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A quick three-question survey

By Nick, November 6, 2005

Help us get an idea of how we can improve Deep Thought by answering these three questions. To answer, simply post a comment with your response.

1) What’s the best thing about Deep Thought?
2) What’s the worst thing about Deep Thought?
3) What would get you to visit Deep Thought more often?

Thanks in advance!

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It will take more than just whining to FTFF

By Liam, November 5, 2005

For those of you that forgot, Apple is a company.

Lately, I’ve been seeing many people express their main problem with OS X. It’s all been pretty much the same: Fix The Frickin’ Finder. Not being a Mac user myself, I wouldn’t know how bad it is, but I do want to make one comment. You’re only doing half of what needs to be done to get these changes done.

For those of you that forgot, Apple is a company, just like any other. Their main aim is to make money. They do this by creating products that they can sell for more money than it cost to make it. The saying that applies to almost all other companies applies to Apple as well: Money talks. Money talks louder than the entire blogosphere combined. If something in their products is causing people to choose alternatives, and therefore Apple makes less money, they will make it their priority to fix the problem because it is costing them money.

The Finder is almost at that status. The one problem is that for all the whining and complaining people do, I have never once seen someone actually say “If the Finder is not fixed in Leopard, I’m not buying it.” Now I know that people will say, “But there are so many other features, it would be stupid to pass it up just because the Finder is problematic,” Which is why it’s not getting fixed. This is what is causing Apple to think “The Finder isn’t perfect, but because it’s not a big enough…
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The Clone Wars (with apologies to George Lucas)

By Nick, November 5, 2005

What if cloning was successful then? What if Apple rose Mac cloning from the grave in an all-out assault on Microsoft's hegemony? What if what if what if?

You thought they were dead; that Lord Jobs, Controller of our Destinies and Keeper of the Mac killed them off back in the old days of 1998 (like, when Macs were still beige! Eek!). What in the name of kernel panics am I referring to? Mac cloning.

The last I checked, Mac clones are still dead and Steve Jobs has dismissed the possibility of the return of Mac cloning. But then again, this is the same Apple that dismissed a flash-based iPod, a cheap headless Mac, the Intel x86 architecture, and a video iPod, yet here we are with the iPod Shuffle and iPod nano, Mac mini, a forthcoming switch to Intel chips, and the mythical video iPod. Heck, Apple even entered the Media Center PC ring to some extent with Front Row. Oh, and there’s that Mighty Mouse thing. What’s next, iPhone? A PDA? A Mac Tablet? I guess it’s safe to say that anything is possible.

Which is why when I saw an article on sillicon.com discussing the possibilities (or impossibilities, depending on how you look at it) of Mac cloning making a comeback, I started thinking, “What if...?” What if cloning was successful then? What if Apple rose Mac cloning from the grave in an all-out assault on Microsoft’s hegemony? What if what if what if?

What if Apple started cloning in the 80s? i think we’d be looking at two possibilities. The first possibility: Apple rules the OS market. Apple fills the Microsoft role and a number…
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Apple asked to pull iPod ad

By Nick, November 5, 2005

The controversy over the latest iPod ad has heated up again. Lugz has sent Apple and TBWA\Chiat\Day cease and desist letters due to the uncanny similarities between Apple’s newest iPod ad and a Lugz TV spot from 2002. (Read DT’s earlier coverage here) Both ads feature a similar silhouette-on-orangeish-urban-background motif and music. Adweek reports:

Larry Schwartz, evp and a principal of New York-based JSSI, which makes Lugz, said in a statement, “If you look at these spots, common sense would tell you that there’s a problem here. The Apple commercial uses the most powerful elements of our campaign, making the ads disturbingly similar. We are prepared to vigorously pursue all legal remedies in order to protect our rights.”

Deep Thought’s Take: One cannot help but notice the irony: Apple is known for handing out cease-and-desist notices to various rumor sites and now they’re the subject of a cease-and-desist notice, though for a very different reason.

One could easily simultaneously make both cases: a) that Apple blatantly ripped off the Lugz spot, and b) that this is a natrual offshoot of the existing iPod ad campaign. This one should be an interesting situation to watch and I’m not going to comment since this is such a dicey issue. But one has to ask, how can you tell the difference between shameless ripoffs and mere coincidence? And what legal issues arise from coincidences?

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Masses laud release of WeatherBug Lite for Mac

By Nick, November 3, 2005

Well, not really, but at any rate, weather forecast app WeatherBug has made it to the Mac, sort of. WeatherBug Lite (free, but ad-supported) now comes in a Macintosh version, however WeatherBug Plus (paid service, ad-free) is not yet available for Mac OS X.

Off the desktop and onto the Web. WeatherBug Lite Mac brings you the same great information found in the traditional WeatherBug application. You will need to download a small applet to enable the WeatherBug alerting feature, but the rest of the great content the application is known for
is now on the Web.

Other new features from Weatherbug include an RSS feed and weather update Podcast.

WeatherBug Lite for Mac requires Mac OS X 10.2 or later. Lucky you.

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