If you have no clue what I’m talking about, start here.
Note to Apple: if the point of this whole thing is to sell more Macs to Windows-folks and not just “preach to the choir” then lay off the QuickTime on all your pages (or fix it). Yeah, we all like websites that tell a story…and your site works beautifully on Safari. But it’s a bit of drag, literally, on Firefox and barely functional in IE 6. I thought it was just me, but I was IM’ing with someone else who said the Apple iLife page locked up on him in Firefox, so it’s not just me. If I’m a Windows user and my machine is locking up while loading QuickTime on a website it’s not going to make me go run out and buy a Mac, it’s going to make me go to another page.
Okay, that said:
iLife ‘06 does look nice for only $79, and Eric certainly likes the podcasting support in the new GarageBand. Functionality is a bit limited without .Mac, but maybe we’ll play with a demo at an Apple store before deciding.
Don’t know what to say about iWork. Blink and you missed the mention.
Apple sold 14 million iPods this past holiday season. I guess that explains why I’m having so much trouble finding a case.
Intel iMac – if you don’t mind a 20” screen and you don’t need more than 2 GB of RAM is there a reason to buy a PowerMac now? The iMac is supposed to be the consumer-level machine, but from what I saw the keynote was talking QuarkXPress, Final Cut Pro, Aperture, etc. I may be mistaken, but folks don’t buy iMacs to run Final Cut Pro.
MacBook Pro – PowerBook, wherefore art thou? It’s just a name, but I don’t like the name MacBook Pro. Sounds too… I don’t know… cute? There’s a reason that the competition makes their high-performance notebooks look and sound like muscle cars. This isn’t a gaming machine, but it should still have a tougher impact. What was wrong with PowerBook? Power=Pro, i=consumer. It was simple, it sent a clear message. No reason to mess with it now, is there?
Of course, Apple isn’t going to advertise whether the machine can dual boot Windows and Mac OS X. But I’m betting it won’t take long until someone does it and shares the information with the world.
I like the magnetic power cord. That would have saved Eric’s PowerBook he killed a few months ago.
Judi Sohn 
2 responses to “My quick thoughts on the Stevenote”
I noticed the drag on the iLife page too, but I assumed it was due to heavy server traffic. It seemed fine tonight. I’m excited about the ability to make calendars and note cards using Apple’s service. I just had a client promo book made by them and it turned out really beautiful.
As for the MacBook Pro situation. Yeah. I agree. It made me think of elementary school teachers. Classrooms. Kids. Consumers. Amateurs. All the things they don’t want professional level users to feel. For all the effort Apple puts into design and packaging, I wish they would get some word people to work on the unfortunate things they name their products. If I buy one, I suspect I will continue referring to it as a PowerBook. Why Steve said they were done with “power” is beyond me. Power is the name of the game. Even as one of the Mac faithful, I cringed a bit.
However, built-in iSight in the MacBook Pro is very cool. I can imagine taking a friend on a tour of my new house, or out in the yard with me. I think it’s far more exciting for a laptop than than a desktop system because of the portability factor.
Ah, but the new Intel ad. Now THAT rocked. Well done, as usual.
I think it was server load. The pages were stuttery in Safari, too.
And the PowerBook and iMac support external monitors…