In order of revelation, here are a few of my first impressions of the Mac App Store:
The icon — I’m not one to rant on about app icons. If I don’t like one, I’ll change it. This one wasn’t too surprising as it resembles the iTunes icon. Like them or not, it makes sense for the two to be similar.
Flight Control? — I still find it weird to see iOS apps coming over to the Mac. I love Flight Control on my iPad, but can’t imagine playing it on my Mac. Curiosity has not won out on this one. Yet …
App Store Staffing — With two full stores now up and running with millions of apps to review and monitor, I feel a small sense of surprise that Apple has been willing to provide the staff for an effort like this.
Installed app recognition — I was pleased to see that several of the apps I already have installed were recognized by the App Store. However, some were not. Cabel Sasser and Daniel Jalkut shed light on that front [ via Shawn Blanc ].
Junky apps, in your face — The problem that plagues the current iOS app store is already in plain site on the Mac app store. There are a lot of low quality apps available and finding the good ones is simply not easy. Not from within the App Store anyways. Buying and updating apps in the app store is simple and good for the users. Finding apps in the app store is not. I’ll still be depending on tweets and posts to inform me of the best software available for my Apple devices.
Preferences — There are none for the App Store app. It would be nice to be able to turn off a preference to have newly installed apps placed permanently in the Dock.
iLife Apps — In a great move, the iLife apps are available as standalone purchases. No longer do I have to pay some $70 to have iWeb sit in my Applications folder.
The near arrival of the Mac app store has generated a lot of buzz, rightfully so. For this guy, software is where the action is, so today is a lot more exciting than a lot of Apple’s keynote events throughout the year (where hardware is often the focus).
Those familiar with my opinions may remember that I feared this moment however. The last couple of years were good for Apple and their customers though, so my fear about el Stevo turning my beloved Mac ecosystem into a walled garden has mostly abated. It was tempered a lot in 2010 where it appears that they’ve worked out a lot of the issues that were a large issue with the current app store.
So today, I’m not excited so much for the new Mac app store itself, but what may be available inside. I’m pretty set with my lineup of applications at this point. But the possibility of some new gem from the Panic team, maybe a little Tweetie for Mac 2, or anything from the wizards at Tapbots has me installing 10.6.6 as we speak and looking forward to seeing what’s to come.
While discoursing on the subject of Flash again, Gruber says this about Apple:
It boils down to control. I’ve written several times that I believe Apple controls the entire source code to iPhone OS. (No one has disputed that.) There’s no bug Apple can’t try to fix on their own. No performance problem they can’t try to tackle. No one they need to wait for.
Yet Apple has shown no concern in this regard for the developers of the applications for the iPhone. The current App Store infrastructure is not set up so a developer can quickly fix a bug. Unless he/she works for Apple.
He says later in the piece:
I say what Apple cares about controlling is the implementation.
Maybe, but I would say they only care about their implementation.
There has been a lot of interesting, insightful and intelligent discourse on the iPad over the past 5 days. Much of which has been provided by people who have not even seen this device in ‘the flesh’.
I can appreciate thoughts such as this one provided by Fraser Speirs in his piece titled, “Future Shock”:
If the iPad and its successor devices free these people to focus on what they do best, it will dramatically change people’s perceptions of computing from something to fear to something to engage enthusiastically with. I find it hard to believe that the loss of background processing isn’t a price worth paying to have a computer that isn’t frightening anymore.
And Craig Hockenberry soothes the nerves of my over-stimulated inner child — who simply wants to create and is angry and frustrated with the adult me who tinkers way too much — with this thought:
There’s an inherent benefit to only doing one thing at a time: the load of worrying about other tasks is lifted. Knowing that there isn’t anything else competing for your attention is quite liberating.
Many people have spent some quality time thinking about the future over these few short days and have penned some truly great thoughts. And for the most part, I’m on board.
But …
There is one small issue that worries me. I’m more than happy that Apple is stripping the idea of the personal computer down to the essentials. I want my parents, my grandmother, and every other extended family member to be able to just do what they need to do. I want that for myself at times.
The move to touch computing is another aspect of the future that I do not fear. It’s not here yet — for me at least — simply because I cannot yet do my job on iPad 1.0. But I have no doubt that it’s coming and so far I’m simply grasping to somehow get a firm picture of what that might look like. But at the end of the day, I’ll leave that to Jobs and Apple, who for the last decade, have shown so much more propensity for vision than I have. Or anyone else.
No, my issue merely lies somewhere on the fringe of one of the discussion points that has been debated this past week: the closed nature of the iPhone/iPad infrastructure. On this point, some good points were made on both sides. And while I appreciate the perspective by those who debated that the closed nature of this platform is indeed better for all of us, one question repeats itself in my ears:
It’s the community that first attracted me to the Mac platform and OS X. And it’s this community that provides the majority of the software that I use to do my job every day. I fear that if Apple continues their strong arming of these developers, some (or many) of them will eventually go elsewhere.
At this point, the signs are pointing to these very developers being excited about the potential of the iPad. But that’s easy now, while the excitement is high and the news fresh. I only hope it’s enough to keep these devs satisfied if Apple continues their inane rejections of App Store submissions.
But there is hope. As internet racountere John Gruber recently stated:
Developers go where the users are.
And the momentum that Apple started in the century’s first decade appears to be rolling strong, at the expense of vendors selling Microsoft PC’s or crappy mobile phones.
At this point, there’s not really anywhere else for the great developers to go (Linux users, you know this is true). But I hope that Apple improves the entire App Store situation, rather than hope that a lack of better alternatives keeps the great developers from leaving.
It’s the community that makes this platform strong. And if Apple plans to move the Mac lineup into this closed framework along with the iPhone and iPad, I want to see the community follow.
Just as with the iPhone, we now have a few months to find the answers to all of our most obvious questions. As the last few drops of Cupertino Kool-Aid are slowly eliminated from my bloodstream, lucid thoughts are returning and I’m left with a void. At the moment, the biggest question many of us are asking is this: will the iPad be something I could put to use?
And forget the obvious sating of geek gadget lust — I’m talking about usage that fits a need. Ever since the iPhone was released, my stance has been the same. I still greatly prefer my desktop. The iPhone/Touch platform was an amazing advance in mobile phone technology, but for those of us who rarely need a mobile phone it is reduced to a really fancy satellite device. The nicest, most advanced satellite device we’ve been able to use, but still second fiddle to the desktop (and by desktop I mean your regular, everyday setup which may be in the form of a laptop — what you use to do your job).
Once the rumours about this device started to thicken, I again asked myself if this was a device that I could use. If it’s somewhere between the iPhone and Mac OS X, the question that needs to be answered for me is whether it can replace my Macbook.
And that’s a question that cannot be answered yet. There simply isn’t enough information available. But here are the key items that I’m left pondering.
OS Capabilities
We know it’s the iPhone OS, but how much is that OS changed from what’s currently running on everyone’s iPhone or iPod Touch? If I use an application that is already available in the App Store, will the responsible developer be able to add logic that will enable the app to recognize what device it’s running on?
An app that can optimize itself for the current display and the limits it imposes would be very impressive and useful.
It’s Magic, but What About the Magic Mouse?
Unlike the iPhone, the iPad will support an external keyboard. But will it support an external mouse? Not just any old mouse of course, but what about Apple’s own Magic Mouse, which already supports aspects of the Touch technology?
The Dock Connector probably was the biggest surprise to me as I watched the news unfold. This is a big step to making this device more relevant to someone like me. But after the reality distortion field wears off, an issue come to mind: Using the keyboard is fine, but the ergonomics of reaching way up to touch the screen to do anything other than enter text sounds like a recipe for pain in the long term.
Will I be able to use the Magic Mouse to perform some of the Touch gestures that I can perform on the screen? I realize that there is no cursor in this OS — yet. But for the time being, if I’m using an external keyboard, it seems more pleasant to me to shift my hand over to the Magic Mouse rather than interacting with the screen itself.
External Displays
And with ergonomics in mind, this device has another issue. Using it with the Dock Connector does not appear to be feasible for long term use when it comes to the neck. When spending a long period of sitting and using a computer, the display needs to be up off the desk. And so …
Will this device support an external display …for computing uses? Hooking it up to my TV is not relevant for someone who doesn’t consume a lot of media. I want to know if it will connect to my ACD.
And if not the iPad, then what about the future. How long before we see a touch screen iMac?
Long Term: Is Apple Desktop Offering Open or Closed
Lastly, it seems clear that all this technology will trickle down to (or take over) the desktop at Cupertino. But will it be open or closed? I shudder to think of OS X (or it’s future derivative) as closed, when it’s the third party ecosystem that brings me the most enjoyment on this platform. And this ecosystem is a result of the openness of the OS.
If that goes away, will using a Mac be as much fun?
I know my issues here are related to work scenarios. There is no doubt that this device will be spot on for fun and entertainment. But I’m more focused on how it will relate to my work life, because that’s where I spend all my time on my computer. Ergonomics are not nearly as much of an issue in home entertainment.
Overall, I’m left with the impression that this is not the end destination for Apple, but just another step on the way. Like the iPhone, the iPad is just the next step in Apple’s plan to be the digital hub in the home and the office.
