Pajama Entrepreneur

You’d think it was the end of the world. Today on CNBC, I listened to one of the most ridiculous exchanges about whether companies should get their IT departments to support iPhones and Mac laptops.  What triggered this discussion is a Businessweek article (The Mac in the Gray Flannel Suit) on how employees are demanding Macs. Goodness, what is this world coming to?

The moderator of the CNBC discussion asked why should your boss get you a Mac — so you can be “unproductive” since you’ll bring in your iPod and download music while working. This question is a common one among corporate Wall Street types. There’s still this assumption, especially in the business news area, that Macs are for fun and are not for business (productive) use. Haven’t these people seen the catastrophe that is Windows Vista?

That millions of people, including serious businesses like ad agencies and film companies, have managed to “get by” using Macs has completely passed them by. The iPhone is a wonderful device. It has an elegant interface and is easy to use. The people who use it know they are more productive with it it. Same with any of the Apple laptops. Why not ask the user why he or she likes it so much instead of making assumptions about their productivity/non-productivity? Apple puts so much effort into designing good interfaces and beautiful devices that make people fall in love with them — ask the users why.

I switched to the Mac around 2002 and never looked back. It’s not just how beautiful their devices are, it’s also the ease of use, the operating system, etc. They’re not perfect, for example, they need to fix the wireless networking problems in the Mac Book. But I’ll take beauty (Macbook Air) and a good interface design over the horrid Windows Vista and those hideous clunky Dell laptops.

The city of New York told Apple it won’t accept new Macs for its schools until the Wi-Fi problem is fixed. Not sure what the problem is exactly but many users have reported a lag time in logging onto a Wi-Fi network, slow connections on Wi-Fi versus on a wired connection.

Read more here.

When I gave away my old Dell laptop yesterday, the last visible reminder of the Microsoft Windows operating departed from my life. The laptop had been gathering dust in my closet anyway since 2002 when I switched to the Mac. I still use Microsoft Office for occasional writing, spreadsheets and Powerpoint, but I’ve been mostly on Google’s online apps (docs, spreadsheets). I don’t plan to upgrade to Office for Mac’s latest version.

Last night, as I watched Steve Jobs announce movie rentals on iTunes and re-launch the Apple TV, it dawned on me that Apple has just driven a stake into the heart of the cable TV industry. The speed of cable TV’s demise will depend on how fast Apple can get films and TV shows from all over the world on iTunes. Here’s what Apple is offering:

• $2.99 per movie ($3.99 for high-definition films)
• you have 30 days to watch it and if you start a film, you have 24 hours to finish it
• you can watch it anywhere: on your iPod Touch, iPhone, laptop, desktop or TV (via Apple TV). If you download it to your Apple TV, you can move it to any of your devices including an iPod to finish watching
• Apple TV: little white box that looks like the Apple Airport Extreme wireless router but allows you to watch all iTunes content on your TV, no need for a computer. This is basically a set top box.
• All the major movie studios are on board.
• Movies available within 30 days after they are released on DVD.
• Available now in the US; in other countries within a few months.

Using the Apple TV box hooked up to your flat screen TV monitor, you can watch any content from movies to TV shows to YouTube videos, Flickr photos, video podcasts, your own video clips, anything you want.

So why should anyone continue to pay money every month to a cable company (and rent a set top box) to watch the same movies and TV shows that are on iTunes? It does not give you access to YouTube, video podcasts and other content on the Internet. You can’t watch your cable company’s offerings on your iPod or laptop while you are in an airplane.

Apple’s offerings also just killed the video rental industry. At $2.99 a pop, I would not even go down to the video rental store in the middle of a stormy winter day to rent a DVD. I can just rent it on iTunes and download it to my devices at home.

What gets me really excited is that iTunes could be the repository of films and TV shows that we never see on cable, in the cinema, or in our video rental stores: older films, movies made by independent film makers in different countries, TV shows in other parts of the world, and documentaries. Just look at the video and audio podcast offerings on iTunes. They even have iTunes University where you can view physics and English literature lectures given in top universities in the US.

When I watched Steve Jobs give a demo on how easy it is to rent and download a film, I’d say people-friendly video on demand is here. Not the clunky, horrible BBC iPlayer (which works only on Windows), but a way to find and watch video that doesn’t make you pull your hair out.

So why continue paying a lot of money for cable TV service? All you need now is a fast Internet connection at home!

Like a lot of Mac fans, I spent the early evening (in Amsterdam) following the keynote of Steve Jobs live from Macworld in San Francisco. For the past few weeks, rumors have been flying around about what Steve would announce today: a new tablet? WiMAX in laptops?

So when he announced a beautiful ultra-thin laptop called the MacBook Air, I thought, I must have one. But I already have a 15″ Mac Book Pro, so I guess I’ll have to pass. The MacBook Air comes with all the goodies — 802.11n, 80 GB hard drive, Intel Core 2 Duo processor, full-sized keyboard and glossy display. What it does not come with is . . . an optical drive (CD/DVD) which is one of the reasons why it’s so light and thin. Another major innovation is the trackpad that allows users to control the size of the screen, to scroll, etc. using the same finger movements that one uses on the iPhone’s screen. Go to the Apple website to see the demo.

Steve Jobs also announced the following at the keynote:

• movie rentals via iTunes store
• upgrades to iPhone software, for example, the iPhone can now tell your location on a map (thanks to Skyhook Wireless’s Wi-Fi triangulation service and Google Maps)
• major upgrade to iPod Touch (but for an extra $20 for current users): mail, Google maps, weather, stocks and notes
• Time Capsule: new wireless router using 802.11n which also has a built-in hard drive so that all the computers in the home or office can be backed up easily
• Apple TV 2: new version of Apple TV

Watch Steve Jobs keynote by going to the Apple site.

Macworld begins on Monday, 14 January 2008. That means for the past few weeks, people have been speculating and spreading rumors: a new 13″ ultra-light Mac Book, an iPhone-like tablet and WiMAX in Mac Books. Since the demise of Think Secret, everyone’s favorite Mac rumor site, the rumor mill has never been the same. If you are dying to find out what Apple may be up to, you’ll have to go to www.macrumors.com.

Since everyone is making a list at the end of the year, I decided to create one, too. Here’s my top 10 most useful applications — things I couldn’t live without in 2007. Some are online apps, others are software that you download to your computer. I have a Mac Book Pro running Leopard (Mac OS X 10.5.1).

(1) Gmail: Google’s online mail application has reduced the amount of spam I receive to nearly zero. The mobile client is stable and fast. You can use Gmail to send and receive emails from other email addresses. Since your email is stored online, even if you lose your laptop or the hard drive dies, you always have access to it.

(2) Google Docs and Spreadsheets: perfect for sharing documents and spreadsheets. Like Gmail, you never worry again about your hard drive dying or losing your data.

(3) Backpack: create to-do lists, keep reminders (that send SMS or emails to you so you never forget anything) and keep an online calendar that syncs with Apple iCal. Backpack is one of the excellent online applications developed by the wonderful 37 Signals. They are known for Basecamp, the project management and collaboration application. There’s a free and a paid version.

(4) Transmit: fast, easy-to-use FTP software for the Mac. I’ve tried others, but this one is the fastest and most intuitive.

(5) Wordpress: the best blogging software around, with a huge community of developers of plug-ins, themes, widgets, etc. Wordpress powers this blog and other blogs I have set up in the past. Wordpress also has a hosted service, called Wordpress.com, for those who can’t be bothered to set up, host and maintain their own blog. Created by Matt Mullenweg, it is used by thousands of bloggers and big media companies.

(6) Netnewswire: RSS news reader. I don’t like online RSS readers because it takes forever to load the feeds. I like Netnewswire’s clean interface.

(7) Skype: this application has saved me thousands of Euros in phone calls. I can’t imagine life without Skype. I have no more long distance phone bills and since most of my contacts are on Skype anyway, it’s much easier to reach people or IM them.

(8) Gizmo Project: like Skype, Gizmo Project allows you to call people for free (if they are also Gizmo Project users) or to call landlines and mobile phones for low rates. Most of my contacts are on Skype so I use Gizmo Project primarily for calling landlines and mobile phones. I use it also on my mobile phone because unlike Skype, Gizmo Project has software for the Nokia phones. So when I am abroad and in the vicinity of a Wi-Fi network, I avoid roaming charges by using Gizmo Project on my mobile phone via Wi-Fi. I buy $10 units and it takes me months before I use it up. Another true money saver!

(9) Ad Block Plus plugin for Firefox browser: This plugin blocks obnoxious advertising on web sites. No more miserable flashing banners, video ads that suddenly play and blast out your ears, nasty advertising animations. My web surfing experience has improved dramatically since I installed Ad Block Plus.

(10) Super Duper: this is the best backup software. It is easy to use and fast so there is absolutely no excuse anymore not to back up your hard drive every night. Tech support is very good. I emailed their support team and got a response within 24 hours (they solved my problem — which had nothing to do with the Super Duper software but with errors on my hard drive).