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Apple Updates iMac, iLife, .Mac
Apple just announced new iMacs. They are aluminum and come in 20" (two models) and 24". There's a new view called "Events" in iPhoto that should make it easier to deal with large photo libraries. Apple's .Mac service is enhanced with .Mac Web Gallery, which integrates with the new iTunes and also the iPhone. It's a Web 2.0 app now. And iMovie is being replaced by a completely new app of the same name. Steve Jobs claimed that with it you can put together a 5-minute movie in 30 minutes, and he demo'ed that from the stage. iWeb, iDVD, and GarageBand get new features too. And .Mac subscribers get 10 GB of storage. Here is Engadget's blow-by-blow coverage, and Wired's.
Don't forget to order iLife 08 as well for $9.99, since it isn't preloaded, but you have bought a new mac.
Its funny noticing the parent poster's message being cowardly modded down as overrated.
The post, which is very true, as if MS did the things that Apple does, the SEC would be knocking on Redmond's doors in a heartbeat.
Fine examples of this are, OS X cannot be (legally) virtualized, nor can it run on any hardware other than Apple's PC hardware, whose only two differences between it and a generic white box PC are a logo, and a certificate in a TPM chip (Well, Apple's hardware if it were compared as a generic PC would be marked as woefully inadequate except for the hyper expensive Mac Pro). Or, Apple buying companies out that sell both Mac and Windows products, then dropping the Windows versions as an underhanded way to boost Mac sales.
If Microsoft forced their users to jump platforms and have all their older apps unable to run like Apple did with OS 9 and earlier apps on x86 Macs, people would be driving to Washington with pitchforks and torches.
Apple doesn't innovate much either. They find 1-2 cool things, then hype the hell out of them. For example, if it wasn't for Apple buying out NeXT, MacOS will still be crashing every 1-2 hours, because the machine would be dependent on every app passing a WaitNextEvent() call or else the machine would lock up.
MS is no angel, but at least they innovate and put stuff on the market, not just talk hype left and right.
wow... iTunes doesn't sync with any MP3 player besides an iPod.
Damn! You mean iTunes only works on 80% of the music players out there? How limiting!
Where are you getting your assertions from? They're very far off the mark about brutal monopolies but fair enough... I've seen this in people too young to remember the last 15 years of computerdom. For everyone else, it's a given. Find some of the DOJ testimonials of what Microsoft did to countless other companies. These weren't Microsoft resellers doing a shitty job that got killed, these were either business "partners" or competitors with something Microsoft wanted. They wanted it so bad they went on a lawbreaking spree for years. There are also fairly large Apple resellers out there of a serious nature, just no Walmart types.
Most of the stuff on
"The XBox is the first Microsoft product I have bought .. well, ever."
You might want to get rid of that thing. I've heard the failure rate is 50% roughly. They run really hot. They're designed poorly. I saw a page where some Japanese design engineers analyzed it. They said it run 20degC over ambient room temp while most consumer electronics will be like 10degC. and IIRC they said if your ambient temp is 35degC about 95degF, that some parts of it can reach 100degC (212degF), add dust and enclosed spaces and undersized heatsinks and you end up with yet another crappy MS product that fails frequently. If you've been keeping up to date on PS3 news, things are looking really sweet over there. I wish I had a link to the article my friend showed me yesterday.
And regarding the rest of your Apple comments: I agree. I got the 24" iMac in January. It's very nice. I hate iTunes (thank you Cog!). IMHO Mac ain't perfect, but it blows the competition out of the water. I have Ubuntu running in a VMware session and that is pretty sweet too though! With USB Overdrive I'm able to use my Logitech MX-518 and have all the buttons assignable to useful functions. Yeah I find myself interested in supporting more shareware on the Mac, it is kind of weird like that. You don't feel like you're being held down by some thugs and raped by Steve Balmer while Bill Gates goes through your pockets looking for money/valuables. I think feeling more at ease has made me more incline to pay for apps that make my life easier.