The Talk Show: Live From WWDC
7:00pm Tuesday  •  California Theatre
Tickets Available  •  Fun Will Be Had

Linked List: September 12, 2006

Tuesday, 12 September 2006

Wasabi 

Joel Spolsky justifies Wasabi, Fog Creek’s homegrown programming “language” (which I put in quotes because it sounds to me like maybe Wasabi is more of a preprocessor for VBScript than it is a standalone new programming language).

The iTunes 7 UI Dissected 

I don’t agree with the strident tone of his criticism — I like most of the UI changes — but Dan Sandler’s “dissection” is a good first look at all the changes in iTunes 7’s UI.

Pac-Man for iPod 

Dan Benjamin playing Pac-Man on his iPod. He says it plays and sounds great — you control it just by touch, not clicking. Update: Dan has started an “iPod Game Photos” group on Flickr.

Apple Software Update for Windows 

Mark Pilgrim:

The Windows version of iTunes 7 comes bundled with Apple Software Update, “to easily update iTunes and other Apple software.”

QuickTime 7.1.3 

iTunes 7.0 complains if you don’t yet have this installed. At this writing it’s only available as a standalone download — it isn’t showing up in Software Update yet. Update, 90 seconds after posting: It’s in Software Update now. Good old Murphy.

‘Showtime’ QuickTime Stream Is Up 

That didn’t take long.

Apple Buys CoverFlow 

The “cover browser” UI in iTunes 7 is, in fact, based on CoverFlow:

We are pleased to announce that all CoverFlow technology and intellectual property was recently sold to Apple. It has been incorporated into the latest version of iTunes.

Goes to show that when indie Mac developers do a terrific job, Apple will consider buying their work rather than re-implementing their idea. Weird, though, that there was a new version of CoverFlow released just five days ago. I also wonder how much work it was to port this to Windows.

New iPod Shuffle 

I love everything about the new Shuffle — one model, one price, one color, even smaller than before and with a built-in clip.

Apple Showtime: ‘iTV’ 

Rare pre-announcement from Apple: their long-awaited TV set-top box is coming in early 2007. Code-named ‘iTV’, it will cost $299 and looks like a much-thinner Mac Mini, and yet has a built-in power supply so it doesn’t need a brick on the power cord. All sorts of cable ports for hooking up to your TV and stereo, but it grabs media — movies, TV shows, music — from your Mac or PC via Wi-Fi, and can also grab previews from the Internet. You navigate using an Apple Remote and a Front Row-style UI.

I’m thinking it has to have a hard drive in there for caching, but perhaps a gigabyte or two of flash memory is all it needs. Tech specs, as far as I can tell, aren’t yet available.

Embattled H.P. Chairwoman to Step Down 

Patricia Dunn is stepping down as chairwoman of Hewlett Packard in the wake of the spying scandal, but will remain on the board. CEO Mark Hurd is taking over as chairman, and George A. Keyworth II, the company’s longest-serving director, has resigned from the board. Keyworth is the board member whose leaks to the press prompted Dunn’s cloak-and-dagger investigation.

New iPod Nanos in Color 

Green, pink, blue, black, and silver — notably, not white. Gizmodo is kicking ass with their live coverage.

Apple Showtime: Steve Not Wearing Turtleneck 

Some sort of button-down collared shirt instead. Looks a little nerdy to me to have it buttoned all the way to the top like that.

Update: My wife Amy says I’m in no position to be critiquing anyone else’s taste in clothes.