Java 6 On Leopard

I would love to see Java 6 on Leopard. My assumption is that Apple is already working on it. With the Preview Developer release for Tiger that was just re-added to the developer site. It means that Apple is listening. And I see Apple putting more resources in this area.

In support of people trying to get Apple to put even more resources into the effort. I have labeled this port with 13949712720901ForOSX in the hope that Google will pick it up and the movement will continue to grow.

Blind Cringley

He talks about thier has been no benefits from the Google/Applet relationship. Are you blind? The iPhone would not be a success without Google. The Google maps feature is one of th ekey feature that helps the iPhone succeed. Can you imagine using Google Maps via the browser on the iPhone? Yes, it would be usuable, that is not the point. Without the slick integrated interface that is on iPhone it would just be another website to go to. But with it integrated it is a slick app that you can use use to find out where stuff is, figure out how to get to your contacts or just look around where you are maybe look for that back road that you want to take or a short cut. So to sy the very least I think Cringley is way off base on this one.

Why does Oracle want BEA?

I was wondering about this today. Because most of what BEA offers Oracle already has a product in the same area. Then I started to read an article about virtualization and BEA's LiquidVM and it hit me. This is the main technology that Oracle lacks. As more and more of Oracle's applications move from being platform specific apps to more general Java-based apps they are looking to make them as scalable and easy to deploy as possible. Imagine instead of going through all of the installation steps it normally takes including downloading and running the installer, just download the VM image and off you go. Yeah, there will still need to be some configuration but after some basic configuration it will be set to interact with the world. I might require none.

This goes back to an idea that Oracle had many many years ago. It was called "Raw Metal". Basically, the Oracle DB server would not run on an OS but would have a thin/mini-OS that allowed the DB server to run as fast as possible.

Should be interesting to see if Oracle will just drop it and maybe work with the OpenJDK and implement its own LiquidVM type tech or it will pony up and better the offer.

Apple's "Greed"

I saw the following posted that are things Apple did wrong by the consumer:

• Apple Breaks 2005-2007 Video Add-Ons: No Warning, Just Buy New Ones
• iTunes Store iPod Games: Buy Them Again for New iPods
• iPod touch Screen Problems: Deny Them, Charge Restocking Fees
• iPhone Ringtones: Pay Twice for Each Song; Forget Using Your Own

Let me respond to those whiners: Just shut up and get a brain!!

1) I do not know about but if it is about QuickTime Add-Ons then I would say then just don't upgrade. It is your choice.
2) There is a reason for this. It is called updates to the Firmware that are incompatible. Should they tried to keep the firmware compatible for the games, maybe. But adding games to the iPod was new and they wanted the experience to be the best. What is the cost? The cost is that the old version of the games no longer work. Another reason is that if you have more than 1 iPod you should buy one copy of the game for each iPod. That is what you are suppose to do with applications. Unless you guy special versions like Family Editions.
3) The iPod Touch screen problems are due to the smaller size compared to the iPhone. BTW, did you actually play with the iPod Touch BEFORE you bought it?
4) Give me a break. To even offer the ringtones at all without being slapped with a copyright infirngement suit Appled had to get the person owning the copyright needs to agree with allow their songs to be sliced and diced to create a ringtone where they have no control. That takes alot of faith and alot of legal dealings. Now do you think your favorate artist/publishing (whoever owns the copyright) are going to just give away the ringtones for free. This might happen later for new songs as incentive to sell more music. This is most unlikely. Because artist need to feed their families (what a shock). I am sorry Apple is good but that would be a miracle. Yes, this is the future because you can consider it as free advertising. Heck, I am guessing that sometime in the next year we will see it added in as the music companies realize that ringtones can be used to advertise the full song that they are trying to sell.

iPhone price drop. Why are you upset?

I got a chance to watch Steve Jobs' introduction of the new iPods and announce the dropping of the 4GB iPhone (you can find on clearance for $299 talk about your cheap iPhone) and the price drop of the 8GB iPhone by $200 to $399. I think it all makes sense. The new iPod Touch is $299 for the 8GB model and $399 for the 16GB model. It makes perfect sense for Apple to drop the price of the 8GB iPhone to be the same as the 16GB iPod Touch. Otherwise, you would have people in an up roar over crazy pricing. Part of the Apple's strategy when it comes to products is to make the pricing easy and make sense to the normal human being without a degree in Mathematics.

Am I upset at the price dropping by $200 in 2 months, a little. To me it is just the cost you pay for having the latest toys now instead of 6 months from now. So to anybody reading this and upset over it. Go out in the wood scream your lungs out for a while and get over it. How long did you expect the price of the iPhone to stay the same.

Now, I just read the open letter Steve Jobs wrote. I thank him for his generosity $100 to balance out paying the extra $200 just 2 months back is nice. I got an iPhone (the 8GB variety) on the 3rd day they were available. I will be happy to spend the credit on a new iPod for my wife or maybe one of my kids or heck I might even speed on buying a new Mac or put it towards a copy of Mac OS 10.5. I can't wait for it to be available.

Safari for Windows?!?!?

I am sure that you have heard about it by now. I have downloaded it and tried it out. Pretty nice. I plan on upgrading to Leopard when it comes out and it is nice to see part of it. But there is one thing that I think most people are ignoring what this means (except more money for Apple). And that is it seems that Apple has a internal porting tool to help them port apps from Mac to Windows. Now, this is cool. Imagine using the Apple Macintosh as your primary development environment and being able to quickly and easily take your app and port it to Windows. Now, if the porting tool actually exists what would be really great is it was open sourced. Why you might ask? Because imagine having a native application that all you need to do is re-compile and it will work on a new platform (within reason). Because I can easily imagine some Linux people picking up the open sourced tool and adding Linux support and after Linux gets supported some of the other Unix/Unix-like platforms should be able to ported to.

I love Java. Why? Because you can write a piece of software and have it run anywhere with little to no effort. Imagine being a developer who can something pretty close with native apps. Talk about fast.

Would this replace Java? Nope. Here are the two things that Java has that the above wouldn't:

1) Better Security. Buffer Overflows and such that are security risks are limited to the JVM and that is it.
2) You can compile it once and that is it.

As it is Java is pretty close to native speeds. What are the benefits for the above?

1) Better code obfuscation.
2) Better UI integration.

Well, only time will tell.

No 3rd Party Apps for iPhone

Well, I can understand Apple's problem with the iPhone. You have a communications device that you don't want to have problems with virus, trojans and other nastiness. How many people would like to have their phone infected and make the thing that they rely on keeping in touch with the your friends, your co-workers and the rest of the world to be made a useless piece of junk until you get it to the local AppleCare facility.

There is only a couple questions that I have for Apple:
1) Can we get our widgets/web-based apps on the phones main screen or even a separate screen with our own icon so that it seems like an integrated application?
2) If there is no SDK how do we integrate our web-based apps with the iPhone services? I saw the demo in the WWDC 2007 Keynote and it looked cool. But I had questions on how the application integrated with the iPhone services. The Email is simple, but the others I can't imagine how unless there are special HTML tags or a special Javascript objects that will need to be called to invoke the iPhone services.

What's next for Apple?

If the iPhone is any indication of the UI of things to come, then the future is going to be pretty cool. Microsoft thinks the big multi-touch table is going to be the next cool thing. I think they have it wrong. If the iPhone multi-touch with screen-based keyboard, then the next cool thing is going to be a laptop that is more like a NintendoDS in that you have 2 screens instead of one. Both multi-touch. One used to keyboard and possible touch pad and the other meant for pure screen. The thing is if you multi-touch for both screens the touch pad won't be necessary. Now, people might want to use a touch pad out of convenience or maybe switch to using a stylus instead of your finger for finer control.

Now, the coolest thing would be the ability to fold the laptop so that the screen to be on the outside. So that it could be used as a tablet PC. Of course, we could just skip the two panes and just go for a tablet PC that uses multi-touch. But that would be too easy, not radical enough for Apple.

I said what?

To you guys, have you ever listened to your wife/girlfriend tell a story about something that happened to you as a couple and noticed that it is not quite as you remembered it. Well that is due to one fact. That is women remember things on an emotional level, while men remember things more a factual level. So what they re-tell may not be the factual level but it is trying to re-tell it on an emotional level.

Mac OS X Leopard

Ok. I was wrong. But how was I suppose to know the Apple was having some problems with iPhone which required to the move resources. To me that seems to indicate the the people moved will be UI/Software focus, because you can't just move people around to help unless they have the training to do the job. And what is the one thing the Mac OS X Leopard and iPhone have in common? That is right Mac OS X itself. Since iPhone is running a trimmed down version of Mac OS X (that is trimmed down in the the additional apps that are on the desktop want be there) they are probably focusing on that. Though, I would think QA would be different. Yeah you can run an emulator, possibly even use a VM but sooner or later the software needs to be run on the actual hardware. My guess would be that the focus areas deal with:

1) Kernel issues related to the port to a different processor.
2) Interface issues dealing with multi-touch and other unique UI elements that are only on the iPhone
3) Drivers issues with the unique hardware.

Of course, we on the outside of Apple will probably never find out. And I think most of us don't care as long as the iPhone is a solid product when it is released. As I want Mac OS X Leopard to be. So I will be patient.

Until next post. Cya

Apple TV and DVDs

I saw some complaints about the Apple TV not supporting DVDs. Uh guys, has anybody tried plugging in a USB-based DVD drive into the back of the Apple TV. Because Apple TV is a version of Mac OS X, right. So it should be able to use USB-based drives (assuming that the drivers are available on the Apple TV to begin with), right. Also, it is using "Front Row", correct. Then assuming that (I know I am making alot of assumptions) you should be able to atttach a DVD drive to the Apple TV and now you have a DVD player, also.

iPhone not just a Cell Phone

What is the one thing that iPhone will do that normal cell phones do. Browse the Internet using Wi-Fi. iPhone is the first true portable Internet browsing device. And depending upon the area you can connect via Wi-Fi or use EDGE provided by your cell phone service provider. And not just browsing it can grab your Email to without using a web interface. Not to bad mouth some of the web-based UI for reading Email. They are very good. But the ones for the mobile devices aren't that great. I prefer the Email client of my Blackberry to the web-based ones. So with the iPhone you can browse the Internet and get your Email any where with the best connection available.

Will the IPhone Succeed?

Yes. I think most of the gadget critics are wrong wrong wrong. They think it is over priced and it will not sell. Here is the thing about the iPhone. It is a revolution in the cell phone industry. Apple is doing what Apple does best designing a product that is cool, has great UI and everybody wants to be seen with. Trust me nay sayers will be shocked when June comes and the phones start selling faster than expected. Even at $600 at the high end people will by it. And will it effect the iPod business? No. Apple is a smart cookie. They put enough memory to play the latest episode of the programs you bought from iTunes and your favorate music. But that is about it. It will not replace the iPod. In fact, I think the iPod will get a multi-touch interface next year. They can't release it too soon. Too soon and it will possibly effect the iPhone, though minor.

BTW, I think Leopard will got out the door at the latest in May. I think this is the best so that it keeps the buzz coming between the new version of Mac OS X and the iPhone which is known to be available in June. Te twist on the is Apple might wait and release it during WWDC in June. But I am just going to wait and see until that moment when my favorate OS is released.

Hillary Clinton for President? (Take 2)

Ok, I was wrong. I didn't think about that if she did lose she would not be the front runner for being President. Now, she has been working hard over the past years to look more like a conservative. He is the thing if she gets to be President she will implement the Health care reform she was trying to get past the Republican Congress. But this time (unless people smarten up) she will push it through and you will see yourselves waiting in long lines at public facilities (or at least government sponsored facilities) hoping that you will see the doctor that day. And how we will pay for this Utopia more taxes so the middle class can pay more because Lord knows that the poor don't earn enough to pay taxes and the rich have ways of earninng morning but not paying any taxes. So who pays the bill. Ypu you guessed it the hard working people of America. The blue collor and white collars workers that send 40 to 60 hours a week working their tail off. Just so that we can give to poor people who if they are smart (and trust me they are smart) can earn up to (if not more) $30,000 a year tax free and that is without working a day in their lives. And oh by the way, that is with free housing.

So what do you think should we vote for Hillary? Well I know I won't be.