adammachin / thoughts

It’s the day before the apple event tomorrow and as expected there’s speculation of what steve will announce. I’ve been expecting this particular event for a while. Apple appear to be showing a picture of a lion, which has surprised me, as i never expected them to pick this big cat. What I was/still am expecting is tomorrow to be the end of os x ad for os xi to be announced.

my expectations of the next mac os are rather high, as if i remember correctly, snow leopard was just supposed to be a refinement on leopard. i’m expecting that apple have learnt a lot from ios recently, and it would be nice to see the addition of an app store for mac and a focus on smaller apps for os 11, much like that of the iphone.

i feel that itunes has become just a massive bloat of mess which is bursting at the seems, i would love apple to have itunes just a music player, and for apps to be separated out, movies to be in a movie program, books another and so on, just like they are separated on the iphone and ios devices.

its would just be amazing if they had itunes just a music player again on the mac platform and called it say….ummm…ipod….?

one addition that i would love apple to focus on, however i think this will be extremely unlikely is for the addition of an online backup service. one thing i have come to realise over the past few months and weeks is that time machine and time capsule are all good and well, except if theres a fire, a flood or a robbery, you will still loose your mac and your backup making it all pointless.

will the new apple os be touch, i dont think so, but lets see, i still think the purpose of a desktop is for high performance work and multimedia production, and i just dont think a touch interface is suitable for this! this is where the gap between who actually needs a desktop os and who just needs an ipad will begin to grow in the technology market, its going to be interesting.

i think that the white iphone will be released tomorrow

I also think that apple will make a new version of time capsule which is raid, my evidence for this is apple resent dip into the small business market with the mac mini server.

Lots of people have been saying an 11 inch macbook air. I think that we will see a new macbook air, same size screen. I think the 11 inch screen will be a smaller version of the macbook pro.

As to any of the major features of the new mac os that will be announced i actually have now idea, apple wouldnt be apple if i knew what they are going to announce.

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Update: iBooks is now available from the App Store, click here for iBooks

As I sit and wait for iOS 4 to download, I can not deny that I am excited, as it says below 100 new features have been added. Plug in your iPhone, press update and change that version from 3 to 4!

Comment: in reply to christophr.co.uk

First things first, as most people seem to discuss this topic without noting this very important fact. No one, (yes absolutely no one) is making anyone make applications for the iOS. There is nothing saying if you are a developer that you HAVE to make software for the iPhone. Therefore it is wrong to criticise the way apple handles their devices/products. The bottom line of this is, if they want to take a cut of apps they can. If app developers dont like this. Then they can go and develop for another platform.
A second note to why I actually agree to the app store is the following, android is still a minor market in the global sense of things when it comes to apps, yes its catching up but its still not as large as iPhone. When a new game/app becomes popular the amount of people who download that app is crazy. Without an app store hosted by apple it would not be able to meet the demands of a mass market so efficiently.
At the moment it is still impossible to compare the android OS to iOS, it is such a child in this comparison. The apps available for the android platform are totally different. Games few and far between, the most popular android app probably being a calculator…. Therefore it is a bad comparison really to compare htc/android to iPhone. The devices are just nothing alike, the iPhone is more than just a phone running apps, its becoming so much more than that.
As for the future of computing it has a long long way to go. Who knows what the future will bring. There is again, no comparison between an iPad and OSX. OSX is by far far far more powerful. The iPad was not launched as a product to replace desktop computing, just an additional product, “unnecessary” unless you need/want one. If it does end up replacing desktop computing then so it will. Just as paper replaced wood and wood replaced rock in writing.
I do agree that apple is a closed platform and that they see a huge money opportunity with IOS, but quite honestly i’d rather the company make money than loose money, and as a resulting factor keep making revolutionary products.
There would be nothing stopping people using whatever products they want in the future. If windows XP is still your operating system of choice in 2050 then I imagine you will still be able to use windows XP.
Apple didnt ignore OSX, they announced new iTunes (yes i know for IOS) since then a new mac mini. Safari….and all the time continually update all of the mac software….

because data visualisation is cool…I scored 4/10 and was right with all iPhone predictions, I think some of the other stuff shall be at the september music event!

Update: Safari 5 was released today, just Steve never mentioned it…

Apple predictions WWDC 2010

I am going to make predictions on what I think Steve Jobs shall announce tomorrow at WWDC 2010. I can remember last year, or earlier this year, that Leo Laporte on the twit network, (which can be found at twit.tv.) made his apple predictions, as nothing more than a fun exerciese to see what he got right and what he got wrong. So i’m going to do that here! After i’ll score myself, i’ll try and give 10 predictions, ordered in likelyness!

prediction number 1

right up there is the fourth iPhone to leave Apple land finally and make its way into the wild! Prices I would like to think 99 dollars on a US contract but we will see.

prediction number 2

iPhone 4.0 software realeased today for iPhone 3gs, I might be wrong here, or just wanting it early :)

prediction number 3

iPhone 4 has a front facing camera! something I dont see the point in, but from romours i’m estimating it shall have this.

prediction number 4

iPhone 4 shall have 4 times the resolution of the present iPhone and again from the romours i’m guessing this shall be so.

prediction number 5

iPhone 4 shall not be oled, sad but i can see this being true. Just to continue this further yes oled looks AMAZINNG, in the dark, but outside…not so good. where are phones usually used, daytime and often outside…i can see some sort of IPS talk happening, just like the ipad screen.

prediction number 6

enough of iPhone predictions until number 10! Safari 5, recently been thrown into the out back, so it looks like tomorrow we are going on a SAFARI! (beta only of course ;))

prediction number s = 3+4

prediction number s, apple TV! now this one i shall elaborate on with a bit of a story. quite recently jobs, as in steve, was interviewed at the D8 conference. Apple TV was talked about, and Steve said “Apple TV” is a hobby of Apples. He said why, and in this explained that it is hard to get into the set top/TV market due to the fact that many people assume that the box is free with the contract of a subscription, be it sky etc. Today I forsee that Apple might launch a streaming service, if this isnt for video it shall definately be for audio and similar to spotify. Evidence of this is when apple purchased lala and more so a change in the naming of the “me” accounts, suggesting a free/non premium type of account may be added. This all leads to an interesting sum of events, as apple stated its hard to get into the set top box/tv market, make apple TV an app that runs on iphones, ipads and ipod touches, why, because these are already in everyones homes! problem of people expecting a free box now solved because everyone already has these!

prediction number 8

MacBook Air because this is seriously over due now, in not being updated, totally new design, 3g slot…just like ipad…YEA! (3g slot should be added to macbooks too!)

prediction number 9

new iPads, why not, they are selling like hot cakes!

prediction number 10

This is a random one and I see apple maybe teaming up with sprint to take advantage of their 4g network…

next year OS 11 … called pussy cat LOL

As the above diagram explains Mango. Strawberry. Tangerine. These are representations of a combination of flavours found in something which I tried earlier this week.

These flavours would go well together in a cake, an exquisite cupcake, or elaborate muffin. The latter I would certainly like to try, and thinking about the combination of a strawberry and mango muffin, I will most likely make on my next round of muffin baking.

Enough of my elaboration on the flavour, what i’m actually talking about can be seen below.

It’s a coffee from Climpson and Sons based in London, this was one of the best filter coffee’s i’ve ever drank. (I should add at this point, I am not a coffee expert (yet) but I am an enthusiast.) This of course is no representation of whether you will think the same but if your willing to give it a shot ;) heres the link Malawi – Mzuzu Co-Op AAA Coffee (I imagine this link shall become dead at some point)

Anything to say, send me a twitter message! (links at the top of the page)

(this will not be here when ive finished — being written over the next week or two or three…)

It’s been 8 months since getting my first mac, and i’m going to write a list of applications that I use, what they are, and what I use them for. I will also include a link of where you can find them.

Adium

Say hello to Adium, this is an amazing app which lets you say “hello” to others! Adium is a free instant messaging client, with support for multiple messaging platforms such as msn, yahoo, facebook and many more. It is also highly customisable and fun to use.

download: adium.im

App Store Expense Monitor

This app gathers information from you iTunes folder, about purchased apps for your iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad, and displays the total calculation of how much you have spent on apps!

download: wetfish.de

AppFresh

AppFresh is an application which is designed to help you out with all other applications. It checks through applications, widgets, preference panes and application plugins and tells you whether they are up to date. If they aren’t it lets you install the new version straight from within the app, magic.

download: metaquark.de/appfresh

AppZapper

Uninstall an app, as easy as drag the app to the recycle bin! However there are other files installed which remain behind. There are other occassions when an app just doesn’t work and you see no other option but deleting and re installing so to speak, then you discover the app still doesn’t work. AppZapper to the rescue! It knows where these extra files are and can delete them when you drag an app to it, in short it’s like “super” uninstall.

download: appzapper.com

Audio Hijack Pro

Adobe Lightroom

Adobe Dreamweaver

Adobe Photoshop

Update: if using windows, you can also use the bonour printer wizard, (type this into the start menu search) this will use the apple wizzard to add your printer. This way avoids adding the IP, however you will still need the driver installed, or you will need to locate the driver. any questions send me an @reply on twitter, links at the top of the page!

link to pdf

i made it a pdf because symbols don’t display in powerpoint preview!
Tutorial on how to print wirelessly using an Apple Airport Express + Windows

The main reason for this post is i recently purchased an Apple Airport Express, offering Wifi draft n, wireless audio, using iTunes and also the ability to plug in most printers and print wirelessly using mac and windows. I also purchased the above hp laserjet 1018 printer! Now for mac users the setup is probably alot more straight forward using bonjour, a technology which apple implements into its products usually making networking alot easier. However for windows users, knowing how to setup the printer for wireless printing can be alot more difficult!

The above image is of the Airport Express, and as you can see connected is the USB for the printer (middle connection)
The first step is to set up the printer by connecting it to the USB on your computer, not the airport, find and install the correct drivers, and print a test page, if the printer works connected straight to the computer, it is more likely to work connected to the Airport
This tutorial is going to be text only, however I will create a pdf to acompany it with photographs which I will refer to: Airport + Printer PDF
Step 1: Connect the printer to the airport, and in the airport utility window click manual setup, followed by printers, fig 1, shows that my printer is listed here, yours should be here too.
Step 2: navigate to printers in your windows operating system, ususally found in the control panel, and select “add a printer” and “add a local printer” (fig 2)
Step 3:
select create a new port, and then select TCP/IP for the type (fig 3)
Step 4: type in the host name. this is the IP of your airport express on your network, this information is on the main page of the airport utility, it will usually be 192.168.x.x, where x represents your numbers. (fig 4)
Step 5: is to select the correct make and model of your printer so that windows can use the correct driver
From here onwards, complete the wizzard, print a test page and you should be good to go!
Note that if your printer is switched off at the mains, it can loose its print firmware, to resend the print firmware you need to plug it directly into the usb on your computer and print a page, this will resend the printers firmware, plug it back into your airport and wireless printing should work again!