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Well, I did it. I bought a Mac. Yes, I’m on the road to becoming a Mac user.

Friday night I picked up a new MacBook Pro from the local Apple Store.

Once I opened the box and powered it up, I had to start figuring out OS X. Sure, I’ve used it at the Apple store on the display models and I found a lot of the surface stuff easy to figure out. It’s the not so obvious things that really throw you for a loop.

The applications are easy to use. Safari is the main one, but I also downloaded and installed a bunch of recommended tools. I also installed BootCamp 1.4 Beta and a clean minimal install of Windows XP for gaming. I fired up BioShock and gave it a run through and I’m able to run at 1440×900 with all the options turned on (except for Use Global Lighting and DirectX 10). I need to download the new BioShock tweaks that allow you to get a true 16:10 display ratio and some minor graphics tweaks for maximum performance. I also still need to find my original registered install for FRAPS.

I’m learning as I go along, right now I’m trying out ecto (but I’m seriously not impressed with it so far). Maybe later today I can learn how to uninstall applications.

Kudos to Apple for stepping up and taking care of its customers.. again.

http://www.apple.com/hotnews/openiphoneletter/

So yesterday was fun as Apple rolled out a series of new products. I was really surprised that unlike previous events, the product was not available in the Apple store the day of announcement. They used to always have product available at the stores when announced, that just doesn’t taste right. The day the iMac 2007 was announced, there were several setup in the store when I got there after work. It sounds to me like some last minute software/hardware/delivery issues spoiled some of the thunder.

And speaking of thunder, how about that $200 iPhone price drop? The last remaining 4GB models at the local Apple store were flying off the shelves as people picked up a second unit for a spouse, kid, friend, whatever. A great deal on a great product, congratulations to those who got them. Even $399 is a sweet deal and will likely expand the installed base of people using the iPhone. If you think about it, remember the Motorola RAZR when it first came out? $399, no discounts on Cingular. Within a few months it was down to $199 and now you get them for $69. Price reductions are a fact of life — rather than whine about the $200 “fan-boy” tax, just enjoy the phone. Not that I wouldn’t mind an iTunes store credit or something as a thank you for helping launch/beta-test their product!

As for the new products, unless you live in a hole, you’ve seen them already. The iPod Classic is the old classic iPod with a bigger drive (are we still using moving parts in portable devices?), the iPod Nano got short and fat and video support, the shuffle got some new colors, and the big news was of course the iPod Touch. An iPhone without the phone and e-mail support. It also doesn’t have Google Maps, Weather, Stocks, or a Camera. But it does have WiFi.

Both the Touch and the iPhone are getting the iTunes Mobile Music Store. Now you can drunk-buy songs while out and about. Very cool. No word on whether or not you can download them over EDGE yet or only WiFi, I guess we’ll see. Take that Verizon/Sprint with your phone-only $2 a song crap ass stupid music store of suckage. And as for the Zune, well, at least you’ve got “The Social.”

Oh, and since none of the product was actually in the store last night, I spent a couple of hours with the very helpful Tulsa Apple store staff and the MacBook Pro. The applications are so familiar, so friendly and so easy to use it just makes it harder and harder to wait for Leopard. My only concern at this point is waiting for a just-out-of-the-oven version of OS X compared to a known, updated version that has seen a lot of user testing. I don’t want to have the “Vista” experience all over again with a fresh operating system, but I also don’t want to pay a $129 buy-it-now tax to upgrade to Leopard when it’s all said and done.

Okay, so the title doesn’t quite cover it. Apple is hosting a press event at the Moscone center September 5th, 2007. The Moscone center means get ready for some major product announcements. It’s not at the Apple campus in Cupertino, it’s at the Moscone center. So small little things like a new iMac aren’t going to be able to hold a candle to what’s coming out tomorrow.

Most of the regular technology blogs have given their take of what’s coming tomorrow. These sites base their information on what “insiders” tell them and some creative extrapolation based on these tips. So they have to try and stay somewhat entrenched in reality. Me, not so much.

As a true Apple fanboy (who doesn’t even own a Mac, FYI), I have to put down what I think is going to be announced tomorrow. If I’m wrong, meh, nobody reads this blog anyway so who cares.

Full-Screen Video iPod

A full-screen iPod Video, based on the same platform as my beloved iPhone. Expect the OS of the iPhone, but don’t expect any of the web features. So take away the WiFi, the cellular modem, the Bluetooth, the mail client, the web browser, the other stuff. Expect the other stuff that iPods have always had, including a new line of games that have been tweaked to work with the touchscreen experience. I’m split on HD/Flash at this point. Flash is so cheap, but Apple loves margin. Hard drives break, flash basically doesn’t. But a 16 GB iPod Video seems like a pretty limited replacement for the 5G iPod. So I’m going for a standard 5G thickness unit with a 1.8″ hard disk, probably up to 120 GB at the top end. It’s unfortunate, but they need to keep the storage kings happy.

iPod Nano with Video

A video-capable iPod Nano with a size upgrade is likely. Some new colors are possible, along with new memory sizes including maybe a 16 GB model on the top end for those Apple Lossless freaks like me. Of course, that’s a big maybe. The price points will likely remain the same with the base model now being 4GB (face it, flash is freaking cheap). Video is a given considering their continued push into video on the iTunes Music store.

iPod Shuffle 2GB

The shuffle goes 2GB for the base model. Come on, you can get 2GB flash drives for under $14 on sale, make the move on the shuffle. Some new colors if you like, whatever, I don’t care.

Media Management (iTunes)

iTunes still sucks when it comes to media management. All videos show up together and there is no way to organize a large library. There is also no way to really enable any genre-specific parental controls. What does this mean? Your porn shows up in the same video folder as Barnyard. That ain’t good folks. iTunes, the iPod Video, and the Apple TV need to be upgraded to support advanced media categories for all types of media: music and video. And the tools need to be available to block the kids from even seeing cover art for things they, well, shouldn’t see.

Bluetooth

Apple added Bluetooth as a standard feature to their products long before other manufacturers and have continued to support the standard. There are a few companies making great stereo headsets that support A2DP and AVCP but music players have been slow to add support. Well, this might be the time for that to be added. Perhaps the Nano will gain Bluetooth headphone support, allowing it to be used without any wires during your workout. I know the Motorola S9 would be a good workout set to use while listening to your Nano tucked away in your shorts.

Wireless Products (Airport Extreme, etc.)

Could Apple update the Airport Extreme to support 802.11n? Not likely. The iPhone only supports 802.11g, as will any possible WiFi that might end up in the regular iPod. It sure would be nice to be able to stream your iPod to the Airport Express, but that’s not expected. Battery life would certainly be impacted, so I just don’t really expect it. The iPhone is the networked device, leave the cost low on the other items. Of course, the Zune has wireless so WiFi seems to make sense but only really for the full screen unit. And then you’re talking about the hard disk units (unless they drop drives completely) whose battery life is always an issue. I don’t know, but I don’t expect much here. I’d love to see it, as we’d likely see any new features as an iPhone update on the same day (if not shortly afterwards).

If they do support WiFi, they need to support Last.fm (or some wonderful .mac clone of the service) to allow social sites to pick up on what you’re listening to on your iPod. After all, it’s gotta be social.

Apple TV

Could any product be as neglected as the Apple TV? Without third-party tools like Handbrake and without YouTube content, the Apple TV is a real turd. I own one and it has limited usefulness. Sure, we’ve ripped many of our DVDs into our iTunes library (which is of course a generic folder called Videos) so we can easily throw something on for the kids to watch without digging for the disk. And we can navigate our music library from the home stereo (which with over 8,000 tracks spread over more than 600 CD’s and iTunes downloads can be a real chore since there is no search feature). I’m really hoping for more on the Apple TV, but I doubt it based on what they’ve done so far.

iPhone

They had better add some features to the iPhone. Video coverflow maybe, better Bluetooth support (A2DP perhaps), more widgets, games, ringtones, basically everything that people have been hacking into the phone. Of course, I’m not going to cry if they do nothing.

iTunes Integration with External Media

Okay, it’s obvious that companies are starting to jump ship. NBC, Univeral Music, and other content owners are trying to break from iTunes. But how should Apple respond? Integrate. Just like with iTunes support for podcasts, they took an open format and made it easy to get the content on your iPod. So if other online stores add DRM-free content (Amazon, Universal, others) delivery, I think iTunes should make it very easy to import that media in your iTunes experience. iTunes is all about the iPod/iPhone. It’s all about making it very easy to get content on your Apple hardware. If other sources of content become available (as it was with podcasts, particularly video podcasts) they should quickly make it easy to use that content on the top selling hardware player: the iPod.

That’s all, I’m done ranting. I’m excited about the new products because they likely mean upgrades to products that I already own. Expect a follow-up of my take on what really happens after the announcements tomorrow.

And yes, I’ll likely be at the Tulsa Apple store after work tomorrow checking out the new gear…

I picked up the Shure MPA-3C Music Phone Adapter from the Apple store today. The adapter includes a microphone and narrow plug and is compatible with the iPhone. So far I’ve only tested the playback quality and it seems to be on par with the straight through wired connection, so no change there.

I bought one of the new iMac keyboards for my Windows machine tonight (no, I don’t own a Mac). Since checking out the new iMac I’ve had a taste for the keyboard. The short stroke and quick action make it a breeze to type on, with reduced key travel easing the stroke on the fingers to type. I find that my strokes are adjusting to where I can type more quickly. In fact, the latency between my left pinky is still adjusting itself to the quicker speed of making an uppercase U, I, O, or P. I can see some real speed coming out of this board after some practice.

What’s a story like this without a picture?

You can see the Dell Latitude D620 in the background (work machine).

Yesterday, Steve introduced the new iMac to the press at Apple’s One Infinite Loop location. The press were the first to see (and the world the second, thanks to live blogging) the new iMac. It is absolutely gorgeous. It almost looks like a giant iPhone, so much so that I tried to drag a window on the new iMac across the screen and was rewarded with a fingerprint on the glass display.

I stopped by the Apple Store to check the new iMac out in person. The glass front with blackout trim is very iPhone, with a covering over the bottom exposing a black glass Apple logo. The edge is aluminum, and looks very classy against the black glass. The back of the iMac is black plastic. Overall, the weight of the 20″ unit is pretty hefty, more than I would have expected. I guess glass and metal weighs a lot.

The black glass emphasis on the iMac is a precursor to the new iLife applications inside. More and more applications from Apple are showing up in the Black Glass style that we see on many of the iPhone applications. I hope to see a lot of black glass in the new Leopard OS since it looks clean and isn’t as bright as the silver/white. I almost see them using it to differentiate business applications (Pages, Numbers) from entertainment applications (Front Row, Apple TV, iPhoto, iMovie). If so, that’s just great.

The new keyboard is seriously cool. Instant click, very low key travel, I can see myself using that keyboard on a PC as well, it’s just that good. Kudos to Apple for making the keyboard that much better. I only wish they had a wireless version of the 101-key available, since the only wireless version available today is the narrow one without the separate cursor/numeric keypad. Mind you, I’ve been on laptops for so long I almost never look to find a numeric keypad, but I write code and really enjoy my cursor control keys adjacent the main keyboard.

I managed to get out of the store without buying one (thus keeping wife aggro in check at the same time) but I can see myself acquiring on in a couple of months when Leopard is standard.

Late last night, Apple released an iPhone software update. The update is described as a bug fix update only — no new features. It’s likely the fix was released to address the known vulnerabilities in the Safari browser that were set to be make public on August 2nd.

I haven’t noticed any differences, but hopefully we’ll fewer crashes in Safari.

The update came almost one month after the initial release. The iPhone continues to be a joy to use and if you have the means I highly recommend picking on up. It’s so choice.