On The Radio

First things first… this post is worth reading whether you’re a fan of Nine Inch Nails or not… Distilled down, this is about technology first and foremost, the latest tools in the hands of artists and innovators. Personally, I’ve been a fan since that cold, dark Halloween night back in ’89 when I listened to Pretty Hate Machine for the first time… and as revolutionary as that album was at the time, it’s amazing how far Trent Reznor and company have come since then.

Most notably, every move they make these days can be considered nothing but extremely “fan friendly”, altruistic even… and as a big fan of both live and recorded music, unprecedented in my experience. NIN has shed any ‘major label’ affiliation, has given music away for free while making other offerings available digitally far below current market pricing… they’ve gone out of there way to keep ticket prices down and out of the hands of brokers… and on their current tour, which starts this Friday (05/08) in West Palm Beach, FL, have instituted a “relaxed” policy regarding cameras and audio recorders that I’ve simply never heard of before…

But that’s not what this post is about… Instead, what I’m interested in here is the recently released nin : access free application for the iPhone, which I’ve been playing around with since it came out mid-April and find totally intriguing… not just as a NIN fan… but for the possibilities it both implies and inspires.

nin : access is really an application in two parts. The first side of things, although cool, isn’t that revolutionary… it merely serves up nin.com to the iPhone in a consolidated interface independent of Safari… which is nice because it’s pre-optimized for the small screen… But what Reznor was really interested in trying to engage were the quarter of a million registered users of the nin.com forums in the context of taking his band on the road this Spring/Summer… this leads us to the second half of the application which is where the innovation really takes flight.

Apparently the idea was born last Summer when Reznor was backstage before a show fooling around with his iPhone and noticed that fans outside waiting in line were posting photos of the scene to the nin forums… in response he started posting photos from backstage. The awesome interactivity of this experience got him thinking… what would it take to put an interface on this process? The result, less than a year later is nin: access, a mobile window into all things nin: music, photos, videos, message boards and even, thanks to a GPS-enabled feature called Nearby… the fans themselves.

Nearby is “kind of like Twitter within the Nine Inch Nails network,” says Rob Sheridan, Reznor’s long-time collaborator. “You can post a message or a photo by location, and if you’re at a show you can see conversations between other people who are right there.”

Check out this Wired video if you’re interested in a tour of the application from its creators… the first half of the video covers the more garden-variety features of the application… the explanation for the really cool GPS-enabled features start at the 3:20 mark…

What ends up being the coolest aspect of the nin : access approach to me… is that the entity is not trying to control the experience of the masses. They’re more or less simply harnessing existing technologies and API’s… and allowing the legions of dedicated fans to converse, populate, market, influence, etc… It’s Trent Reznor’s vision of where popular music is headed… and I’ll be damned if he’s not on to something… I know he’s making me more of a fan… I’m happy.

And last, you don’t need an iPhone to check out how this all works… it can be experienced right on the web at access.nin.com… although you will need to download and install the Google Earth plug-in… and your home computer is most likely not GPS-enabled, so you’ll also have to pinpoint your location on the planet to hone in on local conversations… but those two things will just take an extra few minutes and are well worth the result… I’ve tested this on Safari and Firefox within MacOS and all works fine. I’m sure a suitable experience will be had by our PC brethren as well.

Check this out if you have the inclination… GPS-enabling could easily turn out to be a significant part of where social networking is headed. I’d write about some of the ideas I’ve been having… but currently, patents are still pending ;-) Enjoy!

On March 17th, Apple unveiled details about iPhone OS 3.0 software and released the new iPhone Software Development Kit to developers. The presentation went down at the Apple Campus in Cupertino, CA. and was hosted by Greg Giles and Scott Forstall of Apple Computer. If you’d like to view the entire presentation, you can do so here in Quicktime format… be aware the entire preview is 90 minutes long… if you’re into the iPhone though, it’s cool to have running on your desktop while you’re doing other things.

Here’s a quick laundry list of the new features your iPhone will sport once the update hits.

Copy & Paste Text > This works across all applications… Double-tap over text and a ‘cut, copy or paste’ bubble appears… double-tap again and a ‘paste’ bubble will appear if you have anything on your clipboard. Expand selections with your thumbs… and if you inadvertantly paste something, shake the iPhone to undo it.

Copy & Paste Photos > You’ll be able to copy and paste pictures now as well. Select multiple photos by tapping the action button, copy some of them, and paste them in an email, ready to send.

Search Full Monty > Any Mac Spotlight fans out there? I don’t know how I ever existed before Spotlight… and much to my delight, it’s coming to iPhone with v.3.0 across all Apps that are native, in other words, created directly by Apple. This capability is included in the latest revision of the iPhone OS SDK as well, which means the makers of your favorite Apps now have what they need to make them Spotlight-ready… so stay tuned on those…

Also worth noting is that Mail, iCal and iTunes each have their own specific search interfaces… Mail does not yet support searching the content of your emails. What? Why not? But it does support searching on IMAP servers… which will really be handy for all you gMail users.

3G Tethering > This will allow you to connect your iPhone 3G to your laptop and use it as a modem… which is really a nice thing to be able to do if it ends up either free with your AT&T contract or extremely cheap… initially it might not work at all as it involves the carrier… but we’ll see.

Landscape Keyboard > Apple has added the larger landscape keyboard to more Apps including Mail, SMS Texting and Notes… a boon to all the sausage-fingers out there.

Multimedia Messaging (MMS) > I can’t see wanting this… it seems to miss the point of the medium… but you’ll now be able to attach images, sound and vCards to “text” messages… the jury is still out on video though.

Extended Calendar Support > You’ll now be able to subscribe to calendars on the web in both calDAV format which is used by Google and Yahoo as well as .ics format which is used by Apple’s iCal.

Improved “Stocks” Application > which now includes embedded links to related content on the web allowing you to witness your 401k tanking in much more vivid detail.

Stereo Bluetooth A2DP audio > You will now be able to pair your iPhone 3.0 with stereo Bluetooth A2DP devices like headphones or speakers.

Automatic Login with Safari. The new version of mobile Safari will remember login values for the sites you visit requiring them. Your iPhone will also now automatically login to wi-fi spots that you frequent, such as (outside) the local Starbucks, as well… And for the security-minded, your mobile Safari will also now warn against phishing or possibly malicious sites.

A New Native Voice Recording App > Although this feature is currently available via 3rd-party Apps… why not save yourself $6 if you haven’t already spent it (I did)… If you’re prone to forgetting all those brilliant thoughts you have throughout the day (I am), this little puppy becomes indispensable…

Beyond the scope of this post is all the improvements that have been made to the development kit given to developers as well as the features those improvements will enable… if you’re interested, follow the link I gave up top and watch the presentation by Apple…. cool stuff.

This update to iPhone OS 3.0 is going to be free to all current iPhone owners including 1st generation iPhones, although those original iPhones won’t benefit from any of the 3G enhancements. iPod Touch owners are going to be able to upgrade for $10 which has me scratching my head… why wouldn’t the upgrade be free for those folks as well? If anyone has the answer to the logic behind this… post to the comments.

Start salivating… it’s coming soon.

After 3 decades of servicing all those looking to record their favorite TV show, family memories or dirty bits… We’ve finally reached the end of the line for those formerly ubiquitous pop culture objects… the VHS tape. Back in the early days, much was written about the competition between the battling VHS and Betamax formats… very similar to the Blu-Ray vs. HD-DVD battle that was recently won by Blu-Ray… Many a videophile thought Betamax was the superior format, but VHS won the battle anyway… Why? Well check this out to get the gist…

I can tell you that I was hopelessly addicted to the VHS tape back in the day for sure. The picture to the right pretty much sums up what the top of my television looked like for many years… I was the undisputed king, the go-to guy amongst my set for knowing how to program a VTR… my machines were definitely never found with a blinking 12:00… I even had three TV’s all with their own VTR’s for a while so that I could record multiple stations simultaneously (an early version of TIVO). The only thing I failed to accomplish was to train cats to swap out full tapes for blanks when I wasn’t home… but I learned ways around it… I was determined back then…

Anyway, on a crisp Friday morning in October, the final truckload of VHS tapes rolled out of a warehouse in Palm Harbor, Florida… a warehouse run by a guy named Ryan Kugler, the last major supplier of VHS tapes.

“It’s dead, this is it, this is the last Christmas, without a doubt,” said Kugler, 34, a Southern California businessman. “I was the last one buying VHS and the last one selling it, and I’m done. Anything left in warehouse we’ll just give away or throw away.”

Kugler has sold more than 4 million VHS tapes over the last couple of years. In the end, mostly to discount outlets and dollar stores… he estimates that there are still a couple million tapes sitting on shelves around the world… but they’re the last analog soldiers in the lost battle against the digital invasion. “I’m not sure a lot of people are going to miss VHS,” he said, “but it’s been good to us.”

Well… I can’t say that I’ll miss ‘em… at least not as much as I’d mourn the loss of the two dual-channel TIVO’s that I have now… but I’ll certainly maintain a bit of nostalgia, considering the massive amount of archival footage I have, I’ll have a VTR wired up in my studio for years to come…

So, my sweet VHS tape, with 2008 you will be retired to the great trash heap of technological progress… We all know you’re not going to biodegrade gracefully, but rest in peace anyway… you’ve served us well old friend…

(Ed.note; portions of this post were blatantly plagiarized from a story by Geoff Boucher in the Saturday online edition of the Chicago Tribune)

Apple released Mac OS X 10.5.6 today, a recommended update for all who are using any version of Mac OS X Leopard 10.5.x. The update includes general operating system fixes that enhance the stability, compatibility and security of Macs. The easiest way to grab the update is to choose Software Update… from your Apple Menu and let the update run automated…

Otherwise, if you’re currently running version 10.5.5, download the 373MB update here… or choose the 668MB download here for those running older versions.

Here’s the laundry list of enhancements with this latest OS update…

Address Book

• Improves reliability of Address Book syncing with iPhone and other devices and applications.

AirPort

• Improves the reliability of AirPort connections, including improvements when roaming in large wireless networks with an Intel-based Mac.

Client Management

• Improves reliability of synchronizing files on a portable home directory.
• Fixes an issue in Mac OS X 10.5.4 and 10.5.5 in which managed users may not see printers that use the Generic PPD.
• Client computers that use UUID-based ByHost preferences now respect managed Screen Saver settings.

iChat

• Addresses an issue that could cause an encryption alert to appear in the chat window.
• Setting your iChat status to “invisible” via AppleScript no longer logs you out of iChat.
• Resolves an issue in which pasting text from a Microsoft Office document could insert an image rather than text.

Graphics

• Includes general improvements to gaming performance.
• Includes graphics improvements for iChat, Cover Flow, Aperture, and iTunes.
• Includes fixes for possible graphics distortion issues with certain ATI graphics cards.

Mail

• Includes overall performance and reliability fixes.
• Improves Connection Doctor accuracy.
• Fixes an issue that could cause messages identified as junk to remain in the inbox.
• Fixes an issue that could cause Mail to append a character to the file extension of an attachment.
• Addresses an issue that could prevent Mail from quitting.
• Improves reliability when printing PDF attachments.

MobileMe

• Contacts, calendars, and bookmarks on a Mac automatically sync within a minute of the change being made on the computer, another device, or the web at me.com.

Networking

• Improves Apple File Service performance, especially when using a home directory hosted on an AFP server. Important: If you are using Mac OS X 10.5.6 (client) to connect to a Mac OS X Server 10.4-based server, it is strongly recommended that you update the server to Mac OS X Server version 10.4.11.
• Improves the performance and reliability of TCP connections.
• Improves reliability and performance for AT&T 3G cards.
• Updates the ssh Terminal command for compatibility with more ssh servers.

Printing

• Improves printing for the Adobe CS3 application suite.
• Improves printing for USB-based Brother and Canon printers.

Parental Controls

• Addresses an issue in which a parentally-controlled account could be unable to access the iTunes Store.
• Includes general fixes for time limits.
• Resolves an issue that prevented adding allowed websites from Safari via drag and drop.

Time Machine

• Fixes issues that could cause Time Machine to state the backup volume could not be found.
• Improves Time Machine reliability with Time Capsule.

Safari

• Improves compatibility with web proxy servers.

General

• Includes Mac OS X security improvements. See this website for more information.
• Addresses inaccuracies with Calculator when the Mac OS X language is set to German or Swiss German.
• Improves the performance and reliability of Chess.
• Improves DVD Player performance and reliability.
• Performance improvements for iCal are included.
• Fixes an issue when running the New iCal Events Automator action as an applet.
• Adds a Trackpad System Preference pane for portable Macs.
• Improves compatibility with smart cards such as the U.S. Department of Defense Common Access Card.
• Updates time zone data and Daylight Saving Time rules for several countries.

For those of you running Mac OS X Server… all the info you need to update can be found here.

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.

Wow, almost two months since I’ve posted anything… but I’ve been too busy for recreational writing and thus, short on topic ideas… but I just ran across an awesome article on Hulu.com… You might remember we talked about Hulu on the radio a couple months back. I played with the site for a while back then, but found too few TV shows and movies to keep me interested… however a couple months have passed (which is an eon in Internet time), so I decided to head back over and see how things were progressing… that ended up being a fortuitous decision as I found so much more content now that I have to admit… I’m hooked.

I’m sort of a perfect storm for this type of thing… I have a high-speed internet connection, dual-monitors on my machine, I make my living with/on a computer and I’m addicted to television/movies. Directly above my computer monitors I have an old 13″ Trinitron connected to a dual-channel TIVO box with a capacity for about 350 hours of non-HD programming… and I STILL fill it up! Which is where Hulu comes in… no need to keep it on my TIVO if I have access to it 24/7 over the internet, which is just what this is… your free-of-charge repository of online media.

On top of the ever-growing content that Hulu is getting online, the coolest new addition to this site has to be the power to “embed” their content, how cool is this…

…and I offer a massive tip-o-the-hat to Jeff Zucker and Peter Chernin, the heads of NBC Universal and FOX parent News Corporation respectively… here’s two heads of major media outlets that seem to finally be tuning in to how Web 2.0+ works… it’s all about being open… sharing… going viral… this is the best way in 2k8 to connect your content directly to its audience.

An interesting point made by Zucker in the article was that he didn’t quite know how all this would inevitably affect traditional distribution channels like dvd, pay-per-view, movie rentals, etc… but he knew that Hulu represented the chance to answer that question… he also has the still flailing music industry as a picture perfect model of what not to do… but I digress…

Another cool new feature of the site is being able to queue movies to watch later… this, along with a running history of the movies/shows/clips you’ve watched is available to registered users of the site… but as this is free… no problems right?

One caveat for those using dual-monitors… a current limit of the Flash Video Player that’s behind all this video delivery magic, is that you can’t use the Full Screen function to play a stream on one monitor while you work on the other. The workaround for the time being is to use the Pop Out option instead and then maximize it on one monitor… Almost the same effect anyway except you’re looking at the desktop beyond… also not that big of a deal right?

Anyway, I’m going to have more to write on this as I delve further into the content… but right now I have to watch the ending of the Fifth Element (for the 20th time)… free for the watching at Hulu.com.