Mechanical Empathy

iMac = iError

Apparently Apple has managed to screw up their iMac product development cycle quite seriously.

iMac Availability
Apple has stopped taking orders for the current iMac as we begin the transition from the current iMac line to an all-new iMac line which will be announced and available in September. We planned to have our next generation iMac ready by the time the inventory of current iMacs runs out in the next few weeks, but our planning was obviously less than perfect. We apologize for any inconvenience to our customers.

Mac OS X Software Apple Design Awards

If you run OS X, you should check out the Apple Design Awards for some of the best software of the year. Most of the winners are of the slightly obscure, but niche filling variety.

"Cubie" Recipients Announced

I'm always on the look out for neat software that admittedly makes my life easier or my computer more useful. Well, Real Software, the makers of RealBasic, has announced their annual award winners. There are some nice little gems in the listing that I'm evaluating right now. I liked it better when the called the awards the "Cubies," but I'll live. Oh, this is all Mac OS X Software - sorry Windows users you'll have to look at Download.com or something.

My Own Private Internet Radio Station

Frequently at work when I'm writing or researching I like to listen to music. When I'm at home I have an extensive archive of my music on my desktop mac, but it is too large to fit nicely onto my powerbook anymore and I don't want to copy it onto my work PC. I'd like to have an iPod, but that isn't in the budget right now.I'd been hearing snippets about software that allowed users to broadcast music over a broadband connection. The main issue with this is I wanted to broadcast the music, but also have control over what was being played remotely.

I did some experimenting with NiceCast and iTunes webRemote, but the controllers were clunky and the radio broadcast had to be started from the base machine. Then I found SlimServer from SlimDevices. This company makes the really cool SqueezeBox hardware that can control and stream your music library to a remote position on your network -perhaps your stereo system, for example. Well, SlimServer is open source (something I love), of course free, and will also allow you to stream over the internet as well as to a SqueezeBox. It also has password protection so random people can't latch onto the stream. Furthermore, it offers powerful web based control over what is playing.

So, I'm happy now. When I want music at work or the coffee shop (wireless internet) I just fire up iTunes and open the SlimServer stream then launch the control webpage and my entire library is at my fingertips. You can download SlimServer here there is a version for Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux.

Powerbook G5 Coming?

A MacMinute report by Peter Glaskowsky, analyst with Instat/MDR, says that all critical components are ready for the Powerbook G5. I hope he is right, my Titanium Powerbook is looking a bit long in tooth after 2.5 years.

iPod mini Take-Apart!

Greg Koenig has already taken apart his iPod Mini, not two days after they went on sale. He has posted the instructions and photos at iPodLounge. Two things were interesting:

1. He destroyed his iPod, but given the lessons learned they can be taken apart safely.
2. The 4Gb Microdrive has a CompactFlash interface.

Greg says he tried the Microdrive in his compactflash card reader and camera without success, but didn't mention if he tried to reformat the card. There has been discussion at dpreview.com about using the Hitachi microdrive out of the Creative MuVo2 4Gb in cameras. The reason for this almost bizarre destructiveness is that the 4Gb drives alone are retailing at $500+, whereas 4Gb mp3 players using the same drives can be had for as little as $190.

Spell Checking Services in Mac OS X

Uncovering a feature in technology that you didn't expect is like a surprise gift! Mac OS X services supports spell checking (I'm guessing in all Cocoa Apps) basically anywhere you can enter text, which means that when composing a weblog entry via the web interface of TypePad in Safari I can spell check the entry. This is excellent news.