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MacBook Pro gets Retina Display; MacBook Air updated with Ivy Bridge

arstechnica.com

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Re: MacBook Pro gets Retina Display; MacBook Air updated with Ivy Bridge

#291

Post by Steko »

fjorder wrote: post #226
fjorder wrote: post #213

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've spent a reasonable amount of time using Windows, Linux, and OSX. All of them suck. All of them are also awesome, at different things. If you want an living room PC for entertainment, Windows is king. Neither Linux or OSX support Bluray properly and Windows still has a huge edge in gaming. Windows also supports the most hardware. That's become unimportant to most people, but if you work in a research lab with var…

One further note on hardware quality: Perceived hardware quality is something Apple is fantastic at. Their laptops look and feel great. They feel like they'll last decades. This is misleading since they're actually built to be disposable. e.g. If you spill coffee on your Macbook Air, it's dead. You can't fix it because you can't remove the battery in a timely fashion and don't have the tools to open it. Apple won't f…

"For some strange reason Apple has managed to put retina displays in their laptops before LG or Samsung"

There's nothing strange about this. Apple has been pushing very high resolution as a differentiator for 2 years now. They've made huge investments in new factories for Toshiba, Sharp and likely other display makers. They've signed huge contracts taking almost all the production from other vendors. It's not like tomorrow Samsung Mobile can say "shit tear up that $3 bln deal with Apple we want to make a 2880x1800 laptop now"

"Samsung really has the potential to be an industry leader."

The fast follower strategy has been ingrained into Samsung for what, decades? I don't see how it's frustrating to watch them execute the strategy they've been very successful with and I don't expect them to turn around and bet the farm on a new market leading approach.

Re: MacBook Pro gets Retina Display; MacBook Air updated with Ivy Bridge

#292

Post by Keyframe »

encoderer wrote: post #266
untog wrote: post #14

Once you go Air, you never go back. And this year's Air announcement (like last year's) is pretty 'meh', so I'll be keeping with my old faithful 2010 Air for the time being. The retina displays are fantastic, but as a web dev I'm already dreading the merry havoc it's going to wreak with images on web pages. On a wider note, I feel myself... drifting away from all of this. In previous years I would have been all over…

Have you seen performance benchmarks for the 2010 air vs just the 2011 (which i own btw)? Personally, i think the 2011 Air is a great machine and offering 8GB on it now is all that needed to be done to keep it a great machine for another year. But definitely, certainly, the 2010 to 2011 update was important in terms of performance.

I bought Air in January, with 4GB RAM and 265GB SSD. They have upgraded only things that would need an upgrade, machine form factor is perfect (especially if you're on the go nonstop) and battery life extraordinary for that size.

Re: MacBook Pro gets Retina Display; MacBook Air updated with Ivy Bridge

#294

Post by WiseWeasel »

SiVal wrote: post #214
calinet6 wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

IMHO Apple fanboyism is not a problem in the hacker community. It's a well-built solid metal portable development workstation. With BSD UNIX. And a pretty layer on top. Among programmers, I never need to explain why we would buy these things. It's outside the programming groups that the conversation gets hostile. I find most programmers avoid this completely, knowing that they're simply using the best tool available…

If things keep going the way they're going, Apple fanboyism will become less and less of a problem among hackers. Apple appears to be in a gradual transition process from MacOS computers to iOS "Don't worry, just watch the pretty pictures, and we'll tell you which PAY button to press" devices. Windows, not wanting to be left behind selling computers instead of devices (Yuck! Computers! That's SO 20th century), is mak…

I think you're underestimating how much of an obstacle a traditional filesystem is to most people. The cloud integration and appification that seems so restricting to you is sweet, sweet relief for a great deal of people.

By catering to them, Apple doesn't take anything away from you; though they do eventually entrap you as well with all that shiny and convenience, which I can understand being resentful about. It's a bit disempowering when a company thinks it knows what's good for you better than you do, and ends up being kinda right about it.

  Disclosure: I own AAPL shares

Re: MacBook Pro gets Retina Display; MacBook Air updated with Ivy Bridge

#295

Post by jarek »

mattgreenrocks wrote: post #250
jurre wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I study computer science and the amount of banter I get from fellow students for using a macbook air is unbelievable. Other people usually seem quite ok with it, although self proclaimed power users usually seem to have an opinion about it.

"Power users" are probably the single worst demographic of all of them. Overly demanding, opinionated, and sometimes ill-informed.

And their early adopter mindset! Ugh, I don't see why anyone would want to target them at all.

Re: MacBook Pro gets Retina Display; MacBook Air updated with Ivy Bridge

#296

Post by sliverstorm »

fjorder wrote: post #226
fjorder wrote: post #213

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've spent a reasonable amount of time using Windows, Linux, and OSX. All of them suck. All of them are also awesome, at different things. If you want an living room PC for entertainment, Windows is king. Neither Linux or OSX support Bluray properly and Windows still has a huge edge in gaming. Windows also supports the most hardware. That's become unimportant to most people, but if you work in a research lab with var…

One further note on hardware quality: Perceived hardware quality is something Apple is fantastic at. Their laptops look and feel great. They feel like they'll last decades. This is misleading since they're actually built to be disposable. e.g. If you spill coffee on your Macbook Air, it's dead. You can't fix it because you can't remove the battery in a timely fashion and don't have the tools to open it. Apple won't f…

Agreed on the "perceived" quality. Based on my experiences, I'd bet money that if you compared a 3-year-old Thinkpad to a 3-year-old Mac, the Thinkpad would be in far better shape.

Re: MacBook Pro gets Retina Display; MacBook Air updated with Ivy Bridge

#297

Post by pclark »

dmix wrote: post #58
eli wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So like built-in cell data? My Thinkpad from 5 years ago had that. Doesn't seem like it'd be too hard to find.

You can also get USB devices to add 3G support for pretty cheap.

I have been very surprised at how much more I use mobile data on my iPad now that it is built in - it just seems like too many steps to activate a hotspot or dongle, whereas if "it just works" I love it.

Re: MacBook Pro gets Retina Display; MacBook Air updated with Ivy Bridge

#298

Post by Keyframe »

I made a big switch from Mac based video editing to PC centric one in December last year. I'm kind of glad and sad there are no new Mac Pros. PCs took over big time in our industry (now video, CG was never Macs domain anyhow). Still, Macbook Air and Pros are best laptops there are, regardless of OS on it.

Re: MacBook Pro gets Retina Display; MacBook Air updated with Ivy Bridge

#299

Post by sliverstorm »

donniezazen wrote: post #239
natural219 wrote: post #8

I have been a Windows user my whole life. As a hacker who has recently moved to San Francisco, I've continuously battled Apple fanboys and Linux fanatics alike on why I love Windows and absolutely do not understand why people want to switch platforms. Then I watched this keynote. I'm buying a Macbook Pro.

I do not own any apple products because they are outrageously expensive. Why do I think I should buy Macbook Air? Because laptop should be that light and thin. Why I use Linux? It's dead simple. A single command or a simple script can make system management and other tasks so straight forward and no brainier. I have total control on what I want on my system. Of course their is a learning curve but that's the main rea…

If you like the Air, keep your eye on the market. intel and AMD are both trying to partner with OEM's to finally get some Air competitors out. I cannot recall the marketing name though.
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