Briefly: Adobe, Best Buy, Mac OS X 10.4.7

AppleInsider · June 1, 2006 3:38PM

Adobe reps offer a new round of comments on the fate of Go Live and Freehand. Meanwhile a wide variety of Macs are turning up at some Best Buy retail stores. Also, development of Mac OS X 10.4.7 presses on.

GoLive and Freehand won't be torched

Adobe wants to set the record straight (or straighter); In a statement on Thursday, the San Jose, Calif.-based software developer said reports that GoLive and Freehand lay on the chopping block are incorrect.

Yesterday, several European online publications quoted the company's Director of European Marketing as saying GoLive will be discontinued prior to the release of Adobe Creative Suite 3.0 in 2007. The exec's comments came at the Adobe Live Conference in London. There were also conflicting reports on the fate of Freehand.

"Adobe plans to continue to support GoLive and Freehand and develop these products based on our customer?s needs," reads a statement Adobe sent to Macworld.

"Clearly Dreamweaver and Illustrator are market leading when it comes to web design/development and vector graphics/illustration," the statement continued. "Customers should expect Adobe to concentrate our development efforts around these two products with regards to future innovation and Creative Suite integration."

While Adobe said that it plans on supporting both programs, it stopped short of a committing to release major new versions of the products.

Macs arrive (at some) Best Buy retail stores

An analyst for Current Analysis has noted that some Best Buy consumer electronics stores are now featuring an expanded line of Apple's Macintosh products, including the MacBook, MacBook Pro, Mac Mini and iMac.

However, as noted by MacRumors, most Best Buy locations outside of California do not yet appear to be stocking Macs. Checks at several east coast locations also turned up not a single Mac.

It's unclear if Best Buy and Apple are running a new pilot program or have formed some other kind of arrangement. Representatives for the retailer were unavailable for comment.

For those interested, CNet News.com has posted three photos from one of the Best Buy stores flogging the entire Mac product line in an Apple-branded planogram.

Mac OS X 10.4.7 builds

Apple has followed up on its pre-Memorial Day seeding of Mac OS X 10.4.7 builds with yet another pair. Mac OS X 10.4.7 build 8J119 (PowerPC) and Mac OS X 10.4.7 build 8J2119 (Intel) appear to be the two latest external releases of the Tiger operating system update.

Again, Apple is reported to have listed no significant issues with the latest build.

[ View this article at AppleInsider.com ]

chip · June 1, 2006 3:48PM

I was in a Best Buy in Edmonton, Canada last week, and noted that they were stocking Mac Books, Mac Book Pros, and Intel Imacs.

Go Oilers!

deapeajay · June 1, 2006 4:39PM

The problem with Macs at Best Buy is that the salespeople know absolutely nothing about Macs! They CAN'T sell them. When the Mac Mini was at my local Best Buy, they couldn't tell you anything about it, what's Expose, what's Dashboard, what's SPOTLIGHT!?!?!? come on people! Ok, well let me show you what spotlight is, oh wait, I can't because you SOLD THE KEYBOARD! They had the mini there with no keyboard! Just looking at the desktop, with only a mouse to move around with. It was horribly pathetic.

EDIT: So it's fairly obvious why Apple went into retail. They're the only ones knowledgable enough to sell the machines.

xanthohappy · June 1, 2006 5:10PM

Quote:

Originally posted by chip

I was in a Best Buy in Edmonton, Canada last week, and noted that they were stocking Mac Books, Mac Book Pros, and Intel Imacs.

Macs are in all the Best Buys in Canada and have been for over a year.

mchuman · June 1, 2006 5:31PM

I went to my Los Angeles Best Buy two weeks ago and spotted this. There was an Apple rep in the store, and he said the employees are receiving training with Apples. I was trying to convince him to have one Mac running WinXP.

chip · June 1, 2006 5:33PM

Funny that Canada and California get the same merchandise. About the only thing similar is that their names both begin with the letter "C". Oh, and we have the right to bare arms in Canada, but it's usually too cold so we wear sleeves.

deapeajay · June 1, 2006 5:37PM

Quote:

Originally posted by McHuman

I went to my Los Angeles Best Buy two weeks ago and spotted this. There was an Apple rep in the store, and he said the employees are receiving training with Apples. I was trying to convince him to have one Mac running WinXP.

well that's a relief.

chip · June 1, 2006 5:41PM

I wonder if staff are similarly trained up here. I'm in the Interior where there are no Best Buys (we've got nice lakes and wineries, so it's more than a fair trade). Perhaps some of our more urban Canadian members can comment?

jeffdm · June 1, 2006 5:55PM

Best Buy had some minis last year. They had a couple showings and exits in the last decade, one pre-second coming and one around 2000.

aeronprometheus · June 1, 2006 7:08PM

Judging by the second picture from the link, that's the exact same type of table used in Apple Stores. Except it's painted black for some odd reason.

It's also using the exact same clear acrylic sign holders with signs that look like the ones Apple supplies its stores.

Hopefully that means that Best Buys are going to get Apple sanctioned employees that actually know what they're talking about like CompUSA (Whos Apple Shops also share visual similarities to Apple Stores now).

On OS 10.4.7, I'm glad they've been working steadily on it this whole time with no real problems to report. When it releases it should be the most solid tiger release yet.

imjustg · June 1, 2006 8:10PM

I actually used to work at Best Buy here in North Carolina. They were actually pretty irritated with me for referring so many customers to purchase macs. However, i only did so because best buy has always carried macs. I actually purchased a mac here at this store when it first opened back in 1995 (a nice little perfoma 6220cd for a whopping $3200 loaded with video capture and one of the original apple remotes which i still like better than the frontrow remote) They did stock apples in the store then and eventually stopped prior to the induction of the first iMacs, but continued stocking them online. Last year they stocked mac minis and actually had several on display but provided little to no training to the employees so the desktops were always a mess from people just messing with them and having no restrictions or simple finder setup or firewalls. They do not still have any on display or in stock but do still do the build to order program. On a side note, the winston-salem store was scheduled to have a mac department setup (similar to what you find at CompUSA) back in january 2004, but that has yet to happen (partially due to the store manager and district manager's distaste for the tiny apple machines that always showed up their big alienware and sony machines)

scottkitts · June 1, 2006 8:11PM

Quote:

Originally posted by AppleInsider

GoLive and Freehand won't be torched

An easy statement for Adobe to make without looking like they're lying when they get dumped in the future (You can't "torch" something in the future, if it has already been "torched" in the past).

FreeHand was effectively euthanized on Macromedia's watch and was never updated to fully support Tiger (aka OSX 10.4). There are several minor bugs that would have been easy for them to fix, but never were. Pity, as I have never liked Illustrator (always has been a personal choice for all that use such programs) and have used every version of FreeHand since v2.

Sigh

rebel_without_a_pc · June 1, 2006 9:35PM

Here in the state of Pennsylvania I noticed a 12-inch PowerBook at BestBuy amid all of the PC laptops. There were no other Mac laptops nearby. The Powerbook was in a good spot, not buried or anything, and it was connected to a second display and a non-matching PC-style mouse.

I immidiately noticed OS X staring at me but I doubt most others would. But then again, they might notice the different looking OS or the really small Pro notebook.

I also noticed a white Kensington keyboard labeled "Mac" undereneath elsewhere in the store-- but it was connected to a PC! I kinda wish they could make a little "Mac oasis" in BestBuy and put all of the Mac stuff together on a nice trasparant display... no...

no, I want them to open a little Apple store right inside the BestBuy. That will be the only way to get it right. With its own little Apple genius. Yeah. Otherwise Steve will never be happy with this and consumer confusion will ensue.

recompile · June 2, 2006 12:30AM

I have to say, that I have visited best Buy on many occasions. And each time, I act as an Apple secret shopper. I do this to see if Best Buy's attitude will ever change. Each time I go in there, I either get them using Mac's as a "Sell against tool" or I have to wait 20 minutes for the only "Mac guy" to come back from lunch or his daily nap. Other times, they will simply respond with, "The mac guy is not here today, but maybe I can help". Which translates into "I haven't a clue what a mac even is, how can I continue to wast your time."

I do understand that Apple wants to make a good appearance in the nation's #1 electronic retailer, but they are hurting sales, rather than helping them. Best Buy makes me feel that because I like or want an Apple product (Other than an ipod) that "I must be one of those people who just hasn't ever got it yet."

Go Apple Retail Stores!

Face it, there will have to be many years of de-programming for people to stop demanding that Apple make 200.00 boxes and ditch OSX in lieu of windows.

Over the years in my companies, I only use Macs. And most all new employees I have ever had, complain that we are not like everyone else. But in two weeks from hire, they never use their home PC's again, and ALL of them have said that they never would go back.

jamezog · June 2, 2006 8:47AM

Quote:

Originally posted by chip

I wonder if staff are similarly trained up here. I'm in the Interior where there are no Best Buys (we've got nice lakes and wineries, so it's more than a fair trade). Perhaps some of our more urban Canadian members can comment?

I'm in the Toronto area - haven't been to Best Buy in a while, but I've seen ads for the iMac and Mac Mini at Best Buy (and also Future Shop - which I hear is owned by the same folks) from time to time over the past year.

Can't wait to buy a MacBook when Leopard is released, but I doubt I'd buy one at Best Buy when there are Apple retail outlets around here with salespeople who actually know something about Macs...

shetline · June 2, 2006 9:23AM

Quote:

Originally posted by AppleInsider

Mac OS X 10.4.7 builds

Apple has followed up on its pre-Memorial Day seeding of Mac OS X 10.4.7 builds with yet another pair. Mac OS X 10.4.7 build 8J119 (PowerPC) and Mac OS X 10.4.7 build 8J2119 (Intel) appear to be the two latest external releases of the Tiger operating system update.

I want the trackpad right click shortcut for my 15" MBP, just like the 17" MBP and the plain ol' MB already have! Come on, 10.4.7!

blackbird_1.0 · June 2, 2006 9:47AM

Quote:

Originally posted by ReCompile

Each time I go in there, I either get them using Mac's as a "Sell against tool" or I have to wait 20 minutes for the only "Mac guy" to come back from lunch or his daily nap. Other times, they will simply respond with, "The mac guy is not here today, but maybe I can help". Which translates into "I haven't a clue what a mac even is, how can I continue to wast your time."

That's happened to me, before.

jeffdm · June 4, 2006 11:51AM

Will 10.4.7 fix the SMB networking? My network was working fine before, but now I can't connect to my Windows computers to make a new share, but they can connect to my Mac. I can occasionally reconnect previously linked shares by using an old alias, but I can't browse like I used to. It's getting infuriating as it did work, and I think 10.4.6 was the only major change since the last time my network worked.

shetline · June 4, 2006 3:52PM

Quote:

Originally posted by JeffDM

Will 10.4.7 fix the SMB networking? My network was working fine before, but now I can't connect to my Windows computers to make a new share, but they can connect to my Mac. I can occasionally reconnect previously linked shares by using an old alias, but I can't browse like I used to. It's getting infuriating as it did work, and I think 10.4.6 was the only major change since the last time my network worked.

It's amazing how much tinkering it seems to take to get SMB sharing to work. In system update after system update there is quite often mention of changes which address SMB issues.

Correct me if I'm wrong on this: SMB is a reverse engineered solution to access Windows file sharing, correct? I'm under the impression that Microsoft doesn't openly publish the specs for its file sharing system, so anyone who wants to interact with that system either needs to use official Microsoft software or rely on a reverse-engineered solution, which might not always be guaranteed to get it right.

Briefly: Adobe, Best Buy, Mac OS X 10.4.7

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