Good point. I actually used a little bluetooth earset (it's not really a headset, since it all fits on one ear) with my PowerBook last evening, just to see if it would work. It was passable. The sound quality was a little iffy, but that may be due to the earset. Skype worked fine, and speech control worked as well, though I don't generally use that. I forget what kind it was . . . it was made for use with cell phones primarily. Brand name started with a C.
Yes, OK. But who made the video software? Sony? Sony harware running Sony software that accurately detects a Sony camera is to be expected. Isn't that exactly the sort of lock-in that Apple is accused of constantly? It works so well because it's all from one vendor. The list of iPhoto and iMovie compatible cameras grows constantly. I've even seen a number of unofficial cameras work with iPhoto (similar chipset or something perhaps). And, again, it's consistent. Just hit the big blue pill.
As far as I could tell, the Dell above comes with WordPerfect. And not a lot of other software. Quicken 2005 was extra. Anti-virus/spyware was extra (and an absolute necessity in many cases - though freeware alternatives exist). And XP Pro's cost helped to launch the Dell above the Mac's cost.
The Dell also has a rather larger footprint than the Mini. It's an issue for people with limited space, for people just buying a second machine, or something that will fit in with the home theater system. The smaller footprint Dimension starts at a higher price than the Mac Mini, and just goes up from there. Yes, I know that such considerations as ergonomics and style are tertiary to most geeks, but the target audience of the Mini isn't most geeks. And yes, it might just be the Lady Mac, from what I hear. But it's still price competitive, no matter how you slice it.
I'll conceed the "pool of apps" point, but consistent UI, no. I have yet to find a Mac app, third party or otherwise, where command-Q doesn't work to quit the app. On Windows? Sure alt-F4 works . . . mostly. But sometimes it's crtl-F, then X, if you want to actually save your work (admittedly, I dropped that app as crap). And I ran into an app where alt-F4 inexplicably brought up the shutdown dialog instead, like the app didn't trap it at all. Commercial software no less.
Security, out of the box, Mac is going to be better. Most sites have covered that ad nauseum, but if some pedant wants me to find links, e-mail me. However, Windows and the associated apps can be made arbitrarily secure as well. I've seen some very well locked down Windows boxes. But they weren't locked down by the average home user, and I don't think Windows can be locked down effectively without a large amount of user education. It comes down to how much time you want to invest in getting and keeping your box stable and secure. Me, not a lot of time. I have more interesting things to do these days.
Apple's software and hardware pool are, yes, limited. But how often do Windows users really upgrade hardware? A random (small) sampling of people sitting near me at work puts the number rather low (less than 10%). And these are programmers, with a higher than average GQ. And while a selection of 15 different MP3 players, or word processors is nice, what if 10 of them are crap, and of the remaining 5, 3 are outrageously expensive? If you look at the signal-to-noise, as it were, on Mac apps, it's much lower than on the Windows side. Though that, again, is probably due to the smaller pool. Perhaps the crap Mac apps wither and die faster? With a smaller user base, that might be true as well.
But all these considerations aside, the best advocacy there is is to get someone to try one. Three programmers from my random sampling have been to the Apple store, tried the Mac Mini, and subsequently have ordered Macs (two iBooks and a Mac Mini). Why? Because inside of 20 minutes, the user experience convinced them to part with upwards of $500 of their hard earned cash. These are Windows users. Two of them are iPod users. I don't think I have a better argument than that.
Yes, it is a matter of what you're looking for, spot on. A lot of new users are looking at . . . price. So, the Mini gives them a non-Windows option (Linspire not withstanding, though I hear it's good), that does what they want, and more, out of the box, in a secure environment, with minimal extra initial outlay.
PS2? X-Box? Do you really think people that the Mac Mini is targeting are looking to play Halo or World of Warcraft or Half-Life 2? Can you play any of your games on the Dell listed here?
If you want to guarantee a Mac release, then you and all your gamer friends should get Macs, and buy the games that are out now (Halo, Jedi Academy, whatever). The market for Mac games is small. Smaller than consoles, smaller than Windows, smaller than NGage probably.
I'm a casual gamer. PS2 covers my needs there just fine. These days, I'm also pretty much a casual computer user at home, so having a system that is very low maintenance is of supreme importance to me. But then, I've been using Macs at home exclusively since '96, so I know how to navigate corporate policy to keep my house MS free.
I know someone already told you this, but two things:
XP Home isn't anywhere near as powerful as Mac OS X. Put XP Pro on that box.
DVD-RW vs. DVD-ROM. Drop the Superdrive from the Mini, or add the burner to the Dell.
How's that comparison now? Enough to absorb the missing keyboard and mouse?
Oh, and for the record, the real savings is in having a system that has fewer annoying habits, has a consistent UI across applications, and is less susceptible to worms, virus infections, and spyware, as well as including a robust suite of polished, easy-to-use applications that will cover most of the needs of the freshman computer enthusiast (photography, music, basic word processing, even movies).
"How do I get photos from the Sony Mavica to iPhoto?" my wife asked me. Answer: Plug in the USB cable, and when iPhoto automatcially opens, click the blue pill clearly labelled "Import." Tell me that Dell will be able to do that OUT OF THE BOX!
I've got it as well. But I wasn't referring to "The Transformed Man." I was actually referring to an episode of Futurama, where Shatner, parodying himself, is doing a spoken word version of The Real Slim Shady (by Eminem if it matters). Then, Walter Koenig, sitting in the audience and forced to listen to this travesty, says, "How can you do a spoken word version of a rap song?" To which Melllvar, their captor (yes, three l's) ruefully replies, "He found a way."
I mean, seeing as how you have to buy the keyboard and mouse for the Mac Mini, you may as well get a 7-button mouse, but only a 53-key keyboard.
Before some over-zealous mod decides this is a Troll, (a) turn on your sense of humor, (b) realize that I am a long-time Mac user, and (c) I already RTFA, and know it's an IBM-compatible only keyboard.
When my wife asks for the 'cute little Mac', what PC can I buy instead that will take up as little space and do as much for the same price (or less)?
[flamethrower on]
How about sucking it up and getting her the Mac Mini? Afraid it won't integrate with your Windows XP Home network or something? Afraid you might like it better than your own machines? Afraid your wife might like it better than you? Get over it.
If she does ask for a Mac, and you buy her a PC instead, it really won't matter what size it is, because it'll be sleeping in the bed with her, while you're sleeping in the garage. Think about all the other times she asked for a diamond and you bought her a bigger CZ instead.
[/flamethrower off]
And man . . . look at that neck. It doesn't even look like the same guy. Did Gates get neck reduction surgery or something? I thought *I* had a pencil neck in high school, but geez . . .
I wonder . . . I keep reading about Apple people talk about a G5 PowerBook as a challenge. Not as impossible. Not laughing it off as unrealistic. Not saying we wouldn't even think of something so ludicrous. A challenge. Like Everest, or flying around the world on one tank of fuel. Why describe it as a challenge if you're not willing to take up the gauntlet?
Oh, I'd take that bet. See, in science, there is this thing we like to call an "experiment" where we take a "hypothesis" and try to prove or disprove it. You might have heard of this. It's called the scientific method in many circles. As such, an experiment was performed in the 1950's to try to prove the hypothesis that you suggest above, that non-organic mass under conditions similar to a primordial Earth might produce the building blocks of life. The Miller-Urey experiment. They found that under such conditions, non-organic elements can form amino acids, which are a building block of life. The experiment is still under debate, but if you get up high enough in physics research, so is gravity. Like I said, the scientific method at work. You don't have to believe it. It's been proven from a scientific point of view. It's reproducible. It doesn't rely on belief.
In short, the Georgia schools can cram it in their corn holes. And while they're at it, can look up the scientific definition of theory, not the Reagan definition of theory.
So . . . essentially what Mac OS X 10.3 is doing today then? I see. And the innovation that MS keeps touting again? Oh right, separating idiots from their money. Thanks for the update.
I dunno, the new iMac looks to be pretty "small form factor." Yes, I am aware it's not a laptop. And yes, I am aware that it's using a lot of convection cooling which is impractical for a laptop. But, I am also aware that this is Apple we're talking about.
How can [William Shatner] do a spoken word version of a rap song?
What kind of moron sends questionable e-mails relating to plans to start a competing company through his employer's e-mail server!? You might as well print your entire plan and leave it sitting on the personal printer of the C*O. There are hundreds of free online e-mail systems, and GMail even allows connections over https, which makes the communication between the browser and the mail server less prone to snooping. Better yet, don't even do it from work! It's just . . . astounding . . . how stupid some people are.
This would be great! I'd be able to print out all my old newsgroup ASCII pr0n.
Seriously though, wouldn't this be kinda cool for any old ASCII art someone might have? Old sigs on e-mails? Funky. Wish I had even an inkling of how to answer this question.
That's an excellent point. I suppose MS doesn't write all their own drivers either, when you get down to brass tacks. Hadn't thought of it that way.
Still, if Solaris claims to support x86, they're opening themselves up to a lot of "Solaris doesn't support my video card" complaints. And that sort of thing looks bad from a user point of view.
Here's hoping that it takes off, though. I do like Solaris on SPARC.
Well, true, but this tech may also be yet another step on the path to automated driving. At which point, we should all be able to program our cars to go 150 mph at 4 inches from the other car's bumper because of the speedy reaction times and detailed information networks, thus increasing through-put on our freeways by a significant amount without extra lanes. People who are afraid of that sort of speed can program their cars for lower speeds, but the computer driving system will automatically move these slower cars out of the higher speed lanes. If we can achieve that, I won't really care much that my car can report how fast I am going.
Where I am going is another story. And getting the government to up the speed limit to such a level . . .
Slashdot Mirror
Good point. I actually used a little bluetooth earset (it's not really a headset, since it all fits on one ear) with my PowerBook last evening, just to see if it would work. It was passable. The sound quality was a little iffy, but that may be due to the earset. Skype worked fine, and speech control worked as well, though I don't generally use that. I forget what kind it was . . . it was made for use with cell phones primarily. Brand name started with a C.
Actually, they have admitted their mistake. They now ship no-button, no-cord mice. Seriously, look at it, it looks like an egg.
As far as I could tell, the Dell above comes with WordPerfect. And not a lot of other software. Quicken 2005 was extra. Anti-virus/spyware was extra (and an absolute necessity in many cases - though freeware alternatives exist). And XP Pro's cost helped to launch the Dell above the Mac's cost.
I'll conceed the "pool of apps" point, but consistent UI, no. I have yet to find a Mac app, third party or otherwise, where command-Q doesn't work to quit the app. On Windows? Sure alt-F4 works . . . mostly. But sometimes it's crtl-F, then X, if you want to actually save your work (admittedly, I dropped that app as crap). And I ran into an app where alt-F4 inexplicably brought up the shutdown dialog instead, like the app didn't trap it at all. Commercial software no less.
Security, out of the box, Mac is going to be better. Most sites have covered that ad nauseum, but if some pedant wants me to find links, e-mail me. However, Windows and the associated apps can be made arbitrarily secure as well. I've seen some very well locked down Windows boxes. But they weren't locked down by the average home user, and I don't think Windows can be locked down effectively without a large amount of user education. It comes down to how much time you want to invest in getting and keeping your box stable and secure. Me, not a lot of time. I have more interesting things to do these days.
Apple's software and hardware pool are, yes, limited. But how often do Windows users really upgrade hardware? A random (small) sampling of people sitting near me at work puts the number rather low (less than 10%). And these are programmers, with a higher than average GQ. And while a selection of 15 different MP3 players, or word processors is nice, what if 10 of them are crap, and of the remaining 5, 3 are outrageously expensive? If you look at the signal-to-noise, as it were, on Mac apps, it's much lower than on the Windows side. Though that, again, is probably due to the smaller pool. Perhaps the crap Mac apps wither and die faster? With a smaller user base, that might be true as well.
But all these considerations aside, the best advocacy there is is to get someone to try one. Three programmers from my random sampling have been to the Apple store, tried the Mac Mini, and subsequently have ordered Macs (two iBooks and a Mac Mini). Why? Because inside of 20 minutes, the user experience convinced them to part with upwards of $500 of their hard earned cash. These are Windows users. Two of them are iPod users. I don't think I have a better argument than that.
Yes, it is a matter of what you're looking for, spot on. A lot of new users are looking at . . . price. So, the Mini gives them a non-Windows option (Linspire not withstanding, though I hear it's good), that does what they want, and more, out of the box, in a secure environment, with minimal extra initial outlay.
If you want to guarantee a Mac release, then you and all your gamer friends should get Macs, and buy the games that are out now (Halo, Jedi Academy, whatever). The market for Mac games is small. Smaller than consoles, smaller than Windows, smaller than NGage probably.
I'm a casual gamer. PS2 covers my needs there just fine. These days, I'm also pretty much a casual computer user at home, so having a system that is very low maintenance is of supreme importance to me. But then, I've been using Macs at home exclusively since '96, so I know how to navigate corporate policy to keep my house MS free.
Right, right. And that software is included on the Dell, right?
- XP Home isn't anywhere near as powerful as Mac OS X. Put XP Pro on that box.
- DVD-RW vs. DVD-ROM. Drop the Superdrive from the Mini, or add the burner to the Dell.
How's that comparison now? Enough to absorb the missing keyboard and mouse?Oh, and for the record, the real savings is in having a system that has fewer annoying habits, has a consistent UI across applications, and is less susceptible to worms, virus infections, and spyware, as well as including a robust suite of polished, easy-to-use applications that will cover most of the needs of the freshman computer enthusiast (photography, music, basic word processing, even movies).
"How do I get photos from the Sony Mavica to iPhoto?" my wife asked me. Answer: Plug in the USB cable, and when iPhoto automatcially opens, click the blue pill clearly labelled "Import." Tell me that Dell will be able to do that OUT OF THE BOX!
I think Apple will find a way.
Before some over-zealous mod decides this is a Troll, (a) turn on your sense of humor, (b) realize that I am a long-time Mac user, and (c) I already RTFA, and know it's an IBM-compatible only keyboard.
Yuck. Thanks, but no thanks. I'll just take your word for it.
(The only "reality" show I ever watched was 3 episodes of The Real World: Hawaii. I'm sorry I did. I'll never watch a "reality" show again. Ever.)
[flamethrower on]
How about sucking it up and getting her the Mac Mini? Afraid it won't integrate with your Windows XP Home network or something? Afraid you might like it better than your own machines? Afraid your wife might like it better than you? Get over it.
If she does ask for a Mac, and you buy her a PC instead, it really won't matter what size it is, because it'll be sleeping in the bed with her, while you're sleeping in the garage. Think about all the other times she asked for a diamond and you bought her a bigger CZ instead.
[/flamethrower off]
Loosely translated, "f*ck the consumers both coming and going."
And man . . . look at that neck. It doesn't even look like the same guy. Did Gates get neck reduction surgery or something? I thought *I* had a pencil neck in high school, but geez . . .
I wonder . . . I keep reading about Apple people talk about a G5 PowerBook as a challenge. Not as impossible. Not laughing it off as unrealistic. Not saying we wouldn't even think of something so ludicrous. A challenge. Like Everest, or flying around the world on one tank of fuel. Why describe it as a challenge if you're not willing to take up the gauntlet?
In short, the Georgia schools can cram it in their corn holes. And while they're at it, can look up the scientific definition of theory, not the Reagan definition of theory.
So . . . essentially what Mac OS X 10.3 is doing today then? I see. And the innovation that MS keeps touting again? Oh right, separating idiots from their money. Thanks for the update.
How can [William Shatner] do a spoken word version of a rap song?
He found a way.
And the design concept? Three words: Bender Bending Rodriguez.
Turnabout is fair play.
Joke's on you, they didn't.
DLP looks like the way to go for this . . .
What kind of moron sends questionable e-mails relating to plans to start a competing company through his employer's e-mail server!? You might as well print your entire plan and leave it sitting on the personal printer of the C*O. There are hundreds of free online e-mail systems, and GMail even allows connections over https, which makes the communication between the browser and the mail server less prone to snooping. Better yet, don't even do it from work! It's just . . . astounding . . . how stupid some people are.
Seriously though, wouldn't this be kinda cool for any old ASCII art someone might have? Old sigs on e-mails? Funky. Wish I had even an inkling of how to answer this question.
Still, if Solaris claims to support x86, they're opening themselves up to a lot of "Solaris doesn't support my video card" complaints. And that sort of thing looks bad from a user point of view.
Here's hoping that it takes off, though. I do like Solaris on SPARC.
Where I am going is another story. And getting the government to up the speed limit to such a level . . .