Ten-Hut: Searchers for Waldo have taken a break from their seemingly never-ending search for the wily adventurer to inquire after the reported existence of the free beta version of Apple’s Boot Camp that had previously been seen at Apple.com. Instead there was a mysterious warning that the trial program itself will self-destruct when Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard hits the streets in a few days. Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys have not been reached for comment.
iPhone Top Seller? You Don’t Say: Strategy Analytics is pimping some stats that proclaim that the iPhone is AT&T’s top-selling phone and the fourth best in America. Is there a place where we can sign our names on the “I Told You So” registry? Because we’d like to. Speaking of which, could we enter Dell on the “How’s THAT Taste?” registry while we’re at it?
Dell trying to figure out how that tastes: Remember when Michael Dell opined that Steve Jobs should shut Apple down and give all their shareholders their money back? Yeah, yeah, that was right around the time that Dell’s market value was about $4 billion and Apple’s was, what was it? About $700 mil? Oh, what a difference a day makes: Apple’s valuation is now $150 billion. Dell’s? Less than half that. Niceeee….
Unprotected tracks: …And all of this on top of Apple lowering the price of all of its DRM-free songs selling through the iTunes store. This means that reportedly Apple offers more unprotected tracks than any other online outlet. Probably not a bad thing in total.
And a shadow over an otherwise silver lining: The iPod touch? Not doing so well. Well, you can’t win them all. You may win 150 billion of them but, yeah, you probably won’t win them all.
Anonymous
October 23, 2007 at 10:41am
Outside of not being able to do NEW installs of windows, how is the beta disapperaing a problem? I somehow doubt you need it to continue dual booting the current setup you might have. So basically MacLife is fishing for fluff now?
Timothy Flint
October 21, 2007 at 11:17am
There is nothing in the article that suggests that the iPod Touch is "not doing so well." It says that it lacks some features that the writer would like to see, and makes some complaints that show that the writer did not read the instruction manual. But it never says that it is not selling well.
imajoebob
October 20, 2007 at 7:51pm
I see you've done a great job since returning as CEO. Dell is worth 11% more than it was when you took over. It would be nice to have held Dell stock when you came back. Of course, it would have been a lot nicer holding Apple stock, since it grew 92% in that same time!
imajoebob
October 20, 2007 at 6:59pm
What? I don't think the touch is a good value, but this is just a bad (poorly composed) review. He loves the iPhone interface, but doesn't like the touch. He doesn't pay attention when he sets it up, so it's not intuitive. He recognizes the absence of mic and camera from the iPhone, but thinks the crappy speaker is necessary, even though no iPod has ever had one (pay 4 bucks at the Dollar Store for a "Berklin" knock-off if you really want one).
If you want to complain about the touch, start with the capacity. $299 for 8GB? For an extra $100 I get an iPhone. How about slapping one of those new single-platter 80GB 1.8" disks in this thing? Customers pay a premium for the nano because it's small and can take abuse. The touch is not small and appears to be delicate, so I'm not taking the touch jogging or to the gym. It's the worst of both worlds.
I'm using it on the train, I might use it to surf while watching the World Series or at lunch. My commute is 40 minutes each way and I like to walk with the dogs. The time I'd spend trying to manage my music, podcasts, and downloads is ridiculous. I just want to plug it in, dump my 23GB of music and podcasts, toss it in my pocket and go. While the Internet is nice, the (non)availability of accessible hotspots makes it solely a home appliance right now. And I still need my Handspring Visor to manage my calendar.
I'm planning on getting a classic with 80GB. The only thing it's missing is Firewire, which would cut data transfer time in half, and allow me to boot with my G4 Mac. (If I could afford to replace a perfectly good PowerBook with a MB Pro, I could afford the iPhone). And if you already have an Intel, think of the performance of a FW800 iPod! Better yet, hey Apple! Can you think of a better way to make the '800 the next must-have connection?
Back to the subject. The iPod touch is a very good player, with a great interface and beautiful design. But it's too expensive and has undersized storage for its form-factor.
Anonymous
October 19, 2007 at 2:07pm
Business Week complained that the iPod Touch doesn't have a built in speaker? A SPEAKER?
It's an IPOD.
