Tag Archive for 'Apple'

Moving ArcGIS to VMware Fusion

Published on August 1, 2008 in Geotech. Closed Tags: Apple, ArcGIS, ESRI, Mac OS X, Prallels, VirtualBox, Virtualization, VMware Fusion, Windows.

After the upgrade to Mac OS 10.5 I decided not to use Boot Camp any longer and switch entirely to a virtualization solution. Mainly because Boot Camp is limited to the primary (internal) hard drive and occupies a lot of disk space which I want to use for some other things now. A virtual machine I can run from an external hard drive too and move it to wherever I want.

My copy of Parallels Desktop (aff link) transfered the existing Windows XP installation from the Boot Camp partition to a new virtual disk image flawlessly. Problems started later when I tried to start the image for the 2nd time. The disk image apparently corrupted and I had to install everything from scratch again. After hours of Windows and ArcGIS installations, the disk image corrupted again when I tried to restart the virtual machine. I wasn’t able to find out what caused the problem, wasn’t in the mood to spend another couple of hours with basic set ups either and started looking for alternative virtualization solutions.

The next version of Parallels Desktop’s main competitor, VMware Fusion (aff link), is currently in beta and until 2nd Oct 2008 they are offering free beta licenses.

Their website lists all new features and enhancements. From my point of view – not doing any benchmarks, just trying to complete basic ArcGIS tasks in Windows – it feels snappy enough and has useful features like unity mode, snapshots, mirrored and shared folders, which you can add to the virtual machine while it’s running.

I didn’t encounter any problems setting up and running ArcGIS in VMware Fusion. Whereas I didn’t do any geoprocessing tasks yet. Geoprocessing worked well in Parallels and I expect it to do so in VMware Fusion too. If not, I’ll post it here.

However, while working with grids I noticed an issue: my ArcGIS workspace was a subfolder within the mirrored Documents directory in Mac OS X. In that environment, an ESRI grid file I was working with wasn’t fully accessible in ArcGIS. After I copied the entire workspace inside the virtual machine, everything worked fine again. Maybe it’s related to HFS, the Mac OS filesystem.

Steven and Roman brought my attention to Sun’s open source virtualization solution called Virtualbox. I tried that one too – it does a fairly good job, not as advanced as VMware Fusion though, but well documented and highly customizable. If you own a Mac, need Windows (or Solaris, Linux, FreeBSD, etc.) and prefer open source, go with VirtualBox.

Another interesting detail is that VMware Fusion is pretty active on Twitter. At least they are scanning Twitter for Tweets about their products and they even respond to those tweets – clever marketing I guess. Though I don’t how far it goes and if you can use Twitter for quick support questions. Would be very convenient.

Again

Published on July 29, 2008 in Tech. Closed Tags: 1Password, App Store, Apple, Bug, Experience, iPhone, iPod touch.

1Password for iPhone/iPod was released today. It’s a life-saver on the desktop and I was waiting for the native mobile application.

Meanwhile I really believe it must be my karma or something, maybe I killed a fly by accident recently, I’m sorry!

Again, I downloaded the app, installed it, finished the initial setup and it kept crashing each time I tried to access my passwords. Not quite what I expect from software which holds a good part of my confidential information.

At the support forums I found the thread dealing with exactly the same problem. The developers already released version 1.1 and 1.2, both of them are sitting at Apple and waiting for approval:

Version 1.1/1.2 is a lot more stable and we’re just waiting for it to be approved in the App Store.

That’s good, basically, but we remember, the last time it took Apple 23 days to approve a 1.0 to 1.1 update containing a few bugfixes. Let’s see if they have speed up approval processes and will release an updated 1Password before summer ends…

Bootleneck

Published on July 26, 2008 in Tech. Closed Tags: App Store, Apple, Experience, Frustration, iPhone, iPod touch, Support, User.

I had the brilliant idea to use my iPod touch as eBook reader, since there are all those wonderful applications floating around after the firmware 2.0 update. So I decided to pick an eBook reader at the iTunes App Store, paid for it, downloaded it, and it crashed every time I tried to open an eBook. Sweet.

I emailed the developer about the bug. Within a few hours I received an answer telling me the bug is already fixed in version 1.1, but it’s stuck at Apple’s approval process and he has no information when Apple is going to release his application.

Today, a week later, still no luck reading eBooks. Instead I found a note at the developer’s website.

Just a quick update as many have asked. Version 1.1 of BookShelf was submitted to Apple on the morning of July 15th. It’s been listed as “In review” status since then. My emails to Apple have received either a tracking number or no response at all. I have no idea when 1.1 will be released by Apple.

Sorry that I don’t have more useful information on this. The AppStore experience has been incredibly frustrating so far.

This is indeed frustrating, for me as customer, who bought an unusable product, too. After MobileMess, Apple seems to create a bottleneck at the App Store. I’d recommend developers to release less and release major updates. Expect some time waiting at Apple’s App Store gates, the gate keeper is busy.

Smells like pedestrian navigation

Published on February 14, 2008 in Geotech. Closed Tags: Apple, iPod, Navigation, Patent, Pedestrian, Soup.

New patent application from a well known fruit company:

CREATION, MANAGEMENT AND DELIVERY OF MAP-BASED MEDIA ITEMS

[via fscklog]

Update: Adena did some more investigation on that.

Last.fm to go

Published on December 16, 2007 in Tech. Closed Tags: Apple, Gadget, iPhone, Last.fm, Mobile, Music.

Yet another application which makes the iPhone more appealing:

MobileScrobbler connects your Apple iPhone or iPod Touch with the Last.fm social music website.

The T-Mobile Austria EDGE network can carry data speeds up to 220 kbit/s. Last.fm radio uses an MP3 stream encoded at 128 kbit/s. So I guess this should basically work, but still depends on how reliable and stable EDGE is, where I don’t have any experiences with. A 3G iPhone connected to a broader bandwith would certainly do a better job on Last.fm radio.

The definition of flat-rate in most mobile phone contracts is another questionable point: a flat-rate ending at 200 MB per month (like offered in the T-Mobile Germany iPhone data package) wouldn’t allow me to enjoy Last.fm too much.

A quick example: my daily way to work, where I usually listen to my iPod, takes 25 minutes, one way. After 5 days, Monday to Friday going to work, listening to Last.fm radio only my way to work and back, streaming at 128 kbit/s, I would have already exceeded a flat-rate of 200 MB, without even using the internet on the iPhone for something else.

That wouldn’t make sense, and is in my opinion a gadget show stopper. [via macnotes]

iPhone GPS module

Published on December 14, 2007 in Tech. Closed Tags: Apple, Extension, Gadget, GPS, iPhone, Mobile, Rumors, TomTom.

Reason enough to reconsider my current minimalistic mobile gadget strategy: rumors say that TomTom is doing a GPS module for the iPhone.

Sweet, though, built-in would be sweeter than plugged-in. [via Geograffiti]

Update: the picture and news about the TomTom iPhone GPS module turned out to be fake, but today Engadget reports about another iPhone GPS hack. So I guess there is something cooking…

Price vs value

Published on November 21, 2007 in Tech. Closed Tags: Apple, Germany, iPhone, Pricing policy, T-Mobile.

Oh yes, this is an iPhone post. It’s all over the news and I simply couldn’t resist because…

iPod touch = 299,- EUR
iPod touch + GSM chip + 2MP camera = 999,- EUR

The science of pricing policies or how to fool customers!

Mac OS X Leopard Amazon discounts

Published on October 22, 2007 in Tech. Closed Tags: 10.5, Amazon, Apple, Discount, Leobard, Mac OS X, Update.

Amazon (.de) is giving away 10 EUR discounts if you order Mac OS X Leopard v10.5 before 1.11.2007. Just go there and enter following code to your order: AMZNLPRDAPPL.

It’s Amazon Germany and the code is probably only valid there.

I personally will wait until all the “Leopard shredded my disk and drank all my beer” whining is gone and the system is stable and ready for productive use. So let’s say starting with 10.5.2.

Location aware iPhone

Published on September 21, 2007 in Geotech and Tech. Closed Tags: Apple, Gadget, GPS, iPhone, Location aware, Mobile, Nokia, Wifi.

iPhone Navizon Wifi Positioning TabletBlog covers a well done comparison between Apple’s iPod touch and Nokia’s N800. While reading and watching the video, one thing became clear to me: if I get such a web enabled mobile device, it has to be location aware. I don’t want to enter address strings and zoom and pan on maps until I find my position. I want the mobile web browser knowing my position automatically. I want instantly see content relevant to my current position whenever I open Google maps app or any site offering location aware content and services.

Gizmodo reports about a hack, actually it’s just about loading the Navizon app onto the iPhone, which adds GPS-like functionality (as they call it) to the iPhone. Apparently it’s nothing else then positioning based on cell towers and WiFi access points.

Basically it’s a feature most carriers could easily offer. But at the same time it’s a feature with serious privacy concerns. The question who is in control of and who gains access to people’s location information is a very sensitive one. Sooner or later there has to be a solution, as this will turn out as one of the most important features on mobile devices (yeah, I know, location based services are said to be the killer feature since 1998).

The mentioned Navizon solution still is a hack and not supported by Apple. The Apple iPhone is a closed platform, meaning none other than Apple is allowed to add functionality. In my opinion it’s the main reason for having a closer look at alternatives like the Nokia web tablets. Unlike Apple, Nokia still gives you control over the device you bought.

Unsexy

Published on September 6, 2007 in Tech. Closed Tags: Apple, iPod, Usability.

As I found out today, one major usability drawback of the new iPod touch could be the fact, that you’ll need two hands for interaction: one hand holding the thing, while the other hand does the fancy music selection.

On my way home I noticed how easy I can switch albums on my iPod nano by only using one hand. Pull the player out of the pocket, a quick look at the screen where I am, two or three thumb moves on the click-wheel. Done. Artist, album, playlist or podcast changed. No need to stop walking (or cycling).

I don’t even believe all other basic features, like adjusting volume or go to next/previous song, can be done easily with one hand. And those things are really essential in my opinion, at least for my everyday use much more worth than any fancy touch screen navigation.

So I guess I’ll stick another while with my good old nano. It still covers everything I expect from an mp3 player.