iPhone Still the Best in a Crowded Market – Barely

As Apple introduces the latest generation of its iPhone this week, it’s important to put the company’s flagship device in perspective as just another smartphone in a crowded marketplace.

Long gone are the days when the iPhone exemplified the cutting edge in mobile computing. Now it’s well matched by competing products from other companies like Samsung and Nokia.

Even the iPhone’s long-vaunted iTunes media ecosystem isn’t as unique as it once was. Until just a couple years ago iTunes was the best way to buy movies or music on a mobile device.

No more. Superior competing services like Rdio, Netflix, and Amazon Prime have vaulted past Apple’s languishing media platform.

That leaves apps. Apple invented the concept of the mobile “app” and made it easy to install and use them. The iPhone remains app nirvana, but Apple is at risk of ceding leadership here too.

A Mac User Considers His Zune Options

So, if it isn’t obvious yet, I’m quite smitten with Microsoft’s Zune subscription service. Mostly because it’s cheap.

I’m a heavy music consumer and spend anywhere from $50 to $200 every month at iTunes. And that’s with an extreme degree of musical abstinence!  I generally don’t listen to what I purchase more than two or three times, though, so it’s a very, very costly habit. Spending $10 at Zune every month for the same thing is an extremely attractive proposition, and it would grant me more options in terms of listening to what I want, rather than what I can afford.

The problem is, I don’t have a Windows-based PC. I don’t have a Windows Phone 7. I have an XBox, but I’m not always listening to music in my living room.

So how do I make Zune work for me?

Lenovo ThinkPad X60 Tablet PC For Sale

Cutting-Edge Tablet PC with Built-in Cellular Wireless Networking and Tons of Accessories

I’m probably going to post this on eBay, but I thought I’d advertise this unit here for a week before I do so in an effort to try and avoid the auction site’s exorbitant fees.

I’m selling my Lenovo ThinkPad X60 Tablet PC computer with 2GB of RAM, a 120 GB internal hard drive, and an internel Telus- or Verizon- compatible (CDMA) cellular modem for WWAN access.

This Lenovo ThinkPad (Canadian model number 6363-HAU) is in excellent condition. It was used lightly and has since been sitting on my desk experiencing very little use. It is in perfect running order. It has always been hooked up to an APC battery backup. The unit was just repaired under warranty by Lenovo; its system board and keyboard were replaced.

This unit was was purchased in mid-April of 2007; its date of manufacture is March 28, 2007. It was upgraded to include 2 GB of RAM.

There remain about 12 months of warranty on this unit. This warranty is fully transferrable to a new owner.

I am selling this ThinkPad because I find that I rarely use its unique tablet features. I’m seeking $800 CDN for the tablet and its accessories, of which there are many (see below).

You can view more photos of the PC and its accessories in my Flickr album.

this is how much windows (doesn’t) love me

Apparently, Microsoft’s operating system is giving me some special love because, not only do I often get the Blue Screen of Death, but I get the Fucked-Up Blue Screen of Death.

I feel so special. Now… where’s my hammer?

apple’s software deal strikes at microsoft’s foundation

Those who claim that Macs are more expensive than PCs should reconsider their position. Hardware product costs are roughly equivalent, but software costs are far, far lower.

At the MacWorld keynote yesterday Phil Schiller revealed a package deal for the Mac operating system (Mac OS X Leopard), its suite of consumer media production tools (iLife 09, which includes iPhoto, iDVD, Garage Band, and iWeb), and its professional office suite (iWork, which includes Keynote, Pages, and Numbers). Purchased as a package, these three products cost a measly $169 USD.

That’s an insane value.

Compare that to what you’d blow on Microsoft product. I checked out the prices on Future Shop:

After I convert the cost of Apple’s package to Canadian dollars, there’s a whopping difference of $600. You could almost buy a brand new Mac Mini for that, or three iPod nanos, or three months worth of groceries.

But don’t let the prices fool you. iWork is every bit as good as, if not better than, Microsoft Office. And iLife, well, Microsoft’s competing fare can’t hold a candle to this brilliant suite of easy-to-use media tools. And as for the Mac OS versus Windows? That debate will rage for ages to come. But you know where I stand.

Apple is striking at Microsoft’s bread and butter with this package deal. The Redmond behemoth will live and die on its Office suite and Windows revenues. If Apple begins to start having an effect on their market share with a comparable set of tools at far lower prices, that’s going to effect Microsoft’s bottom line.

But it’s not just Apple going after Microsoft here. Sun, Google, and Corel all have competing sets of free and low-cost office productivity software that are grinding away at Microsoft’s dominance.

top ten crap software: simply accounting

Since I took over at the day care, I’ve been basically forced to start engaging with what I now consider to be one of the worst excuses for a professional software application ever: Simply Accounting Premium 2008. Every time I use this application there is a problem that costs me time and, therefore, my organization money.

Like, just yesterday, we were doing payroll. Already a time-consuming task, even without problems, Simply decided to make it worse. With no changes made by myself or my colleague, our printing settings for cheques were suddenly different. We had it set up to print in a specific format to pre-printed cheques in duplicate. Simply didn’t want to do this anymore. It chose a new form, apparently deleted our old form, and quit doing duplicates.