Monday, February 28, 2005
Visions of 1024x768 dancing in my head
You know, I'm about eighty percent leaning toward buying a 12 inch iBook after all.
I've been using my aging G4 Titanium PowerBook at a reduced 1024x768 resolution for the past month in an attempt to force myself to adjust to having less screen real estate, and I think it's finally sinking in. It's taken a bit of an adjustment to make things work with forty percent less real estate, but I think I've finally figured out how to do just that. In fact, with my 15 inch screen now relegated to a mere 1024x768 pixels, things area actually too big! I find myself sitting back from the screen because 1024x768 pixels spread across 15 inches is just way too large. So let's throw out any idea of a 14 inch iBook; that's essentially what I'm using right now in terms of physical screen size, and it's a waste. And while I'm not going to like what a 12 inch iBook is going to do to my wrists in terms of cutting them up on the machine's ninety-degree-angle front edge, I'm not exactly thrilled about what my 15 inch iBook has been doing to my wrists for the past year, either -- it's just been doing the damage a little further of my arms, thanks to its larger size.
Furthermore, I think I could actually enjoy having something that takes up abour forty percent less of my lap space. I mean, the minute you divorce yourself from a PowerBook's 1280x854 resolution, the whole thing just seems over-large. And at this point, I think I could really get used to something that runs twice as fast. It's not that this machine is getting any slower, it's that my usage of it is getting faster, if that makes any sense. If I'm deep into Dreamweaver, then the several seconds that it takes to get any other app to come to the front of the screen seem to be going by more slowly with each day...especially when there's a reporter or a customer on the phone. And come to think of it, with the whole thing about recording iPod Garage Radio, I have in fact been avoiding doing the show in GarageBand because I know how it's going to run on this 667 Mhz rig, and I'm not going to like it.
This PowerBook has done me really well. And one of those new PowerBooks would be fantastic. But at this point in the game, the iBook is the way to go for now -- at least for me. Now, all that's left to do is to figure out when to do it. No huge hurry. Perhaps I'll be lucky enough to wait until after the next iBook revision. Not that there's anything distasteful about the current crop, but hey, maybe I'll get to pick up another 0.167 Mhz in the process. You never know.
Your roadmap may vary.
You know, I'm about eighty percent leaning toward buying a 12 inch iBook after all.
I've been using my aging G4 Titanium PowerBook at a reduced 1024x768 resolution for the past month in an attempt to force myself to adjust to having less screen real estate, and I think it's finally sinking in. It's taken a bit of an adjustment to make things work with forty percent less real estate, but I think I've finally figured out how to do just that. In fact, with my 15 inch screen now relegated to a mere 1024x768 pixels, things area actually too big! I find myself sitting back from the screen because 1024x768 pixels spread across 15 inches is just way too large. So let's throw out any idea of a 14 inch iBook; that's essentially what I'm using right now in terms of physical screen size, and it's a waste. And while I'm not going to like what a 12 inch iBook is going to do to my wrists in terms of cutting them up on the machine's ninety-degree-angle front edge, I'm not exactly thrilled about what my 15 inch iBook has been doing to my wrists for the past year, either -- it's just been doing the damage a little further of my arms, thanks to its larger size.
Furthermore, I think I could actually enjoy having something that takes up abour forty percent less of my lap space. I mean, the minute you divorce yourself from a PowerBook's 1280x854 resolution, the whole thing just seems over-large. And at this point, I think I could really get used to something that runs twice as fast. It's not that this machine is getting any slower, it's that my usage of it is getting faster, if that makes any sense. If I'm deep into Dreamweaver, then the several seconds that it takes to get any other app to come to the front of the screen seem to be going by more slowly with each day...especially when there's a reporter or a customer on the phone. And come to think of it, with the whole thing about recording iPod Garage Radio, I have in fact been avoiding doing the show in GarageBand because I know how it's going to run on this 667 Mhz rig, and I'm not going to like it.
This PowerBook has done me really well. And one of those new PowerBooks would be fantastic. But at this point in the game, the iBook is the way to go for now -- at least for me. Now, all that's left to do is to figure out when to do it. No huge hurry. Perhaps I'll be lucky enough to wait until after the next iBook revision. Not that there's anything distasteful about the current crop, but hey, maybe I'll get to pick up another 0.167 Mhz in the process. You never know.
Your roadmap may vary.
The Mac Mini, six weeks later
Six weeks ago, Apple dropped a bomb on the Macintosh universe that was so stunningly out of character with the company's history of forward thinking that, despite swirling rumors, I could never have imagined that it would actually happen. I'm talking about, of course, the Mac Mini.
The target market for the Mac Mini is, as we all know, a Windows PC user who has placed such importance on continuing to use his current monitor, keyboard, and mouse, that the horrifying thought of giving up these three cherished items has caused the individual to continue using Windows, even after deciding that he would rather be using a Mac. In addition, this individual's keyboard and mouse have USB connectors, his monitor is high-quality enough that he wants to continue using it with his next computer, and his PC's minitower is something that he wants to immediately place in a dumpster.
When we step back and look at who might fall into the above target market, however, we realize that the described individual is going to be buying an extreme low-end $499 Mac, meaning that his existing PC is likely also of the extreme low-end $499 variety. This means that that the odds are very strong that his existing keyboard and mouse use PS/2 connectors, as do most keyboards and mice that come with a low-end PC, so the individual is not going to be able to re-use them unless he manages to track down a USB-to-PS/2 adapter that he likely doesn't even know exists. Also, because his existing computer is a low-end machine, it likely came with an equally low-end monitor that he has no particular desire to continue using with his next computer. And of course, even if he does end up re-using his monitor, keyboard, and mouse with his new Mac Mini, then he'll have his existing PC minitower that will no longer be usable.
If, of course, his existing PC is so old that it's ready for the dumpster anyway, then he can just toss it. But if the PC is that old, then so are the monitor, keyboard, and mouse, meaning that they're likely also going in the dumpster as well, meaning that he has nothing to connect to his new Mac Mini, and no way to use it unless he goes shopping first. And on the other hand, if his existing PC is new enough that it's still relevant, then he's going to want to sell it to someone else. But he can't really do that, because he's just taken away the keyboard, monitor, and mouse for use with his new Mac Mini. So the odds are that if he sells his old PC, he'll end up having to sell the keyboard, monitor, and mouse along with it, meaning that he's right back to having nothing to connect to his new Mac Mini.
Or maybe he's planning on keeping his old PC around. But if he uses a KVM switch so that his new Mac Mini and his old PC share the same monitor, keyboard, and mouse, then of course only one of them can be used a time. And since any household with more than one person in it faces the eternal problem of fighting over computer time, the very last thing they'd want to do is so set their two computers up so that only one of them can be used at any given time. So if the old PC is going to be set up as a machine for the spouse or kids to use, then it's going to need its own keyboard, monitor, and mouse, meaning that once again, there's nothing to connect to the new Mac Mini -- unless of course you're one of those types that just happens to have closets full of old computer peripherals lying around that all just happen to have modern-day connectors, and such fates are reserved only for the most hard-core of computer geeks.
The upshot of all this, unless you just refuse to let it sink in, is that it turns out that the proposed target market for the Mac Mini is so incredibly narrow that it almost doesn't exist. In nearly all cases, the eMac is a better low-end solution the Mac Mini, and the iMac is a better high-end solution. And this is before you get to the fact that anyone connecting a PC-based keyboard and mouse to a Mac Mini will have zero USB ports available for a printer or an iPod, the fact that a PC keyboard doesn't necessarily have the same keys as a Mac keyboard, the fact that a Mac Mini connected to a 17 inch CRT monitor takes up more combined desk space than an eMac, the fact that a Mac Mini is too small to be placed in the below-the-desk location that most PC users are used to placing their minitower, the fact that an ever-increasing percentage of Mac sales take place in Apple Stores and yet those same Apple Stores don't sell a monitor for less then a thousand dollars, and a whole host of other hijinks.
How Apple could have somehow managed to not realize any of the metric tons of reasons why bringing the Mac Mini to market was a bad idea, is something that I believe will end up going down as one of the most bizarre moments in Macintosh history.
And yet, for all the obvious myriad reasons why the Mac Mini was a mistake, it's exactly the sort of product that a lot of folks on the Mac Web seem to think the rest of the world ought to be using. Call it a geek's false vision, if you will. But the fact remains that a lot of Mac folks who like to hang out on Mac-related websites all day are simply in love with this machine, and have in fact spent years demanding that Apple bring it to market. So I guess I managed to put myself in a rather interesting situation when I was the one person on the Mac Web willing stand up and point out just how bad of an idea the Mac Mini was, and to openly question and criticize Apple for totally blowing it that day.
I just didn't think the reaction would be quite this absurd.
Anywhere I go on the Mac Web these days, it seems there's a group following me, sort of anti-groupies if you will, who manage to follow me around to see just how thoroughly they can embarrass themselves. You know the type. I post something on one of my sites, or a comment one some other Mac site, and someone feels the need to respond by making a reference to their anatomy. I write an article about the Mac Mini, and someone responds by sending me an email accusing me of being a drug-addicted Apple hater. I point out that there has been no advertising for the Mac Mini whatsoever, and someone claims that there have been no Mac-related advertisements during the entire Jobs era, while warning me that I'm losing my mind.
Fortunately, such bottom-feeders appear to be a small group. Not to say that most folks on the Mac Web didn't disagree with me about the Mac Mini's prospects. In fact, nearly Mac-related every site out there stepped up to proclaim the Mac Mini the "savior" of the platform, in most cases even going so far as to ignore the fact that the Mac's marketshare was already growing before the Mac Mini began shipping. No one, it seems, wants to hear a word about the possibility that the Mac Mini is anything other than the perfect computer and the perfect idea.
As part of my regular routine, about once a week a trace back to any and all instances in which someone clicked on a link to visit this site, just to see where the traffic is coming from, perhaps more out of curiosity than anything. So yeah, I found my way to all those "Bill Palmer is wrong" posts on various Mac sites, and the "Bill Palmer is an idiot" posts as well. The extent to which someone will go to demonize anyone with clear evidence showing something that they don't want to hear, it would seem, has almost no limit. The Mac Mini is perfect, it's going to be a huge succes, and don't dare say anything that might point to either of those not being infinitely true.
Is the Mac Mini currently selling well? We have no way of knowing. Ask any Mac Mini worshiper, though, and you'll be told that the two-to-four week wait to get one is irrefutable evidence that the Mac Mini is the most popular Mac model of all time. I mean, it couldn't be that it's backordered simply because Apple didn't build many of them in the first place, meaning that any amount of orders would cause a backorder. And ask them why Apple hasn't lifted a finger to advertise this supposed savior of the platform, and the worshipers will say that there's no reason to advertise it, because the two-to-four week wait proves that gazillions of them are already being sold. Ask them why Apple began slashing prices on most Mac Mini configurations just two weeks after the product went on sale, and they'll claim that so many trillions of Mac Minis are being sold that Apple wanted to cut prices already. Ask them why Apple has chosen not to announce the early sales numbers of the Mac Mini, as it almost always does with new Mac models that amass large sales right out of the gate, and they'll tell you that it's because Apple doesn't want anyone else ordering a Mac Mini right now, because they're back-ordered, and that a press release might cause even more quintillions of backorders.
Don't dare suggest that Apple initially built an extremely small number of Mac Minis because it had low expectations for the product, or that the lack of advertising might mean that Apple sees the myriad problems with the Mac Mini as a mainstream machine, or that the lack of a press release about initial sales might mean that there haven't been enough sales to brag about, or that the quick price cuts might mean what quick price cuts almost always mean: that sales weren't satisfactory, Oh, I don't know if any of this is really the case, but don't dare suggest any of it -- unless you want your own anti-fan club following you around.
Not that things have been going anything less than fantastic lately. MacMischief has already established itself as a leader in Mac news and has an insane amount of traffic to back that up, iPod Garage is at the best place it's ever been, and LoadPod's recent success is so scary that I almost don't like talking about it for fear of cursing it. So much for the one individual whose response to my initial take on the Mac Mini was "You're finished, Palmer."
But as far as the anti-fan club, I've noticed something new and a bit surprising in the past week or so. In a few places, not too many, but a few places, I've seen some folks on some sites taking a look at what we've seen so far from the Mac Mini and saying something along the lines of "maybe Palmer was right after all." In fact, one person even managed to more or less prove my original point by saying something along the lines of "Everyone I know was going to buy one of these, so I thought everyone on earth would do the same, but it turns out everyone I know hangs out here on this site with me all day." That's something of a loose paraphrase, as I can't find the original forum in which I read it, but you get the idea.
The kicker, of course, is that in the nearly two years that I've been publishing this site, I've been right about a lot of things. And, accordingly, I've been wrong about quite a few things as well. It's what happens when your site is built around your opinions, thoughts, and predictions. And if anything, I think I've managed to establish myself as anything but a one-issue candidate. The fact that I haven't written much of anything lately is merely a sign that I haven't been able to find enough time to sit down and spit it out. Well, I suppose that needs to change. There are, in fact, interesting things going on out there, and I've got plenty to say about them, and if my anti-fan club doesn't like it, then that's just too bad.
So my big goal this month is to get back in the swing of things here, to find the time to return to daily writing, even if only bits and pieces of it at a time, so that I don't end up leaving the page empty all week and then try to make up for it with miniature novels such as this post.
It's fifty-six minutes away from being a new month, and so we'll see what happens.
Much thanks,
Bill
Six weeks ago, Apple dropped a bomb on the Macintosh universe that was so stunningly out of character with the company's history of forward thinking that, despite swirling rumors, I could never have imagined that it would actually happen. I'm talking about, of course, the Mac Mini.
The target market for the Mac Mini is, as we all know, a Windows PC user who has placed such importance on continuing to use his current monitor, keyboard, and mouse, that the horrifying thought of giving up these three cherished items has caused the individual to continue using Windows, even after deciding that he would rather be using a Mac. In addition, this individual's keyboard and mouse have USB connectors, his monitor is high-quality enough that he wants to continue using it with his next computer, and his PC's minitower is something that he wants to immediately place in a dumpster.
When we step back and look at who might fall into the above target market, however, we realize that the described individual is going to be buying an extreme low-end $499 Mac, meaning that his existing PC is likely also of the extreme low-end $499 variety. This means that that the odds are very strong that his existing keyboard and mouse use PS/2 connectors, as do most keyboards and mice that come with a low-end PC, so the individual is not going to be able to re-use them unless he manages to track down a USB-to-PS/2 adapter that he likely doesn't even know exists. Also, because his existing computer is a low-end machine, it likely came with an equally low-end monitor that he has no particular desire to continue using with his next computer. And of course, even if he does end up re-using his monitor, keyboard, and mouse with his new Mac Mini, then he'll have his existing PC minitower that will no longer be usable.
If, of course, his existing PC is so old that it's ready for the dumpster anyway, then he can just toss it. But if the PC is that old, then so are the monitor, keyboard, and mouse, meaning that they're likely also going in the dumpster as well, meaning that he has nothing to connect to his new Mac Mini, and no way to use it unless he goes shopping first. And on the other hand, if his existing PC is new enough that it's still relevant, then he's going to want to sell it to someone else. But he can't really do that, because he's just taken away the keyboard, monitor, and mouse for use with his new Mac Mini. So the odds are that if he sells his old PC, he'll end up having to sell the keyboard, monitor, and mouse along with it, meaning that he's right back to having nothing to connect to his new Mac Mini.
Or maybe he's planning on keeping his old PC around. But if he uses a KVM switch so that his new Mac Mini and his old PC share the same monitor, keyboard, and mouse, then of course only one of them can be used a time. And since any household with more than one person in it faces the eternal problem of fighting over computer time, the very last thing they'd want to do is so set their two computers up so that only one of them can be used at any given time. So if the old PC is going to be set up as a machine for the spouse or kids to use, then it's going to need its own keyboard, monitor, and mouse, meaning that once again, there's nothing to connect to the new Mac Mini -- unless of course you're one of those types that just happens to have closets full of old computer peripherals lying around that all just happen to have modern-day connectors, and such fates are reserved only for the most hard-core of computer geeks.
The upshot of all this, unless you just refuse to let it sink in, is that it turns out that the proposed target market for the Mac Mini is so incredibly narrow that it almost doesn't exist. In nearly all cases, the eMac is a better low-end solution the Mac Mini, and the iMac is a better high-end solution. And this is before you get to the fact that anyone connecting a PC-based keyboard and mouse to a Mac Mini will have zero USB ports available for a printer or an iPod, the fact that a PC keyboard doesn't necessarily have the same keys as a Mac keyboard, the fact that a Mac Mini connected to a 17 inch CRT monitor takes up more combined desk space than an eMac, the fact that a Mac Mini is too small to be placed in the below-the-desk location that most PC users are used to placing their minitower, the fact that an ever-increasing percentage of Mac sales take place in Apple Stores and yet those same Apple Stores don't sell a monitor for less then a thousand dollars, and a whole host of other hijinks.
How Apple could have somehow managed to not realize any of the metric tons of reasons why bringing the Mac Mini to market was a bad idea, is something that I believe will end up going down as one of the most bizarre moments in Macintosh history.
And yet, for all the obvious myriad reasons why the Mac Mini was a mistake, it's exactly the sort of product that a lot of folks on the Mac Web seem to think the rest of the world ought to be using. Call it a geek's false vision, if you will. But the fact remains that a lot of Mac folks who like to hang out on Mac-related websites all day are simply in love with this machine, and have in fact spent years demanding that Apple bring it to market. So I guess I managed to put myself in a rather interesting situation when I was the one person on the Mac Web willing stand up and point out just how bad of an idea the Mac Mini was, and to openly question and criticize Apple for totally blowing it that day.
I just didn't think the reaction would be quite this absurd.
Anywhere I go on the Mac Web these days, it seems there's a group following me, sort of anti-groupies if you will, who manage to follow me around to see just how thoroughly they can embarrass themselves. You know the type. I post something on one of my sites, or a comment one some other Mac site, and someone feels the need to respond by making a reference to their anatomy. I write an article about the Mac Mini, and someone responds by sending me an email accusing me of being a drug-addicted Apple hater. I point out that there has been no advertising for the Mac Mini whatsoever, and someone claims that there have been no Mac-related advertisements during the entire Jobs era, while warning me that I'm losing my mind.
Fortunately, such bottom-feeders appear to be a small group. Not to say that most folks on the Mac Web didn't disagree with me about the Mac Mini's prospects. In fact, nearly Mac-related every site out there stepped up to proclaim the Mac Mini the "savior" of the platform, in most cases even going so far as to ignore the fact that the Mac's marketshare was already growing before the Mac Mini began shipping. No one, it seems, wants to hear a word about the possibility that the Mac Mini is anything other than the perfect computer and the perfect idea.
As part of my regular routine, about once a week a trace back to any and all instances in which someone clicked on a link to visit this site, just to see where the traffic is coming from, perhaps more out of curiosity than anything. So yeah, I found my way to all those "Bill Palmer is wrong" posts on various Mac sites, and the "Bill Palmer is an idiot" posts as well. The extent to which someone will go to demonize anyone with clear evidence showing something that they don't want to hear, it would seem, has almost no limit. The Mac Mini is perfect, it's going to be a huge succes, and don't dare say anything that might point to either of those not being infinitely true.
Is the Mac Mini currently selling well? We have no way of knowing. Ask any Mac Mini worshiper, though, and you'll be told that the two-to-four week wait to get one is irrefutable evidence that the Mac Mini is the most popular Mac model of all time. I mean, it couldn't be that it's backordered simply because Apple didn't build many of them in the first place, meaning that any amount of orders would cause a backorder. And ask them why Apple hasn't lifted a finger to advertise this supposed savior of the platform, and the worshipers will say that there's no reason to advertise it, because the two-to-four week wait proves that gazillions of them are already being sold. Ask them why Apple began slashing prices on most Mac Mini configurations just two weeks after the product went on sale, and they'll claim that so many trillions of Mac Minis are being sold that Apple wanted to cut prices already. Ask them why Apple has chosen not to announce the early sales numbers of the Mac Mini, as it almost always does with new Mac models that amass large sales right out of the gate, and they'll tell you that it's because Apple doesn't want anyone else ordering a Mac Mini right now, because they're back-ordered, and that a press release might cause even more quintillions of backorders.
Don't dare suggest that Apple initially built an extremely small number of Mac Minis because it had low expectations for the product, or that the lack of advertising might mean that Apple sees the myriad problems with the Mac Mini as a mainstream machine, or that the lack of a press release about initial sales might mean that there haven't been enough sales to brag about, or that the quick price cuts might mean what quick price cuts almost always mean: that sales weren't satisfactory, Oh, I don't know if any of this is really the case, but don't dare suggest any of it -- unless you want your own anti-fan club following you around.
Not that things have been going anything less than fantastic lately. MacMischief has already established itself as a leader in Mac news and has an insane amount of traffic to back that up, iPod Garage is at the best place it's ever been, and LoadPod's recent success is so scary that I almost don't like talking about it for fear of cursing it. So much for the one individual whose response to my initial take on the Mac Mini was "You're finished, Palmer."
But as far as the anti-fan club, I've noticed something new and a bit surprising in the past week or so. In a few places, not too many, but a few places, I've seen some folks on some sites taking a look at what we've seen so far from the Mac Mini and saying something along the lines of "maybe Palmer was right after all." In fact, one person even managed to more or less prove my original point by saying something along the lines of "Everyone I know was going to buy one of these, so I thought everyone on earth would do the same, but it turns out everyone I know hangs out here on this site with me all day." That's something of a loose paraphrase, as I can't find the original forum in which I read it, but you get the idea.
The kicker, of course, is that in the nearly two years that I've been publishing this site, I've been right about a lot of things. And, accordingly, I've been wrong about quite a few things as well. It's what happens when your site is built around your opinions, thoughts, and predictions. And if anything, I think I've managed to establish myself as anything but a one-issue candidate. The fact that I haven't written much of anything lately is merely a sign that I haven't been able to find enough time to sit down and spit it out. Well, I suppose that needs to change. There are, in fact, interesting things going on out there, and I've got plenty to say about them, and if my anti-fan club doesn't like it, then that's just too bad.
So my big goal this month is to get back in the swing of things here, to find the time to return to daily writing, even if only bits and pieces of it at a time, so that I don't end up leaving the page empty all week and then try to make up for it with miniature novels such as this post.
It's fifty-six minutes away from being a new month, and so we'll see what happens.
Much thanks,
Bill
Thursday, February 24, 2005
Yacking for a good cause
I've done an interview with the website The Educational Mac, which may or may not be available depending on when you're clicking through looking for it. It's mostly about (you guessed it) Macs in education, but it's also a little about bowling. You heard it here first...
I've done an interview with the website The Educational Mac, which may or may not be available depending on when you're clicking through looking for it. It's mostly about (you guessed it) Macs in education, but it's also a little about bowling. You heard it here first...
Saturday, February 19, 2005
Where the heck have I been?
Gee whiz, did I really manage to go all week without posting anything here? Oh well, it's been that kind of week. I mean, I've set things up over at the iPod Garage to where I only write two columns a week now, and on Friday, I couldn't even get that out the door on time. I guess the moral of the story is that if you're going to name a column after a day of the week, then you really need to publish it on the day it's named after. But I digress. Yeah, it's the first paragraph, and I'm digressing already. Like I said, it's been that kind of week.
Not that it hasn't been a successful one. All four new iPod Garage columnists are exceeding my expectations, and world domination would appear to be just around the corner. It's only a matter of time before the world at large figures out where the internet's real iPod destination is (hint: it's not the one who seems to have no idea that the iPod is a music player, whose steady stream of regurgitated press releases all day are supposed to pass for news, and whose original iPod-related content is so rare that they literally spend more time writing about the video game industry than about the iPod). But hey, our goal isn't to be number one (however you might define that), our goal is simply to be the best iPod site that we can be -- and the rest will eventually take care of itself.
And the week's real fun, of course, came with the rather unexpected early success of MacMischief, which technically hasn't even launched yet. That hasn't stopped the site from seeing an embarrassing amount of traffic, and from folks writing in to tell us that we're already the "best Mac news site out there." Not bad for a site that's still in beta-testing, eh? We figured that Mac folks were looking for a news site that not only gets to the heart of the news, but shows a pulse while doing so, and maybe we were right after all. If Bill Gates is talking about Apple on ABC News then we figure you'll want to know about it. And if we choose to present the article with a picture of Bill Gates getting a pie thrown in his face, then we figure you'll enjoy that as well. The staff over there has doubled so far this week with more likely to come, and hey, the more the merrier. Some folks seemed to think I was joking last month when I said that the Mac Web had gotten so out of touch with the Mac user base that I was going to have to take the whole thing over and straighten it out myself, but maybe now you catch on to my drift. There may be a madness to the method, but there's certainly a method to the madness.
You know, it seems like I've been adding people all over the place lately. Lots of good people out there with good contributions to make, just waiting for someone to come along and give them the right opportunity. I just hope I can do right by them all. And to think when I first started this game back in early 2003, it was so thoroughly a one-man operation that I went ahead and named this site after myself. Who'd have thunk that here in the now, iPod Garage would have a five-person staff, MacMischief would be a team of four, and LoadPod would be carrying a complement of folks that runs into the triple-digits? Not bad for a two-year stretch, I guess. The challenge for me now is to keep it all humming, without getting spun around so badly that I can't remember my own name. That happens far too often, and in truth, that's the real reason I put my own name in the title of this site. :-)
Gee whiz, did I really manage to go all week without posting anything here? Oh well, it's been that kind of week. I mean, I've set things up over at the iPod Garage to where I only write two columns a week now, and on Friday, I couldn't even get that out the door on time. I guess the moral of the story is that if you're going to name a column after a day of the week, then you really need to publish it on the day it's named after. But I digress. Yeah, it's the first paragraph, and I'm digressing already. Like I said, it's been that kind of week.
Not that it hasn't been a successful one. All four new iPod Garage columnists are exceeding my expectations, and world domination would appear to be just around the corner. It's only a matter of time before the world at large figures out where the internet's real iPod destination is (hint: it's not the one who seems to have no idea that the iPod is a music player, whose steady stream of regurgitated press releases all day are supposed to pass for news, and whose original iPod-related content is so rare that they literally spend more time writing about the video game industry than about the iPod). But hey, our goal isn't to be number one (however you might define that), our goal is simply to be the best iPod site that we can be -- and the rest will eventually take care of itself.
And the week's real fun, of course, came with the rather unexpected early success of MacMischief, which technically hasn't even launched yet. That hasn't stopped the site from seeing an embarrassing amount of traffic, and from folks writing in to tell us that we're already the "best Mac news site out there." Not bad for a site that's still in beta-testing, eh? We figured that Mac folks were looking for a news site that not only gets to the heart of the news, but shows a pulse while doing so, and maybe we were right after all. If Bill Gates is talking about Apple on ABC News then we figure you'll want to know about it. And if we choose to present the article with a picture of Bill Gates getting a pie thrown in his face, then we figure you'll enjoy that as well. The staff over there has doubled so far this week with more likely to come, and hey, the more the merrier. Some folks seemed to think I was joking last month when I said that the Mac Web had gotten so out of touch with the Mac user base that I was going to have to take the whole thing over and straighten it out myself, but maybe now you catch on to my drift. There may be a madness to the method, but there's certainly a method to the madness.
You know, it seems like I've been adding people all over the place lately. Lots of good people out there with good contributions to make, just waiting for someone to come along and give them the right opportunity. I just hope I can do right by them all. And to think when I first started this game back in early 2003, it was so thoroughly a one-man operation that I went ahead and named this site after myself. Who'd have thunk that here in the now, iPod Garage would have a five-person staff, MacMischief would be a team of four, and LoadPod would be carrying a complement of folks that runs into the triple-digits? Not bad for a two-year stretch, I guess. The challenge for me now is to keep it all humming, without getting spun around so badly that I can't remember my own name. That happens far too often, and in truth, that's the real reason I put my own name in the title of this site. :-)
Sunday, February 13, 2005
On the history of Apple TV commercials in the Jobs era
And so it begins. I've been warned that I'm "not allowed" to write about the Mac Mini, so I guess I should have known better than to point out what I thought was an interesting and rather inarguable observation yesterday:
"Speaking of the Mac Mini, it's been for sale for a little more than a month now. Anyone seen anything out of Apple as far as...a TV commercial?"
And sadly, the following quote is typical of the feedback I've received so far:
"Isn't the lack of advertising par for the course for Apple products, though? I haven't seen an ad for the iPod shuffle, nor the newer powerbooks, or the ibooks or G5s when they came out. As a matter of fact, I don't think I've seen any ads for the iMacs either."
Now, I don't want to embarrass the particular individual who sent me this. But anyone who writes in to tell me that I'm "losing it" really needs to think twice about the accuracy of what they're throwing at me before they hit the Send button. Lack of advertising is par for the course for Apple products? Do you just not watch television much, or have you been asleep for the past eight years?
When to even begin? The following run-down is straight from memory, so you can forgive me if I flub a detail or two:
- I've seen the iPod shuffle commercial no less than twenty times so far today, on ESPN, TNT, CNN and perhaps other stations.
- The latest PowerBook udpate is a minor one, hence no commercial. When the PowerBook jumped from the G3 to the G4, however, there was a television campaign (with voice-over by Jeff Goldblum).
- The original blue iBook had a set of commercials that featured the voice of the late Barry White ("you turned my whole world around"). The white iBook was featured in an ad that showed off iPhoto and iDVD. I don't remember much about the ad, but I think it took place in a hospital.
- The G5 had a major TV campaign that featured a man being blown out of his house. The ad was so prominent and controversial that Dell filed for an injunction to have it taken off the air, alleging that Apple's "fastest personal computer" claim was unverifiable.
- The original G3 iMac, the slot-loading G3 iMac, and the G4 iMac each had TV campaigns (the latter featuring a man sticking his tongue out at the computer).
- The PowerMac G3 had the "open door" TV ads, and the PowerMac G4 had the "tank/supercomputer" commercials. Even the Cube had a commercial, voiced over by Henry Rollins.
My point? Every major new Mac release in the Jobs era has seen a recurring TV ad campaign...except the Mac Mini. My point is hardly based on my own opinion. I didn't think I needed to spell out eight years worth of Macintosh TV commercials in my previous just to prove my point, but perhaps I should have.
If you feel the need to attack me and tell me that I'm losing it because you disagree with my stance on the Mac Mini, then so be it. But please don't make stuff up like "Apple hasn't advertised any of its other new hardware products on TV either" in an attempt to make your case. Every new model that Apple has launched in the Jobs era that consisted of more than speed bumps, has seen its own advertising campaign on television. One could argue that perhaps the Mac Mini's TV campaign merely hasn't begun yet, but please don't try to argue that the lack of a Mac Mini TV campaign thus far is "par for the course."
Sadly, it just seems like some folks don't want to see or hear the facts of the matter, because right now, all signs (outside of the insular Mac geek bubble) point to the Mac Mini being a machine that even Apple seems to have low expectations for.
I'm not wrong on this, I just really wish I were. I've grown tired of repeating that last point.
And so it begins. I've been warned that I'm "not allowed" to write about the Mac Mini, so I guess I should have known better than to point out what I thought was an interesting and rather inarguable observation yesterday:
"Speaking of the Mac Mini, it's been for sale for a little more than a month now. Anyone seen anything out of Apple as far as...a TV commercial?"
And sadly, the following quote is typical of the feedback I've received so far:
"Isn't the lack of advertising par for the course for Apple products, though? I haven't seen an ad for the iPod shuffle, nor the newer powerbooks, or the ibooks or G5s when they came out. As a matter of fact, I don't think I've seen any ads for the iMacs either."
Now, I don't want to embarrass the particular individual who sent me this. But anyone who writes in to tell me that I'm "losing it" really needs to think twice about the accuracy of what they're throwing at me before they hit the Send button. Lack of advertising is par for the course for Apple products? Do you just not watch television much, or have you been asleep for the past eight years?
When to even begin? The following run-down is straight from memory, so you can forgive me if I flub a detail or two:
- I've seen the iPod shuffle commercial no less than twenty times so far today, on ESPN, TNT, CNN and perhaps other stations.
- The latest PowerBook udpate is a minor one, hence no commercial. When the PowerBook jumped from the G3 to the G4, however, there was a television campaign (with voice-over by Jeff Goldblum).
- The original blue iBook had a set of commercials that featured the voice of the late Barry White ("you turned my whole world around"). The white iBook was featured in an ad that showed off iPhoto and iDVD. I don't remember much about the ad, but I think it took place in a hospital.
- The G5 had a major TV campaign that featured a man being blown out of his house. The ad was so prominent and controversial that Dell filed for an injunction to have it taken off the air, alleging that Apple's "fastest personal computer" claim was unverifiable.
- The original G3 iMac, the slot-loading G3 iMac, and the G4 iMac each had TV campaigns (the latter featuring a man sticking his tongue out at the computer).
- The PowerMac G3 had the "open door" TV ads, and the PowerMac G4 had the "tank/supercomputer" commercials. Even the Cube had a commercial, voiced over by Henry Rollins.
My point? Every major new Mac release in the Jobs era has seen a recurring TV ad campaign...except the Mac Mini. My point is hardly based on my own opinion. I didn't think I needed to spell out eight years worth of Macintosh TV commercials in my previous just to prove my point, but perhaps I should have.
If you feel the need to attack me and tell me that I'm losing it because you disagree with my stance on the Mac Mini, then so be it. But please don't make stuff up like "Apple hasn't advertised any of its other new hardware products on TV either" in an attempt to make your case. Every new model that Apple has launched in the Jobs era that consisted of more than speed bumps, has seen its own advertising campaign on television. One could argue that perhaps the Mac Mini's TV campaign merely hasn't begun yet, but please don't try to argue that the lack of a Mac Mini TV campaign thus far is "par for the course."
Sadly, it just seems like some folks don't want to see or hear the facts of the matter, because right now, all signs (outside of the insular Mac geek bubble) point to the Mac Mini being a machine that even Apple seems to have low expectations for.
I'm not wrong on this, I just really wish I were. I've grown tired of repeating that last point.
Saturday, February 12, 2005
Quick and run
- It's interesting how many iBook users in the past week have told me to "just shut up and buy an iBook already," but it turns out that every one of them is using their laptop as their secondary machine, along with a desktop that has a larger-than-1024x768 screen. It's a bit of a different story when you want one and only one machine for all your usage, as I do.
- The funniest thing has been the number of folks who have suggested that I replace my PowerBook with a Mac Mini. Apparently lost on them is the fact that there's a difference between a machine being "portable" and being "usable while portable."
- Speaking of the Mac Mini, it's been for sale for a little more than a month now. Anyone seen anything out of Apple as far as number of pre-orders, or number of early sales? Or a TV commercial? Or anything out of Apple regarding the product at all? I'm just saying, is all. For a product that every geek on the Mac Web swore was going to be the best-selling computer in Mac history, we sure haven't heard anything to that effect -- other than every geek on the Mac Web stepping up to announce that they themselves are going to buy one.
- I can't tell you how much I like iWork. And one of these days, I might even find time to write about it.
- The 63,000 iBook deal in Georgia, if it actually happens, will be further evidence that Apple just might know what it's doing in the education market after all. There are invariably going to be some districts that are going to use every wrong reason in the book to go with PCs, but these are the districts who have no understanding of the value of educational technology in the first place, and are simply looking to spend as little as possible. They're not the types that would ever consider giving every kid a laptop anyway. And while Dell is focusing on trying to put a PC in every classroom is those districts, in other districts Apple is focusing on trying to put a Mac in the hands of every student. One classroom has twenty to thirty students in it. You do the math on which of the two companies can see the big picture.
- Speaking of Macs in education, it looks like MacUsingEducators.com is finally beginning to turn into what I originally envisionsed: a group of Mac-using educators who, whenever they feel they have something to contribute, goes ahead and posts it on the site. I never would have thought it would take having thirteen different educators as part of the team, but if there's one thing that's true of all educators, it's that they're overworked and don't have much time to devote to posting stuff on websites. So if I end up having to add fifty or a hundred educators to the team in order to fully flesh out the vision, then so be it. It's too important of an issue not to try to make a difference.
- It's interesting how many iBook users in the past week have told me to "just shut up and buy an iBook already," but it turns out that every one of them is using their laptop as their secondary machine, along with a desktop that has a larger-than-1024x768 screen. It's a bit of a different story when you want one and only one machine for all your usage, as I do.
- The funniest thing has been the number of folks who have suggested that I replace my PowerBook with a Mac Mini. Apparently lost on them is the fact that there's a difference between a machine being "portable" and being "usable while portable."
- Speaking of the Mac Mini, it's been for sale for a little more than a month now. Anyone seen anything out of Apple as far as number of pre-orders, or number of early sales? Or a TV commercial? Or anything out of Apple regarding the product at all? I'm just saying, is all. For a product that every geek on the Mac Web swore was going to be the best-selling computer in Mac history, we sure haven't heard anything to that effect -- other than every geek on the Mac Web stepping up to announce that they themselves are going to buy one.
- I can't tell you how much I like iWork. And one of these days, I might even find time to write about it.
- The 63,000 iBook deal in Georgia, if it actually happens, will be further evidence that Apple just might know what it's doing in the education market after all. There are invariably going to be some districts that are going to use every wrong reason in the book to go with PCs, but these are the districts who have no understanding of the value of educational technology in the first place, and are simply looking to spend as little as possible. They're not the types that would ever consider giving every kid a laptop anyway. And while Dell is focusing on trying to put a PC in every classroom is those districts, in other districts Apple is focusing on trying to put a Mac in the hands of every student. One classroom has twenty to thirty students in it. You do the math on which of the two companies can see the big picture.
- Speaking of Macs in education, it looks like MacUsingEducators.com is finally beginning to turn into what I originally envisionsed: a group of Mac-using educators who, whenever they feel they have something to contribute, goes ahead and posts it on the site. I never would have thought it would take having thirteen different educators as part of the team, but if there's one thing that's true of all educators, it's that they're overworked and don't have much time to devote to posting stuff on websites. So if I end up having to add fifty or a hundred educators to the team in order to fully flesh out the vision, then so be it. It's too important of an issue not to try to make a difference.
Monday, February 07, 2005
My next laptop move: three options, two of them viable
The new G4 PowerBooks are fantastic. The new "brace for impact" feature, the two-finger trackpad scrolling, double the RAM on the low end, backlit keyboard in the mid-range, even price drops. It looks like Apple did everything it possibly could to compensate for the fact that the G5 processor can't currently fit in an enclosure less than two inches thick. The new PowerBooks are a solid value, perhaps the best laptop in history. But it's not enough for me to bite. And it's for one simple reason: right now, every G4-based Mac ever made is still relevant, and none of the G3-based Macs are. Three years from now, the exact same thing will be true with the G5 vs. the G4. And I don't want to be on the wrong side of that litmus test.
Not with a $2000 machine anyway.
Since we know nothing, let's assume that the G5 PowerBook will debut ten months from now. How did I come up with this number? Well, mainly I made it up. But the fact that Apple just released new G4's means that the G5 is at least six months away, and the laws of sanity dictate that it won't take much longer than another twelve (in this case, the "laws of sanity" are defined by "we're all going to go crazy by then if it doesn't come to market"). So, just for kicks, I'll say ten months. Humor me.
If I buy a new G4 PowerBook right now and then try to ditch it the day the G5 PowerBooks are introduced ten months from now, I'll be trying to rid myself of that G4 right about the same time that no one will be wanting to buy one. I really think that if I sink $2,000 into a G4, it could lose half or more of its value in less than one year of ownership. I'd just be trying to sell it at the exact wrong time. And I just can't sink that kind of money into something right now, knowing that I'll never see most of that money again.
So with that off the table, the way I see it, I have two other options:
1) I can sell my current aging G4 PowerBook for whatever I can get for it, and buy a new G4 iBook. Why? What? Huh? Is that really an upgrade? Well, yes, it would be twice as fast, better specs across the board, all components working properly and under warranty. The iBook's "missing" features, such as PCMCIA card support and monitor spanning, are features that I've had for the past year but haven't used and never will, so they're not relevant here. The one and only downside to a new iBook, of course: smaller screen size than my current PowerBook.
But wait a minute, you say, isn't a G4 iBook also going to lose value? Well yeah, but I can pick one up for a mere $1000, meaning that even if it loses half its value in the next ten months, then I'm only out half as much because the thing only has half the value in the first place. And also, a G4 iBook isn't likely to see its value plummet at the introduction of the G5 PowerBook, as the iBook line will likely continue to remain a G4 long after that day. If I bought a G4 iBook now and then ten months from now, sold it for $300-400 less than I paid for it, I'd be fine with that.
2) I can keep using my current G4 PowerBook for the next ten months. I try to think about how much I could sell it for now, vs. how much I could sell it for ten months from now, but it's not so easy. It's out of warranty, it has things wrong with it, and it'll likely have even more things wrong with it ten months from now. There's the theory that, like a moderately old car, it's reached the point where it won't lose any more value for awhile. But then again, if it decides to die on me, then it's worth nothing, because the cost of a major replacement component would be more than the value of the whole machine.
It also runs at half the speed of a new low-end iBook. Right now, it's just fast enough, Keynote got faster with version 2.0, and I think that Tiger will make it faster as well. In other words, I've not yet reached the point where newer versions of my most important software run slower than the older versions -- a sure sign that it's time for a new computer if ever there was one. But there are one or two times per day (keep in mind I use this thing sometimes fourteen hours a day) in which I'm compelled to look cross-eyed at my laptop and wonder if things couldn't be going just a little faster.
I have a feeling that whatever I'd lose on a G4 iBook by buying it right now and selling it ten months from now, would somehow work out to about the same as what I'd lose on my current PowerBook by waiting ten months before selling it (and fixing anything vital that breaks along the way). So it looks like what it comes down to is this: for essentially no cost, I can jump to a new machine right now that runs twice as fast and has everything working and under warranty, and all I have to give up is about forty percent of my current screen real estate.
So I have to ask myself this: just how much is that 1280x854 screen resolution worth to me?
I've been using my PowerBook at a reduced 1024x768 resolution (identical to the iBook) for the past week now in an attempt to answer that question. The verdict? I still don't know. The good news is that either way, I don't have to make a move right away. If I do buy a new iBook, I'll wait until the next revision, which could be a month or more away. And if I decide to stick with my current rig, well, in that case, there's no action required at all.
The new G4 PowerBooks are fantastic. The new "brace for impact" feature, the two-finger trackpad scrolling, double the RAM on the low end, backlit keyboard in the mid-range, even price drops. It looks like Apple did everything it possibly could to compensate for the fact that the G5 processor can't currently fit in an enclosure less than two inches thick. The new PowerBooks are a solid value, perhaps the best laptop in history. But it's not enough for me to bite. And it's for one simple reason: right now, every G4-based Mac ever made is still relevant, and none of the G3-based Macs are. Three years from now, the exact same thing will be true with the G5 vs. the G4. And I don't want to be on the wrong side of that litmus test.
Not with a $2000 machine anyway.
Since we know nothing, let's assume that the G5 PowerBook will debut ten months from now. How did I come up with this number? Well, mainly I made it up. But the fact that Apple just released new G4's means that the G5 is at least six months away, and the laws of sanity dictate that it won't take much longer than another twelve (in this case, the "laws of sanity" are defined by "we're all going to go crazy by then if it doesn't come to market"). So, just for kicks, I'll say ten months. Humor me.
If I buy a new G4 PowerBook right now and then try to ditch it the day the G5 PowerBooks are introduced ten months from now, I'll be trying to rid myself of that G4 right about the same time that no one will be wanting to buy one. I really think that if I sink $2,000 into a G4, it could lose half or more of its value in less than one year of ownership. I'd just be trying to sell it at the exact wrong time. And I just can't sink that kind of money into something right now, knowing that I'll never see most of that money again.
So with that off the table, the way I see it, I have two other options:
1) I can sell my current aging G4 PowerBook for whatever I can get for it, and buy a new G4 iBook. Why? What? Huh? Is that really an upgrade? Well, yes, it would be twice as fast, better specs across the board, all components working properly and under warranty. The iBook's "missing" features, such as PCMCIA card support and monitor spanning, are features that I've had for the past year but haven't used and never will, so they're not relevant here. The one and only downside to a new iBook, of course: smaller screen size than my current PowerBook.
But wait a minute, you say, isn't a G4 iBook also going to lose value? Well yeah, but I can pick one up for a mere $1000, meaning that even if it loses half its value in the next ten months, then I'm only out half as much because the thing only has half the value in the first place. And also, a G4 iBook isn't likely to see its value plummet at the introduction of the G5 PowerBook, as the iBook line will likely continue to remain a G4 long after that day. If I bought a G4 iBook now and then ten months from now, sold it for $300-400 less than I paid for it, I'd be fine with that.
2) I can keep using my current G4 PowerBook for the next ten months. I try to think about how much I could sell it for now, vs. how much I could sell it for ten months from now, but it's not so easy. It's out of warranty, it has things wrong with it, and it'll likely have even more things wrong with it ten months from now. There's the theory that, like a moderately old car, it's reached the point where it won't lose any more value for awhile. But then again, if it decides to die on me, then it's worth nothing, because the cost of a major replacement component would be more than the value of the whole machine.
It also runs at half the speed of a new low-end iBook. Right now, it's just fast enough, Keynote got faster with version 2.0, and I think that Tiger will make it faster as well. In other words, I've not yet reached the point where newer versions of my most important software run slower than the older versions -- a sure sign that it's time for a new computer if ever there was one. But there are one or two times per day (keep in mind I use this thing sometimes fourteen hours a day) in which I'm compelled to look cross-eyed at my laptop and wonder if things couldn't be going just a little faster.
I have a feeling that whatever I'd lose on a G4 iBook by buying it right now and selling it ten months from now, would somehow work out to about the same as what I'd lose on my current PowerBook by waiting ten months before selling it (and fixing anything vital that breaks along the way). So it looks like what it comes down to is this: for essentially no cost, I can jump to a new machine right now that runs twice as fast and has everything working and under warranty, and all I have to give up is about forty percent of my current screen real estate.
So I have to ask myself this: just how much is that 1280x854 screen resolution worth to me?
I've been using my PowerBook at a reduced 1024x768 resolution (identical to the iBook) for the past week now in an attempt to answer that question. The verdict? I still don't know. The good news is that either way, I don't have to make a move right away. If I do buy a new iBook, I'll wait until the next revision, which could be a month or more away. And if I decide to stick with my current rig, well, in that case, there's no action required at all.
