What's stopping you from ripping your DVD to the hard drive first?
Maybe the time it takes to do that? I don't have that much of a problem with it, but the power and heat generated to make a DVD into something that works more portably is a bit much.
Not exactly... the MB Air is designed to be Apple's 'better alternative' to an ultraportable, it is not a true ultraportable itself.
If it were intended to be a true ultraportable, it wouldn't have the same footprint as a regular MacBook, which it does.
Another point on portability: Sure, there must be some afterthought doohickey you can buy which will let you plug into an Ethernet port (USB port adapter), but then that becomes one more thing to carry around, doesn't it? Not to mention the carry along external optical drive. Perhaps you don't watch DVDs on long train or plane rides, but I sure do.
At some point, there's too many things to carry along to make up for insufficient built-in functionality, and your 'portable' really isn't, anymore. \
I really like the MB Air, but for its gorgeous design more than anything else. If I were a true day-in, day-out road warrior, I'd probably go with something else.
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It's not "insufficient built in functionality," it's about using alternative means for that functionality. For example, remote software installs and using iTunes to rent a movie for a flight.. Playing a movie from the hard drive greatly increases battery performance.
There are ways to make the MacBook Air work, it's just a different way of doing things and in exchange, having the benefit of an extremely thin device that can fit in a binder and weighs only three pounds..
A two seater Ferrari can never replace the functionality of a full sized SUV. They are simply different vehicles for different purposes.
It's not "insufficient built in functionality," it's about using alternative means for that functionality. For example, remote software installs and using iTunes to rent a movie for a flight...
Yah, but I own a lot of DVDs already.
Am also kind of interested as to when Apple will get around to announcing some Blu-ray drives.
It is for sure that Apple shares will rise, I believe that as soon as 3G iPhone will hit the market it will be a hit with more sales and leapord sales and mac sales are also all time high.
Just like the real estate market- there are bargains to be found and to think Apple was at $200 last month! If you can afford to buy Apple, now is as good a time as any! There are hints at bigger things to come. Apple seems to surprise us when we least expect it. MacBook Pros with gesturing based trackpads and faster processors are on the way. It wouldn't surprise me if Apple teams up with a company like Sony to market an Apple TV- TV. Maybe even a Mac Mini in a TV. That would be nice- the TV IS the computer! Just add wireless internet and keyboard & mouse! Apple is still on a roll and now is the time to buy when the market is down.
the power and heat generated to make a DVD into something that works more portably is a bit much.
It's surprising how slow an h264 encode takes of anything. I've been 'sharing' home movies to Quicktime and have to leave it overnight.
However, if you're ever in a hurry - just add 50% bitrate and compress it straight to regular .mp4. The quality will be the same (or better), and you can delete it after (or compress a better version when you get time).
Hopefully Apple delivers a unified iPhone SDK that allows for easy creation of iPhone and Touch apps. Lately Apple has been fine with developer tools. I don't see them working overtime to thwart the fringe iPhone developers jailbreaking the phones.
The Tech market is taking a beating and you're only as good as your last deal on Wall Street. By the end of the year I think we'll acknowledge that we had a recession yet the hope is that positive momentum is going to carry forward into 2009.
I noted the CFO of Apple's comments on the earnings call wrt the touch device being positioned as the first mainstream wi-fi mobile platform, and would just echo the comments on the SDK. My fear is that they deliver pseudo-application support in the form of enabling web apps versus true client side functionality. Platform success is all about creating a thriving ecosystem, as Microsoft has repeatedly proven. This is one area where Apple's track record is historically weak (poor tools, inconsistent support of touted APIs, co-opting and cannibalization of developer community inspired apps). I will also say that the touch is fairly poor on the wi-fi performance when compared to my MB Pro in the exact same area. Plus, typing is a bit of a struggle relative to my blackberry 7130.
The analog that comes to mind is the dog walking on its hind legs. While it can certainly do it, few would suggest that it is designed with that purpose in mind -- at least that's my experience so far from a pure utility and workflow perspective with the touch in these couple of areas.
Do you mean executing a local "web app" like a Dashboard Widget?
Yep. so long as you can run the application without connectivity being required and/or being limited to the capabilities of a browser I think that you have the potential for a breakout platform since you can then run apps that can function where connectivity is intermittent.
I recently posted a response to the drop in Apple shares (after AAPL reported earnings) on another Apple Blog site and there was very little discussion - hopefully the folks on this site will help to generate more of a response - one that Steve Jobs will hopefully read.
Given the state of the finanical markets last week, Steve Jobs should have know better, that any "bad" news in earnings forecast was going to get the snot beaten out of Apple shares.
As Apple investors, we all know that Mr. Jobs is famous for what Wall Street refers to as "under promise and over deliver" - just look at how company earnings have beaten expectations quarter after quarter. Normally, down playing estimates has had very little effect in share price, but given the panic in markets last week - any average investor could tell you that if you say one bad thing, the big brokers and hedge funds were going to dump the stock.
Now, time will only tell if Steve was really forecasting correctly - or if it was just another case of earnings "sandbagging". Unfortunately, in the short term us "average joes" are getting beaten senseless. If I had any additional $$$ I would be a buying as many shares as I could right now. Which, brings me to my request - If I were Steve Jobs I would go one step further (than writing a simple memo to employees) and show that I really believed in Apple's future and take a portion of the 15+ BILLION the company is sitting on and do a stock repurchase. This show of faith would help show the rest of the investing world that Apple is still "in play"!
As they say on the streets, "put your money where your mouth is". That's my two cents worth!
"Our stock is being buffeted around by factors a lot larger than ourselves"
It is nice to hear that Steve Jobs is confirming what I had expected all along. The question is then what are the "factors" "a lot larger than AAPL" Hell, Apple was almost a 180 Billion dollar company before the fall, there isn't many "factors" a lot larger than 180 Billion dollar entities you know.
First of all, answer the following question the best you can:
1. Why did the SEC enable the down tick shorting rule?
2. Why did Ben Bernanke try to hold onto the 5.25% fed funds rate for as long as he could, even though economic indicators all gave warnings as early as 6-8 months ago?
3. Do you think that a 161 Billion economic stimulus plan could help a 40 trillion dollar US economy? And who is paying for it if they are also cutting taxes? Who is paying the prolonged war in Iraq?
4. Is subprime mortage the only issue with bank's liquidity problem?
5. Can SocGen's lone trader lose 7.4 Billion dollars all by himself?
6. Why did Intel give low margin forcast even though their 45nm process transition was going to significantly help margins?
7. Why did Apple, who totally beat estimates, guided lower like INTC?
Here is my personal interpretation for all the events. Don't take it seriously, just think it through yourself.
The housing problem on subprime mortgage started in late 2005(September 2005), when the housing sector beginned to notice the slow down.(When home builders peeked. Take a look at CTX, TOL, etc) Banks tried to solve the subprime mortgage problems by themselves by injecting liquidity into their balance sheet. How do you do that? Well, you short stocks. When you short stocks, you take the cash out. Given most banks' 5:1 or even as high as 7 to 1 cash to margin requirements, when you short one share of stock, you get 5-7 times as much margin back. This temporarily masked their subprime mortgage liquidity issues.
Then you ask, what kind of stocks are they shorting. Back in 2005, you could only short stocks on the uptick, so you can't push the stock prices down by shorting on the bid. It made it a lot harder to push the stock down. When you short stocks, you short growth. Why? Because if the subprime isn't doing well, then you obviously short growth. So the banks shorted a lot of technology companies such as GOOG, INTC, AAPL, NVDA. Well, they made a huge mistake and got squeezed.
If you remember that day where they played the "oh Steve Jobs was being investigated for option backdating".(Do you remember that day back in December 2006? It did a 5 dollar intraday reversal and it was just before Macworld 2007 so people were speculating about the iPhone) That was the first sign that banks got margin calls that they had to play that Steve jobs backdating options crap. Who was short at the time you ask. Well, who downgraded Apple just before that? Bear Stearns downgraded AAPL in the mid 70s. Why? Because Bear Stearns got margin calls.
Fast forward another year. Apple went from $90 to $200. Intel went from $20 to $28. Google went from $500 to $700. All three peaked out in November of 2007. Banks basically got sqeezed to the point where they cannot breathe anymore. At the same time, subprime went to national TV, and problems worsened. So as a bank, you have written loans to people who cannot afford to pay, and shorted stocks that doubled on you. That's what caused the bank's "liquidity problem". Subprime was only half the cause.
What would you do? You go to the exchange and revoke the down tick rule first. That's right. Then you want to cause a market down turn. Of course, subprime is what cause the short squeeze on the banks in the first place, so they are going to over play the issue by bringing it to the public to force Ben to cut rates so they can borrow more at lower rates. Then you ask, how do you cause a recession? It's actually pretty interesting. Ben Bernanke got stuck because economic data suggest that it's slowing, and US is not in a recession. Even Intel's report said that revenue was 1% below estimates, hardly recessionary. That was the reason why Ben hesitated to lower rates. Of course, the banks kept on playing the sub prime game, shorting Ambak, and MBIA to its death to force Fed's hand. That SocGen fiasco, you think it is an accident? On the Monday of MLK day, when the market was closed, they caused a 7% down turn in European markets and Asian markets to force Ben to cut 75 Basis Points the next day. It was all planned out perfectly.
On the subject of INTC. Bank of America and JPM downgrades INTC twice in a week. That was ferocious. Why do you think they want to attack INTC? Because INTC is both a dow and NASDAQ component.(And if INTC becomes weak, all tech becomes weak) Ok, Intel's report was 2 cents short. But did you notice that extra unexpected charge on the Nemonix spin off? That would have totally covered the shortage. Intel argurably is firing on all fronts. If they tried any harder, AMD might not live too long.(They had to delay the quad core 45nm desktop parts so that AMD can breathe a little) Yet Bank of America and JPM both dowgraded Intc in a row.
Ok, the next question then is this: why did INTC guide lower when 45nm manufacturing was going to help the margins? First of all, did you notice that they had a new CFO? Stacy Smith. I guess his mom's got it going on. I guess the answer here is California. Yes California is the answer to the lower'd guidance. While the whole country is hardly in recession, California is already in recession due to housing losing 30-40% value in the bay area. People just cannot afford 1 Million dollar houses over there on sub prime rates. So employee morality is low. As a Californian business, you want the FED to cut rates so that the sub prime issue in California is solved. So INTC guides lower to force the rate cut. If you look at all the earnings. YHOO beats, lowers estimates. AAPL beats, lowers estimates. SPWR's earnings sucked, and guide lower. What do those earnings beating companies have in common? California. AMZN, met but guided down on margins. Yep. All Californian companies seems to have a common lower guidance. That's right, because they want a "perceived recession" to force Bernanke's hands to cut rate to help the state's housing problem. It also helps the banks to unwind their losing shorts positions to help the banks' liquidity issues.
This is clear because MSFT guided higher. How does a computer software company expect to guide higher then the CPU manufacturers are guiding lower? Yep, Microsoft isn't a Californian company. In fact, it doesn't want the rate cut to help another Californian company: Google.
Ok, I typed too much here. I guess you should have a club about what's really happening behind the scenes. That's just my speculation on my part. (I have even heard about speculation that the US government is involved in this, extracting liquidity to pay for the Iraqi war. That 161 Billion economic stimulus package is just a thank you note) BTW, don't short GOOG into the earnings because of two reasons: 1. Google doesn't give guidance so analysts can hardly compare their estimates to. 2. Google still got 2 big holders(Sergi and Brin) who wants their networth in tact just like Microsoft's Bill Gates.
The US economy is $12 trillion not $40 trillion. The stimulus has to be at least 1% of GDP to do anything (according to president's economic advisors), which means $120bn.
Comments
What's stopping you from ripping your DVD to the hard drive first?
Maybe the time it takes to do that? I don't have that much of a problem with it, but the power and heat generated to make a DVD into something that works more portably is a bit much.
I'm looking forward to getting a Macbook. I'd love for the "black tax" to go away.
If you configure a white MacBook the same as a black MacBook there is no price difference.
Not exactly... the MB Air is designed to be Apple's 'better alternative' to an ultraportable, it is not a true ultraportable itself.
If it were intended to be a true ultraportable, it wouldn't have the same footprint as a regular MacBook, which it does.
Another point on portability: Sure, there must be some afterthought doohickey you can buy which will let you plug into an Ethernet port (USB port adapter), but then that becomes one more thing to carry around, doesn't it? Not to mention the carry along external optical drive. Perhaps you don't watch DVDs on long train or plane rides, but I sure do.
At some point, there's too many things to carry along to make up for insufficient built-in functionality, and your 'portable' really isn't, anymore.
I really like the MB Air, but for its gorgeous design more than anything else. If I were a true day-in, day-out road warrior, I'd probably go with something else.
.
It's not "insufficient built in functionality," it's about using alternative means for that functionality. For example, remote software installs and using iTunes to rent a movie for a flight.. Playing a movie from the hard drive greatly increases battery performance.
There are ways to make the MacBook Air work, it's just a different way of doing things and in exchange, having the benefit of an extremely thin device that can fit in a binder and weighs only three pounds..
A two seater Ferrari can never replace the functionality of a full sized SUV. They are simply different vehicles for different purposes.
If you configure a white MacBook the same as a black MacBook there is no price difference.
How do you figue that?
It's not "insufficient built in functionality," it's about using alternative means for that functionality. For example, remote software installs and using iTunes to rent a movie for a flight...
Yah, but I own a lot of DVDs already.
Am also kind of interested as to when Apple will get around to announcing some Blu-ray drives.
.
Sachin
the power and heat generated to make a DVD into something that works more portably is a bit much.
It's surprising how slow an h264 encode takes of anything. I've been 'sharing' home movies to Quicktime and have to leave it overnight.
However, if you're ever in a hurry - just add 50% bitrate and compress it straight to regular .mp4. The quality will be the same (or better), and you can delete it after (or compress a better version when you get time).
In a private communication last week,
I can understand "last week" but define for me "private" ??
If you configure a white MacBook the same as a black MacBook there is no price difference.
I tried and get $125 difference.
I tried and get $125 difference.
Me too. The only difference between the black MB and the $1299 middle MB appears to be a 40GB larger HD and some black paint.
Is that really worth 200 bucks more? Ugh.
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Me too. The only difference between the black MB and the $1299 middle MB appears to be a 40GB larger HD and some black paint.
Is that really worth 200 bucks more? Ugh.
It's not just the color, the texture is different too. I don't know if that makes much difference, but I do like that texture.
Hopefully Apple delivers a unified iPhone SDK that allows for easy creation of iPhone and Touch apps. Lately Apple has been fine with developer tools. I don't see them working overtime to thwart the fringe iPhone developers jailbreaking the phones.
The Tech market is taking a beating and you're only as good as your last deal on Wall Street. By the end of the year I think we'll acknowledge that we had a recession yet the hope is that positive momentum is going to carry forward into 2009.
I noted the CFO of Apple's comments on the earnings call wrt the touch device being positioned as the first mainstream wi-fi mobile platform, and would just echo the comments on the SDK. My fear is that they deliver pseudo-application support in the form of enabling web apps versus true client side functionality. Platform success is all about creating a thriving ecosystem, as Microsoft has repeatedly proven. This is one area where Apple's track record is historically weak (poor tools, inconsistent support of touted APIs, co-opting and cannibalization of developer community inspired apps). I will also say that the touch is fairly poor on the wi-fi performance when compared to my MB Pro in the exact same area. Plus, typing is a bit of a struggle relative to my blackberry 7130.
The analog that comes to mind is the dog walking on its hind legs. While it can certainly do it, few would suggest that it is designed with that purpose in mind -- at least that's my experience so far from a pure utility and workflow perspective with the touch in these couple of areas.
In any event, I have blogged on the topic of what I think it takes for apple to be successful with its SKD. Check out the post if interested: http://thenetworkgarden.com/weblog/2...touch-the.html
Cheers,
Mark
It's not just the color, the texture is different too. I don't know if that makes much difference, but I do like that texture.
I don't pay that kind of additional money for texture.
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My fear is that they deliver pseudo-application support in the form of enabling web apps versus true client side functionality.
Do you mean executing a local "web app" like a Dashboard Widget?
Do you mean executing a local "web app" like a Dashboard Widget?
Yep. so long as you can run the application without connectivity being required and/or being limited to the capabilities of a browser I think that you have the potential for a breakout platform since you can then run apps that can function where connectivity is intermittent.
Given the state of the finanical markets last week, Steve Jobs should have know better, that any "bad" news in earnings forecast was going to get the snot beaten out of Apple shares.
As Apple investors, we all know that Mr. Jobs is famous for what Wall Street refers to as "under promise and over deliver" - just look at how company earnings have beaten expectations quarter after quarter. Normally, down playing estimates has had very little effect in share price, but given the panic in markets last week - any average investor could tell you that if you say one bad thing, the big brokers and hedge funds were going to dump the stock.
Now, time will only tell if Steve was really forecasting correctly - or if it was just another case of earnings "sandbagging". Unfortunately, in the short term us "average joes" are getting beaten senseless. If I had any additional $$$ I would be a buying as many shares as I could right now. Which, brings me to my request - If I were Steve Jobs I would go one step further (than writing a simple memo to employees) and show that I really believed in Apple's future and take a portion of the 15+ BILLION the company is sitting on and do a stock repurchase. This show of faith would help show the rest of the investing world that Apple is still "in play"!
As they say on the streets, "put your money where your mouth is". That's my two cents worth!
It is nice to hear that Steve Jobs is confirming what I had expected all along. The question is then what are the "factors" "a lot larger than AAPL" Hell, Apple was almost a 180 Billion dollar company before the fall, there isn't many "factors" a lot larger than 180 Billion dollar entities you know.
First of all, answer the following question the best you can:
1. Why did the SEC enable the down tick shorting rule?
2. Why did Ben Bernanke try to hold onto the 5.25% fed funds rate for as long as he could, even though economic indicators all gave warnings as early as 6-8 months ago?
3. Do you think that a 161 Billion economic stimulus plan could help a 40 trillion dollar US economy? And who is paying for it if they are also cutting taxes? Who is paying the prolonged war in Iraq?
4. Is subprime mortage the only issue with bank's liquidity problem?
5. Can SocGen's lone trader lose 7.4 Billion dollars all by himself?
6. Why did Intel give low margin forcast even though their 45nm process transition was going to significantly help margins?
7. Why did Apple, who totally beat estimates, guided lower like INTC?
Here is my personal interpretation for all the events. Don't take it seriously, just think it through yourself.
The housing problem on subprime mortgage started in late 2005(September 2005), when the housing sector beginned to notice the slow down.(When home builders peeked. Take a look at CTX, TOL, etc) Banks tried to solve the subprime mortgage problems by themselves by injecting liquidity into their balance sheet. How do you do that? Well, you short stocks. When you short stocks, you take the cash out. Given most banks' 5:1 or even as high as 7 to 1 cash to margin requirements, when you short one share of stock, you get 5-7 times as much margin back. This temporarily masked their subprime mortgage liquidity issues.
Then you ask, what kind of stocks are they shorting. Back in 2005, you could only short stocks on the uptick, so you can't push the stock prices down by shorting on the bid. It made it a lot harder to push the stock down. When you short stocks, you short growth. Why? Because if the subprime isn't doing well, then you obviously short growth. So the banks shorted a lot of technology companies such as GOOG, INTC, AAPL, NVDA. Well, they made a huge mistake and got squeezed.
If you remember that day where they played the "oh Steve Jobs was being investigated for option backdating".(Do you remember that day back in December 2006? It did a 5 dollar intraday reversal and it was just before Macworld 2007 so people were speculating about the iPhone) That was the first sign that banks got margin calls that they had to play that Steve jobs backdating options crap. Who was short at the time you ask. Well, who downgraded Apple just before that? Bear Stearns downgraded AAPL in the mid 70s. Why? Because Bear Stearns got margin calls.
Fast forward another year. Apple went from $90 to $200. Intel went from $20 to $28. Google went from $500 to $700. All three peaked out in November of 2007. Banks basically got sqeezed to the point where they cannot breathe anymore. At the same time, subprime went to national TV, and problems worsened. So as a bank, you have written loans to people who cannot afford to pay, and shorted stocks that doubled on you. That's what caused the bank's "liquidity problem". Subprime was only half the cause.
What would you do? You go to the exchange and revoke the down tick rule first. That's right. Then you want to cause a market down turn. Of course, subprime is what cause the short squeeze on the banks in the first place, so they are going to over play the issue by bringing it to the public to force Ben to cut rates so they can borrow more at lower rates. Then you ask, how do you cause a recession? It's actually pretty interesting. Ben Bernanke got stuck because economic data suggest that it's slowing, and US is not in a recession. Even Intel's report said that revenue was 1% below estimates, hardly recessionary. That was the reason why Ben hesitated to lower rates. Of course, the banks kept on playing the sub prime game, shorting Ambak, and MBIA to its death to force Fed's hand. That SocGen fiasco, you think it is an accident? On the Monday of MLK day, when the market was closed, they caused a 7% down turn in European markets and Asian markets to force Ben to cut 75 Basis Points the next day. It was all planned out perfectly.
On the subject of INTC. Bank of America and JPM downgrades INTC twice in a week. That was ferocious. Why do you think they want to attack INTC? Because INTC is both a dow and NASDAQ component.(And if INTC becomes weak, all tech becomes weak) Ok, Intel's report was 2 cents short. But did you notice that extra unexpected charge on the Nemonix spin off? That would have totally covered the shortage. Intel argurably is firing on all fronts. If they tried any harder, AMD might not live too long.(They had to delay the quad core 45nm desktop parts so that AMD can breathe a little) Yet Bank of America and JPM both dowgraded Intc in a row.
Ok, the next question then is this: why did INTC guide lower when 45nm manufacturing was going to help the margins? First of all, did you notice that they had a new CFO? Stacy Smith. I guess his mom's got it going on. I guess the answer here is California. Yes California is the answer to the lower'd guidance. While the whole country is hardly in recession, California is already in recession due to housing losing 30-40% value in the bay area. People just cannot afford 1 Million dollar houses over there on sub prime rates. So employee morality is low. As a Californian business, you want the FED to cut rates so that the sub prime issue in California is solved. So INTC guides lower to force the rate cut. If you look at all the earnings. YHOO beats, lowers estimates. AAPL beats, lowers estimates. SPWR's earnings sucked, and guide lower. What do those earnings beating companies have in common? California. AMZN, met but guided down on margins. Yep. All Californian companies seems to have a common lower guidance. That's right, because they want a "perceived recession" to force Bernanke's hands to cut rate to help the state's housing problem. It also helps the banks to unwind their losing shorts positions to help the banks' liquidity issues.
This is clear because MSFT guided higher. How does a computer software company expect to guide higher then the CPU manufacturers are guiding lower? Yep, Microsoft isn't a Californian company. In fact, it doesn't want the rate cut to help another Californian company: Google.
Ok, I typed too much here. I guess you should have a club about what's really happening behind the scenes. That's just my speculation on my part. (I have even heard about speculation that the US government is involved in this, extracting liquidity to pay for the Iraqi war. That 161 Billion economic stimulus package is just a thank you note) BTW, don't short GOOG into the earnings because of two reasons: 1. Google doesn't give guidance so analysts can hardly compare their estimates to. 2. Google still got 2 big holders(Sergi and Brin) who wants their networth in tact just like Microsoft's Bill Gates.