Gateway One vs. iMac

Gateway is releasing an all-in-one PC called "One".

In its official press release Thursday, Gateway said it plans ship the One series in late October with two retail models and a single online-only version. Pricing for the retail line is slated to start at $1,300 for a model that includes a 1.5GHz Core 2 Duo, 2GB of memory, a 320GB hard drive, and Intel X3100 graphics. A high-end model ($1800) will boost the processor speed to 2GHz, memory to 3GB, hard disk space to 500GB, and add a Mobility Radeon HD 2600 dedicated video card.

The online model ($1,500) sits in between the two store models with the same hardware as the base PC save for a 400GB hard drive and Radeon HD 2600 chipset. (AppleInsider)

Compare this to the current iMac:

Apple's new aluminum iMac line starts at $1200 for a 20-inch model with a 2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 1GB of memory, 250GB hard drive, 8x double-layer SuperDrive, and ATI Radeon HD 2400 XT with 128MB memory. For the same $1500 as Gateway's online One model, Apple also offers an iMac with a 2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 320GB hard drive, and ATI Radeon HD 2600 PRO with 256MB memory.

Jumping up to the $1800 price point, Apple buyers get an addition 5-inch of screen real-estate (24-inchs) compared to Gateway's high-end One model, which remains at just 19-inches.

The Gateways come with more base RAM and hard disk space.

The iMacs come with 20-33% faster CPU, dedicated graphics card even on the low-end, and a bigger screen.

And people still say Macs are more expensive than PCs?

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UPDATE

And the Gateways are easy to open(*) and have wireless keyboard & mouse.

It's not exact comparison. But the Gateways are not a better deal based on components alone. It depends on what pieces you value more and what would be more easy to upgrade if necessary.

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(*) My iMac G5 is also easy to open. Apple designed them to let users replace components (even the monitor). But subsequent iMacs are harder to work with, I hear.

MS Office 2008 for Mac pricing

Perhaps the most interesting edition is the Home and Student version, which includes all the apps of the standard edition, but lacks the ability to connect to Exchange Servers, as well as some bundled Automator actions. The Home and Student edition will retail for the (relative) bargain price of $150, which leads to the inevitable question — does Microsoft really think Exchange Server access is worth $250? (Wired Compiler)

That's what I'd like to know. To be honest, Entourage with Exchange Server access is the biggest draw for me. I don't need the other "office" functionality -- I have iWork and NeoOffice. But I also work at a place that uses Exchange Server. If I want my Mac fully integrated (and not have to use Parallels to do the Exchange thing), I need Entourage. But the only way for me to get it is to buy Office for $150. No, wait -- $400. It was a tough sell at the previous price; it's impossible now.

AppleWorks RIP

So AppleWorks is officially dead. Good riddance. I've never liked its interface, ever since I got my first Mac in 2000 with OS 9. It got left further in the dust with the migration to OS X.

I like a word processor that gets out of the way. I want to be able to turn most everything off, including the rulers, how the text is going to lay out against the margins on the printed page, everything. I just want to see the text with minimal interruption. AW didn't let you do that.

I've picked up a copy of the latest Pages. Here's hoping it lets you do something like that in its word processor mode.

When worms attack

Gotta love this article title: "New Worm Attacks Mac OS X".

The first sentence of the piece? "An anonymous hacker claims to have created a worm that targets Intel versions of Mac OS X."

Anyone else see a disconnect?

Eliminating trialware

Dell on Tuesday became the first big computer maker to try to address customer frustration and anger over “trialware” – the often superfluous and frequently unwanted software that comes pre-installed on most PCs. (Financial Times)

You mean the first big computer maker other than Apple? There are usually a couple trials on a new Mac, like Microsoft Office or iWork, but it's not the mess that the common PC buyer has to put up with. It seems at least one Windows PC maker is waking up to the fact that the out-of-the-box experience matters.

Netflix & the internet

A raspberry goes to Netflix for only offering their streaming view to Windows users. They've been planning on some sort of web delivery forever -- it was part of their original business plan. This sounds like a good way for them to start providing the service, but I hope they don't plan on exluding Mac users forever.


On a related note, kudos to NBC for offering Heroes episodes online, free (and viewable on a Mac). I completely missed the first run and catching up to this Monday's new episode helped pass the time during a recent illness. I'll be following it from now on!

Update MacFixIt reports:

We've now received unconfirmed word that a Mac OS X version of the service is in the works, though we're not sure what DRM scheme will be used. Verification from Netflix officials on these plans is pending.

Apple TV disappointment

Well, this is a little disappointing. I had been looking forward to the new Apple TV device that would allow me to easily stream videos from my computer to my TV. (Yeah, yeah, I know other devices exist but [a] they're not Mac-friendly and [b] I want something that'll "just work", preferably with iTunes.) I don't have cable and download more shows than I watch over broadcast. But look at one of the requirements:

Widescreen (16:9) enhanced definition or high definition television with an HDMI, DVI, or component video input

Maybe I'm on the only one on the planet that would be willing to pay $300 for this device but only has a TV with composite inputs? If a Macbook can output to an analog TV, why can't this thing?

Not to say that I wasn't going to have to think about it. $300 is quite a bit to pay for the convenience of not having to hook my notebook computer to the TV. But I did have some gift money saved up and would probably have gone for it. Oh well, guess I'll have to find a more honorable use for the money (because, no, I'm not going to plunk down over $1000 for a new TV).

Allchin on Macs

"I would buy a Mac today if I was not working at Microsoft."

Windows chief Jim Allchin in a January 2004 e-mail to Steve Ballmer and Bill Gates.

Firefox & Safari browers gain market share

AppleInsider is reporting that both the Firefox and Safari (for Mac) browsers have gained market share.

Although it maintains its standing as the No. 3 browser on the Internet, a recent market share report by Net Applications shows Apple's WebKit-based Safari to have garnered a 3.19 percent share in March, an increase of 1.81 percent from last year.

During the same time period, Microsoft's Internet Explorer saw its market share slip over 3 percent, from 88 percent down to 84.70 percent. FireFox -- the only other browser to succeed Safari in the rankings -- appears to have benefitted the greatest from Explorer's slump, posting a near 3 percent gain to 10.05 percent market share, up from 7.38 percent a year ago.

It should not be too surprising to hear that the Seventh Leper readership is even more progressive. Recent browser marketshare on this blog:

IE 6.0: 66%
Firefox: 18%
Safari: 14%
Mozilla/Netscape: 2%
Konquerer: 1%

Virtualization on Intel Mac

An article on virtualization (e.g., running Windows and MacOS simultaneously on an Intel-based Mac) is in today's Wired News.

Parallels' Rudolph said dual-booting systems are not in tune with the way people work. Having to shut down OS X to boot into Windows wastes time, he said, adding that a Mac running Parallels' virtualization software is almost as fast as a dedicated Windows box.

"If a native Windows machine runs at 100 out of 100 on speed, our version of virtualization runs at a 90 or 95," he said. "It's very fast and very stable."

I agree. The exception being game playing, since you want 100% of your CPU and virtualized 3D doesn't appear to be fully supported yet.

Apple and Windows

Apple now has an official (if beta) way to install Windows on their new Intel-based Macs. All the hobbiests that have been creating hacks to do this can stop now.

I have to say, however, that the idea of a dual-boot Mac is completely uninteresting to me. If I had some must-run Windows software, I'd much rather be able to run it within a window in Mac OS. Such a virtual Windows environment would be safer and there wouldn't be the inconvenience of having to reboot. It'll come eventually.

Mac viruses to increase?

eWeek has a "news analysis" declaring "Apple's shift to Intel processors will make it easier to create software exploits in Macintosh systems".

"Attackers have been focused on the [Intel] x86 for over a decade. Macintosh will have a lot more exposure than when it was on PowerPC," said Oliver Friedrichs, a senior manager at Symantec Corp. Security Response.

Correction: attackers have been focused on the *Windows OS* for over a decade. I'm not exactly sure what this has to do with the Mac. Red Hat Linux already runs on Intel -- are there a lot of viruses written for it?

I guess Mac moving to Intel means some assembly code compatibility but what good does this do you if the Mac's memory addressing and file system are different and you lack the usual Internet Explorer and MS Outlook exploits? Time will tell!

In any case, if you want to hear how bad viruses on the Mac is going to get, go to Symantec. They have a product to sell, after all. It remains to be seen whether it causes more problems on the Mac then it solves.

Apple worth more than Dell

In 1997, shortly after Mr. Jobs returned to Apple, the company he helped start in 1976, Dell's founder and chairman, Michael S. Dell, was asked at a technology conference what might be done to fix Apple, then deeply troubled financially.

"What would I do?" Mr. Dell said to an audience of several thousand information technology managers. "I'd shut it down and give the money back to the shareholders."

On Friday, apparently savoring the moment, Mr. Jobs sent a brief e-mail message to Apple employees, which read: "Team, it turned out that Michael Dell wasn't perfect at predicting the future. Based on today's stock market close, Apple is worth more than Dell. Stocks go up and down, and things may be different tomorrow, but I thought it was worth a moment of reflection today. Steve."

NY Times

Mac Windows Media Player discontinued

Windows Media Player for the Mac is now officially dead. It hasn't been updated for years and it was clunky (compared to Apple's QuickTime player) besides.


The good news is that there's now a free third-party plugin, Flip4Mac WMV, that allows to you play Windows media within the QuickTime player. I haven't extensively tested it, but it worked great on a couple test movies. Finally, I can pause a WMV movie and use the scroll widget to fast-forward/rewind.

Of course, when faced with a choice you should always choose the more cross-platform QuickTime media. But for times when there is no choice, rock on.

Google Earth on Mac

Google Earth is now available on the Mac. Thanks guys!

RIP IE

Rest in peace, Internet Exporer for Mac.

I was going to say that no one uses this outdated browser any more but, lo and behold, 3 or 4 percent of the last 200 visitors to my other sites did. None of the last 100 visitors to this page did. Obviously you are a progressive, "with it" group. ;)