Posts tagged Apple
Know when to actually recharge your mouse
“MightyMonitor 5 is a dashboard widget for Mac OS X that shows you the battery status of Apple Bluetooth wireless devices, including the Magic Mouse, Magic Trackpad, and brushed aluminum wireless keyboard. The widget changes color to warn of low batteries - with a low status warning at less than 25% remaining, and alert with less than 10% remaining.”
In the latest version, it can monitor correctly for rechargeable NiMH batteries. Right now it says my Might Mouse is 78% charged but the Mac (via the iStat Pro Widget) is saying it is only 42% charged. The Mac monitors for alkaline or non rechargeable Lithium batteries and gets the rechargeable battery status wrong. (Except for the Trackpad, which itself tries to monitor correctly.)
Ideally, all battery monitors would let the user set type of battery per device and at what percent to warn for recharge. NiMH batteries are also best recharged at around 50% charge. Testing has now shown this is the best compromise for long life and max number of charges.
Surprisingly, there are no really good battery monitor system add ons (or anything) that warn you of a low battery other than the built in. Which allows no customization.
Mighty Monitor is the best monitor but does not warn you because it is a Dashboard Widget. You have to remember to use the Dashboard key and look at Widgets daily. But, it is donation ware so give what you like!
Off topic, sort of…
I have 323 movies in my DVD queue and 96 in instant on Netflix - which has been on hold for many months. I put it on hold to see if Netflix management would correct the error in their ways and offer a discounted DVD+streaming again or; more new movies on streaming only.
But they have not and now, I don’t care!
I’d rather chip away at the 325 DVDs for under $8 a month. That comes to about $1.60 to $2.00 per DVD a month. My DVD queue contains all the movies I would like to see. The 96 instant queue are almost entirely movies I am not all that interested in, like Chinese foreign films nominated for the 2002 Oscar. Sure, I’d watch them, on rare occasion. But not for double the price! I have Amazon Prime for that, almost, for now.
This is why, I predict, Netflix and ultimately the studios, will fail. They don’t get and have not adapted to the changes in media technologies fast enough.
We can only hope an Apple TV of the future will disrupt it and move things along so consumers come first and inflexible distribution systems and methods are shut down.
Maybe Steve Jobs greatest legacy will not be the Mac or iPhone, etc. but how he foresaw the way new technologies can take petrified methods of media distribution and open them back up in ways consumers prefer, new players can enter, and the industry can still profit from.
Could you imagine if every DVD was also available for unlimited streaming for $7.99 a month? It would be my preference but, the dream of Netflix to do this is just not realistic until legacy DVD availability diminishes (not for a while if ever?) and pricing makes sense and the film industry stupidity log jam is broken up.
I never wanted to own or “rent” a movie. We used to go to a local movie palace to see a movie for a small charge. I left the renting of the cans of film to the theatre owner and projectionist. We can still go to a theater to see a movie, but for more money. Unlike thirty years ago, high def screens with sound via even a basic stereo amp and sub (what I use) at home means we can have a nice small private theater instantly.
I still want to go to my home movie palace and pay a small charge to see a movie. Netflix is the projectionist. Simple. It is not about the movie being streamed. It is about the millions of new home movie palaces simply wanting a convenient way to see movies affordably. iTunes is just an expensive instant DVD rental service.
Apple and Google as Creative Archetypes
“The Google model relies on rapid experimentation and data. The company constantly refines its search, advertising marketplace, e-mail and other services, depending on how people use its online offerings. It takes a bottom-up approach: customers are participants, essentially becoming partners in product design.
The Apple model is more edited, intuitive and top-down. When asked what market research went into the company’s elegant product designs, Steve P. Jobs had a standard answer: none. “It’s not the consumers’ job to know what they want,” he added.” nytimes.com
I’ve always felt that Google was only successful (at first) with this way of working only because it “designed” by simply avoiding it almost entirely. If your interface is nothing, nobody can dislike it. At the same time, it had great engineering behind that nothingness.
No Title Required by Robert Ryman - Google like results? Nobody can hate it. What is the it?
Apple, to its own detriment, sometimes messes around too much in the interface area then stalls and ignores problems. But the combined consistency of interface and hardware is the key. By its very nature, Windows could never match the hardware on various levels. Design being, an important one.
Boby Trolley by Joe Colombo - a clear idea, functional results, likely zero customer feedback in its design.
All three approaches are certainly valid for doing business. But I would not call Google’s approach a “creative archetype”. There is little creative in it.
350,000 Textbooks Downloaded From Apple’s iBooks in Three Days
I’d be worried if my printing business was based on text book printing.
From a design perspective, this is no great loss as most textbooks are horrible looking as far as design goes.
