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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 Wednesday, October 03, 20078 Reasons Windows Users Don't SwitchSteven 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.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. LiesYep. 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 UsersThis 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, 2007The iPhone is not a UMPC, sorryThe 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, 2007The Tao of SteveElizabeth 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.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, 2007A Window of Opportunity for Macs, Soon to CloseRandall 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:
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. [ Posted at 1:40 PM | Permalink ]
Thursday, August 16, 2007Electronic Arts delays OS X gamesVnunet:Mac users are still waiting two months after game maker Electronic Arts promised to increase its development efforts for the Mac OS X platform.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, 2007Apple Boot Camp 1.4 BetaApple ships a new version of Boot Camp:What's new in this version:[ Posted at 3:29 AM | Permalink ]
iMac Software Update 1.0Apple: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. [ Posted at 3:25 AM | Permalink ]
Tuesday, August 07, 2007Major Apple product updatesIt'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, 2007Apple's Mac Makes Strong Market Share Gains in QuarterMe, 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 2007OK, 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 WindowsCNET 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.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, 2007Vista 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 monthHuh? 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.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, 2007A look at PC market share for the US in Q2 2007A 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, 2007Mac OS X 10.4.10 UpdateApple 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:Installing now. I guess I'm not expecting too much based on the list above. [ Posted at 5:36 PM | Permalink ]
Wednesday, June 13, 2007Cupertino, 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.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. [ Posted at 9:34 AM | Permalink ]
Tuesday, June 12, 2007Who 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?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, 2007Safari, Not Leopard, is the Real News at Apple ShowMe, 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.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. [ Posted at 5:30 PM | Permalink ]
A few positive notes from the WWDC 2007 keynoteSo 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. [ Posted at 4:37 PM | Permalink ]
Steve Jobs: Just Kidding About Those Secret New FeaturesSo 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. [ Posted at 2:54 PM | Permalink ]
WWDC keynote ... liveThere 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. [ Posted at 1:13 PM | Permalink ]
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