10:08 Jun 9th, 2009 | Notes

MobileMe. Let’s not quickly forget about MobileMe this WWDC! It got some pretty cool updates in my opinion. First, you can use Find my iPhone to do exactly what it says it does, find your iPhone. I would find this useful say, oh, I don’t know, if I left my iPhone at a friend’s house and they live half an hour away. I would quickly know where I left my phone without panicking and freaking out. Find my iPhone isn’t just cool for clumsy people who lose their phones, it useful if you get your phone stolen as well. Using me.com, you can send a customizable popup message and warning sounds to your iPhone to deliver a message to the thief of your precious phone. “Give my iPhone back B@#$%!!” and “This iPhone has been reported as stolen to the local authorities. Thank you for stealing Apple products!” are a few of my favorite custom messages. Along with finding your iPhone, you can even tell it to remotely wipe itself. That means it will delete everything on itself should you chose. iDisk also gets an upgrade. First, the icon changes from that horrid pink to a somewhat nicer blue. Additionally, an iDisk app is finally coming to the iPhone/iPod Touch with all the features of the online iDisk such as file sharing. Just a few more reasons to love spending that $99 a year!

MobileMe.

Let’s not quickly forget about MobileMe this WWDC! It got some pretty cool updates in my opinion. First, you can use Find my iPhone to do exactly what it says it does, find your iPhone. I would find this useful say, oh, I don’t know, if I left my iPhone at a friend’s house and they live half an hour away. I would quickly know where I left my phone without panicking and freaking out. Find my iPhone isn’t just cool for clumsy people who lose their phones, it useful if you get your phone stolen as well. Using me.com, you can send a customizable popup message and warning sounds to your iPhone to deliver a message to the thief of your precious phone. “Give my iPhone back B@#$%!!” and “This iPhone has been reported as stolen to the local authorities. Thank you for stealing Apple products!” are a few of my favorite custom messages.

Along with finding your iPhone, you can even tell it to remotely wipe itself. That means it will delete everything on itself should you chose.

iDisk also gets an upgrade. First, the icon changes from that horrid pink to a somewhat nicer blue. Additionally, an iDisk app is finally coming to the iPhone/iPod Touch with all the features of the online iDisk such as file sharing.

Just a few more reasons to love spending that $99 a year!

9:52 Jun 9th, 2009 | 0 notes

The iPhone 3G S-QW38DOSN-FX/2 OK so I’m overexagerating. But I don’t like this constant addition of letter to the end of Apple product names. They’re starting to remind me of a Panasonic television. Despite looking exactly the same (my friend Sam and I joked the ‘S’ stood for ‘Exactly the Same’) there are enough new features in the iPhone 3G S to make me go out and buy one. (See? It’s getting longer and harder to type out it’s name now!). I can think of reasons why Apple wouldn’t change the design of the iPhone. It would increase the price to manufacture a new body, it’s more cost during tough economic and there is absolutely nothing wrong with the old design. On the other hand, with the release of a new product I would have liked to see some sort of change. Video capture and editing, a compass (“OMFG A COMPASS!! A COMPASS!!! HOW EXCITING!) and Nike+ support are a few good reasons to upgrade. I am also loving Voice Control. For me however, it’s the super ultra speed increase that has my wallet in hand. As previously mentioned, I’m an efficiency fiend. That means speed as well. There was no way I was going to idly stand by while someone else loaded Rolando faster than me! No way! I also can’t wait for the 3.0 software to come out! Cut & Paste, MMS, full system search, landscape keyboards, notes syncing, faster web browsing and tons more! All for free on my current iPhone! Continuing the trend, all the features of the iPhone 3G S and the 3.0 software update are incremental changes and aren’t anything bold and groundbreaking.

The iPhone 3G S-QW38DOSN-FX/2

OK so I’m overexagerating. But I don’t like this constant addition of letter to the end of Apple product names. They’re starting to remind me of a Panasonic television.

Despite looking exactly the same (my friend Sam and I joked the ‘S’ stood for ‘Exactly the Same’) there are enough new features in the iPhone 3G S to make me go out and buy one. (See? It’s getting longer and harder to type out it’s name now!). I can think of reasons why Apple wouldn’t change the design of the iPhone. It would increase the price to manufacture a new body, it’s more cost during tough economic and there is absolutely nothing wrong with the old design. On the other hand, with the release of a new product I would have liked to see some sort of change.

Video capture and editing, a compass (“OMFG A COMPASS!! A COMPASS!!! HOW EXCITING!) and Nike+ support are a few good reasons to upgrade. I am also loving Voice Control. For me however, it’s the super ultra speed increase that has my wallet in hand. As previously mentioned, I’m an efficiency fiend. That means speed as well. There was no way I was going to idly stand by while someone else loaded Rolando faster than me! No way!

I also can’t wait for the 3.0 software to come out! Cut & Paste, MMS, full system search, landscape keyboards, notes syncing, faster web browsing and tons more! All for free on my current iPhone!

Continuing the trend, all the features of the iPhone 3G S and the 3.0 software update are incremental changes and aren’t anything bold and groundbreaking.

9:21 Jun 9th, 2009 | Notes

Safari 4. Once again, little changes from Apple. The full release of Safari 4 gets rid of the tabs at the very top of the screen which became loved by few, hated by many during the beta. I was in the ‘loved by few’ camp. As a total efficiency fiend, the prospect of gaining at least half a centimeter of screen real-estate by moving the tabs to the title bar was positively breathtaking! Seriously! Now that moved the tabs back to their traditional position, below the address bar, I’m choosing to keep Safari 4 Beta packaged away neatly for a rainy day when I will be in need of it’s bold offerings.

Safari 4.

Once again, little changes from Apple. The full release of Safari 4 gets rid of the tabs at the very top of the screen which became loved by few, hated by many during the beta.

I was in the ‘loved by few’ camp. As a total efficiency fiend, the prospect of gaining at least half a centimeter of screen real-estate by moving the tabs to the title bar was positively breathtaking! Seriously! Now that moved the tabs back to their traditional position, below the address bar, I’m choosing to keep Safari 4 Beta packaged away neatly for a rainy day when I will be in need of it’s bold offerings.

9:16 Jun 9th, 2009 | 0 notes

Personally I find the whole rebranding of the MacBook line a bit weird. The old aluminum MacBook’s branding was fine, the MacBook Pro’s had a clear advantage and superiority to them over the MacBook and the white MacBook was left out in the cold where no body knew about it. Oh wait… So the white MacBook was rightly brought back into the mix, but I still don’t see why the now 13” MacBook ‘Pro’ couldn’t have also stayed just a MacBook. In this case, Apple are just confusing people more by saying “No, that computer you bought last month is still a MacBook but this one we are selling now is a MacBook Pro. See? Just look at the writing under your screen!” Talk about confusing! All they needed to do was rebrand the white MacBook as “The MacBook Classic” or “The MacBook White” etc. and their problems would be solved. The removal of the Express-Card expansion slot was a mistake in my opinion. Sure, and SD slot is nice, but there isn’t too much harm or expense in adding both. I mean, take a look at every other laptop out there, they have both. Why can’t the MacBook Pros? Once again, Apple is just tweaking their product line up instead of bringing out something bold and ambitious.

Personally I find the whole rebranding of the MacBook line a bit weird. The old aluminum MacBook’s branding was fine, the MacBook Pro’s had a clear advantage and superiority to them over the MacBook and the white MacBook was left out in the cold where no body knew about it.

Oh wait…

So the white MacBook was rightly brought back into the mix, but I still don’t see why the now 13” MacBook ‘Pro’ couldn’t have also stayed just a MacBook. In this case, Apple are just confusing people more by saying “No, that computer you bought last month is still a MacBook but this one we are selling now is a MacBook Pro. See? Just look at the writing under your screen!”

Talk about confusing! All they needed to do was rebrand the white MacBook as “The MacBook Classic” or “The MacBook White” etc. and their problems would be solved.

The removal of the Express-Card expansion slot was a mistake in my opinion. Sure, and SD slot is nice, but there isn’t too much harm or expense in adding both. I mean, take a look at every other laptop out there, they have both. Why can’t the MacBook Pros?

Once again, Apple is just tweaking their product line up instead of bringing out something bold and ambitious.

OS X Snow Leopard

9:09 Jun 9th, 2009 | 0 notes

Put simply, Snow Leopard is a fine tuned version of Leopard, the current version of the Mac operating system. Apple have clearly acknowledged this fact with one big statement: Leopard owners can get Snow Leopard for $29 flat. No paying $99 or $299 (like Windows), just that one flat number. $29!

Because Apple haven’t added anything imediately visable to the average user. What they’ve done is throw in a whole ton of brand new developer tools that will result in the fastest OS on the market. With the introduction of 64-bit technologies system wide, programs will run faster and more efficiently than they currently. Grand Central Dispatch and Open CL add to this by giving developers tools to take advantage of ever last drop of performance from a machine. Moving forward, this is a big step that will see the fastest applications ever.

With tweaks to Exposé, Finder, the dock, Stacks and tons of other basic OS X applications along with faster startups, shut downs and a brand new QuickTime player, I’m still quite surprised that it’s all only $29.

Besides, who doesn’t like seeing “2.8x faster”, “45% faster” and “50% faster” badges pasted all over a website right?

WWDC!

9:00 Jun 9th, 2009 | Notes

Today was the day! WWDC 2009 has had Apple show us that they can take a step back from full blown innovation and look at what needs tweaking.

So here you go. In a series of quick, brief and badly edited posts, my review of WWDC 2009.

8:02 Jun 3rd, 2009 | Notes

WWDC is coming up next monday! How exciting! I can’t wait to see the new iPhone. Here is this year’s banner and slogan! “WWDC: One Year Later, Light Years Ahead” Photo: adamjackson1984 On Flickr (Licensed under CC)

WWDC is coming up next monday! How exciting! I can’t wait to see the new iPhone.

Here is this year’s banner and slogan! “WWDC: One Year Later, Light Years Ahead”

Photo: adamjackson1984 On Flickr (Licensed under CC)