To think that, just five years ago, the only Mac browser of note was Internet Explorer, and the rest were also-rans. Today, you can depend on several applications to deliver great online experiences, starting with Apple’s own Safari. Internet Explorer has been relegated to a relic of the past that you need on a rare occasion to access sites designed by people who were mistakenly led to believe it is the only browser on the planet.

Internet Explorer has even begun to lose momentum on the Windows platform, but that story is beyond the scope of today’s commentary. In addition, I’m not going to address the perception that the Windows browser experience is superior to the one on the Mac OS. I have no complaints and much of what I observe is more dependant on the speed of the online connection rather than the limitations of one platform or the other.

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In the scheme of things, the day an operating system is released probably isn’t terribly significant. But since there was a huge publicity run-up to Tiger’s debut, April 29th was important for many of you. But now, as the Tiger era ends its first three months, maybe it’s time to sit back and take stock of what Apple has wrought.

It’s highly encouraging to know that Apple managed to get Tiger out on schedule, which is an achievement you’ve got to take seriously, considering that Mac OS X, since its original release, has appeared like clockwork. Microsoft must be jealous. At the same time, it’s clear to me that 10.4 could have simmered in the development labs a few more weeks to massage away those early release bugs. Since Apple seems to prefer Friday release dates for its operating systems, June 24th would have kept it on its preordained path of the first half of 2005, yet yielded a more reliable product.

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Years ago, if you wanted to get online with your Mac, you had to buy an external modem. For portables, you bought the PC card version. But someone eventually realized that Internet access was a perfectly normal part of your computing experience, so modems became standard issue. In fact, the number of people who never go online is a small minority, so you’ve come to expect a modem jack on your new Mac.

But things are changing. More and more people have converted to broadband, and the chirps and buzzes many of you customarily hear when you connect to the Internet will eventually become relics of the past. But not yet. As of the end of 2004, some 54.69% of home users in the U.S. used some sort of broadband connection. Most use cable for Internet access, but the local phone providers have cut the price of their DSL services to the bone, less than dial-up in many cases. A price war is in the making, although the cable providers are, for the most part, ramping up speed to retain customers.

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I used to tell people they had to budget for a memory upgrade whenever they bought a new Mac. But that requirement is no longer as critical, except for the professional models, where the more RAM the better. In upgrading the Mac mini, the major change is an increase to 512MB of RAM, standard. The end result is that you end up paying from $50 to $75 less for a complete system, even though the list prices are unchanged. Although AirPort Express and Bluetooth are installed on all but the basic $499 model, Apple has removed the standard V.92 modem in the process. So if you require a dial-up connection to get online, and you want either of the two top-of-the-line versions, you’ll have to place a custom order and pay $29 extra. Otherwise stick with the entry-level. I suppose Apple feels that if you want AirPort, you don’t need dial-up. The iBook also came in for a modest update. The low-end version, with the 12.1-inch screen, remains $999, but now sports 512MB of RAM, standard. For just $300 more, you get the 14.1-inch version, complete with SuperDrive. Despite those rumors you may have read, there are no widescreens in the present lineup. And, yes, they both include standard V.92 modems and inherit the motion sensor and advanced trackpad features from the PowerBook. That’s the good news. The bad news is that, with Dell notebooks as cheap as $599, you’ll still have to make excuses to show that the iBook remains a better value, when you equip both with a similar range of options. In all fairness to Apple, the standard Dell Inspiron 2200 doesn’t come with a backup disk, includes a basic warranty of 90 days, and doesn’t have even a basic digital lifestyle application suite. But folks who buy computers on price alone may not realize something is missing until it’s too late.

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