MacNoob

I’m PISSED! I schlepped around for over 8 months with a squeaky-clean 3G iPhone, playing by all the Apple rules. The App Store kept me entertained with a constant stream of new games, utilities, various and sundry time-wasters and productivity tools. I was quite content for the most part (especially after the 2.1 firmware release made the device usable). What a dope I was.  Since jailbreaking, I feel like I own a brand-new phone.  Similar to the original Apple product I gave $299 for, but now with the capability to do so much more. I can now use my 3G iPhone as a router, take videos (and stream them live to Qik), display alerts, the weather and new e-mail on my lock screen, toggle nearly all the phone’s functions (3G, bluetooth, Wi-Fi, etc.) with a single touch and tailor the GUI to look almost any way I want. And the list of coolness just keeps getting longer.

Have you ever heard the phrase, “This tastes so good I could slap my momma!”? The inference being that momma raised me without teaching me about how good something could be. Transfer that sentiment to the iPhone and Mr. Jobs has a bitch-slap coming his way. Everything he did with the iPhone was right. He just stopped short of the mark.

I’m sure there are good business reasons (three in fact, A, T, and T) for not letting me share the iPhone’s 3G data connection with my Mac. I’m also sure that, for reasons of stability, Apple doesn’t want users tinkering with the device’s lower-level hardware functions. After all, they have to guarantee the thing works as advertised. On the other hand, I can’t think of one good reason why I can’t select the wallpaper of my choosing, CUT-AND-PASTE or use a different system font with an out-of-the-box iPhone. The general consensus is, “Steve doesn’t want you to and HE knows best!”. I’m reminded of the original Macintosh ad with the hammer flying through the screen, waking up the hypnotized PC drones. For a company founded on principles of individuality and creativity, Apple doesn’t seem to apply that credo to the iPhone.

Thank God for the dev-team!  Thanks to their tools, virtually anyone can jailbreak an iPhone in less than ten minutes.  I won’t go into the particulars here, there are plenty of sites for that.  I would emphasize, however, the importance of using ONLY the real iphone-dev.org blog for instructions and to NEVER, EVER, PAY FOR A JAILBREAK APP!  Anyone asking for money is a phony.  The dev-team members are the real authorities on the subject of jailbreaking and they won’t even accept donations.  Again, God bless them.

I understand how many of you might have reservations about monkeying around with your iPhone’s operating system.  I must admit to a little apprehension before I jailbroke my phone the first time.  After all, if Apple finds out you can kiss your warranty good-bye.  But jailbreaking doesn’t do anything to the iPhone that can’t be undone with a simple iTunes restore.  I guess it all comes down to a “risk vs. reward” decision on your part.  I can’t help you there.  I can tell you that Apple is going to have to come up with something extremely cool to persuade me to undo my jailbreak.

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Just because I’m what Macheads call a “switcher”, doesn’t mean I’m any less zealous about my adoration of the machine.  Just because I’ve only owned a Mac for the past 17 months (roughly 6% of its lifespan), my birthday well-wishes shouldn’t be afforded less weight than those of lifelong Apple aficionados.  Quite the contrary.  With Steve Jobs’ leadership of Apple in question, I worry about the future of my newly-adopted platform; especially after viewing several of the multitude of retrospectives spawned by the Mac’s silver anniversary.  Steve Jobs is to Macintosh as Henry Ford was to the Model T.  Like Henry Ford and his affordable car, Steve didn’t invent the personal computer, he made it practical for everyone to own one.  Not by making the least expensive machine, but by conceiving and producing the most usable one. 

The 1984 Mac was the first PC with a mouse, but more importantly the graphical user interface (GUI) it introduced simplified computing to the extent “mere mortals” could do it.  I was a DOS + PCTools user at the time and remember how beautiful the monochrome display on the SE/30 was.  To actually see a finished document on the screen in Mac Writer looking just like it would when printed made me feel extremely deprived when I had to go to work and use Wordstar on my DOS 3 ASCII machine.  That feeling must have been quite widespread given the speed with which Microsoft played “catch up” and released the first version of Windows 20 months later.

Maybe it was because my professional life forced me into the Windows world that I never bought a Mac.  I always admired the machines, but in the early days, work done on a Mac was only transportable to another Mac and working for a multinational corporation standardized on Windows prevented me from considering the possibility.  Today things are very different.  My Mac Office ’08 docs open quite nicely in the Windows version and networking, while not completely “plug and play” is no big hurdle either.  Additionally, as more work moves to the cloud, desktop platforms are becoming less and less relevant.  I am the lone Mac user at a site with 120 Windows machines and I love it (especially when I listen to people worrying about patch Tuesday, the latest spyware or other Windows-centric maladies).  Don’t get me wrong, I have a Windows Vista machine on the desk right next to my Macbook Pro, but it is a machine of last resort for the most part.  Hopefully, some day soon I won’t have any need for it at all but that day isn’t here yet.

Maybe by the Mac’s 30th birthday it won’t make any difference which platform one chooses.

Happy birthday Mac! (and get well soon Steve)

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As the above graphic implies, the recently concluded Macworld Expo will be the last of its kind.  I must admit, after spending five days in San Francisco soaking up all the Apple goodness I did sense a funereal vibe in the air.  From Phil Schiller’s pronouncement about the “last Macworld” during his keynote to the last question fielded by Dave Hamilton and John F. Braun at their live Mac Geek Gab podcast on Thursday, an ending era was foremost on many people’s minds.

Since this was my first Macworld, it’s impossible [for me] to compare it to any other, but no Steve Jobs, no Adobe or Belkin and Apple’s announcement of non-participation in the 2010 show was a buzz-stifling trifecta of bad news.  While everyone tried to put on their best face, their actions and words betrayed them.  In short, it was a bit depressing.

When I registered for the event last November, I was excited to the point of being giddy.  I had listend to so may live podcasts from the floor of the expo, read live blogs from past keynotes and observed all the fun and excitement of countless news reports from past shows that I was literally jumping to be a part of it.  Even though the old adage, “90% of joy is anticipation” is a truism, the overall sense of malase I witnessed in San Francisco pushed that percentage up a few points for me.

If history truly is the best predictor of the future, the 2010 Macworld Expo will probably be the last.  When Apple stopped participating in the Boston Macworld, there was only one more show in Beantown.  Apple leaving the San Francisco show may sound a similar death-knell.  Why one more Expo?  Because IDG (the company that puts on the Expo) has already doled out the cash for the Moscone facility in 2010.  It seems they are wasting no time organizing next year’s show.  Before I got off the plane home, there was an e-mail from IDG in my inbox offering free registration for the 2010 event!

Phil Schiller made the point that 100 Macworlds happen every week in Apple stores.  If body count were the only consideration that may be true, but Macworld Expo is so much more than that for the attendees I met and observed.  These people are more than just Apple users, they are enthusiests in every sense of the word.  Even the professionals that utilize Apple hardware and OS X for their livlihood display a real love for the platform.  Macworld gives everyone a chance to congregate as a community and, for one week, be more than just Apple customers.  If the Expo is to survive, that is the energy that will sustain it.

It will be interesting to see what tack IDG takes with next year’s Expo.  Will they tailor a show to truly accommodate the Apple faithful or will they offer up a feint-hearted effort to just “break even”?  With no Apple presence, one would think that there are opportunities to present things that Cupertino would normally frown upon but us Macheads really love.  For instance, they could sponsor iPhone jailbreaking labs or courses on installing OS X on a Dell Mini 9.  Hell, they could even sell Psystar a booth to promote their $1200 Mac Pro clone.  Could you imagine the iPhone dev-team conducting seminars or the Hackintosh.com folks distributing OS X DVDs in swag bags?  When the cat’s away…

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I really want to set up my new game room entertainment center with a Mac Mini, but the value just isn’t there.  I want the iTunes integration, the slick Front Row interface and above all, OS X, but the Mini’s hardware falls way short of other PC offerings.  In fact, its hard to even consider the Mac Mini when designing a media center.  With its relatively tiny hard drive, low memory and lack of Blu-ray and HDMI support, the Mini is only viable if you’re a completely apologetic, Jobs-worshiping fanboy.  Cupertino would have me buy an AppleTV, but that ain’t gonna happen either!  Neither box is anywhere near cost-effective, especially when compared to offerings from Dell.

I’m not asking for a lot.  I need a sub-$1000 internet connected media hub that can stream media from my other computers, download content from the internet and play DVD and Blu-ray disks, all while connected to my HDMI-switching AV receiver.  It would also be nice if the machine looked like it belonged on the shelf of my entertainment center.  On the PC side there are literally dozens of machines that fit the bill, but woefully, Apple makes it difficult to justify using anything in their lineup.  If I were absolutely picky about the capabilities I just listed, a Mac is almost out of the question unless I want to drop three Gs on a Mac Pro .  If not, then I’m left trying make a Mini work.  In either case, I’ll have to find another Blu-ray solution.

Lets say I can’t possibly stand using Windows and decide on the Mac Mini.  Here’s what I would need to make it do almost what I want and how much it would cost:

• Mac Mini (2.0 Core 2 Duo, 2 GB, 160 GB HDD, Wireless KB + Mouse): $1053
• Add a DVI to HDMI adapter: $30
• Add an External HDD:  $100
• Add a 3.5 mm stereo to RCA adapter: $10
• Add a Blu-Ray player: $200 (maybe optimistic)

• Total for a Mac Mini Setup: $1393

With just a little shopping I was able to find a Dell Studio Hybrid machine with better specs for just over half of that price.  The Dell looks like this:

• 2.1 Ghz Core 2 Duo
• 4 GB Ram
• HDMI out
• 320 GB HDD
• Blu-ray ROM + CD/DVD burner
• Optical audio out
• Vista Home Premium (Windows Media Center incl.)

• Total for a Dell Studio Hybrid:  $749

As I mentioned, I really want OS X, but not at a $644 premium.  On top of that, choosing the Mac would mean giving up Dolby Digital sound also.  Arguably, the real comparison should be made between Windows Media Center and Front Row, since that is what will be running 95% of the time.  I might even wind up using XBMC.  It is a really slick open source Media Center package and available for either platform (and Linux).

So, decisions, decisions…

I guess I’ll go with the Dell!  Duh!  You think?

The really bewildering part about all this is the number of lemming-like Apple cultists who would still rather use the Mini, even at twice the price!  Call me a crazy conspiracy theorist, but Jobs must be broadcasting some sort of mind control from Cupertino that a certain portion of the populous is susceptible to.   How else can you explain Apple EVER selling a Mini given this huge price discrepancy?  Maybe I’m naive, but I just don’t get it.  I’ve been using OS X for a year now and I really like it, but not enough to pay almost double for it.  In this particular instance, “I’m a PC”.

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With Tuesday’s announcement of their notebook refresh, Apple has made its intent quite evident.  While the consensus speculation about an $800 laptop turned out to be a myth, the majority of the technoratti was bang-on about the “carved from a solid block of aluminum” notebooks.  I must admit, the new Macbooks and Pros are beautiful machines, but I (and my nine-year-old daughter) were really hoping for a more affordable offering.  The nearly untouched white Macbook did get a $100 price reduction, but that isn’t a big enough carrot to make me march.  So, even though I really want my daughter to grow up using a Mac, her want of a portable is probably going to steer me towards a much more affordable Windows machine.  I’m just not willing to invest $1200 for an entry-level Mac.  That’s what it would cost after I add a case, .Mac, tax and shipping.  Without much effort, a laptop PC with nearly identical specs can be had for 30% less (eg. Dell Inspiron 13).

Apple would argue about the superiority of their user experience and OS X, but all propaganda aside, a Dell with Vista Home Premium offers everything Apple does for under $800.  The $749 Inspiron 13 specs are nearly a carbon copy of the white Macbook so why does it cost 25% less?  Do you think Dell’s manufacturing costs are that much lower than Apple’s?

These are, of course, rhetorical questions.  My point in all of this is that Apple charges what they do BECAUSE THEY CAN!  Like every other corporation, they are tasked with maximizing shareholder value and even with the horrible stock performance of late, Apple is quite good at making money.  They make unique products and charge a premium for them.  Notice I said unique, not superior.  I’ll leave the value judgements for the fanboys.  Certainly, Apple likes to foment an air of superiority around their products and many buy into their dogma.  The term “Cult of Mac”, while certainly an over dramatization, is not without some grounding in fact.  There is an established user base that wouldn’t be caught dead using a Windows machine and another very large constituency of users who use Apple products simply because of the air of elevated status they exude.  I have to admit to befalling to the allure of perceived superiority and it doesn’t help my twisted values when someone oos and aahs at the sight of my shiny Macbook Pro or new iPhone.  I completely get how people become caught up in the Apple hype.  Fortunately, my daughter isn’t one of them…yet.

As much as I want my little girl to use and learn OS X, Apple is making the entry barrier too painful.  I’m not one of those parents who buy their kids $150 Nike shoes or $95 blue jeans.  By the same token, her first car won’t be a BMW.  No, its looking more and more like she’ll grow up using Windows like 95% of everyone else.  What an opportunity Apple is missing.  I know I’m not alone.  If Apple ever hopes to make a sizable dent in Windows’ dominance they’re going to have to get their nose out of the air.

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