Windows 2 Apples

The clones have descended.

It seems the Macintosh community is buzzing over the apparent reintroduction of Mac clones by Psystar a company listing Florida as home for its offices. The well executed Psystar web site promotes a low cost Open PC System supposedly capable of running the Leopard OS as well as XP, Vista and various flavors of Linux. Unlike Microsoft and Windows, Apple specifically prohibits the installation of its operating system on anything other than approved hardware … apparently the Psystar system has no such authorization from Apple Inc. Historically, Apple has maintained its stranglehold over hardware by squashing such efforts; however, Psystar appears to be alive and well and continuing to ship product while Apple remains sheathed in a shroud of uncharacteristic silence.

Authors of blogs and podcasts pundits are more than a bit surprised that Apple is taking so long in responding to this obvious infringement of its user license. Reportedly, one employee at Psystar has gone on record suggesting the Apple user agreement constitutes an illegal monopoly and goes on to say Psystar intends to use this as their argument to install the apple OS on non Apple approved hardware. If challenged on this point, most observers seem to agree Psystar would need a sizable War chest to fend off the legion of attorneys Apple has at its disposal. If I were Psystar management I would find it a bit difficult to get a good night’s sleep give Apple has never been particularly squeamish about unleashing its litigious storm troopers upon perceived adversaries.

I have wondered if Apple isn’t simply using this as an opportunity to gauge the public’s willingness to purchase systems running the Apple operating system independently of Apple hardware. Then again perhaps Apple simply doesn’t feel threatened and intends to watch the company self destruct as it attempts to maintain compatibility with the constant flow of Apple software patches and updates. Of course a Machiavellian hypothesis would include a scenario in which Apple releases updates and patches specifically designed to disable Leopard running on non approved hardware. Apple could simply sit back and watch the company smolder after the firestorm fueled by disgruntled customers and greedy attorneys demanding class action law suits spreads throughout the blogosphere and ezine rumor columns.

Whatever your fantasy, this new twist in Apple options provides us all an opportunity to speculate and try to envision a world in which Apple is primarily a software as opposed to hardware company. Could Apple and more importantly could developers dependent upon Apple’s autocratic control over hardware, support the staggering array of system configurations long taken for granted by Windows users.

I recently listen to a podcast produced by Apple developers who seem to shake in their boots at the thought of trying to support their products in the chaotic environment that embraces Windows developers. I suspect that if Apple were a software provider first and foremost we would be able to purchase systems running the Apple OS and applications on machines ½ to 2/3 of the cost of current Apple systems … but we would be forced to deal the same kinds of support and security issues that have defined Microsoft since day one and which continue to provide the punch lines for the clever and ever so entertaining Apple vs. Microsoft commercials.

A trip to BestBuy and the emergence of Apple clones inspired me to reassess my fondness for my Macintosh. I recently had an opportunity to lay hands on the new aluminum Macintosh computers as well as the Air Notebook and admit it was difficult not to drool as I my eyes feasted upon the delightfully refreshing masterpieces before me. The Apple Air notebook is exquisite in design and even though it is missing an internal CD / DVD drive and Ethernet connection I had to admire the design and its execution. In the past Jobs has been prophetic in his vision and his decisions to shift design focus has often given consumers their first glimpse of the next generation of products. In my memory is burned his mold breaking abolition of floppy disk drives in Macs.

At the time I thought this was heresy but of course his vision of a future sans floppy proved spot on. I find myself wondering if my DVD drive will become an antique long before I had assumed it would. As I look back over the last year all of my new software purchases have been made as downloads over the Internet. All of my music is purchased or stored as MP3s and I can’t remember the last time I purchased a CD. Perhaps the mechanical disk drive is in it death throws.

In my eyes, the Apple operating system lags far behind Apple hardware as the inspiration for any desire I may have for purchasing new Apple products. In fact, the only native software applications I would miss if my Macintosh proofed are Keynote and Pages. Perhaps I am odd man out in this regard and perhaps … just perhaps the Mac clones will give us all an opportunity to assess the contribution of hardware versus software to the continuing success of Steve and company.

Since we opened with this podcast with an introduction to Mac clones we will end our podcast by introducing you to my recent efforts to create full body animations using iClone 2.5 from Reallusion, the same folks responsible for Crazy Talk 5. Both IClone and CrazyTalk are only available for the Windows platform. Reallusion it is one of the few companies to produce innovative three dimensional animation tools only available to Windows users. Most other products such as Poser are available in both Apple and Window incarnations.

Reallusion has done an excellent job of implementing a relatively intuitive and easy-to-use animation product capable of producing startlingly realistic first productions with an impressively short learning curve. Most users are able to create relatively impressive animations within a few hours of experimentation and because of the many various video export options; projects can be saved as high resolution files on DVD or uploaded quickly to YouTube.

Although, I am impressed with the bang for buck I get using iClone, I’m equally disappointed with the lack of features that would make it much more productive and intuitive. One feature than is needed posthaste is an undue option. I could work in my word processor for extended periods of time without missing the undue function but it is almost a necessity when you are creating animations and experimenting with movement, poses and camera angles. The other feature that is missing in both CrazyTalk and iClone is the ability to have more than one speaking character in a scene. This can be accomplished with some tedious trickery and by using video editors with chroma key options, however, exporting multiple recordings and importing them into a video editor for further processing is a convoluted and unnecessarily complex series of hoops to jump through in order to achieve this affect.

We have posted an experimental iClone 2.5 animation on our Viddler account. To view our first efforts simply login to viddler.com and search for iNetSynch videos. Our next podcasts will provide more extensive coverage of iClone 2.5 as well as our recent experiences with the Apple only SandVox web design application.

Link to Blues On Top iClone video.

Link to Jazz Dancer iClone video.

Produced using Vista Speech to Text, M-Audio USB Audio Interface, MixCraft 4 and COWAN JetAudio.

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