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Dismal Apple Forecasts Are Wrong
Nutrimentia writes "Tom Yager has a new column at Infoworld disputing poor analytic forecasts of Apple's future, especially based on criticism of Apple's lack of innovation (which seems to me to be pretty easy to refute, but whatever). It's a balanced article that looks at what Apple is doing right and wrong, and he offers some good reasons to pay attention to Apple even if you aren't a Mac fan, namely that the company's approaches to the market help understand many broader trends in effect."
He's right on target about developer training & documentation. It sucks big-time: poorly categorized and there is lots of missing information.
When I'm looking for an answer to a technical problem, I typically find answers at sites like Mamasam or CocoaDev. The Cocoa Dev Central site is a good source of sample code, too. Many more resources are listed here
Historically, Mac developer's have been very picky about this: Inside Macintosh is wonderful. It's an excellent technical reference presented in a consistent and easily readible format.
Here ya go!
Just take a look at this article at www.imaging-resource.com.
...And we'd spent the whole time -- not just a large part of it -- arranging the show contents rather than fighting the program interface.... We were done at 6:26." He said "...the only [really] aggravating part of the whole process [was] getting the blessed cellophane wrapping off the blank DVD. We can't wait to get these in spindles."
This isn't a Mac bigot. This is a guy that completed a slide show project, after much struggle, using DVDit on a Wintel box. "Some helpful souls suggested we'd enjoy life more if we used iDVD on the Mac. So we did."
He started working at 4:50 p.m. Every darn thing he tried just plain worked the way he expected. "At 6:10 we were ready to burn.
Apple's situation has been the same as it always been. Microsoft, like IBM before it, has the hearts and minds of the corporate IT departments and wins all the top-down purchasing decisions.
But everyone who actually has to use the things finds that Apple's hardware and software, overall, are just plain easier, nicer, faster, and more productive to use than Wintel gear.
As long as the people who actually use computers have any say whatever in what computers they use, Apple has a bright future.
"How to Do Nothing," kids activities, back in print!
Ah, read it again.
As of 12/28/02, they had 4.462 billion in cash and short term investments. Short term investments include corporate securities and bonds and so on. These are things that company can liquidate very quickly and therefore are lumped together with the cash position of the company.
No way there's an iMac in a classroom of a small school.
Schools do not buy Macs at list price. Apple has extraordinarily aggressive incentive programs for schools that want to buy Macs; 80% off the retail price of the machines is not that unusual.
Details may vary overseas.
I write in my journal
Check them out:
http://search.lists.apple.com/
Apple's ADC pages have quite a bit of source code as well I've found invaluable. No its not as nice as the initial volumes of Inside Mac were. However given the work Apple is doing on its development tools, there is too much of a moving target to have a tool like that. Apple's worked with O'Reilly to produce quality introductory materials. They also recognize that, unlike the 80's, most of us use the internet to get "how-to's." So it really is a different environment.
http://developer.apple.com/macosx/