Apple’s alliance with American Idol has caused me some discomfort this year, so I always do my best to mock the entire enterprise. As eagle-eyed reader Scott noticed, the recent iTunes and Idol charity event Idol Gives Back tends to, ahem, “borrow” the design language of a York Peppermint Patty. I’m sure this was Fox’s designers rather than Apple, but still…
My ambivalence toward the MacBook Air is pretty well-known. While I think its basic idea is compelling, Apple’s execution just leaves too much to be desired with just one USB port, terrible iPod hard drive, and no mobile broadband radio. This parody from Lenovo that’s been circulating to its suppliers in China sort of sums up the flaw in Steve’s vision for a truly wireless laptop. I mean, how can you release a machine with one USB port when the iPod and iPhone both need to be synced over USB and not WiFi?
Bonus points for the warbly parody of the MacBook Air song.
Tags: macbookair, lenovo, thinkpad, humor, parody
That’s a MacBook Pro, apparently running Steve Ballmer’s keynote presentation at a media conference in Louvain, Belgium last week. Flickr user Paint.It.Black got the shot, and Choubistar got a picture with both Ballmer and the MacBook Pro together. Allegedly, MacBook Pros were used to drive all presentations for the conference, and there are multiple shots of it. No Photoshop. Glorious.
What laptop does Steve Ballmer use for his presentations? Right… on Flickr – Photo Sharing!
Via Gizmodo
The MacUpdate promo has unlocked both Parallels and BannerZest (as well as Sound Studio), reversing my prior concerns, and making the bundle one heck of a good deal. Parallels alone (which I have used the heck out of), is worth the $64.99 price of entry, getting BannerZest tossed in is just icing. As per my previous review, Art-Text and DVDRemaster pro also seem to be pretty handy utilities, adding value to the bundle. But the unlocking of parallels is what really tips it over the edge for me.
Only three days left, folks.
My old colleague Rob Beschizza, who recently abandoned Wired.com for BoingBoing Gadgets, has a brilliant parody of my new book, Inside Steve’s Brain. The treacherous bastard writes:
“It’s hard to believe that one man revolutionized the operating system business in the 2000s, converting Windows’ extraordinary market dominance into the reviled seven-year ditch that is Vista, and squandering billions on confused advances into ill-understood peripheral markets like video gaming and music hardware
…. Wired.com’s Leander Kahney cuts through the salt-ringed tide marks that surround him to unearth secrets to his unbelievable results. It reveals the real Steve.”
LINK.
Pitting two great software bundles head-to-head in CultofMac cage match? What the heck, we have to do something to amuse ourselves until WWDC
Mac users this week are presented with two choices for bundles of shareware. The MacHiest bundle that includes 12 titles, bundled together for $49, and the MacUpdate promo that includes 10 titles for $64.99 (albeit 3 of them are locked until they reach specific sales numbers).
We get under the covers of these bundles to see which are worth your hard-earned duckets.
UPDATE: Microsoft says this was their attempt to make the worst internal video ever. MMM…yeah. Interesting spin…
I’ve been wrapping up an all-intensive project at work lately, but I have to break my silence for this: “Rocking Our Sales” by Bruce ServicePack and the Vista Street Band. I don’t really know where to begin. I guess I will just say this. I have no idea if Apple makes lame Bruce Springsteen parody music videos to inspire its channel sales teams, but if it does, I have to assume that it uses better lyrics than “Talk up our Microsoft Application Virtualization…See what’s on employee’s laptops with AIS and MDOP!”
EPIC FAIL, MS! And if anyone is actually inspired to sell more Vista based on this, really think about switching your job. I mean, damn.
Via Daring Fireball
Filed under: Still Speculating, just not wildly.
My inept Photoshop skills aside, Leander’s post below and the prevalence of the OSX86 project and similar efforts really speak to a single problem within the Macintosh lineup: The Tweener. That is, the Mac that is in between the Mac Mini and the MacPro. Apparently there are a WHOLE lot of folks who are desperate for this machine. Why it doesn’t exist is a mystery. Not only is there apparently a huge market for this kind of machine, there is an even larger market for “Certified Mac” after-market parts.
It’s a wonder that being the “Salesy” part of a duo that built their first computer in a garage, Steve doesn’t seem to get that enthusiasts want a computer they can “tinker” with.
As always I am gratuitously soliciting your comments as to what you’d like to see in this machine. My specs follow after the break
Apple has pushed past Toshiba to become the fourth largest PC maker in the U.S., according to new numbers from research firm Gartner.
Apple earned 6.6 percent of the PC market in Q1 2008, and saw 32.5 percent year-on-year growth in unit shipments, Gartner said. Overall, the PC market grew 3 percent year-on-year, Gartner said.
Apple trails Dell (31.4 percent market share), Hewlett-Packard (25 percent) and Acer (9.1 percent). While Dell grew 15 percent year-on-year during the quarter, Acer slipped 18.3 percent, Gartner said.
Acer is only 2.5 percentage points ahead of Apple, and Apple is positioned to regain the number-three slot, which it hasn’t held since the mid-nineties.
Worldwide, Apple failed to make the top 5 (HP, Dell, Acer, Lenovo, Toshiba).
A Santa Cruz woman is using Leopard’s Back to My Mac remote control software to track a thief who stole her laptop.
The woman, named Joey, had her MacBook and iPhone stolen from her truck. The thief didn’t wipe the MacBook, and Joey was able to log on remotely every time the crook connected to the internet using Back To My Mac. Built-into OS X, Back To My Mac allows administrators to take full control of machines over the Net.
Joey was able to remove sensitive data; copy and delete files; and then spy on the thief using the MacBook’s built-in iSight camera.
The crook spends a lot of time in cafes using free WiFi to search file sharing networks for software, music and movies.
As the crook surfed the Net, Joey was able to compile a full profile for police, including his Gmail account, home IP address, mother’s maiden name, and even snap clear pictures showing the detail of his tattoos.
Santa Cruz police are reportedly issuing a warrant to arrest the thief.
Joey was documenting the entire process on a LiveJournal account, which has been taken offline, likely to prevent the crook from getting wind of his impending arrest.
The first movie starring stoner legend Ellen Feiss, the break-out star of Apple’s “Switch ads,” will air online on Monday, April 21. But don’t get too excited: it looks like a turkey.
Bed & Breakfast, an indie movie shot in France, will air at 9:30PM ET / 6:30 PM PT on TheDigitalLifestyle.tv, a 24-hour Apple-related Web TV channel.
Feiss stars as the girlfriend of an American guy lured to a castle owned by a former college roommate, or something. The movie was shot in 2006 and seems to have promptly disappeared. There’s no indication whether it’s a comedy, a drama or a slasher flick.
It looks like a film school project; it “twists the apparent perception of things to reveal the reality that lurks behind,” according to this archived web site for the film.
Feiss shot to fame in 2002 after slurring her words in an Apple Switch ad detailing how her dad’s PC ate her homework. The ad became an online sensation, and was parodied widely. Feiss was invited on late night TV and was offered roles in moveis and TV shows, but shunned Hollywood — until now.
Here’s a still of Feiss from the movie:
Trying to find out if would-be Mac clone maker Psystart in legit or not, Gizmodo readers went to the two addresses identified by the Guardian’s Charles Arthur (see below). As Arthur predicted, one address is a single-story home, and the other address is a warehouse, but it’s home to a completely different company.
The Gizmodo reader, Michael, snapped some pictures and talked to the warehouse manager, who has never heard of Psystar.
In addition, another Giz reader, Robert, pulled records from Florida’s corporate filing office and found that Psystar’s two principles, Rodolfo and Roberto Pedraza, are officers or agents of “a whole crapload of companies,” according to Giz. Only one of these companies is active: Floridatek.
“These guys are obviously clowns,” says Robert.
A PC-versus-Mac shootout by Popular Mechanics scores the Mac way ahead in both price and performance. PopMech compared desktops and laptops, and not only did the Macs run rings around their Windows counterparts, they were cheaper to boot. The conclusion:
Our biggest surprise, however, was that PCs were not the relative bargains we expected them to be. The Asus M51sr costs the same as a MacBook, while the Gateway One actually costs $300 more than an iMac. That means for the price of the Gateway you could buy an iMac, boost its hard drive to match the Gateway’s, purchase a copy of Vista to boot–and still save $100.
My, how times have changed. A few years ago, the conventional wisdom was the opposite: PCs were cheaper and faster.
Somehow though, I don’t think conventional wisdom will change. Macs will always be regarded as premium computers — thanks to their fab design and quality fit and finish — even if that’s not actually true.
Charles Arthur at The Guardian has been poking around into the history of Psystar, the Miami company selling the Open Computer, a cheapo Mac clone.
What Arthur found – or rather didn’t find — is extremely suspicious. No one answers the phone, and before this week, the company has left zero record of itself on the Web — Zero. No customer testimonials, no press releases, news stories or posts and comments on forums.
Also, the company changed it’s address on Tuesday while Arthur was writing his post. It moved from what looks like a suburban location to a more industrial one.
Writes Arthur: “But forgive me for being a bit sceptical, but isn’t it far, far more important whether the company has been around, has a reputation, and is going to deliver a machine? Isn’t it?”
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The Miami company selling a generic PC that runs Mac OS X says it will fight Apple in the courts — but it’s reasoning seems flawed.
Psystar says it has ported OS X to run on a $400 machine called the OpenMac — in violation of the OS X’s shrinkwrap license, which restricts the software from being installed on any non-Apple branded machine.
But a spokesman for Psystar told InformationWeek that Apple’s shrinkwrap license for OS X violates U.S. antitrust law.
“What if Microsoft said you could only install Windows on Dell computers?” said the spokesman, identified only as Robert.
He continued: “What if Honda said that, after you buy their car, you could only drive it on the roads they said you could?”
But the spokesman seems to be confusing monopoly with abuse of monopoly. Having a monopoly is not illegal — abusing that monopoly is.
And although there’s no definitive court ruling on the enforceability of shrinkwrap EULA licenses (End-User License Agreements), Apple will likely sue under the more sweeping Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), which criminalizes the circumvention of copyright controls.
Apple has encrypted core segments of OS X — including portions of the Finder and Dock — in an overt anti-piracy effort, according to eWeek. Security researcher Bruce Schneier, said companies are using the DMCA as an anti-piracy measure, but also to prevent reverse engineering. Any attempt to break the encrypted code is in violation of the DMCA.
Psystar’s OpenMac claims to be a 2.2GHz Intel Core 2 Duo machine with 2GB of RAM, a 250GB hard drive, integrated Intel graphics, a DVD burner and four USB Ports. Most of the components can be upgraded.
Here’s a great story from the Consumerist about Dell’s hairy customer service. Guy sends his Dell laptop to Texas for replacement, the new machines comes back with pubes in the keyboard!
When I opened up the new laptop, I saw the screen was scratched and dirty, and the keyboard was covered in debris. Wait, not debris….what is that? HAIRS!? Not just any hairs – these could only be described as pubes. I hate to be so crude, but pubes are pubes. Not the incidental curly hair, but rather mini-tufts between the keys. My only guess is that Ron Jeremy was the previous owner.
Now that’s service.
Hacker Benjamin Heckendorn, better known as Ben Heck, has shoehorned the motherboard of an Apple IIGS into his own custom-made laptop case.
The Apple IIGS Original Hardware Laptop has a 15-inch color screen, built-in CompactFlash as a pseudo hard drive and stereo speakers.
The amazing piece of engineer has a glowing blue logo that flashes yellow when the disk is busy. Heck even made his own keys for the board, laser-etching each key.
It seems like it must be in danger of bursting into flames at any moment, but Heck says it puts off no more heat than a pocket calculator.
Released in September 1986, the IIGS was a powerful computer for its time, with advanced color graphics and stereo sound — the GS standing for “Graphics” and Sound.”
Heck says the hack was requested by an unnamed party. My money’s on Woz.
Heck has lot more pictures and video on his site.
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A company called Psystar is advertising a $399 pseudo-Mac called the “OpenMac,” which it claims is made from standard PC parts and is compatible with OS X Leopard.
Based in Miami, Florida, Psystar is courting a legal smackdown from Apple, which ended its official “clone” program in 1997 after Steve Jobs returned to run the company. Intended to grow the Mac platform, the clones instead took market share from Apple, seriously impacting its botttom-line.
Which is why Apple will likely pounce on Psystar: the Mac is Apple’s most profitable line, and the last thing Apple wants is a company producing low-cost knockoffs.
Apple will likely center on the use of Leopard: The operating system’s software license forbids it being installed on non-Apple hardware.
Psystar’s butt-ugly OpenMac claims to be a 2.2GHz Intel Core 2 Duo machine with 2GB of RAM, a 250GB hard drive, integrated Intel graphics, a DVD burner and four USB Ports. Most of the components can be upgraded with better graphics or bigger hard drives. Psystar says:
Filed under: Pure, Wild, Speculation
In my post regarding Apple’s apparent targeting of Adobe (if not them specifically then certainly their space) , there were such great, insightful comments that I decided to play a little game: What Would Steve Do? Taking a look at a potential Corel acquisition, how could we leverage the direct and indirect effects of that acquisition into an inferred Apple business strategy.
Now clearly, I’m not inside Steve’s head, that’s Leander’s niche, but these kinds of strategies are very much what I do for a living, so lets make some irresponsible, purely speculative, wild guesses, shall we? Of course gazing into the looking glass is no fun all by yourself, so lets make this an audience participation piece. I’ll lay out the basic framework after the break, and then we’ll pull from the comments for a follow-up piece.
Filed Under: FutureWatch
What I’m going to say will likely disturb some folks, particularly in light of the fact that iTunes just became the #1 music retailer in the world this month. But work with me a little.
The online music revolution has not occurred, yet.
That’s it. No wild speculation, or tin-foil hat accusations, (and yet your characteristic sensationalism remains –ed)
That is the whole of the thing. While other industries have seen often dramatic effects on their business as a result of the internet, the music business is much like it was when my dad had a music store 20 years ago. Consumers still shop, they buy records, or singles they’re interested in. In short, online music has not been changed by the internet (save for the piracy aspect), it remains the same “Buy and Consume” metaphor it has always been.
In the spirit of disrupting future software patents by publishing prior art, after the break we’ll discuss in detail exactly how Apple could change all that.
In more good news, the first review of Inside Steve’s Brain — my new book about Steve Jobs — has been published by Macworld.com. Even better, reviewer Dan Pourhadi likes it.
In his new book, Inside Steve’s Brain (Portfolio, 2008), however, Leander Kahney attempts to go beyond the obvious by offering a detailed, concept-oriented, blow-by-blow look at Apple CEO and what makes him tick–his history, his ideas, his ideals, his reasoning, his behavior, his relationships, even his footwear choices.
Kahney’s the right person for the job, too: He has an extensive history covering Apple and Steve Jobs since the early 1990’s, has written two previous books on the company, and has been running Wired’s Cult of Mac blog for ages.
Macworld is a tough audience, so I’m especially glad they liked it. The book is out next week.
From the department of “I’m-going-to-crow-about-it-because-no-one-else-will,” Wired.com has been nominated for a 2008 Webby award in the prestigious News category.
We’re up against BBC News, NYTimes.com, CNN.com and Discovery News.
As the day-to-day editor of the site, it makes me enormously proud to be rated against such formidable competition. The Webbys are known as the “Oscars of the Internet.”
All told, Wired.com has been nominated for six Webbys this year: Wired.com for best news site, best copywriting and best home page, Danger Room for political blog, Game|Life for games-related website and Compiler for software website. Epicenter and Gadget Lab were also designated “Honorees” in the business and culture categories, respectively.
By comparison, the BBC is up for four Webbys. The nominations come on the heels of Wired.com winning Best Classic Website at South By Southwest a few weeks ago. We’re on a roll.
(Full disclosure: Wired magazine — our sister print publication — is a media sponsor of the awards.)
Apple has released new firmware updates for several machines, but offered no meaningful explanation of what the update does. Apple’s note is maddeningly cryptic:
This update fixes several issues to improve the stability of [MacBook Air. Macbook, MacBook Pro, iMac] computers
The updates have sparked consternation in the Mac web world. At sites like the MacRumors forums, more than 200 commentators are asking, “What does it do?”
The updates are for:
Apple also released an update for the Aluminum Keyboard, but this one at least includes a meaningful description of the changes:
This firmware update addresses an issue with the aluminum Apple Keyboard and the aluminum Apple Wireless Keyboard where a key may repeat unexpectedly while typing.
Watch this dog scroll through the iPhone picture library as though it’s been using an iPhone all it’s life!
Even in the day and age of the iPhone, the Newton community is still updating software for the old brick.
Programmer Simon Bell has released version 2.1 of Newton Connection, which allows a Newton to be backed up to a Mac running OS X.
The new version adds a small feature — a screenshot function — but I’m just delighted that the Newton community is still active.
