mossy_11
I have some questions for the community.
What do you think of the balance of content on the front page?
What articles do you want to see in the future? (eg. reviews, lists, how-tos, editorials, news, features)
What is your ideal balance between general Mac stuff, emulation, iPhone/iPad/iPod, and gaming content?
I know we've discussed some of this stuff before, but that was a while ago now -- when the reboot was still fresh in our minds -- so I think it's time to take a step back and look at where we are headed.
Any input about content on the MacScene front page -- new, old, or unwritten -- would be greatly appreciated.
IUG
One idea I had is from a chart that someone showed me. It's that Apple's revenue now only has a minority of the income coming from computer sales. As someone who's using a Hackintosh, I wondered what the future would be. I wondered if the computer sales constantly produce little income for them, would they sell the OS like Microsoft does? Also, what would the future OS be like? One thing I've been saying in general for any OS in the future is that if we go to solid-state hard drives is that we might actually stop seeing RAM in the future, as page files are nothing on a SSD, because there is almost no seek time.
Well, those are the things I've been pondering. I'm not good enough to write though. The above paragraph should be a testament to that.
mossy_11
So, if I'm understanding you correctly, that would be a "what if" article fused with a future of Mac OS article, based on the idea that Apple's main strength going forward in the computer business lies in software, and taking into account technological advancements that are (or will soon be) here, such as the impact of the reduced importance of RAM as SSDs become more common.
That could be interesting.
It could also be broken down into separate ideas (I don't know if this is what you actually meant), where one article discusses whether Apple should licence OS X and the other ponders the future of OS X (regardless of the licensing thing).
I'll have a think about this. Anyone else?
Kuribo
I like those ideas a lot. I get the RSS feed for World of Apple, and I enjoy their news coverage. However, this being a community-based site, I think that discussing the future of OSX, Apple, or their hardware in general could end up with some great discussions, possibly integrating the topic with a recent newsworthy release, such as the iPhone 4's antenna panic. The discussion could, for example, focus around the iPhone's strengths and weaknesses to date, having some good debates (just like the forum thread about Flash. I favorited it).
Maybe polls could be integrated at the end of said article.
mossy_11
I don't have time to work on those features at the moment -- I looked briefly into the ideas before realising that the amount of research required to do it right was beyond anything I'm likely to be able to do until the end of the year. I have every intention of writing on tech trends and future possibilities; I just can't find the time to do it right now.
The future of OS X, Apple, and various related technologies would indeed make great discussion topics. At some stage I might look at getting such discussions going, but I can't make any promises. If someone else wants to kick off some debate, however, that's another matter -- and I'm all for it.
Kuribo
No problem, I know how busy you are. I'd be more than happy to kick off an article contemplating Apple's future. They wouldn't have to be long; just a bit of debate-inspiring material, a paragraph or two at most and an attached photo.
Could I PM you the beginning of an article? If not, then any other moderator/admin please give me input as to what I should do. I'd like to know the most efficient way of going about doing this.
mossy_11
You're welcome to PM me anything you'd like posted on the site, but the PM system is not great for swapping around slabs of text.
I'll send you a PM with my email to make things easier.
Or you could ask Niemann for 'author' privileges on the site, which would remove the need to pass everything by me (not that I mind).
Kuribo
Either works for me. Whichever is more convenient for you, or the site, for that matter. I'll scrape together some recent Mac/Apple news and perhaps link that to emulation, since that is what others have been requesting more of. Not too sure what I can do without just throwing something together. Anyone have a direction?
Pixelcade
My 2c I'm pretty happy with the variety of content on the front page. The variety is good. No complaints here.