flyboy's Profile

  • Nov 29, 2010
  • 30
  • 0

Latest comments made by: flyboy

  • Part of the Apple brand is producing quality products. A BMW is still a car, just like a Chevy, but people are willing to pay more to get the quality of a BMW. Even if the there is only the perception of quality. Which is better for a companies bottom line, either sell a billion of an item and only make on dollar per unit, or to sell a hundred million and make ten dollars per unit?
    flyboy had this to say on Oct 22, 2008 Posts: 30
    What Would You Pay for a Low-End Mac?
  • I love Mobile Me. As an original dot mac member, I was afraid that the Mobile Me service would not be as useful, but my experience has been great and I just love Mobile Me. I don't have an iPhone or iPod touch, but I do have a PC laptop and I travel from time to time. It's great to have my Safari bookmarks from my Mac at home sync with my Safari bookmarks on my laptop anywhere I go. I don't sync my personal E-mail or calendars with Outlook on my PC (separation of home and work), but I do love the web applications that allow me to manage my E-mail, calendars, address book, and iDisk from my PC from anywhere that I can get to the internet. I think it's worth every penny of that I pay for this great seamless service.
    flyboy had this to say on Sep 05, 2008 Posts: 30
    5 Ways to Take MobileMe To the Next Level
  • The real answer is that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) under the Bush Administration has been extremely lax in regulating broadband carriers. Congress has been divided almost equally with the small majority only going to the Democrats less than two years ago. Consumer advocates have never gotten a solid majority of Representatives and Senators to put any teeth in consumer regulation of telephone service including broadband. The big carriers like, Verizon, AT&T;, Warner AMEX, and others spend huge amounts of money on Washington lobbyists to make sure that the consumer gets the lowest possible service at the highest cost. Sometimes, deregulation does not produce the greatest value and choice for the consumer. Rampant unregulated consolidation in the communication industry has reduced consumer choice and kept the prices high. Top executive salaries and bonuses in these industries are shameful in relationship to their stock valuations. We get the best government that money can buy.
    flyboy had this to say on Aug 26, 2008 Posts: 30
    On America, Cellphones and American Telecom Carriers
  • You pay more, but it comes with customer service. Last week I suspected that my internal hard drive in my iMac G5 had died. I made an appointment at the local Apple store, on line, to meet with a technician at the Genius Bar. He confirmed my suspicion and then proceeded to show me how to replace the hard drive at no charge. He even suggested a couple of local retail outlets that carry hard drives. He could have just as easily told me that it would be $250 to $300 to replace the original 160 gigabyte drive with another stock drive. Instead, with his advice, I purchased a 320 gigabyte Western Digital hard drive for $67. The entire repair, including the purchase of a #2 magnetized screw driver was less than $75 and fifteen minutes of my time. That's customer service.
    flyboy had this to say on Aug 16, 2008 Posts: 30
    Apple Pricing? Quit your Bitching!
  • Mobile Me has worked perfectly since day one. I don't have an iPhone, and I probably won't ever buy one, but I think that Mobile Me is a major upgrade from the great Dot Mac service that it replaced. I now can sync my Safari bookmarks directly to my laptop PC version of Safari. And, the web based iCal, Mail, etc. have worked wonderfully on my PC using Safari. My employer supplies me with the laptop and I use the Mobile Me service to keep updated when I am at the office or on the road. Unfortunately, my company's intranet only works using IE 6.0. I think that Mobile Me is worth every cent that Apple charges.
    flyboy had this to say on Aug 02, 2008 Posts: 30
    Why the MobileMe Disaster isn't as Bad as you Think
  • I am among the many that get a free cell phone from my office. I have no need for an iPhone, nor am I willing to pay AT&T;the outrageous monthly fees to get all the features that the iPhone can deliver. I am using a Palm Z22 for the other features that an iPhone can deliver which I find useful. I still have my 1st. generation 4 gig nano that works great as an MP3 player, and Apple's new Mobile Me service works great on my company supplied Dell laptop. If I needed a GPS, I would buy a portable model that had turn by turn capability. The only thing I am interested in getting would be an iPod Touch. There is a market for iPods that play music and do it very well.
    flyboy had this to say on Jul 17, 2008 Posts: 30
    Does the iPod Matter Anymore?
  • Big business, big government, and big enterprise, will never buy iPhones, nor Macs. They perceive that they are too expensive and not compatible with Microsoft's products. After all no IT manager ever was fired for buying IBM compatible/Microsoft. But, small business is fertile ground for Apple. These smaller businesses are run by entrepreneurs who would be attracted to the iPhone, but who are already entrenched in the PC/Microsoft world. Apple's betting that once the entrepreneurs get a taste of using Apple's products through the iPhone, they might have their IT manager begin to replace their old computers with Macs over time. I don't think that Apple believes that this will happen tomorrow or the next day, but maybe in a few weeks or years.
    flyboy had this to say on Jul 14, 2008 Posts: 30
    Enterprising Apple
  • If it's true, then so what! I am running Tiger without any problems on my G5 iMac because my kids still play games that require the Classic mode. Each of them has an iMac 600 Mhz gum drop computer running 10.2 with no problems. One is even connected to my network through an ethernet bridge. They all have iTunes, Safari, Firefox, and AppleWorks along with a host of other software. If the operating system you are running is meeting all of your needs, then why spend the money to get a few eye candy features. I have owned Macs since 1986 and I have only bought one system update, I bought System 8.0 when it came out.
    flyboy had this to say on Jun 19, 2008 Posts: 30
    No G5 Owners, Snow Leopard is not a Screw Job
  • I am still running Tiger and I can't find one feature in Leopard that is worth $129. I am running a G5 iMac so I am not even sure that Snow Leopard will even work with Power PC Macs.
  • Those investors who did not listen to the 'Pundits' , who have been predicting the death of Apple for at least fifteen years, have made a fortune on AAPL stock. That's always been the true predictor of the success or failure of any publicly traded business. I wish I had the extra cash to have bought some shares when it fell to $120 a share in March.
    flyboy had this to say on May 10, 2008 Posts: 30
    The Worst Apple Predictions Through the Ages
  • Steve was right about the Mac Mini if you already own a keyboard and a monitor. A good friend of mine bought his first Mac when the Intel Mini became available. He ditched his PC for the mini as his primary home computer after saving the keyboard and LCD monitor. His PC was always loaded up with spyware and other junk and he got tired of it's high upkeep. He bought an external firewire drive for more storage and is very happily running both OSX and Windows XP (when necessary for weird windows only applications) using VMware's Fusion. His Mini has one gigabyte of RAM and does everything he and his family need to do with a home computer. His wife is very happily using Mac mail, Safari, and the iLife suite.
    flyboy had this to say on May 01, 2008 Posts: 30
    How Much are You Spending on Mac Pretension?
  • The main reason for the success of the Macintosh can be summed up in one statement, "it just works." Several of my coworkers have switched to the Mac for their home computing because they got sick and tired of fooling around with the problems with their Windows PCs. A couple of them are Unix software engineers who have the computer knowledge and skills to keep their networks working, they just don't want to do that at home. Apple can achieve this reliability by controlling both the hardware and the operating system software. Once OSX is allowed to be installed on any Intel PC then some of the kinds of issues that plague the 'wintel' world will begin to appear in the Clone OSX world. As for cheap, you usually get what you pay for.
    flyboy had this to say on Apr 24, 2008 Posts: 30
    Is The Time for Clones Now?
  • This is really 'much to do about nothing.' I am sure that Apple has done extensive market research and discovered that their customers don't want a consumer computer that they can change the video card. I would bet that 98% of people use their Macs to surf the web, send/receive e-mail, and use the iLife suite for their digital lifestyle. Some of them may load up Office. My three year old G5 iMac., with one gig of RAM, does everything I need and will probably work for the next several years with the standard video card. The high end gamers, and those who love to tear into their machines instead of using them will buy a PC instead of a Mac. I am sure that the several thousand or so Mac users who agree with with Chris are not a large enough market for Apple or anyone else to go after.
    flyboy had this to say on Apr 19, 2008 Posts: 30
    The Non Existent Glaring Hole in the Mac Lineup
  • Dell is selling a commodity product that is uninspiring and "Dull." But, it's functional and cheap. Most big companies, like the one I work for, only care about two things in a computer. Compatibility, and price. Dell is like the companies that make cardboard cartons. It's not very sexy, but it's a darn good living.
    flyboy had this to say on Mar 03, 2008 Posts: 30
    Dell Should Buy Fedora To Ensure Relevancy In Future
  • Why would you want to use an online word processor? You can download NeoOffice for free at www.neooffice.org. NeoOffice is a Mac OSX version of Open Office which is a free open source office suite for Unix, Windows, and X11. It was created by Sun Micro Systems and was released to the open source community when Sun stopped its development. It has a word processsing program similar to word, a spread sheet program similar to Excel, a drawing program, and a presentation program. The word processor, spread sheet, and presentation program will open up MS office documents, and save to the MS Office formats. It opens and saves even very highly formatted Word documents including tables. I am using NeoOffice on a G5 iMac running 10.4 with one gig of Ram. It works well, except for the presentation program which runs a little slowly. Also, it works when I am not connected to the web.