You may or may not have been aware of the contest going on over at phillryu.com, but regardless it yielded some very interesting results. All I can say is that as always Mac fans are extremely creative and have amazing imaginations when it comes to what an OS can or should do. I’d be willing to bet Apples OS X R&D team will be looking over this stuff and stealing borrowing some of these concepts (lets just hope not everything). You know these are some Mac-worthy innovations because the contest was judged by talented individuals from around the Mac developer and web site community. The contest received over forty entries, so I am sure it was not an easy task to select the 3 winners who all received prize packages worth over USD$1000. The winning screenshots by Eric Patterson, Emmett Stackelberg and Adam Shutsa, as well as runners up by Nathan Ziarek, Reuben Henriques, and Stephen Siciliano are now on display and accompanied by comments by members of the judging panel. So take a look and start daydreaming about your perfect OS X feature.

I love Skype, but ever since they were bought by eBay it seems like they have been having a hard time getting the Mac client up to feature parity with the PC client. Well, looks like they have finally posted the official Skype for Mac with video preview. Of course it is a preview so we can expect bugginess to ensue, but at least we can play with it. Now if they could only add Skypcast support… Oh well, I’ll take the features as I can get them. Thanks Skype, I still love you.

Can losing the cord save the mediocre Mighty Mouse?

Well at least Apple finally caught a clue and fixed one of my major complaints about the Mighty Mouse. It should have been Bluetooth from the beginning, especially since every Mac currently ships with Bluetooth built-in. Now, I actually bought an original Mighty Mouse and I was really excited about finally having an Apple designed mouse with two buttons and scrolling. I even used it for a while, but the truth is it now lives life in a bottom desk drawer (a fate I feel many a Mighty Mouse may have met). My reasons for abandoning the Mighty Mouse are unknown even to me. The only answer I have is an esoteric one and it involves knowing that using the Mighty Mouse just never felt quite right. The mouse-ball was fun to play with, but was never really as practical as a scroll-wheel. The “squeeze” button was always awkward to use and the invisible right mouse button never seemed to be as functional as the button on a true two-button mouse. Lastly there was the wire. It just never made sense considering all the great wireless two-button scroll-wheel mouse options available from Microsoft, Logitech and others. So while Apple has lost the wire, and that is a good thing, I think this new revision of the Mighty Mouse may end up being the “Almost but Really Just Not Quite Mighty Mouse with Bluetooth”.

UPDATE: I just read that the new version is also laser based and not optical, which is a nice improvement, but doesn’t really fix the issues I mentioned above.

Whenever I think of running for a long period of time I can’t help but remember that scene from Back To the Future III (my favorite movie series of all time). Doc is at the bar and talking with a man from 1885 and telling him about the future (bad idea if you don’t want to disrupt the space time continuum). He says that they have great forms of transportation and the “auto-mobile”. The old man says “doesn’t anyone ever walk or run?”. To which Doc replies “oh, yes but for recreation”. And then the line that I always say, but no one ever catches on (because as I get older so do the movies) “RUN FOR FUN!”.

All that to say, that man had no idea what the future would hold for running. I have run over 250 miles in the past 12 weeks and so needless to say my running shoes were shot (actually the right heel started to cave in). So I was in the market for some new shoes. Well, me being the geek that I am planned it just right. Nike just released a new line of Nike+ shoes that work with your iPod Nano. There is a chip that you put in your shoe and that sends your speed and mileage to the Nano which keeps track of your run and displays the info on screen or via voice through your headphones.

First Bungie (Halo), then Connectix (Virtual PC) and now iView Multimedia. Microsoft seems to be developing a good track record for buying up companies that develop great Mac software. iView’s Media and MediaPro applications are some of the better digital asset management titles on the Mac. Combined they offer the next logical steps up for users who need photo management functionality beyond iPhoto. Microsoft has posted a FAQ for the acquisition and claims they plan to continue to develop iView products for the Mac. That is good news, but for some reason I can’t help feeling a twinge of sadness every time I hear Microsoft has scooped up another great developer of Mac software. I just hope the Microsoft Mac Business Unit (who does a great job) is heavily involved with the future development of the product. I also wonder if this acquisition hints to the fact that the in-house Vista photo management software hasn’t come out good as Microsoft had hoped.

With the official word from Apple that Steve will give us a glimpse of Leopard at the World Wide Developer Conference (WWDC) in August the media frenzy to predict new features is starting to roll into high gear. I have already seen many of the fakes which are surfacing around the web and now there is even a how-to so you can join the party. While surfing this morning I ran across this great article on MacWorld listing 23 new features some of the best minds in Mac media would like to see included in the upcoming OS X release. As I was reading the article and nodding in agreement to many of their suggestions I realized that for almost every “feature” they were recommending, they also pointed out a 3rd party program already available and already doing the job. Then I realized while I use many of these 3rd party applications myself there were others listed that I don’t use and I am not interested in using. So why are we, and Apple, seemingly so eager to pump up OS Xs feature set? With the last few releases of OS X we know Apple has set a precedence of “borrowing” concepts from great 3rd party developers and rolling them into OS X. The downside to this “borrowing” is we often alienate and lose these developers along with their innovative thinking. Plus, I wonder if there isn’t a better argument for not integrating so many features into the OS.
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Here is a story about why you should all do as I say and not as I do.

About a week and a half ago my 20″ iMac G5 started to turn off by itself. I thought it was a fluke at first, but when it happened 2 nights in a row I began to get suspicious. So I began the normal troubleshooting procedure: plugged into another outlet, reset the PRAM, ran repair permissions, reset the Energy Saver settings, reset the SMU, etc. Now, this is my main desktop system where I store all my iPhotos and other personal files, so you would think at this point it would have been a good idea for me to make a backup right? Of course it would of, but if I had, I would not be writing this and since I am, I’m hoping sharing my story will allow you to learn from my idiocy.
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Looks like Apple is continuing to expand their “Get a Mac” TV campaign. They just posted 3 new ads to the http://www.apple.com/getamac site.

I have to say I think they may even be better than the first round of ads. These seem to really focus on the concept that using a Mac will help you get things done, a concept I always felt Apple had a hard time expressing in their advertising. One of the ads even highlights the Macs new ability to run OS X and Windows XP (notice the legal line about needing to buy Windows). Overall I think these ads are a nice addition to Apple’s marketing blitz. They also seem slightly more compelling for switchers than the last batch, but are probably still a little more for Mac fans than potential PC defectors. Of course, I am still waiting to see those Gisele ads.

We have all heard (and even been a part of) the rumors that the MacBook Pros heat issues are stemming from the amount of thermal paste applied. Not too long ago an image was released from Apples service manual that pictured approximately 10-20 times too much thermal grease being applied to the CPU in a MacBook Pro and this was all we were going on. I had my suspicions then that this was simply a pictorial and had nothing to do with the actual amount applied (I still believe any Genius worth their position would not apply, or leave applied, that amount of thermal grease). It would seem however that it is true.

That is to say the amount of thermal grease being applied is far too much, but not that it is making the difference. I just ran across James Duncan Davidsons experiment over at MacDevCenter and it is certainly interesting.
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The Truth is Out There

So ask yourself how you would feel if overnight you were suddenly hated and villified by an entire community just for speaking your mind on a few Mac forums and blogs (the MacCast included)? Well, that is exactly what happened to Jason Tomczak. If the name sounds familiar you probably think you know him as the guy who brought a lawsuit against Apple for the scratching issues with the iPod Nano. If so, you would be correct in the fact that his name did appear as lead plaintiff in the suit brought forth by David P. Meyer & Associates Co. LPA and their representative firm, Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro LLP. But, according to Jason, that is the only fact you would have correct. A name on a sheet of paper.

Jason recently posted an Open Letter to the Mac Community and, according to him, he never wanted to be part of any lawsuit against Apple. He claims the law firm contacted him and asked for his “insight into the problem” which he provided. He also maintains he did so with the understanding that he wanted no part in any case they may file as a result of his opinions. So after months of remaining silent and after becoming a target for the hatered and loathing of many Apple fanatics, Jason took action and is revealing his side of the story. He hopes his letter will finally clear his name and expose what he considers to be the truth behind the lawsuit. I hope you all take a moment to read it. It offers a great perspective directly from a main player in the story and goes far beyond all media bites we heard last October. I am sure if I go back and listen to my comments at the time I am probably guilty of perpetuating the hype and guilty of letting my pro-Apple bias prevent me from peeking behind the media curtian. One thing is for sure, Jasons story serves as a reminder to be careful about what we say and, even more importantly, to be careful about who we say it to.

Open Letter to the Mac Community
The Truth Behind the iPod Nano “Scratch” Class Action Suit