Just a quick thought: Is an airport with WiFI hotspots the perfect place to conduct online piracy? How on earth could you be tracked? Even if the you cut down the number of possible people who are suspects using the flight times and who is booked – how could any authority figure out who exactly downloaded that mp3 of something or that movie?
In no way do I condone the abuse of Airport WiFi for piracy. Please use WiFi responsibily and legally.
Today, Apple unveiled its new 24 inch iMac. It’s a great sized display with some power behind it. After seeing the new machine online, I thought that this may signal a start of Apple’s entry into something bigger than just computers.
Apple is a hardware company regardless of what anyone else wants. They’ve been slowly creeping into the living room with the mac mini. The iMac can act as an entertainment hub; I believe that it was the first Mac with Front Row. However, people have complained that it lacks television inputs. Now that Apple has made a 24 inch iMac, what is stopping them from going bigger?
I’d imagine that with the larger displays, the iMac may have some extra hardware space inside the case. Maybe a television tuner isn’t that far off. Additionally, Apple could always be working on new deals with the iTunes Store. iTunes could become a television distribution system. Many televison shows are available on iTunes, so why couldn’t Apple become a distributor of media? They’ve already tinkered with the multi-pass for things like the Daily Show – why not go ahead and have a monthly pass for certain channels? iTunes could offer true a la carte television. Apple could dabble in the subscription system – people are already used to the idea of subscribing to cable or satellite.
Maybe Apple could build a larger display with a computer behind it. A 30 inch iMac would probably have room for an inbuilt TV Tuner or maybe an Apple built break out box where you can hook up a multitude of inputs. Apple could bring a Media Center type experience into the home by sneaking it into the slick iMac packaging. When people see the iMac, they aren’t intimidated by hooking up anything up to anything else. It is similar to people’s television experiences. Simply sneak a computer into the living room by putting it behind the display.
I’m aware that there are PCs built into larger displays. I just think that Apple’s move to a larger iMac signals the beginning of larger, Apple-built living room computers with true Media Center capabilities.
Over 150 days ago I bought my MacBook Pro. I know this because I looked up my serial number with Apple. I had gotten one of those MacBook Pros with the whining noise. I had gotten used to it, so I accepted the fact that I paid a high price for a computer with an annoying defect. Then I read on digg that Apple had acknowledged this noise and instructed owners to contact AppleCare.
I called up AppleCare and told them of the problem. They asked me if the whining was present at start up. I said I didn’t know because I rarely start up my laptop. I usually only restart my MacBook Pro after Software Update requires a restart. (That’s one of the reasons I switched from PCs to Macs). Then they asked me if it was making the noise now. I told them I didn’t know. The guy at AppleCare tried to understand the situation “You don’t know if you hear the noise your complaining about?” I told him the room was noisy and the noise is much more noticable when the notebook is plugged in. After a couple of minutes, I was given a couple of numbers and was told that a box was on its way. I asked if I needed to backup my hard drive. The AppleCare guy told me to do so since there were no guarantees.
I received my box from Apple the next day and packaged up my notebook (it’s not a laptop) after backing up my hard drive twice. After about two or three business day, I received my repaired MacBook Pro. It had two stickers on it that I assume were for identification while it was at the repair place.
They replaced the Main Logic Board (MLB) at no cost to me. I haven’t heard the noise again (but then again, I haven’t used my MBP that much in the past two days). So, if your MacBook Pro buzzes or emits a high pitched noise, contact Apple and get that logic board replaced. It actually worked out pretty well. My MBP’s speakers sound louder – that might be my own perception – as well.
Overall, a good experience with AppleCare.
I am under the belief that there is a conspiracy by Apple. They have a technology they call “AppleTalk” which helps the Macs find each other and network. I have two Macs in my living room. The day I got my new snazzy Intel iMac, my old venerable mac mini (about 7 months old at the time) started to crash more. It became sluggish.
I wondered why this was happening. My theory – AppleTalk is telling my older Mac to slow down. By slowing down the mac mini I would want a new Intel mac mini. This is my AppleTalk Conspiracy theory.
Do I have any real proof? Nah.
I then bought a MacBook Pro and my wife’s iBook was becoming glitchy some time after the MacBooks were released. Coincidence? Maybe.
Maybe Apple’s got a plan that’s a bit sinister. Then again, I like to speculate wildly sometimes.
** Update **
After reading the comments, I thought I should clear something up: I was only half-serious when I wrote this post.
I’ve been reading on other sites that Steve Jobs may have lost his magic because of his keynote speech yesterday at the WWDC. I have two alternate theories for his keynote performance.
By the way, I thought that his performance was fine and allowing other people to discuss the new features of OS X and the Mac Pros was fine. Steve Jobs is smart enough not to do a keynote where there aren’t enough announcements to justify the use of Reality Distortion Field (“RDF”).
Theory 1: Steve Jobs did not have his Reality Distortion Field in full effect because he was angry with his Mac OS X team.
Why do I think this? In January, Apple hyped the Leopard preview at WWDC 2006. The Leopard preview yesterday was a bit underwhelming – it had some cool features, but nothing that captured the attention of the tech world. Steve Jobs discussed that there are a lot of “Top Secret” things that they didn’t want Redmond to copy just yet.
Apple is usually unafraid to show off their new OS technologies because their technologies are difficult to copy on short notice. Vista is not completed and any new feature shown off at WWDC 2006 would never make it into the first release of Vista. Microsoft couldn’t even implement its own WinFS file system.
Steve Jobs could have easily been so frustrated with the delay of Leopard from pre-Vista to post-Vista that he could not get his RDF up in full effect. He did not believe in the product and could not show off buggy new features and have a Microsoft-like experience during a keynote speech.
Frustration could have led to the underwhelming keynote.
Theory 2: Leopard is actually a lame duck and OS 11 is coming sooner than we think.
I’m aware that OS X is only up to 10.5, and a jump to OS 11 seems premature. Banners around WWDC had messages such as “Hasta la vista, Vista” and “Introducing Vista 2.0.” A totally new Mac OS would knock Redmond for a loop.
Think about it. It’s one thing to show that Vista and OS X have many similarities. However, Apple could really mock Redmond with a major revision to its OS by jumping to 11. Perhaps the delay to OS 10.5 is because the OS team has been divided once again. An uninspired team is working on OS 10.5, while the other half is working on the next generation OS, OS 11.
With all the rumors surrounding OS 10.5 and its features, perhaps the features are true, but belong to another Apple OS. I’ll even name the new Apple OS after OS X. Welcome to OS neXt. It would keep the “X” and give Steve Jobs a chuckle throwing the Next name in there.
The OS team did port over OS X to intel almost seamlessly (I say almost because Classic does not function under the intel OS X). With the new intel architecture, the Mac OS team has the chance to create a new OS from scratch. This OS neXt would include virtualization of Windows and Linux programs. If it’s a program, it will run on OS neXt. There’s no reason to run anything else.
With Apple’s switch to intel they are able to say a Mac is the only computer you need. With a brand new OS, Apple could say that the Mac OS is the only OS you need because it runs everything under the sun.