• Test your website in Safari on iPad using the iPhone Simulator (Hardware -> Device -> iPad). iPad is available in the iPhone Simulator in iPhone OS 3.2 SDK.

• Test your website on iPad, and update user agent detection code if necessary. iPad user agent string is:
  

  Mozilla/5.0 (iPad; U; CPU OS 3_2 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/531.21.10 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0.4 Mobile/7B334b Safari/531.21.10

• Simulating Safari on iPad HTTP requests in Safari on the desktop.  First, enable the checkbox next to “Show Develop menu in menu bar” in Safari’s Advanced Preference pane. Next, select Develop -> User Agent -> Other from the Safari menu. You will be prompted to enter a user agent string. Copy the Safari on iPad user agent string above, then paste in it into the dialog box that appears. Note: You can try this trick with websites like Gmail and YouTube to view how they display a different version of their website for iPad Safari.

• Using a constant for viewport width.
  

  <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width" />

• Prepare for a touch interface. Don’t use a:hover pseudo class or mouseover events.
• Orientation media queries to automatically select the proper stylesheet based on whether the user is in landscape or portrait.
  

  <link rel=”stylesheet” media=”all and (orientation:portrait)” href=”portrait.css”>
  <link rel=”stylesheet” media=”all and (orientation:landscape)” href=”landscape.css”>

News about Pastebud:

• Copy and Paste Comes to iPhone – Wired News
  
• iPhone Copy and Paste Now Working Between Safari and Mail – Gizmodo

We have decided to drop the non-disclosure agreement (NDA) for released iPhone software.

We put the NDA in place because the iPhone OS includes many Apple inventions and innovations that we would like to protect, so that others don’t steal our work. It has happened before. While we have filed for hundreds of patents on iPhone technology, the NDA added yet another level of protection. We put it in place as one more way to help protect the iPhone from being ripped off by others.

However, the NDA has created too much of a burden on developers, authors and others interested in helping further the iPhone’s success, so we are dropping it for released software. Developers will receive a new agreement without an NDA covering released software within a week or so. Please note that unreleased software and features will remain under NDA until they are released.

What does this mean to you?  This means that developers can now share to the world any technical articles or tutorials related to developing iPhone apps or web apps.  Now, I can finally proceed with publishing my iCopyUPaste technical article.

• Google Gmail – I can access my mail from home, work, Wi-Fi hotspot, my iPhone.
• Google Calendar – Anything that relates to time/date/place/to-dos, it goes in my Google Calendar.  I can access this from practically anywhere.
• Google Reader – This is my online RSS Newsreader. With Google Gears offline support, I can catchup with all the latest news feeds even when I am on a plane.
• Del.icio.us Bookmarks – I find that I have not bookmarked a page in IE or Firefox in ages! Instead, all my bookmarks are on this handy service.
• MP3tunes – All my iTunes music safely stored and synced online with MP3tunes.com.  I can stream my music from the Internet.  This service doesn’t store and sync my iTunes videos and movies, so I use other means to backup and sync these files.
• .Mac – I use the iDisk service to keep any storage of files and folders that I need to access from anywhere.  The one other feature that I do like is the Photo sharing capabilities.
• SlingBox – Ok, its not really an online service, but its how I watch TV now.  Place-shifting means I can watch TV shows streamed online from any single Slingbox location.  Place one SlingBox hardware in your parent’s home in Canada and you can catch international TV right on your computer.  Quality is not the greatest, as it depends a lot on the upload speeds of the SlingBox locations you are getting the streams from.
• Google Docs – This service can almost replace your traditional Microsoft Office apps. Unfortunately, it is not as speedy as having a desktop app.  Speed and offline portability are the biggest factors in me not completely switching over to using online-based office apps.
• Google Alerts – This is how I read the latest news. I give search terms that I find most interesting, and everyday they will send me the top links to news stories and blog entries that match my keywords.
• Kayak – I give it my top flight destinations and the maximum price I am willing to pay, and I get a daily report of any matching deals.
• Twitter – This service is basically a mashup of fan site / blog / and alerting service. You can alert all your followers via SMS text, IM, and email with “what you are doing now”. I am still a little weary of letting everyone know what I am doing now, but I can see how it can be used to alert a large number of people at once, with whatever information you wish to share. This is most useful for people with a mobile lifestyle, who may not get a chance to post their thoughts to a blog.

• Copy and paste (Come on, how hard can this be?)
• Text to speech for Safari web pages (This is useful for when you are driving and want the text of the web page to be read outloud to you)
• Enable Bluetooth GPS receivers (If the Windows Mobile SmartPhone has support for this, then why can’t the iPhone?)
• Voice prompted turn-by-turn navigation in Maps (Right now, you get directions in the Maps application, but unless you have a passenger with you that can operate the iPhone and tell you where to turn next, you are bound to get into an accident doing this solo)
• Corporate Wi-Fi access (allow user/pwd instead of preshared key for authentication)
• Video capture for camera. (Like the copy and paste idea, I have no idea why this is so difficult to implement)
• Native iPod games that you can buy from iTunes on an iPhone (Not just as a Safari webapp)
• Enable offline storage for Maps and Safari webapps

Third Party Applications on the iPhone

Let me just say it: We want native third party applications on the iPhone, and we plan to have an SDK in developers’ hands in February. We are excited about creating a vibrant third party developer community around the iPhone and enabling hundreds of new applications for our users. With our revolutionary multi-touch interface, powerful hardware and advanced software architecture, we believe we have created the best mobile platform ever for developers.

It will take until February to release an SDK because we’re trying to do two diametrically opposed things at once—provide an advanced and open platform to developers while at the same time protect iPhone users from viruses, malware, privacy attacks, etc. This is no easy task. Some claim that viruses and malware are not a problem on mobile phones—this is simply not true. There have been serious viruses on other mobile phones already, including some that silently spread from phone to phone over the cell network. As our phones become more powerful, these malicious programs will become more dangerous. And since the iPhone is the most advanced phone ever, it will be a highly visible target.

Some companies are already taking action. Nokia, for example, is not allowing any applications to be loaded onto some of their newest phones unless they have a digital signature that can be traced back to a known developer. While this makes such a phone less than “totally open,” we believe it is a step in the right direction. We are working on an advanced system which will offer developers broad access to natively program the iPhone’s amazing software platform while at the same time protecting users from malicious programs.

We think a few months of patience now will be rewarded by many years of great third party applications running on safe and reliable iPhones.

Steve

P.S.: The SDK will also allow developers to create applications for iPod touch. [Oct 17, 2007]

Pros

• Mobile Safari web browser using Wi-Fi or EDGE. You can surf the web just as on a desktop, or you can go to iPhone specific sites that really customize the web browsing experience.
• Everything you can find in an iPod, plus a mobile phone.
• The thin form factor and profile is elegant and makes it feel like you’re holding something luxurious.
• Photos taken from camera are surprisingly good. Viewing photos on an iPhone is a joy.
• Syncing all your songs, podcasts, photos, contacts, and calendar with iTunes is a breeze and brain-dead easy.
• Wi-Fi Music Store. This is really a long time coming. Basically, if you happen to be at a coffee shop (i.e. StarBucks), and you like a song thats playing there, you can connect to the Wi-Fi Music Store and purchase it on the spot. To me, thats the future of how people will discover new music instead of traditionally on the radio.
• An active iPhone hacker community.

Cons

• No GPS. The Google Maps application is great, but without GPS you need a copilot with you when you are driving in order for it to work. Plus, it doesn’t cache any of the maps. So if you are in an area without any network connectivity, you are pretty much hosed.
• No wireless sync. This is something that Zune2 got right.
• Can’t record video.
• No real 3rd party apps (no access to local storage and other advanced hardware features). UPDATE: See later post about Steve Jobs change of heart.
• No disk mode. Basically, you can’t use it as a flash drive as you used to be able to do with the iPod video.
• Have to pay an extra $0.99 for a ringtone version of a song that you purchased at the iTunes store already. Ringtone maker won’t work with MP3s or AAC files that you ripped from CDs.
• No external battery. Must recharge.
• Headphone jack is not compatible with other head phone makers. Duh!
• Locked only to AT&T service provider for 2 years. There is a simple work-around to choose the Go-Phone Prepaid plans that have no contract obligations. Just make sure to call 611 to cancel automatic monthly refills, and you’ll have a really expensive Go-Phone in your hands.
• Apple and AT&T are becoming NOT so consumer-friendly. Just lookup the all the bad rap they are getting with their intentional “bricking” of iPhones and the really bad AT&T customer service.

Ok. There are more cons than pros, but that’s the price you pay for being an Apple fanboy. For an alternative smartphone go check out the Nokia N95 8GB version. At the moment, its not available in North America and the price tag is $200 more than an iPhone.

• Zec Online Journal: Steve Jobs doesn’t understand mobility
• Steve Jobs Answers Walt’s iPhone Questions
• The iPhone’s Camera: Great Under Ample Light
• Finally Confirmed: What the iPhone Doesn’t Have

I have one comment about the iPhone’s announced rate plans. It works out the same as the current Cingular/AT&T voice plans plus the $19.99 unlimited data plan. There were rumblings that Apple and Cingular/AT&T would make it more expensive, but I think it was a wise decision not to charge more.

It is after all a very good thing that Apple has decided to provide URL-based access to the iPhone’s telephony, email, and other services, but that point really got lost on the crowd I think, who were expecting an SDK to access these things. We’ve known all along that web apps would be one possibility for third-party iPhone development, and Steve’s “there’s no SDK, just use Safari and standard Web 2.0 technologies like Ajax to develop iPhone apps” message didn’t highlight the power of what they are actually allowing here. (As one colleague commented, “just try getting your web app to make an actual phone call on a J2ME-based phone.”) Personally, I think that there are a lot of interesting possibilities for third-party development with this kind of access to the iPhone’s main features, and I’m not surprised that Apple isn’t letting us get at the OS or place buttons on the home screen, but his message clearly didn’t go over well with the developer audience here in San Francisco. Read More.

Obviously, having access to basic phone functions isn’t entirely new as many current mobile web browsers give this basic functionality (if your web pages are coded correctly). The real meat is if web developers are given access to local persistent storage on the phone, access to iTunes, and access to mail and calendar. Another important thing that we would need is access to the multi-touch user interface events (i.e. in addition to the standard onClick and onFocus events, perhaps we would use onPinchIn or onPinchOut events to trigger actions on the web application. I have yet to see any real specifications on this 3rd party web app API, but it does hold some promise (contrary to what many see as a disappointment).

Oh, and one last thing. I also want to be able to run Java ME on the iPhone. I already have two Java ME apps that I use constantly. Gmail and Opera Mini. It would be sweet if the iPhone could leverage the Java ME space. However, I do recall that Steve Jobs once quoted as saying that Java is too heavy weight and isn’t likely to be in its future plans. Therefore, I’d assume that Java ME on the iPhone will most likely never happen.

This is why mobile phones in N. America still suck compared to those in Japan. Let’s see how the Apple iPhone starts to promote changes needed to catch up.

• User has a computer with mic or maybe a mobile phone as an input mechanism.
• User goes to a screen that prompts the user for the melody that they want to search. They hum the parts of the song to the mic and it is uploaded to the search engine backend for processing.
• The backend processing engine would need to recognize the melody and automatically transcribe it into musical notes. Then, it applys that pattern as a search term. It would also need to take into account that many people may hum the tune in different tones from the original song.
• Setting up the datastore on the server would obviously be no easy task. The data entry required to seed the database to make it useful would be enormous.
• If any matches are found, the results page should allow the user to preview clips of that song starting from the part of the melody that it thinks you hummed in.

Is this concept doable? Yes. Is this a simple task? No. Is there a wow factor for something like this? You bet.

Web developers in the desktop world have had to deal with cross-browser incompatibilities when writing code. The same can be said for the old class of mobile handsets and their fragmented support for WAP, XHTML, JavaScript, and AJAX. To my knowledge, there are only a few mobile web browsers capable of rendering AJAX.

If your phone runs on the Windows Mobile platform, IE Mobile is the default web browser installed. According to the IE Mobile developer blog, AJAX is supported on IE Mobile. Unfortunately, the JavaScript DOM support is limited. Therefore, most AJAX toolkits out there will NOT render their AJAX widgets correctly on IE Mobile. Come to think of it, I am not sure that any AJAX toolkits even consider testing on IE Mobile or any other mobile web browser for that matter.

The Opera platform is probably the most well-known mobile web browser that is capable of supporting AJAX. The only thing slowing its adoption is the fact that it is not free, and it is a separate download and install. Opera does have a free version called Opera Mini, but it is not known to support AJAX. Opera Mobile is also only targeted for Symbian and Windows Mobile platforms. This leaves out Blackberry users, which is significant base of mobile web users out there. The only other way for Blackberry users and other handsets to adopt AJAX-like functionality is through the use of Java MIDlets (J2ME). However, this requires the handset to include a J2ME runtime, and it is a separate application install. Speaking of J2ME, Mojax is yet another platform that promises to enable AJAX in a large subset of mobile devices.

To recap… Full AJAX supported mobile web browsers are far and few between. The iPhone’s Safari Mobile and S60 Platform is a giant leap forward for mobile AJAX. The other players include Windows Mobile, and Opera Platform. Blackberry and the rest of the field can use J2ME technology to fill the gaps for AJAX-like web content, but it really is not a true mobile web browser experience (as it is a separate application install required). Any bets as to who will lead this pack? Let’s just hope that more and more mobile web browsers will support AJAX, and that everyone works together to ensure that we do not have the same cross-browser incompatibilities that have plagued the desktop web browser world.

Resources:
http://www.fiercedeveloper.com/story/editor-s-corner/2007-01-23
http://my.opera.com/operaplatform/blog/
http://my.opera.com/operaplatform/links/

Firstly, Apple is renowned for its tight control over the iPod. They never opened up the iPod for 3rd party apps, so why should they start opening it up for the iPhone (which essentially is an iPod with phone functions)? Let’s imagine that they let poor quality 3rd party apps to be installed on their iPods. The result is a poor image of Apple when Joe Schmoe decides to show off the app to his friends. Of course, the opposite could hold true where a killer 3rd party app gets shown, and the result is that Apple gets free good publicity. If you were Apple, would you take that chance?

Secondly, remember that they have a relationship with Cingular. Cingular would crap their pants if some 3rd party developer (i.e. Skype) created a VOIP application that allows people to by-pass the Cingular network to make calls. Think of the potential loss of revenue on Cingular’s part and you can understand why Apple would be hesitant to open up the iPhone for 3rd party apps. Of course, this assumes that Apple does indeed care about their partner Cingular and that it is not just a case of the “tail wagging the dog” syndrome. If Apple does call the shots (tail wagging the dog), then this argument goes out the window.

Finally, let’s not lose complete hope for 3rd party support. Apple did show off widgets functionality which in essence is really just Dashboard widgets for the phone. Dashboard widgets are really just a sandboxed web programming environment using JavaScript. Also, you have the Safari mobile browser built-in. There are a ton of web apps out there, and if people are willing to live online exclusively for their 3rd party apps, then this should not be too much of a problem.

The mobile phone market is very fragmented with mobile phone service providers dictating what technology gets implemented in mobile phones. I agree with Daniel that Apple is in a good position to shake things up. The mobile phone service providers will not do anything that will jeopardize their model of charging customers per minute or per MB, and they will certainly not make it easy for customers to switch over to Wi-Fi and the use of VOIP over it. Apple can shake things up by creating a platform and user experience that is seamless between the phone, the Mac/PC, and any other devices that are used to view information and content.

Also, I believe the killer feature on the iPhone would be an embedded version of the Safari web browser. Why? Look at what is driving Web 2.0 on the desktop; AJAX-enabled web browsers, accessible high-speed Internet, and what follows is the flurry of amazing web applications that allow users to replace their desktop applications with online versions. Give web developers the canvas and paint, and they will create their masterpieces for the mobile web 2.0.

• First 7.x release for the Mac OS X Tiger.  The last one was version 6.5.3.  Now, Lotus Notes can boast the widest platform support with Windows plus Mac and Linux.
• Ability to import iCalendar files.  Finally!  Let’s hope that export to iCal will be included as well, so that I can sync up with Google Calendar.
• Blog templates for publishing a blog on Lotus Domino servers.  I believe this is based on the DominoBlog engine that fellow blogger Steve Castledine has worked on independently over the past few years.  Now that Steve’s with IBM, we should see some of his magic unfold into this product.
• RSS Feed Generator available for all Notes databases and views.
• Watch out PortableApps: Here comes Lotus Notes on a (memory) stick.  Perhaps the coolest of all the new 7.0.2 features is the ability to load a user’s Lotus Notes environment on to a USB flash drive, or memory stick. Users can then insert the memory stick into the USB drive on any other computer, double-click the icon that appears on the computer’s desktop and use their Lotus Notes environment on that computer – whether the computer has Lotus Notes installed or not.  I’ve been doing this for a while with a little hack from eknori.de called Notes Client on USB key. However, now that its officially part of the product, I’ll definitely be switching.

References:
EdBrill.com – IBM.com features details on Domino 7.0.2 release

References:
* Windows XP on an Intel Mac Contest
* Intel Macs only one fourth, not four times faster – report  

The Stats
This year (2005), I was very busy. So busy that I only made 42 postings to my blog as opposed to 95 postings the year before (2004). My first blog posting was March 8, 2004.  Also, this year saw a spike in readership with as many as 9,500 unique page hits, as opposed to about 1,000 unique page hits in 2004. I attribute it mostly to the Digg effect.

2005 Highlights

• Apple’s stock splt in February 2005. Boy, was I glad I bought their stock when it was cheap.
• March 2005 saw an end to my job at IBM Rochester and my employer AIC. They kinda forced me to resign, based on some shady deals behind my back.
• In April, May, June, and July, I had plenty of contract projects as a self-employed web developer to keep me busy.
• In August, the pressures of finding steady stream of cash took its toll, and I decided to take on another contract position in IBM Rochester under a new employer CTG.
• From September to December, I was kept extremely busy by my work commitments, my Masters degree scholastic work at UoP, and some side web projects namely ria-minnesota.org web site maintenance, and espressotec.com.
• In the sports world, the NHL hockey returned after a year of lockout labour dispute. My favourite team, the Calgary Flames, got off to a slow start, but eventually picked it up and are now in the thick of the playoff race.
• Unfortunately, the year was also a year of natural disasters. People were just recovering from the Asian Tsunami. Then, the United States got hit by a slew of hurricanes. The worst was Hurricane Katrina that destroyed the entire city of New Orleans.

In the year ahead, I wish for all the standard stuff for my family and friends, like health, happiness, wealth, and luck. Aside from that, I want to see my Apple stock do well. Indications are good since Apple will roll out their Intel based Macs this year 2006. Finally, I plan on finally graduating from my Masters degree in CIS studies. Yeah!

My take on this is… Those that participated in the violence just to save a few hundred bucks on a used laptop is just insane and stupid. Come on now. Only people with a total disregard for human life would act and behave in such violent ways. Are we that blind to others that we forget our humanity? The only redeeming thing that I saw on the news video was a man who had been in the front of the line left his place in line to help someone who had had been injured. He gave up his chance for a laptop so that he could help another who was in need. This is the type of thing that people should remember.

References:
http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/08/16/197222
http://www.tuaw.com/2005/08/16/50-ibooks-cause-stampede/
http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/08/16/computer.frenzy.ap/index.html

Steve Jobs (CEO of Apple) has decided very firmly on not licensing Mac OS X to the PC hardware platform. However, he isn’t going to stop people from installing Windows on his Mac Intel hardware. That may well turn out to be a very wise move for driving more hardware sales over to Apple. I can just imagine someone at Apple’s marketing team coming up with a tagline, “Buy Apple hardware. Run both Mac OS X and Windows.”  If I were the Dell Computers of this world, I’d be concerned. Maybe not now, but if Apple finds ways to lower its costs, then all of a sudden it becomes very interesting indeed.

QuickTime 7.0.1 provides several important bug fixes, a security enhancement, and improved compatibility with Final Cut Studio. This update is recommended for all QuickTime 7 users. For detailed information on the security enhancement, please visit this website: http://www.info.apple.com/kbnum/n61798
Important Notice to QuickTime Pro Users – Installation of QuickTime 7 will disable the QuickTime Pro functionality in prior versions of QuickTime, such as QuickTime 5 or QuickTime 6. If you proceed with this installation, you must purchase a new QuickTime 7 Pro key to regain QuickTime Pro functionality. After installation, visit www.apple.com/quicktime to purchase a QuickTime 7 Pro key.

The problem, it seems is that some people are reporting problems with this new Quicktime update. Perhaps, Apple tried to meddle too much with the Quicktime Pro 6 and 5 keys disabling function, that it broke the current Quicktime 7 software?  

UPDATE 06-09-05: After upgrading to 7.01, my Quicktime 6 Pro application still works. I guess that you need to make sure the Quicktime Player app is renamed to something else, before upgrading to 7.01.

Guess what? The QuickTime Player 6 Pro application works just fine and it uses the new Quicktime 7 codecs just fine too. Just one last thing to mention… This hack may not work for everyone. What I did was use the Migration Assistant application to transfer my old User account from my backup drive over to my clean install of Tiger. That may have copied over the proper settings into my system so that the Quicktime Player 6 Pro could still function. If anyone can verify this, please let me know.

Here’s a screenshot of my successful hack.

UPDATE: According to Apple, this will no longer work if you apply the latest Quicktime 7.01 patch. Go figure.

UPDATE 06-09-05: After upgrading to 7.01, my Quicktime 6 Pro application still works. I guess that you need to make sure the Quicktime Player app is renamed to something else, before upgrading to 7.01.

UPDATE 01/14/06: Someone at O’Reilly MacDevCenter finally figured it out as well.
Salvaging QuickTime 6 Pro by Matthew Russell — I wanted back full screen mode, and I got it.

@echo off echo Removing all Mac OS X hidden file stubs matching ._ ... del /S ._* echo Hide all remaining Mac OS X hidden files/folders for Windows... attrib +h .* /S /D echo Done. pause 

Run this script at the root level of your removeable drive and it should take care of removing junk files left over from browsing while in Mac OS X as well as setting the hide attribute on all the dot files/folders. If you don’t want to see the hidden files/folders in Windows Explorer, just make sure the Show hidden files and folders is NOT checked in the Tools > Folder Options > View > Advanced settings dialog window

Sources: MacWorld, and The Register

Other interesting news related to Apple… According to sources, The Register reports that a Powerbook G5 will be made available Q2 2005. Of course, this is just speculation.

My impression of the iPod Shuffle is that it is targeted mainly for the workout crowd. I really do not think that it was meant to compete with the flash based MP3 player market that Creative and RIO have already carved out. In fact, because the iPod Shuffle’s feature set is so miniscule compared to the offerings that Creative and RIO have, those companies actually think that Apple’s announcement will help them, and not hurt them. Let’s face it, having no UI interface on the iPod Shuffle could potentially be a real problem and not a selling point. As far as the Mac Mini, it looks like it is targeted for the low-end PC consumer that has been reluctant to purchase a  Mac because of how expensive they are compared to similarly configured Dell PC. If you compare lowend PCs with the Mac Mini, it is still cheaper to get the PC. However, none of the PC makers have the unique style and compactness of the Mac Mini. If you were to get a small form factor PC from Sony or Shuttle, you’d pay a lot more for a similar hardware configuration. Take a look at the link below. They break down my analysis even further.

Mac Mini a maxi deal? Depends what you want

Despite the initial shortcomings of the two new hardware products, it would be foolish to think that Apple is nuts. They are a brand name and marketing leader and this is all part of an even bigger plan. Here’s looking forward to another year of surprises.  

On the personal front, March 2004 marked my first entry into the blog community with the launch of this website. Speaking of blogs, BBC News has written up two good articles on how blogs have taken on the mainstream, and how blog reading has exploded in America. Also, in June 2004, I turned 30 years old, marking the passing of a decade in my 20′s. I thought I was going into a mid life crisis till I saw the movie 13 Going On 30 (“30, Flirty, and Fabulous”.

From the Apple front, it was the year of the iPod, simultaneously driving Apple’s stock price to nearly triple what it was a year ago. MacWorld has two articles reviewing the 2004 headlines that was the Year in Macs Part 1, Part 2.

In sports, one of the biggest stories that caught my eye was the Calgary Flames NHL playoff run that ended in April 2004 with an excruciating loss in game 7 of the Stanley Cup final to the Tampa Bay Lightning. So close, but yet so far away. All this led sport writers to name the Calgary Flames as Team of the Year. The future would look bright for the Flames if it weren’t for the NHL labour lockout that has pretty much cancelled the 2005 ice hockey season. The other big sports story was in Major League Baseball when the Boston Red Sox finally won the 2004 World Series, ending the curse of 86 years.

Looking ahead at 2005, there are many resolutions and predictions. Here’s to a happy and prosperous new year 2005.  

Apple’s stock price gains over the previous 6 months:

Wow! Am I glad I have stock in Apple.

The idea of using the web as a file system storage medium is nothing new. Apple’s .Mac service ($99/year) gives you 250 MB of email/webdav storage space. Another offering is from SpyMac.com. They have a free service and a paid service ($39.99/year). The free service gives you a 1 GB email account and 100 MB webdav storage space. The paid service gives you a 3 GB email account and 250 MB webdav storage space. These web storage offerings from Apple and SpyMac are cross platform (Windows/Mac/Linux) because they both use the webdav protocol to give you file system access. The biggest advantage of using the GMail Drive Windows Explorer shell extension is that you get 1 GB of storage space. The disadvantage is that it will only work with Windows and is limited by GMail’s 10 MB file attachment limit.  So, if those two gripes are resolved, this would be the ultimate backup storage solution out there.

ditto -V -rsrc ~/Documents/”Microsoft User Data/Office X Identities” “/Volumes/Secondary/Backups/Office X Identities”
The above command is all one line.

Reference: http://www.macdevcenter.com/pub/a/mac/2002/07/02/terminal_5.html

The first step is to report it to the police and for Pete’s sake you should have the serial number ready to give them. Without it, the Police have no way of tracking it. The second thing is to report the theft to your home owners or home renters insurance company. If you don’t have insurance, then you’re out of luck and will have to resort to other means of tracking where the laptop may have ended up.  More.

The $1399 price is from their education store, if you’re lucky enough to be a student.  Now, if only I can get someone to buy my old iMac.

I think that if such a device was to exist, it would probably cost $1500. Hey Steve jobs! Maybe, Apple Computer Inc. could step in and use their industrial design expertise to design such a device. Just a thought.

• Human interface design principles
• Keep your users in mind
• Extending the interface

Attributes of Effective Design

• High performance
• Easy to use
• Attractive appearance
• Reliability
• Adaptability
• Interoperability
• Mobility

Personally, I think that Apple’s software and website are very well designed and easy to use. They continue to set the standards for the industry to follow.  

PlayFair does not give the user any special facilities that Apple itself has not given the user.

PlayFair requires a valid key from Apple to convert the format of music downloaded from iTunes.  PlayFair cannot convert downloaded songs’ formats without authorized keys.

PlayFair is not a music distribution program.  All PlayFair does is convert songs from one, restricted format to another, less restricted format.

PlayFair is not a method for making illegal copies of iTunes songs.  PlayFair by itself cannot be used to copy music to CD, distribute on a peer-to-peer (P2P) sharing network, play music or edit songs.

PlayFair saves time in converting songs.  The Apple iPod permits the iTunes user to make a music CD out of iTunes songs.  After that the user can convert the songs in that CD to MP3 or another digital format for playing on portable, non-Apple music players.  By converting iTunes songs directly to a common digital format, PlayFair shortcuts this sequence by eliminating the need to make a CD and then convert it.

Trying to stop dissemination of a tool that permits legal licensees of songs from iTunes to play them on non Apple-authorized hardware is purely a business loss prevention strategy from Apple.

As much as I support and respect Apple for its products, I believe that if Apple wins, it may have some negative ramifications for the rest of the industry.  

It was interesting to note that Apple has about $4.6 billion in cash and no debt. That favourable cash position as well as strong iPod and notebook sales has helped Apple’s share price go from around $20 to around $27 in the past 6 months.

Stock symbol : AAPL

In other news, the latest version of the PlayFair program is now at 0.5.0. Numerous bug fixes as well as a OS X GUI client and a Windows release are featured. The PlayFair project is also now available at FreshMeat.

I wouldn’t go crazy and start converting all the songs you bought at the iTunes store. The interface is raw and no GUI wrapper program has been created. If you are interested in reading more about the legal issues that have been raised, I’ve posted the following link.

Reference: http://www.macobserver.com/columns/devilsadvocate/2004/20030405.shtml