Musings from The Software Underground

Greetings from San Francisco! We tried to get to the keynote early but still wound up near the back of the hall. They wouldn't let anyone up until about 20 minutes before it started and then they only opened 2 escalators, so depending on where you were standing when the lines formed you either got up close or were near the back. No matter, the camera work of what went on on the stage was excellent.

The only things I can really talk about are items that were announced in the keynote. Tiger looks great, and has some great new features like Spotlight, Automator and a much improved iChat AV. Spotlight features system-wide super-fast searching of file metadata and file contents that we as developers can tap into easily. Automator is a way of easily automating tasks and building work-flows using applescript. I've been planning on improving AppleScript support in the next version of SQLGrinder and adding support to MacGourmet later, but with the new Automator, adding AppleScript support makes even more sense. iChat AV? Well, it's clear that no one can even TOUCH what Apple is doing with video and audio conferencing. This stuff not only works, it works in a polished, almost "produced for TV" quality.

Jobs also showed off Expose Dashboard and RSS support for Safari. Dashboard is pretty cool, and very much like Konfabulator, so much so that we walked out of there thinking Apple might have purchased it from its creators. Alas for small Mac developers everywhere, according to this morning's SF Chronicle, Apple did NOT purchase it from or make any deal with the Konfabulator guys, and boy are they pissed. Apple, you have $4.5 BILLION in the bank and you clearly decided to clone an application created by one of your small developers, and you couldn't even throw them a frickin' bone? A little unsettling. If there weren't any plans there to take Konfabulator to Windows XP, there most certainly are now.

Safari RSS support, on the other hand, might make you think that it would hurt the developers of RSS products, but I don't think that's true at all, I actually think it will enhance these products by making feeds very easy to find and view. After you start collecting feeds, I think anyone other than casual RSS readers will still need an RSS-specific feed management application, so I see this as a win-win for PulpFiction, NetNewsWire, etc., rather than a negative.

Finally, Jobs showed both the new QuickTime codec and debuted a much better iSync sync engine. The new QuickTime codec was absolutely INCREDIBLE. I can't wait to take advantage of the new sync engine, say in MacGourmet. Sync your recipes between laptop and desktop anyone?

Jobs also showed off amazing new LCD displays. I have been waiting to buy a 20" display and am happy that I haven't pulled the trigger yet. One unfortunate change is that they are completely dropping the 17" display. Your price of entry to Apple displays is now $1300, which is pretty steep. It would have been nice if the debut would have also included a drop in prices. The new 30" display however, is, in a word, AMAZING. It's way more display than I'd need as a software developer, but it actually takes what is essentially TWO video cards to drive it. Crazy.

While I can't mention anything covered under NDA, I'll say that there are new things that I saw that showed me I've been on the right track in some of my planning, and there are also new things that have given me a lot of great ideas.

(updated - I was incorrectly calling Dashboard "Desktop." )