From scratch, installing Lion: One reboot, one update package, one more reboot, and Safari opens with no bullshit. Windows 7: Two hours, four reboots, and updates that prevent me from shutting the laptop, two more reboots, and IE opens with TWO TABS full of random bullshit.

Truly, I'm just a sheep who doesn't appreciate what Microsoft has to offer.Brandon Matthews

Here we have the man who invented the personal computer, then the laptop. He’s now destroying them. That is an amazing life.Rupert Murdoch on Steve Jobs.

A little writeup about how GCD works, and how sometimes it can make your performance *worse*.

It’s true that a Verizon iPhone would require new hardware. But that’s not a holdup. I’m nearly certain that a Verizon-compatible iPhone is pretty much like the Intel-compatible version of Mac OS X — something that Apple has kept going all along, ready to put into production when, if ever, its time comes.John Gruber

Other than "sources informed on the topic" (of which there are none in this post) I don't see any evidence why this would be the case. The reason Mac OS X was continuously built on x86 after NeXT acquired Apple is the same reason the USB team at VMware accepts bugs encountered in configurations we don't publicly support: it's a great way to ensure that your product is solid. If there's a problem in one configuration, chances are really good that it affects the others in some way. Never throw anything out that is supposed to work.

Apple has never made a product using CDMA before, and it's not worth the new investment to create new hardware unless it's in the plan. The iPhone division's time is too important—there's just too much to do. If there is a CDMA iPhone in existence, it's a recent development, not something that's "pretty much like the Intel-compatible version of Mac OS X".

I'm also not sold on this fixation with Verizon. They may have the largest subscriber base, but Verizon is notorious for the control they exert over their handsets. New firmware, new UI, disabling hardware features like GPS and Bluetooth—it would take a complete paradigm shift for Verizon to ever accept the iPhone without trying to dick with it. If there is a deal for a CDMA iPhone it seems more likely to me that it would be with Sprint. This "iPhone is coming to Verizon!" stuff has always sounded more like wishful thinking by locked-in Verizon customers than educated guesses by an impartial analyst.

the first question everyone has asked about my new iPhone has been "does holding it ruin its reception?"

If I bridge the antennas on purpose, I can make reception suffer. And if I block the speaker with my finger, the sound quality sucks. This phone required no adjustment of my habits for it to work fully, and it's not just me:

If I hadn’t seen the headlines, I probably would not have noticed anything unusual. It’ll be at least a week of use before I can really tell.Matt Drance

Why have people have been so taken with this mudslinging? Every device with an antenna is susceptible to this problem; it's lame that the new iPhone has been singled out. Why don't you take a second to appreciate the new display? Take a few test shots with the best phone camera available today?

In my few days of experience so far, this phone is categorically an improvement over its predecessors. When the first iPhone was launched, with its bulbous aluminum and glass design, this is what I hoped it would evolve into.

Matt Drance has started blogging.

if you've never heard of him, one of his many roles was as our evangelist when I worked in Dev Tech. last year he went indie, and his blog has a cute domain name to reflect his new life. I'll be reading it.

a quick example demonstrating how to get data from the system using AppleScript within Java:

import javax.script.*;

class Test {
  public static void main(String[] args) throws Throwable {
    // before running, select a contact with an image in Address Book.app
    String script = "tell application \"Address Book\"\n"
                  + "   set contacts to selection\n"
                  + "   set contact to item 1 of contacts\n"
                  + "   set photothing to image of contact\n"
                  + "end tell";

    ScriptEngineManager mgr = new ScriptEngineManager();
    ScriptEngine engine = mgr.getEngineByName("AppleScript");
    Object retval = engine.eval(script);

    // prints: java.awt.image.BufferedImage
    System.out.println(retval.getClass().getName());
  }
}

while the shipping product was largely written by Mike Swingler, this was my intern project in 2007.

from The New York Times, a neat infographic:

note how the number of edges emanating from a company is an indicator of its health¹. Kodak has been dying since the commoditization of the digital camera. Nokia started to crumble when the iPhone went global. conversely, HTC is doin' all right—they even split last year.

filing lawsuits is an indicator that you've lost your innovative edge. losing the lead, you're exploiting what's left out of your inventions and legacy until you've finally converted all your integrity into bankruptcy. the news will enjoy adding their spin as well, further complicating things.
whether founded or not, these impressions taint your reputation. they damage your business.

Can you name a company you admire that spends its time enforcing patents, instead of innovating? Remember the pirate flag you flew over Apple's headquarters when you were building the Mac? Is Apple part of the Navy now?Wil Shipley

who cares if someone took your ideas to build a competing product? that's how the market works. build the better product—it can't be hard if all your competition can only manage plagiarism.

I hope this passes soon so we can get back to creating the future.

Flash evangelist Lee Brimelow made his little poster showing what a bunch of Flash-using web sites look like without Flash without actually looking to see how they render on MobileSafari. Ends up a bunch of them, including the porno site, already have iPhone-optimized versions with no blue boxes, and video that plays just fine as straight-up H.264. iPhone visitors to these sites have no idea they’re missing anything because, well, they’re not missing anything. For a few other of the sites Brimelow cited, like Disney and Spongebob Squarepants, there are dedicated native iPhone apps.

Kendall Helmstetter Gelner put together this version of Brimelow’s chart using actual screenshots from MobileSafari, the App Store, and native iPhone apps. The only two blue boxes left: FarmVille and Hulu.John Gruber

pretty damning that Brimelow could only find two good examples for his Apple roast, including the porn card he chose. I'm on the fence on the Flash debate, but I keep finding it harder and harder to justify.

one difference between Mac OS X and Windows these days is that I'll upgrade Milami's macbook in a recliner with a glass of wine, confident that she'll be able to use the new environment just as easily as the previous version. she may not even notice that things have really changed.

I'd come up with a witty Windows analogue, but we don't have a machine that runs it anymore.