monkeys on typewriters

Since I have yet to do the obligatory “What I Think of Leopard Before it Comes Out” post, I figured I’d focus on Apple’s big, giant feature list. (I also figured I’d do it after Leopard comes out because, 1) I’m lazy and 2) I have yet to get my grubby paws on it.) In my opinion, the features that will be most important in the end will be the features listed under these sections:

• Graphics & Media
• Instruments
• Networking
• Security
• System
• Unix
• Xcode 3

You’ll notice that these are categories that, even if an average user cared about them, they probably wouldn’t be able to understand what the new features are, exactly. All these categories focus on developers and enhancing their ability to make great applications.

The bottom line is this: Apple can spend only a finite amount of time working on its OS. If they spend a larger portion of that time working on improving developer tools, it will mean that more developers will commit time to creating more, better Mac applications that will increase the value of the platform well beyond what Apple could ever do on its own.

If you follow this line of thought through to conclusion, you may think that Apple should spend all of its time on developer tools, which would make some people (i.e. me) rather happy. However, the average Joe user wouldn’t understand why he doesn’t get any new features right away. And the reporters would all say that there’s “really nothing new”.

The key for Apple is to look for the hallowed middle ground between end user features and developer goodies.

So, my Taco Widgets partner-in-crime associate, Austin recently wrote a blog post outlining (1) why he doesn’t use WordPress, (2) why he prefers Movable Type, and (3) the proper spelling and usage of his new word, “unglamorous”*.

I use Word Press for this blog.

And I agree with everything Austin said. My experience of Movable Type comes from the Taco Widgets blog. I use Word Press here for two reasons. One: I created this blog before Movable Type went to 4.0. Two: I don’t personally think that Movable Type is so much better than Word Press that I need to take the time and switch over (not to mention lose all my old posts).

* Which surprisingly, is not marked as being spelled incorrectly, but is not in the Mac OS X dictionary either.

It’s always bugged me that you can’t insert objects or remove objects from arrays in Javascript. I’ve always pined for Objective-C’s insertObject:atIndex:. Which is why I wrote the equivalent.

Array.prototype.insertObjectAtIndex(object, index)
{
  return this.splice(index, 0, object);
}

Array.prototype.removeObjectAtIndex(index)
{
  return this.splice(index, 1);
}

(Sometimes, I wish I could just end posts without writing something witty.)

In Rainbows will be released as a digital download available only via [Radiohead]’s web site, Radiohead.com. There’s no label or distribution partner to cut into the band’s profits — but then there may not be any profits. Drop In Rainbows’ 15 songs into the on-line checkout basket and a question mark pops up where the price would normally be. Click it, and the prompt “It’s Up To You” appears. Click again and it refreshes with the words “It’s Really Up To You” — and really, it is. It’s the first major album whose price is determined by what individual consumers want to pay for it. And it’s perfectly acceptable to pay nothing at all.

Via Time.

I have to say, I really like this revenue model. The other think I like is the fact that it’s giving the record labels the finger. I hope they’ll tell us how it works out for them.