The New Apple Advantage • Hacker News Board

Re: The New Apple Advantage

#201

Post by mkr-hn » Sat, Sep 10, 2011, 11:30 AM UTC

nkassis wrote: post #200

swombat wrote: post #196

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How about "the overall human population"? That seems like a good constraint when we're talking about consumer electronics.

I don't know, when I don't think Apple products are as successful in the Asian markets for example. That could many things but maybe they don't like the look.

Some Asian governments have a weird fascination with ActiveX controls.

Edit: http://asia.cnet.com/blogs/google-chrome-will-support-active...

It might not be as widespread as I thought, but it's good to know if you plan to make a browser.

Re: The New Apple Advantage

#202

Post by mgkimsal » Sat, Sep 10, 2011, 11:35 AM UTC

rayiner wrote: post #81

martingordon wrote: post #22

> It’s even worse if I just browse without searching. The options I get are just… meaningless. Yes, I want “Everyday Computing,” so I want an Inspiron. But hang on, I also want “Design & Performance,” so I want an XPS. Wait a second, I want “Thin & Powerful,” too. This is the crux of the problem with all of Apple's competitors, in the PC business and in mobile. Why choose when you can have everything? Apple's lineup…

I'm a geek and I couldn't care less what WiFi chipset is in my laptop. I was shopping for a ThinkPad X220 for someone, and it had the option of the regular screen or the "premium" screen for $50 more. They don't tell you what the "premium" screen is or why you'd want it. I presume the regular screen is shitty. Can you even imagine Apple offering such an option? A $1000+ laptop with a shitty screen, with a $50 option…

"I'm a geek and I couldn't care less what WiFi chipset is in my laptop."

Isn't this at the very heart of every "linux on laptop" screed out there - research your hardware before you buy! So... being able to know or choose what wifi chipset you get might appeal to many geeks. But... you have to assume what you order is what you actually get.

I got a laptop in 2003 for linux. I researched. And researched. I found the one laptop for sale at a local store had the graphics chip FOOXPJ59 in it, which worked with RH6 (or Mandrake, whatever I wanted to use). Plunk down my $1200. Get it home. No dice. Oh... they replaced it with a newer/better FOOXPJ59revC chipset, and there was a WinXP driver disk in the box. But the outside of the box indicated FOOXPJ59 as the chipset. I had to argue for about 20 minutes with 2 managers to get my money back on that after it was opened. They wanted to charge me 15% restocking fee, I was arguing it didn't contain what the box said it did - in their mind FOOXPJ59 and FOOXPJ59revC are the same thing.

Re: The New Apple Advantage

#203

Post by singingfish » Sat, Sep 10, 2011, 11:41 AM UTC

dlss wrote: post #172

achompas wrote: post #153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

With #2 you're being disingenuous. All computers need some work, but PCs require much more work to uninstall crapware. As for #3, only one of the laptops you listed fits comfortably in my girlfriend's purse. As for the Air's hard drive? She has zero complaints, and I doubt her (or many others) would notice tiny differences in sequential read times (which is, I think, a measure of app-opening performance).

Okay, last reply and then I leave you guys to the fate of irrational happiness paying more for worse hardware. re 2: It takes an hour to reinstall windows. If you swap out the hard drive (so a vertex 3 in a MBP), this is something you have to do with an apple anyway. One hour is not " much more work ". Don't kid yourself. re 3: If the MBA owner does anything CPU intensive they will likely profit by upgrading to the x…

Why would you be doing something CPU intensive on a MBA like computer? Surely you just ssh into the beefy workstation in the corner or in the data centre to do the heavy lifting? Seems like a non-argument to me.

Re: The New Apple Advantage

#204

Post by antihero » Sat, Sep 10, 2011, 11:43 AM UTC

jrockway wrote: post #193

sipefree wrote: post #188

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd say that iTunes killed itself in the debugger because the music industry didn't want you to see what their DRM does. :/

No, it's an OS X "feature". PT_DENY_ATTACH: http://landonf.bikemonkey.org/code/macosx/Leopard_PT_DENY_AT... "UNIX with a GUI" at its best.

That is utterly fucked up. How dare they say you can't look at the code that is running on the hardware you purchased.

Re: The New Apple Advantage

#205

Post by mkr-hn » Sat, Sep 10, 2011, 11:49 AM UTC

jarek wrote: post #106

Steko wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apple had to send their engineers over to Intel to teach them how to build the chips they wanted for the Airs. They wanted lower Ghz.

The same Intel that came up with the first Pentium M? Yeah, I'm calling bull shit on this story.

It's not unusual for hardware companies to work with chip companies. Nintendo works with their CPU suppliers to build a custom processor for their consoles. I doubt Steko is saying Apple taught Intel how to do chips right even though it came out that way.

Re: The New Apple Advantage

#206

Post by Synaesthesia » Sat, Sep 10, 2011, 11:49 AM UTC

jrockway wrote: post #193

sipefree wrote: post #188

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd say that iTunes killed itself in the debugger because the music industry didn't want you to see what their DRM does. :/

No, it's an OS X "feature". PT_DENY_ATTACH: http://landonf.bikemonkey.org/code/macosx/Leopard_PT_DENY_AT... "UNIX with a GUI" at its best.

A feature introduced specifically to safeguard iTunes DRM I'd bet.

Re: The New Apple Advantage

#207

Post by rafski » Sat, Sep 10, 2011, 11:50 AM UTC

I find it funny people don't realize Apple sells 18 kinds of iPad 2.

Re: The New Apple Advantage

#208

Post by rbanffy » Sat, Sep 10, 2011, 11:59 AM UTC

antihero wrote: post #204

jrockway wrote: post #193

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, it's an OS X "feature". PT_DENY_ATTACH: http://landonf.bikemonkey.org/code/macosx/Leopard_PT_DENY_AT... "UNIX with a GUI" at its best.

That is utterly fucked up. How dare they say you can't look at the code that is running on the hardware you purchased.

You know... You may have a point. Some people may have been spoiled by operating systems like Linux or BSD, where you can look up each and every line of code that comprises the whole software stack, but, in fact, most people don't really care about that. Still, OSX is more open than its main competitor - you can see most of it, but not all.

The fact most people don't really care about what they are using is sad, but it's a fact of life.

Re: The New Apple Advantage

#209

Post by rbanffy » Sat, Sep 10, 2011, 11:59 AM UTC

Synaesthesia wrote: post #206

jrockway wrote: post #193

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, it's an OS X "feature". PT_DENY_ATTACH: http://landonf.bikemonkey.org/code/macosx/Leopard_PT_DENY_AT... "UNIX with a GUI" at its best.

A feature introduced specifically to safeguard iTunes DRM I'd bet.

It's absent from the Solaris-based OSs, where dtrace came from, IIRC.

Re: The New Apple Advantage

#210

Post by mathattack » Sat, Sep 10, 2011, 12:13 PM UTC

This does capture yet another benefit of Apple's model of simplicity. Sales and operations become more streamlined when it's not management by committee. It puts a lot of pressure on the top and can make for being a difficult business partner, but the results are obvious.