Paul McFedries sent a great new word today via Word Spy-
Thumbo: An error made while using the thumbs to type, particularly on a mobile device keypad. [Blend of thumb and typo.]
I sure see a great number of thumbos on a daily basis, but I might need a stronger word to describe the email I got yesterday-
We ciumld orreebt
Maybe a new one using the words Novocain & Thumbo? A thumbocaine typist?
Here’s what I’m expecting for Macworld 2009- “the finale”
Apple State of the Union- A general update on the health of Apple. With Phil Schiller on stage, he may try to justify the action of effectively canceling MacWorld. (Something Steve would never do.) A painful move for the community, but necessary for the health of Apple.
Updates on holiday Mac sales- I wouldn’t be surprised to see some growth from last year.
State of the iPhone- Unit sales, marketshare & of course- the phenomenal app store.
Snow Leopard aka Mac OS X 10.6- Probably the bulk of the keynote will be devoted to this important release. Perhaps we’ll even see a few new gee-whiz features.
Mac Mini- Time for an update on the underdog of the Apple lineup. Look for a refreshed design to bring it in line with the rest of curent Apple “iPhone” design scheme.
Apple TV- We’ve seen an update around this time for the past couple years. This year should continue the trend.
17” MacBook Pro- I’d love to see “Lapzilla” come back and quad-core would be a good bet.
iLife ‘09- Perhaps some new effects and refinement or better online integration?
iWork ‘09- The buzz is that this gem is going online and into the cloud as a web app. This doesn’t strike me as one of Apple’s core competencies, but it would be a timely move.
iPhone Nano- A lower-lost version could certainly move more units, but a decrease in screen size would cause incompatibility with the 10,000+ iPhone apps already out there. Of course, the screen rez could probably be increased to handle this issue, but it would leave users with even smaller on-screen buttons to tap. The solution to that would be a physical keyboard. Or why not a new form-factor? We’ll see.
iPhone Tablet- Ever since first playing with the iPhone, I’ve expected to see this. Supposedly this is where the iPhone concept came from- “Safari Tablet.” Personally I’d love to see one, but I think it is still a ways off.
Apple Media Server- This seems to be logical progression of the iTunes sharing and Time Capsule lines. Most power users have rolled their own solutions to enhance the sharing and backup solutions, but I’m not sure that the average consumer really needs or understands either of these two technologies as a base to build a new product upon.
I had a chance to try Google Image Labeler today. The app allows you to label random images while helping to improve the quality of Google’s image search.
I have to say, it’s a lot of fun and quite addictive. The game makes it really easily to forget that you’re doing work for Google while frantically coming up with descriptive words to describe the images.
Hard not to like any game where you can see yourself on the daily leaderboard after just a handful of plays.
I had to laugh this morning when I saw that “Crazy Lighter” was the top paid app on the iTunes App Store. It was only yesterday that I introduced it to a handful of people on 57th street. Now, it’s gone paid and #1. Totally my doing. 
More fun from Last.fm data. This quilt is from the service Last.Fm Personal Wallpaper Generator. Now, if Apple would just let the Last.fm scrobbler sniff the iPod playing info on my iPhone.
Seems a bit busy for a desktop, but it is fun to look at.
I’ve been meaning to write this up since March. Nothing like a long wait on the runway to get the creative juices flowing…
Not long after I first tried the iTunes Music Store video rentals, I decided to try NetFlix streaming to do a bit of a comparison. To be honest, I was quite shocked at how clunky the implementation was. Remember that iTunes is a single click to purchase and another to hit play.
Let’s have a look at NetFlix:
The website has a friendly, clean exterior.
Shows that are available for immediate streaming are clearly marked in the familiar queue.
Clicking on play takes you immediately to some action.
Determining the video quality took nearly a full minute. Now only a loading screen that made me wonder how many monkeys were scurrying around looking for the correct NetFlix envelope before asking their human masters what the appropriate video compression settings would be for my computer.
Well, that’s a friendly message… “You do not have rights to play this file..” Did I do something wrong? I wonder which website this Yes button is going to open?
Ah, another popup. I must be getting somewhere.
Finally some video! But wait, why is it in a separate window from the controller. And does it get any bigger?
Maximizing the controller window didn’t do much good.
Maximizing the ActiveMovie Window was better, but I still have ugly WinXP chrome surrounding my video window and the framerate is pretty low.
This can’t be right, let me reload.
Yes, the video can get a bit larger, but apparently the video viewer window and controller window are not meant to be joined together. How strange.
I finally decided to use Apple’s built-in Universal Access Zoom (Press command-option-8 to turn on & command-open-+ to zoom in) feature to blow up of the ActiveMovie Window to full screen. (See more options in the Mac System Preferences:Universal Access pref pane in the Seeing area)
Several months later, I decided to give NetFlix another shot to watch 30 Rock. Here’s what greeted me:
Not content with one notice, Microsoft gives us a dialog box to add to the fun.
And no, I’m not kidding- this again. Can I just watch the show?
After all this, I was actually able to watch the entire first season of 30 Rock using the service and the quality was acceptable. Of course, I’m not most people and I don’t understand why this has to be so difficult.
I always find it odd how watching liveblog of the WWDC keynote is both exciting and painfully slow at the same time.
The iPhone AppStore demos are giving me the feeling that this is a transformative moment in time. Like we’re on the tipping point of something incredibly new and that we’re really only just scratching the surface.
Something about this stupid pic with sarcastic captions made me lol this morning. (I didn’t really care what it was about.)
Engadget’s coverage of the same TV.. not so much.
Thanks, Gizmodo.
