Apple touches a nerve with its most loyal users (again)

From Gizmodo:

It's understandable for Apple to wage a war on unlocking the iPhone, since the company shares revenue from fees with AT&T. But the truth is, if cellphone service was awesome, like it is on iTunes, there wouldn't be a need to unlock the iPhone. Secondly, bricking these things is totally uncool, and apparently, malicious—according to some early code investigations by the independent iPhone Dev Team, Apple could have avoided this entirely.

Learn how to live with Email

From Presentation Zen:

Here's a good presentation you will enjoy. Merlin Mann, a well known productivity guru and creator of the popular 43 folders website talks about getting things done, the importance of getting your inbox to zero, and strategies for dealing with high volume email. Merlin spoke at Google earlier this summer and he told me (last night in fact) that Presentation Zen was an inspiration for his slides. The simple vector images Merlin uses are available at iStockPhoto. You do not need a drawing app like Illustrator since iStock provides you with a very large jpeg for each set of line art.

Good simple presentation. And a great speech too.

"Window" of Opportunity

For the first time in a long time I've been thinking about getting a Mac. Looks like I'm not alone...

From NY Times:

A Window of Opportunity for Macs, Soon to Close

By RANDALL STROSS

Published: September 16, 2007

The Mac’s presence in the retail world remains limited, a shame given the rare opportunity for Apple to gain market share that opened up when Vista arrived.

Like the article says, a new PC with Vista is not terribly appealing until it becomes as solid (or even close) as XP is. The Mac OS is very sleek and evolved. And it comes with plenty of useful apps instead of a bunch of crippled programs that expire in 90 days.

Also I really like the design of the iMac. Everything is "in" the monitor. Such a huge improvement over the big PC noisy box. Cost-wise, an iMac is no bargain compared to similar Dell or HP models. But I'd be willing to pay more for less.

I did look at the MacBook Pro, but I don't see any advantages there. The MacBook Pro is not drastically different from any other notebook. If I had to get a notebook today, I'd grab a Dell XPS M1330. No question. But on the desktop, my decision is not that cut and dry.