Mac mini office desktop

February 1, 2007

Until recently I'd been running Parallels to the exclusion of Boot Camp. Over the last few days I've had occasion to configure a colleague's laptop with Boot Camp and I must say the process is impressive. Like so many things it makes Windows XP much more an "it just works" machine vs. the "plug and pray" norm for Microsoft. The process is so smooth that it looks like we may replace our "other brand" machines with Mac Mini's running Windows XP and save money in the process. Apple is sending over a couple of demo units next week which we'll use for extensive testing of the imaging process to get it down pat but this option looks really good.

It would be great if Apple had a monitor that was more price competitive. The Cinema Displays are absolutely gorgeous. But they are too pricey for the cost conscious business world.

No Netflix for Macs

January 19, 2007

TUAW: "No Netflix Watch Now for the Mac"Me: Who cares?I am a Mac user and a Netflix subscriber. My intuition tells me that in five years there is a pretty good chance I'll be a Mac user and no longer a Netflix subscriber. Netflix has revolutionized the DVD rental business. Somehow they managed to then rest on their laurels and are now left to play catch-up. Apple TV will soon be upon us and will be yet another revolution the likes of TiVO and increasingly users will have more choices. In this environment companies who choose to bring out hardware limited services will suffer.

Web Server in every pocket

January 9, 2007

With Apple's announcement of the iPhone today it seems we will soon have not just a weak web client in every cell phone, but a full web browser and even the ability to have full blown web servers in every pocket. Sure makes some of Dave Winer's ideas about desktop servers get extremely interesting. Now how soon can I get one!

2.0 kind of day

October 23, 2006

Turns out that today's just a 2.0 kind of day. Skype 2.0 for the Macintosh was released today too. So it is downloading in the Firefox 2.0 window on the computer. Firefox 2.0 seems a little slower than it's predecessor though. Time will tell I guess.

Moving on

October 3, 2006

Mac Slash writes about evidence Apple is dropping G3 Server support and speculates on the possibility of Apple ending G3 client support. They wonder whether people left behind will possibly not buy Apple computers again.

Two responses come to mind. First there are Apple users who are still upset that the operating system isn't OS 9 anymore. Second, it is not like users stuck with only OS X 10.4.7 are in terrible shape... having a modern operating system on a computer that's nearly a decade old. Certainly some were purchased only 5 years ago, but in computer years 5 years is a darn good run.

End of an era

October 1, 2006

Last week there was an article in CIO Today about bad press for Microsoft as it appears Redmond is shutting out other security software vendors in favor of their internal software.

"Security software vendor Symantec claimed this week that Microsoft is withholding information about its new Vista operating system in an attempt to create an unfair advantage for its own security Relevant Products/Services from MessageLabs software," the article said.

The first few months of 2007 will be a tumultuous time in the tech world for sure. It seems Cupertino's Apple Computer is well suited to make leaps and bounds gains on its Redmond competition. Vista, which Microsoft now says will ship in January 2007, will ship years behind OS X which already has a far more complete feature set and the power of being UNIX-Based behind it. Long-time Windows will be faced with plenty of hardware that doesn't work and the need to upgrade.

When they go looking they'll find that the same company that makes their iPod has a great new operating system all their own with a lot of great features and the ability to keep running Windows XP or Windows Vista at the same time. The real question will be, can Apple keep up with the demand?

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