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The Apple iPad is still some months away from shipping, but I am already sick of it. Those who love all things Apple – Mac users especially, Mac loving press certainly – have talked this device to death. I hate the talk, and even I can’t avoid talking about it! (more…)

If you are a Mac user, you probably know that Apple has shipped Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard. I am not going to try to review it – there’s an excellent and detailed review over on Macintouch. Many Mac users were surprised that Apple isn’t charging the full price for the upgrade that has become the norm for them; but after installing they understand why. Snow Leopard is more about omission than adding value – and in the case of Quicktime, a crippled product that should be the shame of the company. (more…)

Kotaku and Techcrunch have been making the most of a term in iPhone developer contracts that require the iPhone developer to reimburse  Apple for their 30% margin on sales if a customer returns a product within 90 days. Many have said this is a term to ensure quality – its not. (more…)

Apple’s (that’s Apple, not Apple Computer) abrupt announcement that Steve Jobs would not deliver the keynote for MacWorld 2009 in San Francisco and in fact, this would be Apple’s last year in attendance at MacWorld shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone. It is just another step in its transformation towards being a completely self controlled ecology that began with the return of Steve Jobs. Here’s why it makes sense. (more…)

A new release of the Mac OS and version of Apple xCode, the Apple owned tool for building applications for Mac OS X in C++ or Objective-C, always brings with it a measure of hype into the Mac OS developer community that can occasionally slop over into the Mac OS user base. But I have yet to date see a release of a developer tool, let alone an SDK, receive this much attention since the original public showing of Java – yes, the Apple iPhone SDK. And this isn’t even about the actual release, but the availability of the beta! The final release is scheduled for some time around June, 2008.

I don’t want to talk about the technical details of the release, but as John Milton put it, to justify the way of God to men on the release format and what the business implications are for the release and the iTunes Store venue. (more…)

Once again – Valentina is not only the fastest developer database but also the first-to-market to support the new, Universal Binary version of Adobe Director 11 – with Valentina for Director 3.5.2. Adobe Director 11 was recently announced at Game Developer Conference in San Francisco. You can’t buy Director 11 yet, but you can pre-order the upgrade.

For Mac OS X developers, Valentina for Director 3.5.2 offers both a Carbon and Universal Binary version, with the former – and the Windows version – supporting back to Director 8.

I sometimes get asked what the difference is between Adobe Director and Mirye Runtime Revolution. They are different in so many ways – except that they both offer cross-platform solutions for building rich media applications. Director does fall short, in that Revolution also supports Linux and Solaris. But Director has Shockwave on its side, for playback through the Shockwave browser plugin. Good thing that there is a Valentina solution for both platforms.

Apple has another spectacular operating system release in Mac OS X Leopard. Just like any release, if you make applications for Mac OS X or worse, make a developer tool, you probably found a few niggling issues in your products [Note - Valentina seems untouched by this]. I have yet to find any 3rd party tool that wasn’t impacted by this release, and even those that utilize Carbon libraries have had their grumbles. The biggest news though is that Java appears dead in its tracks under Mac OS X Leopard, and as John Gruber mentions in his blog, Java developers are very upset.

A friend of mine who develops in Java mentioned to me a few months ago how MacBooks at Java events seem to vastly outnumber the number of Dells, HPs and Thinkpads toted about by developers.

I will not praise Apple for this cut, like many Apple enthusiasts do whenever Apple makes a decision to add or subtract. The decision to ship earlier rather than later is purely a financial one – that’s where the real prioritization is, especially when you are a public company.

Fans of the Apple Mac Mini have banded together to petition Apple to continue to update the Mac Mini. The Mac Mini is a small, consumer oriented version of the Macintosh computer. It has a very small form factor that is exactly compatible with the Apple TV. This little computer has a far greater potential for use outside of just being an entry level machine. Its small form factor lends itself to being a very stackable, portable server, especially with attached network drives. (more…)