Dienstag, 7. Januar 2003


Safari reviewed: Mark Pilgrim already has a first review of the new Apple browser up. I have also downloaded it and taken it for a quick test-drive. Looks pretty good and I don't miss the tabbed browsing Mark refers to (I have never used tabbed browsing).

I think the more interesting question is "why yet another browser". It's not as if there aren't already enough around for Mac OS X.   

Macworld Keynote Blog: Ready to go. Live stream on the iBook. iChat running parallel and blogging from the PC. All connected via WLAN and I'm on the other side of the globe from SF. Frank is blogging as well and we're both iChatting. Anyone else blogging or iChatting? Send me an email with your AIM nickname (or the URL).

Steve is on. "We have 2 Macworlds of stuff here today". I wonder what he has up his sleeve..He starts off with the usual statistical updates. 600 000 iPods shipped. That's one a minute since launch. Steve introduces a ski jacket fabricated for the iPod.

Ovidiu joins us on iChat.

Steve introduces FinalCut Express. Looks really neat (from the demo). How much will it cost? 299$ Wow!

Digital Hub is next. Key message is the integration of the various iApps. iPhoto 2 is announced. Integration with iTunes, iDVD. iPhoto 2 allows more editing of your photos, adjusting white balance, retouch-brush : "one-click enhance". iMovie 3 is announced. Integration is again, key. I haven't used iMovie really - so can't comment on this much. Maybe time to break out my video camera again (or actually I need to get one). Steve is currently showing all the neat effects. Slightly boring actually. For me that is. iDVD 3 is shown. Lots of new functions - and you guessed it - integration is key.

iLife is the name for all the applications together. Available January 25th. Bundled with all new Macs. Free Download for iTunes, iPhoto 2, iMovie 3. iDVD will cost (bundled with all the others) for: $49.

New application: Safari. Mac OS X browser! Yeah!!! "Fastest browser on the Mac". Statistics show it to be fast. Google is integrated in the toolbar. Lots of cool bookmark functions.

Eric Wallace is blogging this as well.

Steve says that you can send them a link to any site that does not render correctly and they will take a look. That should keep someone busy. Safari is based on an open source HTML rendering engine. They used KHTML and will donate all the additions back. Safari Beta available now.

New application (they just keep coming): Keynote. A presentation tool that was the base of what Steve uses for his keynotes. Simple graphics handling from what Steve is showing. Built in support for charts and tables. Keynote looks really really impressive. 12 themes built in and you can make your own. Lots of different transitions. Wow: imports and exports Powerpoint! Uses open file format (XML). Will cost 99$ and available today. Keynote attendees get a version for free.

New 17" Powerbook. 1 Inch thick when closed. Keyboard is lit - using ambient light sensors that automatically detect when the lights go down. 6.8 lbs. First 17" laptop in the world. Made of Aluminum alloy. 1GHz G4, Superdrive, FireWire 800 (new connector), FireWire 400, 2 USB ports, PC Card slot, Line in, Headphones, Bluetooth built in! Airport Extreme 802.11g. Compatible to 802.11b. Card is built in. Antennas (2) in the screen. Same range as iBook. Cost: 3299$

New Airport Extreme base station. Can take 50 users. Includes wireless bridging. USB Printing (that is really cool). - Cost 199$.

"There is one more thing"...New 12" Powerbook. Smallest powerbook ever. Full sized keyboard. 867 MHZ G$. Bluetooth built in. Airport Extreme ready. Cost: 1799$.

"The year of the notebook for Apple". Now, a video about the laptops is being shown.

Daniel Berlinger is blogging this as well.

So, anything else - some TV ads. Steve remarks on reading the various rumor sites. Steve wraps up.

And it's "see ya" from me as well!

  

Blog Blues: Carsten has the blog blues.   

Shadows on the iWall: His Stevieness will be speaking in around 6 hours (18:00 CET) and I plan on watching (as does Russell - now he has the day right). Frank and I will be on iChat/AIM in parallel and maybe I will be able to blog some of the news. And then I fear I will be checking my bank account (I hope my wife doesn't read this).   

Mobile thoughts: Sylvain responds to this mornings posting. Frank also sent me an email with suggestions ("use the voice recording in the T68i"). Thanks guys. Obviously a PDA would be a good idea - if it were a smartphone as well. The problem does not really lie in the notation of the idea (both voice-recording and pen/paper would do that ok). The problem lies in the information retrieval.

Any idea-taking-system needs to integrate into the way I retrieve information. So that would be my email-client (outlook) or my browser. Those are the two things I use every day "without thinking" (don't comment on that please).

So something like a smartphone that is perhaps even to send mail, voicemail, pictures, scribbles to a pre-defined email-address would probably be right. Especially voice2mail would be great (that would work well on my bike :-)).   

Mobile movement: Russell is getting serious on doing some mobile development. I agree that this is (becoming) a really interesting market to get into. As the devices become more powerful (memory, screen) and the networks move to data-driven pricing (as opposed to time-based) with the devices being always on, we will see more and more applications appear aimed at mobile phones. Here are a couple I would like to see:

  • NetNewsWire mobile (a powerfull RSS aggregator on my mobile)
  • An easy to use weblog client

At the moment I have a T68i and that cannot load any additional apps (no Java support) - so something I am looking into is a new phone which I can at least download new applications to.

Going back to the application area: One particular problem I have is "reminding myself to do something" while on the move. Typical scenario: Leave for work on the bus or bike and then - halfway to work - some idea I need to remember until later. Or the moment I leave work, I remember something I need to do the next day. At the moment I send myself emails so the reminder is there in the mailbox the next day. But this means waiting until I get somewhere where there is a mail client.