iPhone

davester

Could make some comment of cause you get Macbooks in Mac Happy meals, But as a Windows user its easy to slander the Apples 4% users (1% use V-tech lol) Apples are good but price tag makes them a little more out of peeps price range. Something Apple should take note of. But Apple are just as Guilty as Microsoft just Apple for forcing its usered to use their stuff itunes as an example.


But going back to the orignial post. Are you getting an iPhone to use it or to look good in your hand? If your wanting a phone and text message don't waste your money on one. If you plan and will use it as a PDA then consider it. I have the iPod touch and use it more as an PDA than a music player.

Marty_J

Leopard wrote: »

I'm always being told that 95% of people burden themselves with Windows machines instead of Macs.

Touche!

I'd love to see anyone actually get 8 hours uptime between charges on a 17" MacBook Pro. Particularly if they use its DVD drive. :rolleyes:

By all accounts, it's perfectly possible to get 8 hours of battery life if you're just wirelessly browsing the web and word processing and the like. Obviously using the DVD drive will decrease the battery life, but it's still at the top of its class.

My companion and I rotate five batteries between our three MacBooks Pro (why does the normally literate Apple always call them "MacBook Pros"? :mad: ) and use one of these. It's a brilliant device: works well, pays for itself over a year's use, light to carry and comes with its own power supply.

If one of us is travelling we take it with us. You can leave a hotel room in the morning with a fully-charged ProBook and two fully-charged batteries, giving you twelve hours of uptime. Overnight, you can re-charge all three.

What use is a laptop with a sealed-in battery that runs out of charge in the middle of the afternoon?

I'm sure you'll agree that your usage pattern and five spare batteries are hardly typical. Most people, during the course of a day, are in range of an electrical outlet at some point. Apple tend to be leaders in getting rid of hardware they deem obsolete, and the rest of the industry tends to follow eventually (remember parallel ports?), so I'm afraid you might have to get used to it.

Here's a short video to help reassure you. It's all for your own good. Honest.

Leopard

Marty_J wrote: »

I'm sure you'll agree that your usage pattern and five spare batteries are hardly typical. Most people, during the course of a day, are in range of an electrical outlet at some point.

You misread my post, Marty; it's five batteries (in total) that we have for three MacBooks Pro. At any time, only two are not inside a Mac.

And if you look at that as being two people, each of whom have one spare battery, I don't think it's that abnormal.

Apple (and Steve Jobs) are very fond of the phrases, "Only 5% of people" and "95% of people" which they use without any documented evidence but a lot of loyal Mac users have voted with their wallets and Apple has been forced to restore Firewire to the 13" MacBook and restore a matte (anti-glare) display option on the 15" model because it turned out their "5%" was a lot more than that.

I certainly don't believe that only 5% of Apple laptop owners have a spare battery - although only 5% of them may be buying them new from Apple.

(I do, however, have 5, now spare, batteries for my last two remaining TiBooks as a result of their original hosts meeting terminal fates. )

Nor is it correct to say that most people, during the course of a day, are in range of an electrical outlet at some point, certainly for sustained use.

People use laptops to take out and about with them. At meetings and venues where they congregate there are seldom enough power points (if any) for everyone and it looks, moreover, fairly unprofessional if the first thing you say when you arrive somewhere is "Have you got a power point I can use" and proceed to drape wires across their premises and help yourself to their electricity.

Imagine, for example, a press-room, a motorhome or a court room in which everyone wants to plug in a lead to charge their laptop and another one to charge their bloody iPhone. Even if there were enough sockets, everyone's leads would get tangled up into a spaghetti-like mess.

It's just professional (and courteous) to arrive at places and be self-sufficient with your personal devices.

Marty_J

Leopard wrote: »

It's just professional (and courteous) to arrive at places and be self-sufficient with your personal devices.

I agree, and that's why there's nothing more courteous than a laptop with an 8 hour battery life.

The white MacBooks are currently undergoing a redesign, and are expected to be offered at a lower price point. So we'll see if Apple does away with removable batteries entirely.

Leopard

It's why there's nothing more useless than a laptop with a sealed-in 8-hour (if you're lucky) battery when you're working a 12- hour day. :mad:

Marty_J

Leopard wrote: »

It's why there's nothing more useless than a laptop with a sealed-in 8-hour (if you're lucky) battery when you're working a 12- hour day. :mad:

12 hours is certainly one long meeting.

Leopard

I've yet to find a taxi driver who offered you the facility to re-charge your computer and your 'phone while you are travelling between meetings.

Marty_J

Leopard wrote: »

I've yet to find a taxi driver who offered you the facility to re-charge your computer and your 'phone while you are travelling between meetings.

Well, get on Dragons' Den; you might have a hit. I'm sure they'll all tell you though that they use a MacBook Pro so they don't have to worry about that sort of thing.

I don't find it beyond the bounds of belief that most people only have one laptop (and mobile phone) battery. So an increase in battery life, plus whatever goes with it such as a decrease in size and weight, is an improvement to most people. I appreciate (and respect) that it doesn't suit everyone, but in life, what does?

Don't forget, this sort of battery technology is still in its infancy. I'm sure a MacBook Pro with a 10 or 12 hour battery life isn't too far away. Of course, then some will say, "what if I need to use it for 14 hours?". And then Apple will bring one out with a 24 hour battery life, and some will say, "what if I need to use it for 48 hours?' and so on.

There's just no pleasing some people.

cmatt360

havent been caught out yet by the battery... even when i use my laptop in meetings as the main presentation laptop.

all the seminar rooms have a plug set aside for laptop usage anyway. I would also suggest that it is not that *unprofessional* to require a bit of 'leccy for the laptop anyway

Leopard

I've just spent an amusing break for coffee imagining the expressions likely to be produced on a number of Her Majesty's most senior judiciary if, upon having been summoned to their chambers, one produced a 17" ProBook and an iPhone and asked if one might re-charge them.

If that's not a scenario with which you have personal experience, conjure up how Judge Judy would be likely to react to a request to avail oneself of the Judicial socket for the same purpose(s).

I think, however, it would be wise not to digress any further into the merits, or otherwise, of a sealed-in ProBook battery on a thread dedicated to the iPhone.

Otherwise, some lazy cow with a distasteful avatar depicting her nascent pension-supplement provider will start another one. :eek: