A PC comparable to a Mac

I'm at a Christmas party in Indiana, and I'm using a really nice notebook called the HP Pavilion dv2000. It has a built-in webcam, a silky smooth trackpad, a glossy finish around the cover, and an Intel Core Duo processor (Mac's processor- Intel Core 2 Duo; more powerful). It's an 'entertainment PC', and it got me really interested. However, I soon found out the problem: the price. The hardware's about 3/4 as good as a Mac, and yet it's over twice as expensive: $2800. So next time somebody tells you Macs are overpriced, let them know that PC's that are less expensive than Macs have sub-par processors, inferior OS's, less features, and so on.

In other words, no matter which computer you buy, you get what you pay for. When you're buying a Mac, you're paying for the industry standard processor (Intel Core 2 Duo at least), built-in webcam, long battery life, glossy glass screen, multi-touch glass trackpad, unibody enclosure (lighter, thinner, safer), better environmental responsibility, and so much more. And that's not even including the beautiful OS that comes with it. Compare that to PC's. When you see a $600 notebook PC, does it have a fast processor? Of course not. You'd have to move up to $700-$800 for that. But even then, does it have the webcam? Nope. Add another $100, so it's $800-$900. If you add a multi-touch trackpad and glossy screen, that's probably $100 together. So now we've moved up to $900-$1000, about the price of a comparable Mac notebook, and yet it's still missing so many features that the Mac has. There's nothing overpriced about them. They are all high-class machines; Apple has no room in its warehouses for crappy $500 computers.

-Derek

Steve Ballmer on Steve Jobs

This is Steve Ballmer in Budapest, right after being attacked with eggs. He's apparently claiming that Microsoft must have better taste than Apple because they have sold over a billion computers, way more than Apple. There he goes with that stupid deceptive illusion again. It's getting really old. How many times is he going to say the same thing over and over? Come up with a different excuse at least. So the fact that you've sold more computers automatically makes you have better taste? Or could it be that everybody has been lied to by Microsoft? Could it be that they don't trust Mac because they don't know any better and they're afraid of switching? I think so. Ballmer's going to have to come up with something new if he wants any kind of respect from the tech community.

EDIT: I just noticed something else he said. He said Apple's focus is more on design, and Microsoft's is on functionality. What's that supposed to mean? Are you trying to tell me that Macs are not as functional as Windows computers? Any Mac user knows that's totally untrue. Are you saying that an OS that is full of glitches, freezes up, isn't compatible with old computers, is badly designed, very confusing, and extremely frustrating is 'functional'? There he goes again, making up stuff he doesn't even know about. He probably hasn't used a Mac in like 10 years, like all the Mac skeptics I know. Oh wait, he had to, otherwise he couldn't copy off it. Never mind.

On a side note, notice how I made the screen size for the YouTube video much bigger. I'm doing that from now on because I like it, it's pretty nice.

Zune Phone

I really can't believe that Microsoft is supposedly going to release a new Zune device that works as a mobile phone, which is similar to the iPhone. It has an accelerometer, possibly a touch screen, and a Zune built in.

Okay, let me predict this entire iPhone-ZunePhone war right now.

First, the ZunePhone will be announced. Microsoft's going to brag about a few gimmicky features the phone has, probably including copy-and-paste, video recording, and so on. However, the phone's going to be a piece of crap. A few people will decide to 'stick it' to the iPhone and get the ZunePhone to try something different. This represents about 2% of the market share. It will, however, be a huge failure. iPhone will keep coming out with new and better features and designs while ZunePhone is hardly ever updated. Then, the ZunePhone will get an update that will make it not quite as piece-of-crap-ish. Then, those 2% people who will be sad that they don't have an iPhone will start bragging about the ZunePhone's gimmicks so they can try to feel special about having one. However, iPhone will totally dominate the market.

You know what I just did? I completely described the iPod-Zune war that already happened, except I changed a few words. That's what's going to happen in the long run. Microsoft has so much money that they don't even care if they release the same kind of piece of crap they just released a year or two ago. Most companies would come up with a better business strategy than this, but not Microsoft. They have so much money that they can just do whatever they feel like doing. Just more reiteration on how bad of a company they've become.

My suggestion to Microsoft is this: How about switching things up? How about... Oh, I don't know... maybe coming up with something original? Quit following behind the other company. Try making a new kind of product that will be a hit, just like the iPod. See what you can add to the market.

But alas, that's never going to happen. Why? I've said it many times before and I'll say it again: Microsoft is the McDonald's of technology. They use a really bad business strategy because it makes them billions of dollars, and nobody wants to stop doing that. They've been mainly using advertising and copying off of other companies instead of making good products and listening to their customers. And that's what they're going to keep doing for as long as CEO Steve Ballmer is still in charge, and as long as this attitude stays within the company.

-Derek

iTunes for PC Needs Improvement

Like any marriage, my marriage with Apple has its ups and downs. I've stuck with Apple because there are way more ups, but here's one of the downs: iTunes for PC.

I absolutely love Apple for putting iTunes on PC. But it really needs improvement. Mostly it is extremely slow, and it is sometimes unresponsive. Today I was clicking an artist (Evanescence) and it wouldn't open at all for a long time. I kept clicking over and over, and eventually, I did manage to open it. Also, I watch the Daily Show and many podcasts, and I notice that the video is very faulty. Sometimes it stops, except it must be going still, because it then skips ahead to 'catch up' with what's going on. Sometimes the screen's picture just freezes forever while the audio keeps going perfectly. I need to click on it or on the pause and play button to get it to continue properly.

These are noticeable problems, but they don't interrupt my listening to my precious music, which at least counts for something. However, this can't keep going on under Apple's nose. I've heard from some people that Apple slows it down on purpose to try to say that Vista is slow. Only problem with that is, Vista IS slow. I think they need to completely revise the code and optimize it for PC instead of Mac. It's great, but it needs a lot of work.

-Derek