Slashdot Mirror
What's Next At Apple
pinqkandi writes "Business 2.0 is running a fascinating article on what might be coming up in Apple's future. Besides speculation, some interesting statistics are included, such as how the iPod should create equal revenue to the Mac for Apple in 2006, if not surpassing it. A good read for the Apple lover or loather."
Orange Telecom's motto is "The future is bright, the future is Orange" so, who's right ?
Trolling using another account since 2005.
Considering Microsoft's current problems with the EU, I would expect Apple to be fully focused on expansion into the massive European market.
and I don't even have to look at my magic ipod photo to know it:
/.
More lawsuits and everyone critizising Apple for such a lawsuit will be modded into oblivioun on
Apple needs to produce a PVR and start an image of being "the" media center. I know I think of graphic artist when someone talks about using an apple. Now with iPod and that little Mini Mac the circle would be complete with a media center Mac. I would think of Mac as being the elite of home entertainment.
I read this last week!
2 4/ 1638226&tid=3
http://apple.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/03/
It's true, Slashdot has turned into another Apple rumour site.
.\.\att Clare
Lev13than writes "Slashdot recently ran a fascinating article on what might be coming up in Slashdot's future. Besides speculation, some interesting statistics are included, such as how long it takes a dup to get as many comments as the original post, if not surpassing it. A good read for the /. lover or loather."
When you have nothing left to burn you must set yourself on fire
I imagine they'll just keep doing the same thing over and over again...
Kinda like Slashdot.
I'd like to know where they came up with these percentages..
They seem completely overshot. For instance, they have iPhone down as 50%. Personally, I see this more as 5-10%.
5. Increased prices on iTunes
4. Pastel colors to become more washed out
3. Continuing victory of Form Over Function
2. Slavering devotion from fanboys
And number one on "What's next at Apple"
1. Smugness, release 2.0
Athletic Scholarships to universities make as much sense as academic scholarships to sports teams.
fucking dupe... a team of highly untrained chimps could do a better job of identifying dupes.
2. package in simple white box with smooth edges
3. throw in a couple of glowing buttons (let user pick color!)
4. ???
5. PROFIT!!
I read slashdot for the sigs...
CmdrTaco was rocking back and forth in his chair thinking...I've never read this before, so I guess nobody has.
/ 1638226&tid=3
Suggestion: Change name to "Dr. Repeato".
http://apple.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/03/24
.. even have to point out that this is a dupe?
in theory you'd think that the browsers the editors use would mark this url as visited (ie dark green or whatever it is), and they'd notice this
I don't know about other markets, but here in Pittsburgh, I see no Apple TV spots other than for the iPod. I don't get it. They have the greatest consumer-level desktop environment in the world, but they're not pushing it at all. It's as if they're relying solely on word-of-mouth advertising. I really think there needs to be more "power of OS X" type TV commercials to push this kick-ass system.
Cepstral: Quality TTS for OS X, Linux, Windows
i'm just trying to post before they pull the story back, so that i can score the elusive dissapearing post!
also, i was recently wondering if my chances to get a sucessful submission would be greater if i started submitting dupes.
anyone who managed to post a dupe have any stats of dupes/original stories accepted?
If you don't know what AltaVista is (was), get off my lawn.
Good job Slashdot have already got a team of them out there.
Have a banana.
I wouldn't be surprised at all if they introduced a low-end G5 (as in near Mac Mini) as a grey-box substitute.
A video iPod is completely plausible, especially if they bundle the xVid codec or some licensed variant of VLC with it - anime fanboys with money'll snap them right up to watch fansubs on the go (about 150MB an episode on average - take three or four series - at 26 episodes apiece - with you plus your tunes). The only concern might be battery life, and whether they would use a passive-matrix or active-matrix screen in addition to how the movies would get on there; presumably, iTunes would figure in, which would imply that it would eventually evolve into a video store in addition to a music venue.
This may not concern Apple directly, but especially in regards to yesterday's "World's Smallest Linux Box" story, with a few revisions to iPodLinux, it could be possible to use the iPod as a server (plug the Firewire cable into a Cisco switch; they have Firewire expansion cards). It would be interesting to see if Apple could develop software to turn the iPod into a NAS device as well, but an iPod server would just be a cool toy.
Striking fear in the authors of godawful fanfiction, I am here, appearing in darkness, Tuxedo Jack!
Next up iKickass. The program that makes people actually think all the schlock they make with garageband and imovie is worth listening to/watching.
The Wireless iPod is a certainty. I can't wait. Looks like Apple has filed patents for wireless podjacking support; sharing playlists over WiFi.
Speculation already, huh?? Let the lawsuits begin.
A two-button mouse, perhaps?
ipod ads a go-go, i've never yet seen an OSX or apple mac advert at all on the TV, and very very few in print. why is this? are they not able to up production?
to alter the ./ code for posting an article, that could do a quick scan of the past 3 weeks' urls in the database, and flag dupes before they arrive?
They will continue to take away rights. iTunes version 4.7.1 only allows streaming to 5 unique users per day, it used to support any 5 simultaniuse users.
So this is worse than yesterday's news. What new insights should this discussion bring according to CmdrTaco?
As appealing as a proposed video iPod might be, I doubt it would sell in large numbers. The difference between music and video is that music can be a background activity. One can work, read /., jog, talk with friends, drive a car, etc. whilst music is playing. In contrast, video requires too much visual engagement -- some super-multitaskers might disagree, but even that small group is unlikely to watch video as much as they might listen to music.
Whereas large numbers of people can imagine themselves using an iPod everyday and at many times of day, much fewer people can see themselves using a vPod and for much fewer hours per day.
Two wrongs don't make a right, but three lefts do.
I wonder if they'll release Java 1.5 as Sun releases Java 1.6 to the rest of the world.
On the other hand, they might make a really cool movie ipod!
...at least this time you can read the full article w/o being a subscriber. If you're into RTFA that is.
Once you lick the lollipop of mediocrity, you'll suck forever!
Apple certainly doesn't want to be seen as a bastion of piracy. A DVR which can feed into something like Final Cut Pro would be an amazingly great way to master your own show archives, but I think that Steve doesn't want to draw the ire of the TV networks or the movie studios... especially with the whole Pixar connection.
500GB of disk, 5TB of transfer, $5.95/mo
Knowing Apple suing left and right for speculations, I must post anonymously.
Hopefully and probably, I am not the only person contacted by Apple's HR for job "feeler" ("Do you want to work for Apple?").
Because I only post my resume's on Gamasutra, I'm speculating that Apple is beginning to search for programmers and developers specific to games.
Could Apple be jumping onto the bandwagon towards game softwares?
To paraphrase a wise man, myself, who paraphrased a wise man, Steve Jobs, Why is it that the people who keep posting repeats at Slashdot just don't get it?
ShortFormBlog: Writing a little. Saying a lot.
All they have to do is stick a flimsy five-minute DRM hack on top.
i'd like to see iTune support for the PSP, maybe add video download to it.
Supreme executive power derives from a mandate from the masses, not from some farcical aquatic ceremony.
+5 funny ... Insulting a large number of slashdot readers is really funny now eh.
Find out what will be on slashdot next week!
Just read today's articles.
a man, a plan, a canal, panama
is to offer the iTunes Music Store in Australia (and other countries where its not offered).
Not having the ITMS in australia is almost certainly hurting iPod sales since people are more inclined to buy an MP3 player that works with the australian music services (which as far as I am aware all use Windows Media DRM) instead of an iPod which doesnt play any music you can legally buy from an online music store in australia.
If they can offer the ITMS to the US, the UK and all the other countries where it is offered, what is so !@#$#@!@# hard about offering it to us aussies?
and iEye?
printf($randomline(sigs.txt) \n "-- "$randomline(authors.txt));
-- myself
...that the full text of the article was posted the same day the original story was posted.
and a vPod would be good for playing them back. With some good software you can have play back a video to the screen at times and at others just play the music.
Some videos actually make the music make more sense, then again a few make your head shake in bewilderment too.
As for when to watch the video and such... riding a stationary bike (I already read while I use one) to using a treadmill.
You could also expand the education impact by using vidoes as well. From pay for courses off the net to having schools provide video demonstrations that students can call up as needed. That would be a pretty nice thing to have while studying.
* Winners compare their achievements to their goals, losers compare theirs to that of others.
Or, to paraphrase a wise man, myself, I ask how come you don't get why they don't get it?
I have never let my schooling interfere with my education.
What is new at Microsoft?
Actually, this is the way Commodore decided to advertise the Amiga. It was an outstanding computer system,, starting to take on Hollywood with the "toaster" (the basis of most CG today) and could function as both a Mac and a PC. But there was a parody on the comercial, basically stating it was ONLY a game computer. With in 3 years, Commodore of America, closed down and then left to go to europe where at the time, it was the #1 selling computer there. (If I remember correctly).
"Watch out for my Uberness!" --- Uberlicious
I think Apple will add integrated PS3 as (optional?) add-on in Mac computers for $200. It will use computer's blue-ray and display only, otherwise it will be independant from the rest of Mac. MS's only remaining stronghold (games) will be lost, which opens door for Apple to real volume desktop market. Sony will OTOH fill the planet with PS3 games (which is what metters to them). I expect thay will make a deal to have iPod support in stand-alone PS3.
839*929
Lawsuits, lots of lawsuits. Preferably targetting college kids who don't have enough money to defend themselves ... heck, it worked for the RIAA ;-)
No, wait...MS already beat them to it.
GET FREE APPLE STUFF!
Specifically, the ability to fit your entire music collection on it. That is the basis for its dominance over other MP3 players. It's just so much more convenient to load everything once, and update every now and then, than it is to get into the capacity-management required with a player that only holds a few MB. THAT is the key to the iPod's ease of use--just load and use.
Once you start having to delete songs to make room for other songs, you're into the realm of trying to predict what you'll want to listen to later. It's a much better user experience to just have it all with you. The interface and ID is nice, but the capacity is what really makes it convenient.
To replicate that in video is the next frontier. Jobs would need to convince the industry to allow him to build a device that decodes CSS and allows storage of movies on a HD. Then he would need to source huge-capacity drives at very low prices. Then he would need to squeeze it all into a stereo-rack-size component with great ID and a clean interface.
Imagine the convenience of having all your DVDs available at the touch of a button whenever you sit down on your couch. Even better, imagine having a nice clean easy-to-use interface to download DVDs (through the iTMS).
He is in a very good position to do it. He has a good record of protecting DRM for the music industry (or at least trying hard to). He is already a movie industry player. And he runs a studio, giving him a sympathetic connection to other studio heads trying to protect their movies. They're all in it together--he's one they can trust.
Downloading movies will be a much harder deal for several reasons. Obviously there is a bandwidth issue. But possibly worse, it is in direct competition with the on-demand services that many TV service providers are rolling out. Since cable modems outnumber DSL 2 to 1, a large portion of the delivery network would be under the control of what is essentially a competitor to the video iTMS. Plus, many DSL providers have long-running plans to offer TV over DSL. And Jobs does not have any existing or special relationships with network service providers. He would likely need to develop them to make it work.
They are currently pushing their MEDIA role. To advertise an alternative to that horrible thing most likely on your desktop would not only immediately destroy all coolness factor from that Other Product, but would, in fact, hurt Apple long term strategies harder than imaginable.
;)
Apple isn't in the computer business, apple is in consumer computing business. The difference is enormous, and OS is just a small part of the experience. Much more important is:
a) content
b) integration
c) overall experience
You do not place it in one bin with that linux thing. Never! (just for a chance if you thought that I meant a certain Microsoft product also loosely related to the concepts and certain industry artifacts mentioned above
what would be nice is a video equivalent of the iTMS. Netflix has the best distribution model right now (not counting "Video on Demand" from cable companies, but DVDs are still more versatile) but as bandwidth continues to climb, the true video revolution will take place on the desktop computer. It's a lot like what's happened with music--why buy a CD if you can download it for the same price and make your own CD?
Apple should have a QtVS (Quicktime Video Store) where you can browse through thousands of films, TV shows, recorded speeches, documentaries, and videos. You could preview them much like you can with the iTMS and its music selections. Then, for a price comparable to a DVD, you could download these videos and burn your own DVDs. And now with H.264 coming in full force during the next few months, these videos could have very high quality with rather small file sizes.
In the next decade, the movie industry is going to find itself in the same position as the music industry was a few years ago, and it will have to change and adapt. Apple should be ready, and be able to offer a viable solution.
http://www.walkingtaco.com
I do it with a blue & white G3 I bought for $100 off eBay last year.
Apple is synonomous with hype. Steve Jobs farts and people start drooling over the prospect of brown ipods. Gotta have, must have. I'm elite now.
I even get horny about the speculation.
Consumer: Living gullets who live only to gulp down products and crap out cash. - Jerry Michalsky
To record anything you want as long as your batteries last. Then, preview the clips directly on the vPod screen!
Thats would be a great hit, never buy a DV tape again!
More, Apple should join forces with JVC, Panasonic, Pionner or someone like these to lauch a VideoCam that plugs an iPod directly as its storage!
It would be fantastic!
---- You know how some doctors have the Messiah complex - they need to save the world? You've got the "Rubik's" complex
At least Business 2.0 didn't jack the palmtop mac running a light version of OS X rumor from www.macrumors.com ... It was a thoughtful article that did not rely on the same old rumors from maczealotville. Each products makes sense, even if it will ultamatelty become vaporware.
I must be wakewalking through dreams.
How can you steal music when you're just listening to it...?
;-)
Or were you mistyping "don't listen to metal"
whatever is next at Apple, will eventually be copied/stolen by M$, but usually in an inferior way.
I have a 40G iPod, and I spent almost $90,000 at iTMS and I expect everyone else who has a 40G ipod has done the same!
here
...and I wish we would be warned if we have to pay to read an article. Slashdot used to do that.
Why are we getting so many repeats, Taco?
A brushed-Alum iPod? I'm not against the gleaming white, but I am a HUGE fan of the brushed-aluminum look.
Dear Steve,
Last week had two events of significance for me. One was the digitizer on my Palm Tungsten T died and the other was the Sony PSP was released. The problem is that I don't want either of them. There is nothing that I want to replace my TT with and I don't want a PSP.
What I want is the Apple Newton II!
Here is my recipe for the new Newton:
One Tapwave Zodiac (gaming but Palm compatability)
One PSP (screen aspect ratio and quality, build quality, 802.11/USB, and a (soon) real game library)
one Zaurus SL-C3000 (modern CPU hardware, form factor with keyboard and touchscreen (twistable), open source OS (linux or xBSD), hard drive, CF slots), real I/O
Add iPod mini functionality and storage >= 10Gb
Add Newton HWR(inkwell?) and general Newton goodness
Add replacable AA batteries that will last a FULL day so I'm never stuck
Vendor support of an active development community
MS Outlook sync for PDA functions (calendar and contacts) (my job requires it, what can I say....)
Stir to make it all cool and integrated and still be work meeting/date/wife safe
I would pay $699 tomorrow for all of this and even pay $50 a year for a software subscription for the basics.
What do you say Steve, can I have one?
"I say we take off, nuke the site from orbit. It's the only way to be sure."
A five minute song takes five minutes to retrieve. I'd like a real explanation.
Albeit at astronomical prices.
A Call For A New Slashdot Moderation Level!
don't know why they [don't] push the Mac Mini.
(I'm assuming you meant to have that 'don't' in there.)
Anyway, based on my experience I'd say the reason why they aren't pushing it is because they are (or were, at least) having trouble keeping up with orders as it was, without any serious advertising.
I placed an order for one on January 17. It finally shipped on March 16. When you've got a two-month backlog on a product, the last thing you need is a marketing campaign sitrring up more demand. People want instant gratification these days, so teasing them with incessant ads for something they'll have to wait 6-8 weeks for would be a bad move.
As with the mobile devices, convergence is key. If you can simply and elegantly incorporate video, imaging, games, etc... people will follow, at least occassionally. The iPod photo requires engagement. Look at mobile games, for so many a cell phone is too little and a PSP is too much. If Apple can gaqrner a few more sales out of those who lust for all things electronic, but who only game occassionally, they will gain some significant revenue.
I am intereszted in developing games on the platform.
WMP is unusable, not letting you share at all!
In fact what other players do let you share? They are all terrible!
Ban media players now!
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Um, ins't that the company that bought Apple in 1997? Or am I being redundant?
I don't think he'd do it unless you could keep your phone, switch phone companies, flash the bios, and keep using it and all the features you have with it. As you say, that would require a lot of working together. I don't think he'd do it unless he could get, say, three major wireless carriers to agree to do it.
That and I do believe Apple would insist on being in control of the features offered to a large degree. Though I could see them setting an iTMS-like agreement there where Apple and the wireless company shared fees for content or features activated at a monthly rate.
But who wouldn't kill for a truly well designed phone? And I tell you what would be cool - the article talked about a pull out number pad, but the iPod scroll wheel seems perfect to substitute as something of an old-school rotary phone. Could even put LEDs or whatever in the wheel that have numbers or play/stop/FF/RW buttons light up depending on the use mode.
I'm still waiting for the top 10 list of who Apple will sue next.
-Rick
"And....starwipe!"
"Dad, you know there are other transition than starwipe!?" [snip] "I'm taking my name off of this project."
One man's Funny is another man's Offtopic.
OK, combine all the rumors: Apple cell phone, wireless iPod, iPod with expanded features and what do you get? An Apple version of the Blackberry. Face it, the Blackberry is a good idea, but how many executives really learn how to use the wierd keyboard? And the storage space for e-mails is miniscule. I predict an Apple mini-hand-held-computer-phone-wireless-e-mail-clie nt. Will wait for C&D order to see if I am right.
Can you be mildly indifferent? Half-assed curious?
I get my Unix needs met by FreeBSD and for GUI use I get my needs met by XP Pro.
I guess I'd be interested in using a Mac more, maybe, but I don't feel that anything is really missing in my current world, and a fast enough box to handle OS X in a manner I'd consider worthwhile is outside what I'm willing to personally pay.
The two Macs I have (G4 at work, G3 w/1Ghz upgrade CPU) are just too slow on OS X to do anything worthwhile. Disk I/O is especially painful.
Can we say dupe?
;)
Come on now... say it with me. You would think the Slashdot admins don't even read their own site.
I too use FreeBSD, but I sadly note there's trouble brewing in the 5.x release: the SMP spinlock implementation is broken/incorrect and it siezes up under heavy load. Mac OS X and an increasing number of Apple SMP boxes make me wonder if the future of BSD has Apple in it.
I get my Unix needs met by FreeBSD and for GUI use I get my needs met by XP Pro
With Mac OS X, you can have your Unix needs and GUI needs done in the same box.
The two Macs I have (G4 at work, G3 w/1Ghz upgrade CPU) are just too slow on OS X to do anything worthwhile. Disk I/O is especially painful.
Many G3 iBooks users use Mac OS X without much complaints about the speed. Then again, "anything worthwile" is a personal thing. Try upgrading the RAM. Low RAM amount really bogs OS X down.
what might be coming up in Apple's future
The iAnus teledildonics port! I knew it!
It shows exponential growth for the iPod, but it's showing a downturn in the Mac sales curve for 2006. What's up with that?
I get my Unix needs met by FreeBSD
So do I, on my Mac mini.
for GUI use I get my needs met by XP Pro
I so want to make a joke about therapy here, but I'm afraid you'd take it the right way.
. Disk I/O is especially painful.
I don't know what you have at work but if that's a Beige G3 at home the 66 MHz system bus and anemic IDE controller and PCI bridge don't help disk I/O at all. The B&W is a bit better, but still... that's like 7 year old hardware! I'll bet you're not running XP on a Pentium II...
Nuff said.
This is all I have to say...
iProduct
Relex! It's a joke.
Don't even mention the Newton in Steve's presence. He'll kick you in the nuts, pour hot tar into your hair, go over to your house and kill your cat, then piss in your corn flakes, all the while muttering, "Goddamn sugar water salesman."
It's not offtopic, dumbass. It's orthogonal.
I think they're waiting for Tiger to come out and also to build up their product stock so that they're not always out, like they were with the iPod minis on release.
Problem solved.
Jebus. Apple prototyped PVR/ VOD boxes in the mid nineties, based on modified Quadra 605 and 610 mobos with bigass MPEG decoder boards strapped on. I have several of them.
Much like their swat at the video game market (Pippen), Apple has ALREADY DONE THE PVR. Just so happens that they've been there, done that, before it was "cool" to like Apple.
You're on Slashdot in a story in the Mac section arguing that AppleScript sucks suggesting that "we" have an alternative in COM and VBA?
We? Who is this We?
You are a FREAK!
What are you even doing here?
Look, you have my permission to leave. Go away.
If you think the only good product apple makes is OSX, you probably just haven't given any of their computers/music players a try.
I don't know if you could say that a Mac is more expensive than a "comparable" PC, those pieces of shit Dell and HP crap out are hardly comparable to a mac. I think if you compared Sony and Apple computers, you'd see that their prices are in accord.
As for your vender lock in claim, songs you purchase on iTunes will play on any computer, and music you've purchased on a CD can be ripped and played on an iPod. That's hardly vender lock in.
Can't argue about the mouse, though, I have a Microsoft intellimouse (3.0). And a lot of those machines they made in the '90s were shitty, though their PowerMacs and PowerBooks were always really cool.
Yay, someone wasted 4 hours, read all of the other Apple rumor sites, then listed them all on his own page with unbased drivel about each, including a "percentage of likeliness." Move on - nothing to see here.
...because they're too intelligent to do so, and here's why:
As a composer, as much as I hate to admit it: for most people, music is no more than a background to their day to day lives. If you think about it, you could, feasibly, listen to music about 80% of your waking life, and still remain productive in most individual activities (most jobs, driving, walking/exercising). Most humans only need their hearing for communication, but solitary activity--which takes up most people's time--requires little to no communication, meaning the aural senses are free to do other things, like listen to music. However, most tasks, individual or cooperative, require constant usage of the visual senses, making video far less attractive as a background activity while doing other things. Think about your day to day life, how much time, do you think, you could spend, while not at home or at a computer, watching video? It requires a time in which both the visual or auditory senses are free. For a huge majority of people, that period of time is extremely small. The only market for a portable video player is for those that use mass transit, this may seem substantial in some cities, but it's still a very small percentage of the American population. Also consider that the smallest unit of video is 30 minutes, so a video player is only reasonable for a person who can find time on the go for 30 minutes or more of visual distraction. People do not have to change their day to day routines for portable audio, but they would have to "find time" for portable video.
Apple have always seen themselves as a champion of the common people, in a similar fashion to Ford Motor Company when it first began. Their original intention was to create a computer which everyone (at least a large majority of people) could use... their only mistake (as opposed to Henry Ford's success) was that they didn't create a computer which everyone could afford. Apple have never been, and never will be, intentionally a provider of hardware products for niche markets. The iPod built on a mainstream market that was already there: portable audio, something that's been around since Sony's "Walkman" in the early 80s. There is to date, no mainstream market for portable video, and there isn't nearly enough public outcry to create one.
The only mainstream market for portable entertainment devices other than purely auditory hardware is video games. The unit of measurement in playing a video game is one level, usually around 2-4 minutes tops for most portable games, a chunk of time that's much more manageable while on the go. Also, consider that a huge majority of school age children are either driven or take a bus to school every morning, so having a portable video game unit aimed at children has a huge market. Playing games is also, obviously, an offshoot of solitary play, something that children have always done on busses, or when they have free time. Being entertained, however, is not something that children have done on a regular basis while away from a house. Even so, don't expect Apple to get in on the portable video game market any time soon. Nintendo's Gameboy Advance SP is already the iPod of the industry, and arguably does everything that it needs to in a simplistic and portable form which seems uncannily similar to Apple's line of development. This is also the same reason why I believe, without question, that the Sony PSP will fail as a mainstream device, it does far more and is far more complicated than the average child (the bulk of the market) has use for during transit, but that's another topic.
To sum things up, the only way Apple will ever make anything close to a portable video device is that in the next year or two they will undoubtedly add video support to the iPod Photo. Like video confrencing in iChat, it will be a gimmick, and no one will ever use it, but it won't matter anyway because that isn't the reason people buy an iPod in the first place.
Multiplayer Gaming (defined): Sitting around, discussing single-player games with my friends, at the bar.
bwah? Have you ever been on a subway? Each car stuffed full of people sitting there pretending to read the morning paper while listening to their iPods? Of course there are people who would be interested in watching their tivo'd American Idol/OC/Apprentice/Biggest Loser/CSI episodes on the train in the morning.
And a video iPod would be used ONLY for video? Isn't it obvious that the player would be valuable for both video AND audio?
:::: the insomniac's digest
My blog has been speculating about Apple for a few months now. It includes Apple's subscription music service, computing with the CELL processor, a gadget for displaying what is playing on your iPod , iPods in cars and other wild-assed ideas.
Making wild-assed guesses so you don't have to. http://www.riskychicken.com
Careful about guessing too well, or you may end up having to reveal your sources!
Please, lay blame where it belongs, and it's not at Apple's feet!
Any changes are THE FAULT OF APPLE. You're a fucking hypocrite if you say otherwise.
You blame Microsoft for Windows - asking them to take some responsiblity with their products. So grow courage to ask Apple to take responsibility with their products.
You don't know if Apple didn't plan these recent moves all along. Once they've got people used to tollerating DRM music, it's simple for them to tighten up the restriction on content. My prediction: within a year they will have removed streaming altogether. Crackers provide a convenient excuse, but it's still just them pandering to the music industry by removing features and increasing restrictions.
And if you still refuse to blame Apple - how about blaming yourself? Nobody's forcing you to use DRM products where you don't own the content. You're an idiot for giving Apple (or anyone) control of your music collection in the first place.
What on earth are you trying to do with your macs that you consider them so slow? My ancient 366mhz iBook with 320MB of RAM from 1999 still manages my "GUI use" in a more responsive manner than most new Windows XP machines can do at the same tasks. Granted, I have to wait seven agonozing seconds for Safari to load, but once you get past that, browsing is remarkably quick. My disk I/O is rather slow, but that's to be expected with an old 6GB laptop hard drive. Fortunately, I have no problems handling large files on NFS exports over etherenet.
Upgrading from 10.2 to 10.3 sped many aspects of the system up considerably, so if you're not running 10.3, I would try that.
Unfortunately, I won't be able to upgrade it anytime soon, so I still get most of my work done on my freebsd desktop/server/spaceheater that's also rather obsolete. Apple never really intended the iBook to be used as much more than a basic all-purpose download/view/word processing machine. You're definitely not going to want to edit sound or graphics on it or use it for development. You will find that OSX does manage to make good use of the meager 800x600 display, and the interface designed for a single-button mouse makes using the trackpad with tapping rather nice--I can use my thumb for all my pointing and clicking. I find that it's the ideal machine for browsing and chatting on the couch in front of the TV, and that's probably what they had in mind when they designed it.
Apple's offerings aren't the fastest, and they CERTAINLY aren't the cheapest. They are just really well-designed for their intended use, and that's more-or-less what the article is about--speculation on what uses for computation Steve Jobs will bring us in the future. If you need a high-end workstation, you probably won't be disappointed with a G5 tower. If you need something portable, you'd probably like an iBook. If you just need something that doesn't suck, you probably won't be disappointed with a mac mini. You're still paying a bit of a tax just for that silly fruit on your case, but macs seem to last longer without going obsolete. Try running XP Pro on a low-end laptop from 1999 and tell me what you think of the disk I/O there.
you forgot "beleaguered".
Yeah, interesting point. Another possibility is that Apple put it there for developers to leverage/make use of, and no one has yet. Or if they have, it hasn't really made a splash.
It's not offtopic, dumbass. It's orthogonal.