A Whole Lotta Nothing

Mac App Store: It's all about installation usability

I think the biggest thing that Marco and Rafe are missing in predicting the success of the Mac App Store is the (current) pointlessly complicated installation process on a Mac. Have you ever taught someone how to install apps on a new Mac? Or remember what it was like the first time?

Since most people come from Windows, they're used to this process:

1. Download an .exe/.msi installer (or if it is a zip, unzip to get your installer)
2. Run the installer, run the app

On a Mac, the process usually goes like this:

1. Download a zip file
2. Unzip
3. Drag application to Applications directory
4. Delete downloaded zip and extracted contents, then run application

or

1. Download .dmg file
2. double click it to "mount"
3. Follow whatever instructions are given, usually have to open a new finder window to drag application into Applications
4. unmount disk image after installation is complete, run app

or 

1. Download zip/dmg (unzip if needed)
2. Run .pkg file installer
3. Give your admin password, complete install
4. remove/unmount downloaded files, run app

As easy as the Mac is to use, I've never understood why the installation process is so varied and tedious (I understand there are obvious security issues that complicate the process, it still sucks for the user that wants everything to be easy). I've had to walk friends and family through this several times and it takes half a dozen tries before they start to get it right on their own (Try explaining to someone new to computers why you must "unmount the disk image" or what that even means conceptually). People often get tripped up when nothing happens after they download a .dmg file (Why do I have to mount it first to use it, why doesn't it just work?).

My biggest Mac app installation pet peeve is when a mounted disk image runs in its own Finder window without the helpful sidebar, so I can't simply grab the application and drag to the Applications folder on the sidebar, but I have to open a new Finder window because the features were disabled by the application writer.

Make no mistake, every Apple store in America is selling new Macs like hotcakes, to many people that have never owned one before. I bet a large percentage of new owners just stick with the shipping apps of iTunes, Safari, Mail, iLife, etc and don't install apps without help from the Genius Bar or friends. It seems crazy to someone like me that has used a computer daily for 20 years, but you can probably do a lot of things with a stock Mac without installing any additional apps.

A Mac App Store is going to be a boon for developers and Mac owners because it'll finally get rid of the clunky installation process and make the whole thing as easy to use as installing an app on an iPhone. Click into the App Store. Click an App, Click Buy, Run the App.

Marco (and Rafe) are right that this will be huge, I just think everyone is underestimating the potential upside of improving the usability of Macs in a big way that has been overlooked for far too long.

 

These Kids are Awl Right

Mmm, drive-by cattiness. I love it! It's a good warmup for all of our family Thanksgivings, the one magical time of year when people on the Internet actually say things to people's faces that they'll say on an Internet message board.

via www.metafilter.com

How much awesome is there in this comment by Choire Sicha, talking here about MetaFilter? I'll tell you: there is a great deal of awesome in this observation here.

Me in the mud

That's me in the blue kit with the white helmet popping into frame after about 5 seconds. I love the slow motion because watching it is a close feel for what it felt like to ride through 6 inches of mud and water with biblical rain falling on you for 45 minutes of racing. The whole race felt like it was in slow motion.

Also, my god, when I'm heaving and gasping for air am I really that fat looking? I've lost about 12lbs in the past few months but it'll take another 25lbs before I start being remotely competitive even in my low race category.

Re: Hip Hop

...It's his fifth album, and he's 27. It's interesting that hip-hop, because of its perenially underground nature, encourages very young people to keep trying, perhaps succeeding and perhaps failing, but keep trying until they can get good. And if/when they get good, they have a good decade on everyone else.

That's from an email Mike Kuniavsky wrote reviewing Black Milk's new album (which has both the ballsy/arrogant but also totally apt title "Album of the Year"), quoted with his permission. It's just so spot-on, I had to write it down somewhere so I could refer back to it someday.

Also, given the amazing new album, if Black Milk decided to start a batshit insane twitter feed, I bet he'd be as big as Kanye in about six months.

Deep Into the Forest

via www.kidonyc.com

I don't know where I found this child's toy online, but I just got one for my daughter and it's pretty cool. The creators seemed to think of it as a toy that teaches spatial reasoning, as it comes with cards depicting various scenes a young child could re-create, but for my daughter and I it's more of a storytelling stage (the backdrop and some of the animals/trees swtich to winter versions covered in snow).

There aren't a lot of open-ended creative toys out there these days and this seems like one of the few new ones I've seen that allow for all sorts of scenarios.

Black Swan Movie Posters

via www.refinery29.com

I'm amazed a modern movie got such an awesome classic poster treatment. I'm curious what these will look like on say, a sidewalk construction wall in NYC, but they certainly look refreshing on their own.

Awesome Fan-created Disneyland blueprints

POTC elevations, originally uploaded by enfilm.

Check out the entire series

The Chokehold of Calendars

Meetings may be toxic, but calendars are the superfund sites that allow that toxicity to thrive. All calendars suck. And they all suck in the same way. Calendars are a record of interruptions. And quite often they’re a battlefield over who owns whose time.

via weblog.muledesign.com

That's a glorious intro sentence, worth quoting here for posterity.

Riding Mt. St. Helens

Approaching Mt. St. Helens, originally uploaded by mathowie.

I rode Mt. St. Helens today on the Ape Canyon/Plains of Abraham trail. It was incredible with 360 degree views of several major peaks at the top, and the descent was fast and fun after a couple hours of climbing. There were dense forests, barren lava flows, and some piles of trees still left from the 1980 eruption. It's a pretty amazing place.

A set of iPhone photos and video is here.