Apple, Please Let Us Do More With iChat (For iPhone too)

I don't know what to do with iChat on my Macbook. I've used it a few times. Mostly, I click it by accident when I'm in a rush to fire up Safari. Instead, I've been using Adium since I found out about it. With Adium, like Trillian on Windows, I can put together my MSN, Yahoo, AOL, Gtalk, and, now, Facebook contacts in one application. It's really efficient.

So far, I can use AOL and Gtalk with iChat but it doesn't let me do much else. Frankly, I'm not sure Apple really has any plans for iChat other than to just havesomething for the MobileMe crowd.

But if there is a way for Apple to include voice, VOIP, or something else, that would be fantastic. And with Google snapping up Gizmo5 and merging it with Voice, Appple's iPhone and Macs are really left at the mercy of their Mountainview neighbor who is increasingly more of a competitor on the mobile and desktop front.

I think it's about time Apple get serious about iChat and doing more with it. 30 Billion in the bank, I am sure Steve Jobs and company can put a couple of billions into some startups and catch up rather quickly. Hey, maybe even work with Cisco at the beginning to learn a few tricks about communication.

And the perfect time would be when iPhone 5.0 comes out. What happened to 4.0, you ask? While I hope to see the VOIP features in version 4 of the iPhone OS, I think it's too soon and Apple doesn't have to rush yet. They've got a couple of years before things get desperate. But I've got hope as there are evidence that Apple is working towards this end.

Since the release of iPod Touch, it has gained capabilities in hardware as well as other subtle features with each upgrade. First it gained the ability for Touch users to do voice (voice memo app). Then it gained small, albeit lame, speakers but speakers nontheless. It almost feels like Apple is using the current generations of iPod Touch users to fine tune a mobile device capable of so much more in a few years.

Note: I know that Apple probably gave the iPod Touch lame speakers as not to upset ATT or cannibalize the iPhone.

T-Mobile USA To Get iPhone Before Verizon?

Back in July, I began speculation about possibility of T-Mobile getting the iPhone some time in 2010.  Here's the low-down on why I had thought this was a possible, if somewhat improbable, scenario.  3G and GSM.

In the United States, if you want access to a GSM network, you've got one of two major choices.  ATT and T-Mobile.  As you know, T-Mobile is the smaller of the two.  It's in the 4th place as far as the major networks are concerned, behind Sprint.  As Apple as repeatedly said that there will be no CDMA version of the iPhone.  Conventional wisdom is that Apple will wait until LTE, the next generation wireless network, has sufficient coverage before the iPhone becomes available to Verizon's customers (both ATT and Verizon Wireless will migrate to LTE as their next generation wireless broadband network).

So why T-Mobile?  40 Million reasons.  More at Onxo Mobile Devices

Quick iPhone Musing

I recently downloaded a couple of blogging apps for the iPhone in an effort or become even more mobile than I already am. One is free while the other a new introduction from The Blog Herald. It's called "altBlogger". It gives writers the ability to create links to sites that many other more rudimentary apps don't allow. As you can see, I've included a link.

Of course, if you don't see it, then either I did something wrong or the app isn't working properly. I won't know until I publish this post. Well, we'll see, won't we?

Why two apps? Well? altBlogger doesn't allow me to save drafts but thend second app, BlogPress Lite, does. But BPL does allow me to create links, which is needed at times.

Anyway, many readers are interested in mobile blogging so I'll post my experiences about it later.

The second musing I want to share is that as I try to become more mobile while sharing my experiences, I ind the iPhone to be an excellent replacement for a standard laptop or netbook for basic computing. I've got an assortment of apps for office work, writing, creating and editing arts, and references. Anything that I might need are quickly and easily accessible through mobile Safari.

Plus I've got my music, games, and videos all with me as well.

I have to say that while push notifcation is great and all, omitting the ability, even a limited one, to allow some apps to run in the background has created inefficiencies. Hence, it's why I needed two diff blogging apps.

Plus I recent got a battery case for my iPhone that gives me three times more battery life. I think I am all set to run three or four apps simultaneously, Apple.

Posted with altBlogger.

iPhone - Great For Gaming? Nah...But Sega Thinks So

Is the iPhone and sibling, iPod Touch, for gaming as well as a countless of other multi-purpose functions? You know, a mobile computer?

Sega thinks so. In fact, according to IGN, they're more than just excited. They've got stuff cooking that they can talk to anyone about. The first game in a long time from Sega is Super Monkey Ball 2. It's not out yet but it certainly looks pretty good.

So, what are these developments that Sega cannot talk about? I guess we'll know shortly. No matter what they are, it's important to understand what's being said. Sega, creator of Genesis, Dreamcast, Game Gear, and tons of gaming properties, believes the iPhone is for real. Hey, if it's good enough for Sega, it's good enough for me.

At the moment, you'd think Gameloft and EA were the only two big development houses making games for the iPhone but you should take a look at the app stores and you'll realize Sega has 5 games already in the store.  But it's been a while since Sega released anything new and the games they released, besides, Sonic, are known properties, but they've created nothing new or port over their other their A-list games.

I'm talking Virtual Fighter, Phantasy Star, and Total War.  Sega has dozens more top games that can bring over to the iPhone.

To really make a splash on the iPhone, I'm hoping for Sega to create a new slate of characters like for the iPhone.  I'm looking for Sega to make history once more like they did with Sonic for the Genesis.

Personally, I think Apple has changed the dynamics of mobile gaming but I don't know if it has what it takes to take on Nintendo yet.  Maybe with Sega in Apple's corner, that just might really happen after all.

Now for some video on Sega's upcoming Super Monkey Ball 2.


More at IGN, and Touch Arcade.

Apple Hiring Game Developers - More Than Just iPhone I Think

Apple is hiring someone who has worked on a big title possibly for some in-house gaming development to work on something that has to do with iPhone gaming.  Maybe.

Here's what I've learned about Apple over the years.  Never take what they let us see at face value.  I know this has to do with gaming but I don't necessarily fall in line with those who automatically believe this is for the iPhone platform.

While it's not likely for the Mac, there is still the possibility.  Plus, you've got to think that Apple thinking bigger than just iPhone or Mac gaming.  There's still the Apple TV that Apple is slowly but surely working to "get it right".

We ought to know in a year or so just what Apple intend for its new gaming team to be doing.  Don't be surprised if Apple does intend for the OS X to be more gaming friendly for developers as well as gamers.

• Develop games for the iPhone.  Not likely.
• Develop games for the Mac.  Not likely but possible.
• Develop games for the Apple TV.  Not likely but possible.
• Develop games for the forthcoming iTablet.  Not likely.
• Make changes to OS X to make it easier for developers to create games.  Likely. Along that line, Apple can develop a couple of games to show OS X's new gaming potential.  After all, year after year, the Mac has always been an after thought to Windows in the realm of gaming.  So, yes.  This is a likely scenario.

So though the listing specifically mentioned the iPhone and iPod Touch, I doubt the job parameter is that narrow.  If Apple improve the OS X for gaming and all of its hardware uses OS X in one form or another, Apple's products across the board stand to benefit.

More at Gaming Nexus,  Industry Gamers

Parallells Desktop 5: Detailed Video Review

Remember running Windows XP or 2000 on Virtual PC on your older PowerPC Macs?  Powerbook G4s?  It worked well enough if you need to run simple non-CPU intensive applications but beyond that, can forget about it.  Today with Macs running Intel chips, you're no longer limited by speed or anything else.  It's true, you can use Bootcamp or any number of applications that let's you run Windows XP, Vista, or 7 without taking a huge performance hit.  As matter of fact, some benchmarks showed running Windows under Bootcamp is faster than those from Lenovo, HP, or Dell.

Via MacDailyNews, here is a detailed (15 minutes) review of the newest virtual environment for the OS X and Macs - Parallels Desktop 5.

Here are among the highlights for version 5:

• Optimized for Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard
• Full support for Aero, including Flip 3D in Windows Vista and 7 & OpenGL 2.1
• Parallels Compressor automatically reclaims hard disk space
• Intel VT-x2 virtualization technology drives maximum performance
• Unmatched virtual machine performance
• Launch Windows apps directly from the Mac dock
• Support for Multi-Touch trackpad gestures in Windows applications
• Improved USB device compatibility — printers, cameras, mobile phones, scanners, GPS devices and more
• Run Mac OS X and Windows on multiple monitors
• Easily organize multiple windows with Exposé and Spaces
• Use Apple remote to control Windows applications
• Copy & paste formatted text and images between Windows, Mac and Linux
• See into the smarter way to run Windows
• Run more than 60 different — operating systems, including Windows, Linux, BSD and more
• Full support for Snow Leopard, Mac OS X Server, 8 virtual CPUs and 64-bit Windows
• SmartGuard’s instant "snapshots" make backup and recovery easier than ever
• Use administrator tools to protect and secure virtual machines
• Enhanced! DirectX 9.0c/9Ex with Shader Model 3 support for games and 3D graphics apps
• Bonus Software Parallels Internet Security by Kaspersky protects from virus and spyware threats, plus Acronis True Image and Acronis Disk Director

I've stopped at Parallels 2 but since upgrading to Snow Leopard, it stopped working.  But just as well since Parallels 5 has a great many improvements over previous versions as well as its competitors.

Check out the video to see if this version is for you.



Also, you might want to consider a couple of other offerings such as Fusion 3 from VMWare or Sun Microsystem's Virtualbox, which is free.

More links and where to buys:

• MacDailyNews
• Chris Pirillo's review
• VMWare's Fusion 3
• Parallels 5 for Mac
• Amazon's Fusion 3 product page
• Amazon's Parallels 5 product page

Apple's Macbooks Among The Best

It's the Holidays, because I've put up my tree and lights already, so many folks will be looking for gifts, for themselves or others.  As always, I'm recommending Apple's gears than anything else.  And here's why.

SquareTrade, a firm that sells warranties, reports two very interesting conclusions.  One:  Premium laptops, which Apple sells, has a lower failure rate than entry laptops and netbooks.  In fact, netbooks has a 28% higher percentage of failures than premium laptops, and entry-level laptops has a 12% greater failure rate than premium laptops.  All in all, you pay more but you're likely to have a laptop that isn't going to die on you.

What's interesting is that, in another chart, Asus, Toshiba, and Sony (if you don't get Macbooks, I recommend Viaos), all top Apple's laptops.  Of course, this survey is different from user-opinion surveys made their experiences rather than firms in the business of selling warranties.  Traditional polling of users always put Apple head-and-shoulders above everyone else.

Why is that?

Here's why.  Squaretrade is in the business of making money from selling warranties.  Netbooks have high failure rates such as the ones Asus makes and Asus hardware has lower failure rates than Apple, Sony, or Toshiba?  If you're a warranty company, you'll want to maximize profit, you want owners with Asus gears to stay away because you're gonna be replacing or fixing a lot of those while try to sell warranties to the likes of Apple and Sony, whose products are reported by users as highly reliable, thus, less likely to utilize their warranties and allow Squaretrade to pocket their money.

How do you sell to Macbook and Viao owners?  Make them think their laptops are just above average so that they'll feel the need to buy warranties.  So you might ask, why not just make the gears from Apple and Sony worse than average?  Because Squaretrade has to make the survey believable.

You'll need to decide who you want to believe.  But I love my Macbook and unless quality management starts going to hell at Apple, I don't see my self getting anything else.  And I don't need to go to a third party for warranties since I've got Apple Care.

But do yourself a favor and stay away from netbooks if you can.  There's a reason why Apple does not make them and why Sony's netbooks cost about $1,000.

I'll recommend which Macbooks to get in the coming weeks depending on your needs.  But if you need a laptop now, keep in mind that Apple now has a wide selection of Macbooks, from the white case to the unibodies.  From 13" LED screens up to 17".  Plus, the built-in battery gives the Macbook line a longer battery life than almost anything else on the market.

Plus, with OS X, Snow Leopard, you have a modern 64-bit operating system Microsoft recently added to copying and save yourself the headaches of the thousands of viruses for Windows.

Just saying...sure, Macs might cost more out the door but calling it a premium laptop doesn't really work for me.  You get the best hardware and software to do the job right.  And you deserve it if you want to optimize your talent and time.

Leonardo da Vinci isn't going to go down to Home Depot and pick up any old tool.  He's gonna want best tools he can get his hands on to do his work.  Shouldn't that be the case for you?

More at Mac.Blorge