Shrinking Shuffle

Check out Apple's new iPod Shuffle. Just when you think it couldn't get any smaller, it does. Apple dropped the display with the first and second shuffle and with this version they dropped the controls. All the music controls are on the earbud cord. And it talks to you! The Shuffle uses "VoiceOver" to speak the song title, album and playlist.

Yes, this allows multiple playlists and navigation with a screen-less iPod. That was my only complaint with the first generation Shuffle. I always like to have some podcasts on hand. But combining podcasts and music was never fun. Jumping from music to podcast just didn't work.

Pretty impressive. What better product to innovate in this abysmal economy than the most affordable iPod?

Who Am I? Where Am I? Just Ask iPhoto.

Apple's new iPhoto will tell you.   iPhoto 09 incorporates face detection and geo tagging technology.  Yes, it actually recognizes faces in your images and allows you to assign names to the faces.   The software then searches for cases of the same face throughout your library.  It's not perfect, but by confirming the face, I'm sure the program learns over time.  

Geo tagging has been heavily integrated into iPhoto 09.   Photos can be organized by place and even plotted on a Google Maps interface.   And what about all those old photos?  You can go back and assign the locations to old images and iPhoto appears to update them on the maps.   Apple also was touting the ability to integrate maps within photo books - pretty neat.  I'm not sure I'd want to spend the pages on a map, but you never know.

Geo tagging technology is very cool.  Unfortunately, few cameras have the hardware.   Only one Nikon point and shoot camera has an integrated GPS.  The new Nikon DSLRs require an add on device for a few hundred bucks.   Of course the iPhone has geo tagging as well.   But the iPhone camera is probably the weakest function on the entire phone.   Probably the best option would be to take some snapshots with the iPhone and then transfer the GPS tag to the DSLR photos.  

I'm sure the hardware will catch up soon enough.  In the meantime, this should give Apple time to include some variation of these features in Aperture.  Currently, you can only add the GPS tag itself - no maps.  

Back On Line

A half a dozen calls to Comcast, two technician visits, various router configurations, and three cable modems later, we appear to finally be back on line. After moving the network setup to another room in the house, the whole thing fell apart. Well, the network was fine, it was the internet connection that was the problem. I would've rather had no connection at all. But instead the connection was very intermittent. A few web pages would load, and then things slowed to a crawl. Ugh..

So finally after fixing the wiring and replacing the cable modem, the connection seemed stable, and we let the Comcast guy go home at 8pm last night.

I even made an appointment at the Genius Bar. The odds of the Apple components causing the problems seemed slim, but I figured I check just to be sure. Oddly, in the few minutes I was there explaining the problem, two customers chimed in with sound suggestions. And I thought I was a geek.

Anyway, things seem to be ok for now.

MacBook Air & TSA

Apparently, the MacBook Air design is so good that some TSA employees didn't even believe it was a real computer.   

It sounds like they've got it figured out now.   I can only imagine how frustrating this would've been.

I had heard about the blog a few weeks ago.  A quick glance suggests it might actually be worth reading.   

iPhone Fun to Come

I'm sitting here watching today's iPhone SDK presentation.    SDK stands for software development kit.    Basically, Apple has created a programming environment that will allow people to create applications for the iPhone.   Some of the tech speak was beyond me, but the demoed sample software was pretty slick.   A few games were shown that use the full functions of the touch screen and accelerometer.   Nintendo Wii games came to mind.  Actually, I wouldn't be surprised if we see a few Wii games converted to the iPhone platform. 

But games weren't the sole focus.   AOL IM was shown along with SalesForce marketing tools, and even Epocrates, a mobile drug guide for the health care industry (and the consumer). Check out their consumer lookup using the link.    

Apple is also going right after the Blackberry market with the announcement of a major behind the scenes infrastructure change to the phone.  If I'm able to use my phone for work I'm sure I'll prefer using using it over MS Outlook any day of the week.   I may even want to check my work email on the weekend.   Find me a full size keyboard, and I'll never use Outlook again. 

It's also great to see that all the new applications, which we'll start to see in June, will also be available on the iPod Touch.  

The growth for Apple may be just beginning.  

Mac Tutorials

Apple has put up a nice video tutorial sub site - impressive.

Trusty OS X

The hard drive installation went smoothly, but I realized this morning that Super Duper isn't quite Leopard ready yet. It's not clear if my previously mentioned transfer process would be safe. So I considered trying Time Machine, which should work as well. But it turns out my solution was tucked right in to the Leopard Disk Utility application. There's a Restore option which allows the duplication of bootable drive. That appears to have worked perfectly. I've run Aperture, Photoshop, Safari, Mail, and iTunes with no trouble.

If I knew adding drives were so easy, I would've upgraded months ago!

At Capacity

I'm in the process of adding a 750 gb hard drive to my Mac Pro. My photo library had recently pushed my current 250 gb drive to the limit. Hopefully this will hold me over for awhile.

Thanks to this article and the published guide from Apple, installing a new drive on a Mac Pro is insanely easy. Think of it like changing out memory cards in your camera, but with 4 simple screws. That's it. The drive was in and was instantly recognized. I then formated it and I'm waiting for the transfer process to finish thanks to SuperDuper.

I remember when a drive upgrade used to be a weekend project. Instead, I can spend the weekend out taking photos!

MacBook Air

If you haven't checked out this new machine, you're missing out on some incredible innovation. In typical Apple fashion, the product gets smaller and more elegant with each iteration. What's unique about this notebook though is that the specs aren't faster. While the clock speed, ram, and drive space are conservative it's clear that the target selling point is simply size (or lack of it). I've listened to a few reviews and I can't believe these guys continue to complain about what it doesn't have. One would think they understand how Apple thinks, but I guess not.

I don't take my 12" PowerBook out much. The most travel it sees is typically from the living room to the family room. It's seen a few airplane rides and enjoys a taste of the free WiFi at Panera, but generally it stays inside. In the last year, I've probably used the optical drive no more than 3 times - once to install Leopard. Apple solved that obstacle with the optical drive sharing software (it even works on a PC). The Ethernet jack has seen even less action. My point is that if my trusty PowerBook wasn't still cranking away, a MacBook Air would be perfect. The 13" screen and backlit keyboard seals the deal. For the serious horsepower and photo work, my Mac Pro picks up where the smaller machine leaves off. And with the screen sharing in Leopard I can control my Mac Pro from the couch.

Why these guys don't get the bigger picture is beyond me. They'll probably all buy one anyway - because that's what they do (buy stuff and complain about it). Otherwise, they'd have no show.

Shopping for a new PC

No, not for me. Bonnie's old laptop has about had it. With the old USB ports, it takes her what seems like hours just to load a few songs to her iPod. Even with Apple's marketing muscle (including the very amusing new Vista attack ads) and my testimonials (which might have worked against me), she insisted on getting a PC with Vista. The last Windows machine I bought was my original college computer, about 10 years ago. I don't know the first thing about the virus software and I tend to shun the idea of shelling out another few hundred bucks for an extended warranty, so I wasn't much help in the process.

Our first stop was the local Circuit City. She found a model she liked on sale, but of course it was out of stock. We asked the associate (it appeared to be his first day at work) if models were in stock at other stores. He found a few but didn't know which stores were which (they were only identified in the system by store zip code). After the first couple blank stares, he finally was able to call and confirm the stock at a store about 20 miles away. Incidentally, I was able to find the other store's phone number faster on my iPhone than he was. It was a nice day for a little road trip, so we jumped back in the car and headed to Orange Park.

Arriving at the second Circuit City, we headed in to find another sales rep. Of course, whenever you actually need assistance the reps are nowhere to be found. Finally, the Fire Dog (Circuit City's Geek Squad equivalent) employee helped us out. But all he was good for was making the sale and pushing the warranty. He didn't even know (but admitted that he should) if Bonnie could use the Vista Office Upgrade, or if she would have to buy the full version. So then she had to stand in line for about 20 minutes just to get the box. I browsed the TVs and Wii games, twice.

Sure, I'm biased to Macs. But the PC buying experience is so terrible it shouldn't take Apple to improve it. All the laptops are braced to the counters with heavy steel bars. How can you really get a feel for the machine when it's so locked up? The machines don't have any meaningful software installed (unless you include Vista itself). And an Internet connection? Keep dreaming. Circuit City has free wifi (which my iPhone picked up quite well), but it's of no use to the toys they're supposedly selling. All the network connectivity is turned off.

It'll be interesting to see how the initial setup of the machine goes tonight. I can't wait to see what curves Vista will throw at us.

I've been debating about selling a few shares of my Apple stock. The run up has been quite solid. But after today, I think I'll keep holding on.

HP 9180 Initial Trials

To fine tune my printer settings in Aperture, I decided to run a few trials. Even with a completely calibrated system, the prints never quite match the monitor. But I'm getting awfully close...

I'll try to keep these tests simple. Since this printer is the geared to towards the prosumer, I theoretically shouldn't need to get buried with the all the possible settings so as to loose the fun of print making. Before picking up the printer, I would order my prints at my local Ritz. The results were ok but maybe a touch too dark. But making my own prints almost makes me feel like an artist - a real print maker. If only the printer emitted the appropriate chemicals typical in a darkroom.

For the test, I chose this photo. My little friend Jack is my favorite model, he just goes on about his business letting me shoot away with no complaints or dirty looks. The image was shot in JPG format & the Adobe RGB 1998 color space. I'm using HP Advanced Gloss Paper and my monitor was calibrated with a Huey device. Here are the scenarios:

1) For whatever reason I had dialed up the gamma in Aperture's print dialog to 1.30. With the gamma at 1.3, the appropriate color profile selected for the paper, and black point compensation on, I noticed the prints fair but seemed a little washed out, kind like a sun glare coating the entire image. I also noticed a bit of color shifting in greens (trees) and blues (sky) when I proofed the image on screen.

2) I dialed back the gamma to 1.10. The difference was surprising. The washed out look was gone, almost like I made a saturation adjustment. The entire print was much richer and color accurate.

3) Just to be daring, I set the gamma to 1.0 for maybe a slightly better print. Things got just a touch richer. Deciding between 1.0 and 1.10 was tough. For this image, 1.0 might be the winner. But I went back to my Aperture preset and split the difference to 1.05. The color shifts seemed to correct themselves. Before this tweak I was trying to boost the saturation for the colors that faded under the 1.3 setting. But with a dialed down gamma things looked fine.

4) As a final test, I tried using the system managed settings in Aperture. As I understand it, this setting bypasses the color profiles and is supposed to serve as a very entry level setting (or if no profile is available). Well it turns out all this color management stuff isn't a bunch of marketing fluff. The result with a system managed setting gave me a very dark and muddy print - yuck. I'm sticking to the profiles when available! Now if only I'd have run this test prior to wasting two 8.5 x 11 sheets. Oddly though, the on screen proof looked pretty good, a little more vivid perhaps. But the print was terrible - way too dark.

The next couple prints run with 1.05 gamma and proper paper profile were great! The only problem I noticed was that somehow the image is getting cropped. I'm not sure if it's Aperture or the HP software. My shots typically fill the frame, so some important edges might be clipped. I'll have to try a print through CS3 - that might help narrow down the problem.

Aperture's Share of the Market

Come on Apple... You can do better than this. Where's Aperture version 2.0?

Leopard Impressions

Leopard is up and running on both my Mac Pro and trusty old PowerBook G4. Installation went very smoothly on both machines. Remember when you'd have to budget an entire weekend for a Windows upgrade? Oh, maybe you still do with Windows? Just be on the safe side, I did make a fresh bootable backup with SuperDuper prior to pulling the trigger.

With Leopard running since Saturday, there's still much to learn, but here are my initial observations:

The MacPro is noticeably faster, particularly while running Photoshop and Aperture. I guess all the Multicore technology is really starting to mature. And the laptop certainly isn't suffering from a slowdown. Typically, an OS upgrade just doesn't run as swiftly on an older machine. Sure the eye candy features aren't as punchy, but all in all, the PowerBook is running just fine. No slower than before.

Mail and iChat are much improved! To Do and Notes are built in to Mail. And it even recognizes appointments and phone numbers within a message - very intelligent.

I was interested to give Time Machine a try, but it appears Apple has got some work to do yet with Aperture's compatibility with the new feature. So I'm going to hold off for now.

Spaces has taken me all weekend to get the feel of, but now it's starting to click. Perhaps the best way to think of it is as separate configurable desktops. Select the applications you want viewable in each space and go back to work. So I might have Aperture in it's own space with Mail and Safari in another space. With Aperture in it's own space, I can focus solely on the images without distracting windows in the background. If I need to flip back to Safari or send a message, then I slide back to the other space with a key stroke. I think I'll really find this feature handy. One odd thing I've noticed is that I can't seem to shut it off - maybe a bug...

Screen Sharing is one of the more radical changes in the OS. I can connect to the MacPro via the PowerBook with complete control over the entire system. It's almost spooky. If I need an image out of Aperture while sitting on the couch, I just call it up, export the image, and then pull it back to the laptop. All without getting up. Apparently this also works over the Internet with a dot mac subscription.

In my opinion, the upgrade is more than worth the price. I'll save you the full review and just point to two solid reviews.

David Pogue of the NY TImes

Andy Ihnatko of MacWorld