3 posts tagged “mac”

There were a lot of potential titles I could use to sum up this post, but I felt "MacWorld twist" was the best, I'll tell you why.
The blogosphere is going pretty nuts after the Stevenote, about how good the iPhone is, and the AppleTV etc etc. I watched the keynote, and I'm seriously impressed. Although Steve straight out said "We aren't discussing Macs, and we aren't discussing iLife 07", his major two announcements were enough to hold the audience after this let down.  But I come to you with a different kind of post about the MacWorld announcements, and this is where the twist is. It's not a report on the news, but instead an opinion of some of the people discussing the news.

One of the things that have been widely discussed is that the iPhone is 2G, not 3G. At first, I thought "WTF does that mean" and assumed it had something to do with "generations" of mobile phones, but I was bewildered as to how you would define a generation of a mobile phone (and still are). For all the praise that the iPhone has gotten since it's announcement, and for all the people that have been saying "Fuck Verizon, I'm moving to Cingular, iPhone baby wooo!" there's been more people saying "Oh, well, it's not 3G, I just won't get it, because it's clearly not awesome".

So I did a bit of research (Wikipedia) to find out about 3G and 2G. I use a mobile phone to call people and SMS, and also to store my passwords (piece of paper hidden behind the battery, pure genius), so I'm by no means an expert when it comes to cell phone technology.
3G

The services associated with 3G provide the ability to transfer simultaneously both voice data (a telephone call) and non-voice data (such as downloading information, exchanging email, and instant messaging).

Emphasis mine. 3G allows you to do "both a telephone call and download information, exchange email, and IM".
So what does this mean? It means that while talking, you can download things off the Internet, exchange email and IM people, while you're talking. If this is a precursor to you buying a phone, do the world a favour and wrap a plastic bag around your head, very tightly, don't let go, just hang in there.
I have a gripe with this, because despite my age of youth, I've been known to be a bit "old fashioned", which, let's face it, means "ethical". I think that if you're talking to someone, have the courtesy to devote a measly minute of your attention to them, and nothing else. If the person on the phone is really cutting into your time when you're doing something important, tell them you have to go, and cut them off. But if somebody has called you, and you aren't doing anything life-defining, give them your full attention. If you're downloading and IM'ing while you're on the phone in a conversation, you're not doing that, you're just being an ass. You're the worst kind of yuppie there is.
How convenient could it possibly be for you to be cruising the Internet while you're talking to someone anyway? You may have loudspeaker on, but then the recipient of your yuppie blather is going to be hearing "tap tap tap" interfering with your speech. Not only is that rude, it's just stupid. Make a decision, Internet or phone. You don't need both.

The digg comments section has long been known as a source of stupidity. In most of the iPhone threads after the Stevenote, many people stated they wouldn't be getting the iPhone because it was only 2G. These are the kind of yuppie scum I'm talking about. I bet they were commenting on digg while chatting with their Grandma and downloading snoop dogg in MIDI. Several of these comments took place in a thread linking to this story from Ars Technica: http://arstechnica.com/journals/apple.ars/2007/1/10/6559
That article has some valid points. It has a high price, it doesn't sync with iTunes using Wifi, and it uses the Cingular service (as an Australian, I don't know how Cingular is, but I have heard a lot of people saying it doesn't have great coverage in their area in the US). However, their paragraph on how the iPhone isn't going to be the killer app (how can hardware be a killer "app"?) is just so ambiguous as to why it's even a reason. It uses a lot of non-meaning words, which carry no weight, and little significance. I've never really paid much attention to the journos on Ars Technica, but it seems to me that the writer of this article, Mary E. Tyler, is a poor writer. In the opening paragraph, she also states that she was requested to give an opinion on the iPhone, and also says "What's the first thing we do but find the faults with it?". I would request in future that Mary doesn't lump us in as a way to justify her shitty writing.

3G really isn't a whole big deal for most consumers. Maybe if you use trendy buzzwords daily to make yourself seem intelligent with a wide vocabulary (if it's not in the Oxford, it isn't really a word, thus can't be part of a vocabulary, luser). Higher numbers doesn't always equate to better. Stop being an ass, devote your attention to the person who called you.

By the way, Merlin was right, Quicksilver is the Mac app.

del.icio.us - flickr - digg

I believe they call it a... MacBook...

Yes, I bought the MacBook, the sexy piece of white gloss and plastic that is the most user friendly technology I've ever used. So consequentially, I slept with Amber MacArthur and Leo Laporte last night. It's not what you think.
Front Row just makes me want to watch movies and videos all day long, so I went to bed with my earphones in my ears and my MacBook lying across from me (I have a Queen bed now, plenty of bed real-estate for my laptops) and I watched CommandN and MacBreak eps, and listened to Net@Nite and TWiT 83 (which I'm listening to again currently).

I haven't been a fan of Macs up until some time in the past few months, when I noticed that the tech industry (ala the world) is gravitating towards near-exclusively Mac discussion and usage. However, now that I've been playing around with my MacBook for a little over a day now, it's become like Vox for me, just a joy to use. I understand that the novelty will wear off eventually, and I've only had a glimpse of the MacBook, so I've yet to experience Mac limitations and frustrations (although the way everybody raves about Macs, frustrations and maintenance are limited).
My MacBook is just such an easy experience. Even my Mum, who is pretty much computer illiterate, but has exclusively had experience with PC's, found it easier to use, so I think that Apple is doing something right. I credit Microsoft with bringing computers into most houses in the civilised world, and also for the birth of hundreds of talented programmers and developers, but I think that Apple should be credited for taking the user experience to the next level, and just making it so easy to use. There isn't much about this Mac that I don't like yet, and I'm actually pretty surprised at how quickly I've adapted to the Command key and the new shortcuts (best tip for PC users switching to Mac: Remember the Command Key replaces the Ctrl Key for keyboard shortcuts in most cases).

Another thing I really love about the MacBook is the iSight. I've taken quite a few pictures with the iSight, and I'm amazed at the quality of it actually. To be fair, I'll state that one of it's limitations is that it doesn't do well in poor lighting as say, a $1000 digital camera, but for what it is, in decent lighting conditions, it's quality is pleasantly surprising.
This is a picture I took of me and my dog in our study. http://www.flickr.com/photos/jakec/351169501/ (Only my Flickr Friends can see it, send me your Flickr profile and I'll gladly add you to my contacts :-) )

Something else is the AirPort wifi software. When I took the MacBook out of the box in the city where I bought it (Melbourne), while I was setting up the OSX software (which installs automatically, no discs required), it found about 30 networks. Now I didn't have my other laptop to compare, but from my previous visits around the city, I've only found 5-6 in most places with the laptop, and my PSP. This is a pretty extreme case, so don't expect to get 6x the amount of WAP's every time with a MacBook, but I was surprised at the quality. Unfortunately we weren't in one place for long enough for me to connect to all the "admin" "D-LINK" and "NETGEAR" networks which I figured would be easy access, considering the technical aptitude of most of the General Public.

I'm really enjoying the two-finger touchpad scrolling. My next goal is to learn to use Quicksilver to enhance my life (The Distracted Mac)
Pics coming of the MacBook itself soon, after I've finished using our digital camera for por- err... landscape shots.

On another note, I'm looking for del.icio.us, Flickr and digg users that I can add to my friends lists on the respective sites, because there's no social networking if there's no social. So give me your nicks and I'll add you all.

del.icio.us - flickr - digg

I made my first trip to a Mac store today.

Let me preface this story by saying that I grew up with PC's. Ever since I was 5 or so, I've been using computers with Windows installed, ever since the days of DOS. Those bad days... those bad, bad days. This is the reason I don't use Linux, because using the terminal brings back horrible memories.

The only time I've ever used a Mac was when I *cough* accessed a Mac computer a while ago, but because of VNC, it ran very slow. I'm not familiar with Macs, but I've been told lots of good things, and I've seen the odd screenshot, and it looks nice. When I went to the Apple Store, stepping over the brass strip separating the store and the outer shopping centre could be likened to stepping through a portal into another dimension.
I was apprehensive, to be sure. I didn't know what to expect, what would meet me on the other side. Would it be the bright, white mass of light that I'd heard foretold by the Mac Prophets of the world, a kind of gateway to heaven, or would it just be like any other store, a mass of advertisement and large posters pointing to products, tempting my wallet.
To be honest, it was a blur between the two. When I stepped over that strip, I was blinded by images of smooth interfaces, clean-shaven and well-groomed men in what could only be considered "hip and trendy" clothes, and lots of plastic. There was also a fair share of advertisement, but most of it was informative (which led me to save $300, suckers). Let's have a walkthrough of what I did at the store.
So I walked in with my Dad. As I said, I'd never used a Mac before, so I was pretty bewildered, much like an elderly lady who had never encountered a PC before. So the first thing we did was get onto the MacBooks which is what I was there for. We called over a small asian girl wearing a black t-shirt, presumably an employee. She explained to us not to try and sell a computer to someone, by telling us nothing about the MacBook, but explaining all the benefits of buying the MacBook Pro, which is almost twice the price. After we banished her with our cruciforms, we began to play around on the MacBooks. It was interesting, and I felt like a huge newbie. For a person who considers himself proficient at operating software and hardware, as well as being "in the know", it was a frightening experience, and made me unsettled. My Dad continued asking questions to the employees there, while I played around with iWeb after finding my way out of the maze that is Dashboard ("How do I get out of here!? Oh, you click on the thing). One of the aforementioned Mac User (clean-shaven, well-groomed) employees came over and began to explain to us what we'd need along with the MacBook (what was that about Macs being completely out-of-the-box operational? I thought we don't need anything else?). He proclaimed with unexpected fervor that we would need Office 2004 as well as a wireless mouse. After that man left, I said to my Dad "Don't tell anyone but..." to which he replied "You already have it?" Hole in one.
After we played around a bit, I was pretty damn impressed. I was playing on the black MacBook (aka BlackBook), because I intended to buy that one, however I then noticed that the other MacBook, the white one, would be a better option. Everything in the white MacBook is the same as the BlackBook, except the white has a 6x DVD burner and the black has an 8x DVD burner (I don't burn a lot, so it doesn't make a difference to me), and the BlackBook has 40GB more in the HD. I then figured that white was the colour of the Mac, it's a white computer (Oh god how racist that sounds), and I don't want to pay FOUR HUNDRED DOLLARS for black matte paint and 40GB extra space. It's not worth it to me.

So hopefully tomorrow, around 2-3pm AEDT (GMT +10), I will hold in my hands a shiny white Apple MacBook laptop.

Hot sex.