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Effects of the computer revolution
Effects of the computer revolution
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All the best hackers I know are gradually switching to Macs. My friend Robert said his whole research group at MIT recently bought themselves Powerbooks. These guys are not the graphic designers and grandmas who were buying Macs at Apple's low point in the mid 1990s. They're about as hardcore OS hackers as you can get.
The reason, of course, is OS X. Powerbooks are beautifully designed and run FreeBSD. What more do you need to know?
I got a Powerbook at the end of last year. When my IBM Thinkpad's hard disk died soon after, it became my only laptop. And when my friend Trevor showed up at my house recently, he was carrying a Powerbook identical to mine.
For most of us, it's not a switch to Apple, but a return. Hard as this was to believe in the mid 90s, the Mac was in its time the canonical hacker's computer.
In the fall of 1983, the professor in one of my college CS classes got up and announced, like a prophet, that there would soon be a computer with half a MIPS of processing power that would fit under an airline seat and cost so little that we could save enough to buy one from a summer job. The whole room gasped. And when the Mac appeared, it was even better than we'd hoped. It was small and powerful and cheap, as promised. But it was also something we'd never considered a computer could be: fabulously well designed.
I had to have one. And I wasn't alone. In the mid to late 1980s, all the hackers I knew were either writing software for the Mac, or wanted to. Every futon sofa in Cambridge seemed to have the same fat white book lying open on it. If you turned it over, it said "Inside Macintosh."
Then came Linux and FreeBSD, and hackers, who follow the most powerful OS wherever it leads, found themselves switching to Intel boxes. If you cared about design, you could buy a Thinkpad, which was at least not actively repellent, if you could get the Intel and Microsoft stickers off the front. [1]
With OS X, the hackers are back. When I walked into the Apple store in Cambridge, it was like coming home. Much was changed, but there was still that Apple coolness in the air, that feeling that the show was being run by someone who really cared, instead of random corporate deal-makers.
Apple Computer Inc designs, manufactures, and markets personal computers and related personal computing and communication solutions. The return of Steve Jobs, the companies founder, as CEO has pulled the company’s stock price up 775-percent through his launch of innovative products such as the iMac computer line. On January 5, 2000, Jobs announced that he was dropping interim from his CEO title and taking the job full-time. With this news and Apple’s new products such as the iBook, a portable pc and Quick TV, an internet television access feature, Apple Computer is headed for success and is sure to increase their share in the computer market.
Macintosh at about the same price as a PC that has about the same things. This
...he reason why students, businessman, scientists and people at home all over the world prefer the use of the efficient, user-friendly, and diverse workability of the PC systems over Mac computers.
In 1986 Apple introduced its Mac Plus and LaserWriter printers. Shortly after, Apple formed the software company that later became Claris. By the 1980s Microsoft brought new competition with the Windows operating system (OS) which was similar to Apple’s graphical interface. Apple sued Microsoft but lost its claim due to the 1992 copyright protection.
All might think that a PC is awesome, but is not called Windows for nothing. When they say Windows they mean Windows. Macintosh has been known for it’s simplicity. Windows users say Mac has no games. I say to them there are games, but if you want to “play games” get a game system. Macs give a new vision in the computer industry.
Apple was definitely “thinking different” when it created the new addition to the Macintosh family, the iMac. It’s creative design and refreshing departure from the computer industry standard of boring beige boxes is gaining this marvel many optimistic reviews. This new personal computer, which is pronounced eye-Mac –the “i” stands for Internet, combines the computer and the monitor in one unit making it, in effect, an updated version of the original one-piece Macintosh. That makes the iMac ideal for people who want to conserve desk space.
Up to this time, computers were used mostly for large corporations and scientific use. Their vision was to create a ready-to-use computer for personal use. Only about 200 Apple I’s were sold, but when the follow on Apple II came along in the year 1977, consumers latched on and the product sold in the millions. With the Apple II, Jobs and Wozniak changed the way humans view computers. They were the first to show the world that computers could be a consumer item, and with this, the rise in digital consumption really started to take off. In 1984, Apple introduced the first Macintosh – the first mouse driven computer with a graphic interface. Not only was the Macintosh a technological advancement, but at 2500 dollars, it was the cheapest consumer option by far. This shows that at the beginning years of Apple, they were not a company that pushed for overhyped consumption of their products. Their purpose was to supply the average consumer with a groundbreaking product at a price they could afford. Furthermore, in the 1980’s, America had just begun an era of mass consumption. Ronald Reagan was inducted into office, and he immediately made tax cuts to help spurn economic development. People began to consume things like mad. Everything from cars to tv to houses, greed was good in the 1980’s and people would buy things to show status more than ever before. However, the typical computer
Windows based computers are more practical, easier to use, and more versatile than Macintosh computers. There has always been much debate over which is the better system. There are people who are die-hard Macintosh users, and there are people who are the complete opposite, and naturally people sitting somewhere in between. The fact remains that the majority of home and business users own Windows based systems because of their versatility in all areas.
We all know that in order to use Apple’s operating system or Mac OS, one needs to own a Mac,the only place that this particular system can be run on. The "monopoly" is the fact that you can not buy Mac OS and install it on a computer from another vendor - so you are stuck with overpriced item from a single vendor. Also,
It was Steve Jobs who made Apple leave the garage and make leaps and bounds in the world of technology. Steve Wozniak made the first prototype, but it was Jobs who “saw the potential” in his computer and persuaded Wozniak to sell it (Peterson 106). Even though that first computer saw very little success, Jobs knew that Apple had potential and so released the Apple II. From the beginning Jobs knew what the consumers wanted, and where computers were going to take the world; he had a vision of the opportunities in technology and saw that Apple needed to move in a different direction. In 1984, one year before he left, Jobs finished the Macintosh computer system. He was pushed from his original computer design project, “the Lisa”, and then raced to release the Mac first, but the Lisa was released to the public first. Although the Lisa came out first, the Mac “[became] synonymous with Apple, mark[ing] a…revolution in…personal computing,” (Peterson 106).
...ucial part in our everyday lives. Yes, students can choose a MacBook Pro or Air over a PC, even a Chrome Book, but for students looking for budget-friendly computers (trust me, there's thousands of them) I bet you that they will choose a Windows 8 or Windows 7 laptop.
This machine has power. Its Fourth-generation quad-core Intel Core i7 processor is recorded to be the fastest performance in the history of MacBook Pro. Thanks to the speeds...
As a young college student walking into a Best Buy to purchase a laptop for college can be a little intimidating. There are many things to consider such as hard drive, what processors are the best, which screen has the best resolution, or would you rather build a computer that best suits you. The options are endless and in most cases it can become overwhelming, due to the rapid expansion in technology a variety of products that are available have increased dramatically in the past 7 years. Some of the most important criteria that should be considered when evaluating these products are portability, performance, and price. The MacBook Air is an interesting product, because it isn’t top of the line in any of these criteria. In fact, it has a balance of all three that have made it one of the top selling products of recent. Of course no laptop is made to run the same, but that is what makes this specific different than others.
In the early 1980s the top competitor in this industry was IBM due to its open system and ease of being cloned. During this same time, Apple struggled to keep pace and changed its competitive strategy multiple times. From 1980 to 1993 Apple positioned itself in the computer industry as the company that provides easy to use desktops with superior software and hardware. Unlike its competitors, Apple did not use “open systems that other producers could clone; instead they practiced horizontal and vertical integration and used Apple’s own proprietary design” (Pearce, 2013). It is this strategy that held the company back. Open systems were popular within the industry and customers enjoyed the flexibility of the systems
Now that there is a competitor in the market Apple did an aggressive marketing to market their products with in their brand name by aggressive marketing plan, wherein they initially started giving new user friendly operating system (OS) in Macbook and later on the same with iPhones too.