[ home | about | dec'04 | nov'04 | 2004 | 2003 | rss feed ]

news of 2005-02-09

Cheer Up, Vol. 1

Just a short note to make you feel good about using a Mac during the day (as if you needed it...): Have you ever noticed how Windows XP tells the user that a network cable was disconnected? Funny thing (or rather annoying thing, actually) is: Half of the time you already know, because it was you who disconnected it in the first place, but the other half of the time, the cable wasn't actually disconnected, it just means that you're now about to troubleshoot Windows XP's networking (or let somebody else do it instead). Cheer up, chances are you're using a Mac. And that's a good thing.

[ written by fryke™ on 2005-02-09 at 16:30 CET ]
[ contact (e-mail) ] - [ story link ] - [ back to top ]

Pages 1.0 The Good & The Bad

First of all: Pages 1.0 is what AppleWorks wordprocessing users have wanted for years. A modern wordprocessing application that uses Mac OS X' editing capabilities and font rendering. It also has great linking to iLife '05 (and '04 for those who don't want to upgrade that, too). If you intend to create beautiful documents with pictures and artwork easily, Pages is for you (and Word is not). But Pages will only take you so far (just like AppleWorks did). You won't create the really good brochures with it, you'll want to check out Adobe InDesign for that. And you won't use it professionally as a word processor either, you'll go to Microsoft Office 2004 for that.

Now where is Pages headed? If Apple adds AppleScript to Pages and gives users a few good scripts to start from, as well as a good database to go with it (I can very well imagine Apple taking this as the next step rather than a spruced up spreadsheet application), Pages will be 'good enough' for home users as well as the so-called 'small office'. But can it extend into InDesign's market as well?
Don't get me wrong: Pages can already create good-looking documents. It's much easier to learn, too. But don't let those spicy templates have you fooled like an April's: Pages by far isn't near a professional graphics designer's layout tools. And hopefully it'll never try to be. Users of Pages will gladly take its graphics abilities, but what it lacks right now is rather in the office department. Mail merge is a must (and with it, an easy to use database), for example. Scriptability would not only be 'cool', but would extend Pages' use incredibly.
However with working paragraph styles, Pages could very well be a good InDesign partner. And Adobe should rather help Pages be that than see it as a competitor.

[ written by fryke™ on 2005-02-09 at 12:51 CET ]
[ contact (e-mail) ] - [ story link ] - [ back to top ]

Letter to Steve

Okay, Steve. I hear the iPods (all of them except the photo) are doing insanely well, filling Apple's pockets. The Mac mini, I hear, is a success, too - and people are (as you hoped for) buying iBooks, iMacs and eMacs, too, although they first came to buy a mini. The plan of getting behind Microsoft's with iWork slowly is also working, it seems. Sure, Pages is not a word competitor per se, just like Keynote isn't a direct PowerPoint competitor, but this way Microsoft still provides for the 'real' Office package, while you can go about style etc. What the world domination plan needs now, though, is a PowerMac. Yep, a real one. Not those lackluster 2x2.5 type of machines you got there. Real powerhouses that make me scream "And what about the portables?" again. You know: They have to be so good, everybody wants them. Just like the G5 when it first came out.

There's talk of 'Mac OS X on PCs' again, although this time with a twist. Seems like PC manufacturers are luring you, Steve, into licensing Mac OS X to them as an alternative to virus-ridden Windows. The linked article says 'three of the biggest'. And let's just say this: If you really want to bring Microsoft to its knees, why not with HP and Dell for the businesses and with Sony for the rest of the world. But frankly: If those are really desperate to jump on the Mac bandwagon, I'd rather have them use PowerPCs than 'other' processors. Do they want to be part of the second coming of the Mac? Why not let them help, but on the right terms. HP, for example, could do simple desktops and really big servers. I'm not sure whether you should let Dell in, but Sony could do the media centers and the subnotebooks. While you, Apple, would still have the 'normal' notebooks and desktops. More importantly, though, you should get a good part of the money for the operating system. We all know that it's Mac OS X which would make those efforts a success. (Although Microsoft should in all fairness get a bit of the money, too, since it'd be basically their own fault.) ;)

[ written by fryke™ on 2005-02-09 at 10:51 CET ]
[ contact (e-mail) ] - [ story link ] - [ back to top ]