Full of sound and furry
The Macalope will be on next week’s MBW.
Yes, it’s true. The Macalope will be on next week’s edition of MacBreak Weekly. He enjoys the show quite a bit so he’s pretty excited.
And he’s as eager to hear what he sounds like as you are.
The Mac name in print! Things are going to start happening to us now!
In an interesting addendum to the post below about Mac coverage, the Macalope has learned from his friend the Ratboy…
You may have heard of him. Part boy, part rat. He’s been in the papers.
Not to be confused with the bat boy. That guy’s just a publicity hound. And a total name dropper. Phew.
Anyway, according to the Ratboy, IDG — the parent of Macworld — is hiring a Mac reporter for the mother ship. While IDG does frequently cross-post Macworld stories to its various publications, a dedicated Mac reporter at the parent will likely mean more Mac coverage and wider distribution.
That sound you hear is the sound of the Mac universe expanding.
Or, possibly, somebody hates these cans.
Thoughts on the Mac’s online market share increase.
Computerworld reported yesterday that the Mac’s share of U.S. computers surfing the web doubled in the last 8 months.
Computerworld talks about what this means for web developers, but it also has implications for content providers and advertisers. Mac users want to read about Macs and they want to buy Mac products.
And people are seeing dollar signs in their eyes.
The Macalope’s hairy ears have picked up interesting portents of late. When Jason O’Grady was hired to blog by ZDNet, it seemed to be mostly just a publications that doesn’t really care for Apple taking an obnoxious shot at the company by hiring one of the targets of its famous “Asteroid” lawsuit.
It also fit in with ZDNet’s blog strategy which seems to be “we don’t care if it’s good, just get us some hits.”
But O’Grady’s not the only one. The Macalope has watched as large media outlets have been trying to increase their presence in the online Mac community, sometimes through acquisition of online talent or partnerships (see: Fake Steve and Wired). Finally, we apparently count for something.
Link to an interview with the Macalope.
The Macalope was interviewed by Apple Matters – you can read it here.
Happy Holidays from the Macalope.
And the Macalope’s not just talking about himself, either. It’s like the whole Mac web has gone quiet (with the exception of the MacSanta folks, who the Macalope is pleased to promote for free).
Even the silly pundits seem to be on vacation. Although they seem to be on vacation all the time.
But, regardless, the Macalope can’t commit to posting anything as he’s on backup reindeer duty. Should any reindeer pull a hammy, the Macalope may be called to come off the bench and pinch fly. Flying’s not normally one of the Macalope’s powers, but such is the miracle of the holidays.
Plus, Kringle shoots you up with a bunch of steroids.
Man, you think baseball has a problem… but, of course, congress won’t touch that one.
So, if the Macalope doesn’t see you in the next few days, have a happy.
Just like the title says.
TUAW links to the Macalope’s previous post and says:
Of course, The Macalope asks ‘who cares?’ to all this worry of how the iTS is doing, but Geoff Duncan at Digital Trends reminds us of some interesting potential shifts in the digital distribution model that could depend directly on how well present offerings fair.
The Macalope did address that issue by noting that the recording industry could come up with something more heinous than DRM. Duncan’s piece is mostly a summary of some pieces done by the Register’s Andrew Orlowski. The Macalope wouldn’t call Orlowski biased, but he’s clearly got his ideas of how this is all gonna go down and — while he eventually may be proved correct — he’s lost some objectivity in his trumpting of Forrester’s research.
Of Forrester’s numbers Orlowski writes:
The figures don’t include gifts redeemed via the iTunes Store. While Apple can argue this does not reflect the volume of transactions taking place, it gives a more accurate picture of what customers are actually prepared to pay for.
Uh, right. That’s like saying anything bought at the Gap as a present shouldn’t count in their sales figures because the person who receives it didn’t make the purchase and may not have wanted it. Note to Orlowski, if a gift card comes from the iTunes Store, it’s something customers are actually prepared to pay for. The gift card purchaser is the customer, not the person who downloads the songs.
Now, no one but Apple knows if gift card sales are enough to make iTunes sales figures all sunshine and puppies, but pretending they somehow don’t count is simply engaging in argumentative assery.
Still, there is substantial evidence that the recording companies have lost that loving feeling for DRM. And if they’ve decided that DRM is a failure — both in keeping people from illegaly copying music and putting them in a position of strength when negotiating with technology companies — they will start seeking other ways to extract their pound of flesh.
One way is a “tax” on the devices and the other is a “tax” on the Internet.
The Macalope supposes just paying for DRM-free music directly is out of the question.
Is the Mac web going stale? That is some attitude, mister.
Eric Schwartz apparently thinks the Mac web has gone stale.
Well, pardon the Macalope for pointing out what is clearly printed on any feminine hygiene product, but freshness, young man, starts at home.
Instead of whining about it, why not do something about it? You could start a flame war or demand that Apple make a sub-$100 laptop. There are so many ways to make a difference in the Mac web community, if you apply yourself.
Furthermore, there seem to be more new sites starting up that do a few posts and then die off. I know there are plenty of exceptions, but they’re just that, exceptions.
Now you’re being pissy. That’s just the nature of the medium. Low barriers to entry to an established market mean there’s going to be a lot of turnover. But if there are “plenty of exceptions”, what exactly is the problem?
The Macalope thinks you’re just bored. Maybe you need to get outside and get some fresh air.
It’s too bad you don’t appreciate what the rest of us are putting into this family. It’s very sad. It breaks the Macalope’s heart.
Don’t you roll your eyes at the Macalope, buster, or he will turn the Mac web right around.
Apple to discontinue 15-inch MacBook Pro?!
Today’s dime-store speculation is brought to you by Remy Davison at Insanely Great Mac (link via the Apple Blog which really should know better than to lend credence to this) who speculates that falling prices for 17-inch LCDs will cause Apple to discontinue the 15-inch MacBook Pro.
Moreover, as notebook market trend is ‘bigger is better’, the opportunity for Apple to make the MBP exclusively 17″ is there, given the falling prices.
This smells remarkably like the market consisting solely of Remy Davison and a couple of d00dz he talked to. Since when are people rushing out to buy bigger and bigger laptops?
The Macalope was not able to find a break-out of MacBook or PowerBook sales between the 17-inch and the 15-inch models, but he’d be willing to bet his left antler that Apple sells far more 15-inch models than 17-inch.
The point is that Apple would no longer really need a 15.4″ widescreen MBP if a 15″ MacBook eventuates. It would be redundant, much as the 12.1″ PowerBook found relatively few customers in the end, as the much cheaper 12.1″ G4 iBook had virtually an identical feature set.
Please define “15-inch MacBook”.
It’s astounding to the Macalope that Davison gets through this whole spiel without noting a very important difference between the MacBook and the MacBook Pro.
Forgetting even the FireWire 800 port and the ExpressCard slot, the MacBook uses GMA graphics while the MacBook Pro has dedicated graphics memory on Radeon cards. A 15-inch MacBook does not replace a 15-inch MacBook Pro unless you have blurred vision from too much wacky tobaccy. Davison would have a whole slew of professionals lug 17-inch laptops around in order to perform skipless video presentations.
Falling component prices have less to do with product positioning than demand does. If they did, black paint would really be more expensive than white.
Report in an Australian magazine prompts wild Mac tablet speculation.
A report in an Australian publication called Smarthome has set off another chain-reaction of Mac tablet lust.
Since the death of the Newton, the Mac tablet has been as storied a mythical Apple-themed beast as the Macalope himself. Only the iTV has probably inspired more Apple fan-boy enthusiasm.
Our first stop on the Mac tablet chain reaction tour is a report on T3, a British web site and magazine that ingeniously noticed that guys like gadgets and guys like women in bikinis so why not combine the two?! The report even includes some cheesey mock-ups which the Macalope can’t help but notice are not being held by any swimsuit-clad vixens.
Come on. If you’re going to have a shtick, don’t go all politically correct when the Mac users suddenly tune in. The Macalope asks you, is that fair? No, it is not.
Meanwhile, Jason O’Grady continues his nigh unhealthly Mac tablet obsession (can’t you just be obsessed with porn like everyone else?), this time mercifully leaving out any reference to a “lite” version of OS X.
I think that in addition to commuters, a tablet Mac would be perfect for doctors, foremen, teachers, real estate agents and photographers.
Ah! Doctors, lawyers, Indian chiefs! What about train engineers? Baristas? Bee keepers? Monkey wranglers? The Macalope is certain there are vertical market application developers in each of those industries just waiting to port their apps to OS X.
Users of Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator would also be perfect candidates for a tablet Mac because the touch screen allows you paint right on the screen.
Yes, we all know how graphics heads love underpowered processors, which is what a thin, lightweight, inexpensive computer would almost assuredly have. They particularly love them when their apps still have to be run through Rosetta!
If we forget practicality, O’Grady’s idea of a Mac tablet sure sounds great. Sadly, it also doesn’t sound much like what the Smarthouse piece described, leading the Macalope to wonder about his reading comprehension skills.
Sources in Taiwan have said that the focus has been more on the home and the education environment than the enterprise marketplace. Several months ago I was told that Apple was exploring a neat new device that is basically a touch screen that links to various source devices including a brand new media centre that Apple is planning to launch next year.
The Mac tablet has been designed to handle third party applications such as home automation software that will allow users to control lighting, audio, entertainment devices and security feeds. It also acts as a full blown PC has wireless linking for a new generation of Wireless Hi Fi speakers that are currently being tested by Apple.
Hmm. Wasn’t the troll that lives under the bridge out along the Old Forest highway reminding the Macalope the other day about how – while he didn’t really care for the Newton – Steve Jobs was a fan of the eMate? This troll seemed to think the new device is a merging of the eMate’s basic Internet, word-processing and other educational uses with Apple’s iLife and media hub functionality.
He was also gnawing on what looked like a human femur, but that doesn’t mean he isn’t capable of making a valid point.
To round out the blog circus, Robert Scoble does his best riff on c:/ongrtlns.w95. Scoble has been known to beat the drum about how “it’s all about ‘user scenarios’, man!” and tablet PCs gots teh mad “user scenarios”. If you can’t use your Mac while stuck head-down in a dumpster with your butt cheeks taped together and oven mitts on your hands and your pants down around (up around?) your ankles and a sock stuck in your mouth (it could happen!), well, don’t come crying to Robert Scoble! Because someone, somewhere sells a Windows-based tablet for exactly that “user scenario”! Advantage Windows!
The Macalope doesn’t feel hugely compelled to put a lot of stock into rumors from some magazine for safe room freaks down under, but it seems likely that if Apple is indeed making a Mac tablet, you won’t see it suddenly appear in the hands of the guy standing in a construction site and wearing a yellow hard hat on the cover of Building Industry Monthly. It’s going to be aimed at Apple’s core constituencies in the home and education markets, which is what the piece describes.
It’s OK to believe in the Mac tablet. It’s OK to want one really badly. But don’t let anyone sell you their Ronco fantasies of what it’s going to do.
HD Moore amuses himself.
HD Moore, author of the recent Zero-day exploit of Apple’s 802.11b drivers, is just so totally teh awesome funny!
According to him!
Here’s Moore congratulating himself on having the basic mental capacity of your average sixth-grader in coming up with “daringphucball.rb”.
“Normally I wouldn’t sink to this level but, damn it, it’s funny,” Moore said of his taunt to Daring Fireball.
Uh, yeah, it’s hysterical that Maynor and Ellch still haven’t provided public evidence of their claim and you’ve managed to create a completely different exploit and then forced a curse word into the name of a popular Mac blog.
Well, not really “laugh out loud” funny.
Wait, what’s supposed to be funny about that again?
Oh. That’s right. You said “phuc.”
Uh…
Yeah.
Despite the fact that Moore is being such a dick about it, you’ll notice there hasn’t been the same level of uproar about his exploit. Mostly because it’s on three-year-old systems, but also because he made a claim and he proved it. Contrast that to the precedent set by his good buddies, David Maynor and Jon “Johnny Cache!” Ellch.
These guys still don’t seem to get this, but it’s their arrogance that has chapped the Mac community’s ass, not the existence of any bugs.
OS X has bugs.
Everyone in the Mac community except Artie MacStrawman knows that. We actually like it when they’re found and patched. We’re kind of kooky that way.
What we don’t like is the big swinging dicks of hacking riding into town wildly waving lit cigarettes at everyone and shooting their mouths off to reporters with claims they then won’t back up because, oh, they forgot, they’re actually supposed to be selling that information but really it’s because Apple would sue them or, no, they’d love to explain it to everyone but they’ve got their period this week so you’ll have to wait a couple to twenty days.
You can read Moore’s pissy missive to John Gruber from several months ago here to see the genesis of this one-sided feud.
Your arrogance and complete naivete in all things security has finally gotten to me.
…
You could easily convince me that you aren’t a moron by flying to Austin (TX) and taking a standard IQ test in front of me. If you don’t show up by next week, I will have proved that you indeed are a moron, and will post to my blog to make it seem credible. If you do show up and score 100 or higher, I will pay for your airfare, otherwise you walk home.
…
The implications are obvious if you understand the details. If you don’t understand what remote code execution at ring-0 means, its not Johnny’s job to educate you (nor mine).
Then read the post by Gruber he’s responding to in which Gruber does nothing but ask questions and explain his frustration.
That arrogant bastard! How dare he question his betters?!
Moore makes a point of saying what great guys Maynor and Ellch are and how we should all just trust them that they’re right in this. Evidently, being a security professional is never having to explain yourself. Accusations – OK. Proof – optional. Gotcha.
You lowly users should just take the word of those in the l33t hacking community and if you don’t know what code execution at ring-0 is, well, why do you even have a computer? Gawd! You’re so stoopid!
“I picked up USB Wi-Fi adapters from six different vendors yesterday. It should be a busy week,” Moore said.
Moore’s week will probably go something like this:
That’s a full week right there!
Mac users, if you’ve enjoyed Moore’s condescending attitude and charming schoolboy fascination with curse words, don’t worry! The “Month of Kernel Bugs” is supposed to cover all desktop operating systems, but you can bet that these guys will be paying special attention to OS X. And, of course, they’re going to find some.
Feel free to ignore the lame end-zone dancing when they do.