is getting unveiled tomorrow. It’s been a long time since a brand new PC OS- or rather one that normal people might find themselves using- came out.
Hope it’s good. And hope there’s a beta we can play with.
I like Wave. It’s new, different and exciting. It isn’t simple, however, and I’m not about to invite my parents. That would be asking for trouble. It’s hard to keep track of all the changes in a wave and I’m not sure it’s a good thing that every single thing can be edited. Perhaps we could specify if our blips (or whatever they’re called) should be editable- or perhaps part of what needs to develop is an etiquette adapted to the dynamics of Wave. The place half way between email and IM is a place that hasn’t really been explored enough without the editability that Wave seems to have chosen as its signature move. It doesn’t work properly on Safari in Snow Leopard. The lack of Gears for SL means you can’t drag and drop into a wave. It’s not clear to me if that’s Google’s fault or Apple’s, but it sucks. I like Facebook simply because I like my group of contacts on Facebook. I’d like to see Facebook implement Wave- it seems to me it would be a good fit. I would be sad if Wave disappeared into obscurity. I don’t think that’s going to happen, though- But nor do I think it’ll become something hugely important in it’s current form. It needs to evolve into something that requires less learning.
It didn’t work. It failed on an external drive as well. Not sure what other variables there are, but it sure doesn’t look like Psystar’s made some magic instant Hackintosh powder.
On the last point- why might Apple want to point customers away from laptops? I wouldn’t be surprised if a significant section of iPhone users are starting to find they use their laptops less as portables than previously- and I wonder if the recent shift to laptops (PCs and Macs) couldn’t see some sort of slight reversal in the next few years.The more I think and learn about the curious pricing of the 27” iMac, the more bizarre and incredible it seems.
It has a resolution of 2560x1440, which no other monitor in the industry seems to have (that I can find). 30” LCDs are the same width but 1600 tall. Shrinking 2560-wide into a screen that’s 3” smaller diagonally yields an impressive pixel density, especially given the panel’s still-immense size.
It has an IPS panel. IPS is the best and most expensive LCD type, giving the best viewing angle and the least color- and brightness-shifting as the angle increases in any direction. Nearly every panel on the market, including every laptop panel, is the cheap TN type. (TN panels wash out as soon as you move your head slightly, especially vertically, which is why it’s so hard to find a good viewing angle for your laptop lid while watching a dark movie.) Other 27” TN panels exist (only at the lower 1920x1080 resolution), but I can’t find any other 27” IPS panels.
It’s also LED-backlit.
So it’s a very high-specced, brand new panel that’s apparently not being mass-produced yet (since no other monitors for sale are using it). That must be expensive. How much of the base 27” iMac’s $1700 retail cost does this represent?
The closest existing panel for comparison, spec-wise, is the 30” IPS panel that Apple uses in their Cinema Display. It has the ultra-high resolution and size, but doesn’t compete with the 27” iMac’s panel for brightness, contrast, power efficiency, or color range. It’s overpriced by today’s standards at $1800, but not by much — Dell’s original 30” monitor with the same panel is $1200, and a newer version with better specs (although still not as good as the new iMac’s) is $1700.
A standalone monitor with the new iMac’s panel would be perfectly reasonably priced at about $1500. From Dell. Apple’s only charging $200 more than that for theirs, and there’s an entire high-end computer stuck to the back of it.
When they mentioned on last week’s quarterly earnings call that they expected lower profit margins for a new product, I don’t think anyone expected a change of this magnitude. How are they making anything — or even not losing money — with the base-model 27” iMac?
My guess: a massively successful negotiation with the panel’s manufacturer (most likely LG) to get not only an incredible price on these panels, but also apparent exclusivity for a while. It’s a hell of an accomplishment, and presumably a hell of an effort, for a computer that isn’t even Apple’s most-selling model (or even product line). That raises a more interesting question: Why?
Until we know why the panel is so cheap, I bet we’re going to see a lot of Mac Pro owners buying 27” monitors for $1700 and trying to figure out what to do with the free computer stuck to the back. For new-computer shopping, a lot of people are going to abandon whichever laptop or Mac Pro they were considering and get this instead.
That helps answer the “why” question: Maybe Apple wants to push more buyers away from today’s default system-type choice — laptops — and show them why they should consider getting a fast, spacious desktop instead. And, for the time being, it’s a desktop with absolutely no equivalent in the PC world.
Pfffff.
I have mixed feelings about running Psystar’s- erm- thing. On one hand, one of the key advantages of running a Mac is the hardware/ software “just works” factor. There’s also the fact that Psystar are trading off of other people’s work- not only that of Apple, but also the OSX86 project. So even if it works well, I’m not likely to want to give them $50.
We have, however, a crappy Acer laptop which we tend not to use. If I’m on the Mac and my wife wants to check facebook she’ll use her iPod touch.
End result, at home there’s a copy of Snow Leopard and an unused Core 2 Duo laptop sitting around. The temptation is too great.
So I’ve tried to install it once. The install failed. Can’t remember the exact reason, but right now I’m trying again and I think I’m sound everything exactly the same way as I was before, so we can expect the same result. This time I’ll take notes.
My fear is that if the Psystar thing doesn’t work I’ll still want to go down the Hackintosh route. When I played around with various Linux distros I found out that my patience for getting my hands dirty is limited. But that was when the prize was a fully working install of Ubuntu or whatever. When the carrot in front of me is a laptop running OS X, I might be prepared to make a bit more effort…
cleversimon doesn’t get it:
Charlie Brooker’s thesis is “I hate Windows, but I hate strawmen Mac evangelists more, so I’m going to marinate in my misery just to stick it to these imaginary fanboys. I’m unhappy and unproductive, and I’m going to stay unhappy and unproductive—that’ll show ‘em.”
Finishing the sentence “I’ll never buy a Mac because” with anything but “it doesn’t meet my needs” means you don’t get to accuse Apple users of making irrational purchasing decisions based on slavish adherence to an ideology.
Oh man. These guys take it so fucking seriously. Please stop. It’s not a religion. It’s a brand of computer. You just prove Charlie Brooker right. See those guys offering the free L Ron Hubbard books? Go speak to them.
Oh yes, and if you’re unfamiliar with the man, go deeper. Even if you’re not familiar with the subject matter, the man has a turn of phrase I’d eat my family for. Dvorak he isn’t.
Good article, but I keep hearing folk talk about the use of the word “phone” for iPhones etc. as if it’s somehow incorrect. Fifteen years ago a phone was not something most folk carried about in their pockets and used to send text messages. Ten years from now a phone’s going to be something the majority of people in the developed world use, well, as kottke describes. Language is alive. Definitions change.
One: should have happened a long time ago. Before the X-Men movie. Why did the big studios not see this? Especially after the 89 Batman…
Two: it will ruin Marvel? Nah, that happened when Marvel decided collectors were idiots who needed to be milked with multiple covers, endless relaunched titles and bringing dead characters back to life. Marvel is no longer a comic book company, it’s a character company that can blueprint and market test characters in cheap media before committing to expensive film. It’s a good model.
Three: Disney are by far the most interesting media company these days whether it’s the music (which I find nauseating- I’m a 35 year old straight guy after all) or Pixar (which I love). They know how to look after good properties.
Four: Disney now own Marvelman. Weird.
Genius. The way out of the shit pile that Windows CE Pocket PC Windows Mobile Windows Phone is in is to further confuse customers.
