I settled in the other night to finish some of my pending writing assignments,
bringing out the
ThinkPad T43 to be my workhorse for this sess
ion. Truth be told, I am enamored with the keyboard, and wonder why Apple can't
make something that feels so fundamentally right. (Now I see all the flaws in
the
Powerbook keyboard, how the keys now seem too thin and hav
e sharp corners that sometimes catch on the corners of the ends of my fingers,
and how they donât have that satisfying click and feel of --- hang on.
Omig
od. Iâm being assimilated!)
Almost immediately I began to regret (once more) my decision to use the
Windows laptop.
Opening up the laptop,
I expected it to get me to the fingerprint security routine which is what it d
oes when you flip the screen open. Nothing. The
Sleep indicator light,
which is a
McTonight quarter moon, just glowed steadily as if
nothing had happened. I tapped on the little mechanical button on the upper le
ft edge of the keyboard on the off-chance that it didn't notice I had opened th
e ThinkPad up, but I got the cold shoulder. I tapped randomly on the keyboard,
and then finally on the power button. Nada. I was contemplating hard-starting t
he thing but it whirred to life all of a sudden. Huh?
And then it took forever to get me to the biometric log-on screen that wakes it
from sleep. When it finally got there, it took me even longer to just get it t
o resume; normally the biometrics are a hit-or-miss proposition, but tonight it
was totally striking out.
Refusing to take the easy way out (which was to do the three-finger salute and
then just type in your password like one normally does), I kept swiping my fing
ers every which way, all four that were enrolled with the system: fast, slow, j
ust right, with and without pressure, at different angles and all the different
permutations of the above. I felt skipping this part to use the more conventio
nal password routine was a cop-out, and completely misses the point of having a
biometric security system.
During this whole delay, one of the more irritating things was that it would fl
ash the window that I had succeeded in giving the fingerprint scanner a proper
entry, but it then just sits there, and then asks me to swipe again. It did thi
s several times, and in the end I had to succumb if I wanted any work done that
night.
Then I had to wait for the system to settle down to normal working mode. This i
s a curious, unspoken thing with the Windows machines Iâve used â it seems like
the machine has to go through near-endless hoops of setup before it settles do
wn. The hard drive activity light would flash continually, and there is an inte
rminable lag before anything is actually clickable. Well, maybe five minutes at
least.
As a Mac user used to a near-instant response I forget to give Windows this all
owance and I click on stuff, think that I missed when nothing happens so I clic
k again, and then once more to be sure. When things finally get going I end up
with four instances of
Firefox, three
OpenOffice Writer sessions and two Outlook Express w
indows.
âGet goingâ is actually a bit of an overstatement. The system crawls: windows h
esitantly pop in, refuse to work and when you try to drag them aside to see if
at least the other apps are working, they leave multiple copies of themselves b
ehind like the frothy wake of a speedboat in the lake, covering everything up a
nd rendering the system useless.
Ten minutes of this pass,
which is about all I could stand, but Task Manager and even <
strong>CTRL-ALT-DEL didnât work as they should. In the end I was force
d to just lean on the power button so it can do a hard reset, the first of seve
ral that day. (Later Iâd get back on my Powerbook and to download and install a
free licensed Mac version of
DIVX Pro that was posted on sist
er blog
PWiT, which required me to restart the m
achine, something that happened rarely. On a whim, I checked to see how long th
e Mac had been up. Nearly
two weeks. It had been almost thirteen days
since the last reboot, which was because of a Quicktime Security Update which r
equired it to restart, if I remember correctly. On the other hand I have to reb
oot the T43 at least twice a day.)
Now before you guys try to helpfully suggest that maybe as a Mac user I donât k
now what the hell Iâm doing, please note that I was, after all,
Editor-in-C
hief of
PC Magazine Philippines at one time, and can asse
mble a PC from scratch. I know that the Thinkpadâs 512mb RAM and modest video m
emory are probably the culprits, but man, I wasnât doing anything spectacularly
challenging, for Peteâs sake.
This was a branded IBM/Lenovo Thinkpad without any illegal or pirated software,
protected by a full licensed version of Norton 360 and regularly maintained at
the software and hardware level. I was just starting up and trying to get a co
uple of apps going as millions of other ordinary Windows users do every day. No
body should be made to go through this and made to believe that itâs ok. Thatâs
just not right.
Mac OS X and other operating systems can at least give their users a peaceful a
nd trouble-free first few minutes with the computer before anything goes flaky,
if at all. To be fair, once things âget goingâ with Windows itâs generally all
right, but at the back of your mind youâre always wary and thinking,
gad,
when is this thing going to flake out again; there is that Sword of Damocl
es hanging over your head threatening to skewer your skull. I canât work that w
ay.
Itâs just a matter of time before the inherent instability brought by a system
composed of an OS based on an ancient underlying framework (and forced to do so
to maintain compatibility with a ginormous industry making software and periph
erals based on this archaic system, and where the players donât even make an ef
fort to talk to each other to make sure everyoneâs on the same page), running o
n Frankenstein hardware with parts built by dozens of unrelated sub-contractors
and forced to work with each other by jury-rigged fixes and drivers and DLLs w
ill bring on any assortment of crashes.
On the other hand, thereâs the Mac: hardware and software all built by one comp
any where everyoneâs on the same page. And anyone from the outside wanting to m
ake anything for the system is forced to be on that page first before they can
do anything. Add to this a constant push to improve things and create new thing
s and make them with class, panache, wit, intelligence and a sense of humor.
But, you say, it all comes at a price. Literally. True. But most folk around th
ese parts buy bargain basement generic/no-name little cobbled-together monsters
that come with hard disks full of âfreeâ mainstream apps. Buy branded Windows
computers and you find they cost as much as, or even more, than an equivalent A
pple computer. What folk are actually complaining about is that there aren't Ma
c clones in Virra Mall, and that's the irritating thing.
NEXT: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly
More iPhone craziness. When everyone on the entire planet is d
esperately wanting to get one but can't, some guys in the US bought a couple, t
hen proceeded to immediately and systematically take apart a perfectly new and
perfectly working unit. And take pictures. Gulp.
(What I want to know is, can we see if we can swap GSM SIM cards on this thing?
*wink wink* )
See these wonderful lunatics over at ifixit
.com.
Look if you dare.
UPDATE: The ifixit page is a
work in progress (they update the page as they go along) - and it's just been a
few hours since they got the phone. Apparently my question's just been answere
d - it looks damned difficult, but entirely possible. See the pic below, upper
left - the Cingular SIM! I think a Globe, Smart or Sun SIM would look pretty at
home there. Now the next question is, can we activate it through iTunes with a
n alien SIM inside? Better question is, do we need to? (Hey, purely theoretical
discussion here, folks. Just some geek talk. Don't mind me.)
UPDATE II: Was watching an excruciatingly-difficul
t-to-watch episode of Systm, where host David Randolph and guest hos
t Leah Culver (who's a dead-ringer for Veronica Mars's Kristen Bell) of Pownce stress-test, torture and take apart an iPhone
literally minutes after they buy it (stuff like dropping it onto the pavement f
rom six feet up, or deliberately scratching it up with keys), and found out tha
t you can after all just pop out the SIM card by pressing down on a teeny-tiny
recessed button on the top of the unit. (By regulation, it has to be removable
anyway.) This fact is probably somewhere in the downloadable manual, which I ha
ve yet to read. Good to know.
First "unboxing" picture gallery of the iPhone up over on 
It's not all about the iPhone. Life goes on.
Apple's also released Software Update 1.0 for the MacB
ook Pro. Fire up SU again.
Apple's always-detailed and helpful fine print says:
Got this in my e-mail a couple of hours ago from Apple.
*sigh*
Meantime, Apple's put up an 
Fire up Software Update again
(not that most of us outside the US really need to for this one). Apple just p
osted an update to iTunes, Version 7.3, which includes the sof
tware needed to activate the iPhone being released today, amon
g other things.
This is what iTunes 7.3 does, according to the fine print:
I suppose itâs time to take a definitive stand, and this is as good a tim
e as any.
I am a Mac user. The outcome of this experiment was never in any doubt, was it?
But at least it comes with experience and authority now, rather than just unsu
bstantiated, uninformed tech bigotry and xenophobia.
Truly, Windows sucks. Without a doubt. Surprisingly though, not as much as I wa
s expecting. But why does it suck at all?
Through no fault of the user, that's for sure. If anything, the Windows user is
complicit only because he tolerates the crap. No one should be made to go thro
ugh the hoops that Microsoft requires its users. As Peter Finch screamed into t
he TV camera in Network: Iâm mad as hell, and Iâm not goin
g to take it anymore!
Fight back. Just say no. I think if enough people expressed that opinion Bill a
nd Co. would comply.
It's horrible that even the most basic things in Windows will screw up. Just bo
oting up is an interesting experience. The simple task of opening or closing a
window might bring grief, or installing a simple shareware app might cripple th
e system. To get the ball to just roll might require additional expenditure in
terms of memory and storage, or of video ram; let us not even get into the comp
licated and arcane field of processor speeds or multiple processor cores. Think
Vista, and experience despair.
Why does this have to be? I've mentioned this before in the previous post in th
is series. Windows is screwed up because it's a step forward and five steps bac
k; trying to live in (and for) their storied and profitable past is taking a ma
jor toll. Maintaining a relationship with that which should be obsolete might k
eep the revenue up and running, but at what cost?
The Gordian Knot analogy is apt. This knotted ball of problems is best cut in h
alf, and starting over is the perhaps the only solution. This requires a penalt
y that Microsoft and its millions of acolytes mired in the glorious mess might
not be ready to pay.
The ugly part is that Windows Vista users are doomed to work on a bright, prett
y new system built partly on rotting foundations, akin to dollying up a cadaver
with a wig, make-up and a nice dress.
Windows users worldwide are forced to live within limitations dictat
ed by compatibility commitments sealed with blood years before. This continuing
conspiracy and deception just prolongs the agony. Vista is supposed to be a sw
eep-the-table-clean, from-the-ground-up all-new animal (it sure took them long
enough to make), but it still has leaden feet, since Microsoft refused to take
brave, bold, paradigm-changing steps in fear of alienating their base.
So this jury-rigged structure of compromises that works only through drivers, d
ynamic link libraries, antiviral utilities, stop-gap hardware and software solu
tions and by the grace of God will always be at the mercy of the BSOD that will
strike at any time, anywhere, when you least expect it. Contrast that with the
Mac system, where the hardware and software are built by one company, thus ski
rting the entire problem.
Truth be told, working on a Windows system - Vista or no - with an adequate se
tup, legal software and proper configuration isnât the agony Mac users would li
ke to believe. Viruses donât really bite you on the ass every five minutes; in
the two months I've been using my Thinkpad T43, I've had virus trouble only twi
ce, and nothing significant at that. BSODs only happen every three or four days
. The system sometimes goes into a coma, but given enough time can revive itsel
f. One shareware installation hosed the system, but I figured it out and uninst
alled it, and things were fine after that.
In fact, Windows does some stuff way better than Apple does - gaming among them
. And the crazy-quilt abundance of accessories, gadgets and software for Window
s is a universe Mac users have yet to see and experience. Not to mention areas
of the net where Macs are not yet welcome, or have difficulty existing in becau
se of compatibility issues or unintentional OS discrimination.
In this country the ugly stereotype is cast in stone because of the Vox
Populi: only, the bulk of the complaining Windows users are the ones that have
no business complaining in the first place: they run pirated versions on budge
t clones with cheap components and cRAM (crappy RAM) and still think they have
the right to gripe that their computers crash all the damned time. The good par
t is what with the right setup and certified, updated software with updated uti
lities you wouldnât really have much to complain about, and I daresay Macs and
Windows machines wouldnât be all that different.
The bad part is the stuff that Windows needs to work on, and should have years
ago. Windows often fails on the most basic things. Anyone whoâs used a Mac for
any reasonable amount of time can tell you this. Not to dwell on the details (a
nd not to repeat Apple jingoism â which is unavoidable because itâs simply the
plain and unvarnished truth), on Macs things just plain â¦work. And work reason
ably well, and reliably. You donât need a geek membership card â things are log
ically and intuitively designed, and done with a bit of style and class. And wh
ether or not itâs because malware writers just donât give it any importance, it
âs undeniably more secure. To use a clear example of the differences between Mi
crosoft and Apple outside of computers and operating systems, just put a Window
s Mobile phone beside an Apple iPhone, and there you go.
That said, I continue my double-life. I work with my Powerbook for personal thi
ngs, and the Thinkpad for office work. Or at least I try to. When there are rea
lly serious, work-intensive things to do, like video, photo or audio editing fo
r example, I cannot help but turn to the Mac. It's easier, faster and better. N
o fanboy-ism there. Itâs just the reality.
The reality is also that Windows can now live on Macs, and Windows is steadily,
if slowly, improving itself. And it's also a reality that while Macs are a few
leagues ahead, Leopard will pull it even farther ahead. Microsoft has its work
cut out for itself. Meantime, I feel I'm getting the better deal on the Mac si
de of things for now. Which is why this blog exists.
So there.
The end.
Other posts in the series:
The big question with the iPhone is the keyboard - or lack of
one.
For a lot of folk, this looms as the deal breaker; it's a paradigm shift not ma
ny feel they can get used to. Some are skeptical if smooth glass would ever dis
place QWERTY (including myself). But Apple claims their system is workable, wit
h built-in intelligent spell checkers and a fault-tolerant virtual keypad that
dynamically changes the size of the press zone. Apple recommends getting used t
o typing with one hand first, and later when you get comfortable, start with th
e two-thumbs thing. Ok. We'll see.
In the meantime Apple has posted a video on how to use the new non-keyboard on
their 
The review embargo h
as been lifted for the iPhone! Two days before release, the wo
rd is, literally, out. Some prominent examples:
Creative announced late last week an update to their new iPod shuffle killer Creative Zen Stone, dubbed the 
Not that this would b
e of any import for us or anyone else outside of the US, but Apple and AT&T just revealed the pricing schemes for the 
About time someone thou
ght of this.
A company from the U.K. called 
I don't really know what i
s so hard about pulling the iPod out of a pocket and changing
tracks using the touch wheel, but manufacturers, developers and designers keep
looking for alternatives to this apparently difficult task.
The latest to succumb is British retailer Marks & Spencer
with their new iPod business suit, a classic black pinstripe,
two-button, modern-cut wool and Lycra design, for the executive too busy to rea
ch into his breast pocket to adjust the volume of his new Joss Stone track. Or
should it be Abba?
Built into the left lapel is a five-button controller using Elektex fabric, a high-tech material developed by the Eleksen Group, and why it's particularly high-tech is not immediately clear. A connector
is sewn into the pocket for the iPod, and the wires are hidden in the lining. I
t costs about P8.5K for the jacket and about P5.5K for the pants, which togethe
r could get you a nice video iPod instead.
The important thing to note is that they still haven't solved the main problem
of providing a method to switch albums and playlists with the system; it's stil
l limited to the usual Volume Up/Down, FWD/REV, and ON/OFF. Y
ou'd still have to yank the iPod out of your pocket to do anything more complic
ated.
Still, nice suit. You'd need, what, maybe two or three to last you through the
whole work week?
After watching the 
Strange mojo happening on
my system lately.
I just ran the Safari update a while ago, and before it starte
d, the OS asked me to authenticate with my password. So I type mine in. Err
or. I do it again, thinking my fingers stuttered on the keyboard and misty
ped a key. Error again. Hmm.
I set everything aside to concentrate on typing it precisely, making sure the <
strong>Caps Lock was off. Error again. Uh-oh.The system then
says I've tried too many times and snottily casts aspersions on my identity. Th
e only good thing was that it brings up a password hint, which I thankfully pro
vided myself ages ago in the event of something like this happening. But before
exploring my options, I run RDP first to try and iron out whatever kink was ke
eping me out, but it didn't work.Like most people with faulty memories, I just
rotate a few inscrutable passwords for my many different logins, and I was hopi
ng one of them would work. Because if none of them did, the alternative would b
e a nightmare.Thankfully, one did, an old one I hardly use. I wonder how it got
switched, and where the OS found the damned thing. Good that the password work
ed, but the question remains: why did this happen in the first place anyway?
That question loomed large in my head because the update required a restart, wh
ich I had to put off because I realized that if I encounter the password screwu
p at the bootup screen and the new-old password doesn't work, then I'm up the c
reek without a paddle. I take the plunge and restart. Sure enough, the regular
password still doesn't work, but the replacement I stumbled upon does. Later, I
run Applejack and my other utilities, but nothing fixes it.
Damned odd: essentially, the system changed the old password to an even older o
bscure one for no reason at all. Surely the recent OS X 
A week before the release, Apple turns up the heat even more on the iPh
one. Now there's a big-ass 25-minute iPhone Guided Tour video available now on the 
Big help.
Click on the blue apple on the upper left corner and fire up Software U
pdate. 9.5 MB. Requires restart.
According to the em
ail circulated by Apple last night to US customers who have requested informati
on on the soon-to-be-released iPhone, buyers would need to hav
e an iTunes Store account in order to configure the phone - so
mething a lot of casual customers might not have even considered having in the
first place. This underscores the enormity of the required buy-in customers wil
l have to get into if they do become users of the iPhone (and reveals Apple's u
ltimate agenda as well), and also puts a damper on the instant gratification mo
st buyers might assume they'd have when they take the unit home on June 29.
The email additionally says that contacts can be imported from existing popular
applications, including OS X's Address Book, Microsoft Outlook and Yahoo Address Book, and calendar entries from iC
al or Entourage, aside from being able to enter the i
nformation manually. As for AT&T/Cingular's service fees,
experts estimate a minimum charge of US$80/month if availing of all voice and d
ata services, totalling nearly US$2000 over the two-year lock-in period that ma
y or may not be required.
Ars Technica
's 
No pricing has yet be
en announced by Pure Mobile (although it has been revealed on TWIT that an unsubsidized unit bought outside of the subscription package will
cost about US$999 for the 4GB model), save for the shipping rates, which are US
$29 for Priority and US$19 for Economy. Too good to be true.
Methinks the page'll be pulled soon, so take a look already before it disappear
s.
Just contemplating the inherent surrealness of surfing in Safari natively in Windows XP. I'm sure you Macheads can appreciat
e the weirdness of it all. Jeez.
Plenty:
Safari 3. Bigger, better. For Windows too. Public beta immedia
tely available. 
In my job as a tech reviewer I've had the pleasure of
reviewing most of the line of the new Nokia N Series phones, b
ut have benn forced to interface with Windows PCs since Macs and Nokias have ne
ver really seen eye to eye - or ear to ear. Until now, that is.
Nokia's released a beta version of Nokia Media Transfer 1.0, w
hich enables most of the Mac goodness we know and love to work with their N Ser
ies of mobile phones, including interfacing with iTunes, iPhoto and transfer mu
sic, video, photos, podcasts and all sorts of media natively and automatically
via USB or Bluetooth. It's a wonderful breakthrough app that just might bridge
the long-running communication gap between Mac users and Nokia phones. It's not
comprehensive and still a bit limited, but it's a great start.
Nokia Media Transfer 1.0 Beta is currently compatible with the
N70, N70 Music Edition, N71, N72, N73, N73 Music Edition, N75, N76, N7
7, N80, N90, N91, N92, N93, N93i and N95 models. It r
equires at least a fully updated Mac OS X 10.4.9 or higher ins
tallation, and at least iTunes 7.0 and iPhoto 6.0. If you got one of the N Series and want to try it out, you can get it at
the Nokia site 
Dare we hope for a Nokia Mac Suite in the near future?
With the arrival of
the iPhone on June 29 comes an assault of third-party accessor
ies from screen wipes to cases to skins to adaptors - everything you can think
of. If you thought the volume of iPod accessories was becoming ridiculous, wait
until the iPhone stuff gets here.
Already, major companies are readying their stocks in anticipation of the relea
se, not to mention the fly-by-night Asian manufactures (which we wrote about ea
rlier 
Speculative moves like t
hese often border on the ridiculous, and you can't help but be amused at the ef
fort some of the companies put into these imaginative products. A good example
is Boxwave's hopefully optimistic 
Just wanted to give you
guys a link to a 
Just wanted to drop a line
to comment on the power of 
In case you've been b
eside yourself seeing the first three full-on 
In case you've been wanting to see the whole thing and are iffy about combing <
strong>YouTube for the various portions, the entire historic Bill Gate
s-Steve Jobs talk at the D5 Digital Conference, all 90 minutes
of it, is available on the iTunes Store as a video podcast. F
ree. You can get it 
If you're one of the few who get to buy from the iTunes Store
from over here and have tried out the new DRM-Free stuff called iTunes
Plus, don't feel like you got off easy and can share the music with im
punity. Apple, wily old fruit that it is, apparently embeds yo
ur account name and email address deep in the innards of the song file, so that
if you do pass it around, it'd be a simple matter to track it back to the sour
ce.
TUAW reports that your account information is encoded onto the
m4a file when you purchase the song, and if you're comfortable hackin
g into Terminal, there are detailed (and slightly intimidating
) instructions on how to find the information on their 
I have one iTunes Plus song
in my possession at the moment, the free cut "Ooh La" by The Kooks re
leased this week, which is embedded with my info. No one yet knows if you can h
ack into the file and remove the info, or if the old trick of burn-and-re-rip w
ill strip it out. I'll give the second option a shot, but I'm not too comfy wit
h Unix to try out the first one.
Then again, this shouldn't really be a concern, because we never had any intent
ion of sharing our downloads anyway, right?
Right?
UPDATE 6-9-07: Apparently our account names and email addresses have always
been embedded in there, ever since. Oh. Ok. You learn something new everyday.<
/em>
