Filed under: Interviews

We had the opportunity to interview Mitch Waite, the developer of iBird Explorer Pro (US$29.99). This is an iPhone/iPod touch App running under OS 3.0 or better. According to Mitch, it is fourteen field guide books rolled into one App.

Apple liked the App so much that it was included it in an iPhone TV commercial. Macworld liked the app too and it was awarded the best reference App of 2009.

This is one big App, since it contains over 900 beautifully rendered pictures of birds, that Mitch will tell you all about in the video. It weighs in at 391MB, which may be a concern for those of you running out of storage. It's self-contained, needing no Wi-Fi or cellular connection. This was a wise design choice, since out in the wild, Cell signals can be a hard commodity to come by.

We apologize for the poor audio syncing of the video, but Mitch's story is quite fascinating.

Click on the 'Read More' link to view the video interview and demonstration of iBird Explorer Pro.

One website that must reside in nearly every Machead's bookmarks collection is iFixit. They provide detailed, step-by-step repair guides (and parts) for nearly every Mac, iPod or iPhone fix you can think of. Their instructions are always clear and thorough enough to make even the most daunting repair possible. If you lack those special tools, they've got those, too.

They're also known for being among the first to take apart brand new Apple hardware. When I sat down with Kyle Weins from iFixit during Macworld Expo, he revealed that who gets the privilege of the first teardown is determined by the flip of a coin. He also talked about the site's history, current offerings and of course the iPad. You can watch the full interview after the break.

It's hard to believe that it's been a week since I left Macworld Expo 2010 to head home. Last night, I finally went through the last snippets of video from the Expo and put together this short compendium of three interviews.

The first company I talked to was Telnic.org, a group which champions the use of the .tel top level domain as a type of global address book. There's a free iPhone app available for updating your .tel domain information from anywhere.

Next, I visited shortly with John from Agile Partners, the developers behind GuitarToolkit. TUAW's resident musician, Mat Tinsley, reported on this app last September and it's quite impressive.

Finally, I talked with the folks from myRete, who have created an interesting social networking app called WhosHere. There are over one million users of WhosHere, and with the free texting and VoIP capabilities of the app you can ask the locals in cities around the world for travel tips or a date. Want to perfect your language skills with a native speaker? WhosHere is an easy way to find someone to chat with.

As with several earlier videos, this suffers from a bit of mic noise. Our apologies!

On the day before Macworld last week, I got a chance to sit down with Eros Remini, VP of Marketing for OpenFeint, to talk about his social gaming network for iPhone apps. He shared with me that the network has claimed a gigantic 12 million users total, with about a million of them active in iPhone games from day to day. Additionally, the average user plays three or four games regularly -- unlike most other consoles, the iPhone is really a device that can split attention rather than have players dive deep in on one game.

He also told us about the OpenFeint app that was released last month, as well as their popular free game of the day giveaway -- once per day, they give away an OpenFeint game for free right there inside the app. And we also talked about both how OpenFeint is serving as connection between developer and customer, as well as why Apple hasn't really shown an interest in an official iTunes gaming network like this.

You can check out the whole interview on video right after clicking through the link below. Enjoy!

DriveSavers has been the go-to company for data recovery since 1985, when I used to read about them in Apple ][ magazines. They have saved the bacon (and jobs) of many people over the ensuing years. When all else fails, DriveSavers can be counted on to retrieve your data -- whether it's on a hard drive, memory card, iPod, iPhone, or just about any type of storage media.

It seems that their heart is in the right place; although seemingly not great for their business, they created the wonderful free DriveSavers Hard Drive Disk-aster Simulator app for the iPhone or iPod touch. The app teaches, in interactive fashion, how a hard disk works, and all the things that can crash a drive. It shows the inside of a hard disk where you can tap around to read descriptions of all the components.

Next, using interactive animation, sound and vibration, you'll learn all the things that can crash a drive. You'll learn what happens during a clicker failure, seized motor, problems with spinning up and down, solid state drive failures (yes, they can fail too), contamination and head crashes. It's both entertaining and educational. There is also a section relating to protection strategies, which covers best practices, backup strategies, securing your data, and how serious a problem must be before you call DriveSavers. Knowledge is power, and I consider this critical information for any computer user.

Another section shows you pictures of the clean room where all the data recovery gets done. DriveSavers employs the most advanced certified IS 5 (class 100) clean rooms in the industry and is authorized by all hard drive manufacturers to work on hard drives without voiding a warranty. If you don't have an iPhone or iPod touch, you can still learn everything in the app via a web-based Flash video.


We conducted an interview with Chris Bross from DriveSavers from the show floor. Chris talks about the philosophy behind DriveSavers. I found it interesting that there is a suicide prevention professional on staff to take call from clients on the verge of a nervous breakdown -- which is not an uncommon occurrence. Click on the Read More link to see the interview.

Well, there you go. After consistent rumors that the whole catalog would be coming over to the Mac, Telltale Games announced at Macworld last week that that's exactly what was going to happen. Starting with the Tales of Monkey Island series (based on the Lucasarts games, where many Telltale developers formerly hung their hats), the company will co-release Mac and PC versions, giving customers versions for both platforms at the same time. Telltale is hosting a vote on its website right now as to the next game set to be released, but as we learned directly from co-founders Dan Connors and Kevin Bruner, eventually the whole platform, including Monkey Island, Sam and Max, Wallace and Gromit, and Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People, is coming over. And it's probably not long until the iPhone and the iPad follow suit.

Kevin Bruner spoke with us on the livestream during the show, and Dan Connors sat down for a longer interview about Telltale's past, the decision to join the Mac gaming community, and what both founders think of Apple's newest platforms and the Mac community at large. Read on to see the full text of the interview.

NLU Products makes a very large line of screen and computer protection products. I got a chance to speak with Kirk Feller the President and CEO of the company about their newest product ScreenGuardz Privacy (US$19.95), that was released last month at the Consumer Electronics Show.

With the iPhone gaining more functionality seemingly every day through third party apps, privacy has become a concern. I really don't think I want someone looking over my shoulder when I'm doing online banking or reading private email. Kirk told me that there is a large demand for products that not only provide screen protection, but also increase privacy protection.

ScreenGuardz Privacy is a very sturdy screen protector for the iPhone 3G and 3GS. The film used to cover the screen adheres using static electricity making it easy to put on and take off. But there are a lot of screen protectors out there, some offering privacy protection. This does it a bit differently.

Using tiny louvers built into the film, ScreenGuardz Privacy uses four way privacy protection. This means that whether you are using your iPhone in portrait or landscape mode, anyone to your side will see a dark screen. It also helps reduce the amount of light put out by the display which may be distracting in some situations. According to Kirk, other privacy protection products are fine under normal use, but turn the phone to landscape mode and your screen will be visible to any prying eyes. This is the first screen protection product that gives you full privacy protection,

I played with it for a few minutes and it worked exactly as advertised. The iPhone felt just as responsive as ever, but unless you were looking directly at the display, the screen appeared dark and this was true any way I held the device. This is a very simple idea, but the implementation is perfect. It's easy to install, and gives you some peace of mind. For anyone concerned with sensitive data, it seems well worth the price.

Click the 'Read More' link to see a short video of ScreenGuardz Privacy in action.

Some of the most welcome additions to the suite from an author's point of view are the co-authoring tools (see below). These tools enable Mac users to work on Office documents across platforms and locations, eliminating issues with version control. Office for Mac 2011 will have a Presence Everywhere feature providing status updates on who is working on a document at a particular time. The suite will also connect to Microsoft Office Web Apps (currently in beta) so that any Office documents can be shared or accessed from any Internet-connected computer.
Microsoft has taken a cue from the "tool ribbon" in the existing Windows Office applications and changed the Office for Mac user interface to be familiar to Windows users, yet intuitive to Mac users. The team noted that more than 80 percent of the features used most by Office users are now located in the tool ribbon so that the users don't have to dig around to find tools.

The MacBU had previously announced that the Office 2008 collaboration application, Entourage, would be replaced by Outlook for Mac. According to the team, Outlook for Mac utilizes the Exchange Web Services protocol and is a Cocoa app, providing not only additional Exchange compatibility but also better integration with Mac OS X. Many Microsoft customers had requested that Outlook for Mac have the ability to import .PST files from Outlook for Windows, and that wish has been granted. The single database used in Entourage is being replaced with a high-speed file-based database that works well with Spotlight and Time Machine.

If you need to make sure that sensitive documents or information are not spread outside the confines of your company's email system, Information Rights Management is now built into Outlook for Mac. That essentially puts a lock on sensitive information, insuring that it isn't readable by non-authorized personnel.

Microsoft's MacBU wants to hear from you! The team has a Twitter account (@OfficeforMac), a Facebook page, and a blog, and they'd love to hear your input about this application suite. We'll be sure to keep you updated as we get closer to the release date.

We can reveal our secret now: during Macworld's setup, we wandered into the wrong room, and randomly came across a stage shared by David Pogue, LeVar Burton, and the Gregory Brothers A.K.A the AutoTune the News crew, all rehearsing for David Pogue's keynote. The keynote went off well, and afterwards, I asked Andrew Gregory to come by for a conversation at the booth; Andrew does the extremely popular Autotune the News segments on YouTube with his brothers Michael and Evan, along with Evan's wife Sarah. He kindly agreed, and you can watch the video of our chat by clicking on the link below.

Andrew told us that he and his brothers have been Mac users from the start, and he also shares with us part of the story behind the I am T-Pain AutoTune app, along with his impressions of the Macworld show floor. It was very fun to meet up with him in a pretty unlikely place -- be sure and give our chat a look.

There are some big fans of Evernote on the TUAW staff -- we've talked quite a bit about the app that promises to store important clips and notes from anywhere, and make them accessible at any time. But even if you haven't heard of the app before, the interview with CEO Phil Libin is definitely worth a watch. He explains why the app is both so magical and so hard to wrap your mind around, as he discusses the idea and the mechanics behind what the Evernote team has done. We talk about their retention problem (and I apologize for my investor-rousing mistake), and how Evernote has to actually make you remember to use it before you can use it to remember.

He also talks about plans for the future, including the iPad (which is getting its own separate app, though the iPhone app will work on it as well), as well as the way he originally found out about our blog here at TUAW. Hit the read more link below to see the full video.

We've been livestreaming all day long from the floor of Macworld 2010, and our very first interview of the day was with Jeff Scott, both of 148Apps.com and the Best App Ever awards. Jeff just announced the Best App Ever winners (in all fifty-six categories) at the show last night, and he brought the list of winners to our booth today to discuss the winner of the 2009 Best App Ever (spoiler: it's Pocket God) and all the other winning apps. Additionally, we show off a little of the show floor around our broadcasting booth, and we chat about what we expect to see at Macworld and how it's changed in years past.

Excellent interview, and thanks to Jeff for stopping by to help us kick off the livestream right. Hit the break to watch the video, and stay tuned all this week for more interviews and coverage just like this, as TUAW covers every single inch of the Macworld show floor at the Moscone Center.

Steve Sande visited with Kevin Garton of The Neat Company today to hear what the scanning superpower is up to at Macworld 2010.

The company is about to go live with a beta of a new version of NeatWorks for Mac, and Garton noted that Mac users will be able to join the beta program. Just in time for the tax season, the new version will provide the capability of flagging receipt scans with taxing categories, as well as creating numerous levels of folders and subfolders for organization of your receipts.

If you'll be at Macworld Expo 2010, drop by the Neat booth (#847) to see the software and several of the company's other products in action.

More coverage of TUAW's inside look at developer boot camp. See below for notes & disclaimer.

On my last day at Big Nerd Ranch, I got a chance to sit down with with the biggest nerd at the ranch, Aaron Hillegass, and talk about nerds, NextStep, the iPad and more. Aaron has a unique vantage point on all things Apple, and it was definitely an enjoyable conversation. If you continue reading after the first video, there's a second short video of Aaron and I out at the site of the future Big Nerd Ranch.

Over the coming months, the Count The Beats series is going to be taking a closer look at how the Mac (and the accompanying software) fits in with the various components of a typical rock band (drums, bass, electric guitar etc. You get the idea).

In this post we're going to take a closer look at keyboards (playing keys and synths) in a live performance context. From honky-tonk piano's on fire to out-of-control oscillating synths, there is so much gear and software out there it can be difficult to know where to start, especially when it comes to playing in a live performance context.

Session musician, and good friend of mine, Jon Dean does a fair bit of this, and does it well. In the last few years he's gone from classically trained pianist to Rock 'n Roll, synth and pad-crazy keys extraordinaire.

I managed to pull Jon away from his busy touring schedule to sit down with me and a cup of tea with some After Eight Mints (it's a new kind of Rock 'n Roll out there, apparently) to talk controllers, audio interfaces and moving from PC to Mac, with a couple bad musician jokes thrown in for good measure.

Even if you're not a keys player, it's interesting to see how the Mac continues to facilitate and encourage creative musicianship to an extent that just wasn't available a few short years ago.

Click the Read More link for the interview.