3/26/09 UPDATE: Today Apple finally announced the dates for WWDC 2009: June 8-12. More information can be found on Apple's WWDC Web page. That matches my original assumptions. I still think it likely Snow Leopard will debut June 8.

This all started with two co-workers who sought my advice this past week on when to buy a new MacBook.

I thoughtfully advised them to wait until Snow Leopard came out so they would be sure to get all the promised speed benefits of the latest and greatest version of Mac OS X. Unfortunately, they both asked when that would happen.

It’s widely expected that Apple will unveil Snow Leopard at this year’s Worldwide Developers Conference, but Apple has not yet announced the dates. At last year’s WWDC keynote, CEO Steve Jobs said Snow Leopard would ship in about a year.

Since WWDC usually is held in June, I told my colleagues to wait until June – and then crossed my fingers events would validate my recommendation.

But with the issue now brought to my attention, I wanted to know myself when exactly to expect Snow Leopard. I went on a sleuthing mission and discovered enough clues that I’m now willing to predict June 8 as the Snow Leopard launch day.

Here’s how I reached this conclusion:

First of all, I’m assuming Snow Leopard’s release will coincide with WWDC. The event’s dates are not set in stone (some years back it was held regularly in May and in 2006 was pushed back to August), although it usually falls in the second week of June.

An item on MacDailyNews the other day suggested WWDC might be held May 27-May 28 based on an item listed on the Moscone Center schedule posted online. The generic description says simply “Corporate meeting,” but is listed as taking place in Moscone West, the wing of the complex where WWDC takes place every year.

But that’s almost certainly not when WWDC will happen, not just because it’s a bit too early, but because WWDC always runs over five or six days.

However, as I looked at the schedule, I noticed another generic “Corporate meeting” scheduled for Moscone West -- for June 6-June12. That’s the second week of June, the correct number of days, and ends on a Friday (WWDC nearly always ends on a Friday).

Yes, June 6 is a Saturday, but last year a similar generic listing on the Moscone Web site had the event starting on Sunday June 8 when the official start date was actually June 9. That means WWDC’s official start date this year probably will be June 7, a Sunday – unusual but not unprecedented. Back in 2005 WWDC’s official first day was a Sunday.

I deduced that we’d see Snow Leopard on June 8 because the keynote typically is delivered on a Monday, and that’s the moment at WWDC when Apple would announce a new operating system.

Still, though tantalizing, all that information needed something more to corroborate it. So I turned to Amazon.com.

By doing a search for “Snow Leopard Mac OS X” I discovered numerous Snow Leopard-specific books available for preorder, all scheduled for release from mid-June though July. The earliest, “Learn Mac OS X Snow Leopard,” is scheduled for June 15, just one week after my predicted date.

Why is this significant? Well, when Apple released Leopard on October 26, 2007, the first Leopard book to appear (again, searching on Amazon) was “Mac OS X Leopard for Dummies” on Oct. 31, less than a week later. It was followed by at least a half dozen other books on Leopard released throughout November.

Obviously it’s no accident the publishers timed their books to arrive immediately after the operating system. And remember, Leopard had been delayed from a June release that year. The publishers definitely are in the loop.

On the other hand, last November Engadget had post describing a leaked presentation slide by Jordan Hubbard, Director of Apple's Unix Technology Group, showing Snow Leopard as appearing in Q1 2009. That means we’d see it by the end of this month.

If so, I’d happily be wrong. I can’t wait to load Snow Leopard on my Mac Pro!

Posted by David Zeiler at 3:43 AM | Permalink | Comments (18)
                       

By adding some Mac OS X-like eye candy, several nifty features and a speed boost, Apple has made its Safari Web browser more appealing to current users and more tempting to fans of competing browsers.

Released yesterday as a public beta – that means the software isn’t officially finished yet but should work well enough – Safari 4 is available as a free download from Apple’s Web site in both Mac OS X and Windows flavors.

The most prominent new feature would have to be the “Top Sites” page, a visual panorama of your most frequently visited Web pages. Clicking on one of the preview images immediately takes you to that page. To get the Top Sites page back, just click on the grid icon to the right of the bookmark icon in the toolbar.

Should you want to change the Top Sites page, you can move or delete the previews by clicking on an edit button. If a site has changed since your last visit, a white star on a blue background appears in the top right corner.

I like this feature. Not only does it have the de rigueur Apple cool factor, I can see myself using it a lot. It is, I think, a more convenient way to access frequently visited Web sites than the Bookmark Bar.

The other striking addition to Safari is a Cover Flow view for history and bookmark searches. I don’t use the Cover Flow view all that much in Mac OS X's Finder or even in iTunes, but in Safari 4 that could change.

Many times in the course of writing this blog I’m trying to hunt down something I read days earlier. The Cover Flow view should make those Web pages easier to find.

Speaking of the history, it’s now fully searchable. You can search for page titles, Web addresses and even the complete text of pages in the browser’s history cache.

Another useful tweak: users can now enlarge an entire Web page, rather than just the type, by clicking on the zoom button. I avoided using the enlarge type feature even on pages with maddeningly small type because it almost always scrambled the Web page design, causing visual havoc.

But by enlarging the entire page, everything stays put. Some of the graphic elements look a bit pixilated, but I can live with that. Oddly, the zoom button is not present in the toolbar by default; one must visit the “Customize toolbar” command in the View Menu to do that.

Apple also decided to move the tabs to the very top, where they’re a bit easier to manipulate. Especially welcome is the triangle that appears when you mouse over a tab, making it easier to grab it to rearrange the tabs or pull it out into its own window. And in Safari 4, you can drag separate Web page windows back into the tab bar.

Some users may miss the blue progress bar that used to shoot across the address field as the page loaded. A gray Mac OS X-standard circular progress indicator on the right side of the field has taken its place; the reload button appears there otherwise, moved from its former home beside the back/forward buttons.

In at least one area, Safari 4 is playing catch-up: the search field now offers suggestions as you type in your query (both general suggestions and subjects of other searches you’ve made), something Firefox has done for a while.

For Windows users, Safari has more closely adopted the look and feel of the Microsoft operating system. I think it’s only right that Apple make Safari for Windows look the part. As a Mac user I always hated converted Windows programs that retained their Windows-ish interface.

Finally, Apple is touting Safari 4 as the “world’s fastest browser,” a claim all browser developers seem to make. Supposedly Safari 4 is almost three times faster than Firefox 3 on the Mac when loading Web pages, and more than three times faster than Internet Explorer 7 on Windows.

In my own unscientific tests, I detected scant difference between Safari 3, Safari 4 and Firefox in rendering several Web sites, including Apple’s home page, Yahoo Finance, and the home pages for Disney, the Baltimore Sun and Weather Underground.

In any case, Safari 4 has had no problem rendering any sites I’ve visited so far, a testament to the efforts of Apple’s software engineers to make the browser fully compliant with all Web standards.

Although Safari 4 is beta software, those who’d like to try it should not be afraid to download it. Be forewarned, however, that installing Safari 4 will overwrite your Safari 3 app (though this will not affect your bookmarks, autofill data or history). So if you want to go back to Safari 3 for any reason, make sure you have a copy of it somewhere else.

Posted by David Zeiler at 5:26 AM in Software by Apple | Permalink | Comments (3)
                       

More mundane than magic, Apple’s final Macworld keynote produced no blockbuster iPhone-caliber product, with the bulk of the 90-minute presentation consumed with product updates.

Perhaps the biggest surprise was the musical guest at the end – legendary singer Tony Bennett, rather than the usual more pop contemporary John Mayer. Steve Jobs made not so much as a cameo.

Jobs’ designated replacement, Apple Vice President for Worldwide Product Marketing Phil Schiller, spent more than half of the keynote demonstrating features in the new versions of Apple’s iLife and iWork software suites. The lone hardware announcement concerned the high-end 17-inch MacBook Pro.

Schiller saved one long-awaited chunk of news for last – as of today, 80 percent of the songs on the iTunes Store will no longer have copy protection, with the remaining 20 percent following by the end of March.

The lack of copy protection means users will be able to copy the music they buy on to as many devices as they like without restriction. The issue has caused much controversy since the iTunes Store launched in 2003.

Other online music vendors like Amazon have been selling DRM-free songs for over a year, so this move just catches Apple up. But because iTunes is the market leader, the move hammers the final nail in DRM’s coffin, at least for music. Schiller made no mention of TV shows or movies.

Apple also said as of April it will offer flexible pricing at the iTunes Store, finally caving to years of pressure from the major music companies. Instead of all songs for 99 cents, some will cost a mere 69 cents – 5 cents cheaper than even a Wal-Mart’s discounted downloads – or $1.29. Some songs will remain 99 cents; most albums will remain $9.99.

Expect new releases and popular songs –in other words, most of what people will want to buy -- to tip toward the $1.29 price.

Those who have purchased a lot of songs and music videos from iTunes over the years can obtain DRM-free versions, but at the cost of 30 cents per song and 60 cents per video.

The new MacBook Pro Schiller unveiled really belongs to the family of new MacBooks announced in October, the ones with shells carved from a single block of aluminum. At the time many noted the missing 17-inch model.

Maybe Apple felt it needed to save this monster MacBook Pro for the keynote so it would have at least one cool piece of hardware to show. The new 17-inch MacBook Pro is less than an inch thin, weighs a sleek 6.6 pounds, and comes with 4 gigabytes of memory and a 320 GB hard drive. Alas, the processor is a 2.66 Intel Core 2 Duo, not a quad core as I had hoped.

The most compelling feature of the 17-inch MacBook Pro is its battery. Schiller said this MacBook’s custom-made battery can supply an amazing 8 hours of computing time on a single charge – 3 more hours than the previous 17-inch Pro -- and that it will endure 1,000 recharge cycles, roughly five years of use.

The down side is that the cell is not user-removable, but Apple has a program for exchanging the battery. In all probability, a typical user would only need to exchange the battery once over the machine’s life.

And it can be yours for (ahem) a reasonable $2,799.

The bulk of Schiller’s talk covered the new features in fresh versions of the iLife suite (iPhoto, iMovie, GarageBand) and iWork suite (Keynote, Pages and Numbers).

The noteworthy twist here is the beta launch of a Google Docs-like service called iWork.com. People using the iWork apps will be able to share documents over the Internet via iWork.com. However, users will only be able to edit the documents if they download it to their computer and, presumably, have a copy of iWork on their Mac. Apple doesn't make an iWork version for Windows.

All that means Apple will have to do better if it wants people to give up using Microsoft Office for creating and sharing of word processor, presentation and spreadsheet documents.

Google might have something to worry about if Apple 1) didn’t plan to charge separately for the service and 2) if Apple did what I’ve suggested and create platform-independent online versions of its iWork apps that people could access via its MobileMe service.

Schiller didn’t say how much iWork.com would cost, or whether it would be a monthly or annual fee, but charging for it is bad strategy. As a new player competing against free services Apple needs to find a better way to monetize it, like my MobileMe suggestion.

Schiller gave lengthy demos of new software features that should appeal to many Mac users, though perhaps not enough to inspire them to pay for an upgrade.

iPhoto ’09 offers several nifty new organizational tools. Faces will remember a person’s face and create a category of photos of that person.

Better yet, this feature can integrate with such Web 2.0 sites as FaceBook and Flickr. Slowly Apple has shown recognition of the importance of making its products more Web 2.0 friendly. (Note to Apple: Better integration of iMovie with YouTube would also be a good idea.)

Places uses the GPS data in some cameras (and, as Schiller pointed out, the iPhone) to organize photos according to location. You can see where you’ve traveled by looking at an iPhoto map that puts virtual stickpins in the places where you’ve taken photographs. If your camera lacks GPS data, you can tag your photos manually.

Schiller half-admitted last year’s version of iMovie wasn’t quite a hit with many customers: “not every feature was there for every customer.” This year’s iMovie adds several appreciated features, such as auto-stabilization for shaky video (like those taken on a bumpy car ride) and animated travel maps.

GarageBand, the music creation part of iLife, adds a “Learn to Play” feature that provides nine video lessons each on how to play the guitar and piano.

Once you’ve completed those, you can learn how to play a some individual songs tutored by the artists themselves. Yep, you can learn how to play “Proud Mary” from John Fogerty himself. Other artists include Sting, Sarah McLachlan and Norah Jones. Apple will provide more lessons via download for $4.99 each.

Among the iWork apps, the coolest addition was not part of the suite but a 99-cent iPhone app called Keynote Remote that turns your iPhone or iPod Touch into a touch-screen remote control of the Keynote presentation program.

The iLife 09 suite ships in late January at the usual price of $79 -- $99 for the Family Pack. The iWork suite is available today, at the same prices. It requires the Leopard (Mac OS X 10.5) operating system. You can get both suites along with Leopard as part of he new “Mac Box Set” package for $169.

Posted by David Zeiler at 3:43 PM in MacBook, Macworld & WWDC, Software by Apple, iTunes/iTunes Store | Permalink | Comments (1)
                       

Less than a year after the January debut of the personal database app Bento, FileMaker has delivered Bento 2, spiffed up with enhancements current users should welcome.

I wrote a blog post about Bento in May when I stumbled upon it while trying to answer a reader’s question about whether an affordable Mac OS X database program for home users existed. Bento fills the hole left when Apple discontinued the AppleWorks software suite, which had included a database module.

Bento 2 retains the look and feel of an Apple-made app such as those in iLife and iWork while finding even more ways to closely integrate with Apple software --something one would expect from a wholly owned subsidiary of Apple.

Those who liked Bento’s integration with iCal and Address Book will like how Mail works with Bento 2. If you create a Mail message field, you can drag relevant emails directly into the Form View of the record. A Quick View button allows you to read the message without going into the Mail app itself.

While the first version of Bento automatically imported data from the user’s Address Book and iCal apps, getting data from older database files wasn’t so easy. Bento 1 could read comma-delimited files (.csv), but people with old AppleWorks 6 databases could not export in .csv. (I used Microsoft Excel as an intermediary.)

Bento 2 solves that by allowing users to save AppleWorks 6 database files in as ASCII format with a .tsv extension, which allows Bento to import it. I initially had trouble getting this to work, but eventually figured out that the .tsv extension needs to be in lower, not upper case. The ability to import AppleWorks DB files directly would be better, but this is a major improvement.

Bento 2 can import and export files directly from spreadsheet apps like Excel and Apple’s Numbers, however.

The new version also addresses my biggest gripe about Bento 1 – its inability to print more than one record on a sheet of paper in Form View. When using Table View, the new “Fit to Width” option, while not perfect, leaves your squeezed information more readable than “Fit to Page” did in Bento 1.

Data entry gets a few nice wrinkles, such as more spreadsheet-like behavior. For example, you no longer need to set up your fields in advance; you can just start typing information and Bento adds generically named fields as needed.

Another handy spreadsheet-like feature: the ability to grab the lower right handle of a data field and dragging it down will duplicate the original field’s data for as many cells as you drag the handle.

FileMaker has also made working with data easier, primarily with the addition of a split view that shows a list of all the records on top with the details of the selected record below.

As one would expect, FileMaker added to its collection of attractive Form templates (Bento 2 adds 10 new ones), but more importantly users can export and share those templates now. So if a person has created the ultimate template for stamp collecting, he or she can share it with other Bento-using philatelists.

However, if you have a great Bento library containing every fact and statistic regarding your daughter’s soccer team, you can’t share it. Well, not as a Bento file at least. You always can export it as an Excel spreadsheet, but your information won’t have the flair of Bento’s Form View.

FileMaker deserves accolades for upgrading this product so quickly and for adding truly useful features rather than flashy but impractical ones. It remains the best Mac OS X personal database option for home users and small businesses.

System requirements
Mac OS X Leopard 10.5.4
Mac with Intel, PowerPC G5 or G4 867MHz or faster processor
512 MB RAM
1 GB hard drive space recommended

Pricing
Single user, $49; Family pack (5 licenses), $99. Purchasers of Bento 1 between Sept. 14 and Oct. 28 are entitled to a free upgrade. A 30-day trial version of the software can be downloaded from FileMaker’s Web site.

Posted by David Zeiler at 2:38 PM in Software by Apple | Permalink | Comments (3)
                       

As if Apple didn’t have enough trouble on its hands with the ongoing MobileMe e-mail nightmare, the company faces an even thornier problem with its revamped, renamed online service.

Though better than .Mac, it’s not massively better.

I’ve been using MobileMe/.Mac since it was a free service known as iTools (according to my account status, that would be Jan. 17, 2000). I have continued to pay the $99 annual membership fee because I liked the mac.com e-mail address, the online iDisk storage and its integration with Mac OS X and Apple apps such as iCal, iPhoto, iWeb and Address Book.

I love how easy it is to push a button in iPhoto and have the images appear in my gallery minutes later. And how easy it is to create a Web site or blog with iWeb and with a push of a button post it to the Internet – no HTML or FTP required.

And iDisk is great for sending large files back and forth to work (I don’t need to remember to put a flash drive in my pocket) or to friends and family.

Given what I do with the service, however, many of MobileMe improvements don’t do much for me.

True, the browser-based online versions of iCal, Mail and the Address Book look great, feel as responsive as any desktop app and work almost exactly like their Mac counterparts.

But I have little need for Web-based versions of those programs. It’s not that often I want to access my contacts and calendar from a computer I don’t own. Generally I’d rather use the versions on the hard drives of my Mac Pro and MacBook.

For some reason I expected more from Apple here. Maybe I’m the exception, but the few browser-based apps MobileMe offers aren’t ones that I would use with any regularity.

So the flashiest aspect of MobileMe gives me marginally more functionality than .Mac did, since .Mac kept all my iCal, Address Book data and Safari bookmarks synchronized on all my Macs (and my iPod Classic, for that matter).

How about the “push” technology that is supposed to keep all the data on my Macs synced automatically?

Well, it turns out that MobileMe is better than .Mac was at propagating changes, but Apple’s early promises of data instantly updated on all Web-connected devices wasn’t quite accurate.

Tech-savvy users quickly figured out that while data saved directly to the MobileMe servers would push out to any Web-connected Macs, PCs or iPhones, changes made to an app on your Mac’s hard drive would not transmit to other devices until the Mac synced with MobileMe at its next scheduled interval – which could be up to 15 minutes.

That’s not much different than how .Mac synced data.

All this is not to say that MobileMe is a total disappointment. Apple improved several aspects of the service significantly.

One of the more intriguing features of MobileMe is the improved accessibility for those using Windows PCs. Not only will MobileMe sync with a PC running Internet Explorer, Outlook and Windows Contacts, but it also allows PC users to run those Web-based Mac-like apps – yet another carrot to lure the unenlightened away from the Dark Side.

Since I use the iDisk more than any other feature, I’m pleased with the doubling of storage space to 20 gigabytes. I’m very pleased with its much faster speed (under .Mac just opening the iDisk to see your files could result in enough face time with the spinning beach ball to hypnotize you).

Yet MobileMe’s Web-based version of the iDisk still lacks key features when compared to mounting the iDisk on your Desktop the old-fashioned way via the Finder menu command.

When you open your iDisk in the Finder, you can see previews of photos, text files and movies; when you use the Web-based interface, you can’t. And you can’t drag-and-drop files from the browser window to your Desktop as you can from an iDisk Finder window.

Apple could easily make MobileMe much more compelling, however.

The secret lies in its browser-based apps – MobileMe needs more of them. And Apple has several excellent candidates among the existing iLife and iWork programs.

Imagine enhancing the photos in your Gallery with a browser-based iPhoto, or managing your own music collection in the “cloud” via a browser-based iTunes, or using a browser-based iWeb to maintain your MobileMe-based blog. Imagine a browser-based version of the Pages word processor.

Think about it: most people don’t buy iLife, as it is included with every Mac. Including lite versions of a select few of these apps in MobileMe would give more Mac users a reason to buy it while ratcheting up the temptation for Windows users to switch. Meanwhile, Pages lite would serve as an online demo to promote sales of the full iWork suite.

Because despite the new features and enhancements, at $99 per year MobileMe remains more expensive than it’s worth to many users. Adding a few more apps, a la Google Apps (which is free, for Pete’s sake), would go a long way toward fulfilling the promise of a fee-based Apple-run online service.

And installing servers that don’t drop users e-mail service for a week while wiping 10 percent of their messages wouldn’t hurt, either.

Posted by David Zeiler at 1:37 PM in MobileMe, Software by Apple | Permalink | Comments (6)
                       

The dearth of personal database programs for the Mac has puzzled me for a long time.

While many people may never need (or think they need) a database app, nothing beats them for organizing and tracking large lists, catalogs of collections and other personal information.

I created database files years ago (in the original version of AppleWorks for the Apple II!) for my music and film collections, among other things. (I know iTunes serves as a de facto database for digital music, but my original file includes a lot of albums on vinyl and cassette that have not yet made it to my Mac.)

I still can access my ancient files with the Mac version of AppleWorks thanks to my trusty old MacLinkPlus translators. But Apple discontinued development of AppleWorks last August, so we’ll never see an Intel-native version.

Many Mac users with basic database needs searched for a replacement but came up empty.

Apple’s iWork? Nope, the suite features only a word processor (Pages), presentation (Keynote) and spreadsheet (Numbers).

Microsoft Office? Well, Office does offer a database program -- Access – but it’s exclusive to Windows and available only in pro-level versions.

Mac users could buy the venerable and acclaimed FileMaker Pro, but as a product aimed at professionals and businesses with a relatively hefty price tag ($299) it never made sense for casual users.

Enter Bento, a database app from the folks at FileMaker designed specifically for personal use. It lacks most of FileMaker’s fancier features, particularly the ability to share a database over a network, but for a reasonable $49 it provides most of the functionality an individual user would require.

FileMaker is a wholly owned subsidiary of Apple Inc., which helps explain why Bento has the look and feel of Apple’s iWork and iLife applications.

And it doesn’t just look like an Apple application – Bento integrates with other Apple programs as much as any component of iLife or iWork.

Case in point: On first launch Bento imports any data you have in iCal and Address Book.

Any changes made in Bento immediately are reflected in the source program and vice versa. In other words, whenever you add someone to Address Book, that entry shows up automatically the next time you launch Bento. If you make a change to a calendar in Bento, it appears in iCal.

You can create new databases (”Libraries”) from scratch or import them from CSV (comma-separated value) files. If you’ve been using Microsoft Excel to store lists, you can export them as CSV files for import into Bento.

Bento also copies many interface features from OS X and Apple applications. Smart Collections, for example, work just like Smart Playlists in iTunes. For any given Library, you can create a Collection to include only records that meet a specific set of criteria. If you add a new record that meets those criteria, it automatically shows up in the Smart Collection.

Stepping beyond the capabilities of the databases of yore, Bento offers more than mere data storage and management. In addition to text and numbers, you can include media files such as photos and video, hot links to Web sites and links to related files elsewhere on your hard drive (such as Microsoft Word documents).

Other nice touches include optional fields for assigning star ratings or creating a multiple-choice pop-up menu.

Adding fields is as easy as drag and drop in Form View, which shows one record at a time. Want to get rid of a field? Drag it out of the window and it disappears in a puff of smoke, Mac OS X-style. You can rearrange the fields on the page any way you like, and can easily resize or align them.

If you want to see your data in list form, Table View shows it in labeled columns (as it would appear in a spreadsheet like Excel.)

The Advanced Search function provides traditional database functionality, allowing you to find all the movies in your film collection from the 1980s starring Emilio Estevez, for instance.

Although solid and impressive for a 1.0 version, Bento could improve in a few areas.

My biggest complaint is that despite all the customization available in Form View, Bento offers no option for printing multiple records on one sheet of paper. Table View will print a list, but if you have one or more fields with a lot of text that won’t do the job.

Another oddity is in how Bento saves files, or rather doesn’t save them. Databases don’t exist as standalone files; all of your Libraries appear on launch in a Mac OS X-like sidebar called the Source List.

Somehow every change you make is saved to the database with no user interaction. Although it seems to work fine, I find the lack of a Save function mildly disconcerting. The Bento User Guide does at least tell users how to back up their data.

Finally, although Bento is not a system-resource hog, its advanced integration with Mac OS X means it runs only on 10.5 Leopard, the current version of OS X. Those with Macs incapable of upgrading to Leopard will need to buy a new Mac before they can run Bento.

Overall, I recommend Bento for Mac users who have need of a database application. FileMaker has created an exceptionally Mac-friendly, easy-to-use database program for regular folk, and just in the nick of time.

Posted by David Zeiler at 11:17 AM in Software by Apple | Permalink | Comments (1)
                       

While investigating the story behind the photo of a Mac-using David Simon that I posted on the blog last week, I e-mailed Greg Spence, the man responsible for the post-production of Simon’s next project, an HBO mini-series called “Generation Kill.”

Rather than discuss what one would expect – his possible use of high-end Macs equipped with Final Cut Pro and other high-end Apple video tools – Spence instead described how he and his colleagues depend on Apple’s consumer products.

In particular Spence said iChat is an integral part of his daily work, serving in multiple capacities.

“We use iChat religiously in our cutting rooms, as do most sound and picture editors and assistants,” Spence wrote in his e-mail. “Sometimes it is as short-range as a person in an intense screening or editorial meeting sending messages to someone just outside the door, or it can be as distant as across the globe.”

But I was surprised to learn that iChat is more than just a great communicator; it also can play a role in the production process, at least on some projects.

“On lower budget pictures we use iChat to record ADR [additional dialogue recording] from actors around the world,” Spence said.

“We sign on iChat, set up cameras, the director talks to the talent, they record the line... after each line the recordist simply drops it into the iChat window and we pull it down in Los Angeles. Lots of low-budget shows do this now and save up to $1,200 per hour. It isn’t super fast, but for a few lines it works great.”

Yet Spence has another use for iChat he considers the more vital than any other. In the middle of a five-month stay in London to work on the “Generation Kill” project, he is 5,500 miles away from his family in Santa Monica, Calif.

“I have regularly scheduled iSight conferences with my kids,” Spence said. His wife sets up her laptop at the breakfast table in Santa Monica, which coincides with his “tea time” in London.

“It makes all the difference in the world,” he said.

Posted by David Zeiler at 7:13 AM in Software by Apple | Permalink | Comments (1)
                       

On Friday my Mac Pro upgrades arrived via UPS from Other World Computing – a 4 gigabyte memory kit and two 500 gigabtye Seagate Barracuda hard drives.

I installed them over the weekend – perhaps the easiest hardware upgrade I’ve ever performed. Thanks, Apple.

With the hard drives installed, I moved on to Phase 2: installing a copy of Windows XP Professional on one of the auxiliary drives using Apple’s Bootcamp utility.

Bootcamp worked as advertised, though I’m not sure I’d recommend it to users who aren’t particularly tech savvy. I can see such people getting very nervous during the install process. As Apple warns, making the wrong selection from one of the DOS-looking text menus along the way could wipe the Mac operating off your hard drive. I’d hate to be the tech support guy taking that call.

Once Windows XP was installed, the Mac Pro rebooted into Windows (creepy, I know). That’s when things turned sour.

Within seconds, Windows started to nag me with warning balloons bout the lack of anti-virus software, the urgent need to “activate” Windows and how great it would be if I took a “virtual tour” of Windows to learn about all its great features. Ugh.

The Windows Annoyance Factor rose quickly. I wanted to change a few of the system settings, so I went to the Control Panels area. Finding the Control Panel you want is easy enough, but navigating all the tabs and secondary menus is a nightmare. If you’re lucky (and persistent) you just might find the setting you’re looking for. It’s much easier to locate items in Mac OS X’s System Preferences.

After noticing a lot of essential services weren’t working (such as the Internet), I decided to actually read the Bootcamp instructions I had printed out. Yep, I needed to insert the Leopard disk that came with the Mac Pro to install the proper drivers.

Windows rebooted again, and voila! Everything worked.

That done, I moved on to Phase 3: installing Parallels to enable the use of Windows in the Mac environment without rebooting.

The Parallels installation went smoothly, but after I installed Parallels Tools – the software magic that enables the seamless integration of the Mac OS and Windows – the Windows Annoyance Factor reared its head again. Windows had detected a significant change in my hardware and now needed to be reactivated. (I later discovered a warning to this effect in the copious Parallels user manual.) I had three days until my copy of Windows stopped functioning.

I clicked on the warning balloon to reactivate, which should have been easy. Instead, Windows altered me that I had exceeded my allotted number of activations and needed to contact Microsoft for instructions. I had activated it for the first time just an hour earlier!

I called the toll-free number on the screen and within a minute or two was having a conversation with a computer. The computer voice told me to read an immense serial number-like code to it. After I did that, it gave me another lengthy code, which I typed into a series of 8 boxes. After that my copy of Windows was activated again.

At work, I never fuss with my Windows PC – the IT folk have it set up the way they want it, and that’s fine.

But having experienced a Windows installation at home, I’m learning first-hand at least one reason why many PC users have switched to the Mac. They’ve grown weary of the Windows Annoyance Factor.

Posted by David Zeiler at 12:37 PM in Mac Pro, Software by Apple | Permalink | Comments (5)
                       

One week before Steve Jobs takes the stage in San Francisco for his annual Macworld keynote, the Mac universe is abuzz with the usual rumors and speculation.

Regulations governing Apple pundits require that I contribute to the collective cacophony or forfeit my license to blog on Apple. In that spirit, here’s my take on what might be coming – or not – on Jan. 15:

Mac Pro update – Apple completely shocked me by announcing new pro towers (and server models) this morning. I don't recall Apple ever making such a major product announcement just one week before a Stevenote. So these rumors panned out early. The twin quad core CPUs (giving this Mac 8 cores of processing power) are standard as expected, but there is no mention of Blu-ray DVD support. Steve will mention this, but not spend much time on it.

Retail stats – Steve will probably open the keynote with a rundown of assorted statistics demonstrating Apple’s prodigious business successes. We will hear about how many millions of people visited Apple’s retail stores, and that half of them were “new to the platform.” Steve will tell us how many new stores opened in 2007, and may announce new stores in such countries as China, Brazil and Mexico.

He should gloat about yesterday’s Bernstein Research report that showed Apple’s annual sales per square foot of retail space light years ahead of other retailers. At $4,491 per square foot, Apple not only clobbered Best Buy at $991/sq. ft. but also handily outshone other upscale retailers such as Saks ($388/sq. ft.), Coach ($1648/sq. ft.) and Tiffany and Co. ($2,746/sq. ft.).

Leopard stats – Steve will tell us how many copies of Mac OS X 10.5 have been sold since its launch at the end of October. Whatever the number, it will be the best operating system launch in Apple history. Leopard also will have had the fastest adoption rate of any Mac operating system version.

Office for the Mac 2008 – Craig Eisler, the new general manager of Microsoft’s Mac Business Unit, will join Steve onstage to introduce Office for Mac 2008. There will be a tedious demo.

Other software – Since iWork and iLife both were released in August, we won’t hear of them in the keynote. In fact, it’s hard to say what other software might get mentioned, since Apple got most of its upgrades out over the summer. He might spend a few moments on the prosumer video editing program Final Cut Express, which was updated in mid-November.

Video – The other week I predicted some major video-related announcements at the Stevenote. We will hear about the new iTunes movie rental service, heretofore unannounced by Apple but widely reported in the mainstream media. Various news reports over the past few weeks have said Apple is on the verge of making deals with almost all the major film studios, including 20th Century Fox, Walt Disney, Warner Bros., Paramount and Sony, MGM and Lionsgate. Availability is the major question here; if the deals aren’t final, the service may not launch for a few more months.

Apple TV – Going hand-in-hand with the iTunes Store movie rental news should be an announcement of a new, improved version of the Apple TV. This is not a shoo-in, but it would make a lot of sense for Apple to fix this product by adding the ability to record TV shows (like a TiVo) and access the Internet independently of a computer. The pièce de résistance will be integration with the iTunes Store, so that music, videos and movies could be ordered directly from the user’s sofa with the included remote control.

New iPods – You got ‘em in September. Let’s not be greedy.

iPhone updates – Some think Steve will announce a 3G iPhone next Tuesday; my gut feeling is that it’s too soon. Even if he does announce it, you won’t be able to buy one for several months. One thing we will get at some point during the keynote: stats on how many iPhones have been sold, and a recap of the product’s launch in the U.K., France and Germany. Steve might announce the next nation(s) set to get the iPhone (Spain? Italy? Japan?), but I haven’t read any rumors that further deals are near.

Steve will definitely mention the software development kit that will allow third-party developers to write programs to run on the iPhone. Although Steve has said the SDK would be available in February, he might wow the crowd by announcing its immediate availability.

One more thing ... One product the rumor sites have convinced themselves is coming at Macworld is some sort of Mac subnotebook, something smaller and lighter than a MacBook. This device could incorporate the same touch screen technology used in the iPod Touch. It could use flash memory in place of a hard drive, or at the very least will use flash memory to speed boot times. It will use a LED display (Apple has committed to using the more environmentally friendly LED technology in all its displays.) Despite the prevalence of rumors about this, no one is quite sure what such a beast will look like. But the odds are high we will see some incarnation of a MacBook Mini.

For anyone who’d like to follow the keynote live (it starts at 9 a.m. PST, or noon Baltimore time), several Web sites will be posting updates during the event. I prefer Engadget, but a full list of sites offering coverage will appear on MacSurfer the day of the event.

Posted by David Zeiler at 7:55 AM in Macworld & WWDC, Software by Apple, iMac, iPhone, iPod, iTunes/iTunes Store | Permalink | Comments (1)
                       

A lot of people don’t like the new iMovie. Mac user forums and blogs are rife with comments from distressed users calling iMovie ’08 a “downgrade” from iMovie ’06. Although the new version has some flashy features, it’s true some significant capabilities have vanished. Such iMovie staples as DVD chapter markers as well as a timeline that showed graphically how your video and audio clips lined up are gone.

A few comments culled from Apple’s iMovie discussion boards:

"So I paid for an upgrade and received less bang for the buck. iMovie '08 is not iMovie '06. It's barely a movie editor. I'd call it a 'wizard for idiots' who do nothing but shoot a bunch of video of their kids' birthday parties and don't really care about the final results."

"Please, please, please Apple! Fix what can only be a giant mistake. Leaving audio control features out of iMovie is a deal breaker for me. I am in shock that you have gutted this program and then sold it as 'iMovie' at all."

"I paid for an UPGRADED VERSION of iMovie; and I'm afraid this is not even close to an upgrade."

Disgruntled users expected an evolutionary version of iMovie with more features added to the old; what they got was an app aimed squarely at amateurs who need a quick and dirty video editor to throw together something for YouTube or their personal Web page. Yet fans of the new version say they like it for just that reason. Skimming through any discussion of iMovie ’08, one finds an equal number of proponents. They like the new features, such as “skimming” over video clips with the mouse to see its contents and the way the new version stores clips in a library similar to the way iPhoto works. Most tellingly, many of iMovie ‘08’s defenders actually prefer the shift in emphasis from features and effects to ease and speed.

Comments from the other side of the table:

"I think this program is a beauty, slick and sophisticated. Maybe not as many bells as iMovie 6 HD, but it is so fluid."

"Delve into the program itself, and you'll find that this is a serious upgrade to iMovieHD. Much of the features are yet to come, but this platform is simply amazing."

"iMovie '08 is exactly what I had hoped for and is the reason I rushed out to buy the new iLife package as soon as possible. I didn't realize that it was missing some editing features, but I never got over the hump with iMovie before, so I won't personally miss them."

The consternation over the major changes to one of iLife’s oldest components shows how attached users can become to how a favorite piece of software works. I haven’t used iMovie ’08 myself yet, but having used the old version for years I can understand why many are upset. For more involved projects, you do need more control than the new version provides.

But what Apple did to iMovie makes perfect sense when you look at its full range of video editing products. At the low end is iMovie, sold as part of the iLife suite for $79 and included free on all new Macs. At the high end is Final Cut Studio 2, a $1,299 suite of professional video and audio programs. In the middle is Final Cut Express, a $299 prosumer version of the high-end software that leaves out some of the more advanced features in exchange for a lower price tag.

From Apple’s perspective, the trouble with iMovie is that it was a bit too sophisticated for novices and a bit too basic for many prosumers, many of whom nevertheless would prefer not to pay $299 for Final Cut Express. Prosumers hoping for an iMovie one step closer to Final Cut Express got something intended for an entirely different customer that, frankly, Apple had largely neglected. So now they’re annoyed -- with some justification -- that in customizing iMovie for newbies, Apple has left them with a decision between using outdated software (iMovie ’06) or forking out real money for Final Cut Express.

Even though I fall into this group myself, I can see the practicality of revamping iMovie into something more intuitive. Let’s be honest: the core of the Mac message is making the manipulation of digital media so simple anyone from a schoolchild to a grandma can figure it out. It’s incumbent upon Apple to make sure that each of the iLife apps fits that criteria, and iMovie didn’t.

It’s the correct strategy for Apple, with the only snag being the inevitable backlash from long-time users of iMovie who were bound to feel cheated. Knowing this, the company made iMovie ’06 a free download for buyers of iLife ’08 (although anyone who bought a Mac within the past year or so already has the full iLife ’06 suite). That’s not what these folks wanted, but at least it’s a peace offering. And I bet most of the feathers ruffled over this issue could be smoothed over by one more conciliatory gesture from Apple: a price drop on Final Cut Express to $199. Wouldn’t that make you feel a whole lot better?

Posted by David Zeiler at 4:04 AM in Software by Apple | Permalink | Comments (4)
                       

Today I learned that AppleWorks 6, Apple’s veteran production suite has been officially declared “end of life.” Its page on Apple’s Web site now redirects to the iWork suite page. Though not surprising in view of the recent addition of the Numbers spreadsheet to iWork, it nevertheless brings a bittersweet end to a legendary program.

Introduced as ClarisWorks in 1991, the software offered an early Mac alternative to Microsoft's offerings. ClarisWorks differed from most other productivity suites in that it combined six programs -- word processing, database, spreadsheet, drawing, painting and a terminal program for communications (later replaced by a presentation program) – into one integrated app. The components of Microsoft Office, by contrast, function as separate apps.

For true computing graybeards, the program’s pedigree can be traced even further back, to the original AppleWorks for the Apple II released in 1984. Back then the main competition wasn’t anything from Microsoft; it was a spreadsheet program for DOS-based PCs called Lotus 1-2-3. For a while that original version of AppleWorks was the top-selling productivity suite of its day. I bought AppleWorks 1.0 the same day I bought my Apple IIc in 1985, and later used another descendant, AppleWorks GS.

ClarisWorks spent most of its life as a Classic application, built for Mac OS 9 and its predecessors. Apple dusted off the old AppleWorks moniker for the suite in 1998, and with version 6, released in 2000, the suite became Carbonized so it would run in Mac OS X. Amazingly, Apple also sold a version of ClarisWorks/AppleWorks for Windows starting in 1993. So an eventual Windows version of the iWork suite would not be unprecedented.

While I use Microsoft Office often, I still use AppleWorks 6 occasionally. My advice to Mac users who remain attached to the program is to make sure you’ve upgraded to the latest version (6.2.9). You still can use it as you always have. Just because Apple has left it behind does not mean you have to. I can see some people continuing to use it a decade from now.

Some folks on Low End Mac, where Dan Knight wrote an early obituary for AppleWorks the other day, have called on Apple to make the code on abandoned programs such as AppleWorks free and open source so that interested parties could continue to update and improve it. I heartily agree. What does Apple have to lose but the goodwill of many of its oldest and most loyal customers?

Posted by David Zeiler at 1:47 PM in Software by Apple | Permalink | Comments (1)
                       

By the time Steve Jobs took the stage Tuesday morning to announce new Mac products, everyone knew that new iMacs were on the agenda. Because Steve had invited the media to Apple’s campus, a rarity he usually reserves for such momentous occasions as the debut of the iPod, expectations were high.

Sure enough, Jobs introduced a revamped line of iMacs just minutes after he began his presentation. The new iMacs now have glossy screens, aluminum cases, are significantly thinner and feature an optional wireless keyboard. The 17-inch model is no more; Apple now offers two 20-inch models and one 24-inch model. Perhaps the most notable news here is the pricing: at $1,799 the 24-inch model is $200 cheaper than its predecessor; the midrange 20-inch price remains the same at $1,499 (and as usual offers the best balance of price and features). The low-end 20-inch iMac is $200 more than the cheapest 17-inch had been, but the same as a beefier 17-inch offering. Overall, you’re getting more iMac for the money, and that’s always a good thing.

Still, the new iMacs are hardly a huge leap forward. But things got much more interesting once Jobs moved on to the software: updates to both the iWork and iLife suites, which many had not expected until later this year or even the Macworld show in January.

The biggest surprise was the addition of a spreadsheet, called Numbers, to iWork. That makes the suite fully capable of replacing Microsoft Office. While the subject of yesterday’s post, NeoOffice, remains a usable (and free) alternative to Office for the Mac, iWork now becomes a much better option than it had been. If you throw in Apple’s free Mail program, iWork now has an answer for all four Office for the Mac components -- Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Entourage. And each of iWork’s components can read and save in Office’s file formats. And despite the addition of a third component, the price of iWork remains a mere $79, far less than the $399 list price for the full retail version of Office 2004 for the Mac. While businesses may continue to need Microsoft’s package, most home users will find iWork a more than adequate substitute and far easier on their budgets. If Jobs really wants to get Microsoft’s goat, he could release iWork for Windows. Maybe in 2008, eh?

Jobs also announced an update to the Apple’s iLife suite – iPhoto, iMovie, iDVD, GarageBand and iWeb. He demonstrated several nifty new features, particularly the “Events” in iPhoto, which allows better organization of thousands of images, and a completely revamped iMovie that makes it much easier to browse video files and create movies faster than before.

But the major news here was all of Jobs talk of “Web 2.0” features. Apple has added more integration and sharing features to its online service, .Mac, so users can create an online photo gallery that syncs with iPhoto. Friends can contribute to your online album; the images will automatically download to your Mac. If you have an iPhone, you can access your gallery there, too.

Similarly, iMovie has picked up more sharing features. You can send your movies pretty much anywhere you like, including to your iPhone or to the .Mac Web Gallery. Along with further enhancements to iWeb, Apple’s Web site creation software, it’s clear that Jobs has gotten the message sent by such phenomena as MySpace, FaceBook and YouTube. People want the ability to make stuff (photos, videos, blogs) and share it with the world. Apple was a pioneer in the concept of the “digital lifestyle,” and now has the tools – the iLife software paired with its .Mac online services – to capitalize on that concept having gone mainstream. And the iLife suite comes free on every Mac, offering yet another incentive to switchers from Windows.

Although no one will hail today’s iMacs as any sort of breakthrough, they and their Mac kin, primarily the MacBooks, bring in a major portion of Apple’s profits. The software announced today – what you can do with a new Mac -- will be the reason people will buy them, and should help maintain the Mac’s momentum in picking up more market share.

Posted by David Zeiler at 4:20 PM in Macworld & WWDC, Software by Apple, iMac | Permalink | Comments (1)
                       

Safari for Windows was THE bombshell of Steve Jobs’ keynote at the Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco earlier today. While Jobs explained the move by talking about his desire to increase Safari share of Web browsers, there must be more to it than that.

As most everyone knows, Web browsers are given away for free. Apple has invested some degree of its limited resources to create a Windows-compatible browser that will generate exactly $0 in revenue and will serve to annoy the restless, competitive giant that is Microsoft.

At least when Apple made the iPod Windows-compatible, it was to grab market share with the goal of making piles of money, a plan that has succeeded spectacularly.

Ironically, Microsoft discontinued support for Internet Explorer on the Mac shortly after Apple introduced Safari in 2003, seeing little point in devoting resources to a product that had no monetary or strategic value.

So what is Jobs up to, anyway?

The only explanation is that Safari for Windows is that it’s bait, a means of luring Windows users into sampling yet another Apple product. According to Apple, the iPod/iTunes combo has helped bring many Windows users into Apple Stores and many leave Mac owners – “switchers,” as Apple likes to call them. Analysts call this the “halo effect.”

Safari has even more potential to siphon off Windows users into the Mac universe. While music is popular, not everyone will buy an iPod and use iTunes. But virtually everyone who uses a computer uses a Web browser.

I’ve seen a lot of grousing from Mac users in forums over the past six months that Apple has “abandoned” the Mac in favor of pushing its multimedia fare (iPods, downloadable movies, Apple TV, the iPhone). When you step back for a minute, though, it becomes clear that all of Apple’s extracurricular activities serve to push more people towards the Mac. Safari on Windows is just one more element of that strategy.

When I get the time I will watch Jobs’ keynote on via QuickTime on Apple’s Web site. I will have more thoughts on his other announcements tomorrow.

Posted by David Zeiler at 6:42 PM in Macworld & WWDC, Software by Apple | Permalink | Comments (1)