Updated: Sparrow Acquired by Google ⇢

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Good for them; maybe not so awesome for the rest of us.

Updated: From Sparrow’s email to users:

We will continue to make available our existing products, and we will provide support and critical updates to our users. However, as we’ll be busy with new projects at Google, we do not plan to release new features for the Sparrow apps.

It’s been an honor and a pleasure to build products for all of our wonderful users who have supported us over the years. We can’t thank you enough.
We look forward to working on some new and exciting projects at Google!

Sigh.

The Future of the iPhone 4 ⇢

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Gruber:

The big thing to remember about the iPhone 4 is that it’s the first CDMA iPhone. No way it’s going to disappear from the lineup, because now Apple could offer a “free” iPhone on Verizon and Sprint, too.

The iPhone 4 would be one heck of a free (on contract) device.

On a related note, I’m shocked at how many people go in to AT&T and still come out with a 3GS in 2012.

‘Where is the Magic?” ⇢

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Shawn Blanc, on the Nexus 7:

For me, when it comes down to it, software will always trump hardware. When I’m using a device like the Nexus 7 I want to know where the details are. Where is the magic? The fun? The incredible 3rd-party apps? It is because of these elements that the iPad is more than the sum of its parts while its bottom-shelf competition continues to remains less than.

On the iMac G4 ⇢

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Benj Edwards:

With its innovative form factor, advanced operating system, and a then-unparalleled suite of integrated software, the iMac G4 led a new generation of consumer-grade Apple desktops that brought continued financial security to Apple during a time of transition—just as its iPod line began to heat up.

I still kick myself when I think about the day I sold mine.

On Separation ⇢

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Marco:

Large publications often try to maintain separation between ad sales and editorial staff. One-person publications don’t have such luxuries, especially when we sell some of our ads directly, but we can at least maintain internal standards of objectivity and separation of priorities.

Since publishing yesterday’s Adobe Revel sponsorship, I’ve had a number of readers make comments that suggest that I wouldn’t criticize Adobe, or that I couldn’t objectively discuss photo apps anymore, because of the sponsorship.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

While I’ve never had an advertiser try to influence content, I would never allow that to happen. No respectable journalist would.

This is one reason I love working with Fusion and the Syndicate. I rarely deal directly with advertisers; the two companies work as a separating factor.

Pocket Announces VC Funding ⇢

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Nate Weiner:

We’re incredibly excited to announce today that we’ve raised a $5 million round of funding made up entirely of our existing partners, led by Steve Vassallo of Foundation Capital and joined by Steve Anderson of Baseline Ventures and Joe Kraus of Google Ventures. They are passionate about what we’re building, have been immensely helpful since joining us last year and now have doubled down on everything we plan to do together.

My love of Instapaper aside, I really don’t like relying on VC-backed apps. I’d rather pay money to a developer than trust that a company can keep their backers happy.

The Problem with iBooks Author

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Yesterday, I announced System Extension, a members-only magazine for 512 Pixels. I built the first edition in Apple’s iBook Author program, which is simply stunning.

Except for the terms of service.

As numerous people have pointed out to me, I cannot charge directly for an .ibooks file.

Turns out, I can’t give an .ibooks file away as part of a subscription, either.

It’s all outlined here.

In short, if you collect money in any way with an .ibooks file, Apple wants their cut.

You can give away .ibooks files, or create them for your own use at a company, but can’t have any cash change hands.

(Probably not even with advertising.)

This blows.

While I will admit I should have spent a little more time reading over all of Apple’s documentation before hitting Publish, it’s pretty shitty of Apple to lock down this otherwise awesome file format.

There will be more editions of System Extension. I’m too excited about this project to let this derail me. While I’m still poking around for a solution, I’m not sure future versions will be as interactive and rich as the first one was.

On a related note, iBooks Author-generated .epub and .pdf files don’t fall under these restrictions. Just .ibooks

(Before you email me, no, Newsstand isn’t a viable alternative for this, either.)

I’d love to see Apple change its terms and give users the freedom to do whatever they wish to with these files. iBooks Author may be the single most exciting piece of software Apple’s shipped in a long time, and it’s angering to see the company have an unneeded stranglehold on it.

Old Mac of the Month: The Performa 600

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This month’s submission is by Scott Smith, a professional nerd from California, which seems radical.

I have been using Macs my entire life. As long as I can remember, from when my Dad bought a Macintosh Plus in the year I was born, there have only been Macs in the Smith Family House. Even though I am 25 years old, I would consider myself an old-time Mac user going back to System 6. However, it wasn’t really until 1993 that I realized the potential of what a computer could offer.

After making a family day trip down to MicroCenter in Orange County one day in 1993, we returned with Macintosh Performa 600, Apple Extended II Keyboard and mouse, a 13 inch Apple color display, and an assortment of CD-ROMs.

Oh, the CD-ROMs. The Performa 600 was one of Apple’s earliest machines to come with a built-in CD drive. In these early days, the Performa’s CDs were not inserted via a tray or a slot, but by a awkwardly clumsy system of placing the CDs into a caddy and then sliding it into the drive. At any rate, CDs opened up a whole new world of computing for the early 1990s. While the web and Internet were in their infancy at this time, CDs were able to contain (then) massive amounts of information.

The Performa 600’s specs were nothing to get excited about, even in it’s day. The Performa line were sold at a lower cost and bundled with software aimed for families and first time computer buyers. In many ways, it was a lower priced Macintosh IIvx. As a little kid first growing into the world of computers, the specs were not relevant or even something I was aware of. All I knew is that it could do things, and sometimes it crashed and sometimes it was slow. When that is the only experience you of, you do not see anything wrong with it.

Today, I work as a Web Designer for California Lutheran University. I can directly trace my love of graphics and computer art back to one piece of software on this old Mac. That would be Kid Pix. If I was not playing with Legos, I was seen behind a desk and a piece of paper drawing cars and airplanes. Kid Pix opened up a whole new world to me. This allowed me to follow my unencumbered youthful enthusiasm for drawing race cars, airplanes, and even early attempts at web design. The drawing brushes, fonts, special effects, and silly sound effects are all burned in my memory.

Perhaps it’s the nostalgia, or maybe it’s just what my tastes have evolved to, but there are a few games from this era have remained my absolute favorites to this day. Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis was a classic Lucas Arts adventure game that combined a fantastically unique art style, music, and storytelling that has not been topped in my opinion. My other favorite was very popular Myst. While I didn’t get it right away as a young kid, it was a game from this era that in later years I really grew to appreciate. It was a game like none-other and was way ahead of it’s time in 1993.

After a few years, my parents upgraded the family computer once again and thus the family’s Macs were passed down. First to my older brother and then to me. By the time I ended up with the Performa 600 as my own, I was fast becoming proficient with the Mac OS. I was able to install Mac OS 7.6 onto this machine, the final version of the system it was able to run. When the time came for me to get the latest family Mac passed down to me, the Performa went somewhere into storage with it’s fellow computers. It would not serve any purpose today, but I look back on the Performa 600 as a significant chunk of my childhood.

Want to write about an old Mac you love? Get in touch. In your initial email, please indicate which Mac model you are planning to write about, so I don’t have systems covered more than once.