Amazon Gets Touchy Feely

The NY Times is reporting that Amazon is about to buy a touch-screen tech company:

In a sign that Amazon wants to upgrade its Kindle e-reader to compete head-on with the Apple iPad, Amazon has acquired Touchco, a New York-based start-up specializing in touch-screen technology, a person briefed on the deal said Wednesday.

Amazon will merge Touchco’s technology and staff into its Kindle hardware division, Lab126, which is based in Cupertino, Calif., this person said.

If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em.

Using Your MacBook as a Second Display

I’m posting this in hopes that someone, someday will Google it and have an answer for me in the comments. Because I don’t.

I’m trying to find an article that details how I can use my iMac as my primary machine, and my MacBook Air as the secondary display. Frankly, it’d be silly to go the other way because my iMac has much more power than the MacBook Air.

All of my machines use the Mini Display port. Haven’t found nary a thing online about the idea. Evidently, I’m the first to have it.

Thoughts on the iPad

Steve Jobs announced Apple’s latest creation today, called the iPad.

I wasn’t thrilled watching the keynote until I saw the price of $499. That’s very un-Apple and I’m glad they’ve finally started to understand how most Americans shop. I’m really tired of seeing crappy software and hardware from PC makers and being asked, “Which netbook do you recommend?” by friends because my answer is always, unequivocally, “None of them.”

However, the iPad isn’t for anyone like you or me. It’s meant for your non-techy sister or your partially inept uncle. The thing doesn’t fill a void in a tech person’s life. Already having an iMac, MacBook Air and an iPhone, this thing fits in my life like a bastard child.

I keep waffling on whether I’d buy it. Earlier I was no, then yes, now I’m back at “no”. I think Apple is looking to build something for mom and dad and something for cheap people to buy into to get them more interested in the iPhone and other Apple products. It’s a halo-device if nothing else.

The killer here is that it can’t multitask, aside from, I guess, the iPod software. But, if I’m doing a Keynote or working in Pages, which are without a doubt neat, I’m going to need to do some research online. And if that thing is as fast as everyone is saying it is, then I don’t get why they don’t enable multitasking.

I have a feeling that Apple is up to something. If they’ve got that fast new processor in the iPad, it’s only a few months away from getting crammed into an iPod and iPhone, then you’d better lookout. Part of me wonders if, maybe, JUST MAYBE, they want to save some sizzle for a pending iPhone 4.0 and if they spill too much on the iPad, it’ll give the competition (i.e., Google, Sony, RIM, etc.) time to prepare.

My prediction and advice: hold off on buying this thing until June/July when they announce the new iPhone as they always do. There, they’ll have new software, new hardware, and I bet new software for the iPad. The guy from Brushes mentioned the iPad uses iPhone OS 3.2. Clearly, there’s room to upgrade this summer to iPhone OS 4.0.

State of the Union, by Steven P. Jobs

This is great:

Thank you for coming. And thank you to President Obama for asking me to deliver this year’s speech. We’re going to make some history today.

You know, it was just a year ago that we announced our economic plan for 2009. We said we were going to turn around the recession. We said we’d create jobs. And we said we’d do it in 12 months. What happened? We did it in three. It was the most successful period in the history of the United States. And 2010 is only going to be better. How awesome is that?

So today, we’re introducing a new plan. It’s called Stimulus 2GS, and it’s sleeker than any economic recovery package ever created. It’s got bridges, it’s got schools, it’s got broadband Internet. All that, and it’s super easy to use—you can control it from iTunes. Pretty cool, huh?

(APPLAUSE.)

Now let’s take a look at national security. When we got in here last year, torture was basically OK. We were water-boarding people and doing all sorts of terrible things. If you’re the president of the United States, how do you solve this? Hmm. Oh wait, we have solved this. We banned torture. Boom. Now that’s what I call an amazing breakthrough.

How To: Pimp Your Magic Mouse

For those of you with a new Apple Magic Mouse, I can’t tell you how pleased I am to come across this nifty app called MagicPrefs. MagicPrefs works by digging into the built-in Magic Mouse settings and gives you access to all the things we’ve always wanted: swiping, gestures, pinching, etc.

It’s free, easy to setup and worth a try. I haven’t enabled many of the features it allows you to enable. Mostly because I wouldn’t remember what I set to  do what anyway. My goal was to make my Magic Mouse function more like my MacBook Air’s trackpad. So, I’ve enabled three finger swipes in all directions to enable Expose, the Desktop, Dashboard and Spaces. I’ve also enabled pinching.

Word to the wise: be careful where you do your gestures. Hovering over open apps like Safari that work well with the Magic Mouse may produce unexpected results with MagicPrefs. For instance, swiping three fingers left is awfully similar to swiping two the left, which is a difference between visiting the previous webpage and enabling Spaces (or whatever your choose).

The Apple Tablet Drops

This Explains a Lot – Apple on Gaming

This explains a lot about Apple. A post from kotaku.com reveals an interesting story of one developer working closely with Apple. It brought about this nugget of information:

Doom Classic was rejected twice before Apple allowed it to appear in the [App] store with some minor changes.

Carmack thinks the run-ins with Apple are because the company, the highest people in the company, look down on games. But the popularity of gaming on the iPhone has forced Apple to try and come to grips with that, even if they’re not happy about it.

“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 can’t say I disagree. I generally look “down” on games with the same fervor I’m sure Apple’s higher-ups do. Games are, generally, a distraction from the real work people should be doing and I don’t doubt Apple feels the same about games on the Mac, either.

I look at my Mac and my iPhone as devices designed to help me get things done, not distract me with otherwise useless games.

I cringe when I hear about people who spend much of their time, much of their adult time, playing games like World of Warcraft and Doom.

I’m reminded of a story about Steve Jobs where a new Apple employee walked into a meeting where Jobs was present and the employee asked how everyone’s weekend was. Jobs stared coldly and said something to the effect of, “Let’s bring the quality of our conversation up a notch.” Clearly, Apple’s higher-ups are workaholics working “90 minutes a week and loving every minute.”

iRepublicans: “There’s a Rep for That”

iPhoto Thinks I’m Colonel Sanders

So, Brandon was just trying out iPhoto on his new Mac. Turns out, iPhoto’s face-recognition technology thinks I’m Colonel Sanders. Yes, I do indeed know what those 11 herbs and spices are:

Justin Harter is Colonel Sanders

It makes perfect sense. KFC is headquartered in Louisville, Kentucky which is near my hometown of Salem. And, my lawn is mostly Kentucky Bluegrass, although that’s not necessarily in honor of Kentucky’s prized fried chicken.

The Anti-App(le)

Here’s what we’ve all been waiting for:

Microsoft this week offered a window into the first phase of a mega million dollar advertising campaign designed to clear up ‘misconceptions’ about the quality of its Windows Vista operating system exacerbated by in-your-face marketing efforts on the part of longtime rival Apple.

The first series of ads in the campaign were reportedly met with rave reviews last week when they were previewed at Microsoft’s employees-only Global Exchange conference.

…

“We know a few of you were disappointed by your early encounter. Printers didn’t work. Games felt sluggish. You told us—loudly at times—that the latest Windows wasn’t always living up to your high expectations for a Microsoft product,” the company said. “Well, we’ve been taking notes and addressing issues.”

Now, everyone knows I’m a big fan of Apple products, but come on. Seriously? Why do you need a marketing campaign to tell everyone how much your product doesn’t suck? In theory, shouldn’t your product be so amazing that it sells itself without the hassle Vista has seen?