<div id="popup_box_thanks" style="display:none" onClick="close_popup_thanks('popup_box_thanks', 'ts')"><br>Thanks for submitting your tip! All submissions are moderated by an editor before appearing online. We've reset the form so you can enter another tip. Or you can close the tip submission box. <div class="x_close" id="thanks_upper_right"><a href="javascript:void(0)" onmousedown="close_popup_thanks('popup_box_thanks', 'ts'); return true;">Close</a></div></div>
<div class="tbf_row"><div class="tbf_wide_extra_top not_bold">Please submit only technical tips that will help other TidBITS readers better use their Macs, iPhones, and related software and hardware. All product announcements should be sent to <a href="mailto:releases@tidbits.com">releases@tidbits.com</a>.</div></div>
<div class="tbf_left">URL</div><div class="tbf_right"><input type="text" value="" name="tip_link_url" tabindex="3"><span class="tip_description"><br>Enter the URL to a Web page that supports your tip.</span></div>
</div>
<div class="spacer"></div>
<div class="tbf_row">
<div class="tbf_left">Linked text</div><div class="tbf_right"><input type="text" value="" name="tip_link_label" tabindex="4"><span class="tip_description"><br>Enter the name of the page linked above.</span></div>
<div class="tbf_wide"><input type="submit" value="Preview Your Tip" name="preview_tip" onClick="fill_preview('tipbits_enclosure_preview', 'ts', this.form); return false;" tabindex="7"> <input type="submit" value="Send Us Your Tip!" name="submit_this_tip" onClick="handle_tip_submission('ts', '', this.form, 'tip'); return false;" tabindex="8"></div>
</div>
<div class="spacer"></div>
<div class="tbf_row">
<div class="tbf_wide"><span class="fine_print">When you submit a tip, you give us permission to use it. Read <a href="javascript:void(0)" onClick="generic_show_hide('tip_terms')">our terms</a> for more details. All submissions are reviewed before publication.</span></div>
<div class="tbf_wide"><span class="fine_print">Our terms: By submitting a tip, you agree to assign TidBITS Publishing Inc., a non-exclusive, worldwide, perpetual license to reproduce, publish, and distribute your tip in connection with the TidBITS Web site and associated products in any media. You agree that you created the content you submitted, and that you have the right to assign us this license. You give us permission to use your name, but your email address won't be publicly displayed or shared. We review all submissions before publication, and reserve the right to select which submissions we feel are appropriate for our readers and to edit those we publish.</span></div>
<div id="comment_thanks" style="display:none" onClick="close_popup_thanks('comment_thanks', 'comm')"><br>Thanks for submitting a comment! Please check your email for a link that, when clicked, will verify that you're a real person and cause your comment to appear immediately. <div class="x_close" id="comment_upper_right"><a href="javascript:void(0)" onmousedown="close_popup_thanks('comment_thanks', 'comm'); return true;">Close</a></div></div>
<div class="tbf_wide"><span class="fine_print">Our terms: We reserve the right to edit or delete any comment, so please post thoughtfully. We use your email address <i>only</i> to send you a one-time verification message confirming that you posted this comment. We also store your address to allow you to verify using other Web browsers in the future. For more info, see our <a href="http://db.tidbits.com/privacy.html">privacy policy</a>.</span></div>
<li><a href="/feeds/tidbits.rss" title="Subscribe via RSS" class="gettb">RSS <img src="/images/feed-icon-12x12.gif" width="12" height="12" border="0" class="nav_img" alt="Subscribe via RSS"></a></li>
<li><a href="http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=276986548" title="Subscribe to the podcast" class="gettb">Podcast <img src="/images/feed-icon-12x12_podcast.gif" width="12" height="12" border="0" class="nav_img" alt="Subscribe to the postcast"></a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.twitter.com/TidBITS" title="Get Article Updates via Twitter" class="gettb">Twitter <img src="/images/feed_icon_12x12_twitter.png" width="12" height="12" border="0" class="nav_img" alt="Get Article Updates via Twitter"></a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.facebook.com/pages/TidBITS/195314925519" title="Go to the TidBITS Page at Facebook" class="gettb">Facebook <img src="/images/feed_icon_12x12_facebook.gif" width="12" height="12" border="0" class="nav_img" alt="Go to the TidBITS Page at Facebook"></a></li>
<li><a href="javascript:void(0)" title="Sections" class="tabhead" onClick="return showhide('articleslist')">Sections <span id="articleslist_triangle"><img src="/images/nav_triangle_open.gif" width="9" height="9" border="0" class="navtriangle" id="articleslist_tri_image" alt="Click to show or hide the contents of this section."></span></a></li>
<li><a href="javascript:void(0)" onClick="return showhide('stafflist')" title="Staff" class="tabhead">Staff <span id="stafflist_triangle"><img src="/images/nav_triangle_closed.gif" width="9" height="9" border="0" class="navtriangle" id="stafflist_tri_image" alt="Click to show or hide the contents of this section."></span></a></li>
<li><a href="javascript:void(0)" title="Issues" class="tabhead" onClick="return showhide('issuelist')">Weekly Issues <span id="issuelist_triangle"><img src="/images/nav_triangle_closed.gif" width="9" height="9" border="0" class="navtriangle" id="issuelist_tri_image" alt="Click to show or hide the contents of this section."></span></a></li>
<li><a href="javascript:void(0)" onClick="return showhide('abouttidbits')" title="About TidBITS" class="tabhead">About TidBITS <span id="abouttidbits_triangle"><img src="/images/nav_triangle_closed.gif" width="9" height="9" border="0" class="navtriangle" id="abouttidbits_tri_image" alt="Click to show or hide the contents of this section."></span></a></li>
<div class="center_top">Thoughtful, detailed coverage of the Mac, iPhone, and iPad, plus the best-selling <a href="http://www.takecontrolbooks.com/?pt=TB-TAGLINE" style="color:yellow">Take Control</a> ebooks.</div>
<!-- begin centercolumn -->
<div id="centercolumn">
<!-- begin rightcolumn_container -->
<div id="rightcolumn_container">
<!-- begin rightcolumn -->
<!-- rightcolumn is embedded within centercolumn so featured text wraps around it -->
</div><!-- end tearoffbox_wide_container for watchlist items -->
<!-- begin tearoff box wide -->
<div class="tearoffbox_wide_container">
<div class="tearoffbox_wide_tips">
<div class="tip_display">
<div class="tips_sponsor_logo">
</div>
<h6>iTunes Apps Tab in Landscape?</h6>
<p><p>If your iPad is locked in landscape orientation when in the charging dock, apps in the Apps tab of iTunes will display in landscape orientation. (This also occurs when your iPad is not in the dock but connected to iTunes via the charging cable while in landscape orientation).</p></p>
</div>
<div class="tearoffbox_wide_bottom_tips">
<div style="padding-bottom:35px"><div class="tip_display" style="float:left"><p><br><a href="/tipbits/215">Link to this tip</a></p></div><div class="tip_display" style="float:right; width:150px">
<div class="tbf_wide_80" id="hc_rc_2097">To help us avoid automated posts and misuse of our site, please enter the words below.</div><div class="x_close_row" id="hc_upper_right2_2097"><a href="javascript:void(0)" onmousedown="HidePopupContent('hc_2097', 'hc', '2097'); return true;">Close</a></div>
<div class="featured_meta"><div class="meta_article">15 May 1995 | <a href="/article/1487?print_version=1">Print <span class="shift_up"><img src="/images/printer_icon.gif" alt="Printer-Friendly Version of This Article" border="0" width="9" height="10"></span></a></div></div>
<div id="article_box_2097"><p>Two of the more important products revealed at last week's Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC), OpenDoc and Cyberdog, may find themselves among the most important products in Apple's near future.</p><p>OpenDoc (see <A HREF="http://www.tidbits.com/tb-issues/TidBITS-256.html">TidBITS-256</A>) is a next-generation model of software that uses small, reusable components that can be combined in different ways to create the equivalent of today's programs (although that's not to say that OpenDoc parts can't be combined in unique ways). An OpenDoc word processor might combine a spell-checker part, a search & replace part, and a part that might generate a continuously updated index. That's relatively cool in its own right, but let's face it, we've got those capabilities now. It will be nice to be able to mix and match, but we're not talking revolutionary yet.</p><p>Apple's Cyberdog project, though, could pull OpenDoc into the big time. Cyberdog is a collection of OpenDoc parts that provide Internet functionality. So, instead of Netscape or Anarchie, you could use the equivalent Cyberdog Web or FTP parts. Other Cyberdog parts planned include Gopher and email (and possibly Usenet news), along with viewers for common Internet file types like GIF, JPEG, and various sound formats.</p><p>So why did some of the Internet folks we spoke with after WWDC in San Jose last weekend call Cyberdog "compelling?" I can't remember who it was precisely who said this, but the term "killer app" was applied to Cyberdog in relation to OpenDoc as well. Cyberdog stands out in a number of ways:</p><UL><LI><p>Cyberdog includes a Notebook part that can store URLs for any Internet service, promising the universal hotlist/bookmark list that I've wanted for so long.</p><LI><p>Cyberdog can log everything you do, and although that may seem pointless, I've found logs tremendously useful in the past. Just last week, someone asked me where they could retrieve the latest version of ARNS, a utility that can (in theory, I've had trouble with it) enable someone to connect to an AppleTalk network over the Internet. I retrieved the file many months ago, but a quick search in Anarchie's log turned up the FTP site in question (and before you ask me for that URL, here it is).</p></UL><p><A HREF="ftp://munnari.oz.au/mac/arns_mac/">ftp://munnari.oz.au/mac/arns_mac/</A></p><UL><LI><p>Cyberdog is a completely open system, so developers can either write OpenDoc parts that supplement Cyberdog's parts (I doubt it will ship with an IRC part, for instance) or replace them.</p><LI><p>You can combine Cyberdog parts within an OpenDoc container (think of it as a blank generic document) to perform what I call "ad-hoc publishing." Apple's example is of a teacher creating a document that combines the full text of a Shakespeare play (retrieved live from the Internet) along with Gopher links to other Shakespeare plays and a Usenet news part pointing at a newsgroup for discussing the play. It's a relatively simple example, but strikes me as potentially useful integration of the Internet into education. Sure beats those purple-on-white mimeographed sheets that fill my grade-school notebooks.</p><LI><p>Once other OpenDoc parts start appearing, it should be trivial to combine them with the Cyberdog parts to create new, customized interfaces to both local and Internet information.</p></UL><p>These and other Cyberdog features serve to make Cyberdog the best hope OpenDoc has against Microsoft's heavily pushed OLE (Object Linking and Embedding) technology. In addition, although Apple now bundles MacTCP with System 7.5, making Cyberdog readily available, hopefully as part of the MacOS, could provide Apple with a much-needed boost in public perception regarding Internet support for the Mac. Helping this will be Microsoft's recent announcement that the Internet tools slated for Windows 95 won't ship with Windows 95 itself, but will come on the so-called Internet Jumpstart Kit that's part of a separate commercial product called the Microsoft Plus Pack.</p><p>Do keep in mind that Cyberdog isn't slated for release until the beginning of 1996, and its feature set isn't yet complete. Although Apple's goal is to release fully functional, feature-competitive parts for Cyberdog, there's no way to know how well Cyberdog's parts will compete with the versions of popular Internet programs like Anarchie and NewsWatcher available in 1996, and there's also no telling how quickly the major Internet developers will move to OpenDoc, if at all. Also, like current MacTCP applications, Cyberdog knows nothing about the Internet connection, and Apple's replacement for MacTCP, Open Transport, will play a large part in Cyberdog's overall success. Finally, it remains to be seen what Apple will do about email. Cyberdog is slated to have an email part that could combine with the rest, but there are undoubtedly some internal pressures relating to the misbegotten PowerTalk Mail functionality and to email via eWorld.</p><p>A few recommendations to Apple. Get Cyberdog out and make it good. That's the first step. Consider keeping the name - Cyberdog has personality and verve, something recent Apple names lack in spades (look at the recent "Apple Internet Server Solution for the World Wide Web" - you must be kidding!) Then, let people know about it. Jean-Louis Gassee (an ex-Apple executive with plenty of personality and verve) recently suggested to me a few brash Internet marketing slogans that Apple will never use (but should still consider):</p><UL><LI>At last, the executive-proof Internet...<LI>You don't have to be Warped to be well-connected...<LI>Faster than waiting for OS/2 on the PowerPC...<LI>The gateway, not the Gates way, to Plug & Play Internet...</UL><p>Finally, and most important, make sure as many people as possible can get and use Cyberdog. I'm talking about modem bundles, deals with phone companies offering ISDN services, drop-dead simple configuration (Cyberdog will support the public domain Internet Config, which is rapidly gaining acceptance among Internet developers), and inexpensive Internet connections. Apple must <EM>not</EM> hide Cyberdog in custom installation options or require users to squirrel around in advanced settings dialog boxes to establish an Internet connection.</p><p>I won't make any silly statements about how Cyberdog must succeed for Apple to survive since $9 billion companies like Apple don't just disappear. However, the Internet is still wide open, and Cyberdog could enable the Mac, especially with Apple's strength in the Internet-savvy education market, to continue to cement its position as the Internet client platform of choice.</p><!-- Apple Reveals Cyberdog Adam C. Engst --></div>
<!-- end article text -->
<!-- PayBITS -->
<p> </p><div class="sponsorbox">
<div class="sponsortext"><A HREF="http://www.webcrossing.com/"><IMG SRC="http://db.tidbits.com/images/badges/web-crossing.gif" ALT="" HEIGHT="50" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0" ALIGN="left"></A>WebCrossing Neighbors Creates Private Social Networks<br />Create a complete social network with your company or group's<br />own look. Scalable, extensible and extremely customizable.<br />Take a guided tour today <<a href="http://www.webcrossing.com/tour">http://www.webcrossing.com/tour</a>></div>
