Everyone is in agreement that the new MacBooks look great. But almost everyone is also in agreement that the biggest problem with the new MacBooks is the removal of a Firewire port. The MacBook Pros have one, but not the new MacBooks.
The primary use of this Firewire port was to import digital video from a camcorder. They can also be used to connect external hard drives and some other devices. But hard drives are usually USB2 nowadays, which are comparable in transfer speed to Firewire. So the main problem with not having Firewire on the new MacBooks is in connecting camcorders.
But Steve Jobs defended this move, saying that many new camcorders use USB2 anyway. This is surprisingly true. I haven’t bought a new camcorder in about 2 years, and then Firewire was the standard. But looking around now, I see that USB2 has indeed moved into this area. There are still Firewire connectors on some camcorders, but USB2 does seem to have taken over.
In addition, the home video camcorder market has changed. Nowadays, any decent digital camera has a video mode that captures at least 640×480 video at 30 frames per second. The quality isn’t pro-level, or even Web video level in many cases, but it is definitely family reunion video level. And these videos are transferred to your computer via USB2, or using a card reader. Also, with the popularity of small, cheap video cameras like the Flip, many people are forgetting about consumer-level camcorders all together in favor of this cool little devices.
So the only problem I see is the situation where someone who has a Firewire-only camcorder buys a new MacBook to replace an old one. Now they find they can no longer connect the two. Their upgrade has turned into a downgrade. And with no expansion slot on a MacBook, and no way to adapt USB2 to Firewire, they really are stuck. There is just no way to use Firewire on their new MacBook.
So existing MacBook users that use their MacBooks with a Firewire camcorder need to either get a new camcorder or upgrade to a MacBook Pro, not a MacBook.
Looking at it from Apple’s point of view, I do see this taking care of one problem: how to differentiate the MacBooks from the MacBook Pros. In the past, the case has been different, as well as the video chips. Now that they are the same, we’ve got Firewire, expansion slot, and larger screen, to name the major differences.
So the good news is it will be easier to choose between MacBooks and MacBook Pros. The bad news is that if you really want Firewire, you’re going to have to pay a lot more for it. But with a difference in price of $700, you can afford to replace that old camcorder with a new one anyway.
Show notes: The link to download XCode is http://developer.apple.com/tools/xcode/. You can read all about the Terminal ditto command at this official help page: http://developer.apple.com/documentation/Darwin/Reference/ManPages/man1/ditto.1.html. You can get File Synchronization here: http://nemesys2.dyndns.org:8080/.
As a companion to this video, here is a Spotlight quick reference list:
Default keyboard command to bring up Spotlight search field: Command+Space.
Using the “kind:” modifier, you can specify the kind of files to show. Some common ones are: app, contact, folder, email, event, todo, image, movie, audio, music, pdf, pref, bookmark, font.
You can also use the “date:”, “created:” and “modified:” modifiers with dates like 10/16/08. The “date:” modifier works with “date:today” as well.
You can use “name:” to specify that you only want items with those words in the name.
You can use quotes to exact phrasing, like “my file”.
You can use AND, OR or NOT in searches, but they must be captialized.
When you get a list of times, you can use the arrow keys to move down the list. Then use Return to open the file or application. Use Command+Return to open a Finder window with that file selected instead.
Here are some of the math functions you can use when using Spotlight as a calculator: sqrt, pow, ceil, floor, rint, exp, log, sin, cos, tan, asin, acos, atan.
Summary: Jobs announced new MacBook Pros, a new 24-inch display, and new MacBooks. He also announced an update for the MacBook Air. The new MacBooks and MacBook Pros feature a new style of construction where the the aluminum body is carved from a single block. They include new Nvidia graphics chips for better video performance, and a new mini display port. There is also a new glass trackpad that supports multi-touch for gestures and the entire trackpad is a the button.
Here was the play-by-play:
10:05 Steve Jobs comes on stage and introduces Tim Cook, the Apple COO.
10:08 Cook talking about the success of Mac taking more market share over the last few years.
10:10 Cook says Mac actually has 31% market share when you measure in revenue.
10:12 Jobs introduces Jonathan Ive, Apple VP and lead designer to talk about MacBook design.
10:15 Ive talking about building notebooks by taking a single piece of aluminum and carving parts out of it.
10:17 Start with a 2.5 pound piece of aluminum and end up with a single .25 pound piece.
10:20 Jobs now talking about the Nvidia 9400M chipset, which will provide video and a GPU, 5 times faster than the current MacBook integrated video.
10:22 New MacBooks will feature a multi-touch glass trackpad, where the entire trackpad is the button.
10:23 New trackpad will include multi-touch gestures and multiple button support through software.
10:24 New MacBook Pro: Glass LED-backlit screen, connectors on one side only, mini display connector, new trackpad, new graphics chips, new rigid aluminum body built with new technique.
10:25 Also: Backlit keyboard, iSight and mic, magnetic latch, motion sensor.
10:26 New mini port connector will be on all new Macs?
10:29 NVIDIA GeForce 9400M or the NVIDIA GeForce 9600M.
10:31 Will include Firewire 800, two USB, mini display port, audio in and out, ExpressCard 34, and a battery indicator. No Firewire 400 (But you can use an adapter). Have slot-loading superdrive.
10:33 Option for Solid State Drive. Can access the drive and battery through lid at bottom.
10:34 .95 inches thick.
10:35 Bluetooth 2.1, 802.11n.
10:36 2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 3MB L2 Cache, 2GB Memory, 250GB hard drive and SuperDrive for $1999.
10:36 2.53 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 6MB L2 Cache, 4GB Memory, larger hard drive and SuperDrive for $2499. Also better video chips.
10:38 Shipping today!
10:39 Upgrading MacBook Air: Nvidia 9400M, 120GB drive, mini display port (November)
10:40 New 24-inch display with 1920×1200, iSight, mic, stereo speakers, 3-port USB, $899 (November)
10:41 New MacBooks: Nvidia 9400M, mini display port, glass screen, multi-touch trackpad, new construction technique like the MacBook Pro, better battery life.
10:44 2.0 GHz processor model with 160GB drive for $1299 and 2.4 GHz for with 250GB drive for $1599.
10:45 Old white plastic MacBook still on sale for $999. MacBooks on sale today, in stores tomorrow.
10:46 Video shown about new MacBook and manufacturing process.
10:52 Jobs jokes about health, shows current blood pressure on screen (110/70).
10:53 Q&A session.
10:54 Display Port used instead of HDMI because HDMI can’t drive 30-inch monitor.
10:56 Blu-ray left out because it is too hard to license it.
10:58 17-inch MacBook Pro will also be refreshed, but later.
11:00 Only glass screens, no more matte ones in the future.
11:02 Jobs says touch screens don’t make sense yet.
11:03 No Mac “netBook” yet as market is too new.
The Apps in the Apps Store are a huge success. There has been just the outpouring of creativity and innovation that everyone expected. But the App Store itself is very inadequate.
First of all, try navigating around in it. Slow and sometimes just unresponsive. But that is par for the course when you consider the music store has always been that way. The iTunes store works as an online store, but it could work a lot better, especially considering it is a specialized piece of software communicating with a specialized server.
Second, it clearly does not meet the needs of the developers or the users. Consider how many developers right now are communicating with their audience through updating the description of the app. Notes are sometimes changed daily with little messages about updates and such. Clearly the description area is not where this should be. Perhaps a notes, messages or developer mini-blog are needed. Perhaps the store just needs to make it clearer to users that they should visit the developer’s Web site for information like this.
Two-way communication also seems to be a problem. Users are using reviews as a way to talk to the developer. Maybe this is because developers are being unresponsive? Or maybe it is because there is no clear line of communication between the developer and the users. Or maybe it is because the barrier to entry for a developer is so low that a single person can soon find themselves with tens or hundreds of thousands of paying customers, but no system in place to respond to requests.
What is clear is that reviews should be reviews. That needs to be fixed. Apple already fixed it somewhat by requiring that you purchase the product in order to leave a review.
Perhaps the App store should be taken out of iTunes altogether and put on the Web where it can be faster, presumably. We’ve done it at MacMost, sort of, by creating our own iPhone Apps directory. I enjoy using it myself just because I can quickly and clearly see what apps are new each day.
To use the MacMost free iPhone ringtones, you must first subscribe to the podcast, or download the ringtones manually from the free iPhone ringtones page. You can download them manually by pressing the Ctrl key on your keyboard and clicking on the M4R link for the ringtone you want to download.
To subscribe to the Podcast, click on this link to launch iTunes and go to the MacMost iPhone Ringtones podcast. You will only see two episodes of the podcast, because iTunes won’t show the 100+ episodes are are simply ringtones. Then click on the Subscribe button.
Then look in your iTunes Podcast section to view all of the podcasts you currently subscribe to. Select the MacMost iPhone Ringtones podcast and expand it to show all of the ringtones. You can press the Get button next to ringtones you want, or click on the Get All button to download them all.
The hardest part is to get the ringtones to transfer to your iPhone. Method #1 is to sync all episodes of the MacMost iPhone Ringtones podcast to your iPhone. With your iPhone plugged in, select it on the left side of iTunes. Then select the Podcasts tab. Next, change your options to have all episodes of all podcasts sync. Alternatively, you can have all episodes sync, but select which podcasts you want, making sure you include the MacMost iPhone Ringtones podcast.
Method #2 is to create a smart playlist with all of your ringtones. In iTunes, select the File menu, Create Smart Playlist. Now, create a smart playlist with the options of “Kind” containing “Ringtone.” Make sure “Live Updating” is selected as well.
Check the new smart playlist and rename it if you like to “MacMost Ringtones.” You should see all of the ringtone “episodes” you downloaded in the podcast. Since Live Updating is selected for the smart playlist, new rintones will be added to the list as they are added to the podcast.
Now go back to your iPhone settings and select the Music tab instead of the Podcasts tab. Make sure you are either syncing all Playlists, or at least the MacMost Ringtones smart playlist is set to sync.
Once you use either method #1 or #2, you should see your ringtones appear on your iPhone under Settings, Sounds.
The official Scrabble game for iPhone is a pretty full-featured version similar to the Mac and PC Scrabble games. There is also one for the iPod, but this version plays much better with the touch screen.
You can play against a friend on a single iPhone, or play against a computer opponent. One problem is the computer AI is too each on the medium setting, and too hard on the hard setting. There should be more settings in between, like the Mac game.
This game is a must-have if you are Scrabble fan. It is quick and easy to play a game and your Scrabble vocabulary will grow by playing it.
Read more about Scrabble and view it at the iTunes App Store.
Update: MacMost viewer Nick pointed out that you can also use GarageBand 3 to do this. Just drag and drop the video into GarageBand, delete the video track, and export as a .mp3 file.
FYI: My Twitter name just changed to @rosenz.
Since the launch of the iTunes App store for iPhone and iPod Touch apps, there has been a ton of attention given to iPhone Apps. Having so many third-party developers pour their creativity into applications that run on the little iPhone is creating a renaissance in the world of software development.
As a user, it is also a great thing. Every day new and interesting apps appear in the iTunes store that could be useful. The iPhone gets more and more powerful with every app release.
But I’ve been disappointed in the experience of finding iPhone apps. The iTunes store is not a great way to find things — whether it is apps or music.
I dreamed of an iPhone app directory that would show me what’s new and allow me to sort and filter.
So I built one. Announcing the MacMost iPhone Apps Directory. I’d consider it to be in beta stage now, but it is still pretty powerful. For once thing, it makes it a lot faster and easier to check to see what’s new, or to just see what apps have just been updated.
Anyway, check it out and send some feedback. I’ll be adding some more features soon.
Go to the iPhone Apps Directory.
