British Mac Show Notes

Episode BritishMac068

			News

			The iMac turns 10 By Charles Jade \| Published: May 06, 2008 - 07:32AM CT To understand how far the iMac has come in the last ten years, one need look no further than the first letter in the word. When Steve Jobs unveiled the iMac on May 6th, 1998, he explained the "i" was for Internet. Today, connectivity is intrinsic to all personal computers, and yet the iMac name remains, as does its all-in-one design. However, that singular design has seen three significantly different forms in the last ten years. iMac (1998 - 2002) In 1998, beleaguered Apple needed a hit, and it got one with the iMac. The press release says it all: "We designed iMac to deliver the things consumers care about most - the excitement of the Internet and the simplicity of the Mac," said Steve Jobs, Apple's Interim CEO. "iMac is next year's computer for $1299; not last year's computer for $999." The Mac Experience, smug superiority, and comparatively high prices as a feature—Apple was back in business! The iMac was a sleek all-in-one, a 15" CRT merged with a computer in a translucent bondi-blue case. "The back of this thing looks better than the front of the other guys," as Steve Jobs said, and the specifications weren't terrible either (233MHz CPU, 32MB RAM, 4GB hard drive, CD-ROM). Of course, the real changes in technology came with what wasn't there: the floppy drive and standard I/O ports. USB became mainstream on the Mac, to be augmented by FireWire in later models. Apple also introduced the "coolest mouse on the planet," before sending the puck back to whatever ergonomic nightmare world it came from. Over its life cycle, the basic iMac came in a variety of colors, as well as two bad jokes named Flower Power and Blue Dalmatian. By the end of 2001, sales had trailed off, but the iMac had been there when Apple needed a hit, including four million-Mac quarters. What came next was a startling surprise. iLamp (2002 - 2004) "The CRT is officially dead," said Steve Jobs, as he proudly unveiled the new iMac at Macworld Expo in 2002, but Apple was not content to simply make the LCD standard on the desktop. A chrome arm that seemed reverse-engineered from rediscovered ancient, alien technology was anchored to a white, dome-shaped base housing the computer, allowing the display to "float" before the user. Less revolutionary, but still important changes included an upgrade in CPUs from PowerPC G3 to G4 and the introduction of a CD-RW in the base model. Six months after the 15" LCD model was introduced, a 17" iMac was added, and a 20" iMac following in 2003. Also during the lifetime of the series, USB 2.0, Bluetooth, and Airport Extreme support were added to the line. However, it was the unique design, whose genesis was found in the sunflowers in Steve's backyard, that made the iMac what it was. "Each element has to be true to itself," Jobs told Ive. "Why have a flat display if you're going to glom all this stuff on its back? Why stand a computer on its side when it really wants to be horizontal and on the ground? Let each element be what it is, be true to itself." You have to wonder if Jobs really believes this crap when he says it. If so, he didn't show it when the "sunflower" iMac ended up on the compost heap of Apple history less than three years later. iGlom (2004 - 2007) If art is the tension between the creative and the accessible, then the design of the iMac G5 was definitely art and different, but not too different, as they say. Sporting a flat display with the internals on its back, the iMac G5 began Apple's new love affair with "thinness," which has reached its logical extreme in 2008 with the anorexic MacBook Air. In 2005, "thin" was two inches thick. But that did not mean weak, as the iMac G5 boasted Apple's fastest CPU ever. Interestingly, that would be said again of the iMac when Apple unceremoniously dumped IBM and the PPC for Intel Core Duos a year later, the first Intel iMac debuting at Macworld Expo 2006. Other technologies have also changed, including ambient light sensors, iSight cameras, the IR remote, SuperDrive standard, mini-DVI, as well as the EOL of the 17" model and the addition of a 24" model. Externally, the iMac got an aluminum and glass makeover with black trim and superthin keyboards in 2007, which is where the iMac is today. But what about tomorrow? iAlum (2007 - Present) In the last decade, the features and specifications have improved so much as to make comparisons between the iMac then and now meaningless, but the needs of consumers have not similarly increased. Rather, those needs have shrunk. By the end of 2008, two out of three Macs sold will be laptops, and that preference for smaller devices will only increase as computers like the iPhone become more powerful. At some point in the next decade, far ahead of the rest of the industry, the iMac will be retired and not replaced, and that will be a good thing. Apple has never been about a specific computer. As Steve Jobs said on the day the original iMac was introduced, "iMac reminds everyone of what Apple stands for." Besides the anthropomorphism of consumer electronics through eliminating determiners in grammar, its about the experience—something the iMac provides today, if not tomorrow. Happy 10th birthday, iMac. Enjoy your second decade, as it will likely be your last.

			The BBC and ITV have launched Freesat, a free satellite TV service, available across the UK. Freesat will initially broadcast 80 digital TV and radio channels. It will be available to 98 per cent of UK homes. The service has no monthly subscription fee. Instead, users must cough-up a one-off payment for the digital box, satellite dish and installation. The service claims those with a satellite dish already will need to fork out only for the digital box, which will be available through a number of high street retailers including Currys and John Lewis. Freesat's Emma Scott told BBC Radio 5Live: "Unlike Freeview you can receive Freesat across the country, which means that in those areas that at the moment can't get access to free digital television this is the first time that you can get free digital TV." The Freesat service is going head-to-head with Sky, which already offers the chance to purchase a set-top box and receive digital channels without a monthly subscription and will also broadcast programs in HD. It is expected that by the end of the year viewers will have access to more than 200 channels.

			After abandoning iTunes, NBC shows up on Zune NBC runs to Zune Nancy Gohring After a pricing dispute with Apple led NBC to pull its video content from iTunes, the broadcaster has struck a deal with Microsoft's Zune online store. On Tuesday, as part of an announcement about new Zune features, Microsoft planned to say that it will start selling television programs at the Zune store for viewing on its portable music player. NBC is among the broadcasters supplying videos for the service. The videos, which also come from Comedy Central, MTV, Nickelodeon, Turner Broadcasting and VH1, will cost $1.99 each. Users will be able to choose from 800 episodes.

			Universal has signed-up to sell its TV shows through iTunes in the UK. Content from the US broadcaster was made available through iTunes here during the night. The move is all the more interesting as the public spat between Apple and NBC Universal continues to take strange twists, with the latter firm removing its content from iTunes US, while making it available at the same price as before to Zune owners. Universal TV shows available to UK audiences through iTunes includes: Heroes, Season Two, House, Eureka, Hercules: The Legendary Journeys and The Incredible Hulk. What makes this move particularly interesting is that Apple and Universal seem to have agreed some measure of price flexibility - while current shows cost £1.89 each, episodes of Hercules: The Legendary Journeys and The Incredible Hulk are available for just £1.19 each.

			Safari for Windows usage trebles Apple's iPhone is the most popular cameraphone on Flickr while Safari Windows market trebles Jonny Evans Apple’s iPhone has become the most popular camera phone for use with Flickr, while the company’s market share for its Safari browser on Windows systems tripled last month. Computerworld reports iPhone is one of the most popular for uploading pictures as well: Flickr’s own statistics reveals more members use the iPhone to upload photos than other devices. Flickr's data has the iPhone surpassing the 5-megapixel, flash-equipped Nokia N95 in terms of percentage of users and that over the past year, the iPhone has steadily pulled ahead of the top Nokia and Sony Ericsson phones. "The results are pretty impressive given that the iPhone isn't even a year old and the specs on the camera are considered by many to be underpowered," the blogger concludes. However, the site notes limitations with data on camera phones. Meanwhile, Apple’s release of Safari 3.1 for Windows may have caused consternation due to the way Apple’s update system initially coerced Windows users into installing the upgrade, but the release has generated results. Apple’s marketshare for Windows tripled following the software’s release. NetApplications data reveals the percentage of Safari for Windows users among its clients, which had never climbed above .07 per cent, grew three-fold, to .21 per cent.

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			In reply to Rob's email from last week

			As for OS X on a Windows machine this is something I wanted to do last year when I first decided to move into the light as the cost of buying a new machine, never mind the environmental cost, was too much. Anyway at that time it was too restrictive and difficult and I ended up getting a MacMini and since then well I'm now a total Apple Fan Boy!! I had a conversation with Adam Christianson from the Maccast my point at that time was that Apple should sell a version of OS X for the Windows PC, perhaps to run under emulation in windows, my point being that once people tasted the fruit they'd go and buy the bowl, however I now see how that would never happen. It did mean that I had to wait a while to get into the world of Mac. I think if Rob wants to go down his route he will soon learn that you don't hide Mac equipment under the desk, you show it off, my iMac 24" (yes I changed from my MacMini) sites proudly on my desk, if it was under the desk I wouldn't be able to see the screen! I have tried to load OS X onto my old Windows box, which has not been booted up for some time :-), but it was a real pain and I thought naw can't be bothered. So Rob I know where your coming from, and I understand, as Will says once you've saved enough you can get a Mac and you'll love every minute of it. Keep up the great show Will! Gazmaz.

			Hi Will, I was intrigued to hear about your listener who has spent time and effort getting OSX to work on a bog standard PC. This doesn’t distress me in any way at all if it is a private individual doing this, and they are not selling Hackintosh’s on (which would be well illegal). He’s bought a copy of OSX and is finding out just how wonderful the OS is. Believe me I know OSX is the best OS as I have been struggling for hours over the weekend to get Vista to install happily, and Linux to install without bugs on my tripple boot Sony laptop. It’s so refreshing to come back to the Mac where everything just works. The quality of the OS is better than it just working though, for proof of that read “The missing Manual – Leopard edition” Apple make stunning hardware to go with their stunning OS, yes it is possible to buy much cheaper PC hardware but what you end up with is a cheap nasty computer with a lot of cut corners. Since Apple doesn’t sell cheap nasty computers they appear much more expensive. If you compare like with like though, you get a different picture. Comparing a premium brand PC manufacturer like Sony with Apple, comparing exactly the same hardware the price difference is about £50 more for the Mac. The Mac gives you much better software not least of which is a copy of the iLife suite, which there is still nothing quite like available for Windows. Couple this with the fact that everything works out of the box, all OS and Apple software updates just work, and you can dual boot with your chosen copy of windows or Linux and the Apple hardware / software combination wins hands down. None of these features will work with a Hackintosh. P.S. There is a little known trick that will allow you to tripple boot or even quadruple boot a Mac allowing you to run OSX, Vista, XP and Linux on one computer natively, need a disclaimer bit here though because it is definitely not supported and needs a fair bit of tinkering. Although most people I know use a combination of VMWare or Parallels and bootcamp together to run many OS’s. In fact the Mac platform is one of the best business development systems you can buy, let alone being the best home computer. I think there is nothing wrong with users running OSX on non Apple hardware, they will eventually discover that superior quality kit can be bought from Apple for just a few pounds more. -- Darren Davies

			Hello Will. I was very interested to hear the letter you read out in show #67 from Rob about running OS X on a PC because I'm in a similar situation. First some background. This is likely to be a long email, bear with me! I've used Windows for years. I've been using PC compatible systems since the days of the original IBM PCs and before that I was brought up on the Acorn Atom (pre-dates the BBC), the ZX-80, the Dragon, etc etc so I've been around a bit, but up until recently I've never tried an Apple Mac or experienced OS X. I work in an IT department and in my department there are two Apple Mac users - One is a huge Apple fan who takes almost any opportunity to put down Windows and the other is much more reasonable and recognises that there are good and bad points to both Windows and OS X. Because of various discussions at work and a nudge in the right direction by one of the guys mentioned above I spent the best part of three days getting OS X 10.5.2 working on a non Apple laptop. Why? I did it "because I could". It was a challenge! It worked, but it wasn't very fast and I had issues getting the network running. I managed it in the end and it was quite satisfying to know that I'd done it. We worked out that I'd actually installed OS X more times than the other two guys combined over the course of those three days! I'd learned a lot about OS X in the process. So I looked around and discovered that the components in my home PC were ideally suited for installing OS X on. Everything was supported and it would supposedly work but I was skeptical and went home on a Friday evening prepared for a long weekend of playing around to make it work. How wrong could I be? Two hours after getting home I had a system which booted into OS X, was fully patched (10.5.2) and I downloaded and installed all the system updates I was offered. Everything worked, sound, network, video etc etc. It's now about six weeks later and I'm still using OS X. I've tried other Operating Systems in the past apart from Windows, generally different versions of Linux and have always gone back to Windows after a very short time, not normally lasting more than a week on a different OS. OS X is different. I like it. It works although I must admit that at times I feel as though I'm not in full control - Some things are a little too well hidden and kept from the end user for my liking, but on the whole I like the operating system and the way it works. So, I can hear you saying "Buy a Mac!" But it's difficult. I thoroughly accept that Mac hardware in the form of the cases and boxes is superbly designed. The Mac Pro is a fantastic piece of engineering, everything slots together and comes apart nicely, it's all modular and when one looks inside the case, it's just neat and tidy. But it's expensive and to be totally fair about it, the components used for the actual computer hardware are nothing special and probably of no better quality than the equipment I'm currently using. The bottom line is that there simply isn't any Apple hardware that would suit me. The gap between the iMac and the Mac Pro is too wide and laptops aren't an option for me. The important parts of my system are thus: Intel Core 2 Duo processor @ 3.1GHz faster than any iMac 4Gb RAM more than any iMac Nvidia 8800GTS 640Mb graphics faster and more memory than any 8800 Apple can offer Mac Pro's are too powerful (actually I'd love the power but they're too damn expensive). iMacs are not powerful enough and I've already got two good large flat screens that I'm using so buying an underpowered iMac with a built in screen would be a waste of money. The Mac Mini is underpowered with not enough RAM and poor graphics for my use. So I shall continue to use OS X on my PC hardware. I'm really enjoying the OS X experience and apart from the fact that I see a PC BIOS screen when I start my system there is no telling that it's not Apple hardware. I would guarantee you could sit in front of this computer and use it all day and not know that it's not Apple hardware. Attached is a picture of my two screens, keyboard and mouse. As you can see, I bought an Apple keyboard! I've just realised how much I've written and feel that I ought to wrap up. In short, I like OS X, I like using OS X and if there were any Apple hardware that would suit my needs then I'd be saving up to buy it. But there isn't, so I'm not and I'm happy to carry on the way I am. I'm enjoying the podcasts, they're a bit quirky and different to anything else I've listened to but they are fun and your enthusiasm is to be applauded. If you want to talk about this further, drop me a message back :) Cheers, Keith.

			Hi there Will I was interested to hear the Email from your listener Rob. Top respect to the guy. I am given to understand that it is not easy to run OS X natively on a Mac and that emulators are slow and buggy. It says a lot about OS X if he still enjoys the experience even after it has gone through the emulation process. When he finds himself in the position of affording a Mac I am sure that he will enjoy the improvement. Sadly many PC users find themselves trapped into their hardware. The problem is that after you have paid good money for your machine it devalues so quickly that selling it on to pay for your new Mac is not a worthwhile option. By contrast Macs hold their value really really well. If you buy a second hand iMac you will find that they devalue on the second hand market by about £150 a year. I think that if Rob were to consider the total cost of ownership then he may well find that owning Apple hardware is extremely cost effective. Alan

			Fantastic podcast :) Was interested in your comments about the Sinclair Spectrum - I have very fond memories of it myself, so I thought you'd be interested in these. A few years back, being a bit of a programmer, I ported some remakes of old speccy games to the Mac. So, follow the following links for some completely free games :) Lunar Jetman: Download Here. Manic Miner: Download Here. Jetset WIlly: Download Here. Please feel free to share the links above with your listeners. Keep up the good work! John http://www.nelefa.org/

			Hello Will, Despite being a PC user I love the show and missed you when you were 'off the air'. I wonder, if you have the time, if you would let me know the name of the choral music you played before the British Icon item on show 066 (Alec Clifton Taylor). Many thanks, John Murrell The music is: Zadok the Priest (Coronation Anthem No. 1, HWV 258) By George Frideric Handel

			Hi Will, Just in case your brain aches whenever you think about programming, I have a fantastic suggestion if you want to make your own game. This is nothing short of fantastic, and free!!! Do you remember the classic RPG game Dungeon Master? It was a huge hit back in the day for the Amiga and Atari ST. Anyway, some enterprising dude has written a java version, which comes with its own editor. This will allow you to make your own British Mac dungeon game! You can change all of the graphics, and the resulting game will work on Mac’s, Linux machines and even Windows helping to spread the Mac word to the great unwashed. ;) Anyway, have fun playing the couple of games that come free. http://homepage.mac.com/aberfield/dmj/screenshots.html -- Darren Davies

			British Icon