Undisclosed Location

I'm a PC?

Really? You're a PC? Is that what you're telling me?

Microsoft's newest ad campaign is a response from a someone who just doesn't get the argument. Interestingly enough, just like the John Hodgeman character in the competing commercials.

The "Mac vs. PC" ads that Apple has been running do not insinuate that PC users are boring and clueless, it insinuates that the platform is boring and clueless. Coming back with a commercial that shows "exciting and hip" people of all ages in all different fields of work all over the world does nothing to combat against this. So many people use PC's that this is an obvious observation. Of course there are rappers and wrestlers and astronauts and businessmen and designers and divers who use Windows. Most of them probably have to because their workplaces don't give them the option to switch or the opportunity to compare against the Mac has never been presented. That's not the issue that Apple is taking up.

Make a commercial where you outline either directly or indirectly (through jest, like Apple) why users would want to use Windows over a Mac. Then you'd be comparing Apples to, well you get the idea.

Apple's not saying that each person using Windows PC's is a boring hapless dolt who wears an ugly and dated tweed-colored suit. It's saying that the operating system/platform that each of these people use is a boring hapless dolt who wears an ugly and dated tweed-colored suit. Microsoft should be happy that at least Apple humanized and made the PC character funny and loveable, because in my world he'd a been a cranky and confused tyrant.

Life with the new iPod Touch

My last "open letter" post was written on my newest computer - my iPod Touch. I say new computer because that's how I've been using it the past couple weeks thanks to the 2.0 software recently released. If anything, it's been a nice stopgap to hold me over until my eventual love affair with the iPhone.

I gotta say when I first bought this iPod I was hard pressed to really justify the increased price for less storage than my previous iPod (16 GB from 30). I had to get used to not having all of my music with me and really lean on my playlists more through being super judicious with my star ratings. I briefly toyed with the idea of digitizing all of my DVD's until I realized I had nowhere near enough hard drive space for 200+ movies, and no will to endure the many days and weeks the whole process would probably take (adding lyrics to 30 GB of music was tough enough). This left me with a device that was cool in theory but not living up to it's potential.

It's a whole new world with the arrival of the iTunes App Store. With apps like TypePad, Twitterrific, Facebook, and Last.fm along with mobile safari I now have access to pretty much 95% of what I do on my computer on a daily basis. Why lug around my laptop when I can just take my iPod with me when I'm going to the coffee shop or some other place with wi-fi and get the same goofing off done. There's also the "gee whiz cool factor" of flicking the screen and using the multi-touch display. It's no wonder there's rumors circulating about a "mac tablet."

Any of you out there ditched your laptop on those short trips in favor of the iPod Touch?

Using a Flip Video camera with iMovie '08

I have a new toy and at least for now I'm gonna have the bug to use it as often as I can. Julie got me a Flip Video Ultra for my birthday and I've been having fun with it since day one. Dare I say it, but this could be the year of video around here at Undisclosed Location. I'm going to have to get over how much I hate hearing my recorded voice, but I think that'll come with time.

There were a few hiccups to getting the Flip to play nice with iMovie '08 and the Mac in general. I freaked out at first try because all of the videos I had recorded played jerky and with garbled audio. This was even after installing the recommended 3ivx decoder that comes on the camera and updating the firmware after plugging the camera in for the first time. After doing a quick google search I came across a support thread suggestion to download and install Perian. Lo and behold, once I did this everything went smoothly. So if you're having problems with your Flip Video camera and your Mac, give the same thing a try.

Once I got video to show up correctly on my MacBook Pro running Leopard, the next step was getting everything to work with iMovie '08. I've read a few tips on how to get this done, but it seemed like this was going to be a multi-step process. So I simply fired up Automator and used the built in actions to create an application that would take care of the whole process for me. I added this application to my finder bar, and now when I plug in my Flip camera all I have to do is navigate to the "DCIM" folder and drag any videos I want to upload onto my "Flip Converter." Quicktime converts the videos from .avi to .m4v, saves them to my user "Movies" folder, and iMovie '08 Opens up and the import command is selected. You're then in control at this point, and can add your newly imported movie to a new even or an existing one.

You can try out this "app" yourself by downloading it here. And if you're aware of something better please let me know, because anything to make this easier will get me uploading more videos.

Honeymoon Bug Bite from Izzy on Vimeo.

The day Macs stopped "just working"

So I finally get Julie's mom to purchase a brand new iMac and the damn thing is crashing harder than Lindsey Lohan on the autobahn. Applications are unexpectedly quitting, the multiple user setup isn't working right, and Julie's family is ready to throw the stupid thing out the window. I spent a couple hours last week setting things up for them and even I ran into problems with iPhoto and camera syncing. I mean comon, iPhoto? I've never before had a problem with this progam...now I can't even get it to import photos the right way. I've got a lot of egg on my face right now, and if I don't get over there quit and resuscitate this thing I'm going to lose all credibility.

UPDATE: I went and did my best to fix all of the nagging issues...and I think I managed to fix just about all of them. Programs are now working as they should and photos are being imported without issue.

The real christmas eve

Santa Steve Jobs takes the stage tomorrow with his bag of goodies and I can't wait. The sad part is that Mac geeks everywhere will be tossing and turning tonight in anticipation of what will be under the tree after the Macworld Keynote. Only Apple could make people this excited about shelling out money, I know I never hear people getting foamed at the mouth over Bill Gates doing another Windows Media Center demo. *drinks his glass of kool-aid*

Consensus predictions seem to be the following:
1. iWork and iLife updates, including some kind of "iWeb" program
2. Some kind of Intel powered product, most likely an iBook or Mac Mini
3. A .mac announcement/upgrade

Other predictions that sound interesting:
4. Apple plasma displays with imbedded Intel processors...mmmm
5. Preview/announced release date of OS 10.5 (Leopard)
6. A iPod Shuffle, perhaps one with a screen

I've already got the Apple events page bookmarked so that when I get home from work tomorrow I can check out the keynote without reading any of the recaps. I want to see this as if I were watching live and don't want to accidently come across any of the new products while looking for the video. Apple needs to make some kind of page for dorks like me who want to watch the keynote after the fact and have that "live experience" so that the surprise isn't ruined.

I have a feeling that putting so much hype behind the event is going to inevitably lead to disappointment, but I've got some money saved away that's burning a hole in my pocket and I'd love to lay it down on cool Apple gear.

The iPod strikes back

A couple of months ago I was struck with iPod lust and decided that I just had to have the new 5G iPod. Yeah, I know that my 4G iPod was less than a year old, but when the lust hits you, you just have to act. I managed to find a fellow resident who was looking for an iPod for the holidays and I made her what I think is a pretty sweet deal. I sold my mint condition 30GB 4G iPod (this thing has never been exposed to "the elements," it's been in a case since it came out of the styrofoam) with Contour Showcase cover, AirPlay FM transmitter, car charger, and extended warranty for $280.

My last Apple post today, I swear

From a CNET article:

After Jobs' presentation, Apple Senior Vice President Phil Schiller addressed the issue of running Windows on Macs, saying there are no plans to sell or support Windows on an Intel-based Mac. "That doesn't preclude someone from running it on a Mac. They probably will," he said. "We won't do anything to preclude that."

However, Schiller said the company does not plan to let people run Mac OS X on other computer makers' hardware. "We will not allow running Mac OS X on anything other than an Apple Mac," he said.

OK, so this quote renders some of my good news and some of my questions obsolete. However, now the question remains whether Microsoft will sit back and let Apple claim to be the first "universal computer" or if it will block Macs from using Windows the same way Apple seems like they will block them. I don't even know how this will be possible. Any of you out there with ideas on how Apple will even be able to do this?

And oh yeah Apple, it's probably time to get rid of this performance page. *shakes head*

UPDATE: I just saw the keynote and I'm even more sick. There were so many contradictions to what we've always been told. This is the first time I've ever thought Steve Jobs was full of shit. A Macintosh is AN EXPERIENCE, not just a computer Steve. You of all people should know that. You can check out the keynote madness here.

Some good things about Apple moving to Intel

Of course not all the news is bad, here are some of the good things I'll be looking forward to based on today's announcement:

It will finally be possible to have a native dual-boot computer now that Windows and OSX can run on the same processor. As much as I hate to admit it, it'll be nice to have Windows and OSX on different partitions.

Prices should go down. Even if Apple doesn't slash its prices to get more in line with Intel-powered computers, a consumer now has the alternative to go somewhere else and use the same software.

Apple "mindshare" and "desktopshare" should increase. Even though I see Apple hardware going down the tubes, I can't imagine consumers choosing Windows over OSX when they are placed side-by-side and can be used on the same machine. Apple should become more popular than ever as more windows people get a taste of OSX.

The amount of OSX-compatible software should increase. This move may finally spell the end of the "gaming-divide" that has plagued Apple for so long. Companies will be much more likely to release versions of software and games that are Windows and OSX compatible since they'll both be running on the same processor.

Some questions I have about Apple moving to Intel

Why will people want to buy Apple-branded computers when they can just buy an Intel box for roughly half the cost and still use all of Apple's great software and the most amazing OS on the planet? Will Apple marketshare actually shrink as a result (if you count marketshare going by hardware and not OS installs)?

Will Apple turn into a software company because it won't be able to push any hardware other than the iPod?

Why would I want to buy an Apple desktop or laptop in the next two years unless it has an Intel processor in it? It's clear the future of the company has now moved away from the PPC processor, so why would I spend money in the meantime on a product that's on its way out?

What happens to the "Apple experience" of using a computer designed from the ground-up to run the software? Wintel people moving to OSX on their computers will know nothing about this and they will almost immediately be the majority of OSX users once the move goes through.

Will apps coded for Intel Macs work on PPC Macs just as easily as PPC apps are supposed to run on the Intel Macs? Or am I going to have to buy all new hardware to use the next-generation of Apple programs?

It's hard enough to explain the differences between Macs and PC's now, how will the average customer even know the difference now that everything will be Intel-based? Sure all of us geeks know what's going on, but the average shmoe going to CompUSA will be even more lost.

What are we supposed to call these new Macs? Mactels? Mintels? Ipples?

Apple IS moving to Intel processors

I'm sitting here reading live 2005 WWDC keynote summaries and I can't believe what's on the screen. According to the AppleInsider live update feed:

INTEL RUMORS TRUE: Jobs says there have been two major transitions for Mac: 68K to PowerPC and then Mac OS 9 to Mac OS X. Now it's time for third transition to Intel-based Macs. Developers will begin to make the transition now. While users can begin to switch next year. Apple is making the move "because we want to make the best computers for our customers."

I haven't said anything on the matter because I really didn't know what to think. On the one hand, I'm hoping that a move to Intel will make Macs more affordable, but on the other hand I feel like something about Apple has died today. Part of what using an Apple meant was that you were using something different than the mainstream, something premium that worked so well you'd be willing to pay more for it up-front. I'll have more thoughts later, but for now I'm just wondering about what this means for the future of a company I've invested a lot of love in...

More live feeds:
MacRumors // MacObserver // MacScoop

PS: One funny thing about the announcement was that it sure was bad news for this guy.

PPS: I can tell Mac news sites aren't used to a lot of traffic because all of them couldn't handle it. Every single major site I visited was either slowed down to a crawl or rendered unreadable.

PPPS: Blogwaffe has pointed out that: "Apparently, the first Intel Inside Mac will ship June 6th, 2006. 666: indeed, the veritable number of the beast."