At least, that’s what it seemed like. Apple released just about everything else left, after all the product releases so far this year. The iPod Shuffle, Nano, and Touch; iOS 4.1, and a look at 4.2 for the iPad; iTunes 10 with Ping; Apple TV completely reworked, and AirPlay.

The iPods, perhaps, had to be reworked to keep ahead of the iPhone’s shadow, and there’s some pretty cool stuff–a lot of it for people who don’t want the phone.

iTunes 10 looks OK, but really it’s all about Ping. It’s a question as to whether it will actually take off, but frankly, it looks like a no-brainer. Me, I’m not so centered on my music, and I tend to stay with what I’ve had for some time. But I can see a lot of people doing this, and more significantly, use it as an engine to sell music. Bands can use it to popularize their music, and for people who are really into music, it’ll be with them quite a lot. Will it come close to Facebook or Twitter? If anything can, it probably will.

Between these products, it’s not a far stretch to say that Apple is keeping a pretty solid lock on the hold they have on the market by now.

But the potentially big thing is Apple TV. I didn’t used to want it. Now I kinda do. It’s affordable enough, and looks so versatile about content that I’d love to be able to have it there. My only problem is that I live in Japan, which is a crummy place for video content, alas. But even with that–and so much of what the product does closed off to me–I’m still thinking about this.

This could be Apple’s chance to finally have their TV box take off.

FInally, just a quick word about Apple’s streaming webcast: I like it. Not perfect–at some points, it sputtered and blacked out for a minute at a time, but it gave a great picture, high quality, despite streaming live–Apple is doing some pretty nice things with video. It looked perfect in its 850 x 480 window, and almost as good full-screen. Below are some screen shots, displayed here at 500 pixels, but they’re full-screen (1440 x 900) screenshots; click to see the full images. And it’s late, so good night!

Amongst the hullabaloo surrounding the iPhone and iOS4, not many people probably noticed the new version of Safari that Apple released in its wake. Safari 4 was less than impressive, focusing more on flashy graphics that caused more trouble than they were worth. I never like the “Top Sites” spread, it took too much time and told me nothing I didn’t know; other “improvements” were so unpopular that software was released to disable them. The top-heavy tabs were an instant failure, and I doubt many people used the cover flow feature in history or bookmarks. It was as if Apple took the uncharacteristic role of copier, trying to add features some people liked in Chrome or Firefox. At the time, I commented that “the feature I like most is the ability to easily uninstall it and have Safari 3 back.”

Well, now Safari 5 is out–and Apple is back in form, delivering some key new improvements in the right areas. Three new points stand out: Extensions, greater HTML5 support, and Reader.

First, Extensions. While this is a great feature, the real question is, what the hell took so long, Apple? It’s about time. Who knows, maybe there were security issues that had to be handled first. Whatever the case, the ability to add extensions made by third parties is just what Safari needs. Before you can use them, you have to enable them: go to the app’s Preferences, go to the “Advanced” tab, and click “Show Develop menu in menu bar.” Then, in the “Develop” menu, click on “Enable Extensions.”

Some extensions out immediately: Reload Button (puts the reload button back in the toolbar where it should be, rather than waaay out on the far side of the address bar, another Safari-4-ism I didn’t like); GMail Checker (an early version–frankly, I’m not too impressed; a mail button in your toolbar that shows a number badge for unread mail–but only if you’re logged in); Live CSS (allows you to edit the CSS properties for any open page in real time); and AdBlock (haven’t tried it, I have excellent blockers already). And more.

After only a few days, there are a surprising number of nice little extensions, and more are sure to follow. If you want an official list of good extensions, you’ll have to wait: Apple’s “Safari Extensions Gallery” will not be published until “later this summer.” But here’s a list of some of them available now. There are warnings, though, that downloading just any extension without checking it could be a risk; we’ll know more as time goes on.

Next, better HTML5 support. This helps developers build impressive web apps (MS Office Live, not so impressive), allowing for pretty nice effects for web sites to be added with relative ease. To get an idea of what’s possible, visit Apple’s HTML5 page, and look at some of the demos. HTML5 is more than just better than flash, it’s a pretty substantial leap forward. The main problem: most browsers don’t implement all of it, and of course, IE will likely remain incapable of properly rendering pages for years. As a result of the masses who use IE–the worst browser on the planet–simply because Microsoft spoon-feeds it to them, the best of HTML5 will be painfully left behind by most web developers for quite some time, just like CSS was sabotaged by IE6 dominance.

many newspaper sites will break stories into pages so as to increase the number of ads you see.

Finally, there is a feature that some are saying could change web browsing–for the better (for users) or for the worse (if you’re an advertiser). It’s called Reader. What it does is simple: it takes the text on your page and puts it up front, where it should be. All the formatting, all the ads, all the spinning, flashing, jumping animations fade into the background, leaving only the text, like a newspaper clipping. Better yet, if the story you’re reading has multiple pages (divisions intended to expose you to even more ads), those pages automatically load for you–no more clicking on 10 “next page” buttons to get through an article.

This feature will not work on all web pages, however; Safari somehow realizes that you’re on a story page (as opposed to a page with an aggregate list of posts), and will only the offer up the “Reader” button at the right side of the address bar.

The story only stands out, giving a clear reading experience. The site’s artificial “page” breaks are rendered as small gaps. Photos were not included in the pages I tried, despite Apple’s site showing them included.

While this feature may be a bane to advertisers, I say let ‘em fade to the background, until they learn to behave and not move around like hyperactive Parkinson’s sufferers doing the Mambo while on caffeine withdrawal. Apple even lets the ads load, perhaps making it hard for the site to tell if the ads are being shuffled to the background at all. The only down point here is that I am sure someone is working on a way to set up web pages so as to defeat this spiffy new feature.

One other great feature about Safari 5, one I have not heard anyone mention: it doesn’t disable all the add-ons you may have outfitted your copy of Safari with. That was a major annoyance of previous major Safari upgrades: you either had to abandon all of your add-ons for a while as their developers made them compatible, or else hold back from updating Safari. Not Safari 5–all the stuff I use for it now continues to work great. I use ClickToFlash to turn off annoying Flash ads (while leaving the potential to easily play the ones I want); Glims to add all kinds of functionality (I love the period-and-comma controls for navigating tabs, and the ability to recover previous open page sessions is useful as well–among the many, many features); and GlimmerBlocker, which does a pretty good job of blocking (for all browsers) all the non-Flash ads left over by ClickToFlash. All of these work just fine with Safari 5–a first, as far as I can recall, as the add-ons I used in the past always got knocked out of commission with each new major version of the browser.

Thomas Fitzgerald makes a good point: there is way too much phony outrage against Apple. Every Apple announcement, it seems, receives a certain amount of obligatory scorn and accusations by people who see the corporation as an evil presence, conspiring to take over the world. The iPhone OS is closed! Apple is censoring people! Apple is a monopolistic giant! Apple is oppressive! Apple is pushing Chinese workers to suicide! Apple gouges people! And so on. iAds comes out, is eviscerated. The iPad is announced, and is eviscerated. The iPhone was announced, and was eviscerated.

It’s hard to tell if this is all the same crowd, but it is certainly a strong presence on the web. Sure, Apple has faults like every other company, and can be justly criticized on some things just like everyone else. But the criticisms are starting to become a knee-jerk reaction, usually single out Apple when problems are worse industry-wide, and sometimes take on the tinge of conspiracy theories.

The Foxconn suicide story is an excellent example. In July last year, a Foxconn employee committed suicide after losing an Apple prototype. Reportedly, Foxconn reacted abusively, supposedly contributing to the suicide. Apple was immediately blamed, the usual angle being their hyper-secretive policies about prototypes. But many companies closely guard prototypes; Foxconn is a contractor which does work for a number of tech companies, not a subsidiary of Apple; and there is no evidence that Apple played any part in Foxconn’s response to the incident, or had any influence, even indirectly.

Since then, there has been a lot of focus on Foxconn and suicides. Many are reporting a “cluster” of suicides, insinuating that Apple’s secretive nature is somehow linked to an oppressive work environment at the contractor. Note this Huffington Post article titled “Apple Supplier Foxconn Reports Eighth Suicide THIS YEAR,” with “THIS YEAR” in all caps, as if it is a shocking number. That sets the tone for the article, which, typical for articles like this, otherwise insinuates a shadowy, oppressive, iron-fisted horror chamber with Apple somehow tied in.

Terrible, right? Apple’s policies are killing these poor, oppressed workers, we’re led to believe. Except that, as stated above, Apple is just one of their clients; why put “Apple Supplier” at the start of the headline? And in fact, instead of the suicides being a sign of terrible stress, the opposite may actually be true. A few more responsible writers actually looked at the larger context and applied the Chinese national suicide rate–13.0 per 100,000 for men, 14.9 for women–and found that for the 300,000 workers at Foxconn’s Shenzhen plant, there should be between 39 and 43 suicides per year. So by now, by mid-year, we should have seen about 20 suicides at the plant so far. Instead there have been 8. In that context, one can hardly make an argument about workers being horribly oppressed.

In fact, Apple does better than most in the industry in terms of trying to fly straight. A few months ago, Apple released a report of its investigations into contractors who make parts for Apple. Apple had done an investigation to find unethical working conditions, and found some abuses. Too few companies make such inspections, and fewer still report them openly or do anything about them; Apple was acting very responsibly and openly by making this public, demonstrating a policy of suppressing such practices. So, what happened? Apple was vilified by reporters who claimed that Apple was responsible for the unethical practices, despite the fact that (a) Apple did not commit any of the wrongs, and (b) was in fact trying to stop them.

So, what’s the reason for the hate? Does it come from the die-hard Windows crowd, always trying to find a reason to fault a perceived nemesis? Is it a result of some in the media wanting to appear more “balanced,” so to counter the reports of cool gear and top-rated customer support, they look for ways to say bad stuff as well? Or does it simply come from the fact that Apple is now an industry giant with an encroaching monopoly in the mobile arena, and so is automatically judged as sinister? Or perhaps a combination of these and more.

As I mentioned above, Apple does bad stuff sometimes. They make poor hardware (mice) and software (Mail), they have predatory pricing practices (RAM chip allotment), and do other stuff which is worthy of criticism. But, just as it should be the case with Microsoft, let’s complain where there’s good reason, not on every single news release or hint of possible wrongdoing.

Just saying. And, this seems like an appropriate place to disclose that I own Apple stock.

Computerworld, known for their occasional slanted reporting, does it again in style when reporting on the “Top 10 features that Apple stole from Windows.” In fact, they just reprinted the list from an InfoWorld article from last October–but what makes it pretty pathetic is that they didn’t bother to fact-check what was roundly criticized as a badly-written article. I swear, there seems to be hardly any more editorial filtering any more.

The list provides a few solid cases of Apple swiping ideas from Microsoft, but some charges are backwards and others so bizarre as to be staggering. A quick overview:

1. Apple’s Finder Sidebar is really the Windows Navigation pane. This is mostly true. Tree Directories are a pretty old concept, going back to UNIX days. What Apple stole was the idea of putting a jump-to navigation area in a sidebar on the left side of file management (“Finder”) windows.

2. The Mac Path bar is a copy of the Windows Address bar. This is at best a stretch. Paths predate Windows, and Apple’s path display is not that much like Windows’. You can only say that Apple “copied” it because it put the information in a file management window. But such a window is the only logical place for such a feature, and Apple varied from Windows about as much as one can imagine in what is essentially a classic OS element. It would be like saying that this year’s Toyotas stole from last year’s Hondas by putting handles on the car door.

3. Apple copied Windows’ Back and Forward navigation buttons in its folder windows. Um, no. Windows took that from its own Internet Explorer, which brazenly stole them from Netscape Navigator, which got the idea from the original hyperlink software. It’s an idea that goes way back. Microsoft put that feature into its OS as part of integrating the browser so deeply that it could not be separated, and in so doing killing off the competition in a rather illegal manner. Not to mention, back and forward buttons are a pretty dead-basic concept.

4. Apple minimizes a window to app icons. Actually, NeXT did this first, and NeXT is the precursor to OS X.

5. Apple has Screen Sharing, copying Window’s Remote Desktop Connection. Um, no, Timbuktu had screen sharing on Apple way before Windows got the same thing, and it was around on older OS software (e.g., Remote Login) before that.

6. Time Machine is really Backup and Restore. Backing up data? Really? Again, it’s like saying that Mazda stole brakes from Ford.

7. Apple’s System Preferences are a rip-off of Window’s Control Panel. This is a real “WTF?” moment. Apple’s original Mac OS had something actually called a “Control Panel” which Microsoft blatantly copied from Apple–in almost its exact form. Then again, older OS’s grouped preferences together, so the idea is not new–but Apple copied nothing from Microsoft here, while Microsoft clearly ripped off Apple’s presentation.

8. Apple has support for Microsoft’s ActiveSync and Exchange 2007. Again, WTF? These are licensed technologies. Apple no more “stole” them than Microsoft “stole” TrueType fonts or support for FireWire.

9. Apple’s Command-Tab rips off Windows’ Alt-Tab. FINALLY, here’s something that Apple blatantly stole from Windows. Probably the only clear-cut theft in the entire list.

10. Apple’s Terminal is Windows’ Command Prompt. Once again, WTF. Seriously. UNIX, anyone? Heck, I think Apple’s first computer, before Microsoft even had and OS, had a command prompt.

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In the world of computers, there is a lot of borrowing and stealing, but creating “top ten” lists equating Apple’s theft of OS ideas from Microsoft to Microsoft’s from Apple just smacks of false equivalencies–trying to be “fair and balanced” by saying “both sides are equally bad” when that is clearly not the case. Everyone ripped off ideas from everyone else, but there is no question that Microsoft is the champion of ripping things off.

Some claim that Apple ripped off Microsoft’s Task Bar with its Dock–but that’s kind of like saying that the Segway ripped off its idea from roller skates. Microsoft, however, did rip off Apple’s Dock in Windows 7’s Task Bar remake. Aero Peek and especially Flip 3D are blatant rip-offs of Apple’s Exposé, and much of Windows’ basic design is stolen from Apple’s original implementation of the GUI.

Some say Apple stole from third parties–most notably that they stole Dashboard and its widgets from Konfabulator. However, Apple didn’t steal it as much as it reclaimed it–Konfabulator “stole” the idea from Apple’s original Desktop Accessories feature. And I would not be at all surprised if that idea had been present in some form somewhere else.

Even some rip-offs are not as much a rip-off as one would imagine. Take the GUI, for example–many would say that Microsoft stole it from Apple, seeing it in the original 1983 Lisa and then rushing to put Windows 1.0 on the market. But then others will point out that Apple ripped off the GUI from Xerox. That’s not exactly true, however–Apple hired Jef Raskin, who pointed Apple to Xerox PARC, but Raskin had brought some of those ideas to Xerox in the first place–and those ideas stem from work done by Douglas Engelbart at SRI as far back as the late 60’s. Engelbart invented the mouse–not Xerox–and Apple paid SRI, Engelbart’s employer, for use of the patented device.

The idea of stealing in the OS world is a bit of a spectrum: on one side of the spectrum, you have features which are natural ideas which would be difficult to do any other way–like expressions of the directory path, for example. These are things that can’t be stolen any more than you can “steal” the idea of some kind of steering device on a vehicle. On the other end of the spectrum, you have either unique features or very specific implementations of basic features which can very much be ripped off. Microsoft happens to regularly inhabit that end of the spectrum, more than just about anyone else. Internet Explorer was nothing but a rip-off of Netscape Navigator. Apple steals, but it does so less. When it does, it is usually either a feature widely recognized as useful, or it is recreated with new functionality. The theft of Microsoft’s alt-tab window switcher is an excellent example of both: it was a feature that was a no-brainer to include, and Apple did a much better job of implementation, both graphically (admit it, Apple’s version looks ten times better) and functionally (e.g., Apple allows you to quit programs while going through the list). Not that they didn’t rip it off, of course–they very much did.

This time it involves Apple. The British publication Telegraph printed what appears to be a damning exposé on Apple’s bad business practices. From reading it, for the most part, it sounds like Apple was caught misbehaving, an impression bolstered by tangential reminders of past abuses.

Apple admits using child labour

At least eleven 15-year-old children were discovered to be working last year in three factories which supply Apple. … Apple has been repeatedly criticised for using factories that abuse workers and where conditions are poor. … Apple admitted that at least 55 of the 102 factories that produce its goods were ignoring Apple’s rule that staff cannot work more than 60 hours a week. … Apple has not stopped using the factories.

First off, to say that Apple “admitted” anything sounds like it confessed, that it was caught red-handed; that’s not the case, nor is it that Apple used child labor–its contractor did. Despite the article’s insinuation that Apple was being investigated by some outside source, this was a case of Apple investigating its contractors. Instead of turning a blind eye or even being complicit, Apple actually made rigorous checks of the business practices of the contractors, and instead of keeping any violations secret or covering up, it published its findings publicly, with assurances that it is taking steps to end these practices. What the Telegraph article also fails to state is that Apple is perhaps the only tech company which does these checks. Other companies simply ignore the abuses. Many in the comments section, despite the multiple criticisms of bias, state that they now see Apple in a bad light and will stop buying its products–something which might have been the reverse had the article reported the facts correctly and without the harsh anti-Apple slant. As for the past abuses: the workers exposed to the toxic gases, the worker who committed suicide, the reporter who was roughed up–none of these were Apple, they were all contractors, and Apple seems to be trying harder than anyone else in the industry to stop the abuses. Would I prefer that Apple changes suppliers? Sure, but then it’ll have to deal with the next supplier just the same. Maybe Apple could be doing more or better–but at least it’s doing something.

But I guess it makes better copy to falsely intimate that Apple is the bad guy here. Now, I have a pro-Apple bias–I’m a shareholder and fan–but at least I don’t hide it, and try to stick to the facts. Bad form, Telegraph.

So I’m at work, making a phone call and referring to my Macbook Pro as I do. Just as the service rep comes on the line, my Mac crashes. I restart, but as the call goes on, the gray pre-startup screen (the one with the Apple logo) just grinds and grinds… and grinds. I give up and restart–same thing. 10 minutes later, after the call, the computer still won’t go beyond that very early startup screen. Something is wrong.

I take it home, hoping that I can revive it with the Snow Leopard install disk. Sure enough, it’ll start with that disk, but nothing beyond that–the Disk Utility tells me there’s an “invalid node structure,” and won’t repair it. A quick search of Apple’s forums tells me that such a disk error generally marks the demise of the HDD. An attempt to run a disk repair program on a bootable DVD is to no avail–it starts, sets up, but then immediately shuts down, as if it couldn’t latch on to anything. I try to use the Macbook Pro in Target Disk mode, connected to my 24“ iMac. The ”Macintosh HD“ shows up… and again… and again… until there are no fewer than nine apparent ”Macintosh HD“s sitting on the Desktop–and none work. Nor will the disk repair app do anything with them.

At this point, I was pretty bummed–I hadn’t backed up in more than a month, and most of the semester’s work from school was on that disk. Argh. All the email, my students’ papers and grades, everything.

But finally, late at night, I get a data recovery program on another bootable DVD to work, and the files begin to spill out. Not in the unnamed, fragmented mess you sometimes get, but in pristine form. It takes forever–well, overnight and then some, at least–but I am able to extract most of the hard disk onto an external drive with enough space. I can’t get everything, but hell, before that breakthrough, I swore that I’d be ecstatic just to get the right handful of files off the thing. Instead, I wind up getting most of the disk.

Late, late at night, as the files were decanting, I started looking at replacement drives–my Macbook Pro is 4 months out of its 1-year warranty. While Apple is often generous, it’s not 100% of the time. I find that Western Digital has a widely praised HDD, 500 GB (twice my current drive’s size), for about $90 at Amazon.co.jp.

But just to make sure, I made an appointment at the Genius Bar for this evening. I take the faulty Mac in with me to work (along with the HDD with the backed-up data), and spend much of the day teaching while I transfer the recovered data onto my old Powerbook G4 (coming in quite handy now), and right after work, I head out to Ginza’s Apple Store. I get there in time to wait maybe 5 minutes, and get served by a guy who speaks fluent English. I describe the situation to him, noting the expired warranty. He gets on his computer and confirms that it’s not covered any more, but spends a while trying to make something work–and sure enough, tells me they’ll replace the drive for free despite the lapsed warranty. I am actually almost disappointed–I was getting jazzed at the idea of a 500 GB HDD in my laptop–but I’ll take the free 250 GB replacement disk just fine, thank you.

Seriously, if you can tell me a maker in Japan who will (a) sell English-ready versions of Windows on their machine for the same price as Japanese-language versions (with an option for an English-language keyboard), (b) provide face-to-face tech support, in English, the day after something goes wrong, and (c) will almost as often as not give you free repairs months after the warranty expires, I’d love to hear about it. But outside of Apple, I don’t think anyone does that.

A new concept has been released by a Polish student showing a new take on the Apple tablet idea. The concept is certainly stunning, and I agree with commenters that it is a far more interesting mock-up than the standard ones proffered, which tend to simply be over-sized iPhones. Check it out:

The illustrations make it a bit hard to see the second, slide-out touchscreen LCD panel, but that’s what that is.

Now, I will be the first to admit that this is an incredibly cool concept, and like many of the fanboys out there currently raving about the design, I would like nothing more than to have something like this. However, there is one small hitch: the design is, by current standards, simply impossible to achieve.

The depth, for instance, is supposed to be only 7mm. Well, that’s nice, but the iPhone is currently 12.3 mm thick, and even the iPod Touch is 8.5 mm. Each LCD screen would have to be 3.5mm (roughly 1/8th of an inch) thick, have a sturdy enough back panel to protect a 10“ screen, and still somehow pack a computer inside there as well. Somehow I just don’t see that happening.

Furthermore, the designer decided to add a 1-Terabyte solid-state drive (SSD). A look at the only 1TB SSD I could find out there shows that this part alone requires a case 25mm thick; even spread out over a broader plane, the SSD alone would take up more space than the device would have. Not to mention that such an SSD would cost upwards of $3000, even if it could be crammed into the casing. That, the two LCDs, 4GB of RAM, and other impossibly small components would surely price this baby over $10,000 even if it were possible to make with current technology.

Now, there was one design element which was both interesting and possible with today’s technology, and would not break the bank:

The best word for this is perhaps ”cute.“ As for practical, that’s another matter. Maybe if the stand could tilt back a bit, it would be better; with such a small screen, so low to the desk, I imagine one would have to hunch down to see it well if it’s standing upright at 90 degrees. This also mostly negates the touchscreen, so it would be a less-than-perfect way to use the device. But the idea of sliding it into that little frame and it becomes a tiny iMac, there’s something almost irresistible about that. The charger-connector would have to be on the long edge of the tablet for this to work, but if it is and even if Apple doesn’t do this, I bet a third-party manufacturer could make some bucks selling a stand like that.

So, I’d have to give this guy an ”A“ for originality and coolness, but from a design perspective, especially if one must be constrained by realistic technological and cost restraints, this simply isn’t feasible.

Which brings me to a slightly different point: stuff like this isn’t helping. At least, it’s not helping Apple, nor is it helping those who want to be suitably impressed by what Apple comes out with this week. People see concepts like the one above and get impossibly high, pipe-dream expectations–and it just makes the actual device seem a lot less impressive, and unfairly so. Now, if people came out with more realistic designs, then that’s fair. For example, there have been a few iPhone design concepts for the ”4G“ model that could work, and may be cooler than what Apple comes out with. So, actual designs which don’t defy reality or break the bank, that’s a fair comparison which Apple should be expected to live up to. But to break the rules helps no one; I might as well imagine an Apple tablet with a 4 GHz, 16-core CPU with 32 GB of RAM and that terabyte SSD, with 3-D holographic displays in a 4-mm razor-sharp case made of unobtanium. Oh, and did I mention it’s a quantum computer? That would certainly be cool, but it’s also cheating–and to expect anything close to it would be pointlessly self-defeating.

Only ten days to go, and the rumors are flying like bullets in a war zone. The tablet could cost $500, or it could cost $2000; it might have an LCD display, or an OLED, or a completely new haptic touch screen; it might run on an nVidia system-on-a-chip, or it runs on an Apple-made CPU with an nVidia GPU. Who knows? Whoever does enjoy such insider info must certainly have god’s own NDA hanging over them like the Sword of Damocles.

Some elements are more or less universally agreed upon: the tablet will have a screen about 10 inches in size; it will likely share design elements with the iPhone; it will be thicker than an iPhone, but not too much thicker, with an aluminum case; it will share many qualities of the iPhone, including the ability to run iPhone apps, and will likely be a closed ecosystem like the iPhone is. It will use multitouch, most likely to an extent not attempted before, and there will be no stylus. And it will probably have 3G, in addition to the even more likely WiFi and Bluetooth.

From there, it’s anyone’s guess. A lot of the remainder constitutes bells and whistles, like the possibility of a built-in camera for video conferencing, for example. Such features are relatively unimportant, as they are the kind of thing that subsequent models will eventually include. Like the iPhone, one should expect a relative paucity of such features upon the initial release, allowing not only for everyone to focus on the core innovations of the product, but also to allow for Apple to make the subsequent generations of tablets more attractive. Look at the iPhone: it started with Edge and no 3G, no app store, a weak photo-only camera, no GPS, no compass, no stereo Bluetooth, etc.; each new model adds these features. If the tablet comes fully decked out right at the start, then where’s the ability to upgrade?

The Interface

The main draw of the tablet should be the OS, and in particular, the touchscreen interface. Rumors have suggested a new way to interact with the device, something with a “steep learning curve,” and which will have the user interact with the tablet in surprising ways. A “3-D” environment has been suggested by the usual avalanche of Apple patents.

I agree with the assessment that there will be a new emphasis on touch. There will almost certainly be no mouse, and probably no ability to attach one. Many new Windows-based devices use touch screens, but many only mirror the single point of the mouse-driven cursor, which is worse than useless in a touch screen (it’s like having 9 of your fingers amputated). Those that allow multi-touch are limited to fewer gestures than a current MacBook touchpad (especially with a cool utility like BetterTouchTool).

The question is, will the tablet’s gestures be intuitive or arbitrary? Some touchpad gestures are pretty intuitive: two fingers for scrolling; three fingers right and left for going forward and back; a two-finger tap for a pop-up menu. In their own ways, they make sense, and so are easy to remember. Even the four-finger swipes for showing the Desktop or using Exposé to reveal all windows are fairly intuitive, though I keep forgetting which requires the up-swipe and which needs the down-swipe.

If the gestures on the tablet are not intuitive enough (which could be what the “steep learning curve” is referring to), then the tablet could be in trouble, especially if there is no easy alternative way to carry out the same functions. Ever since the original Mac came out with the GUI, intuitive features have been Apple’s golden egg; they would bypass this standard at their peril.

Get a Grip

Another important consideration in the touchscreen interface will be how the device is handled. A tablet does not lend itself to flat surfaces as well as a laptop; we are used to screens being propped up at an angle to our faces. That’s not to say that it’s impossible to put a tablet down on a desk or a table, but there are problems involved.

Here’s a way you can test it for yourself. If you have a laptop with a relatively stiff screen hinge, try placing the laptop on a table, desk, or on your lap, upside-down, on its monitor with the keyboard sticking up (it’ll have to be at a 90-degree angle). Then imagine using the screen only and that the part sticking up doesn’t exist. What do you notice? My impression was that it wasn’t so bad–in fact, it seemed pretty cool. It wasn’t uncomfortable to look at, even though it was more at an angle than I am used to. The main disadvantage that I noticed was that the screen I have starts to fade out as the viewing angle increases. This might even suggest that the tablet indeed has an OLED screen, as some rumors are saying. But I can accept using it that way, although at times a sturdy back-stand seems to make a lot of sense.

Why is this important? Because the alternative is that either the tablet will come with a desktop stand for active use–unlikely for a mobile device, not to mention that touch becomes problematic unless the stand is slide-resistant–or it will be cradled in one hand while the other is used to control the interface (like a clipboard, except the tablet might be supported by one’s palm against the tablet’s back, instead of holding it at the edge, as with a clipboard).

The Keyboard Is Key

The way one holds it will greatly influence the method of interaction, especially for typing. A larger device like a tablet would lend itself better to two handed-typing; if only one hand can be used, then the keyboard would need to be altered. Will there be two kinds of keyboards available depending on how you use it? Convenience would suggest so, but Apple’s design history says no; look how long it took Apple to make just the landscape keyboard universal on the iPhone. Jobs has a tendency to stick with one way of doing things, even if it’s inconvenient. Despite my own desire for multiple keyboard styles, I expect that Jobs will have ordained The Best Way to Type and will expect everyone to follow that way.

Typing is indeed a crucial aspect: not only is it something we do all the time, but it is the one point in multi-touch where two hands are almost necessary for efficient input. As I noticed in this Jeff Han presentation at the Seoul Digital Forum (see “Interface: Beyond Interactivity” at the link; available only through web site; you must allow pop-ups for it to work), Han used only one hand even with the big wall-sized screen. He switched to two hands notably when he brought up a keyboard and started typing.

Getting Soft

Other considerations will include the software you can use with it. Will you be able to use existing OS X apps with it? The answer is, probably not. Apple has too good a thing with its closed ecosystem. Not just because Apple gets a 30% slice of each sale, but also because the platform lends itself to anti-piracy and lower app prices. Most notably for Jobs himself is that he gets to control the environment tightly, which is how he likes it. So expect an iPhone-style app situation, but now able to expand to use much more space and a more powerful processor–so popular database and Office apps, as well as fast-CPU-dependent apps will show up where they did not for the iPhone. While this won’t replace your laptop, it will allow for much greater daily use than your smartphone.

Multimedia is another area that everyone expects will work with this device. It is pretty clear that magazines and newspapers see the Apple tablet as a potential savior (Update: The NYT just more or less announced their Apple Tablet rollout), moving back to the paid-subscription model, and college students will likely use the device as an e-book reader for textbooks. The ability to play music may very well be redundant–almost every user will also have an iPhone or other device which they would more likely use for that feature. Video, however, will take on a new focus. Apple will probably attempt to tie this in with Apple TV, although they must not make that peripheral necessary for enjoying video. Still, there will likely be a focus on downloading video from a separate storage device or network as there will probably not be enough space to save all that video on the device itself. Apple will probably push for streaming video over the iTunes store. But video will be a big element in addition to print.

This, of course, will make a powerful CPU and GPU more important; keep a close eye on what Apple uses to run this baby.

3G or Not 3G

The networking will be vital for that reason. Many are saying that 3G will be a part of it, but I am waiting to see how plans with the carriers will be handled–especially if this will be another subsidized purchase. Will this be tied in to your iPhone account? If so, what extra contractual requirements will be foisted upon you? Will this be sold as a stand-alone data plan with a carrier, not associated with a cell phone contract? At what cost? The details of the deal may be critical.

For me, 3G is not really so important. I am guessing that I will be using this mainly at the home and office, where I have WiFi. I need 3G for my iPhone primarily for phone calls and GPS; otherwise, I could probably get by on WiFi alone. Will a 3G data contract be required to buy a tablet? Is that the only way it will be affordable? Will there be a range of options, like buy one for $500 with a contract for a data plan, or $900 without–I might go for the plan without a data plan or other contractual obligations, and live on WiFi alone.

Sex Appeal

Finally, there is form factor and physical features. Most of the mock-ups are essentially modified iPhone designs: a fairly thin screen with black bordering and a beveled chrome edge. Some bit larger borders on the ends and include the iPhone Home button. Others put the screen almost flush with the edge. There is one problem with having the screen too close to the edge, though: the device will likely have a rectangular screen, but also rounded edges. If the border of the device is too thin, that comes out looking quite strange. With Apple’s current design scheme featuring fairly wide black borders, and with the problems of accidentally activating something if you hold the device by the edge, I am guessing that there will be perhaps a half-inch border around all edges. (Addendum: it later occurred to me that they could handle this the same way they do the iPhone: have the screen go to the edge on two long sides, and have borders on the short sides; however, I don’t think they’ll do this for the tablet.) This would allow for hardware button placement (if there will be hardware buttons on the face) and potential placement of cameras and proximity sensors. It would also give more room inside to spread the hardware around and make the device thinner, which is what people will like.

As for how it will feel, imagine holding a thin hardcover or large-format softcover book–in fact, go get one from a shelf somewhere–and try holding it in your left hand as if it were a tablet. Most likely your left palm will fit neatly under the back if you hold it in landscape; in portrait, your thumb may rest along the side. You hear “ten inches,” and you think of something fairly large; but an 11-inch (diagonal) slate winds up being not so huge; try it and you’ll see.

Many are talking about exchangeable batteries, but these are mostly people who forget who is making this; at this point, it would be a shocker for Apple to allow for that. Steve Jobs likes unbroken surfaces, and that’s that. Don’t expect an optical drive, of course; like the MacBook Air, the tablet will very likely depend of WiFi connections for most of its data transfers. Even an SD card slot is not a solid bet; even though most users would want one, Jobs might decree that it is not to be.

Which brings us to connectors: what will there be? Will Apple use the standard iPhone connector? Possibly, but Apple loves to confound users with new cables and connectors all the time; don’t be surprised if there’s yet another new connector type here. Common sense would allow for a mini-USB jack, if for no other purpose than to allow you to download photos from a digital camera or other data. This may, however, depend on how close Jobs wants the ecosystem to be.

And how about screen resolution? We’re all expecting a 10-inch screen, but how many pixels? I could swear that I wrote a blog post on this, even seem to remember discussing it in comments, but for some reason, I cannot find it. In any case, a 10-inch screen will likely be about 6 inches tall and 8 inches wide; the iPhone has a pixel density of 163 pixels per inch (ppi); if these hold for the tablet, that means a 1300 x 980 pixel screen, which would be pretty good hi-def. However, the iPhone screen is denser than Apple’s laptop screens, which are about 112 ppi; at that density, the tablet would be more like 900 x 670 resolution. If Apple can get a ppi of 120 or better, then we have a 720p screen–which I think may be likely here.

Of course, that depends on the aspect ratio–I am assuming 4:3 here. The iPhone has a 3:2 ratio. The tablet could be more widescreen than I am expecting. If it’s 4:3 and we’re going for 720p, then the full resolution would be 960 x 720; if it’s 2:3, then it would be 1080 x 720, with a slightly higher ppi, around 130.

Laying Down My Bet

So, if I had to guess: a form factor of maybe 9“ x 6” with a 10 or 10.5“ screen, and a half-inch black border with a chrome bezel. A 130 ppi screen with a resolution of 1080 x 720, probably OLED or something else which will look good at more extreme viewing angles. My guess is no haptics on the touch screen, but would not be surprised if that was an added feature in a future model.

The screen will of course be multitouch, depending far more on touch than any Apple device so far, with a fairly new interface style. Like the iPhone keyboard, it’ll take a bit of practice to become comfortable with it, but it will be pretty intuitive and won’t be that hard to get the hang of. This will likely be the highlight of Jobs’ presentation, and what people will be buzzing about for some time after that.

There will probably be no camera (I am depending on rumors for that–personally, a camera seems like a no-brainer to me), which would imply no mic either. I am guessing at grille speakers along two opposite edges, a headphone/audio jack, an iPod/iPhone connector, and maybe a mini-USB port. There will be physical switches for power, volume, and maybe also a home button–along the edges, not on the face.

If Apple wants to move the device, then hopefully it will avoid the fiasco with the original iPhone and price reasonably from the start. $800 is believable, but many will choke at that price. I would guess that Apple will have deals with carriers for a subsidized data-plan contract–maybe a 2-year contract at $40-50/month, which will bring the price of the tablet down to $500 or less, and might even tie into existing 3G contracts for better savings. Alternately, you could purchase the tablet outright at the $800 price point (which I would definitely opt for myself), depending completely on WiFi for data.

Apple will likely be a bit cryptic about the CPU. I would like to imagine that Apple’s acquisition of PA Semi will mean a powerful in-house chip–but many times in the past, Apple has not utilized such resources. And there’s the nVidia Tegra 250, a dual-core 1GHz computer-on-a-chip able to handle 1080p encode/decode, should deliver good performance for gaming, and excellent battery life. If Apple does go with its own chip, then perhaps there will be an nVidia GPU along with it.

Anyone else want to make predictions?

Finally! Although, it’s not exactly promised–but Apple seems to have a big event scheduled for January 26:

The company has rented a stage at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco for several days in late January, according to people familiar with the plans.

Apple is expected to use the venue to make a major product announcement on Tuesday, January 26th. Both YBCA and Apple declined to comment.

There’s no guarantee that it’s the tablet, but really, it’s gotta be the tablet. For too long, we have had too much news, too many patents filed, too many leaked bits and pieces, and now a NYT blogger has this:

But the icing on the cake comes from a current senior employee inside Apple. When one of my colleagues here asked if the rumors of the Apple tablet were true, and when we could expect such a device, the response from his source was, “I can’t really say anything, but, let’s just say Steve is extremely happy with the new tablet.”

Yet another recently departed Apple employee tipped me: “You will be very surprised how you interact with the new tablet.” [possible clue to the interactivity here]

Indeed, magazines and newspapers have been hinting, some more outright than others, that they are preparing their content for some kind of tablet, such as might possibly come from Apple. Now we are getting reports that Apple has asked iPhone app developers to supersize their apps, which would mean that the tablet might be another closed system, and could interact with the iPhone. Other rumors suggest that the tablet could deliver multimedia and that, with the Apple TV, Apple could be set to make a move on the cable TV industry, with a cheaper and more flexible TV content distribution model.

Estimates are that the tablet would reach shelves in or soon after March. But before it’s announced (hopefully) about a month from now, expect a storm of rumors and a wide range of stellar expectations. Will it be 3G? Will you have to get a new account or sign on for yet more years of contracts to get it? Will it cost more than $800? What kind of multi-touch gesturing will it have? What kind of battery life? What resolution screen? What CPU? How much RAM? AT&T or Verizon? And so on and so on….

So, Apple has killed Psystar. isn’t that for the second or third time? I forget. But whatever the case, Apple has again successfully prevented third-party Mac clone makers from getting a toehold.

In some ways, you could see this as bad: it means that Apple has a monopoly over its domain, that there is no competition to drive down prices, no alternate choices which could lead to great Apple software running on much cheaper machines.

But the more you look at it, the more you have to admit that Apple is right to do what it does. The mistake comes from seeing computers and OS makers as being separate, which is the Microsoft model, also followed by other makers of OS software. And maybe if Apple had the 90~95% worldwide market share that Microsoft has, it would be more of a monopolistic concern.

However, that’s not the case. Apple never intended to sell software and hardware separately; it is designed to be an integrated system. Think about other makers who do similar things: what if I made a new DVR, but took the OS software from Sony’s DVRs to make it run? Sony would shut me down and nobody would think Sony was out of line. Hardware makers do that kind of thing all the time: create closed, integrated hardware and software systems. In fact, everything that’s not a PC sold as a PC is designed exactly that way, from cell phones to cars: the manufacturer creates the operating system to run with the hardware, and they see both as something they own. If a user wants to tweak the system after they buy it, then fine–but if a for-profit company wants to tweak it and then sell it for a profit, potentially robbing sales from the original designer by using their designs and concepts–that’s different. As far as I know, Apple has never tried to go after any private users, even for things like software piracy–Apple has far fewer safeguards and hurdles against such things relative to Microsoft.

So while the freedom-to-tinker part of me wants to see clone makers succeed, the I-made-it-I-control-it part of me sees how it’s the right of the creator to prevent someone else from making money selling hardware based on Apple’s work. (I don’t think that the “I own Apple stock” part of me is really influencing what I think here, but that’s harder to say.)

Finally, Apple stock has fully recovered from the pounding it took from the sub-prime shock. It reached $200 back in late 2007, before it plunged to $119, and later to $78 (I bought in a year before the peak at $93). It has slowly been recovering since March of this year, and over the past two weeks it has been hovering at $190, after spending the better part of a month around $185.

Today, after the end of trading, Apple announced huge earnings (in part because of changes in accounting rules), their highest ever–almost $10 billion in sales, and $1.67 billion in profit.

Apple shares in after-market trading rocketed to $202.

From a political point of view: the $78 low, by the way, happened on Bush’s last day in office. Under Obama, Apple stock has risen 260%. Not that that means anything significant, but I have been much happier with my stocks going up rather than down.

On top of that, the word is that the new hardware lines should be debuting tomorrow.

Just got my Macbook Pro back from the Ginza Apple store. There was an intermittent screen flicker, so I took it in. A month before the warranty runs out, so it’s covered–they replaced the entire logic board and the monitor. And they did it in half the time they told me it would take. (Dropped it off Thursday night, it was ready for pickup by noon Saturday.) Cool.

Along with the iMac being repaired last month, my computers are now fully serviced–both just shortly before the warrantees run out. Hopefully that’ll last them for the next few years until each is ready to be replaced.

My only gripe about the general process: Apple has been a bit too successful in helping people with Genius Bar service–so much so that they’re completely booked for 3 days in advance. Still, you can get the service–just not on the same day you decide to use it. It used to be faster, but Apple’s getting more popular now, and there’s just the two Apple Stores in all of Tokyo.

Of course, give me that over anyone else’s tech/customer support any day. I know, I’ve dealt with others, such as Toshiba’s–it’s hell on Earth. Interminable phone calls, indecipherable menus, obfuscatory politeness acting as a smokescreen against actual service, getting transferred and handed off to different departments any number of times, shipping the machine out for a few weeks, the whole nine yards–a 3-day wait to drop off the computer at the Genius bar so it’ll take 2 days for them to replace the innards, that’s far better than anything else out there I’ve heard of.

Much ado was made last week over the fact that for the first time in four years, the Walkman outsold the iPod in Japan for that one week’s sales. The only real reason to make note of such a thing is either (a) to report that Walkman is overtaking Apple as the leader in the DAP market in Japan, or (b) report the facts in context.

Unfortunately, many media outlets reported the false story (a) and glossed over or completely ignored the relevant context (b). For example, the stories in Consumer Affairs and The Post Chronicle both fail to mention that iPhone sales are not included in the count. Other stories, like those in Engadget and CNet note that the iPhone is not counted and even that Apple was planning on releasing new iPods soon–but they still did not seem to take note of the central fact explaining the numbers.

The general consensus was that Sony is nipping at Apple’s heels and is giving them a run for their money–one story even said that the Walkman was “striding past” the iPod. This because for one week, the Walkman sold 43% of DAP units and Apple sold 42.1%.

None of the non-Mac-oriented sites I found covering the story provided the full context: that for the week reported, Apple was clearing the distribution channels of iPods; new units were not being stocked, and consumers were well aware that within a week or two, they could get better models for the same or even a cheaper price. Well, of course Apple’s sales dipped. Duh.

Proof of this come with the new week’s sales figures: Sony’s sales fell to 32.1%, and Apple’s sales rose to 58%.

So much for striding.

Now, several weeks ago, there was a similar effect in the other direction: Apple was lauded for taking the #1 spot for cell phone sales in Japan. Apple fans expressed approval for this point, but also noted caution–it was the week after the iPhone 3GS was released, so figures were bound to be higher than normal. And sure enough, in following weeks, the iPhone ranking slipped.

However, ironically, in the week where the iPod Nano and Touch made the big news, the iPhone also climbed back up. During August, Apple took 3 of the top 20 spots in cell phone sales, with the 32GB 3GS topping Apple’s showings in the #7 spot. This week? The 32GB 3GS is #1 again, with the 16GB at #7 and the 8GB 3G at #14. Sony had phones at the #5 and #15 positions, as well as many spots down the list. And Apple may gain even more as the last of the 2-year contracts end and more people are free to switch to the iPhone. (That’s what one of the people in my office is doing–waiting to join the other six of us who have the iPhone already. And no, I wasn’t responsible for any of the purchases. For a change.)

This in a country where Sony and other domestic brands are supposed to have an overwhelming advantage, and where the public supposedly “hates” the iPhone.

A few more notes about Snow Leopard. First, small changes in the UI have crept in that don’t necessarily affect functionality. They are, however, very welcome and often convenient. Take the language switching, for example; when you switch languages using the keyboard shortcut, you get an on-screen change indicator similar in ways to the application switcher. I am not sure if plain-Leopard used to allow you to hold down the Command-key and switch through several languages by keyboard alone, but you can now, and you can see the languages as they come.

Another small but even nicer change is in taking snapshots of the screen. It used to be that each screen capture was called “Picture 1,” “Picture 2,” and so on. Now, they are titled by date and time. This is a nice difference because of naming conflicts. Say you took ten screen caps, named Picture 1-10. Then you dropped them into a different folder, Then you took more screen captures–they would start naming themselves starting with “Picture 1” again, as the previous set are no longer in the directory where screen caps are sent. But if you try to drop the new batch into the same folder as the previous set, they won’t go–filename conflict. You either over-write the original set, or you have to rename them all. Nice touch.

Another small but perhaps very significant change: the Keyboard Viewer is now resizable. For those who don’t know about it, the Keyboard Viewer has been around for years, showing what keys will type when special keys are depressed. For example, if you want to find out how to make the √ sign, open the Keyboard Viewer (Input menu) and hold down the Option (Alt) key; all of the characters that can be typed with the Option key depressed are shown on the virtual keyboard.

So why is it significant that this viewer can be resized? Because of the implications for the rumored touch-screen tablet. While I suspect that such a tablet’s virtual keyboard would be a bit sexier than the long-standing viewer, it is potentially significant–as is the fact that they viewer can now be activated via the Keyboard System Preference pane, as well as by the Language & Text pane.

One last point I found: auto-spell correction.

When activated, this will not fix all errors, but it will fix a lot of them. It does not even appear to be part of the new text-substitution feature, but a fully separate feature. It does not depend on common spelling errors in an MS-Word-like AutoCorrect mode, but instead seems based upon the spell-checker–if there is a spelling error and the spell-checker finds a strong correct-spelling suggestion, it simply switches it in. In this paragraph I have been intentionally misspelling many words, watching them all correct themselves. Sometimes they change to the wrong correct word, but usually it’s very accurate.

More as I notice it….

Well, I have fixed most of the printing issues. I re-established network printing at the office by discovering the color copier’s IP address and setting it up as an LDP printer. That got it back, and I could shut down the old Powerbook and put it away again.

At home, I opened Airport Utility and under Manual Setup, arranged for printing to be available over the Internet using Bonjour. That made the HP psc 2450 I have show up when adding a new printer. Those two were the big issues; now I can print at home and at work.

Still, many people are having printing issues; seems like Apple didn’t quite get that point straight before releasing the OS. But if you’re familiar with OS upgrades, then you know that printers are usually the first thing to go, and one of the last things to get cleaned up.

Big chink in the Snow Leopard armor: network printing is more or less gone. Apple finally killed off AppleTalk, which is what a lot of network printers depend on. Despite Apple’s claims that printing is now “easier” (USB printing was already dead simple, couldn’t get any easier), network printing is now pretty much decimated, requiring workarounds until the printer manufacturers get around to updating the Mac OS software and firmware–which usually means it’ll be a few years before it all gets back to being accessible again.

Before Snow Leopard, my Mac could easily detect the network printers even without any drivers, and the Add Printer software could easily pick up the drivers to allow detailed use of the advance printer features. Now? The printers simply don’t show up at all, and having the drivers installed won’t help even a bit (the drivers only make it possible to finely control the printer, and have nothing to do with detecting them in the first place).

Apple tech support was singularly un-useful, claiming no knowledge of how to cope with the issue (BIG oversight–they should have known that banishing AppleTalk would cause lots of problems with network printing), and the best they could do was (a) tell me to transfer files to a computer that could print, and (b) suggest that it was a problem for the printer manufacturers and that Apple didn’t have anything to do with it. That’s unacceptable: the printer makers did not change anything, Apple did. At the very least they could arrange an easily accessible suggestion for a workaround.

What worked for me: I happened to have my old Powerbook handy, and it could still see the printer. So I set that up and activated Printer Sharing. My Macbook Pro was then able to print by doing it through the older computer. A kludge (the printing is much slower than before), but it works for now. I’ll have to see if I can get shared printing from any office Windows boxes, but the downside is that the sharing computer has to always be turned on.

I broke down and decided to install Snow Leopard on my Macbook Pro. The main reason was that I found an alternate type of ad blocker which is not related to the SIMBL plug-in.

As it turns out, there is even more functionality than I imagined: you can use an App’s “Get Info” dialog box to set it to open in 32-bit mode and to use Rosetta for backwards-compatibility. This almost fixed PithHelmet, which refused to load because it didn’t recognize Safari 4.0.3; I believe it did allow SIMBL to work. But Rosetta allowed my text-swapping app to work, so no problem there.

In fact, most of the experience in Snow Leopard is pretty much the same as before–it’s just faster, slicker, and has some new functionality. This held true on my MBP, which I did not wipe-and-restore, so good for Snow Leopard.

Alas, the transition is not without a few bugs. The most notable is that the Mail app no longer recognizes as viable my outgoing (SMTP) server, and my ISP is one of those that absolutely insists that you use that SMTP server and nothing else, so for the moment my outgoing POP3 email is not functioning; I’m calling Apple tomorrow to see what they say about it. (Update: I just tried setting my SMTP port to 25, and SMTP now works. Strange, as 25 was one of the ports that it supposedly was using to start with. Anyway, problem solved.)

However, there are a few improvements in Mail, the most notable being that it now checks all of your accounts simultaneously. Previously, it would only check 3 or 4 accounts at one time, waiting for each one to finish before allowing the next account to start its check. Additionally, you can now view messages in threads–though I must admit that I am not 100% sure that that was not available before. Other than that, none of the many obvious lacks in Mail have been addressed.

Safari is noticeably faster, but does have a few things I don’t much like. I don’t care much for the “Top Sites” panel you get with a new tab or window; it never appealed to me, and I don’t see a way to turn it off (I’ll have to check to see if the 3rd-party hacks are still available). Also, I don’t really love the new tab setup with the invisible-until-you-hover-over-it close buttons. And SIMBL not working is more than just about losing ad blocking; I had grown quite used to SafariStand’s feature of allowing keystrokes to move you from tab to tab. I also miss not having the pages from the last session preserved.

I like Exposé’s new setup, including how it now lines up the windows instead of the previous scatter arrangement. It’s also interesting how it now lines up minimized windows as well, in addition to maintaining the largest possible size for smaller windows.

So far, so good; Snow Leopard has mostly delivered nice improvements with relatively few hiccups–not bad for a transitional OS.

Some years back, I had a fairly pronounced string of bad-luck experiences with hardware, stuff breaking down on me all the time. Not my Apple gear, but other appliances and 3rd-party computer peripherals. One 17-inch CRT I used with my desktop PC crackled, sparked, emitted black smoke and died on me, for example. More recently, my luck has been pretty good. Not that nothing breaks, but it breaks just in time.

For example, my last Macbook Pro developed a minor screen problem–nothing big, a slight darkening in the lower corners, but I was worried that it might worsen over time. And it happened just before the 1-year warranty expired. Apple fixed it (even letting me wait until after the warranty expired for a convenient time to have the replacement done), swapping out the screen with a brand-new one. Cool. And no problems since then.

My iPhone also had some glitches a bit back, about 6 months after I got it, I think. Took it in to SoftBank, they didn’t even ask what was wrong, they just replaced it. Nice.

With my iMac, having a 24-inch screen made me nervous–if that sucker broke, it’d be expensive as hell to get fixed. So I took out an AppleCare extended warranty on it. And it worked fine, up until just now–just a month before the 3-year warranty expired. I started experiencing graphics glitches, and after a very brief phone call with Apple Support (no waiting, even for an English-speaking operator in Japan), the operator told me that he felt it was a problem with the graphics chip, and without even telling me to do a clean re-install or anything (I had not reinstalled and added Snow Leopard yet), he made an appointment to have the iMac picked up. No big hassle–we’ll just take in your computer and fix it. It’ll be out for three days, is that OK?

While I was at it, I mentioned the wireless keyboard that I gave up on a few years back. OK, he said, we’ll ship out a free replacement unit. Didn’t even ask me to test it out–heck, he didn’t even ask what was wrong with it, just like with the iPhone.

I think I’ll call in and ask them to also check out the DVD drive while they’re at it, see what happens. It hasn’t failed, but I have used it a lot and those things are notorious for limited lifetimes–and it does make a slightly funny sound nowadays.

And now I have noticed a little flicker in my current Macbook Pro screen–when I am using the lower-power graphics chip, the top part of the screen flickers black for a fraction of a second every so often. Warranty expires in November, so I have time. For that one, I’ll either ask them to wait to fix it in December as I’ll need the machine every day in school, or will take it in to the Genius Bar so they can give me a first-hand diagnosis of what might be wrong.

Call me an Apple fanboy, but I do like their service–and have been having very nice luck in the timing of what small stuff does go wrong.

I just installed Snow Leopard on my iMac, doing a complete wipe and re-install of the hard disk drive–something that should be done with a computer every year or two anyway (more often if you use your computer more like I do). And the change is extremely noticeable.

First, I should say that I had not wiped the disk and reinstalled the OS for a few years, so that makes a lot of the difference right there. Crashes, errors, and just plain hard use over a few years will introduce enough glitches in the OS and with the hard disk that will slow your computer down significantly enough. Still, I don’t remember it being this fast before. I know, subjective, but still. Safari pages load fast, very fast indeed.

One of the first things to note about Snow Leopard is the footprint: Apple claims that you’ll save 6GB of disk space because they have slimmed down the system so much. When I installed, I customized it so that it would add in all printer drivers plus other software that Snow Leopard does not install by default, so as to remove any slimming-by-defeaturing. I started out with a hard drive with 219.5 MB of free space. After Snow Leopard was installed, it showed that I had 243 GB of free space. Whoa! Did I just get 24 GB of extra drive space?

Alas, no. But I did get the advertised 6GB. With Snow Leopard, Apple has also changed the way hard disk drive space is reported: in Snow Leopard, they switched from base two (binary) to base ten counting. When you buy a 250GB hard drive and plug it in to your computer, it only shows something like 238GB available; this is due to the difference in counting systems. Now that Snow Leopard uses base ten, just like the hard drive sellers, when you plug in a 250GB hard drive, it’ll show 250GB available.

That’s where I got the bulk of my “extra space” from, and this difference became clear with a simple test: I shut down my Snow Leopard iMac, tethered it to my non-Snow Leopard Macbook Pro, and held down the “T” key on the keyboard while restarting the iMac, making it start up (in just a second or two) as an external drive to my MBP. And on the MBP, the free disk space is listed as 225.14GB–almost exactly 6 gigabytes lighter than it was before I installed Snow Leopard.

So far, I have not had much chance to test the whole system out. Startup certainly goes a lot faster, and the icon-resizing slider is very cool. I have not used the new Exposé features much yet, but they seem to work as advertised. I tried out the new system-wide autotext replace feature (type in a text string and have it be replaced by another), and it works, though disappointingly weakly. It does not work in some places (such as, disappointingly, any text window or box in Safari), nor does it not allow you to control how it swaps the text (it only swaps after a space has been typed). It’s kind of a very weak version of the text-swapping software I have used–and suspect will no longer work in Snow Leopard.

And that leads up to the big thing, the reason why I might not be installing Snow Leopard on my Macbook Pro just yet: some software doesn’t work yet. I have become heavily dependent on two things: my autotext replace utility and PithHelmet, my ad blocker for Safari. PithHelmet doesn’t work either–I tried to install it, but apparently SIMBL doesn’t work in Snow Leopard yet. And for me, that’s a big deal–after having blissfully quiet web pages for so long, going back to pages filled with all those dancing, flashing ads is a jarring experience, not to mention an incredibly annoying one.

I’ll report more on Snow Leopard after I test it out some more, but it may be a week or two–Apple is taking in my iMac this week, something I’ll cover quickly in my next post.

What if the rumored Apple tablet is a subversive, anti-pirating transition device?

Apple has an extraordinary system built up with the iPhone, the best three points being (1) the App Store, (2) Multi-touch, and (3) style. The last point is more or less a given with Apple–they’ve always done style well. The first two are worth looking at.

Multi-touch I have reviewed previously, and it is just as valuable now as the Mouse and the GUI were in 1984; Apple stands to profit by being the first on the leading edge of a new interface revolution. Using your hands to interface with a computer is just shy of the perfect interface, the remainder being voice interaction. That’s how we interact with our world–through our hands and with our speech. Bringing Multi-touch to the PC will be a big thing, and Apple holds most of the patents on that.

But the secret weapon Apple wields is the App Store–or, more specifically, the new paradigm Apple has built for applications. Think about it: have you ever pirated an app? “Borrowed” an install CD of Microsoft Office from a friend or family member, or even downloaded something from the Internet via P2P? Most people have.

But who here has ever used a pirated iPhone app? Sure, the iPhone has the whole “jailbreak” thing, and it is possible to pirate iPhone apps–but it is not easy, nor is it common. It’s a very fringe thing, despite the widespread use of the iPhone.

The iPhone represents a software company’s dream: a closed system where users almost always pay for software.

The rumored Apple tablet could be a step toward standardizing that paradigm. If this takes over, then the days of easy pirating would be over; sure, you could do it, but it would be harder to do, and therefore less common.

But it’s not a loss to the casual pirate user; one of the reasons people pirate so often is because of the steep price of apps. Even cheap popular commercial apps usually cost more than a hundred dollars, and often more advanced software costs several hundred dollars, advancing to the four-digit range.

One of the reasons software costs so much: because so many people pirate it, software companies have to charge more to make up the difference. Why do so many people pirate it? Because it costs so much.

Enter the new Apple App Store paradigm. A system where most people pay for apps because (1) it’s harder to pirate apps, and (2) apps are much cheaper. That’s the key, breaking the cycle of expensive apps. If everyone paid full price for Adobe Creative Suite, it wouldn’t have to cost a thousand dollars. By starting with the iPhone app store, where the under-$10 price range is expected, Apple can build up from there. If the Apple tablet is a controlled app environment like the iPhone, it can engender cheaper apps.

Imagine the new Apple tablet coming out with iWork-for-Tablet being included free, along with iLife and Mail and Safari. And then you pay no more than $25 for new apps. Many people balk at buying PowerPoint for $100–but how about for $25? Most would probably say, “Hmmm, not so bad. Why not?” and plunk down the money.

Apple’s iTunes Store has made it clear that people will pay for something they could easily pirate, so long as the price tag is reasonable.

Is Apple’s new Tablet a step toward a closed, controlled, and pirate-free future for software?

If so, then Apple stands to profit enormously–as Microsoft does not seem to be poised to go the same way, and Apple stands to make a sweet 30% on all software sold–when currently, neither Microsoft nor Apple get a penny for third-party software sold for use on their OS.

Apple may be smarter than we give it credit for.