Re:Is Apple or Microsoft forcing HP to do this?
on
No WMA for HP iPod
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· Score: 1
Yes but service packs tend to fix bugs (although they don't even seem to be able to do that well enough sometimes).
Apple.x yearly updates are packed FULL of new features. There is no one forcing you to upgrade to the next OS release!
If Apple releases a new OS version and you don't want to pay for it for whatever reason... er... then just don't pay for it. Your existing OS will still work, and all your current apps, and MANY future apps too.
Of course Apple really innovates between releases so you have new things like Rendezvous in the later OS's which aren't supported in the earlier versions (10.0, 10.1) - guess what? If you want such features then you can buy them!
And in reply to your :
People would say they have no alternative but to buy the new M$. You would have a billion lawsuits against M$. With Apple, if you have a Mac, you install Mac OS, nothing else, so no choice there either.
You have exactly the same level of choice as you do on the PC side, you can run different flavours of Linux if you wish. (Newswave, a computer needs an OS).
The above is a link to a recent set of comparisons. Yes, you can always get a cheaper PC than a Mac, but if you spec the machines to be as equal as possible the Mac is cheaper. And that is withouttaking into account the unquantifiable benefits of OS X, no viruses, very few security problems etc. etc. etc. etc.
Let is stop here, Macs are not more expensive, but they are generally higher specced than most of the bare bones crap you see advertised for so little.
Oh my God, how could Jobs and Apple have overlooked this? Man without Ogg support they are pretty much finished that's for sure, say goodbye to the reign of the iPod folks.
Why didn't you write and tell them that they were gonna miss out on your business? At least we stood a chance of saving them then.
Still, it's their fault I suppose, if they choose to ignore such an industry BEHEMOTH as Ogg Vorbis, what chance could they ever stand.
Seriously though, nobody wants to hear you whine self-righteously about a situation you actively chose and worked at to get yourself in. I'm sure Ogg Vorbis is great, it's not the codec I have a problem with, it's with people who whine about products not supporting it when, to be honest, there isn't the market pressure there.
It's like me going and running a RISC-OS machine, and then *EVERY* time someone releases software for the Mac or PC I chime in going "Pfft, no RISC-OS support? Oh, my, God. Well, looks like Microsoft/Apple/Macromedia/Adobe won't be getting my business then. [Nose-In-Air]"
In summary, Ogg Vorbis may be great, however there is little market pressure for supporting it, so stop whining.
It's a pure talking shop, that's all. The articles are hostage to the (sometimes extreme) bias of their employees, who react in very unprofessional ways when you attempt to point this out.
If you are going to recommend a computer brand to someone who isn't exactly John Carmack, and you're worried about being permanent technical support for them, what with all the PC manufacturers cutting corners everywhere possible to stay competitive, for god's sake (and yours) get them to buy a Mac.
It's been a while since I bought a brand name PC, but I have never felt like I ever had even a modicum of support from even the bigger guys (Dell etc.), and it sounds as though the situation has gotten worse.
I mean warranties voiding because you install software on your computer? That's like a car warranty voiding because you drove it.
Recently a 10 month old iBook had its backlight burn out, meaning the LCD was *extremely* hard to use, one call to Apple, 10 minutes on the phone, the next day a courier arrived, took it away and three days later it came back fixed. 4 days, and this is not in mainland UK, this is on Jersey (small island, New Jersey named after).
Contrast this to my friends notebook which was a Time, his backlight went a couple months later, it was only 5 months old, all within warranty, it took him so many phone calls and TWO AND A HALF MONTHS to get it back.
I also had a Powerbook arrive with a faulty earphone socket, three days later it came back fixed (replaced mainboard apparently, they rang me and told me what was wrong with it before they sent it back).
I trust Apple to fix my beautiful machines quickly and properly, and they do.
Well, if you'd love to get in contact Paul (the author of this wonderful piece of literature), and perhaps let him know how you feel about this article, here's his email address...
Yeah... like recently a friend with a brand new Windows XP notebook brought it round to use my DSL to download some files...
I plugged it into the network, and loaded up IE... *nothing*, IE reports no internet connection.
Hmm, that should'nt happen, I'll go take a look in the Internet configuration options...
Ah, there's the problem, silly XP didn't/doesn't detect it has a network now, I'll just go to the LAN settings and change them... there we go, Accept>OK.
Type in an address......... Oh no, still no internet.
Weird says I, that should have worked. Went and ran through the Internet Connection Wizard...
Yes I want to connect to the internet via a network, Yes it's a home network, Yes I'd rather like you to find the settings automatically.
WINDOWS XP WIZARD: "Windows XP is setting up your internet configuration, please wait"
(Window with animation of computer sliding down a wire toward another computer)
Still waiting...
Still waiting...
Still waiting (now taken a few minutes
WINDOWS XP WIZARD: "The Windows Internet Configuration Wizard has now successfully set up your internet settings (I'm ever so clever)."
ME: "Joy! At last!"
WINDOWS XP WIZARD: "But first of all, Windows XP needs to restart before these new settings take effect"
FFS - this is the LATEST operating system from MS, and I am REBOOTING to get it to access the internet from a HOME NETWORK!?!?!?!?
I couldn't believe it... My PowerBook on the other hand, I took it out of the box, it was already charged, and I powered it up, and it found the (wireless) network instantly, I had internet access straight away. (And the PC was connected with CAT 5 to the Router, so it didn't even need to bother with the added complexity of wireless).
Sigh... I remember XP being bad... but I really actually gave it more credit than that.
As one of the only personal computer makers to be experiencing continued growth worldwide, as well as innovating on the platform whilst selling a quarter of a million computers every month worldwide - with half of them ex-us (ie mostly europe)...
The company deserves more goddamn respect than you're giving sonny!
Bear in mind that this is an article about problems with Panther.
Therefore a lot of the postings here are likely to regard problematic experiences with Panther for whatever reason, and so of course Panther is going to look bad.
Its like those people that visit the Apple support discussions forum and are like "Oh no, everybody is complaining about problems, I'm never going to upgrade now!!!", where the only reason those forums are there is for people with problems so what do you expect to see...
The real number of peopleaffected by problems with Panther are probably miniscule, but that's not what the discussion groups and articles like this make it seem like, and unwary readers may be caught up in thinking that everyone will have these problems.
Does anyone remember when it was going to be the next great thing - it'll revolutionise the world, we'll tak the internet with us on our phones and PDA's! Wow!
Truth be told, there is no viable alternative to PhotoShop.
You'd be laughed out of a studio for suggesting using PaintShop Pro in a commercial design environment. It's like suggesting to a building contractor that they use Tomy's My First PowerTools Playset to equip their employees.
I am a long time Mac user with a PC too, here are a few of my comments on the iTunes for Windows software -
- Firstly, congratulations to Apple, they have gotten 99% of the app and it's feel perfect in Windows, it's free too, what more can Windows users ask for? I forsee WinAmp being forgotten about within weeks.
- iTunes for Windows does not scrub through songs when you drag the playhead dot in the location bar, it continues playing the song until you let go in a new place where it will then jump to. The Mac version scrubs nicely.
- Visualisations need optimising, they are fairly unusable on my machine, being very jerky and unpleasant. (Perhaps a lot of Altivec used for the Mac version?).
Can't find anything else at fault yet, of course you miss out on the gorgeous drop shadows, the vastly superior text antialiasing etc. in OS X. But I think this will become the de facto music app on the PC within 8 weeks.
Sorry if misleading, Ars Technica don't have a review for Panther at the moment.
They do exceptional reviews of OS X for every new release though, but becasue they are so thought out and in depth, they normally come about several weeks after the official OS release.
You can read the Jaguar review there, or wait a bit for the Panther one. Ok!
The extra graphics memory may have had some kind of effect on the Quake III results, especially at the higher resolution of 1600x1200.
The only benchmark here that means anything is the Photoshop one, and congrats to AMD for giving very good results here. But everything else is completely meaningless here.
The Word benchmark would make me laugh if it were not for the sad sad fact that people are actually going to think it means something. Word is COMPLETELY different on OSX, it has more visual processing to do etc etc etc etc etc.
The G5 really doesn't look lousy, and has a great price point, these new Athlons simply are competitive, and MUCH more testing needs to be done.
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Yes but service packs tend to fix bugs (although they don't even seem to be able to do that well enough sometimes).
.x yearly updates are packed FULL of new features. There is no one forcing you to upgrade to the next OS release!
Apple
If Apple releases a new OS version and you don't want to pay for it for whatever reason... er... then just don't pay for it. Your existing OS will still work, and all your current apps, and MANY future apps too.
Of course Apple really innovates between releases so you have new things like Rendezvous in the later OS's which aren't supported in the earlier versions (10.0, 10.1) - guess what? If you want such features then you can buy them!
And in reply to your :
People would say they have no alternative but to buy the new M$. You would have a billion lawsuits against M$. With Apple, if you have a Mac, you install Mac OS, nothing else, so no choice there either.
You have exactly the same level of choice as you do on the PC side, you can run different flavours of Linux if you wish. (Newswave, a computer needs an OS).
The VT supercomputer runs no Linux - it's all OS X.
Although, yeah, Apple should port QT to Linux.
Yeah, this must be some Windows thing, I have spent pretty much no time on tweaking my network or workstations running OS X.
Dabs.com are selling a pack of 25 DVD-R discs at just 17.99. (Americans will obviously have to do some math, but it's a bloody great deal basically).
No No No.
Apple Machines are not more expensive
The above is a link to a recent set of comparisons. Yes, you can always get a cheaper PC than a Mac, but if you spec the machines to be as equal as possible the Mac is cheaper. And that is withouttaking into account the unquantifiable benefits of OS X, no viruses, very few security problems etc. etc. etc. etc.
Let is stop here, Macs are not more expensive, but they are generally higher specced than most of the bare bones crap you see advertised for so little.
[Ashen-faced shock]
Oh my God, how could Jobs and Apple have overlooked this? Man without Ogg support they are pretty much finished that's for sure, say goodbye to the reign of the iPod folks.
Why didn't you write and tell them that they were gonna miss out on your business? At least we stood a chance of saving them then.
Still, it's their fault I suppose, if they choose to ignore such an industry BEHEMOTH as Ogg Vorbis, what chance could they ever stand.
Seriously though, nobody wants to hear you whine self-righteously about a situation you actively chose and worked at to get yourself in. I'm sure Ogg Vorbis is great, it's not the codec I have a problem with, it's with people who whine about products not supporting it when, to be honest, there isn't the market pressure there.
It's like me going and running a RISC-OS machine, and then *EVERY* time someone releases software for the Mac or PC I chime in going "Pfft, no RISC-OS support? Oh, my, God. Well, looks like Microsoft/Apple/Macromedia/Adobe won't be getting my business then. [Nose-In-Air]"
In summary, Ogg Vorbis may be great, however there is little market pressure for supporting it, so stop whining.
Note - the Register is NOT a reliable source.
It's a pure talking shop, that's all. The articles are hostage to the (sometimes extreme) bias of their employees, who react in very unprofessional ways when you attempt to point this out.
If you are going to recommend a computer brand to someone who isn't exactly John Carmack, and you're worried about being permanent technical support for them, what with all the PC manufacturers cutting corners everywhere possible to stay competitive, for god's sake (and yours) get them to buy a Mac.
It's been a while since I bought a brand name PC, but I have never felt like I ever had even a modicum of support from even the bigger guys (Dell etc.), and it sounds as though the situation has gotten worse.
I mean warranties voiding because you install software on your computer? That's like a car warranty voiding because you drove it.
Recently a 10 month old iBook had its backlight burn out, meaning the LCD was *extremely* hard to use, one call to Apple, 10 minutes on the phone, the next day a courier arrived, took it away and three days later it came back fixed. 4 days, and this is not in mainland UK, this is on Jersey (small island, New Jersey named after).
Contrast this to my friends notebook which was a Time, his backlight went a couple months later, it was only 5 months old, all within warranty, it took him so many phone calls and TWO AND A HALF MONTHS to get it back.
I also had a Powerbook arrive with a faulty earphone socket, three days later it came back fixed (replaced mainboard apparently, they rang me and told me what was wrong with it before they sent it back).
I trust Apple to fix my beautiful machines quickly and properly, and they do.
Well, here's a simple test...
I'm going to go and sit at my Mac running Panther, and do all of my work for a whole week on this machine.
This Paul Thurrot guy is gonna go and sit at his Windows Longhorn computer and do all of his work on the copy of Longhorn he bought the other day.
Well, if you'd love to get in contact Paul (the author of this wonderful piece of literature), and perhaps let him know how you feel about this article, here's his email address...
Mail Paul (I'm-A-Fucking-Idiot-Thurrot) here
Go on, you pay your ISP for your mail handling, you deserve to send as many emails as you like to Paul.
Here are a few good ideas to get you started...
- Dear Paul, stop being such a retard, by the time Longhorn eeks its way out of Redmond, Apple will have made a least one more major OS release. And by your own standards, we'll be able to judge Longhorn when it ships against Apple's future 2-year-away OS (10.6?).
- Dear Paul, stop being such a cock. Love, [your name here]. xxx
- Dear Paul, before you go writing a load of shite perhaps you should have an inkling of that of which you speak.
- Tosser/
Osborne computers.
Yeah... like recently a friend with a brand new Windows XP notebook brought it round to use my DSL to download some files...
... ... Oh no, still no internet.
I plugged it into the network, and loaded up IE... *nothing*, IE reports no internet connection.
Hmm, that should'nt happen, I'll go take a look in the Internet configuration options...
Ah, there's the problem, silly XP didn't/doesn't detect it has a network now, I'll just go to the LAN settings and change them... there we go, Accept>OK.
Type in an address...
Weird says I, that should have worked. Went and ran through the Internet Connection Wizard...
Yes I want to connect to the internet via a network, Yes it's a home network, Yes I'd rather like you to find the settings automatically.
WINDOWS XP WIZARD: "Windows XP is setting up your internet configuration, please wait"
(Window with animation of computer sliding down a wire toward another computer)
Still waiting...
Still waiting...
Still waiting (now taken a few minutes
WINDOWS XP WIZARD: "The Windows Internet Configuration Wizard has now successfully set up your internet settings (I'm ever so clever)."
ME: "Joy! At last!"
WINDOWS XP WIZARD: "But first of all, Windows XP needs to restart before these new settings take effect"
FFS - this is the LATEST operating system from MS, and I am REBOOTING to get it to access the internet from a HOME NETWORK!?!?!?!?
I couldn't believe it... My PowerBook on the other hand, I took it out of the box, it was already charged, and I powered it up, and it found the (wireless) network instantly, I had internet access straight away. (And the PC was connected with CAT 5 to the Router, so it didn't even need to bother with the added complexity of wireless). Sigh... I remember XP being bad... but I really actually gave it more credit than that.
... but get a few mates with their G5's together and it bloody well is the fastest personal computer.
As one of the only personal computer makers to be experiencing continued growth worldwide, as well as innovating on the platform whilst selling a quarter of a million computers every month worldwide - with half of them ex-us (ie mostly europe)...
:)
The company deserves more goddamn respect than you're giving sonny!
Bear in mind that this is an article about problems with Panther.
Therefore a lot of the postings here are likely to regard problematic experiences with Panther for whatever reason, and so of course Panther is going to look bad.
Its like those people that visit the Apple support discussions forum and are like "Oh no, everybody is complaining about problems, I'm never going to upgrade now!!!", where the only reason those forums are there is for people with problems so what do you expect to see...
The real number of peopleaffected by problems with Panther are probably miniscule, but that's not what the discussion groups and articles like this make it seem like, and unwary readers may be caught up in thinking that everyone will have these problems.
-Nex
the style is consistent with Apple's brightness and volume indicators, which have been a part of OSX since 10.0
The brightness and volume indicators were introduced in 10.1, other than that... well said.
My vote would be for WAP.
Does anyone remember when it was going to be the next great thing - it'll revolutionise the world, we'll tak the internet with us on our phones and PDA's! Wow!
Hmm, someone didn't think that one out too well.
WAP is dying as fast as it appeared.
He's referring to Illustrator.
PaintShop Pro is not an alternative to PhotoShop.
Truth be told, there is no viable alternative to PhotoShop.
You'd be laughed out of a studio for suggesting using PaintShop Pro in a commercial design environment. It's like suggesting to a building contractor that they use Tomy's My First PowerTools Playset to equip their employees.
Forgot to mention, PC specs are Athlon 1Ghz, 256MB RAM, Radeon 8500 video.
I am a long time Mac user with a PC too, here are a few of my comments on the iTunes for Windows software -
- Firstly, congratulations to Apple, they have gotten 99% of the app and it's feel perfect in Windows, it's free too, what more can Windows users ask for? I forsee WinAmp being forgotten about within weeks.
- iTunes for Windows does not scrub through songs when you drag the playhead dot in the location bar, it continues playing the song until you let go in a new place where it will then jump to. The Mac version scrubs nicely.
- Visualisations need optimising, they are fairly unusable on my machine, being very jerky and unpleasant. (Perhaps a lot of Altivec used for the Mac version?).
Can't find anything else at fault yet, of course you miss out on the gorgeous drop shadows, the vastly superior text antialiasing etc. in OS X. But I think this will become the de facto music app on the PC within 8 weeks.
-Nex
Sorry if misleading, Ars Technica don't have a review for Panther at the moment.
They do exceptional reviews of OS X for every new release though, but becasue they are so thought out and in depth, they normally come about several weeks after the official OS release.
You can read the Jaguar review there, or wait a bit for the Panther one. Ok!
-Nex
Yes, the daddy of all OS X reviews are from Ars Technica
The extra graphics memory may have had some kind of effect on the Quake III results, especially at the higher resolution of 1600x1200.
The only benchmark here that means anything is the Photoshop one, and congrats to AMD for giving very good results here. But everything else is completely meaningless here.
The Word benchmark would make me laugh if it were not for the sad sad fact that people are actually going to think it means something. Word is COMPLETELY different on OSX, it has more visual processing to do etc etc etc etc etc.
The G5 really doesn't look lousy, and has a great price point, these new Athlons simply are competitive, and MUCH more testing needs to be done.
Please do this, it will be incredibly interesting to see some decent benchmarks that actually make any sense at all cross platform.
You have to admit that this article is nothing short of ludicrous
-Nex