Category: Apple

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Apple Thoughts

AppleWorks the end at last..

I loved Appleworks ( previously know as Clarisworks) and it has been finally retired with the addition of the numbers spreadsheet to Apples iWork suite. Not sure where the MacDraw like drawing application replacement is but never mind.

ClarisworksThe long life of Claris/Applework is both a reflection on the perceived dominance of Microsoft Office and a focus on Apple else where, but it is also interesting to note that is was always a very popular application all the way to its end because it was very simple, fast and well integrated. I have only just managed to stop my wife using it exclusively and moved her onto to Pages/Word.

Few users of Office use more than 10% of the capabilty of their applications and while in a business seeting there is always someone who might use more, this is not the case for the vast major of home office, and personal users.

I’m sure there are lessons for GIS designers in recognising the demand for simple applications that offer 10% on the functionality of a tool kit desktop GIS system but to 99% of the users – there are still people hanging on to their copies of ArcView 3.x I’m sure?

Written and Submitted from the Google Office, London.

Categories
Apple

Would you join the line for an iPhone

Well clearly a rhetorical question if you don’t live in the US, but I might for the experience.

What do I mean, well you meet a different type of person than in your average supermarket line, case in point Robert Scoble reports on meeting Bill Atkinson in the line outside the Palo Alto Apple Store.

Bill was one of the original Mac team and created MacPaint and Hypercard. I absolutely loved Hypercard, and could spend weeks developing stacks, embedding tiny 160×80 quicktime movies and sounds. Before web tools, Hypercard established the principles of hypertext and multimedia applications we are now so familiar with.

I even used Hypercard as one of the main tools of the PhD I did not get round to finishing…

It would be worth joining the line just to meet Bill !

Written and submitted from home, using my home 802.11 network.

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Apple LBS Thoughts

Even Macheads talk LBS now

Macbreak weeklyHappy listening to the Macbreak Weekly podcast today, and was surprised to hear a really good discussion on the potential of LBS, PND’s and the rumour that Apple may be developing a standalone GPS device – unlikely methinks.

Still it was not so long ago that if you used a mac you were geographically challenged and lonely in the geospatial community.

Now… well, I’d say around 50% of the audience of the recent Where 2.0 conference were using MacBooks.

Written and Submitted from the Google Office, London.