Comments on: WWDC 2007

By: Kenneth

Kenneth — Thu, 14 Jun 2007 01:24:02 +0000

At least they brought in the Apple Store. That was a GREAT addition!

Thanks,

Kenneth

By: Robert

Robert — Wed, 13 Jun 2007 03:25:11 +0000

Dylan: Yes.

Laurens Holst: Read Dave M.’s reply.

By: Dave M.

Dave M. — Tue, 12 Jun 2007 16:58:06 +0000

Laurens Holst: It’s always amusing when people say that Mac’s have “above-average” prices and such. This is “so” not true these days.

Sure, your Dell/HP/insert name brand here notebook was pretty cheap. This is fine if you find all the features of the notebook to your liking. However, when I bought my MacBook, I priced “comparable” Dell and HP notebooks to see which was cheaper and found that the MacBook was cheaper by far. The key to that comparison is “comparable”. I looked at processor speed, number of processers/cores, memory, HDD capacity, etc…

When I went shopping for my new Desktop system, I looked at the Dell 710 and the Mac Pro and found the Mac Pro to be nearly $1000 less. Now there are configurations on the Dell that I couldn’t get with the Mac Pro like SLI Video cards and such, but I wasn’t looking for a gaming system when I priced the systems. I knew I wasn’t going to be switching to the Mac for games. I wanted a system I could use and not worry about viruses/spyware/malware/etc…

I don’t have a problem with the “Vender Lock-in” that you mention. So long as there are a couple of choices for video cards and such, I’m happy.

Switching from XP/Vista to OS X is something that each person has to work out for themselves. My decision was made for me by Microsoft with Vista and the cost to upgrade the 5 Windows boxes in my house. The fact that Microsoft still doesn’t have an “affordable” family plan for Windows is just being greedy. And don’t say that they deserve it since Windows was pirated for so long. It was that pirating that got them to be the dominate OS on the market today. If people hadn’t pirated the OS, I suspect they would have done everything in their power to give it away.

From what I have seen of the new features of Leopard, OS X is going to make Vista look like Windows NT when it arrives. Shoot, as it is, Vista feels like Windows NT when it comes to security and stability. (from my limited experience and what I have read on the web from other Windows Websites.)

By: Dylan

Dylan — Tue, 12 Jun 2007 15:04:30 +0000

When you say “3 offline support specs”, do you mean the mentioned iPhone spec, Google Gears, and Firefox 3? Just making sure.

By: Laurens Holst

Laurens Holst — Tue, 12 Jun 2007 11:33:43 +0000

Robert, still, D-Jones has a point. As much as I like these features, I can’t go and install it on my laptop, I have to buy a new one from one specific vendor (Apple). And I bet that new one will be much more expensive than this one was. Which seems kind of like a waste as mine’s only 1 year old and would be perfectly able to run a system like that (I run Vista with Aero and all).

So although the pricing strategy for the OS is nice, and I’d love Windows to have a similar one as well, I don’t think you can really argue on price and expect the Mac to win . Apple is king of vendor lock-in, and when you buy one Apple product, you buy many, most of them for an above-average price.

By: Robert

Robert — Tue, 12 Jun 2007 10:27:59 +0000

D-Jones: OS X is updated through it’s lifetime, they just don’t call it “service packs”. Vista installs on “any PC”, but doesn’t quite run on “any PC”, at least in a way that’s usable. There’s a big difference.

By: D-Jones

D-Jones — Tue, 12 Jun 2007 09:49:45 +0000

[quote]Pricing – $129 for 1 license, $199 for family pack (5 licenses). That’s a great deal. A 5 pack for less than Vista. Actually a little less, since I can get a corporate discount as many can through their employer, or if your in school through them. So when are pre-orders taken?[/quote]

OSX only works on Mac’s, Vista runs on any PC and is updated with service packs through it’s life time hardly a fair price comparison.

Safari is much faster than Firefox but it’s user interface is awful on Windows and the program is very buggy but as Apple doesn’t give a dam about other OS’s UI guidelines that was probably to be expected. This is just so iPhone app writers have something to test against on Windows.

By: Laurens Holst

Laurens Holst — Tue, 12 Jun 2007 08:05:41 +0000

Did you see WebClip (part of the widgets, but really of the browser)?

That’s pretty **** cool, and definitely something that Safari has and Firefox doesn’t.

By: Dave M.

Dave M. — Tue, 12 Jun 2007 02:56:10 +0000

I gotta say, I was a little surprised at the “Most Innovative” tag for Safari. I have to disagree there. Firefix is way more “innovative” than Safari.

I will say, it’s pretty snappy when you don’t have the web elements cached. When they are are cached, the speed is about the same for both. At least with my pretty poor tests.

One thing I noticed that I hope is just because it’s beta. The Windows version doesn’t let you size the window like other Windows apps. That’s going to get Windows fanboys all worked up in a lather when they start writing about it.

Over all, I was pretty disappointed with the keynote. I was really expecting to see more new stuff. So of the 300 new features in Leopard, we have seen about 13 of them. Yet he described 20 things over the course of two keynotes. Ah well, it still looks pretty awesome. Come “November” (we all know that Leopard will be released October 31st), I’m going to be spending a lot of money, between Leopard Family pack, and iLife family pack.