RHFtech Help Desk (and more)

The Lifehacker survey results, as of now:

The total cost of a usable version will likely exceed $1,000

The Apple iPad is more sizzle than steak, based upon what I read and see on the Internet.

Do I want one? Yes, to play with for a few hours.

Do I want to own one? Probably not.

Should you buy one? Not yet. Not this year. Wait for the 3rd generation before buying one of these. It will likely have big improvements and hardware additions, like a camera, over the announced first generation models.

The cost of ownership is much higher than it seems. The total cost of a usable version will likely exceed $1,000, and probably $2,000 with the cost of a data plan. The $499 model has only 16GB of memory, which is insufficient in today’s media file and data intensive world. The 64GB model is $699 but you want the Wi-Fi + 3G model, which costs $829. A data plan from AT&T Wireless is extra. AppleCare prices were not announced. I expect the extended warranty to run at least $200. You need to buy a case. You need extra charging cables and perhaps an external battery, which cost $80-$100 for the iPhone. You may want one of the iPad Keyboard Docks (price unknown).

The apps we will want are not yet written and app pricing is unknown.

The bezel, the black area around the screen, is huge and makes the device look clunky to my eye.

The lack of a built-in stand or a camera makes this thing seem half-baked.

Based upon my experience with other battery-powered devices, the touted 10 hour battery life is probably over-stated. The question is, "By how much?" Book readers like the Kindle can go 2 weeks or more on a single charge. The battery life at 10 hours max, means we will be charging iPads all the time. Also, battery life for all devices declines over time. Since the iPad battery is hard to replace, Apple intends these devices to be disposable.

Why do we want this? What does it add to our technological life that is not as well or better served by other devices?

Caution is advised. Let someone else be the beta tester for Apple.

Oh dear I received the following message from Apple.

I won’t be renewing. MobileMe is not worth $10 per year, much less $100. IMO, Apple’s cloud efforts are many years behind the cloud leaders Google and Amazon. They also trail Microsoft by several years. Microsoft is doing a good job of catching up to Google but still has a long way to go.

Many people I know believe Apple makes the best computers and related hardware. They are surprised when I challenge their opinion. I think they formed these opinions based upon three sets of Apple products—iMacs, MacBook Pros, and iPhone/iPod Touch/iPod models. My opinion is based upon the complete Apple product line that incorporates products such as the Mac Pro, Xserve, Mac Mini, Apple TV, MacBook Air, AirPort hardware, storage products, and keyboard and mouse offerings.

I am agnostic when it comes to technology. I try to assess what I see and use on its face value. I am rarely swayed by flashy or shiny things. I try to judge on ease-of-use, how well the technology does what it purports to do, and the cost/value ratio.

Below are some quick thoughts that I hope amplify my position:

The iMac is the best all-in-one computer. There are Windows alternatives. None are as compelling.

MacBook Pros are very nice notebook computers. There are few comparable offerings in the Windows world. But there are many good Windows notebooks, often providing a better cost/value ratio than a MacBook Pro. This impression is due to Windows 7. Windows 7 changes the balance for the client operating system user interface/user experience (UI/UX), away from Apple’s OS X Leopard/Snow Leopard, to Microsoft. This happened once before when Microsoft released Windows 95 and leapfrogged the Apple UI/UX of the day.

The iPod Touch is in a category by itself. I have seen no other device that does as much as the Touch, does what it does as well as the Touch, or is priced as favorably.

The iPhone was in a category by itself but that is rapidly changing. The Motorola Droid offers many features that the iPhone does not and is quickly adding apps and functionality that leapfrog the iPhone/iTunes App store ecosystem. Peter Ha of Time Magazine recently named the Droid the best gadget for 2009. There are other new or soon-to-be-released smartphones that challenge the iPhone’s hegemony.

The Mac Pro is a beautiful tower computer. It is extravagantly over-priced. There are many Windows alternatives that provide comparable hardware at a fraction of the cost. The primary reason I see to buy the Mac Pro over a comparable Windows tower is because you want to use Final Cut Studio, Apple’s $1,000 video editing program, to edit lots of video recordings.

Xserve is an expensive, not-so-special, pizza-box-shaped server. Linux, Unix, and Windows servers generally provide better functionality and features at much lower cost.

The Mac Mini is useful but monitor, keyboard and mouse are extra. It is not always the best-in-breed for media center devices and it makes a mediocre desktop computer. (I suggest buying an iMac if you need a Mac desktop computer.)  Window nettop boxes are coming to market soon that challenge the Mac Mini. We need to wait until January 2010 to assess what is best-in-breed in this form factor.

The Mac Mini has a younger, smaller sibling, the Apple TV. TiVo is far superior as an easy-to-use media device. Xbox and the SONY PlayStation PS3 provide media center functionality and add game playing and an optical drive (Blu-ray for the PS3), both of which are missing from Apple TV. Roku, Vudu and Popcorn provide lower-cost media center functionality. The Roku box, which I will be reviewing next week, costs much less, provides a simpler interface and is easier to use than an Apple TV.

I often recommend Apple computers and other Apple hardware to my clients because the device(s) best meet the clients’ needs. I often recommend non-Apple products because they better meet that client’s needs. As I said above, I’m agnostic.

I could go on surveying Apple’s remaining hardware, such as Airport networking devices, keyboards and mice but I won’t. My point is that Apple makes some good hardware, in some instances such as the iPod Touch or the iMac the best, but not always the best and often not very good, like the MacBook Air or Apple TV.

Many people I know believe Apple makes the best computers and related hardware. They are surprised when I challenge their opinion. I think they formed these opinions based upon three sets of Apple products—iMacs, MacBook Pros, and iPhone/iPod Touch/iPod models. My opinion is based upon the complete Apple product line that incorporates products such as the Mac Pro, Xserve, Mac Mini, Apple TV, MacBook Air, AirPort hardware, storage products, and keyboard and mouse offerings.

I am agnostic when it comes to technology. I try to assess what I see and use on its face value. I am rarely swayed by flashy or shiny things. I try to judge on ease-of-use, how well the technology does what it purports to do, and the cost/value ratio.

Below are some quick thoughts that I hope amplify my position:

The iMac is the best all-in-one computer. There are Windows alternatives. None are as compelling.

MacBook Pros are very nice notebook computers. There are few comparable offerings in the Windows world. But there are many good Windows notebooks, often providing a better cost/value ratio than a MacBook Pro. This impression is due to Windows 7. Windows 7 changes the balance for the client operating system user interface/user experience (UI/UX), away from Apple’s OS X Leopard/Snow Leopard, to Microsoft. This happened once before when Microsoft released Windows 95 and leapfrogged the Apple UI/UX of the day.

The iPod Touch is in a category by itself. I have seen no other device that does as much as the Touch, does what it does as well as the Touch, or is priced as favorably.

The iPhone was in a category by itself but that is rapidly changing. The Motorola Droid offers many features that the iPhone does not and is quickly adding apps and functionality that leapfrog the iPhone/iTunes App store ecosystem. Peter Ha of Time Magazine recently named the Droid the best gadget for 2009. There are other new or soon-to-be-released smartphones that challenge the iPhone’s hegemony.

The Mac Pro is a beautiful tower computer. It is extravagantly over-priced. There are many Windows alternatives that provide comparable hardware at a fraction of the cost. The primary reason I see to buy the Mac Pro over a comparable Windows tower is because you want to use Final Cut Studio, Apple’s $1,000 video editing program, to edit lots of video recordings.

Xserve is an expensive, not-so-special, pizza-box-shaped server. Linux, Unix, and Windows servers generally provide better functionality and features at much lower cost.

The Mac Mini is useful but keyboard and mouse are extra. Window nettop boxes are coming to market soon that challenge the Mac Mini. We need to wait until January 2010 to assess what is best-in-breed in this form factor.

The Mac Mini has a younger, smaller sibling, the Apple TV. It is not always the best-in-breed for media center devices and it makes a mediocre desktop computer. (I suggest buying an iMac if you need a Mac desktop computer.) TiVo is far superior as an easy-to-use media device. Xbox and the SONY PlayStation PS3 provide media center functionality and add game playing and an optical drive (Blu-ray for the PS3), both of which are missing from Apple TV. Roku, Vudu and Popcorn provide lower-cost media center functionality. The Roku box, which I will be reviewing next week, costs much less, provides a simpler interface and is easier to use than an Apple TV.

I often recommend Apple computers and other Apple hardware to my clients because the device(s) best meet the clients’ needs. I often recommend non-Apple products because they better meet that client’s needs. As I said above, I’m agnostic.

I could go on surveying Apple’s remaining hardware, such as Airport networking devices, keyboards and mice but I won’t. My point is that Apple makes some good hardware, in some instances such as the iPod Touch or the iMac the best, but not always the best and often not very good, like the MacBook Air or Apple TV.

We were having a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner that couldn’t be beat. Our guests mentioned that the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in NYC had a great Tim Burton show. They remarked on his wonderful drawings and figures. I mentioned that Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas was one of my favorite movies. They said they had never seen it. I volunteered that I had the DVD and we could watch it after dinner.

I searched for the DVD while everyone else ate dessert. I could not find it. I checked the spreadsheet that I used to maintain my catalog when I bought optical media—CDs and DVDs. It turned out that although we had owned the VHS tape of The Nightmare Before Christmas, I never bought the DVD version. I had confused the soundtrack CD, which I have, with the DVD.

I thought, “No problem. We will rent it from Amazon Video on Demand and I will play it for the family and guests on the home theater PC (HTPC) hooked up to the home theater system.” Unfortunately, The Nightmare Before Christmas is a Disney title and not available either to rent or buy as a download from Amazon.

My next step was to start iTunes on my main computer and see if the iTunes Store had it. The iTunes store does not rent movies. They sell them. The Nightmare Before Christmas was available for $14.99 plus tax. I thought it’s a holiday. We have guests. Why not?

Why not is because I forgot what a torture it is using iTunes and the iTunes store. I turned on the HTPC and started iTunes. As always, there was a newer version of iTunes that they wanted me to download. I had version 7 installed but iTunes 9.02 or something like that is the current version. So I thought why not update?

Why not is because it took me 20 minutes to download the 90MB file. Why not is because it took another 20 minutes to install iTunes and all the attendant crap software that Apple shoves down the Internet pipes with it. I was reasonably patient.

So after 40 minutes I finally got to launch iTunes. But lo, I couldn’t order the movie yet because iTunes had to update the iTunes library first! That took another 15 minutes. After that it wanted to update the album artwork. I had enough (I thought) and cancelled that activity, because I could.

So now iTunes was running. I went to the iTunes store and searched for the “nightmare before” and found music and the movie. I went to purchase the movie.

I could not. iTunes was not authorized on this computer and I had reached my 5 computer iTunes authorization limit. Damn Apple! I turned on my 15” Apple MacBook Pro and deauthorized it. I then went back to the HTPC and authorized it.

Now I was ready to purchase the movie. NOT! The American Express card number registered with the iTunes store was out-of-date. So I had to go get my card and update the information.

Finally, I was downloading the movie and I thought, “We’ll be watching this soon.” I was wrong. It took Apple 35 minutes to download a 898MB file. Unlike Amazon, Apple requires that the whole file be downloaded before you can begin watching and their servers run at a small fraction of the speed of Amazon’s. Amazon would have been done in a third of the time or less.

So over 2 hours later and after a lot of technology induced anger and frustration we finally got to watch The Nightmare Before Christmas. Of course Apple had just treated me to their technological version of a nightmare before Christmas.

So I am sending a big bah humbug to Apple and hoping Santa puts coal in Steve Job’s Christmas stocking.

Steven Sinofsky versus x Steve Jobs

The User Interface (UI) is the point at which we interact with all sorts of devices. System designers control the UI. They hope to create a positive, seamless User Experience (UX). The UX is a feeling based upon the ease and pleasure we experience in performing common or infrequent actions. Apple’s iPhone and iPod Touch have a great UI that delivers a marvelous UX. Newer automotive UIs break established automobile control practices placing the uninitiated at sea. That is not a good UX for them.

Snow Leopard (SL) is the latest iteration of the Mac operating system. Windows 7 (W7) is Microsoft’s. The SL UI is little changed from Leopard, its predecessor OS. There are subtle tweaks that many users will not notice or access.

The W7 UI enhances the Vista UI. Vista implemented significant UI changes from Windows XP, most noticeably a redesigned Start menu and Windows Explorer window. W7 adds some neat eye candy via its Aero features that are fun to demonstrate and to use, and make the UX better. The redesigned Taskbar and the addition of Jump Lists to Start menu and Taskbar application links are a big change from Vista or XP.

Menus/Shortcuts

Apple separates application shortcuts from its menu bar. These may appear on the desktop, the Dock or in the Application folder. The menu bar is a relatively static object that displays whichever application has the system focus, even if it has no exposed or open window.

Many users do not appreciate what an unwieldy bit of UI the Dock is because it is great eye candy. It has bouncing, zooming icons and the Genie effect when we minimize windows. This entertains but masks the Docks deficiencies. It takes up a significant part of the window. Its functionality is non-obvious and is limited.

The W7 Taskbar and Start menu are more integrated. You can pin application or document shortcuts to either one. Aero Peak makes it easy to navigate to different windows or tabs within an application or across applications. The Taskbar consumes a small amount of the screen. (Advantage: Windows 7)

File Manager

Finder is the Mac file system application. It is kludgy by comparison to Windows Explorer. You can only resize the Finder window from one location, the lower right corner. Windows Explorer has 8 places for resizing, the 4 corners and the 4 sides. Finder has 4 views: Icons, List, Columns and Cover Flow. Windows Explorer has 8: Extra Large, Large, Medium and Small Icons, List, Details, Tile and Content. It also has a very useful breadcrumb navigation menu and links to favorites, libraries, Homegroup, Computer and Network locations. (Advantage: Windows 7)

Search

Search in both operating systems is robust and mature. Apple has Spotlight , which appears on both the Menu bar and in Finder windows. It is simple to access Spotlight by pressing the "CMD key + Space". Spotlight search is almost instantaneous and incredibly accurate.

W7 improves on the Vista Start menu search bar . It is faster and more accurate. It is a little bit slower than Spotlight but as accurate. It is easier to configure Spotlight preferences than Windows search. (Advantage: Snow Leopard)

Media

I find it easier to play or view media on Snow Leopard. But I don’t like the limitations imposed by Apple on how many and what machines with which I can share my iTunes.

I like most of the Windows 7 media applications better. I suggest you try the new Zune player application to see why.  Also Windows 7 lets you network your media files with any machine you want without limit. (Advantage: Tie)

Networking

x

Macs used to be much easier to network than Windows. W7 changes this. Its network wizards are easy to use and understand. Homegroup, networking 2 or more W7 computers, is simple. W7 is not as good at connecting to Macs as SL is at connecting to Windows. (Advantage: Tie)

Conclusion

x

I find the Windows 7 UX more pleasing than Snow Leopard’s. I think you will too.

This tip will come in handy. if your fingers are cold, damp, greasy or you are blessed with large, wide digits that make it difficult to type on your iPhone or iPod Touch.

A standard stylus does not work with Apple’s capacitance screens. The negative end of a AAA or AA battery works just fine.

The Front Row problem mentioned in yesterday’s blog post was corrected by doing a complete reinstall and setup of the Mac Pro.

The Mac Pro’s video card hell continues. I spoke with an Apple representative named Candi and got the resolutions for the ATI Radeon HD 4870. The max resolution is 2560×1600. This seems okay but the proof is in the pudding or in this case the Apple dumpling. I am not sure I want to buy the card for $359 (a PC version costs $157 at Newegg) to find out it does not resolve the issue.

Candi told me that the Apple hardware engineer she spoke with suggested I connect the Mac Pro to the HDTV using a VGA connector to resolve the display resolution issue. This strikes me as like buying a Ferrari and only driving in school zones – not going to happen!

I tried using two Mac OS X video control utilities to resolve this issue, switchResX and DisplayConfigX, without success. I invested several hours trying to get these two utilities work. I finally gave up, at least for now.

I have a residential client who uses Macs. It is a large house with day-to-day activities more akin to a small business than a traditional household. Besides the residents, there are two assistants and many visitors using the network and the computers. Two years ago they decided to build a new house. At about the same time it became necessary to install a file and backup server in the existing house. We selected a Mac Pro running OS X Server since it integrated well with the existing Macs. This has worked out well. The Mac Pro has been reliable and easy to manage.

We also had a goal of using the Mac Pro as a media server and media center PC in the new house. This has not been easy.

I have two major issues with which to contend. One has a solution. I am not certain that the second one can be solved.

Front Row (arrgh!)
Apple’s media center application, Front Row, will not recognize the very large iTunes library. I have tried several “fixes” without success. Interestingly, both Plex and XBMC, free multiplatform media center applications, work fine, seeing and playing the iTunes audio and video files.

Yesterday I reinstalled the operating system and applications in the hope that this will fix the problem. It takes many hours to do a major overhaul like this to any computer. The Mac Pro is not an exception.

Video Card Hell
Mac Pros are the top of Apple’s computer line. They are beautifully crafted, powerful workstations. They are expensive. And they have too few video card options. Unlike the Windows world where we have hundreds of choices, Apple provides two mid-level NVIDIA and ATI cards. And they overcharge by more than twice the comparable PC card price.

The Mac Pro is hooked to a NAD audio video receiver (AVR) via a DVI-HDMI video cable and a TOSlink optical audio cable. The AVR connects to a Pioneer plasma HDTV and a surround sound system.

The Mac Pro came with an ATI HD 2600 256MB video card. The card has dual DVI-I outputs. The Apple supplied video drivers have limited resolution choices. The highest resolution is a 1920×1080 (interlaced) which is equivalent to a 1080i HDTV signal. The NAD AVR and Pioneer are capable of 1080p.

The Apple resolutions do not scale correctly to the HDTV. The 1920×1080 (interlaced) setting creates a letter box  effect, a small black border around the picture (1st image below). I tried turning on the computer’s overscan feature, but this causes the computer screen to become too large for the HDTV and parts of the screen are cut off, including the Mac Menu bar (2nd image).

I can adjust the settings of the Pioneer HDTV to do a bit-by-bit resolution which is better than overscanning but not quite correct either. Furthermore, we have a single URC remote control for all the equipment that feeds the media room. It cannot be programmed to change the HDTV’s zoom settings. This is not a good solution. We would need to have the Pioneer remote handy. My clients would have be trained to click on using the various remotes to set up the equipment for cable TV and Blu-ray or the media server. We would end up with remote control clutter and user confusion. This not what we want.

There may be a video card that Apple sells that will fix this problem but after several hours of research I do not know. Apple sells an ATI HD 4870 512MB video card for $349. This is about twice what a comparable PC video card costs. The card has both DVI and mini-Display Port connectors. I cannot find out what resolutions it drives because Apple is parsimonious with specifications on their website. They must think, “Why would a user need to know this?” or “A user does not need to know this because we say so!”

I do not want to buy the card to experiment and find out that it does not work.

I have found some hacks on various websites for employing PC video cards in a Mac Pro but am wary of trying them because it might take an inordinate amount of time to get this configured, it it works at all.

Setting up a Windows computer as a media server and home theater PC (HTPC) is much easier. I should have bought one instead of the Mac Pro.