While I do agree with you in principle, there are certain use cases in which "idling" very much applies - with the exception of the display backlight. Reading Slashdot, for instance... or office work... or reading a PDF... so the claims aren't always as far-fetched as they seem. Hell, I regularly get 12 hours of battery life out of my Thinkpad, and that's rated for something like 13 or 14 hours IIRC, so pretty much right on the money since I use mid-high display brightness instead of dimmed.
Apple is better at this, with their "wireless web battery life" spec... someone reading a PDF will get far more battery life than the ~7 hours Apple usually claims on their MacBooks, while someone watching Flash videos or playing games will get far less - but it's a fair estimate for the average user.
"A good example of this is the Surface. It's amazing to have almost a full fledged PC in a tablet form factor and lets you build some really cool applications that the previous Tablet PC form factor didn't address well. But I wouldn't use it to write anything longer than an SMS, tweet or quick email...it's just not built for huge gorilla hands.:-) On the other hand, it's great for watching movies, surfing the web, and other Millenial-approved social media tasks."
That's the biggest issue with the form factor in general. It's great for consuming - surfing the web (IE in modern/Metro mode is actually astoundingly decent!), watching video, listening to music... but as soon as you want to reply to a Slashdot post or write an e-mail, you'll be pulling your hair out in clumps.
The Retina MBPs can be run scaled (1680x1050 for the 13"er and 1920x1200 for the 15"er), or in their native resolutions (using third party software). If you like OSX and Apple, they're pretty awesome for high-res coding and so on.
For the OP, I'd recommend simply replacing his MBP with an rMBP, or at least a device with a 1080p display (available anywhere from 12" [Zenbook] to 17")... since external high-res displays aren't to be had, a decent internal display is the next best thing.
I don't understand all the controversy, tbh - maybe jealousy? I know I wish I was more productive away from home... I always take my work/uni stuff with me but end up reading Slashdot instead:p
Universities (or their libraries) are a good idea for a quiet place to work, but unless you have a valid set of user credentials, good luck getting online. It's all Eduroam over here, which is enterprise WPA2... I'd recommend getting an unlocked pentaband GSM MiFi and just getting a prepaid SIM card with a data plan (20-30€ per month with about 5 gigs of traffic included) and relying on that instead.
Cafes are often fine for working in terms of space and atmosphere, but expensive if you don't want to piss off the employees - ordering a cup of coffee (~2€) once per hour for 6 hours while the tables around you are paying 10-20€ checks every hour is a major annoyance. Also, drinking a cup of coffee every hour would probably give me a heart attack:p.
Instead, you should look for coworking spaces - they're popping up all around Germany (and I'm assuming the rest of Europe as well)... here you pretty much always get reliable power, internet acccess and a quiet spot to work.
That's because you probably did some research before you bought it. I'm also typing this on a 15.6" FullHD machine with 16 gigs of RAM, an SSD and a HDD and I don't plug in during the day - ever.
Most people, however, end up with a non-switchable GeForce or Radeon and wonder why they're only getting 3 hours of battery life from a 95Wh extended battery...
"They all have crappy battery life. It may start at 8 hours, but after a year it'll be down to 1 hour."
Now that's a huge exaggeration... I've had my Galaxy Nexus for about a year, and the battery life has not been diminished significantly.
"Most of my friends have viable home laptops with no remaining battery of which to speak. And these were solid industrial models. Does that mean the whole thing should be thrown out and replaced?"
Just stick in a new battery... that's the whole point of buying "solid industrial models" with easily replaceable batteries.
And a laptop with no remaining battery is not in any way shape or form "viable" as a laptop.
Or just stop buying laptops, cell phones and tablets with crappy battery life. This is what happens when people buy 17" laptops with quadcore CPUs, power-sucking dedicated graphics and end up wanting to use them on the couch... or when they buy a tablet with less than 8 hours of battery life. It just shouldn't be done...
Obviously this, but what sort of an update are we talking about here anyway? Actual spec changes? Support for new standards? Because it really sounds like an upgrade for the sake of being able to keep a support contract going - why not just renew the contract for cash and be done with it?
Are you trolling, or do you actually believe this is true? Do you not care about things like... oh... warranty on a highly integrated device that's hard to fix if something breaks? Support? Software updates?
I like me some China-junk too, but I tend to limit myself to things I can fix myself in case something goes wrong - flashlights and other little gadgets and such. No way I'd risk it for more than $100.
Unfortunately, HTC is one of the biggest culprits here. Check out a few posts above - the person having issues with his phone not being updated already has an HTC Desire S.
Just buy the current Nexus (in this case, the Nexu 4) phone. CyanogenMod is pretty much tweaked stock Android, which is exactly what you get on a Nexus, and the CM team develops on the current flagship Nexus, so you'll be getting the latest CM versions for as long as possible, and installation of CM on a Nexus is easy as pie.
Have you taken a look at the Atom Z2760? Running full Windows 8, it feels noticeably faster than most mainstream ARM SoCs... definitely faster than my Galaxy Nexus and Nexus 7. That may be down to the RAM though.
To be fair though - even current Clover Trail Atom SoCs are astoundingly low power. It's one of the few good things about the Win8 tablet I bought. The (30Wh) battery lasts surprisingly long... I haven't gotten below 50% in a day (and that's with extremely heavy use, with nearly permanent inking in OneNote). I'd say I'm averaging less than 2W total power consumption (that's including the display and network connections).
" I don't usually hammer out many multi-paragraph emails or forum comments on it, but I have no problem doing so, if necessary."
How exactly do you do that though? I own a tablet as well, and I'm having incredible difficulty with this. Unless I put the thing on a desk or am lying in bed with my knees pulled up so I can put the tablet down in my lap, I either have to hold the tablet in one hand and type with the other (which pisses me off because it's so inefficient) or try to do the smartphone-style thumb-type in portrait mode, which is next to impossible because the device is just way too big.
I find myself reaching for my phone more often than my tablet, simply for the reason that text input is easier - 2 thumbs and off you go.
Wow, exactly the opposite for me. My tablets are gathering dust (except for text entry with a stylus) while my smartphone and laptop get all the actual usage.
Any chance this is because you have a tablet that's actually an Android subnotebook with a detachable keyboard? How much time do you spend in actual "tablet mode"?
"There is some stuff you Just. Cant Do. On a phone. The screen is too small."
Such as what exactly? I've got a ~5" phone (Galaxy Nexus), a 7" tablet (Nexus 7) a ~12" tablet (a Samsung Windows 8 device) and my choice of 12", 14" and 15" laptops... I find that the tablets are both completely useless. The 7" tablet can't do more than the phone (same resolution, similar processing power, input is similarly crappy) and the 12" tablet is too big for anything other than text entry with a stylus.
It always needs a stand or a flat surface on which you can place it, because unless you want to type with a single finger while holding the tablet with your other hand, there's just no way to use it without some place to put it down. Even worse: Putting it on your lap when you're sitting isn't an option, because the angle is completely screwy - sure, the IPS display doesn't really wash out much, but reading text at such a shallow angle feels really weird.
I can't think of ANYTHING that my tablets can do better than my phone... maybe video playback and battery life. Other than that? Nothing whatsoever.
Is anyone else here plagued by stuttering issues with Silverlight video? All my machines (mostly Win7 Pro 64bit with relatively potent hardware) have the same issue - when I fullscreen a Silverlight video, the motion is never entirely smooth - it stutters ever so slightly about once a second. CPU and GPU load are below 5-10% on most machines at this point, so I'm at a loss as to what's wrong. I've also tried both Chrome and Firefox, and it's all up to date (browsers, plugins, drivers, Windows updates)...
Is it because Silverlight is just inherently crap?
"In general, magazines (either print or online) are still where one goes to get well-researched, long-form articles."
Unless you know anything at all about the topic at hand, in which case it quickly becomes apparent that "well-researched" is hardly ever the case. This becomes especially apparent when you're reading tech magazines as someone who regularly browses Slashdot. *shudders*
Slashdot Mirror
While I do agree with you in principle, there are certain use cases in which "idling" very much applies - with the exception of the display backlight. Reading Slashdot, for instance... or office work... or reading a PDF... so the claims aren't always as far-fetched as they seem. Hell, I regularly get 12 hours of battery life out of my Thinkpad, and that's rated for something like 13 or 14 hours IIRC, so pretty much right on the money since I use mid-high display brightness instead of dimmed.
Apple is better at this, with their "wireless web battery life" spec... someone reading a PDF will get far more battery life than the ~7 hours Apple usually claims on their MacBooks, while someone watching Flash videos or playing games will get far less - but it's a fair estimate for the average user.
"A good example of this is the Surface. It's amazing to have almost a full fledged PC in a tablet form factor and lets you build some really cool applications that the previous Tablet PC form factor didn't address well. But I wouldn't use it to write anything longer than an SMS, tweet or quick email...it's just not built for huge gorilla hands. :-) On the other hand, it's great for watching movies, surfing the web, and other Millenial-approved social media tasks."
That's the biggest issue with the form factor in general. It's great for consuming - surfing the web (IE in modern/Metro mode is actually astoundingly decent!), watching video, listening to music... but as soon as you want to reply to a Slashdot post or write an e-mail, you'll be pulling your hair out in clumps.
I've actually just noticed that the Windows 8 keyboard (at least on my Atom based Win8 tablet) has problems with fast multitouch inputs, which makes it even worse... http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_8-tms/why-is-my-windows-8-touch-keyboard-adding-extra/f9d18350-a87a-425b-a34c-a2aaa5f9abaa
Correct - that's something they'll have to live with. No need to ruin high-resolution displays for the rest of us though.
Nope, just decent vision. :)
Why does everyone forget that you can use the native resolution of an rMBP with the addition of a simple 3rd-party app?
The Retina MBPs can be run scaled (1680x1050 for the 13"er and 1920x1200 for the 15"er), or in their native resolutions (using third party software). If you like OSX and Apple, they're pretty awesome for high-res coding and so on.
For the OP, I'd recommend simply replacing his MBP with an rMBP, or at least a device with a 1080p display (available anywhere from 12" [Zenbook] to 17")... since external high-res displays aren't to be had, a decent internal display is the next best thing.
I don't understand all the controversy, tbh - maybe jealousy? I know I wish I was more productive away from home... I always take my work/uni stuff with me but end up reading Slashdot instead :p
Universities (or their libraries) are a good idea for a quiet place to work, but unless you have a valid set of user credentials, good luck getting online. It's all Eduroam over here, which is enterprise WPA2... I'd recommend getting an unlocked pentaband GSM MiFi and just getting a prepaid SIM card with a data plan (20-30€ per month with about 5 gigs of traffic included) and relying on that instead.
Cafes are often fine for working in terms of space and atmosphere, but expensive if you don't want to piss off the employees - ordering a cup of coffee (~2€) once per hour for 6 hours while the tables around you are paying 10-20€ checks every hour is a major annoyance. Also, drinking a cup of coffee every hour would probably give me a heart attack :p.
Instead, you should look for coworking spaces - they're popping up all around Germany (and I'm assuming the rest of Europe as well)... here you pretty much always get reliable power, internet acccess and a quiet spot to work.
That's because you probably did some research before you bought it. I'm also typing this on a 15.6" FullHD machine with 16 gigs of RAM, an SSD and a HDD and I don't plug in during the day - ever.
Most people, however, end up with a non-switchable GeForce or Radeon and wonder why they're only getting 3 hours of battery life from a 95Wh extended battery...
"They all have crappy battery life. It may start at 8 hours, but after a year it'll be down to 1 hour."
Now that's a huge exaggeration... I've had my Galaxy Nexus for about a year, and the battery life has not been diminished significantly.
"Most of my friends have viable home laptops with no remaining battery of which to speak. And these were solid industrial models. Does that mean the whole thing should be thrown out and replaced?"
Just stick in a new battery... that's the whole point of buying "solid industrial models" with easily replaceable batteries.
And a laptop with no remaining battery is not in any way shape or form "viable" as a laptop.
Or just stop buying laptops, cell phones and tablets with crappy battery life. This is what happens when people buy 17" laptops with quadcore CPUs, power-sucking dedicated graphics and end up wanting to use them on the couch... or when they buy a tablet with less than 8 hours of battery life. It just shouldn't be done...
How is "It's right there in the fucking start menu" not apparent? o.O
Obviously this, but what sort of an update are we talking about here anyway? Actual spec changes? Support for new standards? Because it really sounds like an upgrade for the sake of being able to keep a support contract going - why not just renew the contract for cash and be done with it?
Are you trolling, or do you actually believe this is true? Do you not care about things like... oh... warranty on a highly integrated device that's hard to fix if something breaks? Support? Software updates?
I like me some China-junk too, but I tend to limit myself to things I can fix myself in case something goes wrong - flashlights and other little gadgets and such. No way I'd risk it for more than $100.
Unfortunately, HTC is one of the biggest culprits here. Check out a few posts above - the person having issues with his phone not being updated already has an HTC Desire S.
Just buy the current Nexus (in this case, the Nexu 4) phone. CyanogenMod is pretty much tweaked stock Android, which is exactly what you get on a Nexus, and the CM team develops on the current flagship Nexus, so you'll be getting the latest CM versions for as long as possible, and installation of CM on a Nexus is easy as pie.
"Why should we accept that we won't even get security patches for slightly older devices?"
You shouldn't. Your anger should be directed at HTC though - not the CM team.
Probably not TOR either...
Have you taken a look at the Atom Z2760? Running full Windows 8, it feels noticeably faster than most mainstream ARM SoCs... definitely faster than my Galaxy Nexus and Nexus 7. That may be down to the RAM though.
To be fair though - even current Clover Trail Atom SoCs are astoundingly low power. It's one of the few good things about the Win8 tablet I bought. The (30Wh) battery lasts surprisingly long... I haven't gotten below 50% in a day (and that's with extremely heavy use, with nearly permanent inking in OneNote). I'd say I'm averaging less than 2W total power consumption (that's including the display and network connections).
" I don't usually hammer out many multi-paragraph emails or forum comments on it, but I have no problem doing so, if necessary."
How exactly do you do that though? I own a tablet as well, and I'm having incredible difficulty with this. Unless I put the thing on a desk or am lying in bed with my knees pulled up so I can put the tablet down in my lap, I either have to hold the tablet in one hand and type with the other (which pisses me off because it's so inefficient) or try to do the smartphone-style thumb-type in portrait mode, which is next to impossible because the device is just way too big.
I find myself reaching for my phone more often than my tablet, simply for the reason that text input is easier - 2 thumbs and off you go.
Wow, exactly the opposite for me. My tablets are gathering dust (except for text entry with a stylus) while my smartphone and laptop get all the actual usage.
Any chance this is because you have a tablet that's actually an Android subnotebook with a detachable keyboard? How much time do you spend in actual "tablet mode"?
"There is some stuff you Just. Cant Do. On a phone. The screen is too small."
Such as what exactly? I've got a ~5" phone (Galaxy Nexus), a 7" tablet (Nexus 7) a ~12" tablet (a Samsung Windows 8 device) and my choice of 12", 14" and 15" laptops... I find that the tablets are both completely useless. The 7" tablet can't do more than the phone (same resolution, similar processing power, input is similarly crappy) and the 12" tablet is too big for anything other than text entry with a stylus.
It always needs a stand or a flat surface on which you can place it, because unless you want to type with a single finger while holding the tablet with your other hand, there's just no way to use it without some place to put it down. Even worse: Putting it on your lap when you're sitting isn't an option, because the angle is completely screwy - sure, the IPS display doesn't really wash out much, but reading text at such a shallow angle feels really weird.
I can't think of ANYTHING that my tablets can do better than my phone... maybe video playback and battery life. Other than that? Nothing whatsoever.
Is anyone else here plagued by stuttering issues with Silverlight video? All my machines (mostly Win7 Pro 64bit with relatively potent hardware) have the same issue - when I fullscreen a Silverlight video, the motion is never entirely smooth - it stutters ever so slightly about once a second. CPU and GPU load are below 5-10% on most machines at this point, so I'm at a loss as to what's wrong. I've also tried both Chrome and Firefox, and it's all up to date (browsers, plugins, drivers, Windows updates)...
Is it because Silverlight is just inherently crap?
"In general, magazines (either print or online) are still where one goes to get well-researched, long-form articles."
Unless you know anything at all about the topic at hand, in which case it quickly becomes apparent that "well-researched" is hardly ever the case. This becomes especially apparent when you're reading tech magazines as someone who regularly browses Slashdot. *shudders*