Apple Computers: How do I Love Thee!

[3113]

A shame Sony didn't read that before they did the Vaio

LOL! So I've heard. It amazes me that I see so many of them. I remember being at the Apple store with my laptop which had a hiccup, and I was patiently waiting my turn. The lady next to me was nervously waiting her turn. It was her first Apple and her first time bringing it in for repairs. She explained to me that before buying the Macbook Pro, she'd owned a Viao and getting it repaired had been a nightmare. A hinge broke simply from opening and closing the thing, and the repair folk refused to fix it, insisting that she must have broken it. That had been the first of many problems she'd had with it.

Not surprisingly she was a little anxious. So the Apple guy gets to her and looks at the laptop. "Battery problem," he says and promptly switches out the old battery for a new one (took him one minute). Then, looking at the power cord, he says, "This is little frayed here. This generation of cord tended to do that, but it's been fixed. Here, let me get you a new one...." Another exchange. "All done," he said. She blinked. The laptop was still under warranty, it has cost her nothing and taken all of five minutes--and she hadn't even noticed the problem with the cord.

She left with this look of stunned amazement on her face.

So I'm a Mac guy now.

The cult welcomes you! Secret meetings take place on the first Friday of every month Wear your funny hat.

Whereas Apple producs are so superhumanly perfect and so cool you almost don't deserve them. I wonder if some people arean't a little bit intimidated by that. They're a fashion statement.

I think you're spot on, especially as Apple hasn't quite shed it's image of selling very pricy computers, even though their prices are more reasonable and competitive now than they were in the past. They're still high-end, but they don't usually cost that much more than comparable pc's.

So their computers do seem out of reach, elite and more of a fashion statement than a dirt cheap, every-day, work-horse computer.

Fixed battery, external DVD, external ethernet, fixed memory. It is going to push the limits for commercial use, but is signalling the future for personal use.

It is a whole different way of thinking. I can't quite get my head around the computer having no optical drive. It's weird. The evolution those floppies Katyusha mentioned to CD's has been so strange--it's like some weird magic trick. Information moving from shape to shape until it finally vanishes into the ether where we can just pluck it down! I know it's not REALLY that way, but sure seems like it.

 

[rgraham666]

My first storage device, for my first Apple II, was a cassette tape recorder.

I had to wait a year for the first 5 1/2 inch floppy drive. Which held 113K worth of stuff.

I still have trouble looking at the account window on my Mac and seeing 114G displayed.

 

[Oblimo]

All (all) laptop innards come from the same 4 factories on the Pacific Rim -- and they all use the same suppliers.

The only difference in laptops (and it can make a biiiiig difference) is configuration and, most importantly, the quality specs. Motherboards in cheaper models are identical to their more expensive cousins, except they passed a more rigorous durability/performance test back at the factory.

 

[Liar]

Oh well there's a shock. Bill Gates made something that wouldn't work with anything but his own product. I'm totally bewildered here.

That sarcasm is kind of ironic in a tread about Macs.




Hockay, bottom line is, it'a a helluva laptop in terms of construction and design. And I'm a fan of MacOS, so that's a big plus. But I won't buy it for three reasons.

One USB port. Remember the tiny PC I'm using? It has much less space to put ports than the Air. And it has 5 USB and a Firewire.

No Ethernet. Wtf? Wifi networks are not that realiable and universally available. Especially with security policies on many workplaces. Ok so there's a USB to Ethernet adapter. Cool. That means slower Ethernet and NO availabler usb ports. These two things means I couldn't use one at work. Because I need to plug in to the fast Ethernet network, and I want a mouse.

No audio in. So I can use a headphone, but not a headset? That's kind of...1995. I mean, they could have built it into the same plug with a standard 2 way. Almost as cheap, and doesn't take up more space. Doesn't make sense.

I expect these issues, that I can assure you are dealbreakers for more people than me, will be resolved for the "Macbook Air Delux" in less than a year.

Then I'll drool over it with the rest of y'all.

Cause damn, this is probably the first computer in the world that increases the sex appeal of it's owner.

 

[DesertPirate]

My first storage device, for my first Apple II, was a cassette tape recorder.

I had to wait a year for the first 5 1/2 inch floppy drive. Which held 113K worth of stuff.

I still have trouble looking at the account window on my Mac and seeing 114G displayed.

And now most desktops don't come with a floppy at all unless requested
The replacement is the 2gig thumb drive in my pocket (cost a whopping $20)
I have all the setup files I put on a new computer there, install Winblows then the stuff on the drive and done
Also have another with a complete Linux setup on it