it seems like the next generation of appletalk, it brings printer sharing back to the mac os, but now it's easy as pie to do. you can put iChat into the mode to talk to people on the local network (if anyone remembers the app broadcast from the old mac days). people have been using it over airport to access a printer hardwired to another mac. from what they have said it sounds like a lot of the future uses of rendezvous have not been realized.
it's a myth. unfortuantely i am on my way out the door and don't have the time to find the proof, but it's true. i think it's something like 12 or 14 percent of our oil comes from that region. granted that's still a lot of oil, but nothing like the 90% that joe 6-pack american seems to think.
out of those countries we get oil from i do not know how many may be considered shady today. the enemy seems to change every few years. whatever your political views are, the only real constant pal the United States seems to have over there is Isreal and they are lacking the oil reserves that would keep the USA stocked happy. it seems like everyone else manages to upset us one time or another (or they were also too friendly with the USSR and therefore no longer our friend) argh.
ride a bike, it solves more problems than you would ever know.
yeah as the day goes on it seems to be the understanding that these chips can not fully take advantage of the DDR power..... hrmmm... makes you wonder if it's moto or Apple... moto talked about the 7470 chip a while ago, but it doesnt seem to be showing up anywhere...... yet?
hrmmm now there seems to be some confusion is these are running the previous 7455 PPC chip or a new 7470 PPC. i guess the rumors of 1.4GHz were all based on the assumption of the 7470 chip being brought in...... guess we have to wait till somebody molests one.
i saw that too..... i guess someone more knowledgable in the art of DIY computer building would know..... but this is strange to me....
yesterday they had dual 1GHz machines in the quicksilver cases. the quicksilver case has little ventilation. no front vents, small back venting ports. today they have the dual 1GHz and dual 1.25GHz with a massive 7lb heatsink, fan directly blowing across it and it basically is sitting in a windtunnel with those front and rear speedholes. i can only guess this is for the next coming speedbumps? i think this 1GHz chip is actually a revised version of yesterdays 1GHz chip, so it might run a little hotter? also the DDRam and whatnot might be a lil warmer, but i would guess this is planning for the next speedbumps till they fully redesign the case (if they do anytime soon).
yes it is huge, and notice the holes in front of case venting through to the back plate that is all speed holes. i wonder if it is these dual processors that are that hot, or if Apple is just planning for the future speed bumps? also, look in the open case... there is a fan right about in the middle of the case blowing right across (or sucking air over) the heatsinks. they moved the hard drives out of the air path and use an Xserve-like (or the actual Xserve) low profile power supply strapped up to the inside top of the case. interesting layout changes inside.
all dual combined with the faster motherboard should make these really fast running 10.2. can't wait to see the benchmark tests. it is also the first Mac since the Beige towers that have two full sized front bays. if you look at the new case modifications, you can see that this is meant to move a TON of air through the case. the whole back panel seems to have speed holes, and there are ports in the front of the case for full air pass through (older G4/G3 case had no venting in the front and most of the back was sealed up except the fan ports). it also has a monster heatsink. apple.com has some VRs posted of the inside and outside of the case. besides the already listed stats, here are some other interesting bits of information. the full breakdown is now up at Apple.com as well.
* the ability to have two internal optical drives via a build-to-order option that adds a second DVD/CD-RW Combo Drive ($250)
* support for four internal hard drives (two ATA/66, two ATA/100)
* support for up to 2GB of DDR RAM with four slots (266MHz in the dual-867MHz, 333MHz in the dual-1GHz and dual-1.25GHz)
* dual-867MHz and dual-1GHz feature 1MB of DDR L3 per processor, dual-1.25GHz features 2MB per processor
* processor heatsink is considerably larger than previous models, but lacks a fan
* the return of an audio-in port
* ATI Radeon 9000 Pro replaces NVIDIA's GeForce4 MX in the mid-range and high-end models, but a GeForce4 Ti card is still available for an additional $250 (or $350 on the low-end Power Mac G4)
* video cards feature ADC/DVI connectors; VGA is supported through an included adapter
* dual-1.25GHz system delivers 18.3 gigaflops, versus 15 gigaflops for the previous generation dual-1GHz (20% increase)
*if* Apple switched to Intel chips, would this somehow invoke some sort of pressure from MS on Intel? youu figure if OS X ever ran on straight up PCs (doubt it) then they would be going head to head with Bill Gates and i see him fighting back. if they used a modified intel chip (doubt it), then i wonder if it would matter if M$ has their foot int he door of the plant that makes Apple's chips. also, why bother? Intel chips are hot as hell and use tons of power. these are the days of power usage concerns, and Apple's dislike for fans and noise. if anything they should be pitching the power usage of the LCD iMac vs some P4 with 19" CRT device. granted on one user's house it isn't a big deal but when you have clusters and clusters of them in schools and offices it adds up.
on your first point.... Apple and IBM do currently play nice.... the PowerPC chip is a team effort (to simplify it) of Apple, Moto and IBM. there is something that Moto added to the equation (mind failing right now) that they own patents on. maybe the velocity engine? if Moto is left out of the next lineup, they would have to work out a deal. *if* Apple and Moto part ways i do not think it would be because "intel chips are 2.5 times faster", it would be because Moto is going through a lot of restructuring, layoffs and plant closings. it's possible Moto is not seeing the revenue it wants out of Apple's chipsets, or some top execs just want to refocus their efforts into other areas. they have some integral technology in G3 and G4 chips that they could probably contract out to Apple/IBM and just get checks every quarter instead of actually dealing with manufacturing. IBM has great state of the art manufacturing facilities, and Apple has gotten a bit more involved in the design of the processors.
there has been some talk for a while of Apple working out a deal and teaming up with IBM to make the "G5" or whatever chips. IBM supposedly has better manufacturing facilities, the have been producing G3 and G4 chips all along.
as for the IBM Power chip, every spec i have seen indicates it is too power hungry and hot to run in a desktop machine, let alone ever fitting into a laptop. from my understanding, the PowerPC chip IS the consumer version of the Power processor (hence the "PC" aka "personal computer" suffix).
that's the way to get the classic arcade video games.... though i suggest playing around with them before you fly away. some games seem to lack decent controls through the keyboard. they kept me entertained on a trip to Orlando a few years ago during the off season. the only laptop with us was an older Mac powerbook, but of course it still runs MAME just fine.
they said they will honor orders that were already completed.... too bad mine was/is sitting in my cart. i figured there was no hurry to pre-order and was trying to figure out what DVDs i should buy. i figured i easily went over the free shipping price, so i might as well buy a few books and DVDs that are not always in local stores. oops.
from how they are acting and that one copy of the wonky rebate form i wonder if it was an error. i can see a huge discount coming on remaining copies of 10.1.3, but who the hell would want to buy it? it's not like 9.2 where some machines won't run OS X. if your machine runs OS X then i can't see why it won't run 10.2 even better (faster too).
Amazon has acknowledged errors in the past too. they honor the completed orders, but from then on scrap the deal.
think what a mess cars, bikes and motorcycles were at first..... i'm sure in time it will destroy the forest like nothing else...... if anything else is left to destroy by the time they perfect it.
actually when you consider the time they probably spend accessing logs by building roads and what not......
NO WAIT! SCREW THIS! they should only be logging forests they planted to log in the first place. if the forest floor is rough and messy, then it is meant to be left alone. i hope the Army takes this project over and uses it to shoot rebel scum. please leave the trees alone. thanks bye!
he said it is not to create a place so we can all read those things we have ignored.
the intention is to mark the evolution of the EULA and see where certain key things started to pop in (like reverse engineering).
as for the legal side or compiling them, i don't know. i don't remember ever readin far enough into one to got to something like that. oops.
the news of this was around a few days ago, though it takes effect today. i would think a $50 rebate has Apple's hand in it, right? if that's true, i wonder if we will be seeing more 10.2 rebates pop up. i guess right now i'll buy from amazon. might be a good excuse to pick up some DVDs and books since it'll hit the free shipping price break.
though the student price is still the best if you are associated with a university, they can get it for $69 through the edu store at Apple.com or i guess through their campus bookstore.
iMac, iBook and eMac have always come with Appleworks and i think it would be a mistake to end that. the buyers of those machines really dig bundled software. that was why Apple always made pro users buy Appleworks or M$ Office or whatever theyw anted. the whole beauty of the iMac is that it comes with enough software to keep you going for quite a while. Appleworks, all the iApps and the internet software is most all people need for a while.
if anything i see this teaming up for the recently rumored "pro version" of Appleworks. i don't know if they will bundle it with the Pro machines or just sell it, or pack it with all machines. time and the economy will tell on that one. you figure Appleworks is good for home users and school kids. no reason to make then use the Pro software, and no reason to make the Pro software simple enough for a 1st grader to use. also if someone is in a dedicated M$ enviroment, then they will probably still use M$ Office (at least while one still exists).
yes, Apple/Claris make the home user version of office. over the years it was called either ClarisWorks or AppleWorks (Claris/Apple is the same thing). i'm sure somebody else knows better, but the Mac SE my sister got in 1988 came with Claris Write, Claris Draw etc back before it was really packed together. they have been working on that for years. i think the current Appleworks for OS X is just a carbonized version of the most recent Appleworks. i would think they will keep bundling Appleworks (unless they rename it someday) and sell somehting to the Pro users. in the past (and today even) pro users had to buy Appleworks. it's kind of strange, but Apple decided somewhere that Pro users were going to want M$ Office anyway. maybe it was part of the deal with Microsoft. if pro users had a free app, then they were less likely to buy one. if they bought one they were more likely to buy the high end app? i dunno. there were a lot of strange concessions in that deal. i'm glad it's over.
there have been rumors of some sort of "pro" Appleworks for a while now.... Appleworks itself, if you have never ised it, couls be thought of as iOffice or something. it's bundled with the iBook, iMac (new and old) and the eMac. i don't remember if they started bundling it with the pro models (there was talk of it). it's good enough for home users, but i guess not quite up to corporate use. the recent versions have good translation from and into M$ Office formats, so in some situations when you need to translate documents you will be fine. if you were at work and constantly exchanging documents though you might still want M$ Office itself.
and that's why they still sell the origional 15" CRT iMac for $799. i realize that's still more than $399, but Apple has never claimed to be the cheapest and their machines do use better components than any of those discount machines. i don't know of Apple could make and sell a $399 machine, if they could i think they would. i can only assume it's something they don't want their name on. Apple's have a lot of life in them anyway. average users keep Macs way longer than they keep M$ windows boxes. there are so many people buying used/refurb Macs that somebody specifically wanting a Mac can find one to fit their budget. you can run OS X on an iMac 300mghz, not great but is totally usable. on ebay they go for less than $300.
i have a logitech optical mouse (my G4 came with the old hockey puck mouse). i have been noticing that OS X and Apple software has stuff that is totally written for the right side button, like the included Mail.app. i been using OS X since the first day it shipped and i have not bothered to download the new drivers for the mouse. so far everything i need is in the OS. it's pretty cool. i do not have the full functionality of all 4 buttons... but the 2 buttons and the scroll wheel work fine and that's what i really wanted.
as a long time Apple user i am still not used to taking advantage of it, so i still try to old keyboard shortcuts or "click and hold". i think as i remember to use the buttons i will dig them. i never use windows, so i don't even think of there being more than one button. i bet a lot of dedicated mac people are the same way. give them a multi-button mouse, show them it does something and they will learn.
i can support the simplicity of 1 button for newbies. maybe they'll start shipping the Pro models with multibuttons, but it hink the iMac an eMac will stay single button for a while. updating the laptops will be a whole new issue. much bigger than just swapping a device. if not the next G4 revision, i would think the next BIG change to the Pro tower (G5 or whatever) would be the logical time to ship a 2+ button device.
i realize Apple did a lot of work on their side of the software, but the one seemingly important thing that iChat seems to lack are the adverts. that was what made me ponder the dealings that went on.
granted off and on over the years Apple machines shipped with an AOL icon on the desktop and you could sign up for AOL with the preloaded software. that would be interesting to see if it comes back in 10.2. everything i have heard about AOL for OS X is that it's still in a VERY messy beta stage. people i know running OS X And using AOL (don't ask because i don't know why) said it is terrible. maybe they will have it together for 10.2, or this is a long term planning. the whole thing seems odd though, the.Mac thing is almost a rebirth of the short lived Apple ISP without the actual internet service. if people used AOL then they might not see a need to sign up for.Mac.
guess it points back to the $$$money$$$ theory. hrmmm..... time will tell.
the next version of OS X, 10.2, ships in about a month and it has an app with it called "iChat" thjat is 100% interoperable with AIM. it's autherized by AOL and everything. i don't know what kind of deal Apple made, but now that AOL droke down and allowed one to get in i would think it's just a matter of time.
i know in some of the suburbs around here (Philadelphia area) they will charge you a "911 usage fee" even if it is valid. 2 friends of mine were playing video games late one night and the guy who's house it was started to have a seizure (they were about 16 then). the guy's parent just sorta freaked and didn't know what to do. the other guy called 911 and the sick kid ended up in the hospital for a few days. about a month later the family got a "911 usage fee" charge and it was something like $250. that's totally insane to me. i know here in Philadelphia you are told to call 911 for almost everything, and they route and log the calls in one system. if it's something like a car breakin then they forward it to the local department. Philadelphia pondered the 922 or whatever system for more casual calls (like a stolen car stereo discovered in the morning), but scrapped it and put all the money into enlarging the 911 system and training the operators to route the calls instead of the upset callers knowing which was the right number for which situation. it kind of makes sense to just have one huge routing system than a few independent groups of dispachers.
anyway, i hope these people get this fixed soon. i would think webTV users are not the most computer literate and things like this just make them hate "those damn machines". besides costing them money, a lot of 911 systems are stretched as is and something like this can really screw them up.
it's totally true... i would think the people that say LCD displays look like crap either looked at one faking a resolution or looked at a cheap one. when they are running right they are incredible. i was at Macworld last week and saw ATI demo their sexy cards on the 22" or 23" LCD panels. wow they looked cool.
back to Apple LCDs.... the one thing about Apple LCDs is that they are top quality. if you find an unbiased shootout of Apple's vs any other manufactures display of the same quality, they are on par. in some cases actually cheaper. you can't compare the generic 15" LCD from bestbuy to the Apple one. the Apple ones do not even have analog signal processing, they are only intended for vid cards with digital outputs. a lot of the cheaper ones other people are buying purely for space saving, and style. they often stick them on an existing PC that doesnt have a vidoe card with digital out. my housemate bought a 15" sony one and he had to go back to the store to get a digital cable... the darn thing only came with an analog one. go figure. now that he put on a digital cable it looks pretty ok. with the analog it seemed like a waste of money (unless your desk space is very valuable to you).
then again i guess a LCD display that is about the same quality of an average CRT is positive because it does not produce as much heat and sitting here sweating like i am, i have to respect that. i don't know offhand but i would assume LCD screens draw far less power too. combine that with the reduced need for airconditioning in big office buildings and it makes sense. i would think the initial cost to upgrade would pay off in time maybe? anyone in California listening?
actually looks like it would cost you this:
1 full account ($49 this year, $99 next)
then $10/year for each additional email address you want on the account.
i do not know if that means you get only idisk, homepage and whatnot. it almost seems like the deal you get with some ISPs..... kinds strange considering you can get cheapo dialup for about the same price.
anyway there has been plenty of arguments on here pro and con, and while i am saddened they are taking the free email away, i know it was much abused by people that have 7 or 8 accounts (yes, i only have 1). if you are someone who does or would buy virus software, it's included. it does add features to the currently existing itools (people already are saying good things about the backup features). the story has also been that most of the money raised on.mac will be put back into the.mac division. they plan to keep expanding the features available. i do not know what i would need that they will come up with, but Apple has a tendency of suprising me.
a little offtopic, but not too much.... i was at Macworld thursday and after seeing the demo of and playing with 10.2 i can not wait to get it. the $129 is not even an issue to me right now, i just want it asap (and yes, i bought 10.0 and i don't have a lot of extra money in my world). i am as excited about 10.2 as i was to initially jump to OS X March of last year.
anyway, the first year of.mac would cost the family of 4 $79. yes, it's an unexpected expense but i think it's worth trying it. if the money seems that wasted to you, there is free email and webhosting out there (though less exist all the time). if youw ant the other features... you might find some of them for free too. not sure. i personally mostly just use itools for email, but i'm going to take the plunge and invest the $49. i've blown $50 on much dumber things before, so i don't have that much to lose.
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it seems like the next generation of appletalk, it brings printer sharing back to the mac os, but now it's easy as pie to do. you can put iChat into the mode to talk to people on the local network (if anyone remembers the app broadcast from the old mac days). people have been using it over airport to access a printer hardwired to another mac. from what they have said it sounds like a lot of the future uses of rendezvous have not been realized.
heh, guess we can't talk abour Chimera then? it's still a good way off of being 1.0
i wonder if chimera 1.0 will get the attention Mozilla1.0 did? if it stays as fast as it is now i would think so.
it's a myth. unfortuantely i am on my way out the door and don't have the time to find the proof, but it's true. i think it's something like 12 or 14 percent of our oil comes from that region. granted that's still a lot of oil, but nothing like the 90% that joe 6-pack american seems to think.
out of those countries we get oil from i do not know how many may be considered shady today. the enemy seems to change every few years. whatever your political views are, the only real constant pal the United States seems to have over there is Isreal and they are lacking the oil reserves that would keep the USA stocked happy. it seems like everyone else manages to upset us one time or another (or they were also too friendly with the USSR and therefore no longer our friend) argh.
ride a bike, it solves more problems than you would ever know.
yeah as the day goes on it seems to be the understanding that these chips can not fully take advantage of the DDR power..... hrmmm... makes you wonder if it's moto or Apple... moto talked about the 7470 chip a while ago, but it doesnt seem to be showing up anywhere...... yet?
hrmmm now there seems to be some confusion is these are running the previous 7455 PPC chip or a new 7470 PPC. i guess the rumors of 1.4GHz were all based on the assumption of the 7470 chip being brought in...... guess we have to wait till somebody molests one.
i saw that too..... i guess someone more knowledgable in the art of DIY computer building would know..... but this is strange to me....
yesterday they had dual 1GHz machines in the quicksilver cases. the quicksilver case has little ventilation. no front vents, small back venting ports. today they have the dual 1GHz and dual 1.25GHz with a massive 7lb heatsink, fan directly blowing across it and it basically is sitting in a windtunnel with those front and rear speedholes. i can only guess this is for the next coming speedbumps? i think this 1GHz chip is actually a revised version of yesterdays 1GHz chip, so it might run a little hotter? also the DDRam and whatnot might be a lil warmer, but i would guess this is planning for the next speedbumps till they fully redesign the case (if they do anytime soon).
they do sorta show it in the VR of the innards.....
2 002_480.html
http://www.apple.com/hardware/gallery/pmg4_august
yes it is huge, and notice the holes in front of case venting through to the back plate that is all speed holes. i wonder if it is these dual processors that are that hot, or if Apple is just planning for the future speed bumps? also, look in the open case... there is a fan right about in the middle of the case blowing right across (or sucking air over) the heatsinks. they moved the hard drives out of the air path and use an Xserve-like (or the actual Xserve) low profile power supply strapped up to the inside top of the case. interesting layout changes inside.
well, then you could have gotten the rebate on a monitor? if not.... sorry buddy. sometimes those rumor sites do know.
all dual combined with the faster motherboard should make these really fast running 10.2. can't wait to see the benchmark tests. it is also the first Mac since the Beige towers that have two full sized front bays. if you look at the new case modifications, you can see that this is meant to move a TON of air through the case. the whole back panel seems to have speed holes, and there are ports in the front of the case for full air pass through (older G4/G3 case had no venting in the front and most of the back was sealed up except the fan ports). it also has a monster heatsink. apple.com has some VRs posted of the inside and outside of the case. besides the already listed stats, here are some other interesting bits of information. the full breakdown is now up at Apple.com as well.
from macminute.com-
* the ability to have two internal optical drives via a build-to-order option that adds a second DVD/CD-RW Combo Drive ($250)
* support for four internal hard drives (two ATA/66, two ATA/100)
* support for up to 2GB of DDR RAM with four slots (266MHz in the dual-867MHz, 333MHz in the dual-1GHz and dual-1.25GHz)
* dual-867MHz and dual-1GHz feature 1MB of DDR L3 per processor, dual-1.25GHz features 2MB per processor
* processor heatsink is considerably larger than previous models, but lacks a fan
* the return of an audio-in port
* ATI Radeon 9000 Pro replaces NVIDIA's GeForce4 MX in the mid-range and high-end models, but a GeForce4 Ti card is still available for an additional $250 (or $350 on the low-end Power Mac G4)
* video cards feature ADC/DVI connectors; VGA is supported through an included adapter
* dual-1.25GHz system delivers 18.3 gigaflops, versus 15 gigaflops for the previous generation dual-1GHz (20% increase)
*if* Apple switched to Intel chips, would this somehow invoke some sort of pressure from MS on Intel? youu figure if OS X ever ran on straight up PCs (doubt it) then they would be going head to head with Bill Gates and i see him fighting back. if they used a modified intel chip (doubt it), then i wonder if it would matter if M$ has their foot int he door of the plant that makes Apple's chips. also, why bother? Intel chips are hot as hell and use tons of power. these are the days of power usage concerns, and Apple's dislike for fans and noise. if anything they should be pitching the power usage of the LCD iMac vs some P4 with 19" CRT device. granted on one user's house it isn't a big deal but when you have clusters and clusters of them in schools and offices it adds up.
on your first point.... Apple and IBM do currently play nice.... the PowerPC chip is a team effort (to simplify it) of Apple, Moto and IBM. there is something that Moto added to the equation (mind failing right now) that they own patents on. maybe the velocity engine? if Moto is left out of the next lineup, they would have to work out a deal. *if* Apple and Moto part ways i do not think it would be because "intel chips are 2.5 times faster", it would be because Moto is going through a lot of restructuring, layoffs and plant closings. it's possible Moto is not seeing the revenue it wants out of Apple's chipsets, or some top execs just want to refocus their efforts into other areas. they have some integral technology in G3 and G4 chips that they could probably contract out to Apple/IBM and just get checks every quarter instead of actually dealing with manufacturing. IBM has great state of the art manufacturing facilities, and Apple has gotten a bit more involved in the design of the processors.
there has been some talk for a while of Apple working out a deal and teaming up with IBM to make the "G5" or whatever chips. IBM supposedly has better manufacturing facilities, the have been producing G3 and G4 chips all along.
as for the IBM Power chip, every spec i have seen indicates it is too power hungry and hot to run in a desktop machine, let alone ever fitting into a laptop. from my understanding, the PowerPC chip IS the consumer version of the Power processor (hence the "PC" aka "personal computer" suffix).
that's the way to get the classic arcade video games.... though i suggest playing around with them before you fly away. some games seem to lack decent controls through the keyboard. they kept me entertained on a trip to Orlando a few years ago during the off season. the only laptop with us was an older Mac powerbook, but of course it still runs MAME just fine.
they said they will honor orders that were already completed.... too bad mine was/is sitting in my cart. i figured there was no hurry to pre-order and was trying to figure out what DVDs i should buy. i figured i easily went over the free shipping price, so i might as well buy a few books and DVDs that are not always in local stores. oops.
from how they are acting and that one copy of the wonky rebate form i wonder if it was an error. i can see a huge discount coming on remaining copies of 10.1.3, but who the hell would want to buy it? it's not like 9.2 where some machines won't run OS X. if your machine runs OS X then i can't see why it won't run 10.2 even better (faster too).
Amazon has acknowledged errors in the past too. they honor the completed orders, but from then on scrap the deal.
think what a mess cars, bikes and motorcycles were at first..... i'm sure in time it will destroy the forest like nothing else...... if anything else is left to destroy by the time they perfect it.
actually when you consider the time they probably spend accessing logs by building roads and what not......
NO WAIT! SCREW THIS! they should only be logging forests they planted to log in the first place. if the forest floor is rough and messy, then it is meant to be left alone. i hope the Army takes this project over and uses it to shoot rebel scum. please leave the trees alone. thanks bye!
he said it is not to create a place so we can all read those things we have ignored.
the intention is to mark the evolution of the EULA and see where certain key things started to pop in (like reverse engineering).
as for the legal side or compiling them, i don't know. i don't remember ever readin far enough into one to got to something like that. oops.
the news of this was around a few days ago, though it takes effect today. i would think a $50 rebate has Apple's hand in it, right? if that's true, i wonder if we will be seeing more 10.2 rebates pop up. i guess right now i'll buy from amazon. might be a good excuse to pick up some DVDs and books since it'll hit the free shipping price break.
though the student price is still the best if you are associated with a university, they can get it for $69 through the edu store at Apple.com or i guess through their campus bookstore.
iMac, iBook and eMac have always come with Appleworks and i think it would be a mistake to end that. the buyers of those machines really dig bundled software. that was why Apple always made pro users buy Appleworks or M$ Office or whatever theyw anted. the whole beauty of the iMac is that it comes with enough software to keep you going for quite a while. Appleworks, all the iApps and the internet software is most all people need for a while.
if anything i see this teaming up for the recently rumored "pro version" of Appleworks. i don't know if they will bundle it with the Pro machines or just sell it, or pack it with all machines. time and the economy will tell on that one. you figure Appleworks is good for home users and school kids. no reason to make then use the Pro software, and no reason to make the Pro software simple enough for a 1st grader to use. also if someone is in a dedicated M$ enviroment, then they will probably still use M$ Office (at least while one still exists).
yes, Apple/Claris make the home user version of office. over the years it was called either ClarisWorks or AppleWorks (Claris/Apple is the same thing). i'm sure somebody else knows better, but the Mac SE my sister got in 1988 came with Claris Write, Claris Draw etc back before it was really packed together. they have been working on that for years. i think the current Appleworks for OS X is just a carbonized version of the most recent Appleworks. i would think they will keep bundling Appleworks (unless they rename it someday) and sell somehting to the Pro users. in the past (and today even) pro users had to buy Appleworks. it's kind of strange, but Apple decided somewhere that Pro users were going to want M$ Office anyway. maybe it was part of the deal with Microsoft. if pro users had a free app, then they were less likely to buy one. if they bought one they were more likely to buy the high end app? i dunno. there were a lot of strange concessions in that deal. i'm glad it's over.
there have been rumors of some sort of "pro" Appleworks for a while now.... Appleworks itself, if you have never ised it, couls be thought of as iOffice or something. it's bundled with the iBook, iMac (new and old) and the eMac. i don't remember if they started bundling it with the pro models (there was talk of it). it's good enough for home users, but i guess not quite up to corporate use. the recent versions have good translation from and into M$ Office formats, so in some situations when you need to translate documents you will be fine. if you were at work and constantly exchanging documents though you might still want M$ Office itself.
and that's why they still sell the origional 15" CRT iMac for $799. i realize that's still more than $399, but Apple has never claimed to be the cheapest and their machines do use better components than any of those discount machines. i don't know of Apple could make and sell a $399 machine, if they could i think they would. i can only assume it's something they don't want their name on. Apple's have a lot of life in them anyway. average users keep Macs way longer than they keep M$ windows boxes. there are so many people buying used/refurb Macs that somebody specifically wanting a Mac can find one to fit their budget. you can run OS X on an iMac 300mghz, not great but is totally usable. on ebay they go for less than $300.
i have a logitech optical mouse (my G4 came with the old hockey puck mouse). i have been noticing that OS X and Apple software has stuff that is totally written for the right side button, like the included Mail.app. i been using OS X since the first day it shipped and i have not bothered to download the new drivers for the mouse. so far everything i need is in the OS. it's pretty cool. i do not have the full functionality of all 4 buttons... but the 2 buttons and the scroll wheel work fine and that's what i really wanted.
as a long time Apple user i am still not used to taking advantage of it, so i still try to old keyboard shortcuts or "click and hold". i think as i remember to use the buttons i will dig them. i never use windows, so i don't even think of there being more than one button. i bet a lot of dedicated mac people are the same way. give them a multi-button mouse, show them it does something and they will learn.
i can support the simplicity of 1 button for newbies. maybe they'll start shipping the Pro models with multibuttons, but it hink the iMac an eMac will stay single button for a while. updating the laptops will be a whole new issue. much bigger than just swapping a device. if not the next G4 revision, i would think the next BIG change to the Pro tower (G5 or whatever) would be the logical time to ship a 2+ button device.
i realize Apple did a lot of work on their side of the software, but the one seemingly important thing that iChat seems to lack are the adverts. that was what made me ponder the dealings that went on. .Mac thing is almost a rebirth of the short lived Apple ISP without the actual internet service. if people used AOL then they might not see a need to sign up for .Mac.
granted off and on over the years Apple machines shipped with an AOL icon on the desktop and you could sign up for AOL with the preloaded software. that would be interesting to see if it comes back in 10.2. everything i have heard about AOL for OS X is that it's still in a VERY messy beta stage. people i know running OS X And using AOL (don't ask because i don't know why) said it is terrible. maybe they will have it together for 10.2, or this is a long term planning. the whole thing seems odd though, the
guess it points back to the $$$money$$$ theory. hrmmm..... time will tell.
the next version of OS X, 10.2, ships in about a month and it has an app with it called "iChat" thjat is 100% interoperable with AIM. it's autherized by AOL and everything. i don't know what kind of deal Apple made, but now that AOL droke down and allowed one to get in i would think it's just a matter of time.
i know in some of the suburbs around here (Philadelphia area) they will charge you a "911 usage fee" even if it is valid. 2 friends of mine were playing video games late one night and the guy who's house it was started to have a seizure (they were about 16 then). the guy's parent just sorta freaked and didn't know what to do. the other guy called 911 and the sick kid ended up in the hospital for a few days. about a month later the family got a "911 usage fee" charge and it was something like $250. that's totally insane to me. i know here in Philadelphia you are told to call 911 for almost everything, and they route and log the calls in one system. if it's something like a car breakin then they forward it to the local department. Philadelphia pondered the 922 or whatever system for more casual calls (like a stolen car stereo discovered in the morning), but scrapped it and put all the money into enlarging the 911 system and training the operators to route the calls instead of the upset callers knowing which was the right number for which situation. it kind of makes sense to just have one huge routing system than a few independent groups of dispachers.
anyway, i hope these people get this fixed soon. i would think webTV users are not the most computer literate and things like this just make them hate "those damn machines". besides costing them money, a lot of 911 systems are stretched as is and something like this can really screw them up.
it's totally true... i would think the people that say LCD displays look like crap either looked at one faking a resolution or looked at a cheap one. when they are running right they are incredible. i was at Macworld last week and saw ATI demo their sexy cards on the 22" or 23" LCD panels. wow they looked cool.
back to Apple LCDs.... the one thing about Apple LCDs is that they are top quality. if you find an unbiased shootout of Apple's vs any other manufactures display of the same quality, they are on par. in some cases actually cheaper. you can't compare the generic 15" LCD from bestbuy to the Apple one. the Apple ones do not even have analog signal processing, they are only intended for vid cards with digital outputs. a lot of the cheaper ones other people are buying purely for space saving, and style. they often stick them on an existing PC that doesnt have a vidoe card with digital out. my housemate bought a 15" sony one and he had to go back to the store to get a digital cable... the darn thing only came with an analog one. go figure. now that he put on a digital cable it looks pretty ok. with the analog it seemed like a waste of money (unless your desk space is very valuable to you).
then again i guess a LCD display that is about the same quality of an average CRT is positive because it does not produce as much heat and sitting here sweating like i am, i have to respect that. i don't know offhand but i would assume LCD screens draw far less power too. combine that with the reduced need for airconditioning in big office buildings and it makes sense. i would think the initial cost to upgrade would pay off in time maybe? anyone in California listening?
actually looks like it would cost you this: .mac will be put back into the .mac division. they plan to keep expanding the features available. i do not know what i would need that they will come up with, but Apple has a tendency of suprising me. .mac would cost the family of 4 $79. yes, it's an unexpected expense but i think it's worth trying it. if the money seems that wasted to you, there is free email and webhosting out there (though less exist all the time). if youw ant the other features... you might find some of them for free too. not sure. i personally mostly just use itools for email, but i'm going to take the plunge and invest the $49. i've blown $50 on much dumber things before, so i don't have that much to lose.
1 full account ($49 this year, $99 next)
then $10/year for each additional email address you want on the account.
i do not know if that means you get only idisk, homepage and whatnot. it almost seems like the deal you get with some ISPs..... kinds strange considering you can get cheapo dialup for about the same price.
anyway there has been plenty of arguments on here pro and con, and while i am saddened they are taking the free email away, i know it was much abused by people that have 7 or 8 accounts (yes, i only have 1). if you are someone who does or would buy virus software, it's included. it does add features to the currently existing itools (people already are saying good things about the backup features). the story has also been that most of the money raised on
a little offtopic, but not too much.... i was at Macworld thursday and after seeing the demo of and playing with 10.2 i can not wait to get it. the $129 is not even an issue to me right now, i just want it asap (and yes, i bought 10.0 and i don't have a lot of extra money in my world). i am as excited about 10.2 as i was to initially jump to OS X March of last year.
anyway, the first year of