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Linked List: January 25, 2007

Thursday, 25 January 2007

CARS: ‘Macworld Only Now Ending for Some’ ★

Speaking of the loquacious Stan Sigman.

Jonathan Seff’s first look at the ModBook — the third-party tablet Mac announced at Macworld Expo.

Simply put, the ModBook is a stock Apple MacBook that’s been given a radical makeover by Axiotron (and sold exclusively by OWC). As such, the guts of the system are basically the same as the MacBook.

Macword also has a nice video podcast in which Seff demos the ModBook. If you’re dying for a tablet Mac, go ahead and check it out.

Launchy: The Open Source Keystroke Launcher for Windows ★

Since I mentioned Enso earlier, it’s probably worth pointing to Launchy, a freeware Quicksilver/LaunchBar-style launcher for Windows. Two Windows software links on DF in one day — I’m pretty sure that’s a record. (Thanks to Rob Allen.)

Jim Cramer: ‘AT&T Will Win Wireless War With iPhone’ ★

More from Jim Cramer on his scoop that AT&T intends to offer free service with the iPhone:

Management sounded like kids when talking about the iPhone and how it was going to remake AT&T and that it was the greatest invention they’ve ever seen.

Now, AT&T’s all about market share, and if you read between the lines, I think you see a strategy coming where the device’s $500 price point is preserved but the service contract is greatly reduced. I think that AT&T — and not Apple — is the key to this next leg, and CEO Stan Sigman can make it happen.

Update: Here’s a link to Cingular’s Q4 2006 conference call (26 MB MP3 file). If you liked Cingular CEO Stan Sigman’s riveting performance onstage during the Macworld keynote, you’re going to love this. He talks about the iPhone only briefly, just past the 28:00 mark, and says nothing about any sort of free service plans.
Update 2: I created a 300 KB MP3 consisting of just the 43-second snippet where Sigman talks about iPhone; save yourself some bandwidth.

AT&T to Give Away 18 Months of Free Service With iPhone? ★

Jim Cramer of TheStreet.com says that’s what AT&T told analysts in their conference call; they want to use the iPhone to draw customers from Verizon.

Apple Patent Filings for Bottom-Loading Optical Disc Drive ★

Nice catch from AppleInsider. Seems kind of weird to imagine having to load a disc underneath your notebook, but as Apple’s patent application states, as notebooks get smaller and thinner the real estate along the edges gets smaller and more valuable.

AppleInsider Reports That iPhone CPU Is From Samsung ★

Two bits of news on the “What CPU does the iPhone use?” front. First, AppleInsider, citing “people familiar with the new Apple handset”, reports that the CPU is from Samsung. That contradicts the report last week in the Italian newspaper Il Sole 24 Ore, in which the CEO of Intel Italy was quoted saying the CPU is from Marvell.

What’s interesting is that the article in Il Sole 24 Ore has been revised and no longer includes any mention of the iPhone at all. Right down the memory hole.

My best guess is that Apple has iPhone prototypes using different ARM-family CPUs and they haven’t yet decided or finalized the deal. It doesn’t take six full months for FCC approval of a new device, so I think they have a bit of time to tinker before they need to set it in stone.

Example of Apple Calling Itself ‘Apple Inc.’ Back in 2000 ★

Yet another sign that Apple’s dropping of the “Computer” from its name is not a sign of a shift in the company’s focus: Hans Derycke was watching the Steve Jobs keynote from MWNY 2000 and noticed that the credits and copyright are assigned to “Apple Inc.”

Apple has been referring to itself, marketing-wise and promotionally, as just plain “Apple” since shortly after Jobs returned to the company. My guess is that maybe they wanted to change the legal name to Apple Inc. back in 2000 but were held up by legal wrangles with The Beatles’s Apple Corps; that they’ve now officially changed the name might be another sign of an impending deal to get The Beatles catalog in the iTunes Store.

Khoi Vinh on Address Book’s Merge Feature ★

One sign of good UI design is when you take a guess how something should work, and you’re right. Khoi Vinh had that experience with Address Book when he double-clicked a vCard file containing updated information for an existing contact in his database.

Gizmodo: iPhone for Canada Confirmed on Rogers Wireless ★

No official word from Apple or Rogers, though.

Humanized Enso ★

New utility for Windows users, sort of like a cross between Quicksilver and Mac OS X’s Services menu. Aza Raskin, the president of Humanized, is the son of the late Jef Raskin, to whom the software is dedicated. One interesting idea is that to enter the mode where you type Enso commands, you just hold down the Caps Lock key. Seems a little vague overall, and the demo video emphasizes hype instead of clarifying exactly how it works.

Walt Mossberg gives it a pretty positive review in today’s Wall Street Journal.

(Thanks to Erik Barzeski.)

Tim Bray on the Microsoft/Wikipedia Dispute ★

The “historical footnote” sure sounds like a story I’d like to hear more about.