One of Apple’s strongest points is the fact that all of their devices and computers sync together, it’s probably one of the strongest selling points of going ‘all Apple’. You Mac is synced to your iPad, iPhone, etc. Messages for Mac basically allows you to chat to your contacts, but the big difference between this and iChat (which it seemingly replaces) is that iMessage is integrated. This means that you can send messages to anyone with a Mac or iDevice from anywhere, completely free, so long as both parties are connected to a network. The app is included with the Mac OSX Mountain Lion update due out later this year, but the Beta version of the Messages app is available to download from Apple’s website. 

I’ve been using this for the whole of today, and I’ve been pretty impressed. The app’s main interface is very simple and easy to navigate (typically Apple) - your contacts are on the left and the main conversation you’re having is on the right. It’s worth noting that the conversation interface replicates the messaging interface of iOS almost exactly, especially with the conversation bubbles we’re all familiar with. 

In use, I found that it was a very reliable method of messaging people. For a Beta release, the application was very stable and there were absolutely no problems with the performance, other than one time when it froze up on me. The recipients reported that messages were sent and received instantly, and all of the attachments I sent arrived with no issues whatsoever. 

As you can see, you can send image and video attachments to your contacts just like you can from iOS devices. This unification of both functionality and interface is probably something that we’re going to see a lot more from Apple, as they mould iOS and Mac OS together…albeit very, very slowly. 

All in all, I love this application. I know a lot of people who use iMessage, and being able to talk to them from anywhere in the world from my computer is a great benefit. Pair this up with Facetime and Apple are really onto a winner here. 

So after much deliberation, I’m pretty sure I’ll be getting the 13-inch Macbook Air instead of the 13-inch Macbook Pro I was considering for so long. Why, you may ask? There are a lot of reasons, so I thought I’d summarise with the main points.

Design

My girlfriend has a 13” Macbook Pro and although it’s a relatively small and portable computer compared to other (Windows) laptops, it’s actually still pretty heavy. One thing I love about my current main computer, an Acer netbook, is the extreme portability. The trouble is, I want decent power in the form factor of a netbook. You can only really get this with the Macbook Air range. The Air ditches the disk drive (which I hardly ever use anyway) to make it razor thin and light - it’s almost a work of art how thin this laptop is, and how Apple have managed to fit everything inside. 

Specs

Both the Air and Pro models of Macbook I was looking at both run the Intel i5 processor, dual core, but the Air’s i5 chip is clocked in at 1.7Ghz as opposed to the 2.3Ghz of the Macbook Pro. A slower CPU equals slower performance? Well, yes, but don’t forget that the Air is equipped with a 256GB solid state hard drive - essentially, opening and closing apps and everything in general is just as fast if not faster. I won’t be doing particularly heavy graphics work, and the Air will run Photoshop and Illustrator just as well as the Pro for my needs. Most of the time I use it will be spent in the browser, movie player, or Office applications. Sure, overall it won’t be as fast as the i5 Macbook Pro, but seeing as I’m coming from an Atom-powered netbook and a very ageing Dell, it’ll be fast enough. 

The 13 inch Air is similarly priced to the 13 inch Pro, has a better design in my opinion and pretty much matching performance as well as a higher resolution display. I think I’m onto a winner here. Stay tuned for coverage of this. 

Image courtesy of Mcbrooklyn

Apple’s ‘Think Different’ campaign has been one of the main driving forces behind the brand’s image and cult following. However, it’s actually pretty ironic; a lot of Apple product users are, essentially, identical. The above image illustrates this perfectly. Notice how every Apple fan thinks they’re being different, but there are so many Apple fans that this just isn’t the case any longer. It’s actually quite comical to see an image like this. 

The irony here being, of course, the fact that it has reached the stage where if somebody truly wanted to ‘think different’, the last thing they’d do is buy an Apple product. The fact that Apple seemingly hasn’t dropped the slogan shows us that the company really does exist in their own parallel universe, with their followers existing there too. It’s not a bad thing by any means, in fact it’s a very powerful marketing tool, but if you take Apple’s attitude that it isn’t “hip to be square” toward their own products, it results in a paradox of cosmic proportions. 

Look at these two phones below; look very carefully, and think to yourself. 

In case you’ve been living under a proverbial rock for the past three months, you’ll know that Apple and Samsung are locked in a patent war. Apple accuses Samsung of (to put it briefly) copying the designs of iOS, iPhone, and iPad, and more specifically breaching patent rights. Every company has the right to defend their intellectual property. I’m also no Apple fanboy; in fact, I don’t care for iOS devices - I think Apple are lazy and cocky about iOS innovation and development. This brings me onto the issue I take with Samsung: laziness. 

Look at those two phones above again; how much lazier can Samsung get? Look at the style and position of the icons, look at the large home button - it’s almost like they’re making no effort to conceal the fact that they essentially copied the iPhone’s design. Samsung’s Galaxy S lines of phones have been ridiculously popular recently; why is that? Well, I think it’s because they are so similar to the iPhone. Replicating (arguably) the most successful smartphone of all time will almost certainly bump your sales figures. 

So instead of creating something new and thinking outside the box, as HTC does, Samsung took the easy route. Look where it’s got them. In my view, copying the design of the most successful device (note: I used ‘most successful’ rather than ‘best’) will always put you in their shadow; creating something from scratch that people like is what will gain you real success. 

I’m not advocating Apple’s behaviour; I actually think that they’re being, well, Apple. Samsung have dug themselves into this hole, though; a company like that should know better, and I certainly won’t be buying a Samsung phone any time soon out of principal. I believe that Samsung are the party in the wrong, and that they have everything coming to them. It’s easy to criticise Apple, but the patent wars does give Apple haters/Android fanboys a lot of ammunition. Again, I’m no Apple fanboy, but I’m actually on their side; they had those designs first, and for Samsung to come and essentially steal is totally unacceptable business practise. Quite frankly, they should be ashamed. 

Steve Jobs resigned as Apple CEO not long ago, and the reaction of most people (myself included) was sadness. I’ve never tried to hide the fact that I don’t like Apple’s business practise. I like companies that are constantly coming up with new things, rather than suing their competitors. However, Steve Jobs brought a consistently high standard of quality to Apple, and that is their major success. The cult following that Apple have is something to be admired (and no, I’m not talking about the fanboys/girls); the fact that people can have so much dedication to a brand is both a powerful tool for that company to utilise, as well as something to be in awe at. 

It’s truly heartbreaking to see someone driven to tears by the resignation of Jobs, and I’ve realised that Apple are too much of an easy target, and are criticised rather too much. I know this because I myself am guilty of it. I resent Apple’s attitude toward the rest of the mobile industry; I think they have no respect or consideration for others, but most people out there who buy Apple products are not concerned with the company’s business acumen. After all, isn’t the consumer the most important component? What I saw in that video wasn’t a fangirl, but someone who just loves the brand. I have enormous respect for iJustine simply because she loves the Apple brand yet doesn’t show nor direct any animosity toward those who prefer other companies or platforms. I respect Apple ten times more now than I did yesterday, simply because of some people’s reactions to Jobs’ resignation; it says a lot of good things about how the brand empowers people. People can make a very personal connection to Apple, and Steve Jobs was, and still is, a huge part of that.

Heck, I couldn’t make a personal connection to Google no matter how hard I try. 

Wooo, iPad 2 launch I hear (from the US at least). When the original iPad was released, I became rather (in)famous for bashing the hell out of it. I thought it was overpriced, heavy, and lacked a lot of features that make it a viable alternative to something like a netbook. Now that the second one has been launched, the original iPad now makes perfect sense to me. 

The trouble with the state of the iPad at the original launch, for me, stemmed from two things: 1) Lack of multitasking was a disaster, and 2) It was priced out of the netbook alternative range. Recently, multitasking has been brought to the iPad with various releases of iOS 4.x, and even more recently prices of the original iPad have dropped. Prices of the iPad 2 have not changed (starting at around £430 for the basic, non-3G version), but Apple has dropped prices of the original iPad (which is still on sale) by about £100. Essentially, this means that the original, 16GB wifi-only iPad’s price has dropped right into my netbook budget. 

I’d been looking at various Dell and Sony netbooks to use as a sort of ‘side bitch’ to my main setup, and all of these start at around £350. So you can see what my dilemma is; a netbook for £350 that runs full Windows 7 (albeit, the Starter edition), or for £20 less an iPad that runs iOS 4.3? Before any of the fanboys play the ‘it has better graphics and two cameras’ card, I won’t be using my iPad/netbook for any serious gaming or for video chatting/photography. While I’m on the subject, I think having a camera on the back of a tablet is stupid; but that’s a different blog post. The iPad’s email application looks outstanding, and for casual on-the-go web browsing and multimedia, it’s perfect. I only plan to use my netbook/iPad for writing documents (Pages for iPad supports .docx, a huge win in my books), emailing, web browsing, and video/music playing. 

The main attraction of the original iPad though is its new price. A 16GB wifi-only model is perfect for my needs (I won’t need 3G as my phone has hotspot functionality); it’s also about £30 cheaper than the netbook I’m looking at. I’ll need some time to decide, and I’m going to wait for a friend of mine to pick up an iPad 2 before making any final decision. 

Sidebar: If y’all think think these are the justifications of a fanboy, I wrote this post on a computer running Windows 7 and I have an HTC Android phone sitting on my desk. 

I always like to keep a wishlist of tech-related items; it helps me distinguish what I want from what I need. So, in no particular order: 

Macbook Air 13”

At the time of writing, there will be a line of new Macbooks launched, but the 13” Air still does it for me. It’s fast, and features such as instant on and its super battery life make it a real winner. 

BGR posted that iPod sales were down 10% in January of this year, in the US. I actually find it somewhat ironic that Apple markets the iPhone as an all-in-one device, yet they continue to produce things such as the iPod Classic. It doesn’t come as a surprise to me that iPod sales have diminished because people don’t want to carry two devices around with them. If you can make a device that performs well as a phone and well as an iPod, such as the iPhone (insert antenna-related joke here), then you’re onto a winner. You’re also going to subsequently destroy the market for MP3 players. I think this is the situation that Apple has created, and it may result in the demise of the product that started it all for them: the iPod. 

In the space of time before owning an iPod Touch and after I started using a smartphone, I used my phone as my portable music player. It functioned just as well as my iPod does now. As a friend of mine pointed out recently, “You haven’t owned an MP3 until you’ve owned an iPod”; when other non-iOS devices, such as Android, start shipping with their own music store and music player, Apple and iTunes might just loose their monopoly. If this happens, will we see devices such as the iPod Nano or Classic die out? Yes, that’s more than likely. 

I’ve wanted to write this post for a long time, however a recent increase in workload meant that I only had time to draft a few parts of it. In the past three years the human race has advanced so rapidly in terms of technology that we are, in my opinion, almost at a point where everything is the same. For instance, if you’re a guy walk into a bar holding either a Blackberry, iPhone, or HTC to impress, your average girl isn’t going to know the difference between them and will probably think they are all equally amazing, discuss. A huge majority of smartphone buyers today don’t know about the various fights that Apple and Google have had with each other, or about the controversy surrounding the original television advertisement for the Blackberry Storm, or about how Android is quickly eating away at Apple’s market share, they’ll buy a smartphone because they like the way it looks and the way it functions. Android and iPhone are supposedly the leaders today, but the smartphone you see most frequently is a Blackberry, right? 

The mindset of the consumer is, in most cases, to be able to purchase the best product that they think they are getting, at the best possible price. However, in the technology industry, Apple threw a proverbial spanner in the works: people were more than happy to front the extra cash to get an Apple product, such as a Mac or iPod. This is the sole driving force behind Apple’s success of recent; they make a quality product, but so do Blackberry and Microsoft you may argue, but everyone knows that Apple make the best quality products out there. Present a non-techie with some sort of Android device (dare I say it, iPhone ‘rip-off’) or an iPhone and ask them to pick which is best, they’re going to pick the iPhone. This is due to the fact that during their success, Apple has planted a mindset and thought pattern into the minds of customers: think ‘Apple’ and you relate that word to the iPod and iPhone; were those products successful? Even if you’re a non-techie you know that is the case. Apple has consistently produced products without fault; the design of an Apple product has a certain ’wow factor’ that other brands cannot seem to replicate, however hard they try. 

An aspect of successful business is building up your brand’s reputation, and as much as there is wrong with Apple, the fact that they have a virtually bulletproof image, and the way in which they have acquired this, are things to be greatly admired. 

Sidebar: I use an Android phone, and I typed this on a laptop running Windows 7, lol.