Linked List: October 8, 2011

Saturday, 8 October 2011

Here’s to the Crazy One 

Great piece by MG Siegler.

VMware Fusion 4 

My thanks again to VMware for sponsoring this week’s DF RSS feed to promote VMware Fusion 4, the newest version of their software that lets you run Windows and Mac applications side by side. In addition to Windows, VMware Fusion supports running over 200 operating systems on your Mac, including OS X Lion. It even supports the new Windows 8 developer preview — it’s the best way to try Windows 8 on your Mac.

New features include drag-and-drop installation, support for adding Windows apps to Launchpad, and up to 2.5× faster 3D graphics than previous versions. VMware Fusion 4 is available now for an introductory promotional price of $49.99.

Initial Reaction 

Ina Fried, reporting on first-day iPhone 4S preorders:

“AT&T has seen extraordinary demand for iPhone 4S, with more than 200,000 preorders in the first 12 hours alone, the most successful iPhone launch we’ve ever had,” an AT&T representative told [some website]. […]

“We are very, very pleased with the initial first day of iPhone 4S preorders,” Sprint Vice President of Product Development Fared Adib said in a statement. “Today’s sales and the overall customer experience greatly exceeded our expectations.”

But then Fried ends the piece with this:

Initial reaction to the iPhone 4S was somewhat muted, given its similarity to the iPhone 4, though the new device does pack a higher-resolution camera, a faster A5 processor and Siri, its voice-powered assistant software.

Initial reaction by whom? What could be more initial than record-breaking preorders in the first 12 hours consumers were able to order the product? What she really means is that a bunch of self-proclaimed technology experts and analysts had a muted reaction after Apple announced it, and that, as ever with Apple, they just don’t get it.