Archive for the “Apple” Category

Apple announced their iPad yesterday, a tablet-sized version of the iPhone. Other than the unfortunate name, it is an amazing little device. Considering how quickly we all got over the Nintendo Revolution becoming the “Wii”, I think we’ll forgive Apple soon enough.

If you remember my post Friday, I laid out some of the ways Apple could screw up such a product. I’d like to visit some of those points again and compare how they did.

• I mentioned I was worried they’d try and use parts from the MacBook Air (system board, screen, chassis, battery). Thankfully they didn’t even try. The battery life is supposed to be able to play video for up to 10 hours, and standby is rated to last a month. To be sure, the thing was probably in airplane mode (with all radios turned off) and screen brightness was way down, but it’s still better than the 4 hours I get on my laptop.

On January 27th, 2010, Apple Inc is poised to introduce to the world the new iSlate which will change the computing world. Or it might be the iTouch. Or iTablet. Or iCostsomuchyouwanttopuke. We really don’t know. Of course, they were also “going” to do this last year too. The fact is, we don’t know what we’re getting, when we’re getting it, what it’ll do, what it’ll cost, or what it’ll be called. If it is a tablet (and most every market analyst is falling over themselves to say it is), it’s going to be big.

Head on over to Gizmodo’s collection of Apple Tablet Rumors to get a feel for whats being talked about.

My only worry is that Apple might make some of the same mistakes Microsoft made when moving to the tablet. I also worry they might try to hang to some of their existing hardware. Below is my list of ways Apple could possibly screw this up:

So, for those of you who didn’t know; Apple has a yearly sales seminar where they “announce” what will be coming out from the company for the coming year.  In the tech world, it’s actually a pretty interesting event, as it lets us know what will be coming out RIGHT NOW from Apple.  Many other companies (Microsoft, Intel, AMD) will often have an annual conference as well, but it’s to announce things they are working on.  Some of those things may never hit the market and some might take forever to get there.  With Apple’s, you know they’ve spent the last year secretly working on them and everything will be on sale as soon as the conference is over.

I, as you might expect, did not make it to the event.  Not that I was invited anyway.

Allow me to bullet point everything that was covered here anyway.  In my usual style, I may endlessly mock everything that was announced.

At the end of my last entry, I sort of bashed on the iPhone unfairly.  It’s not that I have an actual issue with the iPhone per se, but it was the best example of Apple’s “we can charge you extra for what PC user’s have had for years!” mentality.

In truth, where Mac OS shows everything that making a computer “idiot proof” can do wrong, the iPhone shows where “idiot proof” isn’t such a bad thing!  (special thanks to my friend Robert, a Mac user, for the phrase “idiot proof”).

I would tend to think that I have a little more expirience using a computer than most people.  Not all people, mind you, but most.  I own a Mac and a PC and use Windows and OS X (sometimes at the same time).  I’ve had to teach myself how to recover from any sort of system crash in Windows, and that there isn’t really a way to recover from a crash in OS X (so don’t go screwing around in there).  But it wasn’t until this last weekend that I think I might have hit upon the fundamental difference between an Apple and a PC.

My aunt is a really funny lady; she has a wonderful personality and a great sense of humor.  She’s also smart enough to know when she’s doing something wrong vs. when something just isn’t working.  She sent me an email and invited me to post it here.

I’ve written about this before on other sites, and I’ve briefly touched on it here, but I want to get this off my chest.

I hate the whole Mac vs PC thing. I hate those stupid ads, the zealots who think they actually have a valid argument, and I’m starting to hate white plastic because of them.

That out of the way, let’s clear some stuff up; yes I have a Mac, yes I have an Airport Extreme, and yes, I like them. So why do I have such a strong opinion against Macs? Well that’s just it, I don’t. I have a strong opinion against the whole “herd” mentality of Apple advertising, and the suckers who just eat it up.