Anybody, and I mean anybody, who decides to use the "n" standard before it's finalized is a complete fool in my book. Stores are charging DOUBLE the price for routers that use the "n" standard and it's not even official yet. This is utter lunacy. This is making a mockery of the term "early adopter". Jesus H. Christ, esquire!
I imagine that at 5 bucks they are still losing money on this transaction and there is bound to be some aspect of the rules that prevents it from being a token fee. Enron cheated by claiming profits on goods never shipped. Apple ships goods never sold (n compatibility) and to stay on the right side of the law they need to charge a fee, so what.
The thing is, as far as I'm concerned, they already sold working hardware. It's not as if a chip off to the side of the g wireless wasn't being used, and the MIMO stuff was probably being used with g signalling. Frankly, I just see this as a driver update.
if Apple doesn't want to look like a dick with this, then charge a symbolic 5cents or something... YOU ALREADY PAID FOR THE HARDWARE, DON'T BEND OVER for this... as if any other manufacturer would charge.
And anyway, this is what Apple gets for trying to always be so freaking secretive about something so STUPID. Wait 6 months to tell anyone they have pre-N hardware that everyone knows about already????? This is APPLE'S FAULT and the end user should NOT have to pay for it? What the fvck did they have to gain by not telling their own customers that the last 3-6 months of computers have a new damn chip in it??
At the very least, I'd make damn sure that Apple "leaks" the enabler as a freeware via MacUpdate/Versiontracker
but be clear about this, you paid for "g" functionality and that's exactly what you got. Apple advertised that and people shouldn't be angry when they find out they have the potential for MORE than was advertised. To have this upgrade delivered to you for $5 is cheap. If you don't feel like paying it, then don't and continue using the computer as it has been since they day you purchased it. No one is forcing you to upgrade just so you can keep up with the Jones's.
"Because of the Act, the company believes that if it sells a product, then later adds a feature to that product, it can be held liable for improper accounting if it recognizes revenue from the product at the time of sale, given that it hasn?t finished delivering the product at that point," he wrote.
but be clear about this, you paid for "g" functionality and that's exactly what you got. Apple advertised that and people shouldn't be angry when they find out they have the potential for MORE than was advertised. To have this upgrade delivered to you for $5 is cheap. If you don't feel like paying it, then don't and continue using the computer as it has been since they day you purchased it. No one is forcing you to upgrade just so you can keep up with the Jones's.
Apple didn't charge for the 5G iPod update that enabled better searching and downloadable games. Does that mean that Apple broke the accounting laws then?
It's a fairly common business practice to sell several different "black box" products with different feature sets, where the underlying hardware is identical and the only real difference is the firmware controlling it.
I see this situation as very much akin. And Apple certainly isn't alone in doing it.
Could someone please find the language that actually says this law requires this fee to be added?
As stated a few times, many updates improve the performance and feature set of the system, and are not charged for.
Remember boot camp? It allowed your computer to suddenly boot into Windows if you wanted to. This was a new feature that wasn't advertised at the time of the sale, but is now available to you. (yeah, many would see that as a downgrade, but it's a new feature)
What about the many Airport updates that come across that 'increase network performance'
Its all the same thing.
Remember, this is all a silly rumor, and until Apple posts the update with a fee in place, that's all it is.
Well i ordered my macbook on saturday, after the 802.11n confirmation, so i ordere it knowing it has n, also i'm in the Uk, so this act is irrevelant. Any guesses on if this will still count?
I'm sure the fee will apply everywhere--Apple's based in the US, so it reports revenue based on US accounting standards. It doesn't matter where the computer's sold.
And if you think of it as your Macbook has 802.11 N inside doesn't it make you think you actually got a better deal?
Bingo. Apple's $5 is at worst a duma55 ram-it-up-your-behind moneygrabbing stupid convoluted accounting bollocks thing.
At best, YOU GOT 802.11N NOW FOR $5.00 in all your machines, without you even knowing it...!! Fanboyism, I think not. How many Acer, HP, and Asus laptops suddenly feature 802.11 N ??
And no, the $5.00 I suspect will NOT tie you in to Airport Extreme 802.11 N. Guess what? You can now make good use of that draft-N hyperspeedmegarangebooster Linksys/Dlink/Netgear 802.11 b/g/n router.
It will be cracked soon after release: everyone will just grab it from the underground, The potential revenue to apple from this is puny, so all Apple is doing with this is getting a shit ton of negative PR on Digg and Slashdot...
It's a fairly common business practice to sell several different "black box" products with different feature sets, where the underlying hardware is identical and the only real difference is the firmware controlling it.
I see this situation as very much akin. And Apple certainly isn't alone in doing it.
This is the basic tenet of a majority of PC hardware. The "binning" process -- a raft of hardware components are produced, and then are slotted in to various clockspeeds, specs, etc. which the manufacturer can very reliably promise.
But take any modern GPU card, RAM, motherboard, and CPU. Now, I guarantee you if they are reasonable-quality brands, you can overclock the GPU, GPU mem, RAM speed and/or latency, boost the motherboard bus speeds, and CPU.
For example, the Core2Duo (Conroe) CPUs can hit 3ghz easy on Intel stock air-cooling. From 2+ ghz.
It's not unprecedented, as all of the MPEG Fraunhofer encoding license fees are taken care of by a QuickTime Pro license, which many (self included) feel should be part of an Mac OS X box purchase.
It's not the money I mind, it's the pure inconvenience. A laptop should just be able to connect to an "n" router if it is possible for it to do so.
There shouldn't be a whole bunch of hoops, consisting of credit card numbers and license key entry screens, to jump through. It adds to the support burden of those of us who have to take care of these things.
Windows XP SP2 added a firewall and "security center" tool. thats a feature...a new one too. Apple is so full of shit that it isnt funny.
N isnt a new feature because the chips are in there...they just have no driver, and Apple has lots of widgets that they give away for free: should those be "features" too?
Comments
I imagine that at 5 bucks they are still losing money on this transaction and there is bound to be some aspect of the rules that prevents it from being a token fee. Enron cheated by claiming profits on goods never shipped. Apple ships goods never sold (n compatibility) and to stay on the right side of the law they need to charge a fee, so what.
The thing is, as far as I'm concerned, they already sold working hardware. It's not as if a chip off to the side of the g wireless wasn't being used, and the MIMO stuff was probably being used with g signalling. Frankly, I just see this as a driver update.
Wow, I always thought UK was State 51!
I for one wouldn't mind seeing that. I would even make room for France as #52.
And anyway, this is what Apple gets for trying to always be so freaking secretive about something so STUPID. Wait 6 months to tell anyone they have pre-N hardware that everyone knows about already????? This is APPLE'S FAULT and the end user should NOT have to pay for it? What the fvck did they have to gain by not telling their own customers that the last 3-6 months of computers have a new damn chip in it??
At the very least, I'd make damn sure that Apple "leaks" the enabler as a freeware via MacUpdate/Versiontracker
"Because of the Act, the company believes that if it sells a product, then later adds a feature to that product, it can be held liable for improper accounting if it recognizes revenue from the product at the time of sale, given that it hasn?t finished delivering the product at that point," he wrote.
Or they could just backdate the feature
but be clear about this, you paid for "g" functionality and that's exactly what you got. Apple advertised that and people shouldn't be angry when they find out they have the potential for MORE than was advertised. To have this upgrade delivered to you for $5 is cheap. If you don't feel like paying it, then don't and continue using the computer as it has been since they day you purchased it. No one is forcing you to upgrade just so you can keep up with the Jones's.
Apple didn't charge for the 5G iPod update that enabled better searching and downloadable games. Does that mean that Apple broke the accounting laws then?
I see this situation as very much akin. And Apple certainly isn't alone in doing it.
As stated a few times, many updates improve the performance and feature set of the system, and are not charged for.
Remember boot camp? It allowed your computer to suddenly boot into Windows if you wanted to. This was a new feature that wasn't advertised at the time of the sale, but is now available to you. (yeah, many would see that as a downgrade, but it's a new feature)
What about the many Airport updates that come across that 'increase network performance'
Its all the same thing.
Remember, this is all a silly rumor, and until Apple posts the update with a fee in place, that's all it is.
Keep your pants on folks.
Well i ordered my macbook on saturday, after the 802.11n confirmation, so i ordere it knowing it has n, also i'm in the Uk, so this act is irrevelant. Any guesses on if this will still count?
I'm sure the fee will apply everywhere--Apple's based in the US, so it reports revenue based on US accounting standards. It doesn't matter where the computer's sold.
And if you think of it as your Macbook has 802.11 N inside doesn't it make you think you actually got a better deal?
Bingo. Apple's $5 is at worst a duma55 ram-it-up-your-behind moneygrabbing stupid convoluted accounting bollocks thing.
At best, YOU GOT 802.11N NOW FOR $5.00 in all your machines, without you even knowing it...!! Fanboyism, I think not. How many Acer, HP, and Asus laptops suddenly feature 802.11 N ??
And no, the $5.00 I suspect will NOT tie you in to Airport Extreme 802.11 N. Guess what? You can now make good use of that draft-N hyperspeedmegarangebooster Linksys/Dlink/Netgear 802.11 b/g/n router.
This is my impression at this stage. 8)
But, it does look like a money grab...
the better thing to do Apple, is to donate that $5 to Project Red.
the better thing to do Apple, is to donate that $5 to Project Red.
That is a horible idea! why should I have to give to a charity of Apples choosing to utilize equipment that I already paid good money for.
It's a fairly common business practice to sell several different "black box" products with different feature sets, where the underlying hardware is identical and the only real difference is the firmware controlling it.
I see this situation as very much akin. And Apple certainly isn't alone in doing it.
This is the basic tenet of a majority of PC hardware. The "binning" process -- a raft of hardware components are produced, and then are slotted in to various clockspeeds, specs, etc. which the manufacturer can very reliably promise.
But take any modern GPU card, RAM, motherboard, and CPU. Now, I guarantee you if they are reasonable-quality brands, you can overclock the GPU, GPU mem, RAM speed and/or latency, boost the motherboard bus speeds, and CPU.
For example, the Core2Duo (Conroe) CPUs can hit 3ghz easy on Intel stock air-cooling. From 2+ ghz.
where will this lead too? APPLE-SOFT
It's not the money I mind, it's the pure inconvenience. A laptop should just be able to connect to an "n" router if it is possible for it to do so.
There shouldn't be a whole bunch of hoops, consisting of credit card numbers and license key entry screens, to jump through. It adds to the support burden of those of us who have to take care of these things.
Poor policy, Apple.
N isnt a new feature because the chips are in there...they just have no driver, and Apple has lots of widgets that they give away for free: should those be "features" too?