Actually, it's more like the Apple Airport, just bloated. Take an Airport (or as we call them, Apple Smoke Detectors, as they look hanging on the wall) and stick a LCD in the middle.
I wonder what the first movie to have one in it will be. Hollywood loves the look of the Mac
As for the actual design and look, I'm kinda glad people are saying it's ugly. The last "ugly" computer Apple made was the iMac and that thing took off. I mean, it had a handle.
Steve's got a much better chance creating a faster computer... He needs to bump up the 667 processers to 1.3 mHz in order to double his speed. Intel needs to manage a 3.6 GHz machine right now in order to double their chip.
The higher and higher ye get, the less the percentages work. 2.0GHz??? That's a nice 11%... The 233 from the 200 was bigger than that!
The success of FFXI will depend more on the continued support and continued subscription of their game rather than the one time purchase price which most console games offer. $9.95 / month to play something I already purchased is possible, but it's going to strip a lot of their audience away, especially the younger age groups of whom a credit card is still a few years off.
PlayOnline.com claims they'll be opening up much of their other services which previously required a monthly fee, but will still charge for select, premire attractions. I think EverQuest made this a possible marketing opportunity. Square's just hoping one of the largest videogame fan bases will let them cash in.
I actually had a defective XBox unit. I took it right back to the store (Target) where I got it and asked for a refund. The immediate reaction was the standard line from the person at the counter about how exchanges are all they offer on certain products once any fingerprints have graced the case, etc, etc.
I asked to speak with their supervisor just to get a better explanation and such. After about five minutes of explaining I realize it's not the stores fault and would simply like them to handle the problem rather than me contacting Microsoft, I left with cash in hand. The store felt it actually cost Microsoft less in the long run to have them deal with it than if I started using their support channels and such.
One of the biggest criticisms that struck a chord with Apple was that they had these HUGE Macworld presentations, followed by two or three conferences with not much of note. You lose a lot of mystique when the CEO comes out and waves his hands and poof...all that happens is processor speeds increase. So while there will most likely be announcements of note come January 7th, we're not going to get ALL the annoucements of note. Something, and probably a few, might be saved for further development until summer.
I'd expect a new Mac...most likely the iMac revision as it's suffered without serious attention for the longest period of time. The G5 seems unlikely only because they aren't going to be shipping it even if they announce it, and showing off and shipping would be truly an annoucement.
With the coming of broadband to the air abroad, does anyone know what other requirements or rather preventions foreign airlines like Luft has in-flight? Can you use cellphones or GPS or good stuff like that in other countries?
Broadband midflight may actually make voice-over-IP rather interesting competition to those $9.00/min AirPhone calls...
This seems to be a great example of a unique and rather interesting way of looking at something we use every day which will be an impossible sell in the real world. We're stuck in the mindset that "My password is...X-X-X-X" rather than "My password looks like..." I'd expect to see more studies about password retention and techniques.
I wonder how the ATM screen burn would play hell with this.
Depending on where you live...meaning what city AND what kind of building (house, apartment complex, downtown area, etc.) off-air broadcasts of HDTV vary greatly. They can be able to tune a picture fine in one area and fail 50 feet away. It's a whole bunch of bandwidth bouncing off everything solid around the antenna, so depending where you buy it from, you may be able to have someone check signal strength first.
DirecTV-HD is real nice but it does require two dishes (one for the regular satellite, one for the HD feed). It's possible in some areas you won't be able to locate both and then that option is out. Not as likely as bad off-air signals, but still something to consider.
And weather plays a huge factor. Low clouds, rain, and pretty much any other funky atmospheres can not only affect the signal you're receiving, but the one the headend is broadcasting as well. So local channel feeds of HD can look pretty bad because its raining several states away where the DirecTV is receiving them from.
Right now, HDTV is a novelty item. The FCC battle seems to have a lot more punch in it and broadcasters have a lot more profitable ways to fill their signal space than a pretty picture (you can't charge 4x the commercial price just cause is high-def). We'll get there but for now, we're just getting there.
Postal never got much attention but it delivered on everything it dreamed to be. Which basically involved running around in 3/4 view trying to kill people with a bundle of weapons. Definately more disturbing than a first-person shooter.
Loki gets my vote for not only bringing Postal to Linux but doing a sweet job of it.
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Actually, it's more like the Apple Airport, just bloated. Take an Airport (or as we call them, Apple Smoke Detectors, as they look hanging on the wall) and stick a LCD in the middle.
I wonder what the first movie to have one in it will be. Hollywood loves the look of the Mac
As for the actual design and look, I'm kinda glad people are saying it's ugly. The last "ugly" computer Apple made was the iMac and that thing took off. I mean, it had a handle.
Steve's got a much better chance creating a faster computer... He needs to bump up the 667 processers to 1.3 mHz in order to double his speed. Intel needs to manage a 3.6 GHz machine right now in order to double their chip.
The higher and higher ye get, the less the percentages work. 2.0GHz??? That's a nice 11%... The 233 from the 200 was bigger than that!
The success of FFXI will depend more on the continued support and continued subscription of their game rather than the one time purchase price which most console games offer. $9.95 / month to play something I already purchased is possible, but it's going to strip a lot of their audience away, especially the younger age groups of whom a credit card is still a few years off.
PlayOnline.com claims they'll be opening up much of their other services which previously required a monthly fee, but will still charge for select, premire attractions. I think EverQuest made this a possible marketing opportunity. Square's just hoping one of the largest videogame fan bases will let them cash in.
I actually had a defective XBox unit. I took it right back to the store (Target) where I got it and asked for a refund. The immediate reaction was the standard line from the person at the counter about how exchanges are all they offer on certain products once any fingerprints have graced the case, etc, etc.
I asked to speak with their supervisor just to get a better explanation and such. After about five minutes of explaining I realize it's not the stores fault and would simply like them to handle the problem rather than me contacting Microsoft, I left with cash in hand. The store felt it actually cost Microsoft less in the long run to have them deal with it than if I started using their support channels and such.
And I'd buy it again from the same store.
One of the biggest criticisms that struck a chord with Apple was that they had these HUGE Macworld presentations, followed by two or three conferences with not much of note. You lose a lot of mystique when the CEO comes out and waves his hands and poof...all that happens is processor speeds increase. So while there will most likely be announcements of note come January 7th, we're not going to get ALL the annoucements of note. Something, and probably a few, might be saved for further development until summer.
I'd expect a new Mac...most likely the iMac revision as it's suffered without serious attention for the longest period of time. The G5 seems unlikely only because they aren't going to be shipping it even if they announce it, and showing off and shipping would be truly an annoucement.
That's actually good to know. I'll need to seek out speed tests next time I go shopping for a GPS receiver.
With the coming of broadband to the air abroad, does anyone know what other requirements or rather preventions foreign airlines like Luft has in-flight? Can you use cellphones or GPS or good stuff like that in other countries?
Broadband midflight may actually make voice-over-IP rather interesting competition to those $9.00/min AirPhone calls...
This seems to be a great example of a unique and rather interesting way of looking at something we use every day which will be an impossible sell in the real world. We're stuck in the mindset that "My password is...X-X-X-X" rather than "My password looks like..." I'd expect to see more studies about password retention and techniques.
I wonder how the ATM screen burn would play hell with this.
A couple things you'll want to be aware of.
Depending on where you live...meaning what city AND what kind of building (house, apartment complex, downtown area, etc.) off-air broadcasts of HDTV vary greatly. They can be able to tune a picture fine in one area and fail 50 feet away. It's a whole bunch of bandwidth bouncing off everything solid around the antenna, so depending where you buy it from, you may be able to have someone check signal strength first.
DirecTV-HD is real nice but it does require two dishes (one for the regular satellite, one for the HD feed). It's possible in some areas you won't be able to locate both and then that option is out. Not as likely as bad off-air signals, but still something to consider.
And weather plays a huge factor. Low clouds, rain, and pretty much any other funky atmospheres can not only affect the signal you're receiving, but the one the headend is broadcasting as well. So local channel feeds of HD can look pretty bad because its raining several states away where the DirecTV is receiving them from.
Right now, HDTV is a novelty item. The FCC battle seems to have a lot more punch in it and broadcasters have a lot more profitable ways to fill their signal space than a pretty picture (you can't charge 4x the commercial price just cause is high-def). We'll get there but for now, we're just getting there.
Postal never got much attention but it delivered on everything it dreamed to be. Which basically involved running around in 3/4 view trying to kill people with a bundle of weapons. Definately more disturbing than a first-person shooter.
Loki gets my vote for not only bringing Postal to Linux but doing a sweet job of it.