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Murphy is always on the lookout for decent online television listings. i.tv for the iPhone / iPod touch is remarkably good.
The format is quite iPhone-ish, the listings for a given hour look something like the native iPhone video player’s listings. The listing includes a thumbnail and episode title. When you select a show there’s a synopsis, a rating, and an option to thumbs-down a show. Some shows have a preview available.
The thumbs-down is one of the most useful features. When you tag a show as thumbs-down you’re given the option to either hide the show or the channel from your listings. I’ll never see Murder She Wrote in my listings again, which makes scrolling that much more efficient. There’s also a thumbs-up button that adds the show to a tab of your favorite media.
Murphy really likes the iPhone tumbler for selecting the date and time, which is how you select your listings range. There are also arrows to bump forward or backward quickly.
There’s more! i.tv provides movie listings. This application is full featured, allowing plenty of customization and even parental controls. You can check out the i.tv FAQ here.
Murphy already uses his iPod touch as the remote control for Apple TV and iTunes. Now I’ve got a great tv guide too. Things just keep getting better and better.
i.tv is free and the developers report they have no plans to charge for the service.
iPod touch at Amazon
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AirSharing - an application for your iPhone or iPod touch, turning the device into a wifi storage drive and file viewer.
It would be nice if Apple would let you copy files directly to your iPhone or touch over the USB cable, but they don’t. What we can do is copy files over from a Mac or PC using AirSharing. As a bonus you get a viewer providing support for a variety of file types. More on that at the end. First, let’s look at how we copy files onto your device, and how we get them off.
Placing Files on Your Device
To copy files on from your Mac just go to the Go menu in Finder and select Connect to Server. Or hit Command-K. In the box that opens (see image to the right) enter http://w.x.y.z — but replace w.x.y.z with the ip address of your device. Don’t know the ip? Don’t worry, AirSharing will help with that as we’ll see in a minute.
A Finder window will open displaying whatever folders you’ve created on your iPhone or touch. You can drag files in or out, delete files or folders, or create new ones.
If you’re on a PC you’ll start with Internet Explorer. Go to the File menu and click open. Enter the address of your device just like the steps above - and make sure to check the box. A window will open displaying the folders on your device.
Getting Files Off Your Device.
When activated on your device, AirSharing turns it into a pocket web server. Your friends (on the same wifi network with your device) can access your files by pointing their web browser to http://w.x.y.z:8080. 
Again, replace the w.x.y.z with the ip address of your device. The 8080 is the port number where the web server is running. For more on what port numbers are read the end of this post.
Just like any other web page, users can right-click the file links to perform operations like saving the referenced file to disk.
File Viewer
As a bonus, AirSharing includes viewers for many file types you might want to open. iWork, photos, office docs, pdf, web docs - in addition to music and movies. This really comes in handy. See the developer site for a list of file formats supported. Instead of having to use iTunes to copy photos onto your device you can just drag a folder of images over and use the AirSharing viewer to display them.
Notice in the image to the right that the ip address of the device is displayed at the bottom of the screen. The ip address can be seen elsewhere in the interface of AirSharing too, like the settings page. You can also turn AirSharing off when you’re not using it, which Murphy would recommend.
If you’ve got a big web page you want to review later you can save it as a web archive in Safari and transfer it to your device using AirSharing. That way you can read it later offline.
Summary
AirSharing makes ferrying files using your iPhone or touch easy. Yes, wifi is a little slow, but it’s a pretty simple solution that doesn’t need any third party software on your Mac or PC.
In addition, you can copy content like photos, audio, and movies to your device without going through iTunes. For some that might be worth the price of admission. Check out AirSharing at the developers site. $6.99.
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This isn’t another post about whether or not Apple should have left Firewire on the new Macbooks. If that’s what you’re looking for you’ll find about 600 comments on this AppleInsider post.
Instead, let’s look at how the lack of Firewire highlights a gap in Apple’s notebook lineup. The gap, introduced when Apple went to Intel, could have been closed last week. It wasn’t.
For some reason, Apple thinks “pro” notebook customers are defined by the physical dimensions of their machine. Years ago this wasn’t the case - when you could buy a 12″ Powerbook. Since the switch to Intel there isn’t a small form-factor Pro machine. Just the Macbook.
When the Macbook went aluminum its features started to merge with the Macbook Pro. Macbook got the nice case and a backlit keyboard (on the high end model). The Macbook Pro got the magnetic latch. The differences in the machines became more about the guts - and less about aesthetics. Seemed like the perfect opportunity to put Pro guts in a small machine.
And make no mistake, small is in. Look at netbook sales. Still, Apple decided against introducing anything smaller than the Macbook. Could it be they’re holding something back for Macworld? Five of the top ten laptops at Amazon are Apple machines. Along with a few netbooks.
Consumer video cameras requiring a Firewire port? Yes Steve, they exist in droves, not matter what you decided about the Macbook. Pro cameras and audio equipment - it’s out there too. And people that tote that stuff around value space in their work area, in their hardcases, in their bags. Maybe Firewire was slated to go, but it seems a little premature.
Apple should consider using a spec other than display size for determining whether or not a machine is pro caliber.
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A quirky presentation today that leaves us with a messy mix of products: No overhaul for the 17″ MBP. A 24″ LED display - but what about other sizes? Has Ives been to Toastmasters? The white plastic Macbook lives on. Why so many speakers in such a short presentation? And why all the brick buzz if it’s in the Air? Where’s the mystery product alluded to during the last earnings call?
Murphy’s thoughts on the following:
AAPL
Rumors
Display Port
Brick
Macbook Pro
Macbook
New 24″ Display
Steve
Conclusion
AAPL
The reaction of Wall Street to today’s event was bound to be something of a non-event. Obviously, huge market forces are at work this week, and it’s difficult to separate the effects of today’s announcments from all the other noise. That said, the share price didn’t drop as much as I would have expected, given that nothing monumental was announced outside of the rumors. The lack of a $899 notebook could have been an anchor on AAPL today, but it wasn’t.
The stock is in for a drop regardless of what happened today. Short of a new line of Apple-branded flying cars and a 7-inch tablet nothing announced today was going to move the shares north. Maybe that $899 notebook could have nudged it up. Maybe.
Why is AAPL in for a drop? It’s hard to see Apple predicting a holiday quarter that matches up with Wall Street’s lofty expectations. As we’ve seen in the past, it doesn’t matter if Apple beats on the current quarter. Without highly optimistic forward looking guidance AAPL will be adjusted downward.
Rumors
There were complaints from contributors on various mainstream forums, like Engadget and Fortune this morning, as readers realized there weren’t going to be any surprises today. “There’s nothing to look forward to,” posters said. We’re starting to see a pattern here, remarkably accurate predictions based on leaks: manuals, photos, and placeholders in retailer inventory systems. If this keeps up, it’ll be hard for Steve to awe the audience with “one more thing.”
We saw the phatty iPod before it was released. Last month’s nano was leaked all over the place. And today’s products were all pre-announced to a remarkable extent before Steve took the stage.
Remember the days leading up to the initial iPhone announcement? There were mockups of every kind making the rounds. Most of them were wrong. Those were the good old days.
Display Port
Did you notice Steve mentioned a couple times that Display Port is going into “all our new products” and “everything we make” ? Could that include iPods? Well, obviously we can’t take it too literally. It won’t be in an iPod Shuffle for example. But Steve’s choice of words seemed a little curious. He didn’t say every computer. Maybe the tablet we’re getting in January will have a Display Port?
Brick
Again, congrats to the rumor mongers. You pretty much had this one nailed, and I have to say I was skeptical along the way.
Ives wasn’t exactly a compelling speaker. But most hardcore Apple fans are familiar with his accomplishments. If he thinks something is important fans will listen. Clearly Steve thinks the case is a monumental accomplishment, but why didn’t we hear about it when the Air was launched?
There were definitely problems with the old case. My Macbook Pro was never the same after Apple opened it. It took some voodoo to reassemble in a way that the trackpad button wasn’t obstructed. It wasn’t easy to disassemble either. After a fan repair and multiple attempts by Apple to get the mouse button right they gave me a new Macbook Pro.
If the new case is more serviceable it’s probably worth the hype we’ve heard.
Macbook Pro
The big curiosity is the trackpad. No mouse button! That’s definitely interesting and I’m looking forward to trying one out asap. I think people who love computers might love this. People who struggled with trackpads are really going to miss the button.
The glass display alienates a lot of users. The question is how loud will the outcry be and will Apple listen? I predict a matte finish being available sometime in January.
Losing the mechanical latch? Fantastic.
Macbook
The Macbook is a pretty compelling piece of hardware at this point. I expect impressive sales for the rest of the year. Students will eat it up.
We’ve got a Macbook Pro and a Macbook in the house. The Macbook is easier to grab when your’e lying on the sofa. It’s great for a trip to the coffee shop. It’s not so great for apps that need screen real estate or use multiple apps side by side.
Still, I’ve been using the Macbook more and more. I don’t like the plastic. It’s a little flimsy. It’s cracked in one place. And the keyboard isn’t backlit. Fixing those issues is a slamdunk for Apple.
A lot of people are itching for something smaller, like the old 12-inch Powerbook. Clearly it’s not coming. Because that need will be filled with the Mac Touch in January. Right?!
24″ Inch Display
That was a long wait. What took so long? Can I use my notebook with it and have the lid closed? Will the notebook overheat?
Steve
Murphy thought he looked healthy. But he’s working so hard to give other people stage time that the presentations are a little jerky. Steve’s obsession with these presentations is well documented, it’s weird to see them get so choppy. And for anyone who thought Ives would be the new keynote man I think the search is back on as of today. Genius? Yes. Presenter? No.
It looks like Steve is holding open tryouts for the keynote job, but they’re going to have to dig a little deeper. The guys today don’t have it. Talk about big shoes to fill: Who else has the history that Steve has with Apple? Nobody. That history carries a lot of clout when Jobs takes the stage. It’s the same with Gates. Being there from day 1 means something.
Steve did look better than he did last month, and much better than he did at the 3G launch. But with so many people sharing the load on an easy presentation you have to assume he’s a little worn out. Or something. Murphy wishes him well.
Conclusion
If you were looking for the blockbuster announcement you were at the wrong event. If there is one, we’ll know about it some time in December, when the Macworld rumors start leaking. Personally, Murphy hopes Apple has something big, and that they manage to keep it under wraps until the keynote. It’s more fun that way.
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Does unlimited two-day shipping, free, from Amazon, seem too good to be true? It’s true. Get on board while you can. Amazon doesn’t always offer a free one-month trial for its Prime account.
Here are some reasons to try Prime out:
- It’s free.
- You can get your Christmas shopping done, now.
- Overnight shipping is only $3.99.
- No minimum order amount.
- You can share it with your roommates, even after the trial ends.
Here’s another thing: Murphy ordered a car-top cargo carrier. It would have cost $100 to ship from just about any vendor. It was free with Amazon Prime. Amazon Prime paid for itself with one order.
You might find yourself ordering stuff from Amazon you wouldn’t have before. iPods, Paul Newman’s Dog Food, diapers. How can you go wrong with an entire month of free two-day express shipping?!
What’s the catch? Not everything in the Amazon inventory is eligible, like items offered through other sellers. With the trial you’ll get a good idea for what’s eligible.
The year I got my shopping done before Thanksgiving was the most relaxing December I ever had. Get yours done. Then kick back and have a beer while your friends are scrambling.
If you choose to keep Prime after the free trial it’s $79 for a year.
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