mainyehc

DECO (from Associação de DEfesa do COnsumidor, i.e. Consumers’ Defense Association), originally created as a sort of institutional ombudsman, publishes Proteste (from proTESTE, as in testing, it has nothing to do with protest), a mostly decent magazine equivalent to Consumer Reports, but eventually devolved into this sad peddler of junkware to their members.

How can anyone take them seriously when they always pester people with offers of “great” products such as really janky Android tablets and useless plastic gadgets in exchange for attracting more members? Products that, mind you, would be completely destroyed under their own testing parameters? My mom used to be a subscriber, and the previous owners of my flat are at least members and never got around to update their address, so I always knew of and keep getting their stupid advertising in the mail. While their recent work regarding electrical bills is commendable, when it comes to consumer products they completely lost their way and should be ashamed of themselves.

Objectively and geometrically speaking, the leaf design is way too similar and it’s on the same side. Also, its angle is similar, only mirrored. Apple does have a bit of a leg to stand on here, I’m afraid.

And no, I’m not (just) a fanboy, but a future PhD in design, and even an undergrad with a keen eye would spot the similarities right away… This isn’t much different from spotting plagiarism in typography, you just have to overlay the curves and see how well they match. Do you want me to?

I’m guessing most of those HP AIOs are sold to businesses, offices, etc.… I don’t know a single person who owns one of those.

rcfa said:

The real issue isn’t if M$ is going to port Windows10-ARM in some secret handshake deal with Apple, the key question is, will Apple publicly document their hardware well enough that anyone can port any OS to it.

Like running Linux, FreeBSD, bare metal virtualization software allowing near-instant switching between macOS and other operating systems, etc. etc.

Someone should have asked Craig Federighi THAT question...

What are you talking about? Apple, specifically Craig Federighi, directly addressed that in more than one occasion. M1 chips support that hypervisor framework that obviates the usage of kernel extensions, and a Linux VM was even demoed during the WWDC keynote.

Of course it’s all properly documented, and judging from Parallels’ development blog, Apple even partnered behind the scenes with them. Apple’s recent comments, if you know how to do the Kremlinology that comes with following the company, tell you everything you need to know: it’s up to Microsoft to offer full, non-OEM versions of ARM64 Windows.

Maybe it’s not just a licensing issue, as the M1 is vastly different from those puny Qualcomm offerings, so maybe there’s more work involved. But after the basics are covered, Parallels, VMWare, Oracle, the OSS community, etc., only have to bridge the gap. It’s not like Microsoft has to develop a “VirtualPC redux”.

Interestingly, that developer said in his Twitter that x86-32 emulation was decent, so maybe Microsoft’s equivalent to Rosetta 2 isn’t *that* crappy; its abysmal performance is maybe due to those ARM PCs being severely underperforming.

ElianGonzález said:

The only individuals who are maligning Apple’s case are techie man-children, who are offended that the case looks “gay”, only they cannot bring themselves to say that word at all. And they all want to insist that their personal revulsion must be universal. I have never seen any guy carrying his expensive headphones in their cases in public: they’re either wearing them on the head or around the neck, and then they’re on the desk in prominent view while filming useless 4K unboxing videos. It’s also instructive that no one is balking at the $99 price tag, but perhaps there is no price too high to protect fragile manhood.

Or maybe they’ve just owned enough Apple products made of that material to know that it looks like total shit after only a few months of use?

I should know that, as own an iPad 3 with a very much “gay-looking” pastel-blue smart cover, and it was never its colour (which, mind you, it shares with the knockoff I’m now using) that bothered me (again, I’m as cishet, and supposedly heteronormative, as they get, but I don’t give a flying fsck about what people think of my colour preferences and if those aren’t deemed “heteronormative” enough by their standards, offend their delicate conservative snowflake sensibilities or otherwise give them a different impression, that’s not my problem and I couldn’t care less either way), but the fact that it got dirty af and pretty much self-destructed even while having been used mostly indoors.



That is something most people, save for some crust punks or otherwise sloppy individuals, would be ashamed of carrying around regardless of their sexuality, I can assure you. And sure, maybe us Apple users could regularly wipe that crappy polymer down with IPA and whatnot, but seriously, couldn’t Apple just switch materials already? They nailed polycarbonate, aluminium and even those Apple Watch straps, but they still haven’t figured out something more durable and washable than that pressed-on microfibre+plastic+leaf-thin matte elastomer sandwich bs.

That a $500+ piece of kit comes with a case that not only WILL suffer that fate, but also doesn’t even provide full protection when it’s brand new and in one piece is just egregious, IMHO. Either go big, or go bust.

Design PhD student (specialised in graphic design, namely typography and all related disciplines, including branding and corporate identity) here: Apple was absolutely in the right here. The leaf shape, while generic and very pure in a geometric sense (just like Apple's, and yes, you might argue that those shouldn't be accepted in the first place as intellectual property because of prior art and for being too generic, but context here is key) was waaaaaaaay too similar in proportion and orientation (it was just mirrored). If you look at AI's original coverage of the lawsuit, you can definitely see it: https://www.iphoneincanada.ca/news/apple-legal-action-pear-logo/

Sure, Apple was a bit overzealous about it, but that's kind of par for the course for a billion-dollar company. If it was resolved amicably, that kind of lays the “bullying” angle to rest, now, doesn't it? The guys at Prepear were throwing a tantrum, IMHO. Especially considering how, yes, they are a tech company (if they were, say, some random agricultural business I could see how Apple might be overreaching to branches of business their own Nice classification codes likely don't even cover, except Prepear has… apps. In App Stores).

No, really. What's more, I actually like the revised version better. The contrast between the more continuous contour of the pair and the leaf is starker, and the latter's half-circle shape not only pairs better with the tops and bottoms of the pear, but it also somewhat echoes the counter-shape (or the “eye”) of the lowercase “e” in their logo.

TL;DR: Not only did they not lose an expensive lawsuit, Apple actually forced them to better their own design and, as someone else said, this actually brought them some publicity. Win-win, if you ask me.

What a stupid, stupid prototype… Great idea (no, really), terrible execution (and not because it looks ugly, but because it was a dead end, as it was so very well put in the article).

sirozha said:

daekwan said:

rob53 said:

Do you like your Mac? Would you like one of the latest MBPs? If so, then quit complaining and buy one and use it. If not, then go find a Windows PC and see it that satisfies your urge to waste your time fixing things instead of being productive.

Oh burn!!!

I've never seen it stated it better.  While I dont agree with many of the changes to the new MBP.  I realize this is what Apple has always done.  They have always been expensive.  They have always been controversial in dropping legacy ports/devices.  They have always had proprietary dongles, cables and devices.  

But you know what else Apple has always done?  Always delivered the most stable desktop OS and rock solid software.  Always built robust, quality products that outlast, outperform and hold their value much better than their competitors.  Always provided an unmatched user experience.  

So this 2016 MBP w/TouchBar presents potential buyers with a choice that so many previous Apple products have done.  Do you more money for the product from the company who has built a reputation of "just working"?  Or do you save some bucks, choose a competitor.. and probably end up seriously regretting a few months later.. as you find out exactly the competition costs less and creates more headaches.  

Mini display port and/or HDMI will
be back in the next generation unless they cannot fit the ports on the side of the body because of how thin the body is. I suspect the MagSafe will be back too. They tried to kill FireWire a few years ago but due to an outcry they brought it back for a few more years. 

… Seriously? I'm royally pissed at Apple because of their dumbheaded decision to solder in the SSD and will not be recommending the Touch Bar to my colleagues/customers, or not without issuing severe caveats (many of them didn't indeed know that their Unibody MacBooks were upgradeable at all when they bought them, but after spending years putting Fusion Drives and extra RAM on the latter and seeing how happy they are with the results, I know for a fact – it's just human nature at work – they will buy their next Mac under the assumption that it, too, will be upgradeable; I had already started warning them that RAM wasn't upgradeable anymore with the advent of the first Retina models – and advising them to upgrade it by default and buy BTO machines only, because the price difference isn't that obscene –, and it is now my moral duty to warn them about how storage upgrades work in the same way and just how expensive they are, sosumi… And AI should at least help me/us out a bit; shame on you writers and on you fellow forum-goers for excusing them, as the after-market upgrade path – or, sadly in this case, its lack thereof – is indeed a materially relevant information for all the buyers that may not follow all of AI's posts on the subject, which will quickly get buried under newer articles), but not even I think that the decision to axe all ports in favor of 2/4 Thunderbolt 3/USB-C ports was as stupid as many people like to teasingly tell me, nor do I think Apple will ever reverse it. Not in a million years…

In fact, since I/O ports are a user-facing feature and one about which Apple seems to be very proud and smug, I'd venture to say that it's actually more likely they will redesign both Touch Bar models' internals over the next iterations so that they may feature a discret SSD (hey, I know this “prediction” of sorts is mostly wishful thinking on my part and should be taken with a big grain of salt, but I do believe Apple designers will keep the current design for a little while and maybe the engineers may put slots on it again if they manage to miniaturize the logic board further with newer, more efficient chipsets, CPUs and GPUs) than they would reintroduce any specialized connector. The only different connectors you may ever see on Macs (if they do last that long as a platform) will be a newer, more powerful replacement for USB-C in 10-20 years' time and, since those headphone jacks' days are numbered anyway (Phil's PR “truths” notwithstanding), a Lightning connector for newer wired AirPods and Beats products once the market is saturated enough with iPhone 7 (and newer) units.