512 Pixels

Jürgen:

Without large scale tests, it is not realistic to estimate how much resources our users will consume in the cloud. In particular, the frequency of interactions between users’ databases and the central service. Therefore we will be doing extensive scalability testing before we make an announcement regarding possible costs for the service.

[…]

I’m sure the question on the mind of many readers is: when will I be able to play with Things cloud sync first-hand? As it happens, the integration of cloud sync with the Mac version is a little further ahead of its counterparts on iOS. We have therefore decided to start with a beta of Mac-to-Mac sync first.

Initially, the cloud sync beta will be invite only. Everybody can subscribe, but we will activate accounts on a first come, first served basis as we gradually scale up the beta. We will be starting with a small number of beta testers at first – the idea is to iron out any kinks on the server early on – we will then slowly add more people in order to test our system under increasing load. iOS devices will join the fun once we are confident with everything server-side.

When will this happen? We are expecting to start sending out invitation emails on May 2.

So, it’s coming as a closed beta, for the Mac version only, in a month. Oh, and it might cost money once it is a finalized feature. And if you join the cloud sync beta, it’ll break Bonjour sync, meaning to beta test, you won’t be able to sync the iOS copy of Things at all. Oh, and the signup page keeps going down.

Pathetic.

My friend PJ McCormick, on the designer-client relationship:

Don’t fool yourself into thinking that pricing your work so low is a personal decision that only has an impact on your firm. Because it doesn’t.

Every time you hawk a logo for a couple hundred bucks or throw in a web site for free to get a promised bigger project from a client, you’re making a decision that effects all of us.

You’re creating a tiny tremor that grows in magnitude as it radiates away from you until it hits the rest of us at full force when we have to explain to our clients why we’re quoting the logo you’ll do for $200 at many, many times that. You are actively contributing to the commoditization and devaluing of our profession and the work we produce.

The whole essay is brilliant. If you charge for design work, you need to print this out and tape it to your desk.

The Apple PR Machine:

“At this year’s conference we are going to unveil the future of iOS and Mac OS,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing. “If you are an iOS or Mac OS X software developer, this is the event that you do not want to miss.”

Jim Dalrymple:

Apple’s apparent focus on software in its WWDC announcement backs up what my own sources are saying about the annual conference. That is, expect a software show in 2011, not a hardware event.

I’ve been saying for months the iPhone 5 would be a fall release — it’s starting to look like I was onto something. Even if the iPhone 5 won’t ship until 2012 as some have suggested, this WWDC, Apple will remind us all that it thinks of itself of a software company that just happens to build hardware, too.

Be sure to check out Richard Gaywood’s great post over at TUAW explaining what TRIM does.

Oskar Groth has released a neat little utility that will enable TRIM for any Mac with an SSD.

Of course, any time you play with kernel extensions, you could accidentally blow something up. That said, I ran this with no issue. Hopefully, my SSD will last longer with TRIM support now enabled in Snow Leopard.

[Thanks Todd!]

My work machine is a 2.8 GHz Core2Duo 15-inch MacBook Pro with the matte screen and 8 GB of RAM. It’s the fastest notebook I’ve ever used. It gives our 3.2 Ghz Core i3 27-iMac at home a run for its money. Most articles I’ve read by people who have upgraded to a SSD have done it to older machines. I was skeptical of what kind of difference it would make in an already fast machine, to be honest.

It turns out that this is the single best upgrade I’ve ever done for any computer. Period.

The Hardware

I opted for the 115 GB Mercury Extreme Pro SSD from OWC. It has some great reviews, and was the best bang for the buck that I could find.

I moved my stock 500 GB, 5,400 RPM hard drive into my MacBook Pro’s SuperDrive using OWC’s “Data Doubler” bracket. Unlike many similar products that use stamped metal, this bracket is just a frame, which seemed better for weight and heat considerations. It’s not flimsy by any means, though. It feels just right, and was a breeze to install.

I didn’t purchase an enclosure for my SuperDrive. Time will tell if I regret that. For now, I’ve enabled Remote Disc on my MacBook Pro, so I can share another computer’s optical drive if needed. I installed some software from our home iMac’s SuperDrive with no problem.

Optical media feels so last decade.

Data Juggling

I’ve got OS X, my applications and my home folder all on the SSD. However, since it is only 115 GB in size, and my user folder was over 200 GB on its own, I ended up just keeping my user library and my Dropbox folder on the SSD. The spinning HDD has my Documents, Downloads, Movies, Music and Pictures folder on it. These folders are symlinked to my home folder for ease of use.

Right now, I’ve got 49 GB free on the SSD.

A nice side effect of this arrangement is that I can set the option for OS X to sleep the hard drive when it isn’t in use, which has helped my battery life greatly, as the drive doesn’t have to spin all the time.

While this setup sounds complicated, I don’t think it’s that bad. It lets me enjoy the benefits of having a SSD, but without giving up having some serious on-board storage.

The Results

This machine was already fast, but now, it’s simply incredible. The SSD makes everything faster. Apps launch without a single bounce in the Dock. It wakes from sleep and starts up faster than ever. Logging in (which includes launching about 6 apps) happen in the blink of an eye.

When I was reading reviews of the new MacBook Airs, I often wondered how such slow machines could feel so fast. Now I know — it’s all about the SSD. Spinning hard drives offer cheap storage, but the 5,400 RPM drives Apple continues to ship in its notebook line are painfully slow. 7,200 RPM drives are a step in the right direction, but solid-state drives are clearly the future.

I’ll take this over a flying car any day.

These photos over at The Huffington Post look like something out of a zombie movie.

Ryan Paul:

When Android was first announced, Google’s evangelists touted it as an open ecosystem that would enable innovation—a hardware and software reaffirmation of the Carterfone decision. They spoke of a future where users would be free from restrictions and be able to install whatever software they want.

Sadly, those promises were never fulfilled and the dream of an open mobile ecosystem around Android never materialized. In reality, Android has become an insular platform developed almost entirely behind closed doors in an environment that is hostile to external contributors and is mired in a culture of secrecy that serves a small handful of prominent commercial hardware vendors and mobile carriers.

Paul is right. I fear the first Motorola Droid was the last phone that was as close to “open” as Android will get.

But there’s a problem. It’s worth the word open.

Google was using the word open to describe two things:

• The Android software: The code was to be open-sourced, managed by Google, so the community could be involved in bug fixes and new features.
• The Android experience: Android allows users to customize all sorts of things, including system resources like the keyboard.

The first one is going away, as Paul points out in his article. Google isn’t opening the code to Honeycomb yet. Time will tell if they ever do.

Carriers are also at play here, slowing the software update process way down, to drive users to new phones.

The second one is what most people mean when they describe Android as “open.” What they mean to say is that Android has “options.” Don’t like the carrier? Use Google Voice! Don’t like the keyboard? Use Swype! Need better resource management? Here’s a widget!

Options are great things, but too much of any good thing is bad. Google’s nonchalant attitude towards skins and carrier-loaded crapware has left many good phones crippled by software, not to mentions users annoyed. Fragmentation, multiple appstore experiences and more all leave Android users left to fend for themselves, but in the good, open way people were hoping for when Android shipped.

So, is Android open? Less and less, no matter what definition you like.

Craigslist ads like this kill me.

Jon Hicks, on his new MacBook Air:

The Air is leaps and bounds faster than my Pro, despite having a less powerful processor and graphics card. The speed gains must therefore come from the SSD drive. All computers (especially Macs) feel fast when they’re fresh out of the box. Over the months things start to slow down though, so it’ll be interesting to see if that happens with SSD. At the moment, restarts are matter of a few seconds, and the biggest test for me, my Windows 7 virtual disk with aero enabled, runs incredibly smoothly. On the Pro it would drag everything down with it, now I can use it without any issues.

Amazing. While Hicks did order the high-end MacBook Air, everyone I’ve talked to shares his thoughts on the new machines.

via Minimal Mac

My only problem with this is that Dave Caolo is using the Extended keyboard, while the Extended II is a far better machine. Poor Dave.

Either way, go check out this video. It’s just awesome.