Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Portables, Apple, Mac Pro, Leopard, iPhone, Apple TV, Holidays
Christmas gifts Apple could give me
It's the Holiday Season, and over the years I have happily spent a lot of my XMAS money with our favorite fruit named company. My love affair with Apple products goes back to the venerated Apple II. I do have a couple of PC laptops in the house, and of course I can also run Vista on VMWare Fusion, but I'm pretty much a Mac guy through and through. Always have been. Always will be.Nevertheless, I'd like to find some gifts from Apple under my tree this year. They are not big deals, but would be greatly appreciated. So Kris Kringle, if you're listening, pass these on to Mr. Jobs and friends.
- How about some documentation? I know Steve thinks books are dead, but in the old days Apple documentation was really first rate. Remember that old MacWrite manual? Apple, I know you are in the electronics business, but reading help files on a laptop screen that covers up the application I am trying to learn is a bit of a pain.
- When you release an update to an iPod, iPhone or OS X how about telling me what the update really does. I know you have gotten better at this, but why should people have to guess all the features and fixes that you have put in? Just own up to it and trust your customers.
- Find another partner in addition to AT&T for the iPhone. My phone is a great product that is significantly damaged by an inferior, unreliable network. To me, "more bars in more places" means I'm looking for bars to find a stiff drink so I can recover from my frustration with dropped calls, poor signal strength, and sporadic 3G coverage.
- A lot of your products get really warm. My MacBook Pro can be a sizzler on my lap. My Mac Pro keeps my office pretty warm, and I don't need those high temperatures since I'm in Arizona. Don't get me started on the Apple TV. I do think it is a great product, but I'm thinking I could make a fondue on that top surface. There is no fan in the Apple TV and when I put it in standby to spin down the hard drive it wakes up by itself paying no attention to my command. If I want to be ignored, I can walk into any Home Depot. (Update: Some users say the Apple TV does have a fan. I regret the error. It's still too darned hot!)
Ars Technica has a short guide up to 
I've personally noticed that Apple TV tends to run hot. So did Jason Tomczak of 
The Hacks Blog addresses 
Blogger Martin Backschat has more or less 
Everyone knows that Apple's Intel powered portable lineup gets hot, but this is insane! An enterprising fellow figured out that it would be possible to actually fry an egg on the bottom of his black MacBook. Granted, it probably took something like 3 times as long than if he had used a stove, but thats obviously not the point. For bonus points, keep your coffee warm by placing it on top of your MacBook power adapter. 
Yesterday, we pointed out 
Jon at rentzsch.com was having trouble getting Tiger installed on his MacBook Pro. Specifically, the DVD wouldn't mount in his MBP, though it did work in other machines (CDs mounted without a problem, too). With his machine's temperature issues in mind, he 
Apple and Intel seem to be a marriage made in heaven (it is still feels a little odd to write things like that). Anand Chandrasekher, a senior Intel exec, has been 
Given all the recent MacBook Pro drama of late, what with 
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