Posts Tagged ‘Mac’

Consumer Electronics Show 2012

In: Technology

By: Steve Stanfill on Jan 17, 2012 at 5:19 pm

As I write this, the CES 2012 show is in full swing in Las Vegas.  My other duties have precluded my attending this year, but there are a number of technologies that are “up and coming” that might be of interest to our readership:

Gesture and Voice control of Electronic Devices–This seems to be a wave (ahem) of the future.  Samsung showed off a gorgeous TV that used gesture and voice control rather than the conventional remote.  Microsoft Kinect for Windows seems to be gaining some traction as well.  Apple is rumored to be developing a television with a “Siri-like” interface.  All of this actually makes sense.  If we can talk to our cars and our smartphones, it’s just a matter of time before this technology is commoditized to other devices as well.  I will give my personal “tech editor” award to the first company that makes a voice command driven remote that will translate to IR/RF and with older home theatre components.  Now that would be a “universal” remote!  And you wouldn’t have to search for the “light” button!

OLED Televisions–”Organic Light Emitting Diode” sets debuted in several booths this year.  This display technology is very power efficient and allows the design of very thin displays.  This technology has been used in smartphones and tablets for a number of years, and has found its way into the design of large displays.  In theory, display panels could be manufactured less than 1/4″ thick-certainly a conversation piece in anyone’s living room.  I question the practical advantages of such a thin display, in terms of shipping, set up, connectorization, etc.  There are no inherent quality advantages of OLED over currently available technologies, but that said, my sense is that we will see more of this technology in larger displays as manufacturing/logistical challenges are conquered.

Thunderbolt–The Intel “Thunderbolt” connectivity standard appears to be gaining mainstream acceptance.  Thunderbolt boasts incredibly fast data transfer rates, as well as the ability to connect multiple devices with different functions; i.e. an external disc drive and a display monitor in the same I/O port, for example.  Throughput is over 20 times faster than USB 2.0.  Apple’s new laptop line has had Thunderbolt connectivity for a while now, but peripherals and Wintel computers hosting the standard were pretty scarce.  Acer has embraced the standard with its new Aspire Ultrabook computer and both Seagate and Western Digital showed new external drives with the standard embedded. This particular technology becoming more ubiquitous  is a good thing IMHO as this is  a really, really good technology–very user friendly and highly capable.

A couple of notable points–3DTV was not generating the buzz that it did last year, although Samsung and LG, among others, still seem to be committed to the technology.  Most set companies appear to be pushing internet apps into their more mainstream (read: “cheaper”) televisions.  The show was again awash in tablets, just as it was last year.  But market penetration numbers have not changed much.

A great time to be alive, if you’re a gadget guy!

Until next time…

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Farewell Mr. Jobs

In: Technology

By: Steve Stanfill on Oct 18, 2011 at 3:59 pm

It’s been a bit over two weeks since my last post, and a lot has happened in the industry. We saw the passing of the iconic CEO of Apple Computer, Mr. Steve Jobs.  Some would say that key executives come and go in and out of the limelight, and while that’s true, few would argue that Steve was simply a “key executive”.

My impression of him was that he was a complex man, with significant strengths and weaknesses like the rest of us.  Without a doubt, though he was passionate about the company that he created, and passionate about the customer experience.  Did he always do everything right?  Don’t think so, and if he were around he’d likely freely admit that.  But I have to say that I admired his passion.  Even the people whom he routinely offended had to admire his passion.

The company that he created built products that have always appealed to me–their elegance, and even more important, their “creation philosophy”, though I have to say that sometimes the execution fell short.  But the idea of digital tools that would do stuff intuitively and allow one to do things never done before was what Apple was all about.

I began working for a small telephone switch manufacturing company based in the Rocky Mountains in 1983 as Director of Customer Service.  I had a staff of three people, who were chartered with documentation, customer education (technical and operational), switch installation and maintenance, software configuration and control, and other tasks required to maintain a loyal customer base.  Our customers were some of the early pioneers in the interexchange carrier business–those companies competed with ATT to provide long distance services at discounted rates.  A number of these companies are still in business, though morphed significantly as the business has changed.

We began our efforts in documentation on a simple text editor associated with the OS we were using at the time.  To say it was basic was being generous–a single monospaced font, left hand justification only, fixed tab lengths–no enhanced features of any kind.  Illustrations were (literally) a cut and paste into a blank spot left in the text.

Along came Apple’s Lisa.  Proportional spaced fonts, real word processing and page layout functions, and an intuitive GUI that made everything happen.  Just slower than cold tar.  But we loved it, because the finished product looked professional, and Lisa allowed us to update information in that fast paced environment without breaking the bank in printing costs, which other high tech companies struggled with at the time.  I knew then that we were on the verge of something special.

When the “Fat Mac” came out (512K of ram memory, hence “fat” when compared to the 128K common in the computers of the time), I bought one of those for my personal use. In retrospect, it probably would have been a good thing to have invested that money in the company instead ;)

Will Apple be alright without Jobs?  Sure.  Steve surrounded himself with good, capable people, and those who worked closely with him admired and emulated his strengths. In the years Apple has been in business, it has created a culture of creativity and customer focus which, if adhered to, will serve the company and its customers well into the future.  Not even John Scully could completely stamp out that seed.

Until next time….

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Apple’s iPad 2

In: Blog, Technology

By: Steve Stanfill on Apr 06, 2011 at 8:47 am

it seems like we’ve had lots to talk about lately–earthquakes in Japan and the WOW! digital transition.  In the meantime, the best selling tablet in the world just “upped the ante”.  Apple released the iPad 2 on March 11th, and it has been such a hit that supply has not kept up with demand.  Yet Apple has released the product this week in 25 other countries.  Go figure.

The improvements to the device are evolutionary rather than revolutionary.  It’s faster, sleeker, slightly lighter, but is fundamentally the same device we’ve all come to appreciate.  The hi resolution screen is still beautiful, still responsive to the touch.  It still is a great way to view personal video from Netflix or the Apple Store.  Still a great way to read an e-book.

Apple claims that the processor (dual core A5) in the new iPad 2 is more than twice as fast as the older architecture.  It also has cameras, front and back, like the iPhone.  My sole disappointment in the new design is that the cameras seem to be less than they could have been, and certainly less than the hardware in the iPhone 4.  The front camera, for example, is only VGA quality–a surprise since I can’t imagine a material difference in cost between the front and rear cameras.  Although Apple has made available “dumbed down” versions of iMovie and Garage Band for in situ editing, sound track creation and uploading, which is a nice touch.

Was the upgrade worth a new product intro?  I can’t answer that for Apple, but they seem determined to stay on top of this particular market segment, and I applaud their efforts here.  We are presently a single iPad household, and probably will stay that way for a time.  Although if my wife continues to be so possessive….

Until next time…

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A New MacBook Air, Pt. Two

In: Technology

By: Steve Stanfill on Nov 10, 2010 at 8:29 am

Last week we discussed the original MacBook Air (MBA) as an engineering exercise and the extrapolation of technologies from that original design.  As a value proposition, the original MBA didn’t make the grade according to most pundits.  I never owned one, so have little reason to argue.  It is clear though that technologies and ideas introduced in that original product have had a clear impact on subsequent designs, discussed last week.  Enter the MBA–second generation!

The new MacBook Air betters the original in almost every particular–as it should.  Apple chose to implement significant learnings from the original MBA and the recently introduced iPad:

1)  The new MBA will respond to  all ten “special” commands on its oversized trackpad that can be used on the iPad and iPhone, including two-finger scroll, pinch open and close, rotate, right click, 3 finger swipes, etc.

2)  Built in, high capacity batteries–Apple claims a 5 hour time for the 11 inch model and 7 hours for the 13 inch model, with 30 days of standby time possible.

3)  Full flash memory architecture, getting rid of any spinning hard disk drive with its performance, weight, and power consumption penalties.

4)  Nvidia GeForce 320M chipset for graphics (the same as the basic “on board” chipset in the MacBook Pro line–the only difference being that one can add additional graphics “oomph” to the MacBook Pro) for much better graphics capability than the original MBA.

5) Full iLife software suite that comes with any other Mac–iTunes, iPhoto, Garageband, and iMovie.  Capable programs for digital creation of media–head and shoulders over bundled software from other netbook manufacturers.

6)  Still a unibody aluminum chassis, machined out of solid blocks of the stuff.  This Mac has gone one better with the screen also being a machined unibody piece.  The result is an exceptionally solid machine that is light, but still can take it.

Based on tests run by a number of independent labs, the MBA II comes in at upper mid pack of the netbook world, but that doesn’t tell the whole story.  The Intel Core Duo found in the MBA II is essentially the same processor and clock rate that ran in the original, but subjectively (according to most users) has about twice the performance, probably due to architecture changes and dedicated on board graphics processing.  At all events, this architecture is miles and miles ahead of the Intel Atom processors found in most netbooks.  In the much pricier “ultraportable” catagory, the MBA II fell short compared with the Sony VAIO Z series and the Toshiba R700 in raw processing power.  Still, the aforementioned computers are far more expensive than the MBA, so that’s probably not a completely fair comparison. Better to compare those with the regular MacBook Pro line.

While not nearly as “ground breaking” from an engineering standpoint as the original MacBook Air, my sense is that the second generation will appeal to many more users with its increased performance and more modest pricing.  And, as a exercise in modern art, it doesn’t get much better than this in a mainline consumer product.

Until next time…

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A New MacBook Air Pt. One

In: Technology

By: Steve Stanfill on Nov 03, 2010 at 8:50 am

Once again, the folks of Cupertino have shouted paeans to portability by introducing the lightest, sleekest full fledged Mac ever.  This time, they may have got it right.

The first MacBook Air was a bold move away from “traditional” laptop thinking.  It had no optical drive, and I/O was largely accomplished by the built-in 802/11n networking capability.  It also broke ground on the idea of solid state data storage in a full laptop configuration rather than electromechanical hard drive storage.  Although most MBA’s sold with conventional hard drive storage (the solid state option was fantastically expensive), the idea and execution of solid state storage was ahead of its time.

While beautiful, by most measures the 1st generation MacBook Air simply did not deliver as a performance/value proposition.  It took as step back in performance just as applications which were a particular match for a machine with this portability were requiring more “oomph”.  For example photographers needing an extremely portable laptop for on location work found that the graphics engine in the MBA was just too weak-kneed to be of use.

Apple did, however, gain valuable experience with this product that has impacted their entire product line ever since:

1)  The original MBA was the first Apple (and I believe the first computer of any type) to be constructed of a single billet of machined aluminum.  While an expensive process compared with the plastic and composite extrusions of other laptop manufacturers, the result was a light, but extremely robust, strong encasement for the delicate electronics of the computer.  It felt solid as a rock, with no flex even with rough use.  For the record, my pet peeve is to lift a laptop at its edge from a counter and both hear and feel flex in the case–even today, many more do that than not.  The case design was so successful that Apple adopted the manufacturing technique for all its MacBook Pro line, in addition to the redesigned MacBook (which became the 13″ MacBook Pro in subsequent iterations).

2)  The introduction of the solid state drive was groundbreaking and a shadow of things to come.  Apple saw immediately the advantages of solid state storage (faster performance, less power consumption, instant on, etc.), and has worked to reduce the cost of this technology in its products.  Even in stationary, ultra-high performance work stations like the MacPro, solid state drives are now an option.

3)  While there was a lot of press at the original MBA introduction about Apple’s radical approach to I/O (no optical drive), the fact is that being tethered to the world primarily by Wi-Fi worked better than most thought it would. Situations where you absolutely needed to transfer data faster or more securely could be done with USB flash drives that were inexpensive and reusable.  Apple takes this idea one step further in in the new MBA as there is no Firewire interface or wired ethernet interface, although there is an SD card slot on the 13″ model for data transfer.

4)  Non user replaceable batteries in a laptop were first vetted in the original MacBook Air.  Now that trend is well established in laptops, notebooks, smartphones, etc.  And you know what, it works pretty well.  Apple has a program to replace batteries in their laptops and other portable devices at prices competitive to discrete replacement batteries for similar devices manufactured by others.  Further, battery technology has evolved to the point that the longevity of the battery is comparable to other components in the design.

So, while the original MacBook Air may not have brought down the house, its cutting edge technologies are found in many new devices, including its successor.

Next week, we’ll actually discuss the new MBA!

Until next time….

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