New iTunes 8, and why you should start using it

Rumor has it that Apple will be releasing both a new major iTunes version and a new minor version of the iPhone firmware during their "Let's Rock" event (Tuesday) September 9th.

It is still curious how even releases of just software updates from Apple still manage to stir some excitement. However, when Apple releases a new version of iTunes for example, it usually indicates some pretty big new feature somewhere in the Apple product family. iPod video, iPhone, movie rentals through iTunes and other big announcements from Apple have all been accompanied by a feature update of iTunes. So if iTunes 8 is released tomorrow, at least I am curious about what will come with it. My best bet is that Apple is moving towards the location aware-market with the GPS iPhone, I suspect they will have some cool location-related feature.

Even with how great iTunes is already today, there are several of you out there who haven't realized it, so here goes my favourite features of the current iTunes:

• DAAP / iTunes server using (the free!) Firefly on my home server gives me seamless access to all of my music archive. Now I'm just missing iTunes remote speakers in software, but I guess I can live without it (Yay, there exists, cool now I will have to try it! - Umm... no "The key stored in iTunes has been extracted by Jon Lech Johansen, enabling 3rd party software to stream music to an Airport Express. However, the key stored in the AirPort Express is not yet known, and 3rd party software that mimics an Airport Express is thus not possible"):
  
  


• iTunes party shuffle is very nice to keep track of the playlist not only during parties. You see what next bunch of songs will be played and can modify it, you can add tracks manually or let them fill automatically as you play. Unfortunately DAAP / iTunes servers doesn't offer a party shuffle:
  
  


• iTunes manages my podcasts and syncs them to my iPod, including displaying which I have listened to. Very convenient:
  
  


• last.fm scrobbler plugin logs what music I listen to and keeps track of it in my online profile. Besides providing a great smörgåsbord of music, as I have previously written last.fm also keeps a great track of upcoming events:
  
  

These great features aside, iTunes is nifty for cleaning up the ID3 tags and filenames when you're an compulsive order nut like me, and of course it's simple and convenient for mom to rip her CDs in iTunes.

(Update: So that's it (on IDG here and here) indeed iTunes 8 was released, and except as I said, another version of an already great program, it's got some nice new shuffle function and a closer connection to the iTunes Music Store. Cool. iTunes is still the only program which cares and does justice to your cover art)

So you thought your OS was secure?

When looking for information about the IDA disassembler (anyone who knows it and can give me a few hints?) I found an interesting video at Google Videos. Alex Sotirov discussed how he found a very applicable "ANI" exploit in WinXP and Vista, including showing his best IDA tricks. Quite academic and extremely technical. As food for thought he ends the lectures with this diagrams about what OS provides what security measures:


We Mac users sometimes brag about how secure OS X is, while in reality it probably has a pretty solid base in Darwin and provides a reliable development environment with Cocoa... but when bugs and exploits are found, OS X is standing there almost absolutely naked and defenseless.

Of course, Windows drags a larger pile of legacy code behind itself, but it also is a lot more under fire, it makes a lot more sense to produce exploits and viruses for Windows.

My advice (which I hope will soon be published at mjukvara.se are still simple: 1) use good, secure software which throws away popups and spam 2) install system updates as they become available 3) run some sort of firewall and maybe free antivirus software . You, or if someone does it for you, need to keep your computer reasonably clean and well-oiled. Don't blame a virus if it's you who's filled up your disk. By these simple principles, my systems have been essentially perfectly free from virus trouble for at least five years. Knock on wood :-)

A little PS about that dangerous Internet hole which recently was "discovered" by Anton Kapela and Alex Pilosov. Experts are saying that indeed the "hole" is there, but everyone concerned were already aware of it and will not have much problems with it. If anything it is a small reminder that whenever you transmit passwords or any sensitive data over the Internet, you should not make any assumptions that the network is not wiretapped.

First exciting thing about Google Chrome - Gears

This morning I went to download the new Google Chrome browser. A lot of noise had been made about it, releasing a cute comic explaining the high-tech features of the new browser one day before releasing the browser.

Once I try it out it looks nice. Very nice, making the tabs part of the window bar and stripping away a line or two of menus and status bar makes the browser feel very slimmed.

Though the first and most fascinating thing I discover is features provided by Gears. My Google Reader can now download and provide me articles offline, nice! As I understand it, Gears is an interface to easily expose advanced browser functions to programmers in a unified way. It's with great anticipation I am looking forward to what great user experiences and features web applications using Gears can bring.



PS. Ashish has the head-start of time zones, but I find more interesting things :-)

Cursing, catfights and god warriors

You could argue that I watch too much bad reality TV but I really don't follow anything, there's just a bunch of programs I watch if I catch them when the TV's on, really! This is a summary beside the obviously good programs like MythBusters, Top Gear and The Daily Show:

Trinny & Susannah Undres... is really cute, I love it how they shape up lives and relationships with simple advice and gentle nudges. How to Look Good Naked is a bit obsessed with well... nudity, but that also means I can't stop watching it. And it's cool. ANTM is mostly a lot of silliness and fighting but I watch it anyway, compared to American Chopper where I really enjoy watching the fighting (and the handicraft) since there no-one is so much treated as a scapegoat, it's just a highly conflictual work place.

The other day, I saw something amazing on Wife Swap. Everyone who knows me will have noticed how I can not avoid fighting ignorance or habitual dogma, it just boils over inside of me... and how I feel that is over-represented among religious people. Few share my obseission though, so I'm pretty often taken for a crusader... against something. Though what I saw on TV was both hilarious and scary, it was about how the tattooed and shaved wife of Steve Caddel swapped homes with a fundamentalist big mama. Neither felt like particularly balanced people, but judge for yourselves:

When I mentioned it to some friends though, they assumed I was talking about Trading Spouses and the episode with Marguerite "the God Warrior" Perrin. No I didn't, then I would have been rolling around on the floor laughing, or in fear. Here it's more clear who's the unhealthy person I think:

My opinion is that she seems to be battling guilt and fear in herself, like her obesity, relationship to her family or that her daughter became pregnant as a teenager. It is not healthy to project fear and defensiveness around you like she does, the world is not actually such a dangerous place. No-one was out to hurt her and the family she traded with was being extremely friendly and open including saying grace with her and visiting a church. Sure they had a particular house with gargoyle statues and rich influence from other cultures, but the solstice party was not very mystic at all, it was just reminding of the human unity and celebrating a bit with nice people.

This Christian does not make me believe more in the existance of God or the Devil, she just reminds me how easy it is for nutcases to create their own worlds and become engulfed in their own emotions. Really easy, so you beware too. She's seriously scary.

Seems that Perrin later both has achieved obvious meme fame, but both actually went back onto another season of Trading Spouses, as well as appeared on the Jay Leno show. She also has a myspace page. Plus her daughter (the dance-academy one) died in a car accident...

(Update: I sometimes read the Chick comics for comical value, they make criticizing evangelism so much easier - and fun!)

Revolutionizing a market just by changing the business model

Yesterday I decided to read in bed a bit and check out the latest issue of my favorite magazine Wired (yes, now that I have borrowed a MacBook Air, I am reconsidering my initial opinion. It is in fact quite light and comfortable, regarless of that it takes almost as much space as a normal computer). Before I comment on what I read, I want to stress how cool it is that Wired issues are all available online. It's just a matter of setting a reminder in the calendar so that you can have a look at the latest issue instead of feeling like browsing an archive. No more expensive subscription for me :-).

Anyway, the article which caught my eye was the title page one. Of how Shai Agassi, 38 years old, is audaciously set on completely getting rid of the dependence on oil in the car industry. That's a pretty highly set goal.

Agassi wants to accomplish this great feat by using existing electric car technology (no hybrids or any of that mess) and circumventing the issues of large investment cost and limited range by setting up the "fuelling" network in a similar way as cell phone operators work - if you commit to a subscription for a certain time, your expensive car will be paid for partly or entirely by the operator. Since the operator also owns the battery in your car, when you need to "fuel up" rapidly, like driving into a car wash, you can having your battery rapidly replaced for a fresh one with little extra cost. They also have other clever details in that system, such as navigation support, parking/refuelling and route planning to make sure you always get the cheapest energy.

Now we of course may have our opinions about the power granted cell phone operators in that existing business model, and maybe it's very basic to an average business student, but I'm really impressed by the way of amortizing large investments onto subscriptions and lowering the entry treshold for new customers. I really hope better place makes it, and fast!

Actually I've myself recently been in touch with a business idea which could benefit from the subscription model in terms of spreading out the cost of an expensive system. Though there's no good way to "lock" the clients to the subscription and otherwise force them to stop using the system, and the initial setup pretty much makes it all run indefinitely, partly because it's a matter of training and knowledge. At the same time, it would be nice to give the clients the opportunity to try things out and realize the system is so good it's actually worth the long-term more expensive subscription, if they initially are reluctant to chuck up all that money for a system the value of which they are not certain of. Anyone good at product management who would share ideas?



(Update: Shai Agassi has a blog called "The Long Tailpipe")

(Update 2: Finally, PRI's The World: Technology Podcast 229 mentions Better Place. PRI's WTP is a very nice podcast, do check it out and subscribe to it)