Mac-in-Malaysia

2004-09-19T06:41:00.000-07:00

Amazon has launched A9, a new search service to rival Google. I tried it out and it is impressive. To test it out, I typed in "MacAsia" and loh and behold, it came back with a bunch of results including even thumbnails of the map to our 1Utama store and a photo of a Mac user meeting held at our Great Eastern Mall AppleCentre. It summarizes results from a host of search engines including Google. Furthermore, the key feature of A9 includes being able to display your results within columns.

2004-09-19T02:46:00.000-07:00

I have met a few people now and again who bought that brand new digital camcorder, only to ask why it doesn't seem to work with their brand new Mac. Then I ask what kind of a camcorder they bought and almost all the time it's the same thing, Sony's MicroMV. Let's set the record straight, the defacto standard for consumer/prosumer video editing is DV. MicroMV is a way for you to shoot directly on to the MPEG-2 format on tape. This IMHO is not good news. MPEG-2 as you may know, is the format for DVD video and hence is a highly compressed format meant for content delivery and not acquisition and editing.

The same goes for Sony's DVD Handycam. It's basically the same thing, shooting direct to the MPEG-2 format and directly on to DVD as opposed to a MicroMV tape. I can see why some people might want this feature, but I think for most people, it is much better to shoot on DV, edit, and then author and burn on to DVD with iDVD.

So, if you are considering a Sony MicroMV or DVD Handycam soon, my advice would be to steer clear of them and get a DV Handycam instead.

2004-09-10T11:06:00.000-07:00

Just in case you are not aware. The 2004 Malaysia Video Awards are on at the National Art Gallery. It will be a whole week of free screenings till the 17th. We hope to see you there.

2004-08-25T11:30:00.000-07:00

Here's an interesting interview of Steve Jobs by Walt Mossberg from the Wall Street Journal.

2004-06-10T20:39:00.000-07:00

I'll be attending and participating Broadcast Asia 2004 in Singapore on June 14-18. Apple will be showcasing their latest pro video technologies and will have a big pavilion this year. So if you will be in Singapore at this time or will be attending this event, do drop by. I will be at one of the demo workstations at the pavilion the whole week.

2004-06-09T02:45:00.000-07:00

Ken Kamal is a local Mac user who keeps a blog on consumer technology. Ken offers his opinion and views on the latest Airport Express.

2004-06-08T03:57:00.000-07:00

Steve Jobs spoke at the recent All Things Digital conference organized by the Wall Street Journal. He was unusually forthright about Apple. Here are some of the things he covered, among other things a stillborn Apple PDA project (This was taken from AppleInsider):

â?¢ Jobs stated that he is proud not only of the products Apple has shipped, but also the products Apple has decided not to ship. When asked to elaborate, Jobs replied, "an Apple PDA."

â?¢ During a Q&A session, one individual pleaded with Jobs (as he clenched his Treo), begging for Apple to produce a PDA/Phone hybrid. Jobs told the audience member it would be best to remain happy with his Treo.

â?¢ Jobs was reportedly pressed hard about supporting the WMA format. He said that Apple has no plans to support the format unless Microsoft reaches 50% market share, at which point Jobs welcomed Microsoft to ask him again.

â?¢ Jobs alluded to a new product when he was setting context prior to announcing the Airport Express. He said people also want the iPod to work better in their car, and to expect some announcements later in the year. Jobs had an image on the screen of the inside of a BMW, with the BMW logo Photoshop'd out

â?¢ Jobs said Apple is working very hard at getting the price down on the iPod. When asked when it will happen, he just smiled.

â?¢ When Jobs was demonstrating the new Airport Express, Walt Mossberg said that the biggest problem he saw was that users had to get up and walk to their computers to change play lists. Jobs joked that walking was good, but when pressed, he smiled a wry smile. AppleInsider correspondents took this to mean that Apple is developing in this area, and the Airport Express is just a step along the way.

â?¢ Jobs confirmed the European launch of iTMS on June 15.

2004-05-13T09:24:00.000-07:00

A quick word of warning to anyone coming across a Microsoft Word 2004 demo. It has been identified as a Trojan Horse that will delete the files in your Home directory.

2004-05-11T08:24:00.000-07:00

Should Apple Exit the Mac Business?There has been some discussion of late on the web regarding the future of Apple. Specifically whether Apple should stop selling Macs and concentrate on what appears to be a very successful foray into the consumer electronics arena through the iPod. eWeek explores this further in their article.

Also, check out George F. Colony's (from Forrester Research) take on how Steve Jobs is shaping the technology landscape. Formerly an Apple doomsayer, he now thinks of Steve Jobs as "The Digitizer".

He writes, "Jobs is delivering on the digital dream. While other companies in the tech industry are either stumbling (Sony), services-focused (IBM), protecting their monopolies (Intel), or shepherding their legacy systems (Microsoft), Jobs is delivering inspired, compelling digital alternatives to the old analog world. The guy has the creativity of Sergei and Larry at Google, the experience of Michael Dell, and the connections and persuasiveness of Carly Fiorina."

All in all, declining PC market share aside, Apple is in good hands.

2004-05-05T02:54:00.000-07:00

My other interests other than Macs are cars. I have studied the designs of the current generation of Macs with that of some car manufacturers and I have come to the conclusion that Audi has the most in common with Apple. Here's why i think so:

1. Both Apple and Audi have a very strong design language. Both are advocates of good, clean designs with clean lines and forms. There are no superflous design features. The more you scrutinize into the details, the more you realize just how much thought the designers have put into their work.

2. Both companies are widely admired in design communities, winning numerous awards. Both are headed by star designers, Jonathan Ive at Apple, and Walter Maria de'Silva at Audi. Designers the world over look to Apple and Audi.

3. Percieved quality are major hallmarks of both companies. Apple products put other PCs to shame when you compare the materials they use. Look at the curent PowerBook and all other PC notebooks look like cheap toys next to it. Same thing when you compare an Audi with pretty much any other luxury car maker including BMW and Mercedes, the interior quality especially, is a notch above.

4. Both brands reach out to people who are different. Apple, for a long time had the "Think Different" campaign.Audi goes by the the tag line of "Never Follow". Check out these two commercials by Apple and Audi. Look out for the iPod in the Audi commercial!

5. Both companies lead by innovation. Just a few examples include Apple for their GUI, Quicktime, and the iTunes Music Store, Audi for their aluminium spaceframe technology , Quattro drivetrains, and DSG transmissions.

6. Both share a common underdog position, at least here in Malaysia anyway. Apple worldwide holds about a 2.5% marketshare, probably less in Malaysia. Audi in terms of presence and brand awareness in Malaysia face an uphill battle against BMW and Mercedes (however Audi's position in Europe is very different, selling more than BMW there. In China, Audi is the number one luxury car manufacturer. If only Apple had that sort of standing there!)

2004-04-30T17:55:00.000-07:00

Statto is a neat little application that 'tattoos' information on your desktop. Rather like Konfabulator, except in my opinion, neater. However, there are not many capsules available for Stattoo right now.

2004-04-30T17:14:00.000-07:00

You won't believe how close you can make Windows XP resemble the Mac. Thousands of Windows users are doing it. It's a good thing though. For many who cannot afford a Mac, it's the next best thing. In fact this sort of thing only gets more PC to Mac converts.

If you are a Mac user who is forced to use PCs at work, this is one way to get around the 'problem'.

2004-04-26T20:28:00.000-07:00

If you have a bluetooth headset, you can use it with your Mac. Here's how.

2004-04-22T10:19:00.000-07:00

Evangelism, dogma, rhetoric, and believing. For any of you Mac evangelists out there. Take note of the Evangelism Gotchas that the author notes at the end.

2004-03-29T22:12:00.000-08:00

I came across this website, Quality Mac, which focuses on recommending best-of-breed shareware and freeware. So far it's been pretty good. VersionTracker is also a great tool but Quality Mac helps you pick out some gems that you otherwise might have missed.

2004-02-27T20:23:00.000-08:00

If you have a Bluetooth enabled phone and want to control your Mac from your phone, you may have heard of Salling Clicker. Well, the big news for Symbian phone users (such as the Sony Ericcson P800 and P900) is that you can now do the same from your phone! I just downloaded the newest 2.1 version and installed it on my P800 and it works great. It controls iTunes, iPhoto, DVD Player and a few other things from your phone. Have a bluetooth enabled Mac and a Bluetooth enabled phone, Salling Clicker is a must try. These are one of the sharewares I am willing to pay for. US$19.95.

2004-02-23T20:16:00.000-08:00

There have always been rumors of an Apple PDA of some sort. However, Steve Jobs had said before that Apple had no intention of selling a PDA ever since he shuttered Newton. Nevertheless, rumors of this sort always crop up once in a while.Normally I never comment on rumors, but this seems very credible to me.

The article in question is by John Mazione from MacNet2.

‚ÄúApple is about to introduce a new digital device that will combine the best features of every Palm based and Windows based PDA‚Äôs currently flooding the market. The problem is, Palm‚Äôs announcement that they will no longer produce further upgrades to Palm Desktop For Mac makes it necessary, for the first time ever, for Apple to announce the coming of this new product before it‚Äôs ready. ?JM‚Äù

As you may know already, Palm is dropping support for Mac connectivity for it's future OS's, in this case Cobalt. Nevermind that you can get third party software to do it, the general public will consider this negative news. But if Apple comes out with a PDA and that proves to be a hit like the iPod, then we should not have to worry. John adds:

It‚Äôs no longer a question of ‚Äúif‚Äù Apple will deliver a smart-PDA multimedia digital device; it‚Äôs a question of ‚Äúwhen‚Äù. And ‚Äúwhen‚Äù looks sooner, rather than later... at least today.

He thinks a July 2004 timeframe is likely, in time for the mid-year MacWorld.

2004-02-23T20:00:00.000-08:00

Safari is my personal favourite web browser. But there are times when Safari does not render pages correctly. So it is always good to have a backup browser. For that I use FireFox which is part of the Mozilla project.

It is fast, simple, and free.

Forget that piece of crap called Internet Explorer.

2004-02-23T19:36:00.000-08:00

Many apologies for the lack of updates. I use Frequency, a great blogging tool from Brad Rhine, but somehow in the last two weeks it refused to post any of my blogs. So I should be starting again real soon.

2004-02-10T22:54:00.000-08:00

How many of you have use GarageBand? It's the coolest new application in iLife '04. Creating music has never been so easy. I'm an amateur musician but I hate having to learn the 'taugehs' or notations as they call it in music terms. GarageBand has over 1000 prerecorded loops which you just basically drag and drop and mix it all together just like the pros did! Very convenient indeed!. Now, once you are familiar with GarageBand, traverse down to MacBand.com to check out songs and loops by users and artists. Once you signed up(it's free) , you will have a personal Artist Profile page which can include your biography and any other self-promotioninformation. The best part is you can download the loops for free! Check it out..

2004-01-29T07:38:00.000-08:00

Catch a sneak peak at one of the Apple/Pepsi commercials here, courtesy of Shawn Kings' blog, 'Your Mac Life'.

2004-01-28T18:37:00.000-08:00

I think some of you may know about Apple's 5% student discount for Macs. However, effective immediately, the student discounts are no more. Due to a change in the dealer pricing structure for Macs, it is just not feasible to continue the student discounts.

2004-01-28T07:07:00.000-08:00

Apple together with Pepsi will be airing a total of five commercials on the XXXVIII SuperBowl. 100 million songs will be given away via Pepsi bottles through this campaign. Check out the screenshots for the upcoming ads here.

2004-01-19T22:41:00.000-08:00

Did you know that Apple could have very well lost out the digital music player market to HP? Apparently, the guys at Compaq were working on a Personal Jukebox, the PJB way back in 1999. But according to the Register, due to the merger of Compaq and HP at that time, bringing to market something like a digital music player fell by the wayside. So now that Apple's iPod has become the defacto digital music player standard, HP has been smart about it by not going head on, and not falling into the "Not-invented-here-syndrome" which had afflicted Apple themselves so many times in the past.

2004-01-14T09:55:00.000-08:00

There's this really cool program, Maestro, that allows you to visualize the visual data being sent back from Spirit, the Mars Exploration Rover.

I think that this is really awesome, considering that you can participate in planetary exploration right on your Mac!

2004-01-13T20:26:00.000-08:00

By now you would have read about the HP/iPod deal. No doubt this will increase Apple's dominance in the portable digital music player market, and this is no mean feat especially since Apple only has a 5% share in the computer market.

BusinessWeek puts it nicely, "That Jobs could become the most powerful guy in digital music from a platform with a mere 5% or less of total market share is like Houdini pulling a Hummer out of his hat."

A lot of people think that because Apple locks the consumer into it's own AAC standard (which no one else except Real is using right now), they will over time lose market share in the digital music market to others based on Microsoft's own proprietary WMA format. (I must stress here that it is AAC that is standards based, and WMA that is proprietary).

However, the same article in BusinessWeek has this to say:

"Times have changed, and the music market is different. For starters, Apple is building a captive audience for iTunes Music Store. Every 99-cent download represents an investment for a music lover and an additional disincentive to ditch their iPod and go with, say, a Dell Digital Jukebox. Converting an entire collection into MP3 format and burning it onto disks would be a major hassle. And no one wants to go out and replace their music collection every time they switch players.

So as more and more people download tunes from iTunes, the Apple music format becomes harder and harder to dislodge as a prominent standard. In a nutshell, I think this is also the reason why Apple had so much trouble getting people to switch computing platforms: The cost and inconvenience of switching not just hardware but software is prohibitive."

This caught my attention, because that is what is holding back Apple from capturing more market share. It's always been the public perception that Macs cannot interoperate well with Windows and converting them one by one is just going to be too slow.

Apple has definately done the right thing by taking a page from Sun Tzu's Art of War manual, and that is to attack where the enemy is weakest rather than wasting resources going head on. In this case it's the digital music market which was almost non-existant. You cannot get more evidence of this fact than with Apple gaining valuable desktop space (via iTunes) on all new HP computers that will be selling in a few months.

2004-01-08T21:24:00.000-08:00

HD (High Definition) video is becoming more popular and it's making inroads into our local scene. GS Productions is one of the pioneering production companies in Malaysia taking the first steps into HD production, from having the Sony CineAlta HDCAM to an HD capable Final Cut Pro system for post.

The Star InTech has an article about them here.

2003-12-22T19:56:00.000-08:00

A friend of mine sent me this mind boggling video for the launch of the AppleStore in Tokyo. Check it out, but make sure you are on broadband or it's going to take a while to load.

2003-12-18T06:38:00.000-08:00

Shaharul Hizam Shamsuddin, an English language trainer from a school in Kelantan which received some of the iBooks from the MOE project has this to say about his experience so far:

"Hi. Being an English teacher in a secondary school, an English Language Master Trainer to the Math and Science teachers in Kelantan and a Mac user, I'm trully elated to know that Apple will be supplying 5050 iBooks to the teachers when the schools open next year. As for my school, we received 8 NEC laptops, 10 LCD projectors and â€¦ 2 iBooks!

Having been in the system, I have some points to share with Apple Malaysia so that the deal will not turn into a failure. First of all, training for the teachers. True, Mac OS is the most user-friendly OS to operate but it is radically different from the prevalent Wintel machines currently used in schools. Furthermore, most of the teachers are only given training on how to hook up the provided LCD projectors to the notebooks and cursory exposure to the software modules in a period of 6 hours or less by the vendors. That's it. Yes, there are those who are quite tech savvy but most are first time users, especially in dealing with Mac OS.

Mentioning software modules, I need to point out that a number of the Form 1/Year 1 modules are mostly designed specifically to run on Wintel machines, not Mac OS. Hopefully this will be changed in the Form 2 modules.

I can offer a number of solutions to Apple Malaysia. First, in depth 1 day familiarization training to the teachers. This can be done by asking the respective vendor to give the training or asking the local Mac resellers to hold the training events as they normally do to new Mac buyers.

Or Apple can ask the help of the Pusat Sumber Pendidikan Negeri to use their Pusat Kegiatan Guru (PKGs) where to my understanding the admins of these PKGs have been given training in the use of Mac OS.

Secondly, Apple Malaysia can perhaps work with the MOE and the software or module developers to make certain that the modules can be accessed using a Mac. Again I have to mention that only a number of Form 1/Year 1 modules are Mac-friendly, but I have not seen or accessed any of the Form 2/Year 2 modules which are not supplied to the school yet.

Hopefully, one day I will see more Macs in the hands of not only the teachers but also the students."

2003-12-13T19:58:00.000-08:00

For those of you who love to customize your Mac OS 9 computer with hacks like Kaleidoscope, we now have something equally as great for Mac OS X. It's called ShapeShifter. Here's the description from the developer's website:

ShapeShifter is a revolutionary new product that lets you change the overall appearance of your Mac using 'themes'. We're not talking about just desktop backgrounds and icons here, we're talking about everything - the look of windows, menus, buttons, absolutely everything. You don't wear the same clothes everyday, your house doesn't look exactly like your neighbor's - why should the computing interface you use everyday be any different. You personalize your physical workspace to suit your tastes and whims, so why not your Mac?

With ShapeShifter, you can:
• Change the overall appearance of your operating system safely, quickly, and reliably;
• Experience things that haven't been possible with Mac themes before;
• Quickly preview themes without actually applying them;
• Use Jaguar themes in Panther effortlessly;
• Install different themes for different users;
• Keep your themes wherever you please on your hard drive;
• Add and remove themes effortlessly;

Check it out here.

2003-12-13T19:50:00.000-08:00

This is an amusing comment from Roxio CEO Chris Gorog. He basically thrashes his company's own products when comparing them to Apple's iTunes Music Store and iPod. Roxio declared the iPod as the product of the year:

"You gotta admit, the iPod is just better than our crap. I tried using a Napster MP3 player and after four days I gave it to my nephew and bought a 40 GB iPod from the local Apple Store. And it wasn't even a nephew that I liked very much."

When asked about Napster, "Napster? I wouldn't be caught dead using that bloated piece of cheese. I've been using iTunes from day one."

And responding to a question about why he was dissing his own products, "Who really cares at this point? We've already lost that battle. I mean, we're signing endorsement deals with beer companies, for God's sake. And that's only because we got turned down by RC Cola. In fact, we're even thinking of offering free iTunes gift certificates with the purchase of every Napster player. We've got to do something to cash in on the overwhelming popularity of the iPod, you know?"

That's right, Napster teamed up with Miller Beer to market their online service.

2003-12-01T21:48:00.000-08:00

What makes the iPod so successful? Rob Walker writes for the New York Times Magazine. He includes interviews with both Jonathan Ive, the head designer at Apple, and Steve Jobs too.

2003-11-27T20:51:00.000-08:00

I just received an e-mail from Lingam (General Manager for Apple Malaysia) today confirming a deal with the Ministry of Education, with an order to the tune of 5,050 iBooks. This ranks as the largest deal for Apple outside of the U.S. The iBooks will go to teachers in secondary schools to assist them in teaching maths and English.

It does not stop here. There is a possiblity that more orders will be placed over the next three years to potentially total 20,000 iBooks or more.

I would like to make a heartfelt congratulations to the Apple Malaysia team and the education reseller in making this happen. I am sure the repercussions from this will be felt throughout the Malaysian Mac market, from other schools, to corporate, to retail, over the next few years.

2003-11-27T03:47:00.000-08:00

Robert X. Cringley explores the idea of Apple coming out with a tablet Mac when the right technology is in place.

2003-11-22T10:50:00.000-08:00

I ran across this great web page from O'Reilly's MacDevCenter for maintaining Mac OS 10.3 on your Mac. It details steps on how to keep your OS working in an optimal state. This includes forcing Panther to do periodic maintenance, updating pre-binding, and repairing privileges.

Normally, these processes are done when your Mac is idle late at night or when you install new programs. But the fact is, not all of us leave our Macs on all the time and not all installers behave as they should.

2003-11-21T10:15:00.000-08:00

A quick update as to which new Macs are rolling into Malaysia at the moment:

iBook G4's: All models starting to flow in steadily.

PowerBook 15": All models still very constrained. Apparently they have arrived at the SIngapore depot already.

PowerBook 12" & 17": Available.

2003-11-19T22:23:00.000-08:00

With Mac OS 10.3, file journaling is now a standard feature. In a nutshell, file journaling gives you better protection against file directory corruption and lost data when your Mac crashes (which is very rare now anyway.) LAFCP explains it in more detail here.

2003-11-19T01:38:00.000-08:00

Previously I had recommended mlMac as a good peer-to-peer file sharing client. I would like to point out another one that is worth looking at. Check out Poisoned.

2003-11-17T09:04:00.000-08:00

Ad Age has come out with their top fifty brand success stories of the year. Steve Jobs is one of them and this is how they describe his success:

APPLE COMPUTER CEO Steve Jobs this year becomes the first person to be named to Advertising Age’s list of leading brands three times. He’s made the Marketing 100 twice, as well as this year’s section, the even more selective Marketing 50. Not bad for a guy who never had a traditional marketing career. This year, Mr. Jobs wins for turning the charged debate over the illegal downloading of music over the Internet into a marketing opportunity. His dual platform approach includes successful marketing of the iPod music player in tandem with iTunes, its online music store.

In 1999, Mr. Jobs won the honor for repackaging his Mac in a slick translucent case at a time when PC marketers were duking it out on products with little or no margins. The next year, Mr. Jobs won for his iBook, offering wireless networking capability along with a juicy array of blueberry and tangerine colors. Once again, Mr. Jobs is at the forefront of innovation. When the record industry was beginning to battle music lovers in court over the ripping off of songs, Mr. Jobs rolled out iTunes.

The online music store simplifies the music buying process by coming up with a one-size-fits-all contract at the rock bottom price of 99¢, with most albums selling for $10. And by perfect design, Mr. Jobs created iTunes to sell Apple’s sexy iPod music player. Apple sold more than 336,000 iPods in the quarter ended Sept. 27, up 140% from the same period a year ago. In addition to ads backing the store and player from Omnicom Group’s TBWA/Chiat/Day, Playa del Rey, Calif., the iPod got promoted through a cool crosspromotional deal with Volkswagen of America. VW offered a free iPod to everyone who purchased a 2003 hard-top Beetle; an iTunes music giveaway program with PepsiCo is set.

Not only that, Mr. Jobs did a turnabout and offered the product to PC users, announcing the move at a presentation in front of an overhead that said “Hell froze over.” More than 1 million tracks were sold in the first week the service became available to Windows users.

2003-11-17T08:08:00.000-08:00

Check this out. Microsoft's own chief technology officer, David Vaskevitch praising and using the iPod. And he doesn't even carry any PocketPC device.

"I love the idea that I can have music with me wherever I go and the iPod can clip onto my belt -- the same thing makes the BlackBerry work so well. You can lose a lot because of the form factor, but what you gain more than makes up for what you lose," he said

2003-11-17T01:09:00.000-08:00

When Apple was bleeding dry a few years back, (when Gil Amelio and and gang were running the company and Steve Jobs ousted him,) Fred Anderson recounts what they had to do, marketing wise, to turn the company around.

2003-11-17T01:00:00.000-08:00

It's official. The Virginia Tech teracluster has been officially ranked at #3 in the Top 500 rankings.

2003-11-06T07:05:00.000-08:00

In a report by Reuters, Sony will be releasing an iPod challenger end of next year. It's the PSP, and it going to challenge not only the iPod, but Nokia's N-Gage and Nintendo's GameBoy as well. From the looks of it, it looks likely to be strong competition for Apple's iPod with it's ability to playback music, play games and maybe even act as a mobile phone. But then again, a year is a long time away and Steve & Co. will most likely come up with something to stay ahead of the game.

This sums up what one Sony official had to say:

"We are taking on iPod with our new device... we are coming at him (Steve Jobs) on that front."

2003-10-30T19:06:00.000-08:00

Srinidhi Varadarajan, the system architect of the Virginia G5 super computer describes his experience of building it at the O'Reilly Mac OS X Conference. A very entertaining read. This goes to show how powerful the G5 is and the potential it has.

2003-10-29T21:10:00.000-08:00

Tim O'Reilly talks about how the Mac is getting more and more connected. He takes iTunes as a perfect example. iTunes allows you to link to their music store, to your iPod and even to your local area network.

A real world example of this happening would be the students at Stanford University sharing their music legally.

2003-10-29T21:02:00.000-08:00

Some poor temp worker posted some pictures of Microsoft receiving some Power Mac G5s on his personal blog and got sacked shortly thereafter.

Although out of a job now, he's been getting a lot of attention even from many websites like Metafilter, The Register, and Slashdot, and of all people even MSNBC interviewed him.

2003-10-28T18:38:00.000-08:00

Oon Yeoh will be holding a 'meet-the-author- session at MPH Mid Valley this Sunday (November 2) between 3-4pm for his new book "Transition". If you are free, do drop by.

Details of Oon's book can be found on his Transition book website.

2003-10-27T23:34:00.000-08:00

Azul has posted some great pics of the "Night of the Panther" launch at the Great Eastern AppleCentre. Check it out here.

2003-10-26T22:14:00.000-08:00

In the latest issue of Fortune magazine there is an interesting interview with Bill Joy, the "Edison of the Net", and ex-Sun technology architect. Here is an excerpt from the interview with the reference to Apple and Microsoft:

Is it really fair to blame Microsoft for so many of the Net's woes?
The problem with Windows isn't so much that it's insecure, but that it is stale. The company has flailed away, making changes mainly to protect its monopoly. So lately, instead of getting better with each new release, Windows is just getting different.

Also, Windows isn't well architected. There's a simple way to find out if an operating system has been well designed. When you get an error message, go to the help system and look up the exact words in that message to see if there was enough of a concept of an architecture that they have a consistent vocabulary to talk about what's broken.

All you have to do is try it on a Mac and on a PC to see the difference. Apple took the time to come up with a concise vocabulary, but in Windows the designers of the help system used different terminology from the programmers. That reflects a lack of design discipline, which means that as the system grows, so does the ambiguity of the software itself. The result is a system encrusted with multiple layers of things that weren't really designed in so much as bolted on. Plus there are inessential artifacts of DOS from 20 years ago that still peek through and make trouble.

Now Microsoft's working on a new version of Windows called Longhorn. But there are so many people working on it that it can't be conceptually simple. Bill Gates is a very smart person and is very dedicated, but you can't change the fact that it is human nature for people to carve up a problem and try to own things, for the complexity to accrete in corners, and for the vocabulary of the project not to make it all the way across.

2003-10-24T03:00:00.000-07:00

A friend of mine, Oon Yeoh, has just released a book on technology called "Transition: Making Sense of the Digital Age". In a nutshell, this is how he describes his book from his Digerati blog:

"The digital revolution can make the old ways of doing things obsolete. But it also represents an exciting opportunity for those who know how to harness it. This is something Transition attempts to illustrate."

"Transition examines the digital age in the context of Technology, Issues, New Media and Concepts. In it, I discuss the technological underpinnings of each topic, but also touch on the business models that will make it work, as well as the economic, political and social implications. The book is modular by design, meaning that the four clusters can be read independently, as can each of the 20 chapters. This is ideal for those who may not have the patience to read the whole book, but are interested in a few select topics."

Some of you may know of his work. He writes a tech column for the weekly business paper, "The Edge" and has also just started a digital gadgets column every Monday in the Sun newspaper.

It's an excellent book for anyone who wants to understand more about the technology that permeates throughout our society. He covers the gauntlet of it, like wireless, P2P, broadband, internet censorship, online relationships, streaming video, etc. It's written for the layman so it's not too techie at all. Highly recommended.

2003-10-23T22:20:00.000-07:00

Check out this very cool shareware program called 'Konfabulator'. It allows you to run widgets that are placed on your desktop. These widgets show you anything from the weather around the world, to playing Tetris or even a countdown timer to the Panther launch. There are over 400 widgets to choose from in fact. They look very cool on your OS X desktop because they make good use of transparency.

2003-10-23T22:14:00.000-07:00

The G5 supercomputer cluster being built at Virginia Tech is almost ready with some preliminary benchmarks already out. According to this Cnet article, it posted a result of 8.1 teraflops, but the final figure should be still be significantly higher with more optimization. At 8.1 teraflops, it is still only at 48 percent of the systems theoretical peak of 16.8 teraflops. After the official figures are out from top500.org, the G5 cluster should be placed at number three or four. Not bad for a super computer that costs only US$5 million versus the other which cost tens of millions or hundreds of millions.

2003-10-23T22:06:00.000-07:00

Walter also reviewed all the major music apps (iTunes, MusicMatch, and Napster 2) and iTunes came out tops, of course.

2003-10-23T22:02:00.000-07:00

Walter Mossberg of the Wall Street Journal writes on why he feels the Mac is the best choice over Windows especially if viruses are a major concern for you. He also interviewd on CNBC last night which i failed to catch.

"For consumers and small businesses, the burden of using Microsoft Windows just keeps getting heavier. After growing easier to use for several years, Windows PCs have taken a giant step backward because they are so insecure," "Windows is riddled with security flaws, and new ones turn up regularly. It is increasingly susceptible to all kinds of viruses, malicious Trojan horse programs and spyware. As a result, Windows users have been forced to spend more of their time and money supporting their computers."

2003-10-15T21:46:00.000-07:00

In case you missed our window popup when you visit our homepage, there will be a Mac OS 10.3 aka Panther launch party at AppleCentre Great Eastern Mall on the 24th October 2003 at 8 pm. Great door gifts, free Panther T-shirt for every purchase of Mac OS 10.3 (whilst stocks last!) and more await you.Bring the whole family along and celebrate the launch and Deepavali with us !

2003-10-10T03:02:00.000-07:00

Right here. Right now.. Mac OS 10.3 aka Panther is now cruising steadily to its final port of call on 24th October 2003 bringing along cargoes of new features.There will be launching ceremonies at all AppleCentres in Malaysia. More details coming up ! Meanwhile, start drooling over these babies here.

2003-10-09T03:55:00.000-07:00

I finally have what I wanted with my Sony Ericsson P800. Apple has just released iSync 1.2.1 and iCal 1.5.2. What this means is that you can now synchronise all your PIM (contacts and calendar) data between your Symbian mobile phone (like the P800) and your Mac (running Mac OS 10.2.8.)

I just installed the software yesterday on my brand new PowerBook 15" and everything works fine. No complaints.

2003-10-09T03:45:00.000-07:00

Apple has the announcement posted all over their website, but anyway, in case you are not aware, the launch date for Mac OS 10.3, is on October 24. You should be able to find them in the local AppleCentres on the day itself.

2003-09-30T23:59:00.000-07:00

Panther (Mac OS 10.3) is coming up fast and furious with scintillating features. The latest being the new features in the DVD player which includes S/PDIF Output (translate to cool sound quality!), closed captioning, multiple displays etc. Check out screenshots and review here.

This weblog entry was posted with Frequency by Brad Rhine.

2003-09-26T04:40:00.000-07:00

Ease of use and maintenance is an understatement for Mac computers. I guessed these guys from Tokyo University found that out..with plans to switch their Linux PCs to Macs including servers and incidentally,it will be Apple Japan biggest educational order to date! Check the news out at Asahi site (that's if you can read Japanese.. )

2003-09-23T23:41:00.000-07:00

Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the world wide web is in fact a Mac user. He recently lectured at the Royal Society in London using a PowerBook and Safari. Read more about it here. You can also view Tim Berners-Lee's lecture here if you have RealPlayer.

2003-09-22T22:29:00.000-07:00

Things are taking shape for the soon-to-be-formed Malaysia Macintosh Users Group. There will be a meeting to set up a Proterm commitee to oversee the setting up of the MUG and registering it as a society. Details are as follows :

Date : Saturday 4th October 2003
Place : AppleCentre at Great Eastern Mall
Time : 2.00 pm

Everyone is invited.

2003-09-22T01:32:00.000-07:00

Virginia Tech has chosen Apple's G5s as their choice for a clustered super computer. Apple beat some other big names to the deal, including IBM, Sun, HP, and Dell. Apple won out on cost performance. According to BusinessWeek, the cost of setting up a supercomputer cluster using G5's is very modest coming in at only US$5.2. It would have cost a lot more with say something from Sun, HP or IBM.

And if you want to check out what part of 1,100 G5s put together looks like, check this out.

To learn more about VT's "Terascale Cluster", click here.

2003-09-17T01:15:00.000-07:00

I have been waiting a long time for the PowerBook 15". I hope to get mine when it comes out later on this month, having sold the PowerMac G4 I had at home already

2003-09-08T20:53:00.000-07:00

Another example of a Windows user trying out Mac OS X and loving it. This time it's a column by Chad Dickerson from InfoWorld.As you may know Infoworld is a no nonsense IT publication so it's a pretty big deal when the CTO of the magazine writes something so positive about the Mac. Formerly an Apple basher, he switched to his three year old Mac when the hard drive on his Dell crashed.

"I used the Mac running OS X to replace a PC client and Linux server; the level of functionality was raised; and I did more with less. All the GNU and Unix tools I’ve used for years were right there in OS X: ps (process status), rsync, top, SSH (secure shell), Apache, Samba, and various Unix shells. I was able to access Windows file systems, and I easily shared Mac files to the Windows machine on my network via Samba, the open source file-sharing stalwart. I hardly struggled even for a second."

In this case, it's the sheer interoperability of the Mac that sold him.

2003-09-03T02:15:00.000-07:00

It's landed. We are getting our first units tomorrow at the AppleCentre, Great Eastern Mall. It's only the 1.6GHz model, but it's better than nothing. There will be one on display throughout the whole weekend.

2003-09-01T23:02:00.000-07:00

Latest update: G5 single processors are due to come in sometime next week. Dual G5 PowerMac still due in end of the month.

2003-08-28T20:47:00.000-07:00

Here's a very good article on why Mac OS X is almost never infected by viruses and worms. And before you assume that it's because the Mac only commands 5% of marketshare and thus crackers would only go for the predominant 95%, well, that's only just a small part of the story.

2003-08-23T02:20:00.000-07:00

The Wall Street Journal, The Mercury News, among others, are writing about the immunity of the Mac platform to the recent spate of viruses such as the Blaster worm. Walt Mossberg writes:

"...if you are tired of all the patches and of worrying about viruses, switching to a Mac could bring you great relief. You will be able to read and hear all the stories about Windows viruses without worrying that they will affect your computer. Even if you receive an e-mail containing a Windows virus, it can't harm you. "

Of course, virus attacks are at the least a nuisance and more seriously, it could mean the loss of business. Nevertheless, it is dawning on some Windows users that getting Macs could help isolate them from these attacks. Recently, an IT manager from a very well known securities firm in K.L. called and said he wanted to place an order for four iBooks because he had it up to here with virus attacks that had crippled his network. I can only hope that this will germinate and wake other IT managers up to the viability of the Mac platform.

2003-08-20T04:28:00.000-07:00

New Power Mac G5s are currently shipping from the warehouses as I type this. We should be seeing the 1.6GHz and 1.8GHz models in store sometime this week. However the much coveted dual 2GHz model is still about three weeks off. I'll post another blog the moment we put one on display.

2003-08-15T04:15:00.000-07:00

Good news! We may soon have an official Macintosh User Group for Malaysia. Previously, we had clubs such as MUM (Macintosh Users of Malaysia) but those were not official. We hope to get Apple's official support for this MUG. They hope to have regualr activities lined up for members.

In the meantime, there are a few polls at the Yahoo! group 'imacuser'. Head on over there to vote on the official user group name and domain name.

We are also having the inaugural MUG meeting at the AppleCentre in Great Eastern Mall on 23 August at 4pm. Hope you can make it.

2003-08-15T02:52:00.000-07:00

Every now and again we have some rumors or some writers suggesting that Apple should merge with some other company. In the past it has been with Sun, Oracle, and even Disney. Wired has this essay on why the writer thinks that merging with Sony wouldn't be such a bad idea. After all, Steve Jobs admires Sony and did hold talks with Nobuyuki Idei at one point in time. And with Sony bleeding money, they need a fresh direction.

An excerpt from the Wired essay:

"A deal with the Disney of consumer electronics would give Apple access to a distribution network that Jobs and Apple fanatics can only dream about. World domination, or at least a shot at double-digit market share, would be within reach. Sony would gain an edge on its margin-scraping competitors, the fruits of Apple's creative hothouse, and a devoted customer base in influential sectors like publishing and advertising. Not to mention that a deal with Apple could provide leverage against Microsoft's unrelenting attempts to make Sony one more manufacturing lackey."

2003-08-12T19:28:00.000-07:00

BusinessWeek has some interesting articles about Apple and the direction it's headed.

This report has been online for sometime now, but here it is anyway if you've missed it.

2003-08-11T20:39:00.000-07:00

I found this pretty good comparison of the three most popular desktop operating systems, namely, Windows XP, Mac OS X, and Linux. It looks to be objective enough and also, easy enough for most lay people to understand.

2003-08-11T20:26:00.000-07:00

Looks like we may see OS X Panther earlier than expected. According to Microsoft Watch, we may be looking at a release date of end September. All along, Apple has said the release would be by the end of the year.

2003-08-07T09:29:00.000-07:00

I got a few e-mails from some readers about what they thought about the new Apple ads on NTV7. I think the general response has been fairly spread out.

Nathan felt that it would have been better to emphasize more on the ease of the use and the coolness factor rather than showing us the iLife apps.

"Bring on the switch ads! I mean, when I look at it, I'm like, I already have a PC, I don't need a Mac or an iPod for that matter.

I think Apple should emphasize on the ease of usage + coolness. Not whats-her-name vaguely showing us how to use iTunes and her iPod.

Switch ads and the conventional hardware ads (say the iBook and eMac ad), I think, will be more effective."

Another reader, Azizi had this to say, "I think it was clear, concise and informative. However, it did lack a definite "call to action" - so it is difficult to have a quantitative measure of success for the ad."

There has been a general consensus though. The image at the end of the ad is just too short. Perhaps listing three AppleCentre phone numbers in one go is too brief. I agree with most of the feedback that there should have been just one e-mail address, URL or phone number to contact.

2003-08-04T22:23:00.000-07:00

Anyone want to join an official Mac Users Group (MUG) for Malaysia? Hisham is leading the movement to setup one. Here is his description of a MUG:

"Basically, the idea of a MUG is to cater for newbies or maniacs alike. It should be a club that's not dominated by a certain group with certain knowledge but members that provide the directions, information sharing and just having fun."

There will be an informal online meeting on Friday, 8th August on Yahoo! Chat Group 'Malaysia MUG'. This main agenda will be to discuss the formation of the first official Malaysia MUG.For more information you can e-mail Hisham.

Read more about Apple User Groups here.

2003-08-03T03:25:00.000-07:00

Ever wanted to collaborate with colleauges in the office or over the internet from your Mac? Hydra allows you to do just that. (Plus it's freeware!) It was developed by programmers for programmers but can just as easily be used for normal text editing. Think of it as a real time version of Microsoft's Word tracking feature coupled with something like NetMeeting or iChat. The possibilities are vast. Imagine holding a meeting to brainstorm over an idea or document, where each participant is able to make changes on the fly.

It utilizes Rendezvous so when you launch Hydra, it automatically recognizes other Hydra users. If you want to collaborate over the Internet, you need a static IP address. You can also read more about it from this Seattle Time article here. In the writer's example, he was able to collaborate with his colleauge using audio over iChat and Hydra to edit the outline of a book they were working on.

2003-08-01T04:13:00.000-07:00

I believe the Apple ads on NTV 7 are finally out. Check them out during the prime time slots. If you cannot get NTV 7 for any reason, we will be posting them on our website shortly. I am very interested to find out what you think of them. Most importantly, what do your Windows using friends and family think of them?

2003-08-01T04:10:00.000-07:00

Very sorry with the lack of updates recently. There has been a flurry of activities this week with the FCP4 and Shake 3 launch, plus this weekend's PC Fair. I hope to continue with more regular updates next week.

2003-07-27T05:28:00.000-07:00

I just picked up a Mac magazine called "MacDirectory". It's not your run-of-the-mill computer magazine. Think of it as a cross between MacWorld and Wallpaper*. It's very lifestyle orientated. On the previous issue's cover they featured Sarah Jessica Parker, from Sex and the City. In the current issue, they feature U.S. former vice president Al Gore. If you didn't know, Al Gore is currently serving on Apple's board of directors.

The layout and format of the magazine is very 'not-geeky', yet engaging enough to read. I used to pick up a copy of MacWorld every month until about a year ago because I found it lacked enough content for the price. MacDirectory however is a pleasure to look at, plus it only comes out every quarter. It's priced at RM45.00.

2003-07-23T08:54:00.000-07:00

I got some good feedback as to what Apple Malaysia can do to increase awareness of the Mac platform here. Lau from Sarawak highlights some of the longstanding myths.

"From my own survey, I found out many people here still assume Macs are very expensive and only meant for professionals. But that is not true, as I found out recently the price is only a little bit higher than a branded PC like Acer, Compaq, and even Dell."

He also points out about the myth of incompatibility:

"Added to that, they thought that Macs were totally incompatible with Windows, especially in word processing. Files saved in Mac cannot be opened in Windows. Of course with certain limitations, but with Office X, that should solve the problem."

He goes on to add that one of the first things Apple should do would be to educate the public about the affordable pricing and compatibility with the Windows platform. Lau also concluded that an outright switch from the PC is unlikely and the emphasis would be to make the Mac as a compliment to their existing PCs.

I get to talk with many Windows people who walk into the AppleCentre and it is true. A majority of them cite the same points over and over again. What do you think? Should Apple Malaysia run ads dispelling these myths? If you were a PC user and you saw these ads, would it prompt you to think, "Hey, I didn't know that, maybe I should check out these Macs I've been hearing about?"

Hisham from Johor Bahru believes in starting them young:

"I'm a firm believer of nurture and cultivate from young. I came from Singapore where I think there has been lots of initiatives to introduce Apple computers to schools just like they did in US and to a certain extent it has been very successful considering how small Singapore market is. In fact that's how I get my 2 and 4 year old to learn how to use computers."

Good news is that Apple Malaysia is working hard to penetrate the education market. There is a big initiative in progress and hopefully we will get to see some results sometime next year.

2003-07-22T00:10:00.000-07:00

For fans of Kazaa's P2P network, and if you are not satisfied with Limewire, check out this Kazaa client from Abyssoft called mlMac.

I have been using it for a day and seems pretty good. It is faster than Limewire plus it uses all the proper OS X interface design guidelines (it even uses the brushed aluminium look like most of Apple's new software coming out these days.)

2003-07-21T19:55:00.000-07:00

If you are looking for a user group for Mac users in Malaysia, check out the "iMac User" Yahoo! group.

2003-07-21T02:16:00.000-07:00

Apparently the Switch campaign hasn't quite worked in the U.S. Even here in Malaysia, whatever through advertising or roadshows, have not made a dent in the marketshare for PCs. Nevertheless, the number of Switchers we sell to amount to about 30%. I think there has to be a fundamental rethink to reach out to the Windows users out there. I think most of you who read this would have seen some of Apple's ads in the papers. Do they work? If not, what do you think needs to be done in Malaysia?

David Coursey (as switcher himself) is a supporter of having Mac OS X on Intel, in a limited way. According to him, there are many Windows users out there who would love to try out and use Mac OS X, but would never buy a non-Intel box. Are you one of those, or know of anyone like that?

Email me for any feedback and I will incoporate it into my next blog.

2003-07-17T22:24:00.000-07:00

Apple has posted their financial results for the previous quarter. Although profits were relatively slim at US$19 million, the revenue has been the highest for three years.

What's even more impressive is that Apple shipped 304,000 units of iPods, nearly four times as many from the previous quarter. You can expect to see more marketing activities in Malaysia for iPods.

2003-07-17T06:20:00.000-07:00

Apple has finally done it.

They are finally offering a competitive upgrade for Adobe Premiere users to Final Cut Express or Final Cut Pro. There are many Premiere uses out there who use it for their multimedia and video editing projects. Although it is a good tool, Final Cut Pro and even Final Cut Express have far exceeded Premiere's feature set. I mean Final Cut Pro 4 is firmly into Avid's market now, the traditional king of the film/video editing market.

Adobe as you may know has dropped developing Premiere for the Mac.

When I was studying at the Brooks Institute of Photography, my final project was shot in 16mm film and edited on Adobe Premiere 4.2. I put together a video editing system based on a Power Mac 8100, and a Radius VideoVision card with a SCSI RAID. At that time non-linear editing was just starting to take off. Premiere served me well and now I wonder at the possibilities if I had Final Cut Pro.

2003-07-14T21:47:00.000-07:00

Hot on the heels of it's successful iTunes Music Store launch, Apple may start to sell movies online too according to this Bloomberg report. This kinda makes sense since Apple is heavily into professional post production tools like Final Cut Pro, Shake and LogicAudio. And of course, Steve Jobs other company, Pixar, is an animation studio.

2003-07-12T19:19:00.000-07:00

There have been mostly glowing reviews of Apple's iChat AV and iSight. In addition to the article from BusinessWeek which I posted earlier, there are also ones from Fortune and Popular Mechanics.

There is also one mixed review from another author at Fortune.

2003-07-12T18:57:00.000-07:00

If you are or knows anyone who is very talented in digital design and imaging, please write to Poesy. She is looking for Malaysian talents to give them recognition on par with global standards. This is what she had to say:

" The plan is to have quarterly showcases - like an art exhibition. Rest assured, the support behind this project are leaders in the industry. I want to meet everybody's work, however simple, as long as it portrays an individual character or talent. I know there are people out there who have done great stuff for their school projects or personal interest - whatever age. Flash artists, web designers, etcetera. Bright gimmicks like mouse-trailers, screensavers, moving icons, flash cartoons, dreamy stuff, digital designs, interactive fonts, anything. Examples at foreign sites listed below."

http://www.trevorvanmeter.com/flyguy/
http://www.demian5.com/
http://www.vectorize.de/
http://www.librium.no/
http://www.linkdup.com/

2003-07-10T03:30:00.000-07:00

Came across this article from BusinessWeek. It talks about how iChat can change wht way we use our phones. I think that most people who have broadband connections at work or at home will be using some sort of IM client, whether it is Yahoo!, MSN, ICQ or iChat.

I was talking with a friend the other day who said he would purchase a Mac and iSight for their Penang office so that they can have free, instant face to face conversations with thier KL HQ. Where iChat and iSight picks up off from PC's running something like NetMeeting is of course the quality and ease of use.

BTW, if you use various IM clients, there is one app that you simply cannot ignore. It's called Proteus. It is a full on Mac OS X app and it work great.

2003-07-05T06:39:00.000-07:00

To get a feel of how Macs, especially Macs with Mac OS X, are free from viruses, check out this article from MacUser UK.

"the most commonly reported Mac virus accounted for just 0.16 per cent of recorded infections and at number 78 in Sophos' chart of top viruses. "

I just ran Norton AntiVirus on my Mac the other day, and I have been using it since installing OS X on it about a 1 year ago. It has also been connected to Streamyx 24/7. Result? 0 viruses found. If you had a virus attack on OS X, let me know.

2003-07-01T23:32:00.000-07:00

For all you digital video and digital video/film production enthusiasts and professionals out there, we have this new website, 'myfinalcut.org'.Content by Malaysian professionals for Malaysian professionals. The site includes news, product reviews, event schedules, tutorials and a forum.

If you have visited other U.S. sites such as 2-pop and Creative Cow, this will look familiar to you. It's going to be launched tomorrow at the Final Cut Pro 4 launch at the National Art Gallery. Registration is free.

2003-06-27T03:49:00.000-07:00

Someone attended the recent WWDC and ran some tests with a Dual 2GHz PowerMac G5. He used After Effects which is an extremely processor intensive applications for video compositing. Please note that the test was not a comprehensive one. It was a rendering of the first 10 frames.

Nevertheless, AE has not yet even been optimized for the G5 and the machine was still running 32bit Jaguar as opposed to Panther which will take full advantage of the 64bit G5. Mouth-watering?

1 x 1.0 GHz G4 PowerBook 17" - ~30 minutes (3 min/frame)
2 x 2.66 GHz Pentium Xeon from Box - 11 min, 39 sec (1.2 min/frame)
2 x 2.0 GHz PowerMac G5 - 6 min, 1 sec (0.6 min/frame)

For all you multimedia folks out there, this will mean drastically shorter coffee breaks.

2003-06-26T03:50:00.000-07:00

There have been some reservations over whether the PowerMac G5 really is as fast as Apple claims it is. However there are also others who believe that the results are accurate and VeriTest, the contract tester hired by Apple, actually chose settings to improve the Dell scores which was used in the comparison.

But all these benchmark tests have always been notoriously unreliable. The fact remains that the PowerMac G4 uses one of IBM's fastest chips, coupled with the impressive new architecture will result in a superfast computer by any measure of standard when we get to see it this August.

2003-06-24T01:38:00.000-07:00

New PowerMac G5s.

New firewire webcam called iSight and an enhanced iChat AV to go with it.

Panther , the sucessor to Mac OS 10.2 is also officially announced.

Great stuff, but when do we see them? According to my order with Apple which I placed this morning, we can expect to see the iSight in Malaysia on the second week of July.

The PowerMac G5 will be here around the fourth week of July.

I haven't got the prices for these products yet but you can expect to pay the equivalent U.S. price and add about RM200 or so.

2003-06-17T01:03:00.000-07:00

We've all read about the Segway. You know, the little upright electronic scooter designed by Dean Kamen. It was supposed to revolutionise the way we transported ourselves. Before it was launched, it was code named 'Ginger' and there was massive speculation going around as what it could be. Some thought it was a hovercraft with anti-gravity propulsion even!

There is an interesting excerpt taken from the book Code Name Ginger on the HBS Working Knowledge website about how Steve Jobs and Jeff Bezos of Amazon got together in a meeting to brainstorm on how to market the Segway.

You'll get to sample some of Jobs' explosive temperament. After you read this, you'll come to appreciate how Apple comes out with its' hit products. Having a fire-breathing perfectionist behind your ass all day kinda helps.

2003-06-14T02:17:00.000-07:00

Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.

R.I.P.

This is the last version of Explorer you will see on the Mac. All the better in my view. There are so many other better browsers out there, and it seems like Micrsoft have languished in their browser development anyway, after demolishing Netscape. We now have browers like Apples' Safari which I use all the time now. I used to use Camino which is very good too. Both are fast, and you will see the difference when you compare them with Explorer, especially if you are on a broadband connection like Streamyx.

But to use these browsers, you must be using Mac OS X. So I would like to say now:

Upgrade to OS X if you have not already done so!

It's the best thing you can ever do if you have a G3 or higher Mac. Trust me.

2003-06-13T03:18:00.000-07:00

Surely, one of the more anticipated software for OS X is Quark Xpress. What should have been released with version 5 of Xpress is going to be available soon. It's a big enough deal for Apple to feature it on their main page. Layout artists the world over have been waiting for this moment. A quick call to the Quark distributors revealed that we may not see it so soon in Malaysia. Maybe not for another few months.

2003-06-09T22:31:00.000-07:00

Sometimes I get people asking me what software we use for invoicing and sales at the AppleCentre. We use MYOB Account Edge. It does all our inventory, invoicing, financials and on the top of it all, it's OS X compatible. if you don't carry inventory, you can opt for the cheaper FirstEdge package. The problem is that the local MYOB guys don't carry it so you will have to place an online order through the US. I know a few people who use Excel for invoicing, inventory, and financial analysis, but MYOB does really make things a lot simpler. You can also check out QuickBooks from Intuit who recently came out with a Mac OS X version after a long hiatus from the Mac.