Forget ghosts, goblins and things that go bump in the night. Every mac user knows the true meaning of fear. It goes by many names: The Spinning Beachball of Death. The Marble of Doom. The Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse. Ok, maybe not that last one. But the OS X spinning wait cursor is well-known and well-dreaded by Mac users around the world.

Now there is a fun way for Mac users to band together, share their frustrations and take solace. Thanks to the marvel of the Internet, MarbleofDoom.com lets Mac users vent their collective annoyance at being held hostage (5 or 10 seconds at a time) by this unwanted glassy harbinger of OS X.

Photoshop hung up for almost a minute? Is Xcode showing you the beachball love? Spin on over to MarbleofDoom.com and select the appropriate application, and the time spent waiting for it to relinquish control of your system. A running total of all the time wasted is displayed for all the world to see. The site also includes a more detailed data page where you can see how much time individual apps have contributed to the total. If misery loves company, then MarbleofDoom.com is a way of organizing one big, online therapy session for frustrated Mac users everywhere.

So don’t just powerlessly shake your fists in rage! Powerlessly shake them, then tell the world how long you were shaking them. All of us over at the Iconfactory hope you’ll spread the word far and wide, and remember, it’s all in good fun. Enjoy!

P.S. – Watch for a follow-up post about how MarbleofDoom.com came to be. It really is a funny story, so stay tuned!

There seems to be a growing backlash against the popular notion that Apple royally screwed up the iPhone 1.1.1 update. Sure lots of developers are berating Apple for locking them out of the platform, and even more people seem to want to sue Apple for the smallest little thing, but in the grand scheme of things, these attitudes don’t amount to much. Apple will conduct business how it sees fit and no amount of whining, throwing fits or hiring lawyers will change that. All the while these pouty, scorned users are planning on ditching their iPhones for the latest non-wonders from Verizon, Apple is selling a ton of iPhones and the stock continues to climb.

Just nine days ago AAPL hit an all time high of $150, and now it has done it once again by passing the $160 mark. Does this sound like a company that has jumped the shark to you? The simple fact that most iPhone crybabies forget is that 99% of the gadget using public doesn’t even know how to set their VCR’s clock let alone hack their iPhone. They are content to let the iPhone be the masterful gadget it is, free from the burdens of 3rd party patches, font hacks and even awesome touch-sensitive games. Sure I’d love to be able for people to play Frenzic on the iPhone, I’ve said as much in the past. But I fully understand why Apple has had to lock down the iPhone and I actually agree with it. When they are ready for 3rd party developers to produce software for the platform, they’ll come knocking. Until then, we’re all just living in a “wouldn’t it be great!” fantasy land. Apple never promised us a developer’s rose garden, and no amount of wishful thinking or revisionist history will change that. Does it suck? Sure, but as someone from one of my favorite TV shows says, “Deal with it!”

Disclosure: Yep, you guess it, I own stock in Apple Computer.

UPDATE: In what is perhaps the worst case of iBaby whining so far, a man in California has filed suit against Apple because he cannot use the iPhone with a competing carrier. Once the 1.1.1 update was applied, his unlocked, hacked iPhone was bricked and became unusable. Forget for a second that he agreed to the terms when he activated his phone and unlocking it voided his warranty. Forget that he knew full well that he had to sign an exclusive contract with AT&T for two years. And most of all forget that he can get his iPhone working again by restoring back to the 1.0.2 firmware. Forget all of these things and what you are left with is the biggest, most disgusting pile of litigious crap I’ve ever seen. This is why the rest of us can’t have nice things.

I long ago gave up trying to predict how Wall Street rewards stocks. Just when you think you’ve got it figured out, along comes a day like today and you’re back to oval seven. Today, Apple Computer’s stock hit a 52 week high of $153.18 for what appears to be no good reason. In fact, this occurred in spite of the fact that Amazon launched what could be considered the first real competition for the iTunes music store, Amazon: MP3. Do investors believe that Amazon’s entry into the market space will spur competition and keep Apple “thinking different”? Did Phil Schiller’s casual remark about unlocked iPhone’s becoming “bricks” bolster investors? Or perhaps they have begun to see the reporting of clueless “experts” like theStreet.com’s Scott Mortiz, as the fabricated bullshit that it is.

No matter what the cause, the $150 goal for AAPL has been met and suddenly $200 doesn’t seem all that impossible. The Christmas buying season is just around the corner. The iPhone is about to launch in European markets and there is now an entire new line of iPods in the channel. Despite some recent miss-steps, Apple has seemingly stayed ahead of competitors (Zune 2.0? Please!), scared the bejezus out of the cell phone carriers and given Mac users even more reasons to drool over hardware. Let Mortiz and company try to short the stock. Apple’s innovation along with revenue from this year’s product releases will push the stock to new heights. You can bank on it.

Disclosure: If you have not figured it out, yes, I own stock in Apple Computer.

UPDATE: On December 26th 2007, AAPL closed the day traded above the $200 a share mark for the first time. It took exactly 3 months for Apple Computer’s stock to break this milestone. Amazon’s DRM free competition has definitely been a mixed bag for Apple, but it has not suppressed the stock price one little bit. Get ready for the annual MacWorld stock drop however. Happens every year and I expect this time around to be no different.

Having worked in the design industry for over a decade, I’ve often been called on to dabble in various forms of media. Print and packaging design, multimedia presentations, website and icon design (of course) and every now and then, digital video editing. With Apple’s recent announcement of iLife ’08, I was excited to check out the latest updates to both iPhoto and iMovie. iPhoto’s new features and reorganized user interface are a marked improvement from previous versions. Sadly however, iMovie, as David Pogue recently noted, has taken a big step backward.

I was skeptical of Pogue’s critical points in his review until I tried the program out for myself. Almost instantly I could tell that the new skimming feature was going to be more trouble than it was worth. Because it’s initiated simply by rolling the mouse over a clip, you find yourself accidently skimming video you never intended to view. In addition, iMovie 8 has removed almost all control over audio, and the familiar time line for editing clips has bowed out. I grew overwhelmingly frustrated, especially since I had come from iMovie 4, and was expecting, perhaps a bit too much. After wrestling with the program for over 2 hours, I gave up and turned to a copy of Final Cut Pro HD that I installed long ago, but never learned to use.

In a matter of hours I was able to edit a short sequence exactly the way I wanted. This isn’t surprising since Final Cut Pro, as the name suggests, is the tool of choice for professional video editors. As I became familiar with the application, I managed to put together a short promotional video for Pixadex as a test. I’m pleased with how it turned out and will use it as the basis for a series of short video tutorials for IconBuilder over at the Iconfactory.

In retrospect, I definitely think Apple decided to dumb down the new version of iMovie to give Final Cut Pro some breathing room. Like The Talk Show’s Dan Benjamin, I’m a firm believer that the program was becoming too powerful and was being used for projects that went beyond “home movies” of people’s kids. Even Pogue admits that he used iMovie for all of his NYT video reviews, something that sounds like it should have been done with a professional editing solution. Unfortunately, with the price of FCP being so prohibitive, average users can only hope that Apple will decide to put back some of the missing features from version 6 in the months ahead. Perhaps sensing people’s dissatisfaction with iMovie 8, Apple decided to make version 6 freely available. Kudos to them for doing it, but in the meantime, I’ll be rediscovering the joy of video editing. My only regret is that it’ll be thanks to Final Cut Pro instead of Apple’s humble iMovie.

Over at GigaOM, Kevin Kelleher has written a nice post about Apple stock and where it could potentially be headed. It seems like a pretty even-handed analysis as he compares Apple’s performance against other noted companies such as Amazon.com, Autodesk and Google. Here is the key bit that I happen to agree with 100%:

“Apple must fall some day – there’s no debate there. The question is when. The stock is nowhere near as expensive as, say, Amazon. The company and its CEO may both be overhyped, but there remains so much promise in Apple’s near-term future – early iPhone sales, Leopard, increase mainstream comfort with Macs – it’s not likely to come for a few quarters.”

Although I don’t pretend to understand how Wall Street works when it comes to my favorite fruit company, it does seem more often than not that the stock rises on rumor and announcements and falls on facts or events. Yesterday’s $4.59 increase in AAPL price thanks to Apple’s battery announcement is a perfect indicator of this. I think the price will continue to rise right up until June 29th, when investors will take profit with the launch of the iPhone. Depending on sales (or the prospect of sales), it will most likely start heading back up once again. This is all just my personal opinion however, so take it with a grain of salt. Check out Kevin’s post if you are interested, it’s worth your time.

Disclosure: Being the huge fan boy I am, I do own stock in Apple. I’m just sayin’.

I’ve come to a tipping point. I really, really want to use the awesome instant messenger app for Mac OS X called Adium. After the program graduated from it’s extensive “beta” phase months ago, I figured I would finally give it a try and see what all the hub-bub was about. After only a few hours I was hooked. Adium is a well-rounded collection of code that serves as an admirable replacement for the likes of AIM, Yahoo Messenger and my beloved iChat. Lately however, I’ve been thinking the duck would be better off served with a nice orange sauce instead of sitting in my Dock. What is the fowl source of my angst you ask? What could get my blood pressure high enough to ditch the customized GUI and invisible chat status heaven that is Adium? Two simple words – file transfers.

At the Iconfactory, I converse with developers, friends and co-workers around the globe each and every day. A huge part of what I do involves sending and receiving files to far off, exotic places like Stockholm, Vienna and Laguna Beach (it’s in the OC!). So when my instant messenger refuses to send a file for the 10th time, or when the Chief Typist says to me “Did you get that file?” and I have to tell him “No! Damn Adium!” I start to get upset.

The most depressing part is that I want to use Adium. I love the visual control the application brings to the desktop. Its creators have thoughfully given the user control over just about every aspect of how Adium looks, sounds or behaves. Adium’s use of CSS to create custom message window or buddy list appearances has earned it a cult following. I’ve even taken a stab at creating my own list themes build around Frenzic’s look and feel. So I take no joy in saying the software’s inability to quickly and reliably send and receive even the smallest of files is turning into a major deal breaker for me.

I can live without audio chat. I can live without video chat (a blessing, trust me). But I can’t live without file transfers. This bug has plagued Adium since day one, even though the devs have reportedly “fixed” or “improved” file transfers several times. I’m here to say that it has never worked reliably for me. Not once. Ever. So I’m on my knees asking the powers that be to take another hard look at the FT problem and see what can be done. I’d be happy to offer console logs, install a beta version or even name my first kid “Duckie” if it helped. Okay, I lied about that last one, but you get the idea.

If I can’t send files via Adium soon, I’m afraid I’m going to leash up the dogs, grab my decoys and go hunting with my old buddy iChat. Needless to say he’s been feeling pretty smug lately, what with me popping in to send PNGs and DMGs all the time. Hopefully a (near) future version of Adium will help me wipe that silly smiley off his face once and for all. Only time will tell.

UPDATE: So many people have requested my Adium theme that I’ve gone and saved it out here for you to download. I’ve not checked this over to make sure its 100% correct, so don’t blame me if something ends up missing. Have fun!

If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, then the Iconfactory must be smelling of roses! It seems like every week there is a new application or mash-up announced to support that micro-blogging social network of choice, Twitter. This in itself isn’t a big deal, in fact its wonderful since more third party apps means increased longevity for Twitter and its users. But lately I’ve begun to notice a strange trend with these applications. More than a few have made the design choice to base their identities around that of a blue birdie. Makes sense right? Twitter’s logo is a blue bird, so it’s just a skillful play on metaphors, right? The problem is that Twitter’s identity is not a blue bird, it’s a logotype.

Over the past several months I’ve witnessed a strange kind of identity transference occurring within the Twitter community. Many people have come to associate the Blue Bird mascot of Twitterrific as representing Twitter itself. I’ve watched this unfold over time and I have to say it’s fascinating. Since the launch of Twitterrific preceded the explosive growth of Twitter at the SXSW conference in early March of 2007, Twitterrific’s icon (designed by David Lanham) was an easy symbol for people to identify directly with Twitter. David designed the bird as fun, visual play on the name “Twitter” and the birdie has helped the app become quite memorable. Several Twitter applications have taken the notion of the blue bird and flown with it including TwitBin, Twitterroo and perhaps the most direct usage courtesy of TwitterTown. We’re actually honored that so many people have found inspiration from Twitterrific, both in its icon as well as its user interface.

The syndrome does have its downsides. Many people think that Twitterrific is the official Mac desktop client of Twitter, which it isn’t. When people have problems posting via the API, they naturally think it’s a problem with Twitterrific, not Twitter because they didn’t post their tweet via the web, they posted it via the desktop. It is true that the relationship between any desktop application and Twitter itself is tight. It has to be for applications to function properly and give users the Twitter experience they are looking for. But when problems arise, fingers get pointed and they don’t always aim in the right direction.

It can’t all be peaches and cream for the gang at Twitter either. From their point of view, third party apps like Twitterrific and Twittervision support their efforts, but they also dilute their brand. There is a real danger of the proper noun Twitter becoming just a generic term that people will start to use as an adjective or even worse, a verb! Google is deeply entrenched in an effort to get users not to use its name as a verb for fear of its trademark slipping into the public domain. It has happened before with the trademarks Kleenex and Xerox and I can see it happening with Twitter all too easily. To their credit, the gang at Twitter has been very easy going about how their service’s name has been used, and sometimes abused, all in the name of third party development.

There are always two sides to any coin. It’s strangely satisfying that we have been able to inadvertently influence the look and feel of several Twitter based projects. We’re delighted that Twitterrific has been so well received that others look to it as a kind of “Twitter template”. The flip side is that in the minds of many people, our creation is one and the same with Twitter itself. As the lines blur between the Twitter service and all of its spin-off apps, at what point do all these cute blue birds pull a Hitchcock and end up scratching, pecking and biting the hand that fed them? Only time will tell.

For those that don’t know, I’m one of the founding members of an icon design firm called the Iconfactory. We’ve been designing icons, interfaces and other neat stuff for over a decade. Some of our clients include companies such as Microsoft, AOL, Oracle, and Apple Computer. Since the start of the Iconfactory in 1996, we’ve been giving away freeware icons and occasionally pieces of software, widgets and other stuff to the Mac community, in part to keep people visiting, but also as a creative outlet to balance the more restrictive client work we do from day to day.

One recent piece of freeware has been a little application that many people have come to know and love called Twitterrific. This helpful app lets you easily post and read “tweets” to the popular Twitter social network. Twitterrific started out as recreational programming for our lead engineer, Craig Hockenberry. Craig created it so all of us at the factory could Twitter without having to use the web interface. The software has been incredibly popular and we couldn’t be more pleased with its adoption rate and the wonderful comments we’ve received about it. There’s only one problem… we don’t make a dime from it.

Being a small company (fewer than 10 employees), the Iconfactory needs to constantly try and leverage the time and effort we put into our projects to help keep the company healthy. So Craig and I came up with an idea to try and play off Twitterrific’s popularity by giving away free copies of our other paid software to the first people who could answer some trivia questions via Twitter. We gave away 20 pieces of software, raised awareness of Frenzic & iPulse, and made history via Twitter’s first online contest.

While the promotion itself was a success, some Twitter users were concerned that the contest basically amounted to spam and several people actually “de-friended” Twitterrific over the brief course of the give-a-way. Although we tried to keep the promotion as “light” as possible, I can see their point of view and it gave us cause to think about better ways to handle similar promotions in the future. One way would be to separate general Iconfactory promotions from that of Twitterrific. Craig set up a new Twitter account today that we’ll use if we ever decide to do this again. Users who are then interested in winning free software can decide to “opt in” to the contest without having to worry about promotional messages coming down the Twitterrific pipe.

Today was an experiment, and one that we learned a great deal from. We take our responsibility as Mac developers very seriously and do not intend to abuse it. To all of those who enjoyed the contest, thanks for making it as fun for us as it was for you, we had a blast! To all of those with lingering concerns over “tweet spam”, rest assured we heard your tweets the loudest of all.

I was all set to write this really great post tonight about the web’s latest darling – Twitter. Perhaps you’ve heard of it? If not, then you’ve probably been living under an online rock, ’cause its taking the blogging community by storm. I’ve found however, that its difficult to write about an online service when said service is running at the breakneck speed of molasses, or even worse, not running at all. Such is the high price of fame that Twitter is now experiencing.

All those über-geeks at SXSW seem to be pushing Twitter to the breaking point, and all those of us stuck at home must pay the price. Its a shame too because I can’t stay aprised of my favorite Twitter denizens like John Edwards, John Gruber and Darth Vader. So if you want more insightful Mac based commentary, or hilarious, geeky Star Wars wit delivered right to your desktop or mobile phone, let’s hope Twitter can survive its growing pains and blossom into the killer service we all know it is. Besides, I have it on very good authority that Vader ain’t got all day!

Shameless Plug: Keep your eyes peeled for an important update to the Iconfactory’s own Twitterrific app in the days ahead. I’ve probably said too much… now the Chief Typist will most likely put a hit out on me. Then again, he probably doesn’t even read this blog…

You didn’t really think I started this blog for the sole purpose of posting random, personal stuff did you? Heck no! We’re gonna do some old fashion advertising here people!

Introducing Frenzic. a great new game from the Iconfactory & ARTIS Software for Mac OS X. In the spirit of classic puzzle games such as Tetris and Bejeweled, Frenzic tests both the mind and the reflexes and offers hours of endless fun.