And Gruber? ⇾
A thought I had regarding yesterday’s news and the writing of John Gruber.
Beginning to End: A Tale of Good Support ⇾
My recent interaction with Apple.
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.
Steve Jobs Oldie but Goodie (via Kottke)
“We believe that people with passion can change the world for the better. That’s what we believe.”
I don’t often watch videos such as this, being a fairly recent Mac convert (5 years) and not having all that much interest in computing history. But this clip is enlightening, and a potent reminder of why I so enjoy Apple, their products, and their panache.
Maybe it’s mostly Steve’s panache. Whatev.
“Mark these words: FaceTime goes down as one of the most important things Apple has ever introduced.”
MobileMe Now Supports External Addresses ⇾
Hmm, that was one of the primary reasons I’ve been sticking with Gmail.
“PC’s are going to be like trucks … they’re still going to be around. They’re still going to have a lot of value. But they are going to be used by 1 in x people.”
Why an iPad and a Mac mini are my computing future ⇾
Here’s an interesting look at how the iPad is changing people’s expectations for their future computing needs. I’m thinking along the same lines: is my Macbook needed anymore?
Currently, yes. But as the iPad evolves — and we know it will, Apple’s past ten years are ample proof of that — I expect I will be able to do more and more creation (aka work) on it. So, while I currently need my Macbook for work excursions to the local Starbucks, I know that need will eventually go away.
For some time, my thinking was that my next purchase would be an iMac. It would be the perfect desktop complement to my iPad. But this article does a great job listing some benefits of the Mac mini and has me thinking along those lines. A new mini would work great with my current ACD with matte display. But the 27” iMac is one impressive device.
I could still go either way, but one thing I’m feeling more sure of every day: my need for a laptop computer is hanging by a thread.
[ via Minimal Mac ]
