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The iPad mini… The email to Tim Cook

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Hello fellow Apple fans. I’m here to once again let you know about the latest and greatest news of Apple. But I am sorry to let you know this news isn’t so great. Just to start, when I heard about this possible product, the ” iPad nano”, I was upset right out of the gate. I got so upset I sent an email. To whom you may ask? Well I’ll tell you who, the CEO of Apple that’s who! Here’s the email I sent.

” Tim Cook,

Hello my name is Dillon and I am a huge Apple fan. But there is a matter that is concerning me and other fellow Apple fans. Through out the last few months, a rumor that an iPad mini or an iPad nano will be released sometime soon. I believe this is not a good idea. You of all people should know that Steve Jobs, your friend and late CEO, found the idea of a smaller iPad ridiculous. When any electronic device is smaller in size that of course means that there is less functionality. Another reason Apple shouldn’t make an iPad nano is because this device will take away the simplicity and specs that Apple has offered in it’s past products, such as the iPad 3. Another thing to consider is  the lower price of the mini will take a large amount of sales out of the original iPads. Even though this product may meet different markets and different needs, this decision would not be a good one for Apple.

Please take this opinion into serious consideration.

Apple fan,

Dillon.”

Yes I know there is a big possibility that this will never be read by Tim Cook, but I needed to get this opinion out there to let Apple know that they are Apple and they don’t need to change.

Thanks for reading and Think Different,

Dillon

Apple: The jack of all innovation: the future disruption and destruction of industries by Apple

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In Apple’s recent update to iOS, they introduced Maps. It, if it does all that it promises, will diminish if not destroy the stand-alone GPS industry. They are going to destroy the GPS industry with the iPhone and it will be swift. I predict, with GPS sales on the downside, they will be extinct in the next several years. Let me ask you this, would you rather carry around your phone and your GPS or just your phone, I’m guessing you probably answered just your phone and I’m probably right.

Another industry that Apple will (but has yet to) disrupt is the textbook industry. They must be able to work very closely with the Board and other school organizations such as the districts to distribute iPads in mass quantity. With the textbook features that Apple introduced in February, Apple will be able to destroy the paper textbook industry providing they work at it. It’s billions of dollars they’ll be earning and the backs of children they’ll be saving.

The iPhone, in recent years, has been able to (very deeply) cut into the profits of the mp3 player. The only real mp3 player on the market now is the iPod and even that is losing traction, I see a day where it may no longer exist. That day is not here yet, but it will come. It is an industry Apple has revolutionized and then destroyed, perhaps deliberately.

I see a day where people will no longer pull out their stand-alone consumer camera and instead use their iPhones to take pictures. Oh, wait, that day has already come. That’s right Canon, watch out, Apple is taking the camera industry away from you. In fact they’ve already been doing it for the past couple years or so. The small consumer grade cameras are almost a thing of the past.

Stand alone phone sales (i.e. home phone) have been declining with Apple to blame. People have been switching to using their smart phones as their primary phone instead of buying a stand-alone phone system. That industry has been declining in recent years and will only continue to do so.

So let’s recap a bit and then I will discuss the industries Apple is looking to invade right now. First, the stand-alone GPS will be a thing of the past, (while their sales are strong now, their sales are declining due to smart phones and will only continue to do so). Second, Apple will destroy the paper textbook industry with the iPad and iBooks 2, that is, if they work at it. Trust me Apple, it is worth it, but I’m sure you see that. Third, the mp3 player has taken a major hit by the iPhone and similar phones and will only continue to. Fourth, the stand-alone camera industry has already felt the tremors of the quake that is right on their doorstep. Canon, Nikon and other similar companies are really feeling the pinch in their cameras and this will only continue as the cameras in iPhones improve. Fifth, home phone sales will continue to decline. It is time for the true king of phones to have its turn.

Industries Apple will disrupt next

First, Apple has long been rumored to attack the TV industry next with its rumored TV. No, not the Apple TV, the set-up box that not even Apple is proud to call anything but a “hobby”. The “iTV”, the “next generation Apple TV”, whatever it is, is the game changer. You see, Apple may be about as late to the TV market as they were the MP3 player. However, what Apple did to the MP3 player they will to the TV- make it better. TVs are thin and, in some cases, lightweight, so I’m sure they’ll follow suit. But that is not the only thing Apple will do. This TV will change our living rooms. There is an amazing TV in Apple’s labs waiting to be announced and when it is, it will disrupt the entire television industry.

Second, there are some many rumors going around that Apple will disrupt an industry similar to one they already have disrupted. If sources are true, Apple will announce a smaller screen sized tablet. They have already created the large screen size tablet industry (9 inch approx.) but have yet to enter the, less featured but more compact and portable, smaller tablet industry. I will be interested to see what they will do with it but knowing Apple they’ll probably blow their competitors out of the water. What kind of long term affects this set of tablets will have on the current iPad has yet to be determined, but don’t worry, Apple isn’t canceling it’s current iPads anytime soon, they’re just adding variety.

What industries Apple plans to disrupt, create or destroy is up the teams at Apple. Let’s just hope the ones they choose to enter, create or destroy are the right ones. I am confident that they will be.

Thanks for reading,

Joe

Goodbye MobileMe and iWork

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Apple has reminded customers to collect their information off of MobileMe and iWork,com since it has canceled it’s services in favor of the more widely accepted (and in my opinion, better) iCloud service. However, we must acknowledge the fact that we might not have iCloud without MobileMe, or at least it might have come later. MobileMe was the “preshow” so to speak of iCloud. We must “tip our hats off” to MobileMe and iWork.com since they together worked to make the people who bought it lives easier.

I never was a fan of MobileMe, limited functionality with too much of a cost. And it didn’t have the iOS support it should of had. If Apple wanted it to succeed, they would have intregated it into iOS. But they didn’t. Perhaps it’s because they already had the better iCloud service up their sleeve and didn’t want to continue MobileMe once iCloud took off. iCloud did take off and Apple did cancel MobileMe, so perhaps this was the case. MobileMe had a poor debut, it, again, had limited functionality, its performance was questionable, the name never stuck with customers, and customers just didn’t want to pay $99 a year. I may, however, shed a tear to the departure of iWork.com, it’s functionality worked with my all my Macs to make sure that my documents are on them, but again it didn’t have that crucial iOS support and with iCloud here and iCloud is here for good, there is no reason for it anymore. We no longer need neither service. And while some may grieve at one or both departures, I won’t be one of those people, because I have the worlds most advanced cloud to back me up, giving me more than a million MobileMes and iWork.coms could ever do. Intregated iOS support, a better name, better support and functionality, better reliability just makes it a better service.

So we wave goodbye to MobileMe and iWork.com just like we did with iTools and .mac. It’s time to say goodbye. Happy retirement iCloud and iWork.com, you will be missed (at least by some people).

Thanks for reading,

Joe

Bob Mansfield is leaving his Apple SVP position, but will it make a difference?

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Bob Mansfield has made it public that he will be leaving the company in the coming months. He has been with the company for 13 years-some of Apple’s most successful years. Since he’s been there so long, it seems terrifying that they are losing him but be assured Apple’s got it covered. Dan Riccio, current vice president of iPad hardware engineering (he reports to Mansfield now) will be taking the reins from Bob Mansfield within the next few months. He originally joined Apple in 1998 as VP of hardware design. This experience that he had and that he has now will surely help him as he takes Mansfield’s place.

In a press announcement from Apple, they have stated that he was “instrumental” to all of Apple’s iPads and they have said that he has been a key contributor in many of Apple’s products. They also stated that “Dan has been one of Bob key lieutenants for a very long time and is very well respected within Apple and by the industry. [Apple’s] hardware engineering team is the best engineering team on earth and will not miss a beat during the transition.” On a sort of sad note of Bob leaving the company, Apple also said this in their statement, “Bob has been an instrumental part of our executive team, leading the hardware engineering organization and overseeing the team that has delivered dozens of breakthrough products over the years…We are very sad to have him leave and hope he enjoys every day of his retirement”. I too am sad to see such a key player in Apple gone from the company, however I know that Dan Riccio will help to continue to make Apple an insanely great company in his new role as SVP.

Even as most companies declare that they only need a CEO, CFO, etc., Apple has been able to be very successful with its management team. Most companies would not be able to afford to have many SVPs and VPs like Apple does. Whether or not all of these positions is necessary is unclear, however the way Apple has been managed has worked, so they most be doing something right.

I don’t think it will matter too much that Bob is leaving since everyone at Apple is as dedicated as everyone else, but with that said, I am glad that they chose a well-fit candidate for the job and as always I look forward to seeing what Apple has up its sleeve in the future. I also look forward to seeing what the new SVP of Hardware Engineering will bring forth to Apple and I am sad to see a great soldier of Apple leave. Thanks for all you have done Bob Mansfield and we all wish you the best in your retirement.

Thanks for reading,

Joe

Apple Wins Injunction against Samsung Galaxy: Tablet now banned in US

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UPDATE: Apple has posted its $2.6 million bond.

Apple has won its appeal against Samsung in a US supreme court in the state of California (which, for those of you who don’t know, is where Apple is headquartered). This appeal was against Samsung’s Galaxy Tablet, which has been wrongfully infringing Apple’s property. This win, once Apple posts a $2.6 million bond (which for Apple is spare change), will ban Galaxy Tab sales in one of the biggest markets in the world, the United States, until Samsung can show the courts it has made the appropriate changes to its infringing devices. Apple has won other hearings in other countries, resulting in the same ban. Here is a statement from the judge making the decision.

“Although Samsung has a right to compete, it does not have a right to compete unfairly, by flooding the market with infringing products,” Koh wrote in her order, adding that the strength of Apple’s case on the merits left her no choice but to grant the injunction. “While Samsung will certainly suffer lost sales from the issuance of an injunction, the hardship to Apple of having to directly compete with Samsung’s infringing products outweighs Samsung’s harm in light of the previous findings by the Court.”

Apple and Samsung are both in a sticky situation. Samsung sells some of its hardware to Apple and of course Apple pays for it. They are both in a rough situation because Samsung has the right to refuse to sell to Apple since they don’t like how Apple is suing them all the time, but at the same token, Apple is one of Samsung’s biggest buyers, so it can’t without repercussions.

“Although Samsung has a right to compete, it does not have the right to compete unfairly”. That could not have been said well enough. They shouldn’t be infringing on Apple’s rights so I’m glad the courts saw that. I look forward to not seeing the Tabs at the store anymore. Here is a statement from Apple.

“It’s no coincidence that Samsung’s latest products look a lot like the iPhone and iPad, from the shape of the hardware to the user interface and even the packaging. This kind of blatant copying is wrong and, as we’ve said many times before, we need to protect Apple’s intellectual property when companies steal our ideas.”

I also believe that it is not a coincidence. Samsung knowingly took Apple’s ideas and they are now finally paying for it.

Thanks for reading,

Joe

Happy Birthday iPhone

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Happy Birthday iPhone. While you were announced in January of 2007, you were not released until June 29th. With just 5 versions of the iPhone since its release, it has created one of the biggest world-wide phenomenons. Nothing from Apple matched iPods success until the iPhone. As a matter of fact, Steve Jobs created the iPhone to protect his music investment. It worked. The iPhone is one of the most successful media players on the planet. The iPhone has been severely cutting into the iPods success. Apple may be the ultimate leader in the music player market but the market is shrinking. The iPod, while it is a success, is no longer as important as it used to be for Apple’s success. They still need to keep the iPod line around for a while, but there might be a day where iPhone outshines it completely.

Apple has sold an estimate of 250 million iPhones. That is 1/28th of the population of the world. The iPhone has provided an astonishing $150 billion worth of revenue for Apple, an incredible amount. The amount of iPhones sold and the amount of revenue will only continue to rise in the coming years. The iPhone is a huge part of Apple’s business and would not be as successful today if it wasn’t for it. I bet you all of the Flashaholics and naysayers are wishing they thought about what they were saying before they said it when they called out the iPhone.

Of course, the iPhone would not be as successful today if Apple didn’t create the biggest App Store in the world. There are currently over 650,000 apps on the App Store, a very incredible feat for only being around for a little over 4 years (the App Store was released along side iPhone 3G, Apples 2nd Gen iPhone). There have been over 30,000,000,000 (30 billion) downloads on the App Store alone. Since its release, Apple has made billions off of the Apps on the store. Apps on the iPhone make the iPhone, the iPhone.

Due to all of these apps being sold, the iPhone has assisted people in everything from internet browsing, finding new places, taking excellent photos and editing them like a professional, keeping occupied with games in the office (just don’t tell the boss:), keeping in touch with people, helping kids learn, helping autistic people (children and adults), helping people see their sick grandma or aunt or whoever, while still being thousands of miles away, assisting blind people, assisting deaf people and just making the lives of millions easier. The iPhone has truly changed the world. Apple didn’t just reinvent the phone, they reinvented the world.

Thanks for reading,

Joe

Comparing Apples with Apples-MBPR vs MBP vs MBA

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With the new MacBooks out, it is time to ask which one is for me? It depends on whether you’re more professional or more of a consumer. I will go through the pros and cons of each one and I will help you determine if you will need a MacBook Air or Pro.

First, should you buy a MacBook in the first place

One rule you must remember when buying Apple products is that you get what you pay for. When you buy a cheap product (Windows-based computers), you will get what you pay for, the computer will probably be a bad one. However, all Mac computers are a little (sometimes quite) overpriced, however you get what you pay for. The extra money allows you to have a better computer. Better hardware and software. So now that you know to avoid Windows alternatives, which MacBook should you buy? Let’s find out.

MacBook Pro (Old) vs MacBook Air

When deciding to get a MacBook you must ask yourself one question. Do you consider yourself a consumer or a professional? A consumer is going to follow into the lines of someone who just does light-weight tasks such as listening to music, searching the web, writing documents, blogging, social networks, making lightweight movies on iMovie, lightweight photo management etc. A professional is someone who does more heavier duty stuff such as Photoshop, Final Cut Pro, Logic Studio, designing, hardcore gaming among other things. Do you need a laptop just to have one and do basic things or do you need it for demanding tasks? If you need it for basics get a light weight, easy to carry around MacBook Air like the one I’m typing on now. If you need it for heavier tasks get a heavier but more powerful MacBook Pro. You will be pleased with either one. Now should you decide to get a new MacBook Pro, which one should you get?

MacBook Pro (old) vs MacBook Pro Retina

A few things that the Retina Display MacBook Pro (or MBPR for short) that the other one doesn’t are 1. the retina display, 2. no optical drive which gives you number 3. thinness which will also give you number 4. lighter than the other 15 inch (about as heavy as regular 13 inch). Don’t all these awesome features sound great! Well they do, but they come with a price, a $400 or $600 price tag lower to higher end respectively. A lot of money for what in my opinion is not worth it. But, should you have the money and want to spend it, the Retina Display MacBook Pro is a great machine. Don’t get me wrong, I would love to have it, but Apple is charging a little too much for me.

MacBook Air vs MacBook Air

So you want to get a new MacBook Air? Well, choosing between the four (plus configurations) is a difficult choice, hopefully I can help ease it. First, what screen size should you get? There are 11 inch and 13 inch configurations. The 11 inch does not have a lot of real estate but it is cheaper with the low end model starting at $999 (or $859 + $100 Mac App Store card with education pricing). The 13 inch has more real estate but it comes with a price. The low end 13 inch Air model comes with a $1199 price tag ($1059+$100 Mac App Store card with education pricing). I personally think it is worth the extra money for the additional size and Ghz. I myself just bought a new low end 13 inch MacBook air with 4 GB RAM. I will advise you to make sure you buy enough RAM to start with since the RAM is soldered to the logic board which simply means you can’t add more. For me, 4 GB is plenty. RAM assists in the ability to handle higher powered applications and/or more applications. The ideal MacBook Air is the low end 13″ (128 GB) 4 GB RAM MacBook Air. Of course, we all have our needs and if you’re on a budget the 11″ is still a very solid machine.

MacBook Pro vs MacBook Pro

I do not own any current MacBook Pros (nor any for that matter) but I will try, to the best of my ability, to assist you in your purchase of a MacBook Pro. First off, there are 2 13″ MacBook Pro models and 2 15″ MacBook Pro models. Choosing between the 13 and 15 inch models will be a little more costlier. The difference between the low end 13 and 15 inch models is a costly $600 from $1199 to $1799. So that is a question you must ask yourself. Do you really need the extra real estate from the already comfortable 13 inch? Some people do. Some people need the extra space. I also want to point out that there are technical differences between the two. The Ghz is 2.5 dual-core and 2.9 dual-core on the 13 inch models and 2.3 quad-core and 2.6 GHz quad-core on the 15 inch models but with a better graphics on the 15 inch along with i7. I just want to make a point that even though the GHz on both the 15 inch models are lower than the higher end 13″, they are actually faster because of the fact that they are both quad-core also the higher end has a Turbo-Boost of 3.7 GHz which will help even further in speed (the average person doesn’t need to know how it works, they just need to know that it works, so I will not try to explain it)

13 inch MBP vs 15 inch MBP

The screen size is an obvious difference but there are a few other things. The 15 inch Pros have a better screen (1440 by 900 as compared to 1280 by 800 on 13 inch models). The 15 inch models also have i7 in both models while the 13 inch only has it in one model. Both of the 15 inch models are upgradable in terms of HDD to SDD. You can upgrade the HDD all the way up to 1 TB (1000 GB) and you can upgrade to 512 GB of SSD. The 15 inch will also weigh more. The 15 inch weighs a hefty 5.6 pounds while the 13 inch weighs a lighter 4.5 pounds. The high end 15 inch model comes with a full GB of GDDH5 memory. Both models come with the following ports: MagSafe Port, Gigabit Ethernet port, FireWire 800, 2 USB 3.0 ports, Thunderbolt port, Audio line in/out (separate ports on 15 inch as compared to conjoined on 13 inch), SDXC and Kensington lock ports. The ports are all the same on each device. The batteries on the two devices are different. The 13 inch has a 63.5 watt battery while the 15 inch has a 77.5 watt battery (the 15 inch has more watts to be able to support more).

13 inch MacBook Pro lower end vs higher end

There are two configurations in the 13 inch MBP line. The first one is $1199. The higher end is $1499. Both models support the same screen resolution. The lower end model has a 2.5 ghz i5 processor while the higher end has 2.8ghz i7. This is a pretty good deal. The lower end model is configurable to 8 GB RAM (comes with 4) while the higher end already comes with it. The lower end comes with 500 GB of storage and is configurable to 750 GB HDD or 512 GB SSD. The higher end comes with 750 GB HDD and is configurable to 1000 GB HDD or 512 SDD (SDD is known to boot up faster, shut down faster and not break as easily, MBAs come with it and I love it). Everything else (battery, weight (4.5 lbs), graphics, ports and camera) are the same. For my budget, the lower end would be my ideal MBP should it have been lighter like the Air. Of course, I am not you so whatever fits you, fits you. Again the lower end starts at $1199 and the higher end starts at $1499.

15″ MacBook Pro lower end vs higher end

The lower end 15 inch model starts at $1799, a huge investment for some people but the higher end will take a huge chunk out of your wallets, a whopping $2199. Thats as much as the new Retina Display MacBook Pro. You might as well get a new retina display MacBook Pro but I will only talk about these two aforementioned MacBook Pro models and their differences. To start, both models sport the same the 1440 by 900 display. The lower end model has a 2.3 GHz i7 processor while the higher end is a 2.6 GHz i7, configurable to a 2.7 GHz i7 processor. While the lower end model is 4GB of RAM and is configurable to 8GB of RAM, the higher end model has it already built in. The lower end model has a 500 GB HDD built in while it is configurable to either 1000 GB (aka a TB) or different configurations of 128, 256 and 512 GB SDD. The size and weight of the models are exactly the same. The models also include the Intel 4000 integrated graphics. However the video support, is different. The lower end model comes with 512 MB of GDDR5 while the higher end model comes with a GB of GDDR5 and automatic graphics switching (a technology built into the computer to assist with battery life when working with different types of graphics). The built in camera is the same as all other models of MacBook (Pro and Air). Both models have the same 77.5 watt battery built in providing the same 7 hours (or in some cases more) of battery life.

Conclusion

So which MacBook model is for you? I believe that there is a lot to goes into buying a new computer, desktop or laptop, so I know that no one will look at this article and say “I am absolutely getting a MacBook”. However, I do expect that the article will help in your decision whether to get one or not and should you want to get one, which one to get. It is my hope that you will come out of the article with better knowledge about going forward with one or if you should back out of one. Personally, it took me months to completely decide if I wanted one, but in the end I decided it would help me in areas that I needed help in. Each one of you will have your own reasons for getting one. For the consumer, the new lower end 13″ MacBook Air with 4 (or 8 ) GB or RAM would be best while the higher end 13″ MacBook Pro will be best for the professional who doesn’t mind 13 inches of screen space. For those who need the space, the lower end 15″ MacBook Pro will work very well. Should you want to get a higher end 15″ Pro just get the lower end MacBook Pro with Retina Display since they have the same price. Of course, as I said before, I am not you, and if you want a MacBook, please go by what you needs are. I know thats a lot to take in so if you’re not so tech savvy, I will provide a “glossary” of terms used frequently in the article to better explain the terms and to hopefully give you an ultimately better reading experience because that is what we want to achieve here at CoA.

Glossary:

Consumer- One who performs lighter weighted (but still important) tasks on their MacBooks.

Professional- One who performs heavier oriented tasks such as PhotoShop (Photo editing software), Final Cut Pro (movie editing software), Logic Studio (music studio editing software), heavy duty games and more.

Retina Display- Very high resolution screen that has more pixels in it than a HDTV

Optical Drive- Basically a DVD drive in a computer, it allows you to put DVDs in the computer but it adds a lot of thickness

GHz- While not the sole determinant in speed, the amount of GHz a processor allows the computer to perform tasks and apps faster

Ivy Bridge- Intel’s newest processor, faster than its predecessor, Sandy Bridge

RAM or Random Access Memory- RAM, contrary to the popular belief does not directly assist in speed. Instead, the more RAM there is available, the more demanding tasks you can have open at the same time (Professionals are the only ones who really care about this, so people who didn’t know what it was before probably don’t need to really care about the number as long as it is greater than or equal to 4)

Real Estate- I figured you probably already know this but in case it isn’t clear, Real Estate is the amount of space on a computer screen

Soldered- Whenever something is soldered to the Logic Board it means that it is not accessible to you and you will not be able to replace it or upgrade it.

HDD- Hard Disk Drive- A storage device used in a vast majority of computers. It is comprised of several different moving parts which could prove troublesome in the future since too many moving parts allow for a greater chance of breaking.

SDD- A SDD (or Solid State Drive) is another form of storage device that does not use moving parts allowing for a far less chance of breaking.

Ethernet Port- This port will allow you to have much faster internet connection however it is a wired connection.

FireWire- An older Apple technology that transfers information faster than USB. Unfortunately for some, I see it as a technology that Apple will kill in coming years, if not next year.

GDDR5 memory- GDDR5 is a type of memory that assists in graphics and the more you have the better graphics you will receive. Just 1 GB of GDDR5 will make a great deal of difference.

MagSafe (2) Port- a charging port

SDXC- A common digital camera storage card

ThunderBolt- A newer Apple technology that is double the speed of USB 3.0. Only works (for now) on a number of peripherals.

Automatic Graphics Switching- a technology built into the computer to assist with battery life when working with different types of graphics

Dual Core vs Quad Core- The Quad Core will always have a vast improvement in speed over the Dual-Core as long as the specs are similar. For instance 2.5 GHz Quad Core is better than 2.7 GHz Dual Core.

I hope the added “glossary” helped people understand the terminology in the article a bit more.

Thanks for reading,

Joe

The new Windows Surface Tablet and why it will probably kill Microsoft in the long run

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Microsoft unveiled its new Surface tablet today at a very secret event. This tablet will be a complete failure. Let me explain why.

Too Late

Simply put, Microsoft is too late in the game. They needed to enter the game sooner. Apple has already come up on top with the iPad and with the iPad 3, it set its competitors even further back than the iPad 2 did, and the iPad 2 had already sent them back to the drawing boards. Apple has too much market share to allow Microsoft to take any of it. Microsoft may be able to take some of Androids steam but I doubt it. Microsoft has entered the game too late. As a matter of fact, this isn’t the first time. One, it lost its “iPod killer” you know the Zune. Oh wait, you haven’t heard of the Zune, maybe thats because it no longer exists. Well, perhaps you’ve heard of the Windows 7 phone. Yeah, you’ve heard of it, ever think of buying it? Didn’t think so. Only 1% of smart phone users actually bought it. Are you thinking to yourself, well where is it now? Think Zune on that one and you’ll figure it out. Microsoft has a history of running late to class.

Denies Failures

People mention Vista as a complete failure and it is. One thing that Microsoft does wrong on it is that it denies it was a failure. You know what else they denied? Thats right! They denied that Zune (the iPod wanna-be) and the Windows 7 phone (iPhone wannabe) were failures, they still believe that they are Apple killers, even though they have pulled Zune off the market and pretty much pulled the phones too.

Why should I switch?

That is the question you should ask yourself when looking at this tablet. This tablet needs to have a real big WOW factor or it isn’t going to succeed. Most people have entered the “I already have a tablet” range. People are with Apple here because many have bought the iPad and stuck with it, much like Android users typically stick with Android. There are too few people out there interested in a tablet that don’t already have one and if they are interested in one, they at least have experience with iPad or Android. They know they work and they would rather have something proven to work then to try something not yet widely accepted. Why buy something that just came out of the market when you have something that is tested to be great and that is been reviewed and liked by millions?

Options too confusing and no app store

They are going to feature two models of the surface tablet. The two models are an ARM-based tablet and an Intel Ivy Bridge tablet. The ARM-Based tablet or RT based tablet will be light and incapable of running Windows applications (which by the way Microsoft, is the reason they buy into you guys in the first place, not because you have Apple lover-like users). You can’t run existing Windows software on the tablet and people want that. Even worse, you have to buy the software you want directly from their own store. That is the case with iOS too, but iOS actually has apps on it. It will take too much valuable time that Microsoft does not have for Windows to develop an app store.

Stylus

I can tell you it will fail just because they said it will have a stylus, even though you can still use your fingers. Just because it includes it, people will be deterred from it.

Features that actually aren’t bad, but not good enough to give it an edge

It does come with a smart cover like thing that has a keyboard on it. Not bad, but its already out there for iPad (third party) and a stand which is again, already out there. Wow amazing! It is running Ivy Bridge which is cool, but need I remind you this a tablet not a computer, so that will cost you more battery which by the way is already worse than an iPad battery. There are some other features they want us to get excited about not really worth mentioning because all of them already exist.

Conclusion

This new tablet is just another boring product from Microsoft. This is not good for them since the PC industry will only continue to decline because of laptops, ultra books and tablets. If Microsoft fails at this tablet, which it is poised to do, the entire company will never be the same. Sure, it will still have a gaming console, but that is declining in its field and the entire field is declining. Thats right, its going where the PC industry is going. Down. OK, so Microsoft through its stupidity will destroy its own monopoly of PCs which is already declining. Businesses are starting to switch to Mac, with more Macs being bought everyday. Windows 8 is too much of a tablet OS to be on a desktop, so no one will want it on their desktop. Their tablets are just bigger versions of their failed phones. Windows 8 on their own tablets will fail. Their phones have failed and their “iPod killer” failed. Their biggest downfall is the fact that they won’t accept that they failed and that they are stuck in the past while everyone else is moving on. Steve Jobs made mistakes too, look at MobileMe, he apologized for it and introduced something better. The problem with Microsoft is that they are too stubborn and can not let go of the past. They are creating their own downfall with these new tablets and Windows 8. Skype is owned by Microsoft but will go down because services such as FaceTime will take it down. Office wont matter because PCs are going down.

So to conclude, I see a day where Microsoft will cease to exist as a major computer company. It has failed in the music player industry, it failed in the phones, it will fail in tablets and they will fail (Windows 8 ) with desktops as that industry falls, they will fail in laptops as that industry continues and they will fail in gaming consoles at some point because they will no longer have the money to support it when it had its other products. XBox will be the last to go but because the game console industry will go, it will too. Microsoft, welcome to the beginning of the end, please enjoy your stay.

Thanks for reading,

Joe

WWDC 2012: A detailed analysis

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Honestly, I think WWDC was a bit of a disappointment. The MacBook Pro and MacBook Air got minor bumps with Ivy Bridge (a 10-15% improvement at the same clock speed), though in my opinion the move to Nvidia graphics is a poor choice. It benchmarks almost the same as the AMD Radeon HD 7770M, which would be the natural replacement to the older 6770M that Apple used in the high-end Late 2011 MBPs. Nvidia’s graphics architecture isn’t nearly as parallel as AMD’s is, which can limit it’s speed in certain tasks such as Bitcoin mining and other OpenCL-based tasks. The GTX 650M that Apple uses in the higher end 2012 MBPs has 384 cores at 850 MHz (326.4 GHz in total) while the 7770M has 696 cores at 675 MHz (469.8 GHz) in a slightly smaller thermal envelope. While not directly proportional to performance because these are two separate architectures, this should show that the AMD card will likely have more available computational power for any properly optimized parallel task. I haven’t looked at Nvidia’s road map in a while, so I don’t know if they have anything special in store for the next couple years, but the new Kepler architecture just doesn’t quite stack up against AMD’s Southern Islands architecture with the Radeon HD 7000 series.

The obvious new announcement to discuss is the MacBook Pro with Retina display. What changed: depth, display, I/O, expandability. As for depth: 0.2 inches, in my opinion, isn’t enough to warrant some of the changes that I will discuss later. Honestly, the Retina display is a huge disappointment. As seen with the Retina iPads, the 2048×1536 display uses up significantly more power, generates more heat and offers little more than slightly sharper UI elements. The Retina iPad’s effective resolution is still 1024×768, providing no extra display real estate. The 2880×1800 display in the new MBP will do exactly the same thing: rather than, say, making a 1680×1050 display standard (a previous-generation build-to-order option) with more effective workroom, we will simply have slightly sharper UI elements and subpar graphics and battery performance to show for it, a consequence of quadrupling the pixel count. For all intents and purposes, it is no different than any other 1440×900 display. One other thing to consider is that in the new Displays prefpane, Apple provides a couple options that emulate 1920×1200 and 1680×1050, though the display actually renders a pixel-doubled version (for example, 1920×1200 is rendered as 3840×2400) downscaled to 2880×1800. Not only will this massively slow performance with very little benefit, it will also be blurrier as the system tries to downscale and antialias the image. Thus, a Retina MBP running at the 1920×1200 resolution will have to render everything at 3840×2400 and downscale it to 2880×1800 dynamically, two separate consecutive performance hits on little more than midrange graphics hardware. I’ve played with the hidden HiDPI (read: Retina) resolutions in Mac OS 10.6 and 10.7, so I know roughly how this will work from firsthand experience, and I don’t think I like it. Retina is not a Pro feature, despite Apple’s arguments to the contrary.

I/O is a mixed bag. To make it thin, Apple had to sacrifice FireWire, Ethernet and MagSafe 1.0. I don’t mind losing MagSafe, especially considering the new $10 adapter, but I still use FireWire and Ethernet on occasion. That some businesses rely on Ethernet as an additional layer of network security makes me question Apple’s decision to make a professional machine without Ethernet. The addition of a second Thunderbolt port is very good for obvious reasons, but if one buys Apple’s Thunderbolt to FireWire and Thunderbolt to Ethernet adapters, one loses both Thunderbolt ports right there unless the adapters are on the end of daisy chains. That means that it is probably a better idea to use a Thunderbolt display, Belkin hub or similar product instead, none of which are cheap. Both of the aforementioned adapters have Ethernet, FireWire 800 and Thunderbolt passthrough ports. HDMI might be good for consumers, but I’m honestly disappointed. HDMI is notorious for being an expensive, low-bandwidth, DRM-laden and otherwise poorly engineered standard. Mini DisplayPort is superior in every way from licensing to audio quality to physical size, not to mention that it can be integrated seamlessly with Thunderbolt. The port could have just as easily been a much more useful and less redundant USB 3.0 port, especially considering that Thunderbolt carries Mini DisplayPort signals. Lack of an audio input on the MacBook Pro is a total killer for AV pros and will require either a FireWire adapter with Thunderbolt dongle or a USB adapter and probably a somewhat expensive USB 3.0 hub to boot. (a USB keyboard and mouse plus an audio adapter probably uses at least two ports by themselves, depending whether the keyboard has any USB ports.) At this point we have a MBP, at least one dongle, a USB hub, a power adapter, probably one or more external HDDs/SSDs to compensate for small internal storage and possibly even a MagSafe to MagSafe 2 adapter all crammed into a laptop bag. In my view, it completely defeats the purpose of a slim and light computer if you need 427 adapters and peripherals spread like spider legs all over a desk to make it usable.

Expandability: with this machine, everything except the proprietary SSD is soldered to the main logic board. This is bad beyond words for professionals. For example, with a current MBP, one can buy a $125 1 TB HDD and a $50 adapter to add a second hard drive, giving us 1.5-2 TB of storage space in total for $175 extra [1]. In order to upgrade a new MBP from 256 GB to 768 GB (0.75 TB), one effectively needs to spend $1100 on upgrades. The first $600 is for the higher processor speed (Apple doesn’t offer additional storage space on the $2199 model), the other $500 is for an extra 256 GB of storage space. Current going prices for 256 GB SSDs are about $300. In addition, if somebody finds out that 8 GB isn’t enough RAM two years from now, a sub-$100 16 GB kit won’t be an option. A $2199+ MacBook Pro will be, however. The soldered components also mean that the whole thing is one big design flaw. If any one component fails, that’s a new $1100 logic board. The one exception to this rule is the SSD, though this uses a proprietary connector that few if any companies will ever develop products for. This machine, more than any I have ever seen Apple produce, will need AppleCare. The battery is even glued to the case, making it impossible for even the venerable iFixit to tear it down completely [2].

On a somewhat related note, iFixit reports in a great blog entry [2] that it is difficult if not impossible to recycle the display used in this computer because of the way it is glued together. Unfortunately, this may start a trend in the computer industry leading to computers that technically use recyclable materials but cannot be recycled. With the amount of electronics produced increasing exponentially, the ramifications of this design precedent may be far-reaching. While I doubt it will directly lead to any environmental catastrophe, it certainly isn’t the best possible design, except for marketing numbers.

I do like that they finally moved the name of the computer off the display surface and to the bottom where it belongs. The label underneath the display was so…not Zen that it marred the otherwise beautiful surface of the very nice panel (mirror finish notwithstanding). That’s the only significant aesthetic change in the new MacBook Pro that comes to mind, and even then it’s just a minor change to a great design.

I can cover most of OS X and iOS in just a few sentences. The new features are essentially Twitter, Facebook and Growl notifications on steroids integrated into the system. Standardized notifications in OS X are nice, but I will probably not use many other new features of the new systems, and until I hear that Lion’s performance problems and many, many bugs have been quashed, I’m staying with Snow Leopard. The iOS ticket book is nice, but I haven’t noticed many other significant new features. Voice recognition is nice, and I’m surprised that Apple didn’t implement it sooner. If it works well, it could be very useful. The limitations of MacSpeech Dictate (now replaced by Dragon Dictation) leave me a little leery, though. It has potential.

I find it unfortunate that the world’s most advanced operating system has such abysmal memory management. As of this writing, I have Firefox, Thunderbird, Terminal, iTunes, Preview, and a text editor open (I quit the Finder completely) and my system is using 3.9 GB out of 4 GB of RAM. The system was using 5.5 GB (4 GB + 1.5 GB pagefile), but I forced the system to clean up with a ‘purge’ in Terminal. The same things in Ubuntu (one of the most popular GNU/Linux distributions and hardly the least bloated) would use about 2-2.5 GB. For this reason, I am awaiting the arrival of a recently-ordered 16 GB RAM kit to help cope. If Mountain Lion fixes this problem, I’ll upgrade without hesitation. I’m not holding my breath, as Lion merely made my problems much, much worse, to the point where I reverted to Snow Leopard. The Darwin kernel is just turning into a big mess these days. The OS and kernel are still salvageable, so long as Apple will dedicate a few more engineers to optimization and a few less to pretty but pointless animations as soon as is possible.
[I am editing this in the latest version of Ubuntu and with Firefox, Thunderbird, a terminal and a text editor open, my MacBook Pro is actually using 1.3 GB of RAM in total, dramatically less than OS X with a similar workload.]

So, a final status report:
New MBA: a minor update, as expected. The price drop is welcome, but the machine is still too inflexible for my needs.
New old MBP: a minor update, not expected. Ivy Bridge is good, but I was hoping for a bit more. The loss of the 17″ Pro is a tragedy and aggravation that professionals will remember for years to come. R.I.P. MBP 17.
New MBP with Retina display: this was a huge update, but the MBPR is basically a 15″ MBA. I am not impressed. It’s too consumer-ish and locked down to be a Pro machine and too expensive to be a consumer machine. In my mind, it is the metaphorical bastard child of a MBA and a MBP. I predict that it will probably sell reasonably well if not spectacularly, but they will only rarely be used by any actual Pros. Hopefully this is the first Mac with UEFI 2.0, but I doubt it.
New Mac Pro: this update is a disgrace to the Pro moniker and shouldn’t have even existed. Three year old Radeon 5770 graphics cards (not fast when new) coupled with three year old processors on three year old logic boards at three year old price points with no USB 3.0 and no Thunderbolt. I thought AMD and their partners stopped producing the Radeon 5000 series a year ago and Apple was just peddling the overstock. I was wrong. Apple has since removed the ‘New’ tag on the Mac Pro from the Apple Store, though the specs remain updated. I suspect they are trying to downplay this update as much as possible to save face.

All in all, I’m disappointed. I’m sure consumers everywhere are thrilled, and I’m sure that several companies are already hard at work trying to clone the new MacBook Pro, but I remain unconvinced that this is the future of professional computers. Until Apple can learn that even with Zen principles, some allowances need to be made for usability, they will never again make truly great products.

This leads me to a final aside: for many years, the reason that Apple succeeded where others failed is because Apple doesn’t just add as much junk to their products as they can to make them look more impressive on paper. Apple for the longest time realized that form is equal to function. This is shown in many revolutionary products, including the Apple II series, the original Macintosh, the iMac, the Titanium PowerBook G4 and its close descendants.

In the Retina MacBook Pro and most if not all of the iOS devices, Apple has strayed from this line and, to me, seems to value form over function. Apple wishes to delight the user but unfortunately seems to have forgotten that empowering the user to create, to learn and to experience things for themselves is equally important. Until Apple once again remembers why they are creating great products, they will, paradoxically, never again truly create great products.

The goal of Apple in the 1970s and 1980s was to enable the user to create great things with as little difficulty as possible. This vision is what lead Apple to start the desktop publishing revolution in 1984-1987 with Macintosh and the LaserWriter. But then Steve Jobs, the lead visionary, was ousted from his company and was replaced by a series of CEOs who just wanted to push more units and drive up profits. As a direct consequence, Apple stagnated and almost went out of business up until Steve Jobs came back and regained power in 1996/1997.

Steve Jobs brought with him a few remnants of the original Macintosh design team and recruited a few other employees who helped the company regain its goal, its purpose. The new Apple realized that beige boxes just wouldn’t cut it. They were ugly, bland and nobody really wanted them, whether they would admit it or not. Apple immediately went to work on iMac, iBook and an overhaul of the PowerBook series, cutting back on model numbers and simplifying the supply chain. Apple realized that the consumer often doesn’t know what they want, absorbing the meaning of a quote often attributed to Henry Ford: “If I had asked my customers what they wanted, they would have said a faster horse.”

Did cutting back on products limit choice? Certainly. Apple’s problem at the time is much the same as Microsoft’s is now and Google’s was a year ago: they were trying to impact every market, but without the dedication to excel in any of them. So Apple cut everything and, after an explosion of colorful computers in the late 1990s and early 2000s, settled on Zen-inspired designs: smooth, sleek and thin computers and devices that often traded some functionality for build quality and simplicity. These designs proved to be wildly popular and even today are strikingly similar to their original designs from 2001-2003. Most of the designs succeeded, but the few that prioritized form too much over function, such as the PowerMac G4 Cube flopped on the market.

With the introduction of the new Retina MacBook Pro, Apple has once again swayed slightly away from the beautiful middle ground that they found and traveled so carefully for many years. The new MacBook Pro, in my view is far more form than function, and I fear that now that Apple has so much more market leverage, this design won’t just fade away for a few years like the G4 Cube did before it was reborn, much improved, as the Mac mini. Apple may very well have enough buyers that are used to the locked-down iOS mentality that they might accept the probable success of the new MacBook Pro as an invitation to convert all of their products into disposable devices designed to be replaced entirely every two years. Products designed to be tamper proof, to protect the user from themselves.

Not products that allow the user to learn about their computer, to properly inspire the user to create, to build, to improve. Until Apple can once again learn that the very users that they are alienating with their pathetic Mac Pro update, the discontinuation of the 17” MacBook Pro and the consumerization of the Macintosh as a whole are the same ones that invent, that create, that build and need fine tools to do so, they will never again create anything more than mediocre consumption devices. This is no longer the Apple of old that built computers that would last an average of seven years before obsolescence, designed to be sleek, yet modular and repairable.

In short, form is not higher than function. Function is not higher than form. Until Apple and, for that matter, all the other computer companies realize this, their offerings will be incomplete and, one way or another, will cater to a bottom line, whether that line be price, knowledge, ability or something even more abstract and meaningful. Unless somebody far above any of those bottom lines can use a product with the same joy and ease as somebody at the very bottom, the product will never be truly great. That is why I worry not that the Retina MacBook Pro will fail, but that it will succeed. One way or another, it will change the industry.

Anonymous

[1]: http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Samsung/DDMB5KS1.0/
[2]: http://ifixit.org/2763/the-new-macbook-pro-unfixable-unhackable-untenable/

The new Mac OS X Mountain Lion- An update to my previous article (it looks amazing)

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The new Mac OS X Mountain Lion was demoed yesterday at the WWDC keynote event. I have went over the new OS in the past and I’d like to go over it again more in depth, or as in depth as I can.

Release and Price

Apple’s new Mac OS will be released in July (like Lion last year) and it will be a third cheaper at only $19.99 and free for new Mac buyers such as myself. It will again only be available on the Mac App Store. If you don’t have access to it, I am sure your friends at the Apple Genius Bar will be able to help you out!

Voice Dictation

Many of you have heard of the Dragon Dictation program for both Mac and PC or the voice dictation on Apples new iPad. That is exactly what this is about. It is system wide voice recognizer that takes your voice and puts it into text. This feature is especially useful for students, whenever they have to type up papers. It will be useful for people who are not huge fans of typing such as myself. I will be able to write my articles without as much as a stroke of a keyboard. If it is anything like the one on the iPad it will be pretty successful, if it’s more successful it will be the keyboard killer. I personally am very excited about this feature.

AirPlay

I really like AirPlay for iPad since I can give a presentation off of my iPad onto a big screen TV. This feature will really only be very important to those who own Mac Portables and Apple TVs (Apple TV is a requirement but Mac Portables are not but it helps to have something portable as composed to desktop, especially in business). It will broadcast, due to Apple TVs March update, in 1080p. I personally plan on using an external monitor, an Apple TV and external keyboard and mouse to be able to use my laptop as a desktop whenever need be. It again can be used to give excellent presentations anywhere. Fortunately for all of us the Apple TV is pretty portable.

Reminders and Notes

Both apps will be coming to Mountain Lion as part of MLs “iOS package”. Both apps will be able to sync with their iOS counterparts along with other Mac computers. In case you do not have an iOS device, allow me to quickly explain the two apps. The Reminders app will remind you, in advance, of any thing that you put in yourself. You can view the list anytime, think of it as a to-do list. The notes app is exactly what it sounds like, you can take notes on it. What will be cool on the notes app on Mountain Lion is that you can make a note and put it on a virtual sticky note and it can be placed anywhere on the desktop even on top of, say safari.

Game Center

For those of you who think that there isn’t games for Mac, think again. In fact, there so many different games for Mac that Apple felt they had to make a Game Center just for it. The Mac App Store has thousands of games, many of which are also in the iOS app store. This allows you to play on your Mac against iOS devices and other Macs or vice versa. Many popular titles like Words with Friends, Angry Birds and Cut the Rope are found there and provide excellent multiplayer fun.

FaceBook Integration

Mac users can share anything they want from the browser, iPhoto or any other app onto their FaceBook account. The official program is called Share Sheet. It again is located on many apps and allows you to post to FaceBook, Twitter and Flickr. FaceBook integration will not be available immediately though. It will be available in the fall.

China Updates

Long awaited Chinese updates have arrived. It has integration with China’s twitter Sina Weibo, search engine Baidu and video sharing site Tudou. This will be useful since YouTube, FaceBook and Twitter are all banned from China for political reasons. They will also have the sharing features however it will have to be local.

Notification Center

Macs will be getting iOS-inspired Notification Center. It has banners and alerts, which alert you to the things you need to know such as reminders you set for yourself or calendar events. You can toggle it on and off. If I were you though, I’d keep it on since it appears it will be very useful.

iCloud support

New iCloud support will be coming to Macs. It allows you to sync your documents, mail, contacts, calendar, Messages, Notes and Reminders synced. Documents include Pages, Keynote, Text Edit and Preview.

Messages

The paid-text killer will now be available for the Mac. You can send free text messages between iOS devices and now on Macs. As mentioned earlier, Messages between your devices will be logged and kept on all devices.

Safari Updates

Good bye search bar. Taken from Chrome, the URL bar and the search bar are now conjoined. There is also iCloud support. You will also be able to use gestures to navigate between tabs. It will also feature offline reading list which will allow the computer to download a website as a document for future reading even while offline.

Mac App Store Updates

Apps purchased on one Mac will be pushed to your other Macs on the same account automatically. OS X updates will now be moved to Mac App Store, making the Software Update button obsolete. Safari’s two finger back and forth gestures will soon come to OS X.

Miscellaneous

New features include (but aren’t limited to): A sidebar in Calendar to view and manage your calendars; VIP contacts in Mail; iOS-style location-based reminders; search in Launchpad and Dashboard; Mail preferences syncing via iCloud; Do Not Track and password autofill in Safari; a new iCloud-syncing Notes app with note folders; a Photo Stream screen saver; the ability to run a full-screen app on any connected monitor; encrypted backups; backups onto multiple drives; and drag-and-drop file transfers in Screen Sharing.

In Conclusion

I am very excited for the new features in Mountain Lion. I did not even cover them all so if there are some features you like that I didn’t include, please feel free to discuss them in the comments. July will be a very exciting month for Apple, myself and many others.

Thanks for reading,

Joe