The Big Stories

Firefox 3 makes a splash with Firefox Download Day - On Tuesday, Mozilla began its “Firefox Download Day”, designed to smash the record of the most software application downloads in one day, with the organization’s official 3.0 release of Firefox. Over 8 million copies were downloaded on Tuesday.

Firefox 3 brings many changes for Mac users, with a new more “Mac-like” user interface covering a new cocoa code-base. Check out the release at Spread Firefox.

Spore Creature Creator launches - As part of EA’s new game Spore, the company has made available a trial version Spore Creature Creator for both Mac and PC. It allows players to build and customize creatures that can be later used in the full game.

The application is a preview for the full game, which is scheduled to be released on September 7th. It’s available now on Spore’s website and requires an Intel Mac with an ATI X1600, NVidia 7300 GT graphics chipset with 128 MB of RAM or an Intel integrated GMA X3100 graphics card. The trial costs $9.99.

AT&T 3G speeds to ‘average’ 1.4 Mbps - MacNN posted a report earlier this week referencing an AT&T webpage that showed the new iPhone as having download speeds of up to 1.4 Mbps on the company’s cellular network. This was said to be notably slower than other smartphones on the AT&T network, and much slower than other carriers’ 3G networks (which offer speeds as fast at 5 Mbps downstream).

MacNN later updated their post, saying that the 1.4 speed mentioned on the company’s website is an “observed speed” over the cellular network.

PHP Debugging on the fly with MacGDBp - Develop PHP riddled by the occasional bug? Check our MacGDBp, a new tool to squash those bugs quickly. Created by 18 year old Robert Sesek, the app builds upon Xdebug to offer remote debugging of PHP scripts - all one has to do is to connect to the script they’d like test, and they can skip around each instruction to see how a script is working. MacGBp is Leopard only, and launched on Tuesday. Check it out on Blue Static’s website.

Also this week..

Apple settles Visual Voicemail patent lawsuit - Klausner Technology and Apple appear to have settled a patent dispute, according to a Macworld report.  The 1994 patent shows similar functionality of visual voicemail as implemented on the iPhone, and with the settlement, allows Apple and AT&T to license the voicemail process. Details of the settlement are not public, but the company was seeking $360 million in damages.

Media Temple announces beta for Leopard VPS offering - Off the heels of Parallel’s integration of Leopard Server with Fusion, Media Temple announced a private beta program for its (xv) Xserve Virtual product. The first-of-its-kind virtual private server offers shared utilization (eight customers per Xserve) of dual 2.8 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon Xserves with 32 GB of RAM and three 300 GB 15,000 RPM drives.

Interested parties can apply for the beta here.

Apple sales updates: opens Sydney retail store, five billion downloads in iTunes sales - Apple opened its first retail store in Australia on Thursday to a large crowd in Sydney. The store features two floors dedicated to Apple’s product lines, while the third floor is dedicated to service, including the world’s largest Genius bar.

“We are thrilled to bring the unique Apple retail experience to Australia,” said Ron Johnson, Apple’s senior vice president of Retail. “This breathtaking new store will be the ultimate place for the people of Sydney to shop, learn and be inspired.”

In other Apple sales news, Apple also announced that they passed the five billion download mark on the company’s iTunes store.

The Big Stories

iPhone 3G - Apple this week announced its 3G version of iPhone at its World Wide Developers Conference in San Francisco. The new iPhone, which Apple promotes as “two times faster at half the price” closely matches the previous generation phone in form factor and appearance, adopting a slightly larger case and plastic back (available in black on the 8 GB model, and white on the 16 GB model). The new iPhone offers access to AT&T’s faster cellular data network, HSDPA (3G), in addition to existing support for EDGE cellular data.

iPhone 3G will also include the second version of iPhone’s operating system, which includes increased usability for large enterprises, and allows developers to produce native applications for iPhone. These applications will be distributed by the iTunes Store on Macs & PCs, and the new “App Store” on the iPhone.

“Just one year after launching the iPhone, we’re launching the new iPhone 3G that is twice as fast at half the price,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “ iPhone 3G supports Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync right out of the box, runs the incredible third party apps created with the iPhone SDK, and will be available in more than 70 countries around the world this year.”

The new iPhone will retail for $199 (8 GB, back) and $299 (16 GB, black or white) and will be available at AT&T and Apple Stores on July 11. AT&T executives have seemed to confirm rumors that online ordering and in-home activation (a large part of iPhone’s initial convenience, as touted by Apple) will not be available, so as to likely avoid users from unlocking phones and reselling them.

To go along with the announcement of iPhone 3G, Apple released a new television advertisement for the product.

MobileMe - Apple also announced MobileMe, a new suite of 2.0 web services. Focusing on the idea of distributed information from a cloud, MobileMe syncs email, contacts and calendars to numerous mobile devices, Macs and PCs. The service also offers “desktop quality” web applications at me.com, including Mail, Calendar, Address Book and Photo Galleries.

One of MobileMe’s keystone features is the ability for it to be used as a push service for all of the data it manages. As soon as data is changed at one point (whether from a user’s computer or mobile device, such as iPhone), it will immediately be “pushed” to all of the user’s other devices using MobileMe.

“Think of MobileMe as ‘Exchange for the rest of us,’” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “Now users who are not part of an enterprise that runs Exchange can get the same push email, push calendars and push contacts that the big guys get.”

MobileMe replaces .Mac, and will be available on July 11 for a retail price of $99 with 20 GB of storage. Existing .Mac members will be transitioned over to the new service in early July, and will retain previous @mac.com email addresses (in addition to receiving a similar email address @me.com). With the new service, iCards, .Mac slides and Mac OS X 10.3 (Panther) sync and web access to bookmarks are being discontinued.

Snow Leopard - Apple made a passing mention of Mac OS X 10.6, code named “Snow Leopard” during Monday’s WWDC keynote. As much of the details were mentioned exclusively to developers under a non-disclosure agreement, not much is known, but the operating system is to focus on refining Mac OS X, while laying the ground work for enhancements to be made in future releases. Steve Jobs said that the work on this release will “take a pause on new feature development and focus instead on improving performance.” Discovered as part of the developer roll-out, the operating system appears to possibly be losing support for PowerPC, with current development copies shipping with “an Intel processor” as a requirement.

Also this week...

iPhone/Touch SDK and Software 2.0 - Apple announced the final availability for the iPhone 2.0 software, to be released in early July (widely expected to be July 11, the same day as iPhone 3G). As previously announced, it brings support for Exchange (via licensed ActiveSync) and third party applications, among other enhancements. The update will be free for iPhone owners, and $9.99 for iPod Touch owners. Shortly after the keynote, a new version of the developer SDK (version seven) was released.

Software for iPhone 2.0 - To go along with the release of iPhone software 2.0, several developers demonstrated their applications for iPhone during Monday’s keynote address. While a number of general use/productivity applications were previewed, the series of demonstrations seemed to focus strongly on iPhone as a mobile gaming platform, with such games as Super Monkey Ball, Enigmo and Cro-Mag Rally making inroads into the platform. All of these applications are expected to be released when the App Store launches in July.

iPhone 3G data fee - Even while the new $199 and $299 pricing point for iPhone 3G is highly attractive (particularly when compared to the previous price points of $399 and $499), it isn’t without caveats. According to an AT&T press release, iPhone 3G will require a higher priced 3G data plan - priced at $30 a month. This plan bests the current EDGE data plan by $10 a month, or $120 annually.

Apple Design Awards - Also as part of Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference, the company held its annual Apple Design Awards, which recognize developers for creating world-class applications that represent the best user experience for Mac OS X. A full list of winning applications follow.

Mac

• Best Mac OS X Application: ScreenFlow 1.1.1 - Vara Software Limited
• Best Max OS X User Experience:  Macnification - Orbicule BVBA
• Best Mac OS X Game: Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock 1.1 - Aspyr Media
• Best Mac OS X Graphics and Media Application:  Screenflow 1.1.1 - Vara Software Limited
• Best Mac OS X Student Project: Squirrel - Axel Péju

iPhone

• Best iPhone Web Application: Remember The Milk for iPhone and iPod Touch 1.0 - Remember the Milk
• Best iPhone Game: Enigmo 1.0 - Pangea Software
• Best iPhone Healthcare & Fitness Application: MIM 1.0 - MIMVista Corp.
• Best iPhone Social Networking Application: Twitterrific 1.0 - The Icon Factory
• Best iPhone Entertainment Application: AOL Radio 1.0 - AOL LLC
• Best iPhone Productivity Application:  Omnifocus 1.0 - The Omni Group

• 2:00 AM - Welcome to Macteens’ annual keynote coverage of Apple’s World Wide Developers Conference, live from the Moscone Center in San Francisco. Our coverage will begin shortly before 10 AM PST (1 PM EST). Updates are posted in chronological order, with new updates at the end of this page. Our normal site is stil available here, and will return after the conclusion of today’s event. In addition, our forums are still open and available.
• 8:50 AM - The attendee line for the keynote appears to be several blocks long. Attendees have started to enter the second level the building, for the last span of their waits. Several shrouded banners have been noted, including a large one in a lab area.


• 9:00 AM - The keynote is expected begin in about an hour. The Apple Store Online is now down, as expected.


• 9:34 AM - The keynote is expected begin in about half an hour.


• 9:35 AM - Aaron Tait has several pictures of the line & wait on his flickr page.


• 9:50 AM - People are pouring into the hall.


• 9:56 AM - Attendees ar beginning to take their seats.


• 9:58 AM - Classic rock songs are being played as people continue to pour into the hall. (I wonder if there any Beatles songs being played...)


• 10:02 AM - Al Gore is being shown on the screens (he’s in the audience).


• 10:05 AM - Lights have been dimmed. Time for the keynote to begin.


• 10:06 AM - Steve is on stage.


• 10:06 AM - Steve has been working on some “great stuff”. 52 000 attendees at WWDC ‘08 (Record numbers).


• 10:07 AM - 3 parts to Apple - Mac, Music, iPhone.


• 10:08 AM - Bertrand Serlet will demo 10.6 “Snow Leopard” after lunch (during the keynote?).


• 10:09 AM - 250 000 people have dowloaded SDK, 4000 in the beta program.


• 10:10 AM - 3 parts to iPhone 2.0- SDK, users, and enterprise.


• 10:11 AM - Ecxchange support, previously stated in the March 6th special event.


• 10:11 AM - 35% of Fortune 500 companies participated in the beta program. (This is going to be huuuge!)


• 10:12 AM - Higher-Ed has participated, too.


• 10:14 AM - CTOs of various companies discuss iPhone 2.0.


• 10:15 AM - Contacts search in real time.


• 10:16 AM - Video’s done. Scott Forestell is going to do a demo.


• 10:17 AM - Talks about core APIs: Cocoa Touch, Media, Core Services, Core OS.


• 10:18 AM - A fast implementation of OpenGL (Hello iPhone/Touch gaming!).


• 10:20 AM - Cocoa Touch makes UIs a breeze. Hoping they get to the “meaty” stuff soon.


• 10:20 AM - Demo of a Cocoa Touch application being built.


• 10:21 AM - Application, Nearby Friends, uses Address Book API to find friends within a 10 mile radius.


• 10:22 AM - Building an interface is a piece of cake by dragging elements and combining them.


• 10:24 AM - Inteface Builder automagically knows the orientation of your iPhone.


• 10:25 AM - Within minutes, created a fully functional app. Showing it off via his iPhone.


• 10:26 AM - Demo is done. Developers love the awesomeness of the iPhone dev. platform.


• 10:28 AM - Super Monkey Bal for iPhone is nearly complete.


• 10:29 AM - Now Sega is up on stage demoing Super Monkey Ball with multiple levels.


• 10:30 AM - “Available at launch of app store for $9.99”.


• 10:30 AM - Scott has introduced eBay and their native iPhone app.


• 10:32 AM - Now bidding on an item live on iPhone.


• 10:32 AM - Watching a $12.5 million golf course in Mexico.


• 10:33 AM - eBay app for free when App store launches.


• 10:34 AM - Location-based API being demoed by Loopt.


• 10:36 AM - Free on iPhone and app store on launch.


• 10:36 AM - Next up - Michael from Sixapart talking about Typepad app.


• 10:36 AM - Now demoing Typepad app.


• 10:37 AM - Presenter mentions that it is “incredibly easy to post to my blog”.


• 10:38 AM - Creating posts, viewing pending posts, integrated with Safari mobile. App for free from App Store.


• 10:39 AM - The Associated Press is now up.


• 10:39 AM - iPhone “important catalyst”. Demos “Mobile News Network”


• 10:40 AM - Stay up to date, dynamic caching on iPhone, award-winning photography.


• 10:40 AM - Watch video on it, too (demoing video).


• 10:41 AM - Share your news via iPhone.


• 10:41 AM - Available free from the App Store. More on the way.


• 10:41 AM - Pangea Software is next up. 2 Games. Brian is presenting.


• 10:42 AM - 2 games ported from Mac - Enigmo and ....


• 10:44 AM - Racing game - Cromag Rally. All playable. iPhone itself is a steering wheel.


• 10:45 AM - “Took no time to do. Steering took 5-10 minutes”.


• 10:45 AM - $9.99 each.


• 10:45 AM - Individual developer. Scott is impressed. INSURANCE person, but definitely not an insurance app.


• 10:46 AM - App is called Band. Sounds cool.


• 10:47 AM - Demoing various instruments. The crowd is going wild with this one.


• 10:48 AM - Available in app store in a few weeks.


• 10:48 AM - MLB.com di next up, new app for fans of baseball.


• 10:48 AM - Live feeds from games, who’s on base, etc. Real time video highlights, too.


• 10:50 AM - “Best possible video experience, on edge or wifi”.


• 10:50 AM - Available in App Store when it launches.


• 10:51 AM - Next up - Modality.


• 10:51 AM - Modality shows off medical learning app.


• 10:52 AM - Hundreds of images, etc. Crowd laughes over some sort of image in demo.


• 10:52 AM - Students found app beneficial for studying.


• 10:53 AM - Dozens of apps launching after App Store.


• 10:54 AM - Next up is MiMvista. More medical stuff.


• 10:54 AM - Medical imaging app.


• 10:55 AM - Demonstrating multi-touch use with app.


• 10:56 AM - 3D reconstruction of medical imaging. New direction for MiMvista. Look for it at launch of App Store.


• 10:57 AM - Last app from Digital Legends. Amazing game, according to Scott.


• 10:58 AM - iPhone is very capable game device. Only 4 days to port game, a couple more for iPhone specific features. Full 3D game. Ready by september.


• 10:59 AM - “We have an incredible SDK”.


• 11:00 AM - Round of applause for all devs.


• 11:00 AM - People want something that will send you notices (like Growl?).


• 11:01 AM - NO background apps. It drains battery and makes iPhone sluggish.


• 11:01 AM - “this solution: A task manager”.


• 11:02 AM - Push notification service for all developers.


• 11:03 AM - Developers can “push” stuff via IP (badges, alert sounds, custom text alerts).


• 11:03 AM - Scales well. No battery loss. No chopping CPU cycles. Over Wi-fi and network. All done with the SDK.


• 11:04 AM - Steve back on stage.


• 11:05 AM - Contact search in 2.0. Full iWork support.


• 11:05 AM - Microsoft office also, Word, Excel, Powerpoint.


• 11:06 AM - Bulk delete ame move. New calc (scientific when in landscape mode). Parental controls (some teens, like you, probably won’t like this).


• 11:07 AM - New language support. 2 types of Japanese, and 2 types of Chinese (draw characters with fingers).


• 11:07 AM - iPhone 2.0 is gonna be phenomenal! In early July. Free for iPhone. $9.95 for iPod Touch.


• 11:08 AM - Wirelessly download apps from iPhone. Automatically tells you updates.


• 11:08 AM - Fairplay will be protecting devs apps.


• 11:09 AM - Now able to access in 62 countries. If 10MB or less, you can download over cell network.


• 11:10 AM - Enterprise method to distribute apps over their iPhones only, via Intranet.


• 11:11 AM - 3rd way to add apps. Called “App-Hoc”. Mostly for universities. Can distribute over 100 iPhones.


• 11:12 AM - Next: Something new.


• 11:13 AM - MobileMe.


• 11:13 AM - What it is? Exchange for the rest of us. “Using ActiveStink ”


• 11:14 AM - Push email, contacts, and calendars for all Wherever you are.


• 11:14 AM - Get your info from cloud on multitude of devices. Email gets pushed to MobileMe devices.


• 11:15 AM - Everything is up to date. Built in with Calendars on iPhone. Works with native apps.


• 11:16 AM - Works with Outlook.


• 11:16 AM - Web 2.0 with AJAX tech. Buzz words are “in” with Apple, I guess.


• 11:17 AM - Taken gallery and built-in with MobileMe.


• 11:18 AM - Is mac.com dead now? Phil is showing MobileMe on his Mac.


• 11:19 AM - “Sleek and smooth interface”.


• 11:21 AM - Showing the advanced features of MobileMe.


• 11:21 AM - iDisk is now much cooler than before.


• 11:22 AM - Now showing interaction via iPhone.


• 11:24 AM - MobileMe - going back and forth between “cloud”, iPhone, and Mac.


• 11:25 AM - Demoing photos from iPhone sent to MobileMe.


• 11:26 AM - MobileMe will be available for $99/year. 60 day free trial. Available in early July. MobileMe replaces .mac!.


• 11:28 AM - Crowd goes insane. 90% customer satisfaction.


• 11:31 AM - More affordable iPhone.


• 11:31 AM - Today, introducing new iPhone 3G.


• 11:32 AM - Flush headphone jack, same display, improved audio.


• 11:33 AM - Why 3G? Obvious.


• 11:34 AM - Demoing loading website from 3g (21 seconds) vs. 59 seconds on EDGE.


• 11:35 AM - 3G speeds actually approaching Wifi. “Amazingly zippy”.


• 11:35 AM - 36% faster than Nokia N95 or Palm Treo.


• 11:36 AM - Better battery life. Standby time is 300 hours. 3G talking - 5 hours. Browsing 5-6 hours. Video 7 hours. Audio - 24 hours.


• 11:38 AM - GPS built in - crowd goes WILD.


• 11:39 AM - Location data from GPS, can use as tracker.


• 11:39 AM - Done with the intro. Crowd is excited.


• 11:40 AM - More countries soon.


• 11:40 AM - Hopefully up from 6 to 25. Countries - going through countries with “A Small World”.


• 11:42 AM - Everywhere there’s GSM. I’m assuming the crowd made noise because of the neighbours to the north, Canada.
• 11:45 AM - iPhone 3G will go on sale for $199 at 8GB. $299 for 16GB - also available in white.


• 11:46 AM - Will be available on July 11, in twenty two countries. New ad announced, now playing.


• 11:47 AM - “It’s finally here.. the first phone to beat the iPhone ...introducing the new iPhone.”


• 11:48 AM - Ad appears to spoof Apple’s practice of secrecy, crowd cheers.


• 11:49 AM - Steve asks for the crowd to give a round of applause for Apple’s development teams.


• 11:50 AM - Steve concludes the keynote, “I’ll see you this week.” Stay tuned to Macteens for more coverage.

When a company ships a product so radically different than the norm, as Apple did last year with the original iPhone and later with the iPod touch, there is always risk as to whether the product will be a hit or miss. It seems, however, that Apple has really hit the ball out of the park with this product. One knows they are successful when a product makes a splash in the community that does not include your targeted audience. A targeted audience uses your product in the way it’s intended to be used. A community outside of this finds use or necessity in the product in an unexpected, yet capable way. I believe a product is truly success when it can satisfy both of these kinds of people because therefore, a company never runs out of customers interested in the product.

Roughly two weeks ago, my Trigonometry and Algebra III class was working on polar coordinates. In order to convert polar coordinates to rectangular coordinates on a graph, the student must know a specific formula in which you input the correct numbers into. We were taking a test that basically determined the final few points on our average for that marking period, as the grading quarter was coming to a close that week. So, long story short, this was an important test. Without knowing the formulas, it was safe to assume you were in some trouble.

Memorization comes quickly and easily to me being one who has to learn many scripts throughout the course of a year. Unfortunately, not every one in the class was in the same boat. I don’t fault them for being unprepared as Trigonometry is quite an intense course in my high school. I noticed the guy that sits next to me begin to scramble as he got his test and browsed through the questions. For a moment or two, he gnawed away at the tip of his pen cap, as his mind tried to recall these complicated formulas. I noticed a rush of release come across his face, and his jaw stop annihilating his pen cap. Assuming he had remembered the necessary information, I continued on with my test. But I again was distracted as out of my peripheral vision, I noticed the guy reach into his front left pocket and slyly pull out his iPhone in class. Using his lucky seating position near the window and AT&T’s faint internet connection in the room, I watch in amazement as the boy sitting next to me found another use for the innovative technology Apple created this past year: cheating. After a few taps at the buttonless screen, the boy’s face stretched into a smile as he copied the formulas to his paper.

At the end of class, as we all tediously walked up to our teacher’s desk and dropped off our completed exam papers, I overheard another boy from the class mention to this boy that sat next to me the following: “Was that the iPhone touch? That was good thinking using it to find the formulas.” Regardless of the interesting strategy to use his iPhone to cheat on our test, this uneducated statement also told me something about the impact of this product. The iPhone and iPod touch have created such a splash in not only the technology using community but the current younger generation in general that those completely oblivious to the insanely great nature of Apple, Inc. as a whole know the significance of a touchscreen, music playing, internet seeking device in today’s digital world.

What is the moral of this story? It is not to teach you to cheat on your Algebra III test using your internet capable iPhone or iPod touch in class. The moral of this story is that when a company ships a product so radically different than the norm, as Apple did last year with the original iPhone and later with the iPod touch, there is always risk as to whether the product will be a hit or miss. I believe it is safe to say that regardless of minor complaints from loyal Apple fans wanting wireless connectivity with their Mac or something along those lines, that Apple has definitely created a successful product with the iPhone and iPod touch. The popularity, countless uses and unique design makes this product stand out in the crowd. Even to those who cheat on their tests and refer to products by improper names.

Twitter has been getting lots of attention recently, being called the next Facebook, the next big social network, the next big [insert analogy here]. And while I am sure Twitter is growing rapidly, those markets are entirely different. Twitter is not equipped at all to be considered a social network on the scale of Facebook or MySpace, and the notion that it is not only in the big leagues with those guys but might surpass it is laughable.

I thought it was necessary to point out the inherent flaws in that idea preventing Twitter from going big time. While often times less is more in web apps, I don’t think Twitter’s limitations truly prove that theory to the majority of people wishing to stay in touch with friends.

1) You’re limited to 140 characters. The biggest limitation is also the most obvious. 140 characters might be fun for status updates and phone-friendly conversation, but not enough. Direct messages are bound by this limitation as well. I don’t know about you all, but often times if I’m trying to keep in touch with old friends, I occasionally have a lot to say to someone on their wall or in a message. 140 characters is simply laughable as an end-all to online social interaction.

2) Way too much clutter. Twitter’s downfall is actually how popular it is. The front page of the site only alerts you of the 20 most recent updates from your friends. If you have any significant number of friends, or if any of them update frequently, your Twitter home page could only show you the last few minutes, forcing you to either check the website an ungodly number of times per day or subscribe to the text messages. Texting, though, provides the same problem: clutter. How many hundreds of messages are you willing to receive in a day?

3) You can pick between breadth or depth, but not both. If you have too many friends, you get too many messages to deal with. If you want to really get updates often from those you care about the most, you have to sacrifice following, well, most people.

4) He who is most annoying, succeeds the most. Inevitably at some point you will befriend That Guy Who Updates Every Five Minutes. Upon viewing the website or glancing at your cell phone, it will be dominated by a handful of people. And herein lies the problem – everyone will post updates at different frequencies, and those that don’t update as often, or more specifically, those who do not update most recently from when you check your phone or website, get left out in the crowd. And trust me, more text does not mean better quality or higher importance. You’re left to choose between either de-friending someone you are interested in, or simply letting them totally dominate your profile.

5) Archiving sucks. If you happen to miss your friend’s update about that event they were at the other night, your only real option is to go find their profile and scroll through recent updates until you find it. You can’t even search through updates, including your own.

6) Nobody wants to use it. Let’s face it, the only reason we use social networks is to stay in touch with our friends, and if our friends aren’t there, we have no purpose in being there. You could say this about any new social network, but Twitter is different in that most people don’t understand it. Most of my non-geek friends who I’ve gotten to try out Twitter found it too boring and limited (which it is) to really spend any time on it. Generally if you have a better product, the trouble is getting people to try ours out to begin with. Even when people are encouraged (forced) to try out Twitter by their friends, most don’t get it and don’t stay.

7) It doesn’t do anything. Do you honestly think the reason Facebook applications are exploding is because we’re all secretly dying for simplicity? Did I mention the 140 character limit? Twitter does not do anything. If you removed every feature of Facebook except the status update and the RSS feed, you’d have Twitter.
The fact that Twitter is even getting this kind of positive press is mindblogging to me. Keep in mind that I write this as an active (and rather addicted) Twitter user. I like Twitter – there are many things it does well. Twitter is great for getting real-time event highlights, having a short, casual conversation (smalltalk, you mightsay) with a small group of friends, marketing yourself to fans, or following the lives of people who you don’t generally have access to in a way that feels more personal than a blog.

But Twitter is not a Facebook replacement. It is not in that same market of the big social networks, and it certainly cannot hold a candle to any of them when it comes to what we really want: to stay in touch with our friends. We want to post photos, see photos, write a couple paragraphs to someone we haven’t talked to for a while, post a 30-character status when we don’t feel like doing anything else, seeing an feed of not just what our friends type but what they’ve done lately.

So I ask again – why all the attention for something so small?

I had five bars of service in a major part of Los Angeles. What gives?

Suddenly it hit me. While it has been long known that you cannot use EDGE while receiving phone calls, the iPhone is not smart enough to give priority to the voice connection. Or, at the very least, it cannot do so consistently.

That’s right—my menial browsing of Facebook was enough to stop the mighty iPhone from receiving phone calls.

After some testing in this matter, it would appear that while the results vary, the majority of the time you are on EDGE, the phone will not ring. Period.

Old news for some? Probably. After all, I did know this was an EDGE limitation, but my old phones (a Motorola SLVR and a Sony Z310a) were both smart enough to pause the EDGE connection whenever the phone rang and allow me to answer the call. The fact that the iPhone does not do this is… well, disturbing.

While all of us are sitting here salivating over the imminent SDK, it occurred to me that most of the applications I would really want or expect are data-intensive apps. In this situation, one can therefore assume that if using anything like an AIM app over EDGE could hinder your ability to pick up calls when you need to.

Is that worth it? Is your shiny RSS feed app or Jabber client worth your inability to receive calls? I would have to say no. For many of us, our phones are our lifelines to friends, family, and work. In my situation, I must be reachable via cellphone virtually any time, and a missed call that I don’t notice for fifteen minutes or longer can be a serious problem for me.

And I know there’s others out there that are similar. Most smartphone users are people who have a schedule to keep or a project to run, and communication is key.

The argument, of course, is that you can use these apps just fine over wifi. But how often are most iPhone owners really in hot spots? Most wifi areas besides my house that I go do require me to log in, and I seldom log out—meaning that if I am using an AIM client and then walk out of the coffee shop, either the AIM client needs to be smart and log me off on its own when it determines I am on EDGE, or I have to think about it, and manually log off every time I leave.

Forcing people to think about what they’re doing is never good for an Apple product.

This is a limitation that will be eliminated with a 3G iPhone, but for the rest of us, what will we do? Is the iPhone’s inability to give priority calls something in the chipset or something that can be provided to us with a software update?

Will it be worth it to produce or use applications that are as data-intensive as the ones we’ve been hoping for?

While it is a great thing that the iPhone is revolutionizing internet access on-the-go, sacrificing the phone aspect of your iPhone is far too high a price.

Design/Comfort

The comfort was probably one of the first things I noticed while putting these on. The headphone padding, which feels somewhat leather-like, is very soft and comfortable for extended use. Also, the headband is covered in a similar material, an essential detail some other manufacturers tend to neglect. They come with a hard-shell zippered carrying case with plenty of room for the headphones and various adapters/cables. One gripe, however: the plastic headphone shells feel a bit clunky, but they do have a good amount of weight to them.

An important note: The AblePlanet’s work on 2 standard AAA batteries, but that’s mainly for the noise canceling feature, and can be used without them in case you run out.

Sound/Noise Cancelling

The sound is generally decent, with pretty powerful bass and average mids, but the treble response could definitely be better. I sampled several genres of music with these, and found them to be enjoyable to listen to, albeit not the most enjoyable. However, I did find them to shine while listening to podcasts and TV/Movies in noisy environments such as cars. The noise cancelling almost confines you to your own, personal bubble of sound, and speech is quite clear. Also, the “Linx Audio” feature, highly touted by the manufacturer, allows you to hear all the subtleties in the music without crankin’ up the volume as you’re probably used to.

Conclusion

While the sound isn’t as sharp, nor layered as I have heard elsewhere, the average consumer is not too likely to notice the difference. Also, with their solid noise-canceling added into the mix, they become a viable alternative to Bose’s high-end QC3s in that respect. They’re pretty comfortable and look fairly classy. The price-tag is a bit steep at $350, which may mean you’ll have to sit down and contemplate the purchase. Overall, if you’re looking for over-ear noise canceling ‘phones in this range, I’d recommend them.

Apple’s announcement of the slim-and-trim MacBook Air had diehards buzzing in Moscone Center, most clamoring to test it after the keynote.

But after we cut out the hype, we found that the MacBook Air really doesn’t have much to offer. Sure, it’s tiny. Apple has wasted no time demonstrating this by hiding it in envelopes, but it’s not like the ultraportable market is a new area. Sony’s VAIO VGN-X505VP was released in 2004, less than an inch thick at it’s bulkiest, and just over a centimeter at it’s thinnest with the lid closed. It’s also a lot lighter than the “AirBook”. Of course, it’s a Windows-centric machine, so it’s either stuck with XP or Vista. It’s obvious where we stand on that issue.
The biggest problem is that there is really no market for such a laptop. It’s far too expensive for a consumer machine, but the features Apple touts are dismally inadequate for any professional use.

The hard drive options seem to be what Apple is proudest of. At the lowest-priced configuration, the Air uses an 80GB 4200RPM PATA drive. This is the same drive that the 80GB-capacity iPod Classic uses, which shows the trust Apple has in it’s technology across the board. Unfortunately, the drive just isn’t up to intensive tasks. Besides it’s relatively low capacity (would it have been so hard to give us the 160GB iPod drive?), the speed is a major bottleneck. 4200RPM combined with a PATA interface (most Apple products, including the MacBook, use the newer, faster SATA interface) irreparably cuts the speed of the Air.

Unless… for a measly $999, Apple is willing to hook users up with a drive with less capacity.

Wait, what?

Okay, the technology is cool; basically, it’s like having a giant SD card in place of a platter-based drive. The speed increase over the 80GB drive is nice, but at a 64GB maximum, though, that will fill up fast. Apple suggests 9GB of hard drive space alone for OS X (http://www.apple.com/macosx/techspecs/), which significantly cuts into what little is available. Fill that up with applications and media, and there isn’t left with much to work with.

Oh, and that’s after you manage to install things. See, the Macbook Air doesn’t have an optical drive. To get around this, you can either (surprise) spend more money on Apple’s new external hard drive (and sacrifice your lone USB port) or ‘hijack’ another computer’s optical drive over WiFi. Not only does is this option slow (it’s limited to the speed of the slowest wireless card involved), it provides users no way to use CDs in a truly portable setting. Some might not need this feature, but we’d argue that CDs and DVDs aren’t as dead as floppy disks (remember the first iMac?).

Another missing feature? Firewire. This effectively cuts out anyone working with video and further limits wired networking options (in fact, with the lack of ethernet, there are NO included wired networking capabilities. You can, however, spend even more money for an ethernet-to-USB adapter).

So who is the Macbook Air for? Well, it’s price leaves out cash-strapped students and many consumers. It isn’t powerful enough for professional use, save for Internet access, word processing and maybe light Photoshop work. Forget using it in most creative fields; there’s too little hard drive space and too little connectivity features for serious photographers and anyone who works with video. Apple really dropped the ball on this one; for the price, they provide too little. A lot of the technology really isn’t ready for primetime (we’re still reeling over the extra grand for the SSD). Save your money; unless you really need the thinness of the Air, you can get a Macbook with a faster processor, more hard drive space and more RAM for the same price.

Generally, I tend to separate my online presence with my personal life. However, readers of my blog or any sporadic personal content I’ll post on Twitter, etc., may be aware of the fact that I am deeply involved in a community theatre. Every year, we attend the Speech and Theatre Association of New Jersey (STANJ) competition and awards, which just happens to be next weekend, ironically. We also travel to the state Thespian Festival each winter, New York City each spring to work with Broadway stars in workshops, and this summer, we have been selected to compete in the Edinburgh International Theatre Festival in Scotland. So, as you can see, a lot of time and dedication is required to make such a program a success. Many people are surprised to realize how intricate a production can be. You need talented actors and actresses. You need a set design crew. You need a prop crew. You need a lighting crew, a sound production crew, a fund raising crew, a running crew to change sets in between scenes, and a house crew to seat the audience. You need to find people willing to and able to handle each of these jobs as well.

So, last fall, I co-starred in a production of “The Diary of Anne Frank” as Miep Gies. There were some last minute cast changes made in that cast, as understudies were placed into permanent roles for various reasons. There was a lack of volunteers as well for this show to work on crew. All of these changes took place last minute; the day before the dress rehearsal to be exact. That was two days before we went on. The show required a soundtrack of various sound effects, recorded voice overs from some actors and a few transition tracks for set changes. We had found someone willing to run sounds over the speaker system during the production, but we had yet to find someone capable of putting together a soundtrack on such short notice without any resources being provided by the theatre. I spoke with my director and took a look at what needed to be done to create a soundtrack. As I was reading the sheet of information, the Mac user inside of me began to break out into my personal life. My mind began saying to me, “Oh, that’s a simple process in iTunes.” or “Audio Hijack could handle that.” “Quicktime Pro would have that done in ten minutes, tops.”

I knew immediately, that the production of this soundtrack was something that my MacBook could have produced without a sweat weeks ago. The reason was not because my Macintosh was fast, or because I was an avid, experienced Mac user. The reason I knew that my computer could handle the job was because I already had in mind, the specific applications I needed to use and exactly how I needed to use them. The next day, I brought my Core Duo MacBook to rehearsal and produced the soundtrack in a matter of an hour. I ripped some sound effects in iTunes, recorded some voice overs in Quicktime Pro, removed some cuts or dead air with Audio Hijack and put it all together back in iTunes. The production was saved, the soundtrack worked flawlessly on our speaker system and the play was one of the best I’ve ever been a part of. Not to mention it earned me a few compliments on my great looking computer.

So, what’s the moral of this story? The Macintosh can never fail you, even if you are a basic computer user. Why? The fact is that every Macintosh application is made with that extra bit of tender, love and care. The UI is simple and each program is running within seconds. There’s no need to dig through manuals or Help menus. Applications are made with a distinctive purpose and the menus allow users to run on basic instinct, even if this is the first time they’ve ever opened the application. There isn’t much you can’t do on a Mac these days and you never know when you’ll need something done quickly and easily. That’s what being a Mac user is all about. It’s saving time and being more productive on a system that is a pleasure to work on. I have to honestly say that I have yet to have a time, in my three years of being a Mac user, where I had a task to be completed and I could not find some way to do it in Mac OS X. The process is stress free. In situations like the one I described at my local theatre, you will be grinning as you complete your projects, because you know that the process wouldn’t be as enjoyable if you weren’t using an Apple product. It can make you truly appreciate the operating system. The bottom line is you never know when a random aspect of your life will require your Macintosh, so even if you start out as a basic user, the switch to OS X can only help you in the end. The Mac isn’t meant just for video editors, photographers, or a band’s manager. The Mac is meant to make your entire computing experience, no matter what you do, simpler, easier and more efficient.

Well, yeah. But these bands are really good. Just try and get past the vocals, for the most part.

Song: Sleepers
Band: Saosin
Album: Saosin, Capitol Records, 2006
I’m more a fan of Saosin’s original line-up (with Anthony Green on vocals and Pat McGrath as the studio drummer), but their eponymous full-length is solid musically. The singles from Saosin all blew me away; Sleepers is a a great burst of guitar-driven energy with great percussive variation.

Song: Bye Bye Blues (The Whole West Coast Is Ruined)
Band: Drop Dead, Gorgeous
Album: Worse Than A Fairy Tale, Rise/Suretone, 2007
It seems like screamo bands either: don’t have keyboard players, or they have terrible keyboard players. Drop Dead, Gorgeous is neither. Their key section is provided mostly by dark piano sounds, which accents the slightly off-beat horror movie-type quality that many of their songs have. I’m a fan of this song in particular because of the dynamics; it starts with a great sparse sound and moves into wave after wave of different loud, dissonant parts.

Song: The Circus That Has Brought Us Back To These Nights (Yo Chocola!)
Band: The Fall Of Troy
Album: The Fall Of Troy, Lujo Records, 2003
Taking cues from fellow-Pacific-Northwesterners The Blood Brothers, TFOT has a very math-influenced style, combined with a wide range of vocals and guitar dynamics. Filled with odd time signatures and abrupt changes, “The Circus...” is a polished noise experiment from start to finish. Not bad considering the members of the band were 17 when this was recorded.

Song: The Girl Who Was Born Without A Face
Band: Schoolyard Heroes
Album: Fantastic Wounds, The Control Group, 2005
Another Washington band, Schoolyard Heroes add a heaping dose of horror-movie cliche to the mix. Their sophomore album is much more polished than The Funeral Sciences, from Ryann Donnelly’s increased vocal range to the time signatures and innovative guitar techniques. The best part, though, is the last four seconds: an amazing choppy cap at the end of the darkest song on this list.

Song: Line & Sinker
Band: Billy Talent
Album: Billy Talent, Atlantic, 2003
Billy Talent is definitely poppier than the other bands here, but the energy they produce takes them past pop-punk into a power-punk sound combined with screamo vocals. Both melodic and high-pitched singing are met with frantic screaming during the choruses, and the loud, sparkly guitar transforms into a crunchy powerhouse and back again throughout.

I’ve always had loads of trouble finding a good way to blare my music. You know what I mean. When you’re sitting at home, bored out of your mind, and decide to pump some music and just dance like a fool to your favorite band (yes, we know about your undying love for Hannah Montana). And let’s face it, there is no Mac with built-in speakers that scream. You need something that’s light, but still packs enough punch to get the job done.

Introducing the Pure-Fi Anywhere Speaker System.

Upon opening the package you will immediately find a sleek black travel case that holds the speakers, the remote and the charger. (Oddly enough, there’s no room for your iPod after that.) The speakers themselves look fantastic. The unit comes in black and white, with a glossy plastic covering.  The system is all-in-one, so the only cord you need are the charger. The form factor overall is smooth and very clean-cut.

The greatest feature of the Pure-Fi is its portability. Not only is the system small but it is also very lightweight, eliminating the boom box factor, and its battery can hold a charge for up to ten hours. It’s a great device for taking around with you to school, to the beach, or wherever. The sound is great on this system for it’s size. It does pack a punch, but it’s not going to power your house party.

The only real negative to the product is the remote that comes with it. It feels cheap and very cluttered, which definitely drags down the experience of the player. They put in four dedicated buttons to navigate the iPod Menu’s, which is totally pointless unless you are less than 3 feet away.

Overall the Pure-Fi is an awesome player for your room, and although it will take $150 out of your pocket, its form factor and function still make this player a great buy.

10:37am The crowd is raving after Newman's performance. Jobs thanks the crowd for attending, and encourages them to visit the booth to try out the new products. Looks like we're just about done here- stay tuned to Macteens for further coverage of this week's Macworld Conference and Expo.

10:33am Randy Newman talks a bit, and mentions some strenuous relations between the US and other nations. He's come up with a humerous song, that is in defense of the United States.

10:30am Steve recaps all the accomplishments that Apple has made in just the first two weeks in 2008. He mentions that apple still has 52 weeks to go, and they're very excited. Steve Jobs is wrapping up the keynote, and has a special treat for the viewing audience- a performance by Randy Newman (not John Mayer, as greatly anticipated by the multi-year Macteens staff represented this year at Macworld).

10:26am Going forward, Apple will announce environmental details on major product announcements. He notes that the unit is made of 100% recyclable aluminum, and the unit's display and packaging do not contain any hazardous chemicals that many look toward when thinking about a greener Apple.

10:25am Apple has a new ad for the MacBook Air, which starts by showing a manila envelope, and a person grabbing the slim machine right out of the envelope, just like a piece of paper.

10:23am 5 hour battery life, .16 to .76 inches, 13.3" display, full size keyboard, multi touch gestures, iSight, 1.6 GHz Core 2 Du, 2GB memory, 80 GB HD and 802.11N networking round out MacBook Air. It'll be available in two weeks for $1799.

10:21am Steve mentions that most users won't miss the optical drive, since a lot of things can be downloaded. A virtual disk technology is available via the Finder, and allows users who have installed special software on other machines to directly access those drives with just one click.

10:20am With Steve back on the stage, he continues by showing off the side of the unit, which includes a 45W Magsafe power connector, and USB/Micro-DVI/Headphone (no Firewire) ports behind a door. An optical drive is not included, but a superdrive will be sold separately (that does match the MacBook Air) for $99.

10:18am So how does this all fit? Steve continues by showing the bottom side of the unit in a slide. An 80 GB 1.8" hard disk (same as the iPod hard disks) along with an optional pricey upgrade to 64GB, a battery and electronics. The unit features an Intel Core 2 Duo processor, shrunken to 60% of its original size, running at full speed. Steve remarks it's an incredible feat of engineering, and invites Paul Otellini, CEO of Intel, to talk about it.

10:16am The new MacBook Air's trackpad enables additional multi-touch functionality. Steve shows the crowd how's this work, and a lot of gestures used on the iPhone hold desktop equivalents.

10:11am He continues by noting the compromises other manufacturers make when bringing these products to the market. The thinnest notebook now, a Sony Viao notebook, is TWICE the size for the MacBook Air. It's so thin, it fits inside of a manila envelope. Steve proceed to show the audience the product- held in non other than a manila envelope. It is EXTREMELY thin, in a full aluminum enclosure. It has a full size keyboard and full size trackpad, and the head-on view seems similar to that of the Titanium PowerBook design- black keys with ambient light sensor backlighting. The unit has a magnetic latch, and a 13.3" LED backlit display. Built in iSight is included.

10:09am Steve says that today is the day Apple introduces another great Mac notebook product- this time MacBook Air. It's gong to be the most slim notebook ever.

10:08am On to the fourth and the last item- "There's something in the air."

10:03am Steve continues by mentioning that the first studio on board with movie rentals was Fox, and introduces Jim Gianopulos on to the stage to talk about Fox's contribution to the movie rentals on iTunes. Jim talks about business models, and gets on to what his research indicated, and says there's a slide that best represents it- a slide of home with earbuds setup just like a silhouette iPod ad. It was simply a the best thing to do for Fox and the studios. Jim appears to slip up- the Simpsons Movie, at least, will be available to download tomorrow. He also notes the Family Guy Blue Harvest DVD, and a lot of the speculation that hit the web recently, and confirms that the content can be brought directly into iTunes.

10:00am "We're very excited by the new AppleTV". This new device is actually just a software upgrade- a free upgrade available of apple.com. AppleTV currently sells for $299, but Steve notes that Apple wants it to be more accessible to everyone, and announces a reduced price of $229.

9:57am Steve emphasize everything can be done without a computer. He shows off browsing .Mac web gallery content, and does it with ease. He also shows Flickr photos, which are just as easy to show off. There appears to be a bite of a bug during this demo, as there's a black screen while the music plays. "I'm afraid Flickr's not serving up the photos on that one."

9:54am Movies are being re-encoded and the database is being updated, and the entire iTunes Store music library will be available. Steve notes that HD content can be streamed right off of the web. The crowd is shown a great demo video of a podcast of a skier descending down an incredible incline, and parachuting at the end of the slope.

9:51am Search is supported on the new AppleTV, and gives users many advanced ways to find what content they're looking for.

9:47am The new UI on AppleTV is very slick, and allows users to easily preview, purchase and download movies and TV shows. The new UI also displays activity from users who bought similar movies. The entire experience is seemless, although it did appear to take few moments for the movie to begin during the demo. Steve shows that skipping by chapter is now supported as well.

9:43am Steve continues with other places you might want to watch your movies, like a widescreen television. Many have tried to perfect a product, but all have failed. Enter AppleTV, take two. This new device allows users to rent movies on AppleTV, in full HD quality in Dolby 5.1 sound. Photos can be downloaded from Flickr and .Mac. Youtube videos can be watched, and you can buy TV shows and music direct from the device, and all of this requires NO COMPUTER connection. The device will sync like last generation AppleTV product if users would like them to. The device is the same form factor, but the UI is all new.

9:40am Movie rentals have two prices: library items are 42.99, while new items are $3.99. Over 1000 movies will be available, and can be watched anywhere. These movies can be watched instantly (as they download), and can be transfered to iPods. You have up to 30 days to begin watching the films, and have 24 hours to complete watching (though you may watch as many times as you want).

9:37am Steve continues on with his third topic, iTunes. Over 4 billion songs sold, 20 million just on Christmas alone. He touches on moves, with 7 million downloads- not quite up to their expectations. Apple today is introducing something new, since people only watch movies a couple times- movie rentals. Five major studios on board, Disney Warner Bros., Paramount, Universal and Sony.

9:34am Mail, Stocks, Notes and Weather are being incorporated into a new version of firmware for the iPhone touch. This is a PAID upgrade available on iTunes, but will be bundled with new units leaving the factory.

9:33am A free updated iPhone firmware package will be available later today that incorporates all the new features outlined below.

9:30am The new home/launch screen works great with Webclip. Icons "jiggle" and can all be moved to up to nine different launch screens.

9:28am Jobs continues demoing all these new features. They all very closely resemble the leaked firmware pictures and videos available on the internet.

9:25am He continues by bringing the upcoming iPhone SDK. Still in development, Apple wants to give iPhone users something today. Maps with location (approximation based upon cell phone tower polling), Webclips (adding webpage icons to your home screen), customized home screens, SMS of multiple people and chapter browsing in movies. Other new features are being rolled out in this update. Many of the features present in the "spy videos" are indeed present in the new version of the iPhone firmware.

9:22am Not wasting anytime, Steve talks about the second thing on his agenda. Second on tap is the iPhone. Over 4 million iPhones have been sold since its release. iPhone captures 19% of the smart phone market. Apple believes that this will hold strong into the future, and will continue to get even better.

9:19am He continues on by noting a big feature in Leopard, Time Machine. Today Apple's adding an accessory to their lineup for Time Machine, "Time Capsule". It combines Airport Extreme Base Station and a Wireless Hard Disk. Two sizes: 500GB at $299, 1TB at $499. Jobs notes it's a very aggressive price for the market, since Apple wants people backing up. He continues by playing the recent Time Machine advertisement.

9:17am Steve starts with Leopard, and its great market success. He's recaping all the positive critical reviews that it received in the press. He notes that Office 2008 is out today, "last big app to be native to Intel."

9:14am: Starting about 15 minutes late, the crowd is greeted by a "Happy New Year" Get a Mac ad. Steve Jobs takes the stage and begins by thanking the crowd for an "amazing 2007". Four things to talk about today.

7:13am: We are sitting inside Moscone West right now, and we probably have another hour and a half before we actually get inside the main room.

2:03am: We're in line waiting for the Keynote, which will start at 9am. Our coverage will officially begin at that time.