Linked List: May 31, 2008

Saturday, 31 May 2008

Easy to See Why So Many Companies Rely on Fortune for Important Technical Information ★

Fortune Small Business “tech guru” Jonathan Blum concludes Macs aren’t a good choice for “most” small businesses. Regarding the iMac he tested:

But why should locating the “on” switch be such a struggle? Just stick the thing where I, and my employees, can find it: right up front.

Sounds like his employees are a bright bunch.

Also:

No matter what you do with a Mac, you have to face Apple’s peculiar vision of all things computerish. First off, the packaging is seriously overdone: The slogan “Designed by Apple in California” posivitively shouts at you from the box. Like I care.

“Positively shouting” indeed, what with it being set in small gray type on a white background.

PC Magazine Reviews the Latest 15-Inch MacBook Pro ★

PC Magazine:

The one test that stood out more than anything else, though, was battery life. The batteries themselves didn’t change, nor did the Leopard operating system. Apple didn’t invent some great new power-management utility. The improved battery life is a direct result of the Penryn CPU’s deeper sleep states and its more energy-efficient processor core. The new MacBook Pro produced 3 hours 56 minutes on MobileMark 2007 tests, which is a significant jump from the 3 hours 10 minutes of the previous-generation MacBook Pro. That’s about a 15 percent improvement, which should be music to the ears of road warriors.

Fortune’s 1985 ‘Fall of Steve Jobs’ Cover Story ★

Speaking of vintage ’80s magazines.

1983 Byte Magazine Interview With Engineers From Apple’s Lisa Team ★

Modern Mechanix has both the full transcript and scanned pages of Byte’s 1983 interview with Wayne Rosing, Bruce Daniels, and Larry Tesler regarding the then-new Apple Lisa. (Thanks to Ravi Khalsa.)