I'm moving my desk and computer around which means disconnecting the entire thing and reconnecting it in another room. So this is a fine time to think about the design of the Mac Pro, as it relates to ports on connectivity. There are some real nice features of the machine but a few disappointments. As usual with Apple products, remedying the downsides would be trivial and cheap so we must assume that Apple just didn't think about these things, or thought about them but decided they knew better than us how a machine should be designed.
I should start off by clarifying that I'm talking about the Mac Pro desktop - not a laptop, and not a lower cost machine. This is the big machine that people buy when space, weight, power consumption, and cost are no issue. People buying this machine want the best, most powerful, most flexible machine available and they're will to pay over $3,000 to get it. Also, they're probably Apple fans.
First the good points:
- USB and firewire ports on the front and back. I love the ports on the front, for things that I attach for short periods of time. Way better than having to reach around to the back of the machine for a quick connection.
- Four internal drive bays. This is great for expandability. I'm using one bay for the boot drive and two bays for a striped RAID for performance. I use the fourth bay when I'm building up a new boot drive, which I do whenever a new major version of Mac OS comes out.
- Two optical bays. This would be great for me if I cared enough to have a second optical drive. It costs less than $100 but I've only ever needed two at one time once. I REALLY like that you can install a SSD boot drive up there and regain another regular drive bay if you have lots of cash and need more space. I don't do this, but check out Diglloyd's Mac Performance Website for more info about that.
- Lots of PCI slots. Now that more applications are taking advantage of GPU coprocessing I should get off my duff and buy a modern video card. It'll make some things in Photoshop faster, apparently. I like that I can put a few video cards in there and have a ton of monitors because often screen space is worth more than CPU speed.
Now let's talk about what I don't like.
- Not enough USB ports! I generally have the following USB devices connected to my desktop Mac:
- keyboard
- mouse
- Wacom tablet
- HP printer/scanner/fax
- Canon photo printer
- docking station for Garmin bike computer
That's six items that I would prefer to connect to the back, but there are only 3 ports. Yes, I can buy a powered hub but I'd prefer not to. It's one more thing to plug in and a ton more wires.
- No balanced audio. I'd like to see balanced audio in and out. I'm talking 1/4" TRS or XLR ports, which are industry standard on professional audio equipment. I realize there's optical audio in and out but the things I'd like to connect to (a Mackie mixing board, or my home stereo) don't have optical.
Yes, I could buy an external firewire sound module with tons of balanced ins and outs, but a basic stereo in and out is all I'm asking for. I've never heard anyone else bitch about this so perhaps I'm the only one who misses this.
That's about it. I'm very happy with the machine overall. It's a lot faster than my laptop and I love working with the full size mouse and keyboard, as well as multiple monitors. The built-in RAID stripe is big and fast with no external cables which is really nice.
I'm just sayin' that there could be a few more ports on it, that's all.
Canon is introducing a bunch of new mid-range and high-end photography gear today. Well, tomorrow really, since it's still Wednesday where I am. I'll include some links to the DP Review (owned by Amazon) press release pages.
The list includes the new
60-D, a low-end L-series
70-300 variable aperture lens, a really neat looking
8 - 15 mm fisheye zoom, revamped
300 and 400 mm f/2.8 lenses, new versions of the
1.4x and 2x teleconverters, and an announcement that new
500 and 600 mm f/4.0 lenses are on the way.
Here are my quick thoughts on each of these, with a bit of a Product Marketing eye:
- 60-D: It had to happen sometime. In fact, the 7-D should have been called the 60-D. After the 7-D, I guess this is now the bridge between the old 20/30/40/50 lineup and the Rebel line. SD cards. This camera might be popular, but it sure had better be a lot cheaper than the 7-D if they want to sell many of them.
- 70-300 variable aperture lens: Is this just an upgraded version of the wildly popular 70-300 series? Is this for people who want an L-lens without really investing in top-quality glass? How much will it cost?
- 8 - 15 mm fisheye zoom: Sweet. This lens is going to be really fun. I love my 15mm fisheye, which this is apparently replacing. It's obviously not as small and pocketable but it sounds like a great lens.
- revamped 300 and 400 mm f/2.8 lenses: Who was asking for this? Why do this?
- new versions of the 1.4x and 2x teleconverters: Seriously? Who asked for this?
- announcement that new 500 and 600 mm f/4.0 lenses are on the way: I sure hope they don't have any backstock of these to clear out now! Again, who's asking for this?
I think all big white glass from Canon can be divided into two categories:
- The 200-400 mm f/4.0 zoom
- Everything Else
Is the new 200-400/4.0 zoom out yet? You know, the one that Canon should release to match the Nikon lens that is so popular people will sell their entire Canon setup to get? Not yet? OK, well, wake me up when that comes out.
Thanks to a hand-me-down 32 GB iPhone 3GS, I'm giving the iPhone another try. Things are working out a lot better this time around, even though I'm still kicking and screaming while resisting being sucked all the way into the Apple Reality Distortion Field. I've got an iPhone but I haven't activated the phone service with AT&T so for me it's really just a little tiny tablet computer.
In my last blog post I ranted against using the iPad as a content _creation_ device, but it's clear that it makes an excellent content _consumption_ device. And for the purposes of this blog, that means viewing photos. It turns out the iPod is a pretty cool little photo viewer. The biggest drawback is obviously the screen size but the quality of the photos (sharpness, color, etc.) seems to be pretty good.
I don't use iPhoto and the machine I sync my iPhone on is not the machine that my photos live on so there are a few little hoops to jump through but it's not bad. The saving grace is that Apple gives you the option of syncing a directory hierarchy of photos to the device instead of syncing from iPhoto: First I tell iTunes to sync photos from the "iPhonePhotos" directory on my laptop's desktop. Then I just mount that directory over the local network and export groups of photos from Lightroom in whatever structure I want and iTunes takes care of the rest. It's not as cumbersome as it may sound. Yes, MobileMe would probably make it easier, but oh well. I'm pretty happy with this solution.
Next time you see me, ask to see some photos on the iPhone!