scott.hodson.blog

So I think the MacBook Air will be a flop. It is the same size (screen-wise) as a MacBook, has less horsepower (slower CPU, slower and smaller hard drives, etc), fewer connectivity options, and it costs more. And for what? Just to be thinner and have the latest, coolest looking one? It’s a CEO, show-off send email, process docs, etc, laptop that’ll turn some heads next time he’s in the First Class cabin of his LA to NYC flight, not a mobile knowledge worker productivity workhorse. I guess students will like it too for coolness as well to write their papers on.

I guess if you don’t mind trying to get important stuff done at a slower speed, but at least you’re looking sexy doing it, and don’t mind paying more money for it then it’s for you!

I think eventually this will replace the MacBook and then it won’t matter: if you need a notebook that cranks speed-wise then you’ll get a MacBook Pro.

I’m all for ditching the optical drive though, not needed 99% of the time. I think we’ll see a thinner MacBook Pro sometime this year as well.

P.S. Don’t laugh at me or call me a hypocrite if you see me strutting around with one of these at some point.

Here’s a comparison of similar small notebooks from other vendors, compared to the MacBook Air

With the release of iTunes and Safari on Windows, Apple Inc (former known as “Apple Computer Inc”) seems to be heading towards becoming a software company. Recent comments from Steve Jobs at D5 that “it’s all about the software” seem to reinforce that point. However, the bulk of Apple’s revenue comes from hardware devices (iPods, Macs and soon, iPhones). Since the switch to Intel, Apple has had to refresh their Mac lines more frequently than before to stay more price-competitive to comparably equipped Wintel boxes which has to be cutting into their Mac profit margins.

While the software is an important and differentiating part of the entire closed-system’s functionality I think the temptation to port iLife to Windows is probably very tempting to Apple because of software’s higher margins and hardware’s increased commoditization. The reason iLife hasn’t been updated in over 1.5 years could be partly due to the fact that they’re trying to release an iLife for OS X and Windows simultaneously. Indeed, there is fertile ground for an integrated digital media suite in the Windows camp as the Windows side is fragmented with one-off companies that are good at making DVD burning software, while others are good at authoring, while others are good at audio production but none of them really provide solid, well-integrated picture, audio, and video content creation and management as smoothly as iLife.

The problem is that iLife is practically viewed as part of the OS X experience. Indeed, an oft-repeated selling point of OS X is that it comes with all of this neato iLife software to manage your digital lifestyle. But if there’s a Windows version of iLife isn’t the reason to not use Windows less compelling, especially as it succeeds at becoming more and more secure as Vista has shown? And how many people will keep switching to OS X if they can do most of the things they love on a Mac also on a Windows box which is more open, more easily upgradable and costs less?

I think porting iLife to Windows would be great for Apple’s bottom line but would decrease OS X’s chances at becoming a more mainstream operating system and would more exclusively be relegated to the “media professional” market it so strongly dominates now. However, Apple could potentially sell more copies of iLife on Windows for $129 that would make up for the lost revenue of OS X/Mac sales.

With a continuous flow of cool Beryl demo videos floating around the net Beryl is continually shaming Windows and OS X WRT window management. It’s surprising that Linux, an OS not known for its desktop capabilities, is what’s being used to shame these two operating system vendors.

So with Vista out we can count on not seeing anything like this in Windows for a while now. It would have to be some service pack or 3rd party add-on to enhance Vista’s window management in this way.

It’ll be interesting to see if the soon-to-be-released OS X “Leopard” has anything like this to match or surpass Beryl. If not it will be a let-down either way.

I went to Frys in Fountain Valley today to return my iPhone (Linksys CIT200) because it’s pretty useless and cumbersome to use as a Skype phone.

After persevering through the usual act of Congress that is returning something at Frys, I went out to find Vista. There were no banners or ads for Vista, no fanfare whatsoever. I meandered down to the software section where they sell OSes and found it there. Each Vista and Office 2007 box was in a separate large see-through glass container. Hmm, there’s something to be said for digital distribution of software.