Smart Marketing: Why Apple is near Undefeatable
Dec 28th
Apple’s not much better at graphics than PC’s. In fact, the majority of modern laptops can probably outdo their Apple counterparts at that price-point. Sure, Macs are able to run Garageband and Final Cut HD (only because of OS X, which can be illegitimately put on any computer now), but that doesn’t really give them the ‘graphic-design-edge’ that everyone boasts about. In fact, I find the Windows variants of Flash CS3 and Photoshop CS3 to be much more user-friendly than the OS X variants (similar, but the tiny differences really bug me — windows that drag funny, etc).
Similarly, the Nexus One and Droid phones are written by many columnists to outdo the iPhone 3GS — both in terms of hardware and user experience. But why is it that the iPhone is still capable of surpassing these two phones in sales and popularity? (Granted, the Nexus One is still a ghost.)
Smart marketing.
It’s not about commercial time. If it were, the Droid would probably be a lot closer to the iPhone. And in fact, I personally find the Droid commercials to be a bit more clever than the iPhone ones.
It’s the simplicity, the physical popularity, the word of mouth, the lack of exposure the Droid has to the non-geek world, and the reputation (or lack of, rather).
The iPhone definitely has a much more interesting ‘one-button’ hook than the Droid would. One-button to do all things. One-button to rule them all. Etc, etc. It’s just funny, and it’s a major selling point — plus, Apple is very well-known for it’s ‘simplicity’ (in fact, OS X is maybe just a bit simpler than Windows, in my opinion).
Where do you see a Motorola Droid? Maybe in a Chinese mall, along with those next-level cell phones that only 0.1% of the population takes a note of. You don’t see classmates, friends, colleagues, bosses, or anyone using them. This is also a reason why Blackberry hasn’t been trumped by Apple yet. It’s because of the physical presence that both Blackberries and iPhones have; you see strangers in the mall scrolling with their thumbs, or texting on their QWERTY-keyboards. And maybe one person on a bench, on some phone that looks like an HTC model or a generic brand — nothing to pay attention to.
When the iPhone came out, the world knew about it. Sure, there are people that know about the Droid — but not many. And a lot of them are just…geeks. Enthusiasts. Where the iPhone appealed to fashionstas for its beauty, geeks for its applications (as well as gamers), media freaks for its screen, and insecure people for its popularity, the Droid is only known to geeks. Not your mother, not your sister, not your grandpops. Just geeks. Maybe you, and one or two of your friends. And, to be frank, no one really cares that much about it, because no one’s seen anything that it can do better than the iPhone (when in fact, there is quite a bit that can be shown).
And, lastly, the iPhone’s already proven to be fun to use. It’s proven to be worth its price tag. And its prices are dropping, while specs are rising. In contrast, the Droid is still very new to the market; although a lot of smartphones came before the iPhone, the iPhone is really the phone that brought smartphones to the mainstream crowd — Feist’s song, its clever demonstration of the Shazam app (which really wow-ed my friends when we saw it), and its variety of apps just really makes the phone. Whereas, the Droid (and Android) still has a lot to prove.
photo credit: dailylifeofmojo
I’m not saying it’s impossible, but it’s very difficult to dislodge Apple and the iPhone from their throne. There needs to be a shift — from simple commercials, to different marketing tactics. How about giving away free Droids, to certain people to try? Chanel did that with her perfume — only to a few select exclusive high-end people, for free. That way, when people are looking to see what the rich people are doing, they find that — Lo and Behold, they’re not using the iPhone, but a Droid! It’s only ideas that are out of the box, that will stand a chance against Apple’s iPhone.
Cover image by William Hook: http://www.flickr.com/photos/williamhook/3656233025/
Dell SP2309 23″ Screen: Exceeds HD, for $239 until Midnight!
Dec 4th
Dell Canada has the SP2309 23″ screen — a monitor with 2048×1152 screen resolution (that’s a bit greater than the standard 1080 hd resolution) — for a mere $239 until midnight!
I’m usually not an advocate of spending, but if you have $250 and need an external monitor, this is a must get. It’s a great deal; I’ve personally been a fan of Dell’s monitors ever since I got the S2208W (here’s my review on it: http://cutedge.org/full-hd-in-22-inches-the-dell-s2209w/), and this baby exceeds HD (even if only by a bit)!
Check it out, it’s only on till midnight so get cracking!
Double Anti-Spy Professional
Nov 9th
Thankfully, I’ve never had to put Avanquest’s Double Anti-Spy to a real-life test yet – I recently installed Windows XP under VirtualBox, and thought I’d give it a whirl by testing Double Anti-Spy.
The GUI’s acceptable (sorry, I can’t think of another word for it); the blue kind of matches Windows XP’s colour scheme (not Vista or Windows 7 though), the buttons have a light shadowed gradient and don’t have that millenium-glassy look that a lot of programs go for (thank the Lord). Everything seems pretty simple and accessible, which is a green light in my books.
Likely it’s just my virtual environment, but I found Double Anti-Spy to be awfully slow – I realize that it’s not the most fair judgment, but understand this: a lot of computers, both in corporate and small business environments, aren’t equipped with the latest dual-core processors or anything more than 512mb of RAM (my virtual environment precisely). I’d really like to see Double Anti-Spy’s client get streamlined a lot more so it performs more efficiently – heck, I’d like to see all anti-virus programs slimmed down.
A plus: Double Anti-Spy’s background process doesn’t take up that many resources (100mb is alright, right?) and doesn’t noticeably slow down my computer too much.
Double Anti-Spy automatically quarantined the EICAR test file and rendered it inaccessible; I couldn’t even locate it in the Downloads file. Kudos! (And yes, I turned it off and downloaded it and let Double Anti-Spy scan my computer – it detected the EICAR file.)
I really like the automatic quarantine; it’s been a while since I’ve used a Windows machine, and while there are many freeware antivirus programs out there, I think that Double Anti-Spy’s got some features that I’m really impressed with (automatic quarantine!). For $29.99USD on Amazon.com, the price is comparable to Norton’s Internet Security 2010 – which has a pretty good reputation. Either way, I think $30 is relatively cheap if you really want to pay – but why not give free antivirus programs a try?
November 2009 Discoveries
Nov 9th
It’s been an exceptional month, and I wanted to share a lot of things I found over the Internet with you readers. Of course, the majority of the month was spent doing work and trying to hack my way through my schedule, but I’ve still managed to get around the Internet.
First off, I’ve found a bunch of Mac Gems — a column constantly updated: http://www.macworld.com/weblogs/macgems.html
Secondly, TED.com was brought up to me by a friend. I started watching some videos today, and that stuff is alright. I’ve yet to see an exceptional one (I’ve only watched two — one about a writer turning into a homeless person, and one about a physicist explaining explanation, which I didn’t understand at all I’m not ashamed to admit). I think this is the direction that I want to put CutEdge.org in.
Thirdly, I’ve discovered Chuck Anderson’s graphic designs. Anderson is the designer that created (from scratch) the wallpaper and login screen of the recently released Windows 7. You can find his portfolio at: http://www.nopattern.com/nopattern/
I’ve always been interested in graphic design, so that’s a possibility of pushing CutEdge.org into that direction too. Of course, I’m still an amateur, so there won’t be any tuts.
Oh, the possibilities.
The Sound of Music: VidtoMP3.com
Oct 20th
Ever go on YouTube to find a piece of music? You know, that song you want to hear every so-often, but not often enough to download it onto your hard drive. Or maybe just new music. Or stuff you can’t buy on iTunes or obtain by other means.
Face it – YouTube’s really convenient to hear indie, live, or underground music. Now by no means do I consider myself an ‘indie’ or ‘underground’ fan, but I do like many offerings of YouTube; for example, John Frusciante’s cover of the BeeGees’ “How Deep is Your Love” brings much joy to me. Similarly, the Klasix instrumental “I Can’t Help it” really helps me. I don’t carry my laptop everywhere, and it’s impossible to put YouTube on repeat (or is it?) so I decided to download it.
My friend Rohan (at www.yourworldwired.com) introduced me to VidtoMP3.com – and ever since then, I’ve been a fan. Sure, the website looks a tad sketchy, but it saves any video as an MP3 file on your hard drive, all processed online. Granted, it won’t have the best sound quality (actually I don’t mind it, it’s not as bad as I thought it would’ve been – definitely audible), but it’s a great way to get music you wouldn’t have been able to otherwise.
Virtual Windows XP on OS X, for free!
Oct 10th
There was trouble in paradise. Don’t get me wrong – I really love OS X. I can say with my integrity (boy, that word doesn’t come up much anymore) intact that I love OS X with all my heart. It’s here to stay. There have just been a few tough patches in the transition from Windows Vista to OS X.
Firstly, I had to buy a new version of Office. When mine was totally fine. Stupid.
Then Photoshop. Stupid.
Stupid, but at least do-able. I was able to get my hands on these items (which can be acquired by other “torrent”-ial means, I’ll just say) and install them into OS X. And they worked like a charm!
Friends over at APH Networks also introduced me to Darwine and TRiX, and I was able to get some Windows applications running. Most unfortunately, Windows Live Writer just wasn’t one of them (apparently some .NET incompatibilities were the cause or something like that).
Anyway, that was that. For a month, I’d had to write using WordPress’ built-in service. I tried Qumana, but that was mediocre (no offense) – even though it was easily the best out of all the free OS X blog publishing software I could find. Downgrading from Windows Live Writer to Qumana was probably the only negative to my transition to OS X.
So I finally took the dive and got Windows XP.
Similarly, I downloaded a piece of FREE software by the name of VirtualBox; in comparison to the software Parallels and VMware Fusion (both paid solutions), VirtualBox was free and still comparable. I finally got Windows Live Writer back on OS X, running simultaneously with all my OS X programs. 
You must be wondering how I did it.
1. Get your hands on Windows XP. Preferably Professional, as always.
2. Get VirtualBox. http://www.virtualbox.org/
3. Create a new machine in VirtualBox, and don’t forget to go into Settings and make sure your computer’s optical drive is in-sync with the virtual computer.
4. Insert Windows XP into your optical drive, boot your new virtual machine and install Windows XP.
4i. Go into Devices, and install guest additions. Trust me, they’re a huge help (especially in adjusting screen resolution, whew).
That’s it! 4 simple steps, probably takes you an hour or two. And now you have Windows XP on OS X, and not using dual-boot (rebooting is so 1999). Haha.
Planning: A Technique to be more Productive
Sep 24th
I’m still really new to my MacBook Pro, and I’ve only recently discovered the program known as iCal. As a university student, I’ve now formatted iCal so that my classes are set as recurring events in the work calendar.
I never really knew what to do with iCal before because I never had a need for it — I never planned my days because they were so rigid; school would be from 8AM-3PM, I’d do homework until around 6PM, and then do whatever until 8PM, when I’d eat dinner. And then, I’d do whatever.
But I’ve realized that those days are long gone, and aren’t coming back anytime soon (oh sweet summer, why won’t you arrive sooner?). And if I were to gain an edge over other students, and survive this semester of university, I would have to step up my game. Everyone’s focused, and everyone’s determined to be the best. How could I separate myself from the rest of the pack?
I decided firstly to make the most use of my time. I decided that I’d focus on whatever I was doing at the time, so I could work hard and produce good work for a series of days (getting into the flow of work), and then enjoy my time the rest of the days. How would I go about doing this?
Planning, friends. Planning.
I’ve decided to make it a habit before I go to sleep to open iCal and figure out what I would do with my day. I usually have a morning lecture (for about an hour or two), then a long break and an afternoon lecture. This can be seen as a beautiful or a disgusting thing; if I didn’t use the time wisely, then my day would end late and I’d have to do homework. If I did manage to use this time well, then I would be able to do some work, reinforce my learning, and possibly even kill the workload so I wouldn’t have to do it after my afternoon lecture.
Sweet.
What do I do with the spare time?
There are a ton of extracurriculars that I hope to be a part of at this university. Not to mention that CutEdge.org could use more updates and more content. I usually enjoy writing articles, because I find that it’s good practise and Lord knows I could use it. But my whole goal is still to be more productive — not to enjoy my time (well, there are times for that — they’re called weekends), but to kill everything so that I can recreate hard on weekends and focus on schoolwork on weekdays.
Here’s an article that I ran into today to inspire me:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203803904574429151858232582.html?mod=rss_careers
Hope I was of some help. I realize that this is taking off in an untraditional CutEdge.org direction, but I do hope to explore not only technologies, but also techniques that help people. And not just useless gadgets that people get sick of so very quickly.
HP’s MacBook Pro Clone: Envy
Sep 15th
No doubt there are a huge amount of MacBook Pro fans (I’m one of them) — the new MacBook Pros are cheaper, more efficient, and simpler than ever before. There wasn’t really much competition. Until now.
HP has created an (almost) exactly replica of the MacBook Pro; taking the exterior design of the MacBook Pro and slapping an HP logo on it, but reinventing the inside to have a lot more juice, and a lot more power. Named Envy, this line of laptops was created to capture a portion of those interested in MacBook Pros — the Envy line is more than comparable to Apple’s MacBook Pro.
With an i7 processor and double-digit RAM, and a dedicated ATI graphics card, the Envy is definitely something to keep your eyes peeled for. Available in mid-October, I’d suggest holding off that MacBook Pro until you’ve decided whether Snow Leopard is that essential, and if you can live with Envy and the Windows 7.
Read: http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/15/hp-envy-13-and-15-bring-luxury-to-the-everyman-look-like-macboo/
Read: http://www.hp.com/united-states/campaigns/envy/discover_15.html
Hot off the Press: The new Snow Leopard and Windows 7 Wallpapers
Sep 1st
Ladies and gentlemen, Snow Leopard is out. And with Windows 7 nearing release, mark the celebration by changing your wallpapers! There is a Snow Leopard wallpaper pack, as well as various Windows 7 wallpapers available for download! You’ll be surprised at how drastic a change that wallpaper makes. Enjoy.
http://ka-booka.deviantart.com/art/Snow-Leopard-Wallpaper-Pack-132160873
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/downloads/personalize (navigate to the Desktop Backgrounds tab).
Here’s an idea — if you’re usually using Windows, download the Snow Leopard pack. If you’re using Mac, use some Windows 7 wallpapers. It’s an interesting change.
5 Free Utilities to Instantly Beautify Windows Vista (and XP)
Aug 29th
Alright, so we’ve got Windows Vista or XP, and we can’t wait for Windows 7 to come out. We absolutely have to make Vista look nice. Like, right now. Here are 5 tools to instantly make Windows Vista or XP that much more bearable. Best of all, they’re free.
1. Ultimate Windows Tweaker
Ever needed to slightly alter the appearance of Windows? Enter Ultimate Windows Tweaker, a utility for Windows Vista and the upcoming Windows 7 to adjust the details of Windows. For example, I remember one time when I decided that shortcut arrows were a nuisance and I didn’t want them to appear on the icons of my desktop. I went into Ultimate Windows Tweaker and performed the adjustments from within – one reboot later, presto! They were gone.
Visit: http://www.thewindowsclub.com/ultimate-windows-tweaker-v2-a-tweak-ui-for-windows-7-vista
2. Avedesk
Avedesk is a favourite amongst many computer customization enthusiasts – it is a program that basically adds a layer onto your desktop that enables gadgets (aka applets, widgets, desklets, etc) to run. I like Avedesk because there are a ton of applets ready to be downloaded, and because it looks beautiful. However, I wouldn’t suggest running it on anything that can’t run Windows XP smoothly – it can significantly slow startup time.
Visit: http://www.avedesk.org/
3. LogonStudio
What’s the first thing anyone sees after the boot screen (excluding those single users who don’t set up a password)? Your login screen! I remembered the first time I saw Vista’s beautiful Aurora-styled login screen – but after a certain number of reboots, it got old. If you’re as bored of the background as I am, be sure to give LogonStudio a look.
Visit: http://www.stardock.com/products/logonstudio/
4. Samurize
Somewhat along the lines of Avedesk (don’t ask me which was the original), Samurize offers a bunch of applets to enhance the look of your Windows desktop. I think Samurize to be a bit more computer-intensive than Avedesk, but it’s still worth a go (hey – it’s free) if you’re wanting to take computer customization to the next level.
Visit: http://www.samurize.com/
5. VistaGlazz (+ DeviantArt)
VistaGlazz is a beautiful two-in-one application – basically, it patches the uxtheme.dll on your computer and replaces the default Aero theme with one that has transparent windows even when maximized. By patching the uxtheme.dll, VistaGlazz opens the world of non-Microsoft themes up to your computer. The transparent Aero theme is reminiscent of the updated theme in Windows 7.
As for third-party themes, there are a ton – stuff designed to emulate OS X, Windows 7, or stuff that’s just way out there. For a grand collection of these themes, visit the Vista Visual Styles collection at DeviantArt (links below).
Visit: http://www.codegazer.com/vistaglazz/
Visit: http://browse.deviantart.com/customization/skins/vistautil/visstyles/
Can you still complain about the ugly look of Windows after running through these five applications? And even if you despise Windows, I’m sure that these applications or patches will make things all the more bearable. More importantly, have fun modifying Windows! Hacking and modifying is an excellent experience to have under your belt.