Hamed:
Ask any Mac power user about their menubar and you’ll get a different list of 5-10 must-have applications and utilities that boost productivity. The menubar is the mission control of a user’s computer, giving them an at-a-glance view of stats and apps that are important to them. The menubar can become so crowded, in fact, that’s there’s a menubar app that collects menubar apps. So meta.
Hamed’s breakdown of popular menu bar (Apple uses it as two words) apps is an excellent example of how parts of OS X feel out of control.
via @sabbatical
Big Week
On Monday, Relay FM went live. We published the first episode of each of our five shows first thing in the morning.
Myke interviewed Marco Arment on Inquisitive, we spoke about the history of the iPod on Connected while the Nintendo DS and PS 4 were the topics of choice on Virtual.
Since Analog(ue) with Casey Liss is a new show, he and Myke spoke about launching things. However on the venerable Pen Addict podcast, Myke and Brad jumped right back in.
While we had planned on re-directing our old 5by5 feeds, we ran into some technical issues, and decided it was best for everyone if we simply started with new feeds. Thankfully, the awesome developers behind apps like Overcast, Pocketcasts, Instacast and Castro were all very supportive, featuring us in their directories and helping us test things before launch.
Monday afternoon, Relay FM was featured in the iTunes Store:
All of this means that Relay FM has had a very, very healthy week, but that simply wouldn’t be possible without our listeners. Our inboxes and Twitter clients are full of encouragement, and our shows are all highly-ranked in the iTunes charts.
(Speaking of that, reviewing the shows in iTunes is one of the best ways for new people to find us. If you have a second, help us out.)
Next week, we get back to the business of making our shows. Almost everything will stream live, which is both exciting and a little terrifying, but we’re ready to get back behind the mic and create some awesome stuff.
Apple launches iPhone 5 Battery Replacement Program ⇢
Apple:
Apple has determined that a very small percentage of iPhone 5 devices may suddenly experience shorter battery life or need to be charged more frequently. The affected iPhone 5 devices were sold between September 2012 and January 2013 and fall within a limited serial number range.
If your iPhone 5 is experiencing these symptoms and meets the eligibility requirements noted below, Apple will replace your iPhone 5 battery, free of charge.
Hit the link to check your device’s eligibility.
Mars has been hard on the Curiosity Rover ⇢
Martian dust looks brutal.
Twitter tweaks timelines, making its users’ heads explode ⇢
In a new support article titled “What’s a Twitter timeline?” the company dropped this little nugget of news:
Additionally, when we identify a Tweet, an account to follow, or other content that’s popular or relevant, we may add it to your timeline. This means you will sometimes see Tweets from accounts you don’t follow. We select each Tweet using a variety of signals, including how popular it is and how people in your network are interacting with it. Our goal is to make your home timeline even more relevant and interesting.
My Twitter timeline is relevant and interesting to me because I set it up. Twitter’s genius is that people can build their own experiences; I don’t want an algorithm made by a hipster developer interfering with that. I definitely don’t have to respect the decision.
How to subscribe to Relay FM podcasts
You can subscribe to all of Relay FM’s shows in iTunes or via RSS in your podcast app of choice. We had all of the groundwork in place to redirect the feeds with 5by5’s help, but ran into some technical issues and decided new feeds would be best for Relay FM and our listeners in the longterm. Anyways, here are the links:
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Mindset of 2001 ⇢
This week, on the first episode of our new show, Myke, Federico and I discuss the past, present and future (lol) of the iPod.
If you were subscribed to The Prompt, you’ll need to resubscribe. We were hoping to avoid this, but ran into some technical reasons that new feeds would be better for everyone. You can do so here:
We’ll be back next week with Episode 2, which should stream live on the Relay FM site.