Views from the Ivory Tower

MacWorld Expo – and Beyond

by Ted Bade

January was quite a month for Apple. You probably heard the big news, that the Intel-based Macs would be released before promised. In case you haven’t, Apple released a new laptop. Now called the MacBook. It is an Intel-based Macintosh laptop. The name change is related to the fact that they are no longer sporting PowerPC chips, and, as Steve Jobs said at the Keynote, it's time for a change in name. The new flat panel iMacs now will now sport an Intel processor as well. My only concern about the change of processor (the same one I had when they switched from the 68K family to the PowerPC family), is how well will it support all the software I have in my collection? There are several packages I use on a regular basis and I don’t want to have to replace them all at once. People who primarily use Macs for home use, web browsing and email, probably won’t have a problem, all the iApps will work fine on the new Macs.

The investors feel Apple is doing well, since the stock price sky rocketed around the MacWorld Expo, reaching another all time high. Apple’s Market cap grew to surpass Dell, the leading manufacturer of Windows based PCs. So these are pretty good times from Apple.

Did you really, really want an iPod?? - Did you hear about what happened to a couple of people who bought iPods from Wal-Mart? According to an article posted on ABCNews.com, http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/story?id=1450350, one person opened their iPod present to find it filled with a meat product. That is to say it is suspected that somebody took the iPod and replaced it with some meat! I also heard a story of an iPod being replaced by a pack of batteries (to simulate its weight). The article said that a WalMart spokes person said they would provide a replacement iPod when they could. Nothing was said about what was done with the meat, I just hope it wasn’t Spam.… ;-)

While there is a part of me that wonders if these stories are true, there is another part of me that has absolutely no problem believing them! We can just hope that the people who stole these iPods and ruined a person’s surprise got ones that fail very quickly.

Recognized by The Queen - You may or may not know that the guy behind many of Apple’s great designs is Jonathan Ive. He was responsible for the iMac and the iPod design among other things. In my opinion, the design of these devices attract more attention then the functionality and ease of use. So Mr. Ive’s designs have had a lot to do with Apple’s success.

Recently Mr Ive, who was born in London England and is obviously a British citizen, was honored by the Queen of England. According to an article found on the BBC news site, he was awarded the title of Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (CBE). http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4569912.stm

Mr. Ive has won a number of awards and recognitions for his design work, especially with Apple. I just think it is nice that his country actually felt that his contributions were noteworthy enough to warrant an award of this magnitude! Well done, Mr. Jonathan Ive!

Various interesting things from MacWorld Expo - I always enjoy watching the Apple Expo Keynote presentation, although usually it has been via the Internet. Steve Jobs puts on a great presentation, which is entertaining. The presentation in January was no different.

Microsoft Corporation made a five-year commitment to develop Microsoft Office for Mac OS X. Roz Ho, the head of the Microsoft Macintosh Business Unit came on stage with Steve to announce not only this commitment but to indicate that they were working on converting the current version of Office to universal code. (Universal code is capable of being compiled to run on both PowerPC and Intel Macs.) Intel also came on the stage to begin the release of the news about the new Intel based Macs. Continuing with his joke about the “Burning Bunny men”, Paul Otellini, CEO of Intel, came on stage wearing a clean room suit and was blasted with a fire extinguisher! He handed over a processor die plate and told Steve that Intel was ready. Then Steve followed by saying that Apple was ready, and thus were introduced the new Intel based Macs. Intel seems to be having a lot of fun with this whole project, a sign that I hope indicates this will be a great benefit to all concerned.

Apple announced the release of new versions of both iLife and iWork. At the Keynote, Steve Jobs demoed some of the more interesting changes. iPhoto will now let you create cards and calendars, along with photo albums. As with the photo albums, you can either print them yourself or have them professionally printed through the iPhoto interface. Also added to iPhoto is the ability to create an RSS like feed of photos, so that friends will automatically get your latest photos. Added to Garageband is a feature that lets you create and distribute Podcasts. There are several such solutions for this if you are interested, so buying iLife isn’t necessary.

Last month I spoke about my desire to buy older TV shows for use on my video iPod. Steve Jobs announced that the ITMS would now sell Saturday Night Live (SNL) skits! I couldn’t wait to visit and listen to what they had. There are many classic skits available. I found a number that I just must have! Even watching the 30-second demo of them had me laughing. What a great idea Apple! In addition to the skits, they have the best of a specific artist sets available as well. If you are a fan of SNL, especially the earlier years, take a look at what they offer.

For people who would like to have access to radio on their iPods, Apple has release a new set of ear buds that include a radio receiver. The iPod will sport a radio menu that will let you tune into stations and set pre-set stations for quick tuning.

Interesting toy for your eyes - One announcement that caught my eye (excuse the pun), was a pair of video glasses that you can plug into a video iPod to watch the video with. There was little information about the glasses, but I think it is a really cool idea. A portable viewer. Check out the image and their promo by visiting http://myvu.mmcis.com/.

My only concern about these video glasses is that people will be stupid and wear something like this as they walk or even (gulp) drive. Please, keep your attention on the road. ;-)

Apple Spyware? - Oooo, those sneaky Apple people. It was rumored, then confirmed that Apple installed a spyware like feature in version 6 if iTunes. (version 6.0.2 to be exact). When you run this new version, there is a mini ITMS opened on the bottom of the window. Apparently, when this window is opened, information about what music you like (or at least have in you iTunes library) is sent to Apple.

Not very nice Apple ☹. To prevent this from happening, all you have to do is to close the mini-store window. Obviously, people who found out about this were very annoyed. Apple responded by releasing a newer version of iTunes (6.0.4) that displays a message box explaining what would happen if the mini-store was left open.

It’s nice to see that Apple was the first to release spyware for the Macintosh ;-).

Apple’s financial quarter - Right after Macworld Expo, Apple posted its first quarter financial report. http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2006/jan/18results.html.

It is interesting to note that Apple reported its highest earnings in its history, posting a revenue of $5.75 billion and a net quarterly profit of $565 million. During this first quarter, Apple shipped 1,254,000 Macs and 14,043,000 iPods.

Apple still sells more iPods then computers, but they continue to innovate new computer design, so I am not unhappy about it. I am looking forward to trying out an Intel based Macintosh in the next couple of years. It seems like they are going to be very exciting machines. The iMac is a consumer machine. I can’t wait to hear what the Professional Macs will be like. How much power? How many processors? How many new features? I wonder what interesting buzz word will they pick to refer to them as? Steve said the new Laptops were now being called MacBooks. This makes sense, since the PowerPC chip is not part of the fray.

Here is an idea for Apple. Make the first Intel-based Macs include bi-processors. By this I mean include both the PowerPC (for running all those old Apps and an Intel processor, for the advantages of this new and powerful technology. This would make a lot of people happy. I wonder if they will be able to innovate a way to make this happen?

I wonder where this is going? - Near the end of January, Disney purchased Pixar (you know the guys who brought us Toy Story and many more animated greats), for 7.5 billion dollars. There had been a lot of talk on the Internet about what was going to happen when Pixar’s original deal with Disney was over. Well that time is near, the next movie they were to release was the last of the deal.

You might know that Steve Jobs was the majority share holder in Pixar, owning just over 50% of the stock. I imagine he made a few buck on the deal! According to an article posted on the MSNBC site http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11003466/.

According to the article the two top people at Pixar, John Lasseter (Pixar’s Executive VP), and Ed Catmull (Pixar’s President), would be picked up by Disney. Mr. Lasseter will become the chief creative officer of the animation studios and principal creative adviser at Walt Disney Imagineering. While Mr. Catmull becomes the president of the combined Pixar and Disney animation studios. Nice positions for both of these creative geniuses! I truly hope they don’t get lost in the shuffle!

The other interesting news is that Steve Jobs gets a position on Disney’s Board of Directors! This places him in an interesting place, because his position with Apple might make it hard for him to make certain decisions with Disney “fairly”.

I am sure we will hear more about this as time goes on. I just hope that they don’t stop making create Pixar animations!

Well, that’s all for now. Have a great February and keep on using your Mac!