Tag: Mac OS X

Bigger is sometimes better

Apple's announcement that their research indicates that computer users are more productive when they use larger monitor has spawned quite a bit of discussion on the web. Om Malik disagrees arguing that he finds a larger monitor detracts from his work due to his head shifting back and forth. I tend to agree with Dutch entrepreneur, Boris Veldhuijzen van Zanten. When developing web application I often wish I had a larger monitor so that I could see more of my code in the editor I develop web applications for the LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, Perl or PHP) stack and my IDE is normally Vi. I usually work with several Linux terminal windows open to maximum size. Recently I have using the Eclipse open-source IDE and with the various resource side bars open I have significantly reduce screen area devoted to the editing window. Thus I find myself scrolling back and forth a lot more often. A monitor larger than 17 would greatly increase my productivity. Ideally I would say 20-23 inches.

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Exciting Day

I got buzzed with the announcements from Apple today. A new iTunes and new iPods and something for the future called iTV. Along with the new iTunes and iPods was Apple announcement of the iTunes Movie store. With current broadband speeds (cable not DSL) one will be able to download a movie in about 30 minutes. We are currently limited to about 75 movies from Disney but I am sure more will follow.
The new iPod shuffle is smaller than before and has all the charm of the original. A 1GB shuffle will sell for about $79. We also get new color metal finish iPod nanos ( reminds me of the iPod mini ) and a capacity boost to 8GB. I guess enough people complained about the scratching on the original nano and Apple listened.

The new video iPods sport a higher resolution screen and more capacity with the debut of the 80GB iPod. The screen resolution (640 x 480) is double the screen resolution of the previous iPod (320x240) and has a longer battery life (3.5 hours).

These announcements would have been enough to leave me excited but Steve had just "one more thing"; iTV. What is it? My understanding is that device will provide a mac mni type machine with Front Row or some other software and the iTunes allowing the user to purchase/download movies for playback with output to a HDMI enabled HD TV and perhaps wireless streaming that content to another mac. Wow!!! I totally see that Netflix and perhaps TiVo might be threatened by this.

With iPods nearly ubiquitious and the popularity of iTunes Apple is poised to do what Microsoft and others have striven to do for a long time.