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Tim Cook assures employees that Apple is committed to the Mac

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Re: Tim Cook assures employees that Apple is committed to the Mac

#591

Post by adamlett »

charlesism wrote: post #578
adamlett wrote: post #570

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is it so strange? No, not strange. Simply not true. Actually the iPod, when it was first released, was not a mass-market product Who cares what kind of product the iPod "actually" was, when it was first launched? The point is that it went on to become the biggest consumer electronics hit and Apple's most successful product ever. And it had nothing to do with endorsements from pro users. Major publications have starte…

> endorsements from pro users. I wouldn't use the word "endorsements" but I absolutely believe the approval pro users was vital. What technology journalist isn't a pro user at heart? There are some, like Mossberg, who try hard to write from the pov of the average user, but if you're writing about tech, you're generally a "power user" to say the least. The iPod wasn't just successful because it was a good product. It…

I remember reading on Slashdot at the time that iPod users -- betrayed by the signature white earphones -- were getting mugged, and that this was evidence that the iPod was seen as a status symbol by people far outside the tech bubble.

If pros hadn't considered Apple good technology…

Was it a good product because the pros said so, or do you think perhaps that the pros said it was a good product because it actually was?

And why do you think that only pros are capable of judging if a tech product is good? Can't non-techies judge if a product is delightful or frustrating to use? Do they only know if they like it if someone who is an engineer tells them it's ok? In my personal experience, tech people give the worst advice when it comes to gadgets, because they often have bo empathy for the fact, that normal people don't have the time or the inclination to deal with stuff that might ostensibly have great tech, but is difficult to set up and finnicky to use. Non-techies want stuff that easy to use and just works, and don't care about specs or acronyms.

There is a massive difference between the tone of the press this year, and previous years.

Your original point was that pro users' influence was apparent in the fact that the press is writing negatively about Apple. To which I replied that the press always has written negatively about Apple with the implied point that the influence excerted thusfar, does't seem to have hindered Apple's success in the slightest. But you're telling me that because the tone has changed, this time for sure the opinions of the tech press will suddenly become relevant to Apples customers, even though most of them are not interested in tech and don't follow the tech press at all?

Re: Tim Cook assures employees that Apple is committed to the Mac

#592

Post by 72deluxe »

usingpond wrote: post #549
72deluxe wrote: post #296

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I find "experience" an odd word here. My browser is a tool, not a theme park or spa day. I want it to do work for me, not delight me. Perhaps I am misunderstanding "experience"? An experience would be having a track day at Silverstone, not opening Safari.

Maybe we're both misunderstanding, but I think they meant "User Experience". Surely you agree that this is an important consideration in software development?

Yes that makes much more sense. User experience is possibly the most important thing - what else is software written for?

Thanks for clarifying.

Re: Tim Cook assures employees that Apple is committed to the Mac

#593

Post by charlesism »

adamlett wrote: post #591
charlesism wrote: post #578

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> endorsements from pro users. I wouldn't use the word "endorsements" but I absolutely believe the approval pro users was vital. What technology journalist isn't a pro user at heart? There are some, like Mossberg, who try hard to write from the pov of the average user, but if you're writing about tech, you're generally a "power user" to say the least. The iPod wasn't just successful because it was a good product. It…

I remember reading on Slashdot at the time that iPod users -- betrayed by the signature white earphones -- were getting mugged, and that this was evidence that the iPod was seen as a status symbol by people far outside the tech bubble. If pros hadn't considered Apple good technology… Was it a good product because the pros said so, or do you think perhaps that the pros said it was a good product because it actually wa…

I wrote a long response, and deleted the whole thing. These comments aren't going anywhere, so we may as well revisit things a year from now, and we can see whether Apple's doing okay without its pro users. My guess is that Apple is in for a world of pain in 2017. If that doesn't happen, well, power to them! I've been wrong before.

Re: Tim Cook assures employees that Apple is committed to the Mac

#594

Post by nottorp »

pjmlp wrote: post #349
nottorp wrote: post #336

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The iMac is "amazing" only if you don't do CPU intensive stuff with it. Otherwise it whirrrs and throttles down. Personally I care more about the whirrring than the thermal throttling, but it's not amusing to not get the CPU/GPU speed you paid for either. The Mac Pro is a video editing appliance ATM. What they don't have is a developer/hobbyist oriented desktop. And this will bite them in the ass long term, because t…

For many of us this means Objective-C, Swift and their frameworks and tooling, so we are covered as "developer/hobbyist oriented desktop" target.

Covered with the thin one that gets noisy when you compile, or with the super expensive one where half the price of the hardware doesn't help you with development? :)

Re: Tim Cook assures employees that Apple is committed to the Mac

#595

Post by developer2 »

colomon wrote: post #369
m12k wrote: post #316

It's actually kind of amazing to see the discourse shift against Apple and the new MacBook Pro to the point where it seems almost self-reinforcing. Like someone turned the reality distortion field on backwards or something. I've been wanting a mac laptop the size and weight of a MacBook Air 13" but with a retina display for years, and the ability to connect usb, power and external display with just a single cable is…

It feels to me like you are putting this backwards. I've been using the MBP as my main software development platform for eight years now. My current machine is a maxed out mid 2014 15" MBPr. What does the new MBP offer me over that? 1) Very slightly faster. (2.9 vs 2.8) 2) 2 TB SSD instead of 1 TB. 3) Ability to charge and drive monitor over single cable. But what is the price? 1) $4,199 -- nearly $1000 more expensiv…

You nailed my two reasons for refusing to upgrade. I was planning to purchase the fully decked out MacBook Pro on release date. Then the keynote happened, and the hardware was put up for sale.

1. The removal of the physical escape key. I flat out reject having to remap the caps lock. The touch bar soft key is not an acceptable replacement. A physical escape key is unequivocally non-negotiable.

2. The price. I'm not going to pay $1,000 more for the same level of upgrades I got in 2013. With taxes, I had to dole out $3,200 CAD for a personal laptop, which was right against the fence of what I was willing to pay. I refuse to spend over $4,000 on a laptop.

These two issues, along with the removal of the headphone jack[1] on the latest iPhone puts me in the uncomfortable situation where for the first time in a decade I am researching alternative hardware outside the Apple ecosystem.

[1] My IEM headphones cost $1,500. I'm not going to carry an adapter to plug them in, and lose the ability to listen while charging.

Re: Tim Cook assures employees that Apple is committed to the Mac

#596

Post by hedora »

saratogacx wrote: post #574
hedora wrote: post #534

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah; I think this is the other problem. I've had my first-ever mbp at work for almost three years. Each OS release is buggier than the last (and all of them fail on resume every once in a while). Example from el capitan: The ctrl and alt keys sometimes get 'stuck' when switching to and from a full screen vnc session (with the builtin client). So, a dozen times a day, I start typing into vnc, and hilarity ensues. It…

I thought that the way you dismissed a notification in macOS was to swipe it away (click/drag out to the side of the screen).

Thanks; I will try that.

Re: Tim Cook assures employees that Apple is committed to the Mac

#597

Post by frankzinger »

wineisfine wrote: post #184
lobster_johnson wrote: post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm also considering a switch, but Windows drives me up the wall whenever I touch it. macOS has been getting uglier and more awkward to use the last few years, but Windows is still the king of ugly. So I've been considering Linux as my first option. I fired up a few VMs and dipped my toes in various Linux desktop environments: Elementary, Fedora 25, and Ubuntu (Unity) so far. These are all GNOME 3 variants. And... oh…

Had the same thing. Turns out, I'm more of a design snob then I thought I was. Trying to move away from macOS and trying out Windows and a few Linux distro's, my god it's all ugly. I don't care much about Apple hardware specifically, but they got my hooked because of the OS. Pretty lame.

Ubuntu with Unity looks pretty good out of the box. The appearance of my desktop has been a non-issue for years.

Re: Tim Cook assures employees that Apple is committed to the Mac

#598

Post by alxndr »

collyw wrote: post #543
bshimmin wrote: post #452

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apple have something like a 10% market share. I think what you see in coffee shops and on expensive commuter trains is not at all representative; if you go into a Starbucks in a trendy part of east London, you'd be forgiven for thinking that Apple had a 95% market share, but I'm pretty sure if you go to, say, eastern Europe you'll see very, very few Macs.

I have noticed that as well. Mac users seem to feel the need to use them in public for some reason.

This could be explained by Macs working better on random networks and having better battery life than other laptops.

Anecdata: I know of several Windows laptops, but only one Mac laptop, which are now effectively desktops.

Re: Tim Cook assures employees that Apple is committed to the Mac

#599

Post by _qbjt »

maksimum wrote: post #533
nextos wrote: post #186

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Try something without any design at all, like Linux with a tiling window manager and some minimal applications.

Back in 2009 my dream was to run OSX with a Thinkpad keyboard and trackpoint. Now that I have OSX on a Thinkpad X220 my dream is to run i3-wm with unified application design language and underlying foundations. On OSX Spotlight works well and gives me what I want, and applications look good. There aren't any missing icons and text size isn't all over the place. Amethyst WM on OSX is pretty good, but it's not as good…

Oh nice, how is driver support on the X220? I've had mixed luck with Hackintoshes.

I agree that there is a lack of great window managers on OS X. I'd love to be able to run awesomewm.

Re: Tim Cook assures employees that Apple is committed to the Mac

#600

Post by JoachimS »

pvdebbe wrote: post #368
JoachimS wrote: post #222

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No. Apple decided between adding more, but more power hungry memories and battery life. 16 GByte memory was deemed ok for most of all users and battery life became more important. Design within the limitations and handling market requirements in short.

In any event, it possibly cannot be Intel's fault if Apple makes the hardware decision.

No, it can't be. Intel provides their best products as given by their constraints, goals and customer demands (and Apple is a big customer). Apple releases the best products based on their goals, constraints and customer demands (as much as Apple now listens to them).

Each one to their own devices, so to speak.

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