Archive for Apple

Steve Jobs 1955-2011

This is a sad day. The world has lost one of its greatest minds and visionaries, in Steve Jobs, founder of Apple and obviously so much more than that. I have never met nor spoken to Steve, nor have the majority of people writing, tweeting and talking about him today. He was a hero to many, a beloved celebrity, and a leader.

We are allowed to talk about Steve.

We are allowed to feel sad.

I feel sad. In fact, this morning I decided to throw the todo list out the window, to sit down and think different. I’m dedicating this day to figuring things out, work and life and future and everything else that might be spinning around in the back of my head. Continued →

Let’s Talk iPhone predictions

There are quite a lot of posts sporting predictions for tomorrow’s Let’s Talk iPhone event, where Apple once again will convince millions of people that iPhone is the way to go. I asked on Twitter whether I should write a predictions post, and most of you wanted me to, so I was all but ready to pull out the crystal ball and whatnot.

Then a friend of mine pointed out that he didn’t want any spoilers, which got me thinking. It’s not like I, or anyone else other than Apple, know exactly what will be announced on stage tomorrow but the buzz usually has some things right. My friend wanted the keynote to feel fresh, and I see what he means. It’s not really just about the products, Apple could announce them on their website and we’d still see AAPL rise as well as products sold by the millions. The keynotes are a show for tech people, the Apple lovers, and something that has been so thoroughly embedded into what we expect from the company. This is entertainment for design-aware nerds. Continued →

The MacBook Air, redux

I have owned three MacBook Air models. Luckily I skipped out on the first one, which had serious issues with heat and sudden crashes. The minor update that led to the second MacBook Air was the first one I got, and then it struck me. This is the perfect typewriter, way beyond any laptop I had ever owned, and those are numerous I can tell you that.

I loved that Air, all its 1,6 GHz of low voltage processing power, the touchpad and even its awkward two buttons, the whole package. It was underpowered with its 2 GB of RAM and the 4200 rpm hard drive, combined with heating issues that firmware updates and some sensible usage sorted out for me personally. Still, best typewriter ever, thanks to its wonderful keyboard and the form factor. Love it. Continued →

On Lion: I miss my Spaces

The latest operating system for Mac from Apple is called Lion. Apple talks less and less about “OS X” when they mention Lion, and the version number is usually missing (10.7 if you wanted to know) from any information. It just works, as Apple and their cohorts tend to say.

Is it perfect, this Lion-thingy?

No, Google tells me there are a ton of bugs. Nothing too crucial although it might depend on what you’re doing with your computer, so I urge you to research that before updating your OS. Continued →

A thought on mobile websites

There’s a lot of talk these days about responsive web design and creating fancy mobile versions of websites. I love some of the frameworks and solutions out there, and the fact that HTML 5 and CSS 3 opens so many doors for web designers.

No doubt the myriad of screen sizes and resolutions changes everything. Smartphones are actually useful these days, and tablets have turned back resolutions to 1024 pixels width. As if the netbook resolutions weren’t bad enough.

I digress. Continued →

The wonderful Mac App Store

Last night I finally switched my old hard drive in the MacBook Pro, to the new SSD from OCZ (the Vertex 3, 240 GB if you’re curious). The move is long overdue, but I haven’t had time up until now. And you know what, while my pretty pimped workstation was fast to begin with, adding an SSD drive has made it lightning fast. Of course, this being a fresh Snow Leopard install might help.

One thing the experience have taught me is how wonderful the Mac App Store is. I knew that already of course, but it truly shines when you’re on a new machine. While I can copy-paste most apps from my old hard drive to the new one (using a Deltaco encasing with USB that cost me about €9/$11), just getting them from the Purchased tab in the Mac App Store is so convenient.

In fact, it is so bloody nice that I’ve re-purchased a bunch of apps I already own licenses to, from the Mac App Store, just to get them there.

If all goes to plan, the home computer (a 27″ iMac) will arrive next week. Thanks to the wonders of Dropbox (aff link), syncing apps, and the Mac App Store, I don’t dread setting that up one bit. Well, except for the Windows BootCamp partition, but that’s an entirely different beast.

This story shows that it can pay off to make mockups, alternative solutions, and just plain spend time making something better. Congratulations Peter Hajas, and congratulations Apple, as well as hopefully iOS users in the future.

On the iPad 2

Well, unfortunately not on it as in using it, that’ll have to wait until March 11th (if possible, otherwise March 25th). I do have some thought about the iPad 2 though, based on the Stevenote (welcome back Steve) two days ago. Continued →

Yes, I’m thrilled about the new MacBook Air but you won’t get my verdict for another week or so since I’m waiting for my 11.6″ version with everything maxed out. Stay tuned as they say in Old Media Land.

Why I’ll buy the 11,6″ MacBook Air

It’s not even announced yet, Apple’s most recent MacBook refresh. The long neglected Air, overpriced and underpowered but the best writing machine ever (as in EVER), is rumoured to get a second chance on Wednesday.

The Wednesday event is the annual MacBook event, back the Mac after quite a focus on iOS devices. We’ll get a refresh across the line of course, processor bumps and things like that, but my bet is that the focus will be on the next OS X, featuring a lion it seems. That, and a new iLife, the current one is a bit dated, and these are things that add to the Mac platform value overall.

And the Air, that’s the sole truly new piece of hardware we’ll see, is my bet. Continued →

I was hoping to get to spend a hideous amount of money for a new version of the world’s most stylish typewriter, but Apple denied me yet again. The new iPod nano could be used as a Dick Tracy-like watch though, at least that’s something.

What?! The netbook's not dead yet?

I was scanning the gadget blogs while waiting for the MacBook Pro to copy a bunch of files to my brand new Mac mini server and something struck me as odd. There are still posts about netbooks, as in brand new upcoming netbooks.

Wow.

Now, I wrote all those Apple gadgetary things to tell you I love Apple products. I work on a 17″ MacBook Pro, write on my beloved MacBook Air, own three (3) iPhones, and am totally in love with my iPad. In fact, the only non-Apple things on my home network are a gaming PC, the PlayStation 3, Wii and Xbox 360.

Apple does it best, the whole ecosystem product thing.

Which brings me back to the netbook. In my mind, the iPhone killed the netbook with the 3G edition. I’ve owned a bunch of netbooks, and the only thing that made me to actually keep one (I’ve had a bunch at the same time) when I got my iPhone 3GS was that coding on the go was just about impossible on the Apple phone, whereas it works well enough on the netbook. And it still had a reason to exist side by side with my Air, since the netbook still was smaller, albeit just as heavy/light.

But today? The iPad with a bluetooth keyboard is just about all I need when I’m on the go. Some widely quoted study, which I really can’t put too much weight on, says that a fourth of the Americans are planning on buying an iPad.

That will slash the netbook sales for sure.

So. Again. I was reading up on the gadget blogs, and saw a bunch of netbook posts. Two things:

What decent computer company would release a netbook in the wake of the iPad?
Gadget blogs earns money by getting a ton of readers, but who wants to read about the netbook today, post iPad?

The answer? A bunch, on both accounts.

The netbook’s not dead, but the craze is over. Apple’s iPad and all its upcoming competitors, along with more visual interfaces, will force the netbook makers to position their products even more as a low budget alternative.

That’s OK. I just don’t see a reason to buy one anymore. I used to have a bunch at the same time, as I said before. Not so anymore. In fact, even the Air is in question when it comes to the iPad and the needs when on the road.

Computing will be an interesting concept in the years to come.

A few minutes with the iPad

As many of you already know, I have had high hopes for the iPad from the start. My hopes and dreams post was luckily not all that far from the actual product, so you can perhaps guess my excitement. Well, it’s finally here, or has been for a week or so, sitting in Stockholm waiting for me. And I must say I like it thus far. The screen is great and while it is a bit of hassle buying apps for it from Sweden, where the product and hence not the iPad AppStore has yet to be launched, bit that is all minor inconveniences.

What’s worse is the lack of support for Swedish keyboards. This is a real shame since I can’t just map the keys, it is a soft keyboard onscreen after all, and using a bluetooth keyboard won’t solve the problem (but working perfectly well other than that) either. Hopefully the iPad is due in Sweden soon so that this problem will be remedied.

There is another thing that I really miss too, and that’s a decent word processor. I know, I’ll probably end up buying Pages but it really is too much. Luckily WriteRoom is on it’s way and it can’t arrive fast enough. I want to write a book on this thing, so get it out there already! Yeah I’m a fan, you guys already knew that.

That being said, I must say this works pretty well after all. I’ve written this whole blog post on it, using the WordPress app, and I can see myself getting used to this. However it is way too early to pass judgment yet, so I’ll just settle with the fact that I’m impressed and happy with it thus far. A few minutes in, that is. We’ll see how it stands in the long run, but I’m obviously optimistic.

My hopes and dreams for the Apple tablet

I’ll confess, at first I wasn’t particularly thrilled about an Apple tablet. Oven the months that have changed, along with the way my workflow have done the same. Today I don’t even want to imagine a day without the iPhone, in fact I’ve got two, not for the eventuality of one breaking down really but for other things. No matter what, it makes me a bit more calm.

You see, I write somewhere between 20 and 50 emails a day from my iPhone, I tweet and connect on Facebook, I read up on news and I entertain myself. It is a brilliant multi-purpose device that saves me time, something that is really valuable to me.

Realizing that, I would be a fool not to be the least curious, nay, thrilled about the prospect of an Apple tablet. Continued →