December 20, 2004

Any true Apple loyalist will want to run right out and pick up Wired writer Leander Kahney's new book of the Macintosh phenomenon, The Cult of Mac. Within, the author explores the great many ways that the Apple faithful tend to march to the beat of a different drummer. That drummer being, of course, Apple Computer, Inc. It's a great "coffee table book" full of countless tidbits of colorful Mac, iPod, and Newton goodness. And I am proud to say...I am part of that goodness.

To quote the 3rd paragraph, page 238 of the hardback:

The hacks provide clues to the future direction of the iPod. VersionTracker, a popular software-download Web site, lists more than several dozen different hacks for the iPod. "No doubt Apple is taking its cue from some of these hacks," said Blake Patterson, who runs the iPodHacks website. "Apple is seeing that a lot of users want these kind of organizer functions." Apple didn't respond to requests for comments.

I suppose that's at least a portion of my alotted 15 minutes.... . .

December 5, 2004

I never thought I would see the day. All said and done, it seem just sad and wrong. After legitimizing the use of the personal computer in the business world with the introduction of the IBM PC over 23 years ago, back in August, 1981, IBM is pulling out of the PC market. The end of an era, to say the least. Still, business is business—PC sales accounted for only 12% of revenue for IBM last year. It appears that, at present, China's largest PC maker, Lenovo, is currently in talks to buy IBM's PC business.

In the memorable days of my home computer use in the early 80's it was a heated Apple II vs. IBM PC battle. So now there's no more PCs from IBM and the dual 2.5GHz 64-bit CPUs at the heart of my Macintosh are made by IBM. It's a crazy world, folks.

December 1, 2004

Well...my recent "Long Live The Newton" post got me to thinking about the best handheld that has ever seen the light of day, Apple's Newton, which has been out of production for over six years now. When I get to thinking about innovative hardware with eBay just around the corner, it can be a nightmare.... So I've gotten back on the bandwagon. I grabbed an excellent condition MessagePad 2100 and a new-in-box eMate 300 off eBay in the past month or so. Not only have I put the MP2100 to daily use at the office, but I've installed the Newton Toolkit developer setup under Classic on my G5 and iBook and am nearly finished with my first NewtonScript application. I picked up a Citizen PN60i portable, thermal, laser quality printer (mistakenly) thinking it could print via IR from the Newton, but as it turns out I need a cable to make that happen (searching).

Good to be back. It's still the best handheld out there with more capabilities than you can shake a stick at.

I'll really have to make it to one of the DC Metro Meetup Group meetings.