maxpagels.com » apple

Jonathan Ive is now a KBE

Max Pagels — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 17:09:12 +0000

I don’t think anyone can dispute the significance Sir Ive has had to Apple.

Bravo Apple, bravo.

Max Pagels — Sun, 09 Oct 2011 17:51:14 +0000

Remember when an agreement to use micro-USB as the standard interface for EU mobile phone chargers was signed by Apple, Nokia, Samsung and many others back in 2009? Well, the iPhone 4S can be charged via micro-USB, but it still requires its own proprietary connector. And it’s sold separately.

Adhering to standards but still making money off accessories. Genius.

Brian Lam’s account of Steve Jobs

Max Pagels — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 21:20:15 +0000

On the Gizmodo iPhone leak:

“Hi, this is Steve. I really want my phone back.”

He wasn’t demanding. He was asking. And he was charming and he was funny. I was half-naked, just getting back from surfing, but I managed to keep my shit together.

The single best remembrance piece I’ve read on Jobs.

Panic’s tribute to Steve Jobs

Max Pagels — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 18:42:04 +0000

We started Panic with two things: $500, and a love of the Mac. We had no idea what we were doing. Fortunately, someone else did.

1955-2011

Max Pagels — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 07:52:48 +0000

R.I.P., Steve.

Assorted links III

Max Pagels — Fri, 04 Mar 2011 22:41:30 +0000

Eurogamer has an excellent article on Axel Gembe, the boy responsible for leaking the code of Half-Life 2 onto the Internet back in 2004.
Conan’s parody of the iPad 2 is hilarious.
The Twitter Engineering Blog has a post detailing how they made a faster garbage collector for Ruby by adding an additional heap.
The Khronos Group released the final version of their WebGL 1.0 specification today.

The second most important thing about the iPad 2 reveal

Max Pagels — Wed, 02 Mar 2011 19:05:04 +0000

The smart cover is actually quite ingenious, doubling as a stand for the device.

The most important thing about the iPad 2 reveal

Max Pagels — Wed, 02 Mar 2011 18:57:44 +0000

Mobilized:

Steve Jobs took the stage to kick off Apple’s event on Wednesday, drawing a standing ovation from the crowd at the Yerba Buena Center For the Arts.

“It is my belief that Apple is definitely working on a new language”

Max Pagels — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 04:49:08 +0000

An excellent post on waffle entertaining the idea that Apple is working on a new language to complement Objective-C. Charles Ying from satine.org thinks that a language close to JavaScript would be a good fit, due in part to extensive use of the language in iOS, iAd & iTunes.

It’s a strong theory – and one that I would like to se a reality, given the popularity of C-style syntax and garbage-collected environments. I not a big fan of low-level languages, but crying out for one that is more abstracted than Objective-C is met with a kind of resistance I’ve never really quite understood – a resistance that an Ars Technica article discussing the future of Apple’s languages and APIs explains perfectly:

And so continues one of the biggest constants in software development: the unerring sense among developers that the level of abstraction they’re current working at is exactly the right one for the task at hand. Anything lower-level is seen as barbaric, and anything higher-level is a bloated, slow waste of resources. This remains true even as the overall level of abstraction across the industry marches ever higher.

Flash “Gala” for OS X

Max Pagels — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 19:33:24 +0000

With hardware acceleration support for select models, i.e. the ones with graphics hardware supported by the Video Decode Acceleration Framework introduced in OS X 10.6.3.

Jobs’s thoughts on Flash

Max Pagels — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 15:06:30 +0000

Apple has many proprietary products too. Though the operating system for the iPhone, iPod and iPad is proprietary, we strongly believe that all standards pertaining to the web should be open.

He also highlights five other reasons why Flash isn’t available for iPhone, iPod and iPad.

Apple announces iPhone 4.0 event

Max Pagels — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 10:19:52 +0000

Scheduled for April 8.

No more ADC memberships

Max Pagels — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 09:08:07 +0000

They are being replaced by an all-encompassing Mac Developer membership ($99 per year).

We recently introduced a new Mac Developer Program that replaces ADC Premier, Select, and Student Memberships. If you are a current ADC member, you can continue to access your resources and benefits through the end of your membership year.

iTunes adds browser previews for App Store items

Max Pagels — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 13:40:28 +0000

Very nice. They did the same with iTunes music not too long ago.

Apple to hold internal iPad meeting?

Max Pagels — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 16:44:17 +0000

They held one in 2007, before the launch of the iPhone.

During the iPhone meeting a worker is said to have asked about product cannibalization, and potentially revealed how Apple can justify the simultaneous existence of the iPhone, the iPod and now the iPad. If there’s going to be cannibalization of Apple, Jobs explained at the time, the company wants it to be by Apple.

Invites to Apple’s January 27 event being sent to games press

Max Pagels — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 11:02:39 +0000

Potential for some big gaming-related announcements.

I love fake specification leaks

Max Pagels — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 15:57:31 +0000

So the iSlate has a built-in video projector.

Ten Apple duds

Max Pagels — Sat, 02 Jan 2010 21:12:07 +0000

From the past decade. On the Mighty Mouse:

While everyone else added a second button or seven plus a handy scroll wheel for added functionality and ease of use, Apple stuck doggedly to its one-button, two-click philosophy. Result: anyone sane went and bought a mouse from Microsoft or Logitech.

Spot on.

Comes with a complimentary Mac

Max Pagels — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 18:19:54 +0000

$1,999 for a Core i5 27″ iMac (109 PPI) versus $1,799 for a 30″ Cinema Display (100 PPI). Which one would you choose? (via Daring Fireball)

The Magic Mouse

Max Pagels — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 16:13:20 +0000

Interesting concept, but I’ll wait for some impressions seeing as its predecessor pretty much sucked.