Kyle LeBoeuf

Valve recently released it’s monthly hardware survey detailing various statistics on hardware in use by its vast Steam user base. The newest survey now includes data culled from its new OS X user base, and the effects that OS X has on the hardware survey is interesting.

Of the biggest note is OS Share. According to the survey, every version of Windows indicated in the survey saw a decrease in users (with Windows XP taking the biggest hit at 4.70%).

All told, OS X took 8.46% of the Steam user marketshare in May. It should be noted that Steam support for Mac officially began on May 12, so the numbers should see some increase in the June survey.

It will be interesting to see the effects of OS X on the Steam user base as time goes on and developers release more titles on the Mac through Steam.

Today, Apple let me into the MobileMe Mail beta, so I spent a little bit of time with it and now I have a few impressions.

First, let me say this: the interface is absolutely beautiful. Obviously inspired by the Mail interface on the iPad, the new Mail interface takes advantage of widescreen resolutions and displays everything in a neat, 3 column view. On the far left column is are your usual mail sections like Inbox, Sent, etc. In the center column is your mail, and it looks just like the Mail app on the iPhone and iPad. On the far right is a preview section for the email, again very similar to the (widescreen) email interface on the iPad.

In my experience so far, it’s very clean and its very snappy, loading most of my email with no problems and not really noticing any display issues with the email either.

I did notice some additional perks that make using the interface a little more pleasurable of an experience. For starts, email sent to an alias on your account now shows the account in bright green text next to the sender’s name, so you have an obvious visual indicator of which email was sent to what address. This is great for me, because I often find myself replying to email using the wrong alias/address.

Overall I love the iPhone OS inspired design and features, plus a few perks here and there that round out the package into a solid update and worthy successor for MobileMe Mail.

I wonder if they will roll out some of these changes Mail on the Mac?

Thought I would take a moment and give a shout out to Mozilla’s “Open to Choice” movement, which a project from Mozilla that aims to educate users in Europe on the new “browser choice” situation that’s developed over there for Windows users.

You can find out more by clicking this banner here:

“The Failure of Empathy”

This guy gets it.

“…I was surprised by the reaction the iPad got the day it launched. Following along on Twitter I was seeing things like ‘underwhelming’, ‘meh’ , ’it’s not open’, ‘it’s just a big iPhone’, etc. And most of this stuff was coming from people who design and build interactive experiences. As designers, and technologists we’re very much aware that the interfaces we build are for people who are “not us,’ but we still haven’t made that leap about the concept of “computing.”

The people don’t want “tablet computers” with Ubuntu and OpenID (worst name ever for a product attempting broad acceptance). They could honestly give a shit whether it’s a closed or open system. And, let’s be really honest, they probably care as much about DRM as they do about baseball players juicing; by which I mean not very much at all. They want things to work most of the time, and be easy to fix when they don’t. And if the process by which it happens is “magic” they are totally cool with that.”

It’s not built for the people who are complaining about it (the techies). It’s built for my stepdad, who hates dealing with computers and just wants to look up something on the internet occasionaly and watch youtube without having to deal with the intricacies that come with a computer, or my stepmom who just wants to store and view photos, email, and read the occasional article about parenting.

So, pretty much everyone knows that something special is going on down in Cupertino, and the whole world is about to find out exactly what it is tomorrow during Apple’s media event.

Of course, we all figure that it’s some sort of tablet device but the public is very conflicted over what features the tablet will and won’t have. What will it look like? What operating system will it run? Will we be able to run our iPhone apps? What kind of connectivity will it have? If it does have some kind of wireless (as in mobile) data capability, which wireless data provider(s) will support it?

These are just a few of the questions that are posed by the public over this tablet. Here are some of mine:

1) Will I be able to use the tablet as a direct supplement to my Mac? (i.e. a portable external display or touch interface like a Wacom tablet)
Something that most of these other tablet-type devices lack is the ability to expand and enhance the functionality of the “primary computer”. Most of these devices are trying to be your secondary computer, but I think it would expand its market a little wider if it presented some advantage to existing Mac users (or PC, but I highly doubt that Apple would allow the tablet to enhance functionality on an inferior Operating System)

2) Will I have more control over its use (as opposed to the iPhone/iPod) or will Apple impose restrictions on the API and applications like the iPhone?
Something like a tablet can have more advanced use and functionality beyond that of the iPhone, so I wonder if Apple will be a little more lenient about the APIs and uses that applications built for this device will have.

3) Will I have to purchase one with data connectivity or will there be model that works on wifi only (similar to the iPhone/iPod relationship)?
If I would be interested in getting a tablet, I wouldn’t care for the 3G connectivity. It would be nice but I don’t really want to pay for a dedicated data service. I’d rather pay for tethering on my phone.

I have quite a few more questions about this upcoming tablet (Apple could even surprise us and not introduce a tablet at all) and you can be assured that I will be ready at my computer at noon tomorrow to scan the live blogs.

I’m not going to discuss the rumors in this space (update: with one exception, see the PS), as there are plenty of other websites out there that is beating that horse to death, but I will say that I am pretty excited about this.

I’ll be posting here with my thoughts within a few days of the announcement so stay tuned (if you care about this blog at all…haha).

PS: For what its worth, I do not think that Apple will announce the end to AT&T’s iPhone exclusivity contract. Too soon. I think some people are getting hopeful and jumping the gun on this one.

Every once in a while, someone creates an application or service that changes the landscape of the tech industry. This year, I think that distinction belongs to Dropbox.

I installed Dropbox on my laptop earlier this year without the intention of really making use out of it. I’m a tech enthusiast and I install all kinds of applications on my computer that usually never end up actually using. But Dropbox was different.

Dropbox is a web service that allows you to store specific data in the cloud and access it from anywhere. This is a very basic description of the service.

Basically, with Dropbox you can sync a folder (commonly called “My Dropbox” or “Dropbox”) with the Dropbox service. Any file or folder or you place in the Dropbox folder gets automatically uploaded to the Dropbox service. If you connect multiple devices (say, 2 or 3 computers) to the Dropbox service, it will push those files to your other devices automatically. Its amazing. You can also access your files on the Dropbox website, when you are not at a computer on which you have the Dropbox software installed.

This is the simplest way to describe the full services of Dropbox. Dropbox has a TON of real-life uses, and I learn more uses each day. Here are some of the uses I’ve had for Dropbox over the past year:

• File Transfer From Computer-Computer: I own two laptops: my trusty 13″ MacBook Pro and an old Dell ultra-mobile laptop on which I am running Windows 7. I also have an XP workstation at work. If I am working on one computer and I want my work to be easily accessible on the other computers, I just drop the necessary files into the Dropbox folder, and those files will be uploaded to the Dropbox service and redistributed to my other computers.
• File Transfer From iPhone-Computer: Dropbox does have an application for the iPhone, and this is not the first time I will reference this application for my favorite Dropbox uses. Lets say I took a picture with my iPhone, and I want a quick way to automatically transfer it to my computer without fooling with email. All I have to do is fire up the Dropbox app on my iPhone and upload the photo through the Dropbox app, and it is instantly synced to my computer(s).
• Syncing 1Password Keychains: I use Agile Web Solutions’ 1Password utility for secure data management (product licenses, passwords, etc.). If I need to be able to access this information from another computer, I can simply place my 1Password keychain data in my Dropbox folder on my Mac, and it’ll instantly get copied to my other computers. With 1Password Anywhere, I can access my keychain even when I’m on a PC. You can find out more about using 1Password with Dropbox here.
• Accessing School Documents from Anywhere: Lets say I need to print something for school that I’ve been working with on my computer. I can just save my work in the Dropbox folder and access the file on the Dropbox website from the school workstations. I can also access documents such as Word and Powerpoint files on the iPhone app (read-only purposes…perfect for studying when I don’t have my computer near me).
• Remote Torrents: I can simply add a Torrent file to my Dropbox folder and it can be picked up by another computer running a Torrent client set to watch a specific folder in my dropbox for new Torrents. You can find out more about Remote Torrents with Dropbox here.
• Sharing Files: Say I have a photo album I want to share with my friends, or an application, song, or any file that I need to send to others. I can simply place the file in my public Dropbox folder and give the people the link. I can also use the iPhone app to send a download link to a file that’s anywhere in my Dropbox, not just in my public folder.

You can find out more uses for Dropbox by visiting their website or check out the posts tagged with Dropbox on Lifehacker.

I was scanning some of my RSS feeds in Google Reader this afternoon when I stumbled on this article from MacRumors, reporting on some legal precedings in one of the many patent infringement suits in which Apple is a target.

“Silicon Alley Insider reports that Apple has been told to pay a $21.7 million patent infringement judgment to OPTi Inc., a former semiconductor company that abandoned its business to focus on pursuing patent claims against other companies.”

What? A business that actually abandoned ITS INDUSTRY to sue people? That’s insane. This is the perfect example of a patent troll. Can’t say I’ve ever heard of a company that turned it unto their primary source of income.

This is ridiculous. The article points out at Apple will probably appeal and attempt to defend itself, as it should.

What is the world coming to?

Apple Ordered to Pay Finalized $21.7 Million Patent Verdict, Hit With New Suit Over iPhone Camera [Via MacRumors]

I’m currently writing this from inside the Apple Store (as a side note, since when did they start offering free wi-fi here?). I’ve been having some issues with my iPhone and since I was going to be in the Baton Rouge area I scheduled an appointment. While I had a happy outcome and walked out with a new fully functional phone, I did have some musings about the experience that I wanted to share.

For starters, no one really greeted me or asked if I needed help when I walked in the store. To Apple’s credit, it is pretty busy in here, but someone could at least acknowledge me. But I’ll give them that one. Having worked in retail, I understand.

When I did get to speak with someone, they told me to find this particular employee. Described as “the guy the over there in the red fleece”. Not sure if anyone here has been in an Apple Store recently, but they are ALL wearing red fleece. Nice. She did give me a name, so I managed to find the guy. I got checked in and hung around for 20 mins waiting for my appointment (I was early), keeping up with the Saints score. Here’s where it becomes a great experience.

I explained my situation to the Genius, and he swapped out my phone. No questions asked. THAT, ladies and gentlemen, is great service.

So, aside from a few hiccups that were more entertaining then they were annoying, I would chalk up this experience as a success. Go Apple.

I’ve always considered myself as one to be on the bleeding edge of various software trends. That being said, I’ve always been hesistant to move to different browsers beyond that of the current stable build of Firefox.

That all ended a few days ago. I decided to start running the Dev build of Google Chrome for Mac as my full-time web browser. Why?

It’s wickedly fast and surprisingly stable. I love it.

A few days ago, Google dropped a new dev build that turned on extension support. I now have adblocking and notifiers for Gmail and Google Reader. Nice.

A beta is supposed to drop in December. Can’t wait.

Kyle

This website is a little over a year old, and most of its life, it’s been run on Wordpress, but I’ve been looking for simpler platform that doesn’t require so much upkeep.

One of the candidates for my new platform is Tumblr. Its a pretty interesting service. I created a Tumblr blog today and will be posting some of my content onto it. You can check it out here:

http://stuffkylelikes.tumblr.com