A Singing Bird
the 800-pound gorilla
Singing a Sweeter, Simpler Song
A few weeks ago, I came across an application called Songbird. It’s an open-source music player that runs on the Mozilla XUL Runner platform and is compatible with all operating systems supported by that runtime environment. It’s designed primarily as a music player, and is not ideally suited for podcast viewers or people who use iTunes to access TV shows and movies. The developers want it to do one thing and one thing well.
looking good Miss Morissette
The interface is very similar to iTunes, but there are only so many intuitive things one can do with a media player’s interface. All interface elements are responsive, and the UI looks fine on Mac OS X. I could complain that the scrollbars are out-of-place, but iTunes’ scrollbars are wrong too.
Songbird made some very good impressions on me right away. If you already have an iTunes library (or Windows Media library, I presume), the application will import your media and playlists on first launch – making migration initially effortless. Additionally, the application is pretty responsive, and it has access to several community-developed plugins that allow you to do things like download lyrics, get album art from LastFM, search for concert tickets for artists in your library, and sync with iPods and other MP3 players.
Managing your plugins is very simple with a built in manager that will check for updates automatically as well as recommend popular plugins from the Songbird website. To further simplify matters, Songbird features an integrated web browser that allows you to check out and download plugins directly from within Songbird.
browsing the web in Songbird
For users who think iTunes mini player is a tad large, Songbird also has you covered. The mini player in Songbird is just a few pixels tall.
this picture is full size
Finally, Songbird proved itself to be incredibly stable. It never crashed or hung once for me, but the folks at Ars did run into a couple of snags. Regardless, I find this release an impressive effort that’s worth checking out. It has some problems, but Songbird 1.0 does a great job managing and playing music files without a lot of clutter or distraction.
Some Sour Notes
With any piece of software, especially software as young as Songbird, there are going to be a few issues. Here are some I ran into.- Protected AAC/WMA. Songbird will import your entire music library – even the stuff it can’t play. This leaves the user to remove protected music from the playlists.
- CD Ripping. Right now, you can’t import a CD into Songbird. The tracks have to be digital.
- iPod Ejecting. This doesn’t always work well.
- Album Art. I couldn’t find a way to automatically search for and add album art. Songbird also doesn’t import album art from iTunes.
- No Equalizer. Depending on your music collection, you may or may not miss this.
Final Thoughts
Whether or not you like Songbird will depend on how much you have invested in iTunes or Windows Media music. Since both of those stores lock their music to their player, you won’t be able to take those tracks to Songbird. However, if most of your music comes from your CD collection or from DRM-free stores like Amazon MP3, you might find Songbird a worthwhile download. It’s a simple application to get used to, and it strips away much of the bloat that’s becoming standard with bundled media players. Through downloadable plugins, you can make Songbird as simple or as complicated as you want it. If you just want a simple application to manage your music files, Songbird may hit all the right notes for you.Nano-chromatic
Anyway, new iPods and a new version of iTunes today hit the world today. Most iPod lines were just gently refreshed. Shuffle got a new paint job (polite applause), iPod classic got a larger hard drive (strained applause), iPod touch got some small enhancements in the way of integrated volume control buttons, a built-in speaker, and a price-cut (grateful yet restrained applause), and iPod nano got another complete makeover (enthusiastic applause).
I think the nano has undergone more exterior revisions more quickly than any other product in Apple history. I have pictures of them all around here somewhere. I'll have to make a post about it. Anyway, the new iPod nanos features a new curved aluminum and glass enclosure, is even thinner, and comes in nine colors. It also features a accelerometer that can activate Cover Flow when tipped to the side, or it will activate shuffle mode when shaken.
image by Apple, Inc.
The nanos come in 8 GB and 16 GB models and cost $149 and $199 respectively.
Alongside the new iPod naos, Apple released iTunes 8 to the world, featuring Genius technology that will generate entire playlists based off of one song. (The technology will also make iTunes Store recommendations, naturally.) HD television shows have come to the store along with a return of NBC programming. Finally, iTunes 8 brings a grid view to the interface, which is a very pleasant way of sorting your music.
The grid view groups music by genre, artist, album, or composer. When multiple albums are grouped together in grid view the icons behave much like Events if you are familiar with iPhoto 7.
All-in-all, no real surprises here. As an aside, Kevin Rose predicted exactly what iTunes 8 would look like back on Sunday. His other predictions were spot on as well.
Links 04/03/08 (Oh No! Edition)
John Nack on Adobe: Photoshop, Lightroom, and Adobe's 64-bit roadmap
Short story: Adobe Photoshop CS4 for the Mac will not be 64-bit. It will be 64-bit for Windows (but you will have to own a 64-bit edition of Windows to take advantage of it).
For more technical commentary on the events leading up to this discrepancy and the potential impact, see posts by John Siracusa at Ars Technica and John Gruber of Daring Fireball.
Ars Technica: Apple passes Wal-Mart, now #1 music retailer in US
I think the title says it all.
BBC News: 'No Sun link' to climate change
I'm not sure that headline is even close to being grammatically correct, but that's beside the point. The lesson here is that, yes, we should still be working on cutting those carbon emissions. We can't blame the sun for everything.
Links 02/26/08 ("Will It Ever Stop?" Edition)
ABC News: Autism Breakthrough: Girl's Writings Explain Her Behavior and Feelings
From the article:
"Autism is hard because you want to act one way, but you can't always do that. It's sad that sometimes people don't know that sometimes I can't stop myself and they get mad at me. If I could tell people one thing about autism it would be that I don't want to be this way. But I am, so don't be mad. Be understanding."
Just excellent.
Daily Kos: I Refuse to Buy into the Obama Hype
This is an incredibly well-researched post regarding legislation both Senators Clinton and Obama have been involved in and how these bills differentiate the candidates. This is good reading for anyone finding themselves having a hard time deciding which Democratic candidate to support.
I think, by know, you know which Democratic candidate I support. The question is, which Republican candidate do I like better? Inquiring minds...
The Huffington Post: Clinton, Obama And The Belief In The Magic Power Of Words
From the article:
Now, I agree with Clinton that it's important to look at how each of the Democratic candidates uses words and how rhetoric fits into how they've run their respective campaigns. And if you do, you'll see that one candidate does believe that words are like a magic wand: you utter them and reality changes. But it's not Barack Obama -- it's Hillary Clinton.
Clinton's use of words is disturbingly reminiscent of the way the Bush administration has used words: just saying something is true is magically supposed to make it true. Call it Presto-change-o Politics.
Macworld: Apple now No. 2 music retailer in the U.S.
This ranking includes brick-and-mortar locations by the way. I bet you can guess who's number one (shudder).
Links 02/20/08
This format war is finally over. Lots of consumers got the short end of the stick. Some companies are poised to lose bucket-loads of cash. I'm not a fan of format wars.
Apple: iPod shuffle Updates
The current 1GB model is dropping to $49, and a 2GB model is coming at $69. I am a fan of the iPod shuffle.
Scribd: Meet iPaper
It's kind of like YouTube for documents. Scribd has been around for a while now, but this software revision looks cool. I'm definitely trying this out!
College Humor: Irish Beatles
Hilarious.
Keynote Goodies Galore
Tuesday's Macworld keynote speech by Steve Jobs was interesting and exciting in many ways. Unfortunately for Apple's stock, it seems investors were really hoping for a 3G iPhone. However, iPhone was hardly mentioned Tuesday, and the Mac took center stage. Perhaps this was Jobs' way of making up for last year's iPhone-centered keynote. Here's a quick rundown.
iPhone + iPod touch
iPhone and iPod touch both received software updates that can be downloaded through iTunes. iPhone received some GPS-like functionality to Maps, customizable home screens, Web clips (like in the Leopard Dashboard), song lyric support, video chapters, and multi-person messaging. The iPod touch receives Mail, Maps, Weather, Notes, and Stocks – bringing it to surprising parity with iPhone. The only downside of the iPod touch upgrade is a $20 fee.A part of me still covets an iPod touch, and the new features make the device even more desirable. Now, if only they would release a 32 GB version at the price-point of the current 16 GB model...
iTunes + Apple TV
The big iTunes news is movie rentals. Rentals ring in at $2.99-$4.99 depending on definition and release status. Once a movie is rented, a user has 30 days to begin watching the film and 24 hours to complete a film once it's started. The 24-hour viewing window seems stingy, but I understand it's in line with comparable services. In addition to the movie rentals, Apple has signed a deal with Fox in which new Fox DVDs will also contain an iTunes-friendly version of the film on the disc. This is an interesting way to circumvent the whole DVD-backup issue. I wonder if other studios will hop on board with this initiative.
By focusing on movies, Apple has also made Apple TV a more competitive product. Once tethered to iTunes, Apple TV now has its own interface with the iTunes Store and can even download higher-resulution movie rentals (720p) than iTunes on Macs or PCs. The new user interface is very nice, and the pricetag is even nicer. A 40 GB model is available for $229 and a 160 GB model for $329.
If we watched more movies and TV shows, this might be a no-brainer, even with an XBox 360. Quite simply, iTunes has more content than XBox Live Marketplace and that content is priced better. Also, XBox Live Marketplace gives you a smaller window in which to begin viewing rented material. Out of the product announcements today, Apple TV may actually be the most competitive. (Here's a comparison of XBox Live Marketplace and Apple TV.)
Time Capsule
Time Capsule is the child of a high-capacity wireless hard drive and an AirPort Extreme base station. It's designed to compliment Leopard's Time Machine backup solution. Featuring a 500 GB or 1 TB hard drive ($299 and $499 respectively), this is an interestingly positioned product. Quite honestly, if I were to pick up an Airport Extreme and a decent 1 TB external drive individually, it would come up to about $500 dollars. For that same amount, here's an all-in-one solution. Seems like a winner to me even if it does target a niche audience.
I even like the name.
MacBook Air
The most attention-grabbing product announced was the MacBook Air. Closed, it's 0.76" at it's thickest point, and it weighs only 3 pounds. Check out the commercial for a good illustration of just how small this thing is. The thing looks amazing at first glance and comes packaged with some truly innovative technology, but I don't know if it will actually be a success.
Much is riding on its appeal as an ultra-light notebook and its stunning looks. Other appealing features include a gesture-sensitive trackpad and an amazing technology called Remote Disc. In a shell, Remote Disc allows the MacBook Air to wirelessly read discs inserted in another computer! This is quite important as the MacBook Air has no built-in optical drive. (However, Apple does sell a $99 USB Superdrive for the MacBook Air.)
Unfortunately, the limitations of this product relegate it to a solely secondary computer position, which is unfortunate considering its price. MacBook Air starts at $1799 with a SSD version available for $3,098! Not only is it bereft of an optical drive, but the hard drive itself is pretty small. It has few ports, excluding even an ethernet port, and the battery is not user replaceable. Fortunately, if you purchase the $129 battery through the Apple Store, installation is free, but this still costs convenience.
I am enamored by the looks and some of the technology in the MacBook Air, but I don't really see its value over Apple's other laptops. Now if Apple released a MacBook or MacBook Pro with a similar form factor and multi-touch trackpad, I might be interested. On the other hand, it's not wise to try to predict the failure or success of an Apple product, and they may have a success on their hands here. One never knows.
images courtesy Apple, Inc.
Links 11/08/07
Dan Moren discredits recent claims that Apple holds a true monolopy with iTunes and iPods – specifically answering a rant from ZDNet. The article is pretty humerous, but it gets the point across. I thought this quote was especially insightful:
This argument would be a heck of a lot more compelling if it weren’t for the thousands of hardware devices that require their own proprietary software. Just the other day I was looking at writing up a nifty USB pedometer for my Gadgetbox column. Unfortunately, there’s no Mac software, and it comes bundled with its own proprietary Windows software. Where are the cries of monopoly? Are you bummed that you can’t install the PS3’s new firmware on your Wii?
For the record, I use iTunes. My library has 1176 songs in it. Of those, a whopping 39 are iTunes store purchases. Yeah, I feel really locked in here.
Naked Light
This image editing application looks amazing. It makes me want Leopard even more. A download should be available Friday.
Gamespy: Super Mario Galaxy Review
If you enjoy playing the best, then you absolutely need to play Super Mario Galaxy. It's our favorite Wii game this year, and a strong contender for the best game of the year.
Just for fun:
Links 10/09/07
...And like so many other tragedies, the international community is turning a blind eye to the suffering people. However, if Burma's population or industry actually controlled something the world economy hinges on, this would not be tolerated.
iTunes: George Harrison
We've got solo careers from Paul, John, Ringo, and now George. I wonder when the "other shoe" will drop.
via TUAW
Links 09/25/07
There’s very high “it just works” factor here. Music is easy to find, easy to buy, and easy to download once you have the Amazon MP3 Downloader installed. When you download music with Amazon MP3 Downloader, it simply shows up in iTunes, as you’d expect, with no manual importing or additional action required on the user’s part. Sync your iPods, and the new music shows up there, too.
This could be huge.
Look Me In the Eye
This is the blog of John Elder Robinson, author of Look Me In the Eye (due out today) about growing up with and continuing to live with Asperger's Syndrome. I'm going to be hitting our nearby B&N after school to check this book out!
Inhabitat: PREFAB FRIDAY: Zero-Energy MkLotus debuts!
Here's an incredible new eco-prefab home showcased on the lawn of San Francisco's city hall. Check out the Flickr photoset for some other great pictures.
EcoSpeak: An interview with ex-IPCC co-chairman Sir John Houghton
Mr. Houghton puts global warming in some historical perspective and still comes to the conclusion that our current level of carbon emissions are cause for concern. He also discredits our politicians' recent obsession with ethanol:
Ethanol from corn is not a good deal. Why it is being pushed by President Bush, I don’t know. It’s been disastrous for the price of corn and it’s not helping the CO2 budget significantly at all.
Rogue Amoeba: Radioshift
John Gruber has the best analogy: "Like TiVo for radio."
Finishing the fight: Ars reviews Halo 3
Ars Technica reviews Halo 3's single player campaign. I won't give away the whole review, but here's a snippet:
Suffice it to say that there are a couple of twists and turns that some may not have been expecting, and some familiar faces will come and go, to the surprise and shock of long-time fans. When the game is done, though, one thing is certain: fans will have the closure they were looking for.
Links 09/20/07 (Special Extended Edition)
• Wil Shipley believes Apple's strategy of lock-ins will soon collapse upon itself.
• John Gruber agrees and goes so far as to say...
The best thing that could happen to Apple this year would be for Microsoft’s Zune 2.0 to be a kick-ass product, both technologically and in terms of being designed to make customers happy, not entertainment conglomerates. Apple needs competition.
• Paul Thurott says, "I told you so."
Engadget: NBC to offer free "NBC Direct" download service, iTunes competitor
from Engadget:
The company is going to start testing a new NBC Direct service in October with full, free downloadable episodes which can be stored up to seven days on Windows PCs. The shows will be on offer for a week as soon as they've aired, and will include imbedded, un-skippable ads.
Wow. That sounds like the company is putting customers first. Wait, what was that? Oh, battling the 0.01% of consumers who pirate programming is your number one priority! Now it all makes sense...
I like John Gruber's take:
So his number-one priority is piracy. Not making high-quality shows. Not forging a sponsorship or advertising model that is less annoying and distracting to viewers, such that they (the viewers) would be less likely to want to fast-forward the advertising messages. No, piracy, that’s his top priority.
Infinite Loop: OpenOffice Aqua still a year away
Sigh. Mac OS X has been out for how long? Seven-ish years now? How long did it take to figure out this whole OS X thing was more than a fad?
Google Video: Conspiracy Theory Rock
Awesome parody of School House Rock.
Apparently, this video has only been broadcast once, and it was back on March 14, 1998.
Flickr: 24 fps
This photoset features the last frame from several classic movies. Neat stuff. (See how many of the films you can name from the pictures! I could name ... like two.)
via DF
iPod Mania
iPod, iPod, iPod, and iPod
image courtesy Apple, Inc.
The iPod line saw some major updates, but the shuffle only received some color changes. On the other hand, Apple seems obsessed with radically altering the iPod nano (née iPod mini) every few months, and this release is no different. The nano now features video playback, games, video out, Cover Flow – basically everything its big brother features. Only these features are packed in an anodized aluminum enclosure that's just about 2" wide and less that 3" tall, about a quarter-inch thick, and weighs less than two ounces. Storage capacities have remained the same.
image courtesy Apple, Inc.
The iPod that started it all is now known as the iPod classic. It has all the features we know and love about iPod. However, Apple has ditched the plastic enclosure for aluminum, and the iPod classic is available in 80 GB or 160 GB(!) capacities. Something tells me the iPod classic name may be short-lived as it will someday be completely replaced by the big news of the event.
image courtesy Apple, Inc.
It's the iPod we Apple fanatics were hoping for the second we saw the iPhone. The iPod touch takes all the features of the iPod and wraps it in an iPhone finish. This thing is sleek, but one concession is storage. It comes in 8 GB and 16 GB configurations, and the fact that the iPod classic has ten-times the storage for a lower price is rather disconcerting. Really, though, it's a touch-screen iPod. That almost seems worth it in itself. Add in Safari, YouTube, and the iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store, and they may have a winner on their hands. Expect this thing to be hard to find during the holidays.
Other News
- The iPhone saw a $200 price drop, and the 4 GB model will soon be extinct. To calm the angry mobs (read: early adopters), Apple is offering a $100 gift certificate to everyone who bought an iPhone before the reductions (and who are not eligible for the rebate).
- iTunes now features album ratings and ringtones.
- The iPod Hi-Fi is no more. That's a shame. I wanted one of these for presenting. I was just waiting for a price drop. Kinda ironic, no?
Overall, there is some good stuff here. The iPod touch is particularly exciting, and it again raises the bar for digital music players. The nano and classic are even better values than before, and the iPhone will probably see an uptick in sales based on the price reduction. More than any company, Apple knows how to create covet-worthy products, and they just continue to outdo themselves. I wonder what's in store for Apple Expo later this month.
Links 09/02/07
This whole thing with Apple and NBC seems silly to me, but this guy makes some valid points.
Let me explain something to you, because you don’t seem to understand it already. Your TV shows are available every day, every week, and every month of the year for free. They fly through the air (and travel through cables) at no a la carte charge to customers...
What you should have learned from the iTunes experiment is simple: Apple is helping you make money, and build fan bases...
If you’re concerned about piracy of what you’re selling through iTunes, my suggestion would be to take a quick look at the fact that you’re distributing your content in completely unprotected or compromised ways every single day...
Right now, NBC shows are still on iTunes. Apple says they're pulling them this month. NBC says December.
Links 08/28/07
Engadget: It's on: Apple event slated for September 5th
Bring on the Cover Flow iPods. Oh, and the tag-line is interesting in context with this excerpt from an old Apple Corp. press release about the Beatles breaking up (found here):
"The world is still spinning and so are we and so are you. When the spinning stops--that'll be the time to worry. Not before. The Beatles are alive and well and the beat goes on. The beat goes on."
In related news, Ringo Starr's entire back catalogue is now on iTunes.
Presentation Zen: PowerPoint tips that are clear and to the point.
Garr Reynolds reviews a new book about PowerPoint called Clear and To the Point: 8 Psychological Principles for Compelling PowerPoint Presentations. He highly recommends the book and illustrates some of the discussed concepts. Even when reviewing another's work, Mr. Reynolds remains highly interesting and informative!
Links 08/15/08
And we all download/And we all download...
Infinite Loop: RIP AppleWorks
I'm really surprised Apple killed this product today – more or less because I didn't know the product was still alive as of yesterday.
Links 07/31/07
Seriously, what is the deal with these obscure companies that come out of the woodwork waving patents that they have never done anything with? Is patent-squatting some kind of new national pastime?
Infinite Loop: Apple schedules Mac event for Tuesday, August 7
Hmm, Apple is making it clear that this is not an iPod or iPhone related event. I know I'm interested.
Eureka Alert: Test scores slow under No Child Left Behind reforms, gauged by states/federal assessment
From the article:
The share of fourth-graders proficient in reading, based on federal NAEP results, climbed by one-half a percentage point each year, on average, between the mid-1990s and 2002. But over the four years after the legislation was passed, the share of students deemed proficient declined by about one percent.
The annual rise in the percentage of fourth-graders proficient in mathematics improved slightly in the same 12 states, moving up from 1.6 percent per year before ‘No Child’ was signed to a yearly growth rate of 2.5 percent following enactment of the law. This is the one out of six federal gauges where a post-NCLB gain was observed by the research team, tracking NAEP results.
Wow. NCLB is correlated with improvement in 1/6 of measured standards. Of course, NCLB really has little to do with what's best for children as much as it is about what's best for the perception that politician's care.
Infinite Loop: Eminem publisher sues Apple over iTunes downloads
The way I read the article, it sounds like this is really a dispute between Eminem's publisher and Universal Music. Anyway, Eminem's stuff has been on the iTunes store for how long now? Way to take initiative guys...
Links 07/02/07
Brilliant marketing. Absolutely brilliant.
Perian: The Swiss-Army Knife for QuickTime
Perian is a free open source plug-in that greatly expands QuickTIme's file compatibility. This is a must-have for every Mac use.
Playlist: iTunes loses lock on Universal music
I can't tell if this is really a big deal or not. Basically, Universal is giving Apple the same treatment they give other music retailers now. The quote from an Apple rep in this article makes absolutely no sense. I think someone forgot to proofread:
“We are still negotiating with Universal, the music is still on iTunes, and their not resigning is just not true,” said Apple spokesman Tom Neumayr.
Internet Nexus: Apple apparently sold a lot of iPhones
Three sources, three widely different sales projections. Apparently Apple sold somethere between 200,000 and 700,000 iPhones this weekend ... give or take a few.
Links 06/15/07
via TUAW
Guardian Unlimited: Call to ban all school exams for under-16s
Well, this is interesting...
Newsweek: On A Roll, Or, How Microsoft Secured Yet Another Exclusive--Beautiful Katamari--From Namco Bandai
Okay, this just made the whole "which expensive console should I buy" question a whole lot more complicated ... unless, of course, Newsweek is wrong.
via Opposable Thumbs
Ars Technica: AMA chimes in on gaming/violence connection, gaming addiction
From the article:
Overall, the committee seems to have produced a fine report that both accurately affects the current state of knowledge and puts the impetus for acting on it where it belongs: on parents, acting in consultation with family physicians.
Parental responsibility? Imagine that.
Links 04/06/07
It sounds like this could be the final post at Creating Passionate Users. I hope it isn't.
Shacknews: Half-Life 2, Doom 3 Assets in S.T.A.L.K.E.R.?
If this is true, it could spark a pretty nasty backlash from the hardcore gamer crowd as well as incite legal action from id Software and Valve.
WSJ: Using Even New PCs is Ruined by a Tangle of Trial Programs, Ads
Walt Mossberg rants about the amount of trial-ware, ads, and "special offers" that litters any new PC bought from a major vendor. He says such practices are a result of lack of respect for the consumer, and I agree. However, it's important to note that the consumer would be paying more for the computer without all of that advertising in place. It's like magazines. A bridal magazine that's 200 pages and 75% ads will cost much less than a 50 page psychology journal with no ad revenue.
This is yet one more way Dell, HP, and others sell computers at such low prices. I'm not convinced the tradeoff is worth it.
The Macalope: Run for Your Lives
The mythical Macalope reports on the recently reported iPod "virus" and its severe limitations. He christens it "The Lamest Virus Evah™!"
Human Computer Interaction in Science Fiction Movies
This paper takes a look at how science fiction movies speculate about how we will interact with technology in the future. Several movies are covered, and I especially liked the author's thoughts on Minority Report.
Links 04/02/07
The songs will be 256kbps AAC files instead of 128kbps protected-AAC files. They will be $1.29, and you can upgrade your current iTunes-purchased EMI songs for $0.30. These songs will also play on any device that supports AAC.
Additional Coverage
Links 03/29/07
The San Francisco Chronicle has a decent overview of the events surrounding the abuse aimed at Kathy Sierra and the subsequent hiatus of Creating Passionate Users. Again, of all people, I have such a hard time believing she was made into a target.
Playlist: iTunes Completes Me
...and this wasn't a feature from day one because?
Scribd: They didn't study
Here is a small but amusing collection of "creative" answers from students who either became too frustrated with the material or just had no clue what they were doing.
Infinite Loop: Minireview: NeoOffice 2.1 for OS X
All in all, this is a highly-recommended download. But that doesn't mean there aren't any downsides. This Aqua version is a far cry from early X11 StarOffice ports that looked like they were running on Windows 98, prehistoric save dialogs and all. But if you're one to complain about UI consistency, you may be less than impressed by by the look and little things, such as the way the home and end keys on the keyboard behave like they do on a PC (or a Microsoft application). And NeoOffice's look is very much inspired by Microsoft Office.
Also, performance was sluggish on his PowerBook G4. On the other hand, it's pretty zippy on Intel Macs.
OpenOffice.org: Press Release – OpenOffice 2.2
This update patches some newly discovered vulnerabilities, improve on-screen text appearance, and has other small improvements.
Links 02/03/07
Exxon: "Here's $10,000. Now go sow public confusion about climate change like a good boy."
The Politico: Gore to Testify on Climate Change
Gore will be testifying before two committees he has served on in the past regarding recent climate change. It's interesting that he is the only witness who will be testifying at this time. I wonder why there are not some more.
AppleInsider: Apple working on hot-unpluggable iPods
All I can say is this: It's about time! (Really, this whole mounting and unmounting of physical drives is so 80s!)
Adium
This Mac OS X chat client is great, and now it has (finally) reached 1.0 status!
Globe and Mail: Exxon's 'outlandish' earnings spark furor
Isn't this the second or third year in a row Exxon has posted record profits? They really aren't even trying to hide the exploitive greed anymore. They just attempt to justify it.
iClip 4
This is a very nice update to a small app I really like. It provides multiple clipboards that any application can access. If you are a Mac user, you should try iClip out. (Warning: this link is not Internet Explorer friendly.)
via TUAW
iConcertCal
This is an
interesting hack of the iTunes visualizer. It
retrieves information about upcoming concerts in your
area based on artists in your iTunes collection. I
have to admit that this is pretty neat (and that no
one I like ever comes to Indy). The program is
available for Mac + Windows.
via TUAW
CPUs: Let them do the thing everyone
else tells them not to
This post
fits in so well with my philosophy of education, and
I love the image at the beginning!
Links 01/23/07
I really like this post about how good it is to say positive things about your competition in public situations. I don't care if you're Steve Jobs or Steve Ballmer, taking too many jabs at the competition just gets tacky.
Ars Technica: iTunes DRM called out by France and Germany
...and the pressure is mounting...
CPUs: Sensemaking 1
Creating Passionate Users contributor Dan Russell is starting an interesting series on how we processes and make sense of complex information. Personally, when trying to make sense of something I am trying to absorb, instead of taking normal notes, I try to create a presentation on how I would relate this information to others. It's kind of geeky, but it works for me.
Ars Technica: Zune 2.0: The Empire Strikes Back
I'm interested to see what future updates for the Zune bring to the table. Case in point: think of an XBox. Now think of an XBox 360. Microsoft has shown that it is capable of learning from past mistakes and leapfrogging itself by a wide margin.