Fantastic Realities: The Journal

The Tech Media geek out over the iPad at Apple's Event - Photo c|Net

So, actually taking a moment from my labours to toss of a few thoughts about Apple’s latest foray into the world of cutting edge consumer computing. Rumors and hype over Apple’s tablet computer fried up the wires on the Intertubez for months, inflaming the hopes and opinions of technogeeks worldwide. Since I am currently the President of the local Macintosh User Group , which is more a function of not dodging fast enough than any particular sterling quality on my part, I am expected to know at least a thing or two about most things Mac. So I took in the Apple Event keynote via the live blog and later watched Steve’s keynote at our monthly SIG meeting. I am as I start to scribble this, in the waiting area of the Physical Therapy office during my wife’s PT session, a result of a dislocated shoulder in October, part of the reason for the slack in posts. Been a little busy! More on this later.

Anyway, the iPad, not the iSlate, iTablet, or iSlab or such… is actually a pretty impressive little box.  The name is a little unfortunate, but Apple leans obsessively towards the simple. As many expected, and partially leaked, the iPad is much more a large iPhone/iPod Touch as opposed to a touch enabled MacBook. Not all the tech literate are thrilled about that, but it’s consistent with Apple’s current approach to their market, audience and product strategy. As a touch powered laptop, so not happening, but as an iPhone on steroids, pretty damn spiffy. And it looks like it’s going to be a lot of fun to play with.

Now let me get right up front about this thing right off. Apple didn’t make the iPad for me, or for most of the likely audience of this blog for that matter. I am a Power User by most standards, a Graphic Designer, a Creative Professional. And the iPad was not made for us. This is, to it’s last transistor, gutz to glory, a CONSUMER device, aimed squarely at the media-consuming center of the casual computing market. (more…)

Get the bundle, Save the world.

Hello folks!

I am going to shamelessly promote this bundle for two reasons of enlightened self-interest. One, I support a number of the charities this year’s MacHeist Bundle benefits. Including The Nature Conservancy, The Alliance for Climate Protection and The World Wildlife Fund.  Ok. kind of a tree hugger. Deal. Second, I want the sales to hit the 2nd unlock point, and unlock ESPRESSO, a spiffy new little web development app.  Feed my ‘warez lust, plz.  OK, design geek whore nerd too. Deal. It’s only $39 clams and you get a BUNCH of cool Mac apps.

“This year’s bundle features a core lineup of a dozen award winning and popular apps, games and utilities that represent the cream of the crop from the Mac development community. Whether you’re interested in cooking a meal, or playing the best puzzle game of last year, or selling off an old item on Ebay, the MacHeist bundle has you covered. And for the first time ever, the MacHeist bundle can be yours for just $39.

MacHeist is also donating 25% of each bundle purchase to a partnering charity of the customer’s choice. To date, MacHeist customers have raised over $700,000 for philanthropic efforts around the world.”

So I need your help. Do the right thing. Spend 40 bucks, get $620 in software  (maybe $ 950 if we all kick in). Save the world. Feel good.

Check it out at MacHeist

Do it now, as of April 1st, only 6 days left!

Microsofts’s Powerpoint is the darling of Sales Folk and marketing flacks world wide. And most Designers I know hate it with a coldly burning passion. The insane text and type handling, the utterly brain dead approach to graphics importing and tracking, and the utter inability to import text other than outlines… I could go on. But  I don’t want to get shrill.

Powerpoint is the worlds leading presentation application, used over all others combined. And why, if the application is such a mess? Because it’s been bundled with MS Office for over a decade now. So it’s right there in just about every Windows PC on the planet. If you’re in the business environment, you pretty much HAVE to have Word and Excel, so you’re going to get Office. It was probably pre-installed on your machine when you got it, especially if it’s a company box.

Powerpoint 2007 Interface - © Microsoft Corp.

What that means of course is that very few companies are willing to even try and compete to sell an application versus something MS is giving away essentially for FREE. The only reason Firefox is making any inroads versus MS Explorer is that it’s free to download, and is a better product. Many years ago, Aldus, later Adobe, was marketing a presentation product called Persuasion. It was excellent, and had much of the typographic tools and graphics smarts of Illustrator. But they gave  up on the product in the Office era. Adobe discontinued production from September 1997. Persuasion was a professional class retail product, and Powerpoint was better than free in Office… (more…)