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Apple Park Opens to Employees in April

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Re: Apple Park Opens to Employees in April

#101

Post by johansch »

jagger27 wrote: post #14
johansch wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And we'd have a retina Macbook Air...

We do: https://www.apple.com/macbook/

The MBA is the perfect laptop for most people, except that the screen sucks. This made sense in 2011 - at that time good retina displays and good-enough low-powered GPUs (e.g. Intel integrated stuff) that could power them were expensive. Today they are not. Today Apple could launch a retina Macbook Air with the form factor and battery life that people love... with a great retina screen, for the same price, if they'd be happy with the profit margin the were happy with when Jobs ran the company.

The Macbook 12" is an underpowered Fiscer-Price-like toy with a crappy keyboard and one (ONE!) USB-C port and nothing else... well, except a good screen.

The current MBA is a text-book example of an intentionally under-specified product designed not to undercut the more expensive offering. If they put a good screen into the MBA form-factor a lot less people would buy the MBP. People who can't innovate their way out of a paper bag are terribly afraid of cannibalization of existing product lines. Jobs wasn't.

One of the great things I think he did was to introduce the MBA and to drive down its price point so that lots of people could and did buy it. For all of his faults, I think he did have a democratic kind of vision that great computers should not be reserved for the rich.

Re: Apple Park Opens to Employees in April

#104

Post by ahh »

tptacek wrote: post #99
massysett wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Equivalent 12-14 story buildings are not pleasant to work in; in particular there is far less natural light, so only the privileged managers get window light. [edit] Plus: "It is also the site of the world’s largest naturally ventilated building, projected to require no heating or air conditioning for nine months of the year." That's probably tough to do with a box in the city.

That's nice, but it also does encircle an enormous amount of usable land in an extremely high-demand real estate market and turn it into a private park accessible only to employees of the company.

The land in question used to be anonymous office buildings owned by...HP or someone like that, if I remember.

Apple has taken away precisely what from the public by replacing it with this?

Re: Apple Park Opens to Employees in April

#105

Post by derekp7 »

massysett wrote: post #69
rayiner wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is nothing beautiful or inspiring about a suburban office complex in the middle of nowhere. To the contrary, the Apple office park epitomizes many of the things wrong with America: turning the workplace into an island unto itself, and turning land that could be used for nature into a useless manicured lawn. It would have been far more efficient to build the thing as a few 12-14 story buildings in the nearest ci…

Equivalent 12-14 story buildings are not pleasant to work in; in particular there is far less natural light, so only the privileged managers get window light. [edit] Plus: "It is also the site of the world’s largest naturally ventilated building, projected to require no heating or air conditioning for nine months of the year." That's probably tough to do with a box in the city.

The last few buildings I worked in had all the director-level offices in the center (glassed in), with the employee area taking up the ring around that. Plenty of daylight for everyone.

Re: Apple Park Opens to Employees in April

#106

Post by tptacek »

ahh wrote: post #104
tptacek wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's nice, but it also does encircle an enormous amount of usable land in an extremely high-demand real estate market and turn it into a private park accessible only to employees of the company.

The land in question used to be anonymous office buildings owned by...HP or someone like that, if I remember. Apple has taken away precisely what from the public by replacing it with this?

The opportunity to use that land for anything better than a private park for Apple employees.

I don't think anyone here is saying this is awful. It's just not necessarily praiseworthy.

Re: Apple Park Opens to Employees in April

#107

Post by zeveb »

sergiotapia wrote: post #2

This is so beautiful and inspiring. A real legacy. Imagine a world without Apple computers pushing the envelope. We'd still be using wired mice and ugly black boxes. If only Steve Jobs had taken the traditional medicine route he would have been with us for another 50 years.

> We'd still be using wired mice and ugly black boxes.

I still use a wired mouse, because it's superior to a wireless mouse.

My laptop happens to be black and happens to not be particularly attractive, but it's superior to an Apple laptop.

Re: Apple Park Opens to Employees in April

#108

Post by midgetjones »

johnhenry wrote: post #80
sangnoir wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Reducing complex shapes to topology only muddies the discussion. The Pentagon and Apple HQ toruses. Humans are also toruses when you consider the alimentary canal!

I would argue that humans are not topologically equivalent to toruses as most humans have many holes beyond the alimentary canal.

Is a torus made of swiss cheese not still a torus?
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