Jerry’s Blog

My life in a series of images, links & commentary

Two things I love in the morning

It started with hard-boiled eggs. We could make a bunch of them and I would eat them all week long. But by the end of the week, the shells were difficult to remove. Also, I noticed I liked the ones that weren't really cooked all the way through.

Then I embraced my inner egg. I decided that it was time to come out. I really wanted soft-boiled eggs. We got a little knife (for cutting the top off the egg after it was soft-boiled), a little spoon for scooping the goodies, and an egg holder.

But then along comes this image from the theappleblog.com. After I eat my soft-boiled egg (along with an English muffin - half with Marmite and bacon; half with jelly), I saunter over to my lazy boy chair, open my MacBook and read the news.

So perfectly emblematic of my morning routine!


Kindle publications now on iPhone

Kindle books on the iPhone are very readable thus far. I was able to set the type size to be small enough so I felt like I was looking at a page, yet large enough to read comfortably.

I'm going see if I can finish this book that Sean loaned me as a paperback, on my iPhone/Kindle. I'll let you know how it goes. MJ has been poo-pooing the iPhone, but this new development has her attention. She has a birthday and wedding anniversary, so...fingies crossed.

MacBook Air, its role in the Mac line-up

Much has been said about Apple's MacBook Air. Is it a dud? Or a success? And for whom?

I always thought the Air was intentionally high-priced to attract executive road warriors and very mobile, high-profile designer types. Not for line workers, techies, coders, etc. I also thought it was intended to attract new buyers to the Apple stores, but these new visitors would not necessarily buy the Air, but more likely something more like a MacBook or MacBook Pro. A "traffic builder", if you will.

Techies? Techie reviewers? No likey. Not enough sockets, pockets and giga stuff. They cannot resist projecting their own needs onto the product and the choices Apple engineers and designers made.

If I were a rich man

If I were a CEO, CDO or director level design person, I would have bought a MacBook Air. But I'm a coder/designer who does a lot of multi-media. So I did not buy it, but instead, an aluminum MacBook. I did do a pen-on-napkin analysis, so I was definitely thinking about it. I'm one of those guys who paid extra for a black plastic MacBook, though.

I believe, based on my own biases, and the results of searches I did on the web, that the Air served its purpose over the last year. I do believe Air sales will be dropping as executives start keeping a lower profile. I don't expect it to drop from the line-up, though. I think it has a hefty margin and can continue to fill a high-profile niche for Apple.

Search results

Here are the first ten hits I got back on a search ("macbook air" NEAR/5 sales) I did with DEVONagent:

DEVONagent is a very interesting piece of software that conducts research using three different search engines and its own AI to obtain results.

1. MacBook Air sales lagging? : Boy Genius Report
It looks like the MacBook Air might have a long, hard road ahead. Apple’s diminutive notebook has been met with more public resistance than...

2. Macbook Air Sales from April 23 Earnings Report - Mac Forums
I did not see anything in the published reports on the Apple Q3 earnings regarding Air sales. Given that it has been #1 on the...

3. MacBook Air aflutter: demand stays strong, sold out often - Ars Technica
Thintresting move, Steve! Be it marketing or design, the MacBook Air is hotter than many expected. Even a month after general retail "availability," the MacBook...

4. MacBook Air sales below expectations? | IT PRO
While the world's thinnest laptop has garnered a lot of attention, the interest hasn't translated into high sales, according to a new report...

5. ATR: iPod Touch Cuts Not Enough, MacBook Air Sales Slowing || The Mac Observer
American Technology Research analyst Shaw Wu, in a note to investors Wednesday, said that while the new iPods announced on Tuesday were pretty much as...

6. MacBook Sales Explode, MacBook Air Reviews, Several New Hard Drives, and More
Memory To Go Special: MacPro 8 Core 8GB kit $232 / 4GB kit $116 / 2GB kit $72. New Macbook 2GB DDR3-$65. HARD DRIVES available -- Free...

7. Klamour (beta) - Make Yourself Heard
Sales Manager: Steve, dude, we're getting sold...

8. Laptop Computers: Apple Sees Satisfactory MacBook Air Sales, despite Economic Slump in the U.S.
Apple is now getting huge response for their MacBook Air laptop computers. Though the U.S. economy is going through a slump at this moment...

9. MacBook Air sales - Technology Live - USATODAY.com
The MacBook Air is selling well, but it's not nearly as big of hit as the iPhone . At least that's what early numbers...

10. MacBook Air sales dropping fast - SlashGear
It seems that in the long run the MacBook Air hit the exact niche that Apple was aiming for, an executive notebook. The reason for...

DEVONagent also does a spatial representation of the results as nodes, letting you click a node to tune the results further.