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iPhone: The Missing Manual available in August, PDF bundle available now
The venerable David Pogue has worked his relentless magic yet again to conjure up yet another manual that apparently should have been in the box with iPhone: The Missing Manual (though one could certainly argue that there would have been no way to fit a typical book in the iPhone's impressively compact packaging anyway). As the promo email that I just received states, Pogue's iPhone coverage is summarized into four primary categories: the phone and organizer, the iPod, the Internet, and the hardware and software. Pogue even tackles such issues as synching an iPhone with multiple machines and ways to solve the iPhone's lack of a spam filter. Heck, Mr. Pogue is so into the iPhone, he even sang about switching to it.If you're already hooked and itching to both buy and read, O'Reilly is offering a bundle deal right up your alley: though the $20 book doesn't ship until sometime in August, you can purchase a $24.99 bundle to get a PDF copy right now. Either way, you can find out more details at O'Reilly's product page for iPhone: The Missing Manual.
David Pogue's iPhone musical sing-a-long
Ever wonder how David Pogue's Broadway musical background could qualify him as the tech pundit for the New York Times? Us too, until now. Pogue digs deep (well, not that deep) into his theatrical bag of tricks to pull out the all singing, all geeking musical entitled, "I want an iPhone." Absurd as it is endearing, he deftly pokes fun at the device's flaws while simultaneously expressing devotion. Hell, he even unites iPhone haters (rolling your eyes right now) and cultists (if you end up singing along) alike with a high-larious jab at AT&T -- after all, who ever heard of an AT&T fanboy?
iPhone: The Missing Manual
David Pogue, is there anything you can't do? He has had an iPhone for a few weeks now (one of the perks of being the New York Times tech columnist, I would imagine) and now there is news of the pending release of iPhone: The Missing Manual (it'll set ya back $20). This latest addition to the Missing Manual covers, what esle, the iPhone and will be jam packed full of tips and tricks for the iPhoner in your life.The book will be available in August, but David has shared some of his favorite tricks a little early for all those folks who are lucky enough to get an iPhone today.
David Pogue and Josh Quittner trade barbs over iPhone
Would you believe: David Pogue, one of Cupertino's favoritest of all tech journalists (and a king among Apple fanboys) gets in an editorial fistfight with a hard-bitten and especially condemnatory Josh Quittner (whom many know as the editor of Business 2.0). It starts out as a blog post by Josh "reviewing the reviewers" of the iPhone, harshing on Pogue for his biases -- he's written a number of Apple books, after all, and is known far and wide for his love affair of all things Steve (TM). Naturally Quittner doesn't fess to being jealous that, like the rest of us, his publication didn't get an early iPhone; the embittered post turns into a comment spar with Pogue, quick to defend his honor -- which turns into an all out editorial debate on editorial. Bias schmias, why the hell isn't anyone talking about how the early iPhone reviews just didn't really say very much, anyway?Read - Quittner attacks, "[Pogue] should not be allowed to review Apple stuff. I mean, the man has a whole side business ... explaining how to wring the most out of your Apple products!"Read - Pogue defends, "I don't know whether you're deliberately ignoring the facts or you just don't do your homework. Either way, you're off-base."Read - Quittner attacks again, "What you are doing is wrong, flat-out, flat-panel-for-non-dummies wrong, David."
David Pogue blogs mini-review of Parallels 3
David Pogue, the NY Times' answer to Walt Mossberg (as distinct from "This WSJ writer, nicknamed Uncle Walt, hosted two technology legends at a 2007 conference" -- that's the Jeopardy answer to Walt Mossberg) hasn't reviewed Parallels 3.0 yet, at least not in print. On his blog, however, Pogue has given the new version an enthusiastic thumbs up.Pogue uses Dragon NaturallySpeaking on Windows to do a large chunk of his writing (Mac voice-rec tools like TrueVoice or iListen, though available, did not measure up to his needs) which has meant either lugging two laptops around or, more recently, Boot Camp. Up until now the USB audio support in Parallels hasn't worked well enough for speech recognition to go smoothly. With the 3.0 release and an XP virtual machine (Vista was still too resource-intensive), Pogue is now running the voice-rec app completely flawlessly and happily.Pogue's post ends with a reminder of how the platform equation is changing; he writes, "Whether you're a Mac person or a Windows person, the point is that you can now run 100 percent of the world's computer software on a single machine, faster and more easily than ever." It's no longer a matter of justifying answers to "Why would you buy a Mac?" but simply responding "Why wouldn't you buy a computer that can run all your applications, whichever platform you need?"
MacTech's 25 most influential, version 2007
MacTech has released their MacTech 25 for the second year in a row-- it's a list of the top 25 most influential people in the Mac community (as selected by the community itself), and it reads like a who's who of people doing great stuff : John Gruber, the suave-looking Aaron Hillegass and Brent Simmons all make return appearances. This year they chose everyone who's ever programmed for MarsEdit (as Daniel Jalkut is happy to say), not to mention both co-founders of Rogue Ameoba, Paul Kafasis and Alex Lagutin.Who's missing? Anyone from Apple-- MacTech specifically left them off the list to make sure they didn't hog the Spotlight, so to speak. They say that Apple employees are allowed to be put in the Honorable Mentions section, but as far as I can tell, while Leo Laporte, David Pogue and Merlin Mann all made it, no one from Apple actually did. Better get cracking on those influencing techniques for next year, guys.
Pogue tests 802.11n routers, blasts Netgear
In today's New York Times, friend to Mac users and finder of lost loves, David Pogue does a nice user-focused job of reviewing four 802.11n wireless routers (story, video), evaluating performance and ease of setup for the Apple, Belkin, Netgear & Linksys offerings. His conclusion: the Airport Extreme, while slightly more expensive than the other units and lacking Gigabit support on the Ethernet side, is far and away the best performer (up to 90mbit transfer speeds, almost double the best results with the other three routers, testing details in his video) and certainly the easiest to configure and control. He also points out that current Macs are firmware-updatable to 802.11n, while most other PC manufacturers will make you buy a new card to get your speedy on.For the real entertainment, however, check out Pogue's behind-the-story blog post. His experience with the Netgear software installation for a USB 802.11n adapter -- a madness-inducing swirl of EULAs, unsigned drivers, UI design from Graphix-R-Us, and plain ol' Windows user-hostile behavior -- is both familiar and chuckle-worthy.Update: Clarified the 2nd paragraph to note that Pogue's issues with the Netgear installation were specific to the adapter, not the router itself.
TUAW Video: A Mac Moment with David Pogue
Continuing our Macworld Mac Moment series, I talk (more or less) to Macworld fave, New York Times' tech columnist and "Missing Manual" author David Pogue. I ask him "three" versioned questions about iPhone, the AppleTV and, of course, the surprising lack of Mac product announcements during the keynote. (He actually got to touch the iPhone. It's worth watching the interview just so you can say "I watched an interview with someone who actually touched the iPhone." Seriously.) Click here to avoid the flash player and download the original format (.mp4) version.
David Pogue Ultimate iPhone FAQ
New York Times columnist and Mac-celebrity David Pogue has a great iPhone FAQ. It answers a number of outstanding questions about Apple's new toy that I haven't seen answered anywhere else. For instance, he reports it does not connect to iChat, the iPhone version of Safari does not support Flash or Java, and it has no way to open Word or Excel files. Going down the list is, unfortunately, something of an exercise in frustration. The more I see about what the iPhone cannot do makes me more and more concerned about what it can.[Via Daring Fireball]
David Pogue gets friendly with the iPhone
Sure it's shiny under glass and on those expertly groomed Keynote slides of Steve's, but David Pogue got a good hour with the iPhone yesterday, and he seems to be a fan. Yeah, Pogue's a bit of an Apple fanboy already, but we still trust him to give this thing a fair shake. Oddly enough, while RIM's stock is taking a nose dive upon the iPhone announcement, David is pretty well convinced that Blackberry-addicts won't be tossing out those QWERTY thumbpads anytime soon, since the lack of tactile typing on the iPhone is less than optimal. Luckily, the typing software does feature some predictive functionality based on which key you "meant" to hit and matching words from a built-in dictionary. As for overall feel, Pogue is pretty hot for this thing, thanks to the thin design and stainless-steel edges. Apparently the screen isn't the total fingerprint magnet you'd expect, since Apple played with the glass a while to get it just right, but you'll still be contributing plenty of smudges to the purty facade, which Pogue says you can just wipe off with a sleeve. Software is a bit of a mixed bag. The browser is currently ultra-sluggish, even during WiFi browsing, but apparently the touch operation is quite slick. The camera operation is fun with that full 3.5-inches of screen to preview your shots, but the refresh is a bit slow -- though some of these slowdowns are being blamed on incomplete software. We'll reserve our own judgment until we get this thing in hand, typing could definitely be a big drawback, but for the most part it looks like Apple's iPhone is almost as much of a winner in person as it is on paper.
Wii has health potential
New York Times columnist, David Pogue discusses the Wii's fitness potential in an online post. After witnessing his family burn calories while gaming, he thinks the Wii is one of the best possible indoor activities for kids. Pogue also has no sympathy for the "nerds who haven't moved their bodies in years" who claim muscle aches and broken furniture.We like this one-two punch from the mainstream press -- albeit, not in print -- exploring the health benefits of the system and dismissing the over-hyped Wii injuries. We look forward to fitness being a byproduct of active games like DDR; where's the Wii version of Samba De Amigo? Exercise games may have less appeal, but they may also work well; will we see Wiimote ankle holders to measure footwork?[Via digg]
Video: David Pogue proves Vista doesn't copy OS X
In the short NYT video which goes along with his print review of Redmond's newest OS, the always amusing David Pogue takes it upon himself to debunk that the old saw that Microsoft just copies Apple. For instance, David points out that unlike Spotlight, which is located at the top right of the desktop, Vista's equivalent search feature is located at the bottom left. Certainly worth a chuckle at Microsoft's expense.[Edit: Sorry about problems with the link. It should be fixed now.]
Review roundup: Pogue and Mossberg on the Zune experience
After having already seen photo galleries, video walkthroughs, and endless spec sheets focused on Microsoft's upcoming Zune player, there's no real need to hear Walt Mossberg's and David Pogue's take on the attempted iPod-assassin -- but we'd be lying if we said that we had absolutely no interest in learning the opinions of two of the day's most influential tech journalists with regard to one of the most hyped consumer electronics products of the year. In their thorough write-ups, both Pogue and Mossberg tell us what we pretty much already knew about the device, and which can best be summed up by this variation on a famous political retort: "Mr. Ballmer, I served with the iPod; I knew the iPod; the iPod was a friend of mine. Mr. Ballmer, your Zune is no iPod." Specifically, each of these esteemed reviewers found the Zune lacking in terms of portability ("The Zune looks big and blocky, sort of like a prototype for a gadget, rather than a finished product," said Mossberg), battery life (less than the iPod's, or even Microsoft's own claims), and content selection (there are currently no movies, TV shows, or podcasts available on the Zune Marketplace, although a last-minute deal with Universal does bulk up the offerings somewhat). Furthermore, Zune's one potential "iPod-killing" feature -- music sharing over WiFi -- is judged to be a complete dud; instead of truly helping the consumer discover new music, Pogue opines that "you can't shake the feeling that it's all just a big plug for Microsoft's music store." Mossberg goes on to knock the Marketplace's point system -- you can only buy points in $5 blocks -- and both gentlemen lament the dearth of accessories and the perceived "screw you" to all parties who have already invested in the PlaysForSure microcosm. So, is there nothing positive to say about the ol' Zune? Of course not: the device gets high marks for its smooth syncing, polished GUI, intuitive navigation, ability to dock with an Xbox 360, and solid build quality. The problem is, these niceties don't outweigh the missing or frustrating features -- so although it may be a decent player on its own merits, it falls far short in the inevitable comparisons to Apple's darling. Still, we're reminded once again that this is only the first generation of Microsoft's entry into portable audio hardware, and like so many other products from Redmond, it promises to only get better with time.Read- PogueRead- Mossberg
IDG unveiles Macworld 07 event highlights including Kevin Smith, David Pogue
Get your frequent flier miles ready boys and girls, cuz IDG has just announced the event highlights for the Macworld 07 (of course, if you're a lucky SF resident, you can probably hang onto those miles). Key speakers include Kevin Smith (yea, the), as well as the New York Times' own David Pogue. Of course, Mr. J's keynote has been confirmed again, and let's not forget it should shape up to be quite the event considering IDG added a second hall.Personally, I'm with reader boom bam boom bam bam's comment: I think we should turn Steve's 'Boom!' into a drinking game.
TUAW Tip: Quickly reveal enclosing folders in Spotlight
I don't know whether it's just me, but the one thing that I've always felt was lacking from Spotlight was the ability to quickly and easily reveal the enclosing folder for search results. It was never a major problem, but on the rare occasion when I do use Spotlight, I often seem to need to see the search result's containing folder. Earlier I was looking up a rogue "mds" process which was hogging 60% of my MacBook's CPU when I came across an article on Macintouch, with this little tidbit at the end from Chong-Yee."Apple's "Spotlight Tips" page is good, but doesn't include the following tip I discovered. If you want to reveal a file in its enclosing folder from the drop down Spotlight results list, hold down the Command key and click the result."This is probably something I should have discovered on my own anyway (holding down Command during any action in OS X usually reveals some kind of useful alternative action), but because the problem wasn't so annoying that I felt the need to research it (hence my accidental discovery) I never thought to try. Usually I'd click "show all", and then right click the item and press "reveal in Finder". That usually took a few seconds -- now the process takes less than a single second.This personal example reminds me of Steve Garfield's entertaining interview with David Pogue (seriously, check out the bit at the end where David sings and plays the piano) where he talks about cool shortcuts that developers put into their work which, for whatever reason, don't make their way in the official documentation.
Select subscribers getting TiVoCast web-based programming
Following last month's deal with web video publisher Brightcove, TiVo has announced another round of partnerships that will bring various on-demand video clips to broadband-equipped Series 2 owners, with a new service called TiVoCast. The company has been making moves in this direction for some time now, but this is the first time we're being offered content that we'd actually bother watching, including NBA and WNBA highlights, New York Times-produced video (featuring David Pogue's often-humorous reviews), advice from CNET, and a dose of hip hop culture from H2O, along with male- and female-targeted programming from Heavy.com and iVillage, respectively. The new content -- accessible from the "Showcases" screen when it begins appearing next month -- will not be available to everyone, however, as USA Today is reporting that neither DirecTV subscribers nor Comcast customers will have access to any of these value-added TiVoCast downloads.
Pogue's Town Hall: The OS Wars
David Pogue has put together another goofy video for the New York Times -- Town Hall: The OS Wars. Pogue answers questions from the "public" about running Windows on a Mac with Boot Camp and Parallels. Pogue's "public" includes shills like Andy Ihnatko, asking questions the masses are likely to have, like: Why would anyone want to run Windows anyway? Am I going to catch all those Windows viruses? Mr. Pogue, is running Boot Camp like having a real Windows PC in your office? (The response in typical Pogue style: "Let me answer your question in two parts: Yes and No.")It's all tongue-in-cheek, but it struck me that the staged questions are probably the very ones the masses (who don't read sites like TUAW) are asking.
Found Footage: David Pogue at Macworld
David Pogue, bestselling author, NY Times columnist, and ham, has created a very clever overview of Macworld 2006. Using advanced technology David allows you to feel like you were there bounding the concrete floors of the Moscone with the rest of the Mac faithful, even though you were home working for the man.
Let's go to Macworld and get married!
Isn't it sweet when geeks fall in love? You may know Shawn King as the host of the great Your Mac Life internet radio show. You may not know that he met his wife-to-be at the Macworld expo of three years ago, and got engaged at last year's expo. How else could you possibly wrap up this story than with a Macworld wedding? A host of notables from the Mac community will be in attendance when Shawn and his bride tie the knot at the end of this week, including Chris Breen on piano, David Pogue (who will give away the bride) and Andy Ihnatko (who will actually perform the ceremony; he's a deputy marriage commissioner in the State of California). Good luck, you crazy kids![Via Cult of Mac Blog]
David Pogue podcast looks at Automator
In his latest podcast, Mac author David Pogue takes a look at Automator. In the course of the four and-a-half minute podcast David discusses Automator's basic functions, the drag-and-drop interface and some potential usages (stand alone workflows, plug-ins and iCal events). He also briefly compares Automator and Applescript, and mentions Apple's Automator webpage and Automatorworld.com as good online resources (Scott took a look at Automatorworld a little while ago).I've got a small collection of Automator plug-ins that I use regularly. One to resize images I call "Width to 150," one to send files to my folder on our fileserver at work that I call "To Recently Imported" and finally one that makes email attachments of selected files, called "Attach." What are you doing with Automator? Let us know.
