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- The Secret Diary of Steve Jobs : The best Christmas song of all time
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you know very well that with absolute power comes a responsibility to wield it in an absolute fashion. you're not a sadist and you don't like violence, but there are times when a body blow is the only true mercy.
microsoft has had a truly humiliating year. mac sales are way up and vista sales are way down. there are now more ipods than people on planet earth and the iphone is running around pistolwhipping every winCE device it can find. in short, they're down for the count and in a great deal of pain. now is not the time to toy with their suffering but rather to understand that you are responsible for their pain. you must own this truth and do whatever is in your power to end their suffering quickly and quietly. to that end, you must release the hounds and help microsoft transition out of its humiliation and pain and into the painless embrace of a long-term coma. it's your karmic duty.
i say you must release the hounds. unveil an impossibly thin wireless tablet running a new gestural interface that controls a whole slew of full leopard apps....release the flash based notebook that's thinner than monkey boy's receding hairline. bump the iphone to 16GB and introduce a 32Gb model for only $100 more. demonstrate the new itunes video rental store and show how you can even order a movie over wifi from your ipod at lunch and have it waiting on your mac when you get home. show off new cinema displays with integrated cameras and microphones...and when you think the time is right, tell em you're buying adobe and plan to launch a new generation of wireless devices built on a foundation of OSX, PDF, flash and quicktime. to do anything less would be needlessly cruel.
To kill Microsoft you have to supplant Office - that is the main aorta to its cash flow - otherwise what you suggest are merely mosquito bites and slight flesh wounds with a paring knife.
What will happen is several "somethings" (software as service, Google as the new Borg, an Office killer) that will shake up and cause the company to fragment, then it will re-assemble itself and meet the challenge.
Unless they start acting like IBM (talk about killing company morale, tanking customer satisfaction and bewildering stockholders), Apple is not going to supplant M$FT.
Apple can and will supplant Sony and H-P, not to mention Blockbuster, Netflix and Nokia.
I'd like for my college-aged son to be able to download textbooks for $9.99 from iTunes instead of shelling out hundreds of dollars for hardcovers. He'd have all of his text books in once place. He could highlight important passages by dragging his finger. He could assemble study sheets from those notes by pressing a button. Text to voice would read his notes to him as he walked to and from class.
Apple would create a web portal (iCollege) where readers of those textbooks could discuss the texts and learn from one another.
And, of course, it would have a beautiful Apple interface.
That's what I really want, a revolution in education -- Applestyle.
Mike from Michigan
You think we're gonna settle for frikkin crumbs? I think you OWE us. Now, while I haven't yet personally thrown down the bucks for an iPhone, others did -- and at the very least they are owed more than mere crumbs. And I have my own warped sense of entitlement too! Think of that!
What is this, Deal or No Deal?
And listen you, I'm getting mighty pissed that you've gone all quiet about that iBook ebook reader! (If it turns out it's really the iTablet, that's OK -- as long as it has ebook reading software!)
Get cracking. I've been giving Sony free advice. Don't end up as 2008's Ed Colligan!
Scoble Twitter Update: I can has hug?
Ew!
My MacBook is small, but my iPhone is smaller. I bought an iPhone because my MacBook isn't quite small enough, and I bought a MacBook because my iPhone isn't quite feauture packed enough.
So give me a break. Why not just add some additional feautures, interfaces, or storage to my iPhone. Why not let me tether it and file share with my MacBook through my iDisk or my .Mac account, instead of coming up with something like an ultra-portable or a tablet. I mean, do you KNOW how much time I spend wiping off my iPhone, do you think I want all those fucking smudges on my 13" screen? Would a graphic designer want that greasy shit? No.
Let me use my iPhone as a 'thin client' to access my Mac at home, and THEN you got something worth having. It's not always about the device, but the interface as well. Both devices run OSX, and once we have 3g on the iphone, along with silverthorne-like processors, it should be a no-brainer. Unless of course AT&T cries 'Bandwidth-foul.'
Fuck Tablets. Let the Delltards figure out that those suck ass. As far as ultra portables? Just make the MacBook a little lighter with a Flash memory option. Solved.
What's that? The flash-based laptop is going to cost $1999? You sound like General Westmoreland: you just don't want to win, do you?
flash based subnotebook: YES
iSurface
Gosh, did this hoax stuff make you turn to the Dark Side and its Evil ?
Come on, asking customers for their feedback on a rumored product two weeks before its official launch AND doing rehearsal in the meantime is so Microsofties ;-)
Tablet: It Depends - What size is it? Will it have a keyboard option (sometimes I just need fast input)? What would it do that my iPhone won't do? Can I keep it and its files synced with all my other machines? And so on, so forth.
I think tablets are great for some things, but I just can't really see how it would be useful to me. I have my iPhone for the always with me, gotta have access device, and a subnotebook would never be too far away for the slightly more complex and text-centric tasks.
BTW - Love the website!
Tablet PC had better have a windexable screen or I want nothing to do with it. And there should be a mount on the back so when you're at your travel destination you can connect it to a stand and use it as a monitor. And the screen had better be sharp despite the touch screen. If it's got all this, I want one; otherwise don't waste my time.
Flash laptop? Yawn. I hear it's metallic. The metal case is why I have a MacBook, not a Pro. Don't cannibalize your MacBook product line by going all-metal. Also, the book has to be durable. Make it too thin and I'm not going to buy it because I've been burned too many times by thin subnotebooks that die in a year.
Also, think cheap. Laptop prices are on the way through the floor. Expensive is last year's pink.
So in other words, you have to guard against becoming Google. Which is really something all CEO's should strive for.
BTW... my vote is a big NO on buying Sun (not that you would). Swimming is so much easier without an anchor tied to your dong.
Flash subnotebook; yes, but make it somewhat futureproof with a socketed CPU like the iMac.
I desperately want a new gadget, plus I can actually this one! </added bonus>
The tablet is nice, but something I wouldn't probably really use anyway
I mean, it's already an Insanely Thin laptop with a really wide touchpad. And, you've enabled the touch interface you got when you bought out a certain Finger Friendly company in 2005.
So, get our friends in New Jersey to make a touch-sensitive screen for you, make Jonny do overtime work to make the screen slide over the keyboard like an oversized Voyager (thanks, Verizon) and call it a day.
Price? Well, you hate cheap items (see the Mac mini) so make this price out between the MacBook & the MacBook Pro ($1,399 to $1,899 US) and I bet you'll have folks drooling over this baby.
And Steve? Please stop parking in the Handicapped spot, or I'll have to put that Park Different bumper sticker back on your Mercedes.
-AFB
But dress up the same old MacBook pig with an updated processor, with maybe a name change to "ProBook" and no addition of a blu-ray burner, and I'll buy a second Sony blu-ray laptop for my business and a copy of Adobe Premiere for Vista.
Mac leads artist computing??? Not when Sony beats Apple to the punch by 2 years with a Bluray laptop. All because the cost of HDCP compliance will add 50 dollars to the cost of a Mac? Steve, get back to innovating or let Sony install Leopard on its hardware!
If Apple does a tablet... well, it would have to be something "Insanely Great"... It would have to approach the whole laptop/tablet thing to satisfy actual real world needs...
The flash-based laptop sounds nice. Nothing I'd run out and buy (I'm more the laptop as a desktop replacement guy) but I have several clients that would love to see Apple revive the small form-factor Apple laptop.
I'd prefer to see a 14" or 15" MacBook Pro that was far more ruggedized...
TABLET TABLET TABLET TABLET TABLET
My iPhone isn't big enough and I need more storage.
Why not? You can show Amazon HOW IT IS done. You already have Preview and your iWork suite ready for it. You can sell content through iTunes for it. It would be great for meetings and calendaring while at work. Just make sure that biotch supports Active Sync and syncs to your desktop/laptop wirelessly.
Give me multi-touch UI WITH copy, cut and paste.
Give me the ability to make it a universal remote for my home theater.
Let it be my ebook reader, designed properly.
Let me take notes on it.
Let me check my calendar on exchange, get push mail.
Stick a USB2 port or two on it as well.
And bluetooth Class 1.
Boom. I'm happy.
Apple already has the technologies and software to do this product. From multi-touch, to apps, to wifi & bluetooth. Question is, what is the price point you roll this out at? Apple could steamroll right into k12 and Colleges with this product. Textbooks in PDF. And of course NIH has been dying for this.
macbook flash
Of course! All sorts of folks seem to want a small laptop. Look at the success of the ASUS EEE. Show em how it's done baby. I'm just not sure how those folks would work on such a small screen to do their normal desktop tasks. But for going to and from meetings etc. it is great to be as light as possible with as long a battery life as is possible.
Flash based Macbook Touch
Of course 1 device that served as both would be even better. Let it detect the orientation of the screen just like the iPhone does via an accelerometer. Fold the screen over the keyboard like the other tablet/keyboard units do. If you do all this, you'll sell shiploads of that baby.
Tablet PC's are still a joke and too much to tackle at the moment while the iPhone market is still developing and with Leopard still not fully cooked.
Apple needs to stop spreading themselves too thin and start improving on their products.
1. AppleTV: I would love nothing more than to REPLACE my devices than ADD to them (I thought Apple was all about simplicity). Why not add a DVR component to the AppleTV, thus allowing people to replace their cable box with one. There is a built in hard drive already, just implement larger hard drives and improve Front Row to allow DVR functionality, maybe working with Elegato and EyeTV (which uses Titan free service for local programming). This additional software is all that would be needed to allow DVR functionality, thus allowing people to chuck their silly, outdated Motorola Time Warner DVR units (and possibly their TiVo's and such) for an AppleTV unit. PERECT.
2. Tablet. NO. Get the iPhone SDK out there. I've already Jailbroken my iPhone with 1.1.2, and once opened the unit almost acts like a tablet. Get software polished and released, and get the iPhone functioning as it should be. No need for a tablet, they're outdated and pointless.
3. Displays. As a Mac Pro owner, Apple has neglected their display line since 2004. It's a bit ridiculous when other manufacturers such as Samsung and Dell are making displays that are far cheaper and just as good. Plus their is no iSight for Mac Pro owners (unless, like me, you have one when they were available) and no IR sensor for a remote control (there are professionals such as photographers who would love to show their work to clients using Front Row and a remote, so there is most certainly a market for that).
3. Subnotebook: I couldn't care a less. I honestly do not see what all the fuss is about. If I use anything less than a 15" display I find myself frustrated and hating my work. A 12-13" display is ludicrous, all for the sake of saying "Wow, look at me and my new subnotebook". How about improve upon the 15" displays. I would believe that making a 15" notebook thinner would be awesome, thus allowing for a bigger screen but more portability. I do not get the 12" display craze, it seems a fade that is driven my marketing than an actual need.
Oh, and why not improve upon that "green" factor. How about improving on the environmental friendliness of the products instead of adding more tech-waste? Tablets and 12" notebooks, what's next, a subiPhone? Sheesh.
MS update servers doling out viruses (and I don't mean ie7)
erratasec.blogspot.com
The subnotebook is needed. Many people use the Pro as their only computer, not that there is anything wrong with that, but adults need a small lightweight JUST for traveling, whether to work in the coffee shop or on the road. But it should have a unique way to sync with the desktop Mac and use the DVD in the main computer to install software when needed.
The tablet is needed to stake out this new territory that will appeal to iPhone users who don't like computers. I agree with the comments that it needs its own killer apps the way the iPhone did and does. Like a good Kindle reader built in. The Newton reborn!
If it's a 15" iPhone it will be crap. Artists won't use it, and it will be too big to be convenient anymore.
Sub-notebook? I can see lots of use for it, but I wouldn't want it unless I can draw on it with a pen of sorts...
Oh, this is going to be ugly, Apple is going hurt Axiotron real bad. I'd imagine the first few thousand Apple tablets heading straight to Emeryville and Anaheim - oh, that was easy. Will the Apple tablet eat Microsoft, H-P and Dell's lunch or be an expensive fondly remembered experiment? Depending on circumstances, the Apple tablet may supplant the box PC at home, school and work and be the next iPod. If that were to occur, it might hurt Microsoft's OS sales, but Office for Mac sales would increase, unless Steve has an Apple productivity suite waiting in the wings that would render Office and its freetard clones obsolete. Ballmer would render a redwood to matchsticks* if such a thing happened. Not that Apple has anything that could supplant Office at moment - yet ...
Meanwhile, Microsoft continues to make the better version of Office for the Mac - is this the same team that developed Vista - the reason I ask is that the only hardware Vista runs flawlessly on is MacPro.
*Matchstick - the pocket version of Kindle coming out next September.
The tablet - harder to say. Who's going to buy one? Unless, as Krishna suggests, you combine the two - big enough to be the lightweight laptop, but with the ability to turn the screen around and use it like an iPhone.
Tablet: don't go there. There would be an initial market, but tablet PCs have done really really poorly except in a very limited number of niche markets (which could be said of the PDA)
Don't forget the colonic cleansing, then your intake of massive amounts of miso soup.
Subnotebook: Now that's what I'm talkin' about! As in, I'd actually pay money for it. And remember, money = love.