The most popularized reason for the disliking of the Apple community as a whole is the notion that it is overwhelmingly elitist and full of bigotry. In any type of community there are always the vocal few. Unfortunately, these overwhelmingly vocal few always seem to effect the opinion of a bystander looking in on the Apple ecosystem. The attitudes of these vocal few do not in any way reflect the entire Apple community, or even a majority of it. Windows users seem to commonly mistake an Apple fan’s love for their Mac as elitism and snobbery. Simply put, we just love our Macs.

One of the biggest problems with the Mac to a buyer is the pricing. The hardware is seen as a niche’ market (which it is) and overpriced, but that is because Apple Mac’s have quality beyond anything else in the market. The operating system, file system, graphical user interface, ease-of-use, beautiful craftsmanship, and durability make the Mac a top notch product that deserves a top notch price.

Another false fact that still seems to be etched into the Windows user’s mind is that the Mac is hard to learn to use. This could not be anything but farther than the truth. The Mac was designed with the idea of ease-of-use in mind, while Windows was designed as a filesystem with a focus on infrastructure. For the most part you will never hear of a Windows user switching to the Mac and having to go back to Windows because he could not learn how to use it. The genius behind Apple’s products is that they intuitively make sense. This comes from Apple’s main focus from the beginning of it’s conception- to make a computer that is fun and easy to use.

The biggest fault with Windows versus the Mac is Window’s need for constant user management to keep it maintained. The Mac is designed to be more self-reliant and not call for the user to have to know how to do things that someone without any computer experience does not know how to do. The constant need for security to be managed by the user through an anti-virus, the need to defragment the hardrive, and the need for filesystem and core fixes with weekly patches and updates makes Windows impose more on the common user than need should have it.

This is an extensive interview concerning Windows 7 and the state of Microsoft between the CEO of Microsoft, Steve Ballmer, and the editor and chief of Engadget, Joshua Topolsky.

fiveoclockninja:

Mac Vs. PC: Mr Bean

(via starquant)

The brand spankin, not even in production Microsoft “Courier” tablet PC. I’m not gonna lie this looks like the best thing Microsoft has done in the past decade. I actually find it very head to believe that Microsoft designed this user interface… it looks much too attractive.

Very VERY interested to see the upcoming buzz around this device.

These two remotes, by Apple (left, Apple TV) and Microsoft (right, Xbox 360), do approximately the same things with a few exceptions:

• The Microsoft remote uses two AA batteries that need to be replaced about every 6 months. The Apple remote uses a single CR2032 that has never needed to be replaced.
• The Apple remote has 6 buttons. The Microsoft remote has 46, only 15 of which are regularly used for media playback.
• The buttons on the Microsoft remote are backlit so you can see what they do in the dark. The Apple remote doesn’t have this feature because you never need to look at the buttons after the first minute of use.
• The Apple remote works from nearly any position in the room with approximate line-of-sight between itself and the front of the Apple TV. The Microsoft remote has the worst reception angle of any remote I’ve ever used (supposedly 90°, ±45°). Mine starts failing consistently at about 22° right of center at a distance of 8 feet, putting it right at the bottom of their specified total radius (~44°). It won’t even work from the right half of the couch.

This is a pretty good indicator of the two companies’ design philosophies and quality goals. And this isn’t even considering the software interface that each remote is respectively controlling.

(via marco)

Microsoft recently released their new search engine to replace the failed Windows Live Search. “Bing” is not a search engine according to Microsoft, it’s a “decision engine”, meaning, when you type 2010 Honda Accord into Bing, instead of articles about the Honda Accord you will get shopping options to buy the Honda Accord or travel options where you can rent a Honda Accord, etc.

We’ll see how this does but I have low expectations for the term “binging” to catch mainstream. I don’t think a protective father is going to be “binging” his daughter’s new boyfriend instead of googling him anytime soon.

Meanwhile you can go google Bing and see the website today.

Apparently some people like this thing. From what I saw in the video it looks like it’s still not that fluid, especially compared to the iPhone. Maybe with 7.0 Windows Mobile will get it right.

Microsoft gave the first public showing of their new OS “Windows 7” at PDC 2 days ago. Now what they are going for with their interface I’ll leave up to you to decide. If you really want to read more about Microsoft’s newest prodigy read the great post at Arstechnica. 

But for quick reference this is what Microsoft claims about their new OS:

- Any hardware or software that works on Vista will work on 7. (nothing that used to work will stop working)

- Improved user experience. 

- A new task-bar with re-arrangeable icons. 

-Two-level navigation between different windows. 

- Each icon has a thumbnail to switch windows.

- New feature called a “Jump List” in the start menu. 

- Improved dragging and dropping windows. 

- being able to “peak” at windows and the desktop

- gadgets will live on the desktop itself and not that little sidebar

- improved ability to remove and edit icons in the task bar for a “cleaner” user experience

- a new concept of filesystem organization- “Libraries” 

Thanks to Arstechnica for all the pictures. Well Windows 7, you never cease to not surprise me. 

The ultimate Vista optimization and tweaking tool is here, and it’s free. WinBubble let’s you fix and tweak all those things in Vista that you always wanted but just couldn’t find. 

WinBubble is the key to fixing that problem with your machine that you know is there but you just don’t know where to fix it. Say your computer is taking too long to start up or power down, WinBubble shows you a box of all the start-up programs right in the main dialog box. This is perfect for those who are not masters of Vista and don’t know where to find everything. And, if WinBubble doesn’t have the authorization to edit something in your system, it shows you where in your system’s preferences the option is available to change. It’s not all for fixing problems either, it also has a plethera of options to customize your Vista machine in ways that you didn’t think were possible. 

Either way, WinBubble is an awesome tool. And from personal experience I can say that it can make your computer so much smoother and faster. 

If you’re a Vista user, WinBubble is a must. 

Windows has announced that a new version of Windows will success Vista in 2010-11. (codename- Vienna) If you’re curious click the link to learn more about the top secret project. There will be follow up posts on Windows 7 to come.

The second Microsoft commercial with Bill Gates and Jerry Seinfeld.

I don’t get it.

 I still have no idea what this is supposed to communicate. It seems to be saying that Gates and Seinfeld are completely out-of-touch with reality, and they’re trying to connect with normal people again. This implies that Microsoft hasn’t been connecting with normal people for a while and it’s something they need to work on. (Which is probably true.) But then the slogan at the end says that Microsoft is good at connecting people.

Apple’s commercials are full of direct comparisons to Windows PCs and reasons why Macs are good. The iPhone commercials are even better: they just show the product’s real interface doing real tasks. It’s telling that Microsoft isn’t discussing, showing, or even mentioning their products at all in these new commercials that are supposedly the “answer” to the Apple ads.

But they’re just confusing. I can’t imagine that Microsoft is accomplishing… whatever it is they were trying to accomplish.

The real message here seems to be, “We have no idea what we’re doing.”

And that’s certainly coming through clearly.

This is Microsoft’s long-awaited answer to the Mac vs. PC ads.

The only redeeming quality was the use of Bill gates’ ancient mugshot as his membership-card photo.