Friday, May 30, 2008

3

The oldest vaporware in the Macintosh world?

The PC world has Duke Nukem, but at least they’re not taking money for something that’s never coming. Strider Software’s TypeStyler is taking orders and never delivering…

You know TypeStyler, right? If you read MacSurfer, it’s one of the first ads you see:

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It didn’t work under 10.3 (ahh, those were the days) but it was under development and coming soon, and their email implored us to just buy it and run it in Classic OS 9 mode and when the new version would be ready, we’d be the first to know.

Now - that was then. We’ve broken up over 3 years ago and still I see the ad, unchanged, imploring gullible Mac newbies to invest in TypeStyler and wait for the never-coming OS X version. I’ve written recently asking where it is… “coming soon” is the reply, a virtual carbon copy of a mail I received 3 years ago.

Do they realize you can’t run it any longer since there’s no Classic OS 9 mode in OS 10.5? It’s been nearly a two years with Intel Macs and a year from 10.5’s launch… I’m sure they do, being developers and all, but when you check their website for information on compatibility:

“TypeStyler X is feature complete and we continue to do internal beta testing in Tiger for both the PowerPC and the new Intel Macs making sure all the pieces integrated so it won’t be much longer before our beta testers start seeing something”

...

“TypeStyler for Mac OS X is not just a port of TypeStyler 3 to OS X but an updated OS X application that takes advantage of the latest Mac OS X (for both PowerPC and Intel) operating systems. Until the TypeStyler for OS X is released most users have found the current TypeStyler 3.7.2 (one known issue) runs fine under the Classic environment of OS X of all past and currently shipping PowerPC Macs. The new Intel Macs do not support Classic.”

Ah, Tiger. That was fun too - many years ago. And small note to all PowerPC 10.5 users - don’t bother buying it, because we’re no longer using Classic either.

What galls me is that MacSurfer still allows the ad to run! How many people will waste their money, waiting for a working application that will—to all visible signs—never, ever come? If you were running an ad for a vaporware application that is, in effect, a bait-and-switch gimmick. And last I saw in the US, bait-and-switch was illegal.

There needs to be some pressure on MacSurfer to remove ads that are inherently fraudulent and deceitful. After 4+ years of waiting for an OS X app that’s “coming soon”, I think Strider Software is perhaps the most unreliable, vaporous and possibly dishonest software developer out there on the Mac.

Beware. 

(I’ve posted a follow-up to this, but without any further response from the developer)

Posted by Admin on 05/30 at 07:57 AM
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Friday, May 23, 2008

Hillary…um…

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‘nuff said.

Love the triad - testosterone’s all over the map on this one…

Posted by Admin on 05/23 at 07:42 AM
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Friday, May 16, 2008

1

iPhone for the Proletariat?

Considering the models we *might* have seen in photos recently, the news of massive roll-outs across europe and asia…especially India…I speculating the new iPhone is actually a red herring.

I’ve been thinking a lot about the where Apple would want to go next. I’m guessing that in three weeks, at WWDC, Apple’s big surprise won’t be the new iPhone.

Everyone’s been picking over the new 2.0 features - 3G, GPS, blah blah blah… Believe me, I want one too. I have a first-gen iPhone and it’s easily the best phone I’ve ever owned, but I think that the world’s been looking too high. Sure - the OS can support all these options and more, and I’m sure those who can afford to buy a $400-500 phone and supporting data plan will rush out and buy it on the first day.

But I’ve been living in Europe now for nearly 9 years and living with an à la carte telephone system. Most people buy a Pre-Pay - a locked subsidized mobile from a telco and then buy mobile credits to top-up their phones when they need to. And when I say “most people”, I generally mean teens to 20s, even some 30-ish slackers. If you’ve got what the dutch call an “abonnement”, which is a monthly phone plan usually taken in 1 or 2 year cycles, then the odds are you can choose a better phone. You’re also likely being reimbursed partially by your employer. While these all-in plans are the ones people align with the iPhone, the truth is that the great majority of ALL phone are those contract-free, pre-paid Nokias and SonyEricssons you need to always top-up. Considering the data costs of an iPhone, it’s no wonder it’s always used under a contracted plan; you’d go broke fast with a top-up scheme.

But then why—really, WHY—is India getting the iPhone under several different telcos and getting it distributed through 250,000 vendors? That’s ten times what anyones best-guess would have produced!

My best guess is that we’ll see not one but two new iPhone’s rolled out - the hot new GPS & 3G iPhone and a lower-cost iPhone in colored plastic, functionally identical to the existing model, for the Pre-Pay crowd. It makes sense - Apple and their partners are daily dropping hints on new iPhone contract roll-outs across the world, but in staggering numbers. A cost-reduced, reengineered 2.0 iPhone in an ABS plastic shell - white or black - created for the masses like the MacBook, with all the basic features you’d expect in an iPhone. Then for the folks who have to always have best-in-class, similar to what we have now in weighty aluminum and glass like the generations of Powerbooks and MacBook Pros, denoting that you want the best there is at the time. It has the added benefit of not embarrassing those of us with the current version too.

For the 3G big-boy, would Apple would use their patent for an integrated lcd screen and compound lens? Sharp announced that a similar screen technology should be ready for this spring, but then merging those patents are possibly a wet dream. Next gen.

I think the “one more thing” moment will be an iPhone for the Proletariat. Fingers-crossed.

Posted by Admin on 05/16 at 09:19 PM
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