Martin Gordon's Blog

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

David Morgenstern of eWeek speculates on which Macs will be allowed to run Leopard. His main two differentiating factors: G3s and VRAM.

The last G3 Mac released was the last round of iBook G3s in the fall of 2003. The last Mac released with <32mb of VRAM was the iBook G3 700 way back in 2002. Those are probably surefire cutoffs, and making one a requirement effectively makes the other one a requirement, except for the case of PowerMac G3s with upgradable video.

David also speculates that the G4 and/or <64mb VRAM could be left behind, but this is unlikely since Apple released iBooks with G4s and 32mb VRAM back in May. I think it's a definite possibility for Apple to leave behind all PowerPC processors for 10.6, which should be released sometime in 2008-9, at least two years after the Intel transition is finished (assuming Mac Pros at WWDC).

Technorati Tags: Apple, Mac OS X, Mac, Leopard, Intel, PowerPC, G3, G4, G5, Intel Core Duo

The fact that I'm posting this at 5pm just goes to show how much I actually use iCal…

But anyway, today is iCal day. For those of you fortunate enough to not have iCal running, you'll notice that the application's icon matches today's date. That's because iCal was announced 4 years ago at Macworld New York on July 17, 2002.

So for old times' sake, fire up the little bugger and take it out for a spin, give it a little pat on the back for encouragement and hope that v3 in Leopard brings us great new features.

Technorati Tags: iCal, Apple, software, announcement, Mac OS X, OS X, Macworld, Leopard, anniversary

i use this is a brand new social Mac OS X application tracker. It features a Digg-like interface where instead of Digging news stories, you click "i use this" on an application that you use. In addition, you can add other users as friends and you're given a list of "neighbours" who I assume are chosen based on how similar your app usage is.

Even without the social aspect of it, this is a much better app tracker than the bloated VersionTracker and MacUpdate, which take forever to load and are loaded with intrusive ads. In contrast, I went through the first 20 pages of applications in a matter of minutes and picked a handful of apps that I currently use. There is only one AdSense text banner ad at the top of every page.

And of course, what would a Web 2.0 app be without tags? i use this supports tagging of applications and features a Top Tags sidebar. It also has a size-weighted tag cloud common to many other web apps as well. Also par for the course, here's the developer's blog.

I think my biggest concern about this site, apart from its somewhat limited appeal is the fact that "i use this" can't be verbed. It's easy to say "I dugg that story" but it's a bit awkward to say "I 'i used this' that app." It doesn't exactly roll off the tongue. In addition, I didn't notice any RSS feeds. *tsk, tsk*

EDIT: Looks like either Firefox didn't autodetect the feeds or I was on a page that currently didn't have feeds. Here are the feeds available and the ones currently planned (at least as of March).

Technorati Tags: Web 2.0, Apple, Mac OS X, applications, software, Digg, social news, app tracker, social networking, i use this

As you may have no doubt read already, Apple's latest OS X update, 10.4.7, includes a new "feature" in which Dashboard phones home to Apple's servers (supposedly) in order to make sure that the local copy of widgets matches the copy on Apple's servers. The two URLs the new daemon, named dashboardadvisoryd, connects to are:
http://www.apple.com/widgets/widgetadvisory and http://www.apple.com/widgets/parser.info.

Much to the delight of security freaks and the chagrin of Mac haters, Wired's The Cult of Mac Blog has posted a handy one line command that will disable the program. Just launch Terminal and type:

Hit "return", type in your password, reboot and you're all set.

Technorati Tags: Dashboard, Apple, OS X, Mac OS X, widgets, terminal, security

Apple today announced a new donwgraded iMac specifically designed for the education market. The machine features the same 1.83GHz processor and 17" display as the previous low-end iMac, but downgrades almost everything else:

• 80GB HD (vs 160GB)
• 2×256 MB RAM (vs 1×512 MB)
• 24x Combo Drive (vs 8x DL SuperDrive)
• 64MB Integrated GMA 950 (vs 128 MB Discrete Radeon X1600)
• No Bluetooth or Apple Remote

This new retails for $900, $300 less than the previous low-end iMac with .edu discount. The new machine makes official the long-expected demise of the eMac and the end of Apple's CRT era. It also places the always horribly-overpriced Mac mini in an even more compromising position, since it is now only $120 cheaper (at .edu prices) than the new iMac. Even though the new iMac is available to educational buyers (both private and insitutional) only, I think that we'll be seeing an upgraded Mac mini around the same time as the Mac Pro debuts, which is rumored to be at or around this August's Worldwide Developer's Conference.

Technorati Tags: Apple, iMac, education, Mac mini, LCD, CRT, Mac Pro

The folks behind the popular open source Mac OS X multi-service IM client, Adium X, have just released Beta 1 of version 1.0. I've been using Adium since the OS X 10.2 days, back before they restarted the numbering (it reached 1.8.x before being renamed Adium X 0.5). I've always kept AOL's AIM client around for file transfers, but it looks like that will no longer be necessary. Here's a list of "selected major changes":

• Major AIM, ICQ and .Mac improvements. This includes working File Transfer, and faster sign on.
• Added global user profile and buddy icon settings. (Personal Preferences)
• General Account improvements. Accounts can now be disabled when not in in use, and friends can now sign on from your Adium without saving their information.
• Added an Xtras manager to better handle browsing and removing Xtras.
• Major improvements in privacy settings.
• Improvements to the default look and feel of Adium.
• iTunes integration is much faster, and updates as soon as the song changes.
• Redesigned Chat Transcript (Log) Viewer
• Requires Mac OS X 10.3.9 or later (Universal Binary)

Technorati Tags: OS X, Mac OS X, software, Adium, AOL, AIM, MSN, Yahoo IM, Jabber, Google Talk, IM, Instant Messaging

Microsoft announced today their first keyboard/mouse combo designed especially for the Mac, the Wireless Laser Desktop for Mac. From what I've seen on the spec page, the combo uses an RF signal to communicate with the devices. Now that every Mac ships with built-in Bluetooth (and has had it optional for a long time), why not use Bluetooth? With the proprietary dongle you lose a USB port and you have at least one cable coming out of your machine. Bluetooth eliminates both of these problems (though a dongle/charger is useful for charging the mouse) but Microsoft went for the easiest way of getting into the Apple Stores instead of giving customers something really useful.

As someone who has been using a Logitech MX900 for the past two years, I'm surprised neither Logitech nor Microsoft have come out with a true replacement for it yet. My MX900 is pretty beat up from sitting at the bottom of my backpack on many trips and it recently lost a button due to some tinkering. What's out there to replace it? There are plenty of Bluetooth mice out there (most of them travel-sized, though), but none of them have a charger base! Until one comes along, I'll stick with my banged and bruised MX900 for the PowerBook and the nice but corded Mighty Mouse on the iMac.

Technorati Tags: Microsoft, Wireless Laser Desktop, keyboard, mouse, wireless, Bluetooth, Mighty Mouse, Logitech, MX900, RF, Mac, Apple

Hello. I am writing from Office 2007 Beta 2 inside Parallels Workstation.

EDIT: It didn't get the time right. It posted the time as 11/29/99 19:00 :(

Technorati Tags: Office 2007, Microsoft, XML-RPC, Wordpress, blogging, Office 2007 Beta 2, Word 2007, Parallels, virtualization

Apple announced today the successor to the iBook and 12" PowerBook, the MacBook. The MacBook sports a 13.3" 1280×800 glossy screen powered by Intel GMA950 Integrated Graphics, either a Core Duo 1.83GHz or 2.0GHz processor and a 5,400rpm 60-120GB hard drive (up from the 4,200rpm drives of the iBook). For the first time in a while, Apple offers a choice of colors on the MacBook, with the 2GHz MacBook coming in both black and white. After upgrading the specs on the white version to match those on the black version, however, puts the black MacBook at $150 more. The MacBook also got a lot of the new MacBook Pro amenties as well, including the integrated iSight, FrontRow and Remote, and MagSafe. In addition, Apple has added Line-In and the ability to drive dual-displays, two features that were noticably absent from the iBook but present in the PowerBook.

I was waiting to see what the new MacBooks would bring before replacing my Aluminum PowerBook, and the killer feature keeping me from getting one of these over the MBP is the built-in graphics. If they had thrown in a Radeon X1300 or similar, I would be all over this, but I just can't bring myself to buy a machine without dedicated graphics. Judging by the similarity in specs between the MacBook and 15" MacBook Pro, it seems that screen size and graphics chip will be the distinguishing factor between the two lines, a real shame considering how much unmet demand (at least from me!) there is for a small but high-end notebook from Apple.

Apple also quietly bumped the MacBook Pro to 2GHz/2.16GHz and is giving the option of a glossy screen or the standard MBP screen. For those in the market for a MacBook Pro, I recommend picking up the refurb 2GHz model (unless you want the new glossy screen) over the bumped MBP. The refurb has 1GB RAM vs. 512MB, 256MB VRAM vs 128MB, and a 100GB hard drive vs. 80GB all for the same price.

Technorati Tags: Apple, MacBook, MacBook Pro, Intel, Core Duo, notebooks, laptop, GMA950, integrated graphics, iSight, FrontRow, MagSafe