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About this site

For 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

Wednesday, October 03, 2007

8 Reasons Windows Users Don't Switch

Steven Leigh at AppleMatters makes up a nice, logical list that should be at the forefront of the mind of anyone concerned about whether Apple will continue gaining market share at Microsoft's expense. My feeling, frankly, is that the Mac has to plateau at some point, unless some of these issues are addressed:

Experienced Mac users may not have the perspective that it takes to see what makes Windows users stay with Microsoft, and let’s face it, some Mac users (not you or me, of course) are just downright zealots.

4. Price
The perception by Windows users is that Macs are more expensive than Windows PCs. This may have been true in the past, but the new Macs are very comparably priced to similarly equipped PCs. Unfortunately, the perception remains.

Well. Actually, the truth remains: Macs are more expensive than PCs, they still are. Yes, Macs are often comparably priced to similar PCs. The problem is that PCs come in many, many more price points, and unlike with Apple, PC users are used to choosing exactly what they want and getting it. This is a key differentiator that Mac fans often overlook. If you want to spend $1500-2000 on a PC, the iMac is competitive. But if you want to spend $500, there's a decent PC out there for you. The same is not true on the Mac side. It just isn't.

5. Lies
Let’s face it: Apple tends to bend the truth once in a while, especially about Microsoft and Windows.

Yep. This one and number 6, Windows Bashing, are essentially the same thing.

I remember watching the 20 or 30 minute Vista-bashing session at the WWDC conference and wondering why Steve Jobs is so insecure that he has to berate the opposition. Can you imagine shopping for a car and having the salesman only talk about what’s wrong with the competition’s cars?

Brilliantly put.

8. Mac Users
Okay, I’m not talking about you or me here, but there are some Mac users out there who have just a little too much love for Apple. When they are shouting (or typing in all caps) about how much better Macs are, they’re not convincing anyone to switch, they are scaring them away.

This is, quite possibly, the biggest problem facing the Mac community. You may not realize how serious this is. But consider this:

Mac fanatics are like Detroit car lobbyists. They've spent decades doing nothing but propping up the Mothership, all for what they think is a good cause, but all they've really done is harmed the thing they love so much. People understand quality, and that's why so many are swayed by Apple's products. People also understand bullying, and that's why so many ignore Apple's products.

The good news? We're already at the point with the iPod family that the vast majority of users are not Apple sycophants but rather normal consumers. And they're not concerned with the same issues that plague the fanatics. On the Mac, it's finally getting there too: As Apple gains market share each quarter, the percentage of crazies goes down just a bit. Pretty soon, they're the minority. They're still a loud minority. But they're a minority.

Don't let the crazy people ruin the Mac, or the iPod, or the iPhone, and shout down the people who are honest enough to point out problems where they exist. That's just silly, and while Apple's fanatics might have been desirable or even necessary during the rebuilding years, now they're just dead weight. Good riddance, I say.

Labels: Apple, iPhone, iPod, Mac, PC, Vista

[ Posted at 10:03 PM | Permalink ]

Monday, September 24, 2007

The iPhone is not a UMPC, sorry

The Apple Blog engages in a bit of wishful thinking:

Microsoft had their chance at defining a market. They pushed for the creation of the Ultramobile PCs (“UMPCs”). The Windows-based mini-tablets have not found their market. However, the Apple iPhone (and now the iPod touch) is actually the UMPC done right.

Um. Not quite. The iPhone isn't big enough to be a UMPC, and doesn't include USB ports so you can use a mouse and keyboard. It doesn't work with Mac OS X software and indeed can't be extended in any way. Heck, the iPhone doesn't even support Cut and Paste. Think about that for a second.

What the iPhone really is, is a new computing platform. It sits at the Windows Mobile level, not the UMPC level. It's a smart phone for consumers, or an entertainment device. But it is most definitely not a UMPC, sorry.

Labels: Apple, Internet, iPhone, Mac, PC

[ Posted at 11:39 AM | Permalink ]

Saturday, September 22, 2007

The Tao of Steve

Elizabeth Spiers looks into the psychology behind the Apple fanatic's fixation with the company and its leader:

I blame Steve Jobs [for] seduced me into buying his sleek machines, even if their delicate organs seem to fail with alarming regularity, like the beautiful consumptive heroines in Victorian novels.

Steve--we'll call him Steve because he seems like a first-name-basis kind of guy--is the human incarnation of the average Apple product: He's good-looking, he overpromises, and he's notoriously temperamental. He evokes the feel-good indie populism synonymous with the company's brand and manages to retain a solid reputation as a creative person while managing a $118 billion business.

The image is, of course, a facade. The dollar-a-year salaryman has been rewarded with at least one corporate jet.

We forgive Steve in a way that we won't [Bill] Gates. We do this because outward appearances are important to us, and the products are a reflection of how we think of ourselves. Apple products are stylish and innovative. (We're stylish and innovative!) We love Steve for the same reason. He's creative and he seems appealingly antiestablishment. (We're creative and antiestablishment!)

I think this hits it on the head. What's interesting, of course, is that the bad parts of Mr. Jobs' personality--his prickly defensiveness whenever one suggests that an Apple product is lacking in some way, for example--seem to ooze down to the fanatics as well, as if by osmosis. You can see it in their vitriolic emails and their rabid and sometimes illogical defenses of the company in online forums. As the saying goes, they are a minority, but they are a very loud minority.

Anyway. Though I like Apple's products quite a bit in general, one of my regular criticisms is that Steve--er, ah Apple--always choose style over functionality. You can go too far in the other direction, of course (HP anyone?) but I think there needs to be a middle ground. One example: Many MacBook/MacBook Pro users would really appreciate and frequently use a multi-format card reader built right into their machines. But Jobs will have none of that: Such a port would be an ugly gaping hole in the side of these sculpted masterpieces, and there's already two USB ports, so if you need such a thing, you can just figure it out yourself. But I would point to the Lenovo ThinkPad line--specifically the T61 I'm currently using--as the current apex of this compromise between style and substance. The T61 has a wonderful built-in media card (or not, your choice) and yet manages to be quite stylish. In fact, most people would agree that the ThinkPads are the most elegant notebooks around. Because they are.

Maybe I'm just a tad too practical to completely embrace the Apple Way--or the "Tao of Steve," as Spiers accurately calls this intriguing lifestyle choice. I would absolutely choose functionality over style any time--my Motorola Q beats the iPhone hands down on this point--but do appreciate elegant form factors. Is there a middle ground in the PC or electronics industries? Lenovo? Sony? I'm honestly not sure. But I suppose if there were, few people would be fanatical about it. Curious.

Labels: Apple, iPhone, Mac, PC

[ Posted at 10:10 AM | Permalink ]

Sunday, September 16, 2007

A Window of Opportunity for Macs, Soon to Close

Randall Stross of The New York Times opines on an issue that was all the rage last year as Apple delayed Leopard again and again, eliminating any possibility that the company could capitalize on Microsoft's own delays:

The Mac's worldwide market share was 3 percent as of June 2007, according to Roger L. Kay, president of Endpoint Technologies Associates, a consulting firm in Wayland, Mass. That forlorn number looks even worse compared with Apple's peak worldwide share of 14 percent in 1984, the year the Macintosh was introduced and sales of Apple II computers were the company's mainstay.

Apple's share was as low as 2 percent as recently as early 2004. The increase to 3 percent may be a result of the 'halo effect' produced by the success of the iPod. It could also just as easily be attributed to Apple's simply offering better products at more competitive prices.

Steven P. Jobs, Apple's co-founder and chief executive, can hardly be satisfied with a 3 percent share after more than 20 years of selling the Mac. Consider whether Mr. Jobs would be able to deem the iPod a success if it had gained only 3 percent of the market for portable players. After all, he gave Microsoft's poor Zune exactly one month to succeed before he mocked the Zune's 2 percent market share at the Macworld conference in January.

The best time for gaining market share is when your main competitor stumbles while introducing an entirely new version of its core product. Thanks to Microsoft's lumbering pace, Mr. Jobs had six years to look forward to the moment when XP would be replaced by Vista.

The official line from Apple is that all has gone swimmingly. The company said it shipped 1.52 million Macs in the first quarter of this year, up 35 percent from the year-ago quarter. In the second quarter through June 30, it shipped 1.76 million Macs, up 32 percent from a year ago, an all-time quarterly record.

Funny thing, though: based on the ratio of Windows and Macs actually in use, no gains can be seen for Apple.

The Mac's share of personal computers has actually edged a bit lower since Vista's release in January, and the various flavors of Windows a bit higher, according to Net Applications.

This guy goes out of his way to explain how poorly Vista is doing from both a sales and compatibility standpoint, which is sort of astonishing given the overwhelming evidence to the contrary. This poor reporting of facts may invalidate the entire article somewhat. (He gets market share data from Endpoint, which presumably measures sales, and then compares it with data from Net Applications, which measures Web usages. These are two completely different things.)

My own analysis of Apple's market share in the PC market shows that the Mac is up, year-over-year, and has been steadily rising for some time. It's hard to grow market share dramatically when you're starting from such a low place, as I've also demonstrated in the past. My conclusion is that the Mac is gaining on Windows at a slow pace, sure, but gaining nonetheless. The reasons are simple: Apple makes good products, people like the iPods are are willing to investigate the Mac, and some Windows customers are tired of the issues that naturally arise in a non-monolithic ecosystem where ever piece of what makes a PC a PC comes from a different company. That Apple bobbled its chance during Vista's innumerable delays in not debatable. But now that Vista is out, there's no change in the big picture, and Apple will simply continue its small market share gains for the foreseeable future. In short, this article is all over the place, and doesn't really hit on the reality of what's happening here at all.

Labels: Apple, Mac

[ Posted at 1:40 PM | Permalink ]

Thursday, August 16, 2007

Electronic Arts delays OS X games

Vnunet:

Mac users are still waiting two months after game maker Electronic Arts promised to increase its development efforts for the Mac OS X platform.

Executives from the world's largest games developer promised simultaneous launches on Windows and OS X platforms at Apple's Worldwide Developer Conference last June.

They specifically mentioned the launch of Madden NFL 08, but no OS X version was available when the game went on sale on 14 August.

The launch included versions for Sony's PlayStation 3, PlayStation 2 and PlayStation Portable, Microsoft's Xbox, Xbox 360 and Windows, and Nintendo's Wii and GameCube.

So... Whatever.

Look, the Mac is not a games platform, it just isn't. And while the switch to Intel processors has no doubt done wonderful things for Apple and the Mac, turning the Mac into a game machine isn't one of them. The most recent evidence of this, of course, is the newly-release iMac. It has received positive reviews everywhere and is positively stunning looking, but Apple, because of its mad need to keep it as thin as possible (for aesthetic, not usability reasons), cannot put a decent video card in these machines. So yeah, you can top it off with a Core 2 Duo Extreme processor, but you're still using last year's mid-range ATI video card, and there's no way to upgrade it.

Not. A. Game. Machine.

So what's a Mac user to do? Well, you can forget about this EA silliness, for starters, and grab yourself a real video game machine, like an Xbox 360 or a PS3. Heck, I was a diehard PC gamer for years, and even I've gone the console route, despite the huge supply of PC games. There's some great stuff out there on the consoles, and unlike with the Mac, you never have to wonder when or if it's going to actually happen.

Labels: Mac, Video games

[ Posted at 9:25 AM | Permalink ]

Thursday, August 09, 2007

Apple Boot Camp 1.4 Beta

Apple ships a new version of Boot Camp:

What's new in this version:

Significant bug fixes have been made to the following technologies in this release:

* Boot Camp control panel
* Keyboard support
* Windows drivers
* Localization
* Support for the latest Mac models

Labels: Mac, Vista

[ Posted at 3:29 AM | Permalink ]

iMac Software Update 1.0

Apple:

This update provides important bug fixes and is recommended for 20-inch and 24-inch iMac models with 2.0, 2.4, or 2.8GHz processors.

It's never a good sign when the first package of bug fixes the same day as the product itself. I'm curious that Apple didn't patch the iPhone this quickly, frankly.

Labels: Apple, Mac

[ Posted at 3:25 AM | Permalink ]

Tuesday, August 07, 2007

Major Apple product updates

It's weird witnessing this from such a far-off time zone (9:00 pm? Geesh), but here goes:

Apple Unveils New iMac

Apple today unveiled an all new all-in-one iMac line featuring gorgeous 20- and 24-inch widescreen displays encased in elegant and professional aluminum and glass enclosures. The entire new iMac line features the latest Intel Core 2 Duo processors and a new, ultra-thin aluminum Apple Keyboard, built-in iSight video camera for video conferencing and iLife '08, making it the ultimate digital lifestyle desktop computer for both consumers and professionals. The 20-inch iMac now starts at just $1,199, $300 less than the previous 20-inch model, and the 24-inch iMac starts at just $1,799, $200 less than the previous 24-inch model.

The iMac looks solid, though the design is obviously an evolution over the previous version. I'm curious that Apple went with a Pro-style enclosure with the iMac. I wonder if they're trying to take it a bit more upscale. Certainly, the pricing appears to be excellent.

Apple Enhances .Mac

Apple today announced significant enhancements to its .Mac online service, highlighted by the debut of .Mac Web Gallery, a new feature for sharing photos and movies on the Internet. .Mac Web Gallery lets members easily share photos and movies directly from iLife '08 with anyone on a Mac, PC or iPhone(TM) in stunning quality. In addition, .Mac Web Gallery visitors can download high quality images for printing and even contribute photos using a standard web browser or email. Other new .Mac features include a tenfold increase in .Mac storage to 10GB, support for personal domains for iWeb websites and enhancements to .Mac Mail.

.Mac is still somewhat of a joke, though obviously this is a huge improvement. It won't matter. This is a non-starter.

Apple Introduces iLife '08

Apple today introduced iLife '08, the most significant upgrade ever to Apple's award- winning suite of digital lifestyle applications, featuring a major new version of iPhoto and a completely reinvented iMovie. iPhoto '08 automatically organizes photo libraries into Events that let users more easily manage their growing photo collections, and iMovie '08 introduces an entirely new way for users to quickly make movies and share them online. Both iPhoto and iMovie integrate seamlessly with the new .Mac Web Gallery, Apple's new service for .Mac members to instantly create and host stunning online websites for their photos and videos. iLife '08 also features iWeb '08, with live web widgets such as Google Maps that let users create even more dynamic websites, and GarageBand '08, with its new Magic GarageBand feature that makes it fun and easy for both musicians and non-musicians to create great sounding songs.

I'm looking forward to getting this, though I'll have to wait until the end of the month. iLife is always good stuff though, and as Steve Jobs notes in the press release, it's "years ahead of anything available for the PC." That's not hyperbole. It's just true.

Apple Introduces iWork '08

Apple today introduced iWork '08, a significant upgrade to Apple's productivity software suite featuring new versions of Pages and Keynote word processing and presentation applications, and introducing an innovative new spreadsheet application called "Numbers." Numbers introduces the concept of intelligent tables on a flexible canvas, a new approach that makes it easy to organize information, create calculations, analyze results and make spreadsheets look as great as they work. Pages '08 now features distinct modes for streamlined word processing and flexible page layout, a new contextual format bar and change tracking, and Keynote '08 now includes text effects, transitions and themes that help users easily compose spectacular presentations, and Smart Builds with easy-to-set-up A-to-B animations that make impressive animations easy for anyone to create.

I guess I appreciate Apple's desire to sever the one last remaining Microsoft requirement on the Mac platform (Office), but come on. Though there are Keynote advocates out there, the number of Pages users is likely in the teens. And, oh, good, yet another spreadsheet. This just seems like a waste of time to me.

Labels: Apple, Digital media, Internet, Mac

[ Posted at 2:56 PM | Permalink ]

Wednesday, July 25, 2007

Apple's Mac Makes Strong Market Share Gains in Quarter

Me, in WinInfo:

After years of false starts, the Apple "Switch" campaign appears to be finally paying off: In the latest quarter, the company's Macintosh computers garnered almost 3 percent of the worldwide PC market for the first time in a decade and exceeded 5 percent in the US. Apple sold 1.764 million Macs in the quarter, representing growth of 33 percent year over year. Overall, the PC market grew just 12 percent in the quarter.

Labels: Apple, Mac, market share

[ Posted at 5:07 PM | Permalink ]

Mac market share: Q2 2007

OK, Apple's numbers are in. Assuming I didn't screw up the math, which is a very real possibility, as I'm a math idiot, here's what we get:

US: Apple sold 824,000 Macs in the US in the quarter, compared to 16.35 million PCs sold overall. That gives Apple 5.04 percent of the market in the US.

Worldwide: Apple sold 1.764 million Macs worldwide in the quarter, compared to 59.95 million PCs overall. That gives Apple 2.94 percent of the market worldwide. This, folks, is a significant gain. In Q1 2007, the Mac market share was 2.49 percent, compared to 2.4 percent in Q4 2006.

Now I'm going to double-check these figures. :)

Labels: Apple, Mac, market share

[ Posted at 4:42 PM | Permalink ]

Statistics, Mac OS and Windows

CNET covers the NetApplications silliness I was looking at the other day:

Vista share is up to about 4.5 percent of Web users from virtually nothing in February, while Mac OS share has slipped from 6.38 percent in February to 6 percent in June, with the implication that Vista is eating into Mac OS sales.

This seems in stark contrast to what others are saying. Both the NPD Group and IDC have recently reported that Apple's Mac shipments have outpaced the overall market in the first half of the year.

Vince Vizzaccaro, executive vice president of marketing for Net Applications, said his company's network of 400,000 Web sites mostly includes small and medium-size businesses, but also a few consumer-oriented powerhouses like Best Buy. Net Applications makes software called Hitslink that lets those sites track what types of computer users are coming to their sites, and reports the aggregate data amassed by all of its clients.

Vizzaccaro thinks his company's data is more immediate than market share data, in that in can show trends more quickly than shipment data.

Still no discussion about whether NetApplication's surveyed computers are in the US or not.

Labels: Mac, market share, PC

[ Posted at 4:35 PM | Permalink ]

Tuesday, July 24, 2007

Vista use grows as Mac OS X stays flat?

Computerworld is all over the map on this one:

Microsoft's OS should pass Apple's next month

Huh? Vista surpassed Mac OS X about five months ago from what I can tell. PC makers sold almost 60 million PCs in the second quarter alone. Let's assume that 80 percent of them come with Vista. That means that almost 50 million Vista users came on board in just that quarter. That's more than double the actual number of Mac OS X users.

Windows Vista's share of online users has increased every month this year, while rival Mac OS X -- to which Vista has often been compared -- has shown little, if any, growth, a metrics company reports.

I'm not a big fan of using Web metrics to establish usage share, but whatever. I don't think that anyone would claim that:

1) Vista hasn't already surpassed OS X usage.

2) Mac OS X usage is not growing.

These two points of fact sort of render the Web metrics argument to be as useless as I always believed, no?

According to Net Applications, in June Windows Vista accounted for 4.52% of all systems that browsed the Web, up from January's 0.18%. Vista has grown its usage share each month since its release to consumers Jan. 30, hitting 0.93% in February, 2.04% in March, 3.02% in April and 3.74% in May. Apple Inc.'s Mac OS X, meanwhile, accounted for 6.22% in January and hit its high point of 6.46% in May, but it slipped back to 6% in June.

If Vista's uptake trend continues, it should pass Mac OS X in Web usage share by the end of August.

Or by the end of last February, when the real usage shift actually happened.

According to Net Applications' data, the computer maker is not making new Mac converts ... Net Applications' 6% share for Mac OS X jibes with recent IDC sales estimates, which put Apple's portion at 5.6% of all personal computer sales in the U.S.

So are the Net Applications numbers only from the US? Because even with 30 percent YOY growth in CYQ2 2007, the Mac has about 2.88 percent market share worldwide. This article doesn't introduce the term "U.S." until the discussion about Mac market share.

In short, this story is an absolute mess and cannot be trusted. Here's my summary, which runs contrary to just about everything you'll read in this waste of time:

1) Real world Vista usage surpassed Mac OS X usage sometime in February 2007, March at the latest.

2) Real world Mac OS X usage is continuing to grow, as evidenced by Apple's quarterly market share gains worldwide and in the US. (And you silly Mac fanatics thought that my focus on market share was malevolent.)

3) Web analytics cannot accurately measure OS usage, sorry. It's unclear whether these guys can do anything except give rough numbers for Web browsers. And even that's inaccurate given all the browser ID spoofing.

4) You can't mix market data even though I see it happen all the time. If Net Applications is measuring some subset of the Web world, either within the US or not, you cannot draw conclusions about a particular OS's market share in the US. Obviously.

Thanks Paolo.

Labels: Apple, Mac, market share, PC, Vista

[ Posted at 8:38 AM | Permalink ]

Saturday, July 21, 2007

A look at PC market share for the US in Q2 2007

A reader was kind enough to point me towards an Apple Investor Relations Web site that contains quarterly information about Apple's regional sales so, what the heck, let's look at Apple's US market share this quarter and going forward. For Apple, the recently concluded quarter is Q3 2007, and hopefully they will provide this detailed information on July 25 alongside their earnings announcement for the quarter.

So let's look at that IDC and Gartner data again, this time with a focus on the US:

IDC reports that PC shipments totaled 17 million units in calendar Q2 2007, up 7.2 percent year over year.

Gartner reports that PC shipments totaled 15.7 million units in the quarter, up 5.9 percent year over year. This growth was higher than expected: The firm had predicted growth of 3.2 percent.

Averaging these figures, we arrive at 16.35 million PCs sold in the US. This is the figure I'll use for calculating Apple's US market share for the quarter. However, IDC estimates that Apple sold 960,000 PCs in the US in the quarter, giving it 5.87 percent of the US market. (Gartner does not provide an estimate for Apple, or at least does not place it in the top five.) This figure makes sense: The Mac's US market share has typically over twice that of its worldwide share.

A few notes.

All of these figures are preliminary. Apple, for example, will release their actual sales figures next week, which should replace any analyst estimates.

This is a summary, not an "analysis." This information is all available elsewhere, I'm just collating it.

Once you start looking at the US specifically, one might argue that other important markets, like Europe, Japan, and Asia should be monitored as well. I'm guessing no one is actually wondering about that.

There's a feeling in part of the Mac community that I'm presenting market share data to make Apple look bad, and that by focusing solely on market share, I'm ignoring other more relevant information about Apple's relative success in the market place. The first argument is untrue: I simply like hard, cold facts, and market share, unlike "mind share" or "usage share" (at least in the PC market) can accurately be measured. Regarding the second point, this has come up far too often, as I've addressed it repeatedly over the years. Again, market share is not the complete story. And yes, Apple is very successful, even in the PC space, and with its isolationist strategy: It has created a desirable niche brand that attracts millions of users, has thousands of developers, garners an amazing amount of press and public awareness, and brings a heaping serving of technical quality and design to the table. There is nothing wrong with Apple today, for sure. But then, that was never the point of this. You'd think that the highly technical people who love the Mac would appreciate numbers. But when it comes to the Mac, or Apple more generally, people tend toward the emotional side a bit too often. OK, I guess that was a bit of analysis. I'm looking at you, Gustav. (Inside joke. There's no one named Gustav.)

Labels: Apple, Mac, market share, PC

[ Posted at 10:10 AM | Permalink ]

Wednesday, June 20, 2007

Mac OS X 10.4.10 Update

Apple has released a new update for Mac OS X "Tiger":

The 10.4.10 Update is recommended for PowerPC and Intel-based Mac computers currently running Mac OS X Tiger. This update includes general operating system fixes, as well as specific fixes or compatibility updates for the following applications and technologies:

- RAW camera support
- Mounting and unmounting external USB devices
- Support for 3rd party software applications
- Security updates

Installing now. I guess I'm not expecting too much based on the list above.

Labels: Apple, Mac

[ Posted at 5:36 PM | Permalink ]

Wednesday, June 13, 2007

Cupertino, Start Your Copiers!

It's always amusing when people finally catch on. No offense to Mr. Wilcox, but I've been saying this for quite some time:

In October 2003, I blogged about how much Windows Vista—then code-named Longhorn—looked like Mac OS X Panther. Apple CEO Steve Jobs' recent Leopard demo was a déjà vu experience, since the new Mac OS looks so much like Windows Vista.

Microsoft gave the first real, public look at Windows XP's successor during the company's 2003 developer conference. Its features were all too reminiscent of Mac OS X: translucent windows; resizing windows (that maintained the integrity and quality of playing or streaming video); live search lists; a common address book and many other features.
Hm. That's a bit of revisionist thinking, or at least a bad memory: Apple didn't announce or ship Spotlight OS search until after the 2003 Microsoft event he's referencing. But we digress...
Four years later, it's Mac OS X that would appear to be the "copier."

Does any of this sound familiar? It should. I wrote something just like this back in August 2006:

Sometimes I wonder how Apple CEO Steve Jobs can sleep at night. He appears to spend half his waking hours ridiculing Microsoft's admittedly behind-schedule operating system, Windows Vista, for copying Mac OS X features. But this week at Apple's annual Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC), he announced ten new features for Leopard, the next version of OS X, most of which will seem more than vaguely familiar to Windows users. I'm not dim: Microsoft does copy Apple on a fairly regular basis. But seriously, Steve. Apple's just as bad.

The sad thing here, of course, is that's more true now than it was after the last WWDC. Because now we know the full feature set of Leopard. Now we know there are no secret features. And now we know that OS X is as mature an OS as is Windows and, in the end, there's really just not much you can do beyond the evolutionary stuff. Ultimately, that's why the mobile device stuff is so exciting, at least on the Apple side: It's a place where Apple can continue to make big advances. I suspect that's part of the reason Microsoft gets into new markets like video games, phones, and music players as well.

Labels: Apple, Mac, Vista

[ Posted at 9:34 AM | Permalink ]

Tuesday, June 12, 2007

Who in Their Right Mind Would Run Safari on Windows?

I hate agreeing with Leander Kahney given the whole slander thing, but the man makes a good point here:

There's only one problem -- Safari sucks. A lot of Mac users won't run the browser (I'm one of them), so why would anyone run it on Windows?

On my Mac, Safari is buggy and unreliable. It's always crashing, and it doesn't offer basic features like remembering all the tabs you have open after you quit (or more likely, after it crashes). Until now, it didn't even warn you before closing multiple tabs, although the new version of Safari fixes this.

And it's worse on Windows. There are a number of issues.

1. Firefox rules. There's a huge ecosystem of add-ons available, and it just works the way you want it to, no matter what that might be.

2. Safari is buggy. It does crash constantly on Windows, at least so far.

2. Safari is not customizable. Unlike Firefox, you can't meld Safari to your own style.

3. Safari is not compatible. I rely on Google's Web-based tools, especially Gmail, Blogger, and Picasa Web Albums, and while I get a first-class experience in Firefox, these services treat Safari like Netscape 4.0 and turn off all the cool new features. Unacceptable.

I could go on, but you get the point. When using a browser limits what you can do online, you don't use it. Simple. Hopefully, Apple will address these issues and I can reassess the situation. But right now, Safari is a non-starter.

Related: Apple Safari 3 Beta Overview and Screenshot Gallery

Labels: Apple, Internet, Mac, PC

[ Posted at 1:49 PM | Permalink ]

Monday, June 11, 2007

Safari, Not Leopard, is the Real News at Apple Show

Me, in WinInfo:

Apple CEO Steve Jobs must have smiled knowingly when his announcement about a Windows Web browser got more applause than any of the features he just demonstrated for the next version of Mac OS X. Despite ostensibly dedicating a speech Monday to Mac OS X 10.5 "Leopard," Jobs had an ulterior motive to show off Apple's real platform for the future. And getting Safari running on Windows is just the first step to realizing that vision.

...

Despite the amount of time spent discussing Leopard in the keynote, it's clear to me that Leopard is not really the main event at the show, nor is it the primary platform that Apple is really pushing going forward. No, that honor goes to Safari, Apple's Web browser, and its underlying rendering technologies. During the keynote, Jobs made two Safari-related announcements. First, Apple released a beta version of Safari for Windows, and this Web browser product is now available for free download. Jobs claimed that Safari already has about 5 percent market share on the Web, third behind Microsoft Internet Explorer (IE) and Mozilla Firefox. But I don't think shipping a Windows version of Safari has anything to do with market share, per se. No, Jobs has something more dramatic in mind for Safari.

That's because Safari now sits at the center of Apple's plan to support third party developers who want to create iPhone-compatible applications. This was the second Safari announcement: Previously, Apple had said that it would not open up the iPhone to developers due to security concerns. But at his WWDC keynote, Jobs revealed that Apple would in fact allow developers to create near-native iPhone applications that run on top of, you guessed it, Safari. These applications will use Web 2.0 technologies like Ajax and will look and feel almost exactly like the native iPhone applications that only Apple is allowed to create.

Now you can see why Apple porting Safari to Windows is so important: Most iPhone developers, like most iPhone users, will be running Windows, and not Mac OS X. And for them to create iPhone applications, they will need a version of the iPhone runtime environment. That environment is Safari. If Apple can get even a small percentage of Windows desktop users and all iPhone users to adopt Safari, it will have created a next-generation Web-based computing platform that is far more compelling, and has a potentially larger user base, than the PC market itself. It's an astonishing strategy. And you read about it here first.

My contention here is simple.

Leopard is not the future. How could it ever be? This isn't good enough to make Windows users switch en masse. No desktop OS could ever make that happen.

No, the future is Safari. First, running on iPhone. Later, running on any number of devices. Traditional and non-computer devices. Remember that the cell phone market is much bigger than the market for desktop PCs. This is big.

And yes, I know it all sounds like a conspiracy theory. But I think that we will all look back on this day as the time when we stopped thinking about desktop OSes and focused on the mobile, Web-based future. This might be the smartest thing Apple ever did. And so far, few have even noticed it. Yet.

Labels: Apple, Mac, Mobile

[ Posted at 5:30 PM | Permalink ]

A few positive notes from the WWDC 2007 keynote

So I realize many in the Mac fan-base see me as overly negative towards Apple (and am sometimes amused to discover that some Windows fans think I'm conversely an Apple sycophant). So I do ultimately end up posting what I'd call "realistic," not "negative," articles about Apple because I feel that's exactly what's lacking on the Mac side.

Anyway. The WWDC 2007 keynote was a bit of a downer given the expectations. Almost none of the predictions came true, from a Google-backed .Mac service to new iLife and iWorks suites to new hardware to various virtualization pipe dreams. I'll examine the sad state of Mac rumors later, but that's like shooting fish in a barrel. Instead, I'd like to focus now on some of the positive things I saw in the WWDC 2007 keynote. Understand that these impressions come from the perspective of someone who just likes good technology in general and cares about operating systems more specifically. Here's what I saw.

Mac OS X games
Honestly, I think it's pointless at this time to even worry about playing games on a Mac, given the amazing selection of living room-based (Xbox 360, PS3, and Wii) and portable (PSP and DS) gaming solutions. But Electronic Arts knows a dedicated market when it sees one, and the company will ship a number of Tier-1 games for OS X this summer, the first time that's happened... well, ever. Game developer genius John Carmack of Id was once again carted out at a Stevenote--he's a NeXT old-timer, which explains the attraction--and he very briefly showed off some rendering technology he's working on and promised a Mac-related Id announcement soon.

Finally, a consistent UI
Apple has been abusing the human interface guidelines for a long, long time, and I'm not sure what's more amusing: Watching a company that's so firmly sold on good design just screwing it up again and again or watching its biggest fan-boys try to explain away the inconsistencies as a strategy. Well, the fun is over: Starting with Leopard, all Apple software will finally boast a consistent user interface, and we won't have to suffer at the hands of the UI melting pot that is Tiger anymore. Bravo.

Basing the new Finder on iTunes
I really like the iTunes user interface, and given how Apple has used this and its other digital media applications as the jumping off point for its OS-based UIs before, I'm surprised no one saw this one coming: The Leopard Finder looks and feels just like iTunes, right down to the sidebar and even Cover Flow views. Nice!

Back to My Mac
As with the remote PC access feature in Windows Home Server, Mac users will be able to remotely access their home-based Mac PCs, even when those PCs are attached to Internet Service Providers that change their IP regularly. That's handy, but on the bad news front, you must be a .Mac subscriber to use this feature, so that's all I'll say about that for now. Currently, .Mac is just too under-powered and over-priced to be interesting, and Back to My Mac doesn't change the equation at all.

And .. that's about it. You know, it's a sad state of affairs when the release of Windows Web browser is more exciting than every single Mac OS X "Leopard" feature you've just shown off or over an hour. Sorry. It's so easy being negative sometimes.

Labels: Apple, Mac

[ Posted at 4:37 PM | Permalink ]

Steve Jobs: Just Kidding About Those Secret New Features

So I don't want to be mean, but seriously. The WWDC 2007 keynote today was clearly lacking the impact one might expect after Apple CEO Steve Jobs famously promised at last year's show that there were "some top secret features" coming in Mac OS X Leopard. "We don't want our friends [at Microsoft] to start their photocopiers any sooner than they have to," he said at the time.

Gentlemen, turn off your photocopiers. Apple today announced almost nothing of substance, at least not for Leopard.

Here's how the day's announcements broke down generally:

1. Leopard.
2. Safari 3 Beta for Windows
3. iPhone

Let's deal with the last two first. While Safari is unlikely to set the world on fire, it is a fine browser, and I've often said that I'd switch if Apple ever put it on Windows. I'll test the reality of that today, as I've got the beta installed on my main Vista machine and I'm putting it through some compatibility paces before I can pronounce it a winner. So far so good, though the text looks awful high-contrast, as is Apple confused "high contrast" with "high quality." I'll put screenshots up soon.

Regarding iPhone, Apple has essentially decided to overcome its security concerns by providing third party developer access to the device only via its built-in Safari application (thus, the Windows version, if you're curious). This results in pseudo-native iPhone apps which are, at worst, better than nothing and, at best, almost as good as true native iPhone apps.

But back to Leopard. You may recall that Jobs showed off exactly 10 new Leopard features at last year's WWDC event. These features were:

1. 64-bit application support
2. Time Machine
3. The Complete Package
4. Spaces
5. Spotlight
6. Core Animation
7. Accessibility improvements
8. Mail
9. Dashcode and Dashboard improvements
10. iChat

This year, Jobs again showed off ten new Leopard features, though he claimed there were "300 new features" in this release. These features are:

1. New desktop
2. New Finder
3. Quick Look
4. 64-Bit goes mainstream
5. Core Animation
6. Boot Camp
7. Spaces
8. Dashboard
9. iChat
10. Time Machine

If you think this list looks familiar, you're correct. If we take out the outright duplicates, and Boot Camp, which we've known about for some time, we're left with the following:

1. New desktop
2. New Finder
3. Quick Look
4. 64-Bit goes mainstream

And of these, one, #4, is really just an extension of the 64-bit announcements from 2006. And so, at the end of all this, what we're really left with is... some new UI, some evolutionary improvements to the Mac OS X UI we're already using. That's it.

Those are the secret new features? Those are the things you were worried that Microsoft would steal? Seriously?

Now, I understand that of the ten "features" Apple showed off, many included improvements of some kind. But duh. Of course they do. This is a new OS version, after all. We expect improvements. But this keynote really left me wondering: Have desktop OSes matured to the point where there just aren't that many ways to really blow people away anymore? I mean, have we reached some sort of conclusion to the whole mouse and windows, desktop metaphor thing?

It's too bad. As is happening all too often these days, I feel let down. I expected more--mostly because, this time, Apple promised more--and am surprised at the mild nature of the announcements this year.

Labels: Apple, Mac

[ Posted at 2:54 PM | Permalink ]

WWDC keynote ... live

There are a number of sites covering the WWDC 2007 keynote live right now, but only one that's any good, from what I can tell:

Sitening WWDC07 Keynote Newscast

The coverage at MacNN, Engadget, and Gizmodo is particularly bad. Maybe it's time to make way for the people who can really cover this kind of thing in real time.

I'll have comments about the keynote when it's done, of course.

Labels: Apple, Mac

[ Posted at 1:13 PM | Permalink ]

Saturday, June 09, 2007

Apple Wants ... You! A WWDC 2007 Preview for Windows Developers

Me, in SuperSite for Windows:

At its upcoming World Wide Developers Conference (WWDC), Apple is expected to finally divulge the full feature set for Mac OS X 10.5 "Leopard." But Apple has an additional and unexpected surprise for this year's show. For the first time ever, Apple is specifically targeting Windows developers who are interested in moving their applications to the Mac.

There is a growing feeling that Apple's strategy is paying off. The company has millions of eager customers, and it seems like many Mac users, like iPod customers, have little compunction about upgrading to the latest and greatest hardware every time Apple ships an upgrade. I'm a numbers guy, but I can't help but shake the feeling that Apple is on to something. And while I like to see hard cold facts, my conversation with Apple revealed a subtle change that I think is quite important and does, in fact, point to an increasing presence on Apple's part in the wider PC market.

Here's what I found out.

Come on, the graphic's classic, admit it. :)

Labels: Mac, PC

[ Posted at 11:09 AM | Permalink ]

Wednesday, June 06, 2007

Apple Updates MacBook Pro

So much for those WWDC rumors. Apple PR:

Apple today updated its MacBook Pro line of notebooks with the latest Intel Core 2 Duo processors, memory up to 4GB, and high-speed graphics in a stunning, lightweight, aluminum enclosure that is just one-inch thin. The new MacBook Pro is available in 15-inch models with a new mercury-free, power-efficient LED-backlit display and a 17-inch model with an optional high-resolution display. All models include a built-in iSight video camera for video conferencing on-the-go, Apple’s MagSafe Power Adapter that safely disconnects when under strain, and built-in 802.11n wireless networking for up to five times the performance and twice the range of 802.11g.*

Put more simply, they are virtually identical to their predecessors. And where's that ultra-portable model?

Labels: Apple, Mac

[ Posted at 9:52 AM | Permalink ]

Switch to the Mac? Just switch to the Web

Charles forwarded me this interesting post, which is really more about virtualization than it is about switching:

Now I'm back on the Mac.

The most wonderful thing about the Mac in 2007 is that it has what Bill Joy refers to as the "it works" feature.

The second most wonderful thing about the Mac in 2007 is that it is all three of the major operating systems in one: you get the Mac user interface and applications; you get Unix underneath the covers...

...And by running Parallels or VMWare Fusion you also get Windows XP.

Virtualization is the biggest thing to hit the operating system world since protected memory.

You know, I'm not so sure.

Desktop-based virtualization (on the Mac or Linux) is only a big deal because 99 percent of the software out there runs on Windows. There is virtually (ahem) no one on Windows wishing they could run any Mac apps, even though some are quite good. I think a bigger trend, actually, is the "Webification" of applications like email and, eventually, even productivity applications. This will make next-gen OSes less important than their predecessors (as discussed in this otherwise lame New York Times article, which presents absolutely zero new information). I think we are coming to an age of equalization between platforms, but it will be because of the Web, not virtualization, and not any other desktop technology.

That said, obviously, if you have a need for this, virtualization is huge if it performs well. It never has performed well enough for me, not even Parallels, which is the best desktop-based virtualization platform I've tried (and I've tried them all).

Thanks Charles.

Labels: Mac, PC

[ Posted at 8:39 AM | Permalink ]

Tuesday, June 05, 2007

Quake 4 running in Parallels 3.0

TUAW:

Last Friday Ben Rudolph, Parallel's Director of Corporate Communications, posted some screenshots of Halflife 2 running in Parallels 3.0 on his MacBook Pro. Parallels, for those who might not know, is virtualization software that lets you run a variety of OSes within OS X including Windows. Pictures sure are pretty, but the proof is in the video (a great man once said that), and so Ben has posted a video of Quake 4 running on a Mac in Parallels (I am going to assume he used his MacBook Pro for this as well, but he never mentions it so it could be running on a Mac Pro).

This is fascinating on a number of levels, even if you do need a very high-end Mac to make it work. However, my overall opinion is that the average Mac user would be better served by getting a dedicated gaming machine--like an Xbox 360, PS3, or even a PSP, if you're a road warrior)--than by trying to run PC games under an emulator. Still. The fact that this is possible at all is amazing.

Thanks Matt.

Labels: Mac, Video games

[ Posted at 11:04 AM | Permalink ]

Friday, June 01, 2007

Parallels Desktop 3.0 for Mac

3D support? Yikes... Parallels:

PARALLELS DESKTOP 3.0 FOR MAC DELIVERS:

Completely Seamless User Experience:

* Cross OS application & file integration with Parallels SmartSelect
* Offline access to virtual machine files with Paralles Explorer
* Coherence 2.0, including shared folders and UI enhancements
* Linux Tools for seamless integration betwen Mac OS X and Linux

Native Hardware Experience

* 3D graphics support to play the hottest games and run the most popular applications
* Expanded support for USB 2.0 devices
* USB connection assistant quickly connects you to your OS of choice
* Shared printers for cross OS printing
* Significantly enhancements performance and audio quality

Protection against Mishaps

* Hit a problem? Quickly and easily go back in time to a clean VM state
* Bulletproof your VMs with SnapShots
* Control the levels of integration and isolation with Security Manager
* Make your virtual machine read-only
* Get virus and spyware protection with a FREE 6-month Kaspersky subscription trial

Thanks Matt.

Labels: Mac

[ Posted at 9:15 AM | Permalink ]

Thursday, May 31, 2007

Gates vs. Jobs in a battle for the... well, for nothing, actually

So much for the fireworks everyone expected. Bill Gates and Steve Jobs sat down together face-to-face for the first time in years at the "D: All Things Digital" conference and the result was ... nothing particularly interesting, actually. If you're a WSJ subscriber, you can see clips from the meeting and read an article about it. If not, eh. Nothing happened. In fact, the only real jab in the whole thing was at Gil Amelio, the ex-Apple CEO that Jobs ousted a decade ago.

Labels: Apple, iPod, Mac

[ Posted at 10:23 AM | Permalink ]

Wednesday, May 30, 2007

Steve Jobs at D: All Things Digital

Engadget has nice coverage of Steve Jobs' appearance today at D. A couple of observations:

- Jobs describes the new Apple as being three businesses and a "hobby." The businesses are Mac, music, and phone. The hobby, curiously, is Apple TV. This is sort of disingenuous. If the Apple TV fails, Apple can claim it was never a serious effort anyway.

- Jobs got into Mac market share and was reasonably accurate, though he of course rounded up on everything. According to Jobs, the Mac has 3 percent market share worldwide (it's really 2.49 percent), 5-6 percent market share in the US (lower than I would have guessed), 12 percent market share in US notebooks, and "double digit" market share in the US consumer market share, with the caveat that "we can't really calculate the consumer market share." So that last one, presumably, is just a guess.

- Jobs promised big things for the Mac at WWDC 2007, which is in early June. I've spoken to Apple about this show and will soon have an article about the company's interesting push to deal with the Windows developers who are now showing up at the event.

- No new iPods any time soon, despite some stammering from Jobs that "last September" (when the last iPods were released) wasn't all that long ago.

- Jobs again disingenuously claimed that there's no iPod lock-in because "if you look at the total number of iPods and total number of songs sold on iTunes, it's less than 25 per iPod." So consumers are "clearly not getting the majority of their songs from iTunes." That's not what lock-in means, however. Because iTunes is responsible for about 95 percent of all digitally sold music, and that music can only play on Apple's products, there's lock-in. Remember, Microsoft wasn't charged with a monopoly on operating systems. It was charged with a monopoly on operating systems for Intel-based PCs. Apple clearly has a monopoly on digitally sold music. Just as clear, however, is the fact that no law enforcement entity has any interest at all in calling them on that.

- There was much iPhone talk, naturally. I don't care much about the iPhone, however.

- YouTube on Apple TV. Yawn. Yet another extremely low-quality source of video that will look horrible on that HDTV you're using with the Apple TV.

- Jobs proudly noted that there are 300 million "or more" installs of iTunes worldwide, but was then forced to admit something I've been trying to communicate for some time now: "Statistically," as Jobs put it, almost all of those are on Windows. I do give Mossberg some credit for calling Jobs on that quip. "Statistically?" Mossberg retorted. "In reality? In this dimension?" That's a nice way to tear down a meaningless response. On the flip side, I also give Jobs credit for his final comeback: "It's like giving a glass of ice water to somebody in hell." Good one.

- When confronted with Apple's use of non-standard AAC instead of MP3, Jobs let loose with a whopper: "We don't own [AAC]. Anyone can license it, the majority of players out there can play it, and most of the big players out there play AAC." Those last two points are absolutely untrue.

Labels: Apple, iPod, iTunes, Mac

[ Posted at 5:03 PM | Permalink ]

Thursday, May 24, 2007

I'm a PC. I'm a Mac

Me, in SuperSite for Windows:

A year or two ago, the notion of replacing a PC with one of Apple's stylish Mac computers was fraught with risk, uncertainty, and incompatibilities. Today, the computing landscape is not so black and white. Thanks to Apple's conversion to the same Intel-based computing platform used by mainstream Windows-based PCs and a host of software tools that make it easier than ever to interoperate between the Mac OS X and Windows worlds, buying a Mac is easier--and smarter--than ever. Sure, there are some hurdles to overcome. But for many people, choosing between a Mac and a PC doesn't have to be an either-or proposition anymore.

In truth, I was just excited to have a promo graphic with John Hodgman in it. ;)

Labels: Apple, Mac, Vista

[ Posted at 9:40 AM | Permalink ]

Sunday, May 20, 2007

Answering rhetorical questions and having fun with a week in the Mac blogosphere

I love the blogosphere. You know, in the same sense that I love the guy who cut me off this morning on I-95 because he thought the breakdown lane was his own special "Get to Dunkin' Donuts Free" card. Anyway. I've often wanted to do something like this, and I hope it doesn't come off too snarky, as it's meant to be fun.

Is DRM's Clock Ticking?
Yes. No. Maybe. Shoot. I should have gone for one with an obvious answer first.

Intel's roadmap puts Apple in the driver's seat
If by "driver's seat" you mean "ain't gonna have any high-end Santa Rosa features, like Robson caching, high-speed 800 MHz bus, and faster Core 2 Duo processors that the newest PCs have." You know, like the Lenovo ThinkPad T61 I'm using to make this post. Sounds more like you're in the back seat. Or the trunk.

Creating a Media Center Mac
By installing Windows Vista and Media Center on a Mac. Oh wait, I already did that one.

One year as an indie Mac developer: What I've learned
Let me guess: "Don't make anything too good. Apple will just steal it."

Enterprise backup options for the Mac looking up
In which Computerworld continues its vain attempt to show that Macs are viable in the enterprise.

Apple Recycles Macs, PCs Free
In the US only, Remy. For a limited time only.

Did Steve Jobs unveil Apple's iPhone too early?
Yes.

OMG, did you just drive traffic to... gasp... MacDailyNews?
Yes.

The Coming Mac Renaissance
The Year of Desktop Linux.

An apology??? I want something more from Engadget who set blogging back years for credibility and cost shareholders 4 billion!
Sorry, but you're contributing to the blogger culture that makes what Engadget did not just acceptable but, in fact, just common practice. Move along people, nothing to see here.

I Think Therefore I Won't iPhone (for now)
I think you're the smartest guy on the Web for this brief, shining moment. Enjoy that.

How can I say Google overpaid for YouTube?
Pretty easily, as it turns out.

Vista 40 Million Windows Vista License Sales in Context
There are 25 million Mac OS X users worldwide. OS X has been on the market for 6 years. That's context too, isn't it?

Apple iPhone gets FCC approval
Gentlemen, start overcharging consumers. Or... This thing works with Outlook, right?

Apple, Amazon may hold future of DRM-free music
Or... they may not. Future is cloudy. Try again later.

Apple preps first builds of Mac OS X 10.4.10 for testing
Silly rabbit thought 10.5 would come after 10.4.9.

iTunes is Great for Buying, Not for Organizing
Actually, the reverse is true. If you're into 128 Kbps throwaway files, go nuts.

Apple most trusted US brand
George Tenet describes it as a "slam dunk"!

How to Play Windows Media Files
Click the "Play" button.

Will Amazon Filch a Slice of Apple's Pie or Simply Bake Its Own
I'm going to take a stand here. It will certainly be one or the other.

OK, I could do this all day. Must. stop.

Labels: Apple, Humor, Mac, Microsoft, Vista

[ Posted at 10:48 AM | Permalink ]

Creating a Media Center Mac? Not Quite

Really, he's "creating a Media Center PC":

I’ve been toying with a media PC for a while now but, however hard manufacturers try, pretty much none of them is likely to pass the wife approval factor (WAF).

I tried Media Portal a while back but found it a bit buggy; Myth TV is supposed to be pretty good but I believe it can also be difficult to set up properly; the Apple TV sounded good at first - except that it doesn’t have PVR capabilities and relies on many hacks to get it working the way I would like it.

Then, I saw the latest version of Windows Media Center - Mac OS X includes Front Row but Media Center has some killer features… and I have two spare copies of Windows Vista Ultimate Edition (thank you Microsoft)! Why not install Vista on a Mac Mini, then plug in a USB TV tuner (maybe more than one) and use this as a DVD player, PVR and all round home entertainment system?

Why not indeed? You've created a Windows Media Center PC, something that's been around for many years. But props to Mark for recognizing the superiority of Media Center. As noted perhaps a bit too frequently, my family has been using Media Center as their sole TV interface for, oh, over five years now. Good stuff.

Labels: Digital media, Mac, Vista

[ Posted at 10:44 AM | Permalink ]

Wednesday, May 16, 2007

Apple Updates Popular MacBook

I'm in Los Angeles this week for WinHEC, so I'm a little out of the loop. Here's one of the things I missed:

Apple today updated its MacBook consumer notebooks with faster Intel Core 2 Duo processors, 1GB of memory and larger hard drives in every model. The MacBook is just one-inch thin and features built-in 802.11n wireless networking for up to five times the performance and twice the range of 802.11g.

Featuring a gorgeous 13-inch glossy widescreen display, the one-inch thin MacBook comes in three models: sleek white 2.0 GHz and 2.16 GHz MacBook models, and a stunning black 2.16 GHz MacBook model.

No Santa Rosa? Odd.

Labels: Mac

[ Posted at 10:59 AM | Permalink ]

Tuesday, May 15, 2007

Microsoft’s Vista fails to stop Apple Mac OS popularity?

Vista.Blorge:

Microsoft has on a number of occasions reported that Vista sales are strong, higher than expected, and that Vista is doing much better than XP did when it was launched. What it never talks about is how Vista is affecting the Apple Mac OS market. There certainly seems to be evidence that the Macintosh is only getting more popular, despite the launch of Vista.

Uh-huh.

Today, at the WinHEC 2007 trade show, Microsoft announced that, as of last week, there is an installed based of 40 million Windows Vista users. Microsoft Bill Gates, in his keynote address at the show, even implicitly mentioned how well Vista is doing compared to the Mac. As I noted today in WinInfo (which I have to quote here as the talk transcript isn't yet up), Gates said that "within its first five weeks of availability, there were already more Vista users worldwide than there are for any non-Microsoft operating system. The message is clear if not explicitly stated: The Mac may get all the positive press, but Vista surpassed the entire Mac user base in just over a month."

Yeah, I get it. The Mac is fine. But don't pretend that Vista hasn't had an effect on the world and, yes, on the Mac. The blog post referenced above is just silly: There are real numbers that support Vista's success, and then there's anecdotal info ("the percentage of online Macs running Apple’s operating system has climbed from the long-flat 3 per cent to 5.6 per cent") that, um, doesn't really prove much at all. You can decide which is more relevant, of course.

Labels: Mac, Vista

[ Posted at 5:21 PM | Permalink ]

Tuesday, May 08, 2007

Mac share of surfers doubles in 8 months

Computerworld cites WebSideStory and Net Applications statistics and comes up with an interesting look at what is likely as close as we'll ever get to Mac usage share in the US:

The portion of people surfing the Web using a Mac has doubled in the past eight months, an Internet metrics analyst said today.

In the US.

"For the longest time, Mac hung around 3% of the operating systems using the Web. But it picked up around last summer, and has nearly doubled its market share."

Again, in the US.

Measurements from WebSideStory and rival Net Applications of Aliso Viejo, Calif., put Apple Inc.'s Mac OS X at close to or just over 6% of all machines in the U.S. that connected to the Web last month.

"For the first time since 1999, when we started tracking, the Mac has really made a major push," said Johnston. Since August, the percentage of online Macs running Apple's operating system has climbed from the long-flat 3% to 5.6%, he said. Net Applications data, which splits the Mac's share between computers running the PowerPC version of Mac OS and those with an Intel edition of the operating system, pegged the total share at 6.2% for April.

This seems believable to me. And to anyone that wants to latch onto this as usage share gospel--for the US--I'm with you. But you have to take the bad with the good. As noted above, Mac usage share never moved before this particular time period. I think that contradicts a lot of the assumptions people have made about Mac growth previously, but corresponds to what I've written about how massive quarterly growth doesn't equate to big market share gains.

In any event, it's no surprise that Macs sell better in the US than in the rest of the world: It is the richest nation on earth, after all. Still, this is good news.

Labels: Apple, Mac

[ Posted at 3:03 PM | Permalink ]

Monday, May 07, 2007

Switching Back

This has been forwarded around the Mac Web already, but it's still interesting:

I have been using Mac OS X as my primary OS for almost a year now, but last night I switched back [to Windows] ... I can’t believe I didn’t switch back sooner, the main difference is that the interface is much much smoother and neater and despite popular belief performance is actually fantastic. I was used to waiting on Mac OS X while my standards apps would open up - Quicksilver, Firefox, Skype, etc. but Vista goes almost straight into the desktop and most apps boot very quickly.

I didn’t expect it to be like this, I didn’t want Vista to be this good - I was expecting to boot back into OS X and living happily ever after, but damn, this is one fast, slick and nice operating system. If you are a Mac user try it yourself, install boot camp and Vista and it will feel like you just added another CPU and doubled your RAM - I can’t see any evidence for any of the reports of Vista being slow or power-hungry.

The only thing that's really surprising is that this surprised anyone. Windows Vista is a great OS. But like Mac OS X and previous Windows versions, Vista too gets bogged down over time. I suspect what he's seeing here is the difference between a year-old copy of OS X that's been loaded up with apps and a pristine new install of Vista.

As for the functional stuff he's just discovering and describing, I mean, duh. I and many others have been writing about that for years.

Sadly, a Mac isn't an ideal Windows machine, especially the portable ones. The keyboard differences are hard to overcome, especially. But if you want both OS X and Windows, it's obviously the only way to go.

Anyway. My guess is that this happens more often than some would like to admit.

Labels: Mac, Vista

[ Posted at 4:17 PM | Permalink ]

Thursday, April 26, 2007

Apple Surges on Heady Earnings, Growth

Me, in WinInfo:

Apple posted its latest quarterly earnings on Wednesday, and results surpassed even the most optimistic expectations. Apple profits jumped 88 percent in the quarter to $770 million on revenues of $5.26 billion, the company said. Sales of iPod portable media players rose 24 percent in the quarter to 10.5 million units, while sales of Macintosh computer systems rose even higher, 36 percent, to 1.5 million units.

Apple's strong performance comes during a time in which it has not shipped major updates to either of its two product lines. Apple will bolster its iPod line with the iPod sometime in June, and the company expects to ship the next update to the Mac operating system software in October. Presumably, Apple will refresh its other Mac and iPod hardware throughout the year as well.

While the iPod continues to dominate the digital music world, Apple's Mac has seen only limited real world gains, despite the strong growth.

Still, there's a growing consensus that Apple's successes with the Mac are not so easily characterized. Though the Mac's market share remains tiny, Macs are indeed selling well and generating plenty of profits for Apple. Presumably, the company can continue as a specialty PC maker whose products are loved for their design aesthetics, performance, and security. And though there are indications that Apple is preoccupied with its consumer electronics products, the Mac market remains both viable and desirable.

Labels: Apple, iPod, Mac

[ Posted at 9:16 AM | Permalink ]

Wednesday, April 25, 2007

Apple Reports Second Quarter Results

Apple PR:

Apple today announced financial results for its fiscal 2007 second quarter ended March 31, 2007. The Company posted revenue of $5.26 billion and net quarterly profit of $770 million, or $.87 per diluted share. These results compare to revenue of $4.36 billion and net quarterly profit of $410 million, or $.47 per diluted share, in the year-ago quarter. Gross margin was 35.1 percent, up from 29.8 percent in the year-ago quarter. International sales accounted for 43 percent of the quarter’s revenue.

Apple shipped 1,517,000 Macintosh computers and 10,549,000 iPods during the quarter, representing 36 percent growth in Macs and 24 percent growth in iPods over the year-ago quarter.

Labels: Apple, iPod, Mac

[ Posted at 7:26 PM | Permalink ]

Mac Q1 2007 market share

So Apple released its quarterly results today and, as expected, they're looking good. The company sold 1.517 million Mac computers in the quarter, so we can now calculate their market share for the first quarter of 2007, using the overall PC market share figures I discussed previously.

The Mac accounted for 2.49 percent of all computers worldwide in the first quarter of 2007.

This is along the lines of the modest gains I had expected. In Q4 2006, the Mac controlled 2.4 percent of the market. Overall, in 2006, the Mac represented 2.41 percent of the market worldwide. In 2005, it was 2.28 percent.

Steady as she goes.

Labels: Apple, Mac

[ Posted at 7:18 PM | Permalink ]

Monday, April 23, 2007

Zune and Mac on opposite ends of the dip

Ex-Apple evangelist Guy Kawasaki interviews "Big Dip" author Seth Godin. The whole thing is good, but the following two questions are of particular interest to readers of this blog, and I think I agree with both answers:

Question: Should Microsoft quit the MP3 player market?

Answer: I thought they already did. They’re spending a lot of money, but they’re on a dead end. They always were. They saw the Dip, but instead of embracing it by completely reinventing what it meant to be an MP3 player, they just played it safe and made a piece of me-too.

When you copy something that’s already on the other side of the Dip, you’ve already lost. Microsoft “quit” the MP3 player market when they identified the wrong Dip. They picked the obvious, “safe” one—the one committees of people could live with, but one that is so big and so steep that even Microsoft doesn’t have the money to get through it.

Microsoft has a long history of sticking through Dips, and a long history of quitting dead ends. I have no idea what they’re thinking when it comes to the Zune, but it’s a dead end, through and through.

Question: Should Apple quit the personal computer market?

Answer: Apple has already crossed that Dip, big time. Not the “personal computer Dip” but the Dip of “style-conscious, designer’s, multimedia, student, family computer.” They’re the best in the world at that. They own it. They profit from it. Sure, if Steve hadn’t been arrogant, they could have been best in the world at a much bigger, much juicier market. But they’re not. Once they deal with that—and I think they mostly have—then they can erect a wall behind them, a bigger dip, one that prevents others from following. Over time, personal computers become a profitless commodity while Apple’s market just gets sexier, more fun, and more profitable.

Thanks Charles.

Labels: Apple, iPod, Mac, Microsoft, Zune

[ Posted at 6:54 PM | Permalink ]

Saturday, April 21, 2007

About that recent Mac hack

Most Apple fans and many technology followers are no doubt aware that a hacker recently broke into a Mac, won a $10,000 prize for doing so, and in the words of IDG News headline writers, "crushed the myth" that Apple's Mac are more secure than PCs. I'd like to comment on this event, and on Mac security.

Macs are more secure than PCs. Obviously.

Many would argue that this has a lot to do with the Mac's low market share. I believe that's part of it. But it's not all of it. Mac OS X is also based on one of the more secure and well-respected UNIX variants. On the flip side, I don't feel that Apple is particularly good at responding quickly to security vulnerabilities, but then its systems are hacked so infrequently, it's never needed to be. Microsoft, by contrast, has been bitten so much, and so hard, that's it's been backed into a corner. The company is very, very good at responding to security threats now.

Macs are more secure than PCs for the same reasons that Firefox is more secure than IE. There are fewer users. The companies that make these products are better respected by hackers and are less often targeted as a result. And Macs, like Firefox, aren't full of buggy, insecure legacy code (ActiveX, anyone?) that Microsoft must keep floating around to quiet complaints from its biggest customers.

All this said, the only time I've ever had a major security issue on any of my PCs was when I turned off XP SP2's firewall during beta testing. It's not hard to secure a PC. But you do have to secure a PC. I don't secure my Macs. But I don't have to secure my Macs. There's something to be said for that.

Anyway, I just felt this needed to be said. There are plenty of good reasons to use a PC, and certainly Windows Vista fixes a lot of problems. But Macs are more secure than PCs. Obviously.

Labels: Apple, Mac

[ Posted at 8:45 PM | Permalink ]

Friday, April 20, 2007

Q1 2007 worldwide PC market share

Both Gartner and IDC have released their worldwide PC market share figures. As usual, they're pretty close to each other, but here's how the top five PC makers fared in each report:

IDC
58.9 million PCs sold worldwide, up 10.9 percent overall

1. HP - 11.24m - 19.1 percent share
2. Dell - 8.99m - 15.2 percent share
3. Acer - 3.97m - 6.7 percent share
3. Lenovo - 3.97m - 6.7 percent share
5. Toshiba - 2.55m - 4.3 percent share

Gartner
62.7 million PCs sold worldwide, up 8.9 percent overall

1. HP - 11.03m - 17.6 percent share
2. Dell - 8.69m - 13.9 percent share
3. Acer - 4.25m - 6.8 percent share
4. Lenovo - 3.96m - 6.3 percent share
5. Toshiba - 2.55m - 4.1 percent share

If you average 58.9 million and 62.7 million, you get 60.8 million. As always, I'll use this averaged number to determine the Macintosh's Q1 2007 market share when Apple releases its sales figures on April 25.

Some market share observations from the quarter and how they relate to Apple:

- Gartner estimates that Apple accounted for 5 percent of the PC market in the US during the first quarter of 2007. This estimate comes ahead of Apple's sales data and, like all of the US data, is preliminary. Certainly, it's not improbable that Apple could control 5 percent of the US market.

- Both Apple and Hewlett-Packard (HP) experienced roughly the same growth in Q1 2007, according to Gartner (30 percent for Apple in the US only; 28.7 percent for HP worldwide, 25.8 percent in the US). However, note that HP saw huge gains worldwide, while Apple's growth is only known for the US. I've often discussed the fact that growth is easier to achieve when you're starting from a small position in the market. That HP was able to basically duplicate Apple's growth, and do so across the globe, and not just in the richest PC market, is somewhat astonishing. They were already the number one PC maker by most estimates. You don't typically see that kind of growth from one of the dominant players. (Also notable: Toshiba grew 26.8 percent in the US.)

- I've seen some outlandish claims out there about "Apple’s Mac sales are now growing twice as fast as other major American PC makers." Actually, according to Gartner, both HP and Toshiba are growing just about as fast as Apple in the US (see above), and HP and Acer (46 percent) are growing dramatically faster than the rest of the market worldwide. I'm interested in the facts, not FUD or wishful thinking, and those are the facts.

Looking ahead to April 25, I don't have a feeling one way or another about Apple's worldwide market share. The company has been stuck in a 2.x percent trajectory for a while now with modest gains over time.

And of course, there's the ever-present argument that market share doesn't matter. That's not entirely true. Market share isn't the only way to measure the health of Apple, the Mac, other PC makers, or the overall PC market, of course. But it is one way, and it's one of the most accurate, which makes it especially appealing to me. More opinion-oriented measurements, like "mind share" play into this, as does the ever-elusive usage share, which would be wonderful to have if there were any accurate way to measure it. And of course, Apple is increasingly moving into other markets, which will earn more money for the company over time.

Regardless of the outcome, April 25 will be interesting.

Labels: Apple, Mac

[ Posted at 11:29 AM | Permalink ]

Tuesday, April 17, 2007

Can't we all just get along? Some thoughts about the Leopard delay

So, one might think that I'd be jumping all over this Leopard delay and ridiculing Apple for its previous hypocritical attacks on the oft-delayed Microsoft Windows Vista. The truth is, I'm saddened that it's come to this. I actually care quite a bit about Mac OS X and see troubling signs from Apple that the Mac is becoming the Apple II of this decade--yeah, it still makes money, but the company has clearly moved on to a new future, in this case, a future of consumer electronics devices and services.

But there are two points I'd like to make. One, the Mac community, for the most part, has given Apple a total pass on this delay, and that's something they were unable to do with Microsoft. Witness a few typical headlines from the Mac apologists:

- The Leopard Report: Exaggerating the Impact of 10.5's Delay

- Apple Delays Leopard, Sky Doesn't Fall

- Leopard delays - What's the big deal?

Now, to be fair, there are some exceptions. The Mac Observer's John Martellaro wrote a nice piece describing the leadership failure that resulted in this delay. Actually, Martellaro does a nice job of explaining the luck that led to Apple's current position in the market, but that's another story. I'm just happy to see a Mac-centric publication (albeit one of many that focuses today largely on the iPod as well) be so realistic. Good for them.

Secondly, this delay has been a long time coming. Witness the following parade of OS X-related setbacks and delays, in chronological order:

"We're slowing [the development pace of OS X] down a little bit ... because that's not a sustainable rate."
-- Then Apple CTO Avie Tevanian, May 2004, referring to Apple's previous policy of shipping annual OS X updates. Previous to Tiger, every OS X update came out about a year after the previous release. Tiger shipped a year and a half after Panther. Leopard will now ship a full two and a half years after Tiger.

"We intend to release Leopard at the end of 2006 or early 2007 right around the time when Microsoft is expected to release Longhorn. So that's what the future looks like."
-- Apple CEO Steve Jobs, keynote address at WWDC 2005, June 2005

"Leopard will ship this spring."
-- Apple CEO Steve Jobs, keynote address at WWDC 2006, August 2006, referring to spring 2007, or the time period between April 1 and June 30, 2007.

"So, 2007 is going to be a great year for the Mac. But this is all we’re going to talk about the Mac today. We’re going to move on."
-- Apple CEO Steve Jobs, keynote address at Macworld 2007, January 2007. Jobs said absolutely nothing about Leopard at the company's only major Macintosh tradeshow event of the year. In fact, he never uttered the word "Leopard" even once during the two hour address.

"We will not be able to release Leopard at our Worldwide Developers Conference in early June as planned. We now plan to ... ship Leopard in October [2007]."
-- Apple statement, April 2007

What does this all mean? To me, it says that Apple's posturing has finally caught up with it. I've often argued that Apple made great products but could be a spiteful bully, and that its hard core fans have emulated that style in their dealings with people who disagreed with them. Now that the shoe is on the other foot, so to speak, I won't stoop to that level. But this is a nice chance for the Apple community to adopt a humbler approach in their dealings with the outside world. Making an operating system is hard, and we can and should cut Apple some slack when there are problems. Maybe Apple and its fans could extend the same courtesy.

Labels: Apple, Mac

[ Posted at 12:36 PM | Permalink ]

Monday, April 16, 2007

Will Apple Finally Bring Consistency to Mac OS X UI?

Say what you will about Mac OS X, but the one thing it's never been is consistent. Mac OS X Tiger is a scattershot collection of various UI types, with some applications taking on a "brushed metal" fascia, others taking on a pseudo-brushed metal look ("Platinum"), and still others adopting various levels of the old whitewashed and stripped OS X look and feel. Yep, OS X is a mess if you care about consistency. And while I'd never argue that Windows was better in this regard, given Apple's supposed design skills, you'd think it would pay more attention to its own OS.

It's about six years late, but they might finally be doing so in Leopard. I try to stay away from Mac speculation, since it's all over the map and hard to tell the fake stuff from what's really happening, but I've seen some encouraging signs that recent Leopard builds are finally starting to pull it together from a consistency standpoint. In these builds, apparently, the whole system takes on an iTunes-like look, but darker. No, it's not the revolutionary Aero-killer some had hoped for, at least not yet. (Yeah, some people still believe those "secrets" are real and on the way.) But consistency trumps eye candy in my book, and, I suspect, does so for many of those who care about OS X.

Update: A number of readers have recommended a free utility called UNO that brings UI consistency to Tiger. It's worth checking out. You know, if you care about this kind of thing.

Labels: Apple, Mac

[ Posted at 9:44 AM | Permalink ]

Thursday, April 12, 2007

Apple delays Leopard. Again.

In case there was any remaining doubts about the priorities at Apple, they have little to do with Mac OS X:

iPhone contains the most sophisticated software ever shipped on a mobile device, and finishing it on time has not come without a price -- we had to borrow some key software engineering and QA resources from our Mac OS® X team, and as a result we will not be able to release Leopard at our Worldwide Developers Conference in early June as planned. While Leopard's features will be complete by then, we cannot deliver the quality release that we and our customers expect from us. We now plan to show our developers a near final version of Leopard at the conference, give them a beta copy to take home so they can do their final testing, and ship Leopard in October. We think it will be well worth the wait. Life often presents tradeoffs, and in this case we're sure we've made the right ones.

Wow. I mean, wow.

So, first Leopard was going to ship before Vista. Then it was going to ship around the same time as Vista. Then it was Spring 2007. Now, October. Sad.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again: Apple is two companies. One makes iPods. The other makes Macs. The iPod company is more important to management and more relevant to the future of the company. Obviously.

Labels: Apple, Mac

[ Posted at 8:33 PM | Permalink ]

Tuesday, April 10, 2007

Apple Boot Camp 1.2 Beta Review

Me, in SuperSite for Windows:

Despite some small issues, Boot Camp 1.2 Beta is an excellent solution for running Windows and OS X on the same machine. Apple has done an exemplary job of improving this useful software over the past year, and now that it supports Vista as well, I have no compunction in recommending it whole-heartedly. If you've been eyeing one of those beautiful Macintoshes over at the Apple Store but don't want to give up all the useful Windows software you use, you now have one less reason not to give it a shot. With Boot Camp 1.2 Beta, today's Macs provide the best of both worlds: You get Mac OS X, with its high-quality iLife suite of digital media solutions, and Windows, with its unsurpassed gaming and application libraries, all in one box. That's the kind of switch I could easily rally around.

Rating: Five out of five stars. Good stuff.

Labels: Apple, Mac, Vista

[ Posted at 5:43 PM | Permalink ]

Wednesday, April 04, 2007

Apple 8-core Xeon workstations

Apple quietly updated its high-end Mac Pro line today, adding 8-core variants:

Meet the latest addition to the Mac Pro family: The world’s first 3.0GHz, 8-core Intel Xeon-based Mac Pro. Consider the bar officially raised.

Opt for the 8-core Mac Pro and you get the power of two Quad-Core Intel Xeon “Clovertown” processors running at 3.0GHz.

It's hard not to look at that and just think, "yikes."

$4000 to start.

Update: There's been some confusion about my "yikes" comment above. It has nothing to do with the price, good or bad. It's referring to the high-end specs of the system itself, which are obviously impressive.

Labels: Apple, Mac

[ Posted at 10:01 AM | Permalink ]

Google Desktop for Mac (Beta)

Google:

Google Desktop is a desktop search application that gives you easy access to information on your Mac and from the web. Desktop makes searching your own email, files, music, photos, and more as easy as searching the web with Google.

Interesting. I've been testing the new version of Google Desktop for Windows for the past several weeks, and it has some features that are missing (and desirable) on the Mac side, including a Sidebar replacement that hosts Dashboard-like Gadgets. But because its onscreen all the time by default (like Vista's Sidebar), it's much more useful and interesting than Dashboard. I wonder if that's coming.

Related: Google Desktop for Mac (Google's Mac Blog)

Labels: Google, Mac

[ Posted at 9:18 AM | Permalink ]

Tuesday, April 03, 2007

“Want to” Vs. “Have to”

Ubuntu Blog:

More people use Windows not because they want to, but because they have to. More people use Linux [and OS X, I'd add --Paul] not because they have to, but because they want to.

I disagree.

But I think I see the point he's trying to make.

Actually, from what I can tell, many, many people use Windows because they want to. I'm talking about people here, not office drones. These guys want to access the world's largest software library. They want to take advantage of all the hardware that's out there. They want to play games. They want to do whatever it is. But it isn't always "need." It's often "want."

That said, many (most?) people who use OS X and, to a greater extent, Linux, are making a statement. My guess is that these people are generally very technical and know exactly what they want. They're smart enough to work outside the mainstream and know it's going to work. They know where to go to get help. And so on.

So I know he was trying to be profound. But this isn't "have to" vs. want. The truth is, for most people--like, 99.99 percent of the computing using public--a computer is a tool. What they "want" isn't a particular OS. What they want is a solution to a problem, or an answer to a need. They want email. They want the Web. They want Office. Games. Digital photos and music.

Anyone who stays up at night worrying about OS platforms just isn't part of the mainstream. That's not good or bad, it's just reality. And yeah, that might be me and it might be you (whoever you are, reading this). But it's not the world. It's not most people. Learning to understand that your needs and wants are not the same as other people's and are, in this case especially, a very minority opinion is an important step in getting The Big Picture. We'll all get there eventually.

Labels: Linux, Mac

[ Posted at 3:59 PM | Permalink ]

Wednesday, March 28, 2007

Boot Camp 1.2 beta

Apple:

Boot Camp 1.2 beta contains several updates and is intended for all new and previous Boot Camp beta users.

Boot Camp 1.2 beta includes:

* Support for Windows Vista (32-bit)

* Updated drivers, including but not limited to trackpad, AppleTime (synch), audio, graphics, modem, iSight camera

* Support the Apple Remote (works with iTunes and Windows Media Player)

* A Windows system tray icon for easy access to Boot Camp information and actions

* Improved keyboard support for Korean, Chinese, Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, Finnish, Russian, and French Canadian

* Improved Windows driver installation experience

* Updated documentation and Boot Camp on-line help in Windows

* Apple Software Update (for Windows XP and Vista)

Needless to say, I didn't think we'd see Vista support in Boot Camp until Leopard shipped. Good stuff!

Labels: Apple, Mac, Vista

[ Posted at 8:19 PM | Permalink ]

Sunday, March 25, 2007

Everyone is still asking the wrong questions about Leopard

Michael Gartenberg of Jupiter Research hopefully, puts an end to the recent Leopard delays silliness, but still doesn't raise what I think is the most important question about Apple's next operating system. Here's what's going on:

Reports coming in that Leopard's delayed until sometime in October. Just spoke with Apple who confirmed the reports are wrong and Leopard is still scheduled to ship in this spring as they previously announced. The rumor mill is wrong again.

Many Mac sites are still asking, "Where's Leopard?" But that's not the right question.

Who cares "where" it is? For that matter, who cares "when" Leopard will ship? The question everyone should be asking is, "What" is Leopard? Last August, Steve Jobs pointedly promised that Leopard would contain "secret" features that would put it ahead of Vista. Since then, Apple's most notable pronouncements about Leopard have been its complete silence on the topic. As a technology fan and Apple customer who will purchase Leopard the second it comes out, I'm merely curious about this. But if I were a developer focusing on the Mac OS, I'd be frantic by now. If Leopard is really shipping in Spring 2007 (which started last week, by the way), then why hasn't Apple provided its most valuable supporters--developers--with the information they need to take advantage of these secret features? It's an absolutely ludicrous situation, perhaps the ultimate example of Apple's ridiculous penchant for security.

Apple, I don't care when Leopard ships. March, April, August, whatever. I don't even really care how far along work on the OS is, or whether Vista compatibility is somehow the problem. What I care about is how you intend to keep Mac OS X competitive. Silence is not the answer. And "where" and "when" are most certainly not the questions.

Apple, what is Leopard?

Labels: Apple, Mac

[ Posted at 11:30 AM | Permalink ]

Wednesday, March 21, 2007

Why PCs Should Get More Sleep

OK, it's basically an ad for Windows Vista, but if you care at all about the environment (and yeah, I do, despite my opinion on the causes of global warming), or at least your own electric bill, this is an interesting read:

A single incandescent 100-watt light bulb left on around the clock for a year costs more than US$80 to power. Generating that power releases about 1,350 pounds of carbon dioxide emissions into the atmosphere.

According to Dean DeWhitt, director of Microsoft’s Windows Kernel team, that is about the same amount of power many PCs consume while not in use. Yet, while few people would leave a light bulb on for a year, ma