I don't know why everyone got excited when Apple went DRM-free, I've been buying DRM free MP3 singles from Amazon for over a year.
Amazon MP3 is only available to U.S. customers. As a New Zealander, I was quite pleased to hear that the only decent online music store available to me was going DRM free in a big way.
It's also worth noting that people generally hate change. Any time you give anyone a new system, they will moan, complain, and generally do their damnedest to find "problems" with it.
Eventually they'll stop being so judgemental, and begin to notice that it really has introduced a bunch of nice new features - but until then, as far as they're concerned, it's the essence of evil.
Um, "useful and expanded functionality" for the developers means "useful and expanded functionality" in the applications the developers write. You know, the ones the users end up using, and basing their choice of "favourite OS" upon.
Getting the support of developers early is important. The users will start migrating in six months or so when they realise there's some really cool new software available for Vista.
Apple shouldn't be responsible for ensuring that third-party software continues to work with each upgrade. If it's important for the third-party dev, they can get a copy of the beta OS and do their testing/patching before it's released.
What Apple *could* do, however, is check whether APE is installed and if so completely remove it during the upgrade. The users can then hunt down a new, updated version later on.
How long has that check been in the code, though? If it's a recent addition then there will still be plenty of people out there with an APE that doesn't check what OS it's running on.
Asia-pacific also includes Australia and New Zealand. I don't know what it's like in Australia, but in NZ the cost and quality of internet access could certainly be improved!
Which is great if you work a lot both at a desk and on the move, but not many people do. Most people who work at a desk only work at a desk, and portability is of no use to them. And like I said before, if that's the case, why not just buy a desktop?
The prediction also overlooks the fact that laptops simply aren't comfortable to use for long periods of time.
For a general consumer, this is rarely a problem. Your average Joe is rarely going to spend hours sitting in front of their computer. But for people who spend a significant amount of time working at a desk (and there's no shortage of us) the ergonomic difference between a laptop and a desktop computer is significant.
And sure, you can buy an external screen and/or keyboard to organise things more comfortably, but really, unless portability is actually important, I'd rather just buy a desktop.
Furthermore, unlike the performance problems that laptops are reported to suffer (which I don't actually believe have been an issue for some time now anyway), they are not going to get significantly more ergonomic over time. They're either going to be portable or ergonomic. You can't really have both.
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I don't know why everyone got excited when Apple went DRM-free, I've been buying DRM free MP3 singles from Amazon for over a year.
Amazon MP3 is only available to U.S. customers. As a New Zealander, I was quite pleased to hear that the only decent online music store available to me was going DRM free in a big way.
It's also worth noting that people generally hate change. Any time you give anyone a new system, they will moan, complain, and generally do their damnedest to find "problems" with it.
Eventually they'll stop being so judgemental, and begin to notice that it really has introduced a bunch of nice new features - but until then, as far as they're concerned, it's the essence of evil.
Except neither of those are really very mysterious.
Since when has storing valuable and private information in your wallet been a safe or secure thing to do?
Um, "useful and expanded functionality" for the developers means "useful and expanded functionality" in the applications the developers write. You know, the ones the users end up using, and basing their choice of "favourite OS" upon.
Getting the support of developers early is important. The users will start migrating in six months or so when they realise there's some really cool new software available for Vista.
A hacked boot loader? If you are already using boot camp, you can continue to do so for as long as you desire. No hacks are required.
The only thing which 'expires' is the OS X GUI tool which helps you create a Windows partition or burn a Windows-on-a-Mac driver CD.
Apple shouldn't be responsible for ensuring that third-party software continues to work with each upgrade. If it's important for the third-party dev, they can get a copy of the beta OS and do their testing/patching before it's released. What Apple *could* do, however, is check whether APE is installed and if so completely remove it during the upgrade. The users can then hunt down a new, updated version later on.
How long has that check been in the code, though? If it's a recent addition then there will still be plenty of people out there with an APE that doesn't check what OS it's running on.
Asia-pacific also includes Australia and New Zealand. I don't know what it's like in Australia, but in NZ the cost and quality of internet access could certainly be improved!
Which is great if you work a lot both at a desk and on the move, but not many people do. Most people who work at a desk only work at a desk, and portability is of no use to them. And like I said before, if that's the case, why not just buy a desktop?
The prediction also overlooks the fact that laptops simply aren't comfortable to use for long periods of time. For a general consumer, this is rarely a problem. Your average Joe is rarely going to spend hours sitting in front of their computer. But for people who spend a significant amount of time working at a desk (and there's no shortage of us) the ergonomic difference between a laptop and a desktop computer is significant. And sure, you can buy an external screen and/or keyboard to organise things more comfortably, but really, unless portability is actually important, I'd rather just buy a desktop. Furthermore, unlike the performance problems that laptops are reported to suffer (which I don't actually believe have been an issue for some time now anyway), they are not going to get significantly more ergonomic over time. They're either going to be portable or ergonomic. You can't really have both.