Your being facetious and missing the point at the same time.
The point the original poster was making was not that Apple should include these features because the competition is. The point is that Apple should make small powerful notebooks because their customers want them and are willing to pay for it.
Some people want huge 17" screens and others want small screens and more portability. My 15" PowerBook was $3500 and I would love to have spent that money on a smaller PowerBook with all the features the 15" has. Unfortunately no such beast exists.
Design flaws of the Ti Book: -cracking hinges(fixed with a single wide hinge) -chipping Ti paint(Aluminum doesn't need painting) -Slot loading drives jammed more often (none so far) -keyboard marks up the screen when closed (so far so good with Al PowerBook)
Apple still is crippling the 12 " PB by not including - Gigabit Ethernet - FireWire 800 - backlit keyboard
OK the backlit keyboard just looks cool but why can't they at least make these optional?
I have a 15" but would have liked to have gotten the 12" if it had better specs. The only real advantage the 12" PowerBook has over an iBook is the dual screen capabilities. Even that can be hacked into the iBook.
"I was very surprised to see that the case truly is aluminum, and not just painted plastic."
I'm guessing your new to the Mac platform. Well, get used to it! Apple's CEO and their engineers/designers pay attention to every last excruciating detail.
The guy who posts the prices and descriptions on the online store, well thats another story.
I think a much more interesting and feasible use of the mini would be as a thin client.
I wish Apple would sell a stripped down mini with no hard drive or optical drive for use as a thin client. An even better a thin client solution would be to put the whole computer inside the display similar to the iMac G5.
Same form factor as an iMac G5 but... 15" LCD screen G4 processor No HD No Optical Drive 512 MB of RAM Gigabit Ethernet USB2 and FW400
Sell them in ten packs to schools and businesses that want a thin client solution.
The PlayStation 3 is going to be PPC. I don't see why Sony wouldn't consider making PPC computers as well.
Kunitake Ando even made a comment in his remarks about "doing it on the Mac Platform" and Steve said "we work really closely with Sony on cameras and camcorders and who knows maybe someday in computers and music too."
Remember there are only 2 companies making a profit selling personal computers. Sony isn't one of them. Would Sony like to have an OS that differentiates it from the vast majority of it's competitors and actually works well with cameras and camcorders? Would Apple like to have a second source so that IT departments can't object to Apple as being a monoculture?
Apple is cooking up something related to HD content but the mini we know of today is not the product that will bring it home(at least not alone).
The single biggest reason I don't see the Mac mini as the "media center" device some claim it to be, is the lack of audio out options. It may be that Apple will at a later date release a breakout box(Asteroid) that adds optical audio out capabilities and possibly recording as well.
Currently the only way of getting digital audio out of the Mac mini is via AirTunes to a AirportExpress base station.
Personally, I would like too see Apple do to the movie industry what it has done for the music industry(drag it kicking and screaming into the internet age). I agree with Cringely that Apple probably has something up its sleeve in this regard but getting Hollywood to go along with it isn't going to be easy.
1) They should release an "iFlix" client that allows you to organize and view video files the way iTunes does.
2) In addition they should buy NetFlix and allow you to watch movie trailers, manage your queue and rent DVDs through their "iFlix" client.
3) They should also allow you to purchase DVDs from Amazon through "iFlix" as well.
4) They should license the Internet Movie Database content and allow you to view and search it from within the "iFlix" client.
5) Allow you to find show times for movies playing in your area using an elegant interface like Sherlock currently does, watch the trailer and most importantly BUY the tickets.
6) Release a true "Media Center" Mac and sell Sony HD LCD TVs in it's stores.
That covers pretty much everything the average person wants to do with movies and computers. Apple can do all of the above without much difficulty or any resistance from Hollywood. Once Apple has put together the end to end solution, then they can get Hollywood to cooperate on HD over IP. Imagine a single company that rents DVDs, sells DVDs, sells movie tickets, sells movies-on-demand and sells you the home theater!
Oh I almost forgot 7) Profit!
A curious thing happened at MacWorld
on
Sony Admits MP3 Error
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· Score: 4, Interesting
Did anyone else notice how much stage time the President of Sony got during the Stevenote? Not only was he up there a loooong time but he was gushing like a little school girl in love. The Reality Distortion Field was on full blast and Steve had it pointing right at Sony's president.
I suspect there was much more that went on behind the scenes that week that will unfold over the course of the year. Despite Steve's claim that this is the year of High Definition we all know that HD is not his focus.
How long has he been telling us that Apple doesn't want to make a $500 dollar Mac while secretly designing it for the past year?
How many times did he tell us that flash based MP3 players were a waste until he had one of his own?
How many times did he badmouth PDAs which he later admitted he had developed but decided not to ship?
My intuition tells me that one or more of the following will happen this year... 1) Sony will license FairPlay 2) Sony will start selling Sony banded iPods 3) Sony will make its own music player which uses the iPod OS 4) Sony and Apple will jointly develop new digital lifestyle products 5) Sony will become a Mac OS X licensee(eliminates the single source argument)
I was once replaced by a robot at a hospital...
on
Robots in Medicine
·
· Score: 1
Back when I was in college I scored an awesome job working at a hospital. The job paid really good and I worked the graveyard shift so there wasn't much work.
My job was to type up and apply labels to blood, urine and stool specimens when they arrived in the labs and then send them off to the appropriate lab for processing.
There was very little activity so I practiced sleeping sitting up at a computer terminal. Things went well at first but my laziness and irresponsibility started catching up with me. Being a college student I soon discovered the joys of binge drinking. This resulted in me going to work with a hangover on several occasions. As you can imagine hangovers + regular sleep deprivation = diminished quality control.
I was there for about a year before being replaced by a machine that could scan the forms, label the specimens and send them off without yours truly.
So what did I do? I took on a new position as a pizza distribution engineer for a multinational firm named Pizza Hut. Gotta love progress.
I'm sure Apple is planing on using these in the new Newton that will be released at MacWorld SanFran next month. [hint] Imagine how many HyperCard stacks 80GB can hold?
Apple would have a vacume to fill. I think this is what they are waiting for. Steve Jobs recently said that Apple developed a PDA recently but decided at the last minute not to ship it.
I love iSync, iCal, AddressBook, Mail and Safari. Give me OSX on a small tablet and I'll be a happy camper.
If they made it out of brushed aluminum and hung around the neck on a balled chain, it would look just like a dog tag. They could also be personalized like dog tags.
My college is required to collect information about all foreign students and report it to Homeland Security.
This sparked some internal debates regarding if we should comply. The Dean of Students quickly made it very clear that part of our job is to comply with all federal, state and local regulations and that any noncompliance would be dealt with sternly.
This is just an evolution of the Chuck E Cheese or Dave and Busters concept.
The advantage these guys have over mom and pop cyber cafes is the economy of scale. When your buying 300 of anything you can get a pretty good pricebreak. And if a manufacturer sees that those 300 products are going somewhere high profile, they want their product to be seen. This place is going to be a big advertisement for Alienware, The projector manufacturer, the gaming companies, etc.
This is my guess as to what they are paying per set up: Projector-$1000 (subsidized by InFocus) Computer-$1000 (subsidized by Alienware) Bulbs-$300 Screen-$100 Aeron Chair-$500 Games-very little Networking-I would work out a sponsorship deal with Linksys Bandwidth-I would work out a sponsorship deal with local Cable Co
Opportunities to make money: Station rental: $5/hour Sell Food and Drinks ProShop: Games, Joysticks, controllers, strategy guides, routers HomeTheater Setup:sell Alienware/InFocus packages
"You should read what remote sensing satellites can do to find clean water"
I'm very familiar with the technology. The problem is there are plenty of satellites to find clean water but no money to dig the wells.
There is a big difference between sending up remote sensing satellites and sending up manned missions. I'm all for spending Billions of dollars or Rs. on scientific research but it should be focused on finding solutions to existing problems, not creating solutions to problems that don't exist. India doesn't need to put men in space. It needs to put it's people first.
And I'm sure your viewpoint is completely objective considering you work for ISRO and would stand to gain financially if this project goes forward.
I'm not opposed to "spending money to make money" but the problem in this case is who is going to be making money? A very narrow segment of the population would benefit.
If you spend the money on agricultural research and improving infrastructure a much larger segment of the population would benefit.
Indians need: - clean drinking water - better roads - reliable electricity - jobs - homes
Building roads, power stations, water wells and homes will create millions of jobs.
"You're an idiot if you compare USD to Rupee one for one."
When did I ever compare USD and Rs. in my post?
The point is much of India is in poverty and not just run-of-the-mill poverty but the most ass backward kind. India should be putting the money into projects that will have the greatest good for the greatest number of people.
There are over 1 billion reasons not to go. The money should be spent on agricultural research and improved infrastructure. The average annual income in India is $450.
Being an Indian, I feel strongly about it as well.
Apple was the first to offer the GeForce 3 and will also probably be the last. I can't believe they didn't put something better in at least the 20" iMac G5.
I love Apple and I'm ordering a whole bunch of iMac G5s but I'm not happy about the lack of decent video card options.
They should simply add video in ports on the back of the iMac and offer Nintendo Game Cubes as an option (I'm sure Steve will consider the PS3 if it comes in a cube shaped form factor)
This would also solve another major drawback of the Mac, TV on the desktop options!
Slashdot Mirror
Your being facetious and missing the point at the same time.
The point the original poster was making was not that Apple should include these features because the competition is. The point is that Apple should make small powerful notebooks because their customers want them and are willing to pay for it.
Some people want huge 17" screens and others want small screens and more portability. My 15" PowerBook was $3500 and I would love to have spent that money on a smaller PowerBook with all the features the 15" has. Unfortunately no such beast exists.
The 12" PowerBook weighs 4.6lbs
The 12" iBook weighs 4.9lbs
Not much of an improvement.
The 12" PB needs more to justify the premium you pay above the cost of a similar iBook.
Design flaws of the Ti Book:
-cracking hinges(fixed with a single wide hinge)
-chipping Ti paint(Aluminum doesn't need painting)
-Slot loading drives jammed more often (none so far)
-keyboard marks up the screen when closed (so far so good with Al PowerBook)
The Al PowerBooks feel much better to me.
Apple still is crippling the 12 " PB by not including
- Gigabit Ethernet
- FireWire 800
- backlit keyboard
OK the backlit keyboard just looks cool but why can't they at least make these optional?
I have a 15" but would have liked to have gotten the 12" if it had better specs. The only real advantage the 12" PowerBook has over an iBook is the dual screen capabilities. Even that can be hacked into the iBook.
"I was very surprised to see that the case truly is aluminum, and not just painted plastic."
I'm guessing your new to the Mac platform. Well, get used to it! Apple's CEO and their engineers/designers pay attention to every last excruciating detail.
The guy who posts the prices and descriptions on the online store, well thats another story.
I think a much more interesting and feasible use of the mini would be as a thin client.
I wish Apple would sell a stripped down mini with no hard drive or optical drive for use as a thin client. An even better a thin client solution would be to put the whole computer inside the display similar to the iMac G5.
Same form factor as an iMac G5 but...
15" LCD screen
G4 processor
No HD
No Optical Drive
512 MB of RAM
Gigabit Ethernet
USB2 and FW400
Sell them in ten packs to schools and businesses that want a thin client solution.
The PlayStation 3 is going to be PPC. I don't see why Sony wouldn't consider making PPC computers as well.
Kunitake Ando even made a comment in his remarks about "doing it on the Mac Platform" and Steve said "we work really closely with Sony on cameras and camcorders and who knows maybe someday in computers and music too."
Remember there are only 2 companies making a profit selling personal computers. Sony isn't one of them. Would Sony like to have an OS that differentiates it from the vast majority of it's competitors and actually works well with cameras and camcorders? Would Apple like to have a second source so that IT departments can't object to Apple as being a monoculture?
I agree with Cringely in a sense.
Apple is cooking up something related to HD content but the mini we know of today is not the product that will bring it home(at least not alone).
The single biggest reason I don't see the Mac mini as the "media center" device some claim it to be, is the lack of audio out options. It may be that Apple will at a later date release a breakout box(Asteroid) that adds optical audio out capabilities and possibly recording as well.
Currently the only way of getting digital audio out of the Mac mini is via AirTunes to a AirportExpress base station.
Personally, I would like too see Apple do to the movie industry what it has done for the music industry(drag it kicking and screaming into the internet age). I agree with Cringely that Apple probably has something up its sleeve in this regard but getting Hollywood to go along with it isn't going to be easy.
1) They should release an "iFlix" client that allows you to organize and view video files the way iTunes does.
2) In addition they should buy NetFlix and allow you to watch movie trailers, manage your queue and rent DVDs through their "iFlix" client.
3) They should also allow you to purchase DVDs from Amazon through "iFlix" as well.
4) They should license the Internet Movie Database content and allow you to view and search it from within the "iFlix" client.
5) Allow you to find show times for movies playing in your area using an elegant interface like Sherlock currently does, watch the trailer and most importantly BUY the tickets.
6) Release a true "Media Center" Mac and sell Sony HD LCD TVs in it's stores.
That covers pretty much everything the average person wants to do with movies and computers. Apple can do all of the above without much difficulty or any resistance from Hollywood. Once Apple has put together the end to end solution, then they can get Hollywood to cooperate on HD over IP. Imagine a single company that rents DVDs, sells DVDs, sells movie tickets, sells movies-on-demand and sells you the home theater!
Oh I almost forgot
7) Profit!
Did anyone else notice how much stage time the President of Sony got during the Stevenote? Not only was he up there a loooong time but he was gushing like a little school girl in love. The Reality Distortion Field was on full blast and Steve had it pointing right at Sony's president.
I suspect there was much more that went on behind the scenes that week that will unfold over the course of the year.
Despite Steve's claim that this is the year of High Definition we all know that HD is not his focus.
How long has he been telling us that Apple doesn't want to make a $500 dollar Mac while secretly designing it for the past year?
How many times did he tell us that flash based MP3 players were a waste until he had one of his own?
How many times did he badmouth PDAs which he later admitted he had developed but decided not to ship?
My intuition tells me that one or more of the following will happen this year...
1) Sony will license FairPlay
2) Sony will start selling Sony banded iPods
3) Sony will make its own music player which uses the iPod OS
4) Sony and Apple will jointly develop new digital lifestyle products
5) Sony will become a Mac OS X licensee(eliminates the single source argument)
Back when I was in college I scored an awesome job working at a hospital. The job paid really good and I worked the graveyard shift so there wasn't much work.
My job was to type up and apply labels to blood, urine and stool specimens when they arrived in the labs and then send them off to the appropriate lab for processing.
There was very little activity so I practiced sleeping sitting up at a computer terminal. Things went well at first but my laziness and irresponsibility started catching up with me. Being a college student I soon discovered the joys of binge drinking. This resulted in me going to work with a hangover on several occasions. As you can imagine hangovers + regular sleep deprivation = diminished quality control.
I was there for about a year before being replaced by a machine that could scan the forms, label the specimens and send them off without yours truly.
So what did I do? I took on a new position as a pizza distribution engineer for a multinational firm named Pizza Hut. Gotta love progress.
I'm sure Apple is planing on using these in the new Newton that will be released at MacWorld SanFran next month.
[hint] Imagine how many HyperCard stacks 80GB can hold?
Apple would have a vacume to fill. I think this is what they are waiting for. Steve Jobs recently said that Apple developed a PDA recently but decided at the last minute not to ship it.
I love iSync, iCal, AddressBook, Mail and Safari. Give me OSX on a small tablet and I'll be a happy camper.
If they made it out of brushed aluminum and hung around the neck on a balled chain, it would look just like a dog tag. They could also be personalized like dog tags.
Basically IBM would change the plastics to black and focus on selling to corporations.
I will be first in line for a iBM 17" PowerBook(black anodized aluminum).
My college is required to collect information about all foreign students and report it to Homeland Security.
This sparked some internal debates regarding if we should comply. The Dean of Students quickly made it very clear that part of our job is to comply with all federal, state and local regulations and that any noncompliance would be dealt with sternly.
This is just an evolution of the Chuck E Cheese or Dave and Busters concept.
The advantage these guys have over mom and pop cyber cafes is the economy of scale. When your buying 300 of anything you can get a pretty good pricebreak. And if a manufacturer sees that those 300 products are going somewhere high profile, they want their product to be seen. This place is going to be a big advertisement for Alienware, The projector manufacturer, the gaming companies, etc.
This is my guess as to what they are paying per set up:
Projector-$1000 (subsidized by InFocus)
Computer-$1000 (subsidized by Alienware)
Bulbs-$300
Screen-$100
Aeron Chair-$500
Games-very little
Networking-I would work out a sponsorship deal with Linksys
Bandwidth-I would work out a sponsorship deal with local Cable Co
Opportunities to make money:
Station rental: $5/hour
Sell Food and Drinks
ProShop: Games, Joysticks, controllers, strategy guides, routers
HomeTheater Setup:sell Alienware/InFocus packages
"You should read what remote sensing satellites can do to find clean water"
I'm very familiar with the technology. The problem is there are plenty of satellites to find clean water but no money to dig the wells.
There is a big difference between sending up remote sensing satellites and sending up manned missions. I'm all for spending Billions of dollars or Rs. on scientific research but it should be focused on finding solutions to existing problems, not creating solutions to problems that don't exist. India doesn't need to put men in space. It needs to put it's people first.
"Of course you have a very limited view."
And I'm sure your viewpoint is completely objective considering you work for ISRO and would stand to gain financially if this project goes forward.
I'm not opposed to "spending money to make money" but the problem in this case is who is going to be making money?
A very narrow segment of the population would benefit.
If you spend the money on agricultural research and improving infrastructure a much larger segment of the population would benefit.
Indians need:
- clean drinking water
- better roads
- reliable electricity
- jobs
- homes
Building roads, power stations, water wells and homes will create millions of jobs.
"You're an idiot if you compare USD to Rupee one for one."
When did I ever compare USD and Rs. in my post?
The point is much of India is in poverty and not just run-of-the-mill poverty but the most ass backward kind. India should be putting the money into projects that will have the greatest good for the greatest number of people.
There are over 1 billion reasons not to go.
The money should be spent on agricultural research and improved infrastructure.
The average annual income in India is $450.
Being an Indian, I feel strongly about it as well.
He is a moderate and would go a long way to make Democrats more comfortable.
Apple was the first to offer the GeForce 3 and will also probably be the last. I can't believe they didn't put something better in at least the 20" iMac G5.
I love Apple and I'm ordering a whole bunch of iMac G5s but I'm not happy about the lack of decent video card options.
They should simply add video in ports on the back of the iMac and offer Nintendo Game Cubes as an option (I'm sure Steve will consider the PS3 if it comes in a cube shaped form factor)
This would also solve another major drawback of the Mac, TV on the desktop options!
You forgot step 3...PROFIT!
Funny? I think that is the most Insightful comment I've read today.