512 Pixels

Dave Hamilton looks at Apple’s new storage system.

Joshua Topolsky:

The promise of the Surface was that it could deliver a best-in-class tablet experience, but then transform into the PC you needed when heavier lifting was required. Instead of putting down my tablet and picking up my laptop, I would just snap on my keyboard and get my work done. But that’s not what the Surface offers, at least not in my experience. It does the job of a tablet and the job of a laptop half as well as other devices on the market, and it often makes that job harder, not easier. Instead of being a no-compromise device, it often feels like a more-compromise one.

There may be a time in the future when all the bugs have been fixed, the third-party app support has arrived, and some very smart engineers in Redmond have ironed out the physical kinks in this type of product which prevent it from being all that it can be. But that time isn’t right now — and unfortunately for Microsoft, the clock is ticking.

Microsoft needs Surface to a be a win, and this doesn’t sound like a win to me.

This week, hot on the heels of Apple’s iPad mini event, Myke and I distill the news and talk about the new 13-inch MacBook Pro with Retina display, the new crazy-thin iMac and — of course — the new, smaller iPad. And Myke chokes on the air. Literally.

Apple had an event today. With lots of new products, consumers have lots of options for the holidays, but as with most of the company’s events, it was about far more than just the new devices.

iPad mini

In the new iPad mini video, Jony Ive says:

There is inherent loss in just reducing a product in size. We took the time to go back to the beginning and design a product that was a concentration of, not a reduction of, the original.

The iPad mini — from what I’ve seen in the coverage, at least — is not a reduction of the full-sized iPad. It runs iPad apps, looks like an iPad and works like an iPad.

It is an iPad.

As Shawn Blanc said, it’s the 11-inch MacBook Air of iPads. Can everyone use an 11-inch machine? No. Is the small Air a full-featured Mac? Of course.

Do people love them? Yes.

The iPad mini has more in common with the iPod mini than the MacBook Air, however. While it doesn’t suffer from the same storage restrictions the iPod did, the iPad mini does take the full-sized experience and boil it down to something smaller, lighter and more fun.

I think it’s going to do great.

13-inch MacBook Pro with Retina display

Apple’s MacBook Pro product matrix is now rather hilarious. There are four options: 13-inch and 15-inch, in Retina or not. While this is a temporary measure (I hope), it is weird. That said, the 13-inch Retina was inevitable.

With the Retina machines, Apple has stripped away what it deems unnecessary. Retina MacBook Pros are a concentrated version of their non-Retina cousins. They are simpler inside and out, thinner, lighter and more powerful.

(One way the Retina is more complex is in the fact that it has two internal fans. No other 13-inch machine, Pro or not, has shipped with more than one.)

The new iMac

While it’s not Retina, the new iMac is crazy thin, and features a newly-designed display..

Like the Retina machines, the new iMac drops the optical drive and a lot of weight and thickness. This graphic on Apple’s site really shows how much Apple has removed from its flagship desktop over the years.

One odd note: the 27-inch iMac doesn’t ship to December.

Wrap-up

Obviously, the news we will all remember from today’s event is the new iPad mini. However, the new full-sized iPad, MacBook Pro, iMac and more are all notable, and have on thing in common: simplicity. Apple’s moving its Mac product line in a direction of thinner enclosures with simpler internals. In doing so, they are removing features, distilling the products down to just the basics. The result is a more concentrated Mac, thinner and more powerful then ever before.

And that’s not a bad thing at all.

The October 2012 edition of System Extension is here.

This month, I walk though how I capture things throughout my workday. My methods might be a little more old-fashioned than you would guess.

We also take a look at one of the most rare (and weirdest) Macs ever built — the 20th Anniversary Macintosh. The all-in-one machine is strangely beautiful, but super bonkers at the same time. I think you’ll enjoy learning some more about it.

This month’s edition is brought to you by Work Journal. Work Journal is a Mac app which helps you keep track of what you do on a daily basis. Think of it as a reverse todo list — the done list.

The guys at Work Journal have given me 6 promo codes to giveaway to System Extension readers. If you want to win, mention @512px in a tweet saying you want to win a copy, and I’ll select the winners over the weekend.

Why work for Mutual Mobile? We’ve grown from a core 5 people in 2009 to just over 200 at the turn of 2012, and we’re poised to double that figure over the next year. Our client list includes companies like Google, Cisco, and Audi, and your skills help build what we offer. It’s an exciting time to be in Austin’s tech scene, and we work to keep things interesting.

Check out our open positions and apply today.

Sponsorship by The Syndicate.

Last week, I joined my pal Kevin Lipe and his buddy Greg Turner on their podcast, Pretty Broken. As their show exists to explore Southern culture, and creativity. We talked about bad jobs, being a member of the Hackett family in Memphis and being a liberal in the South.

God bless Danny Thomas and those that work in his shadow at St. Jude.

Sven Fechner was kind enough to invite to write a guest post for awesome blog, so I decided to use his platform to make a confession about my GTD system.

Hate OS X’s built-in calendar application? Here’s a great alternative.

I got this setup and running within a couple of minutes. My Rode Podcaster doesn’t have a mute button, and it’s always bugged me to have to use Skype to mute my call if I cough. Now I can mute easily and quickly, and not just for Skype, but system-wide.