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MarsEdit 3.0 is Here at last!

Apple, Mac, Macintosh, OS X No Responses »

May 092010

Here we are, at last. After a longest wait time, MarsEdit has been updated! The version 3.0 is here and I downloaded it based on the news that I got from Ranchero.com RSS News Feed. The Account and Blog type detection has been automated (for the most part) and it works great. It connected to my WordPress account with ease and in fact, I am writing this short blog on the evaluation version of MarsEdit 3.0 for Mac OS X. Next I connected it to my Blogger account and that worked perfectly as well. The Rich Text version is really WYSIWYG and reminds you of a Word Processor application, as oppose to a simple blog editor! Here is a demonstration of BOLD and UNDERLINED as well as ITALIC and finally the whole thing together: ALL ACTIVE. Media integration is much better than it was in the older version of MarsEdit. But it still has problems integrating proper Graphics resizing within the body of blog text. Overall, MarsEdit 3.0 seems to be a great updated to one of the oldest and best Blog tools for Mac OS X. I am sure that minor tweaking and optimization has to be done to this version. But all in all, a job Well-done! You can download a 30 day trail version at:

http://www.red-sweater.com/blog/1287/marsedit-3

A New iPhone Cometh?

Apple, General Tech No Responses »

Mar 242010

AT&T seems to have canceled employees vacation for the month of June and July. Does this signal the release of the new Apple iPhone? With the imminent release of OS 4.0, the arrival of the iphone so soon, makes no sense. It also makes no sense to release a band new iPhone with, possibly, Apple A4 processor, with the OS 3.x on it. So I have hard time believing that Apple will be releasing a brand new iPhone without the new OS 4 installed on it. It’s also possible that they OS 4 for iPhone will be release in June and the updated version of iPad left for sometime in Fall. We have to wait and see…

Multi Tasking in iPhone & iPod Touch

Apple, iPhone 2 Responses »

Feb 232010

Allow me to begin by saying that I have never purchased or owned an iphone. I have been using Smartphone nearly from their inceptions and I have refused to buy Apple iPhone, because of it’s limitations & inferior hardware, though I have iPod Touch 2nd Gen 32GB. Having said that, I guess we are always go back to this old bellyache of ‘Apple haters’ that stems from ‘lack’ of multi tasking in Apple’s OS 3.x.x that is being used on iPhone 3G-S and iPod Touch 2nd Gen. Also the fact they (Apple Haters) compare OS 3..x.x with the brand new Android 2.x from google, disregarding that the Android 2.x must be compared to Apple OS 4.0 and comparing a band new Phone OS with another that is one full generation behind is inherently wrong! Well it is somewhat true, but it’s not the whole truth. Upon close examination, you will see that OS 3.x.x on both devices do ‘background tasking’. How you’d ask? Easy to answer:

1.) You can launch iTunes and choose your playlist and then drop the application to background and return to the ‘desktop’ while you are listening to your music. This is Multi Tasking!

2.) While you are listening to your music you can go to your ‘desktop’ and launch any application and work with it, while itunes is running int he background. This is Multi tasking!

3.) In the case of iPhone, while you can be listening to your iTunes playing your favorite playlist, and you are running one of your application, your Cell phone side of the device is fully functional and being monitored at all times. When you receive a phone call, the OS suspends the Music – Pushes the front task application to the background and activates the phone GUI. This also, is multi tasking.

What we are expecting from the upcoming Apple OS 4.0 is the ability to launch multi application and switch between them, while they can be running as an active task in the background and can be brought forth by a task switching UI element (hardware or software). But I find it to be very rare for most people, to want to run several active tasks in the background at all times and use the device as a phone as well. I certainly hope that Apple provides full multi tasking in the OS 4.0 when it comes to iPad and at least a simplified version of it on the iPhone. It is possible that the next rendition of iPhone could be as powerful as an iPad, in which case, the full multi tasking option could be activated on that device. I also think that Apple should provide a preference pain that the users can actually activate / deactivate part or all aspects of multi tasking. This option will enable the legacy iPhone be able to upgrade to OS 4.0 and enjoy some of it’s new innovations. Let’s hope Apple provides these functionalities – or at least – activates them in the next version of the OS 4.

Apple Tablet - Bring down the Tablets...

Apple, General Tech 1 Response »

Jan 192010

We all have been professing / agonizing about the Apple’s imaginary Tablet PC (at least to this date), for a while now. I have these lingering thoughts bouncing in my mind, but Before I write this allow me to inform you that I am a Mac and Windows Software Developer and 80% of my work is done in Windows and the rest of the time I port the applications that I build on the Windows platform to Macintosh OS X. So I use Visual Studio 2008 as well XCode 3.2 as my primary tools on PC and Mac, receptively. At home I use both systems and I own Macs and PC. Having said that – here are a few thoughts about Tablets:

1.) What if there is no Apple Tablet coming on the January 27 Media Event? Apple has never said that a tablet device is forthcoming! So it can’t be Apple’s fault if we makeup imaginary devices in our minds and babble about it! We can’t blame them, or can we? Are these controlled leaks by Apple’s marketing juggernaut?

2.) If no Tablet is introduced on this Media Event, will Apple’s credibility be damaged? If Apple never revealed / insinuated about such a device, how could their credibility be hurt? A fair question, isn’t it? Though, I am sure if Apple don’t deliver a tablet device of some kind – their so called ‘HALO’ will be tarnished, even with their core customers. All because of hype level.

3.) Do we ‘really‘ need a Tablet? Most of us have desktop and laptop computers with a few notebooks and Smartphones thrown in there for good measure! So what are you going to do with a tablet that you can’t do with your 10″ Netbook? Better yet, what can you do with a Tablet that you can’t do with your MacBook Pro 13″, if you are a Mac user or a Sony VAIO 12″ system, if you are a PC user?

4.) Does the small form factor and light weight on a tablet justify the purchase of it? With the advent of the Netbooks, this is not true anymore. My MSI Wind that can run Windows 7 as well as Hackintoshed OS X, can perform all those tasks very well and it’s light enough to be taken just about anywhere and the screen size is larger in comparison to a Tablet, since large sections of the tablet screen area will be used to display UI virtual devices (i.e. Virtual Pointing device – Virtual Keyboard – Cursor controls, et al).

5.) If Apple has no Tablet PC to be introduced on 27 Jan’s Media Event, will there be riots? Geeks running in the streets rampant and there will be street fights with the ‘Tech Police’? Will there be candlelight demonstration’ in front of every Apple Store with Geeks singing “We shall over come…”? The answer is no – no and definitely no!

6.) Microsoft, to her credit, came out with the Tablet PC in 2004 with a specific version of their OS, Windows XP for Tablet Computing, and OEM companies follow along by introducing Tablet PCs of all kinds and shapes and forms. In reality, it never caught-on and it just fizzled out.

7.) A bigger credit goes to Apple for introducing Newton, a handheld device that is considered to be the Grandfather of all PDAs & Tablet PCs, in Feb 1998. To this date, newton is being used by many – Not just as a novelty device, but as an actual tool. As well know, Mr. Jobs somehow saw Newton as the Devil’s device and killed it promptly as soon as he went back to Apple (second coming of Jobs, verse One – lOl).

8.) Hand-Writing recognition – Ink writing can play a big roll in the future of these devices, but why? I though we were getting away from the Pen / Pencil & Paper! Voice Computing and Gesture processing would be the name of the game.

9.) One area that the Tablet computing would be greatly appreciated is to lower the usage of paper (Tree killing) and hopefully move ‘printed text’ to Tablet systems (i.e. Apple iPad or Kindle). Books – Text Books – Periodicals – Newspapers can easily and efficiently be moved to these devices and updated regularly via their networking system (WiFi – MyFi – 3G & 4G). Imagine all the paper work that the medical community produces annually be moved to this media. In education, student & teachers move all their paper material to PDF format and use it on these devices instead of actual paper. Can you imagine how much money a student would save through buying their books in this format? Students and teachers can be carrying ‘all’ their books with them ‘all’ the time without breaking anyones backs and without the need for Jack carrying jill’s books all the way up the hill. With this processes, we will be saving millions of trees a year and that would be great for the environment.

More to come…

Apple Tablet - Vaiable Idea or a Pipe Dream?

Apple, Mac, OS X No Responses »

May 202009

Could this be the Apple Tablet (AppLet) that we have being waiting for? Is this the next version of NetBook that apple will be coming out soon with, may be as soon as 09 June? Apple has certainly bought enough 10.5″ LCD screens in the past year and and a half to build 10M of those creators and sounds like a good starting point. If successful, they can increase the production quickly, since the infrastructure is out there and if not ‘so’ successful, the loss margin will be low. Wish I knew more about Apple’s future strategy. But if I did, then it wouldn’t be Apple, would it?

AMD chips in Apple systems?

Apple No Responses »

Oct 072008

Does Apple has a exclusive deal with INTEL? If not, will Apple ever use AMD CPU and Chipsets in their upcoming systems? This will be so great, since Intel has to compete with AMD and traditionally Intel has to follow the AND trend, since they always cut the price and consequently Apple systems will be more affordable and they will hopefully sale more! What do you think, will they ever take this step? Will Intel allow this? I, for one, love to see this. What do you think? will you buy a MBP with AMD chip inside?

Building a L.A.M.P. Server on OS X framework - PART 1

Apple, OS X, Web Application No Responses »

Aug 052008

light-bulb_~SS46007.jpg

For my L.A.M.P. project, running on an older machine and acting as a test server I was going to use an old Macintosh G4 (the Original Graphite), but decided against it. Why? Seems that a 512MB – G4 running at 400MHz machine might not be enough to do the job. So, I selected an iBook G4 (1GHz with 1.2GB of RAM), 14.1” screen. This also gives me the ability of taking my test server with me if I want to work on the road.

I will be downloading and installing the following software, which are freeware for the most part. There are many sites that actually have step-by-step instruction and how-tos that cover every aspect of the operation. L.A.M.P. stands for Linux – Apache – MySQL and PHP. This L.A.M.P. in reality will be an O.A.M.P., since I replaced the Linux with OS X. So here is a list of server software that is needed to setup a functioning L.A.M.P. Server:

1. Operating system: I chose Apple Mac Server Tiger (10.4.11) as the operating system of my new L.A.M.P. machine. I was going to use the Leopard server (10.5.4), but then I decided against it. The tiger version already is a strain on this hardware

2. MySQL: I downloaded the MySQL server from their site directly. I chose the version 4.1 that is used very widely because of its stability and bug fixes. As it is with the most UNIX and Linux program that you download, you have to recompile the whole thing locally and it is highly suggested that you compile the whole thing on the same machine that you want to run it on. I was thinking to compile the whole thing under my newer and faster Mac. But no cigar – must be compiled on target machine. This will be an overnight job. So tonight before I go to bed, I will setup the little iBook to compile the whole big-bad-wolf MySQL (poor iBook, talk about torture!).

3. Apache 2.2: This is an adventure by itself. Apple ships OS X server with the Apache 1.3. I am planning to use Apache 2.2+ in my L.A.M.P. But this is more complicated than it seems, since they suggest that you remove the older version first and then download and recompile the newer one. I am looking forward to this, since I have never removed Apache server in its entirety.

Here was what has been done up to now. In part two, I will go thru the details of installing and configuring the MySQL server.

How to save iPhone battery

Apple, iPhone No Responses »

Aug 042008

How to save iPhone battery and make iPhone less functional than a Razr:

1. Turn off Push Mail!

The most important selling pitch that Apple made to the IT community was the fact that the new iPhone 3G and the new version of iPhone Firmware will bring Push Mail to the table. Now they suggest switching it off to save battery? Makes no sense to me, since if you turn off that feature, then how would a Server push email to that device! Hmmm! Strike one…

2. Minimize the use of 3^rd party Applications!

The second exciting feature in iPhone is the fact that Apple opened it up for the developers to build applications so we can easily download them via the AppStore, which in it’s own right is another exciting feature of the new iPhone 3G. Here they are now suggesting that we should not use this feature that we were so excited about was so exciting about. Hmmm! Strike two…

3. Turn Off 3G!

Another huge improvement over the original iPhone has been the addition of High-speed 3G systems. Faster Data – Video – and MMS (oops I forgot that iPhone has no video or MMS! LOL! Forgive me), suffice to say that 3G does all that much faster. Here they are now suggesting that the owners of the new iPhone 3G could turn this important function off to save battery? Hmmm! Strike three…

4. Minimize the use of Location services!

Yet another important functionality of iPhone is under attack for the sake of saving battery. GPS and Maps and location services are another important functionality that has been added to the new iPhone. To save battery we are suppose to turn this one off too? Hmmm! Strike four…

5. Turn off Bluetooth!

By Law, in most States and Provinces in North America, the use of hands free / Bluetooth is compulsory when driving! We know that this law has passed to minimize the loss attention from the actual driving that is brought about by a cell phone. Here we are again, being told not to use this Bluetooth, so we can save battery and quiet possibly cause accidents in our highways and byways! Hmmm! Strike five…

6. Turn off WiFi!

Another very useful feature of the iPhone is wireless 802.11G/N. This in it self is a very taxing feature on the battery. But if this service is available in the area, this could be the most useful feature of the phone. Since you have already turned off your Bluetooth, disabling this feature will totally deprive you of any type networking. Turning this feature of sometimes might be ok. But permanently – hmmmmm! Strike six…

7. Turn off that EQ!

This one truly takes the cake! EQ? How much battery could that use and how weak this batter is? I was under the impression that Nokia N95-8GB was bad with the battery. Seems it has direct and close competition, with one small difference; N95 has replaceable batteries!

When this phone was being designed and all these feature were included in to the design of this phone – wasn’t there even one hardware Eng. that could stand up to Mr. Jobs and state clearly that this battery won’t be able to handle all these features! Either provide a way to replacement batteries or come up with a more realistic design? And they say that software Engineers are kinda strange! One look at the hardware will tell you what we go thru to deal with it. I truly believe, if an iPhone owner follow all this advice – his/her iPhone will be functionally reduced to lower than a Motorola Razr.

iPhone is not the best phone in the world - how Apple Can improve it

Apple, Macintosh, OS X, iPhone No Responses »

Jul 202008

To begin with, I would like to clear this out of the way; that I am a Sr. Software Designer who works on both PC and Macintosh platforms. Further more I am a Macintosh user and developer and I have many products that carry ‘Apple branding’. So the following ‘rant’ is coming from a person who is an Apple enthusiast as well as a Mac user and developer. Having said that, here are my thoughts concerning the reasons that prove that iPhone, though nice and sexy, is far from being the best Smartphone out there:

1.) The Missing Editing Features: Even though Apple Sells the iPhone as a Smartphone (PDA / Internet Device being part of it’s functionality), It still lacks the basic editing futures like “Copy – Cut and Paste, which in turn are very important when you have to do any text editing on a Smartphone! Why? Simple; who wants to keep using the small and awkward keyboard of any Smartphone? No one. This is where the Copy and paste comes very handy so you don’t have to retype text and possibly make other typos and spelling errors that will slow you down. So these functionalities, as rudimentary as they are in larger computers, become very important and useful on devices like a Smartphone.

2.) That Terrible Camera: When iPhone 1.0 hit the market my N95 provided a 5.5MP camera. The iPhone had a 2.0MP built in one. I said to myself, well it’s version 1.0 and it will change in the upgrade. Low and be hold, Apple turns around and includes the same camera (2.0MP) in the iPhone 2.0. Hard to digest and / or comprehend what Apple is doing here, but there you have it. The Camera should have been a 6.1MP. Apple didn’t even bother to include a small flash system to at least be used as a fill light and improve the quality of the pictures that is taken by the it’s ailing camera. I guess Apple decided “Who’s goanna take any pictures with that crappy camera”!

3.) Total Lack of Video: As it was the case with the version 1.0 of the iPhone – iPhone 2.0 has no ability to create or stream live videos! Is this a restriction imposed by Apple or AT&T? How does Apple want to compete against other Smartphone companies, when they have no video recording capability? Most new Smartphone can do HD recording, or at least soon that ability will be added to their flagship products.

4.) The Strange GPS: iPhone sports GPS can not provided turn by turn directions – but it can divulge your EXACT position to the world! Is that not a strange GPS? When it’s needed, it can’t help its rightful owner – but it can pinpoint your position for those that really want to trace you, legally or illegally! iPhone 1.0 also performs this task thru triangulation of the Cell towers that are activate, with an accuracy rate of one ± hundred feet (Your ISP will never admit to it).

5.) Unsatisfying Audio: Even though iPhone 3G has 2 small inbuilt speakers at the bottom of its frame phone, it still cannot play Music in Stereo! Nearly all the other Smartphone can perform this task with the higher models playing 3D Audio. May be Apple doesn’t want to give this functionality to it’s clients! In the name of Sam Hill: WHY NOT?

6.) The Missing MMS: It seems that apple has never heard of MMS (Multimedia Messaging Service). Apple, in its infinite wisdom, has decided that iPhone users do not need nor want to use MMS under any circumstances. So, MMS, is totally alien to iPhone and iPhone 3G. MMS is mostly software based that in turn depends on the communication-service that your ISP provides

7.) The Missing Secondary Camera: Nearly all, 99% of the G3 phones sold in Europe are 3G phones capable video calling. It is the norm for these Cell phones using their secondary camera as the Video out device for the phone. The secondary camera can be used in conjunction with the primary camera to mix video and send it to the person you call. This secondary is conveniently missing from iPhone and Apple keeps ignoring the fact and stays quiet about it!

8.) Locked Out Flash – Air & SilverLight: In a very surprising move, apple has locked out Adobe Flash – Air and Microsoft SilverLight from running on the iPhone 3G or the upgraded legacy iPhone. Reason give is that Apple does not condone one company ruling the iPod entertainment desktop! By the same token, Apple is really restricting the iPhone users from accessing all the material that are encoded in these standards and, severely handicaps iPhone competing against ANY Smartphone on the Market that support Flash – Air and SilverLight.

9.) Half-assed Exchange Support: Despite what Apple promotional material says, the Exchange support seem to be incomplete, at best. iPhone supports IMAP as it’s email protocol. That is not the Exchange default protocol. The Exchange managers can enable IMAP at their Exchange servers, so their iPhone users are able to pickup their emails. By doing that, the iPhone client looses the benefit of Exchange’s ‘PUSH Mail’ ability. iPhone at this time does not support Microsoft Exchange’s ActiveSync, consequently the iPhone client cannot remotely access the Calendar & Contact databases. This will be a deal breaker for the IT people for the following Reasons:

1. IMAP is not their primary Email protocol and if used they will loose the ability to push email to iPhone Clients.

2. iPhone doesn’t support ActiveSync, so IT loose the ability to sync ‘Calendar’ and ‘Contacts’ with the iPhone.

1. IRumors are that Apple has licensed ActiveSync and in the next versions of iPhone. Let’s hope that will be in the NEXT release of the iPhone software update and would be available to both version of iPhone.

10.) A User Friendly Battery: As it was the unfortunate case with the original iPhone, the iPhone 3G’s battery is not accessible by the user and can not be swapped with a full charged one, when the main battery has ran out. Apple reports improved Battery usage over the older version of iPhone., but I see this as a deal breaker for the iPhone being accepted by the IT Depts. as a viable alternative to Blackberry and or other Smartphone’s that provide interchangeable battery system.

If Apple fixes the shortcoming that I noted in this ‘rant’, iPhone 3G can very well be ‘ONE’ of the best phones out there.

iPhone 1.0 and 2.0 have no 'Cut & Paste'!

Apple, iPhone No Responses »

Jul 162008

This is beyond me – way beyond me. What is the harm of having ‘Cut & Paste’ on a phone that has editing capabilities for text – email and chat or any other App that might need it! How did, Apple in it’s infinite wisdom, came to this conclusion that iPhone needs no ‘Cute & Paste’? Sometimes Apple does things that makes no sense to anyone, except to itself. Do remember, at Apple, the ultimate decisions are made by Steve Jobs and his very small trusted inner circle. So here I am, trying to understand, what was the motive behind this decision. You see, if we can understand how these decision makings are done in Apple, may be we can understand Apple as a whole and happier with their products. Transparency and Informativeness are usually more powerful than decrees. Apple has always been more about the Steve Jobs Decrees than transparency and informativeness. May be, once Steve Jobs departs Apple (if he ever), then Apple will be more about being informative as suppose to be decretive. Amen!

Older Entries

MarsEdit 3.0 is Here at last!

A New iPhone Cometh?

Multi Tasking in iPhone & iPod Touch

Apple Tablet - Bring down the Tablets...

Apple Tablet - Vaiable Idea or a Pipe Dream?

AMD chips in Apple systems?

Building a L.A.M.P. Server on OS X framework - PART 1

How to save iPhone battery

iPhone is not the best phone in the world - how Apple Can improve it

iPhone 1.0 and 2.0 have no 'Cut & Paste'!

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