Xiaomi’s first laptop is a Macbook Air rival • Hacker News Board

Re: Xiaomi’s first laptop is a Macbook Air rival

#341

Post by jonathankoren » Wed, Jul 27, 2016, 6:56 PM UTC

keithpeter wrote: post #325

jonathankoren wrote: post #299

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It had something to do with device drivers not loading. It was stupidity. It was also 2003. The printer is a classic linux desktop experience. CUPS wouldn't recognize the printer, not even as generic postscript or something, or maybe it did, but wouldn't take advantage of its high resolution because binary blobs being evil or some other high horse. Either way, binary blobs figure into this. So I had to actually buy a…

Best of luck with it all. 13 years is some staying power!

After 10 years of linux, I got a mac 12 years ago, and never looked back. It's unix in all the ways I want, and none of the ways I don't.

Sysdamining is not my favorite thing.

Re: Xiaomi’s first laptop is a Macbook Air rival

#342

Post by kbrwn » Wed, Jul 27, 2016, 6:57 PM UTC

zghst wrote: post #309

kbrwn wrote: post #302

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"...I think it’s theft, and it’s lazy." Not reinventing the wheel is a great business strategy. Everyone copies everyone in the tech space. Apple didn't invent lightweight laptops.

No but Apple innovated and made them a thing, after the Macbook Air, the PC industry scrambled to release ultrabooks (a new category then), after trying to push horrible netbooks on people.

There were many popular netbooks before the MBA came out. Apple showed that there could be a popular high-end version with excellent build quality and now the market is responding with a cheaper model with the similar build quality. This isn't stealing. It is the standard model of almost every popular consumer electronic device since the 1980's.

Re: Xiaomi’s first laptop is a Macbook Air rival

#343

Post by Touche » Wed, Jul 27, 2016, 6:57 PM UTC

leonroy wrote: post #286

This quote from Jony Ive really made me feel for the guy: “When you’re doing something for the first time, you don’t know it’s going to work. You spend seven or eight years working on something, and then it’s copied. I have to be honest, the first thing I can think, all those weekends that I could have at home with my family but didn’t. I think it’s theft, and it’s lazy.” Xiaomi have done this to others. Their new ai…

This is the difference between developers and designers. And why so few designers participate in open-source.

I'll never understand designers. I don't mean that as a criticism, I literally don't understand the mindset. This is my problem for not understanding.

Re: Xiaomi’s first laptop is a Macbook Air rival

#344

Post by paganel » Wed, Jul 27, 2016, 7:01 PM UTC

nathanasmith wrote: post #335

paganel wrote: post #328

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If it's got the same functionality and the same design as the Japanese product but only "sells at a fraction of the price" compared to the original product then they must be doing something better than the Japanese. It's either lower wages, better productivity or both, either way, it's better for us, consumers, which now have additional money to spend on other products and services which further enrich our lives (whe…

I would imagine at least some of the additional cost comes from putting in the work to create the original product in the first place. If Xiaomi can just come along and clone an already successful air filter with a proven market, it doesn't surprise me that they could sell it for less. And we do lose when companies stop taking risks in innovating new products for fear of the copycats.

If the Chinese company can easily clone a product and still deliver something bellow their competitor's product price I'd say the R&D costs for the original company were overblown.

The Japanese company should have recouped their additional costs between the product launch and the Chinese company's product launch. If that interval was too short for them to do so it means that, as I said before, their "costs to create the product in the first place" were too high to begin with. For society's greater good we should put no premium on "I was here first/I did it first!", but only on "I build this product using less resources, hence it has the lowest price!".

Re: Xiaomi’s first laptop is a Macbook Air rival

#345

Post by whamlastxmas » Wed, Jul 27, 2016, 7:01 PM UTC

leonroy wrote: post #286

This quote from Jony Ive really made me feel for the guy: “When you’re doing something for the first time, you don’t know it’s going to work. You spend seven or eight years working on something, and then it’s copied. I have to be honest, the first thing I can think, all those weekends that I could have at home with my family but didn’t. I think it’s theft, and it’s lazy.” Xiaomi have done this to others. Their new ai…

I am sick to death of patent trolls, frivolous copyright lawsuits, RIAA/MPAA bullying, the broken and ridiculous patent system, bullcrap like the DMCA, and how obviously bought our lawmakers are in terms of extending and broadening copyright laws. It really makes it impossible for me to have any sympathy for "victims" of copyright violations or patent infringement. They can go pound sand.

Re: Xiaomi’s first laptop is a Macbook Air rival

#346

Post by lorenzhs » Wed, Jul 27, 2016, 7:04 PM UTC

oldmanjay wrote: post #194

lorenzhs wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't want to spoil your fun but the Macbook Air's shape is even more pointed: http://as-images.apple.com/is/image/AppleInc/aos/published/i...

Do you assume anyone who doesn't like the look of any Windows device must be an apple fan?

Not at all, but the submission's title is literally "Xiaomi’s first laptop is a Macbook Air rival" and this discussion started with the question what's wrong about the Dell XPS13 that makes it worse than the Macbook Air, so I think it's fair that to point out that the design characteristic in question is found in both devices.

In any case, what does being a fan have to do with appreciating good design? I'm no fan of Apple either, but I appreciate their product design nonetheless. I'm not sure why your reaction was that sharp.

Re: Xiaomi’s first laptop is a Macbook Air rival

#347

Post by cptskippy » Wed, Jul 27, 2016, 7:09 PM UTC

al_chemist wrote: post #330

cptskippy wrote: post #219

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The worst thing about Xiaomi is their invasive software. In order to use a Mi Fit band you have to create an account with them and grant their app every permission under the sun. I love their hardware, it's a frugal premium grade that's hard to come by. I just wish it were more open and their software wasn't so questionable.

That's interesting, because when I've got my Xiaomi Mi3 I've compared it with my Samsung Galaxy Tab. Mi3 was rooted, had almost no crapware and allowed me to pick what permissions app gets. On the other hand Tab required Samsung Account and rooting it voided guarantee. Mi Band vibrates on incoming connection, sms and apps so maybe that's why it requires permissions to phone, sms and notifications.

Take a look at the permissions required by the official "Mi Fit" app (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.xiaomi.hm....) vs the indie "Tools & Mi Band" app (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=cz.zdenekhorak...).

The official app has more features admittedly, but nothing that justifies the level of permissions it asks for. At most it should need access to the camera/photos to allow you to set a profile photo, and full network access to create/sync your account data to the "cloud".

Nothing that the official app does justifies the following permissions it asks for:

  Device & app history

    retrieve running apps
    read sensitive log data

  Identity

    find accounts on the device

  Location

    approximate location (network-based)
    precise location (GPS and network-based)

  SMS

    receive text messages (SMS)

  Phone

    directly call phone numbers

  Photos/Media/Files

    access USB storage filesystem

  Wi-Fi connection information

    view Wi-Fi connections

  Other

    view network connections
    connect and disconnect from Wi-Fi
    read Google service configuration
    draw over other apps
    control flashlight
    reorder running apps
    modify system settings

Re: Xiaomi’s first laptop is a Macbook Air rival

#348

Post by freehunter » Wed, Jul 27, 2016, 7:10 PM UTC

ekianjo wrote: post #207

scotu wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I cannot trust Lenovo being competent at what they do after superfish, I wonder how can any of the readers of hacker news still think of buying from them... (this doesn't mean that competitors are competent or anything, but being caught like they were undermines my basic trust threshold)

> I cannot trust Lenovo being competent at what they do after superfish That was not on the business line. I.e. it did not impact thinkpads, which is what people usually buy on HN anyway.

It still speaks to the leadership culture at the organization. At some point, someone okayed Superfish. That's not alright.

Re: Xiaomi’s first laptop is a Macbook Air rival

#349

Post by freehunter » Wed, Jul 27, 2016, 7:11 PM UTC

blahi wrote: post #251

nakedrobot2 wrote: post #196

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have bought/used a lot of high end ($2000+) windows notebooks: acer, asus, MSI. The trackpads all suck. Seriously, it is insane - macs had a working mouse in 1984!

You bought all the junk. Thinkpads and expensive Dells and HPs are good. So is the surface book. The brands you listed are good at making low quality laptops. Their high end sucks. Lenovo's high end is top-notch and their low end is not as good as Acer's for example.

Didn't he say he bought high-end $2000+ machines? Then you come in saying he bought junk and should be buying high-end... something doesn't add up.

Re: Xiaomi’s first laptop is a Macbook Air rival

#350

Post by tinco » Wed, Jul 27, 2016, 7:12 PM UTC

kccqzy wrote: post #230

tinco wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What kind of development would we be talking about? I still use my 2009 MBP for day to day development. It's ~10% slower than a Core M3, I usually do webdev on it, but it's also fine for AOT things like Rust, Haskell and even some C here and there (I recently compiled RethinkDB, no biggy). Things that really hurt are short battery life which is ~1.45hrs, and that it misses the modern CPU extensions which will obsolet…

I'm surprised you find Rust and Haskell bearable. Because for both languages slow compilation is a pretty well known problem[1][2]. On my old laptop (2011 MBP) compiling and interpreting (ghci/ghcid) took so long that it was distracting. This isn't even a big project; just a medium-sized one with a little over a hundred Haskell modules. [1]: https://m.reddit.com/r/haskell/comments/45q90s/is_anything_b... [2]: https:/…

Well to be fair I only do hobby projects in both languages. My Haskell project is a C compiler, and my Rust project is a game engine, both compile in seconds. Both have just a few modules. Most complexity is in the dependencies, which have some compile time consequences but not terrible so far.