Safari: Don’t use it on Windows just yet

Numerous reports of bugs within the beta of Apple’s latest browser, Safari 3, in both the Mac and Windows versions, make it good to play around with but not to use as your everyday browser. 

Although all browsers have security issues uncovered on a relatively regular basis, most of which are rapidly patched up with updates and fixes, the latest beta version of Safari has been put to the test by a number of security researchers, as reported by PC Magazine and others, and is so far failing a lot of security tests.

Problems with Safari uncovered so far include DoS and remote execution bugs, memory corruption that could be exploited, command execution vulnerabilities simply by visiting a web site – and that’s just in the last couple of days. Security researchers are bound to find more bugs in the system, or more ghosts in the machine for Apple to eliminate.

But if the security researchers have been looking for Safari’s vulnerabilities, you can be sure that the ‘bad guys’ are doing the same right now too. Web sites that already carry malware or target unpatched browsers on unpatched or old Windows operating systems will soon start targeting Safari as well.

Undoubtedly, Apple will quickly release fixes and updates for Safari on both the Mac and PC, both before and after the ‘final’ 3.0 release of Safari arrives, just as IE and Firefox do today.

So, should you use Safari on Windows? After all, plenty of Windows users will have downloaded Safari since its release on Monday, and will no doubt have had a surf around to see what it’s like.

It looks and feels just like Safari on the Mac, it’s certainly fun to use. For now, it’s also the latest novelty must-have experience from Apple that Windows users can enjoy. Apple’s download servers must be running hot!

In addition to being the browser-of-the-moment, Safari also heralds a whole new range of Web 2.0 apps that use Safari on Mac OS X, the iPhone and Windows PCs. If the iPhone takes off as expected, and developers create a lot of apps for the iPhone that can be easily made to work on the PC or Mac, Safari use could explode, posing a real threat to both Firefox and Internet Explorer.
But even if the iPhone is a smash hit, it’s unlikely that Safari really will experience truly explosive growth on the PC as those developers should be easily able to port their Web 2.0 apps to an online and offline model, able to be run in a browser window, or able to be independent of browsers at all and run as a normal program, by using Adobe’s AIR and Flex, by using Microsoft’s Silverlight, or by using Google’s Gears.

There are plenty of Firefox fans, after all, on both Windows and OS X, as not all Mac users are enamored with Safari, despite Jobs’ rosy usage figures for Safari in the keynote.

As for Safari 3 beta on Windows – it’s certainly nice to visit and have a bit of a browse around in, just to see what it’s like and to try Apple’s latest Windows compatible software.

But in the absence of some security updates and a final ‘3.0’ version that has undergone extensive bug testing, you wouldn’t want to live in Safari permanently.

Certainly not yet, anyway. Go with Firefox, and if you’re an IE7 user, make sure you get IE7Pro, a free ‘must-have add-on’ that makes IE7 a lot more like Firefox, with crash recovery and more.

But do keep an eye out on Safari. Especially with all the iPhone activity shortly to come, running Safari on Windows and Mac should turn into quite an adventure!

Mac OS X Leopard – the wow starts now!

Although Apple’s new OS, due October, has 300 new features, Steve Jobs highlighted 10 features he wanted to share, from ‘CoverFlow’ in Finder through to the Time Machine feature, interface improvements and more – is it the most advanced OS ever?  

Steve Jobs was under pressure to impress the world at the Apple WorldWide Developers Conference, and that he did with a great preview of Leopard, promising 300 new features while highlighting 10 to whet our appetites.

Jobs managed to throw in a joke at Vista’s expense, saying there was a basic version of OS X 10.5 for US $129, and a premium version which would cost… wait for it… US $129, effectively showing that one operating system version is easier to deal with than the 73 million different flavors Vista is available in.

Apple showcased a new Desktop, a new ‘Stacks’ feature that makes it easier to find open programs and files; a new version of Finder that uses Cover Flow to show you the files in different folders just as you see cover art in iTunes; a new preview mode called ‘Quick Look’ that lets you see into files, even play media files, all without opening the actual app, saving you time; improved networking and file sharing that makes it easy to find files across the network; the Time Machine to find accidentally deleted files or even restore your Mac to an earlier time; Spaces to better organize desktops and applications and new versions of iChat, Mail, iCal, Web Clip, Boot Camp and some new development tools.

Jobs said that “Leopard is the best release of Mac OS X to date, surpassing even Tiger, and will further extend Mac OS X’s leadership as the most advanced and innovative operating system in the world. We think current and prospective customers are going to love Leopard, and that it will help make the Mac even more popular.”

The main Apple website has been re-designed, with a focus on Leopard, giving users the ability to watch demos of all the features in action, so they can see why Leopard will be more than worth the US $129 entry fee. Leopard is also fully 64-bit, with Jobs demonstrating during the keynote how this dramatically speeds up OS operation.

Boot Camp still requires you to own a copy of Windows XP or Vista, which will run as a separate operating system. To run Windows virtually, you’ll still need Parallels 3.0 or VMware’s Fusion Beta 4.

Apple also announced OS X 10.5 Leopard Server, which Apple says is “even easier for users to set up and manage”.

It will also ship in October, presumably alongside the consumer release of Mac OS X 10.5, with Apple saying that Leopard Server is “the most significant improvement to the server operating system since Mac OS X Server was launched, introducing new features such as a wiki server, making it easy to connect groups over a shared intranet; Podcast Producer, the ideal way to automatically produce and publish podcasts to iTunes or a blog; and Spotlight Server to quickly find content stored on other servers. Leopard Server also includes the new iCal Server, based on the CalDAV open standard that works with Leopard’s new iCal application”.

Whichever way you slice it, Apple’s new OS for consumers and businesses is a great leap forward, making Vista’s ‘Aero’ interface lose a bit, or perhaps even a lot, of its shine.

With an Apple Mac running OS X 10.5 and Vista through virtualization or Boot Camp, the wow really does start now – or rather, in October.

Parallels, Fusion and Boot Camp just part of Mac’s magic

The Mac platform has never been stronger, with more software and hardware support than ever, fantastic XP, Vista and Linux virtualization support, more Mac buyers, and soon, a new OS.  

Especially thanks to the latest virtualization software to run Windows XP and Vista with ease of the Mac platform, with Parallels 3.0, VMware’s Fusion Beta 4 and Apple’s own Boot Camp software (beta 1.3) to run XP or Vista natively, it’s a golden age of computing for Apple and Mac owners.

There’s never been more software and hardware support for Mac OS X, and now the ability to run XP or Vista at the same time, even without physically having to enter the XP or Vista desktop environments is an amazing development, with Parallels 3.0 now offering ‘Coherence 2.0’, and Fusion offering ‘Unity’ to make this possible.

Although plenty of long-time Mac users will scoff at the desire to run Windows or Linux when Mac OS X is available, all those new Mac owners are most likely ‘switchers’, going from the world of Windows to the magic of the Mac for the first time.

Being able to seamlessly run Windows-only software on your Mac desktop at effectively native speed is a revolution, and takes away the pain of having to give up software you like using because a Mac version isn’t available.

Of course, while it is relatively easy to set up on a new Mac, especially if you’re a relatively experienced computer user, beginners might want to get their Mac fanatic friend to help. After all, if you’re running Windows, and it has Internet access, you will need a firewall, antivirus and other software, be it free or paid versions.

Our advice for total beginners is to just get a Mac and use Mac OS X – it does everything you need with style, after all.

But if you’re well used to PC’s and have always thought about getting a Mac, there really has never been a better time. It’s not difficult, and having a Mac that’s also a PC, running all PC software but without requiring you to even look at the Windows desktop, is something that has already reached the ‘second generation’, making running Windows on a Mac reliable and now, invisible if desired.

Better compatibility with Windows is earning the Mac platform more new buyers than ever, likely cheered on by Mac owning friends, the PC problems of their friends, their own PC problems and the ‘I’m a Mac… and I’m a PC’ ads on TV, Apple is cooler than ever and sales are hot.

Of course, Microsoft still holds the record with hundreds of millions of PCs sold each year through companies like Dell and HP with Windows XP or Vista pre-loaded, while Apple only sells tens of millions of PCs per year, but Apple’s market share has been undeniably growing – with Mac sales growing faster in the last quarter than iPod sales!

And with Mac OS X 10.5, it’s only going to get better, with Steve Jobs poised to release all those ‘secret features’ and more, including hopefully iPhone news, at next week’s WWDC.

But while Windows’s dominance made it the platform for which the most software is written, and the most hardware is developed, the latest versions of Parallels, VMware and Boot Camp give you the ability to have the best of all worlds. There’s not much better than that!

Four big “ifs” of iPhone

As the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference approaches once again, there has been speculation over whether the focus will be on Leopard or iPhone. For developers, there is one overriding issue; for consumers there are at least another three.

The four big “ifs” of the upcoming iPhone arise out of Apple’s traditional obsession of keeping tight control over its product platforms. The iPhone is entering a huge market where pretty much everything is open, interchangeable and has been to a great degree been commoditised in favor of the consumer. Having played with one briefly at a Macworld media audience, I can say that the iPhone is a captivating device. However, playing with an iPhone is not the same as living with one.

Will mobile phone and smartphone consumers accept the closed Apple iPhone platform? Right now, all the market research screams yes. Consumers in the US are lining up to get their hands on the new Apple device when it goes on sale on June 29. However, virtually no-one has had a chance to touch an iPhone, let alone live with one.

Market intelligence says that the still growing legions of Apple faithful alone will be enough to buoy iPhone sales for years to come. However, even Mac and iPod fans will eventually be forced to judge iPhone on its merits as a cellphone and smartphone first and foremost because most of them already own phones.
And it is here that the big “ifs” arise.

The first big “if” concerns price. The question is if consumers will be willing to pay US$499 and US$599 up front on a two-year contract for a phone. OK, it’s also an iPod and many iPod owners also have phones, so iPhone gives them two devices in one package. However, outside the US at least, even the fancier cellphones, with smartphone capabilities, such as the Blackberry Pearl and Nokia N95, can be had on two year contracts for nothing up front and dirt cheap capped price plans.

Then what happens after two years are up? These days cellphone users are used to simply ditching their existing phones and getting a new phone on contract without parting with a cent. Can Apple convince them to part with another $500 or more to upgrade to its latest model iPhone when the contract runs out?

Concerning reliability, the question is if the Apple iPhone will be robust and reliable enough to meet the needs of most cellphone and smartphone users. There’s no question that iPhone is a beautiful bleeding edge device. However, to a consumer market used to treating their mobile phone as a commodity that can be thrown on the table, it may just be too beautiful. There are questions surrounding the touch screen and what happens when it gets smudged and what happens if iPhone is continually subjected to moderately rough treatment.
I can remember a salesman in our local Apple store responding to a question about whether an iPod skin would protect it if it got dropped. He simply said with a wry smile: “If you drop your iPod expect it to break.” Well I’ve dropped different cellphones on several occasions. A few times the back has come off and the battery has spilled out. However, on every occasion after putting the phones back together, they worked fine. Will the iPhone be able to stand the drop test?

That brings us to the question of downtime. The iPhone may be turn out to be a very robust and reliable device but if it breaks down what do I do? If I have another phone that breaks down, I can simply transfer my SIM card to an earlier model I have sitting around the house until my phone is fixed. With iPhone, I have to send the phone to Apple and wait until it’s fixed before I have communications again.

The same thing goes for the iPhone battery. I don’t know anyone that actually keeps two batteries for their phone anymore, in case one runs out of charge. However, I do know that if my phone’s battery malfunctions, I can go down to my phone shop and simply replace it with a new one. With iPhone, the battery is not removable so a malfunctioning battery puts the phone out action and forces the user to give the phone back to Apple for service.

The big question that developers want answered is if they soon will be able to get open access to the iPhone so they can develop third party applications for the new device like they can for all other smartphones.

So far Apple has been coy on the issue of third party applications, citing with some justification the necessity of keeping tight control over the stability of the device. Apple doesn’t want to sell a phone that crashes because of dodgy applications. Then again it doesn’t want to miss out on a myriad of rich  functionality that third party mobile developers could provide and says that it is working to find a solution to the problem.

For mobile developers, however, the request by Steve Jobs to be patient while the company works to find a way to enable third party development will wear thin if Apple keeps the iPhone platform closed for too long. This is one market where there are plenty of fish in the sea.

If market intelligence is correct – and there’s no reason to doubt it – Apple is likely to have trouble meeting early demand for the iPhone. However, the true test of whether this remarkable new device will be a winner will come after a few million are in the hands of users. There are a lot of “ifs” that are bound to be answered once that happens.

Parallels 3 for 3D

Support for OpenGL and DirectX on the Mac’s graphics hardware is a key feature of Parallels Desktop for Mac 3.0.

Parallels Desktop for Mac creates a virtualised environment allowing other operating systems such as Windows and Linux to run within Mac OS X. One of the biggest shortcomings of previous versions was the lack of 3D hardware acceleration, making it less than ideal for gaming and other graphically demanding software. The alternative was to reboot the computer directly into Windows, having installed that operating system with the aid of Apple’s Boot Camp software.

Productivity features in Parallels 3.0 include SmartSelect and Parallels Explorer.

SmartSelect lets users nominate the application to be used to open particular file types on either platform. For example, .xls files in both environments could be associated with Excel for Windows, while .pdf files might be set to open in Mac OS X’s Preview. By default, Parallels opens .dmg files in Mac OS X, and .exe files in Windows.

Parallels Explorer allows the use of a Windows virtual hard drive from Mac OS X, without starting Windows itself. This simplifies the transfer of files between environments, and allows Windows file management to be done from Mac OS X.

Also new is the ability to boot Vista or XP partitions created by Boot Camp  in Parallels virtual machines, and the ability to take snapshots of a virtual machine and its virtual hard drive allowing any changes to be undone with a mouseclick. This would be especially useful for software testing purposes.

“This new version is an important milestone for us helping computer users get the best of all operating systems on a single, seamless desktop,” said Nick Dobrovolskiy, Parallels’ CEO. “With new features that deliver more flexibility, increased security and peace-of-mind, working with multiple operating systems has never been easier, safer, or more fun.”

Intel welcomed the announcement. “Parallel Desktop 3.0 for Mac on Intel-based Macs is enabling a new era in virtualization,” said Doug Fisher, vice president of its system software division. “Users can now run multiple operating systems while enjoying blistering performance, energy efficiency and powerful resource management on desktop and mobile computers. This is made possible by Parallel’s virtualization software that fully utilizes the capabilities of Intel Virtualization Technology built into Intel Core Microarchitecture processor technologies.”

Parallels Desktop 3.0 for Mac costs $US79.99 whether downloaded or purchased as a boxed copy from a retailer. Upgrades from version 2.0 are $US49.99, and a 15-day free trial is offered.

Three million iPhones ready to rock and roll?

Apple plans to have three million iPhones ready for customers when the device goes on sale on June 29, according to a report.

A BusinessWeek story asserts that number comes from two sources, but Apple refused to comment (as usual).

Given that Apple’s announced goal was to sell 10 million units by the end of 2008, it sounds like the company plans to hit the ground running.

The trouble is, some commentators will find fault whatever Apple does. If it can’t meet the initial demand, it’ll be castigated for failing to accurately predict demand and poor inventory management.

If it gets plenty of stock into the stores, some will say it is an attempt to shift as many as possible before people realise it isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. This is rather like the movie studios’ strategy of not offering advance screenings – especially to reviewers – when they have a suspicion that a film is a turkey.

Indeed, there are elements of this in the BusinessWeek story: “with its touch-screen keyboard, powerful battery-sapping processors, and a panoply of new applications, the iPhone is far more complex than the iPod. Glitches could lead to costly recalls and returns if buyers find the phone buggy or confusing.”

And the IT industry’s eternal curmudgeon John Dvorak has quoted “yet another industry insider” as saying “The keyboard is a disaster, and people are going to return the phone in droves. I’m guessing 20% will go back.”

We’re also seeing the usual crop of reports about company X, Y or Z (should that be L, N or S?) announcing or preparing so-called ‘iPhone killers’. What most of them fail to realise is that the ‘iPod killer’ has yet to materialise not because of styling or feature lists, but because Apple got the user interface right.

The few people that have had a chance to use an iPhone seem to think Apple’s got that part right, and according to Apple CEO Steve Jobs the iPhone interface is well protected by patents. That doesn’t mean other companies won’t be able to do an even better job, but they won’t be able to simply clone the iPhone any more than they’ve been able to clone the iPod.

It’s still possible that Apple will stumble, whether that’s because the company really did misjudge what a significant portion of the market wants and needs, or because of an execution issue such as build quality, inadequate or mistimed supply, or even software issues.

Since AT&T has apparently logged over one million enquiries about the iPhone, it looks like that running start is on the cards.

It’s official: Steve Jobs to launch iPhone June 29!

So, Steve Jobs was only joking when he told Walt Mossberg the iPhone would probably launch on the last day of June – he really meant June 29, now 100% confirmed!

Three cool new Apple iPhone ads have made their US debut on television, showing off how easy, graphically lush, responsible and totally touch controlled the iPhone really is, and trumpeting an actual on sale date of June 29, one day before the end of the month.

The ads, which can be seen at Apple’s website, don’t come with the dancing pizzazz seen with Apple iPod ads, but instead feature the iPhone held vertically or horizontally in one hand, while a finger activates actions on the screen, whether it’s browsing through music, flicking through coverflow, checking email, answering a phone call, checking the iPhone’s maps, typing in information on the virtual keyboard and more.

The ads end by saying “iPhone”, then “Only on the new at&t” with “Use requires 2 year minimum activation plan” in smallish print then followed by “Coming June 29” with the white Apple logo in the center on the screen.

Despite the new at&t logo and lowercase writing, the phone itself shows the carrier as ‘AT&T’ in the top left hand corner. It’s visible at different times during the three ads. The old brand ‘Cingular’ isn’t seen anywhere as at&t wipes it from the collective psyche.

It’s now likely that June will be the most hyped month of pre-iPhone availability ever, as new rumors emerge of as yet unknown features, the possibility that some phone stores will be broken into (as happened with the PS3 and Wii) to get units before general availability, the forming on long days several days before June 29 as consumers try to guarantee themselves an iPhone and try to get some national TV publicity into the bargain and more.

Questions also remain over whether Jobs will headline the WWDC with some more iPhone news, information, secret feature surprises or more.

Whichever way you look at it, iPhone fever will reach a new level in June, before culminating with its actual launch, and then an avalanche of reviews, user opinions, and, if Apple is true to form, some kind of issue developing that only affects 0.00001% of iPhone users but somehow becomes a huge issue in the press and with consumers, as Apple refuses to comment.

All we can do now is to wait and see – but at least the on sale date is finally with us. June 29 – the day Apple changes the world again?

As iPhone goes on sale, what problems lie in wait?

The date’s been cast in stone: June 29 is the day the already legendary Apple iPhone goes on sale in the US, but as the date of release draws closer, what problems can Apple expect?

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If you haven’t already seen the new iPhone ads on US Primetime TV or from Apple’s website, the first thing you notice is just how cool the iPhone interface looks and high incredibly easy it appears to be to use, as easy as when Steve Jobs demonstrated it back at Macworld in January.

But despite Apple learning from the 1st-gen screen-scratch nano experience, simple questions remain. How will the iPhone’s screen stand up to coins, keys, being dropped or being handled by the kids?

Can you place a transparent plastic protective sheet on the face of the iPhone, or will that interfere with the touch controls?

Beyond concerns about the screen itself, the iPhone will be available on June 29. What quantities will the phone be available in? If the PS3, Wii and even Xbox 360 launches are anything to go by, lines will form outside Apple and AT&T stores, as people wait to be one of the very first to score an iPhone on launch day.

Just as PS3 and Wii units were stolen from stores before their official launch, iPhones will surely be the target of thieves, causing headaches and the need for extra security patrols around stores in the lead up to launch day.

Another question is exclusive carrier relationships. Carriers such as Vodafone have had the power to buy 2G and 3G Sharp phones exclusively for the global Vodafone network, leveraging the power of an order of 50 million units to get the best price from Sharp.

By and large this deal worked, but there is no real exclusivity in a Sharp phone. The iPhone is completely different, with an audience in theory much larger than that of the iPod – after all, hundreds of millions more own mobile phones than do Apple iPods.

Apple wants to offer its exclusivity to AT&T, which AT&T can then offer to its customers. But the risk that competitors come up with something clever of their own that captures the fickle attention of the mobile phone market, with tastes that vary far more widely than those of mp3 player owners.

By the numbers themselves mp3 player owners are in majority iPod users, and this could catch Apple off guard as a different phone becomes the new flavor of the month, unlikely though this would seem with the iPhone unlike anything anyone’s truly ever seen before, and seemingly 5 years ahead of the competition as Jobs has stated.

That ‘new flavor’ of the month would come from Apple’s established and very experienced cell phone makers, all of whom have now had inspiration from the Apple iPhone to try and come up with something better.

Nokia, Mototola, Samsung, RIM, Palm, Microsoft, LG, Sony Ericsson and others all throwing their money and resources at coming up with a product to compete, by raising their own bar at least as high as that set by Apple, if not higher, creating ever more powerful ‘multimedia computers’ ever more quickly as Moore’s Law works its magic in the cell phone world.
And then there’s the problem of price. The Nokia N95 can already be had for free with a contract in Australia and elsewhere around the world, although that might not be the case in the US. It does everything the iPhone does, and in fact more, combining phone, video phone, full HTML browser, 3G/3.5G HSDPA broadband wireless modem, FM radio, mp3/video player, GPS Map navigation, 5 megapixel camera, DVD-like video recorder and much, much more.

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It doesn’t have the iPhone’s smooth control system, but is an evolution of Nokia’s already simple keypad layout and Symbian operating system, culminating in a very smooth Nokia experience all its own. Both phones outdo each other in different ways, with the N95 the iPhone’s best and possibly only true competitor right now, and one costs nothing on contract while the other is US $499 or US $599.

That’s a tough choice for consumers to make, and with the N95 so capable on its own, gives consumers $599 to spend on something else, like gas for the car, a new computer, a PS3, a Wii or some other device.

After all, the iPhone does look to be the ‘ultimate’ phone, mp3 and video player. But if you can get an N95 for free on contract, and either save that $599 or spend it on a PS3 or something else, you’re not going to walk away unhappy.

Of course if you want an iPhone, you’re going to get one, N95 or no. Heck, you might even get both.

The final concern so far for the iPhone is the inevitable problem it will face. Some manufacturing defect that affects only 0.0001% of iPhone owners but has blown up into a global news story with Apple not yet admitting to the problem, as with moo-ing batteries or scratching screens.

Something like that seems to pop up for a small percentage of users like clockwork with every Apple release – what will it be for the iPhone?

Whatever happens, an exciting time in computing and communications history is unfolding, with both the N95 and the iPhone marking a true change in the power of today’s handheld devices, giving us converged devices that offer a range of great features, and offer them well in a handheld device that was truly once the province of science fiction alone.

Who knows what’s next from the myriad of possibilities that exist? Bill Gates joked at his on-stage appearance with Steve Jobs that Apple’s next invention would be the transporter. We’re not quite there yet, but as we remember that the iPhone is only in its first incarnation, we rejoice in the fact that the best is yet to come.

Google makes progress with Desktop for Mac

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That’s very welcome – I was delighted at the responsiveness of the initial release of Google Desktop on my iMac G5 compared with Spotlight’s sluggishness, but the instability it brought in the form of freezes and even kernel panics were unacceptable.

Version 1.0.1’s release notes didn’t mention any fixes in this respect, so I didn’t bother with it, but 1.0.3 claims to fix critical bugs that “cause the machine to either crash or become unresponsive” as well as plugging memory leaks, so I’m giving the program another chance.

Among the improvements are faster crawling after a restart, compatibility with Camino 1.5 (not everybody uses Safari or Firefox) and some tweaks to the updater.

One potentially very useful feature is an HTTP based API for desktop search. Google Desktop’s built-in web server can be asked to deliver search results to a program running locally. The results are returned in XML format, which is generally easier to handle within a program or script compared with trying to ’scrape’ the required data out of HTML results intended for display in a browser.

YouTube goes AppleTube as Apple TV gets upgrade

Demonstrated by Steve Jobs today at the D: All Things Digital conference, you can now watch and save YouTube videos to your Apple TV, which also gets a hard disk upgrade – but what else is in Apple TV’s future?

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Apple TV owners will be able to download an update in mid-June, allowing the Apple TV to easily browse, watch and let users save YouTube videos directly using the Apple TV – your PC won’t be required.

Steve Jobs said that “This is the first time users can easily browse, find and watch YouTube videos right from their living room couch, and it’s really, really fun. YouTube is a worldwide sensation, and Apple TV is bringing it directly from the Internet onto the widescreen TV in your living room.”

Interestingly, Apple TV users will be able to log into their YouTube accounts on screen but won’t be browsing the live YouTube site. Users will see a custom interface that looks like the rest of Apple TV which will make thousands of ‘current and popular’ YouTube videos available, meaning YouTube’s entire catalog of video content won’t be available from day 1.

But YouTube promises to add ‘thousands more videos each week’ until the full Youtube catalog becomes available in the northern autumn, or fall, as YouTube converts their video from the FLV streaming Flash format to Apple’s preferred H.264 video encoding format.

In addition, the Apple has announced that the an upgrade to the hard drive of the Apple TV can be made at time of purchase, boosting the size to 160Gb from the original 40Gb, for US $399, or $100 more than the 40Gb model. Apple says this gives enough space for 200 hours of video, 36,000 songs, 25,000 photos or a combination of all three.

Apple’s announcement and capacity upgrade comes at a time when doubts had begun to emerge about the strategy with Apple TV, offering 640×480 resolution video for people who must plug the Apple TV into a widescreen, HD TV capable of up to 1920×1080 resolution, and coming equipped with too small a hard drive to build a truly serious video collection on.

Other doubts surrounded the Apple TV’s inability to purchase TV shows, music and movies directly from the Apple TV interface, relying instead on you performing those tasks on your PC or Mac first.
But Jobs seemed unperturbed by the criticism directed at the Apple TV in some quarters since the launch as he described the Apple TV as a “hobby” at the D: All Things Digital conference. Jobs said the Apple TV’s current stage of development was like when the first iPod was launched, effectively promising great advances for the Apple TV platform in the future and seemingly concentrating on getting the basics right to start with.

Besides users hacking the Apple TV to run OS X and even Joost, enabling them to watch Joost’s large channel selection through the Apple TV onto your TV, and pouring through its internals, the software industry has rallied around the Apple TV with supporting applications.

CD and DVD burner software creators Roxio, now part of previous competitor Sonic have unveilved ‘Crunch’, letting you convert video to Apple TV, iPod and iPhone formats, while the Slingbox in the US lets you view content stored on your Apple TV from wherever you are, as long as you are connected to a broadband Internet connection.

Elgato’s popular ‘EyeTV’ digital TV tuner and recorder software for Macs lets you record TV shows to your Mac’s hard drive and then send to the Apple TV as well, while Steamer lets you hear Internet radio through the Apple TV.

All this means plenty of your own existing content can be quickly and easily repurposed for the Apple TV, letting you enjoy your digital media collection through the Apple TV’s arguably easiest to use ‘digital media’ TV interface.

That, along with the easy ability to Apple to endow the Apple TV with interface enhancements and new features through software updates, gives Apple a chance to grow the Apple TV platform slowly, surely and steadily, until a tipping point is reached, and the Apple TV does what the iPod did and sells in the tens of millions, instead of the current hundreds of thousands.

At least, that would seem to be Apple’s plan. The Apple TV faces much more advanced competition than the iPod did upon its launch, but as an ‘iPod for your TV’, the Apple TV benefits from a thriving iTunes store with movies, music, TV shows, audio books and more.

That, and its smooth integration with the Apple TV, the iPod and undoubtedly the iPhone is just all part of the system that shows the best software developers create their own hardware to deliver their software to people.

The Apple TV does just that, and it’s only going to get better, even in the face of ever improving competition from the Xbox 360’s video download capabilities and upcoming IPTV edition, the PS3’s upcoming music/movie/TV show download store, competition from Amazon and TiVo, the Windows Vista Media Center and the world’s satellite and cable pay TV companies all with hard disk video recording set top boxes of their own.

However it all turns out, one thing’s for sure: this truly is the must-see TV battle of the early 21st century!