There are a lot of differences between Mac people and PC people. Mac people, conventional wisdom says, stand for creativity; PC people represent conformity. Mac people don't care about cost; it's all PC people care about.
But a new one dawned on me while watching Apple Computer CEO Steve Jobs deliver a keynote at Macworld on Tuesday.
Mac people seem to want you to go into advertising. PC people don't give nearly as much career guidance.
The thing that has somewhat troubled me about Apple and the Mac community over the years, I now realize, is that there seems to be an overt agenda geared at giving everyone a makeover so that they can land a marketing position. It is always about presentation and posture with that company.
Jobs, for instance, introduced Pages, a word-processing and document-creating application, at the show.
"It is word processing with a sense of style," Jobs said. "It is designed so that mere mortals can create fantastic-looking documents."
Most of us are lucky to have poorly labeled computer files, a cardboard box with prints and/or a vague idea of who is in the picture.
He also demonstrated improvements to iPhoto. Now it's easier to put personal slide shows to music. In one demonstration, baby pictures swirled on a graphical representation of a mobile while Louis Armstrong sang "Dream a Little Dream of Me" in the background. In another, shots and videos from a Hawaiian wedding floated across the computer screen to the music of Israel Kamakawiwo'ole.
All the presentations looked great, but they also seemed foreign and impersonal. Who puts a soundtrack to their family photos? "Mom's second-wedding shots--cue up the Skynrd." Most of us are lucky to have poorly labeled computer files, a cardboard box with prints and/or a vague idea of who is in the picture.
Again, it looked wonderful on stage, but if you actually synched your home photos into a slick presentation, your friends will fear that a pitch to buy a time share is coming next.
Then there was the new computer, the Mac Mini. Measuring 6.5 inches by 6.5 inches by 2 inches, the computer is one of the more stylish desktops out there. Dell's mini desktop is about twice as big, measuring 12.7 inches by 14 inches by 3.8 inches. Sony's handheld Type U computer is smaller but costs more.
Still, consumers pay for the style of Mac Mini. The $599 model comes with a 1.42GHz PowerPC processor, 256MB of memory, an 80GB drive and a DVD/CD-RW drive. A similarly configured Gateway 3250 (2.66GHz Pentium 4, 80GB drive, 256MB memory, same drive) costs $499; $100 less with a rebate.
But the Gateway also comes with some important extras--namely a keyboard, a mouse and a 17-inch screen. The Mac Mini has none of this. Cool industrial design with an artsy interface or a monitor? It depends what you're looking for.
If you actually synched your home photos into a slick presentation, your friends will fear that a pitch to buy a time share is coming next.
I think the first time I ever picked up on this emphasis on presentation at Apple came several years ago, while watching a preview of a soon-to-be-broadcast Apple ad. In the ad, kids have to stand in front of the class and show an object for show and tell. The first kids stand up and give slightly dispirited monologues about rocks or other things they found on their summer vacation.
Then the kid with the Apple shows up. He cues a video that shows the family laughing it up on a canoe trip and just lets the class watch. Some reporters got teary-eyed. It made me feel sort of weird about the public-school system. The kid got high marks for all show, no tell.
Contrast Jobs' speech and product announcements with the standard stump speech from PC execs. Intel CEO Craig Barrett, for instance, delivered a typical one at CES last week. In each speech, there's a few irrelevant celebrity cameos. Then there's the sketching out of the brave new world of technology. Then there's always a reference to a billion of something--a billion transistors on a chip, a billion connected computers, etc.
But the speeches also typically contain two other elements: a nod to how PCs can help kids do their homework and how PCs are beginning to proliferate in the developing world. Corny and self-serving as some of the pitches might be, the audience is always reminded that there are people on the globe who have never been to Williams-Sonoma.
To Apple's credit, style and presentation--even with a mock turtleneck--are important. Baldassare Castiglione highlighted the importance of elegant nonchalance in the Renaissance classic "The Book of the Courtier." (Rule 1: Never shake hands with the pope.) There is also a personal bias here. I have knuckle hair that a rhesus monkey would envy.
Apple also comes out with some very cool software. One of the highlights of Jobs' speech involved a preview of Mac OS X Tiger. It includes a search technology called Spotlight and a handy tool called dashboard that gives quick access to weather, stock prices, a currency converter and more.
And finally, the emphasis on education and science that PC companies often stress is also a form of a sales pitch. Microsoft blankets TV stations with ads that emphasize the importance of school, but they also sell Xboxes.
Still, with Apple, I can't help but feel that I am being judged by the cut of my chassis.
Biography Michael Kanellos is editor at large at CNET News.com, where he covers hardware, research and development, start-ups and the tech industry overseas. He has worked as an attorney, travel writer and sidewalk hawker for a time share resort, among other occupations.
Mike, you risk the wrath of the Macosphere--mightier than the blogosphere!
Mike, you are completely right that Apple is very much about form and design and style, and Steve Jobs mirrors that attitude perfectly.
Apple figured out that within a commodity market, style and design are a value-add that has very good margins. If you define the term PC in its original form, as a personal computer, not as just a Windows/Intel personal computer, Apple is the most profitable PC company out there and nobody gives them that recognition.
Since Apple is a niche player, it fits perfectly into a niche market for computer products for upscale/status/design/niche conscious customers. They are the "Sharper Image" of the PC sector, with their own stores too!
I've used both Windows and Mac machines over the last 20 years years, and currently using a Windows laptop for five years. I've found that both get you wheere you want to go, but the Mac does it with a a few fewer clicks. You get a stylish design, and you get some excellent software bundled with the system. And probably more importantly than ever these days, you don't get bothered by all the malware that hits Windows systems constantly. The Mac malware is a tiny fraction of the Windows malware. I've lost tons and tons of productivity through having to deal with viruses and spyware and the admin tasks that Windows requires.
Also, $600 was the price for a DVD player not too long ago, and that didn't have a screen either :-) The Mac mini looks pretty damn tempting, especially since it looks very portable, or at least luggable. I can see a lot of uses for that kind of form factor...
And as far as the iPod goes, Apple is demonstrating yet again, that proprietary technology is the way to make money! What did the Windows PC makers get in return for adopting a single platform? Microsoft and Intel sucked in most of the profits. That's why the cell phone sector is still heavily based on proprietary technologies--they don't want a repeat of what happened in the PC sector.
From Tom Foremski at <a class="jive-link-external" href="http://SiliconValleyWatcher.com" target="_newWindow">http://SiliconValleyWatcher.com</a>
The last time that I checked, style and design were not listed on the "value-add" list of many people. A Dodge Viper has great style and design, but if it has no engine it will not get you very far. I'm not saying that the Apple machines have no guts, I'm just saying that style and design are not a value-add unless they actually add value. Style for the sake of style is useless, unless you work in marketing, as the author states. There are many industries that center around style and design, but computer hardware is about the technology, and not as much about the package.
Second, you say "proprietary technology is the way to make money!" Go out and take a look at Sony's alternative to VHS, called Beta. Do you see anyone making money on it now? Nope, yet VHS continues on. How about IBM or HP? Companies who sell their services, a commodity as far as that goes, and they make more money at it than most countries.
Just being proprietary is no guarantee that you will make money. Check the patent record for 2004 and you'll see thousands of proprietary products that lost millions.
The iPod is not proprietary. The only thing proprietary is the rights management of songs downloaded on iTunes. ALL dowload services have a propreietary DRM....thats how it works.
And Apple is not nearly in the game of proprietary things as windows is. Longhorn supposedly is gonna be written in proprietary code.... OS X's unix foundation is open source.........
it would be pretty creepy if baby pictures were put in mobiles for iPhoto display, but how about a DVD menu? Yes, the examples you gave are all from iDVD, you pick a theme and drag and drop pictures and movies and it creates a DVD menu for you.
You are being judged by the cut of your chassisall the time! It just the way it is. You may not like it, and you may wish to cling to the notion that substance is more important than appearance, but in everyday interaction, and especially first impressions, it's just not so. And, have you tried watching a slide show of family pictures with appropriate music? It elevates the experience to a whole new level. Really, Mike; try it and see. As for the whole Mac vs. PC thing, I can say that I enjoy looking at and working with the Mac interface for hours at a time, whereas the PC interface induces instant anguish. Yes, apperance is important to me, both in what I look likeand what I look at!
Stylish, fun, easy to use, plus great software = $100+++
Michael, maybe if you used a Mac you wouldn't be such a shlub. And your family would actually enjoy seeing your vacation photos instead of smiling tightly and groaning inside. To compare the larger ugly Gateway to the new Mac Mini? Please, the software alone that comes with the Mac is easily worth the difference in price, and you don't have to mail in a rebate and wait eight weeks while you're still trying to figure out how to make your pictures look halfway decent. Poor guy.
1. People who want to throw their PC in the ocean. These folks just want to do their work without the endless viruses, bugs, spies and reinstalls. The mini sells them OS X at minimal expense.
2. Ipod users who are ready for the next step. They already define their reality through an apple appliance and they'll use the thing as a souped-up set-top box for their HDTVs.
Confusing the mini with ilife/iwork, etc, is foolish. The mini is nothing less than Apple's grab for the whole PC-using world. Jobs wants his dinner back and there's not a damned thing Gates can do about it.
Cathch story, unfortunately author is confused. The reference to iPhoto demo was actually iDVD menu creation demo. Being able to create a nice presentation easily and successfully is very useful. Apple is putting usable technology in the hands of everyone. Being able to edit down a home movie from hours of junk to a few minutes of highlights, add a slide show with music and burn it to DVD and send it to the grandparents across the country is not Madison Avenue, it is just excellent visual communication that PC owners can only wish for. Catchy story but author really hasn't got a clue.
I'm genuinely curious -- does that Gateway you speak of have an entire suite of software out of the box for that price? Because with this "not cheap enough" Mac mini I get an OS, Appleworks for productivity, iLife '05 and a couple of games. Now, I would imagine the Gateway is sold with a copy of Windows. And you can download OpenOffice.org for free, so there goes that advantage. But, where do you find a suite of PC programs that fills in for iPhoto, iTunes, iMovie HD, GarageBand and iDVD? For free? That (and this is the acid test) works as well, and is as integrated as iLife?
Do you have a genuine beef with Apple's pricing department, or is it that Apple offends your sensibilities with the way they do business? Let's be clear about this -- I can understand if you find Apple to be overly polished, hollow and arrogant. But let's stick to the facts and refrain from spreading age old FUD about price differences between Mac and PC. In any case that cheap $499 Gateway with the all important mouse and keyboard (you'd think people who are tempted to switch would already have a keyboard and mouse hang around, wouldn't you?) is built exactly that -- cheap.
Most people don't have a USB keyboard "hanging around". I have one and it's being used, but I have 8 computers so it isn't a surprise that I have one USB one. (I am a programmer so I need a network to test my work.)
USB keyboards are still rare for PC users, hence add the price of a keyboard to the price.
Great question! Let's get this entire price issue off the table. Let's assume that Apple charged 99 cents for a new iMac Mini. Mike, would you then recommend the machine to your freinds and family? Maybe yes, maybe no... but at least the recommendation would be based upon the features of the computer.
Fine, so Mr. Kanellos has an aversion to things that look and sound slick and markety. There's no arguing that Apple's product may be distasteful, then. But what I've always admired (and probably others too) is that there is always an underlying functionality to Apple's product of late... So the iPod looks fru, fru. Looks are a matter of taste. But can anyone seriously argue that the iPod is hard to use, or hasn't set the standard for music player functionality?
Look, for instance, at the design of the iPod shuffle. this isn't minimalism for minimalism's sake. the minimalistic design offers serious, serious functionality in a wide range of consumer situations: party with the lanyard, excercise with the arm band, hike with the sports case, ipod naked (as in surf naked) when sitting at a table reading, etc.
Even the Mac Mini has a reason (besides cost-savings for Apple) for leaving out Keyboard and Monitor. For someone who already has a computer set up, this saves them a trip to the local electronics retailer or wasting time on eBay unloading a used keyboard/monitor. And yeah, the looks may be to precious for Mr. Kanellos and there may be a slight cost-premium for a small form factor, but is saving deskspace really a bad thing? Careful Mr. Kanellos, there may be accusations that you own a stake in one of those furniture manufacturers that pump out desks featuring a 2'x1' space designated for a CPU housing... So the amazing thing to me is that despite (or maybe because?) Apple's attention to slick-looking design, the functionality of their products seem to often surpass those rivals whol pay little or no attention to appearance... The best-dressed person in the roommay be a model, but she could be an engineer, too...
and 'beauty' is how we humans have always processed complexity.
whether in science (mathematical proofs and physical laws can be beautiful) engineering (beautiful bridges or skyscrapers) or computing (software is my point here, not so much hardware) - beauty always reflects a deeper truth, something 'right'.
this is all that apple is aiming at: to find that deeper truth in computing (again: through software), so that the computing experience is actually enjoyable (and so much more productive) for the masses.
granted there is a lot of style there, too. and while they dont always succeed, they sure keep trying.
and apple deserves credit for that.
because, with Einstein, in science and elsewhere the challenge is: "Things should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler."
The article I just read was about iLife (well, iDVD wrongly labeled by the author as iPhoto) - even though the author seems to be trying to review the Mac Mini. The Mac Mini is a small Apple computer, not the software that comes on it - you can put whatever Mac-compatible software on it you'd like.
The $499 (not $600) Mac Mini comes with a CD-RW/DVD drive, 256 MB of RAM, Firewire, USB 2.0, and built-in compability with Mac or Windows style keyboards, mice, and monitors.
The author is right that you can get a cheaper computer with Windows on it and more stuff - but it won't have the "form factor" (which is important, and a value-add even in Wintel world) and it won't have Mac OS X...
The Mac Mini comes with over $350 worth of software, including Mac OS X, iLife, Quicken 2005, AppleWorks, and a trial version of Microsoft Office 2004, as well as a couple of games. The author's $500 Gateway comes with Windows and WordPerfect - that's it.
Before this announcement, the cheapest Mac was $799, and it was an eMac (which *does* come with a keyboard, mouse, and built-in monitor). The eMac is not nearly as *cool* as the Mac Mini, and it costs more, plus you are kinda -stuck- with the 17 inch CRT monitor that makes up most of the computer.
The Mac Mini is a step towards the lower-priced PC market. For $499 (and free shipping, which Gateway and Dell *don't* offer) you get a powerful *little* computer that looks cool, gets the job done, can be easily moved anywhere, comes packed with software, and - best selling point of all - it's a Mac.
Add AirPort and Bluetooth (with keyboard and mouse) connect to my plasma theater system and for under $650 I have a killer system that will play (and soon record) DVDs, stream music, access the web through my DSL and run all my apps - right in my den in 40" glory.
Long ago Apple came out with an truly innovative project called Jonathan that never saw the light of day, until yesterday. Conceived as a series of modular boxes that plugged into a unique backplane (bus) or cable-linked to other modules or various screens, Jonathan at its most basic level consisted of one box (equals one module) and a TV screen as your monitor.
When I saw the Mac Mini I realized that hey! this would make a superb Living Room or Den computer. Simply add it to your large Flat Screen HDTV and get wireless (bluetooth) keyboards and mice and you are set to go.
Now all Apple has to do is create a TV-dinner tray that has a built-in mouse pad, mouse and TV remote storagage organizer holder and you are set to go.
After reading Mike kanellos' article concerning Steve Jobs' presentation at MacWorld I have only one suggestion for Mike...go back to being a lawyer...dry, insensative to what you project to others and opinionated.
MAC has been improving computers for ages, the keep making machines that are usable by people.
I hated them through the 80's, why did we need windows and mice, when the command line worked, fine. I thought the iMAC was a joke, but they pushed usb through, they got firewire started, they have moved adding devices from the internals to the externals with fast ports. They make it look pretty but the actual technology they push and innovate is amazing.
I have an IBM think centre with and XP a self made Slackware workstation and two servers. I bought my daughter an iMAc and we all use it for the photos and publishing documents. Not because it makes it look more pretty, but because it does it better and with an interface that is human intuitive.
I am scared as a linux fanatic, because OS X is the best Unix like system out there. With a pretty desktop and solid features it could actually hurt the OSS movement on the desktop.
Pretty is the angle the use to sell their products, but not what the products are 'about'
Mac is proprietarily about style. The Mac is an excellent platform for those that never feel that they want to "get their hands dirty" since its hardware is so closed. Their OS used to be the ideal for the novice user, but that too has changed. Now if you don't have a Mac support guru under your belt then you had better have a good support contract with Apple. But I will admit this, when I first saw the new mini I was tempted but when I added all of the extras up to the asking price my temptation faded.
PS - I used to be an avid Apple fan and Apple certified support tech. What turned me off was the arrogance of our district representative.
I guess you never heard of arrogant PC techs or programmers?
Your personal problems should not play into whether something is good or not. Unfortunately, that IS human nature. We see that played out time, and time again since the beginning of time.
Yeah, don't forget the"Mac support guru." You'd need his help to remove spyware. And viruses. And adware. Because Macs have lots of that. Big problem, you know, not at all like Windows, which doesn't have any of that.
Maybe the guru would help you do things like browse the internet, or check eMail, or run Microsoft Office? You know, all those things that are so different on the Mac, because, well, they're on a Mac, right? And everything's different on a Mac.
I'd better go call my "district representative" now, because I don't think I can figure all this Mac stuff out by myself.
What is there only like one profile of a mac user? Some of the nerdiest, hackeriest, hands dirtiest people I can think of use macs. They rip them apart. Swap processors. Over clock them. Build fish tanks out of them. Put them in PC cases. Make them run X11 ****. Program on them. Design on them. Create art. etc...
You stopped using macs because you didn't like a district representative?
For years apple dumped huge amount of money into making computers easier to use. Money they made off of huge margins on their computers. Largely due to Steve Wozniak's affinity for education, they then gave educational discounts of 50% or more. What happened? All the PC companies stole the best ideas that Apple spent big money to think up and Apple's market share dwindled. So now, starting with the iMac, they've focused their marketing on aesthetics, which, let's face it, is mostly what separates Macs and PCs. Guess what, their market share is increasing slightly. So don't go get all high and mighty talking about Apple is all fluff, even some Mac diehards will tell you Apple took some steps backward with usability coming from OS9 to OSX, but for better or worse, that's what was needed to stay alive in a world of mediocre products and hundred million dollar marketing campaigns. In the end you have a bulletproof UNIX based OS with as good of an interface as there is on top. If they need to sell these with flashy ads, that's just fine by me. And wouldn't it be nice just for once to see a presentation that was designed by designers rather than those powerpoint templates that MS apparently had their 6th grade interns design?
I'm sorry, but you're missing the point. The Mac mini is clearly aimed at "fence-sitters." Most of these PC users already own a monitor. Secondly, sure you can do a lot of creative stuff with a Mac, but more importantly, you can use the thing without crash and after crash; you can surf the Web without worry of viruses, etc. Average computer users should be able to have a positive user experience: that's worth $499 alone. Sorry, but you Windows guys just don't get that... I can understand how that'd be "foreign" to you.
Note the success of TV shows such as "What Not to Wear" and "Queer Eye" and the popularity of HGTV. Hey, even hardware stores are getting spruced up. For a large population, style matters.
quote "Dell's mini desktop is about twice as big, measuring 12.7 inches by 14 inches by 3.8 inches."......... er no, its actually about 4x bigger(more bloated) and weighs - oh never mind!
You're close, oops! When Mr. Kanellos gives height, width and depth for a competitor to the Mac Mini he, too, speaks volumes. His Math, however, is abysmal. The machine he uses for comparison has roughly 8x the volume of the Mini, not 2x. I suspect his lack of rigor here pervades all his thinking.
Mike - it is my observation that you wrote this piece from the outside not really knowing much about Macs. It maybe why the focus of yor writing is primary critical to the style/form of macs since you might not know much about Mac functionality.
Nowdays, if you are writers, you can write about anything even without enough knowledge on the issue. There are too many Windows biased (close minded) writers who write about Macs and we can always predict the accuracy and flavor of the writings.
Style is not a bad thing, but you managed to give notion that it may bear a negative result. We call it being creative; you call it advertising that is impersonal. Why close your mind that an individual cannot be that creative - Mac is a tool to help you to be more creative and it helps you know that you have the skill of creating well packaged DVD without buying $100K systems and spending 20x as much time and training.
Just like most Mac users, I use Mac and PC at work and at home. I automatically use one or the other without thinking since I know which one is best for certain task. I used to have 2 PCs and 1 Mac at home and now it's 2 macs and 1 PC. Due to the virus and spyware headache, I want to get rid of the PC but I cannot. I cannot deny the criticality of Windows PC: Accessing web based financial institution, Compiler, Robotic application for my sons etc.
So Mike, relax....be open minded and take advantage the benefit of Mac and Windows. Mac can be very personal and can be used to create very personal slide show, DVD that your friend and family would be in WOW (Try it first then write about it). With this mindset, you will be writing on view that people can learn from. Even if you have negative view about Mac and if it is based on real knowledge (not guesing or speculation).... then people will learn from it without being misled. This is what real journalism is about.
This wont sit good on them - the apple people, Mike. They want 'others' to appriciate all the crap coming out of apple as much as all the good stuff.
But Apple - it was a nice alternate to MS, if you had a lot of money - has started becoming another MS in a way. Locking down consumers on iTunes+iPod and a lot of other such policies etc is making the blur now.
iTunes does *NOT* lock you in. It's actually quite simple to convert the AAC files (much better quality than windows media, according to the experts) to MP3, etc... without a lot of loss of quality--less than you would get from taping an LP in the old days, certainly. And the CDs it burns (and you can burn more than one, unlike windows-ONLY options) work fine ANYWHERE.
The only closed part of the iTMS was necessary to get labels to agree to sell songs online in the first place. Notice you could not do this at all until Apple pioneered it.
And iTunes does not force you to use AAC!!! You can still buy CDs, use MP3, APPLE LOSSLESS format (awesome for audiophiles) etc...
Apple has *given* PC users undeniably the BEST music jukebox softare ever put together for FREE and you complain and call it a monopoly tactic. No, MS exhange email (proprietary!) is a LOCK down monopoly tactic, if you want a decent example.
When you think about it, Mac people are like Canadians....They get all pissy when people say anything even slightly relative to them...They must just be jealous of something because Windows is cheaper, and even thou probably isn't as great as Mac, has the potential to be so much more than Mac...
"The first kids stand up and give slightly dispirited monologues about rocks or other things they found on their summer vacation. Then the kid with the Apple shows up. He cues a video that shows the family laughing it up on a canoe trip and just lets the class watch. Some reporters got teary-eyed. It made me feel sort of weird about the public-school system. The kid got high marks for all show, no tell."
What are you talking about? I'm an educator and the only sad part of this story is that those other students didn't have access to the same tools that the student with the Apple had. Do you really think that this kid who used a computer isn't as engaged as the kid who stood up and talked about his rock? No, the fact is that the student who made a movie was more engaged with his story than he could have been any other way. He made HIS OWN documentary about HIS OWN trip showing HIM doing cool things. But not only was he engaged, but Id venture to say that the whole class was engaged too. Apple makes powerful computers, but what's great about them is that you don't have to be an expert to make great looking final products with them. Apple products make processes simple, so simple kids can do it. And if a student is not worried about the process then they have more time to think about the content. The process COULD be its own content, but in this case the content was the trip, and Im glad that the kid didnt have to muddle through a difficult program to do what he wanted.
I rarely comment but this article comes from a place ...
... lost in the recesses of an overworked brain and what is left of the intellect. Sorry to say, I rarely stop to comment but the hollowness of your article clearly shows you need an overhaul and vacation. Take a break, come back in the Spring, and rethink your strategy. God bless! God bless Apple for creating more of a whole-brained technology. I'd pay more for soul than empty technology any day no matter the price.
Mike - the comparison to the Gateway 2.66Ghz system is completely off base. Any open minded computer users knows that the PowerPC processor has about three times the bang for the Ghz. These processors are just much more powerful. Its not a comparison at all. I'm not knocking the Gateway (Dell man here), but its just not a fair comparison. Downplay the higher costs all you want, but when you have a company that heavily ties their software into specific hardware - it's just gonna work and its going to to work really well - like all Mac's do. Its just easier to program software for specific hardware rather than accounting for all hardware in the world. This is why the Apples are so much superior and easier to use. Its a good model to keep their hardware and software in house together. That's why I say go iPod - stay tied to the software - its why the user experience is SO easy to use!
Many people who are currently on PCs may have been exposed to Apple products through the iPod recently. Many have said that they would like to try a Mac but that the entry costs are too high. Many people have an old computer that they would like to upgrade but then they would have to throw their old monitor away. The Mac mini is the computer to perfectly fill their needs.
They can use their current monitor. They can also use their current keyboard and mouse if they want. Even if the mouse and keyboard are the outdated PS/2 style a 5 dollar PS/2 to USB adaptor is all it will take. So for the basic home user wanting to upgrade, for 499 dollars they will get:
A great small computer that is highly portable and will save them space.
An end to battling viruses, worms, trojan horses, spyware, adware, or other malware (Currently there are ZERO viruses in the wild for OS X, yes that is right, ZERO. Contrast this to the over 70,000 viruses that exist for windows. It always bugs me when everybody says Macs have fewer problems with malware that windows. For the last four years we have had ZERO problems so it should be "Macs currently have NO PROBLEMS WITH VIRUSES" not "fewer problems")
OS X which is rock solid and almost never has to be re-booted, is highly intuitive and easy to use (my three year old son and my 78 year old mother can both do pretty well on it) AND is nice to look at (Life is too short. If you are going to be looking at something all day long, it should at least be nice to look at and easy and fun to use)
Lots of best of class free software bundled in. The Mac mini includes:
The iLife fully integrated suite (iPhoto, iMovie, iDVD, iTunes, and Garage Band - this integration is incredibly important and it is too much to explain all the things that these applications can do interactively here, if you are interested you should look at the apple.com website),
Appleworks for word processing and spreadsheets (and which can save documents in a Microsoft Office compatible format),
Quicken 2005 to manage your finances and balance your checkbook,
Address book software which also prints labels,
the iSync syncronization software to sync your calendar and addresses with your phone or PDA,
The Safari Internet browser software (which also blocks popups),
Email software which is also integrated with iPhoto and the Address book,
Calendar/Scheduling software,
and my favorite - iChat AV - free video conferencing software which is also best of class, can go to full screen, and is smooth with perfect voice video synchronization.
They even throw in a couple of games in (Nanosaur 2 and Marble Blast Gold).
For 499 this sounds like a pretty good deal to me.
P.S. It seemed kind of slanted too that you chose the $599 dollar model to focus on when there is a $499 dollar model available.
I am guessing from your name that you have greek origins, don't you? So your words sound strange to me (I am greek too). You propably missed the words of Pericles in Epitaph. He was talking about the nice things that made the lives of the Athenians better and therefore democratic. Having beauty and pleasure in your daily life means you have something to lose. Means you understand also the needs of others. Means you want to create more and better. The whole western civilization is build upon these foundamentals: Ergonomy + beauty, Function gives shape to form, form gives shape to function. Style, trend, aesthetics, joy are so basic for our society. They give us reason to move.
Apple presentations are for people who don't want to hear another blah-blah and fall asleep, like the ones you mentioned. Mac fans enjoy the vision and the cult in every moment of their computer life. They are the perfect combination. Scanario + Good Direction. Great Ideas + Great Expressions. Mac fans enjoy beeing the first to follow an idea. They are sometimes overhead and fanatic but who is perfect?
Maybe it's difficult to understand that, because otherwise you wouldn't use Windows and compare chip machines with prototypes and leading technologies. I don't want to offend you but you' re missing something. In my family we are producing slide shows, screen savers and DVDs with our vacations etc. Thanks to Apple and Mac we are living and creating, having fun. We're doing things that Windows users do after 5 or 6 years. We used to hear them say "why should I have a GUI?", "Why should I burn CDs?", "Why should I have 20 Gbytes with music with me?", "Why should I have beutyful machines?"... It;s sooo boring, but this conversation is repeating every now and then. If you really love something you are trying to do it the best possible way, not the cheapest.
A friendly advise: Try to use a Mac with OS X for about a month. Then return to your PC, even a nice VAIO. Then we're talking.
Regards from Athens, Greece and my apologies for my english.
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George Lucas has just released his version of "Star Wars" in 3D, but c'mon--the guy believes Greedo shot first. Why not make your own Star Wars world? In the first installment of a Crave series, a crack team of crafters fight the power and turn paper bags into the Rebel Alliance's Admiral Ackbar. It's a sack!
Apple figured out that within a commodity market, style and design are a value-add that has very good margins. If you define the term PC in its original form, as a personal computer, not as just a Windows/Intel personal computer, Apple is the most profitable PC company out there and nobody gives them that recognition.
Since Apple is a niche player, it fits perfectly into a niche market for computer products for upscale/status/design/niche conscious customers. They are the "Sharper Image" of the PC sector, with their own stores too!
I've used both Windows and Mac machines over the last 20 years years, and currently using a Windows laptop for five years. I've found that both get you wheere you want to go, but the Mac does it with a a few fewer clicks. You get a stylish design, and you get some excellent software bundled with the system. And probably more importantly than ever these days, you don't get bothered by all the malware that hits Windows systems constantly. The Mac malware is a tiny fraction of the Windows malware. I've lost tons and tons of productivity through having to deal with viruses and spyware and the admin tasks that Windows requires.
Also, $600 was the price for a DVD player not too long ago, and that didn't have a screen either :-) The Mac mini looks pretty damn tempting, especially since it looks very portable, or at least luggable. I can see a lot of uses for that kind of form factor...
And as far as the iPod goes, Apple is demonstrating yet again, that proprietary technology is the way to make money! What did the Windows PC makers get in return for adopting a single platform? Microsoft and Intel sucked in most of the profits. That's why the cell phone sector is still heavily based on proprietary technologies--they don't want a repeat of what happened in the PC sector.
From Tom Foremski at <a class="jive-link-external" href="http://SiliconValleyWatcher.com" target="_newWindow">http://SiliconValleyWatcher.com</a>
Second, you say "proprietary technology is the way to make money!" Go out and take a look at Sony's alternative to VHS, called Beta. Do you see anyone making money on it now? Nope, yet VHS continues on. How about IBM or HP? Companies who sell their services, a commodity as far as that goes, and they make more money at it than most countries.
Just being proprietary is no guarantee that you will make money. Check the patent record for 2004 and you'll see thousands of proprietary products that lost millions.
And Apple is not nearly in the game of proprietary things as windows is. Longhorn supposedly is gonna be written in proprietary code.... OS X's unix foundation is open source.........
iPhoto display, but how about a DVD menu? Yes, the examples
you gave are all from iDVD, you pick a theme and drag and drop
pictures and movies and it creates a DVD menu for you.
just the way it is. You may not like it, and you may wish to cling
to the notion that substance is more important than appearance,
but in everyday interaction, and especially first impressions, it's
just not so. And, have you tried watching a slide show of family
pictures with appropriate music? It elevates the experience to a
whole new level. Really, Mike; try it and see. As for the whole
Mac vs. PC thing, I can say that I enjoy looking at and working
with the Mac interface for hours at a time, whereas the PC
interface induces instant anguish. Yes, apperance is important to
me, both in what I look likeand what I look at!
shlub. And your family would actually enjoy seeing your
vacation photos instead of smiling tightly and groaning
inside. To compare the larger ugly Gateway to the new Mac
Mini? Please, the software alone that comes with the Mac
is easily worth the difference in price, and you don't have to
mail in a rebate and wait eight weeks while you're still
trying to figure out how to make your pictures look halfway
decent. Poor guy.
Where do I sign up?
Bwhahahaha!
1. People who want to throw their PC in the ocean. These folks
just want to do their work without the endless viruses, bugs,
spies and reinstalls. The mini sells them OS X at minimal
expense.
2. Ipod users who are ready for the next step. They already
define their reality through an apple appliance and they'll use
the thing as a souped-up set-top box for their HDTVs.
Confusing the mini with ilife/iwork, etc, is foolish. The mini is
nothing less than Apple's grab for the whole PC-using world.
Jobs wants his dinner back and there's not a damned thing Gates
can do about it.
iPhoto demo was actually iDVD menu creation demo.
Being able to create a nice presentation easily and successfully is
very useful. Apple is putting usable technology in the hands of
everyone. Being able to edit down a home movie from hours of
junk to a few minutes of highlights, add a slide show with music
and burn it to DVD and send it to the grandparents across the
country is not Madison Avenue, it is just excellent visual
communication that PC owners can only wish for.
Catchy story but author really hasn't got a clue.
Do you have a genuine beef with Apple's pricing department, or is it that Apple offends your sensibilities with the way they do business? Let's be clear about this -- I can understand if you find Apple to be overly polished, hollow and arrogant. But let's stick to the facts and refrain from spreading age old FUD about price differences between Mac and PC. In any case that cheap $499 Gateway with the all important mouse and keyboard (you'd think people who are tempted to switch would already have a keyboard and mouse hang around, wouldn't you?) is built exactly that -- cheap.
USB keyboards are still rare for PC users, hence add the price of a keyboard to the price.
Great question! Let's get this entire price issue off the table.
Let's assume that Apple charged 99 cents for a new iMac Mini.
Mike, would you then recommend the machine to your freinds
and family? Maybe yes, maybe no... but at least the
recommendation would be based upon the features of the
computer.
sound slick and markety. There's no arguing that Apple's
product may be distasteful, then.
But what I've always admired (and probably others too) is that
there is always an underlying functionality to Apple's product of
late...
So the iPod looks fru, fru. Looks are a matter of taste. But can
anyone seriously argue that the iPod is hard to use, or hasn't set
the standard for music player functionality?
Look, for instance, at the design of the iPod shuffle. this isn't
minimalism for minimalism's sake. the minimalistic design offers
serious, serious functionality in a wide range of consumer
situations: party with the lanyard, excercise with the arm band,
hike with the sports case, ipod naked (as in surf naked) when
sitting at a table reading, etc.
Even the Mac Mini has a reason (besides cost-savings for Apple)
for leaving out Keyboard and Monitor. For someone who already
has a computer set up, this saves them a trip to the local
electronics retailer or wasting time on eBay unloading a used
keyboard/monitor. And yeah, the looks may be to precious for
Mr. Kanellos and there may be a slight cost-premium for a small
form factor, but is saving deskspace really a bad thing? Careful
Mr. Kanellos, there may be accusations that you own a stake in
one of those furniture manufacturers that pump out desks
featuring a 2'x1' space designated for a CPU housing...
So the amazing thing to me is that despite (or maybe because?)
Apple's attention to slick-looking design, the functionality of
their products seem to often surpass those rivals whol pay little
or no attention to appearance... The best-dressed person in the
roommay be a model, but she could be an engineer, too...
style + substance = beauty
and 'beauty' is how we humans have always processed
complexity.
whether in science (mathematical proofs and physical laws can
be beautiful) engineering (beautiful bridges or skyscrapers) or
computing (software is my point here, not so much hardware) -
beauty always reflects a deeper truth, something 'right'.
this is all that apple is aiming at: to find that deeper truth in
computing (again: through software), so that the computing
experience is actually enjoyable (and so much more productive)
for the masses.
granted there is a lot of style there, too. and while they dont
always succeed, they sure keep trying.
and apple deserves credit for that.
because, with Einstein, in science and elsewhere the challenge
is: "Things should be made as simple as possible, but not
simpler."
proofs and scientific theories are elegant, not beautiful.
labeled by the author as iPhoto) - even though the author
seems to be trying to review the Mac Mini. The Mac Mini
is a small Apple computer, not the software that comes
on it - you can put whatever Mac-compatible software on
it you'd like.
The $499 (not $600) Mac Mini comes with a CD-RW/DVD
drive, 256 MB of RAM, Firewire, USB 2.0, and built-in
compability with Mac or Windows style keyboards, mice,
and monitors.
The author is right that you can get a cheaper computer
with Windows on it and more stuff - but it won't have the
"form factor" (which is important, and a value-add even in
Wintel world) and it won't have Mac OS X...
The Mac Mini comes with over $350 worth of software,
including Mac OS X, iLife, Quicken 2005, AppleWorks, and
a trial version of Microsoft Office 2004, as well as a
couple of games. The author's $500 Gateway comes with
Windows and WordPerfect - that's it.
Before this announcement, the cheapest Mac was $799,
and it was an eMac (which *does* come with a keyboard,
mouse, and built-in monitor). The eMac is not nearly as
*cool* as the Mac Mini, and it costs more, plus you are
kinda -stuck- with the 17 inch CRT monitor that makes up
most of the computer.
The Mac Mini is a step towards the lower-priced PC
market. For $499 (and free shipping, which Gateway and
Dell *don't* offer) you get a powerful *little* computer
that looks cool, gets the job done, can be easily moved
anywhere, comes packed with software, and - best selling
point of all - it's a Mac.
-Chad Smith
Life-long Windows user, since 3.1....
my plasma theater system and for under $650 I have a killer
system that will play (and soon record) DVDs, stream music,
access the web through my DSL and run all my apps - right in
my den in 40" glory.
Function with style, Mike - you loser.
When I saw the Mac Mini I realized that hey! this would make a superb Living Room or Den computer. Simply add it to your large Flat Screen HDTV and get wireless (bluetooth) keyboards and mice and you are set to go.
Now all Apple has to do is create a TV-dinner tray that has a built-in mouse pad, mouse and TV remote storagage organizer holder and you are set to go.
Duncan Stokes
presentation at MacWorld I have only one suggestion for
Mike...go back to being a lawyer...dry, insensative to what you
project to others and opinionated.
I hated them through the 80's, why did we need windows and mice, when the command line worked, fine. I thought the iMAC was a joke, but they pushed usb through, they got firewire started, they have moved adding devices from the internals to the externals with fast ports. They make it look pretty but the actual technology they push and innovate is amazing.
I have an IBM think centre with and XP a self made Slackware workstation and two servers. I bought my daughter an iMAc and we all use it for the photos and publishing documents. Not because it makes it look more pretty, but because it does it better and with an interface that is human intuitive.
I am scared as a linux fanatic, because OS X is the best Unix like system out there. With a pretty desktop and solid features it could actually hurt the OSS movement on the desktop.
Pretty is the angle the use to sell their products, but not what the products are 'about'
But I will admit this, when I first saw the new mini I was tempted but when I added all of the extras up to the asking price my temptation faded.
PS - I used to be an avid Apple fan and Apple certified support tech. What turned me off was the arrogance of our district representative.
Your personal problems should not play into whether something
is good or not. Unfortunately, that IS human nature. We see
that played out time, and time again since the beginning of time.
remove spyware. And viruses. And adware. Because Macs have
lots of that. Big problem, you know, not at all like Windows,
which doesn't have any of that.
Maybe the guru would help you do things like browse the
internet, or check eMail, or run Microsoft Office? You know, all
those things that are so different on the Mac, because, well,
they're on a Mac, right? And everything's different on a Mac.
I'd better go call my "district representative" now, because I don't
think I can figure all this Mac stuff out by myself.
What is there only like one profile of a mac user? Some of the
nerdiest, hackeriest, hands dirtiest people I can think of use
macs. They rip them apart. Swap processors. Over clock them.
Build fish tanks out of them. Put them in PC cases. Make them
run X11 ****. Program on them. Design on them. Create art.
etc...
You stopped using macs because you didn't like a district
representative?
man.
The Mac mini is clearly aimed at "fence-sitters." Most of these
PC users already own a monitor.
Secondly, sure you can do a lot of creative stuff with a Mac, but
more importantly, you can use the thing without crash and after
crash; you can surf the Web without worry of viruses, etc.
Average computer users should be able to have a positive user
experience: that's worth $499 alone. Sorry, but you Windows
guys just don't get that... I can understand how that'd be
"foreign" to you.
12.7 inches by 14 inches by 3.8 inches."......... er no, its
actually about 4x bigger(more bloated) and weighs - oh
never mind!
computer (length x width x height).
depth for a competitor to the Mac Mini he, too, speaks volumes.
His Math, however, is abysmal. The machine he uses for
comparison has roughly 8x the volume of the Mini, not 2x. I
suspect his lack of rigor here pervades all his thinking.
outside not really knowing much about Macs. It maybe why the
focus of yor writing is primary critical to the style/form of macs
since you might not know much about Mac functionality.
Nowdays, if you are writers, you can write about anything even
without enough knowledge on the issue. There are too many
Windows biased (close minded) writers who write about Macs
and we can always predict the accuracy and flavor of the
writings.
Style is not a bad thing, but you managed to give notion that it
may bear a negative result. We call it being creative; you call it
advertising that is impersonal. Why close your mind that an
individual cannot be that creative - Mac is a tool to help you to
be more creative and it helps you know that you have the skill of
creating well packaged DVD without buying $100K systems and
spending 20x as much time and training.
Just like most Mac users, I use Mac and PC at work and at home.
I automatically use one or the other without thinking since I
know which one is best for certain task. I used to have 2 PCs
and 1 Mac at home and now it's 2 macs and 1 PC. Due to the
virus and spyware headache, I want to get rid of the PC but I
cannot. I cannot deny the criticality of Windows PC: Accessing
web based financial institution, Compiler, Robotic application for
my sons etc.
So Mike, relax....be open minded and take advantage the benefit
of Mac and Windows. Mac can be very personal and can be used
to create very personal slide show, DVD that your friend and
family would be in WOW (Try it first then write about it). With
this mindset, you will be writing on view that people can learn
from. Even if you have negative view about Mac and if it is
based on real knowledge (not guesing or speculation).... then
people will learn from it without being misled. This is what real
journalism is about.
But Apple - it was a nice alternate to MS, if you had a lot of money - has started becoming another MS in a way. Locking down consumers on iTunes+iPod and a lot of other such policies etc is making the blur now.
convert the AAC files (much better quality than windows media,
according to the experts) to MP3, etc... without a lot of loss of
quality--less than you would get from taping an LP in the old
days, certainly. And the CDs it burns (and you can burn more
than one, unlike windows-ONLY options) work fine ANYWHERE.
The only closed part of the iTMS was necessary to get labels to
agree to sell songs online in the first place. Notice you could
not do this at all until Apple pioneered it.
And iTunes does not force you to use AAC!!! You can still buy
CDs, use MP3, APPLE LOSSLESS format (awesome for
audiophiles) etc...
Apple has *given* PC users undeniably the BEST music jukebox
softare ever put together for FREE and you complain and call it a
monopoly tactic. No, MS exhange email (proprietary!) is a LOCK
down monopoly tactic, if you want a decent example.
What are you talking about? I'm an educator and the only sad part of this story is that those other students didn't have access to the same tools that the student with the Apple had. Do you really think that this kid who used a computer isn't as engaged as the kid who stood up and talked about his rock? No, the fact is that the student who made a movie was more engaged with his story than he could have been any other way. He made HIS OWN documentary about HIS OWN trip showing HIM doing cool things. But not only was he engaged, but Id venture to say that the whole class was engaged too. Apple makes powerful computers, but what's great about them is that you don't have to be an expert to make great looking final products with them. Apple products make processes simple, so simple kids can do it. And if a student is not worried about the process then they have more time to think about the content. The process COULD be its own content, but in this case the content was the trip, and Im glad that the kid didnt have to muddle through a difficult program to do what he wanted.
left of the intellect. Sorry to say, I rarely stop to comment but
the hollowness of your article clearly shows you need an
overhaul and vacation. Take a break, come back in the Spring,
and rethink your strategy. God bless! God bless Apple for
creating more of a whole-brained technology. I'd pay more for
soul than empty technology any day no matter the price.
to Apple products through the iPod recently. Many have said
that they would like to try a Mac but that the entry costs are too
high. Many people have an old computer that they would like to
upgrade but then they would have to throw their old monitor
away. The Mac mini is the computer to perfectly fill their needs.
They can use their current monitor. They can also use their
current keyboard and mouse if they want. Even if the mouse
and keyboard are the outdated PS/2 style a 5 dollar PS/2 to USB
adaptor is all it will take. So for the basic home user wanting to
upgrade, for 499 dollars they will get:
A great small computer that is highly portable and will save
them space.
An end to battling viruses, worms, trojan horses, spyware,
adware, or other malware (Currently there are ZERO viruses in
the wild for OS X, yes that is right, ZERO. Contrast this to the
over 70,000 viruses that exist for windows. It always bugs me
when everybody says Macs have fewer problems with malware
that windows. For the last four years we have had ZERO
problems so it should be "Macs currently have NO PROBLEMS
WITH VIRUSES" not "fewer problems")
OS X which is rock solid and almost never has to be re-booted,
is highly intuitive and easy to use (my three year old son and my
78 year old mother can both do pretty well on it) AND is nice to
look at (Life is too short. If you are going to be looking at
something all day long, it should at least be nice to look at and
easy and fun to use)
Lots of best of class free software bundled in. The Mac mini
includes:
The iLife fully integrated suite (iPhoto, iMovie, iDVD, iTunes, and
Garage Band - this integration is incredibly important and it is
too much to explain all the things that these applications can do
interactively here, if you are interested you should look at the
apple.com website),
Appleworks for word processing and spreadsheets (and which
can save documents in a Microsoft Office compatible format),
Quicken 2005 to manage your finances and balance your
checkbook,
Address book software which also prints labels,
the iSync syncronization software to sync your calendar and
addresses with your phone or PDA,
The Safari Internet browser software (which also blocks popups),
Email software which is also integrated with iPhoto and the
Address book,
Calendar/Scheduling software,
and my favorite - iChat AV - free video conferencing software
which is also best of class, can go to full screen, and is smooth
with perfect voice video synchronization.
They even throw in a couple of games in (Nanosaur 2 and Marble
Blast Gold).
For 499 this sounds like a pretty good deal to me.
P.S. It seemed kind of slanted too that you chose the $599
dollar model to focus on when there is a $499 dollar model
available.
I am guessing from your name that you have greek origins, don't
you?
So your words sound strange to me (I am greek too).
You propably missed the words of Pericles in Epitaph. He was
talking about the nice things that made the lives of the
Athenians better and therefore democratic. Having beauty and
pleasure in your daily life means you have something to lose.
Means you understand also the needs of others. Means you want
to create more and better.
The whole western civilization is build upon these
foundamentals: Ergonomy + beauty, Function gives shape to
form, form gives shape to function. Style, trend, aesthetics, joy
are so basic for our society.
They give us reason to move.
Apple presentations are for people who don't want to hear
another blah-blah and fall asleep, like the ones you mentioned.
Mac fans enjoy the vision and the cult in every moment of their
computer life. They are the perfect combination. Scanario +
Good Direction. Great Ideas + Great Expressions.
Mac fans enjoy beeing the first to follow an idea. They are
sometimes overhead and fanatic but who is perfect?
Maybe it's difficult to understand that, because otherwise you
wouldn't use Windows and compare chip machines with
prototypes and leading technologies.
I don't want to offend you but you' re missing something.
In my family we are producing slide shows, screen savers and
DVDs with our vacations etc. Thanks to Apple and Mac we are
living and creating, having fun. We're doing things that Windows
users do after 5 or 6 years. We used to hear them say "why
should I have a GUI?", "Why should I burn CDs?", "Why should I
have 20 Gbytes with music with me?", "Why should I have
beutyful machines?"... It;s sooo boring, but this conversation is
repeating every now and then. If you really love something you
are trying to do it the best possible way, not the cheapest.
A friendly advise: Try to use a Mac with OS X for about a month.
Then return to your PC, even a nice VAIO. Then we're talking.
Regards from Athens, Greece and my apologies for my english.
Charis Tsevis
www.tsevis.com