Eddy's Profile

When offering a cheap machine, Apple has to look into their marketing. As Calista suggests: why include firewire? But isn't the answer that this is the primary way to feed video into iMovie? Cutting out firewire might give buyers the impression iMovie has no value. Same for a weaker processor (Celeron of Core Solo) and iPhoto will be a permanent lacking your scrolling or even show the lollipop cursor for most of the time. Both arguments together and the inclusion of (the latest iLife) is more a con then a pro. I am not an everyday user of iLife at all, I'm just saying that iLife is part of promoting the Mac. People will expect some acceptable or even a solid performance. The risks Apple runs is that the word gets out that the Apple experience isn't what it is made to believe. Leaving out options like bluetooth (although I think it doesn't add much to the cost of building the machine) might not been seen as high impact (I am not using it either), but a machine has to anticipate being used for three to five years. A lot will happen in that time and bluethooth will only increase penetration into our lives. Bluetooth (being wireless) might not complicate internal design, while firewire (which probably doesn't cost too much to add either) at leasts needs a connector that is located logically. Profit, as Joshua already mentioned, is important. Although, at this moment is Apple able to afford less profit to gain marketshare. Then again, Apple probably doesn't want mass-buyers (like schools) to jump to this lower-end option. Support is also a huge factor, as mentioned. Part of the value of running MacOSX is having many of the open-source applications available. While you might not like the interface of Gimp or Open-Office, they are free and offer features that you would otherwise have to buy. Installation and usage isn't up the user-experience Apple sets out to offer, but it is an option. And many open-source projects are delivered with improved user-experience specifically for MacOSX. *) The conclusion is that a MacBook, whatever you think of it's value-point, does not require you to buy anything extra. No virus protection or other malware-removal software, no Office suite, no image-manipulation software. There is really a lot of software included or out there. And the MacBook will prepare you reasonably well for things to come. The precondition perhaps is that you aren't buying your computer with a specific taks in mind, but that you are a real novice buyer trying out the Mac; the kind of users that would go for a low-end Mac as suggested. After everything is said here, I think Apple probably is thinking about lower-end machines themselves. It only makes business sense to keep looking for value-points. I am making a case against such a low-end machine and Apple might make a fool out of me by introducing on the moment I click the submit button. So, I am not saying that it won't come. I am just pointing out a few arguments and deriving a conclusion from that. I am just a clueless as the next guy. *) Don't try to counter the argument with freeware for Windows; adding/removing on MacOSX won't clutter your computer, while on Windows it *will* degrade overall performance. Many "bargain" PC's come with an "impressive" list of included software: free stuff like Acrobat Reader, crippled stuff like expiring malware protection, or versions of products that are at least two years old. Something that keeps you busy exploring for about two months, until you really want to get something done. On MacOSX, a lot of freeware comes in disk-image files and most of those applications I run directly out of those files never actually installing them at all, so removing (or just moving) them is even simpler.

Hm, redirect after log-on got me to the wrong topic. Probably due to the use of different tabs. Bummer. Appologies.

There is another issue, although a bit off-topic: plug&play. A lot of hardware, things connected through USB, need their own driver. The reason is that a device tells the OS what it is, such as - humaninterface device/keyboard or - capture device/camera or - sound device/combo (e.g. a headset specifying both an input and an output part) and for most of the categories will the OS have a standard driver. However, a lot of devices simply say - vendor-specific/vendor-specific and this is when the OS can only access the device when it has it's own driver. Why is this important? Well, creating a driver is complex and if a vendor isn't capable of following specifications for a certain category, why would he be able to follow specification on how to create a driver? A driver has a lot of privileges to access part of the hardware or run at times that the OS is less protected and this makes it a target for attacks: if a hacker knows the vulnerabilities of a popular devices' driver it can use this knowlegde for attacking a machine. Needless to say: I have little trust in devices that come with their own drivers, but if I do need them, I'd rather have a kernel that is more protective. Otherwise the speed would help malware more then it does help me. (The fact that someone is paranoid, does not mean that this person has no enemies)

This is an old thing. When I got my PowerBook G3, I worked in an office with laptop-PC users. It annoyed the heck out of me: either keep the fans constant or not at all, but switching them on in rather short intervals (minutes) is distracting. (can't that be a setting: slow constant or fast intermittant?) I discussed it with them: I couldn't even tell if my machine had a fan or not. Never heard it and actually never thought about it. I assumed there was none. On a really, really hot day, I sat at home in the garden, I couldn't wear more then shorts, and I was doing some work. I heard a faint noise that I could not make out. It went away soon enough, but it came back later. Turned out: in full sunlight the machine heats up enough to start puffing. So, only if ambient temparature is high would the G3 turn on it's fan. Later Macs would produce more heat, but still: noise is something Apple is aware of.

I think that a lot of PC users are aware of the fact that they just do dull little tasks. It is not that they couldn't do more exciting things, it is just that these dull little tasks are hard enough to perform and PC users are glad to get them done. PC users aren't looking to do more thing, but are looking to do these things more easily. If they would get more comfortable, they would get the courage to start to do more interesting things. I regularely help PC users when they need to do something that they never did before and I notice that confidence fades fast when I show how to do the things that needs to be done. Doing the same kind of tasks on a Macintosh, e.g. manage your photo's or even simply organising your documents, is a lot more exciting, even if these are the same dull little tasks that Windows users can perform just as well. Simple games, such as cardgames, look a lot better on a Mac even it is just another Solitair or FreeCell. Confidence is built sooner on a Macintosh and you'll find yourself doing things that you couldn't imagine doing yourself on a PC. I think the message to Windows users should be: stop blaming yourself for not getting the most out of your computer. Buy a Mac and do things that you currently are only dreaming about. The message in the ad comes very close to this.