Applemorphic

For this week’s Friday Software Spotlight, here are a few product announcements from the week’s Macworld.

• Microsoft is releasing Mac Office 2008 later in 2007. This next version of the office suite will be a universal binary and sports some major user interface changes, which you can get a taste of through an eWeek slideshow. The UI still features a row of buttons across the top, but then there is a web/tab style navigation and sub-navigation scheme for key features.
• Virtualization continues to make headlines. Parallels introduced a new beta of their Desktop for Mac solution, and Crossover Mac 6.0 was released by CodeWeavers. Parallels runs a full copy of Windows inside your Mac (and can run your BootCamp Windows volume), while Crossover runs specific applications within the Mac without the need for Windows.
• Now Software pre-announced their integrated successor to Now Up-to-Date and Now Contact. Codenamed Nighthawk, the software is due for delivery later this year, and from the screenshots looks pretty good. But if it won’t sync with the iPhone…
• Adobe previewed Photoshop CS3 for Mac and reintroduced Premier for the Mac as well.

Of course, there’s much, much more. Check out Macworld Magazine’s reports for announcements, reviews and analysis, and VersionTracker for lists of software releases.

Reports are coming in from all over the web with additional details about the iPhone, too many such reports to link them here. You’ve probably already seen them, but from my perspective, here are some of the highlights that weren’t obvious in Tuesday’s announcement.

• As far as we can tell, the iPhone system is closed, meaning you get to use the software that Apple provides for it.  Its hard to imagine Apple making the iPhone widget-friendly and not allowing users to install widgets of their choice (among other software).
• The iPhone is not Microsoft friendly. As of today, it apparently cannot read or write MS Office files, sync with Outlook, or connect to an Exchange server unless that server supports IMAP or POP.
• iTunes songs cannot be set as ringtones.
• The screen appears resistant to smudges, or at least they don’t impact viewing (they seem to be more obvious when the phone is off).
• Like other iPods, the battery is not user-replaceable.

I expect all but the last of these to change at some point in the future. After Apple actually gets this thing produced in volume and into the field, and now that they can openly develop solutions for it, things will evolve rapidly.

TUAW has a quick list of features for the upcoming OmniFocus software designed specifically for Getting Things Done, including a hard-to-read photograph of the user interface. If the list is right, I’m disappointed that syncing with portable devices is handled through iCal, but otherwise, the software appears simple and intuitive, and has nice features like support for QuickSilver. If my predictions are right that OS-level syncing will come to Leopard and Apple will release a mobile phone/iPod/PDA, the sync issue might be moot, but its otherwise a deal-killer for me.

John Gruber’s Daring Fireball is perhaps my favorite website about Apple-related stuff. John is a great writer, and his views are well considered and presented. And I love the design of his site. He’s posted a couple of juicy tidbits:

• His own Macworld predictions
• A note that the Web UI for .Mac’s iDisk (link is to the DF homepage) is now full of Web 2.0 AJAX goodness (I missed this too)

I’m glad to see that Apple has started to re-engineer the user experience for its .Mac applications (first Mail, now iDisk).

BusinessWeek online has a new special report up called “The Apple Economy.” Articles cover its influence on other companies, its success in corporate markets, and its relationships with partners, among others.

Now Software is announcing a successor to Now Up-to-date and Contact, codenamed Nighthawk. From the single page on their website, it looks like Now has improved its user interface significantly from prior versions. The three features that stand out to me are the hierarchical outline of tasks, the ability to sync across multiple devices and tabs. The first two are critical for me. Will this or another application replace iCal and Address Book for you?

Okay. I’ve made my own predictions (here and here), and I’ve reported on those of others here, here and here. Now, Sunday morning before Tuesday’s Macworld 2007 Keynote, I’m done with predictions. But I’m not done dreaming. Besides, Apple is being even more proactive and obvious with their hype machine, given that the Keynote is now 2 hours instead of 1-1.5, and the Apple homepage dramatically promotes what is to come in 2007. Here’s what I’d like to see, which is all within easy reach of the fruity one and it’s mercurial leader, though far from likely, at least in the near future.

Mac OS X Embedded: A lite version of the OS for embedded applications. The new OS would be made available only through Apple’s own products and carefully selected strategic relationships. For example, Mac OS X Embedded would be bundled on future generations of the iPod, the iTV, and an Apple mobile phone, as well as in certain car-based systems (dockable iPod, iTunes head-end, music through stereo, video through rear-seat displays, etc.).

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According to ThinkSecret, iWork 2007 will be released at Macworld 2007, and it will include a new spreadsheet module called Charts or Numbers. My experience is that ThinkSecret’s predictions get more and more accurate as Macworld approaches, even if no new real information is available to the public, so there might be something to this. Their post even includes images of the icon and UI, though stating that there is no way to tell at what stage in the application’s development they were created. The screenshot would be very easy to fake using existing iWork applications. It is interesting to note that Styles are shown below the Sheets, looking very much like Keynote’s slide master and slides sections.

True or false? We’ll know soon enough!

A post over at TUAW (The Unofficial Apple Weblog, for the acronymically challenged), highlights a new widget called CharacterPal, which allows you to find glyphs and other special characters with relative ease. It reminded me of a Classic Mac OS utility I used called PopChar, so I shuffled on over to The Google to see if it still existed, and if so, if it was updated for Mac OS X. It does, and it was.

PopChar is a menu bar utility, but the menu item lives in the far upper left-hand corner of the screen, to the top and left of the Apple menu. When you click the relatively unobtrusive P icon, the PopChar window appears, allowing you to select the character you wish to insert into the active application. This “&” was inserted in this way: while typing this blog entry in Firefox, I simply clicked on the P, clicked the “insert HTML button,” and clicked the ampersand in the main window. PopChar disappeared, and the HTML code for the ampersand was in my post. The next time I invoked the utility, PopChar remembered all of my most recent selections, including that I wanted to insert the HTML code for the character.
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Ever since Mac OS X was first released to consumers as a beta in 2000 (is that right? I’m surprised Wikipedia’s history section of its Mac OS X entry doesn’t included such a date, but I distinctly remember running it while I was working at VarsityBooks.com in the Spring of 2000), there have been rumors of a so-called “lite” version of the operating system that could be used on a new-century version of the Newton and other devices. Speculation about a limited version of Mac OS X has been increasing of late, particularly with regard to iTV and the rumored Apple mobile phone (nee, iPhone).

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Dan Benjamin at Hivelogic makes his picks, and he sees things similar to the way I do, at least with regards to Macworld 2007 predictions.

Macworld magazine put together an impressive panel and asked for their predictions for Apple in 2007. The panel includes Daring Fireball’s John Gruber, Andy Ihnatko of the Chicago Sun-Times, and John Moltz of Crazy Apple Rumors Site, along with Christopher Breen and Adam Engst, both of Macworld. These are all long-time followers of Apple who are usually on the money with their reporting and/or analysis. Most of the predictions are quite level-headed, and this makes for an interesting read. Most interesting will be the follow-up article next year to see how everyone did with their predictions, as Macworld did for a smaller set of authors at the conclusion of this article.

Several readers have said they want a more concise version of my earlier Macworld 2007 predictions, so here it is. If you like the highlights, you can always read the full post.

• Leopard: Expect a few big surprises–in part to contrast Mac OS X with Windows Vista (since large parts of Vista look so similar to OS X–though I have no idea what they will be.
• Computers: The Mac Mini is due for a Core 2 Duo update, and unless the 8-core Mac Pro rumors are true, that might be it.
• iTV: Support for 802.11n (Apple has adopted several technologies before they become standards or common, such as wi-fi and USB), NAND Flash memory, Internet connectivity beyond Apple’s movie trailers (such as accessing Flickr, YouTube, etc.), and the ability to browse/purchase from iTunes while sending the media to the iTunes library iTV accesses. Also, a name such as Airport AV or Front Row (borrowing from the software). Take the Applemorphic iTV Name Poll.
• LCD Monitors: New displays will include iSight video cameras and HDMI. They may also include TV tuners and cable card slots, but this is far less likely.
• iPod/iTunes: Expect to see a new full-size iPod, possibly the long-rumored “true” video iPod (full-screen display), as well as new content and software updates for iTunes.
• Other Software: iLife and iWork, as well as .mac, are overdue for updates. Also, the much-anticipated spreadsheet companion to Pages and Keynote may finally make its debut.

I don’t expect to an Apple-branded mobile phone introduced at Macworld 2007, but do expect it this year. Either Apple has to introduce it, or they need to quell the rumors because their stock will ultimately take a hit if they don’t respond to overwhelming analyst predictions. I also think there is strong evidence that rumors of a Mac OS X Lite to be included in iTV, a future mobile phone, and even the iPod (which would mean new software under the acclaimed UI) are true.

Instead of covering the actual keynote and announcements about Macworld 2007, Applemorphic will be posting quick analysis of each significant announcement. Stay tuned…

My wife derides me for not making new year’s resolutions, which I avoid because the change from December 31 to January 1 seems an arbitrary marker for prioritizing one’s life. Still, for many people, the turning of the calendar to a new year is often a time of reflection, planning and goal-setting. With that in mind, today’s Friday Software Spotlight focuses on Life Balance by Llamagraphics.

The company calls its product “the to do list for real life.” And in many respects, this is true. I’ve been using it for over a year now, and have come to rely on it to keep track of all my activities. For a to list manager, Life Balance has two key features I cannot live without, and one that I cannot stand. First, some background about the software and its positioning.

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As you probably know by now, Nike reported strong earnings in its latest quarter, fueled in part by the Nike+ line of products that launched with iPod related gear. I went shopping with my wife the day after Christmas, and bought a pair of Nike+ running shoes at a Nike outlet in New Jersey. Today I’ll grab the Nike+ iPod Sport kit, and give ‘er a whirl. I let you know if the gadget is good enough to get this inactive Apple enthusiast off the sofa and onto the treadmill.