Well, at least Tony Bennett was good

Underwhelming, boring, what a let-down. Those are some of the comments echoing around the media centre in reaction to the Apple keynote here at Macworld. A summary of what was announced might read as follows:

Lots of interesting and fancy updates for Mac software, a new 17inch MacBook Pro to complete the laptop line-up and the DRM-free announcement for iTunes.

Not much really, especially compared to previous blockbusters like the iPod, and the iPhone.

It certainly felt like a long presentation. Phil Schiller, Apple's head of marketing, was up there for more than an hour and a half (he had some help along the way). He did pretty well, I thought, even if he resembled an enthusiastic puppy from time to time. He did say: "It's really cool" quite a lot. 

The good news for Phil was that the silent protest proposed by one Macolyte to protest at Apple's decision to pull out of Macworld was broken as soon as he took the stage to applause.

The bad news was that, although there were whoops and there were hollers, the biggest cheer was for Tony Bennett in the usual music slot at the end. The crooner came on and sang a couple of songs including I left my heart in San Francisco.

But let's not get too tired and cynical. If you have a Mac, this stuff matters. And that's what Macworld is all about.

Comments

[David]

Macs are one of the worst examples of 'Emperors new clothes' I know of. PC's are (now) simply better, cheaper, more stable and have a far better range of software. The Mac brigade should get their collective heads out of their @sses.

[DJ]

Anyone who thinks the show was boring doesn't know much about the products.
iMovie alone is mouthwatering, offering ordinary home video-makers slo-mo, fast-mo and image-stabilization.
And what about a laptop battery that lets you work for virtually a whole day before needing a recharge?!

[antonio]

more stable???!!!! you must be kidding. you never used a mac, did you? i´ve just changed from pc to mac and it´s another world for the best. sure, the range of software is not as good, but still, mac is faster, much more stable, easier, mainly if you are a windows user

[Kim]

Hi David,
I don't like Apple. I don't use an iPod or an iPhone. I use a PC at work. However, I use a Mac at home. Not because it looks good or is different, but because it works. That's all. It works well and its interface is outstanding. There are many reasons for this none of which I'll go into, and I'm not evangelising; I use a PC happily 50% of the time I compute.

However, I use XP rather than Vista and my experience, and that of my colleagues and friends, is that Mac OS X 10.5 is years ahead of Microsoft. The best thing you can say about Vista is that you can delete it and install XP, and the best thing you can say about XP is lots of other people use it and it runs okay now.

[Sam]

Macs do just work. However, there are many things I want and need from a computer that are not possible or as simple on a Mac, for example upgrading my CPU, Overclocking etc. As you can probably tell, I'm a power user. Home users don't need the vast majority of configuration options that Windows allow, and in fact tend to destabalise the operating system with poor choices of 3rd party programs. Windows is as unstable as the user. Mac however provides an operating system that allows home users "everything they need", out of the box. Great, but my needs aren't theirs.

[Steve]

David. either you have not got a clue or you work for microsoft.

[Jon]

David - That statement is simply not true just merely your opinion. And my opinion is that having used macs and pcs for a number of years now, they are simply far superior products for my needs. Just because you don't like something it doesn't mean it's rubbish. PC's may be cheaper, but as the saying goes 'you get what you pay for'.

[Mark]

I agree with David.

[Apple Cafe]

Whilst this was a relatively dull event, Apple will release some new hardware in the next coming months at one of their own events.

[Punit]

I'm no Microsoft fan, but Apple is far more proprietary than the ubiquitous PC. I feel like I still have a choice on a PC; with a Mac, I'm tied.

[Alastair]

I don't mean to be rude David, but your comments are laughable. On security, stability and performance, Macs are simply years ahead of PCs. In the creative industries PCs are a non-starter. As for having a "far better range of software", aside from games (and of course all the virus protection and system apps you need to keep a PC from dying) that's simply not the case. And PCs are only "cheaper" because everything you need to make a PC even moderately professionally functional costs extra and raises compatibility issues, whereas on a Mac it's built-in and just... works. Perfectly. First time.

[MaxC]

As someone required to use both Mac and Windows at work I speak with the experience of some years (back to Windows 3 and OS9) when I say that Mac has always - always - been simpler, easier, more robust, more stable and years ahead of its Windows OS rival.

Windows dominance in the market has everything to do with an early piece of luck, a deal Gates struck with IBM, than with any technological superiority.

And the only things you can get on Windows you can't get on Mac are bespoke applications that all seem to wheeze along asthmatically and crash daily. So, no, David posted at 9.03, I cannot have it go unchallenged that Windows is better :o)

[sasq]

Wow,
PCs are insanely annoying and they work counterintuitively. The only reason you are looking down on macs is because you haven't given it a try; it can do anything that a PC does, better. Oh, and if you think PCs are more stable and cheap, then you should probably hit yourself in the face.

[Arek]

Kim, how could you use a PC at work if it didn't work? Do you think over 90% of businesses world over would use them? In what way, other than in the subjective looks department, the Leo interface is "outstanding" compared to XP's? The latter, as you said, runs ok and on not-so-overpriced hardware, I should add, and that's really what most people (other than mac-zealots and artsy-types) care about.

[Ed Morgan]

For stability, use Unix, for stability + usability + customability use Linux, to get ripped off to use a shiny interface and some decent multimedia software us Mac... And as far as i'm concerned you'd only use windows to play bleeding-edge games...

Macs are all about style over substance from my experience..

[Andrew Thomas]

PCs are much cheaper and have a vastly wider range of software.

[Craig]

Hmmm David, David.. I used PC's forwork and leisure from XT Days (1980) to 2005, most of the time spent re-installing or removing viruses or rebooting. Went Mac, won't go back, nuff said ..

[Gareth]

I use a dell tablet PC in work. It has a stylus, a touch screen, a track pad, a keyboard, one of those nipple things for moving the mouse about and none of it is any good. I have big hands, keypad trackpad and nipple thing all too small to use. Nothing was thought through properly. It illustrates the microsoft problem of trying to be all things to all people and not really performing. The macbook is much easier to use and runs XP at 1/2 price of Dell I have in work. It has a nice big trackpad, a full size keyboard and it all talks to the OS.

[Bruce Robinson]

OSX had me as a convert within a few weeks. Now, 18 months on, I can say with confidence, it's easier to use, faster, more stable and simply a joy to work with. The software constraints such as no Snag it and Articulate, are slowly being eaten away by Voila (screen Capture0 and Exe (elearning) tools.
Adobe CS tools are outstanding.

The only time I have trouble with the Mac is when I use Office for Mac from MS. Funny old thing !

Hey guys,

Have you heard of the coming Tusla PC'S.

Mean muthas from what I've heard

Best

[Leflou]

Apple products may have a better OS, better design, but they have real flaws: my iPod Touch just died after 5 months of use, and my MacBook Pro has many manufacturing defects (bent screen, mooing fan,...). I've paid a large amount of money for these products, but I'm disappointed. Great OS, great design, but cheap hardware. This does not make Apple better than PC, imo.