James Katt's Profile

  • Oct 30, 2010
  • 11
  • 0

Latest comments made by: James Katt

  • Apple is trying to save enough money to buy Microsoft.
    James Katt had this to say on Oct 30, 2010 Posts: 11
    Apple Buying Something Big? How UnAppleish
  • Exactly. The iPad is the beginning of the eBook era, not the end. The iPad allows eBooks to grow and develop all the potential they could never have with paper. It is the start of the new eBook era.
    James Katt had this to say on Mar 12, 2010 Posts: 11
    How iPad Will Kill the eBook
  • The iPad can use any eBook with any DRM. Pundits don't realize this. This frees the consumer to purchase any eBook they want. The iPad user can read: 1. Apple Fairplay DRM ePub books using the iBook app 2. Kindle DRM books using the Kindle app 3. Adobe DRM ePub books using the Stanza app (owned by Amazon). 4. Barnes and Noble eBooks using the Barnes and Noble app. 5. Courseware Textbooks using the Courseware app. 6. Palm doc ebooks using the iSilo app and others 7. iSilo ebooks using the iSilo app 8. Microsoft Word eBooks using multiple apps 9. Plain Text ebooks using multiple apps 10. PDF eBooks using multiple apps 11. etc. etc. Unlike other eBook readers, the iPad frees you from having to worry about whether or not your eBooks are compatible. They are.
    James Katt had this to say on Mar 02, 2010 Posts: 11
    E-Book Piracy on the iPad: Some Thoughts
  • I would pay the usual upgrade price of $130 for Snow Leopard. It is well worth it. Speed and stability are worthwhile upgrades as well as any other additional functionality.
    James Katt had this to say on Jun 17, 2009 Posts: 11
    Is Snow Leopard a Bargain at Twice the Price?
  • Apple already has a NetBook. It is called MacBook AIR. A better product would be a Tablet Version of the iPhone, the size of a Paperback Book or larger. Apple can sell it as the "iBook". Apple could then sell books or texbooks using the standard eBook format through iTunes. And users can create their own PDF books to read on it. Optional would be an external keyboard. New applications could be sold through the iTunes iBook App Store. It would be an entirely new platform. It would still be based on OS X. But it would be a lot simpler than a desktop. And it would have fewer headaches on a smaller screen than a desktop. The screen of the MacBook already is too small for desktop use. I don't believe you can shoehorn a desktop OS on a smaller format. This is what Microsoft always tries to do - and fails in doing so. The beauty of the iPhone is the use of an entirely new UI using the same underlying OS. The iBook would have cell phone capabilities via a PC Card. This would allow the cell phone capabilities to change as technology changes. It would have a largeer speaker than the iPhone, and can thus be a good speaker phone. It could have a camera in front thus would be a natural for doing iChat. The iBook can be sold to every university and high school student as a replacement for their textbooks. Imagine that! This would reduce the cost for publishers since their is no hard copy. This iBook would certainly lower the weight that students carry in their backpacks. The iBook would kill the Kindle. It would be far better than whatever Amazon can design.
  • A Laptop is a Laptop is a Laptop. The basic external design elements are already there. There is not much anyone can do about it. Apple has been the best at refining the definition and design of what a laptop is. Its current designs are the best I have seen in a laptop. It is a refinement of everything external. The only thing you can really do with it is to keep upgrading the features as technology progresses: higher resolution, brighter screen; better keyboard and trackpad; lighter, more rigid and durable case, higher resolution camera; better microphone technology; better ports; etc. You can argue that the current Apple line is the pinnacle of external laptop design. But that is all you actually want in external design. What will actually change the most is the inside. The internal hardware will improve over time. There will be faster CPUs and GPUs, larger hard drives, etc. These will allow more complex and potentially more useful software to be developed. Better connections to peripherals can be developed - such as larger external screens, faster external drives. Better batteries will improve runs times allowing more independence from the wall socket. The software will improve - e.g. Snow Leopard and its move to 64-bit data and program structures, more efficient use of parallel processors. With faster CPUs, perhaps true voice interaction can now be done. Currently, this is at a very primitive level even with CPUs as fast as the current ones we have. These all are exciting to me since the possibilities improve. Yes, the external laptop looks the same, but more can be done in the future. Current computers are SO SLOW. It is very limiting in what we can do. Laptops are even slower. It is maddening how slow the current top-of-the-line Macbook Pros are when it comes to multitasking several programs, starting up programs, etc. I look forward to a much better future with laptops as the hardware improves. The sky is the limit as far as I can see. The external design may be look the same but the internals are where all the action will be.
    James Katt had this to say on Nov 03, 2008 Posts: 11
    How Far Can Apple Take A Laptop?
  • Spell Catcher does EVERYTHING that TextExpander does AND MORE: It also does spell checking, (optionally) journals all your typing keeping a backup, changes text characteristics (e.g. changing everything to uppercase), etc. It does this all at the same price that TextExpander has.
    James Katt had this to say on Oct 12, 2008 Posts: 11
    10 Mac Power User Apps
  • Jobs made a bold goal of capturing 1 percent of the total cellular phone market with the iPhone. This was ballsy, brash and very Jobs. However, Jobs will always emphasize that Apple will always aim to simply make the best product it can. When it does so, people will come. Having lived through more than 50 deathnotices about Apple, being a stockholder (i.e. part-owner of Apple), and seeing now Michael Dell dissed Apple years ago, the other lesson that Jobs brought to Apple is that Apple has to make a profit. The Cell Phone market is so large and diverse, it will be extremely difficult for any high-end, high-cost product such as the iPhone to capture a large share of the market. There are too many poor people in the world. But this means also that there is a lot of room for everyone. One-percent of the Cell Phone Market, however, is HUGE. As soon as I saw Jobs show the iPhone, I knew this one-percent had the potential to double the size of Apple. The iPhone brings in a HUGE profit per phone to Apple. And its halo effect on music sales, applications sales, accessories sales, iPod and Mac sales, etc. just brings in more profit to Apple. Since the iPhone alone brings in around $400 profit for Apple, each iPhone is like selling another Mac. Not only that, it will sell even more than the Macs. It is interesting that the word, Podcast, has become the un-official name of serial audio and video works. This itself is an advertisement for Apple when it is used in other players. The iPhone will easily fight off Android. There is room for both. And the iPhone will be the more attractive one - particularly when they are both at the same price - as will the first version of the Android phone comes out. At $199 for the new GPhone, why would someone choose it over the much superior iPhone and its Ecosystem? And one last point: The strongest weapon the iPhone has against any other competitor is its ECOSYSTEM. The iPhone comes with the App Store with thousands of easy to use apps and growing, the iTunes store for music and video which are easy to buy and download directly to the iPHone, the thousands of accessories to customize your iPhone, the cars with iPod specific connectors, the Mac and iPod related hardware, etc. etc. Compare this integrated environment to what the Android phones will have - HARDLY NOTHING. Who do you want to be with? The prettiest, most popular and cool girl in class, who will also hook you up with her friends so you now have a network of friends and are yourself cool - or the loner odd looking girl who may have trackmarks up her arms? The choice is obvious.
    James Katt had this to say on Sep 18, 2008 Posts: 11
    Can the iPhone Fight Off the Androids?
  • The Android will be on multiple, diverse, cellphone forms. As such, it will be diluting itself from the start. Developers will have to develop for the many different forms of Android. Cell phone manufacturers will want to distinguish themselves from other Android products. Thus they will customize Android further. This will further dilute Andriod. Android will then become like multiple versions of Linux. Applications will have to be branched onto several different versions for each version of Android. This will complicate application installation and the customer experience. Compare this to the grand-unified experience that customers have with the iPhone. The iPhone is a smooth, easy to use, high-quality product that stands head and shoulders above the mob. Remember that marketshare is not the goal of the iPhone. Best of breed and making profit are the goals. And do this it does better than any other smarter than smartphone. There is a lot of room in the cellphone market for everyone. But the iPhone will always be the most lusted after, highest quality product, that attracts long-lines of customers weeks after the introduction. Those who want the best will get the iPhone. Period. Those who can't afford it will get a cheaper copy.
    James Katt had this to say on Sep 17, 2008 Posts: 11
    Can the iPhone Fight Off the Androids?
  • Exactly. If you can't afford a BMW, then don't buy it. Be happy with your Chevy Aveo and your Linux PC. Apple's orders are to 1. Make a profit. 2. Make the best product it can. Apple tried to do clones. Apple tried to get marketshare. When it did, it LOST BILLIONS of dollars. This is because the PC Market already has a Monopolist - Microsoft. Try as you might, you can't go against a monopolist and make money. Look at how many desktop PCs are sold as Linux PCs. Yes - hardly any. Even free can't cut it against the Microsoft Juggernaut. You will NEVER get Apple to sell a commodity product. It doesn't make money. It is NOT about greed. It is about survival. In the PC world, even IBM gave up - realizing it cannot make a profit off low cost laptops. Only the low cost manufacturers who don't do research, who have low wage employees (and Apple does not) to manufacture the hardware, who can live on dirt for profit, can survive that market. Apple will not fight in the mud like they do. Look at how much trouble Dell is in today. It is the cost cutting leader - the creator of the cheap mass produced PC laptop. Apple is NOT going to go where Dell lives. It is as simple as that. Again, for Apple: make profit and make the best. If you can't afford a Tiffany Diamond, get cubic zirconia. And be happy.
    James Katt had this to say on Jul 28, 2008 Posts: 11
    Apple's Pricing Scheme Is Starting To Bother Me
  • I have bought and owned more than 21 Macintoshes and iPhones and iPods since 1984. And I own a lot of Apple stock. And I develop software on the Mac and soon the iPhone. As a long-time Apple fan and Apple company owner, I would say that you can have your own opinion about Apple's prices. However, Apple will NEVER sell to the low end of the market - the commodity items, the cheap stuff, the breakable stuff. Apple's goals are to make the BEST products they can and to make a PROFIT. Apple is currently growing FASTER than any other PC company and making a TON of money selling their high end products. They are doing extremely well. They make take in more revenue per square foot from the Apple Stores than Tiffany's. They make 25% of Microsoft's Profits while having only about 3% of the PC Market despite their current gains. Apple does extremely well with a small marketshare. Apple would NOT do better to grab for marketshare by selling cheap products. Marketshare is for companies that do very little research and product development. Marketshare is for companies that have very thin profit margins, for companies that can die on an economic downturn. Marketshare is for companies that are very unstable, that can fire thousands of employees at a moment's notice. Marketshare is for companies that treat employees like slaves and have employees that make below minimum wage. Marketshare is profitable only for companies - such as Microsoft - that have a MONOPOLY. Otherwise, the companies and their employees suffer. When you compare Apple's products to SIMILARLY spec'd products then Apple's products are usually less expensive. Apple's products are high end. If all you need are to check email and browse the web, then get a cheap Linux or Windows PC. Don't get a Macintosh. People who use Macs do much more with their computers than people who use Linux or Windows PCs. The Mac environment enables you to do more. As such, it is a premium product, an enabling product. it is worth its price and more. When I bought my first Mac, as a college student, I worked and saved for 3 years to get the first Mac 128K ($4000 with printer). I could have chosen an IBM PC, an Atari, an Apple II, Radio Shack, or other PC. But I chose the Mac and spent the extra money for it. I saw how much easier and productive I could be on the Mac than any other PC. Macs have much higher re-sale value than PCs. The Laptops have a longer useful lifespan than PC laptops. You don't have Windows Rot, where the system slows down over time as it accumulates crud. You don't have viruses. You don't have constant antiviral and security software running in the background. You don't have all the work you have to do to keep a PC going on the Mac. Macs are a quiet and productive working environment. Macs are like BMWs. Yes, the metal is the same. The plastic is the same. But a BMW is not like your cheap Hyundai or mass produced Chevy. The 15-inch laptop is the MacBook Pro. It is Apple's premium laptop. Sorry, it is not a cheap laptop. I think it is the BEST laptop in the world. If you don't like the price of a Mac, then buy a Linux PC or Windows PC. Go ahead. I encourage you to. Otherwise, do what other people do. Work, save, or even get a second job, to get the best laptop in the world - a Macintosh.
    James Katt had this to say on Jul 28, 2008 Posts: 11
    Apple's Pricing Scheme Is Starting To Bother Me