In the late 1980's I didn't think much of Macs until I noticed HyperCard. I soon realised that it was a unique tool that allowed even a non-programmer like me to create attractive and efficient solutions for tasks that weren't addressed by existing applications. I saw it, spotted it's potential and then tried using it on a Mac that I had occasional access to.
HyperCard was the main reason why I then bought my first Mac in 1989 and I used it extensively until Apple left it out to die through neglect.
Even to this day, there still isn't a proper equivalent to HyperCard and I think that abandoning it was one of Apple's biggest mistakes. These days Apple defines creativity for ordinary users by means of the iApps, it could have been offering a 21st century solution for writing custom applications too if it hadn't thrown it away.
There can be no denying that Steve Jobs raised expectations very high, but that's what he does best.
But since then, there have been countless stories calculated to make the iPhone sound much less attractive. They usually follow a similar script, mentioning the screen that may get scratched, Apple's 'closed' systems, DRM, limited capacity, how touch screens don't have tactile feedback, how expensive it will be, why touch screens don't work and why businessmen won't like iPhones etc.
Although those FUD stories are clearly intended to harm Apple, the net result is that instead of everybody talking about the iPhone for just a few days, they keep the story very much alive so that people will be discussing it for weeks. Furthermore, by dwelling on alarmist negative factors, they are countering Steve Jobs' raised expectations and lowering them.
Now one thing that you can rely on is that when Apple release a product, it will be very well able to do what it's intended to do, so people who read those FUD pieces will start out with somewhat low expectations and then be pleasantly surprised when the screen doesn't actually get scratched, the DRM doesn't get in the way and the touch screen really is an intuitive way to operate it.
One company releases a product and completely eclipses thousands of new products at CES ? I don't see that as a mistake, that was a stroke of genius and the FUD pieces will have lowered expectations, which gives the iPhone more scope to exceed user's expectations and make a much better impression, thereby generating much more of a buzz when people start using them for themselves.
I used to use Premiere before Adobe walked away from the Mac platform. After that, I migrated to FCE, which turned out to be massively more stable, more intuitive and much more versatile. Bearing in mind how much better FCE turned out to be and how little loyalty Adobe showed to it's Mac using customers, there's not the remotest chance that I'll switch back to Premiere.
However, it would be foolish to underplay how important the bundling of Premiere with other creative apps might be. A full-time video editor will choose FCP or Avid, but somebody who merely needs to join some simple video together as part of a multimedia project won't want to pay those sorts of prices, particularly if Premiere is bundled with apps that they really do need.
I have no doubt that there will be a significant number of Premiere users on the Mac platform, but I don't think that many of those users will be people who see video editing as their primary interest.
The hard drive has been cited as the weak link with iPods. If the replacement player is to have similar capacity, it will also need to have a hard drive.
How much more reliable will that hard drive be compared to the ones fitted in an iPod ?
Instead of using the remote control to arm and disarm it, it could offer the ability to have a BlueTooth cellphone paired to it.
If the BlueTooth phone is out of range and the computer is moved, the alarm goes off, but if the phone is nearby when it's moved, it doesn't.
Users end up with much less chance of accidental alarms and much less chance of forgetting to arm the alarm.
Having a modem is like having insurance, you hope not to need it, but when you find that you do need it, you're very glad of it.
Now I'm the first to admit that I rarely use the modem in my PowerBook, but nearly every time that I have used it has been when I expected some sort of broad band service to have been available. If all else fails, you can get a dial-up connection almost anywhere and you can borrow a lead to connect from the local telephone point to a modem too.
My PowerBook has to be squeezed into space with other important stuff. It's simply not practical to take all my accessories with me. The chances are that if I needed a USB modem, it wouldn't be with me, but a built-in modem is always there when you need it.
I like the PCMCIA slots. I've always kept a compact flash reader in mine. If I take a photograph and want to see it on a larger screen, it's easy to pop the card straight onto the PowerBook, you don't need to find that strange USB adaptor lead that came with the camera. As the card reader lives entirely within the slot, you'd hardly know it was there - until you unexpectedly want it.
An ExpressCard slot would be equally acceptable for me, a card reader would almost certainly live in there. But it wouldn't be suitable for a modem as the slot is only 5mm high and if you need to use the modem unexpectedly, the card is unlikely to have a standard phone socket, so you'll still need a special lead, which you probably won't have with you.
I think that the lack of a modem is something that has come from people who move from home to office and on to smart hotels, with WiFi in Starbucks and GPRS for other places. They assume that users spend all their time in the city and never travel to rural areas, or even ( dare I say it ? ) travel abroad !
For some of us who live in the real world, the lack of a modem is a very serious omission.
There have been many suggestions that Steve's keynote at the Expo wasn't the one that he really intended to give as other things had to be withdrawn at the last moment.
So instead of a new Mac mini, video download service and new iPod shuffle, were the gaps left in the keynote filled with a very leisurely stroll through iLife 06 and a preview of the forthcoming MacBook ?
The MacBook certainly comes across as being a product that wasn't originally intended to be announced at that time.
Like all technical journalists, Bill is obliged to put the 'Security through Obscurity ' myth into every article that refers to the absence of viruses on OS X.
It's rather inconvenient for him that at the same time, Microsoft released a security patch for Vista.
Yep - it's not out yet and they're already patching serious security issues.
So let's see. OS X has how many users ? Vista has how many users ?
Vista is massively more obscure than OS X, yet it's already needing urgent patching.
Obscurity AND insecurity is a new concept. How do they explain that ?
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In the late 1980's I didn't think much of Macs until I noticed HyperCard. I soon realised that it was a unique tool that allowed even a non-programmer like me to create attractive and efficient solutions for tasks that weren't addressed by existing applications. I saw it, spotted it's potential and then tried using it on a Mac that I had occasional access to.
HyperCard was the main reason why I then bought my first Mac in 1989 and I used it extensively until Apple left it out to die through neglect.
Even to this day, there still isn't a proper equivalent to HyperCard and I think that abandoning it was one of Apple's biggest mistakes. These days Apple defines creativity for ordinary users by means of the iApps, it could have been offering a 21st century solution for writing custom applications too if it hadn't thrown it away.
There can be no denying that Steve Jobs raised expectations very high, but that's what he does best.
But since then, there have been countless stories calculated to make the iPhone sound much less attractive. They usually follow a similar script, mentioning the screen that may get scratched, Apple's 'closed' systems, DRM, limited capacity, how touch screens don't have tactile feedback, how expensive it will be, why touch screens don't work and why businessmen won't like iPhones etc.
Although those FUD stories are clearly intended to harm Apple, the net result is that instead of everybody talking about the iPhone for just a few days, they keep the story very much alive so that people will be discussing it for weeks. Furthermore, by dwelling on alarmist negative factors, they are countering Steve Jobs' raised expectations and lowering them.
Now one thing that you can rely on is that when Apple release a product, it will be very well able to do what it's intended to do, so people who read those FUD pieces will start out with somewhat low expectations and then be pleasantly surprised when the screen doesn't actually get scratched, the DRM doesn't get in the way and the touch screen really is an intuitive way to operate it.
One company releases a product and completely eclipses thousands of new products at CES ? I don't see that as a mistake, that was a stroke of genius and the FUD pieces will have lowered expectations, which gives the iPhone more scope to exceed user's expectations and make a much better impression, thereby generating much more of a buzz when people start using them for themselves.
I used to use Premiere before Adobe walked away from the Mac platform. After that, I migrated to FCE, which turned out to be massively more stable, more intuitive and much more versatile. Bearing in mind how much better FCE turned out to be and how little loyalty Adobe showed to it's Mac using customers, there's not the remotest chance that I'll switch back to Premiere.
However, it would be foolish to underplay how important the bundling of Premiere with other creative apps might be. A full-time video editor will choose FCP or Avid, but somebody who merely needs to join some simple video together as part of a multimedia project won't want to pay those sorts of prices, particularly if Premiere is bundled with apps that they really do need.
I have no doubt that there will be a significant number of Premiere users on the Mac platform, but I don't think that many of those users will be people who see video editing as their primary interest.
The hard drive has been cited as the weak link with iPods. If the replacement player is to have similar capacity, it will also need to have a hard drive.
How much more reliable will that hard drive be compared to the ones fitted in an iPod ?
Instead of using the remote control to arm and disarm it, it could offer the ability to have a BlueTooth cellphone paired to it. If the BlueTooth phone is out of range and the computer is moved, the alarm goes off, but if the phone is nearby when it's moved, it doesn't. Users end up with much less chance of accidental alarms and much less chance of forgetting to arm the alarm.
Having a modem is like having insurance, you hope not to need it, but when you find that you do need it, you're very glad of it.
Now I'm the first to admit that I rarely use the modem in my PowerBook, but nearly every time that I have used it has been when I expected some sort of broad band service to have been available. If all else fails, you can get a dial-up connection almost anywhere and you can borrow a lead to connect from the local telephone point to a modem too.
My PowerBook has to be squeezed into space with other important stuff. It's simply not practical to take all my accessories with me. The chances are that if I needed a USB modem, it wouldn't be with me, but a built-in modem is always there when you need it.
I like the PCMCIA slots. I've always kept a compact flash reader in mine. If I take a photograph and want to see it on a larger screen, it's easy to pop the card straight onto the PowerBook, you don't need to find that strange USB adaptor lead that came with the camera. As the card reader lives entirely within the slot, you'd hardly know it was there - until you unexpectedly want it.
An ExpressCard slot would be equally acceptable for me, a card reader would almost certainly live in there. But it wouldn't be suitable for a modem as the slot is only 5mm high and if you need to use the modem unexpectedly, the card is unlikely to have a standard phone socket, so you'll still need a special lead, which you probably won't have with you.
I think that the lack of a modem is something that has come from people who move from home to office and on to smart hotels, with WiFi in Starbucks and GPRS for other places. They assume that users spend all their time in the city and never travel to rural areas, or even ( dare I say it ? ) travel abroad !
For some of us who live in the real world, the lack of a modem is a very serious omission.
There have been many suggestions that Steve's keynote at the Expo wasn't the one that he really intended to give as other things had to be withdrawn at the last moment.
So instead of a new Mac mini, video download service and new iPod shuffle, were the gaps left in the keynote filled with a very leisurely stroll through iLife 06 and a preview of the forthcoming MacBook ?
The MacBook certainly comes across as being a product that wasn't originally intended to be announced at that time.
Like all technical journalists, Bill is obliged to put the 'Security through Obscurity ' myth into every article that refers to the absence of viruses on OS X.
It's rather inconvenient for him that at the same time, Microsoft released a security patch for Vista.
Yep - it's not out yet and they're already patching serious security issues.
So let's see. OS X has how many users ? Vista has how many users ?
Vista is massively more obscure than OS X, yet it's already needing urgent patching.
Obscurity AND insecurity is a new concept. How do they explain that ?