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- Your Mac's Specs
- 17 inch 2 GHz C2D imac (5,1) with 3GB DDR2 RAM, X1600 (128MB memory) GPU - OSX 10.6.3
Apart from the fact I think Gizmodo are the scum of the Earth, their info is a nice summary of 10.7.
So pretty much this was in essence an iOS keynote. But more like parts of iOS and iOS hardware we can use in OS X and the new Macbook Airs. So year 2010 was the the year of iOS.
Do I like iOS and OS X coming together? I'm not sure. I do think the App store for Mac is a good idea. To me this was also done for all the people that still say there's not enough good Apps for OS X. We all know that's not just true as we know. But the App store for Mac will just prove that even more. And yeah the App store has the fart (and similar useless) apps. And so will the Mac App store. But also it'll have all the good apps too.
I can see developers we all know and love (or hate) like Adobe, Freeverse, and even many others racing to get all their main Apps tot he app store. Cause to me having to trawl through many app websites or Google for the App I want is a daunting task for those who are not good at computers. And then on these app websites you just hear the App makers praising their own apps to high heaven. Impossible that way to get unbiased feedback on is that App right for me.
But on the new App store for Mac just like the iOS one and the music one you can get customer feedback for the Apps. And you can read many customer reviews and see what the App is like in the real world. And it's a much better way to judge if a certain App is right for you.
And yes people will whinge and cry and go "that's baaad Apple.". That's more nasty closed systems you are forcing on the public. But I say no. For the above reasons a one stop shop is good. The people who don't know much about computing can go there and feel that they will get a useful app that won't be a waste of their hard earnt money. And the tech minded of us still have the usual channels (Developer websites, macupdate.com/versiontracker.com and others) to get their apps. So it's just another option for OS X. Not the only option like iOS. So in that respect adding in the Mac App store in addition to the usual way we get OS X apps is a good idea.
Next. Mision Control. Kind of unifies Expose, Spaces and Dashboard into one featured App is a sense. Which is good, less clutter in the dock. Plus most people either use Expose and Spaces or neither of them. And best to have them both available at one click. The downside? Jobs and co said nothing about where widgets would be going. His demo just showed you can organise your apps on your Mac screen in a grid just like in iOS. But not a word was said if widgets would still be in 10.7 or not. Personally I like dashboard as it is in 10.6. Sure it uses up a little more memory then I'd like. But all the info there (world times, stock prices, conversion tables, daily garfield comic etc etc for me) is really useful to have. At one click I get all that info. I hope these widgets are not removed from 10.7. Actually moving the widgets to their own separate space and accessing this widget space through Mission Control would be the best solution in my opinion.
Multitouch through trackpads, mice, and flat horizontal (and not vertical) screens is the way to go. We here all agree with it. And I'm personally glad Apple see this too.
The new Macbook Air. To me it's the closest to a netbook Apple will ever get. And compared to the current white Macbook they are honestly a good choice. I actually like them. Unlike the old Macbook Air which I thought was very over priced for what it did.
Unlike Apple though I'm not 100% sold on Flash storage. I've read up how flash stores and writes over data compared the platters on a standard hard drive. And if I remember correctly you can erase and write over a sector in the hard drive many more times on a platter then flash before said sector goes bad. In a PC this would not matter as they get replaced often. But people tend to hang onto their Mac products for a long time cause of the price and they just last so long, this becomes an issue. And if the flash storage goes bad, how costly would it be to replace. You can replace a standard hard drive easily. But because Apple solder the individual flash chips to the motherboard, it'll be a hard expensive task to fix/replace bad flash.
So in short I like flash storage. The traditional hard drives are so bug and bulky and have all those moving parts. But is flash technology good enough to be relied upon as the main storage point for your important data? I just don't know. But if you have a Time Machine or Super Duper or similar backup of your data (as you should) it becomes less of an issue. But still I think I'll feel better after a few real world tests on this flash storage in the new Airs.
The price on the Macbook Airs seems fair. 128GB (with the extra cost) is not much storage these days. To me around 250GB to 500GB is about what most people are using as their internal computing drives. Sure I could live off 128 at a push. But if I needed 10% to 15% of the flash drive free (like I do an ordinary drive) for OS X virtual and other memories then it'd be a hard ask for many people. Photos and music is what a lot of people store on their computers. And you can easily have 50GB+ of photos or music. So for my money I'd spring for the bigger Macbook Air.
Two more points I would like to say about the Macbook Air.
1. The 13.3 inch model has a 1440x900 screen resolution. And that's the same max resolution I have in my 2006 17inch imac. So in 4 years or so Apple have increased the number of pixels per inch by a lot. I would go to an Apple store and check this out in person. Cause these really tiny pixels can make for some really tiny font in pages and other such things. So check if this new screen is for you.
2. The GPU should be fine for most non gaming and most basic (non 3D) gaming tasks. So I don't see an issue there. But expect to spring $100 or so more for an Apple external Superdrive if this Macbook Air is to be your main computer. So overall I like these new Macbook Airs. Are they better then the Macbook or the Macbook Pro? I would say for some people yes and for others no. It'd be all up to the individual needs of the person.
And lastly the titbits.
ilife 11 to me is just gravy. Lots of fancy features. Makes your time using the apps much better. But not 100% necessary. So if you don't get it, ilife 09 will still work and to everything you want.
Facetime for OS X. I wonder if every Mac with a camera will be able to use it or just the ones with the better cameras. Apart from that more gravy. But really nice gravy.
So in the end apart from ilife 11, everything in this keynote was bringing certain iOS features to the Mac. Totally telling us that 2010 was the year of the iOS.
********************
That was just my 2¢ on the keynote. My opinions.
So pretty much this was in essence an iOS keynote. But more like parts of iOS and iOS hardware we can use in OS X and the new Macbook Airs. So year 2010 was the the year of iOS.
Do I like iOS and OS X coming together? I'm not sure. I do think the App store for Mac is a good idea. To me this was also done for all the people that still say there's not enough good Apps for OS X. We all know that's not just true as we know. But the App store for Mac will just prove that even more. And yeah the App store has the fart (and similar useless) apps. And so will the Mac App store. But also it'll have all the good apps too.
I can see developers we all know and love (or hate) like Adobe, Freeverse, and even many others racing to get all their main Apps tot he app store. Cause to me having to trawl through many app websites or Google for the App I want is a daunting task for those who are not good at computers. And then on these app websites you just hear the App makers praising their own apps to high heaven. Impossible that way to get unbiased feedback on is that App right for me.
But on the new App store for Mac just like the iOS one and the music one you can get customer feedback for the Apps. And you can read many customer reviews and see what the App is like in the real world. And it's a much better way to judge if a certain App is right for you.
And yes people will whinge and cry and go "that's baaad Apple.". That's more nasty closed systems you are forcing on the public. But I say no. For the above reasons a one stop shop is good. The people who don't know much about computing can go there and feel that they will get a useful app that won't be a waste of their hard earnt money. And the tech minded of us still have the usual channels (Developer websites, macupdate.com/versiontracker.com and others) to get their apps. So it's just another option for OS X. Not the only option like iOS. So in that respect adding in the Mac App store in addition to the usual way we get OS X apps is a good idea.
Next. Mision Control. Kind of unifies Expose, Spaces and Dashboard into one featured App is a sense. Which is good, less clutter in the dock. Plus most people either use Expose and Spaces or neither of them. And best to have them both available at one click. The downside? Jobs and co said nothing about where widgets would be going. His demo just showed you can organise your apps on your Mac screen in a grid just like in iOS. But not a word was said if widgets would still be in 10.7 or not. Personally I like dashboard as it is in 10.6. Sure it uses up a little more memory then I'd like. But all the info there (world times, stock prices, conversion tables, daily garfield comic etc etc for me) is really useful to have. At one click I get all that info. I hope these widgets are not removed from 10.7. Actually moving the widgets to their own separate space and accessing this widget space through Mission Control would be the best solution in my opinion.
Multitouch through trackpads, mice, and flat horizontal (and not vertical) screens is the way to go. We here all agree with it. And I'm personally glad Apple see this too.
The new Macbook Air. To me it's the closest to a netbook Apple will ever get. And compared to the current white Macbook they are honestly a good choice. I actually like them. Unlike the old Macbook Air which I thought was very over priced for what it did.
Unlike Apple though I'm not 100% sold on Flash storage. I've read up how flash stores and writes over data compared the platters on a standard hard drive. And if I remember correctly you can erase and write over a sector in the hard drive many more times on a platter then flash before said sector goes bad. In a PC this would not matter as they get replaced often. But people tend to hang onto their Mac products for a long time cause of the price and they just last so long, this becomes an issue. And if the flash storage goes bad, how costly would it be to replace. You can replace a standard hard drive easily. But because Apple solder the individual flash chips to the motherboard, it'll be a hard expensive task to fix/replace bad flash.
So in short I like flash storage. The traditional hard drives are so bug and bulky and have all those moving parts. But is flash technology good enough to be relied upon as the main storage point for your important data? I just don't know. But if you have a Time Machine or Super Duper or similar backup of your data (as you should) it becomes less of an issue. But still I think I'll feel better after a few real world tests on this flash storage in the new Airs.
The price on the Macbook Airs seems fair. 128GB (with the extra cost) is not much storage these days. To me around 250GB to 500GB is about what most people are using as their internal computing drives. Sure I could live off 128 at a push. But if I needed 10% to 15% of the flash drive free (like I do an ordinary drive) for OS X virtual and other memories then it'd be a hard ask for many people. Photos and music is what a lot of people store on their computers. And you can easily have 50GB+ of photos or music. So for my money I'd spring for the bigger Macbook Air.
Two more points I would like to say about the Macbook Air.
1. The 13.3 inch model has a 1440x900 screen resolution. And that's the same max resolution I have in my 2006 17inch imac. So in 4 years or so Apple have increased the number of pixels per inch by a lot. I would go to an Apple store and check this out in person. Cause these really tiny pixels can make for some really tiny font in pages and other such things. So check if this new screen is for you.
2. The GPU should be fine for most non gaming and most basic (non 3D) gaming tasks. So I don't see an issue there. But expect to spring $100 or so more for an Apple external Superdrive if this Macbook Air is to be your main computer. So overall I like these new Macbook Airs. Are they better then the Macbook or the Macbook Pro? I would say for some people yes and for others no. It'd be all up to the individual needs of the person.
And lastly the titbits.
ilife 11 to me is just gravy. Lots of fancy features. Makes your time using the apps much better. But not 100% necessary. So if you don't get it, ilife 09 will still work and to everything you want.
Facetime for OS X. I wonder if every Mac with a camera will be able to use it or just the ones with the better cameras. Apart from that more gravy. But really nice gravy.
So in the end apart from ilife 11, everything in this keynote was bringing certain iOS features to the Mac. Totally telling us that 2010 was the year of the iOS.
********************
That was just my 2¢ on the keynote. My opinions.