Steven Frank:
Today’s Mountain Lion announcement introduces an important new security feature, called Gatekeeper, in addition to the “sandboxing” feature that premiered in Lion. I’d like to talk a little bit about it, and why it’s important to all Mac users.
Based on Apple’s patterns of the past, along with some current rumors and my gut feelings, it looks as if 2012 is going to be a doozy:
A few years from now, I suspect we will look back at 2011 as having been the year Apple’s foundation was done being laid. From the introduction of the iPhone and iOS in 2007 to the shipping of Lion and then iCloud in 2011 — it was all just one long product rollout.
Apple spent the previous several years getting their mobile devices, desktop hardware, and operating systems all right where they want them. The foundation has been laid, and starting in 2012 they’ll be building on that foundation.
It sounds dramatic and even a bit cliché, but this is the beginning of the future for them. Apple isn’t slowing down any time soon.
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Well, when you put it that way.
Jason Snell with more info on Gatekeeper and how it works.
It’s clear that Gatekeeper in Mountain Lion isn’t intended to be some sort of high-security app lockdown. It’s just a tool to encourage people not to run software they don’t trust. If they really, truly want to run an app, Mountain Lion won’t stop them.
Gatekeeper also strikes me as a way to continue to build support for the Mac App Store. Apple is telling users that 3rd-party apps bought from the Mac App Store apps are the most safe.
And, Apple is pushing support for the Mac App Store from the other direction as well. John Gruber points out that some of the best new features in Mountain Lion will only be available to Mac App Store apps:
Two big ones: iCloud document storage and Notification Center. Both of these are slated only for third-party apps from the Mac App Store. Many developers, though, have been maintaining non-Mac App Store versions of their apps. If this continues, such apps are going to lose feature parity between the App Store and non-App Store versions. Apple is not taking the Mac in iOS’s “all apps must come through the App Store” direction, but they’re certainly encouraging developers to go Mac App Store-only with iCloud features that are only available to Mac App Store apps (and, thus, which have gone through the App Store approval process).
Nilay Patel also has a good overview of Mountain Lion for The Verge, and a includes a good video overview as well.
Regarding Gatekeeper, and what the default is for what apps you can install:
Mountain Lion will ship out of the box restricted to running only signed apps and apps from the Mac App Store. (You can still run any app you want by right-clicking on an unsigned app or simply changing the global setting to allow apps from anywhere. You can also lock things down even tighter and only allow App Store apps to run.
As always, a great overview by Jason Snell.
Earlier this month, John Gruber, along with several other journalists and writers, each were invited to private, one-on-one meetings with Apple to be shown Mountain Lion. John’s account is fascinating. Surely this is the one of most eyebrow-raising, head-tilting product announcements in Apple’s history.
Just about nobody was expecting this today. I certainly wasn’t. When I started seeing Jim Dalrymple and Jason Snell linking to their Mountain Lion articles via Twitter this morning I thought it was a joke. But, it’s not. And, in hindsight, Mountain Lion makes a lot of sense. As OS X continues to get merged with iOS, why not put it on a one-year development cycle as well? I wonder what this will mean for iMacs and MacBook Airs/Pros?
If you don’t have it already, here’s the download link for the new iChat app we all knew was coming sooner or later. For the record I like the new icon, even though it is blue. What I don’t like is having my iPhone and iPad buzz while I’m carrying on a conversation in Messages on my Mac.
Last November I bought the $99 Kindle Touch with Special Offers.
Though I am not a speedy or avid reader — I read about one novel per year, and a few other books — I very much enjoy reading. After purchasing an iPad in 2010 I swore I’d never buy a physical book again if I could help it. The convenience of having all the books I was reading or planning to read available on one device was just too awesome.
When I bought the Kindle, I didn’t know if it would actually replace my iPad as my go-to reading device or not. I purchased the Kindle primarily so I could review it and so I could have experiential knowledge of E-Ink displays and just how light the Kindle is and how it compares to the iPad as far as a reading device.
However, 90 days later, the Kindle has yet to become a gadget collecting dust in the Blanc household.
The Kindle’s E-Ink screen is so much better for reading than the iPad’s backlit display. However, what I appreciate even more than the screen is the Kindle’s size and weight. The iPad is not comfortably held for long periods of time and is nearly impossible to use with one hand. The Kindle blows the iPad out of the water in this regard.
I got the device with “Special Offers” and though they bug me a bit, they don’t bug me enough to pay to disable them. Most of the ads seem to be for current Amazon ebook specials. Though at one point there was an ad for a Twilight movie that I felt uncomfortable with, so I just kept the Kindle face down when not in use. Actually, I pretty much always keep the Kindle face down when not in use.
When going on vacation, the Kindle makes a great companion if only because it draws less attention than an iPad. It feels more socially acceptable to curl up on the couch with the Kindle for several hours rather than the iPad. But if I don’t take the Kindle for whatever reason, then that’s okay because the iPad’s Kindle app stays in sync with my actual Kindle and makes it easy enough to continue reading on my iPad and vice versa.
In the three months I’ve owned the Kindle Touch I have charged it twice: once when I first got it and then again about three weeks later. After that second charge the battery has been going and going and going. And that is with Wi-Fi enabled, and I leave the Kindle in “sleep mode” when I’m not reading, rather than turning it off. I usually read on the Kindle about twice a week for an hour or two at a time.
A few weeks ago, Amazon released an update to the Kindle Touch software that greatly increased the device’s response time as it relates to navigating menus and turning pages. Ignorance had been bliss before the update, and now, after it, I can heartily recommend the Kindle Touch as a fantastic device.
And so, after 90 days with the Kindle Touch, I am still using it on a regular basis. The device makes a fine companion to the iPad even if you are not an avid reader. I have stopped buying books from the iBookstore and now buy all my books from Amazon instead.
A nice writeup about a nice network of writers.
Artem Lapitski, a designer, had an idea for a repeating timer app. After he concepted his app and finished the Photoshop designs he hired a 3rd-party developer for the coding. Then he did the website, marketing, and everything else himself. Here’s a nice, high-level look at the whole process for Artem’s app, including what marketing tactics did and did not work.
Deck is an iPad app with big buttons. And the promo video is hilarious. (Via Cameron Moll.)