What version of OSX is this?

Dear Cupertino,

Quick question, you know, with multiple versions of OSX in one household, or office, etc..  Most of the addressing of operating systems is done through common names, you know, like Leopard, Snow Leopard, Tiger, Puma, Panther, Lynx, $future release, etc.

Why are there no easy references to this name once you are on the system?  10.4, 10.5, 10.6 is all we get?  Really?  I mean, come on, if you are going to call it Snow Leopard, then put the words Snow Leopard, at least on the "About This Mac" screen!

Thanks,
Drew Wiens

Apple Slate

For those of you that have been living under a rock for the past year, you probably have not heard the rumor that Apple is supposedly making a "Tablet" Computing device.

The first really, kind of, official note about that came out today by way of a speech given by the New York Times.


Bill Keller speaks to the digital group at The New York Times from Nieman Journalism Lab on Vimeo.

It happens at 8:30 in the speech.

For both Apple and Google this time

Dear Cupertino,
CC: Googleplex

You guys work together great on several aspects of various products, however, there is one feature or section that I think would be great for you to fix.

Apple -- Your iChat supports video and audio chat.
Google -- Your Gtalk supports video and audio chat.

Can you make iChat connected to Gtalk be able to talk with those individuals on Gtalk that have cameras?

Thanks,

Joel

iWeb fixins

Dear Cupertino,

I work on several blogs, this one, my own, etc. I love the ease of use and management that iWeb gives me when managing a blog, however, I have one complaint. When I change between themes, or if I want to rearrange, say, where my Google Ad is placed on every single one of my blog posts, I have to do this manually, page by page, until I get them all done. Can you possibly find a way in your heart to be able to say "Apply to All"? That would save me so much time.

Thanks!

Joel Esler

Top Posting and Bottom Posting

Dear Cupertino,

Now, for those of you that know me, you will know that this is a huge pet peeve of mine.

Email clients that Top Post by default and have no way to bottom post in any setting. One of the biggest email clients Outlook, has this same problem, and it annoys me to all end. (I detail this annoyance here.)

Mail.app does this. You can't bottom post at all.

Top posting means, when you reply to an email, the email client puts your cursor at the top of the email above the Attribution line.

Bottom Posting means, when you reply to an email, the email client puts your cursor at the bottom of the email, above your signature block.

The reason that this annoys me, is because I try to be a good Net Citizen and bottom post. I bottom post because I feel that when you read an email thread you should be able to logically follow it. If you've ever tried to read an email thread that is posted in totally Top posting format, you will know that this makes email threads logically hard to read. I'd like the ability, in Mail.app, much like it is in Thunderbird, to make my default post method Bottom only.

Please?

Thanks,

Joel

iPod Classic 240GB

Dear Cupertino,

I was extremely excited today as were all the other Apple fanboys about the “Let’s Rock” keynote presented by King Jobs himself. I was extremely impressed with the new iPod Nano and cannot wait to see it in person. Although the iPod Classic didn’t necessarily get an upgrade rather than a price drop and a capacity downgrade.

The new iPod Classic comes in a 120GB (Silver, and Black) size as a standard.. No high end, no low end. The Previous iPod Classic came in an 80GB version and a 160GB. So why the downgrade? Well other than the major price cut there really is no explanation.. Those of use with large music libraries (I have over 150GB of music and 300GB of movies) want the largest capacity for our music players giving us our media where ever we go.

The sad part of this is that Toshiba (the suppliers of the iPods hard drives) have just announced a 240GB hard drive that happens to have the same dimensions of the previous iPod’s 160GB drive...

So Cupertino would you mind explaining to us why we have to suffer the pain of having only 120GB of our glorified Media with us at a time rather than a whopping 240GB?

Wouldn’t it be nice having ALL your movies, music, and photos with you where ever you go?

Please Cupertino, pretty please...

Thanks Love,

Ryan Stellato

Wireless Keyboard with Multitouch trackpad?

Dear Cupertino,

The beloved Apple Bluetooth Keyboard. It has its phenomenal design, matches the iMac and the rest of the Mac family beautifully with its Aluminum casing. It’s easy to type with, and has been named one of the best keyboards on the market. Its nearly perfect. Although I believe, and many agree with me, that its missing some pretty major features.

For starters... Backlit Please! The Macbook Pro has it, the Macbook Air has it, why can’t us desktop users feel just as special? Haven’t you ever stayed up until 3AM trying to finish an english essay but don’t want a light on in the room and struggle to see your keys? I know I have! This would really be able to bump Apple’s aluminum keyboard to the next level of usability.

Trackpad. A major flaw with Apple’s keyboard that disallows you to fully utilize Leopard’s Multitouch capabilities. Haven’t you always wanted to use the same capabilities as your iPhone on your iMac? I know I have! Why should I have to click my way through photo albums when I can gracefully take 3 fingers and swipe them across a smooth surface? This trackpad would also act as a screen. So say you were listening to music a virtual scroll wheel would appear, or if you needed the numeric pad say for a spreadsheet it would virtually appear on the screen. You would also be able to use this as an Apple TV keyboard. It could be used for a future Apple TV browser and could use the screen as a virtual remote.

Not so much a big concern, although I would like to see this new keyboard with the same keys as the Macbook Air, black keys show less dirt and match the black on my iMac. Sounds like a done deal to me.

So please can you give us a bluetooth keyboard just like the wired one, except instead of a numeric pad how about a giant trackpad? Give me backlit keyboard with black keys and you have my purchase!

Thanks,

Ryan Stellato

Apple Bloggers Network

For those of you that haven't heard of it, there is an aggregated RSS feed for several "Apple" Blogs. The link is here. If you have an Apple related blog, or know of one that would like to be added to the feed, email me here, and i'll get you an invite.

It used to contain several popular blogs, but one of the biggest ones, fakesteve.blogspot.com has quit blogging. So that sucks.

I'd like to light some fire under this, so subscribe if you'd like, and submit some other blogs to me as well!

Welcome, Ryan!

I'd like to take this time to welcome a new addition to the team: Ryan!

He's a welcome addition with a fresh new insight and already has a .me account so you know Joel adores him. Kidding, Joel (no I'm not). Look for his submissions shortly and please continue to enjoy dearcupertino.com!

Warning: Soap Box Alert!

DC Readers; sup?

I'd like to first and foremost apologize for my lack of presence on the site. Personal and professional obligations have gone and kicked my ass. I'm back-ready to not suck once more and continue to give you some random speculative nonsense about Apple Inc. and the products we love.

Apology over, I've seen a lot of criticism on various blogs/comment logs about how we don't update frequently. I'd like to speak on that:

We update as often as we get solid material. Remember, we're the voice for you, the consumers. Sure, we could pepper the site with our own ideas, thoughts, feelings, etc but then it feels disingenuous. We can't stress enough that this site is as good as you all make it. So, criticize if you'd like, but only if you're willing to take up the effort to let us know what's on your mind.

With the DNS nonsense dying down and the end of the fiscal year approaching, those on the team who work in IT can get back to doing what we do best; slacking off at work while writing DC posts. Solid.

Thanks,

Chandler

iPhone single inbox?

Dear Cupertino,

I love my iPhone. I love my Mail, I love my MobileMe (yes, I said that). However, I have 3 different email accounts on my iPhone that I have to check consistently. So here's my request. Please make a single Inbox. One Inbox for all accounts, just like in Mail.app so I can read and respond to all email all at once without having to constantly switch between email accounts on the iPhone.

You know, this is a short one, but a good one, and I'd like to see it just to save some time. That's be great.

Thanks!

Slavian + Joel Esler

That consumer-level Mac tower...

Dear Cupertino,

I don't like the Mac Pro. I know it's part of your clever marketing strategy to convince people to buy the Mac Pro when the iMac just doesn't cut the mustard, but really - the price is a little too steep. How about a headless Mac, not dissimilar to the Mac Mini, except make it like a Mac Pro Mini type setup - let us upgrade components on our consumer-level Mac tower.

This new consumer-level Mac tower - it'll be like a Mac Pro, but for the average consumer - for those that think the Mac Pro is the epitome of overkill for those that just want to fiddle around with the internals of their Mac, while keeping the stability and security of OSX - Mac users don't want to hack around just to get OSX to work on an illegitimate OSX box!

Dear Cupertino, we just want a consumer-level Mac tower with user-serviceable parts! Give us easy access to the CPU, RAM, HDDs, PCIe cards, and we'll be all set!

Why Apple haven't bothered to make one of these in the past has just been a complete mystery to me - surely they understand that computer users see the need to upgrade every couple of months if they want to stay at the forefront, and always have the "latest and greatest" technology around.

Heck, I'd even accept Apple-supplied hardware upgrade kits (which would essentially dictate what hardware I am, and am not, allowed to put into my machine - which would be fine by me as long as the hardware range was wide and varied) for this consumer-level Mac tower!

We'll even give you the base spec list - and from there, [Jonathan] Ive can think up an awesome design to go with it - completing the Apple package we all know and love.

Just don't name it the xMac - nothing else could be more stupid except maybe Mac Pro Mini... or Mini Mac Pro...

Thanks,
Benny Ling.

Original image credit: On a Mac

iChat Media

Dear Cupertino,

I love iChat, I really, really do.

I love how I can easily constantly stay in touch with my friends and family through audio, video, and text chat.

I love how I can easily share my screen with a friend on the other side of the globe who's having an issues with their Mac - that way, I can show them what they should see when they click on what button, or vice versa - they can show me what they see when they click on some button.

I especially love how I can give a friend a Keynote presentation through iChat Theatre - that way, my friend can tell me how to improve on my public speaking skills.

However, one of the features I'd love to be added to iChat is the Media tab. The Media tab would be my one-stop-shop for everything that I could interact with, say, photos that I wanted to send to a friend, or a picture that I'd like to set as my display picture.

From the Media tab, I'd have instantaneous access to everything I've ever sent to anyone, anything I've ever received (much like the file transfers list now), but also the options to send a new file, or share a new movie trailer.

The Media tab seems like another no-brainer - one of those features that should have been there in the first place, but isn't.

Thanks,
Dan Katz.

iPod Visualizer

Dear Cupertino,

I wish the iPod had a visualizer. If iTunes has it, and most other media players on the market have it, I see no reason why the iPod doesn't have it.

Even if it were something that we could look at and go 'ooh' and 'aah' while we're playing our music, even something as simple as constantly changing album art (ala the iTunes Artwork screen saver in Mac OS X) would suffice.

Thanks,
Dear Cupertino Reader.

Editorial note: I think I know why Apple hasn't added a visualizer to the iPod's growing list of features... Battery life is the main concern here. If you take a look at your CPU usage when you've got the iTunes visualizer turned on, you'll see that it does take up a decent amount of CPU time - something that impacts on how much battery life you have. Of course, in a portable device such as the iPod and even the iPhone, battery life is paramount - so features that unnecessarily eat CPU are cut out. I'm sure if you somehow manage to take a look inside the iPod OS, you'll see code that is as efficient as possible - all to save those magical clock cycles.

AppleTV Improvements

Dear Cupertino,

A software upgrade for the AppleTV wasn't enough - now we want a hardware refresh!

In the next revision of the AppleTV, I'd like to see:

1. An integrated OLED screen - so you can watch movies on the go, or just as a secondary screen showing diagnostics, statistics, and so on.
2. An integrated cable card - so we don't have to have other devices to plug into our TV, and then frantically switch between them when a show we like is airing - which brings me to my next point.
3. An SSD PVR/DVR - for the AppleTV to truly become a home entertainment system, it's got to have the capabilities of one. Streaming and playing local media just doesn't cut the mustard anymore. I want to be able to record TV for watching at a later time.
4. Integrated Blu-Ray/DVD player. Let's face it - HD-DVD is dead, and so Apple should be leading the crowd with support for Blu-Ray playback.
5. A full version of Safari for us couch-surfers. Want to look up a review of that movie that's just about to air? Jump on IMDB. Want to see what your website looks like your 50" plasma? Safari.
6. If we're going to be couch surfers, we need the controls to be able to be so. Include a bluetooth keyboard, and an iPod Nano-style remote, and we'll be laughing - or crying, depending on the movie...

Thanks,
Dear Cupertino Reader

(This post was submitted by a reader)

A New member of the team

Today Chandler and I added a new member to the Dear Cupertino Team.  Benny Ling!

Benny runs a blog over at www.freshbytes.com.au, so make sure you check out his posts over there.

Thanks Benny and Welcome!

Apple Anti-virus

Dear Cupertino,

With the increased marketshare comes increased risk, and even though nothing is proven to be "in the wild" yet, it doesn't mean it won't be someday soon. You guessed it: I want integrated, or at least Apple-supplied Anti-Virus either with the OS, or via AppleCare. (Really, everyone should be buying AppleCare anyway, so I see this as a natural fit.)

I think this would be great for a few reasons, but principal among would be that viruses exploit issues with OS, which, in my opinion, makes it the OS vendor's problem. If Apple released integrated anti-virus (and especially if they did it really well) it would send a message to other OS vendors that there is a responsible way to handle the weaknesses of their own products. It would also say to their customers, "We know, a lot of you bought Macs because you didn't want to worry about Viruses, and we're going to keep it that way."

Now, I know that people are going to complain that it'll be undercutting the newly burgeoning Mac Security industry, but here's how I see it:
Every time I use a windows PC I am disgusted by how completely their security software dominates the user experience, constantly asking if something is allowed to do something else, throwing up little alerts and flags, telling them they're at risk, or interrupting what you're doing to do scans, download updates, or tell you that your anti-virus subscription is running out. It's poorly integrated, clumsy, and I would estimate that a HUGE number of users don't even read the warnings, instead simply clicking whatever makes the message go away.

So why would Apple, a company who obviously spends a ton of time and money designing and improving the user experience, encourage some other company, to whom "user experience design" probably extends no further than making cute icons for their buttons, fuck it all up?

If anyone can do it right, it's Apple. They're already indexing our files on a regular basis with Spotlight, and cataloging changes with Time Machine, so it would seem simple to compare those files to a list of known threats, eliminate the offenders, and simultaneously remove them from Time Machine backups and restore any files and settings that got screwed up by the offender.

That's my wish: Dear Cupertino, please give us Apple Anti-Virus and shut those whiny Windows-Users up for good.

Thanks!

Jon Sandruck

iSights in the Monitors?

Dear Cupertino,

I know you guys are probably working on this, but since you stopped making the iSight as a standalone camera, the people with Mac Pro's have kinda been assed out!

iMacs have the cameras built in.

MacBooks do.

MacBook Pros do.

The Mac Pro people are kinda left out there hanging a bit without a camera to be able to talk to the rest of us!

So Apple, when you do your next monitor refresh and change your monitors from fluorescent to LCD, how about you throw an iSight in there too?

Thanks,

Joel

Posts

It's not that we haven't been posting because of lack of topics.  Chandler and I have been very very busy.

We are both security/network computer people at our day jobs and since this DNS vulnerability has come out, I know I have been working a hectic pace.

We'll get back to posting very very soon.

In the meantime be sure an enjoy the MobileMe status blog started by Apple.  Awesome!  

DearCupertino,

More Blogs.

Thanks.

The most advanced phone on the planet! Worst. Camera. Ever.

Dear Cupertino,

There has to be some sort of e-villainy going on here. 2.0MP? Really? No video? I mean, really?

Come on.

Come on.

It's really your fault. Your customers aren't the type that settle for anything but excellence and perfection. Why would we come to expect anything less than 110% from 1 Infinite Loop? We don't, that's why.

With that being said: What. The. Hell.

Your camera, sucks. 2.0MP in a world where we're seeing 5.0MP devices in the wild of which are doing video is completely unacceptable, especially for hardware graced with that half eaten biblical fruit. Let's stop kidding yourselves here, do what you know is right; for us.

I'd like to show you something that just might help out:

iPhone Camera done right!

Thanks!

Louis Harboe