Mac 20 Questions

Okay guys, you know that project I couldn’t speak about during my last post?  Well, now I can speak about it, because I was interviewed on the Mac 20 Questions podcast, which asks 20 questions of different people about how they use their Macs.  The episode in question should be up as you read this post.

It was a lot of fun to record that interview, Skype dropouts and all.  Thank you David Allen, and thank you in advance to everyone who listens!

Update from Me

Okay, folks.  I know I haven’t been blogging in awhile, but there’s so much to talk about related to the blog.  First, you may notice that the site has been upgraded just a mite with a few widgets, including a Twitter widget!

Also, I have made a decision that I’ve been meaning to do for a nice long while: I have chosen to delete all my blogs except for this one.  This blog is now my main blog and will remain so for the foreseeable future.  I just didn’t have enough time in the day to update all my blogs!  So, this problem snowballed to the point where NONE of them got updated.  I really didn’t want to not blog, so I decided to eliminate some blogs, and this one was one I really wanted to keep up to date as much as possible.

The third and final thing today is that I have uploaded my first ScreenSteps tutorial to the site!

Of course, there is “one more thing”… but it’s not set in stone yet, so I have to tease this one.  I’ll be sure to plug it once I have more details.

Apple’s Future

I’m sure everybody and their sister has heard about Apple CEO Steve Jobs taking a 6-month or so medical leave from the company.

Also, I’m supremely sure everybody has heard the same old boring, tired argument that “Apple can’t replace Steve Jobs.”  And I’m hoping everyone read MacWorld’s piece on the “triumvirate” of Tim Cook, Jony Ive, and Phil Schiller.

One thing that Steve is known for is the “cool factor” he brings to Apple’s product line.  Another is the product development, vision, and marketing that Steve has introduced with the iPod, the iPhone, and, yes, the MacBooks.

Allow me to submit my own name, BJ Wanlund, for consideration to be the new CEO of Apple Inc.

I am nothing more than an idea guy.  But I have numerous wonderful and fantastic ideas for Apple, if this were to come to fruition.  Most of them rely on one thing: Apple’s knack for creating a) fantastic consumer electronics hardware, b) amazing services that use iTunes, the world’s most stable sales platform, as a jumping-off point, and c) the most amazing, simple, and easy-to-use software products anywhere.

Even if Apple decided to put me in as Senior Vice President of Blue Sky Development, I’d be more than happy to fulfill that sort of role.  You see, I’ve always wanted to be an Imagineer, but my strengths lie solely in ideas, and also writing, and maybe a bit of nomenclature as well.  I also have some extremely eclectic taste in music, and that’s something Steve is also known for.  Also, I am wild about movies (although I am picky about which ones I see in the theaters, much to my detriment sometimes) and very wild about TV shows.  (Oh, and Apple, would you PLEASE get on putting Star Trek: The Next Generation on iTunes???  It’s been long enough!!)

Let’s hope everyone can see some great products coming out of Apple for a long time to come.

Oh, and one more thing…

Let’s talk about Macworld real quick here.  iWork 09 and iLife 09 are both either out right now or coming out shortly.  iWork 09 sounds like a product I’d be really happy to get my dirty paws on, and iLife also sounds good.  Being a daily Pages user, the Pages changes are pretty darn awesome!  They also put out the 17″ unibody MacBook Pro with an embedded extended-life battery… for the EXACT SAME PRICE they have it at now.  And they also announced: DRM-free iTunes!!!  YAY!!  Although paying upwards of $250-300 for the privilege is a bit high and mighty…

Software Piracy and What I See As a Fix

Okay, here’s the deal: Thanks to the Shane R. Monroe show “Car Talk” (found at cartalk.monroeworld.com for now), which will certainly be renamed in the future, an issue came up that I feel I need to tackle on this blog: Software piracy.

Now, I don’t condone software piracy, but the anti-piracy measures some companies take on absolutely boils my blood.  All these software companies decide to blame piracy for “poor sales” when they’ve only got themselves to blame for a very large chunk of it.

Some examples of this are: “Oh, we have this fully-functional trial version, but we deliberately screwed with this one feature you really want, so if you want it fully-featured, you gotta pay up!” or (and this is rich) “Oh, we see you’re downloading our demo.  Oh, and we almost forgot to tell you that you only have a few hours or days to try our program before it breaks and you must pay up to continue using it!! (insert evil maniacal laugh here)”

This is absolute insanity, and the rest of this post will be a plea for a modicum of sanity.  However, I must say that I am no longer using any of Rogue Amoeba’s “fully-functional trials with one feature deliberately screwed with” that I mentioned above, thanks to Benjamin Fryxell over at macmaniapodcast.com!  He gave me a free license to WireTap Studio, and I now can say with absolute certainty that I’ll be using this application IN PLACE OF Audio Hijack Pro for a nice long time to come.  Thanks again Ben!

Now, back to the topic at hand.  There is but one bright spot in this unstable environment, and I want to fully disclose before I go on that I recently got an iPhone 3G, so the following discussion of the App Store is probably going to be a bit biased.

Now, that being said, the App Store is the lone sane idea in operation.  The idea is that Apple approves apps for the App Store, and you have to develop apps to Apple’s specifications, which I admit are vague and spotty in places, but for the most part, Apple has a remarkable track record in the App Store’s day-to-day operations.

Also, the DRM is included in every app, and all apps go to all iPhone and iPod Touch owners.  This (to me) makes far more sense than playing with SecuROM or any number of other protection schemes designed to fight software piracy (and losing at it).  The App Store is beautifully executed for the most part, and this is THE solution for software piracy going forward.

So, what do I want to see as a fix?  Since iTunes is on both Windows AND Macintosh (in essence, it covers 99.9% of the computer market), I want to see Apple expanding the App Store to both Windows AND Mac computer software.  This will help the fight against software piracy, and it will have a farther reach than Steam or any other solution for this kind of thing ever will (and I’ll bet Apple will get Valve and company on board and have Steam integrated within iTunes on both platforms, which would probably save Mac gamers a considerable amount of grief concerning certain games).  Also, each application or game has a demo, just like with Xbox Live Arcade.  This wouldn’t be just for games, though.  It would also be for applications like iLife, iWork, and many other pieces of software.  In fact, Apple could even reduce packaging for the bundled software to nothing with this solution, and come up with many more optical drive-free computers a la the MacBook Air.

So, a solution that not only helps software piracy, but appeases the idiots at Greenpeace at the same time.  It’s a win-win for Apple.  Beats me why they haven’t used this solution yet.

Wow, it’s been THAT long?!

Hi guys!

Here are a few Mac things I need to get out of the way:

First, I got a new iPod Nano, and I was having a few problems with it (mainly album artwork issues, funny as that may sound).  For a quickie review: ABSOLUTELY try it at your local Apple Store or Best Buy.  I would not buy it again, let’s just get that out there.  It’s a great iPod, but I’m really being left cold by the experience so far.  It’s all right, but it’s just not my cup of Mocha Frappucino.  

It’s a bit small, and a bit thin.  Also, the Cover Flow with accelerometer is the most easily-activated feature on this device!  I had to turn it off, using the latest firmware update, because it was just too easy to activate Cover Flow, especially how I use the iPod (i.e. I have it inside a jacket pocket with my hand on the clickwheel).  If I had been given a choice, I’d have chosen something else.  Whoever made the decision to put an accelerometer into the iPod nano 4G needs to be drawn, quartered, and shot, because in real life, it really hinders the usefulness of the iPod UNLESS you turn those features off!

Also, the iPod earbuds are just as fragile as ever.  They’re already in the trash, and I’ve only used them for maybe a month before they gave out.  Let’s hope the delay for those new earbuds are because they need to make these FAR sturdier!

Now, I want to talk a little bit about the new Macbooks.  Okay, the design is great, and thank God they went away from Intel’s horrid integrated graphics.  And it’s great the new Macbooks are aluminum!  But, here’s my big complaint about them: NO BLU-RAY!  Since they have HDCP built into the new Macs, SURELY they could’ve put a Blu-Ray drive in these things, no matter whether from a licensing perspective, it was a “bag of hurt” or not.  That really burns.

Okay, hopefully I’ll be less of an interval till my next post.

What’s on YOUR iPod?

Hey guys, long time no post.  I’m planning on putting up my iTunes columns sometime this week or next, so be on the lookout for those.

I just got a new iPod, a review is forthcoming.  Again, be on the lookout for that.

And on that note, I got an idea while listening to my new iPod: What’s on the regular Joe’s iPod?  We have all these great playlists from celebrities like Michael Cera on iTunes, but what about the guys like you or me (since Apple ain’t looking toward the blogosphere for celebrities to make their playlists anytime soon…)?

So here’s the criteria: 25 songs and 10 albums that you couldn’t live without on your iPod.  So, to kick things off, here’s my list:

Albums:

1. Heart – Heart (1985).  Greatest album ever.  Nuff said.
2. Anne Murray – A Little Good News (1983).  One of the best singers period, Canadian or otherwise.
3. Holly Near and Ronnie Gilbert – Lifeline Extended (2006).  One of the best live albums to ever grace CD, cassette or iPod.
4. Genesis – We Can’t Dance (1991).  I absolutely LOVE this album by Genesis.
5. Linda Ronstadt feat. Aaron Neville – Cry Like A Rainstorm, Howl Like The Wind (1989).  Linda Ronstadt’s pop return, and ome of my absolute favourite albums period.
6. Phil Collins – No Jacket Required.  I had a tape of this that I wore out (literally).  My favorites are Don’t Lose My Number, Sussudio and Inside Out.
7. Peter, Paul, and Mary – No Easy Walk to Freedom.  Songs of conscience, along with PP&M’s comeback!  What could be any better?
8. Bonnie Raitt – Luck of the Draw.  Bonnie Raitt’s very best, by far.
9. Heart – Alive in Seattle (2003).  Another fantastic live album from the best live band around.

Songs:

1. Linda Ronstadt: When I Grow Too Old To Dream – Off her Living In The U.S.A. album, she performed this ditty when she guest-starred on The Muppet Show alongside Kermit, who’d been locked in with Gonzo’s mold collection almost the entire show.  Still puts a chill up my spine every time I listen.
2. Bette Midler: From A Distance – Off her Some People’s Lives album, Bette Midler is truly and utterly in her element here, and from a distance, all seems calm, even today.
3. John Fogerty: Gunslinger – Off his Revival album, John Fogerty calls for someone to upset the balance of power.  Boy, did he get what he wished for (and we all benefited).
4. Joni Mitchell: Woman of Heart and Mind – Off her For The Roses album, this just so happens to be one of my all-time favorites.
5. Bonnie Raitt: Not The Only One – Off her Luck of the Draw album, Bonnie Raitt knows that she isn’t the only lonely one.
6. Bruce Springsteen: Magic – Off his recent album of the same name, Bruce warns us of what will be when we believe the words of a press “magician”.
7. Jimmy Buffett: They Don’t Dance Like Carmen No More – Off A White Sportcoat and a Pink Crustacean, Jimmy Buffett wistfully recalls Carmen Miranda’s reign on the movie screen…
8. Linda Ronstadt: Different Drum – from Linda Ronstadt’s stint with her short-lived backup band, The Stone Poneys, this song evokes rebelliousness.
9. Los Lobos: La Bamba – from Just Another Band from East LA, this is one of those Spanish-language standards that gets an updated twist.
10. Martina McBride: Anyway – a recent single, Martina McBride (whom I first heard singing the end theme from A Muppet Christmas Carol) kicks it up several notches in the country music realm.
11. Mary Chapin Carpenter: Passionate Kisses – From Come On Come On, this was originally a Lucinda Williams song (!), and Mary Chapin Carpenter (despite what she says) gives it a country twist.
12. Olivia Newton-John: Physical – From, well, Physical, Olivia Newton-John sings about physical contact with the opposite sex with a very upbeat tempo.  Unfortunately, several people got things mixed up because Olivia (being the sexy woman she was back then) dressed up in a fashionable exercise outfit…
13. Pat Benatar: Helter Skelter – From Precious Time, Pat Benatar does her rockin’ Beatles cover.
14. Paula Abdul: Dance Like There’s No Tomorrow – A rather recent Paula single, she brings the pop again due to her exposure-grabbing stint as a judge on American Idol.
15. Peter, Paul & Mary: Light One Candle – From No Easy Walk to Freedom, this song of conscience, disguised as a song about the Hanukkah story, rings true even today.
16. Phil Collins: Inside Out – From No Jacket Required, this is easily one of my favorites.
17. REO Speedwagon: Ridin’ The Storm Out – From Ridin’ The Storm Out, this seems to be a fixture at Brevard College women’s basketball games.
18. Poison: Talk Dirty to Me – This song was featured on Guitar Hero 3, which is how I managed to get into this song.
19. Ray Parker Junior: Ghostbusters – Who DOESN’T love this song??
20. Pretenders: I’ll Stand By You – From Last of the Independents, this song should be the anthem of all faithful men and women.
21. Reba McEntire: The Night The Lights Went Out In Georgia – Originated by Vicki Lawrence, Reba took this song to a whole other level, and with the music video, explained the song’s complicated imagery quite well (a rarity for music videos of the time).
22. Sal: Devil May Care – The theme song for the Devil May Care audiobook in the UK, it’s one heck of a good song (and I do believe you can still download the song from MySpace, but if not, go to the band’s offical website, http://www.saltheband.co.uk/).
23. Steve Goodman: Go Cubs Go – The Chicago Cubs theme song these days (always is played upon every Cubs victory), what a great song!
24. Van Halen: When It’s Love – How do you NOT mention one of the greatest rock and roll bands ever?
25. The Who: Baba O’Riley – Contrary to popular belief, it’s NOT called “Teenage Wasteland”.  From Who’s Next, one of The Who’s most popular songs ever, and just got put up on the Rock Band store for download this summer.

So, I hear you wondering, “How do I send MY list in?  This guy doesn’t know what he’s talking about!”  Well, here’s how you do it:

1. Send me an email, supermacgeek@gmail.com with the subject line “What’s On My iPod” (without the quotes preferrably)
2. Give me a list of 10 albums and 25 songs you absolutely cannot live without on your iPod with a brief description along with your name so I can credit you (both in the title and in the actual post).

I’ll post them when I can (and when I get usable lists)!

Apple-hating

I feel that it’s time on my Mac blog to completely destroy the idea that Apple is a company to be hated.

When I first switched several years ago, I was extraordinarily surprised to find out how much people REALLY hated Apple.  And since I’d gone on completely HATING Microsoft for several years before this, I found this Apple-bashing completely ridiculous and extraordinarily ludicrous.

First, let me tell you: My computer hasn’t really had to go in for software-related issues AT ALL.  In fact, unlike my LAST Windows box, my copy of Mac OS X was completely legal, and the store wasn’t skirting the law in selling me my computer.  Also, I had to use my computer to do assignments for a programming class I took in my first year of college, pre-MacBook.  I found it to be unbelievably hard!  My computer kept crashing, and using a Windows machine to program seems extremely ludicrous to me now.  Why, then, do Web designers use WINDOWS?  Never made sense to me.  I guess they were skilled at making do with what they were dealt (and maybe having 500GB of RAM had something to do with it as well *sheer exaggeration*).

Second, yeah we Mac geeks can be insufferable bores at times, but that’s because we want everyone to know about our beloved Macs, and hopefully they can ditch their AWFUL Windows computers for something far superior, if they’ll ever listen.

Third, if you think about it, your beloved Dell is MORE expensive than a Mac.  I think PC World did an expose recently where they compared prices of a similarly featured Dell XPS laptop and a MacBook, and they found that, for the EXACT SAME FEATURES (like a built-in webcam and 13.3-inch display, among others), the MacBook was LESS EXPENSIVE.  Now get over yourselves.  We may bitch and moan and whine that Macs are “more expensive” (note my emphasis), in reality, they’re cheap as chips when compared to similarly featured computers on the Windows side.

Fourth, the interface of Mac OS X is NOT so hard to figure out!  Instead of having ALL your apps in a convenient menu on the bottom of the screen, you ONLY have the apps you use a lot at the bottom of the screen in the “Dock”!  It makes a big difference!

You can have whatever programs on the Dock you choose!  I’ve cleaned out my Dock as of recent, and here is what’s on there that I could remove if I so chose:

1. QuickTime
2. NetNewsWire: A RSS reader for those pesky blogs, and I read a TON of them; it’s great to have them all in one spot!
3. Mail: Apple’s email client, it really helps for my Gmail, and since I’m considering getting MobileMe, it’s going to be indispensible to have almost ALL my email in one spot on my computer, although I don’t use my Brevard College or Western Carolina University email with it, and I have effectively killed my Yahoo email account, although I keep it just for the Yahoo Groups email and my Flickr account (http://www.flickr.com/photos/bjwanlund)
4. EyeTV: Elgato’s DVR software, although I’ve yet to update to Version 3.  I may do that for this blog, although finding the cash will have to wait…
5. Safari: A must for all Mac users (and you poor souls still on Windows!), and with Apple’s recent Mac OS X update, it’s more secure (although an anti-phishing filter would be nice, but I really don’t want that in my browser, kthx Microsoft)!
6. iTunes: If you don’t get it, and you “lost all your tracks” due to some “error”, give it another chance and BACK IT UP, STUPID.  iTunes EVEN REMINDS YOU TO BACK UP.  Good God, Apple’s really on to something with their Time Machine backup system, and the utter lack of people who back up on a regular basis, or who don’t back up PROPERLY, still amazes me.  This has all sorts of amazing things, including the App Store (which they recently added), the largest LEGAL music selection on the Internet, the largest LEGAL copy protection-free song catalog (sorry folks, but Amazon and eMusic don’t seem entirely legal to me), movie rentals, movie purchases, and TV show purchases.  It’s not the largest catalog possible, but I really hope it grows and keeps growing, because iTunes is my de facto TV show purchasing headquarters anymore.  The future of TV is on-demand.  Heck, even Steve Beverly of TVGameShows.Net sees it.
7. Audio Hijack Pro: Since the music companies are slow to realize that DRM-free is the only way to go on iTunes, the only choices we REALLY have in the matter at present are to either purchase ONLY DRM-free tracks or purchase any track we want to listen to and go through the arduous process of ripping the audio and re-importing it into iTunes using any number of methods available to us, and I choose the latter method with a program called Audio Hijack Pro.  The reason I chose this method is because I can’t stand to not have options, and when I chose this, the iTunes Plus catalog was severely lacking.
8. iPhoto: This, along with ALL of iLife, is my defacto thing.  Windows has the lame programs that comes with it, these programs are incredible.  I don’t use them all the time, but it’s useful to have them, believe me.  My first YouTube video (the one where I showed the lyrical difference on Jimmy Buffett’s Volcano in the version released as DLC for Rock Band on Xbox 360) was made entirely in iMovie ‘08 Didn’t take me more than 5 minutes max for that little video.
9. Pages: My word processor of choice.  In fact, I have completely weaned myself off of Microsoft Office, and I now no longer need it.  Thank God, too.  Pages might have a bit less functionally than MS Word, but I’d rather use it than the extremely complicated MS Word.  And yes, Virginia I have used the new version with the ribbon interface.  Seems to overly overcomplicate matters to an extreme never before seen, however.
10. Skype: I’m almost never online for a chat (Username BJWanlund), but it’s useful for those times when I am.
11. RealPlayer Downloader: Sometimes it’ll download the most inappropriate crap, but it works most of the time when I want a video from a site that won’t let me download the video (YouTube is notorious for this, I used to use Keepvid for the same thing, now I rarely use it!)
12. Jiggler: It basically says, “Don’t kill the screen buddy, I’m actually using it!!”  Although there is a downside to it: apparently I’m getting some screen flickering, but I’ll bet it’ll go away if I let it rest, maybe when I go to sleep or something.
13. VLC: For anything QuickTime and iTunes don’t catch, I have VLC.  Also, the volume can be set up louder than iTunes or QuickTime, so when I’m not in headphone mode, I’ll be able to hear my music (and it’s PERFECT for those times when I need my music somewhere, like on retreat or something).
14. iChat: Great AIM and Jabber Client, even though I’m rarely on.
15. iSquint: FLV-MP4 conversion, which is all I need really.  Don’t need VisualHub for this stuff.

So there you have it.  Unwittingly they’re also my software picks, imagine that.

So until next time, so long!

Shade and sweet water to you this evening, BJ

Why Mackintosh?

“My mother was a Mackintosh.” — James Mackintosh Qwilleran, from Lillian Jackson Braun’s Cat Who… series of mystery novels.

And with that, we’re officially into posts for Mackintosh Fun Time that weren’t recycled from the Gaming and Other Stuff Journal!

I’ll get into my history with Apple in a future post, but this is going to be Mac-, iPhone-, and iPod-based posts, since it was practically taking over my Gaming and Other Stuff Journal!

Starting next week, I’ll give 7 tidbits per week leading up to the July 11th launch of iPhone 3G and (hopefully) the App Store!

WWDC Thoughts

Funny, I thought it was going to be all about OTHER things than the iPhone.  But hey, it’s $199, AND the headphone jack is NO LONGER RECESSED!!!  YAAAAAYYYY!!!

WWDC 2008 Predictions

Hey, hey guys!  It’s that time once again.  It’s time for the Official Mackintosh Fun Time Wacko Apple Predictions post, this time for the upcoming Worldwide Developer’s Conference, happening NEXT WEEK!  

As Steve Jobs takes the stage June 9, I’ll be watching one of the liveblogs (either Macworld’s, the MacRumors one, or the Gizmodo one), but I wanted to get my predictions out there so that (hopefully) Steve Jobs and Apple feature this blog (and this blog post) in some way, shape, form, or fashion during the keynote.  

Since I know that the creation of the actual keynote presentation is so last-minute, I felt that this was the perfect time to talk about what I think Apple will announce at WWDC, and I am going to have three wacky predictions as well as three standard predictions, but who doesn’t have some kind of pipedream at some point?

• Wacky prediction #1: Blu-Ray support is featured on ALL Macintosh computers, even those computers that are already out there with slot-loading SuperDrives via a firmware updater which would automagically (yes, I know that isn’t a word) give Blu-Ray support within the Mac hardware, and also create the HDCP junk necessary for the movies to work.  Much as I hate HDCP, I hate that Blu-Ray doesn’t have that much of an install base for the movie studios to actually start throwing these things out there (maybe Blazing Saddles?  RIP Hedley Lamarr).
• Standard prediction #1: Apple announces the 3G iPhone.  This one’s a no-brainer.
• Wacky prediction #2: You guys are missing the point when it comes to the App Store.  It’s NOT just going to be for the iPod Touch and the iPhone, but it’s ALSO going to be for the Mac.  Apple probably realizes by now that Apple enthusiasts want a single place to buy all their paid-for software, including VisualHub, Audio Hijack Pro, Puzzle Quest, World of Warcraft (Steve’s favorite), etc.
• Standard prediction #2: Apple re-brands .Mac as either “Mobile Me” or drags .Mac back to the old iTools days, when the service was actually free.  I can’t decide, and neither can most of the Mac pundits!
• Wacky prediction #3: Apple releases a new laptop, the MacBook Mobile.  This has a 12″ display with the aforementioned slot-loading Blu-Ray SuperDrive, along with screaming ATI Radeon HD graphics and a full complement of ports, all for about 1.5 pounds.
• Standard Prediction #3: Apple will announce a price drop on the iPhone to $250, with a corresponding price drop for the iPod Touch, probably to just $199 for a 16GB model and $299 for the 32GB model.

Okay, hope everyone watches a liveblog or two (or you’re actually THERE seeing the Reality Distortion Field on full display).  Check back here Tuesday for a full deconstruction of the WWDC announcements, until then, Live Long and Prosper (TM)!