I picked up a Twelve South Compass iPad stand today at the Apple Store. If you use your iPad without a case, you need this little guy in your life. It’s handsome, well-made and a lot heavier than it looks. Which makes it quite sturdy, even when typing on the iPad. The rubber feet and insets grip the iPad to keep it from moving, and keep the stand from scratching it. You won’t regret having it around.
Nine years ago, Steve Jobs announced the new era of computing was about to begin. Pete Mortensen:
It was January 9, 2001. It was the silver anniversary of Apple, and the newspapers were full of stories about the demise of the personal computer. Lots of digital devices had emerged that were tailored to single tasks that they did really well, from digital cameras to DVD players to DVRs to CD players to camcorders to PDAs. Many thought that we would replace our multi-use but often inefficient computers with a bunch of highly effective single-taskers. But not Jobs. As he made clear, the strength of a computer was its ability to control and integrate all these many digital devices. A Mac, in short, could serve as the Digital Hub that unites those disparate points in your digital life.
iLife — first launched as a product family in 2003[1. Check out the history of iLife.] — served as Apple’s solution to the Digital Hub problem.
When it first came out, iLife was magical. There had never been such a great way to organize photos, edit home videos or create DVDs. Over the years, music editing and simple website creation were added with GarageBand and iWeb.
Since its launch, iLife has been one of Apple’s main tools to lure PC users to the Mac. And for good reason. iLife is unique in the computer industry. There’s nothing like iLife on the PC — in any price range. The fact that Apple bundles it for free with new Macs is mind-blowing.
As important as iLife is to Apple, there is a segment of Mac users seem to have grown weary of it. As the iLife demos were happening at this week’s event, there were tons of comments on Twitter (and in the Macgasm chat room) wishing the event would just move on, past iLife.
I talked on the DadCast this week about about the Mac App Store possibly creating two classes of Mac users — new users, pulled to the Mac via iOS devices and older users, who have been on the Mac for years who use things like Terminal and Console.
I think iLife is becoming another line in the sand between classes of Mac users. My lovely, hot wife (whom I love very much) isn’t a power use by any stretch of the word. She uses iPhoto all the time. I however, use Aperture. In fact, I use exactly zero iLife programs on a regular basis.
I think this is a pretty common. I think a lot of moderate to power users are frustrated with iLife’s simplicity.
With pro apps like Aperture, Logic and Final Cut Express cheaper and more powerful than ever, iLife has some real competition on the Mac.[2. If you buy an Apple pro app instead of iLife, Apple still wins, of course.]
There’s nothing wrong with more serious users wanting more serious programs. The problem is that Apple’s pro apps don’t get the time or attention that iLife does. iPhoto’s fancy new card printing got several minutes of air time during Apple’s event. When was the last time Aperture got that much love?
Apple needs to find a balance. iLife is still wooing over new users, but there is a large segment of users that want and need more. 25 minutes of iLife updates are fine to sit through, just follow it up at some point with 25 minutes of something more hardcore. Apple’s pro apps don’t get the same attention as iLife gets, which makes a lot of professional-level users feeling a little forgotten by the company.
An alternative would be for Apple to add some complexity to the iLife applications, instead of just more pre-built slideshows to iPhoto and re-touching music lessons in GarageBand.[3. Which have to be the craziest, least-used Apple software feature ever.]
iMovie ’11’s new audio tools are a good example of this. While easy to use, these new tools add a level of complexity and flexibility that has been missing from iMovie for a long time. Adding more complex photo editing to iPhoto and better podcast tools to GarageBand would make for a more powerful, well–rounded iLife.
Which would benefit both classes of Mac users.
Which would be good for Apple, too.
Update: I totally get that Apple’s growth over the last decade is due in major part to the fact that the company caters to consumers. That’s not a bad thing at all — Apple wouldn’t be the powerhouse it is toady without consumer programs and consumer hardware. My beefs are (1) that those of us who want more powerful apps wait far longer for updates than consumer-level users, and (2) that iLife could be made more powerful, which would help alleviate problem #1. Apple has a large segment of power users, and the company can’t forget about them.
So, for the last few days, I’ve been running with no Flash plug-in at all, and honestly not really missing it very much.
His post outlines how to setup Safari 5 to run without Flash and without those annoying “Missing Plug-in” alerts.
The platform will not do well in checklist feature comparisons, but when it comes down to human interaction and using the thing, this software is a winner.
Microsoft doesn’t often get version one releases right, but this time, it has got the release very right indeed. Windows Phone 7 looks great, works well, and is a treat to use. Market success isn’t assured, but judged on its merits alone, this is a platform that absolutely deserves to succeed, and I really, really hope it does.
WP7 represents what I think is the biggest shift we’ve seen in mobile smartphone software in a while. Android and iOS operate basically in the same way, and even WebOS isn’t too dissimilar. WP7’s Metro UI, however is a big change. One that I too hope will succeed.
To be clear, this is a significantly different situation than with iOS. With iOS, Flash not only isn’t preinstalled, it can’t be installed, period. With Mac OS X, users are free to download Flash Player from Adobe and install it themselves.
Apple spokesperson Bill Evans told me: “We’re happy to continue to support Flash on the Mac, and the best way for users to always have the most up to date and secure version is to download it directly from Adobe.”
That’s a big change. I’m not sure exactly when Apple began bundling Flash Player as a standard component in Mac OS, but it was long enough ago that it was not a mistake that I didn’t include the “X” in the name of the OS. If I had to guess, I’d say Mac OS 8.6 — around the time of the deal to bundle IE as the default Mac OS browser, or maybe even earlier. We’re talking ancient history.
Wow. Either Flash penetration on the Mac is about to tank, or Adobe will ship a better way to install Flash than the current method.
Either way… wow.
Federico Viticci at Mac Stories:
As Steve Jobs confirmed at the “Back to the Mac” event, the Mac App Store will be the best way to discover and install apps, but not the only one. You’ll still be able to purchase apps directly from developers’ websites and run installers or .DMG files just fine. Can you imagine what could ever happen if Apple turned the Mac into an App Store-only “closed” system with no possibility to download software from other sources? After 20 years of regular installations?
This, without a doubt, is the scariest thing about the Mac App Store. But I really don’t see Apple pulling the trigger on closing app installation on the Mac. The outcry from developers like Microsoft and Adobe would be deafening. These companies are not going to use an App Store to publish their major software titles. Without Office and Creative Suite, the Mac would be dead in the water to a lot of people.
If you have a free hour this weekend, be sure to listen to Episode 26 of the DadCast, a popular Canadian[1. Between this and writing for Macgasm, I’m freaking huge in Canada.] podcast that covers the tech world around and beyond Apple.
I joined the regular crew to talk about this week’s announcements, make some bad jokes and derail the conversation with observations about living in the South. It really was a lot of fun, and you’ll have fun listening to it.
I’ve added a banner for charity: water on my sidebar, and I’d like to explain why. Here are some facts that I bet you didn’t know:
Charity: water is a non-profit group dedicated to bringing water to the most desperate people on the planet.
So here are some things you can do:
Charity: water’s administrative expenses are privately covered, so 100% of public donations to directly fund sustainable water solutions in areas of greatest need. Just $20 can give one person clean water for 20 years.
After charity: water installs a well in a village or area, 6–10 community members are appointed to the Water Committee and are responsible for overseeing the functionality of the water point. Water Committees are often the first chance for women to step into elected leadership roles. This new responsibility can restore dignity, initiative and equality to community members.
A lack of clean water kills more people every year than all forms of violence, including war.
It doesn’t have to.
At yesterday’s event, Steve Jobs said this about touchscreen Macs:
It gives great demo, but after a while your arm feels like it’s going to fall off. Touch surfaces want to be horizontal.
I think most people assume that the future of the desktop computer is touch.
I got this email from ForkBombr reader Paul S.:
So I’ve been thinking, do you envision a fully touch-based Mac? Imagine two iPads clamshelled together like an 11-inch Air. Top mainly for display, bottom mainly for input.
As an editor, I can imagine a 24-inch (x2) version of this, using FCP full-screen: timeline, bins, controls on a large control surface in front of me, video displays up top.
The design would be clunky though, I think. and an Apple all-in-one in this manner is hard to imagine. I don’t much like the patent leaks for touch-based iMac that have been floating around (with the adjustable stand).
Paul is referring to this image, from an Apple patent outlining how an iMac could swivel down and become a touch-based computer.
This plan outlines a computer that is used like a “normal” desktop, with a keyboard and mouse, but that can also act as a single Multi-Touch device when lowered to a horizontal position. I don’t think Paul’s double-iPad-clamshell device would work, especially since there’d still be a disconnect between the input and what’s actually happening. The only thing more disjointed than the current keyboard and mouse would be touch a surface to have something move or happen on another surface.
I think that while this patent solves the “touch wants to be hardware” issue, it doesn’t solve the software issue.
Even with Lion’s new features,[1. Of course, Mission Control and Launchpad in and of themselves are ready for touch, but the rest of the GUI isn’t close to being touch-friendly.] Mac OS X is simply not ready for touch. Menus, window controls, lists[2. Like mailboxes in Mail or media sources in iTunes.] and complicated toolbars are too small of targets to be usable with a finger. The remarks Jobs made about 7-inch tablets and small targets can be applied to the desktop, too.
Software trials are loved by customers and developers alike. It’s easy to see why: customers get to try out first hand how an app works risk-free. Developers make their customers happier and reduce refunds. Yet, inexplicably, Apple doesn’t offer trials of any sort. In fact, their developer agreement forbids it. This is questionable policy for a $2.99 game, but inexcusable for a $60 Mac app.
See the entire PDF here, or just hit the high points courtesy of Nilay Patel.
One thing that I noticed when Mac OS X Lion was being demoed yesterday was how difficult of a time the demo person was having utilizing the multi-touch gestures on the Magic Mouse. Take a look at the video from yesterday, you can clearly see that when he is trying to perform the swipe to the side to change to and from a fullscreen app he has to do it a couple of times to get that gesture to take. Not every time, just some times.
It is also important to note that this is a guy who has theoretically spent a lot of time practicing this very gesture.
Ben’s right — this was an awkward moment during the keynote. Without a doubt, the Magic Trackpad was invented with Lion in mind. Apple is the most methodical company on the planet — there’s nothing done without a reason. I’d bet that by the time Lion rolls around, iMacs will ship with the Magic Trackpad — not a mouse — by default.