Slashdot Mirror
The Media's Crush on Apple
conq writes "BusinessWeek reports: "It's the first time in my memory that a product announcement by Steve Jobs has caused the AP to send an alert -- especially since this development was fully expected. And it says a lot about the intensity of media attention Apple generates. When is the last time a NewsAlert went out based on the words of Michael Dell or Bill Gates? Clearly, the AP's editors determined this news was important enough to warrant such action."
When is the last time a NewsAlert went out based on the words [...] Bill Gates?
Last week after the CES keynote, during which he didn't launch any new products at all, and instead talked about the same thing he's talked about for the last three years but still hasn't shipped, and a product that came out last year.
In contrast, Apple actually announced new product that was a signifigant shift from their previous strategy, and has a business impact beyond the doors of Apple itself.
Which company gets an unusual amount of coverage?
Michael Dell has little to do with innovation. He's a brilliant businessman but I do not think his job function entitles him to media attention like Gates or Jobs. Dell sells computers, they don't invent them or the software they run. His expertise is reliability and customer support. Definitely an important figure head in the sale of computers but not so much the invention side.
I should point out that Gates won that probably because of all the money he and his wife donate to charities. The guy is a vaccine giving maniac no matter how much you hate his software. Oh and he is hott .
My work here is dung.
Of course not.. the fact that the majority of media workers use apples does NOT make them biased.. of course not...
Clearly the news media is dominated by people who use Apple computers. This is a well-known fact, and I actually recall reading an article a while back about the fact that Apple gets a disproportionate amount of computer press when the vast majority of the computer-using population doesn't care about Apple, much less actually owns one.
Sometimes it's best to just let stupid people be stupid.
When is the last time a NewsAlert went out based on the words of Michael Dell or Bill Gates?
When was the last time either of those guys released an interesting, innovative product?
Wouldn't that make applesause? Mmm, yum.
Just the other day we had a little uproar about BB articles. Now the next issue is the about front page artciles are about Macs. Come on, there are fan boys about macs but how many times do we need to hear about people saying that the media is fascinated with macs?
Are you implying that Arik Hesseldahl (the article's author) want's to get in Steve Job's pants?
My God, man, is Slashdot no better than high school?
This is rather off-topic, but has anyone tried Sour Apple Crush Soda? It's awesome :)
Anyway, to bring the post on-topic, I'm excited about the new hardware, but I can see how the media coverage of apple over the last little while is quite reminiscient of Slashdot's coverage of Google.
All praise, no raze. Or something. Basically, Apple is the Golden Delicious of the consumer tech companies right now. Eventually something will happen to change that, but for the forseeable future it will remain stable as the 'darling child' it currently is.
JOhn C Dvorak wrote an article in PC Magazine about this back in October.
That what was all this school was for... to teach us how to solve our own problems. -- janeowit
and his tears cure cancer.
Neo: Hmm. Upgrades.
-Rob
Biblical fiscal responsibility
I think the bias is warranted. I mean, how many OSes do you know that can interface with and take down an alien ship's computer using a virus?
Modern copyright is theft of culture from everyone and it retards the progress of the useful arts and sciences.
Can't the slashdot editors answer this one? Why do you have half of the front page filled with apple stories?
no comment
Bill Gates and Dell together can't sum up to the personality of Steve Jobs. You don't get to be the IT industry's No. 1 Agenda Setter for nothing.
This particular announcement from Jobs might change the face of PC Industry (I hope it does). The only reason for Mac not running on 95% of world PCs is the different processor. Let's see if Redmond feels any pressure.
When is the last time a NewsAlert went out based on the words of Michael Dell or Bill Gates?
I can't speak about Michael Dell but, wasn't Gates and company generating news alerts all of last week about the Windows Meta File(WFM) exploit? Also, didn't Bill Gates generate all sorts of new alerts when, spoke at CES and announced Microsoft's new products?
The fact of the matter is that old Stevo gets a fair bit of attention due to his flamboyant nature but all of the tech heavyweights get far too much press. The media, Slashdoty included, have turned into their personal marketing machines.
Half the fun in covering Apple is covering the coverage of Apple. The argument has been made that we in the press are a little nuts about Apple. It's a fact.
So basically, you're writing about other people writing about Apple because you couldn't find anything else to write about? Were you moved by subliminal messages due to the NewsAlert?
So now, I'm commenting about another person writing about someone writing about someone else writing about Apple. All for no reason!
The Crush is infectious!
Love him or hate him, Steve Jobs has cultivated a media persona that is the envy of many CEOs. He is the master of manipulating the media for his companies benefit. He is effectively the head saleman at Apple. He sets the tone for all the marketing that is done. Neither Gates nor Dell has the charisma to pull that off.
The Apple brand, while always considered hip and cool, has exploded in over all popularity due to the iPod. That is why this years Macworld has dominated the headlines. Jobs has been very careful to maintain that hip and cool vibe with respect to Apple. It has served them well in the past, and is paying off nicely now.
At Slashdot, anytime Apple farts it makes the main page.
By the looks of it, Apple ate at Taco Bell last night.
When was the last time dell or microsoft done anything but suck? Dell releases more crappy laptops, microsoft announces another crappier version of Windows will be available in the distant future... People who like Apple products REALLY like Apple products. They sold ~100 ipods per minute last quarter. I don't think their PR dept. is solely responsible for all of the exposure, it is the fact that they are releasing products that people are excited about, sometimes before anyone expects it.
I thought it was Linus that floated one inch above the ground.
Take the cheese to sickbay, the doctor should see it as soon as possible - B'Elanna Torres, "Learning Curve"
...Silicon Valley bedfellows.
Don't you people juuudge Apple. They've got to get while the gettin's good.
--
Apple's fascination by the media has to do with 3 things:
1. Dominance in entertainment (graphic artists, movie makers, etc). So when most journalists who interact with their geeky movie making counterparts, odds are they're going to see a Mac, no matter what they may be using. So Apple news has a direct impact on these people.
2. Steve Jobs has charisma. You look at the interviews with Bill Gates, or Ellison, or McNealy, and I'm sorry, but these guys are just not photogenic. They hardly sound interesting, and they talk about boring stuff. (More on that in a moment.) But at least Jobs - and the drama of his life, the "rags to riches" story, is at least interesting. Even with his mistakes, at least he makes them *big* and bold.
3. Most technology news is boring. Routers? Boring. Enterprise management? To the usual person, boring. New computer that lets you make movies? Well, that's kind of interesting! Music? That's something people are interested in, not "We can get 10,000 people to use a server to access a database!". My wife gets music - she could care less about using LDAP calls to Active Directory.
The rest of it - the fascination the tech industry has with Apple - is because usually their the first ones to do things in an interesting way. Not all of the ideas are really unique - like the iPod, or cameras on a computer. But they put it on with a style that few companies save Sony perhaps can match, so it feels like it's innovative - and sometimes, the way that Apple does it, it is.
As the article mentions, will this translate into bigger sales? MS dominated thanks to their IBM deal and focusing on business, while Jobs focused on the home. Gates won that part of the war. But now the war is moving into the entertainment business, where Microsoft keeps pushing their product but making slow headway while Apple is embraced by the same media who is fascinated with them.
Eh - so who knows about the future. I know I'll probably pick up a Macbook Pro sometime in the future and try it out, probably put a Windows partition or just use Cedaga for OS X whenever that arises. But I'm sure the fascination with Apple will continue as long as Jobs continues to be interesting.
Of course, this is just my opinion. I could be wrong.
52 Weeks, 52 Religions with John Hummel
I remember Jef Raskin saying that Steve Jobs always wanted to be a rock star more than anything (which he also said explained Jobs' move into media "licensing", i.e., iTunes). I guess Jobs' is not far off it now with all this attention. I don't dislike Stevie J. by any means, but then I've never seen his "live" gig either. Maybe it's different from the recordings? (tongue in cheek for the last sentence)
But I wonder how long the media love-in will last. The press has a nasty way of building people up and then dragging them down once there's nothing else to write about. Fame is a difficult thing to have and never entirely under the control of the famous person. Hopefully Steve will continue to make the headlines, at least until I can catch his concert at MacWorld one day and see what the fuss is about.
bang goes my karma... again...
I don't know which "media workers" you have been hanging around, but the two magazines I have worked for and the almost all of newspapers I have freelanced for over the past 5+ years have been dominated by Windows boxes.
To shreds you say...
It's all about branding my boy! Branding! Also, it leaves room for Apple to put AMD chips or anything else they want. They still can do that with the label on, you say. Ah, Apple is Apple. That's the only brand that Jobs wants you to see. And, I think there may be a time in the future where the end consumer will not know what the CPU is. It could be anything. Who cares? You're buying an Apple and that's all that matters. Do you care what the chips are in your monitor, TV, iPod, or your router? I don't. As long as I get something that works.
Clearly, the AP's editors determined this news was important enough to warrant such action.
Personally I think Apple and Microsoft have secretely joined themselves at the hip. As such, the editors were told to send out the alert or elese 'ol Stevie would Fucking Kill(TM) them.
If big boobed women work at Hooters do one legged women work at IHOP?
Apple is not a technology company. Steve Jobs runs the same schtick Martha Stewert or Steven Speilberg do: it doesn't matter what they're selling (usually its overpriced junk), their name will carry the product to profitability.
(And let's not forget about the vociferous, unapologetic Apple fans).
Half the fun in covering Apple is covering the coverage of Apple. The argument has been made that we in the press are a little nuts about Apple. It's a fact. The highs and lows of Jobs & Co. are so dramatic that the erudite prose practically writes itself. And I can't help but think something is wrong with that.
The other half of the fun is getting the erudite prose to write itself, so in reality this guy doesn't even have to write anything. Not that there is anything wrong with that.
He who knows best knows how little he knows. - Thomas Jefferson
Really, that's kind of an overstatement. Many newsrooms use Macs but most publishing software has ports for PCs. The last newsroom I worked in used all PCs--they'd switched from Macs a year before I got there. Not only that, but there's this thing called "objectivity" that most reporters want to show they have. Apple made a huge shift moving to Intel and has now entered into a strange place in business. They make a Windows-compatible (at least Vista-compatible) PC that runs their own OS. While I doubt the majority of Mac buyers will be dual-booting their machines, it is now entirely possible. THAT is a news story because no such computer has really existed before.
That, and Steve puts on a good show. Bill Gates didn't put on half as good a show at CES.
So the era of Apple computers bearing microprocessors from Intel started at the time the Associated press issues a "NewsAlert". Not when a contract was signed, not when an announcement was made, but when the self-important media does something. I think they're long overdue for some sort of soul-searching or something to re-evaluate their proper role in society.
On the top of my screen there's five little icons about the stories currently on the /. front page. Three of these five are about Apple. I'm waiting for next week's Google run and the usual "do we talk too much about Google?" stories.
Mod story down.
Forget the media. Why the sudden slashdot fascination with Apple?
Work like no one is watching. Dance like you've never been hurt. Make love like you don't need the money.
Maybe I am wrong.
He who knows best knows how little he knows. - Thomas Jefferson
Dell announces new systems built using AMD processors. Declares that customers should have a choice of the best systems available at the best prices available with full Dell support.
"It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
There ist quite a good podcast-episode from Slate over at http://media2.washingtonpost.com/media/slate/Podca sts/Slate_05101401.mp3
;-)
Check it out, it's worth the while.
Or in other words: LtTFA
Not that there's anything wrong with that.
Not only does Steve Jobs have a dynamic personality, but he KNOWS he does and can promote himself and his company accordingly. On top of that, Apple is the true innovator in the industry -- they produce must-have products, and those products almost unfailingly work extremely well.
By comparison, Bill's personality doesn't have the dynamic, charismatic element that Steve has. Bill certainly has the intellect, the will, and the drive, but he just comes across differently than Steve in a public setting.
It's like comparing Scorcese to Bruckheimer. Critics love Scorcese more and everyone will agree that Scorcese makes a superior product, but Bruckheimer is the one with the blockbuster hits.
Perhaps it's that a LOT of people are tired of how difficult it can be to set up Linux or how impossible it is to manage (keep virus/spyware/exploit-free) Windows...
OS X hits a sweet spot for a LOT of people, and the reasonably robust hardware makes for an overall solid widget (no pun intended).
Many might suggest Apple's package is the best computing experience around (right now) and that's what drives the hype.
Outside from enthusiasts (who are found in ANY niche), who the hell gives a darn what's inside a box, or what the label is? People just wanna send email, make toast, watch TV, etc...
Rightly or wrongly, most people see the future in Apple products. Microsoft's slogan is (was?) "Where do you want to go today?" and for a lot of people that's "wherever Apple takes us". Apple's the company that *tries* things. And, the Cube notwithstanding, they have been pretty much on the mark. I'm not saying they invent everything, mp3 players were around before the iPod, but they were the ones who made its appeal universal. OSX is clearly standing on the shoulders of giants, but Apple was able to take it just that bit further that I could give my folks a Mac and walk away without worrying about whether they'd be able to use it.
Compare this to Dell, whose mantra is "as cheap as possible" or Microsoft, whose mantra changes from day to day.
To be fair, both Dell and Microsoft have problems that Apple would probably love to have (massive volume). But since Apple doesn't have said problems, they're more free to do whatever they want, and what they want is to sell more of their own stuff which looks farther afield from the rest of the industry.
...that the 4th apple story in the last 24 hours is entitled The Media's Crush on Apple. =P
I'm sorry. The number you have reached is imaginary. Please rotate your phone 90 degrees and try again.
There are, of course, people at work who use Macs at home, just are there people who use Linux. But there is not great Apple conspiracy at work here, I'm sorry to say. Apple just puts on a better show than the others. And, in contrast to Microsoft, when they say the will bring out a new product, they actually do. Still waiting for Vista here.
TWW
"Encyclopedia" is to "Wikipedia" what "Library" is to "Some people at a bus stop"
Funny, not troll!!!
--Anonymous Apple Fanboi
When is the last time a NewsAlert went out based on the words of Michael Dell or Bill Gates?
I dunno about that, but have you SEEEN steve ballmer's dance to "get on your feet"? You can see it here
YEAAAAHHHHH.... Howard Dean has a long lost relative.
Even non-apple users are interested in what Apple announces, because their products tend to set industry trends from time to time.
While it was noteworthy that Apple showed their first Intel power products. Overall, I don't think these new announcements were that impressive. All of the big wintel manufactures announced duo products last week at CES. There are really no unique features with these new items from Apple.
While Apple is gaining a lot with the Intel switch, it is losing a lot of its uniqueness in terms of hardware. Then again, most people are purchasing Apple products for the software features of OSX, not CPU.
Of course not.. the fact that the majority of media workers use apples does NOT make them biased.. of course not...
Well, it cuts both ways. I remember back in the early 90s reading over the shoulder of a sub at PC Format magazine (one of the more entertaining UK titles). He spent a few paragraphs dissing Marathon as a loser game and Bungie as an inept developer for 'something called the Macintosh', which he claimed he had never heard of, despite the fact that he was typing all of this on a Quadra 900.
>When is the last time a NewsAlert went out based on the words of Michael Dell or Bill Gates?
Well as this is an event by Apple that could seriously affect those two, it is rather important, isn't it? This isn't just an new 8GB nano we are talking about here!
Open Source Drum Kit, LPLC deve board - mjhdesigns.com
And this is relevant to the current discussion in what way?
Mod Parent OVER-THE-TOP -1.
"It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
Sorry, what do I know? I'm just a Troll!
Dark Reflection
the fact that the majority of media workers use apples does NOT make them biased
Yes, just like the fact that the majority of them pay taxes makes them biased and unable to give opinions about taxes, or went to college and can't give opinions about the illiterate. The fact that I don't commit genocide makes me biased and unable to fairly judge Milosevic (or even spell his name).
Does "the media" entail /. ? Just wondering... because I just saw 5 Apple-related stories on the front page.
I mean, I guess it is an Apple story from the perspective that Steve Jobs made the announcement, and it is Apple hardware and software being showcased.
But the real star of the story is the Intel chip, who has broken through the Apple-Motorola-IBM blue wall of the PowerPC.
Intel breaking into the Apple market is a bigger story than Apple bowing to Intel market pressure.
Terrorists can attack freedom, but only Congress can destroy it.
Don't you mean the new 8 pound iPod?
I have a very good inside source on this one.
They make a Windows-compatible (at least Vista-compatible) PC that runs their own OS. While I doubt the majority of Mac buyers will be dual-booting their machines, it is now entirely possible. THAT is a news story because no such computer has really existed before.
Does it exist now? I looked around on the Apple site and can find no claim that the computer will be dual bootable or for that matter capable of booting any version of Windows. I know that the pre-release versions of OSX for intel were able to be loaded and even dual booted on current intel machines but do we know that the Apple hardware will be able to run Windows Vista? That is without a lot of hacking that the average joe isn't capable of?
Is buying a Harley Davidson as your first motorcycle since you were 16 at age 49 a midlife crisis issue?
Other than being technologically interesting (but no more so than going from the 68XXX to the PowerPC) what's new?
Quite honestly, I think that just the new power connector alone was worth the press. It certainly was worth the press if you consider how much press the detachable cables from the original Xbox controllers got a few years back. What's the last thing Dell has added to a notebook computer that wasn't a 'Me Too' feature? IBM and Apple are the only innovators in the notebook market space, and they deserve the press more than Dell or Microsoft.
Every two days I see "Microsoft releases patch".
Story - Sun and Apple might have merged, but didn't. What's next for news? South African scientist could have developed AIDS vaccine! Bill Gates had opportunity to be nice to Jamaican nun! SCO could have won their lawsuit! The RIAA could have sued another file-sharer!
...that was Movie OS[tm].
Only Movie OS has a networking stack and client libraries for alien protocols built-in -- and it runs AOL, too! (Machine: Impossible edition only.) Accept no substitute!
P.S. Yes, that was an Apple PowerBook 5300 (in both movies), and no, we didn't get to see it catch on fire. Too bad -- I'm sure ILM could have done some very impressive work with it.
In general, it is safe and legal to kill your children. -- POSIX Programmer's Guide
As long as you keep the buzz alive my stocks are just going to go up and up...
-- SIGFPE
Ok a lot of people are bitching that Billy boy and Mikey are getting in teh news also. RTFA!!!! when they say news alerts, they mean front page live stuff like when a bomb goes off or a hurricane hits. We are not talking about the cover of time, or 4 pages deep on tech webistes. We are talking website admins getting off thier arses and scrambling to post this to thier front page first so they can get everyone there. Its like TV stations running "Special news reports" right in the middle of a touchdown drive in the middle of the superbowl. Yes Mike and Bill are getting press, nothing to the point of Apple though.
~~"Of course, that's just my opinion. I could be wrong." ~~Dennis Miller
Sexy matters more than anything else in the media world. Apple is sexy. Unlike a geek who still lives in his mother's basement.
because I am not much of an apple fanboy, and saying this makes me feel dirty -- however, they usually seem to deliver pretty well lately on the hype they are generating. Micro$oft has a tendancy of the "cry wolf" syndrome or vaporware, or delivering less than what was hyped. Apple seems to be able do live up to the hype.
(+1 Funny) only if I laugh out loud.
Apple switching to Intel is an important announcement. What is surprising is reporters recognizing it.
Same components, same form factor, available now, cheaper, faster processor, double the ram, more hard drive space compared to the MacBook.
The media, along with Apple, is delusional.
What worries me the most about this latest Apple announcment is that the media seems to be both shocked and amazed that Apple was able to switch to Intel only 6 months after they announced the partnership.
This comes from media sources that claim to be in the business of reporting technology.
Why isn't this really all that shocking?
First, Apple put a PC notebook in a Powerbook/iMac enclosure. Acer can do it, Dell can do it, HP can do it. There is no technological miracle involved in Apple getting an Intel CPU to work in a notebook formfactor, especially one designed by Intel to work in notebooks. I give a slight nod to Apple for putting it in a slightly thinner and lighter enclosure then the Acer Travelmate, but are we to believe that Apple spent the last 6 months designing the MacBook or iMac? Remeber that both the iMac and Mac mini use notebook components, so even those models are not technological miracle's as the media would have you believe. The fact that Apple moved to the Intel platfrom is not earth shattering from a hardware perspective.
Second. Apple has had an x86 compiled version of OSX since they first coined the name OSX. There has always been some form of OSX avialable on some form of PC hardware. Apple hedged their bets that IBM's PowerPC may not take them everywhere they want to go, and with Wintel dominating 95% of the market, I would have been fool hardy for Apple not to recognize the potential to run their OS on an x86 based computer. Also, given that fact that Apple did not start development fresh at the moment Apple and Intel announced their partnership. Chances are, Apple already had much of this development up their sleeves. The fact they moved to the Intel platform is not earth shattering from a software perspective.
Yet the media and many geeks are gobbling up this tripe hook, line and sinker. They foolishly believe Apple are hardware guru's for wrapping an existing powerbook enclosure around an Intel mobile platform. Apple's real design work came 3 years ago when they first created the Powerbook Aluminum line, Apple simply recycled components from the Powerbook, they didn't even change the case much except to correct weaknesses in that original design. These people foolishly believe that Apple redesigned OSX from the ground up to work on Intel hardware, but all they did was make it official.
The media hypes about Apple because Apple hypes about Apple. I will give it to Steve Jobs that he as a charisma that few other CEO's in the computer world have, or is it arrogance. It is because of that that Apple gets ANY newsplay for what they do. Remember that Apple is the underdog. The reason why there isn't any news alert for anything Bill Gates does is because there is no need to hype about Microsoft, Microsoft introduces new technology and 95% of the computer world uses that technology the next day or next month. There isn't any news alerts for Dell, Dell comes out with a new product and millions are sold the next week.
Only Apple, with its slight marketshare and EVERYTHING to loose needs to overhype their product announcements, making it seem like every little thing they do is a technological marvel. Steve Jobs in his last keynote speech was hyping about Widgets for goodness sakes. Widgets! What impact has widgets has in the computer world, zero! The problem is that the media buys into this hype without sitting back and gaining perspective and realizing that Acer has a PC notebook with the EXACT SAME COMPONENTS as the Macbook and nobody is marveling over it. Its because millions will buy the Acer Travelmate and the HP dv1000t and a slew of other Intel Duo Core notebooks without a second thought.
I haven't thought of anything clever to put here, but then again most of you haven't either.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-254258003 6602389550&q=bill+gates+cnn
The media report on things that happen, but they are dominated by stories of the unexpected or unusual. When things go as expected, there is not much "news" to report. That's why you only see stories about car crashes, and not the converse (a story about what a great traffic day it was, for instance). That's why you see massive media storms when a few public companies are caught committing fraud, but short blurbs (if any) when the vast majority of companies dutifully report their accurate financial data every quarter.
There are a couple "usual" stories being subverted lately by Apple. The first, an ongoing story, is the resurgence of Apple. The company's decline is well-known, and all Netcraft jokes aside, pundits have predicted its demise for years. Yet in the last couple of years we have seen Apple surge in sales, profitibility and stock price. This is unexpected and therefore a story.
Another "usual" story is the wall that has existed between Apple/IBM and Intel/Microsoft. The Jobs announcement subverts that story by showing tangible proof of a breach in the wall.
Finally, the story of Microsoft's dominance is a very well-entrenched one, and Apple is subverting that too, with their successful move into CE with the iPod, and their domination of the online music market. Microsoft is seen to be reeling, off-balance and fighting hard to keep up--not the usual MS story over the past decade. Therefore worthy of a story.
Build a man a fire, he's warm for one night. Set him on fire, and he's warm for the rest of his life.
Someone in the media recently gave another explanation for the bias (was it Cringeley? Mossberg? another?) The theory goes: It's because the writers and reporters themselves use Macs. So Apple announcements are exciting news for reporters, and it shows in their work.
It's things like this that justify the fact that the AP dethroned Bears at the top of the ThreatDown . If the AP can't even get a handle on truthiness, how can they be trusted? My gut tells me to go with Reuters.
Don't you have someone you'd die for?
Bill Gates and his wife just got named people of the year in Time Magazine, for criminy's sake.
This story might as well be "Why is Apple's PR effective where other companies' isn't?" Instead it's trotting out a charge of bias that's just lame.
"Fundamentalism" isn't about divine morality. It's about human authority.
The same guy who has predicted Apple's demise three times, and only writes about them in the first place because he discovered Haterade = page views?
He obviously believes ANY media coverage (except his) is excessive.
Microsoft Enters The Living Roomi n648325.shtml
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SAN JOSE, Calif., Oct. 8, 2004 (AP)
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/10/08/tech/ma
[about the announcement of Windows Media Center Edition 2005, not the Xbox]
Microsoft Unveils New Xbox 360
REDMOND, Wash., May 13, 2005 (AP)
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/05/13/tech/ma
Xbox 360 beats PlayStation to Japan stores
HANS GREIMEL
Associated Press (Posted on Thu, Dec. 08, 2005)
http://www.thestate.com/mld/thestate/business/133
Gates Highlights Windows Vista Program
By MAY WONG, AP Technology Writer Thu Jan 5, 3:53 AM ET
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060105/ap_on_hi_te/g
MTV, Microsoft team up for online music
ALEX VEIGA
Associated Press (Thursday, Jan 12, 2006)
http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/entert
That's just from 5 minutes of Googling. Someone with a Lexis account could produce pages and pages of AP stories about Microsoft products.
Sure, the media likes to ooh and ahh over Apple, but the media likes to ooh and ahh over everything. It's ridiculous to suggest that a similar product announcement from Microsoft wouldn't go out over the AP wire.
FTA:
"Here's another good question: Why is Apple turning down Intel's marketing subsidies that go to other PC manufacturers such as Dell (DELL), Hewlett-Packard (HPQ), and others? There are no "Intel Inside" logos on the new Macs, save for marks on the outer packaging for which Apple isn't being paid. A slick, new TV ad will promote the new Apple-Intel collaboration. But if Apple is leaving money on the table, wouldn't shareholders want some pointed questions asked about that?"
Here's a good answer: Because Apple is one of few companies that cares enough about the appearance and packaging of its computers that it doesn't want to make them look like stock cars by covering them with the logos of third-party parts manufacturers. And because Apple itself is a more prestigious brand than Intel, and they wouldn't have anything to gain by slapping "Intel Inside" on everything. And, oh yeah, because Intel ITSELF is phasing out the "Intel Inside" logo on the new Yonahs, if I remember correctly.
Seriously, who is the guy writing this article? This question in particular seems pretty darned obvious, at least to me.
Who cares? It's the media, and they live in their own little world. The only sensible response is to ignore them as much as possible. Personally, I think it's their desperation for ANYthing to talk about, other than MS or Oracle, that drives it. Who else is there?
But, the real reason I replied was to tell you that I totally agree with your sig. I'd be tempted to simply say "Amen", but...well...you understand.
That coined the old "one person's terrorist is another person's freedom fighter". Seems somewhat applicable to computer manufacturers as well. Still after nearly a decade of "beleagured Apple Computer..."
Michael Dell is a HUGE figure in B-school, because he turned supply-chain management on its head. He took a business that was becoming a commodity, COMPLETELY commoditized it, and makes money while squeezing everyone else out.
He gets LOTS of coverage... in the business press.
Apple is arguably the most innovative company in consumer computer technology. The CORE focus on the mainstream "technology" press is the consumer computer technology. Therefore, Apple gets covered.
Note: celebrities get lots of coverage in lifestyle, but not the business section.
Very few companies play in the consumer tech space, Apple is one of them, Apple gets coverage. Other players, Sony, Symantec, anti-spyware company of the week, etc. Apple is a $6b company, which isn't small. I don't understand how on Slashdot a multi-billion dollar company in the top 200 of the Fortune 500 list gets treated like its a 5 man company in their garage, while treating random $5m tech company like a global dominating force.
Alex
Jerry Bruckheimer is the devil. His name on something is enough to make me run away with my hands in the air. And he, like Gates, does get his share of press. The opening showing of "Pearl Harbor" on a U.S. Navy carrier, for example, got tons of press.
Which makes it an especial delight to point out that, in the case of this particular analogy, Jobs's role at Pixar makes him both the critical and the box office winner over Gates, hands down.
"Fundamentalism" isn't about divine morality. It's about human authority.
Wait a minute, oops, I'm trolling! Sorry!!
Indeed you are! Welcome, Troll Brother!
Dark Reflection
Apple sells a brand. Microsoft and Dell do not. They sell software and hardware.
The Bill Gates story was an article. AP generated dozens of them from CES alone.
The Apple piece in question was an alert: a one-sentence "breaking news happening now!" thing that AP passes on to its subscribers. For example, if a UFO lands in Detroit, there will be an immediate alert, followed later by a detailed story.
Just so you know.
So the apple bubble continues. I know they have good products, but the iPod is definitely the lynch pin. I wonder what would happen to apple's stock price if it were not for the iPod. Regardless, they will need to prove that they are more than just a one trick pony as riding the iPod wave can't last forever.
http://www.stockmarketgarden.com/
All right, but apart from the personal computer, the iPod, the mouse, desktop publishing, Zeroconf, the GUI, the 3.5" floppy, PostScript laser printing, multimedia, Firewire, and inexpensive video editing, what has Apple ever done for us?
Sure, lately many journalists are all gushy over Apple, but it seemed for year after year in the past you couldn't find a positive (or even fair) mention of Apple in the mainstream press. Every time Microsoft hacked up another hairball, another half-assed version of Windows or Office, updated OLE/COM/COM+ with whatever name was hip that week, etc., the tech media would hype every new feature as if Gates were a genius. There was nary a mention that most of these feature had been around in other products (MacOS, Netscape, CORBA,...) for years. All the while, every other week, it'd be "Apple is Going Out of Business Tomorrow".
The truth is that the media (like most people) are fickle and faddish. Right now the iPod is hot so the media love Apple. Google is in the same boat. A few years ago is was Linux. Wanna bet that in 2007 (or 08 or 09) Microsoft will be back on top of the hype cycle with Vista?
r.m.
IBM no longer has a notebook division. They sold it to Lenovo.
Plus, what are they doing that innovative? I know they refuse to put windows keys on their laptops -- to the disdain of their primary customer -- business professionals.
Perhaps there is some other R+D that IBM does with regards to notebooks that I am unaware of?
Just wait. The OSx86 boards are abuzz. As soon as one of them gets an Intel iMac, I'd predict XP will be up and running in that baby in a day or so, unless Apple/Intel have locked it up somehow, in which case -- two days or so.
you are missing the point. Apple announces. Apple delivers. Teh shit works. MS announces, people wait, and wait, and wait.... Teh shit needs a patch or 12.
Can your Acer dual boot OS X?
That's why.
The PR and Media Placement team at Apple and their agencies did their jobs, and sent a press release to AP. Why does this shock you?
AP publishes everything! When you only publish 3-5 paragraph (at most) stories to the ADD-affected downstream publishers, you can afford to publish everything that comes down the line. AP is the worlds first blog.
Full Disclosure... I work for a advertising/PR company. This is standard fare and my full time job. Yes, Virgina, the media is for sale.
In general, people know that the Apple machines are good computers, but they don't run Windows and they are more expensive. Apple makes their money selling hardware with good software. Mark my words! Very soon, Apple will have a machine that will run the MAC OS-X and will also run Windows-XP, so people now will be able to buy a machine that runs a good OS (opinion)and also runs the most popular OS (fact). Apple's market share will go up-up-up.
The normal MAC purchaser will still be there but will now be able to use those "Windows only" programs like autocad, etc. The "Windows" purchaser will now be able to consider a MAC with the better (perceived?) hardware and software.
Present MAC users will not be converted to Windows, but Windows users may be converted to the MAC OS.
Now for the other part. If Windows can be made to run on a MAC using the X86 architecture, then the MAC OS-X can be made to run on PC hardware using the X86 architecture. Now, Apple starts selling software to the rest of the PC industry, and again their market share goes-up-up-up.
If you had a choice of purchasing a PC from HP with both the MAC OS-X and Windows XP, would you consider doing so?
So here it is:
1. MAC will be running OS-X and Windows within two years.
2. MAC will be selling OS-X to manufacturers of PC's within three years, and some machines will have both OS's.
3. We will have a choice of desktops from MAC and/or Windows, and one OS will open from a window of the other.
4. OS-X will be running on AMD's faster architecture within three years.
Sadly, I don't see any benefit to Linux here, because the Linux community, like the Unix community of 20 years ago, is still fragmented into a half dozen main players. If Linux is to be a major player any time soon, it will have to get in there with the other two main OS's and be content to either triple boot, or be part of a "run it in a window" system.
Where will MS be while all this is going on? They will be trying to push a new OS that is not compatible with the present OS and will be stopping support for everything that is on a MAC system or that has a MAC OS. There will be lawsuits that will tie things up for years, and they are in a much better position to do so than SCO vs Linux
For those who weren't wearing diapers then..You'll have to remember here...
Apple was the King of the home computer back in the day..Apple IIe rings a bell...
Apple molded many peoples futures...including mine...
God I remember night after night after night playing with my Apple IIe...
It's SO nice to see Apple back on the front page..
Because they DO create great computes...It just costs more...And so does my porsche!!
Thanks Apple...I love ya!!
It's left blank because I have nothing to say to you punks!
And it says a lot about the intensity of media attention Apple generates.
Indeed, apple generates alot of press. It has to, it's a small company, but you can't deny alot of people in positions of influence use their stuff.
I used to be in TV and print news, and my read on this *particular* story is: slow news day...gotta put something out on the wire. The 'news alerts' from the AP are like most mainstream media: they report the most relevant news they can find, and need to have at least one 'breaking news' event every day or so just to keep people watching/reading/etc...
bottom line: it's about top of mind awareness for the AP
Thank you Dave Raggett
What about Slashdot's crush on Apple? There are 5 Apple articles on the front page right now :/
"Things are more moderner than before- bigger, and yet smaller- it's computers-- San Dimas High School football RULES!"
I can't be bothered to slog through the post to see if some one has said this ... but ... Apple has more impact in both a finical and design sense than ANY OTHER COMPUTER COMPANY because they take risk and think out side the preverbal box. Lets go through a brief list of major changes to the industry Apple has brought about.
1. USB, iMac was the first main stream machine to ship with USB and no serial.
2. Desktop digital video editing, the inclusion of FireWire on DV Cameras and Macs brought video from the $1 million editing suit to the $5000 desktop.
3. Not Beige. iMac thats all I got to say.
4. Mouse. First consumer machines
5. GUI. First consumer machines
6. DTP. Changed the industry with the WYSIWYG and high quality outline fonts
7. WiFi. First major machine to do WiFi
8. MP3. iTunes, iTunes Music Store and iPod legitimized and simplified MP3 and brought digital music to where it is today. 14 Million iPods don't lie.
Many people are quick to point out that Apple wasn't first to market with many products. But that doesn't matter. First to market only matters if you actually move the product. Apple's business practices in the last 5 years are second to none. The produce a product people want, at a price the market will bare and continue to innovate. They also continue to expand their market. All this while turning profit in a very competitive market place. This is why the get press. Their "Think Different" campaign was right on the money. They do think different from other computing companies.
Now, other firms could easily due the same things, but no other LARGE company seems to do them. I would love to see some examples of other computing companies that actually do though.
But I wonder how long the media love-in will last. The press has a nasty way of building people up and then dragging them down once there's nothing else to write about.
Oh Apple has that covered. After the decade of the "Beleaguered Dying Apple" stories Jobs put everyone to work on a top-secret project to avoid such stories ever again...
Let's just say that anyone writing in the process of such a story that puts the iPod ear buds in will be sorry... very sorry. Heh.
Similarily if you're a journalist having second thoughts about Microsoft stability you may not wick to pick up a wireless 360 controller.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
That's fair. However, another reason Apple gets so much press coverage is that their computers and software are so far ahead and often set many standards that the rest of the industry ends up following. For example, USB adoption was not widespread until the iMac daringly went USB-only in 1998, forcing manufacturers to really support the standard. iMacs today are a thin screen on a stand. In the future when hardware on the PC side slims up, that's probably how every desktop computer will be, and the current "box to the side of the monitor" set up will look to future computers users like old 1980s technology looks to us today.
:) Same on the software side. It's no coincidence Microsoft is putting iCal and iPhoto clones in Vista, or changing their filesystem layout to resemble OS X's, or adding "gadgets," and on and on.
It's all the little things. My iBook has a battery meter on the battery itself, so I can check the power before starting it up (or see how far along it's charging). Little things like that mysteriously end up in competitors' products.
And now Apple is the first to market with desktop and laptop computers based on the Core Duo. In all honesty, the new iMac and MacBook Pro are probably the world's best computers right now. Can't wait for the other new announcements this year, since the rumor going around is that many new Mac products were cut from the MWSF keynote due to Core Duo supply issues...
"Sufferin' succotash."
"Same components, same form factor, available now, cheaper, faster processor, double the ram, more hard drive space compared to the MacBook."
Can I get OS X on it?
The blessing and the curse: Apple Innovates. The culture oddly has survived in some sense because of Steve.
.02
As an old salt, I remember the days of ATG and the WWDC dev sessions where they would show us the really, really, really cool stuff. At that time, us developers claimed there was no media attention, because typically shortly after the show, M$ announce "their" innovation in M$FUD of what they saw at WWDC (yay Ben).
So, does the Media Love Apple? No. In fact, most have always hated apple. But does the Media sometimes get the source of inspiration right? Sometimes. It took them a while to get there tho.
My
/\/\icro/\/\uncher
God forbid that after decades of "beleguered Apple" this and "Apple is dying" that, the press should finally say something positive about us.
Clearly, the AP's editors determined this news was important enough..."
And so slashdot reports on the AP reporting on this important issue.
I don't think the media has that much of a crush on Apple. For a whole decade, they proclaimed them dead repeatedly. When OS X Tiger came out last April, nearly all the mainstream reviews kept referring to this weird "Windows Longhorn" thing as though it existed for comparison. They were actually comparing a shipping product to a future release that wasn't due out for another two years. It was really odd.
Last week, Bill Gates was Time Man of the Year, his CES coverage was in the news, and XBox 360 is all over the place, even MTV.
The media has done a few stories about Windows viruses lately thanks to WMF, but still refers to OS X as having "fewer viruses" instead of correctly pointing out that OS X has, since its inception, had ZERO spyware or viruses. Absolutely none.
Mostly, the difference with Apple's press coverage is that people actually pay attention to them, because their products kick ass. Nobody will remember Bill Gates' speech at CES '06. But the keynote where Apple actually released Macs that used INTEL x86 CHIPS?! Everyone will remember the MacBook Pro's introduction.
"Sufferin' succotash."
Apple has been fighting tooth and nail against x86 since day one, a bitter war that's been raging for over twenty years. I don't know about you, but Apple switching to Intel is pretty fucking big to me. Likewise for the possibility of installing and running Windows on a Mac, and running OSX on an x86 PC.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Why is nobody talking about Acer Travelmate 8200
For the last umpteen years I could buy an intel machine and run Linux or Windows or Solaris or a BSD. I could also buy a PPC laptop that ran OSX or Linux or BSD. What I wanted was a Laptop of either variety with reasonable speed that could run Linux and Windows and OS X. As of February I may be able to buy such a laptop. This is different and is news. I'll read an article about this. I don't care about articles about other random laptops unless they can run OS X.
First, Apple put a PC notebook in a Powerbook/iMac enclosure. Acer can do it, Dell can do it, HP can do it.
Pretty much. They also created a bluetooth remote control and incorporated a camera, in the laptop.
Second. Apple has had an x86 compiled version of OSX since they first coined the name OSX.
Well, that and they created an EFI implementation, the first in a laptop I know of. Oh, and they tested things and got them working smoothly on 32 and 64 bit PPC at the same time as 32 bit intel. Oh, and they got all of their core applications working on the same. Oh and they announced they will have all their pro applications upgraded by march.
Yet the media and many geeks are gobbling up this tripe hook, line and sinker. They foolishly believe Apple are hardware guru's for wrapping an existing powerbook enclosure around an Intel mobile platform.
You've missed the point entirely. News is not just when someone does something very well, it is when someone does something that changes things. Anybody can pull a trigger, but When John Wilkes Booth did it the news reported it constantly. Everyone knew Apple could release for the intel platform, but it is still news that they have done so.
Only Apple, with its slight marketshare and EVERYTHING to loose[sic] needs to overhype their product announcements, making it seem like every little thing they do is a technological marvel.
Do compare what Apple has released lately to what MS has released. The press reports on what there is to report on. Apple releases new things. They report. MS releases nothing, they try to make up something and end up publishing articles that don't have any news in them.
Steve Jobs in his last keynote speech was hyping about Widgets for goodness sakes. Widgets! What impact has widgets has[sic] in the computer world, zero!
Actually, I use Widgets regularly. Every day, I press a button and see the weather, doppler radar, traffic reports. Many days I use the quick yellow pages, google map widget, or the simple timer to send me an alert in time to meet people for lunch. They impact my life, much more so than some random laptop I have no interest in buying.
The problem is that the media buys into this hype without sitting back and gaining perspective and realizing that Acer has a PC notebook with the EXACT SAME COMPONENTS as the Macbook and nobody is marveling over it.
Yeah, but they aren't cool. They don't run OS X, just crappy old WinXP. They don't have a cool remote. They don't let you do new things. You just don't get it. Apple moving to intel is the news. It changes the industry dynamic and will change the way a lot of us work. I might be able to finally be down to one workstation. Who cares if there is a Windows box with the same specs, it isn't challenging MS's stranglehold on the market and it isn't going to fix the industry so that we can have competition and reasonable progress again. It does not carry with it the hope for an end to these computing dark ages. If Einstein had a brother who looked just like him, but would work for cheaper, would it make news?
Steve, who is clearly Blue America at its finest, rocks our worlds with great machines for life, art, design, music.
Which to love? Gee, what a conundrum...
They won't be happy until we're all wearing white ear buds and listening to militant Islamic artists, like Cat Stevens, on our iPods.
Parent post "gets it." This article is about a very specific, heavily weighted, one-paragraph NewsAlert, not regular news stories. Obviously there are news stories every day about Microsoft, Apple, etc., but not a NewsAlert (tm).
The posts about Time Magazine Person of the Year don't get it either. Person of the Year is not a NewsAlert (tm).
RTFA everybody !!!
The "air bag" like drop sensors and integrated fingerprint scanner to name a couple.
Sure others had done similar things... but IBM was the first large manufacturer (that I'm aware of) to integrate them into the laptop itself.
Friedmud
and his sidekick 'Spot' the wonder dog.
No wonder Microsoft gets no respect...
MSBPodcast.com The opinions expressed here are my own. If you don't like 'em... Think up your own stuff.
I don't understand why people are so excited about Apple using Intel processors. What's the difference? What made Apple be Apple was the OS, not the hardware. Sure they made a point of having hardware that wasn't really open and you couldn't really build your own. So? Now you can? Whoop-de-doo! Anyone who thinks that this is some amazing achievement should have been completely bashing Apple up until now because PC's already use the hardware that Apple has switched to. I don't care what Apple does. If they turn into serious gaming systems, then I'll consider them cost vs. cost, in which case they'll likely lose to something I can build myself.
So... IBM making Win compatible PCs and shipping them with OS/2 doesn't predate Apple making Win compatible PCs and shipping it with !Windows how?
I hope there's a special place in Hell that they keep nice and warm for people who do things like that, right next door to the place where they keep people who put kittens in glass jars.
-- SIGFPE
Look at it this way: computers are mainstream in a way that no one imagined even ten years ago. You can go into any coffeeshop and find half a dozen people with laptops. Every company has websites. Google's stock is huge. Computers are a reqiured part of life.
And yet for an industry so huge, so criticial, so required for modern life, there's hardly any variety. Macs are the exceptions. They're designed to be computers that people want to own and use. Even if you argue that Windows is functionally similar to OS X, it doesn't matter. Macs are the computer people *want*. There's no competition.
Payola.
And I have to report that everything works together (instead of everything works apart which is a natural consequence in Linux where 10 developpers come up with 11 ways of implementing something and let you pick on technical merit.)
As for Microsoft... Don't ever go there.
At least Apple, like Linux, lets you buy and own things, unlike Microsoft which only lets you have access to their shit as long as you pay, and pay, and pay.
Microsoft would have registration keys for their mice and keyboards if they could figure out a way to make them disappear, without involving explosives.
MSBPodcast.com The opinions expressed here are my own. If you don't like 'em... Think up your own stuff.
Apple said whilst they wouldn't support Windows, they wouldn't specifically make it difficult for people. After all, you've already bought the hardware and the OS X licence, so where would the money be?
What I'd prefer is them to say that they wouldn't support OS X on a non-Mac machine, but should you happen to buy a licence for it then they wouldn't put anything in the way of installing it. But then their hardware profit margin vanishes, and they have a million and one combinations of hardware to test under.
How many people can read hex if only you and dead people can read hex?
OLE (like who uses it, really?)
There's lots of vapourware out there but M$s is amongst the best products announced, and Never to be delivered.
MSBPodcast.com The opinions expressed here are my own. If you don't like 'em... Think up your own stuff.
http://www.youtube.com/?v=Y3xKhLlhzfM enough said!!
*Gratuitous Sig/Plug* Heres my website - firesuite
Cheaper LCD production costs.
Orientation/Movement sensors for parking hard drives before damage occurs.
Higher density disk platters.
That took about 3 seconds for me to come up with (and no research). IBM patents more new technology each year then your average 10 tech companies combined.
Here is the current AP News Alert:
I think the author overestimates the importance of the stories that the AP sends as news alerts. It's not always wars and elections, as he tries to suggest.
Quite honestly, I think that just the new power connector alone was worth the press.
I don't. I have kitchen appliances with power cords that attach magnetically, although I have no idea why. I don't remember hearing any press when they were launched. In fact, they don't even advertise that "feature" on the box.
https://www.eff.org/https-everywhere
Isn't that like the CEO of Hertz saying, "We will now give our customers the choice of using Kia, Daewoo, and Geely cars!"
AMD has no cachet amongst the general populace! AMD has not undertaken the kind of branding and mindshare building that Apple has, for example. A much better announcement would be:
Dell announces new systems, partnering with Apple, the creators of the wildly successful iPod, that can dual boot into both Windows and Mac OS X. Declares that customers should be able to run the best of everything..
At least that way they get to throw in "Apple" and "iPod".
GPL Deconstructed
All of things arent notebook specific. I was asking for note-book specific stuff. Thanks though.
Well, a magnetic atached power cord isn't notebook specific either, unless you count kitchen appliances as notebooks.
But feel free to state that "but it's the first one on a notebook" applies to Apple and nobody else. It would not surprise too many people here.
Exactly why I suggested the article should be about Apple's effective PR machine, and did not mention "innovation" in any technical sense.
As far as the press world being full of "diehard Mac users," I'm not seeing it. I will say, graphics has been so Mac-dominated that for many years all the screen shots you'd see in Ads and so on would have Mac window elements, but that's about it. The games columns, how-to articles, and so on in the paper are all overwhelmingly Windows-centric. Reflects the market, and that's about it.
When I read or hear people whinging about "bias" now, my skepticism is immediately up.
"Fundamentalism" isn't about divine morality. It's about human authority.
looks like you know nothing about the Intel Core processors... they are not a peice of crap P4
I couldn't give a damn about the Acer travelmate laptop or any of the other windows based Intel Core Duo laptops. As long as they come with windows, they are worthless to me.
You can't directly compare Apple to the other computer manufacturers just because they now use Intel chips. Apple make the operating system and the applications. _That_ is where they are *lightyears* ahead of anybody else. MS is trying desperately to catch up with Vista. Yes I watched the video of Vista at CES and all I can say is *yawn*, I've seen this all before, on OS X Tiger and Panther. Except of course, OS X is classy and doesn't have an interface that resembles a dog's breakfast.
Bottom Line: OS X, iLife, and everything else that constitutes the "Apple Experience" is worth a premium and is far more advanced than anything else available.
-- The doctor said I wouldn't get so many nose bleeds if I just kept my finger out of there!
I hate macs. Bastardized UNIX with an infuriating and unconventional graphical interface.
Mass Media are just lemmings.
“Our opponent is an alien starship packed with nuclear bombs. We have a protractor.” — Neal Stepnenso
That sounds pretty notebook specific to me unless you kick your desktop from time to time just to keep it on its toes.
check out the best blog ever:
http://oehlberg.com
That's because the Acer is Yet Another Windows Laptop and the MacBook is a Macintosh.
People, including the popular media, are going to wonder why if Apple can have no viruses and include such nice software with the EXACT SAME COMPONENTS, they should buy Yet Another Windows Laptop. It's going to get interesting.
that always referred to Apple as beleaguered? They have a crush on Apple? Or did you mean to say they wanted to crush Apple? Apple sauce, anyone?
When I see Macs in the corporate environment it's a rarity -- except maybe in art departments -- despite the fact that a Windows PC can't do much more than a Mac can. Does Apple have a plan to win some share inside big companies?
:-/
Perhaps the real question is why buy something that isn't as capable (in nearly all situations) but costs lots more? The author cannot seriously wonder why that is less important than some warm fuzzy PR and cool appearance to the buisness world... can he?
"Fight for lost causes. You may discover they weren't."
There's a good reason the media is interested in Apple announcement and Steve's keynotes.
Apple delivers.
Not only are they a year at least ahead of the competition (check the feature list for Vista, you can write numbers beside each one, representing the year Apple introduced that feature into OSX) - there's also the point that most of their announcements end with "available today" or a date in the very near future.
Most of the crap Bill announces is Vaporware or so far off that it'll likely change considerable before hitting the market late and incomplete.
So as a media entity, you'll have to ask yourself the question what your readers will be more likely interested in - something they can go and buy or some theoretical wishful thinking.
Assorted stuff I do sometimes: Lemuria.org
Duh - I can't figure this out. This is a tough one.
Could it be because Dell is shit and Micrososft is shitter? Or because both Michael Dell and Bill Gates are purveyors of JUNK and the media have no interest in JUNK?
I'll have to think about this one a bit.
So... what does the MacBook have on its side? I can only think of three things.
One of them is weight - in a 15" form factor, being a whole pound lighter is pretty significant, more than a 15% weight reduction, even if you think it's "slight."
The second is elegance. The MacBook doesn't have ports and buttons all over it like the Travelmate does - and a lot of road warriors (for whom I speak, having taken a laptop the equivalent of about 3 trips around the world in the last year) don't need a modem, dedicated VGA or S-Video ports, or four USB ports.
The third, final, and most important thing is the software. The Travelmate comes with Windows XP and basically nothing else. The MacBook comes with an OS that's competitive with the as-yet-unavailable Windows Vista, and a broad selection of impressive bundled software (iApps and so forth) that, if one had to buy Windows equivalents, would probably negate any price difference.
Not saying the Travelmate is lame or anything - it looks pretty cool. But throwing "...and the kitchen sink!" into a laptop in an effort to make it appeal to everyone is going to turn off some buyers (like me, for example) who travel extensively, don't have a lot of devices they have plugged in all the time, and don't need a lot of "legacy" support. (Sorry, VGA is legacy. :) I'm also concerned about its durability. Carbon fiber is known for being very light, and having good structural strength... but it's not known for dealing well with impacts. :)
Village idiot in some extremely smart villages.
Am I the only one who read that as "The BrownFurry" at first?
Lenovo put windows keys on the thinkpads now, thank god :)
... Dell announced they were switching from Microsoft Windows to Mac OS X.
Dell's stated business model is to never develop, innovate, design, pioneer, or create anything new, but rather to execute the assembly, sales, delivery, and maintenance of other people's technology more efficiently than their competitors. They are open and unapologetic about this.
As business models go, it's not a terrible one. It does engender the "race to the bottom" phenomenon, but so far other people's technology has continued to advance rapidly enough to mostly offset that.
But regardless of whether it's a prudent business plan, it's not exactly the type of thing that bates breath. You also don't see many people all atwitter at product announcements from Walmart, either.
And all the disclaimers in the world won't stop people from complaining that Apple's OS X (that they paid the whole $129 for) locks up on their (homebuilt) computer. I think Apple would rather not want that.
There's no 'on' position on the Slacker switch!
If the partnership for AP's massive online video network is any indication.
Or perhaps just stupid moderators. I am not trolling. I sincerely meant every word in my comment above. If you think I am trolling, you are a jackhole. I believe this as well, so this is not a troll either. Thank you.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
In both cases, it's for safety. For the notebook, it's so your $2000 computer doesn't meet the floor prematurely as your labrador walks past. For the Fry Daddy, it's so your 3-year-old doesn't become a McNugget.
Either one's an expensive repair.
± 29 dB
Does everyone realize that this MagSafe idea is NOT new? In fact my 10 years old electric water kettle had it? It was designed to prevent you from toppling the kettle of boiling hot water by tripping on the cable...