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Author Topic:   What's next for Apple?
Nitrozac
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Posts: 411
From:
Registered: Dec 1999

posted January 09, 2001 19:11     Click Here to See the Profile for Nitrozac   Click Here to Email Nitrozac     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Snaggy and I frantically tossed in 3 cords of wood just as the blizzard was starting. We made it inside in the nick of time to hear Apple's CEO, Steve Jobs' keynote live web cast from Mac World Expo, January 2001 in San Francisco.

"Thank you all for coming here today." Jobs talks about how many people are in the audience, and how many are joining them live on the web cast from all over the world. It gives you a feeling that you are taking part in a historical event. The distortion field is just getting warmed up.

Our web cast kept cutting out every once in a while. Until we can get high speed access up here in the wilds of Canada, this will have to do. I was lucky to have caught most of his talk. The following is what I could get out of it;

Apple is now combining the power of Unix with the ease-of-use that Macs are famous for. He goes over some interesting, small, features in OSX. Icons can be grabbed and made into screen savers, same with photos. He talked about the dock, as well as some "fun new stuff". He officially announced that you can go out and buy OSX in stores on Saturday, March 24. He states that there will be an avalanche of new apps in the summer to accommodate the new OS.

Jobs launches quickly into Apple's theme, �Power to Burn�. There will be four new G4 PowerMac models, from 533 MHz to 733 MHz. "We�re late to the party, but we�re here." he apologizes. We�re starting to forgive his tardiness already. There will be new architecture, a new high-performance graphics cards and AGP 4X slot, in all new models. The models will have a new sound system, built-in Gigabit Ethernet, and four high-performance PCI slots (64 bit, 33 MHz) . All but the 533 are available in single processor only, but the high end model will feature dual processor BTO. They�ll have 128-256 mb RAM, 30 - 60 gig drives and come with CD-RW drives for creating music CDs and archiving data files . The price is $1699-$3499.

Distortion field is warmed up and rarin� to go. Jobs announced something "huge, and an industry first! - Super Drives!" He explains how there are two optical CD drives, CD and DVD drives. Both are able to write as well. They�ve combined the CD-R and DVD writable, to create the Super Drive. Super Drives can read and write onto both CDs and DVDs. You can take your home movies, music, and photos and view them on consumer DVD players. To go out and buy a drive such as this, you�d have to spend about $5000 dollars. Apple is going to bundle them in their top model and the whole thing will cost $3499. I�m already imagining a computer experience of ripping music, home movies, and piles of photos for my nephew and his new PS2, then teach him how to do it. Then he�d think I�m cool. Oh yeah, I�m in the field, and feeling its effects.

The anticipation and excitement of his keynote is building and its fun! "Power to Burn CDs, and DVDs and oh yeah, Pentiums too." He brings out the VP of marketing and they have a championship match. They compare speeds of a complex photoshop action file. The new Mac pummels the Pentium in 26 seconds vs clunky 36 seconds! WoOot!

The "Power to Burn" theme is repeated again. It�s a mantra now. We have it burned into our brain at this point. Letting everyone catch their breath, Jobs discusses shipping dates. Bottom 2 models are available now, and the top two are available in volume by February.

"What�s next?" he teases us, "we�re just gettin' started!" They are often asked, "What is your vision? Is the PC waning?" He quotes a noted journalist stating that Apple has matured into something boring. "That hurt." he says. He quickly begins the brief history of the PC. The 80's are called the prehistoric era. Then we have the Golden Age - the Age of Productivity, with desktop publishing and so forth. Then the 90's are called the Second Golden Age of the PC where the internet has been added which greatly propelled the business and personal PC. Hold on to your Millennium Falcon... we are entering the Third Age... the age of "Digital Lifestyle". There�s been an explosion of digital devices in our lives; cell phones, MP3s and players, DVD players, digital cam corders, digital cameras, (15% of all cameras sold), and Digital Assistants. Our lifestyles are fully integrated with digital devices.

"The Mac is the Digital Hub of this Age of the Digital Lifestyle". I couldn�t agree more at this point. I�m looking at my old G3 like it�s a dinosaur, and I want to walk out of the stone ages and into the tunnel of light to the Digital Age! "Why is the Mac the Digital Hub?" he quizzes us. He explains in plain, simple, lingo, that most of these devices are on their own, and they can play the media, but they're not recordable. Macs can display DVDs, burn discs, they have large storage, and it can get on the internet. "Interconnected digital devices". Apple began to understand it with the digital cam corder, iMove, and FireWire. Now they are going to focus on audio.

"There is a music revolution". Jobs gets into the logistics of ripping music, encoding it, and storing on a disc with some coherency. He mentions the MP3 phenomena, and Internet radio stations. Jobs then announces a new app they are releasing called, "iTunes, ...and it�s free!" He goes on demonstrating the product. Here comes another introduction, "iDVD" which is described as a break through and revolutionary. It's a single window app that takes the burn time from 25x to 2x. If you have to burn 30 minutes of music it used to take 12 hours, with iDVD, it'll take an hour. I�m thoroughly convinced.

Steve Jobs is famous for keynotes with a surprise ending. He�s thanking the audience for their patience, but, "there�s one more thing... Let�s talk notebooks." "We have the Power, but they have the Sex." Here it comes, the new PowerBook from Apple;
- 500 MHz G4 chip

- 15.2 inch mega-wide screen

- Built in DVD

- 5 hour battery life

- AirPort ready

That was the Power, but what about the Sex? Here it is;

- 1 inch thick

- 5.3 pounds

- It�s made out of TITANIUM!

"Stronger than steel, and lighter than aluminum!" Jobs continues... "like the sky planes!" It has a totally new design from the ground up. It has a slot load DVD, so you don�t have be annoyed in plane seats as the drive pops out and spills your coffee. It has two USB ports, FireWire, AirPort, 400-500 MHz. The price is $2599-$3499 and they are shipping by the end of January. If only I could see what it looks like, I'm sure I'd be drooling.

Where did all this Sex appeal envy come from? Who is 'They'? Well, it seems Apple has been insanely jealous of the handsome good looks of the Sony Vaio. They are the sexy subnotebooks popping up on hip TV shows and spotted in the arms of famous geeks of the Linux community. The Vaio is $50 more, but the Titanium PowerBook not only has more juice, it has a 52% larger screen, is a whopping 15% more svelte where it counts, and the Vaio is made out of last year's material - a tacky mix of plastic and titanium. How absolutely tired, and so five minutes ago!

There is a huge round of applause and Steve asks the crowd to thank the Apple team. Jobs invites everyone to the Apple booth to get their hands on all this new stuff. My one complaint is the new PowerBook won't have a SuperDrive, yet, anyway. I made a bet with Snaggy that his one-more-thing would be a PowerBook Digital Hub. I thought it would have a built in video/digital camera with a cord that pulls and retracts out like a vacuum cleaner, a built-in cellular modem to access the net anywhere, ruggedly handsome, a.k.a. as impact resistant, a PDA detachable port, and with the SuperDrive. I guess that's asking a lot for a one inch thick and 5.3 pound hardware Super Hero, heh.

Steve Jobs certainly knows his market - the Consumer market. His talk is solidified with thorough and concise research data such as the percentage of growth in digital device purchases. I couldn't actually see his demos, but it sounded like he clearly, and efficiently showed us how to apply these new break throughs to our home lives, work lives and in education. Another aspect that I admire about Apple is the perfectionist attention to details, such as rotating the Apple Logo 180 degrees on the new PowerBooks so it�s right side up when viewed by the rest of the world. Alas, I couldn't get my hands on one of those Love Machines to get to know it better.

Argh! If only I was there! Now I have to go and close the blast doors, 'cause it�s lookin' like Hoth out there! If only the Man of Titanium would come and rescue this Nordic Lois Lane! *sigh*


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Steen
SuperBlabberMouth!

Posts: 1162
From: Maryville, TN, USA
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posted January 10, 2001 15:05     Click Here to See the Profile for Steen   Click Here to Email Steen     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
No offense, but the most honest statement I can see in the whole keynote speech is "We�re late to the party". Nitrozac, don't take any of this personally, but I feel the need to rant and blow off some steam.

To go out and buy a drive such as this, you�d have to spend about $5000 dollars. Apple is going to bundle them in their top model and the whole thing will cost $3499.

I can purchase a Toshiba SD-R1002 and get almost the exact same features (it writes CD-RW at 4x instead of 8x) as the "super drive" for less than $200.

Titanium case? Not really a new idea, nor the best way to protect a laptop as titanium will transmit the energy of an impact just as well as plastic will (better, actually, but I digress). It looks nifty, I suppose, and that's more important than functionality to consumers these days. Still, let's send one to this guy and find out how well the titanium casing works. I wouldn't throw out my padded laptop case just yet, though.

If you have to burn 30 minutes of music it used to take 12 hours

Umm... I really hope that was supposed to say video. A 1x cd burner can put out 30 minutes of music in, suprise, 30 minutes. If music was what they said, I'd love to know where they found a 0.04x speed drive to get a 12 hour write time from.

It has a slot load DVD, so you don�t have be annoyed in plane seats as the drive pops out and spills your coffee.

Yeah... and from personal experience I can tell you, the disk pops out and spills your coffee instead (diet coke or water in my case). The bigger reason I don't like slot load drives because it's too easy to stick a disk in at an angle and scratch it by accident. :-/

Anyway

While I made some fun of the way the iBook looked like a toilet seat, I actually had some degree of respect for Apple prior to this. Now they're just distorting information (that explains the distortion field you felt) and acting like every other computer company on the planet. Sad.

To misquote the IBM commercial... "It's the twenty-first century. Where are the flying cars? I was promised flying cars!"

Wake me up when someone comes up with something that's actually new, rather than a slightly faster version of what was released three or more years ago*.

*Yes, consumer DVD RAM drives are three years old and that's the newest technology in this computer. No, combining two devices into one multifunction device does not mean you have a new technology.

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zorgon
Super Geek

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From: Beautiful Uptown Goleta
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posted January 10, 2001 15:20     Click Here to See the Profile for zorgon     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Aw c'mon Steen, lighten up. It's Steve, Steve Jobs, remember? Anything less than total hyperbolic galactic hype from him and we'd all accuse him of being assimilated by the Borg or something.
[p]
And at the risk of being hyperbolic myself, the guy is damn near always right, and way ahead of his time. You have a personal computer on your desk? It's because of Steve. That computer has a mouse, GUI, icons? Because of Steve. The personal computer has an Ethernet cable coming out the back? Steve. Wacky, unwieldy, slow, removable disk drive? (counter-example to be fair) Steve. None of these technologies were new or perhaps even innovative when Steve hijacked them, but he did try to sell them to you and put them on your desk before anyone else even thought of it. And each time he tried, the critics grew louder and more contemptuous. And they were all wrong! I'm saving the extra Sacajaweas needed to obtain a high-performance Mac, no doubt! [p]
Peace,
z

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cogito ergo something.

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Oldguy geek
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posted January 10, 2001 15:26     Click Here to See the Profile for Oldguy geek     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Jobs has 'vision.' Saints preserve us from people with 'vision.' The titanium thing is recycled from the Next cubes. At least he doesn't seem so bent on the idea that everyone wants to carry all their stuff around in a backpack. That used to be a big point for him.

I'm glad he's around. He drives some interesting developments into the marketplace, but doesn't seem to *quite* grasp what the broader market wants.

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Robert Jung
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posted January 11, 2001 01:25           Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
quote:
Originally posted by Steen:
To go out and buy a drive such as this, you�d have to spend about $5000 dollars. Apple is going to bundle them in their top model and the whole thing will cost $3499.

I can purchase a Toshiba SD-R1002 and get almost the exact same features (it writes CD-RW at 4x instead of 8x) as the "super drive" for less than $200.


*BZZZZZZZT!* Sorry, technical error, ten yard penalty.

The Toshiba SD-R1002 is a CD-RW/DVD-R drive, whereas the SuperDrive is a CD-RW/DVD-RW drive. Or, in plain English, the SuperDrive lets you burn both CDs and DVDs, while the Toshiba lets you burn CDs only.

Needless to say, burning DVDs is not a trivial effort, and I think a non-Apple drive to burn Cds and DVDs is going to cost considerably more than "less than $200."

(I do think it's rather silly that a consumer-oriented product like iDVD is only available on the high-end PowerMac tower. OTOH, I won't be surprised at all to see iDVD and the SuperDrive quickly make their way down to the iMac line, probably once Apple starts buying the drives from Pioneer in bulk)

--R.J.

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supaboy
SuperBlabberMouth!

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From: Columbia, SC, USA
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posted January 11, 2001 09:16     Click Here to See the Profile for supaboy   Click Here to Email supaboy     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
quote:
Originally posted by Oldguy geek:
The titanium thing is recycled from the Next cubes.

IIRC, the Next cubes were magnesium.

Ti has some interesting properties, though. Litespeed makes mountain bikes with pivotless rear suspensions. The shock absorber is there just to dissipate the energy, the Ti is doing all the heavy-lifting of springing. Not that I'm suggesting the Powerbook's gonna bounce when dropped, mind you.

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Steen
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From: Maryville, TN, USA
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posted January 11, 2001 10:16     Click Here to See the Profile for Steen   Click Here to Email Steen     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Needless to say, burning DVDs is not a trivial effort, and I think a non-Apple drive to burn Cds and DVDs is going to cost considerably more than "less than $200."

I got the part numbers screwed up, so sue me Low end DVD-RAM drives are going for less than $400, though, and combining the technologies is not that big a deal. I did, however, figure out where the $5000 figure comes from... Pioneer has a drive which they tagged a list price of $5400 dollars on *faint* Who in their right mind would pay that much to combine two drive types? You could set up two dedicated systems, one to burn CDs and one for DVDs for less. *boggle*

Aw c'mon Steen, lighten up.

For what it's worth, I'm not angry or anything... just sick of marketing hype. Could have something to do with the company I work for releasing a new product with half the features not actually present and accounted for :-/

BUT...

I want my flying cars!

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Avi Drissman
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From: Farmington Hills, MI USA
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posted January 11, 2001 10:33     Click Here to See the Profile for Avi Drissman   Click Here to Email Avi Drissman     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Low end DVD-RAM drives are going for less than $400, though, and combining the technologies is not that big a deal.

But this isn't DVD-RAM, it's DVD-R. Big difference in technologies. DVD-RAM can't be read by consumer players. DVD-R (supposedly) can.

Check out:

http://www.usbyte.com/common/dvd_5.htm
http://www.ebscomputers.demon.co.uk/dvdfaq.htm

Avi

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zorgon
Super Geek

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From: Beautiful Uptown Goleta
Registered: Sep 2000

posted January 11, 2001 12:43     Click Here to See the Profile for zorgon     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
quote:
Originally posted by Oldguy geek:
... but doesn't seem to *quite* grasp what the broader market wants.

Me neither. What do they want?

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Oldguy geek
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From: Blacksburg, Va., USA
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posted January 11, 2001 13:38     Click Here to See the Profile for Oldguy geek     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
quote:

Originally posted by Oldguy geek:
... but doesn't seem to *quite* grasp what the broader market wants.

Originally posted by zorgon:
Me neither. What do they want?



Damned if I know. I have never been very good at figuring out which things will catch on and which won't. I do know that what I like does not correlate well with broad market popularity. Unfortunately, I like just enough popular things to be useless as a counter-indicator.

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Anonyman
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posted January 11, 2001 18:03     Click Here to See the Profile for Anonyman   Click Here to Email Anonyman     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
I think that Apple is catching up where it was getting behind is now setting to spring ahead of the competition, like it did with the iMac 1998.

Apple is definitely on the right track with the PowerBook G4 by being 'better than the best' like it has before. What other company makes a laptop that is 1" thick, weighs 5 lbs, and is faster than a desktop?

Apple's vision is correct: to be the digital hub of the digital lifestyle. Other companies are trying to do this, but Apple seems to be the only one able to do full-circle.

OS X: Finally, Apple realises that they will sell more copies of OS X if they gives the customer What they actually want. IE, the Apple menu, some pop-up folder funcionality, etc.

Way to go, Apple!

Peter

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Take the power back! Anonymity now!

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Seedy Edgewick
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posted January 11, 2001 19:10     Click Here to See the Profile for Seedy Edgewick   Click Here to Email Seedy Edgewick     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
What was the buzzword I've been reading in Wired for a while now? Oh, yeah, it's "convergence." Isn't that exactly what Stevie was talking about when he referred to the Mac as a "digital hub"?

No one is going to make an all-in-one widget. These days there's too much in the "all" part to ever realistically fit in a "one" package. You're never going to get DVD recording in a cell phone package. You'll need some kind of home base station for all your portable devices to plug into. This thought occurred to me sometime last year: "How are we going to carry all these things around?" The answer is, you don't. You store all your stuff on your home base station and upload only what you need today into your PDA/cell phone/MP3 player/digital camera/whatever.

So, to respond to the above criticism of Apple's new hardware: While you might be able to find a DVD-R writer that can encode video in 2x time, you won't find one that ALSO uploads MP3's to your Rio, burns audio CD's for your Discman, downloads photos from your digital camera, AND edits video from your digital camcorder prior to burning the DVD-R. You have to look at the total package. Can your Toshiba DVD writer play Oni at 50+fps? Can it be expanded to include a RAID? In short, can you get any of the other benefits of owning a full-fledged Mac tower with just a DVD writer? No, you can't. And you never will.

The Mac that Stevie envisions is one that is essential to the convenience of all our other devices. There are MP3 players out there that can store gigabytes of data, sure, but what happens when you're out of space? You go to your computer to download old tunes and upload new ones. You're NEVER going to upload one playlist and leave it. You're going to want to change things. Hell, if I had an MP3 player whose songs I never changed, I'd still be listening to A Flock of Seagulls. And contemplating a killing spree because of it.

Basically, folks, look at the big picture. The home PC has always tried to be all things to all people. These days, the trick is figuring out what all the people want their PC's to be. I think Stevie has the right idea, which is to make the Mac as beneficial as possible to computer users. Most computer users have other digital devices. The Mac seamlessly, easily, and intuitively meshes with them, making both experiences that much better.

Once this knowledge filters through the public at large, I think you'll see a lot of "pundits" changing their tunes about Apple. Except John C. Dvorak -- he's just a dick.

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Mr. Zarquon
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posted January 11, 2001 19:59     Click Here to See the Profile for Mr. Zarquon     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
For a "convergence" device, I can see apple making the infamous 6th box device obviously a small portable thing. Smaller than both the iBook and the Powerbook G4 (remember, we still need the really compact computer system similar to the cube, which the pbG4 is not, since it doesn't have a different price range, nor the really tiny design that a cube portable would need).

Something like the Newton I see coming back. Small, portable, lots connectivity. Something you can throw into your backpack and check email from the road on, surf the web, while not having to carry a full blown laptop. Airport onboard, low power processor, ethernet, usb, irda, modem, audio in, audio out, some form of storage (for the audio / digital convergance them). Can possibly act like a universal remote.

Size comparable to the newton 2100, or the picture book, attached keyboard, pointing device and touch screen.

Durable, long battery life, the perfect midstep ultra PDA.

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Mr Bill
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posted January 11, 2001 22:33     Click Here to See the Profile for Mr Bill   Click Here to Email Mr Bill     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
quote:
Originally posted by Robert Jung:
*BZZZZZZZT!* Sorry, technical error, ten yard penalty.

The Toshiba SD-R1002 is a CD-RW/DVD-R drive, whereas the SuperDrive is a CD-RW/DVD-RW drive. Or, in plain English, the SuperDrive lets you burn both CDs and DVDs, while the Toshiba lets you burn CDs only.

[/B]


TWEEET! 5 minute delay of game penalty

CD-R: CD recordable
CD-RW: CD rewriteable
DVD-R: DVD recordable
DVD-RW: DVD rewriteable

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thecat
Single Celled Newbie

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From: Oregon
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posted January 12, 2001 04:43     Click Here to See the Profile for thecat   Click Here to Email thecat     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
no one want a toaster cell phone. I like having lots of devices. Steve is proposing more, say, being able to call your toaster on the cell phone. not all in one, but a central device that controls and benifits lots of little devices. you don't need imovie for a digital video camera, it just "makes it 10 time better"

what irritates me is all the death chanting about apple not making as much money as they thought they would, and will these new devices be enough to save apple? SAVE APPLE! for christs sake I remember when apple was in the red and going lower. then it needed to be saved. as long as money is being made I fail to see why it needs to be saved. Microsoft, on the other hand, could really use some help with their stocks...

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RedNivek
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posted January 12, 2001 07:50           Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Where does Britney Spears carry her pager?

Hmmm... wrong thread?

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Nitrozac
Moderator

Posts: 411
From:
Registered: Dec 1999

posted January 12, 2001 09:57     Click Here to See the Profile for Nitrozac   Click Here to Email Nitrozac     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Good critism Steen (no, I don't take it personally). There are a lot of Linux folks in the forum, so, I have a couple of questions for you;

1) How do you feel about the MacOSX combing Mac attributes with Unix? I think it's a good thing for both Unix and Mac. What do you think?

2) Strictly Linux machines could be called "no shows" to the party. Linux users often dual boot Windows to be able to play their favorite games, and DVDs. In particular Linux boxes have licensing issues with DVD drives. How do you feel about this new hardware, do you ever think of getting a G4/733/SuperDrive and install a Mac Linux on it, instead of dealing with Microsoft?

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zorgon
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posted January 12, 2001 12:00     Click Here to See the Profile for zorgon     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
quote:
Originally posted by RedNivek:
Where does Britney Spears carry her pager?


Hmmm... wrong thread?


No, no. Right thread. And the answer is, 'in her convergence.' Right next to the I/O subsystem. Except in the Cube model of course, in which case it's only available via the Ethernet connection unless you get the SuperDrive.

But that should really be no obstacle. I'm wondering about whether or not she uses StarOffice (being a star and all) and whether Sun will consider an OS X port for it, in which case you can just tell Redmond "Oops I did it again, I got me a Mac, install'd OS Ten..."

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Mr. Zarquon
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posted January 12, 2001 12:55     Click Here to See the Profile for Mr. Zarquon     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Nitro-
As a mac and linux geek myself (more linux by the moment) I can say that the price itself it just so obscene to get a G4 733 machine for running linux, since one could make a pretty nice machine with an Athlon for a whole lot less that would have better linux support.

From my own experience, there is much less support for working with linux on powerpc since the amount of linuxppc users is extremely less than the amount of linux/i386 people out there. For example, airport functionality under linux on my powerbook g3 isn't nearly as documented or stable compared to wireless under pc laptops.

I know hardcore linux friends who are really excited about OS X and the idea of darwin support, especially since XFree86 4.0 can run under both of them. They think that the new machines are ok "for a mac" or "for something from apple".

As for myself, Apple Portables will always have me, but my desktop machines will probably be i386 because of the lower expense and expandibility. And I do have masochistic tendancies sometimes.

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Zwilnik
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posted January 12, 2001 15:14     Click Here to See the Profile for Zwilnik     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
I think it's odd that when Bill Gates announces that Microsoft thinks that 'in a few years time, PCs will be a hub to connect all your gadgets too' everyone in the press is really updbeat and arse licky, then when a few days later, Steve Jobs says 'Here's our new computer, it's a hub that you can connect all your gadgets too' everyone goes negative on it.
Usual double standards from the press. I've used Macs since they came out in 84, so I can afford one of the new ones

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Steen
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posted January 12, 2001 16:35     Click Here to See the Profile for Steen   Click Here to Email Steen     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Nitrozac wrote:
1) How do you feel about the MacOSX combing Mac attributes with Unix? I think it's a good thing for both Unix and Mac. What do you think?

I honestly can't say it's a good or bad thing at this point as I see a lot of potential for both outcomes. It is, however, an interesting move which I will enjoy observing from afar.

2) Strictly Linux machines could be called "no shows" to the party. Linux users often dual boot Windows to be able to play their favorite games, and DVDs. In particular Linux boxes have licensing issues with DVD drives. How do you feel about this new hardware, do you ever think of getting a G4/733/SuperDrive and install a Mac Linux on it, instead of dealing with Microsoft?

I'm one of the no-shows, then I have two Linux based systems as well as a Windows system at home and I don't dual-boot anything. I often refer to my Windows system as the sacrificial system because I routinely destroy it and re-image the drives from complete backups which sit on the Linux server.

That said, I don't have a DVD drive in any of the systems and quite likely never will. With the exception of movies and a couple of encyclopedias, everything that's come out on DVD so far has been little more than 'shovel-ware'... tons of useless stuff shoveled in to fill up the empty disk (and the encyclopedias are boardering on this as well). As for movies, I have a standalone DVD player with a cheat menu so I can turn MacroVision off and feed it to my video card and watch movies on my monitor if I want... but I never do that now that the novelty has worn off. I play the DVDs on the TV and use my computer as a computer.

As far as the future goes, I may have hit my last round of software upgrades for a very long time. I despise the bloating I see occurring in operating system and software. By the time the software and operating systems are bloated enough to require DVD distribution, I will probably have become a neo-luddite, to coin a lame term, using lots of older technology, but not interested in the so-called 'cutting edge'.

Actually, scratch that... I may already be a neo-luddite since, starting around two years ago, I decided to end the buy-faster-system-install-clunkier-bloated-software-desire-faster-system cycle. Hmm... methinks I should think on this more and, if anyone else is interested, fork off another thread to discuss apathy towards cutting-edge technology.

At any rate, the answer is no... the new Mac and the superdrive don't really offer anything that I feel a desire to have. The same is true of most everything in the x86 corner of the computing world too, with the exception of my super-secret-dumb-gizmo* project, which I doubt anyone with a sanity point left would be interested in.

*Cthulu attached to my parallel port, basically... and the pun was intentional

[edit] Whoa... can I babble aimlessly or what? Most of the posts that are this long at least quote other people extensively or have lots of white space. Sorry for the length if it bugs anyone.

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supaboy
SuperBlabberMouth!

Posts: 1242
From: Columbia, SC, USA
Registered: Jan 2000

posted January 12, 2001 23:03     Click Here to See the Profile for supaboy   Click Here to Email supaboy     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
This sorta looked like it was directed at Steen, but I'll barge in anyway.

Originally posted by Nitrozac:
1) How do you feel about the MacOSX combing Mac attributes with Unix? I think it's a good thing for both Unix and Mac. What do you think?

I think it's a good thing. Many of the people I work with only thought of Unix something that you had to know command lines to use. All my Linux advocacy in the office was tolerated mainly because it's hard not to think there must be something better after a BSOD kills an open but unsaved document or two.

But the first time I was able to build a Linux box (out of parts that were too slow to run Windows profitably, natch) and fire up Gnome... Ahhh- that got their attention in a good way!

Now imagine if I had been able to deliver the stability and power of Unix with a Mac's interface, and seal the deal with applications that we use (Adobe deep-sixed Framemaker for Linux and MS probably isn't going to ship Office for it any time soon, but I bet both will be available for OS X).

Originally posted by Nitrozac:
2) Strictly Linux machines could be called "no shows" to the party. Linux users often dual boot Windows to be able to play their favorite games, and DVDs. In particular Linux boxes have licensing issues with DVD drives. How do you feel about this new hardware, do you ever think of getting a G4/733/SuperDrive and install a Mac Linux on it, instead of dealing with Microsoft?

From a purely technical standpoint, I think it would be nice to have soemthing faster than my P133, especially if it could do its job and dissipate less heat in the process.

But like Steen said, I got off the endless upgrade treadmill. I only upgrade when there's a specific feature I want to have. Being able to write DVDs is great, but I have no compelling reason to. For the record, I downloaded the 2.4.0 kernel, but I haven't got around to even unpacking it yet. 2.2 runs perfectly for me.

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weirdo513
Super Geek

Posts: 235
From: Indiana University
Registered: Oct 2000

posted January 14, 2001 04:52     Click Here to See the Profile for weirdo513   Click Here to Email weirdo513     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Just beacause he stole technology and put it into a machine first doesn't make him a visionary, it makes him a better theif.

Steve Jobs should be fired still.

But I'm biases I had to put up with MAC Sys 7.5 LC's (aka P.O.S) for most of my elementary and Middle school life. So I learned to hate every nuance of the MAC OS.

I want an I-Book toilet seat.

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Orbhead
Super Geek

Posts: 135
From: Kitchener, ON, Canada
Registered: Dec 2000

posted January 14, 2001 10:40     Click Here to See the Profile for Orbhead   Click Here to Email Orbhead     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
I am begining to see why Mac vs Wintel debates are tabooo. Soo many harsh words...

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Robert Jung
unregistered
posted January 14, 2001 14:14           Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
quote:
Originally posted by weirdo513:
Just beacause he stole technology and put it into a machine first doesn't make him a visionary, it makes him a better theif.

Just outta curiousity, what technology do you think Steve Jobs stole?

Surely you're not referring to Xerox PARC's developments in GUIs, right? Because Apple actually paid for the rights to develop and expand on PARC's stuff, to the tune of $1 million in stock opions. Or maybe you're just confusing Steve Jobs with Bill Gates, who did steal from both Apple and Xerox...?

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weirdo513
Super Geek

Posts: 235
From: Indiana University
Registered: Oct 2000

posted January 15, 2001 19:02     Click Here to See the Profile for weirdo513   Click Here to Email weirdo513     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
No more like the fact he didn't develop them himself, (do start with me on Bill Gates Bull cause a) he's not the issue in this thread and b) I don't like him much either) and yes I realise that a lot of people borrow technology but I hate when people credit him for "revolutionising the computer industry" because he bought ideas from Xerox. But that's my personal beef with Jobs...

However, I'm reminded of the quote (i think) "A good artist borrows, a great artist steals"

But alas, I'm leaving this thread before I become even more of a MAC hate troll than I already am. ;-)

------------------
~Weirdo~
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