As I’ve noted the last couple years my life has become pretty Mac-centric, both at work and at home, but while I am much more fond of Apple products than 
I used to be I still don’t get the emotional rollercoaster their biggest fans put themselves on (I mean, people should experience emotional ups and downs with sports teams not technology manufacturers). The latest is whining that the products announced on Tuesday at Macworld didn’t change the world.
The problem is Jobs & Co. have had some really interesting work in the last decade, but their fans expect for Moses to part the waters every time. Why can’t they just be happy with some cool stuff every couple of years?
It’s also kind of interesting that the biggest product category in the last year, netbooks, didn’t come from Apple (though they’ll likely do it better and for 2x the price).
B-b-b-but Apple OWES them! Apple would be NOTHING without the fans at Macworld…don’t you see?
heh.
Using the iWork 09 right now and it’s slick. Very much like it.
I assume apple wants to get out of the “don’t buy anything right before macworld” rut. I was waiting to get a mini because a new one was supposed to debut and I didn’t want to get stuck w/a more expensive/inferior model (apple has had a knack for debuting better, cheaper products at macworld). No such luck…
Anybody who thought apple would go out with a huge bang at macworld should consider why apple would be motivated to do that.
I waited for the presentation yesterday just in case there would be a big reveal on the 15″ MacBook Pros. There wasn’t but I’m still glad I waited because when it arrives in a couple of days it’ll have the newest version of iLife installed on it.
I’m surprised how upset the macrumor.comers and the slashdotters are about the 17″’s non-removable battery. It’s seems they’re just looking for anything to rend garments over. They act as though the 17″ machine is the kind of machine that people should take on 13 hour plane flights. It’s not. I own one and I live in a part of the world that takes a 12 hour flight to get to from the states and lugging that 17″ around is such a pain that it’s the wrong choice. It’s effectively a desktop machine which is why the internal battery is such a smart choice.
Many of the threads I’ve read keep saying that the 17″ is a pro machine and professionals want swappable batteries. Pro users mostly use these laptops plugged in, especially if they’re doing photo or film work, that kind of work drains the batteries too quickly. Finally, if you’re going to be carrying around 2 batteries anyways why does the second one need to go inside the computer? Couldn’t Apple or some 3rd party make a battery that just plugs in to the charging plug?
Here’s the deal. As Mac people we took a beating for years and years from all the PC and MicroSoft geeks. “Ewww Mac” “They’re weird” “they’re just for artists” “Ewwww” (Talk about emotion and technology!)
Then Bill Gates “created” Windows and the rest of you saw what we’d always known. Computers can be fun and user friendly. Windows, as we all know, is just a mirror of Mac OS with everything on the wrong side. (I digress into anti-Windows world, sorry. Gates is a good guy helping the world with all that $$$$$).
We finally got the upper hand – and popularity – then Steve Jobs started rat-a-tat-tat bringing out things fast. And people like you, my friend, began to understand what we’ve been saying since 1984. Mac rules! So we like to keep on that wave of momentum if you don’t mind. But, that’s OK. We can have some gaps year-to-year. We still know we’ve got the best because we are the best.
Look Mary, no one here is defending Gates, Microsoft, or Windows. I’m certainly no winblows defender. But no need to come on like a mac-vangelist. Besides, we’ll just ignore the $150 million investment that Microsoft made in Apple back in the lean days…cause Microsoft is EEEEEVIIIIILLLL.
(though they’ll likely do it better and for 2x the price)
Which is why the only Apple hardware item I own is a 4G iPod Classic, 60GB, used ($170), dying. I’m seeing pre-owned 30GB Touches for under $200…if I had the bucks I’d snag one. I refuse to over-pay for a new ‘pod…better but unnecessarily expensive is not the way I go.
I won’t touch a Mac computer until there’s an easy way for my favorite Windows XP software (Cakewalk Pyro 2003, Nero Ultra 6/7 et.al) to run on it.
Randy –
All that can be done on Macs, using either Boot Camp (built in, runs Windows as a separate OS) or Parallels (http://www.parallels.com/) or VMWare (http://www.vmware.com/products/fusion/). The latter 2 integrate with OS X as just other windows. It’s pretty slick.. I used it when I first switched because I didn’t want to pay for the old version of MS Office when I had a perfectly good Windows version.