Why I Bought a Mac Book Pro

Yesterday, I did something that I never would have considered six months ago. I shelled out $2300 for a brand spanking new Mac Book Pro. I have yet to receive my shiny new toy, as it will be delivered in 7 - 10 days, but after playing around on friend’s machines and have more or less liked what I have seen. I am convinced that it was the right choice for my work needs, but it will take a little getting used to.

Over the years, I have worked almost exclusively from Microsoft products; in many flavors and incarnations. I started out with DOS, which my family stuck with until Windows 3.11 and I tried just about every version until Windows Vista Ultimate x64. As far as desktop operating systems go, I am fairly happy with Vista, but it is far from ideal as a notebook operating system.

The other real downer about the Microsoft platform is the lack of multi-language functionality. I live in Japan and I tell you, you really have to jump through some hoops to get a legitimate English language version of Vista. If you buy a notebook with Vista pre-installed, you don’t get a choice of operating system language; you have to shell out the dough for an English version and scrap the Japanese one.

The fact that OSX is multi-language is was something I had not realized until very recently. That on its own was a real selling point for me because my wife is more comfortable working with Japanese software, while I obviously prefer English. There are a few computer shops that sell dual-boot systems with Japanese and English software, but you have to pay for both of them; and at a premium too. Plus, you are giving up all that hard drive space unnecessarily.

Then there are the little things. For some reason about two months ago, about the time I installed SP1, Skype stopped functioning properly. Oh, it was still worked, but the volume kept switching to mute every single time I made or received a phone call. I tried every trick in the book to get it working again, to no avail. I probably could have spent a little longer trying to fix the problem, but time as they say is money and I don’t need the aggravation.

I am running a Quad Core CPU with 4GB of DDR2 and an 8800GTX. By rights, my machine should load in no time at all, however, there are times when it boots like I have a hard drive full of molasses. Post-SP1 and a whole bunch of updates later and it is pretty fast, but it has taken a long time to get there.

From the ground up, the Mac Book Pro is a very nice machine. I just got the cheapest 15″ version with a 250GB hard drive, but even that has speed to burn. It is more machine than I actually need for the work that I do, but in my experience it is always better to have too much machine than not enough. I plan on running Parallels so that I can make use of my Windows software and I figure having the extra power that is offered by the Pro will pay dividends in this regard.

Unlike a lot of people, I am not anti-Vista. It is great for a desktop and I am happy with the way that my computer handles first-person shooters and most CPU-intensive applications. The trouble is, it is just not practical as a laptop operating system. OSX, on the other hand does and it has a few nice touches to go with it. I am not going to go turning all Apple fanboy on anyone or anything like that; but I am hoping that it will offer me a nice productivity platform that will allow me to work effectively and efficiently from wherever I am in the world.

From : http://www.uberreview.com/

Technology giants form WiMax patent alliance

SAN FRANCISCO: Six global technology companies said Monday that they had formed an alliance to pool patents in a bid to encourage the expansion of WiMax, an emerging high-speed wireless technology.

Cisco Systems, Intel, Alcatel-Lucent, Samsung Electronics, Sprint Nextel and Clearwire said they hoped the alliance would help companies designing products that use WiMax get access to licenses to patented technology at a predictable cost.

"It's about openness, predictability of the business model," said Scott Richardson, an executive with Clearwire.

Sriram Viswanathan, general manager of Intel Capital, said the agreement brought "a mechanism to keep the royalty rates low. It brings transparency."

Backers of WiMax want makers of consumer electronics to build printers, music players, digital cameras and other gadgets that will connect to the Internet using the new standard, executives said during a conference call. The failure of existing mobile phone technology to break into this area is partly the result of the cost of licensing the patents, Viswanathan said.

Fujitsu, a Japanese electronics company that also makes chips for WiMax technology, is not part of the alliance.

WiMax promises to blanket entire cities with Web access for laptops, cellphones and other wireless devices at speeds up to five times faster than traditional wireless networks, the technology is still largely unproven. Wi-Fi, by contrast, is a short-range service that covers small areas like coffee shops.

Laptops and mobile phones using WiMax would be able to transmit data up to five times faster than current technology allows. Intel, the world's largest chip maker, is investing in it to create higher speed connections that would give consumers and business users a reason to upgrade their laptop computers.

Other backers of the technology include Comcast, Time Warner Cable and Google, which invested in a joint venture with Clearwire and Sprint.

In May, Sprint and Clearwire said they would combine their high-speed wireless businesses to create a $14.5 billion spanning much of the United States.

From : http://www.iht.com/

IT companies plan joint licensing of Wimax patents

Six IT companies are planning to pool their Wimax wireless communications technology patents for licensing to other companies. The Wall Street Journal has reported that Cisco, Intel, Samsung Electronics, Sprint Nextel, Alcatel-Lucent and Clearwire intend to announce the foundation of the Open Patent Alliance on Monday. The newspaper says its sources are "people familiar with the situation" and documents it has seen.

According to the report, the six companies are aiming for joint licensing along the lines of the MPEG-LA licensing organisation. The aim is to limit the costs of using Wimax technology to ensure that computer, network and component manufacturers are not deterred from using Wimax. The report cites,a s an example of the negative effect of separate licensing, Qualcomm, Nokia and Ericsson, which collect licensing fees for 3G mobile phone technology separately. These costs constitute up to 25 per cent of the price of a mobile phone.

Intel wants Wimax to become a standard component of mobile computers in the same way as WiFi has. Sprint and Clearwire, with Intel's involvement, are planning a joint Wimax network in the USA. Samsung, Cisco and Alcatel-Lucent are expected to offer Wimax accessories. One potential problem for the planned alliance is competition with LTE mobile phone technology, and the non-participation of two major companies, Motorola and Qualcomm. (jk/c't)

From : http://www.heise.de