I like Starbucks coffee. I really do. But I don’t go there very often anymore. There was a time in my life (about four years ago) that I bought coffee from Starbucks almost seven days a week. Of course, then I realized I could save around $500 a year if I cut out the coffee on the way to work and made my own once I got there. But I still like a cup of Starbucks now and then.

Often I like to get out of my office and work from a coffee shop to get a change of scenery. For these coffee shop hangout sessions, I stopped going to Starbucks a while back in favor of other coffee shops. Why? It’s simple: free wireless internet. When Starbucks first started offering wireless internet, it was through TMobile and it was very expensive--$6 an hour, $9 a day or $30 a month. Those kinds of prices seemed insane, so I started going elsewhere. Just about every other coffee shop has free wireless internet. This is what Starbucks doesn’t understand. Although there coffee is good, I’ll take a lesser cup of Joe if free WiFi is included.

So I was pretty excited when Starbucks announced they were moving from TMobile to AT&T for wireless internet and offering free service through the latter. Of course the “free” AT&T internet is limited to two hours and the patron has to have a registered Starbucks gift card. Okay, that seemed like a short amount of time, but it was better than nothing, so I made sure one of the gift cards loitering in my wallet was registered.

This week and last I’ve been in Louisiana visiting family and friends. I called Philip Wade on Saturday and he suggested we meet at the local Starbucks. Since I wanted to upload a video podcast for the cast iron site while we talked, I got to Starbucks a few minutes early so that I could go ahead and connect and begin the upload.

After ordering my tall black coffee, I opened up my MacBook and selected “AT&T” from the list of wireless networks. I noticed also that TMobile was in the list, too. For some strange reason, the AT&T network switched over to TMobile’s although the screen still showed the AT&T logo. From there, I wasn’t certain what to do.

My screen showed an AT&T logo and asked for my login name and password. There was no mention of Starbucks anywhere on the screen or in the drop down menu. What login name and password? I tried using the same information I had used a few days before on the Starbucks website when I registered my card. No luck.

Not knowing what to do next, and since there’s no Internet access beyond the login screen, it’s not like I could have my login name and password emailed to me, so I approached one of the baristas at the counter. The fellow behind the counter looked at my screen and said that he didn’t know what to do either. Now, consider that this is one of the employees at Starbucks and he has no idea how to get on to his own store’s wireless network. After poking around on the screen for a few minutes, he looked at me and said, “Well, if you sit in the front corner of the store, you can pick up Subway’s internet.”

Unbelievable.

I sat back down at my table. I saw Philip pulling up outside as I looked back down at my screen. There was a link for help, so I clicked on that and saw a toll-free support number for AT&T. As Philip was walking in the door, I was telling the fellow from AT&T what I had tried so far in order to log on. The support fellow seemed totally oblivious. “Did you say that you tried your login?”

“Well, what login do you mean? My Starbucks login, the account number on the Starbucks card or what?”

After I told him I’d tried both, he asked for my name again and tried to look me up in his database. Not finding my name anywhere, he suggested that perhaps my card was not set up for WiFi rewards. What?

Of course, he said that he couldn’t set that up for me. He’d have to give me another number to call where they could supposedly set up my card. I looked at Philip. “Starbucks’ internet is impossible to get on. Do you know of another coffee shop where the internet is free?” Philip suggested PJ’s across the street.

I still had the AT&T guy on the phone. “Do you want that number?” he asked.

“Forget it,” I said. “We’re going somewhere else.”

We went to PJ’s where getting on the internet was as easy as opening my MacBook.

This is why other coffee shops will continue to get my business over Starbucks. As I said, Starbucks’ coffee is great. But in the end, it’s about more than just the coffee--it’s about the experience. And they just don’t get that.

Tags: Starbucks

Mac OS X Leopard has a nifty feature for those who have a .Mac (dot Mac) account called "Back to My Mac." This allows you to access any of your files or even share a screen with any other computer on your network, or on any of your .Mac accounts, even if you are on a different network.

I carry most of my current work on my MacBook, but occasionally when I'm working at home, I prefer to use the iMac and simply start up a screen-sharing session back to my MacBook. So recently, I wondered what would happen if I started up a screen share on each Mac to the other Mac. Here is my result (click on the image to see a larger version):

Tags: Macintosh, OS X

On Saturday, March 29, I will be teaching an all-day Accordance seminar at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky. Admission is free, but seating is limited. If you want to reserve your spot contact seminars@accordancebible.com.

For more information, click on the image below or click here for a PDF copy.

Tags: Accordance

I found a great little program today called Xslimmer ($11.95 for a license). It's no secret that now with larger hard drives and plentiful RAM, that in general, programmers don't write code as tight as they used to. The issue is compounded further on Macs as programs have to be written to run on both PowerPC and Intel processors. But do I need the code for both on every Mac I own?

Further, most software programs come ready to run in multiple languages. But do I need to access the Finnish and Korean versions of MS Word on my Mac? Probably not.

Enter Xslimmer, a great little program that does two things: (1) it detects whether you have an Intel or PowerPC processor and removes the code for the other processor, and (2) it strips out unneeded languages from your programs. If you occasionally use more than one language, you can specify in the preferences which language to keep.

Do you think such extra code is insignificant? Consider these representative numbers after I ran Xslimmer on my MacBook:

Notice that after running it on 242 application, I reclaimed over two gigabytes of space! What's more, not only do I save space, but many of these programs that have seen significant reductions, such as some of those shown above, now launch faster because less code is having to be analyzed as the program starts.

Some programs don't work well with Xslimmer though, such as the Adobe CS3 apps which must stay a specific size for verification that they aren't corrupt when updates are run. These programs are "blacklisted" and the software checks itself against an online database as it is scanning a computer. As I ran Xslimmer on my Mac, the only real software I was worried about was Office 2008 which was just released yesterday and installed on my MacBook last night. However, if for some reason I alter a program that should not be altered, the solution is as easy as reinstalling it which won't affect preferences and personal settings.

In the new Macintosh Leopard finder, Windows machines showing up on the network are represented as a CRT monitor with a blue screen of death.

Here is a screenshot taken of computers on the SBTS library's wifi network. The very top machine listed under shared is a Mac which if highlighted shows an OS X aqua background. But the rest of the computers are Windows machines and if you look closely at the one I selected you'll see it's representing the dreaded blue screen of death indicating a system failure of some kind..

Paul Thurrott calls this "lame and childish" and says that it's hubris on Apple's part since a bug in the installation of Leopard caused some folks to get a blue screen of their own. Personally, I find it simply to be an amusing and friendly jab at Microsoft from Apple. But then again, my installation went smoothly

Oh, and contrary to what the screen above shows, I did NOT connect to someone else's computer. I wouldn't do that without permission!

Tags: OS X, Windows

No, I'm not going to offer a review of Leopard. Those are everywhere, and they're mostly positive. I will say that my installation of the OS went smoothly and have had no issues doing the things I normally do on my Macs.

Check out the Cover Flow view of Biblical Illustrator files below. Be sure to click on the image to see it full size.

Way cool!

Tags: OS X, Macintosh, Biblical Illustrator

I highly recommend viewing the 25 minute Mac OS X Leopard Guided Tour. Even if you're not a Mac user, you should check it out to see what you're missing. Just try not to feel too sorry for yourself



And if that's not enough, check out Apple's page of 316 new features in Leopard.

Tags: Apple, OS X, Macintosh

After months of saying no to 3rd party apps on the iPhone, Uncle Steve did an about face today with this announcement:

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.

I want just two things: Pocket Quicken and a robust Bible app with access to the original languages. The screen on the iPhone has a much higher resolution than any Palm or Windows Mobile device, so Greek & Hebrew should look incredible...assuming they get Hebrew working on the iPhone, that is...

The downside is that if an SDK is not available until February, it might be a number of months until significant apps are released.

Tags: iPhone, Apple

With very little fanfare--no "special events," no press conferences--Apple today announced that it's next version of the OS X operating system (is that redundant?) would be released at 6PM on Friday, October 26.

Apple's website has now been updated allowing us to see even more details about the new OS, including what they are counting as 316 new features. Not all of these features are earth-shattering, and some have appeared in various forms on the Linux or Windows platforms, but the release is significant nonetheless.

Final requirements for the new OS are as follows:

• Mac computer with an Intel, PowerPC G5, or PowerPC G4 (867MHz or faster) processor
• 512MB of memory
• DVD drive for installation
• 9GB of available disk space
• Some features require a compatible Internet service provider; fees may apply.
• Some features require Apple's .Mac service; fees apply.

In case you Mac users didn't catch it, G3 processors have been completely cut from the list of computers that will run the lastest OS X, as well as certain G4's such as my Cube which I'm about to put on Craig's List anyway.

I've already been asked if I'm going to stand in line for my copy of Leopard. Well, I'm not, although that would certainly be a fun thing to do. However, ever since the eighties when I began buying software, I've usually been able to receive academic discounts. If I wasn't a student, I was a teacher. If I wasn't either, Kathy was one or the other, so I've always had such access. However, I was disappointed that the academic price of Leopard is only $116, a mere 10% off the regular price of $129. In the past new releases have been $79. I know that folks who pay full price regularly will have no sympathy, but I find it ironic that during Apple's most successful time in the history of the company, they've become the most stingy in their pricing.

The image below shows off the new desktop in Leopard. Notice the new "stacks" feature meant to keep your desktop uncluttered. what I find interesting is that there are no icons on the desktop at all, not even an icon for the main hard drive.



If this is the new default desktop, personally I hope that it can be customized. I'd prefer to have an icon for the hard drive and any other files or application aliases I choose to park there. If memory serves, the original OS X public beta in 2000 did not have a desktop hard drive icon either, but demand from users made Apple change this by the final release in the Spring of 2001. I think Unca Steve just likes clean desktops and wants all of us to appreciate the same. In general, I clean mine up every two weeks or so and either file or delete stray icons. Nevertheless, I'd prefer to have the option for a messy desktop if I want it. A desktop in which a person cannot add any icons at all reminds me of Windows 3.x in which the user could only change the desktop picture.

I'm very intrigued by some of the new features that work with the .Mac service. One of the most valuable aspects of .Mac for my needs is the ability to sync calendars, address books, email, web bookmarks, keychains, and more on any Mac in which I have a login. Even if I am going to use someone else's Mac for a temporary amount of time, I can create my own login, add my .Mac info and within minutes, all my personal information is included on the new machine. Leopard adds further functionality such as syncing dock items, dashboard widgets, notes, and system preferences.

I'm also intrigued by the new "Back to My Mac" feature described as "Connect to any of your Mac computers at home from any Mac on the Internet. Your home computers appear in the shared section of the sidebar. Just click and you’re in." That's really helpful since the 160 GB hard drive on my MacBook gets pretty crowded. Now, I'll be able to leave files on my desktop machine at home and access them from any place I have internet access.

In case you haven't guessed by now, I tend to be an early adopter with these kinds of things. Yes, I know there's always room for disaster, but I backed up all my personal files just this week, and I never add hacks to my system that often are the cause of problem upgrades. Apple's promised to deliver Leopard on the afternoon of the 26th. My MacBook will updated within the hour. If you don't hear from me for a few days afterwards, you can just assume that everything blew up.

Tags: OS X, Macintosh, Apple

I think I'll begin an occasional series. Consider this installment the second after my post from earlier this year, "First They Won't Let Us Browse the Stacks; Then They'll Turn Us Into Batteries and Throw Us Into the Matrix."

I've got a new blog. Well, technically, I don't... my Xbox does. Yeah. Really.

Well, kinda.

The folks over at 360voice.com allow folks to submit gamer tags and then narrative voice is given to the Xbox 360 owner's latest activity (assuming there is an Xbox Live account). The perspective of the narrative is from the Xbox itself which is very intriguing, if not a bit cheesy at times. In fact, he (my Xbox) tends to whine a bit on the days I don't play anything. There's even a place for comments.

And evidently, besides all this existing as a very interesting, but unusual gimmick, there's a bit of cutting edge computer AI stuff associated here. From the About page at 360voice.com:

How did you come up with the idea for your site?

As a member of the Xbox Community Developer Program, Steve had access to the live gamer feeds and was playing around with the data. I attended the O'Reily Emerging Technologies conference where I heard Bruce Sterling give a keynote about blogjects (a term coined by Julian Bleecker)... futuristic objects that write "blogs" about their interactions with the world and other devices just like humans write about their interactions with the world and other people. In discussing this keynote with Steve, it didn't take long for us to see how this academic concept could relate to the Xbox 360, albeit in a much more scaled back fashion. We got quick prototype of the idea up and running in a few days. The response from the prototype was so huge that we immediately developed it into a full blown product which became 360voice.com.

So, yes it's all very weird, but somehow still I have to go look and see what my Xbox has written for the day--even after days when I've played nothing.

By the way, my Xbox will refer to me in his posts under my gamertag name, Borofaxx. I got that name from the cream of the same name that my mom used to put on my cuts and scrapes when I got hurt as a child (and she put it on diaper rash when I was an infant, but that's probably more than you want to know). I'm pretty sure it's no longer being produced (we all have Neosporiin now!), so I thought the name would make a good and unusual gamertag. And of course I added the extra X at the end because that makes any word or name cooler.

One last thing. Sometime my Xbox is...frankly.. a liar. No, I don't mean about my gamer score. Take for instance the statement he attributed to me on October 5. It's simply not true. I have chosen not to use that particular word.

Feel free to check it out (and even leave a comment) if you want at http://www.360voice.com/tag/Borofaxx.

Tags: Xbox

Apple has a history of changing its basic tools of user interface--namely the keyboard and mouse--and letting the fallout of controversy land where it may. The totally redesigned ultra thin keyboard that accompanies the new aluminum iMacs is no exception. Mac users either love it or hate it. I've spent a little bit of time with one, and I'm a bit undecided. However, I'm also a big fan of the Matias Tactile Pro keyboard, and if you know what that is, you know it's very different from Apple's new keyboard.

And yet in the changes that have come with the new aluminum keyboard, one alteration that I've seen get a little attention, but not much, is the removal of the Apple logo from the Command key:



Note that the Apple logo has been completely removed from the Command key and now this key is labeled like the the control and option keys are. Incidentally, over the years, I've heard the Command key called the "Apple key" (Kathy tends to do this), but I've tried to avoid it myself since all manuals and instructive literature from Apple have used Command. However, when trying to help folks who have switched to the Mac from Windows, I would get blank stares when I said, "Hit the Command key," and inevitably, I'd resort to "or the Apple key."

But here's the question of point to this post: how come the Macintosh keyboard had both the Apple symbol and the Command symbol to begin with?

Technically, the question itself is a misstatement since the original 1984 Mac 128K keyboard did not have the Apple symbol on the Command key, although the Command key and Option keys were indeed there. The keyboard layout is essentially the same today except that the original Mac didn't have a Control key.

Over the years, I've heard various explanations about the origins of that "butterfly" looking Command symbol (it's not really a butterfly), but I'd never heard why the Command key had an Apple on it, too (up until the new aluminum keyboard, that is). And then I stumbled across the answer yesterday. I was reading a January, 1989 (yes, you read the year right) issue of the now defunct magazine (at least in the U.S.) MacUser. In the section called "The Help Folder," Chris Espinosa was asked this very question.

As an aside, Espinosa has been an employee of Apple since the days that it was in Jobs' parents' garage, and he still works there today. Further, he was part of the original Macintosh team, so even in 1989, he was the perfect one to answer this question. This is all nothing more than Apple Trivia, of course; but nevertheless it's interesting. I'll reproduce the question and Espinosa's answer from the original January, 1989, MacUser magazine below. The bracketed note in the question is mine, but the bracketed note in the answer belong to the 1989 MacUser editor.

---

Q. What does the funny symbol on the Command key mean? And why is there an Apple symbol next to it on the new keyboards [Rick's note: keep in mind the reader is asking about the keyboards that were new in 1989!].

A. On the Apple III way back in 1980, we put two Apple keys on the keyboard for programs to use as they wished. We put an Apple key on the Apple IIe's keyboard when we introduced it in 1983. In 1983 the Command key on the Lisa keyboard also had the Apple symbol on it.

The Macintosh was going to use the same symbol and have the Apple symbol in the menu for the Command-key equivalent, just like the Lisa. But late in 1983, somebody (I bet you can guess who) decided that using the Apple symbol on the keys and in menus was "corrupting the logo"--sort of like those rare Britons who don't lick postage stamps because they don't approve of spitting on the back of the Queen's head. So we had to change the keyboard and the software and the documentation all in a very short period.

But first we had to come up with a good Command key symbol. The requirements were pretty heavy: It had to be small, recognizable, unique, and easily rendered in a simple font character (for the menu), an it had to mean "command." The International Standards Organization (ISO) book of symbols offered little help (its recommendations for the Shift and Option keys can be see on Apple's non-American keyboards).

Finally Susan Kare and Barbara Koalkin found the symbol that's now affectionately known by many names: flower, propeller, freeway, splat, command, feature, and cloverleaf [Don't forget butterfly.--Ed]. It came from a book of Swedish campground trail markers and means "remarkable feature!"

The Apple symbol came back with the introduction of the ADB (Apple Desktop Bus). Now that Apple keyboards are interchangeable among many Apple computers, that key has to do double duty: It's the Command key on the Macintosh family and the Apple key on the Apple IIGS.

---

So there you have it. They key served two different platforms, and it was legitimately the Apple key or the Command key based on what computer one was using--back when people were using Apple II's that is. However, I find it interesting that Apple discontinued the Apple II platform in 1994 (when it was already way past its prime), but didn't get around to removing the Apple symbol until 2007. That's 13 years late! And isn't it odd that the Apple symbol was retained even on the USB keyboards in spite of the fact that Apple II's were discontinued well before the creation and adoption of the USB standard. I suppose the Apple symbol was retained because that was what people were used to, even if hardly anyone knew why it was there anymore. Can anyone say, "Meaningless tradition"?

Regardless, now it's gone, and better late than never, I suppose. So...

The Apple key is dead!
Long live the Command key!

Tags: Apple, Macintosh

A few months back, my friend Philip Cardwell invited me to accept an invitation on Facebook. So I created an account and acknowledged my friendship with him. Then, over the next few days and weeks, other people discovered my meager listing and sent friend requests (and all other kinds of requests). I've begrudgingly acknowledged the friendship requests (eventually)--I mean, I don't want anyone to think I'm not willing to be their friend--but I've never been an active Facebook participant.

And I never will be.

Not too long after Facebook friend invites started pouring in, one friend who requested I add her, and after obviously seeing a neglected profile and no interaction sent me a text message saying, "You've got so much to learn about Facebook!" Of course I interpreted her message as saying, "Ha ha, I know more about something on the internet than you do for once!"

Well, not exactly true. And perhaps if you're one of the folks with whom I've exchanged invites you feel the same way. But let me explain my position. Here's the thing... I've got this website that you're on right now called This Lamp. In spite of the fact that I haven't had time to update the site much lately, Sitemeter tells me that I'm still receiving over 400 hits a day, which is pretty healthy for a personal website, especially a neglected one, in my opinion. And that's not even counting the folks who read This Lamp strictly on the RSS feed which I'm not tracking at the moment. And I wonder how many pastors, politicians and other public figures would love to have that kind of audience on a daily basis? Thus, with my limited time, if I am going to invest my online efforts anywhere, I think I should simply do it here.

In fact, I'm going to completely cancel my FaceBook profile in a few days. There's no point in keeping it. I'm warning you now. I have no idea what happens when one of your FaceBook "friends" disappears. Just don't take it personally.

So am I being anti-social by saying no to social networking? No. This website can be quite the social place at times as are some of yours. Frankly, I consider myself a very social person, and if you've ever received an email from me, you'll notice that I even give out my cell phone number freely. Plus, I've got four different instant messaging identities because I have different friends who use different systems. I often have all four running during the day. Feel free to add me:

AIM/iChat: rmansfield@mac.com
Microsoft Messenger: rmansfield@hotmail.com
Yahoo Messenger: rick_mansfield
ICQ: 7367293

Feel free to chat away with me on any of the above. You'll find I'm quite social. But as for FaceBook, and last year's "in" social site MySpace and all the other social networking tools (Twitter, LinkedIn, and all the new ones that launch each day), I'm going to have to pass.

Who's got the time?

For all the pictures, check out my web gallery.

Okay, I admit it. I'm the kind of person who will stand in line for stuff like this. I've seen quite a few midnight showings of movies on their release day. In 2004 I stood in line to get a copy of Halo 2 for the Xbox at midnight. A couple of months ago, I stood in line to to get an iPhone on its launch date. What's wrong with me (and others who do the same thing)? Am I simply too impatient? Did I have to be at the Oxmoor Mall for the grand opening of Louisville's new Apple Store? I mean couldn't I go this weekend and avoid all crowds?

Certainly. But that's not why we go.

Such activities are an event themselves, a pinpoint in one's personal history that merges with the history of significant cultural events. Standing in line with folks you don't know personally, but with whom you obviously have much in common makes for great conversation despite a lack of personal history. You can look back and say, "I was there--there on the very first day."

But I'll tell you, in spite of all the lines I've stood in, I've never been to an event quite like the one last night. This was my first Apple Store grand opening, but there were people there wearing t-shirts from grand openings at other locales. We had been promised that the first thousand of us would get a free t-shirt commemorating the event. I got there about an hour before the doors were to open, and there was already a line more than 100 yards long. You really can't tell from the picture on the right, but we are about a football field's length from the Apple Store. The line ran from the store down to the end of Oxmoor Mall's east wing. Then it zig-zagged through ropes set up for the occasion. Then it zig-zagged a few loops more which is where I stood. Then, before the doors even opened, the line went back down the wing again on the other side another hundred yards. I would guess that there were a couple thousand people there last night. I'm sure management at the mall was thrilled about this new store. But the poor guy at the cell phone kiosk in the middle of the wing looked anything but thrilled. With hundreds of folks lined up on both sides of his booth, he wasn't getting any business. And since he was not selling iPhones, this crowd wasn't interested in what he had to offer.

As I said, this was my first Apple Store grand opening, and although I've been to other such events, I have to say that this was the most energized crowd I've ever been part of at this kind of thing. Everyone was excited, and occasionally people would burst into cheers or applause at the other end of the wing and all of us would join in--even if we didn't know exactly what it was for. The shot on the left here isn't that great because the iPhone isn't good at action shots. But at about ten minutes before the store opened, all the employees--clad in lime-green t-shirts--ran out of the store and started high-fiving all of us waiting to get in. They ran all the way around the crowd, which would almost be like running around a football field (although not quite as wide), and some of them ran it twice. Not only were we, the customers, taking pictures and video, so were many of the employees. They were like cheerleaders and we were like participants in a pep rally. Later, I would notice that as people in the store walked out with purchases, there were Apple Store employees stationed at the door who would cheer and applaud for them.

If there is indeed a "cult of Mac," then such events serve as revival services to stir up the faithful. It made this techno-disciple feel connected to the larger body of devotees after feeling quite alone at times over the last decade when many times I would be the sole Mac user in a Windows environment. As I stood in line and looked at the immense number of people who had gathered, I thought to myself, "I never realized there were this many Mac users in Louisville." For us Mac faithful, if the Apple Cupertino headquarters is Mecca, then Apple Stores are the local mosques--holy ground if you will. And this was our pilgrimage. After all those times strolling through the aisles of software at the local office store and seeing nothing but Windows programs, here was an entire wall of Macintosh apps. Last night I looked at all the offerings, many I didn't even know existed. For all supposed claims that the Mac is not a business computer, I was surprised to see all the software geared toward business: finance software, accounting and bookkeeping packages, billing and receipt software.

The Apple store also had every one of the new iPod offerings that had just been announced the day before. Amazing. In fact, the iPods were definitely the focus of most of the displays in the store. Something I didn't realize until I saw it up close--there are no longer any white iPods. Everything's metal now. For what is being called the iPod Classic, one can choose between silver and black, but the iPod's original all white front is now gone from every model and line. Also, the new iPod nano which has unfortunately been dubbed the "fatty" based on early pictures, did not come across that way at all when it was in my hand. It takes holding it to get it, and it's surprisingly smaller than I realized it was simply from seeing the pictures. I don't think I would ever be in the market for any iPod again because my iPhone meets that function, but the new iPod nano's form factor would comfortably fit in just about any pocket.

Finally, before I left, I took a moment to look around the store and reflect upon the evening. The place was packed, and there were still people waiting in line who probably would still be waiting in another hour or so. What other company can pull off such devotion? I mean first, the timing was right. The mall opens at 9 AM, but the Apple Store didn't open its doors until 6PM--right about the time everyone is leaving work. But think about it. When Victoria's Secret or the Gap or even a Sony Style store opens in a mall, do people turn out by the thousands? No. And realize that such devotion is based on consumerism, a consumerism that's driven by regularly introducing new products so as to convince you that what you spent money on last time is now obsolete.

All of the sales people were extremely friendly. I didn't leave to cheers (because I didn't purchase anything), but I did get my t-shirt and friendly farewells from the Apple Store employees. One of the workers, a young man in his twenties with bright red hair said to me, "Isn't this great?!" He seemed just as enthusiastic about being an employee as the rest of us felt about being customers. I said, "Yeah. Hey, are there any grand opening specials going on tonight?" I hadn't seen any indication of such, but often stores such as Best Buy will offer tremendous sale price savings for the entire week when a new store is opens. He smiled, and without hesitation said, "No, really the free t-shirt is the special tonight." Makes sense. There was a steady stream of people to get in, and another steady stream of people walking out with iPods, iPhones, and iMacs. Why on earth would they need to run specials. Cult of Mac, indeed.

But at least I got my t-shirt.

---

Don't forget to see all my pictures of the Apple Store Oxmoor Grand Opening at my web gallery.

Tags: Apple, Macintosh

Well, I apologize for being so fickle. I shouldn't have jumped ship quite so fast. iWeb 2.0 is much improved over the older version, but after playing with it some, it's still not quite mature enough for me to leave RapidWeaver--in spite of the problems I'm having with RW.

So, I apologize to all the folks who reset their links and subscriptions. I promise not to do this again anytime soon.

But for right now, everything is staying right here.

Tags: iWeb, RapidWeaver

[This post was supposed to go up July 28 originally, but RapidWeaver has consistently crashed four times while I'm writing it. Perhaps it has to do with the large number of graphic files. I don't know, but this is becoming increasingly frustrating.]

About three weeks have passed since I wrote my first iPhone Bible app roundup. Yet in that very short span of time, four new iPhone Bible offerings have been made available. In this post I will offer short reviews of each of these apps.

While looking at these apps, I began to notice some similarities in interfaces. I discovered that a number of them are based on the "iPhone User Interface" (iUI) created by Joe Hewitt. This interface is similar to the color and design of some of the Apple-based apps on the iPhone such as the Mail app and the list view in the iPod app. Of course, it's not just Bible apps that are using the iUI; a quick look at the iPhone Application List shows that lots of folks are using it. This is in spite of the fact that Hewitt himself has called the interface a bit boring. Personally, I like the simplicity of Hewitt's interface because I immediately know how to use any app created with it.

Also, I want to point out that although I used screen captures from my MacBook for the last roundup, from this point forward, I will be using a camera to take pictures of the screen to give a better idea of what these apps look like on an actual iPhone (with one exception below). The downside of that is that the images will not be as clear as the previous ones. That is not to say that these apps are not clear on the actual iPhone, but rather that it is just extremely difficult to take a picture of the screen on an electronic device. I did finally figure out that I should turn off my flash though.

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iPhone Bible (NAB)



I was initially intrigued when I first heard of the iPhone Bible (does this mean they now have control of that name?) because it would be the first iPhone Bible app to include the deuterocanonicals/apocrypha. Using Hewitt's aforementioned iUI, the opening screen of the iPhone Bible is both clear and colorful. Using a similar method we've seen elsewhere, the user selects Old or New Testament, which leads to the appropriate books of that testament (plus preface and section introductions), chapter numbers, and finally the full text of the selected chapter. That's where the surprise comes.



The biblical text for the iPhone actually comes from the already existing NAB pages from the United States Council of Catholic Bishops website. What that means is that these pages are not already formatted to a mobile device such as the iPhone and as demonstrated above, can be barely read at first. To see the text better, the user has two options. First, the iPhone can be turned sideways:



This is helpful, but still not a perfect solution. Another option of course is to simply do the iPhone multi-touch pinch resulting in text as large as desired:



Yes, Steve said we'd have the actual internet on the iPhone, but it's not always as practical as it sounds. Even with the text enlarged, this is still not an ideal solution for reading large sections of Scripture as one would constantly have to move the page around to see the entire text.

The NAB iPhone Bible is a great idea, but it suffers from the inherently small text that renders from the original USCCB pages. There is no search function built into the iPhone Bible, but there is a search available upon arriving at the USCCB pages. However, the user will want to restrict searches to the entire Bible because by default the entire site is searched. This was certainly a good idea, but perhaps the developers could get permission to reformat the NAB text specifically for the iPhone and other mobile devices.

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The Net Bible



Soon after I got my iPhone, I thought to myself how incredible it might be to have the NET Bible with all 60,000 notes literally in the palm of my hand. I contacted the folks at Bible.org to suggest they offer a NET Bible iphone app, but they were already well ahead of me as they had already been considering the very same thing. The NET Bible for the iPhone also uses Hewitt's iUI, and the navigation to a particular passage of the Bible is similar to the one described above.



In my last set of reviews, I praised iBibleSpace for the best interface of any iPhone Bible app so far. That evaluation remains so far, but I can say that the NET Bible has the best layout of text of any of the Bible apps so far. Not only are all formatting features (italics, bold, etc.) retained from the original NET Bible, but also the text is large and not crowded. There are spaces before and after section headings so that the text does not run together. Note the blue numbers above. These are links to the NET Bible's 60,000+ textual notes. The folks at Bible.org have thought through the implementation of these notes quite well because when the user seeks to access the NET notes, an entirely separate page is launched. This allows the user to flip back and forth between the text and the notes without having to wait for a page to load from the internet.

However, a current limitation of the iPhone causes a problem in the NET Bible notes as well. Compare these two screens below--notes from Gen 1 on the left and Mark 4 on the right:


[Note: the actual screens of the NET Bible notes are the same color. The images above just reflect my poor photography skills.]

As I mentioned in a previous post, Hebrew does not show up correctly yet on the iPhone. So notice on the left image which contains notes from Genesis 1, that square boxes appear where Hebrew text displays in the original. There are other places where the boxes show up in place of Hebrew, such as the section headings in Psalm 119 and references to Sinaiticus in the NT notes. However, on the right screen, with notes from Mark 4, the Greek word μυστήριον appears correctly. I would recommend to the NET Bible team that for right now they do nothing to "fix" this text. The iPhone will have to include Hebrew as the phone is marketed internationally. One would assume that the addition of Hebrew and other international fonts will be included in a later iPhone software update. I should also point out that the since I took these shots, the superscript numbering at the beginning of each note has been enlarged.

The NET Bible on the iPhone will no doubt be very beneficial to many iPhone users, including myself. Like a lot of these apps, there's no search feature as of yet. I might also throw out a challenge to the programmers to create a window that has the biblical text on top and the notes on bottom (or side to side if the phone is turned). Regardless, this is a good and needed beginning.

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God's iPhone (GWT)


[Note: the above image was taken as a screenshot off my MacBook because the opening screen has changed so dramatically since I first took my photographs.]

God's iPhone was created by Israel Anderson of New Zealand. This Bible app uses the lesser known, but still very good, God's Word Translation of the Bible. This project is not yet complete, but so far, Anderson has made available the entire New Testament and parts of the Old Testament (Genesis, Exodus, and Psalms). Also Anderson has added a section for Christian classic (presumably public domain) works. The first entry made available is A. W. Tozer's Pursuit of God.



I'm assuming that Anderson has used RapidWeaver's new iPhone template for his Bible app. As a RW user myself I've played around with this template in hopes of eventually offering a Greek NT for the iPhone (but I'm not sure how legal this is since the NA text is copyrighted). The RW iPhone template includes a drop down menu seen in the icon at the far right of the image above. Anderson has opted not to take advantage of this leaving all menu items on the screen. This is just as well because I've found it difficult to make selections with this menu in my own tests.

As seen in the image above, text is clear and well spaced, but I can't help thinking it would be easier to read if the text were not displayed using full justification. Studies have shown that full justification, while looking neat and orderly, is actually harder to read because it makes it harder for the eyes to find the next line.

Regardless, God's iPhone has an easy to use interface and has the distinction of being the only way to view the GWT on the iPhone. There is no search function yet, but it is still a work in progress.

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ESV Mobile


I've found the community of ESV users to be quite savvy when it comes to the internet and most things technological. They tend to be forward thinking and embrace new technologies quicker than those who sponsor competing translations of the Bible. Crossway, the publisher of the ESV has updated their mobile site making it more iPhone friendly. This now makes three separate iPhone apps that use the ESV (iBibleSpace uses the ESV by default and 3onesix allows for the ESV by including the abbreviation before a search). Crossway is distinguished as being the first major Bible publisher as of this writing that has offered a method of reading the Bible to iPhone users.



A very helpful feature of the ESV Mobile site is the inclusion of a search feature on every screen. The text is formatted with plenty of space, perhaps even better than iBibleSpace which tends to run headings and text together and use a verse by verse format. Oddly however, the text itself when viewed on the iPhone is serifed in spite of the fact that when I look at it on my MacBook it is sans serifed. I'm not sure what font is being used, or if one is specified at all, but I would think a sans serifed font like Arial or Helvetica would be much easier to read not only on the iPhone, but other mobile devices as well.



The ESV Mobile site also offers a variety of daily devotionals/readings as well. Like I said in my review of iBibleSpace, I can't imagine reading a devotional from my iPhone (or even a full daily reading of the BIble), but others may be more so inclined.

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If you hear of an iPhone Bible app, or an iPhone app related to biblical studies, be sure to let me know and I'll mention it here on This Lamp.

Tags: iPhone, NAB, NET, GWT, ESV

I didn't know it until today, but MS Word 2004 checks for gender-specific terms, too. However when I pasted the above verse in Word, kinsman was not flagged.

Pages, which is part of Apple's iWork suite was introduced in 2005. Version 3 (or '08), which debuted yesterday, is the first release to include a grammar checker of any kind, and evidently, it's more specific than that in the current version of Word for the Mac.

Tags: Apple, Macintosh

With the introduction of iWeb '08 yesterday, Apple may have finally gotten around to fixing the concerns I had with the original version released over a year and a half ago. I'll have to get the software in hand first to make sure, but that will be a reality by the end of the week. My website is more than just this blog, so I've found it better to manage my own files rather than use an online service. RapidWeaver, the software I currently use, is adequate, and actually quite powerful, but it's never been quite the complete package I wanted. Nor is it anywhere near being actual WYSIWYG in its interface. Further, anytime I create a table (which is fairly often), I have to create the HTML in Dreamweaver and then deposit it here in RapidWeaver.

I also think I've begun to reach the limits of RapidWeaver's ability to handle my site. The recent update improved this somewhat, but there are still problems. The actual site on the web is over 1300 separate files, but RapidWeaver keeps them all contained in one file on my MacBook. Right now, this file is over 150 mb in size. It takes a while to load and forever to save and shut down. I have continued fear of it losing integrity one day, but I do back it up regularly.

I will leave these blog posts up indefinitely since there are so many links elsewhere to them. But everything else, including new blog posts will be moved to iWeb. At one time, I thought I'd move everything over, including reformatting the blog entries. But now that I'm approaching 600 entries, that idea does not seem to be a good use of my time. Plus, there is benefit in starting fresh sometimes. I may consider reformatting some of my more popular posts for the new site.

If you simply have my site linked/saved/bookmarked as www.thislamp.com, you will be fine as I will simply change the pointers to the new site. However, if you link directly to these files or subscribe to the RSS feed, you will have to update your bookmarks.

There's still a chance this won't happen, but from everything I've seen of iWeb '08, I think it's about time to pack my virtual bags.

Tags: Apple, iWeb

Yesterday, I read on iPhone Central that Arabic and Hebrew fonts are not displaying correctly in the iPhone's Safari web browser (see "iPhone lacking Unicode support for Arabic, Hebrew").

As I said in my post yesterday reviewing Bible apps on the iPhone, I would like to eventually see original language biblical texts on the iPhone in addition to the English translations already available. So I decided to conduct a couple of tests on my own. If the iPhone won't display Hebrew, will it display Greek?

First, I wanted to confirm the lack of Hebrew character support, so I ran over to Iyov's blog where I remember he used some Hebrew fonts last Monday in regard to a post by yours truly. Below is an actual photograph of my iPhone screen on Iyov's post "Brief Notes (Rosh Chodesh Av, 5767)":



Sure enough--the Hebrew does not display at all.

So what about Greek? On Wednesday, Suzanne McCarthy posted an entry on the Better Bibles Blog titled "From Sapho 2." While not technically a biblical passage, the post includes Greek text. Here is another photo of my iPhone:



As you can see the Greek renders fine--in fact, it's perfect. So why doesn't the Hebrew? Modern Unicode fonts include characters for both Greek and Hebrew as well as quite a few other character language sets. My only conclusion is that iPhone v. 1 software uses limited font sets.

Hopefully, as the iPhone is introduced in other parts of the world, these missing languages--including Hebrew--will be added in.

Tags: iPhone, BHS, Greek NT

Want to access the TNIV natively on the iPhone (and a few other translations, too)?

See my newest post at TNIV Truth.

Tags: TNIV, iPhone

Believe it or not, only three weeks have passed since the release of the iPhone. In spite of a few rough edges, I'd still have to say it's the best smartphone/PDA/iPod experience I've ever had. I mentioned in my review of the iPhone that I miss third party apps like PocketQuicken and Olive Tree Software's BibleReader. In BibleReader, I had the Gramcord Greek New Testament and the NASB with Greek and Hebrew Dictionaries installed.

Let me say up front that on the iPhone, there's nothing like the kind of offerings Olive Tree has for other PDA's and smartphones. In fact, I contacted Olive Tree to see if they were working on any kind of solution for the iPhone. They asked me if I would be interested in testing the text files they offer for iPods on my iPhone since no one at Olive Tree actually has an iPhone. I had to inform them that text files cannot be placed on an iPhone in the same manner that one can on an iPod because the free space on the iPhone's flash drive cannot be directly accessed. At this point, I don't know where Olive Tree's strategy stands for the iPhone, if there is one at all.

A major drawback of the iPhone is that Apple will not allow third party applications on the iPhone at this point. Now, I've heard rumors that a software development kit is in the works, but supposedly the Windows version isn't up to speed with the OS X version at the moment, so Apple wants to wait until the SDK's have platform parity before either is released. These days, Apple Inc. (no longer Apple Computer) has quite a few Windows software offerings and actually sells more iPods and iPhones to Windows users than to Mac users. Until the Windows SDK is up to par, we have no third party apps. Again...if this rumor is true at all.

The solution, and one endorsed publicly by Apple, revolves around Web 2.0 apps that can run in the iPhone's stripped down Safari browser. Quite a few "programs" have been released so far and are cataloged at websites such as The iPhone Application List. Some of these applications are quite handy, but in the interest of myself and readers of this blog, I thought I would try to create an ongoing series regarding the Bible offerings for the iPhone as they become available.

Currently, there are three iPhone applications that offer access to the Bible. I will offer brief reviews of them in the order they were released.

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iPhone Scriptures/LDS Standard Works (KJV & Mormon)


Technically, these are two separate programs, but they use a similar interface, so I'm going to assume there's some connection between them. Released about a week after the launch, iPhone Scriptures was the first Bible related app available for the iPhone. The interface is straightforward. Clicking on a selection such as "New Testament" offers the user a list of New Testament books. Selecting a book takes the reader to another screen with chapter numbers. Selecting a chapter yields the entire text for that chapter:


The button at the top of the text that says "Library" takes the reader back to the initial screen. What seems to be an obvious omission are arrows that would take the reader to the previous or next chapters. No search features are present, but it's promised to be available soon. In case you didn't notice, the biblical text is limited to the King James Version, which is the officially used translation of the Mormon Church. This isn't surprising, but will certainly limit widespread use of this program.

The only functional difference between iPhone Scriptures and LDS Standard Works is the ability to turn off the Mormon Scriptures in the latter program for those who don't want to look at the Mormon-specific titles. This is done in a "Settings" tab at the bottom in place of the "About" tab in iPhone Scriptures.

I saw iPhone Scriptures within a day or two of it's release, and the initial interface had very tiny tabs making it virtually unusable. The current version is much improved.

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3onesix Ministry Tools (NIV)



This Bible was released around July 10, and takes a slightly different approach to accessing the Scriptures than the programs mentioned above. In 3onesix Ministry Tools, the user must know what passage he or she wants to view in advance. For instance, typing "Matthew 1" results in that chapter being displayed.



Clicking either of the links on the chapter screen takes the user to the regular eBible website which is what this program is based on. Currently, the only text available from 3onesix is the NIV, but one would hope that others would eventually be made available since eBible offers multiple versions. At the moment, unless the user goes to the eBible site, there is no direct search feature in the app specifically made for the iPhone.

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iBibleSpace (ESV)



By far the most impressive iPhone Bible app to date is iBibleSpace released a couple of days ago. Anyone who has already spent time on an iPhone will immediately recognize an interface that draws its cues from the regular iPhone home screen. By choosing the first option, "Bible," one is presented with a similar interface as found in the original iPhone Scriptures application mentioned above, but it's designed to look much better in iBibleSpace. Again, the user can select a book of the BIble (OT & NT books are on the same screen), and then a chapter.


The text as shown above is quite clear, and contrary to the screenshots I took above on my MacBook (I don't know of any way to grab screens on my iPhone), the text such as the word "Reference" above fits perfectly onto it's button on the iPhone.

iBibleSpace has quite a few features going for it that puts it ahead of the other two iPhone Bibles. First of all, the ESV text as shown here includes access to textual footnotes: notice the "" at the end of v. 3. That note designation is actually hyperlinked and will take the user to the bottom of the screen where the footnotes all appear at the end of any chapter. You might also notice the right-pointing arrow that will take the user to--you guessed it--chapter 2 where there are both previous chapter and next chapter buttons.

A number of other options are offered at the top of the screen as well. The large single-colored left pointing arrow will take the user back to a listing of all chapters in the biblical book. The "Notes" button allows the reader to access a personalized account where one can store customized notes. The plus (+) button on the far right allows the user to add a new note and even highlight a verse in one of six different colors [gee, maybe I could transfer all the notes from my wide margin NASB to my iPhone!...or maybe not]. The "Reference" button takes the user to notes from Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary (not of great interest to me, but it's a nifty feature, nonetheless).

The only real downside I saw of the biblical text in iBibleSpace was the dreaded words of Christ in red. If this "feature" could be turned off, I believe that would be helpful to many.

Going back to the IBibleSpace main screen is simple because it always remains as a separate page/tab in the iPhone browser (in case you didn't know, the iPhone will allow the user to have multiple pages open at once, much like tabs in regular browsers). "Today's Verse" is just what you would expect it to be: a daily Bible verse. There is a link to read the entire chapter from which the verse comes in context if one is so inclined.

Another distinguishing feature of iBibleSpace is its search feature:



One can search either or both testaments and exact phrases. Results are displayed in groups of five at a time with an option to select "More."



However, I found it odd that NT hits are listed before OT results. I would prefer them my results to be listed in canonical order. Further, in most Bible programs the search word is usually highlighted in some way, but not so in iBibleSpace.

The other two buttons on the home screen will lead the user to daily devotions from Spurgeon or podcasts from a variety of conservative Christian radio shows. The selections are a bit odd in my opinion. I cringed when I saw Joyce Meyer, but I occasionally enjoy listening to Ravi Zacharias' show. The great majority of the offerings, however, I would not have any regular interest in. I also doubt I'd run to my iPhone for a daily devotional from Charles Spurgeon either. In fact, it seems odd to me that it's a primary button on the home screen.

Regarding the podcasts, though, I followed one all the way to the show to see if the iPhone would actually play it. The link was to an MP3 file that launched QuickTime on the iPhone. I think that was the first time that I realized that I even had QuickTime on my iPhone!

iBibleSpace is impressive on many levels: features, design, and consistency of its interface (one never follows a link that leads to a page not formatted to the iPhone unlike the 3onesix app). Even though the ESV is not one of my preferred translations, I put iBibleSpace at the top of my iPhone app bookmarks. At the present time, iBibleSpace is far and away the best Bible app available for the iPhone.

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I'd still like to see original language texts on the iPhone, although I have no idea if the iPhone would even support Greek and Hebrew fonts. Of course one would presume that it is using Unicode fonts already. Something like the NET Bible would be interesting to have on the iPhone as well, and perhaps because the folks behind the NET have been so Internet savvy, we will see something in the near future. One also wonders if an iPhone interface to something like Bible Gateway couldn't be created to take advantage of multiple translations.

Further, I still am hopeful for third party apps. The major drawback of any of these apps relates to their dependence on the Internet. Even with a WiFi connection, they are not as fast as a native application would be.

In the meantime, three weeks have yielded three distinct Bible apps of varying creativity and features. As others will undoubtedly come available in the weeks ahead, I'll be sure to cover as many as possible here on This Lamp.

Tags: iPhone, Apple, KJV, NIV, ESV

In 2003, I had three electronic devices (not counting my laptop) I used regularly and carried with me most places: a Palm Tungsten T, my Motorola Timeport cellphone, and a 20GB (second generation) iPod. Then in October of that year, I obtained the newly released Treo 600 which combined the cellphone and Palm functions. The number of devices I carried were down to two. I remember reflecting at the time that if only I could combine something like the Treo with the functionality of the iPod, I'd be set.

I realize, of course, that to some such gadgets seem unnecessary, but they've become extremely integrated into my life. Let me explain. A little more than a decade ago, I carried a physical daytimer. It was convenient enough for the calendar and address book, but for anything else I had to remember where I had written it. Then in 1997, I bought a Palm Professional which appealed to my proclivity to all things electronic and computerized. Truth be told, there's something I miss about writing appointments with a physical pen or pencil onto an actual page made from wood pulp. Nevertheless, the Palm was most practical. It went into my pocket. I could run searches for information without having to worry about where I had written it. It wasn't something extra to carry with the stack of books that often seem to follow me around wherever I go.

[Sidenote: For those curious, since 1997 I carried in this order a PalmPilot Professional (came with 1 MB of memory but I upgraded it to a whopping 2 MB), Palm IIIe, Palm Vx, Palm Tungsten T, and finally a Palm Treo 600. Of those devices, for purely Palm-based features, the Palm Vx was probably my favorite of all. It was slender, sleek and had a crisp monochrome screen that I felt was never equaled in the color screens of the Tungsten or Treo models that I used. Oh, and I also briefly carried a Compaq iPaq 3850 in early 2002. This PocketPC device was certainly more sophisticated that a Palm PDA, and the promise of it appealed to me; but in the end, I found it to be buggy and needing regular (as in at least daily) reboots to function normally. My final straw was calling tech support about its unreliability, asking why I had to restart it so much, only to have the tech from Compaq say, "What do you expect? It's Windows!"]

As for the iPod, you may be saying to yourself, "I have trouble imagining Rick with headphones on, psychedelically bebopping around like one of those iPod commercials." Well, no, you won't see me doing that. In fact, you'd rarely see me with an iPod although I carried it with me everyday. Generally, I only used it during my commute, which can sometimes last up to an hour. Yes, I do have music on my iPod, but I admit that I don't listen to it that often. My iPod use is mainly geared around listening to content such as lectures, the Mars Hill Audio Journal, audio books, or even audio Bibles (lately I've been listening through the entire TNIV).

And regarding the cell phone aspect, a number of years ago, when we first moved to Simpsonville, Kathy and I opted not to carry local telephone service. Why did we really need to? Couldn't we simply use a cell phone for everything? Is there ever really any need for a landline anymore? So we each have our own cell phones and we haven't missed the $30 or so dollars we used to send to the phone company each month.

So perhaps you can see why the iPhone would appeal to me. It is the next step in my pursuit of techn