Thinking of getting an Apple...

busenbust

^Mac and (good) design: partners in crime?

RobertoMoir

gjchester wrote: »

My point is that a Mac's are sold as premium priced machines and there is no bottom / mid range model. The basic macbooks are not premium machines there mid range entry PC's just not with a midrange tag. Sure if you config a high end PC you'll pay the same, but theres no option for a basic workhorse mac. Dells start at $450 for a laptop, a Mac book costs twice that for the basic model.

I can't argue in the slightest with the blu-ray comments that I snipped, but you do realise that with your comment above you're essentially like a car owner who complains that the Bugatti Veyron costs more than a Kia whatever. You're undoubtedly correct as far as it goes but you're really missing the point.

Marty_J

gjchester wrote: »

Possibly, but if Firewires so great and USB lost the war why does the Ipod now have a USB and not a firewire connector?

Because few people have a Firewire port without also having a USB port, and by eliminating the Firewire chip, they were able to make the iPods smaller.

I wish they still used Firewire, but that's life for you I guess.

Apple has always loved the less common connector, be it Firewire, Display port, that awful ADP port or the ever changing apple ipod dock connector. Why because it's got patents on most of them to some extent and can licence it for cash when you need a spare / replacment. (ie rather than a cheapo store generic cable)

Some of what you say has merit, but Apple's drive to use different connectors has been in an effort to provide the best one; Apple have always been leaders in adopting new interfaces.

Apple didn't invent Firewire just to pointlessly rival USB. They invented it to provide a better alternative, which it is (they won both an Emmy and a Grammy for it).

However, USB was cheaper and had Intel pushing it, so it was more widely adopted. There isn't a war though; Firewire is still widely used.

I'd read less than that (300K) by 2012, but the report I read also said theres be 900K HDMI enabled devices in the world. Display port is currently very centered in the computing work, HDMI is adopted by the consumer electronics world.

Well Apple make computers, not televisions.

If your going to buy a HD TV now it's going to come with HDMI, it may be superceeded but not anytime soon. If you going to buy a design driven box (which is pretty much Apples aim, design comes first, and as I said it's very good at it) you not going to have multiple adapters and convertors around, it ruins the apple simple design ethos.

Which is why their Apple TV, which is made to be connected to a television, has an HDMI port.

I think I'm now going to retire from this thread, as it's already descending into a PC Vs Apple thread.

I don't think it is, but fair enough. :beer:

Scrilla

Marty_J wrote: »

Because few people have a Firewire port without also having a USB port, and by eliminating the Firewire chip, they were able to make the iPods smaller.

I think it's also because USB is cheaper. As you said, it requires smaller parts as firewire has it's own controller while USB relies on the host it is plugged into to provide controller processing in order to manage the transfer of data, thereby eliminating a component.

Marty_J wrote: »

Apple didn't invent Firewire just to pointlessly rival USB.

I thought Firewire came before USB, started development in 1986 I believe to replace SCSI.

In reference to gjchester's post, Firewire has in no way has lost to USB. If you need to use Firewire, you'd know exactly why you're using it over USB. USB "being in use more" cannot be an indicator as to the outcome of the Firewire vs USB battle when there was no battle to begin with.

Bowling_4_Gold

Just to let you know, the PC just earned it's place on The Gadget Show's Wall of Fame, beating Apple's Mac.


John's reasons why:

• Represent what computers are for the majority of people
• Like life really - a metaphor for life

Marty_J

Scrilla wrote: »

II thought Firewire came before USB, started development in 1986 I believe to replace SCSI.

In reference to gjchester's post, Firewire has in no way has lost to USB. If you need to use Firewire, you'd know exactly why you're using it over USB. USB "being in use more" cannot be an indicator as to the outcome of the Firewire vs USB battle when there was no battle to begin with.

I think you may be correct. Development was certainly started way back in the 80s, though I don't know when it first appeared.

There's an interesting article here on Apple's history of dropping features like a hot-potato.

Bowling_4_Gold wrote: »

Just to let you know, the PC just earned it's place on The Gadget Show's Wall of Fame, beating Apple's Mac.


John's reasons why:

• Represent what computers are for the majority of people
• Like life really - a metaphor for life

The little impromptu poll on their website begs to differ:

pendulum

Come on, 85 votes vs 58, hardly a respectable or meaningful sample size.

Marty_J

pendulum wrote: »

Come on, 85 votes vs 58, hardly a respectable or meaningful sample size.

Compared to a sample size of one (i.e. Jon Bentley, from the Gadget Show), it is.

Leopard

busenbust wrote: »

And shame on Apple, when you consider the price, for not including an HDMI port.

Marty_J wrote: »

As for HDMI, that's a bit less likely. Jobs dislikes it as he feels it's "limited in resolution". Apple regard DisplayPort as being the display connector of the future (until their Light Peak technology is released, at which point it's all over).

gjchester wrote: »

And lack of HDMI & blu-ray again shows contempt for what the consumer wants, for a company thats media friendly in most respects it's a obvious lack of customer focus. But heck it's more likely it's in the next version so Apple can sell you a new shiney box. Who cares what Steve thinks of the abilities of the connector, very little kit has DisplayPort whereas most kit has HDMI.

As far as I'm aware (and I may be incorrect – but I have a vague recollection of Steve Jobs saying it in regard to the Mac mini or the MacBook) Apple put a Display Port rather than HDMI port on to its latest models because a Display Port can support the 2,560 X 1,600 native resolution of a 30" monitor but an HDMI port can't.

HD televisions use just 1,920 x 1080, don't they? :huh:

But, as I cautioned, I'm not sure about that.



Marty J,

Uncharacteristically, you forgot to mention that not only is the MacBook Pro $100 cheaper than the HP Envy but it also comes with the excellent iLife suite of Apple applications.

Whereas, the HP Envy comes with, er... a 30-day trial version of the expensive Microsoft Office suite. :rolleyes:

RobTang

Leopard wrote: »

HD televisions use just 1,920 x 1080, don't they? :huh:

any tv you can buy in the UK is probabaly, you have to goto extreame lengths to buy anything with a higher resoltion, and even further to get native content and a even bigger wallet to boot.

but..

HDMI 1.3 max res = 2560×1600p
HDMI 1.4 max res = 4096×2160p

Although I suspect that any decisions were made prior to these standards being released.

Personally no matter how techincally good your system is going against the de facto standard is risky...