My Love Affair with iA Writer

I initially didn’t believe this review would happen. When an app has no preference pane and provides you with a blank text window as a slate, how much can you possibly say about it?

There isn’t a lot one can say about iA Writer — but that’s not for its lack of features or because it’s bad in any way.

iA Writer touts itself as one of those newfangled “distraction free” writing environments. Whether you think the terminology to describe these kind of apps is gimmicky, there is some merit to it. I’ve only ever tried one other full-screen writing app on my Mac, and that was OmmWriter Dãna. Of course there has been a healthy amount of competition in this productivity app space, and we’re seeing more of these kinds of apps all the time in the App Store.

There’s a lot to love about iA Writer, but I must say it won’t be for everyone. If you’re looking for a robust Markdown editor with Markdown preview, or an endless choice of fonts — this is certainly not your kind of app. What you should expect though is a painstakingly well thought out writing environment. The font of choice here is Nitti Light, which is absolutely gorgeous. This font is exquisite for writing, but also doubles as an excellent and highly readable monospaced font.

Initially I scoffed at the idea of not having the choice to at least change font sizes, but I found the way it ships looks perfect. Of course, what looks perfect for me may not work for you, so don’t email me complaining about this if you bought it.

iCloud syncing, document versioning and full screen support all work exceptionally well in OS X Lion. If you pick up the iPad app as well, any documents you that you were working on — on you Mac — will be available immediately there, thanks in part to seamless iCloud syncing. There’s only one other major feature, and that’s called “Focus Mode.” Focus Mode simply softly mutes previously written text in a subtle grey colour, allowing you to focus on the current sentence you’re writing — this is very cool.

iA Writer may not be for everyone, but for a mere pittance, you can grab yourself a highly useful, simple and elegant app made for writers.

I have to hand it to Oliver Reichenstein, the author of iA Writer, he is very selective about what features make it into the app. It’s refreshing to see someone approach this kind of app with a minimal set — yet highly polished features. If you read some of his answers to the iA Writer FAQs, you will get some insight into his way of thinking on what an ideal writing app should be like.

If you want to read a more in-depth review on iA Writer, I highly recommend you check out Justin Blanton’s piece as well.

The Atari STF

I was born in 1982, and thus grew up in the 80s at a time when culture and computers started to intersect each other in an impressive and interesting way. The 80s were not only a time of the burgeoning personal computing market, but it was also a time when innovation was still a big deal in the console gaming market (mostly of Nintendo holding the crown). Although I was never much of a console gaming kind of kid, I did have an Atari console, (the exact model escapes me) but then moved to PC gaming in the late 80s and early 90s.

There are probably few people that know about, or even remember, that Atari had a brief stint with computers in the mid 80s and early 90s. The Atari STF was one of them, and I remember my father buying one in 1988 (I would have been 6 years old). Unfortunately at the time, I was never exposed to Macintosh because my father was primarily a PC guy. I ended up asking him why he made the decision to go with the Atari ST, and if he even considered the Macintosh — his answer was more obvious than I anticipated. He was doing some research on what computer to buy, and apparently it came down to a matter of price. My parents were in their 20s with two kids, and the Atari STF was going for $1600 — a princely sum for them at the time. The Macintosh Plus was well over $2000, so it wasn’t even a contender.

The 1040STF was a pretty great system for the time. It was meant to be a Macintosh and Amiga competitor, and it actually sold quite favourably because of its lower price point, and higher clocked CPU. The 1040STF had a colour pallet of 4096 colours, a graphics co-processor, 8 MHz Motorola CPU, 512kb of RAM and PCM audio. You could even plug-in two joysticks via its enhanced joystick ports, and it was the first personal computer with full MIDI support built-in. This would prove popular among some musicians, including Atari Teenage Riot.

Here’s a pic of the 1040STF, in it’s fully bit-mapped colour GUI glory:

Gaming

There’s no doubt gaming was popular on this machine, for many reasons including the overall low cast of the machine and all around good performance. One ingenious game called “MIDI Maze” used MIDI ports used the MIDI ports to connect up to 16 machines for interactive networked play.

The Wikipedia article on the ST states the following interesting tidbit about MIDI Maze:

This is sometimes said to have inspired modern LAN games which became popular in the early 90s.

I don’t know if there is a shred of truth to this, but it sounds plausible.

I recall one of my favourite games was Test Drive), published by the late Accolade) software — which became incredibly addictive. The main premise, for those that don’t know about it, is that you drove super cars on a two-lane cliffside road, whilst trying to outrun police and avoid oncoming traffic. I remember it being incredibly challenging at the time. I haven’t revisited that game, but I think I may see if I can find a suitable Atari ST emulator. With some Google’ing I found this emulator, although I can’t vouch for it as I have yet to try it. I’ll give this a go soon and will report back on how successful I was in a future issue of this newsletter.

Coda

After reminiscing about the late 80s with my father, he recalled my mother not being too happy about him coming home with a $1600 computer — which he had not consulted her with — and arguments ensued on whether or not they should keep it. Well, I’m glad they did, because that became the moment I developed a penchant for technology.

So do you have a story you’d like to share about gaming in the 80s? If so, I’d love to hear from you.

Why Google TV is Failing

When I first heard that Google was going to be releasing a product called Google TV, I was extremely unnerved. The set-top box market was, and is, not doing well. Thus far, not a single person has been able to crack the TV market with something truly revolutionary.

Other than offering a terrible user interface and experience, Google is faced with more problems. Peoples living rooms are already cluttered with various set-top boxes. Be it a PVR provided by their cable company, a TiVo or even Apple TV. For Google TV to succeed, they needed to get a few key important ingredients right.

• It must have a fluid, easy-to-use interface
• They must have good content deals in place
• Netflix should be an app that is pre-installed
• The design of the hardware has to be compact, and elegant.

Google has partners to develop the hardware. One example is Logitech, who is now regretting being involved with the Google TV project.

Logitech’s CEO, Guerrino De Luca:

To make the long story short, we thought we had invented [sliced] bread and we just made them. [We made a commitment to] just build a lot because we expected everybody to line up for Christmas and buy these boxes [at] $300 […] that was a big mistake.

Indeed a massive mistake that cost them 100 million dollars. I seriously question a companies management who decided this would be a great idea to peruse in the first place. At best, it was a gamble from the beginning. The pitfalls seemed obvious as well, being that Google TV, like many of their products, was an unfinished beta. You simply can’t make bets on an unfinished product.

For sake of argument though, in an alternative reality where Google TV was a more polished product, had the content and hardware been there, I’m not convinced even Logitech would have sold a ton of these devices. Google’s problem strikes me as simply a brand problem. Historically speaking, they have always released unfinished, half-baked products that had a ‘beta’ label affixed to it for years on end. The average consumer makes purchases based on emotional decisions. “What can do this product do for me? And how is it going to make my life better?” Taking Apple TV as an example — a far from perfect device and a ‘hobby’ product for Apple — sales have been good, but not nearly as good as the Macintosh, iPod, iPhone or iPad. That being said, people seem to love their Apple TVs. It comes pre-loaded with the Netflix app, and what content you can’t get from Netflix, you can probably rent or buy on iTunes.

Apple TV’s hardware is exquisitely designed and leaves but the smallest footprint in your home theatre. While the small footprint of the device itself is a huge benefit, if not a big selling point, what really helps is the brand attached to the product — that being Apple itself. For Google to sell a lot of Google TVs, they need to go even beyond just designing a great product. What Google needs to do, is something that can’t be fixed overnight. Building a brand that people trust — if not love — takes a certain kind of company culture, and of course time.

I don’t have confidence that this is going to get better any time soon, given that Google is a company whose primary avenue of revenue is pay-per-click advertising. To give credit where credit is due, it’s good to see the company focusing on better and more consistent design across their services (including Android OS). They have a long road to go though before they can really turn their brand around to something people truly trust, and love (for the masses) Will that ever happen? I don’t have the answer to that, so I’ll be watching and waiting like everyone else.

The Mac Malware Threat

Malware is every users nightmare, well perhaps mostly Windows users. Luckily, Mac users such as ourselves have been very fortunate to forego this problem area since as far back as we can remember. Naturally as Mac sales grow at a staggering rate year-over-year, the Mac becomes ever so ubiquitous.

From my own standpoint, I have never had such a cavalier attitude about security on OS X. I have never been so arrogant as to make any claims that this platform is invulnerable to exploits and/or malware. Over the past 5 years OS X in its many iterations has had some pretty glaring holes. Some of those holes have been patched by Apple at an unsatisfactory rate though.

One of the most annoying things that I find with OS X’s default configuration, is that it ships with the personal firewall turned off. This makes absolutely no sense and I don’t understand why this was never on by default, even in Snow Leopard. I’m going to hold my breath for Lion and hope that Apple has the good sense to make sure this is turned on and locked down by default. Power users like you and I will always know to go into our settings and turn this kind of stuff on, but I’m not worried about us. What I and Apple should be concerned with is the average Mac user who probably aren’t even aware that there is a built in firewall whatsoever.

Apple has brought security experts on board since the release of Snow Leopard, so I imagine during Lion’s development they have been doing far more penetration testing. This of course is a win not only for users, but for Apple itself. The less bad PR and issues they face, mean they look better as well to the public. To elucidate on this further, I’m in no way making a statement that OS X is going to be the next Windows as far as security issues are concerned — I’m merely stating that there are going to be more ongoing issues and Apple will need to pay closer attention and work harder to ensure their operating systems are shipped as locked down by default as they can possibly make it — without having a negative impact on the user experience.

Twitter for Mac 2.1

Ever since Twitter acquired Loren Brichter’s Tweetie app last year, I felt let down at some of the design choices and direction the company took with the re-release. How much freedom Loren had after he was hired at Twitter is completely unknown, however my excitement for the app has been rekindled with the latest 2.1 update.

Macstories has a great in-depth review on it that I recommend you check out first though.

One of the things I love with the latest update, other than the more HIG friendly menu bar are these new animations. If you switch between your home and mentions timeline, you’ll notice this. If you select any tweet and press the left arrow key, you’ll notice a really cool animation that makes the timeline bounce. Frivolous animations when done badly and poorly implemented should be avoided at all costs typically. In the case of Twitter for Mac 2.1 though, these animations don’t seem to get in the way for me, but add a nice little bit of polish to the app.

I’m not sure if this little tid-bit existed pre-v2.1, however I accidentally stumbled upon something where if you drag a tweet out of the timeline and into Safari, it will take you to that Tweet on the Twitter web app.

Like this:

Kudos to @lexifri for discovering this little tidbit.

The best new feature in Twitter for Mac is that when you double-click into a threaded conversation, it displays later replies, too.

Seriously well done @lorenb, @sandofsky and @stop.

Software Without Distractions

This morning I pulled the trigger on an important change as far as this weblog is concerned. I have decided to give it a brand new name that better reflects my software user experience metaphor.

I’m a firm believer that software needs to be designed with care and attention to even the smallest details. As someone who is heavily involved with user interaction and experience, my job is to really ensure customers who use our stuff have the absolute best possible experience.

The name “Zero Distraction” comes from my belief that I’d like to think a lot of us share, which is that software should be free of distractions that impede a users ability to quickly and easily accomplish a given task.

This is why I’d like to share with you, zerodistraction.com.

I should clarify that the things I write about will continue to be focused around all things related to iOS and the Mac.

Thank you again to all of my existing readers for your support. If you’re new here, then welcome!

OS X 10.6.7 stability issues?

I have a mid-2010 15” MacBook Pro which has been experiencing some odd stability issues lately, and the only thing I can think of that may be a factor is the latest OS update from Apple.

Fully understanding that correlation does not necessarily equal causation, I’m not going to say with certainty that 10.6.7 is the culprit and a complete failure. Often times there can be so many things that can be factored in when dealing with technical issues, especially when it’s relating to a piece of hardware.

I’ll go on the record and state that I’m not one to install a ton of beta apps, nor do I install a ton of apps in general. Things are kept fairly minimal most of the time, and I do my due diligence by doing routine disk maintenance. Utilities like Onyx and Disk Utility are indispensable and they are run once a month. I’ve looked through my crash logs and can’t find any fault with third party apps running in the background (which isn’t a lot).

My observation and issues can only be perceived as having something to do with installing 10.6.7. For the most part 10.6.6 had been running just fine, however what I have been running into lately are issues with OS X failing to find the primary boot drive after coming out of sleep. I get that depressing grey screen with the folder containing a nice little question mark insider it. This has happened several times to me, and it only appears to be happening when it comes out of sleep mode, which seems peculiar. I have also had the Mac App Store crash on me after my MacBook Pro had come out of sleep mode as well. I had once left the Mac App Store open and running in the background, however when I came back to my Mac and hit the space bar, I was greeted with a nice crash dialog box.

For the most part, Apple has a stellar reputation for doing good beta testing and having top-notch quality assurance processes in check. This is not to say that issues don’t slip through the cracks though. After all, their developers are only human and are prone to making mistakes or missing things just like the rest of us. I find that sometimes OS updates be hit or miss though. Sometimes fixing a majority of major issues, yet occasionally breaking other things in the OS.

When I was in my teens and early 20s, I use to always be on the absolute bleeding edge when it came to using newly released software, knowing well enough of the implications in doing so. Now as I approach 30, I find myself just wanting to use stable hardware and software, so I’m less likely to jump on new things immediately (with the possible exception of a few key reputable app development companies). My general sense though is that while Apple is doing quite a good job with beta testing OS X patches, I would still feel more comfortable if they extended their beta testing periods a little longer — even by a few weeks to catch some last minute issues.

I’ve been keeping a close eye on on the upcoming 10.7 Lion developer previews, and I see some really nice UI and UX progressions happening — for the most part anyway sans iCal. When Lion is released to the public, I think I’m going to sit this one out and wait for a few point releases after the public release to allow Apple to shake out the show stoppers. Once 10.7 proves itself to be rock solid, I’ll end up adopting it.

So does anyone else feel as if the OS X team should be extending their beta testing periods to allow for more quality assurance testing? It wouldn’t hurt to just spend a few more weeks before locking down the code for public consumption.

MobileMe missing from Apple's online store

As I was configuring a new iMac today via Apple’s online store, I noticed something peculiar on the build-to-order form. See this link to view the custom order page. Surprisingly, there was no option available to buy a MobileMe subscription.

Since this was removed from the order form, I’m wondering if perhaps the recent rumours of a newly overhauled MobileMe service is coming sooner than we all think.

Maybe this was a mistake, but I doubt it. It’s certainly interesting nonetheless.

OmmWriter: An amazing Mac app for writers

Very rarely do I have the inclination to discuss things such as word processors or text editing apps, but I recently discovered something that has truly made a difference for me. The app in question is called OmmWriter and it’s developed by a small indie Mac app company.

I have started using OmmWriter for all my writing now. It’s great for writing blog posts and I like it even more for longer form writing. In fact, just being in the app is such a pleasure that I find it really does help me focus on what I’m writing about.

At first I was a bit sceptical as there are quite a few writing apps out there that claim to provide a “distraction free” environment, but this truly does feel like one.

When you first launch Omnwriter, you will notice that it goes into full screen mode. This is the only mode that it supports. There are no toolbars a plenty to confuse you with a mass amount of formatting options and other “features” that you will probably never use. You are greeted with a very beautiful and serene background. A snow covered field with a handful of trees off in the distant. A very soothing and gentle melody starts to play, and all of a sudden things start to get very zen-like.

This probably sounds like a bunch of bullshit, but if you seriously give OmmWriter a try, I think you might like it.

You can find it on the Mac App Store for just $4.99.

Oh, and this post was written in OmmWriter as well. Call me a super happy customer.

Apple wants to remove boxed software from their stores

Of course Apple wants to get rid of boxed software in their stores. That’s not surprising and seems like a natural progression for them considering how Apple has moved even their own core suite of apps to the Mac App Store.

Some people seem to be complaining that this is a bad move for people who are not on broadband, or who may be on very slow broadband. Okay, fair enough. But how many people fit into that category? Especially Apple users.

I think this is also a not so subtle hint that points to the removal of optical drives in future Macs. This has been discussed before, and I have written about this before. Considering the fact that we got a MacBook Air last year with SSD as the only storage option and no optical drive, this marked a very bold move for Apple. Remember, Apple shipped the OS X and software restore on a tiny USB key. I expect that when 10.7 is released later this year, we’ll see it go on sale and ship only in USB key formfactor.

Not only is this going to be far more efficient for their supply chain as far as reducing costs on materials needed, but this also will be a huge win for Apple’s energy efficient and green packaging goals. There isn’t any other hardware company out there that is beating Apple in terms of going green, and this is just another thing that will allow them to add yet another EPEAT point.

Mac App Store in dire need of in-app purchase ability

Many people have discovered that the Mac App Store has some shortcomings right now. Big ones too.

• No support for trials
• No upgrades
• No in-app purchases (especially a big deal for developers)

In-app purchases are a big deal, and here’s why…

Developers need the ability to offer “Pro” features to their customers that want to be able to purchase more features. Take the fantastic productivity Alfredapp as an example. They offer an add-on to their app called the “Powerpack”. For a small fee you can purchase this and add some really useful features.

There’s only one major problem, and it’s a big one. If you installed the Alfredapp core from the Mac App Store (which is free by the way), there’s absolutely no way to upgrade and buy the Powerpack from within the app itself. This is due to the fact that Apple doesn’t (at least not yet) support in-app purchases. If you want the Powerpack, you need to uninstall the version you downloaded from the Mac App store and download a different version directly from the developers website. Bummer!

Clearly we can see why this is such a disater for customers, as many will be confused, but also developers who will have to spend more time explaining to people who things are the way they are.

Andrew Pepperrell, the creator of Alfredapp chimes in on this in a blog post and explains what’s what.

It’s my belief that Apple will add support for in-app purchases at some point. It can’t come soon enough though.

Reflection on the Mac App Store

The cat is out of the bag. Apple launched the long awaited Mac App store this morning and so far it has received quite a lot of buzz in the blogosphere.

It appears that so far many of the apps (aside from Apple’s own stuff) are iOS ports such as the fantastic “Angry Birds” and “Flight Control HD”. This seems natural to me as people with iPhones, iPads, and iPod Touches will already be familiar with these. Many of these ports will probably have acceptably designed controls adapted for keyboard and mouse, while others will probably be a disaster.

I was thinking why would anyone want to play an iOS game ported to Mac instead of just on their iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch? Games designed for iOS surely are going to be far more interesting to play with on a touch based device. Not to mention the fact that many games support the gyroscope of the iPhone 4. This past week I fired up iD softwares Rage HD on my iPhone 4 and set my controls to use the Gyroscope (the latest update allows this). I sat in my office chair and moved around while shooting monsters, and it was absolutely glorious. You just can’t get that kind of experience on the Mac.

On the flip side, it’s looking like other popular apps from Panic software and Pixelmator made it in, and they are priced more or less the same as what they sell for on the vendors own websites. The fact that it’s two clicks to install an app and you can keep track of all of your purchases in your iTunes account is truly something fantastic.

Thoughts on the next major MacBook Pro 2011 refresh

As I sit here at my desk drinking a delicious beer and wishing my American friends a Happy Thanksgiving, I can’t help when my mind wanders away from me and starts to think about the MacBook Pro refresh happening early 2011 (kind of sad eh?).

Yesterday 9to5Mac reported that about a rumour that Final Cut and MacBook Pros were due for a major revamp.

It’s hardly a surprise to anyone that Apple will refresh their MacBook Pro lineup in April, just as they do every year. However, it’s clear that a major refresh is due. Considering how well the new MacBook Air has been selling, it’s highly likely that Apple has already been spending the last few months taking what they learned from that design and prototyping a brand new MacBook Pro from it.

How would you feel about a 13”, 15”, and 17” MacBook Pro based on the MacBook Air design? A more svelt MacBook Pro without an optical drive, and logically Apple would fill that extra space with more batttery. Does that sound appealing to you? It sure as hell does to me! Last month my piece about the future of the Macbook lineup touted that it’s inevidetable that we would see a MacBook/MacBook Pro without an optical drive. With most consumers getting their TV/Movie content fix via iTunes, Netflix, or Hulu, and not to mention software that can be downloaded via the web, the days of the optical drive are dwindling fast.

It would be a smart move for Apple to just continue to offer an optional external optical drive for people that absolutely can’t live without one. I know I still have a use for one on rare occassion, but I’d much rather sacrifice having it built-in for a slimmer laptop with more battery capacity. I know a small percentage of people will flip out at the thought of not having a built in optical drive, but the truth is Apple has already set the wheels in motion with removing them from the MacBook Air, and it’s only a matter of time before the entire Mac family gets stripped of that feature.