Mobee's Magic Numpad fills the numeric keypad void (Review)

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AppId is over the quota
By Jason D. O'Grady | November 3, 2011, 9:00am PDT

Summary: Mobee’s Magic Numpad is a cling that attaches to Apple’s Magic Trackpad and turns it into a customizable numeric keyboard. Now that’s ingenuity.

Being someone that types for a living, I’m critical of keyboards. Like most people, once I get accustomed to a keyboard, I want it to stay the same forever.

When the newfangled aluminum iMac keyboard morphed into the MacBook keyboard in 2007 I was forced to adopt it because a MacBook was my primary computer. The first few months were awful and I hated the flat-top, low-throw keys calling Apple’s chiclet keyboard atrocious. But, after a while I came around and eventually switched all my external keyboards to the new design. I love the consistency when switching between MacBook and external keyboards.

As I noted at the time, the key layout of the Apple Wireless Keyboard is an exact lift of the keyboard layout from the MacBook — right down to the function key in the lower left. While I complained at the time that Apple was merely trying to maximize profits by using the exact component that ships in the MacBooks in their wireless keyboard, I now look at this as a positive, rather than a negative. I now love that the Apple Wireless Keyboard is an “exact lift” of the MacBook keyboard design.

One of the complaints from my 2007 review of the new Apple keyboard that still stands is about Apple’s lack of an extended wireless keyboard.

I can’t believe that Apple dropped the numeric keypad and the arrow keys from the new stumpy wireless keyboard. What’s up with that? They’re on the USB version. I can understand making a smallish wireless keyboard for travel (and home entertainment systems) but they should also make a full size wireless keyboard to replace the previously shipping model. Apple claims that it’s a “third party opportunity.”

A brief history is probably in order.

The Apple Keyboard with Numeric Keypad (Model A1243, below) was introduced in 2007 with 109 keys in an extended solid aluminum enclosure. It connects via USB and comes with a full numeric keypad, arrow keys and function, delete, home and end keys.

Early 2009 iMacs shipped with a new shorter version of the wired keyboard (Model A1242, below) which omitted the numeric keypad and extra keys but still used USB.

The Apple Wireless Keyboard (Model A1255) was launched in 2007 alongside the Apple Keyboard with Numeric Keypad (Model A1243, top). It received a minor update in late 2009 (Model A1314) switching to two AA batteries (instead of three) and moving the Bluetooth window to the center of the keyboard’s bottom.

Keyboards are very personal items, and people have lots of opinions about them. If you’re into such things, you need to read the wonderful history of Apple keyboards on Wikipedia.

It perplexes me to this day why Apple won’t make a wireless keyboard with a numerical keypad. It’s undoubtedly the victim of some boardroom cost/benefit analysis (like the way Steve axed Apple’s printer division when he came back to Apple), but I can’t help to think that Apple’s leaving money on the table. But as I noted in 2007, Apple has made it a third-party opportunity.

The folks at Mobee Technology were quick to fill the void with the Magic Numpad ($29.90) a unique cling that attaches to Apple’s Magic Trackpad ($69) combined with a custom OS X application that maps areas of the Magic Trackpad to certain keys.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s not going to replace a real numeric keypad for hardcore number geeks (I’m talking to you, CPA’s!) but it’s more than serviceable and actually works better than I expected. Pictured above is the NUM20 cling, the closest facsimile to the Apple extended keyboard, Mobee also includes two other clings (for a total of three) in the package.

The software works well and makes it easy to switch between trackpad and numpad mode, but one of my favorite features (after the customizable keys) is Calculator Mode which calls up the OS X calculator and allows you to rip away. If you miss the numeric keypad on your wireless keyboard the Magic Numpad is definitely worth a look.

Update: Obligatory YouTube demo video:

Jason O'Grady+ is a journalist and author specializing in mobile technology. He has published six books on Apple and mobile gadgets and his PowerPage blog has been publishing for over 15 years.

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Did AMD take a bite out of Intel's forbidden Apple?

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AppId is over the quota
By Jason D. O'Grady | October 31, 2011, 10:00am PDT

Summary: Are Intel’s aging exclusivity agreement, the rumored 2010 testing of AMD processors at Apple, and Intel’s new “Attack of the Air Clones” really a coincidence?

A guest blog by Justin:

Am I the only person who is wondering why Intel seems bent on using Ultrabooks to undercut sales of Apple’s MacBook Air? After all, thin PC notebooks are nothing new. Why did Intel suddenly decide to throw hundreds of millions of dollars at non-Apple manufacturers to make thin laptops? And why do they all look like MacBook Airs?

I think I figured it out!

I have linked together several events in the last few years that may reveal a fascinating, underlying motive behind Intel’s Ultrabook initiative:

1. Most consumers and Apple fans do not know that Intel actually succeeded in locking Apple into an exclusivity agreement in 2005 - in exchange for porting Apple’s computers and laptops over to the X86 platform. For the last several years since that rumored event, Apple has not put a single AMD central processor in a single Apple computer.

Naturally, Intel hasn’t exactly complained about the illusion from consumers that Apple doesn’t think AMD’s CPUs or APUs are suitable for Apple products. In reality, Apple sacrificed their freedom of choice, in exchange for Intel’s help with porting.

2. Exclusionary requests are nothing new at Intel. In 2010, Intel got into antitrust trouble in Europe and America (after getting in trouble in Asia as well) for engaging in numerous, secretive, billion-dollar “carrot and stick” schemes to coerce and compel manufacturers and even retailers into not making or selling AMD-based products. Intel even secretly paid Dell 6-billion dollars (among many other complying manufacturers and even retailers) in exchange for not using AMD processors. European regulators took an unprecedented SWAT team approach to their investigation and raided the corporate offices of retailers.  They found that Intel was bribing tech retailers not to even stock AMD-based systems.

Wow!   No wonder AMD doesn’t have any money left for proper R&D these days!  AMD even had to sell their factories to stay alive!

Intel apparently avoided antitrust scrutiny for many years by allowing most manufacturers (except Dell) to produce a few intentionally-low-end AMD systems, as their existence  helped Intel avoid antitrust scrutiny yet and were little threat to Intel’s image of superiority. Based on subpoenaed emails in the NY Attorney General’s complaint, HP’s executives were so scared of Intel’s unwritten yet enforced punishments that they refused a gift of thousands of free processors from AMD.

When manufacturers violated Intel’s demands by using too many AMD processors, Intel would exact punishment in many creative forms on the manufacturers. Thus, Intel has a long history of punishing manufacturers for attempting to break free of Intel’s monopolistic demands.

3. The Federal Trade Commission’s Consent Decree in 2010 was forward looking, so Intel’s exclusivity with Apple was probably allowed to continue to its unknown end date.

4. How long was Intel’s secretive exclusivity agreement with Apple? In order to figure this out, we must of course speculate about how long Apple would be willing to sacrifice their freedom to Intel in exchange for Intel’s porting service. Maybe five years?

5. Just as a note, AT&T’s well-known exclusivity agreement with Apple was five years in duration. So perhaps the Intel/Apple agreement was a similar duration?

6. In mid-2010 (coincidentally five years after Intel succeeded in locking Apple into an exclusive relationship), very few people noticed the news that Apple started testing AMD processors in their labs.

7. Thus, Apple apparently seriously considered AMD inside Apple products in 2010. Or perhaps Apple even started making plans for AMD inside Apple products?

8. Since we know that Intel has a long history of devising carrot and stick schemes to encourage manufacturers to cooperate with Intel’s monopolistic demands, is it possible that Intel’s true motivation behind Ultrabooks (MacBook Air clones) was to punish Apple?

It seems like a plausible explanation for why Intel is getting all the non-Apple manufacturers to make MacBook Air clones, and it also may explain the unusual 300 Million dollar fund that is probably enabling the Air-Clone manufacturers to undercut Apple MacBook Air on price?

The end result is that Apple is between a rock and a hard place: Apple must either lose market share in the “Air and Air Clone” segment of the market, or they can compete with Intel’s artificially-low-priced clones by reducing MacBook Air’s prices to unprofitable levels. Of course, Intel knows that Apple’s only painless option is neither of the two; the only painless option is for Apple to drop any plans for AMD and therefore return to Intel.  Thus, the MacBook Air would then officially become an Ultrabook!

In a recent interview, an Intel executive said that “it is up to Apple” to decide whether or not the MacBook Air is an Ultrabook. Did the executive mean that it isn’t too late for Apple to return to Intel’s arms and take a seat at the 300-million dollar Ultrabook dinner table?

The FTC’s recent Consent Decree to Intel clearly states that Intel is not allowed to threaten or punish manufacturers for using a competitor’s processors. However, Ultrabooks and the accompanying 300-million dollar fund may be a brilliant, if not rather ingenious, monopolistic punishment from Intel, as it just narrowly avoids direct conflict with the terms set forth by the FTC’s Consent Decree.

By claiming that they just want to “innovate” by creating a not-so-new product category, Intel may likely sidestep conditions set forth in the Consent Decree. Lawyers at the FTC will probably have difficulty proving that Ultrabooks are nothing new, and Intel just created the category to wriggle through a Consent Decree loophole to get at Apple.

Additionally, paying the non-Apple manufacturers to undercut the MacBook Air on pricing may be argued as “using venture funds to market and create the products”, rather than predatory pricing. Pressing the manufacturers to make steep reductions in their Ultrabook retail prices will make their margins dependent upon “advertising and development payments” from Intel Ultrabook Fund, but that could be argued as aggressive pricing on a not-so-new product.

And, of course, the fact that these Ultrabooks look almost exactly like MacBook Airs? Well, that’s just… coincidence?

Image: AppleInsider

Jason O'Grady+ is a journalist and author specializing in mobile technology. He has published six books on Apple and mobile gadgets and his PowerPage blog has been publishing for over 15 years.

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I might jailbreak my iPhone for IntelliScreenX

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AppId is over the quota
Jason D. O'Grady+ developed an affinity for Apple computers after using the original Lisa, and this affinity turned into a bona-fide obsession when he got the original 128 KB Macintosh in 1984.

He started writing one of the first Web sites about Apple (O'Grady's PowerPage) in 1995 and is considered to be one of the fathers of blogging. He has been a frequent speaker at the Macworld Expo conference and a member of the conference faculty. He also co-founded the first dedicated PowerBook User Group (PPUG) in the United States.

After winning a major legal battle with Apple in 2006, he set the precedent that independent journalists are entitled to the same protections under the First Amendment as members of the mainstream media.

O'Grady is the author of The Nexus One Pocket Guide, The Droid Pocket Guide, The Google Phone Pocket Guide, and The Garmin nuvi Pocket Guide (Peachpit Press), the author of Corporations That Changed the World: Apple Inc. (Greenwood Press), and a contributor to The Mac Bible (Peachpit Press). In addition, he has contributed to numerous Mac publications over the years, including MacWEEK, Macworld, and MacPower (Japan).

When he's not writing about Apple for ZDNet at The Apple Core, he enjoys spending time with his family in New Jersey.

View the original article here

Parenting by iPad; Godsend or iBribery?

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AppId is over the quota
By Jason D. O'Grady | November 7, 2011, 12:01am PST

Summary: An AP article raises the issue of parenting in the app gee ration. iDevices have loads of educational potential for tikes but are they really being used to pacify children instead?

An AP article from October 26, 2011 still has stuck in my head for a while because it raised an issue that I’m sensitive to: parenting by iPad.

Raising small kids (in my case, a four and a one year old) in a high-tech household means that it’s only a matter of time before the little one discover the wonders of the iPhone or iPad — then what do you do?

We’ve all seen it, the family at a restaurant, parents engaged in normal conversation while the kinds stare quietly at the screens of their iPads, touching, swiping and pinching the time away. Let’s be very clear, you can replace the word “iPad” in the above sentence above with virtually any form of flat screen media (Gameboy, DS, PSP) — it’s not the media that’s at issue, it’s the underlying principle.

The AP article by Rasha Madkour Squirmy toddler? There’s an app was syndicated to print newspapers across the U.S. and it profiled parents that use their iOS devices as “digital pacifiers” for their kids.

A Denver mom calls her iPhone a “godsend” for its ability to stream episodes of Dora the Explorer which placates her two year-old daughter. While discussing the routine she mentions that she “doesn’t want people to think they’re using technology to shut their child up, but she also doesn’t want to give up going out.”

A New Orleans mom says that her iPad “is movies, books and games all wrapped in one nice package,” noting that it keeps her 3-year-old son “busy for hours.” A Silicon Valley mom says that her 2 1/2-year-old loves conceptual apps, memory matching games and a drawing program but also notes that he has books, crayons and Legos. “It’s not replacing any of these things; it’s one more thing he’s getting exposed to,”

The potential benefit of iPhones and iPads for young children is obvious, they’re undeniably powerful learning tools — but as Wake Forest University psychology professor Deborah Best notes in the article — content must be age-appropriate and designed for learning. In other words, Angry Birds doesn’t cut it.

She astutely says that interacting with devices doesn’t replace one-on-one, face-to-face interaction with people, noting that personal interactions help children learn how to read emotions from facial expressions and how to take turns in conversations.

The article brings up the downside adolescent dependency on smartphones and tablets, including the inevitable tantrums and meltdowns when access is denied. One mother of 3- and 6-year-old sons mentioned in the article readily admits to iBribery: “I’m buying my kids’ silence with an expensive toy.”

When her in-laws get together for a family meal, six iPhones get passed to six children. The adults talk while the kids play, their contribution to the discussion typically limited to announcing they have cleared another level on a game.

Kids need to be social, and personal interactions are what helps them grow and mature. Most modern parents have probably handed their iPhone or iPad or a child to help ease a long car, train or airplane trip, but allowing them at the dinner table is where I draw the line. (Granted, our kids are really young, and my tune may change.)

We do everything in our power to limit our kids exposure to flat screen media — including television — but it’s practically ubiquitous in modern America. The warm glow of flat panels displaying bright motion graphics are everywhere from store windows to gas pumps to checkout aisles.

A 2004 study by Children’s Hospital and Regional Medical Center in Seattle published in the April issue of Pediatrics concluded that each hour of television watched per day at ages 1-3 increases the risk of attention problems, such as ADHD, by almost 10 percent by age 7. At our house we try to adhere to the no-tv-under-two philosophy that many pediatricians recommend, but obviously there are exceptions.

We limit our four-year-old to a maximum of one hour on the iPad or iPhone (mostly in long car rides) and never in social situations where there will be other kids or parents. In other words, its ok to to use the iPad on the drive to gradma’s house but not at gradma’s house. We also encourage educational apps, but don’t object to the occasional game of Angry Birds or Cut the Rope. (They teach kids physics, right?)

While there’s definitely no one answer about how to parent with your iPad — after all, every kid is different — it’s pretty obvious that young children shouldn’t get exposed to too much flatscreen media until their brains are developed enough to handle it.

Where do you fall on the issue? Should young kids be using iPads?

Image: Zagg

Jason O'Grady+ is a journalist and author specializing in mobile technology. He has published six books on Apple and mobile gadgets and his PowerPage blog has been publishing for over 15 years.

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Did Google sneak Chrome OS into the App Store?

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AppId is over the quota
By Jason D. O'Grady | November 22, 2011, 12:01am PST

Summary: While it might not be called “Chrome for iOS” or anything, the updated Google Search app for iOS is a dead ringer for Chrome OS when running on the iPad.

Install the updated Google Search for iPad app (iTunes, free), touch the prominent Applications icon on the home screen and have a look around. Look familiar? It’s a spitting image of Google’s Chrome OS (found on the Chromebook) - at least functionally speaking, anyway.

It’s essentially a fancy HTML5 page with tiles for launching the innumerable Google web apps, like Gmail, Calendar, Docs, et. al.

While it might not be called “Chrome for iOS” or anything, what’s the difference?

Regardless of how you feel about Google’s various software tools, there’s a better reason to use the Google Search app for iOS: Voice Search.

Two over from the Applications icon is Voice Search, which (kind of) makes up for the iPad’s lack of native voice recognition, or worse, Siri. Touch it and speak your search terms in plain English, they get transcribed and searched in Google. Accuracy is excellent and on par with the excellent Dragon Go app, which sadly isn’t iPad-native.

Tip of the hat to The Next Web’s Matthew Panzarino for picking up on it.

Related: Google Search for iPad/iPhone adds Chrome OS features (hands on)

Jason O'Grady+ is a journalist and author specializing in mobile technology. He has published six books on Apple and mobile gadgets and his PowerPage blog has been publishing for over 15 years.

View the original article here

EFI Firmware 2.2 patches MacBook Air (mid 2011) Thunderbolt issues

AppId is over the quota
AppId is over the quota
Jason D. O'Grady+ developed an affinity for Apple computers after using the original Lisa, and this affinity turned into a bona-fide obsession when he got the original 128 KB Macintosh in 1984.

He started writing one of the first Web sites about Apple (O'Grady's PowerPage) in 1995 and is considered to be one of the fathers of blogging. He has been a frequent speaker at the Macworld Expo conference and a member of the conference faculty. He also co-founded the first dedicated PowerBook User Group (PPUG) in the United States.

After winning a major legal battle with Apple in 2006, he set the precedent that independent journalists are entitled to the same protections under the First Amendment as members of the mainstream media.

O'Grady is the author of The Nexus One Pocket Guide, The Droid Pocket Guide, The Google Phone Pocket Guide, and The Garmin nuvi Pocket Guide (Peachpit Press), the author of Corporations That Changed the World: Apple Inc. (Greenwood Press), and a contributor to The Mac Bible (Peachpit Press). In addition, he has contributed to numerous Mac publications over the years, including MacWEEK, Macworld, and MacPower (Japan).

When he's not writing about Apple for ZDNet at The Apple Core, he enjoys spending time with his family in New Jersey.

View the original article here

Where the heck is iWork '12?

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AppId is over the quota
By Jason D. O'Grady | November 10, 2011, 12:01am PST

Summary: Apple’s last major update of its venerable office suite — iWork — was almost three years ago and it’s starting to show its age. Is it going 64-bit? Will it get a reboot?

Where the heck is iWork ‘12?

Microsoft Office is an industry standard and a practical requirement for people that need to exchange office documents back and forth. But I tend to launch Keynote, Pages or Numbers when I’m creating a new document for me. Although I’ve done several tours with Office (who hasn’t) I prefer iWork for most tasks and Keynote is hands-down a better application than PowerPoint.

The problem is that Apple’s last major update of its venerable office suite was almost three years ago and it’s starting to show its age. Here’s a breakdown of the major iWork releases since it was announced in 2005:

January 11, 2005 — iWork ‘05January 10, 2006 –- iWork ‘06August 7, 2007 — iWork ‘08January 6, 2009 — iWork ‘09

Although Apple is still promoting ‘09 versions of software on its website…

… it has (wisely) dropped the ‘09 designation from the versions being sold on the Mac App Store:

Many people (including myself) thought that Apple would release iWork ‘12 at its Let’s Talk iPhone event on October 4, but it didn’t come to pass. Apple instead released the iPhone 4S, iOS 5, and iCloud - nothing to sneeze at, mind you. I was almost certain that Apple would release iWork ‘12 alongside iOS 5. It made total sense — at least to me.

Instead of releasing iWork ‘12, Apple decided to release incremental updates to the suite, mostly to support new OS innovations.

On July 20 Apple released updates to iWork desktop apps adding OS X Lion features like full screen, resume, auto save and versions.

On October 12 Apple updated Keynote, Pages and Numbers for iOS to version 1.5, adding support for iCloud’s Documents in the Cloud feature. The updates allow users to automatically store presentations, spreadsheets and word processing files in iCloud and keep them synced among multiple iOS devices.

While iWork for iOS got Documents in the Cloud support, unfortunately the desktop versions didn’t follow suit. This necessitates the following workflow if you want to transfer a Pages document from your iPhone to your Mac (for example):

Pages app > documents screenTouch Edit (icons start to shake)Touch DocumentTouch Share iconTouch iWork.comOddly you must send an email notification (even if sharing to yourself) or it won’t uploadVisit iWork.com from a browser on your Mac, log inDownload the shared file (options include Pages, PDF or Word format)Open it in Pages for Mac OS

Once you’ve got the document on your Mac, there’s no way to upload it to iWork.com. The only way to get the document back on your iPhone is to email it to yourself and select “Open with Pages” on your iOS device.

Obtuse, to say the least.

So where, oh where, is iWork ‘12?

Originally iCloud was believed to be holding it up, but Apple released iCloud on October 4, so that’s not it.

A theory being floated on the Apple discussion boards is that iWork ‘11 was being re-written to be 64-bit native and Apple “ran into some significant issues with existing 64-bit-able hardware base” so they’re downgrading it to 32-bit.

One of my favorite rumors is that iWork ‘12 will come with a Final Cut Pro X-style reboot. It apparently started when AppleBitch discovered an Apple job opening for a Senior User Interface Designer that would “rework the iWork suite on both Mac and iOS devices.”

Whatever the reason, Apple needs to ship it soon. Seemless iCloud integration is practically a given but I’m sure that Apple has some other snazzy features up its sleeve, too.

In the meantime you can give Apple your thoughts on iWork ‘12 here: http://www.apple.com/feedback/

iWork box shots: Softpedia

Jason O'Grady+ is a journalist and author specializing in mobile technology. He has published six books on Apple and mobile gadgets and his PowerPage blog has been publishing for over 15 years.

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Apple's Black Friday prices leaked; slightly better than last year

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AppId is over the quota
By Jason D. O'Grady | November 23, 2011, 5:10pm PST

Summary: Apple’s Black Friday discounts are modest as usual but slightly better than last year on higher capacity iPads and iPods.

Why do Apple’s discounts usually suck?

It’s simple really: Apple’s products are so popular that it doesn’t have to discount them. Heck, people still line up to buy the limited allotment of iPhone 4Ses at my local Apple shoppe, and it was announced almost two months ago.

Yesterday the Internet was aflutter that Apple’s Black Friday deals were leaked, but the discounts are pretty anemic as usual. 9to5Mac got the scoop and promptly posted photos of what appears to be a printed sales circular (which is rare for Apple).

While pretty much in line with last year’s discounts, 9to5Mac notes that Apple is offering better discounts on its higher capacity iPads and iPods than last year. The deals range from $11 off the iPod nano to $101 off the MacBook Air, MacBook Pro and iMac. Here’s the short list:

$11 off iPod nano$21-$41 off iPod Touch$41-$61 off iPad 2$101 off MacBook Air, MacBook Pro and iMac

The best deal of lot is the $898 MacBook Air 11-inch which is a cool hundred of the normal $999 price and darned great entry point for a new Mac.

As a “Mac guy” I’m constantly asked about where to find Apple discounts, especially at this time of year. My default response is that Apple doesn’t really discount its products, but there are some options worth exploring:

Black Friday - one of the few (only?) official Apple sales.Apple Educational Pricing - gives students, teachers and staff members up to $200 off.Apple Special Deals (below) - code for “refurbished” Macs, iPods and iPads and a clearance section with a whopping two items in it.(Occasionally) Big Box chains - Best Buy is currently offering $200 off the 13-inch MacBook Air.Catalogers - online retailers like MacMall and MacConnection will sometimes offer modest discounts, free shipping and bundle options.

After that, the only way to get Apple gear without paying retail is to buy it used on sites like eBay and Craigslist.

Are you buying any Apple gear for the holidays? What’s your discount strategy?

Jason O'Grady+ is a journalist and author specializing in mobile technology. He has published six books on Apple and mobile gadgets and his PowerPage blog has been publishing for over 15 years.

View the original article here