[Macworld]

Post your comments for The Macalope Weekly: Reactionaries here

[Lenjc1957]

Still, you gotta give it to Microsoft for having the unmitigated chutzpah to think that they're still worth around $100 bucks a pop to potential tablet OEMs.

[KPOM]

At $85, Windows RT isn't viable. The iPad starts at $400. That effectively means that other OEMs would need to sell their products at $315 before the cost of the OS just to match the iPad.

[DougAdams]

You said "See 'n Say". That always cracks me up.

[ColeBlack]

I was rather hoping the Macalope would take aim at some of Macworld..co.uk stories this week. Is it the evil sibling in the Macworld family? Just this week it's announced Siri to be susceptible to fishing attacks, Android tablets beating out iPad in business - and my favourite - How the Expensive New Retina MacBook Pro will likely cost you £7200! How you ask? Because they add on essentials it's useless without, like insurance, dvd drive, a thunderbolt display or two and various printers. Isn't that kind of like saying that new bicycle you have your eye on will cost 100k once you add on mudflaps, a neat light and a house to keep it in? http://www.macworld....ype=allchandate

[DanFelixPierce]

Actually, Sony did release a digital music player the year before the iPod.
http://www.hardware-...?aid=184&page=4

It was a usability disaster. Besides requiring to put all your music in their ATRAC3 file format, you had to "check out" songs on your desktop to transfer to your player. And if you just deleted them off the player before checking them back in, too bad, you used up one of the three copies you were allowed to have. And this applied to all songs, even ones you encoded yourself from your own CDs.

[Dennistrator]

I can imagine an alternate universe where people like Eric Mack don[t write silly link-bait, but that isn't reality, either.

"See and Say" nearly precipitated nasal beverage projection. You should come with a warning label, Mr. Macalope.

[providag]

If MS elects to compete on hardware integrated with software it has two models: X-Box that is successfully competing with Sony and Nintendo and may be a path to the livingroom, but no OEMs or Zune that competed directly with Apple and it's OEMS partners and crashed.

If MS is looking to compete with Kindle, Amazon (very tough customer), or Nook, Barnes and Noble (who they signed a deal with but a weak competitor, Nokia?); perhaps they may succeed at the veto margin end thereby putting their OEMs between Apple and MS, Nook, and Kindle -now that's partnering writ big.

If they intend to directly compete at the 10inch model with Apple, this had Zune written all over it and will drive Samsung et al nuts.

Standby for MS and Android doom for Apple, but history will play some interesting scenes to come. Please note all this is competing with where the puck was and is, Sept Apple announcements will be about where the puck will be.

[Harvey]

 ColeBlack, on 16 June 2012 - 06:54 AM, said:

Just this week it's announced Siri to be susceptible to fishing attacks

Yes, Everyone is now worried that Ms. Siri is going to be roughed up by "fishing attacks" from various evil sharks and barracudas (facetiousness).

This post has been edited by Harvey: 16 June 2012 - 08:11 AM

[k88dad]

The hyena goes...

...well, you know.

[xcaggsocq]

 ColeBlack, on 16 June 2012 - 06:54 AM, said:

I was rather hoping the Macalope would take aim at some of Macworld..co.uk stories this week. Is it the evil sibling in the Macworld family? Just this week it's announced Siri to be susceptible to fishing attacks, Android tablets beating out iPad in business - and my favourite - How the Expensive New Retina MacBook Pro will likely cost you £7200! How you ask? Because they add on essentials it's useless without, like insurance, dvd drive, a thunderbolt display or two and various printers. Isn't that kind of like saying that new bicycle you have your eye on will cost 100k once you add on mudflaps, a neat light and a house to keep it in? http://www.macworld....ype=allchandate

Ha! Love it! ;-)

[PelleNilsson]

Microsoft? Within 1 year without the iPod? Seriously? It took them 5 years to release the Zune _after_ the iPod was out as a fact! How does he think they could have done it within a year _without_ the iPod out? And when they did finally release their "iPod killer" the Zune... brown... this shows how cool MS could be, even when they are trying to copy Apple.
Me thinks he is taking controlled substances for bringing in MS in his scenario.

Sony had done some fairly nifty things like the cassette tape walkman and the MD walkman, but nothing near the simplicity of use that the iPod has, nor the ecosystem. I loved the MD walkman and have 2 of them still, but its a royal bitch to work through the menus to actually do anything. And the times I errassed recordings by mistake, because the MD walkman started recording - like a tape recorder - from the time position you currently where at, instead of the "end" of the disk... well... I wasnt happy.

Samsung had to my knowledge no history of invention at that time (do they today even?) but where a really good manufacture.

[funcolletorstoo]

You mean to tell me oh velvet furred one, that the Ipad has no "See & Say" app? Say it isn't so.

[bettercitizens]

And that is another area where Apple is leading change - software pricing and the ability to sync software purchases across all of your OS X and iOS devices. In he old days software was very expensive and generally came with a license to operate it on one computer.

Now speaking of alternate realities, Apple is akin to George Bailey bringing low pricing and reasonable licensing terms to software and in many ways Microsoft is like Mr. Potter keeping software pricing high and licensing terms exclusionary and somewhat draconian. Thank God George Bailey, um I mean Apple, was born and continues to innovate. Here's to continuing great inexpensive software like GarageBand on iOS, GoodReader, Instapaper, iThoughts HD, etc... In the Apple universe. And that is one thing that Apple learned very well from Mr. Ballmer -- Developers, Developers, Developers, Developers,..