5 posts tagged “apple”

In the spring of 5th grade my class went on a week-long trip to Williamsburg, Virginia. When I returned my parents had bought "the family" a Macintosh Performa 6300CD. The reality of the situation was that I was the only one to use it. I was 11 and I now owned my first computer. This computer shipped with Lode Runner: The Legend Returns which occupied me for far longer than I expected. It brought me (without warning) all my favorite lucasarts games, my first excursions on to the internet (via Hotline) and MacOS System 7.

Every time I buy a smaller and more powerful handheld device I want to write a comparison piece about it and my old Performa but I always get hung up on the fact that the 15" screen on my Performa made 640x480 pixels in thousands of colors and none of my devices came anywhere close to that. I can now make this comparison.

Processor:
6300CD: 100Mhz
iPhone: ~400Mhz (according to investigations)

iPhone FTW, easy.

RAM:
6300CD: 16MB
iPhone: 117MB (according to investigations)

iPhone FTW, again.

OS:
6300CD: System 7
iPhone: OS X (eh, kinda)

iPhone FTW, never OS 7 again.

Keyboard:
6300CD: Full, keys got sticky sometimes
iPhone: Compact, virtual, touch, hopefully never sticky

6300CD FTW, I don't think I'll ever be able to type without looking on my iPhone.

Screen:
6300CD: 640x480, 64dpi
iPhone: 480x320, 160dpi

iPhone FTW, finally!

Drive:
6300CD: 1.2Gb
iPhone: 8Gb

iPhone FTW

Communication:
6300CD: 33.6 Modem, Infrared
iPhone: EDGE, Wifi b/g, Bluetooth 2.0

iPhone FTW, although EDGE is almost as slow as 33.6

Weight:
6300CD: 50 (19 + 31) lbs
iPhone: 4.8 ounces

Uh, iPhone FTW.

Music:
6300CD: CD Player? Sad speakers...
iPhone: MP3, AAC, Etc

iPhone FTW, we had other cd players back in the day.

Mobility:
6300CD: With back strain only
iPhone: Because you have to

iPhone FTW.

Doom:
6300CD: Yes
iPhone: NO

6300CD FTW. Also iPhone WTF! Shouldn't this be done by now?

iPhone also wins in categories such as: Least buttons, Shiniest, Comes With Dock, Integrated Microphone, Can Order Pizza, Can Find Maps, and Does Hokey Pokey
6300CD wins the last few though: Has Lots of Cables, Enabled Command & Conquer Obsession, Must Be Plugged In To 120V and most importantly, Saved My Childhood

Finally. The decision is in.
iPhone wins! Finally, a machine that can match my 6300CD in the palm of my hand, horray!

Strictly for looking at, there are only TWO on the entire show floor.

Regarding the Apple vs. Ubuntu switch mongering that seems to be going on: If I were Apple, I'd be proud of myself. OS X finally has the important things down solid - excellent stability, security and ease-of-use. Apple used the ultra-geeks to get it right and now it's ready to move on to a different (and larger) user base. They're marketing the fact that you can run Windows with Parallels Desktop! How is that not a DEAD giveaway? No one important at Apple cares that they're alienating the nerd high-council because they're going to make a metric fuckload of cash in doing just that.

Edit: This shirt might capture the feeling perfectly.

You cannot escape the cute cat videos on Comet. Actually, you can. I can't get this video to upload correctly to Comet. This was stolen from vimeo - I think I like their flash player much better than I like the youtube-ish one.

Cabel posted a lengthy review of installing windows XP on a 20" intel iMac via bootcamp and (here's the fun part) posted video of Half Life 2 running really, really nicely. So here's where I use the nonexistant poll feature on notcomet:

Nick wants to stop taking his laptop to and from work just so he can have a windows machine at home. Nick has a first-gen mini at home which could potentially be used somewhere else. Nick doesn't actually need a new computer.

Should Nick:

a) Go for it. 20" intel imac. Right. Now.

b) Wait for it. 20" intel imacs will be refurbs soon enough and you can knock $400 off the price tag just like you did for your current 20" G5 iMac.

c) No for it (also known as the what would anil say option). Don't you have better things to do than spending money on a computer that you barely use for more than playing music?