Where's the Mac?

[cmgoodin]

I just got back from a day at Infocomm 2007.  The largest convention for AV equipment and information communications hardware  going on in Anaheim this week.

It has the convention center divided into sections covering Audio, Video Display, Digital Signage, Event Staging etc.

There were over 900 exhibitors and almost all had some sort of computer related or driven product.  Or they were using computers to generate the displays they were showing. Thousands of computers in media related use and I began to notice a couple of odd things.

There were NO Macintosh or OSX products or computers anywhere. Not one.  Curious.  I started to take note of each booth I visited and look at the computers they had (almost all laptops) and what operating system they were using.  Every computer was a PC and almost all were running Windows XP.  I only saw 2 copies of Vista running out of all the hundreds of PC based programs or displays.  I did see one Mac-Book pro laptop, but when I got closer I discovered that it was running Windows XP.  Also, I didn't see a single CRT display or CRT based projector in the entire convention.

While this convention is for High-Tech state-of-the Art computer controlled displays, audio equipment, & lighting and event staging control, none were running the latest version of the operating system from Microsoft.  Even though that is the primary operating system that is shipped on all PC's since January.  I think the DRM stuff that locks up the Video outputs on VISTA equipped machines (and the dumbed down video drivers because of this DRM junk) has made the operating system a pariah in the AV world.

While Apple has the niche markets of Non-linear Video Editing and Pro-Tools centric post production sound sewn up, they have almost no penetration into any of the above fields of corporate communications or event controls systems at all.

I also wonder if Apple's new OS  "Leopard" will have the same draconian DRM controls over all Audio & video streams that VISTA has been burdoned with.  If it does it may hurt their professional appeal in their current dominant marktes of Video Editing and Sound Post. I just have to wonder if that is what is holding up the release of the now very late OS.  I hope they don't give in to the IP lawyers and ruin the only thing they have going now in the professional A/V market.

------Courtney

[Jeff Wexler]

Lack of Microsoft Vista should not be surprising given the history of large businesses waiting a long time to upgrade to new Windows Os's. I am sure you are aware, Courtney, that there are many businesses that are still running Windows 2000 or NT systems. It is my understanding that Vista comes in many different varieties (Steve Jobs poked fun at this while talking about Leopard) with all different pricing and I assume different capabilities for different users. I can't believe that Microsoft would cripple their own operating system for their serious business and professional users (who I guess will be buying the Ultimate or the Premium or whatever and for top dollar). Microsoft has obviously tailored Vista to the consumer user whose primary interests seem to be in the area of entertainment --- music, movies, tv shows and so forth --- areas which are really dominated by Apple at this point (at ALL levels, the software, the hardware, the licensing deals with the media content companies, etc.). To this extent, Vista will need to have some sort of DRM in place and from what I know, Microsoft's DRM systems are horrible and share very little similarities to what Apple has done quite successfully). I have no fear that Leopard will cripple anything and in one key area of music DRM you must be fully aware that Apple has started the move towards totally DRM-Free music (and is, at this point, moving much of the industry along with it). It is also quite clear that the current release of FinalCut Studio 2 has already incorporated many of the "under the hood" features and functions of Leopard so that FinalCut (one of the professional products you mention) should have no trouble with Leopard.

As for no Apple presence at Infocomm, this is not surprising, as I don't believe Apple has ever shown up at Infocomm. As you point out, most of the companies involved there are probably not part of Apple's business. Maybe in the future it will be, but hey, what about that new iPhone!

Regards,  Jeff Wexler

[cmgoodin]

Lack of Microsoft Vista should not be surprising given the history of large businesses waiting a long time to upgrade to new Windows Os's. I am sure you are aware, Courtney, that there are many businesses that are still running Windows 2000 or NT systems. It is my understanding that Vista comes in many different varieties (Steve Jobs poked fun at this while talking about Leopard) with all different pricing and I assume different capabilities for different users. I can't believe that Microsoft would cripple their own operating system for their serious business and professional users (who I guess will be buying the Ultimate or the Premium or whatever and for top dollar). Microsoft has obviously tailored Vista to the consumer user whose primary interests seem to be in the area of entertainment --- music, movies, tv shows and so forth --- areas which are really dominated by Apple at this point (at ALL levels, the software, the hardware, the licensing deals with the media content companies, etc.). To this extent, Vista will need to have some sort of DRM in place and from what I know, Microsoft's DRM systems are horrible and share very little similarities to what Apple has done quite successfully). I have no fear that Leopard will cripple anything and in one key area of music DRM you must be fully aware that Apple has started the move towards totally DRM-Free music (and is, at this point, moving much of the industry along with it). It is also quite clear that the current release of FinalCut Studio 2 has already incorporated many of the "under the hood" features and functions of Leopard so that FinalCut (one of the professional products you mention) should have no trouble with Leopard.

As for no Apple presence at Infocomm, this is not surprising, as I don't believe Apple has ever shown up at Infocomm. As you point out, most of the companies involved there are probably not part of Apple's business. Maybe in the future it will be, but hey, what about that new iPhone!

Regards,  Jeff Wexler

The different flavors of Vista are mainly a few additional collaboration features turned on the more you pay.  I don't think they remove any features for the business version. I haven't heard of Gamers or others who are upset by the horrible drivers available for VISTA ultimate are flocking to the business version.  I believe the main differences in Vista Versions are the terms of the license agreement, and product support, not the functionality of the OS software.  Apple doesn't have to worry about different versions of Leopard because it doesn't do huge corporate site licences, or OEM licenses to system builders or VAR licenses, since they don't allow their OSX to run on any hardware that they don't make.

It is Apple's failure to implement more draconian DRM that has prevented many movie studios from making their content available on the iTunes Movie Store.  For the First Year it was only Disney owned product that was available and only that because Jobs is a major shareholder in Disney as a result of the Pixar buyout.  I'm not sure if that has changed, but more Down loadable media supports Windows licensed DRM than supports Apples Proprietary format.  While Apple may have the most popular music player of any single brand, it is not the leader in Movie or High-Def Downloads.  It is the studios fear of accessibility of High quality down-loadable content that forced Microsoft to include the rigorous DRM that is contained in Vista.  If you want to playback Blue-Ray DVDs or HD-DVDs you will have to have this locked down video chain.  And as a by-product your analog video outputs will be controlled by the movie studios not you. No one is talking about DRM in Leopard yet, but I bet it will be a nasty little secret that no-one finds out about until it is shipping.

---Courtney

[takev]

If windows XP is anything to go on, than the business version will just have as many version. I think there are around 5 different versions of windows 3000 (excluding the 64bit versions). Each version had different limits for the number of CPUs and the amount of memory it supported.

[cmgoodin]

If windows XP is anything to go on, than the business version will just have as many version. I think there are around 5 different versions of windows 3000 (excluding the 64bit versions). Each version had different limits for the number of CPUs and the amount of memory it supported.

I am not familiar with any difference between different versions of Vista that support different Amounts of Memory.

The differences in the retail versions all have to do mainly with bundled applications like the Media Center, Disk Burning Software and Remote Control or collaboration software.  The basic OS is the same across all versions of the same processor.  32 bit is different from 64 bit versions. But within each bit depth version there is no difference in memory addressing.

I believe the main reason many businesses are still running Windows 2000 and XP corporate is because they don't incorporate Microsoft's WGA product activation which puts extra demands or the corporate versions for Key management and support.  You can't just take a Vista Corp version outside of the corporation (like to a trade show) without risking the possibility of it turning up brain dead if it thinks it has moved outside it's corporate license area.

Windows 2000 and Windows XP corporate did not have product activation and did not insist on calling the mother ship every day or every time you booted. So it was easier for corporations to simply restore disks or fix motherboards without triggering a Re-Activation procedure.  All this to try to enforce the copyright laws through technical means rather than legal means. i.e. Digital Rights Management (DRM)

Windows Vista Corporate license requires a License server Key Management system on the corporate network in order for the copies to keep functioning. (translation: Big pain in the ass)

----Courtney

[Jeff Wexler]

It is Apple's failure to implement more draconian DRM that has prevented many movie studios from making their content available on the iTunes Movie Store.

---Courtney

The list of things that Apple has been able to accomplish, particularly in all the media areas (music, movies, television) with the studios and other content producers, is truly amazing. Apple almost single handedly altered the music world AND the very way that companies will negotiate with the media giants. It is true that with movies iTunes started out only with Disney content, but once it was established (in a very short period of time), Paramount, Miramax, and others realized it was too much of a good thing to turn their backs on all that revenue. I don't remember exactly, but Disney sold a tremendous number of movies in a very short period of time. Also, in the music area, don't discount what Apple negotiated with the second largest music label in the world, EMI, to offer music free of any digital rights management scheme. Most of the other music companies are getting on board realizing that their old business model and attempts to protect that model with really bad DRM, isn't working anymore.

Read this article which has a lot of good things to say about DRM in general and the "myth of piracy" issue.

LINK REMOVED; proceed to the Ars Technica website at your own risk

Regards,  Jeff Wexler

[cmgoodin]

Read this article which has a lot of good things to say about DRM in general and the "myth of piracy" issue.

http://*****LINK OMITTED FOR SAFTEY*****

Regards,  Jeff Wexler

WARNING: Thanks Jeff this link is to a page that contains a drive-By Trojan Virus.  My virus software was quick enough to catch it.

But you should remove that link immediately.  Just clicking on the link can infect a PC with the Trojan virus if you don't have virus protection software running.  Many provocative sites with articles about "The Truth about DRM" are honey-pots for Trojan virus spreaders.

Many Mac users are guilty of spreading viruses because they don't have virus software installed that tells them that sites like the above mentioned one contain Trojan worms.  I also am constantly getting MS Word files from Mac users that are infected with Macro Viruses.

This is a real problem.

----Courtney

[cmgoodin]

I am able to playback HDDVD using the Xbox HDDVD drive via USB 2.0 on my mac v10.4.10, with no problems, i am also able to play downloaded files that are HD format from my XBOX360 on my mac, but I am required to have the flip for mac plug in since they are in the WMA format or a version there of.

as for the iphone take a look at this article

http://www.macworld.com/news/2007/06/21/gartnerit/index.php?lsrc=mwrss

To read about the cost of DRM in Windows Vista with High Quality Media output here is a great page that outlines all the problems.

http://www.cs.auckland.ac.nz/~pgut001/pubs/vista_cost.html#functionality

No Virus or Trojans in the above link.... I checked it out.

I would be willing to bet that Leopard will be forced to have some similar "protections" for playing HD content on a Mac. With all the secrecy and non-disclosure agreements out there we will not know  for sure until it is actually released (Maybe in October).

----Courtney

[Jeff Wexler]

WARNING: Thanks Jeff this link is to a page that contains a drive-By Trojan Virus.  My virus software was quick enough to catch it.

Many Mac users are guilty of spreading viruses because they don't have virus software installed that tells them that sites like the above mentioned one contain Trojan worms.

----Courtney

Wow. Sorry about that. I will remove the link. I do know that most Mac users do unknowingly pass on virus/trojan horse etc. stuff to others and it is true that most of us do not have any anti-virus protection. I think this comes from the fact that there are very few if any virus type things that actually have any affect on OUR computers, but I guess there is an element of irresponsibility to other less fortunate computer users running that other operating system.

Courtney, please explain exactly what the drive-by Trojan is --- something imbedded in the page at Ars Technica website?

Regards, Jeff Wexler

[cmgoodin]

Drive By Trojans are usually Java-script based viruses that execute whenever the page is displayed in your browser and you have java-script enabled.  They can do a variety of things.  Some can copy active-X or other programs to your hard drive to use your machine as a zombie spam server.

They don't require you to click on anything on the page or download anything. Hence the name Drive-By Trojan.  Just visiting the page can infect a computer. Some can be embedded in Animated Smiley faces or other seemingly innocuous pieces of fluff that teens will be encouraged to pass around via email signatures or attachments.  This is why I have my email viewer set to "Ascii Text Only".

The Trojan reported by my Virus software (JS/Uniz-B Trojan) from your linked page may have been a false positive. But I have the latest virus descriptions installed and it still trips the warning so I wouldn't want to take the chance that it is a real trojan.  Pages that contain advertising sometimes have Java-script Ad servers that put pop-up windows on your machine to serve ads.  Some of these are classified as trojans as they don't give you the opportunity to decline or turn them off.  Anti-Virus software has to walk a fine line to try to determine when and advertising gimmick becomes so annoying  or tenacious it is classified as viral.

----Courtney

[Marc Wielage]

Courtney, I think Infocomm is a specialized show that wouldn't necessarily have Mac-centric setups.

At NAB, SMPTE, and AES shows, I see Macs all over the place. I would guess at least 40% of the booths that have computer systems on display are showing Macs, all for pro users in the TV, film, post, and recording industries. (In fact, I did a double-take when I saw two Macs at NAB not long ago both running pre-release versions of Vista.)

To me, Infocomm is the audiovisual industry, which is mostly visual presentations (large-screen video projectors, training films, PA systems, etc.). That's a totally different market. It's apples and oranges. I wouldn't expect to see Macs used in the food service or hotel industries, either. Same with video rental.

BTW, I'm still running Windows XP and OSX every day on my two Intel Macs. No problems so far (knock on wood), but I am using Windows OneCare as an anti-virus/anti-spyware program.