Okay, being an Apple geek I think it’s my duty to at least offer a minimal comment on recent Apple developments. I won’t bother to recap what was discussed on Monday because anyone remotely interested in Apple news already knows. Instead, I’ll offer some thoughts on the news. First, Apple’s gotten alot of criticsm for their benchmarks on the new G5. Opinions abound at sites such as Slashdot on whether the benchmarks comparing the G5 to the best Windows machines are accurate. Some contend Apple may have designed the tests to favor the G5. Here’s a news flash: Apple is a capitalist. I may like using their products and operating system, but capitalists lie, cheat, and steal. All of them. Often it’s called marketing but marketing is just spinning reality to indicate a truth that may or not be true. There are many reasons for abandoning capitalism and one of those is the common practice of lying. So, Apple may be lying, what’s new? So does Microsoft, Dell, Gateway…

The fact remains that the G5 system is an incredible jump in performance over past G4 systems. It certainly brings the Mac back into the playing field. That rocks. Truth is, many, many people use Macs for a reason other than speed. They use it because the OS is so damned nice to use. In particular, OSX is just beautiful. I’ve used Windows and Linux and they do not begin to match the ease of use of OSX nor are they half as nice to look at. If there is a problem it is that I spend too much time in front of my Powerbook… it’s not that it takes me long to finish work that I need to do, but that I often lose track of the time. It’s such a joy to use that I find myself tinkering, reading, writing often beyond what I really need to. It’s actually become a form of entertainment. Maybe that just means I’m an uber geek.

Apple also released a beta of iChat AVand a new firewire webcam, the iSight. The iSight seems to be very nice and, like the iPod, raises the standards for that kind of device. It’s also a bit pricey. Perhaps if I didn’t have a digital video camera I’d buy one but I do and it works perfectly with iChat A/V. I look forward to free long distance and many video chats with my brother who lives four hours away. It’s a bummer that the rest of my family doesn’t have a broadband connection, camera, and a Mac. I think this combo is great for those fortunate enough to have access. I’ve tried it with a friend here in Memphis and it worked perfectly.

The other big Apple news relates to the evolution of it’s operating system from 10.2 to 10.3. The new version, dubbed Panther and due out in the last half of 2003 looks like it will be a great upgrade. The Finder looks like it is a great improvement with live searches, increased speed, color-coded labels, and improved organization. A new feature called Exposelooks like it will be very, very useful for those of us who use many applications at once, often with many windows for each application. For folks who share a machine and have multiple accounts the new Fast User Switching is a welcome addition as is apparently alot of fun to see in action. Other new features which I’m looking forward to:

Early reports from folks using the 10.3 beta indicate an all around speed increase. Frankly I have no complaints about the speed and stability of 10.2 but if it can be made better I won’t argue. It’s also being reported that the new features work very well, even on the earliest generation of G3 systems which is good news.

Way to go Apple.