Author Archive | Harry McCracken

The Joy of WordCamp

Posted by Harry McCracken on August 16, 2008 at 3:14 pm

As I’ve mentioned before, Technologizer runs on the wonderful WordPress blogging platform. One of the things that makes WordPress wonderful is WordCamp, a series of conferences in which WordPress users get together to share tips, opinions, and passion. I’m spending today at WordCamp in San Francisco; it would be a pretty spectacular conference at any price, but is downright amazing for the price they charge, which is…twenty bucks. Including a day of events, a cocktail party, a T-shirt, and–most of all–the collective wisdom of several hundred WordPress users.

Upcoming WordCamps are planned for Cape Town, Manila, Portland, Beijing, Honolulu, Sydney, and a lot of other places–and that’s just for the rest of 2008. If I had enough time and money, I’m sure I’d enjoy attending them all.

If you’re looking to start a blog with a minimum of fuss, I heartily recommend WordPress.com…and if you’re a WordPress user who lives anywhere near a WordCamp, please go. You’ll have a blast and come away smarter, if my experience is any evidence…

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Are Macs More Expensive? Round Two: Survival of the Cheapest

Posted by Harry McCracken on August 16, 2008 at 2:25 pm

On Thursday, I began my multiple-part look at the cost of Macintoshes by comparing a mid-range MacBook to some Windows laptops which I’d configured to be as similar to the MacBook as possible. Compared to those machine, I concluded that the MacBook was in the zone in terms of price and power, or, in other words, “not expensive.”

I also managed to stir up lots of controversy, in the form of dozens of comments and discussion elsewhere on the Web. So as promised, I’m back with another round of price comparisons, and based in part on comments to my original post by a reader named Michael, I’ve decided to stick with the MacBook and compare it to Windows laptops that happen to be on sale at Best Buy at the moment.

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“Are Macs More Expensive?”: The AfterFAQ

Posted by Harry McCracken on August 15, 2008 at 8:03 pm

McCracken’s Fifth Rule of Tech Journalism states that reaction to anything one writes about Macs is likely to be incredibly passionate–and that you can write one story and catch flack for being both mindlessly pro-Mac and mindlessly anti-Mac. I shoulda remembered that when I decided to write “Are Macs More Expensive?“, which is already one of the most-read, most-commented-upon things I’ve written for Technologizer. I didn’t mean to provoke so much strong opinion, but I did, in spades.

That said, I’m sure enjoying reading the reaction to the story in the form of comments on the story itself as well as discussion elsewhere on the Web. As I mentioned in the story, I’m going to continue trying to answer the question in additional posts that compare different types of Macs to similar Windows machines, so this conversation is going to continue for awhile.

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New Airport Security Laptop Rules: Simpler? Maybe!

Posted by Harry McCracken on August 15, 2008 at 12:54 pm

“Good news from the TSA” sounds a tad oxymoronic, but I guess that’s what we have here: The organization charged with protecting the nation’s skies has announced that it’s loosening the rule that has made laptop-toting travelers remove their notebooks from their cases before putting them through the X-machines at airport security lines.

If you own a case of a certain style–essentially one that’s simple enough that the X-ray machine can clearly see the laptop within it–you won’t have to remove the computer. Here’s the TSA’s infographic on good and bad laptop case designs:

The TSA says it’s working with bag manufacturers to put labels on bags that are security-friendly, and also tells travelers to make sure that:

–Your laptop bag has a designated laptop-only section that can lay flat on the X-ray belt
–Your laptop bag has a designated laptop-only section that can lay flat on the X-ray belt
–There are no metal snaps, zippers or buckles inside, underneath or on-top of the laptop-only section
–There are no pockets on the inside or outside of the laptop-only section
–There is nothing in the laptop compartment other than the laptop
–You have completely unfolded your bag so that there is nothing above or below the laptop-only section, allowing the bag to lay flat on the X-ray belt

The organization describes the new procedures as being simpler but that’s up for debate, I think. Until now, everybody’s known exactly what to do with a laptop: take it out of its case. From now on, presumably, some people will try to send their computers through the X-ray in the case and learn that they’ve got the wrong kind of case only once it’s inside the X-ray. And the rules about other stuff in the case seem like they’ll lead to people frantically repacking their luggage while in line.

Me, I usually double-pack my laptop–I put it inside a sleeve, which I then slide into a traditional briefcase. I’m reasonably sure that I’ll have to remove the sleeve from the briefcase, but it sounds like even the sleeve may be a no-go: It’s got pockets on both sides, which usually have stuff such as power cords and earphones in them. I guess I’ll learn the ropes as I go.

If the time ever comes when the TSA can keep us safe without making anybody do the laptop shuffle at all, it will be a great day–I speak as someone who once managed to leave a laptop at Logan Airport in Boston, and only realized what had happened when my plane touched down in San Francisco. (I’m still amazed that I got it back.)

I tend to be a grim pessimist about security lines and rules, but you never know–the liquids-in-Baggies rule is pretty darn complicated, and it doesn’t seem to have bogged the traveling public down too much. Once people know the rules, they have an impressive ability to follow them in a reasonably efficient manner…

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Are Macs More Expensive? Let’s Do the Math Once and For All

Posted by Harry McCracken on August 14, 2008 at 10:50 pm

[UPDATE: This is one of the most popular stories we’ve ever published, but with the arrival of the new MacBook on October 14th, it’s also obsolete. Read it if you like–but this new article compares the new MacBook to comparable Windows computers.]

It’s of those eternal questions of the computing world that never seems to get answered definitively: Does the “Mac Tax” really exist? Some folks are positive that Macs are overpriced compared to Windows computers; others deny it steadfastly. Almost nobody, however, bothers to do the math in any serious detail.

So that’s what I’m going to do. And since Apple manufactures multiple models, I’m going to do it one computer at a time, starting with the MacBook, the company’s consumer notebook.

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Netflix? Uh Oh–Try “Notflix”

Posted by Harry McCracken on August 14, 2008 at 11:41 am

Boy, it’s been a busy week for Internet outages: Something really bad is going down at Netflix, which, according to CNBC, shipped no DVDs on Tuesday, had major trouble yesterday, and hadn’t shipped any today as of the time of CNBC’s report. The CNBC story says that a Netflix spokesperson responded promptly and honestly to queries, but the article doesn’t have much in the way of detail about what’s going on.

I just signed into my account, and to Netflix’s credit, it’s displaying a gigantic warning and apology right at the top of the page:

I covered an 18-hour Netflix site outage in my list of the Web’s most notable examples of downtime earlier this week; if I’d done the story today, this new one woulda made the list for sure. As with this week’s Gmail outage, one of the lessons here is that even the Web’s most reliable services–and Netflix famously runs like a top, which is a big part of how it became so successful–are far from impervious.

More details to come. I’ll end with thoughts that repeat what I said during the Gmail outage, short though it turned out to be: Let’s hope that Netflix not only fixes this as quickly as possible, but tells us all what happened, and what it’s doing to keep it from happening again…

Update: Netflix tells CNet’s Rafe Needleman that customers are being extremely understanding about all this. I can believe it; the service is usually so good that I’d cut the company a lot of slack. Bu that doesn’t mean I’m not worried that something can go so wrong, for so long…

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Introducing the T-Poll: Your Take on the iPhone 3G Launch

Posted by Harry McCracken on August 14, 2008 at 11:02 am

Last week, I asked you what you thought about the $1000 iPhone application in a silly little poll, and more than 1900 folks have chimed in to date. So consider that microsurvey to be the first T-Poll–and look for more of ’em on a reasonably regular basis. Starting with this one, in which, once again, I come back to the iPhone 3G.

It’s been a little more than a month since the iPhone 3G debuted, and an awful lot has happened. Let’s recap:

* On January July 11th, the iPhone 3G debuted at Apple Stores and AT&T retailers to long lines and a surging sea of activation glitches in the morning, although they seem to have gotten under control by the end of the day;

* Serious problems with MobileMe, however, persist–prompting a subscription extension from Apple, a blog about the glitches and Apple’s response to them, and a widely-published internal memo in which Steve Jobs said the service wasn’t up to Apple standards;

* The Netshare tethering app appeared on the App Store, then disappeared, then appeared, then disappeared;

* Apple let the $1000 app onto the App Store…briefly;

* The App Store has a hit, with iPhone users downloading tens of millions of programs, including a million bucks’ worth for for-pay ones a day;

* Some App Store apps received rave reviews, including Twitterific, Facebook, Evernote, and Apple’s own Remote;

* Users (including me!) groused about Apple’s “Twice as fast” claims about the new phone;

* Reports surfaced of iPhone 3Gs that dropped calls and delivered slow Internet connections, possibly because of a faulty chip;

* Electronics megachain Best Buy became the third seller of iPhones in the U.S;

* Despite everything, most iPhone 3G users appear to be satisfied-to-delighted–but battery life seems to be the most common source of angst;

Today’s T-Poll is a two-parter:

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A Brief Reverse-Chronological YouTube History of Apple

Posted by Harry McCracken on August 14, 2008 at 1:40 am

The history of Apple is so long and interesting that some amazingly weighty tomes have been written about it. But I don’t think you need to pore over hundreds of pages to get the gist of the company’s journey. Actually, more than with any other computer company, its advertising tells much of the story. And thanks to YouTube, it’s all a few clicks away, and watching it is downright addictive.

I started to put together this video timeline starting in the 1970s and working my way forward to the present day. Then I realized that it’s more fun–and much bloggier–to begin with current commercials and travel backwards in time. Join me, won’t you?

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Abandoning Xdrive? Box.net Wants Your Data

Posted by Harry McCracken on August 13, 2008 at 2:40 pm

A few weeks ago, I blogged about the fact that AOL has decided to “sunset” its venerable Xdrive online storage service. Xdrive users, not surprisingly, seem to be figuring out exit strategies–and every day, my post gets read by folks who found it via Xdrive-related Google searches.

Box.net, an Xdrive rival, dropped me a note to let me know about a new service it’s offering to would-be Xdrive Xpatriates: one-click transfers of data from Xdrive accounts to Box.net ones. Okay, it’s only one click after you’ve registered for Box.net, but it still looks pretty simple:

This isn’t for everyone–for one thing, Box.net only offers 1GB of space for free. (More space costs from $8 to $15 a month.) I actually think that’s a point in the company’s favor, since a business that actually receives money from its customers is less likely to disappear than one that doesn’t.

And chances seem very slim that AOL will announce to Xdrive users that their data is going away along with the service. Odds are that it’ll sell Xdrive to another online storage company, or strike a deal to let Xdrive users move their stuff to another service. But it pays to be prepared–and if I were an Xdrive fan, I’d do my own preparing rather than relying on AOL. Look on the bright side: There’s no such thing as having too many copies of data that’s important to you…

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