nolamacguy

avon b7 said:

flaneur said:

avon b7 said:

flaneur said:

knowitall said:

zoetmb said:

slurpy said:

Aw's move by Apple. This SHOULD shut up most of the complaints, but of course it won't. 

It's not like Apple is selling $500 laptops.   There's two ways to look at this:  

The first is that if someone is buying a laptop that starts at $2400, they should't be complaining about having to buy some adapters, even if they're overpriced and that if you're a pro, technology advances and the investment is the price of doing business.  

The other way to look at it is that if someone is spending between $2400 and $4300 (for the MBP with all options except for application software and AppleCare), Apple shouldn't have cheaped out and they should have provided 2 to 4 adapters in the box of the customer's choosing.   The price of four adapters/cables is as much as a cheap PC.   

And then my cost of ownership goes up because I can't replace the battery, expand memory or replace the SSD myself.   Or, if I Iive with a 256GB SSD, I've got to get a ton of external storage for pro-level photos and video and live with the hassle of not having every file with me when I'm out of the home/office.  

This is another example of Apple labeling something "pro" and then not understanding the workflow of their pro customers.   They did that with FinalCutPro and they did it when they moved away from the tower configuration of the MacPro.  

Every time Apple switches ports, they tell the market how their new choices are the greatest and how they want lboth manufacturers and consumers to commit to that port.  Then after a few years, they change their minds and they move on to something else.   Did they really need to drop Mag-safe?  What about all the people who bought extra power supplies to keep at home/office, etc.?   HDMI is ubiquitous on TVs and receivers and the cables have become inexpensive, but now I've got to buy an adapter that costs ten times what the cable cost?

What was Apple's rationale for going solely to USB-C?   Was it because they truly think this port is the future and that the accessory market will fully move to that port and that it provides technological advantages?   Or was it really because of Ive's anal-obsessiveness over thinness and not wanting to look at different sized/shaped ports on the side of the machine?   What drives me crazy is that Apple wants the machine to have this superior industrial design so that it looks great in photos and in ads, but they have no problem with users having to stick a bunch of dongles and adapters on the thing.   It's the same with the iPhone and the obsession with thinness, but then we have to put it in a case because it can't survive a fall.   So few are really seeing and feeling the thinness anyway.  Sometimes I think people at Apple don't actually use the products they produce in the real world. 

So, IMO, criticism is warranted.   If Apple wants my money, they're going to have to do a bit better.   I hate using PCs at work, but I'm not spending $4K to $5K on my next computer and I don't want to feel like I have less than what I have today.  So as much as I hate Windows, my next laptop might actually be a Windows machine.  And I've been an Apple customer for 35 years. 

Ok, very good comment, especially your remark about Jony Ive, when will he appear on stage?
I do think that profit maximization (and the hot breath of the shareholder) is getting the better of Apple.
Its all money money money, and Apple holds their customers at ransom by disabling all upgrade options so they cannot expand the life of the computers and have to dig very deep to get all MBs needed.

This is why Apple is holding back the ARM; if they expand RAM beyond 4GB (and have enough memory pins on the Ax die to support that) board modders will find a way to connect a TB or so external RAM and iPads and iPhones can be used - or have a second life - as regular computers.

That was actually a stupid and gross comment he made about Ive. And he should never appear on stage. That's absolutely not his remit, and you should know that.

You may not agree with his decisions, but you should acknowledge what's behind them. Example: one of the requirements of a portable machine is that it be rugged enough to survive drops and bumps. Upgradability means points of weakness, thus all the adhesive and the hermetic sealing. It's not about new model upsell, or what would be the same thing, planned obsolescence. Why would they make them so durable if that were so?

Apple's laptops are not rugged enough to survive drops. Believe me on this. If you suffer a drop - start praying. Upgradability has nothing to do with 'points of weakness'. Where on earth did you hear that? If your connections are good... On the contrary, if your laptop doesn't survive the drop, hermetic sealing and glue mean you lose accessibility to get in and locate the problem. Accessibility together with user upgradeable parts, extends the life of the machine both in terms of lifespan and usefulness.

I didn't hear that, I figured it out. Why does modern manufacturing practice make things more and more sealed and non-user serviceable? Answer: to make them more foolproof. Who are the fools? Answer: the user. 

I"m not saying that Jony Ive thinks we're fools, by the way, just that as an honest designer, he's resorting to this design for the benefit of the product, and thus the user. I prefer anything I use to be fixable with my own hands and I still rebuild my own VW engines, but I realize that this is not the trend of the wider world. So I let it go and don't carp about my wife's Toyota. And I don't blame Apple if my phone breaks if I drop it, either. I know they tried. 

Glue is used to shave mm off the thinness of the machine. Making them inaccessible only serves Apple, not the user. 

sirozha said:

Apple CarPlay would be much more appealing if they allowed Waze on it. Apple Maps has been awful since its inception. I occasionally try it, and it fails almost 100% of the time - at least in Georgia. Waze is accurate almost 100% of the time. 

Apple made a huge mistake by not buying Waze. 

Here in Georgia, people using Apple Maps is a laughing stock. They always get lost and are always late. When someone complains of being navigated to the wrong location, the first advice given is, "Stop using Apple Maps". 

I hear Apple Maps is decent in California. Perhaps it's true, but not in the rest of the country. 

CarPlay without decent navigation is useless. 

duervo said:

g-news said:

As a PR specialist myself, I can't blame them for leaving.

Agreed. After things like saying in the iPhone 7 keynote that headphone jack removal was the future, and then about 2 months later releasing MacBook Pro's that still had it in them ... kinda hard to look good when trying to explain that.

People can justify that particular item anyway they like to coincide with their views, but can't much argue the fact that it sends a contradictory signal to the general public.

dysamoria said:

I hope that stupid car project is killed. Waste of resources in a company that knows nothing about automotive design/engineering, who should be putting resources into making professional computers and finding a new lead designer that isn't pathologically obsessed with irrational notions...

rogifan_new said:

Kuo strikes again. This wouldn't surprise me though. I can't wait for the day when Apple is focused on making the best products possible not margins. It would be a shame if this product didn't get refreshed because it was too popular and didn't have high enough margins. But I get it, Apple makes more profit than anyone in history and that's all that's matters these days.