Posts by Russell Brown
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Hard News: Steve, 1999, in reply to andin,
the DAC in the Apple TV
If you can afford it…They’re too not expensive
one of these …they’re highly thought of, for a “blue collar” DAC.
Or if you know someone handy with a soldering iron I use one of theseWhy isn’t there an entry-level DAC that’s iPod-ready – i.e., an iPod dock with a third-party DAC? That would be good.
Although I must say, my HDMI Apple TV seems to pass on a good signal to the home theatre receiver if I play my iTunes library throughout it.
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Hard News: Steve, 1999, in reply to Kumara Republic,
Smartphones still can’t play MMOs or edit videos yet. It’s probably only a matter of time though.
And yet, one of the great things about PC gaming is its hackability. It's hard to see that happening in a mobile application.
And the iPhone 4 can edit video to some degree.
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Hard News: Steve, 1999, in reply to Simon Grigg,
My thoughts pretty much exactly – and frankly, even though eMusic didn’t kill my account (although no new accounts are available), its value has really become questionable. The major-label catalogues aren’t available here, and the Beggars Group catalogue disappearing altogether was a serious downer.
Beggars is the most alert music company of any real size in the world. They’re smart and reasonable and they have an incredible roster. If eMusic couldn’t keep them in the tent, I think eMusic was getting it wrong.
And I regard Bandcamp as nearly equivalent to buying direct from the band. It adds a lot of value for its commission – including the ability to send redemption codes to people you want to hear your record for free, so they can tell other people.
I’m sort of torn between wanting a jazzier storefront on Bandcamp and liking the fact that it’s presented as a service, not a player.
Tbh, if I was making music and wanted to sell it independently, I'd use Bandcamp.
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Hard News: Steve, 1999, in reply to Peter Darlington,
Oh yes, I was really referring to hardware hacking, i.e. overclocking, disk configurations etc…
Ah yes. That would be the member of the household who just had to have two graphics cards ...
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Hard News: Steve, 1999, in reply to Sacha,
the machines are just catching up to our standard human modes – gesture and voice
I suppose I’ll have to have a crack at driving Mac OS 10.7 with that multi-touch pad thing. My cheap mouse from Dick Smith still seems to work pretty well.
Unlike, it must be said, almost any freakin’ mouse that Apple ever makes. I find Fiona’s “magic” mouse almost unusable. What’s with that, I do not know.
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Hard News: Steve, 1999, in reply to James George,
Since the Apple II I have never used Apple; not because its products are made in concentration cum work camps
I’ll be brief, because I’ve gone through this ad nauseum, but Foxconn, which does most of Apple’s assembly, almost certainly also manufactures the components in your computer. Or your gaming console or router.
but because I know that whatever they are selling will always be available in better a form factor (ie free from restrictive conditions) for less elsewhere.
Which is fine if “freedom from restrictive conditions” is your primary requirement.
As Henry Ford pointed out a long time ago, you can make a reasonable quid shooting for the top end of the markets where dilettantes fret over matching their keyboard to the drapes, but the most profitable business is that which considers the masses, the hoi polloi, to be their number one customer. Apple appear to be going after us plebs at the moment so doubtless the form ahead of function types will find someone else to adore.
Sorry, but this really is bullshit. Apple’s growth products are its phones. Apple makes 28% of the revenue and two thirds of all profits in the mobile phone business. Compare and contrast to Nokia.
It will have a 75% share of the global tablet computing market in 2011.
It has been able to do this because it genuinely innovates, which allows it to define, or redefine, product categories, and to make those products compelling by presenting them as part of an ecosystem that actually works. I certainly don’t like everything Apple does – I actively dislike the iTunes Music Store – but the idea that that Apple succeeds because it puts form before function simply isn’t true.
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Hard News: Steve, 1999, in reply to Peter Darlington,
And the market works. Apple do their thing brilliantly but there's also a big demand for cheaper commodity hardware, not so pretty but more open/modular so good for hacking, pimping and shipping on to keep up to date with changes in specs. People who like to do that don't buy Apple.
And yet, at Webstock, Foo, etc, there are a lot of people who can and do hack code, who carry a Macbook as their personal machine. At least three quarters of the conference circuit regulars seem to have them nowadays -- which does not, of course, prevent them from cursing Apple.
I am somewhat worried about the iOS-ification of the Mac. It suits me to have a more managed environment on a phone and a tablet -- but I still want my computer to be a computer, not an appliance.
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Hard News: Steve, 1999, in reply to Simon Bennett,
to the LC575 with its CD-ROM drive
One of the best Macs ever. I sold mine to Chris Bourke, who used it to write his Crowded House book.
Sadly, it was followed by some of the biggest stinking piles of shit the company ever released. I had a black Performa 580 that basically was not fit for sale. There were some dark days before Steve came back.
When I became producer of Shortland Street, I introduced Mac computers to all the sets. This was in 1997 when Apple was at a very low ebb. I did it because I wanted to give the underdog some exposure, and because the colourful Apple computers looked cool. I know that medical facilities are unlikely to run Apple gear in the real world, but this was my little evangelical opportunity.
That was you!? Nice. As you say, it was completely unrealistic that the receptionist at a medical clinic would have the latest Mac, but it did look cool.
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Hard News: Steve, 1999, in reply to James Butler,
A great Macromedia technology called Flash
Heh.
Indeedy.
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Hard News: Steve, 1999, in reply to Sacha,
A triumph of leading with design and having faith that people wiill pay for a better product experience. Jobs talked about taking the time to honour the design process properly, which hardly any of Apple's competitors did.
The rush of "designer" Windows PCs after the iMac took off was hilarious. They were almost without exception hideous.
Apple's industry design process has always started deeper than that. They actually had to specify new plastics for the first iMacs. Before the iPhone, the Blackberry, with its dozens of tiny keys, was what smartphones were. Now, smartphones are basically variations on the iPhone.