Tonight I am the proud new owner of a brand new iMac.
My old one was great. But it crashed a lot.
In some ways, it reminded me as a rock solid Linux box. In other ways, it reminded me as an unstable Windows 98 PC.
I think its problems were hardware based. It is practically dead now. I am going to take it into the shop and see if they can repair it. It's serial number was on Apple's deathwatch list so if it has a bad motherboard or something else caused by the flakey capacitors they were building into their systems, I should be able to get it repaired for free.
This new system has not crashed yet and I have been running it for several hours. That beats the Windows 98 and the iMac G5's records quite soundly.
I have already downloaded: VersionTracker Pro, Firefox, Thunderbird, Camino, and Eclipse 3.2.1. I will be grabbing a few other things later.
These guys are going to give Apple and Microsoft quite a run for their money next year, as each company tries to coax existing users to buy an upgrade to their operating system - and woo existing users to their operating system and/or computer.
Pretty amazing show, isn't it?
Some aspects of the desktop shown seem quite similar to the current Macintosh desktop.
The dock, for instance.
But there are some things there that I have never seen the like of, anywhere.
Quite impressive for a free program running on a free operating system on an inexpensive computer using a free video service, no?
Did you ever think things would be this crazy cool half a decade or so ago when you bought your last computer?
Interesting take on one little I/O port on the upcoming TV-accessory from Apple: an enigmatic USB 2.0 port.
One techno pundit speculates it may be designed to allow a USB-eqiupped PVR-like television tuner to plug in. Companies like El Gato certainly make them.
...if I am right and the USB connector will be used to add third party TV tuners, suddenly it all makes sense and we all get what we had been waiting for. I would be really surprised if Apple hadn't planned that all along. Why not announce it now, then? Well, I guess that Steve Jobs is already preparing its One more thing speech for MacWorld
It would be great to see Apple creating a new niche for innovative companies to synergize with the corporation and help consumers in even more new ways.
A lot of companies in the early part of this decade forgot that people have a home life, and they need some creature comforts there, too.
Not Apple.
After they introduced the iMac, they rolled out iTunes, the iPod, Airport Express with AirTunes, and host of other products to make the home more livable.
Plus, you don't have to hire a live-in IT department to come to your house - or be forever taking your computer to the shop for one ailment after another. It just works.
Speculating on the future of TV in light of what Apple has done to make over the home computer and the MP3 player is really fertile ground for prognostication.
Thankfully, with just 3-6 months to go - there is not much time to get much wrong!
Looks like the long-awaited, long-promised age of media convergence is at last upon us.
Two decades ago I was standing in the living room of my apartment, directly in front of my television set, stereo system components, cable TV jack, and and Sony Beta videotape deck.
I was not watching them, though. I was staring at a blank white wall just to the right of them. I remember thinking that media could be digitized and stored electronically, and everything was moving toward solid state - no moving parts.
Miniaturization was inevitable, inexorable, and inescapable.
What I sort of saw in my daytime reverie was a device or a rack, if you wish. It was affixed to the wall about chest high for an adult and about chest-sized. It was black and very low-key.
Into it you could put little rectangles. About the size of the compact flash chips. Bigger, actually, than the tiny slivers of black practically paper-thin wafers that are used in cameras and media players today - those xD and SD cards that are so common now.
The rectangles were incredibly inexpensive. You could reuse them, if you wanted. You could keep them parked in your wall-mounted multimedia entertainment library/hub unit. Nobody cared. The thing you paid for was the programming - the shows and songs - and you could keep them for a lifetime.
There were no more proprietary formats. No more cornering of the market based on incompatibilities. Everyone had moved past that and settled on compatibility. The reward for everyone was that all this stuff you watch and listen to was more consumable. More collectable. More retainable. More organizable. More usable.
It made more sense. It was like all the rough corners had been removed from what which we consume that we cannot touch.
Now, video has become the hot thing. We still have multiple competing file formats and physical media - more than just the Beta-and-VHS and vinyl-vs-CD-vs-magtape that were duking it out back then, in fact.
So, how on track are we?
Pretty on track, I think.
Right now, 2006 seems like the year that video technology just rolled out the door and landed all over the place, covering everything.
I believe that 2007 will be the year that video and media entertainment has got it all covered - everything.
The products will all be out and a lot of groups of very bright individuals will be quietly moving on how to get a whole lot more onto the landing strips all that hardware and softwares provide.
Humans can take in a lot more information than we do, share it a lot faster with others than we dare, and cull it for things of interest than we bother.
I think in 2007, we will do, dare, and bother to do more than we ever have done before.
VIDEO mania is in full swing. Amazon is finally doing movie downloads. Apple is touting a new wireless gizmo to beam movies from laptops to TV screens. NBC is introducing a video syndication service that might pit it against Google and Yahoo, and it%u2019s joining the other big networks in putting its shows online for free with advertising. MTV is working with Google to populate its video content all over the Web.
Apple plans on adding yet another twist to entertainment/movies/television/computing - and the whole digital multimedia thing within 6 months.
The as-yet-unamed future product will have the ability to stream A/V (audio-video) directly from the Mac to a modern digital high-def. (HDTV) television system.
It will come out in the first quarter of 2007. They way Apple has been more than beating their own promises for the past couple of years, that could translate to in stores at Christmas. But we will see, if you will pardon the pun.
esembling a squat Mac Mini, the iTV will use wireless networking to stream movies and TV shows from iTunes to a television. The power supply is built right in to the unit; it also features USB 2.0, Ethernet, High Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI) plug, component video, analog audio and optical audio interfaces.
Apple's inclusion of 3D graphics menus is very interesting.
Not because it is a gee-whiz feature but because of what significance it could hold.
Apple has a lot of 3D and artistic talent. Not just programming but artistry, creativity, and production. Apple's CEO has been owning and somewhat running a 3D video graphics TV commercials-cum-movies house for the past 2 decades.
Think he might transfer some of his momentum/skill with managing that technology into consumer products for the home - or even business - environment?
I do.
TVs are more than just things for watching commercials, movies, DVDs, canned news broadcasts - and the occasional documentary.
They are media portals.
They have simple controls, IR remotes, impressively large screens, and generally sit in locals people relax in and even congregate/socialize in. In essence, it is a gawk box.
Apple or someone like them could spin that gawk box into something a lot more captivating, a lot more informative, a lot more realtime, and a lot more personalized.
Whoever does that, basically can steer what shows up on that box by leading it around by the nose. I am not talking about controlper se but I am definitely talking about Influence.
Customizable content, the norm on computers for the past half dozen years on computers, has definitely been lacking or at least extremely weak on computers.
TiVo certainly created a foothold for it, indirectly, by letting you inform your TV what you wanted to watch - and let it manage the acquisition, relinquishment, and cataloging of said programs.
But shows are just one kind of media. And prerecorded shows are hardly current information, by definition.
A huge screen can certainly be a great way to watch news broadcasts and movies and sitcoms - the way we have for the past fifty to hundred years.
However, I think TiVo proves we can do more than watch. We can tailor what our TV captures to our needs, have it presented - and discarded - according to our own schedule/availability/desires, and stop/rewind it in an instant.
Apple is a computer company, as their name says. They are not just movie and music moguls.
I think Apple or 3rd parties will bring a lot more to Apple's upcoming TV product than meets the eye. And I think it will offer a lot in the form of 3D graphics visualizations - both aesthetic and informational.
Apple is just kicking butt and slashing prices in the desktop supercomputer for infotainment/work/study in the home this summer.
They started the year by unleashing their first Intel based Mac six months sooner than expected. They finished their conversion to the Mac line at approximately the month they had promised to begin it with this year.
Now, Apple has upgraded its entire iMac fleet from a mix of single and dual core processors to all dual core processors.
And what did Apple do to celebrate?
They cut the prices and made the screen bigger! They even made them go faster!
There are rumors that Apple will be selling full length movies starting next week.
It would be pretty cool to get the urge to see a movie one had always wanted to see, click a few buttons on an iMac, and be seeing that same movie a half an hour later on a 24-inch screen!
I think Apple might become the new television.
They sit in your house and are basically a big flat screen - with practically zero footprint. That means they to anywhere.
They, and the matching white video iPod ,have MPEG video built into them - that means they both play shows really well.
September 6, 2006%u2014Apple� today announced that its entire iMac� line now features the new Intel Core 2 Duo processor in every model, delivering up to 50 percent faster performance than the previous iMac.* A new 24-inch iMac with a brilliant 24-inch widescreen display joins the 17- and 20-inch models, and iMac prices now start at just $999. Every new iMac includes a built-in iSight%u2122 video camera for video conferencing out-of-the-box; Apple%u2019s breakthrough Front Row media experience; and iLife's, the next generation of Apple's award-winning suite of digital lifestyle applications.
Every iMac from the $999 model up through the new dazzling 24-inch widescreen model now features blazing Core 2 Duo performance, said Philip Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing. And the new 24-inch widescreen iMac is the fastest, biggest and brightest iMac we've ever made.
The new iMac lineup includes four models: a 1.83 GHz and a 2.0 GHz 17-inch, a 2.16 GHz 20-inch and the all-new 2.16 GHz 24-inch iMac, and features the new Intel Core 2 Duo processor which delivers up to 50 percent faster performance than the previous 20-inch iMac running industry standard benchmarks.
Apple was being begged and advised by many PC makers, with dubious motives, to switch to an Intel processor, open up their operating system, and lower their prices.
Those companies probably really wish they had never brought those suggestions up today.
Today, Apple's computers are priced down in the range of the least expensive desktop computers in the world.
They have really large screens, high capacity, and fast performance.
They are not just open – their operating system is open source. Know what? Only the Linux OS has more of its OS open source than Apple's.
The other OS? They are about as proprietary and closed as an OS can be. They have always been pretty closed but now they are more closed than ever, in fact, closing has been one of the other OS's stated goals for the past 4-5 years.
The great thing about Apple's computers that they share with televisions everywhere: it does not take 3 fingers to turn them off.
Apple is just kicking butt and slashing prices in the desktop supercomputer for infotainment/work/study in the home this summer.
They started the year by unleashing their first Intel based Mac six months sooner than expected. They finished their conversion to the Mac line at approximately the month they had promised to begin it with this year.
Now, Apple has upgraded its entire iMac fleet from a mix of single and dual core processors to all dual core processors.
And what did Apple do to celebrate?
They cut the prices and made the screen bigger! They even made them go faster!
There are rumors that Apple will be selling full length movies starting next week.
It would be pretty cool to get the urge to see a movie one had always wanted to see, click a few buttons on an iMac, and be seeing that same movie a half an hour later on a 24-inch screen!
I think Apple might become the new television.
They sit in your house and are basically a big flat screen - with practically zero footprint. That means they to anywhere.
They, and the matching white video iPod ,have MPEG video built into them - that means they both play shows really well.
September 6, 2006%u2014Apple� today announced that its entire iMac� line now features the new Intel Core 2 Duo processor in every model, delivering up to 50 percent faster performance than the previous iMac.* A new 24-inch iMac with a brilliant 24-inch widescreen display joins the 17- and 20-inch models, and iMac prices now start at just $999. Every new iMac includes a built-in iSight%u2122 video camera for video conferencing out-of-the-box; Apple%u2019s breakthrough Front Row media experience; and iLife's, the next generation of Apple's award-winning suite of digital lifestyle applications.
Every iMac from the $999 model up through the new dazzling 24-inch widescreen model now features blazing Core 2 Duo performance, said Philip Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing. And the new 24-inch widescreen iMac is the fastest, biggest and brightest iMac we've ever made.
The new iMac lineup includes four models: a 1.83 GHz and a 2.0 GHz 17-inch, a 2.16 GHz 20-inch and the all-new 2.16 GHz 24-inch iMac, and features the new Intel Core 2 Duo processor which delivers up to 50 percent faster performance than the previous 20-inch iMac running industry standard benchmarks.
Apple was being begged and advised by many PC makers, with dubious motives, to switch to an Intel processor, open up their operating system, and lower their prices.
Those companies probably really wish they had never brought those suggestions up today.
Today, Apple's computers are priced down in the range of the least expensive desktop computers in the world.
They have really large screens, high capacity, and fast performance.
They are not just open – their operating system is open source. Know what? Only the Linux OS has more of its OS open source than Apple's.
The other OS? They are about as proprietary and closed as an OS can be. They have always been pretty closed but now they are more closed than ever, in fact, closing has been one of the other OS's stated goals for the past 4-5 years.
The great thing about Apple's computers that they share with televisions everywhere: it does not take 3 fingers to turn them off.
Microsoft needs to keep up with the competition. Apple (Charts) CEO Steve Jobs loves to point out that his company has released five versions of Mac OS X in the time it has taken Microsoft to develop one. And the volunteer programmers behind Linux continually tweak and improve that open-source operating system.
Kind of a surprising closing at the end of the review.
Sounds like false bravado. It would be hard - and probably ill-advised - for any computer owner to go for more than a few years without buying a new OS.
I think lack of improvements and retention of problems is what drives most consumers to change to a new brand when they buy an old product.
It happens a lot when a maker has passed its zenith. Speaking of which, remember Zenith, RCA, Commodore, and those other old familiar brands?
Where are they today?
Played out. Out-improved. Stagnated. Done.
I would still buy a new computer, though.
Just not from them.
Speaking of competing, Apple is supposedly rolling out new products and/or services on September 12.
Maybe that will include Apple's long awaited announcement of its iTunes movie store.
Amazon rolled out a non-Apple compatible online movie store called Amazon Unbox this month. It does not sound like it is doing very well.
I read one in-depth review of it and the person who wrote it has already uninstalled it. That was as difficult as all the preceding parts of the process. There were things the Unbox software did that just did not sound like a lot of thought went into what the program did.
It is hard to tell if a product/service is going to flop or not when it first comes out. However, the Unbox thing is sort of screaming flop in a number of ways.
Might make a more receptive audience for Apple's new announcement. Amazon has surely wetted the masses' appetite that works good, even if they don't have it to sell.
Amazon can sell the iPods. Apple can sell the movies.
CUPERTINO, California - August 29, 2006 - Apple today announced that Dr. Eric Schmidt, chief executive officer of Google, was elected to Apple's board of directors at their meeting today. Eric also sits on Google's board of directors and Princeton University%u2019s board of trustees.
Eric is obviously doing a terrific job as CEO of Google, and we look forward to his contributions as a member of Apple%u2019s board of directors,%u201D said Steve Jobs, Apple%u2019s CEO. %u201CLike Apple, Google is very focused on innovation and we think Eric%u2019s insights and experience will be very valuable in helping to guide Apple in the years ahead.
Apple is one of the companies in the world that I most admire,%u201D said Eric Schmidt. %u201CI'm really looking forward to working with Steve and Apple%u2019s board to help with all of the amazing things Apple is doing.
Eric's credentials are impressive.
He has done a stint at the legendary Xerox PARC, been a developer of Sun's Java programming language, led Novell, and more recently - Google.
He probably will not witness much chair launching at Apple, as things are going as well there as at Google.
Seems like he joined the right board.
He might prove an interesting asset for Apple too, given his background and experience.
Often, one gets the impression that guys sitting on boards do little except save of disaster. It is evident that sometimes board members at some companies and now bankrupt financial institutions do not even do that much.
This guy could add even more life to an already abundantly lively ecosystem at Apple.
That place is teeming with life.
I am amazed by how many unique products Apple manages to roll out, upgrade, and maintain every year.
They pretty much own the field on desktop computers this year. Have not seen much in the way of new real products roll out from other desktop OS makers this year, or last - for that matter.
In August 2005, Safari's market share was 2.20 percent. In August 2006, Safari's market share comes in at 3.21 percent
I am really looking forward to next year when Apple releases an SVG-enabled version of the Safari web browser.
Hopefully, that will arrive with the new Leopard operating system due out in the first half of 2007, a couple months after Vista is supposed to come out.
It is amazing how all the web browsers except for the ones made in Washington state have advanced in the past 3-4 years. The best browsers out there did not exist half a decade ago.
Fleet-footed programming teams are able to create software really quickly this decade.
I like writing software, listening to music (mostly country and rock but a little of everything), walking around outside, reading (when I have the time), relaxing in front of my TV watching my TiVo, playing with my cat, and riding around in my hybrid gas/electric car.
