The Tao of Mac

Browser Vendors Force W3C To Scrap HTML 5 Codecs

Rui Carmo — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 21:50:48 GMT

The title is, like plenty of other Slashdot headlines, utterly clueless, but what fascinates me regarding the entire rigmarole isn’t Apple’s reticence in adopting Theora or the (shortsighted) perspectives on MPEG-4 – it’s the fact that someone at W3C actually got suckered into believing it made sense to specify a codec as part of HTML5 – it would be tantamount to mandating all images to be of a single format, and, seriously, is not within their remit. Their real job ought to be making sure the markup mess is fixed once and for all (including fixing some of the fundamentally wrong things about the web), instead of trying to wedge in all the frilly stuff.

☯

Android

Rui Carmo — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 22:23:48 GMT

This is an update to an item originally published on Saturday, 17 November 2007.

The mobile platform sponsored by Google as part of the Open Mobile Alliance, evolved from their 2005 acquisition of the company with the same name.

Resources:

Date	Link	Notes
2009
Jun 24	HTC Hero running Android and Sense UI leaks from HTC‘s own website	Flash turns out to not be that exciting. Or useful. Plus the phone is plain ugly, and a lot thicker than what the first shot makes it look.
	HTC Hero hands-on: Flash, keyboard and ruminations
	Adobe demos Flash on the HTC Hero
Apr 29	Vodafone suggests future Android phones could have less Google	People keep confusing the platform with the services.
Apr 27
Loads of fun for various reasons.
Apr 20	Introducing home screen widgets and the AppWidget framework	An interesting technote on how Android handles home screen widgets.
Apr 2	Some Fun Facts About The Google Phone	Interesting stats about usage patterns.
Mar 5	HTC black Magic (Sapphire) hands-on: a Vodafone exclusive	Very few decent shots
Feb 25	Google blocks paid apps for unlocked G1 users	Interesting hint of fragmentation.
Feb 17	HTC Magic is official, bringing Android to Vodafone sans keyboard	And after adding these links, this page now merits a direct, obvious, reference to my Disclaimer
	HTC Magic in-depth hands-on, with video!
	HTC Magic first eyes-on!
	Photos: Hands-on with the HTC Magic Android phone
	HTC Magic – The new Google Android mobile phone from Vodafone
Feb 13	Android Market update: support for priced applications	Using Google Checkout, of course.
Feb 13	Android Market: Open for Business	A very nice (if shallow) analysis that bunches together some interesting tidbits of info.
Feb 12	TeleNav Does Turn-By-Turn on Android	Apparently US-only, which is a pity.
Jan 1	Android netbooks on their way, likely by 2010	Dubious in both title and subject matter (we’ve known that Android could be made to run on PCs for a good while now.
2008
Dec 28	AD IV: Programming Newbie	Tim Bray lists a few interesting resources for new developers
Dec 17	Huawei powers up its Android plans	For Q3’09. Let’s see what they come up with.
Dec 9	Open Handset Alliance announces 14 new members	including Sony Ericsson and Vodafone. Most people missed this last bit, which is fun.
Dec 8	Unlocked Android: $399	Development samples, available for purchase.
Nov 7	Worst. Bug. Ever.	Although this was fixed fairly quickly, it is the perfect example of why mobile phones aren’t exactly trivial to “improve upon” using today’s technology.
Oct 31	iPhone vs T-Mobile G1	A short comparison.
Oct 24	Android Phone Teardown	How weird is it that this is in Japan?
Oct 22	HTC Dream T-Mobile G1 (black) Smartphone review
Oct 21	Android is now Open Source	Let’s see if someone will port this to Intel and get it running on a netbook…
Oct 16	Almost Human: a review of Google’s Android G1 phone	Good reading – a thorough appraisal.
	State of the Art – A Look at Google’s First Phone	Pogue weighs in.
	T-Mobile G1 review
	T-Mobile G1 Google Android Phone Review
Oct 15	Review: Over 260 images and 5 videos of the T-Mobile G1 Google Android device	A tad overkill, but interesting nonetheless.
	What Android Can Learn From the iPhone: It’s the Software, Stupid.	Brilliant title.
	The Google Phone Review: What I Love & Hate About T-Mobile G-1	Om weighs in.
	Google answers the iPhone	Walt Mossberg’s take.
	T-Mobile G1 review	Engadget’s lenghty two-part article, covering hardware and software (loads of imagery).
	T-Mobile G1, a hands-on introduction to the first Android phone	Some interesting videos
	Review of the T-Mobile G1 Google phone	Pretty comprehensive gallery.
Oct 9	First T-Mobile G1 user review	Not particularly gushing.
Sep 23	Video: Android walkthrough on T-Mobile G1	A few demos
Sep 16	Google shows off masked Android handset	About a year later, one of the first sightings of actual hardware (but running over Wi-Fi). I don’t get the “masked” bit, though – the hardware’s pretty obvious.
2007
Nov 11	Wikipedia	Background info
Nov 12	Android SDK	Includes plenty of links to videos and reference information

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iPhoto

Rui Carmo — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 22:06:36 GMT

This is an update to an item originally published on Sunday, 15 April 2007.

Apple’s photo management application, with about as many detractors as supporters.

Hints:

You can enable map zooming via multi-touch by using @defaults write com.apple.iphoto MapScrollWheel -bool YES
@
Holding Alt upon launching iPhoto will prompt you to create/select a new library.
Holding Alt + Shift upon launching will rebuild a damaged library.
According to this piece, pressing Ctrl-Caps Lock-9 will let you use Tab to switch between extra editing features:

Resources:

Date	Link	Notes
Jun 22	iphotoexport	”...preserves both the original and modified image, your event and album organization, and applies your iPhoto titles, descriptions, keywords, and face tags to the IPTC/EXIF metadata of your images”. I’m sold.
Mar 20	Speeding up library databases: `for dbase in *.db; do sqlite3 $dbase “vacuum;”; done`	Taken from this hint
Older	iPhotoToGoogleEarth	Deprecated -generates KML files for Google/Earth from geotagged images.
	Script Export	a plug-in that allows you to process iPhoto libraries for export using (any kind of) shell scripting.
	Keyword Assistant	a decent interface for inputting keywords, with auto-completion
	iPhoto Buddy Buddy	multiple library management for older versions of iPhoto
	iPhoto Extractor	library recovery for older versions

Bugs:

iPhoto 5.0.4 did not support the Canon CR2 RAW format generated by the 350D 350D (firmware v1.0.2). Filed as #4312038 on 2005–10-22, temporary fix here, fixed on version 6.

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iPhone Development

Rui Carmo — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 08:31:47 GMT

This page lists iPhone development resources formerly contained in the 3G node:

Graphics & Generic Development Resources

Date	Link	Notes
2009
Jun 27	LiquidGear	Alternative frameworks for development using scripting languages.
	Corona
	PhoneGap
	Titanium Mobile
Mar 27	iPhone Development: 12 Tips To Get You Started	Nice guide to doing HTML and JavaScript for the device, including multi-touch.
Mar 26	iPhone dev: basic image processing package	Kind of strange considering the amount of built-in graphics primitives, but may be of use later.
Mar 24	Three20	A collection of UI classes and utilities derived from the Facebook app
Feb 19	Bootstrap	A nice primer for people who want to start from scratch
Jan 26	iPhone dev: Retrieving user phone numbers	So it’s apparently possible to retrieve the MSISDN from the system, although it’s not clear in what format.
2008
Oct 1	A touch of Cocoa: inside the iPhone SDK	With the extinction of the NDA, things became a lot more interesting.
Sep 5	Ultimate iPhone Stencil	an OmniGraffle stencil for UI mockups
Aug 19	iPhone GUI PSD	A Photoshop file with UI assets
Jun 3	Yahoo Stencil Kits	Also includes some iPhone UI elements

☯

"iPhone Development" was written by Rui Carmo for The Tao of Mac and was originally posted on Tuesday, 30 June 2009. Except as noted, it's ©2009 Rui Carmo and licensed for reuse under CC BY-NC-ND 3.0.

iPhone 3GS

Rui Carmo — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 08:26:51 GMT

This page is another link dump regarding the 3GS iPhone refresh. Some of the material from the 3G page has been moved over as appropriate.

Date	Link	Notes
2009
Jun 24	iPhone 3GS: $179 to build says iSuppli	I’m starting to think these cost estimates are bunk, but they’re useful as a reference point anyway.
Jun 22	Review: iPhone 3GS lives up to its speedy claims	Pretty extensive review
Jun 22	Apple: 1 million iPhone 3G Ses sold, 6 million downloads of 3.0	Impressive.
Jun 20	Review: iPhone 3G S — Rob Old Ladies to Get It	I wouldn’t be that extreme, but the gallery is interesting.
Jun 19	iPhone, therefore I Am	Stephen Fry reviews the 3GS in his own inimitable style
Jun 18	iPhone 3G S Repair Guide	The teardown frenzy makes its first casualties.
Jun 18	iFixit 3GS teardown	The teardown frenzy makes its first casualties.
Jun 10	The iPhone 3GS Hardware Exposed & Analyzed	A knowledgeable breakdown of the hardware.

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Commission welcomes industry's commitment to provide a common charger for mobile phones

Rui Carmo — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 07:22:16 GMT

This wasn’t a shotgun wedding, but there were noises of draft legislation in the works and some industry buzz (including operator pressure) for a good while now, not to mention that it’s just plain common sense – I’ve been charging pretty much everything off USB for years (mostly by dint of avoiding using phones with pointlessly proprietary chargers). Having Apple as one of the signers, however, doesn’t, as usual, imply any short-term changes to their hardware – a simple micro-USB dongle is more likely.
(more at Ars Technica).

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Using DFS Shares in Leopard

Rui Carmo — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 22:35:21 GMT

Microsoft’s DFS, aptly described in many places¹ is the bane of many a Mac user in corporate settings, since there is no way to resolve DFS paths via the GUI in a standard Mac OS X install.

Having endured for years the nuisance of having to check my Windows machine’s obtuse property dialog boxes to manually resolve pathnames such as \\domain\fs\share into something like \\server\hidden$\share that I could actually mount on my Mac (as smb://server/hidden$/share, of course), I eventually decided to do something about it.

Given the lack of information available (I have never been able to find a solution for this on Google) and my long history running and troubleshooting Samba, one morning I decided to find a solution, or else. My initial idea was to do a series of packet traces and figure out which RPC calls and Active Directory lookups standard Windows machines did, and wing it from there.

Turns out it was way easier than that. I eventually hit upon rpcclient (a low-level RPC tool included with Leopard), and after reading through portions of the source and data structure documentation, I established that asking for info level 3 when querying a known DFS server like so:

$ rpcclient -U 'domain\user' --command='dfsenum 3' known_server

…would yield usable results. In fact, this yields quite a bit of interesting output, not least of which are a list of known servers and, for each DFS mount point, a list of known stores and (most important of which) the real server and share names.

Here’s a suitably anonymized example that should be obvious:

$ rpcclient -U 'domain\user' --command='dfsenum 3' server01a1
Password:
path: \\DOMAIN\FS
comment: DFS File Stores
state: 513
num_stores: 3
storage[0] server: SERVER01A1
storage[0] share: FS
storage[1] server: SERVER02A1
storage[1] share: FS
storage[2] server: SERVER03C1
storage[2] share: FS
path: \\DOMAIN\fs\backup
  comment: 
  state: 1
  num_stores: 1
  storage[0] server: server01A1
  storage[0] share: share01$\backup
path: \\DOMAIN\fs\users
  comment: 
  state: 1
  num_stores: 1
  storage[0] server: server03C1
  storage[0] share: SHARE02$\users
...

I haven’t yet managed to find a simple enough way to bootstrap this by automagically finding the initial DFS server, but will eventually wrap this into a nice Cocoa Python applet to enable point-and-click mounting of DFS shares (this, of course, assuming that Snow Leopard doesn’t include something similar – but I think not).

Of course, you’re free to improve upon this and toss me a copy of your notes/app. :)

—

¹ Distributed File System Technology Center ↩

☯

"Using DFS Shares in Leopard" was written by Rui Carmo for The Tao of Mac and was originally posted on Monday, 29 June 2009. Except as noted, it's ©2009 Rui Carmo and licensed for reuse under CC BY-NC-ND 3.0.

Unsocial

Rui Carmo — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 22:23:29 GMT

Last week I decided (for a bunch of not completely unrelated reasons) to re-assess my online presence, and as the most visible result I ended up writing a trivial Python script to archive and delete all my Twitter entries¹.

Likewise, I’ve shut down my FriendFeed account and have started paring down the stuff I have on Facebook, as well as on other pseudo-social services like blip.fm.

I’ve also decided to pony up for Evernote Premium, since despite the flaky syncing in the current iPhone version, I’m finding it more and more important to take copious amounts of private notes.

Despite Yaki’s flexibility, I don’t want to either spend the time coding in private entries (it’s doable, but time consuming) or run another website, and the Mac app is simply great.

All of this goes beyond my not wanting to spend any time whatsoever running infrastructure (that was plenty fun for the first, oh, ten years or so, but these days I simply can’t be bothered) – I want to stop wasting time maintaining an online presence except where I absolutely must.

Here’s a summary of the (public) reasons I’m doing this, which I think ought to be plain enough:

Time and Attention Span

Like others, I find that Twitter sucks the creativity out of me. It’s not just the effort to summarize things – I’m mostly fed up with the shallow bleating of a bunch of clueless people who simply don’t know the first thing about the mobile industry and all the “ooh, shiny” link fodder. It’s just too much noise, and your brain suffers from handling too much noise of any kind.
Although a bunch of people think it is now absolutely invaluable as a Marketing tool (and I’m actually keeping Eventbox running all day with a bunch of custom keyword searches), I’m starting to think otherwise. Dipping a toe into it now and then to gauge the general feeling is OK, but actually trying to keep track of stuff is madness.

The Social Angle

FriendFeed is pointless, period. Also, it is not completely symmetrical and decreases fidelity of the content it aggregates, which ought to be enough reason for my not going there in months.
Facebook is becoming too much like Twitter for my liking, and until they default to not peppering me with stupid quizzes my friends fill out, I’m sticking to accessing it on the iPhone (which is my main computing device these days anyway).
Also, it is now chock-full of colleagues (which kind of stretches the term “friends”), and one of these days I’m going to login and wantonly remove anyone I have a business relationship with and re-invite them to LinkedIn, which is where they ought to be in the first place³.

Writing

Like I wrote a few months back, good writing takes time. That Pascal quote² has been coming back to me more and more of late, and I’ve been skating on the edge of frustration because I simply can’t find enough time to write properly, and it’s getting to me.
There is much greater depth to convey through proper writing, and I don’t think it’s worth my while to dally in a 140-character microcosm.
Whatever writing I do these days is, sadly, not very likely to pop up on this site. But Evernote gives me a way to start drafts on the move and refine them at leisure, often still on the iPhone.

Privacy

I’m simply fed up with people badgering me, online or otherwise. I deal with some pretty sensitive stuff at work (the kind that 90% of folk in the industry hardly ever see), and people tend to read entirely too much (no matter how wrongly) into what I post, whatever the medium. So this is my way of cutting down on the aggravation.
Facebook is an utter failure at creating private photo albums. There is apparently no way to remove photos once you know their URL, which I guess is one of Haystack’s little dark secrets – they clearly don’t compact the haystack or clear out their CDN that often, because (and this should give you an idea for how long I’ve been planning for this) a photo I deleted on purpose one month ago is still online, if you happen to know the URL. So I’m back to MobileMe for sharing family pictures, since it now seems to work properly.
I don’t see much point in posting photos of my travels, meals, locations thereof, etc., unless they’re truly notable. Except when it’s a public event of some sort – and I sure avoid plenty of those.

There will be further evasive measures in the future, but for now that’s the status quo. I’ll keep you posted.

—

¹ At least to the extent it’s feasible, since roughly 500 entries from 2008 seem to have been lost by Twitter itself. ↩

² “I have made this letter longer than usual, only because I have not had time to make it shorter.” ↩

³ There are always people you become friends with while working with, but I don’t see the point of assuming we’re friends by default. I don’t want to play Mafia Wars with half the company, for chrissakes. I’m there to get other stuff done. ↩

☯ (comments allowed)

JSON

Rui Carmo — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 23:01:15 GMT

This is an update to an item originally published on Saturday, 20 June 2009.

Resources:

Date	Link	Notes
Jun 27	JSON Template	A neat and powerful engine for Python and JavaScript.
Jun 20	HTML-based JSON Editor	A very simple (26K!) and effective way of editing and viewing JSON data.

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HTTP Client

Rui Carmo — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 22:54:25 GMT

HTTP Client is a developer tool for debugging HTTP services by graphically creating & inspecting complex HTTP messages:

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iPhone 3G Press Coverage

Rui Carmo — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 08:33:34 GMT

This is an update to an item originally published on Tuesday, 22 April 2008.

This page is a semi-automated link dump from all the stuff I tracked while the 3G version of the device wasn’t made public, and then some. It doesn’t try to be complete or unbiased – it’s just a link dump.

With the announcement of the 3GS model in 2009–06-08, I’ve decided to cut down on the updates a bit, since it’s clear that the platform (and its impact) is now stable enough, and this page will be deprecated (and bits of its content moved elsewhere) in favor of other, more future-proof topics…

News Coverage

Date	Link	Notes
2009
Jun 26	Why AT&T Has a Lock on the iPhone	A cogent explanation of the sorry state the US is in regarding mobile network technology and why the iPhone will likely remain a 3GPP device.
Apr 23	iPhone App Store crosses the 1 billion finish line	Not too shabby, even if most apps aren’t that hot.
Apr 14	Forrester Research changes tune on iPhone in enterprise	Go figure, huh?
Mar 31	iPhone 3.0 beta 2 released, push notifications are a go	For later reference.
Mar 27	iPhone 3G Finally Available In US Contract-Free	i.e., at a non-subsidized price of $599 for 8GB, $699 for 16GB.
Mar 17	Apple reveals slew of new features for iPhone OS 3.0	One of the few sane overviews that wasn’t spread across umpteen micro-posts as banner ad fodder. I also kept a copy of the promo graphic, since it’s quite nicely done:
Mar 16	Computerworld – Apple Tablet to be announced tomorrow	Yeah, right… Another rumor that didn’t pan out – at all.
Mar 10	Dilbert gets one	Maybe.
Mar 9	iPhone now has more commercial apps than Windows Mobile	Strange, but apparently true.
Feb 27	Millionth UK iPhone sold last quarter, says O2	A bit low, I should say.
Feb 19	Adobe changes its tune slightly on iPhone Flash	Not so positive now, eh?
Feb 13	Report gives iPhone 51% of US smartphone ad market	But only 32% worldwide. I still think AdMob’s metrics require a very large pinch of salt, but the pies are nice:
Feb 11	Over 20,000 iPhone and iPod touch apps now available	Impressive by any standard.
Feb 9	iPhone may not see light of day in China thanks to App Store	Can’t see this happening, at least not in the way/reasons depicted here.
Jan 31	iPhone passes 1 percent goal for 2008, looking good for 2009	Analyst predictions – tread with caution.
Jan 29	Report: iPhone Costs Less Than BlackBerry Storm To Make	US$174 vs. US$203. I am not surprised at all.
Jan 21	Apple Reports First Quarter Results	4.3M iPhones sold in the quarter, raising the total up to around 14M.
2008
Dec 29	Contract-free iPhones now available in France	As would be expected, sooner or later.
Dec 23	iPhone ends year with strong market share, faces challenges	Some wishful thinking here, but the figures are nice for a recent entrant. I’m saving a local copy of the graph here:
Dec 17	Orange’s iPhone exclusive ruled illegal in France	L’exclusíf, c’est fini…
Dec 4	Gartner: Apple overtakes Microsoft as world’s #3 smartphone OS vendor in Q308	Again, this depends on how you define “smartphone”, which is irritating.
Dec 2	iPhone Now Has 16.6 Percent of World Smartphone Market
Dec 1	Apple iPhone 3G – The Top 10 Everything of 2008	TIME ranks it at #3, which isn’t shabby. And they nail the bit about it not being that good a phone.
Nov 28	Linux on the iPhone!	Jailbreaking wasn’t enough, apparently, so the next step is to spend years trying to deliver an alternate sub-par user experience to 0.01% of people.
Nov 12	Analysts: Apple and iPhone partners blowing it in India	More evidence of analysts who simply don’t know what they’re talking about – in a market as deeply segmented ias India and where phones and tariff plans are fundamentally different, the iPhone (or any other smartphone) simply can’t be sold in droves.
Nov 10	iPhone 3G Tops RAZR, Ending Moto’s Three-Year U.S. Reign	Again, this isn’t really news, considering the average suckiness of US phones.
	iPhone Best-Selling Phone in the U.S. for Q3 2008
	iPhone 3G (temporarily?) trounces RAZR as top consumer phone
Oct 30	Analysts: Apple ‘Top 10’ Cell Phone Vendor As iPhone Grabs 2% Of Market	Somewhat hyped – I’d have liked a better definition of what they consider to be the market.
Oct 24	Revised iPhone SDK NDA better late than never	The new NDA is not that different from the old one, but will help smooth ruffled feathers.
Oct 21	So iPhone reached 11.6 million unit sales in past 12 months	Somewhat opinionated and clueless (esp. regarding profitability), but worth reading.
Oct 21	Apple Reports Fourth Quarter Results	Impressive.
Oct 13	iPhone 3G becomes second best-selling handset in the US	Not at all surprising, considering the average US phone is crap.
Oct 8	The Relevance of 10 M – awaiting the final numbers for the iPhone	The percentages are mostly right, but there is an understimation of how much the industry is being driven at the high end (and in carriers) to react to the iPhone.
Oct 8	iPhone wins heart and mind of British public, takes 4 awards	Funny thing about those British technology awards – they’re a public vote, and therefore largely a matter of perception, not experience.
Oct 1	Apple Drops Part of iPhone Developer NDA	Making a whole lot of people sigh in relief
Sep 17	Mixed data on smartphones sales makes iPhone a wildcard	Rather pointless, really. With all the different definitions of smartphone right now, nobody will ever be able to do any sort of precise stats, and everyone can claim a win.
Sep 10	Apple Gains Smartphone Market Share	A minute gain overall, but measurable (depending, of course, on what you define as a smartphone). Here’s a local copy of the AdMob and Wireless Week stats graphs:
Sep 1	Apple iPhone: 8 million and counting	Although I think that counting the 2G ones is cheating a bit. Still, it’s nothing compared to what Nokia sells (and is still much less than what they sell in new S60 models alone)
Aug 24	iPhone 3G antenna test	Which shows that there is no problem whatsoever
Aug 17	Apple trims push notification out of newest iPhone firmware beta	Makes sense – best to remove something that needs tweaking than to push out an update with problems
Aug 14	iPhone 3G Issues: The Plot Thickens	I wouldn’t call it so much of a plot – more a sort of unsubstantiated hysteria.
Aug 14	What’s Behind the iPhone 3G Glitches	Speculation reaches the mainstream, sustained by little more than anecdotal evidence.
Aug 11	Analyst: 3 million iPhones sold in first month	Hmm. Nice.
Aug 11	Is iPhone’s 3G Connection a Disappointment?	Sometimes I wonder why it’s taking the US four years to catch up with Europe in 3G.
Jul 17	Apple’s iPhone Configuration Utility Disappoints	An interesting take on the enterprise tools.
Jul 14	The Second Coming: Ars goes in-depth with the iPhone 3G	Up to their usual standards, and crammed with detailed shots.
	First Impressions of the iPhone 3G and iPhone 2.0	Short but informative.
	Apple Sells One Million iPhone 3Gs in First Weekend	Not bad.
	iPhone App Store Downloads Top 10 Million in First Weekend	Not bad.
	Apple: iPhone 3G Battery Life Beats the Competition, Apple’s Own Tests	This has got to be a joke – not one Nokia or SonyEricsson in the bunch.
Jul 13	iPhone 3G: Hands-on reviewer’s notebook	Some decent points here. the full review is also worth a read.
Jul 12	Apple iPhone 3G exposed	More details on chipsets and sourcing
Jul 11	iPhone 3G disassembly	Loads of hi-res PCB shots.
Jul 10	Apple releases iPhone Configuration Utilities for business	First decent mention of what profiles are, too.
Jul 9	For iPhone, the’New’ Is Relative	Pogue weighs in.
Jul 8	Apple’s new iPhone 3G: Still not perfect, but really close	An enthusiastic thumbs up, apparently.
	Walt Mossberg reviews the iPhone 3G, isn’t that impressed	Neither am I, really.
	Newer, Faster, Cheaper iPhone 3G	Back when “cheaper” was still thought of as actual price.
Jul 7	iPhone 3G prices and plans for 21 countries	Pretty nice summary table. The plans are almost completely outdated by now (Sep’08), but it’s interesting nevertheless.
Jul 4	iPhone Timeline	A great graphical timeline, a copy of which I saved locally:
Jul 1	Apple posts iPhone 3G Guided Tour	Yep. No changes.
Jul 1	The Real Price Of The iPhone: $599	Of course, $199 is with contract only.
Jun 29	Leaked iPhone prices in Spain, official in Norway and Sweden	Subsidizing seems to be paying off
Jun 26	Orange announces iPhone 3G pricing and plan details for France	To be available Jul 17
Jun 7	Apple ranked third among smartphone vendors	Discussion of Gartner figures for the quarter, compared to 2007.
Jun 4	The trend for form over function continues	almost a quarter (24%) of respondents upgraded to their iPhone having previously owned a Motorola RAZR Good grief.
May 29	NYTimes Speculates On the Next iPhone	The unwashed masses go wild
May 28	Analysts: Apple won’t sell 10 million iPhones in 2008	I expect more controversy on this throughout the whole year.
May 28	The Guessing Game Has Begun on the Next iPhone	Surprisingly contained
May 27	Even more ‘leaked’ 3G iPhone photos make it out	Blurry shots of a white plastic casing. People eat it up.
May 19	Analyst: Don’t Buy iPhone 2.0	Hard to believe someone would base an entire piece on a Rob Enderle quote these days, but still, here’s proof.
May 19	3G iPhone revealed in third-party case render?	Not really.
May 10	Newsflash! Firmware 2.0 hints suggest Apple might be working on a 3G iPhone	Shots of a prototype network preference pane.
May 9	Safari YouTube, .Mac push e-mail found in new iPhone SDK beta	Probably the first credible reference to .Mac mobile enhancements (although it could just be IMAP IDLE support).
May 8	O2 to customers: No more iPhone for you!	Purported shortages of 2G devices fuel the hype.
May 8	iPhone non-exclusivity in Italy – it’s all about prepaid	Not quite true, but an interesting rationalization nonetheless.
May 7	“More “leaked 3G iPhone shots hit the web	Some of these have nothing to do with the iPhone.
May 7	Apple and Orange in talks about multi-country iPhone rollout	pure speculation at this point (no press releases yet)
May 6	3G iPhone again rumored for summer US/Europe launch, AT&T preps	AT&T schedules their training sessions a month in advance, and the wrong message gets out.
May 6	Vodafone, Telecom Italia announce massive iPhone rollout	Reactions to the first press releases
May 1	Case manufacturers getting early 3G iPhone size specs?	People start going nuts and debating whether or not there’s a front facing camera based on the sensor holes
Apr 29	AT&T rumored to be considering subsidies on next-gen iPhone	First mention of $199 that I can find.
Apr 18	Vodafone will reportedly carry iPhone in India in September	First mention of Vodafone deal, during a lull.

☯

"iPhone 3G Press Coverage" was written by Rui Carmo for The Tao of Mac and was originally posted on Tuesday, 22 April 2008. Except as noted, it's ©2009 Rui Carmo and licensed for reuse under CC BY-NC-ND 3.0.

Palm Pre

Rui Carmo — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 08:33:17 GMT

This is an update to an item originally published on Monday, 16 February 2009.

Palm’s surprise entry for the newfangled “web-based smartphone” category.

Date	Link	Notes
Jun 26	Palm Has Half of the Business Plan Puzzle in Place	I’d actually say they have a quarter of their business plan in place, given Palm’s current presence (or lack thereof) in Europe.
Jun 23	Ars reviews the Palm Pre, part 2: the webOS experience	The second installment, still wandering here and there but more interesting.
Jun 22	iDesign * Pre	Great selection of wallpapers.
Jun 18	In-depth review of the Palm Pre and the webOS	Late to the game, but chock full of videos.
Jun 10	Ars Reviews the Palm Pre, part 1: the BlackBerry killer	The piece wanders here and there, makes a few cogent points, but does not convince me in the least. To beat the Blackberry, Palm needs to address corporate needs, not the personal ones the article waltzes through.
Jun 10	Palm Pre	A cogent and reasoned breakdown of the Pre’s Linux underpinnings
Jun 4	Designing the Palm Pre: An interview with Michelle Koh	This is the stuff that really matters – the tech is useless if there aren’t guiding design principles.
Jun 4	How Palm Designed the Pre
Jun 3	Palm Pre review	Possibly the most detailed of them all.
	Palm Pre, Elegant Contender	Pogue drains the battery in less than a day
	Multitasking Palm Pre Brims With Power, Potential	Steven Levy also mentions heavy battery drain, also thinks the keyboard is small.
	Palm’s New Pre Takes On iPhone	Mossberg emphasizes the app store’s current weak selection
May 28	Palm Pre First Hands On!	Some complaints regarding the keyboard.
Apr 29	Palm Pre: $138 to build according to iSuppli	Considering they can’t possibly have gotten one yet, this raises questions about iSupply’s reputability…
Apr 2	Palm Pre Classic emulator demoed on video	Doesn’t look half bad, although realistically there aren’t that many legacy apps that make sense using on a Pre, and the lack of personal data integration can be a downer.
Mar 3	Is Vodafone in Negotiations with Palm for Pre Release?	Another link that falls under my Disclaimer
Feb 24	The Pre’s Combined Messaging: Patent Pending	Some notes on Palm’s patents for the Pre
Feb 18	Google demos HTML5-based Maps on the Palm Pre	This is why I think HTML5 is a big deal on mobile.
Feb 16	Palm to add Flash support to webOS and Pre, joins Open Screen Project	It’s almost as if they’re ticking off a ‘beat the iPhone’ checklist. Multitasking, tethering, cut&paste, Flash… (more)
	Palm joins Adobe’s Open Screen Project, Pre to support Flash – Engadget
	Palm Pre Eyes-On, Plus Plenty of Pre Questions Answered	Rather nicely rounded article, even if the writer didn’t know that Gmail does have `IMAP IDLE` support.
Feb 10	GSM Palm Pre spotted with Vodafone SIM card – Engadget	Here’s something that falls squarely under my Disclaimer in more ways than one.
Jan 30	Another Pre hands-on video with Palm’s VP of design	Not much to say other than there are glimpses of some interesting portions of the UI.
Jan 23	Palm Pre: The Definitive FAQ
Jan 13	Palm Pre WebOS: hardware hands-on	The Reg fondles it, after having licked the UI
Jan 9	The pre’s got Mojo: a developer speaks about Palm’s new SDK	Not much detail, though.
	Palm Pre interface tour	Around 30 screenshots.
	Ars talks to Palm at CES, gets under the hood with the pre	Some info on the hardware (a TI OMAP 3430 CPU) and the “App Catalog”
Jan 8	Palm Pre in-depth impressions, video, and huge hands-on gallery	Title says it all, really.
Jan 8	Palm Unveils Its iPhone Rival: The Pre. Don’t Expect to Buy One Cheap	Missed the bit about Exchange support. A few other factual errors.

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Jake

Rui Carmo — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 08:23:35 GMT

Jake is an interesting twist on file syncing and sharing apps, in that it uses XMPP as transport and embodies a concept that I and a few of my colleagues had been discussing a couple of years ago but never got round to implement (probably because I tried to get rsync into the mix, which would be nice but too complex). Unlike Dropbox, it has no requirements for a central server – only for an XMPP server to act as meeting point and reflector.

Sadly, it is written in Java, which makes it cross-platform but finicky.

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Are Steve Jobs' Innards Really Any of Our Business?

Rui Carmo — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 06:41:36 GMT

No.

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Safari

Rui Carmo — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 07:33:34 GMT

This is an update to an item originally published on Monday, 1 January 2007.

Safari is the default Mac OS X browser, based on WebKit.

Resources:

Date	Link	Notes
Jan 28	ClickToFlash	A plugin to disable Flash content on a page unless it’s clicked upon
Older	Glims	a great plugin that adds a full-screen mode, improved search and other niceties.
	ForgetMeNot	a SIMBL plugin that saves open URLs when you quit Safari and restores them when you re-launch it.
	Blocking Ads	Using nothing but CSS. My technique of choice for years now.
	Pimp My Safari	plugins and add-ons

Speeding it up

Disable Top Sites (and set the home page to about:blank)
Disable RSS polling (the source of some irritating little pauses)
Disable “Warn when visiting a fraudulent website” (i.e., no checks for every single URL)
Install ClickToFlash

Enabling the Debug Menu:

On Mac OS X open a terminal and enter:

defaults write com.apple.Safari IncludeDebugMenu 1

On Windows, edit C:\Documents and Settings\<em>username</em>\Application Data\Apple Computer\Safari\Preferences.plist and insert a new preference:

<key>IncludeDebugMenu</key><true/>

…or start Safari.exe with /enableDebugMenu or /disableDebugMenu (it updates the.plist, so you only need to do it once).

Safari 4 Hidden Preferences

Copied from here for future reference:

# http://swedishcampground.com/safari-4-hidden-preferences

Having a quick poke through the new Safari binary yields the following strings:
	
	$ strings /Applications/Safari.app/Contents/MacOS/Safari | grep DebugSafari4
	DebugSafari4TabBarIsOnTop
	DebugSafari4IncludeToolbarRedesign
	DebugSafari4IncludeFancyURLCompletionList
	DebugSafari4IncludeGoogleSuggest
	DebugSafari4LoadProgressStyle
	DebugSafari4IncludeFlowViewInBookmarksView
	DebugSafari4TopSitesZoomToPageAnimationDimsSnapshot
	DebugSafari4IncludeTopSites

*NB: Need to restart Safari after changing any of these.*

## DebugSafari4TabBarIsOnTop

This moves the tab bar back where you expect it to be:

	$ defaults write com.apple.Safari DebugSafari4TabBarIsOnTop -bool NO

## DebugSafari4IncludeToolbarRedesign and DebugSafari4LoadProgressStyle

When both set to NO it restores the blue loading bar behind the URL.

	$ defaults write com.apple.Safari DebugSafari4IncludeToolbarRedesign -bool NO
	$ defaults write com.apple.Safari DebugSafari4LoadProgressStyle -bool NO

## DebugSafari4IncludeFancyURLCompletionList

Switches off the new URL autocomplete menu and goes back to the original one.

	$ defaults write com.apple.Safari DebugSafari4IncludeFancyURLCompletionList -bool NO

## DebugSafari4IncludeGoogleSuggest

Turns off the new Google suggest menu.

	$ defaults write com.apple.Safari DebugSafari4IncludeGoogleSuggest -bool NO

## DebugSafari4IncludeFlowViewInBookmarksView

Unknown.

## DebugSafari4TopSitesZoomToPageAnimationDimsSnapshot

Unknown.

## DebugSafari4IncludeTopSites

Disables Top Sites feature completely.

	$ defaults write com.apple.Safari DebugSafari4IncludeTopSites -bool NO

## Undoing changes

Just run the defaults command with the `delete` flag for the appropriate key you wish to delete.

	$ defaults delete com.apple.Safari <key>

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Nokia N97

Rui Carmo — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 07:19:51 GMT

This is an update to an item originally published on Thursday, 4 December 2008.

The flagship device to kick off Nokia’s 2009, announced way too early.

Date	Link	Notes
Jun 22	Nokia N97 review: a tale of two bloggers	The photos are a lot more interesting than the review itself.
Jun 2	Nokia N97 hitting 75 countries in June	On schedule, but still bad timing.
Mar 25	Nokia’s vision for the N97 and a new UI tour	Not that impressive, really.
Mar 5	Nokia N97 at MWC – Widgets and Kinetic scrolling
Dec 6	Video Interview With N97 Product Manager	Cheesy soundtrack, but interesting interview.
Dec 4	Nokia N97 hands-on part II: the reckoning	Even prototypes get the blues: “Nokia has refused to revamp the OS wholesale to make way for touch devices, choosing instead to jumbo-size some button and icons, make a few tweaks here and there, and leave a few things completely – and often annoyingly – alone. While we expect ourselves to be clumsy with the OS, watching Nokia’s own best and brightest befuddled or merely hindered in execution by the interface peculiarities doesn’t bring us much hope for this generation of touchscreen phones, no matter how great the hardware may be.”
Dec 2	Nokia Announces N97 Superphone, Won’t Sell It for Months	Om sees it in mostly the same way I do.
	Hands on with Nokia’s iPhone killer	fab quote: ”[...]each widget doesn’t really present very much useful information. It’s the CNN approach to information overload – just overload the user with even more.”
	Nokia N97 – Nseries with touch and QWERTY	Short overview.
	Live Pictures & Video Of The Nokia N97	Looks bulky and not very speedy.
	Nokia N97 hands-on	A small gallery, soon followed by a video
	N97 Press Release & Pictures Leaked	A copy of the original press release

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Artificial Intelligence

Rui Carmo — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 07:00:01 GMT

This is an update to an item originally published on Thursday, 22 January 2004.

That grand, spacious (and woefully ignored) branch of computing that, these days, deals not just with thinking machines (so-called “hard” AI), but with enhancing the usefulness of machines in general by exploring mechanisms to express and manipulate knowledge.

Resources:

Date	Link	Notes
Jun 24	Alchemy	A toolkit providing a series of algorithms for statistical relational learning and probabilistic logic inference, based on Markov logic representation

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"Artificial Intelligence" was written by Rui Carmo for The Tao of Mac and was originally posted on Thursday, 22 January 2004. Except as noted, it's ©2009 Rui Carmo and licensed for reuse under CC BY-NC-ND 3.0.

Emanuel Carnevale

Rui Carmo — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 06:57:47 GMT

☯

"Emanuel Carnevale" was written by Rui Carmo for The Tao of Mac and was originally posted on Wednesday, 24 June 2009. Except as noted, it's ©2009 Rui Carmo and licensed for reuse under CC BY-NC-ND 3.0.

Mandarin

Rui Carmo — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 06:56:09 GMT

This is an update to an item originally published on Sunday, 18 March 2007.

Resources:

TV:

Chinese TV Streams. 350Kbps at best. Still looking for a better option (maybe IntelSat1R, if I can be bothered to buy the gear).

Radio:

BBC RTSP stream (for some reason, the BBC persists in using the accursed RealPlayer, but VideoLAN works OK).

Reading:

JSON-ZH a JSON service to convert Hanzi to Pinyin
Zhongwen - very good, although a bit on the complex side to surf in.
Pinyin.info
The Tao by Lao-tse - brilliant way to go through the text.
Chinese Text Sampler - Chinese texts for reading practice.
MiddleProxy, a Python-based proxy that links Chinese characters to their common definitions (more).

Writing:

Grids of various descriptions, including this one
Google Pinyin - their own IME, which seems to be slightly better than the Microsoft default.

Places:

Centro Científico e Cultural de Macau - Curso de Língua e Cultura Chinesa

Vocabulary:

MDBG free online Chinese-English dictionary
Chinese-English Dictionary - will take Pinyin input as well.
BBC Languages - basic greetings. Fairly easy for Portuguese speakers (we actually understand vowels and tonal variations).
HESS Mandarin Chinese Survival Guide - finally, a decent podcast to listen to.

Dialogue

Pinyin Practice - tonal coach.
Exercises for Lessons - for an accompanying textbook. Pretty good even on their own.
Mandarin Chinese Lessons with Serge Melnyk - situational dialogues.

My personal favorite is -

Lesson Thirty-Nine. Computers and Internet.

Vocabulary and expressions in Mandarin Chinese related to using a computer and Internet. Working with files and folders, chatting in Chinese with your buddies on MSN. Your computer has crashed! Tell your Chinese online friend that you need to restart your computer and that you will be back online in a moment.

Speech Synthesis

According to Wikipedia, Leopard is supposed to include a Chinese speech engine.

Mac Input Methods and info:

Chinese Mac
OpenVanilla - has a Pinyin input method for Simplified Chinese that works somewhat better for me than Apple's default.

Notes on Mobile Phones

So far, all I have is this page related to Chinese language support on Series 60 devices.

Notes on Mac Input Methods:

Since the vast majority of Asian input methods seem to work best with a US keyboard, it is a right pain to use them on a Portuguese keyboard. However, I've learned a few things that help:

The U.S. Extended keyboard layout lets you type Pinyin diacritical marks - go to International on System Preferences and enable it (it's the one that says Unicode, in case you have any doubts). Here's the basics (you can check these in Keyboard Viewer):
- Alt+a for first tone
- Alt+e for second tone
- Alt+v for third tone
- Alt+` (or Alt+< in a Portuguese keyboard) for fourth tone.
- Alt+u for diaresis (umlaut mark)
Forget about Spotlight's key bindings. You really want to use Cmd+Space to switch input methods, it's the only sane way to do it without reaching for the mouse every 30 seconds.
Apple's Pinyin input method only works for Traditional Chinese, so you're likely to either want to try to figure out the other (PRC) input methods (ITABC sort of works for me, but I find it annoying to hit space for every character) or install OpenVanilla.

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Nokia Ovi Suite 2.0: The one and only Nokia desktop application (in the future)

Rui Carmo — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 06:38:29 GMT

Windows-only (i.e., no stated intent to support the Mac, which is sad). Also, I have a sinking feeling that this will eventually turn into their equivalent of iTunes instead of truly cutting down on the bloat – but since the current Nokia desktop software is execrable, any kind of replacement is welcome.

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