I found a great post from Plumbsteadshite which suggests there might be some sort of product release tomorrow. “Whilst quizzing one of the shop assistant/Mac gurus, I just had to ask, “Any new products coming out on Saturday?”"…
And thanks to the people who looked at the last post and passed it on and blogged it. It seems to have been well received, so thanks.
In the days running up to Apple’s 30th birthday (April 1st) I have noticed something brewing in the murky depths of the blogosphere. It’s hysteria.
It’s worse than usual. Normally, whenever someone whispers over at Apple HQ there must be an exciting product about to be unveiled, or speculation about some deal with another company, or rumors that Steve Jobs is going to quit, or whatever.
Ok. I’ll admit it, even as someone who hardly ever touches Apple products I get excited about releases. I’ll go to the extent of taking time away from whatever I’m doing to watch one of the (now infamous) “Stevenotes“. I find Apple fascinating - the “cult of Mac” (as the Wired blog is called) is more interesting than half it’s products (I find it hard to get excited about an iPod for instance). No one, apart from the press, gets excited about a Microsoft product - they just come and go, it’s six months before we upgrade and all we do is pick faults in it. I tested an early beta version of Windows “Longhorn” in college (two years ago) and that’s about as much of Vista as I know. That’s as much as I am interested in.
So, with speculation around Apple’s birthday surprises (new Intel iBooks? Limited edition iMacs? iPhone? 30% discounts?) and concerns about the future of the company (to concentrate on iTunes? Jobs to quit? Jobs sells of 15% of stock! Mac to run Windows?!) I thought I’d take a look and see what makes Apple different…
Geek Chic
Apple is sexy. Well, it has been for the last ten years - I remember being sat on a beach in Abersoch, North Wales, some time in the late 90’s, reading some Sunday magazine. In it there was a competition to win one of those iBook G3 clamshell things. It was a competition for kids to enter, where you had to draw someone skateboarding (I think it was a competition for Vans shoes…). I knew I had to have one of these! I wouldn’t have known what to do with it, but I wanted one. Being a dab hand with a felt-tip pen I started my entry right away - but, alas, I didn’t win.
See, Apple is one of those Ikea like companies. It may have not been particularly practical (no floppy disk?!) but it did come in a rather cool transparent white/orange case. Apple is to Ikea what IBM is to MFI. Seriously, go round either of the stores and have a look at the fake plastic computers!
We simply don’t see this sort of aesthetic beauty from a PC company, be it hardware or software. Lian Li make some pretty beautiful computer cases, but at the end of the day, you are probably going to combine them with a boring operating system, ugly peripherals, then hide it away under a desk.
But how can I talk about beautiful hardware design without mentioning the iPod - Apple’s biggest selling product of the last few years. And why does it sell? Because it’s cool.
There are loads of iPods like devices out there and some are cheaper yet technically better than some iPods - but do they have the same iconic status as that curved white brick that fills the pockets of seemingly everyone? No they don’t. The iPod is a success because of it’s chic appeal (mixed with a great sound, and a really good interface, of course).
iLifestyle
I read somewhere the other day a bunch of statistics and facts about Apple users (if anyone has the URL, please let me know) where it basically made them out to be smarter, more creative, more likely to do well in college, more likely to live in a hip city.
You look at someone really dull, someone who’s job is more concerned with profit than it is doing a good job, someone who probably hasn’t read any good books and has terrible taste in music - it’s a Windows user isn’t it? Yes? I thought so. That wasn’t just based on the fact that Microsoft have more computers on more desktops than Apple, Linux, BSD and Sun combined - but because that’s what Windows does: it caters for the needs and lifestyles of dull people.
Apple users have more pizazz (it’s not often I get to use that word). Everyone wants to be like that. You see them in trendy coffee shops with their PowerBooks, wearing clothes that co-ordinate perfectly and ordering something way more extravagant than the guy with the Toshiba who stumbles in with his pathetic looking black nylon laptop bag, spends ten minutes taking off his coat and scraping his chair across the floor before the obligatory full-volume Windows startup tune kicks in.
It’s a “togetherness” thing. Greater connectivity, all-in-on-ness and simplicity - that’s the key. I like the idea of something “working straight out of the box” - which is what I have always expected from computers (that’s why I have a laptop) - life is less cluttered and more streamlined. I don’t have any statistics that prove that things go wrong any less with a Mac, but what I do know is that you never hear a Mac user referring to it’s computer as a “stupid piece of shit”.
Ease Of Use
That brings me nicely onto my next point: Macintosh are so simple.
I have fixed hundreds of computers, I have studied hardware and software for a few years, and I know that 90% of the time someone refers to that dull grey box under the desk as a “stupid piece of shit” it is actually his/her fault. This is where my problem lies with Windows: people don’t know how to use it properly.
I have been using it for the last ten years and there are things I still can’t figure out how to do - I can’t remember where things are in menus, or why I can’t change the property of something at certain times - it’s cluttered. There is, even in Windows XP Home, too much technical stuff too close to the user: I really wished Microsoft shipped Windows with minimum user privileges enabled, to protect stupid people from themselves.
This is what works with the Mac and Mac OS - simplicity. Click, done.
Believe The Hype
It’s a bit of everything pushing everything else. Firstly you have Apple producing great computers that people want to buy, and they are so good that people adore them, and people who adore their Macs also adore the Internet.
People who adore the Internet are the ones that write the blogs, participate in the forums, and start the rumors, which start the hype.
Apple events create a frenzy - people assume that Apple are going to release something because one person posted it in his blog. I haven’t heard anything from Apple about the “iPhone” (but I have seen hundreds of different computer generated images of them…) so I don’t know where the idea came from. I say this but I too am willing to make my bets on the next release, but I’m playing it safe (and seeing as Apple said they were moving all their current line to Intel by the end of the year…) and saying we’ll see the iBook’s replacement, but it will be simply called the “MacBook” (after Apple said they wanted all their computers to include the word “Mac”).
So, as either you can imagine, or you know first hand, there is quite a lot of speculation on the run up to an event - the Mac fanboy forums’ bandwidth is maxed out with wild assumptions, Technorati’s top tag is “Apple” and twentysomethings around the world are hammering CTRL + R to see the first glimpse of a new product.
But whatever Apple deliver is wrong in the eyes of every Mac user on the planet (Two button mouse?!?! Only DVI?! No 12″ or 17″?! “MacBook Pro”… Eugh!!) - things go back to normal and the whole thing starts again.
See, these products aren’t bad. The Intel Macs are a huge success so far, and the Mighty Mouse (from everyone I know who uses one) is the best thing since slices bread. Apple make brilliant products, only Apple users are afraid of change, which I suppose is the cause/effect of having a Mac.
Individualism
I hope that’s a word. Apple has a minority share of the desktop computing market therefore to own one makes you slightly more individual than someone who, say, plays the guitar. Everyone likes to be individual, and be more into something than someone else.
Creative types like musicians, artists, web designers tend to be quite individual (in the sense that they don’t want to sit in an office typing data into spreadsheet for the rest of their working lives) and Apple cater for them perfectly.
As a former Linux geek I can appreciate this. I would read Linux Magazine every month, and I even had a sticker of Tux on my college folder and I’d mock people who don’t understand it. And I’d find myself saying things like “Do it in Dreamweaver?! They don’t make Dreamweaver for Linux! I’ll be using VI thank you very much!” in class, just so the lecturer knew I was running an “alternative” operating system.
This, I believe, is the thing that drives Apple fans. Why would they evangelise to people who already know about Apple products? They don’t: they evangelise to people who’s computer isn’t as exciting as theirs in a loud voice in public places so that other Mac users (or just anyone they want to impress) might overhear. Have you ever told your friend about a really cool yet obscure band in a loud voice in a record shop, just to make sure everyone else knows that you know more about music?
End Note
I have no problems with any of the other companies mentioned in this text - and I have owned/do own products by them all and if I thought they were bad products I would have said so. I love my Windows XP ThinkPad.
Nice Links
http://www.apple.com/
http://blog.wired.com/cultofmac/
http://www.macrumors.com/
http://www.macworld.co.uk/
http://daringfireball.net/
http://www.geekculture.com/joyoftech/
I flicked to Flickr and checked out “my contacts’” latest uploads.
You don’t really need to read the included comment to find this funny, but it helps…
Needless to say, this has had me in stitches for ten minutes.
“So they signed me up to the Desperate Fuckers Agency and started the exhaustive process of filtering genuine applicants from the filthy perverts.
And this c*nt is what they came up with, a one-eyed spotty oik with a mass of pubic hair stuck on his head and a propensity to get his todger out in public.”
Thanks to “♥ shhexycorin ♥“
Since yesterday’s post about Adsense’s top paying keywords I logged on to see a sharp rise in my earnings.
I don’t blog for money but I like to keep an eye on how Adsense works: what sort of traffic brings clicks (for example, I was refered a few hundred hits from Slashdot and didn’t make a penny, which suggests that geeks don’t look at them…) and where is best to place them (and no, I can’t be bothered to move them from the top, that’s why they are there…) - so when I come to rely on Adsense for a project’s capital I will have a better understanding of it.
My traffic comes in bursts. Recently I have been seeing 70 - 100 visitors on a normal low-activity day, then it could rocket if my post refers to something in Technorati’s top searches - but my Adsense statistics tend to remain the same. I can’t disclose the exact amounts (Google’s policies) but they stay pretty steady and pretty low.
But today I thought I’d check. My page impressions were lower than usual (but then, it was mid-day and I hadn’t posted anything) but my clicks average at about 70% - let’s just say that if my ads were for “Mesothelioma Lawyers” I’d be at Manchester’s Apple store in the morning…
Stu from pimpmypagerank.com dropped by this morning, and seeing as most of you will be here to find out about Adsense, check out his site.
A few months ago I listed some of my top choices from Epitonic.com. I figured you could use some more.
Epitonic.com is a site that offers free and legal MP3 and WMA files from the indie end of the musical spectrum. Here are a few links to a few bands I think people should listen to, and the song titles are the ones that made me go “Oh!”. Check it out.
Sleater-Kinney - All Hands On The Bad One
Bratmobile - Shop For America
The Raveonettes - Attack Of The Ghost Riders
The Strokes - Last Night
Interpol - NYC
Richard Hell - Don’t Die
Mercury Rev - The Dark Is Rising
Death Cab For Cutie - Bend To Squares
Jim Carrol - It’s Too Late
P.E.E - Yell If I Miss Mortis
Guided By Voices - Everywhere With Helicoptor
Mates Of State - Hoarding It For A Home
The Delgardos - American Trilogy
Rilo Kiley - With Arms Outstretched
Mekons - Last Night On Earth
That’s yr lot. Anyone else got any suggestions?
When old Jakob isn’t telling people they suck at usability he likes to bust a move.
–Edit: sorry, this post was horribly stupid.
If you have ever used Google Adsense or the like you will be familier with the term “Pay per click”.
Google put adverts on your site/blog based on the content (which is why all my are offers for usability testing and cheap computers) and whenever someone clicks on those links you make a little bit of money - but there is no fixed rate.
Sometimes I make a few cents, sometimes I make a few dollars. According to CyberWyre the phrase “Mesothelioma Lawyers” (which I believe is the type of cancer caused by Asbestos) could pay $54.33.
CyberWyre have a run down of the top fifty, but sadly they are all for boring stuff like credit cards, mortgages, loans and lawyers - but take a look anyway.
Over at naughtyjames.com (home of London photographer Craig Cowling) we are about to begin the second official Photo Battle To The Death.
“Photo Battle To The Death™” is a little game we started over at Naughty James‘ Forum. It’s basically a bunch of kids(?) photographing, trying to win… NOTHING (Except for interweb glory, fame and women/men/whatever rocks your boat…).”
Due to lack of time I opted out of the first battle, so I’m really looking forward to a chance to battle the likes of Jan Schjetne, Mark Connelly, Delladums, and Craig Cowling himself - but being the resident “loathed moderator”, I don’t hold out much hope for winning a single match.
For the first battle, current matches and results, check out ohshitman.com.
Tags: Photography, NaughtyJames.
I’m sure pretty much everyone has heard about South Park, Chef and the Scientology episode.
But in a beautiful turn of events Matt Stone and Trey Parker are about to show the first episode of their 10th series (how time flies) this Wednesday in the US - which will no doubt be on YouTube within minutes - which sees Chef (AKA Isaac Hayes) join the “Super Adventure Club” and tell the children that he wants to make love to them.
He then falls off a bridge, is burned, stabbed, mauled by a lion. And a bear.
The episode has been mashed together with lines from previous recordings after Hayes, a Scientologist who has spent the last ten years making fun of Christians, Jews, Mormons, Muslims, took offense at the episode mocking his own “religion” and quit the show.
Matt and Trey, I salute you!
For more information: BBC.co.uk
Tags: South Park, Southpark, Scientology, “South Park”.
Just as I was thinking to myself about the advantages and practicality of using laptops in university I saw this. According to USA Today, Professor June Entman, of the University of Memphis, has banned her first year law students from bringing laptops to lectures, in favour of pens and paper.
What got me thinking about this was reading an article a few weeks ago regarding a university in Indiana making ThinkPads essential for all students (Read about it at Tribstar.com). A stark contrast.
Well, I bought myself a ThinkPad just before Christmas for this exact reason: to get me through university. Not only do I have to do note taking and essays, but my course is based around computers - I felt as though I should have one.
I wanted to improve my productivity, and I wanted to be a more prepared learner. To be organised, to have what I need at my finger tips (scraps of paper are for six-formers), and cut out the work you make for yourself when you make notes on paper, and then have to put them onto a computer. “What’s the point?” I asked myself, “I am supposed to be embracing this technology - the ‘Paperless Office’!”.
My second reasoning was portability. As stupid as it may sound, web design isn’t very portable. You can’t just drag some PHP files onto a USB pen drive, and you can’t just upload them and work on them whilst they are on the server (well, not easily) - my Apache server is running on my laptop, and I want to be able to develop wherever I am.
But the question is whether or not it’s effective…
The way I see it is that universities (not only mine, but pretty much everyone I have spoken to on the matter) could do more to make it easier. For example, in my building, in the hall outside the labs (and this is a 2 year old building) there is a sign on the wall that reads something along the lines of “Laptop computers are permitted in these labs but will not have access to the network and must not be plugged into the mains”. The reasoning is pretty clear: security and safety. Needless to say there is no wireless access in this building.
If I walk 200m to the library I can connect (with varying success) to a number of unsecured networks, of which I believe two belong to students in halls of residence, and another belongs to the university. So I can, usually, sit there at a table with my own laptop and browse the Internet through university’s WiFi and access my files via the web-based interface. Maximum productivity.
But this is downstairs. This is where books about child development and drama are held. It’s noisy (considering it’s a library) and I can’t get any work done. So I decide to check out the first and second floors (where I can get some journals, or books on computing - you know, stuff I need). I got to the second floor, ThinkPad under my arm, put it down on a single desk facing the window (a beautiful view over looking the pond, blue skies, trees, you know…), turned it on and went to pick up some book on web graphics. I got back and looked: I couldn’t get on to any network.
I even had every intention of working, and doing some good research, and believe me: I needed to.
So, my university has a turnover of over £45 million, and must spend thousands on plasma screen televisions in places no one sees them, and it’s putting up buildings everywhere, and replacing entire floors with G5’s but it still wont install some wireless access points in a few more places that people really need them.
With the fact that my lectures are usually held in rooms far too small to hold an entire class (I have spent Friday mornings sitting on tables against the wall for the last two weeks) - there is simply no where to put a laptop. This morning I walked into a lecture determined to sit down and type some notes up. Of course, I get in ten minutes late (like it matters…) and sit cross legged on the table with the ThinkPad on my knee: it might have looked Zen-like, but within five minutes I’d started a game of DirtBike.
Laptops, however, really come into their own when you don’t depend on other things: power sockets, Internet connections, and so on. For instance I was working with a group on a website: it was basic design and usability - we had a fair few pages and wanted a constant navigation. Someone suggested “Can’t we just use a frame for it?” - I laughed and said “I have a better idea…” andd knocked something together using a PHP include, running off my own server. Again, we were stuck having to do some usability study, we needed a quiet room with a computer, but they were all fully booked. All we really needed was a quiet room, and my laptop.
I found this article by Steven Levy about “continuous partial attention” - where he points out the frustrations of speakers when they faced with an audience of people tapping away at notebooks, playing with their Blackberrys and sending text messages. I know how he feels. And this goes back the point made by Professor Entman: laptops are a distraction.
I have found myself in lectures trying to take notes. I turn the screen so that the person to my side can’t quite see what I’m doing, and so that I can keep an eye on the lecturer. I keep an eye on the lecturer not because I need to see him/her, but because I know that if I keep staring at my screen as I type he/she will think I’m not paying attention - and lecturers aren’t the sort people you want to piss off.
But I find it really difficult. I’m typing away, and stopping to format something, or to group a set of points together so I can understand them. I go into a world of my own, I miss slides and points, and I sometimes give up, listen then print off the Powerpoint slides later on. But I have a very short attention span.
The phone has rung so many times whilst I have been writing this that I don’t really know how to conclude my thoughts. What I would say is that laptops, notebooks and small form computers have the makings of a really great tool, but institutions aren’t quick enough to impliment it.
Seeing as the majority of people reading this will be students contemplating whether or not a laptop will help them at all I would suggest that they ask about the facilities first, and actually think about how many notes you make in the first place. But at the end of the day, there could be that day when having a laptop really saves your bacon!
