Paul Thurrott Turns into A 13-Year-Old

In Windows Weekly 66, Paul Thurrott turns into a whiny 13-year-old. Thurrott feels that he is the one to defend Microsoft against some mainstream journalists. The argument is valid, but essentially Thurrott debunked himself for not being a Microsoft (original) Defender (not to be confused with Microsoft Windows Defender, the anti-spyware software. Thanks clintthewookie for the corrections.).

Close to the 18 minute mark of the podcast (note to Leo Laporte: “netcast” term is lame), Thurrott mentions that with 1 terabyte hard drive and 4GB RAM, it is essentially OK to have “bloated software” just because the resources is there. Gee, that sounds like Thurrott echoing Bill Gates.

A little bit after, Thurrott was saying: “The version of Mac OS X that was available when Windows 95 shipped…..”

Leo Laporte did not even catch it waht ever the reason was.

Series of Tubes to Paul Thurrott: There was no Mac OS X back in 1995. Not even in 1998. Don’t you remember your MacBook Core Solo?

Windows Weekly 66 (excerpts)

iPhone 3G: Seven Impossible Days

The title to this post has nothing to do with anything other than iPhone 3G will be released in seven days. “Seven Impossible Days” is a song recorded by Mr. Big.

It is the Fourth of July celebration for people in The United States, and Friday for the rest of the world.

In the meantime, MacNN reports that iPhone 3G starts forming at Apple Store Fifth Ave. in New York. I gotta say that these people are crazy. That’s “Seven Impossible Days” for me to wait in line for the iPhone 3G.

OK, at least I tried making sense of the title to this post to the content, even though no one might get it.

For all of our Canadian friends, unfortunately you’re no longer at the top of “Oh noes, our wireless data plans are ripping us off” list. Our Norwegian friends seems to be getting a more expensive plan.

what else?

iPhone 3G and The Subsidy Dilemma

The original iPhone brought an interesting and effective concept to the mobile phone industry. The iPhone activation process was regarded as on of the greatest things that Apple brought to the mobile industry. Customer can buy the iPhone and activate it at their own time through iTunes. No more wasting the precious time at the store waiting for the phone activations. There were some problems with the activation process for the first few days as record numbers of people trying to do the same thing at the same time. After all the hickups the iPhone set a new standard for the mobile phone industry, the activation process in particular.

Since its introductions in January 2007, the iPhone was criticized by the so-called-tech-journalists who didn’t even have access to the phone. They screamed and yelled about the lack of 3G network support and the pricing of the iPhone. Let’s take a look at the two factors.

  1. 3G Network Support.
    Having a faster wireless network on the iPhone is a definite advantage. Some said that the 3G network support requires more power consumptions thus shortening the battery life. The so-called-tech-journalists declared that the iPhone is severely behind the times for not having 3G network support. The irony of this argument is that the same “tech journalists” were saying that the 3G support in the iPhone is pretty much useless because of AT&T’s lack of 3G network in the United States. Honestly, why would these so-called-tech-journalists criticize the original iPhone for not having 3G network support? That’s a rhetorical question.
  2. iPhone Pricing.
    In the United States, the iPhone was originally priced at $499 and $599 for the 4GB and 8GB iPhone respectively. The so-called-tech-journalists screamed and yelled for the lack of subsidy on the iPhone. Fast forward a year later, AT&T is now subsidizing the iPhone 3G with a few caveats. Based on the available informations, iPhone 3G requires in-store-activations and a two-year-agreement. Whatever happened to the easy-to-do activation process through iTunes? It’s now gone because of the subsidy. The pay-as-you-go plan is currently not available for the iPhone 3G. AT&T wants to deter all the unlocking by forcing the in-store-activation. For sure they are losing money for subsidizing phones that are not bound to their service contracts.

What have we learned here? We can’t have the cake and eat it too.

Eight more days to go, and we’ll see if how Apple would handle the iPhone 3G sales in their own retail stores. Until then, we could only speculate.

The July Promise

There are a lot of things to write about, and I’m planning to write at least once a day for the month of July.

Let’s see what’s coming in this month.

Obviously, the iPhone 3G is coming July 11th. The continuing uproars against Canadian TelCo. Lots of news from the Apple camp.

I will be doing some camera work during the 4th of July Weekend. I’ll write more about it.

For starter, it’s July 1st. Ten more day to go till iPhone 3G madness, or lack thereof.

Does Safari 3.1.2 Break RSS Feature?

After upgrading to Mac OS X 10.5.4, Safari stops updating the bookmarked RSS feeds. The 10.5.4 update includes Safari 3.1.2 for Leopard.

Previously, to fix the problem I deleted the “Syndication” folder inside my “Library” folder.

I deleted the RSS bookmarks and adding them again, but it still doesn’t fix the problem.

I have not tested this with Safari 3.1.2 on Windows and on Tiger.

Panasonic HDC-SD9 Raw AVCHD Sample

For those who’s checking out Panasonic HDC-SD9 AVCHD Camcorder, I’ve uploaded a 36.7MB ISO file from the camcorder. Mac OS X users should update QuickTime to version 7.5 and all the latest version of iMovie ’08, Final Cut Pro 6 and Final Cut Express 4.

The particular video is recorded outdoor during daytime. I’ll post a raw AVCHD video from this camcorder recorder in lower light situation later.

About the video:

Recorded using Panasonic HDC-SD9
North American – NTSC version

Auto Mode
Recording Mode: HA1920
24p Digital Cinema: ON
Digital Cinema Color: ON

Video Clip duration: 18 seconds

Get the 36.7MB ISO file here.

Panasonic HDC-SD9 - The Box

Pro Applications Update 2008-02 and Final Cut Server Update 1.1

Pro Applications Update 2008-02

Pro Applications Updates improve reliability for Apple’s professional applications and are recommended for all users of Final Cut Studio, Final Cut Server, and Logic Studio. Pro Applications Update 2008-02 addresses installation issues, compatibility updates, and general performance issues and improves overall stability.

Applications included in the update:

Final Cut Pro 6.0.4
Compressor 3.0.3

For more information about this software update, see the Release Notes.

Pro Applications Update 2008-002 is available for Mac OS X 10.4.11 and 10.5.3. It seems that the update appears in Software Updates only on Macs with QuickTime 7.5 installed.

Final Cut Server Update 1.1

This update addresses issues with the check in/check out process for Final Cut Pro projects, fixes issues with double-byte character sets, and improves the general reliability of the software.

Final Cut Server Update 1.1 is available for Mac OS X 10.5.3.

Pro Applications Update 2008-02 and Final Cut Server Update 1.1 are available through Apple Software Update or Final Cut Studio Download page.