It doesn't matter how successful revenue-wise the stores are.
People who have no other way of actually seeing and interacting with Macs can visit a store and 'check out' the hardware. It's exposure, advertising, mind-share - whatever you want to call it. Sales are secondary.
Not many people would buy a new machine online without checking it out first - the stores allow them to do that.
I hope to be getting a 12" PowerBook soon - I'll buy it online with a student discount, but I'll check it out at a store first.
You make reasonable points, but there are two areas on which I would like to comment.
1) Packaging. Not the boxes, but the complete deal. If you buy that white-box P4, you don't get anything with it. Add on the OS license (if you need Windows), and whatever software you want to get it up to scratch. Get a base iMac and you get a surprising amount of useful software with it.
2) Heat. My Dell laptop, without other utilities, turns the fan on around 75 degrees C. Most of the time it's too hot to have on a lap, even with SpeedStep set down to 700Mhz. I have to make sure I'm running I8KMon to keep the temperature low enough to not worry me, which means I have annoying fans on nearly constantly. Playing games, the temperature rockets over 75 degrees as the processor stops idling. By contrast, there are actually machines in Apple's lineup without fans. That's the advantage of the PowerPC - low power consumption, which means long battery life (5 hours) and lower temperatures.
Apple make decent, fairly competitive desktop machines, and amazing laptops. They currently don't have the same clout as a commodity x86 desktop, but they are more integrated. I will never buy another x86 laptop; 45 minute battery life and 1st-degree burns aren't worth it. Not to mention the fact that with a TiBook I could actually watch DVDs, use Suspend, and also do useful Unix work.
I don't need more than 1Ghz from a machine these days anyway - I'd rather have quiet and low temp.
It's true - there are far too many FPS games, and far too many dystopian games.
I remember playing Frontier (despite the odd bug!) for literally years of in-game time. The same for First Encounters: superb games.
A little while ago I found an excellent site which lets me play First Encounters on a modern system (and a Linux port IIRC): Happiness!
I read with joy that David Braben's Frontier Developments would be releasing a PDA space game - but it's a shooter. So it looks like things really have gone bad!
I'd love to see a modern version of First Encounters. Oh well, next time I get free time;)
Seems a lot of people haven't bothered to actually read this.
The actual audio data (albeit copy-protected) is still on the disc, so it should play on normal CD players. The copy protection isn't good, but hey.
They have added an encoded Windows-playable section containing the tracks for playing on PCs.
A lot of people are complaining about having to pay - you only have to for each subsequent PC you 'rip' the tracks onto. The first time you do it, it's free. In essence, you can buy multiple electronic copies for less than buying the CD again. It's kind of fair if you think about it, for a copy-protection scheme anyway.
I'll be avoiding these 'CDs' should they ever appear outside Japan though - I prefer a bit of freedom, even if the restrictions aren't quite as bad as some try to make out.
The player restriction and not being able to make mix CDs is enough to stop me making a purchase.
It originally came about as a method for the Crown to limit the printing and publication of material. Two reasons: as a means of censorship (copyright was simply withheld), and as a means of revenue.
Since then, the term has been borrowed, with 'copyright' now meaning the exclusive right of the original creator to their work.
Some of the history still lives on, hence the word 'royalties' for the monies paid to the copyright holder (as it used to go to the Crown).
Just a little bit of history. In this case, things actually got better - they're getting worse now though, just to make up for things.
Ah well.
Don't get me started on 'intellectual property'.
The headphone jack is also a mic-in jack. Just pop the headphones out and put in your mic.
Someone's made a prototype of a plug-in speaker/mic for the Zaurus - haven't got a link handy.
So, while it doesn't have a built-in voice memo mic like my iPAQ does, I can put in a proper microphone for when I want better quality.
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It doesn't matter how successful revenue-wise the stores are.
People who have no other way of actually seeing and interacting with Macs can visit a store and 'check out' the hardware. It's exposure, advertising, mind-share - whatever you want to call it. Sales are secondary.
Not many people would buy a new machine online without checking it out first - the stores allow them to do that.
I hope to be getting a 12" PowerBook soon - I'll buy it online with a student discount, but I'll check it out at a store first.
I have an Inspiron 8100, and I have never been able to reach 2-3 hour battery life.
My worst ever battery life was about 10 minutes, watching a DivX from the internal HDD (that's from being unplugged to getting a battery warning).
If I'm very careful and don't do anything I can get about 45 minutes.
By contrast, my friend's slightly older TiBook gets literally hours. I am green with envy.
Not to mention that my Dell is built like shit. Worst built object I've ever touched - it practically creaks just sitting still.
You make reasonable points, but there are two areas on which I would like to comment.
:)
1) Packaging. Not the boxes, but the complete deal. If you buy that white-box P4, you don't get anything with it. Add on the OS license (if you need Windows), and whatever software you want to get it up to scratch. Get a base iMac and you get a surprising amount of useful software with it.
2) Heat. My Dell laptop, without other utilities, turns the fan on around 75 degrees C.
Most of the time it's too hot to have on a lap, even with SpeedStep set down to 700Mhz. I have to make sure I'm running I8KMon to keep the temperature low enough to not worry me, which means I have annoying fans on nearly constantly.
Playing games, the temperature rockets over 75 degrees as the processor stops idling.
By contrast, there are actually machines in Apple's lineup without fans. That's the advantage of the PowerPC - low power consumption, which means long battery life (5 hours) and lower temperatures.
Apple make decent, fairly competitive desktop machines, and amazing laptops. They currently don't have the same clout as a commodity x86 desktop, but they are more integrated.
I will never buy another x86 laptop; 45 minute battery life and 1st-degree burns aren't worth it.
Not to mention the fact that with a TiBook I could actually watch DVDs, use Suspend, and also do useful Unix work.
I don't need more than 1Ghz from a machine these days anyway - I'd rather have quiet and low temp.
Well, that's my opinion!
It's true - there are far too many FPS games, and far too many dystopian games.
I remember playing Frontier (despite the odd bug!) for literally years of in-game time. The same for First Encounters: superb games.
A little while ago I found an excellent site which lets me play First Encounters on a modern system (and a Linux port IIRC): Happiness!
I read with joy that David Braben's Frontier Developments would be releasing a PDA space game - but it's a shooter. So it looks like things really have gone bad!
I'd love to see a modern version of First Encounters. Oh well, next time I get free time ;)
Seems a lot of people haven't bothered to actually read this.
The actual audio data (albeit copy-protected) is still on the disc, so it should play on normal CD players. The copy protection isn't good, but hey.
They have added an encoded Windows-playable section containing the tracks for playing on PCs.
A lot of people are complaining about having to pay - you only have to for each subsequent PC you 'rip' the tracks onto. The first time you do it, it's free.
In essence, you can buy multiple electronic copies for less than buying the CD again.
It's kind of fair if you think about it, for a copy-protection scheme anyway.
I'll be avoiding these 'CDs' should they ever appear outside Japan though - I prefer a bit of freedom, even if the restrictions aren't quite as bad as some try to make out.
The player restriction and not being able to make mix CDs is enough to stop me making a purchase.
It originally came about as a method for the Crown to limit the printing and publication of material. Two reasons: as a means of censorship (copyright was simply withheld), and as a means of revenue. Since then, the term has been borrowed, with 'copyright' now meaning the exclusive right of the original creator to their work. Some of the history still lives on, hence the word 'royalties' for the monies paid to the copyright holder (as it used to go to the Crown). Just a little bit of history. In this case, things actually got better - they're getting worse now though, just to make up for things. Ah well. Don't get me started on 'intellectual property'.
The headphone jack is also a mic-in jack. Just pop the headphones out and put in your mic. Someone's made a prototype of a plug-in speaker/mic for the Zaurus - haven't got a link handy. So, while it doesn't have a built-in voice memo mic like my iPAQ does, I can put in a proper microphone for when I want better quality.