Brain Enema of a Savage Mind

Apple Releases Safari 5

Well Apple’s Safari web browser just got updated today.  Safari 5 first became available via Apple’s software update and now is live on their website as well.  There had been rumors swirling about that perhaps the new version of the web browser would be announced at WWDC.  It may not have been part of Job’s iPhone 4 super fan party, but word of it did slip out quietly later in the day.

I’ve played with it for a little bit now, and it does feel snappy.  I’m not sure it actually feels faster than Chrome (which I had been using), but then again I haven’t run any tests on it.  Still, my initial feeling is that it certainly is a speed improvement over the previous version of Safari.

Apple also boasts vast improvements with HTML5, but seeing as how HTML5 isn’t an official standard yet it’s really hard to say if there’s any real improvement in that area.  It would require some actual development work to see how it plays with the HTML5 standards (even though those standards haven’t been set in stone yet).  I’m sure it’ll all be worthwhile, but so far there’s not much to say in that area.  I guess it’s good that Apple is focusing on it now before it becomes a widely adopted standard, but at the moment it’s not much of a selling point to the vast majority of users.

Something that has the potential to be quite interesting is Apple adding developer extensions to the browser.  This is going to allow developers to create their own extensions (much like with Firefox or Chrome) that will work with Safari.  While it seems Apple is still going to exercise some control be using digitally signed certificates, it certainly is a much more open move than they have been with the browser in the past.  All of these extensions will be sandboxed so that extensions won’t be able to access other resources or data on the users hard drive.  It’s a good step towards extension security.  Right now it’s such a new feature there isn’t anything out there yet, but it’s something to watch.  Hopefully developers will be quick to start releasing useful extensions for the browser.

Finally, a new feature that I am the most interested in so far, is their “Reader”.  In the address bar, while you’re reading an article on a website, the Reader icon will appear.  Clicking on this brings up a PDF like view of the web page, bringing up the text and related pictures, but not any of the other cruft that populates a webpage, in theory making it easier to get at the meat of what you’re trying to read by eliminating all the other distractions.  It also has controls for zooming, printing, or e-mailing of the information on the webpage.  It seems like it’ll be rather useful, especially on some sites that make reading articles fairly difficult by littering them with advertising that goes throughout the text.

Safari 5 seems to be a lot more under-the-hood style of improvements opposed to Safari 4 which was much more of a cosmetic release.  Safari 5 holds a lot of promise and it’ll be interesting to see what people do with the new improvements.

Quick Glimpse: Safari 5

While there was a lot of hubbabaloo about the new iPhone being released today it seems Apple has quietly rolled out Safari 5.  It’s not on their website at the time of this writing, but I was just able to download it via the Apple Software Update.  It’s installing right now.  I’ll take a look at it and post a bit more here, possibly later tonight.

iPad. Less Exciting than Cat Woman.

Well Apple finally released the long rumored Apple tablet computer.  Amazingly enough it was one of the most dull and uninteresting product releases I can remember.  I was honestly excited for a potential Apple tablet.  While I was pretty sure it wasn’t something I would rush out to get, I did believe it would have a fairly high drool factor.  What I wasn’t expecting was all that Apple was releasing was an iPod touch with a thyroid condition.

I’ve watched the videos, read the reports and Steve Jobs spiel and still I am amazing overwhelmed.  Sure, it may have just been the massive amount of hype that has been surrounding this thing, but I don’t think so.  I can pin point a few of, what I consider to be, pretty glaring short comings.

1. The very first thing I noticed about it was that it’s not a widescreen device.  For something that’s only 9.7″ when I’m watching video I don’t want to have to deal with black bars when watching wide screen content.  For a media oriented device this just seems silly to me.  No, not a deal breaker, but something that rubbed me the wrong way from the get go.
2. While the iPad seems to have a more polished version of the iPhone OS, it seems like too stripped down, and too locked down to be a “great” product.  Sure, it’s still useful, and the iPhone OS is entirely serviceable.  But in a time when other companies have touch screen machines running full OS versions this just seems a bit silly.  Especially after how much he cuts on netbooks and then releases a product that is more stripped down than “a cheap laptop”.
3. Again it seems as if Apple wants nothing at all to do with Flash, as, like the iPhone/iPod Touch, the web browser lacks a Flash plugin.  A device like the iPad would be great for Hulu video, or any number of streaming content sites.  However without Flash these sites are a no go.  While some people see Flash as becoming irrelevant in the not so distant future as HTML 5 brings its own embedded streaming standards, it is however relevant now.  They are releasing this device now, not in the future, and to ignore a current dominant standard seems absolutely silly.
4. Finally, what I see as the biggest deal breaker of them all, is the lack of multitasking.  Only being able to have one app going at once is short-sighted, and something I’d expect from a device from several years ago.  On my 1st Gen iPod Touch I can understand there are hardware limitations.  On Apple’s much touted “blazing fast” A4 chip I’d expect it to handle the running of multiple applications like a champ.  Why is this feature lacking?  I wish I knew, but it sets the iPad behind devices that are less technologically impressive.  Big fail on this one Apple.

It’s true that three of these four complaints could be addressed by software updates.  I certainly hope that they are.  Currently, however, this device seems aimed at a very small niche market.  It looks to me more like a proto-type than an actual prime time ready release.  I can see the iPad, however, sparking competing devices that will force innovation in this newly emerging market.  The iPad might be a precursor, but in its current incarnation its nothing more than an overgrown iPod desperately seeking a market.

AT&T losing (or giving up) its iPhone exclusivity?

The newest rumors in the mysterious Apple announcement on January 27th apparently come from an AT&T insider who claims that on the 27th Apple will announce that other carriers will soon have the iPhone available on their networks.  While Verizon is one of the more likely candidates, hardware issues make the current iPhones unusable on their network.  This would mean that Apple would also have to be releasing new hardware.  There has been some speculation that Apple may be releasing a new iPhone on the 27th – if so it certainly helps lend credibility to the idea that one of the most drooled after phones will soon be available on competing networks.

It certainly seems like there is a good chance of this happening.  While AT&T has moved a lot of iPhone’s, it has also burdened their service like no phone before it.  They’ve been getting a lot of negative press, so losing exclusivity could help relieve some of the burden and allow them to push more of other variety of phones that they see better financial returns from.  It would also be a boon to consumers who lust after the iPhone as it would give them choice, and competition, in theory, helps to lower price and give new incentives to the consumers.  Verizon’s recent price cut on unlimited plans was followed by a nearly identical price drop by AT&T.

The iPhone’s on another network rumor sound more plausible to me than a tablet announcement after so many disappointments in the past.  Still, no one said the event on the 27th has to be limited to one device.  Apple is the master of “Just one more thing…”.  Perhaps a networked tablet from Apple riding on Verizon’s airwaves?  We’ll just have to wait until the 27th to see.

Pitter patter of a little iPad?

If you’ve even glanced at a website in the last month you’ve probably heard the speculation that Apple will be releasing some type of tablet device at their event on the 27th.  This certainly isn’t the first time that there has been rumors spreading across the net about the mythical Apple tablet.  Time and time again the rumors proved to be false.  This time around there certainly is a lot more evidence than there has been before – and with all these other eBook readers and the like coming out of the woodwork it certainly is possible Apple wants to continue take grabs its piece of the media pie.

I’ll be honest, I won’t really believe it until I see it.  Too many times in the past there were indicators that Apple was about to release one, and they ended up releasing something else.  So yes, I’m skeptical.

The tablet market has also been a rather niche one, more so than many other technologies.  Things like the Kindle, or the recently released Nook, have come along that are a bit of a compromise between a touch computing platform, and media enabled device.  Both are geared towards being a digital replacement to the shrinking dead tree industry.  Multi-functionality is something that we don’t see much of in these early renditions.  While this may change in the future, right now there is a window for a combination of a media device (music, movies, and books) and a device to deal with our online lives (social media, e-mail, web browsing, etc.).  If anyone can take a fledgling market and make it a must have experience it will be Apple.  The question is, is it the right time?  Is Apple even releasing this beast?  Or will the 27th leave all the Apple Tablet fan club kiddies sad little pandas?