C.K. Sample, III
Articles by C.K. Sample, III
Adobe After Effects 7: Now with Flash export!
According to MacCentral, Adobe has just released Adobe After Effects 7, which now, thanks to the recent acquisition of Macromedia by Adobe, has an export to Flash feature. The software comes in two flavors: Professional (or as I like to call it, $999 is outrageously expensive) and Standard (or $699 is still too much). It comes in both Macintosh and Windows versions, although there is no mention yet of an Intel-based Macintosh version.I've always wanted After Effects, and I've never been able to afford it. *sigh*
Dock your iPod in your ashtray
This is great if you don't smoke and you drive a car (Yes on both counts here. w00t!). You no longer have to use the ashtray as a coin recepticle. You can now actually use the little coin roll recepticle in your car! Now, you can dock your iPod in your ashtray! Ah, humanity! Is there any place you won't try to dock your iPod? I guess not...
Cracking open a new Intel iMac
Hopefully, I'll have my hands on a new iMac later today, so that I can weigh in with a little video review of the new computer, but thank the Woz that the Japanese beat me to tearing open the new iMac! Now, I can simply direct your eager eyes over to this site, so that you can peep into the new iMacs sans the distractions of English, and, as a bonus, I no longer have to tear open my own machine....unless I need to. ;-) Thanks, Robert!
New iMac in Apple Stores on the 17th?
According to the automated answering system in the Westchester Apple Store in White Plains, New York, the new Intel Dual-Core iMacs will be arriving on January 17th. That's Tuesday. I also spoke with one of the employees when I was in the store on Wednesday, and he said they will most likely be arriving late in the afternoon on the 16th. I'm not sure if this is happening with all the Apple Stores or just this particular one (since it is one of the "flagship" New York stores).Anyway, I'm buying one as soon as I can get in there and grab it. If you live in my area, please leave one for me. I seriously debated not posting about this, just because I wanted to ensure it would be there.Update: After reading comments from readers that iMacs are beginning to show up in some Apple Stores, I called the Westchester again and discovered that they too have the new iMacs in, but only in the 17" size. I'm gunning for a bigger iMac so I'll hold off. They only had 4 when I called, so you may want to run and get it if you're in the area and looking for a 17".
Day 2 with the iPod Radio Remote
So, I've been using the iPod Radio Remote for a full two days now, and I'm still very pleased with the device, but I noticed a few new details that I wanted to share. First off, if your headphones unplug from the Radio Remote while listening to regular tracks, the iPod doesn't pause the track as it does with the regular jack up top. Also, the audio coming out of the iPod's jack is slightly louder than the audio coming out of the Radio Remote. I've found my favorite use for this is to have the headphones plugged into my iPod which is in my inside coat pocket, and then let the Radio Remote dangle down where I clip it to the bottom of my coat for easy control while I'm commuting. Who needs one of those fancy iPod-integrated jackets when you can use one of these?
Hands on with the new iPod Radio Remote
So, yesterday was my birthday, and just like any other good Mac user, I had to drag my wife to the Apple Store before going to dinner. A pre-celebration celebration, if you will. In any case, they didn't have the new iMacs in yet, but they did have the new Radio Remote for the iPod, so I quickly bought one. I've posted a bunch of pics of the device and its packaging over on my Flickr account, so make sure you check out all the pics.So far, I've only done minimal tinkering with the device, but here's my mini-review of cool bits I've noticed:If you haven't run the latest iPod update, the Radio Remote will work as a remote, but not as a radio.Clicking on radio and tuning is a snap. Hitting play temporarily "turns off" the radio.The top headphone jack on my 5G iPod continued to work even when I had headphones plugged into the Radio Remote. So, it's not just a radio, it's not just a remote, it's also a way to share your tunes with your friend or loved one by plugging in two headsets (one to the iPod and one to the Radio Remote). Very cool.Station information shows up underneath the station number when listening. As I had it tuned to 92.3 K-Rock in NYC, the text FREE RADIO and BOOKER kept scrolling underneath the radio frequency.The remote is identical to the controls on an iPod shuffle, so I imagine it will have the same easy to control while wearing gloves quality.The included headphones have the smaller stereo plug that comes with the nanos.The headphones plugged into the Radio Remote act as the antenna, so you cannot listen through the top port on your iPod with no headphones attached to the Radio Remote. There's audio, but it is all static.I'll post more on this later after I really get a chance to put this sucker to the test. I wonder how the battery life is if you are just doing radio 24-7...
Run Windows on the new Macs
Looks like I may have an answer to Scott's question from yesterday. I'll test this out next week when I walk into an Apple Store and grab my new iMac, but according to a comment yesterday by Phil Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of worldwide product marketing, reported in this MSNBC article, the new Intel-based MacBook Pro and iMac will both be capable of running Microsoft Windows. According to the article, Schiller noted that Apple "won't sell or support Windows itself, but also hasn't done anything to preclude people from loading Windows onto the machines themselves" and they quote him as saying: "That's fine with us. We don't mind. . . . If there are people who love our hardware but are forced to put up with a Windows world, then that's OK."Nice. Now we just need a program that will let us access our Windows' partitions via OS X.Thanks, andras!
TUAW Macworld 06 Keynote Chatcast Extravaganza
That's correct. It is here: the Stevenote! And in good old fashioned chaotic TUAW style, we're chatcasting the event. Laurie, Victor, and Scott will be live at the event, either over Internet (should there be any available) or they will be calling us on our cellphones and we'll be adding information to this post as the rest of us have a live chat about the event. We chat, I copy and paste sections of the chat here, you read, laugh, cry, and become angered by our words. Got it? Good. If you want to hear our pre-game chatter check here. Check after the jump for the chewy nugget center to this post.
Macworld Keynote: Pregame chatter chatcast
APPLE STORE DOWN!We're already chatting live about today's event. Although a separate post will go live at noon. Here's the pregame show of our TUAW blogging speculation:11:21 AMC.K. Sample, III: yo yo yoDavid Chartier: heyDavid Chartier: oh noice, never done an iChat room before. SlickDamien Barrett: is there Internet access during the Keynote?David Chartier: Victor said noDavid Chartier: he's gonna call meDamien Barrett: ahC.K. Sample, III: bahDavid Chartier: ?C.K. Sample, III: the no internet accessC.K. Sample, III: boooC.K. Sample, III: anywayDamien Barrett: I'd be bluetooth dialing to my phoneC.K. Sample, III: w00tC.K. Sample, III: pregame talk?David Chartier: let's rollC.K. Sample, III: we just got a tipDavid Chartier: oh?Damien Barrett: my money is still on a Mac media center of some sort. I doubt we'll see Plasma TV's as O'Grady is predictingC.K. Sample, III: Macbooks will be replacing both iBooks and Powerbooks according to Kevin Rose's sources over at diggC.K. Sample, III: via MTigerVDavid Chartier: Rose did predict the nanoC.K. Sample, III: our readerC.K. Sample, III: here's the digg post:Continued after the jump...
I'm buying a new Apple [BLANK]
So, I'm switching jobs (you may have heard) and therefore I had to turn in my 15-inch PowerBook (Fare thee well, Kurosawa; you served me well). I've set up a temporary user account on my wife's 12-inch PowerBook, which I have temporarily usurped.But, I'm very excited, because for the first time in a long time, I'm ready. I'm waiting to buy a new computer and it's falling nicely in time with the Stevenote and possible new hardware announcements. Whatever they announce at the Keynote (btw, we have a whole slew of TUAWers there and will be live chatcasting the event with multiple detailed posts to follow), Intel-chipped PowerBooks, iBooks, Mac mini entertainment centers, an Intel-chipped iTablet, or something entirely new, I'm getting one as fast as I can and reporting all the details back to you all as soon as I get it. If there are multiple options available, I'll post back here and get your input. I'll want to order ASAP, so check back for a poll: what should C.K. order / what do you want reporting on first?It's like Christmas morning all over again!
Google Video now offers downloads for iPods
Holy cool! Google Video now offers downloads of the videos you find there, and they offer an iPod video option.Oh, yeah. I think this iPod thing might just catch on.If you happen to like the PSP, they also offer downloads for that device. I like both, so I'm in heaven.Thanks, Matthew!
Who has bankrupted more companies?
So Engadget has another great interview with Bill Gates up, but there's this one part where Bill takes a low blow at Apple. Peter asks: "So you don't worry about Apple opening things up so an OEM like Sony could offer OS X?" And Bill replies, "Well, the last time Apple went out and licensed their operating system to people they changed their minds and they bankrupted all the people who had been involved in that, and I don't know if we'll see another round of Apple tantalizing people with that or not." Meanwhile, back here in reality: how many technologies and business moves have Microsoft backed out of that resulted in the bankrupting of regular people? I mean, hello kettle! It's a good interview though, so make sure you check it out.
Live Macworld coverage in Chinese
Good news for any of our TUAW readers who prefer Chinese over English: our sibling-blog Chinese Engadget plans to live blog all the announcements at this year's Macworld in both simplified and traditional Chinese. Very cool. I wish I knew some Chinese so that I could insert a very witty Chinese tag-line here.
Lego Robots now Mac-friendly
Just when I thought there wasn't any new hobby that could arise and completely eat up any paltry free time I might have, they make LEGO robots Mac-friendly: "The heart of the new system is the NXT brick, an autonomous 32-bit LEGO microprocessor that can be programmed using a PC, or for the first time in the retail offering, a Mac. After building their robots, users create a program within easy-to-use yet feature-rich software, powered by LabVIEW from National Instruments." Engadget has a great video up of the different robots on display at CES that you should definitely check out.
A Day on a PC running Windows
Subtitle: I feel dirty.So today, the wireless was dead. All day, and with no cable or good spot for me to plug in my Powerbook. So, I used one of the many Dells available where I work. I'm running Firefox for the browser (so not too foreign) and Trillian for the chat. Gmail for email in Firefox, and RSS feed reading in Bloglines. Not horrible. Just trying to ignore the Windows bar and Start icon at the bottom. I even downloaded and tried Google's GTalk client. Pretty cool. I like it. Too bad they haven't bothered to code one for Mac yet. The situation is workable, but...I hate it. There's no Expose, which I keep trying to call up. There's no Spotlight. The Dell's keyboard doesn't have the nice solid feeling of my PowerBook's keys. I just don't like it, and I cannot believe that Russell switched back although I think that it is hilarious that Yahoo! launched Yahoo! Go! featuring a 12-inch PowerBook as the PC. *sigh* I love Mac-using graphics departments, and companies that greenlight things like this without realizing what they've done. It even has a Windows screen pasted in. So funny.
Giga-what? Giga-who?
You've probably heard all the talk about the new Toshiba Gigabeat S Series Portable Media Center. It's the video-capable 5G iPod killer announced by Toshiba and Microsoft over at CES this week. It's supposed to come out this quarter in 30GB for $299 flavor and 60GB for $399 flavor.It looks good. Nice screen and nice device and if I didn't already have a 5G iPod (or any iPod for that matter), I might consider buying one for the Vongo compatability alone. However, the Gigabeat, like all products of its ilk, is no iPod killer. Why? Look at it. Look at any of these iPod killers. They either are trying to cram too many features in or they are trying to in some way shape or form appear similar to the iPod. They are all followers to a device that has already permeated the market.When an iPod killer does come, as it eventually will, it's not going to be an MP3-player with video capabilities. It's going to be an entirely new creature of technology. Like a cellphone that dominates the market. Or some other unknown gadget that reaches cult status because it is lighter than a feather, is powered by the wind, displays holograms, and looks really cool. The iPod is the cult right now and all these multiple cool devices, even though they are undeniably cool are not going to be able to knock the iPod off the top of the hill.
Fun Macworld Events
Brent Simmons posted on inessential noting that he would be attending January 11th's Mac small business dinner and then asking what other fun events surround Macworld this year. The comments to the post have a few cool suggestions, so make sure you check them out and chime in with any special Macworld events that you are looking forward to in the comments.Alas, I won't be attending Macworld this year (although Scott, Jan, and Victor should be there), but I will be buying whatever Steve announces on the 10th on the 11th (especially if an all black dual-core Intel-based iBook is offered), because the 11th is my birthday, I rule, and I deserve it. ;-)ps—This picture is my new default Macworld picture.
Engadget CES iTunes Phone coverage
Engadget is over at CES today / this week, so make sure you check over there for some gadget goodness. They currently have a few posts on some gadgets that were once known as iPhones: the Motoroa SLVR with iTunes and the ROKR E2. Check out both posts for a slew of cool pics, and check back later with Engadget for more details on all these devices and more.I, for one, don't like iPhones. Give me a Razr and an iPod and keep them away from each other so they don't cause interference, and I'm happy.
iPod Gloves
Just yesterday morning I was lamenting the fact that I couldn't control the dial on my iPod through my nice cashmere-lined, leather gloves which keep my mitts warm during the winter commute. Today, I log in to the Internets, and the Internets provides a solution: iPod gloves. They're ugly and much more sporty than I'd like. Not at all the stylish leather and cashmere combination to which a man like myself is accustomed, but they'd do in a pinch.$35 isn't too expensive, but I wonder how these things would feel on my hands. Something about "Tavo's new gloves allows charge to pass through the gloves from fingers to iPod's clickwheel" doesn't sound very comfortable.
Just for Fun: Keynote Comics
This morning, I spotted Jordan's DownloadSquad post about StripGenerator, a flash-based web app that lets you generate your own comic strips. Inspired by next week's keynote, I made the pictured comic with a short, angry version of Steve Jobs presenting a multimedia iPod remote alongside a new Apple IntelMac.Just for fun, head over to StripGenerator, create your own comic strip of how you think next week's keynote may go down, and post a link to the strip you've created in the comments.