I am posting this from Safari in windows. I really like it. It has a nice apple look and feel. Fonts buttons and everything. Even though I use Firefox primarily on Mac, I don't really like Firefox on windows probably because of the very boring old windows XP look and feel. I really believe that Safari will really become a player in this space. The web just feels a lot fresher and I think that will go a long way for Apple with the windows crowd. Try it out now if you haven't already.
Leopard looks pretty flipping sweet. My week of mac tastiness started off pretty darn good with the WWDC. I just actually ordered a MacBook Pro last week along with a 80gb viPod and they should be here by the end of this week. :)
What are your guys' impressions? Mine are pretty darn positive.
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I think the iphone is going to tank pretty hard. Honestly, who needs one that doesn't already own a crackberry? I doubt most people who already own either a blackbury or some other pda phone combo are going to switch. I don't really see where they expect to get customers for this thing. Are there really that many people that can't live without everything in their life being branded apple? $500 is a lot of money, considerably more than an ipod and that doesn't include the early termination fee you are likely to incur from your cell phone provider (assuming you're not already using cingular/att). Someone want to fill me in on why people are treating this as the second coming of the ipod, because I've already dumped most of my apple stock. It was a good ride while it lasted.
Finally, I want my copy of Leopard. Now.
I think apple's motivations for Safari on Windows are simple. The are pushing for web-apps for the iPhone that leverage the Safari engine. The developers would definitely want to make their apps available to desktop users, and this give them greater options in this space. Right now, the entire market for smartphones is for business users, and if the iPhone apps were tied 100% to the Mac platform, they would tank quickly.
The jury is definitely out on the iPhone. I am not putting down $500 at this point, but I am definitely rooting for it. I still have about 18 months on my current cell contract, so when that runs out, hopefully the iPhone will be in rev 2 or 3 and it will be an attractive option.
There are three things keeping me from using Safari over Firefox for Mac.
1) No Googlepedia plugin. I have searched and searched for an equivalent. This is a deal-stopper.
2) Command-l and Command-k do not work the way I want them to (the exact way that they work in all versions of Firefox). In Windows Safari they actually do work, but the beta on Mac doesn't yet.
3) It is not free (as in speech) software. I know the rendering engine is based off of Konqueror, but every update is still dependant on Apple. I prefer the peace of mind of Firefox where I know they aren't going to try and screw me over without me knowing and critical bugfixes will come right away.
My take on the font smoothing thing is that it pretty much up to individual preferences. I personally h ave no issue with the OS X way and actually prefer it, but I can understand why others think differently. I have been a fan of joelonsoftware for a long time. I own and love his books, but the last little while, he has turned into a troll, kicking off flame wars such as this. It is really quite sad, using anti-Apple bigotry to drive traffic.
Leopard will be a must-have for me, but I have a sneaking feeling that 2gb of ram will be just barely enough to cope with all that bling and widgetry.
I kid you not about my apple stock. I bought a bunch at 60 and some more again at 90. Sold half of what I had a week or two ago around 120 and bought something else (escapes me at the moment), I guess I made it sound like I dumped it all like a cheating whore. I'm going to hold on to half of it and see where it goes, but I don't expect it to keep growing at its current pace. Looking at their recent and future plans, I don't really like what I see. Apple TV? A bust, especially after the news that movie executives weren't own board for their netflix-esque idea. iPhone? We'll wait and see whether the phone buying public is going to make a mockery out of me. I expect Mac computers to continue to sell well (if only because more people are realizing that it's capable of handling their work related needs by running windows and also providing a much nicer and more intuitive approach to everything else) and ipods are a no brainer. I don't see where the growth is going to come from in the near future and that's what's going to drive a stock's price.
Everything is fast and snappy. Nothing but pure bliss of having a new machine.
The rumors around new iMacs sound promising.
The last significant thing they did to the iMac was put an intel chip in it, and even that was the exact same form factor as the G5. I am hoping they do something significantly different this time. My parents are currently in the game for a new computer and I am pretty sure an iMac is the one for them.