ExtraBITS for 31 October 2011
We have lots of great extras for you this week, starting with Mona Simpson’s eulogy for Steve Jobs, stats on just how embarrassingly wrong rumor sites really are, how to import camera videos into iMovie ’11, news of iPad Smart Cover color changes, several podcasts featuring Jeff Carlson, and an explanation of how Netflix lost 800,000 customers.
Mona Simpson’s Eulogy for Steve Jobs — Of all that has been written about Steve Jobs, nothing has been as touching as the eulogy his sister, the novelist Mona Simpson, delivered at his memorial service. It’s a rare glimpse of a side of Steve Jobs that very few people ever saw.
Why We Don’t Cover Rumors — In TidBITS, we limit ourselves to that which is actually known (and hopefully useful). Why? Because trafficking in rumors adds unnecessarily to the hubbub of our lives — and now we have some numbers to back that up. The Stupid Apple Rumors site tracked rumors on numerous different Apple-related Web sites and found that, overall, the rumors are false more than 75 percent of the time. Or, to put it another way, they’re mostly just making stuff up. We prefer better plot lines and character development in our fiction.
Import Camera Videos Directly into iMovie ’11 — iMovie ’11 can smoothly import video from camcorders, but with so many digital still cameras now shooting video as well, why doesn’t the application recognize those clips, too? Over at Macworld, Jeff Carlson reveals how to bypass iPhoto and import movies directly into iMovie.
iPad 2 Smart Covers Change Colors — MacRumors is reporting that Apple has tweaked the colors on the iPad Smart Covers. The orange cover has been replaced with a dark gray cover, and the interior color now matches the exterior instead of being a uniform gray.
20 Years of Dejal Systems — With TidBITS heading toward its 22nd year, it shouldn’t be surprising that other Mac-related companies are celebrating similar anniversaries, but somehow it still is. Congratulations to David Sinclair of Dejal Systems, who has just hit his 20th year producing Mac software, starting with SndPlayer in 1991. (He’s doing a sale on all his products to celebrate, through the end of October.)
Jeff Carlson Talks iPad and iOS 5 on MacVoices — In this first part of a two-part interview with Chuck Joiner, Jeff Carlson talks about what’s new in iOS 5 for iPad users and what readers of his new ebook “Meet the iPad & iOS 5” can expect to learn. (The ebook recently hit number 3 on the iBookstore’s list of Top Paid titles, briefly besting Nicholas Sparks’s latest!) An audio-only version of the interview is also available via a link on the MacVoices.tv page.
Jeff Carlson Chats about Photoshop Elements 10 on MacVoices — MacVoices.tv host Chuck Joiner sat down with Jeff Carlson (in the second part of a two-part interview) to talk about his latest print book, “Photoshop Elements 10 for Windows and Mac OS X: Visual QuickStart Guide.” Learn about what’s new in the software, and about the challenges of tailoring books for a changing audience of digital photo enthusiasts. (An audio-only version of the interview is also available via a link on the MacVoices.tv page.)
How Netflix Lost 800,000 Members — The more that comes out about Netflix CEO Reed Hastings, the more it seems that he fundamentally doesn’t understand how miffed customers were about his proposed split between the streaming (Netflix) and DVD (Qwikster) businesses. Even in this New York Times piece, he comes off as defensive and argumentative, claiming people were more upset about the summer price hike and citing the Tea Party and Occupy Wall Street movements as examples of the country’s angry mood.