First off, I'm glad to see that Apple did not start charging for the main iApps (only iDVD, which makes sense). The software demonstrations were actually really impressive, as I'm normally bored by the software demonstrations. The new PowerBooks are also nifty, but I'm probably not going to buy one any time soon, since I already have a 12 inch iBook.
But of all of this, Safari is the coolest. I know "a new web browser" isn't exactly earth shattering news, but this is really nice to have. I am running Safari now, and I love the little UI touches, and the speed of it is great.....it has replaced Chimera for me. So far I've encountered only one site which didn't display properly (on gamespot.com, the login fields distorted the grey graphic they were on), so I clicked the little Bug reporting button and submitted it......quick and painless.
So far I'm really impressed though. A new web browser may not be exciting, but since this is one of the main apps I use, having something that is really fast and slick is very nice.
Thumbs up!
-Tom
GameSpot Posts Hands-On Review of GBA SP
on
New Gameboy Announced
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· Score: 2, Informative
Pretty good hands on review of the GBA SP at GameSpot, includes reports on the backlight (looks good from almost any angle), the comfort-level of it (more comfortable than they were expecting, including the shoulder buttons).
Just figure this is interesting since I think some people are jumping too quickly to conclusions just based on photos, and it helps to consider the difference between how something looks and how it actually feels.
Umm......GBA has had plenty of original games that aren't just repackaged SNES games. Golden Sun, Advance Wars, Metroid Fusion, Tactics Ogre: Knight of Lodis,.....and up coming, Wario Land 4, Final Fantasy Tactics Advance (an original game, not a port of the PSX game), Shining Soul, etc.
Actually, Nintendo has long recognized the appeal the gameboy has had for adults........tetris especially was apparently quite popular with adult users. Supposedly one of the motivating factors of the Gameboy Pocket was to design something smaller to make it easier for adults to carry around without being as bulky as the original gameboy.
With all the people buying fancy color cellphones to play games on, it only makes sense for Nintendo to go after this market more directly.
According to the USA Today article, 18 hours with the backlight off, and 10 hours with the backlight on. Note that this new unit has rechargheable batteries as well.
My game gear's battery life sucked......so I understand why Nintendo waited until they could provide a good solution. If it's anything like the afterburner, hopefully it won't have the washed out look my gamegear had either.
-Tom
That seems like iffy reasoning to me. Office would have been a big deal anyway, for the same reason it was a big deal on Windows. Even years later, MacWrite really never approached the functionality or compatibility of MS Word on the Mac......and perhaps MS would have seen less incentive to even develop Office for the Mac, in which case it would have been in even worse shape. File format lockin wouldn't have kept anyone in, because Microsoft has always made MS Word capable of reading MacWrite files. And every magazine article when doing comparisons would point out that the Mac wasn't compatible with Office apps.
Also, Write essentially does still exist today, in the form of AppleWorks (whose word processing component is the successor to ClarisWorks which inherited the functionality of MacWrite). And it is certainly vastly better today than the original MacWrite, but certainly not vastly better than MS Word v.X.
Wow, now you are not only using "bait and switch" incorrectly you're using EOL'd incorrectly too. EOL is a specific term used for when a company ends production of a product to make way for a newer version (or just to stop providing support for it). A product isn't EOL'd just because a new version comes out or if it stops working properly due to a software upgrade.
Also, exactly which iApps so far have stopped working after major upgrades to OS X?
Your definition of bait and switch is incorrect. As much as you may wish to change it, terms do have standard definitions. And this isn't a case of bait and switch. If you continue to insist on using it incorrectly, all you will accomplish is making yourself look ignorant (which you are doing a pretty good job of).
Finally, in terms of what Apple is doing here, really, so what? They made some apps, gave them away for free......now they are going to charge for SOME of them and if you really do like them and want the new features, you can choose to buy them. Or if you don't care about them, and say your old software stops working, you can choose to find some other product for free (or even for a cost) to use instead.
You know, isn't the same complaint people had when Apple stopped including MacWrite and MacPaint for free with Macs in the 80's and started selling them.....and with Claris, I remember a lot of people getting pissed off about the prospect of people having to pay for software that they used to get for free.
Something worth noting....Apple isn't the only company that makes software for the Mac. If you don't want to pay for software that Apple makes, don't buy it. Use free or shareware software, or even buy shareware or third party software.
Frankly, I imagine this decision will actually HELP the Mac platform as a whole. When you give away everything for free, there's less incentive for third parties to develop competing products.....unless you do something really special, people will just continue using the free software instead of considering some third party software.
In this case, the logical reaction is that more developers will perhaps be interested in competing head-on with the iApps, instead of just saying "nah, I'm not going to bother writing my own photo management software".
Of course, because no other commercial companies ever charge for OS upgrades, or sell any of their software commercially (even, god forbid, software where older versions had been available for free). Only the evil Apple is guilty of that. Good reason to decide not to get an iBook.
Do you even know what "bait and switch" means, or are you just throwing around random terms? Bait and switch would be if Apple perhaps advertised or tried to get you interested in some special functionality to get you to come into a store (or just to their website maybe) but instead of supplying you with what they "baited" you with, they would instead try and sell you something else, usually worse than whatever was being hyped.
All that is being done here is that they used to offer some of these products for free, but with future versions they may start selling them. There's no "bait and switch" going on, and also, if you don't want the newer versions of this software, you'll be able to continue using the free older versions of them for as long as you want.
Thanks, this makes a lot more sense, and clears up why I've always been confused when some products get referred to as vaporware that never seemed like vaporware to me. And that's a good point.....I recall that one of the big points of vaporware specifically was to announce it to make customers think it was coming, and promise it was coming, in order to make sure the customers didn't spend money on some competing product even if it was out there and available.
Just seems kind of bizarre to me......what is really vaporous about it just if it isn't yet available for commercial sale? I always thought the vapor in vaporware referred to it being non-existent, not just not available for sale.
My understanding was always that vaporware was specifically supposed to refer to products that are claimed to exist, and perhaps even exist in some basic stage of development, but are essentially non-existent in any practical term, despite the company's claims it is coming.
The reason I ask is that it seems unusual to list products like the GeForce FX as "vaporware", just as it seems odd to list other products that are merely delayed but clearly do exist realistically.
So, has the definition of vaporware changed to refer to anything that gets delayed, whether or not it exists....or has my understanding of what constitutes vaporware always been incorrect?
-Tom
They weren't saying Civ3: Play the World was the worst game. It won for most disappointing. And they weren't knocking Civ 3 itself, they were knocking the multiplayer expansion. Were you honestly saying you found Civ3's multiplayer expansion to be good and worthwhile and not disappointing? If so, you would seem to be in a small minority of Civ3 fans.
Fortunately there is a project that makes a version of Kazaa with the spyware stripped out. You can get it here: Kazaa Lite. It seems to work just fine.
I'm actually pretty impressed with Kazaa. The only real problem sometime is finding files that are mislabeled (i.e. in Kazaa they are listed as being by one artist but then when you get the actual file it turns out to be someone else).
-Tom
Re:Better go soon if you're interested
on
Review: Solaris
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· Score: 2, Interesting
Hrmm....these viewers that were bored and panned it....would they by any chance be the same viewers that absolutely loved "Dude, Where's My Car?" and gave that movie enough business for them to do a sequel (aptly called "Seriously, Dude, Where's My Car?")?
It's incredible to me how obsessed people are with stating that the movie must be bad because the average filmgoer doesn't get it or is bored by it. Have these people seen what passes for a "hit" movie these days?
Great idea. Of course, this would be something that would actually be useful, enjoyable and pleasant to use, and something people would be willing to pay for, so it seems pretty clear the music industry isn't likely to want to go down this road.
I've seen a few posts here referring to the Two Towers being banned in countries, but not any explanations of why. What's the matter with it that countries would ban it? Is it a violence issue, or something else?
Peter Jackson has acknowledged taking various liberties in doing these film versions, and that would include putting in scenes or events that weren't in the books. Tolkien's own son has said that he doesn't think the books could work literally as films so it is understandable, I think.
Aside from that though, even from seeing the first movie you should have recognized that these are not complete recreations of the books.....many characters and events are being emphasized in different ways, and I have seen a few people complain that the Hobbits seem more like background characters to the more action-oriented characters in the books, and that the movies have a different feel and tone than the books.
Regarding Arwen, Tolkien himself said that he wasn't comfortable writing female characters, but Peter Jackson felt that it made sense to expand Arwen's role. Will have to wait and actually see the movies of course to see how her expanded role plays out.
I really don't see any reason to object to it though. I agree with the general sentiment that an exact literal film of the books would simply not work well. But I think Peter Jackson has captured a lot of the spirit of the books, and that is what is really important.
In the meantime, feel free to look through the various talksbacks on articles about the Two Towers on aintitcool.com.....if I remember correctly there were a lot of discussions about the issue of Arewen in the Two Towers.
What about it bothered you exactly? Music is often re-used, oftentimes with the full consent of the original composers.
Check out Roger Ebert's latest answer man column, where he talks to the people involved with the musical scoring for the Two Towers trailer and how it came to be:
Would be funnier if there was even one Apple switch ad that featured a so-called "elitist" Apple user. As it is, it's a stupid and ignorant parody based on the false stereotype of elitist Apple users, just about the same level as all the other stupid parodies of the switch campaign based on the false stereotype that all Mac users are idiots.
Don't be daft. There's nothing about the apple switch ads that say they represent typical Mac users.........they are a wide selection of different kinds of people with different careers, personalities, etc. (even a few celebrities like De La Soul and Yo Yo Ma).
Of course it's funny to ignore the ad campaign as a whole to make a snarky comment about how this ad is somehow supposed to be representing the entire "market" of Mac users, but fortunately most people are typically intelligent enough to understand the campaign as a whole. That all you can take from it is that you think this one ad as part of a larger campaign is somehow supposed to represent the typical Mac users says a lot about your own intelligence.
Have you considered that she wrote a letter for the switch campaign as part of the requirement for BEING in the commercial? All it says is that they probably wanted her to write a letter detailing the same story she described for the ad. Nothing to indicate the story isn't true, nor any reason for it to be.
Ahh, gotcha, sorry for misunderstanding you......as a fellow Newton user I'm sure you can understand my knee-jerk reaction though, I still have to put up with rubes and their "oh, the newton? isn't that the crappy PDA that couldn't recognize your handwriting?"....:)
I see what you mean.....that was always an interesting thing about the Newton, that it was more of a unique platform than just the PIM-category that the early PalmPilots filled.
I still think the Newton OS was one of the most innovative and interesting platforms that has been developed by anyone in the past decade and a half or so.
I'm just hoping that some elements of the Newton continue to make it into some future device. There has to be a reason Apple put the Ink handwriting recognition into OS X beyond just letting you enter text with a graphics tablet.
Slashdot Mirror
But of all of this, Safari is the coolest. I know "a new web browser" isn't exactly earth shattering news, but this is really nice to have. I am running Safari now, and I love the little UI touches, and the speed of it is great.....it has replaced Chimera for me. So far I've encountered only one site which didn't display properly (on gamespot.com, the login fields distorted the grey graphic they were on), so I clicked the little Bug reporting button and submitted it......quick and painless.
So far I'm really impressed though. A new web browser may not be exciting, but since this is one of the main apps I use, having something that is really fast and slick is very nice.
Thumbs up!
-Tom
Pretty good hands on review of the GBA SP at GameSpot, includes reports on the backlight (looks good from almost any angle), the comfort-level of it (more comfortable than they were expecting, including the shoulder buttons).
Just figure this is interesting since I think some people are jumping too quickly to conclusions just based on photos, and it helps to consider the difference between how something looks and how it actually feels.
-Tom
-Tom
With all the people buying fancy color cellphones to play games on, it only makes sense for Nintendo to go after this market more directly.
-Tom
-Tom
According to the USA Today article, 18 hours with the backlight off, and 10 hours with the backlight on. Note that this new unit has rechargheable batteries as well. My game gear's battery life sucked......so I understand why Nintendo waited until they could provide a good solution. If it's anything like the afterburner, hopefully it won't have the washed out look my gamegear had either. -Tom
Also, Write essentially does still exist today, in the form of AppleWorks (whose word processing component is the successor to ClarisWorks which inherited the functionality of MacWrite). And it is certainly vastly better today than the original MacWrite, but certainly not vastly better than MS Word v.X.
-Tom
Also, exactly which iApps so far have stopped working after major upgrades to OS X?
Your definition of bait and switch is incorrect. As much as you may wish to change it, terms do have standard definitions. And this isn't a case of bait and switch. If you continue to insist on using it incorrectly, all you will accomplish is making yourself look ignorant (which you are doing a pretty good job of).
Finally, in terms of what Apple is doing here, really, so what? They made some apps, gave them away for free......now they are going to charge for SOME of them and if you really do like them and want the new features, you can choose to buy them. Or if you don't care about them, and say your old software stops working, you can choose to find some other product for free (or even for a cost) to use instead.
-Tom
Something worth noting....Apple isn't the only company that makes software for the Mac. If you don't want to pay for software that Apple makes, don't buy it. Use free or shareware software, or even buy shareware or third party software.
Frankly, I imagine this decision will actually HELP the Mac platform as a whole. When you give away everything for free, there's less incentive for third parties to develop competing products.....unless you do something really special, people will just continue using the free software instead of considering some third party software.
In this case, the logical reaction is that more developers will perhaps be interested in competing head-on with the iApps, instead of just saying "nah, I'm not going to bother writing my own photo management software".
-Tom
-Tom
All that is being done here is that they used to offer some of these products for free, but with future versions they may start selling them. There's no "bait and switch" going on, and also, if you don't want the newer versions of this software, you'll be able to continue using the free older versions of them for as long as you want.
-Tom
-Tom
-Tom
My understanding was always that vaporware was specifically supposed to refer to products that are claimed to exist, and perhaps even exist in some basic stage of development, but are essentially non-existent in any practical term, despite the company's claims it is coming. The reason I ask is that it seems unusual to list products like the GeForce FX as "vaporware", just as it seems odd to list other products that are merely delayed but clearly do exist realistically. So, has the definition of vaporware changed to refer to anything that gets delayed, whether or not it exists....or has my understanding of what constitutes vaporware always been incorrect? -Tom
-Tom
Fortunately there is a project that makes a version of Kazaa with the spyware stripped out. You can get it here: Kazaa Lite. It seems to work just fine.
I'm actually pretty impressed with Kazaa. The only real problem sometime is finding files that are mislabeled (i.e. in Kazaa they are listed as being by one artist but then when you get the actual file it turns out to be someone else).
-Tom
It's incredible to me how obsessed people are with stating that the movie must be bad because the average filmgoer doesn't get it or is bored by it. Have these people seen what passes for a "hit" movie these days?
-Tom
-Tom
-Tom
Aside from that though, even from seeing the first movie you should have recognized that these are not complete recreations of the books.....many characters and events are being emphasized in different ways, and I have seen a few people complain that the Hobbits seem more like background characters to the more action-oriented characters in the books, and that the movies have a different feel and tone than the books.
Regarding Arwen, Tolkien himself said that he wasn't comfortable writing female characters, but Peter Jackson felt that it made sense to expand Arwen's role. Will have to wait and actually see the movies of course to see how her expanded role plays out.
I really don't see any reason to object to it though. I agree with the general sentiment that an exact literal film of the books would simply not work well. But I think Peter Jackson has captured a lot of the spirit of the books, and that is what is really important.
In the meantime, feel free to look through the various talksbacks on articles about the Two Towers on aintitcool.com.....if I remember correctly there were a lot of discussions about the issue of Arewen in the Two Towers.
-Tom
Check out Roger Ebert's latest answer man column, where he talks to the people involved with the musical scoring for the Two Towers trailer and how it came to be:
Roger Ebert Column on The Music for the Two Towers Trailer
-Tom
-Tom
Of course it's funny to ignore the ad campaign as a whole to make a snarky comment about how this ad is somehow supposed to be representing the entire "market" of Mac users, but fortunately most people are typically intelligent enough to understand the campaign as a whole. That all you can take from it is that you think this one ad as part of a larger campaign is somehow supposed to represent the typical Mac users says a lot about your own intelligence.
-Tom
-Tom
I see what you mean.....that was always an interesting thing about the Newton, that it was more of a unique platform than just the PIM-category that the early PalmPilots filled.
I still think the Newton OS was one of the most innovative and interesting platforms that has been developed by anyone in the past decade and a half or so.
I'm just hoping that some elements of the Newton continue to make it into some future device. There has to be a reason Apple put the Ink handwriting recognition into OS X beyond just letting you enter text with a graphics tablet.
-Tom