Only the little boy was brave enough to say, "But it doesn't play games.".
I've never liked Macs. Anyone who knows me knows that. I've always had various reasons, too. I'm hardly a Windows fanboy, but I greatly prefer it to Mac. People never give me valid criticisms of Vista. They just write it off. I like it. It hasn't ever crashed on me, and I hardly see the issue with UAC. It does everything I need, and is vastly more expandable than any other proprietary software. The only thing I ever emulate on it is the SNES.
Part of the underlying hatred of Mac came from it's tendency to be closed. They make the hardware, they make the software, they sell the content. Everything begins and ends with Mac, and if you blindly trust Mr Jobs, that suited you very well.
And from the man who hates DRM, suddenly DRM built directly in the new Macbooks. Your legally purchased vidoes (in this case, Hellboy 2), now can only be played on approved display devices. A teacher found this out when he, plugged his Macbook into a projector at school to watch alone. Not only was this applicable to new films, but it applied itself to films and TV downloaded previously.
It's good to know that the money you spend on your content only buys it on certain monitors. But it's OK, Steve Jobs was overheard saying, '15" is more screen than anyone will ever need.'.
It fills me with despair that people will trust their whole digital world to one company. I won't trust the construction of my PC to one company. I hate how easily the public are swayed by looks. It's the only reason Apple and Fiat are still in business. But I'm sure that students and teenage girls alike will flood to move into the iHouse as soon as they see how pretty it is.
I turned on my PS3 and watched BBC iPlayer on it yesterday. It's not officially supported, it's something that a dude coded for fun, but the fact that it worked for me, using a 5 year old widescreen, a 6 month old console and an unaffiliated media conglomerate made me feel better than any aluminium case could.
I declare, right here, that I'm a PC. I'm a PC and I don't care how integrated your OS is, how smooth your interface is, or how overpriced your hardware is, I will take function over form for the rest of my days.
7 comments:
If you hate Macintoshes so much, then you should just ignore them. For somebody who is "not a Windows fanboy" why do you post some anti-mac sentiment every third blog post?
The fact is this. Yes they are a little overpriced but the hardware is much, much better. I've used all sorts of machine, but I rue the day I'll go back to using some shitty Dell. It's nice to have a solid aluminum portable with a Unix terminal at the ready. None of that Window Vista crap. Windows literally makes me feel sick.
It's the first time I've ever blogged exclusively about Macs.
Enjoy your aluminium case and DRMed media.
And you're kinda missing the point of my post. DRM is now directly built into the machine.
That should annoy anyone who knows enough about computers to understand DRM.
Unfortunately you need to be versed here.
It seems you don't really understand the issues with DRM at all. As you know, drm is not an Apple manifestation. In fact it has nothing at all to do with apple. Windows Vista has exactly the same implementation of high bandwidth protection (hdcp via hdmi).
This was a manifestation with holywood (headed by your lovable Sony corp actually (Sony pictures)) to close the well known "analogue hole". For apple to get the rights to distribute (sell in the iTunes store) this media, they have to comply to the DMCA to do everything in their power to stop piracy, hense, closing this hole and implimenting the studios hdcp end to end encryption system (hdmi).
Intact the root of the evil is actually your black box under your television. Yes, the playstation three. BluRay, and hdmi (two of the technologies the ps3 is infiltrated with) are the worst things to ever happen to media (look into the spec for BluRay one day)
So as you can see this copy protection is now creeping into our world all around us. All these things Mac OS, Windows, ps3 etc have these technologies and have had for years. Vista has had this support for years or one wouldn't be able to watch hdmi protected media.
You might need to call a waiter, because you've just been served.
I may have been served, but there's a fly in my soup.
I guess you've forgotten about the ruckus over at Slashdot a few months back when proposals for Intel and AMD to build in permanent content management directly onto the CPU. The proposals were defeated, but it scared people, because it gave the system complete control.
What the new MacBooks have done is the first step towards this. Retroactively restricting content is something I'd never agree to, but under one, controlling system, it's inevitable. And this isn't software, this is hardware on the new Macbooks.
The PS3 is a games console, designed to be a closed system for obvious reasons (perfect, unfaltering compatibility with software). It's not intended to be a central hub of computing. But compare it to the other consoles: it can use third party accessories out of the box, it can stream DRM and non-DRM content from any local source, its games are non-region coded, and it has 'INSTALL ANOTHER OS' on the main menu.
In these respects, the PS3 is more open than most hardware. As well as that, it's designed to work with older TVs, using Component and RGB outputs as well as HDMI.
Vista isn't much better with DRM, but I can still output analogue signals, and there's no hardware limitation, which has been put on the new MacBooks. If it were software, it would have appeared on the old MacBooks too.
The analogue whole is a think of beauty, and as soon as a big player like Apple closes it, you're pissing off a lot of people. I know they're having their hand forced by the networks, but Jobs made such progress with DRM free music that this is a slap in the face, especially without warning.
Reading about those who have a 30" Apple Cinema display that can't use it to watch movies...
Which is why I don't like closed systems on computers.
You're point is moot because you do not acknowledge that this is not the fault of Apple. I'll repeat again. Yes, the analogue whole is being closed, but this is probably more due to things going digital anyway. HDMI is a horrid side affect. Windows Vista has DRM, Sony PS3 is layered with the crippling stuff, as well as just about every other manufacturer of technology gear. It can't be gotten away with anmore
You also are swift to ignore that the dreadful DRM that you point out is a ramification of the works of Sony and a few other prominent figures in the motion picture industry.
My point is, you were using the teacher and the projector example as something that apple have done. You worded your post in a way which made it sound like this DRM was the result of Apple's "closed system" (which isn't really true in itself) which just isn't fair. Yes - we all hate DRM, but it's going to happen. This example is a poor poor one.
I'm very aware that Sony is far from a perfect company, and want more control than they deserve, but while I'm not a Windows fanboy, I am a Sony fanboy, just because of the superior quality of their products.
Mac users have been criticising Windows for years about its DRM. Why? Because the DRM in Vista was public knowledge from long before it was on public release. People knew what they were getting.
People who have just spent several thousand dollars on their new MacBooks didn't appreciate the new subversive hardware suddenly making their expensive film collection less functional.
I say it's hardware with conviction because it only applies to the new MacBooks, so you're safe with your old one. Software would have plugged all of OSX with one feel update.
People who have been doing something, without prior warning (apart from buried in the EULA), now can no longer do this because of an "upgrade". These aren't Microsoft haters, these are Mac users who feel genuinely upset that their legally bought content no longer functions the way they want it. Microsoft have done it too (Plays for Sure), but with a PC, there is always a way around because Microsoft don't have control of the hardware.
I personally think corporations should stop trying to control consumers' media, but Apple bowing to their pressure in making their computers less functional just shows how vulnerable the closed system is.
On top of that, companies want to close the analogue hole to stop HD content from being pirated. However, the new MacBooks will not play HD or SD content from the VGA port (I say VGA, I know it's some proprietary port with a special iName or whatever). Copy protected content doesn't play on analogue devices. It's part of the Mac culture: your system is obsolete, upgrade. Older stuff isn't supported. I like older stuff being supported, which is why I like the open system.
Man, it makes me so mad, I wish I frequently bought stuff from iTunes just so I could boycott them.
I just feel bad for the people who own projectors, or who have bought those 30" Cinema Displays. They can't watch films on them anymore, unless they're non-copy-protected. It's sad. I guess they can still use them to play games though.
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