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The New Apple Advantage

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Re: The New Apple Advantage

#311

Post by pooriaazimi »

SamReidHughes wrote: post #227
jrockway wrote: post #184

I agree with this. What I like about Apple is that they don't try to be low end, and they don't try to sell low end as high end. For years, I avoided buying a Thinkpad because the screens were so shitty. "We're a Chinese manufacturer owned by the Chinese government, so we won't use Korean LCDs." Great. Now I can't see what I'm working on, making your computers completely useless. Apple doesn't pull this shit. They go…

> "it's a Thinkpad, but it has a shitty keyboard and a ... The "Thinkpad Edge" and the X120e and X1 actually have very nice keyboards, arguably nicer than the usual scissor switches. Except that the layout is messed up.

I really love my MacBook Pro's keyboard. It's clean, with just as much keys as I need. I hate laptops with 110 keys, most are useless keys like page up/down, home/end, print screen, ... If I need to navigate to next page (which I often do), I just hold down 'fn' and press the down arrow. End? 'cmd+right arrow'. Admittedly, Print screen is a little harder to remember for the average user ('cmd+shift+3/4'), but MacBook's page up/down and home/end are very reasonable and easy to remember even for non-technical users.

I agree that the 'return' on the British keyboard is very poorly designed (there's an screenshot the original review at ars, but apart from that, MacBook's keyboard is one of the reasons I would never buy a PC in the foreseeable future (other reasons: OS X and trackpad).

Thinkpad's keyboard is much better than that the average PC laptop keyboard, except for page up/down keys getting in the way all the time.

Oh and I absolutely hate the media keys on laptops...

Re: The New Apple Advantage

#312

Post by eropple »

nohat wrote: post #139
eropple wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Having owned an X201, test-driven an X220, and having sold the X201 in favor of the 11" Air, I have to disagree - the X220's screen isn't as nice as the Air's. The backlight on the Air can be made about as dim, but also much brighter, and color seems a decent bit more accurate (though that could be that Windows's color management sucks, while OS X's is pretty good).

Was that the ips display? IPS is used by graphic designers because it has higher contrast and better color fidelity (and viewing angle). Not sure about screen brightness though, and the response time is less.

You can get a TN panel in an X series machine? I didn't look, but the viewing angle and contrast of the X220 I had the chance to use seemed to naturally indicate IPS. But the color fidelity was not as solid as my Air's and the brightness, as I said, was not as wide-ranging.

(And IPS isn't just used by graphics designers. :p This said by somebody who just dropped way too much money to upgrade his bargain-basement TN desktop monitors to IPS...)

Re: The New Apple Advantage

#313

Post by georgieporgie »

I see four reasons for PC laptop makers being so weird:

1) The illusion of control that options give. "My toaster goes to 11!"

2) Building to specs. "This laptop has 20% more pixels than the Macbook. IPS? What's that mean?"

3) Backward compatibility obsession. "I have to have VGA-out because my enterprise customer has VGA projectors. They have VGA projectors because laptops all have VGA-out." Apple will happily pave away old cruft every few years (OS X, dumping 32-bit support in Lion, move to Thunderbolt) for the sake of simplicity and optimal solutions.

4) Consumer confusion. These people aren't stupid, there must be some advantage to having such horribly convoluted online stores. I suspect that it's easier to unload undesirable machines by putting them confusingly next to more desirable ones.

Re: The New Apple Advantage

#314

Post by eropple »

slowpoke wrote: post #298
jarek wrote: post #276

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most engines don't cut out if you do choose to pop the hood open.

I have no idea why you are being downvoted, because it's the truth. It's exactly what Apple does. While yes, no one should need to understand how a TV/Car/Computer/ works under the hood, how is that an argument to stop people who WANT to know ?

You're free to learn. Just not with their software. You know that going in, it's not a secret if you've done your due diligence regarding these things about which you purportedly care.

Personally, I grew out of computers-as-ideology a long time ago. I'll trade the ability to run GDB on my media player the zero times I'll ever want to do it for a fantastic user experience for the other 100% of the time I'm using my computer. (Okay, 90% or so, but for that 10%, I have Windows.)

Re: The New Apple Advantage

#315

Post by [deleted] »

eropple wrote: post #314
slowpoke wrote: post #298

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have no idea why you are being downvoted, because it's the truth. It's exactly what Apple does. While yes, no one should need to understand how a TV/Car/Computer/ works under the hood, how is that an argument to stop people who WANT to know ?

You're free to learn. Just not with their software. You know that going in, it's not a secret if you've done your due diligence regarding these things about which you purportedly care. Personally, I grew out of computers-as-ideology a long time ago. I'll trade the ability to run GDB on my media player the zero times I'll ever want to do it for a fantastic user experience for the other 100% of the time I'm using my co…

[deleted]

Re: The New Apple Advantage

#316

Post by kitsune_ »

nohat wrote: post #8

The problem with the article he quotes is that it is wrong about the price of the x220. The x220 with default specs on everything except the bluetooth, webcam, ips screen (much nicer than an air btw), 128 GB ssd, and most expensive wifi (includes wimax) is $1290.60 . The ars article claims $1999.

True, I bought an X220 (IPS, 80GB mSata, 320GB HDD, 8GB of RAM) in Switzerland. I paid about 1100 Swiss Francs (Imported from Germany). A MacBook Air would have cost me much more.

Re: The New Apple Advantage

#317

Post by kitsune_ »

Steko wrote: post #148
old-gregg wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Ugly as shit"? I think Lenovo machines in their matte black rubberized cases look gorgeous. It's all about what you've been pre-conditioned to like. I will not buy a laptop with a glass-covered glossy screen. That screen would be useless to me. Also I will not own a laptop without a layout like this: http://www.blogcdn.com/www.engadget.com/media/2011/03/thinkp... It's called attention to detail and immaculate ergono…

I've read upwards of 10 reviews of the x220 today and every single one of them apologized for the general appearance of the thing. For the record I don't think the Lenovo is 'ugly as shit'. I used that phrase to drive home the disparity between the Macbook Air and any real world shipping product that people hold up as a price comparable alternative to the MBA . The bottom line is they always take the bullshit route o…

I have a MacBook Air at work and a X220 at home, I'd say the X220 looks better. Classic Sapper.

Re: The New Apple Advantage

#318

Post by nickpp »

mgcross wrote: post #221
nohat wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Was that the ips display? IPS is used by graphic designers because it has higher contrast and better color fidelity (and viewing angle). Not sure about screen brightness though, and the response time is less.

Agreed, must not have been the IPS he used, while that's what the OP referenced. I've got an 11" MBA, and the display, while better than my EeePC, is certainly inferior to any IPS panel I've ever owned or used.

The IPS screen on my X220 is worse than any other IPS display I have ever seen.

Re: The New Apple Advantage

#319

Post by kitsune_ »

wysiwtf wrote: post #61
jellicle wrote: post #53

What I grasp from this is that John Gruber and Peter Bright are just too dim to understand basic online stores. This qualifies for mockery from Gruber/Bright: > "Everyday Computing" But this is good understandable product description: > "The ultimate everyday notebook" (that second one is Apple's marketing copy for the Macbook Air). The low-end Macbook Air is $999 in Canada. Let's compare. I just priced a Lenovo X220…

Are you sure that X220 is similar enough to an Air, it doesn't look like an air and the design specs are quite bulkier: MacBook Air 11 inch: Height: .68 Weight: 2.38 MacBook Air 13 inch: Height: .68 Weight: 2.96 X220 12 inch: Height: 1.25 Weight: 3.6 I don't think it matters that you spec'ed it out to be slightly faster, I bet many of the people who want an Air-like notebook want the thinnest, cleanest, lightest note…

I have both an MBA and an X220 and in everyday use I think the two machines are comparable in feel and weight. Of course the x220 is a little bit bigger and heavier but the difference isn't really noticeable. In the end, both are very portable and light note books.

I'd rather compare things like OS preference, battery life, performance needs and / or the quality of the keyboard.

Re: The New Apple Advantage

#320

Post by jarek »

eropple wrote: post #314
slowpoke wrote: post #298

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have no idea why you are being downvoted, because it's the truth. It's exactly what Apple does. While yes, no one should need to understand how a TV/Car/Computer/ works under the hood, how is that an argument to stop people who WANT to know ?

You're free to learn. Just not with their software. You know that going in, it's not a secret if you've done your due diligence regarding these things about which you purportedly care. Personally, I grew out of computers-as-ideology a long time ago. I'll trade the ability to run GDB on my media player the zero times I'll ever want to do it for a fantastic user experience for the other 100% of the time I'm using my co…

While I see your point, the frustrating thing is that blocking itunes from gdb in no way helps them deliver a fantastic user experience.
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