GASP! Tim Cook is human!?

Who the hell coulda guessed THAT!? Tim Cook just came right out in front of God and everyone and admitted he’s… human!

Welcome to the party Mr. Cook. We proudly admit you to the human race. We accept your (misplaced) fondness of Auburn football. You must be one helluvan uncle. And furthermore, what you do with your private moments is your’s (not our’s). Keep doing what you do so well: inspiring us to be the best we can be in all our endeavors. We’re rooting for you and the company you love as dearly as we do.

Kick (bleep) AppleTV Feature Suggestion

My four kids are still young. They will be for a while longer. Their little ears don’t need to hear all the <bleeping> words some of these otherwise acceptable programs have.

AppleTV has replaced Cox Cable programming in our household. If it’s not on the AppleTV we don’t see it or even know it exists. I want the ability to CENSOR (gasp! I know) the audio content that comes through.

My iTunes Radio channels are censored at my request. But, what I’d really prefer is a simple audio cut-out at the moment so and so fires off a GD or an somesuch. Surely there’s a crowdsourced database out there that pegs the bad word at 1:10:05 and can be scrubbed out.

Dear Tim Cook: AppleTV + Spotlight-like Search Please?

Haysoos Marimba Apple. Sheesh.

Is it too much to ask for a simple, unified search across all the discombobulated silos that make up AppleTV content?

I’ve worked with Lucene and I’ve worked with Nutch and Acrobat Indexes. This isn’t hard to do. Heck, hire me for a couple months. We’ll get this done PDQ.

It could go a long way to helping your CONTENT PARTNERS… It would go a helluva long way to making the user experience immensely better. Isn’t that what you claim to be all about? Or is your “hobby” exempt from your best efforts? Hullo!!

I wanted to watch something, anything… with Stephen Hawking. I didn’t care if it was iTunes content, or Netflix content, or Hulu content, or Smithsonian content, or PBS content. But, why in hell do I have to search 19 times?

Update your more-than-capable OS just this wee little bit, please? Or let us write and distribute the app necessary to get the job done. This is getting ridiculous.

An Open Letter to Tim Cook

I’ve been an Apple Developer since 1991 when I was an Apple Systems Engineer. I developed for HyperCard, AppleScript, OpenDoc, Newton, LOTS of HTML and most recently the iPhone. I never did anything big, splashy or noteworthy and may not, at least by my own hand. I have seen some detrimental Apple policy though toward their Developers. And, it is because of that I hope to persuade a change in Cupertino to allow us ADC Select and Premiere members to exchange methods, opinions and findings in a year-round, sanctioned way OUTSIDE of WWDC. What follows is a transcript of a handwritten letter I’m mailing to Tim Cook today. My hope is, if you’re in support of this, you will weigh in via the comments (with YOUR real name in plain sight please).

Mr. Cook –

As an Apple Developer in good standing for several years I have hoped for an online venue whereby we select & premiere ADC members could freely exchange methods, best practices and work arounds.

But that hasn’t happened.

We’re expected to abide by our NDAs. Which means innovating for things like Snow Leopard either happens at WWDC or have to wait until after launch.

Isn’t there a sanctioned way to do this?!

I don’t mind trying to learn & innovate while under observation. The give and take can only HELP solidify developers’ affinity to Apple. As is a lot of this is happening outside of view of Apple and at the cost of the platform.

Gerald Buckley
(918) 813-9745
geraldb28@me.com

An ideal outcome IMHO would be a discussions.apple.com type arena where Select and Premier ADC members could freely exchange ‘how to’ type info. Frankly, getting the web services up and functional in early versions of 10.5 Leopard were insanely hard. That is until a little more documentation came around. But, testing that stuff was central to what I wanted to contribute and, frankly, what the developer notes were asking for. Now, you tell me, how can I pitch in (while still honoring my NDA to Apple Developer Connection)? There is a LOT more good that could come out of a new, sanctioned “portal”/”exchange”/”marketplace” than any bad. Heck, I don’t mind paying a bit more for it. There are a ton of us who just can’t or won’t make it to WWDC regularly. And, it’s a shame the innovations that could be brought to market closer to the each launch of a new Apple OS have to lag for lack of a sanctioned/moderated place for Apple’s developers.

So, if you would please raise your voice in support of something like this I’d like to think we could usher in some fresh positive policy at Apple with regard to Developers. Or, at least let them know, we’re not above doing it ourselves in plain sight and in the pirate tradition of Cupertino. (There’s a warning shot across the bow sure to draw a cease and desist)