Category: Technology

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Bob Speaks Technology

Episode 5: My Setup

I’m talking about my setup tonight. Focusing on simplifying it again so that I don’t spend quite so much time administering to the disparate pieces.

I apologize for the poor speaking voice this evening, something wasn’t quite sitting right in my throat.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 10:17 — 9.4MB)

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Business Technology

The Gutting of Apple Retail

Jim Dalrymple over at The Loop recently posted Apple boss tries to gut retail operation and I would recommend that you head over and read the entire piece.

Having worked in Apple Retail in the past, I was a little upset by the piece. The Apple Store is one of the greatest assets Apple has and the idea of trying to slim down the operation is beyond ridiculous, the only thing I can hope for is that Tim Cook will fire their recent SVP of Retail, John Browett, and get someone in there who can actually do the job … maybe Ron Johnson would be interested in coming back.

Even while I was there, staffing was an issue and the idea of having less staff around while iOS and Mac devices are still being sold at breakneck speed is not just mind-bogglingly stupid, it’s mind-boggingly dangerous for Apple as a whole.

The Apple Stores allow the rest of the company to have a personal relationship with the actual users of devices to an extent that no other electronics company can, which allows them to react to problems faster, deal with user issues faster, and gain information faster than their competitors. Treating it like some sort of plain cost center that must be cut is just dumb.

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Bob Speaks Technology

Episode 4: Open Source and TextMate 2

Not something I was remotely expecting, but here it is! TextMate 2.0 has been opened up.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 7:05 — 6.5MB)

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Technology

What I Got from Apple

Looking back at my last post, this is the final tally:

  • Obviously, Apple released Mountain Lion and I’ve been running it on everything that I have my hands on (including my mom’s machine as well) and have been very happy with it. A lot of small tweaks make for a larger update than I was expecting. I’m going to be using Reminders quite a bit in my everyday work and personal life.
  • No iWork ’12 (or whatever), but iWork 9.3 was pushed out yesterday bringing the two features I was most interested in: Retina graphics and iCloud support. That’s not too bad. I still hope that they will bring out a larger upgrade in the future, but this takes care of the two huge holes in iWork for the moment.
  • No Mac mini or iMac update. Sadness.

That’s about it. I need to use Mountain Lion a while longer before I can form any concrete opinions about it but initial thoughts are all good.

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Technology

What I Want from Apple

Apple released its quarterly earnings today, but they are boring (you can find more here … but they made a lot of money again). The real news, for me, is that Mountain Lion is going to be released tomorrow (July 25)!

Well, at least I know what my weekend is going to look like.

Here are some other things I wish Apple would release tomorrow:

  • An updated Mac mini so that I can finally start trying to convince my wife that I need a development machine. I’ve been waiting on this little guy since WWDC because I would really like for it to be a little faster than the current 13″ MacBook Pro that I have and it would be nice to have USB 3.0 as well. I can wait, however, and I really doubt that Apple is going to release it tomorrow (even though it would only be a minor update).
  • If the Mac mini would get an update, you could probably expect an iMac update as well. It would be along the same lines because they will be holding out any cosmetic changes for the iMac until they can throw a Retina display in there. That won’t be for a little while yet, but a boost in speed and USB 3.0 would be nice additions.
  • Can we please get iWork ’12 (or something)? I would love to get iCloud support (and Retina for those who want it) so that I could move more of my work to the iPad. iWork ’09 is still my go-to application for word processing or spreadsheet wrangling, but an update is needed.

That’s really it. iLife could probably use a refresh soon, but I would expect that to be released later this year, probably around October or so (much like it was refreshed in later 2010 when the MacBook Air was unveiled again). I’m really holding out for small updates to the desktops tomorrow and then … let the dealing begin!