Mac OSX Snow Leopard cheaper in Australia?

This morning I find that Snow Leopard, a.k.a. Mac OSX 10.6, will be released in September. It’ll cost US$29 to upgrade, which is way down on the usual US$129. I’m used to paying a significantly larger amount here in Australia for any Apple products though, so I thought I’d check what the price will be here on the Snow Leopard Australia page… and I get the following:

… so only AU$14.95 in Australia? Wow, how’s that work?

This here’s evidence for when they raise the price at a later date.

Update: Curiouser and curiouser – New Zealand page shows NZ$19, Canada page shows CA$29… Japan, India, UK, Germany, and France sites don’t mention upgrade prices, only that it comes with a new Mac (couldn’t help you with other languages). Perhaps price to be determined at a later date?

Update 2: And now there’s no price on pages outside the US. Hmmm.

Update 3: Final selling price was $39.95. Still would like to throw this at ‘em to try to get some money back :)

Apple’s Coke Classic moment

Apple released the new iPod family today – a revised iPod Shuffle lineup (colours, really), the iPod nano (3G), the iPod classic (5.5.5G?) and the all-new iPod touch, which takes the iPhone and strips out the phone functionality.

Is this Apple’s New Coke/Coke Classic moment? And where was Jon Ive when they were designing the new nano?

They’ve tacitly acknowledged the desire for oodles of space with the 80GB and 160GB (!) iPod “classic” line, but it does look increasingly isolated as the rest of the iPod line profilerating with flash-based storage. While my own experiences with a hard-drive based iPod suggests this is probably a smart move, and higher capacities are still impractical with flash, it does feel a bit like the classic monkier is a bit of a cop-out – I’m sure everyone would’ve been far happier with the top-of-the-range iPod touch being hard-drive based for a bit more dollars, but that would have gouged the sales of the iPhone even more.

Instead, you effectively have Apple pointing towards the flash players as the future, and keeping the classic there to assuage concerns about a lack of high capacity options.

The new iPod nano is, to be frank, a bit of an abomination to me (and many others, it would seem). While the “fatty” tag it has been getting is far from fair (or PC), its aim to be a video-nano seems a bit incoherent to me. A two-inch screen is pretty small, and I’m sure any video you’re really watching will be a little squint-inducing. The 2G version was elegant and purposeful; this one looks a bit like an effort to really stretch the nano brand. Could we get a nano-classic here?

I really think either Jon Ive was away when this design was dreamed up, or someone else has usurped his primary role in the design process.

Finally, the iPod touch is also the first flavour most outside of the US will get of the iPhone’s new interface, which should be interesting (in the sense that I will get to play with it). And to show just how far we have come – at the end of 2004, I paid AU$550 dollars for a 40GB iPod (which incidentally you can get refurbished today for $179); today, the new iPod touch 16GB is available for the same price point.

Two steps forward, one step back?

Ed: Also of note! The iPod touch doesn’t have games. Something pending in an upcoming update for both the touch and the phone, perhaps?

The New Apple

Apple unveiled the new iMac today, along with the iLife 08 and iWork 08 suites (neatly skipping the question of ‘07), and suffice to say, they move once again another step forward, keeping themselves way ahead of the curve in both hardware and software.

iMac

One thing that the latest release really confirms is that, in consumer terms, Apple doesn’t make desktop computers any more. They make portable computers, in sizes 13, 15, 17, 20 and 24. There’s no way the components of the iMac are anywhere near the “PC standard” – no chance of being completely user servicable or upgradable. Sure, the iMacs as opposed to the laptops aren’t going to be the most portable devices, but when compared to practically any other “desktop” system, it’s as portable as a … uh… very portable thing.

Anyway.

Apple is light years in front, were light years in front anyway last week, but now they’ve pulled another one out to make sure they stay ahead. Sony’s Vaio series is the only mass manufacturer that even comes close. And Apple can afford to do it, too, because their customers know and expect Apple to control the hardware. The only way to compete would be for a laptop manufacturer to ditch the idea of user-upgradability and just go for it. Oh and poach John Ive while you’re at it, otherwise you’re doomed.

I remember Dad complaining more than once that there was too much clutter around the PC, especially with all those wires. I think I’m going to have to get him a Mac to show him that his wish to get rid of all that crap has come true.

iLife

Nothing so groundbreaking as to warrant dropped jaws, but a big tick of approval as far as I’m concerned with better management in iPhoto, and a revision of iMovie. Again, Apple outpaces anything Microsoft and the Windows universe can throw at them; I just wish that there’s a decent export option in iPhoto 08.

iWork

Keynote and Pages are known quantities: no matter what the upgrade is, the core message is already out there and anything else is just a tweak. Where Apple really pulled a rabbit out of a hat, I feel, is the new spreadsheet app, Numbers.

It’s a continuation of the straightforward naming scheme, and while it is sold as a “spreadsheet”, this ain’t your daddy’s Excel. Without having even used it myself, and having little conceivable use for it in any case, I love it. I love how intelligent this app is – just watch the demo videos on the site and tell me if you don’t find yourself thinking “oh, that is cool actually…” Everything is just more intuitive.

Far and away the best feature, though, is the flexible canvas. It is far more than something for a spreadsheet layout – quite simply, it’s a design tool that’s suddenly shown a gap everywhere else. A spreadsheet as a design tool? Why can’t I do the drag and drop thing this intuitively in Dreamweaver? Is there any design tool which does the same thing? It’s a concept that’s certainly captured my mind. Now if only we could get that to output HTML…

If you’ve watched the demo videos and are returning to your own machine, you should quickily pick up just how right Numbers looks. A simple illustration of this is when you highlight a column, the sidebar comes up with a drag-and-drop of common formulas that might apply – simply pick up the Sum item from the sidebar and drop it in the required cell. A simple idea that will replace the existing mindset, the Lotus 1-2-3 method of hiding it away as a function that you have to “know”.

It’s no Excel, at least from the perspective I’ve seen at work on the trading floor, but when Steve Jobs said spreadsheets for the rest of us, he wasn’t wide of the mark.

New Theme

Sexy new theme – Redoable Lite. As nice as Unsleepable was, this is a bit more shiny =)

Now I Know Why Microsoft Access Sucks

So I spent nearly a whole day chasing a seemingly simple solution to a Microsoft Access problem, and I’ve finally found the officially sanctioned solution. Here it is.

Now, the non-geeks can go read the posts below, or wait for the next one. This post isn’t for you.

Have a quick read, my fellow software developers, especially the part about creating a form to supply parameters to a query. You’ll note the following steps:

1. Create a new form and add the controls needed for entering the parameters.
2. Modify your query so that it obtains its parameters from the controls on the form.
3. Add an OK button to the form that runs the query and then closes the form.
4. Add a Cancel button that closes the form without running the query.

Yes, you’re modifying the query so that it obtains its parameters from the controls on the form. This is a test to see how much attention you were paying in your software design classes (or indeed if you had any).

If you fail to see the problem, then clearly… you’re an Access developer (dare I say Microsoft Developer?). I now have nothing but disdain for you, and all Access MVPs. I’d assume someone would stand up and point out to Microsoft how bad it really is, but clearly you never realised.

If on the other hand, you’re now looking on in sheer terror, welcome to my frustration! What manner of infernal coupling is this?! Could it be that there’s no method to pass a variable?! Yes, dear friend, Access doesn’t let you pass a parameter to a query. Oh no, you must either bind a database element (the query) to a GUI element (the field on the form), or rely on the user to put in the value through a series of generic input dialog boxes.

Reuse? Bah!

Access is not so much a database system as an evil, evil lie.

</rant>

Whatever happened to the Origami?

Whatever happened to the Origami from Microsoft? I remember a lot of hype from it before it fizzled into the oh-so-dour ‘UMPC’, and as far as I can tell, hasn’t been heard from since.

Spamindicators

I've noticed some spam recently – all caught by WordPress' default spam protection, without needing to resort to services like Akismet – that indicate TWiki is being abused by spammers, especially on a number of academic installations. Ok, so, spam comment caught, all done right? Wrong.

It's not ok just to remove the spam comment on your site and sit back thinking "that's one spammer thwarted for the day," because there will be others who are more open to spam, who will not thwart the spammer and find themselves unwittingly putting cash in the pockets of spammers. I raised the issue with a link to a page on my former university faculty's domain, and it was dealt with fairly swiftly. Now, even if that page has slipped past a spam blocker, it's no longer pointing at a valid page and the spammer is again thwarted.

There has to be a way to harness the power of Akismet and other such spam blocking mechanisms to provide feedback to webmasters, rather than just blocking spam. Blocking is a rather selfish approach – "it's not on my site, so it's not my problem". What might be better is to email the webmaster of the domain on which the spam page is hosted in order for the page to get shut down. This might not catch all pages – invariably a large proportion of the links will lead directly to the target page, the spammer's client – but it will catch pages on legitimate sites and help reduce the credibility given to such spam.

Caveat: where this is tricky is in finding the right email to send to. Email is rarely published on pages now, for risk of further spam directly in the box. A standard email address like webmaster@somedomain is probably spammed enough already, or even ignored. Proposal of a standard email would likely get shot down in flames. Something to think about still.