Slashdot Mirror
Porsche Designs a Laptop
An anonymous reader writes "Cnet is reporting that BestBuy is selling a porsche designed widescreen ultra thin laptop the looks almost exactly like a Tibook. Sadly, it runs windows so no one will actually want to use one for real work, but it looks pretty cool for minesweeper. Ah, I guess that the TiBook is no longer a status symbol if you can run Windows on it. It has all the trimmings, like those "made for windows 2k stickers" that get the screen all nasty when you close it."
Thats what I want to know before I switch.
Ursula Andress, Catherine Deneuve, and Charo, twice...
I expect Mac rip-offs from companies like Compaq and eMachines. But Porche? It's bad enough that they've designed a laptop for Best Buy. (What business is Porche in, anyhow?) But to just blatently rip off the TiBook design is pathetic.
-Waldo Jaquith
It is hard to take this post seriously when all it does is bash Windows. It is fine not to like you Windows, but you don't have to make it that using Windows is the crime of the century.
Then you could run OSX on top of you w2k porsche book while the guy next to you runs 2k to manage a server by using Virtual PC on his Ti book.... I'm not touching the recursive possibilities
Note that it is designed by Porsche Design GmbH, not the car company. This is a company founded by the car company's founder's grandson, and appears to have no connection, other than the name.
If I got that notebook, I'd just install Linux on it, so I might as well get a tiBook and put Linux ppc on it instead, since it looks nicer.
This post is the equivalent of moderating the story as "-1 Troll"
I mean, come on! you like linux and hate windows (or at least you want this crowd to think you do), the very worst way to make others see things your way is to simply slam the "other system" with absolutely ZERO arguments or logic. Yeah, windows sucks, because, well, it does! and nobody who does REAL work uses it!
What you think Alan Greenspan doesn't use Excel??????
There are two kinds of people in the world: Those with good memory.
The laptop looks damned fine, I've been looking for a widescreen to father my children (so they can play at the proper aspect ratio).
Mod me down, and I will become more powerful than you can possibly imagine!
Cmr Taco again shows bigotry...
Porsche will design a penis. It will be faster than any other penis around, and cost about twice as much. Unfortunately, it will run Windows, making it useless for anything other than autostimulation. No real women for that thing, what if it has a Blue Dick of Death?
whether it runs Windows or not. When you have one of the following:
- Balding man in his forties with a mid-life crisis.
- Young drug-dealing piece of shit.
- Spoiled little collega brat.
I like Porsches. Too bad by the time I can afford one I'll be too old to get away with it...
People replying to my sig annoy me. That's why I change it all the time.
from the post:
Sadly, it runs windows so no one will actually want to use one for real work
and:
It has all the trimmings, like those "made for windows 2k stickers" that get the screen all nasty when you close it.
what do stickers have to do with anything? and whats the point of saying you cant do work on it? are those comments just so CmdrTaco will put the story up? slashdot is pathetic.
My Porsche car gets me laid..... can we assume the same about this Porsche Notebook? If so, I can see us geeks buying these babies by the dozen!
NO! NO! Please don't mod me, I'm too young to die a troll. *click* Oh the pain, the pain...
from an ac on macslash
"what's the big deal? so it's got the same size and aspect display, and it's got a slot-loading CDR/DVD. it's also nearly a pound heavier and thicker too! i fail to see how this is in any way a TiBook "killer"."
m.kelley
life is like a freeway, if you don't look you could miss it.
From the article
The VPR Matrix 200A5 is the third notebook Best Buy has created, and it's the best.
A few lines further down.
The notebook was designed by Porsche Design GmbH, the Austrian firm founded by F.A. Porsche, grandson of the famous engineer.
Now if Porsche designed it how could Best Buy have created it, or vice versa?
"Sadly, it runs windows so no one will actually want to use one for real work, but it looks pretty cool for minesweeper"
I'd like to point out here that the notebook in question seems ideal for CmdrTaco's needs. Stop being haughty.
-Shaunak.
Hell, I'm putting dos on mine! wo0t!
Money not found! A)bort, R)etry, D)eclare Bankruptcy
So what if the thing comes with Windows. If you really dislike Windows that much, you can always wipe the hard drive and install your favorite *nix distribution- Redhat, Debian, FreeBSD, etc. I realize that you're still paying the MS tax, but the overall price still works out to less than a TiBook.
There's no point in questioning authority if you aren't going to listen to the answers.
BestBuy is selling a Porsche designed widescreen ultra thin laptop the looks almost exactly like a Tibook. Sadly, it runs Windows
Finally, I'll be able to crash a Porsche and be able to walk away.
Any hope of getting an OS free version?
Work for Change & GET PAID!
I am getting ULTRA sick of this MS bashing crap. "so no-one wil want to use for for real work". GROW UP. You know, of all the people I know who refuse to read Slashdot, EVERY one of them cites the immature constant bashing going on as the main reason why they do not read this site. And posting that crap on the main page just makes it worse. Oh and for the record, the company that makes those laptops also sells a Tower designed by Porsche, however the good features stop there, it's nice they included RAID arrays in some of their high end machines, and ALL their motherboards (even the low end) supported RAID, but the systems themselves got rather flaky. Anyways, keep up the immature work!
"The saddest words of mice and men, are not those which were, but should have been."
A post like this is mind numbing when it's so blatantly and ignorantly bashing windows. I'm really disappointed that /. would even take the time to post such a bias article.
/. post something that isn't moronic Anti-Microsoft propaganda, or even perhaps *gasp* play devils advocate against Linux!
For once I would like to see the
This thing weights in at 6.4lbs a full pound heavier than the TiBook. No mention of what the battery life will be like.
If this is like any of the other Apple based knockoffs its just going to be all show and no go. Granted performance wise it should do rather well compared to the G4800, but how long can it run?
"Unlike most of you, I am not a nut." - Homer J. Simpson
After the iMac came out. Every company did a nock off. They all failed. Now there is a nock off of the Apple Titantium Power Book. I think it will fail too. And not just because this economy sucks.
Because it lacks that certain refinment that makes the Apple Titantium Power Book so nice. Same with the majority of Apple's products. There is a certain attention to detail that shows up in the product from Apple, that you don't find in other vendors products. That is what makes Apple's products special.
Sadly, it runs windows so no one will actually want to use one for real work,
Right, because NOBODY uses Windows at work.
Like somebody else said, it's fine if you don't like Windows, but comments like these just make you look stupid.
rooooar
1) Take ho-hum commodity Wintel laptop
2) Add knockoff of Apple's industrial design
?
3) Profit!
"How to Do Nothing," kids activities, back in print!
Is it me or is this thing really ugly ?
I didn't even read the specs.
The picture just scared me off.
OK,
I just read the specs now.
15" display ?
1280x854 resolution ?
Slot-in CD/DVD ?
No 3D acceleration ?
Common, for that money I can buy a ThinkPad A30p and that actually looks sleek....
On the other side of the screen it all looked so easy.
Mostly Sharper Image items if I recall. I remember going into the Sharper Image store in Mpls. and seeing a whole pile of it. It was really shoddy stuff.
Kind of like all the "Harley Davidson" licenced items. Basically slap a name on something and sell to the rabid fans who will buy anything.
I'm a fan of the cars, sure. But the licenced stuff is crap. With a capital Crap.
... that Porche designers might have been able to come up with something that was at least slightly original. Sounds to me like they just copied the TiBook and tacked on the Porche name. Apple should should be the ones getting the credit for an innovative design.
Find me in ~/.sig
"porsche", not "porche"...those are 2 different companies. One is making design....the other one, cars.
Retailer Best Buy is aiming to take a bite out of Apple Computer with the release of a new, wide-screen notebook designed by Porsche.
Considering that Best Buy was/is the first retailer to sell iPods (Target having been recently announced as the second), I'd think they'd not want to risk slighting Apple with something like this. Even without the CNet article saying so, this laptop is clearly and squarely aimed at what is probably Apple's highest-margin computer.
The notebook was designed by Porsche Design GmbH
More accurately, it was re-designed by them.
Sadly, it runs windows so no one will actually want to use one for real work
Oh the monomania runs deep here...
"it runs windows so no one will actually want to use one for real work"
So, I should install Apache and sit it in the corner of the world's most dangerous server room.
While I have a lot of respect for Porche (though I'd never drive one of their cars - I'm just a "back and forth, no need to make up for my small penis size" car guy), I haven't seen much on this laptop compared to the Apple Titanium to make me give up my OS X slim box o' wonder.
The Porche box does not come with 802.11 b and Firewire installed, and is a pound heavier than the Apple Titanium. (Note I'm not putting in the whole "Runs OS X or Not argument.)
So while you can give props to Porche for "innovating" (what, hadn't you heard - innovation means "rip off what the other guy did only make it crappy), I don't see myself giving up my Unix command shell for this.
Just my opinion, of course. I could be wrong.
Porche Laptop:
52 Weeks, 52 Religions with John Hummel
The "article":
PowerBook G4 specs: weighs 5.4 pounds and measures 13.4 inches wide, 9.5 inches deep, and 1.0 inch thick.
It's still smaller and lighter.
CmdrTaco: "I'm bored, heehee watch me start a flame war."
Posters: "We'll take that flame war! And we'll raise you 40 off-topic posts!"
Operator, give me the number for 911!
> "Sadly, it runs windows so no one will actually want to use one for real work, but it looks pretty cool for minesweeper"
What a moronic, uninformed, asshatted, mac-fanboy troll of a post. Way to go Taco.
I don't need no instructions to know how to rock!!!!
Will it run in MPH? What kind of torque does it have. I bet if it gets too hot one of those spoilers will lift automatically and make the PC cooloer. mmmmm prosche
WTPOUAWYHTTOTWPA
What's the point of using acronyms when you have to type out the whole phrase anyways?
Does Kia come out with one?
But what is it about this that is supposed to look like Apple's TiBook? I mean, they both look like laptops. I guess they both have a screen and keyboard in common. And a trackpad in approximately the same spot. They both have metal cases (of different materials). Other than that, they look completely different.
Are you Apple people so desperate that you have to take credit for everything no matter how far the stretch?
Sometimes it's best to just let stupid people be stupid.
So OSX can't play DVDs ?
Cause BSD plays them nicely on my widescreen TV.
Or what was that "[an]other OS" ?
On the other side of the screen it all looked so easy.
You, sir, are worse than Goodwin!
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
"Ouch ! What do you do ?"
Uh, doesn't Windows 2k get your screen all nasty when you open it? :-)
Another non-functioning site was "uncertainty.microsoft.com."
The purpose of that site was not known.
Both OSX and MacOS support full screen playback just fine on my TiBook. Troll.
Has anything like this ever happened before. A manufacturer of high performance cars (or any car for that matter) starts making computers.
For me, this really brings down the quality of porches. Anybody else feel that way?
Oh you Linux people! Zealots!!!! I do real work with Windows. I love Windows! I don't know why I even come here and have to read this stuff. I hate /.'ers.
Jesus, lighten up.
I'm not an audiophile, but I know high-quality sound when I hear it. That's definitely the case with the VPR Matrix 200A5, thanks to the Sonopür Digital Audio system, with its patent-pending 24/192 upsampling technology. This system dramatically enhances digital music and offers very rich sound.
I'm not a stable hand, but I know horse shit when I smell it.
I mean, I know I'm supposed to either be 'ooh'-ing or 'aah'-ing, but the best I can manage is a 'hwah?' Sonopür? What, does the umlaut act as a built-in sounding board for the thumping, thumping base this ultraslim laptop undoubtedly cranks out? Upsampling and high fidelity used in the same sentence? Right.
Hey, cnet! I've got this little Gaussian blur filt--uh, I mean, JPEG Edge Enhancement System, with patent-pending Blürfexxion(tm) technology! Care to give me a writeup?
Obliteracy: Words with explosions
...that I can correct. It's the choice of CPU that bugs me. Put in an Athlon XP, Best Buy, and we'll talk.
why the infatuation with macs/apple?
"apple produces it so it must be good"
mac os x = trendy
ipod = next logical step in mp3 players
imac = ugly joke
tibook = excellent thin laptop, with a pretty decent price
firewire = excellent interface
but it doesnt matter, i violated the cardinal rule, Steve Jobs is the second comming and apple never stole tech from other companies.
microsoft just stole it from apple, yeah well apple just stole it from xerox, so shut the fuck up
Boy, a lot of people have been jumping all over the following quote from the original post ...
;-)
Sadly, it runs windows so no one will actually want to use one for real work
As many have pointed out, the majority of the world (to their eternal shame) actually does use Windows to do their work.
However, I will stand by the original poster and observe that precious few of them wanted to use Windows.
Heck, pretty few of them even wanted to do their work in the first place and using Windows is rarely a satisfying experience in and of itself.
Just because they did it, didn't mean that they wanted to
Really this doesn't look that different from the Toshiba I bought. Except my toshiba doesn't have a metalic case. Therefor I save some $s and upgrade the RAM. Seems kind of silly to me whatever OS you're running.
THIS SPACE FOR RENT
Why is this laptop review even relevant? It's not like the design is particularly unique or even remotely eccentric. Further, it doesn't even look like a designer product. It looks like every other ultra-thin laptop on the market. Would you buy a Porsche if it looked like a Chevy?
--
I just removed /. from my bookmarks. The childish rhetoric has gotten out of hand.
Nobody does real work on Windows. Yeah, whatever. And I hear developers just rave about the Java2 SDK for Mac.
/. allows us to moderate stories as well as comments, so that blatant flamebait such as this never shows up on the home page. Every time an editor posts crap like this the site loses a little more of its credibility.
If you don't like Windows, fine. I don't like it much, myself, but I have to use it. But if you want to talk out of your ass about who can do real work on what OS, leave it for the comments.
I think it's high time
What exactly did Porche design if they just ripped off Apple's design?
It still doesn't seem as sexy as a TiBook to me. Apple's offering is sleek and flat and thinner. The titanium is all over, including inside. This Porche computer has those funky bevels on top, lots of plastic, and all those bulky, should-be-outmoded serial connections wide open in the back.
But it is kind of retro in that, technically, it's air-cooled like an original 911.
----------
Cheese it! It's the FEDS!
If it supports FreeBSD or Linux it's worth a look. It would have been nice if it used the ATI Mobile 9000 chipset instead of the Gefore 4 GO but...
I'd still probably rather get a real PowerBook though :)
Eddy.WriteLinux.Com
Microsoft done a fair job of that themselfs.
Richest man in the world runs a cheeting company that more-or-less forces you to use there product under there terms.
If that's not crime of the century what is?
Rather, boxy things. Every porchse car is curvy, arguably even too curvy. This laptop is all sharp angles. It's a pizza box. I don't see "Porsche" in it at all, except perhaps in frequency of crashes.....
--- What?
They're a blast to drive.
Blar.
Since 99.999999% of the world's business use Microsoft Office, I'd wager to say this will be just fine for work.
Since 100% of Macintoshes run Office, and new versions of Office are released first on MacOS...
Besides, why would you want to use a nice widescreen display with another OS that doesn't even support DVD playback?
MPlayer and Xine(just two off the top of my head) beg to differ. First thing I did with my hand-built linux box was play a copy of the Matrix.
By the way, Mplayer is about 1000 times easier to use than Windows Media Player, which never seems to get codecs straight. Hell, it even plays realmedia if you snag the windows DLL's. I've been able to play far more video file formats with mplayer and xine than I have with WMP.
CPU utilization is lower, too- the mplayer and xvid guys are almost fanatical about performance. Watching a 45 minute/450MB file takes up about 2-3% of an 1300mhz athlon.
So now that the Windows World has put out something comparable to the TiBook, where are all the rabid "Macs are too pricey compared to PCs people..."
Oh wait. Maybe the $2399 price tag shut them up.
I guess the $100 dollars more for TiBook nets you firewire and gigE.
I'll try not to gloat. honest.
* We dance where angels fear to tread *
I come see here every day... MS that MS this...what is the point of coming to this site.
I really don't think the type of bashing going on here is healthy for the community as a whole, and its spreading to real life. I seriously cant stand talking to someone who has to roll his eyes everytime I say the word Windows to them.
I just looked at the thing... sans maybe the silver outside (the inside being black), it doesn't resemble the TiBook as much as I originally thought from reading the post.
A while back I saw the Winbook X2 and that looked a hella like the TiBook... and definately more so than what we have here.
Best Buy should offer free cosmetics to anyone buying one of these knock-offs, to cover up that greenish tinge caused by the buyer's envy of all those TiBook users out there...
:)
Posted from a TiBook, of course.
"Fifty million Americans can't be wrong," said Rep. Billy Tauzin. Gore - 50,999,897 Bush - 50,456,002
If you're gonna pay the premium to buy an Apple notebook, why the hell would you put Linux on it when you've got a perfectly crunchy BSD distro in Mac OS X?!! If you're going to put Linux on a notebook, go for the hardware with the most bang for the buck.
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
See, vpr Matrix for thier press release. Other notebooks are also available as well as desktops. Some nice looking PCs, IMO.
I have the coffee maker that they made for Toastmaster. Although its embarassing to have the Porsche name on the pot (what, you couldn't afford the car, so you got this?), it looks great and makes the best drip coffee of anything I've tried.
:)
I'll be waiting for it to hit the bargain racks, and pick one up
It seems to me like the advertisements on /. are themed to the story content by a keyword algorithm. Maybe a high frequency of Windows or MS bashing in a post is to simultaneously and ironically dis the product and garner those ad $$$? :-)
Trouble making decisions? Just flip for it.
....but it's hella fast :)
-R
...doesn't mean they can design good computers. I think the having the Porche name attached to it is merely a gimmick.
I can't tell you how many times I've picked up a date in my porche to have them run out of the car screaming when the onboard computer boots up windows.
Seriously, it's a nice looking machine, but if I'm leaning in that direction I'd probably lean all the way and get the real deal. Nice try, though.
Kinda makes we wanna go out and get one now... Naw, still drooling over Apple's TiBook.
I don't read ACs: If a post isn't worth so much as a nom de plume to its author then I wont bother either.
Mouse buttons.
It's a cute machine, but I need at least a 2 button mouse to comfortably use the software I need.
...have you even looked at the Porsche laptop? The only thing reminiscent of the Titanium Powerbook design is that both are rectangular.
What business is Porche in, anyhow?
This is a joke, right?
- A.P.
"Remember when the U.S. had a drug problem, and then we declared a War On Drugs, and now you can't buy drugs anymore?"
Perhaps someone should have informed Microsoft's Macintosh Business Unit of this...
It is hard to take this post seriously when all it does is bash Windows.
The article doesn't bash Windows the way Cygwin bashes Windows. Cygwin bash is better than the alternative.
you don't have to make it that using Windows is the crime of the century
For the poor, it is. A one-seat Windows XP license costs $300. If you use Windows without paying for it, you have committed either theft or copyright infringement.
Plus, you're not timothy.
Will I retire or break 10K?
I'll pick one up when they come out with Wireless 809.11 connections.
Isn't/wasn't Herbie an Apple Fellow?
What's he doing fraternizing with the enemy? Is he going to be shilling for this product like he was for the "room filling sound of the Bose Wave Radio" piece-of-carp?
I guess if I got an invite to the Porsche Design Boutique in Beverly Hills, I guess I might go, too.
---anactofgod---
---anactofgod---
"Equal opportunity swindling - *that* is the true test of a sustainable democracy."
Wow! Imagine installing KaZaa and downloading your favorite driving songs while driving!
:-) And maybe install spyware that allow your wife/parents/friends to track you. So there's no more ``I'm going to a friends house'' anymore. At least if you got a Porsche :-)
Not a good idea, someone could DoS your car and it would crash..
-- --
Was it just me that expected to see a red laptop?
You feel sleepy. Close your eyes. The opinions stated above are yours. You cannot imagine why you ever felt otherwise.
Best Buy, the same people who have their customers arrested for demanding the product they were sold (Ti4600 video boards, if memory serves right)?
No thank you.
You know, I hardly ever post on slashdot... actually never but I do check out the site at least 5 times a day to check up on news that effects the computing industry.
What people are saying here is slightly disturbing. I work for a BestBuy, in the computer department... I know that won't hold much ground but I do know what I am talking about. The VPR laptops are actually pretty good. Sure they run windows, but you must remember the average idiot customer will not care. What they want is the best hardware out there and I think VPR is hitting on it pretty good.
I personally put the two lower end ones on display.. they are a little on the heavy side, but I still believe they are better than the Toshibas and Sonys we sell. Well... one exception.. the new Sony laptop with a built in DVD+RW... I think its plus maybe minus I forget...
-- Josh
"Whoopie! Man, that may have been a small one for Neil, but that's a long one for me!" - Pete Conrad
Didn't they run something on the Nation of Apple lately? Sounds like some Anonymous Coward is a member. I am frankly amazed that someone would take the "high ground" on that and then be anonymous.
Anyway, the important part to me is that it has more standard parts, will probably run Linux in the near future, and I'll be able to use my software on it.
I know OS X is great and all, but when they start ripping away Classic support, buying all new software is going to suck.
I guess I suffer from animosity towards Apple in general because unless I buy overpriced hardware from Apple, I have to deal with wondering if drivers will work. I usually have rather poor selection choices in that regard, unless it's a core component, like a CD-ROM or hard drive. And then Error Type 2 or Error Type 11 open up enough cans of worms. Well, let's just say I'm glad that I'm not resposible for tech support on my wife's machine.
The power of accurate observation is commonly called cynicism by those who have not got it. - G.B. Shaw
It is just you, it isn't ugly at all in my opinion. I couldn't tell you for sure until I saw it in person, but from the pictures I thought it looks fine. Is your zealotry clouding your taste? I think it looks pretty cool. Besides blah blah blah hardware etc half the time slashdot rails against consumers for buying more than they need because hardware is so far ahead of software, the other half the time they reject computers for not being at the cutting edge. If you just want to get your office work done in a super cool looking way then go with it! Looks are more important to some than others, I recently bought a $200 printer not because it had features the ones at half the price didn't but because it was the cheapest one that looked good to me!
Photos.
Sex appeal (and price) aside, I think it's interesting that nobody seems to care that this thing is probably TWICE AS FAST as the vaunted apple. 2ghz mobile p4 vs. 800mhz ppc - and don't give me that "mhz don't matter" crap. As a heavy duty pixel pusher, SPEED MATTERS to me. Yes, Apple products are sexier, OSX is the bomb, etc... but how fast will it render my scene, dammit? Much as I'd like to, I won't even consider "switching" until I see some Apple benchmarks that at least come close to the best x86 hardware.
Porsche Design GmbH, the Austrian firm founded by F.A. Porsche, grandson of the famous engineer
This is not designed by Porsche (the car company responsible for some incredible cars), but rather Porsche Design the design company founded by a not-nearly-as-famous grandson. The only car-related work was a start-up project designing a plant that built 911's, not the car itself.
TiBook battery life?
TiBook operating temperature?
Considering it's based on a 2 GHz P4-M, I seriously doubt it.
TiBook sleep and wake behavior?
If it's running Windows or any Linux, I doubt it. One of the reasons I use an iBook is its wake from sleep time (two seconds) and its reliable sleep and wake behavior. I have NEVER lost work due to failure to wake from sleep, and my uptime is routinely in the multi-week range - I only reboot to install OS upgrades.
They can copy the chassis, but hardware/software fit and finish is MUCH harder to copy.
To a Lisp hacker, XML is S-expressions in drag.
I realize you're just karma-whoring for the "Funny" mods, but this is just lame.
... what's the '?' if not step 3? Step 2.5?).
First of all, you've screwed up the joke (there are only 3 steps, not 4, and you didn't even bother numbering the third one
Secondly, your post isn't even funny, because it probably pretty much IS their business model, and it's not a terribly bad one at that. Pretty much anyone can take a "ho-hum" Wintel laptop, leech a couple good design ideas from here and there, and with the proper marketing and bundling, will usually come out ahead (i.e., "profit").
You're lucky I don't have any moderator points or you'd already be off the map as a "-1 Troll" (Slashdot needs a "-1 Karmawhore" moderation)
Like woodworking? Build your own picture frames.
Most laptop manufacturers put their logo on the case of the laptop. Take a look at the Apple, Dell, or Compaq badges on many notebooks. So, the question is:
If I want to ultimate in sexy notebook computers, it better dress the part!WHERE IS THE PORSCHE SHIELD? I would love to have one of these with that famous shield emblazened on the top.
What's with the squiggley mark thing on the top? Is that a logo or did CNet just grab a screw driver and scrape it in a squiggley line on the top of the thing? Ick.
Yeah I understand it... we came across this at work when the new VPR systems with RAID came out. Nice systems, however the first line had problems... no idea why. THe new ones are excellent though.
-- Josh
"Whoopie! Man, that may have been a small one for Neil, but that's a long one for me!" - Pete Conrad
While it's nice to think it's Apple who has "certain attention to detail", you might want to check that Apple hired IDEO to do a lot of their design work. So really, it's just that Apple was smart enough to hire a _good_ industrial design firm.
It's substantially thicker and heavier than a TiBook. And yes, IMHO, it's ugly.
It's ugly as all Hell.
It's too damn expensive.
I betchya it's lots of fun to play with.
And when I turn it on, I'll have lots of SEX
Probably with myself most of the time...
I hope Best Buy didn't pay PDB a lot of money to come up with the conceptual "design" for this laptop. I mean, how much conceptualizing does it take for a "designer" to copy (yet again) a form-factor that Apple pioneered?
I wonder what else the Porsche Design Boutique has created. Based of this one data point, I'd rather go with IDEO or Frog. At least they do original work.
---anactofgod---
---anactofgod---
"Equal opportunity swindling - *that* is the true test of a sustainable democracy."
The new porsche computer is elegant and functional and has a low end price of $30,000 for the computer Aficionado.
---- Berlin Brown http://www.newspiritcompany.
Porsche has been involved in lots of non-car products. One that sticks out in my mind was a full-suspension mountain bike. I don't remember how involved they were with the design, but I know it was produced by a bike manufacturer. They tossed Porsche stickers on it, and added it as an option.
For future articles, could we keep the level of bullshit to a tolerable amount? Some of us actually lead productive lives with Windows. I know what parts of it suck, just like I know what parts of Linux suck.
I hope you are being sarcastic. Otherwise you should be thrown out of this forum for even making that remark.
As for MS being used in 99.999% bullshit. I think that you need to get out more. I also think that you bought MS's brainwashing hook, line and sinker.
As for the DVD support. I think you need to open your eyes. I am running a dvd across my network at home as I type this. It runs fine in Linux. I can't windows to play across the network without a great deal of hacking and cursing.
Sometimes /. is a little too biased. It's ok to bash windows but try not be such an idiot about the situation. If anyone gets the porsche catalog every month then they know porsche sells everything from watches to bikes. A market does exist for these types of things and the buyers care more about the brand name than the value of the product.
I've never seen a "Porsche designed" item that looked nice and made me want to touch it. They are just sculptures that are created simply to make you think of the designer. Ego, not function.
Porsche Design seems to favor large hunks of stainless steel, sharp angles, and whenever possible, exposed rivets and screws, to give things an "industrial" look. Why would you design something for human use that looks mechanical, cold, and uninviting?
If they want to even get near Apple's ballpark, they have to get rid of the angular bevels on the top of the case and the sharp corners (unless of course they don't want people to pick it up).
I see they made the frame around the monitor a little wider than every other laptop these days, probably so they could show off some nice fat screws! Hopefully those screw holes are finished so you don't catch your shirt (or skin) on the edge.
And putting functional buttons on the outside of a closed laptop is dubious. Again, subconciously, you're afraid to pick it up a certain way, because you might start the CD player. It's not closed and protected, even when the top is done.
That two-tone color scheme looks plain awful. Black keyboards are hard to see, and especially on a laptop, some keys are in different places than a full-size keyboard, and you need to see them clearly. Maybe Porsche just designed the top?
Yup, this laptop just screams "look at me. and then leave me right here".
I'll take the thinkpad next to it, thanks. It probably has better specs too.
Mac OS X plays DVDs, and runs Office V.X, of course. Am I feeding a troll???
(When you're up to six question marks for one question, it's usually time to cut off the caffeine intake for a few hours.)
Anyway, exactly how controversial are Microsoft and Windows, really? Is it really still necessary to reel off the complete litany of security flaws, interface abominations and assorted bugs, not to mention years of blatantly anticompetitive and outright illegal "features," every single time one dares to refer to Windows in anything less than an enthusiastically positive light?
If someone says something like "your socks stink worse than the Cincinatti Bengals," do you jump all over them for "slamming" the Bengals "with absolutely ZERO arguments or logic?"
At some point crappiness just speaks for itself, really.
Do ya think I can get it to run on a 6v system?
I agree that Thinkpads are awfully nice inside. I presume you mean the internals. They pretty easy to take apart (I've seem some that hinge apart!) and you're not forced to break little strategically placed plastic tabs while doing so. The web page even has the servicing guide online.
But I think they look nice from the outside too. You like a TiBook for its 'minimalism'. Thinkpads are equally so. You have the matte black rubber coating for safety and one logo in the corner. Ever see the top of an HPaq? Medallions and contrasting inserts and trim and such.
There isn't much debate about notebook keyboards. For long Thinkpad and Toshiba keyboards have been considered high watermarks of laptop keyboards. You can't have a low profile if you want some key travel which gives it a better feel. You need to slight clutter of mouse buttons because you have the trackpoint. Consumers are voting with their pocketbooks for trackpoints on Thinkpads, so they can't very well switch to a trackpad (notwithstanding the T30 combination-abortion).
I don't understand people who rip on Thinkpads. Sure the A series is a litle fat. But it's made for one market. For a lower cost than a TiBook you can buy a T-series. Nothing beats a T-series for looks. A TiBook is a nice looking notebook. But a TiBook isn't sexy. People are sexy. TiBooks are fads.
It has all the trimmings, like those "made for windows 2k stickers" that get the screen all nasty when you close it.
for those annoying stickers
...have you even looked at the Porsche laptop? The only thing reminiscent of the Titanium Powerbook design is that both are rectangular.
I strongly disagree, A.P. Much of the design is strikingly similar, though shoddy by comparison, IMHO.
* Same unusual dimensions.
* Same widescreen format.
* Same keyboard placement relatively to the body shape.
* Same rectangular, curve-free format.
* Same silvery body.
* Same slot-loading CD drive
It's not in any way nuts to say that this design is highly derivative.
>> What business is Porche in, anyhow?
This is a joke, right?
Of course not. It was a legitimate question. I was under the impression that they were in the car-manufacturing business. Fortunately, others have replied and pointed out that Porsche Design GmbH, is more or less unrelated to the auto manufacturer, and is actually in the business of designing things other than cars for third parties. No joke, just a question, one to which I got a satisfactory response.
-Waldo Jaquith
My car isn't a Porsche, but my computer is. Does this mean I will have hot chicks now?
i've been a geek and around geeks for long enough to know that we can be terrible assholes, mostly due to our insecurities. often times it's confused with "elitism" or "zealotry" when all we're trying to do is build defensive barrriers against being judged.
...". we swap confidence with materialism, hoping we'll be judged by what we own instead of who we are.
this also manifests itself with a love for material objects, e.g. "Ah, I guess that the TiBook is no longer a status symbol
seriously, slashdot posters tend to be the most materialistic around. i'd point out examples, but they're easy to pick out; people mention what they bought, what they own, and often times including full part numbers.
we're shallow, scared, insecure brats.
I know this is comparing apples to oranges (or something like that), but here goes:
BestBuy price: $2,399
Apple's price: $2,499
BestBuy size: 1.2 x 10 x 13.9"
Apple's size: 1.0 x 9.5 x 13.4"
BestBuy weight: 6.4 pounds
Apple's weight: 5.4 pounds
BestBuy case: Silver-magnesium
Apple's case: Titanium
BestBuy battery life: 3 hours 15 minutes
Apple's battery life: 4 hours (realistically)
BestBuy CPU: 2GHz Pentium 4-M
Apple's CPU: 667MHz PowerPC G4
BestBuy RAM: 512MB DDR SDRAM
Apple's RAM: 256MB SDRAM
BestBuy HD: 40GB hard drive
Apple's HD: 30GB IBM hard drive
BestBuy wireless: Integrated 802.11b
Apple's wireless: 802.11b ready
Bestbuy video card: Unknown
Apple's video card: ATI Mobility Radeon 7500, 32MB
Bestbuy video out: S-Video-out
Apple's video out: DVI/VGA/S-video
Bestbuy Ethernet: Probably 10/100 Apple's Ethernet: Gigabit Ethernet
Bestbuy external ports: 2 Firewire, 2 USB
Apple's external ports: 1 Firewire, 2 USB
Shared items:
BestBuy and Apple LCD: 15.2-inch LCD, 1280x854 max
Bestbuy and Apple's modem: 56k
BestBuy and Apple optical: CD-RW/DVD drive
Slashdot's first reaction to VMware
hey i am a designer and am using a tibook right now, and apple did not come up with minimalism, in product design or computer design specifically. richard sappers' designs for ibm, the grid compass design (is that what it was called?) by moggridge, and other products certainly provided plenty of inspiration. apple simply designed a really nice, light weight pro laptop before many others could or did. but i need a windows laptop also, and this just very well might be it. very nice from the photos. and very porche (the product designers not the car), design wise!
Well, you can always install Linux/BSD on it. And just cause it doesn't run Mac OS X doesn't mean it's a bad laptop. Think about it: How can a company come out with a good looking laptop that looks like a TiBook and not running Mac OS X without getting ridiculed (sorry on the spelling)? They then have two choices:
- A relatively unpopular (with the general public, that is) *nix OS
- Windows, a relatively popular OS, on it
Just because it looks like a TiBook doesn't mean it has to be one.Incripshin
I mean, it looks better than the average Windows notebook, but it cant really compete with an Apple notebook. It looks good, but not that good.
Has it been mentioned, that it runs Windows...?
That is me laughing all the way to the bank as I have been making well over $200K a year supporting software created by what you guys see as the GREATEST EVIL: Microsoft. "This laptop doesn't run Windows" -TRANSLATED- "IT WON'T MAKE MONEY!" You poor Linux, UNIX bigots need to learn: "There is no religion in computing. FOLLOW THE MONEY!"
Are you saying that the 1000's of businesses taht use Windows aren't really doing anything 'real?' I know Windows can be virus prone and things but to just dismiss it with what you said is just plain silly.
So if Macintosh is the Porsche of the computer industry, what does that make Porsche?
I think that Porsche should stick to making cars, not computers or SUVs.
Just to clarify a bit, the Powerbook G4 supports 10/100/1000 base-T, not just 1000 base-T.
I also said that the Powerbook gets four hours of battery life, even though Apple claims five. I own a Powerbook G4, and four hours is a much closer estimate for real-world use (although you can get 5-6 if you turn the LCD backlight off).
Last but not least, there is another awesome titanium product out there -- the titanium spork!
Slashdot's first reaction to VMware
OH NO MICRASFOT SUX H4N H4N
Please.
If it runs Windows, it does not always mean that it sucks.
Who wants to run Windows? FreeBSD is by far the best free operating system.
At least now all the gearheads who raised such a fuss when Porsche moved away from air-cooled engines in the 90's have something to cheer about.
Heaven help the first person who tries to put an alternative cooling device on their new Porsche laptop. Just finding the parts has got to be a pain since most domestic computer dealerships won't have 'em.
I'd love to see a Pininfarina design of it.
It's the best car designer in the world: Alfa-Romeos, Ferraris, Jaguars, and Pajero. And many others.
There are a number of Japanese laptop makers that have been producing very nice high-end Windows laptops with brushed metal cases for some time now.
See http://www.dynamism.com for what I mean. Particularly the Panasonic models, which have been objects of lust for me ever since I saw a Japanese executive with one back in 2000.
So no, Apple didn't invent that look, thanks for playing.
Jon Acheson
All opinions expressed herein are my own, and not those of my employers, who are appalled.
And believe me, Porsche Design are just as good!
---- Den ene knappen er powerknapp, den andre er Bender voice knapp "Bite My Shiny Metal Ass"
It looks great, and you could solve the Windoze problem by running Linux, but what about the Porsche name? Sure, Porsche means "cool design and high performance", but it also means "looney-tunes pricing". Considering how many laptops are corporate purchases, I can imagine these things drawing unnecessary sniper fire from the gods of corporate cost cutting. Even a CEO might think twice, wanting to "set a good example" by using something a little less "sexy". Unless, of course, the company is assigning Porsches as company cars.
My IBM Thinkpad actually costs more than Porsche's laptop, but it has that plain IBM style that says, "Worth the price because it takes a beating and always works."
If I put a Type R sticker on it, would it run 150mhz faster?!?!?! :P
... okay, so it wasn't funny.. give me a friggin break!!
how about a more aggressive cooling system?
Shouldn't this laptop at least have a Turbo button?
Misfit
BLECH!
... apparently includes a parallel port, the cable for which prolly outweighs the laptop.
Yeesh.
"Win treats sysadmins better than users. Mac treats users better than sysadmins. Linux treats everyone like sysadmins."
...VW will now design a knock-off of the iMac.
This is my post. There are many others like it. If you don't like what you read here, go try one of the others.
But I have no idea where their laptop manufacturing is done.
This thing looks nice to you people? It looks like any other PC Laptop... ugly. Look at it! Why does everyone think it looks like a TiBook? Coz it's wide? It's got this ugly dark color! Two-tone? I'll pass.
Now look at the TiBook. (QTVR) Much nicer.
This story confuses me, is it a troll or what?
Random is the New Order.
For about $2600 for this I could buy 2 regular laptops and have an extra one for the bathroom. Or better yet I could buy about 10 early pentium laptops on Ebay -- and have the whole house networked. With old hardware it is not hard to find the best OS. You just stick with the first OS that will let you browse the web while decoding MP3's without the MP3's skipping. (Hint: it is not Windows)
(+1 Funny) only if I laugh out loud.
>> Sadly, it runs windows so no one will actually want to use one for real work
You're not only dumb, you're ignorant too.
Linux; work harder, not smarter.
OSX; don't work at all. (just look at all this cute macstuff, though! aww)
xp; hope it works
...Slashdot Bias 1, Journalistic Integrity 0!
most laptops are made by ODM's over in Taiwan. for example: www.asus.com or www.compal.com. whether you buy a dell, gateway, hp, whatever, they are all the same.
My problem? I was perfectly gruntled, until some numbnuts came by and dissed me.
Seth
$5 / month hosted VPS on linux = awesome!
Save your money and get a Honda S2000 or similar. I've spent at least $45k on my '89 911 convertible, and it's probably only worth $29k now.
Yes, it's basically a brand-new car mechanically, and it's realllly sweet to drive and look at, but geez, $15k more for a 13 yr old car! That buys a lotta beer... And most women won't know the difference, trust me. Can you say: "Is that a Fiat?"!!!
If you do have to have the real thing get the 993 model sold between '95 and '97.
The revolution will NOT be televised.
Yeah that's pretty bad. Would you buy a notebook because it said Porche on it? Would you buy a toaster because it said Lexus on it? Or a breakfast cereal because it said Sony on it? This is goofy on so many levels...
/dot. Ugh. I wonder if it would have made it if the Taco had actually looked at the company description. It's obviously not the same Porche that makes nice cars.
/dot, free advertisement for new companies with fancy names. Sad.
What's sad is that most of us would probly look more closely at this thing than some other brand, because it says Porche on it. OOooo Porche! It must be a really nice laptop! And fast too! But I'm holding out for the Ferrari.
And then, it makes front page on
Yay for
Ugh!!
It looks nice, but it would be better with a joystick mouse like IBM and Fujitsu have. They rock.
But, since it doesn't come with a Linux option I'll have to pass. I don't do Windows anymore.
Not a one.
Outside of the MS bashing, that is an ugly machine.
And since when does it take porsche to design a featurelyess rectangle.
Sorry to disappoint, but my laptop runs Windows and I do plenty of real work on it. What a silly comment.
The keyboards. Instead of adding keys to widen the keyboard, you've got nearly an inch of plastic on both sides of the keys.
It makes the keyboard feel like it 'sinks in'. Very uncomfortable.
They should be spending more time making laptops thinner and lighter, and sticking with a 14.1 screen, and increasing battery life.
Just my 2 cents
Although near the end of all these posts someone did a good side-by-side comparison of the two laptops - The gist of it was, if you're willing to deal with a slightly larger and heavier laptop (not much larger or heavier), the Best Buy laptop was more bang for the buck. ($100 less, more RAM, more HD space, faster CPU, etc.), it's not significantly improved enough to be notweorthy...
Has the same crap display as the TiBook. 1280 pixels horizontal is nothing special in a 15" laptop these days. Dell has been shipping 1600x1200 laptops for over a year now, and the new UltraSharp UXGA screens are REALLY beautiful. (After getting my Inspiron 8200, I would never want to go back to the standard UXGA screen in my dad's I8000) If they'd put in a display 1400 or 1600 pixels wide it would've been more newsworthy...
retrorocket.o not found, launch anyway?
needs a db-9 connector, i can plug into router console ports... i do not like db-25.
My Dell has the Ultra Sharp 15" 1600x1200 display. It is really sweet. Much nicer than old 1280x1024 screens. I can't believe they're trying to charge $2500 for high end stuff with mediocre screens. I got mine for $1900 3 months ago.
From Apple's online "Interview with Herbie Hancock" (August 2002):
Careful, Herbs. Angry Mac fundamentalists will be smashing your records like holy rollers trampling Beatles albums.Funny, I don't hear anything from the, "Macs are too expensive" camp. The real funny thing is I still get more for my money buying a Mac.
How long will that battery last while powering that P4 oven?
Will you be able to plug it into a gigabit ethernet?
Will it run commercial applications and Unix at the same time?
(Just a few things off the top of my head.)
Notes From Under *nix: blas.phemo.us
Reading through the posts, I just want to say one thing:
It's Porsche!!! There's an S in there!
It's not Porche! Maybe a lot of people associate Porsche with a nice patio on the front of their house. I don't.
PORSCHE!
Who cares if it says "Porsche?" Porsche also redesigned one of Fuji's digital cameras, and the finished product was, I think and most people I talked to, uglier than the original. I am all for good design, and there are many design firms that have earned a good name through years of proven solid designs, but this is just dumb.
because all the force, when you drop it or bump it, gets put into a very small area...I don't see why they did this...I guess it's more of a looks thing.
A.P., you're right -- none of these features are unique to Apple's PowerBook, and many of them have been incorporated for good cause. The difference is that, unlike with any other laptop that I'm aware of, they're all in place on Porsche's system. It is this group of features that makes their system highly derivative of Apple's PowerBook.
:)
Not that popular opinion is a substitute for sound logic, but I'll warrant that if Slashdot put up a poll, the majority of people would agree that the laptop that this system most strongly resembles is Apple's TiBook. The reason that this is notable, at least to me, is because I'd like to imagine that Porsche would be developing something more interesting than this. I don't imagine that Best Buy has the biggest budget out there allocated to laptop design, but surely somebody at Porsche was looking at this design before it went out the door and saying "heeeyyyy...this looks familiar..." The fact that it didn't happen makes me wonder if this was more or less intentional, or if Porsche is inclined to agree with you, and say that the design is somehow the only logical one available, in which case it's amazing that nobody thought of it before Apple.
-Waldo Jaquith
The value of the laptop goes down by 20% the second you drive it off the Best Buy lot.
Ergonomica Auctorita Illico!
Have a look at Samsungs' 17" TFT (the 171P). The designer insisted on two 1.5m cables for VGA and DVI fixed to the device "for design reasons", at least that's what I was told when I asked. That's one argument against, huh?
So what do you think they'll do to a whole laptop?
Fight hunger. Filet a politician and send him to a 3rd world country of your choice.
I am an industrial designer who lives/works in the SF area, and Apple has their own, in house, very hardcore industrial design team and model shops. As a matter of fact, they are rather well known for being Steve Jobs' favorite Apple employees.
Like any good internal design team however, Apple does work with outside ID firms for new ideas, collaboration on projects and outsourcing of small projects. That being said however, every computer or significant piece of hardware is currently designed in house, exclusivly and with a great amount of security.
But Porche?
Make note that this Porsche has nothing to do with the Porsche auto manufacturer other than a family name.
Life is the leading cause of death in America.
But there are quite a few of us that choose to develop and work with Windows XP and deploy on less friendly environments like Unix. Why? Because from a purely ease of use, great GUI, available software perspective Windows works better than all flavors of Unix. I would rather eat broken glass than use Unix for day to day use. (That includes the Linux flavors too)
It's just too funny to watch Slashdot's nearly complete about-face regarding Apple products. I never thought I'd see such staunch defenders of an Apple laptop on this site. Not that Apple hasn't done an about-face themselves in recent years, but still... anyone get the impression that for Apple to succeed - and indeed, be well-liked - all they need to do is not fuck up their PR to the extent Microsoft has. They are pristine as long as they don't do anything completely ass, like fabricating testimonials, or sending letters from dead people (or insert your fave MS gaffe here).
Getting back to the laptop - Porsche design makes some great stuff. I own a Fuji FinePix 6800 and it's a wonderful design. This, on the other hand, looks like.. a Best Buy design.
If Jesus wants me it knows where to find me.
I think the design of the notebook is stylish (although the two tone thing is a bit off).
For anyone who does real work I think it's a great looking machine, and I'll probably buy one myself.
And yeah, I'm bucking the "waah, PowerBooks are better!" trend. I don't have 4 grand to spend on a 600 - 800MHz computer who's only lead in processing power / overall performance is photoshop filters.
Increased stability? My Inspiron 8100 runs FreeBSD.
// -- http://www.BRAD-X.com/ --
How do you know what real work is when you still live in your parents basement?
same link:
owners of XP home don't qualify for the XP pro upgrade price.
of course that would punishment twice for the same crime!!!
My problem? I was perfectly gruntled, until some numbnuts came by and dissed me.
The thing I think most people over look with the TiBook(and other Apple hardware) are all the hardware tricks like:
1.) target disk mode(the ability to boot up in a external hard drive mode) and be directly attach to a another computer via firewire as an external hard drive. That's a much faster way to transfer GBs of files between computers than over a network.
2.) being able to directly hook up to another computer via ethernet with either a straight through OR cross-over cable
3.) somewhat hot-swappable batteries(you only have to put it to sleep and you have about 2-3 minutes to switch the batteries),
4.) better battery life than any Intel laptops I've dealt with
5.) the first laptops, even though the switches are still a little pricey but getting close to affordable by the every man, with gigabit ethernet stock.
I don't know of any Intel laptops capable of all(or even most) of those things.
As far as PC laptops go it looks pretty nice especially if it supports, Linux/FreeBSD/OpenBSD well but once you touch and feel it it could have a cheap feel like some PC laptops like Toshiba.
--
What is pirate software? Software for inventory of stolen treasure?
Note: this is not the issue how many people browse the slashdot using Windows or whatever, but how many people use Windows to do REAL WORK (as in a original posting). At this moment I use Windows to post this message, but at the same time I'm connected via Hummingbird to Sun and AIX servers where I do some REAL WORK, so in essense I'm using Windows as glorified X-terminal.
Almost all comments on the parent's thread are by MS Shills. I wonder how much Bill pays them to browse slashdot all day.
Or...
The point is...Apple sucks, they don't let you do things your way, they make you do things their way. Besides, most Mac fanatics are fags, and I wouldn't really want to be associated with them.
If it is like the cars, they will come up with something really fast, and ugly as hell. I wonder why they can't come up with beautiful-looking cars? They should take a cue from Ferrari and Lamborghini - who, anyway, produce faster cars, too.
Nice of you to drop by.
Computer $199.86
Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition OEM Version $119.98
Microsoft Windows XP Professional Edition OEM Version $199.98
Every new system I get, the second thing I do is remove the 'designed for windows XXX' stickers and affix them to my trash can. It's very pleasing to dispose of microsoft junk (manuals, cd's, marketing snail mail) into a trashcan specifically designed for their products.
The first thing I do, of course, is replace the OS. I just wish those SuSE stickers stayed on better...
Score: -2, Troll
Fuck me, you must be bored to respond to that! You do realize that it made you look a whole lot worse than the original poster ?
How short your collective memories are... Porsche has been designing computers for years. Certain of the Commodore PET 8000 series boxes were Porsche designed - I think the PET 8096 was reworked by them - and these came out in the early 1980's.
Well, if you want to know what *I* think is more of a crime, it's probably the govt. organizations and charities that seem to believe a computer, high-speed internet access, and whatever else goes with it is a "basic life necessity". I'm stuck paying extra fees on every phone bill so Bell can hand out subsidized DSL lines to "the poor".
I have no qualm with providing easy and free access to the net from such places as public libraries. The poor should certainly have some way to type up and print out a resume, or conduct an online job search. (In fact, most states do give them this type of access at the unemployment offices.)
If you give someone a nice, relatively new, computer system of their own though - what kind of service are you doing them if they can't afford the software to go with it? I don't see why a poor person has to run Windows XP? Give them an older PC, "recycled" from someone else's pile of "useless old junk systems" and let them run an older version of Windows.
I bet they can do anything they need with Windows '95. If you feel even more willing to help, you could try setting them up with Linux and teaching them how it works -- but I bet you'd be wasting your time in many cases. They don't need a server-class OS. They just want to type some papers and use the interface they see when they go to work.
Wow, it's up to 13 now! Way to go, troll!
...when are the new powerbook/tibook's suppose to hit the street?
"Otherwise you should be thrown out of this forum for even making that remark. "
Pffhhhttt...but the main post was pure truthful genius was it?...fuckn BS more like it
"As for MS being used in 99.999% bullshit."
Uhhh BZZZT! Wrong-o...if anything it's a higher percentage...of all the systems at work,home,at friends home,etc...guess what?? Microsoft is at %100!!
" I think that you need to get out more. I also think that you bought MS's brainwashing hook, line and sinker."
BWAHAHAHAHHAHAAA!!!
Oh THAT'S rich coming from a slashdotter called 'resident geek'
BWAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAAAAAAA!!!!
What's next? A BMW toaster?
it's quite common for various parts of porsche to contribute design and consulting expertise through its various business units. anything from management consulting to product design, not just automotive stuff.
sad to see more and more of the clueless /. bashing. but, hey, it's friday. flame on.
Poof.
But I still give Porsche Design GmbH and VPR credit for trying to bring some of the Powerbook functions to Windows users who, for whatever reason, don't want to Make The Switch. I would love to pick up a Powerbook, but driver support for accessibility devices and applications is not on par with Windows. I am holding off any significant judgement until I read some in-depth reviews. Until then, I'll wait for a model to show up in my local Best Buy store. I can mess around it and make an informed decision based on my personal experience. If it's good, all the power to them. If it's garbage, no harm done (except for wasted materials/labor).
This
what is surprising is that this is an item found at best buy (short of walmart).
Poof.
If Saab were to make a laptop, would the bonnet open backward? Would I have to let it idle for 10 seconds before shutting it down?
Too busy to register,
Frank
Can you imagine a Beowulf cluster of lame-o's bitching about Beowulf cluster jokes... SHOVED UP YOUR ASS?!!!
errr, I, uhm, "poof!" -- The anti-Beowulf cluster troll
War, loss of civil liberties, and McCarthyism, thinly veiled as 'Patriotism' will likely be the result.
Top leaders in the Bush Administration were seen to be wringing their hands, and grinning evilly.
How dare they make a silvery laptop with a widescreen LCD? Don't they know Apple already did this? Those dirty copycats!! And they didn't even have the sense of style to use titanium instead of that wussy magnesium alloy. And it's heavier! And bigger! Ha ha, those stupid copycats can't even make it better than the original. I like my trendy Ti-book, so I spit upon this obvious copy! If they had any shred of originality, they would have made the case out of nice green reactor-grade zirconium, and put in a narrow-aspect monitor!
I'm not an audiophile, but I know high-quality sound when I hear it. That's definitely the case with the VPR Matrix 200A5, thanks to the Sonopür Digital Audio system, with its patent-pending 24/192 upsampling technology. This system dramatically enhances digital music and offers very rich sound.
I've been thinking of buying a PC notebook to use with Buzz and this looks promising. However, the lack of a mac port for Buzz is the only obstacle keeping me from getting an iBook or Powerbook...but for me, that's a big obstacle.
Top speed of a 2003 Porsche 911 Turbo is listed as 190mph (manual trans), with a 0-62mph time of 4.2sec. D'ya think this thing can match that?
try going to a local college and pick up girls with your porsche laptop.
(of course your original post will still apply....)
nbfn
The currently suggested date is November 5th; MacPlus has "sources" that are confirming the new TiBook and/or a new 19" widescreen display for around then. Sites like MacRumors are claiming that they have confirmation of this, though we'll see. All I know is that A) early November would make it just past 6 months since the last update for the TiBook, and B) MacWorld Expo Spain begins the very same day.
There's no definite specs, but it's likely that we'll see something like 800/1000 MHz processor options (I've heard that it may be 867/1000), and maybe DDR memory and/or a Superdrive option. The cooling and paint processes may be improved as well.
...and yet it's not hideously ugly like the Cayenne.
You're fighting Apple zealots. Besides, I don't see much resemblence to the TiBook, except maybe the recessed keyboard. The Porsche design is much more angular and has an entirely different color scheme and accents.
All these people bitching about "but this has the MS Tax on it... why should I pay for a copy of Windows I'm not going to use. It's certainly no iBook." Well, can you buy the damn iBook without an OS so you can insall your favorite distro on it? No. So quit bitching that Apple's stuff is better since there's no MS tax on it... yer still paying a tax, just to a different bastard of a company.
look at it.
it looks like someone took a crap on a ti-book then sold it.
no comparison.
Dude, some writer for CNet needs to feed his kids, so he resorts to the time-tested journalistic technique of sensationalism to make a story where there is none. VPR Matrix decided they wanted their computers to look kinda cool--not much of the story there. But VPR Matrix asks the Porsche design firm to do it, which allows the author to drop a recognizable name and make this a story.
"It take 9 months to bear a child, no matter how many women you assign to the job."
I'm seriously considering getting one of these, but does anyone know if there are linux drivers for the hardware in the laptop? bestbuy.com and vprmatrix.com don't have much details. I know that the geforce can use nvidia's drivers, but I'm particularly concerned about the sound, wireless lan, and USB 2.0 apdapter.
Quote: /Sadly, it runs windows so no one will actually want to use one for real work, but it looks pretty cool for minesweeper./
So, does he mean real work like running the vast majority of business in the world (like Windows does) or real work like making pretty pictures (like most Macs do) or is it real work like rendering the latest version of Titanic (like Linux does)?
Here's a fun activity! Tomorrow, take Windows away from the world. See how long it takes for everything to be running as smooth as it was yesterday including CEOs being able to access their email.
Now, the next day take OSX away and do the same test.
For the grand finale try Linux.
It's a simple matter of numbers. How many OSs do you need to reinstall?
The sad part is that this post will get marked as Flamebait. The article itself should have been.
By making an SUV. Does Jeep make a sports car?
"What the American public doesn't know is what makes them the American public." -Ray Zalinsky (Tommy Boy)
The key word there is 'real'.
Would you buy a notebook because it said Porche on it?
Probably not. "Porsche" maybe, but not Porche.
It's 'could have', not 'could of'.
'Could've', pronounced sloppily, is where you retards have gotten 'could of'. Put it back. Nobody wants it.
It's not unlike saying something childish like "I done got five moneys!". It suggests that you're incapable of intelligent thought.
Honest, Officer! I don't know how these beer cans got in here!
Wow, this has to be the most unbiased comment ever submitted. I understand that the editors make an effort to clean them up, but I'm pretty sure that anti-MS bs in there was made up just to guarentee the story being posted.
I run a Windows web server, and support a mortgage broker running on a different Windows server. Properly configured, it can be (and is) as stable and secure as Linux.
The problem [b]always[/b] lies with the user, not with the operating system itself.
"Sadly, it runs windows so no one will actually want to use one for real work, but it looks pretty cool for minesweeper."
:
I think a friend of mine summed things up when he responded to this statement with
"... it's sad, whats really sad is most of the people that say that probably use windows to play all their warezed l33t games..."
I hope you don't see this as a troll, but I think the numbers will show that most people who do run Windows on their laptops dwarf the number of folks who actually end up being productive on their Linux running laptops.
Talk linux and opensource all you want, it doesn't change the fact that you're running a pirated copy of Windows and Office, not to mention all the games you enjoy.
scott
Where's the Hood Ornament?
Creationists are a lot like zombies. Slow, but powerful and numerous. And they all want to eat our brains.
Buy a porshce and matching notebook.
"What we have here is a failure to communicate"
The Warden, Cool Hand Luke
Porshe didnt "design" shit. They are allowing their BRAND and its mythos to be used in Marketing of a laptop.
Big whoop... would you buy something simply because it said "Porshe" on it? Its like those morons who put Nike stickers on the rear windows of their rice-rockets... its a fusion of brand-lifestyle-attitude that has been sold by marketroids to Consumers^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^HPeople.
Having said that - its a nice enough laptop.. but guaranteed to be $X overpriced to payfor the brand-licensing trash... Yawn.
i'd buy a toaster because it said lexus on it (but only if lexus actually designed the thing) - b/c lexus's mechanics seem to be top notch, and most toasters these days seem to only last for 1-2 years before letting the magic smoke out. of course i'm in college and my mom bought me the $15 variant instead of a $45 GE "classic" stainless steel toaster that would have lasted me till i'm 50, but, whatever.
moox. for a new generation.
But I mention this because according to the blurb, one of the features of this coffee maker was an "on switch".
Finally, Porsche allows me to power my coffee maker on, but how the hell am I to turn it off?!
This sig no verb.
It's another one...
Just like the other ones...
This one's been made by porsche...
Which makes it special of course...
Sure mod this down as flamebait. Windows gets everything done perfectly. The days of windows crashing the whole system are over. Any for your apple heads, screw you too. eahhh eahh eahh I am the higher messiah, the inside know. I like to rap all day and eat up hoes.
I think what you're referring to is Apple Masters, which I believe is a discontinued program. Any of the links (such as http://applemasters.apple.com/) now point to the homepage. The last Apple WWDC that I attended in 2000 had Herbie as a guest, along with Gregory Hines and Bryan Adams. Maybe now that the Masters program appears defunct, Mr. Hancock is no longer bound by any sort of obligation (real or implied) with Apple.
I'm a new moderator. Is there any way to mod the article *itself* as a troll?
TiBooks have 800mhz G4s, not 667mhz G4s.
Sheesh!
My titanium powerbook beats the pants off that Best Buy thing.
My Tibook is %20 thinner, %18 lighter (1 lbs. lighter... what the heck are they doing with all that weight? Cooling systems?), not to mention my machine is titanium, superior to magnesium.
Also my Tibook has a powered, 6pin firewire port where the Best Buy model has unpowered 4 pin firewire (which means carrying a powerbrick for your firewire devices and cable adaptors).
Im guessing the battery life of my 'book is substantially better too.
Then comes aesthetics...overall the Tibook is clearly a sexier machine, but specifically compare the back of the Titanium Powerbook to the back of this machine.
The article also doesnt mention what kind of video chip is driving the Best Buy laptop. I wouldnt be surprised if it were inferior.
What!? No Digital Video Out? Where's the DVI port? That's the whole reason I waited to buy the 2002 Titanium Powerbook!
I'm really glad Best Buy wasted all that space to cram in a paralell port! Wow, now that's a selling point!
And last and most important...the Best Buy machine doesn't run MacOS X Jaguar 10.2
As it's already been stated, it's not designed by the car company, but a relative's design company.
Furthermore, it weighs more, it takes up more space and it's a lot uglier than a tiBook.
Nice to see companies trying to flatter Apple though.
Gabriel Ricard
... so you don't count.
[Actually, back when I was an AOE student, I used the phrase to excuse myself when I miscounted things.]
Correct Horse Battery Staple: 72 bits of entropy. Enter "Correct H" into google. When it generates the phrase, that's
I'd still rather have the TiBook as well. For one while this rips off the form factor it doesn't rip off the style that the TiBook has. I want a laptop that is going to have gauranteed unix functionality either by the vendor supporting it directly or by finding a laptop that uses components that are already supported in Linux. Of course going with apple you don't have to worry about that in the first place. The next thing I want is a a good screen size without a huge increase in weight. This fits that about as well as the TiBook. I also like for my laptops to be somewhat visually appealing. I loved my VAIO and it's tiny form factor and the purpleish silverish magnesium casing. The TiBook is equally as pleasing to the eye in 90% of it's design. I don't much care for the coloring of the plastic peices where the vents and ports are, but whatever. The problem with this laptop is that the keyboard area appears black. That's too sharp of a contrast to the magnesium casing in my opinion and is visually unappealing. Of course the price is the other issue. This is priced below the equivalent TiBook and will steal sales based on that alone. Of course the TiBook appears to offer more configuration options though I'd guess you probably have to head to your local BestBuy to find out for sure on that note.
I dunno, I still think the TiBook is cooler, and being that my VAIO finally died I'm in the market for a laptop, the TiBook is my first choice but I just can't afford it right now. This is a good option, but I'd be willing to spend the few extra dollars for gauranteed unix app support and what I consider to be better overall style.
Gosh, to me it looks like a fscking laptop. In fact, the Titanium Powerbook and the Porsche designed laptop both look like my 1994 Gateway 2000 Colorbook except the Gateway has a plastic case. Hmmm, screen, keyboard...looks like a laptop to me. Oh wait, Apple was responsible for how laptops look, I forgot.
You want to know who isn't running Firefox 2.x? They spell it "definately" and "rediculous".
all the good design software runs on mac, thats what they are best at. all the adobe stuff + 3d software.
Mac users are so embarrassing to have to listen to - or in this case read.
I agree, the Mac makes a pretty computer - but they are too slow for the stuff I do.
but to continually rip on Windows is just pathetic and makes one sound like a little jealous dork.
that said, the Porsche design just looks like some sort of retro concept circa 1970 or early 80s if they could go that thin.
my current laptop has a higher resolution, and that is what I want, so regardless of what OS is on it, I just care about have fast the thing is.
There are some odd things afoot now, in the Villa Straylight.
i think we could all easily find out exactly what planet cmdr taco lives on. i reckon his .net site could prolly give you a better idea. what's more, it was highlarryous, so quit your whining and stating that because ms has their fingers everywhere means they do a thing right.
though minesweeper is a really good ms app, once you learn it, but ms-bob on windows 2000 is my most stable rig for speed
I don't like replying to myself,
... around 6 month ago.
but I just checked this baby at a local bestbuy store.
And I still think it's ugly.
Pro:
- I really like the magnesium.
- It's almost 16:9.
- It has a GeForce4 and plays nicely with linux.
Con: (only the showstoppers, for me)
- battery life 2h
- headphone jack on the _front_
(these two can really kill you if you fly economy.)
- display: viewing angle very small
- resolution 1,280x854 is simply not enough (I'm used to 1600x1200 an 3200x1200)
- price. $2400 was ok for this specs
On the other side of the screen it all looked so easy.
If you want sleek style and don't mind the Windows hardware then by all means get a Portege2K instead. Thinner, lighter and *much* nicer at which to look.
"Ending a sentence with a preposition is something up with which I will not put."
I ended up getting an iBook, because I liked the minimalist chic look it had, but I'm wondering if there is someway I could modify the case to be a different color. Any ideas on how to achieve an individual yet still slick-looking appearance?
-SheWhoWalksWithToesLikeCobras Please enter any 11-digit prime number to continue...
you cocksucker.
See you in hell!
You've got Tacos for brains. Haven't you figured out that the biggest road block to Unix/Linux is assholes like you who think nothing of insulting millions of people who manage to get "real work" done on the Windows platform every day? That kind of crap only hurts your cause.
Tony in Seattle
Flame on!
Now I can tell my friends that I have a porshe :)
I currently own 2 laptops a 500mhz ti-Book and the Fujitsu p-2000, I actually prefer the p-2000. The main problem with the ti-book is it is too big. The size makes sense if its the only computer you own, but for people with a desktop and a laptop, it doesn't make much sense to go with such a large laptop. And as far as looks go, the p-2000 is just as good looking as the ti-book. Besides screen size, the p-2000 has every port and feature of the most recent high end Tibook, minus gig-e and of course the big advantage osx. But to pick up a tibook with a decent configuration, you will pay at least $3000+ while a fully loaded 3.5lb p-2000 will run you $1800. Luckily I got a free Tibook to play with from work.
They also designed the new VPR Matrix desktops that are sold at Best Buy. I work there and although Im not a Intel fan, the desktops are sweet machines for the prices. And they are all off the shelf stuff. Now, I wouldnt buy one, but if you were an average consumer it would be a good deal.
Its sad. When an industrial designer of this reputation has a member of their firm attempt to pass off such an obvious knock-off as their own "Signature" design.
Can you imagine how their reputation would suffer if they were a fashion designer and this happened? The buzz in the trade alone could cost them the firm.
Some would say the designer was maybe just getting old and maybe had lost their artistic edge or the creative control of their firm.
The only way to recover would be to explain it's appearance as the work of a junior designer (which this probably is) that had slipped past review and authorization - and, with appology and much other PR damage control, the designer's "signature" would be removed from the design and the fashion item would be withdrawn from the collection.
If I headed this firm, I would ask that my name be removed from this design. After all, who wants to pay top dollar to a firm that just does knock-offs of last years Paris Originals?
I was in the market for a Xp box about two months ago (had to test some software in XP), and I came upon the VPR Matrix line from best buy. I got their model 240R with 100gHD, 512M Ram and DVD writer for $1500. It seemed like the best deal at the time and I am really happy with it. The motherboard (intel) also supports RAID. The one gripe I had was that there is a process running somewhere that pops up a little best buy window under some dialog boxes some times. I have not spent the time to trach this little program down yet and kill it.
If there laptop is as cost effective as their desktop, it should be a good deal.
Firewire is BY FAR slower than 100BaseTx ethernet. Ethernet gets even more of a boost, since Apple includes Gigabit.
Slashdot gets worse every day... Pipedot: News for nerds, without the corporate slant
MS Office v.X sound familiar? It's office for OS X.
Virtual PC to run any seldom run windows application.