OS X

Apple, Inc.

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If you take a look at Apple’s Executive Profiles* you’ll note that there is no “executive” responsible for Macintosh hardware or Mac OS X. No doubt the Macintosh and it’s OS fall under Bob Mansfield’s control but his title is “Hardware Engineering” which no doubt is all Apple hardware: Macintosh, iPhone, iPad, iPod, etc.

Apple has a senior executive responsible for iOS software: Scott Forstall, and Eddie Cue is in charge of all of Apple’s online software and services. But no one at this level is responsible for Mac OS X.

This is an indication of just how far Apple has moved from “Apple Computer, Inc.” to Apple, Inc. Apple probably moves more iPhones and iPads in a year than they have Macintosh computers in the entire history of the company (I’m making this up but you get the idea).

This is no doubt a piece of the reason Mac OS X Lion and the upcoming Mountain Lion are inheriting pieces of iOS. There are (many) more iOS users than Mac users.

*Note, the link is working now, apologies to anyone who tried it and got an error.

Ask Different

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Ask Different

Ask Different is a brilliantly built discussion site that allows people to ask questions about their Apple products and get a variety of answers and tips from others.

I first heard about it back here and I decided to subscribe to its RSS feed for a while to see what kinds of questions and answers were being put up.

In short order I figured I might be able to answer a few of the questions so I registered and posted an answer. That led to another and pretty soon I was hooked, less on being a know-it-all (I know much less than most people posting there) but on the challenge of attempting to explain in words the answers to various questions (one can also post screen shot images there).

Questions and answers are rated, much like Amazon or eBay reviews might be and in this case it’s less about a popularity contest, more about helping folks find the credible sources and to support well written questions and answers. Brilliant.

I’ve learned quite a bit from this feed, not just answers to my own technical questions but also about the types of questions and problems people are having in the Apple world. Ask Different could easily turn into a more up to date and fluid source than Apple’s support area or Wikipedia (Apple products) for these types of things. Certainly a parallel source for more specific questions.

Many of my Mac and iOS using friends who read this blog could easily become addicted to this so I’m warning you, be careful.

Phonetic pronunciation field

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I just read on Shawn Blanc’s site about a new field in iOS 5’s Contacts app for adding a phonetic pronunciation of a name so that Siri gets it right.

That same field is in the Address Book in Mac OS 10.7.2 so you can add those phonetic equivalents for your iPhone 4S and Siri on your Mac if you like, syncing through iCoud.

Add the field in Address Book’s Preferences/Template pull down.

phonetic_field