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Apple Announces iLife '11, FaceTime Mac, Lion, Mac App Store, MacBook Air
Apple once again streamed their latest keynote where they unveiled iLife '11 (more fullscreen and Facebook in iPhoto, Audio editing and automatic trailers in iMovie, Rhythm correction and lessons in Garage Band). FaceTime for the Mac will connect video chat to phones with a Beta starting today. Next we get a preview of OS X Lion which will have an App Store and new UI bits shipping this summer. The Mac App Store will launch on Snow Leopard in 90 days. The New MacBook Air is under 3lbs, 13.3" screen, Core 2 Duo, solid state only storage. There's also an 11.6" version starting at $999 with 64gb of storage shipping today.
This is a pretty lame release, as things go. Actually, it's worse than lame as they're now locking down Mac OSX just like they do with iOS.
The strange thing is that Apple *used* to be all pro-open with the "we run Darwin, Windows sucks" stuff back in the day when they claimed closed and integrated systems (Windows + IE) were horrible. My how the turn tables...
They just released the hybrid device (MacBook Air) that will eventually replace all consumer devices with built-in DRM. Steve will have no incentive to allow you to buy any software outside of the App Store, since he gets a 30% cut.
No, seriously guys. You already consented. He's going to stick it all the way in.
The app store is a rip-off of Linux package systems and other people's online stores, except of course that it will be more restrictive. The new window management is what you have been able to get standard on Linux for many years. And the new MacBook Air is basically a netbook; since OS X and its apps are so heavy-weight, it ended up having to be overpowered and overpriced. And, of course, Jobs talked about it as if they invented it all.
Full screen "apps"? An "App Store" (aka repository)? Alt Tabbing!? Webcam chat? Icons you can click to open "apps"!!!!?
And people said that Windows 7 was a meaningless redress of Vista...
Wow, here's the funny thing: I also know a few dozen mac owners. About 60% of those people are developers and engineers by trade, too.
Of the 3-dozen-or-so mac owners I know, there are 9 of them that I know have a Windows partition, and only 4 of them (quick survey) will admit to using Windows "sometimes" on their Macs.
Troll more believably next time.
Where I currently work, an entire set of forensics labs buys hundreds of Mac Pro workstations and install Windows on them to run their tools...in benchmark after benchmark they consistently outperform non-Mac hardware of identical specs running the same tools.
What's wrong with all-Flash storage?
Clearly you don't use your Mac for anything remotely interesting.
Just "casual" use of a Mac can easily cause a much larger drive to be completely consumed.
Nevermind serious multimedia use and authoring.
Flash is still an overpriced technology for what it's being used here. It's also woefully insufficient for any number of likely casual use cases.
It's like the ancient common criticism of Macs in general: overpriced and under spec'ed.
A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
what problems would a locked down Mac App Store solve
It solves two huge problems - the problem that Apple is not getting a 30% cut of all software sold for the Mac like it is for iOS, and the problem that Apple can't disadvantage competitors by keeping them out of its premier store for its own platform.
Apple doesn't make choices based on these sorts of things. The iOS App Store (and all iTunes stores in general) aren't primarily profit centers. They enhance the hardware that Apple sells.
As for locking out competitors, which competitor has Apple blocked from their store? Google, Microsoft, Adobe (the top examples) all have apps on the App Store.
So, no, those are not "problems" a locked down App Store would solve. You're mad if you think Apple will block Adobe Lightroom (for example) just because it competes with Aperture.