Apple may not want the word ‘computer’ in its title anymore, but it’s hard to ignore the impact of the Macintosh on the bottom line. Despite a report of flat shipments, plus all the attention given to the iPod, iPhone and Apple TV in the last month, the Mac had a solid quarter for the period that ended on Dec. 30. Apple reported selling about 1.6 million of its signature product during the quarter. The Mac also saw its revenue share increase by about 40 percent compared to last year.
Three of my friends who only a few years ago would never think of a Mac upgraded the the iMac 20-24″ this year and have not touched windows since. I don’t think I will ever buy a Mac for the hardware… why… it costs alot more and contains the insides of a $600 PC and I don’t really like the look of Macs… but I would buy OS 10.5 for my PC in a second if made availible legaly
Which will almost assuredly never happen as long as Apple is selling computers
So surely as it was sure they dropped the “Computers” from their company name, because they decided that having the “Computers” in their name would lose them money?
The same way one day they may decide making computers is making them not as much money as the other products, and that they should concentrate on their “core business”, which then would not be the “Computers” division any more.
The same way one day they may decide making computers is making them not as much money as the other products, and that they should concentrate on their “core business”, which then would not be the “Computers” division any more.
Considering us in the pro graphics industry rely almost solely on the Macintosh platform, and the fact that Apple is such an integral part of the A/V community (Final Cut Pro, Motion, Logic, DVD Studio Pro, Aperture, Shake), I don’t see Apple leaving the computer aspect for a while. The biggest selling point for me, and many other professionals, is that their solutions integrate very well, and everything just works.
Now anything is possible, but I wouldn’t say that them leaving is currently probable. Look at the growth of Mac sales in comparison with last year. People are actually coming to the Macintosh platform, something of a reversal compared to what I have seen in the last 10-years.
Only time will tell, but I hope that they don’t leave. I’m just starting to enjoy my new Mac!
Edited 2007-01-19 03:42
“as long as Apple is selling computers”
Or more accurately, as long as Steve Jobs runs the shop.
So you’re predicting that they’ll exit the hardware market altogether when Jobs leaves?
Or are you implying whoever comes after would be foolish enough to license the OS and other software out while still trying to compete on the hardware side?
Or perhaps suggesting that they’d break in two with part of Apple remaining a hardware and device company and the other going head on with MS?
it costs alot more and contains the insides of a $600 PC and I don’t really like the look of Macs… but I would buy OS 10.5 for my PC in a second if made availible legaly
I don´t agree. I used to think like you, that macs where more expensive. But then I started comparing what you actually get for your money, when I was about to but a new laptop. Most PC laptops aren’t as small and with such good battery time as the macbook and those who are are either missing features like DVI or are more expensive. Apple also has some great deals for student and Mac OS X is of course a plus. I’m writing this from my new macbook btw.
The new iMacs are a great deal. Just try pricing out an equivalent Dell Dimension to the 20″ iMac. If you actually try to match the feature set (webcam, wifi, bluetooth), and the parts quality (the iMac’s display is a high-quality S-IPS LCD like the 2007WFP, not a shitty TN LCD like the E207WFP), the Dimension comes out to about $20 more, with slower RAM and slower graphics. Even if you leave out features you may not need (webcam, firewire), you only come in about $100 cheaper.
In fact, pretty much all the Intel Macs are a great deal, except maybe the new MBPs. Try finding a 13.3″ laptop to match the MacBook. The closest I’ve found is the Sony Vaio C190, and its actually a touch more expensive. And the Mac Pro, even at $2k+ is a steal for a quad Xeon machine. I’ve said this before, but it bears repeating: you’d be very hard pressed to even buy the parts for the Mac Pro for what Apple’s selling them for. And that’s even if you leave out features like Wifi, BT, Firewire, etc.
….maybe won’t be selling computers for much longer. Hey, stranger things have happened (intel).
hmph yeah soon they’ll start selling Mac internet appliances. oh wait, the iPhone. They already are!
meanwhile, they don’t seem to mind the enterprise is being ignored and Office for mac is dropping VBA. In the long run if you don’t have enterprise support you are doomed. Even firefox people know they have to have to have corporate features like MSI installer and xul as a platform for intranet apps if they want long term gains.
When you say “enterprise” a lot of people will think white collar cubical farm offices with commodity PCs. Apple hasn’t bothered with the corporate market for many years. Then when it became clear that PCs from the likes of Dell were taking over the education market, Apple didn’t bother to fight for that market neither.
Stop and think of how often a school or a medium to large company rolls out new PCs to replace old ones. 2-3 years at best, usually it’s a longer cycle than that.
You’re pretty late in saying Apple shifted their focus. It happened a while ago. During all this time their focus was on the creative professionals and home users. Creative professionals are the more demanding users and this covers a wide range of professions from photography, to film, to animation. Oh and lets not forget the medical and science community whose *nix software works wonderfully on OSX.
OSX is a powerful selling point for Mac computers. It does for Macs what iTunes music store does for iPods, and a lot of that hardware is sold.
yes I’m talking about those graphic professionals in the marketing depts of *companies.* If apple loses that because apple doesn’t want to deal with companies then all they have are sales from imac and mac mini. The non gaming home user who just wants a simple computer for email and web browsing.
Doesn’t sound very Apple. If they stop supplying computers, what will you connect all your Apple devices to? To get the ease of use, you have to provide a complete ecosystem.
not necessarily. nobody thinks about the IBM PC anymore. you get a dell and IBM now makes cpu’s for game consoles.
That’s true….but computers aren’t their bread and butter anymore. The article that says ” Mac revenue increased by 40%”, you could say it’s from increased sales, or most likely from using cheaper parts and selling the same amount. The only thing that separates them from Dell’s Commodity Barn of Computer Hell is that TPM chip that resides on the motherboard.
Anyway, my question is this, is Apple in the beginning stages of cutting loose the computer business altogether? We can argue the how’s and whys of PC and Mac all day, the fact of the matter is Apple lost the war a long time ago. They had the home user, in the beginning….they relented it. Then they had the educational system. (in the US) That’s long gone. Then it was the graphic designer/desktop publisher niche market…..definitely on it’s way out. No matter how cool they look, and how slick the interface is, or how much they bury windoze at everything…..their computer business is a financial boat anchor that’s simply allowed exist today because Steve Jobs is too spiteful/arrogant/whatever to cut it loose. They’ve found their pot o’ gold in the ipod, a product that has much competition, but no rival. This iphone thing takes off, and combined with future iTV offerings….they don’t have to compete with Windows anymore, they’ve already won the race before Microsoft even figures out how to enter.
Let MS have the cubicle-jockeys with their grimy low-priced commodity PCs. Every other device the person uses for entertainment, during their non-working hours, will be provided by Apple.
Boat anchor? Apple sold 1,606,000 Macs last quarter. According to Apple’s press release, that represents a 28% increase in Mac sales over the same quarter last year. All in all, their gross profit margin increased 4% over the same quarter last year, to a solid 30.2%. Would that we could all be so weighed down!
“Let MS have the cubicle-jockeys with their grimy low-priced commodity PCs. Every other device the person uses for entertainment, during their non-working hours, will be provided by Apple.”
Nope they don’t have that either. Microsoft has the xbox 360 and all the pc games as well as Office 2007. Apple just has the “all I need is email and surf” group. They have simple needs and won’t get a new mac for years.
So if I’m considering a mac I have to wonder if Apple is doing a BeIA and focus on their phones and ipods because that’s where the big money is and forget about pushing the mac to power users. Because lemmee tell you…there aint no way I’m getting a skimpy mac mini or imac and the power mac is just too expensive. It’s why I couldn’t understand why BeOS lovers would switch to mac after Be Inc died if there was no real concern for power users.
Doesn’t sound very Apple. If they stop supplying computers, what will you connect all your Apple devices to? To get the ease of use, you have to provide a complete ecosystem.
That statement does not correspond to reality. Reality is that the biggest part of the iPod sales are to people who are NOT part of the ecosystem you are referring to; they use iPod+iTunes+Windows, and appear to be just as happy with their iPods than people who use them in combination with Macs.
“….maybe won’t be selling computers for much longer. Hey, stranger things have happened (intel).”
Why would Apple stop making computers when it accounts for 43% of their revenue? That doesn’t make sense.
http://www.appleinsider.com/article.php?id=2412
This argument gets so old.
Unless your sellers are gouging, in my area an iMac is right on par with an equally equiped PC.
Problem is when people compare, they think things like a cheapo USB webcam is the same as the camera on the Mac. Its not and when you compare properly, there close.
I don’t own a Mac but if I had the $$ for a new computer, I would buy one.
It a shame when the deciding factor in too many systems is $$$. Is $200 that much to quarantee you a supported system with a kick ass OS?
Yes, the argument does get old, but it’s no less valid. If I had the money for an imac, I’d be tempted to buy one, but I wouldn’t be able to ignore that I could upgrade my PC with hadware that is a great deal faster for less money.
It’s old because when this argument got old, 5 years ago, you had the money for an iMac today and spent it on a “cheap” PC. Now they’re both cheaper and the iMac is within your old price range: Did you get poorer? I doubt it, there’s no reason to believe that most people have gotten significantly poorer.
There is no financial reason to avoid Mac’s today. In fact, the history of long used Macs supports them being a bit cheaper (people really do keep their Macs longer for various reasons).
If you don’t like Macs then you have a valid reason not to buy one, but cost is not valid today. If you can’t afford a 10-20% increase in a product then you can’t afford the product; especially when we’re talking about a PC which is generally a luxury purchase (people who _need_ them usually already have one they aren’t happy with any longer, and those who don’t have them are usually looking for a reason to “need” one).
Business is a whole different game. Here a small price difference is actually a big deal because of the way large companies deal with these sorts of expenditures and how many they’re buying.
Companies are prone to leasing over buying. Apple’s never been one to give steep discounts on large lease plans.
But that is the whole argument; you either have more flexibility with more complexity, or you have greater ease of use via a turn key solution by hiding all the ‘nasties’ away behind a nice case.
Apple iMac’s original goal was just that, a turnkey solution for end users to purchase a computer, take it home, pull it out of the box, hook it up to the wall and telephone/router and voila, everything one needs out of the box – like a VCR, toaster or any other appliance for that matter.
There is no right or wrong; its about you as the consumer to sit back, look at what your requirements are, what you want from the machine in regards to upgradeability, servicability, software and so forth, and make that decision.
For me, I run Linux; and for me, it is a superior operating system to Windows, but I don’t expect all and sundry to move to my platform for choice because ultimately, it might not suite everyones requirements.
In sweden a mac is alot more expensive than a pc. Sometimes double of the price in the us, while pc hardware generally is on the same prices or cheaper.
Supported? Hmm.. I dunno.. Here is my experience:
1. Dual xserve config w/failover .. Apple has a document and mentions using rsync (popular file sync tool for unix.. included with OS X) for syncing files. However, it does not work (crashes, hangs the system, core dump, unable to quit, forces reboot of server..) – has support done anything about it? Nope. So even though they *claim* functionality, you can’t effectively impliment it in a production environment.
2. “Premium Support” – again, xserve. 4-hour support.. had a *hardware* problem where a sensor was reporting inaccurate numbers for CPU 1 .. this was causing the server to do an unclean shutdown (to protect the hardware). It wasn’t until after several weeks of working with technical support (running tests after test, sending hundreds of MB of diagnostic info to apple, etc..) that they ended up replacing the faulty CPU (which apparently has the sensor built in). This is *PREMIUM* support for a server level product.
3. NVidia video cards accessing memory over 2GB .. Apple sells the configuration, but when it crashes computers, they wipe their support forums CLEAN of this and claim ignorance (search slashdot in the last week or so for ample additional examples of this “support”).
Sure Apple was all fine and dandy perhaps a few years ago, but lately it seems overall the “premium” nature of the brand is diminishing. Even the graphics arts people are stuck running on older, slower non-Intel based Macs due to the lack of an Intel-based Photoshop release.. Further tarnishing of the brand .. It seems like Jobs is more interested in ipods and iphones ..
And maybe people just think, “why the fu** would i need some stupid, useless webcam?”
The problem isn’t price, but specials.
I’m quite happy to pay a little bit extra for a Apple Mac, but one of the largest computer retailers in New Zealand, Harvey Norman, had a 19months interest free on everything *except* Apple products – why? because Apple weren’t willing to come to the party.
Like I said, I was quite happy to pay the extra for an Apple product, heck, before this Toshiba loaded with OpenSuSE, I owned an iMac G5, and before that, a eMac 1Ghz (souped up hard disk, dvd writer, the Full Monty) – so I’m hardly a ‘Windows fanboy’.
All they had to do was to offer me the same deal on Apple products, and I would not only have bought an iBook but also an iMac as well – all at the same time; NZ$5000 or so which Apple could have gotten, but due to their refusal to work with local resellers, they’ve missed out on a sale.
This isn’t an attack on their products, but their crap way in which they work with their retail channels, and making that initial switch that little bit easier, either through good software bundles or easy finance plans.
Macs are on par when released, but during the following next 6 months they get very expensive. I can get a hp core 2 duo laptop with 1GB ram, whatever hdd and vram, x1600 and 17″ 1680×1050 screen at less than 3kg for half the price of the macbook pro.
Also just the fact they say shipments are “flat” but still revenue increased by 40 percent should tell you that they are indeed overpriced. If not how could that be?
The MacBook Pro is the only machine in Apple’s current lineup that’s overpriced, and that’s probably because it’s sales are already high enough that Apple can get away with the margin. I have yet to see the phenomenon you report happening with other models. The MacBook, iMac, and Mac Pro have had price parity ever since the Intel models were released.
Take the MacBook for example. At its release, the only feature-competitive model was the Vaio C series, which actually cost about the same. Aside from a short span between when Sony released a Core 2 Vaio C and when Apple released a Core 2 MB, the relative price/features of the two machines have been identical.
Anyone here have one of the new iMacs and successfully use Parallels to run XP? How do you like it? Dislike it? I’m soooooooooooo tempted to get one, but I have too many XP apps that I can’t afford to replace, or don’t exist for Mac OS X … if the speed/responsiveness is reasonable, I’m liable to be pushed over the edge.
With the new Parallels, you can use the same copy of XP (without needing separate installs) for both Boot Camp and Parallels. I find it works awesome personally. If I’m using a normal program, like a tax application, I simply load up Parallels to run it. If I want to play games, I reboot into the exact same copy of Windows and play them.
Now all they need to do is make Wine use that same base 🙂 (yes I am aware of very numerous technical problems with sharing the registry, user files, etc. – I just think it would be awesome is all).
I have a iMac 20″ at work, and a 24″ at home. //’s (running the latest beta 3120) is very nice on both of them. I run XP and 2003 at the same time (doing minifilter driver dev, so need 2003 running too).
There are some things to consider. It’s still a bit buggy. Every now and then it will just die (again, I’m running the beta version), but not that often, maybe once every week. Also, it consumes all your memory and doesn’t like giving it back when you shut //’s down. OS X copes very well with this however, but just something to be aware of.
They seemed to have fixed it consuming all your CPU though, it’s not too bad with that now…
Also, you won’t be running games on //’s. Bootcamp would be your best bet there, but for everything else, //’s works, and works very very well. I’ve found with some of my dev stuff, its a lot faster than a native box running XP on similar hardware (not sure why)…
Personally, for day to day stuff (running Office, Dev tools (including Delphi 2006), Netbeans and so on, it’s very fast…
Make sure you get at least 2G memory however…
Hope this helps
With 512MB of RAM, you can pretty much not even bother. It’s unbearable. Run it with a Rosetta application and you can expect to wait seconds between every click of the mouse. Add another 1GB to that.. and it FLIES. Rosetta applications feel as if they were native. Parallels runs XP at near native speeds. It’s excellent. All you need is ram.
I just got a macbook pro today and to be honest, I am not very impressed so far. In fact, I’ve already ran into a few things that frustrated me (not counting the things that just frustrate me because I’m used to Windows of course).
Their desktop/laptop market will always be down there in market share. There simply is nothing compelling about moving to the macs right now, that I can see so far.
/disappointed
>There simply is nothing compelling about moving to the macs right now, that I can see so far.
I’m forced to use XP at work by my Employer, but I use OSX and Zeta/BeOS at home (OS/2 & Linux are about gone from the picture). I dread having to use Outlook & MSOffice at work, because OSX Mail and NeoOffice feel more natural. Maybe its because I never grew used to the quirks in MS applications, or maybe because I don’t like an application second guessing me and insisting that IT is right.
OSX on a 933 G4 feels close to the same speed as XP on a 3.2G PC for many applications, and OSX is light years ahead of XP in ease of System Settings and the way applications are installed.
Any time you change Operating Systems you face a new paradigm. What you get out of it reflects what you put into it. Like getting a new car and realizing that the controls are all different. Life goes on and you can adjust to them, or you can go on a website and make vague, meaningless remarks.
I already said that it wasn’t counting things that I was just used to on windows (like hitting spacebar when a confirm dialog comes up to make it go away).
A few real quick from what little I’ve used it so far:
1) In the stock if I drag the icon of an app not currently open to the trash, it deletes it from the dock. If I drag the icon of a an app currently open, I expected it to close the app (this has NOTHING to do with windows) and it did not. I was disappointed.
2) Hitting F5 in safari did not refresh a page but instead changed my volume.
3) In spotlight, I typed the full name of an application and hit enter, expecting it to open the application which was the most accurate match.
4) The font smoothing looked TERRIBLE. The weight distribution in characters was way off for normal text. Even in Linux they looked a lot better than that. Even after using it for a few hours I couldn’t get used to it. Text on some sites looked so out of place with everything else.
5) I wanted to move the dock to the bottom left corner of the screen. It only let me do left, right and bottom. All were in the middle of the screen to the appropriate side.
There was more though.
@sappycv: It’s day one. Give it some time. It took me at least a couple of weeks to get over my Windows conditioning (we are so conditioned that we don’t even realise it. This is evidenced by your expectations for things that you claimed were NOT things you were used to on windows, when in fact they probably were).
1) In the stock if I drag the icon of an app not currently open to the trash, it deletes it from the dock. If I drag the icon of a an app currently open, I expected it to close the app (this has NOTHING to do with windows) and it did not. I was disappointed.
Why did you expect that to happen? I never expected this but hey… Also why were you disappointed? I can’t imagine anyone getting upset about that one. It didn’t close your app (and possibly lose data) That’s a good thing.
2) Hitting F5 in safari did not refresh a page but instead changed my volume.
I’ve been annoyed by this too. The F keys on a Macbook are mapped to media/display controls as their primary function. You can easily reverse this through the System Preferences. Bad defaults maybe, but not a major problem.
3) In spotlight, I typed the full name of an application and hit enter, expecting it to open the application which was the most accurate match.
Command+Enter will do that. Get used to that Command Key, it’s a Mac thing. Just pressing enter will bring up a window showing all the matches. It’s debatable over what should be the default behaviour, since Spotlights primary purpose is to locate files.
4) The font smoothing looked TERRIBLE. The weight distribution in characters was way off for normal text. Even in Linux they looked a lot better than that. Even after using it for a few hours I couldn’t get used to it. Text on some sites looked so out of place with everything else.
Are you talking about Safari here or OS X? The last sentence makes it sound like your talking about Safari. Can’t say I’ve ever noticed the problem you’re describing. Maybe you could list the sites where it happened?
5) I wanted to move the dock to the bottom left corner of the screen. It only let me do left, right and bottom. All were in the middle of the screen to the appropriate side.
Admittedly, something that bothered me for the first couple of days. Now I could not care less.
I must say, you made quite a MAJOR investment for a machine running an OS you clearly haven’t tried out (MacBookPro’s starting at around $2000). Now you’ve spent all that cash, I suggest you persevere a little longer. You’ll find it’s worth it.
None of those had to do with Windows conditioning
1. It just seems consistent with other things being draggable to the trash to remove/delete/uninstall/etc. I have no real reason. It just made sense to me. It would just execute quit. If you have unsaved work, it would ask you to save it like appname > quit
3. When I typed the appname, it had already brought up the window showing the matches. There was only 1 match.
4. It was most noticable in Safari because I was reading large chunks of text together. It was pretty much any site like this or message boards or blogs. Safari’s font smoothing is no different from the rest of OS X afaik.
5. Because you conditioned yourself to it
Like I’ve already said, I spent ~$1400 on it. If I don’t like OSX, I can just use Windows instead. No biggie.
It was most noticable in Safari because I was reading large chunks of text together. It was pretty much any site like this or message boards or blogs. Safari’s font smoothing is no different from the rest of OS X afaik.
Then I suggest that you re-install OSX. Something is badly wrong with your fonts (or your screen).
5. Because you conditioned yourself to it
Nope. I accepted it and got on with my life. If tweaking my application launcher was something that concerned me every day, then yes, I would have to condition myself to it.
Nothing is wrong with the OSX install. That’s simply the font rendering.
And yes, you conditioned yourself.
1.) If they did that I’d be pissed. This would be stupid, seriously, stupid.
You have two choices:
* Prompt them to close. This negates the whole action, it wouldn’t be efficient at all.
* Just close. This makes it way to easy to do something that they intended to be mostly unecessary: Closing programs.
2.) That’s because those are hardware accessor keys. You can change that in your preferences. It’s also because that’s a windows shortcut: In mac it’s command+r.
3.) Whatever. That’s just ridiculous. There’s a 3rd party app ($$) for this called Quicksilver. I’d like to see Apple do at least a basic run dialog though, I know I miss that.
4.) Fonts are not something to argue about. I haven’t seen anything on any of the three platforms that I didn’t like in fonts: YOU’RE TOO DAMN PICKY. Calm down and find yourself a girl/boy.
5.) I hate this too. Unfortunately it wouldn’t make sense with their stupid zoom thing they do (I turn that off) and Apple seems to be all about minimizing options. Oh well, I can life with it in the middle left!
You missed:
1.) Quicktime isn’t free: Pathetic.
2.) Quicktime’s UI for clicking a video position is a nightmare. I still can’t find the visual cue for where exactly I’m supposed to click so I click 3 times before I get the right spot.
3.) Quicktime lacks keyboard controls for speed and jumping in video (pathetic).
4.) Quicktime isn’t free, come on give us a full featured video viewer: I don’t want to edit, I just want to view!
5.) No good photo browser. Just photo catalogers, which is ok, but sometimes I have crap images that I want to browse through and delete a little later. I don’t want to clutter iPhoto up with them.
6.) Safari can’t reorganize tabs.
7.) What in the world do I do to switch tabs in safari from the keyboard?!
8.) iChat wouldn’t work with my network setup where I was when I got my mac. Neither would Adium stable, but Adium beta worked fine.
9.) Preview’s default size for PDF pages is awful, I want fit to width, no one wants fit to height!
10.) X11 integration is a joke. Why can’t you make a .app for an X11 program that associated the X windows with the .app and not the X11.app?! Because Apple doesn’t like X programs?
11.) When a locked up application is selected it locks up the menubar, switching to another program allows access again to the menubar.
12.) Windowing UI is dependent on the program being responsive (Windows made the same design error, X11 gets it right).
13.) No window shading, horiz/vert maximization, maximization doesn’t work correctly on certain pages in safari (if you repeatedly hit it the window will grow and grow).
14.) DVD player is buggy, I had two lockups while using it (I have used it quite a bit though).
You make some good points! Let’s review (edited for readability):
1.) Quicktime isn’t free: Pathetic.
Yes yes yes. Full screen video playback? Hello??? Generally, Quicktime is a lame video player. Apple doesn’t have any problem giving me a broken video player with my $1,500 laptop, so I don’t have any problem using a registration key I found on the Internet.
5.) No good photo browser. Just photo catalogers, which is ok, but sometimes I have crap images that I want to browse through and delete a little later. I don’t want to clutter iPhoto up with them.
http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/21097
7.) What in the world do I do to switch tabs in safari from the keyboard?!
Command+Shift+Left/Right Bracket. Says so in the Window menu.
10.) X11 integration is a joke. Why can’t you make a .app for an X11 program that associated the X windows with the .app and not the X11.app?! Because Apple doesn’t like X programs?
It’s probably possible. It rather seems like that’s what the did for X11.app. My solution is to not use X–the UIs of most X apps give me a headache.
11.) When a locked up application is selected it locks up the menubar, switching to another program allows access again to the menubar.
Every application controls its own menubar resources, and AppKit, the Cocoa UI framework, runs on the app’s main thread. So when a program’s main thread locks up, the menu bar goes dead; however, when you switch to a new app, that app’s menubar resources take over and all is well. It’s not really that different from Windows: after all, you’d be pretty surprised if a hang in one program caused every other program’s menus to die!
12.) Windowing UI is dependent on the program being responsive (Windows made the same design error, X11 gets it right).
See above. Rumor has it that in future versions of Mac OS X, the UI will finally run on its own thread. It’s about damn time!
13.) No window shading, horiz/vert maximization, maximization doesn’t work correctly on certain pages in safari (if you repeatedly hit it the window will grow and grow).
I don’t miss window shading anymore. Hiding apps works even better for me now, because it doesn’t clutter up the screen with window title bars, and can be undone via keyboard shortcuts (unlike minimizing to the Dock, which requires mouse input to undo). I’ve noticed Safari’s resize wierdness too; otherwise, I like the maximizing behavior. When it’s working, maximizing a window causes it to take up as much space as it needs to draw everything in it. Why do you want windows taking up more space than they need?
14.) DVD player is buggy, I had two lockups while using it (I have used it quite a bit though).
Rock solid for me, except when a disc is too scratched to be read. But I had that kind of problem on Linux, too. I’ve grown to view death by I/O error as an unfortunate fact of life. Does Windows manage to deal with this any better?
Edited 2007-01-19 06:05
I want the 99% of applications that couldn’t ever fit on a typical screen with a typical set of resources open to resize in a way that makes more sense than taking up your whole screen.
Dude, first of all, all I said was I ran into some things that frustrated me. I didn’t say they were wrong, but they frustrated me, and they were things not to do with conditioning in Windows. My point was that it wasn’t as pleasent of an experience as people seem to claim. I’ll get used to those things, and I’ll also run into other things I don’t like.
Second, about fonts: fonts are a MAJOR thing to me. I’m perfectly calm. I’m just pointing out things I did not like. Am I not allowed to do that?
Also, telling me to get a girl/boy is an insult. I don’t think my girlfriend would appreciate me trying to get *another* girlfriend
Thanks for the quirk list though, I’m looking forward to those things…
5) I wanted to move the dock to the bottom left corner of the screen. It only let me do left, right and bottom. All were in the middle of the screen to the appropriate side.
Try: http://www.titanium.free.fr/pgs/english.html
I have my dock on the bottom right corner.
The rest are pretty much alredy answered.
1) In the stock if I drag the icon of an app not currently open to the trash, it deletes it from the dock. If I drag the icon of a an app currently open, I expected it to close the app (this has NOTHING to do with windows) and it did not. I was disappointed.
That’s not what’s happening at all. To remove icons from the dock, you drag them from the dock. This interface concept has been described as object annihilation: the object is specialized and can’t be dragged to some other program, so moving it away is an analogy for tossing it out. The trash can just happens to count as being outside the dock for this purpose (it’s not in the application part of the dock.) If you do it with a running application, the dock will take note that you don’t want that launcher there when the application quits, but it stays for the time because it’s still running. Perhaps you would enjoy the quit from command-tab approach: command-tab to cycle through open apps, command-q to quit whichever one is selected.
2) Hitting F5 in safari did not refresh a page but instead changed my volume.
This is a perfect example of complaining that it’s not the Windows way. First of all, the function keys on all the laptops default to their media command because that’s what’s actually useful in the interface. If you want to send an F5, you have to hold fn or reverse it in keyboard prefs, but I warn you, it’s better the way it is unless you use some oddball program that makes heavy use of the function keys. Second, F5 is not the reload shortcut in OS X, nor does it do just about anything, ever, because F5 is fully, completely, senselessly arbitrary, and that’s not how Apple rolls. All the basic commands are done with command+letter. In this case, reload starts with R. You’ll also note alt-F4 does nothing, as that is even more arbitrary, since it even breaks the Windows convention of what alt does (access the menu bar). That one’s handled by command-w (for window).
3) In spotlight, I typed the full name of an application and hit enter, expecting it to open the application which was the most accurate match.
Enter opens the search in a window because enter = send.
Press down, or make your own start menu by putting a shortcut to the Applications folder in the dock and right-clicking it to get a menu full of apps, which you can then browse by typing.
I’m not touching number 4. Maybe your LCD got smashed. Mac fonts look better than Windows fonts by leaps and bounds, even if you do manage to find a way to turn on ClearType in Windows.
5) I wanted to move the dock to the bottom left corner of the screen. It only let me do left, right and bottom. All were in the middle of the screen to the appropriate side.
Anchored Dock requires a third party app or a custom modification of a .plist file. I recommend OnyX.
That’s not what’s happening at all.
Huh? I drag the icon to the trash bin and it removes the icon from the dock. That IS what is happening. You’re making no sense.
Hmm, well there’s the wireless config tool that works (unlike zero-config) and doesn’t get overridden by every vendor’s bad UI.
There’s the NeXt UI.
There’s the next-gen graphics that actually work on low-end graphics cards and don’t drop out when you open a 3d application (this is something that’ll probably be fixed in time in Vista I suppose).
There’s iLife, some people seem to like that.
Garageband, that seems to be pretty popular amongst its niche.
There’s the nice hardware.
There’s the nice hardware (I really like this part).
There’s Unix (for me at least).
Maybe it’s just you? Or maybe it’s just me? And I think I’ll close with: Quicktime is the bane of Macintosh’s existence.
“There’s Unix (for me at least). ”
that’s supposed to be a good thing?
🙂
bah I hate unix.
You also don’t capitalize the first letter of the first word of each sentence. I do. I also like Unix. What’s your point
.
case sensitivity, perhaps?
I’d give that “best retort of the month” on OSNews…
oh it was so easy.
But yeah I think it is quite strange for Apple, supposedly the champions of usability, would endorse an interface that’s probably the most unintuitive and un-user friendly in the history of operating systems.
And I wasn’t talking about the Dock.
There’s good stuff. All I mean is there is nothing compelling enough to really get the average person to give up what they know (Windows). It’s not inticing enough for them. I didn’t mean to say there isn’t anything worth moving for.
There’s good stuff. All I mean is there is nothing compelling enough to really get the average person to give up what they know (Windows). It’s not inticing enough for them. I didn’t mean to say there isn’t anything worth moving for.
These people are known as ‘switchers’ and the percentage of Mac buyers that are switchers grows every single quarter.
Maybe it’s not enticing for you, but the market says otherwise.
There is growth, but not enough for mac to be anything more than small marketshare.
Sorry to hear you haven’t been impressed so far. Maybe you should try actually posting certain issues you’ve run into in your post instead of just saying that you’ve “run into a few things”. The people here on OSNews are knowledgeable and I’m sure could quickly help you out with those few things. You’ll also learn fast that mac users are the bondy type and can be very helpful in getting you started off!!
Being specific helps everyone out by letting them know what road blocks are being hit by switching to a mac or using the OS so don’t just say that there are things and leave it there.
Read down more. I did post a few issues, and there was some response already which I appreciated (well some of it).
So why did you move to one, and did you not try one out before you bought something so expensive?
What things did you run into to become so frustrated?
Interestingly enough, the day after I installed XP on my Mac mini via bootcamp, it crashed while I was playing a game. Did OS X crash on you or something?
I ran into a bunch of little things. I’ll try to go more in depth tomorrow. At work right now and my brain is a little fried.
I didn’t *move* to one. I wanted a laptop so I could have another computer while at work for misc stuff, so I got a macbook so (1) I could try a mac (2) I could install Windows on it if I didn’t like it.
“So why did you move to one, and did you not try one out before you bought something so expensive? ”
you can’t. it’s not like linux or any app that you can try on your pc. you have to buy first and then see if it’s good or not.
Yeah, that too.
Also, trying it in a store just doesn’t cut it.
Fact is Apple’s market share has doubled since three years ago. Apple has the tools and software for the enterprise, but the outsource industry is not willing to cut in their own flesh, or to update their ‘knowledge’.
The enterprise where I am working, shows that workers are sick and tired of their forced use of Windows, many take their own MacBookPro with them putting them on their desk while the PC is under the desk. Apple is gaining momentum but in my opinion has not reached the critical mass yet, but the trend is there.. Vista will only speed up the switch process.
Apple did not make any wrong business decisions since Steve returned with exception of the cube, the train is rolling and cant be stoped anymore.
About the name change, Apple should have chosen ‘Apple High Tech inc.’
Edited 2007-01-19 03:24
Apple did not make any wrong business decisions since Steve returned
I hope this holds up to be true, but as far as i have read the Apple TV will only stream apple content bought from the store, if this is true and im not mistaken this will hurt sales, if indeed i cannot stream my divx and other format content. Open up this streaming of all content to the TV then its a winner (in my eyes) if not, forget it and ill await a hack to allow my Xbox360 to do the same job !
It’s already a top seller in the Apple stores. Believe it or not, millions of TV episodes and movies have been purchashed already. I think it will be successful. It integrates with your iTunes purchases, as well as iPhoto to show your pictures and such – just like Front Row. The only downfall in my opinion is it requires a wide screen TV. I don’t have the money quite yet for the one I”d like yet. I will, however buy an Apple TV when I get the widescreen TV.
I for one don’t want to hack my XBox 360. I’d rather buy something that will work out of the box, in a tiny form factor and painlessly streams my iTunes videos/photos with practially zero setup.
But iTV is not extensible, it cannot play things like mkv and so on.
And that matters to probably 99% of Apple’s customers? I had to Google mkv as I had never heard of it. Mom and pop just wnat something that works with what they use. It’s doubtful that they use anything in mkv format. That’s just taking your example.
Edited 2007-01-19 06:49
And that matters to probably 99% of Apple’s customers? I had to Google mkv as I had never heard of it. Mom and pop just wnat something that works with what they use. It’s doubtful that they use anything in mkv format. That’s just taking your example.
This just shows why a iTV-kinda app would be useless to someone like me, who has tons of videos (mostly anime) on Matroska containers among several other formats. If it cannot play popular (Yes, I said POPULAR!) video formats found on the Internet, then one would be better purchasing a MCE-capable computer (at least, Microsoft got this one right – you just need to add the right codecs to the mix) or rolling their own with MythTV.
Just because you don´t know something, doesn´t mean that it doesn´t have value or that it doesn´t matter to everybody else, you know?
“This just shows why a iTV-kinda app would be useless to someone like me, who has tons of videos (mostly anime) on Matroska containers among several other formats. If it cannot play popular(Yes, I said POPULAR!) video formats found on the Internet, then one would be better purchasing a MCE-capable computer (at least, Microsoft got this one right – you just need to add the right codecs to the mix) or rolling their own with MythTV. “
Why are you stating that .mkv is so popular? I don’t see how. On the front page of the Matroska site (http://www.matroska.org/) it talks about having just reached 3 million in 2006. Compare that to the entire population (107 million) of video users on the net at the time (Source: http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?1004371) and you discover that .mkv only makes up 2.8% of internet video users – and internet video users is just a subset of all users of video on a computer. I’m not sure that I’d call that “popular.” Further, how many users have downloaded the Matroska software to playback a single .mkv/.mka and in the process wondered “what the $&*# am I being forced to download?”
“Just because you don´t know something, doesn´t mean that it doesn´t have value or that it doesn´t matter to everybody else, you know?
“
Yes that’s very true. But frequenlty users of computers don’t know anything about video formats and will not download new software just to play a new format. Often when they see a format they are not familiar with, it results in a shrug and a “huh…I can’t seem to get Media Player to play this thing.” Example of confusion over .mkv: http://forums.microsoft.com/MSDN/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=763024&SiteID…
yes people are tired of windows but apple and linux just won’t be there to replace it. most likely people will just stick with XP if they don’t want vista. The gamers are certainly not going to switch to mac or linux. Microsoft knows very well that enterprise adoption and games are the keys to long term success and it’s about time somebody else figured this out. These 2 groups drive the market for better pc’s over time. So while mac mini and imac’s are selling nicely…I just don’t see it as a future for macs.
“(1) I could try a mac (2) I could install Windows on it if I didn’t like it”
Aye! There is always that option.
You must not live near an Apple store, or a CompUSA? You can return them, btw, if it is under 30 days, if I am not mistaken.
“That statement does not correspond to reality. Reality is that the biggest part of the iPod sales are to people who are NOT part of the ecosystem you are referring to; they use iPod+iTunes+Windows, and appear to be just as happy with their iPods than people who use them in combination with Macs.”
Or iPod + Linux + Konqueror/Amarok. Speaking as one.
Was doubting if I had made a mistake buying my iPod Nano, but seeing as I commute for 3 hours everyday, I think the Nano’s definitely worth the money! I can understand that if you use such a device less frequently you probably’ll be better off with a cheaper USB stick-type device.
Hal/Dbus finally is making it easy to use my iPod, digital camera etc. Happy penguin camper here
Yes, it’s about time that hal/dbus, plus rhythmbox and banshee on the GNOME side, made things easier for iPod users – gtkpod is horrid.
I neved used a mac machine but I have an iPod and I am really happy with it. After using the first product from Apple (iPod), I was impressed by the quality of there products. Nice!
Also congrats Apple for
“revenue share increase by about 40 percent compared to last year”
Reading through this thread I am almost convinced MS is hiring a few dozen of ‘profesional’ troll morons.
Just another desperate move. The fact is Apple is gaining momentum, most techwriters have already switched, remember Gates in his meeting with bloggers: There they were with their MacBooks. Does not matter, Gates already had drawn his conclusions a few months ago, good luck Balmer.
Apple is fighting a 800Lb Gorila, but they can do it.
Edited 2007-01-19 16:25
“… the Apple TV will only stream apple content bought from the [Apple] store.”
*buzz*
A quick trip to the Apple site says:
Video formats supported: H.264 and protected H.264 (from iTunes Store): 640 by 480, 30 fps, LC version of Baseline Profile; 320 by 240, 30 fps, Baseline profile up to Level 1.3; 1280 by 720, 24 fps, Progressive Main Profile. MPEG-4: 640 by 480, 30 fps, Simple Profile
It will stream both protected and non-protected video. Case closed.
So we now mod down for correction of dis/misinformation. That’s real cute. This place is getting bloody political, just like /. did.
“Think like us or we’ll mod you down”.
Granted my tone wasn’t civilized but frankly on an information based site I provided correct information and get modded down meanwhile the fellow who posted the dis/misinformation AS FACT w/o source and CONTRARY to the truth doesn’t get modded down.
WTF ever.