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Blog Entries from July 2008

Review: New Macbook

By Ethan Poole

Last week, to my extreme excitement, my brand-spanking new Macbook arrived on my doorstep. Since I am attending university this fall, I had to get rid of my iMac because it is simply too large to lug back and forth between Florida and Minnesota. I could have just used my old iBook, but it is slow and outdated, so I opted to purchase a new Macbook and get rid of both my iMac and iBook. Other than the more portable form factor, the Macbooks nowadays are also faster and have better general specs than my old iMac.

Disregarding my lighter wallet, I love my new Macbook! For one, it is speedy, but also the glossy screen displays colours really nice and the screen is even brighter than my iMac�s screen. I also like the new keyboard style because it is more tactile, but particularly because it cannot get cat hair all inside it. My cat basically follows me everywhere, so my other keyboards have always been covered in cat hair, but my Macbook�s keyboard is cat hair free!

OSX Leopard is nice as well, of course. The overall refresh in design is nice, particularly the revised Dock and the translucent Menu Bar (which previously I thought I wouldn�t like). The new Stacks feature is also cool looking, but the functionality is questionable. I haven�t made much use of Spaces or the updated Front Row, but I have actually made use of the faster Dashboard. Also, I purchased iWork �08 with the Macbook, but I have not had much time to experiment with the new features.

It is nice to have everything setup on my new Macbook, including my documents, music, code, etc. Macbooks are very nice laptops and priced reasonably for the specs. I would recommend them to anyone looking for a good, quality laptop.
Opera Mini on the iPhone

By Ethan Poole

When you search for "opera mini iphone (external link)" on Google, you get tons of results arguing why Opera Mini is better than the iPhone's Safari web browser. Now, with the introduction of third-party applications for the iPhone, my question is: when will Opera Mini (external link) be on the iPhone? Opera's codebase is suppose to be easy to adapt to new platforms, according to Opera Software, as we see with Opera on the Wii for example. I seriously hope that Opera Software is planning on releasing a version of Opera Mini for the iPhone, but I would understand if they decided against it, considering the iPhone has a capable browser already.

My main issue with the iPhone's browser is that it will not display a mobile stylesheet, asserting that it has to display the "real" web. The iPhone is a mobile device and there is simply no way of denying it. Opera Mini simply better handles the Internet for mobile devices, especially with the excellent rendering of websites for small screens without having to constantly zoom in and out. Plus, with the iPhone's touch-screen, Opera Mini would be really easy to navigate and to use.

Basically, I have seen a number of arguments online about why Opera Mini is better than the iPhone's Safari browser, but I would personally just like to see Opera Mini on the iPhone!
American English: The Language of Tech

By Ethan Poole

English, particularly American English, is the de facto language of technology. Awhile back, I posted a thread on a forum asking people what they thought about not being able to use British spelling in CSS, a stylesheet language clearly based on the English language. In reality, it would not be hard to accept text-align: centre or colour: red, but CSS only accepts American spelling. British spellings for colours, such as "grey", are acceptable, but Internet Explorer only accepts American spellings for colours. Of course, no one on the forum seemed to express much concern over not being able to use British spelling in CSS.

For me, it just raises the question of language in the technology field. American English is the dominant language of technology, all the way down to the most widely-used programming languages, such as C++ and Java. What about all the other languages in the world? Imagine that your native language is Russian or Chinese and that you have to program in a programming language based off of the English language. I guess it is not as much of a problem with so many people abroad learning English, but I still find it interesting. Even foreign software companies often base their operations in English, such as Opera (which is based in Norway). Personally, I can only think of one time when I opened a PHP source file and found the comments in a foreign language.

Most of us here at Lowter speak English natively or near-natively. However, I just personally find the dominance of American English in technology an interesting issue. Any thoughts on this?
City-wide Wireless Internet in Minneapolis

By Ethan Poole

There is always news of hoopla and drama on the Internet about big cities trying to roll out wireless Internet across their entire city. I guess I figured that city-wide wireless Internet was simply not a reality yet because these news articles always discuss companies not willing to roll out the networks because of high costs. When I was in Minneapolis a few days ago, I was entirely shocked to discover the city is wireless!

Now, my hopes were up for free wireless Internet in the Cities, but alas, the service is not free. You have to pay for it like you would pay for any other Internet service. However, there is still the benefit that one is not tethered by wires to his/her Internet access. For example, you can take your computer with you basically anywhere in Minneapolis and have Internet access using your subscription. The signal is not perfect in every corner of the city, but the providing company (USI Wireless (external link)) does provide you with an amplifier for your house to help boost the signal. City-wide wireless will not be much use for me, because, obviously, the University provides Internet access for me, but I still find it a step in the right direction.

I do wonder why I never heard about this in the news? Many other major metropolitan areas were on websites like Digg and Cnet when they were only attempting to roll out WiFi networks. Nonetheless, it is a bright prospect to see that at least one major American city can move into the wireless realm; it is at least a start for all the others.
iPhone 2.0 Software Update

By Ethan Poole

This morning, having arrived back home from Minnesota just last night, I downloaded the new iPhone 2.0 software update (external link) that was released yesterday. Overall, the new update is certainly worth the half-hour it took to download it, especially with the introduction of third-party applications. Personally, I was especially happy to see the introduction of foreign language support, other than the original English, French, German, and Italian (especially, considering that it was only sold in the UK and US, the original mix did not include Spanish). The new features include:
- Third-party applications
- Foreign language support
- Microsoft Exchange support
- MobileMe (the replacement to the decrepit .Mac service)
- Other small improvements here and there
The App Store is probably the coolest addition to the iPhone, although not all of the applications are free. Most are under $9.99, which is reasonable for most of the applications, especially the new accelerator-driven games. I have only had the chance to try out the Facebook, MySpace, and Twitterific applications, but all of them work well and are milestones ahead of their web-based predecessors (which worked pretty slow over EDGE).

If you have an iPhone, the update certainly eliminates the need to jailbreak your phone. The iPhone is still missing some key features, including MMS and copy-and-paste support. For those of us, like myself, not purchasing a new iPhone 3G, we still get to deal with the recessed headphone jack and lack of GPS, but oh well.