I was talking with someone the other day about how computers are getting faster and faster with bigger drives and more memory, but the basic design hasn't changed in what, 14 years? Why can't we get something smaller? Or more stylish? Why must we still interact with it with a keyboard? And why does it have to sit on a desktop?
Yes I know, laptops, notebooks, pocketpc's. But then you start to talk about the software and how you need to be constantly on your guard with spyware and viruses and downloading the latest patches.
You mention the "A" word, but the costs of such a journey are prohibitive. Till now, it seems.
Apple is finally getting closer to my reality; cash.
I do believe I would love the opportunity to explore an Apple system, so many upsides to it.
One day I will, and that day may be closer than I expected.
And if Apple keeps this up, Microsoft will be in trouble.
Hmmm...fifteen years with a PC and then switch? I'm not averse to the idea, but man, I don't know...
ReplyDeleteSmall is appealing though. It's not quite the same thing, but Sony has come out with what is almost a pocket Playstation2. I've only seen it in pictures, but it can't be more than half an inch thick and twelve inches wide.
The question is, while the chips and all the little things that go with it are getting smaller (hence, through shorter distances to travel, you get faster computers), why are our harddrives and other hardware not getting smaller across the board? Why are we using CD instead of mini-discs, for example (although I really don't feel like changing my music format again)?
Anyway, the mini Mac sure looks cool...
Are you serious Marc? Mini-discs were always a dead-end format, although you must have seem the 8cm CD players that use a similar sized disc, but without the poor quality.
ReplyDeleteThere are some very good reasons for the CD format. A big feature of LPs (remember those) was the cover artwork. CDs lost a lot of the impact, partially substituted for with videos. Another size reduction and there'll be even less of the message that can be carried by the packaging.
But as you point out, we don't all want to replace our CD collections 10 years after our LPs bit the dust. I wouldn't be surprised if the next round of 'innovation' gives us the music AND video on a single DVD-capacity disc.
BTW there is MUCH less difference between the MAC and PC than there was even 10 years ago. Should be a near-painless transition - well, until someone has to pay for software.
ReplyDeleteToni makes a good point about paying for software. Apple's hardware and operating systems have had many advantages for years, but there just isn't the same selection of software, so I've stuck with MS Windows. Hey, at one time I even considered Linux for its stability (no more blue screen of death), but despite its many annoyances, Windows' huge user base ensures a good selection of software.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, I recently made a small break from Bill's evil empire by switching from IE to the Mozilla Firefox web browser ... so far I love it.
HERESY! Apple has cool stuff to be sure, but I could never bring myself to be called an Mac user. I just couldn't afford the labotomy!
ReplyDeleteToni: mini-discs a lost cause? It's all they use in Japan. My brother has a mini-disc player and loves it. It's CD quality, so I'm not sure what you mean by "poor quality".
ReplyDeleteI noticed about 4 years ago or so Sony Stores in Canada had mini-disc players for sale with a small selection of discs by well-known artists. Thankfully (because of that whole changing format thing) it didn't take off (I think it might have something to do with the advent of CD-Rs and -RWs--a big selling point for mini-discs was their recordability).
But I've noticed in the last couple of months that Future Shop, for instance, has started advertising mini-disc players alongside its mp3 players. So, maybe we're in for a format change after all (although it wouldn't be all that painful--you could just copy from CD to Minidisc and not lose quality (digital transfer).)
Hello views of Randall's websight as well as Randall:
ReplyDeleteAnyhoo, dispite the incompatibility issues that have plauged mac in the past the problems are becoming less and less existant. Just a few months back I was running XP and the glorious system somehow crashed on me... again. So I decided enough was enough and I purchaes myself an ibook (smallest and cheepes mac laptop) and well i have enjoyed my OS X. The only thing that I has ever crashed on me has been my microsoft office or OS X (yes they do make it and it was cheeper then office for windows). Oh and Randall if you would like you could poke around on it when I get back from school.
Oh and if you want to see something really amazing check out this.http://www.apple.com/ca/ipodshuffle/
ReplyDeleteyeah it's 1 gig.
I think I'd like go at it! Coming home soon?
ReplyDeleteThere certainly is limited software options, but what is available seems pretty solid. I also am using and enjoying firefox and Open Office. There is a growing number of open source options available these days.
And the Shuffle is starting at $99? That will be the first trip into Appledom for some pc users. Then they will get comfortable with the concept of owning Apple and will take a look at a Mini. Risking $500 on an apple will seem much less a risk than $1500 or $2000.
This strategy may really pay off for Apple in the Looooooooooong run.
Marc - Minidisc is MP3 quality - not CD quality. The example I heard about 2 years ago was an expensive portable MD player, and sounded OK through tiny headphones. However when it was plugged in to real HiFi the tone was plain weak, lacking depth, vibrancy and detail. Minidiscs used to use a compression format, and it was this that caused the low quality (like a low bit-rate MP3). They may have improved it by now.
ReplyDeleteBTW regarding digital transfer, I'd always thought that CDs should be directly comparable wit the original when recorded. Apparently not so. I read a review of a Philips system a while back - they stated that the recorded discs were quite noticeably inferior. Seems like there's more to this than what *should* be obvious.