The new feed
Here’s the link to the new RSS feed over at CNET if you’re wondering where the horny one is currently plying his trade.
And remember, every click over makes George Ou cry.
The Macalope Sells Out
The Macalope is pleased to announce that starting immediately, he’ll be blogging for CNET.
“Well, I know you cant work in fast food all your life
But dont sign that paper tonight,” she said,
But its too late.
This is a great opportunity for this mythical beast to gain a higher profile and, well, start making a little scratch for his troubles. According to the agreement, CNET bloggers retain responsibility for their content so you should not suddenly start seeing a bunch of puff pieces about how awesome companies that just happen to be CNET advertisers are.
Although, by the way, they are really, really awesome.
Yeah, I dont remember what I read,
I dont remember what they said,
I guess it doesnt matter,
I guess it doesnt matter anymore
But, even so, why would you like this? What do you, the Macalope’s lithesome yet virile reader, get out of it?
For starters, the fact that the horny one is now getting paid something reasonably resembling his worth (no offense to the fine folks at Rogue Amoeba who took a chance on a relatively untested mythical creature on their own initiative) means he has an incentive to write more.
Sell out, with me, oh yeah, sell out, with me tonight
Record company’s gonna give me lots of money and
Everythings gonna be all right
Also, there is, you’ll have to admit, a certain poetic irony in the Macalope blogging for the company that owns the company that George Ou blogs for.
What does that mean for this site vis-á-vis the new blog? Well, the Macalope’s not sure yet. He suggests continuing to subscribe to this feed as it may become the Macalope “after dark” as it were — a place to post those posts CNET might think are a little “too blue”.
No more flippin’ burgers puttin on my silly hat you know
I dont want that no more,
I didnt ask when we get paid, I quit my day job anyway,
I guess it doesnt matter, I guess it doesnt matter anymore
One piece of bad news is that CNET does not currently provide full RSS feeds. They provide the first 100 characters which should at least take care of the primary complaint the Macalope heard which was having to click through for short posts. Also, it’s the Macalope’s understanding that they’re not completely wedded to this structure so if you’d rather see full feeds with ads or full feed without ads or full feeds without ads and a free beverage, let them know.
I dont think itll be so bad
I know it wont be so bad
‘Cause the man said thats the way it is
And the man said it dont get better than this, no, no, no
Again, it’s the Macalope’s sincere hope that his good fortune is your good fortune.
Lyrics to “Sell Out” by Reel Big Fish.
Robert Scoble is not (always) an idiot
Steve Jobs isn’t an idiot.
So, what do I think will happen? Oh, I can see the Steve Jobs keynote in 2008 right now. “We’ve sold eight million iPhones, more than we expected” and “remember how I said iPhone apps needed to be done with JavaScript and HTML? Well, we heard from all of you that you wanted to play games on Pogo.com so we added Flash. And we’ve been working on our own iPhone applications for more than a year now and we’re sharing the developer tools we use internally.”
Here’s the Macalope’s view. Apple (read: “Steve Jobs”) is a company that likes to tightly control its message. Admittedly, this hasn’t always been handled perfectly (see: “Who the hell let Stan Sigman go on and on and on at Macworld SF, 2007?”), but there is some kind of logical disconnect going on here. Either Jobs left the “iPhone SDK, to be or not to be?” decision up to his underlings and spoke out of turn at All Things Digital and then had to put some lipstick on the pig, or there’s still another shoe to drop.
The Macalope — and Scoble, apparently — are in the “other shoe” camp.
It's all AT&T's fault
Christian Gloddy thinks he knows why Apple won’t be releasing an iPhone SDK — AT&T doesn’t want VoIP apps on the iPhone because it doesn’t want users to have an alternative to buying its overpriced talk minutes.
Could be, and it clearly does work to their advantage, but then why would they allow the 802.11 connectivity at all? Wouldn’t they also want people using their overpriced data minutes?
For what it’s worth, the Macalope still thinks it’s mostly Apple. So far no one has used an iPhone. It’s a whole new interface and Apple wants to tightly control that experience because that is what makes the iPhone different from other phones. It’s not Edge. It’s not the camera. There is no other feature you can’t get elsewhere either better or cheaper.
Despite yesterday’s eye-roll-inspiring “announcement” that developers can develop for this thing called “the Internets”, this isn’t necessarily over. All All Things Digital, Jobs alluded to more than what he delivered yesterday.
Although, he also said Apple would deliver a replacement “in a year” when he canceled the Newton.
So…
Pre-Keynote Rumor Roundup
By The Macalope and has 7 comments.
The Wall Street Journal is now in on the iTunes movie rentals rumor. This one strikes the Macalope as having a high probability of being true. As was discussed on last week’s MacBreak Weekly, video rentals are really one of the ways Apple can make a compelling proposition out of the Apple TV.
The Macalope gives this one six out of six antler points.
He’s less sanguine about the Safari on Windows rumor (tip o’ the antlers to Daring Fireball). Sure, there’s the “gateway app” philosophy that says the way Apple makes inroads to Windows users is to offer them cool apps to show them what they’re missing on OS X.
But a browser? Seems to the horny one that most of the hot action in the browser goes on in WebKit, not Safari. Meanwhile, Firefox has already established itself as the “not IE” browser for Windows including all those sarcastic “Get a real browser!” reminders. Also, based on what the Macalope’s hairy ears have picked up about the relative stability of running iTunes on Windows, he’s not so sure the “gateway app” philosophy is as sound as you might think.
But assuming Apple has ironed out its Windows development issues, then are there really any other apps the company has that it could/would/should port? You don’t want to to give away the farm by porting iLife and you don’t just want to hit a small segment of the market by porting a professional app like Aperture.
Three out of six antler points.
Neither really seems like a great announcement for WWDC. But, then, they could just be bubbling to the surface because of WWDC and might only get announced later.
Oh, and the Google rumor below gets five out of six antler points.
Seven minutes.
.Mac/Google mashup?
Business Week’s Arik Hesseldahl asks, could .Mac be moving to Google?
As with all such things, the question is rather over-simplistic. The Macalope doesn’t expect .Mac to be wholly replaced by Google. That’d make for some very angry parents who have their child’s entire life story on their .Mac account.
But .Mac is an anachronism in Apple’s product lineup. Kind of like eWorld was. Admittedly not the only one, but an overpriced and frequently criticized one that marks an unnecessary hole in Apple’s offering. Maybe it made sense for Apple to roll .Mac all by itself in the early aughts when there weren’t necessarily that many ways to easily get your Civil War reenactment group’s pictures onto the web from your Mac, but that’s not really the case anymore.
OK, Uncle Clive who plays the unkempt Confederate with the handlebar mustache in a felt cap and cape (no, the other unkempt Confederate with the handlebar mustache in a felt cap and cape) shouldn’t have to download some kind of utility before he can upload his pictures of 17 middle-aged bachelors attempting to reenact the entire battle of Appomattox, but Apple can handle that part by including the feature in Leopard.
At any rate, you shouldn’t bet anything other than Confederate currency that Apple won’t be updating .Mac next week. And why do it on their own?
Well, duh
By The Macalope and has 8 comments.
Computerworld discovers what you already knew: yes, Virginia, on average, Macs don’t actually cost more.*
It’s just that:
A) Apple is a quality brand. eMachines, etc., aren’t.
and
B) Apple doesn’t make as many models as all the other PC makers combined.
It’s absurd we keep having to go through this exercise, but this is good. This is progress.
It should take only another 15-20 years for this particular piece of erroneous conventional wisdom to be drained from the fetid brain pan of public consciousness.
The Macalope is assuming your name is Virginia. Your name may not actually be Virginia, but the point still remains.
So long and thanks for all the oppressive windows
By The Macalope and has 13 comments.
No more brushed metal come Monday?
At least that’s what the Macalope seems to divine as Mr. Gruber’s opinion today.
From your blog to Steve’s eyes.
Extra Credit
While we’re waiting for the episode to get posted (hey, voice manipulation is a tricky business and Leo’s a busy man), The Macalope has some further comments on some things that were discussed on MBW:
- In the All Things Digital love-fest between Jobs and Gates, Gates kept talking about how cameras were going to be set up in everyone’s house and your computer would react to your movement. Indeed, Roughly Drafted discusses at length the fact that Microsoft’s new conference table is not a touch-sensetive table, but works with cameras. Personally, the Macalope can think of few things creepier than Bill Gates and Microsoft installing cameras in his home (one of them is that Jerry Lewis movie). Thank you, no.
- The Macalope’s pick was PandoraJam. Having used it more thoroughly in the past 24 hours, he should now point out that it’s a little buggy. On slower machines or connections the files it creates will likely have some skipping, but at least you have access to the full songs so you can go back and listen to them to decide if you want to buy them. Maybe the flaws are nice way of keeping people honest. Not for the Macalope, of course. He is as honest as the day is long. It’s for you people. At any rate, the Macalope still thinks it’s worth $15.
- The Macalope did mention this, but if you listen to the All Things Digital interview, twice Jobs alluded to an upcoming online offering in the next year or two that he wouldn’t elaborate on. He then said that .Mac was going to get an update “soon”, leading the Macalope to believe that these are separate topics. He’s interested to hear the thoughts of his charming and well-manicured readers who might have sat through the cast.