So yesterday Apple had it’s 1.5 hour keynote about mac software. The market reaction was pretty flat and I think in review I’m surprised by that. I think the stock price should have dipped.
The keynote started with a long description of how great the Mac was by Tim Cook (COO). I don’t know if was trying to channel Steve Jobs, but he kept saying amazing and fantastic and it sounded very contrived. It goes without saying that I’m not a big fan of sales numbers and all of the powerpoint mess that they were doing.
Next up was a (long) review of the new iLife version. I like the apps, but I was not compelled to spend $50 on the software or buy a Mac just to get the new version of iLife. Don’t get me wrong. I always think I’ll make a great vacation movie (and the trailer templates were neat), but I lived through the practicality of actually trying to get enough raw video during a vacation. In short, it’s a pain in the butt. Maybe video capture on the iPhone 4/3GS makes it easier, but only time will tell.
Fortunately, things got interesting with a demo of Mac OSX 10.7 aka Lion. I’m really a big fan of full screen interfaces. I think the one window model has really been invigorated and all apps need to jump on board. As a developer, Xcode 4 can’t arrive soon enough. While watching the keynote live, I kept thinking of this other video I saw more than a year ago. I think there is a big push to focus on one task at a time (which doesn’t preclude multi-tasking). People don’t like distractions (unless of course they are bored with the focused task, but that’s really an entirely different issue).
Next up was Mission Control. I think this is a great idea to merge all of the window management concepts. Again, the video comes to mind. I never really got into spaces because it was kind of a pain to know what was going on. Maybe this is the silver bullet to solve window management issues.
Mac App Store. About time. Now I run as much beta software as the next programmer, but I like the idea of a standard and vetted apps that get vetted, updated and installed auto-magically. It really makes sense to have that process be as turnkey as possible. As a developer it’s great because you don’t have to worry about library incompatibilities of the hardware/os version because the application meta data (and the app installer) will do all of that heavy lifting. As a developer, I like the idea of a well known marketplace (but I’m still not keen on Apple eating 30% of my lunch).
One last thing: new Air hardware. I really love the look of the Air notebooks. I think Apple nailed it with the unibody design several years ago. I just wish that Apple and I could agree more about the priorities of the devices.
The good:
- full size keyboard
- high res screen
- 2 usb ports
- re-install software on usb stick (very cool)
- 4 GB RAM (finally)
- Flash only storage (with base at 64GB)
The bad:
- Too heavy
- Slow processor
I really don’t need a 30 day standby on anything. This includes my iPad. Until I never have to plug it in, it will never be long enough. I would rather have the laptops be lighter (2.3, 2.9 pounds) and give up all of that crazy battery weight. I can’t believe that they still put in a 1.6GHz processor. I’m pretty sure that’s the original one from several years ago. That is just crazy slow. Especially when the plastic mac book still for sale at $1000 has almost 2x the power. I know they need to make money, but really it’s a bit ridiculous. In hind sight, I guess Apple and I agree more than not and time will tell if I get a notebook (to replace the ipad as my home theater remote?).