Macworld Feature: Connect with the world

Macworld Magazine asked me to pick out a few of my Mac Gems, and I was happy to respond with four favorites.

Default Folder, for example, is a PreferencePane that I’ve used and loved since Christ was a corporal:

Default Folder X (****½)

You can tell Default Folder X is a classic because you start missing it the second you sit down at a Mac that doesn’t have it installed. It reduces the tedium of a handful of annoying dialog-box tasks, and it’s worth its price solely for the ability to set a per-program default location.

Here are the final 5 episodes of MacBreak I reported from the Macworld Expo floor this week:

• MacBreak 59 Macworld 2007: Show Floor Tour de Force - (MOV) - 11:38 - “Alex and Merlin round out our coverage from the Macworld 2007 expo.”
• MacBreak 57 Macworld 2007: MemoryMiner - (MOV) - 08:01 - “Merlin interviews the creators of MemoryMiner.”
• MacBreak 56 Macworld 2007: Macworld with Merlin, cont’d. - (MOV) - 11:02 - “Merlin continues his tour of the show floor, speaking with Dan Moren from MacUser, Brian Johnson from Microsoft and indulging in his most relaxing interview.”
• MacBreak 54 Macworld 2007: Bare Bones Software - (MOV) - 09:23 - “Merlin chats with the folks at Bare Bones Software, makers of BBEdit and Yojimbo.”
• MacBreak 53 Macworld 2007: Cocoalicious - (MOV) - 05:11 - “Merlin speaks to the developer of cocoalicious about his del.icio.us client and the software possibilities of the new iPhone.”

Here are the previous 4 segments and here’s a pointer to all of MacBreak’s Macworld coverage.

Thanks to everybody at Pixel Corps who put this together, and most special thanks to everyone who talked with us, came to the meetups, or just said hi on the show floor. It was a really fun week for me.

You can ensure you never miss an episode of MacBreak by subscribing for free.

A few more of my MacBreak segments from the Macworld Expo floor are now available for download:

• MacBreak 51 Macworld 2007: The Omni Group - (MOV) - 8:03 - “Merlin chats with Ken Case from the Omni Group about their products and the application development possibilities for the iPhone.”
• MacBreak 50 Macworld 2007: MacTank - (MOV) - 07:44 - “Merlin chats with the developers of MailTank and MailTemplate.”
• MacBreak 49 Macworld 2007: AppZapper, Pzziz and Cha-Ching - (MOV) - 8:58 - “Leo and Merlin continue their tour of ‘Tiny Town’, visiting with the makers of Cha-Ching, Pzziz and AppZapper.”
• MacBreak Macworld 2007: Flip4Mac - (MOV) - 5:59 - “Leo and Merlin chat with the makers of the Flip4Mac suite of digital media tools.”

More episodes coming later today. Never miss an episode of MacBreak by subscribing for free.

Spectators at the iPhone Display
Originally uploaded by x180.

Wonderful photo by Duncan.

Sixfoot6 Archives: 30 Things the iPhone Could Do That You Haven’t Thought of Yet

Ryan’s list contains a lot of the tear-inducingly sexy fantasies that were going through my own mind on Tuesday morning when we all heard that the iPhone was going to run OS X.

Like a lot of my friends, I (probably naively) took the announcement to mean that, as on my own Mac, I’d be able to install Cocoa applications built to take advantage of announced features like WebKit, Core Animation, and so on. Sure, given the foreseeable hardware limitations, these wouldn’t be the exact applications that we’re each running on our MacBooks today, but, hell, I’d take “OmniOutliner Mobile” or “iTerm Lite” or “Textmate for iPhone” in a heartbeat. No question.

Yesterday morning, though, I started to hear rumbles about the “inability for users to install additional applications of their choosing.” And then later, after Brian from Gizmodo got a hands-on demo along with a sit-down with official Apple honchos, he noted…

It isn’t OS X proper, as you’d expect. And like an iPod, it won’t be an open system that people can develop for. Remember, this is both an iPod and a Phone.

…and I died a little inside.  read more »

Jason Snell and John Gruber on iPhone applications

Merlin talks with MacWorld Magazine’s Jason Snell and DaringFireball.net’s John Gruber about the likely future of applications for the recently announced iPhone. Who will be allowed to play? How does it affect the ostensible competition? Will this end up feeling more like a phone with an iPod, a Mac with a phone, or something altogether different? (5:48)

Grab the MP3, learn more at Odeo.com, or just listen from here:  read more »

Upcoming.org: MacBreak Weekly Live @ 21st Amendment at 21st Amendment (Tuesday, January 9, 2007)

Directions to 21A, from Moscone Center

Just a reminder that tonight’s live taping of MacBreak Weekly takes place at 21st Amendment starting at 6pm. If you’re planning to come to the taping, my advice is to get there early, because we’re anticipating a capacity audience (that’s a big reason everyone agreed it was better not to do this event at the Apple Store on Steve Day).

Leo, Alex, Scott, and I will be discussing today’s announcements and may even have some guests.

A propos of nothing, I will also take this opportunity to remind Mr. Bourne of his (often repeated) promise to buy everyone on MBW an iPhone on the day that they come out. Just saying.

If you come out tonight or see me on the Macworld show floor with MacBreak today, please say hi and introduce yourself.

Of all the speculation and Steve-watching over the past few weeks, the recent chatter about an Apple “nano-computer” may be the most interesting and thought-provoking of the bunch.

Bob Snow writes:

I think Apple will introduce a nano-computer, masquerading as a smart-phone . Basically a tablet computer the size of a Treo or Blackberry with a far more clever input method, full face screen and some version of iLife running on it. Ideally it would be a stand alone wireless nano-computer running OS X. Think of all the capabilities of a MacBook combined with a phone…

Current technology would of course make this computer a brick, much larger than a Zune and more expensive than a MacBook. The Apple genius-phone will have to point the way to such a device with a mobile version of OS X and iLife. Much of your data and the programs that manipulate it might be located on the internet. Strip down the memory. Even sync it with your computer rather than replace your computer. Whatever it takes to put a placeholder out there to position Apple for the coming revolution. It might take a serious partnership with Google to pull this off. Phone service providers be damned.

And here I was conservatively predicting/begging-for (@00:51:04) a 12” MacBook Pro by next year. Always thinking too small big. Now I want me the notional MacBook Nano.

So, what’s your guess? What will Steve’s E-ticket ride be at Macworld this year?

MWSF Drinking Game 2007
Originally uploaded by World Leader Pretend1.

We’ll all be so drunk by 11am tomorrow.

[via Digg]