Apple – Page 3 – Dr. Thompsen

iPhone gets an upgrade

Today Apple did something it rarely does: announce a major upgrade to a product before it is even released. In this press release, Apple stated that the iPhone will have better battery life and a more durable screen than was previously specified.

As I noted in a previous blog post, the iPhone’s battery life has been criticized since it was announced during Steve Jobs’ MacWorld keynote address in January. Saturday Night Live joked that battery life expectancy was only 20 minutes (although the original specifications stated the iPhone’s battery would last about 5 hours). Apple is now saying that when the iPhone is released to the public next Friday, June 29, it “will deliver significantly longer battery life,” with “up to 8 hours of talk time, 6 hours of internet use, 7 hours of video playback or 24 hours of audio playback.”

Perhaps an even more significant upgrade is the switch from a plastic touch screen to one made of “optical-quality glass.” Supposedly this will make the iPhone more resistant to scratches, a problem that I have seen with many of the iPods I have owned over the years.

What Apple did not state in the press release is whether these changes will make the iPod any heavier. The switch to glass from plastic could potentially add a bit of heft, but the iPhone’s specification page still lists the weight as 4.8 ounces (135 grams), as originally announced. One would think that the move to glass would at least add a gram or two, but apparently Apple has found a way to keep the iPhone’s weight constant. Amazing, if true.

What is also amazing is the ability of Apple to announce these changes less than two weeks before the product ships. Surely there must be some units already in the manufacturing pipeline. I have to wonder whether any of the iPhones that have already been created, such as the ones on display at MacWorld and those that have been given to elite technology reviewers (like the Wall Street Journal’s Walt Mossberg) will be retrofitted with glass screens. Perhaps the few iPhones that have plastic screens will become collector’s items…if they don’t get too many scratches on them.

YouTube dumps FLV

A report at iLounge reveals that YouTube is planning to switch video formats in order to integrate more seamlessly with Apple TV. YouTube has been using the Flash Video format (FLV), which some believe sacrifices streaming efficiency for security. Starting later this month, YouTube will encoding videos in the H.264 format, which is an advanced, highly stream-efficient format based on the MP4 standard.

One consequence of this switch may be changes to the way people download YouTube videos. Currently, in order to download videos from YouTube (rather than just linking to them) one needs to either manually find the FLV file in their browser’s cache, or use one of many software or web-based utilities to do the trick. One site I’ve used in the past is KissYouTube, but there are many sites out there that provide similar services. Given the AppleTV-YouTube announcement of a few days ago, I suspect that in the future, YouTube video grabbing will be easier on the Mac than on Windows or Linux.

Say it isn’t so Torgeir!

As an American of Norwegian descent (my grandparents came over on “the boat” from the Bergen area) I was particularly disappointed to recently read Torgeir Waterhouse’s reaction to Steve Job’s “open letter” on music and FairPlay, the digital rights management (DRM) system used by Apple on the iTunes music store.

Job’s letter is in part a response to a complaint against Apple filed by Torgeir in his capacity as Senior Adviser to the Consumer Council of Norway. In that complaint (full text pdf here) Torgeir is quoted as saying that iTunes:

“blocks consumers from breaking the copy protection, or DRM, if they want to use other MP3 players than Apple’s iPod. This is a clear breach of the Copyright Act.”

Anyone who has used iTunes, at least in this country, knows this statement is simply not true. No one purchasing music on the iTunes Music Store is blocked in any way from listening to iTunes-purchased music on whatever device they wish. Yes, some players don’t support the AAC format, but that has nothing to do with the FairPlay DRM.
Continue reading Say it isn’t so Torgeir!

The Disappointing State of SPSS

I recently installed SPSS, what is generally considered the premier statistical program for social scientists, onto a colleague’s Intel-based MacBook Pro. Rather than install SPSS for the Mac, we opted for installing SPSS for Windows (version 15.01) on a Bootcamp partition on the MacBook Pro. One reason for this is because our campus has a site license for SPSS for Windows, but not one for SPSS for the Mac. But more importantly, SPSS for the Mac is not currently supported by SPSS on Intel-based Macs (which includes all Mac models released in the last year).

It seems rather odd that SPSS would post this rather confusing disclaimer about SPSS for the Mac on their website:

SPSS does not support the use of any existing version of SPSS for Mac OS X on the new Intel®-based Mac hardware, including SPSS 11.x or 13.0. The use of the Rosetta emulation software interferes with the numerical calculations in SPSS. We therefore are unable to support any version of SPSS on Intel-based Macintosh machines.

In other words, if you want to run SPSS today on a new Mac, you have to run SPSS for Windows using a bootloader (like Bootcamp) or virtualization software (like Parallels or VMWare). Running SPSS for Mac OS X under Mac OS X on a new Mac is not supported, at least not now. SPSS does state that they plan on releasing sometime during 2007 a version of their program that will run on Intel-based Macs. For now, however, the most viable option for Mac users who need to run SPSS on a new Mac is to run SPSS for Windows using Bootcamp (which technically is still a beta product).
Continue reading The Disappointing State of SPSS

Getting Mac software for less

There are a growing number of web sites offering discounts on Mac software. I’ve written before about MacZot, a site that offers a different discount every day. Sometimes I’ve found some good buys at MacZot, including a great deal on the Keynote enhancement products from Jumsoft. I like how they keep a record of your purchases on the site, just in case you lose your registration keys.

In order to purchase software from MacZot, you do need to fill out a short form to become a member. It doesn’t cost anything to join as a regular member, but for a modest price you can get a “Zotgeist” membership which entitles you to even bigger discounts on selected products, and a free “Zot” on your birthday.

There have also been a number of sites cropping up recently that offer free software as promotional teasers, typically to drive traffic to their sites. Last month, the macappaday site gave some great apps away for free. Whether this will continue remains to be seen, but there is a tease page on their site now that suggests that they will.

At the time of this writing, there were also a few copies of Postino remaining to be given away to those who sign up at MacScoop. Postino is an excellent program for reading RSS news feeds, with support for audio and video podcasts.

One of the most ingenius sites to give away teaser software was MacHeist, which gave away “loot” for successfully completing web-based puzzles. Along with the freebies were discounts for a bundle of ten applications. Although the bundle sale is now over, supposedly there will be one more “heist” in the very near future. Given the length of time people have been waiting for this final piece of the MacHeist puzzle, I suspect it might be a very rewarding mission.

MacHeist inspired a number of “mini-heist” sites, including most notably theAmazon. They gave away copies of PhotoPresenter to those who successfully completed the first mission, and a second mission will supposedly start in the next few days.

iPhone on Saturday Night Live

Here’s a clip from Saturday Night Live where they parody Steve Job’s announcement of the iPhone on their “Weekend Update” sketch. It’s already a big hit on YouTube.
Actually, the battery life is supposed to be around 5 hours for playback of video, web browsing and talk time, and 16 hours if used for music listening. At least that’s the official specifications from Apple. Of course, since the product won’t officially be released for a few months, we’ll have to wait and see how the iPhone’s battery holds up in “real world” application.