OS X Mountain Lion

Things certainly are changing over at Apple.

A brand new OSX announcement "Mountain Lion" delivered via one on one presentations to key media figures.

Blimey - That came out of left field!

OSX now seems to be on an annual update cycle, with "Mountain Lion" bringing many of the missing features from iOS to the Mac, as well as straightening out some inconsistencies.

The big one for me is the further integration of iCloud along with the launch of full "Documents in the Cloud" for the Mac. As far as I can see, this has been the major stumbling block for updates to iWork on the Mac. Pages, Numbers and Keynote on iOS have all been updated but iWork on the Mac is amazingly still at iWork '09. I can only imagine Apple have updates to these important apps ready to go, but have been waiting for "Documents in the Cloud" to be ready for primetime on the Mac.

The development of "Mountain Lion" seems well advanced, with a public beta of the new messages app available now for all, with a preview of the full OS also available to developers. Touted for release in the Summer, making the beta available now gives both Apple and App developers time to iron out any bugs well in advance of WWDC. It also leaves WWDC wide open for any iOS6 announcements (opening up the Apple TV anyone?).

It's a sign of just how large and successful Apple have become, when such a major announcement can be delivered without a major event. It doesn't seem that long ago when even the Apple HiFi and iPod socks warranted an announcement at an Apple event, now a major update to their flagship OS can be launched with just a few carefully arranged meetings, and a beautifully designed website.

Another positive sign is the commitment they seem to have made in releasing an update to both iOS and Mac every year. The amount of technical resource and planning required to accomplish such a feat is really quite staggering, and bodes well for future innovation. In retrospect, a major enabler for this approach must be the aggressive strides Apple takes to leave behind legacy software. Such a contrast with other OS development companies.

So I'll try and free up some space on my MacBook Air, download the developer preview and kick the tyres on the new OS.

Of course, it means SCOtutor for Lion will have a shorter lifespan than I anticipated, but I'd better start thinking about SCOtutor for Mountain Lion.

Car vs Truck

This year's trip to Macworld | iWorld did include an unexpected turn of events.

Whenever I travel, I always take my MacBook Air and my iPad. The MBA usually stays in the hotel room and the iPad is my companion whilst out and about. As well as the iPhone of course. Access to broadband for my portable devices is usually a major PITA. I have a MiFi but this lasts only 4 hours, plus it's yet another device to carry around.

I usually get an AT&T sim for the MiFI, to provide mobile data.

Two years ago, it cost me $100 for 50MB.

Last year it cost me $50 for 100MB.

This year, I was able to buy an AT&T data only SIM for my iPad for 3GB of data for just $30.

Yowser!

3GB of data for 30 bucks. Sign me up.

So in effect, permanent connectivity anywhere on a device that has a 10 hour battery life. Not only at Macworld, but also on my holiday the following week. Especially useful as the holiday was on a cruise ship with limited and extremely expensive Internet access.

So the iPad became my go to machine for the 2 weeks, with the MacBook Air hardly getting touched.

What a revelation.

Now don't get me wrong, the iPad still has a number of limitations when doing tasks that require rapid access to multiple applications, but for most purposes, it was a joy to use. Tasks I'd previously avoided, I dug into. The availability of the data connection on the iPad made it worth the investment in time to figure out the best way to work around the limitations. I also spent a bit of time working out how to best use some third party applications, to assist me in carrying out the tasks I usually do on the MacBook Air. It wasn't perfect, but absolutely doable.

As an aside, I'll be covering some of these productivity enhancing applications on ScreenCastsOnline for IOS over the coming weeks, starting with Pastebot by Tapbots later today.

I still firmly believe that there will always be the need for powerful, multiwindowing desktop computers (trucks), but with the advent of more sophisticated applications, a more powerful hardware platform (iPad 3) and the further enhancement and maturing of iOS, the iPad is well positioned to be the most capable personal computer yet.

Not just a car for everyone, but iPad 3 could well be the Sports or Executive model.

Safely back home

Following on from Macworld | iWorld and our little weeks vacation (Ok, holiday for my fellow countrymen), we're safely back home after a fairly brutal journey. 5 hours from Hawaii to Los Angeles, then 10 hours from LA to Heathrow, then 45 minutes back to Manchester. With associated stops and transfers on the way back.

Got in late Wednesday afternoon, and managed to stay awake until the usual bedtime, finally crashing out and getting a good 7 hours sleep.

Before hitting the sack, I noticed a few issues with my home equipment, mainly one of my network switches was dead and my RAID setup has gone slightly awry. The switch came back to life after a reboot, but I will need to investigate my RAID setup.

I can envisage some new purchases in my future to update my current system, despite keeping current on my laptop and iPads, the desktop systems are starting to show their age, and I feel the need to update. Wish Apple would come clean on what's happening with the Mac Pro, although I may move to an iMac/Thunderbolt setup. We'll see, and I'll document my thought processes when the time comes.

So now it's that time, just after a holiday, where you need to attend to all those things you kept putting off until after the holiday. Lordy, so much to do!

But it will all have to wait, I need to produce two shows for tomorrow, and that takes precedence over everything. Good job I was able to outline the shows on my iPad during my travels.

So back to the digital coal face I go....

Is this thing on?

My goodness, the 24th October 2011 was the last time I posted to my blog.

Oh the shame.

Been a pretty busy few months since then though, what with six apps in the App Store (three for iPad and three for Mac), a brand new website, two shows a week, Christmas, a whole new pricing structure for membership, plus preparing four tutorials in advance for a couple of weeks away. Something had to give and unfortunately, it was the blog.

However, now that all those things are pretty much completed (some changes to the website plus some new apps to be published), I'm hoping things will get on an even keel again moving into 2012.

I can't promise a blog post a day, but hopefully, much more regular blogging from me.

At least, when I get back from my current holiday. Or perhaps there's a couple of blog posts in me whilst I've got my feet up.

SCOtutor for Lion Goes Live!

Big day today with the official launch of SCOtutor for Lion.

This is a brand new ScreenCastsOnline application, the first one available via the Mac App Store. It's a full HD video tutorial which covers all the new features in Lion, and is contained within a custom video player.

The application is completely standalone, and includes the HD video as part of the application, so once downloaded, it can run independently - no connectivity required.

The application has some unique features, most notably, full onscreen subtitles in multiple languages - English, Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese and Simplified Chinese - yes, ScreenCastsOnline is going global!

SCOtutor for Lion has been available on the Mac App Store for a couple of days, following a soft launch via Twitter. Surprisingly, even with the soft launch, it made an appearance on the UK and US top paid apps, and is currently number 10 in the top paid Productivity apps in the UK store. I'm not sure how these charts are compiled, they seem to be as mysterious as the iTunes podcast charts! But it's off to a great start.

The main launch today is via two mechanisms:

Press Release - I just sent out a Press Release via PR Mac - this gets forwarded to over 600 news outlets, so we'll have to see what the response is . It will be fascinating to see the reach of the application and also if the multilingual subtitles make a big difference in the sales. iTunes Connect allows to to drill into each country to see how sales are distributed, so I'll be able to track the performance of the App, and see if the multilingual subtitles make a difference.

ScreenCastsOnline Members - I also sent out an email and a short informational video [Low Res] [High Res] to all of my members. Fingers crossed that some will purchase the app and put some (hopefully good) reviews on the Mac App Store, but I'm also hoping that the members will also get behind me and promote the app by letting friends, family and colleagues know about SCOtutor for Lion.

If I can get enough positive reviews on the Mac App Store, there is always the possibility of being featured by Apple in the "New and Notable" section - it certainly wouldn't hurt!

SCOtutor Release Strategy

I've already had some feedback from people intending to buy, but disappointed that SCOtutor for Lion is only for OSX 10.7 and above. That was a decision I took for the future really. The application makes use of some of the new AV foundation features in 10.7, and it makes the code base more compatible with iOS when the application gets ported across. Also, I figured that it would mainly be Lion users that would get most benefit from this first release.

Now that the initial launch is underway, I've just submitted v1.0.1 but that is with Apple for review. It's some minor bug fixes for the screen handling, as well as localised App Store pages for the Mac App Stores for the supported languages. So when people see the App Store pages in China, Brazil, Spain… or any App Store using the language supported by the App subtitles, they will see the App description in their native language. I've even included localised screenshots!

V1.1 of SCOtutor for Lion is next, and that will include French subtitles as well - hopefully, that will be out in the next week or two, and will be a free upgrade.

There's lot's more behind the story of both creating the App and getting it as far as the Mac App Store, but I'll leave that for another blog post.

As far as other SCOtutor applications are concerned, I'll need to see how this one goes.

The initial investment for this first App has been significant, especially factoring in the costs of the subtitle translations. If the sales make this delivery mechanism viable, it's something I may consider on an occasional basis.

Impact on the Weekly ScreenCastsOnline Tutorials

None!

This App is very much an experiment and will not impact in any way on the weekly tutorials I produce. The weekly shows do have English subtitles, and these will continue. The adoption of multiple language subtitles for the weekly shows is impossible both for logistical and financial reasons.

The weekly ScreenCastsOnline tutorial, and providing the best quality service to my members is still my number one priority, and the new application does not alter that one iota. The full membership is still the most cost effective way to get the full ScreenCastsOnline experience, and that will remain true for the foreseeable future.

Thanks

I'd just like to extend my thanks to all the various people who have been involved in creating the SCOtutor for Lion App, doing the localisation work and the translations.

A special note of thanks to Simon Wolf of Otter Software who coded the app, and Jamie Peak - Portfolio - who designed the graphics - it's so refreshing to work with talented people who love to go the extra mile.

Fingers crossed the App goes well and reaches the audience I intended it to!