800 MHz G4 up 1GB RAM airport slot 4-5 hours of battery life up to 60 GB HD 5.4 lbs 15.2" screen (1280x852 or something like that) full size keyboard docking stations available seperately, but fully functional.
The new iBooks have a 14.1" screen (1024x768), DVD/CD-RW drive, firewire, 2 USB ports, a slot for airport (the card is an extra $80-$100), and your choice of drives from 20 gigs up 40. Its about 1.3 inches thick and nice and cool. 700 MHz G3, ram up to 640 MB.
Saw Lilo and Stitch opening weekend. Like attendence at Powerpuff Girls, we were the only ones in our demographic in the theater. We also laughed harder and louder than anyone else. People probably thought we were stoned.
Speaking of which...why hasn't there been a slashdot review of Lilo and Stitch?
This game doesn't work with computers, because prices are continually dropping. But for things like the Airport Base Station, iPod, special adapters, etc, Apple really has a great strategy.
They release it at some price with a razor thin margin (or even take a slight hit). As technology becomes cheaper, the profit margin skyrockets. When the iPod came out, Apple's profit was something rediculously small, like $20 per unit. With the dropping price of that hard drive, it looks like 40-50% of an iPod is pure profit.
I don't think Apple has the balls to release a $699 MP3 player, so I expect that if there is a new, bigger iPod they may announce price drops. But there is almost *no* competition for the iPod (flames aside), so Apple has little motivation to drop its prices.
I already posted this one to CNET in response to their article, thought I'd put it here too.
As a long-time user of both Windows and Macintosh computers, I have a few thoughts on your "ten wishes for the perfect email client". I, too, wish for the perfect email client. I've tried Outlook Express, Netscape, Microsoft Entourage, Mail, Eudora...and quite frankly none of them do everything that I want. If the "perfect" mail client only ran on Windows, then I would run it in virtual PC on my mac and lose the others. In any case, here's what I thought of your wish list.
1. Floating PIM pane. You're absolutely right here. Email clients should be able to handle what Palm Desktop does (this, in my opinion, is the least irritating and most functional PIM out there, others are free to feel otherwise). But lets face facts. Programmers can write a program that does one thing well, or many things very poorly. The most stable, bug-free apps are the itty-bitty shareware/freeware projects that fulfill a particular need. Adding PIM functionality to an email client is just asking for trouble. Microsoft Entourage is the perfect example. The app is the pinnacle of Microsoft "Bloatware", with half of its features not even working properly (or at all). We'd be better off with separate email and PIM programs.
2. Built-in instant messaging: You mean like Netscape's inclusion of AOL Instant Messenger? Frankly, all this does is make for larger downloads and annoy users. I already have AIM set up on my computer, why do I need netscape installing another copy? And if everyone develops their own IM client, then it will go crazy with a bunch of different standards. The ideal email client does not have built-in chat support, but rather the ideal chat client has built-in ties to your email program.
7. Mouseover contact info: The problem with this is that if you need to type that info elsewhere...you have to move your mouse and the info disappears.
8. All powerful right-clicking: I think its a difficult task for a developer to decide exactly what functions go in the "right-click" menu. For instance, I'd like my right-click menu to have the "bounce" function that my email client already features. And putting all the features in the contextual menu would drive users crazy searching for the function the were looking for.
10. Message Templates: This is a clever idea. The problem is that it would take more time to search through a menu and select/open the template than to just type the 8 words to grandma.
Also, I think you forgot one very important feature: intelligent spam filtering. Yes, spam reporting is useful, but most users would prefer to not interact with advertisements at all (I know someone at CNET will have a hard time believing this). I like filters that incorporate booleans (if it comes to @aol.com AND doesn't have myscreenname, delete) and I think that all email filters should be as intricate as netscapes, which can be as detailed or as broad/simple as you want to make them.
Otherwise, a great list. Most of are your ideas are already incorporated into some existing clients, and I often find myself thinking "I love Mail's interface, but I wish it had Netscape's powerful filters". My biggest problem is interface design and bloatware problems. Your perfect email client would be a 25 meg program, take 30 megs of ram, and really be an "all in one internet app" (like Netscape) that an email client. The program would be full of bugs and hideously unstable, and it would be impossible to use by a person who wasn't a total computer geek. They'd sit down and say "what are all these windows for? Where is X feature?" These are not things that programmers want to go through their customers' minds if they want their software to be widely used.
Slashdot Mirror
Dude, she's married. Her husband would be expected to be telepathic even if she could talk.
a noise-making-husband-alerting device cheaply and quickly assembled from strip mall parts
I don't know, can you get that lingerie that Jane wore in Naked Gun 33 1/3 in Victoria's Secret?
www.apple.com/powerbook
800 MHz G4
up 1GB RAM
airport slot
4-5 hours of battery life
up to 60 GB HD
5.4 lbs
15.2" screen (1280x852 or something like that)
full size keyboard
docking stations available seperately, but fully functional.
The new iBooks have a 14.1" screen (1024x768), DVD/CD-RW drive, firewire, 2 USB ports, a slot for airport (the card is an extra $80-$100), and your choice of drives from 20 gigs up 40. Its about 1.3 inches thick and nice and cool. 700 MHz G3, ram up to 640 MB.
www.apple.com/ibook
That assumes that OS X is the only way of running Apache.
I'm no *NIX power user, but I'm guessing that isn't the case...otherwise no one would care that OS X runes Apache.
Which of you idiots gave this post a "5" rating? This post deserved a two at most.
Saw Lilo and Stitch opening weekend. Like attendence at Powerpuff Girls, we were the only ones in our demographic in the theater. We also laughed harder and louder than anyone else. People probably thought we were stoned.
Speaking of which...why hasn't there been a slashdot review of Lilo and Stitch?
This game doesn't work with computers, because prices are continually dropping. But for things like the Airport Base Station, iPod, special adapters, etc, Apple really has a great strategy.
They release it at some price with a razor thin margin (or even take a slight hit). As technology becomes cheaper, the profit margin skyrockets. When the iPod came out, Apple's profit was something rediculously small, like $20 per unit. With the dropping price of that hard drive, it looks like 40-50% of an iPod is pure profit.
I don't think Apple has the balls to release a $699 MP3 player, so I expect that if there is a new, bigger iPod they may announce price drops. But there is almost *no* competition for the iPod (flames aside), so Apple has little motivation to drop its prices.
that I'll be thinking about this non-stop as I take my practice LSAT exam this weekend.
Actually, department of justice my ass would be DOJMA, not DOS ;-) But I nitpick.
Can you imagine all the logs they'll have of people who go to nothing but porn sites?
On the other hand, I'm paying for their wasted time, so this is just as annoying as it is amusing.
It's being set up in Taiwan right now. Reactor control software runs on windows. I have never been happier to be an american.
The company's name is Apple. Macintosh is a product. Or at least it was.
Some programmers drink Jolt.
I already posted this one to CNET in response to their article, thought I'd put it here too.
As a long-time user of both Windows and Macintosh computers, I have a few thoughts on your "ten wishes for the perfect email client". I, too, wish for the perfect email client. I've tried Outlook Express, Netscape, Microsoft Entourage, Mail, Eudora...and quite frankly none of them do everything that I want. If the "perfect" mail client only ran on Windows, then I would run it in virtual PC on my mac and lose the others. In any case, here's what I thought of your wish list.
1. Floating PIM pane. You're absolutely right here. Email clients should be able to handle what Palm Desktop does (this, in my opinion, is the least irritating and most functional PIM out there, others are free to feel otherwise). But lets face facts. Programmers can write a program that does one thing well, or many things very poorly. The most stable, bug-free apps are the itty-bitty shareware/freeware projects that fulfill a particular need. Adding PIM functionality to an email client is just asking for trouble. Microsoft Entourage is the perfect example. The app is the pinnacle of Microsoft "Bloatware", with half of its features not even working properly (or at all). We'd be better off with separate email and PIM programs.
2. Built-in instant messaging: You mean like Netscape's inclusion of AOL Instant Messenger? Frankly, all this does is make for larger downloads and annoy users. I already have AIM set up on my computer, why do I need netscape installing another copy? And if everyone develops their own IM client, then it will go crazy with a bunch of different standards. The ideal email client does not have built-in chat support, but rather the ideal chat client has built-in ties to your email program.
7. Mouseover contact info: The problem with this is that if you need to type that info elsewhere...you have to move your mouse and the info disappears.
8. All powerful right-clicking: I think its a difficult task for a developer to decide exactly what functions go in the "right-click" menu. For instance, I'd like my right-click menu to have the "bounce" function that my email client already features. And putting all the features in the contextual menu would drive users crazy searching for the function the were looking for.
10. Message Templates: This is a clever idea. The problem is that it would take more time to search through a menu and select/open the template than to just type the 8 words to grandma.
Also, I think you forgot one very important feature: intelligent spam filtering. Yes, spam reporting is useful, but most users would prefer to not interact with advertisements at all (I know someone at CNET will have a hard time believing this). I like filters that incorporate booleans (if it comes to @aol.com AND doesn't have myscreenname, delete) and I think that all email filters should be as intricate as netscapes, which can be as detailed or as broad/simple as you want to make them.
Otherwise, a great list. Most of are your ideas are already incorporated into some existing clients, and I often find myself thinking "I love Mail's interface, but I wish it had Netscape's powerful filters". My biggest problem is interface design and bloatware problems. Your perfect email client would be a 25 meg program, take 30 megs of ram, and really be an "all in one internet app" (like Netscape) that an email client. The program would be full of bugs and hideously unstable, and it would be impossible to use by a person who wasn't a total computer geek. They'd sit down and say "what are all these windows for? Where is X feature?" These are not things that programmers want to go through their customers' minds if they want their software to be widely used.
Have a nice day.
Never seen a machine that runs OS X well? How about my brand-spankin' new dual-800 G4 tower? That runs it pretty smoothly!