domarch's Profile

  • Jan 27, 2009
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Latest comments made by: domarch

  • The only thing that's missing from your cost comparison is software that compares to the iLife suite which comes with the macs......not that itwould put it up in the same range, but I think you have to include it in your calculations.
    domarch had this to say on Oct 17, 2008 Posts: 12
    Why you didn't see an $800 MacBook: The Dell Comparison
  • oops. excuse the spelling in my last post! One other item - why in the world would anyone want them to license the operating system?
    domarch had this to say on Oct 15, 2008 Posts: 12
    Will Apple Ever Give Us What We Know We Want?
  • with all due respect, I think that the reason they are increasing their market share is because they are giving the everyday user what they want. You may not be the everyday user. I don't believe their increase in market share has anything to do with the intel chip, bootcamp, or the multi-button mouse. I think it's more the halo affect from iPods and iPhones. People are in the apple stores and get to take a look at macs and how they can do what they need them to due in way that's more in tune with how they would like their computer to work - call it a better interface, or a better operating system, or whatever. The design of the mac from operating system to the location of the ports is so carefully thought about in terms of how the machine is to be used, and that's what's drawing people to purchase them. Well that's my 2 cents, anyway.
    domarch had this to say on Oct 15, 2008 Posts: 12
    Will Apple Ever Give Us What We Know We Want?
  • I'm not sure you're making the right comparison. I don't think of my iPod as a radio, but more like my portable stereo. I use the radio to find music that I then purchase (less and less though, because commercial radio has been declining in quality, IMO). I certainly don't want to listen to adds on my iPod, and I certainly don't want to pay a subscription fee...I'm tired of fees, actually. I often wonder whether I'm getting my money's worth from the fee services I use (cable comes immediately to mind).
    domarch had this to say on Mar 31, 2008 Posts: 12
    The Greatest Threat, and Opportunity for iTunes
  • What? My 3g ipod software was updated pretty regularly until the technology in the new ipods went beyond what my hardware could handle (color, video, etc). It can never be upgrade to the software of the touch or the iPhone - they run OSX. Am I bummed about this? No. It does what I need, it works great (even if the battery is showing it's age). And in terms of music formats, it plays the majority of what's available out there except for...Microsoft's proprietary DRM. It works with Amazon's MP3 store. It works with MP3.com. It works with Windows. Where's the lockdown? And how is the Zune - which adds DRM to a song when you share it and doesn't work on a Mac - a more open platform? Do you have some kind of inside info that Apple's not going to update the calendar? Or at some point allow developers to create programs for the touch and the iPhone? Rumors are that's coming pretty soon so your argument may become irrelevant sooner rather than later. Will apple want to maintain some kind of control over what goes on their equipment? Probably. The user experience is their primary focus and buggy programs that crash the hardware are going to drive the user nuts. Most general, not tech head, users I know don't care about adding a lot of esoteric software to their phones or computers. The latest poll on iLounge showed the majority of iPod users use their iPods for....music only! Imagine that. They're the people who drive the $$. And let's talk convergence for a second. I know and work with a lot of people who use blackberrys. You know what? The majority of them carry a cel phone as well. Let me repeat that - the majority of them DON'T USE THE BLACKBERRY AS A PHONE. I have asked about this, and the answer I get back is: when I'm on the phone and have to check my e-mail or discuss an e-mail, the blackberry is usesless. That's the problem with the converged device...unless it's not a business tool, but a consumer gadget. Which is what Apple's putting together. It's a different paradigm. This is a pretty lousy article - all supposition and no real facts.
    domarch had this to say on Oct 12, 2007 Posts: 12
    Why The Zune Will Outdo The iPod
  • I too bought one, and it's still in very productive use. I've never regretted the purchase. It may have been pricey, but it's still the coolest looking computer ever to grace the desktop. It handles OSX flawlessly, and it runs everything I need it to run - from CAD to photoshop, to Word documents, without a hitch. Frankly, I think upgradeablility (other than the graphics card) has always been somewhat overated - as is evidenced by the popularity of the iMac. Other than memory (and installing that on the Cube is just plain fun), I've never seen the need to upgrade the machine. As a matter of fact, my previous Mac - the ugly but very functional 7500 also was never upgraded - even though that was one of it's selling points. I think people get sold on that feature as a necessity, but it's really only a requirement for the true power users. What I loved about the Cube (and is also apparent in the iMac) is that it was the essence of Apple's core philosophy: just what you need, nothing more, nothing less, in an accessable and beautiful package. Yeah, it was expensive at the time. But amortize the use I've gotten out of the machine, include the fact that's it's had no maintenance, and it now seems like a pretty cheap machine. My office has upgraded their PCs many times since then...
    domarch had this to say on Jul 07, 2006 Posts: 12
    July 7, 2001: G4 Cube Discontinued
  • I think your 3 year old is watching way too much TV
    domarch had this to say on Apr 05, 2006 Posts: 12
    What Apple Can Learn from Skittles and Windows XP
  • I think the iPhoto books are produced by Kodak...they're definitely made by a third party, and that probably has something to do with it.
    domarch had this to say on Jan 25, 2006 Posts: 12
    Examples of Apple Putting the Customer Second
  • I was under the impression that the one of the keys to the unified "Apple Experience" is the tight control between hardware and operating system, which you don't have with windoze based machines. It was my understanding that that lack of control can cause some of the glitches and crashes that occur in Windows. Whether that's true or not, it does seem to me that that philosophy is a viable reason for Apple not wanting to let OS X run on other boxes. If problems occur due to some variation in the design of the motherboard, it will reflect poorly on the OS and thus poorly on Apple. I'm also curious as to why everyone assumes that the chips that will be running OSX will be the same Intel silicon that's inside a Dell box? It's never made much sense to me....
    domarch had this to say on Nov 29, 2005 Posts: 12
    Apple Afraid to Compete on the Hardware Side?
  • I remember taking a funky aesthetics class in college where the professer spoke about how with television (because of the technology) the viewer takes a more active role in assembling the picture line by line whereas in movies the whole picture is projected at once onto the screen. At the time I was intrigued by this idea, and I wonder if it has any bearing on the resolution issue. One could argue that since the viewer is putting the picture together in his head, he invariably is enhancing and filling in what is actually being transmitted, in which case the actual resolution initially may not be as important as we would like to think...
    domarch had this to say on Oct 18, 2005 Posts: 12
    Apple’s Media Center PC End Around
  • I don't see how you can disagree that Apple "gets it". Ease of use can certainly be seen as an essential part of innovation and an essential part of what Apple "gets". It seems to me that other mp3 players didn't take off simply because it was too difficult to manage the music and therefore too difficult to use the product. The biggest reason the iPod is successful (as breuklen pointed out) is iTunes. It's a no brainer for the typical user to get their music from their computer onto the player. Couple that with a very simple navigation system and industrial design that ties the whole thing together and you have a pretty innovative product. When Apple ported it over to Windows, it proved that point - the iPod just took over the market. The sales aren't the issue (as has been noted), but the adoption by millions of people is. As I recall when the first Mac came out there was that similar kind of feeling. It was so easy to use that the not-so-computer-literate were able to take advantage of what a computer could offer, right out of the box. Xerox didn't "get it" because they couldn't get it out to the user, and Microsoft took forever to catch on as well. Of course what helped Microsoft finally take over was the huge installed base of DOS based computers that business had already invested in(you can see various articles on this at daringfireball.net). You can't tell me, that it was the "innovations" of Windows 3.1 that people were flocking to! Yes, MS catches up, and innovates in their own right. But where Apple excels, and truly innovates, is making something easier for the average person to use. And IMO, they have a much better track record of creating products that get that right the first time.
  • yeah, I guess this article is proof of concept. The story about Clorox just appeared 2 weeks ago in the New Yorker's food issue in an article about creating the perfect cookie. Granted, that story might be pretty well known to people in the product development arena, but it's quite a coincidence to see it used twice in under a month... Personally I like to thing about Apple's inovations in the framework of this famous quote: "good artists copy, great artist's steal". Apple's ability to make the difficult seem easy, to take the obscure and make it accessible to the many, is as valid an innovation as creating the object in the first place.