SimpleClix Studio

It’s been more than a year since the last update on Apple’s iPod family. One of the Chinese manufacture posted out some photos proving that the 5th generation iPod Nano and the 3rd generation iPod Tocuh will have integrated camera.

If this is true, with camera built in, the difference between an iPod Touch and an iPhone is less. I personally look forward to seeing a mobile music/internet device to have camera add-on, especially if the camera is the new 3MP with auto focus on iPhone 3G S, but will this arise an issue of public security? Just image the person next to you on bus might be taking photos with his/her “mp3 player”.

Same as last year, when WWDC is approaching, more detail of Apple’s new product will be put online. Here you go:

- 600MHz CPU Speed (up from 400MHz)
- 256MB RAM (up from 128MB)
- Digital Compass and FM
- 3.2 megapixel camera with auto focus
- 32GB size
- No major changes in battery, screen and external casing.

I was hopping they can change the plastic casing at the back; now I believe it still another trip to wait. But hey, 3.2 MP camera and FM is a good one. Personally I believe this specification, why? Because WWDC is just a month away. ^-^

Take a look at the leaked out image:

Just got this email today. Seems like the Windows 7 final version is coming very soon. At the mean time, I can tell you that I received a final debug version of Snow Leopard as well. However, due tho the NDA (Non-Disclosure Agreement) agreement, I couldn’t post it here. We will see a big combat between Windows and Macintosh this October probably. Nice job Microsoft and Apple!

Windows 7 Release Candidate Announcement

Thank you very much for your help in testing the Windows 7 Beta. Your feedback is invaluable in helping make Windows 7 a high quality operating system. With your help, we have reached the next major milestone on the journey to Windows 7: the Release Candidate (RC).

Just found an interesting pricing today. I am planning to get an iPod Touch, and found out FS is even cheaper than Apple itself.

Futureshop iPod Touch 8GB $239

Apple Store online iPod Touch 8GB $259

However, Apple does provide high quality refurbished ones.

Apple Store refurbished iPod Touch 8GB $229

Basically, here is the list:

Futureshop: $239 + tax +environmental fee for BC (where I am located)

Apple store online: $259 +tax , or refurbished $229 +tax

Apple Store: $259 + tax + environmenttal fee for BC

From a reseller source, $239 is basically the cost for iPod Touch 8GB’s cost. Hmmm, why is Futureshop doing that? Interesting.

However, Apple online does provide engraving service for free for brand new iPod Touch.

MSI Wind is confirmed as the ?lmost perfect??UMPC that? compatible with Mac OS X. And lots people really enjoy their experience with the Wind version Hackintosh.

When I walked around the computer store, and accidentally found that the LG X110 had the same I/O layout as the MSI Wind U100. Even the keyboard size and layout are almost identical. A thought came on my mind, will LG X110 compatible with Mac OS X?

Thinking won? make it better, so I got myself a MSI Wind and a LG X110. And I will show you photos soon.

Hook them up with an external DVD drive and put the iPC 10.5.6 Installation DVD, follow the steps and personal experience on installing OSX 86. And to my surprise, they both work. System successfully installed and the LG works just like the Wind, USING THE SAME DRIVERS.

However, this doesn? prove that they are the same machine, right? Yes, it doesn?. However, when I confirm with one of the supplier, they told me that MSI Wind and LG X110 were actually share the same OEM board. That? whey they are so alike, both layout and hardware specification.

Well, proved it or not, at least now we have have alternate choice other than MSI Wind.

The theories and practical skills nowadays in web designing is quite different from what I started with 10 years ago. Today I am going to talk about sometime that’s surprisingly not being changed much. Let’s look at a picture below:

Familiar, right? Yes, we can still see a lot of this style login form around this infinite triple-w world. I won’t say it’s a bad thing, but since the space on your page is very limited and valuable (unless you don’t have contents to put on. ). How about we want to save some space? However we can’t just delete the “username” and “password” label in front or else you will lose your users the other day when you wake up.

So what’s the alternate option? Well, let’s play some CSS and basic mouse action.

We can see an example before we get started. Let’s look at Apple’s MobileMe website.

It’s a good idea that show the users what those text fields are using the text fields themselves. The following code here are showing that if there is nothing input by the user in the text field, it will have a gray initial value, that’s, “Gray Text” in my example. Once the user click in the text field and ready to type in their own value, the “Gray Text” will disappear and replaced by what the user type in. However, if the user suddenly decide to move out before the type in anything and click somewhere else on the website, the text field will be given back the value “Gray Text”.

<html>
<head>
<style type=”text/css”>
.gray_font {color:#666;}
.black_font {color:#000;}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<input type=”text” class=”gray_font” value=”Gray Text” onclick=”if(this.value==’Gray Text’){this.value=”;this.className=’black_font’}” onblur=”if(this.value==”){this.value=’Gray Text’;this.className=’gray_font’}” />
</body>
</html>

What do you think? This is just an simple example. Use your creativity, you can probably use an image as your background.

Finally, EFI-X is sold to the public. In case that someone doesn’t know what’s that about, I will tell you a bit more about this device.

A while ago, I wrote a comment about a “war” between Apple and Pystar. Since 2005, when Apple decided to move their platform from PPC to Intel, the raise-up of OSX86 project has never stopped nor slowed down. Lots and lots of people devoted themselves into the OSX86 community and contributed uncountable efforts to make this “was-impossible mission” real and many people can taste a bite of Apple on regular PC.

Apple kept silent through all these years until Pystar Tech was opened up and announced to sell Hackintosh to the public. This event was introduced in the previous post, so I am not going to say more about it.

As I browsed around today, I was surprised that EFI-X was sold in the US already. And the are having a special price right now for $155 USD, please check “EFI-X sold online“. This device is like a USB device that has a 10 pin internal USB port that connect to certain models of motherboards, for more information, please check Hardware Compatibility List. When you boot up your machine, it will ask you whether you want to boot into Mac OS or Windows. If you select Mac OS, then it will take 2 mintues to prepare and you will eventually get to a Mac OS system. Well, 2 minutes might be a bit too long but once you get into the system, it will run smoothly; I have checked online and people have feedback that the Bench score for a Hackintosh with below $1000 USD hardware is not much difference as a real Mac Pro and sometimes will have even higher score.

You may ask, I can use a modified Darwin bootloader and use vanilla kernal to install a Mac system on my computer with more choices of hardware, why do I want to pay extra money for such a device? Yes, it’s true that this device is NOT for anyone who wants to save money in building up a Hackintosh; let me ask the following questions first:

1. Can you get everything functioning just like you do on Windows using the same hardware?

2. Do you have to download a modified DVD online withouth purchasing a Mac OS?

3. When there are updates, will you be brave enough to grab those updates and install just like the other Mac users do?

EFI-X is a device to allow you install Mac on your PC without changing anything on the Macintosh Installation DVD and at the same time you can update just like on a real Mac.

To me, there are both sides that I need to look at:

Advantages:

1.Easier to install Mac;

2. Can update directly from Apple’s office update site;

3. BootCamp-like interface bootloader

4. More stable than other Hackintosh.

5. Ensure the compatibility on the list.

Disadvantages:

1. Price is still high

2. Boot time too long

3. The range of choices is still narrow<– I guess this can’t be their fault becasue Apple didn’t really develop their system to fit in any hardware.

Yes, I am a hard core Mac user. Will I give it a try? Yes I will if I have a chance. Do I think it’s illegal? I don’t know, it’s obviously different with the Psystar’s situation; and I am NOT a lawyer so I am not going to argue.

To me, this is interesting; at least, more and more people will be willing to try Mac OS. Apple will get more market share, why not?

[UPDATE]: By reviewing the picture above, I found that the data was not that accure since for the EFI-X Mac Pro, it has 3GHz CPU and 4GB RAM, while the real ones have relatively lower specification.

It’s not officially shown up on Apple’s website yet; but this “rumors” is almost “near to be true” already, waiting for the verbal announcement of Steve Jobs.

Engadget confirms that there is an Apple media event for September 9th.

Apple will be holding a special event called “Let’s Rock” on September 9th where the new iPod Nano is expected to be released.

It’s slimmer and probably thinner. It’s got a ‘widescreen’ probably for the movies. To me, I accept this one more than the 3rd generation– it was a short fat one to me.But to be honest, no big changes to me and I still love my old iPod Nano.

Well, we will wait till it’s announced officially. When they are sold to the public, we can pop up to big stores like BestBuy and Futureshop to have a try.

Now, let’s take a look at the history of iPod Nano:

First Generation

Second Generation

Third Generation

Today, it’s not hard to see this “Google Chrome” on most IT websites. Well, if you have not yet taken a look, click this site:

Google Chrome, Google? Browser Project

My first thought was, OH NO. Does that mean as a web designer, I have to take care of one more browser since tomorrow? Right now, Microsoft’s IE has 79% of the market, FF 12%, Apple’s Safari 6% and Opera 3%. Chrome is said to be the browser that Google pushes out to fight against Microsoft’s IE. Will that happen? Who knows. There is no doubt that Google is very successful online; but, don’t forget Google has failed a lot too.

When I took a deeper look at the brief descriptions and the comic of Google Chrome. I found the interface very interesting as well as some unique features.

I will definitely try it out when Google releases this new baby for the digital world.

[Source] Engadget.com

The two-inch-square Space Cube computer has apparently been making the rounds in Japan for some time now, but PC Pro has finally managed to sneak one into the UK and, thankfully for us, they’ve decided to share. This one packs a 300MHz NEC VR5701 processor, 64MB of RAM, a 1GB CompactFlash card, and a special version of Red Hat Linux, along with a single USB port, VGA out, built-in Ethernet and, most importantly for its target market, a SpaceWire port, which is used by the likes of NASA and the European Space Agency. Unfortunately for hobbyists that may have gotten their hopes up, while the price was initially estimated to be a reasonable $325, it now looks like it could be demanding upwards of 瞿1,500 (or over $2,700) but the time it’s officially released outside of Japan, although it seems like it will at least actually be sold to the general public.