What? New products announced at the Mac World keynote and Patrick hasn’t said anything yet?? Busy. Also, nothing super interesting, good moves that take the product lines forward but nothing I’m drooling for. I’d certainly like to have one of those new MacBook Pro 15 but since 1.0 versions are sometimes buggy, I won’t cry too much. Also, the new name sucks arse. Speeeeed though.
I like the new “Intel branding” too, embrasing the chip and dissing the pc makers. See the ad and look at the slogan on the homepage; “What’s an Intel chip doing in a Mac? A whole lot more than it’s ever done in a PC”. Priceless. And is that Kiefer’s voice? sounds like it.
Looking forward (or is that dreading?) to the code that comes out of iWeb. I have to review how it works too but seems to be an export from an automated local site construction software which wont make for a very interactive blog, one of the possible use for the software. Considering the “wysiwyg flexibility” Steve was demoing, I expect tables and tables and layers, oh my.
Last thing; RSS seems to be popping up everywhere in the new versions, cool.
[Update] The new ad is so a ripoff of the video for an excellent Postal Service song.
[Update 2] We lost some stuff in the model change
[Update 3] As expected, iWeb code sucks arse.
7 Comments
It seems very much like Pages for the Web, very much based around templates – or like a friendlier version of Macromedia Contribute. The question for designers concerned about Good XHTML/CSS is: like iDVD and Keynote, will there be a market for third-party iWeb templates? If it’s open to developers, then there’s an opportunity to create some good, standards-compliant sites with it – I doubt the average user will want to muck about with stylesheets.
That said, will there be a Pro web design application, aimed at small and medium sized businesses? I’m thinking of them trying to do a Microsoft “whole enchilada” deal – MS has FrontPage, IIS, Windows Server and several back-end apps to enable commerce, databases etc.
I mean, Apple has two greatly underused assets, FileMaker and WebObjects; a pretty good BSD-like server platform in OS X with some great admin tools; and a cost-effective data center solution in Xserve. What’s been missing is a way to easily build UIs and front-ends for all that, as far as I can tell.
I read the Update 2.
Yikes. I really need a new machine this year and now I wonder if I should wait… or just buy another Dell! I generally hate to be the guinea pig.
Plus I’m still caught in the same dilemma: laptop (which I don’t often need and I’ll want a separate large screen) or desktop (not as convenient or sexy)?
I don’t think any of what is missing will affect you.
In terms of laptop vs desktop, you could go with one of the gorgeous iMacs but in my experience, once you get used to a laptop you can’t go back to being attached to a desk. And I’m not even talking going out of the house, just around the place, much more flexible.
Thanks for the input. I really can’t make up my mind, can I? :-) I’ve been keeping my computers for 4 years or more so it feels like such a big commitment!
I’m so used to a desktop and the idea of my “important” content being in one big clunky machine that it’s going to take some psychological retraining to believe that’s it’s okay to carry all your data with you (with backups somewhere else, of course).
Would that MacBook Pro be good for video editing? (I mean a bit more than basic, 30 second stuff.) I’d love to start doing some of that again.
Also, there’s something about the discipline of writing that makes me have to sit at the same desk every day to get productive. That’s why I can’t write while I’m travelling, with unfamiliar surroundings, or in a café.
This being said, we have an ibook at home, hooked to the wireless network, but I only use it to go on the Web. Can’t stand the tiny keyboard and the quiet keys… I know. I’m hopeless.
For video editing? Hell yes! I mean, these silver little toys are more powerful than newest iMac G5 released in late 2005.
Add 1gig of ram, get an external firewire and you’re set for editing a 2 hours movie with no problem at all.
I’m assuming that can all be done now without burning my lap too. ;-)
Cool, thanks!
a less techy comment…
Doesn’t “MacBook Pro” sound like something McDonald would advertise?