neven's Profile

  • http://mrgan.com
  • May 14, 2007
  • 14
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Latest comments made by: neven

  • Agreed... The OS is intuitive for intended uses; you went third-party and willingly performed a very unintended operation. You can't have your userland cake and eat your hacker cake too.
    neven had this to say on Apr 10, 2007 Posts: 14
    And They Said the Mac Was Intuitive
  • maxp: No YOU STFU!
    neven had this to say on Mar 28, 2007 Posts: 14
    What If There Are No Top Secret Features in Leopard?
  • Nelson: Skinner gets paid $25,000 a year. Bart: Let's see, he's 40 years old... Wow, he's a millionaire! Milhouse: And in the summer, he paints houses. He's a billionaire!
  • "Don’t tell me that the iPhone and AppleTV deal was enough for you because, in all honesty, it certainly wasn’t for me." The iPhone and AppleTV deal was enough for me. "Don’t tell me you weren’t waiting for Stevey J. to say his famous “oh, and one more thing” line, hopefully talking about Leopard, iLife or at least something!" I was not waiting for Stevey J. to say his famous “oh, and one more thing” line. I was calling T-Mobile to see when my contract with them expired. C'mon - an iLife update as the keynote ender when 4,000 people are sitting there salivating, waiting to go check out the iPhone in its case? Short of doing a 4-hour keynote, there was no way Steve was going to be able to introduce much more than the iPhone. Of course there are updates to the rest of the Apple family - patience, grasshopper.
    neven had this to say on Jan 12, 2007 Posts: 14
    The iPhone is Great But What About The Rest?
  • I really wanted to like this app. I tried the beta version of Tangerine and found the application beautiful but essentially useless. Version 1.0 is slightly enhanced, equally pretty, and still producing the same (non)results. My top twenty "fastest" and "most intensive" tracks (out of a library of 6,000 ecclectic songs, consisting in equal parts of jazz, prog rock, alt rock, punk, classical, and electronic music of all sorts) include a scratchy Django Reinhardt ballad, Neu!'s "Neuschnee" and Tricky's "Ghetto Youth" - tracks I'd describe as fairly slow and mellow. No matter how I twiddle Tangerine's (precious few) knobs, I get good-as-random playlists. Also, your iTunes-purchased songs will not be included in the analysis; I understand that Potion can't legally break Apple's DRM in order to analyze these songs, but it does cripple the whole enterprise significantly. Keep the UI and rethink the algorithm.
    neven had this to say on Dec 13, 2006 Posts: 14
    Tangerine! Create Magic Playlists
  • You wrote regarding the educational discount, "Be warned though that this discount can only be used at their online store." Presenting your student card at the Apple Store will give you the same discount, unless this policy has been changed recently. I've bought things this way. They just don't advertise the discount in-store. Regarding Black Friday, "The day after Thanksgiving Apple discounts everything they make for one entire day." Not nearly "everything"; they'll discount some popular items a little, and some fringe ones a little more. Overall, don't expect more than 3-6 products to be discounted.
    neven had this to say on Nov 20, 2006 Posts: 14
    5 Tips For Getting The Best Deal on Apple Purchases
  • I think this is leaving some reasons for Apple's philosophy of not allowing OS X to run on non-Apple hardware: it's much, much easier and bug-free not to have to support the sea of hardware out there. This would end up COSTING Apple a whole lot. Also, the Mac is sold as an Experience, not a set of software and hardware. It would reduce the 'value of being a Mac user' if the OS were shipped with gray boxes. You can consider this baloney, but I'm pretty sure that Steve & Co. don't - to them it's a major part of the Mac brand.
  • You said, "Steve Jobs seems less than concerned, mildly amused might be putting his reaction a better way. This seems like sheer madness, even if the Zune doesn’t reduce to the iPod to yesterday’s cool" I doubt that Steve is really unphased by the Zune. His nonchalant+mocking attitude is just consistent with Apple's usual PR regarding the competition. With the iPod as successful as it is, it would be quite ill-advised for him to express any concern publicly. Regarding the "war" itself, I think we're going to see a lot of (well justified) mocking from iPod fans in the first few years of the Zune's market presence. If this were a one-time attempt by MS to enter the market, the Zune *could* theoretically go down in flames quickly. But this is Zune 1.0. Who knows what it will look like in 2008 and how MS will market it.
    neven had this to say on Oct 19, 2006 Posts: 14
    Psst, iPod versus Zune is really a format War
  • You offer no disproof or counterpoint to my points. Do you have some aversion to specifics, or are you just practicing your epithets? And way to quote an illustrative final paragraph as the gist of my post. Here, I'll use the same distillation technique on your last post: "ass." P.S. "who's" is not a word.
    neven had this to say on Oct 18, 2006 Posts: 14
    The Cost of Apple Discipleship
  • I'm amazed at the depth and breadth of evidence and reasoning in Beeblebrox's post regarding the cost and value of Apple products. Somebody needs a new cookie-cutter, I think...
    neven had this to say on Oct 18, 2006 Posts: 14
    The Cost of Apple Discipleship
  • First of all, let me just say that you could replace every noun in this article with the equivalent by another manufacturer and come up with the same conclusion: upgrades cost money. Point by point: "If you’re going to have trouble anyway, why not just buy a cheap computer? No wonder people choose cheap PCs over Macs." I love these "there couldn't possibly be a good answer to this, right?" questions. You don't buy a cheap computer because it a) breaks more often, statistically speaking, b) works like crap when it works. There is no reasonably complex product in the world that doesn't break. No Lexus driver has had zero service done on their car. People who choose cheap PCs over Macs (as opposed to people who choose expensive PCs over Macs, and there's plenty of those) end up with crappy computers that break more often, sooner, and more seriously than Macs. Is this even debatable? "Excuse my cynicism, but has Apple managed things nicely to make you replace your shuffle every year or so?" Using a replaceable battery in a Shuffle would have made it pricier and less elegant. If that doesn't bother you, you're free to buy another tiny flash-based player. I'll take the cheap, awesome (and yes, *cool*) Shuffle myself. And mine hasn't been replaced in two years (your mileage may vary). "It will have been two years since you bought Tiger so you wont mind, will you?" Of course not! If Leopard delivers on the mix of previewed and expected features, it will be absolutely worth it. I pay money for things I need and want; if Leopard is one, why wouldn't I pay for it? "Until you discover you’ve got to fork out more than that again to take advantage of its new features, in particular Time Machine." You don't say. And I'll end up with a new hard drive and what looks like a brilliant automatic backup feature. Are you saying the feature and the hard drive should be free, or are you saying that they're not things worth owning in the first place? "Also, if you want to take advantage of Boot Camp and run Windows, that could cost you another $199 or more." As opposed to those other dual-boot solutions that come with a free copy of Windows? By the way, if this article is talking about a typical Mac zealot, those will most likely not want to take "advantage" (yikes) of Boot Camp. The same argument applies to iLife and iWork as does to your other points: if I need/want them, I'll pay for them. Here's the conclusion, then: "it does stretch the budget and friendship when it so regularly cajoles the loyal customer into forking out their hard earned for yet another “necessity”." Who ever said this? Does Apple not support older versions? How often do they phase out hardware or software? I can run most Apple software on a G3 laptop. Let's have some perspective - running Vista, for instance, will require *most* users to buy a whole new machine. If the hype surrounding Apple's products makes them feel like a necessity, you can deal with that mental problem in two ways: give in to it or accept that you don't need the latest toys. Isn't that the case with all products? Why pick on Apple? Does Sony run ads saying, "Remember that TV you bought in 1999? It's still our hottest item. We just wanted to let you know you don't need a new one." "Some people will argue it’s optional, and so it is, but that doesn’t and shouldn’t justify it." This is close to meaningless. Why should Apple have to "justify" the fact that they come out with fantastic, desirable new products regularly? Maybe they shouldn't charge for them? "Although some years more than others, the cost of discipleship is often too high." Compared to what? Compared to the cost of not buying Apple products and ending up (most likely) with lesser ones? Or compared to the cost of not buying every single new thing Apple comes out with? There are valid complaints to be made about Apple's products. The iPod scratches. The notebooks get hot. No brand or manufacturer is immune to problems, but the point is that both the intended and the real-world user experience with an Apple product is better than even the advertised experience with most competitors. This isn't always quantifiable, but just look at the Mac community - we love this stuff the way we don't love most our other possessions. That's the *value* of Apple discipleship, and I for one think it's the best deal around. I run the awesome Tiger on a PowerBook G4. I'd love to get a MacBook, and I can't wait for Leopard. In the meantime, here I am, running a beautiful OS on an amazing machine, looking forward to even better toys in the future. How is this a bad thing?
    neven had this to say on Oct 18, 2006 Posts: 14
    The Cost of Apple Discipleship
  • "I am still clinging for a hope of the hybrid iPod, of sort. Imagine a coffe table-based iPod with a mini keyboard wirelessly connected to your iTV device. Endless possibilities." Is the MacBook's size *really* that problematic, so you can't use it for the same purpose? Sure you can carry an iPod in your pocket, but carry it where? I don't think even the most avid iTV fan (and I can't wait for it myself) expects their buddies to all buy one so we can all go to each other's houses and play movies on each other's TVs. And even if it happens, what do you need a mini keyboard for?
    neven had this to say on Oct 12, 2006 Posts: 14
    Can a Widescreen iPod Jump Start the eBook Revolution?
  • There's a market Apple might be targeting whether they're aware of it or not: the dude-like masses who are just now buying their first computer (or their first "serious" computer). They've used the family machine up to now, or it was basically a parental purchase. But now they're making their own decisions. Hey, they've got an iPod already, and they really find their PC a drag. You know, Ellen-style. This is the precise market for the smartass humor in these ads. Will they feel made fun of? Heck no. They won't identify with the PC. Sure, they like him, but they're not HIM. It's not the biggest market in the world, and perhaps they're not worth going after at the expense of everyone else. But this will work with them.
    neven had this to say on Oct 11, 2006 Posts: 14
    Latest Apple Ads: Is the Mac Message Missed in the Mirth?
  • "When the Mac originally launched the internet barely existed and the web was non-existent. As the domination of the internet continues, as the backbone of applications becomes the internet (think iTunes) and as applications get ported to the web this is a long-term threat to Apple." Wait... WHAT is a long-term threat to Apple? You mentioned that the PC would come with "Firefox, IM, etc." Are these Windows-specific applications? How is their popularity a threat to Apple? It's not unobjective to say that Apple's offerings in these two areas (Safari and iChat) beat Microsoft's (IE and Messenger) like a little baby - and that's not counting the fact that Firefox runs equally on both platforms, and Macs get the wonderful Adium. So what's your point, again? That the popularity of the Internet is leaving Apple in the dust? That Internet is harder to do on a Mac? How so? An Apple fanboy might say that Apple is kicking Windows ass in the area of Internet usability; no one but an MS fanboy would say that MS is much better than equal. The whole original counterfactual is bunk. No one picks between Kias and engineless Lexi, or between supermodels and lipsticked pigs, or between connected PCs and disklocked Macs. Of course we'd pick a PC if Macs somehow couldn't do The Net, but they can - duh.
    neven had this to say on Sep 29, 2006 Posts: 14
    Wherein John Gruber Picks Windows