There’s a reason some people are fanatical about Apple’s design; it’s because they (Apple) consistently think of new things, pay attention to tiny details, and never stop trying to improve.
Maybe this isn’t new to the site, but I hadn’t noticed it yet; I stopped by Apple’s Mac page today, and saw this:
It’s a pretty simple, obvious UI feature idea; scrollbars are a common UI feature. Why not add labels?
Why not, indeed. You wind up with an attractive and intuitive user interface component. I don’t think it will take too long before we see this idea copied and cloned quite a bit.
Apple has a new iMac.
Sigh.
All fanaticism aside, Apple consistently demonstrates how it continues to deserve said fanaticism. Even if I didn’t like the Macintosh, I would sure be wishing I could buy a case that sexy to build my next PC into…
“Case”? What case? There’s practically nothing there. That’s a beautiful machine, right there. Of course, by the time I can actually justify buying another computer, Apple will no doubt have several new models, all of which will make this look like a rude, paleolithic-era computing implement.
Or, alternatively, someone else will. You would think that someone else would start trying to do what Apple is doing — marry a beautiful OS with an equally beautiful casing — but no one is. At least, they aren’t doing it well. Vaio? Yes, Sony, that is indeed a very skinny laptop. Too bad you put Windows on it. Dell? Why, yes, that is a wide selection of colors in which I could now order my plain, ordinary, Dell laptop. Sorry, Other Vendors… nice try, but so far, it’s Not Working Out Too Well.
Billed as the The ultimate iPod* (and iPhone*)
Anti-Theft Device, the folks at Hide-a-pod have come up with an ingenious solution to preventing your iPod from being stolen: “Hide it in a Zune*!”
From their “testimonials”:
I had been losing 3 to 4 iPods a day due to theft or just leaving them laying around. My friends were starting to say that I had more money than brains with all these iPod purchases.
Well, I picked up a Hide-a-Pod the other day and I haven’t lost an iPod since. If I leave it somewhere and go back later it’s always right there were I left it. I guess I have both money and brains now.
Even better, from the FAQ:
How can you do this so cheap?
There were a lot of disappointed kids last Christmas who wanted an iPod but were given a Zune by some well-meaning friend or relative. Consequently, there is a glut of Zunes available on eBay every day. We buy ‘em cheap and throw away the guts to make our product at a great price.
If I had been drinking something when I first saw the page, I think it might, possibly, have come out of my nose. Just saying.
Engadget covered the expected costs of owning an iPhone, and it ain’t cheap. The good news is that other than the price of the phone itself, the costs of the plan are not much different than for a comparable smart phone, and by their calculations, users on a family plan would even save money — over the course of two or three years, that is.
I was contemplating buying one, but I’m now thinking that I’ll wait; six months, maybe a year. This is not due to the costs, which are to be expected, but to wait long enough to let them improve it a little, to let the price drop a little, and to hear some real world reviews of how good (or not?) it really is.
Apple has released a new version of Safari; well, the beta, at least.
This would probably pass without comment everywhere except the Mac-centric world, except that they have a version for Windows…
I, for one, did not see that coming.
