Applelinks Tech Web Reader - Tuesday, August 19, 2008
Snow Leopard, Windows 7, Midori, and the End of Windows
Is The "Killer App" Argument Dead?
Why Apple's Bubble is Already Starting to Burst And Why You Should Think Twice Before Buying an Apple Product
Apple Enterprise Sending Thousands Of Macs Into Hotels, Cruise Ships
Details of Upcoming Intel Products from 2008 through 2012 Leaked Ahead of IDF
Dell's New Plan Is Music To Your Fears
Consequences of Bad RAM
The Mac Night Owl: The Apple Report: Yes, Most of the Time it Just Works!
Snow Leopard, Windows 7, Midori, and the End of Windows
Low End Mac's Frank Fox says:
The cat is out of the bag on the next operating systems from Apple and Microsoft. Apple has announced Snow Leopard (Mac OS X 10.6). Microsoft has promised Windows 7 - or, if that isn't good enough, maybe there will be Midori. Let's pull together the facts and see how they compare....
Let's drop in at the Apple Snow Leopard website. Apple has five new things it is highlighting:
OpenCL
QuickTime X
Grand Central
Microsoft Exchange Support
64-bit....
Good try Apple, but be prepared to be blown away by what Microsoft is getting ready to unleash on the world. Where else would I go for Windows news but the Windows 7 FAQ on Paul Thurrott's SuperSite?
As Thurrott points out, Windows 7 is going to be the next "major release" of Windows. There are five features that are highlighted, just like Apple:
Multitouch
New Windows Explorer
Hypervisor
WinFS
Subscription based sales
Is multitouch what I think it is? Yes, this new feature can already be found on the iPhone, the iPod touch, and MacBook (plain, Pro, and Air) trackpads. It's good to see the photocopiers at Redmond are working hard.........
Saving my favorite new feature for last, we may be able to buy all this as a subscription. What more could we want? This gives us the privilege of sending Microsoft money every year to renew our subscription in order to continue using all the wonderful Microsoft goodness.
For the full commentary visit here:
http://lowendmac.com/ed/fox/08ff/midori-windows-7.html
Is The "Killer App" Argument Dead?
ZNet's Adrian Kingsley-Hughes says:
The other day I was talking with a bunch of other tech heads about the ongoing Windows vs. Mac vs. Linux market share war and why, from a stats point of view, that Mac and Linux were still trailing far behind Windows.
"It all revolves around killer apps," pipes up one of the tech heads. "The problem with both Apple and Linux is that neither OS has a compelling killer app driving the user base."
The conversation then went off on to discuss apps such as Photoshop and AutoCAD and how with Windows you have a single unified platform that'll run almost any professional grade package that you can think of, while with Mac and Linux your choices are restricted.
Bull.....
Let's face it, if you piled up all the world's Photoshop and AutoCAD users (and by users I mean people who have bought a license for it, rather than having pirated it) then you have a pretty small user base. Your average user isn't likely to have Photoshop installed, and it less likely to have AutoCAD or LightWave.
For the full commentary visit here:
http://blogs.zdnet.com/hardware/?p=2417
Why Apple's Bubble is Already Starting to Burst And Why You Should Think Twice Before Buying an Apple Product
associatedcontent.com's LINET says:
With Apple's iPhone 3G success it may seem odd to suggest that Apple's bubble is already starting to burst. But it is. When I was growing up Apple used to be the brand of geeks and maybe even superiority. Now the apple brand stands for coolness too.
And so it was that when my PC crashed in December of 2006, I traded in my loyalty to PC's for a shiny Macbook. I was in love with my Mac. It is true, despite what PC users may say, that Mac OS X is a smoother running system. Once you reprogram your PC mind and learn how to use a Mac, you realize that it is actually easier to use than a PC. Despite running into compatibility issues with my favorite software programs and games, I swore I'd never get a PC again.....
But in August of 2007, my love for Apple started to fade. One day, I opened my Macbook and to my horror found two cracks on either side of the trackpad..... Thankfully, I had AppleCare and the problem was quickly fixed. Now I loved Apple even more for its customer service.
....I faced yet another Apple horror. As I was closing my Macbook one night, I touched my charger's cord and found that it was unbearably hot. When I looked my charger's cord was melting......It turns out that when he took my computer's battery out to check its serial number, the battery was also bulging.
Now I am more hesitant to buy anything by Apple. Their customer care is not bad, but who wants drop so much money to have these sorts of problems.....Apple was never a better quality brand. It may be that its seeming superiority until now, lied in the fact that lesser numbers of people were buying its products.
For the full commentary visit here:
http://tinyurl.com/5dzbu9
[Editor's note: The foregoing is an emblematic example of at least a couple of things. First, anecdotal experience is insufficient grounds to make sweeping generalizations about a product. It is possible to find user-end horror stories about virtually any mass-produced product, especially ones as complex as personal computers. The case cracking problem was a known issue with early MacBooks. Apple repaired them, as they did with the blog author's unit, and would have even if AppleCare had not been in place as it fault manifested within the basic 12-month warranty period. I haven't heard any complaints about this issue with recent revision MacBooks. The power adapter cord melting is more serious, and an obvious potential fire hazard as well as being annoying. I haven't heard of any epidemic of this, but power adapters have traditionally been a problematic item with laptop computers - not just Apple's. Ditto for Lithium Ion batteries.
Secondly, these troubles are certainly annoying and frustrating, and if they afflicted a computer of mine I would be ticked off too, but to hang a blanket condemnation of Apple products on them or to question Apple's well and objectively established record as constitently occupying the top or near-top of user-satisfaction and after-sales service surveys (including those conducted by PC-oriented journals) for more than two decades simply doesn't hold water. Ed.]
Apple Enterprise Sending Thousands Of Macs Into Hotels, Cruise Ships
Applelinsider's Prince McLean reports:
Apple's Enterprise Sales Group has been quietly installing thousands of iMacs, Mac minis, Mac Pros, and Xserves in hotels and cruise ships in a new push to bring the media rich experience of Apple's retail stores to the hospitality industry, where hoteliers are seeking to deliver personalized, unique experiences that will impress guests and bring them back for more.
For the full report visit here:
http://tinyurl.com/5j5tee
Details of Upcoming Intel Products from 2008 through 2012 Leaked Ahead of IDF
DailyTech's Jason Mick reports:
Intel is continuing to follow its "tick tock" strategy, with die shrinks coming in 2009 and 2011. New architectures, according to Intel, will be coming in 2008 with Nehalem, in 2010 with Sandy Bridge, and in 2012 with Haswell.
Real time raytracing may finally be introduced with Intel's Larrabee. Intel demoed an impresive raytraced version of Quake IV recently. Intel has lots of excitement in store in the next four years
For the full report visit here:
http://tinyurl.com/58em8t
Dell's New Plan Is Music To Your Fears
MacUser's Dan Moren says:
Remember Dell's new music initiative? The one that Rob Enderle works for and then failed to disclose? Turns out they've got a secret weapon: the person heading it up is an ex-Apple executive, Tim Bucher, who was briefly Senior VP of Macintosh Hardware Engineering in 2005 and oversaw the development of Mac mini.
Bucher went on to found Zing....Zing's premise is to create an open-standard of music and media that will allow Apple's rivals to take it on as one force....
Which sounds well and good, but we already have an open standard, don't we? I mean, more and more download services have moved to DRM-free MP3s - why do we need some sort of special system for handling them?.....
For the full commentary visit here:
http://www.macuser.com/rivals/dells_new_plan_is_music_to_you.php?lsrc=murss
iPod Nano Explodes While Charging
The Consumerist reports:
Reader D's first-gen iPod Nano was chugging power from his PC's USB port when suddenly he saw it "explode open and start shooting sparks and spewing smoke." Pictures inside, along with Apple's response.
For the full report visit here:
http://consumerist.com/5038095/ipod-nano-explodes-while-charging
Consequences of Bad RAM
MacOS Hints contributor John Wolff reports:
I recently purchased a used G5 Power Mac (2 x 1.8 GHz with 2 GB RAM) with System 10.4.11 installed on the 160 GB HD. It was bought to replace a Quicksilver which had been upgraded to run OS X 10.5.4 so I naturally wanted to upgrade this machine to 10.5.4.
Upon running the Install DVD using the Archive & Install option, I got an error message stating that "The BaseSystem package was not compatible with this machine and to contact the software supplier." At this stage I did not suspect a RAM problem so proceeded to install 10.5.1 on the same HD using another G5 of the same specs. It loaded OK so I moved the disk back to the "new" G5 and tried to run the Migration Assistant to recover the data files we needed.
The Migration Assistant stalled and, in the process, probably corrupted the bookkeeping file that I most wanted to access.....
Finally, I started to suspect a hardware fault, so I found my copy of TechTool DeLuxe on an AppleCare CD. I ran it and discovered that the RAM test failed......
My experience is thus a salutary warning to all purchasers of a used Mac. I just wish the error message that I first received had been a bit more wide ranging and less directed at a possible software issue.
For the full report visit here:
http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20080809193814792
The Mac Night Owl: The Apple Report: Yes, Most of the Time it Just Works!
In recent months, you have to wonder whether Apple is losing its golden touch. I mean there are rampant reports of dropped call issues with the iPhone 3G, the rollout of .Mac's successor, MobileMe, was particularly troublesome, and, add to all this, the press has only recent stopped talking about the health of Steve Jobs.
Here's the URL for today's commentary:
http://tinyurl.com/5c944k
Notes: You can also access our new RSS feed, available at:
http://www.macnightowl.com/rss
Or our new Atom feed at:
http://www.macnightowl.com/atom
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