Author: Alex Layne

Microsoft impressed me when it unveiled the Xbox One earlier this week. I can’t imagine a future where we won’t be talking and gesturing to our TVs while visiting with grandma on a video call and playing a game at the same time. Throughout the presentation, I was thinking, I wish Apple made something like this. The battle for your living room is heating up, and the Xbox One has positioned itself as the “all-in-One” solution, providing all your entertainment in one device. It doesn’t entirely succeed at that, but it does a better job than what Apple is offering currently with the Apple TV, and consumers will notice that.

Below, I’ll examine how I think Apple can bring the Apple TV up to par with the One as a true living room device.

Voice and gestures

The Xbox One’s Kinect peripheral lets you control the console with your voice or gestures. For instance, you can turn the console on by saying “Xbox, on” or flip to a new tab in the interface with a wave of your hand. These features might sound gimmicky to some, but at least you won’t need to hunt for a controller or remote just to do something simple. My parents aren’t great with controllers, so I can see them using their voices and gestures more heavily. Plus, the features are impressive when demonstrated, even if most people only end up using them occasionally.

Siri on an Apple TV would have to interpret and respond to user input instantaneously like voice control does on the Xbox. The wait-for-the-tone approach Siri uses on iOS would get annoying too quickly. The Xbox One’s voice control lets you navigate around the interface, but it can’t answer factual questions or manage tasks like Siri can. When you ask Siri something that requires a reply, it could pop up a window with the results.

Gestures could work similarly to how they work on Apple’s other devices. You could pinch in with one hand to go home, or swipe right or left to switch tasks. If you hover your hand, you could get a cursor like you do on the Xbox. We should keep in mind that the Kinect is a complex device with many sensors, which is why it’s so bulky. If Apple were to use the same technology, they would have to make the Apple TV’s form factor bigger, either by enlarging the current Apple TV design or by hiding the technology in a new TV-like design.

There are pros and cons to both approaches, though. For instance, a bigger version of the current form factor loses its predecessor’s elegance and leads to more clutter, while an actual Apple television wouldn’t be able to compete with the Xbox One on cost.

Live TV and the App Store

The Xbox One uses the same technology Google’s failing TV platform does to hook into your cable or satellite box: HDMI and IR blasters. The problem with this is that you can only watch live TV. You can’t access shows on your DVR or record new ones, so you have to switch back and forth. Due to those caveats and the added bulk the equipment brings, I doubt we’ll ever see the phrase “IR blaster” on the Apple TV’s spec page.

What’s more likely to happen is what’s already been happening on iOS for a few years now: channels becoming apps. Bringing the App Store to the Apple TV (along with a native SDK) would allow the many companies that already have video streaming apps on iOS, like ABC and HBO, to port them over. Microsoft hasn’t yet announced firm plans for an app store on the Xbox One, but it’s likely we’ll hear more about it at the Build 2013 conference.

Gaming

Few remember that Apple actually made its own gaming console in the ’90s called the Pippin. It was a dismal failure, selling a mere 42,000 units. Fast forward to today and iOS devices are the most popular handheld consoles in existence, but you can’t play any games for them on your TV without lag-prone AirPlay mirroring. Meanwhile, the Xbox is getting better at doing the Apple TV’s job (entertainment) faster than the Apple TV is getting better at doing the Xbox’s job (games). If the Apple TV doesn’t embrace gaming, it risks a poor comparison next to Microsoft’s more capable console. Consumers, I think, would rather have one device that does everything, and the Apple TV doesn’t do gaming. And that missing feature is only going to become more apparent as Apple continues its success in mobile gaming.

Making the Apple TV a great gaming machine isn’t an easy task, though. The single-core A5 processor in the current version may work for casual games with decent graphics, but graphics-intense titles like Call of Duty: Ghosts will require much more power. Targeting casual gamers worked out well for Nintendo’s Wii, so it’s arguable that Apple could do just that by beefing up the processor, and cede the hardcore gaming audience to Microsoft and Sony. There’s a more interesting possibility, though: streaming the games as they’re rendered from a server to the Apple TV. The grunt work would be done in the cloud, and the Apple TV would simply be displaying it. Sony’s PS4 will be able to stream earlier PlayStation titles when it’s released later this year, so it’s not entirely outside the realm of possibility for Apple to do something similar.

Controllers are another aspect of console gaming that Apple can’t ignore. Most speculation on what Apple would do here revolves around simply using iOS devices as touchscreen controllers. Touchscreens work well for casual mobile games, but I think that’s the wrong solution for games on Apple TV. Not being able to feel the buttons you’re pressing is a huge disadvantage, and I can imagine people getting frustrated looking back and forth from their TV to their iOS device to make sure their fingers are in the right place. And unless the entire house has iPhones, you’ll be paying at least $300 for each iOS device you want to use as a controller. To provide an experience that can rival Microsoft’s, Apple needs to make its own controller, or at least provide an accessory that turns iOS devices into hardware controllers.

Smarter AirPlay

AirPlay is a huge part of what makes Apple TV useful. Rather than endlessly passing your phone around to show off photos of your kids, you can just AirPlay it to the TV so everyone can see. However, AirPlay could be even more useful by enabling more of a second-screen experience, like Microsoft’s SmartGlass. SmartGlass is a standalone app that shows you ambient information about whatever’s happening on your Xbox. If you’re playing a game, SmartGlass might show you a map, or your stats. Watch a movie, and SmartGlass’ll give you the cast and synopsis. Back on iOS, all the information you’ll glean from the AirPlay dialog is “This video is playing on your Apple TV”. Apple can do better, especially given that they have one of the biggest media databases in the world in iTunes.

What else would you like to see in a new Apple TV? Tell us in the comments.

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The focus of Apple’s last two releases of OS X has been on incorporating features of iOS while refining the user experience, which has worked well so far. However, certain aspects of iOS, such as the lack of good inter-app communication, are making the platform look dated. Apple could solve that issue and others by bringing features from OS X back to iOS, starting with Services.

Services

One of the biggest differences between OS X and iOS is the way they treat inter-app communication. OS X’s little-known Services feature provides a way for applications to transfer data, such as currently selected text, between each other. Let’s say I’m typing a document and I want to search the web for a phrase I’m using. I can select the phrase, use the “Search With Google” service, and a new Safari window pops up with the results. Third-party apps can use Services as well, and users can create their own with the Automator app. This flexibility and customizability is what makes Services powerful.

Let’s switch to iOS. Apps are sandboxed, which means they can’t share files between each other, and the only way to share text is through copy and paste. Third-party apps can’t process actions from other apps without using URL schemes, which isn’t an ideal solution.

Implementing something as complex as OS X’s Services within iOS’s simplified UI isn’t easy. So far, Apple’s taken the approach of only including the most useful Services from OS X in its own apps. In iBooks, for example, I can select a word and define it, make a new email with it, or search the web for it: all the basic stuff you can do in OS X. It’s a sign that Apple’s at least thinking about the problem, and I’m hopeful that the coming iOS 7 update will address it more thoroughly.

Multiple user accounts

Multiple user accounts were introduced with Mac OS 9, and they’ve evolved quite a bit since. Today, each user gets their own settings, files and associated iCloud account. If you click on the currently logged-in user’s name in the menu bar, a menu pops down with a list of other users. Choose one, and that user’s desktop rotates off the screen to be replaced by the other’s.

It’s true that you can sign in and out of iOS with different Apple IDs, but this only lets you download another user’s content from iTunes and not much else. You don’t get your iCloud data or settings, and any changes you make outside of iTunes stay with the other account. Obviously, this isn’t ideal for families that share an iPad or iPod touch. The latest version of Android, Jelly Bean, includes multiple account support for tablets, giving Android users one more feature to tout that iOS doesn’t have.

Slideshow wallpaper

“Slideshow” wallpaper — background images that shift after a set period of time — was introduced to OS X with 10.3 Panther. iOS 4 introduced homescreen wallpapers on the iPhone, but you could only set one at a time; it remains so today. Considering that you can already run a slideshow on an iPad’s lockscreen, doing the same thing with homescreen wallpaper doesn’t seem like much to ask.

Mission Control

Released with OS X Lion, Mission Control consolidates Exposé, Spaces and Dashboard into one UI. I’ll be talking about the Exposé part here, since I don’t see any need for Dashboard or something like Spaces on iOS. Exposé is the feature that zooms and arranges your open windows so you can see them all at once. Click on one, and Exposé switches you to it.

In iOS, switching between apps is accomplished with the multitasking tray. Double-tap the Home button, and the tray pops up, showing your most recently used apps. Unlike Exposé, the multitasking tray only shows you the app’s icon and not the app itself. Apple actually experimented with a more Exposé-like interface in an early version of iOS 4, and Jailbreak tweaks, such as Multifl0w, bring a similar interface. Android and Windows Phone’s task switchers also use app previews and not just icons, and with the multitasking tray making its debut almost three years ago, it feels like it’s time for an overhaul.

Gatekeeper

By default, Gatekeeper locks down your Mac so it will only run apps from the Mac App Store and developers registered with Apple. However, you can turn Gatekeeper off on OS X. On iOS, there isn’t a choice: you can only download apps from the App Store. Because of this, and Apple’s policy of reviewing every app before approving it, there’s been a few incidents over the years, starting with the blocking of Google Voice, which damaged the company’s reputation with some developers. By implementing a Gatekeeper-like system, it would be easier for Apple to defend criticism of its approval policies, as developers could still sell their apps on the web. iOS developers would also be able to get out updates even if Apple rejects them.

There are problems with this, however. Apple would have to allow downloading apps from Safari, which also means building an interface to manage them. App piracy, already an issue on jailbroken devices, would likely increase under such a system as well unless Apple implemented DRM. Malware is another possible concern, though as with Gatekeeper on the Mac, having the default be to only allow apps from the iOS App Store would leave people protected. With all of these negatives, I doubt we’ll be glimpsing over the walled garden any time soon.

Versions

Versions, introduced with Lion, provides a Time Machine-like interface for looking through past revisions of a document. When you trigger it, the desktop slides away as the current app is placed next to its past versions, stacked together on the right. Browsing through past versions is accomplished by a timeline on the side. You can edit the current version right within the interface, as well as copy elements from past versions.

Versions hasn’t made its way to iOS yet, and that’s understandable given the size of iOS devices. How would you fit something like Versions’ interface on the smaller screen of an iPhone or iPad? On OS X, an app’s window can resize to fit comfortably within Versions, but they can’t on iOS. Versions would have to be rethought significantly for it to work on smaller screens, so I’m not optimistic that it’ll be in iOS 7.

Many of these features that work so well on OS X are admittedly a long shot for making it to iOS. However, with Craig Federighi placed in charge of both OS X and iOS software after the departure of Scott Forstall, there’s at least the possibility that OS X features may eventually find their way to the other side.

What other features from OS X would you like to see in iOS? Tell us in the comments. 

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If you use RSS feeds to keep up with the news, Google probably broke your heart yesterday by announcing that it’s shutting down Google Reader on July 1. Reader, aside from being a great web RSS reader, provided the syncing backend for many RSS readers in the iOS App Store, including Reeder, Mr. Reader and Newsify. I’ve been using Google Reader to sync my feeds for five years, so I’ve come to rely on it heavily for my news.

But recently I’ve also come to rely on several news aggregation apps (most of which are really just RSS readers with special features). Real RSS readers will still be around when Reader’s gone, especially given the market opportunity Reader’s demise presents for companies like Digg — which announced Thursday it would pick up where Google Reader leaves off — but it can’t hurt to have options for consuming news on your  mobile device. Sometimes I’ll find articles in these apps that I wouldn’t have found in my more focused list of RSS feeds.

Here are five good iOS apps — all of them are free — that you can personalize to help you keep up with the news:

Zite

Zite bills itself as a personalized digital magazine, and it’s actually been around for awhile (it was acquired by CNN in 2011). Zite’s interface is kind of boring, but it’s also straightforward. When you first start Zite, you can choose from a list of default topics for it to pull articles from. You can also add your own topics through the search interface. A newsfeed displays rectangular article previews for your top news. You can like or dislike the articles Zite shows you, and that data is used to find other articles you might like. You can switch between topics by swiping left or right, and view which topics an article has attached to it by swiping up.

Flud

Flud is unique in that you can follow articles that other users are sharing. Each user also gets a Flud iQ score, which measures your influence on the service based on your activity. Besides following other users, you can also search for new sources to draw from, which are added to a favorites menu. Flud’s interface is more interesting than Zite’s, with large article previews and pretty red buttons. However, the large previews mean only two article previews can fit on the screen at one time, so scrolling through them ends up feeling tedious at times.

Circa

Unlike the others on this list, Circa doesn’t show you full articles from a source. Instead, Circa has editors that condense articles into nuggets of information called “points.” Rather than reading the full text of the article, you swipe through a list of points. Because the articles have to be condensed by humans, Circa has a feature where you can follow an article, so you’ll get notified whenever a new point is added to it. You can’t add new sources or topics to Circa, and it only comes with four topics by default. If you’re fine with that caveat and like things straight to the point, Circa’s worth checking out.

Flipboard

Flipboard’s been pretty widely covered by now, but it can’t hurt to throw it in. Flipboard has a sort of homescreen where you can add and arrange topics. As implied in its name, you “flip” through articles rather than scrolling a list, which means you also have to flip through the ones you might not be interested in.The biggest strength of Flipboard is that you can add a multitude of social networks as sources, including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Google+. You can even add your Google Reader account as a source — until it shuts down.

Pulse

The thing that stands out about Pulse’s app is its interface. Instead of a list of articles, you’re shown a vertically scrolling list of sources and under each is a horizontally scrolling list of articles from that source. The advantage of this is that it allows Pulse to fit nine article previews in one view. Flud only fits two, for comparison. The disadvantage is that it requires a little more scrolling to get through your articles, since they’re arranged horizontally. The headline text is rather small too, and there’s no way to change it. Old eyes beware.

What’s your favorite news aggregator? Are there any you’ve tried that aren’t on the list? Tell us in the comments. 

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Hazel is a preference pane from Noodlesoft that lets you perform actions on your folders based on certain criteria. Here’s a list of several things you can do with it and how to set them up.

Clean your Downloads folder

At the end of the day, my Downloads folder is always stuffed with disk images, half-completed download files, and everything in between. You can clean out any cruft easily using Hazel. Hazel even includes some example actions for your Downloads folder, like moving all photos to your Pictures folder and labeling them blue. But here we’re just going to set it to clear out old disk images.

1. Open up Hazel in System Preferences and click on your Downloads folder in the left pane (it should be there already, if not, add it with the + button).
2. Click the + button to add a new rule.
3. Give the rule a description. I just put “DMG”.
4. On the first line, set it so it reads Extension is dmg, and set the action line to Move file to folder: Trash like so:
5. What you have now will delete any disk image in your Downloads folder. That’s not what we want, so we’re going to set it so it only deletes disk images that are older than a day. Click the + to create a new condition. Set this one to Date Added is not Today, and your window should look like this:
   

Of course, you can change the date to anything you want. And you can add any file type to clear out, so if you download a lot of PDFs, just create a new condition referencing PDFs.

Zip/Unzip Folder

The usefulness of this is debatable, however the concept is still neat: just drag any file into this folder, and it’s compressed and pushed to the desktop.

1. Create a new folder called “Zip” (or whatever you want).
2. Add that folder to Hazel by clicking the + on the left side.
3. Create a new rule by clicking the + on the right side, and name it anything.
4. Set the conditions to Any File.
5. Add an action and set it to Archive file.
6. Add another action and set it to Move file to folder: Desktop. Your window should look like this when you’re done:
   

You can also make another folder that unzips anything dropped into it. Just change Archive file to Unarchive file.

Torrent Folder

This one’s a lot more useful: A folder that automatically opens any torrent files dropped into it.

1. Create a new folder and call it “Torrents” (or whatever you want).
2. Add that folder to Hazel.
3. Create a new rule and name it anything.
4. Set the conditions to Extension is torrent.
5. Set the action to Open file with application: Default Application. Your window will look like this when you’re done:
   

If you have another Mac with Dropbox and Hazel, you can set this so that you can put a torrent file into a folder on your Dropbox and have it sync over to your other Mac, which will then download that torrent. This is also useful if you have ted, which downloads torrents of all your favorite TV shows. Simply reference ted’s folder, which should be in your Home directory.

Conclusion

My ideas can only go so far. The real potential in Hazel lies in adapting it to your own workflow. Play around with it, see what you can do, and then let us know in the comments what you came up with.

iSuppli, the market research and analysis firm, came out with its final report on how much it costs Apple to make an iPad, and the magic number turns out to be about $260 for the baseline 16GB model, which sells for $500 at retail. Apple haters are surely whining that Apple is gouging customers with these prices while getting away with huge margins.

The reality is different. Apple wouldn’t make any money if it just charged slightly higher than the manufacturing costs. Apple has to pay for both hardware and software development, plus the costs of launching a completely new product. It also has to pay its employees, both at the Apple retail stores and at Cupertino itself. With these extra costs in mind, the price of the iPad doesn’t seem as high (many Apple analysts were actually predicting that the iPad would cost $1,000 or more). Apple’s margins are actually far less than other commodities like CDs, which cost about $1 to manufacture, yet are sold for around $10 at retail.

Apple gets these margins for each version of the iPad:

Model	Retail Price	Hardware Cost	Margin
iPad 16GB	$500	$260	52%
iPad 32GB	$600	$290	48%
iPad 64GB	$700	$350	50%

As you can see, the margins stay about the same as the hardware costs go up. Apple’s margins for new products have historically been around these numbers as well, so if you are being gouged (and you’re really not), at least you should be used to it by now.

iPhone OS 4 has over 100 new features. However, some of those features (or all of them) won’t be available on older versions of the iPhone/iPod Touch. Wonder how you’ll fare? Read on.

iPhone 3GS / iPod Touch 3rd-Gen

Both of these will get full compatibility; the whole shebang. Note that the third-gen iPod will only support all the new features on models with 32 or 64GBs of memory; the 16GB model was really a second-gen iPod, which is discussed below.

iPhone 3G / iPod Touch 2nd-Gen

Some compatibility. Multitasking will not be available due to a lower amount of RAM (128MB vs. 256 on the newer models) and a slower processor. It’s not clear yet whether multitasking is the only new feature that’ll be missing. Nor is it clear as to whether Apple will be charging iPod Touch users a fee to upgrade like they did with iPhone OS 3.

iPhone / iPod Touch 1st-Gen

Apple hasn’t officially said anything on these two yet, and that’s likely a sign that you won’t be able to run OS 4 at all. At least those of you still using these dinosaurs have a new iPhone to look forward to in June.

iPad

Obviously, the just-released iPad will be able to run the new OS. It’s worth mentioning because the update won’t be available until the Fall, which seems like a long time considering that the iPhone and iPod Touch are getting the update this summer.

How do you feel about Apple’s compatibility decisions? The inevitable course of progress, or a slap in the face?

So, you got your shiny new iPad on Saturday and you’ve done all the basic stuff on it: web browsing, email, video. But now that the awesomeness of that has worn off, it’s time to get some new apps. Here are the ones you should buy first.

Netflix

Imagine holding the entire Netflix instant watch database in your hands. This is it. The app is free, but you’ll need a Netflix subscription if you don’t already have one.

IMDb

IMDb is an iPad-friendly version of the Independent Movie Database. So, while you’re watching movies with Netflix, you can settle arguments about them with this. Free.

ABC Player

A perfectly optimized version of ABC’s website, so you can watch the iPad on Modern Family with an actual iPad. (Ironically, ABC currently has a Flash banner on its website advertising this app.)

StumbleUpon

The popular browser-based content discovery extension has its first foray into the mobile app market. Free.

NetNewsWire

Because every device needs an RSS reader. This one is a port of the popular Mac RSS reader of the same name. Syncs across your Mac, iPhone, and iPad via Google Reader. $9.99.

Tweetdeck

Much like the desktop version, with its multi-column interface. Supports as many accounts as you want, has geo-location and a dedicated map interface built-in, and it syncs between the iPhone and desktop clients. Free.

NPR

The interface is a clean, magazine-like representation of NPR’s content, and unlike other news apps that are charging ridiculous monthly subscription fees (ahem, Wall Street Journal), it’s free. You can also listen to audio while you’re reading.

Scrabble

The classic board game is even more fun on a bigger screen. And, if you’ve got a spare iPhone or iPod touch, you can use them as trays for your letters with the free Scrabble Tile Rack app. Seriously. $9.99.

Plants V. Zombies HD

One of the most popular tower-defense games on the iPhone, optimized for the iPad, though it’s not really HD. $9.99.

Civilization Revolution

Adapted from the iPhone app and optimized for the iPad. If you’re familiar with Sid Meier’s Civilization series, or just like conquering stuff, then this app should be a revelation of how a touchscreen can bring old gaming mechanisms to life. $12.99.

Related iPad Content from GigaOM Pro (subscription required)

It’s been two long months since the iPad was announced on January 27, and since then it’s been featured on the Grammys, various talk shows, and a comedy TV series. The reviewers seem to love it, despite the negativity of those who say it’s just a big iPod touch. Today, the Apple stores (at least in the U.S.) have opened their glassy gates, and you can now get your very own.

If you live somewhere where there isn’t an Apple store, you can probably get an iPad from a local Apple re-seller, such as Best Buy, but you might want to call around to make sure they have it. If you don’t want to wait in line, or if you’re just lazy, you can pre-order an iPad off the online Apple store; the Wi-Fi version will be shipping April 12 and the WiFi+3G version will be shipping by “Late April.”

In case you live under a gigantic rock and have no idea what the iPad actually is, here’s a little explanation for you: The iPad is a tablet computer running a modified version of iPhone OS. It features the latest in multi-touch technology, runs on a 1GHz Apple A4 custom-designed processor, has a 9.7 inch capacitive touch-screen, weighs just 1.5 pounds, and is only half-an-inch thick. Prices start at $499 and go up based on memory size (16, 32, and 64 GB) and whether you want 3G coverage. Speaking of 3G, it uses AT&T in the U.S. and there’s no contract; it’s pay-as-you-go, with two data plans: unlimited and 250MB/month, $29.99 per month for the former, and $14.99 per month for the latter.

In case you need more info, here’s a roundup of our recent iPad coverage:

• Apple Posts iPad Guided Tours
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Sometimes, for whatever reason, you need to quit all your open applications. But going through each application and quitting them is a pain. Good thing Apple included a nifty little scripting language in OS X called AppleScript that will allow us to quit applications in one fell swoop.

The Easy Way

1. Just download the precompiled Quit application we put together.
2. You’re done, unless you want to assign it to a keyboard shortcut, in which case, read the Assigning a Keyboard Shortcut section below.

The Hard Way

1. Fire up the AppleScript Editor, which is located in /Applications/Utilities.
2. Copy this code and paste it into the AppleScript Editor window:

   tell application "System Events" to set the visible of every process to true
   set white_list to {"Finder"}
   try
   tell application "Finder"
      set process_list to the name of every process whose visible is true
   end tell
   repeat with i from 1 to (number of items in process_list)
     set this_process to item i of the process_list
     if this_process is not in white_list then
       tell application this_process
         quit
       end tell
     end if
   end repeat
   on error
   tell the current application to display dialog "An error has occurred!" & return & "This script will now quit" buttons {"Quit"} default button 1 with icon 0
   end try
   

3. Save it as an application and give it a name (may I suggest “Quit”?).
4. That’s it. You can move it to your desktop so you can run it before you shut down, but that’s inefficient, isn’t it? Read on to find out how to assign it to a keyboard shortcut.

Assigning a Keyboard Shortcut

1. Open up Automator (/Applications/Utilities) and choose to create a new service.
2. Set Service receives to no input and leave everything else alone.
3. Search for launch application in the search field on the left pane and drag the resulting action over to the right pane. Your Automator window should look like this:
   
4. Save it and give it a name. I used Foo.
5. Open up System Preferences and click on Keyboard (or Keyboard & Mouse, depending on your version of OS X).
6. Go to the Keyboard Shortcuts tab and click on Application Shortcuts in the left pane.
7. Click the + symbol to add a new shortcut and make sure the Application popup list is on All Applications.
8. Put whatever name you gave the service you created earlier in the Menu Title field. It has to be the exact name, meaning capitalization matters.
9. Click on the Keyboard Shortcut field and enter whatever shortcut you want. Shift-Command-Q is already taken by the system, so I used Option-Command-Q. Your window should look like this:
   
10. Click Add, and you’re done.

Conclusion

Now you’re ready to take over the world. Well, maybe not, but you are ready to shut down.

My first Apple device was an iPod Nano, second-gen, and using it was a revelation; the simplicity of the click-wheel and the solid industrial design wowed me.

My second Apple device was an iPod touch, also a second-gen and also a revelation; interacting with a touchscreen was completely new to me, and iPhone OS was a dream to use.

After owning those two, I got interested in OS X. I learned everything I could about Macs, watched every video I could find, and played with the Macs at the local Haddock store (Wichita doesn’t have an Apple store yet). I wanted to use OS X, so much so that I couldn’t wait to scrounge up the money to buy a Mac; I had to use it now. And so I hackintosh’d my crappy Dell Inspiron 1525 using a guide I found on DailyBlogged.com. Later, I’d end up writing for DailyBlogged, posting how-tos and opinion pieces.

Using a hackintosh was OK, but I still wanted a real Mac. Eventually, I made enough money to buy the unibody MacBook Pro I’m typing this on. Fast-forward a few months and here I am.

When I’m not using OS X, I’m using its cousin, Linux. There was a time when I used Windows, but those days are long gone. The only time I see Windows now is in VMWare.

If you’re interested, you can keep up with me through Twitter or my personal blog.

(PS: Yes, I’ve trimmed my beard since that picture was taken.)