Other Sites
Apple Mac Pro Cinema Ad Mac Pro Trailer
Fearful Symmetry Between Microsoft And Apple?
Should Apple Offer Touchscreen MacBooks?
Free Battery Health Utility Monitors MacBook Battery Status
Apple Mac Pro Cinema Ad Mac Pro Trailer
Apple has posted a teaser video of the new Mac Pro, entitled:
"The future of the pro desktop. Coming this fall."
You can check it out at:
http://goo.gl/R9YgMg
Fearful Symmetry Between Microsoft And Apple?
New York Times columnist and economist Paul Krugman concedes that he's not a tech industry maven, so he's been busy coming up to speed on the implications of Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer's resignation. But he contends that once you look past the surface, he perceives "a remarkable symmetry" between Microsoft's strategy in its heyday and Apple's strategy today.
Krugman observes that back in the 80s, Apple's operating system was clearly better, but Apple misunderstood the nature of the market, making the Mac OS it available only on its own beautiful machines, and charging premium prices. Meanwhile Microsoft licensed its system to lots of people making cheap machines and established a commanding position through network externalities.
Fast-forward to recent and present history, Krugma notes that Microsoft missed the boat on mobile devices, while Apple got temporarily ahead of the curve, and he emphasizes "temporarily," because in his estimation Apple products no longer have a dramatic quality edge, and while Apple isn't selling an inferior product, its products are in his perception little if any better than cheaper competitors. He deduces that Apple's purchase on portable computing sector dominance is not nearly as secure as Microsoft's has been of the PC sector for nearly 30 years now, partly because of Apple's reliance on the loyalty of individual customers, while Microsoft has largely largely relied on the loyalty of corporate IT managers, who are inherently more conservative.
For the full commentary visit here:
http://goo.gl/vPX3J7
Should Apple Offer Touchscreen MacBooks?
AppleGazette's Sean Melrose says that Steve Jobs could at times get things wrong, a case in point being his stance on what would become the iPad mini, which less than a year since its release, accounts for 55% of iPads sold.
Melrose observes that Tim Cook and the late Steve Jobs before him have contended that the idea of a touchscreen MacBook is simply not feasible, that their objections make logical sense (notably that Touch surfaces don't want to be vertical), and that the obvious ergonomic problems would be just the beginning.
However, touch surfaces don't absolutely have to be vertical in a laptop PC device. EG: Lenovo's IdeaPad Yoga (a notebook that folds back on itself to become a tablet) and the Microsoft Surface Pro (a touchscreen PC with a kick stand and detachable keyboard), and it's not a fanciful reach to speculate that Apple could improve on either concept.
Melrose says that regardless of wether Apple changes its stance on touchscreen MacBooks, you can't deny the fact that people are reaching out to try and touch their laptop screens. SInce getting an iPad, your editor has caught himself occasionally absent-mindedly reaching to touch a laptop sceen.
I don't really have a dog in this fight. I'm not a big touchscren fan, but as long as I can still use a touchpad and/or mouse, having a touchscreen on a laptop would be no hardship, especially on a hybrid machine like the Yoga that allows it to morph into a quasi-tablet running a desktop OS. With touchscreens becoming ubiquitous on Intel Ultrabooks, whether it makes logical sense or not, if Apple MacBooks don't get touchscreens there will be a perception that Ultrabooks offer a marquee feature that MacBooks don't.
As with the Mac OS in the '80s and '90s, Apple is objectively right, but being right doesn't always yield the better market prospects.
For the full AppleGazette blog, visit:
http://goo.gl/SUdxHW
Free Battery Health Utility Monitors MacBook Battery Status
FIPLAB Ltd's free Battery Health Utility provides detailed stats and health information for your MacBook's battery.
With Battery Health, you can easily monitor all the important information about your MacBook's battery, such as current charge level, battery capacity, power usage, number of times it has been charged and much more.
A 'Tips' section in the app suggests a host of useful ways to improve the life of your MacBook's battery.
System requirements:
• OS X 10.6.8 or later
• 64-bit processor
Free
For more information, visit:
http://goo.gl/yCA9vp
Tags: News ď Tech-Industry ď
