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Counterspective: Apple is a hardware company.

By Arden, January 24, 2006

Apple is a hardware company. Repeat ad nauseum.

This article started out as a comment on UnnDunn’s latest entry, and grew long enough to merit its own entry.  For more on this topic, see John Gruber’s The Art of the Parlay, Or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying About Platform Licensing and Market Share.

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Say it with me.

APPLE IS A HARDWARE COMPANY.

Good, now repeat until it sinks in.

Apple is not in the business to sell software.  Why?  Because they make lots and lots of money from the high premiums they place on Macs and, in the last 5 years, iPods.  These are both hardware products.  This whole Intel switch?  It’s a hardware transition.  For all intents and purposes, the software is exactly the same on a MacBook Pro as on a Powerbook.

Putting Intel Inside was never the smartest technical decision. But it makes it easier for Apple to move to a software licensi g business for Mac OS X, or sell the computer business completely.

This would be like Ford Motor Company selling their auto manufacturing business to sell car seats and auto upholstery to other manufacturers.  That’s what OS X is:  the cushy, comfy interface to the machine.  Now, I’m not going to get into too many car analogies because at some point they don’t fit anymore (i.e. you can drive any car on any road), but in this case it’s a good fit: you buy a car that has good performance, good mechanical features, and a nice interior with well-designed controls.  Similarly,…
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An Interesting Perspective on the Intel Switch

By UnnDunn, January 24, 2006

By ditching the Mac hardware altogether, Apple frees itself up to aggressively attack Microsoft with software.

Also read Arden’s response to this story. --ed

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Intel Macs only one-fourth, not four times faster

Macworld has gotten hold of the x86 iMacs and run some benchmarks. There’s lots of good news for speed-starved Mac users. The iMac boots in 25 seconds, and shaves the time taken to perform some mathematically-intensive tasks by a third.

But on the whole, the results show a speed bump of only a measly quarter over today’s overclocked G4 and new G5 processors.

“Unfortunately, our tests suggest that the remarkable results of Apple’s published tests aren’t reflected in most of the real-world applications we tested. Based on our initial tests, the new Core-Duo-based iMac seems to be 10-20 per cent percent faster than its predecessor when it comes to native applications, with some select tasks showing improvement above and beyond that,” writes Macworld’s Jason Snell.

Ouch! That’s gotta hurt!

Why did Apple move to Intel, then, really?

Intel justifiably remains one of the most lauded companies on the planet not for the quality of its chips, but for its consistent innovation in production. It’s a manufacturing company first and foremost, and its R&D is geared towards keeping its facilities full.

What falls off the end of the Intel production doesn’t really matter.

This hardly helps you, dear reader, as you’re waiting for a window to refresh, or a QuickTime export to finish, but it’s the reason for Intel’s importance in the global economy, when superior products from Texas Instruments, IBM and AMD are available.…
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Report: Disney+Pixar a done deal [VERY UPDATED!!!]

By Nick, January 24, 2006

It’s Tuesday! New PowerBooks (MacBook Pros?) today!

Oh wait, wrong rumor mill. Sorry about that.

BusinessWeek reports that Disney has purchased Pixar for the tidy sum of $7 billion US. As a result of the buyout Steve Jobs would become Disney’s biggest shareholder, owning a 7% stake in the company (there seems to be a thing with the number seven here). Jobs, according to the report, would also become a Disney board member. I won’t bore you with the details; you’ve probably heard the story rehashed a million times now. The bottom line: Jobs gets richer and gains even more power in the entertainment industry. It may be safe to say that the expectations for Jobs to work his magic with Disney are extremely high.

For what it’s worth, $7 billion can buy you roughly 5.38 million 17-inch iMacs, 23.4 million 30 GB iPods, 88.6 million copies of iLife 06, or 233.4 million copies of The Incredibles on DVD, based on amazon.com’s regular (MSRP) pricing.

Nothing has been confirmed by either company at this time. Stay tuned…

UPDATE! Disney buys Pixar for $7.4 billion. So, when do we get to see Steve Jobs wear Mickey Mouse ears?


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Macintosh turns 22

By Nick, January 24, 2006

“Hello, I am Macintosh. It sure is great to get out of that bag!”

Today we celebrate the twenty-second glorious anniversary of the Apple Macintosh. It was 22 years ago today that Steve Jobs unveiled the original Mac to Apple shareholders and the world. A lot has changed since then, and while the Mac was never destined to rule the PC market, the world of computing owes a large debt to this little putty-colored box.

Here’s to twenty-two years of the Mac, with twenty-two or more years to come!


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iLife 06 Review Part 4: iMovie

By Nick, January 21, 2006

This is the second in a series of articles reviewing Apple’s iLife 06 software suite. Applications will be reviewed in this order: iPhoto, GarageBand, iWeb, iMovie, and iLife summary. I will not be reviewing iTunes because iTunes 6 has been out for a while, and it’s ubiquitous. Also, the score on this page reflects this application only, not the suite as a whole. Read on for more not-so-mind-numbing (I hope!) drivel.

iMovie is Apple’s oldest, er, most mature iLife application, having made its debut in 1999 (nearly seven years ago; feeling old yet?).  iMovie 1 and 2 were very different from iMovie 6; they were released before iLife and lacked the integration of later versions. iMovie 3, released in 2003, marked a shift toward the current iMovie incarnation, with integration with other iLife applications, an updated user interface, and abysmally slow performance. It was absolutely painful. iMovie 4 was mainly a performance update and iMovie 5 introduced the Magic iMovie feature and high-definition video support. Along the way, a few new features (new effects, titles, transitions, etc...) made their way into iMovie as well. iMovie 6 is an evolutionary update, but helps polish iMovie’s shine.

iMovie’s user interface is somewhat different from previous versions. The most obvious change is that it sports the smooth metal look that the rest of iLife 06 does. The changes go deeper than that, however; the interface has been streamlined some. The number of tabs on the right side of the window has been reduced, as…
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