The Author – Bart Busschots
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Jun
13
WWDC 2007 – Bit of Damp Squib Really
Filed Under Computers & Tech on June 13, 2007 | 2 Comments
Some of the Leopard stuff was cool, but much of it was old news, and the iPhone bit was down-right insulting. Not really a WWDC that will stand out as one of the greats. In fact, things even went backwards on one front, ZFS does not appear to be in Leopard at all, not even as an option, despite having been in some of the earlier betas! However, at least one of my predictions came true, Leopard has a new look. Just not sure that’s all good news, that transparent menu bar looks terrible!
[tags]Apple, Steve Jobs, WWDC, Leopard, iPhone[/tags]
Jun
8
WWDC 2007 – My Hopes & Dreams
Filed Under Computers & Tech on June 8, 2007 | 3 Comments
I’d normally do a prediction post coming up to a major Mac event but TBH I have very few predictions to make this time. Lets face it, this WWDC is all about Leopard and the iPhone, there’s not going to be time for much else. So, instead I want to just outline my wish-list for Leopard and just mention the iPhone briefly.
[tags]Apple, Steve Jobs, WWDC[/tags]
Jan
9
MacWorld 2007 Imediate Reaction – WTF, Leopard?
Filed Under Computers & Tech on January 9, 2007 | 4 Comments
OK, first off, WTF … what happened to Leopard? I want to know when the next OS X will be out and more importantly what will be in it! I’m just shocked that software did not feature at all in the keynote. No new iTunes, no iLife 07 and no Leopard. What can I say, that’s a pretty big aspect of my predictions blown right out of the water!
So, in short I expect to hear lots about Leopard, very little about the Macintosh line (apart from the usual gloating about its greatness 🙂 ), and a good bit about iTunes in the form of the iTV, movies for more people and a cool iPhone.
On the plus side I did say more movies and TV Shows, iTV and the iPhone so I guess three out of four ain’t bad!
[tags]MacWorld 2007, Apple, Steve Jobs[/tags]
Jan
4
MacWorld 2007 Prediction Time
Filed Under Computers & Tech on January 4, 2007 | 6 Comments
Well, it’s that time of year again, Steve Jobs is hopefully about to release some totally unexpected surprise on the Mac community, I am of course talking about MacWorld. As normal I’m going to put my money where my mouth is and make some predictions. So far my success rate has been descent but this year I feel I’m shooting in the dark much more, what with the Intel move being complete, the Macintosh line-up being all fresh and complete, and the iPod line looking pretty fresh and up-to-date too. So, now that I’ve made my excuses, on with the predictions!
[tags]MacWorld, Apple, Steve Jobs[/tags]
Aug
8
Reflections on the WWDC 2006 Keynote
Filed Under Computers & Tech on August 8, 2006 | 5 Comments
First off, I'm very annoyed with myself for forgetting to write up my predictions before WWWDC 2006. I put this oversight down to the fact that I was on Holidays till today but I'm still annoyed, now you'll just have to take my word on what I predicted rather than having a post to prove it! Anyhow, in this post I'll just give you the highlights of the keynote and particularly the Leopard preview and also lay out some of my concerns. Read more
Feb
28
My Guess at what Steve has up his Sleave
Filed Under Computers & Tech on February 28, 2006 | Leave a Comment
So, Apple have something big to launch today and apparently what ever it is will be fun. That rules out an Intel XServe and probably also an Intel PowerMac. I’ve been waiting for years for mac to do a tablet computer and considering their recent touch-screen patents it’s not entirely impossible that we will finally get an iTablet but I wouldn’t bank on it, I may find that fun but it’s probably not Steve’s idea of fun.
So, what DO I think Steve has up his sleave? Well I think it must almost certainly be media related so bearing that in mind my money is either on the TiVo like new MacMini I had expected at MacWorld in January or a new iPod dedicated to video with a large display and touch-screen controls.
Mind you I’m usually wrong so time will tell!
Jan
12
Musings on Macworld 2006
Filed Under Computers & Tech on January 12, 2006 | Leave a Comment
So yet another Macworld has come and gone so it’s inevitable that Mac-heads reflect on such things. Personally, my predictions were about 50% right and 50% wrong on the big stuff. The Intel iMacs were a complete shock to me, the Intel Notebooks, totally expected.
Well, we may as well start with the BIG stuff, and lets face it, the move to Intel CPUs is the biggest thing to happen to the Mac since OS X. I fully expected that there would be Intel based Macs unveiled this January. I really didn’t expect Apple to let a whole year pass between their announcement of Intel Macs and those macs being unleashed. Why was I so sure? Simple, sales would have started to plummet as we got nearer and nearer to the summer as more and more people started putting off getting a new Mac until the new ones were out.
Personally, I had expexted the iMac to be the last Mac to get the Intel treatment. Why? Because they were the most recently re-vamped and were not particularly unders-peced or anything like that. Since Intel PowerMacs have been available to developers since last summer I was quite sure that an Intel PowerMac would be the first Intel Mac to be released, WRONG! After that I had expected Intel Notebooks to be the next because lets face it, the G4 iBooks and PowerBooks were just not good enough to compete anymore. Another machine that I expected to get the Intel treatment very early on was the MacMini, again it’s a G4 and again it is rather under-powered compared to what’s out there in the PC market. I also expected to see it released with Front Row and a to be a full TiVo complete with TV Tuner. This could still come to pass in the next few months but nothing at Macworld about it. Basically, I’m shocked to see a G5 machine replaced with an Intel chip before all the remaining G4s are all replaced. What makes it worse is that I accepted delivery of a 20" G5 iMac yesterday!
There was nothing really major with regards to the iPod in Steve’s key note. We got the usual sales figures with the standard blurb about how great iTunes is doing but nothing really new or revolutionary on that front was revealed to us.
The other major part of the Keynote was apple software. Aperture looked very impressive as did the new and improved iPhoto with its PhotoCasts. I was also impressed by the themes in iMovie and the PodCast Studio in Garrage Band also looked good. However, what really intrigued me was the release of iWeb. There can be no doubt that the pages it produces look very flashy on the surface and that the interface seemed very good, however, I am reserving judgment on it till I see the source code that it generates. Perhaps Apple will have achieved a miracle and invented WYSIWYG web software that doesn’t suck but I’m not convinced yet!
Finally, going back to the Intel thing for a moment, I have to say I like their new adds about Apple "liberating" the Intel chip form the dull little boxes they used to be confined to. The slogan on their web page is also great IMO; "What’s an Intel chip doing in a Mac? …. A whole lot more than it’s ever done in a PC".