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Microsoft is now a braver, more innovative company than Apple

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Re: Microsoft is now a braver, more innovative company than Apple

#171

Post by jmanderley »

simonh wrote: post #73

The central premise is that Apple isn't innovative anymore. Let's look at the technologies Apple has materially advanced over the last few years. * Custom screen technology leap-frogging 4K displays directly to 5K, at a full-system price below that of a 4K screen alone from competitors at the time. * wide colour gamut screen tech putting them several years ahead of the competition. * Brand new screen digitiser techno…

Do you get all your tech knowledge from marketing material?

And what is specific to Apple about wide color gamut displays? These types of displays have been common for years.

Apple didn't invent 5k screens.

Re: Microsoft is now a braver, more innovative company than Apple

#172

Post by curt15 »

besselheim wrote: post #83
whytaka wrote: post #26

Microsoft is innovative because you can now purchase a dedicated hardware peripheral for some software feature the touchscreen was designed to replace. Let's completely forget that Microsoft 'upgrades' your OS without your permission, spies on you, embeds ads into the Start Menu, and their OEMs like Lenovo will listen in on everything you do at the hardware level. In my opinion, these are actual reasons a company sho…

Anonymised telemetry reports are not the same as being spied upon. Anyway, Apple has the same kind of thing in iOS and OS X.

Is there any official documentation of what exactly is reported? For instance, what does Windows send to domains like ad.doubleclick.net? It's rather curious that Microsoft builds such extraordinary defenses against the user interfering with telemetry like hardcoding certain DNS lookups and tricking the user into thinking that the hosts file actually works (http://www.dslreports.com/forum/r30676597-Complete-Win10-blo...).

Re: Microsoft is now a braver, more innovative company than Apple

#173

Post by dpark »

jfoutz wrote: post #139
mhomde wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Microsoft is an underdog in mobile devices. Google is an underdog in tablets/desktop devices. Apple is an underdog when it comes to services. It's like rock/paper/scissors :)

It's really not. Google has 7 billion in cash. Every one of the big 5 could spend a couple billion to win a market. They can't. They are incapable of risking losing billions on an idea. They're not startups anymore. I made a peer comment about google vs Tesla self driving cars that captures the essence. The point is, Google won't sacrifice ad sales to win at tablets. Apple won't sacrifice consumer electronics to win…

> Every one of the big 5 could spend a couple billion to win a market.

I promise you that Microsoft would happily dump a couple billion into the phone market to own it. Microsoft paid 7.2 billion just for Nokia, not counting the likely billions poured into the Windows Phone OS itself.

Disclosure: Microsoft employee

Re: Microsoft is now a braver, more innovative company than Apple

#174

Post by GVIrish »

dstryr wrote: post #56
delegate wrote: post #37

I wonder how much propaganda do we read every day ? Tip: A lot. I think that almost every piece of information which is not pure art or mathematical formulas - is some sort of propaganda.. Meaning someone somewhere is pushing his own agenda, directly or indirectly. It is strategically wise for Apple competitors to put out all kinds of negative articles right now. Apple does something unpopular - use that as a lever t…

I agree with you that we are constantly bombarded with propaganda, but a lot of the backlash is coming from long-time Apple users such as myself, who feel that Apple is no longer making computers for us. And you know what? That's perfectly fine, they're a business and are catering to the high end where the margins are best. The proof is littered all over HN and Reddit where blog posts all begin with the same defense,…

> ...but a lot of the backlash is coming from long-time Apple users such as myself, who feel that Apple is no longer making computers for us. And you know what? That's perfectly fine, they're a business and are catering to the high end where the margins are best.

I don't even think Apple is catering to the high end here. If they were, the new MBP would be shipping with a lot more horsepower. It seems like they are catering to the casual user who is happy to pay a premium to have a slick-looking Apple product but doesn't actually have demanding computing needs. Many college students would fall in this category.

The high-end buyers that would pay a premium to have a powerful Macbook to do serious development or multimedia computing have been left out in the cold.

Maybe there are enough of the casual buyers that Apple thought it made more sense to cater to them than the professionals. But Apple easily could've made a machine that catered to both markets if they had better vision.

Re: Microsoft is now a braver, more innovative company than Apple

#176

Post by strictnein »

sz4kerto wrote: post #54
whytaka wrote: post #26

Microsoft is innovative because you can now purchase a dedicated hardware peripheral for some software feature the touchscreen was designed to replace. Let's completely forget that Microsoft 'upgrades' your OS without your permission, spies on you, embeds ads into the Start Menu, and their OEMs like Lenovo will listen in on everything you do at the hardware level. In my opinion, these are actual reasons a company sho…

> that seemingly never wanes in performance while provide enduring support that make them last so much longer than their competitors Dunno, I bought a top-of-the-line rMBP in late 2013, and the anti-glare coating has come off from the screen -- Apple didn't honor the warranty (this is Europe). I sold it because it was crap to use, then some months later Apple confirmed that it is a widespread problem and they will re…

ZBooks are good machines. We run HP Zbook 17s (have a G2, but about to get a G3). Battery life is horrible on the 17" model, but running lots of VMs and other demanding tasks is a breeze.

64GB DDR4 ECC, Quad core Xeon E3-1575M processor, NVIDIA Quadro M5000 (really overkill for my work, but fun to have), etc. It's a real professional machine. Just can't be touched by anything Apple makes.

Re: Microsoft is now a braver, more innovative company than Apple

#177

Post by humanrebar »

greedo wrote: post #142
humanrebar wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know where Chromebooks fit in that list, but they're very popular.

Ask a kid who's been issued a Chromebook for school. Everyone I've talked to complains about it being heaving, having a short battery life compared to their other electronics, and being very limited. I know "Chromebook" encompasses a wide array of devices, some with better and worse performance, but they're not a panacea for computing. Most are low performance devices.

There are good ones and crappy ones, yeah. But they sell very well, especially because they're so affordable, so saying Apple owns mobile and Microsoft owns desktops isn't a complete picture.

Re: Microsoft is now a braver, more innovative company than Apple

#178

Post by cma »

yodsanklai wrote: post #157
wmccullough wrote: post #140

Lot of people in this thread crapping on Microsoft. I don't know that Microsoft is more brave or more innovative than Apple yet, but I know one thing, they are more brave and innovative than Microsoft five years ago. That's all that matters. While I'm sure the grand plan is to eat Apple's lunch, they seem more focused on being better than themselves. I think they are onto something with the Surface line, they just ne…

> I have a MacBook now, but I'd love to go to a Surface Studio. If they can work to get up-to-date hardware in all of their offerings ... The problem isn't so much the hardware but the OS. I have awful memories of Windows. I suppose it has gotten better, but I wonder if it's a realistic replacement to Mac OS X? Essentially, I want something that just works and where I can use common unix tools. Maybe the new Unix sub…

One big issue is still the 260-character path-name limitation. Deep source directories choke on that, especially if you copy them around for backup, etc.

You end up abbreviating class names in the file names and mess up searchability.

You end up using single letter directories like 'C:\b\' instead of 'C:\backup\', etc. as workarounds. It all feels very MS DOS.

Re: Microsoft is now a braver, more innovative company than Apple

#179

Post by pjc50 »

cma wrote: post #178
yodsanklai wrote: post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I have a MacBook now, but I'd love to go to a Surface Studio. If they can work to get up-to-date hardware in all of their offerings ... The problem isn't so much the hardware but the OS. I have awful memories of Windows. I suppose it has gotten better, but I wonder if it's a realistic replacement to Mac OS X? Essentially, I want something that just works and where I can use common unix tools. Maybe the new Unix sub…

One big issue is still the 260-character path-name limitation. Deep source directories choke on that, especially if you copy them around for backup, etc. You end up abbreviating class names in the file names and mess up searchability. You end up using single letter directories like 'C:\b\' instead of 'C:\backup\', etc. as workarounds. It all feels very MS DOS.

It looks like that's one of the things that they've finally, finally fixed (but only if you turn it on): https://mspoweruser.com/ntfs-260-character-windows-10/

Re: Microsoft is now a braver, more innovative company than Apple

#180

Post by oneeyedpigeon »

lmm wrote: post #127
oneeyedpigeon wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> In 5 or 10 years every desktop computer will look like the Surface Studio. Disagree. Maybe a lot of 'home' desktops will, but there will still be a need for alternative form factors. In fact, I think desktop computers will look a lot more diverse than maybe they ever have in 10 years time. I think we'll have a bunch that look more or less like the Surface studio, for use by illustrators, graphic designers, etc. But…

But what illustrator/designer would choose to use a bad keyboard? And if we're already assuming a desk, I don't think any writer or developer would choose a small screen (and indeed today's "small" desktop screens are the same size as the "artist/designer-only large" screens of a decade ago). Nor do I think anyone would deliberately choose non-touch, since other things being equal touch sensitivity is purely an upgra…

I have many non-technical acquaintances who don't want 'the biggest screen possible' - at a certain size, screens just get too big for most people. In fact, 24" is probably about my personal limit - bigger than that, and I'm just going to be moving my head too much for comfort.

I definitely wouldn't want a touchscreen on a desktop monitor. Unless it was literally no more expensive or the only option - which, of course, may well be the case one day. Don't get me wrong, I do see the advantage of touch - the original iPad is probably one of the most usable devices I've ever owned - but it would be utterly wasted on a desktop for me. Again, maybe a family computer, but not one that I wish to work on.

I would also love a Surface Studio, as a toy. I'm sure it's still a great machine besides that, but I know I definitely wouldn't make good enough use of it - I'm just not that good an artist.

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