Back in late 2007 I wrote an article comparing Excel functions with Apple’s Numbers ’08 - Apple’s then new spreadsheet application that was part of iWork ’08.

This week Apple released iWork ’09, which contains Numbers ’09. For completeness I thought I should do the same comparison again, to see how Numbers now stacks up.

The Numbers

Here is a link to the spreadsheet in Numbers ’09 format (zipped), and a PDF Version.

And here is a summary table:

As you can see, things have improved a lot in terms of coverage of Excel functionality. In particular, there are big increases in Statistics and Engineering functions. Almost 100 new functions were added in the new release.

What does that mean for those coming from Excel, or trying to import Excel spreadsheets? Well, Apple seem to have covered most of the common functionality. The numbers above are misleading, and look like Apple haven’t – but when you take, as an example, Engineering functions, you find that most of the missing functionality is around complex numbers. I doubt anyone reading this blog has a spreadsheet that does complex number calculations. Similarly database functions – their use is pretty obscure.

There are possibly some stats and finance functions that will break Excel import, so if you rely heavily on these you should check the list.

So, as I mentioned, that is a big increase in functions. Still, I’m disappointed Apple didn’t try and match Excels functions totally (maybe not Database Functions), and then start to add some of their own. The compatibility argument would have been a lot strong if they had, and some of the functions would have been pretty easy to add (ISNUMBER anyone?)

So is Numbers any good?

Yes. I use it daily, and it is much easier to use than Excel, the results look better, and it has some great functionality such as table categories and intelligent tables – in comparison Excel is just a big boring grid with some functions behind cells.

Being able to put small individual tables on a single page is the real advantage of Numbers, and the end results are spreadsheets that actually look great, communicate better and are easier to manipulate. Numbers is a pleasure to use for the most part.

You can export to Excel format, though it is always disappointing as Excel spreadsheets are so damn ugly. The iPhone also can view Numbers documents (as it can Excel). If you are on Windows of course, you can’t view Numbers documents. But who actually chooses to use Windows these days?!

Thought I’d write a quick blog article on an issue I had with my Mac at work. We have Leopard Server running on a Mac Pro, and use Kerberos for authentication of machines on the network when connecting to services such as iCal Server.

A few months ago, my work machine (a MacBook Pro) started complaining when iCal was running and kept asking me for my Kerberos password. I’d enter it, and it would respond telling me that Kerberos login had failed. No one else in the office had this issue.

Eventually I compared my ~/Library/Preferences/edu.mit.Kerberos.KerberosLogin.plist with that of a colleague and found they were different. The key difference was that a number of keys had changed type from Boolean to Number. That is, I had:

And they had:

(YAMATO is the name of our server machine).

Changing the types to Boolean fixed the issue.

The question is, how did my machine get into this state? I believe the answer is MobileMe. I had my machine at home and my machine at work syncing through MobileMe, and I included in this sync the syncing of Preferences. I believe the machine at home, that had never connected to Leopard Server, had the “bad” plist, and at some point the plist on the work machine was replaced (or merged) with the home machine.

I’ve turned off Preferences syncing, and continue to use other sync features of MobileMe without issue (for the record, I love MobileMe – it is especially good when you have multiple machines to sync, in my case a number of Macs and an iPhone). This may be a bug with MobileMe, but given how few people use Leopard Server, and of them an even smaller percentage use MobileMe, it isn’t surprising that no one has noticed.

Hopefully if someone is having this issue they will find the solution here.

After the release of new MacBook and MacBook Pro computers this week without Blu-ray options, Steve Jobs, during a Q&A session, is quoted as saying:

“Blu-ray is just a bag of hurt. It’s great to watch the movies, but the licensing of the tech is so complex, we’re waiting till things settle down and Blu-ray takes off in the marketplace”

I was a bit surprised by the comment. Other manufacturers (Dell, HP, Sony) seem to have Blu-ray options on their computers. Apparently it wasn’t so complicated for them (though admittedly easier for Sony).

Fan boys have come to Steve’s defence with comments like “Blu-ray will cost too much – I don’t want to pay extra for a technology I don’t use”. Fair enough – it should be an option. Not that difficult – at one time CD-RW was standard, and DVD-RW was an option at the Apple store. How can you argue against other people who might want the technology actually having access to it, even if you don’t want it yourself?

The reality is that Apple are not being truthful. There are two reasons for the lack of blu-ray on the new laptops.

1. There are no blu-ray slot loading drives that are thin enough to fit in to Apple’s thin laptops.
2. Apple sell HD videos in their iTune store – and they don’t want competition from other sources (i.e. Blu-ray discs bought from the local store or borrowed from the local Blockbuster).

1 needs a manufacturer to help out – which I’m sure they would if Apple asked them to develop the drive. Of course, Blu-ray on the Mac Pro would not have the problem as it can take larger drives. Which leaves only reason 2 for Apple products in general.

And the fan boys pipe up again with “I can get HD videos from the Apple store. Physical media is dead”.

Right. So Apple sell 1080p videos on iTunes? With 7.1 surround sound?

No. No they don’t. They sell at best 720p, and it is compressed to the point that it would fit on a dual layer DVD. That is not full HD. That is not the quality of Blu-ray. Not even close.

If you want to connect your Apple TV, or MacBook, to your Full HD TV, you aren’t getting the full HD experience (Apple TV can’t play 1080p video anyway).

Not to mention that most ISPs around the world limit the amount of data you can download in any month, so hiring a few HD videos from Apple would actually blow the limit on their ISP in days.

But even if you forget wanting to watch movies on your machine, how about wanting to burn Blu-ray movies. The professional video creators using Apple machines want to be able to burn their HD movies to Blu-ray. Where is the solution from Apple? Aren’t Apple supposed to be the leaders in A/V?

The success of the Mac is due to the fact that Apple are the sole supplier of the hardware and operating system – so it all works together so well. The problem with the Mac is that Apple are the sole supplier of the hardware and operating system.

It all works well when Apple are ahead of the game in terms of technology. But when Apple drag their feet, you find yourself quite limited. Blu-ray is a prime example. With other manufactures adding blu-ray drive options, you’re stuck waiting for Apple to do the same. If Apple don’t want to, you can’t go buy a Sony or Dell. Well you can, but all your Mac software won’t run (easily) on it.

There was a time when Apple were the leaders, not the followers. It seems now that Apple have spread themselves too thin on the computer side of their business. When your customers feel they are not cutting edge anymore, they will start to look for alternatives. Apple runs the risk of pissing off their loyal fans and having them move away.

The Q&A sessions showed more of this attitude from Apple. Basically, Apple commented on 3 things they aren’t doing:

1. Blu-ray. “…just a bag of hurt….we’re waiting till things settle down and Blu-ray takes off in the marketplace”
2. Touch screen notebooks. “…it hasn’t made a lot of sense to us”
3. Netbooks. “… a nascent market that’s just getting started”

Probably 2 was a fair enough call – touch screen notebooks haven’t taken the world by storm, though Apple has shown with the iPhone they can do a touchscreen device better than most.

3 is more interesting. Netbooks are really taking off – I’ve known 2 friends to buy one just in the last week or two. One of them has installed OS X on his (it doesn’t all work of course). But it does give some indication that people are sick of waiting for Apple to get off its arse and move on their computer division before everyone packs up and they are left with only their iPods and iPhones.

Lead, follow or get out of the way? Which one is it Apple?

Even by my standards, the title of this article is lame. Sorry.

Anyway, Apple this week announced new MacBook and MacBook Pro laptops. The way I saw it, there were three major complaints:

1. Lack of firewire on the MacBooks.
2. Lack of Blu-ray drives on anything Apple makes, even as an option.
3. Glossy screens only on MacBook Pros – not even a matte screen option.

So much has already been said about 1 that I won’t bother. 2 I might write something about later. But this article is about 3.

Don’t click away just yet. I’m not going to just whinge like everyone else about glossy screens. Sure, I would prefer matte screens over glossy for laptops as I don’t like the reflections. But I don’t think the glossy screens are that bad – I have one on my iMac, and I’ve used an older MacBook with glossy screen and the reflections are generally not terrible.

This post is actually about holding up a mirror (groan) to Apple’s advertising and reflecting (groan again) on how Apple are so skilled at turning a negative in to a positive.

Now, say you wanted to sell a new laptop your company has just created. You want to show how great it is for working, watching videos, playing games. Surely you’d want to also show how clear the screen is – how it won’t distract you from your work and play because it is so bright and easy to read.

Well, that’s what I’d want to show. But maybe that is why I’m not in advertising, because apparently Apple believe the key to selling their new laptops is to show how reflections are so extreme that they get in the way of everything you do.

Case in point, this video from Apple talking about how great their new laptops are.

Let’s look at some images from this video.

We’ll start with a fairly standard marketing shot.

Ok, the reflection on that screen looks quite fake. But we can forgive Apple for this – they are showing that the screen is glossy and bright. We also have this shot:

The reflection is a little extreme here – it looks like a mirror. But the screen isn’t on, so maybe it isn’t so bad. Let’s press on.

Here we have someone actually doing some work. Editing a photo no less.

Yes, when you are editing a photo you’ve taken, you really want to have part of your image looking brighter than the rest due to a big reflection on the screen. It makes working so much easier.

But don’t forget, these machines are great for watching video (as long as it isn’t Blu-ray). Let’s take a look at these machines playing a movie, in this case Iron Man.

Is it just me, or are these reflections getting bigger and bigger now? Has someone at Apple gone mad with the post production addition of reflections to the screen?

Now, I don’t know about you – but if I’m watching a movie, I tend to get a bit angry if I get reflections on my screen. Apparently the Apple guys think this is cool though. The more reflection the better!

So, let’s take a look at how Apple advertise video games on the new glossy screens.

Whoah! Now the reflection is like half the screen. I’m not making this shit up – this is all Apple. And each new image has a larger and brighter reflection.

You’ve got to hand it to Apple advertising though. They can take a negative, play it up to an unrealistic level, and convince you that it is all positive. I’m still struggling with the lack of firewire on MacBooks as a positive. But I’m actually quite thirsty, and Steve is offering me Kool-Aid. Thanks mate.