I’m trying out IE 9 to see how it compares to my current favorite browser, Google Chrome. One small difference that I’ve run into is that the tabs for IE 9 don’t extend to the top of the screen, which effectively limits the area you can click. I hadn’t thought about this until I wasn’t able to select the tab I wanted, as fast as I though. Chrome has conditioned me to just throw my mouse to the top of the screen over the tab I want and click. When I couldn’t do that I realized the beneift of having tabs that border the top of the screen. Now IE 9 could support this behavior because their is clear space above the tabs which could register the click.

Overall IE 9 is nice, I hope that casual users will start to adopt it. I’m very happy that Microsoft has started to really take pride in their browser and I hope they continue to invest in it.

With the announcement at WWDC that Mac OS X Lion will be available through the Mac App Store I had a couple of thoughts about the impact this will have for distributing a major OS upgrade. The first was wow, what a great improvement. Updating OS X without any physical media, that’s going to make things much easier. As easy as it is right now to order software online, it’s still much more simple to open the App Store and have it start installing immediately. Apple is getting super efficient at removing friction from any purchasing process. And while they’ve already started distributing their major apps this way the thought of updating the operating system by download is exciting.

That got me thinking about what happens to the functions that the installation disc provides; mainly reinstalling when there’s an issue with the OS. Apple has this covered with a built-in restore partition including Safari to find answers for support questions. OK, good to know. But, the other unofficial use for installation discs is using them to install Mac OS X on non-Apple computers. Most of the Hackintosh methods use a custom drivers coming from the Hackintosh community and a genuine OS X installation disc to do the bulk of the installation, or at least they recommend a genuine disc. The theory being: you purchased something from Apple, just not the hardware. It’s still a violation of the EULA but I understand why it seems justifiable. However, it will be interesting to see what happens when there is no installation disc. I don’t know if you’ll only be able to get OS X Lion on a new Mac and through the Mac App Store but I’m betting Apple will no longer press DVDs with an OS on them. So that leaves two methods to getting OS X Lion on non-apple hardware: a double-upgrade (Snow Leopard to Lion) or a full-fledged crack of the OS. The issue with the double-upgrade is that the supply of fresh Snow Leopard installation discs will disappear the day Apple releases OS X Lion. That only leaves copies and the resale market, both of which increase the effort to install the OS. It does however leave the option of a single install with all of the BIOS, drivers, and the Lion installation. While this will make the installation process easier, it will also show that you’re essentially getting something for nothing. It may make the group people who were comforted by paying for the installation disc be less inclined to install a totally free option. (Granted, this will be a very small number of people)

The last piece is whether or not Apple decides to do more drastic piracy prevention techniques. Will they embed your Apple ID with the OS like they do with iTunes music? With some sort of validation on launch? Perhaps OS X Lion will be encrypted on download and can only be unlocked on true Apple hardware. Will they do more stringent hardware checks on installation? Or, maybe they realize they’re not going to get cheapskates at any price and not actively prevent them. We’ll find out in July.

Update:

Apple decided to offer a USB drive with the OS for people who don’t or can’t download it over the internet. At $69 it’s certainly not as cheap as Snow Leopard, but it’s available.

I found this video of a man opening his new CareLink Home Monitor when it was posted on our Yammer network. It has a new pacemaker patient opening and showing the content of his new CareLink Home Monitor. The CareLink Home Monitor is a device that gathers data from a patient’s cardiac device and sends it to their physician’s office for review. The CareLink Network has a website that the physician and patient can see the data from the device in charts and graphs and the physician can import that data into their EMR system. Pretty neat stuff.

Getting all of the cables out of the box.

However, what I’m interested in is the experience this guy has opening the box. The entire CareLink Network doesn’t work if the patient can’t get the device set up and working properly. So when he opened the box I was disheartened to see that it looked like a Dell computer box. Everything was packaged in one compartment, cords were stuffed into one side of the cardboard sleeve, the instructions were in a plastic back dropped on the bottom, and the instructional DVD was floating in the box by itself. It struck me as a gap in our ability to deliver a good patient experience. I know we would have tested the experience of using the monitor, the instruction card, and probably everything in the box; just not the process of opening the box itself. I’m not here to indict the package designer who created the packaging. I’m sure it’s the cheapest and most efficient design that can stand up to any abuse it might encounter in shipping. But I don’t think that’s enough any more. We need to move from a pure engineering company, to a company that’s passionate about the experience.

Now I don’t want to just complain without offering a solution. I think we have to look at the current state of consumer electronics for a good direction. I recently purchased a Belkin wireless router for my home. The box had a flip-top lid, which has a greater surface area that showed me both the router itself and the single-page quick start guide. As I pulled out the router the network cord and power cable were labeled with large numbers and already attached, ready to use. The only thing I had to do was plug it into the wall and my modem. Another nice touch was that the unique network password was printed on the bottom of the router itself so you would never lose it. All thoughtful touches that make the experience of using the product for the first time more enjoyable.

As another example that’s totally unfair example I present the Presentation Zen Bento box, a DVD, sketchbook, and accessories to improve your presentation skills. I think it’s a great example of how the attention to the experience changes the perception of the product. A DVD and sketchbook aren’t anything truly special, but the presentation makes it remarkable. (and you can get it on Amazon for under $30)

I was able to watch the live stream for the “Back to the Mac” event on October 20 on my iPad at my desk. Apple’s  stream of live h.264 video that was solid and beautiful when scaled full-screen (I’m guessing that it is 864×480). But that was just the delivery, I’m concerned about the meat.

iLife ’11

The iLife update looks solid. I think they’re making good progress in iPhoto, iMovie, and Garage Band. But nothing too spectacular or groundbreaking. I do find it interesting that I’ve been doing the things manually that they’ve added as features to the updated products. In iPhoto ’06 I had keywords set up for every family member and would tag them in each photo so I could find them easily. They added Faces in iPhoto ’09 to automate that. Then in iPhote ’11 they upgraded full-screen, which I spent most of my time in previously. Great progression of the products.

Mac OS X 10.7 Lion

The thing I’m most interested in is the updates to the core operating system: Mac OS X 10.7, Lion. Here’s my thoughts after just seeing the demo. We’ll all have to wait until summer 2011 to try it out ourselves.

MacBook Air

Sweet! I think they’re up against the laws of physics with these things. They were able to get it thinner, but were only able to drop the 13 inch version by .1 pounds. There’s just not much more you can shave off and still have a keyboard. $999 is a killer entry point. Killer.

And, this is the software restore/install disc:

Killer.

Though this is totally needless, I will do it to satisfy my inner need to make things right.

Here is how I would change the sign

Come on people, this isn’t that hard.

OK, where to begin.

The first is that the leading line doesn’t distinguish between moving and copying. Why can’t it tell what I’m doing.

The second is that the line where it states the options, it doesn’t really tell you what’s going to happen. I need to know what happens if I ignore the error. Am I going to not be able to copy it? Is it going to lose encryption? Is it going to be encrypted?

The last is the buttons. If this pops up and I skim the message and just read the message, I don’t know what Ignore means.

Here’s what I propose: A clearer message about what the problem is and the buttons describe what’s going to happen.

The most clarity I bring is that the files will be copied without encryption. That’s the crux of the message: if you move this file, it won’t be encrypted.

Before

After

Ahh! That’s better.

My Brazilian Embaer 175 had a “Turn Off Electronic Devices” light instead of no smoking, which is brilliant. In looking into the details a little further, it appears that they could only safely make this change as late as 1989 for flights under 2 hours, 1990 for under 6 hours and 2000 for all flights (in the US). I had no idea you could have flown a plane as late as 1989 with someone right next to you smoking away. Next it’s going to be the rise and fall of cell phones on planes…

Blech! Most people won’t read the language and click “Yes.” Which means that it’s going to launch with your system every time you log on to your machine. But I don’t want this panel to ever launch, which means I need to exit the program every time I log on.

Cut to the chase. “Yes” and “No” are not commands that have any significance to what the actual program is asking for.

Here’s what I think it should say: