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President's Column for March 2012


Jumping the Shark


Just in case you aren't familiar with the title term: "Jumping the Shark" refers to a 1997 episode of the TV series Happy Days when Fonzie, dressed in a swimsuit and his trademark leather jacket, waterski'd over a shark tank in Hollywood in an effort to prove his bravery. It was universally derided as the moment in time when Happy Days officially became a caricature of itself (as if the show wasn't already a caricature of the 1950's); the show's quality and popularity cratered although it dragged along for another five years before, mercifully, it was put out of its misery. Today, Fonzie (Henry Winkler) shills reverse mortgages to senior citizens on TV infomercials. There is cosmic justice, after all.


Since 1997, jumping the shark has become the catchphrase to indicate when a concept (TV show, politician, and even, yes, a paradigm) has become an embarrassment. Look to Michelle Bachmann claiming the HPV vaccine caused mental retardation and Rush Limbaugh declaring she had "jumped the shark". Of course, Bachmann never backtracked and is still in denial. It would not have mattered had she done a public mea culpa; jumping the shark produces damage that is permanent, irrevocable; it is too late for apologies.


As much as I love Apple and find its products desirable enough to purchase, I saw the recent news about OSX Mountain Lion and wondered where Apple thought it was going with its OS. We've seen Lion incorporating some iOS user interface "features" and this crippled much of iCal and AddressBook; in order to pander to iPhone users who are coming to a Mac for the first time, Apple dumbed down a number of its apps (and made them less usable) and even brought its iOS no filesystem so you don't have to save nonsense (which means you can't not save unless you jump through hoops). In its efforts to, apparently, unify iOS and OSX, Mountain Lion eliminates the word "Mac" from the About this Mac… dialog; no longer will your Mac say "Mac OS X" like this:

Mac Logo


No, the word "Mac" will be gone. Could it be that Apple believes PC users who love their iPhones and iPads still hate the Mac so much they wouldn't use one unless the OS didn't say "Mac"? Or maybe it would then be easier to drop the "X" and put and "i" before the "OS" in a future iteration?


Frankly, I don't see much about iOS bringing any sort of goodness to my Mac. Apple's efforts to incorporate iOS-specific gestures and user interface elements make my work more difficult, not less so. I find I am fighting the interface and appreciate third-party hacks to eliminate things that apparently exist simply to coddle someone's ego and misrepresent OSX as iOS.


Sure, the underpinnings of iOS and OSX are the same but a tablet computer with a software-based (on-screen) keyboard isn't a MacBook Air. I own both and can assure you the difference is enormous. I create on my Mac but I consume on my iPad.


The iPod Touch was never considered a serious eBook reader for the K-20 education market but the iPad surely is. Why is this? They both run iOS 5, right? They both have an on-screen keyboard, right? Yet only the iPad seems to be the answer for which K-20 has been waiting. Why? The iPad has the proper screen size to support educational tools like "books" created with Apple's iBooks Author. Yet the iPod Touch could support these tools if Apple gave its blessing. But Apple will not simply because they know it's wrong to treat an iPod Touch as if it was an iPad. These are two devices running the same operating system and only having a different screen size yet that difference makes all the difference in the world. In fact, iBooks Author requires a Mac for content creation so even Apple knows the limitations of iOS devices.


Yet Apple attempts to foist off iOS user interface design on Macintoshes (yes, I will utter the word Macintosh even though Apple will hide Mac in Mountain Lion) when the differences are much more substantive: Keyboard, mouse (or trackpad), no touchscreen and a real filesystem.


Mountain Lion will try to bring iOS and OSX closer still. Apple sold more iOS devices in 2011 than it has sold Macintoshes in its history of selling Macs. That should tell you where Apple is going.


But things have a way of changing. We know that change is the only constant and what works today has a habit of becoming an anachronism and a joke tomorrow. iPhone users could decide that spending all that money on data transfer fees is crazy and even turn their phones off when they vacation. Can't handle being out of touch? Maybe you have nomophobia, the fear of being out of mobile phone contact. Look it up.


When enough folks decide that having an iPhone for every child is an absurd waste of time and money, and having your iPad everywhere is a waste of your life, Apple's iOS business model will have jumped the shark and, by that time, if OSX can't stand by itself, there's not much else.


But I won't end this column with a warning to Apple (and its investors). Rather, like Fox Mulder, I know the truth is out there and there are conspiracies…even those I may imagine.


Why would Apple drop "Mac" from "Mac OS X" unless it is preparing for "OSX" without a Mac? Have we been provided (through the screenshots of the 10.8 Mountain Lion Developer Preview) the first hint of Apple preparing a frontal assault on Microsoft? Up until now, the Macintosh has provided a huge chunk of revenue for Apple but, with $100 billion in the bank and high profit iOS devices shoring up the flanks, could it finally be time for Apple to release an OSX alternative to Microsoft's Windows? After all, why just sit back and let Microsoft attack the phone and tablet market with Windows 8 (which is, after all, the culmination of the "Windows Everywhere" strategy they've been pursuing for a number of years)? Why not simply blow Microsoft out of the water? The decision to permit Mac clones with Apple underwriting all Mac OS development costs was a stupid maneuver by then-CEO Mike Spindler. How would today be any different?


Well, Apple has announced that Software Update will be rolled into the Mac App Store so updates and upgrades to apps and to OSX itself will be vetted and authorized by the Apple mothership. Your Mac or Mac-clone (which, these days, can be made by anyone with the knowledge to do so and a limited set of high-quality parts) will need to download OSX directly from Apple and, to do so, you will need to log in to the App Store with your Apple ID and this will prove if you have purchased OSX. Piracy of Apple's OSX is virtually eliminated but, if the clone-makers may take advantage of OSX, imagine what that would do to Microsoft as Dell, ASUS, HP and Lenovo scramble all over themselves to produce high quality computers (which might be for the first time in years). On a level playing field—both Apple and Dell producing computers that run OSX—who would win? As Apple can produce high-quality computers (and I stress "high-quality) at a lower cost than anyone else on the planet this would be interesting.


Frankly, I imagine no one will be able to compete with Apple, head-to-head, on what they call ultrabooks. If Apple is moving its MacBook Pro line over to the form-factor of the Air, why not let clone-makers try their hand at making 9 pound desktop replacements that run OSX? Apple doesn't even have to help design them; the clone-makers know what they have to do. Why not even let them make true desktop-class MacPro replacements? Apple sells very few MacPro units and their users are always complaining about how infrequent the updates are. Let the clone-makers license OSX and let the users who buy these machines start upgrading through Apple's App Store and, therefore, provide a revenue stream that is no longer going to Microsoft).


Oh, I can imagine all sorts of conspiracies but I'd better shut up before I jump the shark. Fonzie is waiting.


byBarry Jay Levine


Apple previews Mac OS update, Mountain Lion

NEW YORK (AP) — Apple Inc. on Thursday released a developer preview of an update for the Mac operating system, dubbed "Mountain Lion," that will copy more features and apps from the iPhone and iPad to the Mac.

Apple said the new software will be on sale this summer, a year after it released the latest update, "Lion." The preview version will help software developers make products that take advantage of the new features of the operating system.

Mountain Lion will include Game Center, an iPhone app which stores high game scores and helps users find opponents. It will be integrated with iCloud, the new Internet storage service designed for the mobile devices.

The new Messages app, also copied from the mobile operating system, will replace iChat. Lion users can download a preview version of the app for free.

A new Notification Center will show alerts from email and calendar programs, just like on the iPhone.

Apple started the trend of making its Mac operating system more like its phone and tablet operating system, iOS, with the release of Lion. It borrowed phone features like a screen that shows all installed apps, and expanded the range of gestures that can be used to control a MacBook through the touchpad.

The Cupertino, California-based company sells Lion for $30. It didn't say what Mountain Lion would cost.

Apple has been growing Mac sales in a nearly stagnant PC market, but the sales aren't growing as fast as those of the iPhone. In 2010, iPhone sales overtook those of Macs for the first time.

Apple has been using the names of big cats to differentiate its OS versions since 2001.

Microsoft Corp. is set to release Windows 8 later this year, and a preview version is already in developer hands. It, too, will be borrowing features from phone software, and one version of the operating system will run on phone-style chips, as opposed to the Intel-style chips that have been the bedrock of Microsoft software since the 1980s.



CRITICAL! - Do NOT Install Snow Leopard Security Update unless...


If you are running any apps that require Rosetta (the emulation software Apple provides that permits you to run OSX apps designed for the PowerPC processor), do NOT install the Security Update Apple is offering in Software Update as it will BREAK ROSETTA.


What apps require Rosetta?


Quicken 2007, Office 2004, others.


The "fix" (to repair the problem if you've already installed the update and Quicken won't run or Word won't save files) is to re-install Rosetta which requires you utilize your original System Disc(s) and an app called "Pacifist" which permits you to "get in the back door" of the installer and choose to install Rosetta.


There may be other fixes but, at this point, less than a full day after the Security Update was released, that's the only one we know.


Obviously, if all your apps do not require Rosetta, this Security Update will be okay.

byBarry Jay Levine