5 Things You Did See At Apple’s September Announcement

So now that all the hubbub has come and gone, I’m pleased to announce that I was 100% correct in my non-predictions for the Apple event. So I thought I’d come back with a review of just what did make the cut, and tell you about the my top 5 from the “Let’s Rock” announcement.

New iPod Nanos — No surprise here, at all. Announced today, shipping sometime between now and Christmas, a return to the slimmer, sleeker design of the iPod nano. The screen is much larger than the Gen 1 and Gen 2 nanos, and the ipod is now oval shaped (read: won’t sit flat on a table). It also comes in about a dozen different colours.

“New” iPod Touches — Though not receiving anywere near the revision that the nanos did, the iPod touch now sports new side-mounted volume controls and a small external speaker. Both of these will make the App-store games much more fun to play. I’m sad that they’ve chosen not to integrate a microphone (though the exclusion was one of my predictions), the external volume controls will be a very handy new feature. I wonder how hard they had to convince Jobs to abandon his “no buttons” policy?

Apple & NBC Kiss & Make up — Again, not a big surprise, NBC is returning to the iTunes store. All your favourite syndicated NBC crap will once again be available in iTunes. Meh…

iTunes 8 — The next version of iTunes is out, and it sports a fancy new “genius” feature whereby Apple takes a look at your listening habits and makes recommendations. It’ll also build playlists for you.

iPod Touch / iPhone Software 2.1 — A revision of the software for the two fanciest iThings to hopefully fix the bugs and constant crashing that have plagued the devices (even 1st Gen iPhones / iPod Touches) since the 2.0 and 2.0.1 releases. I sure as hell hope it’s stable ’cause I’m planning to get a new iPod touch to replace the one that “disappeared” somewhere in the Minneapolis airport.

So there you have it. 5 things that actually did happen, to go along with the 5 that didn’t.

5 Things You Won’t See At Apple’s September Announcement

So I’m lying here, unable to sleep, not because I’m dreaming up what Apple is going to announce tomorrow, but it has given me some time to think.

There’s been lots of ideas floated around, so I figured I should jump into the mix now before the news so I can call these predictions of things you definitely WON’T see

The iPod Touch with a built-in microphone and bluetooth — This would harshly cannibalize iPhone sales, particularly given the cost of iPhone data plans.

iTunes Music Subscriptions — People like to own their music. ’nuff said.

iPhone Revisions — Not a chance, with the 3G iPhone barely 3 months old, there’s no way that Apple can justify a revision already. The backlash from iPhone early adopters last year will be a lesson.

The “MacBook Touch” — Even though a niche of Apple fans would love to see a Mac tablet to compete with all of the Windows based tablets out there, it just doesn’t make up a large enough piece of the overall computer market for Apple to try to carve out a piece.

Beatles Music in the iTunes Catalogue — Despite recent notions from some pundits that the Fab Four’s music will be part of the “Let’s Rock” announcement, there have been far too many false alarms for this to be the case. Besides, the music is being remastered right now and will probably go through some kind of digital release next year once that’s done.

So there you have it, the five things you definitely won’t see at the Let’s Rock announcement. Now we can sit back and see what the all things “i” maker will announce later today.

iPhone 3G Jailbroken — Ha!

Well that didn’t take long.

In a short post titled “Thanks for waiting ” released yesterday, the iPhone Dev Team released Pwnage 2.0 for jailbreaking iPhones running the iPhone firmware version 2.0.

It should be noted that this doesn’t unlock your iPhone, it only opens up all the things that the old Jailbreak used to do. With the advent of the app store, this is now more of a “hardcore” change than ever before… but nonetheless, Kudos to the iPhone Dev team!

Update #1: I also meant to note that un the first day since this was released, the blog entry received over 2800 comments. Thats one way to get traffic.

Why (and How) to Unshare Your iTunes Library

When I checked into the hotel tonight, I fired up my macbook on the provided (hardwired! gah!) Internet connection and went about my evening routine (blogs, pocasts, email, twitter… you know the deal). When I popped open my iTunes to crank on some tunes something came to my attention: There was a remote library showing in my iTunes.

At first, I gave “John’s Music” very little thought, I was listening to a podcast at the moment and wasn’t interested in investigating. However soon after, when the show ended, my curiosity got the better of me and I went for a peek. The music itself wasn’t all that amazing, but upon closer inspection I noticed something else. I realized that I now knew far more about John than I thought I would and just from looking at iTunes.

Based on primarily his playlist names, and to a lesser degree the content, I was able to deduce:

John’s last name
John’s wife’s name
John has two daughters
John’s daughters’ names
John owns an iPhone
John’s wife owns an iPhone
John is from the US
John’s daughter (presumably the eldest) has an iPod Shuffle
John is highly spiritual and a Christian

Those are some pretty crazy personal details… and they were all there for the taking right out of a publicly shared iTunes folder.

How do I Un-Share?

It’s actually ridiculously easy…

First, go to your iTunes Preference Panel… Second, unselect the “Share my library on my local network” checkbox.

Now I realize that this may seem a drastic step for those who only ever use their iTunes at home. But if you travel, or make use of open public wi-fi hotspots (or poached ones) your iTunes library could be giving away personal information without you even knowing it. It also illistrates the point that not all Apple products ship in a “secure” mode as often touted. It’s not out-of-the-box functionality, but it isn’t difficult to poach files out of someone’s iTunes folder if they’re DRM free…

Vancouver Apple Store Opening May 24th – 10:00am

This Saturday marks a major milestone for the city of Vancouver. Well, perhaps not for the city, but definitely for the mac-geeks in the region. This Saturday is the long-awaited opening of an Apple store west of Toronto.

Photo Credit: xtianyves on Flickr

I’m not the only excited local blogger. See some posts today from DuaneStory and Miss604 (via the twittersphere of course).

The Apple Store announcement on the Apple website provides all the necessary details for the grand opening and even provides links to start booking your “genius bar” appointments. Time to get my MacBook case fixed again, the timing is wonderful.

Changing an iPod Mini Battery

Recently I had the experience of changing the battery on a [second-generation iPod mini -- link it somewhere]. This isn’t a difficult task in and of itself and though it may scratch the unit is something which can give you a renewed music-listening experience for a fraction of the cost of getting a “professional” to do it.

DISCLAIMER: As with all of its brethren, the iPod mini does not ship with a “user-servicable” battery (or anything else for that matter). This means that if you run into any trouble with the unit, you need to take it to an Apple-authorized service centre. Opening the unit yourself WILL void the warranty. Unless of course your warranty has already run out, in which case: fill yer boots!

Alright, with that out of the way, on to the deed at hand.

As my guide to the process I used this guide from CNET. It was extremely helpful and provides detailed instructions as well as a tour of the inside of your mini. For that reason I’ll link to their guide and only provide a “Coles notes” version here. (For those of you outside Canada, Coles is a book supplier that produces a guide series similar to Cliffs Notes.)

Step 1 – Get yourself a replacement battery Chances are when you get the new battery it will ship with some sort of tool. For this process you need a flat screwdriver (primarily for use as a pry-bar), and a small [Phillips screwdriver -- wiki]. If you have a small jewellers set you can use that, though you may suffer some minor damage to the flat-head if it’s not very strong.

Step 2 – Remove the covers Use the flat-head screwdriver to pry off the top and bottom covers. Keep in mind that the lock switch will come off with the top cover. Both covers were originally secured with glue, so place them sticky-side up to not mess with it too much.

Step 3 – Remove the bottom spring-plate Use the flat-head screwdriver again to remove the spring-plate from the bottom side. This is holding the unit in place.

Step 4 – Remove the screws Using the small Phillips screwdriver remove all the small screws. I realize I shouldn’t have to tell you this, but DON’T LOSE THEM!. You will need them later.

Step 5 – Remove the command-interface jumper If you look at the bottom of the unit, you’ll see a small plastic connector on one side. Carefully remove this (this is the interface to the command buttons on the front of the casing). Once it is removed, the guts of the iPod should be unencumbered. Slide the whole unit out the top.

Step 6 – Replace the battery The battery will be stuck to the unit with a small piece of adhesive which is sticking it to one of the chips on the iPod’s mainboard. Slowly peel off the battery and hold it perpendicular to the board. Take note of the placement of the different coloured wires then remove the jumper. Place the new battery on the device and reverse the process, taking special care to ensure the wires are on the correct pins. This is pretty much the easiest part of the whole process.

Step 7 – Charge and Test (technically optional) I highly recommend doing a full charge-and-test while the unit is disassembled. This will ensure that if anything isn’t hooked up correctly, it can be corrected without having to re-dissecting the iPod.

Step 8 – Re-assemble Follow Steps five through one to re-assemble that mini. Take care to smooth out the top and bottom casings, and to place them back sticky side down. That’s all she wrote.

Overall the experience for me went pretty well. The article CNET article was very helpful in getting this completed quickly and with a minimum of fuss. Admittedly I didn’t read through the whole article, and had a touch of difficulty as a result. Follow Step 7… for the love of God.

Once I got the unit reassembled, it ran into exactly the same problem as with the original unit. It didn’t want to retain a charge. Since the new battery was still, well, new I decided to swap in the original again to make sure its behaviour hand not changed. They were both the same. This leads be to believe that there are is a problem with the charging circuit and not with the battery. Oh well… win some and lose some I guess.

Mac Lab Rat – GGP #083 :: Be Verwi Verwi Quiet

It seems like forever since I’ve been behind the mic recording my very own segment for the podcast. But sure enough, here I am.

fseventer First off this week is a tool from FernLightning called fseventer. This app gives you new visibility into just what files on your hard drive are modified by the tools you use every day. It was quite remarkable to me to start fseventer and just allow it to run while I wasn’t using the computer. In a matter of seconds my “idle” computer had performed dozens of operations and written to lots of files.

The tool presents the information in a variety of ways not the least of which is the uber-cool tree view. This app seems to do a pretty good job of finding all of the changed files, but I haven’t tried doing ay specific research with the tool.

Warp Warp is an application that uses mouse gestures to control switching between your OS X Spaces. I realize that I’ve been on the anti-mouse bandwagon for some time now, but some things are so slow and unproductive that you can fix them with mouse gestures.

The application installs an OS X preference pane to control Warp which is tied to the existing Spaces panel. When you activate warp it also verifies to ensure that Spaces is active.

Warp is a great shortcut for those who use the mouse alot and don’t want to memorize keyboard shortcut; or for those who simply prefer shudder to use the mouse.

Download Warp by Kent Sutherland.

Teleport If you’ve ever wanted a great way to control multiple macs in your house from one keyboard & mouse the AbysSoft‘s Teleport just might be the solution you’ve been looking for. This gives you much of the same functionality that you’d get from using a KVM switch, but without the unnecessary hardware.

Teleport provides a single interface for controlling other Macs that have teleport installed. In some ways it behaves like Spaces, but with each space being a separate physical machine. I really wish I’d had a chance to try this one, but with only the one Mac in the house, that makes things a bit difficult.

Teleport a great way to make use of existing network infrastructure to reduce your cable load and make your digital life that much easier.

Licensed This next application is one that should be in everyone’s utility toolbox. Licensed by Amar Sagoo is designed to one things, and one thing only: keep track of your software licesnses. Licensed has a quick to learn and easy to use UI and takes no time to learn

Licensed falls into the category of tools that most good freeware and open-source applcations are famous for: simple applications that do what they say they will.

One thing I would suggest is a prompt on the delete button. Not a big deal, but usually a good practise to avoid accidental loss of data.

Front Row “Remote Control” Last up this week is Bert Ramakers’ software-based Front-Row remote. This app allows you to control Front-Row over the network on other machines that are Front-Row enabled (Tiger and later).

It’s not clear whether this application will work with other applicances like the Apple TV, but its a creative remoting solution nonetheless.

Thats it for me this week. Due to the trouble with the TPN servers there will be no show again this weekend, but we’ll have another one out as soon as life and fate permits.

http://bertramakers.com/?page_id=19

Apple Support Treats Us Like Babies… Sometimes

Please Apple, heed my call. We’re not all n00bs.

I performed a series of software updates on my computer today. Apple has learned that some of us would like to know what our update contains, beyond the simple “bug fixes” or “compatibility fixes” that it typically lists with each update.

My ask is simple, whenever there’s a software update, tell us what’s in it. This way we can assess how important it is to us, and how soon we need to apply it. If I find out that the Finder has a bug in it which will allow a malicious web-page to access my hard drive when I use Safari… I don’t care. I don’t use Safari. But if I did, I’d apply that a lot more quickly than I would an update to add the latest HP printer drivers.

Here are examples of two recent Apple updates. One is done correctly. The other is not. See if you can spot the difference.

BAD! Why? “Compatibility Improvements” isn’t very damned descriptive.

Good! Link is provided to give those who actually want to know, the information they need.

Apple has long been seen as a very easy platform for the non-geeks among us to learn quickly and easily without the configuration and security nightmares that plague the Windows world on occasion (though that’s usually due to market share… but that’s a rant for another day). Constantly focused on ease-of-use and design Apple makes beautiful and elegant products which are easy to understand, and for the most part to intuit. A little consistency in documenting things wouldn’t kill them.

Providing people with the information they need to make an informed choice and just maybe understand their computing experience a little bit more is something that all software developers should consider. It’s nice to have the option to know what people are telling me is a “critical update” so that I can decide for myself.

MacBook Air: An Obsession with Thin

Announced at MacWorld yesterday, the MacBook Air is an ultra-thin laptop that is… well… ultra-thin. It skimps out in almost every other facet from storage to expansion ports and still has the same footprint as larger thicker models.

Kevin Naits put together a great little video montage poking fun at the obsessive nature of the thin MacBook. Don’t get me wrong I appreciate that you can put this bad boy in a manila envelope and be none the wiser that there’s a whole computer in there (well, most of a computer)… The video is quite funny though.

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQkdVymW8C8]

iPod Touch: Unboxing

Over the last several months, my 20GB 4th Gen iPod has been giving me some trouble, mainly because I’m hard on my gadgets and this one’s been battered about a few too many times. With hard-drive based media players this usually means that the device is as good as bricked. I’ve been hanging in there with my 2GB iPod nano that I got as a freebie with the Macbook, but 2GB really isn’t enough storage for me. I carry around about 400-500 MB of podcasts on a regular basis, and my favourite four playlists add up to about 2GB. So the nano-diet has meant much more frequent re-synchronizing with iTunes. Enough was enough.

I finally took the leap and picked up a 16GB iPod Touch. The price is a bit steep compared to that of some of the more traditional media players, but after having played with it for just a couple of days, I’m completely convinced.

The battery life (albeit on a brand spankin’ new unit) has been quite impressive so far. It easily handles a full work day with a mix of audio and video.

The multi-touch interface is near to the holy-grail of modern-day UI design. Everything moves as I expect it to, and reacts as I expect it to (a couple of 3rd-party apps notwithstanding). The UI does a great job of emulating how objects would move or scroll if they were in the physical world.

Third party software is widely available for the iPhone, and luckily for those of us who bought an iPod touch the device can be cracked (Jailbroken) to allow you to place the installed (and myriad other applications) on it. A wonderful feature to make use of the available wifi.

I’ve got lots more to say about this device in the coming days and weeks, including some examples of some great software and hardware iPod Touch hacks.

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