Month: January 2007

I demand ease of use

Maybe it's my age ( I turned 40 in November ) but I have started to feel less of a need to poke around the detailed guts of the technology I purchase. I still take the time to learn about and understand how things work but I would rather pay for a complete package that gives me the freedom to do things and do them with a minimal amount of "configuration".

I am more concerned about how my data is handled and stored than about the actual hardware or software mechanisms in my devices. I want to be able to move my content ( either what I made or what I bought ) between systems and applications with the same ease that I move my money between banks. I do not want to invest in any technology that locks away my data in some proprietary silo.I do not want my music locked up.

I don't care if WMA or AAC or ALE or whatever or whatever sounds better. I use MP3 because the format is portable to any platform.  I want to archive the content on my media recording devices ( whether a digital camcorder, PVR/DVR, DVD ) in a portable format. That means I should be able to move the content from my TiVo to my hard drive in MPEG4 or MPEG2.  I don't care if TiVo wants me to buy some bloated piece of software from one of their preferred partners to burn a disc. It's my device; piss off!

I want standard open interfaces on all my devices. For me that means, USB, IEEE 1394 (Firewire), DVI and plain old Toslink.  HDMI has DRM built into the hardware.  I want to support the open source and Linux communities but I demand ease of use.  Until I can get my mom to use it then it's too difficult.

Apple Recon

I "discovered" this site while looking through the landing page of WordPress.com. The authors have an interesting angle on the skunk works at Apple on the future of their technology. They suggest that all the recent buzz is distraction from the real work going on at Apple.

Apple Recon
First, a little introduction…everyone these days is talking about running Windows apps on the Mac with stuff like VMware, Wine, and Parallels coherence mode. That’s all well and good, as every now and then maybe you want a little Visio or Access or some other pile of crap not available for the Mac. Our question, though, is what about going the other way, with Mac apps on Windows? How would Apple do this? Why would Apple do this? When would they do it? What would happen if Apple did this? Sit back and enjoy the absolute cutting edge of Apple Recon, which you can only find here in an EXCLUSIVE report, told in our famous goofy style…

Hasta la vista, Vista!

Most of these Vista notebooks cost more than my MacBook and only the more expensive ones (over $2000) have a digital video interface (DVI) ( to connect to that hi-def LCD or plasma TV in your living room or den ). They ALL lack a built in digital camera (for video conferencing), a wireless remote control, bluetooth wireless (wireless mice, keyboard, and headsets), digital audio input/output (surround sound from a laptop), video editing software, music creation and editing, DVD editing and burning, and web publishing software. Every Apple laptop ships with these features.

Aren't applications the things we buy our computers to run so that we can do something creative or productive? So out of the box shouldn't the computer be able to do something?

So please, explain to me why Macs are considered more expensive? Hasta La Vista, Vista!