Rémy Numa

I can't believe it's not an iPod!

Tue, 26 Jan 2010 19:28:41 +1100

Posted by Engadget, this very similar PMP comes in at less than $40, which is a good deal if you’re in the market for, well, as one DealExtreme reviewer puts it: “the device [that] contains a virus when you connect it to your computer.”

The Wall Street Journal provides more 'tablet' details

Thu, 21 Jan 2010 17:50:03 +1100

The Wall Street Journal provides more 'tablet' details:

The most accurate and believable tablet information I’ve seen so far.

You know, I’m actually pretty impressed. As one Engadget...

Wed, 20 Jan 2010 14:20:49 +1100

You know, I’m actually pretty impressed. As one Engadget commenter pointed out, look out for 2:15 in the video, where “I spy iSync, Bonjour, Interface Builder, a Gameboy Advance, Spore, GarageBand, Photo Booth, and MSN Messenger.” Never mind Android, It’s Meizu calling now…

Google delivers, and I love them for it

Fri, 15 Jan 2010 08:24:44 +1100

Google delivers, and I love them for it

"Don't be evil"

Wed, 13 Jan 2010 15:53:24 +1100

"Don't be evil":

The Official Google Blog today outlines it’s plans to review Google’s presence in China, amid growing concerns over censorship and human rights.

While perhaps a little late, I am very impressed with Google’s stance here - and I really wish Apple would follow suit, especially after their latest run-in with the Chinese government over a few Dalai Lama apps. I still think it’s very unlikely that China will cave in to Google and offer uncensored Internet access in the country, but if Google doesn’t put up with that and shuts up shop, it will send a strong message to the government that no-one likes their filter - and I imagine it could (with time) cause a small negative effect on their economy.

If you really do take strong action in the next few weeks, I offer my congratulations to you - you’re making the world a better place.

Why completely "open development" isn't necessarily a good thing

Tue, 12 Jan 2010 14:46:58 +1100

Why completely "open development" isn't necessarily a good thing:

Gizmodo’s take on the story: “The lesson: you should be terrified at all times, of all things, even if Google says you shouldn’t be.”

Perhaps it’s time for Droid’s marketing guys to rethink their campaign. “Droid does open development” certainly doesn’t sound so great anymore.

Cooper, who co-founded The Green Room with me (and who is almost...

Tue, 12 Jan 2010 06:55:19 +1100

Cooper, who co-founded The Green Room with me (and who is almost wholly responsible for the lovely new site), created this rather wonderful visual rumour round-up of the I-can’t-believe-it’s-not-real Apple tablet device, expected to be unveiled later this month. It’s just like my iPhone round-up from last June, except with a much classier look. I agree with almost everything he’s predicted in order of likeliness here.

In terms of The Green Room site, you’ll notice this is the near-final version of the redesign. We’re publishing and sharing this around now as a pseudo-soft-launch, if you will, so that we can tinker with it ahead of the final launch which is still planned for January 31st. Of course, another reason why it’s been published now is because if we waited until the final launch, the world might already have an announced tablet, thus making the round-up useless. The domain is clunky and long, so feel free to use this short link in the mean time (link to the tablet post) or just sit tight until the end of the month.

Your feedback on the site is welcome - right now the best way to contact us properly is through @tgrblog on Twitter. In the next few days, we’ll set up an email account that works with our domain.

——

*The one thing I would personally disagree with is his choice of “very unlikely” for “runs iPhone OS”. I would put it at a much higher chance. I’m not saying it will run a carbon clone of the iPhone OS current state, but it certainly won’t be running Mac OS X. Not that I know anything about it, nor does anyone else outside a very small team at Apple (except perhaps The Wall Street Journal).

Regarding Twenty Ten

Mon, 04 Jan 2010 13:16:30 +1100

2010 is here, which means all of the goals and “resolutions” I set out to achieve at various stages throughout 2009 (but never did) can be recycled, leaving enough space for one or two new goals too. This isn’t, however, a “OMG I’m going to lose weight and get a puppy” post.

I’ll happily admit that I’ve never finished reading (or for that matter, started caring) about anyone else’s public New Year’s goals and resolutions, so I don’t expect you to read or care about mine, as even I find them fairly boring anyway. I’m simply posting a list of projects that I’ve been working and collaborating on over the last few months that we plan to release into the wild before 2011 begins.

Firstly, and most shockingly overdue is the ever-promised, never-delivered redesign of The Green Room. Cooper and I started the project as co-founders in late 2008, and after my “Graphical iPhone rumour round-up” post (which I’ll be doing again this year) gave us a much-needed page view boost just before WWDC last year, we felt it was necessary to update the site.

So here’s our current plan - we’ve finished a completely new design of The Green Room, and we’re switching the blog over to Tumblr. Since Tumblr doesn’t yet allow us to import all the WordPress posts over, we’ll set up a link to our old site shortly after the new blog is launched - so while they’ll have a different URL, everything pre-Tumblr will still be available online.

We want to launch it on January 31st. This gives us enough time to sort out some domain transfer issues and make sure the site looks perfect. If everything goes according to plan, we’ll be keeping the tgrblog.com domain, so you won’t have to update your bookmarks for new content. As for RSS subscribers, you’ll be informed of any changes.

I won’t be posting as frequently on The Green Room as I have during 2009 (well, the first half anyway). I will make the occasional guest post as co-founder and I’ll continue to work behind the scenes on improvement of the site and managing editorial decisions with Cooper, but I’ll be focusing more on my work at MacTalk and another, much larger project with Cooper - there’s very little that I can say right now, except that it’s a web project, and we’re really hoping we’ll be able to launch it by December 2010.

So this is, in a way, a “teaser” post of what’s to come for The Green Room in early 2010, and an extremely vague, blink-and-you’ll-miss-it public starting point of what’s to come for our other web project in later 2010. We think you’re really going to love it, as soon as we figure out how we’re going to make it!

Finally, my other aim is to post more here. A couple of links and predictions does not equal a month’s work on a proper blog, so that’s going to stop as soon as possible.

Wishing you a somewhat belated Happy New Year.

Apple's rumoured January special event

Thu, 24 Dec 2009 11:58:26 +1100

Apple's rumoured January special event:

My own two cents, as published on MacTalk’s forums:

iPhone OS 3.2 - a few new features and fixes.
MacBook Pro & Mac Pro refreshes - processor upgrade.
iTunes Store updates - “subscription” model, if you like.
Small Apple TV software/hardware update - larger drive and more emphasis on TV shows, as a competitor to DVRs and Pay-TV.
A tablet device, of sorts. iPod touch like functionality with a focus on media and in particular, books/magazines/newspapers. Think Kindle-killer with a larger, brighter multi-touch colour screen, internet functionality and an App Store of it’s own.

In that order, more or less. If this rumour is to believed (and I think it most likely is), I look forward to the event.

Yet another iPhone gaming accessory

Thu, 10 Dec 2009 22:55:13 +1100

Yet another iPhone gaming accessory:

This one, however, borrows rather heavily from a more traditional console. To be fair, I actually quite like the idea, but it’s not exactly the most practical peripheral to have in your pocket.

The Wonderful World of Wave

Wed, 02 Dec 2009 22:08:32 +1100

So, I got my Wave invitation from Google a couple of days ago, and I’m happy to give away three (I might let out some more later on) tickets of my own.

If you want one, you’re going to have to do some shameless promoting on Twitter. All you need to do to secure your chance of getting in on the Wave-y goodness is send a tweet that mentions @remynuma, and includes the words “Wonderful World of Wave” somewhere. The three most original tweets will be getting invites from yours truly.

You’ve got until Friday December 11th.

Apple's Next Australian Store

Thu, 26 Nov 2009 23:04:24 +1100

While most of the Australian Apple community endlessly gossip and argue over Apple’s much-rumoured Melbourne CBD store as the next to open ‘down under’, it should not be forgotten that Apple is probably exploring other locations too.

In Sydney, the recently released Westfield Bondi Junction ‘Ultimate Gift Guide’ (which, just by the way, is comprehensive but a long way from ultimate) contains numerous references to Apple’s gift-worthy products - and beneath them, lists ‘Apple’ as the retailer.

While it’s only a small hint at a potential Westfield Bondi Junction store, it would, if true, almost certainly become another profitable link in Apple’s retail chain, and one in which I’m very interested to (hopefully) see develop.

Apple’s lovely App Christmas Trees at the flagship Sydney...

Sat, 21 Nov 2009 20:01:44 +1100

Apple’s lovely App Christmas Trees at the flagship Sydney store, taken this morning.

My own concept for a ‘tag your friends’ Facebook...

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 18:47:04 +1100

My own concept for a ‘tag your friends’ Facebook photo.

Apple TV 3.0

Sat, 31 Oct 2009 11:20:19 +1100

A few thoughts:

Streaming still sucks.
The ‘Internet’ menu is so misleading to the average user, it’s ridiculous. No, Apple - the real internet doesn’t consist entirely of YouTube and Radio.
Syncing is better, but this is really more an iTunes 9 feature.
As soon as you watch something, the radio cuts out - so when you return to the main menu, you have to go back to the internet menu to start playing it again.
It’s nice to see the system font switch to Helvetica - this is definitely a sign of things to come for Mac OS X 10.7.

Overall, this feels like Apple TV 2.1.

Magic Mouse

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 17:51:21 +1100

Bought a couple of Magic Mice at the Apple Store today - very smooth, very stylish and very no nipple-y.

Will this xkcd comic ever get old? No, it will not.

Thu, 29 Oct 2009 18:19:45 +1100

Will this xkcd comic ever get old? No, it will not.

Leaked Motorola Droid shots

Mon, 19 Oct 2009 18:19:26 +1100

Leaked Motorola Droid shots:

Notice how Boy Genius calls it “the Android device to beat, and easily the most impressive”. That’s Android device, not mobile device.

Megazoomer 0.5

Mon, 19 Oct 2009 12:24:00 +1100

Megazoomer 0.5:

Megazoomer has been updated to support Snow Leopard. Along with ClickToFlash and a few other brilliant utility apps, Megazoomer is an essential tool for my Mac. Only works with Cocoa apps (which unfortunately still means no iTunes support).

"If the only way you can market your product is to compare it to some other product, you’ve..."

Mon, 19 Oct 2009 11:27:44 +1100

“If the only way you can market your product is to compare it to some other product, you’ve already lost. Well, thanks for the free publicity, bitches.”

- Fake Steve