"It's also likely that Apple's Big 4 contract contains a "non-disclosure clause", prohibiting Mr. Jobs/Apple (or any other parties to the contract) from disclosing to the public any specific terms of the contract."
Well he disclosed that they he had only so many days to plug DRM leaks before they could pull their catalogs. I highly doubt the contract says you can disclose that little tidbit, but not the bit about everyone must use DRM even if not on our label.
"No one is advocating scrapping the public health system."
That is precisely what Tom Flanagan, Harpers closest adviser, advocates.
-- not to mention Flanagan himself. He has never blanched at owning up to his most contentious beliefs: scrapping medicare in favour of personal medical savings accounts --
There are independant labels/bands that want their music DRM free on iTunes but they are ignored.
If jobs really wants to follow words with meaningful action. He needs to create a DRM free zone on iTunes.
There has been speculation that his Big 4 contract forbids this. If this is the case he needs to come clean on that stipulation.
The other supporting argument is that it would be too confusing. That doesn't wash IMO. Create a separate section: "iTunes Unlimited" that groups the DRM free tunes together and explains the implications.
Otherwise, Apple disallowing bands/labels to choose to be DRM free, completely undermines his statement.
"You're essentially blaming the rich for being rich. That's pretty lame."
No I am saying anyone in favor of private health care accounts (that screw the poor and middle class) is essentially as selfish bastard and also rich. I have no problem with the rich who understand that it is better for everyone if we have social programs like medicare.
I would be better off if we scrapped all social programs, let everyone keep the money instead of taxing them for these programs. Then fend for themselves when illness or tragedy struck. I would come out ahead on this, but a big swath of people would not, and suffer under such a system.
IMO anyone who advocates for the increased suffering of others so he can have a few more dollars in his pocket is a greedy selfish, mean spirited bastard.
"Yeah, it would be pretty terrible if the residents of a free country could legally spend their own money on decent health care services"
Nothing stops you from spending money on health care. You can always jump the queue by going to the US if you have a lot of money. Harpers mentors pet project is to get rid of medicare and replace it with private health care accounts. In other words the end to universal health care and millions of uncovered Canadians.
I am sure that sounds wonderful to selfish rich bastards.
The parallels between Harpers Administration and the Bush administration are almost universal. Except that Harper is actually more the brilliant strategist like Karl Rove than he is a Bush like figure. He keeps an extremely tight reign on the press and his MPs. The only info that you get from the conservatives is completely vetted by Harper. Harper is the new conservative party.
I have a lot of respect for his ability. Which is the scary part, because I completely oppose him. Nothing is more frightening, than a very skilled operator who opposes everything you believe.
The more I observe, the more I am convinced that we are going to wake up and say how did we elect Harper twice? The first time everyone understands. It was a time to punish the liberals for scandal(though I still voted Liberal). This time I expect ultra slick campaigning from Harper, a wedge issue here and there. The attack ads from the Conservatives have already started. Brilliant really keeps the Liberals from wanting to force an election. If they do you have a head start.
Years of watching US politics has me well versed in the Karl Rove play book, but I don't think most Canadians will see it that way. His base will get energized by the wedge issues, the attack adds and their attempt to paint themselves green will win over the middle.
Harper majority? Can you say private health care accounts? Scary times.
I see a lot of people here stating that Bill Gates said the same, but they provided no reference. So I went looking.It all leads back to blog entry below. From reading this it sounds like Bill Gates is not against DRM, just the current DRM. His short term suggestion for music. Is to buy a CD and rip it, to avoid all that nasty DRM. That most of that nasty music DRM that you would be avoiding in the short term is Apples, is only a bonus I am sure.
Now it is hard to judge by these quotes that may have transcription problems, but this is in no way denigrating DRM on Bills part. Just current implementations, of which no doubt Vista is getting closer to DRM nirvana. Every time I see Bill Gates speak, he is exactly like a politician, trying to sound out on both sides of issues while ultimately saying nothing.
Steve Jobs OTOH, is posting clearly without reservation what his stance is on DRM. So this is refreshingly different that Gates comments.
http://www.techcrunch.com/2006/12/14/bill-gates-on -the-future-of-drm/ " Gates said that no one is satisfied with the current state of DRM, which "causes too much pain for legitmate buyers" while trying to distinguish between legal and illegal uses. He says no one has done it right, yet. There are "huge problems" with DRM, he says, and "we need more flexible models, such as the ability to "buy an artist out for life" (not sure what he means). He also criticized DRM schemes that try to install intelligence in each copy so that it is device specific.
His short term advice: "People should just buy a cd and rip it. You are legal then."
He ended by saying "DRM is not where it should be, but you won't get me to say that there should be usage models and different payment models for usage. At the end of the day, incentive systems do make a difference, but we don't have it right with incentives or interoperability." "
Well as with all statistics you can attempt to tilt it one way or another by looking at one small slice and ignoring the rest. Also this is very fluid. BTW have a look at the combined top 10: http://www.eproductwars.com/dvd/Top.cfm
7 of the top 10 are Blu Ray titles. HD has the number one with "The Departed", but 2-5 are all Blu Ray and 3-5 maybe unique to Blu Ray titles. That would be a big factor if choosing today. They are really close in sales but Blu Ray has more unique titles.
The one thing you can draw is that it IS VERY CLOSE right now.
For those discounting PS3s impact. I have neither system, my last console was a Coleco Vision. If I were to buy an HD player today, I would get a PS3 as it is the same price as an HD player and I get game machine thrown in for free. Also PS3 will be on the market for years to come, I am assured of future upgrades/patches/improvements for years to come. I bet a lot of people are considering this.
This has been hyped every few months (VC funding cycles?) for a couple of years now. I remember it was supposed to be in Cars last year, I expect I may be saying that next year as well. As of yet they have not delivered a single testable capacitor for anyone to test. I am not talking about a car sized unit, I am talking the smallest cell that delivers on any of the extraordinary claims.
I have seen a couple of people with some related physics knowledge examine the claims and indicate they can't see this happening.
To me it looks like an appeal to greed from VC vultures. Though I won't shed tears for them.
If the claims were true, they could submit one small capacitor for testing and the floodgates of money would open. The claims are revolutionary. But the behavior is not that of scientific breakthrough, it is more like trust us, it is great. Those who are smart enough to trust us will get the privilege of giving us their money.
I expect that if they do eventually deliver something it will turn out to be in line with the energy density of other ultra capacitors, there will excuses about production problems, perhaps indications that it will get better in the future, but they will have received the cash to get their business off the ground.
Jobs has stated that if they didn't announce it, there would be a leak when they went for FCC approval. In that case it makes perfect sense to release while they can still surprise.
"Restructuring of Canon's ownership position does not resolve the pending litigation which goes to trial in a few weeks," said Tom Bijou, Chief Executive Officer of Nano-Proprietary, Inc. "We have terminated Canon's license as a result of breach of contract. Moreover, our complaint against Canon includes other counts, including fraud unrelated to the ownership of SED. We are, however, willing to enter into a new license agreement with Canon on reasonable terms."
From all I have found, the fraud appears to be related to the inclusion of Toshiba without Nano-P knowledge, now that it is a wholly owned Canon venture that has yet to deliver a product, that seems rather scurrilous. It looks like an attempt to renegotiate (extort) for more money now that Canon is getting close to a real product. SED may wither on the vine if this keeps up. With years of development, I would be certain Canon has it's own IP portfolio that would pretty much eliminate anyone else going forward. This is already going to be in a niche product over the price point of most. Don't hold your breath on these. I am thinking Toshiba was happy to get out.
I don't even own a cell phone, but when I saw it, I wanted one.
It covered most of the electronics I use at home and let me go mobile with it. Telephone: Voice calls: check Computer,Stereo, TV: Music: Check, Images: Check, Video: Check, Surf net: Check, Games: ??? Likely.
So it fits in my pocket and gives me all the geek access (time suckers) when I am outdoors. Hmmmm.
As soon as I saw the iPhone announcement yesterday along with the Cisco "we are close to agreement", I thought WTF Apple screwed up here, but not locking this down.
The pattern I see from those in the denial business is not one of serious honest skepticism, but of cheap shots, hazy generalizations, unsupported assertions, cherry picking research data out of context etc. There is no new facts that they wish to present. They only wish to undermine the facts of human influence on climate change.
To counter information about melting glaciers they will point out that certain parts of Greenland has accumulating glaciers, but they leave out the information that this was predicted as the edges of the glacier melt more rapidly and result in more snowfall inland. The also leave out that there is still a net loss.
Another ridiculous claim was that 1998 was the hottest year and we have not been getting hotter since and therefore climate models are broken (I saw this in a newspaper article in the last few months) It neglects that 1998 had a strong El Nino and thus was somewhat anomalous, and that 2005 was as hot or even hotter than 1998 (depending on data, google hottest year on record) or that 2006 was quite warm and turns out it will now have the record.
Bottom Line: We dump billions of tons of C02 (heat trapping gas) into the atmosphere annually and it is accumulating. How could this not be having an effect? Wishful thinking?
I think we owe to future generations to at least make an effort to slow the damage we are doing.
Higher energy taxes, more renewables, more nuclear plants, higher CAFE standards would be a start. The climate deniers will whine that this might cost the economy $$$, but seriously do you really think it will be that much of a net cost, how about the Trillion dollars spent on misadventures in Iraq? Would it cost more than that?
Consider the trade deficit benefits of importing less oil, the price for oil would probably drop along with this further improving the deficit. Conservation efforts will have offsetting economic benefits. Putting money into locally constructed nuclear or renewables is money kept in country and not sent out to purchase oil from volatile regions.
Until we find Earth 2, we need to treat Earth 1 with a tad more respect.
I am waiting for the same thing, but I will only wait so long. IMO midtowers are the meat of the market. To increase market share they don't have to open the OS to Dell. They just have to build a mid tower.
Not everyone wants in integrated monitor (I don't) and that only leaves the sky high priced Pro and the laptop without a screen Mini.
Give me a mid tower, dress it like a cube if you have to, but give me a computer I can put 2 3.5" HDs in and that has a real vid card and accessible Ram at a reasonable price. A standard low/mid-range computer.
I work developing CDMA network controller software, and I have never owned a cellphone, but this is the first time I really wanted one of these devices.
Apple still has the magic. I am extremely impressed with the overall packaging and integration. Cingular really scored getting this halo product. Naturally I would have preferred to see this integrated with a CDMA network because I think high end customers will follow this device and away from CDMA networks that I develop for. Probably a small effect in the end but still, I might have been able to get one through work for testing if they had gone CDMA.:-)
I have never owned an Apple product yet but with their continued design excellence, I think it is only a matter of time.
The gaping hole I see in the lineup is between the Mini and the Pro. The mini doesn't come close to meeting my needs.
I need real HD space. Minimum: room for two 3.5" HDs INSIDE the machine. I also need a real vid card.
For a little more $$$ (or maybe even less) than a mini you could have a mini tower that would easily fit the bill. Maybe a return of the cube. Actually the mini is made more expensive than it needs to be by using laptop components. Laptop HD cost more money and have smaller capacity, the slimline DVD burner also cost more than a standard full height model.
There is nothing in the Mac HW line that suits my needs.
Mini - Underpowered video and no HD space, PITA to upgrade even the RAM. iMac - I don't want an all in one. Pro - insanely overpriced, overkill.
The meet of the market is small towers or equivalent. Something that RAM and HD can easily be upgraded with a real Video Card. A mini tower or a cube or whatever. But something that meets these needs.
I agree. Apple sells a well integrated system and that is big part of the appeal.
The shallow view is that Apple would benefit by opening up the OS to third party use or a free for all. Though if you look at in depth, it is hard to see how.
Contrary to popular (shallow) misconception, everyone will not run out to buy a copy of OSX and install it on their computer. The vast majority do not reinstall an OS ever. The demographic that do overlaps strongly with the demographic that don't pay for it.
Giving Dell the OS would amount to turning Macs from a premium product to commodity. That is a downward spiral. The end of Apples HW business eventually.
If Apple wanted to grow market share dramatically there is a much better solution than giving the OS to Dell. They can simply make a lower end tower model themselves that would result in huge sales bump. That is a big gap in their lineup and essentially is the meat of the regular PC market. Maybe they are loathe to do this as it would threaten mac pro sales. I don't know, but it is frustrating as this is what it would take to get me into a Mac. But I will probably get yet another PC because this model is missing.
The current price advantage of HD is temporary. Once PS3 is widely available you will have HD game machine and BR player for the price of stand alone HD player and standalone players will fall in price as time passes, converging at some point. So the price advantage is temporary at best.
The greater capacity of BR is something that will remain and since everything else is essentially the same (codecs,resolution,DRM) I would likewise choose BR for the greater capacity, especially when I think that someday this will become a new optical disk writer for my computer as well.
I also think these dual everything (disks and players) don't end the format war; they prolong it.
"The jump on New Caprica was jarring, true, but necessary to make the storyline elements work."
Needed to make what work? They pretty much did a complete undo on this arc. I found it jarring because it was comically, badly done, this was a turning point in the wrong direction for me. The characters all seemed off character and they went to the cheese closet to point out the passage of time with mustaches (Adama), fat suits (Apollo), and hair extensions (Starbuck). Then post "New Caprica" they get rid of the extra hair and the fat suit within the arc. Strong Fromage.
The problem I have is both sides seem less interesting now. The Baltar dynamic has been removed from the humans and replaced with melodrama; who will Starbuck Frak next? Yippee: Days of our Battlestar lives.
A lot of the sense of mystery has been removed from the cylons with Baltar wandering among them.
As far as it being the best Drama on TV, "Deadwood", and "The Wire" were/are much better dramas which much more believable characters. I am sure other people can list more. As a drama it would not be high on my list.
I watched it initially because it was a great SciFi show with gritty feel, great unfolding cyclon mystery and good tension with traitor/crazy Baltar among the humans. Now most of that has been lost to be replaced with more melodrama. I think this is a result of them running out of ideas and trying to stretch for more seasons. Sad.
I am a huge fan of BSG, and have watched every episode since the mini series, but I am not surprised the ratings are in decline. This season has lost it's way. Baltar was great when he was among the humans with the cylon in his head frakking with his brain. Now among the cylons he is quite uninteresting.
Other than that they really seem to be pushing the preachy morality play of the week. I think the listened too much to the critics who liked them touching "real issues" and now they have gone overboard on the "real issues" and the story and characters seem to be suffering, so much so that I have a hard time buying their actions. It is just not as good this season. I hope they get back to form soon.
They shouldn't try to drag this on endlessly, when the story is over they should stop and not inject filler seasons that increasingly make it unrealistic. I would rather have 3 or 4 good season ended properly rather than dragged out mediocre 5 or 6 seasons.
I expect modding down from fans who will claim it is better than ever.
Slashdot Mirror
"It's also likely that Apple's Big 4 contract contains a "non-disclosure clause", prohibiting Mr. Jobs/Apple (or any other parties to the contract) from disclosing to the public any specific terms of the contract."
Well he disclosed that they he had only so many days to plug DRM leaks before they could pull their catalogs. I highly doubt the contract says you can disclose that little tidbit, but not the bit about everyone must use DRM even if not on our label.
"No one is advocating scrapping the public health system."
t ephen_Harper.htm
That is precisely what Tom Flanagan, Harpers closest adviser, advocates.
-- not to mention Flanagan himself. He has never blanched at owning up to his most contentious beliefs: scrapping medicare in favour of personal medical savings accounts --
http://www.notacolony.ca/101104A_The_Man_Behind_S
There are independant labels/bands that want their music DRM free on iTunes but they are ignored.
If jobs really wants to follow words with meaningful action. He needs to create a DRM free zone on iTunes.
There has been speculation that his Big 4 contract forbids this. If this is the case he needs to come clean on that stipulation.
The other supporting argument is that it would be too confusing. That doesn't wash IMO. Create a separate section: "iTunes Unlimited" that groups the DRM free tunes together and explains the implications.
Otherwise, Apple disallowing bands/labels to choose to be DRM free, completely undermines his statement.
"You're essentially blaming the rich for being rich. That's pretty lame."
No I am saying anyone in favor of private health care accounts (that screw the poor and middle class) is essentially as selfish bastard and also rich. I have no problem with the rich who understand that it is better for everyone if we have social programs like medicare.
I would be better off if we scrapped all social programs, let everyone keep the money instead of taxing them for these programs. Then fend for themselves when illness or tragedy struck. I would come out ahead on this, but a big swath of people would not, and suffer under such a system.
IMO anyone who advocates for the increased suffering of others so he can have a few more dollars in his pocket is a greedy selfish, mean spirited bastard.
Clear now?
"Yeah, it would be pretty terrible if the residents of a free country could legally spend their own money on decent health care services"
Nothing stops you from spending money on health care. You can always jump the queue by going to the US if you have a lot of money. Harpers mentors pet project is to get rid of medicare and replace it with private health care accounts. In other words the end to universal health care and millions of uncovered Canadians.
I am sure that sounds wonderful to selfish rich bastards.
The parallels between Harpers Administration and the Bush administration are almost universal. Except that Harper is actually more the brilliant strategist like Karl Rove than he is a Bush like figure. He keeps an extremely tight reign on the press and his MPs. The only info that you get from the conservatives is completely vetted by Harper. Harper is the new conservative party.
I have a lot of respect for his ability. Which is the scary part, because I completely oppose him. Nothing is more frightening, than a very skilled operator who opposes everything you believe.
The more I observe, the more I am convinced that we are going to wake up and say how did we elect Harper twice? The first time everyone understands. It was a time to punish the liberals for scandal(though I still voted Liberal). This time I expect ultra slick campaigning from Harper, a wedge issue here and there. The attack ads from the Conservatives have already started. Brilliant really keeps the Liberals from wanting to force an election. If they do you have a head start.
Years of watching US politics has me well versed in the Karl Rove play book, but I don't think most Canadians will see it that way. His base will get energized by the wedge issues, the attack adds and their attempt to paint themselves green will win over the middle.
Harper majority? Can you say private health care accounts? Scary times.
I see a lot of people here stating that Bill Gates said the same, but they provided no reference. So I went looking.It all leads back to blog entry below. From reading this it sounds like Bill Gates is not against DRM, just the current DRM. His short term suggestion for music. Is to buy a CD and rip it, to avoid all that nasty DRM. That most of that nasty music DRM that you would be avoiding in the short term is Apples, is only a bonus I am sure.
n -the-future-of-drm/
Now it is hard to judge by these quotes that may have transcription problems, but this is in no way denigrating DRM on Bills part. Just current implementations, of which no doubt Vista is getting closer to DRM nirvana. Every time I see Bill Gates speak, he is exactly like a politician, trying to sound out on both sides of issues while ultimately saying nothing.
Steve Jobs OTOH, is posting clearly without reservation what his stance is on DRM. So this is refreshingly different that Gates comments.
http://www.techcrunch.com/2006/12/14/bill-gates-o
"
Gates said that no one is satisfied with the current state of DRM, which "causes too much pain for legitmate buyers" while trying to distinguish between legal and illegal uses. He says no one has done it right, yet. There are "huge problems" with DRM, he says, and "we need more flexible models, such as the ability to "buy an artist out for life" (not sure what he means). He also criticized DRM schemes that try to install intelligence in each copy so that it is device specific.
His short term advice: "People should just buy a cd and rip it. You are legal then."
He ended by saying "DRM is not where it should be, but you won't get me to say that there should be usage models and different payment models for usage. At the end of the day, incentive systems do make a difference, but we don't have it right with incentives or interoperability."
"
Well as with all statistics you can attempt to tilt it one way or another by looking at one small slice and ignoring the rest. Also this is very fluid.
BTW have a look at the combined top 10:
http://www.eproductwars.com/dvd/Top.cfm
7 of the top 10 are Blu Ray titles. HD has the number one with "The Departed", but 2-5 are all Blu Ray and 3-5 maybe unique to Blu Ray titles. That would be a big factor if choosing today. They are really close in sales but Blu Ray has more unique titles.
The one thing you can draw is that it IS VERY CLOSE right now.
For those discounting PS3s impact. I have neither system, my last console was a Coleco Vision. If I were to buy an HD player today, I would get a PS3 as it is the same price as an HD player and I get game machine thrown in for free. Also PS3 will be on the market for years to come, I am assured of future upgrades/patches/improvements for years to come. I bet a lot of people are considering this.
http://www.eproductwars.com/dvd/
From the looks of things it is extremely close, Blu Ray is coming on strong recently.
Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.
This has been hyped every few months (VC funding cycles?) for a couple of years now. I remember it was supposed to be in Cars last year, I expect I may be saying that next year as well. As of yet they have not delivered a single testable capacitor for anyone to test. I am not talking about a car sized unit, I am talking the smallest cell that delivers on any of the extraordinary claims.
I have seen a couple of people with some related physics knowledge examine the claims and indicate they can't see this happening.
To me it looks like an appeal to greed from VC vultures. Though I won't shed tears for them.
If the claims were true, they could submit one small capacitor for testing and the floodgates of money would open. The claims are revolutionary. But the behavior is not that of scientific breakthrough, it is more like trust us, it is great. Those who are smart enough to trust us will get the privilege of giving us their money.
I expect that if they do eventually deliver something it will turn out to be in line with the energy density of other ultra capacitors, there will excuses about production problems, perhaps indications that it will get better in the future, but they will have received the cash to get their business off the ground.
"So really, it's more like 2.3x the density of Li-ion. dunno, that doesn't seem that far to me."
But it is around a factor of 50 over other ultracaps.
Jobs has stated that if they didn't announce it, there would be a leak when they went for FCC approval. In that case it makes perfect sense to release while they can still surprise.
From the reaction, they chose correctly.
http://www.webwire.com/ViewPressRel.asp?aId=26219
"Restructuring of Canon's ownership position does not resolve the pending litigation which goes to trial in a few weeks," said Tom Bijou, Chief Executive Officer of Nano-Proprietary, Inc. "We have terminated Canon's license as a result of breach of contract. Moreover, our complaint against Canon includes other counts, including fraud unrelated to the ownership of SED. We are, however, willing to enter into a new license agreement with Canon on reasonable terms."
From all I have found, the fraud appears to be related to the inclusion of Toshiba without Nano-P knowledge, now that it is a wholly owned Canon venture that has yet to deliver a product, that seems rather scurrilous. It looks like an attempt to renegotiate (extort) for more money now that Canon is getting close to a real product. SED may wither on the vine if this keeps up. With years of development, I would be certain Canon has it's own IP portfolio that would pretty much eliminate anyone else going forward. This is already going to be in a niche product over the price point of most. Don't hold your breath on these. I am thinking Toshiba was happy to get out.
I don't even own a cell phone, but when I saw it, I wanted one.
It covered most of the electronics I use at home and let me go mobile with it.
Telephone: Voice calls: check
Computer,Stereo, TV: Music: Check, Images: Check, Video: Check, Surf net: Check, Games: ??? Likely.
So it fits in my pocket and gives me all the geek access (time suckers) when I am outdoors. Hmmmm.
Keep that damn evil thing away from me....
As soon as I saw the iPhone announcement yesterday along with the Cisco "we are close to agreement", I thought WTF Apple screwed up here, but not locking this down.
So no surprise on this lawsuit.
The pattern I see from those in the denial business is not one of serious honest skepticism, but of cheap shots, hazy generalizations, unsupported assertions, cherry picking research data out of context etc. There is no new facts that they wish to present. They only wish to undermine the facts of human influence on climate change.
To counter information about melting glaciers they will point out that certain parts of Greenland has accumulating glaciers, but they leave out the information that this was predicted as the edges of the glacier melt more rapidly and result in more snowfall inland. The also leave out that there is still a net loss.
Another ridiculous claim was that 1998 was the hottest year and we have not been getting hotter since and therefore climate models are broken (I saw this in a newspaper article in the last few months) It neglects that 1998 had a strong El Nino and thus was somewhat anomalous, and that 2005 was as hot or even hotter than 1998 (depending on data, google hottest year on record) or that 2006 was quite warm and turns out it will now have the record.
Bottom Line: We dump billions of tons of C02 (heat trapping gas) into the atmosphere annually and it is accumulating. How could this not be having an effect? Wishful thinking?
I think we owe to future generations to at least make an effort to slow the damage we are doing.
Higher energy taxes, more renewables, more nuclear plants, higher CAFE standards would be a start. The climate deniers will whine that this might cost the economy $$$, but seriously do you really think it will be that much of a net cost, how about the Trillion dollars spent on misadventures in Iraq? Would it cost more than that?
Consider the trade deficit benefits of importing less oil, the price for oil would probably drop along with this further improving the deficit. Conservation efforts will have offsetting economic benefits. Putting money into locally constructed nuclear or renewables is money kept in country and not sent out to purchase oil from volatile regions.
Until we find Earth 2, we need to treat Earth 1 with a tad more respect.
"Way no head less mid-rage mac?"
I am waiting for the same thing, but I will only wait so long. IMO midtowers are the meat of the market. To increase market share they don't have to open the OS to Dell. They just have to build a mid tower.
Not everyone wants in integrated monitor (I don't) and that only leaves the sky high priced Pro and the laptop without a screen Mini.
Give me a mid tower, dress it like a cube if you have to, but give me a computer I can put 2 3.5" HDs in and that has a real vid card and accessible Ram at a reasonable price. A standard low/mid-range computer.
I work developing CDMA network controller software, and I have never owned a cellphone, but this is the first time I really wanted one of these devices.
:-)
Apple still has the magic. I am extremely impressed with the overall packaging and integration. Cingular really scored getting this halo product. Naturally I would have preferred to see this integrated with a CDMA network because I think high end customers will follow this device and away from CDMA networks that I develop for. Probably a small effect in the end but still, I might have been able to get one through work for testing if they had gone CDMA.
I have never owned an Apple product yet but with their continued design excellence, I think it is only a matter of time.
The gaping hole I see in the lineup is between the Mini and the Pro. The mini doesn't come close to meeting my needs.
I need real HD space. Minimum: room for two 3.5" HDs INSIDE the machine.
I also need a real vid card.
For a little more $$$ (or maybe even less) than a mini you could have a mini tower that would easily fit the bill. Maybe a return of the cube. Actually the mini is made more expensive than it needs to be by using laptop components. Laptop HD cost more money and have smaller capacity, the slimline DVD burner also cost more than a standard full height model.
There is nothing in the Mac HW line that suits my needs.
Mini - Underpowered video and no HD space, PITA to upgrade even the RAM.
iMac - I don't want an all in one.
Pro - insanely overpriced, overkill.
The meet of the market is small towers or equivalent. Something that RAM and HD can easily be upgraded with a real Video Card. A mini tower or a cube or whatever. But something that meets these needs.
Cheers...
I agree. Apple sells a well integrated system and that is big part of the appeal.
The shallow view is that Apple would benefit by opening up the OS to third party use or a free for all. Though if you look at in depth, it is hard to see how.
Contrary to popular (shallow) misconception, everyone will not run out to buy a copy of OSX and install it on their computer. The vast majority do not reinstall an OS ever. The demographic that do overlaps strongly with the demographic that don't pay for it.
Giving Dell the OS would amount to turning Macs from a premium product to commodity. That is a downward spiral. The end of Apples HW business eventually.
If Apple wanted to grow market share dramatically there is a much better solution than giving the OS to Dell. They can simply make a lower end tower model themselves that would result in huge sales bump. That is a big gap in their lineup and essentially is the meat of the regular PC market. Maybe they are loathe to do this as it would threaten mac pro sales. I don't know, but it is frustrating as this is what it would take to get me into a Mac. But I will probably get yet another PC because this model is missing.
The current price advantage of HD is temporary. Once PS3 is widely available you will have HD game machine and BR player for the price of stand alone HD player and standalone players will fall in price as time passes, converging at some point. So the price advantage is temporary at best.
The greater capacity of BR is something that will remain and since everything else is essentially the same (codecs,resolution,DRM) I would likewise choose BR for the greater capacity, especially when I think that someday this will become a new optical disk writer for my computer as well.
I also think these dual everything (disks and players) don't end the format war; they prolong it.
"The jump on New Caprica was jarring, true, but necessary to make the storyline elements work."
Needed to make what work? They pretty much did a complete undo on this arc. I found it jarring because it was comically, badly done, this was a turning point in the wrong direction for me. The characters all seemed off character and they went to the cheese closet to point out the passage of time with mustaches (Adama), fat suits (Apollo), and hair extensions (Starbuck). Then post "New Caprica" they get rid of the extra hair and the fat suit within the arc. Strong Fromage.
Ouch. I had assumed they had a full story arc in mind, especially when the tag line for the Cylons is "and they have a plan".
It is pretty sad that the writers don't.
The problem I have is both sides seem less interesting now. The Baltar dynamic has been removed from the humans and replaced with melodrama; who will Starbuck Frak next? Yippee: Days of our Battlestar lives.
A lot of the sense of mystery has been removed from the cylons with Baltar wandering among them.
As far as it being the best Drama on TV, "Deadwood", and "The Wire" were/are much better dramas which much more believable characters. I am sure other people can list more. As a drama it would not be high on my list.
I watched it initially because it was a great SciFi show with gritty feel, great unfolding cyclon mystery and good tension with traitor/crazy Baltar among the humans. Now most of that has been lost to be replaced with more melodrama. I think this is a result of them running out of ideas and trying to stretch for more seasons. Sad.
I am a huge fan of BSG, and have watched every episode since the mini series, but I am not surprised the ratings are in decline. This season has lost it's way. Baltar was great when he was among the humans with the cylon in his head frakking with his brain. Now among the cylons he is quite uninteresting.
Other than that they really seem to be pushing the preachy morality play of the week. I think the listened too much to the critics who liked them touching "real issues" and now they have gone overboard on the "real issues" and the story and characters seem to be suffering, so much so that I have a hard time buying their actions. It is just not as good this season. I hope they get back to form soon.
They shouldn't try to drag this on endlessly, when the story is over they should stop and not inject filler seasons that increasingly make it unrealistic. I would rather have 3 or 4 good season ended properly rather than dragged out mediocre 5 or 6 seasons.
I expect modding down from fans who will claim it is better than ever.