A previous post on the MacCast blog discussed some practical predictions on Apple’s iPhone, and the MacCast community commented on it. Some aspects we collectively got right, others not so much. Let’s take a look.

How Apple would create iPhone

• Prediction: Not from bottom up.

• Reality: from scratch.

I underestimated Apple’s dedication to this device. Yes, they created the iPod which is a data retrieval device. I thought because the iPhone was a different animal, one that both retrieves data, but creates it as well, that Apple wouldn’t spend the resources needed to build a mobile device. Boy, was I wrong. Severely wrong.
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A podcast about all things Macintosh. For Mac geeks, by Mac geeks. Macworld 2007 Part 4. A collection of interviews from on and around the show floor at Macworld. I have chats with MacLife, Storyist, ArtRage, Boinx Software, TeachMac, and Other World Computing (ModBook).

Links:
Samson Technologies
MacLife
ModBook
Storyist
EarthDesk
ArtRage2
Boinx Software
TeachMac
Other World Computing
RouteBuddy
Arkady

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Things that save me time are always high on my list of priorities. When presented with a device that could turn typed documents into useful pieces of text I was up for taking a good look. The product is the IRISPen Executive, which is a small handheld pen type scanner, with a small scanning head that captures three or four lines of text at a time.

From the offset, the IRISPen may not sound that impressive, but it is the usefulness of this little device that wins me over. More often than not I find myself reading something in a magazine and wanting to quote it in an article I am writing, or perhaps email it to a friend or colleague. Under normal circumstances I would have to type it, or scan it and send as an image. With IRISPen I can slide the scanning head over the text and, voila! The text is transferred into MS Word or my email application (for example). This alone saves me so much time.
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A podcast about all things Macintosh. For Mac geeks, by Mac geeks. Mac Podcaster Meetup 2007 Part 2. A live recording of the Mac Podcaster Meetup recorded at the Apple Store in San Francisco on Thursday January 11th 2007. A special thanks goes out to the podcasters, Apple, Inc. and the Apple Store, and all the people who attended the event. Also, a very special thank you to Alex Lindsay and the Pixel Corps for recording the event.

Podcasters:
Adam Christianson, Maccast, Mac Roundtable (https://www.maccast.com)
Leo Laporte, Mac Break, TWiT (http://www.twit.tv)
Ken Ray, Mac OS Ken (http://www.macosken.com/)
Alex Lindsay, Mac Break, TWiM (http://www.macbreak.com/)
Scott Bourne, Mac Break, iLife Zone (http://www.ilifezone.com/)
Merlin Mann, TWiT, 43 Folders (http://www.43folders.com/)
Andy Ihnatko, Chicago Sun Times, MacNotables (http://www.suntimes.com/)
Derrick Story, O’Reilly, The Digital Story (http://www.thedigitalstory.com/)
Dave Hamilton, Mac Observer, Mac Geek Gab (http://www.macobserver.com/)
Chris Christensen, Amateur Traveler (http://www.amateurtraveler.com/)
Bill Palmer, iProng Radio (http://www.iprong.com/)
Shelly Brisbin, Blogger & Podcaster Magazine (http://brisbin.net)
Stuff, Pomcast (http://www.pomcast.com/)
Don McAllister, Screencasts Online (http://www.screencastonline.com/)
Tim Street, French Maid TV (http://www.frenchmaidtv.com/)

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A podcast about all things Macintosh. For Mac geeks, by Mac geeks. Mac Podcaster Meetup 2007 Part 1. A live recording of the Mac Podcaster Meetup recorded at the Apple Store in San Francisco on Thursday January 11th 2007. A special thanks goes out to the podcasters, Apple, Inc. and the Apple Store, and all the people who attended the event.

Podcasters:
Adam Christianson, Maccast, Mac Roundtable (https://www.maccast.com)
Leo Laporte, Mac Break, TWiT (http://www.twit.tv)
Ken Ray, Mac OS Ken (http://www.macosken.com/)
Alex Lindsay, Mac Break, TWiM (http://www.macbreak.com/)
Scott Bourne, Mac Break, iLife Zone (http://www.ilifezone.com/)
Merlin Mann, TWiT, 43 Folders (http://www.43folders.com/)
Andy Ihnatko, Chicago Sun Times, MacNotables (http://www.suntimes.com/)
Derrick Story, O’Reilly, The Digital Story (http://www.thedigitalstory.com/)
Dave Hamilton, Mac Observer, Mac Geek Gab (http://www.macobserver.com/)
Chris Christensen, Amateur Traveler (http://www.amateurtraveler.com/)
Bill Palmer, iProng Radio (http://www.iprong.com/)
Shelly Brisbin, Blogger & Podcaster Magazine (http://brisbin.net)
Stuff, Pomcast (http://www.pomcast.com/)
Don McAllister, Screencasts Online (http://www.screencastonline.com/)
Tim Street, French Maid TV (http://www.frenchmaidtv.com/)

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A podcast about all things Macintosh. For Mac geeks, by Mac geeks. Macworld 2007 Part 3. A collection of interviews from on and around the show floor at Macworld. I have chats with Plasq, equniux, MacBak, Humble Daisy, mStation Audio, Austin and Peter from AppZapper and iClip.

Links:
Plasq
Missing Sync for Palm
equinux
Delicious Library
MacBak
SuperDuper
ProfCast
CircusPonies
mStation Audio
Backdrop
AppZapper
Disco
iClip

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A podcast about all things Macintosh. For Mac geeks, by Mac geeks. Macworld 2007 Day 2. A collection of interviews from on and around the show floor at Macworld. I have chats with Centurion Technologies, Nova Media, Microsoft’s Mac Buisness Unit (Mac BU), Mariner Software, and MyMac.com.

Links:
Centurion Technologies
Nova Media
BeLight Software
Microsoft Mactopia
Microsoft Mac Mojo
Mariner Software
MyMac.com

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A podcast about all things Macintosh. For Mac geeks, by Mac geeks. Macworld 2007 Day 1. A summary of all the announcements from this years keynote along with my reactions following the event. we take a look at Apple’s transition to Intel, the successes of the iPod an iTunes, the lack of any Mac related announcements, Paramount pictures content added to iTunes, AppleTV and the revolutionary new iPhone.

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Well, they say the best laid plans… I ran into a bit of trouble today with getting my Apple keynote summary out on the podcast feed. Most of this comes down to some mistakes on my part with setting recording levels. Another factor is the extreme slowness of my G4 iBook in encoding the audio. I just finished editing now at 5:30 PM PST and I need to bet at some events, meetings and parties starting at 6:00. The good news is, the show IS still coming. Hang in there and I will try to get it in your feeds before the morning. Until then here are my thoughts:

1) WOW
2) I can’t believe there is nothing for me to buy at the Apple Store.
3) Wish I could have seen SOME of Leopard.
4) Where is the Octo Mac?
5) Pre-ordering my AppleTV tonight. Yes!!!!
6) iPhone is amazing. The UI is truly revolutionary and it seems to be everything you would expect from Apple in a phone. I think it costs a bit too much, especially when you add on the 2-year service contract.

More to come, stay tuned.

Better than anyone could have imagined—all in one device. Let’s look at some of the details we know so far:

Here’s what we know regarding the phone capabilities:

• Cingular is US Parter
• GSM / EDGE
• WiFi and Bluetooth
• SMS conversations in iChat-like format
• Visual voicemail—answering machine like technology where all the messages and their contact info are listed on the phone, and can be selected to playback out of order—not sequentially like traditional voicemail. Those who use VOIP will be familiar with this. Not sure yet, but there is probably some “special sauce” that allows the phone to communicate with the voicemail service.
• Email: POP/IMAP/Push (Blackberry-like mail)—Free Yahoo! Accounts with every Apple iPhone
• Full HTML Safari web browser
• Runs a portable version of Mac OS X.

Other amazing iPhone notables:

• Multi-touch screen with onscreen keyboard
• iPhoto, iTunes, Contacts, Calendar, To-do lists, Widgets
• Bluetooth Headset
• 4GB and 8GB memory capacity
• 5 hour battery life, 16h just playing music.

$499 for 4GB, 8GB for $599. Available in June 2007.

I’m sure Adam et al will have much more to say when they get back to posting. Stay Tuned!