My MBA: A Follow-Up

A li'l mistake was to be found in my recent "My MBA…" blog post.

Indeed, instead of:

(…) I'm now pretty sure to end up buying the next revision of MacBook Pro!

one should have read:

(…) I'm now pretty sure to end up buying the next next revision of MacBook Pro!

Sometimes, a single word says it all…

(And yep, I'm once again sorry for those who still believe I'll see the day where I buy another Mac :/ !)

My MBA…

Me: "Finally. Got my MBA!"
You: "Really??? From which school?"
Me: "From Apple."
You: "What?!?"

OK… Now that the joke is over (sic), let's get serious :) ! By "MBA", one should understand "MacBook Air", of course ;) ! And by "joke", one should get that… I still haven't ordered what will be my next Mac :/ ! I know, I know, I owe you some explanation. But let's start with a "quick" sum-up of the previous episodes…

In December '05 (ouch!), I "gave" my old+beloved Power Macintosh G3 (B&W) to my sister (snif…) I was pretty sure Apple would release some new, amazing, Intel-based laptop as soon as January, during Macworld '06; and of course, I was plain right (sic). *BUT* I didn't plan them to only release a 15" model… Yep, their new MacBook Pro indeed was a-ma-zing; but I was ready to buy the "small" version, the follow-up to their great PowerBook G4 12". I wanted something I could grab+carry everywhere I'd go (read: at work too). So, I then decided to wait for Apple to migrate their entire offering so that it's 100% Intel-based. (Note: This waiting has only been possible thanks to my dad buying a new, Intel-based iMac in February '06… Without that, I would have failed waiting for so long, that's for sure!)

When Apple introduced its new MacBook line, it also took me a while to decide… that it wasn't good enough for me :( ! The size+weight were great, but the graphics chipset was too limited. As a user, it was OK for me: I just use my Mac to browse the Net, send e-mails, and above all… to (X)code. *BUT* I wanted my new machine to fully handle Leopard's forthcoming Core Animation technology; not as a user, but as a developer who crafts apps for some other users. Argh! I then waited for some more, hoping I wasn't the sole customer to expect a small, yet powerful Apple laptop ("Hi Japan!") Later on, some evidence (yes, patents) appeared that Apple was working on such a beast. Till Macworld '08…

So less than a week ago, Apple completed its, ahem… already-complete laptop offering (sic) with MacBook Air… I was once again A-right and almost choked while listening to Steve, announcing its specifications ("OMG!") *BUT* when I calmed down, I realised it alas wasn't the dream machine I was waiting for :( ! I'd like to apologise for those 2 years of soft "complaints" and doubts, but please let me explain you why…

In September '07, my employer abruptly ended my contract for, ahem… economical reasons after 6+ years of loyal devotion. (Life is hard when huge benefits are coming quarter after quarter, isn't it? But sorry, I digress…) Since then, I'm working on building my own software company (hint, hint) *from home*. I'm however still 100% sure to want a laptop, even though I'm not as mobile as I used to be. Yes, if I look back at the previous months, I could have lived with a desktop: I wouldn't have taken my laptop with me in Iceland, and I nicely handled my egyptian trip w/o one either. *BUT* I probably would have planned some more stays in the French Alps if I could have brought a laptop with me! I would also have found some occasions to enhance a couple of visits here and there thanks to my new mobile friend, etc.

But why not MacBook Air? I do plan to go on watching my DVDs. I still prefer listening to CD-quality music (and I own 500+ CDs I'd rather like to *use*.) I'm not that fond to put 1699 € into a great, but somewhat limited laptop (1.6 GHz?!? 80 GB?!?) when I could grab something way more powerful for less money (iMac) or for just a bit more (MacBook Pro). And since I still plan to bring my Mac with me, you know what remains… So yes, I'm gonna buy a Mac soon. Yes, it will be a laptop. No, I'm not A-OK to put 1699 € for MacBook Air. And after waiting a couple of years, I also think I can afford buying something a tad more pricey than MacBook ;) !

Conclusion: Today is almost historical 'cause I'm now pretty sure to end up buying the next revision of MacBook Pro! I can't wait :) !

100 150 Days!

It's been 100 150 days today that I'm in the Top 3 of the best French Quinn players:


I know this won't last long… but let's celebrate it while it lasts ;) !

Update: It's over now: I've just lost my 3^rd place :( ! Sniff… But I'll be back ;) !

And the winner is…

… me!

So here are the 2 ribbons I've thus won:

Yay!

(More on the subject soon…)

The 1st Quinn Contest is 'round the corner

That's right: we're just a few hours away from the 1^st Quinn Contest! If you're a Mac user (you, lucky!), if you've received an invitation from one of the 9 8 (even luckier) participants, if you're (still) listed in the Top 100 Best French Players when registration is up, if you've registered within the right timeframe and are available+online when the alarm clock is finally ringing (which is today, from 9:00 PM), then you may become the 1^st Quinn Champion of the History ;) ! OK, okay, I calm down… But, you know, I'm quite excited :) ! Registration deadline is now behind us, and in a few hours, we'll know who from Olivier, Sébastien and myself is going to grab this prize :P ! But now, let's relax and concentrate a bit :) ! Pfew…

Update: I've finally managed to produce 2 prize ribbons for the winner. Just in time…

Hmm…

Update: It's over now. So here are the new goods brought by Apple: the new iTunes Store, a revised iPod, a completely remastered iPod nano, and a reduced iPod shuffle. Plus iTunes v7.0, Front Row v1.3, and QuickTime v7.1.3. And finally, a sneek preview of "iTV", a brand new device slated for Q1'07 allowing one to wirelessly stream content to, ahem… TV. 2 comments: it's odd to see Apple pre-announcing this; and the price point seems to be quite high ($299). To be continued…

Mac OS X v10.5 "Leopard" previewed at WWDC '06

OK, so a couple of days later, I'm posting a quick blurb re Apple's preview of its forthcoming new major version of Mac OS X, the world's most advanced operating system known on Earth to date :) !


I may provide some more personal thoughts on some aspects demoed this past monday later, but for today I just wanted to redirect people to 2 opposite "reviews": on my left, Paul Thurrott's initial thoughts about the Keynote and its content; on my right, the perfect response from Roughly Drafted.

Or how to just simply endlessly ignore future posts from SuperSite for Windows website. Too bad, but now so obvious… Well done, Daniel!

Update: Oh, and while you're at it, read also Daniel's follow-up re Thurrott's pitiful attack against Time Machine ;) ! Well worth the read…

Boot Camp

What a better thing to do, for celebrating its 30th birthday, than bring the last missing piece for Apple to grab some points of market share :) ? (Advice: Buy some AAPL shares now!)


For the ones that were in a desert the past days (sigh), Apple's just introduced Boot Camp, i.e. a neat, effortless technology to run both Windows XP and Mac OS X applications on a single machine at full speed (and even more…)

I too think that Daring Fireball's post of today does a very good job in analysing the situation. And here's what I consider the best part of it… at least, for the next round ;) !

"This is a move of supreme confidence—Apple relishes the comparison between Mac OS X and Windows XP, and Microsoft has shown enough of Vista via its widely-available beta seeds that Apple quite obviously isn’t afraid of that comparison, either."

WebKit+Safari is still getting better

Kudos to Apple and its engineers!

As seen today on Surfin' Safari: "We have recently switched over to use an engine-based implementation for <input type="text">.  (…) initial measurements indicate a significant speedup in load performance for pages containing text fields."

Stupid StuffIt Expander…