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News & Opinion
Steve Wozniak: The Original Macintosh Was a
Failure
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Macworld UK's Ben Camm-Jones
reports that Apple cofounder Steve Wozniak, speaking on
Sunday MIDDAY (see below), a program run on
India's NDTV network, conceded that the Apple III had been a failure
- something that few would dispute - but also said that the Macintosh
had been a failure too.
"The Apple III was a failure, the
Lisa was a failure,
and the [original]
Macintosh was a failure. It was only by modifying the Macintosh
hugely and over time that we made it a good computer," Wozniak is
quoted saying.
Publisher's note: I consider the Macintosh 128K pretty much a
proof-of-concept machine, because it really didn't have enough memory
to do much. Steve Jobs unveiled the original Macintosh using a custom
machine with 512 KB of memory, and the Macintosh 512K (a.k.a. Fat Mac) was the
first model with enough memory to be fairly useful. Despite that, Mac
sales fell like a rock in 1985. It took the Mac Plus, introduced in January
1986, to really turn things around for the Macintosh, adding a
high-speed SCSI port for hard drives along with a full 1 GB of
memory - expandable to 4 GB when higher capacity chips became
available. dk
Link: Steve Wozniak: The
Macintosh Was a Failure
Interview with Steve Wozniak
Sunday MIDDAY's Sachin Kalbag recently interviewed "the other Steve"
- Steve Wozniak, Apple's cofounder and the designer of the earliest
Apple computers.
"Steve Wozniak, supreme geek of the 1970s and the maker of the Apple II
computer which brought about a worldwide computer revolution, was
in Bangalore [India] on Saturday to speak to a bunch of young
entrepreneurs and achievers of the Young Presidents Organisation who
wanted to hear the story of the most-loved technology brand in the
world - Apple.
"Wozniak co-founded Apple Computer (now Apple, Inc.) in April 1976
along with Steve Jobs and Ronald Wayne. Both Apple I - the company's
first product - and the hugely successful Apple II (arguably the
world's first fully-loaded personal computer) were designed by Wozniak,
making him - and not Jobs - the darling of geeks around the world.
"Jobs may have created the Apple brand, but it was Wozniak's initial
work on the company's first two products that made Apple a
multi-million dollar company within a year of its founding. Now 61
years old, Wozniak is still an Apple employee with a minimum pay and
goes around the world representing the company - giving speeches and
mentoring young engineers."
Publisher's note: Perhaps the most significant factor in the success
of the Apple II wasn't the computer itself but the fact that it was the
first home computer (as we called them back then) with a relatively affordable 5-1/4"
floppy drive. Until then, floppy drive controllers were expensive,
and most floppy drives were of the 8" variety, and most home computers
used cassette tape for storage and a TV set as a monitor. Floppies were
much faster and easier to work with than tapes, giving Apple a real leg
up on the competition. dk
Link:
An Interview with Apple Co-founder Steve Wozniak
Refurbished Mac Buying Guide
Macworld's Joel Mathis says that if you're on a budget and need a
new computer, but you're an Apple fan and even with limited cash you'd
rather not buy an inexpensive Windows-based PC, the solution is easy:
Buy a refurbished Mac.
Mathis notes that the Apple Online Store has a section where you can
buy refurbished Macs, as well as refurbished iPads, iPods, and other
Apple products. (The refurbs are listed under the Special Deals section
of the left column of the online store.), with the Mac selection
running the gamut from laptop computers to Mac minis to iMacs with
giant 27" monitors. Some of the machines are preowned, while others
were returned to the company because of technical defects. But all of
them share two characteristics in common: They've been buffed,
restored, and repackaged to meet Apple's exacting standards. And
they're cheaper than buying new, yet carry the exact same warranty and
AppleCare eligibility as new Macs.
Mathis notes that before resale, Apple cleans the machine, replaces
any defective or substandard parts, reinstalls software that originally
shipped with the unit, tests the Mac for quality-control issues, then
repackages it with fresh cables and a users manual. The company even
stamps the machine with a new serial number. Arguably, an ACR unit is
more thoroughly vetted for issues and defects than a new one is, and
meet's the company's Finished Goods testing procedures which means that
it should be up to the same technical standards as the exact same unit
purchased brand-new.
The last two Mac systems your editor has purchased have been Apple
Certified Refurbished machines, and both arrived cosmetically
indistinguishable from new and have been flawless performers (the
newest one now being nearly three years old). Likewise for two
Certified Refurbished iPods.
Likewise, the last three "new" Macs your publisher has purchased
(all of them eMacs) have also been Apple Certified Refurbished
machines, and they were just like new when they arrived. I would not
hesitate to buy another Apple Certified Refurb.
You can find prices on refurbs in our various deal trackers, which we try to update at least
once a month.
Link: Buying Guide:
Refurbished Macs
Should We Stop Classifying the iPad as a PC?
Have we started?
Tech.pinions contributor Patrick Moorhead is critical of market
research firm Canalys' decision to break from the analyst pack and
include touchscreen tablets in its PC sales metrics, a revision that
has put Apple is on track to become leading global PC vendor, given the
phenomenal success of the iPad. Moorhead says the reclassification got
him thinking about what a PC is and how wide this definition goes.
Moorhead emphasizes that he's not debating whether, at least for
some users, a tablet can perform tasks they would otherwise be doing
with a laptop or desktop PC, but rather industry classification of the
device. He proposes some multipoint criteria to help qualify
PC-ness.
Editor's note: In my estimation, tablets like the iPad meet all of
Moorhead's criteria. I think Canalys is on the right track in including
tablets as PC sales and will become even more right as time passes. I
addressed this topic at some length in a column on MacPrices earlier
this week,
iPad And Me; Will Tablets Ever Be A Satisfactory Laptop Substitute?
cm
Publisher's note: I would go so far as to classify any smartphone
that can run apps as a personal computer, albeit a very small one.
What's more personal than a computer you can put in your pocket?
However, the industry likes to have clear-cut categories, and just as
the early Apple, Tandy, and Commodore home computers created a new
category (home computers or microcomputers - in contrast
to mainframes and minicomputers - and later personal computers),
the iPad is creating a new category that is neither a smartphone nor a
conventional PC. In time, the industry will come to some consensus as
to whether the tablet belongs in the PC category or is really a
different kind of device. My leaning is toward the different kind of
device, as tablets do not run desktop operating systems or software,
are generally not designed to work with keyboard and mouse input, and
sometimes don't even have USB or flash card slots. Time will tell.
dk
Link: Let's Stop
Classifying the iPad as a PC
The Personal Computer Is Dead: Apple Killed It
Writing for Technology Review, Jonathan Zittrain says the PC is
dead, with rising popularity of mobile, lightweight, cloud-centric
devices not merely representing a change in form factor. Rather, he
says we're witnessing an unprecedented shift of power from end users
and software developers to operating system vendors - and even those
who keep using PCs are being swept along.
Zittrain considers these developments to be a little for the better,
and much for the worse. Your editor agrees.
Mr. Zittrain is a professor of law and computer science at Harvard
University, and author of The Future of the Internet and How to Stop
It, in which he forecast the transformation from product to
service, noting that for decades PC users enjoyed a simple way for
people to create software and share or sell it to others.
He notes that people bought general-purpose PCs that came with
operating systems that took care of the basics. Anyone could write and
run software for an operating system, and up popped an endless
assortment of application software.
Zittrain recalls the Microsoft antitrust litigation of the 1990s but
observes that when the iPhone came out in 2007, its design was far more
restrictive than Windows had ever been, with no outside code at all
allowed on the iPhone and all the included software Apple's as well.
Then, in 2008, Apple announced a software development kit for the
iPhone, under which third-party developers would be welcome to write
software for the iPhone, pretty much as they'd done for Windows and Mac
OS, but with the epic exception that users could install software on a
phone only if it was offered through Apple's iPhone App Store, with 30%
of its price siphoned off to Apple.
And now the contagion is spreading to PC space with the the Mac App
Store. Developers can't duplicate functionality already on offer in the
Store and can't license their work as free software, because those
license terms conflict with Apple's. Zittrain notes that even at the
height of Windows' market dominance, Microsoft never had a role in
determining what software would and would not run on its machines.
This also has allowed censorship to gain traction. Zittrain cites
the case Exodus International releasing an app that, among other
things, inveighed against homosexuality, which opponents were
successful in petitioning Apple to remove. He suggests questioning
those who supported the anti-Exodus petition: "Would you also favor a
petition demanding that Apple prevent iPhone and iPad users from
getting to Exodus' website on Safari?" noting that if not, what's
different?
The upshot is that today's developers are writing code predicated on
not just consumer acceptance, but also vendor acceptance, and he
contends that both software developers and users should demand more,
warning that if we allow ourselves to be lulled into satisfaction with
walled gardens, we'll miss out on innovations to which the gardeners
object, while setting ourselves up for censorship of code and
content.
Link: The Personal
Computer Is Dead
Zittrain vs. Apple: What About the User
Experience?
Tech.pinions' Steve Wildstrom comments that Harvard Law School Prof.
Jonathan Zittrain (see above) doesn't like the iPhone or the iPad, or
much of anything about the modern app economy, noting that Zittrain
bemoans the loss of a golden age of software openness, when anyone
could write and run software for an operating system, and up popped an
endless assortment of spreadsheets, word processors, instant
messengers, Web browsers, email, and games. In the dystopian future
Zittrain sees, an unprecedented shift of power from end users and
software developers to operating system vendors means the Apples,
Googles, and Microsofts of the world will control what you can do with
your PCs, phones, and tablets - and we'll all be the worse for it.
While Wildstrom acknowledges that Zittrain is a very smart and witty
guy, he thinks the professor is missing something very important: user
experience, which Wildstrom characterizes as "horrible" back in
Zittrain's glory days of computing freedom, observing that the many
millions of people who have bought iPhones and iPads have chosen to
cede to Apple the right to to choose what software their devices can
run in exchange for a superior user experience.
Editor's note: That's obviously what's happening, although some of
us would dispute that the user experience in the iOS walled garden is
in fact qualitatively better, at least for content producers and other
power users. cm
Publisher's note: We've had third-party software since the days of
the Apple II, and user experience has always been a big factor in which
apps were successful and which ones failed. The down side is that open
platforms also allow for the creation of computer viruses and other
malware, a problem that predates personal computing.
The
Creeper virus ran on DEC PDP-10 computers in 1971 and distributed
itself over Arpanet, the predecessor to the Internet. The first PC
virus arrived a decade later when the Elk Cloner virus came to
the Apple II in 1981, infecting the boot sector of floppy disks. The
first virus for IBM compatibles arrived five years later, the Brain virus, which infected
the boot sector of DOS disks. As for the Mac, only about 70 viruses for
the Classic Mac OS ever made it into the wild, and OS X
viruses are virtually unknown, while there are well over 100,000
malwares aimed at Windows. Openness has its risks, but I think they
tend to be outweighed by having a platform anyone can write for.
dk
Link: Zittrain vs.
Apple: What About the User Experience?
Intel CEO: Windows 8 to Enjoy a Huge Advantage
Cnet's Larry Dignan comments that to say Intel CEO Paul Otellini is
upbeat about the prospects for Microsoft's Windows 8 may be a bit of an
understatement. In fact, Otellini said Windows 8 is one of the best
things that's ever happened to Intel.
Speaking at a Credit Suisse technology conference, Otellini
said:
"We are very excited about Windows 8. I think it's one
of the best things that's ever happened to our company. And it's a very
good operating system, not just for PCs, but we think also will allow
tablets to really get a legitimacy into mainstream computing,
particularly in enterprises that they don't have today."
Otellini cites Microsoft new Metro touch interface, noting that
there will be a button that basically takes you back to the classic
Windows experience - ergo: one operating system with two different GUIs
not running on virtual machines, creating a huge and unique advantage
for Windows 8 because it will be able to take advantage of legacy
software as well as all the drivers for mice and printers and every
other USB device in the world, including getting photos off your camera
and onto a tablet.
Publisher's note: Microsoft controls over 90% of the PC market
(tablets excluded), while Intel controls 80% of the PC market and 100%
of the Mac market. The interesting thing about Windows 8, which Intel's
Otellini raves about, is that it will also run on ARM processors, which
power almost all smartphones and tablets - and which Intel does not
produce. Intel sold its Xscale ARM processor line to Marvell in 2006,
although it does retain an ARM license, so it could get back into the
ARM business if it wanted to. ARM-based laptops and servers are rumored
for 2012, which would either dilute Intel's overall market share or
give Intel a reason to reenter the ARM market. dk
Link: Windows 8 Makes
Intel Very, Very Happy
Intel Core 'Ivy Bridge' Desktop CPU Launch Expected
in Q2 2012
XBit Labs' Anton Shilov reports that Intel has notified partners
about coming release of next-generation "Ivy Bridge" processors in Q2
2012 - pushed back from a formerly projected March-April timeframe.
He says reasons for the delay in releasing the world's first desktop
microprocessors made using 22nm transistors are unclear but speculates
that perhaps the company wants to ensure no internal competition
between existing "Sandy Bridge" 2000 and future "Ivy Bridge" 3000
chips, or possibly ramp up of brand new CPUs is taking longer than
expected.
He also notes that the initial Ivy Bridge family will not include
Core i3-series chips and will consist solely of Core i7 and Core i5
silicon, with an inexpensive Core i3 version coming later in Q2
2011.
Shilov says Ivy Bridge will generally inherit Sandy Bridge
microarchitecture, but with a significant array of improvements that
will boost its performance in general applications by around 20%
compared to Core i "Sandy Bridge" chips, as well as a new graphics core
with DirectX 11 and OpenCL 1.1 support, 30% higher performance compared
to the predecessor, and a new video processor and display controllers,
plus PCI Express 3.0 x16 interconnection and a PCIe 2.0 x4 controller
as well as a number of power management innovations.
Publisher's note: Expect a new wave of desktop Macs when Ivy Bridge
ships. Maybe we'll see the first Mac Pro update since July 2010!
dk
Link: Intel Core i 3000
'Ivy Bridge' Desktop CPU Launch Expected for Q2 2012
How to Install Ubuntu Using VMware Fusion
MacInstruct's Matthew Cone says:
"Everyone is talking about Ubuntu, the popular open-source operating
system that's easy to install and use. Trying out this Linux
distribution on your Mac is easy. With an application called VMware
Fusion, you can create a 'computer within a computer' and run Ubuntu in
a virtual machine on your Mac.
"Here's how to install Ubuntu 11.10 in OS X using VMware
Fusion...."
Link: How
to Install Ubuntu 11.10 in OS X Using VMware Fusion
Why Steve Jobs Died
The MacDougall Newsletter says:
"Steve Jobs gave tacit permission and encouragement for me to write
this newsletter article about the medical and nutritional aspects of
his life when he commissioned his biographer to tell a true account. 'I
wanted my kids to know about me.' 'Also, when I got sick, I realized
other people would write about me if I died, and they wouldn't know
anything. They'd get it all wrong. So I wanted to make sure someone
heard what I had to say.' Jobs would have been pleased to hear my
challenging second opinions about his pancreatic cancer and his diet,
because my thoughts are in agreement with what he intuitively and
factually knew to be correct. Hopefully, my account will bring some
peace of mind to his family and friends after his untimely death."
Based on growth rate calculations for pancreatic neuro-endocrine
(islet cell) tumors, Dr. MacDougall surmises that Jobs' cancer may have
begun in his mid-20s, about the same time Apple was getting started,
and speculates that lead and other carcinogens from computers caused
the cancer.
Editor's note: I have no idea whether this doctor's non-mainstream
theories hold any water, so to speak, but they are fascinating for
anyone interested in the etiology of cancer. cm
Link: Why Did Steve
Jobs Die?
Products & Services
Belkin Conserve Power Switch Banishes Vampire
Power Draw
PR: Many of the electronics and appliances around your home
use electricity even when they're not in use - wasting energy and
driving up your electric bill. The so-called "vampire power"
phenomenon.
In a typical American household, there are up to 40 devices
drawing constant power at a given time - even when they're not in use.
This can average up to $100 per year in unnecessary energy costs,
according to Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.
Belkin's Conserve Power Switch™ completely shuts off power -
including standby power - to your electronics and appliances with the
flip of a switch, to help you save energy.
Like Unplugging - Without Unplugging
With the touch of a switch, the power shuts off. The Conserve
Power Switch itself uses no power when not in operation, so standby
power is eliminated.
The Conserve Power Switch can be used with mobile phones, MP3
players, Bluetooth devices and digital cameras, curling irons, clothes
irons, electric grills, coffee makers and lighting, fans, and space
heaters to save energy and make your home safer and eliminate standby
power when charging.
Designed for standard US three-prong power outlets, the Conserve
Power Switch's slim design won't obstruct an unused outlet when plugged
in. Two Conserve Power Switches easily fit next to each other in one
standard outlet and can work simultaneously.
Conserve Power Switch Features
- Draws zero power when off
- Reduces clutter of unplugged devices
- 1-Year Limited Warranty
$6.99
Publisher's note: It's a shame that more AC adapters don't switch to
zero draw when not in use (the one for my old Palm Centro does that),
but that's the reality. There's nothing automatic about Belkin's new
switch, but the size and shape are what set it apart. This is simply a
power plug with a switch that you have to flip, but it's less ugly than
leaving a power cord or AC adapter unplugged on the floor or counter.
(If your coffee maker has a clock, don't use it with one of these. It
will lose track of the time, which means it won't be able to start
automatically so you can wake up to a fresh pot in the morning. Other
than that, good suggestions from Belkin.) dk
Link: Belkin Conserve
Power Switch (available from Amazon.com
with free super saver shipping if your order totals $25 or more -
Amazon.com has the
complete range of Belkin Conserve devices available)
G-Technology by Hitachi Strengthens Brand Presence
in Canada
PR: G-Technology by Hitachi has announced that D&H
Canada, one of North America's leading technology distributors, is now
authorized to distribute Hitachi GST's full line of premium
G-Technology external storage solutions. D&H Canada will offer and
promote the award-winning G-Technology brand, including the G-SPEED,
G-RAID and G-DRIVE product families, to its strong channel customer
network of leading retailers, resellers and solution providers
throughout the region.
G-Technology drives are engineered specifically to meet the needs of
the content creation and Apple Mac communities, including heavy users
of multimedia content, Final Cut Pro digital audio/video specialists
and other pre/post production professionals. From rugged portable
drives to ultra-fast, multi-drive RAID storage, G-Technology's USB,
FireWire, eSATA, and SAS storage solutions support virtually all levels
of A/V production and can be found in post-production facilities
worldwide.
"The Mac and content creation market is growing fast in Canada,
driven by the rising popularity of Apple products as well as the
increased storage demands driven by digital photography, HD video,
online music and the Internet," says Ian Andes, vice president of
G-Technology sales, Hitachi GST Branded Business. "Our partnership with
D&H Canada is designed to extend the value of the brand, increase
consumer awareness in the region and to better meet the demand for
top-quality external storage solutions that feature superior
performance, functionality, usability, reliability and industrial
design. We look forward to a long relationship with D&H."
"G-Technology has a strong brand and leading reputation in the Mac
and creative community, and there's growing demand for their products
in Canada. We are thrilled to have them as part of our product lineup.
D&H is actively offering G-Technology's storage solutions to our
national partners right in time for the holiday shopping season," says
Greg Tobin, general manager, D&H Canada. "We look forward to
working together with G-Technology by Hitachi and growing our
businesses within the Mac community."
Also see Charles W. Moore's review of the G-Drive
Professional External Hard Drive.
Link: G-Technology
by Hitachi
Desktop Mac
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