Who said Apple was abandoning pros?

Oh right it was Thalo.

http://www.engadget.com/2007/04/15/apple-keynote-live-from-nab-2007/

BOO YEAH!

I'm glad Apple is the platform of choice for filmmaking professionals. I've said a million times that their casual use agenda fits better with that particular slice of prodom. Shake and Final Cut Pro are impressive tools, and Apple should be proud of them. Notice anything about the interfaces of these pro tools? They diverge completely from Aqua. I see them and go, christ, why can't I get that kind of interface on the apps *I* use??

Let's review the workflows of something like film editing... fetching big wads of data, and moving them around, acting on them, splicing them together. Those kinds of actions are, um, SERVED better by something like OS X which is server-based. It's great for storage, for archiving, for retrieving a block of data and displaying it.

What still seems to elude them, is the kind of creative computer use, where the designer or artist generates creative content right at the computer, rather than have it pumped in from an outside source like a digital video camera.

What they should continue to be ashamed of, is OS X. Because it's inadequate for pro use. Its interface is casual use, happy horseshit nonsense. If I sat around editing movies all day, I betcha I'd be much happier. But I'm a design pro. I work in print and on the web. For me, the "pro" tools are not so pro as they are for the film guys.

When Photoshop, InDesign, Illustrator, Flash, etc. begin to work well on the Mac, where I don't have to fight the interface like I do now... where I can ask as much of my apps as film and music professionals can ask of their one or two apps, I'll be happy.

I'll stand by the fact that OS X was not designed for pro use, is inadequate for pro use, and remains that way. When the operating system starts playing nice with design apps, and the interface ceases to be mind-numbingly childish and counterintuitive, we'll see.

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I'll stand by the fact that OS X was not designed for pro use

So you're saying it'll be OK for non-"pros" like me?
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If you want a computer for simple slacking and time-wasting casual-use tasks, it'll be OK for you. OK.

It won't be as fast as a PC for web surfing, and it won't be a great gaming machine, but it will be good for things like storing digital photos, making home movies, and listening to music.

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It won't be as fast as a PC for web surfing

But supposedly it won't be as much of a target for malware as Windows. Being more secure was one of Vista's main reasons for being, and already hackers are getting into it.
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No kidding, really?

I do have Vista on my PC... and does kind of irritate me with its constant workflow-stopping "accept/reject" security measures. You figure such an advanced OS would make that all automatic. Sometimes the user doesn't know who to trust, and simply asking them to trust a source or not isn't the answer to the problem, which is DETERMINING if the source is a hacker or a legitimate company.

Meanwhile, the stuff I can't stand about Vista, is pretty much the second cousin of stuff I can't stand about Aqua. Effects for their own sake, stupid over-rendering and over-skinning. The difference is that the PC OS seems to have at least gone through a DEVELOPMENT process, they've TRIED to organize functionality. Whereas Apple's stuff always comes off as higgledy-piggledy and disorganized. A cacophany of competing visual elements.

Vista tries to have a hierarchy. A program. I may not agree with it, but I appreciate the fact that the attempt was made to organize and have structure. OS X is a "too many cooks" kind of mess, where there are profound inconsistencies and thirty ways to do stupid shit, while having NO good way to do important shit.

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It won't be as fast as a PC for web surfing

Brother thalo, on my 20" 2.16Ghz iMac with Intel Core 2 Duo processor and 1 gig of memory, web surfing is considerably faster than on my Dell 2.40GHz, with 1 gig of memory. I never thought I'd live to say the Mac is faster at surfing the web than a PC, but this is the case with the Intel Macs. Both computers sit side by side on my desk, so I am often comparing speed and the Mac consistently comes out on top. Even navigating through the finder and searching through files is faster on the Mac.

Markle, for the non-pro users like us, OSX is pretty impressive IF it's on an Intel Mac. If on any other Mac that doesn't have the Intel processor, even non-pros will be disappointed in its performance.

I actually enjoy being on the Mac a lot more than on the PC now. I couldn't have said that prior to the new iMac purchase. Even my daughter's MacBook (Intel as well) is a pleasure.

I can now recommend Mac and OSX for non-pros.

Oh no it's not Doogie!

Cheers Robby! How's life?

Ahhh, just when I need cheering up, the man himself. Long time no Snob! How's life brother?

I am planning on getting an Intel Mac shortly after Leopard is released. Then seabiscuit will finally get retired, and the Radiator will get server duty. And I'll design on the new Mac Pro. The only thing I'm worried about is the memory cost. I figure I'm going to max it out, whatever it takes. Or at least 8 gigs.

Glad to hear that surfing is faster. I can't imagine anything would be slower with those fierce processors, but what do I know. If it turns out they throw all this hardware power and STILL OS X fucks up, I don't know what I'm going to do. It's really important for me for Adobe products (and now that includes previously Macromedia products), to run well. Reliably.

I think there's going to be no more GoLive... all Adobe's energy is going to go into Dreamweaver. Unfortunately, I liked GoLive workflows and interface better.

I don't think I'll trade in the Powerbook for the Intel version, though, unless some real advances are made between now and the Leopard release. I may want to keep that PPC. Just for my mobile computing needs.

Hey HH! Life is treating me OK. Been doing a lot of work-related traveling lately so it seems like I'm always on the run. Still check in on you guys now and then, even if I haven't posted all that much. This group's perspective on all things is fascinating. Shit, I remember staying up till 2 AM reading about Montblanc and Faber-Castell pens, for crissakes, and it still held my interest after 136 pages! Why, I have no clue.

I just might add to the recipe thread one of these days. My dear Mother and Granny cooked some kick-ass Sicilian dishes and I'm not too shabby a cook myself. Love yours and thalo's gravy (yeah I said gravy NOT sauce) recipes. My grandmother and mother's gravy were closer to your family's recipe though. Add a little braciole to it and I'm a happy camper. By the way, it might sound like a simple dish but nobody can come close to my linguine with white clam sauce (freshly shucked, of course).

Hope all is well with you, brother!

bro thalo! How goes it? Always good to drop in and day hi to you and the guys. Glad to cheer you up, we need a feisty thalo to fight the fight!

Re the Intel Mac, put it this way, OSX can only improve on it. It's unfortunate that it needs all that power to resemble a good OS, but it is what it is, I suppose, and it seems to outperform a similarly equipped PC under XP. I know I was wishy washy about the Intel iMac in my first few posts about it, probably because I was looking for the worst and when I saw a hiccup or two I'd think "Fuckin' OSX! There we go again!" But with lots more use since then, I have to say that OSX is incredibly stable and its performance is impressive; something I wasn't able to say about OSX on my older Macs and iBook.

How this will all shake out for pros like you, I don't know. But, if I saw a 180 in performance, I'm sure you'll see marked improvement as well. It's all relative.

I've read a few post where you've freaked out over Spotlight's performance. Granted, my files probably don't come close in the amount and size as yours, but for me it works like a charm. At the very least, with an Intel Mac, I'm guessing that you won't be as disappointed as you currently are.

The Finder is snappy - something else I never thought I'd be able to say about OS X, with hardly any glitches. This makes the entire UI and experience more palatable. Things just seem to fall into place and flow nicely, much like OS9 and almost lulls me into forgetting about some of the frivolous eye candy. No shit. And, like I said, web surfing (I have cable) is faster on my Mac than the PC.

Again, for pros like yourself, your mileage may vary, but it certainly is an improvement. With the monster you're going to build, with 8 gigs of RAM you BETTER see an improvement!

Talk to you soon. BTW, I got Sirius a few weeks ago and hadn't realized how much I missed Howard Stern. He seemed to be getting somewhat jaded near the end of his K-Rock days, but he's now rejuvenated and better than ever. It's comforting to hear him, Robin and the gang when I'm on the road, especially in towns like Bumfuck, North Carolina.

Oh, my new "passion"? Well, not really a passion but a little hobby - GPS Navigational devices. It's almost as interesting as comparing PC's to Macs. My favorite manufacturer is Garmin (the Apple of GPS, IMO), my favorite model the Streetpilot 2720. Why the 2720 you might ask? Because it's the granddaddy of them all - a bit outdated but an outstanding no-frills, reliable GPS with no frilly extras like an mp3 player and an effin picture viewer (who the hell need that in a GPS?) at the expense of the routing software. The design of the 2720 is truly minimalist, simple, functional and its routing software is leaps and bounds better than the rest, offering more user options solely for navigational purposes. A serious GPS to the bone, certainly not for the digikids. Sound familiar?

I miss Howard too, I can't tell you how much. I was thinking of subscribing, but have been holding off. All I need is one more friggin' bill every month.

I'm interested in the GPS devices. Love the sound of that 2720, sounds right up my alley. I've been meaning to explore that technology. There are times, when I'm fishing in complete wilderness, where I think I could use it.

Hey, Snobby Robby. Why the pseudonym? You're not on our banned list.

When I've been out hiking I've ran into a couple people who have been part of some GPS club or something. I guess they go through the wilderness and try to find specific markers that have been laid down at certain spots. Sounds sort of fun.

I see the Garmin StreetPilot 2720 at Amazon for $374.26. How's that for price?

How does it mount to the dash? The thalomobile doesn't have an obvious horizontal place to mount it... it's one of those curvy, molded dashes (eye roll)... the kind you can't really put a cup of coffee or junk on.

Speaking of dashboards, you'll know why seatbelts were invented if you've ever ridden on the passenger side of a Galaxy 500. It had a hard, metal dashboard. Although it was curved, so is an anvil.

Hey Brad! How ya doin' stranger?

Changed the name a while back because I forgot my password. thalo sent me an e-mail with my old name and password and I accidentally deleted it.

thalo, $375 is a great price. About a year ago they were going for over a grand. Now newer models (like the nuvi) are out, with all the ridiculous bells and whistles but have nowhere near the 2720's routing software. Instead the newer models offer picture viewers, mp3 players, blow jobs and I believe they can also make toast. The only feature somewhat useful is bluetooth, to pair your phone with.

Mounting is pretty simple. You have 2 choices. It comes with a beanbag mount you attach the 2720 to (this actually grips your dash well, even during sharp turns) and/or a permanent dash mount - a disk with 3M adhesive that adheres to your dash to which you snap the 2720 on or off. It comes with both out of the box for you to choose, and either way works well.

One downside is that the 2720 doesn't come with an internal battery as some other Garmin models do, so you can't use it for walking. Instead you supply power via the AC power adapter, which also has a fairly decent speaker (to heat the text to speech instructions) attached to it. As for hiking, there are specific handhelds for that. The 2720 is waterproof so you can use it on a motorcycle as well, but you'll need special mounting hardware not supplied.

I believe it was recently discontinued (hence the low price) but Garmin still supports discontinued models, always providing future updates. Garmin is good at that - continually enhancing their software with firmware and software updates.

Oh, one other thing (if you haven't already nodded off) the newer models use a SiRF III receiver which is somewhat more sensitive than the 2720's receiver. In other words, it locks onto satellites better in conditions that the 2720 might lose them i.e. tunnels, Mid-town Manhattan, etc. Personally, I rarely run into problems and if I lose sats it is temporary and are picked back up almost immediately. I also have a newer nuvi model (for more portability), and satellite acquisition and locks are slightly better in NYC. Slightly. Also, as I said, it has an internal battery unlike the 2720. I've seen the nuvi 350 priced at around $400 (it was about 800 bucks not long ago). It is a good, basic unit as well, though the routing software is not as sophisticted as the 2720 which offers more routing options where you can tailor a route more to your preference.. Still, to get from point A to B, the nuvi or any Garmin unit is very reliable. The advantages of the nuvi are that it's more compact (comes with a leather case that you can carry in your shirtpocket, has an internal battery (can be used for walking) and the aforementioned, highly sensitive SiRF III receiver.

Snobby, I've seen cars that had maybe 5" LCD screens mounted on the dash. I presume this was a GPS device with an integrated map. Do devices like the one you are talking about have a way of giving directions such as "turn left onto Highway 9, take exit 23" etc? I think you're reaching the inner geek in all of us, so I doubt anyone is bored. And I haven't the first idea how any of this stuff work in practice.

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Do the GPS systems ever shriek, "WATCH OUT FOR THAT TREE!!!" while you're looking at the screen instead of the road?
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Do the GPS systems ever shriek, "WATCH OUT FOR THAT TREE!!!" while you're looking at the screen instead of the road?

Hahahahaha! Holy crap, no kidding.

I don't have to worry about midtown manhattan anymore, I'm in the wilds of New England now.

Sounds like the 2720 is definitely for the car, which is what I'll probably use it for. I do hike in some pretty wild locales, but will eventually get a handheld for that. I usually go old school with a compass and a map, and know more or less where I am before going out.

The words "bean bag mount" kind of scared me, lol... the thalomobile's dash kind of slopes down and in toward the passenger side, does the non-beanbag mount allow the little screen to be held straight even if the dash is kooky? Here's more or less what it looks like: