Apple Regularly Shooting Itself in the Foot

Yes, Apple is about to eclipse Exxon as the biggest company, but I still think it can do better in some very easy and practical steps. With the wave of success it's been seeing in the last two decades, it's hard to imagine that they can still do wrong. Sometimes I think "Who can stop Apple?" Turns out the answer is pretty simple: Apple itself. As we witness an Apple that loosens the rules to the App Store for anti-competitive practices, why not keep the magic alive by being even less anti-competitive? There are plenty of things that need some pixie dust in the Magical World of Apple. Listening, Steve?

• iTunes
  
  What can run iTunes smoothly besides the dodeca-core Mac Pro? The beast is sluggish and slow, and it tries to do too much for too many devices. If iTunes were optional and drag-and-drop were available, man, think of all the new possible sales. iPhone as portable hard drive, iPod touch as portable hard drive, iPod nano as portable hard drive, the possibilities are endless!
  
  
• Video codecs
  
  Seriously, Apple makes some of the most advanced consumer electronics, but the iPhone can't/won't play an .avi file. Think of all the consumers who own .avi files but won't use the iPhone because they'd have to convert all 100GB+ of video to some Apple-approved format that's totally the same thing. Is this the wonderful user experience that Steve Jobs really wants for his customers? Even if they all turned to iSheep, there's a huge part of the market that won't get an Apple TV just because it's too much trouble to convert all those videos. Meanwhile, I'll stick to my Xbox 360 that CAN play my videos. Hmmmm, decisions, decisions...
  
  
• Prices
  
  This is a big one. So big, in fact, that it comes last on my list. Sure, Apple is a premium brand, but premium can be synonymous with "big waste of money." I shop for value, getting the most for my money. If something is well-built and will last a long time, I'll pay a bit extra for the higher quality stuff, but that quality-vs-price curve breaks down very low for some Apple products. For instance, MacBooks are grossly outspecced by PC notebooks, though admittedly offering a better overall experience, but there's only so much a smart spender will shell out for that difference. When you're getting the same specs at almost 60% the price, it's a really tough argument. I only went with the MBP 13 because I have a student discount, free iPod touch and printer. I can't imagine what it's like for the rest of the market paying regular price for all these things. Yeah. Drop the prices or hold sale events with better discounts for everyone.

Pretty foolproof, non? Of course, Apple will continue in its merry own way, disregarding my words of wisdom to its own benefit. I mean, if you really want to capture the market with a deathgrip, you could loosen the "rules" for a bit of cash. I mean, if the Apple TV is going to have more success, it really needs to be able to stream whatever people are already packing and not just new purchases, much like how iTunes can play music not originally bought in the iTunes Music Store. I'm just saying...

So much new shiny

Hello faithful followers,

I know you've been dying since my last update. It's been a while.

I sold the Nexus One. I prefer the iPhone touchscreen. I'm used to it, and even iPod touch 1Gs have the feel and response that I like. Yep, I waited two hours in line at the West Edmonton Mall Apple Store, and I picked up the iPhone 4 black 32GB.

I haven't picked up the AppleCare protection, but I will eventually. I hear it's the bomb. Buying it unlocked made more sense economically for me. Going on contract would only be a little bit cheaper because I was still within 24 months of my last hardware upgrade with Rogers. They allow you to upgrade to an iPhone if you got the one from the last year, but the discount is much smaller. I figured if I got the factory unlocked one, I could sell it to a globe-trotter or someone in a different region where unlocked iPhone 4s are hard to come by. (Any AT&T prisoners interested? >=D tee hee hee)

I also picked up a MacBook Pro 13" (mid-2010). I know I'm gonna get a lot of flack from the "PC" crowd, but I still maintain that I'm not a Mac. =p I got the MacBook Pro for a bunch of reasons.

• I want to program for the iPhone.
• I really like the MacBook Pro aluminum body.
• I wanted something that runs StarCraft 2 decently.
• I like the 13.3" size for laptops.
• Boot Camp gives you the best of both worlds.

Had I gone for an equivalent PC, I would have imported the Toshiba Portege R705, exclusive to Best Buy in the States. As far as I can tell, it offers you everything you could want in a 13" laptop. Low weight, optical drive, Core i3, 4GB, HDMI, Intel WiDi (love that name, by the way), USB/eSATA, good price point. It was pretty much perfect, however, I never had a chance to play with it. The price difference between the two is somewhat alleviated by the student discount on the MBP, free iPod touch and free Canon printer. Yesh. I pretty much needed a new computer to get OSX to program on the iPhone. I ultimately couldn't figure out a comfortable solution to develop for the iPhone on my PC, so I gave up and gave in.

Yeah. That's happening. The iPhone 4 ships with 4.0.2, unfortunately. I'm now wondering whether I should go full Apple SDK or stick with Cydia. How real should I keep it? Hm...