Who doesn't care more about Java on the Mac--Sun or Apple?
Now that Jens Alfke has gone independent, he is working on an infrastructure that supports "a distributed, secure application-level messaging system."
Why should you go to WWDC this year?
Imagine giving your iPhone the power of a nearby eight-core Mac Pro.
What if Apple did the same thing with AppleTV that they've just done with the iPhone? What if Apple made AppleTV a platform by opening up the APIs.
There are a bunch of Mac developers who are really angry that Apple will be keeping thirty percent of the sale price of their software in return for giving them access to the iPhone sales channel. Apple could pretty much charge whatever they want --- it's your only sanctioned way onto the phone --- and they are taking 30% and giving the developer 70%.
As Apple prepares to announce the iPhone SDK in a couple of hours I'm torn. Haven't people been trying to convince us for years of the advantages of browser based applications? And Apple has put the browser on its list of strategically important pieces of the puzzle to own along with hardware and the operating system.
I'm sure when you're an Apple engineer heads down in a room grinding out code you can lose sight of the people you are building these products for. You could. I'm just glad you don't. I'm grateful to every Apple engineer who took the time to make this machine powerful enough or me to use every day and easy enough for my daughters to do everything they can dream of doing.
O'Reilly is now distributing the "Take Control" series from TidBITS. If you check out the list you'll see a lot of tempting titles. It's an interesting way for O'Reilly to build out their Mac and iPhone list in addition to the books they publish themselves.
Some days I feel sorry for Apple employees. As their market share has grown, their base has changed. I've been in the Apple store four times this week (three times more than I wanted to be there) and the feeling in there has definitely changed in the past year. It must be hard for the store employees to hear the signal over the noise.
