Back to school with your Mac

The first app I want to talk about is one to help study for the big tests. Cram for the Mac from Simple Leap software is sure to get you into the test studying groove. Cram for the Mac is a great study aid for students preparing for tests. Once you enter the questions and answers from a study guide or download a test file from the Cram Test Portal or Quizlet sites you can take a test or make flash cards to help prepare for a test. The User Interface has a simple layout and is very clear. The new test button allows you to create your own test and randomize the order questions are asked and randomize the multiple choices. You can also select a timed test if you need.

Once you create your test you can edit the questions. This is where you add your multiple choice questions, answers, and any photos or sounds to your questions. Be careful when uploading photos for tests there is no zoom or adjustment features within the test so always make sure your image is large enough to be legible when you insert it into a test.

The Flash card interface is clever and looks just like a standard flash card with a button to flip the card over and view the answer. Forward and back arrow buttons allow the user to move thorough the cards. The movement through the cards is complete with a sound of flash cards being flipped. The buttons on this screen could be a little clearer by being labeled and a shuffle option would be nice.

Cram also has a feature to export your tests to your iPod touch or iPhone. Transfers occur between with apps via wifi and you can choose multiple tests to move for study while you are away from your computer. I like where Simple Media is heading with Cram and I can’t wait to see what they do on the iPad. iPad seems like a natural platform for studying for tests. Cram can also monitor your progress as you take your tests over again you can see your high score, number of tests attempted and your average score to allow you to track your progress.

Taking tests feels like you are taking an online test like you would use when working on certifications. The interface is clean and uncluttered allowing you to focus on the question and answer. At the end of the test you are shown how you answered each question and what the correct answer is. Your score is displayed on the face of your tests thumbnail.

The CramTest Portal is a site where you can download Cram tests from other users. Cram also support downloads from www.quizlet.com as as source for tests. The tests are not vetted for accuracy or completeness so use at your own risk. Several I downloaded asked me to look at an image to answer the question where no image was attached. I would suggest building your own tests or sharing tests with others in your class that might be using Cram to study.

Cram is an excellent app for teachers to create quizzes to give to students as study guides or perhaps an in class study game. Currently there is not a lot of software out there that does what Cram does and I haven’t seen any others that connect with a database to share tests. If Simple Leap software can work with Apple, Microsoft, Comp/TIA and others to create tests that are accurate they have a winner of a product. I have subscribed to services that charge $100 a year to study for certification tests and the software is poorly written, only available on Windows or just not very accurate.

Cram is cheaper, well written, and infinitely more useful than the online services I have seen. At $29.99 for the Mac app and $3.99 for the iPhone app it isn’t a bad deal. Although it would be nice to see discounts for volume licensing for schools who may want to deploy Cram and a server component to manage tests. Overall SimpleLeap is on the right track and have a great app with huge potential.

Head on over to the Simple Leap Software site and get your copy just in time to head back to school.

The second app I want to talk about is Circus Ponies Notebook version 3. We all need to take notes in class and Circus Ponies Notebook is the fastest and most powerful way to do that. Notebook looks just like a notebook when you open it. You can create tabs and have index pages already prebuilt and update as you type. You can attach sticky notes to pages, draw, copy images, web links, even attach PDF’s right into your notebook. I create a notebook for each of my classes and I can search using the notebook multidex or spotlight right from my OS X desktop. Sitting in classes or even in meetings Notebook has a feature that will allow you to record audio while you are taking notes. As you add bullet points a small speaker appears next to the bullet so you can jump right to the point in the audio recording when you typed that note. It is great for recording lectures or taking meeting minutes.

If you have a digitizer tablet Notebook also support hand writing recognition. You can also get handwriting recognition with inklet and a pogostylus from tenonedesign. (Note: after talking to tenonedesign it was determined there was some confusion regarding the website and handwriting recognition does NOT work in Notebook at this time. You can still draw diagrams and write but it isn't converted to text. Hopefully Tenonedesign will correct this in the future. The link I provided from Amazon offers the bundle for a 12.00 discount. Notebook is an extremely flexible application that can be used in as many ways as a user can think up. It is a little daunting at first with the large number of options that are available but once you get started and check out a tutorial or two you will find how Notebook can best work for you. There is no wrong way to use it, just the best way for you. Screencasts online has a well done video showing us how to use notebook. It is worth checking out at www.screencastsonline.com.

So we ended up with a few good recommendations this week and none of them break the bank. We have Cram for the Mac at $29.99, Cram for the iPhone/iPod Touch for $3.99, Notebook for $49.99 or $29.99 for students, and inklet and pogo stylus for $29.43 with shipping. Last but not least don’t forget to check out Screencasts online to teach you how to use some of your new apps especially if you are new to the Mac. A membership to www.screencastsonline.com is just $57.00 for three months.

Enjoy your school year, study hard enjoy your Mac, and if you are studying programming on the Mac and think you have a cool app to share with my readers let me know paultscott@gmail.com I will check it out and I just might review it on my blog. Thank-you to SimpleLeap Software for providing me with a copy of Cram to test out for this review. Notebook, inklet and pogo stylus I purchased myself for school and daily use. I have been a fan of Don McAllister and Screencastsonline for some time. Keep up the good work.

Magic TrackPad & Mac Mini Server

The Apple Magic Trackpad brings the power of the mobile trackpad’s gestures to the Mac Desktop. For years users have struggled with pointing devices on portable machines from the little eraser in the middle of the keyboard to a small trackpad in the palm rest of the keyboard. Many of us carried USB or Bluetooth mice so we could get some work done while we were on the road. Finally in late 2009 when Apple introduced the Unibody Macbook Pro we got a larger trackpad and it was made of glass to make it more pleasant to touch. The buttons were done away with and the whole surface gained a mechanical click. Apple also added gestures beyond just the mere two finger scroll up, down, left, and right. We were treated to pinch, stretch, rotate, and given extra options based on how many fingers were touching the surface just like our iPhones and iPads.
With this leap forward in touch technology many portable Mac users started ignoring the mouse and started enjoying the touch pad and what it could do. Sometimes sitting at a desktop machine we started feeling limited. So just a couple short weeks ago Apple solved that problem by building a stand alone trackpad. The Magic TrackPad is 80% larger than the trackpad built into current laptops. Measuring a whopping 5.2” x 4.3” it gives the user much more surface area to work with. The Magic TrackPad requires OS X 10.6.4 or Windows XP, Vista, or Windows 7 and works in both 32 and 64 bit versions.
Windows drivers currently only support left and right clicking, as well as scrolling. No other gestures or inertial scrolling support seems to be available at this time. On the Mac I have no problem using the trackpad on the Windows side the control doesn’t feel quiet as fine and I switched back to the Magic Mouse on my Windows PC.
With all of our devices like the iPhone, iPad, and MacBook/Macbook Pro all supporting multi-touch it was just a matter of time before the technology made it to our iMacs, Mac-Mini’s and Mac Pros. The one thing that still feels like it is missing is the ability to use a pen with the Magic TrackPad. This would be a great device to sketch or sign your name if they support pressure sensitivity. Currently there is software for the Macbook Pro allowing you to use the Trackpad as a signature pad with a Pogo Stylus. This should work with the Magic TrackPad as well. I know Steve Jobs isn’t a fan of pens but there are some instances when it might be convenient for using the iPad or Magic TrackPad as a tablet for drawing or signing documents or any other application where fine detail control is required.
Overall I recommend the Magic TrackPad for 99% of tasks. I do sometimes still like to reach for the Magic Mouse as well so having them both hooked up is a perfectly valid choice as well. With Bluetooth we can hook a number of keyboards and other devices and not add extra cables to our setup. Currently on my desktop machine I have an Apple Apple Bluetooth Wireless Keyboard, Apple Magic Mouse, and Apple Magic TrackPad. I am considering adding a SMC Bluetooth Calculator/10 key in case I have to type large amounts of numbers.

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The Mac Mini Server is the newest edition to our network. It is the same size as the older Mac Minis but missing the optical drive. In its place is an extra 500 GB Hard Drive. Allowing the user to use the extra drive as separate storage, a RAID mirror, or concatenate the drives together to make a 1 terabyte drive. We will go into these options in a future post and why you would or wouldn’t want to choose them.
The Mac Mini Server is just as easy to hook up as a traditional Mac however, make sure you have a USB keyboard and mouse handy for the initial setup. The Setup Assistant on OS X 10.6 Server doesn’t work with any bluetooth devices. Hopefully Apple will fix that issue in the near future. Also the Server addition requires the user to type in a long registration key which is not very Apple like at all. I have always enjoyed the fact that I never had to type a serial number to install a copy of OS X. Something Windows users have always had the hassle of dealing with.
The Setup Assistant walks you through all of the things you might like to do with your server like File sharing, email, iCal, Address Book, DNS, Open Directory, Podcast Production, Quicktime Broadcasting, web services, iChat, Software Update, etc. With each one you check off it ads to the questions you will be asked so when you are finished your server is 99% of the way setup. Most users will not need this much power or these services at home. This is more meant for the small business. If you run a small to medium sized business this can get you up and running with your own internal MobileMe services for the price of one server instead of $99.00 per year per user. Plus it gives you the control of your own servers.
The cost to entry for a small business is reasonable at $999.00 with unlimited licenses. A similarly equipped Dell server costs about $800.00 before you add in the cost of the OS which is about $276.99 on Amazon for a 5 client license. For each extra 5 clients you want to add tack on another $166.23.
Snow Leopard server in addition to providing Apple File Protocol (AFP) it also supports Windows SMB sharing, and Unix NFS sharing. OS X also supports Open Directory authentication and Windows Active Directory Authentication so it will play nice with your Macs and your PC’s. The remote admin tools also allow you to totally manage your Mac Mini server from your desktop. This particular feature is of course Mac only.
The Mac servers aren’t quiet the server for the rest of us like the rest of Mac line. It does take some knowledge and experience to set it up. If you are a small business I highly recommend seeking out an experienced Mac consultant or contact your local Apple Store Business Group for assistance. It may take a little more effort to setup up initially but the long term benefit of stability, security, and reliability are worth it.
The Mac mini server is a platform that can grow with your small business and with multiple Mac Minis support clustering of services to give even small users a robust configuration that includes the ability to fail over to a backup server. For larger businesses and more critical systems Apple also makes an XServe that is built for larger corporations to use with redundent power supplies and extra NICs.
For a small business one or two Mac Mini servers with a Drobo file storage solution is a great scalable solution with good redundancy to help reduce downtime and data loss if a drive were to go bad.

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Windows 7 driver update breaking iPads and iPhones

When updating your iPad or iPhone be careful with a possible issue involving driver updates with Windows 7. By default Windows 7 will look for driver updates automatically when connecting a new device. While it is searching for the drivers it will temporarily disconnect the device. If you are updating your iPhone OS or iPad disconnecting the device at that start of the upgrade can corrupt the software update and leave your iPhone or iPad in a state requiring it to be reconnected to iTunes and restored.

If you connect your iOS device frequently to your computer and backup your settings, apps, music, videos, books, etc., you should be fine. When the computer restores it will restore the backup it does right before the installation runs. If however you are upgrading from a computer you don’t backup your device on or for some reason your App syncing isn’t turned on you could lose data.

To make sure WIndows 7 doesn’t disconnect your iOS device during the upgrade follow the steps I have listed below.

 

1.)    Click Start and choose Devices and Printers

2.)    Right Click on the PC Device and choose Device Installation Settings

3.)    Then select No, let me choose what to do.  Select Never install driver software from Windows Update and select save changes.

This will keep WIndows 7 from disconnecting your USB devices and looking for new drivers when you plug them in. The easier option is of course to use a Mac and it won’t disconnect your device while looking for new drivers.

Updating Apple Software on Windows 7

Since I moved to Windows 7 at work, I am still all Mac at home of course. I have noticed issues with upgrading software. Quicktime, Safari, iTunes, MobileMe Control Panel, and other Apple software doesn’t seem to be able to update with the Windows Apple Software Update Utility. If you get an error message telling you Software Updater can’t update your Windows 7 machine just follow these simple steps to install your programs.

Option 1.) Right click on Apple Software Update and choose properties then click compatibility and check Run this program as an administrator and click Ok. Then open Apple software update and attempt to update your software normally.

Option 2.) Click Tools and choose Open Downloaded Updates Folder. Then run each of the updates that are located in this folder down the list in alphabetical order.

You should be able to install each component one at a time. After that rerun the Apple Software Update utility to verify you have the latest of everything installed. Hopefully after you have done this updates should start installing again at least until Microsoft changes something on Windows 7 again.

Thanks to Tom for mentioning the run as Administrator option. I thought mine was already set but it looks like the Software Update Program being updated clears out the Run as Administrator Option.

AT&T Reception issues and iPhones future

I live in a city with pretty good AT&T 3G coverage. There are of course a few weak spots but for the most part it works pretty well. That is the most important thing for a phone. If you live in an area where you don’t get good AT&T coverage then the iPhone may not be the phone for you.
Now if you get coverage in most places but lack coverage at home AT&T is experimenting with giving away the http://www.wireless.att.com/learn/why/3gmicrocell/ for your home. You hook up the AT&T mini repeater to your home network and after it gets it’s GPS location and hooks up to AT&T you have a mini tower in your house. AT&T really failed on the initial rollout of these devices and in my opinion still don’t have it right. First they tried to sell them for $150.00 to customers who couldn’t get service at home. Now they are at least starting to give them to customers who can’t get service at home. However buyer beware, while AT&T is using your broadband Internet to hook the Microcell to their network they still charge you for minutes and 3G data usage counts against your data plan.
That is still a pretty big fail on AT&T’s part. One I have to pay for the service which is still over priced, then they may give me the device or make me buy it to get the service I already pay for to work in my home, and finally they charge me for the 3G data which is really using my bandwidth I already pay the cable company for. How many times does AT&T expect us to pay for a single service?
Of course if you are at home you can just put your iPhone on the WiFi network and not use the 3G for data at all. For an extra $20.00 a month you can get unlimited minutes on your Microcell so you don’t get billed for minutes while you are at home using your cell phone. There is also a limit of ten phones that can be paired with the Microcell.
However again they are charging you an extra fee for the right to use your broadband you pay for to help take pressure off their network that is being upgraded too slowly for the customers they are adding. With an increase in customers by 40% and a huge spike in data usage because we are changing how we use our phones, instead of dealing with it AT&T like other carriers in the past just try and discourage the use of their network by raising rates or adding data caps. Users want access to their content where ever and whenever and with cloud services like MobileMe and GMail keeping our phones backed up and in sync with our computers over the air we are just going to keep using more and more data. It is time the carriers pulled their heads out of the sand and started building out their networks faster to deal with future growth.
Placement of Cell Towers has long been a problem in the US. Compared to Europe we place our towers farther apart and some cities restrict their height and appearance so as not to be an eye sore. That comes as a cost to the end customer though in weaker signals and inferior service. Some HOA’s won’t allow cell towers to be put in their neighborhoods at all so some neighborhoods in Las Vegas only have minimal coverage if any at all because the towers are just too far away. So while part of the blame does rest with cell carriers who are more interested in profits than a top notch network part of the problem lies with local laws and ordinances that keep the companies from putting some towers up in the first place.
The Infinion radios in iPhone were designed for European market despite AT&T objection where the towers are closer and it is easier to get a strong signal. The latest radio in the iPhone 4 has improved sensitivity so that they perform better in an environment where cell sites are more sparse. The increased sensitivity is of course being marred by the detuning issue some users have experienced with their iPhones that I talked about last week in my Antenna Gate article.
If you get a weak signal in your home from AT&T you now have a choice and can use an iPhone if you wish. HOA’s that do not want large cell towers but want service should be working with carriers to create solutions that will meet the needs of the carriers customers and not make the neighborhood look bad. Why not a mesh of antennas on light poles painted to match the pole, or more palm tree towers and other towers that are designed to look like indigenous trees. It isn’t perfect but they blend fairly well.

Carriers need to move on to the next generation of cell technology like LTE and build out very robust networks that can stand up to the high data usage demands of our modern world and let go of the old ways of doing things like holding back the users. Wired magazine just published a story last week about the strained relationship between Apple and AT&T that illustrates AT&T’s old idea’s brilliantly and how Apple has changed the rules of the game to the benefit of not just their customers but all customers by showing the handset manufactures they do not have to hobble their phones because the carrier asked them too.
The best thing Apple could do with the iPhone now is to make it available on T-Mobile and Verizon as soon as possible. It will help sales of the already smash hit iPhone and give consumers a choice of carrier. It will also spread the data load out across all carriers giving all carriers a chance to share in some of the pain. Pundits in the UK have talked about their five carriers they can choose from on their iPhone and plans that are customized for those that are data usage heavy or use a lot of minutes talking on the phone. That is what we were supposed to have here in the US due to the free market system. However handset manufactures signed exclusive deals with carriers to get their phone on the carrier and then we are stuck with a carrier we don’t like and a handset we love or a phone we don’t care for on a carrier we like. Few people if anyone get what they want.
Hopefully someday soon like in Europe we will be able to pick our handset and pick our carrier and have real choice. Then we will see who makes the quality handsets and who are the best carriers when users get to choose both independently.
If you like AT&T and your iPhone and live in a good coverage area like I do good for you. If you get weak coverage at home but do ok in other areas then take a look at a Microcell from AT&T. If you live in an area plagued by poor AT&T coverage or travel outside of AT&T’s coverage area frequently then for now the iPhone isn’t the phone for you. Write Apple and ask them to open the phone up to other carriers. Hopefully that will be happening soon and recent surveys indicate that millions more customers would buy an iPhone if only it were available on T-Mobile or Verizon.

Antenna Gate

Ok, I watched the press conference last week and I have been using an iPhone for 26 days now.  I have spent half of that time with and without the bumper case on my phone to see if I can tell a difference.  Remember I upgraded from an iPhone 3G to the iPhone 4 so the extra processor speed, upgraded display, upgraded storage, memory, cameras, and design made the new iPhone 4 a huge step up from my old phone.  So after one month of use how does the new phone stack up and is the antenna issue really an issue at all?

First I can say with our without the bumper I drop fewer calls than I did with the iPhone 3G.  I have to date only dropped 2 calls.  Which is far better than I have had in the past or with other carriers.  Now there happens to be an AT&T cell tower close to my home and our office has repeaters in the building.  Most of the time when I am out and about I notice I get between three and five bars with the new algorithm Apple included in the iOS 4.0.1 upgrade.  

As a side note if you are on a 3G or 3Gs iPhone I highly recommend upgrading to iOS 4.0.1, it makes the phone much faster than the 4.0 upgrade was except for loading text messages seems to be a little slow still but the email issues have been resolved and virtual keyboard lag was resolved.  

I live in a city with pretty good AT&T 3G coverage.  There are of course a few weak spots but for the most part it works pretty well.  That is the most important thing for a phone.  If you live in an area where you don’t get good AT&T coverage then the iPhone may not be the phone for you.  I will go in depth next week on this topic and options for iPhone users that live in weaker coverage areas. 

So Apple introduced the iPhone 4 with new features like an external antenna built into the metal band around the phone.  They introduced a more sensitive radio chip that can pick up weaker signals than the previous iPhones.  They attempted to make the iPhone a better phone and for the most part succeeded but there were a few people who complained loud about the external antenna and now that Apple has seen a string of successful products the media seems to be dying to see them fail at something.  A Microsoft exec even went so far as to call iPhone 4 Apple’s Vista.  Well, the difference between Vista and iPhone 4 is of course people are buying the iPhone 4.  

Is there signal attenuation when you cover the phone with your hand?  The so called iPhone death grip.  Yes, the signal does drop from reports about 20 db.  Now at home or in most locations where I have five bars it doesn’t impact me at all.  I have never dropped a call because of how I was holding the phone.  If I am in a weaker signal location where I am getting say three bars I might drop to one bar.  But I can still make and receive calls.  

The bars on a phone are a throw back to the days of analog phones when they told you how strong a signal you were receiving.  It would tell you if your call was going to be clear or if you might have a lot of static in your call.  Today all of our calls are digital just 1’s and 0’s.  The important predictor of completing a call successfully is the bit error rate (BER) which isn’t displayed on the phone at all.  I am not saying the bars are useless they do give you a little information.  How strong is the signal coming in gives you a rough prediction of your call quality over time.  If you have five bars you are less likely to drop the call than if you have only one or two bars.  Also if you have five bars you will use less battery power than if you only have one bar.  GSM phones will increase or decrease their output power based on the strength of the incoming signal in order to save battery power.  

The important thing is it’s not the number of bars that are the most important thing, it is do you have good coverage in the area you want to use your phone and can you complete those calls?  Testing has indicated the iPhone does a better job of pulling in a weak signal and making it usable than its predecessor that coupled with the detuning of the antenna when you hold it in your hand could account for a slight increase in dropped calls.  Fewer people using cases can as well.  

Apple has offered free bumper cases through September 30th and refunds to all users who bought a bumper for their iPhone 4 to make up for the issue.  They are reevaluating at the end of September to decide what the permanent fix should be or to keep giving away the bumpers.  Rumors seem to indicate they are looking at a process to Anodize the bands to put a layer of insulation between the users hand and the antenna to solve the problem.  

Why didn’t Apple see this in their early testing?  Well for one look how phones are tested in a testing chamber.  They are usually clamped into holder and held out in the room and tested.  When a human test subject is used to test the phone how are they holding the phone?  Do they tests different grips and left or right-handedness?  I bet they will start doing that now if they haven’t in the past.  

When the iPhones were field tested they were placed in cases to make them look like 3Gs phones so the users field testing never came in contact with the antennas when they are off campus .  On the Apple campus they have AT&T and Verizon towers right there so a strong signal you don’t see the attenuation problem.  So it is possible they didn’t really know about it until there were over a million phones in the field and they started getting data back from AT&T about dropped call rates.  It is also possible they knew but didn’t think it would be a big issue until the phone was in users hands.  Either way Apple is taking steps to deal with it now.  By offering full refunds within 30 days to those who aren’t happy so far the return rate has been about 1.7%.  They have also offered the free bumpers to customers as an option as well.  

RIM, Nokia, and Motorola weighed in on Monday criticizing Apple for dragging them into the issue by demoing the same affect on other phones and denying their phones suffered the same problem the iPhone does.  

First Nokia includes instructions on their phones how to hold it properly for the best reception.  While their PR people say they put antenna design above all other considerations when designing a phone.  Second a good friend of mine has a Droid phone and was suffering from dropped calls.  She asked me about this antenna issue and I was explaining where the antenna is located on her phone and she happened to mention she gets a lot of dropped calls and happens to hold her phone at the bottom where the antenna is located.  As an experiment she tried modifying her grip on the phone and she has not been dropping calls since.  So any company that says they do not have a problem with reception based on how you hold the phone is full of it.  This is a problem with physics and short of moving back to a mast type of antenna nothing is going to completely solve the issue yet.  The first Star-Tac cell phones had a pull up antenna and the engineers knowing some people wouldn’t extend the antenna installed a helical antenna inside the phone and a switch on the antenna.  If the mast was extended the mast antenna would be used and the helical turned off.  If the mast wasn’t extended the helical would be used instead.    

Every cell phone is a radio with an antenna and software to connect to a network of towers.  It is a complex process that few including myself fully understand and it is a miracle it works for the most part.  The iPhone is an excellent phone and if you live in a good AT&T coverage area a competent device.  If you don’t have good AT&T coverage it might not be the best phone for you.  

So long to the Microsoft Kin after only being out about a month Microsoft killed it off due to poor sales we hardly new ye.  So long also to the Google G1 Phone Google just announced this last week it is going away with no plans for a G2 replacement, that is disappointing.  So long Droid and hello Droid X  it seems like you were only around about 8 months before being replaced.  Thanks to Apple for kicking off a mobile computing revolution and thanks to Android and the others for keeping Apple pushing forward and improving the technology.  This is truly an exciting time to witness the advances in technology and I can only imagine what the next five to ten years will bring.

As far as Antenna Gate goes, if you like your iPhone get one, it is a great upgrade.  If you like your Droid or G1 and don’t want to deal with AT&T stick with what you have.  If you have a Palm Pre, well I would look for a better phone perhaps check out the HTC Evo if you are in one of the few areas with 4G coverage.  If you can live with AT&T and you want a great easy to use smart phone then come on over to the iPhone we have lot’s of great apps and all the iPhone owners are always happy to share their favorite apps and talk with a fellow iPhone owner and Apple strives to keep their customers happy despite having to use AT&T as a carrier.    

Blogging on the Mac

Blogging on the Mac can be as simple or as complex as you choose it to be. Blogging can be a lot of fun and a truly rewarding experience. The first thing you have to decide is what you want to blog about. Pick something that is interesting to you and that you can write about on a regular basis. It took me some time to learn this important tidbit. Regular blogging is very important to getting repeat visitors to your site. My first six months of blogging I could have lunch with all of my readers because I wasn’t writing on a regular basis. As soon as I set a deadline for myself and started sticking to it I saw an immediate increase in traffic.
I started off by purchasing a domain name through godaddy.com. www.macguy.info serves as my home page and blog.macguy.info is redirected to paulmacguyscott.blogspot.com where my blog is hosted. Next step was to signup for blogger using my gmail account. Once I had the blog site setup and configured the way I wanted it to look I setup blog.macguy.info to redirect to my blog page.
Next to see what kind of traffic I am getting I went to Analytics.google.com and setup an analytics account so I can see how many hits a day I am getting, how my visitors are finding me and what country they are from. This is just of interest to me and it is only very general information but it gives me an idea of who comes to my site and sometimes what pages they are visiting.
Really the best source of feedback is comments on the blog itself, emails, or tweets I get from my readers. Some of them even give me ideas for future posts. As a part of regular posting process I started planning what topics I am going to write on ahead of time. Currently I build my schedule about two months out. I plan topics around certain dates that might be relevant. A review of study software in August right before students go back to school, or a look back on technology when a company hits a mile stone anniversary. Of course sometimes I shuffle things around if a big story breaks or an important issue comes up that needs to be covered.
Planning these ahead of time allows me to start researching and writing ahead of time as well. I can start putting my notes together or interesting bits I think of I want to write in file so i can keep track of it when I am ready to write it. I am also trying to write several articles a week and hold them until it is time to publish so taking a vacation or being busy with my day job doesn’t throw me off my scheduled posts.
Another option when news breaks is to just add an extra story for the week to my blog. Since this is all digital I don’t have to worry about a real deadline or how much space I take up. I can always add a bonus story if I like or just move the schedule around. Currently I plan about two months in advance what I plan to write so currently I just move stories around, eventually I might add extra stories to the blog as I have more time to write.
After the first few months of writing my blog in the web based editor on blogger I decided I wanted a better way to post. So I started looking at different programs that might help me focus on my writing and post my stories. I settled on MacJournal from http://marinersoftware.com/sitepage.php?page=85. It is a nice software priced at $39.95 and versatile. In addition to being linkable to several blogging platforms like Blogger, Word Press, Type Pad, and Live Journal you can create private encrypted journals to share your personal thoughts and writings for just yourself or perhaps a memoir for the future.
MacJournal lets me keep a local copy of all of my blog entries so I have a copy on blogger and a copy on my laptop that is also backed up to Time Machine and Mobile Me. For those keeping score that is four copies of my writing in three different locations on two different kinds of media. In a future post I will do a piece on backing up in depth.
MacJournal also allows you to add your tags and set publishing dates right in the Inspector. This saves time when uploading your blog post. You configure your site settings under share and when it comes time to post your blog you just click share, Send To “Name of your blog here” and it uploads and shows you the page in Safari once it is loaded. The only weak point I have seen with MacJournal so far has been it can’t upload images to Blogger. Any images I add to my blog I have to do on the web after I have uploaded the story. I hope this is something that can be fixed in a future revision. Once I have uploaded the images I can re download the story into blogger and update my local copy and it does download the images just fine although it doesn’t hold the formatting as it is displayed on the web.
If I am traveling and have a need to post in my blog I use BlogPress on my iPad and iPhone. http://blogpress.coollittlethings.com/ This is a great piece of software that allows me to blog while away form home. In April i wrote a story reviewing the iPad while on a cross country flight. Since the plane had WiFi I was able to write my story and post it right from plane. Writing a 2,000 word review of the iPad on the iPad was a good experience and one that showed me short of software development I didn’t really need to carry my laptop with me anymore if I was only going a few days. Now with Remote Access software I hardly ever have to carry my laptop anymore unless I just want to for some reason or I need to sync my iPad with my computer. BlogPress syncs right up with blogger and was the first iPad Blogging tool available on the app store. I just open it up and start typing. I even can add images right to blogger from the iPad. At the time there was on editing software for photos on the iPad so I wasn’t able to rotate the image the way I wanted the screen shot to look but it worked in a pinch.
If I don’t have my iPad with me but I am carrying my iPhone BlogPress runs on the iPhone as well. Now I can take pictures and write a story right in the field. With a Bluetooth keyboard it is easy to write from the iPhone. So now I can take my writing with me wherever I go. BlogPress will even let you save movies to your YouTube Account and link them to your blog. So no we can do pictures, movies, and text all live from wherever we are.
I blog because I like to write and I like to share information with people. I get a great deal of satisfaction knowing people are reading what I write and getting something out of it. For that I want to thank each and every one of you for visiting my blog and enjoying and learning from what I have written. Please keep the comments, tweets, emails, and Facebook posts coming. I couldn’t do what I do without you all.

Review of Maccsessorized

For those of you looking for a little Apple Geek bling look no further than our friends at Maccessorized. Maccessorized has a wide variety of Apple logo wear from t-shirts to dress shirts, messenger bags for your 15” and smaller Mac laptop, umbrellas and other Apple accessories. They give prompt service and ship orders quickly and the staff is friendly should you have to email them for anything. The shirts i ordered were high quality twill dress shirts that are very comfortable to wear with the Apple logo sewn on. The messenger bag is durable and has a padded pocket for your laptop and comes in four different colors. Maccessorized carries an array of bags in different styles to suit almost any taste. If you plan to carry a laptop in a bag make sure it lists the maximum size laptop the bag can hold and that it has a padded pocket to protect your laptop when traveling.

The website is easy to navigate and see what you are ordering as well as for completing your order. They include a review section so you can share with other prospective buyers your thoughts on the products you have ordered. They have a 30 day return policy for unopened items if you change your mind about an item you have ordered.

So if you are looking for some logo wear for your favorite computer, smartphone, tablet computer, or want to find some chic geek wear for your favorite Mac lover look no further than Macccessoried.com for your Mac wear needs. Don’t forget to Like Maccessoriezed on Facebook when you visit their site and share with your friends.

iPhone 4 First Look

In 2007 Apple changed the smart phone market with the first iPhone. In 2008 they revised the iPhone and rolled out the App Store and developers responded by creating more than 200,000 applications to date. in 2009 the iPhone added video recording, got faster, more memory and a few other new features but nothing earth shattering. Now in 2010 Apple really did redefine the smart phone market again with iPhone 4.

The first thing you notice on the iPhone 4 is the weight of the handset when you first pick it up. The weight feels perfect it is more of a substantial tool than just another phone. The glass and metal looks like art, the feel is solid, and it is very comfortable in your hand.

The first thing you notice when turning the phone on is the new Retina Display is stunning. The higher resolution and In Plane Switching LED display lights up fast and is very bright even in direct sunlight making it easy to read. The 326 pixels per inch make the pixels so small most people can’t see them and images and text look like laser prints instead of images on a screen. None of the online photos did justice to the clarity of this new display. So far no other smart phone maker is using a screen with this many pixels per inch.

Once you swipe your finger to unlock the phone you get a feel for the speed of the A4 processor and the benefit of putting 512 Megabytes of RAM into the phone. While we didn’t see an expected jump in storage capacity the extra speed makes the phone far more capable than it’s predecessors. Even the 3G and WiFi is faster on this new phone requiring you to wait less time to download information and there is plenty of room for network performance to improve as AT&T upgrades its network.

Pictures and Video are amazing on this phone putting it nearly on par with higher resolution point and shoot cameras. The 5 megapixel sensor using larger pixels making it more sensitive to light takes great photos in lower light conditions and the bright LED flash on the camera helps with even the lowest lighting situations. More megapixels doesn’t always mean better images just bigger files. The camera can also shoot very clear 720p HD video so you can now leave the Flip cameras at home and use your iPhone to shoot, edit and upload videos right from your phone. If you are going to be shooting longer videos you may still want to bring the FlipHD camera along so you don’t use up all of your storage on your phone. With Music, HD Movies, Data, applications, books, PDF’s and Podcasts it seems as though the 32 Gigs of storage goes pretty quick.

The larger battery and more efficient A4 processor has helped the iPhone 4 battery life quiet a bit. Despite the fact I use the phone more and for longer periods of time I can make it through an entire day and not have to recharge the phone. Under very heavy usage on a Friday I got about 15 hours of usage before needing to recharge. Some of that time was a 2.5 hour Plants vs. Zombies marathon. On Saturday I spent a lot of time on the phone and using bluetooth as well as watching videos and showing off the phone to friends and I got another 15 hours of usage and without the gaming marathon the battery still had about 30% charge remaining when I started recharging it. I didn’t get the kind of battery life Engaget described but I had the bluetooth, wifi, 3G all turned on. With a little power management or just recharging while I am in my car or at my desk I don’t think battery life will ever be a problem again for the iPhone.

There has been some controversy surrounding the iPhones new antenna built into the frame of the phone and the talked about iPhone “Death Grip” that supposedly makes you drop calls. First I tested this at home with the bumper case removed from my phone and was unable to duplicate the issue. I live in a neighborhood that is close to an AT&T cell tower and I get 5 bars no matter what I do in the house. If I move to a location where I only have three bars and try this I do see a drop in signal strength but I am not sure if it is because of how I am holding the phone or other factors in the environment that might be influencing the phone. This isn’t a new phenomenon. All cell phones loose reception when you cover the antenna with something that can block signals like your hand or your head. To make sure I don’t have a problem and to protect my phones glass surfaces I opted for the Bumper case and in four days of using my iPhone I haven’t had a dropped call yet which says a lot since that has been a problem with AT&T for many years.

With iOS 4 on the iPhone we now have multitasking. While for the last couple of years I didn’t think I needed multi-tasking it is again a time saver. Saving the state of the application when I switch to something else and letting me come back right to where I was when I return saves me time in waiting for the application to be ready to go again and doesn’t compromise battery life. Also adding folders allows us to install more applications on our phones without loosing having some applications only available through a spotlight search. Initially the iPhone could support 144 applications. Then iPhone OS 3 came out and we could go up to 176 applications plus the ones that didn’t fit on a screen could be accessed from Spotlight. Now with folders we can have 2,112 applications visible on our phones. Again if you have more than that first of all how do you use them all and second you can find the ones not visible through a folder in Spotlight.

The background images you can choose for your lock screen and your desktop really give you something nice to look at while you are using your phone.

One of the most compelling and phone new features got a lot of ridicule from the tech and blog community when it was first announced and everyone criticized and said “who would want to video conference from your phone?” But now we have Face Time. While you are on a WiFi network you can call another iPhone 4 user and see them face to face and carry on a conversation with that person. It is great to see someone when you are talking to them and over WiFi the video is clear and the audio quality is excellent. You can even switch from the front to the rear camera at the touch of a button to show the caller what you are seeing or press it again so they can see you. The era of the Jetson’s have arrived. While we still don’t have our flying cars we do finally have an easy to use video chat. Apple has submitted Face Time to become an open standard and already relies on other open standard protocols to work. Now Apple needs to make Face Time work not with just iPhone4 but with iChat AV and encourage other vendors like Skype, AIM, Microsoft, and others to adopt Face Time as a standard and use an Open Directory system to allow us to talk with one another.

The potential for our communication to be revolutionized if anyone, anywhere and see and hear each other anytime, whether we are at our computers on our desks, our laptops in a cafe, or our iPhones at the beach. To be able to look someone in the eye and have a conversation even if they are thousands of miles away is a very powerful tool. Plus when you look our caller in the eye you know they are paying attention and not distracted by one of the many other devices that now vie for our attention in our lives today.

iBooks now runs on iOS4 and on the Retina Display on the iPhone4 it is easy to sit and read a book while having lunch or standing in line. The text is so clear and easy to read even at smaller font sizes it is no problem to look at the screen for long periods. When I got my first Amazon Kindle last year I started reading more because it was easy to carry several books around in a small lightweight device. A year later the iPad was introduced and then I could do far more than just read books and now with the iPhone supporting iBooks I can read anytime anywhere even if I didn’t bring my Kindle or iPad along with me. I can open any electronic book in my library read a few pages and when I get back to my Kindle or iPad they update to the most current page I have read and I can pickup where I left off. Just like with Podcasts, Movies, and AudioBooks on iTunes, iPad, and iPhone.

In short the iPhone4 has revolutionized Smart Phones and mobile communications again and it will likely be sometime before handset manufactures catch up to Apple again. By then who knows what will be coming next but stay tuned and we will find out.

Safari 5

Today we will take a look at the new Safari 5 Web Browser from Apple. It was released on June 7th just hours after the Mac World Developers Conference Keynote had wrapped up. The Safari 5 update is also included in the OS X 10.6.4 update that was released on June 15th.
Safari 5 is not a significant change from Safari 4 only adding a few new features. The first big feature is Safari Reader which allows you to click the Reader button in the address bar to strip out ads and put articles that are spanned across multiple pages on a single page. This is a great feature for users to make large articles more easily readable although I imagine advertisers won’t care for it too much.
Safari 5 has added additional support for HTML5 making it the most HTML5 compliant browser and the only browser that is fully ACID3 compliant. The new Nitro JavaScript Engine makes Safari faster than the previous version. Safari and Google Chrome are close to one another in performance followed by Firefox and of course the slowest of main stream web browsers is Internet Explorer.
Safari has added Bing to the list of browsers you can select for your default search in the toolbar. Smarter searching in the address bar was added so if you type any word that appears in an address or in the title of the site that is in your history or bookmarks it is displayed in a drop down for you to select. Safari has also added a new feature under tabs that allows you to decide if you want to open pages in tabs Always, Automatically or Never. Opening in a tab always or never is pretty self explanatory the Automatically however was a little less clear. According to the Safari Help files the Automatic setting will open all windows in a new tab unless that windows is formatted to open in a separate window.
The biggest feature will take sometime for us to start seeing in the Safari 5. Safari 5 now includes Extensions. The Extensions are signed and Sandboxed to protect your computer data from access and the signatures assure you that the extension came from a specific developer. Apple plans to open a gallery later this summer with developers extensions available for people to customize their browsers.
Currently the functionality is a bit hidden, first you must click Safari, Preferences, Advanced, and check the Show Develop menu in menu bar. Once you have done that click Develop in the menu bar and choose Enable Extensions. Once you have done that the Extensions button appears in the Preferences Pane.
Signing up to be part of the Safari Extension Developers program is free and each developer gets a digital certificate so we can be sure the code hasn’t been tampered with and comes from the developer who signed the code.
A couple other cool new features includes right clicking on the title bar text will give you a look back at the pages you visited in that particular tab and allow you to select one of the previous pages to jump back to it. The other improved feature of Safari is the improved web inspector that now includes timelines. This shows someone who is testing a web page or a developer who is writing a web page when HTML or Java Script is being rendered and how long it takes in a graphical format so you can really see what your pages are doing and what order they are rendering in.
The new version of Webkit 2 hasn’t been included in Safari yet as apparently they do not feel it is ready for prime time yet. It should be coming in the future providing even faster rendering a splitting the webkit process from the web processes to allow faster and more secure execution of code. This is what allows Google Chrome to give each tab its own process and one tab crashing doesn’t impact any of the others.
Overall the new browser is fast, stable and seems to do a good job rendering content. I can’t wait to see what developers come up with in the way of extensions to enhance the Safari browsing experience.

WWDC 2010 Keynote

Well we have all by now heard the news from Apple about the upcoming iPhone 4 and new iPhone OS now to be known as iOS. I will just give you a quick highlight recap and then talk about what I think is even more interesting. What wasn’t mentioned in this weeks Apple Keynote.
iPad
First Steve made a quick mention of what a huge success iPad has been selling over 2 million units in just 60 days. Now with international shipping underway that number is sure to skyrocket just as fast as Apple can make these fantastic devices. I think John Dvorak is going to loose his bet toLeo Laporte on Apple selling five million iPads in the first year. We will probably make that number in six months.
The iBooks application already has a 22% ebook market share in just the first 8 weeks. Amazon got us excited with the Kindle and whetted the publics appetite for e-books and while I still like and use my Kindle the iPad just does so much more and now that is the device I never leave home without. Now Apple is adding the ability to read PDF’s right in iBooks on our on PDF Bookshelf and giving us the ability to take notes right on our PDF’s and Books as well as bookmarking and highlighting the text. iBooks is ready now to be the killer app for education in the 21st century. Apple has also included wireless syncing of all of our books, PDF’s and our data between iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch, and I am hoping someday a desktop app which will allow me to consume my content where ever, when ever and how ever I choose.
App Store
In Steve’s speech he mentions that iOS supports two platforms HTML5 and the App Store. HTML5 is a fully open and uncontrolled platform. Anyone can develop anything they like and run it in the Safari browser. The App Store is a curated platform where Apple vets the Applications before they are placed in the store for sale. Apple gets 15,000 apps a week that are submitted in up to 30 languages. According to Apple 95% of apps are approved in 7 days. Steve went on to mention the top three reasons an application doesn’t get approved.
1.) The app doesn’t function as described by the developer
2.) The developer used private API’s which could result in a program failing after a software upgrade
3.) The App Crashes.
Still there are issues with a few apps that get pulled for strange reasons such as the political cartoon application which was rejected for reasons of content and later was put back in the store when the developer appealed the decision. Or the Pulse Application for the iPad that was pulled because The New York Times demanded it be removed for containing copyrighted material. It was taken down, the developer removed the sample RSS feed that pulled New York Times content and the app was back in the store later in the day.
I would like to hear from any developers that read this blog about their experiences submitting to the app store. Both positive and negative to get the perspective of those that deal with the App Store on a regular basis. If I turn it into a follow up column later you will of course be anonymous.
New Apps Coming Soon
Netflix for the iPhone coming this summer for free. Netflix is using adaptive bit rate technology to adjust video quality based on network speed and allow you too seamlessly switch between wifi and 3G.
AT&T capping data will really put a damper on this application. You can stream movies over wifi with no problem but just a few movies on the Pro plan and you could blow your data usage for the month. I have and I am keeping my unlimited data plan for my iPhone which is good for me but with multi-tasking and NPR streaming apps, Pandora streaming apps, and Netflix streaming those that have to spend a lot of time on 3G might find they get unreasonably large bills from AT&T or don’t use the capabilities of their phone for fear of going over their cap. This is just another way AT&T is holding up the progress of technology and failing their customers. I have already gone over that in depth in Is AT&T Business plan to give away all of their customers to the competition?
Zynga is bringing everyones favorite Facebook time waster FarmVille to the iPhone. Now you can work your farm while you are in line at the bank or out at a bar with your friends. Send a friend a gift in FarmVille with them sitting right next to you. Zynga has 35 million players playing games daily and over 70 million players of FarmVille per year. Over 200 million gifts per day are given in FarmVille and will be on the iPhone by the end of June. We are evening getting an option for a tractor and a pet Snow Leopard for iPhone FarmVille players.
Guitar Hero is also coming for the iPhone. The demo may have not done it justice and since I myself have never played Guitar Hero at all I didn’t really understand the game play experience they talked about in the demo.
iMovie is going to be available next month on the iPhone 4 for $4.99 and give users the ability to edit their videos, add transitions, add titles, and edit the audio in your video before uploading it to You Tube, sending it via email, or other uploading options.
iPhone
Neilson Statistics reported that the Smart phone market broke down in the following way:
35%         RIM
28%         iPhone
19%         Windows Mobile
9%                 Android
9%                 Others
For just being around three years now starting on their fourth year to be second only to RIM maker of the Blackberry line of phones is an impressive feat. Particularly given the fact AT&T seems to really be holding Apple back on sales. In a recent report 16% of Verizon customers would buy an iPhone if it were offered on Verizon’s network. That is a huge number of potential customers untapped due to AT&T’s exclusivity deal with Apple to carry the iPhone.
Once the agreement ends and iPhone becomes available on other carriers iPhone could potentially control the smart phone market.
iPhone 4
The new iPhone sports a glass front and back with a stainless steel band around the phone. The new iPhone 4 is 28% thinner than the current 3G and 3Gs iPhone making it the thinnest smartphone on the market. The new glass front and back is made from the same glass that is used in helicopter canopies and high speed train windshields. That with a new process to strengthen the glass is supposed to make it 30 times stronger than plastic. Hopefully that means our phones will not scratch as easily. While my phone screen has never been scratched the plastic back is pretty scratched up from my keys in my pocket and the dock connector in my car.
The new Retina display just couldn’t be fully appreciated on the video. Apple had a special high resolution projector installed for the presentation so people in the audience could see the difference between the old displays and the Retina display. The new Retina display at 326 pixels per inch is such a high resolution display most people can’t differentiate the pixels at 12 inches from the phone. With 4 times the number of pixels and the IPS LED backlit screen on the new phone the screen is sure to look stunning.
With the new A4 chip in the the iPhone the new phone will be faster and more power efficient. With the speed of my iPad I can’t wait to get my hands on the new iPhone 4. While the phone is slimmer they were able to increase the size of the battery to give us about 7 hours of talk time, 6 hours of 3G browsing, 10 hours of wifi, 10 hours of video playback, 40 hours of music or 300 hours of standby.
The antennas are part of the phone structure. The frame of the phone is the stainless steel band around the outside of the phone also serves as the two antennas. One antenna is for the Bluetooth and 802.11n WiFi and the other antenna is is for the cellular and HSDPA which no supports 7.2 Mbps down and 5.8 Mbps up when carriers upgrade to support those speeds.
There was no change in storage capabilities, the iPhone 4 comes with 16 GB or 32 GB of storage. With the explosion of downloaded music, movies, applications and the addition of a higher resolution camera and the ability to record HD video I think extra storage would have been helpful. Hopefully we will get some streaming options in the future for iTunes content we own so we don’t have to store everything on the phone.
The 5 Megapixel backside camera has an LED flash or the LED can be left on for shooting 720p HD video. The sensor is larger so it works better in low light conditions it is also backside illuminated to work better in low light situations. The iPhone software includes a 5x digital zoom and tap to focus in both still and HD video. iPhone 4 also adds Geo location information to the video while it is being recorded so you can remember where you took the video. The travel template also uses Geo location to give you the Indiana Jones sort of intro showing a pin on a map of where the video was shot.
A GPS, Accelerometer, compass and gyroscope for 6 axis motion sensing are available to the new core motion API. This will give the phone more information about where it is in space and make the iPhone more aware of its environment. This is going to be huge for gaming and advertisers will be able to tap into these functions to give users more useful information about the world around the phone.
Apple expects to sell 10’s of millions of iOS devices this year. The iPhone pre-orders start on June 15th and we will be able to pick up our iPhones on June 24th. Apple has dropped the 3G iPhone and moved the 8GB 3GS into the $99.00 spot and added a $199 16 GB and $299 32 GB iPhone in Black or White.
iOS 4
The new iOS 4 has 1500 new API’s for developers and over 100 new user features including multitasking done right. Even Steve pointed out while they were not the first to have multitasking they did it right. Double tap the home button to access the running applications. The apps when they are not in the foreground are saved out to the flash storage. If the application needs to keep some parts running like audio for Pandora Radio is controlled by Core Audio when the application interface is in the background. This way you get multitasking without sacrificing battery life. Part of these new API’s include a right swipe gesture on any app to reveal the audio controls for which ever app is sending audio to your headphones and allow you to fast forward, rewind, play, pause, or adjust volume.
With the explosion of applications and the ability to display 16 apps on a screen and 11 screens for a maximum number of displayable apps of 176 apps that just isn’t enough for the modern iPhone. So now we have folders. Simply drag an app onto another app and it will automatically name it the same name as the genre of application it is and you have a folder. You are free to rename the folder or add more applications if you like. Now we can have thousands of applications available on our iPhones.
Unified Inbox now gives us the ability to look at multiple inboxes at the same time. So we don’t have to swipe back and forth between our personal and business email accounts we can manage our digital lives in just one inbox just like on the Mac. To help keep everything organized they have also added message threading so you can keep track of a specific conversation. In keeping with the big business theme iOS 4 also includes better enterprise integration, better data protection, improved mobile device management, wireless application distribution, SSL VPN, support for multiple exchange accounts, and support for multiple search engines, now Google, Yahoo and Bing are options in iOS 4.

FaceTime is what is going to make the iPhone the must have device. Realtime video conferencing on the iPhone with a few initial caveats. iPhone 4 to iPhone 4 only and only works where there is WiFi in 2010. The good news is no setup required, works in portrait or landscape mode and can use the front or rear camera. Apple has already announced they are submitting FaceTime as an Open standard so that other phone manufactures and other software companies can opt to use it. I can see a world in the next two years where we can make video calls to iChat users, Skype Users, Android Phone users, Cisco Video Phone users and even Microsoft Live users and be able to have a face to face chat. Even the applications for the deaf are going to be astounding. The iOS upgrade will be available June 21st and will be free for all iPhone 3G, iPhone 3Gs, iPod Touch 2nd generation and newer, devices for free.
Accessories
Apple will be offering a new iPhone dock for $29.00 not any different from the 3G dock just shaped to hold the iPhone 4. Apple is also attempting their own case for the iPhone called bumpers and it wraps around the phone and come in five colors. Front and back are open to show off the iPhone 4.
What wasn’t said
Almost as interesting as what was covered in the two hour keynote is what wasn’t covered. No announcement of iPhone being opened to other carriers in the US. I remain convinced that will happen in the near future. That is why I think AT&T increased there early termination fees from $175 to $350. AT&T caping bandwidth, charging premiums and providing substandard voice services are pushing customers to want to move to other networks and keeping some people from buying iPhones in the first place.
Also Apple didn’t announce a new MacBook Air, Mac Pro, or iMac all of which were do for a refresh. There were also mentions of a new Apple TV which didn’t materialize and no mention of what the data center in North Carolina is being built for. Apple promised some big announcements this year right after announcing the iPad. Also conspicuously missing at the Developers Conference was any mentions of OS X 10.7. If Apple holds to their release schedule we should have an updated OS available between February 2011 and August 2011. So probably Apple will hold that announcement back for the next developers conference and give developers time to update applications prior to the release of 10.7. It would still be nice to see what they have planned. I expected there to be more announcements at the developers conference than we got.
Apple has the Moscone Center booked again later in the month, perhaps Apple has more announcements planned this year keeping them front and center in the news. January we had MacWorld, in February Apple announced the iPad, April and May the iPad is released with a lot of media coverage. Now June we have the iPhone 4 being released which will surely be heavily covered by the media. I am sure Apple will have more announcement this year that will keep them front and center in the public eye through 2010 easily.