Little Big Tomatoes

Just how much Jobs and Next can do for Apple probably cannot be fairly
judged for a year or two. Apple’s new operating system, based on Next
technology, is due in late 1997, but software products are chronically
late. For now, Apple seems intent on keeping Jobs focused on helping
Apple, and prevailed upon him to appear at its Macworld trade show on
Jan. 7. The $200 million he received for Next includes 1.5 million
Apple shares, which he cannot sell for at least a year. In the
meantime, much of Wall Street and Silicon Valley will be watching
closely, and without a trace of nostalgia. ”It’s very romantic going
back to your first love,” observes the industry analyst Esther Dyson,
”but it rarely works out.”

nytimes.com – Creating Jobs.

Popularity: 2% [?]

article from John Gruber on macworld.com

This is how the designers and engineers at Apple roll: They roll.

They take something small, simple, and painstakingly well considered. They ruthlessly cut features to derive the absolute minimum core product they can start with. They polish those features to a shiny intensity. At an anticipated media event, Apple reveals this core product as its Next Big Thing, and explains—no, wait, it simply shows—how painstakingly thoughtful and well designed this core product is. The company releases the product for sale.

Then everyone goes back to Cupertino and rolls. As in, they start with a few tightly packed snowballs and then roll them in more snow to pick up mass until they’ve got a snowman. That’s how Apple builds its platforms. It’s a slow and steady process of continuous iterative improvement—so slow, in fact, that the process is easy to overlook if you’re observing it in real time. Only in hindsight is it obvious just how remarkable Apple’s platform development process is.

This is how Apple rolls.

Popularity: 6% [?]

This clever script will add your iPhone’s call logs to an iCal calendar of your choice, complete with a description and the caller’s name, if available. Able to be run and automated via a number of methods including the Terminal, an AppleScript, or even an Automator action, this script is a nice addition to the tool belts of business and power users who need various kinds of access to their call records.

iphonelogd project on google code.

via ArsTechnica.

Popularity: 6% [?]

I noticed that Apple has an HTML5 dev center showcasing the different possibilities of HTML5 for their mobile devices. When I tried to open one of the samples I received the following message

Launched Safari and tried to open the same page. The result is in the foreground.

It seems that Safari is not using CSS at all, just the HTML. I am not sure what the problem is here, but if anyone saw this before, please let me know the solutions.

Popularity: 7% [?]

The following things that I like about the iPad:

• The leather case reused as a stand.
• The stand with the keyboard.
• I like the price. $499 for the smallest model.
• iBook looks kind of nice. I would like to have it on my iMac.

The following I do not like about the iPad:

• There is no GPS, possibly location is done using WPS (Wi-Fi Positioning System ).
• There is no camera built-in.
• You have to pay extra for the 3G.

I am guessing all these and more will come with the next version of the device.

Popularity: 15% [?]

I am guessing this is what you get if you over-hype, but fail to deliver something truly awesome. It is a nice looking large iPod Touch, plus Kindle, plus iWorks. It is a nice looking device, but I could not feel the wow! and the urge to run to buy one, when the iPhone was announced.

To make this successful, it should be competitively priced. This is Apple’s version of a netbook…   I will give it another try and try to love it, after watching the keynote video!

Popularity: 9% [?]

The two Steves had both the opportunity to demo tablet computers in front of a larger audience. I think the two pictures tell the difference…

Steve Ballmer demos the HP Slate on CES.

Steve Jobs is demoing the Apple iPad.

Popularity: 10% [?]

Finally, I had the time to install Windows 7 RC on my beloved iMac. The install went smoothly and after finishing two episodes of 24 Season 7, the Windows 7 Beta Fish was welcoming me on my desktop.

I was using Windows Vista from the early betas until just about 4 months ago. I liked many of its features such as search and aero and the new start menu, but after a while I have just realized that there is something wrong with it and I have given up. Formatted my hard disk and installed Windows XP and did use my computer that way ever since. For me, the experience was a little bit like when someone meets this really nice and nice girl and decides to live with her. First it goes really well, but after a while the realization comes, there is no love in this relationship anymore or maybe never ever has been and then moves out of the apartment.

With Windows 7 it is totally different though. There is chemistry here and it feels like we have known each other for years. It has everything that is important for you and much more… There is hope! There is love!

There are many things I like a lot in Windows 7, but one thing I like the most is its speed and smoothness. It just works. No senseless pauses sprinkled with flashy animation when copying files, no freezes. It does what it needs to do.

Things I like…

The new taskbar is really good. It resembles the dock from OS X, but I think it is a very nice improvement in Windows.

I like the themes in Windows. I was never a big fan of the plus packs in earlier versions, nor the different themes, but I love the ones that come with Windows 7. I even like them better than the themes can be found in OS X.

I also like Aero snap, the full-screen previews on the taskbar,  jump list and finally the desktop gadgets are starting to be useful too. The best is to check What’s coming Windows 7.

Things I didn’t like…

My only complaint is around Apple Bootcamp. I did not have any problems with the drivers, except the speakers are not working for some reason. My headphone jack socket shines out with red light and if I plug-in headphones the audio works through the headphones, if I take it out then the no audio.
Then I tried to install Bootcamp on Windows 7, but the setup told me that it works only with Windows Vista and Windows XP.  It would be nice to see an update from Apple for the drivers, but I guess this should wait until Windows 7 is released.

I think we are looking forward to a really nice next version of Windows. It is an evolutionary step, with smaller changes and little features, but I think if Windows needs to copy anything from OS X then it needs to copy these small steps…

Popularity: 24% [?]