Views from the Ivory Tower

 

By Ted Bade

 

Greetings friends and Macintosh users.

 

This past month has been a doozy. The fake financial engine that credit has created is slowly falling apart around us. I cannot say I am totally surprised by this, nor am I overly concerned. IMHO for too long many Americans (and probably people in other parts of the civilized world), have been convinced that it is okay to live outside their means. Personally, I have never trusted this concept. I have always done my best to live within my means. (Which ultimately means I am not surrounded by a pile of unused electronic do-dads that are no longer of interest.)

 

We are entering a very serious adjustment period. People need to start thinking about what they are buying. Consider longer term ownership, rather then replacing items frequently. This is an area where the Macintosh excels! I have known people who have held onto their Apples for many years beyond what is considered out of date. But that is an extreme.

 

I do believe the average home computer user replace their hardware too often. Don’t take me wrong, I like to see Apple sell a lot of computers, it makes their stock prices go up and I am an investor. But, truthfully, few people I know really need to upgrade as often as they do (except for my “sister-in-law”). The upgrade was forced when the certificates on her Mac OS 8 web browsers would no longer iews from the Ivory Towerwork and none of the newer browsers supported Mac OS 8!).

 

The rest of you should get three to four years of life from a computer. Perhaps even more. The average person uses email and browses the web, and perhaps uses some home office program. Frankly, none of that really requires a lot of computer horsepower. Most people would do very well with a Mac Mini or a low-end iMac. Unless there is some hardware problem, these computers should function for over a decade without any problems! Gamers and people who work with lots of video files might need a bit more horsepower.

 

While you might pay a bit more for a typical Mac, if you keep the machine for a while, the quality of the components in the Mac will make it worth it. Buy the cheaper-priced PC and you will have to replace it long before there would be any real need with a Macintosh. This is not to say that there aren’t well made PCs out there or that there are no lemon Macs. Almost every Apple I have owned has had two or more owners! Every Mac portable I have owned has had at least two owners and some had four.

 

The bottom line here is this; as we learn to adjust to this new economy model, make sure you buy a Macintosh and get your friends to as well. Choose wisely and the machine you buy will serve you well for quite a while.

 

Apple introduces a new shape for their Laptops - You probably heard that Apple updated their MacBooks and MacBook Pros in October. One of the more interesting things about the update was the use of single molded pieces of aluminum for each half of the machine, rather then a conglomerate of many little pieces. (This leads to a sturdier construction for a thinner laptop). They also added some of the sleeker design features of the MacBook Air to the standard MacBook design. This includes having very little edge around the display,  a thinner profile,  a more sophisticated trackpad and more. Take a moment to visit the Apple site and learn about the new MacBook and MacBook Pros.

 

The other major important thing abut these new Macs is the Green factor. Apple has been doing what it can to reduce the use of environmentally toxic materials in its computers. The latest round of MacBooks and MacBook Pros are considerably “greener” then previous versions. For those of us who care, Apple’s list of environmental changes includes:

 

1. Arsenic-free glass
2. Brominated flame retardant-free
3. Mercury-free
4. PVC-free
5. 37% smaller packaging
6. Highly recyclable aluminum and glass enclosure

 

Who knows, someday we might have edible Macs. This way, rather then throwing them into the waste stream, when they are obsolete, you could just make a stew out of one and serve it for dinner :->.

 

Alternative to MS Office - There is good news for people who are looking for an alternative to MS Office. OpenOffice.Org has recently released version three of their office application suite. If you haven’t given this alternative a try yet, you should. It is robust, offers a lot of features and plays very well with a variety of file types. Probably the most important fact is that it is free. Some readers might feel that the most important fact is that it wasn’t produced by Microsoft ☺.

 

Editors Note: Wait a month for the next rev (3.0) of NeoOffice.

 

In any case, this new version is drawing a lot of attention and a lot of people have been downloading it. So much so that the OpenOffice.org servers couldn’t keep up with the demand. There is a pretty nice article about OpenOffice.org server crash that contains some information about the applications as well on the MacNewsWorld site. You can view their contents by clicking here.

 

If you are already sold on OpenOffice and would like to visit their site, learn more and even download the latest version, you can go directly to the OpenOffice.org web site.

 

A valuable change to this version of OpenOffice (for Mac users), is the fact that this version doesn’t not require the installation of X11. In previous versions, Mac users needed to install X11, a UNIX utility, to run OpenOffice. Essentially, when you ran the older version of OpenOffice you were really working in a UNIX environment on your Mac. This new version removes the need for X11. This means it is that much easier to use it. I think a lot more people will give it a try without the X11 requirement. However, if you really ant to download it, you might want to wait a while, since the servers are having issues!

 

Apple Q4 financial information - At the end of October apple release it’s fourth quarter financial statement. As expected, they did well. (Which doesn’t explain why their stock price fell almost $7/share by the end of that day). To read the results yourself, visit this location on the Apple site.

 

As expected, they sold a lot of Macs and did better this quarter than the same quarter last year. Sales of Macs was 2,611,000 (a 21% growth) and for iPods it was 11,052,000, representing only about 8% growth. (I am sure most of those sales were to customers that already have iPods! iPhone sales were 6,892,000 (compared to 1,119,000 in the year-ago-quarter.) All this adds up to a 35% revenue growth for Apple. Not bad considering the terrible economic crisis the USA is currently facing. (I wonder if all those Apple engineers and business people got to go to the spa, like those financial people our government just bailed out??? Probably not. I hope at least they got an iPod to take home for the kids.…)

 

Until next month - keep on using your Mac!