MacKenchi

Dear CNN - You suck!

2011-03-25T02:00:00.000+09:00

This is an open letter to CNN, regarding your reporting, or lack thereof regarding the ‘Crisis in Japan’.

Two words can sum up my feelings: YOU SUCK.

No really, your reporting on Japan is absolutely horrendous. I’ve been irritated by it over the last week, and this evening what I saw was enough to put me past my boiling point.

I tuned in to catch some news about the situation in Libya, figuring that I’d learn something I hadn’t on BBC World (my other English language news service). One of your CNN anchors was discussing the situation in Japan with the Iodine-131 in drinking water. He introduced the story, before handing off to one of your gaijin correspondents in Japan, by saying (from memory), “Now to Tokyo for an update on the contamination of drinking water there. Officials announced yesterday that drinking water was unsafe for young children, because of radioactive contamination. But today, they are saying it’s safe to drink. How can the water be unsafe to drink one day, yet safe the next? We take you to ________ in Tokyo.”

STOP!

Stop right there. What kind of reporting is this? The issue is that the levels of Iodine-131 fell in the last day, and are now below the 100 Bq/kg limit set for infants. That’s it. By introducing a story like this, you are leading the viewer to believe that there is a controversy or misrepresentation or something awful happening that shouldn’t. Unfortunately, there’s nothing to support this claim, in your story or otherwise.

Then, the correspondent in Japan comes on to repeat the same line saying (from memory), “People don’t know what to think. The water is unsafe one day, then safe the next. This is causing worry and concern amongst Tokyo citizens.” Then you move on to interview a Japanese mother with an infant telling you she’s worried about safe drinking water.

So, where the hell is the story here? If you want to imply that the government of Tokyo, or central government of Japan, of cooking the numbers and/or misleading the public, you should follow this up with some actual reporting. How about some evidence that there is some monkey business from eyewitnesses or an inside source? Or even a response from government spokespersons or officials to your question of ‘how these levels could have changed’ or to your implication that something untoward happened?

There was none of this - absolutely nothing justifying that provocative lead-in. So, what we have here is a clear case of idle speculation instead of actual reporting, investigative or otherwise. WTF?! This isn’t why I pay for access to English news on my satellite dish.

Now I’m going to speculate. I can only envision two explanations why CNN took this tack on their report. The first is that you guys are really, really stupid. Perhaps you cannot fathom in any way how radiation might dissipate over time or how diffusion might actually result in dispersal of these substances to lowered concentrations throughout the water supply. I thought that’s why you had paid experts come on and pontificate - you know to explain concepts like basic science to you that are beyond your comprehension. Or perhaps you actually think that the government doesn’t know how to measure these things or wants to just lie, and make people drink water that isn’t safe. Never mind that you don’t have any facts to back this up, or bothered to investigate.

The other explanation I can come up with, is that you just don’t care about the truth and you want to suck in viewers, preying on their fear and gullibility. Given that your business model is based on advertiser revenue, which is based on number of viewers (ratings), I guess it’s OK (in your minds) to do whatever it takes to suck people in - even if it means creating problems or crises that aren’t actually there. It’s quite clear that whenever that you can milk some event for ratings, CNN is there. We know, because you keep the “Breaking News” legend at the bottom of the screen, for days, even weeks at a time for any ongoing issue - even when there isn’t any new news. You often introduce stories as “breaking” or “this just in”, when the information is 4-12 hours old. And you often give the ‘meta-story’ a title (e.g., “Crisis in Japan”) which you show whenever you present a story on some ongoing topic. These are all very subtle ways for you to subliminally implant in people’s minds that there is something really important on-going and CNN is on the job, telling you what you need to know. I’ve seen this in your reporting of the trapped West Virginia coal miners a couple years back (wondering why you guys just didn’t lay off the poor relatives of these guys). I’ve seen it in Haiti, where one of your reporters (A. Cooper) decided to interview some desperate people trying to dig relatives out of the rubble, as opposed to actually getting in there and helping them.

But I digress - let’s get back to the truth. Whether or not CNN is really stupid or you are purposely misleading to gain viewers probably makes no difference to you, as long as there is (as Stephen Colbert describes it) some ‘truthiness’ to what you are saying or reporting. The problem is that in crises, making inflammatory, speculative, provocative statements really has a negative impact on the people actually in those crises and their relatives around the world. It’s leading to panic and stress among foreigners, and their relatives back home that don’t have better information sources than the crap you are putting on the air. It’s enough, and I demand you stop!

In the case of the earthquake and its aftermath, the real crises involve the victims, refugees in the Tohoku region, and nuclear plant recovery. Although people are inconvenienced in Tokyo, it’s currently nothing more than that. Suggesting or implying otherwise is irresponsible, regardless of whether or not you think the government is telling the truth. Most of the reason foreign governments asked citizens to evacuate also had more to do with fear than reality. CNN and other foreign news services are responsible for helping to generate and sustain those fears. As a foreigner living west of Tokyo, I have concerns and fears for my family here too. And if things deteriorate to the point of real danger, we will certainly leave. But unfortunately, we won’t be able to rely on information from CNN to help us make that decision.

Wake up and stop the exaggeration and misinformation! Be responsible journalists, and just tell us the facts. Leave the speculation to people that actually take the time to investigate. Maybe take lessons from some of your iReporters, those “amateurs” that often truly grasp what journalism is.

Japan Earthquake Relief Links

2011-03-23T15:40:00.000+09:00

The below links are ones I’ve collected from reputable sources. If you want to donate money to help earthquake relief efforts in Japan, please consider making a donation to one of these organizations.

Japanese Red Cross

Doctors Without Borders

Salvation Army World Services

Peace Winds Japan

PayPal (Various)

Groupon: Internat'l Medical Corps

Amazon.com: American Red Cross

iTunes Earthquake & Tsunami Relief

Various Japanese Relief Funds

Various Mac OS & iOS Developers

iOS 4 Leaves iPod Touch G1 in the Cold

2010-06-24T02:29:00.003+09:00

Thanks for nothing Apple.

The newest OS update for iPod Touch and iPhone (formally iPhone x.x) is iOS 4. Apple chose not to support its first generation iPhone and iPod Touch devices with the OS, and only partly support devices other than the iPhone 3GS and iPad and iPhone 4.

I don't blame Apple for not wanting to implement all the parts of iOS 4 on older devices. Multitasking and complex graphics won't fly on the 1G devices. But by leaving users without any OS upgrade path, it also leaves those users with no way to update the apps they have already purchased or downloaded on their devices. And new apps won't work on iOS 4, AFAIK. This is because devs have no incentive or way to make their iOS 4 apps backwards compatible.

In one fell swoop, Apple has cut off these users from access to new apps or new versions iOS 3 apps from the App store. Users of 1 G devices get app upgrade notices, but can't take advantage of them at all.

Hey, I don't need multitasking or bluetooth keyboard connectivity, or the myriad of other features iOS 4 has. But the cutoff from the app store (and fixes to my current apps) is really unforgivable.

Thanks for nothing to those of us that got the iPhone & iPod Touch ball rolling in the first place.

Way to go, greedsters.

iPhone 4 and iOS 4: Oh My

2010-06-08T03:52:00.002+09:00

Briefly...

The good: Faster iPhone with longer battery life, better screen, better camera, thinner profile at the same price as the iPhone 3GS. New OS has multitasking, native viewing of pdfs, video capabilities, free upgrade for v. 3 users.

The bad: Changing the name of iPhone OS to iOS - WTF? Way to sow confusion, but then again the same OS is going to be used for iPads and iPod touches. Is Apple going to change the name of the iTunes store to the iStore b/c it sells more than music now?

The ugly: iAds. I can't for the life of me understand why Apple presents this as a feature to users. Sure, if you want to put them into free apps, fine. But please keep ads OUT of paid apps and elements of the OS itself. Don't waste my screen space on iAds when I'm looking at my address book, browsing in Safari, or using iBooks, for example.

The fluff: The gyroscope isn't that useful, except for games. Video calls really aren't necessary when you can only do them via WiFi. The inclusion of Bing as a search option is pretty much useless.

Geotagging Photos with your Nikon DSLR

2009-12-12T04:21:00.004+09:00

A recent Engadget post requesting info on camera geotagging solutions prompted me to do a little digging. Nikon's GP-1 unit is pricey, and it's performance has not be impressive. If you have a Nikon DSLR, check out some of the offerings on these links.

(Note, some Canon models and others also have products here).

http://www.phottix.net/shop/default.asp?product_id=1448

(near clone of Nikon GP-1)

http://www.dawntech.hk/di-GPS/products.htm

(also have Canon products)

http://www.e-geotag.com/Default.aspx

(Nikon and Fuji-Film)

http://www.solmeta.com/

(two Nikon units, and the pro unit may be used with any camera)

There are a few other makers out there, but these seem to be the most reliable. If you check forums on DPReview an Flickr, you can find some user comments. I also found several blog reviews on the interwebs.

New iPods & iTunes - Oh joy...

2009-09-10T10:04:00.000+09:00

This morning Apple had press event to announce its new music products. Prior to the event, there was much speculation about a new touch pad computer, iPod Touch with camera, and even some suggestion that the Beatles collection would finally make it to iTunes (I thought this one had legs).

Instead, Apple announced

discounts on iPod Touch models, and increases in speed 32gb & and a new 64gb size model. However, no cameras to be seen at all.
new iPod Nano models with a built in video camera (no stills), motion sensing with pedometer function
iTunes 9 with a revamped interface
iPhone/iPod Touch OS 3.1

My overall take - meh! The iPod touch is a big seller, and it’s great to see it hit 64gb, but many folks were expecting some sort of camera. Rumors that a Touch w/camera may have been shelved at the last minute may get more credence now. The camera on the new Nano is not so great - it shoots video but no stills. I can’t see people really wanting to use this much, or buying the Nano for this feature. The iPhone/iPod Touch software upgrade is free for Touch users, but on my 1st generation Touch it sucks up 200-300mb more storage, critical for those of us with only 16gb storage. Furthermore, using the iTunes interface for synch-ing content was comparatively sluggish. As for iTunes 9, I’ll have to tinker with it more. Most of the changes are cosmetic, IMHO.

Let’s hope the next slew of products Apple releases are truly revolutionary.

WWDC 09 June 09

2009-06-10T02:26:00.000+09:00

The wife and kids were at Baba and Jiji’s, so I could stay up to listen to the WWDC coverage unimpeded and undisturbed. I felt Phil Schiller’s Keynote started off very well at first, but then really bogged down in the product demos about half way through. I could barely stay awake during the last half.

I followed coverage on gdgt’s live feed and wasn’t disappointed. Except for one glitch, their coverage was thorough, kept pace, and had lots of photos. Big improvement Ryan and Peter! Tod Ogasawara pointed me (via Twitter) to a live (and unauthorized) video feed that was in the background of folks from TWiT on TWiT tv. The video feed was also available by itself via ustream (?), but I had issues getting that to play correctly. The video quality itself was poor, but the audio was fairly intelligible. The TWiTtv feed pissed me off, because Leo LaPorte’s commentary was annoying - too loud and uninteresting. I guess you could say I’m not a very big TWiT fan.

OK, several things were announced...

MacBook Pros
Pretty much the entire line of MBP’s (and the MB Air) was revamped, plus a new 13“ MBP is announced, faster and cheaper than the 13” Aluminum MacBook. In fact, the aluminum MacBook is no longer listed.

The good: Faster processors, longer battery life, SD card slot (except for 17“), less expensive across the board, Firewire 800!

The bad: Battery is no longer removable (like in the MBA), the SD slot replaces the express card slot.

The ugly: Apple isn’t getting it on the weight issue for the MBP line - all got heavier. WTF. Looks like Apple wants all train commuters in Japan to only carry MacBook Air laptops.

Snow Leopard
Blah, blah, blah, blah blah. Lots of new features, some of the awesome, some not - ship date maybe in September.

The good: Cheap upgrade pricing ($29/59 for single and family packs), install is 6gb smaller, 64bit, better Quicktime, better multicore processor support.

The bad: Lots of fluff I don’t need, like integrating Coverflow more into the OS (I never use it in iTunes or the Finder), Exchange support (what a waste of coding resources).

The ugly: Intel ONLY. I guess with the $70 you save on the upgrade, you can buy a new Intel Mac, ne?

Safari 4.0
Available now! If you were a beta tester, you know all about it.

The good: Sometimes snappier, free.

The bad: I don’t need this coverlow shit on my spash page!

The ugly: Some software conflicts like VideoBox, and 1Password (which is now fixed), some website conflicts including the one I use for university admin stuff. This is disappointing, and I may go back to FireFox.

iPhone OS 3.0
Announced for 17 June, lots of new features - many that we know about already.

The good: Speed enhancements, interface enhancements, new language support, remote wipe (to keep your info from the hands of thieves), YouTube login, sync notes, landscape keyboard.

The bad: Features I don’t need or are useless with my iPod touch like Cut ‘n Paste, Spotlight (WTF do I need this for? My iPod isn’t packing tons of docs), voice memos.

The ugly: Hosing iPod touch users $10 for this, some features WON’T WORK with US ATT users (like tethering.. - cheap bastards!)

iPhone 3Gs
Two sizes (16 and 32gb) with many enhancements, available 19 June. Some of the camera features will appeal to the Japanese market - the iPhone is catching up finally.

The good: Speedier (hence the S), 3mp camera with autofocus and video mode, voice control, compass (available in my Japanese Casio phone already), the old iPhone 3G gets dropped to $99 in the US, slightly better battery life.

The bad: No hardware keyboard, non-ergonomic shape, have to use ATT in the US and SoftBank in Japan.

The ugly: ATT is really hosing people that want to upgrade their 3G to a 3Gs. You have to front at least $400 out of pocket if you haven’t used your old iPhone at least 18 months.

Summary: I rate the new MacBooks as the best news, with the iPhone 3Gs second, and rank the software upgrades last. Much of iPhone 3.0 is lost on iPod touch users, and although the upgrade price for Snow Leopard is great - I’m not sure the features are if you are using older Macs.

Will I go out and finally buy an iPhone? No - the price will stay high in Japan for half a year, perhaps. And I much prefer the feature set in the PalmPre, though I’d like to try them both side by side.

iPhone OS 3.0 Event - Meh!

2009-03-20T23:38:00.000+09:00

Tuesday’s Apple Event drew a lot of attention from the tech media, but in some ways was disappointing. I was trying to get to sleep early (started @2am our time), but did follow one live feed for a bit. I chose gdgt’s live feed and wasn’t disappointed. Ryan & Peter’s feed didn’t crap out and was very good, compared with what happened during MW Jan ‘09.

First, OS 3.0 is slated to be released sometime this Summer, which technically means before 21 September. iPod Touch users will have to fork over an update fee ($10) again, because of this bullshit Apple accounting practice.

Second, the upgrade will have more than 1000 api’s for devs and 100+ new things for users, according to AppleInsider. I’ll go over some of the highlights of the preview (from AI’s article) and give a few comments.

In-App Purchasing - allows apps to sell you additional content, such as game levels or eBooks. This feature sounds great for developers and content providers, but is really just another way to get $ from users.

Peer-Peer Connections - supposed to help you find folks playing the same app or game via Wi-Fi or BT. It allows for more interactivity, but really means more battery drain for you and I.

App-accessory linkage - gives iPhone/iPod Touch accessory makers the ability to make apps to integrate with their hardware accessories. I’m not sure why this is something special, as it seems like something Apple just needed to ‘permit’ during the app submission process.

Push Notification - was supposed to be in the previous OS, but never made it. It allows internet servers to push their content to your device rather than having the device periodically poll the server. This is supposed to improve battery life. I can see this being useful, if you have to have constant updates from your email server.

Turn-By-Turn - allows devs to access the gps data for apps that provide turn-by-turn directions. I can’t help but think that turning the iPhone into a nav system is overkill. I could see it being useful while on foot, but for driving? Please. The iPhone/iPod Touch screen is much too small to be used as a gps nav unit in a car. Anyone using one to navigate while driving would be a hazard on the road. Perhaps this will work for upcoming Apple touch products with sufficiently large screens?

Copy/Paste - something folks have been clamoring for a while. But I have to wonder if it will ever be used much. The iPhone/iPod Touch touchscreen is only somewhat useable for text entry - who types long emails or documents? Not happening. Copy/Paste might be useful in catching a web URL or email address to paste in a message. I’d be happy for the ability to open a url in a new browser window instead.

Landscape Keyboard - some apps don’t allow this currently (e.g., Mail). I hope landscape mode will be allowed for more than just keyboard orientation. How about when I want to select from a list of podcasts (or audio) instead of having to wait for the @#$@# screen to reorient, which results in a useless Coverflow interface for audio.

Messaging (MMS) - Supposed to allow multiple messages with pictures? I suppose they mean SMS allowed to carry pictures.

Voice Memos - if you have the iPhone with speaker this would allow you to take notes or record lectures. But with the awful battery life, I can’t take this feature seriously.

Spotlight Search - For what? I don’t quite get this. I suppose if you have lots of pdf docs and can’t recall which of them have certain content - OK. But if you are searching for content in an email, won’t a search in the mail app do?

A2DP Bluetooth - this will let you use stereo BT headphones, and supposedly activate BT function in 2nd gen iPod Touches (where it is now dormant). I dunno, maybe useful. But I’ve not seen a decent stereo BT headphone on the market (let alone monaural earpieces). If you can’t control the iPod from your BT headphone, I don’t quite see the need.

In summary, it seems that Apple has been very busy adding features to the mobile OS. Many of these address user demands (even though they may not realize they don’t really need them). I can’t help but wonder if the update will be very hefty in terms of drive space and processor demands. Let’s hope they don’t leave 1st Gen iPod touch users (like me) out in the cold.

New 3rd Gen Shuffle Requires Apple Authentication Chip in Headphones

2009-03-16T15:41:00.000+09:00

It gets worse. Apple requires any 3rd party headphones for the iPod shuffle have an authentication chip to be compatible, according to iLounge and Engadget. This means higher costs for 3rd party headphone makers. Given that the Shuffle is relatively inexpensive, it is ironic you won’t be able to use inexpensive 3rd party headphones with it. This bogus proprietary technology requirement is a big step backward for Apple. Although many folks only use their Apple earbuds that come with iPods, getting a cheap replacement for the Shuffle’s headphones won’t be likely. The move even prompted former Engadget guru Ryan Block (now of gdgt) to speculate that Apple may implement the same nonsense on all its future iPods. Let’s hope not, otherwise a consumer backlash is possible.

My take - why didn’t Apple take the high road and use the standard for music player controls that already exists on many headphones?

[Note: iLounge gives a fairly negative review of the new Shuffle - surprising given they are typically Apple cheerleaders.]

iPhone OS 3.0 Event

2009-03-13T13:14:00.000+09:00

Apple has announced an event on 17 March to announce v3.0 of the iPhone/iPod Touch OS. Actually, it seems they are just announcing that they are working on it with a probably release date. What I can’t quite understand is why? Why does Apple need to do pre-announcements for software? With Jobs on the sideline, is Apple insecure that the tech world has forgotten them? Or maybe they are going to announce a new iPhone app developer program, code named, “RESPECT”.

Nah. That’s not the Apple way.

New Shuffle Shrinks More?

2009-03-12T02:12:00.000+09:00

Today Apple released a new form factor for the Shuffle with even smaller (!) physical size and larger capacity, plus a new VoiceOver function for navigating. The (3g?) Shuffle has shrunk to smaller than a typical house key, and is so tiny you can only control it via the included Apple earbud’s cord (yuck!). This suggests that you need to use Apple’s crappy earbuds, or some 3rd party head phones with compatible controls. The new Shuffle also has a 4GB capacity, the same as my old 1G iPod Nano. Apple currently is only offering two colors, grey and black. The Voice Over feature will announce the upcoming tune, and (for the first time) allow you to navigate through different playlists via CG voice choices. VoiceOver works in 14 languages, apparently.

My take - I haven’t seen or used one of these yet (nor do I have a shuffle), but I feel shrinking the shuffle further seems pointless. With the current monochrome color choices, these will be easy to misplace or lose entirely if you drop it. Limiting users to certain headphones with inset controls (or just Apple buds) also feels like a bad move. Those buttons on the Apple Earbuds look pretty tiny to me! The last gen Shuffles seemed just right for manipulating controls with average sized fingers, plus the color choice was good for individualization. My guess is the cost to manufacture the new Shuffle is considerably less, with very few moving parts in a one piece shell. However, until I can see one in person, I’ll hold further judgement.

UPDATE: Looks like you MUST use the Apple Earbuds, at least until 3rd party controllers step up. Plus using the new Shuffle ain’t no party compared to the last one. Engadget’s send up of the situtation is priceless. It’s seems analogous to using QuickSilver on a Mac with no keyboard or monitor - just audio output.

MW Jan '09

2009-02-27T13:20:00.003+09:00

Yeah, not posting much recently. But my job on top of having our second child in September has really knocked me out. Stayed up late with Jason to catch Apple’s supposed “last” MacWorld conference in January and have been ruminating about Schiller’s presentation.

First, the coverage was fairly broad with all the usual crew sending feeds, along with newcomer gdgt (Ryan Block & Peter Rojas). Unfortunately, their feed bogged down totally about 30 minutes in and never recovered completely. Too bad for them, as they had the best photo shots, IMHO. The other feed we followed was Ryan & Peter’s old blog, Engadget. Their feed updated fairly regularly, though not with autorefresh. The other coverage we were following was MacRumors, which got hacked in the first 15 minutes and the feeds were full of bizarre things, including a claim that Jobs died (not funny) as well as some truly hilarious stuff which had me rolling on the floor. There was a column of ‘desu desu desu“, for example among other things. Some folks felt sorry for MacRumors, but I don’t particularly. Although they do have original content, on slow news days they simply parrot what AppleInsider publishes - often with identical headlines. I’m not saying they deserve the hacking, but it was comical. I don’t know what happened to other feeds.

Second, most folks were expecting actual Mac hardware products, not software, so I think overall people were disappointed. From what I can tell Wall Street was also disappointed as Apple stock went down a buck fifty. Given the real need for an updated MacMini, it’s surprising Apple didn’t do something more. Even the Engadget folks were quipping about how bored they were getting after an hour of iLife / iWork demos.

The only hardware introduced was the new ‘unibody’ 17“ MacBook Pro. Price is the same, but new aluminum enclosure, and option for matte screen (vs. glossy), non-removable battery, higher res screen. Given that this MacBook is not a huge seller, and has features better suited for a desktop - meh. It weighs in at a hefty 6.6 lbs, a decrease in 0.2 lbs. This isn’t as much as I would have expected from this new lightweight enclosure. However the 15” MacBook Pro ‘unibody’ actually gained weight, a tenth of a pound to 5.5 lbs. I can’t understand why Apple needs to make heavy notebook computers when they are already horribly behind on this feature. (Note: the unibody MacBook actually lost weight from its predecessor.) I’m guessing for the new 17“ MBP, most of the weight is in the new battery. Some Mac sites seem to be touting the new tech in this battery. The new tech, however, seems to be that the battery is actually larger than in previous 17” MBPs. Larger battery, longer battery life is what Schiller said. He left out “heavier”. I also found it laughable that Apple was proud its new aircraft carrier deck laptop was the thinnest in its class. Dude, if you are lugging one of these around, its thinness is the least of your worries. And with the extra graphics processor, your gonna need all the power you can get. My guess is that the Japanese market remains unimpressed by stats like this.

Most of the presentation was focused on Apple’s consumer software, iWork and iLife. This puzzled me because I’d always heard we shouldn’t expect Apple hardware announced at the developer conferences. Now we have a software (and not much hardware) focus at MacWorld. I guess this really shows Apple’s disdain for MW or indication that they would release stuff when they want and not when others expect it. Although the flashy features demo’d for iWork and iLife seem impressive, one word permeated my thinking: bloatware. The geotag and integration with GoogleMaps/Earth is nice, but the inflexible paradigm of organizing your photos pisses me off. I still use iLife '06 on my desktop Mac, because it allows me to organize by date in the side bar (best way to organize photos!) and it's enhance function works BETTER than that in '08 for underwater photos. I can rely on tagging for my events, places, and people. Face recognition sounds good, but apparently isn't good enough to rely on completely.

OK, this is brief, but I finally published it! If MacJournal had allowed me to send the post from the app, I'd have had this up a month ago. Next up, my review of the EyeFi Explorer card.

MacKenchi Recommends CardRaider

2009-01-21T10:43:00.000+09:00

For the next 4 hours you can get a discount on CardRaider on MacZot - discounted to $11.95 from $19.95. If you use digital cameras, this is a great tool for recovering media you accidentally deleted - or got corrupted.

I used it last weekend to recover a movie file accidentally deleted from a card in one of our point and shoot cameras. I tried several other recover apps (including Disk Warrior II) - only CardRaider found the file. Some of the other dedicated camera card recovery apps didn’t even recognize .avi files or other movie formats.

If you use Macs and digicams, I recommend you take advantage of this price while you can. Otherwise, you might be paying the full price later on, when you really need this app to save your bacon.

More App Store BS

2008-09-30T13:10:00.003+09:00

Look's like Apple has made the situation worse - removing the 'all apps' listings. So none of the lists are unfiltered (except for top apps?). This means you have to waste more time searching for apps and there is no way to get unbiased, listings unaffected by promotions.

I sent this feedback to Apple and hope that others will similarly do so:

I'm offended that Apple does not represent apps in the app store appropriately, and has removed the best option for finding an unfiltered listing of recent apps. I could care less about the iTunes store recommendations for apps. Don't need it, won't look at them.

Every category (except top paid/free apps) is filtered through some kind of promoted or featured system which doesn't reflect what is actually available. Even the "New" listing does not reflect all the new apps - just what the iTunes store recommends. Worse, the best option for finding unfiltered content (all apps for iPhone or iPod Touch) has been REMOVED. What's up with that?

This is totally bogus and offensive to consumers. Let us make the judgement of what we want, not your advertisers or app developers or staff. And I'd have to say it's a non-Apple way of doing things - or at least was.

Fix this, like yesterday or expect more pissed off customers.

App Store Listings Unethical

2008-07-19T01:15:00.013+09:00

Nope, I'm not talking about developers adding special characters or numbers to their app names to get attention, I'm PO'd about Apple engaging in false presentation of apps.

A "Featured" list would be fine to display apps whose developers pay advertising revenue to Apple. I would think the apps in the banners at the top of the AppStore or in that band below "New" listings would fit that bill.

Unfortunately, Apple seems to be deliberately making all their lists on the splash page "featured" lists, making it difficult for consumers to find and choose apps. This is misleading, and unfair.

For example, I browsed the app store on launch day, and want to check to see if any new apps have been released (updates I don't need - get them automatically). You would think that the place to look is at the top of the apps store under the new heading. Unfortunately, if you click to display 'new' you get a very abbreviated list of apps, many of them not new at all. Furthermore that list comes presorted with 'featured'. If you sort by 'release date', you get reverse chronological order, but again it is missing many, many apps. For example, there are no apps listed for 17 July there. See this screen shot:

If you go to the pane on the left of the app store, and select "All iPhone (or iPod Touch) Applications", and then sort by "release date" you get a very different list that isn't included under the "New" heading. Yup, several released on 17 July. Sure, some of these are updates, but not all of them. Apple isn't doing us any favors by misleading us, and is wasting my time in particular.

Another example is from the "Games" listing in the left sidebar. If you click that, you get a page with frames for different categories of games, such as Action/Adventure, Casino/Card, Family/Kids, Racing/Arcade... I was trying to find a Solitaire game that I was playing as a web app - Cookie Bonus Solitaire. I clicked on the "See all" link for Casino/Card Games and I get this very small list of games:

There, that's it. Just eight games! And no Cookie Bonus Solitaire. I could find CBS by searching for its name in the PowerSearch. And if I search for "solitaire" alone, I get TWENTY TWO apps (including a few MahJong type games).

WTF is going on, Apple? Are you deliberately misleading customers to make certain developer's products fail? Or are you truly this selfish that you cannot do what's best for the consumer? Very, very disappointing, unethical, immoral, and plain stupid.

Please fix this yesterday.

Top Ten Reasons I won't be getting an iPhone (in Japan)

2008-07-12T01:41:00.007+09:00

10. SoftBank will run out of them quickly.

9. Some SoftBank dealers are racist and charge gaijin extra money and/or won't sell to them if they can't show a long-term Japanese visa.

8. I wouldn't be able to activate one right now anyway.

7. SoftBank's signal coverage is worse than AU, my current carrier.

6. The iPhone isn't waterproof, like my Casio G'Zone

5. My wife won't switch to SoftBank, so texting will be a bitch, and cost more.

4. Even ¥7300 yen per month is too much! My wife and I have two phones for ¥5000-6300 per month (total) with AU. Beat that, SoftBank.

3. Another "Made in China" product.

2. I rarely use the phone anyway, and I already have an iPod Touch.

And the number one reason is:

1. Frankly, I spend too much time on the internet already. I don't need more access to online content.

Wussy Nation #1

2008-07-08T09:40:00.005+09:00

Note: Often foreigners living in Japan encounter things they can't understand or rationalize. These may both amuse and infuriate us at the same time. Posts under this heading in MacKenchi will describe such experiences.

Yesterday, while riding on the JR Yokohama line to Hashimoto, a ko-gal (high school girl) sitting on the other side of the train from me tried to get the attention of another young woman sitting one person down from me. Although the train had few riders, this in itself was unusual for Tokyo, as strangers rarely talk, interact, or even look at each other.

The kogal was trying to tell the other woman that there was a butterfly sitting on her shirt. When the woman realized what the deal was, she tried to shoo the insect away - but the butterfly was having none of it, and kept its grasp. The butterfly woman started to cringe and panic, so I stood up and motioned her to be still. I carefully grabbed the insect by its wings (it was clearly tired and trying to rest) and released it as the doors opened for a stop. It was just a small cabbage butterfly - utterly harmless and probably close to dying.

Well, I returned to my seat, nodding my head to the woman as she thanked me - assuming the ordeal was over. For whatever reason, the door stayed open as we stopped for perhaps a minute. The poor butterfly lazily fluttered around outside the train for a bit, then surprisingly flew back inside. I watched as the two women looked on horrifyingly at the butterfly desperately trying to find something to land on that was solid and unmoving. It finally settled on the raised underside of a man's shoe sitting between me and the first butterfly victim. He was asleep, so I thought that was the end of it. He was thin, in his early 20s, dressed in an inexpensive suit and shoes with elevated heels. So the butterfly had space under the arch of the shoe.

Then both women started talking to the guy and he eventually woke up - a bit confused. When he saw what they were pointing to, he groggily tried to shake the poor insect off with increasing vigorousness. Then he started to panic a bit and looked worried as the train left the station, while he struggled to get the butterfly to release its grip. At this point, I had had enough. I couldn't watch this pussiness any further. I shook my head and walked to stand next to a door further down; my stop was coming up anyway.

The dude kept shaking his foot to the horrified commentary of the two women until finally the train conductor came out of his compartment (we were on the last car of the train) and plucked the poor butterfly off the shoe with his gloved hand. I think he released it out the window, but I was too disgusted to watch anymore.

I mean, GEEZUS, what the F is wrong with this young man? I guess I could understand if he was a little girl with insect phobia (like my wife) - but this was a guy, you know a dude or male of the human species. I guess he didn't inherit any balls from his father. A REAL man would have just picked it off with his bare hands and let it go out the window - or even smack it against the seat frame and kill it. And it's not like it was something icky like a cockroach or dangerous. This guy chose to show what a complete helpless ninny he was.

Pathetic.

I'd like to think this is an isolated instance of spinelessness, but my experiences here suggest otherwise.

Sometime I'll tell you how a little moth fluttering around a dining room in Okinawa turned 5 Japanese science graduate students and their professor into a pack of screaming idiots.

WWDC SteveNote Redux

2008-06-17T02:21:00.011+09:00

OK, it's been a week since we got to hear about new Apple goodies from Pastor Steve. I'll give my analysis, FWIW.

First, this was a gawd awful boring presentation for the first 75%. Nobody wanted to hear about all the new iPhone partner yadda yadda. Kudos to Engadget for not trying to candy-coat everyone's displeasure during their live coverage.

Second, iPhone/iTouch games. Yeah it's nice that we get some games on the iPhone/iTouch. But frankly the games announced don't give me a woody and it's like 9 months too late. I would bet most touch users would be thrilled with a version of solitaire or minesweeper - or crossword puzzles - something simple and addictive. Unfortunately, the games being touted (e.g., Cro-Mag Rally, Enigmo) aren't high on my list and the fact that they might take advantage of some special iPhone/iTouch features isn't that impressive to me. As I said, the games are late in coming. We should be past this point already. Developers had to drag Apple kicking and screaming to release an SDK, and now we are paying for Apple's sonambulism.

Third, other iPhone apps. Most of the apps being touted are also not very thrilling. I mean - eBay? Who would track this stuff on their iPhone/iTouch? TypePad? Hello? Has anyone actually typed a sentence on their iPhone/iTouch and felt it was a quick and easy experience? Not happening.

How about Loopt - a social service that lets you track your friends and be tracked? I just can't see anyone other than a 16 year old teeny bopper really finding this a useful, fun app. Maybe it's just me, but I DON'T WANT my friends to know where I am 99% of the time.

MLB.com's video baseball highlight app - what?! How about actual LIVE video coverage? You can't be serious that anyone would get off on watching a highlight pseudo-real-time or otherwise, given that there are often only 2 or 3 highlights per ball game. (And yes, I love baseball.)

Even the AP app sounds lame - turn everyone into an amateur video reporter. Yuck! You'll get Sally's intimate video of her gross friend Zoey hawking a loogy on an expensive sports car parked at the 7-11. **sigh**

Fourth, OSX 10.6 Snow Leopard... no PowerPC support, no new features for users... **yawn**

Fifth, iPhone OS2.0 comes in July. Yay. Free for iPhone, but gonna cost iTouch users $9 - WTF! They should give this to touch users for FREE for having to put up with substandard features and lack of functions from the iPhone that they had to pay for already.

Sixth, Mobile Me replaces .Mac.... hurray?? Kudos for doing something to improve .Mac but the Me name is limp, and the logo is even worse. Given that I can't even get some basic .Mac features to even work, such as Back to My Mac - I'm skeptical Apple can do it right the second time around. Push mail thing might be OK, but with only 20GB of on-line storage I can't see it as a real home base for all your files. Having the functions in the basic form of web apps that act just like your desktop apps - hmmm. Do we really need this? Unsure at this point. Do you think that Windoze users will actually sign up for this? Nope - not happening.

And finally - the iPhone 3G! The phone Apple should have released in the first place comes July 11th in like 22 countries simultaneously, then many, many others. And yes, it's even coming to Japan on that date! Unfortunately, you could hear the collective groans of all of us in Japan when it was confirmed that SoftBank would be the sole carrier here. My colleague's spouse was so upset he declared he was actually angry that Apple didn't partner with a more reliable or established carrier. My guess is that Docomo wouldn't kowtow to Apple's model or demands and that SoftBank, the most desperate to improve their market share was more flexible. I guess nobody bothered to tell Apple that SoftBank is like the third owner of the company in 6 years, and that their infrastructure is still behind AU and Docomo.

Jobs claimed that the iPhone 3G price will be capped at $199 for 8Gb and $299 for 16Gb with a 2 year contract. But it's not clear if this is US-only, and I'd bet that in Japan it will sell for ¥30,000-50,000 if SoftBank has its way. And you can be sure that we will get gouged heavily for 'packet charges' for using internet features over the 3G network. The SoftBank people I spoke with had no idea on costs or anything else. I'm wondering if this is still under negotiation. It's also unclear whether a Japan iPhone will work transparently in other countries with iPhone service with roaming charges. This would be key for me, as would the possibility of changing contracts if I move to another country.

Functionality and features of the iPhone 3G are fairly impressive, if Apple's numbers are accurate - particularly for battery life. The 2 megapixel camera is not thrilling, but GPS sounds sweet (though I bet it won't work in English here). There is some concern over whether the iPhone will succeed in Japan, given its consumer's idiosyncracies and the better overall choice of phones and feature sets here compared to the US. One-Seg TV tuners are somewhat popular right now, but perhaps the better content available on the iPhone via iTunes or personal library will win folks over.

The burning question for me is will I purchase one? I'm not really moved to do so, but will definitely see what pricing plans are available. My guess is that most of us here in Japan feel the same way.

Nifty Little Mac Apps

2008-05-18T01:26:00.007+09:00

So much for my MBA review... maybe I'll have time on my upcoming break.

Recently, I'm impressed with the spate of small, useful apps out there for the Mac. I'll share a few of my favorites, and some new ones for you to try.

Twitter is an interesting webapp, which I've begrudgingly started to use. Unfortunately, it's no fun powering up the browser or opening up an new browser window to access your account. If you have an iPhone or iPod Touch, you can use the web app Hahlo from Dean J. Robinson.

There are some Mac Twitter clients that have been out there for a while, such as Twitterrific ($15) and TwitterPod (free). I encountered two new clients while browsing new apps at iUseThis that look very promising. The first is twhirl, a small client that uses Adobe Air tech. This app is currently in v. 0.8.1, so it is still being developed. It's free, cross platform, and I really dig the setting to adjust the opacity of the window when the app isn't active. The color of the twhirl window is not so great for some, however.

The other new client is NatsuLion, which means "Summer Lion" and is from "akira" - a Japanese developer. NatsuLion windows look more like an OSX app, and you can change the color of the text/background. I didn't install NatsuLion, but apparently some people think it's quite good.

Screen capturing seems to be the rage, and even TUAW bothered to review several screen capture apps recently. When reading that review, I was bothered that they didn't include ScreenSteps, which uses screenshots to help you build step by step instructions. But one surprise I saw was the app Skitch, which previously looked like eye candy nonsense when I first encountered it. Skitch allows users to take screenshots or webcam shots, and immediately upload them to an online storage site. From there you can share these via easy to copy urls, so you can upload them into blogs, flicker, etc. You can even determine the level of sharing for each image (private, secret, public). You can take timed shots, and the crosshairs that Skitch uses to select what you want to shoot are balls. Skitch has some very catchy annotation tools (text, arrow, shapes), and is fairly simple to use. I like the convenient menu bar access to pop up the Skitch window. Image resizing isn't clear to me, nor how to dump the current contents without losing them. My original dislike for this app is the color scheme of the logo - too pink, and too gay. However, with this functionality, I can over look it. Skitch is free for now (in beta stage) and you need to sign up an account with them.

A similar app to Skitch that wasn't in the TUAW review is GrabUp. GrabUp installs as a pref panel and remains active in your menubar. GrabUp intercepts the usual OSX screen grab command (shift+apple+4) and sends the output to an online database. You can access the location of your image via the GrabUp menubar icon, or you can just do a paste command (GrabUp automatically puts the image url into your clipboard). This is very handy for quick and dirty screen caps when writing blogs or uploading images on screen to some photo site. Interestingly, you don't sign up with any particular account to use GrabUp, so I'm guessing that there is a common online database that stores these images. So, it seems you won't be able to access your GrabUp images from another computer via the app, and I have to wonder how long they will store your images on line. GrabUp is a compromise compared to Skitch, because it allows very, very quick screen grabs, but you sacrifice global access to your images. Grab up is FREE, though, and Skitch will move to paid status eventually. Hmm...

The third app I want to talk about is another one in beta, Evernote. Evernote is a 'by invitation only' beta (I have 20 invitations left if anyone wants them). Actually, you can download the app for free, but the internet account requires an invitation. Evernote is crossplatform (Win/Mac) and I would describe Evernote as a hybrid notebook and image collector. You can use iSight to photograph something, or just drag and drop images, clip a screenshot, clip a screenshot of a webpage. Evernote will upload those with any text you add to the image to your online Evernote account. It keeps each entry you upload, and allows easy syncing between multiple machines. Apparently, any uploaded image will be scanned for text and the OCR will make those terms searchable in your entry. I tried it with the TUAW article mentioned above, and it worked great. I could search for any word and it would be highlighted. You can also tag each entry, and use several notebooks. I was a bit bothered I could not shrink the size of images in the Evernote notebook window. This seems to limit its use for note taking if the captured images overwhelm the text. Syncing between two different machines seems to work perfectly, and I have to say that this app has a lot of possibilities. You can also upload (and view) content from your mobile phone - making this a very useful service, even when you aren't at your computer.

Well, give these apps a try, and see what you think. Each of them is very nice, and will undoubtedly be improved in the near future.

Hiatus, MWSF, and MBA

2008-04-18T02:33:00.005+09:00

Wow! ひさしぶりです！ It's been a LONG time since MWSF and I've not posted jack.

I just want to quickly run down what I thought of the new Apple stuff at MWSF (OK, it was almost 3 months ago), and why I bought an MBA right away.

- AppleTV Redux: Apple was desperate to boost its flagging sales and give some functionality that users actually need or want. The new software is supposedly a major improvement. For me, I'm not that thrilled. I just am not sure I need a way to move my Mac content to my TV. But then again, we don't have a very large set or watch much more than news, sports, kids shows, and the occasional Japanese drama.

- Time Capsule: As a hard drive, it's rather expensive. But you could justify the extra cost because it serves as a full fledged WiFi-n base station. There is a USB port for printer or another hard drive, as well as 3 Gigabit Ethernet ports. The problem I see is that if you purchase Time Capsule, it's an all in one solution. You are stuck with this hard drive, no matter what. Furthermore, Apple is billing this as the only wireless Time Machine solution.

Although a recent Airport firmware update finally enabled the ability to use hard drives plugged into your base station with Time Machine - Apple is stating that this feature is unsupported. Perhaps they are doing this to boost Time Capsule sales, which may not be doing very well. I notice on the Apple Store's Time Capsule page, several very poor ratings. This doesn't bode well.

- Google Maps, Mail, and more for iPod Touch: This should have been free. I paid for it, because I needed the Mail app alot, and didn't want to hack my Touch. Shame on Apple for not providing this for free, regardless of the accounting BS allowing them to do so.

- MacBook Air: I saved the best for last. F-f-f-f-finally! Apple makes a lightweight laptop! I will still maintain that they didn't need to add all the bells and whistles to make a lightweight MacBook. However, when comparing it to lightweight Wintel laptops, some that came out in response to the Air, it comes out ahead on the best balance of features. And given many of us don't need a speed demon to take our show on the road, the MBA really suits the bill. I ordered mine the night they were announced, and received it in the second week of February. In my next post, I'll give a comprehensive review of the MBA, complete with unboxing photos.

OK, there were a few other things at MWSF too - like vid rentals. And I'd have to say my prognosticating was pretty good this time around, if you check out my previous post.

SteveNote Game

2008-01-14T23:57:00.000+09:00

This is pretty cool.

Jan-07 MacWorld Predictions

2008-01-14T22:48:00.000+09:00

I think:

Small MacBook - at a hefty 5+lbs, the current MacBooks are not really portable. Whether Apple overdoes it with a functionally crippled ultralight MacBook or just a thinner, small screen version of the current line - I'm not sure.

Regardless, either would be a welcome move by MacKenchi's standards. (Less than this is not acceptable for us folks in Japan!)

Speed Bump MacBooks - could be the whole current line up, and maybe upgrade the screens of the 17" Pro to backlit.

Monitor Refresh - new versions of the current crop with built in iSight and more ports (USB/FW).

16GB GSM iPhone - no 3G yet.

MacTV 2.0 - BluRay whatever.... Yawn

iPhone/Touch SDK Kit - Announced, but not shipping until at least Feb.

iPhone/Touch firmware 1.1.3 - Watch out modders!

iPhone/Touch Games - Way late, but hey.

iTunes ≥v.7.6 - Vid rental, whatever.

OSX 10.5.2 - Make things like Back to your Mac and Spaces actually useful.

Mac Mini - no change in configuration, but decreased price.

Some of the product upgrades won't be announced at the Keynote, but be discovered as new products on the Apple Store - like before.

FWIW...

New Hip in Japan

2008-01-11T22:56:00.000+09:00

Since my return to Japan on Nov 15th, it was clear that my life was going to be different, and improved.

- My daughter was more active and mobile, pushing me to push myself to keep up with her.

- I was relatively pain free (hip-wise) in my daily activities, and felt more motivated to get out and do something.

- The crutches were quickly becoming an afterthought. In fact, I gave them up at home after a week altogether, used a cane for about two weeks and since Xmas have been cane-less.

- I wasn't struggling to stand up from couch, chair, or even the floor.

- I was gaining muscle mass (and unfortunately flab), because of increased swimming and stationary biking (and unfortunately appetite).

The biggest early drawback was trying to limit myself from doing something too much too soon.

- My daughter is right on the borderline of what your are supposed to lift (20lbs).

- I found myself at times nearly running to catch trains (I should wait until April for that).

- Carrying a backpack with laptop was harder on my back than my hip.

Unfortunately, I became quite ill for 8 days from 28 November through 6 December. I had some sort of GI virus (not a flu virus) that literally kept me in bed or on the toilet for 6 straight days. The Japanese GI specialist I saw felt that my recent operation may have left my immune system a bit weaker. I ended up taking antibiotics, and some 'good bacteria' powder (biofirm) like the stuff they put in yogurt to help your gut recolonize the beneficial E. coli. I've come to realize that antibiotics (whose frequent use I oppose) may be a reality in my future because of my implant. I have to get antibiotics whenever I get dental work done or other invasive medical work.

The upshot of my stomach 'cold', as the doctor put it, was that it set my recovery back a week or more - as I couldn't do my stretching exercises, swim or bike. And I think I regressed a bit in flexibility. Worse, I had just located an American PT specialist on base, and the illness postponed my PT plans into the holidays - when I wasn't able to sign up. At this writing I still haven't set up a PT session and will have to get a new prescription to do so. My job and lab responsibilities have also increased, giving me less available free time, other than for exercises.

At present, I feel I'm close to being where I should be - my leg strength improves daily - but I'm still frustrated by my flexibility. Worse, I'm starting to feel stiffness and some soreness after sitting for long periods in a variety of chairs - finding that I limp more than I thought I did previously. I'm unsure if this is a result of poor posture, bad furniture, or just the recovery of feeling in my operated hip. It makes me want to sit less, but it also makes me question my progress and lack of initiative on signing up for PT.

So, I still have no regrets for having my hip replaced - the pain relief alone is amazing. I'm only disappointed a bit in my perceived lack of progress in rehab. Yet, I still had a mobile holiday that I could only have dreamed of a year ago.

Ganbaremasu!

N-Y-C-U Later

2008-01-02T21:17:00.000+09:00

Sadly, I've not posted here for the last month - but that's because I've been busy and distracted. I'll catch you up.

NWA - Service? No way!

I returned to NYC on 13 November, checked into my hotel, and took a cab to HSS for my appointment with Dr. Su. The NWA flight was OK - better getting folks off and on. But the flight attendant refused to help me with my bag (lifting or finding a place for it). This really pissed me off, especially when she told me I should have checked it in. Yeah - right - check in my laptop. What happened to airline service?? NWA should be ashamed of their lack of service for disabled people.

I was fortunate to have 2 good cabbies both from Laguardia airport and my hotel. And my hotel had a surprise in the form of a first floor room, actually cheaper than the one I originally reserved, so I could crutch around more easily.

Last dance with the Doc

I was able to get to HSS around 10am - quite a bit earlier than I expected. The cabbie that took me there even knew the hospital from the address. (That, my friends, is a rarity in NYC.) My doctor's office was not expecting me until later, but I was able to get in anyway. Unfortunately, Dr. Su was not available so I was checked by his PA, Blair, a nice woman that was around for all my previous visits. Blair found no complications and was satisfied with my recovery. I was using only one crutch the whole time, and even showed her I could ambulate easily with no crutch. She showed me a new series of exercises/stretches for 1month+ postop folks. I was a bit disappointed that they were quite difficult - much harder than the ones I was doing for PT. One involves lifting both knees to your chest, and lowering the operated leg flat for a stretch. Another has you sitting, and slowly lifting/pulling your operated leg up and across your good leg with the eventual goal being able to sit cross-legged.

The other thing I learned was how to inject myself with Lovenox. Dr. Su gave me a prescription for this earlier, but I didn't need to fill it until I had a long flight. Lovenox is another blood thinner, and I picked up the self injectors from the pharmacy before I came to the office on this visit. I was unsure how to inject these (but not squeamish), and surprisingly the pharmacist didn't give detailed instructions. Blair had a nurse in the office pool show me the procedure - which involves pinching a fold of your belly skin and injecting subcutaneously. I have a nice layer of insulation, so no problem. The only other issue was the timing of injecting. The prescription said before the flight, but it was unlikely that I could take them past the security check. So, we concluded I should inject one late at night and the other before I left the hotel.

For parting gifts, I got a plastic card with an explanation (and illustration) of my implant, plus a PT prescription. I've been told the card won't really help at airports with security, but it's definitely a conversation piece so far at parties.

Walking Too Much

After goodbyes, I decided to treat myself to some good java at a coffee shop near HSS (forgot the name) that I enjoyed previously. Although I was a bit reluctant not to leave without seeing Dr. Su, I was getting very antsy and decided I would enjoy the rest of my day the best I could. After coffee, I started walking south, hoping to catch some Manhattan sites and maybe an electronics store in a couple blocks before taking a cab to the hotel. Well, I couldn't find what I wanted and ended up walking forever - like 15 blocks. One of the hardest things for me at that time was realizing that I had limits, and that I shouldn't push it. At one point, even walking on one crutch was decidedly painful on my left arm and other parts of my body were also sore. I also felt a bit cold. So, I found a place to eat where I could sit down relatively undisturbed (another rarity in NYC) and after an excellent deli meal I was invigorated. I found that I was actually close to the Apple store, and walked a couple more blocks - then treated myself to a case for my iPod Touch. I caught a cab back to the hotel, where I promptly fell asleep for 2.5 hours.

Although my Manhattan hike was overly ambitious, around 5pm I went out and walked again several blocks. I was starving for dinner, and worried about getting gifts for folks back home (a Japanese tradition that adds another headache for travelers). I found a great video game store, where I was able to pick up a new Wii game for a friend of mine, then after walking way too far, settled on getting organic chocolates from a Whole Foods market near NYU. I also bought my dinner there - way too much food. I was struck by how difficult it was to navigate around the store with one crutch on a crowded evening. It was really annoying, frustrating, and embarrassing. Yes, I had had enough of NYC. And I slept really well that night with the thought that I would be leaving soon.

Manhattan Transfer

I used a private car service (Dial 7) to get to JFK airport the next day. I highly recommend it to anyone that is leery of using cabs or has mobility issues. You have to make a reservation in advance (a day or more is best), and they actually call you when they arrive. And they arrive on time, and get you there on time. Injecting myself was no big deal, just a bit uncomfortable. Even if I didn't get all of the second injection in, I knew it would be OK. The Lovenox was a precaution, and given that I was mobile enough, the risk of blood clots was pretty low. I only wondered what the hotel cleaning folks thought when they saw the empty syringes in the wastebasket.

At JFK, I used curb-side check-in again. I was a bit upset there wasn't a wheel chair ready for me, but I was early enough that it wasn't a big deal. Doing the security check from a wheel chair really saved a lot of wear and tear on my hip (and crutch arms), plus gets you through quickly. Although my mother capriciously used this to avoid getting lost in airports (she is still quite ambulatory), if you are on crutches from something like hip replacement - take advantage of it. The wheel-chair attendant was great: very helpful and quick. The security check was more involved than that at Laguardia or Detroit airports, but the security folks did their jobs well, and relatively efficiently. My implant didn't seem to set any detectors off that I could tell, but I wasn't asked to walk through the detector - just patted down.

Getting on the plane was easy, and the staff kindly switched me to an open window seat row with lots of foot room. The American Airlines crew was mostly American, but they were very helpful - offering to get my crutches whenever I needed them, because they couldn't be stored near my seat. Like the way over, this was a 12-13 hour non-stop flight, and despite having 3 seats I was never really comfortable and couldn't sleep well. The inflight movie selections were impressive and repeated (several movies, several channels), but I still felt restless. My hobby was going to the bathroom, which I seemed to have to do a lot. Despite the empty seats in our plane, there was rarely a time I could get an open bathroom when I needed it. Plus, other passengers weren't thrilled to see my crutch. Aisle space was quite narrow, and although I tried to be careful - I put the crutch on someone's foot a couple times. Oh well.

Arrival in Japan was great, as the airline folks really went out of their way to help me get out of the plane quickly, to an express desk for immigration (actually the office itself) and customs. One guy did it all, even pulling my bags along. And I didn't even have to tip him - it's not a custom in Japan. :-)

But the best part of arrival at Narita airport was the reunion with my nearly 1 year-old daughter. I hadn't seen her for a month and was afraid she had forgotten me. It was a little awkward at first, and she was afraid of me. But she warmed up in a few hours. And I was very thankful that I could actually make it back for her first birthday.

Midwestern Crawl

2007-11-13T07:55:00.000+09:00

More Progress
I had a quick check up at Dr. Su's office on 1 November - nearly 2 weeks postop. The Xray was good, I was told to walk with one crutch while indoors. I used one crutch for the first time right there in the examination room. I was surprised how easy it was. The doc also cleared me to fly out to Detroit for 7 days minimum, and even indicated I could fly back to Japan after that.
I did my last PT at the Joint Mobility Center the next morning before I left for Detroit, and really surprised my therapist with my progress. She didn't see me the day prior, and didn't think I was able to walk on one crutch. My session was a bit rushed, because of the flight time in the afternoon - but everything went well. I got a big smile and a Tshirt from the staff.

Escape from NY
I flew out of Laguardia airport, and had wheel chair service get me to the plane. This was a good idea, as I got through security more quickly and didn't have to stand for long periods in line. I wasn't able to walk through the detector at all with out a crutch, so they frisked me. The TCA guard that did the frisking was very nice, and not pushy at all. I don't think the scanner picked up my implant - but it wasn't a big deal. The worst part was after they delivered me to the gate - no help after that - mostly because I was there an hour in advance. The flight was delayed an hour, and when they let handicaps and 1st class people in - I couldn't get to the front of the line. The gate attendant told me I should have shoved people out of the way. This wasn't really easy with two crutches under one arm and pulling my wheelie carryon with the other.

This was a NWA flight on a 757. They helped me get to my seat, but there wasn't any real space in front of it. When I explained I was supposed to get a bulkhead seat - they claimed this was it. It was a row behind first class and seemed to have a bit more legroom. The worst part of boarding the plane was it took 45 minutes to complete it! This was made worse by the attendants making people stow their carryons in places other than above their seats. In Japan, a plane this size gets boarded in 15 minutes or so. Maybe NYers are slow, but I have a feeling it was the attendents' fault. Unbelievable.

At Detroit airport, the wheelchair service was great, but they had one guy take two of us at the same time. We had to use several elevators, and a train (12 minutes or so) to get to baggage claim. I was surprised that there were no tag checkers of bags in Detroit - but I got my bags. My mother, uncle and aunt were there to meet me - so it was easy after that. Perhaps the strangest thing at that point was traveling in a passenger car not driven by a cabbie.

Slow Life with Benefits
I stayed with my sister in Temperance, Michigan since then with a couple of trips to my home town in NW Ohio, and my brother's place in Cleveland. Both drives were 1-2 hours, but I had no problems. The embolism socks were used, but I feel they aren't necessary. My sister got hold of a stationary bike from a friend, so I was able to use that as part of my PT. It was a normal crank size, and I had no pain at all! Again, a marked point of progress. I've been doing 10-15 minutes biking each day and all my PT stretches using the bench on my sister's wooden deck. This was pretty good, and the weather usually was unseasonably warm. Over the course of the last 10 days, my bridging and all leg lifts have become extraordinarily easy. I even found I could lift my operated leg while lying on my back - and can now raise it 30° up to 11 times in sequence. I could barely lift it at all in NY. I also found that I was rolling over on both sides in the bed with little or no pain, and even slept on my operated side without realizing it. The most stunning change was standing up and walking without the crutch. This began maybe 4 days ago, and I don't do it on purpose. I usually catch myself and get the crutch right away. There isn't any pain at all, so I'm very pleased. I'll be a good boy and use the crutch for the whole 6 weeks post op, like the doctor says.

My right hip seems to be improving visually as well. The bruising is gone, and the incision is fairly clean. I measured it the other day and it seems to be about 8 inches long. This doesn't bother me a bit, though others might not like it. I can feel some of the stitching - they feel like 1 pound test monofilament fishing line. Although they are supposed to disintegrate and dissolve - it seems they are still there. I caught one knotted end on my pants and it yanked out. Ouch! It also itches at times - but it could be worse I suppose.

The only thing I really wish I could change is the diet here. It's too meaty and all available drinks (except water) are sweetened. I bet I've gained a couple pounds here. I also found myself being more sedentary than I liked, except for a long trip to the shopping mall where I walked quite a bit. I thought perhaps this was related to the vicodan - making me drowsy or lazy. However, this isn't likely; I stopped taking it so frequently, down to 3-4 times a day instead of 8.

Back into the Fray
I'd hoped to do a little traveling before returning to NYC, and even toyed with the idea of visiting my friend in upstate New York. But I became a bit apathetic, and also realized I could only go via a one stop flight. This, and the concern I would be imposing on others made me realize I should just stay at my sisters and return to NYC the day before I wanted to return to Japan.

Before I left NYC, I made tentative arrangements to come back to see the Doc one day before flying back to Japan. To accommodate the MD's schedule we scheduled an appointment for 13 November. My week of lethargy in Michigan pretty much made it clear to me that I needed to get back home to my family. Making the flight arrangements back to Japan was a piece of cake, and after waiting for my sister's schedule to gel - I was able to get the the first flight out of Detroit to NYC tomorrow morning. I have to say I'm a bit pensive. I'm eager to get out of here, but not real thrilled to go through another day in NYC.

Hopefully, there will be no complications in my checkup, and I'll be on my way on Wednesday. :-)

It's the little things...

2007-10-29T05:52:00.000+09:00

All this fanfare about Apple's new Leopard OS (10.5) has not moved me one iota. I suppose with all the time on my hands I could wrestle with installation on my ancient G4 PB, but I'd rather spend my time writing about other stuff.

Signs of Progress
My last couple of day have been interesting, as I find myself doing things (or trying to do them) that I haven't been able to. I sat up in bed two days ago, without realizing it was the first time without help. I stand on my two feet without a crutch or pushing up with my arms. I turn over on one side in bed, sometimes stopped by pain. I bend over to scratch my lower legs. I've even caught myself trying to take steps without crutches. Although I'm unconsciously pushing my limits, I sort of know I'm not there yet. I've found myself trying things first, then later asking my mother for help if I've failed. But putting on shoes is completely beyond me at this point.

On my own two feet
My reliance upon my mother for things hasn't bothered me much, and she's been good about letting me give things a go first before helping out. We took a nice walk out to the East river yesterday, and I was surprised at my endurance. I took a short video for my daughter, and was pleasantly surprised that I look pretty good.

Unfortunately, I won't have the luxury of her further presence here in NYC. I'm on my own! My grandfather passed away this morning, and mom had to fly back to Ohio to take care of my grandmother and other matters. He was very old, bed-ridden, and not very lucid. But he's in a nursing home and the impression was that he was stable. So my mother felt it would be OK to be here with me, despite complaints from my grandmother that her own needs were ignored. Now I know my mom is dealing with unwarranted guilt issues.

So, I'll continue here in NYC and hope I'm can progress to the point where I can be cleared to leave and attend a funeral. I'm not so close to my grandparents, so the death isn't affecting me as much. I need to focus on my recovery at this point, and if they need me I'll see if I can fly out.

I decided to show myself I can survive, so I somehow got my socks on (woohoo!) and slipped into my open back sandals to get some fresh air. I lumbered about 3 blocks to a deli, got some fruit salad and broccoli chicken, and returned to the Belaire. Folks were very nice about opening doors for me, and I didn't have any major problems. This was a big confidence builder.

OK, leftovers tonight, and PT tomorrow. One step at a time.

Post Op Shop II

2007-10-25T23:03:00.000+09:00

Since my last post, things have progressed quite a bit. I remained in the hospital room until yesterday (24 October) noon. This was one day longer than I expected, but mostly due to tiredness.

Crutchety Old Man
On 23 October, the PT person got me out of bed and on crutches for the first time. Crutch use isn't as difficult as you might think, but it takes lots of arm strength - more than I expected. Crutch use mimics the walker - move both crutches forward, then bad leg, and good leg. Though tough at first, I was able to go all the way down the hall to the PT room (~20 meters). Once there, I rested a bit and was then tempted with a short set of stairs (5 steps). I decided to give it a go and was able to go up and down with effort. Up with the good leg, down with the bad leg - that's the mantra for doing stairs. You use only one crutch, and one rail - lots of arm strength again. After stairs, I crutched back down the hall to my room.

Holy Crap
I was able to repeat the crutch feat later in the afternoon - around 2:40pm. But before that I had an ordeal the likes I had never expected when I had to have my first bowel movement. Often after surgery, you are dehydrated and the cocktail of drugs they give you leaves you constipated. When mother nature paid a visit to me, I had to wait 15 minutes before a nurse could help me to the commode. Then when I got there, the urge to go was great - but so was the pain. I had to make a lot of effort, then was scolded by the floor nurse in the middle of it. They were worried I would pass out. Well, after assuring them I would just 'let it happen', I was able to finish. The pain was excruciating, and I was exhausted. And it was embarrassing to have a nurse tech clean me up after. Aaagh! Perhaps this was worse than catheter removal.

Night to Forget
I had hoped to be discharged on the evening of the 23rd, but the constipation episode wore me out. I felt I could use the extra rest and attention. Unfortunately, the nursing staff was not particularly cooperative or quiet that night. I couldn't get pain pills when I wanted, and they bothered me when I was trying to sleep or nap on several locations. Perhaps this was a sign that they wanted me gone. :-) But more likely that they had a very busy night shift.

Discharge
There was no doubt in my mind I needed to leave when I woke up on the 24th. I was tired of asking nurses to do everything (and impatient), and weary of my surroundings (except the great river view). My mother had already checked into the Belaire (hospital's hotel) and it sounded nice. Perhaps the thing that propelled me most was what I saw in the mirror when I got to the bathroom. After 5 days I desperately needed a shave, and my skin was very red around my beard where my eczema (dermatitis) often flares up.

The PT people came around again to confirm my first outpatient appointment, and even arranged for a sales person to come by with a 'reacher' - a device that helps you grab or pick up objects beyond your range of movement. I had one more PT session at 11am to practice crutches and stairs, then signed the paperwork for discharge. I had to agree to only take the prescribed medications (vicodan and enteric aspirin), and a number of other physician mandated restrictions. Then at noon, I said goodbye to my urine bottle and room, while a nice, tall blonde Russian girl wheeled me to the Belaire.

Reality Bites
Once in our 6 floor 1 bedroom apartment, it became clear that home life was not going to be a piece of cake. This realization came crashing down on me soon after I had entered the room. Although this hotel is run by HSS for families of patients needing extended care, it seems to lack things required by disabled or recovering patients like myself. No elevated toilet seat or chairs, low sofas, and a too soft bed. I can't really complain, as this will get paid for by someone else eventually. But you would think they'd pay more attention to needs of the disabled.

I also found that things are quite different when you aren't flat on your back in a hospital bed. You have to walk to the bathroom, stand while washing, move several meters to bed, chair, couch, etc. on crutches. If you change clothes (or pull up your pants), you have to use the reacher (or get some help). Fortunately, my mother helped me with many things, including going out to get meals, cleaning clothes, pushing chairs, picking up dropped items, reaching hard to reach places, lifting my operated leg, etc. Hell, I can't even get to the phones from the couch or bed in a few seconds.

Wow. If I was alone somewhere, I'd never make it after release from the hospital. Now I understand why hospitals in Japan keep you in a rehab facility for nearly a month for full hip replacement.

Post Op Shop

2007-10-22T11:01:00.000+09:00

On the Other Side
My surgery was at about 10:30 AM on Friday (19 Oct), and I woke up after about 1pm. It was a little weird getting my sensations back bit by bit, and I didn't relish the lack of control. However, in a few hours I had all my major senses and not much feeling below the waist.

They kept me in the post op recovery room for 27 hours, because of lack of bed space in the hospital. Everybody wants their recovery on the weekends, maybe. But the nurses in the recovery room were very nice and helpful - pulling me through some confusing times. I was fortunate, in that I had little or no post operative pain. When the PT got me up for walking, I had some pain but was able to take a couple steps with a walker.

Wired
I was struck by how many tubes and wires were attached to my body, to either monitor body functions or deliver some important substance to my body. I had a saline IV in my hand, an antibiotic IV (wrist?), a PCA epidural in my back, sedative drip in my jugular vein (neck), 3 EKG electrodes on my left lower rib cage, a catheter up my schlong, oxygen tubes up my nose (photo), a bag to collect fluids from my surgical incision, and two pressure cuffs on my lower legs to encourage circulation (minimize chance of clots). Maybe I've forgotten something? The only thing left now is the cuffs, which pleasantly squeeze at intermittent times with a 'puff' sound. These cuffs actually brought the first sensations to my lower legs - making my toes tingle, then feet, then ankles, calves etc. Removing most of these things was often painful - as they were taped to my fairly hairy body. Rip!!

Stoned
The cocktail of chemicals and pharmaceuticals in my body was also impressive. I had/have blood thinners, clot busters, pain killers, anti-inflammatories, antibiotics, stool softeners, vitamins... I've probably omitted something. The PCA epidural is a machine that delivers pain blockers to space between vertebra in my lumbar region. So, sensation from pain receptors at or below the level of the epidural were minimized. PCA refers to 'patient controlled anaesthesia'; I had a device with a button that I could press to deliver a pulse of meds to the epidural. While in post op, the machine delivered meds at a slow rate, so any pressing I did just upped the dosage temporarily. When I moved to my room, the auto drip was off, so I had to pump to get the drip. At that time, however, they also started giving me Vicodan and eventually weaned me from the pump altogether. I now take Vicodan every 4-6 hours (when I ask) and think I've cut it to one pill instead of 2. However, PT may push my dosage up again.

Room with a View
They moved me to a room at 4pm yesterday. I shared it for one night with an amazing 66 y.o. guy that had two THR (one a revision of a BHR), and was in such great shape he was ambulatory after 3 days. The room is on a remodeled floor (8th), and very spacious. I count eight window panes over looking the East River. Both beds face the river; I have a great view of the lights at night and the sunrise in the morning (below). Some aspects of the layout and equipment are not optimal, but these things could be worked out with little effort. Every morning with breakfast, they bring you a flower that you can stick in a little vase - gives you a sense of how many days you've been in the clink. Rooms are provided with free wireless internet of dubious quality, and you have to pay $8 a day to use the TV. After my roomie left this morning, I've had the room to myself - so I could really enjoy TV at normal volume levels.

I was switched from liquid to solid foods Saturday evening. Speaking of food - the quality is OK (and quantity), but the service is erratic. I remember writing down preferences before surgery (low lactose) - but apparently these have been forgotten. We are given menus with choices to circle. Unfortunately, some mental midgets on the serving staff are unable to remember to give me what I asked for, despite having highlighted my selections and attached it to the meal tray.

Physically Challenged
Today was day three - and my first full day in the hospital room. In the morning PT session, I had some light-headedness, so I didn't walk any. I felt embarrassed and frustrated - and also worried. I think my Vicodan wore off, as the pain was prominent. Or it may have been related to the fact that I didn't sleep well after they removed the catheter on Saturday evening. The sensation was annoying, and I couldn't figure out if things were moving or staying. The threat of replacing the catheter if I couldn't void put a lot of pressure on me to go before midnight. It was like learning how to pee again, but with lots of irritation. And my best friend is a plastic bottle between my legs that I fill up religiously. Maybe this has been the toughest thing to deal with so far, but I'm happy to report that my plumbing is nearly normal at present time. :-)

After an hour's nap and lunch (with more omissions), I felt stronger. When the afternoon PT person came, I rather easily sat up on the bed, stood with the walker, and made it halfway across the room and back. I think the timing of my pain pill around lunch also helped. Later on, after my wife and mother arrived - I sat up on my own, and with some help got to sit up on an elevated chair so that I could watch some TV from that position. Well, that was my hope. But with both gals yakking and fussing, I didn't see much. That's an easy price to pay when someone that is willing to bring you a decent cappuccino and donuts.

They also have taken my bandage off, and I've seen my incision with the help of my digital camera. It's pretty ugly, and seems to be covered with some sort of papery material. I don't quite see stitches or staples, so I'm not sure what keeps it close.

The care here at HSS has been excellent for the most part. I'm a little disappointed with myself that I can't make more physical progress. It will come, but I wish I didn't have to push myself so much to get over the pain or be so reliant on pain meds. My MD told me to try sitting to motivate me to get up more. I think it helps. I really want to be up and about on my own. And with bowel issues coming in the next day or so - I have added motivation. If I have the time or energy, I'll give an update in the next few days.

Well, the lame ALCS game is nearly over, and like the Indians, I'm out of gas.

Hip to be spared...

2007-10-17T22:43:00.000+09:00

This post is a bit nontech, but perhaps many people will be interested in what I am experiencing. I left Tokyo on 14 October for NYC, and will remain in NYC a few weeks. I'm getting my hip joint fixed.

I've always been physically active in my adult life, but had to stop nearly everything 2 years ago because my right hip was giving me problems. This meant the end of biking, running, hiking, basketball, raquetball, and my passion - ultimate frisbee. It was a hard pill to swallow, but the pain and the diagnosis by a Japanese doctor indicated the hip joint was failing. I was told to lose weight and bike or swim to keep in shape, and hope to delay joint replacement until my 50s (I was 41 at the time).

Well, in the two years that followed I couldn't do much exercise because of the excruciating pain. Biking was impossible. Swimming was OK, but the distance I had to walk to do it was often difficult. And with my job standing and lecturing, as well as use of trains for my commute - things deteriorated. Adding a few pounds didn't help either.

In May of this year, the pain was so bad I went to a nearby clinic to see an orthopedist, and he told me the joint was in its 'terminal' phase, and that my left one was not in good shape either. You can see the Xray at right, bad hip is on the left side of the photo.

I started looking for local solutions to my problem - in Japan. I went to a reputable orthopedic hospital in Shinjuku and was told they could do total hip replacement (THR), and use a ceramic joint fitting. Unfortunately, THR is very destructive, basically cutting off the entire top quarter of the femur. And THR's may only last 10-15 years, with revisions requiring more bone destruction. Usual candidates for THR are in their late 50s or 60s, but for someone my age I just couldn't see whacking off so much bone. Unfortunately, this is the only technique readily available and in common practice in Japan.

You can see a THR example below left. This image is from Dr. Edward Prince, M.D.

Fortunately, there are other alternatives to THR, namely a relatively new technique called 'joint resurfacing' that was tried (and failed) in the 1970's, then completely revamped
about 10 years ago. The original successful version of joint resurfacing is the Birmingham Hip Resurfacing System (or BHR) developed by Derek McMinn in Birmingham, England. BHR was in use in England from 1997, and was FDA approved for use in the US in May, 2006. There have been other similar systems developed (Cormet, e.g.), but BHR seems to be the most commonly used. The advantage of BHR is very clear for younger patients: less bone loss, more future options, higher potential levels of activity. You can see from the below right BHR photo (from Orthoworks, UK), that the implant size is considerably less - a femoral cap over or replacing the ball and a matching cup inserted into the pelvis. There are reports of many athletes having this surgery, including Floyd Landis, and they are able to continue their activities at similar or higher levels.

Of course, there are potential problems with BHR, and with only 10 years of supporting data - there are a lot of questions that remain unanswered. The first of these is longevity. We just don't know the lower or upper limits of lifespan of BHR implants. The other issue is the potential problems from metal on metal joints releasing ions into the bloodstream. BHR uses Chromium Cobalt, and there isn't enough long term info to determine its effect. Another risk involves stress on the femur neck. Therefore, the placement of the implant is critical. The angles must be carefully worked out so that stress doesn't exceed the bone's capacity. This also means that the patient needs to have good bone mass to support this implant, compared to THR.

Fortunately, I meet all the criteria for BHR and am at the young end of the spectrum (average age is 48 years). Unfortunately, I had to look outside of Japan. Yes, there were a few places offering BHR in Japan, but the replicates of BHR performed were very small by those surgeons. Given the importance of positioning the implant correctly, a surgeon's number of BHR surgeries (as well as successes) is critical. BHR is relatively common in Europe, with Dr. Smet in Belgium having the most experience. There are actually two or three UK trained surgeons in India performing BHR (Dr. Bose in Chennai the most senior of these), and the cost of doing that surgery is very low compared to the US. Medical tourism to India is very popular, as a result of such low costs.

Given that US surgeons have only had limited time for BHR, only a few have had much experience, including the trials leading to FDA acceptance. Since my insurance was willing to pay for nearly all expenses, I decided to look for surgeon in the US with experience. When I combined this with a comparison of the best hospitals for orthopedic surgery, I came up with one particular choice: Hospital for Special Surgery (HSS) in New York City, and Dr. Edwin Su. HSS has the lowest infection rate in the country, as well as the highest ranking by US News and World Report. Dr. Su has nearly 400 BHR cases to his credit, and I liked the fact that he is publishing research papers on his surgical work. Plus, I was able to find and email him directly - and he answered me in short order. So, about 2 months ago I began making arrangements to come to NYC for my surgery. There have been many hurdles, but Dr. Su's office staff made many efforts to help me out. The hardest part for me has been separating from my 11 month old daughter and wife for a few weeks. But after meeting Dr. Su and the hospital staff, I know that I made the right choice. I'm in very good hands. These are quality people.

So, I go under the knife on Oct 19th, and will probably stay in NYC for at least 2 weeks after for rehab. I'll probably post more of my experience in the future. In the mean time, I will try to see some of NYC.

iPod Touch in Da House

2007-10-07T01:21:00.000+09:00

Prologue
A couple days before my pre-ordered 16GB iPod touch was supposed to ship (28 September), Apple Japan sends me an email stating my iPod would now ship on 10-14 October, and arrive 15-19 October. This ticked me off, as I've already heard the Touch was in Apple stores here, and I will be going to the US for 4+ weeks on 14 October. Well, before I could call the English line for Apple Japan and rip them a new one, I got another email saying that the iPod had shipped and was on its way (29 September) and could be expected on the original ETA - 4 October. Whoa! Even got my くろねこ tracking number. I was pleasantly surprised when it arrived on 2 October - two days early! Woohoo!

Unboxing the Touch

The shipping box was plain old cardboard, with the packing slip taking up most of the surface. Nothing much to see here, move along. Cracking open the box shows the slick Apple packaging cradled in a tomb of cardboard.

Here is the compact box in shrink wrap. I often wonder if Apple should go back to it's more enviro-friendly plain cardboard packaging, as this seems quite wasteful. After clipping the shrink wrap and peeling it off, I get my first look at my new iPod. Note the generous soft foam padding in the box lid. The box is double-layered dense cardboard. The iPod itself is sitting on a black plastic tray (not shown) which supports it above the contents below. More waste.

The Touch was generously smothered in a layer of plastic film, front and back. In the back view you can see how the film flaps were overlapped. I also got personalized engraving (not sure why I did this now), but it's obscured by the flash. I remember how my 1st gen Nano got scratched easily after I took this off. I was a bit hesitant to remove it, to be honest.

All the instructions (all in Japanese) came in the thin black box (right, above) and there were only two pamphlets (above), with the requisite sheet of Apple stickers, and a small slip of paper with websites with contact info. One of the pamphlets was info on compliance and addresses in various countries for support. The other pamphlet was a small fold out pamphlet with slick color photos and text telling you the general features of the Touch, with very little info on how to use it, and of course the requisite URLs to download the latest iTunes, and the pdf user guide. This was a bit surprising - no full manual at all included. I think it's fine to minimize paper waste, but this slick fold-out is more promotional than practical. Maybe I wouldn't mind the pdf 'only' manual if I could actually refer to it on my iPod Touch whenever I need to.

At left you can see the thin white plastic pack that contains the Touch's accessories. Inside there is the USB cable, Apple earbuds, dock adapter, and a supposed stand.

-The USB cable is crappier than the one I got with my 1st gen Nano. The 30 pin iPod plug is half as tall as the one from my Nano and lacks the side buttons to release it from an iPod. No plastic plug covers either, but let's call that a positive enviro move.

-The dock adapter apparently works with Apple's docks (but not on my 3G iPod dock nor my old Altec-Lansing portable speakers).

-The Apple earbuds I didn't try - they are still in the shrinkwrap. I'm not bothering with those things anymore.

-The stand is a clear plastic thing that has a groove you for the Touch's edge. It's kind of like one of those plastic things used to keep photo frames standing upright. Although I suppose someone will say that its elegance is its simplicity, I would say that Apple could have done much better for the price we paid. The big problem with the stand is that you can't have the Touch plugged in to the USB cable unless it is sitting in landscape mode. Given that the menus and controls are all in portrait orientation, it's kind of stupid. I suppose this allows you to use the Touch as an digital photo frame or table/desktop movie player...

-Apple was kind enough to include a 'polishing' cloth. I think it was under the plastic tray, but I can't quite recall. This cloth is supposed to help you control the fingerprints and skin secretions that will make your shiny iPod touch look like a subway train window. Unfortunately, the grain on the cloth is too coarse to actually polish anything. I had to use a damp microfiber cloth instead (came with my PSP).

Using the Touch
I'd like to post in more detail at some point, but will try to be brief here. Without a physical manual to refer to, I've found myself just learning by doing. Yeah, I could read the PDF file on my Mac and fiddle with the Touch at the same time. Unfortunately, I mostly have time to fiddle with the Touch on the train or while I'm falling asleep in bed. So, I probably am missing some things.

Browsing photos and watching videos is a joy. The screen is awesome (no bad screen for me) and the quality of video play is at times stunning. I love being able to zoom up on photos and see the grain. Getting video content on the iPod was not difficult. I had some Frederator video podcasts sitting in my iTunes library, and there is plenty of free video podcast content out there. (National Geographic rocks!) To convert some of my digicam videos, I use the free iSquint. I prefer to save them as TV format (this app was designed for the dinky 5G iPods), and the quality is quite good. Better quality would mean less space on the Touch. Loading photos was not so easy. I wasn't able to use my Pictures folder and choose folders within it to sync picture from. iTunes chokes on this - likely because of the number of photos in that entire folder. So, I'm using a nested folder with copies of photos I really like. Sure, I could sync with iPhoto - but I haven't cataloged all my photos there as yet - and not sure I want to.

The biggest gripe I have with the touch is that when I scroll around through menus (coverflow, music lists, etc) or even around a web page - I somehow inadvertently click on a link or button. This is annoying and I would think there was a way to adjust the touch sensitivity or the 'click' sensitivity. But there isn't. Yeah, some bozo will say that I need to practice using it more - but it's more than that.

The second biggest gripe I have is the one everyone has - no way to control music without taking the damn thing out of my pocket and firing up the screen. This is ridiculous.

The third biggest gripe I have is the inability to open a link into a new web page. Yes, you can open a second web page, but not open a link on a page into a new page. Pain in the ass.

I'd like to say more on using the Touch, but this post is too long already.

I will close by mentioning that I did find a decent pouch for the Touch. Given this product is just released, there isn't Jack for accessories available. I first put it in an old Timbuktu 3G iPod nylon case. But this was too bulky in my shirt pocket, and didn't fit too well. Then on a whim, I poked around the camera section of Yodobashi (after not finding anything in the Mac section). I found this little microfiber cleaning cloth bag made by Hama that just fits my iPod touch and is thin. Only ¥950! I remember seeing self cleaning iPods bags on Waterfield Design's site, but this one is nicer - has a draw string. This product is available outside Japan, and is made by a German company I think. And it works well, self-cleaning the iPod while it's inside. You can see what it looks like here.

YAMBR - Yet Another MacBook Rumor

2007-09-21T23:31:00.000+09:00

This is getting tiring...

Go here, and lose all hope.

New iPod Redux

2007-09-19T01:00:00.000+09:00

Since the new iPod Nano, Classic, & Touch were announced - there have been quite a few reviews, software updates, unboxings, and so on. The Touch has begun to show up in Apple stores, although Apple has failed to fill the pre-orders first. (What's up with THAT?!)

There are already complaints about quality control issues, including poorly mounted nano screens, iPhone code & uninstalled operating systems running on the Touch, Touch display problems, and iTunes Store snafus.

Nano

Reviews have been favorable, with people raving about the screen and ability to see vids. Here is a typical Nano review. The cons seem to be an unpolished UI (user interface) - and a lot of folks think the new size is great. I would have to say that this iPod isn't really Nano anymore, more like a sawed off classic. And I don't find it easy to hold or use for long periods. The best thing I enjoyed about the 1G Nano was its truly Nano size. Apple has lost sight of this, unfortunately. And I really get fed up with MacSheep like MacWorld that think every Apple product has to have minimum of 4 rating. PlayList (MWs iPod site) gave the Nano a 4.5 rating. Ridiculous. Subjective. Nonsense.

Classic

Fanboys think this huge storage tank is great idea, despite the archaic form factor and (still) miscrocopic screen - plus the new 'features'. At least Chris Breen on Playlist hit the Classic with a 3.5 rating (should be 3.0 - but at least he is partially honest). Breen hits on the sluggish UI, useless Coverflow (finally someone at a major Mac media outlet gets it), as well as the lack of compatibility with older iPod games, and the incompatibility of current dock connectors for video out. Shockingly, AppleInsider gave the Classic a higher rating (4) - mostly overlooking the problems. Fanboys.

Touch

Since I pre-ordered the Touch - I've been interested to hear about it. Unfortunately, what I've read is disappointing. First, WTF is Apple doing putting the Touch in stores before shipping to pre-ordered customers? Unacceptable. The people that went to the trouble of making an order in advance should be rewarded, not penalized. Why reward those that have the time to run down to an Apple store? That being said, perhaps a delay will improve the chances I don't get a dog or defective model.

The things that bother me from the reviews/unboxings are the inferior screens (washed out blacks) and the crippled features - like iCal editting. Jobs said it was the same screen as in the iPhone - but for many of the early touch recipients - this is a lie. Not only is it not the same size, the quality problems are not acceptable. Second, when the iTouch first went up on the Apple store - iCal editing was listed as a feature. Now this has been removed. For WHAT? It makes no sense why Apple would remove this small feature.

Further reports suggest Apple is not giving the touch many features that one would expect in a touch screen device with Wifi. This AppleInsider review takes a stab to explain why the Touch lacks these features, and tries to make the argument that the Touch is not an iPhone , but an iPod. The problem with this is that it really isn't an iPod either. You can't play any iPod games on it (WTF - is a touch interface more limiting that a freaking scroll wheel?!), there doesn't seem to be a way to click to advance your song (or a remote) with no visuals, there is no EQ (apparently), and you can't even make it a storage device.

Although it's not a phone (and thanks be for that), it has all these interactive features that seem to be underutilized with the current OS. The point of having WiFi seems to be solely centered on selling iTunes content (though not videos). Although having a Safari browser is great - that seems to be the only way to view things like pdf files (you have to store them online somewhere and actually access WiFi to view them).

Hey Apple, I want my freaking media player to actually display all my media - not just what YOU want to sell me!

Omitting a mail app, text browsing, and any sort of reason to type text (except on iTunes store and web browsing) sort of makes it POINTLESS to have such sophisticated text entry capabilities. What is the point of this? Put a freaking Preview App on this puppy?

I'm also irritated by Steve Jobs stating Apple doesn't want 3rd parties to develop apps (unless they don't involve internet) because internet interactive apps threaten the user experience. WTF.

Hey Steve, did you ever think that maybe people want to use the internet in ways THEY want to? And if you want developers to focus on non-internet apps, why don't you release a developer kit or way to develop Touch/iPhone Apps that doesn't require Safari? Or better yet, how about a file system that allows us to upload what we want and a way to view text/pdfs without connecting to the goddamn internet?

What's the point of putting OSX on this iPod if it's not actually giving us a real operating system? I don't get it.

Don't get me wrong - I'm really looking forward to getting my Touch, and I'm betting I can overlook some of the issues if the thing works well. But I'm starting to wonder if Apple/Jobs wants to control everything to the point where people feel their choices are too limited.

Maybe this is why my brother feels Apple hardware/software doesn't let you do what you want with it.

Two Great Free Software Goodies

2007-09-08T01:24:00.000+09:00

I came across two apps that I'm betting many people will find useful on their Macs: Milkyway and RapidoStart.

Milkyway (MW) is a small program by Launay Software that previews your image files with a pop-up window that you can resize. I tried this out because of a complaint from my wife. My wife was told me the other day that she couldn't easily preview images by selecting them with a large enough window in the finder. She also didn't really want to use iPhoto (because it's sluggish as hell, in part).

So, recently, MW popped up on MacUpdate with a new version. I kind of remember downloading this in the past, but it didn't work right - but my memory is fuzzy. When it's installed and you start the app, it stays out of sight. You can choose to show the icon in the menubar (way cool) and you can choose to have it start on log-in.

The MW pop up previews can be resized considerably, and you can also move the window wherever you like on your screen for future pop-ups. It also has this 3D glass effect - nice touch - that you can choose to disable if it's annoying. Give MW a try! I like it, and it's just unobtrusive enough to like.

The other free app I think many of you will like is RapidoStart, by App4Mac - makers of some other free apps with the "Rapido" prefix, like "RapidoWrite". [Note - I sort of recall that this RapidoWrite was shareware at one point - got a note from the developer once. Maybe it didn't sell well.] App4Mac also makes other apps in the shareware or commercial category as well.

RapidoStart (RS) was updated recently and caught my eye in a discussion about uses with QuickSilver. RS is essentially a supplemental dock you can call up when you need it by clicking on a small green tab in the corner - or with a key-command. The pop-up dock is customizable; you can add what ever apps or files you want and even make several sets of things for different purposes (e.g., image manipulation apps, PDF apps, research project docs). For those that don't like the non-visual nature of QuickSilver, it provides a visual way to get at apps you don't have room for on the doc. And if you are someone like me, with many apps I use for different purposes (and you can't remember the names) - RS seems like a great way to get to these apps. Unlike Quicksilver, which learns your patterns and sets up the keyboard shortcuts, you'll have to customize RS your self for the files you want to access.

The pop-up window is gorgeous - well rendered, and the app is very solid. Give it a shot and see if it helps your work flow.

Nano and Classic - Inferior?

2007-09-08T00:27:00.000+09:00

A friend of mine took some time to look over the new iPod Classic and iPod Nano at Bic Camera in Shinjuku today. His comments were a bit surprising, but not unexpected.

He sent me a phone message saying that the new iPods were very sluggish, with a 1 second delay when trying to browse via coverflow. I sort of expected this new UI would tax any processor, but assumed Apple would use the appropriate components to avoid this. I asked him for clarifications on sluggishness with Coverflow turned off and this is part of the email he sent me. Keep in mind that this was someone who was set to buy a high capacity classic after seeing the product introductions on the 5th.

"Now that I've had a day for the new releases to sink in and actually touched 2 of the 3 new releases, I think this was a very poor, if not terrible set of updates. The nano is pretty much unusable, especially with my man-sized hands. The scroll wheel is very narrow, and slick, and unresponsive, then add in the frequent delays even in non-graphical menus like settings, never mind when you are looking at album art and other stuff, and you get a very poor user experience. Cover flow is just one option once you click on Music, along with the usual albums, artists, songs, etc. The edges on the nano are razor sharp as well, not something you want to hold and fondle in your hand like the 4g iPod and all earlier versions."

Wow! I don't think he will be the only one to have this impression on the UI and reponsiveness. If this is the case, Apple has made a huge boo-boo. Perhaps some of this can be addressed via an update to iPod firmware.

I'm also surprised about the click wheel. I don't have big hands, but fairly thick fingers and I can use my 1G Nano's click wheel easily. Did Apple use a smaller click wheel on this fatter Nano? He goes on about the edges on the Nano and the Classic.

"I read an article online by some guy who said one of the big subconscious reasons why people wanted an iPod so much was that it was so comfortable and sexy to hold with it's totally round and smooth edges. I love that feature of my 4G iPod and that was one big reason why I was unmotivated to buy a 5G, sharp edges.

The silver classic looks great, like a true Powerbook accessory, but again, has rough edges. And the UI is possibly even slower on the classic than the nano, also the clickwheel is very unresponsive and slick, but at least its a decent size.

I put hands on both classics on display, both sluggish UI's, and one nano, also sluggish..."

I kind of like the shape of my 3G iPod too, but I never had a 5G or used a 5G long enough to have an opinion about the edges. My 1G Nano has sharp edges and I sort of like that form factor more than the 2G Nanos. I'm very surprised to hear that the Classics may be more sluggish than the Nanos. You have to wonder what Apple has done here. Maybe these new hard drives' access speeds are not all that great?

He goes on to disparage what others did about the 3G Nano even before they were released - the shape.

"The nano fatty just looks bad. In person it looks like a horrible square. In hand it feels cumbersome. The rectangle is the ideal shape for an iPod. They've screwed themselves now with the nano. It has a silver metal back as usual, I read somewhere it was all aluminum like the 2G nano and mini, but that's not true, highly scratchable steel on back as always."

If someone like him (a Mac guy) dislikes these new iPods, I can't help but wonder if others feel the same way. Combined with what I feel are awful colors, maybe Apple has lost its aesthetic edge.

If others have seen these units in person - let me know.

Update:
I had a chance to look at new Nano and Classic at an electronics retailer in Machida. I have to second the comments above. UI is sluggish with both iPods, worse for the Classic. And the edges are definitely uncool, unpleasant even. You won't want to hold these for long. The problem is the bevel on the front - the corner is just awful. It gives these iPods a cheap, unfinished, poorly designed feel. I can't understand why Apple would do this. I'm hoping that the Touch has a nicer feel to it.

I also spoke with my brother (Windoze User / Mac Hater) about the Touch to get his impressions. He didn't pay attention to the event or even bother to look into these units. When I explained a few details about the Touch, he sounded impressed with the screen but was very disappointed about the storage limitation. He wanted to know why Apple couldn't at least make the thing upgradeable with flash memory cards or something like that. You see this in plenty of phones these days, and some mp3 players had slots for this. I can see his thinking - but wonder if compatibility issues with flash cards (like I have with my SD card) are one reason for omitting these slots.

New iPods - Oh My

2007-09-06T19:00:00.000+09:00

Greetings from Typhoon Central! We are taking a direct hit from typhoon #9 (they are numbered in Japan) in a few hours. Since I'm inland, it won't be so bad.

Stayed up last night to watch the product intros. Most of you probably know the basic details. So, I'll give you my take.

iTunes Ringtones for iPhone
Apple is making it possible for folks to use parts of or make their own ring tones from their purchased iTunes audio content. $0.99 per pop.

The Good
Apparently, this price is cheaper than usual ringtones. (I wouldn't know, as I wouldn't pay much for something like that).

The Bad
Wait a minute - don't we already own these songs?

The Ugly
Profiteering at it's worst. First, they want us to pay for the songs TWICE. Second, isn't the whole purpose of a music phone to be able to use your own music however you like on the phone? It's inconceivable Apple would hose its customers as such. My bet is that ringtones sales are lack luster.

3G Nano "phatty"
Stubby design with wider screen (2"), can now play vids. Kinda like a sawed off 5G iPod. Curves of the nano and the new iPod classic remind me of those old Airstream metallic trailers.

The Good
Can play vids, comes with 3 free games, same price points. Coverflow (if you like that nonsense).

The Bad
Screen horribly small for vids, same size options.

The Ugly
The stubby wide design is fugly to some. The new colors for nano and shuffles are gawd awful over all.

iPod Classic
5G design goes to higher capacities and 'Airstream' stylings.

The Good
180Gb upper size option! Thinner than predecessors. Coverflow. Relatively cheap.

The Bad
Lack of imagination in this design. Apple sticks with the old form factor that was successful, but horribly out of date at present day.

The Ugly
Can't justify the purchase of this for video viewing. The old classic was too small for viewing vids and this one is no different. This design should have been flushed in favor of migrating entire line to iPod Touch (see below).

iPod Touch
New iPod based on iPhone with multi-touch screen interface, but lacking phone functions.

The Good
Gorgeous styling, thin and relatively light weight, has WiFi that can be used with a Safari browser, iTunes store, and Starbucks iTunes store. 20 hour audio play time, 5 hour video time. PDA-like functions, 3.5 inch screen which shifts into landscape mode when you turn the phone. Only real iPod option for viewing movies. We've waited too long for this, Apple.

The Bad
8 & 16Gb only! For the perfect movie iPod, one would expect more storage so we can cram more vid content. Even without video, 16Gb is way to small for many people's audio collection, forcing us to choose between the piss-poor screen Classic and the piss-poor storage Touch. Perhaps the cost and availability of flash memory is the reason for this. Or perhaps the added size from a real hard drive would make it less sexy. Price is a bit steep at $400

The Ugly
Nothing really ugly here. I've pre-ordered mine already, and expect it the first week of October. :-)

I do have questions about whether you can see flash and java content via the browser, as well as pdf files. And doing webmail (gmail!) would rock, but wonder if that will fly.

iPhone Price Changes
Apple decreases 8Gb phone $200 and 4Gb phone drops off the map.

I could care less about this, however, as we aren't gonna see this phone here in Japan for a while. The Touch is the best we can get. It would suck if you bought the 8 gigger at $600 - but you probably have the money to throw away anyway if you bought that.

No Beatles Catalog on iTunes
To be honest, I could care even less about this. The Mac media have spent too much time fretting and fanning the fires over this. We can get Beatles content from other places, ya know. And the iTunes store has survived long enough without it.

Summary
I would give Apple an overall grade of B- for this event. Improving nanos is fine, though I question the utility of such a small screen. Boosting the 5G iPods (iPod Classic) without changing the form factor is a horrible mistake. This old horse should have been put to pasture long ago. The shining star of the announcement is the iPod Touch, which makes up for much of the other iPod line. Let's hope that capacities for this increase substantially in the next year.

Conjure - Check it out!

2007-09-05T01:37:00.000+09:00

Conjure is a very interesting app. Here you have a virtual pasteboard on your desktop that you can add text or links to any app or folder, graphics or even movies (or screen shots from your iSight).

It's kind of like a 'roll your own' desktop and launcher.

Neat! Maybe a good app for kids learning a computer or even just a way to keep track of various things during your time on the computer.

The app is still a bit rough around the edges, and people trying this out should keep this in mind. I would also think that the price ($35.00) might be a bit steep for now.

If Conjure could be set to your desktop background - or even pop up as a screen saver - that would add some functionality.

I also wondered whether this interface would be great on a mobile phone or even a PDA (or the new OSX iPods?).

I would encourage anyone interested to give this app a try and email the developer with your feedback. He is very responsive to questions and suggestions.

Jing-a-Ling

2007-08-21T11:44:00.001+09:00

Jing is a free (for now) application on both Windoze and Mac that allows you to capture images or even video from you screen. This is being touted as a way you can do tech support for your friends, relatives, etc. without having to be in the same place. Jing saves its content as .swf files (flash animations) and there is a way to share your Jing content on their server - Screencasts.com.

The Screencast service is free for now for use with Jing, and run by the same people (TechSmith). Apparently, TechSmith is assessing usage patterns to decide where they want to go with Jing and Screencasts. But for now, you can use both for free. And you can always save things to your desktop for later use.

I gave the Mac client for Jing a spin and it seems to work OK. There doesn't seem to be any detailed documentation for the app, just a demo movie on the Jing site and FAQs. The app starts out in 'sun mode' on the Mac - which means you can find the program icon after you start the app. The sun mode icon lives in the upper right hand side of your screen, under the Spotlight icon. Mousing there makes the sun icon pop up along with three options (capture, history, more) which have their own little pop-up balloons. The "more" option gives you several settings to choose from, including preferences to use a menubar item instead. I highly recommend this. If you choose capture, you get some sort of crosshairs to select the part of the screen you want to capture. I found this a bit difficult to use, as it often would only select the program window, but not its menus. Furthermore any active app you work in will sort of move from the active window, requiring you to select it manually as your first move.

After selection you choose from Image, Movie, Redo, or cancel. Movie records screen actions within the area selected. Image takes a screen shot. After you've recorded your shot/movie, you can save it or 'share it' which uploads it to your Screencasts account. After sharing and uploading, the url for the content is saved to the clipboard. So, you can paste it into your chat window or email. However, it would be nice if you had a list of shared content URLs to easily access. The History option of the main menu shows the vids/shots you've recorded thus far - but apparenly not the URLs.

I found the app easy to use, but a bit quirky. You can view a screencast file I did here for saving to PDF files on a Mac.

There are other options out there for recording screen actions on Macs. The most popular seem to be iShowU and Snapz Pro X. Both of these are $20 and $29, respectively. As Jing is free, it's gotten many more downloads on MacUpdate. If your are interested in making screen movies, give Jing a try. The developers seem very open to input on improving the app.

Chumby - interesting

2007-08-12T22:10:00.000+09:00

Caught this on Engadget a few days ago. There is a new internet hardware product called the Chumby, a fat little blob that sits on your desk, table, or wherever, and displays various internet content. It has some sort of touch screen, and you can choose the internet content from the Chumby website.

Kinda interesting... Sort of...

New Mac Stuff - No Ultraportable Again :-(

2007-08-12T21:12:00.000+09:00

Well, last Tuesday, you probably all know, Apple had a press event and released all kinds of goodies. I somehow stayed awake for most of the blog feeds, despite lengthy feature demos with little or no running commentary. MacNN and Engadget had the best live feeds, with Engadget's photos giving it the crown. MacNN's started well and updated more frequently initially, but it pooped out halfway and had to be manually refreshed at one point. For whatever reason, MacRumors didn't do a live blog this time. I'll review what was announced, and give you my take:

1. New iMacs

The good - Thinner screens, new keyboards, more ecofriendly glass front and aluminum covers, new slim keyboards, same price.

The bad - No info on whether these use less electricity, wireless versions of keyboards are MORE EXPENSIVE ($79 vs $49) and smaller because they LACK A NUMBER PAD. WTF. The 17" iMac is now gone (bad for some folks), and the new low end iMac is more expensive. Also, I read on TUAW that the Apple remote no longer clings to the side of the iMac.

The ugly - I'm sorry, but the new black border around the screen is butt-ugly. It makes the screen appear smaller for some reason. Plus, these iMacs still retain the wasted space below the screen with the Apple logo, whose only purpose seems to be for the attachment of postit notes.

2. iLife 08

The good - Highly anticipated update to the package, enhanced .Mac integration (along with .Mac giving you a whole 10GB now) enhanced iWeb features, completely revamped iMovie that is much more user friendly, improved iPhoto.

The bad - New iMovie lacks much of the advanced features of iMovie HD 06. It is so late in coming that the package has to be renamed '08 instead of '07.

The ugly - They are still trying to use iLife to justify the existence of .Mac.

3. iWork 08

The good - Pages gets reworked and becomes more modular to separate word processing from page layouts, NEW NUMBERS spreadsheet (!!!) actually justifies the 'work' part of the application name, can import the new Windoze Office 07 .docx and other lame MS formats, improved Keynote, still very affordable at $79, smaller install size than iWork 06.

The bad - Numbers has problems importing many Excel files, in part because it lacks a third of Excel's advanced functions, no HTML export from any of the iWork apps.

The ugly - Not confirmed, but the delay of the new version of MS Office for Mac announced a few days prior is suspicious. It begs the question of whether MS will ever finish development of it.

4. .Mac

The good - More space (10x more at 10Gb), better interaction and more functions with iLife.

The bad - 10Gb is still very small and free services give you a better value.

The ugly - not enough of a refresh for the service, still too tied to iLife for my tastes.

5. New MacMinis

The good - kept the same price points but bumped up the processors to 1.83 and 2.0 Ghz Core 2 Duo, plus bumped up base RAM to 1 Gb (woohoo!), sticks it in the face of those morons anticipating the Mini's demise.

The bad - kept the same enclosure, while a nice form factor it is a bitch to open.

The ugly - Steve didn't have the balls to mention this during the actual presentation, only during the Q&A session after. Lame Steve, lame.

6. Overall Presentation

The good - Apple hasn't forgotten its Mac side and seems to be continuing development of new technologies and style.

The bad - the emphasis on integration with the iPhone is pathetic, given it's only available in the US and will only be available there for the foreseeable future. Furthermore, not everyone wants a freaking iPhone. Steve perpetuates sales problems in Japan (it's bad here again), by not giving us a freaking real portable MacBook. FIVE POUNDS doesn't cut it here, Steve!

The ugly - The continued lack of a replacement for the 12" PowerBook is pathetic. The "rest of us" here in the world's second biggest consumer market deserve better.

Time Bandits! Err... TimeDrawer

2007-07-30T02:03:00.000+09:00

If you want a taste of some of the functionality of Time Machine, the back up system in Leopard, check out TimeDrawer from our friend at OneRiver Software, Masatoshi Nishikata. OneRiver developed the interesting Edgies app I reported some time ago. Edgies allows you lots of drawers and pull out postits on your desktop.

TimeDrawer logs changes you make to documents, and their history over time. You select the type of document you want to keep track of, then TimeDrawer will save different versions of them for future comparisons. You can watch TimeDrawer do its stuff as you save documents. And you can access the history of a document by selecting it and accessing the contextual menu (right mouse click, or the cog in finder windows) and selecting TimeDrawer.

As far as I can see, TimeDrawer works best with text documents, allowing you to compare content of different version. And it looks something like the Time Machine previews show. I installed beta 6, and recently version 1.0 of TimeDrawer a couple of days ago. So, I don't have much in the way of long term document evolution to track yet. However, the app seems to be fast, unobtrusive, and seems not to be a resource hog. Hopefully, I'll feel the same way in a week or two of testing.

Give it a try, and post your opinion here if you like. And, BTW, I found this via MacDevCenter.

New Canon DigiCam

2007-07-29T02:15:00.000+09:00

I got sick of my 7.2MP Casio EX Z750 point and shoot, because the lens kept giving me errors when turning on and the damn thing didn't autofocus correctly. I lost too many good shots, because of the autofocus and decided enough was enough. Yes, I installed new firmware on the Casio, but no dice.

So, I started looking into what kind of comparable cameras there were out there. The Casio was 2 years old, so I wanted something with better resolution, anti-shake tech, and an underwater housing option. I also wanted something small and easy for my wife to use. One of the challenges in Japan is coming up with English reviews on the models available here, as often different names are used for the same gear elsewhere or sometimes completely different camera lines. Fortunately, all the major companies' cameras can be switched to English menus. I also found great reviews and information on digital cameras at the Digital Camera Resource Page.

After my initial foray to Yodobashi, and coming home with a pile of brochures - I settled on a set of cameras: Fujifilm F40fd, Canon IXY 810 IS, Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ3, and Panasonic Lumix DMC-FX33.

I shied away from Casio cameras - I couldn't bear to get another lemon, and I wasn't thrilled by the options for UW housings. I also shied away from Olympus. Their µ (Stylus) series cameras look awful, and the controls felt awkward. Plus the options for housings limited, as most of their point and shoots are waterproof to 3 meters. Oh, and Sony was no-go. Too expensive and I'm not doing the MagicStick thing again.

My decision wasn't easy. I favored the Fuji F40fd's controls and handling the most. Unfortunately, it lacks any image stabilization. [Its new replacement, the F50fd, apparently does have it... oh well.] The Panasonic TZ-3 has an awesome zoom (10X) but only 7MP resolution and too big for the point/shoot category. The Panasonic FX33 looked very nice, and came in several colors. Panasonic's image stabilization tech is rated very high too. However, they don't come with any Mac software AFAIK and the options on the menus left something to be desired. Furthermore, both cameras have USB 1.0 NOT 2.0! Unbelievable. That was the killer for me. Furthermore, you had to use a hard switch to access macro-mode - limiting your options (auto vs. manual).

So, I decided to go with the Canon. Considering I have a digivideo camcorder and a new multifunction printer from them - I felt fairly confident.

The IXY 810 is also known as the IXUS 950 IS and the PowerShot SD850 IS Digital Elph; I believe the latter is the model name in the US. It was announced in May of this year, and is an 8.0MP camera with 4X optical zoom. From the moment I popped in the battery after charging it - I was fairly impressed.

Some points to ponder:

I had thought the controls were a bit awkward - but after a bit I found I was incorrect. Basic controls can be accessed by slightly flexing a ring in the direction of the icon you want, and these expand a bit on the LCD screen. Nice touch!
You change shooting modes (play, auto, manual, scene, & movie) by using a partly exposed knurled dial. This seems a bit flimsy, compared to other models I saw. There also doesn't seem to be an audio recording mode (though I never used this on my Casio). The 810 IS also has an optical viewfinder, which I thought was important on the Casio - but I never used it.
Taking photos is easy and quick (get a fast SD card), and the camera makes a satisfying clunk sound when you take the shot. This audio feedback is really useful, for those of us who used film cameras in the past. Probably other cameras have this, but I don't recall it on my two previous digital cameras.
The face recognition is fantastic. I was aiming my camera at my daughter today, and she kept moving around bouncing her head up and down. The white face square followed her head across the screen.
Image stabilization works well too, though without a flash it has a tough time in low light levels. I played with the manual setting and cranked up the ISO to the max - 1600. It took photos in very limited light, but the image was quite grainy. I think this is to be expected, though. I'll have to play with manual mode more to see its limits.
Movie mode is nice (640x480) and allows me to zoom while shooting. (Many cameras don't let you zoom movies...). Also, images stayed relatively in focus upon zooming. This wasn't true for my Casio. However, I'm not sure I prefer the .avi format over the .mp4 format in my Casio.
The IXY 810 IS uses a rechargeable battery, but it doesn't seem to be chargeable in the camera itself. You have to pull it out and pop it into the included battery charger. This means that when your camera runs out of battery, you can't plug it in to keep power in it.
Another issue I had was with the 2Gb Panasonic Class 6 SD card I used for storage. This SD card won't mount on my Macs via a card reader after formatting on teh IXY 810 IS. In fact, you can't even reformat it via Disk Utility. So, the only way I can move content to my computers is via the USB connector and the Canon Camera Transfer software. This means you have to have a working battery to transfer photos. This is annoying, but I wonder if it is truly an issue for the Canon or for the card. I don't recall having these issues with the same card on my Casio - but my memory's a bit hazy.
The third problem I have is with the macro and flash. If you use macro mode, the lens barrel actually blocks part of the flash! So you get this shadow over one corner of the image. Maybe I shouldn't be using flash anyway with macro mode. However, I imagine flash will be useful for underwater macro shots. Lets hope the flash diffuser helps with this.

MacPak a Waste of Time

2007-07-29T01:15:00.000+09:00

Around July 3rd, I purchased a $5 MacPak 5 bundle, as I thought there might be some interesting apps. I received the requisite messages stating that my payment was received (and made by PayPal). And I even received a message stating that the serial numbers were forthcoming.

Unfortunately, when the serial number email was delivered - the message wasn't displayed in Eudora. Apparently, the material was flagged by Eudora's spam scanner. And I couldn't figure out how to display the message. [I don't usually use Eudora these days, but the email my PayPal account uses is archived there.] I redirected the message to other accounts (that I access with Entourage or Gmail) - but no dice. One license (Photostickies) was sent to me separately by the software vendor (DevonTech).

I sent a message to the MacPak CEO (Mark Howson: mark@namenetwork.info ) and after a couple of days he told me he would send a new message with serials in a couple of days. This message never came, but I did get a huge load of spam mail from MacPack including a survey. None of my subsequent messages were answered and no serial numbers were sent.

Today I decided to view the message without encoding, and after wading through shitloads of html I found a license for CastCount and a link for a direct download to a game (Chaos Machine) embedded in the message. Unfortunately, the CastCount license doesn't work with any permutation of my name (including MacPak registered name). Hopefully, the CastCount people will come through with one soon.

I can't understand why Howson would tell me he would personally send the serials in a couple days, then do nothing (three weeks past). I also can't understand why MacPak would send emails that can't be opened.

I was considering a complaint to PayPal, and sending similar comments to the vendors of software sold by MacPak. However, for $5, this is a waste of my time perhaps. So instead, I'll bitch here and hope the message gets out.

DON'T BUY ANYTHING FROM MACPAK, BECAUSE THE OWNER (MARK HOWSON) CANNOT LIVE UP TO HIS COMMITMENTS WITH CUSTOMERS.

Apple Japan Uses Old Web Site Style

2007-07-14T18:16:00.000+09:00

This is odd. Apple Japan's website uses the pre-iPhone design - tabbed style. I wonder if this is related to the lack of iPhone's abroad or perhaps the lack of resources being put into Apple Japan.

Is Apple ignoring its foreign markets, because they are all iPhone or nothing right now?

After all, Apple's Japan sales are still anemic and will stay there until Apple releases a product of real interest to Japanese - such as an ultraportable laptop.

I'll have to check other foreign Apple sites to be sure.

iPhone Stupidity

2007-06-30T03:14:00.000+09:00

Although I suppose we should be happy that sites like Engadget and TUAW are giving iPhone free feeds... The shit they do cover is really pathetic.

Who

Gives

Rat's

Ass

About...

the stupid crap going on in the lines for the iPhones!!!

Absolute nonsense. Why hype this crap any more than it needs to be?

I can understand live-blogging a keynote. But live-blogging the lines for the iPhone? WTF?

Give us a break MacSheep blogs and provide some useful news about something else - OK?

iPhone Smarminess

2007-06-23T00:26:00.000+09:00

This is very funny - from the Onion. Picked it up from TUAW.

Printer Predicament Over

2007-06-18T02:07:00.000+09:00

This is a follow-up I didn't get around to until a couple folks asked me about what I bought. I was trying to choose between the HP5180 and the Canon MP600 multifunction printers.

I chose the MP600, mostly for the reasons I indicated here. My wife picked up the printer for me from Yodobashi Camera, a major electronics retailer in Japan that sells much more than just cameras. They had a 'points' campaign and were giving 20% value in points for various printers. [Usually it is 5-10%. With 20%, I get ¥4000 I can use towards a future purchase or this one.] I was surprised when she called me from the shop and asked if I sure I wanted the Pixus and not the Pixma. This confused me, as I thought I had told her the wrong printer. The sales person told her that the Japanese version is Pixus (export model is Pixma), apparently because they use a different kind of ink. So, I have to buy all my ink from Japanese retailers - no biggie. Apparently there aren't any other differences between the Pixma/Pixus MP-600, at least functionally. The only differences I could see was that they did include the CDROM tray, for printing on CDROM disks, as well as a USB cable. My understanding is that both of these are absent from export models of the MP-600. The other difference is that the bundled OCR software only has Japanese menus (no other install options). Otherwise, the print drivers are in English, and you can use English on the LED menu.

Set up was fairly easy, thought the MP-600 has a rather large footprint. You can put paper in two different feeders: the vertical sheet feeder and the horizontal paper cassette. You can switch between the two with the click of a button on the printer itself. Or you can select from within the print dialog box. This is handy, as we need to print in both US Letter and A4 size paper. However, my guess is that most folks will put some sort of photo paper in the cassette. Scanner function works well, and calls up an app called "MP-Navigator" which saves it to file on your hard drive or opens it, depending on the option you choose.

Print speed is actually so-so. It takes a few seconds to wake up the printer, so if its your first print in a while - this slows the process down. You can choose 'duplex' mode from the print dialog box. I like this, but duplex printing is even slower. Quality of printed pages is good, though I didn't make a lot of comparisons. Although I can easily connect the printer to my AirPort Express, you can only print via airport and cannot use the other functions like scanning to the computer, or downloading photos from a memory card. With an airport connection, you also cannot access the printer utility from your computer. However, these functions can be accessed easily from the printer's LED menu itself.

We had a bit of a scare when printing our first photograph on photo paper. I loaded the cassette with some Epson 4x6 glossy photo paper and gave it a shot. [Loading the cassette was a bitch, so I may try by feeder next time.] The first photo we printed looked.... awful. I began to wonder if ignoring the directions to use only Canon paper broke my printer. My wife noticed that I had printed on the wrong side, and began to berate me. I wondered how this could be, and we discovered that you had to load the cassette with the printing side of your media face down. WTF! That seems bass-ackwards to me. However, once we printed on the correct side of the paper - we were both very impressed with the results. [And Epson paper works just fine...].

Another nicety we noticed is that if the front door from the printer is up, the printer will open the door automatically so that the output has some place to go. Nice touch! We also like that we can close the LED flap to save space, and that the printer puts the LED and other functions into a sleep mode. I'll take the trade-off for warm up time if we can save energy.

I haven't had the chance to try photocopy function, card slots, pict bridge, or even direct download from camera yet. My guess is that we won't use these much - but we will see.

In any case, we are quite happy with the new printer. Having everything networkable would be great, but the slow file transfer speeds via ethernet (or heaven forbid airport) would be a drag. Now I have to figure out if I have an open USB port on my iMac or whether I should just leave it as an Airport printer.

So, the Canon MP-600 gets a MacKenchi "Thumbs Up" for now. Let's see if it stands the test of time.

WWDC 07 Keynote - more detailed comments

2007-06-12T11:14:00.000+09:00

Like many, I was very disappointed in Jobs keynote address, and not surprised that Apple's stock prices dropped. The lack of hardware was depressing.

But Jobs did introduce many 'amazing' features for Leopard, and announced a competing browser for Windoze users. I'll briefly comment on what he presented.

Leopard Overall

I have to say that most of what was demo'd was visually appealing, but not particularly practical. It gave me the impression that Leopard will be the OS for people "who don't care about getting things done". I also suspect much of the animations in folders, docks, and file sorting will mean alot of demand on your processor, RAM, and maybe HD space. It wouldn't surprise me at all if you had to have an Intel Mac to use Leopard. Waiting until October makes this more digestible for Mac users. By that time, the number of Intel machines used by consumers may exceed PowerPCs in use. Furthermore, PowerPC Macs may have started to reach their EOL by that time.

New Desktop

Meh. I don't use the dock much. It stays hidden. So all of these tricks and gimmicks on the dock seem like wasted processor cycles. I look forward to minimizing my mouse use in my computer experience, not increasing it.

And, I actually like brushed metal looks.

Stacks

These are sets of files you make for certain tasks. I like the idea of putting all my image processing apps in one stack, and molecular biology apps in another stack. This seem better than trying to remember the name of little used apps or what you have available. The problem I have with the Stacks concept is the need to use a mouse to browse them. Maybe Quicksilver can be integrated with this. But maybe QS can already do this.

Network View/Back to My Mac

I'm all for making my files available to me everywhere and having fast network browsing. But I have two problems with this idea. First, you need to keep your freaking machines ON all the time to take advantage of this. Maybe you can't even let them sleep. What a waste of electricity! The second problem is that it seems you'll need a .Mac account to make use of it. Is this a way for Apple to push its much maligned internet service? I think we need to get away from .Mac, not become more dependent on it.

Coverflow for File Browsing

Yuck! I don't use coverflow now with iTunes. Seeing an Album's cover doesn't make me want to play a song from it. So why would I want to use coverflow with the finder? Flipping through file icons or previews isn't really an efficient way to get at my files. Sure, their may be times I want to browse stuff, but mostly I know what I want.

Quick Look

Sounds like a nice way to browse the content of files you browse with coverflow. And certainly for images it could be very useful if you don't want to look through a host of thumbnails. But I would bet not all apps will be adequately supported for QuickLook.

64 Bit

So... will this work on all Macs? I somehow think you'll need a fast Intel machine to really take advantage of it. We'll have to see how it actually works.

iChat

C'mon Steve. The rest of the world (>93%) is using either Skype or MSN for chatting, particularly video chats. That's a lot of 'heartwarming' opportunity lost by iChat users. This means despite how nice iChat is, I can't use it to do vid chats with my Mom or most of my family. So, despite the holograms and so forth - the focus needs to be on true interoperability - not features.

WebClip and Dashboard

Again, I rarely use Dashboard. It's a memory hog and doesn't sit on my desktop unless I install some doodad that lets me do so. In fact the most common Widget I use is "Stop Dashboard".

How about fixing the problems with processor load before bloating this feature? The ability to clip part of a web page and have it dynamically update as a widget sounds nice. But I can't imagine it would be useful to me during the work day.

Boot Camp

Wow - having Boot Camp built in sounds nice. But I didn't really understand the part about how Parallels and vmWare are both excellent alternatives. Seems like Apple's move puts them in a spot. What we really need is a BootCamp for Windows laptops so I can use MacOS on them.

Hmmm....

TimeMachine

We saw this the last time, and it looks very useful. I still question the HD and RAM assets you'll need to have available to use it effectively.

Spaces

Also saw this last time - a 'Virtual Desktops' ability for OSX. If you didn't use the shareware/freeware versions of this now, you won't use Spaces later.

Safari on Windows

Ummm... why? Apple can't even make Safari work effectively on a Mac. I mean, I can't blog on Blogger with Safari now, or use our university's online content services (e.g., Moodle, WebTycho). Why would porting this experience to Windows users be a selling point? This kind of pisses me off, as Apple hasn't taken care of its own flock yet. Yes, Safari is great for many things and has fantastic feature. I really like the way it handles RSS feeds. But if it can't handle secure access points now, I don't want to see Apple waste time on making it available for Windows users. Pointless exercise.

OK - there's my slant. Hopefully I've spurred folks to look differently at Steve's reality distortion event.

WWDC Wrap Up

2007-06-12T03:28:00.000+09:00

Dear Steve Jobs...

BOOO!

Lots of eye candy for Leopard, but no meat.

Thanks for yet another disappointing KeyNote.

WWDC Crystal Ball

2007-06-12T00:02:00.001+09:00

This is a bit late, but let's give the old Magic Eight Ball a shake and see what comes up.

What we need

1. iPods - the current full-sized models are horribly out of date with screens not worthy of any movie viewing.

2. Mini - this line needs to be revamped or cancelled. The minis are great machines, but overpriced for what you get.

3. UltraPortable MacBooks - The Japan market is falling through the floor, because Apple can't or won't do what every Windows laptop maker does - sell a small Intel-based portable at 4lbs or under.

4. iLife '07 - Can't understand why this is delayed any further, unless it's Leopard specific.

5. iPhone - for the rest of the world. Apple's focus on the US market is boring to use overseas. And it's shocking that they would release a state of the art phone without 3G.

What I want

1. Ultraportable MacBook - My hip needs to be replaced, and lugging 5lb computers on the train doesn't cut it. And my 12" G4 isn't cutting it very well either these days.

2. Real Video iPod - Frankly, my PSP does video better than any iPod on the market. I don't have to squint at the screen. There's no reason Apple can't come through on this.

What we'll get

1. Previews of Leopard (ho-hum... Xmas now?)

2. iPhone hype - let's hope for more Google stuff and less Yahoo junk.

3. iTV Add-ons - Apple needs to prop up this listing ship soon before the rest of us are bored out of our minds.

In Closing

I don't anticipate much here, but hope that Apple will finally do something to keep me in the fold. Let's hope I can stay awake long enough.

Printer Predicament

2007-05-23T12:34:00.000+09:00

My solid Epson Stylus C86 has decided to do what my previous Epsons did - clog up. My experience has been that Epsons print with high quality, but ones I had in the late '90s always crapped out when the inkjets clogged. When I bought my C86 a few years ago, I was under the impression that the "DuraBrite" inks would be clog resistant. Well, two years later, I find that this printer is not much different than my previous Epsons. In fact, many other C86 users have the same opinion. I don't want to waste time dissembling the printer, or injecting archane fluids into the head - like I did with previous Epsons.

So, I've decided to get a new printer. And it's not gonna be an Epson.

My father-in-law (Japanese Tech Dude) favors Canon, but I've noticed HP has made inroads into the Japanese market. It also seems that the Canon/HP models available in Japan and the US are using the same naming scheme, making review-scanning pretty easy.

I didn't think I would be interested in an all in one printer - but after checking out models in person at stores, I have to admit they are very sexy. I've narrowed down my choice to the HP-C5180 and the Canon Pixma MP600. Both printers have copier, scanner, color/monochrome/photo printing, card-reader slots, and an LED for photo previews. Both can use English menus on the LED. Neither printer has fax capability, but this is not a big dead for me. Both printers are about ¥20,000 and Yodobashi has a 20% points campaign.

The HP has ethernet/wireless networking built in, and a slightly smaller footprint. However, it lacks PictBridge (which I probably won't use) and only prints single-sided.

The Canon has duplex printing (HP doesn't), OCR software, and the scroll wheel menu control is far superior to the HP's sticky 4-way button. The Canon doesn't have networking built in, but I might be able to do it via USB connection to Airport (maybe - I've read different things about this). The networking thing is of dubious usage, as scanning and transfer over a network seems to be arduously slow. The Canon also has the advantage of more menu options, and seems more user friendly. This is important for my wife.

So, I've setted on the Canon MP600 at this point. I hope to get my printer this afternoon.

New MacBooks Comin'?

2007-05-15T13:18:00.000+09:00

Hmmm.... Think Secret is reporting that Apple will release updates to its Mac Book line tomorrow. The rumor is that the number of models will expand from THREE (13" MacBook, 15" MacBook Pro, & 17" MacBook Pro) to FIVE.

I would note that the Apple Japan refurb page has had no Mac product for a week or more. Maybe now that supplies have dried up, the refresh is coming.

Perhaps it's too much to hope for a freakin' ultraportable yet...

Apple Post Record Sales in Q207*

2007-04-29T15:27:00.000+09:00

*except in Japan.

Everywhere around the world, apparently, Apple sales are up for both desktop and laptop computers. But they can't their act together in Japan for like the last 2 years.

According to Apple Insider, "Apple Japan continued to "frustrate" Apple, accounting for just $283 million in revenues, down 8 percent year-over-year. This included the sale of 79,000 Macs, down 4 percent year-over-year."

Why do Apple's sales continue to suck ass here? This is the second largest consumer market in the world!

Part of the problem, according to some Japanese friends, is related to the ease of Windows Japanese text entry system, compared to the Mac's Kotoeri system. I've only used Kotoeri, so I can't compare. However, I'm told the system on Windows is more established and gives you better Kanji choices after typing in the alphabet.

Another issue is the COMPLETE LACK OF AN ACCEPTABLE PORTABLE COMPUTER. You've heard me say it before. I'll say it again until Apple gets it right. The MacBooks are fine machines for performance, but their weight and size are outrageous in comparison to other options. Ultraportable Windoze laptops are coming in with 12" screens, Core 2 Duos, and 1.5 - 2.0 kg - many even lighter. That's not to say that all the Windoze laptops in Japan are microscopic, but the preference for public commuters is SMALL. Even the 13-15" laptops are lighter than Apple's.

And don't give me this nonsense about "it would cost too much", because it's not so. If ASUS can do it, so can Apple.

What makes things worse, is that recent reports suggest Apple has put their ultraportable project on the backburner, perhaps not until next January. WTF!

I can't respect a company that makes a freaking phone a higher priority than its computing systems.

I'll be looking for a Windows ultraportable in June if Apple can't make one and hope to get OSX running on it to make it useable.

Final Cut? Kiss my #$@@!

2007-04-16T14:55:00.000+09:00

Rant mode on.

Yeah, I know it was the NAB show. Yeah, I know that 8 core Duo Mac Pros were announced last week or so. But COME ON Apple. Show us some hardware that "the rest of us" can actually use.

Joe Average doesn't give a nezumi's oshiri about Final Cut. It won't run fast enough on most user's machines, and is priced too highly for most of us to even blink at. I'm glad I didn't stay awake for this 'event' or the neighbors would have heard me yell "BFD"!

Yo Apple! Your iPod line has been obsolete for the last year. Your Mini's are too slow and over-priced, and your laptops are too freaking overweight for most public transport users to to carry around.

Do you really think that Final Cut is going to solve your crashing sales in Japan?!

Delaying Leopard to get the iPhone on-line isn't really an excuse. The iPhone is only going to be available in the the US market, not everywhere else in the world. And the iPhone is going to be using outdated transmission tech (GSM) that most of the rest of the industrialized world has dropped in favor of 3G. The iPhone won't do jack shit for your sales in Europe or Asia this year, or probably even next year. And by the time you do get it into those markets (if you ever do), there will be so many functional clones it won't matter.

And WTF happened to the ultraportables? I dunno about you, but my 12" G4 isn't cutting it these days and is starting to fall apart. Before I go out and buy one of these, and hack it to run OSX, how about you do us the justice of making a laptop that actually keeps up with the current Windoze laptop fare in performance and compactness.

I've said it before - less fluff and more stuff!

iClip - Mini Review

2007-03-24T13:25:00.000+09:00

MacZot is having a ReviewZot, where every review of the featured app will decrease the price of the app until it is FREE as in beer. Yes, this means free advertizing for the developers, but it is a fun way to get a free copy of an app.

I got iClip orginally through MacZot and another copy through the MacHeist bundle. iClip (by Inventive) sits in your menu bar and stores multiple copies of your clipboard. It's keeps a memory of those things you copy or paste, and lets you call up those clippings later on when you need it. The clippings can be for graphics or text, and you can save customized clipping sets that you will use frequently. For example, when grading pdf papers from students, I paste the grade breakdown as a template via the comments function in Preview. iClip lets me keep a set of paper grade templates I can call on easily.

You can call up iClip by either mousing to the menubar icon an clicking, or mousing to the hot area of the screen you assign. The iClip app has a 'pop-up' window with the clippings. The app looks very slick and cool, with these lens-looking clip portals. You can customize these portals' size and shape (round or square). The previous version of iClip used rectangular panels instead, and while visually inferior to the current version, it seemed to be a better use of space, particularly on small screens. The developer should consider an option to return to the simple pop up window interface for those who might prefer lower resource usage.

Although I don't activate the app all the time, when I do use it - it has been very fast and stable in nearly all cases. The only time I had any problems was trying it on an Intel Mini with Parallels Desktop, trying to copy and paste from the Windows virtual machine. My recollection is that iClip quit or crashed - but my memory is a bit hazy. Never-the-less, that particular situation is not very common for me, so it's not a big deal.

The only other complaint I have is that the full price ($29) is a bit steep for iClip, so the only way I've obtained it was at a discount. This is a very slick app, but pricing it at $10 or $15 might be a better marketing ploy.

I've not compared this app with any other similar utilities, so I can't really contrast iClip with them. However, if you can get a copy of iClip - I recommend it highly.

iTunes Alternative

2007-03-10T23:27:00.000+09:00

FreeMacWare.com often picks up some interesting finds for free software, but today's pick really caught my eye. It's an open source iTunes alternative called "Songbird" that is also cross platform (Windoze, Mac, & Linux). I haven't had a chance to try it yet (I will), but the screencast looks very interesting and shows some advanced features.

Songbird will play many kinds of music files (except purchased iTunes AAC files) as well videos (though I'm not sure what formats). The coolest thing about Songbird is that it has a built in browser function that allows you to search the web for music of your likeing, and play right inside songbird. It will find all the media on a particular page, and list them in Songbird just like they were media in your iTunes browser. You can even download media for future use, so that you don't have to go back to the original web page.

The interface is similar to iTunes, but skinable. And the app is still in development, supposedly using the FireFox platform (whatever that means). There are nightly builds you can install. Give it a try, because it looks very cool.

Update: The Developer Preview version may not work correctly after the first start up. The first time you boot the app, disable all the suggested add-on check boxes.

Cool Screensaver Animations

2007-03-07T13:45:00.000+09:00

Check out this site and the free Quartz animation files which can be used as screen savers. The Japanese developer, Futurismo Zagakousaku, has had some commercial success too with some of his work. Very cool stuff!

Thanks to TUAW for the tip on this site, though I apparently have seen his stuff before.

(Note: you can find a few more .qtz files on the opening page of the site.)

Is there an Intel Mini in the house? Part I

2007-03-04T17:39:00.000+09:00

About a month ago, I decided I would finally get myself an Intel Mac, mostly because I needed a reliable computer in the DNA lab to run some molecular analysis apps via Windoze. But I admit having Intel Mac envy that I couldn't quite satisfy with an overweight MacBook.

I had gone back and forth trying to decide between a 17" Intel iMac and the Mini. I felt the new 17" iMacs were a better deal, given the faster Intel chips and the built in monitor. However, my desk space in the lab is very limited, and there is already a monitor I could switch to the Mini when needed. I also felt better about spending under $1000 US on a Mini, with the idea of getting a truly compact MacBook Pro in the coming months. Now the problem became getting one in Japan for a decent price.

Apple refurbs in Japan are tough to come by. If you check the Apple Japan refurb page often, you'll see jack shit there 99% of the time. They usually have a MacBook or two, but only once int the last 6 months have I seen anything else offered. And those disappeared quickly. I also considered purchasing a used Mini (or even iMac) from the retailer SofMap. But the problem there was the lack of more than a month's warranty on anything bought used.

So, I asked my brother in the US to order a refurb Mini from the US Apple store and send it to me. At that time, they had plenty - but I knew supplies were limited. My brother checked with a MicroCenter near his work place, and found that they had a 1.83Ghz Intel Mini for a comparable price as from the Apple store. Apparently, it was a return, but it came with a full warranty and was supposedly 'complete'. They also gave us a good price on upgrading the RAM (to 1.28 Gb total). He bought the Mini and was able to send it quite quickly to me via my APO address.

When I brought the Mini home and unboxed it, I was amazed at the small size of the CPU, but a little dismayed at the size of the power brick. ('Brick' is appropriate in this case, BTW.) I was also disappointed that the MicroCenter people forgot to include the DVI to VGA adapter - so I couldn't use it out of the box on my spare VGA monitor. Strike one. I wasn't able to get a replacement adapter for another couple of days, due to my work schedule - so I had to wait further. After getting an adapter, I hauled it all to the lab and happily set it up. I really enjoyed the looks from my lab mates when they saw it set up and running next to their boring Epson desktop machines.

Unfortunately, I became aware that something was wrong... namely, that the freaking fan was constantly on. I downloaded all the OSX updates, including a firmware update for Intel Macs.
No change. I followed the instructions to reset the hardware manager (shut down and unplug everything for a few minutes). No change. I then came to the conclusion that something was very wrong - and began to worry I and my brother had been hosed with a lemon Mac.

At home, I found no evidence of a warranty for the Mini in the box, further increasing my stress. And a quick search on the internet for fan problems with the Mini suggested all kinds of horror stories. However, one article on MacWorld's site struck a chord. The venerable Chris Breen had taken apart a Mini and reassembled it, but forgot to connect a cable correctly. He found that reseating it completely solved the fan noise problem that appeared after he had upgraded the RAM. Breen went so far to say that anyone who got their RAM upgraded recently with fan problems should check out this cable, and even shows the location of the plug. A quick peek through the vents of the Mini and poking around with a dissecting probe (I'm a biologist...) showed me that, sure enough, this cable was not connected.

So, these idiots at MicroCenter didn't do their job. They closed the case without connecting the plug. Is this what we should expect from Apple certified techs? Strike two.

Now the problem was opening the case. The Mini is not supposed to be opened by customers, only by Apple service people. So, all RAM upgrades have to be done by service people. In fact there aren't any screws or bolts to open the case. When I started reading about how to crack open a Mini, I saw all sorts of horror stories about dinging up the case with the recommended case opener - a PUTTY KNIFE! This didn't sound good at all. Without a clear warranty, I was reluctant to take the Mini to a Japan Apple store. Yet I didn't want try this procedure myself
and mess up any chance at having any warranty. I had almost decided to pack the thing up and send it back to the US for a refund.

Then, a Pizza cutter changed everything. Continued in part II.

YASNR - Yet Another Sub Notebook Rumor

2007-02-19T02:38:00.000+09:00

This one has more oomph, because it came from Apple Insider.

Apparently Apple is working on something small and delightful, but like Apple Recon claimed - it won't come out until June. Dohh!

Apple Insider also says it's gonna be really small and use NAND flash and NO internal optical drive (ala the PowerBook 2400 and 100). They also echo what I have been saying here - that this is just what Japan needs, and may pick up sagging sales here.

My take: Much too late! There's no need to put new tech into a subnotebook, when there are plenty of Windoze laptops at ideal size/weight ranges already. One wonders if Apple can recover the sales it's lost in Japan. (And when my 12" G4 dies, which could be anyday, I'll freaking go Windoze if there's nothing.) Also - though I look forward to Apple innovating in a subnote book, it's totally unecessary at this time. Plenty of Windoze Core 2 Duo notebooks that are 1.5 kg and under on the market now with existing tech.

I guess I won't hold my breath for this thing....

Woo - colored iPod Shuffles

2007-01-30T23:14:00.001+09:00

Big bleeping deal.

AlSoft Laggards

2007-01-27T02:09:00.002+09:00

Wow. I thought Hawai'ian time was bad.

I ordered the update to DiskWarrior from the maker, Alsoft on Dec 31st (2006). The older version doesn't boot on my G5 iMac, but works still on my (dying) G4 PowerBook.

Recently I began to wonder what happened to that order, but had forgotten when I had placed it. Well today, I got an email from the company telling me my order had shipped. Had shipped?!

WTF.

It takes them 4 weeks to put the goddamn CD in the mail? What do they do, hand etch the CDs with lasers under a microscope? I mean this company is in Texas for Chrissakes, not Jamaica or Pakistan. Are they understaffed?

I mean, bless their hearts for shipping to me at an APO address. (Lots of companies won't). And kudos to them for making a well-regarded product (DW ain't too shabby). But 4 weeks?

I could understand them using surface mail or something, so that it took a while to get here. But this, folks, is ridiculous.

MacBook Mini Rumors Again?

2007-01-26T12:01:00.000+09:00

A blog called "Apple Recon" has some supposed info on Apple's supposed ultraportable - called the "MacBook Mini" by some. The stats look pretty good. 3.5lbs weight, 2GHz CoreDuo, 12" Widescreen (1280x800), 1Gb RAM standard, ATI Radeon X1900, some kinda flash assist storage feature, and all the other MacBook standard features.

The price is supposed to be around $1800 - not bad, IMHO. There were actually people complaining about this price. I guess they forget that the 12" PowerBooks were around $2100.

Lamers.

The bad news - June '07 at WWDC is when they will be released. That deserves a WTF.

Really Apple, you are behind all other major (and some minor) PC manufacturers in this regard.

Thanks to PowerPage for picking up this story from Apple Recon.

Mac Sales Up 28%*

2007-01-18T15:14:00.000+09:00

*Except in Japan.

AppleInsider reports for Apple's Q107 report, "Apple Japan accounted for 70,000 Mac sales and $285 million in revenues. These figures are down 14 percent and 20 percent year-over-year. Sequentially, Mac units in Japan were up 13 percent while revenues were flat."

So, they got a bit of a holiday bump in sales, but compared to last year sales are considerably lower. Lower than the already low from a year ago!

WTF. Japan is the second biggest consumer nation after the US. Japanese really like well designed, "cute" products. iPod sales stayed at the same level, but they increased elsewhere. Maybe the shine is off the Apple in Japan, because the current iPods are really not very innovative (and we will not see the phones for a year, if ever) and falling behind. And there's the fact that Japanese like small and compact products - which none of the current laptops are.

Why the hell would anyone buy a 5lb MacBook, when they can get the same speed and size for the same price (or better) in a Windows laptop, but at least a pound lighter? Really, Apple. Without a 12" laptop, most Japanese people aren't going to even blink at your portables. And the rest of the line-up is overweight. Yeah, you got the OS thing down pat. Now get your hardware up to par or start licensing your OS.

AppleTV and iPhone - WOW! But...

2007-01-10T04:13:00.000+09:00

Unless you were living in a cave, you know that Apple released details on two products: the AppleTV coming in February and the iPhone, coming to the US in June.

The Apple TV turns out to be better than I expected, with a hard drive and all sorts of streaming tech for 720p HD video to your TV. At $300, it will be a good value.

The iPhone is... utterly amazing. Simply a work of art and technology. Revolutionary in every way and a dream. Something that, if works as demonstrated, would be great just as an iPod or PDA. Unfortunately the phone network used, GSM isn't available in Japan. It's old tech and frankly should be retired. Furthermore, it's not slated to get to Asia until 2008. I think I've said here before that Apple will have problems getting iPhones into Japan's closed system and through its archaic business negotiation practices. I would guess we'll be lucky to see it in 2 years. Other phone makers will be doing everything they can to block this product. And although Softbank has some promotion with Apple, it's hard to believe they could support these phones better than Docomo or AU.

So, I've gone from elation to sort of complete deflation. As this amazing device (forget the phone) will likely not be available any time soon.

There was one other announcment, that Apple was changing it's name from "Apple Computer, Inc." to "Apple, Inc.". That was underwhelming.

And there was an unannounced product, a new Airport extreme base station using 802.11n and an AppleTV form factor. $179. Neat! Available in February. Too bad it doesn't have music streaming functions. But you can get that from your AppleTV if you don't have an Airport Extreme.

So - what did this Keynote do for me? Well, I was really impressed by the iPhone, but disappointed in its limited availability. I'm further upset because it's apparent that Apple has no portable computing product that supports my needs. I can't justify hauling around a 5+ lbs laptop. And now that my old G4 is becoming long in the tooth, I'm going to seriously start looking at Windows laptops. WTF is Apple doing with its laptop R&D when unimaginitive companies like ASUS can release small laptops like this. It's really depressing.

Anyway, if you are lucky enough to get your hands on the Apple iPhone this Summer, send us a postcard.

Greenpeace's Gripes All Wet? Maybe...

2007-01-09T02:12:00.000+09:00

Some Mac News sites picked up a story from ArsTechnica and the NYT saying that Apple's Laptops are the 'most environmentally friendly', based upon an EPA study.

I took some time to look at the EPA's data and found some interesting facts that don't really support this statement, but call into question Greenpeace's claims.

The EPAs assessment uses various criteria, Greenpeace focused on toxic materials. Interestingly, EPA ratings gave Mac product very good ratings for environmental toxins, even PVCs. That is contrary to Greenpeace's assertions about PVC. The EPA also gave poor Energy Conservation ratings and Materials Selection (recycled sources) to Apple's products. There is one glaring omission and this invalidates that statement that all Apple's laptops have the best rating. The EPAs ratings for Apple laptops DO NOT INCLUDE MACBOOKS, only the MacBook Pros. So, we can't say because those laptops are not included. And they could contain PVCs, as their cases are plasticized. No makers got a Gold rating, but Apple's laptops were among 144 others that got a Silver rating. And Apple's MacBook Pros are at the top of the Silver heap, with 17 overall points, compared to 16 for a few offerings from Sony and Toshiba. Remember that the MacBooks are not included in this analysis.

Apple's non-notebook products do fairly well, but not strikingly good or bad. Its monitors are in the middle of the pack. Its desktop (MacPro) is 16, below three others with 17 and 18 ratings, above 60 others with lower ratings. Apple has the only integrated products, but if we place them in the desktop category, they have a 14 along with the majority of the desktops rated. So, not awful, but not at the absolute top.

Looking at Greenpeace's site, I just don't much in the way of hard data - just categorical ratings. They rate Apple below HP and Dell, but this seems to be based more on their 'take back' programs, which Apple apparently doesn't have everywhere. The EPA ranks all of HP and Dell's desktops, laptops, and monitors below Apple's, except for iMacs. To be sure, the EPA numbers are themselves just rankings of Apple's ratings in different categories. And it may only be for models sold in the US (who knows what's in machines elsewhere). But Greenpeace puts more weight on stated policies than actual assessments.

To be fair, Greenpeace's assertions also focus much upon iPods, which have quite a bit more plastic in them. The EPA estimates don't include music players. We know iPod sales are huge and by their sheer volume they account for a lot of materials. And though computers must be recycled in some countries (like Japan), without a 'take back' program in the US - Apple looks worse than HP and Dell. Did Greenpeace overstate its claims? Maybe, but without better data we can't completely exonerate Apple. Given that they base more of their rating on the 'take back' than quantified data, I'd have to say Greenpeace over-stated their claim. I'll eat my words from the last post. Sure, Apple should improve their life-cycle management in all countries. But at the same time, without data on MacBooks and iPods, we shouldn't make statements suggesting Apple is at the top of the heap.

2007 - Expections for MacWorld Expo & Beyond

2007-01-06T22:53:00.000+09:00

Mac Faithful are looking forwards to the upcoming MacWorld Expo in 4 days, to see if Apple and Steve Jobs can wow them with more techno-lust magic.

Scads of pundits are already weighing in on what will be announced in the 9 January Keynote by Jobs. So, I figure I'll do the same. I'll start off with what Apple needs to introduce, and then speculate on what Apple will and won't actually introduce.

Needs:

• New iPods - We got a refresh on the Nano and Shuffle lines, but the 5/6G iPod line is in dire need of an overhaul. Screens on the current iPods are a joke - much too small for any real movie enjoyment. A portrait format iPod would really rock, something with a screen the size of a PSP. Give this thing some rudimentary PDA functions and we've got a winner.

• iWork that Works - iWork is incomplete without a spreadsheet, and the other apps in the suite need a boost. Make this product useful for those of us who really do work, with 100% MS Office compatibilty, or get out of the market and give MS reason to truly innovate Mac Office.

• Ultraportable Portable - I thought the whole reason for moving to Intel chips was to enable Apple to make small, lightweight, cool-running laptops. What happened? To be certain, the MacBook Pros are great machines (though they run hot) and the consumer level MacBook is very affordable. However, these things are WAY too heavy when compared to Windoze laptops by Sony, Panasonic and others - particularly the MacBook. FIVE LBS?!! What a joke for a 13" portable. In Japan, MacBooks are displayed without batteries, or consumers will think they are much too heavy compared to what they see across the aisle in the computer store. Yeah, maybe the 'drive everywhere' culture in the US doesn't appreciate this - but those of us who commute to work by bus, train, bike, or foot really need lightweight laptops. There's no excuse for this lapse, given the past success of 12" G4 laptops. We don't care if it's cheap or has nonsense like the hard drive 'roll-bar' or 'Mag-Safe' power cords. Just make it light - under 2 kg. And if Apple won't make one, at least license the OS so I can run it on a Panasonic ToughBook that tops out at 1.2 kg.

• iPhone/MacPhone - This is needed, because it's getting talked to death. Apple is in danger of letting the moment pass by, and not having generated any sales. Do it now, while the interest is there. There are already plenty of decent music phones out there - at least in Japan.

• iPad /MacPDA/Internet Tablet - Yeah, I can buy an iPaq or some other piece of crap that runs Windoze CE or even PalmOS. But I don't want that. I want something that plays nice with my Mac and has an intuitive MODERN interface. We don't need a freaking camera or phone functions - just something usable. Fold this in with an iPod (see above) and you might shock the world.

• OS 10.5 - We don't need it right away, but some time this year after it's truly ready. The current OS, Tiger, already bitch-slaps Vista around - don't worry about Vista. Just make Leopard great. We don't need an overhaul on the AquaInterface (Geez the new iTunes is fugly!), just improve the functionality and make it rock solid. Give us windows that maximize instead of inconsistently 'zooming'. Allow Front Row to work with not only iTunes Radio channels, but a TV/Cable/Video input source (like my EyeTV250). Make it easy to sort Spotlight searches by date (within file type) or otherwise with a click of a button. Make all apps save documents to the same place you opened their previous incarnations (including PDF files). Make Dashboard truly usable, by allowing active widgets on the desktop (ala Amnesty), instead of hidden somewhere. Make sure Leopard doesn't leave PowerPC Macs behind, by offering full functionality (except for BootCamp). Make Safari as compatible with websites as FireFox is. Simplify and improve fileserver and filesharing functions, so that they can be always accessed with one click. Make iTunes' interface experience match its improved functionality. (Incorporating song lyrics downloads doesn't count!) I could go on.

• Re-Vamped iWeb - Make something that works like SandVox (usually) does, not the stifling, limited mess that iWeb '06 is. Don't make it seem like you have to use .Mac to get the maximum out of iWeb, and improve the interface. Open up the themes architecture (or give us more themes) so that we don't have to spend money on third party offerings.

• Stable iPhoto & iMovie - Improve memory usage issues with these apps so that they don't crash when you are working with large files or photo collections.

• Truly Mighty Mouse - The current Mighty Mouse form factor really blows and is quite archaic compared to the functionality in current offerings from Logitech and Microsoft. Yeah, the wireless version is an improvement - but the damn thing still works like its wired ancestor. I know very few serious Mac users that can tolerate the Mighty Mouse for more than a few weeks. Lose the goofy left/right 'tip-click' for a left and right button and just put two buttons on the damn thing. Make the nipple larger or turn it into a wheel. Do you think the hundreds of other mice on the market look different, because their manufacturers believe they are subpar to the mighty mouse?

• Greenify Apple - Al Gore sits on your BOD and uses a Mac. You ever listen to him? How about addressing those issues that Greenpeace has brought up, instead of accusing them of being wrong? They have some very valid points, though you may not care about the behavior of your OEMs. Take responsibility and be a leader in Environmental consciousness, instead of a denier/apologist. The fact that Dell is number one on Greenpeace's list (and Apple last) should be shameful to all Mac users. Profit isn't an excuse to utilize materials and OEMs that aren't environmentally friendly.

Reality

In truth, it's unlikely that we will see all of the above things in this week's Keynote or even over the entire year. My guess is what we will see is the following.

• iLife 07 & iWork 07 - Duh! These application suites have been released during the January MacWorld since their inception. Even Amazon.com thinks so.

• Boosted iMacs, MacMinis - These seem to be most likely to get boosts, though it is conceivable the entire line may get speed bumps. Quad Core Mac Pros?!

• Boosted iPods - I can't help but wonder how long Apple can wait to upgrade their large capacity iPods. Look for larger capacity, in the least. The form factor is getting a bit long in the tooth.

• iTV - There was too much noise about this product when it was previewed. It seemed well on the way. Apple probably can't wait much longer on this one. And it's not exactly rocket science to implement.

Reality Check

There are some things I would surmise won't be released (though they may be needed).

• iPad /MacPDA/Internet Tablet - Sadly, I think that Apple is losing its innovative steam. They don't want to put effort into anything that could be regarded as a niche product. Furthermore, the Newton has left a stale aftertaste in their mouths. Don't expect these, unless they are part of an iPod or controller for another product. (The ModTablet doesn't count...)

• iPhone - Given all the attention garnered to this product or potential product - it's a wonder it hasn't been released. Though there is an expectation for it, my guess is that it isn't ready yet or it would have been available at Xmas. And it's not a hardware issue. There could be a licensing quagmire with telecom companies. If you don't believe me, look how long it took to get local versions of the iTunes store in Japan and other countries. And keitai providers aren't going to swallow a simplified payment model or sharing their profits with Apple. So unless Apple has found a way to control the whole shebang, it seems unikely. Unless it's a WiFi phone...

• Ultraportable Mac - Sadly, Apple hasn't show much public interest in replacing the 12" G4 PowerBook in its line up with an Intel equivalent. And I don't see this changing, unless a hit in Japan sales (where small is 'in') is significant. Jobs seems more interested in selling a lot of cheap, heavy MacBooks, rather than a smaller number of lightweight, expensive 12" MacBook Pros. There's been some suggestion that an ultraportable is in the works, but little to support it. Hopefully I'm wrong on this one.

• OSX 10.5 - All indications are that Leopard is not ready for primetime, but could make it in the Spring or Summer. With Apple gearing up to polish 10.4.9, their efforts aren't fully on Leopard yet. And Apple needs to ensure this release is rock solid, to magnify its OS benefits over Windoze Vista.

Well, I've said my piece. We'll see what will happen in a few days. And don't be surprised if something totally unanticipated happens. That's what all of us hope for.

2006 - Apple's Highs and Lows

2007-01-06T22:12:00.000+09:00

For Apple's bottom line and set up for the future, 2006 was a pretty good year. Yet, there were some problems as well. Here's a quick summary of my (biased) thoughts.

Good Stuff:

• Getting product line, from iMacs to PowerBooks to MacMinis to PowerMacs, onto Intel chips The speed of the transition has been astonishing, and with Intel providing considerable support throughout the whole ordeal.

• Overhauling iTunes.

• Maintaining the iPod dominance in the music player marketplace, and cementing video downloads on the iTunes store.

• Updating the Nano and Shuffle iPods (though I'm not thrilled with the colors).

• Demonstrating concepts and progress for future offerings like Leopard, and the iTV.

Bad Stuff:
• Dumping the 'iBook' moniker, and using the dorky 'MacBook' designation to replace 'PowerBook'

• Quality control issues with everything from batteries, to excessive fan noise, to case discolorations in Mac Books. Cheap Chinese labor has a cost, I suppose.

• Not having Intel native Adobe and Micro$oft apps yet available (not Apple's fault).

• Over-pricing the Intel MacMini line.

• Lack of a 12" PowerBook replacement in the Intel line or any lightweight laptop at all competitive with Windoze offerings.

Ugly Stuff:

• Apple's stock option scandal.

• The Mac HiFi and it's horrible introduction venue.

• The excess mass in the MacBrick (errr... MacBook).

• New iTunes interface (yuck!)

• FoxConn labor scandal.

• Greenpeace's classification of Apple as Eco-unfriendly.

Is this the MacTablet?

2007-01-06T13:25:00.000+09:00

MacResource, a mac forum supported by OWC (distributor of the ModBook), has a supposed photo of the Axiotron product.

I dunno. This looks quite fake. It's a horrible mock-up.

At least I hope it is. It's kind of ugly.

MacTablet Coming 9 January.... Sort of.

2007-01-05T02:48:00.000+09:00

This is interesting. There will be a MacTablet announced at the MacWorld Expo. Only, it won't be coming from Apple.

Other World Computing (long-time Mac-centric distributor and reseller) and a company called Axiotron will announce the Axiotron ModBook on January 9th. Although they aren't showing what the unit looks like, the product will be a true tablet with built in handwriting recognition, iSight Camera, CD/DVD combo drive, and GPS (!). It's supposed to be housed in a magnesium alloy shell 'for all terrain use'. OWC will be the exclusive retailer, while Axiotron will make the product.

The Axiotron home page gives a bit more revealing image of this product. Sort of. It also provides more detail absent from the OWC site in their press release. The ModBook uses Wacom's Penabled hardware for pen input with Apple's Inkwell handwriting recognition. (Does that actually work?) There doesn't seem to be any info on what Intel chips will be used, nor any other features, such as hard drives or memory. There is a bit more info on the GPS, and it seems to be an optional feature.

I'm not sure what to say.

First, it's hard to believe this product will be very compact, given all that's stuffed into it. Or very lightweight, give the magnesium housing. (Why not high impact plastic?!) In fact, the form factor is described as 'condensed' and 'slim'. My fears are a MacBrick crammed into a heavier case...

Second, you have to wonder if it will be all that slick or elegant or functional. Apple generally devotes quite a bit to styling and functionality in their products. One wonders if a small company can do this product justice.

Third, I wonder how Apple will react to the commercial retailing of their products in modified form. Will they stymie it somehow? One could hope that they would squish the ModBook by releasing a real Apple tablet. I sort of remember the MacPortables causing some sort of legal stir a while back, though the details escape me.

Fourth, this would likely be quite expensive, given the hardware and engineering involved.

I admit I'm attracted to any small form factor Mac. If these guys can pull it off, and it's functional, it could be interesting.

In the least, it might spur Apple to consider alternative platforms more seriously.

Looks like we will have to wait until 2:30pm on 9 January (California time) to find out.

(Thanks to O'Reilly Mac DevCenter for the scoop.)

Mega Xmas App

2006-12-25T09:38:00.000+09:00

Well, it seems the grandaddy of all the xmas apps has just been updated - Treetop Lights. There are tons of options, including what kind of things you hang on your tree, bulb type for the screen lighting, as well as a weird snowman that comes across your screen when you hit click-command on the tree or at weird intervals. You can also adjust bulb blink pattern, brightness, as well as the tree size. There's also a way to send an xmas greeting through Mail.

The only bug I've found is that the countdown day keeps appearing on the tree, even after you turn that option off. Weird.

Happy Holidays!

2006-12-24T19:04:00.000+09:00

Santa Snaps rocks! :-)

Robots Gone Yuletide Mad!

2006-12-23T15:01:00.001+09:00

Whoa! Have a look at this video.

Otaku fever!

Holiday Cocoa Duel

2006-12-23T02:57:00.000+09:00

I've had a bad day. Damn train stopped on my way to work for 15 minutes, someone stole lab gear from my teaching lab, there's no snow here, only drunken ojisan's falling on me on the train, my wife's got mastitis again (complete with 103° fever), and the baby has decided to start blowing snot all over me.

But this really made me smile a bit - the Holiday Cocoa Duel . Developers have volunteered to make holiday themed apps, and if you like them you donate something to charity.

Some are pretty cool - Snowy gives you two penguins walking across your screen with snow falling and some snowmen (some decapitated) scattered about.

Santa Snaps is a hoiday themed photobooth that overlays holiday regalia over your images.

Santa's Gizmo is a gift tracker, allowing the ultimate consumer to track and organize the gifts he buys. (I'm not going to run the gift rat race this year - so not for me.)

Snowplane is apparently the current winner in donations, but it doesnt' seem to do much. Can't figure it out.

Anyway, check 'em out.

MacZot GiftZot: A Good Deal

2006-12-06T02:33:00.000+09:00

MacZot ran a "GiftZot" last week with several mystery apps for $20. I got it as my Birthday Zot last, and bought another one for a friend. The value of the package increased over the days it was offerred, as a few apps were added. Although licenses were a bit slow in coming, I have to say that after seeing the app list this was a pretty good deal if even two of the apps are useful.

Apps included are two games (Diner Dash 2 and Faeries), MenuCalendarClock, Tubular, PhotoStickies, LOOPS WaterPack, xSlimmer, and $10 credit on iStockPhoto. Games are nice, but I have little time for them. MenuCalendarClock looks useful - puts your iCal in the menubar. Very handy on my PB I think. Tubular is quite appealing - allows us to browse, search, and play YouTube vids. It's a 'presell' - so not yet there. I wish it would allow me to save vids to disk - that makes it easier for me to play vids in to students in lecture when there isn't an available internet connection. PhotoStickies let's you leave photos (and webcams) on your desktop. Great for displaying my baby photos (until everyone is sick of them). The Loops Water Pack is a series of high res screen savers with a water theme. These might be interesting if I get tired of my current screensaver called LotsaWater. The best app of the bunch seems to be xSlimmer that removes the FAT from Universal apps. I've had my eye on this for a while, and hope to save lotsa space PowerPC Macs. :-)

I also think that MacZot is offering better apps recently. FreezeFrame, Spyder, Cocktail (woohoo!), and a Devon app, Desktop Transporter, were all offered in the last week. If you balked at paying $15 for Cocktail - you could have had it for $7.45. This is an indispensible utility for many Mac Diehards.

Let's hope they pull in some equally cool deals in the future.

Ultrathin 12" MacBook Pro on the way?

2006-12-06T02:16:00.000+09:00

MacScoop is reporting the likelihood of a ultrathin form-factor MacBook Pro, perhaps coming in the spring, and in the $1700-1800 price range, featuring Core 2 Duos and optical drives. Woohoo! (Betcha it can't be this cheap though...)

This is pretty cool, but ABOUT FREAKIN' TIME.

What I thought was funny or ludicrous was the negative reaction to such a product from several commentors over at ArsTechnica. Naysayers were claiming that it can't be manufactured. Typical sheep comment from someone who hasn't seen the Windows ultraportables with similar stats already on the market. A couple people even complained about a thin laptop, said they wouldn't want one, and Apple has no business making one. WTF! I guess these guys haven't had the pleasure of hauling their laptops for hours while commuting by train, bus, or bike. Are these the same morons who think that 5 lbs is acceptable for a laptop in a world of Intel laptops much less than that? I just don't understand why these people wouldn't want Apple to expand their product line. Unbelievable MacSheep nonsense.

But it's still only a rumor. Try. Not. To. Hope. Too. Much.

Being Thankful

2006-11-24T00:21:00.000+09:00

This post is nontech, but in the spirit of today's US Holiday, Thanksgiving. I want to give thanks to my wife for bringing into the world our first child last Saturday - a beautiful 'hapa' girl. If you've ever been with a woman giving birth, you'll appreciate the sacrifice they make during labor. I'm also thankful for the fantastic doctor and hospital where our baby was born - for their competence and excellent care given to both my wife and child. I also want to thank my wife's family for helping us with the little and big things for baby and everything else. I'm also grateful to my own family for their advice and support, and sharing of our joy. And my students and our many friends whose enthusiasm pumps us up. Thank you all!

I also want to thank Google for being a better internet company than all others, continually improving their services (even for Macs), and not selling people out for the dollar or to corrupt governments. Blogger is one of the many things they do right. I also thank any readers, though there may be few, for taking a look at my ramblings.

Thanksgiving is a holiday that in its inception isn't particularly religious, patriotic, or commercial. That's what I like about it. You get together with friends/relatives, think about what you have to be thankful for, then eat, drink and relax. Giving thanks for something helps us avoid taking things and people for granted. We should do it everyday, but the holiday helps remind us to do so - or at least reflect on our fortunes.

In closing, I leave you with a photo of my daughter, whose face reminds me of the many things I'm thankful for.

MacHeist no MacParty

2006-11-13T14:44:00.000+09:00

You might have heard of the MacHeist thing - follow clues to some info and get a reward (i.e.: free software).

Well, after the first week's job - I give up. Either I don't get it, or I have to keep emailing some supposed person (Billy Hull) repeatedly until he gives me the correct 'secret info' about Apple's new iPhone. I keep getting the same response after trying to use different words to ask him. After the 20th, "Hmmm.... I don't know", I've had it. I give up.

Maybe I'm missing something here, but this has become ridiculous. MacZot's scavenger hunt, as flawed as it was, had a point or goal to its missions. MacHeist seems pointLESS, from my perspective. And I'm not goiing to waste any more time trying to rephrase a question so some Auto-Email Bot can send me the code word.

Phil Ryu - Mac Marketing Guru? My ass!

Oh, and if you want my MacHeist invites - post a comment here and I'll send it to the email you use. Hopefully someone can enjoy this.

MacBricks 25% Faster, but not any lighter

2006-11-09T02:28:00.000+09:00

Apple has ramped up the speed of consumer MacBooks, supposedly 25%, and added a couple of other doodads. Yeah, still relatively cheap.

I'm still sticking with my old 12" G4 until Apple decides to make some laptops that are 20% LIGHTER, like PC vendors.

Let's hope these are also made better than the last crop of Mac Books, or even the 2G Shuffle.

*sigh*

THIS is a laptop

2006-11-02T01:14:00.000+09:00

Yo Apple! Pay attention.

In Japan, Sony has announced the Vaio G laptop, with a 12" screen and weighing LESS THAN ONE KG, even with the optical drive in. That's about 2lbs - 2/5 the weight of the MacBrick. Yeah, small screen, and a Core Solo 1.2Ghz processor. And runs the evil empire OS... But still - you'd think Apple could release something similar with a Core Duo that weighs a bit more.

This is one reason why Apple isn't having the success in the Japan market that it enjoys elsewhere...

New MacBookPros

2006-10-24T23:58:00.000+09:00

5.6 pounds??!! C'mon Apple! Get with the program. Even Samsung makes lighter laptops.

Camera Blues

2006-10-11T18:23:00.000+09:00

Sorry - not many posts lately, because of taking additional teaching assignments. Let's see if I squeeze out a quick post.

I need to get a digital camcorder within a month, as I'm expecting my first born. I'm sort of settled upon and HD camera, and the models that seem the best buys for the money are the Sony HC3 and the (newer) Canon HV10. There are a couple of new Sony HD cameras just released (SR1, UX1) with better stats, but these things are way too big and heavy. To summarize the HC3 and HV10:

Cameras: HC3/HV10

Weight: ~ / +

Form Factor: + / -
Resolution : + / ++
HDMI out : + / -
Mike In : + / -
Stabilizer: - / +
English Menus: - / +
Price : ~ / ~
Low Light Mode : + / -
Analog PassThru : - / +
Menu Access: + / -

MacBricks Too Heavy AND Too Toxic

2006-09-21T00:18:00.000+09:00

Apparently, the MacBook is so loaded with a toxic flame retardant called 'tetrabromobisphenol' that Greenpeace has called them "Poison Apples". Apparently Apple is trying to deal with this issue, but this problem is very typical in Chinese and Indian electronic scrap yards.

My take is that it's not surprising. You get what you pay for with cheap Chinese factories. And one of the reasons manufacturing is so cheap (other than the labor) is that you don't have to worry about any of those pesky environmental regulations that handcuff manufacturers in developed countries.

Wonderful.

(Thanks to TUAW for picking up that story.)

Misinformation

2006-09-20T23:45:00.000+09:00

MacNN picked up a story from NewLaunches.com about a supposedly new product - the Sonic EyeTV250 in Japan.

This is not a new product at all, but a rebranded El Gato EyeTV250 for Japan. Looks like Sonic got the contract to repackage the EyeTV250 and gouge consumers here in the process.

You might recall my earlier review on the EyeTV200 I bought in Japan, and returned it because the Roxio support site was useless, and they didn't offer a free upgrade to EyeTV2.0 software that was available everywhere else. You might also recall the EyeTV200 was much more expensive here than elsewhere.

I was looking for the EyeTV250 in Japan, but couldn't find it. So, I bought one and had it sent from the US for about $200 ($185 w/o shipping). I haven't reviewed this one yet, but have been using it extensively. It was half the price of the EyeTV200, and it looks like Sonic is going to gouge Japanese customers by jacking up the price 50% to ¥20,000! WTF - $100 increase for including Japanese documentation and on the box? What a joke.

If you've ever purchased Japanese CDs, you probably are familiar with the gouging you get for Japanese packaging and lyrics. Fortunately, in Tower Records you can choose the cheaper English version. Too bad you can't do so for the EyeTV250.

And worse - it seems that Roxio is owned by Sonic. So that means you'll probably get the same bad support Roxio gave the EyeTV200.

Blah.

iTV HAS a Hard Drive

2006-09-20T23:39:00.000+09:00

Apparently, the iTV will have a small hard drive to serve as sort of a cache to save movies so you aren't constantly transferring them over wireless signal.

Disney's CEO let this slip in a conference with Goldman Sachs in addition to some other thoughts about selling content for this system. You can read about it in Electronista.

It makes you think about how closely Disney, Apple, and Google are getting these days...

(Thanks to MacNN for picking this up...)

My Dream App Finalists All Announced

2006-09-20T12:19:00.000+09:00

All 24 finalists for My Dream App have been announced. Apparently these contestents now have to blog themselves to the next level, by impressing the judges with a lot of BS and nonsense about their entries. WTF is that about? I guess I forgot that most things in todays world are more about popularity and image than substance.

I think there are a handful of decent ideas among the finalists, and am not at all bitter that my idea was not selected. However, I'd have to say that most of the entrants' ideas are quite useless or just plain bad. A few are copies of ideas already available.

Oh well - to each his own.

Showtime or Schmo-Time?

2006-09-13T23:25:00.000+09:00

Apple had its big Showtime event last week (12 Sept). Those of us in Japan had the pleasure of staying up from 2-3AM to catch details of it from Engadget (erratic feed) and MacRumors (text only). I think most folks were impressed by the offerings at the time, but now that the dust has settled let's look a bit at what was announced.

New iPods
Apple bumped up the capacity of its standard iPods to 80GB, with a smaller 30GB model as a lower capacity option. Screens are supposed to be 60% brighter, and video playback time is extended. Interface has been improved to provide searching and gapless playback. Games available for download.

The Good: Improved features are a good thing, and the higher capacity means you can hold more video content, along with other data. Price per GB is also a bit better.

The Bad: No real change in basic stats or form factor. Battery life overall still sucks.

The Ugly: Brighter screen or not, this screen is still TOO SMALL for decent video playback.

New iPod Nanos
Apple revamped the nano (2G?) considerably and now offers 2, 4, and 8GB capacity. The new iPods have a scratch resistant aluminum shell (ala the iPod mini), 40% brighter screen, thinner/lighter body (42->40grams), up to 24h battery life, and available in 5 colors. The new Nano is already being raved about by Mac media as well as PC magazine.

The Good: More capacity and 2 grams lighter. iPod Mini maniacs can get their fix with the new nano. Scratch haters (like myself) now have a more rugged nano.

The Bad: Can't play the new iPod games on these. Color choices limited on lower capacity models.

The Ugly: These new players are ugly. I kind of liked the old style nano, and am not impressed with either the colors or the aluminum finish. I'll admit this is a personal preference though. I guess I hoped they'd use the old form factor and improve the acrylic finish. The new aluminum finish may also have issues, as some early adopters are complaining about blemishes on their new nanos. Maybe Apple has cut too many corners on these players.

New Shuffle
Apple also announced a new Shuffle in just 1Gb size, with a new form factor. It comes in grey finish, with a built in clip, and a small dock. Apple claims this is the the smallest music player on the market.

The Good: Finally the Shuffle looks as sexy as other non-Apple players on the market. Though I dislike the lack of any screen, this is a slick looking product, great for exercising.

The Bad: No screen.

The Ugly: Only grey? Hmmm....

iTunes 7 & iTunes Store
Apple revamped the iTunes interface and made changes to accomodate new content at the iTunes Store. New views for connected iPods, new icons in left panel navigation bar, two new cover views for main window, and rearrangements of UI elements are some of the notable changes. iTunes now incorporates technology from Coverflow, that allows you to browse your library by CD Cover. You can now download any album art from songs in the iTunes store for your music in iTunes. There is also no all-encompassing "Library" view - all content is separated into Music, Movies, TV Shows, Podcasts, & Radio. Songs in the same album can be set for "gapless play" by your choice or according to the iTunes store database. Downloading has been improved with some sort of 'download manager' allowing you to decide timing of downloads.

The Good: iTunes was in dire need of revamping, and many of the new features are welcome improvements. Many people really like the new CD cover views, and Apple did the right thing by buying Coverflow from its developers, rather than steal the idea (ala Konfabulator) before incorporating it into iTunes. You can also move content BACK to iTunes from you iPod via iTunes - a great feature to recover lost music. Playlists and library elements now have individual views. So, you can sort your "Blues" playlist by album and keep in coverview, "Exercise" list by artist and list view, and your Music by list-with-cover view. The Browser for music is nice, allowing you to sort by different things quickly to find your music.

The Bad: Podcasting got left in the dark for this release. You still cannot determine updating & longevity of podcast feeds individually - all or none. If your CD or other music is not sold by the iTunes store, you'll have to get your covers yourself from other sources or with other apps. There is some inconsistence in the use of the word 'update' for iPod. In the past when you wanted to get the lastest stuff/changes on your ipod you went under the Edit menu and selected "Update Joe's iPod". Now it says "Sync Joe's iPod" instead, but the progress bar says "updating". This is inconsistent. The Summary Tab for your iPod uses "Update" for getting the latest firmware. Looks like Apple didn't make the complete transition in terminology here. Many users report problems with updating iTunes from v6 to v7, and the general consensus is that iTunes 7 was rushed out the door.

The Ugly: This is a VERY ugly app. If this is a preview of what Leopard will look like, I'm gonna puke. Don't tell me this 'monochrome bruise' color scheme is an improvement. It's not. The app icon is ugly with a blue note instead of green, but for some reason the old green note icon is still used in my doc and the Apple+Tab view. The navigation window icons are too sharp, too contrasty in color shade - absolutely butt-ugly. They look like something from a Windoze app and I can barely see the symbols when icons are set to small view. The entire UI is kludgy, with elements moved around unnecessarily. For example, the little circle in the upper right hand corner to update podcasts has now been moved to the lower right hand corner as a rectangular button with "Refresh" tattooed on it. Yuck! Hard to find and nondescript. Also, the Podcast Directory and Report a Problem links are very small and hard to see, as they don't contrast much with the background. Coverflow view is nice, but looks ugly when a large portion of your music has no CD cover. When I flip through the entire navigation panel - there seems to be no overall theme for windows. The iPod window (though improved) clashes with the other views. C'mon Apple - this is not a finished product! BTW - Apparently "experts" like David Pogue think the new iPods and iTunes are perfect. I used to think Pogue was very spot-on with his analyses. However, I now put Pogue on my list of MacSheep because of his utter lack of objectivity.

iTV
Apple pre-announced a TV box, with the tentative name "iTV", that would allow you to play iTunes movies and content WIRELESSLY to your TV from your computer. However, this won't come out until sometime in 2007. It also doesn't include any hard drive or way to get TV content from TV to Mac. So I guess it's kind of like a wireless reverse EyeTV box. I was initially skeptical, then excited about this product. Now I'm skeptical. You'll need an HD TV to see the content at its finest, and frankly I'm not a big TV fan. I watch news and sports and that's about it. If I want to watch a movie - I'll do it on my 21" iMac. So, while this product has a hook, it's wasted on me and perhaps many others.

Are they serious?!

2006-09-12T00:29:00.000+09:00

Wow. I'm absolutely underwhelmed by the recent finalists added to the list of the first "My Dream App" competition. These are seriously bland - bad even. The "iGotPets" idea is absolutely absurd, especially for an application. For a website, maybe OK. But an interactive application? Yuck. "Hijack" is supposed to integrate all your forums into one application. I would think there are too many different formats and forum types for this to work properly. Plus, who ever needs Hijack really needs to get a life. The third is "Ground Control" that puts your most used apps, websites, news feeds etc in a bar across the bottom of your screen. Sort of like a souped up Dock. Ground Control is billed as an app for 'power users', but I'd have to say that real power users wouldn't touch this with a ten foot pole. Real power users are using Quicksilver to do just this with a touch of a key or two.

I thought the whole idea of this competition was to come up with application ideas that are both FUN and USEFUL - kind of like the apps the star developers have previously made (like AppZapper & iClip). Unfortunately, only one or two of the ideas could actually be both fun and useful, and I'm not even sure about those. I get the feeling whomever is making these first round choices is out of touch.

Or maybe it's me? :-)

Intriguing Apps

2006-09-09T23:00:00.000+09:00

I found an app on iusethis.com that was interesting called "SpotInside". This freeware app allows you to preview Spotlight results. Actually, I'm not sure how useful it is, but the developer site, OneRiver, caught my eye. This site is run by a Japanese developer, Masatoshi Nishikata. I'm going to guess that the site name is referring to a place or person with the name "Ichikawa", which means "one river".

Anyway, Nishikata-san has a four other apps for download on the site. Three of them are related to finding and editing US/Japanese patents and applications. These seem to be related to the developer's work as a translator and technical writer. The remaining app is the most interesting to me. It's called "Edgies" and is described as "a Stickies type memo and launcher application". It's still in beta, but looks very polished and has lots of uses. I'm wondering why I haven't heard of this one before, as it seems quite useful.

I'd also have to say that the concept for this app is heads above most of the 'winning entries' thus far picked for the My Dream App contest. Oh, yeah - three more My Dream App finalists were announced today. Meh.

My Dream App Announces Six Winners

2006-09-08T00:55:00.000+09:00

There will be 20 finalists of the My Dream App contest, and the judges have been busy filtering through the 2000 odd entries. They've chosen 6 entries so far (3 per day?), and about half of them look interesting. They rest they will announce over the next week or two as they decide them.

The first finalist is Herald - an RSS aggregator that specializes in sorting news feeds to give you that 'morning newspaper' feel. Could be interesting.

Next is Stick It, an OSX rehash of Stickies that allow PostIts to be attached to apps, menus, and desktops. Meh.

Third is Desktop Wars, a game app that allows you to run a war of sorts on your desktop, and make war on other desktops of players on your network. I dunno - if it runs in a layer over your usual apps, could be nifty.

Fourth is Cookbook, a Cooking App on steroids with many bells and whistles, including shopping lists on your iPod or mobile phone. **Yawn**.

Fifth is Chatboard, a visual collaboration app that allows networked users to use a virtual white board they can post their graphics or text or sketch. I kind of like this one, but have enough problems integrating with Windows users on Mac only apps (like SubEthaEdit). Hopefully, it would get to a cross platform status.

Sixth is Portal, an app that creates virtual worm holes for the transfer of files between desktops. Except for the eye candy of portals opening up on your desktop, this program essentially exists already in the form of DropCopy. Thumbs down, dudes.

Well, we'll see if the rest of the finalists are as derivative as most of the first six.

Apple Primes The Product Pipeline

2006-09-07T23:50:00.000+09:00

Apple surprised everyone a couple days ago by announcing upgrades to both its iMac and Mini lines of computers. Actually, most weren't surprised by the upgrades, rather the timing. Even AppleInsider reported new iMacs would be announced at Apple's big press event on 12 September (along with updated nano and Movie store).

Also surprising was the new 24" iMac (rumored to be 23" previously) and Intel 2 Core Duos (64 bit!) across the line. One strange thing is the apparent lack of the Apple Remote and BlueTooth in the low end 17" iMac. The Intel Minis are as expected - both faster and running Core Duos. However, I have to question whether Minis are a good deal when stacked up against low end iMacs. The high end Mini at $799 has a 1.83Ghz Core Duo, 512MB ram, only an 80GB hard drive, and no screen/keyboard. The low end iMac is $100 more, lacks BlueTooth, Superdrive Remote, but has twice the HD, a Core 2 Duo at 1.83Ghz, not to mention Screen/Keyboard/Mouse. For $300 more, you can get an iMac with twice the RAM, 2.0Ghz processor, Superdrive and ATI graphics card. So... I'm starting to wonder if the Intel Minis are overpriced for what they bring to the table. I recall the prices of PowerPC Minis were lower, so what's up with this? Certainly the Mini wins out hands down for it's compactness, but for not much more you can get a full system.

So, this leaves us with what will be announced on 12 September. It's curious Apple didn't wait until then to announce the new Minis/iMacs. But perhaps Apple has a very good reason. Perhaps they've much more to drop in our laps, and didn't want the system upgrades to steal the thunder of these unknown products. Speculation has it that we could see new Aiport Express with movie streaming ability, or even the much rumored iPhone. However, it's more likely we'll get a Movie store (apparently Disney only for now), along with upgraded Nanos. But would these latter two products be enough for an Apple event? Perhaps, especially if Apple runs this like the disappointing iHiFi event.

MLB.com fix... sort of

2006-09-06T12:50:00.000+09:00

A couple weeks back I got a response from MLB.com after a nasty email with a threat to demand a refund. Their rep explained to me that they were unable to make MLB.com work with Flip4Mac, but expected a fix soon (not happening yet). He also suggested using the old Windows Media Player for Mac, and explained settings that would allow me to hear my GameDay audio on Safari and FireFox. He also offered a refund I wanted it, but indicated MLB.com wasn't obligated to.

Well, I re-installed WMP, followed the settings suggestions, and got audio - the first time with Safari. But after that I've not been able to get it to work reliably - and never with FireFox. I found I had to change settings on the Flip4Mac Pref Panel (uncheck 'use as browser plug-in for audio'), but still it only works intermittently. I'm not sure if I should demand a refund still, but it's not totally broken. I'll futz with it a bit more and see.

MacZot StoryZOT

2006-08-30T01:44:00.000+09:00

This is weird. MacZot is selling an unknown application for $5.95 and saying that it's being or will be developed by a team of young coders. There is also some discussion about this being part of a story - I can't really understand it.

My first thought is that they are selling the app that's going to be developed by the My Dream App group, as many of the participants worked on apps featured by MacZot in the past - such as AppZapper, SubEthaEdit, and iClip.

But now, I'm not sure - the MacZot post is very vague...

UPDATE: Actually, the StoryZot was for 3 apps, not one. And these were revealed as: KIT, rooSwitch, and HawkEye. Good deal? Not sure.

My Dream App

2006-08-30T01:27:00.000+09:00

This is a bit late, but here's a chance to submit your application idea, have it judged by a (Mac) celebrity panel, and have it created by a team of hip Mac Developers. It's called "My Dream App". My Dream App (MDA) is a unique contest of sorts, and to date there are over 2300 idea submissions. There's a discussion board so you can float your idea and have it critiqued, as well as general discussion about the MDA concept.

One thing though - you have to submit your idea by NOON August 30. That's like... now.

MLB.com Mac-UNfriendly

2006-08-19T00:00:00.000+09:00

I've subscribed to MLB's Game Day audio since it came out a few years ago. Living in Japan, it was great to get live baseball audio in English to add a bit of sanity to my days. It was great to listen to at work or home in the mornings ( I work evenings). I grew up with baseball on the radio, so I've never missed the visual part.

At first I was annoyed that MLB took control of all local radio broadcasts, as I was always tuning into them on internet feeds from radio station. However, with MLB Game Day I could get any game I wanted live or archived. And for the entire season, it was always reasonably priced (~$15 this year, less after the season is half over).

I could always open the feed in Safari on the Mac, and in fact the FAQ on the site
says still Safari is the recommended Mac browser for GameDay Audio. At the beginning of this season, however, it became clear that Safari was no longer compatible, though the FAQ did not say this. You'll get a warning message, saying Safari isn't recommended. So, I used FireFox for MLB audio, and it worked fine, until a week before the All Star Break.

Essentially, I can no longer get any audio feed after you log into the site and choose your games. Zip - nothing - zilch. This is true for every browser available on the Mac (OK, didn't try OmniWeb) and on both of my Macs. I was able to get one feed in the last month - the AllStar game as covered by MLB radio. But none of the radio feeds work at all. And I've done nothing I can think of which would affect the playing of the audio stream, which apparently uses the WMV Flip for Mac plug-in.

I wrote MLB to alert them of the problem in July. They sent me this reply:

--------------------
"Thank you for taking the time to contact us.

We've been having troubles with Macs and Game Day Audio lately.

The older Macs (PowerPC's, non-Intel) that are running 10.4.7 work fine
with the Windows Media Plugin, the problems tend to be with the newer
Intel Dual Core machines. Basically the WMP plugin is not being
recognized and Microsoft isn't supporting it anymore. Flip4Mac, which
was a workaround, hasn't 'officially' released anything that is
compatible for the new Intel Macs yet, so we're stuck between a rock and
a hard place. There is a BETA version of it which I did see work just
now. This hasn't been released officially, although they state it's
scheduled for release soon. We should have a solution to this problem
very shortly.

Thank you for your patience.

Regards,
DB, MLB.com Support"
--------------

I wrote back explaining that I didn't have an Intel Mac and that the problem had to be on their end, as I hadn't changed anything on my Macs.

This is the reply they sent me:

------
"Dear Fan,

Thank you for sending your email. We really appreciate your feedback and
comments and have forwarded your email to the appropriate person.

Thank you again for taking the time to write!

Regards,

JB, MLB.com Support"
--

I replied that their appreciation was not a factor, and that I wanted the issue fixed right away.

So, they (actually a customer response person) sent me the EXACT SAME first response, about problems with Intel Macs. It's insulting to get canned responses, but even more insulting when they don't deal with the problem at hand.

I'm unsure how many Mac users there are of MLB Game Day Audio, but I think I've had enough. I've missed so many great Tigers games in the last month, and am absolutely seething at this point. Looks like ultimatum time.

WWDC Keynote Hair of the Dog

2006-08-08T11:43:00.000+09:00

Well, it looks like nothing on my wish list was announced. But 2 of my 4 reality check items were displayed: Leopard preview and Mac Pros.

Mac Pros
The Mac Pros seem to fit the bill, with fast quad core 64bit Xeon processors running up to 3 GHz. They use the same familiar enclosures the last G5 PowerMacs have and dual layer optical drives. You can see the specific stats here.

My take - these are nice additions to the MacIntel line and allows Apple to say it completed its transition on time. However, expect quality and design problems, as we saw with the early MacBooks and MacBook Pros, especially if these were rushed to market.

Leopard Preview
You gotta like Apple twisting the little knife it has embedded in Microsoft's side. But I wonder if this will piss of MS and keep them from developing Office Apps on OSX - or at least slow them down. MS today announced they would no longer develop VirtualPC - but that's a no brainer. MS is behind the ball, given BootCamp and Parallels are already vialble and available. And face it - why work on developing emulator software for Mac when you can't even get your own OS released?

Jobs and other Apple folks introduced 10 basic improvements or new features for Leopard.

64-Bit Goodness
Leopard is supposed to be 100% 64-bit, with ability to support older 32-bit apps.
My take: One wonders if this will extend to non-Intel Macs.

Time Machine
This slick looking app will work automatically to back up files automatically and supposedly allows people to go back in time for any app to retrieve files lost.

My Take: Better get a separate hard drive for this one. Also, it's not clear to me that this will be more functional that current back-up apps like SuperDuper or even a recently announced Synk 6, but we'll have to see. You gotta like the icon, though. :-)

Boot Camp, Front Row, PhotoBooth Standard
Now, these apps will be available for all Macs with Leopard. I think.

My take: We'll have to see if Boot Camp works with non-Intel Macs.

Spaces
This is a 'desktop manager' that will allow users to switch between 4 different desktops. This allows different working environments on the same Mac - customized and optimized for the purpose at hand.

My take: The problem is that this feature is already available for Macs via the freeware Virtue. (Note: the Virtue link isn't functional as yet, and the MacUpdate download link is down too.) I worry that Apple is ripping off another small developer's idea without giving credit (See Konfabulator vs. Dashboard comparisons...)

Enhanced Spotlight
This was not demonstrated, but Apple claims the new Spotlight can search and index another Mac or network servers, and feature an integrated application launcher and recent item information usage.

My take: So? Can't I already search external devices and mounted volumes? Furthermore, it sounds like Apple is zero-ing in on the feature set of Quicksilver. Again, stealing from the developer base is not cool Apple, unless you give credit where it is due.

Core Animation
This feature allows developers to enhance visual aspects of apps with much less coding.
My take: OK...

Improved Universal Access
Apple will improve the computer speech, QT closed captioning and more.
My take: Good - Now do we need a new OS release for these things?

Enhanced Mail App
The new Mail will have stationary, Notes, To Do's.

My take: Ummm... So they want to make Mail MORE like Entourage? Mail doesn't need this complexity, IMHO. Hell, I'll be happy if they just make it compatible with my employer's Exchange mail server.

Dashboard Improvements
Leopard's Dashboard will be improved - perhaps with the ability to run Widgets on the desktop. Apple will also make available consumer and developer apps for creating widgets.

My take: Ho hum...

New iChat
Apple will enhance iChat to allow tabbed chats, animated buddy icons, multiple logins, PhotoBooth effects, and more.

My take: Hello Apple? Heard of Chax? Most of this stuff is ho-hum anyway, as I can't get many of my relatives or long-distance friends to use iChat or even Macs at all.

Summary
There were a few other Leopard features mentioned or hinted at, and the rumor sites have been adding more. However, I can't get over how most of Leopard features are really incremental in nature. Cult of Mac on the Wired site comments that this is because OSX is already a mature OS that only needs tweaking. I partially agree with this, as the model is working well for me so far. The author, Leander Kahney, also comments on how Jobs did not impress with this keynote, looked sickly, and had others help him present. I don't know about that, as I'm not into watching Keynotes. However, I can say I wasn't that impressed with what was announced. I suppose we all want something better than the Hi Fi. And I want something that doesn't push currently available apps to the endangered species list without some compensation.

WWDC Pep-Rally

2006-08-07T21:57:00.000+09:00

I'm back from a week in the Ryukyus and somewhat slow internet connections. I'm just in time to give you my pre-take on the big Mac shindig about to start in a few hours. Let's see if my hopes or my 'reality checks' hit the mark.

If you've been paying attention to AppleInsider, PowerPage, and ThinkSecret - you've heard some general things, and some specific predictions. These range from expectations of a bounty of new desktop, laptop Macs, iPhone, and Leopard, to just Leopard previews and desktop Macs, or just and iPhone and delayed updated iPods. It wouldn't be surprising for Apple to plant some false rumors with some bloggers to keep us off guard. Mac maniacs are even analyzing conference banners hung in advance the last couple days to predict what will be released.

My crystal ball is a little warped, so I'm gonna give you my 'wish list' and my 'reality check' of what will likely come out.

Wish List:

1. A TRULY portable Mac. I've harped on this before, and I'll continue to until Apple gets it right. The MacBrick, err MacBook is an inexpensive portable, but it's too freaking big for public transport commuters. It's not a suprise that Apple's sales figures in Japan were down in the last quarter. Any laptop heavier than 2kg is not going to appeal to Japanese people, when they can get products from Sony, Panasonic, Hitachi, and other that are smaller, lighter, and at comparable prices.

2. iPod with a PSP-sized screen. Watching vids on the current iPod is a joke. The next iPod release needs a watchable screen - touchscreen or not, not some incremental pap. With Zune on the horizon, Apple needs to move the ball up the field while it still has possession.

3. iPDA. We have lots of PDAs to choose from, but none of them are very Mac-friendly or use the MacOS. This would be a big coup for Apple if they can impart their style and functionality on a PDA for the rest of us.

4. iTunes 5.o. I like iTunes and feel that it deserves the bulk of credit for success of the iPod. However, iTunes is starting to show it's age and parts of it seem kludged together (like podcast subscriptions). Yeah, maybe this will come with Leopard anyway, but sooner is better.

5. iPhone. A true iPhone could serve as a PDA, if done right. If it was a VOIP phone, it could be used anywhere in the world with WiFi. Otherwise, it won't see the light of day outside the US for a couple years. (Remember how long it took for the iTunes store to get finalized in Japan?!)

Reality Check:

Apple has many contraints, and has worked hard to avoid promising too much given the big disappointment with the Apple HiFi event. Smart money says they'll suprise us with a couple of things, and upgrade other things incrementally. Here's what we'll likely see...

1. Leopard Preview. Apple is going to hammer Microsoft on the lack of Vista by showing off its new OS incarnation and giving a realisitic release date. It's clear from the banners at WWDC and the leak on PowerPage that Leopard will be showcased. However, don't expect Leopard to be so different from Tiger it will be incremental. I wasn't so impressed with the PowerPage previews of Leopard - mostly eye candy.

2. Intel Desktop Macs. It's likely Apple will get their whole line on Intel soon, and WWDC seems to be a good place to announce this. Expect two Intel Macs with two speed configurations, and some whizbang hardware doodad, like dual layer optical drives.

3. Updated Nanos. The easiest thing to upgrade in iPod land is to increase the capacity of the Nano - up to 8Gb. However, these could be delayed a month if there are flash memory supply contraints.

4. MacBook SpeedBumps. The Pro line could see some speed increases, but they don't need WWDC to announce these.

OK - that's it for my preview post. I think it's best to have low expections, so we can be suprised. However, Apple hasn't surprised me much in the last year.

Suggest-A-Zot at MacZot

2006-07-27T00:39:00.000+09:00

MacZot is a website that offers discounts on shareware / small developer software and they've had some pretty good stuff for decent prices. They also use creative ways to decrease the cost of these apps - and sometimes offer them for free.

However, I've often wondered if they are running out of ideas or candidates for discounts. I also wondered if they would listen to any suggestions I have. Well, it looks like they are now taking such suggestions via their first Suggest-A-Zot.

You first download a small app on the website called 'Suggest-A-Zot'. This app's interface is a lot like AppZapper - so I have to wonder if the AppZap creators developed it for MacZot. Unfortunately, it only works with applications (thus far) and not prefpanes (like TextExpander) or plugins/add-ons for applications. And you have to drag the app icon over the program window. So you have to either own the program or have downloaded the unregistered/demo version. You can drag apps from open DMG files, so you don't actually have to install the app you want to submit.

What do you get out of submitting app suggestions? Well, if you are the first to submit an application, and they do use it for a MacZot promo - you'll get that app free. If you submit an app that is already submitted, they'll add your vote to the total and they'll enter your name into a drawing for a free license of that app. The remaining benefit seems clear - you might get the app you've always wanted to purchase, but can't bear to pay full price for, for an inexpensive price. And the more votes an app gets, the more interest it signals for MacZot.

Go for it!

Two Years Too Late - Wireless Mighty Mouse

2006-07-26T23:52:00.000+09:00

While the MacSheep blogs are hyping the release of Apple's new wireless mouse, I think it's time to throw some cold water on the pack to wake them up.

Fact one: this product should have been released years ago and has been conspicuously absent while vendors like Logitech and Kensington have had advanced wireless mice on sale for the last 4 years.

Fact two: BlueTooth may not be an advantage over other wireless protocols for mice. I've been pushing for decent BT mice for quite a while, after seeing some very mediocre products released. So far, they have either been too expensive, too quick to drain the battery, or bad performers in the tracking/sleeping game. Apple has to get all three of these right in order to impress me and other folks. At ¥8700, they are not off to a good start.

Fact three: The MightyMouse form factor is not particularly enamored by most Mac users I know. The two button function doesn't function correctly all the time, and the side buttons are awkward to access. The stoopid scroll ball is not easy on the fingers will eventually get jammed up by some microscopic particle. Yeah, Ok, I read how to clean it and I suppose I could wash my hands every time I use the mouse - but the fact is that I DON'T HAVE TO DO this with any of the Kensington mice I use (or even my mediocre BlueTake BT500).

Perhaps the "Laser Tracking" feature will give use something the wired MM doesn't - I'm not sure. But there are other laser mice out there. Let's hope that this is a good feature and an improvement over the wired MM that couldn't track on the surface of my wooden desk.

I don't know - maybe I expect too much from Apple. But I just don't feel the MM form factor is that innovative or in any way superior to other mice. And though I'm happy Apple has improved its mouse line, it's very late in coming.

Product Review: I-O Data GV-1394TV/M3 - as kludgy as its name

2006-07-24T02:29:00.000+09:00

In my quest to find the ultimate Analog-Digital nirvana, I purchased a different video converter box a couple of weeks after returning the EyeTV200. I decided to go with a product designed by a Japanese company, so that it might work better with Japanese cable set-ups. I bought the recently released I-O Data GV-1394TV/M3, I-O Data's latest iteration of their firewire video converters for Mac. I'd seen this running at a couple of Akihabara Mac vendors, so I assumed it was pretty good. It was much cheaper than the EyeTV200 at ¥26,000, so less punishment on my credit card. It also has a pretty good rating on the Apple Japan Store website.

The GV-1394TV/M3 is a relatively large device, as deep and a bit broader than a Mac Mini. The case is solid metal - so it's a brick. There is an LED power switch on the front of the unit, so you can easily turn it on and off with a touch. There is also an LED switch to go between antennae and S/analog input. This converter connects with firewire to your Mac, but it's powered from an external power adapter. Portability is not its strong suit. The box has inputs for antenna coax, S, and composite analog video. There is no remote, but you can purchase one separately.

Setting up and installing the GV-1394TV/M3 was not so easy. I don't read much Japanese, but could get through the process with a bit of trial and error. Plugging in the connectors was no big deal, but the GV-1394TV/M3 software was no party. This product relies on six different apps to do what the EyeTV did with one app. The list includes:

TV視聴・録画ツール「DigitalTV Recorder」
チャンネル制御ツール「Channel Commander」
予約録画ツール「Channel Manager」
ムービー統合ツール「MergeUtil」
CMカットツール「Ulead VideoTrimmer」
iPod対応オリジナル変換ソフト「GVencoder for iPod

Channel Manager is a scheduling app that boots up each time you login on your Mac. Channel Commander is for setting up your channels and controlling what is active (channel or video input type). DigitalTV Recorder is for recording whatever it is you are inputting. The other utilities are for video editing and saving videos in iPod compatible format. However, none of these apps has a very friendly or clear interface. Butt ugly...

The actual process of setting up channels is a bitch. For terrestrial analog, you have to select what region and subregion you are in, then wait forever while Channel Manager searches for them all. Then, you are expected to label all the channel IDs yourself via pull down menu. If you decide to leave any blank, it won't finish the set up. :-( Our antennae connection yielded a ghosty image, so the supposed 'Ghost Reducer' feature must have given up the ghost. Connecting your cable coax to the box, then scanning for channels also takes a long time (longer, actually because there are more channels). Unfortunately, like the EyeTV200, only BS channels were unscrambled. I'm not sure the point of having a device that can scan and save 64 channels, when 50 of them can only yield audio. However, we have digital cable (like 85% of Japan) so this shouldn't have been surprising.

The lack of cable channel control didn't discourage me, as I intended to input my analog signal off the cable box instead. Shockingly, this didn't work at all. Switching from antenna channel input to S video or composite analog input from the cable box resulted in a half second of video then a frozen picture, with the 'converter' LED blinking a 'no connection' warning. I tried every variation of analog feeds from the cable box, from using S video, to routing it through the VHS recorder, to using the TV output. I even tried different cables with different lengths. Nothing worked. WTF!

I then assumed that something was amiss with the converter hardware. However, I found that VHS recording output from the VCR did produce an analog signal that the GV-1394TV/M3 could input and record. So, apparently this wonder box can detect broadcast signals, even routed through other devices, and prevent you from inputing it. My guess is that this "feature" keeps the broadcast and other media industry in Japan from demanding royalties or something ridiculous like this. I couldn't find any clear explanation of this in the documentation, and my Japanese translator's (my wife) patience with technical manuals was pretty short. So, I decided to return this unit as well, after a week of fiddling. I'm sure the Yodobashi clerks were not happy to see me at the return desk twice in a month.

As far as the video recording and editing functions, I only used the DigitalTV Recorder app. I had difficulty figuring out which format was best for initial recording, and found it very slow to get up and running, compared to the EyeTV software. I can't comment on editing functions, as I didn't use them. Perhaps most people would be interested in the iPod video capability. Again, I didn't use these features, but would think that if you could only input a VHS signal or broadcast TV channels- there isn't much worth recording for an iPod. Remember, DVD material can be played/converted directly by your computer.

So... you can guess my conclusion here. If your needs are rather narrow, the GV-1394TV/M3 might fit the bill. However, I think most people would not find this device useful and the software frustrating.

Nothing to see here... move along now.

Product Review: EyeTV200 Falls Short

2006-07-23T02:35:00.000+09:00

I bought this product in order to edit some VHS video material (baby ultrasound), and view a bit of TV on my 20" iMac while I work. I used it for a week, before deciding to return it.

In Japan, there are several products available for Analog to Digital conversion, some with TV tuners, some with Mac compatibility. Most of these are under ¥30,000, but the EyeTV200 is sold for ¥40,000. In fact, this is higher (¥10,000) than what you'd pay outside Japan for the same model - if you can find it. I say 'if', because ElGato has phased out the EyeTV200 and replaced with the newer EyeTV250. So the 200 appears to be obsolete everywhere but Japan. Go figure.

This product is easy to set up and use and comes with EyeTV Software version 1.8X from ELGato. It comes with a firewire cable, and short antennae cable so you can attach it to VCR or antenna connector. Setting up the TV channels is also easy for both antennae and cable.

Unfortunately, the EyeTV200 cannot 'descramble' cable signals, so it only works with BS cable channels, at least with JCOM. Actually, it finds all your channels, but you get a snowy video feed for non BS stations (no pun intended). However, you can take your analog signal from your cable box and feed it to the EyeTV200. This leaves the EyeTV200's remote somewhat useless, but you can change channels with your cable box remote.

Another shortcoming is the software. The included EyeTV software (EyeTV 1.8x) will not allow you to save to mpeg4 format and freezes. Also, it cannot save to the current format of iMovie, and you get an error message when it opens iMovie after you try to do so.

The EyeTV v1.8x is software also outdated - everywhere but Japan. You can go to ElGato's site to get the latest 1.8x (1.8.2, IIRC). And ElGato offers version 2.0 for purchasers for of the EyeTV200 since last year - except for in Japan. Roxio Japan runs the support site for the EyeTV200 in Japan. However, there are no free upgrades to EyeTV2.0 or much anything else other than FAQs on the Roxio site. They don't even mention v2.0, even as a purchase. I can't understand this.

Hardware-wise, the EyeTV200 has good and bad points. The converter box is lightweight, lowe profile, and is powered by the firewire data cable. However, box always draws power and gets quite warm, even when you turn it off with the remote. The only way to get it to stop drawing power is unplug the FW cable. The box also has the expected inputs for analog, S-Video, as well as antennae coaxial. There are no video outputs, unlike on other converters, but this may not be so important.

How does the EyeTV200 stack up with other video converters available in Japan?
Good question. I later purchased a Japanese-made I-O Data converter for Mac (GV-1394TV/M3) after returning the EyeTV200. It was less expensive (¥26000) and made by a Japanese company, raising my expectations. Unfortunately, the GV-1394TV/M3 came up very short. (Check back later for a review on this converter.) But I can't recommend either of these products at this point.

There are several other video converters available in Japan for Macs, all less expensive than the EyeTV200. Unfortunately, none of ElGato's more advanced products are available here, even the EyeTV250.

King of Comments

2006-07-14T01:41:00.000+09:00

Wow! It was my lucky day yesterday. I was King of the comments on The Show (July 12).

*Sigh*

Fame is fleeting...