MPU 19 - 1Password

The Mac Power Users 1Password episode is live. 1Password is the premiere password management application on the Mac platform. They are also giving a 20% discount to MPU listeners here. You can subscribe to the Mac Power Users podcast in iTunes. Also, if you are at Macworld, don’t miss the live show on Saturday, February 13, on the main stage in the expo hall at 2:45pm.

MacSparky on MacVoices

I had the privilege of recording an episode of MacVoices where I discussed my Macworld sessions and Macworld in general. It was lots of fun and now available for download. Get it while it is hot.

Dave at Macworld

I’ve got boots on the ground in San Francisco and am ready for Macworld. Here is my Macworld coverage plan:

The Links

Twitter

I will be putting with messages and pictures. I ‘m going to be taking (and giving) several sessions and plan to twitter often.

MacSparky Blog

Expect several MacSparky posts throughout the week

Mac Power Users

We are recording live on February 13 and should have a show up soon thereafter.

The Schedule

Numbers Lab

February 9 - 10:00 a.m.
Moscone West Hall - Room 2011

This 2 hour session is going to turn you into an iWork Numbers ninja as we manage the (fictional?) Area 51 Tin Foil Hat Club.

Mac At Work

February 11 - 1:00 p.m.
Moscone West Hall - Room 2004

This session is all about making you look great at work using your Macintosh to run circles around your co-workers and impress your clients and bosses.

Mac Roundtable

February 13 - 10:30 a.m.
Expo Hall Main Stage

The Mac Roundtable gang is going to reunite again to share our take on Macworld. This is a really fun group.

Mac Power Users

February 13 - 2:15 p.m.
Expo Hall Main Stage

Katie and I will be talking about our own “Best in Show” picks and share other observations from Macworld Expo.

Otherwise I will be enjoying the sights and sounds of Macworld. Keep an eye out for me.

iMacworld Application

IDG released an updated version of its iMacworld application. This free app has a complete listing of vendors and sessions at Macworld 2010. There is also a handy map. One of the improvements allows you to star sessions and vendors of interest. If you are attending Macworld, make sure to download this one.

LED Football Free

Free for 48 Hours and the perfect Superbowl companion.

Flashtastrophy - Flash and the iPad

One result of the iPad announcement is the Jerry Springer-like feud between Adobe and Apple over Flash support on the iPad and iPhone. In case you’ve been living under a rock, the iPad doesn’t support the Flash plug-in in Mobile Safari.

Apple’s public reason for this is that Flash sucks. I tend to agree. Flash stems back to 1996 and, while it empowers web designers to add many bells and whistles to their sites, it also enables them to cripple my browser. While Apple has not said this publicly, Steve Jobs reportedly said as much at an Apple Town Hall Meeting after announcing the iPad. I don’t need any Apple crash reports to verify this; I see it on my own Mac. The lack of Flash stability is a big reason why the web is moving on with the .h264 and html5 standards.

Another reason I suspect Apple is distancing itself from Flash is the fact that Flash is Adobe’s proprietary code and the only proprietary code Apple wants on its mobile devices is its own. Some pundits have seized on this to claim Apple is trying to foist its own Quicktime format on people but I don’t think so. There have been no such overt moves and Apple seems more interested in the open html5 standard which does not match Flash’s feature set (yet) but is open and less prone to throttle your browser.

Adobe’s reason for wanting Flash on Apple mobile devices is simple. There are a lot of them. The more devices that turn their back on Flash, the less likely developers are to use it. Flash then losses its ubiquity. Today, Flash’s CTO, Kevin Lynch, explains, in essence, the ball is in Apple’s court. Apparently Adobe doesn’t realize or is ignoring the fact that Apple is not in the court. Indeed, Apple is not even in the stadium. Interestingly, the Lynch article also talks about how the web should be “open.”

We strongly believe the Web should remain an open environment with consistent access to content and applications regardless of your viewing device,

I’m not sure how that makes sense while Flash remains proprietary (closed) code.

Regardless, this issue is now very exciting and subject to much public gnashing of teeth. I think a significant portion of the “No Flash=No Purchase” posts/rants/comments are disingenuous. There are a lot of people that for reasons, both rational and irrational, want the iPad to fail, miserably. These folks had their posts written before January 27 and were simply waiting to fill in the blank on the fatal missing features.

For those genuinely upset about the absence of Flash, I think they should not be surprised given Apple’s prior exclusion of Flash. To those people I would first ask, “Do you really need Flash? Really?” Last year I installed Click2Flash on my Mac. This application stops all Flash code in its tracks unless you specifically allow it. Immediately after installing it, I witnessed a noticeable speed increase and stability improvement in Safari. I’ve also discovered it is a very rare case when I actually need to click to see a flash box. Whatever I’ve lost in the display of colorful (and distracting) advertising has been gained in clock cycles and stability.

The fact is, content creators don’t care about a religious war over browser plugins. They will use whatever will get their content before people’s eyes. That means they will code to the open standards if that’s what it takes. Sadly, it won’t be long before even Adobe’s listed pornography site will work just fine without Flash. Finally, If the availability of Flash is that important to you, don’t buy an iPad. There will be countless “iPad Killers” released in the next year chock full of Flash and other code to slow you down.

Another casualty of Apple’s removal of Flash is the loss of Flash gaming. This also seems to me a straw man argument. All of the internet Flash games I’ve ever experienced are largely keyboard based and I don’t see them translating well to a tablet device. Furthermore, there is the App store that includes many free mind-numbing games, many of which are direct ports of their Flash counterparts.

The scrap heap of technology includes many items Apple was “crazy” to abandon. Unless Adobe takes extreme measures to change course, in the not so distant future I suspect Flash will be sitting there right next to a dusty floppy drive.

Home Screens - Allison Sheridan

This week’s home screen feature is by Allison Sheridan (twitter), a great friend and the host of the Nosillacast Podcast. Allison also lives in Southern California so we have travelled together to Macworld in the past. My favorite Allison story is how once we were talking about podcasts and I was sharing some of my favorite science and history podcasts with her. Allison looked at me completely deadpan and said, “I don’t listen to any of that stuff. For me, it’s all about the tech.” So let’s take a look at Allison’s home screen.

My most interesting home screen apps include:

11C Scientific I think it’s fascinating that both Dave Hamilton and I have Reverse Polish Notation (RPN calculators on our home page! My preference is called 11C Scientific, and exact duplicate of the HP 11C calculator I’ve been carrying around since the 1970s.

DVR Remote DVR Remote lets you type on a normal iPhone keyboard to enter the name of a show you’re trying to tell your TiVo to record. It’s so much fun to use I actually made a YouTube video showing how it works - it makes me giggle every time!

Zenbe Lists I love Zenbe Lists. You see the iPhone app here but it’s also a website that syncs perfectly with the iPhone app. I make shopping lists, packing lists, Christmas lists, you name it, I put it all in Zenbe lists. I even made a separate Prism application for Zenbe so I can launch it in a snap on my Mac.

But my FAVORITE app is TimeScroller TimeScroller is a must-have application if you like to, or have to hang out with people all over the globe. There’s no better way to keep track of what time it in different cities, figure out when you can all meet up, and in some cases figure out what day it is in another time zone. I used this constantly to play with my friends on the internets. There’s a Mac application too!

I do have a guilty pleasure and that’s Boomshine It’s a very simple game, touch on the screen and put down a bubble that hopefully gets hit by the little colored dots floating around, the more you hit before your bubble goes away, the more points you get. I’m pretty sure there is no skill involved at all here but for some reason it makes you think you’re developing a strategy!

You’ll notice I use Simply Tweet as my Twitter client and I like it well enough but the one app I still haven’t found on the iPhone (or the Mac for that matter) that lets me create groups to follow on a separate screen. I follow a lot of people (around 400) so my feed is always interesting but I’d sure like to be able to flip to a group of just my family, or just my podcasting buddies (like MacSparky) and make sure I never miss their tweets. Nambu on the Mac got close but it was buggy and crashed on me whenever I did a direct tweet. Might need to go back and revisit that app since I haven’t tested in a long time. But if anyone knows of an iPhone app that will do groups for me I’d be most appreciative to hear about it!

I use my iPhone pretty much constantly, taking maybe 15 minute breaks from it - but oddly the thing I use the very least is the phone! I’m not saying I don’t appreciate having a phone around from time to time but if I had to give up one thing on my iPhone it would probably be the phone!

Thanks Allison!

Smile on My Mac Discount

In case you are not following the Mac Power Users, it is now sponsored by Smile on My Mac. This is a great fit for the podcast and they have several very good software products. TextExpander is one of my favorite applications on the Mac. To celebrate the sponsorship, Smile on My Mac marked down all over their applications 20% for the month of February.

iMac Problems

There appears to be a problem with the current generation 27” iMacs. Apple keeps issuing new firmware updates and, by some reports, has halted manufacturing. I’ve heard from several readers with complaints (and returns) of their 27” iMacs. While Apple hasn’t come out and explained exactly what is going on, tonight they released their second firmware update and clearly something is amiss. I think this calls both the 21” and 27” models into question.

I still believe in the iMac form factor and I’m sure Apple will sort it out soon enough. Most likely, my next iMac will be one of those 27” monsters. For the time being, however, I recommend waiting until the dust settles before buying a new iMac.

Twitter Long Reads

This is the feed I mentioned in MPU 18. A nice eclectic mix.