January 2008 Archives

I got a new pair of earphones for the iPh one the other day: The V-Moda Vibe Duo Nero. Lots of contenders to the throne of the white buds, but all things being equal this is the only one worth getting.

iPhone buds are the Holy Grail of accessories â while the white ones suffice, unfortunately they're neither here nor there. T o be fair they sound ok, but people keep them around because they have the mic and button on the cord. Those inclined to trade them right off for better ones tend to hang on for the functionality. Honestly, there aren't any real compromi se-free options available.

V-Moda previously released the < strong>Vibe Duo model which had the phone mic incorporated into it, bu t it didn't have the all-important button that answered calls and stopped, star ted and forwarded tracks â just like the regular buds. The new models, which co me in chrome, red and black, have this button, which is a trifle smaller than i s convenient.

But the Vibe Duo is the only one that approximate s the original buds in configuration and use without taking anything from the m ix. The existing alternatives either have too many cords or have little growths and appendages that carry the mic or the button or both.

At US$99 the pair is the best option so far in te rms of function and value. With some extras. Of course the plug fits, and the j ack seems sturdily made with a knurled grip, as there are on the left and right buds themselves. The sleek chrome of the buds and jacks are well made, but the big surprise is the cords themselves. They are light, soft and pliable, and cl oth-covered! The feel like well-made, durable string, and not prone to tangling or retaining odd shapes when they get wrapped around things. A self-sealing le ather carry pouch comes in the box, which is a pretty classy bonus.

The buds are in-ears, which are acquired tastes. Some like it, some don't. I belong to the former, having used many like them in the past. They come with six pairs of replaceable silicone fittings, in three sizes: S, M and L, and in clear or black. I'm most comfortable with the mediums . The in-ears seal out extraneous noise and amplify the sound; I'm glad I don't have to dial up the volume to full all the time now. Two-thirds is plenty.

One of the comments is that the Bliss silicone fi ttings have a tendency to fall off their posts, and you find you lose one or th e other in common use, forcing you to use the other color, or the other sizes. I own a pair of red V-Moda Vibes, and I was down to just four mismatched pairs until I figured a tiny droplet of glue on the rims when you pop the fittings on usually does the trick. You just have to settle on the size and color and stick with your choice.

Another usual comment is that V-Modas have tradio nally been bassy buds; true, but not excessively so. Mids and highs don't get b uried, and the reproduced tones shine through the low lows. I'm prefer flat set tings myself, but I can live with the V-Modas.

One of my friends who owns a pair already complai ns that it's odd to use the V-Moda Vibe Duos as a handsfree headset, and having taken calls on it, I know what he means. The lack of the ambient noise is a bi t disconcerting, since the in-ears shut everything out. But it isn't a biggie; it's just a matter of getting used to it,

I'm glad I got these, and can now set the white b uds aside as reserves. Two Mac-A-Doodle thumbs up.

While not the most striking announcement by any measure, Apple's newly introduced pink-colored iPod nanos are causing a bit of renewed interest in the obvious markets. The iTunes Store went down for a couple of hours recently agai n creating a fierce hornet's nest of speculation among the Mac faithful worldwi de as to why. Ah, here's the one more thing Steve forgot. The real sub -notebook? The Mac multi-touch tablet? The 3G 16gb iPhone? And then when the si te came back, it was a ...pink iPod. The new Pink just comes in 8gb, and is available immediately. Oh, well. Maybe I'll get my wife one. Her pink iPod mini is lo oking a bit old.

See Akiko Wada's Flickr photostream pics here.

The ReLocker finally arrives... ...and it comes bearing gifts: Beware...

Apparently the new Movie Rentals feature is exclusive to newer hardware like the iPod Touch, iPhone, 3G Nano and iPo d Classic. Does that mean the 5 and 5.5G iPod videos are out in the cold? Yep. I went back and rewatched the keynote and Steve-O did say it was for "current g eneration iPods", but just once, and quickly. It's one of those things that you hear, but is so unbelievable in the back of your mind you go, Nooo, that c an't be true, he must be kidding, so you gloss it over and pretend you did n't hear it. That must have been Steve's plan all along. TUAW spe culates that this is being done to prevent easy and casual piracy (as in jack i t out via the video cable to a recorder, and boom, there goes the neighborhood) , and I see where they're coming from. But still, man. Millions will be up in a rms. I was about to tell my brother, who's got a 5G, the good news (though he owns a n iPod he's a die-hard Windows guy and not a rabid Mac fanboy like me - must've been adopted - and doesn't keep up with keynote addresses), but I think I'll l eave off telling him he's SOL like a lot of other 5/5.5G owners out there. Bett er he finds out for himself.

One of the major points against the MacBook Air is the dearth of ...nearly everything. Which should be its strength in the minimalist context , but after the RDF fades, just emerges as a way to squeeze more out of the fan boys. They yank everything out, tell us it's the better for all that, then sell s us back the parts they took out. At a premium. Sheesh. Don't get me wrong. The MacBook Air is beautiful. But hey, too much form over f unction this time, man. So here is a partial list of the things that should have been in the box, if no t in the laptop itself, that Apple is selling back to us, in Apple's own words: Apple USB Ethernet Adapter Easily connect your MacBook Air computer to an Ethernet network with the Apple USB Ethernet Adapter. Small and light, it connects to the USB 2.0 port of your MacBook Air and provides an RJ-45 connector that supports 10/100BASE-T performa nce. $29.00 * Apple Micro-DVI to DVI Adapter Newly designed to fit the slim profile of MacBook Air, the Apple Micro-DVI to D VI adapter allows you to connect to an external DVI monitor or projector. It ca n also be used in combination with the Apple DVI to ADC adapter to support olde r Apple flat panel Studio or Cinema Displays. $19.00 * Apple Micro-DVI to VGA Adapter Newly designed to fit the slim profile of MacBook Air, the Apple Micro-DVI to V GA adapter allows you to connect to an external VGA monitor or projector. $19.0 0 (Doodler Note: I think this'll be the more popular of the video adapters - I can imagine all the folk wanting to show off their new MBA at the office by usi ng it for a presentation on a projector; they'll need one of these.) This n ext one is not on the Apple Store yet as far as I can see. Not the most egregio us omission (because of the Remote Disk feature Apple made that makes this a bi t moot), the USB Superdrive accessory seems a good one to get at $99, until you find that it only works for the MacBook Air. Huh? All these things will be out in 2-3 weeks. *Update: Oops. Apparently the video adapters ARE already in the box, as a coupl e of my outraged (and attentive) readers have pointed out. (Thanks to RBB and d esignissues.) I thought I looked. Must've missed it. Silly me. I should have kn own; for the price of the MBA, it should be in the box. Mac-A-Mea Culpa. Heh.

Check your iTunes - as expected, it's upgrade time, to accommo date the new Movie Rental facility unveiled at the Keynote. I was going to download something from iTunes when I was informed that the Term s of Service had changed, and I had to agree before I was allowed to proceed. L ong document. Scary. I actually tried to read it to find out if there was something there that would bork our long-standing and illicit relationship. Finding none, I went ahead an d clicked, and then the downloads started. Then it informed me some of my downloads required the newer version of iTunes t o work, so I went and started the process. So far so good. Minutes later, a window from Software Update popped up and told me that there w ere iTunes and Quicktime updates available. Yeah, yeah, I know already ! In my language, ang kulit ng Apple. Sheesh. Here's the fine print.

What's new in iTunes 7.6 Rent and download your favorite movies with iTunes on your computer or directly to your living room on Apple TV. Enjoy rented movies in sizes up to 720p HD wi th surround sound on your Apple TV and sizes up to DVD-quality on your computer . Transfer your rented movies from iTunes to your iPod or iPhone and enjoy them on the go. Also, purchase and download your favorite TV shows, music, and more directly on your Apple TV. Effortlessly transfer purchases made on Apple TV back to your c omputer with iTunes.

And as usual, the vague description of Quicktime 7.4:

QuickTime 7.4 addresses security issues and delivers: - Numerous bug fixes - Support for iTunes

(Despite my sniping, I luuurve the idea I can rent movies now. Cool.)

Macbook Air.

The Apple Store website capped just now, three hours before the keynote.

And just in time. Li terally, hours before the keynote. Our blog network got borked server-side and we've been down for a week. Everyon e. I've been in a Mac-A-Doodle posting withdrawal nightware an d been in a fetal position for most of the week dealing with my Macworl d anxiety all by myself. But better late than never. See you on the other side of the keynote. Heeeeeeeere we go!

We all know the feeling. He aring that great song on the radio that you'd give up your Mac to remember the artist and title. Or come across this great new song playing i n someone's car or in the mall that you'd give up your iPod to know the name of. Well, these days all you'd really need is your iPhon e, a wifi connection and Listen. TUAW's Erica Sadun, lead purveyor of free crazysexycool apps and utilities for the iPhone has come up wi th with another winner. Imagine you hear that mysterious song somewhere with wifi, and you happen to ha ve your iPhone. Fire up Erica's Listen, put your iPhone near t he audio, wait a few seconds, and you get the artist, title and album the song came from, right on the multi-touch screen. Sounds too good to be true. Listen samples five seconds of audio, then goes online to cons ult a database, matches the sample to the music and spits back the song info. I s that crazysexycool or what? I used it in the office today, and people went oooh and ahhh. Granted, it doesn't catch everything. It caught maybe three out of every five (it's still a beta, after all), but sample a reasonably popular song and it'd g et it every time. And it's not really a new idea - there are cellphones with th is sort of feature out already for a while now. But hey, who cares? This one's sure to make it into the Doodler's Top 10 Favorites for 2008. The Listen beta is available for your iPhone via Installer beg inning today.

Far be it for me to start blogging about Windows topics in a < strong>Mac blog, but this one is a special case. Yesterday at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Bill Gates, Microsoft Chairman and CEO gave the Keynote speech. Which, incidentally, is also his last one as he is retiring from Microsoft. It's interesting to note in comparison with a Steve Jobs Keyno te how an MS Keynote would progress. For one thing they have more gimmicks and entertainment mixed in. They have to work harder (I guess because they have les s interesting points to share), and there is a lot of creative stretching invol ved as well. Nothing to write home about though. Our favorite gadget and tech sites gave it equal time and had online real-time coverage of the Bill's CES Keynote, just like the Macworld Jobs keynote speeche s. It's kinda odd reading though, specially if you're used to following Macworl d coverages. Check out the live reportage of Gadgetell and Engadget. One of the more entertaining moments is a seven-minute produced clip about Bill 's last day at Microsoft, with appearances by Matthew McConaughey, Jay- Z, Steven Spielberg, George Clooney, Jon Stewart, Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and even Apple stalwarts Bono and < strong>Al Gore (Apple board member). It's one of those things Apple co uld have done, but it's a bit surprising Microsoft did it. Gizmodo 's Brian Lam says "this video makes Bill Gates look cooler than Steve Jobs", and I agree (up to a point: Bill wore a pink shirt and a pur ple sweater to the Keynote). I enjoyed the video immensely, and you can watch it for yourself here. Bill, you old coot, we're going to miss ye.

Macs 1, Windows 0. Here.

T he entire Mac world is going nuttier than the fruitcakes we go t for Christmas that we aren't touching, now that the Macworld Keynote< /strong> is just a little over a week away. Normally I don't entertain these pointless rumorfests and try not to jump on th e bandwagon, but I must admit, the fever is high and I'm starting to have a tem perature myself. I think the heightened expectations are fueled by the advent o f the iPhone and the related tech that came with it, notably t he multi-touch interface. Which is why a multi-touch Mac is on e of the popular, though least likely, candidates for the "one more thing" shti ck of Steve this year. A site called AppleTell has floated a roundup of predictions, from the Very Likely (Mac OS 10.5.2 and the sub-notebook), the Possible (iPod HiFi and 3G/16gb iPhone) and the Impro bable (multi-touch tablet Mac). The three things that have me in a tizzy are the updated iPhone, the multi-touc h Mac and the subnotebook, particularly the latter. A lot of my friends who wan t to upgrade to a newer laptop have been holding out for Macworld just in case a Macbook Lite comes out (me included). Small form factors seem to be a big dea l for some Mac users - personally I miss my old 12" Powerbook and have been loo king for something like it for a while now. (While I wait, I'm currently satisfying my UMPC craving with a n Asus EeePC running Xandros, a Linux variant, for the moment, and I am so enamored with the lightness, por tability and convenience of the thing that I actually started a new blog for it , just for fun. If reading it won't hurt your Mac sensibilities, check out my n ew EeePC blog here.) I know one thing for sure - I'm staying up late for Macworld 08 live online coverage by our usual suspects next week (in Manila it starts abo ut 1AM on the 16th, or thereabouts). And the following morning, me and other Ma c blogs will be writing up a storm for sure. I love this time of the year. For the full Macworld rumor roundup, click here.

The folk from Mo dMyiPhone are alerting iPhone users about a malicious install that might mess up your units. Apparently if you have jmwiki.com in your list of sources in < strong>Installer, an app called "113 prep" that purpo rts to be an update of Erica Sadun's utilities and implies tha t it prepares your unit for the 1.1.3 firmware is actually malware. When instal led, the app will just say "shoes", and when you uninstall it it takes with it important files from the /bin directory, and breaks other work ing apps like utilities from Ms. Sadun, and apps like sendfile . Please do not install 113 prep and remove the JMCO source jmwiki.com from Installer. (Via MMi)

I've always wondered about the people endlessly tinkering around with the demo units at Apple stores. What the heck are they doing? Playing games? Surfing? Em ailing? Well, we know what one person was doing - writing a book. Isobella Jade, an aspiring commercial model, has actually writ ten her memoirs without owning her own computer. She'd write bits and pieces on demo units inside an Apple Store in Soho, New York, saving th e files to her Yahoo account in email form, day after day. Iso bella says she's too poor to buy her own iMac, so she mooched off the Apple Store until her book, Almost 5' 4" was finished. I remember one of my favorite writers, Harlan Ellison, who as a publicity stunt wrote one e ntirely while inside a store display window where you could watch him work from the street. Isobella's stunt is more sneaky, though. Her book has been self-published, but she has signed over the world rights to < strong>The Friday Project in the UK, and a commercial version of Almos t 5'4" will be available next year. How she did it, and an interview with the author, is over at the Mental Floss blog. (And man, here I am with 5 computers, and I can't even finish one. Sheesh.)

It seems a bit ironic that last year's winner of Best of Show at Macworld 2007 wasn't able to ship until Macworld 20 08, but the thing is so cool it was worth the wait. Axiotron's Modbook is a M ac you've never seen before - the first Mac tablet, and endorsed by App le at that! It's that dream combo of the Mac ease of use coupled with a touch sensitive screen (in the Wacom sense at least; a multi-touch screen Mac is yet to come - but I think it'd be the height of cruelty if that one came ou t this year, and somehow I wouldn't put it past Apple to pull the stunt). It's basically a ruggedized state-of-the-art Macbook as the base, fitted with t he touchscreen, and with built-in GPS thrown in for good measu re. You can rest your hand on the screen and not mess the interface, unlike a t ypical touchscreen, because only the pen gets any love. The whole thing looks l ike they ripped off the Mac's screen and melded it on top of the keyboard. It'll be showcased at Macworld in a couple of weeks, complete with demos and ot her events, and will ship within the month at about US$2300 to US$2500. Let's h ope Apple won't ruin it for Axiotron. More details about the Modbook on the Axiotron site.

...aaaanhhddd on Mac-A-Doodle we start a new year of Macfanboyism by paying tribute to the Man. Steve Jobs has been named Face of Business 2007 by CNBC in a poll conducted Christmas week. CNBC Vice Presi dent for Business News Jonathan Wald said

This was a year of great business triumphs and headlines, and all o f those nominated had significant impact on the world of business and, therefor e, were worthy of consideration, but Steve Jobs is driving Apple to new heights , including a record stock price.â

Among the closest runners-up in a large, illustrious selection were Cit iGroup CEO Chuck Prince (6.9%), the "Google Guys" (3% ) and Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg (1%). Steve-O got 78% of the votes.