posts

On What’s Left of the HIG

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Chairman Gruber:

But the HIG is dead. It died long ago. And it was Apple that killed it. In Mac OS 9 (and prior), no one’s apps were more uniformly consistent to the HIG standards than Apple’s own. In Mac OS X, Apple began experimenting — especially in their flagship apps. Whether this change has been for better or for worse is certainly debatable, but there can be no debate that the mores of Mac UI designers have changed. Apple sets the tone, for better or for worse. Always has, always will.

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On the Mac App Store and DRM

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Joshua Schnell at Macgasm:

One of our writers purchased The Incident and emailed me the application file. I copied it to my Applications folder, and ran it without a hitch: No iTunes verification needed.

[…]

It’s starting to look like this lack of “DRM” is falling on the shoulders of the developers. Apple has apparently given them the tools (AppStore receipt validation) to implement security measures for their apps. Whether or not a developer includes it is solely up to them.

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Thoughts on the Mac App Store

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Here are some thoughts, in no particular order. I’ll be updating them throughout the day.

Initial Thoughts

  • Updating to 10.6.6 was crazy fast. Not surprising, since about all the update does is add the Mac App Store.

  • The Mac App Store looks a lot like its iTunes cousin. Layout is very similar to the iOS App Store on the desktop version of iTunes.

  • Holy cow, why so many gradients?

  • It is nice to have an app besides iTunes to use for editing my AppleID.

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On Apps and the Web

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Tomorrow, Apple will open the Mac App Store, and assumedly, a flood of new apps will be available to OS X users.

I fear that most of these apps will be not unlike iOS apps — simple, one-task apps that just re-arrange web data. While that works on mobile devices, I’m not sure it will on the desktop. I don’t want another 45 apps in my Dock to do what I can do now without them.

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On Turning 25 and Clean Water

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On January 28,1 I’ll turn 25 years old.

And I’m giving my birthday away.

I don’t need any more crap. I have way too much stuff. Instead of adding to the noise in my life, I’ve decided to donate my birthday to charity: water, the non-profit group that brings clean water to millions of people a year. My modest $400 goal will bring clean water to 20 people.

That’s a lot more important than me getting an iTunes gift card, so go donate now. I have a friend who is going to match whatever I raise, so go crazy.

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The Samsung Galaxy Tab: Yet Another Dead End Android Product

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Jared Newman at PCWorld:

Single-core Android tablets like Samsung’s Galaxy Tab won’t meet the minimum requirements for Honeycomb, Google’s tablet-optimized operating system version, according to a manufacturer.

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Samsung’s Galaxy Tab has a 1 GHz Hummingbird processor and a 1024-by-600 resolution display. The company has previously suggested that the Galaxy Tab would update no further than the smartphone-focused Android 2.3 (“Gingerbread”), but Cha’s comments appear to seal the Tab’s fate as a rapidly aging product.

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