Archive for October, 2005
What next for Mac OS X?
Well obviously the hot item for the next major release of Mac OS X will be Intel compatibility but I’m hoping they’ll get a chance to squeeze some new features in too. Here what I’d like to see next:
FrontRow
Apple’s new iMac-only media centre interface seems to gave garnered quite a bit of a attention. So much so that enterprising individuals have hacked it onto their Mac. Apple should make it available to non-iMac users, possibly as part of 10.5, the next iLife or maybe even bundled with the optional remote control.
User interface unification
Every new app Apple release seems to have a new user interface now. While the look is merely cosmetic the behaviour is often affected leading people to expect one result and get another.
Here’s hoping the iTunes 6 UI trickles across through the whole system, perhaps even with a switch in control panel that lets people choose between that and Aqua. In the mean time check out Uno which sorts out as much as it can visually, behaviour needs to be done by Apple.
If you feel like stealing what little Longhorn still had, check out the Ruler Aero theme instead.
Uninstaller
Back when OSX was still called OpenStep it featured a rather nice install system called Package Manager. OS X still has the installer part of this and indeed records the receipts for use by an uninstaller… That has never existed. Come on Apple, sometimes we need to uninstall apps and we’d rather not trudge around the /Library/ to clean up after them.
Microsoft Windows in a window
Apple have already claimed they will be encouraging dual-booting with Windows on their new Intel boxes even if not actively supporting it.
A better approach would be something similar to their Blue Box virtual machine running Mac OS 9 apps under OS X. As 10.4 will use their new Rosetta technology to run PowerPC apps on Intel this should be simple by comparison. The problem here is that they may need to get Microsoft to licence them portions of VirtualPC.
iTunes DVD audio-track ripping
If Apple want to shift more of their higher end iPods whilst keeping the record labels in check, why not introduce a function to rip the audio soundtrack from DVD video’s to iPod’s. I for one have a bunch of comedy shows and stand-up material I’d like to have on the go and I’m sure not paying for them again.
[)amien
TV in the Channel Islands
I’ve been thinking of giving TV another shot, especially if I can get a lot of free channels and PVR functionality with no subscription. I’ve been looking about at the current state of television out here:
Analogue terrestrial (normal TV, UHF)
Free but a mere four channels and no apparent plans to give us even channel Five.
Digital terrestrial (Freeview, DVB-T)
Freeview as it is branded in the UK promises some 30+ channels over your existing TV aerial for just the price of a receiver box or even PC card like the Nova-T with built-in PVR functionality. You even get E4, UKTV, Sky Travel and Sky Sports News which are not available for free elsewhere.
Not yet available in the Channel Islands because the frequencies conflict with ones used by the French. This will have to be sorted out by the 2012 analogue cut-off but there seems to be little progress thus far.
Cable
Cable TV is available in selected parts of Jersey but not in Guernsey and starts at £28.50 a month.
Satellite (DVB-S)
This can get complex, but basically there are three types of channel on satellite
Free to Air (FTA)
An impressive number of channels are entirely free and have no encryption so can be picked up by any satellite box or even a PC card such as the Nova-S+. There are a LOT of channels available but not yet ITV, ITV2, Channel 4 or Five.
ITV plans to follow the BBC onto the Astra 2D UK-focused satellite which will mean they too can drop the pesky encryption that they needed to prevent their content being watched outside the UK. Hopefully Channel 4 will follow soon.
Sky will sell you the complete package of hardware and card for £150 or alternatively you can buy just the card for £20 if you have an old Sky digibox kicking round.
The real problem here however is because they refuse to licence their encryption technology to anyone else you can not use a third-party box or PVR, even Sky+ requires a subscription.
Subscription/pay (Sky etc.)
Sky obviously will be happy to take your money for their somewhat expensive packages but it is a 12-month commitment and you can expect regular annoying phone calls and mail-shots if you ever cancel.
Again the problem here is because they won’t licence their encryption you are stuck with the Sky box and while Sky+ is a nice system they expect a whopping £10 a month to use it unless you subscribe to a movie or sports package.
I’m going with the Nova-S+ if I can get hold of one, that will be sitting inside my Shuttle box that sits quietly in my lounge acting as my server :)
[)amien
Apple accouncements and a little fumbling
iPod G5
Apple have announced the fifth generation of iPod. Improvements include better battery life, a thinner enclose, better screen and now in both black and white.
But not everything is peachy. Gone is the FireWire support, the remote socket and there is still no sign of Bluetooth. Quite how you are supposed to switch tracks without pulling your iPod out your pocket I’m not sure.
iPod video
The big hoopla is video on your iPod and I’m not impressed. When exactly could you watch video on your iPod? Not while jogging, driving or walking which seem to be the popular regular usage if the accessories are anything to go by.
Ignoring that, you can now watch a music video, Pixar short or (if you live in the US) a TV show on a 2.5″ non-wide-screen display at 320×240 resolution. They expect $1.99 for the privilege of viewing this tiny short content previously free elsewhere.
UK residents get an even worse deal with videos costing £1.89 – a massive 75% increase over the US with current exchange rates. And you thought the $0.99 to £0.79 increase of 45% was bad! American TV shows run around 24 episodes per season – paying £30 for a DVD edition hurts but £41.58 for DRM’ed low-res stereo videos with no resale value. Sign me up Apple! </sarcasm>
It’s like wide-screen and high definition never happened. If you have a TV or computer to hand you can play your DRM’ed media on a big screen but frankly 320×240 scaled up will look dire at 17″ and probably induce nausea above 32″. Unscaled it would be as big as this capture from Zorro 2.
Best of all the quoted time for battery life when watching video’s is up to whopping three hours. (I lied about stopping the sarcasm).
Better mobile video
Want to watch video on the move? Get yourself a portable DVD player, a small laptop or if it really must be hand-held a PSP.
The PSP has a bigger 4.3″ wide-screen display, UMD movie discs and 4-5 hour battery life. As a bonus you can play games, surf the web wirelessly, play music and check out a memory stick full of photos. For less than the price of an iPod Video.
Sony have also just announced Location Free TV client for the PSP that lets you watch whatever your own base-station at home is connected to.
The base station is a little pricey at $350 but does feature an RF tuner and two s-video inputs. It is also capable of sending IR codes so connect this baby up to your satellite or cable TV and a 200 disk DVD changer…
Universal dock & remote control
Apple do have a new remote control available real soon but it only works with your iPod while it is connected to the universal dock.
The universal dock is a good idea – one dock for all the iPods – especially useful for a family or individual with more than one iPod. What I’d like to know is if Apple will enable Macs connected to a universal dock to be controlled in the same way as the new iMac.
Front Row
A direct heads up to media centre style interfaces of Windows Media Centre Edition, Sony’s PSP and the forthcoming Xbox 360 comes Apple’s FrontRow.
Big colourful icons, massive text – just what you’d want on your TV… but curiously only available on the iMac, now available with both 17″ and 20″ widescreen displays again as last seen on the iLamp model.
iTunes 6
iTunes 5 has been out a whole month and Apple think the addition of buying videos justifies a whole new version number. Apart from this the only other changes seem to be a couple of minor cosmetics.
I guess they are desperately trying to catch up version numbers with RealPlayer and Windows Media Player. I wonder what other features they can add/borrow from other apps now that video has been nabbed from QuickTime and syncing from iSync. How much longer before it is renamed iKitchenSink?
Other stuff
- Goodbye eMac
- No sign of faster PowerBooks
- Hello iMac with faster CPU
For more commentary check out these BoingBoing or DaringFireball commentaries.
[)amien
Automatic comparison operator overloading in C#
Abhinaba has blogged on the painful C# operator overloading experience.
The basic problem that is if you want to overload one, you soon end up many of the tests including == != < <= > >= Equals, Compare and probably CompareTo via IComparable when it turns out one function can provide everything needed in general use.
Ruby already has this with the <=> operator, sometimes known as a SpaceShipOperator and this got me thinking resulting in the following little class:
using System;
/// AutoOperators provides a base class where all the standard operators are overridden and
/// wired up via the subclass's implementation of IComparable.CompareTo.
public abstract class AutoOperators : IComparable {
public static bool operator < (AutoOperators obj1, AutoOperators obj2) {
return Compare(obj1, obj2) < 0;
}
public static bool operator > (AutoOperators obj1, AutoOperators obj2) {
return Compare(obj1, obj2) > 0;
}
public static bool operator == (AutoOperators obj1, AutoOperators obj2) {
return Compare(obj1, obj2) == 0;
}
public static bool operator != (AutoOperators obj1, AutoOperators obj2) {
return Compare(obj1, obj2) != 0;
}
public static bool operator <= (AutoOperators obj1, AutoOperators obj2) {
return Compare(obj1, obj2) <= 0;
}
public static bool operator >= (AutoOperators obj1, AutoOperators obj2) {
return Compare(obj1, obj2) >= 0;
}
public static int Compare(AutoOperators obj1, AutoOperators obj2) {
if (Object.ReferenceEquals(obj1, obj2)) return 0;
if ((object)obj1 == null) return -1;
if ((object)obj2 == null) return 1;
return obj1.CompareTo(obj2);
}
public abstract int CompareTo(object obj);
public abstract override int GetHashCode();
public override bool Equals(object obj) {
if (!(obj is AutoOperators)) return false;
return this == (AutoOperators) obj;
}
}And then to use it simply inherit from it and implement GetHashCode and CompareTo, e.g.
using System;
public class SampleClass : AutoOperators {
private int testValue = 0;
public SampleClass(int initialTestValue) {
testValue = initialTestValue;
}
public int TestValue {
get { return testValue; }
set { testValue = value; }
}
public override int CompareTo(object obj) {
if (obj is SampleClass)
return TestValue.CompareTo(((SampleClass) obj).TestValue);
else
return -1;
}
public override int GetHashCode() {
return TestValue.GetHashCode();
}
}As with all code, determine the suitability of this solution to your own needs – that responsibility is yours. As with all code here it comes without warranty, expressed, implied or otherwise alluded to.
I’d recommend checking out the performance, CLS compliance regarding operators and the addition of any extra operators you use all the time.
[)amien