On The Radio

Considering some of the discussion on the show of late… I’m going to kick off this seasons holiday gift suggestions with a disclaimer, which is; None of the companies whose products are mentioned below have sent me anything in the form of compensation… no cash payouts, no evaluation models, no bikini-clad supermodels (are you listening Go Daddy? I write one of these posts once a year and next December is right around the corner)… Actually, and I can almost guarantee this fact… none of these companies have the slightest inkling I’m writing about their products at all… this is all stuff I either own or use myself or have friends that have turned me on to… Also worth noting is that many of this years offerings will work on a Mac or a PC… but as you all know by now, everything is sweeter on a Mac…

As is the custom, I’ll start low and then go high with stocking stuffers at the end… I’ve dialed things back just a bit from last season when we were all flushed with disposable income right? That said, I’m a classic champagne taste with a beer pocketbook… I like to dream about gadgets I crave… and at the end of the day, cool stuff costs what cool stuff costs…

1-Year MobileMe Subscription ($99) • I led off with this last year… and after some consideration, I’m gonna stick with it again this year because it’s still a great suggestion for someone you may know with a relatively current Mac that hasn’t yet tried MobileMe… The value really starts to kick in if the recipient has at least (2) devices… an iPhone or an iPod Touch and an iMac for example. MobileMe allows you to seamlessly keep all your devices in perfect sync… Bookmarks, Contacts, Calendars, Email, etc. MobileMe also allows you 20gb of remote storage space, like having a hard drive on the web… and all of your info is available to you from any web-connected computer in the world via me.com wrapped in the stunning Apple look & feel that we all so love… Posting your pictures to a pro feeling web slideshow only takes 3-clicks… and new this year (for the 3G devices) is the ability to locate a lost iPhone or iPod Touch on a Google map, lock the phone remotely, post a message to the device that will show up even if the device is locked and if worse comes to worst… remotely wipe the lost device of all data… pretty neat… and remember, all this functionality for about a quarter a day.

Flip Ultra ($150) • It’s a YouTube world and we’re all just livin’ in it… and the product line of compact video recorders from Flip offer the most streamlined way of getting video from the street to the web… Now this isn’t a recommendation I’m making for everybody on your list… It’s best suited I believe for teens and folks in their 20′s where the main objective will simply be the posting of videos they’ve taken directly to the web… whether it’s YouTube, Facebook, TwitVid or the like… not that you can’t edit video taken with the Flip in a 3rd-party video editing app… but you can actually get much better raw video quality in hand-held camcorders that are cheaper than the Flip Ultra. The Flip’s claim to fame is its portability… no harder to tote around with you than your phone or iPod… Flip is currently offering (5) different models in its product line… I recommend the Flip Ultra mainly because it’s the most lenient for Mac system requirements (works back to Tiger on non-Intel Macs) as well as it featuring the extended 120-minute recording time and compatibility with the optional rechargeable battery pack that gives the device up to 4-1/2 hours of continuous operation. Ultra video is composite 960 x 240, which isn’t the best… but it’s definitely more than suitable for delivery on the web. You interface with your computer via a telescoping USB connector on the top of the device or can view your video directly on a television monitor using the supplied cables… Oh, and it will surprise you in low light situations… I used a friends in a dark gallery space recently and was blown away by the results… Not for everyone, but if you have one of those Web 2.0 birds on your list that you like to the tune of $150… look no further.

Autodesk Maya 3d Modeling & Animation Software ($3,495) • Just like last year in my ‘most expensive’ category… a product that’s definitely not for everyone… but if you know that special kid that’s interested in movie-making, special effects, architecture or set design… and most certainly your inventor types… this is the kind of software that can break an imagination wide open and set the user free in terms of being able to visualize what’s in their mind’s eye.

Although you’ve most likely never heard of Maya, it’s a product with a long and storied history… the probable inception of what is now called Maya likely dates back to 1995 when Silicon Graphics purchased both Alias and Wavefront, two companies that offered software focused on differing aspects of 3d modeling and animation. Their source code was combined to market a product simply called Alias|Wavefront. As coders from the two merging companies began to work together… a new engine emerged that the developers codenamed Maya (sanskrit for “illusion”). In 1998 it was decided to roll all the code into one all-encompassing interface and the software was formally re-named Maya. Sold by SGI in 2003, the software was surprisingly owned briefly by the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan before landing in its current, far more appropriate home with AutoDesk, the makers of AutoCAD, who purchased the company formerly known as Alias in October of 2005. Since then the software has continually been improved with Maya 2010, the third AutoDesk upgrade, having just recently hit store shelves.

Having been used on hundreds of Hollywood movies… most notably “Spider Man”, “The Lord of the Rings Trilogy”, “The Matrix”, “The Hulk” and “Terminator 3 : The Rise of the Machines”… make no mistake about the complexity of this software… Maya is to Google SketchUp what Word is to a post-it note… I’ve spent hundreds of hours inside of Maya and still feel as though I’ve merely cracked the surface. Photoshop is a program that allows beginners to ease in to being functional with the software and then reveals far more complex functionality for those who need it or choose to seek it out… Maya is not such a program… instead, it’s pretty complex right from jumpstreet… but for the right person, the cost of the software is balanced by the shear power of what you can make.

Stocking Stuffers Under $30

3-months of Netflix ($27) > Admittedly, I’m a johnny-come-lately to the Netflix bandwagon… I spent at least a couple years saying ‘why would I want that?’ But then one night early last Summer I headed over to the local Blockbuster looking for a title that I wouldn’t really call obscure… and struck out completely… a closer look revealed that the local video store seems to be heading down the road of the local record store… large quantities of only the most popular titles… so I went home and dialed up Netflix on the web… read about it briefly and signed up… fast forward here a few months and I’ve seen every episode ever of “Rescue Me” and “Sons of Anarchy”… and I’m now two seasons into “The Shield”… all of this and I’ve still never physically tuned in to the FX cable network… pretty sweet… I’m sold… and as I watch DVD’s on the computer while I work, I’ve been pretty diligent about getting them back in the mail the day after I receive them which has equated to (2) discs a week on average or about $1 per rental (Blockbuster=$4.42). It’s also worth noting that Netflix allows you to stream hundreds of movies directly to your (Intel-based) Mac to keep you busy while you’re waiting on your next disc… So if you know someone on your list that hasn’t yet tried Netflix… this could end up a really cool gift on the cheap… All you need to know right here.

Nine Inch Nails – Ghosts I-IV ($10 or free) > This 2-disc set, although not released in 2009, has made the list for a couple of reasons. First, it has really grown on me over the last year and a half as great music to have playing (on the computer) when you’re focused on some task other than listening to music… 36 instrumental tracks that span many different moods and tempos while always remaining a great backing track… part of the reason I believe Reznor will be doing a lot more soundtrack work now that he has disbanded NIN… and the second reason is the price. Free to download in high-quality mp3 format and only $10 for the physical 2-disc set by mail… the fact that this is cheaper than the latest Britney Spears offering is just another in a long line of music industry ironies.

So that’s what I’ve got for this holiday season… if you’d like to leave some suggestions of your own… please click the Comments link just below and tap ‘em in…

It’s odd for me to write on the subject of a “back to school” computer because when I was in school that would have been a thousands of dollars proposition. We got ‘em when it was possible, sometimes borrowed one, pooled ‘em together from time to time… and in a pinch, headed to the schools computer labs which mostly sucked as 3 years old was the newest machine you’d ever find… but those days are behind us… these days you can go as low as $700 for a competent personal laptop on the PC side of things. That’s what I’m told at least by my PC brethren… I wouldn’t know as I’ve always spent a bit more for a Mac…

Once all is said and done, it’s a question of price vs. user-experience… what’s more important to you? I would argue that no matter which of these two choices describe you… the answer is still to buy a Mac… and here’s why…

If its the user-experience you choose… a Mac is the hands-down winner… Macs run OS X, the slickest most fluid operating system out there, about to get even leaner and meaner with the release of Snow Leopard next month. Out of the box, a Macintosh includes software to manage your pictures in iPhoto… to import, edit and release your video with iMovie… Core Audio coupled with Garageband is a great start on a digital audio studio… Integrated .ZIP compression, .PDF and .DOC recognition. A world-class browser in Safari, mail client in Apple Mail and contacts database with Address Book… etc, etc… all of which can be sync’d and backed up to the cloud at Apple.com. Macs can open Word, Excel and Powerpoint files, so bust that myth… and any peripheral you want to connect to your machine over time will do so seamlessly… and then that one last big time saver… you won’t get any viruses. You won’t have to spend your time combatting them either… How much is that worth?

Which is why I believe that a Mac is the price winner as well… how much is your time worth that you’re spending doing battle with all this invasive crap that’s trying to fight its way into your PC? How many additional dollars will you have to spend to equip your $700 PC with the sort of software functionality a Mac has right out of the box? And how time-consuming will the trial and error be as you fight your way towards a system where everything is working together?

That’s why Macintoshes cost more… and I don’t mind that they do… never have. I’ve always been able to see the difference in what I was getting for my money… appreciative most of the time just for the fact that an Apple Computer exists… and let’s not forget about the Apple Store… don’t believe me? Go to your local Apple Store and test drive all this for yourself… it’s free, what have you got to lose?

So let’s say I’ve made my point… you’re sold and want to know which Mac to buy… well here’s what I’ll tell you… balance what you can afford with the increased speed, memory and storage a more expensive model offers.

At the extreme entry level, Apple currently sells one MacBook that doesn’t include the “Pro” designation. This MacBook sells for $999 and includes a 2.13GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 2 megs of RAM and a 160GB hard drive… I couldn’t really recommend this computer to anyone other than a grade schooler or for a new computer user that’s truly starting from scratch. From there you move to the MacBook Pros…

Apple currently offers two flavors of 13″ MacBook Pro starting at $1199, three flavors of 15″ starting at $1699 and the sole 17″ offering priced at $2499… Bigger monitors, more cash… more RAM and hard drive space, larger video cache… more money… pretty standard in the electronics biz… the more you pay, the more you get. Click here to compare the six Apple MacBook Pros side by side…

And if budget is simply too strong of an issue but you still want to rustle that Mac… then the refurbished market might be a good place to go… get your search started here in the Apple Store as Apple offers the 1-year warranty as well as free shipping… Other options are here at PowerMax or here at Refurbished MacBook Deals…

And one last thing to put out there… in 2009 it seems odd to recommend a desktop computer in a “back to school” themed post… but for some this might end up making the most sense as you get more bang for your buck on the desktop side… and for those that need to do image manipulation, video or audio work at a more complex level… a desktop could seriously be the way to go… especially if the need for mobility isn’t that great… something to think about at least…

Happy shopping.

As the world continues the Facebook love fest… I thought I’d explore the other side of things… those things that get under your skin about Facebook… not necessarily something wrong with Facebook itself… but rather in how people choose to use it…

And as there’s a lot of ways to experience Facebook beyond the way I do… I thought I’d leave some room for everyone else to add to my list… I’ve seeded you with the first 15… read ‘em, and if you have one that I haven’t covered… post it to the comments… I’ll grab the best ones and add ‘em to the list.

The disclaimer here is that much of the following is written with tongue-in-cheek (I’m laying it on thick with the wise-crackin’)… so keep the hate mail to a minimum… especially if you find yourself falling under more than a couple of the following categories…

1 > It’s called Facebook. So why use an underexposed, poorly focused picture taken from across the room of you with 4 of your BFF’s? In this age of a free digital camera when you open a new checking account, is it really that hard to produce a decent picture of yourself? If someone searches for you, they need to have a reasonable chance of recognizing you from the photo you’ve posted… That’s the point right? Maybe it’s just me…

2 > And continuing that theme… posting a picture of something “not” your face… although sometimes funny and perhaps descriptive of your existence in some meaningful way… is still NOT your face… and to the next person who thinks how clever the ubiquitous Che Guevara icon would be for their picture… know that you’re about the 2 millionth person to have this thought… There should be a Facebook Group of Che’s…

3 > Virtual swag… flowers, chocolate boxes, easter eggs… what good is this stuff going to do me in tough economic times? Feel free to use that donation button though… My PayPal creds are available upon request.

4 > Those of you who are linking your Twitter feeds to your Facebook status updates… perhaps the original ‘tweet’ is serviceable… but then your replies to friends who comment on your tweet (which also post to your Facebook status) are just clogging up my news feed. Consider yourself a ‘see less of this person’…

5 > Parents that set up a Facebook account just so they can see what their kids are doing… sounds noble… but I’m connected to some of your kids and can tell you with very little hesitation that you don’t want to see what they’re up to… Now I’m talking about college-aged kids here and I need you to just take my word for it on this one…

6 > Don’t “Rank” your friends… nothing good can come of this.

7 > Those that make their home address a part of their profile… believe it or not it’s a much scarier world outside your quaint suburban enclave… and they all have the internet too. Posting pictures of your adorable 5 and 7 year old’s right next to your home address is a recipe for disaster dont’cha think?

8 > Publicizing the ends of relationships… all that will do is open the flood gates for condolences posted to your wall… these are as public as if someone spray-painted them onto your actual wall. A quiet, simple change to your relationship status is all that is necessary.

9 > Write a small ‘personal message’ when making a friend request… how hard is that? If I haven’t seen you in 25 years and your maiden name has vanished… maybe I need a little jog of the memory to remember we were tight in Freshman year homeroom… plus, would you walk up to someone in a bar, nudge ‘em and grunt “be my friend?” Conversation is a dying art… Facebook is still a community. Communicate like your Momma taught you.

10 > If you de-friended me for 1/10th of a Whopper Sandwich… don’t be offended when I won’t take your dumb-ass back.

11 > If you’re on Facebook… never again complain about, or use the term “big brother” negatively… you’re likely more a part of the problem than the solution… but don’t worry about it… the world let that cat out of the bag quite some time ago….

12 > Those that post their phone numbers on their Facebook profiles… nothing good can come of this either… Believe me when I say that Facebook could care less about your privacy… post only your email address… and preferably not your primary email address… use an off-shore gmail or hotmail account that’s easily jettisoned if you ever get in too deep… that way, if someone needs to call you they can drop you an email for your cell number… seems like a reasonable filter in our mad, mad world.

13 > I agree that mobile updating is a pretty cool feature… but does the world really need to know that you’re stuck at an unusually long stop light? Just because we can do something doesn’t mean we should…

14 > And on the same topic of status updates… if communicating the minutae of your day is what interests you… “I sooo wish work/school was over…” Isn’t Twitter the more appropriate tool for that? At least then I’d only see it if I subscribed to it (you)… The Facebook What’s on your mind? should have a higher calling I think… share something of value to the community with a link or a picture… or at least offer an observation or write something cryptic or clever… it’s not possible all the time I know… but I’m also not interested in the fact that your kids have been bickering all day.

15 > And in an ode to the title of this post… if something is making the rounds on Facebook that appears a bit narcissistic… it probably is… as my friend Patrick Crispen’s Dad taught him… if you don’t want to see it on the cover of the New York Times… don’t ever write it down… words to live by sho’nuff.

16 > From Badger > What’s that, friend? You’re throwing a party? Your band is playing a show? Here’s a thought…HOW ABOUT A PHONE CALL?!? Even an email would suffice… If you have an event you hope for me to attend, I recommend you make me aware in a manner more direct than bundling a FB invite in with myriad Lil’Green Patch requests that I already am bitter about having to constantly ignore.

17 > It sucks when you read a friends status update… think of a clever, witty comment… only to scroll down and realize that 7 other people have beat you to it.

18 > How about when you post a new status update or comment on one of your friends updates… you read it over once or twice before submitting… then you post it just to realize you misspelled a word or made a grammatical error.

Today I walked the floor at MacWorld… and walked and walked… my dogs are barking sho’nuff… For the uninitiated, MacWorld occurs early every January at San Francisco’s Moscone Center. Two huge halls filled with nothing but companies making Mac-related products of one sort or another… Everything from controlling your toaster with your iPhone… to 60 terabyte RAID arrays for when that home movie project goes awry.

If you read newspapers or watch television you’re no doubt aware that Apple has been the anchor tenant at MacWorld since its inception. They have also recently announced that this will be their last year in attendance citing the success of their growing web of Apple Stores serving the purpose of a hundred MacWorld’s (in the words of Apple VP Philip Schiller).

To add to the dismay of the faithful, Steve Jobs did not deliver his annual keynote this year… the customary spotlight every January where he announces Apple’s game-changing product debuting in the coming months… the original iMac, the iPod, the iTunes Store and the iPhone were all debuted by Steve Jobs at MacWorld in years past… So whether it was his health, no “bombshell” product to announce, the long drive up to San Francisco from Cupertino… whatever it was that kept him away… those who attended last year and saw Jobs keynote where he announced the MacBook Air… they saw the end of an era. Sort of went out on a whimper… but if you’re a long time Mac person, Jobs at MacWorld always came with a little anticipation before the fact… like the eccentric, hip Uncle who stops by once a year and gives you something cool that you’ve never seen before.

But that’s that with that. All over now… on to an Appleless MacWorld future. My best guess is that IDG, the company that owns and runs MacWorld, simply irritated Steve Jobs. In such a way as to be fatal within the world view that Steve holds. He simply told IDG and their silly conference to beat it. Don’t be surprised if as his last act as commander-in-chief of Apple Computer… Steve Jobs (with consulting by Steve Wozniak of US Festival fame) conceptualizes and builds AppleWorld, doing for the annual Mac Summit what toasters did for bread. Take that IDG. I’ll go on the record predicting one maybe two more MacWorlds tops before it’s no longer profitable and dies. First we lost Adobe (a big deal to many of us) and now Apple has bowed out… That would be the whole shooting match as they say.

Anyhow… Apple’s presence at this, their final MacWorld, was fine… Massive exhibit right inside the North Hall doors with a row of a hundred iMacs creating the outer border around the AppleSphere… stocked with all the Apple software and manned by about fifty, always knowledgeable people wearing Apple shirts… sort of like the Disney World of Apple Store’s. I spent a good half hour talking about USB powered external audio interfaces with the first Apple rep that spoke to me… and he definitely knew his stuff… left me wishing I had about 3 grand burning a hole in my pocket. Que sera.

One thing I’ve got to say is a good 25% of the exhibitors were selling nothing more than cases. Cases for the iPods, the iPhones, the iBooks… Definitely some case overkill going on… How many cases do we need? A lot apparently… But I digress.

Some of my highlights…

A company called Rain that I had never heard of before is making some of the coolest iMac stands you can imagine. I’m not an iMac kind of guy but I caught myself standing there seriously contemplating what I might be able to use one for just so I could own this stand… check it out.

Ambrosia Software, a long-time supplier of cool, cost-effective tools for my own projects… are out with an updated version of WireTap Studio. For any of you who’d like to record audio that’s coming out of your Mac… like internet radio, or DRM protected songs from iTunes (you didn’t hear that here)… this is your tool. It’s also great for podcasting and a lot of other audio activities… check it out here.

The TurboMouse museum at the Kensington exhibit was slicker than grease. I’ve owned every TurboMouse since the very first one came out and they had every last one of them in a single museum like display. A very nostalgic moment for me… so thanks Kensington… and for anyone with any interest in trackballs… check out there new SlimBlade which they were debuting at MacWorld… having tried it though, it’s not beefy enough for my tastes… I’m sticking with my ExpertMouse… cheaper, completely programmable and BEEFIER!

And on a cynical note… having a long time hate/hate relationship with Quark Express… it was my great pleasure to see that their booth has shrunk to the point where it’s on the verge of falling off the face of the earth. Which goes to show you… treat your customers as though they’re vermin that are privileged to be using your software… customers that you try to nickel and dime with Gold and Platinum “support packages” when all they want is a simple answer to a question on the $1000 software they just bought from you… eventually all those customers will leave you like rats from a sinking ship for the new cool kid on the block (Can I get an InDesign? Thanks for the help Adobe).

All for now. Maybe another post tomorrow, maybe not… I’m sort of Mac’d out if you know what I mean.

One major recurring theme on the show is how to stream WGN on various devices. While on the air last show we were trying to figure it out for the iPhone when we got emails from Gary K. and Ben H. suggesting a couple iPhone Apps that could do the job. I’ve checked some of these out and am happy to be able to recommend an App from Nullriver called Tuner Internet Radio. Clicking this link should bring you to this App’s page (assuming you have iTunes running on your computer). From there you’ll need to purchase the App (for $6) which will automatically download it. Once the download is complete, sync your iPhone in iTunes (which will transfer the App to the phone).

From here we need to configure the Tuner App to stream WGN… Unfortunately it’s not one of the stations offered among the presets… WGN isn’t found by using the search function either… instead I employed my keen investigative skills, akin to killing an ant with an anvil, which led me to the following info which should work for you…

1. From the Main Menu on your iPhone, find the icon (of an old-fashioned radio) that says Tuner and tap it.
2. From the Genres screen (should be the default), the Top 500 screen or the Search screen… click “Open” in the upper left.
3. Into the Title field type WGN AM or whatever suits you for bookmarking purposes.
4. Into the URL field type the following address : http://provisioning.streamtheworld.com/pls/WGNAM.pls (this has to be entered in exactly, down to the finest detail).
5. Click “Done” and you should be on the air… If so, click the bookmark icon in the upper right to save it as a preset (you’ll never have to enter in that pesky URL again).

A little convoluted… but if listening to WGN on your iPhone is what you want to do… you probably won’t consider this that big of a deal… and for any of you that might want to know how I sleuthed out that URL, drop me a line and I’ll let you know… I decided it was too tedious to include here.

Happy streaming.

I guess I should have seen this coming… a little sub-surface investigation would have raised the warning flags, but being a long-time advocate/participant of the open-source vibe, I suppose I still insist on seeing the world as a primarily altruistic organism with its glass half full as opposed to half empty… this week however, Apple has pushed me a little closer to disenchantment as reports hit the wire that Apple has no intention of allowing the Flash player to run on its most popular line of iPhones.

We talked about this on the air a couple months back when Patrick had just attended an Adobe summit. When I asked him what he knew about any impending release for Flash Player on the iPhone, he claimed to be sworn to secrecy… although I doubt this turn of events was what he was keeping secret.

As it turns out, supporting Flash would be a move that directly impacts the profitability of Apple’s new App Store… Flash, which started life humbly as software that allowed you to build those nifty web-animations and banners, has evolved into a full-blown platform capable of spitting out applications of its own. Long story short, developers would simply need to write their App in Flash, post it to a web page and thus totally circumvent the need to deal with Apple or its App Store at all… big problem for Apple…

But so what… This is just plain wrong… so much of the web today is Flash-based that viewing it with the Flash erased is noticeably incomplete… so much so that I rarely use Safari on my iPhone… for that reason.

A live by the sword die by the sword proposition I guess… I’ve always loved that Apple hardware was a proprietary deal, it has always made for far more reliable machines and my experience has proven this fact again and again… but I never anticipated that Apple would use their power to perpetrate this sort of censorship, which I guess just illuminates a particular naivete on my part… but is it so bad to expect a company based on the empowerment of the people to practice a little altruism?

I guess so… a read of the iPhone SDK Agreement clearly states the following;

“An Application may not itself install or launch other executable code by any means, including without limitation through the use of a plug-in architecture, calling other frameworks, other APIs or otherwise,” reads clause 3.3.2 of the iPhone SDK agreement. “No interpreted code may be downloaded and used in an Application except for code that is interpreted and run by Apple’s Published APIs and built-in interpreter(s).”

The jury is still out on what the eventual outcome of all this might be as there has been no official statement from Apple… but if the sentiments leaking out of Adobe and other sources are to be considered… It’s not looking that good… so one thing I’m not going to be doing while awaiting the ultimate decision is paying for apps at the App Store… to me that would be a vote against what I thought Apple stood for.