sirozha

I’m having this problem with a band of dust along the right edge of the 27” Apple LED Cinema Display. The dust is not between the LED display and the outer glass cover. It’s actually inside (or behind) the LED display itself. 

StrangeDays said:

entropys said:

It certainly is a dilemma. My daughters’ MBAs are getting on, and maybe new machines would make good Christmas presents. If the MBP had a third gen keyboard (thus theoretically more reliable for life in a school bag) and a current gen processor it would not be a debate. 

They would miss the light up logo regardless.

Heavens.

I am also sorely tempted to make the leap to windows for a spectre. Built like a Mac even though it is win10 and has a crappy trackpad in comparison to a Mac.  But it’s selling points are it isn’t compromised when it comes to price, ports and CPU power.

Yeah instead it just runs a crappy OS and has crappier features. Just as good as a Mac... 

How does using standard, non-proprietary USB-C ports now make the MBP “compromised?” It used to be the case that haters and pundits criticized Macs for using proprietary ports, how times have changed. 

The price isnt compromised, either. As a working professional I pay for premium tools. The TCO is lower as numerous corporate white papers and my own experience has shown. Crappy commodity PCs give what you pay for...

Except for the MacBook Ait is not a professional laptop, and students are not working professionals. MacBook Air needs to start at $999 and the hugest-end model with a 512 GB drive and 16 GB SSD should be $1399. That would make it appealing to non-professionals. Otherwise, it’s an overpriced low-end laptop. 

Mike Wuerthele said:

michelb76 said:

"In the future, Apple will probably have this opportunity to reduce costs by dropping Intel." I bet you that Apple's CPU/GPU won't be much cheaper. We're already paying a premium for the iOS devices. CPU cost is not the issue.

But yet, we aren't. The Apple TV is $169.

$169 is one trip to a grocery store. The Apple TV will last you for 3-4 years. This price is ridiculously low for the quality of the box.

I wish Apple would price their other gadgets with the same approach. We shouldn't complain about the price of the Apple TV. Let's instead focus on how ridiculously overpriced the iPhones and Macs are. If Apple can drop $200 off their current low-end Macs by using their own chips, that would make a tremendous difference. Apple should also stop gouging for upgrades in RAM and SSD. I'm actually surprised they are getting away with that sort of strategy by soldering in RAM and SSD and then gouging for anything but the lowest-end configuration. If the government can't punish Tim Cook for this sort of extortion, the customers will. It's time for the shareholders to sound an alarm. 

Mike Wuerthele said:

sirozha said:

macplusplus said:

ascii said:

cornchip said:

sirozha said:

tht said:

sirozha said:

The way that Apple can make some serious cash is by making 5K monitors with speakers, microphone, camera, and Thunderbolt 3 ports. Basically, reuse the iMac body or maybe make it slimmer in the back, price the 27” version at $999 and sell millions of them. I can’t believe Apple leaves so much cash on the table but yet raises the pricing on everything else. Apple has all the tech ready for such a monitor already. It’s just about leveraging what’s already out there and creating a new stream of revenue without any significant R&D costs or time. 

Why let LG grab this 5K monitor market? Doesn’t make any sense. This is just pure and simple lack of understanding of what the Apple ecosystem should be like and the laziness to make extra money. Just absolutely horrible “leadership” by Tim Cook. 

Yes. Abandoning making branded displays since 2013 is one of those gigantic mistakes that someone hopefully writes a book about. The time period between 2012 to 2016 had some rather serious management issues regarding Apple’s PC hardware. There was bound to be some chaos after Jobs passed away and Cook reorganized the management structure, but it bled on for 4 years in certain parts of the company (Macs, iPads, Siri, other distractions). There definitely needs to be a book.

But you should tone it down regarding Cook. He’s the best CEO in Silicon Valley, if not the world. Really, I can’t think of anyone else who has his mixture of ethics and success. He should be lauded for that, continuously. There are issues - the car project likely being more of a distraction than it should have - but those are normal for all large organizations.

I shouldn’t tone it down because I
mean it. I see a train wreck at the end of the tunnel if Cook continues to be the CEO. 

Dude. They’re coming out with a display next year. Cool yer jets.

I have been wondering about the coming Apple monitor. Will it be a mainstream (but good) monitor, e.g. the iMac 5K screen but in a separate enclosure, or will it be an all-out Pro monitor, wide gamut US$2000 type thing? Because Apple have been making the Mac more of a pro tool and also putting up prices in general.

You already answered your question. 5K, wide gamut, all types of HDR and alike. Those looking for cheap monitor can go 4K over USB 3.1. The trend is towards highest integration and higher prices, not towards "downsizing" and cheaper, at least with Apple.

When Apple came out with the LED Cinema and Thunderbolt displays for $999, the price was considered sky-high. Hey, back then a $500 iPhone was considered outrageously expensive. Now we are begging Cook to keep the lower-end iPhone pricing in the sub-thousand-dollar range. I guess in 2018, no one is holding their breath for a $1,000 5K Apple-branded monitor. Is it going to cost $1999?

Cook has lost his mind. To whom is he planning to sell Apple gadgets at these prices? Certainly there won’t be much volume at these prices. 

The LG 5K UltraFine retails for $1299.

I'm well aware of it. This price is due to the monopoly that Apple has afforded to LG to produce the only Apple-endorsed 5K monitor. My point exactly is that Apple should not leave money on the table. The $1299 price for a plasticky monitor with mediocre reviews (just look at the Apple store reviews) is a travesty.

The cheapest iMac that features a 27" 5K LED monitor, i5 quad-core CPU, 8GB RAM, 256 GB SSD) is $1721 (without the bundled keyboard and mouse). Subtract from $1721 the cost of the actual computer parts (based on the price of the 2018 Mac Mini ($799) similarly equipped: i3 quad-core CPU, 8 GB RAM, 256 GB SSD), and you get $922. Then, add the cost of the parts required for the monitor's Thunderbolt capability, and you will get to the sweet spot of about $999. Based on these calculations, it's easy to see that the LG monitor is overpriced by about $400, given the fact that it is housed in an ugly plastic body. The fair price for the LG 5K UltraFine monitor is $899, not $1299.

If Apple released their own 27" 5K LED monitor based on the current iMac design, they would not lose much of the ASP compared to the ASP that they are selling their lowest-end iMac at. In fact, a lot of folks would prefer buying a Mac Mini to pair it with the Apple's 5K LED monitor instead of buying an iMac because the former combination makes much more sense, as the computer can be upgraded within a couple years while the monitor can be kept for 10 years. 

The 5K monitor will probably be relevant for the next 10 years, as the 1080p monitors still being sold have been around for at least a decade now or perhaps even longer. The component costs for such a monitor will be reduced with time, so the ASP of such a monitor will be gradually increasing for years to come. 

Of course, Apple can also release a higher-end professional-level monitor and charge $2000 or more for it, but there needs to be a sub-$1000 27" 5K LED monitor from Apple that works flawlessly with the current generation of Thunderbolt Macs and also looks good on the desk unlike the ugly LG UltraFie monitor. The most mind-blowing part of this is that Apple doesn't need to invest anything to design such a monitor. They can literally reuse the current iMac body and the current iMac display panel or they can spend a few million dollars and shrink the depth and the bezels of the current iMac body design for the 5K monitor. In latter case, the ROI would be ridiculously high, as Apple can literally sell over a million monitors in just the first quarter it goes on sale. 

macplusplus said:

ascii said:

cornchip said:

sirozha said:

tht said:

sirozha said:

The way that Apple can make some serious cash is by making 5K monitors with speakers, microphone, camera, and Thunderbolt 3 ports. Basically, reuse the iMac body or maybe make it slimmer in the back, price the 27” version at $999 and sell millions of them. I can’t believe Apple leaves so much cash on the table but yet raises the pricing on everything else. Apple has all the tech ready for such a monitor already. It’s just about leveraging what’s already out there and creating a new stream of revenue without any significant R&D costs or time. 

Why let LG grab this 5K monitor market? Doesn’t make any sense. This is just pure and simple lack of understanding of what the Apple ecosystem should be like and the laziness to make extra money. Just absolutely horrible “leadership” by Tim Cook. 

Yes. Abandoning making branded displays since 2013 is one of those gigantic mistakes that someone hopefully writes a book about. The time period between 2012 to 2016 had some rather serious management issues regarding Apple’s PC hardware. There was bound to be some chaos after Jobs passed away and Cook reorganized the management structure, but it bled on for 4 years in certain parts of the company (Macs, iPads, Siri, other distractions). There definitely needs to be a book.

But you should tone it down regarding Cook. He’s the best CEO in Silicon Valley, if not the world. Really, I can’t think of anyone else who has his mixture of ethics and success. He should be lauded for that, continuously. There are issues - the car project likely being more of a distraction than it should have - but those are normal for all large organizations.

I shouldn’t tone it down because I
mean it. I see a train wreck at the end of the tunnel if Cook continues to be the CEO. 

Dude. They’re coming out with a display next year. Cool yer jets.

I have been wondering about the coming Apple monitor. Will it be a mainstream (but good) monitor, e.g. the iMac 5K screen but in a separate enclosure, or will it be an all-out Pro monitor, wide gamut US$2000 type thing? Because Apple have been making the Mac more of a pro tool and also putting up prices in general.

You already answered your question. 5K, wide gamut, all types of HDR and alike. Those looking for cheap monitor can go 4K over USB 3.1. The trend is towards highest integration and higher prices, not towards "downsizing" and cheaper, at least with Apple.

When Apple came out with the LED Cinema and Thunderbolt displays for $999, the price was considered sky-high. Hey, back then a $500 iPhone was considered outrageously expensive. Now we are begging Cook to keep the lower-end iPhone pricing in the sub-thousand-dollar range. I guess in 2018, no one is holding their breath for a $1,000 5K Apple-branded monitor. Is it going to cost $1999?

Cook has lost his mind. To whom is he planning to sell Apple gadgets at these prices? Certainly there won’t be much volume at these prices.