1FPS|by David Chartier

I picked up a second internal (SATA 3.0Gbps) drive for my Mac Pro and popped it in yesterday. After working on probably hundreds—if not thousands—of desktop PCs in my past across various jobs and the personal machines I used to build, I have to say this is the greatest experience I’ve ever had inside a desktop. Granted, The Mac Pro may not be quite as hackable as a beige box in a few respects (due in part to sensitive areas being blocked off with metal enclosures), but this hard drive installation experience was so enjoyable I had to create a video.

Apple pays a lot of attention to the little details, and the pleasantly accessible construction of the Mac Pro is a great example of how that effort pays off.

I completely agree here:

When Goldman repeated Bach’s statement about how the version 2 Zune was now a worthy alternative to the iPod, Jobs replied, “Was he inebriated? Do you even know anyone who owns a Zune?” Ouch. People excuse Apple’s jabs toward Microsoft because they’re underdogs in the OS market, but it just seems mean when they do the same in the iPod-dominated portable media player market. [From Steve Jobs Smack Talks Zune, Brings Drunkenness Into It [Apple]]

Boasting features, simplicity, and design over the competition is one thing. But mucking silly crap like this is just childish, even if Jobs simply said “inebriated” (and don’t get fooled by other media blowing this out of proportion: asking if someone was inebriated is a far, far cry from calling them a drunk). Bad form, and very un-Jobs like.

Apple, pre-October 26th: “Look everyone! Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard + a $180 AirPort Extreme station + a USB hard drive = effortless, wireless Time Machine backups. Won’t this be wild and awesome and a very smart and responsible feature for Mac users to adopt?”

Apple, post-Macworld ‘08 keynote: “Wait, wait, wait… never mind. We decided it would be a lot better for us‚Äînot you‚Äîto make you buy a $300-500 device with a built-in “server-grade” hard drive (bonus points: you probably can’t replace the drive yourself!) instead of rolling out this previously-promised feature that was one of the deciding factors for many of you to run out and buy an AirPort Extreme station in the first place.

Sorry about that… cheers!”

This isn’t about being grumpy that a new product has new features. It’s about wondering where those previously-promised features are that many of us based a nearly $200 purchase on. I asked a few of Apple’s reps on the Macworld showroom floor today if they heard anything about bringing Time Capsule/Time Machine functionality to current AirPort Extreme stations, and all I got was “no current plans.” I just hope that’s an issue of Apple keeping quiet about a 10.5.2 update and a firmware update for these stations, otherwise a lot of people are going to be very upset.

Ask 37signals: Installable software? | 37signals

37signals is the company behind such smash web-based software as Backpack, Basecamp and Highrise. This answer to a user-submitted question on why 37signals doesn’t sell user-installable software rang a bell in my mind as to why, for many (but not all) products, I prefer a closed software + hardware system from their manufacturers:

Software is hard enough to get right when you control the variables. With web-based software we have a single code base optimized for a single operating environment. We’re in charge of putting together the optimal software and hardware set-up to run our products. The significance of this can not be underestimated.

I understand the place that products like open source and Windows have in the world, but the success and exceptional design of closed development systems (but not necessarily closed products) cannot be ignored. Just look at 37signals widely-hailed yet refreshingly simple web-based productivity apps, or Microsoft’s Xbox, Apple products, even the BlackBerry hardware + software‚Äîall software designed in-house to work on very specific hardware devices, all enjoying an unusually high amount of customer satisfaction and fandom. You can’t buy that kind of satisfaction and success‚Äîyou design for it.

I know the iPod and iPhone are the big product pushes for the holidays, but still‚Äîit saddens me just a little to see everything *but* their computers on the main page right now. The good news, however, is that they’ve been selling more Macs each quarter than any previous quarter, so things are going well at least. Hell, even Dvorak is using and liking a Mac now, and that’s gotta be a good thing, right?

I’ve owned $30 routers from Netgear, I’ve owned $80 routers from Linksys. Sometimes I set them up with WEP and WAP security, sometimes I felt like leaving them open because I had nice neighbors. Sometimes I customized the crap out of them by locking down the network, hiding the SSID, using a password even a computer couldn’t remember, specifying a specific broadcast channel and doing a rain dance in the room I kept those routers. Sometimes I didn’t.

Never, with any of those routers, did I have 1/100th of the trouble, frustration or hair-tearing moments that I’ve had with your AirPort Express and new AirPort Extreme (802.11n) routers. Never.

Your routers frequently flip out, drop connections, seize up Mac OS X (on both a MacBook Pro and iMac G5) and generally make me want to bulldoze your company headquarters to the ground. Whether I’m running 802.11n only, n/g mixed or b/g on the AirPort Extreme, using password security or leaving the networks open, your routers are by and far the absolute worst, most unreliable and frustrating products you make, and inarguably the worst routers in the industry. No no, I mean: inarguably.

If a $30 router from one of your well known competitors or even a no-name brand that might not exist next week can work more reliably than yours, something is seriously fucking broken. Fix it. You have some cute features like AirTunes that no one else does, but if you can’t allow your users to maintain a basic connection to the internet, you are doing something wrong.

Please, for the love of all things wonderful in this world, give me a reason to not regret spending $280 on your networking products when something for a fraction of the price puts them to absolute, inarguable shame. Your computers are great, your OS is second to none, the iPod is cute - but your routers are a pathetic shame. Fix them.

Love and hugs
- David

Hands-on with the HTC Advantage X750 | Engadget Mobile

Yet another stunning winner:

Otherwise, from a software perspective, the Advantage is exactly what you’d expect from a Windows Mobile 6 Professional device, and that ain’t really a good thing.

Companies still haven’t figured it out: it’s the software that matters. Unique hardware and new ways of thinking about devices is great - but if your software sucks, so does your device.

Omni-directional treadmill could put you in the game - Engadget - Fantastic. Nintendo should jump on this and whip out a Wii Tread so I can hack, slash and run through Zelda.

Us too! In fact… we’ve been doing touch screens for a *while* now! Really! Never mind that we didn’t actually innovate anything in the decade or so that we’ve been doing touch screens, mind you… but we have ‘em!

MacBook Pro line updated - TUAW

Notable enhancements include mercury-free displays LED-backlit displays, bigger graphics cards and 802.11n officially built right in (instead of needing to update qualifying Core 2 Duo machines). While it could be considered a minor detail, I think the addition of 2GB of RAM standard, even on the base 15-inch model, is one of the best things Apple did to these machines. Out of the box, even the base MacBook Pro is now a true powerhouse machine that you don’t have to do a single thing to. Fantastic.