How The Apple Tablet Could Ruin Computing

damn you apple. damn you.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=H-PnT38bGvg&feature=channel_page

Jailbreak it. Of course then you'll be supporting terrorism.

The solution is simple, don't be a tool, don't buy Apple. If nobody buys it, you have nothing to worry about.

people are going to buy apple because it looks nice, but man am I going to hate it if the computer industry goes down like this.

That would supremely suck. But let's hope the FCC or whatever arm of the government that is supposed to protect consumer rights will force Apple to change it's ways lest multi-million dollar fines and possible anti-trust charges or something. ??

With 65,000 - 75,000 Apps currently available in the AppStore and growing by leaps and bounds, Apple is hardly restricting access to Apps. We just hear about the few that are rejected. There has to be a reason for rejection. If the reason is bad the .gov will whallop the guilty parties and it will eventually be remedied.

Also, competition is good. Folks will vote with their dollars. Apple will not stifle too much because it makes ppl upset. Remember when the iPhone first came out, there was no AppStore or much welcoming of 3rd party applications, and it was much more closed.

Apple does indeed learn from its mistakes and prevailing attitudes so I expect the App acceptance / rejection process will be clarified and redefined and better organized in short order.

It seems what is behind a lot of this is AT&T's trying to ensure they can squeeze every last cent out of their contracts. Time will tell ...

Windows and Apple users fear the Apple tablet if there will be one, for no reason at all, the facts will be known when we see them. Magazine writers blog writers are constantly try to be prophets and foretell the future. Stupid waste of time and a crime against their employers. Writers should do their job they get paid for and report what was, what is, only the facts. End of story. Dreams and future predictions are in literature, called sci-fi, speculators should go and write the crazy predictions in paperback sci-fi books and get paid there. News is what is based on events or articles supported by evidence, available to everyone. Anything else is just worthless opinion and speculation.
P.S. Open systems are junk, that is why Windows became crap. Too many fingers in the not so sweet pie.

If Apple makes the tablet just as restrictive as the iphone, it wouldn't be all bad, if a teenager can hack the iphone then they could also hack the tablet and maybe even make a linux OS for the tablet, problem solved and no more of Apple's version of "big brother is always watching" keeping you from downloading software.

hi Nice info i woould also like to share this with you guys
http://www.techmasher.com

Such a shame that so many are afraid of the products that apple makes. Though their hardware quality has gone down some due to manufacturing them in China, their software remains superior for the average user, and who is more likely to buy the apple Tablet. Having used both Windows and Mac OS in my business, more and more of my employees choose apple products the more they are exposed to them. Closed or not, apple has always been more generous with software additions than Microsoft. Sorry, but the future looks bright with more Mac users.

I have been in engineering and IT management for 30 years, and I can tell you one hard fast rule that most IT professionals live by: “Have nothing whatsoever to do with Apple Computer”. Don’t install them. Don’t support them. Don’t recommend them. If a user wants one, ignore the request and refuse to support it.

Any user in a professional environment that requests an Apple is a poser. They do not know how to do whatever job they have. If they get an Apple, they will not be able to work with the 1000 other users that have PC’s. And the ‘Cooler Than Thou’ attitude would be funny if they weren’t so emphatically superior and completely wrong.

Nothing I have done on a computer in the last 10 years is even possible on a Mac. Yet they go on and on about how easy it is to upload pictures to their phone. I’d like to see them build a data warehouse with 50 million records. Or do some computational fluid dynamics. Then I might have some respect.

Conlon: You are a fear monger spreading nothing more than FUDD.

Just by yourself a dell and cry yourself to sleep.

Seriously, no one knows except for a handful of people at Apple what the iTablet will run. It might just run Mac OS X making it no different than a MacBook which has not ended the world (sparked innovation perhaps, but no pending doom is evident). You might might be more wise to see what it actually does before screaming "end of the world!".

PhilInYork: I am sorry sir but clearly you are misinformed. The large majority of the highest level professional artists in fields such as video editing, desktop publishing, music production, etc. have historically used Macs. You can easily run a database with 50 million records (just install MySQL or Postres), and yes it can run fluid dynamic software too (just do a search at Sourceforge).

In fact, since Mac OS X is based on UNIX, you will find much more scientific software available for it than Windows any day. And because of its UNIX it is about a million times more stable and less susceptible to malware, viruses and crashes from the registry going haywire.

I could go on and on and on, but clearly you are hopeless. I suspect you guard your ignorance with raised knives and I suspect you actually believe your own drivel. Windows is a joke and so are you.

Yes, we don't like private golf clubs that treats us all like poor people. We don't like about interests groups that we have an interest in but they show on interest on us.

Yes, Apple wants to protect their little turf. But so did Microsoft and soon Google will do that too. Would you open your house door to all of us? Some of us might be your friends. Some might just break your family portrait.

If you don't like Apple, don't even bother read this. Don't buy one. Yes. Apple is not good for database and other industry use. If you are willing to develop it on Apple, I am sure it will be as good as or as bad as other software on Windows.

Apple crashes as well as Windows. Someone knows how to fix Apple. Some others knows how to do it on Windows. So what.

But you have to admit that Apple's design is first class unless you have no interest in design and fashion. That's fine too.

I have used computers since DOS days on AT and Mac Plus. I use both till today. All I can say is for most of consumer who are not an IT person. Apple is the best choice. If you are a professional and needs access to certain software running only on one or the other, then you don't have a choice.

olibeaver: actually you do have a choice - because you can run Windows on a Mac either by booting into it (with Boot camp) or running it in a virtual machine (with Parallels or OpenOSX WinTel). The argument that Macs can't run the software just does not hold true anymore. Macs can run all of the same software, and all of the Mac OS X software.

And what makes you think Macs are not good for databases? MySQL runs native on it and is an enterprise class database.

Software might crash on a Mac (because of poorly written software) but I can run my Macs months at a time without rebooting - I have never seen a PC do that running Windows.

Screw apple & Screw AT&T! If they lock things down there will always be a group of people who will break through whatever restrictions are put on the operating system like a bull through a plate glass window. What Apple and AT&T want are irrelevant, people have bought the device, and as possesion is 9/10 of the law, they will do what they want with it. And if people don't like the restrictions on the product, they won't buy it. Even the mighty Steve Jobs is capable of over reaching...Look at what happened to the Lisa and the Apple Newton....good products that had all the success of a lead ballon. You are forgetting the #1 rule of the marketplace, if it sucks, people won't buy it. If people want to be idiots and pay an apple tax, for a product that has all the gifts of a lobotomized mental patient then more power to them. As for me, I'll go elsewhere...so apple won't ruin computing because they're not the only game in town. Next time try writing a commentary with some relevance.

Why can't you write an article this size about some of your other news items? Is fact finding getting hard enough that the only time I see a decent sized article is when the writer has an opinion to voice? It is possible, mind you, that I am part of the minority of this site that would like to see more in depth updates on robots, AI, military advancements, new transportation concepts, and medical breakthroughs.
Most of your tech articles struggle to get a brief 10 sentences, but when you have a story on big name players in the world of computers, there seems to be an over abundance of information.

P.S.
I realize that it can be tough to discern the tone of the person when reading a post in a setting like this. I am a calm person and not emotionally upset, so please read it with a laid back frame of mind.

People (including the author of this article) are quick to forget that the iPhone actually SPURRED competition, despite its' closed environment - Google released Andriod to power competing Smartphones and Palm has the Pre. To think that Apple's netbook will remain as the only model is narrow-minded.

Google (or another) will see the success of the Apple device and model and someone will create an open-source version. Perhaps it falls out like the smartphone market with Apple getting the glory and positioned in the top slot, but others will be in the hunt as well and THEIR models will be far more open.

The dark-spot really is the Telco's as they have a long and dirty record of locking phone features and GUI's to suit their own agendas.

3DTOPO: This is why we all hate Mac users, you always resort to insulting us for liking PCs. I hope you choke on your own arrogance, prick.

MySQL?!?! Are you JOKING! You guys have never even SEEN an iSeries, have you?

After owning an iMac for a couple of years and an iPod Touch, and using iTunes, I have decided that Apple products are generally too restrictive, and I will buy no more of them for exactly that reason.

Of course the jury is still out on what the tablet will look like and do (if there really is one), but based on Apple's track record, it would probably be designed to fit into their "ecosystem" in a nice tight inflexible way.

I'm also on the fence on what OS will run on my next computer. I'm leaning more and more toward Linux. My last computer uses it, and it has been a big pain to work with, but it is so much more efficient than running Windows.

The truth is, I don't like any of the operating systems. I don't even like computers. They have turned me into an old grouch.

Samuel Friedfeld
I wouldn't want to run anything other than OS X on a tablet made by Apple. I think they do a great job at inviting 3rd parties in, just look at the success of their app store. If Apple is to release a tablet, I will be the first to buy it and if people really wnat to run another OS on it, believe me they will figure out a way to do so.

I don't buy ipods anymore (after buying 5) because of the restrictive nature of its operating system. I listen to music on my pocket pc phone. I just copy my mp3 files on to my pocket pc (or my other pcs or my car or where-ever) and just listen to them. No need to sync up to a particular computer or some other ridiculous restrictions.

But I bought them even after I learned about and hated the restrictions because of their superior design. I'll probably do the same with this when it comes out.

Ipods will die out when other manufacturers create mp3 players that are just as well designed because they will be less restrictive. The same will probably happen with this unit eventually.

Apple has become a design company that makes trendy gadgets. They're very good at it, but I don't see their products becoming the standards.

What is all this anti/pro-mac, or anti/pro-windows?

I have a Sony DVD, it sucks, why can I not load VNC on it?
Why can't we not run programs on the Amazon Kindle?
How about loading the Ferrari engine management software into a Ford system (I am sure they all only use a limited number of embedded silicon).

The iphone is a device and is available to do what it does. They are up-front about what can/can't be done. Likewise the apple tablet will/may be. Likewise, if you wish to jail-break the iphone (or any other device) - you own it so go ahead, just don't expect the manufacturer to support you when it goes wrong.

Like all 'devices', if you like it and it does what you need/want it to do, then buy/use it. If not, then buy something else. This anti-"walled-garden" is a bit like buy a Ferrari and then castigating Ferrari because you can't use it as a pick-up.

As for the FCC, I wish they would investigate the carrier/hand-set relationship - anyone seen what can be done in France? It should all be like that!!!

HenryT
"Ipods will die out when other manufacturers create mp3 players that are just as well designed because they will be less restrictive."

You can use ipods with mp3 - I do and also use my Creative Zen. As for the design, why is it taking the other manufacturers so long to come up with something "as well designed"? How long is it going to take?

As for the restrictions, remember Microsoft's play-for-sure restrictive DRM, much worse than what apple came with. BUT in Apple, Microsoft, Creative (and others') defence, the restrictions are there because the Record Industry demanded it.

Finally, the Record Industry has seen the light and moving towards and more enlightened (and less-restrictive) approach.

For those that don't know, in France it is illegal for there to be exclusive agreements between carriers and handset manufacturers. Therefore the iphone is available to be used on all networks.

If all carriers have to conform to FCC regs, and likewise all handsets have to conform to FCC regs, why do the carriers get to decide which handset you can use on their network and also what features you can use?

It's a bit like buying a car and then only being able to use one brand of gas. Cars work with all brands of gas, all TVs work with all transmissions, all electrical devices work in all sockets in the country. Why? Because of Federal standards both sides have to confirm to.

Why is it different for carriers? Why not like France?

What happened to competition in the 'land of the free'?

People people... Apple is not an evil company. However...what they are doing, is supporting a system of monopoly, which in my view, also links to another mono prefixed word. Monarchy. This is bad, a universal device, is bad. Why? Because a universal device knows you are using it as a universal device, and can make any demand it sees fit. As explained in the article, on the iProducts, you want an app, you run it through the "man"
DAMN IT APPLE, LET US KEEP OUR LIVES AS SEPERATE AND DEMOCRATIC AS WE CAN.
(because we all know, how a one man show has failed in history repeatedly).

Alll that is left to say is.....everyone cares too much about something that will only complicate things further. Meaning, if Apple truly has world conquest in mind they won't be able to do so. All the other co's won't be toped by them. Lest they go out of business. Calm down. Take a breath and think logically. Also if this is the end of "freedom" then I hope that the people of the US at least, don't buy the freedom killer. Though I feel that it is all hype and speculation. Then again squeezing all one can get out of the everyday consumer is the way modern business is done. Create a need then sell that need to the weak minded individual's of the world. Really you do not need this. Save your money and buy land that is still the way to go. And yes...I am aware of my spelling. Please forgive me, Grammer Police.

3DTOPO: I do agree with you. I was trying to be nice to the people on the other side. I am an Apple fan for twenty years. I just want to admit that Apple crashes too. Also I would bash products that I don't have expertise with. But it seems that there are people here running Windows perfectly and believing Microsoft opens everything to their developers. Of course I don't believe that.

Let's get it straight.

Apple crashes, but less than Windows.
Apple's hardware has the best industrial design.
Windows, Google protects their product no less than Apple.
Yes, Apple can run Windows too. Why do you think Netscape died? Why more people develop for Apple than for Google?

For most of developers, you will make more money from selling iPhone Apps than trying to sell shareware on line by yourself.

Also, Apple's notebook can be turned on from sleep within three seconds and start to work. On my Sony, it takes 30 seconds to see the screen and another 30 seconds to start working or telling me it crashed while it was in sleep.

Bottom line, if you can't tell the difference between an Amarni suit and a suit from Man's Warehouse, it is not Amarni's fault. If you can't tell the difference between a Ferrari and Chevy, it is not Ferrari's fault. Don't complain there are less Ferrari parts, less Ferrari stores, and you can't fix it yourself.

Guys, please don't bitch if you don't know how to appreciate an Apple.

o1Buddha1o: the reason why you "hate" all Mac users is because secretly deep within you desire more than anything a Mac. Since you "hate" people (that you don't even know) I would strongly suggest therapy - and lots of it. Maybe the best therapy would be to give in to your desires, come out of your closet and buy a Mac. And not all Windows hate Mac users, so I think the "we" is unqualified, perhaps you have multiple personalities too. For the record - I was only pointing out facts (which are well established) - I guess the truth must really hurt your repressed and tormented soul.

Macs have lots of innovations that set it aside from a PC, but for me nothing says freedom more than open source. Take android for example, I have never actually used it, but it is the kind of concept that encourages innovation from everyone, not just a group of hotshots sitting at a conference table.

Well... thats sad. I like Macintosh but i really think they are going too far now... I'm seriously thinking about switching for Ubuntu or something !
http://www.tendances-de-mode.com/

This attitude is just silly. You already own many similarly closed computing platforms. Or you've owned them in the past.

Did you ever have a video game console? Or a handheld video game device? (If you never did, you're in the tiny minority of readers on this site.) It's a closed computing environment. Did it "ruin computing"? Sounds like a dumb question, doesn't it?

And the iPhone is a lot more open than video game consoles ever were. Apple is actually leading the way toward opening these sorts of platforms.

Why should ordinary users be treated to a worse experience just so hackers can geek out?

And I wrote Apple assembly language programs when I was 16, so don't pretend I don't understand. I do. But I also understand the value of something that's easy to use because all the sharp edges are sanded off.

Apple isn't making a system for hackers, they're making it for users. Buy something else if you want something to hack on. There's probably some obscure device that fits your need. Or someone can start a company to make one. (As an aside, these companies regularly fail. They fail because "open" is a low-value feature compared to "usable", and anyone who makes something closed can simply open it as soon as it matters to their business.)

Jailbreaking is not "breaking the law". In theory it's breaking the agreement with Apple about how you use the device - but that only voids the warranty!

Stop spreading FUD about jailbreaking, there are already millions of jailborken phones - it's a perfectly viable route and shows Apple demand for something they cannot or will not provide.

What a load of misconceived and unfounded "fear, uncertainty, and doubt."

Almost all of this represents only crystal ball assumptions -- all formulated to put Apple in the worst light possible. Fortunately, most of the people who care enough to read these comments know better already. Or else they're Apple-bashers, and they don't care anyway.

Yes, we need to hold Apple accountable when they screw up- and they do, like any other big company. But this article is epic FAIL.

Popsci: You can do better than this.

will apple come out with the tablet? Yes. Will the tablet become a big success? Maybe if you are willing to shell out 800 big ones in the current economic times. Will it be a cultural icon like the iPod? Who knows, probably. But it owning a monopoly on programs. Definitely not for two reasons. One, you are already under a monopoly-like control because of Microsoft. Microsoft controls a vast majority of owned OS's. What ever Microsoft decides you have to follow as with xp and vista. When vista came out Microsoft ceased production of xp and started making programs that were only compatible with vista. Two, competition. There will always be competition for new products Just like how Microsoft came out with the Zune a while after the iPod.

PhilInYork: You are misinformed. Oracle has already ported it's database to OS X. As you (should) know, Oracle is one of, if not THE strongest databases on the market, well capable of handling 50 million row warehouses. The only angle your argument holds up is the scalability of Apple servers. Apple doesn't make big iron cisc or risc boxes, so you are limited to their 1U server. This can easily be solved by a cluster or server farm. You can grid your Oracle instance too if need be. I seriously doubt you would need it. 50 million rows isn't that much for current hardware.

OS X is certified UNIX, unlike Linux. It will do anything and everything a Sun box will do, which as you know was/is known for it's ability to run scientific applications. Being UNIX, it's got your standard GNU compiler, so most likely your scientific applications can be easily ported if they were written in C/C++/Obj-C/Plethora of other languages.

I'm not really sure what your angle is. If you've been in the biz for 30 years, actually producing things, you already know all this. Don't rely on crappy trade rags for information. Most of the articles are written by hacks who aren't in the trenches (i.e. actually produce something).

The beauty of OS X is it's well designed, simple user interface. If it's too simple for what you are doing, just open a shell and you've got UNIX.

Anyway, I caught the Mac bug a year or two ago but have switched back to Windows. Why? Because I currently code using Visual Studio and I get frustrated with the responsiveness of Visual Studio in a VMWare / Parallels virtual machine. I'm very particular about how fast I can build and execute code. That was it's only flaw, and it wasn't even Apple's flaw, those are third party apps.

Their Cocoa framework is a thing of beauty and Objective-C (their primary language) is quite nice if you can get past the syntax.

I would just add to Clubber's post that OS X is very scalable. It has built in cluster management software called Apple XGrid, and runs any of the popular cluster software available such as Beowulf.

In-fact, Virgina Tech's cluster consisting of 324 MacPros does 29 teraflops ranking it as number 65 on the Top500 Super Computers.

But I doubt any of this will get through to PhilInYork.

Mac can't play my favorite games. Due to this fact, I'm Windows all the way.

You buy a Mac if it can do everything you want. However, there will always be more applications available on the Windows due to it's higher consumer count.

I was developing some iPhone Applications for a bit using a MacBook Pro, and the desktop system was very annoying when you've got a crap load of windows open. Add to that the wierd restriction hoops you must pass just to develop something for the iPhone, it's enough to drive a sane man loco.

Actually you can run any games that Windows can if you boot up into Windows on your Mac. More applications are available for a Mac because you can run Mac OS X, Windows, Linux, etc.

If it was annoying to use, you likely did not have enough ram for what you were trying to do, or a big enough screen, or both, or something.

I have several apps available for the iPhone, and it is actually a pretty sweet setup. No its not perfect - but then again - what in life is?

I have been huddled up in my Windows blanket since I was about 5 with Windows 95. Windows 95 was a hellhole, but what os wasn't back then? right now I am running the windows 7 RC, and it rides like a BMW on freshly paved highway. my blanket is warm, and I admit, the last time I used an apple was in 2nd grade, but i dont see myself owning an apple. If i use one at work, great. but I dont think i will ever personally pay for it.

I think Apple is starting to act like Wal-Mart wants to act, but cant because they are already under a federal microscope. I think that if people are willing to buy OSX, they shouldn't have to pay for some $250 "dongle" to plug in to your "non Mac" to run it.

Also, the story of GoogleVoice's battle truly upsets me. If you want somebody to fix something, TELL THEM WHAT THE PROBLEM IS. Its like leaving a product review soley saying "it doesnt work" and giving it 1 star. that doesnt benifit anybody.

It is their product, and they can do what they want, but if they want me as a customer, they are going to have to let a little more leeway into their products.

You can't say you can run any game on a Mac because you can boot into Windows.

Mac's began using PC parts because they became far superior. Mac's also took everything from Linux because it was far superior than their own kernel. The only thing that is truely Mac is the Monitor, Desktop Case, and for the OS, the Desktop Environment.

(NOTE: I speak my comments via speech dictation software, so please excuse the they're/there/their and your/you're errors.)

Why isn't this article listing the ways that Apple, by virtue of entering the phone industry, freed it from the service providers? FREED it from restrictions. Kind of a glaring omission in an article that's questioning Apple's trajectory.

First of all, at least some of their actions have nothing to do with their DNA or profit motives. If "big brother" Apple didn't pre-approve apps in its 70,000 and counting app store it'd be even more unwieldy to find quality apps, and the competition (along with hackers who hate Apple) would fill the store with crap to undermine the very concept. Make no mistake, this concept scared the hell out of a fiercely competitive group who doesn't like, one bit, that Apple got such a jump on such a successful model.

That's why iPhone malware, whether digital or social, would be even worse than the serial killer, of both reputation and profit, it proved to be for Microsoft and Windows. Because it is just 1 single store, 1 central repository, 1 highly visible location for apps, not to mention a new game-changing concept, altogether. They deny an app and the geeks go ape sh _ t. Well then, just imagine the tech press, astroturfers, and mere Apple haters when the first trojans appear that steal all of one's personal and financial information.

With apps being so easy to write (compared to conventional computer apps) there'd be even more fart apps, not to mention:
- The endless advertising apps (products like penis enlargers, and political such as the birther movement).
- The tits & ass apps, and just generally crass apps that would purposely do malicious harm — be it to Apple's or the App Store's image, to the device itself or, more importantly, to its users.
- The, last but not least, sabotage apps.
- Did I mention malware apps that steal one's entire identity?

THESE apps were not Apple's biggest fear, but biggest paranoia. (One of the bad things about benevolent dictatorships instead of creativity-killing committees that don't think different.) A very distant second on the priority list were the inevitable anti-Apple reactions of (the much smaller number of) geeks (than geeks think themselves to be) who're more likely to use Android, anyway — or at least anything not made by Apple, or anything but what the masses are flocking toward (which doesn't include Windows, a whole other animal).

(The Google Voice app is a puzzler, and until it's not, a glaring exception to the above defense. No one can figure out how denying the app profits Apple because Apple's contract doesn't include any share of what AT&T will profit from its own, for-charge, version of Google Voice. So if AT&T is the only reason, why isn't Apple deflecting blame? They explained other rejections, like the dictionary app and Sling Player. So what gives?)

It's not as if Apple doesn't care at all about user freedom. Apple apps users are ridiculously free. The Leopard OS is Unix and Apple's Cocoa app architecture is Objective-C. One can crack open Application bundles, manipulate plist files, inject code into applications, and all the countless things one normally can on Unix. The configuration files are text files, one has access to DTrace, one can also add kernel extensions, and so on. I can change the look (icons, sidebar/toolbars frames, etc.), what shows up in the menus (what they're named, their shortcut keys, etc.) and the very function of the application. No restrictions

The lack of restrictions makes OS X a power user's wet dream, yet remember how restricted the phone industry used to be? The most glaring example, of course, was the charge-by-the-minute, proprietary and pathetic, kinda sorta scrunched quasi-web — wifi access to which was purposely blocked — along with many other freedoms to the point, actually, wherein these phone companies dictated the very hardware and software the hardware and software companies could manufacture.

But then Apple made a deal with the AT&T devil to sell a phone which was allowed to break free from all of those nickel and dime restrictions that had previously made the use of many a novel feature too expensive and difficult to use for most users.

NEVER mentioned in articles bashing Apple's partnership with Apple is the prescient fact that Apple approached other providers first. It's just that AT&T was the only one that finally budged on those restrictions. Have you ever read what Verizon's iPhone stipulations were? You'd all be complaining about that partnership, too.

Fact is, the whole system sucks, not just AT&T + Apple. (Yes, I agree the current situation sucks, and that Apple is to blame for some of it. Apple's DNA is great and all, except for the success begets arrogance and greed part.) So, the exclusive was about far more than just visual voice mail. Apple wanted those anti-consumer rules abolished. Once they were abolished for Apple, they were for Blackberry and the rest. (Actually, Blackberry enjoyed more U.S. freedom than other handset makers, but nothing to coo about.)

Not only have all the handset makers woken up to a new era of some long-overdue freedom, but also innovations (Pre, newest Android phones, upcoming Zune Phone). The service providers, themselves, have suddenly and abruptly been forced to allow the handset makers far more leeway in what features and functions could and could not be manufactured into their own phones.

These were mere service providers, companies that had nothing whatsoever to do with hardware engineering/manufacturing, and software developing — yet had everything to do with what ended up being manufactured (for the U.S.). Or they'd just cripple the phone (if it was a one size fits all, made for the world market).

So, here we have yet another article that sees Apple as somehow bad for the tech industry. But Apple users are used to it. A dummy-proof phone that any non-geek can do powerful things with can be just as much an object of hate the Mac was to DOS geeks.

IT pros and wannabes have never liked it that Apple users can install 100 apps, all at once, in one fell swoop, just by dragging 100 icons from one machine to another (new computer or drive, of course; no pirating allowed or at least aloud). One "installs" an Apple app (one simple icon) just by unzipping it and dragging it anywhere on the drive, internal or external, one desires. That means one can just drag an app to the trash to "uninstall" it. And these Apple apps, and the OS they reside in, don't dial home, some not even requiring encryption keys to begin with. Far fewer — restrictions — than in Windows.

Even worse, a Mac user can just drag a single settings folder to the new machine, and all app "Preferences" will be identical. If you have system hacks ("Preference Panes") and are upgrading to, say, Leopard from Tiger then use Apple's migration tool, but not even that's needed if you're a power user.

I could tell you more about what the Mac and iPhone do that's "different" but suffice to say that defending Apple — from articles that go so far as to claim the tech industry should outright fear them — is not unreasonable. Apple's very DNA really is user-centric, just like the legend goes, even throwing oh so much more than just a finger bone to power users. So please, let's wait until they're un-tethered from AT&T (pun unintended), and until the damn tablet or whatever comes out before manufacturing the next innovative iFUD.

JoeOfTexas: you are clearly in denial. Your argument that Macs are not Macs because they have the same parts made me laugh - thanks! It is like arguing Ferrari's are actually Fords because they both have internal combustion engines.

BTW: Apple did not "take" anything from Linux. Mac OS X is based on Steve Job's Nextstep with the kernel based on Mach (developed at Carnegie Mellon University) and code from BSD UNIX.

Mach and BSD UNIX is NOT Linux. Might want to check your facts before you publicly make a fool of yourself.

rnojonson Come on everybody and sing: I see your true colors shining thru.........abandon hope all who click these icons!

Will the tablet apple be so significant that all tablets will change as we know them. Yeah, but they won't be running Apple's OS. So the variety and innovation continues.

The iphone is pretty much a two finger device, if we could make it bigger say more like a netbook and keep the same kind of OS, oh! it's genius!!!

What is this thing? (they push it around the table) It's like the iphone only bigger! Does it do anything different or more. I don't know but I think it's amazing what they did in so little memory. You think anybody will find this useful? How much technology will this replace? Will it kill the PDA market or the cellphone market? Is it a threat to the tablet market. Nah! It's Apple, sort of like putting a chrome RollsRoyce grille on a VW. Hey man, I like my VW like that. Dude put a chain on it wear it around your neck, you'll look like a tele-tubbie, ha ha. Man don't talk about my belly button or my mama!! Hey, is this thing secretly aware of other Macs when it comes in the room, what if........ Don't worry, when you leave the Apple store, your senses will return and everything will be as it has always been.

PhilInYork
08/06/09 at 10:22 pm

I have been in engineering and IT management for 30 years, and I can tell you one hard fast rule that most IT professionals live by...

...And that rule is that every battle IT has ever fought with users, they have lost. The only "win" most IT can claim is forcing Microsoft products on their users, and now they are even losing that victory to Macs, and have certainly lost ground to open source.

IT is a service industry. You apparently have forgotten that. Your attitude stands in the way of productivity as much as you imagine you enable it, and in light of the hyperbolic (and antiquated) commentary concerning what you imagine Macs can't do, you are unaware of your actual status in any organization.

Your job is to enable staff and employees to use technology as they and the company they work for see fit to accomplish their jobs and goals. If that technology and software is made by Apple, get off your pompous ass and support it, because that's your job.

Beware of the man who claims X number of years of experience. He may have one year of experience X number of times.

PhilInYork, you are a joke-poster, right? You can't be serious when you say Mac sytems can't do fluid dynamics.

There are countless examples of Mac clusters running computational fluid dynamics in both academia and industry. Heck, scientists at JPL and NASA Langly were using Macs as far back as in the 90's, even before the XServe/XGrid.

You are a real dinosaur in IT, PhillnYork. You need to get off your backend and start mingling in the modern world of IT.

If you were at Interop Vegas this year you'd have seen a majority of the IT professionals attending the keynotes and most of the big sessions typing on MacBook Pros. Seriously, at event's like that, you look behind you and you're looking at 70% or more glowing Apples in the room. Seeing that in the real world of IT doesn't jibe with your fantasy that "one hard fast rule that most IT professionals live by: 'Have nothing whatsoever to do with Apple Computer'" at all.

Your notion that "any user in a professional environment that requests an Apple is a poser. They do not know how to do whatever job they have," is as outdated as your attitude toward servicing your end-users. You must be really hidden in the back of your shop if you continue to get away with that old "If a user wants one, ignore the request and refuse to support it," in today's competitive IT environment.

Personally, I love my iPhone, and I love my MacBook. My next computer will be a MacBook Pro. Even though I love my iPhone, I recognize it for what it is: a phone. There are certain things I would never want to do on my iPhone, and would remain the exclusive domain of my MacBook. For one, even though I use MacOS the majority of the time, I do have Windows installed through Boot Camp for those rare occasions of using Windows. Secondly, as has been mentioned, I use plenty of high end music apps that wouldn't even function on an iPhone simply because I can't hook it up to my synthesizer. I'm not going to buy the tablet no matter how many features it has, I think if they did try and make the tablet as extremely restrictive as people fear it will be, they'll just stick with the MacBook.

I think all the Mac-DOS-Windows wars evident here show where some of Conlon's rant comes from. Ironically this kind of speculation rings of the Y2K scare articles that swarmed the web and the newspapers in the late 90s. "ruin the computer" with one product? It's funny how one person's opinion has already gotten so many people believing every word it says will be true when the product itself doesn't even officially exist yet!

Come on PopSci, don't you have more integrity than to look like the science world's National Star magazine? We can get those kinds of scare tactics at the register by the grocery checkout.

I suggest when and if this product comes out and you have some evidence of the computer world being ruined simply by it, then you post your article.

Now, let's get back to reading about the real science that's out there and upcoming products that PopSci is famous for before the computer is ruined and I can't read about it on my laptop anymore because i don't have one...and so on and so on...

Hmm. If they let it run OSX and don't prevent it from running Linux, I'll get right in line to buy it. If they hamstring it like the iphone, I won't buy it just like I didn't buy an iphone - pretty simple. I'm sure you're right about the strategy (same thing MS has already done with its non-windows devices and what Google would likely do if it already had the proprietary code to make its own iphone clone: as it is they are depending on enthusiastic open-source coders to deliver their next ad delivery system)

Ok, so your point is that Macs are now overpriced PC's, running Unix, with a pretty interface that I can turn off to run most of the world’s software. THAT'S why I should buy one?!?
If I wanted to do high-end Unix-based CFD or other engineering, I would buy a Unix workstation with 192 GB RAM running Red Hat Linux to support my user. Why the Hell would I install it on a Mac?
Their servers are underpowered and overpriced with a neato user interface that no one ever sees. If I want a Unix server, I buy real iron, install Oracle, and have a fine, professional environment that scales fine, thank you very much.
So your recommendations are to buy Macs whenever possible. Then come up with excuses why it should be done that way. This sounds really familiar. This is why you posers keep losing your jobs.

People will put up with a cell phone and touch screen, but when they want to do some real work a touch keyboard won't work. This is the beginning of the end of Apple. Sell your stock while you can.

http://blog.whitesites.com

PhilInYork: you are absolutely clueless.

The whole point of IT is service - which you clearly have no concept of. Basically you are only there to support the best equipment for the user. Sometimes it might be a PC, sometimes it might be a workstation, sometimes it might be a refrigerator sized server and sometimes that might even be a Mac. If there were not users you would not have a job!

It is all about productivity, and some people might be more productive on a Mac than doing the same task on a PC, but because of your Mac complex, productivity may very well suffer.

If you worked for my company I would fire your ass in a instant.

hahaha, Fox thinks Apple wants to call this the "iPad".
Does it bleed once a month?!

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,538919,00.html

I'm quite frankly appalled that such an article would be posted on a site like this. Not only is it horrendously and blatantly slanted, it represents a frightening trend in modern journalism toward abysmal research behind any given story. The opening paragraph is riddled with speculations that were revised or thrown out more than a month ago, and calling the app store one of apple's "major money-makers" is just plain false. Apple's profits from the app store are minimal, and the only significant gain the company receives from it is increased demand for products that run the iphone OS resulting from the draw of being able to run more third party applications than ANY other competitor by a long shot. Every other phone that can be considered in the same category as the iphone, and any other mobile device for that matter, falls far short of the app store's volume of third party software. To call the iphone "restrictive" in this scenario is ludicrous.

The truth is that Apple has made the greatest effort of all to provide support and incentive to developers, which is why third party software is so prevalent and well distributed on both the iphone OS and OS X. If a 12 year old kid can make money writing apps for a mac platform and a software company can go bankrupt trying to independently distribute an application for another platform on some obscure website, which do you think is the better deal?

And even beyond that, to attack a mythical tablet that has been bouncing around cupertino for over a decade without any factual evidence of its specifications, much less a realistic release date, is simply bad journalism. Its sad that you're willing to stretch that far in hopes of attracting a few more readers. Its sad that your editor would allow you to publish something so bad that I felt compelled to create this account for the sole purpose of commenting on your trash. Even if a tablet by Apple had the capability of "ruining computing" as you so dramatically claim, the fact remains that consumers ultimately draw the line of what is acceptable and what not. With Apple holding less than 10% of the computer market as a whole, it would be irrational to expect this tablet to attract even a 2% total user base. Hardly the kind of figure that stands to corrupt the thus-far unstoppable wave of computer innovation, even considering the fact that nearly every development to come from microsoft in the past decade has had a long established and often better functioning mac predecessor.

You should be more concerned with the problems of the computing industry that already exist rather than those that have yet to surpass the theoretical stage. Maybe publish your next article about the vast ignorance of the general computing public, and use yourself as the prime example. The main reason for poor quality in the computing industry is that the lion's share of users don't know any better. That's why IE is as broken as it is, that's why vista doesn't work like it should, that's why viruses have become such a problem, and that's why petty fear mongering second rate journalists such as yourself are so effective at keeping the general public in the dark ages of technology.

We have choices...that is our freedom. Choose Apple, a better computing platform, or choose PC/Windows which I have found to be even more restrictive, and, oh-by-the-way, subject to viruses, hacks, etc. I use both platforms everyday, and much prefer Apple to PC. I love my iphone. It does what Apple said it would do, and it does it well. No other company or piece of technology can say the same. I welcome the Apple Tablet and will buy one.

This is the same as saying people are alcoholics because there are too many liquor stores. If apple makes a product, you don't have to buy it. If people do, it is their free will … especially if you think apple overprices their products.

This is rediculous, so much so it's recockulous.

3DTOPO: I see your last posting came in at 4:18 am. I guess that’s because you’re unemployed. Let me guess: you recommended an Apple server running MySQL as an “an enterprise class database”

until they make a laptop with proper ergonomic key board like the Goldtouch from keyovation, I will never buy one. I feel the same with this Apple. Desk top PCs with the proper add ons like left and right hand contour mouses are more economical. Just like Blackberry thumb, such a poor keyboard will cause more health problems like chronic tendinitis than are worth the benefit of a portable design.

They will have them made in China just like the IPhone is. So there will be knock offs without the restrictions just like the SciPhone knock off of the IPhone that I bought.

With the new Memresistor and OLED PopSci wrote about the future is your cell phone being a supercomputer the size of a credit card. This will send video to your widescreen OLED TV or monitor and the desk top and laptop will go away. It is the future.

Very good article.

I can't believe some of these comments that are on Apple's side. Apple converted from MP3 to their own file so you can't copy any of the music on the Ipod for Pure Greed.

You can only download from their store so they can get a cut and make money off of every app you use. This is nothing to do with AT&T. If it was TMobile or whatever there would still be an Apple App store. The ones that were rejected probably would not pay Apple their cut.

I bought an MP3 and not an Ipod for this reason (and now my SciPhone is my MP3 player too). They chased away business trying to control the music for higher profits.

But there are so many people who don't pay attention that they made a killing and will therefore continue this practice. I will not be surprised if all Apple's products even the desk tops make you go through Apple for everything so they can continue to make a killing.

Apple equals Greed!!!!

Personally, I wonder about the psychiatric health of anyone who buys a (cr)Apple over a PC, if not for any other reason than cost comparison. For example, take two identical computers, both running Intel 2.5ghz processors. Both with 2gb memory. Both with equivalent graphics cards and graphics memory. Same power of sound. And same size hdd. The only difference between them being that one is a PC and one is a (cr)Apple. Generally the PC will cost on average of up to $1500 LESS than the (cr)Apple. Who in their right mind would spend $1500 for a name?? As far as the OS is concerned, Windows 7 will blow anything (cr)Apple has out of the water. And, if Steve Jobs is such a genuis computer guru, then why isn't (cr)Apple the number one computer, (or the only computer for that matter) used by everyone? As for these ridiculously expensive machines being used for animation, it might have something to do with Jobs being on the board of directors for Disney AND having owned Pixar Animation Studios before Disney bought them out (and, subsequently, hired Jobs onto their board). You want a good mp3 player? Go with a Microsoft Zune. Does everything an iPod will AND it'll have a larger hdd, all for about $50-$100 LESS. iPhone? Try Google's new Android phone. Again, it does everything the iPhone will AND it's cheaper AND it's not exclusive to any single carrier! Again, paying for the name seems to be hip, or something. One thing you can give Jobs credit for...he knows and understands all too well an old adage: "A fool and his money are soon parted." Of course, the world is full of fools and idiots, so I'm sure (cr)Apple products will be around for a very long time...unfortunately.

Lakusus: I am not sure where you get your figures, but you are clearly misinformed.

Tge Mac mini is $599, so there are comparable PCs for NEGATIVE $900??

The MacBook is $999, so there are comparable PCs for NEGATIVE $500???

The MacBookPro is $1199, so there are comparable PCs for NEGATIVE $300???

The iMac is $1199, so there are comparable PCs for NEGATIVE $300?

Sorry but you are dreaming. PC companies clearly don't PAY YOU to purchase their computers.

And I know for a fact you can not get a PC with identical hardware as the Mac Pro for $999. Why don't you back up your post with some actual examples. Oh because you can't.

Really, the Zune has 70,000 apps available for it? Really, Android has 70,000 apps available for it too?

Wow you are such in denial, I bet you are good buddies with PhilInYork. Losers.

People, people, please relax, or take a tablet...

This iTablet won't kill computing! And neither will closed, proprietary systems. Have any of you ever heard of capitalism and free market? If ENOUGH of the market HATES this gadget, no one will buy it. And if they align it with only one cellular carrier, well they automatically rule out a large portion of potential customers.

Apple can't possibly take over ALL computing / interconnectivity commerce channels because sooner or later, Apple will have plenty of competition as other manufacturers do the same with their products.

Please see the palm Pre / Sprint alignment, but I digress.

Don't hate Apple because they have redefined the way that music is distributed via iTunes, convinced the recording industry to give us DRM free music content (yes the Zune also benefits from this), and operating systems that ACTUALLY work.

I can't wait to upgrade to Windows 7 from XP....oh, that's right...Microsoft suggests not doing so...Don't ANYONE accuse Apple of being greedy. It's called COMMERCE, people!!!

Simply put, Apple's design philosophy of "proprietarianism" is what THEY do to in order to compete with Microsoft and the PC market.

Apple will continue this path and adhere to its methods of products design and distribution until they are regulated or a BETTER product comes along.

Well, I better stop typing now before VIsta freezes up on me.

Ted Darby

Steve Jobs has been trying to close the computing environment ever since he introduced the MAC, originally with so little memory that it would not operate well. The early purchasers had to at their expense send their MACs back and get them upgraded, also at their own expense.

He had an opportunity to capture the personal computing market before Windows became established, and he blew it. I will never own an apple product, and apparantly, most of the PC community won't either.

You are right about the potential for serious mischief, but I trust that the PC community is smart enough to keep this a nitch market.

Ted Darby: What did Jobs do to try and "close" the Mac? How is it any less open than say Microsoft?

Microsoft stole Apple's technology, so it was not so much that Jobs "blew it" as he was ripped off.

I dont see anything "Bad" happening from the Itap or whatever "I" item it will be named.

I see it the same as the Iphone was, the Iphone is simply a phone, with some cool add on's and features, but its core fact, its still a phone. ....The Apple Tablet, (which i find funny, since apple has previously said they wanted to stay out of the netbook market)
is nothing more than a Netbook, with a few cool features that ohter netbooks may not have, Sure it will have itunes (even though i dont think the speakers would be suited for listening to music) and the other Mac staples. But the main thing it would come down to (weither it ran a OS similar to the iphone or a fully loaded OSX) it would lack the computing power to do much with it. Same for the Windows OS netbooks, yeah, you have full windows, but the lack of computing power is its limit. (example the apple Air book, small lightweight, but limited computing power)

And since most Apple fanboys will buy the tablet, I would ask each person what they would actually do with it? assuming most people who would buy it already has an iphone, you already have mobile internet, video's, music, apps, etc. Then there is the size of the thing, obviously it wont fit in your pocket as well as your smartphone, and if you did whip out a massive iphone, why not just spend the extra $100 and get a mac book that will probably have more computing power?

Someone posted earlier that you cant buy a PC with comparable specs as a Mac laptop for less, thats not the case, (at the time i bought my PC) My laptop had better specs than the macbook pro and it was cheaper than the mbPro's. Only bad thing, is the lack of batter life (which is the manufacturers fault, nothing to do with who made the OS) I dont see the big dislike with Vista, as you can mod it just like any other OS.

Side note: if the tablet looks like the one in the pictue, how are you supposed to type with two hands on the 10" (diagonally i'm assuming) screen? you would pretty much have to hold it with one hand and chicken-peck the "keys", unless it was not so clunky you could manage to use your thumbs.

Way i see it, apple fanboys will buy the glorified portable internet broser to check their facebook's and to gloat about their macs to their last dying breath.

I run Windows, but i'm not a one-sider, main reason for running windows was for my job. I like the macbooks, but the cost for performance is too steep for me.

Concerning iPhone, try this metaphor as would be from Apple's perspective:

I have an exclusive relationship with my bf because I gain the most from dating him, and only him. He gains the most from dating me because I'm smart, hot etc., but he must also pay a high price because I'm smart, hot etc. We don't allow one another to sleep with others due to our symbiotic relationship. My fidelity is unfortunate for other men, but is beneficial for my bf and I for the time being.

The moment that the bf stops paying his dues, I will return to dating casually, and while a greater number of men will benefit from this, I am losing out on quality.

if there is hope, it lies in the proles. (well maybe linux... but still, you get the point)

This article seems to be more of a scare tactic; personally I love the idea of the Tablet, and if it erases iPhones, or other technologies well so be it, we have to move on some time, and things do change. Technology will be growing at an exponential rate (it already is but faster very soon) and in a couple of years the hottest technology of that year will be outdated the next year.

The point of this article is stupid from the very first opening hyperbole about Australopithecus! Most of the "closed" aspect you ascribe to Apple is actually AT&T contractual behavior. The Phone has been jailbroken and unlocked on every version within hours. The only closed computing systems are those belonging to people who don't care about going outside the "garden walls". If you care to live outside the walls, don't buy it. If you prefer to live in the nice garden but occasionally stroll outside to enjoy something different, then break the OS! It's easy!

As the writer states many netbooks are sold at a subsidized price and not one of these devices has any restrictions on the software you can install whatever you like. The iphone may be very computer like (in fact it is a computer) however it is first and foremost a phone and the public has accepted walled gardens for their phones. No way Apple would like their computer down like the iphone it just does not make good business since. Apple as of late has done well I just can't see them shooting themselves in the foot on a long awaited device.

I fear this day would actually come.

Having a ROM Crafted Treo for four full years, seeing how "closed" the iphone OS is and never wanting one. Tasting a Linux varient Web OS on Pre. The things are somewhat skepticle but not quite impossible knowing the Steve Jobs & Company.

Quite frankly they defined many things in computer world, from Personal Computer, USB, Mouse (?), Firewire, DispalyPort to Best UI and iPod, iPhone, iTunes ecosystem but this very company drive us to this feared a bleak the Matrix like future may be.

Hence though I use it, quite franckly refrain from recomanding Macs in general, iPhones never.

Still they are too flashy not to get too much attention. Obviously if they roll on, MS will follow suit inevitably.

R,
Chan_____________________________
http://dreamsmademe.wordpress.com

All i gotta say is that MICROSOFT RULES YES THERE ARE GLITCHES BUT THAT MEAN'S THAT IT IS WORKING I LETS YOU HAVE FREEDOM ONCE YOU HAVE FREEDOM THEN IT'S UP TO YOU TO GET WORMS OR TROJENS BUT ON MAC IT'S THE PEICE OF CRAP COMPUTEING AND PRICE THAT NO ONE WANTS TO BOTHER HACKING IT!!

As already stated by others, if you don't like Apple, don't buy it. I have an iPhone and I'm happy with the app choices in the App Store. I have no desire to jailbreak my phone and take a chance it will not work. Having worked for AT&T Wireless in the past, I do believe they need their feet held to the fire. MMS and tethering not ready? They had plenty of time to make their system ready for those features, they are just trying to figure how they can justify charging for those features on the iPhone. AT&T makes a ton of money, their inability to be profitable is due to their poor customer service and poor management in general. We as consumers choose what products succeed and which ones fail by what we choose to purchase. The best thing Apple could do to make the iPhone even better would be to run screaming from AT&T as soon as they can and include another carrier to put pressure on AT&T to get their act together.

It seems to me that AT$T is your problem not apple.

If you were designing new macs for apple you would need to secure your design and os why?
You would have the likes of Psystar all around everyday making money off your products...kinda like dell and the rest of them in the MS market :)

Up here in Canada we got Rogers ha
They allow everything on the phone from MMS, tethering and a big 6GB a month for 30 bucks a mth.

You can look at population and say well AT$T has to satisfy more clients due to population valid arguement i guess but not allow MMS??? come on this is so basic for these days that you US folks are just getting ran over and propped up with a big middle finger up your ASS courtesy AT$T. Nothing to do with apple.

On a final note I must say it's about time you folks in the US feel our pain, we usually get the middle finger now we have the green light on all for our beloved iPhones:)
Bout time US gets held back... oh and since you have a higher population don't you think your votes would count seeing the potential high volume to complain to AT$T?

Canada simply fought against rogers for couple months and they brought back some great deals for us.
So stop typing and get off your ass and go get what your paying for geeesh!

OK, I won't complain about my iMac, I'll blame Apple Care for insuring that I'll never buy an iAnything again. Bob Stuart

LOL that will not happen simply because there are too many people like me that hate anything locked down, and our numbers are growing. we do not buy DRM music, and we do not allow our OS to lock us down. If they do we change our OS. That is the main reason why i stopped using windows except for gaming, and the main reason i will never use apple anything.

It will be the end because there will be nothing to look forward to in computing. I do hope that apple doesn't pair it up with a phone company though.

Actually, I felt the article nailed the points well. You buy it, you're stuck with the behavior that it's programmed to. And with Mac's that's their version of usability vs being open to customization.

I'm a sysadmin with a mid-sized firm stuck with an ancient Mac design department, and I'll admit that colours my opinions. I like open hardware, and I like open software even better, but for all of those arguing that IT is a 'service industry', let me remind you I'm beholden to the decisions of the corporate bosses.

Mac's cost more. I prepared a comparison budget last summer, and for the department, same software (remember, design house) but Mac vs Dell, Dell's came in at 12k less. We can't do the job in linux; I wish we could, so it's OS X or Win only.

Mac's seem to suffer a lack of freeware or open source apps. I'm not talking about grabbing stuff from sourceforge, I'm talking about those handy little tools that all Windows sysadmins have to make their lives easier. I've generally found that handy little Mac apps all cost $20. Per machine. It adds up with 25 desktops and 5 back-end machines.

Also, maybe I'm missing something, but where are the administrator tools for network admin in Mac systems? Windows server can drive a man mad, but at least I can place some limits on the unruly behavior of desktop users. Do these tools even exist in the Mac world? Domain admin, clunky as is it, makes corporate IT work.

PhilInYork: Whilst I agree with most of your substance, I wouldn't go that far. Macs are relatively capable, but I wouldn't recommend them for business users either.

3DTOPO: Please don't trot out the bat pucky about design and audio and video being so much better on a Mac. They're not. I have noted for some time that Avid, probably the 900lb gorilla in video work has both Win and Mac desktop systems, and uses UNIX/Linux for the heavy lifting.

I think it comes down to a simple realization. If you're OK with working in the Mac style environment, and your don't mind the way Apple structures things, you'd like an Apple tablet. I will not. Your milage may vary. Not applicable where prohibited by law. Thank you.

A lot of up and downs here, always when apple brings out somethings new a lot of people panic at first, and after realize that it will be a new circle of new inventions and better equipment. An apple software don't give you the headache you always get with windows. So lets look forward and see what comes out of it within the next couple of months, watch the mobil device market, plenty of choices because other companies did act fast to keep up with the i-phone. That is the cycle, like it or hate it it will not go away, and we the customers get the best products possible.

Improve your business, your life, your relationships, your finances and your health. When you do so the whole world improves.
Gruge60
www.envopark.net

clocksmith: historically Macs have been used more by professionals for design and video. Has Avid always run on PCs? Even if it did, historically a greater percentage of professionals in that line of work choose Macs.

This is a well documented fact. Perhaps try pulling your head out of where the sun don't shine and you might see the truth. Seeing how you agree with PhilInYork I really doubt that is possible.

this is foolish. if ANYONE here has ever used an I phone, i am sure that they know that this is not a serious problem. primarily, just because apple comes out with a tablet, does not mean that they will cancel the production of desktop computers. this idea that your computer freedom is being challenged by what is simply a great big I phone with more storage and a finder app, stupid to the point of ludicrous.

I really don't think this is the pocalyptic situation you make out it is. (I did enjoy your Dad's house analogy though - good shout.) At then end of the day - Apple don't rule the world. If you don't want to be restricted by Apple - don't buy their products. There will always be other options, and desktop computers will obviously still exist. Ok so you might have to decide which is the lesser of two evils, ut that choice will always remain.

P.s if anyone wants to see more mock up pics of the tablet (we can only dream it will look this awesome!) check out :

http://blog.letsbuyit.com/en/2009/09/10/apple-tablet/

Just hope it gets to Verizon, theyre like a body shield when it comes to customers. theyll help you with whatever, and they might have a bone to pick if apple keeps this up. We might even go as far as to say...

APPLE VS. VERIZON! FIGHT TO THE DEATH(or member loss)!

Yet we cant just get rid of our ipods, i mean these guys practically pioneered mp3 format.
Therefore:...
TABLET:good idea
THINGS GUNNING FOR IT:not awesome-DaSonicMan

hi, either be a leader or be a follower.... dont stand in-between.

apple has created new markets and they have not done anything that restrictive with ipods and iphone or macs. they do reserve their own rights so does microsoft and others - nothing alarming!

so let them innovate and see what happens dont judge right now.

i wonder how much microsoft paid for this

Dear PhillnYork:

I made this pathetic little account just to respond to your post.

I just want you and everyone in this thread aware that YOUR attitude is the EXACT reason I came to Apple and will never return (unless forced to) to microslow.

You Apple slammers must live in some sort of fear or jealousy of Apple for some reason and need to feel better about your computing preferences. So you write all this garbage about Apple and the people who use them. "Holier than thou" --I think those were the words you chose. Funny, I recall an IDIOTIC Steven Ballmer sliding across the stage a time ago on his belly just to introduce Vista..Wow. Oh--but that's not holier than thou about a product because it's PhillynYork's idol. Remember Ballmer laughing at the iPone?

You really think just because your an IT professional, who is apparently under the Balmer panis ( ya, that's PANIS, not penis--look it up in your Dell ) , we should not like our products to be Apple made? Just who the fuck do you think you are man? I work in a VERY large hospital and 1/2 or more of our computer's at the hospital are Mac's--and our IT pro's are very proficient at them and actually like them better than any window's based machine in the place. I work in radiology and can see my images faster, clearer, better that if on a HP or Dell. I have two person Mac's, most of my friends have Mac's, my mom, sister, and wife all have Mac's. We enjoy our Mac's tremendously, way more than ANY PC we've ever had but I've never spoken down about PC's or people who use them--until today. You, my boy, have me talking down to a PC person.

If you don't like Apple, good for you. Im real happy about that. I'm glad you have a preference for a computer. I do too, and it's Apple. You write your rant from some imaginary pedestal, like your the GURU of personal computing. You are showing a pretty flashy account of lacking some serious humility sir. People like Apple product's. Other's like Windows product's. It's what we like to DO with our machine's, how we like to do these thing's, and how we like them to look. That is why we choose either PC or Apple product's. What's all this shit coming from your post? Who's really trying to be holier than thou? You sound like someone we would never hire onto our team--even if we were all PC.

Dude, Im disgusted with your comment. You really are an ass hole and I hope you remember me the next time you have to deal with a virus that's infected your entire network or what not. Cheer's.

Wow, I have to say PhillInYork seems like quite the Internet troll. He doesn't succeed quite as well as other trolls on other forums because he doesn't quite radiate that air of pseudo-authority, nor do his arguments sound quite as reasonable on first glance as a true troll's would be. But let me dissect just a bit more.

I think where Phill loses some credibility is in his first sentence, when he says he's been in "engineering and IT management for 30 years." It's the IT management part that is the bright, shining beacon indicating that this guy may have completely lost touch with the real state of the industry. Most people who have been in IT for that long tend to have developed very ossified attitudes, and it takes real work to get past them. Some folks never do, and they wind up in cushy, dead-end jobs, maintaining some old archaic system because nobody else wants to (or can, in some cases -- because the system was developed in a currently unpopular language, or because it was never adequately documented).

He also indicates, in a later comment, that he is an IBM partisan when he sneers at MySQL and mentions iServer. While I agree that MySQL is hardly an enterprise class RDBMS (and I know MySQL developers personally, so I know where many of the deficits in the code are), it does work well for small web applications that are not mission critical, such as web site discussion forums. On Mac OS X, you have other choices, such as PostgreSQL (a favorite of mine), Oracle, and several smaller databases, such as embeddable DBs. Oracle is certainly up to data warehousing needs, and is what my current employer uses.

A side note about IBM: When I was growing up, I knew an IBM technician who was a pretty savvy guy, but he was a bit too indoctrinated with the "old school" IBM culture for his own good. For example, he wouldn't accept when people said "hard disk." "It's a DASD!" Similarly, because old IBM big iron stores numeric data in BCD, or binary coded decimal, he would refer to BCD as simply "binary." So what do you call binary data where a 4-bit nybble can take on 16 discrete values instead of being limited to only 10? Well, in math class, and in every University computer science course I ever took (undergrad or graduate), it is called "binary." But noooo, this IBM tech would tell me that's wrong. "It's binary coded hex."

Yeah, IBM partisans live in their own fantasy world where every term you ever learned is wrong, and they have their own invented lingo that you have to use when talking to them or you get a lecture about how your terms are "wrong" and theirs are "right." That's especially true of a lot of their older big iron proponents. Fortunately, the old guard is dying out, and people with a more modern CS education are replacing those older employees.

"Any user in a professional environment that requests an Apple is a poser. They do not know how to do whatever job they have." I can't even begin to understand where this comes from, except profound ignorance and personal resentment that exceeds all reasonable bounds. In short, Phill seems to have issues. Perhaps he needs anger management? Oh, sorry, that's an ad hominem attack, isn't it? Just like the ad hominem attack he made against a large swath of IT developers.

In point of fact, my organization is slowly getting more Macs. The company is offering MacBook Pro laptops as an alternative to IBM Thinkpads or Dells running Windows XP. One reason these Mac laptops are popular is that they don't suffer the ridiculous slowdowns from certain software that is mandatory on other laptops (*cough*McAfee*cough*LanDesk*cough*). Are these users unable to use PCs? Hardly -- most of them were, if not happily, then at least competently using desktop and laptop PCs to do their jobs. These are DBAs and programmers, not just rank-and-file users. They simply found a better tool to do their jobs and ran with it.

Saying that someone doesn't know how to do their job because of their choice of desktop or laptop computer reeks of ignorance and stupidity. If your ability to do a job is so tightly tied to the tool, then there's something wrong with you; a real engineer knows how to do the job with whatever tool they are allowed to use, whether they are given it or whether they have to request it. I've seen engineers develop web sites and apps in Notepad before, and I've even done a bit of that myself, though naturally given a choice of tools Notepad wouldn't be at the top of most people's lists.

My Mac-using coworkers have ZERO interoperability problems with their PC-using counterparts. None. Zilch. So much for Phill's assertion that they couldn't. I think perhaps he is assuming implicitly that Mac users are somehow of lower general intelligence, because anyone with two brain cells to rub together can figure this stuff out.

"Nothing I have done on a computer in the last 10 years is even possible on a Mac." This is absolutely, demonstrably false. Large projects at NASA/JPL, Virginia Tech (mentioned in other comments), Carnegie Mellon, and elsewhere show that it is highly likely anything Phill did in the last decade is doable on a Mac. Whether you'd actually want to use Apple servers is another story, and personally I think the Mac desktop and laptop systems are best for development and prototyping and the front-end user interface to large systems, but that's all academic. You use the right tool for the job. If I want a highly concurrent monster database, I would consider Sun hardware (well, maybe not after the Cisco merger) or even IBM hardware.

Data warehouses can and have been done with Mac hardware. Computational fluid dynamics absolutely has been done on Mac hardware. Mac OS X desktop systems and laptops are popular in academia, and university research and scientific computation is routinely being done with Macs. CFD isn't even the most interesting application out there.

"Ok, so your point is that Macs are now overpriced PC's, running Unix, with a pretty interface that I can turn off to run most of the world’s software. THAT'S why I should buy one?" First off, nobody turns the user interface of OS X off to run most of the world's software. It works fine without turning off the Mac UI, thank you very much; the OS ships with a very good X11 implementation which runs concurrently with the existing UI that you apparently dislike so much. But yes, it's a real UNIX, and was certified as such. Linux is not a UNIX, and never will be until someone ponies up the money to do the compliance testing. The "overpriced" bit is a bit of hyperbole in light of what you get for the money. Buying a Mac Pro versus buying a similarly configured Dell workstation -- the costs are very close, pretty much a wash. I'll agree that the Apple laptops could come down in price a bit -- and they recently dropped somewhat, so I think Apple is aware that they can't charge a premium forever. When other manufacturers start churning out laptops that are of comparable build quality AND a decent OS experience, then maybe the value proposition will swing enough that way to make sense for me.

"If I wanted to do high-end Unix-based CFD or other engineering, I would buy a Unix workstation with 192 GB RAM running Red Hat Linux to support my user. Why the Hell would I install it on a Mac?" This is where Phill loses credibility as a 30-year veteran. He ought to know that Red Hat Linux is not UNIX. Most engineering users back in the day would demand a SPARC-based workstation running Solaris, which by the way IS a real UNIX, or they'd ask for something like an HP workstation running HP-UX. But throwing Red Hat on a... well, not sure what hardware you're intending here, other than it must be a beefy workstation class machine able to take 192 GB of RAM. I'm guessing something like a Dell Precision T workstation?

These days, a lot of scientists and engineers are demanding Mac Pros and MacBook Pros to do their work, and if they have computational needs that exceed what they have on their desktop, they can always offload computation to a server farm -- which can be anything. Again, right tool for the job.

"Their servers are underpowered and overpriced with a neato user interface that no one ever sees." OK, I guess Phill us unaware of the remote management UI stuff which most certainly admins get to see -- and they don't even need to be physically co-located with the box because, you know, it's remote! Underpowered, I might accept, although I think Apple is targeting a market for their servers that Phill apparently isn't a part of. And that's fine. Apple doesn't compete in all spaces, nor should they try to.

"So your recommendations are to buy Macs whenever possible. Then come up with excuses why it should be done that way. This sounds really familiar. This is why you posers keep losing your jobs." I don't think anyone is making such a recommendation, Phill. I think Phill needs a straw man to tear down... followed, of course, by an ad hominem attack.

Annnnnd... none of us are losing our jobs. Maybe that's because in our chosen fields, we're more productive with whatever tool we happen to choose. Which for many of us (and more all the time) is a Mac.

But of course, Phill can't resist getting in a few more ad hominem attacks: "I see your last posting came in at 4:18 am. I guess that’s because you’re unemployed. Let me guess: you recommended an Apple server running MySQL [...]" Some of us have employers that allow us, even encourage us, to check out tech news, work on our own side projects, etc. Others of us like to do our website reading and comment posting either before work or after work. Some of us are young, and can stay up all night and then drink a caffeinated beverage to get into the office at 9 AM. How does Phill know what 3DTOPO's schedule is like? Utterly absurd assumptions and conclusions. I checked, and 3DTOPO never once claimed MySQL is an enterprise class database. He never once used those words. Perhaps it was foolish of him to mention MySQL in the same breath as 50 million records, but in fairness to him, he also mentioned PostgreSQL in the very same sentence. Maybe Phill has a dim view of Postgres as well, but then why harp solely on MySQL repeatedly just to bash one other user?

And, as I said before, MySQL is adequate for certain applications which are not mission critical... which is actually a LOT of what is deployed on the web today. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised of the comments section on this site is backed by a MySQL database. Sometimes, "good enough" is all you need.

This antipathy toward Macs reminds me of an experience I had while working as a consultant for American Express. In fact, I ran into an admin there who had exactly the same attitudes toward Macs as Phill, except he wasn't quite as frothing-at-the-mouth about it, AND he was honest in telling me one reason he wanted to keep the organization all-PC was his own job security and the guaranteed growth of his support organization. He was very proud about needing to hire extra admins on a regular basis, because he could grow his own political power in the organization and hire a bunch of friends in the process.

So what happened? Last I heard, AmEx had outsourced almost all development and most infrastructure and administration. As I understand it, their facilities in my city are a shell of their former selves. I think they might have a few people left writing screen-scraping apps to interface modern systems with antiquated mainframe systems because they dare not replace their old hardware. Maybe they upgraded to some of the new IBM iServers or what have you, but if so, the work is probably all being done in India with a tiny bit of local oversight. I guess the local IT organization started to get too unwieldy.

JoeOfTexas wrote: "You can't say you can run any game on a Mac because you can boot into Windows."

Sure you can. It's a different operating system, but the hardware is indeed a Mac, and the game is running. But if you don't like the dual-boot solution, there's always VMWare or Parallels, both of which are adequate for most games these days.

Or you could play games that, you know, actually are released for the Mac. World of Warcraft may be a single game, but it has a huge user base, and it's wildly popular and successful. If it's not your cup of tea, fine, but it's an option -- and a very popular one. No virtualization or dual-booting required!

"Mac's began using PC parts because they became far superior. Mac's also took everything from Linux because it was far superior than their own kernel. The only thing that is truely Mac is the Monitor, Desktop Case, and for the OS, the Desktop Environment."

And this is where you totally lose credibility. Macs (note, no apostrophe because this is a plural and not a possessive) have been using "PC parts" for decades. This is not a new phenomenon. Mac computers used standard SIMM and DIMM memory for the longest time, even before they used PowerPC processors; they used PCI as the bus well before the transition to Intel processors. I might also point out that it was the iMac that promoted the use of USB, when the ports were being included on PC motherboards but the standard was dying for lack of peripherals. Remember how everyone was just happy with PS/2 mouse and keyboard ports, and didn't need that new-fangled USB stuff? Intel owes a debt of gratitude to Apple for rescuing USB from obscurity.

Also, Mac OS X has no Linux code directly incorporated into it anywhere. OS X uses FreeBSD and NetBSD as its foundation, with the Mach microkernel developed at CMU and the NeXTstep/OpenStep framework for its UI. The Linux kernel is monolithic, and is nothing like the Mach kernel in OS X.

Computer hardware is a commodity. Most of what you call "PC parts" are in fact common to many high-end workstations, not just Macs and PCs. I will point out, though, that the Mac Pro (a desktop system) uses FB-DIMMs that are server-class memory; you won't find that in most PCs.

MY WHAT BIG PASSION YOU HAVE!

I believe what *$%@York is saying is that the PC provides job security, and she will ignore anything that threatens it. Open the phone book under computer repair. How many Mac repair stores do you see? A Mac repairman is kind of like the Maytag repairman.

Can't believe there is this much time spent on a product that is still in market research (It will be here soon though....)

Like someone previously posted, I joined the forum just to make a comment. Can't let the patients run the asylum...

Cheers

What I want to know is why did the EU keep Microsoft from putting IE on the Windows 7 image for all of Europe? If they keep MS friom putting on a free browser, why don't governments start doing the same type of thing for Apple. It's Apple trying to control the user-implementation of a piece of electronics. Apple's been doing it since they started, so it's alright; when Microsoft was built around open-software so people want it to be more free. Apple users are just brainwashed, and that's the reason that most nerds try to stay away from Macintosh products.

The kindle is restrictive too, and the graphics capability and internet restrictions suck. The moment Apple comes out with a tablet, I'm getting one.

Ok. I haven't read all the comments (maybe 40 left) yet, but I have to say something. Just because there are 70,000 plus apps at Apple's AppStore, doesn't mean that iPhone user's are free of restrictions....they still have to pay for them. I think the point of this article was missed by some people.
Payment in full for services rendered does not equal freedom. It just means that's what they wanted you to do. Pay for their crap (or crap somebody sold to Apple). Even still, all 70,000 plus apps can't be that usefull. And will an iPhone even hold 70,000 apps? I'd like to see the home screen on that SOB.
I've never even seen an iPhone, and from what I'm reading here I'll stick with Windows. On my desk and in my pocket.
Thanks
Buh-bye

While if it were to happen it would be like ''Big Brother'' all over again. However for them to be able to pull something like this off, that would restrict us in our own personal web freedom, would be a little extreme. If consumers don't want to be ruled by the computer industry, all we really have to do is, stop supporting their products. If apple sees a significant decrease in sales, they will be forced to have to quit their restrictions.

www.processusa.com

I completely agree with 3DTOPO.

@reggaemash: "Open the phone book under computer repair. How many Mac repair stores do you see?"
That's one of the great things about Apple, they encourage you to take any problems to their stores or call them. They think that you shouldn't have to deal with any problems at all, and they're very good about returns, customer satisfaction, etc.

I still don't understand how anyone thinks this could possibly be a bad thing. I own a mac, and there are half a dozen macs in my family (including a 1986 mac plus) all of which are in perfect working order. I have o doubt that this will be to the same high standard that all other macintosh products are built to. I don't think there is anything to worry about. on another issue, this article is ridiculously biased, and personally I wonder if the author has ever even used a apple product. How mush did microsoft pay him?