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Jobs Previews Displays, Tiger at WWDC
DonaldGelman writes "Apple has just announced a 30-inch Studio Display capable of displaying a resolution of 2560x1600. The display requires a new Nvidia card with 2 parallel DVI connections. The display is going to retail for $3299 in August, and the Nvidia card for around $599." Jobs also announced new 20- and 23-inch displays, for $1299 and $1999 in July. All three feature a new aluminum enclosure, and DVI. Also from WWDC...
Jobs also previewed Tiger, with Spotlight (fast iTunes-like searching in all apps, and systemwide), Dashboard (Konfabulator-like widgets combined with Exposé for fast showing/hiding), Automator (visual AppleScript, combining prewritten actions into scripts), H.264 code for QuickTime (high definition scalable video from MPEG), iChat AV conferencing (up to 10 for audio, four for video), RSS reading in Safari, Core Image and Core Video (realtime filters at the core OS level), and system-wide Sync Services. All of this is extensible (except for iChat conferencing), with SDKs available for developers.
There's a lot here, and a more detailed description is forthcoming. Tiger will be available in the first half of 2005.
This is a completely Apple-created innovation and is not a rip-off. Oh no. Definitely not.
No, I'm serious. Really. Because despite all the talk of it being a clone of Konfabulator, it appears, in essense, to be Apple's original Desk Accessories brought into the 21st Century. Which is nice.
You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.
Aha! So this is why nVidia has been working on the 2 card video load balancing system.
Overrated / Underrated : Moderation
If Slashdot thinks that nobody will buy it, it is almost guaranteed that the display will be on backorder for the next six months.
This is because Slashdot is a community for people who don't realize that "doing something nobody else does" is worth it to many consumers.
Hey freaks: now you're ju
As sarcastic as it sounds, it's true. The Desk Accessories weren't *real* apps, just little buggers running in an early 1980's kind of multitasking mode.
o sh &story=Puzzle.txt&sortOrder=Sort%20by%20Date&detai l=medium&search=Desk%20Accessory
http://folklore.org/StoryView.py?project=Macint
So yes, it's a rip off of Konfabulator. But Konfabulator was a rip off of Apple's original. Sort of like how Apple did labels in pre-OS X and Unsanity provided them as an APE module. Then Apple re-integrated them in OS X.
What matters here is it's still an opportunity for 3rd parties to provide a superior alternative to a basic function provided by Apple. Watson is better than Sherlock. xPad is better than stickies. Camino is better than Safari. ( of course, these are all arguable )
Ho hum. I don't really care. But from a usability standpoint it's a *great* idea to have my sticky notes *appear* ( rather than fly away ) when I move my mouse cursor to a certain corner. I like the sound of that, since I use stickies all the time.
lorem ipsum, dolor sit amet
I can't speak for Konfabulator, which I never really found useful, but LaunchBar is already facing stiff competition from QuickSilver, a free and considerably more intuitive work-alike.
I don't know where you get the idea that Apple is replacing these programs. When they released Safari, did everybody stop using other web browsers? Does nobody use Entorage or MailSmith or Eudora just because Apple includes Mail? Are people going to stop using NetNewsWire just because you can read RSS feeds in Safari now? Don't people use VLC dispite QuickTime?
crushing the very developers that make people switch to the Mac because of the cool things that shareware developers do.
I don't know about you, but I switched because of the things that Apple had developed.
I would say there are more Konfabulator users that were surprised and or upset than its developers. The Konfabulator idea has been around for a long time, since early 90's. It's just that Arlo and crew had the best implementation around that I've ever seen.
If Apple wants the developers code, it will purchase. Its done so with Soundjam (which became iTunes) and other applications. If your idea just furthered their idea, then obviously they just go with theirs. According to the preview Dashboard will have its on SDK kit. That said, it may be possible for people to develop simultaneously for both Dashboard and Konfabulator, but that depends more on the backend engine.
I really LOVE Konfabulator, but that said, Apple has already addressed the one biggest issue I have with it--desktop clutter. Sure its cool to have the weather, newsfeeds, post-its, etc. all providing you continous data on your desktop, but they also just clutter up your desktop, having them exist off-screen and come on with a function key is a perfect idea. A bring the widgets out to play, now put your toys away concept.
Their market shares doesn't stop at a vague percentage. Their market share is much more than 2% in three domains:
1. Editing
2. Digital imaging studios
3. Medical imaging
And incidently, those are markets where people (or companies) are likely to spend $3500 in big screens.
It looks like M. Jobs is not that stupid after all. It looks like it's a good think he is leading Apple and not you.
Write boring code, not shiny code!
Yes, it's such a shame that Apple "ripped off" an idea that they developed in the first place! Talk about bad apples on the part of the Konfabulator folks. They rip off Apple, hope no-one calls them on it, then flip out when Apple puts the functionality back into their OS because they discovered that people found it useful.
To the Konfabulator folks: deal. Or innovate. Don't rip off an idea a company implemented over ten years ago and complain when they implement it again.
Most of the iPod's data files have already been worked out to a great degree. Not everything, mind you, but most of it. All the important bits, anyway. It just takes a bit of searching around.
:)
I wrote a set of C++ classes for dealing with the iPod's data files, and with the help of Aero, we've refined it to cover just about everything in a plug-in for foobar 2000 called foo_pod.
We're almost there with real, live updating, smart playlist support now (which no other third party iPod-capable app has yet, that I know of). Just a few minor things left to be done on the back end, and the interface sounds like it is coming along nicely.
There's very little an actual SDK could add at this point. When the iPod is connected to the computer, it just appears to be a hard drive to the computer. No special communication channels we can find at all.
- Give a man a fire and he's warm for a day, but set him on fire and he's warm for the rest of his life.
You left out the biggest market share...the multi-billion dollar-a-year printing industry. Macs totally and completely rule this still.
After all these years, Macs still run that industry. Sure, there are people that use PC's in the industry, but they are very few and far between.
But, from what I've seen in my travels around printing, it's dying a slow death thanks to online content. Packaging is the place to be in printing/graphic arts now adays...just FYI for you youngsters out there looking to get into the industry.
"Music is everybody's possession. It's only publishers who think that people own it." - John Lennon.
I completely disagree - the only thing unique about Konfabulator was the sexy look, and much of that is inspired by OSX itself.
ControlStrip on the classic Mac OS, DesktopX, and many other projects have provided lightweight "applets" in various ways for years. In fact, these are also quite similar to the menu bar applets on OSX, though now liberated from the cramped menu bar.
What are the "rights of small developers"? Which aspect of Konfab is unique in the scope of computing? This reeks of the Watson/Sherlock "controversy", but only in that a developer creates a relatively sexy but not novel UI, and Apple eventually adopts a similar approach to solve the same problems for its users.
It's hard to define where Apple should stop and third-party tools should begin. I see people confusing superficial similarities for innovation being crushed - at what point does Apple stop improving OSX and require its users to buy third-party products?
There will no doubt be others crying about the RSS aggregator, but again these are similar solutions because they are solving the same problems for users. Should Apple just stick to the desktop and the Dock and leave all future goodness to shareware authors?
I love shareware on OSX, I support it religiously, but at some point there has to be an acknowledgement that OS vendors will encroach as user needs are identified. I would love to see Apple develop a grant program or something similar, to honor those developers who lead the way, but I don't think it's an option to just hold back the OS.
Sorry, but Konfabulator simply isn't worth a "overflowing wheelbarrow of cash". I wish I could say it is. But it isn't.
Just like menubar clock. It's a great idea, almost natural. But does that mean it's worth a ton of money? No.
The real money is, and should be, in real user-centric applications, like spreadsheets, word processing, graphics processing, etc. Typically OS vendors move into "utility" space, but NOT into application space. The exception is Microsoft, which dominates both. Apple only dominates when there is a "missing or poorly supported piece", such as Keynote and Safari.
Konfabulator is not an original idea at all, sorry. Classic Mac OS had desk accessories since 1984, Windows 98 had its Active Desktop (which nobody ever used because it was too unstable, but did much the same thing). The only thing new here is using Javascript, and Windows did that almost a decade ago.
I have sympathy for Perry and Arlo, but I'm not about to vilify Apple over bringing DAs into the 21st century.
Wait -- you're claiming that slashdot, the community which buys every consumer device regardless of its original intent solely to take it apart and install Linux on it, knows the "true value of things?"
I'm sorry man, but in a capitalist society, the "true value of things" is set by how much people will pay for them. People will pay more than the selling price to get their hands on an iPod Mini. Most people won't even pay MSRP for a Creative Zen. This is because the iPod Mini is not, as you suggest, "worse" than most major mp3 players, but because it is better in every way the counts for a consumer device. It is easy and quick to learn, load and use. It has sufficiently long life and sufficiently good sound quality. It is small but sturdy and controllable with one hand. There are only two connectors to hook up and few external controls to break. It looks clean and nice(and isn't the least bit shiny, mind you). And it has a great warranty.
How is it worse than other players? Each of its competitors fails in one or more of the above strengths. Some have more features but a hideous interface. Some have a nice interface, but are too delicate. Only the cost, which enough people seem willing to pay to make it foolish for them to charge less, is consistantly "worse" than its competitors...but if you care so much about cost that you're willing to buy inferior goods, go get whatever RCA device they're selling at WalMart and give up the pretense that you want a hi-tech device. Price and quality are, aside from some really good deals, mutually exclusive -- because any company that cares enough to make real quality gear should be smart enough to charge for it.
Hey freaks: now you're ju
Konfabulator is just desk accessories, using Javascript instad of C. Sorry, that refinement is not worth a wheelbarrow of cash. I have every sympathy for Arlo and Perry, but it just isn't that unique an idea. I mean, Mac has provided desk "widgets" without Javascript in 1984... and Windows did it with Javascript in 1998.
On the other hand, Spotlight sounds nothing like Launchbar. TFG. Have you actually tried Launchbar?
I was a big fan of virtual desktops when I was using Linux, and I have 8 (EIGHT!) virtual desktops here at work. At home, I haven't even bothered to look for something to handle that since expose. I find Expose cooler, more convenient and faster to use than multiple desktops. Get a mouse with a few extra buttons, and bind the expose commands to those extra buttons. It changes the whole experience.