Saturday’s Apple: What’s missing in Apple’s product line?

This past week the rumors surfaced again, you know the ones about a tablet from Apple. The rumors are usually about a tablet essentially being a Mac, but probably without a keyboard, just a large touch screen. Since the iPhone came out last year, the rumors seem to come more often than before. I guess people see an iPhone with larger screen, 10 inches perhaps, no keyboard, design and look like an iPhone, multi-touch interface, and a full version of Mac OS X. Throw in solid-state storage, external DVD a la MacBook Air, 802.11n, Bluetooth, and some form of desktop stand or docking station, a killer price, and you have something that would wipe the market with anything else out there, I think.

But will Apple actually launch something like that? Personally I doubt it. They have the iPhone and iPod Touch, which both work in a limited way as small tablets. They have the MacBook Air, which while not being a tablet, fills a similar position in the product line. We’ve heard before that Apple doesn’t believe in the tablet concept, that it’s only for narrow, vertical markets, and that it’s not something Apple is interested in. Perhaps that’s changed or will change in the future, and I for one would really like to see an Apple tablet.

When the MacBook Air was introduced I was a bit disappointed that it was 13 inches. I waned a smaller notebook, perhaps even 10 inches, something more along the lines of the recent Asus eeePC, for example. But that’s another product I’m pretty sure Apple is not going to go for. They already have three lines in the notebook segment, and they’re not going to introduce a fourth, I think. But perhaps we have some exciting things coming in an updated MacBook Air, which might come out sooner than we think.

Another Apple product that I’ve wanted to see for many years is a Mac mini Pro, for a lack of a better name. It’s basically half Mac Pro and half Mac mini. So a small tower with less expansion and power than a Mac Pro. I think that would be a great seller in businesses, where a Mac Pro in many situations is overkill and too expensive, with an iMac they can’t use existing investments in monitors, and Mac mini is too limited in many respects.

In another month or so we should be close to when Apple starts introducing new products again after being a bit quiet over the summer, as they usually are. Regardless of what products they do introduce though, one thing you can be sure of when it comes to Apple, you should never say never.

Saturday’s Apple: Do Businesses Want Only One-Way Conversations?

Some time ago I read this piece by Max Barry and it really got me thinking:

[Companies] spend billions of dollars to get their names on our lips and their logos in our eyes, but letting us talk about them is dangerous: we might say something they don’t like. They want what Naomi Klein calls the “one-way conversation:” to be able to speak to us—endlessly so, through billboards and television and radio and product placement in your movies and the back of your bus ticket—without allowing us to speak back. Unless, that is, we’re saying positive things about them; unless we’re “on message.” And so they seek complete control over their names, to ban us from uttering them unless it is to speak praise.

And that’s how I feel the situation is here in our region. To criticize a company in public on a web site, like this one for example, is not very well received by many businesses here, and they don’t really seem to know how to deal with it. My view is, that if a business is being criticized on a site, then they need to be a part of the discussion that is going on, the conversation if you like. If they’re not, they’re on the outside; being silent, not being heard, and they have little right to complain then about what is being said.

It happens that a user on our site has posted about a particular store, about their service not being up to par, for example. Usually I then try to get in touch with that company to see what their side of the story is and pretty much all the time they tell me what’s going on but I can’t tell anyone else, and certainly not post on the site. The problem from the business’ point of view with that is it is all well and good that I know something, but if that’s not shared with others, it’s of very limited use.

And it also happens that companies ask me to sensor what a user has posted on the site because they felt they were unfairly treated or something. We continually discuss what standards to apply here and in situations like these we draw the line at personal attacks and foul language. If a user has a genuine complaint or view, they have the right to put it across, but they should do it in a nice way and don’t attack individuals. So in the words of the quote above, these companies seem to want to talk to us one way, without us, the market, the customers, talking back to them. That I don’t think is a very good idea.

Instead I would like to see businesses be active on this site and others and engage with users and customers just like you. You have an important voice and for most of you it’s just waiting to be heard. The question is what businesses will listen and engage with you in a conversation? So far they seem to be very few.

Saturday’s Apple: Is it getting harder to have a civil community online?

Scott Shuey writes for Gulf News about online discussions or debates, which seem to be getting less and less civil. He kicks off with, “If the internet is filled with anything, it’s jerks.”

Perhaps this was brought on by our recent discussions on EmiratesMac.com about what Scott wrote about Macs in Gulf News, I don’t know.

Scott brings up examples from Digg.com where people are blasting one another left, right and center. Personally I’ve never been a huge Digg.com fan but obviously many people are and it can make a site very popular overnight so it’s something anyone running a web site has to pay attention to. He attributes this rudeness online to anonymity, writing, “Pick almost any website, forum, or blog that allows users to post anonymously, and you’ll find this stuff going on.” and, “It’s no secret that people can and will say anything when there are no consequences.”

He continues, “The internet used to be a great place to discuss ideas. Now it’s turning into a place where any discussion quickly turns into vicious, anonymous personal attacks.”

In many ways I agree with Scott, I think it’s harder to find places on the internet where one can have intelligent, civil discussions about something. Very often when asking a question on a site or on an email list, you’re met by sneers and a condescending attitude, and perhaps especially if anonymous comments are allowed without registration for an account first. I’m not going to say that doesn’t happen on EmiratesMac.com, and I’m sure I’m sometimes guilty of it too, but I think we try to keep this a happy, friendly, and open place where anyone can ask for help or start a discussion about something. I’ve come to love this community and I think we make a big difference for a lot of people and for that I’m very proud. Sure there are many who do not see what contributions so many make on the site, donating their time and interest in order to help and engage with others, but that’s okay. One day those who don’t get it will wake up and feel that they missed out on something great.

One reason why I personally think EmiratesMac.com is such a great place is the time and effort people put in into running the site, maintaining it, and probably above else moderating discussions and posts. I really don’t like censorship and people controlling what others can post about but I’ve come to believe over the last few years that for an online community to be a good, healthy, friendly and helpful place, sometimes some strong administration is required. And sometimes that goes too far and an admin changes something or deletes something, which should have been left alone because it was acceptable. And sometimes users get very upset when they feel like they were unfairly treated.

It is my belief that for communities like this site to thrive and last some tough loving is required in the form of admin. Perhaps I’m wrong, but I think the interests of the community as a whole are more important to consider than the interests of the individual.

Saturday’s Apple: Recycling Apples

You know how everything is going green? Government departments and companies are unveiling various efforts concerning green this and green that. Mostly I get a sense that it’s just for show but I guess that the issue is at least being raised is good and more fundamental programs will possibly follow in years to come. After traveling in Europe for a few weeks I realize better than before that going green cannot just be a fancy fad that companies sign up for to gain quick gain but rather a fundamental rethink of the ways a society, businesses, and individuals think and act. Homes all over Europe sort their refuse, for example. Glass in one place, plastic in another, batteries separately, paper in its own, etc. Then most of it is recycled or at least disposed of in an environmentally friendly way. Alternatives for transport are available with various forms of hybrid and biofuel cars, and public transportation is readily available, effective and affordable.

But I’m not going to debate the situation as far as public transport, refuse sorting, cars, etc. are concerned in the Middle East because we already know that situation very well.

What I will do is point out that ABM (Apple IMC ME) has a real possibility here to make a good gesture and gain some good publicity by setting up a recycling scheme for iPods, Macs, and other Apple products. And this is not something new but it’s worth reminding ourselves about this. Let’s say you buy a Mac from an iStyle store, they offer to take the old Mac from you and recycle it. This would be good for the environment, it would be good for Mac buyers who would know their old equipment would not litter a landfill somewhere, and it would, presumably, also be good for ABM since they get good-will out of it and a sense of doing the right thing.

And consider this - If there’s even a slight chance that someone would buy a Mac for the first time just because there was a recycling program offered, wouldn’t it be worth it then? Look at Toyota and their Prius model. They’ve had way more demand for their hybrid car in North America and Europe than they’ve managed to meet for years and years.

Apple in the US offers this sort of recycling program and although I’m not sure they do in Europe or not, I don’t know why ABM could not do it in the Middle East. Perhaps they can’t do it under the name of “Apple IMC ME” but why not then do it as a separate company within the MDS group they belong to. Sure it may cost some money in the short term but we know that these issues are getting increasingly important for good-will as well as bottom lines, so being early in the game should be a good thing.

As EmiratesMac Apple User Group we always accept old equipment as donations. If possible we’ll fix it up and hand it over to someone who could use it. And that’s obviously a good thing but it’s not exactly the recycling we’re talking about here. More needs to be done and it’s obviously the responsibility of all of us to act but it’s my view that commercial companies need to be at the forefront and perhaps even lead the way.

But I also really don’t like just bringing up examples from US and Europe because the solutions that work there may not just automatically work here. I’m not sure how a Middle East recycling scheme would have to be different than one that works in other parts of the world but that it would have to be different somehow I would image.

Search Better With SpotLight

You know SpotLight, the search technology that’s been a part of Mac OS X since Tiger (Mac OS X 10.4)? It’s that looking-glass icon that sits at the top-right of the screen in the menu bar. Perhaps you know this but do you really use SpotLight to it’s full potential? This article will show you a few simple things you can do to make SpotLight produce better results for you.

by Magnus Nystedt

Here are a few suggestions for how you can refine your searches:

• Use quotes before what you’re looking for to get more exact result, ie. “mac os x will show different result than just mac os x.
• Search by date by typing date:2008-06-21 for that specific date. You can also use for before or after a particular date.
• Use AND, OR or NOT to narrow down the results. For example, EmiratesMac AND iChat, will find results with both words in them.
• If you want even more options, click “Show All” at the top of the SpotLight menu.
• In the SpotLight part of System Preferences you can select what drives and folders should and shouldn’t be included when SpotLight does a search. Exclude drives you have no need to search through and save some time.

Press Command+Space on your keyboard and the SpotLight menu should appear.

• Start typing what you’re looking for and SpotLight will immediately show you results.
• Click on the thing you’re looking for and your Mac will open that file, email, etc.
• You can also “walk” up and down the results with your up and down keys on the keyboard, and press enter on the hit you want to open.

.Mac is Dead, Long Live Mobile Me

At WWDC 2008 Apple announced that they were overhauling their much-neglected .Mac online service and they’re renaming it MobileMe (http://www.apple.com/mobileme/). In fact much of .Mac remains, but some new interesting things have been added. Among them, the ability for information in calendars and addressbooks to seamlessly synchronize between Mac, iPod, iPhone, PC and web sites online. Apple calls this “Exchange for the rest of us”. It remains to be seen how well this works in practice since in the Middle East, as many of you know, the .Mac service has not exactly been fast most of the time.

by Magnus Nystedt

Adobe Tutorial: Create an iPod-Like Silhouette Graphic in Illustrator

I’m sure you have all seen the colorful iPod and iTunes ads that Apple have come up with in recent years. You know the ones with a silhouette of a person standing against a very vibrant colored background? Often the color is solid but more recently Apple has started using various patterns and color combinations. In this brief tutorial I wanted to give you some idea of how you could create your own iPod-like silhouette ad. The PSD file that I use is available for download from http://tinyurl.com/6hwta4.

By Magnus Nystedt

Step 1
Create a new document in Illustrator. I made my document A4 size, and landscape.

Step 2
Select File > Place. Find the “silhouette_start.psd” file. Position and resize to fit the document.

Step 3
Select the silhouette graphic. Then select Object > Live Trace > Tracing Options.

Step 4
Play around with the settings. For example, blur, fill, stroke, etc. Click the Preview button.

Step 5
Click the Trace button when you’re settings are finished and Illustrator will trace the image.

Step 6
Draw a rectangle, put it in the background (Object > Arrange > Send to Back), and give it a funky color.

Step 7
Write a cool message in a suitable font.

Step 8
Select File > Export. If you want to put it on a web page, select to export as JPG file.

Step 9
You’re now finished. If you want to, you can add some final touches in Photoshop.You can see my final result at http://tinyurl.com/6eq3sl.

Peel the Apple

Q: I have a big collection of music CDs that I’d like to get into my iTunes, but I’m not sure how.
A: It’s easy, just insert the disk into your Mac, and iTunes should launch, and from there you can rip the music so you have it on your hard drive. If you have many disks to go through, go to iTunes > Preferences > Advanced > Importing and select “Import CD and Eject” where it says “On CD Insert”. Then the disk is ejected automatically once it’s been completely imported.

Q: I come from Belgium and moved to Saudi Arabia about 6 weeks ago. I brought my new MacBook that I purchased in Belgium with me. A DSL connection was set up at home for internet. However, I can surf on the web without any problems but cannot connect to the Apple Server. Therefore, I cannot reach the Apple Store from iTunes or my iDisk – nor can I print books from iPhoto. My connection works correctly and I do not understand why I cannot connect to the Apple Server. Could you help me?
A: It’s hard to say without sitting at your MacBook and using your connection. I would check with Network Utility (in Applications > Utilities) whether your Mac can ping any of the servers you say you are having problems with and perhaps also do a ‘traceroute’ to it. Then you may start figuring out where the problem might be. Also try another computer on the same connection as the MacBook and see if that helps. Basically you need to try to narrow down the options of what may be wrong.

Q: I have Entourage on Mac but I want to share with Outlook for Windows. How can I do that?
A: The easiest way is to use an IMAP email account, such as .Mac (now MobileMe). With IMAP all your emails, whether they are in the inbox or sent items, are all on the server. Nothing is stored locally so if you have emails which you see from Entourage you will see the same emails in Outlook.

Q: I have 2004 MSOffice for Mac installed on my MacBook, but every time I open two files in PowerPoint (both files are 122MB), PowerPoint automatically quits. Is there something that I can do, install or update to avoid this?
A: It might be that the files are somehow corrupted. I would try to open them in something else, perhaps in PowerPoint for Windows, NeoOffice or Keynote, and perhaps even try on another Mac with Powerpoint. If you can open in somewhere else, then the problem might be okay if you save it from that place. Or, you could check the output of Console (Applications > Utilities) and see if it says something about why it crashes.

Q: A friend gave me a FLV file, which I believe is a Flash Video file. I tried to play it with the Flash Player but it doesn’t do anything? How do I play it on a Mac?
A: Strangely enough Flash Player does not play Flash video. The free FLV Viewer (http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/28763) for Mac OS X will play back the FLV files.

Create a Pie Chart in Excel 2008

We continue our series of short and simple tutorials on the various applications in the Microsoft Office 2008 suite for Macintosh. This time we tackle something that many of you may find trivial, creating a pie chart. However, many beginners find creating charts difficult, so we thought it would be appropriate to show you how. Pretty much all instructions apply equally well to earlier versions of Excel for Mac.
by Magnus Nystedt

Step 1
Start Microsoft Excel 2008 and create a new spreadsheet document, which may start up in Pay Layout View. Personally I prefer Normal View, so first thing I do is switch view by clicking on the Normal View button.

Step 2
Type in the data you want to make into a pie chart; in this example I typed in various categories of clothing in the first row, and typed how much was sold in each category in the second row.

Step 3
With your mouse, select the data in the first and second rows.

Step 4
Click on the Charts tab in the Elements Toolbar, then click on Pie in the sub-menu that appears.

Step 5
Excel now creates a pie chart based on the data you typed in. Re-size the pie chart and move it around until you have it in the desired position.

Step 6
You can now do some final touches to the pie chart, such as dragging out one section from the pie chart to highlight its importance.

Tips for Taking Better Summer Photos

Here are some quick tips for you to consider when you’re traveling on vacation with your camera this summer.
by Magnus Nystedt

Know your camera: Modern digital cameras can have complicated functions, menu-systems, and buttons. It helps to study your camera before going away so that when the opportunity presents itself to take a beautiful photo, you know what to do with your camera.

Focal lengths: Different focal lengths create different moods and effects. A wide-angle lens creates the feeling of space and openness and increases the depth in a photo. A telephoto lens creates a more closed feeling and decreases the depth in a photo.

Height: Where you shoot from, from up high or down low can have a dramatic effect on what photo you take – so experiment with different positions.

Details: Often getting close up and personal with objects can create new and exciting compositions.

Action: Things happening, often with people involved, can create some funny moments and you can often capture them by being prepared.

Movement: Movement into or out of a frame can create dramatic effect. Lines in the form of a road leading in or out of a shot, for example, tell a story.

Lighting: Light is obviously critical. Shoot early or late in the day for the best results; i.e. the softest light and the best colors.

Have fun: Above all, have fun with your photography. If you’re not enjoying it, you’ll not take great photos.

Camera: Canon G9
Location: Stockholm, Sweden
When: June 27, 2008 @ 6:12pm
Exposure: 1/50, f/5.6, ISO100, 44.4mm focal length
Mac: MacBook Pro, iPhoto 08

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