As a proud mac user a 12″ powerbook to be specific (yes, I realize they don’t make them in that size any longer, which seems to make mine more special rather than old and discontinued) I was disappointed with the new iTunes 9 release.  And so I put my comments into a strongly worded feedback message to Apple.  Most of my suggestions and critiques were regarding the store and specifically the newly added, but extremely buggy Wish List.  I used to keep a long list of songs whose snippets intrigued me in my shopping cart.  It was there that I could safely leave 300 or so songs that I might in the future purchase but for the time being just like to keep around for when that time comes.  Many songs had some specific trait that I thought might be useful for an eventual show… not necessarily a current one.  And so as a new show comes up, I refer to my shopping cart of samples to see if anything is appropriate, or relevant.  With the new wish list feature, not only can I not keep 300 or so songs store by the date I added them, but I can only keep them on pages of 25 at a time.  And I can only delete ones that show up on the first page.  Further more, if I delete one, I need to entirely refresh the page before I am able to play or delete another song from the wishlist.  Very buggy. Also, the interface has gone from pretty good to crap.  I resent that little blue play button that kind of takes a really long time to do anything once you’ve pressed it.

Dear Apple,

Is this because I haven’t upgraded to Snow Leopard?  I sure hope not, because had the iTunes 9 update proved to be an improvement and not  a disgrace to usability and interface I would have shortly upgraded to Snow Leopard.  Instead, I refuse to upgrade as much as I may need the space and speed, and will hold off until you fix the rubbish you dumped into iTunes.  And for goodness sake, why have you not made the iTunes store window resizable?  Really.  Quicktime knows how to do it.  It can’t be that difficult.  Because my 12″ powerbook stands alone–ie no new mighty mouse (which btw takes forevvvver to turn on and connect and mischievously sent me back from a page that I had filled out a long complicated form–not cool) and I think it’s absurd that I start using the horizontal scroll bar.  No one should ever have to use the horizontal scroll bar.  That’s only a result of poor planning and programming.  And I’m sorry my powerbook is itty bitty, but that is what makes it portable and wonderful and even more full of power per square inch.  So in conclusion, get some bug spray, citronella, or a decent set of programmers who truly “get” what the people want and need so I can upgrade to snow leopard.  Because I really want to if for no other reason than the image in my mind of a snow leopard is kind of adorable and cuddly yet wicked fast.

Sincerely,

Natalie

This is a video I made for Jonathan Coulton’s song ‘A Laptop Like You‘. It stars my trusty PowerBook G4, which I bought in early 2005, just before moving from New Zealand to Geneva. I recently replaced it with a MacBook Pro, but my PowerBook wanted to become an internet superstar before retiring, and I just can’t say no to that sweet little thing. I love the song, I love my Mac, and I have all the right props, so I knew I had to make this video.

The song in the credits is ‘When You Go‘, also by Jonathan Coulton. His song ‘Code Monkey‘ is also referred to in this video, and a few other songs directly or tangentially related to Jonathan Coulton are referenced in the Skype userlist. Bram Tant, who valiantly confronted various Vista hassles in order to pretend to be my not-really-love-interest for about 50 seconds, and then unexpectedly got a MacBook Pro on the day he filmed his part, also makes music. He hopes his new laptop will help him record songs for the Masters of Song Fu competition.

Somewhat interesting facts and bloopers:

• There’s another video for this song on YouTube, which also features a large Swiss flag on a wall.
• My MacBook Pro actually weighs 42g more than the PowerBook.
• This is the 42nd video I’ve uploaded to YouTube.
• I filmed so many takes of the ‘break it in two pieces’ scene that I think I ruined the contacts or something; my PowerBook’s battery doesn’t charge any more, as you can see in the close-ups of the menu bar in the end credits.
• The grey T-shirt is from Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference 2004. I originally intended to zoom out to show the back of it (which says ‘WWDC 2004′) after the video chat, so that it would be clear what year we were in (and perhaps amusing when the same T-shirt is used to sleep in years later) but the video chat ran a bit longer than I had anticipated.
• The opening sequence was filmed on the MacBook Pro, and you can see a few icons there for things which didn’t exist when I got the PowerBook.
• The Calendar Dashboard widget shown did not exist in that form when I got the PowerBook G4. I did have a Dashboard at the time, since I had a beta of Mac OS X 10.4, but the calendar didn’t look like that until 10.5.
• All of the effects shown in the video chat are possible on the PowerBook G4, using CamTwist. However, Bram had problems starting a video chat in Skype (he was on Vista at the time) so we ended up faking the video chat. Since it was fake anyway, I recorded it on the MacBook Pro.
• You can see this in the short fake video chat in the credits, where I forgot to hook up the iSight to the PowerBook, and put the PowerBook somewhere where it would not have seen me with that background anyway. It was late. I guess I could have had the iSight in the right place to see me from that angle… that is, not on the PowerBook’s screen.

プライベート用のノートパソコンが欲しいなあ…

*出張に活躍した故PowerBook G4(400MHz)　重量2.4Kg

去年はMacBookAirに心ときめかせ…
今年はNetBookでもOSXを走らせる事ができるDellのmini9を知り
Yahooオークションで幾度とポチッとしそうになったことか

via gizmodo

要はMac OSXが走る持ち運びに便利な12インチ以下で薄くて軽いノートが欲しいと言う事なのです。

旅行中のネット、メール、ブログのUP、写真の整理、ゲーム…
居間で調べ物、家計簿、YouTube…
今ではiPhoneでほぼ出来てしまいますが、大きい画面は捨てがたい。

年末まで欲しいオーラが出続けたら買っちゃうかな。

Autsch – wie kann man nur!

IDEO Labs

- Precio: $280.000 (pesos chilenos)

- OFERTA $ 250.000 (pesos chilenos)

- Procesador G4 de 1.5 Ghz
- Disco duro de 60 GB
- Ram de 512 mb
- Monitor de 12 pulgadas con una resolución de 1024×768
- 2 puertos USB
- Puerto Ethernet y modem
- Puerto FireWire 400 (para cámaras de video y discos duros externos)
- Entrada y salida de Audio
- Bluetooth y WiFi

Personally, I greeted the MacBook Air’s debut with mixed emotions.  On the one hand, I had been one of those die-hard 12-inch PowerBook users who kept that adorably portable pro notebook running long after I should have switched to an Intel model.  When I finally caved and got an MacBook, I lamented that a single extra inch of screen made the whole thing much more unwieldy.

So I was glad to see Apple hadn’t abandoned those of us who didn’t want mega-screens on an ostensibly portable device, but I was disappointed that the Air’s big draw was thinness, not overall size.  It was still wider and taller than the 12″ PowerBook, but it sacrificed the 12-incher’s disk drive and (relative) affordability for a solid state hard drive with questionable advantages.

In other words, the Air was a vanity device, not a desktop replacement, or even an Apple netbook.  I wasn’t giving up my MacBook just yet.

The rumored Apple tablet, supposedly coming out next year (possibly at MacWorld or WWDC?) has some similar issues.  Described/fantasized as an iPod Touch on steroids, it would have none of the functionality/desktop-replacement-ness of a notebook with none of the portability of an iPod Touch.

So what is the appeal again?  It looks super sexy?  Yeah, that worked out well for the Prada phone.  Apple already knows that usability trumps specs: that’s why the first iPhone was such a hit despite lack of 3G, MMS, true GPS, and a whole host of other features that were already standard on other PDAs.  Not to mention the triumph of Wii over PS3.

The New York Times explores five reasons why tablets haven’t been successful.

As the weather warms and the sun comes out here in SF, it finally Snows for Mac users everywhere. That is to say that Apple has released their latest big cat named operating system, Snow Leopard (OS X 10.6). With it Apple has picked up Leopard (OS X 10.5), cleaned it out, dusted it off, and sped it up greatly for all Intel Mac users. Plus, they have dramatically reduced the price for us too! ($29 for a single user and $49 for a family pack (5 users).) Sorry to say that anyone with a non-intel Mac (iBooks, PowerBooks, PowerMacs and G4 Mac Minis) will not be able to upgrade to Snow Leopard. However, now is a great time to upgrade your old hardware and go Intel.

One problem that may affect users though is software compatibility. Some of your third party (non-Apple) software may not work with the latest release of OS X. Generally speaking, a good majority of your higher end software (ie, Adobe, Microsoft…etc) will work without a hitch. It’s more along the lines of the little pieces of software that will fail to work. I, for example, loved a little piece of software called Letterbox (As it stands the developer of Letterbox has a 4th beta version posted, which seems to be working rather well for me.) which allows you to have your emails preview pain show to the right of your email list. Unfortunately it was rejected by Snow Leopard. To be fair to developers, Apple did really jump the gun on the release date of Snow Leopard. That move undoubtedly left developers dangling in the wind by cutting off roughly a month of further testing on their software.

Overall though, Snow Leopard is a gorgeous piece of work. It truly is what Leopard should have been from the get go. The developers at Apple redesigned 90% of Leopard’s internals. Which means Snow Leopard is heavily streamlined and even more visually gorgeous then its predecessor. Snow Leopard is not at all an entirely behind the scenes redesign, there are quite a few little tweaks to what you and I see and use everyday. I have been using Snow Leopard on my MacBook since the early Beta release back in June and I am still finding nice enhancements constantly. Some of my favorites are:

-Dock Expose allowing users to click and hold on an applications icon in the dock to get a view of all windows open for that app, and thereby get to the window you are after with ease.

-I am also a huge fan of the ability to resize items in the finder with a handy slider at the bottom right of the finder window.

-Another nice enhancement comes to Stacks (Stacks is a Leopard-introduced feature of the dock which allows quick access to folders placed next to the trash can icon). You finally have the ability to scroll through a folder’s contents and click into folders within a folder to get to its contents. Also a nice touch is a back button so you can go back to the previous folder you were in.

- Quicktime X has a fantastic, albeit simple, feature that allows you to record a video of actions you make on the Mac real time. Which is a great way to help out family and friends with their most vexing Mac problems.

There are many more little tweaks and improvements that make Snow Leopard wonderful experience, but I won’t be going through them all.

By far I believe that the number one thing you will notice from the get go is speed. I have, of course, installed it on all the machines that are active in my house: a Mac Mini 1.66 core duo, a MacBook 2 gHz core 2 duo and my girlfriend’s MacBook Pro 2.4 gHz core 2 duo. The MacBook Pro was the last machine to receive the upgrade. That being said, my MacBook, after the upgrade was equal in speed if not faster than the MacBook Pro, prior to upgrading the MacBook Pro. Needless to say I was rather pleased with this factor. Next to get the upgrade was the Mini, that bumped it up to equal or slightly greater than my MacBook, prior to upgrading the MacBook. The last computer to get the upgrade was the MacBook Pro, that computer is now SCREAMING fast, incomparably so. The speed bump is worth the price of admission alone.

How did Apple developers achieve such performance, you might ask? Well I will tell you. WARNING: this part is gonna get techie. The main speed boost comes from switching from 32 bit processing to 64 bit processing. To be fair not all Intel Macs can benefit from this as they cannot all handle 64 bit processing. What does 64 bit processing mean? That means that the processors can do the math of processing at almost double the speed of 32 bit processing. Also 64 bit processing means that your computer can handle a nearly infinite amount of RAM. RAM is responsible for allowing you to run more applications at once, aka multitasking, plus it does give a bit of a speed boost as well.

The next reason I am about to give for the speed boost in Snow Leopard is a debatable, yet I believe it to be true. What I am referring to is the slimming down of the system software installed to roughly 7 GB, as opposed to an 11 GB Leopard install. They pulled this feat off by removing any code for Apple’s pre-Intel computers (Power PC Macs, aka PPC), hence the reason older Macs are not supported by Snow Leopard. It is in my belief that without all of the code for the PPC computers, Snow Leopard has to shuffle through less code and thereby improving speed as well. As I said though, this is debatable. One thing I do know for a fact is that when you install Snow Leopard over a Leopard install you gain up to 15 GB of storage on your internal hard drive, which is always a lovely thing in itself!

If you couldn’t tell from reading this post, I am a HUGE fan of Apple’s latest operating system (OS), Snow Leopard. It is, in my opinion, the best OS Apple has released to date. At $29, it is by far their cheapest offering as well. So, what are you waiting for? Go on out and grab yourself a copy today! If you need help with the install, don’t hesitate to call DandyMac if you are in the SF Bay Area!

….. so here it is. I gear up to start my day, I go to unpack laptop/notebook from its nice comfy, secure little bag. I take it out and place it on the table and begin to check my email. Then the next thing you know I get the low battery warning message on my screen.

I dig in the little black bag for battery adapter……and NOTHING, it is nowhere to be found. I frantically proceed to search every single outlet in the house, from the basement to the kitchen to even the bathrooms, because you just never know….and again NOTHING.

All I can think of is where the F… is my adapter. I retraced all my steps and the last place I can think of having it was in room 250C. I race to Georgetown, hoping, praying it was still in the classroom… and NOTHING. I check lost and found… and STRIKE OUT again. I contact the professor, the receptionist, and the office manager to see if anyone responsible compassionate soul turned a white Apple adapter… and NOPE, NO ONE.

It felt like 40 days and 40 nights had passed since I was last able to get connect to the Net (actually about half a day). I had no idea what was going in the world… eventhough my DirecTV with every channel known to man was less than a hundred feet away. I still felt isolated and cut off from civilization.

Lethe Basher has two great post on the isolation technology creates, Is the Internet Killing Culture and Social Technology Transforming Our World.

How long can a person go without being online?

I only lasted till 5 pm.

By 5:03pm, I was on my to the Apple store to pay what I assumed to be no more than $40 for a new adapter.

Boy……Was I WRONG.

The actual cost including tax was $82.95.

WTF… for damn battery charger… $82.95. I couldn’t believe it. Impeding despair and angry set in as I left with my newly acquired overpriced purchase.  Things I could have gotten for $82.95 consumed me from that point on.

• IPOD Shuffle
• A small malnourished child through Feed the Children for at least 8 months
• Refrigerator/Freezer off of Craigslist
• A scalped U2 ticket
• 6 Bikini waxes
• 3 Mani/Pedi’s depending on which salon you use
• 26 Big Macs from McD’s
• 20 GrandeSoy Chai’s from Starbucks
• A knock off Louis Vuitton or Gucci bag
• 60 1-gallon containers of milk
• Go on a Caribbean cruise for a rate $35
• Lastly you can survive up 75 days in: Timor-Leste, Malawi, Somalia, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Tanzania, Yemen, Burundi, Afghanistan, Guinea-Bissau, Ethiopia, Niger, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Madagascar, Zambia, and Eritrea because the average citizen makes less $2.50 a day

So for right now Apple sucks. I know I am not alone in this, O’Breilly released his frustration in Three Reasons Why Apple Sucks But iStill Use Their Products. I just can’t bring myself to open the package knowing I’ll be charged the 15% repackage fee when I eventually bring my newly acquired, overpriced adapter right back to the store.

As of 10:02am the next day I returned the unopened, untouched overpriced adapter back to the Apple store. And purchase a cheaper one on Amazon.com for about $30.00.

After a few days on a PC, I am sure I will fall back in Like again with all thing lovely and amazing about Apple.

Leander Kahney para Wired Magazine
Versión en castellano de Noticias24

One Infinite Loop (Un Bucle Infinito), la dirección donde queda Apple, es un chiste de programadores. Se refiere a una rutina que nunca llega a su final. Pero también es una buena descripción de los sufrimientos de aparcar un vehículo en el campus de Cupertino, California. Como muchas cosas en Silicon Valley, los estacionamientos en Apple son igualitarios: no hay puestos reservados para gerentes o jefes. Incluso si eres un ejecutivo senior en un Porsche, debes prepararte a circular por el área indefinidamente cazando un puesto libre.

Pero hay un Mercedes que no necesita buscar mucho rato, y pertenece a Steve Jobs. Si no hay un puesto fácil de encontrar y está apurado, Jobs se acerca a la entrada principal y estaciona en el espacio de minusválidos. A veces, ocupa dos puestos. Se ha convertido parte del folklore de Apple. Los empleados le han dejado notas en el parabrisas que dicen “Estaciona Diferente”, un juego de palabras con el slogan de los 80, Think Different. También han modificado el símbolo de silla de ruedas en el pavimento para que parezca un logo de Mercedes.
La actitud de Jobs hacia el estacionamiento refleja su enfoque de negocios: para él no aplican las reglas normales. Todo el mundo conoce la frase de Google: “Don’t be Evil” (No seas malvado). Se ha convertido en la misión de Silicon Valley, resumiendo una serie de ideales que son buenos para el negocio y buenos para el mundo: acoge las plataformas abiertas, confía las decisiones a la sabiduría de las masas, trata a tus empleados como a dioses.

Es irónico que una de las más exitosas compañías del Valle del Silicón haya ignorado todos estos principios. Google y Apple pueden tener una relación amigable (el CEO de Google, Eric Schmidt, se sienta en la Junta Directiva de Apple) pero según la definición de Google, Apple es irremediablemente malévola, comportándose más como un titán industrial anticuado que como un negocio que “piensa diferente” del futuro. Apple opera a un nivel de secreto que hace a Thomas Pynchon lucir como paris Hilton, atrapa a los consumidores en un ecosistema propietario y ¿tratar a los empleados como dioses? Apple tampoco hace eso.

Pero al despreciar el mantra de Google, Apple ha tenido éxito. Cuando Jobs retomó el mando en 1997, la compañía peleaba por sobrevivir. Hoy tiene una capitalización de mercado de 105.000 millones de dólares, por delante de Dell y por detrás de Intel. Su iPod controla 70% del mercado de reproductores portátiles. Cuatro billones de canciones han sido adquiridas a través de iTunes. El iPhone está cambiando toda la industria de la telefonía móvil. Incluso el sistema operativo MacOS ha comenzado a horadar el otrora indiscutible dominio de Windows. El año pasado, su porción del mercado alcanzaba el 6%, más del doble de lo que tenía en 2003.

Es difícil creer que esto hubiera ocurrido si Jobs hubiera aceptado las filosofías suaves y sensibles de Silicon Valley. Apple crea productos imprescindibles a la manera antigua: cerrando bien las puertas y sangrando y sudando hasta que algo emerge, perfectamente bien formado. Es difícil ver a MacOS y al iPhone salir del mismo proceso de diseño “en comité” que produjo a Windows Vista o al reproductor de música Dell DJ. De la misma forma, si Apple hubiera abierto su sistema iTunes-iPod a desarrolladores ajenos, la compañia habría arriesgado su servicio perfectamente integrado a un montón de aplicaciones independientes: algo parecido al resto de la internet, si lo piensas un poco.

Y ahora los observadores, académicos y hasta otras compañías están tomando notas. Porque mientras las tácticas de Apple parecen reliquias de la Revolución Industrial, han ayudado a posicionar a la compañía por delante de la competencia y al frente de la industria de la tecnología. Algunas veces, la maldad funciona.

Durante los últimos 100 años, la teoría de la gerencia ha seguido una trayectoria suave, de la esclavitud al empoderamiento. El siglo XX comenzó con el Taylorismo – el ingeniero Frederick Winslow Taylor tenía la noción de que los trabajadores son piezas intercambiables – pero con cada década, vino una nueva filosofía, cada una abogando por pasar un mayor poder hacia la parte inferior de la cadena de mando a los gerentes de división, líderes de grupo y a los obreros y trabajadores. En 1977, Robert Greenleaf afirmó que los CEO’s debían pensar que eran esclavos de sus obreros, enfocados en mantenerlos felices.

El Valle del Silicón ha sido siempre uno de los primeros en este tipo de igualitarismo. En los años 40, Bill Hewlett y David Packard fueron los pioneros de lo que se llamó “gerencia caminando por ahí”, un punto de vista que animaba a los ejecutivos a comunicarse informalmente con los empleados. En los 90, los ejecutivos de Intel expresaron solidaridad con los ingenieros al abandonar sus lujosas oficinas para meterse en cubículos estándar. Y hoy, Google ha hecho famoso su campus de Mountain View por la obsequiosidad hacia los trabajadores, incluyendo masajes en sitio, juegos de hockey y una cafetería gourmet gratuita.

Jobs, por el contrario, es notorio como microgerente. Ningún producto escapa de Cupertino sin pasar por los estándares de Jobs, que -se dice- comprenden detalles tan esotéricos como el número de tornillos en la parte inferior de un laptop o la curva de las esquinas de un monitor. “Jobs lo escudriñaba todo, hasta el nivel del pixel”, dice Cordell Ratzlaff, antiguo gerente a cargo de la interfaz del MacOS X.

En la mayoría de las compañías, el jefe tiránico de cara enrojecida es un arquetipo pasado de moda. No en Apple. Mientras en el resto de la industria se motiva a los empleados con zanahorias, Jobs prefiere hacerlo con el palo. Hasta su empleado más favorecido puede terminar en el lado del receptor durante una oleada de insultos. Dentro de Apple, lo llaman “la ruleta rusa del héroe al imbécil”. Dice Edward Eigerman, antiguo ingeniero de Apple: “Había mucha preocupación por ser despedido, mucha más que en cualquier otro lugar donde haya trabajado”.

Pero los empleados de Jobs siguen siendo fieles. Es porque su autocracia se equilibra con su famoso carisma: Jobs puede hacer que la tarea de diseñar un transformador de corriente parezca una misión de Dios. Andy Herzfeld, diseñador jefe del primer sistema operativo Mac OS, dice que Jobs imbuía a sus compañeros con un “celo mesiánico”. Y porque la aprobación de Jobs es tan difícil de obtener, los miembros del staff de Apple trabajan incansablemente para complacerlo. “Tiene la habilidad de sacarle lo mejor a la gente”, dice Ratzlaff, que trabajó de cerca con Jobs en OS X por un año y medio. “Aprendí muchísimo de él”.

Los éxitos de Apple en los años posteriores al regreso de Jobs (iMac, iPod, iPhone) sugieren una visión distinta a la gerencia de “el empleado siempre tiene la razón”. En Cupertino, la innovación no sale de hacer amistad con los empleados y recoger lo que salga a la superficie; es el producto de un proceso intenso y de lucha ruda, en el que los sentimientos de las personas son irrelevantes. Algunos teóricos gerenciales están comenzando a comprender la forma de pensar de Apple: “Un cierto grado de fuerza y perseverancia son útiles cuando se acometen tareas grandes y difíciles”, dice Roderick Kramer, psicólogo social, que escribió un artículo sobre “Grandes intimidadores” (incluido Jobs) para el Harvard Business Review de febrero de 2006.

Igualmente, en un libro de 2007, Robert Sutton se puso en contra de los tiranos en el lugar de trabajo, excepto en el caso de Jobs: “El inspira un esfuerzo y creatividad extraordinarios en su gente”, escribió. Una persona del medio en Silicon Valley le dijo una vez a Sutton que había visto a Jobs humillar a mucha gente hasta el punto de hacer que varios lloraran. Pero, dijo el testigo, “casi siempre Jobs tenía la razón”.

“Steve demuestra que está bien ser un patán”, dice Guy Kawasaki, quien fuera evangelista jefe de Apple. “No me identifico con su forma de hacer las cosas, pero no es su problema, es mi problema. El tiene un sistema operativo distinto”.

Nicholas Ciarelli creó ThinkSecret, un website destinado a descubrir los productos planificados por Apple, cuando tenía 13 años. Estuvo haciéndolo por diez años, publicando datos legítimos ( Ciarelli predijo la introducción de la PowerBook de titanio, el iPod Shuffle y la Mac Mini) y algunos errores vergonzosos (cuando reportó que el iPod mini se vendería en $100, realmente lo hizo en $249) para una audiencia creciente de entusiastas de Apple. Cuando partió hacia Harvard, Ciarelli mantuvo el site en línea y siguió extrayendo las ganancias por publicidad. En principio, ThinkSecret no tenía un fin comercial sino que era una obsesión personal. “Era un gran entusiasta”, dice. “Una de mis tortas de cumpleaños tenía un logo de Apple”.

La mayor parte de las compañías pagaría millones por ese tipo de atención: un ejército de fans tan ansiosos de comprar tus productos que no pueden esperar al anuncio oficial. Pero no Apple. Durante su trayecto, Ciarelli recibió decenas de cartas de Apple acusándolo de cualquier cosa entre infracción de copyright hasta divulgación de secretos comerciales. En enero de 2005, Apple demandó a Ciarelli acusándolo de solicitar ilegalmente secretos comerciales de los empleados de Apple. Dos años después, Ciarelli y Apple llegaron a un acuerdo, y el primero cerró su página web dos meses después. Los términos del acuerdo son confidenciales.
El secretismo de Apple no parece fuera de lugar en Silicon Valley, tierra del Acuerdo de No Revelación, en el que los algoritmos se protegen con el mismo celo que los código de lanzamiento de un misil.Pero en años recientes, la industria tecnológica ha llegado a aceptar cierto candor. Microsoft, una vez epítome del megalito sin rostro, ha reblandecido su imagen pública animando a sus empleados a tener blogs sin limitaciones, que comparten detalles de proyectos en marcha y hasta critican a la compañía. El CEO de Sun Microsystems, Jonathan Schwartz, ha usado su muy leido blog para anunciar despidos, explicar la estrategia y defender adquisiciones.

“La apertura facilita una conversación genuina y a menudo, la colaboración, para un fin compartido”, dice Steve Rubel de la firma de relaciones públicas Edeleman Digital. “Cuando la gente siente que está de tu lado, confían en tí, y eso empuja las ventas”.

En abril de 2007, Wired acuñó el término “transparencia radical” para esta táctica. Pero Apple tiene un enfoque distinto en sus relaciones públicas: podría llamarse opacidad radical. La relación de Apple con la prensa es despectiva en el mejor de los casos y adversaria en el peor. Jobs sólo habla con un puñado escogido de reporteros, y sólo cuando él lo considera necesario ( también declinó hablar con Wired para este artículo). Olvídense de blogs corporativos, Apple no quiere que nadie bloguee sobre la compañía.

Apple parece disfrutar de la oscuridad. Por años, Jobs negó la posibilidad de añadir video al iPod. “Queremos que haga tostadas”, dijo sarcásticamente en una rueda de prensa en 2004. “Estamos jugando con la refrigeración también”. Un año después, reveló el iPod de quinta generación, con video. Del mismo modo, despreció la posibilidad de migrar la Mac a chips Intel o lanzar un kit para desarrolladores para el iPhone, pocos meses antes de anunciar sus intenciones de hacer exactamente eso.

Los propios empleados de Apple no tienen idea de qué están haciendo en su propia compañía. Los carnets de seguridad están programados para restringir el acceso a las diversas áreas del campus, los diseñadores de software y hardware se albergan en edificios diferentes y se impide que unos vean el trabajo de los otros, para que nadie tenga idea del proyecto completo. “Tenemos células, como una organización terrorista”, dijo Jon Rubinstein, antiguo jefe de las divisiones de iPod y Hardware de Apple, hoy jefe ejecutivo en Palm, en una entrevista a BusinessWeek en 2000.

El secretismo a veces alcanza la paranoia. Hablar con gente fuera de la empresa está prohibido, y se advierte a los empleados que no cuenten a su familia sobre su trabajo. Phil Schiller, jefe de marketing de Apple, le dijo a la revista Fortune que no podía decirle la fecha de lanzamiento de un nuevo iPod ni siquiera a su propio hijo. Hasta Jobs se somete a sus propias reglas. Una vez se llevó un prototipo del iPod Hi-Fi a su casa, y lo mantuvo escondido dentro de un paño.

La opacidad radical de Apple no ha dañado a la empresa, más bien ha sido clave para su éxito, permitiéndoles atacar nuevas categorías de productos y conquistar share del mercado antes de que los competidores se despierten. Tomó casi tres años desarrollar el iPhone en secreto: fue una ventaja de tres años frente a los competidores. Igualmente, aunque hay docenas de copias del iPod, cuando apenas entran al mercado Apple las deja obsoletas. Por ejemplo, Microsoft introdujo el Zune 2, con su touchweel sensible al tacto similar al del iPod, en octubre de 2007, un mes después de que Apple anunciara una nueva interfaz de toque para el iPod touch. Apple es conocida por burlarse de las estrategias de sus rivales. La compañía anunció Tiger, la más reciente versión de su sistema operativo, con afiches retadores: “Redmond (ciudad donde está la sede de Microsoft), enciendan sus fotocopiadoras“.
El secretismo ha ayudado a los esfuerzos de marketing de Apple, incrementando la anticipación por cada anuncio. Semanas antes del MacWorld Expo, el show anual de Apple, los medios se llenan de predicciones de los productos que Jobs podría revelar en su discurso. Los blogs especializados reportan en vivo, generando su mayor tráfico del año, y al día siguiente todos los medios cubren los anuncios. El profesor de Harvard David Yoffie ha estimado que el lanzamiento del iPhone resultó en titulares equivalentes a unos 400 millones de dólares en publicidad.

Las tácticas de Jobs también conllevan riesgos, especialmente cuando sus anuncios no alcanzan las altas expectativas que genera el secretismo. La MacBook Air recibió una respuesta tibia después de que algunos fans, que esperaban una tabletPC con touchscreen, dijeran que la delgada pero costosa ultraportátil era insuficientemente revolucionaria. El apodo que le dan a un evento decepcionante es la “depresión post-MacWorld”.

Sin embargo, la radical opacidad de Apple ha sido un éxito tremendo, y es una táctica que la mayoría de los competidores no pueden imitar. Intel y Microsoft, por ejemplo, venden sus chips y su software a través de asociaciones con otras compañías de computadores, así que deben publicar mapas de trabajo con meses de antelación para que sus socios puedan crear las máquinas que utilicen sus productos. Los fabricantes de consolas como Sony y Microsoft deben trabajar mano a mano con los desarrolladores para poder anunciar una gama completa de juegos con los lanzamientos de PlayStation y Xbox. Pero como Apple crea todo el hardware y todo el software domésticamente, puede mantener ocultos sus productos. Fundamentalmente, la compañía se parece más a un fabricante industrial de la vieja escuela, como General Motors, que a una típica compañía de tecnología.

De hecho, parte de la gracia de ser un consumidor de Apple es anticipar las sorpresas que Santa Steve trae a la MacWorld Expo cada mes de enero. Ciarelli sigue estando ansioso de qué productos vendrán, incluso aunque no pueda escribir sobre ellos. “Me habría gustado que no me demandaran”, dice, “pero sigo siendo un seguidor de sus productos”.

A mitad de los noventa, cuando Apple luchaba por aumentar su porción del mercado de las computadoras personales, todos los analistas diagnosticaban rápidamente la causa del fracaso de la empresa: Apple tardó demasiado en licenciar su sistema operativo a otros fabricantes de hardware. En otras palabras, trató por demasiado tiempo controlar toda la experiencia de la computación. Microsoft, su rival, dominó el mercado animando a los fabricantes de computadoras a armar sus ofertas alrededor de su software. Claro, esa estrategia podría resultar en una experiencia inferior para el usuario, y montones de máquinas baratas, pero dió a Microsoft el dominio del mercado de software. Incluso Wired se unió al coro, en junio de 1997, le dijimos a Apple: “Debiste licenciar tu sistema operativo en 1987″ y les aconsejamos: “Admítelo, estás fuera del juego del hardware”.
Cuando Jobs regresó a Apple en 1997, ignoró todos los consejos y ató su software propietario a su hardware propietario. Se ha apegado a esa estrategia por años, incluso cuando Silicon Valley ha abrazado los valores de la apertura y interoperabilidad. Pero no Apple. Si quieres oir tus canciones de iTunes, debes hacerlo en tu iPod. Si quieres usar OS X, compra una Mac.

Durante los primeros años de la PC, toda la industria era como Apple, con empresas como Osborne y Amiga que construían software para que funcionara sólo en sus propias máquinas. Ahora, Apple es la única compañía verticalmente integrada que queda, un hecho que enorgullece a Jobs. “Apple es la última empresa en nuestra industria que crea todo el paquete”, dijo en un Macworld.

No todo el mundo ve este enfoque como benigno. Las industrias del cine y la música se preocupan de que Jobs se ha convertido en el guardián de la puerta de entrada al contenido digital. Doug Morris, CEO de Universal Music, ha acusado a iTunes de dejar a las disqueras sin poder de negociación. “Apple ha destruido el negocio de la música”, dijo el jefe de NBC Universal Jeff Zucker en un evento en la Universidad de Syracuse. Durante la huelga de escritores de Hollywood, Michael Eisner de Disney aseguró que Apple era el verdadero enemigo: “Los estudios negocian con Steve Jobs, y éste los deja limpios, hacen todas esas cosas y ¿quién gana dinero? ¡Apple!”

Mientras, la insistencia de Jobs en la santidad de sus máquinas ha ofendido a sus mayores fans. En septiembre, Apple liberó la primera actualización al sistema operativo del iPhone. Pero el nuevo software dejaba inútiles a muchos teléfonos, especialmente los que tenían aplicaciones no aprobadas. La blogosfera explotó en protestas, y el blog Gizmodo reescribió su crítica del iPhone calificándolo como “No Comprar”. Jobs anunció que abriría el iPhone para que los desarrolladores independientes pudieran crear aplicaciones, pero sólo a través de un proceso oficial que da a Apple la aprobación final de cada una de las aplicaciones.

A pesar de las protestas, los consumidores no parecen molestarse por el jardín amurallado de Apple. De hecho, claman por entrar. Sí, el iPod y iTunes están unidos inextricablemente, y por eso funcionan tan bien juntos. Y ahora, los usuarios de PC que tenían iPods, impresionados por la experiencia, han comenzando a convertirse hacia las Macs, invirtiendo más de sí mismos en el ecosistema de Apple.

Ahora, los competidores tratan de emular las tácticas de Apple. La estrategia de MP3 de Microsoft solía ser como su estrategia de dispositivos móviles: licencias para todos los que quisieran. Ya no más: el sistema operativo del Zune está diseñado sólo para el aparato, imitando la integración vertical del iPod. Amazon, Nintendo y Sony han creado tiendas auto-contenidas, similares a iTunes.

Cuando los fabricantes estaban enfocados en el segmento de negocios, el precio y la interoperabilidad eran más importantes que la experiencia del usuario. Ahora que los consumidores son el segmento más rentable del mercado, la usabilidad y el diseño se han convertido en prioridades. Los compradores esperan una experiencia confiable e intuitiva, igual que con cualquier otro producto para consumidores.

Todo juega hacia las fortalezas de Steve Jobs. Ninguna otra compañía ha sido tan buena en darle a los consumidores lo que quieren, antes de que sepan que lo quieren. Sin duda, se debe a la visión creativa que es única a Jobs. Pero también es función de sus prácticas gerenciales. Ejerciendo control incansable sobre sus empleados, su imagen y hasta sus consumidores, Jobs controla sus productos y cómo se usan. “Todo lo que está ocurriendo, se apega a sus valores”, dice el autor de libros de marketing Geoffrey Moore. “Steve Jobs está en el epicentro absoluto de la digitalización de la vida”.

Por Phobos&Deimos para iDraze y The Umbrella Corp

My new MacBook Pro came with a free iPod Touch with the academic discount. (Well, what amounts to the value of an 8GB model anyway–I had to fork out the difference to upgrade to 32GB.) The much touted unibody indeed looks sleek: the edges seem precariously razor-sharp, I get goosebumps when I run my fingers over them; the microphone and LED lights that indicate battery life are mere pinhole perforations, they’re almost invisible; the ON/OFF switch fits snug and flat in its hole, it looks like it was drawn there with a draftsman’s pencil. It looks as clean and keen as IM Pei’s National Gallery (East Wing) at Washington, DC.

Source: Ezra Stoller, The Architect’s Newspaper

This attention to design, perhaps more than its OS X operating system, is the main reason I lean towards Mac. I loved my old 12” Powerbook G4, and did not understand why Apple dropped the size, when, for a time, only 15” and 17” were offered. I did not want to lug a tray around, and almost considered getting the black MacBook. It was a good thing I hung on–the 13” MacBook Pro is exactly what I wanted: sleek, silver, and slim. For a short time, this body type and size was offered as a MacBook. Why Apple did that again boggled me; it only confused/diluted the Pro (Powerbook) brand, and would only alienate customers who bought it before it was upgraded to Pro.

Knock on wood that I don’t dent this unibody. I’m sure Apple would ask a pound of flesh for its repair. This is the problem I have with Apple: when you buy their products, you sign away your soul to the Corporation. They are fiercely proprietary and exclusive, exerting control over the product even after your purchase. I spent $400 to replace the optical drive on my G4 that can only be repaired with original parts in an Apple-certified shop. Customer service wanted me to spend “a bit more” to buy instead a new computer. (This was the time they phased out the 12” model.) No thanks. I didn’t like being bullied into buying. When I wanted to buy the iSight for the G4, they just so happen to have discontinued it to pave way for newer models with built-in camera. Customer service dismissed my complaint by saying that Apple “can’t keep on supporting older models”. My G4 was barely 2-years old at the time. There were no third-party Firewire cameras around, and the prices on used iSight cameras soared at eBay. Appealing to Apple is like talking to a brick wall, the Corporation is as veiled and draconian as a politburo, as self-contained and monolithic as the products they sell.

Take their recent row with Google, for instance, over the Google Voice app. Apple rejected the app because

[it] duplicated the core dialing functionality of the iPhone… [by appearing] to alter the iPhone’s distinctive user experience by replacing the iPhone’s core mobile telephone functionality and Apple user interface with its own user interface for telephone calls, text messaging and voicemail. (The Apple Blog, 21 Sep 2009 and Apple Answers the FCC’s Questions).

What harm is it to me as a consumer to replace the native iPhone interface for a potentially improved one, or revert back if I don’t like the Google Voice product after all? Apple does not seem to have the same problem if I run Microsoft Windows on the Mac; in fact, OS X 10.5 comes bundled with Boot Camp precisely to do this.

It is clear that Apple wants to corner the smartphone market by making their product a self-contained, self-sufficient “experience”–something as ubiquitous as Philip K. Dick’s Ubik, a metonym that stands for everything that can fulfill one’s desires, from consumer products to religious salvation. Why else would they collude with a singular service provider (AT&T, formerly Cingular) and not let different companies compete for the business? This, to me, makes them suspect, and I continue to resist getting an iPhone, buying from iTunes, and enrolling in Genius, precisely because of this. I do not want my “experience” to be governed by a single Corporation.

Friends, this is clean-up time and we’re discounting all our silent, electric Ubiks by this much money. Yes, we’re throwing away the bluebook. And remember: every Ubik on our lot has been used only as directed. (from Ubik, Ch. 1, 1969)

When I synced my spanking new iPod Touch with iTunes for the first time, the first thing it did was to tell me that the operating system needed an upgrade, and that Apple was selling it for $10. What?!? This damn thing just arrived in the mail–the wrappings are still strewn about. Customer service told me that the new OS 3 had not yet been released when my stock shipped from their warehouse (somewhere in China, from the tracking info). I hope the smart people at Apple realize how ridiculous this stock statement sounds to their customers. How in the world could I have known what version of the operating system is installed in the stocks at their warehouse? Well, according to customer service, I need not upgrade to the newer operating system, the old one would do just as well. As a customer, this only left a bad taste in the mouth. It was as if I was sold something OBSOLETE, when I was buying brand new. Apple, however, would not budge; they know they can nickle-and-dime cult members.

I was not aware of the Kindle hoo-ha until I read this piece by Nicholson Baker from the New Yorker: A New Page, Can the Kindle really improve on the book? I was dissuaded before I even considered buying one, and felt sorry for the unfortunate owners. What disturbs me most about this product is that it would put me (i.e. my reading experience) under the mercy of Amazon forever. The text format is not open and non-standard; it can’t even read pdf files–only those that one could buy from Amazon. This in itself raises a red(-white-and-blue) flag of… monopoly! No thanks. I’ve already learned my lesson in dealing with Apple. Second, because only the Kindle device can read this text format, Amazon would have absolute Stalinist control of one’s use and right to the text. This is fine for consumers of chicklit or techno-thrillers who toss the paperbacks after reading. As a true bibliophile, I love the embodiment of books on my shelf (not least because they look sumptuous together), and resist the idea of warehousing them in some virtual space to be accessed by an anemic device. But see, even those who bought the lifeless versions of their magazines and newspapers on Kindle were up in arms when they were swindled access to their purchases on the upgraded devices.

I recently discovered two apps for the iPod Touch that allows me to read books: Classics (free until recently) and Eucalyptus ($10). The latter gives you access to more than 20,000 public domain books in Project Gutenberg–that’s more books than I need for all the flights I will ever take in my lifetime. I don’t have to give Amazon a buck for Moby Dick–it’s free. I can virtually flip the pages too (Classics adds a warm rustling sound); they don’t eerily appear and disappear on me. I tested the reading experience with these apps for what Jeff Bezos’ calls the “flow state”–the ability to get lost in the text that Kindle aims to reproduce. To begin with, such turn of phrase sound like gimmicky self-help mantra than some real idea. (Hear Bezos get excited about it in Charlie Rose. Doesn’t his affected chuckle make him seem sketchy?)

The first ebooks I read were, appropriately enough, Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass, the volumes being slender enough just to test “the flow”. (The metaphor of the looking-glass for the iPod’s touch-screen did not escape me either. How affected!) It was not hard to get lost in the text, owing more perhaps to Carroll’s engaging stories than the whiz-bang of the interface. What I found remarkable was that I can carry books with me in this small thing that fits in my pocket. I can thus take it to lunch, to the bus on the way to the grocery store, to the toilet break, without the extra burden of lugging a hefty tome and looking like an affected bookworm. I can even steal a few pages while waiting for the lab instrument to finish scanning a sample. What’s more–and this is what trumps Kindle–I can listen to the audiobook along with the text. This is particularly helpful with Joyce’s Ulysses, which I am reading at the moment. The rousing performance of Jim Norton makes the work come alive, and adds, not only to the meaning of the text, but to the enjoyment of the reading experience, especially to one who is unfamiliar with the twists and turns of Joyce’s Irish. Ulysses ceases to be the opaque, intimidating, “literary” text it has been made out to be.

In the war for control of the world’s Knowledge (e.g. between Amazon and Google), it is inspiriting to encounter the Eucalyptus reader. It works on the common ASCII text format–it does not claim exclusivity–but presents itself only, truly, as an e-text reader. It is truly in the spirit of the inventor of the movable type, in the way it disseminates and democratizes the text. Amazon, on the other hand, wants to enslave you to their device. (What has Bezos got in his pocketses?) I will stay away from the Kindle like it’s some baleful Elvish ring.

Un'immagine del PowerBook bruciato riporta sul sito della rivista The Inquirer

Il 26 febbraio 2009 la rivista britannica The Inquirer segnala il caso di un PowerBook che ha preso fuoco all’interno di un ufficio londinese. Stando a quanto riporta la rivista le fiamme si sarebbero sprigionate partendo dalla batteria limitandosi fortunatamente allo stesso laptop di casa Apple, quindi senza alcuna conseguenza per l’ufficio o il personale.

Risale a maggio 2009 invece la segnalazione di kenbrinkman che, dopo essersi coricato a mezzanotte, si è svegliato all’1:30 sentendo odore di plastica bruciata. In questo caso il responsabile del piccolo rogo era il connettore dell’alimentatore del portatile. Fortunatamente, come per il caso londinese, l’episodio non ha avuto alcuna conseguenza eccetto che per il portatile.

Il portatile di kenbrinkman

Notizia tratta da The Inquirer

Won’t boot after software update – Powerbook

Den Californiske kystlinie er ved at blive ædt op!
For hvert bølgeslag der ruller ind bliver kysten langsomt ædt op. Og erosion, over tid, ændrer også kysten for altid. Derfor er nogle innovative mennesker gået igang med at fotografere kysten fra en helikopter, udstyret med en Apple PowerBook/1 Ghz, og et Nikon D1x med en 28-70mm Zoom Nikkor linse, for at bevare kystens nuværende udseende. Man startede i 2002, og meningen er at lægge højopløselige billeder af hele kysten ud på nettet.

Dét har man så gjort nu. Der er på nuværende tidspunkt lagt 49.800 højt opløselige billeder ud De fylder tilsammen over 289 GigaByte. Wow!

Nedenunder ser du et eksempel: Barbara Streisands ejendom.

Barbara Streisands pragtvilla

Barbara Streisand er iøvrigt een af de personer der har klaget over disse højtopløselige billeder, idet hun føler at de viser for meget af hendes privatliv. Hun har lagt sag an mod hjemmesiden, men tabte den. Du kan læse om den forunderlige sag, ved at klikke på linket ude i venstre side: The Barbara Streisand Lawsuit. (Linket til hjemmesiden kommer længere nede på denne side).

Man kan bl.a. se et billede af den check som fr. Streisand måtte betale til forsvaret, i sagsomkostninger. Beløbet er på 155.567 dollars!

Søgemuligheder på deres hjemmeside:
Man kan selvfølgelig søge på alle lokaliteter langs den californiske kystlinie. Prøv f.eks. “San Francisco” og se The Golden Gate Bridge.
Eller man kan vælge fra en PopOp menu – jeg har her valgt Santa Cruz Lighthouse.

Snata Cruz Lighthouse

OBS: klik på billedet, og du får det originale store billede frem,
direkte fra deres hjemmeside. Billedet er mange gange
større end din skærm, så ha’ lidt tålmodighed

Man kan også søge ved hjælp af koordinater.
Eller man kan opdatere hjemmesiden – der kommer et nyt tilfældigt billede frem hver gang.

Det er nemt at downloade de flotte billeder: klik på “Download Photograph” når du er inde på siden. Linket til hjemmesiden kommer straks.

Og endelig: man kan bestille indrammede billeder via webtjenesten “Pictopia” http://gallery.pictopia.com/

Du finder “Den Californiske kystlinie” her:
www.californiacoastline.org

Grand Central Dispatch in Snow Leopard

Despite my Master Degree in Computing, I am not knowledgeable to write anything too technical about the Snow Leopard. But I am a proficient Mac user, since the inception of the first Macintosh. My last post already provided my first impression of Snow Leopard, Apple’s brand new (evolved OS). It’s lighter and faster. A week on after installing the new OS, I am now writing how I feel about this update.

I haven’t had a desktop Mac but I do have a few laptops lying around my house and office. My main computer is the last Aluminium Macbook Pro 17″ with 2.5 Ghz Duo Core, 4Gb RAM and 200Gb 7200rpm HD, and a matt screen. I also have my lovely Macbook Air with 1.86 Ghz Duo Core, 2Gb RAM and 128Gb SSD. My other laptops are all PowerPC based Powerbook, which unfortunately no longer supported and incompatible with Snow Leopard. So, I have installed Snow Leopard to both my Macbook Pro and Macbook Air.

The installation took something like an hour or so, painless. My first boot-up wasn’t exactly fast, perhaps a lot of setting up needed to perform internally. Once the OS was loaded, I immediately noticed the more snappy windows and icons in Coverflow. Another thing I spotted almost came as a shock was the space of my hard drive. The new OS returned almost 9Gb of free space! Well, that’s something I couldn’t justify because it varies depending on machine. I had seen forums that people gained from 5Gb to 10Gb.

Ok, that’s a good start, it seemed the whole computer ran a lot smoother (very true!). Next, I want to test my normal applications, I was pleased to say that most ran smoothly without problems, except a few: Acqusition (my P2P program), Adobe Dreamweaver CS4, Flip4Mac were all no-so compatible with 10.6. Norton’s Anitvirus 11 was also being flagged by the OS itself, something new as a feature. Now the OS would flagged any incompatible software and put it in a special folder.

I always push my computer to the max it could handle. Most of the time I would have a few applications running and this could really test the thread and memory handling with the new OS. When I am working on my photography projects, I would have Aperture (version 2.1.4), Adobe Photoshop CS4, Mail, Safari 4 and Microsoft Office running at the same time. It doesn’t sound a lot but Aperture and Photoshop are both memory hungry boys. My 4Gb memory could easily be eaten by them. Snow Leopard really do a slightly better job in avoiding crashing during my constant exporting and importing between the two photo applications. Together with the background rendering in Aperture for previews and thumbnails. Under 10.5.x, my Aperture was crashing like pin ball machine hitting the bells.

My Macbook Pro doesn’t have the latest graphics card, which the new OS also make use of it in a great deal. Therefore, I couldn’t commend on the graphics improvement. But all-in-all, I do find the 10.6 runs a lot smoother and faster when compare to 10.5.x, which is rare for any new OS as they tend to be heavier with graphics and more memory hungry.

Finally, shut down time, interesting that Apple claims to be 1.8x faster. It seems rather the same to me, on both machines. I will see if any future updates will improve that.

Another day with my machine, on my DVD slideshow. So far, so good

Nice day.

Jimmy

Snow Leopard

An operating system upgrade sounds like a daunting and dangerous task. Despite how safe and sound the upgrade was portrait by the company, whether it is Microsofe or Apple or any other software companies,  it’s often a disappointing experience.

I have been a Mac user for many years, or since the first Macintosh was announced in 1985. Everytime I upgrade the Mac OS was rather simple but the result was never consistent. I often lost some data or worst, had to reinstall programs to make it work. Even today, with the advancement of new OSes, my upgrade from Tiger to Leopard was somehow, disappointing, resulting a complete re-install of the OS to make my Powerbook ran smoothly again. There are always incompatibilities between drivers, programs or extensions. However, it’s true that by comparison, Mac upgrades are much better and simpler than Windows.

To most users, new OS often means “time to get new hardware”. New OS often releases to stage a fade-out timeline for older computer hardware. It’s true. As the underlining programs get more sophisticated, so do the demands on the hardware. More importantly, more graphically intense. Windows Vista, Mac OS Leopard was no different. From my experience, each of my computers would go through one to two OS upgrades before it dies from hardware failure (yes, I can actually over use my computer!). I could also see that each upgrade consumed more of the processing power and hence made it slower, despite more efficient (so they said). I was running my Powerbook G4, when I upgrade from Panther to Tiger, then from Tiger to Leopard. Both instances required me to re-install many programs, more so, the computer felt slower everytime the OS was upgraded.

Snow Leopard is different. I could actually see the difference! When I say ‘SEE’ the different, I mean it. Every window pops out quicker, graphics smoother and  the overall computer feels quicker and more stable. Something that’s rare in the computer world, it really does what it says on the tin! Something even better, after the upgrade, the OS gave me back almost 9Gb of hard drive space! It can only mean that now OS components are better integrated, streamlined and more efficient as a result.

Great, so far, I only experience small incompatibilities for certain drivers but overall it’s a great upgrade, perhaps the best so far. It’s fast, more efficient and if what Apple says about Grand Central’s capability, if future programs use the multi-core threading codes, it could mean substantial increase in performance, even without upgrading hardware! I can’t wait… simply.

Apple has done a great job and continues to deliver innovative ideas and products. Snow Leopard, really refined the principle.

I love Apple, Snow Leopard rocks! Long live my Macbook Pro, hope it doesn’t die that quickly :O

Jimmy