I’m outing myself: The Top Ten Things from Apple I Love
Yesterday was an epic event for anyone who has lived through the personal computer revolution - Steve Jobs and Bill Gates did a joint live interview with Walt Mossberg and Kate Swisher at D. There is no full video archive (ironically, the subtitle of the conference is "All things Digital" - all things but the full interview! (updated 6/1 - they did later post it in 8 segments), but I found the first 15 minutes and an edited down summary. Engadget had a nice play-by-play and I liked the Seattle Times piece. The full transcript was published by the D folks.
Watching the video and reading the transcripts inspired me to out myself - so here we go, here are the top ten things from Apple I love:
#10) I loved my Powermac G4 (RIP). I bought it in 2000 when my first son was born to do video editing.
#9 ) I love my Mac Cube - in all its hugeness compared the Mini. Over the years, I have upgraded it with OS X, 1.25 GB of RAM and 125 GB of hard disk (I tried a 250GB drive in it about 2 1/2 months ago right before I moved but something went horribly, horribly wrong). I will never get rid of it, ever.
#8) I love my Mac Mini. Even though I bought a PPC one right before Apple announced Intel based solutions. Like my Cube, it is with me to stay. I may even buy an Intel based one (before they go away) and put Vista Media Center on it.
#7) I love my iMacs (all 3!) Beautiful. Elegant. Why can't PC makers take a page from Apple's book - design MATTERS.
#6) I love OS X on my iMacs. It is very pretty. I wish more of the software I use ran there.
#5) I love that my iMacs dual boot between OS X and Windows. That's why we now have 3 in the Eisler house - I can have my cake and eat it, too.
#4) I love my 80gb video iPod. Its battery life for watching shows on cross country flights kicks ass. It got me through a lot of DC/Seattle commutes back when I was at AOL.
#3) I love the Mac/PC ads. I know I shouldn't. They hit us where it hurts. But they make me laugh. Every time.
#2) I love, LOVE My AppleTVs. All 5. Plus one at my office. All but the one in my office manually upgraded to 160gb - just in time for Apple to announce a 160gb SKU. DOH!
#1) I love, LOVE, LOVE iTunes + iPod + AppleTV. I buy a season's pass through iTunes and then it is magic - my new shows show up on my PC, my iPod, my AppleTVs. What's on my AppleTV? 24, Battlestar Galactica (no new episodes until October, dammit), CSI Miami, The Dresden Files, Heroes, House (at LONG LAST!), Jericho (canceled after a cliffhanger season closer - sometimes I hate networks), Law & Order: SUV, the Mac/PC ads (yes, I edited all the metadata to make them into a TV show), Monk, My Friends Tigger & Pooh (my kids love it), The Riches (Eddie Izzard ROCKS), Southpark, and Spin City (okay, not on iTunes, but I ripped my 2 "best of DVDs", made h264's out of them, and then mucked with the metadata so they looked like TV shows - I'll stipulate it's not a consumer scenario).
I work for Microsoft and love the company and our products- so don't get me wrong, I will take all that I love about Apple's approach and strongly encourage my colleagues around the company to learn from it and do it better. And for the record, I should mention that I am also living the Vista Media Center Dream: I have as many Xboxes as AppleTVs connected to 2 Vista based media center PCs (each w/ 2TB of storage) because iTunes doesn't have nearly everything we watch as a family - and I don't want to pay $1.99 for every episode of something I watch. Oh, and Xboxes are DVD players, too (and for $199, they can be HD-DVD players). Oh, and my Xboxes play games. And they cost the same as an AppleTV - $299. And they are only... ummm... a TEENY bit bigger than an AppleTV.
Truth is, both companies are great companies in their own right. Mr. Jobs and Mr. Gates both can be proud of what they have built - they both already have amazing legacies. Look at me - I'm trying to have my cake, and eat it too! 
Comments
Don't you mean have your APPLE and eat it too? I agree the AppleTV & Xbox combo rocks it HARD.
Posted by: The Wife | June 1, 2007 3:49 PM
Question: how did you edit the metadata to have iTunes recognize the videos you wanted as movies/series/music videos and whatnot? I have several music video clips that I want to add to iTunes for use with Front Row and I can't find how to do it; any help is greatly appreciated:)
Posted by: Spyros "Flareman" Smparounis | June 8, 2007 12:39 PM
The entire interview, and question and answer session is now available on iTunes at:
>http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=256972720
I found it quite interesting, and i'm proud that both Bill and Steve had the courage to do it, knowing they would have to confront each other on a variety of topics.
Posted by: Ron Manke | June 8, 2007 2:35 PM
*What I love about the Mac is that I can easily move applications from one machine to another.
*I can easily video edit/music edit. I still have problems with my new Vista machine.
Posted by: 8string | June 8, 2007 4:17 PM
If you're using the Vista media center as a PVR, why aren't you having it record the shows you watch and then put those shows into iTunes for AppleTV?
Posted by: vmarks | June 8, 2007 5:13 PM
oh, right. Vista MCE records in DVR-MS format. It's MPEG2, so you'd have to strip out the MPEG2 and then encode that to h264. Sounds like a less than desirable choice by the MCE folks. (If you record it with your own tv tuner, why should it have DRM?!)
Posted by: vmarks | June 8, 2007 5:24 PM
Hallelujah! Someone who thinks the same as me! I have a mixed Mac and PC home and smile to myself every day that I have the best of both worlds.
Welcome to the MacBU too. I hope you are able to bring more convergence to the experience so that it becomes less of a "Mac vs PC" thing, and more of a "I use Microsoft products" thing.
Posted by: Alan Hamilton | June 9, 2007 1:17 AM
Jericho was renewed...8 episode season 2. Hope you enjoy it on your AppleTVs :D
Posted by: stephen | June 9, 2007 2:20 AM
Hi Craig, congratulations on the new job and good luck! We posted a quick welcome at
http://www.tuaw.com/2007/06/08/microsofts-macbu-gets-new-gm-craig-eisler/
Posted by: Mike Rose | June 9, 2007 5:54 AM
In response to a previous question (second comment above, by Flareman) about meta-data, I suggest looking for some scripts (Search Google for "Doug's Scripts") that you can use with iTunes that will modify video metadata, among other things, much more efficiently than with iTunes.
Posted by: Kyle | June 9, 2007 10:14 AM
I am glad to see your enthusiasm for Apple, but unless its something like helping to bring DirectX to Macs I am not so sure I can be as excited :p
Posted by: Jeff | June 9, 2007 4:26 PM
for a guy who has 5 apple TV's and 5 xboxes and, and and...
it's weird to see that 2 dollars for an episode is too much...
Posted by: kermit | June 9, 2007 10:52 PM
After reading this, I'm really glad that you took up that position. :)
Cool.
Posted by: Vidd | June 10, 2007 7:15 AM
@Mike Rose: Thanks for the tip, much appreciated:)
Posted by: Spyros "Flareman" Smparounis | June 10, 2007 8:28 AM
Hey - I posted a response to some of the comments here.
Posted by: Craig Eisler | June 10, 2007 9:55 AM
Hopefully you can get a non-crippled version of MS office released. ie one with full scripting built in. That way I can not only purchase the Upgrade, I can recommend it's purchase to my customers who need 100% compatability with MS Office 2007.
Posted by: Jen | June 10, 2007 10:48 AM
Glad to see someone like me at Microsoft Mac BU.
I was an Appe Dealer (like Great Plains Software was... now MBS), I own company that is Microsoft Certified Partner with competencies on Dynamics GP, CRM, RMS and I am an MCP myself also a Small Biz Specialist.
AND I LOVE MY MACS too!!
I have a 24" Intel and 20" G5 at home plus a few iPods.
I would like to see further usability and support for Exchange 2003 / 2007 on the next version of Entourage.
Thanks!
Enrique
Posted by: Enrique García | June 10, 2007 7:35 PM
About Jericho... there are some news.
LOS ANGELES, California (AP) -- "Jericho" fans who slammed CBS with protests over the drama's cancellation have won the battle: It will return next season, the network said Wednesday.
Posted by: Tom Gerhardt | June 11, 2007 9:20 AM
OMG, Mother our son is... a Mac user! What did we do wrong! lol
Nice to see that you love Macs like I do.
Posted by: meinrosebud | July 13, 2007 1:32 AM
I hope you'll give us a beautiful and powerful new mac office version soon. Good luck:)
Posted by: tnlavie | August 3, 2007 12:16 PM