After watching the Leopard Sneak Peek videos, I found two little things that may be of interest. They may be nothing, but since everything going on at the WWDC isn't for public consumption, I have to entertain myself somehow.
Should we expect an announcement on August 24 so huge that we'll want to fly to the 5th Avenue Apple Store to buy it? Remember Steve's Spotlight demo where he searched for iMac, Paris and anniversary at WWDC 04 (and the iMac G5 was introduced at Apple Expo in Paris)? It could be something, but this is so vague it probably means nothing.
What's that Airport/RSS-like icon doing next to Oliver Butcher? Conversation histories by RSS? Or maybe something as lame as Bonjour buddies and regular buddies on the same buddy list?
Technorati Tags: Apple, Mac, Mac OS X, Leopard, Mail.app, iChat, Worldwide Developers Conference
The Special Deals section of the online Apple Store has refurb 30GB 5th Gen Video iPods for $199, down from $259 a few days ago. The 60GB iPod is now $299 (not sure what it was before). The nanos are at $109/129/169 for the 1/2/4GB version, respectively. Either Apple has gotten a bunch of these in returns or they're trying to clear inventory. I've never seen such a discount on current generation iPods before. Also keep in mind that both the nanos and the video iPods are coming up on their one-year anniversary. I think an announcement may be close, though it'll probably be after the current "free nano for edu" promotion expires on Sept. 16.
Technorati Tags: Apple, iPod, hot deal, refurb, video iPod, iPod nano
Mac Pro
Apple announced the Intel-based PowerMac replacement today, the Mac Pro. The case is the same as the old PowerMacs, so the entrance banner I posted a few days ago was actually displaying the Mac Pro. Now that the space-heater G5s are gone there's a lot more room inside the case for expansion. The Mac Pro features four SATA drive bays, 8 RAM slots, 4 PCI-Express slots (one being double-wide), room for two optical drives and even two Gigabit Ethernet ports.
Something different for Apple is the fact that all the machines are Built-to-Order. You start out with the pretty hefty base config of Dual 2.66GHz dual-core Woodcrest Xeons, 1GB RAM, a 256 MB GeFore 7300GT, a 250GB hard drive, and "only" one SuperDrive. From there, the only downgrades available are Dual 2GHz Xeons and a 160GB hard drive for $2,124 ($2,029 edu). A fully loaded Mac Pro, with Dual 3GHz Xeons, 16GB RAM, 4×500GB hard drives, Quadro FX4500 512MB, 2×30" displays, and 2xSuperDrives goes for $17,134 ($15,246 edu). The max config (with OS X Server licenses, Apple Modem, etc) is $18,481 ($16,137 edu). New XServes based with similar configs were also announced.
Whereas the PowerMacs were a reasonable option for any "prosumer" (ugh, hate that word) Mac user wanting a decent, upgradable Mac, these Mac Pros are just overkill. There's an $800 difference between the high-end iMac and the low-end Mac Pro, and a $1,700 difference between the high-end Mac mini and the low-end Mac Pro (not to mention the HUGE performance gap). So will we be seeing a headless mid-range Conroe-based Mac anytime soon? I would surely hope so.
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With the Jobs keynote and Leopard preview a few hours away, here are three things I hope Apple fixes in the next iteration of the Finder:
- Remember my settings. The Finder is notoriously bad about remembering my window settings. Every time I restart my computer, the Finder opens up two windows, but they aren't how I left them! The column sizes, sidebar size and window size are all wrong. It takes a few seconds to fix each time, but it's annoying nonetheless.
- Cut. There's been a few times when I thought I'd copied data from one folder to another same-named folder on a different drive and deleted the "source" but I was really looking at the same folder in two windows. Now, I'll admit I'm a little too "Empty Trash" trigger happy, but would it really kill Apple to add a Cut command? The main argument I've heard against this is that a file can be effectively deleted by a simple cut/copy operation elsewhere (e.g., some text). The counter to this is to either make a seperate file clipboard or to replace the cut file once anything else is put on the clipboard. Safe and fun, what more could you ask for?
- A real Spotlight window.I rarely use Spotlight because I don't like to wait for results to appear in the Spotlight menu. So when I really do want to find something, I'll call up the "More results" item and have a search results window pop up. I like to let this run in the background while I continue what I was doing, but finding the window again is a real chore since it doesn't show up when "window cycling" (Cmd+`) in the Finder (I don't remember off the top of my head if it shows up in Expose or not). So now I have to go through the trouble of moving everything around just to find the window and then put everything back the way it was. This is a pain. Please Apple fix it.
So there you have it. My three FTFF (Fix The F**king Finder) wishes. These aren't things that will show up on the Leopard feature list, but I think fixing these small rough edges would be steps in the right direction to fixing the Finder.
Technorati Tags: Apple, Mac, OS X, Leopard, Finder, FTFF, WWDC, keynote
Rumors are running rampant in the hours leading up to Steve Jobs' Worldwide Developers' Conference keynote. The image I posted on Flickr last week got mentioned in places, but only to show how overzealous Apple fans can get. It was pretty clear to me that nothing new would be shown on such a prominent banner, I just wanted to tag it so others could see the same. In any event, two pictures of Leopard banners from inside the Moscone Center have popped up; one reads "Introducting Vista 2.0" and the other reads "Hasta la Vista, Vista".
No live video feed is available, but MacRumors (among others, I'm sure) will be providing live coverage from their MacRumors Live website. The keynote starts at 1PM EST/10AM PST.
Technorati Tags: Apple, Mac, Steve Jobs, keynote, Leopard, OS X, Mac OS X, WWDC, Worldwide Developers Conference
Apple WWDC Banner Revealed
Originally uploaded by Martin Gordon.
Someone was able to sneak into the Moscone Center and snap a photo of a banner they were putting up. I've gone through and added notes for most of the icons (check out the image's Flickr page), but there were a couple that I was unable to identify. This is also the first glimpse we get of the Leopard "X" design. It's hard to tell whether its the image itself or not, but it looks to be darker than the Tiger "X".
The keynote kicks off the conference on Monday morning, so we should know what Apple's been up to soon enough.
Technorati Tags: Apple, WWDC, Worldwide Developer's Conference, Leopard, Mac OS X, Mac, rumors, icons
After a relatively great blogging month (29 posts in 31 days), August has started off a bit slower. The reason is Lost. I am hooked. I just started watching it less than a week ago but I'm already 4 episodes into the second season (that's around 3-4 hours a day for those keeping track at home). The show is just so enthralling that I don't know how people could have watched this on a weekly schedule.
Lost is just the latest in a string of TV shows I picked up this summer, starting with Curb Your Enthusiasm and later The Office (US). I've noticed that though I'm pulling away from the mainstream with regard to audio and news, I'm embracing it more and more in the realm of video. Perhaps its just that audio can be produced well for cheap, whereas video requires a much larger budget. I love Ze Frank and enjoy Rocketboom but these and other short-form shows are nowhere near replacing mainstream television shows.
What I do think will change for mainstream TV is the distribution method. We're already seeing this with more and more networks adding shows to the iTunes Music Store, with ABC shows appearing on abc.com for free and (legality notwithstanding) with shows popping up here and there on YouTube.
So how exactly am I watching these shows when and how I want? Here's a hint: not by turning on the television.
Technorati Tags: TV, television, mainstream media, msm, Lost, Curb Your Enthusiasm, The Office, ABC, Ze Frank, Rocketboom, iTunes Music Store, YouTube, distribution
