Newton Poetry

Frankly, I’m tired of everyone picking on the white iPhone 3G.

When it was announced, the wow-it’s-girly comments began almost immediately. Who could imagine buying such a wimpy, weanie, feminine piece of gadgetry? Anyone who opted for the white 16 GB iPhone was immediately branded a girly man (unless you’re a girl – then, for some reason, it’s okay).

I say, enough. It’s time for the critics to realize that white is a great modern tradition among Apple products. Are the same folks who laugh at the white iPhone willing to laugh at the white iMac or iBook G4? How about the “new” discounted MacBook? What about the prevous iPod models?

I’ll agree: Apple is moving to black and metal. Even the new iPod Classics come in metal or black, and the once-white MacBooks and iMacs are moving to the iPhone-like fit and finish. Over the last few years, Apple has moved from white to aluminum.

So maybe that’s why the original iPhone, with it’s metal enclosure, was my favorite. It was the device that kicked off Apple’s new design sensability. Seeing the rest of the product line, maybe the black iPhone makes the most sense now that we can’t have a metal one anymore.

But telling me the white iPhone is some how the namby-pamby choice among the 16 GB versions is to ignore almost seven years of iPod, iMac, iBook, and even MacBook history. Apple picked white because of its clean, no-frills look and snow-white aesthetic. Just because Apple doesn’t do white anymore doesn’t mean its the lesser choice. We tucked white iPods in our pockets for years, and we lived right through it. I still carry my 30 GB iPod video around and no one picks on me.

Truth be told, no one picks on me about my white iPhone, either. Maybe they’re too amazed by my phonesaber or the cowbell I can tap with my finger.

Just be thankful we have a choice this time around. The Newton came in one color: green. Sure, there was rugged camo green and see-through transluscent green, but green was it.

Now we have choices, and I’ve made mine. I’m so proud of my white iPhone 3G that I bought a white Countour case for it while I was at the Chicago Apple store. It’s missing the shiny Apple logo on the back, but it’s gleaming white, and I love it. Now my main Apple devices – my iBook G4, iMac G4, and iPod – all match perfectly. I wish the iPhone still came in aluminum, I really do, but since it doesn’t the pearly-white phone will still fit comfortably in my pocket, thankyouverymuch.

All you white iPhone haters can purchase your black model and join the sheep that are too nervous to grip a beautiful piece of gadgetry in public. Maybe you’re prejudiced against the purest of the color schemes. That’s fine. We won’t agree. But can we at least agree that, no matter what color people opt for, the white iPhone 3G isn’t such a bad choice after all?

Hurray – WikiWikiNewt is back up and running.

The wiki’s administrator, Morgan Aldridge, received enough requests through the NewtonTalk list that he took another stab at posting it. Now it’s back up, with some conditions:

Okay, I took another look at it and was able to at least get rid of
the permission errors.

Known issues:

• It’s possible some content is missing
• You may or may not be able to log in
• If you are able to log in, you won’t be able to modify any pages
• We’ll start getting comment spam again, I believe

All that’s left to do, says Aldridge, is upgrade/update his version of PHP. It’s a heckuva resource for Newton users, and it’s nice to see it back up.

Saw this rumor (a few times, actually) over at Webmonkey: a Cocoa OS X Finder may be on its way, starting with Snow Leopard.

But wait. Isn’t the Finder an all-OS X beast?

That got me wondering what, exactly, is the difference between the Cocoa and Carbon development environments. I’m not programmer, so I needed a low-brow explanation.

Just before Apple launched OS X, Macworld had this article describing the basic differences between the two. I like to reference the original Mac OS X introduction video, by Mr. steve Jobs, as a primer, too. He goes into detail about the different levels (kernel, Carbon/Cocoa, OpenGL, etc.), which helps.

My basic understanding: Carbon is for applications that need to reference the old, OS 9 way of doing things while operating in OS X. Cocoa is an all-OS X environment, and lets developers use stuff like Core Audio and Core Animation.

Even at Apple, the two platforms have their place. Mail is a Cocoa app. iTunes is a Carbon app – a hold-over from OS 9. PhotoShop, as it stands now, is a Carbon application. Again, in terms of development, it’s an OS 8/9 relic. But that may be changing. Adobe has already produced a Cocoa-based app in Lightroom, so hope springs eternal.

Now, 32 bit versus 64 bit? That’s a whole ‘nother ball of wax.

Matt Howe, a Newton programmer I interviewed a few months back, has updated his Holidays package for 2009

You download the .pkg file at his site, sync it to your Newton, and your calendar will have U.S. and 10 other countries’ holiday dates for next year. I added it to my eMate and it works great – just open it up, select whichever country or set of holidays you want to addd, and presto, it’s done.

“All it does is insert the entries. Once done you can delete the pkg,” Matt says. “It does not remove the entries, nor check to see if they already exist. It is very simplistic, just a quick way to add holidays.”

You can download other fun Newton software projects from “Papa Duck’s” homepage.

Here’s a fun project for the Macintosh fan: make yourself a classic Mac costume.

I came up with the idea after wondering what I could do with a book donation box I had lying around at work. The boxiness, the human-sized potential – it all came together in a flash of inspiration. “Jesus,” I thought, “this thing could be a self-made Mac costume.”

More… »

By some accounts, businesses are snatching up Macs more and more these days. 9 to 5 Mac says the use is quadrupling, while some say the increase isn’t so great. But for the subject to even be noticed, something has to happen.

In fact, something is happening: Apple, whether directly or indirectly, is telling the enterprise market, “we’re not so bad.”

Apple tried this years ago. The Apple III was meant to be a business model PC. So was the Lisa. But their cost or glitches, combined with IBM’s early dominance, relegated Apples to the “creative” and education markets. Hippies love Macs. Suit-and-tie professionals? Not so much. At least that was the perception.

Then Apple created a tool that was tailor-made for business: the Newton Messagepad.

More… »

Good for Apple:

Apple is publicly opposing Proposition 8 and making a donation of $100,000 to the No on 8 campaign. Apple was among the first California companies to offer equal rights and benefits to our employees’ same-sex partners, and we strongly believe that a person’s fundamental rights — including the right to marry — should not be affected by their sexual orientation. Apple views this as a civil rights issue, rather than just a political issue, and is therefore speaking out publicly against Proposition 8.

No one is free unless all of us are free. Here in Michigan, we already had a ballot initiative banning gay marriage added to our constitution. That was also the same year a guy named Bush got re-elected for president. It was a bummer year.

I’ve just recently discovered Andrew Sullivan over at the Atlantic, and he’s been flogging Prop 8 out in California. Rightly so. But it seems Apple is up against the Church of Latter Day Saints. How sad.

[Via Macenstein.]

I’m more convinced than ever that, after an initial frenzy of publicity and sales to early adopters, iPhone sales will be unspectacular. If Apple doesn’t respond quickly by lowering the price and making nice to AT&T, which surely will be ticked off, iPhone may well become Apple’s next Newton.

From David Haskin of Computerworld.

And how do you feel now, Mr. Haskin?

[Courtesy of MacDailyNews’s iPhone quote roundup.]

I’m all about the classic Mac’ing around these parts. That’s why I thought Jason Snell’s “A Time Machine trip to the mid-’90s” article for Macworld.com was so darned cool: he lets us know about some of the never-to-see-the-light-of-day features of Copland, Apple’s vaporOS.

I remember reading about Copland and Pink and all the other weird OSes Apple was planning, but it was cool to see the operating system screen shots. Love that ’90s styling – takes me back to the Packard Bell computer my dad bought (and I ruined).

Check it out for a neat comparison on features in Copland and today’s OS X Leopard.

Marketing guru Seth Godin has a new book out, Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us. As a way to promote and brainstorm the book, he invited an online “triiibe” to make a book of their own. It’s available for free on Seth’s blog (which is great, and updated every day).

In the free, PDF version of the “Tribes” book, I couldn’t help but notice how many times Apple is brought up. On page 17, an author talks about the not-so-first-in-line Polish iPhone buyers. On page 51, the iPhone unlocker tribe gets its day. “Think Different” is listed as a War Cry on page 41. On page 60, Tom Bentley describes how he’ll be a Mac guy for life after his first experience:

The Mac tribe, of course, has been written about extensively, as has Appleís design magic. There have been some clunkers, but in the main, many are marvelous advances in computing and design. Iím not quite the zealot fanboy who would immediately flame online columnists who question any aspect of the Macintosh Creed, but I get where the fanatics are coming from. Iím in their tribe, after all.

“I am now part of the Newton tribe” sparked my interest at first glance, even if the actual article was about Newton running shoes. Even there, though, Marcus Galica talks about how Newton-wearing runners recognize each other out in the wild. Remember when that was true for iPods? How iPod wearers would give each other “the nod” or “the look”?

Apple’s relatively smaller user base than PCs gets a mention on page 63 (“I’m a Mac, I’m a PC”). Online groups and surfers and ethnic groups are all mentioned in this “Current Tribes Casebook,” but Apple gets its a big share (perhaps more than fair – is that my “tribal mind” talking?) of the attention.

I joined the Apple tribe three years ago in November, and I haven’t looked back. More recently, I joined the Newton tribe (and the jogging tribe and the local brewery tribe, and perhaps a few more), and it’s been a heckuva lot of fun.

What would be written about our little group of holders-on and our big green friend?