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The new iMac is a serious gaming machine
Macs have never been known for being suitable gaming computers. When Apple switched to Intel processors in 2006 many of us hoped that finally we’d see many of the popular games available for Windows be introduced at the same time or close enough on the Mac platform too. That never happened though and still there are few major gaming titles that make it to Apple’s computers.
It used to be that the hardware was to blame. Apple computers used different processors than Windows PCs and had much more proprietary or at least unusual hardware components and solutions. That’s very much changed in recent years and in terms of hardware a Mac is not that different from a PC.
Apple’s all in one iMac desktop was recently updated together with the Mac Pro. To summarize they’re now faster with better graphics and there are a few more options than before.
There are two models of the iMac: one with 21.5-inch display and one with a 27-inch display. On the 27-inch model you get 2560 by 1440 pixels, more than you’ll use in most games. It’s powered by a Quad-core Intel i7 processor of up to 2.93GHz. With support for up to 16GB RAM those are pretty impressive specifications.
In terms of graphics the top of the line iMac sports ATI Radeon HD 5750 card with 1GB of memory. That’s certainly not the latest and the greatest but I think even demanding gamers will be happy with the performance.Something that is for the first time an option in the new iMac is that you can configure it with a second drive, a solid state drive (SSD). A solid state drive is generally faster than a hard disk drive so it can boot faster, for example. In the iMac you can opt for up to 2TB main disk drive and up to 256GB of solid state drive.
What are the downsides? Price is obviously one. You will undoubtedly be able to build a high-spec gaming PC for much less than the cost of the iMac. Configurability is another big drawback. There’s little choice in hardware components with the iMac. Go for a PC and anything is customizable.
You can of course run Windows games on a Mac with Boot Camp or other solution. However as a Mac users you want to play games in Mac OS X and a lack of games for that platform has been a problem for gamers on Apple’s platform. That has however been address lately, at least in some measure, by Valve releasing Steam for Mac. Steam is an online platform with which you can buy and download games including their famous Half Life titles. Around 100 games are so far available for SteamPlay meaning for both Windows and Mac so if you already bought the Windows version on Steam you get the Mac version for free. That’s a very good development for Mac gamers and the addition of the latest iMac only adds to that.
This article was originally published in Khaleej Times.
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First interview satellite TV
I’m certainly not that experienced when it comes to different types of media but today I widened my portfolio to include live interview via satellite link. I’ve done TV before but it’s all been recorded so the live element certainly added some interesting elements to the process as did the fact that I was in Dubai and my interview was in Doha, Qatar and I couldn’t even see them.
Actually all I knew of them was their voices in an earpiece but the audio was pretty bad so I had to sort of guess a bit as to what they were asking. It’s interesting how much of the visual cues you miss when you can’t see the other person. I guess it’s like a phone interview with the difference that I have to sit and look straight into a camera without seeing them on the other side.They had called me just about two hours before the interview and asked if I wanted to comment on the news that Mark Papermaster, SVP Devices Hardware Engineering at Apple had parted ways with the company that he’s been at just a few months over a year.
Security at the MBC building in Dubai Media City was pretty tight. Apparently the guards have to see that you have an appointment in their computer system before they let you in. When I arrived they couldn’t find me so I called my Al Jazeera contact and they sent over an email to them. It turns out that I was in the system but the guard was looking after “Karl”, which is the first name on my drivers license, and the appointment was booked under “Magnus”.
Anyway, then it was like at an airport, your bags and things go through a scanner, you walk through a detector and I was also searched with a wand. Then again inside the actual building you have to pass gates, which you either have a card for or a security guard will let you in.
This was a nice experience and hopefully it can lead to other opportunities.
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Mobile phones top of household gadget waste
Our lives are increasingly full of electronics. From computers to mobile phones and gaming devices, we’re depending on these items to carry out work, study, entertain ourselves and just simply make things a bit easier.
A recent survey in the UK found that almost half of all households in that country had unused mobile phones laying around and a third of households had unused cameras, personal audio and TVs. Computers came lower on the list with only a fifth of households keeping them after they really stopped using them.
What the numbers are for the UAE I don’t know but since it seems like everyone has at least two phones here I guess they’d be higher.
If you’ve already upgraded to iPhone 4 or if you plan to do so soon, what will happen to your existing smartphone? Will it end up in the trash to add to the landfill, will you give it away, will you sell it or will it just live the remainder of its days gathering dust in a drawer?
Whichever is the case, Apple fans are known for hanging on to their old gear and not sell it or give it away. I still have my first generation iPhone as well as iPhone 3G and I bet you that when I get iPhone 4 I will keep the 3GS as well.
Along with all electronics companies, Apple has in recent years made a big deal of how environmentally friendly their products are. Included with their products is now an “environmental status report”, which for iPhone 4 includes mentions of how PVC, mercury, arsenic and other substances are not used in the product. That’s quite a change from just a few years ago when Greenpeace labeled Apple as “iPoison + iWaste.” Earlier this year Greenpeace instead said that “Apple is leading” and the other companies are trying to catch up.
But even though Apple’s products may be less damaging to the environment than they used to be you still need to take care. If you are willing to give your old gear up considering recycling it. Increasingly you can find boxes in stores into which you can slip your old phone and it goes to recycling. If they don’t have such a facility ask them- it’s really only by us consumers putting pressure on the sellers and distributors that things are going to change.
That’s something we should all be much more careful with, how our gadgets are disposed of. We need to make sure that when we’re done with our gadgets we let them go in a responsible manner. Our gadgets should not end up making more damage to our fragile planet Earth than we’re already doing in other ways. Keep that in mind when you buy your next one.
This article was originally published in Khaleej Times. -
Farmville, Flash and Apple
I’ve recently started to play Farmville, the Facebook-based online game in which you build a farm including seeding and harvesting crops. My friends laugh at me and say I’m the last person they’d expect that from and I tend to agree. On the web Farmville is built in Adobe Flash so I can’t play it that way on iPhone or iPad. But Zynga, makers of Farmville, has created an iPhone app for the game and although it doesn’t have all the functionality of the web site it supports the most critical tasks. By the way the iPhone app also runs perfectly well on iPad although the graphics are of course just scaled up.
Apple has made no secret of their refusal to allow Flash to run on iPhone and iPad. In fact, in an open letter Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO, laid out their case point by point for why Apple will not let anything created with the Adobe software on to their mobile platforms. He talked about Flash being a closed standard with security problems, that it drains battery life and reduces performance, that it’s not built for a touch interface, and more. I’m not in a position to argue with him one way or another but it’s clear that there are strong feelings on both sides. Adobe’s CEO Shantanu Narayen obviously doesn’t agree with Jobs’ views and called his letter a “smokescreen.”
With all that has been said it’s safe to assume that we’ll not see Flash officially supported on Apple’s mobile devices anytime soon if ever. Instead, Apple is putting their weight behind HTML 5, an open standard, and they’re joined by other heavyweights including Google and Microsoft. Both Apple and Google have created demonstration sites with many examples of how powerful and versatile HTML 5 can be for developing web sites. In fact, it seems like more and more sites offer HTML 5 versions of what was previously only Flash content, including Google’s YouTube.
Although I have created my fair share of web sites I’m not a web developer by profession but it seems clear to me that Flash still offers more functionality in terms of developing rich multimedia experiences but HTML 5 is catching up. With what little experience of developing for Flash that I have I found it a very fun platform to work with and you can find thousands of examples around the Internet of amazing Flash creations. Therein lies perhaps the saddest aspect of this conflict, that users of iPad and iPhone are not able to take part of this rich variety of Flash content on the web.
Personally I really don’t miss Flash support much on my iPad and iPhone. It happens that I come across a site that is all-Flash or depends heavily on Flash and if I’m on my iPad or iPhone I can’t access it. Especially if it’s a company web site I feel like they should at least offer a HTML alternative. As far as Farmville is concerned, I don’t care that they have a Flash site that I can’t use on my iPad but I do want them to add to the functionality of the iPhone app and also create an iPad version of it. That would mean a lot for my farming experience. Now I see that my strawberries are ready for harvest, better go take care of them.
This article was originally published in the Khaleej Times. -
The myth of the invulnerable Mac
Do you think that your Mac is invulnerable from malware such as viruses and trojans? Think again. It may be true that a computer running Mac OS X is less likely to attract malware than Windows but it’s also true that we should not be complacent just because we think we use a more secure platform.
Let’s establish this first: there is no such thing as an invulnerable computer platform. Whether it’s Mac, Windows, Linux or whatever else, they are all vulnerable to viruses, worms, trojans, hacks and anything else that a talented and tenacious person could come up with.
Apple’s operating system, Mac OS X (pronounced “ten”, not “x”) has an interesting history. When Steve Jobs, co-founder and current CEO of Apple, was kicked out of the company in 1985 he founded another computer company called NeXT. They built a series of computers that ran an operating system called NeXTSTEP. Apple acquired NeXT in 1997 and in the process got NeXTSTEP, which is the foundation of Mac OS X. Steve Jobs also returned as CEO in 1997.
What you may not know is that in the pre-Mac OS X days Apple did actually have a significant malware problem. Mac OS versions up to 9 had problems with virus and other types of malware and running anti-malware software was common place, even a must. Perhaps some of you remember Disinfectant, which was a widely used, free virus-scanning and removal tool that existed for Mac operating systems before X was born. Mac OS X’s arrival in 2001 changed all of that and even today, almost 10 years after the introduction, there are still no wide-spread malware problems on Apple computers.
Today, Microsoft Windows obviously dominates in terms of market share and even I readily admit that they’ve done a good job with Windows 7, introduced about a year ago now. After having talked to representatives of many of the main makers of security software for computers, like Symantec and Trend Micro, it’s clear to me that they agree that Microsoft did a good job with improving the security in Windows 7.
They also seem to agree that Mac OS X is not inherently more secure than Windows even though that view seems widely spread in the Mac community. I think there’s no doubt that Windows is attracting more attention from makers of malware because of the larger installed base. Simply, there’s more money to be made out of malware targeting Windows, and that’s what they’re after today, making money. They do this by stealing personal information, like credit card numbers, as well as use your computer to attack other computers.
As Apple sells more Macintosh computers it’s safe to assume that the bad guys will focus more on the Mac OS X platform. The message is clear: you have to stay alert and adjust your behavior, even as Mac users. Because no matter how safe your computer and your software is, it doesn’t matter if you are also not behaving in a secure manner.
The day when I recommend that all Mac users should install anti-malware software is not here yet but it’s approaching fast, I think. For now, if you act in a responsible way, especially when it comes to the Internet, you minimize the risk of something happening to you and your Mac. But please don’t think you’re invulnerable just because you use a Mac. The sooner we accept that and adjust our behavior accordingly, the better off we all are.
This column was originally published in Khaleej Times on 2010-06-26
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The new Mac mini makes Apple TV less attractive
When Apple introduced a new Mac mini my first thought was that now I don’t need an Apple TV anymore. Clearly inspired by the design of Apple’s iPad, the new Mac mini offers faster processor, much improved graphics, HDMI port and more in a smaller enclosure. Since the Mac mini is a fully functional computer and the Apple TV is, well, not, why would you even consider an Apple TV?
Apple TV was launched in early 2007 and many of us had high hopes for what Apple would do with the new platform. Reality has turned out very differently though as frankly it’s not changed a whole lot since 2007. Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO has referred to Apple TV as a “hobby” and even though they’ve updated the software and increased the hard drive space, it’s essentially the same box as three years ago, and that’s a shame.
Apple TV is basically a streamlined Mac on which you can only run something looking like Front Row on Macs, a simple graphical user interface controlled by a wireless remote control. It comes in only one model with 160GB hard disk and connects to your HD TV via HDMI and to Wi-Fi for Internet access.
You can buy and rent movies directly from your Apple TV using only the remote control. Unfortunately there are no movies, TV and music in the UAE iTunes store so you need an account in a supported country, such as US or UK. But you can also get media on to an Apple TV using iTunes on a Mac or Windows PC. You can synchronize from one iTunes library or stream from up to five. This means Apple TV connected to your large screen TV is a great way to enjoy the photos and video you’ll no doubt take this summer.
To be honest, by adding an HDMI port to the new Mac mini, Apple made choosing between Apple TV and Mac mini even harder than it already was a few weeks ago. Now the Mac mini connects just as easily to your large screen HD TV and it also supports the faster 802.11n wireless networking that the Apple TV has had for a while.
But let’s stop going through all the details and instead just say it comes down to convenience versus flexibility. An Apple TV is very easy to set up and use and the simplicity in the interface means you can’t really do anything wrong. At the same time that means you won’t get to do all the things you do with the Mac mini, which is a computer. Yes, running Front Row or other media center interface, like Plex, Boxee or XBMC on the Mac mini will give you some of the same simplicity but it still doesn’t rival Apple TV in that respect.
Unfortunately, as attractive as the Apple TV is in many respects, unless Apple will drastically revamp it and do it soon, I don’t see the hobby continue for much longer. The launch of the new Mac mini has certainly made the Apple TV less attractive for many potential customers.
This column was originally published in Khaleej Times.
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Acer and Apple: contrasts in lifestyle approach
In the high tech industry I’d say that Apple better than any other company can sell products and services using the concept of lifestyle.
Let’s start by a brief look at Acer, the number two computer manufacturer worldwide in overall computer sales and number one in portable computers. Acer’s explicit strategy is taking the latest technology available in the market and bringing it to consumers in various products as quickly as possible. The Taiwanese company is known for putting together hardware and less so for software and lifestyle.
But when Acer announced their Clear.fi “home cloud” solution in Beijing recently, they took another step toward being a lifestyle company rather than the assembler of hardware components they’re known to be. This should mean an apparent switch in their strategy.
In contrast to this, Apple has for the last 10 years or so now occupied the technology lifestyle space. They introduced the first iPod in 2001 and haven’t looked back since. Wanting to control the “user experience”, Apple provides a complete solution to customers, be it iPod, iPhone, Mac or, most recently, iPad. They also seem very reluctant to make any compromises in delivering their vision of what the consumer experience should be like.
I would argue that this unwillingness to compromise in the design of their products and execution of their strategies is one major reason behind Apple’s success. To that I’d add that I think it may also be one reason why Acer will struggle.
So what’s different about selling a product as a lifestyle solution rather than a bunch of components put together?
For starters a consumer buying a lifestyle item is less likely to be interested in the specifications of the product, the “speeds and feeds” if you like. They’re interested in how it fits in to their daily life, makes aspects of that life better, faster, easier, more enjoyable, etc. To then focus on the components inside and how good you are at putting those components together in a computer, for example, is not really going to work. This is something Dell seems to have caught on to in recent years.
In lifestyle it’s coolness that matters and Acer is many things but cool. If Apple was launching something similar to Clear.fi, and they already have some components of the same functionality, they would probably mention some “speeds and feeds” but they would receive much less attention. Instead, Apple would focus on how this thing fits in to your life, what value it would add, and, last but not least, how cool it is.
Although I think it’s exciting that Acer is moving in to lifestyle territory I also think they’re in for a tough challenge. When they’re just about to take the number one spot as the world’s leading computer company they’re switching gears. I suspect that what got them to the position they’re at in the market is not what will keep them there, at least not with an increased focus on lifestyle.
This column was originally published in Khaleej Times on 2010-06-12
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What’s the status of iPad in UAE?
Apple rolled out the first model of iPad on April 3rd and the 3G model followed on April 30th. It reached some countries in Europe, Japan and Australia on May 28th. With the first model you can connect to the Internet using Wi-Fi, with the 3G model you can also get online from wherever you are through a mobile data plan and a SIM card.
By any measure, the iPad has been a great success for the Cupertino-based company with 1 million units sold by May 3rd. How is it then that it’s still not officially available in the Middle East and when can we expect it?
First, let’s make it clear that any iPad sold here until there is a launch by Apple or their authorized distributors is gray market, meaning outside of the official channels. For customers, who either buy it straight from the US or from vendors in the UAE who have imported it, this means there is no Apple warranty valid in the UAE and there is no service and support available.
Recently it was reported online that 65% of iPads sold on the online auction site eBay.com since the iPad was introduced have been sold outside the US (see shuffle.to/ipaduae). Apparently buyers in the UAE are more willing to pay dearly for their iPad compared to any other country, with some paying more than double the original US price to get their hands on an iPad. Interest in Apple’s slate device is certainly at fever-pitch in the Emirates. That’s also evident by the prices that some online sellers in the country charged for the gray market iPads they sold when they first started offering them. Now pricing is more reasonable but still above US levels, which is to be expected.
There is still no word on when the iPad will arrive here officially and by some accounts it’ll be after summer or even later. Apple premium reseller iStyle as well as electronics-chain Virgin have both issued statements urging customers to wait for the official launch before buying iPads. Apparently customers who have already bought iPads have approached their stores for service and support and they’ve been unable to offer either because of the unofficial status of iPad.
One thing that has just recently improved for UAE iPad owners is that Apple has opened up the UAE App Store for iPad apps. Now you can, with a UAE iTunes account and credit card, download free apps as well as purchase paid-for apps. You still cannot get any music, movies or TV however. At least this is a step forward for the market even though iPad is not officially here yet.
In terms of getting online with the 3G model of iPad, Etisalat is offering Micro SIM cards compatible with iPad. You can even get one in addition to your regular SIM card and pay them together as one bill under their Tawa’am scheme. So far, du has not announced a Micro SIM card but is widely expected to do so in the near future.
This column was originally published in Khaleej Times on 2010-05-29.
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