MacGetIT

As an entrepreneur and start-up business I watch how others use their Macs in their business.

I recently received an email that had a company’s signature and Apple’s data detectors picked it up, but because of the way this person wrote their email signature the data detectors did not pick it all up and thus caused me time and energy to get things right. Here’s their signature:

John Doe

My Company, LLC – My Consulting

E-Mail:       mycompany@mycompany.com

The problem with this is Mail’s data detectors is that because of the spacing it saw the address and ONLY the “My Consulting” and not the rest of the line “My Company, LLC”. If this person had not added the “My Consulting” tag line for below their address then the data detectors would have picked up the whole business name and address. The correct way for the data detectors to work is to have the address as such:

This way ALL of the company address data is picked up. Adding other information before and after the address

The previous method left me having to work with many more mouse clicks that I was willing to endure, but a simpler solution is adding a vCard to his email signature which takes up far less of my time, and my perception of their view of my time, and thus improves my view of their business.

Or, do both. This allows one to cut and paste and address into something else such as another email or into a document and drag and drop the vCard onto Address Book with no typing needed.

Your thoughts?

Here’s a link to charting Apple’s growth in sales and number of Macs, iPhones, and iPods sold. MacObserver has the numbers to show where Apple is heading.

After hearing tons of speculation about Apple’s Wednesday’s event I’ve come to the early conclusion that I won’t be getting an iPad/iSlate/iTablet from Apple. Why? Here are my reasons.

1. It’s another thing to carry around besides my MacBook Pro and my iPhone. While I MIGHT be able to substitute my MacBook Pro for the iPad thingy, I do too much work that the iPad would be more of a bother adding it to my repertoire of Macs.
2. An iPad might replace my MacBook Pro, but it only becomes a smaller MacBook Air and I don’t own one of those and don’t need or want one of them. I want something with a little more power.
3. I can only see that an iPad might cannibalize from the MacBook Air or MacBook sales for those that do light computing work, such as doctors that need to enter data into a hospital system or writers that travel more than most of us.
4. While the iPhone’s swipping and pinching motion makes it’s use fairly useful, for those of us that are keyboard “attached” such as UNIX geeks that don’t like the mouse are most productive with keyboard shortcuts and the pinching movements will limit productivity.

However, if Apple “limits” the features to the iPad it’ll upset the rest of the Apple customers. How?

1. If the “publishers” that Apple is “courting” for the game changing technology of the publishing industry does not port or translate the technology to the rest of the Mac platform then it’ll “force” Mac users to move or purchase the iPad.
2. No USB or display port to hook up larger screens or an external keyboard to do heavy workloads.
3. An Apple iTunes focus on the publishing industry whereas you can only get ebooks and may or may not be able to get a physical book for those that want both. If the same “experience” of getting an iPad book is not the same as getting a real one it’ll detract from the reader’s experience of both.

But want WOULD make me consider getting one?

1. The data “cloud” that everything on the iPad syncs up with my other systems seamlessly and I never have to bother about where my data/books/contact information resides. If I can read on an iPad and then bring it up on my  or my wife’s MacBook Pro then that’s a consideration.

But that’s about the extent of my reasons. For me an iPad is just another smaller laptop with added functionality that Apple has been stair stepping in that direction with it’s trackpads. It’ll be adopted by early adopters for sure, but the masses won’t change as the “back end” may not be there for the average users.

But by far the worse part of this potential publishing “arm” of Apple is: will Apple control the publishing content like it controls the iPhone apps? How much of your rights will Apple control for indie publishers?

But we can only wait until the 27th to see what Apple does.

Here’s the Apple answers to this question. Here are the indicators:

• Your Apple notebook’s display has no picture after you turn it on.
• You don’t hear any fan or hard disk activity sounds after you turn the computer on, and the sleep light doesn’t turn on.
• The computer doesn’t seem to have any power when you try to turn it on.

Here’s the latest of Apple Technical Notes for iWork ‘09 for those that are interested to some of the updates.

… of rogue programmers/marketers that say they have developed an iPhone application when in fact they have not, just to get work or just to get a foot into the door with iPhone development. This Ars Technical article “Developers stealing from developers” discloses how “marketing” really takes credit for things the company has not done. So  beware of companies contacting you to write that iPhone app for you.

For those that have used Macs for a while you understand that Apple does a great job of getting good stuff as a whole to it’s customers, but after reading this article about the new 27″ iMac it gives some interesting specs about the high quality monitor that hides a “cheap computer” behind it.

For a while I’ve seen my iPhone Notes showing up in my Inbox in my Mail program. It did not bother me until I began to clear out my Inbox and all I had left were the Notes. How were they showing up? Where’s the switch to turn them off in my Inbox?

There’s a check box under Mail’s Preferences > Accounts > Mailbox Behaviors for each email account you have. Check to the box off so that the Notes will not show up in your Mail Inbox.

Now I have a clean Inbox.

Oh, be sure that if you have a number of email Inboxes that you can select those accounts that show the Notes.

When you read this article “Apple Tablet To Redefine Newspapers, Textbooks, and Magazines” you get the feeling that a new revolution is coming via Apple, again. But as with all new technologies: what would the customer do with it?

While saving the environment for those “one ofs” like newspapers that you don’t keep and throw away and textbooks you resell after you have learned something, there’s one aspect that if the right connections are made, would be a HUGE difference.

Read this article first, Google Books: On-Demand Paperbacks from Digital Library.

Now when you combine both the “tablet” of Google Books of both digital and printed versions you’ve got a method of getting information to whoever needs it in whatever form they want it.

Imagine being able to print cheaply books for inner city kids or third world countries who may not be able to get a book?

How about printing your own book out or have someone purchase and if they like the digital version ordering, hopefully “at cost” the printed version.

While we all want to think that digital will replace print, I don’t think so. The same was said of computers reducing the amount of paper being used. Not!

But having important books in your iPhone or iTablet to read or refer to when needed, it’s a boon to getting things done.

What do you think?

For those that are former  or current Apple employees there is now another competitor to Apple Retail: Microsoft. Microsoft is now seemingly beginning to poach Apple’s retail staff to staff it’s own up and coming retail stores. Read this article “Microsoft is supposedly stealing Apple retail staff” to get the scoop.

What does this mean for Apple? Apple’s expected loyalty to itself by its employees is now going to challenge Apple’s leadership values and expectations, do they need to change? Can they change?

Does this mean that the coveted Specialists/Concierge jobs will further deteriorate into “Wal-Martish” mentality and tarnish Apple’s brand? Or will Apple respond to this Microsoft challenge with something innovative? Or keep everything as is?

How do you think Apple’s leadership will respond to this threat?