/dev/random

Unfortunately I have to be home next week, so I’ll be missing out on WWDC. I did get a chance to walk by Moscone West and take photos of Apple’s preparation for the event.

Could this be a prediction of a 32GB iPhone?

See the full gallery here.

[Read more →]

Apple really needs to learn the difference between content in the application and content available on the internet when they review app store submissions.
In their latest fumble, Apple rejected Eucalyptus, an e-book reader which contains absolutely no embedded content. It lets you read freely available books from Project Gutenberg, which it fetches from the internet. [...]

[Read more →]

As you probably know, Apple posted the first trailer for Spike Jonze’s new “Where the Wild Things Are” movie today. The music in that trailer excited me a lot more than the movie itself. I consider any new Arcade Fire song a big deal, since their last album came out 2 years ago, with only [...]

[Read more →]

Apple touts their new iPod Shuffle as the ultimate in simplicity, as it has no buttons. However, having too few buttons doesn’t make it simpler, when each button has multiple functions and Apple needs to post a knowledge base article telling how to use all of the functions.

The new iPod Shuffle uses a controller built [...]

[Read more →]

In addition to the new Mac Minis & iMacs, Apple also introduced a new Airport Extreme Base Station & Time Machine today. The new base station adds two very appealing features: the ability to use 2.4GHz & 5GHz bands at the same time, and ability to set up a guest network for internet access only [...]

[Read more →]

Apple is a lot more than Steve Jobs, and you can be sure that Apple has plans to go on without him. Don’t forget he’s still very much alive. It’s much too early to start writing his obituary.
The media craziness has reached epic proportions with people like Michael Wolff writing drek such as:
Indeed, the logical [...]

[Read more →]

Webomatica nails it:
Because Apple has managed other, daunting transitions expertly, I fully expect them to manage a “post-Jobs” transition with equal skill. Have a little faith, people. This is Steve Jobs we’re talking about, the stereotypical control-freak. There’s no way in heck he’d leave something like this up to chance.
I have no inside information, but [...]

[Read more →]

As you’ve probably heard, Apple announced today that this will be their last appearance at Macworld Expo and Steve Jobs won’t deliver the keynote address. Although Apple wasn’t an official sponsor of Macworld Expo, the event revolved around their announcements. This doesn’t mean that Macworld Expo will end, but I really don’t expect it to [...]

[Read more →]

Apple now allows developers to issue up to 50 promotional codes for each version of any application in the store. The codes allow the recipient to download a full copy of the application. Currently they can only be redeemed in the US app store.
This makes it a lot easier for developers to send out review [...]

[Read more →]

I used atvusb-creator to install XBMC & Boxee on my AppleTV.
It’s very easy: create a patch stick with a USB flash drive, power down the AppleTV, insert the flash drive and restart the AppleTV. It will boot from the flash drive. You’ll see Linux startup messages and in a few seconds it will be [...]

[Read more →]

UPDATE: Minutes after I posted this, I got a notice from Apple that the update has been approved and is now ready for sale.
Apple still hasn’t approved my update to LOLCats. Still no response from Apple for the second update, which I feel is pretty urgent, since it reduces the possibility of inappropriate images appearing, [...]

[Read more →]

I’m getting ready to leave for San Francisco early in the morning. My flight is at 6:45 so I’ll probably have to be up around 3AM. I change flights in Atlanta and arrive in San Francisco around noon, so I’ll have plenty of time to pick up my badge.

[Read more →]

There are lots of predictions about what Apple will announce monday, many of them sparked by mysterious boxes being delivered to dealers around the world.
I suspect there will be some kind of docking station with keyboard & display for the new iPhones. Since Apple is now referring to the operating system as ‘OS X Leopard’ [...]

[Read more →]

Last week I ordered a new battery for my MacBook Pro, since my current one is losing capacity. It was supposed to be delivered last Thursday, but FedEx didn’t even attempt to deliver it because it was damaged in transit.
Uploaded with plasq’s Skitch!
After FedEx tracking showed that it was delivered to Apple’s warehouse today, I [...]

[Read more →]

There’s a major controversy about Apple’s software updater pushing Safari 3.1 for Windows with iTunes & Quicktime updates, even if Safari wasn’t installed previously. Adobe did something much sneakier with their CS3 applications. Adobe Bridge CS3 contains a full copy of Opera embedded inside the application.
The current version of CS3 includes Opera 9.2. The latest [...]

[Read more →]

Apple watchers are trying to guess the meaning of “There’s something in the air” on Apple’s tantalizing Macworld banners. Here are some possibilities.

Apple is buying Adobe and adding AIR to the iPhone and building it into OS X

Wireless syncing of iPod & iPhone with Macs

Rent movies wirelessly directly from the Apple TV

Bluetooth headphones for iPod [...]

[Read more →]

I updated my iPhone to firmware 1.1.1. The upgrade took several minutes but was uneventful. I had previously restored it to the original firmware. Before that I had several third-party applications installed, although I never unlocked it since I don’t see any point in switching from AT&T. The only application I really miss is Apollo [...]

[Read more →]