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The New MacBook Pro: Unfixable, Unhackable, Untenable

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Re: The New MacBook Pro: Unfixable, Unhackable, Untenable

#261

Post by CountSessine »

Evbn wrote: post #77
martingordon wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Processors have barely became faster in the last couple of years. Funny you should mention that. I will be picking up one of the new MacBook Airs and when mulling over the 1.8 vs 2.0 GHz processors, I realized that my last three notebooks (including the new Air) have each had successively lower clock speeds while posting faster Geekbench scores. 2008 - Aluminum MacBook 2.4 GHz - 3374 2010 - MacBook Air 2.13 GHz - 3…

That's because the boards are getting more cycles in GPU and cache and things, which are more important than straightahead serial speed.

Agreed, but I think the point is that while the growth curve may indeed be 'bending down', for non-upgradeable components like cache memory, memory controllers, GPUs, AND CPUs, the growth curve certainly hasn't leveled out.

Re: The New MacBook Pro: Unfixable, Unhackable, Untenable

#262

Post by flatline3 »

Udo wrote: post #242
georgespencer wrote: post #239

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Wow, this is really not true at all. Actually it is! The failure rate for a MacBook Pro was way under 2/10 when I was there during the lifespan of the product. Apple calculates the lifespan of a product in different terms to the warranty. The warranties differ by country (EMEA & US have different warranties thanks to EU and individual state laws). You're right that these machines can and will go for five years. My…

I deleted my post because honestly I think Apple and its future belongs to users like yourself, and that it will work out fine for everyone in the end. Just know that I have been buying a respectable number of Apple machines over the years, including three Mac Pros - which probably just confirms that I really am a member of an audience that Apple actively tries to get rid of. So yeah, I can afford a MacBook Pro. I'm…

What will you replace it with? That's my problem -- I require Mac OS X.

Re: The New MacBook Pro: Unfixable, Unhackable, Untenable

#263

Post by CountSessine »

MatthewPhillips wrote: post #51
archgrove wrote: post #7

The argument doesn't really hold up, as we're only given two choices: Upgradable, or amazing screen. If there was a third, "Upgradable and amazing screen" with the applicable price/weight tradeoffs, then the "we can choose" view would be more tenable. Regardless, the lack of upgradability isn't something that bugs me. My last two Apple laptops were "upgradable", but all I ever did was throw some RAM in there. The sub…

There is the Air line for light weight laptops for normal people. I would think that the word Pro signals that this computer is for people who want to do stuff with it beyond what is provided up front.

Actually, what I think the word Pro means is a contraction of professional, i.e. you're using the computer as part of your work. In that case you probably want something that's very powerful right out of the box, and you're willing to pay for it (or at least get your boss to pay for it. Or write it off as a business expense). Also, Pro probably also means that you don't have a lot of time to spend diagnosing issues with bad memory sticks or fiddling around with hard drive upgrades.

Re: The New MacBook Pro: Unfixable, Unhackable, Untenable

#264

Post by reaganing »

phaus wrote: post #259
reaganing wrote: post #231

Earlier quoted context omitted.

$200 to go from 8GB to 16GB was among the most reasonable of notebook vendors I saw in my research last night. Lenovo, for example, wanted $1,060 to go from 4GB to 16GB in the ThinkPad X230. Regardless, I don't think anyone looking at such an expensive notebook to begin with would have a problem paying $200 for more RAM if they think they might need it some day if it means a thinner notebook.

Even if I made a million dollars a year, I wouldn't want to be needlessly gouged by anyone. I'm fine with vendors charging way more than the ram is worth, as long as I have the option to purchase my ram somewhere else. There's no denying that the new MacBook is a very nice machine, it just sucks that they either had to make huge concessions to get the form factor the way it is or they wanted to. Does anyone know if t…

It does appear from Samsung's website that the Series 9 (the NP900X3A variant, anyway) does have user-replaceable RAM and supports a maximum of 8GB.

Dell's XPS 13 Ultrabook appears to have a user replaceable SSD, but not RAM. That Lenovo X230 appears to allow both. Seems other ultrabooks allow one or the other, or none.

While I do like to upgrade things myself (upgraded the RAM and put an SSD in my current 13" Pro) and would prefer notebooks have that option, Apple's targeting an audience that would rather have their notebooks be as thin as possible than have the ability to do something that they'll never care to do. People that don't like that, can just buy something else, in Apple's opinion.

Re: The New MacBook Pro: Unfixable, Unhackable, Untenable

#265

Post by nirvdrum »

shawnc wrote: post #237
wlesieutre wrote: post #226

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which is fine and dandy, but "Pay 100% more for 'there's no other way to get a RAM upgrade'" is a pretty crappy deal.

Really, then don't buy it and opt for a machine you can upgrade. I agree, having the freedom to upgrade is nice, if you feel you'll need to. And doing it on your own, and saving money is nice. From a warranty and support perspective - not letting people tinker with it makes it a LOT easier.

True, but it makes repairs quite a bit more expensive. I have to believe it costs Apple more money to swap out an entire logic board. I know it costs the consumer more when they get slapped with bill.

Re: The New MacBook Pro: Unfixable, Unhackable, Untenable

#266

Post by [deleted] »

koeselitz wrote: post #119
taligent wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pro means professional. It does NOT mean a person who wants the ability to upgrade their RAM/Hard Disk from a third party.

Well, it might. I guess it depends on your profession. If your profession is hardware hacking, IT, or maybe RAM disk upgrading, it seems like that would be included. So I suppose the "Pro" in "Macbook Pro" implicitly excludes those professions.

[deleted]

Re: The New MacBook Pro: Unfixable, Unhackable, Untenable

#267

Post by btgeekboy »

ktf wrote: post #246
jaems33 wrote: post #156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can get Apple to replace that battery.

...for $200.

Add a decent markup (perhaps $100) for the added marketability. After all, unlike other used laptops out there, this one now has a brand new battery that's guaranteed to hold a charge for years to come.

Re: The New MacBook Pro: Unfixable, Unhackable, Untenable

#268

Post by ConstantineXVI »

hinathan wrote: post #201
bedris wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

90% of BlackBerry users will never change the battery on their device. 100% of BlackBerries have a stupid door on the back which allows you to remove the battery and eventually becomes very loose and slides off. True, but it was sometimes the only way you could do a hard reboot on those things!

So pulling the battery becomes a crutch for the RIM software team. No need to do a more elegant watchdog timer or properly trap Java errors. Just pull the battery!

To be fair, that strategy worked pretty well for Unix:

>We went to lunch afterward, and I remarked to Dennis that easily half the code I was writing in Multics was error recovery code. He said, "We left all that stuff out. If there's an error, we have this routine called panic, and when it is called, the machine crashes, and you holler down the hall, 'Hey, reboot it.'"[0]

[0]http://www.multicians.org/unix.html

Re: The New MacBook Pro: Unfixable, Unhackable, Untenable

#269

Post by mikeash »

2muchcoffeeman wrote: post #248
Someone wrote: post #225

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On the other hand, there is nothing that prevents the likes of HP, Acer, Dell and Samsung to do the same. All of them could have the economics of scale Apple enjoys, but they choose to have a more diverse product line instead. Your argument would carry more weight if Apple had a much larger chunk of the market than all others.

I don't buy it. The traditional cycle, if Apple had a new technology first, is Apple releases it, wait a year and everybody else can do it just as well and probably cheaper. You can get Android handsets whose specs are better than the iPhone 4 in every way except the screen. If a manufacturer could out do the iPhone 4, iPad or MBP screen, they would have. Especially since they are traditionally spec driven.

There are Android phones with screen resolutions equal or superior to that of the iPhone. They may not do as well in less concrete terms like overall quality, but when it comes to common specs with numbers on them, you can do better on Android.

Re: The New MacBook Pro: Unfixable, Unhackable, Untenable

#270

Post by mikeash »

pdehaan wrote: post #162
lmm wrote: post #153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh, come off it. Have you really had a 5-year-old open your electronics? If they find a screwdriver they can stick it through the screen just as easily whichever screws Apple uses, and that seems like a more likely damage path.

I was a 5-year-old with a penchant for opening electronics, so I'm fairly sure they exist. However, I'd be more worried about adults doing more harm than good by taking apart/putting things back together in an attempt to 'fix' it before going to someone that knows what they're doing. Also, many people ignore that most of those crazy looking screw drives also have benefits such as better cam-out resistance.

Things like torx have such benefits, but does Apple's crazy pentalobe nonsense really have any benefits besides being uncommon?
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