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About this siteFor six years, the Internet Nexus served as my technology blog, but I've since started blogging at the SuperSite Blog instead. If you're looking for the blog, please head there. --Paul Saturday, October 18, 2003Panther up close, part three: PerformanceI've derided the performance on Mac OS X previously, and noted that I hadn't seen a perceptible speedup in the system since 10.1 was released two years ago. Well, color me silly: Panther seems much faster than previous versions, sometimes much faster. Don't get me wrong: My 500 MHz iBook is still way to slow to handle applications like Microsoft Word and iPhoto, and even my 17-inch 1 GHz iMac has issues with such applications as Photoshop Elements 2. But overall, on both systems, operations have a certain snap to them, and I can verify that the new Preview application is excellent: It's the first PDF viewer I've seen since Adobe Acrobat Reader 5.x on Windows that actually opens and navigates around PDF files quickly (Adobe's new Adobe Reader 6.0 is a dog on both Windows and the Mac). Now, I should qualify my performance observations with the note that I recently wiped out and clean installed both systems, and I actually re-did a clean install with Panther on the iBook. So I guess we'll see over time how the performance changes. But my initial reaction is very positive, especially given the relative pokiness of both my Macs. Good stuff. [ Posted at 2:57 PM | Permalink ] Panther up close, part two: First impressions  Using Panther (OS X 10.3), I'm confused by all the talk about this being a major release. Panther is a refinement of what's came before and not a revolutionary upgrade at all. Indeed, from a visual standpoint, Panther is only subtly improved over its predecessor with a muted gray replacing the miserable, stark white pinstriping of previous versions. Aside from the brushed metal finder, there is nothing obvious in the UI to even indicate this is a new product, and the fact that nothing screams "new" out at you while you're using it is good news, though contrary to Apple's "150 new features" advertisments. (A funny curiousity: The online help system boasts of just 100 new feature. Hmm...) Indeed, as with Jaguar, I'm a little freaked that there is such a mix of "normal" OS X windows and brushed metal OS X windows: You'd think the anal retentive UI designers at Apple would standardize on a single look, and that the anal retentive OS X users would call them on it when they don't. Curiously, when you hide the toolbar in the Finder, it switches from a brushed metal look to the older look; weird. But the new brushed metal Finder is a welcome, if obvious, improvement. It now includes a set of handy links in a left-mounted pane, ala Windows Explorer. You can quickly jump to local and remote locations like your hard drives, network, and media folders, and eject removable disks. But the Finder is clearly a 1.0 proposition, depsite years of Microsoft inspiration: If you resize this pane, it only resizes for the current window. So you'll have to manually size it as you like in every single Finder window you open. Yikes. I particularly like the new Network location, which lets you browse through your Mac and Windows systems on the home network, without opening a menu and waiting on the resultant dialog box to populate the list of connected systems. Pre-Jaguar, you had to understand an arcane "smb://" syntax to do this quickly; Jaguar added the auto-populating dialog (and was smart enough to hide the file gobblygook Mac systems feel the need to leave in every network location they visit). Now, in Panther, it's even more automated. This is a good example of the way in which Panther is refined and improved, subtly, over previous versions, and made more accessible to less technical users. In other words: This isn't new functionality, it's just an improvement of a feature that's been there since the beginning. This sense of refinement pervades Panther, and when I consider all the things that haven't change, I'm again struck by the fact that this is a minor upgrade that should have cost $20-30 and not $129, especially to anyone that bought a Mac or Jaguar within the past six months. But overall, I'm happy with the refinements and new look and it's clear that OS X is now a mature, usable product, applicable to a wide range of users. There are still problems--the online help still sucks and there's no obvious starting point or interactive help should you need to do something complicated--but it's no worse than Windows 98. That's not too shabby, and it's certainly better than anything the Linux camp has to offer at this point.
[ Posted at 8:12 AM | Permalink ]
Panther up close, part one: Installation  I've installed Panther on both Macs now--an upgrade on the iMac 17-inch 1 GHz, and a clean install on the iBook 12-inch 500 MHz--and the Setup routine is probably the first hint that this OS is a very much a minor upgrade to Jaguar. Setup is decidedly old school, with a bizarre sequence of useless notes (e.g. "Copying BSD subsystem") and two reboots, ala Windows. Panther comes on three CDs, which seems to broken down into core OS, applications and drivers, and X11, basically, so most people will only need the first two (the second CD is requested after the first reboot). Here's a tip: Be sure to choose "Customize" so you don't have to install a ton of international languages; I have no idea why they're included in the "easy" install. Installation took almost an hour in each case, not including the Software Update step, which installed newer versions of iSync and iTunes. Oddly, you can only set up your own user during Setup; other users have to be added manually later. The "Welcome to Panther" section of Setup, where you input your registration, .Mac, and Internet connection data, features dramatically faster-paced music than the New Age stuff used in previous OS X versions, but overall, it's very, very similar to previous versions. In fact, the whole Setup routine is so similar to previous versions, you'll barely notice a difference until the Welcome music kicks in (and that only happens on a clean install). In short, there's nothing dramatic in Panther's Setup
[ Posted at 12:42 AM | Permalink ]
Friday, October 17, 2003iTunes for Windows event broadcastApple's QuickTime TV Apple events page now has yesterday's iTunes for Windows Introduction available via QuickTime, if you're into that kind of thing. [ Posted at 5:20 PM | Permalink ]
Thursday, October 16, 2003Big day for Apple digital media fansA couple of people actually wrote me today wondering why I hadn't posted anything about Apple's big music announcements today. The reason is I actually went to a satellite broadcast of the event at the Apple Store at the Cambridgeside Mall and didn't get home until later than expected. Then, Mac OS X "Panther" arrived and, well... you know. Anyway, I'm back up and have collected my thoughts. Apple's announcements today ranged from excellent to good to eh and back again, and what they didn't talk about, it seems to me, was almost as important as what they did talk about. Here's what happened. iPod - Apple's excellent (but expensive) iPod is number one, according to Apple. The company sold over 1.4 million units so far, and 336,000 in the most current quarter. "That's 2.5 iPods sold every minute, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week." Nice. The iPod controls 31 percent of the market, holding the number one spot for all MP3 players, hard drive-based or not, a huge jump from the 12 percent market share the device held at the beginning of the year. Revenue-wise, the iPod is also number one, with 56 percent of the share; this is because the iPod is too expensive, of course. That figure will come down as price pressure from the competition hits home, but the iPod's market share and sale figures are impressive, no doubt about it. New iPod features - The rumored add-ons for the iPod--a voice recording module and a media reader (photo storage) module, are real. However, the rumors were off a bit in a few areas. First, Apple isn't making either hardware module; instead, Belkin (one of my favorite hardware companies) is making the devices. Apple did, however, write the software, which represents an interesting first (Apple collaborating with another hardware company). Both modules require the newer, dock-based iPods, which shouldn't be a huge surprise. The Belkin voice recording module costs $49 and includes a microphone and a notebook; this looks like an awesome gadget for students and anyone else that needs to record classes, meetings, and the like. It syncs with iTunes 4.1, naturally. The Belkin media reader costs $99 and lets you upload digital photos in virtual "rolls" to the iPod's massive hard drive. This unit looks cool, and it supports all the major flash memory types (though it would be useless to me anyway, as I'm never far from a notebook). Apple also unveiled the iPod 2.1 software update. iTunes 4.1 - Apple updated iTunes to version 4.1, but I don't see any major difference in the software. The big change in this release is the "second generation" iTunes Music Store, which addresses many of my complaints about the service, most of which were based around it being a relatively start landscape. But I'll get to that in a moment: Jobs noted that the service has sold over 13 million songs in less than 6 months, a great achievement, and the company is on track to sell 30 million within the first year. However, Apple has set its sights much higher than that: Jobs says Apple will sell over 100 million songs in the first year instead, thanks largely to a massive promotional push for Windows users, which will represent over 70 percent of sales, according to Jobs. From a market share perspective, iTunes is the number one digital music download service, with 70 percent of all legal downloads. "And that's just on the Mac," Jobs noted. The company is doing what it can to entice Windows users and get to that 100 million mark, though most of this stuff is pretty fluffy. First, it's adding Audible.com audio book support directly into iTunes Music Store, which is sweet. That's over 5000 audio books, now available directly through iTunes. Second, it's adding a gift certificate feature that looks interesting with one caveat: It appears that gift certificates are redeemable on a machine and not for an account: So you might have to use that certicate only on a single machine. I'll check to see if that's the case. Third, Apple is adding an "allowance" feature so parents can allot a certain amount of money per month for their kids to buy music (and therefore not need their credit cards to do so). And finally, they added a celebrity playlist feature, so you can find out what music your favorite artists listen to. I suspect they "borrowed" this idea from Starbucks, which sell celebrity playlist CDs, but it's a neat idea. All in all, a bunch of small, incremental changes. iTunes for Windows - The big iTunes news, of course, is the release of iTunes 4.1 for Windows. Allaying my worst fears, Apple has actually duplicated the iTunes application on the Mac for Windows, meaning the two programs are functionally and largely visually identical. That's amazing and great news for Windows-based digital media fans. I've said it before, and I'll say it again: iTunes is my favorite music app on any platform and I'm excited to see it on Windows. However... and this is a huge problem, sadly ... Apple refuses to support WMA format. That means all your WMA files won't work in iTunes for Windows. I'm going to play around with copying my iMac-based MP3 music library to the PC, but this is a pain. Furthermore, iTunes for Windows only supports the iPod, so if you have another kind of portable player, forget it. That too, is a huge problem, and combined with the WMA issue, it makes for a rather subdued cheer from the home team. Still, it's a first step, and maybe--just maybe--Apple will see the light in a future update. Steve Jobs disses MusicMatch - One thing I found profoundly disturbing during this event was the way Steve Jobs went out of his way to insult MusicMatch. Let me put this in perspective in case you're not clear why that is a problem: In order to get into the Windows market with its iPod a year ago, Apple partnered with MusicMatch, providing Windows-based iPod users with a way to sync, copy music, and so forth. If MusicMatch hadn't stepped up to the plate, iPod for Windows wouldn't have happened and Apple would have lost millions of dollars. Now that Apple is finally ready with its own iPod-compatible software, Jobs apparently feels that it's OK to insult the quality of MusicMatch's software, which he did again and again during the presentation. If that's the way Apple regularly treats it's partners, the company should be ashamed of itself. The constant MusicMatch digs were petty and unnecessary. Incidentally, when MusicMatch went live with its own digital music download service, MusicMatch's CEO was very polite about Apple and its plans. The reverse should have been true as well. Shameful. Promotional deals - In a bid to further its iTunes service, sell more iPods, and generate some excitement in the face of an onslaught of competition from it's WMA-using, PC-based competitors, Apple announced a number of minorly interesting promotional deals. AOL's 25 million subscribers in the US will be able to purchase music from the Apple Store directly from the popular AOL Music site, for example, and Pepsi will unveil a massive campaign at the Super Bowl in which 100 million of 300 million yellow-capped soft drink bottles will contain a winning number for a free song at the iTunes Music Store. That's 100 million free songs, over a two month period in early 2004. Nice. Celebrity iChat AV - Steve Jobs spoke remotely with U2's Bono in Dublin, Dr. Dre in Los Angeles, and the Rolling Stones' Mick Jagger in London, all using iChat AV. Each was quite kind to Jobs, but Bono was just classic. "I'm here kissing the corporate ass," he said. "And I don't kiss a lot of corporate ass." Jobs, clearly embarassed and yet delighted by the quip, thanked Bono and moved on. Jobs also foisted a live acoustic performance by Sarah McLachlan on the audience, an disquietingly lame end that only made the opening music--a Johnny Cash cover of a Beatles song--all the more depressing. We get it: You're hip. All in all, the event wasn't bad, and the annoucements are mostly interesting. There was nothing earth-shattering, but the company did release some impressive updates. I'm happy to see it's all happening right now: There was no beta software release, or a promise for iTunes on Windows by the end of the year. I'm still testing iTunes for Windows so I can't judge it accurately yet, but so far so good. [ Posted at 8:29 PM | Permalink ]
Wednesday, October 15, 2003Google funThe data on this Google Labs page shows some of the misspellings detected by Google's spelling correction system for the query [ Britney Spears ], and the count of how many different users spelled her name each way. Nice. [ Posted at 7:22 PM | Permalink ] Apple posts solid quarterly results Today, Apple announced its third quarter financial results, which includes a net profit of $29 million on revenues of $1.7 billion, or $44 million when you include one-time, non-product-related gains, including an after-tax investment gain of $6 million, a favorable accounting transition adjustment of $3 million related to Apple's stock repurchase agreement, and a gain on settlement of the stock repurchase agreement of $6 million. Overall, it was a solid quarter for the company, which experienced strong sales of Power Mac G5 systems and iPods, but very slow sales of iBooks and iMacs. Tomorrow, of course, Apple will unveil the latest part of its digital music strategy, which is expected to include a new Windows compatible iTunes Music Store. [ Posted at 7:08 PM | Permalink ] Linux: 18 million users and growing If the Linux Counter organization is correct, there are 18 million active Linux users worldwide, making the OS the number two desktop computing platform, behind Windows, and ahead of Mac OS (which has less than 18 million users) and Mac OS X (which has more than 7 million users). "Right now there are 139,971 users registered [with Linux Counter] and 125,648 machines registered at the Linux Counter site, which leads to an overall estimate of about 18 million users - up from about 7.5 million users which was the official estimate in March 1998," according to an article in LinuxWorld. Linux has one other advantage over the Mac OS: Usage and market share is actually growing. Apple has claimed a 25 million user base for years now, but sales of Mac systems have actually slowed, and market share has steadily declined, since Steve Jobs took over. Overall, the Mac market is shrinking at a time when both Windows and Linux are actually growing. Linux on the desktop? I thought it was going to happen years ago, but it looks like Linux is on the way. [ Posted at 11:17 AM | Permalink ] Power Mac G5: Still not the world's fastest personal computer (Part three) So how should Apple have promoted its G5 system? If the company had any credibility at all, it would have simply sold the G5 as the fastest Mac ever, and the equal or near-equal to most high-end PCs. Such claims would have been accurate but, naturally, not the bold type of splash Apple likes to make. Apple kind of painted itself in a corner when it claimed that the increasingly pathetic G4 chip was faster than a Pentium 4, though, so I guess it had little choice. This is one of those times when telling a single lie causes it to just get worse the more you talk. As a publicly-held company, Apple should be more responsible. You can't win a single benchmark and then make wild claims about your products. [ Posted at 11:04 AM | Permalink ] Power Mac G5: Still not the world's fastest personal computer (Part two) PC World's benchmark tests pitting the dual processor Apple Power Mac G5 against a Pentium 4 3.2GHz, Athlon 64 3200+, Athlon 64 FX-51, and Opteron 246 prove the G5 "isn't the world's fastest desktop PC after all ... and the results make Apple's claim to the desktop performance crown look rather foolish." What a surprise. Here are the somewhat predictable results of this competition. As PC World notes in its write-up, "Apple's latest OS X has 64-bit extensions, providing the new Mac G5s and a few optimized apps a taste of greater power. But that isn't quite enough to give Apple a wholesale performance edge ... Even Apple's 2-GHz dual-CPU G5 unit had a hard time keeping up with a single-chip [AMD] FX-51 PC in most tests. The new Macs aren't great values either, as the top-of-the-line G5 ($3549 as configured) costs about $200 more than the similarly configured Alienware Aurora." The PCs even beat out Apple in the QuickTime test, go figure. Personally, I think the most egregious results involve the single processor Pentium 4 system beating out Apple's high-end dual-processor 2.0 GHz G5 system: The single P4 beat out Apple on both Quake III tests, both Microsoft Word tests, and the QT test. Embarassing. The single processor P4 system also beat out the single processor 1.8 GHz G5 on every single benchmark. Pfft. [ Posted at 10:53 AM | Permalink ] Power Mac G5: Still not the world's fastest personal computer (Part one) The Inquirer (I know, I know) notes that Apple's PowerMac G5 was trounced recently by PCs based on AMD's 64-bit Operton and Athlon 64 processors. "The Athlon 64 FX system outperforms the 64-bittish G5 systems in most of the benchmarks, including Premiere 6, Word, and Quake III," the article notes. "The dual Opteron system beats the dual G5 in [all but one] Photoshop test." What makes the benchmarks all the more credible: PC World worked with MacWorld to do the tests, and MacWorld benchmarked the Macs themselves. [ Posted at 10:49 AM | Permalink ] Mucho Mozilla Mozilla.org finally released three major new product versions today, Mozilla 1.5 (browser suite), Mozilla Firebird 0.7 (standalone Web browser, check out the new page), and Mozilla Thunderbird 0.3 (standalone email/news client, check out the new Web site too). Each of these releases was widely and eagerly anticipated. Windows downloads available here: Mozilla, Firebird, Thunderbird. [ Posted at 8:33 AM | Permalink ]
Tuesday, October 14, 2003John Sculley schools The Mac ObserverLOL. "I ... wanted to clear up some confusion in your reporting," Sculley wrote the rumor site after it wrongly blasted him for his comments about Apple not picking Intel chips. "Maybe your reporter wasn't in the audience and got my comments second hand." Maybe? "Reporter"? Second hand? Nice. [ Posted at 5:52 PM | Permalink ] Thanks for renewing! Dear Paul, Thank you for renewing your .Mac membership! Your account thurrott@mac.com has been renewed until October 14, 2004 PDT, and we'd just like to say welcome to another year with .Mac ... We're looking forward to another year with you as a member. [ Posted at 5:50 PM | Permalink ]
Monday, October 13, 2003Apple vs. tech, take twoApparently, I'm not the only one out there who likes the Mac but isn't so upbeat about Apple. This interesting article on MacNETv2 notes that "it's the blind devotion that Apple insists on that rubs us the wrong way ... As good as the products are that come from Apple, they are neither as 'innovative' as Apple would have you believe, nor are they developed with the customer in mind. Most of Apple’s products are developed for the sole satisfaction of its CEO; just ask him ... No, we don’t hate Apple, but we do think it is a horrible company." My goodness. Soulmates? [ Posted at 1:08 PM | Permalink ] About Apple enthusiasm vs. tech enthusiasm My blog is somehow being read by a number of Mac users, so maybe I should clarify things a bit. The aforementioned Mac-Mike identifies himself as an "Apple enthusiast," which means he loves everything Apple does and creates. I find that a bit sickening: Apple is a big corporation that makes good and bad decisions and products. It's an entity they want customers personalizing, and the company has done a good job of marketing itself as a brand people blindly love. As an organization, however, I find Apple to be dishonest with its customers, and that rankles me, especially when it's fans don't see the lies for what they are. But there's a big difference between an Apple enthusiast (or a Microsoft enthusiast, if such people exist) and a general tech enthusiast, which I am. Yeah, I do run one of the most popular Windows sites on the planet. But I'm no Microsoft fan: That company, like Apple, does things I just don't like, and I prefer to be honest about that, as with all things. When you're a fan of a company, you can't be objective about that company's claims, technologies, and products. To be clear, it's possible to be a Mac fan and not an Apple fan. That's what I am. And if you think about it, there's no contradiction there at all. Gosh, can someone really like the Mac and Windows? Yes. Can someone who likes the Mac not like Apple? Again, yes. [ Posted at 12:37 PM | Permalink ] Star Office 7 review eWeak's Jason Brooks gives Star Office 7 positive marks in a good review. I keep wanting to really like Star Office and its OpenOffice.org brethren, but it's so old school I keep returning to Microsoft Office. [ Posted at 10:38 AM | Permalink ] Mozilla Backup 1.1 released Given the wide range of systems I use, Mozilla Backup is a huge deal for me, and I suspect other users will enjoy it as well. This week, Mozilla Backup 1.1 was released, and I tested the RC last week during a trip to Washington D.C., and it looks solid. 1.1 adds support for Mozilla Firebird and Mozilla Thunderbird profiles and fixes a few bugs. [ Posted at 10:35 AM | Permalink ] Getting the Panther upgrade cheap  So who qualifies for the cheap ($19.95) Panther upgrade? Sadly, just about no one. According to feedback at the excellent Macintouch site, everyone who bought a PowerMac G5 will get Panther for cheap (why isn't it free??). Other than that, most Mac users are out of luck: If you purchased (not received) a Mac system after October 8, you get Panther for $19.95. But if you ordered the system before then, even if it arrived after the 8th, you're out of luck. This includes all the poor folks who ponied up for Apple's cool new PowerBook G4 systems last month. I guess it doesn't pay to be a lemming. More info at Apple's Up-To-Date page.
[ Posted at 10:24 AM | Permalink ]
Sunday, October 12, 2003The hilarious but sad state of Mac journalismMac-Mike: "Sometimes it's hard to separate myself from being a tech reporter and an Apple enthusiast." LOL. My only surprise is that you are aware of it, Mac-Mike. But Apple enthusiasts are Apple enthusiasts first, tech reporters second. That's one of the things that's horribly wrong with the Mac world: Too few people are asking the hard questions, and too many people are cozying up with the Mothership. It's embarassing. But the bigger (and less obvious) issue raised by this posting is Mac-Mike's admission that Apple is requiring most journalists to review Panther without actually seeing the product first. Ah yes, what a fine company you worship. "Apple policy [is] not to provide the media with advance review copies of the software until after it's October 24th release date," he writes. "They, of course, want to create a buzz for it ... the company was urging me to do an interview with some of the Panther development folks without actually seeing the product." But fear not, Mac-Mike's heart is still firmly in Cupertino. "I have already placed my pre-order with MacMall for a $189 family license of Panther for installation on my G4 and PowerBook. I really am excited about this major upgrade. MacMall promised Fed-Ex delivery by evening on the 24th and Apple stores will likely stay open late," he blathers. One gets the feeling that cult members have similar internal struggles from time to time. [ Posted at 9:46 AM | Permalink ] Panther: Poorer performance than Jaguar? One of the things Apple fans always claim is that each new Mac OX release brings with it new performance gains, forgetting each time that they made the same claim with the last release, which they are suddenly dissing in favor of the newer version. I've upgraded my Macs each and every time a new OS X version is made available, whether it's a store-bought version like OS X 10.2 (Jaguar) or a free downloadable update, like 10.2.8, and I've not seen any performance improvements big or small since the 10.1 release, which was basically just a performance-tuned version of the original OS, which was itself released months before it was ready. With Panther, coming in less than two weeks, the Mac pundits are out in force again, claiming that, yes, this release will be the one, the moment when the performance of OS X in daily tasks finally rivals that of OS 9 (this never-ending performance problem comes despite the fact that Mac processor speeds have more than tripled in the interim, incidentally). Apparently, though, Jaguar won't offer a speed boost. In fact, "Dr. Mac," one of the world's foremost "Mac lover in undo position of affecting the opinions of others," and a man more apt to blindly blurt out the superiority of all things Apple than provide an honest examination of that company's products, this week published a story in which he simply couldn't sugar-coat the truth. "Apple should bite the bullet and say that OS X requires [a bare minimum of] 256 MB of RAM, or better still, 512 MB," he writes. "Every Mac I own has the maximum RAM it can hold ... [Using the bare minimum amount of RAM,] a Mac will run like frozen sludge, regardless of which version of Mac OS X you're using." So we'll need to max out the RAM, that's a good sign. It seems the new cat in town is a bit of a porker. I'll load up the final version of Panther on October 24 of course, but once again, I'm not expecting much, given my disapointment with the performance of previous versions and the multitude of UI changes Apple is making. The company just can't seem to walk away from pointless eye candy, and I suspect that's the root of the problem. [ Posted at 9:27 AM | Permalink ]
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