When I get to these moments I invariably go back to Firefox. Firefox and Safari are different in as many ways as they are the same…

Here’s the really basic lowdown: While Safari is faster, Firefox is multi-threaded, so you can actually do other stuff with it while a page is loading (Safari can’t).

Firefox also doesn’t spontaneously “forget” the login information I have stored in the browser for the various sites that I use on a daily basis the way Safari does. It doesn’t seem to randomly delete stored cookies the way Safari does. It doesn’t look as nice as Safari does, though, and I’m surprising myself by saying that that actually matters.

I mentioned Safari’s inability to do ANYTHING else while loading a page. This is frustrating. It’s not at all uncommon when debugging a server issue to have pages loading at idle for a minute or more, thus holding your browser hostage during the process. It seems that Safari’s performance comes at the expense of the ability to perform multiple simultaneous operations. This won’t change for the near-term I don’t suspect.

I’ve never seen Safari’s “forgetfulness” issue discussed anywhere online, despite months of googling. Yet at geek parties and among friends it’s constantly discussed. I can’t believe that people just put up with it. Therefore I am convinced that it’s not me. It’s you, Safari.

Sayonara.

Since I made my purchase, though, there have been three major developments:

1. Apple announced there will be an SDK. This seems (because of odd timing) that either the announcement or possibly the entire program is the result of bowing under pressure built up within the developer (and user) marketplace, or the fact that with jailbreaking they’ve lost control of the 3rd party developers already.
2. Various analysis is leading to a consensus that Apple profits as much as $565 per iPhone, assuming you keep it hooked up to AT&T. Roughly $432 of that comes from the payments from AT&T to Apple over the course of your two-year contract.
3. AT&T said it has activated 1.1M iPhones, but Apple says it has sold more than 1.4M iPhones. This means that there are 250K-300K iPhones which have obviously been unlocked. Unlocking your iPhones means that Apple is losing out on almost $130 million in gross profit over two years already. AT&T loses entirely. Ouch.

So, what’s a self-respecting geek to do? The reality is that the iPhone is enticing. Even though the call failure rate is actually pretty high (not sure if this is true of locked iPhones) it is an excellent phone with great acoustics and with a tremendous UI.

I’ve noticed some real flaws, of course: The fact that this is the first Apple device with a keyboard that can’t copy & paste in over 10 years should be embarrassing to Steve-O, as would the fact that you can’t Search anywhere on the platform. The fact that although it has Bluetooth you can’t talk to it from your bluetooth-enabled Mac rather contradicts Apple’s entire modus operandi with regard to connectivity, as does the astonishing iRealization that it inexplicably uses iTunes, and not iSync to.. uh… Sync.. Ouch.

As a new unlocked iPhone user, Apple still might be at war with you. But the reality is that these problems are largely software-fixable. Apple will solve them, or some plucky third-party developer will step in and hand-grenade Apple’s stranglehold on the users.

The best way to play the iPhone game is not to abstain from purchasing one (I know you want to) until RSJ opens the platform properly… The best way to launch your missile attack and enter the iPhone war is to buy one, unlock it immediately, and take it to your favourite GSM carrier (using it with or without the data plan — I’m finding free WiFi to be quite readily available most of the places I want to do email etc.).

In this way, you vote with your feet. And your wallet. And any vote against AT&T is a good one, in my view.

And if half or more of iPhone buyers point their radios at “anyone but AT&T” it’ll start to hit Apple where it lives, and they’re realize that the Blackberry-style lock-in is not the appropriate business model for invoking change in the wireless industry.

The networking stuff used to be the hard part, but Apple’s bonjour makes it easy.  But as for installing the correct drivers, the Windows world knows no delimiters of common sense..  Two hours later I had performed the correct sequence of incantations and solved the problem so I thought I’d share the misery with you here in the hopes of saving you an hour or so.

To save the rest of us the same nightmare I endured, here’s how you do it.  Note that this assumes you already have Bonjour printing working for the Macs in your household.  That’s actually fairly intuitive to set up and I need not cover it here.  Here goes:

1.  You need a driver since whatever printer you’re going to use is likely not a part of your Windows install.  Go to the HP web site and download their giant bloatware driver pack for your Windoze box.
2. Gone are the days when you could just locate the driver someplace and have Windows install it normally.  Once the above pack has exploded itself into your hard drive, you need to “fool” XP into installing the driver.  Plug your Windoze machine directly into the printer via USB (hope it’s a laptop!).  It should detect the printer and automagically install the drivers.  Once done, “Print Test Page” to make sure it works.
3. Don’t delete this printer yet, but go ahead and unplug the USB.  Instead, install the Bonjour drivers for Windows on to your Windows XP box.
4. Open the “Add Printer” tool from the Bonjour folder that now appears in your Start menu.  If you’re still connected to the network and the printer’s again connected to whatever Apple device is sharing the printer, your computer should detect it.  Since the driver has also been installed, the appropriate driver, in my case “HP OfficeJet 6200 series”, should appear as an option.
5. Delete the USB printer and make the Bonjour printer the default from within the Windows  “Printers & Fax” menu item.

That’s pretty-much it.  It only took me two hours to figure out how to fool Windows into installing the driver, as I couldn’t seem to mine it directly from within the installer or the folders HP placed the drivers into (which I still can’t dig up).

On to my next battle.. hope this helps!

-Ian.

Apple’s customers, embracing the simplicity of its products, want to move their music and movies around (particularly ones they actually pay for) unfettered by DRM: Apple says no. With its market clout, Apple has the opportunity to take a stand against the music insultry and the movie biz. It has consciously chosen not to.

Apple’s customers want to buy its slick new iPhone and use it anywhere in the world, on the network of their choosing. Apple says no. With its brand power, Apple could have created and released an unlocked phone (like, say, Palm) and allowed the market to embrace it as a platform. And as users and hackers have developed workarounds to get what they want, Apple is attempting to punish them by frying infringing iPhone firmware.

In the case of iTunes, the market has been free to work around Apple’s ignorance as there has long been a thriving DIVX and MP3 bazaar thanks to a number of file sharing networks over which to exchange them, and with some effort those are playable in iTunes and transferable to iPod. In the case of the iPhone, though, Apple has inadvertently catalyzed a real revolution. From the iPhoneSimFree.com web site today:

“…for our customers who have no immediate need to use alternate providers and are still using their AT&T card, you are welcome to update your phone. For the rest please be patient, as the jailbreak issue is something that affects much more than just the unlocking. The thousands of open source developers who have put a cumulative 10s of thousands of man hours into various apps and tools now have no way to get them onto the phone as well. We are all looking into the jailbreak issue as it affects us all, and we will keep updating our site as well as the open source community at large with any information we can about this.”

In both operating modes, Apple has partnered with a cabal and taken their side, rather than the market’s side. They’ve thoroughly misjudged the ingenuity of the mob and the ill will that has been built up over decades between the market and the companies that service them. And by sitting at the wrong side of the table in the ongoing war, Apple has not only passed over a perfect opportunity to affect positive change, shift the lumbering elephants of industry, and stimulate growth, but it has jeopardized its credibility and brand equity.

Apple doesn’t just need to “Think Different” … it needs to “Act Different”. People will not forget their behaviour through this era, just as Mac enthusiasts still vilify John Sculley for rejecting numerous fundamentals that made the original Mac (even in its time) as successful as it was.

Thinking Different was supposed to be Apple’s raison-d’etre. Here’s the text from the icon above, originally penned by Jack Kerouac, which is the TextEdit icon in OS X Leopard:

“Here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes – the ones who see things differently. They’re not fond of rules and they have no respect for the status quo. You can praise them, disagree with them, quote them, disbelieve them, glorify or vilify them. About the only thing that you can’t do is ignore them. Because they change things.”

This was the cornerstone of Apple’s 1997 “Think Different” campaign, and it’s unsurprising that it lives on as an Easter Egg nestled within a core application of their operating system. Since the 1980s, Apple has leveraged its entire brand identity on rebelliousness. Every campaign, up to and including the smug, polarizing “I’m a Mac” series have extended this equity, largely with products that truly were “different”.

In dancing with the devil by partnering with the Movie, Music, and Wireless industries, Apple has achieved things that few other companies could have and to a limited extent has torn down some walls.  But the compromises, such as its revenue sharing arrangement with wireless carriers, are downright faustian.  And as Apple has been attempting to “evolve” these arrangements to greater customer-friendliness and openness, they are learning the price one pays when one’s business (and quarterly reporting) becomes enmeshed with the whims of a dinosaur.

The iPhone takes this the furthest at both extremes: It’s the most limited platform Apple has created, and it’s also the one with the most potential to be revolutionary. Like a date with Ann Coulter, buying and using an iPhone begins all shiny and pretty and ends up on the rocks amid a boil of hostility, frustration and creative limitations. That the source of all of that negativity is the smoldering heap of what used to be Cingular wireless is not something that the market will acknowledge or forgive.

With these two bubbling issues, Apple is quickly approaching a brand crisis. It has drawn to its corner just the sort of people who are revolutionaries, who affect change, and who decry cronyism. These people have actively laboured to help Apple to continue to push the envelope there, but at the same time they are prone to fickleness.

Miller Brooks, an ad firm, points out that a Brand Crisis can hit any company, no matter how well-entrenched — and quickly. They recommend starting to manage the situation by finding your ethical compass, and then rapidly thereafter accepting reality. Apple is fortunate in that it need only look to its users to find its ethical compass. Many of them are bloggers. All of them are vociferous. 🙂

Apple needs to listen to the wisdom of the crowd. I believe they are at a critical fork in the road. “Brand Crisis” and “Apple” are not terms usually read in the same paragraph, but perhaps this is a sign of things to come.

When the Fake Steve Jobs is more in touch with the market than the Real Steve Jobs, Apple may have officially jumped the shark.

Make sure you try it, you’ll never go back!

Pizza Box or IMac? No, an IBox By Leander Kahney

Story location: http://www.wired.com/news/mac/0,2125,58310,00.html

02:00 AM Apr. 02, 2003 PT

A Minnesota man has plans to launch his own Macintosh-manufacturing business, building a low-cost, upgradeable Mac called the iBox.

John Fraser, a 21-year-old engineer from Chanhassen, Minnesota, is finalizing the design for his flat “pizzabox” Mac and hopes to go into production in three to four months. If successful, Fraser will be the first third party to make a Mac since Apple shut down its three-year experiment in clone licensing in 1997.

Unlike the world of Windows PCs, which has many hardware makers, Apple is the only company making Macs. Apple doesn’t license its operating system to outside hardware manufacturers.

Fraser hopes to sidestep the licensing issues by using older, off-the-shelf parts made by Apple and sold to computer repair outfits as spare parts. He will use Apple-made motherboards preloaded with Macintosh ROMs — the vital piece of hardware-cum-software that makes a Mac a Mac. Customers will supply their own Mac operating system.

However, Fraser may still face legal problems with patents and trademarks, legal experts said. Apple is notoriously protective of its intellectual property, and has not hesitated to go after hardware manufacturers, software publishers and websites for infringement.

Fraser hasn’t yet contacted Apple, and the company didn’t respond to requests for comment.

“I always wanted to build Macs,” said Fraser, who runs a part-time PC customization business, 2khappyware. “But I want to get Apple’s full support. I want to make sure I’m on the up and up. I’m an Apple supporter. It’s not something I want to clash with them about. I want to make sure what I’m doing is legal.”

Fraser’s iBox will be a low-cost, upgradeable machine. It will offer everything Mac customers expect: FireWire and USB ports, Airport connectivity, Gigabit Ethernet and so on — for about a third of the price of comparable Apple machines.

Fraser plans to offer both bare-bones and complete systems.

For $250 to $350, the bare-bones iBox will feature a case, motherboard and power supply. Customers will add their own processor, memory, hard drive and operating system.

Fraser will build full-featured configurations to customers’ specifications. A fully loaded iBox will cost between $650 and $2,000, depending on the speed of the chip, the size of the hard drive and other features. He plans to offer configurations with dual processors, just as Apple does in its current line of PowerMacs.

Fraser will base the iBox on so-called “Gigabit” motherboards built by Apple as spare parts for previous generations of G4 PowerMacs. As well as Gigabit Ethernet, the boards have a daughter-card slot for the CPU, which can accommodate a range of G4 chips, including those yet to be released. The iBox includes open slots for extra memory, two PCI cards and an AGP video card.

Fraser said a clear demand exists for a low-cost Mac that customers can outfit themselves with cheap, off-the-shelf parts or parts taken from older machines.

Now, Apple customers must decide between Apple’s entry-level iMac or eMac, neither of which can be significantly upgraded, or spend more money for a pro-level Power Mac.

Fraser is in the final stages of iBox production. The missing piece is finding a manufacturer for the machine’s distinctive case, which was designed by Mario Micheli, a designer from Milwaukee. Fraser said he is meeting with companies that mold plastic next week to discuss putting it into production.

Fraser has already struck a deal to buy parts from Other World Computing, a Mac parts and peripherals supplier. OWC said it may sell Fraser’s systems through its website.

“I think it has great promise,” said Larry O’Connor, OWC’s founder and CEO. “Mac users like unique and interesting things, and this has definitely got people’s attention. There’s definitely interest in what he’s doing.”

Fraser isn’t new to building PCs. He earned his living with his 2khappyware customization business for a few years before he had a child and sidelined the business to a hobby.

And Fraser said he doesn’t have any grand plans for building the iBox business into the next Dell or Gateway. “I’m not doing it for profit,” he said. “I’m doing it for a hobby.”

The project has already generated considerable buzz on a number of online forums. In fact, it was encouragement from members of the dealmac forums that persuaded Fraser there was demand for the iBox.

But intellectual property lawyer Mark Dickson said Fraser has to be very careful not to infringe Apple’s trademarks, trade dress or patent portfolio.

Dickson, a partner at the Menlo Park, California, office of Arnold White & Durkee, said Apple could challenge Fraser if his machine’s look, name or marketing confuses customers into thinking it’s an Apple product.

Dickson also cautioned Fraser to be careful not to infringe any patents. Even if Fraser uses Apple parts, Dickson said the company may hold patents governing how they are put together. The patents may not even be held by Apple, but by another PC manufacturer, Dickson said.

Dickson said he had no knowledge of Apple’s patent portfolio, but strongly cautioned Fraser to consult an intellectual property lawyer before proceeding.

“I think he would be wise to talk to a patent attorney before he does anything else,” Dickson said.

End of story

By Joe Wilcox Staff Writer, CNET News.com January 6, 2003, 4:00 AM PT

Apple Computer on Tuesday is expected to unveil a new portable product aimed at bolstering the company’s strategy to make itself into a major player in home entertainment, sources and analysts said.

The product, which is expected to be shown off during a keynote speech by CEO Steve Jobs at Macworld in San Francisco on Tuesday, will come with 802.11g and Bluetooth wireless capabilities and serve to make the Mac a more appealing “digital hub” than Windows XP PCs, according to sources. Machines with Windows XP Media Center Edition can be used to record TV shows, similar to digital video recorders (DVR) such as TiVo boxes, and catalog music and video.

What the product does exactly, however, remains shrouded in mystery. Some sources and analysts believe that it will be similar to the tablet computers released by Acer and others late last year. These are full-fledged portable computers complete with handwriting recognition and handwriting input.

Others, however, say it will be a device geared toward playing or capturing video. By incorporating both 802.11g and Bluetooth wireless capabilities, the device could connect to both upcoming Apple PCs (Apple has said it will support the 802.11g wireless networking standard) and the latest digital cameras and video recorders. A standard TV jack would allow the device to be hooked up to TVs as well and function as a DVR or as a bridge to let the TV act like a DVR.

Then again, it could be something entirely different, as the company has proven adept at confounding speculation preceding the convention before. An Apple reperesentative would not comment on new products ahead of the show.

One thing that is not expected at the show are new computers. Because of a relatively modest inventory bloat, Apple is delaying new models, according to sources.

Analysts note that Apple has all the pieces in place to deliver a tablet-like computer. Such a computer, outfitted with Mac OS X 10.2, Apple’s Inkwell handwriting recognition technology, iSync data synchronization capabilities and 802.11g and Bluetooth wireless would be a formidable entry.

Bluetooth would remove the need for a docking station as the mouse and keyboard would connect wirelessly. With speeds up to 54 megabits per second (mbps), 802.11g wireless networking would allow the transfer of large data files or video without the need of cables.

“That kind of device would make a lot of sense,” said NPD Techworld analyst Stephen Baker. “The idea of the digital hub is to try and tie a bunch of different product types together but provide a lot of mobility of your data–your TV entertainment data, your music data, your digital data. This kind of device would have that.”

IDC analyst Roger Kay agreed. “If it were really cool it would generate a lot of buzz and maybe even a few sales.”

A tablet computer, however, would be risky. These devices generally sell for more than $2,000, or more expensive than most notebook computers. Overall tablet sales in 2003 are expected to be fairly small: Gartner projected first-year Tablet PC portable sales of 425,000, or about 1 percent of the notebook market, while IDC said it could go up to 775,000.

Typically, Apple’s “cool” products have done well when they are relatively cheap. The first iMac, targeted at new computer users, and the iPod music player have sold well. The cube, geared for professionals and carrying a corporate price tag, did not sell well. And sales of the the flat-panel iMac, which was unveiled at last years Macworld, have cooled after an initial flurry.

iPod II But some analysts don’t believe the new product will be a tablet, but a successor to Apple’s iPod music player. The new device would have video capabilities and possibly a touch screen and wireless capabilities. As such, the device would be similar to the portable video player unfurled by Intel last year. Sonicblue is currently marketing the Intel-designed device.

“I think any rumors about a tablet computer are a smokescreen for iPod II,” said Richard Doherty, president of research firm Envisioneering Group.

Technology Business Research analyst Tim Deal agreed. “I wouldn’t be surprised to see Apple introduce an iPod with touch-screen capabilities as well as additional applications to include cell-phone connectability and gaming as it continues to evolve into a fully functional PDA,” he said. “A wireless iPod with bolstered display features would allow users to share and view digital (pictures) and videos on the fly.”

Doherty said Apple has been working on a video-capable iPod-like device for some time. “Originally, Apple had planned to announce iPod II at Expo Tokyo,” he said. In December, IDG canceled next month’s Macworld Expo/Tokyo. “We think the product can be announced, if not shipped now,” Doherty added.

The iPod II, in fact, is one of three principal pieces of hardware in Apple’s labs that Apple has shown analysts but not officially announced yet. The company is also working on computers that will contain IBM’s 32-bit and 64-bit chip and a computer with a 3D screen, similar to the screens recently unveiled by Sharp. Of course, Doherty added that not everything in the lab eventually goes public.

Whether tablet or iPod, emphasis on video would be one of the new product’s distinguishing features, Doherty said. Apple could further advance its digital media strategy around MPEG-4, the successor to the MPEG-2 format widely used for Hollywood movie DVDs.

“Nobody has better MPEG-4 tools than Apple,” Doherty said.

The ripe and the unripe During his keynote address Tuesday, Jobs also is expected to unveil new versions of the company’s digital media programs, or “i” applications. But consumers will have to pay as much as $50 for new versions of iDVD, iPhoto and iMovie, which will be sold together as a bundle. Apple released new versions of iCal and iSync on Thursday.

Bluetooth and next-generation 802.11g wireless networking will be important parts of the Macworld announcements, sources said. Apple plans to release a new version of its AirPort wireless base station using 802.11g, as the company moves up from the slower 802.11b that moves data up to 11mbps.

Meanwhile, the Cupertino, Calif.-based company apparently has delayed launching new Macs ready for Macworld until later in January, while the company sells out stock left over from the holidays, according to sources. When available, some of the new Macs are expected to include support for 802.11g and Bluetooth wireless.

The “quarter’s financial results will undoubtedly show weaker-than-usual holiday sales for Apple,” Deal said of the decision to delay new Macs.

Inventory information from distributors Ingram Micro and Tech Data indicate Apple is sitting on modest inventory–anywhere from one to three weeks–in most product categories. But some products are considerably backordered, such as the 5GB and 10GB iPod for the Mac, AirPort base station and 15-inch flat-panel monitor. Based on similar past situations, the backorders would suggest new products are coming in these categories. But sources said to watch for Apple to drop the 15-inch flat-panel monitor as the company replaces the current 17-inch display and adds a new, 19-inch model. The new monitors could debut on Tuesday, but are more likely to appear when Apple announces new Mac models.

No matter what happens on Tuesday, “The innovation ratio will be much higher than Apple’s 5 percent market share,” Doherty said.

———–

Thursday March 28, 10:00 am Eastern Time

Forbes.com IPod Redux By Ari Weinberg

Apple Computer ‘s iPod portable MP3 player debuted to rave reviews last fall. The newest version, released last week, does little to diminish the applause.

But it’s not yet deserving of a standing ovation.

The new iPod doubles the storage capacity to 10 gigabytes (roughly 2,000 songs) and adds 20 equalizer presets. That extra space comes at a cost. The 10 GB version retails for $499, $100 more than the original. Like the original, you can try to compare the Apple (NasdaqNM:AAPL – news) to the under-$400 20 GB offerings from SonicBlue (NasdaqNM:SBLU – news) and Archos. But you really can’t.

That’s because iPod still has limited Windows compatibility. It’s a shame considering that the vast majority of personal computers are Windows machines. Some third-party developers have come out with Windows-based software and firmware (for the iPod itself), but Apple has yet to reveal any plans for Windows compatability, though the company is rumored to be working on just such a product. The company is rumored to be hammering out a Windows solution, but that involves some mighty concession from both Apple and Microsoft (NasdaqNM:MSFT – news) .

Right now, Apple’s proprietary FireWire connection port is its leverage. FireWire transfers data at roughly 30 times Universal Serial Bus (USB), the current standard for interdevice connections for PCs and older Macs. The iPod’s FireWIre connection can tranfer 2,000 songs in 20 minutes. For a USB MP3 player, that would take ten hours. But as more portable devices–like digital cameras and camcorders–come with FireWire capacity, the Windows machine cartel may consider small concessions too keep the high-end digerati happy. The pressure is on Apple to play ball. Of course, it would be silly to assume that the minds at Microsoft and Intel (NasdaqNM:INTC – news) aren’t hammering out a technology to blow by FireWire.

Though many iPod owners use the device as a portable hard drive–which it is–the iPod was built for music. So why is Apple touting the introduction of new software that allows the iPod to display address databases from Palm (NasdaqNM:PALM – news) and Mac?

Could the iPod be Apple’s doorway into the crowded personal digital assistant market? Let’s hope not. Apple has a hit going with iPod’s current design and format–to try to morph it into an upscale PDA could be a Newton-sized mistake.

Related Links at Forbes.com