Apple’s Future Secure
Apparently Apple’s future is secure. Tonight’s Star Trek Voyager episode on Space (Good Shepherd, 2000), featured a shot of a computer screen on the Delta Flyer conspicuously displaying a Macintosh cursor zipping around.
Archive for February, 2005
Mac Use Up at Yale
There’s an interesting article at YaleDailyNews.com that discusses a resurgence in interest in the Macintosh platform.
I think the headline (Tables turn in campus Mac vs. Windows feud) is a bit sensationalistic, but the comments made by students are interesting.
Rather than the tired, old refrains of “Macs suck”, “Macs always crash” or “Macs are too expensive” (although one does make that claim), the comments from the Windows crowd are more along the lines of “I’m mostly doing word processing; buying a Mac seems like overkill”.
Even the IT department is vendor-neutral.
Obscure U2 Tracks Bubble to Surface
I’ve been a U2 fan for a long time, but when Apple and U2 released The Complete U2, I went through it pretty carefully. Despite owning every CD single that I was able to get my hands on since 1984, there were a few obscure tracks I hadn’t even heard of.
These are the links to iTunes (they work with the Canadian Store, and I assume they’ll work elsewhere):
- Outake 2: Sixty Seconds In Kingdom Come, a track from The Unforgettable Fire
- Beautiful Ghost / Introduction to Songs of Experience (From The Joshua Tree Sessions)
These tracks are worth checking out if you’re a fan of mid-80s U2.
Pop-up Blockers Subverted?
Yesterday, for the first time in many, many months, I saw a pop-under ad while surfing with Apple’s Safari (current version).
Others have recently noticed this, and it’s not limited to Apple’s browser; Firefox, Mozilla and other browsers with pop-up/pop-under disabling features have fallen victim. Advertisers seem to have found a work-around.
This still seems to be a minor issue, but it’s worth keeping an eye on…
Gates Announces IE7
Bill Gates has announced that Microsoft will be releasing Internet Explorer 7 ahead of the release of Longhorn (as previously planned).
This suggests to me that
- Microsoft is feeling the heat from Firefox
- Longhorn isn’t coming soon enough to placate angry customers (big, corporate ones, that is, who are tired of security issues and malware)
It’ll be interesting to see if IE7 resolves any of the many issues (broken CSS box model, PNG transparency, etc.) web developers have been hoping to see fixed. I’m betting on half-baked security fixes and no improvements on the standards-compliance front. Call me cynical.
“It’s Stupid to Buy an iPod”
According to Forbes.com, Napster’s upcoming Napster To Go service (and marketing campaign) is being described by CEO Chris Gorog in the following ways:
It’s exactly what consumers want to do.
Apple’s commercial success with downloaded music contradicts this.
Napster To Go is very similar to the P2P experience
I don’t see how. There’s monthly credit card billing and everything you’ve paid for evaporates the minute your subscription lapses (see John Gruber’s “Subscription Small Print“).
Forbes goes on to state that Gorog
believes the best way to market the new service is to emphasise its advantages over iTunes. He’s particularly keen to highlight iTunes’ iPod-only compatibility.
Napster’s CEO has it backwards. iPod is the killer brand in this scenario, not iTMS. But to succeed, he must redefine the frame of reference. Napster To Go is a service — not a product — so he must attack Apple’s service.
Of course the iPod succeeds as a device even in the absence of the iTunes Music Store. I know I happily enjoyed my iPod long before iTMS was available in Canada. I simply enjoy it more now.
Napster’s service will use Microsoft’s Janus technology, preventing their songs playing on iPods. Given the iPod’s dominant position in the marketplace, it’s hard to see how this is an advantage to consumers with iPods.
Now the kicker:
We’re going to be communicating to people that it’s stupid to buy an iPod
I don’t think telling people that they’re stupid is a winning strategy, but I could be wrong. I did buy an iPod, after all…
Mac History Poor Predictor of iPod Future
Mike Davidson has some interesting analysis of Apple’s options with the iPod. I posted my thoughts to his blog (you can read them on his site), but I’m posting them here, too:
Nice article. I generally agree with your analysis, but I think you’re overlooking something fundamental: Market-share comparisons between Macs and iPods don’t work.
The Mac didn’t blow a commanding lead — it never had one
Market-share has fluctuated over the years, but it’s never been anything remotely close to half the market.
The iPod has a commanding lead
If you think that this is an untenable situation, then you must also thing that Microsoft will soon lose their lead with Windows in the OS space. I don’t believe that, and I doubt you do, either.
FairPlay is genius
DRM we can live with. DRM the labels can live with. Controlled by a company that’s not a convicted monopolist.
Fashion is an opportunity for Apple, not a threat
Of course white iPods will go out of fashion. Do you see Apple trying to sell Blueberry iMacs any more?
I have the same relationship with my cell phone that you imagine Jobs has with his; I hate it. It’s ugly, clunky, and all but unusable. I’d rather pass it through my small intestine than try to listen to music or surf the web with it. (I don’t doubt your Treo’s an improvement on it.)
Before long, we will see that Jobs’ dismissal of video on iPods is just a weak attempt at throwing Microsoft and Sony off the scent while Apple takes a swipe at another entertainment-industry segment.
PodBrix: Art at the Intersection of Apple and Lego
I can’t believe it took this long for someone to come up with this. Naturally, it sold out immediately.
How long until we have animations?
