Apple Screen Sharing App Makes its Debut in Leopard
EDIT:At the request of Apple legal, this story has been removed.
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Get the RSS Feed!!!Fun with Solid State Drives
So there is a bit of a quiet revolution going on in the computer world lately. Solid State drives (drives is a legacy term that needs to go – it is not a drive at all) have been coming way down in price over the past few years to the point where they may actually make sense for some normal power users. Now I am not saying that you should take out your current hard drive and replace it with something marginally faster and about 10 times the price in terms of Gb/$. That isn’t fun.
80 Gb 2.5 inch HD = $60
64GB 2.5 inch solid state >$600
Yes, MacBook hard drives are easy to replace, but, last time I checked, it wasn’t that much fun to take the hard drive out of a MacBook Pro. Plus that is kinda pricey.
So what I decided to do is get a Lexar Solid State Express Card from Amazon. They happened to be having a sale on the largest current available size – 16Gb and I got it for $199.
They also have an 8GB version for about $100 for the lower budget minded. Word on the street is that there is soon to be a 32GB version which should clock in at a relatively reasonable $400ish.
The first thing I did after inserting the Expresscard was open Disk Utility and reformat it to HFS+ format (it came in Fat32). I then did a disk image of Leopard boot disk which is about 8GB. It only took a few minutes until it was done and popped up on my desktop just like any other drive would do. I then went to the Startup disk system preference and chose the Express card partition. Finally, I restarted. So started the fun things you can do with an Expresscard:
- A Boot Drive -The restart seemed to take as much time as the hard drive overall but with noticeably faster “after login” speed. The machine was very quick even though very few programs were installed on the machine. I was able to watch Quicktimes without any problem. The machine seemed very quick. I don’t have any benchmarks but I suspect that the battery used less power when the OS was running from a Flash Drive.
- A Backup Drive – The 16Gb Expresscard is an awesome backup device. It worked great as a Tiger backup using Rsync and even better using Time Machine under Leopard. It isn’t going to be able to save all of your music and photos if you have a big collection, but it is nice to know that my important docks are being backed up often and without my intervention.
- A Parallels Image – The Solid state drive comes formatted with a 16Gb Fat32 partition on it, but if you are handy you can probably fit a Linux and a Windows partition on the little memory card. I simply moved a Parallels Disk image to the card. I can now take this image between my two MacBook Pros without even having to reboot.
- Your Home Directory – The Expresscard file format may be the perfect storm between speed, size, cost and flexibility. As the size of these drives goes from 16 to 32 to 64 up to 128GB in the next few ears, it is possible that this is what you will take with you to work and school as your mobile home directory. The size is big enough that it could even be your mobile boot disk as stated in step 1.
Whatever the case these little guys are sure to be valuable, and could possibly be the next big thing...Here’s a link to Amazon’s store where I picked up my card which was very well priced.
PC Magazine Shows its Macintosh Hand (a pair of nothing)
This is a rebuttal to a PC Magazine article that was so bad it was good (dugg)...
So, times are obviously good for the Macintosh. How does one know this? Because even the people who should be trumpeting the virtues of Vista and Linux are clumsily falling all over themselves to praise the Mac. Honestly, I haven’t read PC Magazine much. I’ve spotted it in a few magazine racks and dentist offices with subscription cards falling out everywhere, but nothing ever interested me enough to pick one up or visit the website.
However, when trolling Digg for Macintosh news items, what should appear but a PC Magazine article written about the Macintosh entitled Apple’s Mac Set to Soar penned by Lance Ulanoff. After reading a few lines, it became clear that Ulanoff has never come within thirty feet of a Mac. He starts off by mentioning the blather that Dvorak spewed a few weeks ago about liking the Mac or something. Usually, when I see “Dvorak” in print, I immediately hit the back button or close the window – which has unfortunately left a void of information about this optimized keyboard layout thing..hmm digress time.. Anyway, this article was so bad it was getting good – in a “Amerika, we stand as One” or “Why must I cry” sort of way.
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Why was this article so (bad it’s) good? Because it was becoming ever more apparent that this guy has very little computer, let alone Mac, experience. How does one know this? Have a gander at this little gem:
The introduction of Intel chips has not made the Mac OS more susceptible to virus attacks, though I wonder what the experience is like running Windows with Boot Camp on a Mac. Has anyone gotten infected?
Where to start?
1. Viruses are not CPU based?! At least not yet anyway. I don’t think there is one virus that has ever been written in low level machine code. Kudos to whoever does – if it is ever done.
2. Asking if someone has gotten infected in Boot Camp shows that this author really has no idea what Boot Camp is. For the uninformed (and unwilling to do 10 minutes of research), running Windows in Boot Camp is exactly like running Windows on a PC – except the hardware is prettier – meaning that you have the exact same susceptibility as a PC. Even running Parallels or VMWare leaves you as susceptible.
Will there come a time when I recommend only Macs? No. But the day when Apple owns a much, much bigger slice of the computer-market pie is now within view. Let’s mark our calendars, shall we? I say that by Q1 2012, Apple will own 12 percent of the market. Anyone want to guess where it’ll be by 2025?
1. If you are asking this guy for a PC recommendation, you are in REALLY bad shape. Stick with the typewriter.
2. Apple has been gaining market share for the last few years. But 5 years from now? Twelve percent of what market? In five years, I would be surprised if anyone was still using desktop machines. I am not saying we will all be using space cars, just that most people will probably be using their mobile phones/communicators for computing. Will Apple have 12 percent of that market? It is naive to try to equate things now and five years from now when the technology landscape will be infinitely different. Frankly I have no idea but I certainly will not be hedging my bets with PC Magazine.
A word to the wise, PC Magazine, stick to your guns (Windows/Linux) or hire someone who has some Macintosh experience. You aren’t doing yourself any favors by showing your
“triple core”
hand.
New Low End Mac at August 7th Event?
So we’ve heard many rumors about the new iMacs and what appears to be the loss of the 17 inch variety. We’ve also heard that the old 17 inch might be staying on as an eMac.
Add to that the reports of the death of the Mac Mini. This obviously leaves a huge hole on the low end side for Macs. It would be hard to believe that Apple would just cut off the under $1000 crowd (but not impossible).
More likely, there is some low end device waiting in the the wings. We’ve been kicking the idea around here a bunch and have come up with some interesting senarios:
- A taller mini (Steve Jobs likes cubes – we know this) with some real 3.5 inch hard drive(s) that act as a media center or low end computer (WebTV lives!)
- Older version iMacs that are drastically cut in price…iMac lite? Emac reborn?
- Mini’s on steroids! Core2 Duo with 200GB+ HDs and 2GB of RAM, Gig Ethernet, HD Optical
- A new form factor computer all together. Maybe something that fits on the back of a monitor and includes a camera?
- Smaller, cheaper towers. aybe you can turn them sideway and fit them into an entertainment rack. Mac Amateur, Mac Semi-Pro?
- Status Quo. BORING!
Only a few hours left – I guess we’ll find out soon enough. Most likely – as Apple events usually turn out
Microsoft delays release of Office 2008 for Mac until 2008
I guess that makes sense from a naming standpoint. It also makes sense from Microsoft’s unstated Mac business practices which is to release substandard products in an untimely fashion on the Mac platform. As stated before, there is an obvious bias on Microsoft’s part in terms of giving the Mac platform full products.
We are already sick of our idiot coworkers sending us .docx files that we have to push though Microsoft’s ghetto Open XML transmogrifier. Microsoft has already stated that they will not support docx files in Office 2008. Fan-fscking-tastic.
The good news is that by the time January 2008 rolls around, Google Docs and Spreadsheets (and hopefully Powerpoint) will be mature enough to be a serious competitor to Office, not to mention Open and NEO-office from Sun.
CIO.com – Eight Financial Reasons Why You Should Use Mac OS
Great article from an unlikely source. Jacqueline Emigh goes into eight very well thought out reasons why OSX is better for a company’s bottom line.
There has been a lot of this in the press recently and the idea of moving to the Mac platform has been gaining a lot of momentum. The numbers however, still don’t bear this out.
To sum up, here are the arguments she proposes:
- Macs bring a better overall value proposition
- Macintosh licensing fees are cheaper
- The Mac desktop spawns fewer calls to the help desk
- Mac users are more productive workers
- Macs last longer
- Mac OS is more secure
- Mac is just as cost-effective as Windows to manage and administer
- Add Macs while hanging on to your investments in other OSes
Head over to the full article for more.
Microsoft Bowing Out of the Mac Platform? Could Office 2008 Be the Last from Microsoft?
The resignation of Roz Ho as General Manager of the Macintosh Business Unit before WWDC 2007 should have been a premonition of Microsoft’s incredibly poor showing at the event (either that or she knew how painfully lame it was going to be). It had been speculated that Redmond would announce the distribution of the new 2008 version of its market dominating Office suite at the event. But Microsoft had nothing to announce. Is this a sign of things to come? When will it get released and will Office 2008 be the last upgrade to Office that the Mac sees? Are Bill and Steve not getting along as well as they appear to be with Walt Mossberg?
Microsoft has a long, well documented history with the Mac platform. Indeed, Microsoft’s ventures with Apple even pre-date the Macintosh as Bill Gates reminded the audience recently at all things D… It’s also well known that Microsoft Word, possibly the World’s most widely used paid application, made its debut on the Mac Platform. Additionally, when Apple was at its lowest point right after Steve Jobs returned to the helm to rescue the company, it was Microsoft that put a cash infusion into Apple and guaranteed to develop their Office software for a few more years (nevermind that Microsoft’s actions were most likely motivated by the effort to stay out of Monopoly court). So what has happened recently to chill the relationship (or water in hell)?
First, Apple is doing very well for itself now and Redmond doesn’t feel like they are so in control of the Operating Systems market anymore. Apple’s iPod is a huge success that dwarfs its Zune/Plays for Sure competitors. AppleTV is set to make some inroads into Microsoft’s Mediacenter strategy and XBox businesses. Apple’s laptops, seen as the future of "desktop" computing are their strongest product. By all accounts, the iPhone looks to surpass all of these and put a huge dent into Microsoft’s large lead in the up-and-coming smart phone business.
Next, Apple is playing very well with Google, Redmond’s arch-enemy. All of the new tools that are going into iPhone are built on Google APIs. Apple is also playing a lot with another Microsoft rival, Sun in the sandbox. ZFS, Open Office and Java (though Steve Jobs has been hard on Java and Sun in general lately) have all been mentioned alongside Apple products in recent months. In fact, besides MSN Messenger, what major MS product has had a major upgrade since 2003? Internet Explorer for Mac stopped in 2003 at version 5.1 right about the time Safari was getting started. Look at their current downloads page. They still have OS9 Apps. Office 2004 was released late in 2003 and has only recieved bugfixes, security patches and some minor performance improvements since then. Microsoft Office is far and away the biggest application that hasn’t been ported yet to Universal Binaries.
But why?
Maybe Microsoft doesn’t know how to deal with this hi-tech x86 processor from Intel? It is very cutting edge!
Microsoft beat everyone getting applications to OSX when it was first introduced in 2001. Had it not, it is doubtful that the new Mac platform would have been as successful as it has been. Microsoft can definitely get it done. So why has it dragged its heels this time around? No one outside of Redmond (or Cupertino) knows for sure but perhaps Microsoft is a bit uncertain about the future. If they continue to feed Apple with quality software for the enterprise they might see some serious inroads being made into their territory.
Or not.
The "desktop" paradigm is changing so fast that by the time apple has a chance to catch up, the category probably won’t even exist. Which is why the new race is to find the next form factor. What does that look like? It might be wearable or practically invisible, and take the form of a watch, glasses, phone or whatever. However, I bet it looks a whole lot more like an iPhone than the current Windows PC ….Microsoft may have won the desktop battle, but the battle for the next thing is on, and the race is wide open.
Microsoft can’t afford to go easy on Apple this time.
Now you may be saying, "what about Silverlight" – which is Mac compatible but not on the development side. Also, there is renewed interest in developing Windows Media for Mac. Microsoft’s Bungie division still makes some Mac games as well. I think this is because Microsoft is afraid of losing developers, developers, developers to other technologies that include support for the very influential <10% Mac user base. So this is by no means comprehensive.
I think Microsoft will get its final version of Office out for Mac in fairly short order – perhaps trying to steal some thunder from the iPhone launch? Like all other versions it won’t work as good as the PC version (Office 2007) lacking in Enterprise specific areas and it will look like a kids game with crayon colors and bubbly fonts. But unlike all of the other times, that won’t matter.
My Review of Parallels 3.0 for Computerworld
Computerworld hooked me up with an upgrade of Parallels to put through the ringer for a review. I installed 3D apps like Quake, Maya, etc to test the new OpenGL and DirectX VM skillz along with stalwarts like Visio and Dragon Naturally Speaking. Would my Parallels image hold up? Read on to find out…..(hint – Parallels is awesome)
