I just get a bit suspicious when someone joins a web forum and posts a comment ... and then joins the same forum under another name and posts exactly the same comment in the same thread.
Why do you have to even worry about it? Only Trolls go around posting inflammatory comments that have nothing to do with the thread. No one appointed you thread cop.
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How many other forums have you copy/pasted that comment? Is it all a bit stupid or is it all part of a cunning plan?
Have you ever stopped to think for a second that maybe people aren't sure how the posting works when they first join, or that the system makes a mistake with the user name? Quit being so paranoid and get off the conspiracy bus.
A cunning plan? Yeah, there is a cunning plan (LOL). You've watched too many episodes of CSI. I'm sure all would be appreciative if you stayed on point with the topic and not engage other posters about irrelevant material.
Have you ever stopped to think for a second that maybe people aren't sure how the posting works when they first join, or that the system makes a mistake with the user name?
Why didn't you just say that the first time instead of all the defensive troll talk?
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Why do you have to even worry about it? Only Trolls go around posting inflammatory comments that have nothing to do with the thread. No one appointed you thread cop.
You want "on topic"? OK then.
I think... your comment that Apple is wise to reduce their prices as a response to Microsofts's recent ad campaign... stinks! Not sure what kind of marketing you are a professor of.
Look if I am wrong about you... well I am sorry for the poor reception. I have been reading this forum for years and I have never seen as many newbies turn up as I have in the last few weeks. Plenty of 'regular guys' but also a very high number of idiots, trolls, astroturfers, self professed experts and logic bypass geeks. I like a bit of banter and devil's advocacy but the sheer amount of ill thought commenting is beginning to get boring.
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A cunning plan? Yeah, there is a cunning plan (LOL). You've watched too many episodes of CSI.
Things changed as time went on. I was assured by my grandmother on my father's side, that they didn't change their name, but that it was "adjusted" for them. In the confused times before the 20th century, this wasn't as organized as you think it was. They had no papers from their home country, like many others in the same situation. They had other information, but that was not used by the authorities at the time. They were asked their names, and that was what was written down.
I've done a tremendous amount of this sort of research over many years, and have learned a lot about this, and also to be wary of family stories. The name-change story is in many families. Immigration procedures change, but they were in place before the 20th century. In fact, the earlier your ancestors arrived here, the less likely it is that anyone in authority could have done or would have done anything to change anyone's name, and well into the 20th century they had no power whatsoever to do so if only because the immigrant could call themselves whatever they wanted with no legal consequences at all.
Really, you need documents. Family stories are not documents. If you'd like me to point you in the right direction, I'd be happy to do so. A lot of what I learned over the years about my own murky family history surprised me.
I've done a tremendous amount of this sort of research over many years, and have learned a lot about this, and also to be wary of family stories. The name-change story is in many families. Immigration procedures change, but they were in place before the 20th century. In fact, the earlier your ancestors arrived here, the less likely it is that anyone in authority could have done or would have done anything to change anyone's name, and well into the 20th century they had no power whatsoever to do so if only because the immigrant could call themselves whatever they wanted with no legal consequences at all.
Really, you need documents. Family stories are not documents. If you'd like me to point you in the right direction, I'd be happy to do so. A lot of what I learned over the years about my own murky family history surprised me.
Perhaps your history surprised you, and I hope happily, but I know the facts here, and you don't. It's pretty simple.
Concerning >>> capitalization, spacing and punctuation.i will try .Many here don't either. Anyway i was born 1957 Freeport L.I. I haved lived in nyc all my life .I have no formal trainng with p/c's but my former boss went with mac .ifeel the mac os was very weak until 9.2. For me i loved 9.2 and i hope OSX will be one day as solid. I also feel that the MBP 15 IN may be the finest computer ever made .To think that you can freely move around this world with this uni body .
peace
lostplay
9
Ah, the American education system fails again! ...Or perhaps... "To think that you can feely move around this world with this uni body." ~ maybe that's a somewhat existential statement I missed out on.
Ah well, I'm just kidding. Grammar, Shrammar.... I find being a native speaker of English and having generally above average English skills is overrated in today's globalised world. I speak only 2 languages competently (English and Malaysian[Malay]) and can vaguely listen to Mandarin and Cantonese. On a global scale, my language skills are considered average. When compared to certain Asian countries and Europe, for example. Or maybe I'm being too hard on myself.
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Originally Posted by melgross
I just think you're too worried Sol. Saying what country we're from isn't a big deal. I sure don't care, and actually like knowing that someone I'm talking to is from somewhere else. I find other cultures very interesting. My daughter is going to spend the next four years in school in England, and expects to travel all around Europe during that time (except when she comes home for major holidays and part of the summer, I hope). I think she's lucky to have been given this "gift".
Some of you have seen my background, it would make up an entire thread by itself. I'm rethinking my whole upbringing, schooling and working in the current (Australia officially still has the UK Queen as the head of state) and former (USA possibly included?) colonies of the British Empire. Rethinking because I went to London last year and realised nobody really speaks proper English anyway. Bah! All that time in school in Singapore wasted on learning "English" Literature!
Oh Mel, all I can say is your daughter is lucky to have a dad like you. Europe is cool. England, I'm not too sure but it will be good exposure. I love the Netherlands, and I shall make it to Spain someday.
So I got back into building my PC rig which I now use for gaming and folding (Stanford). ATI Radeon 4830 512MB, Vista Business SP1 32bit, 4GB RAM, and AMD Athlon (Phenom cores) X2 7750 2.7ghz overclocked to 3.0ghz. Great bang for buck, and that Radeon 4830 is nothing to sneeze at, wipes the floor with the GT120, GT130 (Nvidia 9800-esque cards). The Radeon 4830 uses the same RV770 core as the 4850 and 4870, with only maybe a quarter of shaders disabled, it still has a 256-bit bus, 55nm and I can overclock it by 20%. All in all, a bit of luck, and a bit of frustration changing out the power supply for a better one... but things are alright.
Now. On the Mac side, I was not really seeing any real value in the current Mac line up besides the Mac Mini. Given the strength of the US dollar almost everyone outside the US is seeing *price rises* for Macs in this current economy! Atrocious.
However. 3-year warranty was running out on my MacBook White Core Duo 2.0ghz Superdrive. A few weeks left. So, managed, fortunately, to sell it for about USD $350 equivalent. Then, a MacBook Alu 2ghz popped up on the refurbished Macs list at Apple. About USD $1100. About 15% off the normal retail. Pulled the trigger, so essentially got a MacBook Alu 2ghz for about USD $750 factoring in the sale of the previous MacBook White. The build quality (besides the screen*) is overall quite solid and I think there's longer term value there, the way the PC industry is going that kind of unibody, etc. build quality will hold its value, resale value as well, probably, through the next few years. Was using a 7200rpm drive in the MacBook White, dropped it into the MacBook Alu, along with the 2GB DDR3 RAM and 2ghz Penryn 1066mhz CPU, plus the 9400M GPU, I think it's a good investment. Bearing in mind there's no way I can do my normal work and "life management" without OS X. Seriously.
Waiting for RAM prices to drop further, or the point in which DDR3 notebook memory actually starts to become *more* expensive because it starts to get rare due to DDR4 coming out, etc. etc. then I'll go the 4GB RAM, or maybe 6GB RAM, but I am nowhere needing the intensity of 4GB RAM right now. I do occasionally use CS4 but not on any major projects right now.
*So far the screen is the main disadvantage and "problem" that people have been reporting since October. However, for myself, the LED backlight is so much brighter than the Macbook White/Black that it really makes glossy/etc. complaints, for me, not so relevant, if I am doing CS4 work or watching movies I would use an external screen anyway.
The MacBook Alu hinge appears good with the right amount of flex, and so far not many cases of issues with that. So, touch wood, I'm pretty happy with my Mac setup right now! And my PC setup. Took a bit of sweating and deep thinking, but as of right now, I'm glad with my strategy with my cautious[?] approach to cash flow and in the face of the [depressed economy and pandemics and what not hanging over everyone's heads].
Ah, the American education system fails again! ...Or perhaps... "To think that you can feely move around this world with this uni body." ~ maybe that's a somewhat existential statement I missed out on.
Ah well, I'm just kidding. Grammar, Shrammar.... I find being a native speaker of English and having generally above average English skills is overrated in today's globalised world. I speak only 2 languages competently (English and Malaysian[Malay]) and can vaguely listen to Mandarin and Cantonese. On a global scale, my language skills are considered average. When compared to certain Asian countries and Europe, for example. Or maybe I'm being too hard on myself.
Some of you have seen my background, it would make up an entire thread by itself. I'm rethinking my whole upbringing, schooling and working in the current (Australia officially still has the UK Queen as the head of state) and former (USA possibly included?) colonies of the British Empire. Rethinking because I went to London last year and realised nobody really speaks proper English anyway. Bah! All that time in school in Singapore wasted on learning "English" Literature!
Oh Mel, all I can say is your daughter is lucky to have a dad like you. Europe is cool. England, I'm not too sure but it will be good exposure. I love the Netherlands, and I shall make it to Spain someday.
It's interesting because I find that English is being taught all around the world as a second language, often as a required one. Obviously I'm happy about that, because It's what I speak, and the truth is that I'm not good at picking up other languages. I learned Hebrew when I was a kid, but let it lapse. My career in French in school was a disaster. I did pretty well in Latin in college, but Latin is easy, though it's been decades since I've used it.
My daughter seems to get what she wants. It's from her own efforts. I can't give myself the credit. How could we stop her from going, even if we wanted to? She already has a trip through France to the French Alps planned, to visit a friend this summer when she goes for orientation for 7 weeks. Never been out of the country before, except to Canada while in camp, and she's already going to be, at 17, traipsing through another country. Sheesh!
How could we stop her from going, even if we wanted to? She already has a trip through France to the French Alps planned, to visit a friend this summer when she goes for orientation for 7 weeks.
Don't watch the movie Taken right before she leaves or while she's away. Good movie though.
This is where Dual Core 64Bit Atom Mac comes in. News from Taiwan is that Atom's Sales are decline while Intel deny. They are both true since Netbooks sales are finally slowing down. And all the Atoms Chips are going to Apple.
May be we will finally see a 11" Macbook Air and Mac Nano.
Everybody in blog world> mainstream media world has been carping on and on about loss of market share cause of net books .On and on they spew this bull shit . They spin in all ways making it seem that the coming down fall of Rome is here .
The truth is many many people can spend or waste 400 or 600 bucks on a limited computer . Hey its tiny and you can surf . It can break fall apart drop lay forgotten on some dusty table. No one cares. It's a cheap useless toy.
And as for the market share. The true apple computer market share is much higher. If you use as a guide only where apple computer truly competes .I mean we should include Iphone and Touch as net books if thats the case .
The truth is all the multi touch tech comes from or started with " next ". And while the phone and touch got it first , It truly is invented for a tablet like machine.
A wifi, internet ,dvd, full touch screen, ipod, gaming, uni-body, camera and phone tablet like computer . It may take a few gen to get there .
You state that some are not true. Which means that some are true so why are stating it as if none are true?
I'm not saying that at all. What I am saying is that, in particular, stories about a family name being created by an immigration official are very unlikely to be true (at least not literally true) because immigration officials had no such authority. Before more recent days when people were required to petition courts for name changes, immigrants could take any name they liked when their feet touched U.S. soil, or some time thereafter. And they did, by the millions. Mostly they took Americanized versions of their old-country names. Or often they invented something completely different. Nobody kept track.
I've been researching family history for about 20 years now, and have learned a thing or two in that time. One of them is that family stories often provide important clues, and they may be figuratively true, but very often they are not literally true. To discover the literal truth, research is required. I realize that many people prefer their family stories, and I would not force the truth on anyone. But if they're ever curious to know more, the information is more available than ever.
As are the similarly delusion types that think Apple is a infallible religion instead of a computer maker and therefore above criticism or suggestion.
Likewise, they are not owned blind obeisance.
Apple doesn't want any of those.
Apple's new core segments
1) Students
2) Geek fanboy types.
3) I will call this the snob crowd.
Ben, sorry for giving you such agita, but you seem to be suffering from the same issues you accuse me of...
I didn't say Apple is infallible - and your suggestion I did indicates your paranoia, not mine.
Neither blind or obeisance. I just respect Apple's business model and agree with its logic. I said I disagree with several of their decisions personally but I would make largely the same ones in their place.
The bluster with which you proclaim to contradict my segments is amusing. We are in agreement with 1) and 3) - i said education (which to me includes the students not just institutional buyers), and your 3) is my "non-geek consumer" with the same rationalization (style-based, snob-factor, ease of use, etc). We disagree about 2) - I don't believe they want these people as a core - this was the core and is still the main audience on AI - it did not serve them well in the past and won't in the future. Geeks are as often as not thrifty, like to BYO, and enjoy the complexity of Win/Linux etc. That is not to say that apple doesn't want evangelists (fanboys/girls), but it doesn't want geeks, it wants style leaders who proclaim that their Mac is the best computer money can buy, be that a student, a business (wo)man or a housewife.
As for media professionals, you comment does nothing to invalidate the segment - it is exactly why Apple makes the Mac Pro, the 30" display and the XServe and their Pro Apps. Just because a few wealthy muppets buy that setup for their den means nothing. It is not large by volume but is by value and profit. To ignore that because of your unsubstantiated opinion on their HW selection viewpoint is a bit silly.
Anyway - we are not so far apart - can't we all just get along?
Ma Dell laptop is dead......Kaput. Tried to get E-support but failed......its a nightmare . When I calculate courier service and hardware needed for replacement...its not worth it at all. Their support sucks.....Wont buy Dell again! Will be on th lookout for a promising Mac.
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Originally Posted by lkrupp
This is NOT good. I repeat, NOT good. Thus begins the slow, downward spiral to mediocrity. Do the previous posters really think Apple can produce cheap PCs like Dell without sacrificing quality, customer service, and margins? If so then you live in a fantasy world. Just imagine what a $500 Macbook would look like. It would look like an Acer of course. I'm sorry but even Jon Ive can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear. The drive for market share also drives down margins as Michael Dell has found out the hard way. You have to keep selling more and more just to break even.
I hope the "we want cheap Macs" crowd doesn't get their wish any time soon. I would rather see Apple stop making Macs altogether before producing drab, black plastic abominations. Leave the trailer park market segment to Dell and the design-impaired nerd crowd.
It's only logical to draw comparisons between what people are buying in huge numbers and what Apple sell. It's got nothing to do with Apple owing anything, it's a comment on what would benefit them based on what is benefitting their competitors.
It is initially logical but what I said was that that comparison is based on false assumptions. That Apple is happy with Acer/Dell margins or can magically create better ones without some clear differentiation. I'm not saying they can't create a mold-breaking low-end product but I don't think it will be a $199-399 netbook.
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It's not as clean cut as that, Porsche use engines from VW and their purchase was of majority controlling shareholdings. I get your point that being a seller of premium products isn't necessarily a bad thing if you make a lot of profit but the computer industry is significantly different from the car industry despite the continual use of these analogies.
It pretty much is clean cut. Porsche and VW have had very close relations for years but in recent history only have one shared product (Cayenne/Toureg - where most of the engines are not shared). The point was that the smaller premium player can achieve the financial dominance to buy a controlling stake in the the vastly larger, less profitable company.
BTW - cars and computers, while clearly not identical share quite a few features that make comparisons meaningful. Mostly built from commodity parts, OEM vs. aftermarket, all manufacturers products run on the common infrastructure (fuels/roads, AC/LANs/Net), strong market segmentation (geo/demo/econ), capital purchases (often on credit), upgrade cycles/feature bumps, 2-5yr purchase cycles, etc. Not perfect but better than any industry most people have any knowledge of.
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There will come a day in the not too distant future when we have a computer that can virtualize the Mac OS transparently and the machine will be so small as to be irrelevant to the aesthetics of the machine. This won't happen with a porsche. Apple need to seriously start thinking about volume and keeping their eco-system alive.
It is all a matter of when that future will occur. I agree in theory but this future has been imagined since JSB in Xerox PARC and it is taking a long time to turn up. In the meantime Apple has been moving along nicely in unit growth/share and at margins that keep it strongly viable and able to invest the R&D in such an uber device. Do you think Dell can afford to develop anything breakthrough right now?
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How much do we know exactly about what Apple's margins are? If Apple made a smaller machine than a Macbook with lower spec parts then they may make lower dollar amount revenue per model but the target audience grows significantly. Apple certainly won't compete price for price with current netbook manufacturers but they can do a lot better than the prices they have on their current lineup.
Make a cheaper plastic laptop if you want but just don't race to the bottom with the others. What are the purchasing criteria for a netbook? Small, CHEAP. Apple's would probably be $499-599 at least and is unlikely to offer anything new in that form factor. The question is, will those buyers pay the Apple premium which at those price points becomes a large proportion of the total price. And before you opine - you have no idea. We only know what we or our buddies might do. You don't think Apple has researched the hell out of these market demographics? If netbook buyers won't pay (and I surmise they won't), then you are back to either a gamechanging device (tablet?) or a marginally cheaper plastic MacBook.
We know Apple's gross and net margins overall and they are stellar for the industry, even if we don't definitively know a MacBook from a MacPro. The iSupply teardowns also give us some big clues for the commodity guts (if not the fancy shells). I don't think that the market is particularly elastic until you compete on price with the bottom feeders which Apple should not do. If you shave $200-300 off the current plastic MacBook, you can't get that all from the components without making it a netbook which then makes it very expensive by comparison. Shaving off $100 won't expand the market much (but might stimulate earlier purchases as the thrifty consumer doesn't have to save up that marginal $100).
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The prices in this thread are far from cheap when you compare them with the rest of the industry and most are what Apple used to sell their machines at. The main point is that Apple's prices have gone up so that entry points for each model of machine are unreasonable.
I can't recall when Apple's only tower had a £1900 entry point. On the last model, it was about 25% less than that.
I agree - UK prices seem out of whack but my point was that making a "premium" xMac is likely to cannibalize existing profitable sales and will still not attract the thrifty/BYO/geek buyers in numbers to offset it. Just my opinion but no-one else knows any better either.
The problem with Apples low end ( the Mini) is that it is designed to be expensive.
The CPU might be "green" but it also costs perhaps 3-4 times as much as say E5200 that would be as fast and really not bad even in heat output.
The 2.5" is sligtly more expensive than the 3.5
A slotloaded DVD burner is 3 times as expensive as a standard tray. So a macmini one inch higher with room for those standard components would cost 200 dollars less to make and still be a true mini.
The Mini is not a budget computer it is a minimalistic design object. It Apple wish they could make a nicely designed budget computer at the price of then killing the market for the current macmini and probably inflict some damage on the lowend imac as well.
I do not suggest any bottom of the barrel celeron and intel integrated graphics
Comments
Interesting choice of words.
I just get a bit suspicious when someone joins a web forum and posts a comment ... and then joins the same forum under another name and posts exactly the same comment in the same thread.
Why do you have to even worry about it? Only Trolls go around posting inflammatory comments that have nothing to do with the thread. No one appointed you thread cop.
How many other forums have you copy/pasted that comment? Is it all a bit stupid or is it all part of a cunning plan?
Have you ever stopped to think for a second that maybe people aren't sure how the posting works when they first join, or that the system makes a mistake with the user name? Quit being so paranoid and get off the conspiracy bus.
A cunning plan? Yeah, there is a cunning plan (LOL). You've watched too many episodes of CSI. I'm sure all would be appreciative if you stayed on point with the topic and not engage other posters about irrelevant material.
Have you ever stopped to think for a second that maybe people aren't sure how the posting works when they first join, or that the system makes a mistake with the user name?
Why didn't you just say that the first time instead of all the defensive troll talk?
Why do you have to even worry about it? Only Trolls go around posting inflammatory comments that have nothing to do with the thread. No one appointed you thread cop.
You want "on topic"? OK then.
I think... your comment that Apple is wise to reduce their prices as a response to Microsofts's recent ad campaign... stinks! Not sure what kind of marketing you are a professor of.
Look if I am wrong about you... well I am sorry for the poor reception. I have been reading this forum for years and I have never seen as many newbies turn up as I have in the last few weeks. Plenty of 'regular guys' but also a very high number of idiots, trolls, astroturfers, self professed experts and logic bypass geeks. I like a bit of banter and devil's advocacy but the sheer amount of ill thought commenting is beginning to get boring.
A cunning plan? Yeah, there is a cunning plan (LOL). You've watched too many episodes of CSI.
Blackadder actually.
Things changed as time went on. I was assured by my grandmother on my father's side, that they didn't change their name, but that it was "adjusted" for them. In the confused times before the 20th century, this wasn't as organized as you think it was. They had no papers from their home country, like many others in the same situation. They had other information, but that was not used by the authorities at the time. They were asked their names, and that was what was written down.
I've done a tremendous amount of this sort of research over many years, and have learned a lot about this, and also to be wary of family stories. The name-change story is in many families. Immigration procedures change, but they were in place before the 20th century. In fact, the earlier your ancestors arrived here, the less likely it is that anyone in authority could have done or would have done anything to change anyone's name, and well into the 20th century they had no power whatsoever to do so if only because the immigrant could call themselves whatever they wanted with no legal consequences at all.
Really, you need documents. Family stories are not documents. If you'd like me to point you in the right direction, I'd be happy to do so. A lot of what I learned over the years about my own murky family history surprised me.
I've done a tremendous amount of this sort of research over many years, and have learned a lot about this, and also to be wary of family stories. The name-change story is in many families. Immigration procedures change, but they were in place before the 20th century. In fact, the earlier your ancestors arrived here, the less likely it is that anyone in authority could have done or would have done anything to change anyone's name, and well into the 20th century they had no power whatsoever to do so if only because the immigrant could call themselves whatever they wanted with no legal consequences at all.
Really, you need documents. Family stories are not documents. If you'd like me to point you in the right direction, I'd be happy to do so. A lot of what I learned over the years about my own murky family history surprised me.
Perhaps your history surprised you, and I hope happily, but I know the facts here, and you don't. It's pretty simple.
Blackadder actually.
Actually... The Black Vegetable...
Concerning >>> capitalization, spacing and punctuation.i will try .Many here don't either. Anyway i was born 1957 Freeport L.I. I haved lived in nyc all my life .I have no formal trainng with p/c's but my former boss went with mac .ifeel the mac os was very weak until 9.2. For me i loved 9.2 and i hope OSX will be one day as solid. I also feel that the MBP 15 IN may be the finest computer ever made .To think that you can freely move around this world with this uni body .
peace
lostplay
9
Ah, the American education system fails again!
Ah well, I'm just kidding. Grammar, Shrammar.... I find being a native speaker of English and having generally above average English skills is overrated in today's globalised world. I speak only 2 languages competently (English and Malaysian[Malay]) and can vaguely listen to Mandarin and Cantonese. On a global scale, my language skills are considered average. When compared to certain Asian countries and Europe, for example. Or maybe I'm being too hard on myself.
I just think you're too worried Sol. Saying what country we're from isn't a big deal. I sure don't care, and actually like knowing that someone I'm talking to is from somewhere else. I find other cultures very interesting. My daughter is going to spend the next four years in school in England, and expects to travel all around Europe during that time (except when she comes home for major holidays and part of the summer, I hope). I think she's lucky to have been given this "gift".
Some of you have seen my background, it would make up an entire thread by itself. I'm rethinking my whole upbringing, schooling and working in the current (Australia officially still has the UK Queen as the head of state) and former (USA possibly included?) colonies of the British Empire. Rethinking because I went to London last year and realised nobody really speaks proper English anyway. Bah! All that time in school in Singapore wasted on learning "English" Literature!
Oh Mel, all I can say is your daughter is lucky to have a dad like you. Europe is cool. England, I'm not too sure but it will be good exposure. I love the Netherlands, and I shall make it to Spain someday.
So I got back into building my PC rig which I now use for gaming and folding (Stanford). ATI Radeon 4830 512MB, Vista Business SP1 32bit, 4GB RAM, and AMD Athlon (Phenom cores) X2 7750 2.7ghz overclocked to 3.0ghz. Great bang for buck, and that Radeon 4830 is nothing to sneeze at, wipes the floor with the GT120, GT130 (Nvidia 9800-esque cards). The Radeon 4830 uses the same RV770 core as the 4850 and 4870, with only maybe a quarter of shaders disabled, it still has a 256-bit bus, 55nm and I can overclock it by 20%. All in all, a bit of luck, and a bit of frustration changing out the power supply for a better one... but things are alright.
Now. On the Mac side, I was not really seeing any real value in the current Mac line up besides the Mac Mini. Given the strength of the US dollar almost everyone outside the US is seeing *price rises* for Macs in this current economy! Atrocious.
However. 3-year warranty was running out on my MacBook White Core Duo 2.0ghz Superdrive. A few weeks left. So, managed, fortunately, to sell it for about USD $350 equivalent. Then, a MacBook Alu 2ghz popped up on the refurbished Macs list at Apple. About USD $1100. About 15% off the normal retail. Pulled the trigger, so essentially got a MacBook Alu 2ghz for about USD $750 factoring in the sale of the previous MacBook White. The build quality (besides the screen*) is overall quite solid and I think there's longer term value there, the way the PC industry is going that kind of unibody, etc. build quality will hold its value, resale value as well, probably, through the next few years. Was using a 7200rpm drive in the MacBook White, dropped it into the MacBook Alu, along with the 2GB DDR3 RAM and 2ghz Penryn 1066mhz CPU, plus the 9400M GPU, I think it's a good investment. Bearing in mind there's no way I can do my normal work and "life management" without OS X. Seriously.
Waiting for RAM prices to drop further, or the point in which DDR3 notebook memory actually starts to become *more* expensive because it starts to get rare due to DDR4 coming out, etc. etc. then I'll go the 4GB RAM, or maybe 6GB RAM, but I am nowhere needing the intensity of 4GB RAM right now. I do occasionally use CS4 but not on any major projects right now.
*So far the screen is the main disadvantage and "problem" that people have been reporting since October. However, for myself, the LED backlight is so much brighter than the Macbook White/Black that it really makes glossy/etc. complaints, for me, not so relevant, if I am doing CS4 work or watching movies I would use an external screen anyway.
The MacBook Alu hinge appears good with the right amount of flex, and so far not many cases of issues with that. So, touch wood, I'm pretty happy with my Mac setup right now! And my PC setup. Took a bit of sweating and deep thinking, but as of right now, I'm glad with my strategy with my cautious[?] approach to cash flow and in the face of the [depressed economy and pandemics and what not hanging over everyone's heads].
Ah, the American education system fails again!
Ah well, I'm just kidding. Grammar, Shrammar.... I find being a native speaker of English and having generally above average English skills is overrated in today's globalised world. I speak only 2 languages competently (English and Malaysian[Malay]) and can vaguely listen to Mandarin and Cantonese. On a global scale, my language skills are considered average. When compared to certain Asian countries and Europe, for example. Or maybe I'm being too hard on myself.
Some of you have seen my background, it would make up an entire thread by itself. I'm rethinking my whole upbringing, schooling and working in the current (Australia officially still has the UK Queen as the head of state) and former (USA possibly included?) colonies of the British Empire. Rethinking because I went to London last year and realised nobody really speaks proper English anyway. Bah! All that time in school in Singapore wasted on learning "English" Literature!
Oh Mel, all I can say is your daughter is lucky to have a dad like you. Europe is cool. England, I'm not too sure but it will be good exposure. I love the Netherlands, and I shall make it to Spain someday.
It's interesting because I find that English is being taught all around the world as a second language, often as a required one. Obviously I'm happy about that, because It's what I speak, and the truth is that I'm not good at picking up other languages. I learned Hebrew when I was a kid, but let it lapse. My career in French in school was a disaster. I did pretty well in Latin in college, but Latin is easy, though it's been decades since I've used it.
My daughter seems to get what she wants. It's from her own efforts. I can't give myself the credit. How could we stop her from going, even if we wanted to? She already has a trip through France to the French Alps planned, to visit a friend this summer when she goes for orientation for 7 weeks. Never been out of the country before, except to Canada while in camp, and she's already going to be, at 17, traipsing through another country. Sheesh!
How could we stop her from going, even if we wanted to? She already has a trip through France to the French Alps planned, to visit a friend this summer when she goes for orientation for 7 weeks.
Don't watch the movie Taken right before she leaves or while she's away. Good movie though.
Don't watch the movie Taken right before she leaves or while she's away. Good movie though.
Yeah!
I try not to worry too much about things beyond my control. I've got confidence in her.
Perhaps your history surprised you, and I hope happily, but I know the facts here, and you don't. It's pretty simple.
Happily or not. Some family stories are not true.
Happily or not. Some family stories are not true.
This really worth bothering with anymore. I'm dropping it.
Happily or not. Some family stories are not true.
You state that some are not true. Which means that some are true so why are stating it as if none are true?
May be we will finally see a 11" Macbook Air and Mac Nano.
Everybody in blog world> mainstream media world has been carping on and on about loss of market share cause of net books .On and on they spew this bull shit . They spin in all ways making it seem that the coming down fall of Rome is here .
The truth is many many people can spend or waste 400 or 600 bucks on a limited computer . Hey its tiny and you can surf . It can break fall apart drop lay forgotten on some dusty table. No one cares. It's a cheap useless toy.
And as for the market share. The true apple computer market share is much higher. If you use as a guide only where apple computer truly competes .I mean we should include Iphone and Touch as net books if thats the case .
The truth is all the multi touch tech comes from or started with " next ". And while the phone and touch got it first , It truly is invented for a tablet like machine.
A wifi, internet ,dvd, full touch screen, ipod, gaming, uni-body, camera and phone tablet like computer . It may take a few gen to get there .
I predict this the road we will travel on .
peace
Bruce
You state that some are not true. Which means that some are true so why are stating it as if none are true?
I'm not saying that at all. What I am saying is that, in particular, stories about a family name being created by an immigration official are very unlikely to be true (at least not literally true) because immigration officials had no such authority. Before more recent days when people were required to petition courts for name changes, immigrants could take any name they liked when their feet touched U.S. soil, or some time thereafter. And they did, by the millions. Mostly they took Americanized versions of their old-country names. Or often they invented something completely different. Nobody kept track.
I've been researching family history for about 20 years now, and have learned a thing or two in that time. One of them is that family stories often provide important clues, and they may be figuratively true, but very often they are not literally true. To discover the literal truth, research is required. I realize that many people prefer their family stories, and I would not force the truth on anyone. But if they're ever curious to know more, the information is more available than ever.
Some articles explaining the name change myth:
http://www.genealogy.com/88_donna.html
http://genealogy.about.com/od/ellis_...ame_change.htm
As are the similarly delusion types that think Apple is a infallible religion instead of a computer maker and therefore above criticism or suggestion.
Likewise, they are not owned blind obeisance.
Apple doesn't want any of those.
Apple's new core segments
1) Students
2) Geek fanboy types.
3) I will call this the snob crowd.
Ben, sorry for giving you such agita, but you seem to be suffering from the same issues you accuse me of...
I didn't say Apple is infallible - and your suggestion I did indicates your paranoia, not mine.
Neither blind or obeisance. I just respect Apple's business model and agree with its logic. I said I disagree with several of their decisions personally but I would make largely the same ones in their place.
The bluster with which you proclaim to contradict my segments is amusing. We are in agreement with 1) and 3) - i said education (which to me includes the students not just institutional buyers), and your 3) is my "non-geek consumer" with the same rationalization (style-based, snob-factor, ease of use, etc). We disagree about 2) - I don't believe they want these people as a core - this was the core and is still the main audience on AI - it did not serve them well in the past and won't in the future. Geeks are as often as not thrifty, like to BYO, and enjoy the complexity of Win/Linux etc. That is not to say that apple doesn't want evangelists (fanboys/girls), but it doesn't want geeks, it wants style leaders who proclaim that their Mac is the best computer money can buy, be that a student, a business (wo)man or a housewife.
As for media professionals, you comment does nothing to invalidate the segment - it is exactly why Apple makes the Mac Pro, the 30" display and the XServe and their Pro Apps. Just because a few wealthy muppets buy that setup for their den means nothing. It is not large by volume but is by value and profit. To ignore that because of your unsubstantiated opinion on their HW selection viewpoint is a bit silly.
Anyway - we are not so far apart - can't we all just get along?
Ma Dell laptop is dead......Kaput. Tried to get E-support but failed......its a nightmare
This is NOT good. I repeat, NOT good. Thus begins the slow, downward spiral to mediocrity. Do the previous posters really think Apple can produce cheap PCs like Dell without sacrificing quality, customer service, and margins? If so then you live in a fantasy world. Just imagine what a $500 Macbook would look like. It would look like an Acer of course. I'm sorry but even Jon Ive can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear. The drive for market share also drives down margins as Michael Dell has found out the hard way. You have to keep selling more and more just to break even.
I hope the "we want cheap Macs" crowd doesn't get their wish any time soon. I would rather see Apple stop making Macs altogether before producing drab, black plastic abominations. Leave the trailer park market segment to Dell and the design-impaired nerd crowd
It's only logical to draw comparisons between what people are buying in huge numbers and what Apple sell. It's got nothing to do with Apple owing anything, it's a comment on what would benefit them based on what is benefitting their competitors.
It is initially logical but what I said was that that comparison is based on false assumptions. That Apple is happy with Acer/Dell margins or can magically create better ones without some clear differentiation. I'm not saying they can't create a mold-breaking low-end product but I don't think it will be a $199-399 netbook.
It's not as clean cut as that, Porsche use engines from VW and their purchase was of majority controlling shareholdings. I get your point that being a seller of premium products isn't necessarily a bad thing if you make a lot of profit but the computer industry is significantly different from the car industry despite the continual use of these analogies.
It pretty much is clean cut. Porsche and VW have had very close relations for years but in recent history only have one shared product (Cayenne/Toureg - where most of the engines are not shared). The point was that the smaller premium player can achieve the financial dominance to buy a controlling stake in the the vastly larger, less profitable company.
BTW - cars and computers, while clearly not identical share quite a few features that make comparisons meaningful. Mostly built from commodity parts, OEM vs. aftermarket, all manufacturers products run on the common infrastructure (fuels/roads, AC/LANs/Net), strong market segmentation (geo/demo/econ), capital purchases (often on credit), upgrade cycles/feature bumps, 2-5yr purchase cycles, etc. Not perfect but better than any industry most people have any knowledge of.
There will come a day in the not too distant future when we have a computer that can virtualize the Mac OS transparently and the machine will be so small as to be irrelevant to the aesthetics of the machine. This won't happen with a porsche. Apple need to seriously start thinking about volume and keeping their eco-system alive.
It is all a matter of when that future will occur. I agree in theory but this future has been imagined since JSB in Xerox PARC and it is taking a long time to turn up. In the meantime Apple has been moving along nicely in unit growth/share and at margins that keep it strongly viable and able to invest the R&D in such an uber device. Do you think Dell can afford to develop anything breakthrough right now?
How much do we know exactly about what Apple's margins are? If Apple made a smaller machine than a Macbook with lower spec parts then they may make lower dollar amount revenue per model but the target audience grows significantly. Apple certainly won't compete price for price with current netbook manufacturers but they can do a lot better than the prices they have on their current lineup.
Make a cheaper plastic laptop if you want but just don't race to the bottom with the others. What are the purchasing criteria for a netbook? Small, CHEAP. Apple's would probably be $499-599 at least and is unlikely to offer anything new in that form factor. The question is, will those buyers pay the Apple premium which at those price points becomes a large proportion of the total price. And before you opine - you have no idea. We only know what we or our buddies might do. You don't think Apple has researched the hell out of these market demographics? If netbook buyers won't pay (and I surmise they won't), then you are back to either a gamechanging device (tablet?) or a marginally cheaper plastic MacBook.
We know Apple's gross and net margins overall and they are stellar for the industry, even if we don't definitively know a MacBook from a MacPro. The iSupply teardowns also give us some big clues for the commodity guts (if not the fancy shells). I don't think that the market is particularly elastic until you compete on price with the bottom feeders which Apple should not do. If you shave $200-300 off the current plastic MacBook, you can't get that all from the components without making it a netbook which then makes it very expensive by comparison. Shaving off $100 won't expand the market much (but might stimulate earlier purchases as the thrifty consumer doesn't have to save up that marginal $100).
The prices in this thread are far from cheap when you compare them with the rest of the industry and most are what Apple used to sell their machines at. The main point is that Apple's prices have gone up so that entry points for each model of machine are unreasonable.
I can't recall when Apple's only tower had a £1900 entry point. On the last model, it was about 25% less than that.
I agree - UK prices seem out of whack but my point was that making a "premium" xMac is likely to cannibalize existing profitable sales and will still not attract the thrifty/BYO/geek buyers in numbers to offset it. Just my opinion but no-one else knows any better either.
The CPU might be "green" but it also costs perhaps 3-4 times as much as say E5200 that would be as fast and really not bad even in heat output.
The 2.5" is sligtly more expensive than the 3.5
A slotloaded DVD burner is 3 times as expensive as a standard tray. So a macmini one inch higher with room for those standard components would cost 200 dollars less to make and still be a true mini.
The Mini is not a budget computer it is a minimalistic design object. It Apple wish they could make a nicely designed budget computer at the price of then killing the market for the current macmini and probably inflict some damage on the lowend imac as well.
I do not suggest any bottom of the barrel celeron and intel integrated graphics