Apple Archives
My thoughts on just what may lay in the future for the iPod video.
If you're a sports fan, make sure you read this. It could change your life . . . well, I don't think this entry will necessarily, but if the predictions come true it could.
Why video?
Why not? That's the beauty of the move. By making video standard as part of the iPod and not raising the price Apple has absolutely nothing to lose. Steve Jobs has said in the past that video is not an interesting market to him and that he didn't think a portable video player was a good idea because watching must be a primary activity (versus listening, which can be secondary). So what does he do? Make an iPod that just happens to play video. People are going to buy iPods because they are the best MP3 player on the market. Now, they just happen to play video as well. It's a can't lose situation and those are always good.
Why Disney?
Because Disney's the only entertainment company out there who wants something Jobs has. He could never waltz into Viacom or News Corporation and ask them to let him sell their shows for $1.99, they'd never go for it. Not with a single song selling on iTunes for $.99. So what Jobs does is approach Robert Iger, new chief of Disney, whose major goal is to re-up their distribution deal with Jobs' Pixar. Jobs holds all the cards and gets Iger to sign up ABC and two of America's most popular television shows (Lost and Desperate Housewives). Now, assuming it does well, Apple has set the price themselves and other companies will have no choice but to jump onboard at $1.99.
That's it?
Nope. There's much more to the Disney story, and this is where it gets really interesting. Disney also owns ESPN, the be-all-and-end-all of sports broadcasting who is looking to extend their brand. Sports is where mobile video really makes sense. Imagine this scenario: You're a commuter and a sports fan (as many American men are). Every morning you get on the train and hit play on SportsCenter, ESPN's hugely popular daily sports highlight show. One hour train rides have never been so good. What would you pay for this? I say $20 easy. I mean, if I had an hour commute and an opportunity to watch SportsCenter on it, commercial free, every morning I'd jump at it. I expect there are a lot of other sports fans who would agree. It's a cash cow. It'd be reason enough to buy an iPod (which I don't own, by the way). And it doesn't seem that unreasonable, does it?
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Seven fantastic OS X applications that cost ZERO dollars and ZERO cents.
It's been just over a month since my big switch and I haven't given a good Apple rundown lately. So, in the style of
some great Mac OS X inventories, here's my guide to essential free OS X Apps.
 | It's called Quicksilver, it's free and it's the definition of essential OS X software. It is a launcher, a finder interface and just about anything else you want it to be. It's really an amazing piece of software that makes using OS X a faster and more fun experience. |
 | It's called TextWrangler. It's a free text editor that's great for writing HTML and CSS. You can have multiple documents open at once. It breaks stuff up with colors. I've got no complaints. |
 | It's called Adium and it's the answer to all your instant messaging needs. Use more than one service? No problem, Adium can handle them all. It's easy to use, clean to look at and, of course, it's free. |
 | It's Firefox and if you don't know about it yet, you've probably been living in a hole. (Nothing personal to all those hole-dwellers who enjoy the site.) Seriously, it's my favorite browser, extensions are amazing and once you tab you never go back. |
 | It's called Sidenote. What it does is give you one little box to keep all those random notes in. It takes the idea of stickies and gives them a central location with lots of other options (most of which I haven't tried). Oh, and it's free. |
 | It's called Fugu and it's an SFTP client. I've been using it since I moved to TextDrive (which requires SFTP because it's more secure). It's got a great and simple interface and . . . dum dum dum . . . it's free. |
 | It's called BitTorrent and don't pretend like you don't know what it is. It's only the P2P app of the moment and like all the great P2P apps, it's free. |
That just about concludes this edition of Essential Free OS X Apps. I'm sure you can expect other exciting installments in the future, like Essential Free OS X Plugins and Essential Free OS X Widgets, but until then, may you enjoy many hours of free software goodness.
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After a week of using my new PowerBook, and more specifically, Quicksilver, I'm ready for my first serious Quicksilver post.
Let me start by saying Quicksilver is as amazing as people say it is. It's one of those pieces of software that changes the way you use a computer, the same way an RSS aggregator changes the way you read things on the web and tabs change the way you browse.
On the website, Quicksilver is described as "an evolving framework for accessing and manipulating many forms of personal data." Put simply, Quicksilver allows you to access anything on your computer at the click of a button. For instance, I have Quicksilver set up to appear when I hit CMD+Spacebar, at that point I start typing in a program or folder I want to access and I can open it or perform any number of other functions on it. That, however, is just the beginning, as described on the "What is Quicksilver page:
Quicksilver’s greatest strength, however, is not search. Any item you are able to find, drag, or otherwise pull into its universe is endowed with many potential uses. Hitting takes you to the action field, where you can use the same adaptive search to select what you would like to do. Among other things, files can be emailed, copied, compressed. Text can be modified, transmitted between programs, or searched for on the web. Some actions even support an indirect object, so you can send an item to a person, move files to another folder, or open files with a specific application.
Put it this way: anything you want to do to or with a file is now available in one place and the command can be typed in rather than searched for through levels of hierarchy with a mouse.
Alright, now that you've got (and I've got) an idea of just what Quicksilver is all about, let me fill everyone in on some of the tips and tricks I've picked up in a week of use. Some of these may seem simple, but too understand Quicksilver you need to understand just how customizable and expandable it is. There are lots of plugins to perform lots of things I don't even understand and I've heard the integration with Tiger and, specifically Spotlight, rocks (I can't wait).
Anyway, without any further ado, here are some tricks I've picked up. Hope you enjoy.
1. Not really a trick, but here are two Quicksilver tutorials that I highly recommend starting with: "Quicksilver Changes Everything" (The Apple Blog) and "Quicksilver - A Better OS X in Ten Minute" (Dan Dickinson). (Also, just as a note, thanks to Dan who has been incredibly nice and answered lots of Quicksilver questions for me. It's easy to tell how good a piece of software is by how its user evangelize for it. And Quicksilver users are quite the evangelists.)
2. All of a sudden browser bookmarks become useful again thanks to Quicksilver. Since you have access to all of them at the click of a button, you can save things in lots of random folders and actually get to them easily. I love the bookmarks toolbar and keep everything important on it but haven't kept other bookmarks because of the hassle of getting to them in the past. Now, with everything only a few keystrokes away I've started bookmarking sites that are important to me, but I frequent less than things like a list of lots of other searches that might be useful. (To set up a Quick Search, just search on a site and when the results come in, replace the word you searched for in the address with "***," for example, the Google quicksearch looks like this: http://www.google.com/search?q=***)
3. To combine more than one thing together use the "," button. Say you want to open three bookmarks at once, just type commas in between and hit enter to open. It's that simple and with Firefox it should open in separate tabs. Quite a sweet little feature (and also can be used anywhere, just used bookmarks and Firefox as an example).
4. This tip comes from Dan Dickinson in the comments on one of Merlin Mann's Quicksilver posts (actually pointing to Dan's tutorial -- damn, this whole thing sounds really in-bred doesn't it?):
And Alcor pointed out one more feature to me last night - if you hold down a key in the target field (preferably the last key you typed in your search), after about three seconds it will automatically run the action displayed. The *next* time you do it, it's much quicker (about half a second of holding), as you've taught Quicksilver you want to run the action with that key.
That's it for now, I'm sure I'll have lots more soon, but that should be enough of an idea of just what this thing can do to get you thinking.
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As I'm getting a little more comfortable with
Quicksilver, I think I've got my first question. This is for the Merlin Mann's and the Dan Dickinson's of the world (and yes I only put their names in so this would get through to them in their ego feeds).
So, my question is: Is there any way to set up Quicksilver to open multiple bookmarks at once with one command? I'm not positive this is really a Quicksilver question or a Firefox question, but essentially what I'm trying to do is open up three webpages into three different tabs at once using one simplified command (like typing in blog would open up my blog posting interface, my referrer states and my feed stats). Since I have Tabbrowser installed in Firefox, I imagine all I need is for Quicksilver to try to open three different webpages at once.
So, for all the Quicksilver/Firefox junkies out there, is this possible?
Also, have three more pieces of software to report:
1. iScrobbler: This is a must-have for me because of my Audioscrobbler extension. This is just the plugin that keeps track of what I listen to and reports it to my Audioscrobbler page.
2. BitTorrent: Again, not all that exciting, but another must-have program for downloading goodies online.
3. Cyberduck: This seems to be the best rated freeware FTP program around. It took a minute to get everything working because a few settings weren't quite right, but after messing around a bit it seems like a clean and easy interface with a nice bookmarks sidebar (not to mention a Quicksilver plugin that I just discovered). If anyone has another FTP program they'd recommend I'd be happy to listen, but this looks pretty good (and they got a pretty damn good rating in MacWorld to boot).
So that ends today's round of updates. Please send any help or recommendations my way. Either via comment (preferred) or email at nb [at] noahbrier.com. Thanks!
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Last night I finally got my new PowerBook and I've started the initial messing around process. I've been reading up for the last few months, so I had a good idea of what programs I wanted to install immediately. But before that, here are my initial, non-software thoughts:
1. Apple knows how to package stuff. I felt like I was opening a present as I dug through to the levels of the box to finally reveal my new, shining silver PowerBook.
2. The keyboard feels great. I use an iBook at work and I haven't used this generation of PowerBook for any serious length of time. The keys are tight and responsive. I know it sounds geeky, but it makes you feel like you're really in control.
Alright, enough touchy-feely stuff, how about some software?
1. Obviously the first thing I installed was Firefox along with a whole suite of extensions. Nothing revolutionary here, all stuff I've covered before. However, I must explain that I chose Firefox over Safari on purpose. For one, you can't beat the extensions. But actually what first made me leave Safari was that when you close your browser with multiple tabs open, it doesn't ask you if you're sure like Firefox does. I can't tell you how many times I closed things I was reading on my work computer before I started using Firefox.
Next, it was time to consult the list of software and assorted lists I had been keeping on del.icio.us for the last few weeks (check it out, there's some good tips). My first stop was this list of "Must have Mac OS X applications".
2. First download off the list was VLC Player, which I use at work. Not exactly sure why I downloaded this first, I don't actually have any video on here, but it was something on the list that I knew I wanted and felt comfortable with (really I was just burning time before the "big install").
3. My third install was TextWrangler a freeware text editor. I have a tendency to keep everything in a text document and a good text editor makes life a lot easier (plus I need it for HTML editing). OS X's TextEdit is all well and good, but I wanted something a little more powerful and I've heard TextWrangler is the best freeware text editor out there.
4. Finally, I was at the point where I was prepared to install the one thing I couldn't wait to try. That's right, it was time for Quicksilver. To be completely honest, I still have basically no clue what this thing can do, but I did follow Dan Dickinson's tutorial on how to set up Quicksilver, which I highly recommend (even though I'm not so sure what I've done yet). It seems like a very cool program, essentially you bring up a command prompt which allows you to type in what you're looking for, whether it's document or program and launch it or perform any number of other functions. You can even associate different operations together, so you could open your IM client when you open Firefox, etc. Everyone seems to love this thing (especially Merlin Mann of 43 Folder), so I imagine I'll fall right into line in no time. I promise to keep everyone informed of my new discoveries with this one as they happen (whether you want to hear them or not).
5. Finally, I installed Adium, a multi-client instant messenger program. It allows you to talk to people on AIM and MSN, which are the only two messenger programs I use. I tried iChat, but didn't really like it and this has gotten some rave reviews. Mine is pending.
I think that about wraps it up. It's been less than 12 hours (and I did sleep for a fair amount of them). I'm just happy it's here and I'm not stuck wanting to throw my old Compaq laptop against a wall anymore. Word up.
UPDATE (4/24/05): Thanks to Merlin Mann, here's another great explanation/tutorial of Quicksilver. Starting to get a much better idea of just what might be possible with this thing.
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Friday was a big day in my computer life. The 15th of April, Two-Thousand-and-Five shall mark the day I made the switch. I purchased my first Apple. It's a 12" PowerBook, fully loaded that should be arriving on Monday and I couldn't be more excited. I've mentioned before that I've been considering making the switch, but the release (at the end of the month) of Tiger officially put me over the edge. With integrated desktop search and lots of other goodies, it's now or never for me (and, just as a note, although Tiger won't come loaded on Monday, I'll get it for just the cost of shipping when it comes out on the 29th).
So why did I do it, you may be asking yourself. (Or, quite possibly, you're just asking what took me so long?) Well, it all started last June when I started working at American Demographics magazine. Against my wishes I was given a Mac upon arrival. I had never really used one before and wasn't interested in learning how. The fact that OS 9 was installed on the machine didn't help either, it meant that I couldn't get the newest browser and in turn lots of pages didn't even work. However, about two months into my time at AD I finally convinced the powers that be to hook me up with a G5 with OSX. When it finally arrived in my office, all silver and sweet, I finally got it. Everything was so simple. I got so used to Expose that when I got home I'd try to get to the desktop on my PC by moving my cursor to the "hot corner" (which, of course, didn't ever work).
Around the same time I was starting to really enjoy my Mac, my laptop was starting to screw up for the umpteenth since I bought it two years ago. I have a Presario 1500 and it hasn't really ever worked quite right. I sent it back to Compaq about 10 times trying to get random things fixed that never seemed to come back working correctly. My hard drive would continually overheat and shut the computer down and other annoyances. (Including the fact that every time something went wrong and I called up Compaq it was an awful experience.) What really pushed me over the edge, though, was having to format the hard drive every three months or so. If I didn't do this, the computer would slow down to a crawl. This just isn't sane, I told myself.
All of these events also were happening as I was moving deeper and deeper into geekdom. It seemed that every blog or webpage I read was always talking about the wonders of Apple, which got the wheels turning. Why not? I asked myself.
Tiger sealed the deal. I decided as soon as it came out I would buy a PowerBook. I chose the 12" because I want a truly portable computer. This Compaq is an eight pound behemoth. I hate carrying it around when I have to and I wouldn't ever just carry it by choice. So yesterday, for whatever reason, became the day.
And I'm proud to say I made the switch. At work and at home I'll be using an Apple laptop (iBook at work). I'll be keeping the behemoth around for a couple things (especially Soulseek), but otherwise it'll be all PowerBook all the time for me.
I couldn't be happier. Hopefully I'll feel the same way six months from now.
For any Mac users, what advice do you have? Programs I need? I've been keeping this this list of links over at del.icio.us, but any recommendations would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
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I've been talking about the potential for Apple to get Windows users to make the big switch for a while. A recent rumor makes it seem as though Apple is giving this some serious thought (and how could it not?). According to
Think Secret, Apple is going to
release a $500 barebones G4 with no display to compete with inexpensive Windows PCs. The article points specifically to targeting Windows users who own an ipod (and love it).
"Think of your traditional iPod owner," said a source. "This new product will be for a Windows user who has experienced the iPod, the ease of use of the iTunes software, and has played around with a Mac at an Apple retail store just long enough to know he'd buy one if it were a little cheaper."
Apple executives announced on October 13 that 45% to 50% of its retail store customers bought a Mac as their first PC or were new to the platform in the fiscal fourth-quarter. The company has refused to divulge more exacting figures on iPod buyers who also buy a Mac, for competitive reasons.
According to sources, internal Apple surveys of its retail store customers and those buying iPods showed a large number of PC users would be willing to buy a Mac if it were cheap enough, less of a virus carrier (which all Macs already are), and offered easier to use software solutions not available on Windows-based PCs. Now, Apple feels it has the answer.
I love this idea. There's obviously a huge market of iPod users who are in love with the device and a huge portion of those are Windows users. While I don't have an iPod myself (I have an
iRiver, which I prefer for it's recording function), I have decided to make the switch to Mac myself. However, for me it's the money keeping me away. I want a Powerbook, but I simply can't plunk down the cash for one at this point (and I am wondering when a G5 powerbook will come out . . . anyone have any insights?). Given this new $500 option I imagine I would buy it as a second PC, just as the article says. Why not? For $500 I could leave the computer in my bedroom and have my laptop for my coffee table (where it has been a fixture for the last month-and-a-half anyway). I already have a display and it's currently just sitting on my desk looking lonely, so why not hook it up to a nice, cheap G4? Come on Apple, give me something to work with until I can afford to buy myself a shiny Powerbook.
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I suspected something like this would happen when the
iPod photo came out. Today I read on
The Unofficial Apple Weblog that
the iPod photo is not selling close to as well as its non-color cousins. This information comes from an article on AppleInsider that says:
According to a recent analysis of shipping data conducted by sources close to AppleInsider, Apple Computer's 20GB and 40GB iPod digital music players have been met with increasing demand in recent weeks.
. . .
On the other hand, the recently introduced 40GB and 60GB iPod photo models appear to be in ample supply, indicating a lesser demand for the higher priced players. Both models are available to ship to all channels within a 24-hour time period.
From the very beginning I felt as though the iPod photo wasn't revolutionary enough. I mean seriously, what's the big deal? It doesn't have a memory card slot (which would be very useful) to allow you to download your pictures off your camera. So basically you've got this thing that can play music and if you want you can show off your pictures on it (or use it for album art . . . big freaking deal). I expect much more out of Apple. If they had given some thought to how people use iPods (and MP3 players in general), I suspect they would have found that people throw them in their bags or pockets and play music, avoiding any interaction with them during that time (hence the overwhelming use of random for iPod users).
Knowing that, why would people really care about photo capability? Then on top of everything else Apple charges $100 extra for the color screen and photo capability. I know I would never go for that, there's just no point. It's a waste of money if you ask me.
On a separate note, how long is it until Apple begins doing more limited edition iPods? They've begun with the U2 special edition, but I expect that this could become like customized shoes. Imagine if Apple got together with very stylistic boutiques and made up 100 units of specially designed iPods which sold for $100 more. Without adding any functionality, I guarantee these units would sell and sell quick. People want limited edition stuff, they want to feel special and in the know. If Apple figures out the right partners I bet they could make a killing.
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About a week ago I ran across this
iPod Mini ad. It's a great looking commercial and definitely worth checking out, but that's not the whole story. Actually, the whole story is that this was made by no one at Apple or associated with the company. In fact, it wasn't even made by an agency at all. It was made by a fan who had some time on his hands.
Since seeing the ad, Wired has picked up the story and today David Pogue picked it up on his New York Times Blog "Pogue's Posts".
I think it's pretty amazing that a company is creating products that customers love so much they actually want to create advertisements themselves. Apple should be proud that they have customers as happy as George Masters (the creator of the Mini ad).
If you ask me (and I know you haven't), this is what the internet is all about. What's more, this is what blogs should be all about for companies. More companies should attempt to forge honest relationships with consumers and maybe one day they'll find that people are making ads for them. (Once people do make ads for the companies, don't squash them by the legal department. That's a biggie.)
Next, why doesn't Apple have a blog? I expect that this is what Apple is experimenting with on its Student Blog. But Apple should invite more people to tell their stories. There are so many blogs dedicated just to the company (take Wired's "Cult of Mac" for example). Why not invite these people in the door? Give them a say and see what they create. Clearly there's some talent in the pool and maybe Apple can find themselves some new employees. But at the very least, they will be reinforcing a brand image of forward thinking and openness (which just happens to be the opposite of the brand image that most people have for Microsoft).
On another note, I'm very impressed by Wired. I think I realized today that if there was only one website I could check, that would probably be it. While Wired is a little behind, they move much faster than nearly any other mainstream news institution. They are closer to the cutting edge than any other mainstream Magazine I can think of. They have a good mix of mainstream and tech news with the occasional random interesting article thrown in. If you're not at least reading Wired News every day, you're missing out. So get on it.
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Those of you have have been reading for a while will remember me mentioning on multiple occaisions how big an impact I expected the iPod to have on Mac sales (
"Will the Tiger Finally Break Windows?",
"The Impact of iPod on Mac Sales" and
"Apple's New iMac"). Well, here's some more evidence for you from
Forbes.com Morning Session:
Piper Jaffray raised estimates and the price target on Apple Computer (nasdaq: AAPL - news - people ), citing a "halo effect" from satisfaction from users of Apple's iPod. Piper Jaffray said that in a survey of 200 users, 6% were former PC users who have purchased a Macintosh after buying an iPod, while 7% were former PC users who plan to buy a Macintosh within 12 months. "We believe that the remarkable satisfaction with the iPod creates a word-of-mouth wildfire that generates new customer interest in Apple products," Piper Jaffray said.
While a 200 person survey is hardly scientific (at American Demographics we refused to use anything under 1,000), it's still important that investors are starting to notice a trend. As more and more applications move online, Microsoft's stranglehold will diminish. I count myself in the list of Apple converts. I still use a PC but I can promise you the next computer I buy for myself will be a Mac. I used a G4 at work and after getting used to it I was sold. Panther is an incredibly easy to use, very customizable and well thought out OS. The computer hardly ever had any problems and every program I ever wanted had a Mac version (which isn't all that difficult considering the majority of my time is spent in a browser anyway). I never thought I'd say the words, but after spending some time on a Mac it's clear that they are better machines. Clearly people are happy with their iPods (as evidenced by the ridiculous sales figures we've seen over the last year), so why wouldn't they think about a Mac as their next PC? It's quite possible we'll have a revolution on our hands in the next five years (one of many I hope).
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Hi, I'm 