Laptop-DJ's conundrum: Mac-or-PC?

Many people, both online and IRL, often ask me whether I'd suggest laptop DJs to use a Mac or a (Windows-) PC and, more importantly, why...

I personally have been using both systems for multiple years; Windows-PCs since the 1990s and Macs since they started making them with Intel-CPUs. I've seen the best and the worst of both worlds. There is a ("best used for") time and a place for both of these systems, and I'm not dissing either one of them - in fact, I freely admit that you can DJ with both systems. However, as for the current state of affairs, my opinion is clear; for DJing, you should go with a Mac. As for the reason "why?", well - let's take a look.

System design objectives

This is something that generally is not considered by people deciding to get a computer, but it is rather essential. Windows is designed to be a workhorse for all sorts of activities from everyday Internet & office-use to gaming etc. whereas Macs are more targeted for professional work (granted, there are exceptions to this, but I'm just trying to keep this simple - even at the expense of oversimplifying things).

Windows is in underdog position here, since their software needs to run on every hardware environment imaginable. In the Mac-world, there is a distinct benefit that all of the hardware-configurations (I'm mainly considering laptops here, but mostly the same goes for desktop-Macs also) are pretty much controlled by the same company that is creating the operating system. This means that software developers only need to test their code in a limited number of hardware configurations - compared to Windows, where changing one component may have unforeseen repercussions. This naturally saves time and gives the developers a lot more time to streamline performance for just that limiter number of hardware instead of having to test and retest and redo all the tests performed previously after every change.

Furthermore, since the Macs are more targeted for professional - rather than "one-size-must-fit-all" - work, the system architecture of the built-in drivers is very different. It shouldn't come as a surprise that just like generic software development, the Mac has a benefit in operating system (and driver) development due to the mentioned differences in the way hardware configurations need to be taken into account.

And finally...

You should consider that at present, Macs are built with Intel-based CPUs and generic "off-the-shelf"-type parts. This means that Your Mac can always be a Windows-PC, whereas Your Windows-PC most likely will not be able to be a Mac (granted, there are many Hackintosh-projects to do just that - to enable running OS X on a non-Apple hardware configuration - but setting one up will usually require quite a lot of fiddling up).

So... like I said earlier, even if you can be a laptop-DJ on either of the systems, the most straight forward, easy and safe way to do it at the moment is with a Mac.

So what *are* "Pioneer-species"?

The dictionaries define "pioneer species" as those that colonize previously uncolonized land, usually leading to ecological succession. Quite often this means some kind of bacteria, moss and algae of some sort.

Now it just so happens that the Japanese electronics manufacturer Pioneer, "DJ's bestest friend ever", is intending to launch "something new" - presumably a new DJ player or a media controller - on september 17th. This in and of itself is by far not "uncolonized land", but it seems apparent that Pioneer is heading to achieve yet another economical succession (if not ecological per se) ... just to keep the definition satisfied.

Thus far they've been pretty quiet about it, but during the last few days there have been multiple sightings of the emerging creatures in the form of a teaser video as well as an advertisement on (at least) MixMag - and propably other sources also.

Because of all these tidbits have been falling in, I decided to stir the mud even more and extrapolate what the newborn might look like - based on what Pioneer has on their range thus far and by taking a close look into what would actually make sense. So - without further ado, here's what I've come up with:



What do you think?

Addendum: What do we know for certain?

Well... not very much, frankly. Here is the best picture I've been able to come up with based on the quite dark teaser advertisement:



Based on this - and note: only on this - we can determine and conjecture the following:

• The thing seems to have a jogwheel - apparently of the same size as on today's CDJ-800, CDJ-1000 and DVJ-1000. Not very farfetched, to be honest.
  
• It has a colour display with a similar user interface to that of the MEP-7000 with the four buttons on top and (at least) two to the left of the display. Well, actually we can only see one of the top buttons, but I'd say it is safe to assume that there are four of them; "Browse", "Mix" (as I believe this is a single deck player, I'm not certain if this label is correct), "Effect" and "Utility".
• It has a front-loading slot for CD (possibly DVD... though I'd bet my money on CD-format) -media, so it definetly is not simply a controller like the SEP-C1, but more like MEP-7000 with "traditional player functionality". The fact that there is a media browser suggests an internal harddrive and/or a USB-connection for attaching external drives.

Addendum2: Let's make it 3D

Ok. As it so happens that so far anything we've seen (after the original posting, there have been two more teaser videos published, and on the last one, we saw a tiny portion of the player on screen for a short while) doesn't appear to be contradicting my theory of the player's appearance, I decided to spend about an hour with Google Sketchup and a little while in Paintshop Pro (I've honestly never learned to use Photoshop, so I stick with PSP) and came up with this 3D representation...

The reason it is so bloody dark is to hide the imperfections in the image. Still - remember folks...

I have no hidden information. This is nothing more than my personal view of what the new player might possibly turn out to look like.