David Emery OnlineReflections on the new MacBook Pro
I love almost everything about the new MacBook Pros. The new “unibody” case, carved out of a single piece of aluminum, is a stunning achievement, making the device feel both light and solid. The new “no button” trackpad is brilliant. Use it once and you’ll wonder how you ever lived without it. The machine, from top to bottom, is the most elegant, powerful, perfect laptop I’ve ever touched.
And then they ruined the whole thing by hiding the display behind a mirror.
People seem to be up in arms* about the lack of a matte display option on the new MacBooks (which look great, in my opinion), citing all sorts of things like ‘colour reproduction’ and reflections meaning you couldn’t ever possibly use these computers for professional work. (As an aside, this is a commendable debating tactic: “Oh, you don’t mind the new displays? You obviously aren’t as professional and skilled as me, then”.)
How, then, did we survive all those years using CRT displays – which I’m still told are better for colour reproduction – which are all glossy? We didn’t seem to have a problem with it then…
* As in ‘people on the internet’, which means about 10 people in reality…
Visit ➔But It's Not Flash...
So… We’re launched, and starting to make the blog rounds and the site is receiving a tremendous amount of criticism for being in Flash. This post is to address the comments we are hearing. I’ll try to make them a running list, updated as we hear feedback.
I love the way they have a big list of standard html features that the plan to develop for their flash-based blog; way to make the point for us, guys…
Visit ➔NIN Edition of Tap Tap Revenge
In what may well stand as a defining moment in the maturation of Apple’s App Store, Tapulous has announced that it has partnered with the band Nine Inch Nails to release a premium version of its popular game Tap Tap Revenge some time in October.
I find it quite interesting that this NIN version of Tap Tap Revenge will be a premium version, considering that the normal version is free (and has been very successful).
I’ve been thinking a lot about the pricing models of music related iPhone apps recently – it’s the traditional ‘free, but with promotional value’ versus ‘monetized, but with less promotional value’ debate that music videos also have to face. My general conclusion is that the ‘free with promo’ option is probably the best to go for – if the game you are in is selling music then the surrounding content you generate that isn’t part of the body of work (like you could argue a music video is) should be seen as promotional value only, there to increase music sales.
That being said, if the content you create is compelling enough in its own right then it seems reasonable to think about charging for it, but then is that worth the development time and resources? This NIN/Tapulous deal seems like a nice bridge between the two, although I think it would have made far more sense to have the NIN version free – with the value being in increased music sales – and the normal version for-pay.
Visit ➔YouTube - experiencewii's Channel
To explain it would be to ruin it, but this is a masterful piece of online advertising for the new Wii Wario game (which sadly I’ve heard isn’t that good).
Visit ➔Bandcamp - A free hosted CMS for bands that (hopefully) doesn't suck
Most of the time, these products are poorly built, poorly customizeable and then want to charge artists money (for these amazing services). Bandcamp seems simple, easy to use and free, though they do have some plans to make money.
It’s amazing how many of these type of products there are out there, and still not one I’d choose to use. Bandcamp seems better then most, but only does the ‘music’ bit (playing/downloading/purchasing) for the time being and in all honesty ecommerce from a small band’s site generally isn’t worth the time and effort (not enough sales and you have to do all the promotion yourself).
Visit ➔CrossOver Chromium
CrossOver Chromium is a Mac and Linux port of the open source Chromium web browser. CrossOver Chromium is available for download from CodeWeavers, free of charge.
Seems to work surprisingly well – good enough at least to do a double check that everything that works ok in Safari works in Chrome.
Visit ➔