On the Creation of NeXT

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My mini-series on NeXT Computer:

Installment 1: On the Creation of NeXT

Installment 2: NeXT: The Hardware

Installment 3: NeXT: The Software

Installment 4: NeXT: The Apple Purchase

Installment 5: Why Did NeXT Fail?

With the Steve Jobs biography being read this week by just about every nerd I know, NeXT is coming up in conversations more and more. Today, I’m starting a mini-series on the company and its products.

Creation

NeXT was formed by Steve Jobs after he was kicked out of Apple in 1985.

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Apple Building Solar Farm Adjacent to North Carolina Data Center

Dianne Straley at The Charlotte Observer:

Apple has quietly begun work on a solar farm that apparently could help power its sprawling data center in southern Catawba County.

Permits issued by Catawba County show that the Cupertino, Calif., company has been approved to reshape the slope of some of the 171 acres of vacant land it owns on Startown Road, opposite the data center, in preparation of building a solar farm.

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A Correction on the Photo Stream Thing

So, as it turns out, iPhoto does import images from Photo Stream automatically:

Keeping a complete set of your photos on your Mac is as simple as turning on Photo Stream in iPhoto or Aperture. Every new photo you take appears in a Photo Stream album just as it does on your iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. But since your Mac has more storage than your iOS device, it automatically imports every picture from your Photo Stream into your photo library so you can edit, delete, and share the ones you want.

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Photo Stream Pitfalls

Chuck Skoda get his list right, but he left out a few things, in my opinion. All in all, I like Photo Stream — mainly as a way to quickly see photos I’ve already sorted into albums that might not be on my iPhone. That said, I think the system needs some clarification:

  • In iPhoto (and I assume Aperture), the Photo Stream is one endless set of photos. It is impossible to tell what’s been imported to iPhoto’s local library already. I would love for iPhoto to offer to delete images from the stream once they’ve been imported — just like it does when I import straight from my iPhone.

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