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The bizarre role reversal of Apple and Microsoft

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Re: The bizarre role reversal of Apple and Microsoft

#121

Post by stouset »

blhack wrote: post #115
gigatexal wrote: post #35

Thursday's reveal of new MacBooks was so lackluster I am rethinking my loyalty to Apple. The Apple platform has always been the most productive platform for me. But other firms seem to be innovating and iterating on things quicker than Apple has: rumor has it that Apple will more or less copy the edge-to-edge display of Chinese handsets or the rounded edges of the S7 Edge, wtf, what happened to doing really bold thin…

>what happened to doing really bold things that nobody else has, or can? This mentality is what resulted in them shipping what is essentially a portable media player that doesn't allow you to plug almost every pair of headphones that has been manufactured in the last 30+ years into it. Bold!

Hyperbole much?

Re: The bizarre role reversal of Apple and Microsoft

#122

Post by aeontech »

emp_zealoth wrote: post #97
jimbokun wrote: post #8

I was thinking recently how Bill Gates often said the biggest competitor to Windows was the previous version of Windows. Alternate OSes didn't have enough market share or compatible software to really be a threat, but customers always had the option of just not upgrading. iPhone seems in a very similar position. Sure, there are some people who will switch from iPhone to an Android phone. But Apple's biggest challenge…

They have a killer feature for that! Glued in batteries you cannot reasonably replace, unreliable buttons that fail easily, the like

The buttons failing easily is a myth. There was an issue in one early generation, and that was fixed many years ago.

Re: The bizarre role reversal of Apple and Microsoft

#123

Post by wsinks »

cmelbye wrote: post #68
rayiner wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Microsoft lacked taste and the ability to execute. With the Surface Book, they absolutely nailed taste. But they still have no ability to execute (the SB suffered at launch from firmware glitches that took months to iron out: http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2016/02/new-firmware-finally-... ).

When Cortana was launched on Windows, I went to a Microsoft Store to try it out. I found a Surface and tapped the Cortana button, and it opened a "Microphone Calibration Setup Wizard" that looks like it was from Windows XP. So yeah, taste is one thing, but execution is a different ball game.

Any thoughts about Cisco?

We're literally trying to be the taste and execution. I work for Cisco. Curious about candid thoughts.

Re: The bizarre role reversal of Apple and Microsoft

#124

Post by [deleted] »

rayiner wrote: post #74
cmelbye wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When Cortana was launched on Windows, I went to a Microsoft Store to try it out. I found a Surface and tapped the Cortana button, and it opened a "Microphone Calibration Setup Wizard" that looks like it was from Windows XP. So yeah, taste is one thing, but execution is a different ball game.

Windows 10 still has two different control panels. Last year, a Microsoft PM tweeted he hadn't had to use the old control panel "in months": https://twitter.com/brandonleblanc/status/650519136196366338... . Microsoft had been shipping two control panels for three years at that point. People would be apoplectic if Apple did something like that.

[deleted]

Re: The bizarre role reversal of Apple and Microsoft

#125

Post by bluejekyll »

TazeTSchnitzel wrote: post #111
jrockway wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is kind of what I like about Windows 10; it can be a dumbed-down experience for people that don't care, but if you want, there are gradually escalating levels of configurability. Settings -> Control Panel -> fuck it, I'll edit the registry directly. I would definitely not want to maintain this codebase, but as an end user, I'm happy.

macOS has something better: all the settings in one place. Windows used to have something like that too, I think it was called the Control Panel.

And per user vs. system overrides.

Re: The bizarre role reversal of Apple and Microsoft

#126

Post by bluejekyll »

wsinks wrote: post #123
cmelbye wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When Cortana was launched on Windows, I went to a Microsoft Store to try it out. I found a Surface and tapped the Cortana button, and it opened a "Microphone Calibration Setup Wizard" that looks like it was from Windows XP. So yeah, taste is one thing, but execution is a different ball game.

Any thoughts about Cisco? We're literally trying to be the taste and execution. I work for Cisco. Curious about candid thoughts.

Of routers?

I'm seriously asking. Cisco either lives on the top of rack that like 10 people in a datacenter see, much less only touch once; or it lives as a home router, that most people want to hide but still need good wifi signal.

IMO these are two different use cases. Cisco could execute almost a million times better in the datacenter by embracing better standards and making first boot and reconfiguration easier (I could write a book on this). Otherwise read as, stop pushing people to use your proprietary management systems for your gear, make those tools generally applicable then maybe people would use them.

On the consumer side, I have less experience with Cisco, but making it dead simple to deal with things like multiple wifi access points would be big, with as little setup involvement as necessary. Apple had a really simple to setup router, though it's generally been underpowered and didn't allow for more advanced configurations.

Re: The bizarre role reversal of Apple and Microsoft

#127

Post by josephg »

grzm wrote: post #119
kilroy123 wrote: post #118

I keep reading about how unhappy people are with Apples latest reveal. I feel the same way. No way am I upgrading my 2015 Mac Book Pro with the new one. Still, Apple will not change a thing unless people actually vote with their wallets. If you're really so upset, do NOT buy this damn computer! If this latest line sees very little sells, they'll get the idea.

Initial indications are that they're selling well. Touch Bar model shipping estimates were already slipping 3–4 weeks within 6 hours of going on sale: http://www.macrumors.com/2016/10/27/macbook-pro-shipping-est...

I'm honestly not surprised. The 13" model looks like a great replacement for my now 4 year old 11" air. Its thankfully not much heavier, but with increased screen space, retina display, battery life improvement and support for 2 external 4k displays.

I've been holding out because until now all the apple laptops on offer have required huge compromises for me. The macbook is too gutless (expecially its GPU which apparently can't drive big external displays smoothly). The recent airs still don't have retina displays and the old macbook pros are so big and heavy. After owning an 11" air I can't imagine travelling with the previous generation 15" mbp.

The only downside is the exorbitant price. But to replace a machine I've used just about every day for 4 years I can easily justify the cost. And I hope (and expect) the price to drop over the next few years. The air, macbook and retina mbp all started out pretty expensive and then dropped steadily over the lifetime of the design.

Re: The bizarre role reversal of Apple and Microsoft

#128

Post by arvinsim »

twblalock wrote: post #86
gigatexal wrote: post #35

Thursday's reveal of new MacBooks was so lackluster I am rethinking my loyalty to Apple. The Apple platform has always been the most productive platform for me. But other firms seem to be innovating and iterating on things quicker than Apple has: rumor has it that Apple will more or less copy the edge-to-edge display of Chinese handsets or the rounded edges of the S7 Edge, wtf, what happened to doing really bold thin…

> I guess we might have just hit peak-phone handset. This is what happens in mature product segments. The first iPhone was released 9 years ago, and that was the last real revolution -- a smartphone whose front was pretty much all screen. Everything Apple and everyone else has done since then has been incremental -- better screens, larger screens, better cameras, faster processors, thinner chassis -- but definitely t…

> I think the bottom line is that the smartphone market has become as mature and predictable as the laptop market.

I actually think that is a good thing. Commoditization of gadgets usually mean lower prices and standards across models.

Re: The bizarre role reversal of Apple and Microsoft

#129

Post by brazzledazzle »

rayiner wrote: post #39
aaron-lebo wrote: post #7

> Just check out its striking video for the Surface Studio — it is so influenced by Apple’s playbook that I’m surprised there’s no Jony Ive narration. What's happened is that other companies have figured out how to emulate Steve Jobs's playbook that's now several decades old and there's nobody at Apple to write new plays. Jobs always talked about how Microsoft didn't have taste and when you look at MS products up unt…

Microsoft lacked taste and the ability to execute. With the Surface Book, they absolutely nailed taste. But they still have no ability to execute (the SB suffered at launch from firmware glitches that took months to iron out: http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2016/02/new-firmware-finally-... ).

I think people don't remember some of the first gen issues Apple products have gone through over the years.

Re: The bizarre role reversal of Apple and Microsoft

#130

Post by thaumasiotes »

twblalock wrote: post #86
gigatexal wrote: post #35

Thursday's reveal of new MacBooks was so lackluster I am rethinking my loyalty to Apple. The Apple platform has always been the most productive platform for me. But other firms seem to be innovating and iterating on things quicker than Apple has: rumor has it that Apple will more or less copy the edge-to-edge display of Chinese handsets or the rounded edges of the S7 Edge, wtf, what happened to doing really bold thin…

> I guess we might have just hit peak-phone handset. This is what happens in mature product segments. The first iPhone was released 9 years ago, and that was the last real revolution -- a smartphone whose front was pretty much all screen. Everything Apple and everyone else has done since then has been incremental -- better screens, larger screens, better cameras, faster processors, thinner chassis -- but definitely t…

> Sometime in the 90s, everyone standardized on the clamshell laptop with a 4:3 screen (later moving to widescreen)

How did that happen? It used to be that a normal laptop had a 4:3 screen and a ridiculous, huge laptop had a huge, 16:10 screen. Now both of those are gone, and normal laptops have even shorter 16:9 (!) screens. It's hard to think of a more user-hostile progression. I don't want to work in a series of cramped side-by-side windows. I want a screen that can display more than one paragraph of text at once.

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