Its worth remembering that the original’s price tag was seen as quite the bargain, as most analysts had thought it would come in at $999.

My daily driver remains the 9.7” Pro: 80% of what computing I do is done on that with a Smart Keyboard; because the other 20% is usually heavy lifting or where I need to get important stuff done that much quicker, my MBP and Thunderbolt Display setup nevertheless is still indispensable. Different paradigms, but equally great to use.

So 100% of my computing is on five-year old hardware that has performed faultlessly for the duration, is on a current OS, and shows no sign of running out of steam. I wonder how many users rocking other platforms can say that?

In the PowerPC days Apple told us about the “megahertz myth”; is it time they started telling non-technical users about the “megapixel myth”?

The paint scuffing comment doesn’t tell you the half of it. The NeXT Computer was in fact powder coated, not painted, and though magnesium is not exactly an easy metal to powder coat and powder coating is far from an exact science, Steve nevertheless would not allow his factory to sign off on any casing where the finish was less than flawless - thereby ensuring that the mere aesthetic finish of the machine ensured that it could never be produced at a profit.

That’s one reason why Jony Ive was so critical in Apple’s resurgence: his knowledge of material science and his having Steve’s ear meant no more chasing the impossible.

jcs2305 said:

audiophile

[aw-dee-uh-fahyl] 

Spell Syllables

• Word Origin 

noun

1.

a person who is especially interested in high-fidelity sound reproduction.

I’d read that an audiophile was someone who used music to listen to their equipment?

Beats ≠ great audio. The acquisition was for the (admittedly valuable) brand, the Beats Music technology and - especially - for Iovine’s connections; not for the headphone technology, which has always been middling at best. Besides which, Apple has ualways had good audio engineers - the iPod Hi-Fi (remember that?) predates the Beats acquisition by some years and to this day makes every Beats product sound shit.