iDisk & iCloud Drive

The look of iDisk from early 2000s & iCloud Drive today.
Spot the difference!


iDisk's interface with 'iMac' look.



iCloud Drive with flat look.

Steve Wozniak Signed My Mac 512K!!

Macintosh 512K

A Macintosh 512K with working system on my desk. One of the dream is fulfilled.

This is the 512Ke model from April 1986 (not the platinum model). Can't wait to paint with MacPaint with this fat Mac.

Resurrect the PowerBook 170

Masih ingat PowerBook 170 yang dibeli dalam kondisi mati di pasar loak sekian tahun lalu? Dengan bertahap kami melengkapi unit ini dan berusaha membangunkannya agar bisa beroperasi secara normal.



Yang pertama kami lakukan adalah mencari adaptor listrik untuknya. Kami mendapatkannya di eBay plus dengan batere yang kemungkinan besar sudah tidak berfungsi. Walau sempat tidak bereaksi sekian lama, tiba-tiba PowerBook ini terbangun dari mati surinya. Logic board masih sehat, layar masih cemerlang walau ada dead pixel di sana sini, namun hard disk mati ditandai dengan icon floppy disk kedap kedip.







Berikutnya, kami mencari disket operating system untuknya. Sekaligus mengetes floppy drive-nya apakah masih berfungsi atau tidak. Membuat disket sistem di era MacOS X saat ini sangat tidak mudah karena format directorynya berbeda dengan era 90an. Satu cara yang paling mudah adalah mencari di eBay. Kami berhasil memenangkan lelang disket System 7.0 ini walau kondisinya tidak pasti apakah masih berfungsi atau tidak.








Begitu shipping tiba, kami langsung coba dan berfungsi! Dan artinya floppy drive-nya juga masih berjalan dengan baik.









Kemudian yang harus diganti adalah hard disk. Kebetulan kami mendapatkan sumbangan PowerBook 160 & PowerBook Duo 230 yang sudah mati total dari seorang sahabat.







Hard disknya kami ambil dan dicangkok ke PowerBook 170. Hore, PowerBook-nya sudah punya hard disk baru!








Kini PowerBook sudah berfungsi seperti sedia kala di tahun 1993. Mission berikutnya: komunikasi data dengan Mac modern.

Heboh iPhone 5

Hari ini iseng datang ke Senayan City sekedar memantau situasi peluncuran iPhone 5, terutama di salah satu gerai operator iPhone 5, XL. Saat kami mau naik ke lantai 4, terlihat beberapa pengunjung dihadang security "Maaf pak lantai sedang tertutup sementara karena banyaknya antrian orang mau beli iPhone 5." Dengan alasan ada janji di lantai atas & membawa anak-anak, kami diloloskan naik :D



Sampai di atas, terlihat barisan antrian menuju gerai XL yang ternyata sudah terbentuk dari jam 8 pagi. Relatif tertib dengan jumlah sekitar 400an orang.



Bahkan beliau ini sudah stand by di lokasi dari kemarin malam dan akhirnya mendapatkan iPhone 5 di tangan jam 11:00 pagi ini. Total 12 jam di Senayan City. Gencarnya kampanye promo #AntriLikeAKing di Twitter dan media sosial lain sejak beberapa waktu lalu membuat meriah suasana hari ini. Yang ngga niat ngantri pun penasaran & ikutan menonton suasananya di depan gerai XL.

Antrian iPhone 5 ini cukup unik. Disediakan sarana pijat buat istirahat, dihibur dengan bidadari bidadari kece yang hilir mudik kian kemari.



Bahkan ada joki antrean, seumpama tiba-tiba belet pipis, laper atau mau leyeh-leyeh dulu. Lumayan membantu buat yang beseran. Joki yang didandani sebagai pasukan kerajaan ini merupakan pemenang dari #kuismamah yang diselenggarakan beberapa waktu sebelumnya. Suasana antrian juga dimeriahkan oleh para Raja & Ratu dengan busana kebangsawanannya.



Arwen & Leia yang ikutan menyaksikan suasana #AntriLikeAKing pun terbengong-bengong dan bertanya "Are they the real king & queen?" "Bukan"



Mereka terdiam lalu bilang "But they look nice & beautiful." Barangkali memang mereka raja & ratu ya?

Beberapa saat setelahnya, teman kami pun sudah bisa menikmati iPhone 5 mereka. Setelah memasukkan nano SIM card XL, hanya butuh waktu beberapa menit untuk aktivasi dan bisa langsung pakai. No hassle but dazzle.



Heboh & hiruk pikuk mengantre ditutup dengan poses unboxing iPhone 5. Proses direkam dengan video, langsung upload via XL network! Cihuy!

iPhone 5 Resmi Rilis di Indonesia & Kuwait

Tanggal 14 Desember ini, akhirnya iPhone 5 resmi diluncurkan di 50 negara, termasuk Indonesia & Kuwait.


Website Viva beberapa hari menjelang peluncuran resmi iPhone 5

Di Kuwait, dua operator resmi Viva & Zain sudah dibanjiri pertanyaan kapan mereka merilis harga paket kontrak mereka. Viva terlebih dahulu memajang iPhone 5 di website mereka "Coming Soon" semenjak beberapa hari lalu sementara tidak ada tanda-tanda iPhone 5 di website Zain selain promosi jaringan 4G LTE mereka. Menurut beberapa sumber, Zain lebih mengedepankan fasilitas 4G LTE mereka sebagai bukti kesiapan mendukung device 4G, khususnya iPhone 5. Terlihat di website Zain hari ini: The extraordinary iPhone 5 deserves an extraordinary network.


Dengan paket yg relatif agak lebih mahal dari Viva, Zain mengedepankan jaringan 4G mereka

Sementara itu di Jakarta, hype-nya terasa seminggu sebelum hari H. Kuis & lomba gencar beredar, salah satunya dari operator resmi: XL yang giat promosi via social network termasuk Twitter dengan hashtag #kuismamah & #AntriLikeAKing. Mengantri bagai raja ini jadi tema saat peluncuran iPhone 5 tanggal 14 Desember. Lebih lanjut bisa dilihat di sini: AntriLikeAKing.com.



Seru-seruan begini memang khas-nya special event di Indonesia. Walau di Kuwait juga ada kegiatan serupa untuk peluncuran resmi iPhone 5, di Indonesia lebih terorganisir, terkonsep dengan rapi & terasa lebih besar hype-nya. Creativity rulez.

iOS 6 Final Release: No Turn-by-Turn Navigation for Kuwait?

Turn by turn navigation was available in iOS 6 Beta 1, 2 & 3 with iPhone 4 (no voice navigation) in Kuwait. But now missing in the final release. Problem with local regulation?

Among other 56 countries with turn-by-turn navigation, seems Kuwait won't get this feature in the final release. Australia get the same fate, but with some clues here.

Update:

Before, Australia had turn-by-turn navigation feature in the beta version.

Bye iDisk, Gallery Photos & iWeb

January 2000, Apple started its online service, iTools. At the next 3 days, June 30, 2012, Apple will shut the last iTools' remain services: iDisk, Gallery photos & iWeb. 


Been downloading the 12-years-20GB data into my local hard drive for months. 12 years of data! Hopefully the next online service will last longer, iCloud, DropBox, Google Drive whatever. Otherwise, there will be another waste of bandwith for moving giant data from here to there.


The only remaining legacy from iTools is mac.com domain. Fortunately, Apple still keep that domain for its loyal users, including me.
At least for now.

Goodbye Google Maps

Pertanyaan paling menggelitik saat keynote Apple tadi malam adalah apakah peta baru iOS 6 bisa digunakan untuk Indonesia terutama city navigation di Jakarta? Atau, siapkah peta baru tersebut digunakan untuk perjalanan mudik Lebaran nanti?

Peta baru iOS 6 menggunakan source dari OpenStreetMap dan sepertinya komunitas OSM cukup besar di Indonesia terutama kota besar seperti Jakarta. Jadi untuk navigasi turn-by-turn dalam kota seharusnya sudah sangat layak.

Bagaimana dengan perjalanan luar kota? Kami ambil contoh kota kecil Kebumen di Jawa Tengah yang menjadi perlintasan sibuk saat arus mudik dan balik Lebaran.



Google Maps sangat detail dengan jalan desa, membantu jika ada pengalihan jalur alternatif menghindari kepadatan. Bagi yang biasa menggunakan Google Maps, akan sangat terbantu.


Kebumen di OpenStreetMap

Tapi untuk OSM, saat ini hanya terlihat jalan raya dan jalan dalam kota. Belum ada yang menambahkan jalan desa di sekitarnya. Jika berniat menambahkan, bisa bergabung dengan komunitas OpenStreetMap Indonesia di sini.


(link)

Ada info bahwa TomTom juga mendukung peta baru iOS 6. Jika benar demikian, maka coverage-nya akan lebih lengkap lagi seperti peta Kebumen ini.



Dan ini adalah peta Kebumen format Garmin, yang dikumpulkan & diolah oleh komunitas Navigasi.net.

Ini hanya pemikiran awal dan masih bisa diperdebatkan karena baru tadi malam peta baru iOS 6 diluncurkan. Namun yang pasti, siap tidak siap Apple sudah berpisah dengan Google Maps.

Kami sendiri tidak pernah mengandalkan smartphone untuk navigasi luar kota dengan pertimbangan - walau sinyal GPS selalu tersedia untuk memberi informasi koordinat - koneksi data di daerah yang tidak lancar. Data ini penting untuk menambahkan layer peta, jalan dan rute setelah menerima informasi koordinat dari satelit. Kami lebih mengandalkan GPS device yang sudah tersedia peta offline di dalam device. Dan receiver GPS device cenderung lebih kuat & sensitif dibanding GPS chip di smartphone. Selain itu, lebih menghemat batere smartphone dan bisa digunakan untuk keperluan lain.

When The Popular MP3 Player Was White

More in here (in Indonesian.)

Using Apple QuickTake 100 in OS X era

Retrieving the Images

If you're living in MacOS X environment with Intel inside your machine, there's no way you can retrieve the images from this 90s Apple QuickTake 100 camera. You need help from either old Mac machine with MacOS 9 (older the better) or Mi (wait for it) crosoft Windows XP!

You're no longer have old Macs with PowerPC processor. Instead of wandering on eBay looking for any old Mac, will be much hassle-free to install Windows XP in your Mac Intel via Bootcamp or using emulator like Parallel Desktop or VMWare Fusion.

What you need:
- Microsoft Windows XP emulator for MacOS X
- DIN8 to RS-232 adapter like this one (or create it yourself) and RS-232 to USB adapter like this one
- QuickTake software for Windows (link)
- Prolific driver for Windows (link)

Note:
Another tutorial how to make a serial cable for Apple QuickTake without soldering is here. Thanks Eric!

Plug the power adapter (warning: the serial connection drains the battery) & serial cable. The LCD indicator shows rotating icon. Once the Windows XP detects the USB connection, go to Control Panel > System > Hardware > Device Manager. We need to assign the USB connection as COM1, COM2, COM3 or COM4 port. Here I take COM1 as default.



Launch the QuickTake serial ports software to test the connection. It'll saying the QuickTake camera has been connected. Then launch QuickTake main software to get the images from the camera.




Oh look! The timestamp says "2/21/93"! 1993!

Save the photos to your Mac directory.

The Quality


iPhone 4, low-res image from QuickTake, hi-res image from QuickTake

QuickTake can take up to 32 low resolution (standard) photos with 320 x 240 or 8 high resolution photos with 640 x 480. Keep in mind that this is an 18 years old camera with 18 years old technology from the era before mega-pixels. So compare to modern iPhone 4, I can say that the quality is not bad. We can see the decent image though there are some artefacts & blurry edge.


High resolution with flash and without flash


Low resolution with flash and without flash

It looks like images from Geocities homepage back in mid 90s, showed via Netscape browser in my PowerMac computer. But still way better than my 2003 Sony Ericsson Z600 camera ;)

So, it's just for fun. Exploring the retro tech rather than creating good quality photos.
There's no way we can print this kind of image for professional purpose.
But I hope this post helps all the retro gadget collectors out there. Time to resurrect the QuickTake!

Related links:
- Vectronic's QuickTake 100
- Quick brief history

PowerBook 170 is Back From the Dead

Remember the dead PowerBook 170 we bought in Kuwait flea market? No battery no sign of life. Then I bought a cheap PowerBook 170 adapter from eBay & decided to try if it still working or not.
No luck, still no sign of life.

Month passing, yesterday I plugged the adapter back to the PowerBook 170. Then suddenly "BOING" sound heard. It's alive! Nothing wrong with the logic board, inverter board, speaker. But it seems the harddisk is not working. Either still sleeping or totally kaput. We don't know yet.



Next mission: making a bootable floppy disk with System 7 to boot-up the PowerBook.

Quick Review: iPhoto for iOS

Something is missing

At the beginning I was excited. But then, I realized it's just another photo editing & publishing app from Apple. Nothing more. Despite the cool effects feature, something is missing: the direct integration with iPhoto desktop library.

Let me share our story before we talk about iPhoto for iOS.
Here's the daily basis scenario using photos with our iPhone.

1. Take photos.
2. Retouch, effects etc then upload to Instagram etc.
3. After 1000 photos, import all to iPhoto for Mac as the main master database of our photo library. Then delete all the 1000 photos in the iPhone so we'll get new fresh room for another new photos.
4. Organize the photos in the iPhoto. Keyword, date, album, location, face, etc. And sometimes upload them to Flickr or else.

This is how we organize the ocean of our photos. Archived. Organized. 

But sometimes, we want to take the pictures from the archive - the iPhoto Library database - to our mobile device, iPhone or iPad. There are options we always take:

1. Create a specific album in iPhoto for Mac.
2. Open iTunes, sync that album to iPhone/iPad.
3. Open that album on iPhone/iPad & select photo.

or..

1. Launch PhotoSync app on desktop.
2. Drag the photo from iPhoto Library to the PhotoSync app
3. Launch PhotoSync app on iPhone/iPad.
4. Receive the photo.

Then last night, Apple announced that they have iPhoto for iOS. I was like.. THIS IS IT! FINALLY! The real iPhoto integration between Mac & iPhone! Seamlessly, wirelessly, iTunes-less integration! iPhoto desktop has iPhoto mobile agent!

I was wrong.

As I wrote before, apparently it's just another photo editing & publishing app from Apple.

The distance between iPhoto for Mac to iPhoto for iOS

Another mobile photo retouching app

I have Camera+, SnapSeed, PhotoForge2, 100Cameras, Plastic Bullet for tweaking the photos. They are all awesome. Do we need another photo editing app? It depends.

For me, the effects feature is fantastic, though a bit slow & sluggish on iPhone 4.





Edits in hi-res. Retrieve back the original photos. Save directly in Camera Roll Library or Albums.
But definitely, it's not a replacement for my SnapSeed & Camera+.


Journals


We had .mac photo library in the early 2000s. Then MobileMe Gallery. Now, iCloud Journals. Another  online gallery from Apple but lack of many online features such as reshare or URL link for each photos just like MobileMe or .mac had.



Select photos from library & put them in Journals album. Put the photos with widgets: map, notes, weather, header as additional elements. What you edit here, sync directly to iCloud. Delete one journal in iPhone, deleted also on the iCloud. Keep in mind, by default, free iCloud only has 5GB space.

This is how it looks in the iCloud. Neat eh?





You can check my Journals here.

If you're an ex MobileMe user, this Journals is too basic compare to MobileMe Gallery. Remember how it looks & the features?





You can reshare, reupload, edit & sync directly from iPhoto for Mac. Maybe Apple have hidden plans for adding similar features on Journals in the future? We'll see.


Is it a must have app?


Again (and again) it's just another photo editing app. I was expect more, like the integration with iPhoto desktop. Journals feature, is what makes this app different with other photo editing apps. If you have an iCloud account, Journals is one good feature to add. Though it's not mature yet.