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Enderle's Ferrari Laptop

deminisma writes "Hilarity abounds as 'analyst' Rob Enderle gushes over his new Ferrari/Acer laptop. The laptop apparently even plays the sound of a car revving up while booting, which Enderle seems to think is all the rage at meetings."

26 of 563 comments (clear)

  1. Follow the money by Petronius · · Score: 4, Informative

    Look who wrote the article. The guy works for a company who sells as its major product: " Provides consulting services during the review process of a poorly founded negative piece on a vendor or its products and, should it be needed, showcases the research errors, statistical mistakes, and unfounded conclusions that often define such a piece.". May be Acer got some bad press recently and this is how this guy is spinning it? I smell a rat

    --
    there's no place like ~
  2. Ferary licence by williamcooke2000 · · Score: 1, Informative
    You guys dont know what your talking about, my father is a big seller for Acer canada and the accer/ferrary laptop was a joint effort between acer and ferrari. They had a custom AMD processor made and all that stuff, it was designed specificaly for the ferrari company to use at races and the like. They also designed servers for them allong with other things.

    BTW its basicaly an Acer Travelmate 800 with mods. (I know because I am a happy owner of a TM800 :) )

    1. Re:Ferary licence by Malk-a-mite · · Score: 5, Informative

      "custom AMD processor"

      The Athlon(TM) XP-M 2500+ .... the same one you can get in a HP ze4000 laptop?

  3. Re:Add-ons... by Wyatt+Earp · · Score: 3, Informative

    I've played with one in the stores, it's kind of cheesy, the Lacie drive, they didn't do a good job with the molding

  4. Enderle = Stupid Bribed Microsoft Puppet by GillBates0 · · Score: 3, Informative
    I make it a point to remind everybody that Bob Enderle is a stupid Microsoft Apologist whenever /. posts an article authored by him. From his earlier writings, I have lost *complete* credibility in anything he writes. My earlier comment:

    Recall that Rob Enderle=Microsoft Apologist
    by GillBates0 (664202) on Wednesday December 17, @01:30PM (#7746866)
    (http://slashdot.org/~GillBates0 | Last Journal: Saturday February 07, @08:37AM)
    Note that Rob Enderle is the author of In Defense Of the Microsoft Monoculture [internetwk.com], which was highly debated [slashdot.org] on /. a couple months back. It surprises me that he should point out the consistency and flexibility of Linux, since his earlier writeup made him look as if he was paid my M$ to mouth major anti-Linux FUD.

    --
    An Indian-American Hindu committed to non-violent thought/speech/action alarmed by the global explosion of radical Islam
  5. Re:Who is this Enderle guy? by An+Onerous+Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    Rob Enderle is the founder--and as best I can tell, sole employee--of "The Enderle Group." Basically, he started calling himself an expert on stuff, a few online 'zines believed him, and he got famous on Slashdot for badmouthing Linux.

    --

    You want the truthiness? You can't handle the truthiness!

  6. Re:Which Nissan? by jeffkjo1 · · Score: 3, Informative

    That guy was/is not a cybersquatter. His last name happens to be Nissan and he was operating in the US using his name as the name of his company before Nissan changed their US monkier from Datsun.

  7. I have played with one. by Groo+Wanderer · · Score: 4, Informative

    From the current list of comments, every one here is, umm, bench racing. No one seems to have actually seen one, much less spent any quality time with one of these things. That said, most of your comments are way off.

    I have seen and played with them on 2 occasions, and they are rather nice. I was skeptical when I first heard about them, then I saw one at Comdex:
    http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=12780
    I saw one again at CES, and talked to the Acer guys. They take this very seriously as do the Ferarri people.

    There is a lof of thought that went into this box, and it shows. It really has to be seen to be understood. The paint looks insanely good, I have never seen a laptop that looks this nice.

    The laptop itself is pretty nondescript, I think Enderle must be on crack to give up his T40, the nicest laptop I have ever reviewed for it.

    Overall, give this thing a chance, it is a really unique laptop that looks damn good. Hunt one down in a store, you will be impressed.

    -Charlie

  8. Re:Add-ons... by MikeXpop · · Score: 3, Informative

    I'd prefer the Porsche laptop.

    I do remember when this came out, though. It was a flop. It was overpriced (more than the TiBook at the time), and fragile.

    --
    Etiquette is etiquette. He kills his mother but he can't wear grey trousers.
  9. Re:This is pretty stupid, and not worth a /. artic by snero3 · · Score: 2, Informative

    IMHO, the Ferrari products that carried the Ferrari name, but were manufactured by someone else just seem tacky and sucky.

    So I presume you are actually in including Ferrari's road cars in this statement as they are all made and owned by fiat who just license the Ferrari name + symbol from the F1 team. The only true Ferraris left are the F1 cars

    company is good (or arguably the best) at making cars

    like I said above they don't make road cars anymore, however if you are referring to F1 cars then you would correct

    --
    It said "windows 98 or better" so I installed Linux
  10. Re:This is pretty stupid, and not worth a /. artic by Whyrph · · Score: 1, Informative

    They're used to it being valid code for message board postings. /. is similar to a message board. Therefore, [b].

  11. Re:Safety by spun · · Score: 5, Informative

    That is only part of the joke. It's an old European joke. Never heard Carlin tell it, but it wouldn't surprise me. As I heard it, it goes like this:

    In Heaven: the chefs are French, the lovers are Italian, the police are English, the mechanics are German, and the managers are Swiss.

    In Hell: the chefs are English, the lovers are Swiss, the police are German, the mechanics are French, and the managers are Italian.

    --
    - None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
  12. Alienware.. by msimm · · Score: 2, Informative

    Is currently kind of the Ferreri of the computer world. I'm sure other readers can point to some other venders. Whenever I'm specing out a pc to build I like to take a look at their hardware list. Only top end stuff (whish I could afford that 64!).

    --
    Quack, quack.
  13. Opps, link.. by msimm · · Score: 2, Informative

    Alienware. Forgot the link...

    --
    Quack, quack.
  14. Re:Has Enderle actually been correct on anything? by ablair · · Score: 3, Informative

    From my experience, no. I have no idea why he is quoted so often when he (quite obviously in many cases) has doen not offer many quotes of value - it must be that he's seen to it that more journalists get his business card that most other "analysts". Since you mentioned Apple, just months ago he predicted Apple would ditch their own hardware development roadmap and migrate to x86 by the end of 2003, adding "When you are down to 2 percent share and the trend is still in the wrong direction you need to do something before someone asks you to turn out the lights," OK Rob, Apple will get right on that. Even people who work for Microsoft know he's full of it. Seeing a quote from him in an article just warns the reader of lazy journalism.

  15. Re:Try as they might... by alex_ant · · Score: 5, Informative

    The lid, bottom panel and top area around the keyboard and palmrests are all pure titanium. The frame is carbon fiber. The TiBook has poor wireless range because the signal is shielded by the titanium. The antenna is not "next to the airport card," it runs all the way through the case to the two windows on opposite sides of the machine. Thank you for making a series of blind guesses and passing them off as fact though.

  16. How about VPR Matrix? by Solarbeat · · Score: 2, Informative

    This is hardly a first... VPR Matrix supplied Porsche designed laptops to Best Buy (they still do, I think). They were pretty far from flashy, with a gray/silvery exterior and a staid black interior shell. I owned one for a few months, and it was a wonderful performer, and always caught people's eyes (without the startup sound and bright red paint).

  17. Re:Who says Ferrari's even "the best"? by NerdSlayer · · Score: 2, Informative

    Actually, the Enzo is faster than the McLaren.

    Also, Ferraris are hand made, which means they don't have 1/16th inch door gaps like your Accord. But ya know what? That's okay.

    Ford is certainly not a real threat to Ferarri on the track anymore. And I would argue that Pininfarina does much better with the styling than Ford will ever do constantly rehashing every car. The GT looks old, the '05 Mustang looks old, the freakin' new Cobra looks old.

    Did you ever think that Ferarri's exclusivity might actually be an attractive quality to the well heeled buyer?

  18. Re:This is pretty stupid, and not worth a /. artic by RevAaron · · Score: 2, Informative

    Man- look at the battery specs. All but one model only gets 60-90 minutes of battery life- and it is inevitable that will hover mostly around 60. An hour of battery life? sheesh!

    --

    Working toward a usable PDA environment in the spirit of Newton OS: Dynapad
  19. Re:Try as they might... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    My Asus P4P800 Deluxe motherboard (that's a P4 motherboard to you mac users) has a feature built-in (AI BIOS - ASUS POST Reporter) that plays wav files during bootup and also when you have errors. I'd guess it was similar to what you're talking about only it doesn't sound all that great. The default is a person saying "now booting from operating system" but I've changed it to play music before.

    Here's a link to the product page (not much info on the feature though) http://usa.asus.com/products/mb/socket478/p4p800-d /overview.HTM

  20. Re:Who is this Enderle guy? by laird · · Score: 2, Informative

    Nope. Check out the email addresses:

    Research: Rob Enderle renderle@enderlegroup.com

    Sales: Fred H. Abbott fhabbott@valleyviewventures.com

    Is a guy who does sales and marketing for independent analysts.

    Media Relations:
    Amy Riemer
    amy@riemercommunications.com

    Is a woman who runs a one-person PR firm that has about 15 clients.

    So basically the "Enderle Group" is Rob, who hired a tiny PR firm and a tiny Sales & Marketing firm. All three companies appear to be "one-person" shops.

    There's nothing wrong with small companies or independent consultants, but it's pretty funny seeing how hard they're trying to inflate themselves so that they look like large, credible companies. In particular, Rob's bio is astoundingly funny if you know how to read it -- he lists a bunch of "Board/Advisory" positions, all of which are meaningless "Member, Industry
    Advisory Council" (i.e. he's not on anyone's board) and he even thinks it's impressive to mention that he "has done special segments for United Airlines in flight programming." And one can only assume that "As he became better known and the traditional research firms fell into decline his clients recommended he go out on his own and form a company to better address their emerging need" translates to "Rob was laid off."

    Just reading his bio makes me feel slimy. Can you imagine what he's like in person?

  21. Re:Try as they might... by jcr · · Score: 3, Informative

    Look closely at the corners and edges of the aluminum shells of the current PowerBooks. A lot of their stiffness come from the large radii used.

    -jcr

    --
    The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
  22. Acer gets full credit? by LS · · Score: 2, Informative

    I sent this mail to the author of the article:

    I read your article "My Love Affair with Acer's Ferrari Notebook", and you mention at the end that "Acer gets full credit for applying [unrelated branding] to the PC market." That's not really true. VPR Matrix put sold Porsche designed laptop at Best Buy in 2002. See here:

    http://www.hilary.com/reviews/vprmatrix.html

    and here:

    http://vsbabu.org/mt/archives/2002/10/25/laptop_ by _porsche.html

    LS

    --
    There is a fine line between being a cultivated citizen and being someone else's crop. - A. J. Patrick Liszkie
  23. Re:Try as they might... by dimension6 · · Score: 2, Informative

    Haha ... actually, I think that the ol' Silicon Graphics machines (Indy, O2, etc.) had the best boot-up sounds...

  24. Re:Try as they might... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    Ummm.

    You are probably just a worthless troll, but: Rob Enderle has been featured on Slashdot before for being a Microsoft/SCO/Darl McBride apologist.

    Read his older articles. Alot of people would say he has well deserved the quotation marks around analyst.

  25. Re:real nice by Crazy+Eight · · Score: 2, Informative

    He was talking about the TiBooks, which did use Titanium in the casing, not the newer Powerbooks made with aluminum.