Nice to see Aperture finally receiving some love. Pity it’s a $100 upgrade. The list of new features is certainly long, but at first glance, no one feature seems to merit such a high upgrade cost.
Canadians will be amused by the image that briefly graced the homepage of The Pirate Bay.
And if anyone can ever be expected to ask the oil sands to do their fair share, it’s an Albertan Conservative prime minister with an Albertan environment minister.
Paul Wells notes that Environment Minister Jim Prentice appears to be warning the oil industry that the federal government will actually, maybe, someday attempt to reign in the environmental impact of oil sands development in Alberta. But at the same time, he admits that the government will slavishly follow the U.S. lead when it comes to regulation, whether it be a cap-and-trade program or otherwise. Which is great if the U.S. takes meaningful action and terrible if, say, the U.S. Congress impedes any action whatsoever (as it may well do).
My personal favourites (and I quote):
- Water balloon launchers
- Flags of non-participating countries
- Air horns, trumpets and lasers
Also banned: food, drinks and inter-continentinal ballistic missiles.
Toronto Transit finally makes it into the 21st century. Only a decade late! Oh, and it’s still “beta”.
Google is phasing out support for Internet Explorer 6 on its web applications.
I mostly agree with Steven Frank, although I think the car transmission metaphor that John Gruber offered, and which Frank echoes, isn’t really that apt. Choosing to drive a manual-shift car today is more like knowing how to use a command line. Everyone already drives automatic because command lines are fussy and archaic, but being more directly involved in your car or computer can lead people to drive more safely because they’re more aware of what’s going on. Everyone is already on automatic computers, and for a lot of them, it lulls them into a false sense of security — if you don’t have to pay as much attention to what you’re doing, you’re more likely to crash.
This New World computer is more like a car without a steering wheel or gas pedal. It only goes at a single, safe speed and only in one direction at a time. If you want to change directions, you have to stop the car first.
Okay, that’s a terrible metaphor. Maybe the New World Computer is like having a chauffeur. You no longer have any direct control over the car, but it still gets you where you want to go. Sometimes you might think you want to open the windows, but your chauffeur decides that keeping them closed and turning on the air conditioning is better. And if the car breaks down, or the chauffeur calls in sick, you might be stranded. (Okay, I’ll stop now.)
I’m generally positive about the iPhone and iPad computing experience, especially as it pertains to people who’ve never been comfortable with Old World Computers. The desktop metaphor is way past its prime. But I think Apple could still allow us manual-shift enthusiasts to open the hood and tinker without ruining the experience for everyone else. And since a car is not a prison, we shouldn’t have to “jailbreak” to do it.
