Google Wave Invitations

I've been using Google Wave for a while now and they were kind enough to send some invitations for me to distribute around. So, I have 3 left. If you want one, just leave a comment here or send a reply/DM on Twitter with your e-mail address.

Geek alert: I'll be using FIFO as the sorting protocol in case there are more candidates than the number of invitations. Good luck :-)

Installing Snow Leopard (on a Mac OS X Tiger machine)

So, as you may know (and probably getting tired of knowing by now) I upgraded to Snow Leopard. The process was very simple and there's really no point in doing a thorough analysis of it, so I'll just leave some photos that I took while waiting.

Just before that, a few tips for those of you that want to upgrade as well:

• Backup your old data before upgrading
  
• Have you backup everything? No, go ahead... I'll wait
• And when you think you've backup everything just make a final check :-)
• Then insert the disc and install Mac OS X 10.6 a.k.a. Snow Leopard

Chances are that everything will go smoothly and no problems will arise from installing the new operating system. But since uncle Murphy is always looking waiting for the right moment to appear, you might as well be prepared with all your data safe somewhere.

Another quick note: this post is about my experience which consisted on upgrading from Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger) to 10.6. So, this post is not really helpful to those of you upgrading from Leopard.

I bought the Mac Box Set (which includes Mac OS X 10.6, iLife'09 and iWork'09). Yeah, I know I could have just bought the $29 update package that can also do the upgrade from Tiger, but didn't so for two reasons:

1. I would be in violation of Apple's license agreement
2. I wouldn't have iLife'09 and iWork'09

So, with the package on my desk, it was quite easy to see what I should do:

(I like these little messages that Apple pust on the packages with "slight" hints of what to do)

After inserting the DVD, one clear difference from the Leopard upgrading process was that installing it from Tiger, requires restarting the machine right from the beginning of the installation process:


After a quick restart, the installation process asks which language you want to use:


And then, you're ready to start the installation. In my case, I decided to wipe clean the hard disk with the Disk Utility to make sure that all the accumulated garbage I had on the previous version of Mac OS X (yes, I backup everything before. Did you?)


After cleaning up the hard disk, it was time to start the real installation:



Obviously, the "time remaining" part of the installation process is never accurate and it more or less bounced from 30 minutes to 28, back to 29 and then to 26 (for a really long time), then 23 and then going on normally until 11 minutes and then suddenly it finishes. So, in total it took about 26 minutes to finish this part. At this point, I decided to read the manual that comes with the disc and get myself acquainted with the novelties in 10.6.


After copying all the files and restarting "again", the new OS boots with the usual flying "welcome" messages in several different languages:


And then after just setting up the usual stuff (language and keyboard preferences, user accounts, etc...)...


... I was ready to use my new Mac OS X:


So, from start to finish, I took exactly 48 minutes to upgrade. Not bad for a clean install.
After that, I just inserted the iLife'09 DVD, installed it and then the same for the iWork'09. More or less 10 minutes for each.

Loving the new Operating System

Yes, it's fast... and I mean really fast. Clicking on folders and files seems to open these a lot faster and navigation is usually more fluid. The new features (remember that I was coming from Tiger) like Spaces, Time Machine and Stacks are really cool.

Recovering my data was quite straightforward and I didn't face any major problems (except one that I'll mention bellow) so in a couple of hours I had my machine up and running almost like the previous version.

Now for the boring part

The boring part was in fact checking compatibilities for applications. I backup my previously installed applications so that I could use them now. Most of them worked without any problems, but some of them required installing new versions. And not so amusing, some of them are only available for Snow Leopard in beta versions. Which means that bugs may surface. But so far, it has been quite peaceful.

The only app that I'm having a hard time is QuickSilver. Because I use it all the time and some of its plugins are not yet available in the 10.6 version, in some ways it is more or less useless for me right now.

I also had some problems with a few of my calendars. I have 5 calendars that I used in the previous version of iCal (in Tiger). I backed up everything but when it was time to import them to the new iCal, only 2 of them imported successfully. I don't know why, but for some reason those other 3 calendars were being very stubborn.

Since I heard that Snow Leopard now had built-in support for Google Calendar integration with iCal, I decided to try the following:

1. Create new calendars on Google Calendar
2. Import the information of the 3 non-working calendars to Google Calendar
3. Synchronize with iCal

Guess what? It worked perfectly. Now, I have GCalendar <-> iCal dual integration working perfectly.
Why didn't the calendars import on iCal and did so on Google Calendar, I'll never know. But it's good to know that Google is always here to help :-) By the way, the same built-in integration between Google Contacts (and Yahoo Contacts) and Address Book is also available, provided that you use iSync for the synchronization process.

So, in the end I'm quite pleased with this process and it was a lot less painful than I thought it would be. I fully recommend upgrading to Snow Leopard but bare in mind that some of the applications may not work in Snow Leopard. So, do your homework, and check the compatibilities beforehand.

Snow Leopard has arrived

So, as I told you a few days ago, I pre-ordered the Mac Box Set, since (as you may know if you are an avid reader of this blog) I was still running Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger) on my Macbook Pro.


And it arrived yesterday. I immediately started the installation and everything went quite smoothly. I still haven't had the time to really experiment everything so I still won't be able to write a complete tutorial on this for now (maybe tomorrow). But rest assure that, in any way, I regret being an early-adopter. I encountered a few minor setbacks but everything had an easy fix.

So, until my next post. Bye bye.

Snow Leopard, here we go!

Yep, I've pre-ordered Mac OS X 10.6, a.k.a. Snow Leopard. Now, it's just a matter of waiting for the package to arrive. More news to come...bye for now!

The iCal day

Did you notice that today is the only day of the year in which the iCal icon on the Dock doesn't change once you open it? :-)

The consequences of being a popular OS

If you're one of those that think there are no viruses or other malware for Mac OS X, then you're mistaken. The only reason why viruses haven proliferate to Mac OS X is only because viruses' creators are busy devising new nasty malware programs for Windows and because the market share of Mac users is still too small to justify the time spent creating them.

But now that Apple has been cutting a larger and larger piece of the market's pie, the attention of these "evil-doers" has turned to Mac OS X and other Apple-related software.


The latest news on this issue are related to torrent-based downloads. People downloading the latest version of iWork'09 or Photoshop CS4 through the popular file-sharing network are likely to also be downloading a trojan that gives access to your computer to a mal-intentioned user.

So, you might want to consider installing an anti-virus, specially if you're downloading this software from these "not-so-legal" networks.

No serial for iWork'09

Now isn't that interesting? Apple suddenly decided to remove all anti-piracy measures from the new version of iWork. It basically means that iWork ‘09 retail boxes no longer come with a serial number. You just have to install iWork ‘09 from the enclosed disc and you’re ready to go.

Now the interesting part is to discover why Apple did this. Here's some possible explanations:

• It doesn't work - In this era of online forums and piracy websites, what's the point of keeping up with a technique that doesn't work? Requiring a serial number to install iWork'09 is like requiring a post-it with your name on it to enter a Barack Obama's press conference. It's just not effective.
• Bundled with a Mac - why put a serial number if you're planning to include it with every Mac that is produced? Kind of like what happens with iLife, iWork should be included with every Mac if they're planning to at least get a byte at Microsoft Office's market.
• Because it's that good - Apple may think iWork is good enough for people to actually buy it. And this is just a bold (and arrogant) move to say something like that: "Our product is so good that people will feel like they want to pay for it". Hence, the no-privacy move.
• To focus on what matters - Instead of wasting time (and a lot of money) finding new ways for stopping software piracy, like Microsoft does (and with very little return), Apple will probably focus on making their product a lot better. And they really should. iWork is still the only Apple software I don't use because it's not a suitable alternative to Microsoft Office (yet). Well, except for Keynote that makes my presentations and classes look really cool :-)
  
• Just for fun - Because the guys at Cupertino enjoy seeing bloggers come up with a theory for every move and decision that comes from Apple HQ. Yes, myself included.

My thoughts on the MacWorld 2009's keynote

After seeing the keynote I can easily understand why Apple has decided to stop with these special events to announce new products. The pressure to deliver new products at specific timetables (forced by these events schedules) builds up a hype that most of the times leads to failed expectations. Yesterday's keynote was an example of that: people were waiting for a final and blasting Apple Keynote but all they got was a predictable software update (and not all that impressive) and an obvious small hardware update.

But now the pressure is off and Apple can surprise us at any time and anywhere. So, if it takes slightly longer to see some updates from Apple now...no problem...that just means that something big is probably coming. And then, at least, we'll know that is going to be huge.

But coming back to the keynote, let's analyse it a bit in detail.

About the keynote speaker

Phill is not as relaxed or as calm as Steve usually is but the keynote was fluid and appealing, so, not bad... But maybe he should cut by half the times he says "That's really cool" :-)

iPhoto'09

iPhoto'09 looks realy cool with its new Faces and Places features and since I'm an avid user of iPhoto, I would love to see those features on my iPhoto Library right now. It sure would save a whole lot of time to tag every person and place on the 15000+ photos on my library. However, I'm still reluctant as to whether the face recognition will be that effectice on photos that are not picture-perfect as the ones showed on the demo (which is the case for most amateur photographers).

Also, Facebook and Flickr integration seems to be a great step. Even though we can also have that on the current version of iPhoto, it requires you to install specific add-ons that are not as simple to use as a button on the event view.

iMovie'09

I still use iMovie HD (iMovie'06) because iMovie'08, besides being too buggy on my Macbook Pro, it's a lot more complicated than its previous version (I was really surprised about this, Apple). And what's funnier is that Phill (kind of) admitted Apple's error on that one :-)
It still looks quite similar to iMovie'08, but I'll give iMovie'09 the benefit of the doubt and hope it to be a lot better. At least, the demo looks cool: video stabilization, audio-only selection and real-time video effects...wow!


GarageBand'09

Yeah, learning the musics from the artists is great but $4,99 per lesson? I keep getting amazed on how Apple finds ways to earn money from simple ideas that anyone could have thought of that before...

iWork'09

Yes, I want that app on my iPod Touch to remotely control presentations and, yes, the new magic effects and transitions are really cool but is that it? Pages and Numbers updates are hilarious... Come on, in order to really step up against Microsoft Office, iWork really needs to do more than that.
iWork.com is the real interesting feature: sure, it's Google Docs à-la-Mac style (which means collaboration made easy) but the direct integration with all iWork apps is exactly what's missing on alternative platforms.

Mac Box Set

This is the most interesting news at least for me, a Mac OS X Tiger user :-) I'll get all three products (Leopard, iLife'09 and iWork'09) for the reduced price of $169.

The new 17'' Macbook Pro

This was an obvious update since this was the "soldier left behind" on the last Mac event when the unibody Macbooks family was presented. The good news is that Apple recognized the need to offer (I mean, with a $50 donation :-/) an anti-glare LCD display option to users that don't like the excessive reflection glass display. Too bad this won't be an option for the other Macbooks but I understand how difficult it is to manage stocks and manufacturing processes to allow all customers to customize their laptops.

Regarding the non-removable battery, I stand by my previous statement when this was first announced on the Macbook Air: "...innovative laptops have to make some compromises. And a removable battery is overrated. On my lifetime of "gadgetery" I only had to buy a new battery for a cellphone once."

iTunes news

This was the part of the keynote that I didn't quite get it. The only real news is the pricing tiers and the increased amount of DRM-free songs. iTunes+ has existed for quite some time now and the possibility to "upgrade" to DRM-free tunes is not a novelty.
Oh, and the possibility of using the iTunes Music Store on 3G in addition to WiFi...please...that should have been done from the beginning when iPhone 3G was first released.

What's missing?

Rumor-wise something's missing, but that is the usual consequence of the hype built around these events:

• No iPhone Nano: that one was caused by all the hungry accessory makers that wanted some attention towards their own products and, for that, made use of the usual hype around Mac events
• No Mac tablet or larger iPod Touch: duuuhhhhhh! Still dreaming of that? I don't think Apple will ever go that way, mainly because it doesn't represent a that bigger market
• No New Mac Mini: I was hoping for this one, mainly because I'm still considering buying one to act as a pseudo-media center on my living room and also because it doesn't have an update in a really long time

And that was it, no more Mac keynotes from now on, but be sure to expect new special ways to announce ever-innovative products. As Tony Bennet sang at the end: "The best is yet to come!"

My new gadget: iPod Touch 16 GB

Yes, I got myself an iPod Touch. For a long time now I was looking to get an easy-to-use PDA and since I got used to the Mac philosophy (from this last year of being a Mac Newbie) the obvious choice was to go for the Apple brand.



My years of Windows Mobile user are now over. I promise I'll make a complete post on my experience with the new gadget...but for now, I'm going to have some fun :-)

The new MacBook's glossy screen

I haven't had the opportunity to see it for myself but it seems that the glossy screen choice for the new MacBooks may not have been the best. The minute I saw the specs for the new MacBooks I thought about how painful it is to work outside with a laptop with glass display (yes, I used to have one and it sucks).


The general opinion of Mac users (around 44%) is that a matte display would be more suitable.

For example, here's the opinion of a photographer that does a lot of work outside: "As a pro photographer the glossy screen only option will keep me at my current MBP for a long time. I know Steve replied that at the new light levels output by the LED screen are so bright that you won't see a reflection. I do critical work on location and a hardware calibrated screen requires a light level setting of about half the maximum brightest level and at that level the glossy screen is a reflective non-start for me"

So basically, to avoid any reflections you have to set the brightness level of the display to its maximum. But then the battery will drain itself quite faster.

And the funniest part is that in some countries (like Finland and Sweden) such computers with glass displays that have a lot of reflections do not comply with Health and Safety at Work regulations: "The screen must be free of reflections that can cause mixing and inconvenience to the user."

I guess with all this talk about how the new displays may be unsuitable to most Apple users, Steve Jobs will make a shift to (or at least introduce a new option of) matte displays. Let's hope...

Source: Gearlog

Open Office 3 for Mac

As soon as I knew that a new version of Open Office was available for Mac, I decided to test it to see if they finally were able to create a valid competitor of Microsoft Office. Obviously, I don't expect an open source initiative (even with the dimension of Open Office) to reach the same level of completeness as Microsoft Office (hate Windows or not, fact is that Microsoft Office is an excellent tool). But at least, I would expect it to reach a certain level of compatibility.

First, let's have a look at the things that I liked in this new version:

• Speed - version 3.0.0 is in fact a lot faster than the previous version (2.4.1) I tested on my Mac. The launch app loads quickly and opening files is quite fast. The only thing that is not so smooth is window resizing.

What, no more good things?
Nope, that's it!

Now, for the problems I encountered:

• Native look - it still doesn't feel like a native Mac application (except for the speed). The looks still resemble a poorly-designed Java application. Also, Command + Shift + Left Arrow (Home) or Right Arrow (End) don't work as they should. Instead of selecting text from the beginning/end of the line untl the end/beginning of the line, it selects text word by word.
  
• Still no support for track changes - For me, this is one of Word's most important tools. When exchanging documents with colleagues, I often have to use track changes to suggest changes in parts of the documents and insert comments. So, a word processor that doesn't have this feature is quite useless to me. Other users may survive without this feature, though.
• Integration Open Office <--> Word - I decided to create a document in Word to test the integration between the two office suites. In this document I inserted the most common formatting that one can use (bullet points, headings, comments, track changes, tables, etc...). As I said before, no track changes support, which results in track changes text appearing as simple text with a different formatting (but no way of accepting or rejecting changes). And simple bullet points result in the strange symbol that you see on the image on the right. Even the integration between iWork's Pages and Microsoft Office is better.

For now, I haven't tested other Office applications such as Excel and Power Point, but as soon as I have the time, I'll have a look at it.
But, bottom line, my first experience with this new version of Open Office was not a good one. So, I guess we still have to wait a bit longer for a version that comes along and shakens the Microsoft Office's throne.

The new Macbooks: the day after

So, I was more or less right about the outcome of yesterday's Apple event on notebooks (looking for the keynote video? Check here). Even though I think they should still drop the "Pro" nomenclature to describe a "larger" Macbook, the two notebooks now seem more alike than ever.
The new Macbooks

They now have the exact same aluminium case, glass display and button-less mouse trackpad. The differences come down to screen sizes/resolutions and in the internal components, wherein the Macbook Pro has a more powerful CPU, GPU and RAM. If you're looking for some pictures of the new machines "in the wild", check them here and here.

Regarding the common points, one of the most interesting aspects of the new Apple's notebooks is the multi-finger button-less glass mouse trackpad. With a set of new gestures (check a video here) this trackpad allows greater control of Mac OS X's features, such as picture navigation, zoom and rotation, app switching and access to Exposé. Also, the entire trackpad is a mouse button, which means that this might actually satisfy Greeks and Trojans. For those that don't like buttons in the trackpad...well, they aren't actually there. For those that do...well, it's there :-)

Another interesting aspect is the new case, which besides being made from a new innovative manufacturing process that is "greener", allows the new Macbooks to be lighter, stronger and slightly thinner.

The other aspect regarding the design of the new Macbooks is the choice of glass for the screen display (without a matte finish). This decision, I have to say, is quite disappointing. I've been using laptops for quite some time now and one thing I've learned is that glass displays are quite annoying when you're trying to use your computer outside.

Even though I like the innovation that Apple introduced with these new Macbooks, this one decision would be enough to keep me from buying one of these new notebooks. Well, at least until I have the chance to be face-to-face with one of them and check this new display's performance outside :-)

The older Macbooks and the Air

Apple has decided to still keep the older versions because they know that there are still some fans out there. For the Macbook, they kept the good'old white version (the most best-selling Mac ever) with a $100 price reduction and for the Pro, the 17'' version of the Macbook Pro is still there, which means Apple is still proud of that powerful notebook that is easy to carry everywhere.

The Macbook Air was not forgotten and it also got a boost on speed (new CPUs and GPUs) and storage (120 GB HDD for the cheaper version and a 128 GB SSD for the richie rich version).

About the other rumours

Steve Jobs has also made clear that there are three things that Apple won't step into, at least in the foreseable future:

• Touch-screen notebook - The Mac that we're all waiting for, won't be one of Apple's priorities since Steve Jobs has made clear that "it hasn't made a lot of sense to" Apple.


• Blu-Ray - Don't expect to see Blu-Ray drives in future Macs. Jobs described it as "a bag of hurt." I don't quite understand what this means, but he probably has his reasons for believing that.
  


• Netbook - If you're into netbooks, be advised that Apple won't be entering this market in the short term. But at least, Steve Jobs has made clear that Apple will "see how it goes" and...who knows, perhaps Apple will finally release a $400 or so netbook.
  

About Steve Jobs' Health

No, Steve Jobs is not dead...yet. And it's good to see that he can still have some sense of humour regarding all the news about his health.

The new Macbooks

As you may have heard, Apple is rumoured to release new notebooks on Tuesday, October 14th. And the million dollar question is: "How will these new Macbooks look like, what features will they have and how much will they cost?"


The Cult of Mac has a great post that tries to answer this question. Here's their potential set of features for the new Macbooks:

• Penryn Core 2 Duo chips: 2.4GHz, 2.66GHz, 2.8GHz, and 3.06GHz.
• 2GB of RAM (MacBook); 4GB of RAM (MacBook Pro).
• Hard drives: 160GB — 320GB.
• Glossy widescreen TFT screens. On the MacBook: 13.3-inch (1,280×800 resolution); MacBook Pro: 13.8-inch (1,366×768).
• Integrated NVIDIA graphics system.
• New, all-aluminum enclosures, white, black and silver.
  
• Enclosure is tapered: very thin at the sides, thicker inthe middle, like the iPhone 3G and MacBook Air.
• Magnetic lid latch on all models (replacing mechanical clasps on the MacBook Pro).
• All ports on left side — including FireWire 800.
• Slot-loading optical drive on right (no Blu-ray).
• Extra-large battery pack running full width of computer at the front, under the touchpad.
• Recessed keypad like MacBook Air. Keys are Chicklet style on MacBooks, black and backlight on Pros.
• Price: Starting at $800. This is the mysterious “product transition” that Apple CFO Peter Oppenheimer said in July would impact Apple’s gross margins.

As some of these features may seem really interesting (specially the price part) I find it hard to believe that Apple will refresh their Macbook line. At least, not as shown on this list of features. Instead they should unify Macbooks and Macbook Pros into one single notebook with a wide range of customization (at the level of CPU, RAM and screen size/resolution). With the rate of advance in computer components, the difference between the Macbook and the Macbook Pro comes down to screen sizes and dedicated graphic boards. And I guess there's no point in having different names for more or less the same laptops.

But as every Apple rumour, it's always difficult to know exactly what to expect and as new images of how the new Macbooks will look like are released across the entire web, the hype will grow. And every doubts will be shatered on Tuesday. Let's wait and see.

The new Microsoft ad: I'm a PC...as a bunch of other people

So, Microsoft has decided to ditch Seinfeld and the all idea of "Microsoft and the future" and went on to adopt a new approach in their marketing campaign, where they focus on the idea that there are a lot of PCs out there and that, in spite of the stereotype created by the "I'm a PC" guy from the Mac ads, they can achieve great things. See the ad for yourself:



Even though the ad itself was made on a Mac, I still think it is better than the previous approach of placing Bill Gates and Jerry Seinfeld on a "higher level of the society" that is trying to "connect with the simple people".

However, it is still not there... because they show all these people but they still don't say why do they use Windows and not other operating systems. Maybe they use it because they have to, maybe it's because they don't know the alternatives, or maybe they are in fact not happy with using Windows but are too afraid to switch to Linux or Mac. And most of all, they don't show how all those people react when they get a BSOD and loose their work :-)

Spore Origins for iPod: my review

As soon as I knew that a version of Spore was released for 5G iPods, I "ran to the nearest" iTunes store and purchased the game (here). This is what I've been playing for the last 2 days (that is, whenever I have my iPod around and have some free time to kill).


Spore Origins is more of a teaser than an actual game, but it is still great fun. It allows you to play the first stage of the newly-released game Spore, a simulation-based game (kind of like The Sims) that allows you to control a living being from its micro-cellular stage up to a level where space exploration takes place.

For now, I won't be playing Spore as it was only released for Mac OS X Leopard and since I only have Tiger installed, this will have to wait until I upgrade. By the way, if you're one of the lucky guys that is already playing Spore, check out the cheat codes for the game.

But we're here to talk about Spore Origins and I have to say that I didn't have this much fun with my iPod ever since I purchased iQuiz. You start the game as a small organism which has to survive by eating smaller organisms and staying away from larger ones. But as you keep going and collect DNA points, you're able to "evolve" your organism and add some features to it, such as enhancing its movement, defence or attack capabilities.

This is where the game gets really interesting, because the level of flexibility allows gamers to create the strangest organisms that you can imagine. Check out a demo video:


But these changes in your living being should not be made lightly as they will determine its success throughout the following levels. For example, I had to restart the game because I didn't "invest" in defence capabilities and got "stuck" in a level where these were crucial for my organism's survivability.

I know what you're thinking: being an iPod game, it can't be that interesting because the controls are very limited. Well, it doesn't feel that way, I assure you. The click-wheel, as with everything with the iPod, is very intuitive and it feels like a normal joystick in a typical 2D game.

Even though this game is just a way of opening up your appetite for the real deal, you can still have some real fun while in the train/bus on your way to work.

Fully recommended!

The Seinfeld/Gates/Microsoft ad

As I posted before, Seinfeld was being recruited by Microsoft to be a part of the new marketing campaign to try and take down the negativity brought by years of those "I'm a Mac, I'm a PC" ads. And even though Jerry Seinfeld was once part of one of Apple's "Think Different" ads, he accepted the offer from Microsoft (after all it was $10M, who wouldn't?) and crossed to the "dark side".

The following video seems to be the first ad of the new Microsoft's marketing wave. However, this feels more like a teaser, since nothing much is divulged. Basically, Seinfeld assists Bill Gates in buying some nice shoes at affordable prices (like if any of them needs it) and in exchange gets a glimpse of the future at Microsoft...See for yourself!



I sure hope there's more to it than this, because I don't quite see how this is going to change people's perception of Windows. It is basically trying to create a hype for the upcoming Microsoft technology (Windows 7?) in a attempt to divert people's attention from the failure that was Vista.

Let's wait... for now! :-)

Apple's answer to the Microsoft's answer to Apple's "Get a Mac" ads

It turns out that Microsoft's answer to Apple's "Get a Mac" ads (hiring Seinfeld to the next Windows Vista's marketing campaign) has already been debunked by an old Apple's "Think Different" ad (I saw it here):

Microsoft's answer to Apple's "Get a Mac" ads

Everybody knows that Apple has been doing a great job with the "Get a Mac" ads (by the way, there a few new ones that you should have a look at). They're funny and entertaining, but most of all, they show how Mac can be a real (and better) alternative to PCs, especially those with Windows Vista.

But Microsoft is getting tired of this marketing domination and has decided to bring out the big guns. The new marketing campaign, which will star Jerry Seinfeld and Bill Gates, is said to be based on the idea of "Windows, Not Walls," stressing the need to "break down barriers that prevent people and ideas from connecting." Basically, Microsoft will try to change the public's negative opinion of Windows Vista, for which the Apple's "Get a Mac" ads have made a large contribution :-)

Well, let's wait and see...

Source: Engadget

Feed changes

Hello everyone! This post is just to warn all my RSS feed readers that the new feed address is http://feedproxy.google.com/themacnewbie

Nasa's MarsPhoenix wants to phone home

Even Nasa's Mars Phoenix Lander wants an iPhone 3G. Maybe it needs to phone home like any other alien on a unknown red planet.