Egg Freckles

It is almost Spring and Stephen Hackett is back with a new nerdy t-shirt to celebrate the iMac G3 and his 512 Pixels website

The original iMac brought Apple back from the brink with a lovable, colorful design.

The quote on the back of the shirt is from Steve Job’s introduction of the machine, and became a joke in Apple keynote for years to come.

The shirts will be on sale until March 16 over at TeeSpring. There are both men’s and women’s options, as well as an unisex long-sleeve because Myke asked for it.

You only have a few days left. I ordered mine this morning.

Dr. Drang makes the argument that software not hardware is holding the iPad back from becoming an independent platform. He compares the iPad’s capabilities to features the Mac had during its first seven years of life.

What’s surprising to me is how slow iPad software has advanced in the seven years since its introduction. I’ve always thought of the iPad as the apotheosis of Steve Jobs’s conception of what a computer should be, what the Mac would have been in 1984 if the hardware were available. But think of what the Mac could do when it was seven years old:

• You could write real Macintosh programs on it, both with third-party development software like THINK (née Lightspeed) C and Pascal and Apple’s Macintosh Programmer’s Workshop. You may not care about writing native apps, but the ability to do so brings with it a lot of other abilities you do care about, like the bringing together of documents from multiple sources.
• You had a mature multi-tasking environment in the MultiFinder that worked with essentially every application that ran on the Mac.
• You (and all your applications) had access to a real hierarchical file system.
• You had what many people still consider the best personal software development kit in HyperCard.

The missing features Dr. Drang cites are reasons why I can’t use an iPad as my primary computer. But these features alone are not keeping the iPad from becoming an independent platform. For some people the lack of these features and the complexity they eliminate are a feature in itself.

The iPad doesn’t need to replace Mac OS to become an independent platform, it needs a killer feature to differentiate itself from other platforms.

• The Mac’s killer feature was its ease of use and graphical user interface.
• The iPod’s killer feature was its integration with iTunes and large capacity storage.
• The iPhone’s killer feature was its multitouch user interface and mobile Internet access.
• The iPad is remains a large screen iPhone.

The Apple Pencil and Split View are good attempts, but until Apple finds the iPad’s killer feature it will remain an also-ran.

I agree with Rob Griffiths when he says: “limited ports limit my interest in new Mac laptops.”

Apple’s pursuit of an insanely stupid “as thin as a knife edge at all costs” design goal has led to a new generation of machines that make them much less portable than they were before…despite being thinner and lighter.

Here’t the thing, Apple: Beyond a certain point, thinness is irrelevant. And honesty, you’ve more than reached that point with every laptop you make. You reached that point, in fact, a few years ago.

There are many things I love about my 2013 13″ rMBP, including the variety of ports it includes:

The Thunderbolt 3 and USB Type-C ports on modern MacBooks are extremely versatile, but I believe the best tool is the one you have with you. Carrying a bag full of dongles makes having the right tool less reliable.

The value of a PowerBook could once be measured against the value of good Swiss Army knife; how much can your accomplish with a single tool. The only thing stopping Apple from making the modern MacBook as trustworthy as a Swiss Army knife is their pursuit of thinness. There is no reason why our MacBooks can’t have the versatility of Thunderbolt 3 and USB Type-C, while coming prepared with a selection of the standard ports we still use today.

Ben Lovejoy writing for 9to5Mac:

Apple is fighting ‘right to repair’ legislation which would give consumers and third-party repair shops the legal right to purchase spare parts and access service manuals. The state of Nebraska is holding a hearing on the proposed legislation next month, and Motherboard reports that Apple will be formally opposing the bill.

If Apple believes the best way to repair their products is through an authorized service provider, why would they want to put in the effort to have their computers repaired any other way?

Andrew Cunningham writing for ArsTechnica:

Beta builds of iOS 10.3, the first of which was issued last week, generate warning messages when you try to run older 32-bit apps. The message, originally discovered by PSPDFKit CEO and app developer Peter Steinberger, warns that the apps “will not work with future versions of iOS” and that the app must be updated by its developer in order to continue running. The apps still run in iOS 10.3, but it seems likely that iOS 11 will drop support for them entirely.

Apple has required 64-bit support on all new app submissions since February 2016, and Apple has required 64-bit support on all app updates since June 2015. Any apps that are still throwing this error have not been updated in over a year and ahalf`.

I am reading this error as a sign the next release major release of iOS will only work with iPhones and iPads with a 64-bit processor. Time to say goodnight to the iPhone 5c, iPad 4, and iPad mini 2 and earlier.