About two weeks ago, I turned on my iPod Touch (1G), which I’ve used daily for three years, and found it wouldn’t connect to my wireless network. When I went to the Settings panel, I got this No Wi-Fi message:

I quickly found several others with the problem. However, none of their suggested fixes worked for me. I also noticed, as indicated in the forums, that with this problem came a simultaneous drastic reduction in battery life. Even when not in use, my iPod was dying in just a few hours.

After attempting the 5 R’s without success, I eventually decided it was time to try getting in touch with Apple. I found their Out-of-warranty Battery Replacement program, and decided it fit the bill. For $89 CAD, Apple appeared to be offering a new or refurbished iPod Touch to replace my broken unit. I skeptically filled out the forms, and with not a little hesitation packaged up my iPod and sent it off into the bowels of the postal system. At this point I half-expected to never see my iPod again, let alone get a working one in return.

To my surprise, a week and a half after putting my unit in the mail, I got a barely used working replacement delivered to my door. The back is still mirror-shiny (unlike my incredibly scuffed one), and other than coming out-of-package, is indiscernible from a new iPod Touch of the same generation.

Why is this so amazing? The transparency and responsiveness of the process really impressed me. Upon opening the claim, I was immediately given a repair status URL where I could track its progress. As you can see, I requested my service on the 15th. Apple diagnosed the issue, decided on a replacement, and shipped it within 24 hours of receiving it. They then gave me the tracking number of the UPS delivery, slated for the 21st: 6 days after I sent it. The only problem with this incredible efficiency was that I had anticipated a 2-3 week turnaround and had submitted the repair with a shipping address in Ontario, where I am traveling for the month of July. Given that they had turned it around in less than a week, this presented a problem. I emailed Apple to see if I could update the address. Again, they responded in less than 12 hours, this time with an actual person notifying me that they had updated UPS with the details and I should expect my shipment within the week. Sure enough, the UPS tracking information was updated shortly in their system, and I tracked it from there to my door in Vancouver. After a quick restore of my data, I now have a working, refreshed iPod in my possession! Check out the crazy list of locations where it was shipped or scanned by UPS:

First off, that an incredibly large corporation offers a reasonably priced out-of-warranty replacement service is excellent: $89 + tax + shipping to replace a $459 device three years after purchase. Second, they turned it around in less than a week (plus the added time for the address change). Third, I was well-informed and had an open channel of communication with said corporate giant throughout the process. This makes me feel really good about Apple, especially when most interactions with corporate entities (ie. insurance companies, telecomms, auto makers) leave me feeling ripped off, powerless, and angry. It would have been easier for Apple to not offer the service, decline repair, or charge far more in the hopes I would just upgrade. Instead, they offer a humane, environmentally responsible (assuming they don’t just trash the old one), and efficient service to their customers.

So, thanks Apple, for putting as much effort and thought into your customer service and repair program as you do into your products. Upon such things is loyalty built.

MarsEdit

Despite the recent overhaul of the WordPress interface, I still find their post editor somewhat clunky. As far as web apps have come, desktop apps are still superior in many ways when it comes to responsiveness, task focus, and interface affordances (think menus, panels, and native UI elements). To address this situation, MarsEdit takes the post writing and management features of your favourite blog software (including WordPress, Blogger, TypePad, Movable Type, LiveJournal, and Drupal) and puts them on your desktop, allowing you to focus on the most important part of your blog: writing. It has just the right feature set, and allows me to write, edit, and preview (and tag, categorize, and edit the metadata of) my posts offline – a crucial aspect when traveling or working away from wireless. I particularly like how it allows me to manage all of my blogs from one interface, rather than having to login to each in turn. Also, the Media Manager makes it effortless to upload, link, and embed images and other media, including those from my Flickr Feed, something that I do every time I write a travel post. Great job, Red Sweater Software! A steal at $29.95 (after a 30-day free trial).

Papers

Having recently become a member of the graduate level academic set, I’ve been learning that managing a research project by haphazardly stuffing attachments into hastily-named folders in Finder can lead to a needle-in-a-haystack situation in record time. Papers is an elegant solution to this problem, allowing you to manage the proliferation of article PDFs on your hard drive. Geared specifically toward research, the program combines database search with article management, reading, annotation, citation, and import/export features. Again, a desktop app trumps the online equivalents of each of these steps. For example, Papers allows you to add the proxy URL of your academic institution, so that when working away from campus you can seamlessly browse and download results from a variety of sources (Google Scholar, ACM, CiteSeer, IEEE Xplore, PubMed, etc) without being blocked by login pages every few clicks as when using a browser. Once downloaded, articles are scraped for bibliographic and other metadata, and organized by author, journal, and user-specified collections.

It is also possible to set Papers to automatically rename and sort the original PDFs into a Library in Finder, so that your files are as neatly organized as your annotations. Also, in addition to citation information, the metadata features allow you to rate your articles and track which you’ve read or printed – a simple but very useful feature. Another similarly well thought-out addition is a one-click Email button which formats a journal URL and citation and attaches the PDF to a new message in Mail. Makes sharing a relevant article with a colleague absolutely effortless. Finally, as a reading environment, Papers tops Preview by offering a magnification slider, improved full screen access, and intuitive icons for continuous/discrete paging and 1-up/facing pages. This has already become indispensable in my research workflow. $42 for a single-user license, after 30 day trial. And 40% off for students!

Xtorrent

Xtorrent is the only remaining BitTorrent client on my Mac. After trying the original, Vuze/Azureus, and others, I settled on Xtorrent for the perfect OS X look and feel, integrated search and download, freedom from ads and other media content that slow down the app (I’m looking at you, Vuze), and well thought-out sorting and selection interaction. From the (Canadian!) genius behind NewsFire, Acquisition, and Inquisitor. Xtorrent is $25 for Pro and free for a 10 kbps download cap after an hour into each session…anyone remember 1996? Worth the cash.

Rivet

When I crumbled to the pressures of consumer society and bought an XBox 360 last fall, I was disappointed (but not surprised) to find that Microsoft had delivered a fantastic user interface and software platform for the system…that won’t talk to my Mac. This meant that if I wanted to stream any media or use my wireless network on my XBox, I’d have to run XP or Vista on one of my machines. Not a very appealing prospect. Rivet addresses the media sharing part of the equation, allowing you to stream your music, photos, and videos directly to your TV through your XBox. The app runs as a discreet menu bar icon (next to your clock, battery, etc) that allows you to specify which folders to share with your console. Shared files fit in seamlessly with the XBox media interfaces, allowing you to play slideshows, listen to music with visualizations, and watch videos. Also, Rivet improves on competitor Connect360 by reproducing the file structure of your media directories in the XBox interface, rather than compiling everything into one flat and difficult to navigate list. Incredibly, streaming doesn’t hiccup at all, even when playing from a USB or firewire connected hard drive! Sure beats tossing everything onto my USB key every time I want to watch a show. $18.95.

MindNode

Though I haven’t spent a lot of time with it, MindNode‘s intuitive interface and simplicity have caught my attention. It’s a ‘mind-mapping’ application that allows you to quickly map out hierarchical or networked data in an attractive visual layout. I haven’t quite found the sweet spot where MindNode’s feature set makes the most sense to use, but I do find myself playing with it. For example, I’ve used it to quickly sketch out XML tags and attributes, and database tables and columns, but find that once I get to a reasonable level of stability in the information design I switch to a more powerful app for adding metadata and so on. Perhaps this is the point of the software – as a mental sketchpad – and it’s just taking some time to get accustomed to the paradigm. I wish that the formatting inspectors were integrated with the main app window as sidebars or drawers, instead of left floating as (Apple default) external panes, but besides that small criticism, this is an intriguingly simple and intuitive app that’s worth checking out. Free. * A Pro version is available for $14.95, but I can’t seem to find any information about what is different between the two versions. The free app doesn’t seem to be handicapped.

World of Goo

And last but not least, World of Goo is a physics simulation puzzle game that has to be played to be appreciated. The game is clever, fun, addictive, and constantly surprises with moments of spontaneity and subversion of expectations. I haven’t enjoyed a puzzle game this much since Lemmings on the Commodore 64. It’s getting in the way of my to-do list in ways that only the best games can! The game speaks for itself, but the story behind it makes it even sweeter. 2D Boy, an ‘indie game studio’ made up of two gents from San Francisco, has been turning heads by returning game development to its roots…namely fun and creativity. Amazingly, they built the game with all open source tools and just $10,000 in personal savings. I think EA must have spent $10,000 on dynamic puck reflection alone in NHL 09! $20 for full version, single chapter demo free.

Sadly, the Safari on Windows experience hasn’t changed Apple’s approach. While working the other day, I was interrupted by the following prompt:

Firstly, the wording in the prompt indicates a Software Update. Despite the fact that .Mac is being replaced, Mobile Me is still new software (ie. not an update to existing software). Apple’s marketing department certainly wants you to believe this, and the $109/year (CAD) price tag would seem to underline it. So, Apple has interrupted my workflow (as far as I can tell launching this prompt independently of Software Update or any other process) to sell me something. That’s not OK. This follows the same sneaky pattern as prompting Windows users to install an entirely new browser on their systems as a ‘software update’ to their iTunes service.

To add to my frustration, this prompt for new software comes after weeks of idiosyncratic activity in Leopard. Notice the default Apple wallpaper behind the MobileMe prompt? That’s not there by choice. Rather, the Desktop pane of my System Preferences has been buggy and inconsistent for weeks, as I swap between monitors. Without going into detail, the folders for my desktop images (including the OS defaults) become inaccessible, rendering me unable to change my desktop wallpaper. I’ve found various workarounds…but this just underlines that Apple’s philosophy is broken. Rather than fixing bugs in existing software that I have paid for, I’m prompted to install and pay for new software that I don’t want! Apple’s always been known as a ‘Design company that makes computers.’ Perhaps they are actually a ‘Marketing company that makes software.’

So, a bit of an annoyance, and a reminder not to trust Apple. Then, this:

As you can see, when connecting my (hacked) iPod Touch, my iTunes interface becomes an advertisement! Again, a new piece of software (indicated by the price tag) labeled as a Software Update. What’s worse, the ‘update’ is primarily intended to install new software (the App Store) to allow me to give yet more money to Apple! Secondarily, it adds features to support MobileMe (which I would also have to pay for), and finally to install software that should have been on the device in the first place. What’s wrong with this picture? Well, maybe I’ll be convinced to upgrade to get the scientific calculator…

To add insult to injury, this message will be displayed every time I connect my iPod for all eternity, as the only options to dismiss the message are “Buy Now” or “Remind Me Later.” What about an “I’m not interested, stop using my desktop as a billboard” button?

UPDATE: Two days after posting this, the iPod software update interface changed. I knew Steve Jobs would read my blog:

After missing the Purolator guy by ten minutes on Friday, I had to wait out the weekend to get my hands on Leopard. However, once I let it out of its cage, I found it had eaten the following parts of my favourite pet Tiger:

• My hard drive! Well, then it regurgitated it. Upon initiating the install from the Leopard DVD, I clicked through the setup options (Language, License Agreement, etc), only to get to the Select a Destination screen…with no hard drives displayed. Confused, I clicked back through to the beginning, wondering what was happening. I then moved back through to the Select a Destination screen, again with no drives displayed. I opened up my old iBook and went online to see if anyone else was having the same problem, and found this forum post, which explained that Leopard was inspecting the drive for problems before offering it as an install disk. I waited, as suggested in the Apple forum, and after a few minutes, my internal hard drive appeared, but greyed out. After another 30 seconds, it became opaque, and I selected it to install. Not so slick, Apple. Would a progress bar have been so hard to implement?
• My custom icons for Terminal, Grab, and my external drives (but not for other apps, including Address Book, Mail, iTunes, and iPhoto). Not sure why it would lose some and not others.
• Inquisitor. Perhaps because this isn’t really its own app, but rather a ‘plugin’ for Safari that resides as a Preference Pane in Safari Preferences. It’s fully compatible with Safari 3.0 and Leopard, but I guess it was too tasty to pass up .
• My hotkeys in Adobe Illustrator CS (but not Photoshop CS). I hadn’t realized how consistently I use the hotkeys until they stopped working. Apparently, forthcoming Adobe updates will address these kinds of bugs, although this quote has me concerned: “Users of older Adobe applications, including Creative Suite 2, may find unexpected compatibility issues. Adobe stated that it has not tested its older applications for compatibility, and will not provide any Leopard-specific updates for pre-CS3 apps or the applications it acquired from Macromedia.” (source). Really? CS is only 3 years old, and they will not test it for compatibility with the OS that the majority of their creative professional users will upgrade to? That’s disappointing in a lot of ways.
• My custom Terminal welcome message.
• My energy saving settings. I don’t want my display to go to sleep after 1 minute, thank you.
• My (everyone’s) black arrow active application indicators, though you can get them back with a little bit of hacking. I find the new glowing blue dots inferior both aesthetically and functionally. Change for the sake of change is not a good thing!
• My Junk folder in Mail. I got it back by selecting Mail > Preferences > Junk Mail > Enable junk mail filtering. Not sure why this would be turned off by default, as it was on and working in Tiger.
• My notes in iCal. The new pop-up interface is kind of cool, I guess, but not as functional. Plus, it keeps opening up halfway between my two displays, rather than recognizing the screen edge and opening in the appropriate direction.

The Things Leopard Threw Up

When downloading an application and opening it for the first time, Leopard prompts “‘AppName’ is an application which was downloaded from the Internet. Are you sure you want to open it?” I know this is here to protect users from accidentally running malicious software, but I should at least be able to disable it. It’s just annoying. Also, it’s the first time I’ve seen OS X copy a Vista ‘feature’, especially after making fun of it.

Besides that small thing, the new aesthetic generally feels heavy:

• the darker drop shadows on the Apple menu and active window
• the darker metal on application windows
• the chunky iTunes-style menus in Finder
• the new default folder icons
• the heavily depressed active buttons in toolbars
• the more heavily saturated red yellow and green window icons
• the over the top highlighting of matches using Safari’s Find feature
• the gears System Prefs icon

It’s all quite dense and technical looking. Not sure how I feel about it just yet, but I’m not sure that most of the visual changes are improvements. It doesn’t look bad, it’s just not as graceful as Tiger. However, I’m sure I’ll get used to it.

There are lots of good things about Leopard: spacebar to QuickLook a document (awesome!), Spaces, WebClips, improved Safari functionality (movable tabs, finally), and many more that I haven’t yet found. Additionally, the upgrade from Tiger to Leopard was actually remarkably smooth, especially in comparison to other operating systems. And it must be said that OS X is still the finest operating system interface design yet invented, both visually and functionally. These are just a few odd changes/omissions I thought I would point out!

After holding out for years, I finally got tired of waiting for ‘the next generation’ and bought my very own iPod. After the most recent product line was announced, I had a variety of choices. The Nanos are too small for my liking. On the other end of the spectrum, the sheer size of the 160GB ‘Classic’ was appealing, but after playing with one at the Apple store, I was let down by the extremely sluggish interface. The hard drive contributes to this, but the new motion graphics and sophisticated interface of the updated iPod software can’t help. There were noticeable, regular delays when browsing between menus and options which I found unacceptable.

Walking into the store, I hadn’t seriously considered the Touch. Firstly, because it seemed too small (storage-wise), and secondly, because it wasn’t due out for another week. However, I calculated that I could still fit around 300 albums (or 2 seasons of Lost!) on a 16GB model, and after asking a sales rep about why I might want to wait for the newest of the new, he pointed out that they had them in stock ahead of schedule (I was lucky to be at the 5th Avenue Apple Store in NYC). After playing with one for a while and taking a day to think about it, my choice was pretty well made up. As the rep pointed out (or had been directed to point out), Apple is leaning toward multi-functional, network-capable iPod designs in their marquee line of products, so it makes sense to swim with the current. Living in Canada, the iPhone still seems a distant possibility. Moreover, I’m not interested in having a cellphone (and the accompanying charges). So, the iPod Touch it was!

I’ve had the device for about a week now, and I’ve been filling a text file with notes as I’ve gotten to know the Touch’s functionality, dis-functionality, and possibilities. Gathered below are the edited results of these impressions. Get a cup of coffee…it’s long!

Packaging and Accessories

• No plastic covers on dock/USB connector. As my girlfriend’s 1st-Gen Nano came with these (and I assume every other iPod did too), I was surprised they were not included. It’s a small thing, but given the easily damaged/vulnerable design of the iPod connector, it seems unwise to leave it open when not in use. What about dirt and dust?
• The cheap plastic stand that comes with the Touch doesn’t allow the iPod to be connected to the dock connector or the audio out, rendering it essentially useless except as a prop for a disconnected (or upside-down) iPod, or to prop the iPod up in horizontal orientation. Really, who designed this? Maybe I’ll go lo-tech and make one of these. Guess I’ll have to buy the dock.
• Headphones are the standard iPod white earbuds. They’re adequate, but full-size headphones will be needed for longer trips.
• A simple black cleaning cloth comes with the Touch. A bag would have been nicer (like what sunglasses come in).

Interface

• Immediately and completely intuitive.
• Of course, the screen gets smudged and fingerprinted, but these are for the most part invisible when viewing the device directly (while in use). The cloth does a good job of cleaning it up without the need for a liquid cleaner.
• Elegant transitions between screens/modes. These are good-looking, but also generally well thought-out in terms of visually communicating the result of a given interaction. The transition between open and newly launched pages in Safari is a good example of this.
• Icons at top of Home screen (iPod, wireless signal strength, clock, battery) are grey, and look cheap/inconsistent in comparison to the rest of the interface, especially since the same icons ARE coloured in all applications except Photos and Calculator.
• Inability to reorder or remove the application icons on the Home screen. For example, I do not regularly use YouTube, and I do not need a dedicated icon for this app.
• Terrible icon for the YouTube application, and the Settings and Contacts icons could be improved.
• Say you’re browsing the web and listening to music, and need to turn the iPod down. There is not a physical set of buttons to control volume (as on iPhone). Fortunately, double-clicking the home button brings up a play/pause/volume control for music, which helps to compensate for the lack of a physical volume control. However, part of trusting an interface comes from knowing that you always have access to such shortcuts. So, when I double-click the home button in CoverFlow mode and nothing happens, I get confused (and frustrated!). I have to instead turn the ipod into a vertical orientation, where the double-click still does nothing, but I have a volume control onscreen.
• The Wallpaper function in the Settings section allows you to set a wallpaper for your Touch. Only problem is that the only time you ever see this wallpaper is when waking the device from Sleep (for as long as it takes you to slide your finger across). I spoke to an iPhone owner who confirmed that this is essentially the same for that device, except that on the iPhone you see the wallpaper behind the keypad during calls. Why the wallpaper doesn’t display behind the Home screen icons is completely beyond me. The black Home screen gets boring quickly.

Applications

Music

• Works as expected, with very nice menus, album artwork support, and transitions. I especially like the artwork/tracklisting dual-sided interface elements, which mimic the real-life experience of holding a CD or LP and turning it over to look at the tracks.
• CoverFlow works very well (snappy), and is a nice visual way of quickly browsing your albums. However, it does not seem to include singles (only albums), and is only as attractive as the completeness of your album artwork collection. Before spending 25 minutes manually updating all the artwork in my Library, CoverFlow was mostly a bunch of black musical notes (the default album graphic) for me.
• Along with Photos, the most polished application on the iPod Touch, and justifiably so! This is a music player, first and foremost.

Videos

• Haven’t spent much time with the videos, but after converting a handful of episodes of a show to .mov format (using FFMpegX) and loading them onto my iPod, they worked as expected. Good quality video and audio.
• Titles don’t scroll when viewing your Videos as a list. This is frustrating when browsing the episode listings of a show, most of which will start with the same show name prefix (putting the episode number/title offscreen). This makes it difficult to tell which episode you are selecting, without watching a clip from it. The way older iPod’s scroll long song titles and episode names would be welcome here.
• Can only be viewed in one orientation (Home button on right), as opposed to photos which will rotate to fit any orientation. Likewise with YouTube. Why? This seems like a feature that Apple just forgot to implement/rushed. Yet another instance of the interface’s inconsistency.

Photos

• Very nice application. Splits your photos up into the Albums which they are organized into in iPhoto. Nice slideshow functionality, with great transitions. Flipping through pictures with a flick of the finger is very rewarding, and a genuinely easy way of quickly sharing digital photos with a friend. Nothing bad to say here!

iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store

• Cool, works as expected. Nice design. I really only use this as an encyclopedia to look up tracklistings and preview songs. Combined with the upcoming Starbuck’s partnership, this is going to make Apple a lot of money, and yuppies very happy. I wonder where I can download the theme music from that new VW commercial…who Wilco? No, I’ve never heard of them.

Safari

• Depending on the site, the experience of using Safari is either seamless (you forget you’re using a mobile device), or terrible (can’t view content, difficult to navigate, uncomfortable). The general distinction I’ve found so far is between sites which are standards-based and those which are not. For example, browsing www.alistapart.com is a dream. Browsing www.torontobluejays.com is agonizing.
• You can view online PDF’s in Safari, and they look great. However, there is no pagination functionality, leaving a lot of scrolling to be done on large documents (including Apple’s own iPod Touch Features Guide PDF). Seems like an obvious oversight.
• In Settings > Safari > Developer, there is an option to turn on the Debug Panel in Safari. This is a good sign, along with the WebKit Web Inspector, that Apple intends to make Safari a better platform for web development. The Debug console integrates nicely with the browser. However, there is a weird red line on the error view (fixed in 1.1.1), and I can’t really see myself debugging on the actual iPod, so the whole thing is a bit confusing. Is this a leftover from the device’s development which they decided to leave in for end-users?
• NO FLASH OR QUICKTIME SUPPORT. Based on reviews, I knew it didn’t support Flash going in, but no Quicktime? Really? Considering YouTube videos are in Flash format, and the Videos application is surely using some derivative form of Quicktime, why can’t I view .swf‘s and .mov‘s in Safari? Let’s connect the dots, guys. This means that Apple’s own highly produced introduction to using the device, the iPod Touch Guided Tour, can’t be viewed on the iPod Touch without first downloading it to your computer and then loading into the Videos section of the device. Dumb!
• No Find function to search for keywords within a web page. I use this so often when surfing that I really miss it here. It wouldn’t be hard to implement, though I suppose it may have been purposefully left off to avoid ‘feature-itis.’
• JavaScript support is good, although the nature of the multi-touch interface renders drag-and-droppable/sortable elements inoperable on the Touch. This is a shame, but I understand the interface design decision.
• At first, I was disappointed that there wasn’t a dedicated RSS app on the Touch (though I still think there should be), but after reading RSS feeds in Safari, I was pretty impressed with the reader.mac.com/mobile format which they are displayed in by default. If you read RSS in Safari on your laptop, this interface will be familiar to you. It works well, though it could use some more polish.

YouTube

• As I mentioned, I’m not too interested in this app, but it works as expected, minus the single orientation option for viewing videos.

Calendar

• When I saw a Calendar application on the Touch, I assumed that it would function similarly to iCal. And it does. Except that you can’t add or edit events. What??? A Read-Only Calendar? You’ve GOT to be kidding. This is one of several instances where the intentional handicapping of the device’s functionality is evident in comparison to the iPhone.

Contacts

• I can add, edit, and delete Contacts…which makes it even stranger that I can’t do the same for Calendar events.
• Interface for Contacts is quite good, although when adding Contacts, I want to be able to turn the iPod into its horizontal orientation to take advantage of the larger, sideways keyboard. Alas, as in many screens, only the vertical orientation is supported here.

Clock

• Some nice, useful features, and a slick interface. The multiple world clocks are great for traveling, and the alarm clock works well (though the sound effects are kind of cheap – I would have preferred the OS X standards like purr, ping and submarine).

Calculator

• Nothing to be said really – nice interface, works properly. A tipping function would have been nice.

Settings

• Wi-Fi setup is easy, and surprisingly sophisticated for more complex network setups. I was online within seconds of turning the Touch on.
• Brightness control has an auto-brightness option to automatically adjust to ambient light conditions. This feature was introduced with the Intel-based Apple laptops, I believe, and it’s put to excellent use here.
• General Settings allows you to set a lock on the iPod with a pin number, which works well if you think somebody undesirable might be messing with your stuff. Here you can also set date, time, international, and keyboard settings, and choose your Wallpaper (see gripes above). I haven’t figured out how to remove the default Wallpaper folder (or add to it for that matter). The shipped wallpapers are your standard nature/fine art options, as well as a handful of graphics based on the most recent iPod commercials (with the silhouetted dancers on tropical looking backgrounds). However, the Wallpaper section also gives you access to your Photo library (in which I’ve created my own iPod Wallpapers album).
• There is then a Settings panel for each of the apps, which allows you to set the options you would expect. Works well, nicely laid out.

iPhone vs. iPod Touch

If you can afford the $70-100/month for service, the iPhone gives you a lot more bang for the same price (since they dropped the 8GB price from $599 down to $399). Dedicated applications for weather, maps, stocks, and e-mail, a camera, a phone, a working Calendar…and I’m sure a 16GB model can’t be far away. All I can guess is that the premium price for the iPod Touch ($299 and $399 USD for the 8 and 16GB models) is due to its first generation status. Given the wide gaps in functionality between the iPhone and Touch, the same (initial) price is difficult to stomach. Although as a friend pointed out, Apple must make a killing on the services in their deal with AT&T.

Final Thoughts

This is the first generation (2nd if you include the iPhone) of this device, and even a company as accomplished as Apple is bound to make some mistakes. Nevertheless, the kinds of inconsistencies I’ve pointed out hurt the user experience, and tarnish Apple’s vaunted design reputation. While these may be improved by software updates, and will become less noticeable as I get used to them, they remain missteps which I expected Apple to avoid. The good news is that the platform is solid; these are software/interface design issues, not hardware problems.

The possibility of purchasing additional apps (through iTunes or otherwise) would improve my evaluation of the device. Games would be nice (sudoku, crosswords, etc), and if Mail, RSS, and Weather apps are released, I would buy them instantly, given a reasonable price point in the $5-$25 range (cheaper for single-purpose widgets like Weather and more for the sophisticated features offered by Mail or other complex apps). The sheer number of apps you get on the iPhone that are missing or handicapped in the iPod Touch is really frustrating. How hard would it have been to give me Notes, Maps, and a working Calendar? Let the iPhone’s phone capabilities and camera distinguish it from the Touch…don’t purposefully downgrade my $400 device. For example, I can still check the weather forecast through Safari, it’s just less convenient. The Weather app is a basic piece of software that already ships with iPhone and OS X Dashboard. Why isn’t it here?

As you can tell, I’m not head-over-heels for the Touch. Overall, the truly impressive multi-touch interface, ability to browse the web on an iPod, generally high-quality media features, and solid construction of the iPod Touch have made me a satisfied, if not ecstatic, owner, but there’s still a lot of room for improvement.

UPDATE: As I wrote this, the iPod Touch 1.1.1 Firmware Update came down the pipe, and has been installed on my iPod. Haven’t had a chance to explore any changes which this update may have made, but I can only hope it’s the first update of many!

I have been using Panic Software‘s excellent OS X FTP client, Transmit, for about two years now. The Mac software maker recently released Coda, advertised as One Window Web Development for Mac OS X. The software has already won an Apple Design Award for Best Mac OS X User Experience, and it has been getting attention from a lot of web developers, if the buzz on the blog scene is any indication.

After my positive experiences with some of Panic’s other products, namely Transmit and Desktastic, I was interested to see what Coda would offer. Fortunately, it is available to download for a free two week trial. I used the trial period to give it a shot, and found it comfortable to use, beautifully designed, and fairly fully featured. Though there are several issues which remain for me (see below), the overall experience of the product convinced me to lay out the $69.95 USD (Transmit owner price) to have it for my own. What follows is an (incomplete) rundown of the features, limitations, and bugs that I’ve experienced so far, for anyone else interested in switching to the product.

* As I have used TextMate and Eclipse almost exclusively for web development for the past year, many of my gripes with Coda address features found in those products which are missing or, to my mind, not properly implemented here. However, Coda offers a more intuitive, streamlined interface than either of these environments, and so naturally there are trade-offs.

Best Features

• Built-in Page Preview in Safari, and a drop-down menu to view the page in the browser of your choice (this list is automatically populated with browsers installed on your system). The page Preview can also be viewed in a split mode, with your code and page visible simultaneously (all in one window, of course).
• Inline validation of XHTML and CSS.

  

• Clips is a floating panel which allows quick access to common code snippets to be inserted into your code. Comes populated with common (X)HTML snippets like DOCTYPE declarations and page structure, as well as Lorem Ipsum text. Also allows easy addition of custom Clips.

  

• Built-in Terminal. Very handy!
• Symbols/Functions Navigator, akin to that in Eclipse, a more fully functioned IDE.

  

• Simultaneous Local/Remote viewing of sites, with built-in Transmit FTP. Makes managing local and live copies of files intuitive.
• Sites view. Great GUI for the various remote sites you have to manage on a daily basis.

  

• Overall design excellence. The Panic guys are perfectionists, and their attention to detail really pays off in all the little touches that raise this application head-and-shoulders above the other options in terms of look and feel.

Limitations

• No code block folding/toggling. This is a simple but major feature to leave out. I use this constantly in TextMate, especially when editing XML documents.
• Cannot select and set the case (Upper, Lower, Camel) of a piece of text, as in TextMate.
• No Find & Replace in Project (directory) feature (again, like in TextMate).
• Site images in Sites view don’t display Flash content.
• Can’t arrange order of open tabs (files). (Addressed in V.1.0.3)
• Can’t move around views/perspectives. In Eclipse, I’m able to arrange my window as I would like, and even the minimal interface of TextMate allows me to set the directory structure drawer to open on the left or right. In Coda, the default view is your only option. As gorgeous as it is, some flexibility would be nice!
  

  Panic responded with the following:
  “You’re right, the File Browser can only be on the left of the screen, though you can hide it by selecting Hide File Browser from the View menu. Just about everything else about the layout is customizable through the use of splits, though. I like having my CSS in an editor on the left, and a preview of my HTML on the right. Vertical splits are great!”

  This is true, although I meant the ability to move around the various inspectors/navigators. For example, the Find and Replace interface, the Functions viewer, the local and remote site navigators, etc. These are not customizable, in terms of position. However, as I mentioned, the default layout and design of these features is excellent, and I’d rather have one well-configured layout than unlimited options to customize.

• Clicking twice on a file in the file navigator on the left does not allow Renaming (as any Mac user would expect). (Addressed in V.1.0.3)

Bugs!

• Undo continually fails. Several undo’s will work, then suddenly stop. The Release Notes for the most recent version state that this has been addressed, but I continue to experience this issue, and it is by far the most frustrating bug of the bunch.
• Block comment feature does not recognize in-head stylesheets (uses HTML comments rather than CSS comments). Likewise with Embedded Ruby – tries to comment out HTML tags with Ruby comments (#).
• Dual-monitoring: didn’t recognize to bring my Clips panel back onto my laptop monitor after unplugging my external monitor. I wasn’t able to get the panel back until I restarted Coda.
• Syntax colouring did not turn on automatically after saving a file as CSS. Had to close and re-open to get colouring. Also, mixed files, and less common file types, are often coloured incorrectly, or not at all.
  

  Panic responded with the following:
  “You can change the syntax mode from the Text menu, or from the action menu at the bottom of the editor pane. As for your less common file extensions, you can set up custom syntax modes in the Preferences, under Editor.”

• General crashes have become less common since upgrading to V.1.0.3, but there are still application crashes during regular tasks. Apple-tabbing to other applications and back to Coda seems to be particularly problematic.

The limitations and bugs I’ve mentioned are not insignificant, but Panic has an excellent track record of constant improvement of their products. It’s clear that they invest more than the standard effort to make their products stand out, and I think that Coda is already very impressive, even this early in its lifecycle. Thanks for a great tool guys!

After sending Panic a link to this article, I received a prompt reply from Tim at the company responding to several of the issues I mentioned (included in-line, above), and asking for more details on the bugs I outlined. Thanks for caring!

However, after about 3 months of solid performance from my new machine (a MacBook Pro 15.4″ 1.83 GHz Core Duo), problems started to crop up. I had already grown accustomed to the intense heat put out by the machine (particularly on the bar over the function keys and precisely where you place your wrists while typing), and I had found a wonderful little app to stop the incredibly annoying whine (QuietMBP). However, the new noises were much scarier, and seemed to originate from the right fan near the power button:

Shortly after this began, my CD/DVD drive began to have problems, routinely ejecting a disc multiple times before finally loading it up. Then, the death knell: my power adapter stopped charging. If I held the laptop vertically with the adapter pressing into it from below, I could sometimes get it to charge for 30 seconds or a minute, but then it would cut out again. So, without power, I was forced to take my book in for service.

After about a week’s wait, my warranty covered the replacement of the following:

• Logic Board
• Right Fan
• Power Adapter
• Superdrive

And all of this after my battery got recalled! My little guy is starting to resemble Frankenstein, stitched together from the warehouses of multiple generations of Apple laptops. I realize this computer is the first generation of Intel Macs, but the widespread problems encountered by users, and first-hand experience with my machine and those of friends makes me wonder if Apple didn’t rush these to market without sufficient hardware and real-world testing. Nevertheless, the warranty covered everything, the shipment of parts was relatively quick, and everything seems to be running smoothly (and quieter and cooler) now. I still wouldn’t trade this for an older (though perhaps more reliable) machine.

Edit: Three months after this round of repairs, both fans failed again. They were again covered by warranty, but again I had to wait while the fans were ordered and installed. As a small business person, being without my work machine is extremely frustrating and potentially costly. I am considering requesting Apple cover the cost of an Extended Warranty (3 year AppleCare), as the track record for this machine since its purchase has been so dreadful. I doubt they’ll go for it, but it’s worth a shot.

For others having problems with the heat and fan noise caused by the MacBook Pro, try downloading smcFanControl 2.1 by Hendrik Holtmann. It’s a free app that sits in your Menu bar and displays the temperature of your machine and the current fan speed (in RPM). This helps to monitor which applications are causing the fans to run fast and the computer to heat up, and also indicated to me that both fans were dead (running at 0rpm). When this was the case, the CPU heated up to 89 degrees C and Mac OS X became extremely sluggish. Needless to say I unplugged and took it into the ER asap!

However, shortly after getting XP up and running, I belatedly realized that a *stable* version of Vista had been released by Microsoft. The chance to try out Microsoft’s long-delayed, much-hyped, overdue operating system? Let the fun begin!

Disclaimer: The following is not a technical look at the new OS or the installation process, but rather a visual walkthrough of the Vista install process, and some thoughts on the look and user experience of the new OS. It is intended to be helpful to others attempting to install Vista on their Macs. All times are generalized, and dependent on my overworked machine.

Software:

• Windows Vista (Release Candidate 1) 32-bit
• Parallels (Build 1940 – then Build 1966, see Step 23)

Hardware:

• MacBook Pro 1.83 GHz Intel Core Duo (1.5GB RAM)

I used the tutorial and many pointers from this thread at the Parallels site to get Vista running properly. I set up the Virtual Machine as described here using the Vista .iso file downloaded from http://www.microsoft.com/windowsvista/getready/preview.mspx.

The newest build of Parallels (October 12th, 2006), has a VM Setup Template for Vista. This seems to work perfectly, though it does require 16GB of free hard drive space. After a bit of re-organizing, I managed to find 16 free gigs, and continued.

On to the install…

1. A pretty Vista loading screen greets me, asking to set language properties. So far, a much better-looking installation than XP (blue screen of death!)



2. The first step, Copying Windows Files, was very quick – perhaps a minute.



3. The second step, Expanding Files, took much longer, approximately half an hour, though I was working in other applications in OS X at the same time.



4. The VM restarts to a black and grey screen which indicates that Windows is loading for the first time.



5. The installation window is displayed and quickly zips through Installing Features and Installing Updates.
6. The Completing Installation step takes about 12 minutes.



7. This black screen displaying the Windows Vista Build number is displayed for around a minute.



8. VM restarts to the same screen. After about a minute, with the pointer displaying an animated circular green icon beside it, the Set Up Windows dialogue is displayed.



9. Next, a computer name and desktop background dialogue. Interesting how the setup emphasis to this point is on personalization, customization, and demonstration of the UI. The gorgeous background photos update on selection, and it’s at this point that I realize I’m IN Vista – I can drag around the Setup window, and select options from the language drop-down menu. However, it’s also at this point that it becomes evident Vista is still Windows – after some dragging around, my window skips a bit and whites out the background image. The setup hangs for a second and then refreshes.



10. Time zone and clock setup.



11. No no, Thank You. Very slick!



12. Back to the green and blue nebula, with a progress bar: “Please wait while Windows checks your computer’s performance.” A series of icons with adspeak fade in and out: “Quickly find anything”, “The most secure Windows® to date”, “Information and tasks at your fingertips”, etc.



13. At the end of the progress bar, back to the black screen from steps 7 and 8.
14. Familiar Windows login sound, with a cool animated Windows logo burst, then “Welcome…” and “Preparing your desktop…” with the animated circle thingie (I like it). Looks like this Release Candidate is a version of Vista Ultimate (Ultimate, really? Why not Windows Beefcake, or Windows to the Max? Those are equally stupid.)



15. Vista has landed! First screen is a Welcome Centre displaying details about the machine, and the usual Getting Started… type stuff.



16. All elements of the UI are smooth, often animated, and very ‘Web 2.0.’ First impression is a good one, although the icons in the system tray look like Windows 3.1 – I’m sure these will be glossified. I like the minimal start button orb and the black base colour of the UI.



17. After boosting the resolution, I started to look around. The wallpapers shipped with Vista are substantially more impressive than XP. Better than OS X? Hmmm….some of them are. I like the option of Widescreen wallpapers, and the organization into categories all in one display is faster than the Mac folder selection approach, which I often find tedious.





18. Most of the familiar options are available in each screen, and laid out similarly to XP. I expected the Color Scheme option under Appearance to allow me to change the base colour of the OS (the black carried through the Start menu and task bar). However, only the Windows Vista Basic option looks good – all the other options are hideous ports of XP (95?) colour schemes. Maybe more polished versions will ship with the retail version. I do like the Recent Tasks menu in the sidebar which is updated as you navigate windows – useful and subtle, and faster than Finder’s ‘Go > Recent Folders…’ option.





19. Next step, setting up the Parallels Tools to allow OS to OS mousing, and other improvements. Interesting warning from Vista on install.



20. First look at DashBar, or SideBoard…err Windows Sidebar, with GadgWets, or WidgGets…err Gadgets. Only joking, nothing wrong with borrowing a good idea. Performance seems pretty slow, but the Parallels Tools are still installing.



21. Restart after Tools are installed. Vista boot is around 1 1/2 minutes. I can now mouse between Vista and OS X seamlessly…wow. On second login, Vista still looks good. I’m beginning to like this.
22. Gadgets load a bit slowly (but no more slowly than Dashboard sometimes). However, they can be dragged on to the desktop to be perma-gadgets, a feature I have heard people wish Dashboard had. Screen savers are almost all 3D oriented, and at this point 3D graphics are not supported by Parallels, so I’m stuck with the Windows logo (a new angular flourish?).
23. First problem: can’t get online. I found a newer build of Parallels which attempts to address Shared Networking problems. Power down the VM and update Parallels to Build 1966 (from 1940). Doesn’t work on first try, but after browsing the Configuration for the VM (in the Parallels Property Page View), I found the Network Adapter tab, which allowed me to set Shared Networking (Virtual Network Adapter), as described here. I can see that Mac OS X has detected a new connection with a local IP (192.xx.xx.xx) (using iStat Pro), so I try Vista again.
24. On reboot, having detected a connection, Vista launches a Network setup wizard, which I click through without editing, selecting a ‘Home’ network setup. Works like a charm!
25. First look at IE7 running in Vista. UI looks significantly more polished from the IE7 Beta I’ve been running on my PC. Also, new front page…look familiar? Perhaps the Microsoft user interface designers are finally getting the point that simpler is better. Page loads seem extremely fast – faster than Safari or Firefox running in OS X. This could be for a number of reasons, I suppose, but a nice surprise, as my Beta version of IE7 was incredibly slow. Navigating to a flash-driven site, IE7 automatically recognizes the necessary plugin and installs it with two clicks in about 10 seconds. I’m impressed. Flash performance is great – streaming a video with sound quickly and without jitters. Also my first experience with Vista sound in Parallels, which others have had problems with. Seems fine so far.



26. I’m also able to access my local server from Windows by browsing to my Mac IP address. I’m running MAMP at port 8888, so my local server address looks something like http://24.xx.xx.xx:8888/. Seems fast, and to my great joy, my in-development websites seem to look and behave in IE7 exactly as they do in Firefox! Praise for .png’s and standards-based CSS!
27. Browsing to a .pdf document calls up a dialogue to find software to read it. So, no built-in PDF reader like Safari. Anyway, two clicks take me to a list of suitable software, and I’m directed to the Adobe Reader page. Download speeds also extremely fast. Good. After install the Reader interface is integrated with IE7, and works well.
28. Nice new feature of IE7, which I expect will show up in other browsers, is a view which allows you to see all tabs which are open in a window in a tiled layout, to quickly navigate between. It also shows if a tab is loading, and allows you to open new tabs without exiting the tiled view. Nice feature for people who often have lots of tabs open.



29. The emphasis on security in Vista is understandable, but as usual a bit clunky. Each potential ‘threat’ (unsigned certificates, software downloads, installs) prompts a fullscreen shade-out with a dialogue asking you to verify that you would like to continue the given action. Only one-click to continue, which is nice, but still seems a bit extreme. For web prompts, I prefer the option in Safari to confirm a downloaded application which pops up from the Download panel. It’s less intrusive and doesn’t interfere with other things you might be doing. The shade-out demonstrates Vista’s improved screen effects, though.

All in all, I’m impressed with Vista’s visual overhaul, and the UI designers have thought of some nice features and implemented them smoothly. It’s still not OS X, and I’m sure there will be problems under the hood, but my first impression is certainly a positive one. Good luck, Bill!

Notes on Parallels:

1. Three times during installation, Parallels prompted me with: “Parallels Desktop has detected that the virtual machine is running without Parallels Tools. Installing the Parallels Tools will make your work with the virtual machine more comfortable: the tools smooth mouse moving, enhance video susbsystem functionality and other characteristics. To start installing Parallels Tools, please select VM->Install Parallels Tools in menu.” This dialogue didn’t seem to interrupt the installation, but it seems odd that Parallels would display this message during an OS install.
2. I could run the install in Fullscreen mode on my second monitor, but Parallels had to switch back to console view to take screenshots. Still, nice that a screenshot feature is built right into the application – saves image editing.
3. Shutting the VM down using the Power Off Virtual Machine button caused Vista to display a ‘Windows was not properly shut down’ black screen on the next startup. I guess Vista needs to be shut down using the Start menu before powering down the VM.
4. XP boots from the .iso in about 15 seconds. Vista takes closer to a minute. More overhead, I guess.