And other than a few specific tasks in which the most expensive Mac Pro’s 8 cores proved beneficial (Handbrake, Cinebench, etc), the iMac outperformed the competition or kept things close enough not to be relevant, plus it straight-up won in the eyes of Speedmark 6.
Performance-wise, the base Mac Pro makes no sense at all. The 8-core Mac Pro offers a touch more power, sometimes, and other times (in many day to day tasks) even it is outgunned.
Category: Apple
AT&T Losing iPhone Exclusivity in June?
CNN Money is teasing us all.
Phil Schiller on App Rejections
BusinessWeek has a good behind-the-scenes look at Apple’s App Store process.
The Problem of File Formats
Kevin Lipe, describing a problem he ran into during NaNoWriMo:
Here’s the deal: I’ve been using this as my main word processor for a year and a half now, for everything from school papers to poems to a novel. It hasn’t let me down yet in terms of doing what I ask of it—that is, up until now. I’ve started using a MacBook (Mid-2007) as my main writing machine instead of my MacBook Pro (better keyboard) and I also have a Thinkpad X60 tablet with the gargantuan 8-cell, six-hour battery that I love to write on. As a result, I’m moving files around from machine to machine and also from operating system to operating system, and RTF is hideously inconsistent between programs, and especially between operating systems. Something’s always missing, whether it’s page numbers, the footer, whatever.
Apple Denying Coverage of Smokers’ Macs?
According to separate reports, Apple denied coverage for two users in 2008 based on the fact that OSHA lists cigarette smoke as a biohazard. Both techs refused service to the computers not because the smoke damaged them, but because it’s considered hazardous to a tech’s health to work on a contaminated unit.
I can attest to how gross the inside of a computer can get after being used in a smoking household, but I’ve never seen anyone deny warranty coverage because of it.
iPhone Sales Per Quater
Those numbers are in millions, mind you.
iMac or Mac Pro?
Because those who need Mac Pros will always need Mac Pros, I don’t think we’ll see a significant drop in their pricing. But we should see a large increase in performance, if the machine is to justify its top spot in the Macintosh product matrix.
As for me, well, for the first time in my Mac-using history, I’m contemplating an iMac as my next Mac—the Core i7 looks to be exactly what I want (other than the glossy screen, of course, but I can work around that problem). I don’t need expansion slots (they sit empty in my Mac Pro), I don’t need 32GB of RAM, and I don’t need four drive bays. I do need speed, though, and the Core i7 iMac seems to have lots of that to go around.
Steve Jobs on the ‘Digital Hub’
Once again, Jobs’ prediction proved crazy accurate. Today — just 8 years later — the Mac is the machine of choice for people who care about photography, video editing and music. Looking back, it’s clear Jobs had things like iLife and Apple’s pro applications in mind even back in early 2001, before the iPod and OS X had even shipped. It’s pretty impressive the amount of vision the guy has — and how hard Apple works to make that vision a reality.
Things Apple Can Learn From Android: Better Tie-in with the Cloud
Being built by Google, it’s no surprise that Android integrates with Google’s suite of online services seamlessly. Gmail, Google Contacts and Google Calendar are synced over-the-air to Android handsets with little setup. On the other end, Google’s web apps can be used from any computer, regardless of OS, giving users their data anytime, anywhere.
Apple offers MobileMe as a similar service, but with an emphasis on syncing with rich desktop applications, not web-based services. MobileMe works well, but at $100/year, is pricey for what it does. Like Google Sync, MobileMe pushes customers’ data over the air.
Simplenote on the Desktop
I’ve preached the goodness of Simplenote before. It’s a great iPhone/web app combo that allows users to access text-only notes from anywhere.
Up until recently, the best option to run Simplenote as an application on the Mac was in Fluid.
Enter JustNotes. It’s a menubar app that syncs with Simplenote, but with a grace and styling that Fluid can’t match. I’ve been using it for several days and have no complaints. If you use Simplenote, check it out.
Developers Hesitant About Android Market?
“We have significantly cut our investment in Android platform, just like … many others,” Gameloft finance director Alexandre de Rochefort said at an investor conference.
Rochefort said the company has cut back on investment mostly due to weaknesses of Android’s application store.
“It is not as neatly done as on the iPhone. Google has not been very good to entice customers to actually buy products. On Android nobody is making significant revenue,” Rochefort said.
‘Not That Big of a Deal’
Steve Jobs excels in writing succinct emails.