I am getting really tired of all the Apple news as the lead up to MacWorld … I am usually a little more interested, but all the iPhone stuff is too much and killing the Mac web. Add to that Jobs’ 2002 comments about tablet computers and you have a whole bunch of nothing going on. Just my RSS reader lighting up with garbage. That’s all.
Apple
QuickTime is Old
Not that the technology is aging, just that December 3rd is QuickTime’s birthday! According to Apple Matters, 12/3/1991 was the day QuickTime 1.0 came out. This is one I remeber very well … I was a sophomore psychology major at WVU. The Mountaineers were not heading to a bowl game, so I guess I was paying attention to a whole host of other things. We had a computer store on campus that I would stop in to see the latest from Apple. At the time I had a Mac SE with a giant 20 MB hard drive … but I wanted more! When I saw QT I was amazed at what you could do with it … it took imagination as the movies were really just the size of a postage stamp, but there was real potential.
When QuickTime hit I instantly started talking to a faculty adviser of mine who was a Mac head as well about the thought of capturing the best of Psych lectures on video and embedding them into text documents to share with people after the fact. HTML wasn’t around, so there wasn’t a way to do this as easily as you can now — and you certainly couldn’t just upload stuff to youtube. About a year later, Apple introduced a technology called OpenDoc that allowed you to build experiences from multiple document types … perfect for combining video and text. My SE wouldn’t touch the stuff, but a year and a half later I had an LC III that actually had enough horsepower to pull it off.
I was never able to make my QT/Text study guides work, but a couple of years later I headed off to Bloomsburg University’s Instructional Technology program and got my first real view of media authoring for educational purposes. I was still using QT, but now easily embedding it in Authorware, Director, and other tools to create learning experiences. It just sort of surprises me that back in 1991 I was struck by the power of a postage stamp sized piece of video for educational purposes. Back then I couldn’t have dreamed that I would end up at PSU working to create teaching and learning environments powered by technology. Life is funny.
Quick iTunes U Thought
As we approach the end of the first semester of iTunes U use here at Penn State I have all sorts of thoughts about the service, how to make it better, what we really like, and so on … I only have a minute this morning, so I thought I’d share one quick thought. How about allowing users of iTunes to create a new type of smart menu item in the left hand “source” menu? What I want is the ability to create a link into our iTunes U space without going through a web browser first. Much of our content is public content and does not require a login, so a one click access to the space would be killer.
I hate to say it, but the environment just doesn’t feel right with the browser only based access. Doing the browser thing is slow and is a real drag … giving us this capability could save me a ton of time when going in. If that were possible, I could create shortcuts to the podcasts I show off all the time here on campus. It would also allow me to title it Penn State instead of iTunes Store … you have no idea how many bad looks I get when people see how connected the iTunes Store is to iTunes U … allowing us to create and name a custom link into the space would help me in a lot of ways. That’s it … quick.
Happy 5th Birthday, iPod
Everyone on the web is talking about the iPod’s 5th birthday … it has been five years since Apple introduced that little music player (and future computing platform) but since the web has done a great job documenting it all I have no need to repeat all that stuff. In addition to changing the music landscape forever, this little device did quite a bit for educational technology as well. If I wasn’t typing in between new baby duty I would point to dozens of posts I have made that documented it all. When it appeared I wasn’t convinced that it was going to be a hit — it was platform dependent and seemed very limited. I even sat in Cupertino and told them I wasn’t sure — not surprisingly they all looked at me like I was crazy. Steve was right, it was and still is a revolutionary device. I have to admit I still have the first generation iPod my Mother-in-Law got me for Christmas the same year my first baby was born — like my first child, the thing has changed the rules.
Five years ago very few of us thought about music like we do now — digital first. All I can say is “thank you” to Apple for creating a new eco-system that now contains the iPod, the iTunes Store, iTunes U, and all the interest that goes along with it. All of those things have added up to new opportunities to engage faculty and students alike. DRM aside, it is a good thing. When was the last time that has happened? Tell me.
Rebrand the Podcast?
Given that Apple has started to crack down on people using the term “podcast” it may be time to finally take another look at what we are calling these things. Funny that I remember walking home from work two years ago — actually it was September 2004 — listening to my first podcast on my iPod. I was listening to the “Daily Source Code” with Adam Curry … man, it was mostly Adam babbling on about his life, but there was something very interesting about the whole thing (BTW, Adam doesn’t see any of this as a problem). I instantly launched into research mode to understand how it all worked and when the dust settled I couldn’t stop talking to people about how imprtant this was. I got a lot of strange looks that basically said, “it is just radio on the web.”
The big deal was and always has been the delivery method. Being able to subscribe and receive stuff via the RSS enclosure is a powerful concept and one that most of us are just now exploring. Even Adam used to say that the naming is a bit unfortunate, but the iPod was the device and it just worked. I also remember Microsoft trying to rename podcasts to blogcasts or something. The point is that Apple did not invent the podcast — as a matter of fact they were a little late to the party. Podcasting support in iTunes arrived last summer with iTunes 4.9 … not saying they haven’t pushed the space forward, but … so the question is now emerging, what do we call this stuff? Could Microsfot have been right?
Update …Ok, so maybe the inital hoopla was hot air … Apple isn’t going after the use of the word podcast. It does not change the fact that the general public has embraced a name that does share a big piece of Apple’s brand. It is worth thinking about over the long haul.
Nano Recorder
Not huge news, but good to see — the new iPod Nano can record audio. If you check out this iLounge article you can see for yourself. Given how long it took everyone to get those damn iPod recorders out for the 5G iPods it’ll be a year until something ships that actually fits those new devices. If you are looking for a very portable recording device this could be it, but at the price point I am sure there are other solutions. With that said, I have been very happy with the recording quality I get out of my 5G iPod and Tune Talk Stereo. One thing that will make this an interesting solution is that you will be able to record without the typical hard drive whirring sound you get on the regular sized iPods … Looks like it is time to get a Penn State blue Nano.
Oh, yeah … this is my second 4 AM blog post in a row. Sleep, I remember you!
Apple.com Through the Years
This is a great find … a photoset on Flickr by “Kernel Panic” dedicated to the changing faces of apple.com through the years. It is honestly amazing how many of these I remember. The early ones amaze me and take me way back. I was working down around Philly at Cogence Media when I first started to visit Apple’s site every day (on my PowerCenter Pro) — it was sort of funny, but I remember also having a subscription to MacWeek … if you remember life before the instant news offerings we had to rely on those old fashioned magazines for our information.
The other thing I notice looking at this set is how much more sophisticated the layout is now … there is a huge jump towards better design once Jobs returned. I am also a bit amazed at the longevity of the design. I really can’t name five sites who have maintained their overall design philosophy for that long … can you?
My Apple WWDC 2006 Thoughts
So it is both over and just starting … the week of WWDC was once again kicked off by Steve Jobs in grand fashion — showing off the most drool-worthy new piece of hardware, the MacPro, I have seen in a long time. I am not sure it is enough to pull out of MacBook Pro land, but it is sweet … It was also great that Steve once again decided to give us a taste of what is to come and promise that there is more to Mac OSX.5 than what they are willing to show. For my dollar it was just as interesting for the features of the forthcoming 10.5 release than what they didn’t show. In an interesting twist, Mr. Jobs decided to not show off some of the more advanced features of the next version of the Mac OS … instead saying it was time to let the ever OS-designing folks from Microsoft think different on their own. Jobs actually said, “we don’t want (Microsoft) to start their photocopiers.” Interesting move — but even Apple let the cat out of the bag that their timeline had sliped to Spring 07.
The few 10.5 features that they did show were interesting to say the least — the new iChat capabilities just blew me away! The ability to deliver a Keynote from anywhere was just off the charts … it did leave me wondering though in the age of podcasting if GarageBand or iMovie would be able to capture all that and compress it down to an iTunes (U) capable version — wishful thinking, but if I had any say all these new features would be recordable so we could deliver amazing opportunities. The Time Machine concept is slick, but it left me wondering how some “pro” Mac folks would feel about the overuse of GUI elements. The new Spaces capability is welcomed and will give us on the little MacBook and MBP the needed real estate to do the crazy things we like with our machines. Of them all, Mail seems to be the most geared towards me — the ability to easily flag and notate items will be wonderful (although I am getting by quite nicely with the MailTags plugin installed). All in all it was a good array of features to show off.
There are other consumer level things, but let me talk briefly about the pro line of things — maybe the backoffice. The xServe has been in need of an upgrade and it got it … the killer things from Apple today (in my estimation) are the Mac OSX Server upgrades coming … if you haven’t seen the list you need to check it out … iCal server, Wiki service, and the killer app, the Podcast Producer. Not a whole lot of detail, but if it is the setup I listened to an engineer discuss months ago then this is a real killer edu app. Take a peek for yourself and think about the possibilities. When we get our hands on that, all bets are off for easy classroom capture. This may be a turning point for Mac OSX Server … time will tell.
So it was a good day … I have staff at WWDC preparing for a week long learning experience. I am hoping we get answers to a few questions and are ready to attack new opportunities upon return. Tim, just remember to pick me up some goodies while you are there and come back with some info! It was a good start to another interesting trip down innovation lane.