Apple Goodness
Dust and the CRT
Tuesday October 31, 2006 | Permalink
We all hate it when you realize that haze you got used to is actually a nice layer of dust stuck to the surface of your CRT television. The status charge left behind on the surface of the screen attracts dust right out of the air. Unless you can remove the dust from the air, or prevent the static from lingering, there's not much you can do to thwart the dust .
Hepa air filters go a long way to removing most of the dust in the air, but you're just delaying the inevitable with this solution. Sure, it'll take a longer time before the dust returns in any quantity to annoy you, it'll happen none the less. There's currently no way to remove the static charge from surface of the tube, so unless you're going to watch television from inside a clean room, I'm afraid you'll have to deal with wiping the screen down every now and again.
Hepa air filters go a long way to removing most of the dust in the air, but you're just delaying the inevitable with this solution. Sure, it'll take a longer time before the dust returns in any quantity to annoy you, it'll happen none the less. There's currently no way to remove the static charge from surface of the tube, so unless you're going to watch television from inside a clean room, I'm afraid you'll have to deal with wiping the screen down every now and again.
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Does Apple Own The Word "pod"?
Tuesday August 15, 2006 | Permalink
Apple's legal department is at it again. It looks like they're going after companies that market products whose name contains the word "pod". Apple's lawyers claim that consumers can become confused with other products who's trademark appears similar to their own.
One of the companies Apple is going after isn't even a full-fledged company but a small family business. The Ellison family sells a digital score-keeping product for arcade machines called the Profit Pod.
Now Apple hunting down companies who sell devices that are obviously taking advantage of the iPod's trademark is fine. But trying to strong-arm those who's products obviously have nothing to do with Apple's media player is just crazy. Apple should be far more selective as to who it releases its hounds on because this is creating bad press for them.
How does this translate to home theaters? LoftGoods is a company that makes a home entertainment chair called the Gamepod. I wouldn't be surprised is Apple sent a cease and decist letter to them also.
Now I can't speak for everybody, but to me the word pod implies an object that's somewhat egg-shaped and compact. Something you even sit in. See where I'm going with this? The Gamepod was very well named and shouldn't have to give up its name should Apple try to force them too. My point is that Apple doesn't hold an exclusive copyright on the word "pod" and I suspect (and hope) it would lose any court fight against manufacturers whose products have no resemblance in form or function to the iPod.
Just my 2 cents.
One of the companies Apple is going after isn't even a full-fledged company but a small family business. The Ellison family sells a digital score-keeping product for arcade machines called the Profit Pod.
Now Apple hunting down companies who sell devices that are obviously taking advantage of the iPod's trademark is fine. But trying to strong-arm those who's products obviously have nothing to do with Apple's media player is just crazy. Apple should be far more selective as to who it releases its hounds on because this is creating bad press for them.
How does this translate to home theaters? LoftGoods is a company that makes a home entertainment chair called the Gamepod. I wouldn't be surprised is Apple sent a cease and decist letter to them also.
Now I can't speak for everybody, but to me the word pod implies an object that's somewhat egg-shaped and compact. Something you even sit in. See where I'm going with this? The Gamepod was very well named and shouldn't have to give up its name should Apple try to force them too. My point is that Apple doesn't hold an exclusive copyright on the word "pod" and I suspect (and hope) it would lose any court fight against manufacturers whose products have no resemblance in form or function to the iPod.
Just my 2 cents.
More about Mac OS X Leopard
Monday August 14, 2006 | Permalink
Its crazy how members of mainstream media are such poor researchers. I'd like to point at Paul Thurrot as an example. Anyone who hangs around me knows I'm a big Apple fan and I'm not ashamed to say I can be somewhat biased toward Apple's products. In Thurrot's Leopard Preview article, Paul talks about how many of Apple's newest features to be included in Mac OS X Leopard are rip-offs of Microsoft's upcoming Windows Vista.
On one level I could see where he's coming from. Apple is big on saying how they innovate, yet many of the features in Leopard have been done before. On the other hand, few companies are able to repackage hard to use features into a slick and user-friendly application like Apple can. So though I was, kind of on the fence about the stuff Steve Jobs showed off at the WWDC.
Then I read Paul Thurrot - The Best Defence Is Offence over at SmackFoo and WWDC Secrets Pault Thurrot Hopes You Miss over at Roughly Drafted. My eyes about Leopard's new features were opened like you wouldn't believe. Both authors demonstrated a clarity and understanding of the underlying featureset of both Mac OS X and Windows XP/Vista like I haven't seen before. They brought to me a new appreciation for the elegance of Mac OS X's design that makes me proud to be a Mac owner.
Ok, enough with the review of both articles. The bottom line is that I now believe Steve Jobs and his colleagues onstage had every right to poke some fun at Microsoft. Microsoft's insistance that they not break backward compatibility is one of their biggest problems. This stupid idea of ensuring that old 16bit applications continue to run under Windows or that ActiveX not be scrapped in favor of something new altogether (.NET?) is dragging the company down.
I'm just glad I left the platform behind a few years ago.
On one level I could see where he's coming from. Apple is big on saying how they innovate, yet many of the features in Leopard have been done before. On the other hand, few companies are able to repackage hard to use features into a slick and user-friendly application like Apple can. So though I was, kind of on the fence about the stuff Steve Jobs showed off at the WWDC.
Then I read Paul Thurrot - The Best Defence Is Offence over at SmackFoo and WWDC Secrets Pault Thurrot Hopes You Miss over at Roughly Drafted. My eyes about Leopard's new features were opened like you wouldn't believe. Both authors demonstrated a clarity and understanding of the underlying featureset of both Mac OS X and Windows XP/Vista like I haven't seen before. They brought to me a new appreciation for the elegance of Mac OS X's design that makes me proud to be a Mac owner.
Ok, enough with the review of both articles. The bottom line is that I now believe Steve Jobs and his colleagues onstage had every right to poke some fun at Microsoft. Microsoft's insistance that they not break backward compatibility is one of their biggest problems. This stupid idea of ensuring that old 16bit applications continue to run under Windows or that ActiveX not be scrapped in favor of something new altogether (.NET?) is dragging the company down.
I'm just glad I left the platform behind a few years ago.
Steve's OS X Leopard Demo
Wednesday August 09, 2006 | Permalink
Steve Jobs gave a preview demo of the new Mac OS X Leopard (v10.5) at the Apple WWDC in San Fran on Monday. Steve was playing cheapskate by not sharing too many of Leopard's new features for fear other companies may copy them.
Now, I'm a huge Apple supporter, and I always enjoy the usual ribbing Apple gives to other companies from time to time. I especially enjoy when Apple gets put in its place too.
I really liked the new features Steve demo'd for Leopard even if some of those features aren't really part of the OS itself (iChat, Mail).
So I wasn't too surprised to wake up this morning and see a few people (like The Register and Paul Thurott) who've been complaining that these features amount to little more than a point release or that they've already been implemented or planned for Windows already. I'm sure their comments sprung up from all the Apple comments about Microsoft copying their ideas.
Well some of those negative comments are indeed warranted (we've had multiple desktops in Unix for years now), while others are not (super easy, integrated backup solution). To them I say, "Come on guys. Calm down".
Do we really want Apple to announce features months or years in advance, only to have to pull them out of the product because of scheduling or technical reasons. I'm sure Apple has scratched a feature or two off its list from each major release of OS X. We just haven't heard of it. Microsoft's pulling features from Vista left, right, and center and is getting unbelievably bad press over it. Thats not what we want for Apple.
I'm sure Apple is keeping the cool stuff to themselves until closer to the release date.
I think the reason Steve demo'd the features he did is obvious. Its safe to show off those features because they've already been done elsewhere. Apple is [usually] obsessively protective of its secrecy. You could be sure Apple is going to demo new and exciting features at MacWorld San Francisco early next year to drive up the buzz for the release.
Now, I'm a huge Apple supporter, and I always enjoy the usual ribbing Apple gives to other companies from time to time. I especially enjoy when Apple gets put in its place too.
I really liked the new features Steve demo'd for Leopard even if some of those features aren't really part of the OS itself (iChat, Mail).
So I wasn't too surprised to wake up this morning and see a few people (like The Register and Paul Thurott) who've been complaining that these features amount to little more than a point release or that they've already been implemented or planned for Windows already. I'm sure their comments sprung up from all the Apple comments about Microsoft copying their ideas.
Well some of those negative comments are indeed warranted (we've had multiple desktops in Unix for years now), while others are not (super easy, integrated backup solution). To them I say, "Come on guys. Calm down".
Do we really want Apple to announce features months or years in advance, only to have to pull them out of the product because of scheduling or technical reasons. I'm sure Apple has scratched a feature or two off its list from each major release of OS X. We just haven't heard of it. Microsoft's pulling features from Vista left, right, and center and is getting unbelievably bad press over it. Thats not what we want for Apple.
I'm sure Apple is keeping the cool stuff to themselves until closer to the release date.
I think the reason Steve demo'd the features he did is obvious. Its safe to show off those features because they've already been done elsewhere. Apple is [usually] obsessively protective of its secrecy. You could be sure Apple is going to demo new and exciting features at MacWorld San Francisco early next year to drive up the buzz for the release.