Digital Home Thoughts - News & Reviews for the Digital Home

"If you were a betting man (or woman), who do you think would win in a Web 2.0 face-off between the two most widely used desktop/laptop operating systems? In one corner you have OS X, Apple's svelte and sexy OS that is adored by practically everyone who has tried it. In the opposite corner, you have the various flavors of Windows, which have a much larger home and enterprise userbase, but haven't gotten much positive press in recent years. If you put your money behind OS X, you're out of luck."

This article brings up a really interesting point - that the way Microsoft is engaging with customers is radically different than what Apple does. The number of Microsoft people out there on public blogs, Twitter accounts, Facebook, etc. is enormous compared to Apple's level of involvement. I think this comes down to the philosophy behind each company: Microsoft tends to want to talk to their customers to find out what they want, and Apple tends to build what they want to build and tell their customers "You want this". Each approach has successes and failures - not everything Apple does is a home-run, and Microsoft doesn't always listen to the right people in the right way. If they had, Windows Vista, and most recently Windows Mobile 6.5, would have turned out differently...

Because I'm sitting here watching the superb gdgt coverage of the Apple iPod event, I figured I might as well multi-task and jot down some point form reactions and thoughts on what I'm reading. It's important to understand what "the other guys" are up to - that's the main reason why I bought an iPod Touch earlier this year; I wanted to understand how the App Store worked, to see how good the browser was, and to get experience using the on-screen keyboard. Here are my reactions to today's Apple event, in chronological order:

• Good to hear Steve Jobs is healthy - organ donation is so important. I've signed my organs away if something happens to me, and you should too. If you're dead, they won't do you any more good, so why not share?
• 1.8 billion applications downloaded - that's a huge, impressive number. Apps matter. Microsoft has always said that software matters, but they've historically done a poor job of showing that on Windows Mobile and the Zune. They're finally getting rolling with a Windows Mobile app store, but apps on the Zune are still a bit of a question mark. Sure, we've had a couple games since the last generation units, but no cohesive plan on Microsoft's part to roll out a Zune games store, or to sync up with what the Xbox guys are doing.
• iTunes is in 23 countries. The Zune Marketplace is in one. Microsoft's US-centric approach with the Zune is maddening...I thought there was some light at the end of the tunnel when they launched the Zune in Canada last year, but we never got the Zune Marketplace here, and now the devices being sold here are being killed off. "Disaster" is a good word for how well the Zune launch went in Canada. Between the Zune HD being US-only at launch, and all of the IP-based geographic blocking madness that the Zune software and Web site does, it's like the Zune team is doing everything they can to alienate everyone in the world outside the US. More after the break. Read more...

"Apple attempted to silence a father and daughter with a gagging order after the child's iPod music player exploded and the family sought a refund from the company. The Times has learnt that the company would offer the family a full refund only if they were willing to sign a settlement form. The proposed agreement left them open to legal action if they ever disclosed the terms of the settlement."

If your product explodes, endangering the owner, the least you can do is offer to replace that product, no strings attached. Apple, in their typically controlling manner, was only willing to offer a replacement product if the owners agreed to never tell anyone about what happened, on fear of prosecution. That's not unusual when we're talking about multi-million dollar settlements, but for an iPod? Gross overkill.

"Under the new pricing scheme, most music tracks will still cost $0.99, but labels will be able to charge $1.29 for selected tracks—mostly hot new releases—and offer discounts of $0.69 on older library tracks."

iTunes is going to go through two significant changes in the coming months. Pricing is no longer going to be a $0.99 a song setup, with prices ranging from $0.69 to $1.29. I really hope that the record labels won't do what I would expect them to do, which is noting any song that's selling and put it in the $1.29 tier. Overall, I'm not sure whether this will be good for the consumer or not, but I can't think that the labels would push for variable pricing so much if they didn't see more profit in it for themselves. What is more notable to me is that by the end of the quarter, it is expected that iTunes music will go DRM free! While it seems the vast majority don't mind being locked down to specific devices, I think it'll just drive more traffic to the iTunes store with everyone now able to listen to their library on any device they want.

I really like the direction that these ads are going - I'd had cautious optimism about the Gates & Seinfeld ads, but they never evolved into anything resembling actual communication to customers, so in my mind they were a waste of money in the end. These new ads, however, are emotional, pleasant, and impactful. I really like this "laptop hunter" ad because it illustrates the key weakness in the Apple ecosystem (lack of choice), and the key strength in the Windows ecosystem (lots of choice). If your needs happen to fit into one of the slots that Apple has, you'll probably be pleased with your purchase. If your needs fall outside Apple's carefully defined boxes, such as "sub $1000 notebook = small screen", you're completely out of luck. On the PC side of things, there are near-endless options, and odds are good that you'll find someone making a product that does exactly what you need for the price you wanted to pay. I value choice very highly - yeah, I'm a PC. :-)

Over the years Apple has slowly but surely encouraged the installation of their software in bundles. It used to be that you could find the installation of Quicktime itself quite easily; then Apple started to make the default install file for Quicktime include iTunes. They still offered Quicktime by itself if you looked hard enough on the download page, so it wasn't a big deal - until now. Read more...

"The first display made precisely for a MacBook. Introducing the 24-inch LED Cinema Display. It doesn't just expand the screen of your new MacBook, MacBook Pro, or MacBook Air. With a built-in iSight camera, mic, and speakers, it expands your whole experience."

The final item Apple discussed at their big announcement event was a new LED-backlit Cinema Display. For the first time ever, Apple has designed a display specifically for their notebook line. The new 24" model has connectors for the Mini DisplayPort, Magsafe power adapter, and USB port (to connect the camera on the top bezel and the 3-port USB hub inside). While Apple has caught a lot of grief over recent years for not having a proper docking station for their laptops, this does seem like an interesting compromise. The new Cinema Display has a resolution of 1920 x 1200 and will be available in November for $899.

"With a new integrated graphics processor, MacBook Air changes the game and just about everything you do with it. The NVIDIA GeForce 9400M provides up to an amazing 4x performance boost over the original MacBook Air. Photos appear in iPhoto quickly. Transitions in Keynote are seamless. Games play more smoothly. And movie and video playback is better than ever before. No other ultraportable offers such amazing performance in such a slim design."

Not to be left out of the refreshing fun, the MacBook Air got a spec bump today also. Apple added their new Mini DisplayPort connector for video, and dropped the new GeForce 9400M in to replace the weak Intel integrated graphics it was originally configured with. The new Air is available in two flavors; a 1.6 GHz model for $1799 and a 1.83 GHz model for $2499 (this model also includes an SSD as the default storage option).

"The marriage of electronics and mechanical design makes the new MacBook Pro as advanced on the inside as it is on the outside. The internal architecture has been reengineered from the silicon up. There's a new logic board. A new chipset. And a new graphics architecture - a feat of engineering in itself. Many notebook computers sacrifice graphics performance in order to save battery life. The new MacBook Pro offers the best of both worlds, thanks to not one, but two separate graphics processors."

To keep the pros happy, Apple also gave the MacBook Pro a big update today. While they left the 17" monsters out of the mix for the day, the 15.4" models got new screens, new keyboards (essentially, they got the original MacBook keyboards), a high-end graphics chip from NVIDIA (the GeForce 9600M GT), and a new glass-topped trackpad without a button. Unlike its lower-end sibling, the MacBook Pro keeps its Firewire 800 port, and also picks up the Mini DisplayPort video adapter. Prices start at $1999 for the entry-level model and $2499 for the higher-end model, which offers 4 GB of memory, a 2.53 GHz processor, and a 320 GB HD. The 17" monster remains untouched for now, but it stands to reason that they'll be updated at some point soon.

"To build something truly different, you need to work in a truly different way. Apple designers and engineers work together through every stage of product development. It’s a partnership that makes innovation possible. And it’s exactly how the new MacBook was created. With its breakthrough unibody enclosure, industry-first features, and environmentally sound design, it’s a revolution in the way notebooks are made."

Apple made the first refresh of its consumer-level laptop line in over 2 years today with the launch of the new MacBook. It still has a 13.3" glossy display at 1280 x 800, BlueTooth, 802.11n wireless, and all the other features you've come to know and love, but they've done some interesting new stuff. Gone are the plastic enclosure (the mid-tier and high-tier MacBooks now rock an aluminum shell Apple is calling "Unibody"), the MiniDVI port (replaced with the new Mini Displayport connector) and Firewire 400. Making their debut are a new mobile chipset from NVIDIA which Apple claims is up to five times faster than the current Intel integrated graphics, and a very fast 1066MHz frontside bus. The new MacBooks will start at $1299 for a 2.0 Ghz Model with a 160GB HD and $1599 for a 2.4 Ghz model with a 250GB HD. The top tier model also includes a backlit keyboard for all your night-typing needs.

Worthy of note is that along with the new aluminum-bodied MacBooks, the 13.3" white model will stick around at $999 for those looking to do an Apple laptop on a budget.

"We put the Safari 3 beta on Windows through the wringer last summer, and we weren't too terribly impressed. The problems were significant, such that we'd have a hard time recommending the browser to any Windows user. As of last summer, Firefox was still the Windows browser of choice here at Ars. Have things improved for Safari? Wow, have they."

ars technica puts Safari 3.1 for Windows (the first non-beta version of Apple's web browser) through the paces. I haven't had a chance to try Safari yet, but it looks like a pretty solid competitor against Firefox and Internet Explorer. Check out the review to see how Apple's browser holds up. If you've had a chance to try it, how do you like/dislike it? Could Safari one day be the king of browsers on Windows? Only time will tell...