eXtra Notes

I write this a few days before the Apple World conference at the Moscone Center, San Francisco where a number of new or updated products are expected to be announced. If you have followed the rumours over the last weeks and months, three main ones have come forward from time to time and in the last week or so the main press -- newspapers, TV -- have been putting forward these rumours as if they are established fact.

The products rumoured to be due for updates are the eMac, the iBook, the PowerBook and the iMac. Of these, the eMac would be most likely as this has not changed for several months (since the 1.25GHz G4 chip was used) and upping it to a G5 would be a logical development. The fires have been stoked by a swathe of price cuts of displays and of other hardware, across the board. Some XServe hardware was also updated. If this is what Apple is doing before the show, what will the show itself bring?

The rumours are interesting, if one treats them for what they are: rumours. Like gossip, the reality can sometimes be a let-down. However, I will repeat them for what they are worth. After Tuesday, when Steve Jobs gives us the concrete facts, things will be different.

• Rumour 1: The iPod flash. This one has been circulating for a few months especially after a flash drive maker was reportedly in discussions with Cupertino. As there are already numerous deviccs of this type on the market, it would make sense for Apple to go with the flow; or it would make no sense as there are already enough.

  
  

• Rumour 2: The iPod phone. The idea of convergence has attractions for a lot of people. I did try the Ericsson 900 a few months ago, which has a Palm interface, but had troubles using iSync, like a lot of folks. I also tried the O2 -- a couple of friends have this -- but this is not compatible with the Mac, so that is out, 100%, for me. The problem with such multiple functions is that it needs a PhD (or at least a course of instruction) and 3 months to become familiar with the device.

  The iPod phone, however, is supposed not to be an organiser-type of device, but a phone with music storage, controlled by iTunes and with access to the iTunes shop: a fat lot of good that will do us here in Bangkok, of course.

  Of the rumours, this one has gained some currency in the last 48 hours (I write this on Sunday 9 January) with the information in circulation that Motorola executive VP Ron Garriques showed off the first iTunes-compatible telephone handset during his keynote address at CES (Consumer Electronics Association) on Friday 7 January. The image shown has been borrowed from the Endgadget site.

  If anything Motorola have been the fly in the ointment of Apple's normally paranoid secrecy as some details of the device emerged a few weeks ago when someone from the company allegedly discussed it on a train. As with computer security, the human is often the weakest link in the chain.

  
  

• Rumour 3: This has had all the trade press, the anti-Mac brigade and the mainstream media in a frenzy. It has also had Apple reaching for the writs in -- as one commentator put it -- an action of shooting themselves in the foot: confirming the truth of the rumour by suing the messenger.

  The message was an old ruour (or at least request-cum-hope) of a headless Mac. A simple device -- I tried to get my students to design something like it a couple of years ago for cheap rural access -- that plugs into a television or a monitor but which has the full operating system and full connectivity (USB, Firewire, Ethernet), enabling it to be used as a home control device: thus goes the rumour. And all for $499.

I rather like all these guessing games as it really makes one focus on what "The Steve" says at his keynote address: considerably more polished than the eruptions of Ballmer of Redmond. I put a couple of links to QuickTime files in xnote, number 11. If you did not catch them then use this link and have a look at the first item. Ballmer's performance in these clips must have been enough to make several thousand switch to Apple there and then.

Let us consider the implications of such a device and such a price. Without doubt a whole lot of switching would probably occur. This might be the device that swayed the balance for countless people fed up with what Windows does to their machines: you know, viruses, reinstalling every 6 months, crashing at the drop of a hat. . . . I actually got that from a colleague and it was her description of a normal "day in the life", When I said that my eMac had been on for 6 months, she gawped and mumbled something about having another look. Can you imagine what might happen if all these people did switch: it is bad enough with Windows folks in the iPod forums already.

One person who did have another look was a former student at the Mahidol International College, who had been producing videos on a PC. We had many discussions about the Apple platform and every time he would turn round the conversation to price: "So expensive, Ajaan." Compared with a machine assembled in a back room in Phantip Plaza while you wait, I guess it is. Although, if you have ever seen the ordering process, that form magically fills up -- disk size, memory, Ethernet, modem, Video, monitor upgrade -- until the price has mushroomed and you have not even started on the software. All free of course (I am told): Windows, Office, and all the rest.

On the eMac, the software is free too. Or at least, the legitimate operating system -- industrial strength, not some Microsoft apology -- plus all the applications and a couple of games, all come bundled and as part of the price of the computer.

With student discount, that same young man picked up his eMac for 29,990 baht (plus VAT -- you don't pay that at some Phantip shops either) and it was ready to go out of the box. I have had a few e-mails from him. The first was seven days after he bought the eMac: "Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you," etc..

Unlike with his PC, and unlike my colleague, he is not spending time fixing, cleaning and re-installing. He is productive; and the latest e-mail tells me (apart from the B.S. praise of good teacher, that students here always give you -- true or not) that not only is he making great strides with the eMac, so are several of his friends. These students, who have only ever known the world according to Ballmer and Gates, are now queuing up to use his eMac. One apparently is about to go for an iBook. About time they all bought their own.

Maybe they could start with a headless Mac?

I wrte about about the human factor: often the weakest link in any security system. I have the screensaver security turned on, so that if I am away from the machine, a password is needed to acccess it (or to switch users). A device has been publicised of late in which it is impossible to access a computer without an external device, such as a flash drive, iPod or a Firewire disk. The software from Pariahware, Inc. (unfortunate name, I feel), turns one of the aforementioned devices into a "key". This would be most useful in an environment where security is of grave importance. I make no recommendations here: just passing it on.

Other links:

---

For further information, e-mail to Graham K. Rogers.

To eXtensions, Current items

To eXtensions, Year Two

To eXtensions, Book Reviews

To Motorcycles Page

Back to homepage