Bill Gates Praising Macintosh

This is pure gold.....

Multi-Touch Digital Interaction

It was said that Apple had patented the technology, but I am not 100% sure. But I can imagine the possibilities in everuday's electronics. It'd be so cool.

Apple Keynote Bloopers

Some funny clips of Steve Jobs and his gang over at Apple mssing up on their very important keynotes. Nothing is perfect....

iTALK . Apple Cell Phone Spec Commercial

Spec commercial for a new cell phone from Apple by award winning filmmaker Christopher DeSantis with design by Gregory DeSantis. I really don't think this is a real thing and I don't think iTalk is a good name. I don't think MacBook and MacBook Pro are good names as well.

Microsoft Launches Mac Blog

Microsoft's Mac Business Unit (which is headed up by Roz Ho who has been seen at Stevenotes on a number of occasions) just launched their own blog, Mac Mojo. An interesting read which should expand into lots of insightful posts. Certainly beats all those glossy blogs that boil down to nothing.

read more | digg story

China: The Next Software Center?

"China may be world's manufacturing power, but it's hardly renowned as a software center. The world is going to need software center alternatives to India. For one thing, wages are rising in India. And it just isn't smart for companies to rely too heavily on one country. Only China has enough human resources", Liu argues.

read more | digg story

Apple + Google = new .Mac?

Hmmm......this is very interesting news, Google CEO Dr. Eric Schmidt Joins Apple’s Board of Directors. And somehow I got this feeling that Google and Apple had been flirting for some time - as you can see in my previous post.
What could this mean? I am totally speculative, but this may be the beginning of joint effort to create web services available for Mac users, a new .Mac.
There has been a lot of discussion around the future of .Mac in many blogs. Apple had been trying to get Mac users to pay premium for its web services - I was included - with its seamless integration with iLife. I was a .Mac user once and I saw the good value in paying the premium, happy with .Mac mail account, web calendar, and iDisk. But like most people, mail application is the most used facility. Then GMail was introduced, with huge storage capacity and - this is the best part - free. I started to question myself on whether I should stop my .Mac subsription. I decided to run in parallel and I found that I could live without .Mac, so last year I discontinued my .Mac account. Sometime I missed my .Mac account and Apple gave me some cute messages everytime I went to .Mac site. But I never click the renew button. I don't think I want to spend money on that service, although I like it. Google had been giving the service for free - (well, at cost of some privacy intrusion. But I am not a celebrity or a type of person that needs 'top-notch' privacy measurements, maybe I will be at some time, but not now).
I am Googled now. I post my photos from iPhoto to PicasaWeb, export my iCal to Google Calendar, and blog in Blogger. I don't have iLife 06, but what I can imagine is if Google and Apple synergize their product to be ultimate webservice for Mac users, iWeb should interface with Blogger and Google Pages, and my mac email account storage keep on growing in size. And all of these should be free.

Core 2 Duo MacBook Pro Coming Soon?

I was browsing Apple Store Australia - I am in the market for Macbook. And I was just wanted to check out the specials in the Sale page and Apple Store Australia apparently discounting MacBook Pro 15" WHILE STOCKS LAST! I could not think other possibility than MacBook Pro Core 2 Duo is coming on our way.

Well it is almost the end of August, so the rumour that Core 2 Duo MacBook (Pro - looks like it) will be in store in September may be closer to reality.

But I am not looking forward to get MacBook Pro - C'mon Apple, blow my head and give me extacy. Slam those Core 2 Duo in all range, MacBook, MacBook Pro, Mac Mini, and iMac!

iChat AV and AIM can do video call!

I think I missed this big time. I checked the articles and some of them were dated back in 2004. Will this be the answer I am looking for?

FYI, I won the bid for iSight. I have paid it out and waiting for delivery.

I blew up my PC

Granted that I did not take care of my PC well. I just left it on forever. For several months I had noticed that once in a while my PC rebooted itself and it became a frequent instance later on. It could probably because of updates or my anti-virus or spyware protection doing their stuff. It could be because of something else, I don't know.
Last weekend I saw my PC box' power led was not on. I thought it was because it just shut down by itself again. But until I tried to switch it on for several times - with the maximum progress of getting the windows welcome screen - that I realised it was (probably) the end of my PC.
I was thinking that I need to find my backup plan for video calling. I only have cheapo PC webcam that is not designed to work with mac. After some googling, I installed macam - and my webcam worked in my mac mini. It wasn't the best solution - the picture quality was less than when it was on my PC - but that should do it temporarily. FYI, I am bidding for a couple of mac webcams on eBay at this very moment.
I also installed the latest Mercury Messenger which supports webcam, winks, and some MSN functions - yet it does not support audio, yet. So I am now using Mercury Messenger for video and Skype for audio. This solution works so far although not elegant.
I am now thinking of getting another mac - with the justification that I just lost a PC. I don't know whether I should wait - or fix my PC, or get it right away. I am not looking forward to fixing my PC at the moment. Maybe after I get the copy of Vista Beta 2, maybe I can think of play around a bit. But now, I did not even want to touch it.
Let's see what happen with the webcam bidding and whether it makes my life better - which I doubt.

Wii Montage

Nintendo Wii Game Montage

Windows Vista Speech Recognition Demo Gone Awry

"Dear aunt, let's set so double the killer delete select all." Definitely not what the writer - uh, the speaker - wanted to say. However, Long Zheng from Melbourne (www.istartedsomething.com) said that he had successfuly tried the speech recognition tool in Vista Beta and he said he had satisfactory result. My view on this? No comment. Let's wait until Vista really come out.

I Started Something

I accidently found this blog, www.istartedsomething.com - trying to read the article on Vista's speech recognision module. His writing style has tendencies to support Microsoft and otherwise for Apple. Fair enough. And that brought me to skim through his blog. I would say that it is really nicely done and he showed his enthusiasm. I like it a lot.
He is fairly young and still have plenty of time exploring his passion - nothing wrong there. I even support that as it would give me additional interesting reading material.
He has tendencies leaning towards microsoft product but I think he is also fair in adapting to technology as he insisted on using Quicktime HD format for his video as he believed that it is the best quality format. He also seemed to follow Apple's business strategy - some of his posts showing he looked at articles about Apple, including watching - or at least reading about - WWDC06 Keynote. That is a elegant way to create argument, I would say.
Kudos to you Long Zheng. Keep up the good work.

Brutal Beauty - Alfa Romeo Brera

 
I saw this car for the first time in Sydney Motor Show 2005, and was not yet in the showroom. Now it is available but with hefty price tag - as I suspected for this amazingly beautiful car. Alfa has been one of the most exciting car producers - and being Italian, it has strong emotional character, which I love. The Australian version is actually using Holden Commodore's engine, tuned by Alfa and it has Alfa's direct injection system to give the Alfa feeling. 

I Sneaked a Leopard - But Would I Pick It?

As much as I was excited with the incoming Mac OS X - Leopard, I don't think I am in the market for one with what were revealed in WWDC2006 today. I may need to see when the "TOP SECRET" new things introduced. And yes, I watched the WWDC2006 video stream.
I did not see iChat talking to other protocol. Although someone said you can connect iChat through Jabber Australia, it connects through Jabber's server to MSN. Definetely no video chat. I like the presentation that it can have customized backdrop - photo or video, which could be fun for the first time. After some time, people will get bored.
And it seemed to be able to use the full functionality - and experience - of Leopard, you need new Mac that is powerful enough. I use iMac G3 in daily basis (and my mac mini to store my media as well as playing it). I guess Tiger will be the latest OS my iMac can run in. The time comes soon for me to fork out my hard-earned dollars to pick up Intel Macs - if Leopard is really that good.

Mobile Blogging

I can't sleep yet. I'm too excited knowing that I can do more with my mobile. It may cost me extra dollars for using the internet from my mobile, but I really want to check how whether it works. I bet as soon as I finished this post, I'll be up and check the result from my computer.

[ Sent from my mobile phone using the Blogger widget from www.bluepulse.com ]

PS: I've checked and I think I can go to sleep now. Good night.

Tribute for a Great Australian Car of the Decade - Commodore VE

As well as I like digital technology, I love cars. I still do not see the point of having one at the moment - Sydney is an expensive place to maintain a car. However, I am giving my salute to Holden for its nearly launched Commodore VE. It is a car brought and built from scratch to be GM's global RWD (Rear-Wheeled Drive) platform. And I should say it is a beautiful car. It's bigger and heavier then the previous version - its based model, Omega, has 16" wheels as standard due to bigger brakes.
The VE is also designed with possible application of hybrid engines and all-wheel-drive, if required in the future, as well as smaller engines. But currently it comes in V6 and V8 inheritted from current Commodores.
The design has BMW resemblance due to moved-forward front wheel base. It was designed in 1999 with big vision and added safety features. But I can see that the car is designed with passion (and from Wheel Magazine picture, the designer used Macs).
Overall, it looks like a car that can last. Although in Australia it will have challenge with exclusivity, with VE taxis will be running around the city, it is still a damn good car.

Wii Trailers - Games to be Available in Nintendo Wii

As I predicted that Nintendo Wii will be my game platform for near future - it is a big thing for me, my last console was Sega (can't remember the type), I did some quick research online. I want to see what titles will be available for this platform and will I (and my girlfriend) happy with those titles.
I went to Game Trailers, to check out. The page gave me lists of soon-to-be-available games for Wii, and I can't recall myself played most of the titles - its previous version, to be exact. But I recognised some of the old characters still there, like ol' Mario. I also seen Star Wars in the list - I am not Star Wars fan either, the Star Wars movie I've seen are the first ones (episode IV, V, VI - in the new world). But the games that caught my attention were Wii Sports, WarioWare Smooth Moves, and Dragon Ball.
These games really make use of the new interface of Wii - I bet other games, too, but like I said they did not catch my attention as it looked so complicated. The idea of using the controller as a racket, bat, club (Wii Sport), the way you have to "move" with the controller to control the characters (WarioWare and Dragon Ball). It looks enjoyable just by seeing the player moves, which is beyond the enjoyment watching people playing game on the TV screen. This is real interaction. I can see myself and my friends running around my living room to get score in the game.
Well, Nintendo. You get a plus there - from me. I am just not sure whether my girlfriend is in the same page with me, but I am sold. She is a Playstation user, so I don't know if she is willing to "switch". But I am not a gamer and I think I can "survive" some of your game titles. I may even win some of the Dragon Ball fights.

I Just Tripped My Laptop's Power Cable - MagSafe Seems Like a Good Idea

I was working with my office laptop and had to rush to the kitchen to save my dinner for being overcooked. And I tripped the power cord and pull my laptop almost to the edge of the table. No damage had been done but I could see the worst scenario. My laptop has security feature to protect the data if it falls, but it does not have the feature to prevent it to fall in the first place.
Regardless of some issue with MagSafe - burning jack and all, Apple has a good idea to shoot the root issue of protecting the laptop - and its data. I hope Apple keeps improving MagSafe instead of ditching it.
Nice work, Apple.

Video Game Dilemma

I knew I should not do it. But I did. I started looking at the new game consoles; MS XBox 360, Sony Playstation 3, and Nintendo Wii. I am not a gamer. The game I play now only online solitaire and online monopoly. So why am I looking at these game consoles? Because they made these consoles possible to do other than running games softwares. Xbox extended itself as Media Centre client. Playstation - with its Blu-Ray player - may be the media centre on its own. Wii, on the other hand, explore more on the gaming experience. At least, that is the way I see it as a non-gamer.
My girlfriend - on the opposite - is a hardcore gamer, at least from my perspective. She bought a computer with bumped up RAM and VRAM to ensure she has the best gaming experience. She can spend hours and hours in front of her computer, playing World of Warcraft (WoW). She interacts with people online to do some kind of mission. She talked with them with Skype-like application, Team Speak, to coordinate the mission. It scares me the way this game make interactions so closer to reality. There is a very thin line between virtual and real world. My girlfriend said she can separate those worlds, but I can see why some people couldn't.
Anyway, she tried to introduce me to games - by bringing Playstation 2 to my place one time - or sending the screenshots of her 'mission' in WoW via email. I am not an anti video games - I am just suck at playing games. Just too many buttons to press and too many combinations. I used to play space invaders, pac-man - with okay performance - and the most complicated game I ever played was Street Fighters and Mortal Kombat (both the first release version). That was the time that I realised I had reached my limit. My girlfriend grew up with Playstation already in the market. She can tap those buttons in any combinations possible - which I like in any other circumstances.
So, obviously she just beat the crap out of me in the games. And she probably thought that I was not a good game buddy. And she is now playing WoW where she can play with other game enthusiasts. I feel left off and always in bad mood if I found her playing that game. Although she came with a very good reason; by playing WoW, she just stayed at home and play with total strangers. Which apparently not always the case as one day she told me she was thinking of going for "off-line gathering" of her WoW team out of town. I can only say - I hate WoW. And I just said it once more over Live Messenger to her - she is playing WoW on the other side of the world as I type this post. She said I was cute everytime I said that - and continued playing.
Enough about me girlfriend and her WoW. It is an endless argument between her and I. But I love her as she is.
XBox 360, PS3, and Wii. If I am to buy a game console, which will I pick? I am not a hardcore gamer, and has no past attachment with previous platform (XBox, PS2 or Gamecube). On paper, Wii should be my good option. It's the cheapest among the three, the games looks amazing and the one that caught my eyes is the way we interact with the game. The Wii controller makes the games (probably) easier to play for people like me; more movements instead of pressing combination of buttons. XBox and PS are more for the high quality graphics, surround sound, processing hungry, out-of-the-world gaming experience enthusiasts, which my character hardly in that area. I was more interested with the current packages offering PS2 with Trivia quizzes and Karaoke - rather than discussing how good the graphics of Halo 2. And the price - AUD600 for XBox 360 and AUD1,000 for PS3 - will not cut to my interest level of playing games. Including after added justification of XBox to be my media center client or PS3 to be my next HD (Blu-Ray) DVD player.
Will I get Nintendo Wii? Most likely. But I will wait until my girlfriend's next visit, and see whether this could be our "bridge" of our video game interest - or the lack of it.

Could Leopard be The Answer for My Dilemma?

Part of my Saturday morning (afternoon in Sydney time - but it's Saturday!) religious activity is browsing through internet to find something new on Mac. I always love these rumour sites because they have some free thinking on what Apple should deliver next. Some are ridiculously funny and far streched and some closer to reality. I would not put my bet on iPhone (or iChat Mobile) yet, although it may be in the pipeline. I still remember Motorola ROKR was introduced last year and I did not see it picked up. The selling point was only the ability to play AAC, yet the storage capacity is far less of a decent iPods. It is still not an iPod alternative and it was not meant to be. The concept of iPhone as communication tool - with iChat interface - may suit Apple better. However prospective buyers still need to budget the increasing cost of wireless internet -assuming will be 3G - usage to use iChat in their phones.
I am not going to talk about iPhone. I am most interested in Apple's direction with iChat. iChat is not the most popular protocol for instant messaging - and video call. It has potential as it delivers high quality video and video conference capability. But it has small user base, Mac users only - and for pre-intel era, who can afford iSight. As I mentioned in my previous post, I had invested a dedicated box running windows, just for video calls. Overkill? Maybe - especially with the fact that I am not a gamer. But it works and it helps my personal life. And the price is justifiable at the time comparing to buying iSight - and its limitation of people I can contact. My loved ones do not use Mac - they live in areas where windows is a standard platform. And with the box comes extra storage, too.
So, if my Mac can use cheaper webcam and do video calls with MSN, Yahoo, and Skype users I will be in heaven. I have been hoping for years - as long as I have been using windows at home. Before I live separated from my loved ones, I only use windows for work. I had Linux box as my media server and I interact with the digital world through my Macs. I did not have the need of video call as I can meet them in person. Now video call is a necessity. I interact digitally with the people I love.
I saw an article released very recently from O'Grady's PowerPage on what to be expected in Leopard, the next Mac OS. And I quickly glance through the iChat new offers.

iChat 4.0:

• 7 way video conversations available.
• A new window with gives iSight feedback and also letting you optimize your video stream how you want to.
• Better Voice over IP integration.
• Folders for contacts.
• Different layout, quite hard to explain, but better.
• MSN and Yahoo integration
• Dedicated iChat widget

Below are my comments on new iChat (possible) enhancements:

7 way video conversations available

Big deal. Unless you are in a business conference in seven separate locations, this function has no big impact for me. It helps if the video call can use less bandwidth so you have better quality picture for slower internet connection.

A new window with gives iSight feedback and also letting you optimize your video stream how you want to.

Maybe good if you have iSight, or new intel-Macs

Better Voice over IP integration.

Hey, this may be good. But I don't use iChat for voice. Hey - I don't use iChat for anything now.

Folders for contacts.

Yeah, yeah. Cosmetics. Gotta see the look and feel.

Different layout, quite hard to explain, but better.

Another cosmetics. I'll do a raincheck later.

MSN and Yahoo integration

Now, this is interesting. Can they do video chat? If not, I'll stick with my ol'box.

Dedicated iChat widget

Uh-huh. Bet it'll drag my iMac G3.

In summary, I am not too impressed with what to offer by Leopard, especially in iChat department. I may get Leopard if it comes with my next Mac. Or I may not buy my next Mac until it comes with Leopard. But definitely I will not upgrade my current Tiger to Leopard. And sadly it seemed that I still have to use my windows box for video chat.

Personal Technology Dilemma

I check Digg regularly. And yesterday I found Google launched the beta product of Picasa Web Album - with iPhoto uploader. More and more Google's services available in Mac, thanks to increasing popularity of the Apple system. I use mac and windows at home - windows at work - because I like the way mac "works", however some applications make more sense working in windows environment.
Mac has been great in managing my personal life. Email, web browsing - flicking from Safari to Firefox as some web apps not Safari compatible, and photo management. I also like the concept of .mac but finally I have to terminate my account as I don't see why I have to pay as the services I use available freely from Yahoo!, Google, - and MSN.
iChat is supposed to be my ultimate video call solution. Video conferencing with multiple users would be my answer to talk with my family and friends that happen to be scattered around Asia - if they have iChat (meaning they are mac users) and afford to buy iSight or new intel based Macs with built-in iSight. Sadly to say, Windows Live Messenger (then - MSN Messenger) running on windows is my answer now. And probably for some more time - it is a free service, people I want to contact mostly has an account - or can apply for free, and I can get cheap webcam for video call. I set up a machine with minimum specifications just enough to run Live Messenger, Yahoo Messenger, Skype, and QQ (Chinese Messenger). It is still cheaper than fork out iSight (or new Macs) and upgrade iLife (if the new iChat can talk with other protocols - you never know), and converting my family and friends to Mac.
I also downloaded Picasa 2 for windows and I am amazed to its resemblance of ease of use of that of iPhoto's. It has the same look and feel, and it gives you option to send photo via your default email client or Gmail. Sweet! It lists down pictures (and videos) in nice layout - and not forcing the user to move to different folder. It keeps original photos after touch-ups. Direct blogger interface - for photo only, not video (I wish they can do video soon). Microsoft should thank Google as this is the answer to iPhoto, because I am hooked.
And this Google new service has made me sign-in to blogger, this blog is the outcome. And my amazemend continues. This is like a multi-orgasm of a man with mediocre technology savviness with limited free-time and budget. The setup is simple and the template available for use mostly has slick design. Just write your thoughts and publish. I have been using different free blogging services and I have not seen the design as slick as what blogger offers. Yes, I am Googled.
However, this does not solve my dilemma. Mac only solution at home (with iLife as its centre activity) has been less attractive with more slick products freely available from Google (and Yahoo - and maybe Live) plus issue in communication solution with non-Mac users. Windows only solution always not my answer as I don't like the way it interacts (I'm not talking about Vista - I have not seen it). I am a Mac fan in nature, but also a functionalist and realist. I am hoping the new Mac OS can give me answer, but I am not hoping too much as I realise we are the victims of business decisions. Hoping iChat user can do a video call (and conferencing) with MSN users is too far off.
So I guess I will be using my iMac G3, Mac Mini G4, Celeron PC, and IBM X41 (office laptop) for a while. Google's support for Mac should help make my life easier with organising my mail, calendar (iCal compatible), and now photos. I am giving a lot of hope with Google now and hope they can move towards neutrality in providing services for Mac and windows users (not putting Linux in the equation yet). I am hoping Google Talk with video that compatible with Mac and windows users. Did I ask too much?

This article is a show of my support to Google in getting its product compatible with Mac (especially older Macs).