The MossyBlog Times Archives 2007 - 2009 : Apple

Kicking Apple to the kurb.

scbarnes — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 08:04:26 GMT

I’m definitely not your typical Microsoft blue blood. I at times buck the kool-aid internally and prefer to always keep my options open to the “competitors” we have at Microsoft. It’s not that I'm a rebel at heart, it’s simply I can’t be bothered being that guy that belongs.

Lately, Apple’s been annoying me to no end. Most whom follow my twitter will notice my anti-Apple behavior and a lot of them associate this with being a MS-Fanboi (in fact one follower of mine took time to tear me new one over being too pro-Microsoft).

Well, if you were to come over to my house you’d see the following:

1x MacBook Pro 17”
1x MacBook Pro 15”
1x Apple TV
2x iPod Nano’s
1x iPod Touch
1x iPhone
1x iMac 24” (actually its on my desk at work as my main work machine).
1x Nintendo Wii
2x XBOX 360
1x XBOX (old skool represent).
1x Playstation 3
1x Playstation Portable (PSP)
1x EeePC 1000h Notebook.
1x Home Built Desktop Computer

Clearly, I’ve earned the right not wear the label MS Fanboi? or would you like more proof?

That all being said, Apple has been the number one pain in my butt in the past 3 months for a number of reasons and they are as follows:

Bootcamp is as useful as spyware. When I first heard Apple allowed you to run Windows on an Apple machine, it was like watching Ghostbusters cross streams for the first time… you were unsure where this would end up.

So like most Mac fans, I was stoked I had best of both worlds, that is until I got to date Bootcamp more over time. To put it bluntly, I kept having to pave my machines due to certain quirks in the bootcamp way of life. These were:

Can’t download it online. I was at a conference, left my OSX dvd at home like most normally would. Sound suddenly stopped working the night before my presentation, and found bootcamp’s sound drivers were the problem. I then went into the local Apple store and spoke to their genius whom proceeded to tell me they don’t support Bootcamp and that for me to get it i’d need to buy the OSX DVD… EPIC FAIL…
Drivers magically fail. This week Ethernet LAN just stopped working. I re-installed bootcamp as i found in OSX the Ethernet worked but under windows it didn’t. The re-installation of boot camp yielded no results. Spoke to the various support channels within Apple, words like “re-format” or “send your iMac to us for repairs” came up. I felt like I was the only one in this entire “help” system that had opposable thumbs, and understood it was just a driver going south. I ended up biting the bullet, paving my partition and this time loaded Windows 7 in its place. All because of Ethernet driver failing for no apparent reason. Others suffer from this as well, I also noticed via Google.

iPhone is useless to me. I already covered this in another blog post as to why, but the latest issue just annoyed me.

In November i was running to catch my plane at San Francisco airport, as I was running my iPhone fell out of my pocket and well the screen shattered. Cursing my bad luck, I figured meh, warranty should cover this right?

No, ok, so they don’t cover breakages like this and its clear the phone is a fragile and delicate piece of AppStore goodness. I then went through the motions to get the screen replaced, and found its around $150 USD to get that done. Here’s the absolute kicker for me, it turns out post screen replacement that the screen they replace it with WILL be covered by warranty.. aint that just a kick in the wallet.
Apple TV, your mileage may vary. I originally started out with NetFlix but found the Online selection of new releases to be limiting and found iTunes model seem to have a better selection (obviously for my kids PIXAR is the main goal here..given Apples relationship with PIXAR, its a no brainer on why iTunes has the upper hand here). The problem with Apple TV is basically you’re paying a fortune each month for latest releases, but to kick me in the head further the downloads seem to stall a lot so halfway through watching a movie, i get "Downloading..” – I’m on a 30mbps comcast cable, so meh to that.

iTunes is not portable. Today I was at work, I cursed my luck for forgetting my iPod at home. Damn it, i want to listen to music on my iMac. I started cursing myself for my own stupidity, but then got prodded by some fellow Microsoftee’s to buy a zune subscription. I was desperate for some tunes, so $14? why not..

Wow, Zune’s all you can eat model is amazingly cool. I’ve never bothered to check out the Zune hype, but now I get why so many Microsoftee’s a proud as punch over this brand. The fact I can download my entire iTunes library again for $15 is one thing, but to then be able to do it all again at Home instead of at work and no penalties apply.

Meh to iTunes model, I’m going the kool-aid now.

I can list about 1000 more war stories about Apple, but let me just illustrate it another way.

I’ve spent approx $12k in the last 2 years with Apple and to be openly honest, I’d rate the overall experience as being over-rated. OSX to me has ups and downs associated to it, certain software I like other times I feel it’s the distant cousin twice removed in terms of functionality.

I don’t agree with their ads, and feel they’re overselling and under delivering on promises.

Going forward..

I am really impressed with the Windows 7 team as whilst its only been 48hrs of usage, I’ve found the overall experience rewarding (XD is really interesting). Zune team are on a good bet here, but I’d love to see it scale more world wide. The Zune Desktop is brilliant in design, so high fives to their XD team on a job well done.

Windows Live team has always been a bit of a weird bunch to me (in both a good and bad way), but in the last 6 months I’ve seen exceptional amount of improvement from them (I’m sure Angus will take most of the credit ;D), so much so the tight integration with Windows is now in my mind going beyond the Apple iLife experience I once held them hostage against. Live have done great work, so big handclaps to them on their efforts so far.

I really feel Microsoft is on the right track in doing exciting things with both our consumer and developer story end to end. There’s still a few gaps I’d like to see us close, but I've already sent 13 emails tonight to various team leaders on how we could close them (which I’m sure they are thrilled at getting :D)

Does this make me the fanboi now? probably, but you know what, labels are for tuna cans, I rock the boat just as much as I ride it, so meh to you anti-Microsoftees :)

Scott Out.

I’m sure there will be complaints..

5 Reasons I'm giving the iPhone the boot.

scbarnes — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 22:50:34 GMT

I'm done, I'm handing in my Apple iPhone badge and tacking back my Samsung BlackJack II.

The reasons are:

Battery life. It's beyond frustrating how low the battery is, I'm constantly in meetings and hardly at my desk most days. Having a phone that can withstand the day to day slog of an average business manager is something I need first and foremost. The iPhone simply doesn't sustain the battery power to last.
Keyboard. I heard a joke the other day "help, I'm blind and bleeding and can't dial 911". It made me laugh as the keyboard for me is frustrating, the spell checking is bad at predicting words and it's harder to type at the speed I'm used to with the Black Jack II. I need a physical keyboard to touch instead of the 2 finger style typing one does now,
Outlook Inbox. This could be our fault or it could be there's, I'm not incline to care whom as at fault. Suffice to say going from Windows Mobile Outlook to iPhone is 5 steps backwards. I get average 44 emails per hour some days, and having the need to filter out emails is critical. In the BlackJack I simply start typing B R A D and then all emails are filtered back to my bosses name, Brad. Important when he's asking me a question on a topic at the time. iPhone its "can i get back to you on that.." which puts me in follow up mode. Hate follow up mode
Outlook Contacts. This may not be for the mainstream out there, but here on Microsoft campus there's what 150+ buildings we own in the one area. Trying to find where a building is is part of the problem, then finding out a persons location is annoying. Furthermore to make the most out of my time, I at times want to visit folks while I'm in their building. Figuring out where some of the Program Managers live isn't possible on the iPhone. I instead have to keep a separate notes of all my friends locations? the location field is missing.
Applications. In general the applications really aren't that special. There's an odd application here and there that I use briefly, but I get annoyed or easily bored with them and they just sit there in the offscreens doing nothing. The fact I also have to close an application and can't multi-task between applications gives me the biggest annoyance. In that say I want to make a phone call but can't remember the conference call code, i then want to go back into either email or the application - it just takes time. BlackJack II never had this problem.

There are benefits to the iPhone but for me, it's just not working out so I'm breaking up with the iPhone.

We had laughs with YouTube, it sang to me when I needed a pickmeup (iPod) and it always left me unbored at lines (Movies).

That being said, i have an iPod Touch, which is sitting on my desk gathering dust. If i want the "perks" of the entertainment / game factor, iPod Touch is perfectly fine.

Bye iPhone.

Now convince me that I'm just over-reacting...

I dumped $10k into Apple and I use Vista?

scbarnes — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 03:34:32 GMT

Joshua Allen and fellow Visitmix.com blogger posted the other day around how 10% of new Windows Vista sales are reportedly sold to Apple owners.

Well, I not only agree but I find it somewhat disturbing. In that, I own not only an iMac but a Macbook Pro and whilst I find the entire experience of using OSX fascinating and at times kind of fun (I'm a geek, what can you expect) - i still - find myself using Windows Vista more.

About 80% of my entire productivity per day still resides in Windows Vista and whilst I embrace the concept of owning an Apple computer, I still find the software out there somewhat limited and not the same as my Windows counterpart experience?

This is me and I think each individual person will have also a unique story to tell around why they own an Apple OSX, but I can honestly say through my interaction with many folks it has nothing to do with what the Apple ads are pushing. Most reluctantly agree that it's just a nice tongue in cheek slash & run at Microsoft.

Windows Vista gets a beat up from the pro-Apple community at times, and I often wonder as to why? I mean OSX is a nice experience, I own two of their flagship products and don't mind the balance between the two operating systems, but I'll be honest and simply say - "I just spent $10k in hardware for iLife"

Emotional bonds are formed with Apple and at times I think the arguments are not only misguided but extremely weak and any time anyone opposes them they are usually swarmed by a wolf-pack of what most jokingly call "Mactards"

With that, I simply say:

Hi, I'm a PC and a Mac, and I am proof that the Apple ads are just a simple comedy sketch and nothing more.

Is Wikipedia biased towards Silverlight?

scbarnes — Fri, 29 Jun 2007 09:09:08 GMT

I'm getting my presentation together for Perth BarCamp tomorrow, and in my assembly of this awesome presentation I stumbled upon the Wikipedia for Silverlight.

It has the usual guff around what it is, where it come from and so on, but one thing that stood out was a section titled "Criticism"

This has turned into a bit of melting pot of "Hey give Microsoft a fair go", as the current "Criticism Section" basically is argued as having an undercurrent of "anti-Microsoft' to it. I must admit (even though obviously I am biased towards my employer) that there is an editorial element to this portion of the site. In that, it's citing bloggers such as Chris Duckett as reference points? (which is essentially a blog post).

Not only that, but there is criticism for not using SVG? I'm not quite sure what SVG has to do with Silverlight as if you're going to throw the SVG card in the ring over how XAML differs, then you may as well include Adobe's MXML and countless others.

It gets thicker with debate, as one contributor resigns over it with juicy quotes like this:

It's absolutely safe to say that no discussion with Harumphy will lead to a conclusion. Believing that Soum and I are Microsoft "PR flack" delivering nothing but "opinions" based only on the fact that we speak in defense of a Microsoft matter, he is in a state of denial, perhaps even paranoia if he really does believe we work for Microsoft.

I agree though with this Rei character, at the heart of it Harumphy appears to the be person with blinkers on.

Personally, I'd remove the Criticism section from not only Adobe Flash but also Silverlight as it all depends on ones perspective, not so much core facts. An example comes to mind "Digital Rights Management" for Flash, while some would argue it should have it - others would say it's not needed. Eye of the beholder.

One thing pisses me off, is this:

"Silverlight has been criticized for lack of Linux support - or indeed any platform other than Windows and Mac OS X, citing it as a factor that could limit the widespread adoption of Silverlight.."

Linux marketshare is less then 2% depending on whom you believe. Apple are obviously pushing to get more folks to adopt Mac OS X, Windows Vista and so on are selling well etc bottom line - this will have marginal impact on distribution and this for me was the red hearing that underlined the "stupidity" of this section. Linux would be a positive step forward, even at the low percentage uptake, but overall companies like Microsoft (countless others) typically need to ensure the mainstream are stablized before they branch out to others. As where do you stop? BeOS next? heh.