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The Night Owl’s Instant Keynote Commentary — What Happened to the Mac?

January 9th, 2007

The Steve Jobs keynote is over, and you’ll be able to read what’s going on at lots of Mac Web sites, so I want to do something different, and that is to provide instant analysis on some of the information you’ll be hearing about. You may think that’s a little irresponsible, but consider that the cable news networks have been doing the very same thing for years.

This particular event was moved to Moscone West, across the street from Moscone Center, which is where the WWDC is held. I rather suspect that’s because of the larger crowds expected to storm the keynote auditorium.

To keep to expectations high, Steve Jobs took the stage a few minutes late to say they’re going to “make some history today.” A lot of his company-status information, about the speed of the Intel transition and so on, is just old news, however. And it’s all you’ll hear about Macs specifically, as Jobs quickly moved onto other stuff.

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Newsletter #371 Preview: Taking a Long-Term View of Apple Computer

January 7th, 2007

In the business world these days, far too many companies are worried about this quarter’s bottom line, so they can make Wall Street analysts — a strange and often ignorant breed — content, along with their stockholders of course. If you tell them that your marketing strategy might not bear fruition for another couple of years, they might just sell your stock off and seek another avenue for instant gratification.

Apple Computer poses a particularly troubling company to evaluate in such an environment. There is no doubt a long-term plan in place, but they won’t tell you what it is. You can barely get information more forward-looking than the new product announcement of the moment. The rare exceptions include Mac OS 10.5 Leopard, largely because Mac developers need advanced encounters with prerelease versions of the operating system to make their stuff compatible, so the news would get out anyway. And, of course, it’s always nice to play the “Microsoft-is-copying-us-again” game to an eager press and Mac users who care about such things.

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The Apple Hardware Report: Believe it or Not!

September 26th, 2006

It’s a little late for the silly season, and the unannounced vapor product of the year, the iPhone, is still missing in action. But that hasn’t stopped some people from suggesting that there is more than meets the eye to some of Apple’s potential plans in the foreseeable future.

Now you just know that the iPod will get better, that there will be faster and faster Intel-based Macs over time. Apple’s latest and greatest solution to stretch its reach to your living room, the iTV (or whatever it’ll be called) has already been demonstrated, although there could be features that you and I won’t know about until it is really released in 2007.

But there is more, and I will provide a few links for you to consider, and then a few comments about whether the stories have any traction. But, no, the Night Owl isn’t going to go out on the limb with any more one dollar bets one way or the other. I don’t want to get a reputation about such things, even if the risk to my modest bank account is minimal.

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A Tale of Two Bets

September 21st, 2006

I’m not a betting man. When I visit Las Vegas, the family budget at the slot machines is never more than $20, and usually we confine our visit to the restaurants and entertainment spots anyway. I don’t do much in the way of friendly bets either, but I got tempted during last week’s episode of The Tech Night Owl LIVE, and I did it again this week, and I hope this doesn’t signal a trend.

It all started when I was interviewing noted author and Macworld contributing writer Kirk McElhearn and we talked about the wireless system Apple is likely to use on its iTV. It’s important to realize that Steve Jobs never specified the exact standard, and there has been lots of speculation on the subject.

Since the iTV comes equipped with the HDMI industry-standard high definition video connector, you expect that this new media center device will support HD television. It would make sense, and I wouldn’t be surprised if Apple intends to make HD content available for download, although you won’t get it in a half hour. Figure two or three hours or so, and then only if you have a high-tier broadband hookup.

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