Happy Birthday iTunes

iTunes Music Store is one year old.

Software Update – Lets Not Think Differently

I’ve been thinking about Software Updates.

Apple (and other OS producers) have auto software update mechanisms for their own products.

Sites like VersionTracker and MacUpdate provide info for third-party updates and even provide software that will notify and download new versions for you (if you pay them a subscription.) Cheapskates like me can not pay and just subscribe to their RSS feeds. Developers must submit their own update data to these sites through an on-line form. That is they have to submit the data to both sites separately (and there are other, more obscure, sites if you want to be complete.)

Other enterprising developers have created 3rd-party software update tools – like Renew and Extended Software Updater. Renew is shareware and developers must submit their data through a form on the renew website.

Seeing a pattern?

Developers are unlikely to adopt many of these channels because it’s too repetitive – and programmers are lazy – if something is repetitive, get a computer to do it.

So That’s what I suggest:

Get computers to do it all – let’s make software update an open standard.

Here’s the plan:

1 – developers add another entry to their applications’ info.plist that is a URI.
2 – this URI points to an address on the web. At this location is an XML file.
3 – the XML file contains standardised meta-data about the current version of the application.
4 – Sites such as VersionTracker and MacUpdate should accept URIs of these files as updates. They can use the data from the XML file to update their databases.
5 – Update Application developers can now have an open market where they know that they get all apps update info without having to beg the developers to support their app.
6 – Because of the standardisation all update apps will be “compatible” – so users can choose whichever update app suits them.
7 – App developers only have to create one XML version file and then send the URI of that file to the Update web sites – sending a URI is a lot less pain than filling in a form several times. This could even be extended – developers could have RSS feeds for their XML Version files – and the update sites could subscribe to these feeds.

Furious Update

Argh – I’ve got into a blog-lag: I’m going to have to dump a lot of links to get going again:

Vodafone have launched their 3G service in the UK – alas just like GPRS it’s very expensive. A friend recently switched to 3 – the other 3g operator in the UK (they’ve been going for about a year) – and I discovered something very odd – they don’t do data at all! just voice (and video calling) – that astounds me – what a waste.

I had a real retro gaming moment recently when I stumbled across a working copy Carrier Command on the web – ah…. reminds me of the 80′s and the Atari ST.

Good news – someone’s writing a remake as a hobby (yay!)

It’s true – the fat record labels are forcing up the price of downloads to match CDs – they still don’t get it, do they… Why do I get the feeling that when iTunes Music Store finally launches in the UK the prices will be self-defeatingly large. Quick Note to record label Bosses – you are competing against free downloads – increasing prices won’t work.

Shards of Metal and Glass

Burnout 3 video – oooohhh…
vs.
The top Video on this page. (Evil MS – boo!!! )

The new NextLink bluetooth headset. Yikes! we’re living in the future – it’s only a matter of time before someone makes one that you can surgically implant…

The N-Gage QD has been released. Also – Nokia’s handset targetting mistakes have cost them

MT-BlackList Updater – uses RSS to update your Movable Type spam blacklist.

A friend of mine swears by LaunchBar – and I’m now hooked on QuickSilver – which is freeware, and deeply useful.

England beat the West Indes 3-0 in the Test Cricket series – Yay!

Phew, right – that’s all.

Let them Sing it

What a great use of technology:

Let them sing it for you.

I especially like the fact that they’ve got Morissey for “London”.

Google Round-up

GMail was not an April Fools joke – they really are Beta testing free email accounts with a maximum 1GB of storage per account.

Thanks to the way-back-when machine – you can see Google’s initial Hardware and User Interface.

I didn’t think this was even possible

One of the most scary thing I’ve seen on the Internet in a while…

A photo diary of a motorcycle tour of Chernobyl.

BlueSnarfing at CeBIT

Someone has done a large-scale test of BlueSnarfing.

Read the PDF here.

Scary results if you have a Nokia 6310(i) – luckily The P800 seems immune.