Category: Apple

MacBook Pro: Don’t get one

Apple OSX

The brief history of my OS X laptops:
Titanium 15 inch (thanks Jerry)
It’s hinge broke, as they do.
15″ Al was not out yet, so I got a 12″ Al. Small, fast and hot.
15″ Al then at some point. Very nice. Actually nicest laptop I ever had I think.
Leaving job and therefor Laptop behind.

With the looming Intel transistion ahead I got an iBook G4. Maybe that is the nicest laptop I ever had? The keyboard is somewhat noise and the screen somewat small. But apart from that I like it. Stays cool, white plastic not as fragile as the Al shell.

Two weeks before the MacBook came out I had to get a MacBook Pro. It’s pretty as the PowerBook was. But it’s actually annoying. I kept the iBook G4. Have them both with me. Weapon of choice: iBook G4 in 80% of all cases. The MacBook Pro get’s hot. It makes horrible noises. One seems to be the drive or heatpump and then there is that CPU! Disabling the second core via CHUD tools does indeed get rid of it. But isn’t it that I just bought a V8 just to disable it down to a 4 cylinder? Very annoying. And this machine gets ridicolously hot.

Ever since the broken hinge days I know that Apple will never own up design flaws. At least not as long they are common.
I am not sure about the MacBook as an alternative: The glossy screen is nothing that I would like, and they seem to have a very annoying edge around their body. Where your palms would rest.

to apple or not to

Apple history internet marketing

Mark responds to a daring fireball post that was triggered by Mark switching from Apple to linux. Or some other open OS.

I agree with Mark 100%, but don’t have the time or nerve to do something about it: I let my personal data march knowingly into slavery. Be it apple or google. I use them, and now they own what I accumualed.

Yet, going on in gmail. I could get back to the copy on my linux machine, but it would take a while, since the mail file grew unattended and is unfiltered. So that lump of linux mail is a theoretical possibility.

This is probably what all the current corporate frenzy is about: capturing peoples data in propretiary formats and systems. I am sure that’s how Microsoft keeps their user base. Standards change only very little, people seem to change even less. Not a new thing. Smokers stay smokers. Great product! When ads for smoking are legal then they target the young people. To make them start, but mostly to make them start with a specific brand. Certain brand habits never really change in the life cycle of a consumer. I still use ‘Persil’ for my laundry. If only I could get in the US. It’s neither better nor worse then other powders. It actually rocks, but even if it wouldn’t I would not switch to any other brand any more.

so easy to waste a Saturday

Apple internet technology

I would need to find out how long it would take to code a couple of things. They happen to be running on a Mac and they would be dealing with moving images. Quicktime comes to mind. It is an OK player. Sure VLC is more flexible for some formats, but everybody has a Quicktime player on a Mac. SideNote: Why is apple so stupid to charge money for they pro Version of Quicktime? Can’t make revenue that would make up for the general annoyance that comes with it. And you don’t become a standard for charging for features like copy paste. Anyhow.

Quicktime development is a whole different nightmare. There are around 2,500 functions. Countless API options. Countless related technologies, and not a single introduction that would make any sense, or compile for that matter. Of course, it’s all there. And ‘all’ is quet literally. Examples that crash XCode. Examples that only run on OS9. Introductions of codes with code snippets where it takes allot of guessing, which era this was valid in.

Most open software projects have much better online documentation than Apple’s Quicktime. It’s a mess. A mess with a messy history. Once things work they might be great. It also probably great if you work for Apple have access at the internal communication paths. But for a 3rd party developer it’s hard to get into this. Specially if the API would be a smart part of you have actually to do.

I will NOT make a living by coding around the Quicktime API in the next years. It’s just a small part of what I have to do.

OpenGL for instance is also just a small part of what I do. But I have no problems there: I get the code, the documentation, and can drag this knowledge along in the projects that I do. Same with databases. But Quicktime is a horrible beast to get started with.

Almost as bad as ‘AppleScript’. But I rather not start writing about that.

smackbook

Apple

motion sensor and vritual desktop combined

when brands collide

Apple

nike + iPod

maybe that will help those ailing iPod sales? Kidding.

os x: copy fails after 4gb

Apple confessions of a pixel pusher OSX

When copying a huge file to a drive you could see OS X freak out with a cryptic error messages. Around the lines of “Copy of file XYZ failed with error -NUMBER”.

One possible reason is that the target drive (maybe a shuttle one) is formated as “MS DOS” not as “OS X Journaled”.
Command-I when having the drive selected will tell you.
The file size during that error message is up on the screen will be pretty exactly 4GB. When you close the error then the file will be gone. Of course nothing get’s logged in the system log. Not sure if the finder has a log.

OS X: great unix. Kinda …

brands

Apple history

The ultimate product association: a fruit
Who wants not to have one?

where is it?

Apple confessions of a pixel pusher

shanghai -> ancorage -> indianapolis -> los angeles
that’s how far my new computer has traveled so far.
in less than 48 hours.

I still like my 1.5GB / 100GB iBook G4. It worked well during the first 9 months of freelance work.
Looks like I will get my 15″ MacBook Pro just in time when the MacBook’s come out.

apple does well

Apple

They defended the 99 cents price tag on songs. No wonder: iTunes has 80% market share. Half of Mac clients never had an Apple before. Apple’s with Intel inside run Windows.

And now, for the first time I believe, there are commercials that communicate the fact that there no viruses for OS X. Well, technically there are some. Just that they don’t matter, and probably never will. I wonder however if people will understand that they get viruses on an Apple as fast as on a Dell if they run Windows XP and not OS X?

five years

Apple M$ OSX technology

OS X is out since five years

Almost as long as Vista is delayed.

I think that the PS3 and Vista will both come out together: Never. They share the sickness of the incumbent king. Too fat and saturated to really move. Sony is dreaming about 100 Million PS3 sold, only because they did so with PS1 & 2. And likewise Microsoft thinks that everybody will have to have Vista. Both are in for a surprise.

The same patterns can be found elsewhere: Google Video is not really amazing. It’s outright lame. Google is the incumbent search engine. Not their core business sucks yet. But new launches like Video or base or personal pages are less than great.