- Posts tagged Mac OS X
- Explore Mac OS X on posterous
Some interesting data on Mac vs. PC vs. Other
It's interesting to note that while Mac people are most concerned with the OS debate, in all three groups over half the people either think they're pointless, or skipped the question altogether.
Mac OS X is 10 years old today, but let's go visit the original
This NeXTSTEP video demo is over 30 minutes long, but it's divided into sections and the first one (13 minutes) is the most relevant today. Why? Because this was 1992, when Mac System 7 and Microsoft Windows 3.1 were each less than a year old. While those two releases were very large advances for both platforms, NeXTSTEP crushes them both. It was truly a futuristic OS that any Mac fan today clearly recognizes as OS X.
It still boggles the mind how far ahead of everything NeXTSTEP was. Here was Mac OS X realized 10 years before we'd get it. I have to remind myself this is 1992, and that when Jobs mentions, for example, President Bush, he's referring to George Bush #1, not his son.
It's also interesting to see Steve Jobs' demo style was the same then as it is now. Oh, and don't miss him slinging around the term "apps," he's been using it a long time.
Reduced prices coming for iWork '11, especially for Family Pack users
Last month, visual cues presented during Apple's "Back to the Mac" media event suggested that it would sell the iWork and iLife suite applications individually on the Mac App Store. Images of the forthcoming software download destination included the ability to purchaseiWork apps for $19.99 each
Back to the Mac: Thoughts, Observations and Questions
My comments on the various announcements at Apple's recent Special Event.
iPhoto 11
Apple continued their efforts to make iLife powerful while still being easy to use. iPhoto is my most-used iLife app, and the new full screen mode looks sweet. Now that I can live in full screen mode, I will.
I didn't like that Facebook and Flickr sharing seemed one-way streets, so the ability to grab and display all your albums even if you didn't use iPhoto to put them there is huge for me. I will use iPhoto much more with Flickr as a result.
I've put together books with iPhoto and enjoyed the process, but today's demo makes it look so much easier than before (and it was already easy). It looks very well done.
My only disappointment is that no editing tools were discussed, and I didn't get a good shot of the editor. The last couple of releases of iPhoto have borrowed tools from Aperture—such as the gamma level control and not saturating skin tones—and I hope this new one does as well. I realize I don't need Aperture power (I stopped at Aperture 2), but that doesn't mean I should only have basics.
iMovie 11
The additions of face recognition and enhanced audio editing to iMovie are big.
Meanwhile, I'm sure many will deride the trailers feature but I think it's beautiful. No, it isn't about creating a 30-second trailer for your 5-minute movie. What the detractors don't seem to get is that for many people the trailer will be the movie. Outside of the geek community most people's jaws will drop when you show them a trailer of the ball game or vacation trip or outing you all had last month.
Garageband 11
I'm all thumbs when it comes to music so I don't use Garageband much, but even I know how cool groove track can be. A great idea, and typical of Apple. I also think the visual feedback when playing was an interesting addition. I wonder how much improvement it could make to plying in the real world.
iWeb and iDVD
It's safe to say these weren't updated at all since they don't even have a spot on the iLife section of the web site. The good news is that for those still creating DVDs they get at least one more iLife cycle (18 months or more) of iDVD support.
iWork 11
Psyche! There was no iWork 11 announcement today. I'm disappointed by this, and anxious for when we'll see the latest version of the suite. Maybe when the App Store opens?
Mac App Store
I love this, and don't get all the paranoia and complaining I've seen.
This is not the only way to get apps on the Mac. It's silly to think Apple's out to kill the 25-year old methodology for getting apps on a Mac. But they are out to come up with something better. I believe the App Store will be it. I love the easy way to find and purchase apps, and to update them afterwards. Further, I don't think of the App Store as installing apps for me, I think of it more as apps that don't need installing. That's what the vast majority of users will think, too.
Mac OS X Lion
Too early to comment much. I mean, we got a really, really small sneak peak. I think it's the smallest sneak peak of a new OS X release we've ever seen. I tend to think this had less to do with what's available, and more to do with this not being a developer event and Apple wanting to focus on what could be bought now.
Still, I already love Launchpad (I really like the iOS paradigm of launching apps) and also Mission Control since I use both Exposé and Spaces heavily.
MacBook Air
I love these, and it's nice to see them transition to full unibody models.
The 11" model is tempting. I'm sure some will claim Apple has finally built a netbook, but that's nonsense. This isn't some Atom-powered cheap plastic piece of crap. Even at the minimum 1.4GHz it's an Intel Core 2 Duo w/ 800MHz bus and 3MB shared cache. It has a full size keyboard. The Nvidia 320M graphics with 1366 x 768 resolution will be gorgeous and fast. On top of this add flash storage (2x faster than a HDD) and there's no netbook that can touch it. This is a laptop, people, albeit a small and beautiful one.
The 13" model offers great improvements over the 11" besides the physically larger screen. The resolution is 1440 x 900, the largest for a 13" MacBook ever. Higher CPU speeds, front-side bus is 1066MHz and the shared cache is 6MB. And there's an SD card slot and 2 more hours of battery life as well.
Regarding battery life, I'm anxious for more to come out on Apple's new battery tests. Interesting to see if they really do show "real world" performance. I'll keep an eye out for battery comments when the reviews hit the usual sites.
Sold Out!
It took just eight days.
Some might say it occurred so quickly despite increased emphasis on iPhone OS at the expense of Mac OS. But I'd say it did so largely because of it. Not that there's no interest in Mac OS, just that there's huge interest in mobile right now.
Google to Mac users: Eat the crumbs we throw you
I’ll be interested to see how well Chrome does among Mac users.
You mean there's finally a real Chrome browser available for Mac? Oh, wait, no, there's not. Just the same old tired beta, even though it left beta on Windows ages ago.
Google's taken so long to deliver a Mac version I assumed they'd outsourced the job to Adobe. No need; I guess when it comes to Mac software they're the new Adobe.
Does Chrome install on the Mac with that insidious Google "updater" always running in the background? You know, the one that even if you hunt it down and kill it, it just reinstalls itself the next time you run the Google app? It's just one reason the Mac version of Picasa (beta, of course) was blown from my Mac, with no Google software to return.
I'll never understand why so many Mac users are eager to eat scraps off the floor that fell from a developer's Windows table. Not me. No thanks, Google. Take your cheesy product to Linux, I'm not interested.
Chronicles of Conflict: the History of Adobe vs. Apple
And none of the horsemen used Flash.
Nice work. There's nothing like a rewriting of scripture to make technology more palatable. Or is it more confusing? Either way, a great read.
Macs cost notably less to support than Windows PCs
A majority of respondents said that Macs cost less in terms of time spent troubleshooting, user training, help desk calls, and system configuration. Admins generally agreed that costs related to software licensing and supporting infrastructure were the same between the two platforms.
It's almost a shame this needs to be treated as "news". It's probably only the gazillionth* article espousing this point going back 15 years or more. It comes as no surprise to anyone not dependent on the Windows ecosystem.
* "Gazillionth" is not a word. I made it up. It's hyperbole. No real numbers were harmed in the making of this post.
