Some iPod Fans Dump PCs For Macs 1036
dereklam writes "The popularity of the iPod could be boosting Macs' popularity as well. News.com reports that 6 percent of iPod users have made the switch from PCs to Macs. An additional 7 percent said they are planning to dump their old PC for an Apple machine, according to the survey." I wish the linked story had more details; it's not clear from the results mentioned whether there's a strong causal relationship here.
Still a small margin (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Still a small margin (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Still a small margin (Score:5, Insightful)
So where is the superior, cheap Intel hardware?
Re:Still a small margin (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Still a small margin (Score:5, Informative)
The eMachines notebook is very powerful, but heavy at 7.5lbs. It averaged about 2.5-3hrs of battery life. I lugged it around for a semester at college, but now I use it as a DTR only. It includes 54mbps wireless, plenty of usb ports, an excellent screen, firewire, etc.
At first I was concerned about reliablity from an eMachines product, but I've been pretty happy with the purchase thus far. Although, I have yet to take full advantage of the AMD64. XP64 is still in beta and not all drivers are available. 64bit linux kernels have become stable, but there are equal driver issues. For now, I have a dual boot with XP Pro and Mandrake 10.1 both 32bit.
I bought a new 15" Powerbook using Apple's Student ADC program ($2k) about 4-5 months after buying the eMachines notebook. I also bought an IPod as an accessory with it, or was it the otherway around
The Powerbook is much thinner and lighter. Its looks about 10x sleeker than the eMachines (thought the eMachines notebook does have some neat blue leds). It gets about 3 - 3.5hrs of battery life.
The Powerbooks power saving and management features are far superior. It can be put to sleep within a second and equally wake up just as fast. When you close the screen, it goes instantly to sleep. In the short time it takes to flip open the cover, it will be back on and your application are just as you left them. Although this is possible on a PC, it takes signicantly more time and has a hand full of compatibilty issues that may prevent it from working at all. Apple did an excellent job engineering their hardware and operating system to get the optimum performance. Its also pretty efficient in sleep mode. I've had my powerbook sleeping for a couple days, and when I woke it up, it was still at 99% charge.
Some other neat feature Powerbook include the back lit keyboard, built in mic, firewire 400/800, and bluetooth. It also has a sensor to detect ambient light. During low light situations, the screen will dim and the keyboard will light up automatically.
I primarly bought the Powerbook to play with OSX, and I've been extremely impressed with it. Its very stable, and I've rebooted only when forced to for software updates (uptimes usually span weeks). The UI in general just seems more refined. The dock and finder are just capable if not more than XP taskbar or KDE/Gnome eqivalents. I particularly like Expose (an extremely easy way to switch between open tasks). It also has a unix backend. You can open up a terminal and many familiar tools from *nix are available. Its also easy to develop crossplatform code for other unix like systems, which is something I've used for some of my computer science classes
After buying my Powerbook, I've definetely become a believer in Apple products and OS X. Though, I still wouldn't be able to make a complete switch. There are still many things you can still only do on a PC. For example, certain games are only developed for the PC. Though, there seems to be more and more games being released for both. Theres also some application that only work on PC. However, this is less of an issue since Microsoft has released Virtual PC for Mac. But what I'd probably miss the most is plethora of options/peripherals available and the resulting prices in the PC market.
I think you can defintely find better deals in the PC market because of the competition there. The 50% off Dell notebooks is a perfect example. You pay a premium for the Powerbook and Apple hardware in general, but I think its worth it. But if you're just looking for a notebook or computer that gets the job done, you can probably find PC that does it for less.
Re:Still a small margin (Score:5, Insightful)
A little hint to all those saying this like parrots: it's not true, at all. Pcs crash a lot more, fail more often, cost more for the same power (SAME, not number wise but real-life wise) are constantly being attacked (my anti-virus keep finding stuff about every day, adaware doesn't even remove all of the spyware I get...) and need protection software constantly monitoring the computer for malware, which in turn seriously slow it down and interfere with your normal operations (and YES I use firefox before some fuckin Linux asshole point his wisdom to me). The OS is still clunky as hell, you still have to press start to stop the OS and the interface is built around the concept that you want to work with the computer not on your creations.
In short I deeply regret my switch, I play games on my PC but have switched back to my old iBook dualUSB 500MHz for everything else, this little fellow let me do more stuf in a much more stable way than my 3.4GHz 1GB ram monster PC which cost me 4230$Canadian, monitor included.
Re:Still a small margin (Score:3, Interesting)
For $1300 I can build a top of the line gaming machine. (I guess I could spend $2500 and get Alienware or Dell stamped on it.)
Re:Still a small margin (Score:5, Informative)
Oh, and I don't mean to say that all name brands are worth it, and I wouldn't even consider a Dell or Alienware, but between the unique stuff Apple offers (OS X, for one) and their excellent support (e.g. fixing my iBook with a ~5 day turnaround with free overnight shipping, including shipping me the box to pack it in), Macs are absolutely worth their price.
Re:Still a small margin (Score:5, Interesting)
I respect the iPod, though it's still buggy. That's a different story altogether.
This is an interesting turnaround. Because if you feel that way about an iPod, and a lot of people do, then you suddenly realise that in one area having an apple computer will be better. In fact, the area which apple excels in (no pun intended) is the iLife series. I have a friend who bought a powerbook solely for iMovie/iDVD, and others for GarageBand.
What it says is - as a PC user, if you like this stuff, you will always be on the back foot getting this stuff. Sure, it will come to the PC eventually (as the iPod did), but it will still be a second rate port. The best example of this at the moment is the iPod photo, and how they had to mangle in the photo support into iTunes for the PC users. But it still won't be as good as iPhoto.
And the likely hood that Apple will drop their platform and become a PC software vendor? Close to zero - they are a hardware company.
So, if you like using technology for most multimedia stuff, which includes music players such as the iPod (or airport express for the home music center) your choice is this:
Get a mac, or become a late adopter as stuff filters through to the PC. Sure, you will get games and business software first on a PC. But if you like playing music more, the most popular music player is the iPod (based on sales), and that will drive you to buying an apple computer first.
I cannot think of a time in the past where you could say this about apple - where there was a specific category of software where apple was better. Perhaps desktop publishing, or spread sheets, but that was a long time ago when the PC was a second rate option for these areas.
Michael
Re:Still a small margin (Score:5, Informative)
You were headed towards a point until you got to that..
All PowerMac G5's have dual channel DDR400 (except for the 1.6Ghz Rev A's which have dual channel DDR333)
Man bites dog (Score:5, Insightful)
I kinda think that's the point of the story. People finding the iPod a sufficiently good reason to switch their OS is not a run of the mill event. How many people switch just because there's a neat new scanner out on the market? Or for a new printer? (Not counting high-end RIPs, of course, since they're pretty much stand-alone.)
Re:Man bites dog (Score:5, Funny)
This was the plan all along. Build the bestest gadget, get mindshare, get marketshare. And
Re:Still a small margin (Score:5, Insightful)
The x86 PC has more options and cheaper options but I would rather have something work better than it be a few bucks cheaper and be a hassle in the long run.
The iPod merely brought attention to iBook or G5 (Score:5, Interesting)
iBooks are the single best device out there for college students and many others. Excellent form factor, easy to use, even easier to maintain, good bang for the buck. The main drawback is the Microsoft effect, which has convinced users that all computers are slow to start up, slow to wake up, hard to configure, hard to use, virus prone, etc. and all alike and therefore won't look at anything new.
If one gets over that, for whatever reason, then rational though has a chance to. The push can come from an iPod or elsewhere. e.g. I loaned one out for 2 hours to an "MS is good enough for me and I'm not changing" small business owner. At the end of the two hours, he stated that his next hardware purchase will be a Mac. But for most, iPod will be the wake up.
Re:The iPod merely brought attention to iBook or G (Score:5, Interesting)
The GUI is there and simple for novice users, and the UNIX shell and environment are there for the more advanced people. It's truly an OS that works for everyone.
I never even looked at Macs when it was OS9 and before, because it didn't provide anything for my geeky self to dig into. But today's macs and OSX are just sweeeet.
I just wish Apple would get more competive, price-wise, with the Intel world. I know lots of people who would buy a Mac in an instant if they weren't so overpriced.
-Z
Re:The iPod merely brought attention to iBook or G (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Still a small margin (Score:5, Interesting)
I fear the Slashdot crowd is more inclined to choose tasks based on the tools they want to use, the oposite of the "main stream".
Re:Still a small margin (Score:5, Insightful)
The iPod is just bringing Apple into the public eye; the computers are selling themselves.
Re:Still a small margin (Score:5, Insightful)
While they're there, they notice the other nifty things (like computers), and get pleasantly surprised by the price and/or cool factor and/or features. And then they think about switching.
Personally I'm happy running my Linux on my frankenstein's monsters, but having been in an Apple Store I can see the appeal.
And besides, (Score:5, Interesting)
(No, they didn't. I read this article before it was posted.)
Re:Still a small margin (Score:3, Insightful)
Hard to say. I think it has more to do with brand recognition than the desire to buy a computer that more "natively" supports your iPod. Because their purchase of the iPod has increased their brand recognition of Apple and also made them think, "Hey, this Apple company makes some cool stuff. If their computers are half as cool as this, it's sure to be pretty swell."
It doesn't really matter what OS/hardware the a
Re:Still a small margin (Score:4, Interesting)
So lets see... after spending 500 bucks for an iPod, Apple has received a further $3500+ purely because I liked their little white music player. Case in point. I dont know how many others
Re:Still a small margin (Score:5, Insightful)
It isn't about choosing your computer to suit your peripherals -- you can use an iPod with a Windows box. I think it's more like this. Maybe you had a flash based player before. Clunky, inelgant, with a totally brain damaged idea of what "style" entails. You get an iPod, and realize that it is everything your old player ought to have been: convenient, elegant and sleek.
Then one day while you are listening to your iPod and working on your probably popup infested computer, you have two epiphanies.
Epiphany 1: Windows is clunky and inelegant and ugly.
Epiphany 2: Apple makes computers.
elegant and sleek are criteria that make anything! (Score:5, Insightful)
Why do you even assume it's about image and self esteem or feeling better about yourself?
An iPod is undeniably sleek and elegant when compared to everything that came before it, and many that came after it.
The same with Apple computers.
There are TECHNICAL reasons why elegance is a worthwhile attribute for any device, not just mp3 players or computers. Sleekness requires definition, but elegance has it's own context:
Gracefulness.
You can also define things by the inverse, in this case elegance:
Clumsiness.
So if a computer is graceful and not clumsy, I think anyone would agree that it is better than a computer that is clumsy and not graceful.
Re:Still a small margin (Score:5, Insightful)
Your argument is invalid because all of its points have been refuted successfully in this thread and elsewhere on Slashdot, the internet, and the real world.
Apple managed to make a computer that is both elegant and good at its task. Get over it.
There are people in this world with more money than you, and the right to spend it the way they want. Get over it.
Apple's products are not overpriced. It doesn't matter how many times you say it, it's simply not true. Get over it.
Some people have different product requirements than you do. Get over it.
In summary: Get over yourself.
Re:Still a small margin (Score:3, Insightful)
I know if I drove two cars with similar handling, price, and appealing appearence, the presence of something like an in-dash MP3 player or GPS navigation system would seal the choice. }:)
-Z
Yup. (Score:4, Insightful)
Works great on my Linux box BTW. Whew. Good thing too, girlfriend would think I was giving her a line of poop trying to explai why she's got to get me a different gift.
Well... (Score:5, Insightful)
I'd say I've been proved wrong.
Re:Well... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Well... (Score:4, Funny)
I notice that the article doesn't mention any people converting from apple to microsoft. Is this number zero?
Well, there's at least one [slashdot.org]!
Re:Well... (Score:4, Insightful)
First, I don't know the actual stats on people switching the other way. But even if 6% did switch the other way, it's still not a wash.
Why? Because the number of OS X users is different than the number of ipod users. Assuming (again, don't know the numbers, but it seems reasonable), that there are far far more ipod users than OS X users, 6% of a large number is much much more than 6% of a small number.
Bought my iPod Mini on Monday (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Bought my iPod Mini on Monday (Score:5, Funny)
Y'know, some people swing both ways. Don't be afraid to get in touch with your OSX-uality.
Re:Bought my iPod Mini on Monday (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Bought my iPod Mini on Monday (Score:5, Funny)
It is only a matter of time before you find yourself stopping at a florist on the way to work to make sure there's a fresh flower in your dashboard vase.
Macs will infect you pretty quickly. The only real antidote is going broke.
Re:Bought my iPod Mini on Monday (Score:5, Insightful)
The fact that you bought an iPod and not some of the more feature rich players shows that you wanted something that did the job with little fuss. Macs do this too.
Re:Bought my iPod Mini on Monday (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Bought my iPod Mini on Monday (Score:3, Informative)
OGG playback, FM-Radio, and remote. Those all exist in my iRiver iHP-120.
OGG is not important to me, I hate radio (use my iPod in the car, so it's irrelevant anyway), and I do have a remote - it's just not wireless.
Re:Bought my iPod Mini on Monday (Score:3, Informative)
Also, you just need to face the fact that Ogg support just doesn't matter to 99.999% of the general population. Just be glad like we all should be that the iPod isn't the only choice we have. If/when ogg gains acceptance by a lot more people, then I think it's a given that the iPod will support it. FM-radio on the other
Re:Bought my iPod Mini on Monday (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Bought my iPod Mini on Monday (Score:3, Informative)
Not true. See http://www.vorbis.com/faq.psp#com [vorbis.com] for more on the vorbis license.
Re:Bought my iPod Mini on Monday (Score:3, Informative)
1. The iHP has both optical and analog inputs and outputs. Headphones, Input and Output ports built in. I/O ports can be switched from either analog or optical. Very handy for playing mp3's over a home stereo with one simple and better-sounding TOSLINK connection than a miniplug-to-RCA adapter. No, I've never used the optical inp
Re:Bought my iPod Mini on Monday (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Bought my iPod Mini on Monday (Score:5, Insightful)
I'm glad you've seen the truth
About a week or two later, I went out and bought a Powerbook, first Apple computer I've ever owned, and from my experience so far it defeinitely won't be the last
Back to the original point though, since getting the Apple products I've asked (after research of course) numerous questions to the Apple community on the official community boards at apple.com (Dr Smoke rocks) and mac-forums.com - both have resulted in very kind, helpful answers, usually perfectly presented/formatted, in clear English and backed up with facts+links. I've been truly stunned at just how nice, and helpful, people in the "Apple Community" tend to be.
You know, at the risk of sounding mildly troll-ish, some areas of the Linux community would really benefit from that kind of attitude. It could push Linux forward a long way.
There is a little elitism and OS-mockage in some of the posters, just like with any other OS, but no more than others.
Re:Bought my iPod Mini on Monday (Score:4, Insightful)
Me too. Oh sure, in any large group there are the trolls and rude people. But by and large you get very helpful responses from the Apple community. I think part of it is the perceived niche status. People who feel they need to stick together to help each other out often do try to be more helpful.
Another part of it is there are fewer resources available for the Apple crowd compared to the Windows crowd, so there seems to be a feeling of 'Well, this site is fairly rare, better make it a good one.' So you get fewer resources, but often the quality of them equals the best of the Windows resources. End result: You have what you need.
And there has to be a sociological aspect to it as well. Apple users must be a self-selected subset of society, a group that is similar to, say, BMW or Mercedes buyers. People who like well-crafted machinery, good performance, ease of use. The kind of person who is drawn to these qualities may also tend to be helpful to their fellow Apple- (or BMW-) owner.
Only a study of 200 users! (Score:4, Informative)
http://www.osnews.com/story.php?news_id=8945 [osnews.com] [OSNews.com]
Re:Only a study of 200 users! (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Only a study of 200 users! (Score:5, Informative)
Depends on what you define as "decent". At a 99% confidence level, a sample size of 200 means that the margin of error for this survey is +/- 9%. Even if you open it up to a 95% confidence level, the MOE is still +/- 7%. If you wanted to drop the margin of error down to +/- 3% at a 95% confidence level, you'd need a sample size of just over a thousand respondents.
Re:Only a study of 200 users! (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Only a study of 200 users! (Score:3, Funny)
Yeah, right, like you read Slashdot for the articles.
Of course (Score:5, Funny)
Re:If only my iPod would do that (Score:4, Informative)
Copying from the iPod is a different story. You'll have to download a freeware (sometimes GPL) app to do that, beacause Apple couldn't make it that easy to steal music and still pull off the iTunes Music Store.
Not for techs (Score:3, Insightful)
Clearly the article lacks meaningful statistics
Re:Not for techs (Score:4, Insightful)
Go on Slashdot crowd, none of you have the data, but I'm sure you all have an opinion.
Re:Not for techs (Score:5, Insightful)
The switch to Apple seems an obvious choice if you can afford an expensive computer and you are neither a big techie or a hard-core gamer.
Gamer I'll give you, but hard core techie? No, don't think so. If you are are a techie the Mac opens up world's of *nix possibilities to you, and if and when you get tired of dinking with X Windows, etc, you have a great GUI for use.
But I personally use my Mac as a fileserver from which I serve video to our other systems (one iBook and an older PC), have a webdav server which we use to consolidate and share calendars, and the UW imapd server setup just for the hell of it.
And now that I think about it, even if you do mean "hardware techie", you can still get your jollies that way, too. When I switched to the Mac I hooked up and successfully mounted the NTFS drive from my old system and was able to get all my old crap off of that. (Can't write to NTFS, but you can read from it.)
No, the Mac satisfies my tinkering desires quite nicely, thanks.
Re:Not for techs (Score:3, Informative)
Safari uses the KHTML engine which has benefited largely from Apple's improvements.
Printing uses CUPS, but it is much easier to setup on a Mac.
The shell is bash, but most Mac users never touch it.
The only part of Linux that gets "bashed" by Apple is the kludginess of the GUI, utilities, and applications. Apple has never said Linux or BSD is based on poor foundational technologies. They just don't have the user experience down.
Re:Not for techs (Score:3, Insightful)
Well, a windowing environment that is useable, and applications that most users would consider actually using.
(hint: most non-slashdot reading users don't know of the existance of OpenOffice.)
Re:Not for techs (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Not for techs (Score:3, Interesting)
Just price their LCD monitors alone and your theory is easily quelled.
Re:Not for techs (Score:3, Insightful)
Even if it were, PCs have the advantage of being able to tune the hardware features to individual requirements. Expensive components that may only collect dust can be dispensed with.
Plus you can shuffle around things so that you get even BETTER components for those things that really matter too you while still being cheaper than Apple.
Odd correlation (Score:3, Interesting)
Dan East
Re:Odd correlation (Score:3, Insightful)
Maybe I'm not looking at this deep enough, but what does a piece of hardware for playing MP3s have to do with personal computers?
I'd say it comes down to integration. Yes an iPod works with Windows, and using iTunes no less. On the Mac, however, the experience is very different: iTunes is only a single part of the puzzle. Every one of the iApps, from GarageBand to iMovie, integrate together to make doing any of their tasks hugely easier. It is this that makes using the iPod on the Mac a far nicer exper
Re:Odd correlation (Score:3, Interesting)
Because people are deciding that a company which has given them such an easy to use piece of hardware that just works merit some consideration in the next computer. Not having seen the iTunes software, that may have been a factor.
Remember, people synch their iPods from their computers.
In related news... (Score:5, Funny)
Causality (Score:5, Interesting)
Wallstreet [marketwatch.com] seems to think there is.
Of course.. (Score:5, Interesting)
It's iTunes, not the iPod. (Score:5, Interesting)
If these numbers are correct (and pan out) then Apple's "gamble" turned out to be correct.
Re:It's iTunes, not the iPod. (Score:4, Insightful)
I simply cannot understand how all iTunes (a free download) users could be iPod users (an expensive peripheral). Given that iTunes is bundled with the iPod rather than vice versa, and that unless you are particularly political in your choice of OS, the iPod as-good-as requires iTunes as its computer-to-peripheral interface, how can iPod > iTunes?
Further, you seem to suggest that iTunes requires you to buy all the music stored therein. I am worried that their are people reading this site who are this uninformed. My iTunes Library is full of >20Gb worth of MP3s, mostly ripped from CDs - I have one iTunes Music Store-bought AAC file. Therefore those who "choose not to pay fees to download music" (i.e. those who download MP3s) will find iTunes an excellent interface for their "borrowed" collection.
Sorry for the tone, but sometimes...
iqu
I KNEW IT! (Score:5, Funny)
In other news... (Score:3, Funny)
Number's not surprising (Score:3, Interesting)
So sick of iPOD (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:So sick of iPOD (Score:5, Insightful)
ok lets settle this...purchasing music from iTMS or "stealing" music from P2P is not the only way to fill an iPod. Of course, my CD collection might be a tad larger than yours.
Re:So sick of iPOD (Score:4, Insightful)
And then there are those of us who have 500+ CDs sitting in our media center shelves. After a decade or two you can build up a large music collection. Not every iPod user is 17 years old.
Apple Brand Going Strong (Score:5, Interesting)
While initialy this hardly proved true, it's a very strong sales pitch to have a constant companion with an apple logo on it.
The near ubiquity, and total inunduation of ipods being everywhere also goes a long way towards making apple look like a damn good brand (if they do the ipods so well, the must be good at computers)
I think if apple keeps hammering away at highly tailored and very well-made digital appliances, there computer market share will continue to grow as people put trust in their products.
Though id rather see the specifics of this data to see whether it has any real merit.
Probably a much more intresting question is how apple is going to be able to increase their market share outside the US/japan. While your typical developed high GDP citizen can afford apple's products, getting apple products into the hands of less wealthy countries is a big stumbling block that needs to be addressed if they want to get their hands on the largest emerging computing markets.
we shall see
One Right Here (Score:5, Interesting)
I'd used Macs for web development in a previous job, and had always liked OS X. I was ecstatic when iTunes was released for the PC, as it was the singularly best program for managing large music collections I'd ever seen.
When I got my new job, one of the first things I did is shell out for an iPod to replace my crappy car CD changer. The Apple design philosophy appealed to me, and the incredible ease-of-use of both iTunes and the iPod were a big factor.
Last month I bought an iBook - the fact that they dropped the price, bumped up the CPU speed, and added AirPort Express for free was enough to get me off the fence. I wanted a laptop that was lighter than my old Compaq which weighs more than Kirstie Allie after camping out at a Royal Fork for a week. The iBook was light, priced competitively, and had all the features I want.
I had been trying to get my WinXP Home laptop to connect to the shared files on my XP Pro desktop for days, and finally just gave up. The iBook not only saw the network, but just asked for the password to connect. That was it. No hastle, no fiddling with network setup, no hunting through poorly documented and frequently useless configuration pages. AirPort has no trouble connecting to any wireless network I can throw at it.
My next machine may well be a Mac. It runs the software I need to be productive, the UNIX underpinnings mean that I have not only all the UNIX tools I'm used to from vim to Apache, but I also have a beautiful and usable GUI to go with it.
I hated Macs before. The "classic" Mac OS never appealed to me in the slightest. But Mac OS X is a dream to use, from running Photoshop to using it as a test server with the built-in copy of Apache.
OS X just "gets it". It is by far the best OS I've used, and iTunes gives Windows users a preview of how well Mac software works. The iPod and iTunes are the perfect "gateway drug" into full-fledged Mac addiction. Macs have always been a niche product, and Apple has always been a niche retailer. But if the iPod helps drive even a small number of PC users towards the Apple platform, it's a net gain to Apple on top of the incredibly strong sales of the iPod line.
Re:One Right Here (Score:4, Funny)
Piper Jaffray already knew it (Score:3, Interesting)
MacWorld UK has a related story [macworld.co.uk] today.
No matter how you look at it, if the "halo effect" is real, it's a Good Thing(tm) for Apple, and probably for the industry in general, because it proves that there are legitimate alternatives to Windows for the non-techie crowd.
p
I don't understand some people's stubbornness (Score:5, Interesting)
Yet I know people who are so simple minded they will not even try the thing. One guy I know, who won't d/l it told me to run out and buy this album by killswitch engage. I told him I'd catch it on iTunes. He of course dismissed this idea, saying they'd never have that kind of album. Well we did an indie band run down of his entire collection, chose 10 bands, and 8 out of ten was on iTunes.
I guess my point is, that, from a computer scientist's viewpoint like my own, I don't care what you run, as I XP, Linux, and Macs, and love them all equally, but if you're going to badmouth a product, at least have the nuts to TRY the thing
But back to my original point
Am I odd for trying to see the good in every platform? Sheesh, you should see my political beliefs
Re:I don't understand some people's stubbornness (Score:3, Interesting)
At home:
2 Sun SPARC boxes (NetBSD and Solaris 5.9)
3 Apple G4 Macs (OSX 10.3.5)
1 Apple Mac Plus (800k drives... real PCs don't have harddrives
8 x86 PCs running FreeBSD 5 in a render farm
At work:
Solaris 5.8, 5.9, 5.10
VMS 7.3
AIX 5.1
Windows 2000
I have found delightful things about all of these platforms, areas of total supremacy. I have found horrible flaws in all of these platforms,
Re:I don't understand some people's stubbornness (Score:5, Insightful)
If you wanted one basic app do do all of the above list you would want iTunes. You != Everyone, in particular Everyone != tech savvy.
The import process is a pain in the behind
You put in a CD and push the button on the top right hand side that says import. Or, if you are particularly lazy, you set the preference that says "import songs on CD insertion". How is this a pain in the behind?
It's a bit of a resource hog
Does it hog more resources than EAC, Nero, and JRMC all running at once? Genuinely curious.
and the interface is nicely non-standard
Or if you wanted too look at it differently, Windows interface is non-standard. As many other comments have pointed out, this is an Apple product ported to Windows made to function as closely as possible to OSX, so, the interface is actually pretty close to "standard" to OSX.
Re:I won't try iTunes (Score:5, Informative)
When a Nokia phone comes out with 20GB storage, will you be able to load your iTunes onto that?
YES. Yes, you will. The only songs that have Apple's DRM on them are songs purchased from Apple's iTunes Music Store; that is, downloaded.
The songs that you rip from your own CDs you can rip to either MP3, AAC, Apple Lossless, AIFF, or even
So, to repeat--yes. The music stays your own, and you will be able to put it on anything that can understand your choice of format, be it MP3 or AAC, including a 20GB Nokia phone or a 1TB TiVo. Just don't download anything that you have to pay for.
Just wait... (Score:3, Funny)
Then they will see they were wrong for deserting me. Our product is safe: it doesn't explode, give you cancer, or get you arrested. What is security if not safety? I'm the Chief Software Architect, for it, you know.
I'll show you who is right, and then you'll pay -- you'll all pay!
- Bill G
Is This a Surprise Really? (Score:4, Funny)
I switched. (Score:5, Insightful)
And yes, I did try Linux, but I always wound up at the same point after installing it: "Ok, now what?" and never having an answer to that question.
strong customer satisfaction (Score:4, Interesting)
That's a pretty incredible result for any consumer electronics gadget.
Also, I believe no one surveyed was unhappy with the lack of Ogg Vorbis support. In fact, when asked about whether Ogg was important to them, the most common answer was "I only like Ogg at Christmas with a little nutmeg on top."
Funny how the iPod is successful (Score:4, Interesting)
They use the same paradigm:
1) High standards
2) Design and user interface are the priority
3) Quality components
4) Style and marketing
5) Priced higher than most competitors as a result
Since both a Mac and an iPod basically seem to use the same business model, why is it that iPods are so successful now? Is it because most people simply find it easier to save up a few hundred bucks for a nice music player versus a couple thousand for a much nicer computing experience? Is it due to the "network effect" of "all my friends have pc's, so I won't get a mac" (hehe "all my friends have spyware and viruses, I guess it's normal for me to also have them")? Perhaps the iPod was able to break out of this network effect and create one of its own? What do you folks think?
Re:Funny how the iPod is successful (Score:3, Insightful)
They're not priced higher than most competitors with comparable features and capabilities.
They're perceived to be priced higher because they don't offer a low-end (POS) to match up against the competition that are driven by the low-end market that those other manufacturers pander to. On top of that, there is no other company that offers the ease-of-use, integration, stability and security that Apple can offer out of the box.
Before the flaming starts, I don't care about what you can scr
Re:Funny how the iPod is successful (Score:3, Insightful)
They don't have to put anyone out of business. They just have to sell a few million machines a year. Comparing Apple to most other computer companies is like comparing a Diamler/Benz to a GM. People by other brands because they need a car. People by a Benz because they wa
iPod is the gateway drug (Score:3, Interesting)
It was a brilliant piece of consumer electronics -- intuitive, functional, and downright slick-looking. And then they announced the iPod mini, and my wife's lust-o-meter got pegged. We took a trip to the Apple store "just to look" and ended up looking at everything else in the store as well. We didn't go home with an iPod mini, but we did go home with a 12.1" iBook. To share.
Shortly thereafter, we'd saved enough Amazon.com points to get an iPod mini on the cheap. His and hers, now. But the mini meant that the iBook would now be the sync machine of choice
So yeah, we're DINK without too many expenses. And I still maintain and use my PC. But I can guarantee that we wouldn't have even considered a Mac if it hadn't been for an iPod. Of course, that's just our personal experience, but how many more must think the same way?
Happened to me... (Score:4, Interesting)
In the end the decision was forced upon me. My laptop HD failed about 3 days before I was heading overseas for 3 weeks. Did some quick research and ended up getting a PowerBook and it has been great.
I hate going back to XP now, I only do it for certain work applications now. Happily connecting to linux servers regularly. Things do just work so much more smoothly and are more reliable. I look after 4 PC laptops in our small business, and windows wireless is so flaky under XPSP2. I have no troubles.
Microsoft Office 2004 on Mac is much better than 2003 on PCs, and interoperates with no problems. And its great being able to open a shell and rsync to backup the important stuff on the servers. I'm starting to find a good range of open source software to use as well. iSync is great as I can sync iCal and Addressbook to my Palm, K700i phone and ipod all at once. Only real downsides I have is that there is no Visio or Project available (otherwise I'd be able to move the rest of our work laptops to Macs as well, Virtual PC is OK but not suitable for my other users) or there is no decent New Zealand mapping software that runs natively. Hopefully these will be remedied over time though one means or other.
I can confirm this... (Score:4, Insightful)
Seeing as none of them are particuarly computer literate, I've helped a few of them with various applications. As a result I have become a proponent of Macs for technically-challeneged people. They are in a technological bliss I have never seen with the average casual user.
Instead of continuing the Linux crusade, I suggest techies push OSX on people. It will be an easier switch and will eventually help everyones anti-Microsoft cause. In the end it will even help Linux because software will be built with Windows/Unix cross platformity in mind.
Re:It makes sense... (Score:5, Informative)
Build a dell with the same amount of functionnalities (not the first entry-level $300 machine), add the software that's bundled with the iBook (I'll exempt you of finding a GarageBand alternative) and then compare the prices.
Re:It makes sense... (Score:3, Insightful)
maybe (Score:3, Informative)
Re:It makes sense... (Score:5, Informative)
I'd been stuck on Windows for the longest time because I had to interoperate with clients who insisted on exchanging Micro$oft Word documents, Excel spreadsheets, and so forth. On top of that, I was doing Java development for those clients. (Star Office didn't cut it, at the time.) Yes, it was a living hell, especially for someone who was nursed on SVR3.
Finally I played with a PowerBook: it had genuine Micro$oft Office from the Redmond behemoth itself. It had a killer Java virtual machine. But best of all, I could pop up a bash shell and run vi on my files. And all with glistening eye-candy.
I was in heaven.
So, I've got two of the systems. Yes, they're overpriced, but they're also damn stable and they stay out of my way, like Windows, but I can get in the way, unlike Windows.
(Oh, and it was after that that I got the iPod. But I'll never go back to Windows. And zealots out there, relax, I've got two Linux systems (and even a FreeBSD system) in my server closet.)
Re:Oxymoron (Score:3, Funny)
vi with eye-candy, that's an oxymoron.
What are you on about? vi is all about eye candy. Real programmers use ed.
Re:What's th Difference? (Score:5, Informative)
I bought a Mac (G51.6) a yeah ago, the current OS runs a Mach kernel with a BSD layer for Unix compatibility.
It means you get the benfits of a microkernel in a Unix-like environment. (device drivers don't require a re-compile / linking, etc).
An accessible Unix like environment, with a large level of compatibility for open source programs.
A GUI that was designed to be used, not just look pretty. (It does though). A base set of applications that are strong enough for daily use, and easy enough for the casual user.
A programming environment that makes putting together a small application, with nice looking windows easy.
The next version of the OS (Tiger) adds in some system-wide features which will make the playform even sweeter.
Most of what I've grown to like about the Mac is that is appeals to the technical side of me in it;s clean design without limiting it's functionality.
(now if they can just fix openGL to not suck as bad as it does right now... )
Re:Hahahaha.... the fools! (Score:5, Funny)
how's that spyware working out for you?
Ever think people that don't play ataris anymore or who do not steal music don't see a problem with that?
Sorry, price isn't stopping you from getting a Mac (Score:3, Informative)
1) not a laptop- Mac laptops are pretty damn price-competitive with PC laptops
2) not a consumer-level Mac- Prices are also very competitive
3) Not a used Mac- If you want to try it without too much risk, get a used Mac on eBay. You'll likely be able to sell it for not much cheaper than you bought it for, if you don't like it (since Macs hold value much better than PC's). And it thus won't dent your precious mortgage payment.
The only way price (and I'm just talking the raw dollars)