Back in early November, PC World magazine gave a wet, sloppy kiss to the MacBook Pro, noting that "[t]he fastest Windows Vista notebook we've tested this year--or for that matter, ever--is a Mac." Apparently this rousing endorsement of a laptop so freakishly powerful, so undeniably force-of-nature fast that it flat-out screams while running an OS that it happens to support only in 'bridesmaid mode'... well, that is the sort of thing that causes marketing executives to cock their heads and listen like extras in an E.F. Hutton ad.

Apple's new "Misprint" ad, appearing online and on TV now, features an irate PC calling the editorial offices of PC World to complain about this obvious benchmarking error. It's a funny ad, but along with the recent Podium and PR Lady ads, this new spot provokes some fascinating cognitive dissonance. We're told that Vista is undesirable, that users are 'upgrading' back to XP -- but hey, if you're gonna run it, you could run it awful quick on a Mac. Is it just me, or is that somewhat weird?

Thanks Alex

The gang at PCWorld magazine have sincerely accepted the premise that a Mac is really truly a personal computer, and as such deserves coverage in their fine industry publication. With a full and enthusiastic Leopard review (cribbed from sister mag Macworld), side-by-side Leopard & Vista feature comparison gallery (sure, Shadow Copy can back up your files, but can it give you motion sickness?) and editor Harry McCracken's 'tough love' 21 Quibbles with Leopard article, the full-court 10.5 press is definitely on. The "21 Quibbles" article is harsh as a butterfly kiss, starting out with McCracken noting that "[c]ompared to Windows Vista, Leopard is a meatier, more polished, more immediately useful, less annoying OS upgrade." Aww, Harry, we didn't know you cared!

My favorite PCWorld Mac-related comment is the brief note here in the Best Vista Laptops photo feature: apparently the fastest Vista laptop ever tested by PCWorld labs comes with another OS as a bonus. Apparently one of the advantages of not really caring if your laptop runs Vista is that it ends up running Vista really, really quickly.

Thanks to everyone who sent this in.

So claimeth Mike Elgan of Computerworld in his article on PC World: "It's Official: Apple is the New Microsoft." Well, I'm certainly glad that is settled! On to the iPhone news... Wait a moment, on what grounds does Mike base his comparison? I'll break down the points and test their coherence.

Mike's first assertion is a familiar one: the iPod + iTunes ecosystem is the worst kind of monopoly, where you must use iTunes with an iPod. He says, "Not fair, you might say. Any hardware device that syncs data with a PC as part of its core functionality has software to facilitate that syncing. True enough. But operating systems have browsers as part of core functionality, too. Doesn't Mac OS X come with Safari? Doesn't the iPhone?"

First of all, his argument is akin to saying ATI has a monopoly because you have to install drivers to make their video cards work. Secondly, his parallel to browsers is nonsensical. What does a browser, a completely different app unwed to any external hardware device, have to do with iTunes or an iPod? I'm not really smart enough to tell which logical fallacy this is, but I know BS when I smell it. Buy CD's, they don't come from the iTunes Store.

Moving on to his one-line critique of iTunes: "ITunes is the slowest, clunkiest, most nonintuitive application on my system. But I need it because I love my iPods." iTunes is clunky and unintuitive, huh? Ever try SonicStage? PC World even called IE 6 one of the worst products ever. Of course, MMC plug-ins are models of intuitive design. Let's move on, shall we?

When a leading computer publication has a revolving-door editor-in-chief hiring policy, it can make other weird editorial decisions look sane and prudent by comparison. Exhibit A: the annual PC World "100 Best" feature, which presents the 100 best products of 2007... online in May, and in print for July. Not even half the year has gone by, but the farsighted crew at PCW has already figured out the best of the bunch! Might as well take the rest of the year off, then...

The real reasons that the 100 Best comes out mid-year (covering the end of 2006 and the start of 2007) are detailed in a post from once-and-current big kahuna Harry McCracken. It comes down to legacy scheduling of the product awards around the June date of the no-longer-extant PC Expo trade show. That's a relief; I was worried that we were changing the calendar again.

Anyway, more to the point: the list is top-heavy with some big Mac products, including TUAW darling Parallels Desktop at #6 (the top-ranked application on any desktop platform, not counting #1 Google Apps Premier Edition), Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger at #9 and AppleTV at #11. The Intel Core 2 Duo processor that powers new Macs is a top pick at #2. Noticeably absent from the top 100 was the latest hotness from Redmond, which may correlate with PC World's comment on the Tiger ranking: "Name a good Vista feature that goes beyond what's in Tiger. Yeah, we can't either." Brrrrr.

Last week we mentioned the resignation of PC World editor in chief, Harry McCracken who seemed to have quit because PC World (and former Macworld) CEO Colin Crawford canned a story on "10 Things We Hate About Apple." In the brouhaha that followed the canned story finally came out (revealing not much substance to speak of), and now finally the other shoe has dropped. PC World is itself reporting that McCracken is returning to PC World as "vice-president, editor in chief" and Crawford will leave as PC World CEO to rejoin parent company IDG "as executive vice president, online." IDG is presently undertaking a search for a new CEO to lead PC World and Macworld.

So the story has a happy ending for McCracken and probably the right thing was done in the end. I'm sure everyone at IDG, PC World, and Macworld is just glad this thing is over.

In the beginning there was 'hate', or more specifically "10 Things We Hate About Apple". And PC World's Harry Mccracken resigned from his position when former Macworld CEO Colin Crawford supposedly put the kibosh on the article. Questions raged throughout the blogosphere as to whether Apple was exercising undue editorial pressure as an advertiser--questions, which as far as I can tell, did not raise a definitive answer one way or another.

Today PC World lays everything out on the table--well almost everything; they never mention whether Apple played a role or not and don't discuss the resignation directly--posting about the controversy which involved short pieces written by staffers Alan Stafford and Narasu Rebbapragada. The articles, they write, were meant to be light-hearted conversation starters, not "weighty journalism".

You can read both articles today at PC World's online site, both the ten things they hate about Apple and the ten things they love. The "hate" list includes many on-target items including that Apple is "more secretive than Homeland Security" (hah!), that they blame others for the worm that shipped with iPods last year, and that the Mac is crap at gaming. The less focused "love" list includes "sublime designs", Jobs calling for the end of DRM, and that Macs run Windows.

In the end, now that we've gotten a chance to check both lists out, it seems like a whole lot of fuss was made over not very much. And if I had to spike one of the two lists? I'd kill the "love" list first.

Thanks, Chris Tutor.

This story on Wired blog is interesting. About a month ago the former CEO of Macworld Magazine, Colin Crawford, took over sister magazine PC World and just recently put the kibosh on a story idea for the latter: "Ten Things We Hate about Apple." According to Wired's anonymous source: "It was supposed to be light fare, just really innocuous stuff. The same kinds of things people have said about Apple before -- things that teased Steve Jobs." This prompted the editor-in-chief of PC World, Harry McCracken, to resign in protest. The Wired story continues: "Crawford also told editors that product reviews in the magazine were too critical of vendors, especially ones who advertise in the magazine, and that they had to start being nicer to advertisers." Supposedly when Crawford was still at Macworld, "Steve Jobs would call him up any time he had a problem with a story the magazine was running about Apple."

So clearly the implication is that Macworld is a sort of Pravda of Apple, Inc., and kept in line by upper management who kowtow to Cupertino. So what do you think? Does this make you suspect the objectivity of Macworld Magazine?

[via Daring Fireball]

Everybody likes lists and rankings; there's just something that fascinates people about them, and they're always good for an argument or, as the case may be, selling magazines. Squarely in this latter camp is PC World's list of the Best 50 Tech Products of All Time, which editor Harry McCracken writes in to tell us features seven Apple products, more than any other singe company. These are:

• #2 - Apple II (1977)
  
• #6 - iPod (2001)
  
• #14 - Mac Plus (1986)
• #21 - iTunes 4 (2003)
• #30 - OS X (2001)
• #34 - Original Airport Base Station (1999)
• #41 - Hypercard (1987)

One thing that jumps out of this list to me is that only one of them, Hypercard, came out of Cupertino during the period that Jobs was gone from Apple (well maybe the Mac Plus, too). In any case, it clearly shows how much Apple has been on a roll since Jobs' return. I also think that at least one more product should be there: the original Powerbook 100, which more or less established the notebook computer form factor we have to this day. So let the debates begin, dear TUAW readers, what did the PC World editors screw up?

Harry McCracken, over at PC World, has gathered an incredible collection of YouTube videos chronicling Steve Jobs introducing things. All your favorite Stevenotes are there, and you can relive everything from the launch of NeXTStep 3 to the introduction of Airport.

My favorite, though, is this video in which Steve introduces OS 9. Ah, the Keychain, one of my favorite features of the Mac OS, gets its share of the limelight.

PC World reports that Toshiba has developed a 1.8-inch 100GB hard drive, suitable for use in portable music devices. Adding a 25% jump over current storage, the new drive is sized perfectly to fit into iPods.

Production should begin next month and the drive itself will be shown at the January Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. The first 1.8" drive developed in 2000 could hold 2GB and cost $740. Today, you can buy an 80GB iPod for about $350.

The IBM PC turned 25 last Friday, so to commemorate the history of the personal computer, PC World put together a list of the Top 25 PCs of All Time - with the Apple II (1997) topping the list at #1. It's quite an interesting list comprised of machines both old and new, with Apple computers also taking the #4, 10, 19, and 23 spots as well. If you've never taken a trip through computing history, this list is a good set of cliff notes to take a moment to brush up on. Just try to keep the "I can't believe X computer didn't even make the list!" fighting civilized.

Thanks to everyone who sent this in

PCWorld just named a few Apple products in their '25 worst tech products of all time,' however, they have named more of them to the '100 Best Products of the Year.' Which Apple products made the cut? I'm glad you asked:

• iPod Nano (#4)
• Boot Camp (#10)
• Mac Mini (#35)
• iPod (#36)
• iTunes (#43)

Congrats to Engadget, our sister blog, who clock in at lucky number 13 on the list (next year I am sure TUAW will be on there).

Sure, you can blog, podcast, and use iLife on your MacBook, but you know you want to install Windows on it (don't deny it!). Harry McCracken, of PC World, takes a look at the MacBook as a Windows machine and he likes it. True, he is a Mac person at heart but the MacBook plus Boot Camp equals nirvana.

You probably wouldn't be reading this if you did't enjoy working on your Apple computer. Now ask yourself, "why?"

The answers are as varied as the users. Now ask yourself what really irks you about working on your Mac, or Apple as a company... Again, we've all got something that grinds our gears,for insntace,  AppleMatters just put up a list of best and worst Macs. Think you'll see that for Gateway, Dell, or even Sony, with their computers named after robotic serial numbers? As Apple's market share and brand name expand we're seeing an increase in Apple haters, and they are becoming more vocal. Mac zealots, while becoming slightly less shrill, are also in the mix helping put nothing in perspective. So what's to make of all this? As a user of Apple products for almost 30 years I wanted to take a look at the love/hate relationship between Apple, its fans, and detractors.

In the iPod space people love to hate Apple for the reasons Microsoft tells them to: your choice is limited. You can only use the iPod with iTunes. This is seen as the Mac OS "problem" all over again by people like Dvorak. Personally, part of the reason the iPod sells so well, in my opinion, is that for the average consumer there may be too much choice. The average person doesn't want to search all over creation for the latest brain-dead beats. They want to plug in their doohickey and have it automagically do things (like think) for them. This isn't Think Differently, it's just brilliant execution of the idea that consumers want stuff, and they want to get it easily. Plays for Sure? Whatever. People know if they can't put diesel in their car, and they know the iPod works with iTunes. So far, that's been a winning combo.

The Mac platform become a hot topic again way back in the go-go 90's (remember that decade?) after Master and Commander of the Far Side of the Computer World, Mr. Steve Jobs, introduced the iMac . We're beyond all the translucent plastic knockoff items you used to find in Target, and we're down to this: it's easier to make things on a Mac and it's safer to use a Mac. At least one of these is easily arguable. Granted, if I want to make Machinima, the PC is a better platform. In fact, there is way more software for PC's than Mac's, but how much of it is easy to use? It might sound like a Yogi Bearism, but everything's easy when you know how. Obviously someone who can sit at home in grandma's basement and figure out every little button in WinAmp is going to have an advantage over an iTunes noob. But again, the average consumer can't be bothered with registry hacks and driver issues. At the end of every day a person likes to put their machine to sleep, secure in the knowledge that all their hard work will be there another day. And that they'll be able to do something about it. Which brings me to the safety issue...

In a move that's causing many to check out their window to see if the sky is falling, PC World has laid out a welcome mat for Apple's hardware into their Top Power PCs testing charts, thanks to Boot Camp. So far, no Macs have made the charts due to some policy quirks (they typically only test stock PCs - Macs don't ship pre-installed with Windows) and test compatibility hiccups, but from a blog entry covering their initial tests, the iMac running Windows XP fared pretty well.

We certainly live in interesting times with Macs running Windows, rumors of virtualization in Leopard and now Apple's hardware being put to the test alongside its now (let's face it) PC brethren hardware. We'll keep our ears out for more results on just how well these new Macs stack up.