Phil Explains

Since I wrote about the Ninjawords hubub yesterday, I thought it worth pointing to the Daring Fireball post today where Apple senior vice president, Phil Schiller explained what happened.

I think perhaps the most significant part of Phil's statement is the fact that he made it at all. Apple is the most tight lipped company on the planet. That they are weighing in on this with an actual explanation (as opposed to a two sentence soundbite) is significant. Let's hope this means they are fixing the App store problems.

Another Reason to Switch to a Mac

The "simple" Windows 7 upgrade path.

Some Old Fashioned Censorship

I haven't commented much on the developing App Store fiasco. In case you've been living under a rock, I'm talking about Apple's baffling system of denying and withdrawing application approvals in what appears to be completely random fashion. John Gruber wrote today about the most asinine decision yet. Apple, after approving numerous dictionary applications, decided that one particular dictionary, Ninjawords, isn't allowed to have naughty words. That is right, they censored a dictionary.

Not only did Apple force the developer to remove objectionable words, it also made them resubmit the application and start over. Enough is enough. It is nonsense like this that could allow Apple to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory with the touch platform. I know there are explanations for some of the shenanigans that have taken place but for Ninjawords, there is no possible excuse.

Path Finder Update

My favorite Finder replacement, Path Finder, just got updated to version 5.1.4.

The latest version of Path Finder adds a handful of new user-requested features:
* Back to my Mac support
* The option to remove the Finder icon from the Dock
* Desktop grid spacing adjustments
* Trackpad swipe gestures to move back and forward
* Display of local WebDAV volumes

Microsoft Word RIP

Another Scrivener convert.

I especially like the pie chart showing feature bloat in Word. I already knew, but this visualizes how Microsoft went wrong after Word 95.

Microsoft's Flawed Strategy

This week, John Gruber wrote an excellent piece on the slow decline of Microsoft. Interestingly, just a few days later Microsoft CEO Steve Balmer explained to a group of financial analysts Microsoft's new strategy, to raise prices.

Balmer explained, "The theory [cutting prices] was wrong ...You’ll see us address the theory. We’re going to readjust those prices north [using Windows 7]." I'm not sure this will work for Microsoft. In the last several years, they've dropped the ball and people have opened their eyes to other operating systems. Put simply, a significant number of users have moved to OS X and Linnux based platforms. They've discovered they can compute just fine without anything from Microsoft.

While Balmer's comments were made in the context of raising PC prices, it seems the only way Microsoft could do that is by raising the license fee for its operating system to the PC manufacturers. The problem is Microsoft has spent bucket loads of money trying to sell itself and PC's as the "cheaper" alternative. It seems to me Microsoft's move to now raise prices will only accelerate people's interest in Linnux (cheaper) and OS X (better) operating systems. Microsoft has only itself to blame.

BusyCal Goes Public Beta

The very smart people over at BusyMac have released the public beta of their new iCal replacement BusyCal. I've been running it a few days and am impressed. It incorporates the BusySync calendar syncing and adds several features that iCal, for lack of a better term, has ignored.

iPhone Game Pebbles Free for a Month

While I don't usually write about iPhone games, Objective Development (makers of LaunchBar) have released a fun diversion, Pebbles. It will remain free for a month so don't miss out.

MacSparky on Typical Mac User

This week I appeared on the Typical Mac User where Victor and I discussed our recent efforts to troubleshoot his Mac comparing benchmarks from our respective machines. It was a lot of fun and worth a listen.

iTablet Redux

The rumors involving the long rumored iTablet seem to be snowballing. I weighed in on my dream tablet a few years ago. Between the running battle with the Pre and the possible announcement of a new device, the next few months should be interesting.