Dave Caolo
Cape Cod, Ma - http://davecaolo.com/
Sometimes Dave Caolo thinks he was born with a genetic predisposition to love electronics. Dave can remember receiving his first Commodore 64 as a child, and spending hours writing simple routines in BASIC. In 1984 Dave saw his first computer mouse connected to a Macintosh and thought it was the most wondrous thing he had ever encountered, and he's been a Mac user since. Since then Dave's taken a job as IT director for a very Mac friendly private school where he gets to do all that good administrator stuff, play with new Macs and Apple products, perform repairs and offer general tech support. What more can a Mac geek ask for? In his spare time Dave can be found giving tutorials to his Mac-wielding family and friends, reading the Mac web and magazines and having fun with my kids, photography and music. It's Dave's belief that computers aren't intimidating automatons but simple tools that can make our lives more interesting and fun, and should be approachable and useful to anyone willing to pick up a mouse.
Filed under: Apple Corporate, Gaming, Software, Apple History
by Dave Caolo (RSS feed) on Nov 9th, 2009
Folklore.org is a tremendous repository of Apple history and lore. Check it out if you haven't; you'll find some entertaining and incredible stories.
I'm reminded of Folklore whenever a story emerges describing Apple from behind the scenes, like
this interview with id Software's co-founder John Carmack. Speaking with Kotaku, John describes the ups and downs of working with Apple:
"I'll be invited up on stage for a keynote one month and then I'll say something they don't like and I can be blacklisted for six months."
We suspect such a public revelation won't get you back on stage anytime soon, John. Or maybe not, as he's now got "a man on the inside." Former id coworker Graeme Devine now works at Apple's iPhone Game Technologies division. However, the most interesting part of this interview confirms, in a small way, what I've always suspected: Apple begrudgingly promotes the iPod touch and iPhone as gaming platforms.
"At the highest level of Apple, in their heart of hearts," Carmack said, "they're not proud of the iPhone being a game machine, they wish it was something else." I have no way of backing this up, but I've long suspected that Steve Jobs in particular has no interest in the world of gaming. They're certainly pushing the iPod touch as a gaming device, but I'm sure it's through tightly-clenched teeth.
Filed under: Hardware, MacBook, iPhone, iPod touch
by Dave Caolo (RSS feed) on Nov 9th, 2009
Time Magazine has
published their list of 2009's best travel gadgets, and the iPod touch and MacBook have made the cut. Time notes the MacBook's size and high green ratings as well as the iPod touch's speed, Wi-Fi compatibility and library of games worked in their favor.
I do my share of
traveling (as does
Steve) and find that my iPhone plus a couple of well-selected apps are enough to get the job done most of the time.
It's strange that the iPhone wasn't included, since its connectivity isn't limited to Wi-Fi as the iPod touch is. It's even stranger that several apps also made the list, like Yelp (tap the masses for dining tips) [
iTunes link] and the
Zipcar App (find a quick-and-easy rental), but not the device that would get the most out of them. Perhaps it was the high cost of service for the iPhone?
Stranger still is their inclusion of the
Droid. We assume it made the cut based upon its proven track record. I mean, it's been out for a whole 3 days now.
[Via
MacDailyNews]
Filed under: Software, Internet, Internet Tools
by Dave Caolo (RSS feed) on Nov 7th, 2009
Bambooapps has released a simple and useful utility called
Quiet Read that has earned a spot on my Mac's menubar. With a simple drag-and-drop, it lets you save a web page for later review.
Of course, there are many apps that do this, including
Instapaper and
Evernote. Instapaper gets the job done via a bookmarklet; just give it a click while at the desired URL and it's saved. Evernote does pretty much the same thing, thought their bookmarklet behaves differently between Safari and Firefox. In addition, they have the Mac application for tagging and organizing.
I spent the day using Quiet Read instead of the other two. Here's what I liked and disliked. First, adding a URL is as easy as possible. Simply drag it out of your browser's address bar and drop it onto the menu bar icon. The display keeps track of how many you've collected. A tidy drop-down lets your browse the saved articles for easy selection.
What I disliked is that once an app is gone, it's gone. Instapaper saves read articles.
But Quiet Read isn't Instapaper. If you're looking for a free, simple way to save articles for later reading (and you're running 10.6 or later), Quiet Read could be the solution.
Filed under: Apple Corporate, Retail
by Dave Caolo (RSS feed) on Nov 7th, 2009
Apple typically opens retail stores in high-end shopping areas, and this one is as high-end as it gets.
Beneath the great glass pyramid that marks the entrance to the
Louvre Museum in Paris is Carrousel du Louvre, home to shops, a gourmet food court, exhibition space and, as of this Saturday,
an Apple Store. This will be the first Apple Store in Paris
and in France. Another Apple Store is poised to open in the seaside town of Montpellier next Saturday.
This location has the now iconic glass spiral staircase that's featured in other flagship stores and two levels total. If you can't visit Apple Store Carrousel du Louvre this weekend, check out the
photos and
coverage from ifoAppleStore as well as
these photos on Flickr. C'est Magnifique!
Also notable this week is the new Musee du Louvre app that's available for free from the App Store [
iTunes link]. Coincidentally, of course.
Filed under: Software, Blogging, Internet Tools, iPhone, App Store
by Dave Caolo (RSS feed) on Nov 6th, 2009
After a long wait,
Squarespace customers finally have an iPhone app of their own. Squarespace is a hosted blogging/CMS service that competes with the likes of
WordPress.com and
Typepad. Having used all three, I can say that interacting with Squarespace (posting, changing your site's look and feel, etc.) is unlike the others. Instead of a separate control panel/dashboard, Squarespace previews changes in real time on the same screen. It's really nice.
The iPhone app [
iTunes link] seems to be an extension of its browser-based sibling. For example, check out the live preview mode pictured at right. You can also manage multiple accounts, post, upload multiple images at once (awesome) view stats and more. The UI looks nice as well.
While bloggers on other platforms have had compatible apps in the App Store for a while now, this is Squarespace's first solution. We're eager to play around with it. Squarespace for iPhone is free and requires a paid Squarespace account.
Filed under: iTS, Multimedia, iTunes, Apple TV
by Dave Caolo (RSS feed) on Nov 6th, 2009
A few of us here at TUAW received an email from Apple this morning stating that Apple TV-compatible versions of previous
iTunes LP purchases are available for download. You'll remember that LP purchases made
before the Apple TV 3.0 release would need a second download to work with the Apple TV. Apple is now offering those downloads.
The email from Apple is very straight-forward:
"With the latest versions of iTunes (9.0.2) and Apple TV software (3.0), you can now use iTunes LP on your Apple TV. We have updated the iTunes LP that was included with [your previous purchase here] so that it can now be viewed on Apple TV in addition to your Mac or PC...."
From there, the message provides a download link. Grab it, sync your Apple TV and you're off. My own is syncing as I type this, so we'll let you know how it looks and behaves later today. In the meantime, enjoy iTunes LP on your Apple TV!
Filed under: Apple Corporate, Steve Jobs
by Dave Caolo (RSS feed) on Nov 5th, 2009
Forbes Fortune bestowed a significant honor on Steve Jobs today, naming him their
CEO of the Decade. Fortune outlines the incredible leaps in business, technology and industry Apple has made since Steve's return. For anyone who might not remember, the 90's were not kind to Apple and nearly everyone thought the company was finished.
Consider this incredible fact: Apple launched OS X and iTunes, opened the first two retail stores and introduced the first iPod ... all in the same year (2001). Fortune also goes on to describe how Steve changed the film industry with Pixar, the music industry with the iTunes Store and the cell phone industry with the iPhone and the App Store.
He also kicked cancer's ass.
This is precisely why I'm excited about the prospect of a new piece of hardware from Apple. I won't call it a tablet because that's not what it will be. Apple didn't invent the digital music player, the mobile phone or mass distribution of media. But, they did demonstrate how to do those things the right way, which no one else could come up with.
If there's a new product coming, comparing it to contemporary tablets or netbooks is a huge mistake, because it won't behave like any of them.
Click below to watch Fortunes' video on this announcement.
[Via
MacDailyNews]
Read more →
Filed under: Hardware, OS, Hacks, Snow Leopard
by Dave Caolo (RSS feed) on Nov 5th, 2009
There was
a report this week that Mac OS X 10.6.2 will block Atom support, leaving Hackintosh owners stuck at 10.6.1. Intel's Atom processors have been used in netbooks by MSI, Dell and ASUS for their low cost and modest energy consumption. Hackintosh owners were disappointed.
Shortly after that report was published,
Electronista noted that a newly-released build of 10.6.2 (10C535) brought it back. Of course, we're talking about "support" for hackintoshes in a developer build of the OS, so keep that in mind.
The moral of the story: Apple can kill this when ever they please, so have fun while you can.
[Via
Engadget]
Filed under: Gaming, Software, iPhone, iPod touch
by Dave Caolo (RSS feed) on Nov 4th, 2009
There's an exciting
announcement at All Tech Related this week that has us saying, "We can't wait!"
ZodTDD, the developer behind
GpSPhone (a Nintendo Gameboy Advance emulator for the iPhone and iPod Touch), announced the development of an N64 emulator for the iPhone and iPod touch. Zodttd
believes that the current generation iPhone and iPod touch have the graphic CPU horsepower necessary to run those games. "...I can't promise it will run games top notch just yet, as things are too early to say. There's hope though, with a 3D accelerated graphics plugin, as well as an ARM dynarec."
As
iPhone Savior points out, the toughest challenge could be fitting the controls onto the screen in an unobtrusive yet usable way. That was my main complaint about Resident Evil for iPhone [
iTunes link] -- my hand is often in the way of what I'm trying to see.
Note that this will require an jailbroken iPhone or iPod touch.
[Via
iPhone Savior]
Filed under: Hardware, Retail, iPod touch
by Dave Caolo (RSS feed) on Nov 4th, 2009
Last week, we learned that Apple would be
revamping some US retail stores, including a new iPod touch-based point-of-sale (POS) system. A new scanner accessory allows Apple to replace the old Windows CE-based sales handhelds.
Gary Allen of
ifoAppleStore has given
AppleInsider an exclusive look at the thing, and it's pretty cool (that is, if retail hardware is your bag). It's an iPod touch with a magnetic stripe reader, a barcode scanner and Apple's proprietary payment-processing software. The iPod rests inside what AppleInsider calls a "slip-on shell" that plugs into the dock connector; it includes its own battery to power the two scanning peripherals.
Apple Store employees will use the devices to accept purchases made with credit cards, debit cards and cash; they can even make returns and activate a new iPhone.
It looks like a clever device. If you see one in the store (or if you use one), tell us what you can.
[Via
The Apple Blog]
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