OS X Mavericks? Mavericks? Really? What sort of a name is that?! I can think of loads of perfectly serviceable cat names!
Clearly I am not in Apple’s target market any more, since I know absolutely nothing about places to go surfing. Unless you count Caswell Bay or Langland in Wales, or the coast near Portrush in Northern Ireland. And I don’t think Apple will get round to calling a version of OS X after places like that, even if they use that system to name versions up to 10.365. But maybe they’ll take a different tack, and go for OS X Eccentrics and Bohemians instead. Or is it California that’s the focus, and they’ll move onto Palm Springs or San Francisco?
I know it’s a silly reaction, but I can’t help feeling a little sad.
Obviously I’m not a developer, but it seemed to me that they were overcompensating for a lack of actual development with hyperbolic language and flash.
iOS7. The biggest update to iOS since the iPhone? Hardly. It looks like a superficial upgrade to me, just a change of font and a few new icons. I’d say the introduciton of third party apps was bigger. I’d argue the introduction of Siri was too.
Mac OSX.9. Huge banners, proud talk. A grand new line of nomenclature. In terms of actual development? Tabs in Finder. Tags in Finder.
The hardware updates? They put a new CPU in the Air. A slower one, if you go by clock speed, although I realise you shouldn’t go purely by that. Oh, and dual mics.
Hmmm.
Still, I did say at the start that they seemed like they were overcompensating. I’m not saying that actually should be embarassed. It seems like a sound set of updates. It just seemed like they were trying a bit too hard to convince us, and perhaps themselves, that’s they’ve still got it.
Case in point… the Mac Pro. “No longer innovate, my ass” says the Apple dude. Erm, you changed the shape of the box you put it in from a cube to a cylinder. I mean, really? That’s what you choose to get all hyper about? Not the incredible work you’ve (no doubt) put into what goes inside the box. No, look at the casing on that mutha.
Double hmmm.
Still, that said. If anyone wants to give me $2000 I’ll buy the new 13"MBA with all the necessary upspeccing and give you a review.
I think the strange focus on design that has been going on for a few years is very calculated. Apple knows they’ve become the Louis Vuitton of computers, and nobody really cares about the stitching quality on a bag when all they want is the LV logo. They’ll give the mechanical quality lip service of course, to keep the geeks happy, but really it’s all about how that thing looks when someone is strutting down the catwalk with it draped over them. So when that is your crowd, your majority crowd, that’s what you pander to. You go on for fifteen minutes about how thin the edge is on the iMac, or how a new font is the greatest achievement in the iOS line.
The design of Mavericks is a straight rip-off from Chrome.
Tabbed windows? Top sites? Chrome fixtures for a long while now.
The claim is that Safari will be faster and use less memory.
With Chrome upgrading every few weeks, I doubt those claims will hold.
Oh, and iRadio? Try Google Plays for a far bigger and better catalog.
I do think the new Mac Pro is kind of cute.
Think of playing nerf or paper-wad basketball with that hollow center.
:mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen:
I am amazed. They get better power management, and they don’t reduce the battery capacity to 6-7 hours? If my old MBPro hadn’t died last summer, this is what I had been waiting for. 12 hours of battery life on a laptop is the feature I’ve waited decades for.
Not sure what yours is, but mine is a sense that it’s time to get off the Mac boat.
Apparently iOS 7 will force us to use Bing as a search engine.
If there’s no option to choose Google instead, that will be it for me.
Google will produce Chrome phones and tablets, and I’ll be happy to make the switch.
I don’t understand the angst. I thought the touted upgrades to Mac OS maveriX look fantastic (and, for AmberV’s benefit, not just the aesthetics). Tabbed Finder and tags are nice, but they’re not the real innovation. Improvement to multiple screen support is much needed, well overdue, and very welcome. The changes to power and memory management are big under-the-hood improvements. I like the synchronisation of Maps and Keychain with iOS. Despite my misgivings leading into WWDC, I like the improvements to Calendar. If my ageing machine can handle them, I suspect I will regularly use almost all of the improvements to OS X mentioned in the keynote.
Note: I’m yet to watch the iOS or hardware related sections - I do need to do some work (I’m on a lunch break, OK?).
As for the name, it’s a California theme. Apple include on most of their devices, something along the lines of “Proudly designed in California” so it makes sense that they would choose California place names, even if it is a little alienating to the rest of the world. Personally, I’d love to see OS X Wagga Wagga, or OS X Uluru, but I can accept that’s not going to happen.
And, for AmberV’s benefit, I don’t think his Luis Vuitton analogy holds. Apple hardware is not priced much differently to its competitors (the last time I priced a new laptop, Apple was actually the cheapest when compared to other machines with equivalent internal specs). It’s not just the look, but also ease of use, reliability, after sales service and longevity (my 4.5y/o MBP has outlived all of my previous computers, with the exception of my still functional 2002 iMac). Case in point: my parents couldn’t care tuppence about the aesthetics of their computers, or the logo, but they do care about ease of use, warranty and support. Regarding the latter, the Genius Bar at the Apple Store has been a godsend for me as it reduces my parental tech support to 1/5 what it used to be.
My point is [was] to challenge, insofar as I completely agree with Nom’s succinct opening sentence, “I don’t understand the angst.” If truth be known, I was irritated to witness such an unwarranted level of carping: Apple bashing does seem to be de rigueur these days, but I’d not expected to find it practiced by the erudite and (normally) measured souls who constitute this forum.
Your clarification, though, makes a lot more sense to me than your initial assertion. I can’t see myself ever embracing a Google alternative to Apple’s iOS/OS X offerings—Android, for example, makes me shudder—but, to quote the good Prof Xiamenese from another thread, de gustibus non est disputandum: each to his/her own preference.
Is that correct you have no option other then Bing for search browser, what about safari only I spent half my life getting Bing off this computer after the upgrade to windows 8 so that would stop me from buying a mac air
Here are links that explain the Bing situation: tinyurl.com/n3pjn2y
Siri voice search will use Bing, but you may be able to customize Safari search.
Google Search on the iOS already has excellent voice search.
I have installed Chrome and Google Search on the iPad and never use Safari.
Chrome is also the dominant browser on all PCs.
Which is doubtless why Apple is trying to juice up Safari.
It’s beginning to look like Apple is trying to change the idea of “what we make” relative to brand identity. By defaulting to Bing they are in bed with their competitor in OS and productivity software. Relative to HW manufacturing, they are already showing their waning focus (any “real” innovation in the last two HW refresh cycles?). To me the last years of Apple’s public posturing completely support Ioa-iffer’s statement that they are nothing more than a brand.
That said, their “crap” is still my choice as it works better for me than the best stuff made by other companies.
Real new products in the pipeline. I’d like to hear more about what they’re doing with OS X, but the pro looks like a massive improvement over the old one even given the long wait and the IOS 7 redesign is a tour de force. Then some strut-your-stuff for fun: iWork in a browser? My, my!
