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journal: mac
Thinking Different?
Welcome to Hell. Here's your overcoat; the weather is rather chilly.
Well I was going to write a big long spiel on how the Intel-based developer Macs rely on TCM (Trusted Computing Module; basically Palladium) to tie OS X to Apple hardware, but that’s on hold because of some Earth-shattering news: Apple now makes a two-button mouse.
Welcome to Hell. Here’s your overcoat; the weather is rather chilly.
Apple has been undergoing a metamorphosis of sorts this year. A lot of what we once thought to be conventional wisdom about Apple is turning out to be no more. Apple wasn’t going to introduce a Mac below the eMac. Apple wasn’t going to get into the flash MP3 player market. Apple would never switch to Intel. Apple was going to go out of business before they would offer a multiple-button mouse. Lo and behold, the Mac mini made its debut alongside the iPod Shuffle, Apple decided to switch to Intel chips, and are now selling a multi-button mouse.
Intel? Multi-button mice?
Some may wonder if Apple is slowly losing what made Apple what it is. At first glance, this would seem to be the case. However, when looking beyond the surface, one will see that Apple is still Apple. Let me explain. There are certain qualities that are distinctly Apple. Among these include tight hardware-OS integration, attention to detail, and elegant products (elegant in looks and function) with unique features. Let’s quickly invstigate how Apple’s changes--as embodied by the Mighty Mouse--tie into these attributes.
Mighty Mouse isn’t your ordinary, run-of-the-mill three-button scrollwheel mouse. Aside from the fact that it functionally has four buttons, it’s the only multi-button mouse that I know of that can behave almost identically to a single-button mouse if one prefers single-button goodness. It’s the only one I can think of that uses something that beats the scrollwheel: the scrollball. That isn’t thinking ordinary to me, even though the idea of multiple mouse ideas is not anything new.
So what? Mighty Mouse is a good reflection of what Apple has become. In many aspects, Apple has become a company that takes aspects of other platforms and technologies and improves upon it. Apple takes existing product concepts and adds their tight hardware-software integration, attention to detail, and sense of elegance into it to make something unique. Other examples of this include Mac OS X’s implementation of Fast User Switching and the iPod. Neither one was the first in its class (Fast User Switching first appeared in Windows XP, MP3 players existed for a while before the iPod). However, Apple turned both into very good implementations of a product or copncept. It’s too early to make a statement on Intel-based Macs, but it would be safe to assume that the same will hold true for them.
This rule doesn’t mean Apple does not come up with completely new stuff. Exposé, for example, is something nobody else saw anywhere prior to Panther.
Is Apple changing? In some respects, yes. In others, no. If you sit and think about it, Apple has been in a constant state of change since Steve Jobs took over as CEO in mid 1997. Jobs started by streamlining the product lineup. Apple then introduced the original iMac, a new approach to the all-in-one and a radical product in 1998 (when Macs were still very much beige boxes). Apple introduced several products in the image of the iMac, only to change direction with the PowerBook G4 and white iBooks. Then there was the iPod, which has transformed Apple more than any product they have ever made (with the exception of the Apple I, Apple II, original Mac). On the software front, Jobs oversaw the largest OS transition in Macintosh history; the move to Mac OS X. So while there seems to be some major changes in Apple, if past actions are any indication, change is nothing new to Apple. Yet despite all this change--change in focus, change in product design, etc...--Apple’s core values in regards to product development remain the same.
Change. It can be good. Even if it means the occasional blizzard in Hell during the middle of summer.
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| Nick | comments | views |
thinkback
Change happens. I was disappointed about the switch to Intel, but I understand the reason-- lack of vendor enthusiasm on the part of IBM and Motorola. I see no value to multi-button mice, having used all kinds of configurations, but if Apple wants to offer one, fine. The constant with Apple, so far, and I hope, in future, is that when I sat down at a Mac my muscles won’t tense up. Because I know that 99 times out of 100 it will do what I want it to do rather than what IT wants to do. I can’t say that about Windows. Windows has seen a lot of improvements in recent years. My XP box at work can go several days without a re-boot. I could never do that in Win2000. But the user experience is still very, very inadequate.
One thing I’ve always admired about Apple is that they’re not affraid to say “This isn’t working” or “This works Better” and dump the old way of doing things. Sure, attimes it an inconvience to the end user (but only at first).
They change from Motorolla to IBM meant included two installers with some software. But in the end we got better performance.
The switch from OS 9 to OS X caused endless hardware and Software problems, but now we have a fast, stable, near bullet-proof OS.
This all better then the MS way which ensures backward compatability at the expense of REAL improvement
The move to intel may be more of the same. Some growing pains but in the end a better user experience.
I was going to buy a Mac until their change to Intel was confirmed. I hate Intel, their hardware is overpriced and cheap, a lot of the older software I use doesn’t work with the Celeron, and the P-M is just too expensive for me, and I don’t have anywhere to put a desktop in my dorm.
| Aug. 04, 2005 | |
| 9:29 pm |
BTW, there was an article on Slashdot disproving Apple’s use of trusted computing to keep OSX X86 contained, they are just really watching the people they know are in possesion of a development box.
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| Aug. 04, 2005 | |
| 9:48 pm |
Thanks to old age, Steve now listens to other people’s suggestions.
This help explains why Apple had been making many good business sounding decisions.
Interesting blog entry.
Sometimes I wonder what is Apple really trying to achieve, or are they just trying to survive?
The release of the same one button mouse with side touch sensors and a tiny trackball on the top can mean several things :
- Apple is still as stubborn as ever, never one to succumb to the superior designs of others, they contiue to insist that the one button mentality is one that works. Unfortunately for the last 20 years, their popularity only remains with hardcore users, whilst many have turned to the more practical and more updated version of the mouse, the scroll wheel mouse. This is Apple’s last chance to take their one-button mentality and put it on a different perspective. Whether it is enough to attract even PC users to the dark side remains to be seen, though I highly doubt they will be flocking to the Apple store anytime soon now.
- Apple’s idea bin is drying up. We’ve had high expectations of the IBM PowerPC processors, really high. But now, we are faced with yet another company using the same CPUs as everybody elses. Anyone remembered what happened to the Commodore Amiga? when they suddenly decided to become just another IBM compatible? They got washed out.
History may repeat itself, but I think Apple is smarter than that. They will use the Unix/OSX vs Microsoft BS and play it out as much as they can. Lets make Microsoft the bad guys and work that to our advantage. Only problem is, we’ve kind of heard that one before. iPod? Make that video/photo iPod in the future. Something has to support Apple proprietory videos! What better way than to use the same iTunes formula to recycle the same old ideas.
Like I said, Apple’s idea bin is really drying up.
- Apple is delaying for time where innovation should have been made now. They’ve probably lost a lot of credibility with the meaningless Shuffle, the insignificant Mac Mini, the switch to Intel.
They are doing what everybody else is doing, waiting for Microsoft and their next big one. Waiting to see the emergence of IBM and Sony on their PowerPCs and next generation gaming of which Apple is not a player, has never been and never will be. Waiting on what AMD will do, perhaps ready to pounce on the next business opportunity designed to keep Apple in the game. Actually, I sense the emergencies, nevermind innovation, its all about survival.
ahayes,
In my dorm, I type from a PowerBook 12” from a comfortable chair. But you probably could fit an iMac or Mac mini and any LCD. Either takes up just a few inches of desk space.
| Aug. 06, 2005 | |
| moreApple | 2:52 pm |
“BTW, there was an article on Slashdot disproving Apple’s use of trusted computing to keep OSX X86 contained, they are just really watching the people they know are in possesion of a development box.”
Rosyna tells me the chip is there because Apple is using a generic PC mobo for the dev machines.
“Sometimes I wonder what is Apple really trying to achieve, or are they just trying to survive?”
Nice to see you around again, Informer!
I think Apple is trying to make a serious move against Microsoft right now. The OS is solid; right now Apple seems to be looking at ways to reassure any potential switchers that, yes, you can leave the Windows World and be OK. I think the Mighty Mouse, Mac mini, and to an extent the Intel switch are all part of this attempt (as is the newly overhauled apple.com/switch site). I think the next steps would be to take down Mac myths head-on and make a major marketing blitz.
And I think the shuffle was Apple’s attempt to take over the rest of the MP3 player market as well as further the Apple brand.
Whatever Apple is doing seems to be working, though, as exhibited by their sustained strong sales, even despite the Intel switch.
| Nick | Aug. 07, 2005 | |
| 1:33 pm |
With the switch to intel, there is no longer an excuse to not have a compatibility layer for those of us with old/winders only software.
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| Aug. 07, 2005 | |
| 2:03 pm |
Aaron, how much have you actually heard about the Intel-based Mac architecture? Apple is doing absolutely nothing to prevent you from installing Windows on your new Intel Mac (which could be a good selling point, actually… hey, it can run the Mac OS and Windows! But I digress...); what they are trying to do is prevent the Mac OS from running on non-Apple hardware (because it would kill their hardware sales, the bread and butter of Apple’s income).
| Aug. 08, 2005 | |
| Arden | 8:01 pm |
I think if Apple can’t sell it’s hardware based on the quality of the hardware and not the operating system it runs then it goes to show that it can’t be very good. Furthormore the ability to install windows doesn’t help me because I would be getting the Mac NOT to by MS software.
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| Aug. 09, 2005 | |
| 5:30 pm |
1.
“It’s the only one I can think of that uses something that beats the scrollwheel: the scrollball.”
It’s not the first, but it’s probably the first that works on the Mac. The mouse I had before my current Intellimouse had 3 buttons and a mini-trackball, but the driver for such came on a DOS-formatted floppy. So the main reason I chose that mouse over another didn’t even work on my computer!