The State's View of US Broadband

Julius Genachowski, the FCC Chairman spends a couple of minutes on Fox Business.  At least the guy looks young enough to know what the tubes are...

We'll see, I guess.

Steve Jobs @ "All Things D"

Recently, Steve Jobs took the stage at All Things D.  I just wanted to re-post the video from their site.

Here's Steve on Flash...

 ...on the origin of the iPhone...

 ...talking about Google...

 ...about iAds...

 ...on the Gizmodo iPhone kerfuffle...

 ...talking about TV...

 ...and last (but not least) on AT&T.

Sir Steve is still fun to watch.  I, for one tend to get lost in all the technorati mumbo-jumbo.  Mr. Jobs has a way of distilling things to simplicity.  Apple without Steve Jobs is like Ford Motor Company without Henry Ford, it doesn't exist.

Why I (Still) Love My 27” iMac

The MacTexan LairAfter five months, my “BigMac” as I like to call it, is my favorite computer of all time.  I get a little perturbed when tech magazines and blogs write reviews about machines just a couple of days after they’re released.  I know in this fast-paced world of internet journalism there is huge pressure to be “the firstest with the mostest”.  While I’ll admit to being anxious to read the first words written about Apple’s latest shiny, when it comes to making a serious decision about spending multiple thousands of dollars on a new computer, I prefer a more in-depth analysis than release day reviews can provide.

If you feel the same and are considering a new iMac then read on…

My new 27” Core i7 iMac arrived on the second week of December.  The first thing I noticed was how minimal the packaging was.  Before opening the box, I thought there was some mistake and I had gotten a 20.5”.  After a closer inspection I was relieved to find I’d gotten exactly what I ordered:

• iMac 27” (11,1)
• Core i7 2.8 GHz
• 4 GB Ram
• 1 TB Hard Drive

Worried by all the horror stories about cracked displays and bent housings on the 27” models, I was relieved to see my new beauty was in perfect condition once I got it out of the tight packaging.  The first thing I did after unwrapping the machine was install the additional 4 gigs of memory I’d purchased from MacSales.com.  It was a snap to install and the activity saved me almost $90 compared to what Apple wanted for the same thing.

The next breath-holding event was the initial power-up.  The other nightmare circulating around the interwebs was about the 27” displays having a yellow tint.  Again, mine was perfect and has remained so.  In fact, the 2560 X 1440 LED display is one of the best features of this machine.  More on that later.

Performance

The Core i7 is more processor than 99% of users will ever need.  The remaining 1% would have to be video editors or 3D graphic modelers.  I use iStat Menus to display a trend for each of the 8 cores (4 physical and 4 virtual) and I am hard pressed to utilize 30% of the iMac’s CPU.  I’ve only saturated all 8 cores when ripping a DVD using Handbrake and then only for 18 minutes while ripping a 6.7 GB movie.  The same chore on my 3.06 GHz Core 2 Duo MacBook Pro takes 37 minutes.  I routinely Flash encode three 320 X 240 video streams simultaneously.  Doing so requires only 25% of the iMacs available horsepower.  Unless your wagon is full of unencoded video, the Core i7 iMac has plenty of ponies to pull it.

The ATI 4850 GPU routinely runs Quake 3D set at 1900 X 1200 at over 90 frames per second.  I’m no hardcore gamer, but I’m a Mac guy.  Are any of us?  Running Windows 7 through VMWare Fusion 3 yields a performance rating of 5.9 on the video parameter and Aero works beautifully with all the snaz turned on.

Aesthetics

The two main differences between this new iMac and the previous version is the edge-to-edge monitor glass and the all-aluminum back.  When the monitor is turned off, the face of the machine is solid black with a three inch aluminum strip along the bottom containing the centered black glass Apple logo.  Gone is the thin aluminum frame around the monitor.  Even when off or sleeping, this is the most polished looking iMac to date.  The solid aluminum back housing contains a larger Apple logo near the top center fashioned with the same black glass as the one on the front.  This all aluminum treatment gives this newest Mac the same solid look as Apple’s laptops and the new iPad.  Make no mistake, this 27” model is big.  The wireless bluetooth keyboard and “Magic Mouse” that come standard look almost out of place with this rather large machine.  Be prepared to make a little extra desktop space if you plan to buy one of these.

Display

This new 27” LED-backlit display makes the loss of desktop space well worth it.  At a native resolution of 2560 X 1440, this monster is the most beautiful display I’ve ever used.  As I mentioned earlier, I’ve not experienced any of the publicized problems that made such a big news splash when this machine was originally released.  I ordered mine within the first week of availability so my machine was part of the problematic production run.  Quite the contrary; I have been and continue to be completely awestruck by this display.  It is fast, accurate and the pixel density is such that every window, icon and font looks completely solid with no pixelation or jagged edges any human can detect without a magnifying glass.  This display is also the real value proposition of this Mac, especially when compared to a Mac Pro.

Value

This machine set me back roughly $2300 including the 4 GB of extra RAM I purchased separately from OtherWorldComputing.com.  Because of all the Flash video encoding I do, I strongly considered a Mac Pro.  An entry-level, quad-core Pro configured similarly with a 24” display costs $3650, and this iMac’s benchmarks are better!  You can add a grand to that if you go with the 30” display.  I know the iMac is not easily upgradable, but aside from that the decision was a slam dunk.  For $1350 less than the 24” (1920 X 1200) Mac Pro, this iMac has better performance and a vastly superior display.

I never considered a PC for many reasons but mainly because I already own several Apple Pro software titles (Logic Studio, Aperture, Final Cut Express) and replicating their functionality on Windows would cost over $1000.  Besides, I’m a Mac guy thru-and-thru.  If you were to replicate this iMac’s hardware specs, a Dell XPS 8100 is the lowest cost PC to include the Core i7 and similar guts to the iMac.  Equipped with a 27” Dell Ultrasharp display, this machine will set you back around $1975.  Apple tax?  No matter what you call it, Macs are always more expensive than equivalent PCs (if there is such a thing as an equivalent PC), but the differential is not as much as is often ballyhooed.

After five months, I (still) LOVE THIS MAC!  I would recommend it to anyone wanting an ultimate Apple experience.

Is It Time for Flash to Die?

I'm really amused by all the verbal sparring of late between Apple and Adobe.  Mr. Jobs' open letter explaining Apple's (his) position regarding Flash on the iPhone OS, while obviously somewhat self-serving, did codify a number of reasons for keeping Flash out of the ecosystem.  These reasons are all to familiar to us Mac users, but I can understand why the rest of the world is less than convinced about his sincerity.  Flash, while not perfect on Windows, is completely lousy on OS X.  As a relatively new switcher of three years, this performance contrast is still fresh in my mind.  In fact, I can remember being convinced I'd done something wrong the first time I installed the Flash plugin in Safari.  The experience introduced me to "beachballing".
Before I go any further, a disclaimer.  I’m no fan of Flash (or Adobe for that matter).  I really thought it was terrific when I first saw it, but that was a long time ago.  When it was first introduced there was a void in the internet experience that Flash filled quite nicely; multimedia.  HTML standards at the time were virtually devoid of any means of presenting interactivity or video.  Hover buttons and the very limited GIF graphic format is about all there was.  Consequently, flaming logos and animated mailboxes signified Web 1.0.  Adobe was smart to develop and freely distribute browser plugins to fill this void and Flash became the de facto standard for distributing multimedia content on the web.  In fact, it’s hard to imagine today’s internet without it.  YouTube, hulu, Ustream and by some estimates, 75% of all web video is delivered via Flash.  That being said, just because three out of four internet videos use Flash encoding doesn’t mean it’s the best method.  In fact, Flash is a fourteen year old technology designed when the internet was a very different place and the average PC wasn’t nearly as powerful as today’s cell phone.  With HTML 5 all but a done deal, the need for a proprietary, third-party delivery system is waning if not completely nonexistent.
Disclaimer #2:  I'm an Apple fanboy who makes no apologies for lusting after almost everything they make.  That being said, I'm no apologist for many of the "walled garden" policies enforced by the company.  It's almost laughable when the world's biggest control freak, Steve Jobs writes an open letter to the world lecturing everyone on the virtues of open web standards and HTML 5.  This coming from a man who refuses to allow iPhone, iPod and iPad owners to install software on their own devices unless his company approves it first.  During his iPad announcement keynote he had the gall to proudly proclaim “...you can set the device's background wallpaper to whatever you want.”  Like that is some sort of privilege?  I couldn't believe he said it with a straight face!
Apple (Mr. Jobs) is very intent on insuring a smooth, reliable user experience on all their devices.  I get that.   I just don't appreciate him lecturing the world on "openness" while making the argument that Flash could ruin that experience.
Adobe on the other hand, isn't exactly lilly white either.  They, better than any company I can think of, exploit the "Gilette Razor" business model to leverage their position as gatekeeper of web multimedia content.  By developing and freely distributing Flash plugins for almost every browser and operating system (the razors), they've built a huge user install base allowing them to charge a premium for their proprietary development and deployment tools (the blades).  This near monopoly gives them carte blanche to dictate terms to web designers and developers alike and like any monopoly, innovation is stifled.  For example, they’ve made little or no effort to take advantage of newer chip architecture that allows for hardware decoding of H.264 video.  This makes rendering video much more efficient, saving CPU cycles and power.  Consequently, Flash video playback has deservedly earned labels like “resource hog” and “battery eater” and is one of the main reasons Apple won’t allow it on their portable devices.  Additionally, while users get free plugins to view Flash content, Adobe really soaks developers for Flash creation tools.  The basic Flash tool, Flash Professional CS5 retails for $699 with the Web Premium version a whopping $1799!  They pay through the nose for the privilege of developing poor-performing software.  Flash content can be beautiful and full-featured but it is last decade’s technology wrapped up in new tools.
Both Apple and Adobe are making eloquent speeches about the virtues of their positions and how their solution is the best for everyone.  I’ve tried to look at the situation objectively and filter through the self-serving rhetoric from both camps.  In the end, I side with the best technology and on that point Apple happens to be correct.  Hanging on to Flash is an exercise in choosing the path of least resistance and staying the course of using the millions of already installed browser plugins to view multimedia content.  The better technology is the more efficient HTML 5 standard but it will require a significant development effort to implement.  In the end, HTML 5 will be simpler for users, require less power, is more open and cheaper for developers.  It just happens to be the Steve Jobs side of the argument.

iStat Menus Goes “Paid”

OK, call me a gearhead.  I’ll admit, I like to see what my Mac is doing, how it's running and how much free memory remains, but the real reason I started using iStat Menus was because it looks so cool in my menu bar.  Blinking lights, perpetually updating graphs and pristinely drawn drop-down menus give my Macs that “highly instrumented” look that many of us geeks crave. You know how it is.  We’re drawn to blinking LEDs like moths to a flame.
All that aside, for me, a Mac without iStat Menus feels a bit incomplete.  It’s one of the first things I install when I get a new machine.  I’ve become so accustomed to using it, when I drive a Mac without it it feels like I’m in a car with no dashboard.  Discovering my Mac’s CPU load, network and disk activity and a host of other things with a half-second glance has become second nature.  I’m completely spoiled.  That’s why when Bjango popped up a message on each of my Macs stating that version 3 of their product was no longer free, I clicked the “Buy” button with less hesitation than a politician raising taxes.  Besides, its a good deal.  A single license goes for ten bucks, but a family pack of five is only $18.  I have to admit to feeling a bit guilty using the first two versions "por nada".  iStat has never looked or performed like free software.  Version 3 has been updated to work with the new Core i5 & i7 iMacs (version 2 had problems with the NIC monitor) and the Bjango boys have done their usual great job of “spit polishing” the app.  The new look is beautiful and perfectly complements their near flawless execution of providing a fully customizable menu bar app to monitor almost every measurable parameter of your Mac.  I’m not going to do a review here but I urge you to download the 14 day free trial and try it for yourself.  If you get hooked like I did, you’ll only need to skip one Big Mac meal to pay for it.