John Welch agrees — removing the Xserve opens a giant hole in Apple’s lineup.
Category: Apple
Un-Pro: What the Xserve Announcement Means to the Enterprise
Earlier today, Apple announced that it is discontinuing the Xserve, the company’s rack-mounted server, and are replacing it with a new-fangled “Mac Pro Server.”
For most people, this doesn’t really mean much. For those of us in enterprise-level IT, however, it’s a blow below the belt, for several reasons.
Form Factor
The Xserve is 1U, meaning it fits into server racks with relative ease, living above or below with other servers and network gear without a problem. While there are some products that can make a Mac Pro rack-mountable, the tower takes up a lot more space in a rack. In fact, on its side, a Mac Pro is 5U. That’s a lot more space.
MacBook Air Video Fix Coming?
Whoever keeps leaking these photos will get fired in about 2 seconds when they get caught.
Protip: Use Safari Reader to Send Multi-Page Articles to Instapaper
I love Instapaper. It makes reading web content enjoyable.
Instapaper generally works like a dream. However, it cannot pull all of the text from a story if that story is broken into several pages.
Take Ars Technica’s 5-page review of the 11.6" MacBook Air. Normally, I would just send the first page to Instapaper, and then up reading the rest of the story in the browser when I have time, since this is what Instapaper does normally in this situation:
Lucky 13
I don’t want to jump the gun and say that this is the best Mac I have ever owned – but this is my favorite Mac that I have ever owned. 10 The question though isn’t whether I like this machine 11 but whether or not one can use it as a primary Mac.
The short answer is absolutely.
If you send anything to Instapaper today, this should be it.
On iPad Apps Running on the Mac
There’s no doubt that iOS is where the developer mojo is. Not just Apple’s developer mojo, but the industry’s. It’s the hottest platform in the world, period. And I do think Apple sees the upcoming Mac App Store as an opportunity for iOS developers who’ve never written apps for the Mac to start. But I don’t think iPad apps are ever going to run on the Mac as-is, without any change or adaptation to account for the very different input methods. This isn’t about ARM vs. x86 code generation, or development frameworks. It’s about the fact that direct manipulation on a touchscreen is fundamentally different than moving a mouse cursor via a touchpad.
AppleCare Gains Transferability
Apple has made changes to its policy regarding the transferability of AppleCare Protection Plans, a source told BGR. Starting immediately, an Apple customer will have the ability to transfer AppleCare Protection Plan coverage to a new device without having to cancel the current plan and purchase a new one.
[…]
The policy change, which applies only to eligible purchases made within the 30-day period prior to a transfer request, simplifies the buying process for customers. AppleCare Protection Plans for the iPhone have been transferable since June of this year, and now the new policy will apply to all Apple products eligible to be covered by a protection plan.
Personal Shopping Ends
All references to the service have been erased from the company’s Web site, and the Personal Shopping link now re-directs surfers to the main Retail page (former page). Individual stores pages and the Apple Store app have also been updated. According to sources, the change became effective yesterday and stems from the belief that every customer should receive the same attention and amount of service.
This program was a major pain when it was implemented several years ago, when I was still at Apple Retail. Glad to see it go.
The Power Mac G4 Cube Enters the Fold
I own a lot of Apple gear. The current list includes:
- 1 original Macintosh
- 1 Mac Plus
- 2 Macintosh SEs
- 1 Color Classic II
- 1 eMate 300
- 1 original iBook G3 Clamshell (Blueberry)
- 1 iMac G3 (Sage)
- 1 PowerBook G3 (Pismo)
- 1 14-inch iBook G4
- 2 PowerMac G4s (1 Quicksilver & 1 Mirror Drive Door)
- 1 13-inch MacBook
- 1 24-inch Intel iMac
- 1 15-inch MacBook Pro
All of these systems boot and run with the exception of one of the SEs and the Pismo.
The New Mac App Market
So I expect a lot of iOS developers to start making Mac apps, especially individuals and very small teams.
I think he’s right. The number of Mac apps is about to really start to grow. I think Marco nails this bit too:
But a huge new market is about to open next door. And yes, it’ll probably be dominated by Angry Birds and other inexpensive, often trivial apps. When this happens, a lot of traditional Mac developers are going to look down on it. But those with a bit of free time to develop their own inexpensive, often trivial apps might have a different viewpoint entirely when they see their sales numbers.
Banned White iPhone 4 Promo
Not a Netbook
Mark Spoonauer at Laptop Magazine:
Apple said it would never make a netbook, and it hasn’t. The 11-inch MacBook Air is a powerful ultraportable that makes other systems in its class look positively bloated. More important, this machine never keeps you waiting, thanks to the way it uses flash memory. We just wish the hinge for the display were a bit tighter to prevent unwanted movement. Some may prefer the new 13-inch MacBook Air ($1,299), which offers a higher-resolution screen, faster CPU, and a SD Card slot. If you’re torn between Windows and Mac, the $899 Acer Timeline 1830T offers a much faster Core i7 processor and longer battery life but integrated graphics and a much less compelling design. But if you want the thinnest, lightest Mac experience ever, this Air will leave you elated.