Kaotic, Kreation, Design

Well here we are Feb 29th and no SDK to speak of yet. Well not entirely true. Apple COO Tim Cook took some time to speak about the upcoming SDK recently. ( Didn’t Apple announce this was to be released in February?)

All Cook really had to say about the upcoming SDK was that it would “only be limited by [their] imagination.” He declined to give further details because Apple wants to keep “the element of surprise.”

I’ve read from various sources that programming on the iPhone will be just like programming applications for the Mac. If this is the case it’s great news. This means Apple will not be forcing developers to work in a little box.
However this will also present a security issue. Users will definitely have to make sure they are getting their applications from a reliable source as the programs have access to everything in the iPhone including the mic, the camera, and even the ability to triangulate your position using cell towers.

What does this mean? This means, if you get an application from an unscrupulous source, they have the ability to listen to you with the mike on your phone and track where you’ve been by triangulating your position based on cell towers.

Now I do admit that this is all speculation on my part. Apple my have very well already thought of all this and have a solution to this issue. For example, what’s stopping them from verifying all applications and then offering them only through the Apple store via iTunes?

We all know Apple loves to keep themselves in control. If you’re interested in listening to Tim Cook discuss the SDK as well as many other things Apple, the recording is available on the Apple site at the following link:

http://www.apple.com/quicktime/qtv/goldmansachs08/

written by Brandon Leon \\ tags: Apple, iPhone, iPod, Phone, SDK

Well a victor has been declared in the battle of HD-DVD vs. Blu-Ray. Toshiba screamed uncle, and announced it will no longer be producing movie titles in HD-DVD. This is both good and bad.

The Good:

I was rooting Blu-ray on for this one, for a couple reasons. One, I just like Sony. I own a Playstation 3 (PS3) which means I already own a Blu-ray player. I really didn’t want to have to go buy a separate HD-DVD player for movies when I already had a Blu-Ray player built in my Playstation. In fact I still have yet to buy any titles because I was afraid of buying loads of Blu-Ray titles only to discover HD-DVD to be the victor.

However another reason I was hoping Blu-ray would win the war is sheer capacity. Blu-Ray offers 50Gigs of data vs. HD-DVD’s 30gigs. Thats an extra 20Gigs.

Whats this mean? Higher quality video and more of it. And the kewl thing is this.  Apparently TDK just announced a prototype Blu-ray Disc with a capacity of 200GB.

Next step is to locate myself a Blu-Ray Writer for my Mac =)

The Bad:

This is the part you should pay attention to as I guarantee LOTS of retailers out there will be offering HD-DVD players CHEAP! The catch? you don’t what them, I know a lot of people are going “Look a High Definition player for under $100″ but remember you’re only going to find titles already produced and released on HD-DVD no more titles will be released on HD-DVD.

What are your thoughts on the winner of the High Definition wars?

written by Brandon Leon \\ tags: Blu-Ray, Format, Hardware, HD-DVD, Movies

I’m drooling over the Apple 23″ display at the lovely Apple Store in beautiful San Diego. and suddenly it hits me. I’ve used dual monitors, both at home and at work, for years. Heck, I used triple monitors on my last job. So I asked myself “Why am I only using a single screen now.” After all, my iMac has a built-in output for a 2nd display.

But alas, Apple does not have a 24″ display. Meaning I would have to deal with a slightly smaller 23″ display. Yes I know what you’re thinking. Its only an inch. But, come on, Apple is known for its sleek and beautiful designs. I really don’t want to ruin that with a lopsided setup.

But wait there’s more!

Thats right, not only would you have a lopsided display, they don’t look the same at all. Have you looked at the difference between the Apple displays and the iMacs? Totally different design. Even if there was a 24″ screen it would still be sitting quite a bit lower than the screen on the iMac.

I guess you could always settle for a stack of books (on Windows of course, since you don’t need them anymore) under the screen to raise it to the appropriate height.

So I have simple solution. And I’d really like everyones opinion on this one. I was thinking Apple should produce a display that looks like the iMac. They already have a 20″ display, so for that model, it would be a simple design change on a second case for the screen.

As for the 24″ they don’t offer a 24″ display but they should start. Then manufacture a case for the 24″ display that matches the 24″ iMac.

How much better looking would that be? Having 2 identical screens sitting next to each other, one the actual iMac and the other a simple external display that looks like the iMac. I’d buy one right now if they had one.

But who knows. The last thing they did with their display line was drop the price a bit 2 years ago. Maybe a new design is already in the works.

Till next time

//Brandon Leon

written by Brandon Leon \\ tags: Apple, Computer, Hardware