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MacWorld San Francisco Xserve, LCD, PowerMac Updates?
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~Shard~
macrumors P6
Yah, using commas and periods is such a pain and so complicated... 🙄
And how does someone become "not very good" at spelling and grammar? The only people I know like this are 2 of my cousins - and it's because they're only in Grade 1.
You don't believe in punctuation? (or "puctuation", as you call it). Then you don't believe in language or communication. Hmm, can't say I know too many people who say that! Ah well, what can you do when you're that excessively lazy...
Thanks for the amusement though, that was just what I needed! 😎
Pipe dreams
Heh heh. Best-of-breed for free? Be honest, you're really my teenage nephew, right?
Apple has delivered what some consider to be the best-of-breed jukebox, and they're giving it away. Why? Out of the goodness of their hearts, just like MicroShaft? 😉 Apple's execs have been very upfront about their strategy: they produce software to sell their hardware. FCP by itself has sold oodles of high-end boxes. The music market is much different, of course, with tons of decent free stuff available. So they invest heavily in iTunes and give it away with the belief they'll make it back with their fat margins on iPods. Groovy.
So tell me why they should sink tons of money into making the rest of the iLife apps best-of-breed? So they can ruin sales of DVDSP and FCE? In general, the iLife apps already beat most of the apps that come bundled with Windoze boxes in the area most important to the average consumer: ease of use. "How quickly can I actually get something done?" Can you point me to a Windoze hardware & software Movie combo that is as foolproof to set up and use as an iMac & iMovie? iDVD? iPhoto?
Granted, Apple has some work to do on iPhoto re: large libraries, and everybody always wants more features, but for the average consumer -- Apple's target market for iLife -- they've done extremely well, IMHO.
Most reasonable people (and even a few teenagers) don't expect best-of-breed for free. View iTunes as a gift, not as evidence that you're being screwed.
Heh heh. Best-of-breed for free? Be honest, you're really my teenage nephew, right?
Apple has delivered what some consider to be the best-of-breed jukebox, and they're giving it away. Why? Out of the goodness of their hearts, just like MicroShaft? 😉 Apple's execs have been very upfront about their strategy: they produce software to sell their hardware. FCP by itself has sold oodles of high-end boxes. The music market is much different, of course, with tons of decent free stuff available. So they invest heavily in iTunes and give it away with the belief they'll make it back with their fat margins on iPods. Groovy.
So tell me why they should sink tons of money into making the rest of the iLife apps best-of-breed? So they can ruin sales of DVDSP and FCE? In general, the iLife apps already beat most of the apps that come bundled with Windoze boxes in the area most important to the average consumer: ease of use. "How quickly can I actually get something done?" Can you point me to a Windoze hardware & software Movie combo that is as foolproof to set up and use as an iMac & iMovie? iDVD? iPhoto?
Granted, Apple has some work to do on iPhoto re: large libraries, and everybody always wants more features, but for the average consumer -- Apple's target market for iLife -- they've done extremely well, IMHO.
Most reasonable people (and even a few teenagers) don't expect best-of-breed for free. View iTunes as a gift, not as evidence that you're being screwed.
whooleytoo
macrumors 604
That's very true, and I don't think Apple will release a 'pro' iPhoto either. For the photo cataloging, there's scarcely a need for two different apps; and for more advanced photo retouching, there already are Mac solutions out there. iPhoto certainly is one app that could use a Panther-esque jump in speed.
I just took a quick look at the iView site and I didn't see anything about print services. What's your experience with this and how do you go about printing your stuff?
I like the option of using iPhoto and the PC/ofoto.com print services.
I agree that iPhoto is too slow and should get a speed boost. My expectations for the iLife products is low. I understand that these are shoehorn products to get you either on to the platform and/or to upgrade to more powerful siblings. In the case of iPhoto, they should offer a 'pro' version so that we have an option.
Also, a number of you are expressing an interest in an alternative to MS Office. It would be nice if Apple could pull that off but even the idea of it seems daunting. The Office apps are seasoned, feature rich and interoperate nicely.
I recently purchased a Canon i960 and use Photoshop Elements to print my images. I have not tried printing using iView Media Pro. Nor have I used any print services. I do know that local stores (Wal-mart at least) now let you bring in a CD of images for professional printing. I don't know how cost effective this is.
Office is decent but it could use some improvements. The *real* problem with Office v.X is that it doesn't handle Unicode properly. Create a Word or RTF document on XP with Cyrillic characters. Now open that document on your Mac in Textedit. It displays correctly. Now open that document in Word v.X. The Cyrillic characters will be garbage. If the chosen font does not have Cyrillic characters (or other Unicode groups) the proper behavior is for the editor to display them using another font from the same family (for those characters only). Office v.X does not do this.
I recently stopped using Entourage because, unfortunately, it only interoperates with Office. I don't want to be stuck maintaining two sets of address books, calendars, etc.... It would be nice if Entourage was simply another window on the same data.
Office v.X needs work. I hope Apple comes out with a good alternative.
rdowns
macrumors Penryn
I don't see Apple doing an Office suite. Makes no sense, would kill them in office environments where MS Office is entrenched. MS makes a boat load from the Mac division, Apple should beware of pi**ing them off with a competitor to Office. As one who has to use a PC at work, the ease of interoperabilitry between Office platforms is most welcome.
Yikes...for Apple to come out with something that was on par with Office for Windows would be specfreakingtacular. Even though Office v.X allows us to use Microsoft's file formats, it's features are way behind Office 2003, Outlook's contact management is lightyears ahead of Entourage. (granted 2003's goodies appeal mostly to IT professionals running big networks) Give it Office 2003 compatibility, a comparable feature set, and don't do like Microsoft and require servers and all sorts of server software to use half the goodies like sharepoints and Information Rights Management. IMHO, If Apple could do that, then that would be the software release of the decade.
Apple duplicate Office?
Ain't gonna happen, for two reasons. First, while everyone agrees Office is bloated and buggy, it's also indispensable in the real world. Why should Apple invest in attempting a replacement (no guarantee it will be widely adopted) when MS is already doing it?
Second, you're dreaming if you think Apple currently has the resources (people and money) to create a compatible and relatively full-featured Office Suite. Like it or not, MS has invested huge amounts in Office, and Jobs' RDF can't materialize millions of lines of code from thin air.
The ONLY reason Apple would ever consider such a project is if they got wind of an MS plan to kill Office. And that ain't gonna happen either. MS makes too much money from the Mac, and the anti-trust people would rip them a new one.
Ain't gonna happen, for two reasons. First, while everyone agrees Office is bloated and buggy, it's also indispensable in the real world. Why should Apple invest in attempting a replacement (no guarantee it will be widely adopted) when MS is already doing it?
Second, you're dreaming if you think Apple currently has the resources (people and money) to create a compatible and relatively full-featured Office Suite. Like it or not, MS has invested huge amounts in Office, and Jobs' RDF can't materialize millions of lines of code from thin air.
The ONLY reason Apple would ever consider such a project is if they got wind of an MS plan to kill Office. And that ain't gonna happen either. MS makes too much money from the Mac, and the anti-trust people would rip them a new one.
Re: Apple duplicate Office?
Okay, then how do we light a fire under Microsoft to offer us a comparably featured Office suite? Why aren't the anti-trust people after them for making a clearly inferior version of Office to run on the Mac? That seems pretty malicious to me...
Okay, then how do we light a fire under Microsoft to offer us a comparably featured Office suite? Why aren't the anti-trust people after them for making a clearly inferior version of Office to run on the Mac? That seems pretty malicious to me...
johnnyjibbs
macrumors 68030
I have MS Office. I think it looks a lot nicer than the Windows version and has just about all the functionality (plus special features that take advantage of Mac OS X - eg. Quicktime transitions in PowerPoint and transparency) but WHY THE SHORT FILENAMES? And why does it sometimes slow to a snail's pace?
Re: Apple duplicate Office?
Those are reasonable questions.
My guess is that if enough Mac users make requests for a specific feature, the MacBU will (eventually) add it -- along with a few new bugs. 🙂 But a request for "feature parity" will be ignored. Why? Because Gates (not the MacBU) has a vested interest in keeping MacOffice hamstrung; namely, Apple's inroads into enterprise threatens MS's cash cow (Windows seats). Unfortunately, compared to a drastic move like dropping Office entirely, this "70% of Office" strategy isn't likely to set off the anti-trust alarms. Such is life for the underdog.
Trust me, I feel your pain. I do a lot of Powerpoint work, and I'm seeing bugs in v.X that have been there since Office 4.2! And there are new bugs (or features -- hard to tell the difference) that simply astound me. It's hard to believe the MacBU programmers are deliberately making our lives miserable, but it sure seems that way sometimes.
Those are reasonable questions.
My guess is that if enough Mac users make requests for a specific feature, the MacBU will (eventually) add it -- along with a few new bugs. 🙂 But a request for "feature parity" will be ignored. Why? Because Gates (not the MacBU) has a vested interest in keeping MacOffice hamstrung; namely, Apple's inroads into enterprise threatens MS's cash cow (Windows seats). Unfortunately, compared to a drastic move like dropping Office entirely, this "70% of Office" strategy isn't likely to set off the anti-trust alarms. Such is life for the underdog.
Trust me, I feel your pain. I do a lot of Powerpoint work, and I'm seeing bugs in v.X that have been there since Office 4.2! And there are new bugs (or features -- hard to tell the difference) that simply astound me. It's hard to believe the MacBU programmers are deliberately making our lives miserable, but it sure seems that way sometimes.
MacOffice "Special Features"
Just curious -- I've been avoiding the Quicktime transitions and variable transparency because they don't translate cross-platform, and my work has to be portable.
The first time I tried it, then moved the show to my Windoze box, all the transitions went to defaults, and transparencies went to 0%.
Is your experience different than mine? Or do you not have to worry about cross-platform portability?
Just curious -- I've been avoiding the Quicktime transitions and variable transparency because they don't translate cross-platform, and my work has to be portable.
The first time I tried it, then moved the show to my Windoze box, all the transitions went to defaults, and transparencies went to 0%.
Is your experience different than mine? Or do you not have to worry about cross-platform portability?
johnnyjibbs
macrumors 68030
Re: MacOffice "Special Features"
I'd like to get Keynote but then I'd have to take my Mac in to do presentations for it to be worth it!
I found that when I did a PowerPoint presentation, it worked fine on the PC. They provided a PC laptop for me to install my presentation on, but it didn't look as nice on the PC (naturally) and it used Arial because they didn't have Optima (that I'd used) on the PC system. The transitions weren't there obviously. However, I took my PowerBook in and asked if I could use that. I plugged it in and worked instantly! I think overall there is a good lot of cross-compatibility in Office - not everything works exactly the way you want so be sure to try it out on a PC system before using it (especially when using Mac only stuff!).
I'd like to get Keynote but then I'd have to take my Mac in to do presentations for it to be worth it!