BELLAMYBUDIMAN

Some people occasionally asked what tools I used on my daily job, so I figured that I write this post just to keep an archive of my current set of tools that I depended the most on:

24″ iMac 2.4 GHz
Except when I’m not in town, perhaps there isn’t a day go by without me using my trusty workstation. It’s an upgrade to the previous 20″ iMac G5 (which is still being used by Disti on the next desk), and it has proven to be worthy for almost 2 years now. It is paired with a Samsung SyncMaster 2033SW as a secondary display, Altec Lansing ATP3 speakers, and a pair of 1TB WD MyBook Studio Edition for a redundant backup system, which is highly important in my line of work. Why not the Mac Pro? The answer to that for me is simply that it is an overkill.

12″ iBook G4
Up to this day, despite of those numerous upgrades Apple has done with the MacBook, I’m still using the last generation iBook when I have to work outside of the office or out of town. But since it’s a G4, and it’s nearing its own end of days, I seldom use it now except for checking emails or browsing.

iPhone 3GS
When I’m outside, this is my next best thing after the iMac, serves the purpose for me entirely. And if you’re wondering why I’m not using that ever-popular BlackBerry, read here.

Canon PowerShot G10
Because I’m not a photographer by occupation, I rarely needed a full-size SLR. That’s why this is my camera of choice, smaller than a DSLR, more powerful than your average joe pocket camera.

An earlier conversation with my Twitter friends earlier today sparked a will in me to write this entry. I think if you ever wondered why a geek like me don’t have this particular interest over BlackBerries, this could answer your curiosity. Please do mind that my opinions here are purely subjective and they contribute to the reason why I use an iPhone.

A Mac User
Well yes, first of all, I’m an avid Mac user, so I needed something that I know truthfully can sync up to my Mac without a hitch. The BlackBerry Desktop Manager was just released recently, and no, that doesn’t give me a slightest consideration on the BlackBerry back there. While syncing the BlackBerry is probably easier for Windows users (I don’t know, and I don’t even care), syncing my contacts, calendar, photos, and music to an iPhone is far more easier.

I Have No Need of BlackBerry Features
If I ever opted for the BlackBerry Bold, then what do I get? A business machine capable of delivering emails right to my fingertips anywhere anytime? Yes. An always-online messenger? Yes. Do I need them? No. Here’s the thing, I’m the kind of guy who likes to keep emails on my desktop computer, and I really hate it when an email forcefully get pushed and delivered to me at that moment when I’m outside the office. It gave me this urge to do other things while at that time, I’m probably occupied with something more important. Even when the iPhone gained itself the Push Notification, I don’t have that huge urge to use it for my emails. I prefer to check them and download them at will.

Second, I don’t chat while I’m outside. When I’m outside, here are the things that I do the most: Driving, meeting with clients, teaching, going out with my girlfriend or friends. I don’t see the necessity of having an always-online messenger there, at least for me. Yes, I occasionally check my Twitter from time to time, but that is when I want to and I don’t necessarily tweet or reply every single time. Besides, if people want to reach me, they can always find me by phone, SMS, or Twitter, if you must. But don’t give me that messaging through BBM is free and easier. Paying IDR 180k each month to even use the service is not exactly “free”. Cheaper maybe, not free.

There Isn’t an App for That on BlackBerry
The iPhone has this huge collection of apps, and I have to admit that some of them are pointless, but I never see any apps on BlackBerry that could aid me with my desktop applications. I use 1Password, Things, ShoveBox, NetNewsWire, and iBank daily on my Mac and I need them to have the same information with the one I carry in my iPhone. Because when I’m outside, my iPhone is the closest thing I have to my iMac. Taking this from a design point-of-view, since I am a designer, I never find the interface design on BlackBerry appealing or intuitive.

No Good Games on a BlackBerry
Okay, this is fairly unimportant for me, but seriously, can you name one game on a BlackBerry that has a comparable experience with the games in an iPhone? Correct me if I’m wrong, but I really don’t think so.

Touchscreen
I like touchscreens. It’s compact, it doesn’t require a stylus, and it lacks the physical hardware that wears over time. Yes, having a physical QWERTY keyboard can be easier for some people, but I have no objections typing on my iPhone’s virtual keyboard. To me, they serve the purpose better than anything similar, be it the Storm, HTC Magic, and don’t get me started with Windows Mobile.

So there we have it, why I don’t use the BlackBerry and why I have no intentions of owning one even until now. So if any of you ever asked me (or even Arleen in this matter), sorry, we’re not going to buy a BlackBerry anytime soon :) Besides, essentially, iPhones and BlackBerries are two different things. They are not comparable, you’d just have to choose which one is the right one for you. As for me, it’s still the iPhone.

<a href="http://video.msn.com/?mkt=en-US&#038;playlist=videoByUuids:uuids:0bb6a07c-c829-4562-8375-49e6693810c7&#038;showPlaylist=true&#038;from=shared" target="_new" title="Laptop Hunters $1000 – Lauren Gets an HP Pavilion">Video: Laptop Hunters $1000 – Lauren Gets an HP Pavilion</a>

I’m sure that most of you geeks would probably have seen this ad around and performed PC-Mac battles everywhere. Long story short, it’s about Lauren who’s trying to find a sub-$1000 17″ notebook and got herself a dirt-cheap HP Pavilion notebook. The ad definitely showed that Lauren tried to get an Apple notebook at first, but decided not to because their lowest end notebook would be the $999 white MacBook that doesn’t even have a 17″ screen. This concludes the ad to give out this message: Apple’s hardwares are goddamned expensive.

I do have something to say about this matter, and I’m saying this as realistically as possible, without being an Apple fanboy. I believe both companies have their own reasons to build whatever they want to build, I still believe that Windows 7 is going to be the best Windows there is and craps out Vista any day, and I’ve got my own good reasons why I am now an Apple user and stays that way. While I could agree that Apple’s products are generally more expensive at a glance, it tickles me that Microsoft is advertising against Apple not with their own products, but with any notebook that’s definitely not Microsoft’s.

Here’s the deal. Microsoft, just like Apple, is essentially a software company. Microsoft makes Windows, Apple makes Mac OS X. But Apple takes this up a notch by building good-quality products to complement their software and lock their softwares (essentially) to only their hardware. This is probably what Microsoft see as a threat to them. I have no idea why since the ones building PCs for Microsoft is not themselves. If they are worried, don’t you think actual hardware manufacturers like Lenovo, HP, and Dell should’ve been the ones that should worry with Apple’s hardwares?

Apple also did competitor-bashing advertisements with their “Get a Mac” lineup, but instead of bashing Microsoft’s hardware (which does not exist except for accessories like keyboards or mice), they did a good apple-to-apple (no pun intended) comparison by putting OS X and Windows on a head-to-head fight.

So what does this ad really shows? It shows that Microsoft is that desperate to try saving their own ass with the havoc Vista brought upon them, using an apple-to-orange comparison. Microsoft, I hope your ad agency has a real good reason for this, because this is what I think you guys should really do:

1. Fire Ballmer. If you could put someone on par and as competent as Apple’s (or probably any company in this matter) top guys, you might probably come up with something that is actually good. Personally, I wouldn’t want to buy something from a company that selected a primate to talk on keynotes. Convincing? In a mental asylum, perhaps.
2. Why don’t you stop whining and stop trying to convince people that Vista is a good consumer OS. It’s not, and I don’t think it would ever be. So instead of focusing on how to get back on Apple for their Leopard’s victory over you and lurch out pointless ads, why not focus on Windows 7 instead and give what your users really deserve for their money.
3. The least you could do is simplify your OS version lineup. Seriously. Who would fucking care that you have six different versions for Vista alone. Consumers need something simpler to choose from. Or is this just your elaborate marketing scam so that common users would give out cash for more features?
4. If you want to counter Apple’s way of getting into your nerves, then try aiming for their software, because that is exactly what they did in the first place. With this ad, it’s as if you’re telling BMW to build cheap Tata Nanos. Apple has their own market, and no matter what the prices are, people will keep buying their hardware. And they wouldn’t even care if there’s a $200 notebook to compete with their 17″ MacBook Pro.

Some time ago, I got my hopes up with Microsoft when I was trying out Windows 7. Maybe they’ve come to their senses and could bring out a good and useable OS. But seeing what their reaction is like by keeping pointless ads such as this one in production, I think I’d have my doubts back.

On the other hand, are Apple’s products that expensive? If you calculated the features, the craftsmanship, and the software that they are bundled with, I personally think it’s worth the price. Therefore, it’s not really a matter of whether people should push Apple to come up with cheap products, but it’s a matter of whether you want to buy premium products or not. I think everyone has all the rights to position their products on a certain target market.

For celebrities who would like to follow the trails of Indra Bekti and the like, you might want to try the iMirror. Don’t worry, it will sync well with your shiny new iPhone 3G!

Available at your local Apple resellers, iPhone sold separately, brain not required.

I deliberately stayed up late last night (or technically, this morning) to catch up with Apple’s iPhone OS 3.0 event held in their HQ and to do my own microblogging report. They showed an early preview on the upcoming OS update that is due Summer. The update would be free for iPhone users and a $10 upgrade for iPod Touch users.

The 3.0 software covers a lot of things that many of us considered missing from the iPhone in the last couple of years since its birth, namely the phone-wide Cut-Copy-Paste, Bluetooth A2DP, MMS, communication with accessory features, In-App Purchases, P2P over Bluetooth, Contact VCard forwarding, new voice-recording app, and even down to a re-engineered Push Notification system that uses a quarter battery drain then other mobile OS’s. And that’s just a glimpse of what Apple offered within their new 100 features and 1,000 new APIs in this OS update. They also managed to bring Spotlight into the system, and as a bonus, landscape mode to every Apple app.

The event also featured some demos of upcoming softwares from application developers that utilizes some, if not all, of these new APIs and features. This includes companies like EA with their upcoming The Sims 3, ngmoco:) with LiveFire and TouchPets Dogs, and Smule with the upcoming LeafTrombone, a multiplayer music app.

For iPhone and iPod Touch users, this answers all the common “why, Apple, why?” questions that often get thrown to them, and this would definitely be worth the update, but too bad some features like the MMS an A2DP won’t work on the original iPhone. But as I said before, overally, there is no mobile OS but the iPhone that has this kind of API and feature development coherence. With 30 million iPhones and iPod Touches sold worldwide, you can say that they’re going on the right track as a newcomer in the mobile business. And as for me, I might skip the 2.2.1 firmware update and go directly with the 3.0 when it comes out.

You can read more in-depth reports on the iPhone 3.0 OS on regular sites like Engadget, Gizmodo, or Macworld.