Mute Witness > Tech News

I realize that I very happily drink the Apple Kool-Aid. I feel warm and secure in Steve’s Reality Distortion Field, so you can choose to take this with a grain of salt… I’m kind of excited about the Apple SmartCover for iPad 2.

I won’t re-explain what it is or how it works, but I found out some extra added info about how it works. I knew about the magnets on the left side that allow for the cover to connect to the iPad 2, but what I didn’t know is that there is a magnet on the front of the iPad that holds the SmartCover in place, so it is never out of alignment. Pretty neat. But what is even cooler to me is that this magnet is actually what triggers the iPad to wake from sleep when you open it, not a proximity sensor.

What does this mean? Well it means that when you open the SmartCover the iPad not only wakes up but it also does the equivalent to the “Slide to Unlock” so when you open the cover, the iPad is waiting at the home screen! Another nice feature is this is apparently built in to the iOS so eventually other manufacturers will be able to take advantage of it too!

Back in 2006, Apple began the transition from the PowerPC architecture to the Intel x86 architechture that all Macs run today. We knew that it would be only a matter of time until we could not run any software that ran on a PowerPC but to help in the transition we had Universal applications, or applications that had both x86 and PowerPC code. It was also during this time Apple announced Rosetta, also known as “the most amazing software you’ll never see”. What it did was ran PowerPC code inside the Intel version of OS X. It was seamless, and unseen. Apps just ran. It was a very big help during this transition.

Apple then started last year in finally killing PowerPC support by shipping Snow Leopard, an Intel ONLY version of it’s Leopoard operating system. It also went one step further by not installing Rosetta by default, but making it an optional install that got launched when you tried to run a PowerPC app. Now with Lion, reports are stating that Apple has completely killed Rosetta. Lion will not be able to run any old software that was written for and complied for PowerPC. You may be saying that this is no big deal, and I’d agree with you, but please check around on your Mac and make sure you don’t have any old versions of Office for the Mac, like v.X hanging around.

Reports are also stating that Lion won’t run on an Intel Mac that doesn’t have a dual core chip. This means the original MacBooks won’t run Lion .

Ah the price of progress.

One of the features of Lion that I have been most excited reading about is Air Drop. From what I can glean, Air Drop is a new way to share files between Mac users (Lion only of course) on a network with no configuration. In the sidebar of the new finder there is now an Air Drop icon which instad of opening a folder, opens a finder window that will show all the other Lion based Macs around you. Drag your file to the perso you want to transfer it to and bang it goes. And from what I’ve read, the transfer is fast. The best part is that as soon as you’re done, close the Finder window and you’re not available anymore in Air Drop. No more leaving “Filing Sharing” on and dealing with that damn Drop Box.

Another huge surprise announced on Thursday is the Lion Developer Preview and boy is it amazing. A new faster Safari, a more improved iPad like Mail client, changes to the Finder, Full Screen Apps and more. I’m really excited about it. Apple has released some interesting tidbits on their site:

Launchpad

We’ve already heard about this feature from Steve Jobs, but it’s a very nice way of launching your apps from an overlay of the desktop that looks just like an iPad.

Full Screen Apps

Applications that are enabled to do so will fill up the entire screen and an entire space.

Mission Control

A feature that makes Expose actually useful, showing all your open applications (with their windows) plus your dashboard and other spaces. It looks as if I’ll finally remember to use Expose now!

Auto Save and Versions

Apple’s building these versions into the OS, and developers will have to put the hooks in, but Lion will be able to auto save your docs and make versions of the documents you save and give you a Time Machine like mechanism for rolling back.

Mail 5

I’m perhaps most excited about the new Mail. It will look more like an iPad with your messages in a list with a reader pane on the right and you can also see “conversations” now, even including your sent messages. I can’t wait to try it.

Air Drop

A new mechanism for transferring files between Macs on the same network with no configuration. I’m very curious about this and will report more when I can.

Lion Server

Last but not least, Apple shocked me by including all the features of OS X Server, right in the client! This will really change the way we Mac users do thing. This means that for the same price as a client copy (usually 129$) I can install server on my Mac Pro (server currently is $499).

All in all Lion looks great and I’d love to get my hands on it sooner than later! Apple says they are on track for a release this summer.

Thursday, Apple Announced updated MacBook Pros. Across the board the MacBooks got new Sandy Bridge based “iCore” chips. As I said in my post on Thunderbolt, there are lots of articles out there if you want to know the nitty gritty of what was changed, I’m just here to give you my point of view.

The most notable thing to me is that the 15 and 17 inch MacBook Pros all have quad-core processors in them. That’s pretty impressive. The 13″ MBP gets only a iCore 5 dual core chip but still the changes in Sandy Bridge should make things quicker. Another change that caught my attention is that there are no longer the NVIDIA graphics chips that supposedly made MacBooks and MacBook Pros so wonderful. You’re now saddled with a built in Intel Graphics Adapter. This may be a moot point, for all we know they may be every bit as quick and functional as the NVIDIA chips are. While we’re on the topic of the Graphics Cards, the 15′s and 17′s in addition to the built in Intel cards now have discrete AMD chips, with automatic switching. Tho the two different models of 15 have a huge difference in graphics memory. There is also a lovely new HD FaceTime camera with 720p video!

The thing that disappointed me however, was that Apple did not up the resolutions of the MacBook Pro’s displays. My current MacBook Air 13″ has a resolution equal to that of the MacBook Pro 15. I would have thought that Apple would have followed suit with the new MacBook Pro displays.

I will say that the upgrade seems to be a very solid upgrade and if you’re in the market for a MacBook Pro, you’ll certainly get your money’s worth. I’ve read reports that the 13″ MacBook Pro is actually faster than the old 17″ MacBook Pro! However, if you’re not currently in the market, it might be a good idea to hold off as I think we’re going to see a major overhaul of the MacBook Pro line along with Intel’s new Ivy Bridge chipset due out toward the end of this year.

Well on Thursday, as expected Apple announced new MacBook Pros. I’ll talk about those in another post, but along with upgraded MacBook Pros, Apple and Intel announced “Thunderbolt”.

Thunderbolt (I just can’t stop thinking of the James Bond movie “Thunderball” every time I hear it), is a very high speed I/O port designed by Intel in conjunction with Apple. There are plenty of articles out there about what Thunderbolt is so I’m gonna just talk about my thoughts and not give you all yet another technical run down.

Apple combined the Thunderbolt port with a normal Mini Display port. We’re told that Thunderbolt can do parallel connections so we should be able to transfer data and video at the same time. The port shows promise not only because it’s MUCH faster than USB 3.0, but because you pretty much can plug anything into it. Conceivably you could plug in a USB 3.0 device into the Thunderbolt port, as well as something that was designed with a Thunderbolt port. The speed is such that eventually you’ll be able to plug in a giant array of drives in and they’ll function as if they were inside attached to the motherboard, you could even run Ethernet over it. Add to that the fact that you’ll be able to “daisy chain” up to 7 devices together, tho this means that there will have to be hubs or Thunderbolt ports on the devices you’re using so that you can plug the next item in. All of this however is “eventually”. I’m curious to see how fast Thunderbolt catches on and really what it means for my beloved MacBook Air and the future designs of MacBooks in general. I’m also curious to know what this means for prices of hard drives and other external items. The future is ahead of us for sure.

Lots of tech folks out there are complaining about the name… Thunderbolt, but I asked on Twitter and I’ll ask here again… how funny did “Firewire” sound when it was first uttered. The only other complain that I heard that I kinda had thought the same thing was the icon. On the MacBook Pro, it looks like a high voltage icon. Hmmm, maybe that’s not so good.

Today, Droid Life is reporting on the latest Android Tablet competitor, the Motorola XOOM. A 10.1 inch tablet that will have a front and rear camera, 1GB of RAM, 32GB of storage, WiFI and a 3G chip upgradable to 4G. Sounds good right? Well according to this leaked Best Buy circular, not so much actually.

First of all the price… $799. In comparison with the iPad, for 70 dollars less, you can get an iPad 3G with the same 32GB of ram, for 30 dollars more, you can get an iPad 3G with double the ram at 64GB. Second, and perhaps the more egregious is that you can’t use the WiFi unless you buy a month of 3G service which is at least $20. I mean really? You have to PAY for 3G to enable the WiFi chip? Couldn’t they have added the price of the month of 3G to the price and just enabled the WiFi? Hell with the price your paying couldn’t they have included a month? You know what even THAT is ridiculous. Who ever heard of having to “enable” a WiFi chip.

See what I mean? They just don’t get it.

[Read the original story at Droid Life]

Today, HP had their WebOS device event where they announced the new WebOS 2.1, the Pre3, the Veer and the touchpad. My first impression of the touchpad is overall it’s not bad. I mean I really wish they’d have come up with something LESS iPad like. I mean the darn thing looks almost exactly like it at a glance. It’s specs are pretty good and I have to say if I absolutely could not have an iPad, I’d go for one because I think that WebOS looks so much better than Android. All in all it’s a nice package, however…

There were no details on pricing and just a very vague “Summer Availability”. This I don’t get. Palm did this with the Pre and I’m afraid for HP touchpad in the same way I was afraid for the Blackberry Playbook. As I watched, I wanted to send out a memo:

Dear Tech Companies,

If your product is one that pushes into a brand new market, or totally changes the existing paradigm, please feel free to show it to me months ahead of time. However if your product is a “me-too” product, or your company catching up on the latest thing… DON”T SHOW A PRODUCT THAT YOU CAN’T SHIP FOR 6 months.

Sincerely,

Me

I mean by the time this “amazing new tablet” with it’s “new chip” and “tons of ram” comes out, the iPad 2, the Blackberry Playbook and who knows how many other devices will be on the market and that means that the touchpad might look old the day it comes out… much like the original Pre.

And I know what you’re thinking. That this is just more Apple fan boy stuff, but I want to be clear, I WANT the touchpad to do well. Seriously want it to do well. I think the WebOS is the only platform that is close to my beloved iOS, and the more competition that Apple gets, the better. If HP had announced the touchpad with a release date of next month… that’d be a game changer. As it stands right now… this is no better than the amazingly over priced Motorola Xoom… I fear they will both be DOA.

Well the day is finally upon us, the Verizon iPhone went on sale. Reviews were released and everyone had one thing to say “the phone makes calls”. Verizon wants to tout how much better it’s voice network is and AT&T wants to talk about being able to use data and voice at the same time. Lots of podcasts, blogs, and news sources have chimed in and I’ve heard quite a few of the make the comment that “making a call” is more important than “surfing while talking”. So I might as well chime in as well.

Now we all know from listening to these tech journalists, who all seem to live in the Bay area or in the NYC area that the AT&T iPhone can’t make calls. It drops calls. It’s horrible. We’ve heard the refrain ad nauseam. The only problem is… I don’t have a problem with making calls on my iPhone. Do I drop calls? Yeah once in a while but no more than I ever did on T-Mobile or on AT&T. Will I concede that Verizon’s voice network is bigger and probably stronger than AT&T’s? Yes. Yes I would.

But, I need to say that for me… the talking while surfing thing IS more important. I do it all the time. I’m always checking something while on the phone, email, texts, looking something up on Google. I mean this is important to me. What about to you? I think I’d be just as unhappy as all of those tech folks who can’t make their calls.

This video came recommended to me by Chuti. It’s a truly amazing video.

I can’t get over how how unbelievable this is. I mean really… fully grown skin in just four days? Stem cells are amazing. I swear this is the future of medicine. I wonder how many diseases can be cured and how many lives can be saved if we continue stem cell research? Damn right wing Christians!