Bites from the Apple: Slight Return

I'm playing a bit of catch-up as I've been unhooked from Apple news for the last couple of weeks, so let's get right down to it.

• When it was announced, Steve Jobs promised that the first Wi-Fi-only tier of iPads would be released within about 60 days (or late March). Cult of Mac reports on a rumor from AppAdvice that pre-orders might start late this week for a live selling date of March 26 (a Friday, which 9to5Mac notes is a favored day to start selling new items).

• Are you tempted to pull the pre-order trigger on the iPad? While I talk a good game of staying put with my current gaggle of Apple goodies, there's a little voice inside that would love to get one and bring it along on our family's European vacation this spring (as the Wi-Fi-only version will be available before our departure). I'm less interested in the 3G version of the iPad, but this Dear Aunt TUAW post makes the case for it with the included GPS and ability to get on AT&T's 3G cellular network without having to tie yourself to an annual contract.

• Everyone's talking about the iPad... Danish newspaper Information seems to be a fan of the coming iPad, which as wrapped its front page headline article (arguing for online distribution and micropayments; Google translation here) within an image of the device (via TUAW).

• In the time that I've been out of the Apple loop, Steve Jobs' war on Adobe's Flash plug-in has continued, with Jobs reportedly telling the Wall Street Journal that Flash is obsolete technology that's also a security risk and a CPU hog (and I can certainly attest to that last point as my MacBook Pro is currently revved to maximum fan RPMs to cool things down after visiting loads of Flash-embedded news sites). For more on this tête-à-tête, check out this AppleInsider article on the lack of Flash in the upcoming Apple iPad, which covers the history of Flash and what are the alternatives to it.

• While the next version of Microsoft Office for Mac (version 2011) won't be released until later this year, Microsoft's Mac business unit is still promoting Office 2008 for the Mac by giving away custom-colored MacBook Pros (specifically in the colors of Mac Office icons--purple, blue, green and orange) if you follow them on Twitter. Pocket-lint dubs them "ugly as sin," but as a bit of an orange officianado, I would love to sport a blazing orange MBP even with its Mac Office logo-emblazoned cover.

• Roger Ebert, one of my favorite writers, has been relying on the text-to-speech capabilities of his MacBook Pro since the loss of his ability to speak due to numerous surgeries (for more, see this recent Esquire profile). But Cult of Mac reports that he might be able to upgrade his Mac's text-to-speech feature with his own voice instead of one of the stock voices that comes with OS X via a company called CereProc, which can build custom voices for clients.

• The BBC will be offering its own dedicated iPhone apps later this year--one for news and one for sport (the latter to be ready in time for the World Cup on June). Currently, the only app-dedicated way of accessing BBC content is through third-party developers who grab the Beeb's HTML content (such as World Mobile News). The international version of the apps will be free, but supported by ads.

• One of the most important programs that I own and run is the 1Password online password and wallet manager, and while there's an iPhone app (in pro and lite versions) that connects to your desktop 1Password application, Agile Solutions is developing an iPad-specific app.

  Weirdly, 1Password has been on my mind a bit lately because of the reason for my recent online absence--the death of my father-in-law (who was the truest, most humble Southern gentleman I ever met). He was an engineer and as such had many back-up systems in place for dealing with the little things in life (such as bank and utility accounts), and I started to think about the added complexity of all the online accounts that fill up my life.

  With 1Password, I already store the vast majority of online account log-in information in the software, but I wasn't tapping into all of its features. I've since started to go through my accounts and add tags--such as which accounts have credit cards associated with them--as well as adding a number of secure notes where I'm consolidating information like our bank/retirement accounts in one easy-to-find spot.

  And to ensure that my wife has access to this information, I've given her password keys to 1Password (as well as my MacBook Pro). I'll also be setting up a synchronized share of my 1Password data that she can access on her own MBP via this tip from Rob Griffiths at Macworld on using Dropbox to sync 1Password across multiple Macs. I think my father-in-law, who was a meticulous engineer in all things in life, would approve.

--Agen G.N. Schmitz

Comments

[Vassilis on February 24, 2010 at 12:52 PM]

Hi,

I used to read your posts through a NetNewsWire subscription to Amazon's Daily RSS feed for Apple. The URL is http://www.amazon.com/gp/blog/TG66ZTOXC8UWFP However, that feed stopped being updated on Jan 22. Is this something that will be fixed? Is there another way to read your posts only and not the whole User Manual blog?

Thanks!

[Agen Schmitz on February 25, 2010 at 09:28 AM]

Hi Vassilis,

If you add this URL for the End User RSS feed, you should be able to get a feed directly to this blog. Just select New Subscription from the File menu (Command-N), and place the following link in the URL field:

http://www.enduserblog.com/rss.xml

[Vassilis on March 14, 2010 at 07:08 AM]

Thanks for your help. However, I am looking for a solution so my Reader gets ONLY your posts and not the whole End User blog. Unless, of course, you write most of the posts, which is what's happening these last weeks :)

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I know i'm just giving into the hype, but i'm quite excited to get my hands on one of these. It will compliment my new macbook nicely!

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