Today, for those of you who don’t know, there was an iPod event. While not a whole lot of the event was geared towards the iPhone, the smallest section of the Stevenote nearly made me wet myself.

Before I go on just let me say that I don’t speak as a fanboy. I don’t simply like Apple because I can. There are clear reasons for my Apple preference. I used PCs, I’ve seen the alternatives. I know how Zunes (don’t) work. The fact is, Apple has an unprecedented attention to detail, and they back it up with awesome support. I have literally never had a good tech support experience…Except with Apple. Every company makes mistakes, but Apple is the only company I know who has a near perfect record for fixing things they royally screw up (when I say “near”, I’m looking at you, mis-contorted mini-bluetooth keyboard of doom and suckiness).

So based on their track record, I’ve always trusted that over time Apple would work out all the things I’ve come to hate about my iPhone. I figured 2.1 would address the words of them: random app crashing, and the overall instability that occurs when you have a lot of apps (like I do). But I had no idea that Steve Jobs would get up on stage today, and tell me that every single little thing I hate about my iPhone will be no more as of this Friday (well, I shouldn’t say EVERYTHING…there’s still no cut and paste!!!).

No 4-hour-long backups, they’ve revamped that backup system. No starting from scratch at least once a week because my iPhone refuses to boot up after installing one too many apps. He even says there’s going to be significant performance improvements, and significant battery life improvements. Based on the demos, I’m guessing that means faster app installs, but it’s always hard to tell with demos

Another great thing they did with this event today was clearly label the iPhone/iPod Touch as a gaming platform. Apple themselves has finally acknowledged the potential for gaming in their device, and this is groundbreaking for consumers. It means that game developers will be willing to look at it very seriously; and the answer will usually be yes! Take EA for example, they’ve been putting out tons of games for iPhone and doing simultaneous release for iPhone with big names like Spore and Need for Speed! It’s fantastic for us gamers, because we get AMAZING games on the iPhone, and it’s great for them too, because development time is tiny in comparison to other platforms; and yet there is a huge profit potential. Win/Win.

They’ve also made significant progress in making the iPod Touch and iPod Nano more green. I am always all for keeping this world a habitable place! It always baffles me that people label Apple as a non-eco-friendly company. They are a tech company, and nearly every piece of tech has strange chemicals in it. It is true that Apple does some not-so-great stuff, but from where I’m sitting, it’s also true that they are the ONLY tech company actually working towards improving on that front.

Wow, Apple. I trusted in you, and I don’t regret it. Today is a great day. Here’s to one of the finest companies I know.

Hello,
So you guys sure seem to be proud of your decision to support a ridiculously restrictive DRM format. I just wanted you to know a few things, you really should consider them before you move forward.

The first is that, I promise you, piracy will still happen. It always happens. There is absolutely nothing you can do about it. DRM just makes it a pain in the ass for those who purchase it legally, making piracy all the more tempting.

For those of us who don’t have moral convictions preventing us from stealing from a giant machine such as many of your clients, the one and only draw to not engaging in piracy is that it makes it easier on us. When you intentionally include a piece of spyware whose job is to hassle the user through hell and back, it doesn’t make it very easy on them.

The second thing I want to warn you about is that you will make less money. Statistics show that DRM hurts sales (here is one of many articles on this: http://www.joystiq.com/2008/06/24/sins-publisher-stardock-keeps-piracy-in-perspective/). Aside from statistics, I can tell you first hand that I am one of them. I am making you a promise right now that I will NEVER buy ANY of your games that include SecuROM (I make no promises as to whether or not I’ll acquire them, you just won’t make any money off it if I do).

So, I hope you can see now, DRM is going to hurt you dramatically. And for trying to take away consumer freedoms, and putting your concerns of piracy above the will of your PAYING CUSTOMERS, your company deserves to go under.

Thank you
Jt Hollister

P.S. Your ports aren’t very good anyway.

Phil Hassey, a dedicated and excellent programmer who authored the original Galcon, has put out my favorite app for the iPhone so far. The iPhone and iPod Touch are, in my opinion, the ideal platforms for Galcon. Touch controls are simpler and faster than using your mouse, making the gameplay absolutely incredible!

No multiplayer, as of yet, but I have word from Phil that he plans on putting that together later this year — after he recuperates from the porting process!

I would love to see some more controls implemented, but for a first release this is absolutely gorgeous!

Galcon Touch can be had from the iTunes App Store or in the App Store on your iPhone/iPod Touch.

On the night of Thursday, July 10th the rest of the household was getting ready for bed. I, on the other hand, was getting ready to head out the door to the local Apple store at The Gateway. I arrived at 2:30 AM to something I didn’t exactly expect: a rather long line of people who, like myself, were waiting for the iPhone 3G to hit the shelves.

Throughout the morning, the line continued to grow to a point where I couldn’t even see the end of it. As 8:00 drew nearer, even more people began to arrive in droves. I’ve never seen such a huge crowd lined up for a product before, but then, I’ve never lined up for a product as exciting as the iPhone 3G (although I must admit, Leopard comes close).

After a long, grueling wait, the black veil was dropped and the doors were opened. The first group of people was let in, but it was clear the wait was going to extend for a bit longer. Luckily, Apple employees brought two iPhones out - one white, one black - for those of us in line to glimpse.

Apple was also kind enough to bring coffee and bottled water to those who wanted it. Talk about classy. It was a hot morning, and the water was a welcome surprise.

While most of us waited in line for iPhones, one individual came looking for something else. I watched as this man walked up to one of the Apple reps at the door, entered the building, and minutes later exited the building with a brand new MacBook Pro. Even with hundreds of people lined up outside the store, pining for glimpses of the shiny new toy and shouting out superfluous questions, Apple was able to help someone who wanted nothing to do with the madness! If you ask me, that really speaks to quality service.

After a two hour wait, I entered the building and purchased my new iPhone. The activation servers were down at the time, and I was told to activate it from the comfort of my own home. The process failed a couple times, but within 10 minutes I was good to go. Compared to the time spent in line, this wait was hardly something to complain about.

The first impression of the iPhone 3G is: WOW! I’ve seen the imagery and advertisements put out by Apple, but none of it compares to holding the device in your hand. I can’t say a lot about the new iPhone at this point, but the first impression is definitely there. Here’s to hoping it’s everything it promises!

Hey everyone, PLEASE read this as it is by far the most important blog I have ever written. I don’t wish to come across as a fanatic, but for this particular issue, I am one. I hope you will be as well after you hear what I have to say. This is about doing your part to Save the Internet.

I sincerely believe that the Internet is humanity’s single biggest resource. It is bigger than human beings, bigger than corporations, bigger than even countries. The Internet binds the entire world together in a way never before seen.

It is not the right of any individual, corporation, government, or entity of any kind to stifle the freedom of the Internet.

Big phone and cable companies are trying to get rid of Network Neutrality, the fundamental principle that prevents them from discriminating against your favorite Web sites and services.

Unless we speak out to our members of Congress they could move to allow large telephone and cable companies to control what you do, where you go and what you watch online.

Ultimately, because of the power of the Internet, those who are allowed to control the Internet will have the power to shape the future of humanity. Think about it. Culture, commercial enterprise, freedom of speech, religion, politics. All of these things can be controlled with the Internet. Those who seek control do so according to their own desires and lusts, NOT what is in humanity’s best interests.

This is not a difficult issue. Nor is it to be taken lightly. Please, help protect the Internet, which has transcended national borders and pushed humanity to its golden age.

Visit this website, sign their petition, and send a letter to congress (they make it real easy with a simple form). The world needs your help to keep the Internet free.

Visit www.savetheinternet.com to learn what’s at stake and send a loud message directly to the Congress.

Apple’s brilliant new operating system, Mac OS X Leopard has done in 5 days what Mac-lovers everywhere could only have hoped would happen over the next five to ten years. Well, perhaps that’s a bit of an exaggeration, but numbers don’t lie.

Japan, arguably the technology capitol of the world, has one of the most stunning stories. Apple accounted for 53.9% of all OS sales in the month of October, meaning more new Macs were sold to Japan than Windows or *nix-based PCs. This is of course, due to Leopard, which was only around for 5 days in October.

Of course, for this to happen, someone else’s numbers had to fall. Microsoft took a massive hit this time, with OS market share dropping practically overnight from 75.3% to 28.7%!

If this is what 5 days of Leopard did to an entire month’s OS market share, I can’t wait to see November’s numbers. The world is changing for the better, and it’s doing it even faster than anyone could have hoped! This is the start of a wondrous thing, folks. This is the beginning of the new computer world.

One of my favorite features in Leopard escaped me when I was writing my first post-Leopard blog, but this post is here to set it right. Apple’s default email reader, Mail.app, has received significant upgrades. Apple seems fairly proud of their new “stationary”, which allows Mail.app users to send messages with HTML formatting (borders, framed pictures, etc). Personally I just see that as absurd — I am not looking forward to a generation where email takes 5 minutes to open because it’s so bogged down with images and useless formatting.

That said, Mail.app does have several great improvements. It now allows you to write yourself notes, and store them with IMAP, meaning you can transfer them to your iPhone or laptop, or some other device, fairly easily. Next is to-do lists, which work in much the same way. Both these features are very simple, but they add a lot to the program. No more iCal running in the background. iCal is great, but I can only afford room for one program.

The last great thing about Mail.app is quite timely for me. I’ve only recently started keeping up with world news, the economy, and things of that nature, as much as I should. Mail.app is going to make this even easier for me with its new built-in RSS reader. Safari simply doesn’t cut it as an RSS reader, because, let’s face it, Safari just isn’t built for that sort of thing. Mail.app is. Again, this is a very simple implementation of RSS, and I’m sure hardcore RSS freaks won’t be too thrilled. But for people like me, who can’t justify dedicating one app to RSS and RSS only, Mail.app’s new RSS capabilities are a very welcome addition.

I should also touch on QuickLook, because it is insanely cool. I don’t claim to understand how it works, but from my perspective this is a technological marvel. I can click a PDF document, touch my spacebar, and BOOM! In a matter of less than a second I have the full PDF in front of me. I have tested this on massive, graphically intensive PDFs that would have taken Tiger take 10-20 seconds to fully load up. Everything is instantaneous.

One last thing I’ll mention is the new voice, Alex. He is intended for the visually impaired, and reads words that are on screen. This has existed before, but the voices available were very robotic. Alex is a breakthrough, he sounds incredibly human-like (for a robot). I’m sure that Alex will have a huge impact.

Summarily, at least figuratively speaking, I’m currently screaming like a schoolgirl over Leopard.

And I’m still amused at this:

That’s right, folks, Leopard is here! I had it yesterday! Matter of fact, I was the first person in Utah to walk out of the Apple Store with box in hand! Everything about it is incredible…from the very packaging, to the beautiful new (but familiar) User Interface. It makes my computer SCREAM, presumably from the jump to 64-bit and an even tighter coding standard.

Excusing a few third-party applications that haven’t updated their apps to the “Leopard-look”, everything is very beautifully integrated. The shadows are subtler than before, and yet they do their job of showing you which window is active even better. The Finder bar’s transparency isn’t distracting, as I was slightly worried it might. The Dock is just simply amazing.

Spaces is even more incredible than I thought from the demos. It so so perfectly smooth. Even when my computer is under load, I am able to switch Spaces quickly and elegantly, with no to very little lag. One of my favorite things about Spaces is that it allows me to organize my screens in a way that there are only 2 or 3 open windows in any given Space. That means I get to see my desktop wallpaper a lot more frequently now, which is always a welcome sight. Before, it was rarely seen.

Time Machine is also incredible. The interface is so sleek and beautiful. It makes backing up your computer easy and automatic. The only gripe I have with Time Machine is that it has caused my hard drives to near-constantly emit that incessant clicking noise that means they’re moving files around. That said, I believe the main cause for this is that I have been installing apps and moving files to their new homes all night yesterday, so files were changing more drastically hour-to-hour than during normal use. The problem shouldn’t occur very much when I’m done settling in.

Safari 3 is so much better now. It’s faster, it’s more stable, it fixes all the bugs and gripes I had with Safari 3 Beta. It’s a beautiful, efficient browser, and among your choices: Firefox, Camino, Opera, Safari, at least for me, Safari is by far the best.

But I saved my absolute favorite thing about Leopard for last. I haven’t seen much buzz about this anywhere, which quite surprises me as I find it to be a very useful feature. You see, when your Mac recognizes a Windows server on your network, it shows you in the Finder sidebar. And if you get info on that, you will find that the default icon for a Windows computer on the network is a beige monitor showing the infamous Blue Screen of Death.

So can we expect Vista Service Pack 1 to show Macs on the network as Spinning Beachballs of Doom? But hey, I’d take a psychedelic spinning cursor over an ugly blue screen any day. That’s just me.

Video of the launch, unboxing, and install will come. Peace out.

Leopard is nearly here. So exciting!

I hate Microsoft.