Installing Snow Leopard (on a Mac OS X Tiger machine)

So, as you may know (and probably getting tired of knowing by now) I upgraded to Snow Leopard. The process was very simple and there's really no point in doing a thorough analysis of it, so I'll just leave some photos that I took while waiting.

Just before that, a few tips for those of you that want to upgrade as well:

• Backup your old data before upgrading
  
• Have you backup everything? No, go ahead... I'll wait
• And when you think you've backup everything just make a final check :-)
• Then insert the disc and install Mac OS X 10.6 a.k.a. Snow Leopard

Chances are that everything will go smoothly and no problems will arise from installing the new operating system. But since uncle Murphy is always looking waiting for the right moment to appear, you might as well be prepared with all your data safe somewhere.

Another quick note: this post is about my experience which consisted on upgrading from Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger) to 10.6. So, this post is not really helpful to those of you upgrading from Leopard.

I bought the Mac Box Set (which includes Mac OS X 10.6, iLife'09 and iWork'09). Yeah, I know I could have just bought the $29 update package that can also do the upgrade from Tiger, but didn't so for two reasons:

1. I would be in violation of Apple's license agreement
2. I wouldn't have iLife'09 and iWork'09

So, with the package on my desk, it was quite easy to see what I should do:

(I like these little messages that Apple pust on the packages with "slight" hints of what to do)

After inserting the DVD, one clear difference from the Leopard upgrading process was that installing it from Tiger, requires restarting the machine right from the beginning of the installation process:


After a quick restart, the installation process asks which language you want to use:


And then, you're ready to start the installation. In my case, I decided to wipe clean the hard disk with the Disk Utility to make sure that all the accumulated garbage I had on the previous version of Mac OS X (yes, I backup everything before. Did you?)


After cleaning up the hard disk, it was time to start the real installation:



Obviously, the "time remaining" part of the installation process is never accurate and it more or less bounced from 30 minutes to 28, back to 29 and then to 26 (for a really long time), then 23 and then going on normally until 11 minutes and then suddenly it finishes. So, in total it took about 26 minutes to finish this part. At this point, I decided to read the manual that comes with the disc and get myself acquainted with the novelties in 10.6.


After copying all the files and restarting "again", the new OS boots with the usual flying "welcome" messages in several different languages:


And then after just setting up the usual stuff (language and keyboard preferences, user accounts, etc...)...


... I was ready to use my new Mac OS X:


So, from start to finish, I took exactly 48 minutes to upgrade. Not bad for a clean install.
After that, I just inserted the iLife'09 DVD, installed it and then the same for the iWork'09. More or less 10 minutes for each.

Loving the new Operating System

Yes, it's fast... and I mean really fast. Clicking on folders and files seems to open these a lot faster and navigation is usually more fluid. The new features (remember that I was coming from Tiger) like Spaces, Time Machine and Stacks are really cool.

Recovering my data was quite straightforward and I didn't face any major problems (except one that I'll mention bellow) so in a couple of hours I had my machine up and running almost like the previous version.

Now for the boring part

The boring part was in fact checking compatibilities for applications. I backup my previously installed applications so that I could use them now. Most of them worked without any problems, but some of them required installing new versions. And not so amusing, some of them are only available for Snow Leopard in beta versions. Which means that bugs may surface. But so far, it has been quite peaceful.

The only app that I'm having a hard time is QuickSilver. Because I use it all the time and some of its plugins are not yet available in the 10.6 version, in some ways it is more or less useless for me right now.

I also had some problems with a few of my calendars. I have 5 calendars that I used in the previous version of iCal (in Tiger). I backed up everything but when it was time to import them to the new iCal, only 2 of them imported successfully. I don't know why, but for some reason those other 3 calendars were being very stubborn.

Since I heard that Snow Leopard now had built-in support for Google Calendar integration with iCal, I decided to try the following:

1. Create new calendars on Google Calendar
2. Import the information of the 3 non-working calendars to Google Calendar
3. Synchronize with iCal

Guess what? It worked perfectly. Now, I have GCalendar <-> iCal dual integration working perfectly.
Why didn't the calendars import on iCal and did so on Google Calendar, I'll never know. But it's good to know that Google is always here to help :-) By the way, the same built-in integration between Google Contacts (and Yahoo Contacts) and Address Book is also available, provided that you use iSync for the synchronization process.

So, in the end I'm quite pleased with this process and it was a lot less painful than I thought it would be. I fully recommend upgrading to Snow Leopard but bare in mind that some of the applications may not work in Snow Leopard. So, do your homework, and check the compatibilities beforehand.

The iCal day

Did you notice that today is the only day of the year in which the iCal icon on the Dock doesn't change once you open it? :-)

Photobooth tips

I didn't know how to disable the "pseudo-flash" setting in Photobooth (and there's no setting that you can change directly to override this) and so, to this day, I used the reversed contrast setting trick: in my case I have to press Command+Option+CTRL+8 to activate it and then the "pseudo-flash" will be black instead of white. But then again, using this trick doesn't allow me to fully control the quality of the photo because I still have to see it with that x-ray look.

Lucky enough, Mac Tricks and Tips has posted these useful tips to use with Photobooth:

• Disable Flash in Photo Booth

Disabling flash in PhotoBooth is really easy all you have to do is hold the Shift key while you click to take a picture and the screen will not flash white.


• Disable Countdown in Photo Booth

Disabling the picture count down in PhotoBooth is just a matter of holding down the Option key while you click to take a picture, your photo will take immediately.

You can also combine the keystrokes by holding down Option-Shift and you’ll immediately take a picture without the flash.

How to make Command-Left Arrow 'go to the start of the current line' rather than 'go back one page' on Firefox

As you may have noticed, this blog is hosted on Blogger under the Blogspot.com domain. One thing that really annoys me with the Post Editor in Blogger is that, when using Firefox, if I try to use the Home key shortcut (Command-Left Arrow), instead of going to the beginning of the line on the text box where I'm editing a post as expected, the browser goes back one page.

This problem occurs because that specific combination of keys (Command-Left Arrow) is configured in Firefox to behave as Going Back one page instead of the usual Mac OS X-like behaviour of Home key.


Luckly, and for every problem that exists in Firefox, there's an extension that is ready to save the day: Keyconfig. It adds the ability to create new or modify existing shortcuts defined by a element. Basically, all you have to do is install the extension and then navigate to the Tools --> Keyconfig, click on the "Back : Command-Left Arrow" entry, then click the Disable button.

In case you're having problems installing the extension, leave a comment here and I'll try to give some help. Enjoy!

Source: Mac OS X Hints

How to fix converted QuickTime movies that have no sound

I've been making some short videos of my son with my new digital camera, a Sony CyberShot DSC-H50, with the goal of syncing them to my iPod Touch so that I have them around to show to family, friends and colleagues.

However, when I use QuickTime to convert the video to the iPhone/iPod Touch format, I get stuck with a video with no sound. And why is that? It's because my digital camera (and as most digital cameras) records the video and audio on the same stream within the movie file. And QuickTime is only able to convert movies that have separate video and audio streams.


In search for a solution to this problem, I found this neat program that takes care of that conversion real easily: MPEG Streamclip.

So if you're having similar problems, make sure you give this program a try.

For iPhone aficionados and chocolate addicts

Found here

Isn't this ironic?

While checking out this blog's feed I noticed the following interesting Google Ad on a recent post:

Why in the world would a blog that is dedicated to all things Mac/Apple have an ad on how to correctly migrate to Windows Vista?

As previously shown, the Google ad selection criteria remains a mistery to me... Anyone care to enlight me as to how these things happen?

Mac Highlights of 2008

The UsingMac blog has made an impressive post with the highlights of the Mac world of 2008. From apps to tips, tricks, tweaks, plugins, wallpapers and tutorials, you'll find everything there. Have a look.

My thoughts on the MacWorld 2009's keynote

After seeing the keynote I can easily understand why Apple has decided to stop with these special events to announce new products. The pressure to deliver new products at specific timetables (forced by these events schedules) builds up a hype that most of the times leads to failed expectations. Yesterday's keynote was an example of that: people were waiting for a final and blasting Apple Keynote but all they got was a predictable software update (and not all that impressive) and an obvious small hardware update.

But now the pressure is off and Apple can surprise us at any time and anywhere. So, if it takes slightly longer to see some updates from Apple now...no problem...that just means that something big is probably coming. And then, at least, we'll know that is going to be huge.

But coming back to the keynote, let's analyse it a bit in detail.

About the keynote speaker

Phill is not as relaxed or as calm as Steve usually is but the keynote was fluid and appealing, so, not bad... But maybe he should cut by half the times he says "That's really cool" :-)

iPhoto'09

iPhoto'09 looks realy cool with its new Faces and Places features and since I'm an avid user of iPhoto, I would love to see those features on my iPhoto Library right now. It sure would save a whole lot of time to tag every person and place on the 15000+ photos on my library. However, I'm still reluctant as to whether the face recognition will be that effectice on photos that are not picture-perfect as the ones showed on the demo (which is the case for most amateur photographers).

Also, Facebook and Flickr integration seems to be a great step. Even though we can also have that on the current version of iPhoto, it requires you to install specific add-ons that are not as simple to use as a button on the event view.

iMovie'09

I still use iMovie HD (iMovie'06) because iMovie'08, besides being too buggy on my Macbook Pro, it's a lot more complicated than its previous version (I was really surprised about this, Apple). And what's funnier is that Phill (kind of) admitted Apple's error on that one :-)
It still looks quite similar to iMovie'08, but I'll give iMovie'09 the benefit of the doubt and hope it to be a lot better. At least, the demo looks cool: video stabilization, audio-only selection and real-time video effects...wow!


GarageBand'09

Yeah, learning the musics from the artists is great but $4,99 per lesson? I keep getting amazed on how Apple finds ways to earn money from simple ideas that anyone could have thought of that before...

iWork'09

Yes, I want that app on my iPod Touch to remotely control presentations and, yes, the new magic effects and transitions are really cool but is that it? Pages and Numbers updates are hilarious... Come on, in order to really step up against Microsoft Office, iWork really needs to do more than that.
iWork.com is the real interesting feature: sure, it's Google Docs à-la-Mac style (which means collaboration made easy) but the direct integration with all iWork apps is exactly what's missing on alternative platforms.

Mac Box Set

This is the most interesting news at least for me, a Mac OS X Tiger user :-) I'll get all three products (Leopard, iLife'09 and iWork'09) for the reduced price of $169.

The new 17'' Macbook Pro

This was an obvious update since this was the "soldier left behind" on the last Mac event when the unibody Macbooks family was presented. The good news is that Apple recognized the need to offer (I mean, with a $50 donation :-/) an anti-glare LCD display option to users that don't like the excessive reflection glass display. Too bad this won't be an option for the other Macbooks but I understand how difficult it is to manage stocks and manufacturing processes to allow all customers to customize their laptops.

Regarding the non-removable battery, I stand by my previous statement when this was first announced on the Macbook Air: "...innovative laptops have to make some compromises. And a removable battery is overrated. On my lifetime of "gadgetery" I only had to buy a new battery for a cellphone once."

iTunes news

This was the part of the keynote that I didn't quite get it. The only real news is the pricing tiers and the increased amount of DRM-free songs. iTunes+ has existed for quite some time now and the possibility to "upgrade" to DRM-free tunes is not a novelty.
Oh, and the possibility of using the iTunes Music Store on 3G in addition to WiFi...please...that should have been done from the beginning when iPhone 3G was first released.

What's missing?

Rumor-wise something's missing, but that is the usual consequence of the hype built around these events:

• No iPhone Nano: that one was caused by all the hungry accessory makers that wanted some attention towards their own products and, for that, made use of the usual hype around Mac events
• No Mac tablet or larger iPod Touch: duuuhhhhhh! Still dreaming of that? I don't think Apple will ever go that way, mainly because it doesn't represent a that bigger market
• No New Mac Mini: I was hoping for this one, mainly because I'm still considering buying one to act as a pseudo-media center on my living room and also because it doesn't have an update in a really long time

And that was it, no more Mac keynotes from now on, but be sure to expect new special ways to announce ever-innovative products. As Tony Bennet sang at the end: "The best is yet to come!"

Happy New Year

Finally, a post on my new iPod Touch

Sorry to keep you waiting so much, but between teaching, working on the PhD and taking care of my baby son, I can hardly find the time to update the blog. But finally, I found the time to talk a little bit about my new gadget: an iPod Touch 16 GB.


Why an iPod Touch?

I've always felt the need to carry a pocket device to have access to e-mail, calendar, notes and news and the PDAs that I used in the last few years have all been Windows Mobile-based. However, ever since I switched to a Mac, I've been using these gadgets a lot less. Why? Because I got used so much to the simplicity of Mac OS X, that now Windows Mobile usability seems too weak. So, since I already carry around an iPod to listen to my tunes, the obvious choice was to switch to an Apple-based device that would combine everything.

(in case you're wondering how I made the "Lock Screen" look like that,
check here)

You might ask: "why not an iPhone, since you're looking to merge all functionalities into one gadget?". Well, because buying an iPhone would end up costing me a lot more than the iPod Touch and since I don't use a mobile phone that much, it didn't make much sense to me (the only thing I regret of not buying the iPhone is the GPS, which is not included in the iPod Touch.).

The first experience

After exactly 46 hours of hitting the "Buy" button on the Portuguese Apple Store's website, I received my iPod Touch. Any Apple product's case is a pure mix of creativity and simplicity and, as expected, the iPod Touch's is no exception: small, clean and appealing.

The first experience was absolutely perfect...really, it couldn't have been better. I was amazed with the simplicity of the syncing process. After connecting the iPod to my Mac and providing some information for the registration process, the synchronization process automatically took care of everything: music, movies, tv shows, photos, podcasts, calendar, contacts, bookmarks and e-mail settings. I only changed a few options (to avoid syncing all tunes, photos and movies - because 16 GB is just not enough) but basically after the syncing process, my iPod Touch was ready to use. The e-mail settings synchronization was the thing that most amazed me. I didn't have to configure anything on the device and the mail accounts were ready to be accessed.

(in case you're wondering how I took a screenshot of
the iPod screen, just click the home button and the
sleep button at the same time. The screen will flash
and the screenshot will be stored in your photo library)

The App Store

The use of the App Store on the iPod Touch is clean and simple. Just choose the app you want, click install and it's ready to be used. Don't worry about purchasing apps on the device that may get lost. On the next sync the apps are backed up on your computer. Even if something happens during the download process or with your device, the apps are available for re-download from the App Store on your computer. Soon, I'll make a post dedicated to the best apps I've found on the App Store so far.

Usability

Regarding the iPod Touch usability, sure it's amazing but it's still far from perfect. These are some of the things I don't like:

• No Alt+TAB-like feature. There's no notion of what happens to applications when you press the home button and there's no way of effectively switching between two applications without going to the home screen. I know that you can hold the home button for 8 seconds to close an application but that feels more like a "Force Quit" than a real nice clean Quit.
• No wide keyboard on Mail. It's quite ridiculous that Apple decided not to put a landscape mode-based keyboard to facilitate writing mails (I know there are applications that take care of this, but again it feels like a cheap fix). I already got used to fit my chubby fingers on the normal keyboard, but the usability of a wide keyboard is undoubtedly better.
  

And of course, another list is required. These are some of the things that I love about it:

• Accelerometer. This amazing feature is what turns this simple gadget into something so much amazing. Whether it's on iTunes or while playing games, this feature is pure fun and will enrich any application that makes use of it.
  
• Touch interface. Everything is quite intuitive, easy to use and it's just a touch/slide/pinch away.
  
• Scrolling effect embedded in every functionality. It feels so realistic that now I'm starting to do similar movements while reading books or other paper documents :-)
• Wireless Configuration. Simple and right to the chase, no excessive prompting and with the right amount of useful information.
  
• Concentrated settings. Most settings are concentrated on a single place, so as to avoid complicated menus and options/settings within each application.
• One button to rule them all. There are no complicated rules to learn. When in trouble, just click the main button on the iPod. It will always take you to the home screen. Need to quickly access the now playing section of the iPod to pause/next tune or change the volume? Just click twice.
  

Protection

I bought a hard plastic case to protect the iPod, since now this will be my main gadget and will go anywhere I go (well, maybe not sauna or shower). It looks great and it's light enough to go by unnoticed:


My new media center

Amazingly the video resolution for the iPod Touch is acceptable enough to connect it to the TV and view some of the videos and TV shows on it. You can easily convert any videos that you may have on your computer to optimal iPod Touch/iPhone settings using QuickTime. And the best thing about it, if you have subtitles to load with the video file, the video output of the export process will include the embedded subtitles.

So, using Apple's Universal Dock connected through S-Video to my flat screen TV, I can easily see any videos/photos on my TV and even control playback using the Apple Remote.

In conclusion

The iPod Touch is the perfect hand-held to complement my Macbook Pro. Syncing data between the the two is amazingly easy and fast, so it's easy to have access to all my tunes, videos, mails and news. The App Store makes it even better, offering a wide range of excellent applications that you can install on the device, thus turning it into a portable gaming console, an encyclopedia or even a ruler :-)

The simplicity of Mac OS X

Most Portuguese Universities have now adopted the common wireless infrastructure, Eduroam, that allows all students and professors to have the same access credentials in (almost) all Universities in Portugal (and in most Universities in other European countries). Each University provides a tutorial to help the users configure their wireless devices in order to use the referred network.

This user decided to do a little comparison between the different OS' tutorials. Guess what the results were. Well, check it out for yourself. This image shows the length of the tutorial for each operating system:

I guess it sends a clear message on the simplicity/complexity of certain operating systems :-)

Source: Tux Vermelho (in Portuguese)

My new gadget: iPod Touch 16 GB

Yes, I got myself an iPod Touch. For a long time now I was looking to get an easy-to-use PDA and since I got used to the Mac philosophy (from this last year of being a Mac Newbie) the obvious choice was to go for the Apple brand.



My years of Windows Mobile user are now over. I promise I'll make a complete post on my experience with the new gadget...but for now, I'm going to have some fun :-)

1 year of Mac: Quicksilver, the best Mac application...ever

I already included Quicksilver in my list of essential applications for Mac OS X but due to the impact that this application has had on my productivity, I decided to make a special post to show how powerful this application is.

Basically, Quicksilver is an application that waits on the background for the user to call it (using a particular keystroke - I use Alt (Option) + Space) and then invoke a specific command by writing just a few letters (usually the initials of the command). So, let's have a look at the kind of commands we can use:

The basic functionality of this application is to work as an app launcher:


But it can also be used to open individual files (to use a group of files, you just have to insert a comma ',' to separate the several files):



There's a bunch of options to be used with files. For example, I can rename them, get more info, copy/move them to specific folders or simply delete them by moving them to the Trash:




And for when you have the Trash full, you can use Quicksilver to empty it:



Quicksilver can also be used as a calculator. After invoking Quicksilver, just insert '=' and automatically the app will interpret this as new math function:



Using a set of Apple Scripts, you can also use Quicksilver to control iTunes playback by skipping to the next or previous song or playing/pausing/stopping:


You can also browse your iTunes library using simple browsing/searching commands:


Quicksilver can provide access to your contacts and allows editing the contact's info and even create mail messages:


In fact, you can use Quicksilver to send a specific file (or group of files) by e-mail for a bunch of your contacts without even opening Mail.app:


If you need to Zip a folder, just select it and invoke the Compress command.


Then you can use the result to store the file somewhere in your computer or simply e-mail to a contact of your choice:


One of the most amazing commands that you can use on Quicksilver is image manipulation. For example, you can automatically scale an image using the "Scale Image..." command and providing the scale ratio (in percentage or pixels):


One useless command (but always funny) is the "Speak Text" command. Basically it can make your Mac speak any text that you input on Quicksilver (only in text mode, which is accessible by entering '.' as a command):


Since Quicksilver also monitors Safari and Firefox's bookmarks, you can take advantage of a special feature of the application. Whenever a bookmark URL contains '***', Quicksilver interprets that as input text. So, you can create your very own custom search engine directly from Quicksilver. For example, to search on Wikipedia, create the following bookmark on Safari: "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Search?search=***". Then rescan Quicksilver's catalog and invoke the bookmark and insert the input text:


For searching Google, use the following Bookmark URL: "http://www.google.com/search=q=***":


And finally, a tip for Twitter fans. If you like to post constant updates on Twitter but don't like to have to access the website just to enter your new status, you'll be glad to know that there's a way to integrate this functionality directly into Quicksilver, thus turning it into the simplest Twitter client that ever existed:


Some of these commands are not accessible in the default installation of Quicksilver. To make these commands available, you may have to install the correct plugins, but that's easily done through the application's preferences.

I hope you find this post useful and hopefully it will trigger your curiosity into testing this great application. I know it may take some time to get used to it, but once you do, you won't regret it.

Enjoy!

The new MacBook's glossy screen

I haven't had the opportunity to see it for myself but it seems that the glossy screen choice for the new MacBooks may not have been the best. The minute I saw the specs for the new MacBooks I thought about how painful it is to work outside with a laptop with glass display (yes, I used to have one and it sucks).


The general opinion of Mac users (around 44%) is that a matte display would be more suitable.

For example, here's the opinion of a photographer that does a lot of work outside: "As a pro photographer the glossy screen only option will keep me at my current MBP for a long time. I know Steve replied that at the new light levels output by the LED screen are so bright that you won't see a reflection. I do critical work on location and a hardware calibrated screen requires a light level setting of about half the maximum brightest level and at that level the glossy screen is a reflective non-start for me"

So basically, to avoid any reflections you have to set the brightness level of the display to its maximum. But then the battery will drain itself quite faster.

And the funniest part is that in some countries (like Finland and Sweden) such computers with glass displays that have a lot of reflections do not comply with Health and Safety at Work regulations: "The screen must be free of reflections that can cause mixing and inconvenience to the user."

I guess with all this talk about how the new displays may be unsuitable to most Apple users, Steve Jobs will make a shift to (or at least introduce a new option of) matte displays. Let's hope...

Source: Gearlog

Off-topic: Google adWords

Can anyone explain to me how a blog about being a newbie user of Macs ends up with a Google ad like this?



I wonder if Google's adWords selection algorithm is as basic as pairing the word MP3 with some post from my blog that also had the word MP3.

Sorry for the off-topic...we'll be back to our regular programming in a few moments :-)

The new Macbooks: the day after

So, I was more or less right about the outcome of yesterday's Apple event on notebooks (looking for the keynote video? Check here). Even though I think they should still drop the "Pro" nomenclature to describe a "larger" Macbook, the two notebooks now seem more alike than ever.
The new Macbooks

They now have the exact same aluminium case, glass display and button-less mouse trackpad. The differences come down to screen sizes/resolutions and in the internal components, wherein the Macbook Pro has a more powerful CPU, GPU and RAM. If you're looking for some pictures of the new machines "in the wild", check them here and here.

Regarding the common points, one of the most interesting aspects of the new Apple's notebooks is the multi-finger button-less glass mouse trackpad. With a set of new gestures (check a video here) this trackpad allows greater control of Mac OS X's features, such as picture navigation, zoom and rotation, app switching and access to Exposé. Also, the entire trackpad is a mouse button, which means that this might actually satisfy Greeks and Trojans. For those that don't like buttons in the trackpad...well, they aren't actually there. For those that do...well, it's there :-)

Another interesting aspect is the new case, which besides being made from a new innovative manufacturing process that is "greener", allows the new Macbooks to be lighter, stronger and slightly thinner.

The other aspect regarding the design of the new Macbooks is the choice of glass for the screen display (without a matte finish). This decision, I have to say, is quite disappointing. I've been using laptops for quite some time now and one thing I've learned is that glass displays are quite annoying when you're trying to use your computer outside.

Even though I like the innovation that Apple introduced with these new Macbooks, this one decision would be enough to keep me from buying one of these new notebooks. Well, at least until I have the chance to be face-to-face with one of them and check this new display's performance outside :-)

The older Macbooks and the Air

Apple has decided to still keep the older versions because they know that there are still some fans out there. For the Macbook, they kept the good'old white version (the most best-selling Mac ever) with a $100 price reduction and for the Pro, the 17'' version of the Macbook Pro is still there, which means Apple is still proud of that powerful notebook that is easy to carry everywhere.

The Macbook Air was not forgotten and it also got a boost on speed (new CPUs and GPUs) and storage (120 GB HDD for the cheaper version and a 128 GB SSD for the richie rich version).

About the other rumours

Steve Jobs has also made clear that there are three things that Apple won't step into, at least in the foreseable future:

• Touch-screen notebook - The Mac that we're all waiting for, won't be one of Apple's priorities since Steve Jobs has made clear that "it hasn't made a lot of sense to" Apple.


• Blu-Ray - Don't expect to see Blu-Ray drives in future Macs. Jobs described it as "a bag of hurt." I don't quite understand what this means, but he probably has his reasons for believing that.
  


• Netbook - If you're into netbooks, be advised that Apple won't be entering this market in the short term. But at least, Steve Jobs has made clear that Apple will "see how it goes" and...who knows, perhaps Apple will finally release a $400 or so netbook.
  

About Steve Jobs' Health

No, Steve Jobs is not dead...yet. And it's good to see that he can still have some sense of humour regarding all the news about his health.