MacNoob

I know Apple knows what I want and need better than I do.  Let me rephrase that.  I know Apple thinks it knows what I want and need better than I do.  In their infinite wisdom, the decision-makers in Cupertino have decided video of any kind won’t be allowed on the iPhone.  Maybe they think the toll on precious battery life will be too great.  Maybe it’s because they know the tiny ARM processor can’t process more than 15 frames per second and they don’t want people to gripe about poor quality…and you know they would!  Maybe it’s a combination of the two, who knows?  In any case, Apple makes its product decisions based on what they think will make the largest group of consumers pleased enough to shell out [usually a premium] for their goods.  For the more geeky of us, that usually means some features we’d like get left out for the greater good.  One can’t argue with Apple’s success.  They’re obviously doing something a lot of things right.

Everybody knows cell phone video is basically crap, right?  The old LG 8100 I bought four years ago recorded video and it was crap, but I’m not Steven Speilberg either.  I just enjoyed having the feature to capture small, impromptu clips of my kids doing silly things or of my drunken friends making asses out of themselves.  The point is, the iPhone’s lack of video is what sent me down the jailbreak path in the first place.  Having a phone that does so many other things well, yet can’t capture even crappy video seems like a huge omission on Apple’s part, but then I’m one of the “more geeky” outliers.  Enter the iPhone dev team.  Within an hour of downloading QuickPwn, my iPhone 3G was jailbroken, synced and loaded with the Cycorder app.  Viola!  Crappy video!  That’s all I wanted and all I expected.

Qik and Ustream have taken cell phone video to the next level by providing the infrastructure for live streaming, and it’s FREE!  Qik was the first and when I heard of them I thought it was cool, but didn’t immediately get why someone would want to stream crappy video to the internet.  A few days later, I was watching the news on TV and there it was!  A reporter in some war zone streaming crappy video.  Not via a cell phone, but crap none the less.  The whole point of this capability is the same as any other phone application, portability.  Now, anywhere I can get a 3G or wi-fi connection, I have the capability to stream.  Robert Scoble was one of the first tech notables to utilize the Qik technology when he shoved his Nokia in the faces of numerous dignitaries at last year’s G8 conference.  I watched a couple of his “interviews” on YouTube and while I admired the technology, the interviewees looked at Robert like he had a screw loose which gave the whole activity a comical flavor.  I think the idea was far too “leading edge” for the old codgers who make up the dignitaries attending the G8.  My uses for this tech aren’t nearly so ambitious.

Downloading the Qik and USTREAM apps from Cydia was a snap, and both let you sign up for their free service right on the phone, even though I didn’t.  Both sites also provide the embed code for your stream, so adding them to the MacNoob.net web site TV page was a snap.  On the iPhone, both apps automatically log you in, so streaming is as simple as launching the app and touching the “broadcast” button.  You can tell Qik is the more mature of the two apps.  It provides quite a few more setup options than USTREAM and even lets you monitor real-time stream data like frame rate and resolution.  One really neat feature of the USTREAM app is its’ ability to conduct a simple YES/NO poll while you stream and then their web service e-mails you the results.  I haven’t done any sort of deep analysis of the video for either app, but I’m guessing the [320 x 240] frame rate is somewhere around 10 and the sound is surprisingly good on both.  It seems to be the same on wi-fi and 3G.  Neither app will let you stream with an EDGE connection.  I’ve streamed (and recorded) a couple of videos of our daughter and me while the wife watched on her laptop some 2500 miles away on a business trip.  For her it was much more enjoyable than the usual phone call, even though the quality was less than great.  I also plan to live stream from some upcoming events I’m planning to attend.  WWDC will probably be the first.  I may use it to augment the MacNoob podcast once it’s launched.  One thing is for sure: My iPhone will stay jailbroken as long as Apple rejects video apps like Qik and USTREAM.  But I’m a geek.

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Joseph Kelley Apple Minutiae, Media, Technology, Web, iPhone iPhone, Qik, USTREAM, video

I have a big problem with my Mac.  I like the way it looks.  I like the way it works [all the time].  I like OS X and the software that runs on it.  The problem I have is that, after using my Mac I don’t want to use Windows machines at all.  Why is that an issue?  I own 4 PCs, my job requires I use two others and administer 120 more.

This is not a recent problem.  It began in October, 2007, the day my MacBook Pro arrived.  Back then I just thought it was because the Mac was new but I’m pretty sure that has worn off by now.  Back then I had a habit of mistakenly pressing [ctrl + c] on my Mac to copy text.  Now I have the problem of pressing [command + v] to paste on my Windows machines.  I truly have crossed over.  Is Apple coding some sort of mind control into OS X?  I never thought I’d live to see the day when sitting down at a PC would be completely distasteful.

This must be what the married guy with four kids feels like after falling for his twenty-something secretary.  I’m still obliged to care for all those PCs but I really used to love doing it.  That’s why I’m in this field.  Yes, I’m one of the lucky few on this earth who turned his hobby into a vocation.  Back to my dilemma.  Of course, my predicament isn’t nearly as dire as the secretary guy’s, but I’m still stuck with all those Windows machines at home and at work.  If I had one-tenth of one percent of Steve Jobs’ money this wouldn’t be a problem at all.  I’d just donate all my PCs to charity and replace them with Macs.  I’m certainly not a pauper, but don’t have near the disposable income to make that sort of wholesale changeover.  I guess I just need to be patient and nibble away at all those Windows machines as attrition dictates.  Where is a good ol’ natural disaster when you need one?…

…hurricane Ike would have been a perfect opportunity for some unfortunate “flood damage”…or maybe…a lightning strike would do it.  I could erect a lightning rod and connect it to my house’s electrical ground.  I’ll need to make sure everything I want to keep is unplugged when the thunderstorms come…

This is silly.  Is my Mac tempting me to commit insurance fraud?  A man can dream, can’t he?  I suppose it’s just going to take me a few years to convert completely.  After all, I collected all those PCs over a period of a few years.  Maybe five years from now they’ll all be just a bad memory.  Perhaps that is a little too harsh.  After all, working on Windows machines has provided me with a good livelihood for quite some time.  Let’s face it, the opportunities for enterprise Mac admins are sparse at best.  It almost sounds silly using the words “enterprise” and “Mac” in the same sentence.  Not that the concept is completely unthinkable, but twenty years ago [when I started]  it was.  For that, you have to tip your hat to Microsoft.  While Apple was busy donating and promoting their product to educational institutions, Microsoft set out to build an enterprise juggernaut that still dominates the corporate landscape today.  And while Apple steadily chips away at Mr. Softie’s market share, they still show no signs of becoming a significant enterprise player or targeting much of their R & D resources toward that end.  Don’t believe me?  Just have a look at Craigslist or Monster and see how many companies are looking for OS X admins.

One ray of hope is the iPhone.  With Exchange support and its ability to be wiped by admins, the iPhone looks like Apple’s first full-fledged attempt to wedge itself into a real chink in Microsoft’s enterprise armor, Windows Mobile.  I know many of my  Treo & Blackberry users would swap to the iPhone in a minute if it were approved by the corporation.  Almost every one of them has asked me if it was possible to do so.  It’s the same with Macs.  People I work with see mine and ask if they can have one too.  More of them are discovering Mac & OS X through friends, family or co-workers and buying their own or hitting me up to spring for one out of my budget. Unfortunately, we employ a couple of mission-critical applications that are Windows-only or I’d be happy to sprinkle a few Macs throughout our network.  The point is, cool is cool, and Apple’s growing market share is showing up in the form of customer pull for IT managers to include Macs in their enterprise plans.  When enough people of appropriate rank within corporate America feel the same way I do about their Macs, some sort of critical mass will be reached, I’ll get to buy and administer more Macs and loving my Mac won’t be such a problem.  Till then, with PC prices in the toilet, it looks like I’ll be anxiously awaiting the next hurricane.  Not really.

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Joseph Kelley Apple Minutiae, Commentary

I was listening to the Windows Weekly podcast a couple of days ago and Paul Thurrott’s pick of the week was a web service called Pixlr. According to Paul, Pixlr is a near-replacement for Adobe Photoshop that works through a web browser. At the time I thought, “Yeah right!” Since it sounded too good to be true, I went straight to my Mac as soon as I got home and tried it out. After a minimum sign-in, Pixlr was up and running in Safari (4 beta) and I was completely astonished! I’ve never found it necessary to dole out a grand for Photoshop. My editing needs just aren’t that great. I have, however, spent fifty or sixty bucks a few times on applications like Pixelmator that offer 75% of the functionality for 10% of the cost. I’ve also tried the free Picasa, Flickr and Windows Live editors and came away feeling like I’d gotten just what I’d paid for. Pixlr, on the other hand is quite full-featured and runs like a native app on my Mac. I think Safari has something to do with that. The experience on Internet Explorer on my newest Vista machine was a bit more sluggish (more like what I had expected).
I’m not going to do a full review here. First, I barely know enough about photo editing to get done what I need. Second, Pixlr is free, what does it cost to try for yourself? You don’t even have to install anything, just click here. Leave a comment. Let me know if I’m all wet.

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Joseph Kelley Apple Minutiae, Software, Technology, Web Pixlr, Web service

I have always admired the speed of Safari but the lure of Firefox’s add-ons kept me from switching to Apple’s browser…until now. When I switched to a Mac some 18 months ago, one of the first things I downloaded was Firefox. I’d been using it on Windows since version 0.9 and on my new Mac it was an island of familiarity in the ocean of new(to me) operating system. Frankly, the then current Safari 2 seemed a little feature-poor by comparison. When I learned about Webkit, I began downloading the nightly build every now and then just to see if its speed could wow me enough to make me switch. While it was very fast, I always found myself missing FEBE and Better G-Mail. FEBE (Firefox Environment Backup Extension) enables me to save all my add-ons, bookmarks and preferences automatically and is an absolute necessity when moving between and adding computers as often as I do. The Better G-Mail add-on adds features and visual appeal to the normally bland Google app. I spend so much time with GMail I really need it to look and feel more like a desktop app.
When the Safari 4 beta was released I was immediately attracted to its speed and new features.  Also, a couple of recent developments have lessened my dependence on my favorite Firefox add-ons. First, Google has dramatically enhanced GMail’s feature set. With a multitude of new themes and its recent addition of off-line capability there is little need for third-party embellishment. Second, the new Foxmarks web service provides web synchronization of bookmarks and login data between Firefox, Safari and Internet Explorer.
I really wanted to give Safari 4 a good shakedown so I immediately set it as the default browser on my Macbook Pro, the machine I use 90% of the time. The first couple of days were a bit uncomfortable just because of the normal learning curve. Different button and tab placement along with some slight rendering differences kept me a little off-balance, but I was determined not to fall back into my comfort zone for comfort alone. After just two or three days using Safari 4 I found I had gotten quite used to it and I still haven’t run into any real show-stoppers. The sites I frequent all work well and the JavaScript-rich ones certainly render much faster. I really thought Apple’s claims of speed were just so much hype, but Firefox now seems almost sluggish on sites like GMail or Google Maps.
Is Safari perfect? Of course not. Are there things I wish Safari did better? Sure. Is this new version good enough to lure me away from Firefox? Time will tell, but it is still the default browser on all my systems after a week and that’s about five days longer than any of its predecessors.

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Joseph Kelley Apple Minutiae, OS X, Software Safari

If you spend all day most every day staring at a computer screen like I do, you might get bored looking at the same old wallpaper day after day.  I’m always on the lookout for new eye candy to dress up my desktop because I typically change my wallpaper every week or so.  Working for a Windows-laden corporation, I prefer my desktop advertise the fact that I “Think Different”.  Consequently, I’ve managed to collect quite a few Apple and Mac-centric wallpapers over the past several months and thought I’d share them with everyone.  I’ve uploaded 68 of my personal favorites.  Some of these you may have, some you may not and to the best of my knowledge none violate anyone’s copyright or license agreement.  In any case, click here to peruse and download any (or all) you like.

P.S.  Feel free to put them on your Windows machine if you use one at work or if you’re just waiting to purchase a good computer.

MacNoob

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Joseph Kelley Apple Minutiae, OS X, Promotion

Apple just released Safari 4 as a public beta and I predict it will make Safari a force to reckon with in the browser wars.  Safari has always been a solid, fast browser in OS X.  Last year’s release of the first Windows version was an ipso-facto announcement by Cupertino that they can compete with any browser.  Safari 3, while a very good browser, didn’t offer a real differentiator to the two leading market share holders despite Apple’s claims of speed, safety and reliability.  It really was a “me too” entrance into the mainstream browser market.

No more.  Safari 4 is a true game-changer.  With it’s cover flow and “Top Sites” views, this browser will give Windows users a glimpse into the beautiful world of Apple core animation.  People who’ve never experienced OS X will get an eye-popping introduction to the most visually pleasing UI on the planet.  I downloaded the beta this morning and installed it on my Mac and Vista machines.  I opened it on the 24″ monitor of the Vista PC that faces my office door.  Within an hour, nearly a half-dozen people (PC users) stuck their head in asking, “What’s that?!”  Safari 4 is that stunning.

Of course, it’s too early to tell how robust, stable, etc. this new Safari version is, but if it’s just functionally “good enough” many will use it just because it’s so pretty.  Apple’s tag line for their new offering is “…the world’s fastest and most innovative browser.”  I’ll leave the speed tests for others, but I will attest to its innovation.  Putting the tabs across the top of the browser was genius, especially on smaller screens where real estate (room on the screen) is at a premium.  That, coupled with the views I mentioned are reason enough for most people to switch.  For me, I’ll wait and see just how much I miss my Firefox add-ins.

Let’s face it, the reason Internet Explorer enjoys a 70+% share of the browser market is because it is the default on the most popular operating system.  Firefox has continued to whittle away at IE’s share with its huge assortment of add-ins.  I have no doubt this will make Safari a real player in the browser market.  The interesting question is, at who’s expense?

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Joseph Kelley Apple Minutiae, Software, Technology, Web