Archive for November 18th, 2005
You Know Apple is Doing Really Well…
…when they open a store in Utah. Three years ago, the only Apple store within a half-hour of my home was a Ma’ and Pa’ shop where the family dog was allowed to roam through the store.
My, how Apple has turned around their retail presence.
You have to admire that kind of thinking: when the retail channel is the weakest link in the chain, build out your own retail channel.
Still, I have mixed feelings about having a store so close to home. One of my guilty pleasures when travelling is to stop by the local Apple store when the schedule permits. In an era when I can have anything I want without leaving my chair, it’s kinda nice to be denied something on occasion. I guess I could pretend that it’s not there… 
Give Me My Commodity Text Widget Features, Please
One of OS X’s pioneering features was giving check-as-you-type, right-click-suggest spell checking to every application that wanted it, free of charge. It’s so nice to be able to focus on writing without worrying that I’ve made an obvious spelling error, or, even better, intentionally mispelling a word so I can get instant access to the right variation — and being able to do this in almost any context.
Amazing that years later, something that useful and handy is absent from the Java Desktop stack* and Windows. In the meantime, Apple took it a step further with the latest release of OS X: a commodity dictionary.
The next text widget feature I want to see commoditized is auto-complete. I’ve been authoring some documents in XML and XHTML, and my text editor memorizes every word I’ve entered and offers autocomplete options (if I request them). It’s addictive and productive. And I want it everywhere.
* If the service isn’t present natively (and on Windows/Linux I don’t imagine it is), just provide a Java native version
