Linked List: August 9, 2007

Thursday, 9 August 2007

iPhoto ’08 vs. Both-at-Both-Ends Scroll Bars ★

The Appearance panel in System Preference has two options for the arrow buttons at the end of scroll bars: putting up at the top and down at the bottom, or putting both of them at the bottom. But at least since 10.1, Mac OS X has supported a third option via a defaults setting: putting both arrows at both the top and bottom.

iPhoto ’08 uses iTunes 7-style blue scroll bars. Alas, its implementation craps out if you’re using the “both at both ends” option. It works, but it draws visual turds. iTunes 7 doesn’t actually support this option, either — it looks OK but only draws the arrows at the bottom. (The rest of the iLife ’08 apps use standard Aqua scroll bars.)

Netflix Community Blog: Instant Watching on Mac, Firefox, and More ★

Netflix’s Steve Nat on Mac support for their “instant watching” feature:

A key issue for delivering movies online is that the studios require use of DRM (Digital Rights Management) to protect titles. And that’s our holdup for the Mac — there’s not yet a studio-sanctioned, publicly-available Mac DRM solution (Apple doesn’t license theirs). I can promise you that, when an approved solution becomes available for the Mac, we’ll be there. I’ll also say that Silverlight 1.1 looks like a promising candidate — but that its DRM isn’t likely to be fully available until 2008.

Not really Netflix’s fault — they can’t force the studios to let them deliver video without DRM, and they can’t force Apple to let them use FairPlay — but this still stinks, nonetheless. (Thanks to Nat Irons.)

Of Keyboards and Men ★

Bruno Fernandes on Apple’s new default F-key assignments:

The special functions screened onto the F-keys are laid out on both new keyboards to compliment right-handed mouse use. This is clearly a design that will not be as functional to someone using the pointing device in their left hand, to the left of the keyboard, but it’s a purposeful and thoughtful change nonetheless.

Bob Keefe Is the ‘Why Don’t You Booger Up Your Computers With Intel Stickers?’ Guy ★

I hereby nominate Dan Moren for a Pulitzer prize. You must listen to the audio — Jobs really handled the question with aplomb, after taking a few seconds to get his bearings.

Jason Snell: Breaking Down the Apple Announcements ★

Well-considered overview of everything Apple released on Tuesday. Glad I didn’t write something like this, because Snell covers everything I’d have wanted to say.

iMovie ’08 Trepidations ★

Exactly the sort of guy for whom iMovie ’06 is still available.

Subtraction: An Important Message for .Mac Customers ★

I suspect Khoi Vinh speaks for many .Mac members.

Jobs mentioned at Tuesday’s event that Apple has 1.7 million .Mac customers. But they’re selling around 1.7 million Macs per quarter now. Clearly this number could be a lot higher, and most Mac users don’t see it as worthwhile.

Yours Truly, Writing for Macworld ★

On newsstands now: I wrote the back-page column in the September issue of Macworld. Look for the one with the iPhone on the cover.

Buy iLife ’08 and Get iMovie ’06 for Free ★

iMovie ’08 isn’t just a re-write, it’s a re-imagining of everything it does, how it works, and who’s intended to use it. Me, personally, I think it’s great news. iMovie always felt like too much work, so most of my video is sitting around on dozens of tapes, unedited. iMovie ’08 looks like it’ll prompt me to digitize everything and make quick movies.

It’s bad news, though, for everyone who did like and use the old iMovie. So unlike all the other iLife apps, iMovie ’08 doesn’t replace iMovie ’06. If you already have ’06 installed, it’s still there, and if you don’t, you can download it from Apple.

CARS on the ‘Why No Intel Inside Stickers?’ Question Guy ★

This is funnier than finding out who it actually was.

Flickr Blog: Improved Web Uploading ★

New web UI for uploading pictures to Flickr. The batch operations are a nice convenience.

Strange Movements ★

Garrett Murray on the new default F-key mappings on the new Apple keyboard:

The wired keyboard now has up to F19, and no dedicated volume controls. Instead, it moves the volume controls to special functions on F10, F11 and F12. You might remember those as two Expose keys and the Dashboard key. Well, not anymore. In fact, F9, the other default Expose key, is now fast-forward/next track. And the eject key, which is nearly always been the last key in the upper right of the keyboard is next to F12. Not on the end in the wired version. But it gets even stranger.