Windows 7 rokin, does Snow Leopard Stand a Chance

Windows 7 has hit the ground running. It is getting five star reviews from the worlds toughest tech critics and many blogs have said that Windows 7 Beta is ready for prime time. Meanwhile we know nothing about Mac OS X Snow Leopard. As far as we know Snow Leopard adds new features are:

• Microsoft Exchange Support
• Better support for Multicore Mac’s
• Open CL
• Minor Media and Internet upgrade
• Support for 64-Bit

Not really what I call exciting. (You can see that list with more details at: http://www.apple.com/macosx/snowleopard) Snow Leopard doesn’t have half the features as Windows 7. I do not think that the average Snow Leopard users would appreciate the new features. The only people who would appreciate the new feature are programmers.

There are too many new features in Windows 7 to talk about so here are some of them:

• Graphic thumbnails for open windows
• Switch between multiple windows by just hovering over the taskbar thumbnail
• Icons are big enough to be selected easily with the new touch feature
• Applications can use the taskbar to provide information (a progress bar for example)

Libraries (new)

• Libraries are containers similar to folders, but their content is based on file properties such as file type, pictures by date taken, or music by genre
• There are default libraries (documents, music, pictures, etc.) and one can create personalized libraries
• Libraries can contain files, not network shares, which are indexed by Windows Search

Jump lists (improved)

• Jump lists are automatically populated links in the Start Menu to frequently accessed sources (apps, documents, etc.)
• Taskbar items, the Internet Explorer, and Windows Media Player will have them too, allowing you to jump directly to a certain task of a program

Windows Sidebar (improved)

• Is no longer a sidebar
• Gadgets are now placed on the desktop
• Gadgets are resizable
• Aero Peek lets you see gadgets behind open windows

Windows Explorer (improved)

• New user interface (have to find out more)
• New copy engine: fewer prompts, shows file names being copied, more reliable

Scenic Ribbon (new)

• Paint and WordPad now have a ribbon similar to the one in Office 2007
• Third-party developers can integrate ribbons into their apps

Start Menu Search (improved)

• Searches in Libraries (also external files)
• Search results are grouped according to Libraries
• System administrator can define up to five external search destinations
• Search will be executed on the server

Windows Search 4 (improved)

• Input recommendations based on previous searches
• Dynamic filters to narrow down results
• New relevance algorithm
• Word highlighting in results
• Search Federation: search external resources (servers, Sharepoint, Web sites (OpenSearch))

Tablet PC enhancements (improved)

• Supposed to have improved handwriting recognition
• Supports handwritten math expressions
• Personalized custom dictionaries, and supports new languages

Sticky Notes (improved)

• Ink support
• Paste support
• Note colors
• Resize possible

Accessibility (improved)

• Improved speech recognition
• Magnifier (whole desktop or portion of the screen)
• Accessibility support tools for developers

Windows Touch (new)

• Windows 7 can be controlled by touching the screen
• It also supports multi-touch allowing you to use more than one finger

Other desktop enhancements (improved)

• More styles
• Region specific styles
• Multilingual browsing no longer requires font installation, language-based font

Mac vs Windows

v Mac V Vista which one to pick. Well first how safe is it. Well look at these Graph:

Well this was a easy one mac is more safe. Sorry I mean Windows Vista is.

The next thing I looked at was it’s ease of use. This one was difficult. For someone who is familiar with a mac will think mac is easy to use. But for someone like me who is familiar with a pc  I would say Vista is was more easy to use. So it depends who you are. But Vista is easy to use with a laptop because it has flip 3-d to switch windows instead of having to use a small annoying mouse pad to get to switch programs. Mac has something like that called expose or something like that but you still have to use the mouse pad.

Now we have to look at the amount of programs. Windows has 10 times more programs so rock on windows. But that also means more viruses.

Now how many games do mac and windows have. Well for some reasion the amount of games for a mac is low really low and it seems to be decresing eventhough it’s growing popularity the amount of games is going down. It is now time to find out how much entertanment program is incluidedwith the os. Apple wins that competitoin.

Now we are going to look at the gui here are some photos:

Mac:

Windows:

Personally I like the way windows locks. You get bored of the Mac one after about 2 weeks.Personally I prefer Windows

Microsoft fights back.

Microsoft finally decided that they wont take the ad’s from apple any longer and lanched a new tv ad for vista and windows live. They are going to air very soon. They also are creating a pc v mac tv ads that makes pc’s rock.

http://getyourliveid.ca/windowslive/share.html

http://getyourliveid.ca/windowslive/connect.html

Why Macks suck

 it’s not clear by now, I’m not a Mac user. Things with the Mac OS frustrate me much quicker than Windows, DOS, Unix or anything else.

I have a Windows 2000 Server at work which provides VPN access for me and the rest of my users. You connect to it by firing up any vanilla VPN client, pointing the IP to ’secure.xyzcompany.com’ and entering your Domain username/password. Viola. You’re on. You can resolve server names, access internal web-applications, or even check your email via the Exchange protocal instead of using IMAP over SSL. It’s magical and it’s slick, everyone loves it. Except me and my new Mac. When I connect with my windows box, there’s an option to “use the remote gateway”. This makes sense to me, because I know what a gateway is, and I even know why I would want to disable that. It’s also in a very convenient and logical place. You open the properties of the VPN connection, find the networking page of the config, select Internet Protocol from the connction items, then click properties. Of course we want to be using Automatic IP and DNS via DHCP, but I also have all my advanced properties just a button click away,  There’s the checkbox for my use default gateway. The Mac Setup however is somewhat more crazy. They have this little application called “internet Connect” within the Applications folder. You make your VPN, and then you’re supposed to know that you access options from a menu called Connect. Wait, connect means connect, not Options for connections… WTF?! Send all traffic over VPN connection? Um, yeah… call me crazy, but isn’t the standard name for sending traffic to a different endpoint called the “gateway”. So much for standard names.

So. The problem would be solved, except that I still can’t resolve names with my mac. For instance, the public DNS namespace of the company is XYZCompany.com. The internal namespace is XYZCOMPANY.LOCAL. This way, you HAVE to have acess to the internal nameservers to get any good info out of us. Works great with windows, where when your primary connection’s DNS fails to resolve, windows looks at the other connection’s DNS servers for some useful info. For some reason, Mac forgot this nicety. Sigh. Anyone who knows how to make this work could certainly email me and show me the error of my ways.

Macbook air not the worlds slimmest laptop

Apple’s MacWorld exhibition on the MacBook Air maybe is at present the “Listed” notebook computer the thinnest of the fuselage, but it is not Since “history” the thinnest.

In fact, the history of the thinnest notebook computer was the Pedion, as early as in 1997 has been published, by the Mitsubishi and Hewlett-Packard developed jointly.

Pedion only the thickness of 1.84 cm (0.72 inches thick). Although Air thinnest part only 0.16-inch thick (0.4 cm), but there are still some of the thickest 0.76-inch (1.93 cm), compared to the Pedion also a little thick. Mitsubishi released Pedion in the early 1998 .

However, the Pedion fate of the general, regardless of the quality or value terms, can not be called the standard. The price of 6,000 US dollars notebook computer equipped with 64 MB of memory, as well as 1 GB of hard disk capacity, and to build magnesium metal casing, the aircraft body more solid.

Even so, shortly after launch, consumers still complain of Machinery problems, Mitsubishi was forced to recall from the market this notebook. (As far as I know, HP has never launched its own version of the Pedion, but allow me to check it more).

Apple MacBook Air as the “world’s thinnest” notebook computers. However, how to interpret ( “today’s listed” or “history”), or a matter of opinion.

Other vendors have also introduced ultra-thin notebook computers. For example, Sony in 2004 selling a special edition of Sony Vaio X505 Notebook, close to the thickness of Macbook Air. This edition Vaio notebook computers is limited edition commemorative models, the thickest part of 0.8-inch, the thinnest part is only 0.38 inch. Chassis containing carbon fiber, in order to allow a more robust body.

Sony at present the thinnest notebook computer, the thickest part of 1.2-inch, the thinnest part only 0.8-inch.

In recent years, notebook computer manufacturer with focus on the 15-inch (including) more than bigger screen laptop, but Vaio product manager Xavier Lauwaert predicted that the future of the laptop new battlefield in 11-inch and 13-inch screen notebook computer market. And this laptop, broadly almost in line with Mitsubishi Pedion.

Dell recently introduced a with 13-inch screen notebook computers, Sony in the Las Vegas Consumer Electronics Show (CES) Exhibition 11-inch and 13-inch screen notebook computer. Apple Macbook Air also fall into the same type.

With notebook computers that got increasingly thin, manufacturers must be multi-exploration in the laboratory, in order to find such as carbon fiber for ultra-thin body shape of the new material.

 

Apple’s 13 inch macbook air sucks

Today at the Macworld 2008 Expo, Steve Jobs released a new version of the Macbook called the Macbook Air. Unlike last year’s iPhone announcement, the response to the Air was negative. The price of Apple’s stock today dropped 9.02% to close at $169.04 and $163.01 in after-hours trading

If you’re interested in the Macbook Air, check out these specifications from the Apple Store. For $1799, you get a 0.76 inch thick, 3.0 pound notebook with a 13.3 inch backlit widescreen display, 1.6 GHz Core2 Duo processor, iSight camera, backlit keyboard, and multi-touch trackpad. It has a single USB 2 slot and a single micro-DVI slot and headphone jack via a door on the side. Wirelessly, it supports 802.11n and Bluetooth 2.1/EDR. It has no optical drive natively, and comes with a wimpy 80GB 4200 RPM hard disk. A 1.8 GHz processor and a 64GB solid-state drive (SSD) will cost $3,098.

I have to agree with Michael Arrington of Techcrunch that the laptop, even as a premium option, is grossly overpriced and underpowered. A slightly heavier, but significantly more powerful Sony Vaio (40% faster CPU, 30% faster hard disk, more ports, fingerprint sensor, nvidia graphics, twice as much hard disk space, slightly thicker, slightly heavier, same height and width) can be bought for $1800. If you go to Dell, you can configure their 13.3-inch widescreen XPS M1330 with an SSD drive and a few upgrades for just $2,404, a significant savings over Apple’s price.

It’s interesting that Kineda and Paulboth point out seriously problems with the new Macbook (it’s wimpy, overpriced, and full of proprietary non-replaceable, non-upgradable parts) but still cheer it on. Paul says,

News flash to Devin people don’t buy ultra-portable notebooks for their workstation-like performance. Enough said. Do I want one? Hell yes.

But, it’s Daring Fireballwho finally gets to the bottom of the Macbook Air, and why it sucks. It just doesn’t make the right design choice! Thinner is not the same as smaller; we want a 12″ or 11″ or 10″ model, both smaller in form factor and thinner and lighter to boot:

I’d have rather seen a smaller footprint, a la the old 12-inch PowerBook G4 — something just exactly as wide as a full keyboard. I’d prefer to sacrifice screen size on the notebook in exchange for an even smaller machine.

Update: Did you know that just in 2007, Sony made the Vaio X505, a laptop .1″ thick, and sony just made a ultra slim and ultra portable laptop?  Perhaps more false advertising apple. Can’t wait till Apple, Dell and Microsoft sues them.

Pwnt, Apple. That’s all I can say!

Another update (January 24 2008)

Apple released macbook air’s tv ad saying it is the worlds slimmest laptop. Of course by reading this article looking at http://pcsource.wordpress.com/2008/01/20/macbook-air-not-the-worlds-slimmest-laptop/ you see that it is not. Anyways there is five lawsuits agents apple right now and sony is going to court with apple first.

Mac’s are safe, for now

Introduction

Apple has gotten a lot of mileage out of the fact that its OS X operating system has yet to be attacked by a virus. A recent ad campaign for Mac computers featured a flu-ridden individual representing a PC while the Mac guy appeared untouched by illness. Some people see it as smugness, but there is no denying that up until now Mac users have enjoyed a long stretch without any serious threats to their platform.

By contrast, according to Symantec’s latest Internet Security Threat Report, in the second half of 2006 there were more than 6 million bot-infected PCs worldwide.

Macs are vulnerable

This past January, Kevin Finisterre, an independent security researcher, caused a stir in the Apple community by creating a Web site that revealed a new Apple bug each day for an entire month. And while some critics dismissed the report as a publicity stunt, Apple recently issued a patch to plug some of the holes listed on Finisterre’s Web report.

Mike Romo, product manager for the Macintosh team at Symantec, readily admits that, historically, the Mac operating system has largely been untouched by threats, but he also warns that there simply is no such thing as an operating system impervious to risks.

“There are still plenty of viruses that can affect individual programs that people use on the Mac,” he says. For example, Microsoft macro viruses, which can be embedded in Excel spreadsheets and other office documents, target specific applications running on the Mac rather than the operating system.

In addition, Apple’s monthly security updates clearly show that software vulnerabilities, such as errors with the code or the logic of the application and how it interacts with the operating system or the Internet, are becoming increasingly common.

“As more applications are written for both the Mac and Windows, we’re seeing a lot more software vulnerabilities,” explains Romo.

Online threats are universal

Mac users have grown accustomed to operating in an environment where they’re not the primary targets of malicious exploits, but when it comes to Web threats, like phishingand ID theft, they’re just as vulnerable as users on any other platform. “If you’re using the name of the street you live on as a password, it could be very easy for someone to get access to your system regardless of what operating system you’re running,” warns Romo. There’s nothing an operating system can do to protect you from social engineering threats.

Romo recommends Norton AntiVirusfor all Mac users working on a cross-platform environment or with many Windows users. Norton AntiVirus scans incoming mail and Internet files while providing protection against viruses, worms, Trojan horses and other emerging threats. Norton Confidentialgoes a step further by offering Macs protection against platform agnostic threats such as phishing and is especially designed to help users approach online transactions with confidence. It prevents personal information from being provided to phishing Web sites, and delivers early response protection against identity thieves seeking to exploit newly discovered application and operating system vulnerabilities. It also safeguards important files from tampering or accidental deletion.

Stay protected

Romo says the fact that there have been no successful exploits against the Mac should not lull Mac users into a false sense of security. “The bottom line is that there have been no successful virus attacks on the Mac until now. But soon there will be as the numbers of macs increase so will the number of viruses.”

Mac is no safer than Windows

Yes it is true. Mac is no safer than Windows. Why? Lets put it this way. 93% percent of people use windows while 3% of people use Mac. So Windows has a big wall so it has more grafitte on it. While Mac has a tiny wall so it has less grafitte on it. Lets put it this way. If 93% of people swiched to Mac it would have a big wall and more grafitte. Sorry to burst your bubble Mac lovers.

Mac v Windows

v Mac V Vista which one to pick. Well first how safe is it. Well look at these Graph:

Well this was a easy one mac is more safe. Sorry I mean Windows Vista is.

The next thing I looked at was it’s ease of use. This one was difficult. For someone who is familiar with a mac will think mac is easy to use. But for someone like me who is familiar with a pc  I would say Vista is was more easy to use. So it depends who you are. But Vista is easy to use with a laptop because it has flip 3-d to switch windows instead of having to use a small annoying mouse pad to get to switch programs. Mac has something like that called expose or something like that but you still have to use the mouse pad.

Now we have to look at the amount of programs. Windows has 10 times more programs so rock on windows. But that also means more viruses.

Now how many games do mac and windows have. Well for some reasion the amount of games for a mac is low really low and it seems to be decresing eventhough it’s growing popularity the amount of games is going down. It is now time to find out how much entertanment program is incluidedwith the os. Apple wins that competitoin.

Now we are going to look at the gui here are some photos:

Mac:

Windows:

Personally I like the way windows locks. You get bored of the Mac one after about 2 weeks.Personally I prefer Windows

The war of the consoles

The war of the consoles has existed since Nintendo and Sega has been around. Ya we all remeber the 16-bit days. Now we are in the 21st century and we have more choices than ever. This war of the consoles is ps3 v Nintendo Wii v xbox 360. The first thing we are going to look at is the style. Here are some photos of the systems:

Ok this one was easy ps3 by far has better looks 1 point for the ps3.

The second thing I looked at is the number of games. Well xbox has more games than ps3 and wii combined so xbox 360 gets one point.

Now comes the fun of the games. Well Nintendo Wii has the most fun games so 1 point for Nintendo Wii.

Time for the amount of features ps3 wins that one for sure. No typo like Microsoft likes to say. One more point for the ps3.

The last thing I looked at was the cost. Nintendo wins that one.

The curent score is :

ps3: 2 points   Wii: 2 points  xbox 360: 1 point.

ohh ohh we have a tie between sony and nintendo . Time for a tie braker. The tie braker is useability and the ps3 is the winner of this competition.

Great job sony