These switch ads on TV and web seem to be a huge success and PR for Apple. Today, we interview Jeremiah Cohick, one of the Mac switchers whose ad first aired just last week. Dive in for more!1. How did you got involved in the Switching ads? What is the story behind it?
Jeremiah Cohick: Apple offered an online survey earlier this year for Windows users who had purchased a Mac. I answered the questions in the survey and offered my story in the comment block. One day, Apple called to invite me to tell my story in the Switch campaign and the rest is history.
2. How did you find the filming process? How does it feel to be a person showing everywhere on TV and the net?
Jeremiah Cohick: I didn’t know what to expect during the filming process. I found myself searching for words frequently but the resulting commercial was much better than I thought it would be. Overall, the experience was great and everyone on the shoot rocked!
Major publicity is a very new thing for me. I still have to pinch myself to make sure that I’m not dreaming. I wrote this in my blog the first weekend the commercial aired:
“My pillow is calling me, so I’m off to dream of what it’s like to live as Charlie (from Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory). I got a golden ticket and the candy bar tastes more like fruit than cocoa.”
This truly just blows my mind!
3. Have you tried the latest offering of Microsoft, WindowsXP? What is your opinion about it?
Jeremiah Cohick: Oh absolutely! My high school used multiple editions of Windows-based computers, including XP Pro.
XP is the best OS that Microsoft has ever produced. But (and this is one big but) XP is not the best OS that I have ever used. The issue is not that Windows is a bad OS, but rather, it is not the best OS for me.
Small gripes: Luna is just ugly and is the first thing that I disable (along with the revised Start menu).
4. Have you used any other operating systems besides Windows and MacOSX?
Jeremiah Cohick: My desire to get out of the Windows world initially lead me to Linux. One of my friends from high school was a huge Linux geek who tested a new distribution every week it seemed. I eventually installed Linux on my PC. I loved what Linux-on-the-desktop was trying to do, but the application support wasn’t there and I spent more time configuring and troubleshooting than getting work done. At least in Linux, it is an adrenaline rush to get stuff working; this is more of an annoyance in Windows.
I have major respect for the open-source community. Apache and Mozilla are my favorite open-source projects and Apple’s implementation of open-source initiatives (BSD, CUPS, ZeroConf to name a few) was a major draw to Mac OS X for me.
5. What are the main things you are using a computer for?
Jeremiah Cohick: I am a self-employed student. In addition to the business-related activities (i.e. anything that I could do in Office and all of my accounting), my production (web development: PHP, JSP, Flash, and good ol’ graphics & HTML) is all done on my Power Mac G4.
iTunes is usually playing a European techno/trance webcast or a book from Audible.com while I work. Did you know that you can cover ~100 pages in a book in about an hour of an Audible.com audio book download? This is very attractive to me, especially when it takes so much
motivation for me to sit down and read.
I have a theory that owning a Mac makes you more creative in general. iMovie has helped me produce several short videos for my church and iPhoto is great for cataloging my ongoing digital photo experiments.
Gaming isn’t a priority for me because I would much rather be outdoors enjoying nature in my free time. But on a day of thunderstorms, I do have several strategy and card games that I enjoy.
6. What is your top 3 list of features you like on OSX?
Jeremiah Cohick: Wow, this is a tough question to narrow down an answer for. Here are the 3 features I notice most often:
1) I don’t know if this is a feature, but it definitely is part of the user experience. The Mac UI is much better than the Windows UI once you are accustomed to it. Having one location for system-wide control (the apple menu), application control, and window specific controls that
never moves from the top of the screen helps productivity. It feels like the OS gets out of the way for whatever task you are trying to complete. You don’t feel like you are in Mac OS X, but rather that you are working in Dreamweaver MX (or whatever app I’m running). This is hard to explain without showing but very worthy of attention.
2) Amazing Java support.
3) Windows friendliness. I’ve faced the fact that I live in a Windows dominated world (and house). My Mac networks, shares files/printers, etc. seamlessly.
7. What is your top 3 list for features you would like OSX to have in the future?
Jeremiah Cohick: 1) In OS X Server, managing DNS could be made significantly easier. I would like to see something similar to MenAndMice.com’s solutions built into the OS X Server administration tool.
2) I’m a desdever (designer/developer), so please excuse the huge subject change. Font management in OS X is nonexistent without third party software and all of the third party font management applications that I have tried are horrible.
3) Native CD burning in OS X is great but it requires you to write an entire disc. I would like to see the feature to just write a session.
8. Have you met any of the other switchers?
Jeremiah Cohick: Not yet! I might meet them Mac World Expo San Francisco.
9. Have you convinced your dad to use a Mac yet?
Jeremiah Cohick: Well, my dad was not amused by my comments in the commercial. I’ll leave it at that. 🙂
Isn’t apple actually making it harder to use idvd to burn dvds? I can’t remember exactly what I read but it was something along the lines of making pirating of dvds harder (or something like that). btw rajanr you made every single point I was going to make back to appleforever so thanks for saving me some typing.
hehe.. funny post Genaldar.
Oh yeah, windows Moviemaker is as good as iMovie. It can’t even export an edited movie back to tape.
There is no iDVD included with XP.
Until recently with the intro of the windows iPod, there was nothing approaching the ease of use of the iTunes/iPod combo on the PC. Here’s what it takes to get those working: open a mac and plug it in. Put in a CD. iTunes opens, there’s a button for import you press. Do that with a few more CDs. Plug in the iPod. Without any configuring, it just downloads all the songs over firewire in seconds. It’s so easy it’s unbelievable.
Comparing iPhoto to the the My Pictures Folder is a joke.
Here’s what the NY Times said:
Macintosh: Pros
• Best design
• Best software/hardware integration
• Best software for photos, movies, music and DVDs
Lots of other journalists have said this. But oh, you know better than everyone else.
Bundled apps from Dell? OK, I admit it, I’ve never used those. I’ve also never heard anybody extolling them. Meanwhile everyone in the press is talking about how great the iApps are. The only thing I have heard is that the Dell-bundled movie editing bundles (made by some other 3d party) have or at least had lots of configuration problems.
Look, my point is not that you can’t do the same things on windows. But it’s not as easy. Basically, it requires more knowledge about computers, more manual reading, more research on the web or just general knowledge of what out there. You have to do more footwork. For a lot of people, the reality is that the extra work means they don’t do it. When with apple, it’s all there when you open the box. Eventually MS will offer this too, as I said, because people want this.
Apple doesn’t need to bundle pro apps because pros would prefer to pick those and have every reason to spend the time to pick them. The iApps are geared towards the bulk of Personal Computer users that just want to do things, with an approachable app.
On software/hardware integration– I am convinced you PC dopes will NEVER admit this is a mac advantage. Because I think this really goes to the heart of why the mac is better. MS can copy away, but they can’t copy this. Look, I don’t think either of us can say how strong this advantage is, how much it matters. Time will tell, that’s what I said in my original posts. But it is an advantage – one company making everything means fewer chances for conflicts in design. This is obvious. Also, to a large degree, it explains why Apple can move forward with things (that require hardware and software) first, like Airport, like DV editing. These things take hardware and software so Apple can just make what’s needed and put the feature in. It takes more time on the PC side to get these things (not long, but a few years before it can work as well. Coordination of multiple companies takes time).
The icons in OS X are very useable. They scale and resize beautifully.
On copying. Look, it’s just a simple fact that MS set out to offer a GUI in response to Apple. That’s what happened. Get over it. Yea, Apple has copied some things back. So what? I don’t have any problem with copying. Let MS copy the iApps. They are going to do this. Meanwhile Apple is moving on to the next thing.
Oh, I went to that link for XP and there was no screenshot. And none of the links on that page that I pressed led to any screenshot. There was a shot on the apple address (first page), plus the links to a large number of other pages with screenshots. Thanks for providing the links to make my point.
Appleworks is probably being rewritten.
As to the hardware “history” well OS was the mac’s history too and they fixed that. Also, there was a point in Apple’s “history” where macs were as faster or faster than PCs. The recent troubles are due more to things out of apple’s control and the assumption apple is doing nothing to fix this is retarded at best.
Apple’s Jaguar is top operating system
Even Windows owners will see Mac features slipping into their machines
09/12/2002
By CRAYTON HARRISON / The Dallas Morning News
Jaguar on the loose
It doesn’t matter if you switch to a Mac from a Windows-based PC. The best of Apple’s new operating system version will find its way onto your computer in time.
It’s officially called Mac OS X v10.2, but Apple has code-named it Jaguar. Like the jungle cat, the new operating system is quick and agile.
Like the car, Jaguar is pricey, but it’s built for comfort and style. It continues the trend of intuitive, easy-to-use applications and the same high-quality graphics that users discovered in the first version of OS X.
And like the Apple products before it, Jaguar is destined to be copied by its PC competitors, so it’s worth a look even if you aren’t a Mac maniac.
http://www.dentonrc.com/sharedcontent/ptech/generalstories/bi_jagua…
Unlike NeXT which came with multibutton mouses, and OS 9 whose context menus are always available on the menu bar, OS X requires you to use the keyboard for context menus.
What on earth are you talking about? Every command that is available in contextual menus in OS X is also available on the main menu bar.
First off I clicked on one link on the xp page and found a screenshot (its of the desktop with luna). Either I have magic powers or you didn’t check. Secondly you praised itunes for its ease of use, have you tried using the programs that comes with other portable mp3 players? Most of the better ones are very easy to use. You put a cd in, open the program and rip. If the player isn’t plugged in the songs are stored in a folder. If it is connected it copies the songs to the player itself. Wow the same thing itunes does, except you have to go to all the trouble of clicking start, programs, folder, program. Shit I need to buy a mac now, that second of effort is slowly killing me. btw you could have the absolute same functionality as itunes with some of those other programs because they also act as media players on your computer, so if they’re your default player you don’t even have that step. Secondly I don’t think anyone ever said moviemaker was good, it was brought up to illustrate the point a movie editor shipped with windows first (me had it, thats what 2 years before os10?). Windows media player also shipped standard first, so did that picture viewer thing, so who’s copying who? You mentioned airports, thats funny, since they’re just pricier usb wifi adapters. Why do you assume apple is fixing appleworks? Is it wishful thinking, what with all this speculation about msoffice being discontinued? Do you see apple’s market share continuing to drop? Do you need to wrap appleworks around you to sleep at night? You are right about one thing, ms did release windows in response to mac. But then again apple didn’t make shit, if it wasn’t for xerox’s stupidity apple wouldn’t have released the gui or mouse (they weren’t working on anything like it at the time). The icons in os10 are usable, but so are the ones in xp, but you wouldn’t know since you’ve never used it (gray for christs sake, I have yet to see a gray icon, but xp’s are all gray ehh appleforver?). Lastly its nice you dug up 2 of the 15 articles the mainstream press wrote about os10. I’m sure someone else could find the same amount of articles saying how linux is the wave of the future. I’m also sure if someone finds similar articles about xp you’d say redmond paid them (or some other shit like that). Those 2 people like os10, good for them, but answer me this, if its so superior then why has it been getting its ass beat in every market for over 10 years? Why is its market share shrinking? Why is linux, an os who’s gui is a second or third thought, getting more popular then mac? Why is it I only know 1 guy with a mac, and 40 with pcs? You enjoy mac, thats nice. But don’t tell me its better then windows. Better is a subjective word. Nothing can be proven better then anything else, so be happy with your iapps and high pricetag. And I’ll be happy with a pc I can build myself, put in the parts I want and load the os I want (that boot thing apple is putting in the new computers next year is great, so now you have to buy their hardware to run their os, and you can only run the version of their os they want you to, thats their first “innovation” in a long time).
btw eugenia thanks, I thought it was funny too, but I’m normally the only one.
My mom was using a Packard Bell 120 MHz, 32 MB RAM running Windows 98. I gave her my iMac G4 700 flat panel. She thinks the Packard Bell was faster.
I didn’t want to feel like I wasted $1600 (the iMac was originally for myself) so I’m trying to get her to use it, but she’s resisting.
lol, that sucks man. Is it too late to return it?
You guys should give up the OS X versus XP web pages. I went to that XP page, and the only picture I see is an icon-sized pc on the far left that is running that green grass/blue sky of the Luna desktop. It’s so small you can’t make out anything on the desktop. Press that link (and every other link on the page), and there’s still no desktop shots. There’s actually five desktop (or app window) shots on the very first page of the OS X tab at the Apple site. And then a bunch of links at the top and side that take you directly to even more desktop shots.
MS doesn’t show XP. Why? Probably because it’s really not that different-looking or functioning than previous consumer windows OS’s (except on stability as NT is much better than DOS). And showing it would discourage upgrades. Apple on the other hand is justifiably proud of OS X.
You say “Better is a subjective word. Nothing can be proven better then anything else.” Of course some things are better than other things. A team that wins the super bowl is better than a losing team. The Beatles are better than most rock bands that ever existed. This argument is just a copout.
OS X is a better design than XP in terms of user friendliness, at a minimum (I am not really knowledgeable enough to talk about the merits of BSD unix versus NT/the directory, dll hell, etc., but those seem worse.)
As to user friendliness, the mac GUI is more intuitive, the control panels are better, the apps are more consistent, the graphics system is much better, apps can be tied together with a unified scripting system, the iApps are really accessible and work seamlessly with the hardware and OS. Wireless networking is so simple anyone could do it (even today people say Airport is easier to administer than PC solutions where the configuration is usually handled by Linksys or someone that is not exactly up to Apple standards when it comes to ease of use). Now Apple is adding auto TCP/IP networking (Rendeaveous).
The mac is not a better choice for all people. I think PCs can be better for people like you that want to be a computer hobbyist, or build machines and upgrade them and so on. It seems like Linux plus an x86 box is best for a server (where you have an IT dept).
I think the mac is a better machine right now for ordinary users (except maybe people on a real budget that don’t want to do more than browse the web and do email.) It’s just easier to use. The whole package. You may not realize this, but even having to pick between Windows Media player, Real player, winamp (and now, apparently, special software that works with particular mp3 players) involves work. You have to learn how each works to evaluate which is best. For some people, that’s great, but with Apple you get a working solution without any additional time invested.
As to market share, McDonalds sells more burgers than anyone else I suppose. That is hardly the best burger around. In fact, it sucks.
Why have more people not bought macs? Well, there was the whole compatibility issue. But that is much less important today with the internet. A lot if this is based on ignorance. People still don’t know there’s office for the Mac. Also, people have tended to overestimate the importance of hardware, assuming buying a PC is like buying a refrigerator (this fridge has an energy rating of X, this PC has a hard drive of Y). But computers are not like this. The software is what matters.
It has also been hard for people to appreciate the ease of use of the mac in the five minutes they spend at compusa. It’s not something that is immediately apparent until you use it. (That is true for lots of high tech devices. They often aren’t easy to use because that’s not something that scores marketing points – statistics like number of megapixels, size of memory card, sell digicams and cell phones. So manufacturers are tempted to forgo ease of use because it doesn’t help sell the thing).
Lots of people are beginning to recognize that ease of use is actually Apple’s core value and it shows. That includes switchers (which do exist) and journalists that review PCs for general audiences. And the fact is Jaguar has been getting glowing reviews by the mainstream press, read by ordinary users.
Why is it bad that there is a better-designed computer/OS than a Dull with XP? If there wasn’t, would MS have any incentive to make things better?
iMovie existed before OS X. I think it came out in ’99. Apple has had a media player (Quicktime) for a long time.
Trolls! Trolls! Out everywhere!
Their fiery words, they singe my hair!
Dear Eugenia, queen of this site,
Do lock this thread and end their fight!
Windows XP, Mac OS X*,
Arguments rehashed yet again,
But never ended in this space,
And do continue at this pace:
My GUI’s better, I’m integrated
Your Palladium’s all federated
I’m well designed and oh so cute
Your beige-ish box is all but moot
You’re wrong you zealot, and a fiend
You barely know what you do mean!
Your hardware’s slow and so’s your RAM
The magahertz myth is just spam
Our variety of apps and hardware
Make your cute boxes look sadly threadbare
You both suck Linux is the way,
It’s open source so you don’t pay,
And those with m4d 1337 5killz just may
Improve their apps and soon may scry
A few commercial quality tools
To battle those overpriced fools
All are correct and all are wrong
And other voices lost in the throng
I do wish all of this would cease
It’s no more fun, let’s just have peace
But I am thankful, this post’s age
Means soon it will slip off the page
Until next time another post appears
In days, weeks, months or years.
That sparks yeta another debate.
–JM
I never said the screenshot of xp was huge, I said it was a screenshot. You said there wasn’t one, if you would’ve said theres a real small one i would’ve agreed. You may think the beatles are better then most rock bands ever, but you can’t prove it can you? Quicktime has been around a long time, but it doesn’t do as much as windows media player, which is why they made itunes. Which was my point, apple had to catch up to ms, even though according to you apple invented everything and ms has to catch up. I’m going to have to borrow a page from the linux argument handbook, choice is good. You think its work choosing between realplayer, wmp, winamp, etc.? I think its nice having 15 or 20 mp3 players to choose from. Its not like windows installs all of them by default (unless some of the more hairbrained antitrust ideas get implemented), you get 1, but if you don’t like it you can go to download.com, tucows, etc. and download 10 other ones to try till you find one you like. But if you don’t want to you can just stick with wmp and it’ll play 90% of the stuff out there. You keep coming back to the easier to use/better looking thing, those are subjective. I think we all can agree bsd/linux tends to be harder to use (its getting better but its still not as easy as mac or pc), but mac and pc are about the same. You want to install a program you put the file on your hard drive. I want to install a program I either put the file on my hard drive or run the installer (5 to 6 clicks and I’m done). You want to uninstall it you delete the folder. I delete the folder or use the uninstaller or use add/remove programs. How are either of those things hard to do? I want to install new hardware I follow the instructions (the first card you put in is daunting, but if you follow the instructions its easy). If you want to add a new pci card to your mac is it any different? No. Are installing usb or firewire mice, harddrives, burners, etc. any different? No. You think adding an airport is easier then adding a pc wifi adapter? If you buy a usb one you plug it in and run the installer, how is that hard? As for looks, that again is subjective (you may think its a copout, but its a fact). Could you theme os10 to make it look like xp? Probably. Could you make xp look like os10? Probably. If both of those are true then how can one look better? If you don’t like the default look try a different one. Like I said if you prefer os10 fine, enjoy it. But don’t tell those of us that are happy with windows (be it xp or 3.1) that mac is better.
Why genaldar spends SO MUCH time arguing against the mac.
Especially when he doesn’t understand basic concepts such as what quicktime really is.
These threads have a MUCh higher ratio of rabid mac bashers than windows bashers.
also, paragraphs are a good thing.
Pretty funny.
Well, I do this because Apple provides a useful service to the computing world (it’s called innovation) and people should be told that’s the case if they’re too dumb or biased to recognize it by themselves.
Goodbye.
I haven’t argued against the mac at all. I’ve argued against people who said it was superior to windows without backing it up. btw I don’t think I’ve bashed the mac at all, I just pointed out it apple doesn’t always innovate and that things like, better can be subjective.
I’m pretty sure I understand what quicktime is. Its a media app, plays mov files, au files, etc. My point about it was that appleforever claimed all ms does is copy apple, when its a case of apple copying ms. Quicktime has been around for longer, but wmp had added functionality, that apple had to duplicate.
you are right about paragraphs though, I spend so much time writing during the day that when I come here I forget to use them. Sorry about that.
Hey Someone! are you releasing that poetry through GPL or BSD ?
0,,,0
( ‘o’ )(“)
> ‘ < //
(“)__(“)
appleforever: Oh yeah, windows Moviemaker is as good as iMovie. It can’t even export an edited movie back to tape.
I never said it was as good as iMovie. I said third party solutions are as good as iMovie. When you are using Windows, to create home videos, you aren’t forced to use Windows Movie Maker.
appleforever: There is no iDVD included with XP.
Never said it did.
Can you say anti trust laws? Yeah, Apple is free to bundle anything it likes with Windows, while Microsoft have to thread the ground carefully, to avoid stepping on companies foot that might sue them…
appleforever: Comparing iPhoto to the the My Pictures Folder is a joke.
Never compared them.
Would you stop putting words in my mouth?
appleforever: Bundled apps from Dell? OK, I admit it, I’ve never used those. I’ve also never heard anybody extolling them.
This is what Apple is famous for. They know how to pull the strings with the press. Apple needs that. Dell doesn’t. Also, these apps aren’t made by Dell. Sony is one example of an OEM that makes its own apps.
Besides, haven’t you read any reviews of Sony’s apps? Or are you just ignoring them so you can remain a zealot?
Your entire point is moot. PC OEMs have bundle apps. PC OEMs will bundle apps. PC OEMS is bundling apps. Besides, iApps only fills a small niche. How many people you know fancy digital photography or digital movie making? I know only one family (and yeah, they are PC users). Why? That family is one of the richest I know.
Just like pro apps files certain niches, iApps does that too. I have practically no interest in using iMovie. Don’t call me a PC zealot: this is the same sentiment carried by all the Macs users I know personally.
You are just discounting Apple’s high prices with flimsy software. Yeah iPhoto is good, but no one actually compared it with any of the PC altenatives, except with My Pictures folder, which sticks me as biased.
And guess what? Most PC buyers don’t care about bundled apps. Sales of white boxes are higher than sales of PCs by tier-one OEMs. And most, if not all, white boxes come with only Windows…. and perhaps an anti virus program.
Your attitude is sickening.
PS: I’m not a anti-Mac person. I don’t mind Macs. In fact, I praised Mac OS X a lot of times. I like Mac OS X’s architecture (just not the UI). I praised Mac OS 9’s UI countless of times (not the looks, just the UI). I’m taking a pragmatic position. No, I would probably never be a Mac user…. why? I’m not in their target market.
appleforever: Even Windows owners will see Mac features slipping into their machines
Wow, you just copied an article from a Microsoft-bashing site. Did you realize most of the features Apple is hyping in OS X 10.2, Microsoft already had them?
http://news.com.com/2100-1001-955063.html?tag=bplst
For example, iChat is an obvious catch up to Windows Messenger.
Joe User: What on earth are you talking about? Every command that is available in contextual menus in OS X is also available on the main menu bar.
For most Mac OS X-only apps, this isn’t the case. For apps like Photoshop 7, which also runs on Mac OS 9, the context menus are still available in the menu bar.
The Aqua HI Guidelines had thrown out many of the things that make OS 9 a great UI.
TLy: My mom was using a Packard Bell 120 MHz, 32 MB RAM running Windows 98. I gave her my iMac G4 700 flat panel. She thinks the Packard Bell was faster.
LOL, that sucks. I don’t mind an iMac around though 🙂
appleforever: MS doesn’t show XP. Why? Probably because it’s really not that different-looking or functioning than previous consumer windows OS’s (except on stability as NT is much better than DOS). And showing it would discourage upgrades. Apple on the other hand is justifiably proud of OS X.
Confirm: You are a plain ol’ zealot. Windows XP doesn’t look like Windows 9x. Only in Classic mode does it look like Windows 9x. Besides, I found multiple of screenshots of Windows XP on http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp. I have yet to find one ful screenshot from http://www.apple.com/macosx that fulfils your demands on how the screenshots should look like.
Try http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/home/evaluation/tours/tour.asp
appleforever: iMovie existed before OS X. I think it came out in ’99. Apple has had a media player (Quicktime) for a long time.
Microsoft placed in a media player into Windows 3.1, way before Quicktime was bundled with any Mac.
I didn’t put any words in your mouth goofball. You said: “Most people compare iApps with the closest altenative *bundled* with Windows” They don’t compare.
Third party solutions are not as good as iMovie because they have configuration kinks while iMovie has practically zero problems. Toms’s Hardware on the Canopus DVStorm SE: “Canopus did need a good while until its drivers and plug-ins ran stably. The competition – Matrox, Dazzle and Pinnacle – don’t exactly have clean records in terms of reliability either, though. It appears that video-editing solutions require more time to mature than classical PC components.”
Here’s TechTV: “Maybe one day there will be a simple, Mac-like video-editing app for Windows”
The NY Times and many other reviewer have concluded that the music, photo and video editing apps included with the mac are superior to the PC versions, where they even exist. There is no copy yet for iDVD and even iPhoto is not really comparable to the beginning photo editing stuff on the PC because it’s really more about organization and sharing than editing of photos (more innovation on Apple’s part, you can use iPhoto for the organization and sharing and Photoshop or whatever for edting).
The article I cite was from a Texas newspaper, dumbo, not a MS basing site. You guys just can’t stand all the great reviews for Jaguar, the iApps, the iPod, can you? Oh yeah, and Apple’s got some kind of mind control over people like Walt Mossberg of the NY Times. Try this out for size, OS X is getting great reviews because it’s a great OS.
Dude, give up on the XP web page desktop shots. Where the F**K are they they? How many pages do you have to drill down from the address you gave until you find a deskop shot? It’s obvious to anyone that visits the two links you provided that Apple is plastering actual desktop shots all over the place whereas they are hard to find at best at MS site. How much of a blind dope are you?
Let’s dumb this down a little bit for you guys. OS X and the integrated apps are getting rave reviews, the press it’s destined to be copied by MS. Well, if Mac has something now that is to copied, then that means XP doesn’t have it now. I know this is difficult, but try to exercise those brain cells. We’ll do one more example for you. OS X has a kick ass graphics system that makes the one in XP a joke. MS is going to copy. SO THEY DON’T HAVE IT NOW. The organization of the control panels, the dock is better than the crappy equivalents in XP. MS is going to copy, SO THEY DON’T HAVE IT NOW.
OK, next step guys, when MS doesn’t have lots of things in OS X it’s pretty clear they are going to copy, then the Mac is a better design. OS X is better than XP. It’s that simple.
Whenever I get into fights with you PC guys, it’s always the same. I want to build a box! I want to build a box! I want choice, Dull or Gateway. Here’s a clue, the ability to build a box doesn’t make XP better or equivalent to OS X. The choice of more hardware doesn’t make XP as good. It just means a wintel is better for you. NOT that XP is a better or equivalently well designed OS. It’s not. It’s inferior .
PS Genaldar – if MS does such a wonderful job with OS’s, why aren’t you using their latest (XP) and stick with win 2K?
I didn’t put any words in your mouth goofball. You said: “Most people compare iApps with the closest altenative *bundled* with Windows” They don’t compare.
Ahh, you taken my words out of context. I was critizing those who compare iApps with Microsoft-made altenatives bundled/integrated with Windows.
Which is what ALL the articles EVER listed on Apple’s Hot News (http://www.apple.com/hotnews) that PRAISES iApss do, if they were comparing with something.
Third party solutions are not as good as iMovie because they have configuration kinks while iMovie has practically zero problems.[…]
Amazing how you compare a software solution with hardware solutions….. (Hint: Software don’t need drivers, hardware does). And if you bought a digital camera or video camera, it would come with some great Windows-based apps to simplify the creation of home movies.
The article I cite was from a Texas newspaper, dumbo, not a MS basing site. You guys just can’t stand all the great reviews for Jaguar, the iApps, the iPod, can you?
The review you gave me is from an author that can’t stand anything Windows. I didn’t blame the newspaper, but the author.
I don’t mind good reviews for Mac OS X, iApps, etc. The reviews are great is they don’t compare with what that is available inside Windows. Doing such a comparison is like taking out StarOffice and KOffice, comparing them, and saying StarOffice is the winner, nothing beats it, when a comparison with other stuff like WordPerfect and MS Office isn’t done.
Dude, give up on the XP web page desktop shots. Where the F**K are they they? How many pages do you have to drill down from the address you gave until you find a deskop shot?
I gave you an URL full of them. Besides, going to Apple’s website doesn’t show me any screenshots of Mac OS X 10.2. Previously they have this section called Theater… what happened with that? They are suddenly ashamed of the looks of Aqua?
Just try to be less ignorant for once, please?
Let’s dumb this down a little bit for you guys. OS X and the integrated apps are getting rave reviews, the press it’s destined to be copied by MS.
Oh wow. So? Maybe it would be copied by Microsoft. But doesn’t mean there aren’t solutions available for Windows that does exactly what iApps does.
And anyway, in the past two years, it is Apple that copied more from Microsoft than the other way around in terms of desktop.
SO THEY DON’T HAVE IT NOW. The organization of the control panels, the dock is better than the crappy equivalents in XP.
Funny, I prefer Windows XP’s taskbar much better than the Dock. Yeah, I admit, the Dock looks mightly pretty, much better than the taskbar. But overall, I find myself more productive with Windows’ taskbar than Apple’s Dock.
And the Dock isn’t that fanstatic either. The Register is having a bounty to get an Apple developer to “accidently” delete it.
Here’s a clue, the ability to build a box doesn’t make XP better or equivalent to OS X. The choice of more hardware doesn’t make XP as good. It just means a wintel is better for you. NOT that XP is a better or equivalently well designed OS. It’s not. It’s inferior .
Here’s a clue for you. Mac OS X is seperated from iApps. Heck, only QuickTime is bundled with Mac OS X retail pack. What you have compared so far is not how Mac OS X is more superior to Windows XP, but rather how how Macs are superior to PCs in terms of bundled apps.
And just because something isn’t reviewed doesn’t mean it is a bad product. Have you ever tried any of the altenatives to iApps? I doubt it.
And to the comparison of My Pictures folder to iPhoto, ever heard of Picture-It! by Microsoft, which is bundled with Works 2003 which is bundled with a lot of PCs? Ahh, I doubt it. (This is an old feature of Works suite, before iPhoto was announced).
Now to clarify: I have nothing against Apple nor Mac. But you seem to have everything against Microsoft and PCs in general.
Here’s TechTV: “Maybe one day there will be a simple, Mac-like video-editing app for Windows”
And I bet that was said by Brett Larson.
Hmmm, the Chinese press says that America as a world power is declining. The Chinese press also says people in the West in starving while people in Communist China is having a hell of a time. Should I believe it just because the press said it?
There’s five OS X and app window shots on the OS X tab at Apple’s website. That’s the address you originally gave.
There is no desktop shot at the XP Address you gave. As Genaldar pointed out, there’s a tiny little drawing like an icon of a PC with Luna on the far right.
There a row of icons at the very top of the OS X web page address you gave. It lead directly to (I mean on the next page) over 20 desktop or app window shots.
I couldn’t direct links to any desktop or app window shots on the XP web page address you gave.
If you can’t concede ANYTHING, you’re just a loser.
OK, so we have conceded that what comes with XP is lame for video editing. Never mind that a lot of people are going to buy a PC thinking they can actually use Moviemaker, and then after that waste of time have to go looking for another solution. And probably have to buy and install a 1394 card. When with a mac, they had a great program and built in firewire from the get go.
As for your point about video editing software (no hardware), most times you are going to have to buy that 1394 card for the PC. So there’s hardware. In any event, you can have just as many problems with software not working. I’m not saying there’s always a problem on the PC. Just that there’s virtually never a problem getting iMovie to work.
I have not tried a lot of the 3 party stuff for PC (see, I’m grown up so I can actually admit something). I’ll go to Micro Center this weekend and check it out. Which programs, specifically, do you maintain are equivalent to or better than iMovie, iPhoto and iDVD (from a functional standpoint)?
I’ll look at Sony’s Movieshaker. It sounds pretty bad, but who knows. The fact they include Premier LE with their package also suggests Movieshaker is too weak to stand on its own, but again, I’ll take a look. From what I’ve heard, Premier is not as easy to use as iMovie.
I’ll check Picture-It too. Do you know if it can automatically download from most cameras without installing any software? Do the thumbnails scale instantly and beautifully like in iPhoto? Can you make a hardcover book from your photos? Press a button and have them loaded up to a website for everyone to view? I’ll be checking into that.
I do think it’s relevant that numerous PC journalists have expressed the view that the PC equivalents to these (3d party included) are not as good. But who knows, maybe they are all wrong and you are right?
Walt Mossberg of the NY Times is not anti-PC. Actually, the person who wrote the other article said “Don’t switch”, eventually what’s on OS X will come to the PC. So I’m not sure that person is so clearly anti-PC. Maybe you have some information you would like to share on that point.
I don’t think in the future most people are going to make a distinction between the OS and the apps. That’s kind of a computer nerd thing that’s been forced on everyone. I think the future is the PC as a tool. What does it do out of the box? For most ordinary people. Maybe apple’s advantage here is more of a marketing one — the word is out that the mac has great built in apps. Sony’s bundles and Dell don’t have the mindshare there.
On the dock. It can be hidden, it can be resized, magnification is an option. Apps and folders and documents and links can be put in the dock even if they are not running or open. None of these can be done for the windows taskbar. The icons in the task bar are too small. Open a lot of things, and the whole thing gets crowded and cluttered. Yea, that can happen too in the dock, but it happens a lot earlier with the taskbar. The dock never gets too crowded for me, but the taskbar does everyday (I use win 2K at work). Should I stop or keep going? Well, one more thing, the dock icons can display things like the number of email messages or the temperature or whatever.
I notice you didn’t fight the point that OS X’s control panels are better (no “Wizards” needed). Or that the OS X graphics system is 10X better. So it’s not just the iApps.
“PS Genaldar – if MS does such a wonderful job with OS’s, why aren’t you using their latest (XP) and stick with win 2K?”
I prefer win2k, I don’t care that much about eye candy so I have no compelling reason to upgrade to xp. btw my laptop has xp, since it shipped with it.
Boy it’s hard to believe I have to do this but . . .
A screenshot = something that shows you what all or part of the desktop looks like (not a drawing, an actual screen capture, and you need to see some text, menus something
An artist’s rendering of the luna backround on an icon-sized drawing of a PC is not a screenshot.
Most new pcs, especially machines sold as being good for media enthusiats, have firewire built in.
The taskbar can be resized. You can also add links, and shortcuts.
btw how are “wizards” bad? If your completely computer illiterate then they’re helpful. Unless you contend people just know how to do everything the first time they use a mac.
All macs have firewire, and have for years. “Most” PCs, if that’s 51% then a lot of people are still installing cards.
Resizing the taskbar is not infinitely adjustable, it’s fixed block amounts (like toolbars in apps). when you say shortcuts can be put in the taskbar, does that include folders and documents? I did forget you can put apps in.
It still gets less crowded too on the dock. The way the taskbar always puts words in with the tiny icon in each block means you can show fewer things.
The taskbar can’t dispay things like the number of emails. The documents in the Dock actually look like the real document in miniature. No hiding and no magnification in the taskbar. Basically the dock (even at this stage, it will be refined probably) is an improvement over the taskbar. It just gets less crowded and it doesn’t have to be there all the time.
Everytime I have tried the wizard they got in my way. Sometimes I need to change TCP/IP settings in my computers. I don’t do this often enough to remember how to find these in XP. in OS X i find them in 2 seconds. So I turn to the Wizard. It wants to “help” me start up a home network from scratch. That’s not what I want. So I dig through the nested options and buttons in XP until I find it.
I took your guys advice and looked on Cnet for reviews of Picture It, one of the supposedly equivalent alternative to iPhoto. Wow, there was a lot of vitriol from users. Sure, others had no problems. But this is the pattern we see over and over with Windows. It’s Russian roulette. Some people go off without a hitch. Others, you simply never figure out the problem and just give up.
Unstable pre-beta junk. It promises alot, and could be great. But I have never seen any program crash so much, not even shareware. Tried every fix MS suggested, no go. I give up!
This program takes over your extensions (e.g. jpg). It grabs everything in a manner that is more difficult to fix than a non-MS application. The program causes Outlook Express’s spell checker to lock-up and trashes Outlook’s relationship to word and excel. Miscrosoft has a series of fixes for this problem on their site (for the previous version…..MS Obviously aware of the problems…. but not willling to fix them ?) In essence, there is no real “Uninstall” for this program, you must download a series of exe files from microsoft and do some registry work to recover.
“The worst! I’ve had this software for a while but no longer use it. I occassionally check for patches and today see that MS has discontinued the product. They should also refund the money to everyone who has bought it. It is completely unstable. Constantly crashes my system and isn’t worth the box it came in. I tried all of the “fixes” MS recommended and none of them worked.
I run this on Windows XP Pro with over 500 megs of Ran and a Pent 4 system. When I use the save as feature..or even try to get a picture of file from my harddrive it takes FOREVER for them to load…
“counter intuitive interface. Simple things should be simple – they’re not. Making 2 5×7 prints on a single sheet (for instance) requires selecting pictures, opening a new project and then hand dimensioning the photos. MS has abandoned their interface specs with this one and it’s easy to get lost. Finally, I had problems with large numbers of photos in the flat (no folders) gallery.
“Won’t run even on the best system!”Had problems installing on my K-6 500 AMD system (3 years old with lots of memory and space) so I waited until I got my new state of the art system with 1.6 ghz AMD XP processor and all the toys. It still crashes the system. Nevr had this problem with Photoshop or any others I have installed. It is almost impossible to get it all off your system and the files you made with it are in Microsoft’s format which nobody elses program will work with.
You can add whatever shortcuts you want in a toolbar in the taskbar.
I’ve never tried picture it so I can’t speak to it in particular, but I do admit things like that happen. But thats because its an open system. Where as all macs are the same (or there are 4 or 5 available at a time) there are millions of possible pc configurations. That makes testing a much more involved process. Before you claim victory realize that for a mac program to fail on a configuration would affect a much larger percentage of users then if 1 pc configuration was affected. Its like when I used to make hamburgers in the metrodome, at the only burger stand (at the time). One vikings game I made over 12,000 hamburgers. One of them was under done. I think thats a pretty good percentage, but if you ask that 1 customer they’d say I was the worst cook in the world.
You guys aren’t so bad, so I will try to be more polite. Sorry I called you a dope.
I do see you can add those shortcuts. gee, I actually learned something! The taskbar is much better resized (even if it’s a fixed increase).
Thank you very much, but I think I’ll take the situation where if something fails on the mac, it affects a larger number of users. These are easy to identify and fix (in fact, Apple is likely to catch many of these before something ships).
Unlike the situation with Windows where many users are plagued by such a variety of things it almost seems like an impossible task to track all the problems down.
From the cnet reviews on Pinnacle video editing software (51% thumbs down). Boy, if only these people had bought a mac with iMovie.
The features are great and there is a lot of potential, but it crashes everytime I go to burn a CD. Totally unexceptable in this day and age. The only support I got from Pinnacle was an e-mail (4 days after I sent in my problem) telling me to check back on their web site every so often to see if a patch was ready! By the way, I own more than 1 computer, different makes and configurations and Studio 8 crashes on all of them.
I was interested in creating DVDs with menus. Sounds good in theory, but EVERY TIME during rendering, the program errors and closes (without saves. If you check the Pinnacle User Forum, this problem is widespread (Although not offically acknowledged as a problem.)
After waiting for 14 hours for it to render my video to DVD format, it crashed saying “A required resource is not”. A look at the pinnacle web site indicates that they know about the problem and say a fix will be coming “soon”. Other times, the program just crashed and disappeared from the taskbar.
“$800 AUD down the toilet!!!”
I, as am heaps of people am having massive rendering problems! The program works fine on my PC (my specs are over double the recommended) my latest attempt was when I tried to render a 3 minute long clip with standard effects, only a couple of transitions, and when I went to render it (to burn to a cd) 3 hours later, nothing, the screen doesn’t lock up and the program doesn’t crash, it just sits there saying, “RENDERING, please wait” look for something else guys!!!!
The support site (www.pinnaclesys.com/support) is riddled with complaints about the product’s instability
“RENDERING HANGS FOR 6 HOURS HORRIBLE TECH SUPPORT”
Seems to be a lot of people upset about the time it takes to render a movie before it gets burned to VCD or DVD. I let a 25 minute movie render for 6 hours and still nothing. Called Tech Support, waited 48 minutes on the phone. Guy had no clue. What good is a product that will not work and no way to talk to tech support.
There is no Tech Support; the support site is screaming with people with rendering lock up issues, Pinnicle is not responding to bug reports or customer issues
Some quotes from Cnet on a creative mp3 player are below (OK, I’m sure Musicmatch is pretty good rather than the creative stuff software lambasted below. The situation is not real dire on th PC side when it comes to music, but the iPod/iTunes wins out for sheer beauty and unbelievable ease of use):
Ripping the CDs and transferring them to the Nomad using Creative Play Center is very easy, however, you have to know a few details that are not covered in the useless manual. The player seems to be well made. Now, some bad things: I have ant hills in my back yard that have fewer bugs. Play Center crashes XP at certain times if you try to delete a file. There’s no undo – try to terminate an operation and you will frequently crash. Always have a paper clip with you because you’ll probably be pressing the reset button on the Nomad frequently. They should have put the reset button right on the front panel. The good news is that resetting it doesn’t cause it to lose data. Creative’s support people are useless – if you can get one on the phone.
Remember when Creative Labs launched the Nomad first with a lot of marketing fanfare? Now when you want the early Nomad to work with new computers, this is what you get on the Creative Labs website: “Sorry, driver files and software updates are currently not available for your product.” Neither for Windows 2000, nor XP. Who knows what your computer runs on in two years? Wouldn’t you want the Nomad Jukebox still be working then?
The software for Nomad 3 is extremly lacking. I try to avoid using playcenter because every time I do I have to reinstall my sound card and reboot. This is probably jsut a bug on my system though.