It would appear that some iPhone developers are a little upset.
It seems several different companies have renamed their iPhone games to begin with either a space, a quotation mark, or some other symbol so that they appear first in the list of 197 games on the iPhone portal to the App Store.
Really? It’s good thing they don’t advertise in the yellow pages.
I’ve actually worked with people like this. Had a domain name that started off with 3 A’s because he thought it would help him get to the top. Idiot.
And, this is no different than the way iTunes handled podcasts when it first started. Before there were categories or any organization, you would pull up a list that was complete rubbish at the top with all of the silly names starting with all manner of punctuation, the letter A and spaces. Most of those shows are gone now, as you can imagine.
But, really, make good software. Promote it on your web site. Link to it on your website. Encourage your customers to spread the word. Something.
Just don’t get all pissy because someone is thinking they are being clever because they are faking out the system. Sheesh. Pull your skirt up already Alice.
Besides that, I just checked the app store and I didn’t see any of that silliness. Maybe the good folks at the apple store decided they didn’t want your panties to get in a bunch so they fixed it for you.
For the last 6 months or so I’ve been going back and forth on my next computer purchase. As I’ve mentioned before, I like 2 machines. 1 that is mobile that I can keep small, light and having only what I need to have while I’m mobile. And the other for my desk which holds all of my media (music, photos, video) and does everything the mobile machine does.
I haven’t had that. Not since my PC died in early ‘07, shortly after I got the MacBook. And, while the MacBook is a great little mobile machine, it just doesn’t have the horsepower I need for doing other things. As it turns out, there are a few other issues I have with it as well.
So I’ve been watching the refurb shop at the Apple store for a 20″ iMac (the good one, not the low-end model), a 24″ iMac and a 15″ MacBook Pro. After my last trip, I’ve made my decision.
15″ MacBook Pro.
This came to me as I was trying to edit video on the road on the 13″ MB screen and watching as iMovie brought the machine to a smoking, screeching halt and declared 200+ minutes to export a 15 minute long video. No good that. Also I got the chance to check one out in person at that ginormous Apple store in Boston. If you ever get the chance, I highly recommend it.
So, when the time comes, I will get a 15″ MBP for my desk. Run it off the juice with the battery removed (if I can) and use it mobile when I need the extra power.
Something else that I discovered after last week was just how cool the iPhone was. Every day during MTTS it saved our asses no less than twice, and some days more often than that. Whether it was finding the nearest Starbucks or giving us directions from point a to point b, just have access to Google Maps, even as slow as it is over EDGE, was a godsend!
Now, I’m not going to do anything foolish like drop Verizon and go to AT&T. Besides not liking AT&T, the coverage, where I spend most of my time, is crap. And, since it’s the only phone I carry, I like it to work all the time.
What I’m actually hoping to be able to do is get my MBP sometime before Apple stops that student special so I can also get an iPod Touch. Um, sure, it’s, um, for teh lad. Yea, that’s the ticket!
All of which hinges, directly or not, on my getting work. Don’t forget, I am for hire! Feel free to pass along my contact info and whatnot to anyone that you think could benefit from my skills.
Ok, back to processing one more video. Then, and only then, will this round of MTTS be done!
So, I have Leopard up and running.
Before I began, I purchased a second external hard drive. CostCo has the WD dual interface (firewire and USB) 500GB drive for $149 if you are looking for one. First step, copy everything from the old 250GB to the new. Time: 4.5 hours.
Then, it was SuperDuper!’s turn to back up my user folder and whatnot. Time: 3.5 hours*
Then, and only then, was it time for Leopard. Erase and install for me thankyouverymuch because I had a ton of cruft, crap and misc. whatnot that I didn’t want anymore. Time: 1 hour
Then, install apps time. This time around I’m really going to make an effort to only install apps that I will be using on a regular basis. For the others, I am not going to install them until needed. Here is what I have so far.
- iLife ‘08
- iWork ‘08. Yes, I’m going to try this for 30 days before reinstalling office.
- SuperDuper!
- Skype
- VMWare Fusion
- Adium
- Flickr uploader
I have a few left to go (MAMP, Smultron, Acorn/Pixelmator), but those I will leave for later today.
Thoughts so far?
It’s faster. Noticeably faster. I’m not sure where, but it is.
Safari is smokin’ fast. So, I’m going to try it for a while before I put FireFox back. 2 things that are killing me on this so far are the ability to set all new links to open in a new tab (I know, cmd-click does this, but FF has a setting so I don’t have to) and to highlight the menu bar with a single click. Plus extensions. But, I’m going to give it a week and see what I can do.
Dock on the bottom sure is pretty. Dock on the left is pretty ok too. Although the change from black arrows to blue lights will take some getting used to.
Spaces seems awesome. As soon as I play with it some more I’m sure it will be.
Spotlight doesn’t suck anymore. I’m going to try to use that instead of Quicksilver for launching apps (the primary use of Quicksilver for me anyway).
Preview is great. It’s that Windows feature that I have been waiting for and they did it right. Try it with a multi-sheet spread sheet. You can actually look at all of the sheets in a workbook. Awesome.
So far it’s only been about a day with it, but I can say that I am glad I did the upgrade.
Well, not really. Just chores and whatnot.
Oh yea, plus upgrading to Leopard.
I’ve decided to do an archive and install instead of upgrading in place. A hold over from Windows to be sure, but it’s a great chance to clear everything out and start fresh once again without all the extra crap that I have installed and don’t use.
So, SuperDuper is warmed up and ready to go. Just waiting for a new external drive that will be on my desk this afternoon. I already have a 250gb firewire WesternDigital drive, but it’s almost full and it’s the wrong format. Everything from this drive will be moved to a 500GB firewire drive (or maybe a 320GB, depending on what I can find) and it will be formatted for Mac and become my primary backup drive.
I also have iLife ‘08 already installed so I could play with iPhoto a bit. HUGE improvement like everyone has said. Events work. It’s faster. Less crashy (my library has close to 4K pictures) and the interface, while different, is much improved. Alone worth the price of admission.
Something I’m also going to try with Leopard is iWork instead of Office. I have the install disks for both (conveniently, iWork is included with iLife, how thoughtful). So, if after 30 days I don’t miss Office, then that’s what I’ll do.
Things I am looking forward to in Leopard.
- Preview and coverflow in Finder. 2 of the niftiest features of windows since Win98.
- Improved audio quality (plus recording) in iChat
- Stacks. Anything that will help keep my desktop more organized will be welcome
- iCal. I don’t use it now because I think it sucks. Maybe it won’t and I can actually have a calendar on my computer instead of having to go online everytime.
- Mail. I’ve tried using it but I think it is also horrible. Especially with gMail IMAP (more on that later). Thunderbird is much better. Hopefully the new version will really wow me.
- Spaces. One of my favorite features of Ubuntu (and most ‘Nix distro’s) is the ability to have more than 1 desktop going at a time. I can’t wait for this, especially if I can display 1 desktop on the MacBook and 1 on the external display.
Full report once upgrade is complete. Should be fun!
Check out this comment from TUAW this morning.
2. Are they going to lock our Macs with this software also? Will 10.5 lock our Macs so that no Open Source or non-Apple approved software can run anymore? And if it detects any unregistered or non-Apple software running then it will brick our Macs?
iPhone? Negative effect across the board? No, really? I would have never thought…
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