WWDC Overview

Ok, Sorry I’m A little late on this one, I’ve had exams for the last little while and havn’t had time to blog

WWDC:

Last Monday, Apple announced a couple new things at WWDC

1.  New Apple MacBook Pro’s

Apple basicly switched the name on the Alluminum MacBooks to MacBook Pro, and bumped the proccessing speed, HD space, RAM on all MBP’s, but, in my mind, most importantly, put the same big battery we saw in the 17″ MBP, accross the entire MBP line (New 13″ MBP included).  We now see 7h battery lives across the board on the MBP line.  Also, they dropped the prices on the13″, 15″, and 17″ MBP’s.

2.  Snow Leopard

Just a really big preview.  Nothing really new here

3.  iPhone OS 3.0

Same with Snow Leopard, a few dissipointments, no MMS or Teathering on AT&T  yet.  Apple is going places AT&T isnt ready for (sets the stage for Verizon/T-Mobile/Sprint iPhone where the carriers can support the iPhone where apple wants it to go).

4.  iPhone 3G S

This, I think, is the biggest announcement.  Faster prossesor should be prone to fewer crashes, and they held the 199/299 price points for the 16 and 32GB phones respectivly, and dropped the 8GB 3G to $99.  This is a huge deal, breaking into the double digit price point.  it will sell beutifly.

That, my freinds is WWDC in a nutshell.

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Twitter to Kill Facebook?

Over the last couple of months there has been all of this talk about how Twitter is the next big thing, and that it might even kill Facebook like Facebook did to MySpace.  Well here’s my take on the matter

As great as Twitter is, it lacks alot.  In Facebook, you’ve everything under the sun.  You’ve got IM integrated, you’ve got added privacy settings, you’ve got better picture galleries.   You’ve got status updates, similar to what tweets are.  Facebook has everything Twitter has to offer, and lets through a little less stalker-ism.  With all of that said, Twitter is more of a mini-blog, where Facebook is more of a personal page.  Big people can more easily get info out to the masses with Twitter than Facebook, as Facebook you need to login/register if you are not already a member.  Twitter, your page is viewable by the masses, and there’s no painstaking registering process needed to view Twitter pages.  Some may say this is like comparing apples to oranges, but I still pick Facebook over Twitter any day of the week, because of all of the features, and I’m not technologically retarded, I can figure out Facebook, and so can most people.

Hulu for Mac

NBC’s online video site, Hulu, has launched a desktop app that allows Mac users to watch Hulu content without using a web browser, and with full Apple Remote support. After all of the boxee nastiness, I’m a bit surprised by the development. That doesn’t mean this isn’t still exciting. 

For some background, Hulu has been involved in a back-and-forth battle with the social media center application, boxee, which allows users to access online content from their Mac or Apple TV and makes big-screen viewing a pleasure. The last big boxee update changed how boxee serves Hulu content, in an effort to make it more difficult for Hulu to pull the plug. 

Hulu’s justification (well, one of many justifications) for going after boxee was that the content is designed to be viewed from a web browser and not from the couch. Although the tagline for Hulu Desktop, “Lean-back viewing for your PC,” keeps the sematic difference between a 24″ LCD monitor and a 25″ LCD TV in check, the execution, especially with extensive remote support, seems to say something else.

I don’t know, maybe Hulu really believes that people won’t be using this application with their TV-connected Macs or Windows Media PCs, but this app certainly feels like it was meant for big screens.

Regardless of the double-speak, how well does this application actually work? Well, based on my limited testing (I did want to get this post done), it is awesome. I totally want to figure out if the arbitrary system requirements can be bypassed so this can get running on the Apple TV.

The Interface 

The interface is great. Although Hulu Desktop didn’t take up the full-screen of my 22″ external monitor when it was initially launched, a quick ⌘-F will take you full screen. I should also note that the size of the application window was larger than 1280×800 by default, so mobile users might get the “full screen” upon launch experience.

The Apple remote works flawlessly with the Hulu application. My only problem was with my screensaver — unlike FrontRow, Hulu doesn’t turn the screensaver off when playing back content. I also managed to crash the application, but that’s to be expected.

All in all, finding programming to watch is easy and intutiive, not unlike the original Hulu implementation in boxee. Switching from playing a program to searching for others is easy (the Menu button) and fast-forwarding through content is a joy. As a long-time boxee user who hatestrying to fast-forward or rewind Hulu playback (even before they switched serving mechanisms), this is nice. By default, my Internet connection played back everything at High Quality (you can adjust this in the settings), and the quality looked even better than in the browser.

The Quality

Watching the pilot for “Glee,” for instnace, wasn’t as sharp as the HD iTunes downlad, of course, but it was quite good. Watching standard definition TV like “NewsRadio” or “Sesame Street” clips was excellent and without any lag. Using boxee for the Mac wasn’t always the smoothest experience, so this is a step-up.

The Convenience

The nice thing about having an actual application for an online media center, which is what Hulu is really becoming, is that you have the opportunity to discover more shows and networks that have been added to the service in an app rather than navigating the web page. I had no idea that some of the stuff that was available on Hulu was available, and I use the website often.

If you have a Hulu account, you can login and watch shows from your queue, subscribe or unsubscribe, rate content, etc. You don’t need a Hulu account to use Hulu.app, but it integrates nicely and makes getting the latest episode of a show really easy.

But what about boxee?

So, now that Hulu is at least acknowleding that people might want to watch Hulu content in a bit more comfort (again, I fail to see how my 22″ LCD monitor is any different from the 20″ TV in my bedroom), will Hulu be coming back to boxee? I wouldn’t hold my breath, but according to a blog post, the boxee team has already reached out to Hulu to discuss working together to bring content back in an official manner. Like I said, I wouldn’t hold my breath. Something tells me that if Hulu does get on the television (which is clearly the next step), it will be via their own set-top box and software.

That’s a shame. Having said that, using boxee and Hulu Desktop together — if you have a Mac mini, for instance — doesn’t seem like it would be a problem. Like I said, I want to see someone port this to the Apple TV. That would be SWEET.

The Requirements

You’ll need an Intel Mac with 2 GB of RAM (not sure how that will be enforced) running OS X 10.4 Tiger or above, and Flash 9.0.1.24 to use the application, but if you meet those specifications, the rest is a snap. Literally just drag the application to your Applications Folder and an Internet Plugin to a plugins folder (the installer conveniently includes a link to that folder so you don’t have to search for anything). Launch Hulu.app, and you’re off to the races. Also, please note that Hulu is currently only available in the US. They are exploring international deals, but this is US-only for now. Sorry!

Thanks TUAW for the article. For the TUAW article, click here

Apple Secretly Upgrades MacBook Screens

Apple has done a very quiet upgrade to the 13inch MacBook screen, according to a Computer World report.

Apparently at the end of April, Apple started shipping Unibody MacBooks with a new part number for the screen. The screen is said to be of significantly higher quality.

The old screen is a LGPhilips LP133WX2-TLC1 and has been replaced with a 13.3-inch glossy AU Optronics screen. According to forum reports the new screen provides significantly better blacks and a wider viewing angle before washout.

You can see a side by side comparison of the new screens below with the new MacBook on the left.

Thanks iClarified for the Article.  Click Here for the Original

YouTube Vid:

Here’s another one rolling out.

YouTube Debut!

Ok, I’ve relesed my first How-To iPhone Vid.  It’s on how to change fonts on your phone.  I know it’s not the biggest, most difficult thing to do, but it’s cool, and easy for me to do, as i don’t have to restore and redo alot of stuff.  My username is thenextgenjamie, so subscribe!

Pystar Going Under!

Pystar is filing bankruptcy!  For those who don’t know, Pystar was a company that made “Open” PC’s that could run a combination of Windows, Mac OS X, and various Linux distros.   It was, more than anything else, a company that mass produced Hackintoshes on a comercial scale.   They produced desktop macs with similar specs to the iMac for $599.99, thus beating Apple’s price by a long shot.  Well, it finally caught up to them, between being sued by Apple like there was no tomorrow, and have few people buy their systems, because it just wasn’t Apple,  they’ve filled bankruptcy.  Congrats Apple, you’ve won this war.

New Theme!

While fooling around with WordPress, I changed my theme, the old one was getting old, changed my Blog name from “thenextgenjamie’s blog”  to “The Next Gen Jamie”  and the tagline from “Just another WordPress Blog”  To “My Blog about tech from the eyes of a teenager”

HTC Lancaster

News!  The HTC Lancaster is comming to AT&T  this August!  This phone runs the Android OS, has a full sliding keyboard, and has everything the G1 has wrapped up into a prettier package.   The phone is schelduled to relese on AT&T  is August 3rd 2009, and it will have exclusivity (it won’t show up in T-Mobile stores)  for 6 months after that.   According to AT&T, it’s got:

HSPDA,

A-GPS,

it’s Music Capable,

has messaging & Email:  Multi-IM Client (GTalk and AIM?) and POP3/SMTP email support,

supports MP3 ringtones,

MPEG4, h.263 and h.264 video playback,

and expandable memory (Micro SD?)

My Opinion:

This phone is going to be big.  This is the next Motorola RAZR or mabie even the true iPhone competitor.  The reasons are simple.  1.  It’s running Android, and open source OS, capable of much bigger things than closed source OS’s such as the iPhone.  Anyone who can work with code can modify their Android to be the way they want it to be.  The iPhone’s OS was developed by a bunch of people in a lab down at 1 Infinite Loop.  Android OS is being developed by 1000’s of individuals all over the world.  Many hands make light work, and here we see those many hands making this OS work.  Also, the OS is available on a much wider range of phones, especially if you count the ones coming soon.  2.  The things beautiful!  The simplistic design comes second only to the one of the iPhone.  The guys at HTC finally figured it out.   With all their beautiful products,  from the Touch Pro to the Xperia X1 (yes, I know that phone has Sony Ericson pasted all over it, but HTC were the makers of the phone, and supply Sony).  From the rounded edges to the slight inward curve in the screen, the phone looks beautiful, especially compared to the G1, which has more of a boxy, bulky, iffy look to it.   3.  The phone has buttons when you don’t want to use the touch screen.   I’ve had many times, when i’ve had sticky, sweaty fingers, or am wearing gloves, when I can’t use the touch screen.  This phone gets around that it actually has buttons (not a lot, and they’re not ugly)  that let you use the phone without touching the touchscreen.   5.  If the phone takes off as it should, the Android app catalog will boom.  Since the Android is open source, the apps won’t be limited or scaled down, as many apps are on Apple’s AppStore.

For Engadget’s take on this, Click Here