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 My
Two Bits(The Editorial with one-quarter byte!) |
What is "My Two Bits?" My Two Bits is the official editorial page for the editor of Techtite.com. Techtite will accept reader submissions, for reviews as well as any editorials deemed well written and pertinent to this web site's audience. ----------------- Most Recent (and most popular) Editorials: ---DEATH to pop-up window commercials! ---PG-13: An Asset, or a Curse? ---Down with pop- ups: THE SEQUEL! ---Next Generation magazine is gone, [sniff]! ---Movies "Based on a Video Game"? YOU WISH! ---25 Years, and STILL no Light Saber! ---Why "Ludicrous Gibs is cool, and "Suggestive themes" is banned... ---Star Wars: It's All The Same To Me... ---Oscar's 75th: A Look Back... ---Buffy, Faith, Willow and Dawn... ---Why You'll Never be "April Fooled" Here... ---Is it Ever TIME for Matrix Spoilers? ---No Fate But What We Make...PERIOD. ------------------ Sidebar: -------------------- No sidebar comments for this review. Yet. |
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My Two Bits for August/September, 2003 is titled : Mac Attacked(Plus: the birth of The Macintosh Page!) -------------------------------------------------------------------
In 1999, I chose a "Lime" iMac. How about you...?
However, "cute" doesn't cut it anymore. Call it a case of which came first (the chicken, or the egg), but less products to review for Macintoshes means less "Macintosh-compatible" software reviews. Less Mac-compatible reviews means less Spinning Apple logos. Lately, finding a spinning apple in the Multimedia game page is about as easy as a Where's Waldo? puzzle book. The need to collate all these reviews into one, easy-to-find, exclusive-to-Macintosh page is now obvious. Welcome to the birth of The Macintosh Page. I only wish it was under better circumstances. "Better Circumstances"...? Well, let's put it this way: this isn't exactly because demands for Mac-reviews have been pouring out of the e-mailbox. It's just that keeping track of where and what Mac items are available in the Multimedia and Hardware sections has been a chore for many Mac-owners. There are so few of them...even if Techtite.com will still try to find them, whenever possible. When there's a review worth posting (submissions, anyone?), we'll put it on The Mac Page. However, there's no denying a dream has failed; the dream for Macintosh to be side-by-side PCs, as a sister computer-gaming platform. What went wrong here? Some game designers have claimed, off-the-record, that the support for such game "translations," from PC to Mac, was terribly thin; not half of what Apple had promised in early '99. Others say the demand just isn't there. After all, even PCs are under heavy competition these days, with X-Box and Playstation-2 and Game Cube all quite affordable. Sure, PC owners know better, especially if they ever played Tron 2.0 with a Nvidia Geforce FX 5900 Ultra (whew, what a long name for a graphics card!). However, gaming is a tough world out there. Mac is barely in the running anymore. Don't shoot the messenger: you know what I'm talking about here. Mac's other problem is technology. Apple Computers used to be the vanguard of the latest and greatest in home computer hardware. I remember digital sound samples in my black-and-white Macintosh SE games, years before the first Sound Blaster sound card hit store shelves for PC's. I remember critics in 1995, who snided that Windows 95 was more like "Macintosh '87." I remember even CD-ROM drives for Mac, years before they were the norm on PCs. Even a game like Myst was released on Mac, first. Those were the days. Again, we must ask: what happened?
I still have the deepest admiration for Macintosh. Whenever a new Mac product comes around, or a good review itself --submissions? I'm serious-- it will be on The Mac Page without delay. However, how long the page lasts is up to you. If you like The Mac Page, by all means buy something via the advertisements there. Otherwise, as is the case in Web site survival; nobody likes a bandwidth hog. Out it goes. Let's hope that day never happens. On the other hand, it's important to look at the good news, and approach this whole experiment in baby steps. The Macintosh Page is now available, which offers Macintosh related reviews in one location, easily accessed by all Mac owners. That's something. Let's hope it's something permanent.
As Always: I'm Techtite,
and these are My Two Bits...
On a side note:
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Burnout
Near
Miss
Small
Crater
Large
Crater
Deep
Impact
When
this site was first conceived in Summer of 1999, iMac was the toast of the
town. Everyone heralded the return of Macintosh: the system that was once
equal, if not above and beyond, the IBM compatible. Techtite.com joined in
the revelry, with links to Mac-compatible products wherever possible. Looking for a
spinning Macintosh logo took you to the order link for the Macintosh
version of that product. It seemed like a "cute" idea at the
time. 
From
a sales gimmick perspective, the biggest problem with Apple Computers these days is how they caved into peer pressure. Lots of jokes
were made of the 1999
iMacs, which were offered in five "flavorful" models: Lime,
Strawberry, Blueberry, Tangerine, and Grape. Aside from the cynical jokes
wondering when "tutti-frutti" was to be released, it was a cute
sales gimmick. How many times do you see a "lime" or
"Strawberry" iMac on the desk of an author, journalist, or
anyone else with an imagination, whenever interviewed on TV? The answer
might surprise you. After all, what sort of person, with a vibrant
imagination, doesn't want a vibrantly colored computer on their desk? The wave of
colorful Macintoshes --and soon, PCs-- was much appreciated. Every computer manufacturer under the sun
has started making
computers that were less "beige" than ever before. Yet Apple
computers too easily caved into the snide remarks of their marketing
gimmick; all their current computers are either black, or white. Apparently, Macintoshes have lost their flavor...in more ways than
one.