I'll grant you that, yes, Jobs had a penchant for telling the board to fuck off. And you know what? They all made a shitload more money for it.
When the last generation of MBPs hit the market, I was interested; had I not just bought a new laptop right before they came out, I'd probably have a 17" MBP right now. Their current lineup? No, thank you; the most compelling thing in that lineup is the current Air; it *should* be the RMBP, but they went and fucked that one up with too much solder and glue. I'm in the market for a laptop again and just got a raise that increases my monthly salary by about the cost of a base model RMBP, but have no interest in their current offerings. Maybe they still have some of last-gen's 17-inchers around? And Lion? Lion is a freakin' joke, next to Snow Leopard; it'll be a sad day when the security patches for Snow stop roling in.
All Apple is doing right now is taking steps to pump their stock as high as possible so the execs can take the money and run, leaving a pile of rubble behind.
I'll admit I was never a huge fan of Apple, even before OSX and iCrap (i'll never like the iPod in its current incarnation, or the iPad as long as it's as locked down as it is -- the iPod Clasic and Nano are alright, I guess), mostly due to their marketing, which is often times misleading, at best. But, working on a Mac 40+hr/wk for the last two and a half years has changed my perspective, at least, of their technical offering. I still don't think the hardware is worth the price (I haven't seen any of this superior engineering or better quality that I keep hearing about, I've seen as many Mac hardware problems as I've seen PC hardware problems, and I've seen far fewer Macs) but the OS, at least Snow Leopard, does have its good bits and there's a bit of decent software that's OSX-only. I started coming around, to the point that, despite the mediocre quiality I've observed their hardware to be, despite the pricetag, because I have come to like the platform, I had placed Apply at the top of my "buy" list. Then, with Lion, the dropped down a slot, and, with their current hardware lineup, they now find themselves near the bottom, about to once again be removed from the list.
Pity. They were doing so well for so long.
Hell, maybe I'm wrong. Maybe the execs do have a long term plan. Maybe they just want to get out of the desktop market? Let me posit, for a momint, that this is the case. If they simply announce that they're exiting a market that is currently growing and profitable, their shareholders will eat them alive. However, if they make that product line unprofitable, shareholders will begin to demand that they drop it. Think about it, the next version of iOS won't need a computer *AT ALL*. That's the last piece of the puzzle, once that's in place, Apple won't need to sell computers to support the iCrap line; since that's where the money is, why would they want to support a desktop OS, too?
I really do hope Apple rights their ship, though. I've come to like this platform and it would be sad to watch it disappear.
I'm not sure why I only just now thought of this but...
If the dealership only needs a software update, the thieves only need a software update. It's a lot wasier to move bits than it is to move physical hardware. If you're doing it for security, hardware is the way to go, thus a separate port.
The port only working if the car is in the "ON" position is the case with most vehicles with a turn-key ignotion, including BMW. I'm not sure how that would work with a push-button system like in the BMWs in question in this article.
It's funny, though, that my 2000 Corolla has a separate diagnostics port, for functions not required to be accessible via OBD-II. It can't have cost *that* much if my $15k car included it; it's not too much to ask on a car going for $80+K.
Then they should do this? You go ahead and tear down my solution and say "but this would work much better", but that doesn't disprove my argument, they could and should be doing *something*.
Problem: The OBD-II port, which, by mandate in most countries where it is required, may not have any access controls applied to it, is being used for non-diagnostic purposes
Solution: Use a separate port with some actual securty measures for any functions you aren't legally required to expose via OBD-II
Damn, it took me all of 2 seconds to figure that one out, and I'm not a security expert.
GoToMyPC and LogMeIn certainly do, it's part of the "ease of use" functionality that means even my very nontechnical designer can use it to remote into his PC at home (with a stock unconfigured router, so no port forwarding) from the office.
And what of the glue? Teh screws aren't the problem, here, as anyone who *does* know what they're doing can get past those.
Even Apple can't get past their own glue; the battery replacement procedute is to move the logic board, SSD, wireless card, display, and case bottom to a new chassis, complete with battery, keyboard, and trackpad (since the battery is glued in, over top of the trackpad and part of the keyboard), and "recycle" the old chassis.
How do they recycle it of they can't remove the battery without rupturing it? Also, keyboard or trackpad replacement costs the same $200 as battery replacement, since it all has to be replaced in one go. No more $20 keyboards or $30 trackpads for you!
This isn't to prevent casual tampering; even they Apple remove the damned battery. This is to kill aftermarket reparability.
The battery in the RMPBs is, de-facto, not replaceable. The entire housing, including the keyboard and trackpad, has to be replaced on these units, since the battery is glued in place, on top of (or under, depends which way you're looking at it) the trackpad and a considerable portion of the keyboard.
Additionally, lithium chemistry batteries are best stored at 80% charge. When the battery is fully charged and not in use (e.g. the laptop stays plugged in), the battery is in storage. More to the point, the battery will lose some of that charge over time, both naturally and through the act of the charging circuit checking its voltage periodically to determine its charge level (which it does, in part due to the fact that it will naturall shed some of its charge over time and, partially, for safety reasons; an abrupt voltage drop could indicate a failed cell, at which point the charging circuit would immediately disconnect the battery).
Every time that battery drops below the "full" threshold, the charging circuit pumps some juice into it; that's a charge cycle. Every time the battery is stored at over 80% for long enough for that to happen, the cells are chemically damaged; the extent of the damage increases with the charge level and length of storage.
And, now, for some anecdotal evidence. I use my laptop plugged in during the workday and, typically, unplugged during my off hours, only plugging it in when the battery gets low. Meanwhile, my ex fiancee never unplugs hers, except to move from one room to another. We both have the same laptop, bought at the same time, with the same battery. Mine still manages to hold a charge for 2.5hr of REAL use (3 VMware VMs running, active file transfers, and active use of the host OS and both VMs) or 8-10hr sitting idle with the screen dimmed. Hers? She was on her 3rd battery last year when I got rid of her (for reasons unrelated); the first two had been destroyed to the point that, if she forgot to grab her power adaptor when moving to another room, the laptop would be dead by the time she went and grabbed it. She killed her first 2 batteries in 6mo like this; I explained to her why her batteries weren't lasting like mine (either the above, or a bad charging circuit) and she changed her behavior. She'd had her 3rd battery for a year last I heard and it's still holding a charge just fine.
Now, I do think the charging circuits on these particular batteries could have a slightly lower threshold for "full", which would have greatly increased the life of my ex's first two batteries, but she still would have killed them relatively quickly leaving the laptop plugged in.
Contrary to the logic followed by those who don't understand battery chemistries, keeping it on the charger will NOT extend its life; quite the opposite. Unlike NiCd and NiMH chemistries, which do best if stored fully charged (with periodic maintenance/trickle charges) and require that you drain them as completely as possible in order to maintain charge life, lithium battery chemisitries don't fare so well in these scenarios. Instead, they serve best when kept above 20% or so charge level when in use and at or below 80% when in storage. Lithium cells all, eventually and suddenly, refuse to hold a charge; the lower their charge level, the more likely they'll suddenly fail. Likewise, in storage, they (relatively) quickly shed the first 20% of a full charge. Meanwhile, unlike NiCD and NiMH chemistries, which benefit from maintenance (trickle) charging, every time voltage is applied to a lithium battery, it loses some of its capacity, so maintenance charging actually destroys them in short order.
1000 charge cycles is a lot less than it sounds like if you leave it plugged in all the time.
SOURCE: Two friends who just so happen to be EEs who design the batteries used in DeWalt and Makita power tools. No, those aren't laptops; yes, the chemistries are the same.
Likewise, I had an HP laptop that was built in 99, that I only stopped using 3 years or so ago. The only reason I stopped using it is that the original battery had died in 07 and the cheap replacement battery only lasted partway into 08. The machine was still working just fine otherwise, and I did keep it on life support (tethered to the power brick, for lack of a working battery) for nearly 9mo before I pulled the plug.
10 years out of a laptop that saw a LOT of road use is not bad at all. These new RMBPs will be shit in 4, at most, when their batteries crap out. That HP would still be in use today, for one purpose or another, had I felt like spending another $40 to replace the battery again.
Comparing 2006 prices for one product, inflation adjusted, to 2012 prices for another product... doesn't seem very scientific to me. Why not compare 2006 prices to 2006 prices? Or 2012 prices to 2012 prices? Prices have come down in the last 6 years, for both PC and Mac; that a Mac, today, costs less than a similarly placed PC did 6 years ago, after adjusting for inflation, means absolutely jack shit, when the Mac cost more back then and the PC still costs less today.
WRONG! Those are not current generation MacBook Pros with retina displays, which are glued together and use proprietary screws, so they're not what we're talking about here.
Artists signed to major labels have never been able to depent on record sales. Profits are up for the labels, though. It's not my fault Pearl Jam only saw 5 cents of the $12.99 I paid for a copy of Backspacer at Target yesterday.
I am trying to make the point that when real UI differences with real impacts actually exist, it is trivial to enumerate and describe them, rather than vague implications about getting the heebie jeebies.
Again, I used it for all of 5 minutes, not long enough to start building a list of what I feel is wrong with it. If I can get my boss to let me interrupt his workday to borrow his laptop long enough to build you that list (no, a demo unit won't suffice, as I can't enter my development environment and actually try to work on that), I'll do that. If I can get him to sit down and detail specifics, I'll do that. Until then, the absolute best I can offer you (since I, along with the rest of my office [save for one guy who's still on Panther], am still using Snow Leopard) is that i felt uncomfortable for the 5 minutes I used it and my boss bitches about it all day long. I understand what you're asking for and I'm telling you why I can't provide it; not that it doesn't exist (God, I wish that were the case, my boss would finally STFU -- I SIT NEXT TO HIM ALL DAY!), but that I can't get my hands on the machine to enumerate the flaws.
No, you need to provide more detail on what caused "the feeling".
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I'll grant you that, yes, Jobs had a penchant for telling the board to fuck off. And you know what? They all made a shitload more money for it.
When the last generation of MBPs hit the market, I was interested; had I not just bought a new laptop right before they came out, I'd probably have a 17" MBP right now. Their current lineup? No, thank you; the most compelling thing in that lineup is the current Air; it *should* be the RMBP, but they went and fucked that one up with too much solder and glue. I'm in the market for a laptop again and just got a raise that increases my monthly salary by about the cost of a base model RMBP, but have no interest in their current offerings. Maybe they still have some of last-gen's 17-inchers around? And Lion? Lion is a freakin' joke, next to Snow Leopard; it'll be a sad day when the security patches for Snow stop roling in.
All Apple is doing right now is taking steps to pump their stock as high as possible so the execs can take the money and run, leaving a pile of rubble behind.
I'll admit I was never a huge fan of Apple, even before OSX and iCrap (i'll never like the iPod in its current incarnation, or the iPad as long as it's as locked down as it is -- the iPod Clasic and Nano are alright, I guess), mostly due to their marketing, which is often times misleading, at best. But, working on a Mac 40+hr/wk for the last two and a half years has changed my perspective, at least, of their technical offering. I still don't think the hardware is worth the price (I haven't seen any of this superior engineering or better quality that I keep hearing about, I've seen as many Mac hardware problems as I've seen PC hardware problems, and I've seen far fewer Macs) but the OS, at least Snow Leopard, does have its good bits and there's a bit of decent software that's OSX-only. I started coming around, to the point that, despite the mediocre quiality I've observed their hardware to be, despite the pricetag, because I have come to like the platform, I had placed Apply at the top of my "buy" list. Then, with Lion, the dropped down a slot, and, with their current hardware lineup, they now find themselves near the bottom, about to once again be removed from the list.
Pity. They were doing so well for so long.
Hell, maybe I'm wrong. Maybe the execs do have a long term plan. Maybe they just want to get out of the desktop market? Let me posit, for a momint, that this is the case. If they simply announce that they're exiting a market that is currently growing and profitable, their shareholders will eat them alive. However, if they make that product line unprofitable, shareholders will begin to demand that they drop it. Think about it, the next version of iOS won't need a computer *AT ALL*. That's the last piece of the puzzle, once that's in place, Apple won't need to sell computers to support the iCrap line; since that's where the money is, why would they want to support a desktop OS, too?
I really do hope Apple rights their ship, though. I've come to like this platform and it would be sad to watch it disappear.
Good to know, I've been eyeing a Veloster recently.
Well, yeah, that too
I'm not sure why I only just now thought of this but...
If the dealership only needs a software update, the thieves only need a software update. It's a lot wasier to move bits than it is to move physical hardware. If you're doing it for security, hardware is the way to go, thus a separate port.
The port only working if the car is in the "ON" position is the case with most vehicles with a turn-key ignotion, including BMW. I'm not sure how that would work with a push-button system like in the BMWs in question in this article.
Except BMW, apparently. :P
It's funny, though, that my 2000 Corolla has a separate diagnostics port, for functions not required to be accessible via OBD-II. It can't have cost *that* much if my $15k car included it; it's not too much to ask on a car going for $80+K.
Bowel Movement on Wheels
Then they should do this? You go ahead and tear down my solution and say "but this would work much better", but that doesn't disprove my argument, they could and should be doing *something*.
Problem: The OBD-II port, which, by mandate in most countries where it is required, may not have any access controls applied to it, is being used for non-diagnostic purposes
Solution: Use a separate port with some actual securty measures for any functions you aren't legally required to expose via OBD-II
Damn, it took me all of 2 seconds to figure that one out, and I'm not a security expert.
GoToMyPC and LogMeIn certainly do, it's part of the "ease of use" functionality that means even my very nontechnical designer can use it to remote into his PC at home (with a stock unconfigured router, so no port forwarding) from the office.
I'm confused. Are you saying outsourcing is a bad thing?
i dunno, but check out the frist 4 of the last 5 characters... SRSLY?
Hate to say it, /. quality is seriously starting to flounder.
Starting?
Slippery slope, my friend. I'm just glad I'm not on it; you'll figure out what I'm talking about soon enough, I'm getting tired of explaining it.
And what of the glue? Teh screws aren't the problem, here, as anyone who *does* know what they're doing can get past those.
Even Apple can't get past their own glue; the battery replacement procedute is to move the logic board, SSD, wireless card, display, and case bottom to a new chassis, complete with battery, keyboard, and trackpad (since the battery is glued in, over top of the trackpad and part of the keyboard), and "recycle" the old chassis.
How do they recycle it of they can't remove the battery without rupturing it? Also, keyboard or trackpad replacement costs the same $200 as battery replacement, since it all has to be replaced in one go. No more $20 keyboards or $30 trackpads for you!
This isn't to prevent casual tampering; even they Apple remove the damned battery. This is to kill aftermarket reparability.
The battery in the RMPBs is, de-facto, not replaceable. The entire housing, including the keyboard and trackpad, has to be replaced on these units, since the battery is glued in place, on top of (or under, depends which way you're looking at it) the trackpad and a considerable portion of the keyboard.
Additionally, lithium chemistry batteries are best stored at 80% charge. When the battery is fully charged and not in use (e.g. the laptop stays plugged in), the battery is in storage. More to the point, the battery will lose some of that charge over time, both naturally and through the act of the charging circuit checking its voltage periodically to determine its charge level (which it does, in part due to the fact that it will naturall shed some of its charge over time and, partially, for safety reasons; an abrupt voltage drop could indicate a failed cell, at which point the charging circuit would immediately disconnect the battery).
Every time that battery drops below the "full" threshold, the charging circuit pumps some juice into it; that's a charge cycle. Every time the battery is stored at over 80% for long enough for that to happen, the cells are chemically damaged; the extent of the damage increases with the charge level and length of storage.
And, now, for some anecdotal evidence. I use my laptop plugged in during the workday and, typically, unplugged during my off hours, only plugging it in when the battery gets low. Meanwhile, my ex fiancee never unplugs hers, except to move from one room to another. We both have the same laptop, bought at the same time, with the same battery. Mine still manages to hold a charge for 2.5hr of REAL use (3 VMware VMs running, active file transfers, and active use of the host OS and both VMs) or 8-10hr sitting idle with the screen dimmed. Hers? She was on her 3rd battery last year when I got rid of her (for reasons unrelated); the first two had been destroyed to the point that, if she forgot to grab her power adaptor when moving to another room, the laptop would be dead by the time she went and grabbed it. She killed her first 2 batteries in 6mo like this; I explained to her why her batteries weren't lasting like mine (either the above, or a bad charging circuit) and she changed her behavior. She'd had her 3rd battery for a year last I heard and it's still holding a charge just fine.
Now, I do think the charging circuits on these particular batteries could have a slightly lower threshold for "full", which would have greatly increased the life of my ex's first two batteries, but she still would have killed them relatively quickly leaving the laptop plugged in.
Contrary to the logic followed by those who don't understand battery chemistries, keeping it on the charger will NOT extend its life; quite the opposite. Unlike NiCd and NiMH chemistries, which do best if stored fully charged (with periodic maintenance/trickle charges) and require that you drain them as completely as possible in order to maintain charge life, lithium battery chemisitries don't fare so well in these scenarios. Instead, they serve best when kept above 20% or so charge level when in use and at or below 80% when in storage. Lithium cells all, eventually and suddenly, refuse to hold a charge; the lower their charge level, the more likely they'll suddenly fail. Likewise, in storage, they (relatively) quickly shed the first 20% of a full charge. Meanwhile, unlike NiCD and NiMH chemistries, which benefit from maintenance (trickle) charging, every time voltage is applied to a lithium battery, it loses some of its capacity, so maintenance charging actually destroys them in short order.
1000 charge cycles is a lot less than it sounds like if you leave it plugged in all the time.
SOURCE: Two friends who just so happen to be EEs who design the batteries used in DeWalt and Makita power tools. No, those aren't laptops; yes, the chemistries are the same.
Likewise, I had an HP laptop that was built in 99, that I only stopped using 3 years or so ago. The only reason I stopped using it is that the original battery had died in 07 and the cheap replacement battery only lasted partway into 08. The machine was still working just fine otherwise, and I did keep it on life support (tethered to the power brick, for lack of a working battery) for nearly 9mo before I pulled the plug.
10 years out of a laptop that saw a LOT of road use is not bad at all. These new RMBPs will be shit in 4, at most, when their batteries crap out. That HP would still be in use today, for one purpose or another, had I felt like spending another $40 to replace the battery again.
Comparing 2006 prices for one product, inflation adjusted, to 2012 prices for another product... doesn't seem very scientific to me. Why not compare 2006 prices to 2006 prices? Or 2012 prices to 2012 prices? Prices have come down in the last 6 years, for both PC and Mac; that a Mac, today, costs less than a similarly placed PC did 6 years ago, after adjusting for inflation, means absolutely jack shit, when the Mac cost more back then and the PC still costs less today.
WRONG! Those are not current generation MacBook Pros with retina displays, which are glued together and use proprietary screws, so they're not what we're talking about here.
FBI agents are ttrained not ot have a sense of humor, and impoeronating one is a violation of US Federal Law. Have fun with that!
Artists signed to major labels have never been able to depent on record sales. Profits are up for the labels, though. It's not my fault Pearl Jam only saw 5 cents of the $12.99 I paid for a copy of Backspacer at Target yesterday.
You don't have to make a page people trust when you're dealing with people who trust any page.
I never said it did. If everyone's pirating.... I'm asking, here... who's buying?
I am trying to make the point that when real UI differences with real impacts actually exist, it is trivial to enumerate and describe them, rather than vague implications about getting the heebie jeebies.
Again, I used it for all of 5 minutes, not long enough to start building a list of what I feel is wrong with it. If I can get my boss to let me interrupt his workday to borrow his laptop long enough to build you that list (no, a demo unit won't suffice, as I can't enter my development environment and actually try to work on that), I'll do that. If I can get him to sit down and detail specifics, I'll do that. Until then, the absolute best I can offer you (since I, along with the rest of my office [save for one guy who's still on Panther], am still using Snow Leopard) is that i felt uncomfortable for the 5 minutes I used it and my boss bitches about it all day long. I understand what you're asking for and I'm telling you why I can't provide it; not that it doesn't exist (God, I wish that were the case, my boss would finally STFU -- I SIT NEXT TO HIM ALL DAY!), but that I can't get my hands on the machine to enumerate the flaws.
No, you need to provide more detail on what caused "the feeling".
Duly noted; meanwhile, refer to the above.