• Dell admits “alternative mobile computing devices” — aka the iPad and other smartphones and tablets — are having a significant effect on its PC business, Marketwatch reports.
• How big of a chunk has the iPad taken out of the entire PC market? Asymco has a good visualization of the latest numbers.
• Following his epic takedown last week of Digitimes’ faulty Apple reporting, Harry McCracken at TIME posts a response from the Taiwanese publication and his own post-mortem thoughts on Apple rumors that are worth reading.
• Speaking of rumors: more hints that Microsoft may be closer to releasing an iOS version of Office, according to BGR. And, in a twist, there might also be an Android version in the works too.
• Not only did the mediation talks between the Apple and Samsung chief executives not bear much fruit, accusations between the two companies continue to fly. This time Samsung is accusing Apple of withholding documents in their ongoing court battle, writes The Mac Observer.

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Update: On Monday Apple number cruncher extraordinaire Horace Dediu at Asymco put together some charts showing how Apple’s R&D spending trends. While Apple spent $758 million on R&D during the first fiscal quarter of 2012, it’s a very tiny sliver of the company’s overall sales, which were $46.3 billion. What’s most interesting to me is how Apple’s R&D spending as a percentage of overall sales ranks among the industry heavyweights. While $758 million is a lot of money, it’s lags behind the $2.3 billion Microsoft spent on research and development during the same quarter, and Google’s $1.3 billion.

Here’s a chart showing how Apple ranks among its tech industry peers:

Credit: Asymco

Apple sits right below Hewlett-Packard and just above Dell — two companies that haven’t produced anything truly interesting in the consumer realm in years. And it is far below the often innovation-challenged behemoths Microsoft, Nokia, RIM and others.

The takeaway is this: Bloated bureaucracies spend a lot of money on innovation and occasionally make something new and interesting. Steve Jobs’ insistence on maintaining a startup mentality within Apple (even with 30,000+ corporate employees) and the company’s ability to only focus on a few things at a time mean Apple can spend less and get much more for its investment.

Thumbnail image courtesy of Flickr user kenteegardin

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Doing it before it was cool

The iMac was an all-in-one long before the form factor was popular, although it arrived much later than its own predecessor, the original Macintosh computer. Still, at the time the iMac arrived, the competition was all about separate towers and monitors. All-in-ones had trade-offs that seemed considerable at the time, including fewer customization options and no opportunity to really get into the high-performance range of personal computing.

Fast-forward to today, 14 years after the introduction of the first iMac, and it is the computer with the lion’s share of the hottest growth area in desktop computing. According to DisplaySearch, as reported by Bloomberg on Wednesday, the iMac accounts for 32.9 percent of the all-in-one desktop market, which itself grew 39 percent over the course of 2011 to 14.5 million shipments worldwide. DisplaySearch believes that the market will reach 23.3 million units by 2014, and Apple looks likely to lead the pack, since its next-closest competitor is Lenovo, with 22.7 percent of all-in-one sales.

Early investment pays later dividends

Apple doesn’t always strike a vein when it comes to early, unusual designs for its computers. The G4 Cube is a prime example. But that doesn’t mean they don’t bear fruit. The Cube formed the groundwork for the Mac mini, which succeeds as an HTPC and an inexpensive Mac desktop option. Likewise, the early MacBook Air, which was expensive, somewhat underpowered and mostly admired from afar, paved the way for the current generation of sleek, fast, awesome general-use machines.

Apple worked out its ultraportable teething issues early, while competitors either looked on in disbelief that anyone would want such a device (its downsides vs. traditional notebooks were similar to the iMac’s flaws regarding user customization and repairs) or offered even more half-baked attempts at competing, like Dell’s Adamo. The first iteration of the MacBook Air meant Apple was ready to come back cheaper, faster and stronger.

Playing catch-up

Now Intel is prompting other notebook manufacturers to jump in late and try to capitalize on the demand for ultraportables. CES pitches are littered with the term, and it seems like every PC maker is planning an Air-like notebook for release in the near term. But the iMac’s doppelgängers haven’t managed to dethrone it, and I highly doubt we will see the notebook market behave very differently.

With both the iMac and the MacBook Air, Apple managed to successfully skate to where the puck’s going to be, and in doing so it has put itself at the fore of growth areas in overall markets (desktop and notebook PCs) that are otherwise sluggish. For users, that means both the iMac and the Air will be among Apple’s most exciting products to watch in 2012 and beyond.

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But there are number of things off about the Dell Streak. First, it’s quite a small device. With a screen only half the size of the iPad’s, and only slightly bigger than most modern smartphones at 5-inches, it seems somewhat awkwardly sized. Second, it can act as a smartphone, making calls, texting, etc. It doesn’t really blur the line between smartphone and tablet so much as sit completely on the smartphone side of said line.

While both the Streak and the iPad run operating systems designed originally for smartphones, the iPad clearly isn’t one. It’s too large to comfortably hold up to your face, and, more importantly, it lacks the internals and software necessary to process phone calls. The iPad’s role in the digital ecosystem may not be entirely clear, but it knows what it isn’t, and that’s a phone.

The Dell Streak is a phone, whatever its marketing department may want you to believe. And that may be its strongest aspect in terms of going toe to toe with the iPad, in that it only does so in a broad sense, fighting generally for consumer electronic dollars without really encroaching on the super-specific niche Apple has carved out.

Dell’s Streak seems like the punchline to an old joke about the iPad: It’s like the iPad except it fits in your pocket, has a camera and makes phone calls. And it stands a chance of competing with the device in terms of sales, but not with the iPhone, the next revision of which will undoubtedly blow it out of the water. But saying you’re making an iPhone killer is so passé at this point, and it’s a claim many smartphone makers have found themselves regretting. Pitting the Streak against the iPad instead avoids both of those pitfalls.

Bottom line, it may be a clever marketing maneuver, but it isn’t a tablet. I doubt very much the Streak will be leeching any customers away from Apple’s devices, be they tablets or the next generation iPhone. Dell’s effort makes the mistake of trying to be everything to everybody and missing the mark entirely. A larger tablet dubbed the Looking Glass seems to be in the cards for the near future from Dell, though, so we’ll see if it learns any lessons for that effort.

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In a lengthy post comparing developing using Cocoa Touch for the App Store vs. developing web applications, Gruber goes over the strengths and limitations of both. In the end, he reveals that a new web app framework would bring the experience of using web apps much closer to that of apps which reside natively on the iPhone. The new framework is apparently called PastryKit, and it’s an official Apple endeavor.

PastryKit brings three really important things to the table for web developers:

• Hides the address bar, without the need to create a home screen shortcut first, which currently allows that.
• Allows for static, fixed position toolbars that don’t scroll along with the rest of the page.
• Allows for scrolling momentum, which allows users to “fling” lengthy lists without causing scroll friction, the way web apps generally do now.

PastryKit has already been deployed in its iPhone User Guide web page, though you can only see the effects if you’re visiting the site on an iPhone. They are all JavaScript implementations, and so should be usable by any web developer. MacRumors points out that performance issues attached to the new features could arise on older-generation iPhone models, since these are known to have trouble with JavaScript in mobile Safari.

There’s little doubt that Apple is keeping its eye on the mobile web space, which is poised to explode thanks to recent developments in web tech like HTML5, CSS and others. There are some things that the App Store is no doubt better for, including advanced 3-D games like the kind released by Gameloft, ngmoco and EA, but for other apps, an improved web interface could be just what the doctor ordered.

If Apple can get smaller developers who are creating apps with limited or light functionality to take their business to the web instead of routing through the App Store, it’ll be able to eliminate a lot of the static and chatter that currently gums up the review process and no doubt costs Cupertino a not-insignificant amount of overhead. It may lose revenue, too, but the more lucrative titles will likely remain as dedicated apps, being the aforementioned games from major publishers I mentioned above.

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The Dell Experience

Client #1 comes in because Windows won’t boot. The minute she turns on the PC, I know the problem. It’s that horrible high-pitched clicking noise that is worse than nails on a chalkboard to any technician. It’s obvious the drive has failed and the solution is to replace it. I booted off a test CD and verified the hard drive failure.

Fortunately the computer is under warranty. No big deal, Dell should replace the hard drive. I call Dell. After 20 minutes on hold, I’m not getting a live person, so I try the online chat and wait and wait and wait. Eventually, someone comes online. The first obstacle is that the client is a student and the father bought the computer via his work. Dell will not assist us until we tell them the owner of the computer and the shipping address. Arrrgh. So we play a multiple choice game for about 20 minutes trying to find out which name and address it was under.

We are now at about an hour. When we get the “correct” answer to the shipping address, our tech then begins to help us. I explain that the hard drive is making a high pitched clicking noise and the system doesn’t show a hard drive. First, the tech wants me to try a special diagnostic that is preformed off the hard drive. Of course the hard drive is dead, so we go back and forth with that I must be doing something wrong. His English was so shaky that I often didn’t understand his questions. (How does one answer  ”Is this issue not facing now?”) Eventually the tech believes I’m doing it right and then asks me to boot off a CD that come with the system, which of course the client doesn’t have. We’re supposed to look for the disks and contact them again, but I refused. The client didn’t know where the disk is and we needed this resolved.

Eventually, the support person realizes we don’t have the disk, but he now wants us to open up the computer and reset everything. We’re now at the 1.5 hour mark. Eventually the agent agrees the hard drive should be replaced. Thank you! However, they must ship the hard drive to one of their contracted field techs per her warranty. Actually, that’s lucky; sometimes you have to ship the computer back to Dell. Her warranty was “upgraded” to include on-site repair. The tech will then contact her to set a time to install the hard drive. Three days later, there was no contact from the tech, no hard drive. Fortunately, I gave her a loaner and got her up and running.

We tried calling Dell to no avail. There was no record of the request for the hard drive. Eventually we contacted Dell “Unresolved Issues” and the hard drive was shipped. Total time on the phone: three hours. Delay in hard drive replacement: almost two weeks. The time involved on the chat I assure you is very typical and it’s not just Dell. I see it with HP/Compaqs as well. Service is simply not part of their deal.

The Apple Experience

My next client had a Macbook. I could hear it was the same problem immediately. Ironically, it was the same brand and size of hard drive as was in the Dell. I entered her serial number on Apple’s support web site, and it showed the computer was still under warranty. We then set up a “Speak to an Apple Expert” call-back for about 20 minutes later. On the dot, the technician called. I explained the loud noise and told the tech I booted off the Leopard DVD and the hard drive showed errors. He agreed to ship a new hard drive the next day. Total phone time was less than five minutes and it was 30 minutes from problem diagnosis to closure and less than 24 hours from the time I called until the new hard drive arrived on her doorstop. Again, this interaction was very typical.

For the sake of argument, let’s say these clients didn’t use a consultant to solve their problem. The Mac client could have made an appointment with a genius if an Apple store or an Apple Authorized Service Provider for the repair. The PC client has no physical store she could go to unless she bought that PC at a store that also offered warranty repair.

The phrase “Penny wise and Pound foolish” comes to mind. Did the first client end up saving money because she bought a PC?

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This laptop is of course a “Hackintosh” — specifically a 9-inch Dell netbook Farhad has hacked to run Apple’s Mac OS X. He notes that since Apple adapted its elegant OS to run on Intel’s processors, hackers have been diligently breaking down the walls between Macs and PCs.
My daughter, a lifelong Mac fanatic, is one of them, having been happily running OS X — currently Leopard — on a 2.6 GHz Pentium 4 desktop box for the past three years and finding it more than satisfactory. I’ve tried out this machine, and it’s impressively fast. However, my daughter is an accomplished computer tech who’s been able to deal with the necessary tweaking and technical tedium of getting OS X up and running reliably on her bargain basement Dell.

Not for the Faint of Heart

Farhad Manjoo notes that, no surprise, Apple doesn’t look kindly on the Hackintosh movement, but this evidently hasn’t slowed the movement’s momentum, and Mac hackers, some on constrained budgets like my daughter, have discovered that they can build precisely the features and products they want into a custom desktop or laptop model of a type and price point Apple doesn’t choose to offer and save a boatload of money in the process.

“We don’t know how to make a $500 computer that’s not a piece of junk, and our DNA will not let us ship that,” CEO Steve Jobs observed last October. That may be all well and good, but there are an awful lot of folks out there these days who want a $500 computer, or indeed in today’s snakebit economy simply can’t afford a higher price of entry, or who really want a netbook-sized laptop, which is one of the market categories Apple has chosen not to serve, at least yet. And its an exaggeration to insist that all sub-$500 computers are necessarily “junk.” Legions of satisfied netbook users contend otherwise.

Manjoo warns, and my daughter’s experience underscores this, that Mac hacking is not for dilettantes or the faint-hearted, and there are plenty of potential technical hurdles and pitfalls to be overcome, but there is support available from the fraternity (and in some instances sorority) of experts populating online forums who’ve probably encountered — and solved — the problems that may be your current stumbling-blocks.

But is it Ethical

There is of course the ethics question. Installing OS X on a non-Apple computer is a direct violation of Apple’s End User Licensing Agreement. My daughter has been encouraging me to get a PC laptop and let her install OS X on it for me, but while I profoundly disagree with the thrust, extent, and spirit of current copyright regulations, especially the execrable and draconian DCMA, it’s still the law, which I personally prefer to stay on the right side of, although I don’t pass any judgment on those who are exercising civil disobedience against what they (and I) consider unjustly excessive intellectual property end user restrictions.

I also understand and appreciate that if Apple were to have a change of heart and authorize the Mac OS for installation on non-Apple PC hardware, it could very well spell the end of Apple-branded computers. This very nearly happened in the mid-’90s with previous Apple CEO Gil Amelio’s near catastrophic experiment with Mac OS licensing to third-party clonemakers. The latter made some very attractive machines. I still have a UMAX SuperMac S-900 that was a formidable piece of work in the context of the era, in many ways outdoing the Apple PowerMac 9500 and 9600 that competed against it at higher prices.

So this is definitely one of those matters where the “be careful what you wish for” axiom applies. It would be neat to be able to buy a Dell or Asus laptop, some models of which I personally find quite enticing — and not just because of prices. However, I would hate for the ability of Apple to keep rolling out sublimely elegant and delightful machinery like my unibody MacBook to be compromised because of a bleeding away of Mac OS users and profitability to cheaper PC boxes.

How about you? Do you think Apple should license Mac OS X? How about the ethics of hackintoshing?

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In my quest to upgrade an aging dual-monitor setup (a 20” main screen with a 17” screen off to the side to house application palettes, iTunes, etc.), the only real decision to make was choosing between an Apple 30” Cinema Display and a Dell 30” UltraSharp Widescreen.

I decided to go large with a 30” LCD to give me as much screen real estate as possible, cut out the extra set of cables that litter the floor behind my desk with a dual-monitor setup, and banish forever the annoying gap between the two displays. After reading numerous reviews on tech sites, soliciting advice from fellow designers, and seeing both in action, I ended up choosing the Dell 3007WFP-HC over the Apple 30″ Cinema Display. The Dell simply offered enough bang-for-the-buck to satisfy me.

Rather than give a run-down of tech specs you can get on your own, I decided to give you a comparison from a user’s perspective. Keep in mind that I’m a designer by trade, and my use and requirements of an LCD monitor may be different than yours, so what I consider an “issue,” you may not. Below are my comparisons of a few key areas and my results of using both monitors after a month of owning the Dell as well as using the Cinema Display fairly regularly.

On the Desk

Believe it or not, a single 30” LCD actually takes up much less space than my previous 20”/17” dual setup.

The Apple Cinema Display uses a single curved stand to support the display, offering a hole in the stand to manage cables. The bezel around the screen is thin, but due to the brushed-metal finish, it is “in your face” at all times. You definitely know you’re using a Cinema Display. The only adjustments available to you is tilting the monitor slightly forward and back.

The Dell Ultrasharp uses a more standard single arm stand with two legs that jet out to the sides for added support. The stand is sufficiently heavy enough to support the large screen, and just felt more substantial (read: safe) than Apple’s display. The black bezel around the screen is thinner than Apple’s, and simply disappears into the background because it’s black — I don’t even notice it’s there. Where the Dell shines in comparison is the available adjustments. Not only does it match Apple with tilt, but you can swivel the monitor from side to side, and adjust the height of the screen as well. Making any of these three adjustments requires two fingers and a small amount of force. At no time does the base move on the desk.

Winner: Dell Dell 3007WFP-HC, no contest.

Getting Connected

I have a Mac Pro tower; I do no gaming; and I don’t hook up my TV to my Mac, so my requirements for connections were fairly simple. While many people criticize the Dell for its lack of VGA, HDMI and other connection methods, it simply wasn’t an issue for me. Both LCDs require a dual-link DVI graphics card capable of supporting the resolution of the display (2560×1600 in both cases).

The Apple Cinema Display uses DVI to connect to the Mac, and offers two Firewire 400 ports, and two USB 2.0 ports. This is more than adequate for most users. The ports are placed rather inconveniently on the lower back of the display, but that’s fairly typical. The main cable is hard-wired to the display, something I don’t like at all. If something goes wrong with the cable, you’re returning the entire monitor for repairs.

The Dell Ultrasharp also uses a single DVI connection, but the cable is not hard-wired to the display. A 9-in-2 media card reader is available on the side of the monitor, as are two USB 2.0 ports. I really like the placement of these. Having them on the side of the display means I can just swivel the monitor to use them. On the back of the UltraSharp are two more USB 2.0 downstream ports, and a single USB upstream port. No FireWire ports are available on the Dell 3007WFP-HC. The ports on the back of the display are rather difficult to get to because they face downward. However, these are really made for connections of a more permanent nature, so it’s not that big of a deal.

Winner: Dell 3007WFP-HC. The card-reader and two USB ports placed on the side of the display make it infinitely more useful in this respect. The extra 2 USB ports put it over the top.

Looks Are Everything

Both companies are known for offering displays that have a great picture, and my use confirms that. But there are differences. If you’re concerned about color accuracy, you really should have a hardware calibration device. Both monitors offer a 178-degree viewing angle for smooth and accurate picture from any reasonable sitting position.

The Apple Cinema Display is about as color accurate out of the box as you can get for a consumer monitor. And, of course, OS X ships with color profiles for the Cinema Display to make calibration as simple as possible. If I have any complaint about Apple’s 30” LCD, it’s that it’s not bright enough.

The Dell UltraSharp does not ship with any calibration profiles, and out of the box it’s not as color-accurate as Apple’s display. Colors appear much more saturated on the Dell, but even running a simple calibration in OS X’s Display Preferences can quickly bring it up to par. The display is much brighter than Apple’s as it ships, perhaps even too bright. Again, you can adjust this to your liking.

Winner: Apple Cinema Display. This was a close one. For my needs, I have to calibrate both displays anyway, so it was a wash. But the Dell requires adjustment even for the average consumer.

Purchase Options

Price isn’t always the main consideration, but it’s certainly a big one. I wanted a little more than a bargain on price.

The Apple Cinema Display costs $1,799 no matter where you buy it. The return policy is simple: You own it once you take it out of the box, and Apple doesn’t have much of a policy on dead pixels — you’ve got to have a cluster of dead pixels in one small area in order to get a replacement. The Cinema Displays do, of course, come with the standard one-year warranty, but that’s about all you get with it.

The Dell Ultrasharp currently sells for $1,049 direct from Dell, but you can get a better deal (see below). Dell offers a zero-dead-pixel guarantee, with a three-year advanced replacement warranty.

I didn’t want the hassle of dealing with a possible return, so I purchased the Dell from Costco, where you can get it for $999 (at time of publication), and have the comfort of knowing you can drive it to any Costco store and return it with no questions asked. Nice!

Winner: Dell UltraSharp. I’m willing to pay a little more for quality, but not nearly twice as much. The Dell offers a better warranty, more adjustments, and an $800 savings.

Satisfaction

Overall, I couldn’t be happier with the Dell UltraSharp. Once I got past the idea of buying a Dell product over Apple, it was easy. The display has performed superbly the last month or so, and I’m so glad I didn’t needlessly spend the extra money just to have an Apple logo on the front.

If you’re in the market for a 30” LCD, you can’t go wrong with the Dell Ultrasharp 3007WFP-HC. It offers a great picture, plenty of nice features, sturdy construction, and a price that simply can’t be beat.

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For me, the Dell was the obvious choice for this project for a few reasons:

1. Boing Boing has a chart that indicates which pieces of hardware work on netbooks with OS X installed.
2. Gizmodo provides a thorough tutorial on how to set it all up.
3. I heard there was an active and helpful forum.

Here are my specs:

• Inspirion 910 Intel Atom Processor N270, 1.6Ghz, 533 Mhz 512k L2 Cache
• Obsidian black color with gloss finish
• 2GB DDR2 533 Mhz, 1 DIMM (purchased from Crucial.com)
• 8.9-inch wide-screen WSVGA TL
• Intel graphics media accelerator (GMA) 950
• 32GB solid-state drive (my first SSD!)
• Wireless 802.11g mini card
• Integrated 1.3 megapixel webcam
• 77WH 6-cell battery
• Bluetooth 2.1 module via USB I/F

The 77WH 6-cell battery was purchased through eBay. It provides both amazing battery life, and it elevates the back of the Mini which gives the keyboard a comfortable slant. I only need to charge it every couple of days.

Installing OS X took a couple hours, but that was mostly spent watching the screen. As soon as it was complete (Apple software updates, too), I installed Google Gears and offline access for Google Apps (Gmail, Calendar, Reader, and Docs). Fortunately, there were no surprises with software downloads or installations. Airport works, and downloads are fast. When I turn off Airport, the Safari 4 beta has no issues switching to offline mode. When I turn it back on, changes sync back to Google. Success!

My goal was to build a browser-focused netbook that would primarily be disconnected from the Internet. The occasional synchronization would allow me to catch up on emails and write more posts for TheAppleBlog.

Now, for the verdict.

Don’t buy a Dell Mini 9 even if you want to use Windows or Ubuntu. Although surprisingly useful and fun to show off (techie people will most likely be impressed when they see a real dock on a Dell), the keyboard is an absolute deal-breaker — OK, not just a deal-breaker, a nightmare. I constantly make typos. Using quotation marks, something I occasionally do while writing, is a challenging task considering the quotation key’s random placement near the space bar. Perhaps with more practice I will learn to be efficient with such a minuscule keyboard, but so far, it doesn’t appear that way.

This was a fun experiment (and an extremely expensive blog post). I feel like it bumped me up a notch or two in terms of Apple user cred. However, if you have the desire to go through with this, just keep in mind that it’s a toy and not a serious business tool.

My recommendation: Check out the HP Mini series since the keyboards are only 7 percent smaller than a full-size. Personally, I’d like to save up for a Macbook Air to experience the ultra-light, ultra-thin Apple. In fact, someone nearby has one on the train, and I’m jealous.

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While some users are experiencing unpleasant issues thanks to Apple’s recent 10.5.7 update for OS X, others have plenty of reason to rejoice after updating. Specifically, hackintosh netbook users are reporting that battery life is seeing major improvements thanks to the update.

Wired’s Gadget Lab picked up on the user reports from the MSI Wind forums. Like the Dell Mini 9, the Wind is a popular choice for people looking to shoehorn OS X onto a netbook, which many users are doing since Apple seems unwilling to provide an official solution.

Better battery performance is great news for the hackintosh community, since it was one of the few remaining drawbacks to installing OS X on machines like the Mini 9, which is almost completely compatible with the Mac operating system. Personally, I’ve been considering picking up a Dell machine myself for just such a purpose, after numerous unsuccessful attempts with my Eee PC 1000HE, and this latest development will probably be the deciding factor.

Improved power management on Atom-based machines could suggest that Apple is readying OS X for deployment on new, official hardware — not a netbook, which the company seems dead-set against, but a tablet-type device that would make use of the 9.7-inch screens ordered from Wintek that have yet to appear in any production machines.

Since we know Snow Leopard won’t be ready for WWDC, it would make sense for Apple to build Atom-specific power optimization into Leopard at this point if it were planning a device launch for the June event. Even if no tablet is forthcoming, this is still great news for people hoping to use OS X on a more portable platform, officially or not.

Photo courtesy fiatlux on Flickr.

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