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Is Apple the new Microsoft?
So claimeth Mike Elgan of Computerworld in his article on PC World: "It's Official: Apple is the New Microsoft." Well, I'm certainly glad that is settled! On to the iPhone news... Wait a moment, on what grounds does Mike base his comparison? I'll break down the points and test their coherence.Mike's first assertion is a familiar one: the iPod + iTunes ecosystem is the worst kind of monopoly, where you must use iTunes with an iPod. He says, "Not fair, you might say. Any hardware device that syncs data with a PC as part of its core functionality has software to facilitate that syncing. True enough. But operating systems have browsers as part of core functionality, too. Doesn't Mac OS X come with Safari? Doesn't the iPhone?"First of all, his argument is akin to saying ATI has a monopoly because you have to install drivers to make their video cards work. Secondly, his parallel to browsers is nonsensical. What does a browser, a completely different app unwed to any external hardware device, have to do with iTunes or an iPod? I'm not really smart enough to tell which logical fallacy this is, but I know BS when I smell it. Buy CD's, they don't come from the iTunes Store.Moving on to his one-line critique of iTunes: "ITunes is the slowest, clunkiest, most nonintuitive application on my system. But I need it because I love my iPods." iTunes is clunky and unintuitive, huh? Ever try SonicStage? PC World even called IE 6 one of the worst products ever. Of course, MMC plug-ins are models of intuitive design. Let's move on, shall we?
UK Deal of the Day: Ridge Racer 2 less than 1
Ridge Racer 2 is essentially the PSP launch title, Ridge Racer, with only ten new tracks (we're really not kidding about this folks). That doesn't mean it's a bad game ... it just means it's a bad deal.That is, until now. UK PC World stores will give you the title for a mere £0.97. You're getting a full game for almost the same cost as the free downloadable demo. We say: deal.[Thanks, Monkston!]
PC World 100 Best of 2007 honors Parallels, Tiger
When a leading computer publication has a revolving-door editor-in-chief hiring policy, it can make other weird editorial decisions look sane and prudent by comparison. Exhibit A: the annual PC World "100 Best" feature, which presents the 100 best products of 2007... online in May, and in print for July. Not even half the year has gone by, but the farsighted crew at PCW has already figured out the best of the bunch! Might as well take the rest of the year off, then...The real reasons that the 100 Best comes out mid-year (covering the end of 2006 and the start of 2007) are detailed in a post from once-and-current big kahuna Harry McCracken. It comes down to legacy scheduling of the product awards around the June date of the no-longer-extant PC Expo trade show. That's a relief; I was worried that we were changing the calendar again.Anyway, more to the point: the list is top-heavy with some big Mac products, including TUAW darling Parallels Desktop at #6 (the top-ranked application on any desktop platform, not counting #1 Google Apps Premier Edition), Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger at #9 and AppleTV at #11. The Intel Core 2 Duo processor that powers new Macs is a top pick at #2. Noticeably absent from the top 100 was the latest hotness from Redmond, which may correlate with PC World's comment on the Tiger ranking: "Name a good Vista feature that goes beyond what's in Tiger. Yeah, we can't either." Brrrrr.
ReadyBoost ready, but doesn't boost
Vista's ReadyBoost feature, which theoretically improves performance by placing part of Vista's memory swapfile onto a highspeed flash drive, is one of the slickest OS tricks we've heard about in a long time. Unfortunately, it isn't as sweet in practice, according to PC World. They tested three USB flash drives by Kingston, Lexar, and Ridata that claim to be ReadyBoost, uh, ready, and found that while they were able to measure a slight speedup in certain activities (like opening frequently-used applications) overall the effect was unnoticeable -- they concluded that "installing more RAM inside your PC would help a lot more." Bummer. So much for all those freebie USB sticks we have laying around.
McCracken returns as PC World editor in chief
Last week we mentioned the resignation of PC World editor in chief, Harry McCracken who seemed to have quit because PC World (and former Macworld) CEO Colin Crawford canned a story on "10 Things We Hate About Apple." In the brouhaha that followed the canned story finally came out (revealing not much substance to speak of), and now finally the other shoe has dropped. PC World is itself reporting that McCracken is returning to PC World as "vice-president, editor in chief" and Crawford will leave as PC World CEO to rejoin parent company IDG "as executive vice president, online." IDG is presently undertaking a search for a new CEO to lead PC World and Macworld.So the story has a happy ending for McCracken and probably the right thing was done in the end. I'm sure everyone at IDG, PC World, and Macworld is just glad this thing is over.
10 things that Sort of Mildly Displease PC World about Apple (and why PC World thinks Apple is Doing Well)
In the beginning there was 'hate', or more specifically "10 Things We Hate About Apple". And PC World's Harry Mccracken resigned from his position when former Macworld CEO Colin Crawford supposedly put the kibosh on the article. Questions raged throughout the blogosphere as to whether Apple was exercising undue editorial pressure as an advertiser--questions, which as far as I can tell, did not raise a definitive answer one way or another. Today PC World lays everything out on the table--well almost everything; they never mention whether Apple played a role or not and don't discuss the resignation directly--posting about the controversy which involved short pieces written by staffers Alan Stafford and Narasu Rebbapragada. The articles, they write, were meant to be light-hearted conversation starters, not "weighty journalism". You can read both articles today at PC World's online site, both the ten things they hate about Apple and the ten things they love. The "hate" list includes many on-target items including that Apple is "more secretive than Homeland Security" (hah!), that they blame others for the worm that shipped with iPods last year, and that the Mac is crap at gaming. The less focused "love" list includes "sublime designs", Jobs calling for the end of DRM, and that Macs run Windows. In the end, now that we've gotten a chance to check both lists out, it seems like a whole lot of fuss was made over not very much. And if I had to spike one of the two lists? I'd kill the "love" list first.Thanks, Chris Tutor.
PC World editor quits over Apple story
This story on Wired blog is interesting. About a month ago the former CEO of Macworld Magazine, Colin Crawford, took over sister magazine PC World and just recently put the kibosh on a story idea for the latter: "Ten Things We Hate about Apple." According to Wired's anonymous source: "It was supposed to be light fare, just really innocuous stuff. The same kinds of things people have said about Apple before -- things that teased Steve Jobs." This prompted the editor-in-chief of PC World, Harry McCracken, to resign in protest. The Wired story continues: "Crawford also told editors that product reviews in the magazine were too critical of vendors, especially ones who advertise in the magazine, and that they had to start being nicer to advertisers." Supposedly when Crawford was still at Macworld, "Steve Jobs would call him up any time he had a problem with a story the magazine was running about Apple."So clearly the implication is that Macworld is a sort of Pravda of Apple, Inc., and kept in line by upper management who kowtow to Cupertino. So what do you think? Does this make you suspect the objectivity of Macworld Magazine?[via Daring Fireball]
Apple leads PC World's 50 Best Tech Products of All Time
Everybody likes lists and rankings; there's just something that fascinates people about them, and they're always good for an argument or, as the case may be, selling magazines. Squarely in this latter camp is PC World's list of the Best 50 Tech Products of All Time, which editor Harry McCracken writes in to tell us features seven Apple products, more than any other singe company. These are: #2 - Apple II (1977) #6 - iPod (2001) #14 - Mac Plus (1986) #21 - iTunes 4 (2003) #30 - OS X (2001) #34 - Original Airport Base Station (1999) #41 - Hypercard (1987) One thing that jumps out of this list to me is that only one of them, Hypercard, came out of Cupertino during the period that Jobs was gone from Apple (well maybe the Mac Plus, too). In any case, it clearly shows how much Apple has been on a roll since Jobs' return. I also think that at least one more product should be there: the original Powerbook 100, which more or less established the notebook computer form factor we have to this day. So let the debates begin, dear TUAW readers, what did the PC World editors screw up?
Blizz Prez Mike Morhaime, #4 on PC World's Most Important People on the Web
As you might imagine, we here at WoW Insider love World of Warcraft. It's the greatest thing to come along since at least Diablo. Blizzard is a great company, and when it comes to computer gaming, you could solidly make the argument that nobody does it better than they do.But when PC World announced their "Most Important People on the Web" list today, I was surprised to see, right there in between the inventor of Bittorrent and Jimbo Wales of Wikipedia, Mike Morhaime, President of Blizzard Entertainment as the 4th Most Important Person on the Internet (a big jump up from a previous list). PC World cites WoW's huge player base and Blizzard's profits of $1.5 billion a year (not to mention all the money floating around WoW's black market services), but does the president of a videogame company really deserve to be two slots down from Steve Jobs, in between the man who basically created an anonymous peer-to-peer sharing system and the man who's developing the definitive online collection of knowledge?Call me cynical, but I say no. WoW may have influence over a lot of people, but Blizzard is using that influence to nerf druids and tweak raid bosses, not affect the Internet population. Then again, the guy did appear in animated form on South Park, and Jimbo Wales has never done that. We should all know by now that these lists are just a cheap way of encouraging discussion (and attention), but Morhaime's inclusion on the list means that WoW's ascent into our culture isn't done yet.
YouTube history of Stevenotes
Harry McCracken, over at PC World, has gathered an incredible collection of YouTube videos chronicling Steve Jobs introducing things. All your favorite Stevenotes are there, and you can relive everything from the launch of NeXTStep 3 to the introduction of Airport.My favorite, though, is this video in which Steve introduces OS 9. Ah, the Keychain, one of my favorite features of the Mac OS, gets its share of the limelight.
PC World votes PS3 a "screwup"... subscribers cancel
Okay, subscribers probably didn't cancel when they read this. Most of them, being PC-fanatics, probably shrugged and agreed. People have made the argument many times on this site how comparing a console to the PC isn't a fair comparison, but that's besides the point. Let's just copy and paste what PC World said about the PS3:"When it was announced in spring 2005, the Sony PlayStation 3 was going to be the greatest thing to hit home gaming since a hedgehog named Sonic. Then came the delays. By the time the PS3 arrived, it was six months late, and Nintendo's cheaper and more innovative Wii had stolen much of its thunder. At $599 for the 60GB model, the PS3 is twice the price of the original PlayStation 2, yet research firm iSupply--which describes the PS3 as having supercomputer qualities--estimates that Sony still loses more than $200 per unit. Thanks to manufacturing delays, Sony shipped an estimated 150,000 units for the North American launch, or less than half the number it had originally planned. And the PS3 was incompatible with more than 200 PlayStation and PS2 games, though Sony is addressing that problem through online updates. The good news? Game-crazed youth are buying up PS3s and reselling them on eBay for double the asking price. And unlike, say, Sony batteries, they don't catch fire--at least, not yet." Oh, har, har, har. Since Sonic? That was the pinnacle of gaming they chose to compare it to? Sigh. The "big mistake" was trying to turn a supercomputer into a gaming device and the "bigger" mistake was failing to destroy Nintendo when they had the chance. What do you guys think? Is PC World on the money, or are they jumping to conclusions?
PC World adds another log to PS3 hate fire
Following in the footsteps of Time, New York Times, Washington Post and a string of other publications, PC World places another log on the hate fire calling the PS3 a "tech screw-up" of 2006. Saying the PS3 was supposed to be the greatest thing to home gaming since a hedgehog named Sonic, which we can only guess was a passive-aggressive dig at that series as well, PC World says the PS3 arrived too late and the Wii stole its thunder.The parting shots by PC World were that it was a mistake to turn a supercomputer into a gaming system and that Sony failed to "drive a stake through the heart of Nintendo when the opportunity offered." Hopefully Sony and the PS3 correct themselves in 2007, 'cause seriously, 2006 was a never-ending pit of bad press for Sony.
Toshiba builds 100GB iPod-sized Disk Drive
PC World reports that Toshiba has developed a 1.8-inch 100GB hard drive, suitable for use in portable music devices. Adding a 25% jump over current storage, the new drive is sized perfectly to fit into iPods. Production should begin next month and the drive itself will be shown at the January Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. The first 1.8" drive developed in 2000 could hold 2GB and cost $740. Today, you can buy an 80GB iPod for about $350.
Wii tops PC World's holiday list
Check it out -- the Wii is once again tops on a retail predictions list. Since PC World is a European retailer, it may not be much of a surprise that they've anointed Nintendo in the console wars for this holiday season (as there's no PS3 in store), but they've also picked the console as the hottest must-have when it comes to electronics.The Wii took the top spot of their ten predictions for the hottest movers and shakers of the season. Unlike many other lists, however, the Wii is nowhere near the most expensive item on this wishlist. Check after the jump for the full rundown. PC World was one of the early outlets to offer preorders for the Wii in the UK ... looks like they've taken off!
Apple II tops PC World's top 25 all-time computers
The IBM PC turned 25 last Friday, so to commemorate the history of the personal computer, PC World put together a list of the Top 25 PCs of All Time - with the Apple II (1997) topping the list at #1. It's quite an interesting list comprised of machines both old and new, with Apple computers also taking the #4, 10, 19, and 23 spots as well. If you've never taken a trip through computing history, this list is a good set of cliff notes to take a moment to brush up on. Just try to keep the "I can't believe X computer didn't even make the list!" fighting civilized.Thanks to everyone who sent this in
So you want to test HDTVs, eh?
So you want to know how the pros test all those HDTVs. Perhaps, you even want to go around to all of your buddies house to see who has the best HDTV. Well, PC World has cracked open the trap-door on their HDTV testing lab to show everyone how they do it. While this lab maybe deep in an underground lair, they keep it real down there with goal of testing under real world environments. So real that they even preform tests under two different light conditions because everyones household lamps are a bit different and that can make a big difference on how the colors appear. The very first thing they do is calibrate the set using AVIA: Guide to Home Theater along with Digital Video Essentials. (proving once again that you need to calibrate your HDTV and it doesn't have to be expensive) Only once this is done do they move onto the testing that involves a standard-series of high-def material that they present to each HDTV with areas that they know will give it trouble. (think torture test) The test then moves onto standard definition material, followed up by DVD scenes. It's really not that hard and you can see the key to testing HDTVs, right? Consistency.
Microsoft unleashes the robots.
Now that Microsoft has conquered entered the world of video games, there is only one logical next step. Robots, of course! According to PC World, Microsoft has decided to develop a software tool kit just for robotics. The software will allow robots to interface with Windows PCs, effectively giving Microsoft control of the impending Robot Apocalypse®. Of particular interest is the following excerpt: "Microsoft's entry to the field is a vote of confidence that could accelerate the development of robots for industrial, service, and entertainment use." Entertainment use? Could we finally see the next gen equivalent of R.O.B. the robot? Perhaps a robot to fetch beer refreshments when you're too busy killing other robots? The possibilities are endless. A preview of the software is available now for the robot enthusiasts out there. [Via Evil Avatar]
Toshiba HD-A1 grabs #14 on PC World's top 100 list
HD DVD may yet get totally steamrolled by Blu-ray later this year, or face years of struggle against its mortal enemy (that shares its Achilles heel in restrictive AACS DRM), but at least it has had one day in the sun. The Toshiba HD-A1, the first HD DVD player on the market came in 14th on PC World's Top 100 list. With shortages, glitches and a dearth of content, quite frankly we're surprised to see it up so high. When all is said and done, it does get the 1080i HD picture to the screen that aficionados have been waiting for and at least right now it's all we've got. (Also congrats to our friends at Engadget for slotting one spot higher at #13.)
5 Apple products make PCWorld's 100 Best Products of the Year
PCWorld just named a few Apple products in their '25 worst tech products of all time,' however, they have named more of them to the '100 Best Products of the Year.' Which Apple products made the cut? I'm glad you asked: iPod Nano (#4) Boot Camp (#10) Mac Mini (#35) iPod (#36) iTunes (#43) Congrats to Engadget, our sister blog, who clock in at lucky number 13 on the list (next year I am sure TUAW will be on there).
Slingbox released in UK
Because you can never have convenient enough access to all that great BBC programming, Sling Media has just released a version of their popular Slingbox for British TV junkies. The UK model has been tweaked a bit for European viewing, with PAL tuners replacing the NTSC versions found in US boxes, and a DVB-T tuner thrown in for placeshifting that sweet, sweet OTA Freeview content. In conjunction with the UK rollout, the folks at Sling also announced an updated version of the SlingPlayer PC software, whose main upgrades include widescreen 16:9 support and a skinnable client. Slingbox: UK will initially be available exclusively at PC World's website and retail locations -- and at Currys stores in four to six weeks -- for £180, VAT included.
