MacMost: Archives

Gary Rosenzweig takes a look at the new iPhone App Store and some of the free and pay applications available, including Twitterrific, AIM, Band and Super Monkey Ball.

Breaking news: once you have downloaded iTunes 7.7, which is available via software update, click on this special link in Safari and iTunes should launch and take you right to the app page for the iPhone Remote application. You can even download it, though I guess we will have to wait for iPhone 2.0 software to install it.
You can then use the navigation at the top to go to other sections of the App Store.

Gary Rosenzweig looks at whether it is worth upgrading to the new iPhone 3G. It has faster Internet, GPS and comes in a 16GB version. But it has poor battery life, would require a new case, and costs more in the long run.

Gary Rosenzweig answers a variety of questions from the MacMost YouTube inbox: De-authorizing iTunes, display on multiple TVs, uninstalling applications, and the Apple II.

Gary Rosenzweig takes a look at how to upgrade your iPhone to the iPhone 3G on July 11: The extra costs of the new AT&T plans, the upgrade cost, upgrading from another AT&T phone and what you can do to get ready.

Gary Rosenzweig takes a look at the six different types of Macs and which ones fit which needs: The iMac, Mac mini, Mac Pro, MacBook, MacBook Air and MacBook Pro.

Gary Rosenzweig answers some viewer questions: Private browsing, a better way to filter spam in Apple Mail, networked printer, and getting the total file size of multiple files and folders.

Gary Rosenzweig takes a look at the Spore Creature Creator mini game you can download and play on your Mac. You can create a Spore creature, play with it and share it. However, some have been using it to create pornographic creatures.

Gary Rosenzweig looks at how you can save money on Mac software by shopping around at online stores.

Gary Rosenzweig takes a look at the FireFox 3 browser for Mac. New features include smooth zoom, better bookmarking and site identification.

Gary Rosenzweig takes a look at what the new MobileMe service will be like, and how it will differ from the old .Mac service.

Gary Rosenzweig shows you how you can subscribe to free and interesting calendars using iCal.

Gary Rosenzweig takes a look at the winners of this year's Apple Design Awards, including new categories for iPhone applications.

Gary Rosenzweig takes a look at what we know about Snow Leopard, the upcoming release of Mac OS X 10.6. it should include better support for multiple processor machines, QuickTime X, Microsoft Exchange support and other optimizations.

1. Headphone jack. The new iPhone will have a flush headphone jack. This means you can plug in any standard headphone or speaker device without a $10 adapter. You know, the adapter you discover you left at home just after you get to the airport.
2. 3G. Well, this is a given. You should get twice the download speed on Web pages, videos and email.
3. GPS. Now you will really know where you are. But I can’t wait for the 3rd party apps that will be built around this. I’m sure it will rival expensive GPS devices in functionality before long. Geocaching may go mainstream.
4. Better battery life. I expected battery life to suffer with 3G, but it looks like we’ll have more battery life than every before.
5. Lots of countries: Friends in Canada and Australia will finally be able to get one, as well as lots of other countries.
6. A scientific calculator in iPhone 2.0, which means there will be no more reason to have a piece of hardware called a “scientific calculator.”
7. Lots of free iPhone apps. I predict that a majority of iPhone apps will be free, cool gizmos created by hobbyists. Something new to discover every week, most likely.
8. Bulk delete for email. Sounds silly, but this eats up a lot of my time.
9. MLB.com live game updates. This is one of the primary things I use my iPhone for right now, via Safari. A dedicated app would be great, as long as there isn’t a subscription fee attached.
10. The price. For $199, a lot of people will start coming over to the iPhone.

Gary Rosenzweig runs down the keynote announcements from the WWDC: A new 3G iPhone with GPS, and the MobileMe service replaces .Mac.

Live Updates, local San Francisco times:
10:05 — Steve Jobs takes the stage as the keynote speaker. Al Gore is in the audience (Apple board member).
10:08 — Announced that the new version of Mac OS X will be called “Snow Leopard.”
10:10 — Talking about iPhone 2.0, starting with the success of the SDK beta program.
10:10-10:25 — Talk about the SDK, similar to what was presented 3 months ago about how the SDK works.
10:27 — Sega to demonstrate Super Monkey Ball, updated with full features. Will be available at launch of iPhone App Store for $9.99.
10:30 — Ebay to demonstrate iPhone app.
10:32 — Loopt is demonstrating using a location-based social network app.
10:35 — TypePad demonstrating blogging application. App will be available for free from the App Store at launch.
10:37 — Associated Press application.
10:40 — Pangea Software, demonstrating two Mac port games: Enigma and CroMag Rally. $9.99 each.
10:44 — Mark Terry is showing an app named “Band” which turns the iPhone into a musical instrument.
10:47 — MLB.com (Major League Baseball) demonstrates “At Bat” — live game box scores and stats.
10:50 — Modality with medical software that helps med students learn.
11:52 — More medical application software from Mimvista.
11:56 — Digital Legends entertainment shows a fantasy adventure game, Krull. Ready by September.
12:01 — Announced “push” notification ability for applications as a substitute for running processes in the background. So after an application is quit, the user can still get push messages and sounds sent to their iPhone. It will be a unified service for all developers. Available in September, seeded to developers earlier.
11:03 — Jobs back, announcing new features for iPhone: Contact search. iWork document support, including keynote. MS PowerPoint too. Bulk delete of messages. Save email images to photo library. Scientific calculator. Parental controls. More languages. Character drawing for asian languages.
11:07 — iPhone 2.0 available in July. Free for iPhone users. $10 for iPod Touch users.
11:08 — iPhone App Store. Free apps are free. Pay apps give 70% to developer. Available wirelessly in more countries. Apps less than 10MB can be downloaded through mobile networks. Others through WiFi.
11:10 — Enterprise developers can distribute apps to only their users by authorizing iPhones in their enterprise to run those apps. Distribution can be internal to their organization.
11:11 — Can also use ad hoc distribution to distribute apps to 100 iPhones. Used for college classes.
11:12 — Mobile Me: brand new service through Apple. MS Exchange for the rest of us. Push information up and down to all devices. Will use me.com for Web-based client, Mac and PC. Uses iCal, Mail and Address Book too. Works with iDisk too. Anything updated/added on one device will update on all devices instantly.
11:26 — 60 day free tried for MobileMe. MobileMe replaces .Mac service. All .Mac services still there. All .Mac users automatically updated to MobileMe. Early July.
12:27 — Jobs talking about iPhone. Sold 6 million iPhone before running out.
12:29 — 3G network, enterprise support, 3rd-party application support, more countries, more affordable.
12:30 — iPhone 3G. Plastic back, flush headphone, jack, improved audio.
12:32 — Faster data downloads. Jobs demonstrates 3G speed vs. old iPhone and N95.
12:35 — Battery times: stand-by time: 300 hours, 2G talk time: 10 hours, 3G talk time: 5 hours, 3G browsing: 5-6 hours, video: 7 hours, audio 24 hours.
12:37 — GPS. Will be able to track as you move on a map.
12:39 — Countries: 25 as goal: Mexico, Canada, Australia, China, Japan, 29 in Europe, 15 in South America, 8 in Asia/Australia. 70 counties in next few months.
12:43– Price: $199 for 8GB, $299 for 16GB. White version available too.
12:45 — Rollout on July 11 in 22 countries.

One of the rumors for next week is a re-launch of .Mac, Apple’s ISP-like service. While there isn’t much fuel behind this rumor, it does make sense as .Mac is ripe for change.
So, basically, here is what .Mac currently does:

Email: Use a @mac.com email account.

Web Hosting: Set up your own Web site, blog, podcast, or whatever.

Photos: Create photo galleries

Remote Sync: Store copies of your contacts, calendar, etc. online

Storage: Upload files to share with others. Maybe use as a remote backup solution.

The problem is that most of these can be done on other services for free. Sometimes better. But each of these services has the potential to be a best-in-class with a little improvement.
What I would really like to see is all of these tied into each other in a social network-like interface. One reason to not post photos to .Mac in favor of Flickr is that people use Flickr like a social network — checking in on their friends’ photos. On .Mac, it is like posting to your own isolated site. No one will know you posted new photos without getting a reminder from you.
But what if .Mac worked like FaceBook, but with a Apple interface. You could post photos, blog entries, status updates, audio and video etc. And people in your social network would see it. Maybe people in other social networks would too — for instance if you could link your FaceBook account to your .Mac account. Or have an automatic Twitter message sent out.
So that is my wish for .Mac. Improve everything slightly. Then tie it all together and connect everyone.

Gary Rosenzweig looks at rumors of new products as the Steve Jobs keynote approaches. Rumors include a new iPhone, a relaunch of .Mac, Mac OS X 10.6.

Gary Rosenzweig takes a look at NeatReceipts, a scanner and software that lets you digitize and organize receipts, bills and other documents.