| rss2email.ru |
 Скачивайте лучшие фильмы  |  Белые тени серых будней...  |  Все о праздниках ежедневно  |  Мужской журнал ManDay.RU  |
 |  TheAppleBlogTheAppleBlog, published by and for the day-to-day Apple user, is a prominent source for news, reviews, walkthroughs, and real life application of all Apple products. http://theappleblog.com рекомендовать друзьям >> |
- The White Unibody is the Second-Best MacBook Ever, So Why Do I Feel So Let Down?
The new plastic unibody MacBook is arguably the second-best MacBook model Apple has produced yet (trumped only by the late 2008 aluminum unibody MacBook). So why am I finding myself unexpectedly underwhelmed and disappointed with it?
When rumors began circulating in late summer about an imminent new unibody MacBook in polycarbonate plastic. Being a consummate Apple laptop aficionado, I was excited. Speculation that it would sell in the $700 – $800 range further whetted my anticipation but I was also expecting something insanely great. After all, Apple could build on what it had learned making polycarbonate MacBooks for three and half years (the best-selling Mac model ever) combined with the unibody engineering of the MacBook Pros adapted to plastic materials.
Instead of Insanely Great, We Get…OK
However, instead of insanely great, we get OK — or perhaps just a bit more than OK. I like it a lot better than the original MacBook, but there’s nothing really exciting or special to get up in the night and write home about. It’s just a good, solid-performing machine with better case engineering and build quality than its predecessor, and better-looking, but alloyed with some strange compromises that undermine its desirability and the “must-have” factor.
The case aesthetics are definitely a major step up from the iBook-esque previous model, whose looks were getting tired after eight and a half years. I like white computers and I like glossy finishes, and this has both, although I think Apple is blowing an opportunity by not offering it in black as well, and the high gloss is proving quite controversial with some.
I think the MacBook’s all-white keyboard looks more attractive and inviting, and will be easier to see (I’m not a touch typist), than the black keys on my aluminum Macbook, which are probably my unfavorite element of its generally pleasing appearance.
As for robustness, I haven’t got my hands on one yet, being out here in the Nova Scotia backwoods 150 miles from the nearest Apple reseller, but reportedly this new unibody machine has a solid feel, with no case flexibility or squeaks and rattles, and excellent panel fits, which is what I would expect based on my own aluminum unibody machine. Actually, the new MacBook’s rubbery-coated bottom panel is an aluminum stamping.
True Mediocrity Rears its Ugly Head
On the downside, true mediocrity rears its ugly head in the context of I/O connectivity and expansion, with an impoverished port array comprised of two USB ports (only one fully powered), Ethernet, a mini DisplayPort a combo headphone/line-in port (you can’t use both earphones and a microphone at the same time) and a security slot. No FireWire and, most bizarrely, no SD card slot (“Pro feature?” — get real Apple). No HDMI either.
FireWire and no expansion headroom are the big disappointments to me. I’m living daily with the vicissitudes of FireWirelessness with my aluminum unibody MacBook, and I’m not cheerily disposed, but Apple seems determined to dump FireWire wherever it can get away with it. When USB 3.0 is finally incorporated, maybe there will be a case for dropping FireWire, but USB 2.0 is an abominably lame and crippled substitute at this point. I’m dumbfounded that Apple didn’t learn its lesson from the chorus of boos when it tried that with the aluminum MacBook (OK, so I bought one anyway, and I like it almost unreservedly except for the FireWire crippling, but that really rankles).
No Legitimate Excuse
As for no expansion, there’s no legitimate excuse. Even the humblest tiny little $300 PC netbooks comes equipped with SD Card readers, and often three USB ports as well. There’s no satisfactory excuse for Apple leaving the SD Card slot out of the new MacBook and providing a measly two USB ports — only one of them delivering full bus power. My speculative deduction is that it’s just Apple contriving to put some distance between the MacBook and the more expensive 13″ MacBook Pro specs-wise.
Ample Power
In the positive column, the new MacBook’s internals pretty much match the current base 13-inch MacBook Pro’s: a 2.26GHz Core 2 Duo with a 3MB L2 cache, a 1066MHz frontside bus and 2GB of standard RAM, and the ubiquitous NVIDIA GeForce 9400M integrated graphics chipset, as well as a similar LED backlit display — the only difference being that the Pro has a 60 percent greater color gamut. Power-wise, I would find it more than satisfactory, having no complaints in that department about my 2.0GHz MacBook.
Then there’s the built-in, non swappable battery, which I have definitely mixed feelings about. Apple rates it at seven hours runtime, but a real-world four-to-five hours will be experienced more typically, after which you have to find a power outlet. I prefer swappable batteries.
In summary, while I want to like this new MacBook, I don’t find its $200 lower price nearly compelling enough to even tempt me to not opt instead for the $1,199 13-inch MacBook Pro with its SD card slot, FireWire port, brighter, better color gamut display backlit keyboard, and aluminum case, Certified Refurbished examples of which should be available for about the same price as a new unibody MacBook.
If this machine sold for, say, $799, it would be a whole different value equation — an opportunity missed in my estimation, although it’s harder and harder to argue with Apple’s pricing and marketing strategy given its latest quarterly financial results. I think the new MacBook will continue to be a strong seller for Apple, but I wish it would have tried a little harder with this one, though. Don’t you?
Переслать - iApps: The Software Suite Apple Should Create
Once upon a time, iTunes did exactly what it sounded like it should do: play music. It was the digital jukebox for your mac, Rip, Mix, Burn, remember that?
Looking at the sidebar in iTunes now, I've got Music, Movies, TV Shows, Podcasts, iTunes U, Audiobooks, Applications, and Radio, and that's just the main library. Next is the iTunes Store and a "Purchased" smart list, the Genius feature, iTunes DJ and (finally) my custom Smart Playlists. That's a lot to pack into one application, especially considering that many of the features have nothing to do with each other. There are very few times when I'm wanting to watch a movie that I care to look through my music collection. Music and video are two different functions, and in my opinion, deserve two different apps.
Actually, I'd like to see Apple release an entire "iApps Suite," separating out audio, video, and applications. Strip Movies and TV Shows out of iTunes and integrate them into a new "iVideo" app, or something similarly named. Hide the video content from the iTunes store in iTunes and create a link for an iVideo store inside the new video app.
Similarly, I'd like to see Apple break out the App Store into it's own dedicated application. Leave the functionality exactly as it is now and simply move it into its own app. There are many times that I've got iTunes open, most of the time just to listen to music, and have no interest whatsoever in my collection of apps.
Maybe my desire for Apple to break apart iTunes is because of my background in Unix, and the Unix philosophy for writing applications that "do one thing, and do it very well." Or, maybe it’s because the direction iTunes has taken doesn't seem very "Mac like." Take the bundled applications for example. Mail, iCal, and Address Book are very often lumped together in the same app. Thunderbird (with the lightning extension) does this, as do Outlook and Lotus Notes. Apple sees sending and receiving mail, calendaring, and storing information about contacts as three separate functions, and wrote three separate apps to handle it. The iLife suite is another great example of separating applications that do different things. iPhoto ties into iWeb, Garageband, iMovie, and iDVD, but they are still separate apps for separate purposes.
I thought for a while that audio, video, and apps were all lumped together in iTunes to make it easier to sync to iPods and iPhones. But, iCal, Address Book, and iPhoto have no problem syncing their data. iPhoto will, by default, open when you plug-in an iPod touch or an iPhone, but Address Book and iCal sync silently, if configured to do so in iTunes. If iTunes were to be separated into different apps, perhaps the iSync utilities role could be expanded to handle what is synced where. That almost sounds like the job of a system preference to me.
Now I think that the three functions of iTunes are tied together because of the iTunes store. Since Apple used the same distribution model that had been successful with music for movies and TV shows, adding the functionality to iTunes and the iTunes Store offered the path of least resistance. Similarly, when it needed to build another store for applications, Apple built it on top of what was already successful.
I don't see Apple changing directions with iTunes any time soon. If it were to create three apps out of the one iTunes, it would have to create them for Windows as well. I don't have access to the source code, but knowing what I do about programming and development, I can't imagine that would be an easy task. Perhaps this is a third-party opportunity for some ambitious indie devs out there? Or, maybe, just maybe, if we get the right people's attention, a conversation might start that leads to some real change.
Переслать - Rumor Has It: 8GB 3GS, RFID-Capable iPhones on the Way?
What better way to end the week than with two fresh, shiny new iPhone rumors to chew on? According to various reports, the iPhone 3GS could get an 8GB model just in time for the holidays, and Apple is said to be testing iPhones that support radio-frequency identification (RFID), a tech that allows devices to sense nearby embedded chips without coming in actual contact with them.While the timing of both rumors happens to be concurrent, please note that it is very unlikely that if Apple were to release an 8GB iPhone 3GS in time for the holiday season, it would use the new RFID tech. It’s more likely that the RFID integration will come to fruition in later models of the iPhone.
$99 8GB 3GS
Rumors of the smaller capacity 3GS come via Boy Genius Report, which has proved fairly reliable in the past when it comes to predicting product launches by Apple. They claim to have heard news of the 8GB model from two separate sources at AT&T:
Definitely not confirmed, but rather interesting nonetheless. We've heard now from two sources that AT&T, and we guess Apple, are contemplating launching an 8GB iPhone 3GS at the $99 price point before Christmas. One source said this was AT&T's way of combating the Droid madness.
It should be noted that BGR specifically points out that they haven’t heard any of this from Apple or any of its personnel, which could mean that AT&T is pitching the idea but doesn’t necessarily confirm that Apple is receptive. Still, a 3GS at the magical $99 sweet-spot would definitely take some of the wind out of Droid’s sails.
Of course, there is the fact that Phil Schiller said the Apple holiday lineup is set. That should mean no new products, right? Or it could mean that the 8GB 3GS was already on the roster and that it just hasn’t been announced yet. Still, if it is coming in time for Christmas, Apple is already missing out on some prime holiday buying time. We’ll definitely see it before Black Friday if we’re going to see it at all.
RFID
Apple is looking into integrating RFID swipe support into new iPhone prototypes, AppleInsider reports. iPhones boasting RFID capabilities could allow for things like making swipe payments, proximity alerts, and getting data from swiping RFID-embedded objects or even animals.
RFID tech is ideal for this sort of thing because it requires little power, since the data transferred is often small in size, usually only a number or a URL. There’s also the cost benefits of the tech, and the fact that they’re already in wide use. According to AppleInsider:
The cost of RFID chips is now down to just a few cents each in quantity, making it possible to apply them to a wide variety of uses. Shipping companies and retailers already use RFIDs to track packages much like barcodes; libraries use them to track books, farmers use them to identify animals in herds, and the army, theme parks and schools attach RFIDs to people.
The site also speculates that Apple could then leverage its existing iTunes accounts, broadening it to make it a method for paying for anything via your iPhone, so long as the vendor you’re dealing with is equipped to accept RFID payments. Such payment systems using cell phones have already been used widely in parts of Asia and Europe.
If Apple gets in early on widespread RFID adoption here in North America, it could see the kind of industrial and business success it’s been missing thus far. It might become as common to see an iPhone-based device on the loading dock as it is to see one in a Starbucks.
Переслать
| rss2email.ru | отписаться: http://www.rss2email.ru/unsubscribe.asp?c=6893&u=24004&r=311667163 управление подпиской: http://www.rss2email.ru/manage.asp |
