What's in the air from Apple?

Macworld 2008 starts tomorrow today, and Tuesday Steve Jobs will present his keynote speech. It has been reported that banners proclaiming There's something In the air have been unfurled at the conference centre, and there's been much speculation that the something is a thin laptop . . and we know who knows - he'll tell us on Tuesday.

But it just struck me, I read a piece on I, Cringely some time ago, claiming that apple would get into the business of streamed films, and then there was a court case with Burst.com about this technology. Apple settled with Burst recently, so is the something in the air . . to do with Apple TV, and maybe streamed rental films? And perhaps another thing too, a lightweight fantastic laptop (sans dvd drive) to watch them on when you're not in front of your big TV?

Whatever there is, I'm also looking forward to more iphone goodness, an update to the OS, and more software to come. Bring it on!

Living with a video nano

When video first made an appearance on the ipod I could see how some might want to watch videos on them, but not me.
So when Steve jobs launched the video nano a few weeks ago, saying "It's amazing, we have packed in as many pixels as on a larger ipod, but into a smaller screen". I thought: So what, It's is still a small screen. I'm sure many people will love it, but still mainly for listening to music. And this was pretty much the attitude I had when I opened the box on my black, 8GB iPod nano.

It is very small, and feels like a skimming stone. It has enough weight to not feel like a toy, and to remind you of the solid materials it is made from. It exhudes quality. There is something very satisfying about the meeting of two very different materials where the glass and aluminium run flush to each other. Jonathan Ive and his team have once again made a device which feels right and natural, as if it has arrived at that shape effortlessly.

Turning it on
Turning it on you get a hint of how great the screen is. Everything has a sharpness and smoothness which is difficult to describe (but more of that later). I am not wholly converted to the new interface. Text is sharp and clear, and in the familiar iPod style of sliding menus. The screen is vertically split in two, which gives the sense of a desktop with a floating window. However I have never been a great fan of images slowly floating by - and that is what you see next to the menu window: a random image from your music, videos or podcasts.

The interface works well, though I have not had a chance to use coverflow (where you scroll through your album covers to make your selection). When I've tried it in the Apple store it has seemed a little sluggish, but here has just been an update posted for the ipod nano, so I am sure that will iron it out.

Now showing on the little screen
I was dying to try some video so I bought an episode of Lost and a couple of tv shows for my 3 year old, Luca. The iTunes store does not sell full lenth features for the UK yet, but I'm sure there will be changes and more TV content available before Christmas.

The first video I watched turned out to be a pop video by one of my favourite artists Kanye West. I was amazed! Steves comments about the amount of pixels was dead right - there is so much detail packed into that small space that it is a pleasure to watch. Milions of people happily watch fairly low resolution video on YouTube every day, because it is the content they are interested in and that is compensation enough. With this ipod the small size, great content and great resolution combine so you can watch video on a small screen without sacrifice. In fact colleagues and friends I have shown it too have been so impressed (and most of these are technology skeptics) that they asked the price and stared mulling over a pre-christmas purchase right away!

This little 2.5 inch screen is full of subtlety, minute detail, and the delivery of motion is smooth and has no blurring. It is great for animation, as well as for live action. It turns out the epidsode of Lost I bought was a pivotal episode which i missed when it was on Channel 4, where two characters discover a video tape which shows them that they are in a old psychological experiment - so I watched it with a critical eye and genuine viewer interest.

And there is one more thing... I am writing this review in Northern Ireland where we are visiting family. We flew, and have done a fair bit of driving since getting here. Luca has sat in his child seat in the back totally absorbed in watching Dora the Explorer or American Dragon - occasionally calling me to help get the earbuds (not really made for little ears) back in. The size and weight and limited controls are perfect for him, he can see it clearly and loves it. it's more convenient than a back seat DVD which are farly commonly seen now, and the battery life is excellent, so it can be used in various ways for days without a charge being required.

A few weeks before the new nano hit the market, there were photos leaked on the web - and screams of pain from some about the proportions, how it was badly designed etc. There is an old saying: seeing is believing, and I think that from every detail of materials, design decisions about space shape and size, and finally the screen and software this device proves that truism.

Drop shadow boxing

What is a designer with Retro-Modernist sensibilities to do at a time when much interface design leans towards rich, drop shadowed, 3D styling? Khoi Vinh posts a very interesting meditation on the subject.

it also brings to mind the abuse of photoshop by illustrators who start using it to scan their images. I have in mind a favorite of mine, who does woodcuts - but has taken to adding drop shadow to parts of his illustrations post scanning. Leave it!

On the issue of icons, I think I have had my head somewhat turned by the OSX icons, which work very well in turns of rapid recognition. But use of colour on rollover, so well done by Khoi is one clean and simmple device. Right now I have sections to get to press, so i will muse on it, add some more and perhaps comment directly. Keep up the good thoughts Khoi!

This nano is a tardis

A picture is worth a thousand words, and the camera never lies, but sometimes what you see on paper or the screen does not prepare you the real thing.
The new iPod nano has this effect. It is more beautiful than it looks in photos, the proportions make more sense, but the major thing is the screen. Until you turn it on and play video it all looks a bit tiddly, but the richness of the picture, on the high resolution screen is very very watchable . . I could easily imagine using it to catchup with tv progrmas, ofr watch a film on a long plane journey.
Like the Tardis in Doctor Who it is bigger inside than it appears to be from the outside

Steve Jobs and the London iPhone party

The iPhone was finally released into the wilds of London today. I went into the Regent Street store with Bobbie (also from the Guardian) to listen to Steve Jobs speak to a fairly small audience. His media handlers seemed a little tense, but to be fair, there was quite a crush of journalists wanting access to Steve. He was very relaxed, and unfazed by the various curveball questions about other European launches for the iPhone, and the revenue division between O2 and Apple "We're not going to discuss that today, but good question".

After Steve had announced price and talked a little about the iPhone, he handed over to the CEO of O2, Matthew Key (far left in the photo), who gave his own - Apple polished - keynote segment. That was unusual, most guests on Steves stage just talk. The coverage for EDGE at launch, at 30% of the UK, isn't great, but he also announced free access to 7500 hotspots, which helps the wireless coverage at least.

I hope and believe that the big change which iPhone will bring is to help grow the public, free wireless network, thus creating a new universe of web based mobile applications.
Steve Jobs mentioned that Apple.com will have a page showcasing the best web applications for the iphone, and apparently that will be on the site soon.

After the presentation we all got a chance to play with the phones. I love it. If anything, you can find your way into the apps so easily that the learning curve is about finding your way back out!
One small thing I noticed, and took the opportunity to suggest as a change (to Steve) is that currently there is a useful ".com" button on the keyboard for Safari. Why not have a drop-down menu on the key which offers others (eg .co.uk, .fr, .es etc) - perhaps localised for the most used in that market - with .com as the default. He thought about it a moment, then told me it was an interesting idea and he'd think about it. Thanks, maybe we'll see that as a wee update sometime. . .

Now on to work on some apps for the thing . . turning (news)paper based navigation aids into clickable buttons.

What a pleasant morning it has been, though I'd have preferred to have walked away with a phone in my hand!

Which window? (a day in Galicia)

Amongst other things today, we went to a supermarket in Ribeira. I saw it’s name on a billboard as we came in, so we turned off - apparently towards the town centre. We hit a traffic jam which cleared up pretty fast, then headed through a largely residential part of town. Then we saw a small sign which pointed the direction to the supremarket, and headed off. Within minutes we had left the town, and were heading into an area which was low rise, clearly on the outskirts . We turned back, and eventually found our wrong turn, turned down the steepest carpark entrance, and did our shopping. Luca found some Simpsons biscuits which we were happy to buy for him. We got our shopping done, meeting some very friendly and helpful sales assistants during the process and headed for home.
As we were deciding which way to go Luca set up a refrain of “can I have my simpsons biscuits” from the back seat. I told him to wait about three times, and when this didn’t make any differentce, I exasperation filled my throat and I said “if you don’t stop saying that I’ll throw them out the window”. He thought about htis a moment, then his reply shot back: “which window daddy?” We could only laugh . . .

The long tail of debt

Here's a thing, there was a time when the most debt in society was carried by large institutions, which were relatively stable. Nowadays society runs on debt, and there are many more consumer oriented companies - selling all sorts of devices and depending on income from subscriptions, regular payments, etc - more phones, ipods and other mps3 players, computers, tv, internet and phone subscriptions are bought every day, and at the same time many people are over-extended with mortgages and credit to greater and greater degrees . .

Doesn't this reduction in share values, (caused by anxiety over the level of debt among consumers) risk pulling the rug out from under consumers by limiting their ability to spend, therefore causing a sort of messy and rapid downward spiral as that blows back into the market as further uncertainty and share selling . . isn't the whole capitalist system much more unstable the more it relies on millions and millions of consumers to make many smallish payments . .which are bolstered by large (for the individual) debts?

Hmmm…