Category: Miscellaneous

Bertrand Serlet to leave Apple

March 23, 2011 /

Bertrand Serlet, Apple’s senior vice president of Mac Software Engineering, will be leaving the company, according to an announcement released by the company today. Serlet worked with Steve Jobs at NeXT and came over with him to Apple, creating and developing Mac OS X. He will be succeeded by Craig Federighi, Apple’s vice president of Mac Software Engineering.

From Apple’s press release announcing Serlet’s departure:

“I’ve worked with Steve for 22 years and have had an incredible time developing products at both NeXT and Apple, but at this point, I want to focus less on products and more on science,” said Serlet.

Serlet famously poked fun at the similarities between Mac OS X and Microsoft’s then-upcoming OS update, Vista, at the WWDC Conference in 2006. His bit was more stand-up routine than keynote, made all the more charming by his thick French accent.

Serlet’s scheduled last day comes the day before Mac OS X turns 10 years old. Before joining Apple, he spent four years at Xerox PARC, then joined NeXT in 1989.

iRig Mic now shipping

March 22, 2011 / / 0 Comments

I don’t usually report on press releases (take note, PR people), but I like IK Multimedia’s products a lot, especially with the release of GarageBand for iPad. I recommended the company’s iRig Guitar as one of my Holiday picks for the MacJury, and used the iKlip instead of a music stand when I played in the Macworld All-Star Band at this year’s Cirque du Mac party at Macworld 2011.

At least at first glance, the iRig Mic looks to be another hit. It looks like a professional stage mic, and has a built-in headphone jack so you can hear yourself (presumably with no latency.) Just plug it into your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch and you’re a rock star. The company says it will work with GarageBand or the suite of iRig apps including a free audio recording app.

Priced at $60, it seems like a pretty good deal for an integrated unit and a killer accessory for the already amazing GarageBand. I’m particularly impressed that the housing is metal and not plastic. Details can be found on the company’s website.

Flow, project/task manager, now available

March 22, 2011 / / 0 Comments

Flow, an online project/task management system with companion iOS and Mac apps and collaboration features is now out of beta:

We’ve got great news. As of today, Flow is available to everyone for only $9.99 per month or $99 per year. The price includes unlimited tasks and task lists in addition to our free iPhone and Mac apps. You’ll also be able to purchase accounts for your team at a discounted rate—the more you purchase, the more you save.

As a thank you for all your great feedback, we’d like to offer you $30 off of your first year of an annual subscription. If you’d like some more time to decide, you’ll still be able to use Flow for free for the next 14 days.

We hope that you’ve enjoyed using Flow so far. We’ve got a lot of great features planned, so stay tuned to our blog.

I’ve been beta testing it for several weeks now, and it’s a highly functional, gorgeous system. It comes with a free trial and a neat companion iOS app. If you’re looking for a better way to manage team projects, it’s definitely worth a look.

How to ‘ditch wireless’ and go ‘completely wired’ in your home

March 21, 2011 / / 0 Comments

It may seem ironic give the fact that I’ve given seminars on setting up wireless home networks, but I agree with a lot in this Lifehacker post. My desktop machines are all hard-wired, and I have a spare port for plugging in laptops when I need wired speeds. My AppleTV is still wireless, but that’s only because it’s in a location that makes it difficult to run a cable.

Most homes will still need a wireless network for things like laptops, iOS devices and handheld game platforms. The Lifehacker headline is unnecessarily dramatic: nowhere in the article do they actually propose going completely wireless. Still, there’s good information in there, including a look at Powerline adapters, which let you run network connections through your electrical wiring.

For those interested, the slides from my 2008 Macworld session on setting up a WiFi network are still available and mostly still relevant.

Report: Microsoft killing the Zune; giving up effort to ‘loosen iPod’s stranglehold on the iPod market’

March 16, 2011 / / 0 Comments

In what may be the only way anyone would notice, Bloomberg is reporting that Microsoft is dropping its Zune media player, and would incorporate the technology into other devices such as phones and its XBox gaming platform. Microsoft introduced the Zune in 2006 as a competitor to Apple’s iPhone.

The Bloomberg article outlines the Zune’s reception as an “iPod killer,” including Talk Show Host Craig Ferguson’s observation that the device was Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates’s bid to “loosen iPod’s stranglehold on the iPod market.”

Social Media from a corporate perspective on MacVoices

November 16, 2009 / / 0 Comments

At New Media Expo in Las Vegas last month, I joined Chuck Joiner for a discussion of Social Media and its implications for corporations. We discussed whether or not corporations “get” Tweeting, blogging and other aspects of Social Media and whether it’s too late for those who don’t. As always, it was a lively and (I hope) interesting conversation. My apologies in advance for the fact that it’s a video interview.

You can watch the interview below or on Chuck’s MacVoices website.

When high adventure and low tech collide

August 11, 2009 / / 0 Comments

Since I got my first iPhone two years ago, I’ve lightened my tech load considerably when I travel. For most short trips, I now leave my trusty MacBook Pro home — or at least in its bag. I can check email, surf the web, watch movies and even post articles to RandomMaccess from my iPhone.

Lightening is one thing, but going for almost a week without tech of any kind is quite another. Yet that’s the situation I faced on a recent scouting trip with my older son last month.

We traveled to Summerland Key, one of the western most of the Florida Keys. Warned by our island guides that there was no electricity or cell coverage anyway, we were informed that cellphones, iPods, etc were prohibited on the island. My digital SLR camera was the only thing with a battery I would be able to take. Other than that, the most advanced piece of technology I carried was my Leatherman multi-tool.

So how did I fare? Much better than I expected, actually. We were busy enough that I was never really all that tempted to post to Twitter or check email. It turns out that fishing, snorkeling, kayaking and preparing food are pretty good distractions from web surfing and iApps. And once I came to terms with the fact that I wasn’t going to be able to check in with my Lotus Notes account at the office, I was fine. The only time I was really conscious about not having my iPhone was when I wanted to use my Star Walk application to identify some of the constellations that were so brilliant in the night sky, and to use my iPhone as a camera — especially a video camera.

Albert Einstein once said “never memorize what you can look up in books.” With my iPhone and its near-ubiquitous connection to the web and all its vast resources, along with nine screens of applications, I can look up almost anything and so by extension, have to memorize almost nothing. That meant I had to rely on my memory and not my knot-tying app or my first aid app or even — Lord help me — Google. In the end, my two half hitches and taught line hitch held the hammock (my bed for the week) securely to our favorite gumbo limbo tree; we estimated the time from the sun’s position in the sky well enough to know when to start dinner; and we identified several constellations (and the Milky Way!) as we snorkeled in the dark night. All in all, I’m glad I traded the convenience of being able to look up a few things for the absence of distractions and temptations having the iPhone would have meant.

You can read more about my island adventure on my personal blog, and you can check out some of the pictures from the trip on the Troop 200 photo gallery.