Tag: Apple

Leopard vs. Vista: feature chart showdown

Paul

There’s no doubt, Vista and Leopard are both extremely advanced, feature rich consumer operating systems. But way back in January when Vista launched knew we had little choice but pit the two in a head to head chartngraph Thunderdome competition. We know we’re not even going to be able to stop the epic fanboy arguments about break out over this one, so we just ask that you try to keep it fair. Leopard vs. Vista: it’s on.

NOTE: This chart is only for out of box features, and does not take into account 3rd party software. We realize that with a few choice apps this chart would look completely different — but that’s not what we’re after here.

  • Green indicates a category with more and/or better features, and generally a better user experience.
  • Red indicates that a category not quite up to snuff. Either it doesn’t yet exist in the OS or it just sucks more than the alternative.
  • † (dagger) indicates a category we think are too subjective or not similar enough to judge. These do not have any clear winner.
  • ‡ (double dagger) indicates a category that is in many ways subjective, but that we feel one category is still ahead. Your own tastes may vary.
  • Notes help out with a little background, where appropriate.

A great article on the differences and Similarity of Vista and Leopard!!

Our Leopard Review Matrix

Paul

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Don’t have time to read over the full reviews from NYT’s David Pogue, USA Today’s Ed Baig and WSJ’s Walt Mossberg? Read our handy review matrix instead, where we break out everything that wasn’t merely feature description in an easy-to-compare chart. You can thank us later!

It’s kinda of a big article go check it out!!

Heavy Leopard Pre-orders Caused by Vista

Paul

Some solution providers have reported that the pre-orders for Apple’s Leopard are more than double for the same time prior to Tiger’s release. They cite Leopard’s new features and customer dissatisfaction with Vista as key drivers, according to ChannelWeb on Thursday.

“We’ve probably doubled the backorders of Leopard, compared to what we did with Tiger,” said Patrick Brown, CEO of Brown Computer Solutions, in Brattleboro, Vermont, a solution provider and Apple specialist. “With the Intel Macs, Apple has significantly increased the installed base. We do expect a very successful launch.”

With Vista having so many flaws does that mean Apple will be the next Microsoft?

iPod classic May Have Battery Drain-o Bug

Paul

Today there was some buzz about a battery bug in the iPod classic. Since perceived bugs aren’t always universal, or even widespread, we like to wait a bit before sounding the alarm. Well, this afternoon, when I plugged in an iPod classic that I swore was close to fully charged and saw the “Please connect to a power source” error message you can see above, I decided to dig deeper.

Sure enough, many, many classic owners are experiencing troubles. On this Apple Support thread alone, 33 posts discuss the issue, with speculation about whether the cause is use of Cover Flow or even leaving the clock display on (for as long as it lasts) when music isn’t playing. Most people say the problem hit when they upgraded to 1.02, the supposed classic “fix.”

In my own circumstance, the cause couldn’t be Cover Flow, because I rarely use it. (Sorry Steve!) It could definitely be related to the 1.02 update, as I had no problems until I updated. If you haven’t updated to 1.02, you may want to hold off. If you have, some people recommend restarting it to get it out of its continuous battery-draining spin. Some people simply recommend taking it back to the Apple Store for a replacement.

And they say the I-Pod firmware update was needed. I’d hold off on updating your Classic till they fix the problem.