Back in those dark ages when the only way to add applications to an iPhone/iPod touch was to jailbreak it, one of my favorite apps was a little thing called Mobilecast. The app did one thing, and did it well: It allowed podcasts to be downloaded over WiFi or a cellphone data connection for later listening. I lost Mobilecast when I upgraded to firmware 2.0, but I wasn’t worried, as the developers had announced they were working on a new version that would be available in Apple’s App Store. However, the developer, Frank Lynch, apparently reversed course; after announcing that the beta of the new version would be available as an ad-hoc download, he instead chose to offer it via Cydia, an application installer for jailbroken iPhones.

While I don’t know for sure why Lynch changed his mind, I can hazard a guess: Apple recently killed a similar application, Podcaster, with the explanation that “it duplicates the functionality of the Podcast section of iTunes,” and I assume Lynch decided that skipping the App Store route altogether was the best way to get his application out the door. And he might be right. Apple’s answer to the Podcaster developer has flummoxed Apple fans and critics alike, given that a) the version of iTunes on the iPhone/touch doesn’t support podcasts, and b) the desktop version of iTunes is, well, a desktop program. The ban would be less puzzling if it was part of an overall strategy to limit bandwidth-hungry applications to avoid overtaxing AT&T’s 3G infrastructure. But, in fact, the iPhone and touch come with plenty of built-in media guzzlers, including YouTube and iTunes. And third party apps that stream audio and video have proliferated in the App Store. (Not to mention the fact that the iPhone/touch versions of Pandora and Last.fm make iTunes superfluous for many users.)

What, then, is the issue with podcatchers? At this point, I’m as confused as ever. Did Apple merely take offense at the name “Podcaster” (after all, the company forced one developer to rename a similarly tagged desktop app a while ago)? Does the company want to force users to retrieve podcasts via iTunes as a way of making sure they keep the iPod/desktop iTunes symbiosis alive (a possible solution; I rarely synced my touch when I was using Mobilecast under 1.1)? Or is Apple planning to add podcasts to the mobile version of iTunes, and is merely trying to avoid making its customers pay for something that will soon be available for free (that would certainly be a good outcome for consumers, though it’s still inconsistent, given that there are already plenty of pay apps available that compete with Apple’s free ones, including weather and note-taking tools).

Regardless, I’ve jailbroken my touch, using the idiot-proof QuickPwn application. I’ve got Cydia, Installer, the new Mobilecast beta—and access to a slew of functions that Apple, for whatever reason, has yet to offer via the App Store.
Standard disclaimer: My opinions are mine alone and not those of my employer or anyone affiliated with my employer.

Apple’s big update today included some nice treats at just about every stage of the food chain, from the recolored shuffles to the reworked nano (bye, bye, fatty!) to an even thinner touch (32GB! Built-in speaker! My old one will be on eBay soon!). So, what was missing? Well, let’s put it this way: At an event where one of the first things Steve announced was the addition of more HD programming to the iTunes store—including the long-awaited return of NBC —the only screens he showed off on which viewers could watch that fabulous HD were about two inches (okay, the touch is 3.5 inches, but still). I don’t know about you, but I somehow find it hard to believe that you can appreciate the full impact of watching a Cylon basestar explode in glorious 720p on a 3.5-inch screen. No, what you really need to do is download that puppy to a box that can play it back on that 60-incher in your living room. Any idea where I can pick up such a box?

Anyone?

That’s right! AppleTV, Steve’s long-running, long-suffering hobby. AppleTV wasn’t mentioned once at today’s event, and if you didn’t know about it, you’d be hard pressed to find out about it from Apple. Go to the front page of Apple.com, and you’ll find the touch (with its cringe-inducing “funnest” tagline), the nano, and iTunes 8. Even the el cheapo shuffle gets a spot in the limelight. AppleTV? No way. And, of course, despite the fact that Steve rolled out new software for just about every media-savvy product Apple makes, AppleTV is still running the same old “take two” firmware. Forget about using the “Genius” function when you’re playing music on AppleTV. Oh, and the AppleTV page hasn’t been updated to show off all of those hot NBC shows. Monk, BSG, 30 Rock. Sure, Steve plugged them today. But if you’re in the market for an AppleTV, you’d never know it.

Okay, I’m done ranting. At least Apple mentioned AppleTV in their press release for iTunes 8. And tonight, I’ll be downloading some of that HD programming and watching it on a big screen in my living room. So, Steve, I’m helping you keep your hobby alive. Now, please, get out there and do something new with it!

Standard disclaimer: My opinions are mine alone and not those of my employer or anyone affiliated with my employer.

One of the first things I did with my iPod touch when I got it last year was jailbreak it. And from that point on, I avoided upgrading the firmware, so that I could keep my precious illicit applications intact. Until now. Last Friday, I upgraded to 2.0, and I haven’t looked back since. While the App Store isn’t perfect, the range of applications available, from games to ebook readers, is stunningly robust. And despite the fact that Apple has vetoed certain functionality (background processes, VoIP over 3G), the App Store includes some programs that I was sure it wouldn’t, including Pandora, AOL Radio and a number of other streaming music applications. One can only wonder how AT&T will react when users start taking advantage of those “unlimited” data plans to stream Internet radio all day; drivers with long commutes and good 3G coverage could turn their iPhones into ersatz Sirius radios, minus the monthly fees. For me, the new apps make my touch a worthy replacement for my Chumby and Nokia 770, both of which I’ve put on eBay. Of course, there are some jailbreak apps that I miss, most notably Mobilecast, which allowed over-the-air downloads of podcasts. But word is the developer will have an App Store version soon enough, and my touch will then be complete.
Standard disclaimer: My opinions are mine alone and not those of my employer or anyone affiliated with my employer.

1. MacBook Air is cool, but I can’t see spending $1,799 on what is essentially a secondary or tertiary computer. Hello, Eee.

2. Apple TV seems poised to finally be a solid platform, and free upgrade rocks (especially compared to item #3, below). I’m going to upgrade mine tonight, and may even pick up a second one for the bedroom.

3. Upgrades to iPod Touch are fine, but not worth $20.

4. Does Time Capsule support Windows? If not, I’ll stick with Buffalo.

5. No 3G iPhone. I’ll stick with my jailbroken Touch.

Hats off to Nick Ciarelli of ThinkSecret for choosing to go out of business, rather than reveal his sources to Apple. While a better outcome clearly would have been for Nick to continue publishing and keep his sources confidential, his settlement with Apple shows that there are at least some citizen journalists out there willing to play with the big boys. Of course, Ciarelli’s willingness to settle and shut down could make other bloggers and gossip sites think twice before taking on big companies like Apple. As Fake Steve comments, in response to a post by Matthew Ingram, “We did not shut down Think Secret. That did not happen. Okay? That’s not reality. Reality is, Think Secret shut down on its own. Which come to think of it might be a good idea for you, Matthew Ingram. Otherwise we may have to come over there and not shut you down, too.” FSJ’s real-life counterpart may not put it so bluntly, but the effect could well be the same.

One spring day during my junior year of high school, a friend came up to me and said, “Did you hear? Ian Curtis killed himself.” Dumbfounded, I replied, “Who?” At the time, my musical tastes were evolving, and this friend, who was always a step ahead of me, briefed me about Joy Division’s history, and lamented that he wouldn’t get to see them at Hurrah as he had planned (if memory serves correctly, he kept his tickets to the canceled show as a memento mori, rather than turning them in for a refund). Over the next few months, I would come to fully embrace Joy Division’s small, powerful ouevre, along with that of New Order, which rose almost too rapidly from the band’s ashes.

I’ve been thinking about those days a lot lately, as the Joy Division revival launches into high gear. In the past three days alone, The New York Times has had three articles about the group, culminating in today’s glowing review of the biopic “Control,” which is, of course, the driving force behind the newfound interest in Joy Division. And, not to let an opportunity pass it by, Apple has released its “iTunes Originals” New Order album, which includes mostly interview clips, along with versions of “Transmission” and “Love Will Tear Us Apart.”

The most striking thing about the New Order versions of these songs is how ordinary they sound. When Ian Curtis sang, “Dance, dance, dance, dance, dance, to the radio,” each “dance” was a sharply punctuated, like a hammer hitting a nail. Curtis wasn’t singing about dancing; he was singing about using music as a blunt instrument to blot out painful memories. When Bernard Sumner sings the same lyrics, he’s, well, singing about dancing. That’s not exactly surprising. New Order, has, after all, always been a dance band, focused more on finding the perfect beat than a meaningful turn of phrase. Even the group’s best song, the Curtis tribute “The Perfect Kiss,” features such inane, wince-worth lyrics as “I have always thought about/staying here or going out.” That doesn’t mean I don’t like New Order. The group’s early singles sound as fresh to me today as they did over 25 years ago, and I certainly listen to “Temptation” more often than, say, “Komakino.” But when I want more substance, I’ll return to Joy Division, as I suspect many fans, old and new, will do in the coming weeks.

Back in the day, I used to occasionally play with a Mac program called Tappy Type, which made your computer sound like a typewriter (what can I say; I’m easily amused). The program, a relic of the pre-OS X days, was never updated for modern Macs or ported to Windows, and its developer has apparently moved on to bigger and better things. Fortunately, the Tappy Type concept was recently merged with another of my favorite software concepts—full-screen console-style text editors—resulting in Q10. The free program works the same way as DarkRoom, WriteRoom and its other brethren, with the added excitement of typewriter sound effects (it even has customizable sound themes, in case you prefer, say, the classic Remington effect to the mid-century modern tones of the Selectric). Of course, the sounds can be disabled, but for total nostalgia, there’s nothing like launching Q10, setting the background to white, the font to Courier and cranking up the volume. Now, will someone please tell me how to get that WiteOut off of my screen?

Forbes recently declared the Apple TV the “iFlop,” asking the question, “How did the storied Steve Jobs and Apple botch it so badly?” However, despite the low sales figures, constant flow of criticism and even Steve’s relegation of the box to the status of “hobby,” I still think Apple TV is an amazing product—if you accept it for what it is: an affordable, user-friendly tool to bridge the gap between your PC and your TV. Here’s why I like the Apple TV, and now use it far more than my DVD player (and even the non-HD programming on my cable box):

1. It’s cheap. No, not cheap like a $50 DVD player. But at $249 for a refurb of the 40GB version, it’s cheaper than some of the other boxes Forbes raves about, like the $399 Vudu. It’s even cheaper than some popular audio-only options, like the Squeezebox or Roku Radio.
2. It works. I’ve tried other devices designed to stream music, photos and video from my PC to my TV, and none have worked as well as the Apple TV. Getting photos on is a breeze, syncing with iTunes is effortless, and adding videos is a no-brainer. Apple’s trademark ease-of-use translates well to the living room, where you’d rather kick back and relax than dig in and hack.
3. It’s hackable. Of course, when you do want to dig in and hack, it’s great to know that you can. There are hacks to do everything from turn the Apple TV into a full-fledged (though underpowered) Mac, to open it up to just about every video format. The first Apple TV hacks are what convinced me to take it seriously as a platform, and I wouldn’t have bought one otherwise.
4. It can play DVD video. While Forbes and others carp about the limited amount of programming available via iTunes, I don’t really care about that, since I have plenty of other sources for video in my own DVD collection. Years ago, I ripped all of my CDs to digital files and banished the discs themselves to the basement. I’ve always wanted to do the same with my DVDs, but was held back by not having an easy way to get the files to play in the living room. Apple TV solves that problem. Even without hacking the actual box, ripping DVDs to Apple TV-supported formats is fairly simple, thanks to good ol’ DVD Jon, and the dozens of free and low-priced programs that can copy DVDs. And ripped DVDs can be saved at higher resolutions than those supported in the vids for sale in the iTunes store.
5. It does YouTube. Forbes dings Apple for not including the Tube out of the gate, and I have to agree. I didn’t buy mine until Apple added it (and the refurbs hit the market). Now that it’s there, though, it’s one of my favorite features. Sure low-res YouTube videos look even worse on my 42-inch plasma than they do on my 19-inch desktop LCD, but that’s not the point, is it? The sheer volume and variety is what keeps me coming back to YouTube, and so far Apple and Google have done a pretty good job of porting videos from Flash to H.264.

No, Apple TV isn’t perfect. The 40GB model is way too small (though you can upgrade that if you’re willing to do a little hacking). It doesn’t stream Internet radio (at least without hacks). And Unbox-style rentals would be nice. But it does everything it claims to do, and does it simply, cheaply and elegantly. And for my living room, that’s enough.

I’ve bought a handful of iPods over the years, including a shuffle (which I lost) a nano and a mini (my focus, obviously, has been on mobility). But I’ve never had a lot of interest in a full-size iPod. Until now. The new touch-screen iPod finally takes the device and makes it good for more than just listening to music and going blind trying to watch movies on an infinitesimal screen. With its big screen, WiFi, iTunes and functional browser, the touchscreen iPod is actually something useful, and a credible competitor to the Nokia 800, a device I’ve been coveting ever since I picked up a 770 on the cheap a few months ago. Now, I’m glad I waited. Though the touch may not have the N800’s open-source underpinnings. expandable memory or built-in Skype support, it’s got almost everything else, including a very competitive price. When the iPhone was released, I recall thinking that, if Apple came out with a device that did everything the iPhone did, except the phone part, and priced it at about $300, I’d be first in line for it. Now Apple’s gone and done it, and I’m ready to order. Nokia, watch your back! (Note: As with all other posts on this blog, the opinions expressed herein are strictly my own and are based solely on my own subjective perspective.)