Thoughts on the New Apple Homepage

Today, Apple made some slight changes to their homepage and other parts of the website and I'm going to give my thoughts on it.

Normally, this wouldn't be a big deal but for the last 10 years their homepage and website has essentiality only had one or two slight design changes over the years and this has been enough time for anyone from normal people to big companies to copy their design.

An example of one of the many people/companies that copy Apple's now old website design.  This is Telos.

As the example right above shows, lots of people like Apple's design.  When they changed their homepage to a new design it's not just some small thing because so many people follow Apple from copycat Chinese computer manufacturers to design businesses to Copy and Paste the design Apple uses.  Some do poorly at it and some do great.  The above is just a example of a website that copies Apple and just doesn't know how to do it just right.

A picture from the Mac part of the site showing the new slider bar for pages showcasing a lot of products.

I've rambled enough on other things about how Apple website impacts how things are done in the website world over the years.  Now I will say what I think of the redesign.

The redesign is both a major step forward and a major step back for Apple.  It's a step forward because Apple's learning only more about the design and leaving the rest of the companies in the slow lane when it comes to design.  It's also a step back because lately Apple has been chasing the mobile market when they need to focus on the Mac side of things more and this redesign only screams how they have reoriented themselves to be centered around the iOS devices they sell.

Below is a video showing an Overview on their new site design I made for my YouTube:

YouTube

Twitter for Mac: Initial Thoughts

The day has come, January 6th 2011. Apple has released their Mac App Store, not yet full to the brim, launching with only 1,000 apps. Pretty impressive for a start though. However, there has been one application some Mac users have been boasting about. What is it? The top free app available, Twitter for Mac.

With a elegant user interface, Twitter for Mac is almost like a dream come true. A total redesign of Tweetie, which was owned by Atebits that Twitter bought out in April last year. Although it is free, Twitter for Mac looks so good with sleek transitions between the timeline, @replies, direct messages, lists, your profile and search. The black sidebar complements not only the Twitter for iPhone and iPad apps, but the texture used on the timeline itself. All in all, Twitter for Mac looks like a paid app, still in the wrapper.

Real time updates in the timeline is another new addition that Tweetie didn't have and competes with Echofon and TweetDeck, which both released the feature out in November. 

Although Twitter for Mac has its good side, there is just one negative that strikes me. By default, Twitter for Mac automatically shortens links via t.co, which cannot be turned off, making my personal url shortener useless. Hopefully, Twitter sees this as a problem to some users can changes it in a later update. 

What are your thoughts about the new Twitter for Mac? Are you going to be using it? Leave your thoughts in the comments section below.

Follow me on Twitter: @JonnyRowntree

My "Back to the Mac" Event Prediction

That's right, I only have one prediction. If you were looking for something more, sorry to disappoint you. Basically, I predict that what everyone is saying about a new MacBook Air is false and that, instead of launching a new MacBook Air, Apple will kill it. Bold claims. Below, I will state the sole reason why I think Apple is going to kill the Air: iPad. If this prediction is false, I honestly think Apple would have made the wrong decision.

First, what are the current rumours surrounding the MacBook Air?

1. Appleinsider claims that the new MacBook Air will have upgradeable RAM
2. Engadget has a photo of the new insides. 

The first thing I want to say is Apple has always been about user experience. If the Air has upgradeable RAM, I will guarantee it will be a nightmare to upgrade. Apple would much rather lock you out and charge for an upgrade.

Now let's move on to the main reason why I think Apple would abandon the Air in favour of the iPad. As we all know, the Air is not a practical solution to anything. It's not good even for basic browsing as Flash is still out there, believe it or not, and people still play Flash games. If Flash can't run decently on a Mac Pro, don't expect it to on an Air. When Apple released the Air, it was to show off. It was a proof of concept, if you will. The MacBook Air was like the Cube and the Millenium Mac. It was a fashion statement and didn't fit for anyone who wanted to use their computer, not even a niche market. These computers are all examples of art. Beautiful to look at, but useless. And beauty is their main function.

Now, compare the Air to the iPad: 

1. The iPad is more beautiful than the Air. This may not seem like that important a detail, but when beauty is the best feature that the computer can boast, this is a killer.
2. The iPad is now the best-selling gadget of all time (official). It would be money better spent on marketing the iPad, rather than selling a new Air
3. The iPad is attractive to the consumer, because it's so easy to use and they don't have to worry about little details. I'm not saying OS X isn't easy to use, but comparing iOS and OS X, it's clear who's the winner
4. The Air is very slow and completely impractical. If you want ports, there is the MacBook for that.
5. The Air will undoubtedly still be more expensive than the iPad, if it were released. 

I hope it's clearer now why I think Apple will kill the Air. With no market, the Air just will not sell. Even the thinness and beauty factor won't matter anymore, when the iPad is thinner and better looking. This means the only hope that the Air had left, art collectors, won't bother as well. This leaves no-one to sell the Air to, and with no-one to sell to, there will be no profit. Once again, we, including myself, must be reminded that Apple is a capitalist company and exists for profit.

Recap: Apple Fall Media Event

Today I'm presenting to you a quick video recap of Apple's Fall Media event. We saw new iPods, i OS updates, and a new Apple TV. 

The new iPods pertain to the new shuffle, nano, and iPod touch. Let's start with the shuffle. Basically Apple brought over the button wheel from the 2nd generation and the voiceover playlists from the 3rd generation. I still don't think that's enough. But if you'd like to pick one up you get 2 GBs of storage for $49. The new nano in my mind is awesome. It's very tiny, so it's more portable. It's multi touch as well which is really great in my mind. You can also clip it to you're shirt or jeans which makes it very similar to the iPod shuffle. Price points are $149 for 8 GB and $179 for 16 GB. Next up is the iPod touch. Apple brought over the A4 chip and the retina display from the iPhone 4. Another feature they brought over is Facetime. It's pretty cool that I could now video chat without even using a phone. The iPod touch also features a full HD video camera. You can also pick up iMovie for iPhone from the app store for $4.99 and edit you're videos right on you're device. The last new product I'd like to address is the new Apple TV. It's a tiny black box, which is great compared to the previous generation of the Apple TV. There's no App store on it unfortunately, but it's still an awesome product. It's cloud based, so there's no internal storage or storage management. It's rental only for downloading content on it. But you can stream content from you're computer to the device. There's no syncing required. You can also stream Netflix on it, which is awesome. 

That's all I'd like to talk to you about in the post today. If you would like more details please refer to the video at the top. 

YouTube

New Podcast + Website: The Infinite Playlist

After only one day of debating with myself and talking to a friend, the website for my new podcast "The Infinite Playlist" has been launched.

As I mentioned previously, this podcast will be about all things music. Every week, my co-host and I will bring you a 30-minute show about the latest news in music, some great new music, plus the songs we fell in love with that week. Our first episode won't be launched until March 2, 2010, but that isn't too far away.

Make sure to check out the website to find out all the information about the podcast and even see the bios of each of your hosts. We are also encouraging everyone to email in with comments and questions for us. You can do that by email infiniteplaylistpodcast@gmail.com

And, of course, the URL for the site is http://infiniteplaylist.co.nr