I cannot believe that folks are disappointed in the announcements at this week’s Macworld. This is clearly a situation where the expectations have gotten so high that simply being amazing is a disappointment for the market. What a bunch of knuckleheads.
I really like the fact that my iPhone just got better through a free upgrade. I was all prepared to pay another $400 to get GPS in my iPhone – and no, the current feature is *not* GPS – but it is close enough for 80% of what I want to do. The best application for this is saying “Where is the closest steakhouse?” or “Where is the closest Best Buy?” – this is like science fiction stuff. And I just downloaded it for free. It is somewhere between 500 feet and 1/2 mile in accuracy in my testing. It seems that my daughter’s iPhone purchased in December has better GPS accuracy than my phone which was purchased as soon as iPhones came out. In side by side testing her phone is better – kind of weird.
The even cooler thing is that my daughter upgraded her iPhone software without even talking to me and figured it all out herself. Got to like Apple’s ability to write software for consumers.
The new Apple Air Macbook is simply awesome – one again Apple challenges the other vendors to really know what folks need – no disk drive at all – great move. No Ethernet – great move. Solid-state disk as a way-too-expensive option – great move. Apple s god at taking future stuff and making it today stuff. This is making a portable portable – I kind of miss the really ultra-portables like the Vadem Clio and the Nec 800 – lets watch the Air morph into a 3Ghz 2GB 13 hour battery screamer in the next few years and then say “Steve missed the mark”. We must walk before we fly. The Apple Air is already ready to glide long distances – lets give it a while and see where it goes.
I personally credit Apple with straightening out the mess of multiple wireless specs when they picked one and introduced the Airport. They take advanced stuff and make it common place and then up the manufacturing and then reduce the price – and then the other vendors jump on and follow – further increasing the economies of scale for everyone including the folks who don’t buy Apple hardware.
I even am geeked about the gesture stuff in the Air – I really like gestures on my iPhone – yes I initially thought they were lame – but that was until I got good at gestures – now I love gestures and happily teach gestures to unsuspecting people at a dinner table. People (myself included) never appreciate the depth of an Apple design and second guess – until they live with it for a while and realize that Apple designers were right all along – it takes skill to do something that most people think is wrong – but then end up being right.
Here is the other coolest thing – the next time I get a laptop – I won’t get a compromise laptop like the one I have now (MacBook Pro) – which is a pretty fine desktop + laptop combo. It has the disk space and expansion of a desktop (sort of) and it is a bit heavier than 3lbs so it is light (sort of). When I next buy a computer I will get an absolutely bitching desktop with like 8 procesors and 2TB – then I can do a bunch of video editing. And I will have a laptop that is light and powerful capable of doing development and video editing – just not the heaviest editing. Think of the world going forward as a desktop plus a “shuttlecraft”. And the Shuttle craft is plenty powerful on its own. But the mother-ship can have a crew of hundreds.
Oh yeah and the last thing – did you notice that the new laptops from the side look just like the alien pods that came down the lightening bolts in War of the Worlds? Yeah – you are feeling me.
Oh yeah one last last thing – I wonder how many employees Dell sends to Macworld – how else will figure out what next years Dell’s are supposed to imitate.. Just when Dell got out their own shiny black imitation iMac – now they need a War of the Worlds shaped shuttlecraft portable laptop with curved edges…. Sucks to be a Dell industrial designer the week after MacWorld. I would love to be a fly on the wall at the Dell design meetings this Monday.
Ok – It is a Friday and I had fun today doing some video editing so I am in a good mood.