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Obituary: Mac OS X Hints might be "pining for the fjords"
Over the years, one of the top websites other than TUAW for getting hints about Mac OS X was Macworld's Mac OS X Hints. Now a post by former Macworld blogger Rob Griffiths is paying last respects to the site 14 years after it first went live. The site is still online, but as Griffiths notes, it hasn't been updated in over 45 days. Whether the silence from Mac OS X Hints is part of Macworld's recent downsizing or just a momentary lapse in new hints thanks to a "perfect" OS X Yosemite, that type of silence from a blog usually doesn't spell good news. Griffiths created a chart showing just how few hints have been published this year compared to earlier years when things were really moving along: The site used to be one of my favorites when I was doing consulting in the mid to late 00's, as it was the place to find tips and hints that you just couldn't find anywhere else. It could be that the shakeups at IDG have caused the Macworld team to forget about Mac OS X Hints, or perhaps it is gone for good and they're just keeping the corpse warm as a courtesy for folks who still want help with OS X. Whatever the cause, it's sad to see such a great site leave the blogosphere. Note: if you're wondering what "pining for the fjords" means, I suggest watching the classic Monty Python "Dead Parrot" sketch.
A Macworld/iWorld Lament
I can't say I was surprised when IDG World Expo's Paul Kent broke the news to us at TUAW that Macworld/iWorld 2015 was canceled and that the longtime Mac lovefest was on hiatus. It's kind of like having a good friend who has been ill for a long time, getting thinner every time you see him – you aren't surprised when the friend passes away, but you're saddened just the same. Now, we don't honestly know if Macworld/iWorld will be back in the future or not. The word "hiatus" is defined as "a break or interruption in the continuity of a work, series, action, etc.", so we can hold out hope that at some future point, the expo will be resurrected. But to be honest with you, I don't think that's going to happen. The world has changed a lot since the first Macworld Expo in 1985. My first trips to Macworld were in the late 1980s. At the time, I was working for a gas pipeline company as a "special projects supervisor," which I turned into an IT director position as the PC revolution exploded. We were an all-Mac shop thanks to my insistence on staying away from DOS, and about the only place to go to get a hands-on look at the latest in Mac peripherals and accessories was Macworld Expo. Local Apple dealers at that time carried just a hint of the many products that were available, so between Macworld magazine, (which also passed away within the last month), MacUser magazine (which died a long time ago), and the annual Expos, that was how we got our product info. That era was also pre-Internet, so there was no way to "get online" and get detailed product descriptions from vendors. Local bulletin board systems (BBSs) were good for keeping in touch with local Mac users and swapping freeware, but that was about it. Macworld Expo in the late 1980s was impressive: the show usually covered the full floor at Moscone Center, and it took serious planning and effort over Irish Coffees at the Buena Vista for someone from our team to visit each booth. Of course, Apple had a large presence at the show, and we would talk with Apple reps about enterprise-related gizmos like NuBus Ethernet cards and 3270 terminal emulation software, or try to negotiate a bigger discount on large purchases (Guess what? We never could...). There were conference sessions, back room meetings with software vendors, and of course the occasional keynotes with such notables as John Sculley and Jean-Louis Gasseé. Macworld was more than just San Francisco, too. Shows in Boston and New York made the Expo more accessible to those on the East Coast, and it was at the 1993 Macworld in Boston that the Newton MessagePad was introduced -- one of my employees was at the show that year and FedEx'd an original Newton MessagePad to me, probably the first one in Denver. Unfortunately, shortly after that time Apple's executive presence at shows and conferences was taken over by Michael Spindler, who was about as exciting and charismatic as a pile of mud. Spindler was followed in 1996 by Gil Amelio, who surprisingly had even less charisma than Spindler. Things got exciting again when Steve Jobs came back in 1997, giving the first of his patented "Stevenotes" at the Boston show. Although I wasn't in attendance at Macworld for quite a few years in the late 90s and early 00's, I remember avidly following the news of Jobs' talks, simply because every time he talked, the news got better, the products became more exciting, and it looked like Apple was coming back from the grave. After a hiatus (there's that word again) from Macworld during a stint with IBM, I began attending Macworld San Francisco in 2006. This time, I was looking at the show with the eyes of a consultant and blogger. The Apple Consultant Network had a presence at the show – we'd actually volunteer to answer questions on the show floor – and it was a blast. Apple was still in attendance at the show, and if I recall correctly the show floor covered not only the main hall at Moscone Center, but also Moscone North. One thing I remember vividly from the 2006 or 2007 show (my memory's not that good) was a large iPod game display that was run by Apple in Moscone North. Remember, iOS wasn't yet in existence, but this was for the games that ran on the iPod! Macworld always had a big focus on music, and during those years, Moscone North seemed to be the location for the band stage and talks on using Macs in music. There was no iPad, there were no iPhones, so music – if you wanted to make it – was being performed with the assistance of Macs. My most vivid memory of Macworld Expo was being in the keynote for the iPhone in 2007. I think I got into the line at 4 AM... which put me towards the back of the keynote venue. The Stevenote was probably one of the most electric events I've ever been to. You knew when Steve announced the iPhone and described its functionality – even in those early days – that we were seeing something that would literally change the company that invented it and change the world. After the keynote, thousands of us gathered around the single iPhone prototype rotating in a Lexan cylinder, knowing that we wouldn't actually get our hands on the device for quite a few months. The iPhone really marked a big change in the focus of the show, which turned from being truly Mac-oriented to what a lot of us old-timers referred to as "iPhone Case World". At the 2008 show, many of us wondered if all we'd see at future Macworlds would be iPhone accessories. 2009 was the last year that Apple had a presence at Macworld, and that was also the year that there was a lot of discussion about whether or not the show would even continue into the future. Without Apple, was Macworld relevant? I think 2009 was the year that IDG World Expo had an attendee forum at which people could speak out about what they thought should happen with the show in the future. Some of us felt that the expo was no longer relevant in the Internet age, that all of the presentations and vendor demos could be better done online. Others thought that it was time to move Macworld Expo out of San Francisco and into a smaller show that roamed the world. The discussion was for naught... In 2012, Macworld became Macworld/iWorld, reflecting how iOS devices – both iPhone and the iPad released in 2010 – had changed Apple's focus away from the Mac and towards the touch-interface mobile devices we're all using. During a few of these years, TUAW had a presence at the show in the form of a booth – we did a lot of live broadcasting from our booth, including interviews with a number of notables in the Apple world as well as vendors of hardware and software. A regular event for TUAW fans was the annual TUAW Meetup. Probably the best one was in 2012, when a large number of TUAW readers gathered at Jillian's across the street from Moscone North to have fun and have a chance to win prizes donated by sponsors. That year, one of the three founders of Apple –- Ron Wayne –- attended the event. That was definitely a fascinating thing to experience, especially when Ron was the winner of one of the big giveaway items! One of the things that was a constant throughout the latter years of Macworld and Macworld/iWorld was the camaraderie of the attendees. Whether it was going to the loud and boisterous Cirque du Mac party sponsored by The Mac Observer every year, or just going out with a group of friends to get great Indian food at Mehfil, eating with other tech bloggers and PR folks at Appency's annual event, or joining the ranks of the bloggers and writers at the "Ink-Stained Wretches Dinner" sponsored by TidBITS, sharing food and talk during the show was a major tradition. I recall hosting a Newton Meetup one year at Chili's, attended by a number of people who brought their working Newton MessagePads to the event. It was always fun to meet TUAW readers and (when we actually were allowed to do podcasts) listeners and viewers of our various podcasts. There's something great about meeting people in the flesh rather than just knowing them by an email address or Twitter handle. Finally getting to meet Patrice Brend'amour at this year's Macworld/iWorld was wonderful, and my hope was that the show would go on so I could meet our other buddies like Hal Sherman and Ben Roethig. The past few years seemed to be an indication that the show was changing, not necessarily for the better. While Macworld had filled large venues in the past, this last year it seemed that it was struggle just to fill the small Moscone North hall -- a venue that previously had been an "overflow" area from the main floor. The conference talks were just as good as usual, but the number of vendors making the investment in a booth had dwindled. Some vendors came to the show, but only for meetings off the Expo floor. So, will Macworld/iWorld return from its "hiatus" in future years? I honestly don't know. For many out-of-town visitors, the show was a large expense when we toted up airfare, hotel expenses, meals, and ground transportation. For companies exhibiting at the show, the cost was even more onerous –- although tax deductible. San Francisco's deep union ties made it impossible for any company to set up a small booth without the paid assistance of union helpers. I recall two run-ins with union workers; one who threatened to have me arrested for actually plugging in an Ethernet hub without his help, the other when I was shooting some video before the show actually opened. In both cases, a combination of laughing at them and using obscene gestures seemed to defuse the situation... My personal wish is that the show comes back as a one- or two-day event in a number of cities, not just San Francisco. Get a much smaller venue in six or seven cities in the US, Europe, and Asia, have a one-day event that captures both the heart of Macworld/iWorld, provides an opportunity for the parties and meetups that make the event so fun, and gives vendors a chance to show off their latest software or accessories. Or how about creating a virtual event that EVERYONE could attend? Streaming conference talks, virtual booth visits, and even online meetups could be a way to get the feel of the event without having to hop on a plane, fly to San Francisco, and then pick up the flu after being around a large crowd of sneezing attendees. It's almost 2015, folks – there should be a way to do a virtual event for 100,000 people. If there isn't, perhaps IDG World Expo could lead the way in developing a method of creating virtual conferences, reinventing itself for the 21st Century. If not IDG World Expo, maybe TUAW's corporate overlord AOL could look at footing the bill... are you listening, Tim Armstrong? I truly do hope that the loss of 2015 Macworld/iWorld is just a hiatus and not the announcement of the end of the show. If IDG World Expo has the opportunity, will and financial backing to keep the show going in a new format, I think Macworld/iWorld could survive and even prosper. What are your most vivid memories of Macworld or Macworld/iWorld? We'd all like to know, and you can relive those memories in the comments below.
Macworld runs down everything you need to know about iCloud security
If you've been a bit confused over the various iCloud security tweaks and alterations that have cropped up over the past few months, you're absolutely not alone. Apple's two-factor authentication, the company's recent security tweak that pushes more notifications of account activity to your various devices, and the introduction of app-specific passwords has left even experienced users with spinning heads, but Macworld's Glenn Fleishman lays it all out in a great new explainer that is definitely worth a read. The key takeaways here are that yes, you should absolutely be using Apple's two-factor authentication -- here's how to set it up, by the way -- especially now that it offers extended protection to iCloud and your backups. Despite any fear mongering you may have heard or read about the risk of losing your account forever due to misplaced passwords or broken devices, the chances of this actually happening by accident are so slim as to be trivial, and your personal security should outweigh this concern.
Water isn't always the kiss of death for an iPhone
Water and technology don't mix. If you drop your iPhone in a lake, pond, toilet, or martini, there's a fantastic chance it will end up being completely destroyed. Many of the little electrical bits inside the device don't take kindly to be drenched, especially if it leads to a short. However, as Rob Griffiths of Macworld discovered, sometimes all is not lost. His story on the premature death, rescue, autopsy, and unlikely resurrection of his iPhone 5 is definitely worth a read in its entirety, but if you're too pressed for time, at least take this small tidbit of information with you: Complete disassembly and a thorough blasting with compressed air can be the magic touch. Also, it helps if you drop your phone took a bath in fresh water, as opposed to the ocean. Saltwater is infinitely more deadly for an unprotected smartphone, so keep that in mind. [Photo credit: TeppoTK]
Macworld/iWorld 2014: The State of Apple Technology Liveblog
Thanks for joining us for our liveblog of the Macworld/iWorld 2014 "State of Apple Technology" panel discussion, featuring the following speakers: Moderator: Jason Snell, Senior VP, Editorial Director, IDG Consumer & SMB Panelists: Ben Bajarin, Principal, Creative Strategies, Inc. Christina Bonnington, Staff Writer, Wired Rene Ritchie, Editor-in-Chief, iMore.com Christina Warren, Senior Tech Analyst, Mashable
TUAW at Macworld/iWorld 2014
Many of the Apple blogosphere cognoscenti are on their way to San Francisco this week for the annual Apple love fest/tech show known as Macworld/iWorld. This year's event officially runs between Thursday (March 27) and Saturday (March 29), although there are other associated events that begin earlier in the week such as the MacIT conference. Of course, it wouldn't be Macworld/iWorld without TUAW! Here's a short list of events that we'll be hosting, and of course you'll see our staff members wandering about the show during the week. Be sure to say "Hi!" Wednesday, March 26 2:00 - 3:00 PM PT (5 - 6 PM ET): Live from Macworld/iWorld 2014 episode of TUAW TV Live with Shawn "Doc Rock" Boyd and Steve Sande Thursday, March 27 3:00 - 3:45 PM PT, Promoting Your Product On The Web, Drobo booth 424, Steve Sande. Have a chance to win a Drobo, a t-shirt, or a ticket to the Cirque du Mac party. 4:00 - 4:45 PM PT, CF823: The Efficient Mac User – OS X Tips for Getting More Done with Less Work, Brett Terpstra Friday, March 28 3:00 - 3:45 PM PT, CF853: Siri's Arms & Legs: Giving Apple's Intelligent Assistant the Power to Control Your World, Steve Sande 4:00 - 5:00 PM PT, TUAW Meetup -- join us for an informal meetup and giveaways! Saturday, March 29 10:00 - 11:45 AM PT, CF861: App Camp For Girls Open House, Kelly Guimont (and others) We're already receiving information about some fascinating announcements that will be made during the Expo by both developers and hardware manufacturers, so get ready for a slew of releases on Thursday and Friday.
Talkcast tonight, 7pm PDT/10pm EDT: Macworld/iWorld preview Edition!
All-new dial-in experience! See below -- do not call into Talkshoe, we won't be there. Be sure to set up Fuze Meeting before the show if you want to join in live. Sunday has once again come upon us, and with it comes another TUAW talkcast! There's breaking "news" tonight courtesy of the Wall Street Journal and "people familiar with the matter," suggesting that Apple and Comcast have engaged in talks to deliver an online TV service with special networking arrangements. We'll discuss that -- but tonight's not just any episode, this one is A Very Special Talkcast. Tonight we have with us a wonderful pair of guests! IDG's Paul Kent, Macworld/iWorld General Manager, has miraculously found an hour in the week before the expo begins to chat with us about the show. Not only is Mister Macworld/iWorld coming by to chat, but we also have a show speaker dropping in: Jean MacDonald, recently of Smile Software, currently of App Camp For Girls, to discuss the App Camp For Girls Open House, happening Saturday morning at Moscone Center. Whether you're coming to the big show in San Francisco (passes still available!) or not, this is a great opportunity to hear from the source what to expect this year. It should be noted that TUAW's own Steve Sande, Doc Rock, Mike Rose & Victor Agreda Jr. will be roaming the expo halls (not to mention yours truly), so we look forward to meeting many of you in person! Reminder on new-style talkcasting: With some help from the fine folks at Fuze, we're using a new system to record the show. This should let everyone listen in live -- and, if you want, raise your hand as you would in the Talkshoe room to get unmuted and chime in. You can join the call in progress (meeting # is 20099010) at 10 pm ET from any computer via this link; if you download the Mac or Windows Fuze clients ahead of time, you'll get better audio and a slicker experience, but browser-only will work fine. Just click the phone icon to join the audio once you're in. Using an iPhone or iPad? Grab the native clients from the App Store and get busy. (Even Android users can join the party.) Still feel like using the conventional phone dial-in? Just call (201) 479-4595 and enter the meeting number 20099010, then press #. While the Fuze web and native clients have a chat channel, we'd like to reserve that for host participants, requests to talk and other real-time alerts... so the full-on chat for the show will appear in this very post at 10 pm tonight. You'll need Twitter, Facebook or Chatroll credentials to participate in the chat. We'll remind everyone to check back in at that time.
Book criticizes Apple's recycling program, consumers in general
Macworld took a look at a new book by writer Adam Minter today; Junkyard Planet (US$25.99, Bloomsbury Press) explores the business of recycling, and in an excerpt from his book published by the website, Minter takes Apple to task on the effectiveness of its recycling program and attempts to lay guilt on the consuming public as well. Starting off, Minter appears to have an issue with a comment on Apple's FAQ for its recycling program, where the company reassures potential recyclers that, "You are also ensuring that products that have reached the end of their useful life are recycled in an environmentally responsible manner in North America." Rather than taking Apple at its word (the company wouldn't tell him where the items were refurbished in North America), Minter immediately assumed that the work is being done outside the US, but quickly adds that "offering technically oriented employment to people in poor countries is a good thing." After taking the lying corporation to the woodshed, Minter then finds fit to chastise consumers in general. He apparently doesn't realize that by publishing his book, he's killing trees (I seriously doubt if Bloomsbury is using 100 percent post-consumer recycled paper, hemp covers and artisanal soy ink in printing its books...), encouraging people to buy more e-readers and causing the consumption of energy through shipping physical books and recharging batteries. His main problem? The results of some experiments that suggest "that the addition of a recycling option can lead to increased resource usage" and that by offering a recycling option, Apple is encouraging people to buy new products. Minter's next target? "Tight design," particularly aiming at the MacBook Air as an example of a product that is "built to be shredded, not repaired, upgraded and reused" when it is no longer useful. Yes, a lot of MacBook users miss the days when they could add RAM, a larger hard drive and a new battery pack to extend the life of an old device, but the incredible popularity of the MacBook Air's "tight design" seems to indicate that most consumers really don't give a rip about upgrading old devices -- they'd rather have a sleek, lightweight and ultimately refurbishable laptop. I won't go into more detail about the book, the Macworld excerpt or the premise of both, other than to say if Minter and some of his readers are that concerned about the impact of Apple on the planet, they should just not buy its products or any other consumer electronics. Things aren't going to change overnight, and it appears to me (and environmental organizations) that Apple has been making progress that will ultimately lead to very earth-friendly products.
Troubleshooting Apple's fingerprint reader
Owners of Apple's iPhone 5s either seem to love its Touch ID fingerprint reader or hate it with a passion. For some people (like myself), it works the vast majority of the time, while other people have told me they've given up on using Touch ID to unlock their devices. Over at Macworld, blogger Serenity Caldwell has written up a nice guide on how to troubleshoot issues with Touch ID and keep your frustrations to a minimum. To start with, Caldwell suggests that you use a set of good fingerprint scans or if you're having issues, to re-scan your prints. First, adjust your grip on the phone to match what you may do in reality. Many people lay the phone down while doing the scan, and then don't vary the angle at which they are making the initial scans. When they try using Touch ID in real-life conditions, holding the iPhone 5s at an angle, they get bad results. Caldwell then goes on to point out that you should store more than just one fingerprint in the device. You can save up to five -- I've actually scanned both thumbs and both index fingers, and rarely have an issue with Touch ID. Scanning multiple fingers also helps out in cases where you may have a cut on your normal "scanning finger" that may impede with good results. Finally, Caldwell points out that your finger must touch the metal ring surrounding the Touch ID sensor, as it helps the scanner recognize your print. So what should you do when Touch ID isn't working correctly for you? Think about the conditions under which you're using it. If your hands are really cold, Touch ID won't see your finger as being warm and conductive, and won't register a print. Likewise, be sure to dry your fingers well before using Touch ID. Water can interfere with scanning, and even having soaked your hands in water for a while will result in a different-looking fingerprint pattern. Touch ID won't work the first time you try after a restart of your device, if you fail a thumb scan more than five times, if you haven't used it to unlock your phone in more than 48 hours or when you try to change the Touch ID settings. All these are features built into Touch ID to keep thieves from easily hacking your device. Last but not least, Caldwell recommends that you make sure the Touch ID sensor is clean. Just use a clean cloth to rub it clean, and you should be fine.
Business is cozying up to iOS 7
iOS 7 has been officially available since September 18, and given the attitude of corporations to move slowly on operating system updates and embracing new technologies, you might expect that it will take time for iOS 7 to make it into the executive suite. Joel Mathis at Macworld says that nothing could be further from reality in a post today titled "Why businesses are embracing iOS 7." Mathis quotes Erik Frieberg of VMWare as saying that "You might even say that iOS is the most corporate-friendly OS on the market right now." Through a series of discussions with mobile enterprise experts, Macworld found that they are quite happy with iOS 7's advances in five main areas: Device security: Activation Lock makes it easy to keep thieves or those who find lost devices from being able to restore or reactivate devices running iOS 7, and Touch ID on the iPhone 5s provides an added layer of security. App security and management: In a world where iPhones and iPads are entering corporations as part of "bring your own device" initiatives, being able to create a dividing line between corporate apps and data and personal usage is important. iOS 7's Per App VPN feature means that corporate apps can easily connect to a company's virtual private network for work, while personal apps cannot. Distribution and management of apps is simpler now, and Enterprise Single Sign-on gives users access to multiple apps with one passcode entry. Tools for teamwork: Here, Mathis notes that iOS 7's AirDrop capabilities are being used in Kibit's Collaborate app for file exchange purposes. Those same capabilities can power other collaborative apps that are still on the drawing boards. Widespread adoption: Corporations don't have to deal with multiple versions of the operating system due to easy updates. Mixpanel's trend data shows that almost 70 percent of iOS devices are now running iOS 7 after just two and a half weeks. That's easier on corporate IT departments, as they don't need to design app deployments for multiple versions of an OS. Free office apps: Now that iWork is available for free on new iPhones running iOS 7, Apple can compete with Microsoft Office with three apps that appeal to corporate users. Mathis' post concludes with a wish-list of items that corporate IT leaders are hoping Apple embraces for future versions of iOS, but he points out that "despite these shortcomings, the experts consulted by Macworld seemed uniformly impressed by iOS 7."
How to avoid iCloud email spam
It's nice to know that Makayla, Taylor, Olivia and Madeline are all thinking nice thoughts and letting me order my pills online. They're part of a rush of spam emails that showed up in my iCloud email last week. Apparently I'm not the only person who received those oddly written spam missives, since Chris Breen at Macworld ran a post today on how to report spam emails to Apple so that the next wave is caught by the company's spam filters. There are two ways to go about this, according to Breen. First, any emails that are marked as junk or dragged into the Junk folder are automatically reported to Apple. This is true whether you are using Mail.app on your Mac or iCloud webmail. It's rather easy to accomplish -- in Mail.app you can just click on the message and then click that thumbs-down button to mark it as spam. For iCloud webmail, just select the message, click the Mark As pop-up menu (or the "flag" in iCloud beta) and choose Junk Mail. Another method is to forward your junk email as attachments to spam@icloud.com. To do this, select the message in Mail.app and then choose Message > Forward as Attachment. Type the above email address in the "To:" field, and send the message on its merry way to Apple, which will use the information to filter future missives from the spammer. In case you're wondering, iOS 7 allegedly provides a way to mark email as spam from your iOS devices. At this time, there's no way to do so.
Origin Stories: Steve Sande
I certainly didn't start my career with plans to become a blogger and editor at one of the world's most active Apple websites. When I was a child dreaming about a future career path, computer science barely registered on the "What I want to do when I grow up" list since only corporations owned room-sized mainframes at that time and there was no such thing as a home computer. The first time I had any physical contact with a computer was in 8th grade in Aurora, Colorado in the Apollo moon landing year of 1969. The Aurora Public Schools had purchased a Data General Nova (see console photo of a similar model at top of this post) in that year for accounting and scheduling purposes, and some brilliant person came up with the idea of buying some Teletypes that could be used as dialup terminals to allow personnel at the schools to access the main computer remotely. Well, the administrators and teachers at the school weren't all that interested in computers, so guess who started using the Teletypes and Nova to learn how to program in BASIC? The students. Since they wouldn't let us save our programs to paper tape (that would come in about two or three years), any programs we ran were usually quite short out of necessity – we'd type 'em in, run them, try to figure out what the TOO MANY NESTED GOSUBS error meant, and then start all over again. It was fun, but frustrating with no real way to store the programs permanently. In 9th and 10th grade, I was only able to play rarely with the Nova or whatever computer they may have purchased as an upgrade. But when the school announced in 11th grade that the regular algebra class would also be offered in a "computer algebra" version providing access to the school system's minicomputer, I jumped on the opportunity to have a full semester of working with ... the future! Things were a little better at that point. We could save our programs out on paper tape, kind of the "floppy disk" of the era. I think part of the reason we wanted to save to paper tape was that the tape punch created some very good confetti for high school football games... About this time I became very interested in two things; transportation engineering and writing. I had a wonderful high school English teacher by the name of David Faull (still alive and kicking) who really taught me how to write, something I'd need to do in college in those pesky elective courses. I had decided to go into Civil Engineering, and was accepted at the University of Colorado at Boulder. Every engineering student at the time had to take an introductory computer class – CS 101 – in which they were introduced to two things: punch card input and FORTRAN IV. There was nothing worse than sitting down at a keypunch machine with a handwritten FORTRAN coding form, typing in several hundred cards, all of which needed to be read by a machine in order and without typos for your program to run. I can recall hearing of several computer science grad students who had nearly committed suicide after having ultra-long programs scattered to the wind when they accidentally dropped boxes of punch cards... One of my best high school buddies, Rick Brownson, was a student at CU at the same time in the Electrical Engineering department, and I recall that in 1976 he introduced me to an amazing game –- Lunar Lander –- that displayed vector graphics in real time onto a round green-screen terminal. We wasted many a weekend hour playing that game in one of the EE computer labs. Rick also introduced me to the nascent world of personal computing around that time, as he and I soldered chips into a MITS Altair 8800 kit in late 1975. I really wasn't all that impressed with the Altair, since when we finished it there was no way for us to connect it to a display (usually an old TV), and we had no keyboard for it. So we flipped switches on the front of the device to enter 8080 opcodes and then looked at the LEDs to see the results. I remember taking a weekend drive to Albuquerque, New Mexico in 1976 to go to a Altair convention of some sorts; the highlight was getting a pirated copy of Bill Gates' Altair BASIC on paper tape from another attendee. At the time I graduated from engineering school in 1978, word was getting out about Apple, but at the time I really didn't see any reason to buy a computer. Even while I was working in my first job and going to grad school, I refused to buy a computer. When I was able to get a Commodore VIC-20 for about $300 I bought one, then when Commodore reduced the price on the C-64 to about $250 the next week, I returned the VIC-20, got a refund, and picked up a Commodore 64. After a short amount of time I found myself hooked. I bought an Epson printer, got the cassette tape drive, and bought the height of communications technology at the time – a 300 baud modem. I quickly found myself on some of the early bulletin board systems of the time. But the Commodore 64 wasn't a "real computer", so when IBM compatible devices started hitting the market I went out and bought a Sanyo MBC-555 PC clone complete with two floppy drives (a Sanyo MBC-550 with only one floppy is shown below)! This is where I got my first introduction to business software, with WordStar as a word processor and CalcStar as a spreadsheet. At this time, I was working for a natural gas pipeline company called WestGas. The company was a subsidiary of a larger electric and gas utility (Public Service Company of Colorado, now part of Xcel Energy), and as a subsidiary we had of control over our destiny. In the fall of 1983, the Vice President of our company came to me to see if I would perform a study of possible uses for personal computers in our company and create a five-year plan to budget the introduction of those devices, so I jumped to the task. Everything was based on costs and benefits, and a calculated rate of return on the investment in IT. In retrospect, a lot of my numbers were probably quite suspect, as they were based on estimates of time savings that most likely never occurred... The final study saw a need for no more than about 15 PCs over the next five years as well as a handful of dedicated IBM DisplayWriter word processors. About the time that my study was completed, there was a lot of speculation in the computer world about Apple's forthcoming Macintosh. I was interested in seeing one, so a few days after they were introduced my boss and I went over to a Nynex Business Center store to take a look. While the mouse, the bitmapped display, and the 3.5" floppy drive were all amazing, the lack of memory (128K) was a real turnoff. Still, I felt as if I had seen the future, and I vowed to get myself a Mac if they ever built a model with more RAM. Towards the end of the year Apple introduced the 512K "Fat Mac", and the company was doing a "Test Drive A Mac" promotion where you filled out loan paperwork, took a Mac home to use for about three days, and if you decided you wanted to keep it they processed the loan. Having the Mac at home really made me fall in love with it, so in December of 1984 I bought my first Mac. Being enthralled with the Mac, I started lugging it with me to work. By this point I was the supervisor of a group called "Special Projects", and my team was charged with a number of things: regulatory compliance, studies, project management, and now IT. Pretty quickly, my co-workers got began to turn into Mac fans, and I started tweaking the five year plan to buy fewer PCs and more Macs. I was also going to a lot of Mac User Group meetings in those days; that was the place to really try out software, as most everyone would bring boxes of floppies as well as the original disks for new applications they had purchased. Copying was rampant, but I don't remember anyone doing outright pirating; if you tried a program and liked it, you'd end up buying it. That was the case for me in 1985 when I tried out a copy of Aldus Pagemaker (the first "professional" page layout application) and then bought the application. At one point, I bragged to our financial manager that I could use the app to lay out our subsidiary's annual report at a much lower cost than sending it out to a traditional printshop; he called my bluff and for the next month I worked with the very buggy 1.0 software to create the report. In the end, I was successful and the finance department decided to get Macs for everyone. In a few more years, the engineering role ended for me and I was a full-time IT manager. Starting in 1987 and through 1994, I attended Macworld Expo in San Francisco. From about 1990 to 1994, I also went to the Apple WorldWide Developer Conference, which was held in San Jose at that point. These were the years of trying to get a new Mac OS off the ground, the intro of the Newton MessagePad, the MPW vs. CodeWarrior battles, and extremely boring keynotes by such luminaries as Michael Spindler and Gil Amelio. I also spent a lot of time using Pagemaker to create printed newsletters for WestGas and for a number of groups I was a member of. While that was a bit of work that I never really ended up getting paid for, it taught me a lot about design, layout, printing, and writing. From 1986 to 1994, I also ran a Mac bulletin board system known as MAGIC (Mac And [Apple II] GS Information Center). This started off on my original Mac 512, and by the time I quit running the BBS and moved to a website, it was a three-phone-line setup running on two networked Macs Including my favorite Mac of all time, a Mac IIcx. The BBS was the "official site" for the MacinTech Users Group, a MUG that's still going strong to this day. My first website was PDAntic.com, a play on John Sculley's acronym for the Newton – Personal Digital Assistant – and the fact that my wife often refers to me as being pedantic. I chose to run the site with news posts written in a reverse chronological order, which means that I was essentially doing blogging in 1994! I was doing some half-hearted development for the Newton at the time, and still have a working MessagePad 2100. 1995 was the start of a bad period for me personally – our pipeline company was swallowed back into our parent company, and then all of us who had any dealings in information technology were outsourced to IBM's ISSC services group (later IBM Global Services). While I won't go into details, it was the worst part of my career, with incompetent and occasionally unethical managers, a strategy that consisted of trying to do more and more work with fewer employees (with predictable bad results), and the most demoralized staff I've ever seen. I survived for nine years, after which I chose to go out on my own. At the beginning of my time with IBM our client (the company I worked for) had a total of over 1,200 Macs company-wide; by the time I left we were down to a handful in the corporate communications department. One of my first IBM projects in 1996 was to move all of the Mac users to Windows 95 –- I should have quit when I was ordered to do that. One bright spot during the years 1999 through 2006 was my participation in a number of Microsoft's Mobius conferences. These were meetings of those of us who ran mobile-oriented websites, with Microsoft showing off concepts and picking our brains for ideas about UI, built-in applications, and the direction of the mobile world. I also met a number of the top bloggers in the mobile space, including Ryan Block and Peter Rojas, who were both instrumental in starting up Engadget. Peter was one of the co-founders of Weblogs, Inc., the blog network that TUAW was a part of before being purchased by our current owner -- AOL. In 2005 I started my own consulting firm, Raven Solutions, to do Mac consulting and support. I became a member of the Apple Consultant Network (ACN), which helped my business to grow quite quickly. I also started writing books at about this time, creating a book called "Take Control of your iPod: Beyond the Music" that is still for sale from Adam and Tonya Engst's Take Control Books. One top moment about this time was seeing Steve Jobs introduce the iPhone at the 2007 Macworld Expo. That was something I'll never forget, and I have a Nitrozac painting of the event within my field of view in my office. In late 2007 I was on a weekend trip to Vegas with my wife when a friend pointed out that one of my favorite Apple sites –- TUAW –- was accepting applications for freelance writers. I turned in my requisite three sample articles, but didn't hear anything ... until April of 2008. I was on a business trip when I received a call from former TUAWite Scott McNulty, who wondered if I was still interested in being a TUAW blogger. He gave me a test that I remember quite well; I had one hour (sitting in an airport waiting for a flight) to write a news post about a new and completely hypothetical Apple product. I zapped it to him via email with time to spare and was offered the job. Since that time I've become a full-time employee of TUAW parent company AOL, I've met thousands of TUAW readers at Macworld/iWorld and other events, written a number of books (many with fellow TUAW blogger Erica Sadun), and published almost 1.8 million words of blog posts. I love sharing time with TUAW fans every Wednesday afternoon on TUAW TV Live, as well as delivering the daily Apple news on the Daily Update podcast. And when I get to join with my teammates for one of the Sunday night Talkcasts, that's like getting together with family. The only way to describe my life right now is as "blessed." I work with a great team of professionals doing what I love to do the most, writing about a company that has had such a huge effect on the course of my career and my life. I don't know how long this ride will last, but I sincerely hope it's for a long, long time.
Create a bootable iPod classic
Remember the iPod classic? That chunky little slab of plastic in which you could store thousands of songs on an internal hard disk drive? Well, if you do, and if you still happen to have one laying around somewhere collecting dust, Chris Breen over at Macworld has the perfect job for it: using an iPod classic as a bootable emergency drive. This isn't a new trick by any means. I still have my old fourth-generation iPod within arm's reach in case I need to boot a Firewire-equipped Mac, and I even wrote about this in my now-obsolete 2007 e-book Take Control of Your iPod: Beyond the Music. But Breen and the crew at Macworld have updated the process for the USB-equipped iPod classic, with a few caveats thrown in for good measure. First, since the iPod classic isn't vented, it can get hot if you keep it hooked up as an external drive for a while. Second, it's slow, so your boot times aren't going to be exactly speedy. Breen points to another post by his Macworld cohort Dan Frakes in which the latter blogger shows how to install Mountain Lion on a bootable external disk. It's a bit of work, but if you have an iPod classic that's no longer being used, at least you can give it a job to do in case of emergency.
Mac pros react to the Mac Pro
It's been over a week since Apple announced the new Mac Pro, and while public opinion has been quite positive, the creative professionals who will most likely be the target market for the shiny cylinder haven't been heard from... until now. Macworld UK's Karen Haslam followed up with a number of power users, and found that while many are thrilled with the prospect of Apple's new flagship product, there are some concerns as well. The lack of internal expansion in the new design is of concern to several commenters. Writing for Broadcast Engineer, David Austerberry noted that "If I upgrade, that spaghetti under the desk will be joined by more Thunderbolt spaghetti connecting to external storage." Referring to the turntable base of the new Mac Pro, Austerberry says, "If I need to plug in an external drive to bring in video content, I can attempt to plug in at the back, but the chassis isn't going to turn easily with all the cables plugged in. Some front connectors would have been dead handy!" Despite the concerns about internal expansion, Final Cut Pro trainer Larry Jordan recently blogged that 80 percent of current Mac Pro users don't have any PCI cards installed except for the graphics card. Jordan also wrote that "Apple essentially provided a virtually unlimited number of card slots for users that need the maximum in expandability," in reference to the use of the still unproven Thunderbolt 2 bus. Pros need a lot of storage. Video editor Lou Borella bemoans the lack of Thunderbolt peripherals, saying that the "missing piece is the lack of high-speed Thunderbolt-native RAID 5 storage systems" and "very, very few 5- to 10-drive RAID 5 systems, which we editors need the most." Most of the pros seemed thrilled with the prospect of the Xeon E5-powered Mac Pro and fast PCIe flash memory. But most were also concerned about the lack of choice of GPU in the new Mac Pro. Borella "was drooling at the thought of two NVidia Titans" in his future Mac Pro, but Apple has apparently decided that the two built-in AMD FirePro workstation-class GPUs are enough. Some Mac users have software that isn't optimized or even compatible with the new graphics card, so the ability to swap out GPUs is a major concern. For the most part, many of the pros were optimistic, with Borella noting that "This machine will change the way my peripherals sit on my desk. It will cause me to take a hard look at my current monitor situation. It will cause me to re-evaluate my home network and my NAS devices. It might even cause me to give a harder look to FCPX. For good or bad this Mac Pro will change everything and cause a ripple effect in my entire computing life... It's probably about time that some company takes me to the next step." We'll hear more about the Mac Pro, including pricing and expansion possibilities, as the fall release date draws closer. If you're a current Mac Pro owner and have your doubts or hopes about the new model, please leave us your comments below.
Daily Update for May 31, 2013
It's the TUAW Daily Update, your source for Apple news in a convenient audio format. You'll get all the top Apple stories of the day in three to five minutes for a quick review of what's happening in the Apple world. You can listen to today's Apple stories by clicking the inline player (requires Flash) or the non-Flash link below. To subscribe to the podcast for daily listening through iTunes, click here. No Flash? Click here to listen. Subscribe via RSS
Macworld discovers the most loved (and hated) features of OS X
With WWDC and revamps of iOS and OS X on the horizon, Macworld conducted an interesting survey, asking its readers what they liked and disliked most about Apple's desktop operating system. As Macworld admits, the survey isn't scientific and only polled 5,000 responses, which is a drop in the bucket for OS X's user base. Still, the results are interesting. OS X's Facebook and Twitter integration and Dictation were identified as the least-used features; 65 percent of respondents said they "never" use them. Apple has highlighted Facebook and Twitter integration at past keynotes, but I'd agree it's not nearly as big a deal on OS X as it is on iOS. Game Center is the biggest loser here, though, with 84 percent of respondents saying they never use it on the desktop. As for the most popular features, Messages is used "all the time" by 44 percent of respondents. And Notification Center, too, has found a fairly big audience in the short time it's been available. So Apple has both some successes and some fizzles in bringing iOS features over to OS X. We'll have to wait and see what's new at WWDC this year to find out if research like this has changed Apple's approach to improving both operating systems.
Apple's Retina display aids accessibility
Macworld blogger Steven Aquino wrote a fascinating piece today on how Apple's Retina display technology has helped him -- a legally blind individual with extremely low vision -- to be able to enjoy Apple's products as if he had no vision limitations at all. Aquino says that he had used the original iPhone and iPad successfully with their displays set to full brightness, but "seeing my iPhone 4's Retina screen was a total game-changer." The high pixel density -- 326 pixels per inch -- and turning the screen brightness all the way up made it so "even the smallest text was readable, and I was able to spot details in images that were previously indistinguishable." How much of a difference does a Retina display make to Aquino? "Simply put, I will no longer use an iPhone or iPad that doesn't feature a Retina display. Having used a Retina display, I can't go back to something that makes using my devices that much more difficult." Of course, he admits that having the screen brightness turned all the way up does eat up his battery charge quickly, so much so that a Mophie Powerstation Duo is in his favorite device bag at all times.
Macworld shares five nice TextExpander snippets
TextExpander by Smile is an essential tool for folks who type as often as we do. It lets you create short key combinations that trigger -- and are replaced by -- larger strings of text. For example, I have TextExpander covert "actk" to "Apple CEO Tim Cook." It saves time. Macworld editor Dan Miller has made a video demonstrating his top five TextExpander snippets. I always appreciate the chance to peer over the virtual shoulder of someone who knows how to use a tool really well. Dan's video is a great example of that. Go and learn something new!
Macworld's Jason Snell on the failings of digital calendars
For most of us, calendars are the cornerstone of our work and personal schedules. Though we own "smart" phones, the apps we use to track our days are still relatively dumb, argues Jason Snell of Macworld. In a lengthy article, Snell asks why calendars aren't more like a personal assistant -- smart enough to manage your schedule, not just pencil in dates and times. He brings up his own schedule which is filled with meetings and seemingly no breaks. An assistant would notice his meeting overload and pencil in free time accordingly. Snell doesn't offer any solutions to the problems facing calendars. He just brings up those areas that are weaknesses and asks people for suggestions on how developers can make our calendars become an intelligent management tool. You can join in the conversation at Macworld's website. Developers should join as well -- you could gain some insight into what people are clamoring for in their calendar apps.
Using your iPad mini as a phone
iMore's Rene Ritchie has written an interesting post about a trend I've heard mentioned a few times before: using your iPad mini as an actual phone. During his trip to Macworld/iWorld 2013, Ritchie wanted to save battery charge on his iPhone, so when he needed to check his itinerary or make a quick phone call, he pulled out the iPad mini and used Skype or browsed around the internet. And at the end of what Ritchie says was a 19-hour trip, his iPad mini was still chugging right along, with more than 30 percent battery left. As I said, I've heard a few people talk about doing this before. The iPad mini is a powerful device, and while it is larger than a standard iPhone, the size allows you to carry it around in just one hand and use it like its smaller iOS predecessor. The larger screen provides a nice wide-open feel, however, which can be very nice for games, and can make even productivity apps feel cleaner. As Ritchie says, combine the iPad mini with a headset and make a call on Skype, and you've just got a larger-than-usual iPhone. So far, we've seen plenty of rumors about a bigger iPhone model, but no actual news from Apple just yet. Still, experiences like this, along with the fact that other smartphone companies have seen success with larger phone models, point to the possibility that there's a sizable demand for a larger iPhone out there.
