[MW Forums]

There can be no doubt that 2005 was a stellar year for Apple. From record-breaking quarterly financial reports and the release of Mac OS X Tiger to the announced transition of the Macintosh to the Intel platform and new iPods, Apple fired on all cylinders throughout much of the year, creating unprecedented demand for many of its products. more

[radon1818]

Quote: Apple added to this later in the year when it introduced Front Row, an application that gave users an interface to control their media. For now, that application is only available on the iMac.
Anyone who wants it can get it for their Mac, as I'm sure most of you know there's a crack out there for installing it on all OS 10.4 Macs. Hey, if Apple isn't providing it for us yet, and it's a free download (http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/apple/frontrow101.html), what's wrong with putting it on your Mac?? Front Row rocks!

[Philistine]

Is the download a full install, or does it just patch a previous 1.0 install? If it's a full install, I might like to tinker with it. Of course, other macs don't have the remote, which makes Front Row a lot less interesting. I wonder if Salling Clicker can be made to work with Front Row?

[Spark]

I got the download and installed FrontRow on my G5. Fun, but of little value without the remote. It is, indeed, a taste of is yet to come from Apple. 2006 marks my 20th year as a Macintosh user and Apple Evangelista. I can't wait for the new PowerBooks. My 800 MHz G4 12" model still servers me well, and still gets looks of admiration from Dell unInspiron owners, but a dual core Yonah chip could be the tipping point for a new purchase.

[Philistine]

I'm still using a 400 MHz PBG4. I'm overdue for an upgrade. I'm not religious about processors, but I agree that a nice dual-core laptop might make me pry open the wallet.
Salling Clicker might make Front Row useful on "unsupported" machines if you have a supported Bluetooth phone or PDA. If you're not familiar with this fantastic piece of software, you ought to check it out.

[radon1818]

It is a full install, and then you just need the crack with it. When I downloaded the crack, he had the code so it wouldn't not recognize a remote, something with making it compatible on non-remote computers, but if you find the designer's site, he may have since changed that. I still really like it for media convenience & movie trailers. Plus it impresses people.

[MacTel]

1) Radically update the Powerbook with a dual core Intel inside
2) Release to market a PowerTablet Mac
3) Update the XServes with dual core procs
4) Release to market an XBlade and XSAN(hardware) dynamic duo
5) Buy Palm and release iTunes on the Treos
6) Buy Quark and stick it to Adobe where it counts
7) Add a new iLife/iWork app called Pocketbook (a MSMoney/Quicken competitor)
8) Fold in Filemaker and bundle with iWork
9) Release Cells as part of iWork 2006
10) Buy Nintendo and convert the Gameboy DS into an iPod on steroids
What's your top ten?

[n8mac]

11) Make the FX card in the iMac user replaceable
12) Bring back the single tower PowerMac with better stats and advertise it
13) 23" iMac
17" $1,099
20" $1,499
23" $2,099
14) Buy an original gaming house to make original mac games (like Microsoft does with Ensemble Studios) Apple needs to make up for what other developers lack so that PC switchers will have less excuses not to switch.
15) Improve on OpenGL in Leopard (actually Leopard probably won't come out till '07)

[Nobody]

Apple announces plans for world domination. World governments tremble. In response to the UN's pleading Steve Jobs to "Please bring back the iPod mini, because it looks so cool and is aluminium. If you don't we'll issue trade sanctions or shake our fists at you or something," Apple releases the new-new 500GB iPod Mini. Leaked internal memos from Apple reveal that the product's development codename was "DeathStar Mini" and was actually some kind of mind-control device that transmitted user thoughts to an unkown location near Alpha Centauri.
The leaker of the Deathstar memos was tragically strangled to death by some sort of invisible death grip that scientists have yet to fully explain. Police investigators found a discarded packet of soy-based vegan snacks and fibers from a black turtleneck at the scene of the crime.

[Nobody]

In reply to:

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6) Buy Quark and stick it to Adobe where it counts

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Ugggh! Quark is an awful company, and a particularly bad match for Apple. I can't imagine the horrors of a clash between Apple and Quark culture. In fact, Quark's CEO regularly instilled anti-Apple rhetoric into his company.

In reply to:

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10) Buy Nintendo and convert the Gameboy DS into an iPod on steroids

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Pretty difficult for an American company to buy an iconic japanese company, I would think. besides, this suffers the same problem as Quark. It's not really compatible with Apple's culture and workforce. I also think nintendo fulfill that niche pretty well themselves. I wouldn't want to ruin some of Nintendo's good work by running it through the Jobs Approval Filter, nor having Apple's ideas affected by Nintendo's ways. Plus you are going up directly against Sony and Microsoft, who are already in seriously bad moods and looking to defend their turf. That could get very ugly, very quickly. Especially as Sony is being forced into negotiations with Sony over the rootkit settlement, and iTunes in general. There are a lot of raw nerves there. Sony is already extremely embarrassed over their loss of face on the Minidisc, the 'Net Walkman, the rootkit/DRM fiasco and the failure of their own music store in the face of iTunes.
Apple could do better than poking around at an 800 lb Gorilla, and an 800 lb Godzilla, when there's little to be gained by taking over Nintendo relative to the extraordinary effort and risk it would take. Unless both Mothra and Spiderman are on Apple's side.

[IVIIVIi4ck3y27]

Rather than buy Nintendo, they'd be better off buying some PC gaming houses and doing with them as they did Logic, and I don't think that, that'd float very well either. /forums/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif Nintendo's overall gaming portfolio is pretty astounding, but I think they're on a downhill slide in comparison to what Microsoft was able to achieve rather quickly, and in my opinion surprisingly, with consoles in the past few years. I definitely think Nintendo's got better overall product in their past than XBox and XBox 360 have today combined... but I'd argue if there's 10 titles on a Nintendo Gamecube system today that aren't tied to some Nintendo characters created eons ago that can match what Halo did in one year, much less what Half Life will likely bring to X360; both of which are relatively new to console gamers (and titles like Project Gotham racing and the like are closer to what Sony puts out and they're pretty much brand "spanking" new). That's not to dis Nintendo in the least (I'm not a fanboy of any of the above), and I definitely agree that their classic franchises are great (Zelda, Donkey Kong, Mario Bros, et al.)... I just don't think that many of their console titles of late have been that impressive or imaginative compared to what they spawned throughout the 1980's and even into the 1990's. They're not the happening place to be that they once were...
Much of the creative forces in modern gaming have come from other parties, whether EA, Sega, Sony, Bungie, Sierra, Square-enix, etc. Sony and Microsoft have stolen almost all of the thunder on consoles where Gamecube has lagged even worse than N64 did. Then there's PSP vs. DS/Gameboy, almost the final frontier as a controlling entity of games in Nintendo''s lair. I think the PSP has gotten far more accolades of late than DS despite DS's rather innovative features and gameplay. I'm a sucker for innovative gameplay so the DS's failure in my eyes is largely a failing of Nintendo and their developers for finding great games and inspired ways to leverage it as the better console and captivate people to buy into it over PSP. From a gaming standpoint... PSP is like a handheld PS2 that can play MP3's and view movies. Nothing included really take things significantly farther than any other console/handheld or other electronic device of late... but with the amazing industrial design that is behind PSP (might be Sony's best designed product of late), it looks more fascinating than the toy-like appearing DS, despite sharing similar features or having gaming advantages that PSP can't touch. Rather depressing in many ways.
The problem with buying any gaming house is that they're only as good as the atmosphere and work initiative. Bungie began to dwindle into nothing with Halo probably halfway through Oni's launch, a launch that produced a game that seemingly failed to really take off like previous Bungie games had. Halo finally shipped, but it changed in some ways from what it was previously said to offer, shipped on Mac woefully late compared to the XBox version, and in a lot of ways the buyout by Microsoft of Bungie was like a major slap in the face to Apple with the many years of Marathon tugging at the Mac user's heartstrings. The only thing that could be near as epic would be if Apple tomorrow bought up something akin to Rockstar Games and/or Sierra. Even there, I can't say that both of these companies entirely define Windows gaming.
At any rate... Apple buying gaming houses to ship games "Mac-only" would only hurt them and their investment. The fact of the matter is, I doubt anyone would purchase a Mac strictly to play Grand Theft Auto, that is unless Apple in turn released their own console You can bet that if Apple did it, some other PC vendor would create their own GTA-like franchise, and likely lay the qualms/trump card to rest. Butting heads against Sony and Microsoft, much less Nintendo at this stage... I think they're better served by controlling the portable music market and find a way to make the Mac more viable than they are with trying to simultaneously compete against an uphill battle that is console or even PC gaming. They might be better afforded spending $ to get Sony to port some of their games to the Mac than they would be to buy a few gaming houses and make them Mac-only. Microsoft has the $ to spend frivolously on consoles, Apple would run out of their (quite large might I add) reserve cash long before Mr. Gates' pocketbook sustains a significant dent, even with a few billion in the bank they are no match for Gates' wealth. Esp. when you're talking about a very passionate Japanese gaming industry that's not keen to buy U.S.-made consoles from Microsoft thus far. For Microsoft to crack the market there is going to be tough enough, for Apple it might well be impossible without mongo huge capital bordering on the level of "infinite".