Tog on the iPhone - and the iPhone price

Tog (the usability guru) has written an iPhone review -- without ever touching one. It's fun to read while we wait for the inevitably disappointing reality. I particularly enjoyed his comment on price.

The iPhone User Eperience: A First Look

... The industrial design is brilliant. Apple has created another piece of high-tech jewelry. Some fogies of advancing years have suggested the initial price point of $499 is too high. They fail to understand: The “cool” of owning this phone, particularly for the early adopters, is worth an easy $497, bringing the phone itself down to $2 even.

For those who might doubt such a high value of cool, consider the self-winding Rolex, which sports 1/10th the accuracy of a Timex at 1000 times the price. With Rolex, the technology is grossly inferior, and still people will pay thousands to own it. With the iPhone, the technology is clearly superior...

It can't help but be five times better than my $200 Motorola RAZR, meaning it's cheap by comparison.

New Airport Extreme: best thing from MacWorld

Apple recently announced an iPhone (available in June) and an iTV (good only for Apple downloads) -- and a new wireless lan base station. The last is the best. It's almost available, and it's useful:

Macworld: First Look: Up close with AirPort Extreme

...USB printer and hard drive sharing: Both the current Extreme Base Station and AirPort Express Base Station support printer sharing; plug a USB printer into the Base Station’s USB port, and any Bonjour-capable computer (recent OS X machines as well as Windows computers running Apple’s Bonjour for Windows) will automatically detect the presence of the printer on the network and be able to print to it. This capability is carried over to the new version of the Extreme Base Station, but Apple has added an even better feature: AirPort Disk. Connect a USB 2.0 storage drive—in HFS Plus or FAT32 format—to the Base Station’s USB port, and that drive will be accessible to any computer on your local network via both AFP (Personal File Sharing) and SMB (Windows File Sharing) protocols. Hard drives and flash drives will work, but optical drives will not.

... a new AirPort Disk Utility lets you assign file- and folder-level restrictions to the contents of the attached drive, so each user with permission to access the drive can be restricted to particular files and folders. You can even set up drives to auto-mount on your Desktop whenever you connect your Mac to the network—no more having to use the Network browser or Connect To Server dialog to access your NAS-hosted files.

Finally, if you’ve got a USB printer and a USB drive, or more than one of each, you can simply connect a USB hub to the Base Station’s USB port and then connect those devices to the hub. All of the printers and hard drives will be accessible to the local network, and you can use AirPort Disk Utility to configure access to each drive independently.

You know, this is pretty nice. If I didn't already have an Airport Extreme and an Airport Express I'd buy one. I'd like to see what Apple will do now with the AE ...

Zimbra: open source messaging and collaboration

Zimbra offers Open Source email server software and shared calendar for Linux and the Mac. They do Outlook too, but the Linux/Mac support is the big deal. From Macintouch:

Zimbra Collaboration Suite 4.5 is a server-based, open-source, email/collaboration suite that provides email, calendars, RSS/Atom feeds, tags, and more. It includes support for iSync, Apple Mail, iCal, Thunderbird, Sunbird, Eudora, Outlook, and others. This release adds aggregation of external POP email accounts, email identities, personal distribution lists, the ability to require more secure passwords, email reading in basic HTML mode, email push support in Zimbra Mobile, and more. Zimbra Open Source Edition is available free for Mac OS X and Linux. An enhanced Network Edition is priced starting at $25 per mailbox per year.

The minimal pricing is $350 or so per year for non-profits. That's an excellent deal for a small group. Zimbra may make sense for a small business or startup esp. with a mixture of Linux, Mac and XP desktops.

Adobe is doomed: Adobe Download Manager

Adobe uses the adobe download manager to install and update its software. It hasn't worked on the last two XP machines I have. It tries to update or download, produces a meaningless error message (server is unavailable, the file has moved etc) and tries again. Eventually I kill it.

I used to be able to get the full installs when updates were needed and by pass this dysfunctional software, but that's no longer possible.

Ok, I think to myself, I'll just download a new version of Adobe Download Manager. Except, you can't.

Adobe has created a loop. A broken install of ADM means you can't update or replace ADM. Despite Adobe's claims that I can remove it, I can't do that. (I suspect our corporate distribution of Adobe Acrobat Pro broke it on both machines.)

Acrobat is a strategic product for Adobe. [1]. If they can't get the updater right they can't get anything right. Adobe is not doing well.

[1] I removed Adobe Reader from my Mac for other reasons -- it was annoying and badly behaved. ADM on the Mac did work, though it had oddities too I believe. Adobe has never been able to figure our permissions on OS X, which does not bode well for Vista.

9/25/08: The solution in a later post might be worth applying in this setting. I haven't missed Adobe Reader/Mac since I removed it, so I can't test. Adobe's OS X software is pretty much an insult.

Faughnan.com - extended - My Custom Searches

I’ve used Google Page Creator to create a page that holds my custom searches: Faughnan.com - extended - My Custom Searches. As of today there are four custom searches: my stuff, OS X, “foundational content” (work related – industrial ontology) and “Motorola RAZR V3m”. I’ll probably add more. I use these searches quite often, it’s the best way to work around the “marketing” problem in Google searches (first 10 pages of hits are all people selling something).

If you’d like to add to any of these (excepting foundational content, which is work related) let me know, I can add you as a contributor.

Google supports domain-scoped shared resources for families and coops ..

Even I’m having trouble keeping up …

Your Tech Weblog: Personal domain names for more than mail

... As this person notes, members of a family can share a domain name, and each have their own Google e-mail accounts and calendars associated with that domain name. They can then set up calendar sharing so they're always up to speed on scheduled family events. ...

Ok. Put it on the list …

Transiently attach a naked drive to a USB port

This $25 adapter will work with desktop, laptop, SATA, IDE etc (in theory) on OS X and XP

NewerTech® USB 2.0 Universal Drive Adapter

• Universal to USB2 Adapter
• ATA/IDE/SATA/ATAPI
• Compatible with any 2.5", 3.5", 5.25" IDE or SATA device!
• Supports IDE & enhanced IDE 3.5" internal IDE hard disk
• Supports ATA/ATAPI-6 specification 1.0
• Supports SATA I and SATA II
• USB 2.0 up to 480Mbps transfer speed
• Backwards compatible with USB 1.1
• Plug-and-Play

I don’t need this very often, but probably a few times a year. I’ll put it on my wish list.

eMusic: off-label MP3s - auto-renewing subscription required

eMusic was blessed with priceless NPR coverage this morning …

MP3 music download website, eMusic

.. Start downloading your FREE MP3s today and take two weeks to decide if you like eMusic. If you're not 100% satisfied simply cancel before your trial period ends and there's absolutely no cost…

They require a download manager and it’s subscription based, so it’s not “33 cents an MP3”. It’s $30 for 3 months of 30 downloads/month, so about it’s 33 cents/MP3 if you are good about hitting your monthly maximum. I’d feel better about them it were easier to get their pricing. They auto-renew, which I dislike intensely. I suspect a lot of their margin comes from people failing to hit the monthly limit.

They sell gift subscriptions. I presume those would NOT auto-renew. I’d be inclined to forego the “25 free mp3” and just buy myself a 3 month gift subscription every year or so.

CrashPlan: Another innovative Minnesota company

CrashPlan automates the preferred backup solution used by geeks: store a backup at a friend’s home. As mentioned in their FAQ they also provide a backup store themselves, but they don’t recommend it:

CrashPlan » Support, http://www.crashplan.com/support/faq.vtl

… A typical machine can hold 150GB of data these days. From a typical home ISP, it can take 12 days to get all your data back! During those 12 days, you can forget about using your Internet connection or PC. Did we mention it'll take 2 months for your data to get backed up in the first place?

At $20 a machine, support for OS X and XP, and offsite backup, it’s impressive. It will also support backup across one’s own LAN.

I love the viral feature of how this is sold. “Allowing others to backup to you is free”. Unless, of course, you decide to charge them … heh, heh. Of course they recommend backing up to TWO friends, each of which would backup to … etc, etc.

I’ve seen several peer-to-peer backup solutions, but they spread data over a network of anonymous machines. Recovery will still be tedious, and there’s always the chance of the FBI knocking down the door looking for the key to some weird plot.

I might just do this — I have to check, however, how much data my ISP will let me send.

Hat tip: Andrew

Update 5/2/07: I'm reading about people using this, so it's real. I still haven't implemented, but I'm getting closer.

TidBITS: The new AirPort Extreme sounds very good

By far the best review I’ve seen: TidBITS: AirPort Extreme Updated. A USB adapter is promised, I wonder if it will work on older machines. Note  802.11b support dramatically slows an 802.11n WLAN.

At $180 and support for multiple printers, network storage, attached USB hubs, etc, this is a bargain.

Installing ePocrates for OS X: a vendor on the edge

ePocrates is a widely used prescribing tool. I don't see patients, but I still keep a copy on my Palm. My wife uses hers; it's a significant driver of PDA sales to physicians. Alas, my latest installation shows that ePocrates on the Mac is all but dead.

The first sign of trouble was that ePocrates is using the obsolete .hqx file format to distribute the Installer. That format belongs to the current owners of Stuffit Expander, a notorious bunch of spammers. I had to reinstall StuffIt Expander to open it.

The next sign of trouble was use of the old VISE installer -- an obsolete tool that knows nothing about permissions. It aborted during the early install without an error message. To make a long story short the OS User who is doing the sync has to have admin privileges; I was foolishly trying to install the Mac OS X way -- using an Admin account.

Then, even with new admin privileges for my wife's account, and even with the Firewall off, and even with "enable Internet Connection Sharing" on or off, I couldn't get the ePocratest AutoUpdater application to contact its server. Clicking on "test" did nothing - no error message, nothing.

After a few retries it seemed to sync, but I never got the Rx application! I did get the data sets and the annoying marketing blurbs.

I found the .prc files in the ~/Documents/Palm/User_Name/ePocrates subfolder and made some guesses as to the ones I needed. After a few tries I was able to get the Palm to come up with the Rx data and without an error message.

I'll give ePocrates a break on the later issues -- but not the privileges problems and the total lack of error messages. I'm using Missing Sync to connect an old PalmOS 4.x Samsung i500 to a very modern OS X workstations. It's not surprising there are issues. The sad part is that the install could be very simple. Download a simple .dmg file, click on a few .prc files, check the firewall, and go.

Looking at what ePocrates has delivered I'd bet there's nothing left of the original team. I wonder how well they'll weather the Vista transition; that's going to be a real challenge for Palm as well. Ecosystem changes tend to eliminate the more frail species.

Update 1/16/07: An ePocrates employee who has worked at the Mac version left a comment asking me to contact him. I won't publish the comment (it was just a request to contact him) because it includes his corporate email address, but I will follow-up.

Update 1/22/07: ePocrates did not respond to my f/u email to them.

Update 1/26/07: I recently had to update my XP version of ePocrates. The install ALSO failed, though that could be a corporate firewall issue. The error message simply said the server could not be reached. The XP install offers a large variety of free add-on tools that are not available in the XP install -- though they are all simply prc files that could be easily added to any Palm device.

Also, I was asked for more details on how I got ePocrates working on the Palm. I'll check the backup directory for the device and see if I can enumerate the prc files used.

Google SMS and the nine digit zip fad to come

Google SMS is impressive. It helps to know the zip code, ideally to nine digits, of where you're at. Remember when it was a geek fad to mark WiFi sources with chalk drawings? We need a new geek fad of putting tasteful stickers with nine-digit zip codes on street signs ... (yeah, I know that's illegal...)

Here are my favorites. I use the zip code wherever possible. I need to find an SMS gateway so I can test these further on my computer. The Froogle option is handy when shopping ...

Search Features	Example query
Local Listings	sushi 94040
Weather	weather NYC
Translation	translate hello in french
Driving Directions	pasadena CA to 94043
Web Snippets	g hubble telescope
Q&A	abraham lincoln birthday
Area Code	650
Froogle	price ipod player 40gb
Calculator	1 US pint in liters
Help	local

I'll message these to my phone so I can keep the list handy as a reminder.

PS. I'm amazed to learn that the rich text editor in Firefox supports adjusting table margins and deleting rows!

RoughlyDrafted: best iPhone coverage thus far

Inside the iPhone: EDGE, EVDO, HSUPA, 3G, and WiFi is the best iPhone speculative reporting to date. I'm not done reading; I'll look to see how many of the seven reasons the iPhone is locked they'll review.

Update: The network discussion and comments is the article worth reading, I skipped the rest. I can definitely confirm that Sprint's 3G CDMA network service is a battery killer.

Apple's Mac web site is deteriorating

In another sign of Apple's disinterest in OS X, their web pages continue to deteriorate. This page on AppleScript is typical:

Apple - Mac OS X - AppleScript

Apple provides a variety of AppleScript script examples via download from the AppleScript website, including script collections for the Finder Toolbar, QuickTime Player, iTunes, iPhoto and iDVD.

The link (not shown here) to the AppleScript website doesn't work -- that website is gone. It now redirects back to the page containing the link.

The nervous among us have to wonder how serious Apple is about the Mac and OS X these days ...

OS X Automator: abandonware or a great future?

HyperTalk is the leading example of an abandoned Macintosh technology, but there are many lesser examples. AppleTalk has been on the edge intermittently, OS X services have been abandoned, OS X Java is gone, and, of course, there's Sherlock. Widgets and Automator are relatively new; the former appears to have a future (note the iPhone examples), and I'm cautiously optimistic about Automator.

Most recently I've been trying to use Automator to deal with the worse OS X application ever; my search for solutions led me to a page I'd blogged on before. This time, I read the comments. Sal Soghoian was the PM for Aperture last summer...

ATPM 12.07 - How To: Maybe You Ought To Be Using Automator

.... Sal Soghoian · July 03, 2006 - 16:21 EST #17

Thanks to all for their input and suggestions.

The Automator team is hard at work developing the next version of Automator for Leopard. We're examing all of the issues raised here and I think you'll be pleased with the results.

Meanwhile, there is much you can do with Automator right now in Tiger that you may or may not be aware of. For example:

1) You can run workflows within workflows by adding the Run Workflow action to your workflow.

2) Automator is not limited to AppleScript. Automator actions are written in Xcode and as such can use any language or frameworks supported by the OS. Xcode comes with three Action templates: AppleScript, Cocoa, and Shell. These templates can expose any available OS tools, such as PDF Kit, Core Image, Core Data, or Core Video.

3) Automator includes actions for easily adding your own custom code to a workflow. If there's not a action for what you want, you can use Run AppleScript, Run Shell Script, or Run Webservice to create your own action to fill the gap.

4) New Action collections are being released all the time. There are Action Packs for MS OFfice, Adobe Photoshop, InDesign, FileMaker, ARD, and more.

For a thorough overview of what Automator is, how it works, and how to expand it's abilities -- along with sample workflows and downloads -- vist AUTOMATOR.US...

Sal Soghoian · July 05, 2006 - 12:44 EST #22

RE: controlling FireFox Automator relies on an application's published frameworks or scripting hooks to control it. If there are none then your options are limited. However, you can use other means to open URLs in Firefox.

1. Set Firefox to be the default browser. This is done in the Safari preferences pane.
2. Add a Get Specified URLs action to a new workflow. Enter the URLs you want to open
3. Add a Run AppleScript action to the end of the workflow and enter this code:

on run {input, parameters}

if the class of input is not list then set input to input as list
repeat with i from 1 to the count of input
set this_URL to item i of input
open location this_URL
end repeat

return input
end run

Run the worflow! If you want to be able to enter URLs when the workflow runs, save it as a plugin to the Script Menu and set the Get Specified URLs action to display when the workflow runs by clicking the disclosure triangle at the bottom of its action view and choosing "Show action when run" checkbox...

MOST IMPORTANT: send feedback to the Firefox team that AppleScript support is something you want.

The article and comments point to some good references. The existence of Automator.us is curious. On the downside some of the most developed Automator websites have had very little activity in the past year.

Update 1/13/07: I'll see if anyone answers my Automator question ...!
Update 1/13/07b: Hmm. This might help ...