...more recent posts
Well it looks like Sony has almost done it. Here is some more info on the new Clie PEG-UX50. If this thing was a phone (with GPRS data I guess) we would have a winner. Without the phone link it's really no use to me, but I can still be in awe of this device. Bluetooth and 802.11b for wireless connectivity. Memorystick Pro (I'd rather have it be Compact Flash, of course, but this is Sony, and at least the pro slots can take 1 Gig memory sticks.) Touchscreen with Graffiti handwriting recognition, plus a QWERTY thumb board. And a built in camera. All in that slick little package.
The problem for me is that it wouldn't be connected to the internet all the time. I want the dream device to have GRPS like my Hiptop (basically data over existing cell phone networks,) but to only sign into that network if there isn't an 802.11b network in range. So if you are in Bryant Park and there is free 802.11b WiFi your device will use that. And if not it will sign onto the cell network (where you'll have to pay somehow for your minutes, but the coverage areas are orders of magnitude bigger.) Maybe someday WiFi hotspots will be omnipresent enough so that we don't need the telephone companies at all, but for now (and probably forever) we need to be able to roam seamlessly between these networks.
It's hard to figure out what Sony is doing. Their cellphone business is all tied up with Ericsson in a way that makes you wonder if the Clie PDAs (from a different part of the sprawling Sony empire) can ever cross over and absorb those features. It will be a shame if they don't because this device is otherwise perfect.
Last night, from 7:18 to 7:23 was MOB #4. This is a strange event that gathers a large crowd at a specific location, for no apparent reason, and then just as quickly disbands. This fourth version introduced one step of misdirection as the last MOB (#3) ran into some paranoia from law enforcement types. So rather than preannouce the location you had to gather first at one of three local bars where the final destination was revealed only moments before the event. Last night this turned out to be the shoe store Tootsie Plohound on Lafayette and Prince. Several hundred techno hipsters descended on the store, camera phones and other gadgets flashing, for the alloted five minutes, and then just as quickly disappeared (well, that's the idea at least, but people weren't actually as good about leaving promptly since everyone was having fun.) Store personal were perplexed, to say the least. The crowd spilled out into the street. Passerbys were scratching their heads trying to figure out what was going on. And of course, nothing was going on. "But what's the point?" someone asked me. "No point, it's just a MOB."
So I've been playing a bit with a copy of OS X 10.3 (Panther) which will be released sometime before the end of the year. Hopefully in September at Macworld Paris. Not sure what to report. Other sites have posted exhaustive screen shots, so I won't bother. If anyone has any specific questions I'd be happy to try to answer them.
My brief summary is that this is a very nice update. Lots and lots of minor changes that add up to a greatly improved interface. The Finder (the file system interface) is morphing into the two column view Apple has been using in iTunes and iPhoto. I had thought about this possibility before - and they've done a great job of implementing it. I think new users will find this very intuitive. Open and Save dialogue boxes are much improved as well. And the new feature Exposé is very cool. You can assign it to any key combination, and then activating it reveals every open window at once by shrinking each window as much as necessary so they all fit on the screen. Then you can click on any window you want and everything zooms back to full size, with the one you selected on top. For finding a particular window on a very cluttered desktop this is so much better than window shades (from OS 9) that it is not even funny. Great time saver if you work with lots of open documents. I think Exposé alone will make the switch to X worth it for MB and H.