Entry 515, on 2007-04-18 at 16:59:45 (Rating 1, Computers)
I recently read an opinion entitled "What's Happening to Our Lovely Cult?" at Wired, lamenting the lack of focus Apple is now putting on computers at the expense of gadgets such as the iPhone and iPod. The recent announcement that Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard will be delayed because resources are more urgently needed to work on the iPhone is not a good sign for Mac enthusiasts.
The most recent pre-release versions of Leopard I have seen don't really look much different from the version of Tiger I'm using today. Apple seem to have spent a lot of time working on Leopard without achieving that much. I only hope that the rumoured spectacular, secret features are really worth waiting for.
Don't get the impression that I don't appreciate Apple's gadgets. I use my iPod every day and I will get an iPhone as soon as it becomes practical in New Zealand, but its my MacBook Pro which is really the core of my digital life and to me that's the most important product Apple make.
The fact that Apple are spending so much more time and effort on the iPhone makes me wonder just what was it that was demonstrated at the beginning of this year. It seemed like a fairly functional device, not one that still needed six months of intensive effort to complete. It just shows how Steve's product demos can be a bit misleading. Has anyone heard of the "reality distortion field?"
Despite the lack of progress on Leopard the Mac platform is still advancing nicely. Today I ordered Adobe Creative Suite 3 which I hope arrives before my beta of Photoshop CS3 expires. I refuse to go back to a non-Intel version of Photoshop! The next big thing we need is an Intel version of Microsoft Office. I rarely need it myself but I want an Intel version on the rare occasions I do use Office.
And I haven't heard much about iWork 07 recently. People seem to have forgotten about that. Give us better Word translation, a nice spreadsheet application, and a few other new features and I'll be really happy. I hope that project hasn't been delayed by the iPhone as well!
There are no comments for this entry.
You can leave comments about this using this form.
Enter name, email (optional), enter number, comment, click Add. You can leave the name blank if you want to remain anonymous. Enter your email address to receive notifications of replies. Comment should appear immediately (authorisation is inactive).