I get a real chuckle out of people who say you can’t use the iPad to show off your portfolio because it doesn’t run Flash. P L E A S E! Apple will ship the iPad with a wonderful photo viewer and you can bet your last piece of pizza that there will be LOTS of photo slide players, etc., written for the iPad by third-party developers. Showing pics on an iPhone has landed me more than two dozen jobs. I have no doubt that showing pics using the same OS on a larger, brighter screen will be just fine.

iPad as ultra-portable portfolio. Awesome.

Whatever market share number you peg the Mac at — 2 percent, 5 percent, or anywhere in between — you must keep in mind that it (that is, the Mac user base) is not comprised of a random sample of just any 2-5 percent of computer users in general. It’s a very specific self-selecting segment of the market: people who care about their computers, and who are willing to pay more for something better.

This is, sadly, something that few of my colleagues have ever grasped, but that, as they say, is another story.

In the course of locating that quote, I happened upon this nugget, just two paragraphs above the foregoing:

But Boot Camp is inordinately appealing to the higher end of the market, the enthusiasts. Your typical civilian (i.e. non-enthusiast) has no need — or at least sees no need — for dual booting. They use email, they use a web browser, they want something useful to happen when they plug a digital camera into their USB port. Whichever OS comes on their computer is good enough for this.

Email, web, photos. Is it just me or does it seem like there’s a certain very recently introduced tablet device that would more than meet those needs? Sure, the iPad does a lot more than just email, web, and photos, but this puts me in mind of something I guess I haven’t yet considered: there is undoubtedly a significant number of computer users out there who could legitimately consider replacing their home computer — or at least a second home computer — with an iPad! A minority to be sure, but likely a significant minority; I’ll bet the number is higher than you or I would initially imagine.

Understandably, I think of the iPad in terms of my own computer use, and which need(s) of mine it would satisfy (such as the “need to have one” — what? — oh yes, this is a legitimate need). Of course, as a career* software engineer the notion of anything replacing one of my computers — other than a “better, stronger, faster” computer — is foreign to me. But that’s certainly not the case for everyone.

In fact, add user accounts and the ability to sync an iPhone/iPod Touch to the iPad, and an iPad could easily replace my wife’s computer (which is also, conveniently, our kids’ computer, thus the need for user accounts).

You can’t just ask customers what they want and then try to give that to them. By the time you get it built, they’ll want something new.
– Steve Jobs

Call me an Apple fanboy if you must (and that’s fine, I make my living as a “Senior Windows Developer” so it’s not going to phase me one bit), but I just have to have an Apple iPad.

Personally, as someone who’s been waiting a long time to see the AppleTV become something more than just my iTunes library on my TV, I’d like to see Apple take the AppleTV in the direction of the iPhone/iPod Touch (and what is rumored to be the case for the “tablet-thingy”). Specifically, open it up for development. Create an AppleTV “app store” and boom, the AppleTV becomes “the” device to have connected to your HDTV!

Once you let Netflix, Blockbuster, Hulu, Boxee, etc. (whoever) create apps that allow their content to play on the AppleTV, then there’s no need for any other box in the living room! Well, any other “set top” box*.

Just an idea, but if Apple wants to transform the AppleTV from “hobby” to another viable “must have” consumer electronics device, then it really seems like they are going to have to make it so that it will (or at least can) play anybody’s content.

I probably can’t justify $600 for a netbook. Which is why the RAT [Rumored Apple Tablet] will be as unlike a netbook as you can possibly imagine. A netbook is a device that you haul out to do a little writing, or check some email, or goof around on some blogs.

The perception of the RAT will be that it’s a conduit that pipes the digital world down to wherever you happen to be. The iPod Touch is “a device that plays music and video files.” The RAT will be “access to music and video.” The Kindle is “an ebook reader.” The RAT will be “the ability to find and read any written material anywhere in the world.”

A netbook is “a stripped-down Windows XP subnotebook.” A RAT will be “a way for all of my projects and documents, and communication with my social world, to follow me wherever I go.”

If Apple does announce a new product this month, and if it is a “tablet”, then you can rest assured that it will be quite unique and very, very special.

Like all Apple products, The Tablet will do less than we expect but the things it does do, it will do insanely well. It will offer a fraction of the functionality of a MacBook — but that fraction will be way more fun. The same Asperger-y critics who dismissed the iPhone will focus on all that The Tablet doesn’t do and declare that this time, Apple really has fucked up but good. The rest of us will get in line to buy one.

I know I will.

If you’re thinking The Tablet is just a big iPhone, or just Apple’s take on the e-reader, or just a media player, or just anything, I say you’re thinking too small — the equivalent of thinking that the iPhone was going to be just a click wheel iPod that made phone calls. I think The Tablet is nothing short of Apple’s reconception of personal computing.

Awesome.

Saul Hansell, writing in the New York Times Bits Blog, gets it:

What’s most interesting is how iPhone users are willing to spend money in ways that Web users are not.

I’ve criticized Apple from time to time for not having a coherent approach to delivering free content with advertising. But in some ways, the development of a market for paid content is a bigger and less expected achievement.

Why has this happened? Apple has created an environment that makes buying digital goods easy and common. With an infrastructure that supports one-click purchases of songs and videos, it was easy to add applications in the same paradigm. Paying for software, especially games, is not new to Apple customers. So when you see the iPhone manual or the Frommer’s Paris guidebook, it feels natural to click. (And of course, your credit card is already on file with Apple.)

It all goes back to Steve Jobs’ original theory regarding music and music downloads: people will gladly pay to download content legally, if the price is reasonable and it’s easy to do.

Personally, I’m still bummed that they didn’t announce a 32gb iPhone…  I guess I’ll have to wait until summer to upgrade my 8gb iPhone… oh well!

I just love this:

There has been some question as to whether Clinton or Bush used Macs. Clinton sent a grand total of 2 emails while in the White House – which was two more than Bush. They both used PCs.

Not only will Barack Obama be the first US President who isn’t a thousand years older than me, but he’ll also be the first who embraces — at least while in office — some of the technologies by which I make a living and provide for my family. Cool.

Oh, and big brother iPhone outsold the RIM/Blackberry last quarter. Apple, who has surpassed it’s goal of selling 10 million iPhones in 2008, is now the third largest — by revenue — mobile phone supplier, after Nokia and Samsung.

Me?  No problems to speak of.  But then, I’m not one to overreact, too much.  I mean, yeah, there was a period of about two hours when I couldn’t reach the iTunes servers, but hey, with half the planet either trying to upgrade or activate at the same time, what do you expect?  I had problems downloading Firefox 3 a few weeks ago, too…

Still, it seems like something that Apple should’ve been able to better anticipate.  God, I guess Apple really does suck.  And, a company that sucks can’t possible make a superior product.  Well, I’m willing to admit that there may just be a flaw in that “logic.”

Check out the new ad!

How’s that for “breaking news?”

I predict:

* That I’ll be totally ecstatic and awed during the Keynote Address,

Yep. Nailed that one. I was riveted–in fact, I was giggly happy–during the whole Keynote. So, I’ll count that as one correct prediction.

* That I’ll be following along with no fewer than four (4) browser tabs tuned to my favorite of the various liveblogging sites,

Yes and no. I did follow along to four (4) of my favorite liveblogging sites: MacRumorsLive, MacObserver Live Coverage, Engadget and Gizmodo. However, the MacObserver feed stopped automatically refreshing for me only a few minutes in, and nothing I tried could get updates from their site. So, I gave up on them and went with only the other three (3). I’ll count this one as half-right and half-wrong.

So far, I’m at 1.5 out of 2, so that’s not terrible… The results of the other two predictions won’t be in until at least tomorrow morning…

So, it’s time for my never-annual predictions. So, without further ado, let my grab my crystal ball… and, I predict:

• That I’ll be totally ecstatic and awed during the Keynote Address,
• That I’ll be following along with no fewer than four (4) browser tabs tuned to my favorite of the various liveblogging sites,
• That I’ll watch the Keynote Address tonight at home and be even more ecstatic and awed than I was following along with the livebloggers,
• That when the Keynote Address is available for download as a podcast, I’ll watch it yet again.

Well, those are my predictions concerning the WWDC08 Keynote Address. We’ll just have to wait and see what happens to know how accurate my predictions are this time around.

The results? Well here they are in a nutshell:

• Mac OS X 10.5 “Leopard” is faster than Vista (startup, shutdown, app launching, benchmarking)
• The Mac computers ran Vista (via Apple’s Boot Camp) faster than the PCs
• The Macs outperformed the PCs in all categories, except for video card performance in the laptop category
• And, perhaps most importantly, THE MACS DIDN’T COST ANY MORE THAN THE PCs!!! In the desktop category the Mac actually cost significantly less than the PC (see below)

And now, the requisite juicy quotes from the article:

Our computers were closely matched, but in the interest of full disclosure, we’ll spit out the caveats: The Gateway One PC had a processor that runs 400 MHz slower than its iMac competitor (not a heck of a difference in this age of dual-core chips), but it also had two extra gigabytes of DDR2 memory. In the laptop category, our Asus M51 had a 2.2 GHz processor, compared to 2.4 GHz for our MacBook. But the Asus had a larger screen, a more sophisticated graphics card and an extra gig of RAM.

All that extra RAM may seem to give an advantage to the PCs. Vista, however, is a noted memory hog, so throwing more RAM into PC computers is probably less of a perform­ance booster for manufacturers than it is a new baseline hardware specification.

The Verdict: Apple
Mac: In both the laptop and desktop showdowns, Apple’s computers were the winners. Oddly, the big difference didn’t come in our user ratings, where we expected the famously friendly Mac interface to shine. Our respondents liked the look and feel of both operating systems but had a slight preference toward OS X. In our speed trials, however, Leopard OS trounced Vista in all-important tasks such as boot-up, shutdown and program-launch times. We even tested Vista on the Macs using Apple’s platform-switching Boot Camp software—and found that both Apple computers ran Vista faster than our PCs did.

PC: Simply put, Vista proved to be a more sluggish operating system than Leopard. Our PCs installed some software faster, but in general they were slower in our time trials. Plus, both PCs showed weaker performance on third-party benchmarks than the Macs. Our biggest surprise, however, was that PCs were not the relative bargains we expected them to be. The Asus M51sr costs the same as a MacBook, while the Gateway One actually costs $300 more than an iMac. That means for the price of the Gateway you could buy an iMac, boost its hard drive to match the Gateway’s, purchase a copy of Vista to boot—and still save $100.
[emphasis added]

[via MacOSKen]

Microsoft does some amazing things – very amazing things. My choice, however, for a primary desktop operating system is no longer Windows – it’s Mac OS X. Duh. It’s rather difficult to admit that officially, if only because… well, I think Microsoft does amazing things.

Anybody in my chat room who watches the live video feed with any regularity knows that I’m a platform neutral geek. Keep that in mind as you read the following list:

I think that most consumers are caught up in the idea that you NEED Windows for everything at home. You don’t.

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: Windows users need Apple’s software more than Mac users need Microsoft’s. That’s just a cold, hard fact. And given my severe disappointment with just about everything in Mac Office 2008, I’m even further driven away from Microsoft’s desktop software.

If you’re a gamer, all bets are off – you’re a different kind of user. Gamers are likely the reason Windows is still alive and well at home today. If the gaming industry shifted gears and started to develop OpenGL-based entertainment titles for Linux, you’d see Ubuntu adoption skyrocket. I’m a console player – still in love with my 360, as noted before. I’m a casual gamer, and I can casual game anywhere.

[via The Unofficial Apple Weblog]

1. Time Capsule: Time Capsule is basically an Airport Extreme with network storage, to support wireless Time Machine backups; Two versions 500GB for $299 and 1TB for $499 (subtracting the Airport Extreme’s $179 pricetag, we get 500GB for$120 and 1TB for $320–that’s quite competitive).
2. iPhone and iPod Touch: SDK coming next month, but new software available today; Maps with location, Webclips, customizable Home screen, SMS multiple people at once, lyrics, chapter and subtitle support in video, plus other software and updates; Free update available today for iPhone users; iPod Touch getting new apps as well for a nominal upgrade fee.
3. iTunes and AppleTV: movie rentals through iTunes and AppleTV; 30 days to start watching and 24 hours to watch as many times as you want; watch on your computer through iTunes or on your iPod or iPhone, or on your TV; Apple TV version 2 (free software update for existing AppleTV users); DVD quality movie rentals and/or HD + Dolby 5.1 movie rentals for your flat screen HDTV; lots of new features and goodies here.
4. MacBook Air: Thinest notebook ever; thinner than air and lighter too; wicked.

Here are some links so you can get all the details from MacRumorsLive; and check out the coverage (with photos) from Engadget and Gizmodo.

Apple has introduced the new Mac Pro, ahead of next week’s Macworld Conference & Expo. The new Mac Pro features standard 8-core processing power with speeds up to 3.2GHz, powerful new graphics and up to 4TB of internal storage. The “standard configuration” starts at just $2,799.00.

Apparently, the school district has long used the Mac and Mac OS X as its platform of choice for student and academic computing, but were being steered toward Windows-based computers by the “IT staff”.

Technology Coordinator Sheryl McDonald demonstrated an iMac running both Mac and Windows applications and…

Our superintendent just about lost it; he was so excited by the capabilities of Boot Camp! We saw that we could have the best of both worlds.

[via Apple Hot News]

Please note: do not click the link above if you are a Windows user… Nothing good can come from you watching this video. I mean, why torture yourself with what you can’t have?