Though I don't watch any DVD movies on my MBP, I still use the superdrive to burn CD and DVD backups of various files, etc... When the time comes, however, I will accept the demise of the optical drive. And no, I'm not so stubborn that I wouldn't buy an Apple laptop because it lacked an optical drive. But for me, personally, I still use the superdrive in my MBP.
I didn't mean to imply that you did. Can I ask what files are you backing up manually that would not be easier with a network RAIDed system you don't have to worry about. Or even to iDisk where it sync these, not only with the MobileMe cloud but back to another machine's local iDisk folder. Outside of a worldwide EMP I'm pretty well protected.
PS: One area I think Apple is lacking is with a home server option. Windows Home Server is great and many companies make great multi-disk products for this OS. Some even have a plug-in so you can back up Time Machine to it.
Think about it. How much software do you actually go into a store and purchase on a disc? The far majority of software for the Mac is not sold on a disc.
Quote:
Originally Posted by ifail
CD/DVDs provide a cheap way to distribute software and that is why it wont be going anywhere anytime soon. (im saying atleast next 5 years)
No.But look at their gross margin at look at the history of the iPod- it certainly became a cash cow conduit for selling music, etc and at a fixed price which Apple now hypocritically bemoans that Amazon is doing presently with book pricing.
After reading several articles from a few people who claim to know something about the Amazon ebooks thing I'm more inclined to believe that Amazon was behaving extremely poorly in respect to author, publisher and consumer. Mainly to do with the contract that they required from publishers. I am not suggesting that a company should be concerned with anything other then it's own profits but it does suggest that maybe whatever Apple did to force the price up may not be a bad thing, even for people paying more.
I think you missed the boat- Steve Jobs wants to you buy anything and everything from his iTunes store plantation from now on. He's trying to kill FLASH for that very reason in that it competes with his game sales on iTunes, Blu-ray competes with his low grade HD movies at iTunes, etc , etc. There is a method to his greed- say one thing, mean another.
I am sorry but I MUST disagree:
Adobe is LAZY & GREEDY.
They offer nothin innovative and everything they do offer is badly designed, bloated, process & resource hogging crap. I have many a friend who work in the graphic design and graphic programmnig industy who state exactly the same thing. Everything they offer (except Dreamweaver & MAYBE fireworks) is buggy, bloated and disappointing. My friends state if Adobe offered a program that was Dreamweaver, Photoshop, and InDesign in one application they would be estatic, rather than having to convert, edit, convert, edit, repeat......
But Adobe has sat on it laurels and when they miss the boat they were actually led to in order to take a cruise on, and then whine because they chose to sleep in, thinking the carnival would wait for them.
As for Blu-Ray, it's a format owned and licensed by Sony, meaning more licensing cost for Apple that sure as hell would be passed on to the customer, as well as an additional mechanical faliure that I agree with Steve in wanting to eliminate. I have wanted to eliminate parasitic losses to increase portability and performance for years, so this SPECULATIVE move comes as no surprise.
Apple wants us to move to digital distribution faster? It's inevitable. Deal with it. Yes, I like being able to own my games an movies to play on my PS3 but those aren't my Mac, so I can adapt.
This is actually good news for me. I was getting ready to give my iMac to my mother and get a new one for our home. I have been attempting to plan out a network and would just get iPads and a mac mini server, except the Mac Mini is just not powerful enough to eliminate a dedicated computer. I need video processing, music editing and a potential CAD workstation, but am not to the point of graduating up to a Mac pro.
And I will NEVER go back to a PC. I will not put myself through that hell again.
P.S.: They will not replace the Intel CPU as the main processor. They know thier ARMs are not up to that task just yet. They may be in process to take on Nvidia though.....
But you can't with an iPad, can you? And the iPad is the future of computing, is it not?
Well, if you can attach your digital camera or your SD card to the iPad's USB port that's hidden within its dock connector, then why can't you attach a USB external drive?
Or even to iDisk where it sync these, not only with the MobileMe cloud but back to another machine's local iDisk folder..
iDisk is so slow it is almost unusable except for small files. We have a data center cabinet and a home grown file uploader web service. It doesn't sync but at least I have 3 or 4 copies of everything. As long as you stay organized I prefer to manually back up. For people who don't have a lot of data I guess Time Machine is ok but it is usually on site so you don't have any disaster protection. We have multiple terabytes of data so just converting to Time Machine is more work than I want to do.
I agree that the current MBPs are excellent, but I am, too holding out for this year's model. At this point in the lifecycle, it would be unwise for me to invest $3K+ for last year's processor architecture, not to speak of other possible enhancements. Just trying to maximize the value I'm getting for my dollars.
But remember, Apple just introduced a Apple A4 processor in the iPad, this means they very likely going to ditch Intel processors soon.
Errrr.... this sounds crazy.
Quote:
If you need to be able to run other operating systems, you might not be able to do this with the A4.
.... Nutty is the word... hmmm no. A4 is not a Laptop processor, it's much slower than any core i3, i5, i7 intel has in their sleeves. So no, you got this utterly wrong. Also, the idea that they will cut the feature of having windows in their macs is just silly poppycock. Really, stop thinking ludicrously. PowerPC's time is over.
Quote:
If the next issue of Mac model you want has the A4 and it won't run other operating systems like you need, rush over to a third party online reseller to get the last Intel version.
I don't think I'll have to worry then.
Thanks for the advice anyway, and much thanks for the link
P.S.: They will not replace the Intel CPU as the main processor. They know thier ARMs are not up to that task just yet. They may be in process to take on Nvidia though.....
I did not think that Apple had any plans to make their own GPU, I would be interested in seeing your information for this if you would be so kind.
The last piece of physical software that I bought was the upgrade copy of Final Cut Studio. You'll be happy to know that Apple decided to dramatically reduce the size of the packaging and not offer paper versions of all the manuals that came with previous versions. At least it's a step in the right direction.
As for movies and music, they (Apple, etc.) need to offer better quality in their movies/music to get me to buy their digital copy over it's blu-ray/CD equivalent.
Yep I have noticed Apples reduced packaging....I bought my daughter a new MacBookPro for xmas and noticed how thin the box that it was packaged in...it was like thin briefcase compared to the box my original MacBook came in 4 years ago. which was more like a 'ice chest/cooler!'
I would like Apple to use the same size 'boxes' and for the non-display items (macs, iphones) just you plain brown recycled cardboard with a black Apple logo stamp, and the products name. Again, i'm thinking about the toxic in and waste water used to print/manufacturer those 'elegant' boxes.
Good point about the manuals...yes I do like they are now all PDF!
I remember the days when you had a choice to get SW downloaded or pay an extra $10 to get a CD version mailed to you. I have to admit, back then I did prefer the physical media and many times paid the $10....but not anymore! Anyway good points and have great day!
Robb55...about the quality of the movies from iTunes...I had some friends over to watch, Whiteout on my AppleTV...I was embarrassed by the quality with so much of that patchy swirling you see in the 'night' shots...I will only download Apple's HD from now on....bad movie btw!
It's supposed to have a optional SD reader though, for those who are going to use the iPad as a sole device, not synced to a computer.
It does have, there's no 'supposed' about it. I've laughed at people complain that there's no way to plug in an SD card, a flash drive, connect an external hard drive or plug in a camera to this thing. So lazy they couldn't even be bothered to read the official pages over at apple.com.
So much complaining about speculative 'omissions' I can sort of understand, people like to speculate, normally for the worst. But complaining that something is missing, when it's there in black and white for all to see is simply lazy.
Your existing blue tooth keyboard will work with the 'pad (probably headsets too), there is standard style iPod socket for peripheral and computer interface, there is a USB adapter (so you can can connect supported peripherals and printers, it would be for manufacturers to produce and distribute their own drivers to the app store), there is an SD card slot adapter, you can plug your camera into it and it does have a microphone.
I think you over estimate the percentage of Adobe software sales to Mac users. Your almost always going to have at least a 3-to-1 margin of sales to Windows-based PCs just because of market share. And if Apple were to switch processors again, it would be cheaper for Adobe to ditch all of their Mac development team and not invest in the new tools to develop for yet another new Mac platform.
I think you also under estimate the power of the already installed Adobe user base. It is a lot harder to switch tools than to switch platforms. Those already using Adobe software would switch to PCs to keep using it rather than change to another creative vendor. That is how Adobe has kept it's user base so far.
Quote:
Originally Posted by dreyfus2
Well, they go where the market is. Some Adobe software sells roughly 50% of licenses to Mac users, they can't simply say: nope, we don't play - their shareholders would tar and feather them.
For the time being this is not an issue though, even OS X does not run on ARM CPUs (yet) and for sure the iPhone and the iPod touch will move to the A4 (or other Apple designs) first. These chips should allow Apple to price products a bit more aggressively, or compensate for slightly lower subsidies when they move away from the exclusive carrier model in more countries. Their accuracy in executing these things properly is mind-blowing.
Your existing blue tooth keyboard will work with the 'pad (probably headsets too), there is standard style iPod socket for peripheral and computer interface, there is a USB adapter (so you can can connect supported peripherals and printers, it would be for manufacturers to produce and distribute their own drivers to the app store), there is an SD card slot adapter, you can plug your camera into it and it does have a microphone.
Do you have to buy those peripherals? Seems that way. How much will it cost? And why should I have to buy a peripheral in the first place, it's just stupid...
I think you over estimate the percentage of Adobe software sales to Mac users. Your almost always going to have at least a 3-to-1 margin of sales to Windows-based PCs just because of market share. And if Apple were to switch processors again, it would be cheaper for Adobe to ditch all of their Mac development team and not invest in the new tools to develop for yet another new Mac platform.
I think you also under estimate the power of the already installed Adobe user base. It is a lot harder to switch tools than to switch platforms. Those already using Adobe software would switch to PCs to keep using it rather than change to another creative vendor. That is how Adobe has kept it's user base so far.
Hmmm world doesn't work that way. Adobe will never ditch Apple. Suite is much stable on Mac than on PC and Adobe knew this for years. What Adobe needs to do is ditch their Desktop development and work on Mobile versions of Suite and make a revolution, rather than crying about Flash.
But you can't with an iPad, can you? And the iPad is the future of computing, is it not?
No, the iPad is not the future of computing. The iPad is the first in a new sector of simple to use touch screen media consumption devices for those that don't need a fully featured computer simply to browse the web, check email, read a book or listen to music.
It is not intended to replace the existing smart phone, laptop or desktop, as Jobs very, very clearly outlined at the start of his keynote.
I for one will buy the iPad - for my mum - but I'll certainly wait for V2 or even V3 before I get one for me...
Good plan FullGaz...my plan is to get one as soon as it is available (use it have fun with it) and when the new version comes out give the 'old' one to my daughter. Win/win....kind of our own family earth-friendly recycling program.
Be careful. According to some of my colleagues that were at the launch, virtually everyone that got a hands-on were very reluctant to let it go. Even those who were somewhat skeptical. This phenomenon has been expressed by many of the pundits as well.
Comments
Though I don't watch any DVD movies on my MBP, I still use the superdrive to burn CD and DVD backups of various files, etc... When the time comes, however, I will accept the demise of the optical drive. And no, I'm not so stubborn that I wouldn't buy an Apple laptop because it lacked an optical drive. But for me, personally, I still use the superdrive in my MBP.
I didn't mean to imply that you did. Can I ask what files are you backing up manually that would not be easier with a network RAIDed system you don't have to worry about. Or even to iDisk where it sync these, not only with the MobileMe cloud but back to another machine's local iDisk folder. Outside of a worldwide EMP I'm pretty well protected.
PS: One area I think Apple is lacking is with a home server option. Windows Home Server is great and many companies make great multi-disk products for this OS. Some even have a plug-in so you can back up Time Machine to it.
Well thank goodness you can go out and buy an external blue-ray or dvd drive and plug it into your Macs trusty little USB port.
But you can't with an iPad, can you? And the iPad is the future of computing, is it not?
CD/DVDs provide a cheap way to distribute software and that is why it wont be going anywhere anytime soon. (im saying atleast next 5 years)
No.But look at their gross margin at look at the history of the iPod- it certainly became a cash cow conduit for selling music, etc and at a fixed price which Apple now hypocritically bemoans that Amazon is doing presently with book pricing.
After reading several articles from a few people who claim to know something about the Amazon ebooks thing I'm more inclined to believe that Amazon was behaving extremely poorly in respect to author, publisher and consumer. Mainly to do with the contract that they required from publishers. I am not suggesting that a company should be concerned with anything other then it's own profits but it does suggest that maybe whatever Apple did to force the price up may not be a bad thing, even for people paying more.
I think you missed the boat- Steve Jobs wants to you buy anything and everything from his iTunes store plantation from now on. He's trying to kill FLASH for that very reason in that it competes with his game sales on iTunes, Blu-ray competes with his low grade HD movies at iTunes, etc , etc. There is a method to his greed- say one thing, mean another.
I am sorry but I MUST disagree:
Adobe is LAZY & GREEDY.
They offer nothin innovative and everything they do offer is badly designed, bloated, process & resource hogging crap. I have many a friend who work in the graphic design and graphic programmnig industy who state exactly the same thing. Everything they offer (except Dreamweaver & MAYBE fireworks) is buggy, bloated and disappointing. My friends state if Adobe offered a program that was Dreamweaver, Photoshop, and InDesign in one application they would be estatic, rather than having to convert, edit, convert, edit, repeat......
But Adobe has sat on it laurels and when they miss the boat they were actually led to in order to take a cruise on, and then whine because they chose to sleep in, thinking the carnival would wait for them.
As for Blu-Ray, it's a format owned and licensed by Sony, meaning more licensing cost for Apple that sure as hell would be passed on to the customer, as well as an additional mechanical faliure that I agree with Steve in wanting to eliminate. I have wanted to eliminate parasitic losses to increase portability and performance for years, so this SPECULATIVE move comes as no surprise.
Apple wants us to move to digital distribution faster? It's inevitable. Deal with it. Yes, I like being able to own my games an movies to play on my PS3 but those aren't my Mac, so I can adapt.
This is actually good news for me. I was getting ready to give my iMac to my mother and get a new one for our home. I have been attempting to plan out a network and would just get iPads and a mac mini server, except the Mac Mini is just not powerful enough to eliminate a dedicated computer. I need video processing, music editing and a potential CAD workstation, but am not to the point of graduating up to a Mac pro.
And I will NEVER go back to a PC. I will not put myself through that hell again.
P.S.: They will not replace the Intel CPU as the main processor. They know thier ARMs are not up to that task just yet. They may be in process to take on Nvidia though.....
But you can't with an iPad, can you? And the iPad is the future of computing, is it not?
Well, if you can attach your digital camera or your SD card to the iPad's USB port that's hidden within its dock connector, then why can't you attach a USB external drive?
Or even to iDisk where it sync these, not only with the MobileMe cloud but back to another machine's local iDisk folder..
iDisk is so slow it is almost unusable except for small files. We have a data center cabinet and a home grown file uploader web service. It doesn't sync but at least I have 3 or 4 copies of everything. As long as you stay organized I prefer to manually back up. For people who don't have a lot of data I guess Time Machine is ok but it is usually on site so you don't have any disaster protection. We have multiple terabytes of data so just converting to Time Machine is more work than I want to do.
I agree that the current MBPs are excellent, but I am, too holding out for this year's model. At this point in the lifecycle, it would be unwise for me to invest $3K+ for last year's processor architecture, not to speak of other possible enhancements. Just trying to maximize the value I'm getting for my dollars.
Here's your answer
http://buyersguide.macrumors.com/
Thanks! Exactly what I was looking for!
But remember, Apple just introduced a Apple A4 processor in the iPad, this means they very likely going to ditch Intel processors soon.
Errrr.... this sounds crazy.
If you need to be able to run other operating systems, you might not be able to do this with the A4.
.... Nutty is the word... hmmm no. A4 is not a Laptop processor, it's much slower than any core i3, i5, i7 intel has in their sleeves. So no, you got this utterly wrong. Also, the idea that they will cut the feature of having windows in their macs is just silly poppycock. Really, stop thinking ludicrously. PowerPC's time is over.
If the next issue of Mac model you want has the A4 and it won't run other operating systems like you need, rush over to a third party online reseller to get the last Intel version.
I don't think I'll have to worry then.
Thanks for the advice anyway, and much thanks for the link
P.S.: They will not replace the Intel CPU as the main processor. They know thier ARMs are not up to that task just yet. They may be in process to take on Nvidia though.....
I did not think that Apple had any plans to make their own GPU, I would be interested in seeing your information for this if you would be so kind.
The last piece of physical software that I bought was the upgrade copy of Final Cut Studio. You'll be happy to know that Apple decided to dramatically reduce the size of the packaging and not offer paper versions of all the manuals that came with previous versions. At least it's a step in the right direction.
As for movies and music, they (Apple, etc.) need to offer better quality in their movies/music to get me to buy their digital copy over it's blu-ray/CD equivalent.
Yep I have noticed Apples reduced packaging....I bought my daughter a new MacBookPro for xmas and noticed how thin the box that it was packaged in...it was like thin briefcase compared to the box my original MacBook came in 4 years ago. which was more like a 'ice chest/cooler!'
I would like Apple to use the same size 'boxes' and for the non-display items (macs, iphones) just you plain brown recycled cardboard with a black Apple logo stamp, and the products name. Again, i'm thinking about the toxic in and waste water used to print/manufacturer those 'elegant' boxes.
Good point about the manuals...yes I do like they are now all PDF!
I remember the days when you had a choice to get SW downloaded or pay an extra $10 to get a CD version mailed to you. I have to admit, back then I did prefer the physical media and many times paid the $10....but not anymore! Anyway good points and have great day!
It's supposed to have a optional SD reader though, for those who are going to use the iPad as a sole device, not synced to a computer.
It does have, there's no 'supposed' about it. I've laughed at people complain that there's no way to plug in an SD card, a flash drive, connect an external hard drive or plug in a camera to this thing. So lazy they couldn't even be bothered to read the official pages over at apple.com.
So much complaining about speculative 'omissions' I can sort of understand, people like to speculate, normally for the worst. But complaining that something is missing, when it's there in black and white for all to see is simply lazy.
Your existing blue tooth keyboard will work with the 'pad (probably headsets too), there is standard style iPod socket for peripheral and computer interface, there is a USB adapter (so you can can connect supported peripherals and printers, it would be for manufacturers to produce and distribute their own drivers to the app store), there is an SD card slot adapter, you can plug your camera into it and it does have a microphone.
Happy to clarify that for all the critics.
http://www.apple.com/ipad/specs/
I think you also under estimate the power of the already installed Adobe user base. It is a lot harder to switch tools than to switch platforms. Those already using Adobe software would switch to PCs to keep using it rather than change to another creative vendor. That is how Adobe has kept it's user base so far.
Well, they go where the market is. Some Adobe software sells roughly 50% of licenses to Mac users, they can't simply say: nope, we don't play - their shareholders would tar and feather them.
For the time being this is not an issue though, even OS X does not run on ARM CPUs (yet) and for sure the iPhone and the iPod touch will move to the A4 (or other Apple designs) first. These chips should allow Apple to price products a bit more aggressively, or compensate for slightly lower subsidies when they move away from the exclusive carrier model in more countries. Their accuracy in executing these things properly is mind-blowing.
idea when the next-gen macs are being launched?--my G4 powerbook is doing that death rattle thing and wont last much longer
The current generation are incredible. Go buy one.
No kool-aid for me!
Steve Jobs is a genious but Apple cannot survive without Adobe, Google, or Blu-ray IMHO.
LOL they did for so many years. I don't think Apple needs any of these companies.
Your existing blue tooth keyboard will work with the 'pad (probably headsets too), there is standard style iPod socket for peripheral and computer interface, there is a USB adapter (so you can can connect supported peripherals and printers, it would be for manufacturers to produce and distribute their own drivers to the app store), there is an SD card slot adapter, you can plug your camera into it and it does have a microphone.
Happy to clarify that for all the critics.
http://www.apple.com/ipad/specs/
Do you have to buy those peripherals? Seems that way. How much will it cost? And why should I have to buy a peripheral in the first place, it's just stupid...
I think you over estimate the percentage of Adobe software sales to Mac users. Your almost always going to have at least a 3-to-1 margin of sales to Windows-based PCs just because of market share. And if Apple were to switch processors again, it would be cheaper for Adobe to ditch all of their Mac development team and not invest in the new tools to develop for yet another new Mac platform.
I think you also under estimate the power of the already installed Adobe user base. It is a lot harder to switch tools than to switch platforms. Those already using Adobe software would switch to PCs to keep using it rather than change to another creative vendor. That is how Adobe has kept it's user base so far.
Hmmm world doesn't work that way. Adobe will never ditch Apple. Suite is much stable on Mac than on PC and Adobe knew this for years. What Adobe needs to do is ditch their Desktop development and work on Mobile versions of Suite and make a revolution, rather than crying about Flash.
But you can't with an iPad, can you? And the iPad is the future of computing, is it not?
No, the iPad is not the future of computing. The iPad is the first in a new sector of simple to use touch screen media consumption devices for those that don't need a fully featured computer simply to browse the web, check email, read a book or listen to music.
It is not intended to replace the existing smart phone, laptop or desktop, as Jobs very, very clearly outlined at the start of his keynote.
I for one will buy the iPad - for my mum - but I'll certainly wait for V2 or even V3 before I get one for me...
Good plan FullGaz...my plan is to get one as soon as it is available (use it have fun with it) and when the new version comes out give the 'old' one to my daughter. Win/win....kind of our own family earth-friendly recycling program.
Be careful. According to some of my colleagues that were at the launch, virtually everyone that got a hands-on were very reluctant to let it go. Even those who were somewhat skeptical. This phenomenon has been expressed by many of the pundits as well.