Midnight Cheese

Ernie
You haven’t touched one yet…

Do it at lunch… shameful…

Cale
No, I think we’re going to run over to [the Apple Store] at lunch tomorrow

Ernie
Today.

Cale
I know… we’re going to be the last people walking in there to say OMG how awesome! And the Apple people are just going to be like, “Lamers….”
Then they’ll say, “You have to leave now.”
and we’ll be shamed

Ernie
They will. The rest of the crew can assume the shame but you were an Apple owner before the iMac.

Shamed.

Big time.

I shame you.

Cale
I’ve received a call from an iPhone… does that count for anything?

Ernie
No.

Cale
dammit

Ernie
I called myself with an iPhone, when you can say that… half shame lifted.

Ernie
If you buy an iPhone on the spot, the rest of the shame is lifted, otherwise you will have to live with iPhone half shame for the rest of your life.

Poor Calculator just couldn’t handle it today.

According to Sitening, 150 people were lined up at the Green Hills Apple store around 2:30 this afternoon. They have photos of the event.

Update: It also looks like various companies are giving away products to those standing in line.

With all the iPhone speculation, I thought it would be fun to take a crack at what form such a device might take, and how it would function. Let’s look at iPhone using the classic adage of “form follows function.”

Function – Information on the go.

There’s a big difference between the core function of an MP3 player and a phone. That difference is most notably: Push vs. Pull. An MP3 player pushes media (music, video, podcasts), while a phone actively pulls in information (meeting times, the latest gossip).

So, let’s look at iPhone sans MP3 player. This means the device is all about communication and information.

Instead of “browsing the web,” iPhone would probably function like a mini desktop computer with many different applications or widgets delivering specific information. Mini apps like a mail reader, and an RSS reader would be likely. This would also open up the possibility for other vendors to write applications for the iPhone. A Fandango movie time application/widget, and a Google Maps application, for example.

So, with the functionality of iPhone defined as an information device, how would such a device take form?

Form – Simplicity

iPhone would be a brick style phone, thin and about the size of an iPod. This eliminates moving parts like hinges that take up space and junk up the phone.

As an information device, you have to be able to read the information. A large screen would be in order, covering the entire front surface of the phone.

No physical buttons. A touch-screen would guide your way. (Think Jeff Hans’ demonstration on a smaller scale.)

A tiny pinhole on the back for the camera lens.

No physical plugs. Any accessory items would connect via Bluetooth.

No battery access. Customers that would buy an iPhone replace their phones so often, by the time the battery needed to be replaced, it would be time for a new phone.

The interface would be insanely simple. A mobile version of OS X with a desktop background and a scrollable dock of applications at the bottom of the screen.

No pen or stylus. Using those devices is akin to cross-stitching. Just simple scrolling movements and key presses using your fingers and thumb.

Of course, iPhone would easily sync with iCal and Address Book.

What about the iTunes tie-in?

This is where the latest iPod revision will enter. Think a wi-fi chip giving iPod the ability to buy music without the need of a computer.

We’ll see what happens on Tuesday!

There’s been a lot of press about the keynote not being too hot, but from a developer point of view the rest of the week was great. (Well, judging from the first three days that I was able to attend, anyway.) Technically I’m not allowed to go into detail about the sessions, but I will say that Apple is doing a lot on the back-end to make development on their platform very easy.

The conference was an interesting event, especially having attended by myself. Everyone kind of kept to their own little groups, so breaking into conversation was a bit difficult. Other people that were attending solo tended to immerse themselves in their laptops inbetween sessions and even during the receptions.

Nevertheless it was interesting to peer into the Apple developer world for just a bit. The WebKit team was exceptionally “awesome” and “hot,” as they tended to throw those words out quite a bit.

Candor didn’t get a mention at the Design Awards. Obviously being the WWDC the judges were probably more interested in how the Widget worked in addition to what it actually did. So iClip was definitely deserving of that. Unfortunately Candor doesn’t use any fancy Core technologies to get the job done.

So overall WWDC06 was a good experience, although oddly it was a bit isolating at times. It would be interesting to compare with something like MacWorld as I imagine you would probably get a much wider spectrum of Apple addicts at that event.

Well, in less than 24 hours I’ll be in San Francisco for the much anticipated WWDC 2006. Candor Gallery has been entered in the Apple Design Awards, so I figure this will probably be the best excuse I’ll have to go to one of these conferences.

I’m looking forward to some great things being announced at the Keynote… No doubt we’ll see the Mac Pro introduced, along with a tasty preview of Leopard. For Leopard, maybe a tabbed Finder and a redesigned UI that begins to lose the bubbly gloss look? After all, their hardware no longer sports the multi colors and the bulbous shapes either.

Perhaps we’ll see Apple negate the work of CodeWeavers and the Alky Project allowing users to run Windows apps straight-up in Leopard.

Will there be one more thing? Maybe a sneak peak at the new wi-fi enabled iPods due out for X-mas? I’d like to see the iPods sport an RSS reader that lets you update your feeds at any wi-fi hotspot.

But aside from the keynote there will be some great sessions and of course the Apple Design Awards Ceremony. I can’t stay for the whole week so I’m going to miss some good stuff like the widget sessions on Wednesday and the Campus Bash on Thursday, but I’m sure 3 days will be plenty of Apple overload.

San Francisco by itself will have plenty to offer. Hopefully I can hit up the Presidio and check out the new Letterman Digital Arts Center. If I have time Wednesday I’m going to try and drive down the coast a couple hours and see what there is to see.

There’s been interest expressed to blog the Keynote live, but I don’t know how feasible that will be. Besides, I want to see what’s going on on-stage rather than staring at my notebook screen the whole time. But we’ll see. There will certainly be plenty of other sources for live Keynote updates.

Anyway, at the least I’ll certainly be posting some photos as the trip progresses, so check back for that!

After using the MacBook for several days now, I thought I would mention just a few misc. odds and ends.

It sounds like the left fan spins all the time. Even when running on battery. This is likely the fan that covers the CPU rather than the GPU, I’m guessing. I’m not getting the high-pitched noises that others have reported. I did have that noise issue with my old PowerBook G4, though. When running on battery, neither core seems to go above 20% usage.

I’m not seeing the band of white at the bottom of the LCD either. But as I mentioned in the last post, the backlight is definitely different on this machine than on their previous laptops. It’s almost like there’s some type of reflective panel back there, because as you move your head or tilt the screen, the brightness kind of rolls along with the tilt. So I think that brightness increase at the base has to do with the angle you look at the screen.

Last night I finally got a little time to sit down with the laptop plugged in and put the machine to task. I ran Google Earth under Rosetta while installing World of Warcraft. Both processes required Rosetta. The machine really began to heat up when that processor was put to use. It’s definitely hotter than my old PowerBook G4 at peak performance. But even with the heat the machine ran smoothly. No hang-ups or pauses. One thing that really surprised me was the ability to run Google Earth under Rosetta with almost zero lag at all. Very impressive.

Battery life is averaging about what was reported in the Ars Technica article. Just over 3 hours.

I would say my only real complaint with this machine compared to the old G4 is the width of the casing around the LCD screen. It’s noticeably wider, mostly due to the iSight being built-in(and why 60 pixels were shaved off the LCD from previous PowerBooks.) But this is probably the only noticeable instance that the machine has recessed in design innovation.