Steve Laser

 Wired magazine’s Leander Kahney has written a wonderful article on Apple’s success gained while eschewing the rules that the rest of us abide by.  For example, regarding Jobs’ parking his car at Apple headquarters:

But there is one Mercedes that doesn’t need to search for very long, and it belongs to Steve Jobs. If there’s no easy-to-find spot and he’s in a hurry, Jobs has been known to pull up to Apple’s front entrance and park in a handicapped space. (Sometimes he takes up two spaces.) It’s become a piece of Apple lore — and a running gag at the company. Employees have stuck notes under his windshield wiper: “Park Different.” They have also converted the minimalist wheelchair symbol on the pavement into a Mercedes logo.

Indeed, while the rest of the business world’s CEOs have been busy developing touchy feely relationships with their employees, Jobs takes a tyrannical approach, often dressing down employees to the point of crying.  Apple segregates its hardware and software engineers so they don’t know what each other is doing.  Nobody has a complete picture of the final product.  Secrecy is paramount.  Employees cannot tell their own families what they are working on.  Micromanager Jobs is said to be so involved with every project that he dictates such things as whether corners are square or round on products and how many screws should be on the bottom of a laptop. 

Yet his employees remain devoted.

That’s because his autocracy is balanced by his famous charisma — he can make the task of designing a power supply feel like a mission from God. Andy Hertzfeld, lead designer of the original Macintosh OS, says Jobs imbued him and his coworkers with “messianic zeal.” And because Jobs’ approval is so hard to win, Apple staffers labor tirelessly to please him. “He has the ability to pull the best out of people,” says Ratzlaff, who worked closely with Jobs on OS X for 18 months. “I learned a tremendous amount from him.”

The article is simply a great read.  Check it out at Wired.

My site is not supported by ads.  It is supported by your comments.  Your comments are worth more than money (ok, not really, but comments are cool!). 

Also, I just noticed today that some people have posted comments and Ping Backs.  Ping Backs, or Track Backs, are when someone on another site references one of my articles.  Due to a glitch in the system I had not seen them before.  So go ahead and comment.  For some reason I may have to approve them before they show up.  But as long as they aren’t spam they’ll get approved.

Thanks!

Holy Cow!  I have spent hours finding lyrics online, copying them, then pasting them into iTunes so they’ll show up on my iPod.  Sometimes you just really want to know the lyrics.  But with 3000 songs in my library, this project has turned out to be very time consuming. 

When I ran across an article about LyricSnapper on JAMM I got excited and tried it out.  That software has you play a song for just a couple seconds, then it is supposed to get the lyrics and import them when you terminate the song.  However, even though it’s free, I found it to be wildly unstable.  Sometimes it would pull the lyrics from LyricWiki, but it wouldn’t add them to the id3 tags.  Often it would freeze up, forcing me to shut it down. 

So I searched and found a great solution called iLyrics.  This one allows you to get lyrics in batches.  Check it out:

Read the rest of this entry »

Mac users quickly jumped on the latest Mac OS, but the same can’t be said for Windows users, as many have become averse to Vista.  Thus MicroSoft decided to extend XP’s shelf life by six months and they are offering an unprecedented downgrade on certain SKUs.

June 30, 2008 will be the cutoff date for XP sales.  Consumer support on XP ends 4/14/09.

Source: Engadget

Originally scheduled for release January 25, then pushed back to February 15th, the Cloudbook is now due out February 25th.  Yet it was announced before the Eee.

In case you haven’t heard, the Cloudbook features a 7" display, 30GB drive, 5 hour battery life and the gOS Rocket operating system, all for $399. 

Source: Engadget

According to Microsoft, a UMPC is supposed to be:

photo courtesy of Engadget

"About the size of a paperback book, the UMPC is small and light enough to fit easily into a carry-on, a purse, or a backpack. And yet, the UMPC features a powerful processor, a big, bright display, easy-to-use input options, and support for the latest connectivity standards.

The UMPC offers a display of 4-7 inches and touch capabilities, all in a package that weighs less than 2 pounds. But don’t underestimate this small computer—it can run all of the same Windows Vista-compatible software you’re already familiar with."

We certainly have seen some of these ideal elements in UMPCs, but as far as running "Windows Vista-compatible software" using a "powerful processor" is concerned, this project is a failure.  Some recent reviews illustrate the concept:

From JK on the Run’s WiBrain review on slow performance, "For example: opening up Microsoft Word 2007 takes 6 seconds on the Q1P. The same task on the WiBrain routinely takes 9 seconds." 

And on the screen resolution,
"Here’s where compromise, as it so often does with mobile devices, comes into play: due to the high res and the excellent trackpad, I found myself rarely using the touchscreen. Items are too small to accurately touch when it’s easier to just use the trackpad, cursor and mouse buttons."

From Pocketables’ OQO Model 2 Review on slow performance, "If you can tolerate nothing less than the top-of-the-line powerhouse desktop systems, then something like the OQO Model 02 (or any UMPC, for that matter) will definitely not make you happy."

Photo Courtesy of Ultramobile PC

From UltraMobilePC’s Vega Review on its 5" screen size, "For example, I use contact lenses and I do not need reading glasses unless the letters are too small, like the ones printed in some drug boxes. I do not need reading glasses at all to use any of the UMPC with a 7 inches display but I felt the need of my glasses using Vega.

From UltraMobilePC’s Amtek T770 Review on battery life, "…the battery life is between 2 hours and 2 hours 15 minutes according to my tests."

And on performance, "If you are a regular user that does not care about performance but you want an integrated webcam and microphone without having to pay a extra money, yes, you will find in this machine these features…"

Photo courtesy of Hanno’s Blog

Hanno’s Everun Review on odd size resolutions often found in UMPCs, "800×480 is the recommended screen resolution that Microsoft chose for UMPCs, yet the OS has menus that don’t fit. What good is the promise of being able to run standard software when the screen estate is too small for it?"

You get the idea.  The processor’s are too slow for the (bloated) OS, the screen resolution is all wrong, rendering many UMPCs unreadable without a magnifying glass, the OS’s menus don’t fit on the screen, multitasking is impossible due to lack of memory and processing power, and battery power is generally lackluster, if not putrid.

Indeed, not all UMPCs fail in every area.  Some are better than others.  But there is a lack of consistency across the board regarding features and performance.  UMPCs range in size, keyboard type, connectivity options, price, screen sizes and many other features, so lumping them into one category and saying they are inadequate may not be completely fair, but I have not read one UMPC review that has made me want to run out and get one.  To be sure, spending $800 to $2400 for lackluster performance in a package that is not quite pocketable, and is fraught with compromises, hardly intrigues me.  Pocket PCs are too small.  I need a larger screen to view spreadsheet data among other things.  Laptops are too big.  So I find myself aching for a UMPC. 

The Ultimate UMPC

Find the Ultimate UMPC after the break

Read the rest of this entry »

Hot!

Holy cow, my laptop gets mighty hot.  Laptops don’t employ such effective cooling methods as desktops, thus the whole bottom acts as sort of a radiator, dissipating heat.  According to their website, laptops can give off 130 degrees Fahrenheit of heat and more.  That is hot.  I’ve tried many solutions to block the heat, but none so effective as the Xpad4Laptop. 

First Impressions and Specs

So what is this thing?  My initial impression is of a thin, plastic coated, very light, board.  According to the website it weighs just one pound, and measures 13" x 10.5" x .66".  The bottom and the 4 legs of the "X" on the top face contain non-skid pads. 

The Xpad accommodates laptops with screens measuring up to 17".  It is a universal size.  Again, it is so thin that after using it a couple times I don’t even notice it’s there anymore.  It’s very portable as well.  It easily fits into a laptop bag and doesn’t add noticeable heft. 

The Technology

But how does it work?  There are no fans, electrical or mechanical devices on the unit.  You just put it under your laptop and you are set.

The legs of the "X" shape are raised slightly above the base of the unit, allowing airflow and cooling.  Inside is a strong platform with insulative air pockets, and EVA insulation material at the bottom provides a third layer of insulation and acts as the non-skid surface.  I don’t understand all the tech stuff.  I just know that it works. 

Results

While no solution completely blocks all the heat from contacting your legs, this Xpad has come amazingly close.  Other solutions use up USB ports and utilize fans, which in itself creates heat and noise.  But the Xpad’s passive heating technology just relies on a great design to do the job.  The result, even when using a laptop for hours, is the same feeling as having a warm, comfortable blanket on your legs.  And a warm blanket is far better than a burned lap. 

Summary

I have found the Xpad to be a very effective solution.  To put it simply, it works.  It does it’s intended job without reminding me it’s there.  It sits, unobtrusively, above my lap doing its job without asking for any kind of recognition.  It’s kind of like the military’s "stealth" technology.  I happily recommend it to all laptop users.  At $29.95 it is a great solution at a reasonable price.

Pros

light and thin

portable

effective heat blocking

easy to use

doesn’t take up USB ports

quiet (no fans)

Cons

I would like to see a thinner design

Even though this is a very effective solution, it could be even better

The price, though reasonable, may be higher than some competitors

I rate this a 9/10.  It is a fantastic product.  Visit them at Xpad4Laptop

Rumors were rampant that MacWorld would bring announcements of a new generation of iPhones with more internal memory and faster, 3G service.  But iPhone fans left empty handed.  It seems that Apple has decided on increasing market share of the original iPhone by offering it to business consumers.  The plans are:

Consider the irony in this move.  Lenovo, a Chinese company, buys IBM’s personal computer division in December of ‘04 to make it the world’s #3 computer maker behind Dell and HP, and #1 in China.  They have the cheapest labor base in the world and presumably will take advantage of that to lower their costs and attempt to gain market share.  Makes sense.

But with Lenovo’s laptop market share slipping to the likes of Acer, they have decided to outsource manufacturing of their ThinkPad line to a Taiwanese company.  Rumor has it that the Taiwanese company will then further outsource to US suppliers - just kidding!

Read more at Engadget

Fortune Magazine has made an absolutely hilarious list of the worst business decisions of 2007.  I’m not going to reprint them all, but here are some of the highlights.  Enjoy.  (I threw in some of my own comments in blue)

Read the rest of this entry »