How the Apple Sticker Changed Apple

Yes, folks, I’m not writing because I simply find the news coming out of the apple rumor hole to be boring. It’s just more cool applications for the iPhone and the news on the latest Snow Leopard build.

How am I supposed to blog about that? Well, here’s the thing I don’t. My last post, was completely unrelated to any recent apple news or rumors, so I’m going to do another one of those.This is about Apple stickers.

If you know who Guy Kawasaki is, you probably know that he was one of the people responsible for saving Apple when it was about to reach it’s downfall. He had started a website that encouraged all Apple users to spread the word, volunteer for no reason at a PC store, encourage someone to buy Macs. Now, stuff like that is just about impossible these days, but the Apple community did it.

Word spread, and it worked. But there was one thing, one thing that really stood out, it was the Apple stickers. They were everywhere. People were sticking them on their cars, notebooks, phones, wallets, water bottles, whatever.

I suppose you could say it was like the movie The Birds, except better.

Anyways, since Apple was even tinier than it is now, people were most like “What’s the apple thing for?” Well, that just led to the person who owned the sticker to explain the entire ordeal, and thus, sparked another interest into the mind of a soul that had never experienced Apple. Every person who owned a Mac at that time counted, that’s just to give you an idea of how badly Apple was failing during the 1990’s, somewhere I heard that people thought they would be sold to General Electric. Yes, general electronic stuff. I don’t think we see Apple as general electronic stuff anymore, yes?

Anyways, before I go off topic and start talking about Lance Armstrong not winning the Tour De France this year (Yeah he actually didn’t, poor guy is getting old), I’d like to say take pride in your Apple stickers! I stuck one on my own notebook before writing this post:

Ciao.

JD

My Bite Into Apple

http://mybiteintoapple.com

My Thoughts on the Future of Linux

In 1991 Linus Torvalds, a Finnish software engineer, created a small operating system kernel he called “Linux”. Back then, there was only one user; him. That quickly changed. Now there are millions of users and numerous different flavors of the operating system that was once one man’s pet project.

But what’s the future of Linux? With many different people being able to contribute to the source code, you would think that eventually everything would fall apart and Linux would become a giant mess.

But that hasn’t happened. But why? There are many different reasons. The reasons are the care given to the project, it’s open source platform, and the love of the community.

One of the ideals that keeps the Linux project alive and well is care. Without care, the project would simply fall apart. While Microsoft, Apple, and other companies that make commercial operating systems care about their projects, they also care about making a profit. In order to make a profit, they have to meet deadlines. The Linux project is different in the aspect. Since it’s an open source and free they don’t have to worry about missing a deadline and loosing profit. The work they do on the project is one set goal: to make it better.

Unlike Windows or Mac OS X, anyone can download and change the source code. In that aspect, anyone can add their own ideas to help improve the project. Although not all ideas get into the final version, every idea matters. That’s what makes this project great; anyone can help and contribute.

With millions of users, it’s safe to say that Linux is loved by many people (including me). That’s off the things that keeps it moving forward. Without the love of the community Linux, and any project, would fail. The love of a community is not an easy thing to get. The project has to be special in order for people to love and care for it.

Do I think Linux is going to continue to improve in the future? Absolutely. In fact, I know it will continue to improve. How do I know this? The love and loyalty of the userbase and the dedication of the contributors will keep the project growing in the many years to come.

The Palm Pre No Longer Syncs With iTunes - What That Says About Apple

A few days back, Apple released an iTunes update, claiming improved stability and bug fixes. Interesting enough, Palm Pre owners discovered that they could no longer connect to their Pre through iTunes. Then, a day later... I was listening to Cnet's Buzz Out Loud podcast when it came up in the rundown of stories. Of the three host on at the time, two did not understand why Apple wouldn't open iTunes up to other players and easily become the biggest music store in the world; While Molly Wood pointed out that Apple has a history of intentionally making decisions that limit their market-share and growth potential. I agree with that last statement, and that is exactly what Apple wants.

When it comes to third party devices syncing with iTunes Apple claims iTunes was designed for the iPod and using other players may not lead to the "optimum user experience". In other words; Keep your crappy hardware to yourself and leave us alone. Initially, this may seem as though Apple is losing a large number of users. And, they may be, but they don't care.

Here's why.

Apple's whole concept is having technology that "just works" and the only way the can assure that is if they have complete control over both hardware and software. Thus, the Apple ecosphere is born. A lovely little corner of the universe where everything works perfectly, as long as you follow the rules. For years, this has caused many critics to say that the Apple is one of the most restrictive and closed technology companies in the world. And, while I cannot state this as fact, I'm pretty sure this is exactly what Apple wants. I believe they purposely limit their user-base, with the general thought being the following: The majority of people who fall in love with with one Apple product will fall in love with the rest.

Think of it like the maximum seating capacity in a restaurant... the restaurant claims that is the highest number of people they can handle while keeping people safe and comfortable. Apple has always wanted users to buy into the Apple way of life. That's why Apple often goes against the trends of the industry. They will make what they want, when they want and price it at whatever they want. At the end of the day. Apple is less concerned with selling individual products and more interested in selling the Apple way of life. Which is exactly why Apple has some of the most loyal consumers in the world. - It works.

Getting back to my ecosphere analogy: Apple is not concerned with world domination. Instead, they want to be a smaller world,where everything works perfectly... and is prettier.

Chrome OS: Haven’t You Heard of Linux?

After reading dozens, and I mean dozens of articles about Chrome OS and how it is going to be a hit to Microsoft and Apple. When reading the articles, they usually run down the features of the operating system, and the announcements that Google made about it.

Here is an example list from ZDnet.

Timing.

Note the 12-18 month delivery: they’ve been watching how M$ freezes the market with “strategic” pre-annoucements.

Pricing.

Free, as in open-source. M$ will have to fight for every dollar from netbook makers. Google should be handing out “Chrome OS” coffee cups to every M$ OEM starting with HP and Dell.

Target.

Developers: “For application developers, the web is the platform. . . . [it will give] developers the largest user base of any platform.”

Goal.

“. . . computers need to get better.” More like a big smartphone and less like a server – a clear swipe at M$.

Market.

“. . . small netbooks to full-size desktop systems.” Google is generously ceding the server OS market to M$ and Linux – for now.

Hm. Sounds a lot like something we know already huh?

Let’s go back to pricing. Notice that it says that it will be free and open-source. Just about every Linux distro is open source and completely free, all you have to do is download the disk image and burn it to a disk (excluding SUSE).

Let’s take a look at the market as well. Is linux aimed at netbooks as well? Yes. Linux is so lightweight, just as Google says Chrome OS will be, that it needs very little memory and processing power to run and still be fast, sometimes as little as 256MB-512MB of RAM.

I’m surprised Google gave the OS a target. You shouldn’t be “targeting” any certain group, if you are making an operating system, it’s best that you advertise it to be the best for EVERYONE, not a certain group. Bad on Google’s part. Even if they are including developer tools to really make it “special” for developers, it seems very un-google-like to not target the entire user base.

What’s all the hype about?

JD

My Bite Into Apple

http://mybiteintoapple.com

What’s So Bad About The Ad? Get A Mac Ads vs Laptop Hunters Ads, Why It All Evens Out.

The one thing that really bothers me about advertising is that most of the time all of the time they aren’t true. One thing that bothers me even more, is that people go out and criticize the ads, my self included. It’s human nature, that’s for sure, to critique.

Perhaps one of the most common advertisements you could see people criticizing are the Laptop Hunters ads by Microsoft, which aim at people looking to buy a laptop within a certain price range, and the Get a Mac ads by Apple, which are aimed at PC users who are frustrated with their computer.

I myself, have even criticized the Laptop Hunters ads, along with several other YouTubers, including thecreativeone and cockyjeremy. The reason for criticizing the ads is quite simple, we are the opposing team, or side. The PC users criticize our ads, therefore we criticize their ads.

But that’s not the only reason. We, as humans, have the logic to know that ads are there to promote the opposing “faction” and we see it as “cheap”, or as a lie. For instance, the Get A Mac ads by Apple usually summarize PCs by associating them with viruses, sluggish performance, and more for the business people.Whereas Microsoft’s Laptop Hunters ads will display Macs as too expensive.

But it all evens out.

No matter what side you are on, you are going to have to accept the truth and realize that all ads are biased and completely untrue, in a sense.

It just depends on what side you’re on.

JD

My Bite Into Apple

http://mybiteintoapple.com