iOS 5

[athlonkmf]

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

The best feature for me is losing that stupid cheap cable. It's about time they had wireless synching.

And why is it releasing so late?

Devvers need time to update their apps to make full use of iclpud and other goOdies. And of course, make sure their apps works at all with the new os.

[yesno]

Most iCloud features are already in iBooks. At least the big one, which I mentioned in another thread, of syncing the page-read place and annotations of all books including sideloaded DRM-free ePubs.

Automatic "pushing" of purchased books is nice but really not that much of a timesaver. I doubt that sideloaded books will be synced the the cloud and then pushed down to other devices, in any event.

Originally Posted by ilovejedd

That's true. However, I'd still consider that a big difference.

Apple's laptops and mobile devices and high-end workstations are roughly the same price as PCs with the same specs. Apart from the cost of SSDs and RAM, even an iMac is the same price or cheaper as a similar PC + monitor combo.

They do not serve the low end of the computer market very well. If you want a $400 laptop Apple is not your best choice. It makes no sense to compare the "cheapest Mac" and the "cheapest PC" when the cheapest Mac is much, much better than the cheapest PC.

Another area where they are uncompetitive is the mid-range tower. If you want a high-end consumer desktop PC, their only option is the iMac, which incorporates a monitor and is not user-upgradeable apart from RAM. You can save thousands on a mid-range tower PC vs. the nearest Mac equivalent. The Mac Pro is a Xeon workstation and is most appropriate for design or scientific work. But it's a mistake the extrapolate from this to iPad or Macbook pricing, which is very good.

[leebase]

I'm looking forward to it. No more syncing with iTunes. Evernote and dropbox have already given me the taste dot cloud computing.

Lee

[ilovejedd]

Originally Posted by yesno

Apple's laptops and mobile devices and high-end workstations are roughly the same price as PCs with the same specs. Apart from the cost of SSDs and RAM, even an iMac is the same price or cheaper as a similar PC + monitor combo.

You can save thousands on a mid-range tower PC vs. the nearest Mac equivalent. The Mac Pro is a Xeon workstation and is most appropriate for design or scientific work. But it's a mistake the extrapolate from this to iPad or Macbook pricing, which is very good.

MacBook pricing is pretty okay, particularly given the build quality. Comparably specced laptops tend to be around at least $200 less expensive but usually come with plastic casing, etc. The Mac Pro, however, carries around a $1,000 price premium or more compared to comparably specced gear. I've built some server/workstation class computers with Xeon's and FB-DIMM's so I know. I've never compared pricing between the cheapest Mac and the cheapest PC, much like I don't compare pricing between a 10" netbook and a 17" gaming laptop. As you said, that makes no sense. I usually try to compare a PC with similar components and Macs have always carried a price premium over those (albeit, the amount is oftentimes exaggerated).

Pricing for iPad is really good. My Atom-based Viliv X70 tablet cost me around $600 before shipping and taxes. Apple probably has a lower profit margin on iPads just so they'd have greater market penetration.

[Jessica Lares]

I personally HATE how Macs are built now. But then again, I've been a customer of both theirs and Microsoft for two decades now. Still, if you compare an Apple machine to a DELL/Toshiba, the PCs still have better build quality on the outside. The original iBooks were 100% more durable than the MacBook they have now.

You can easily bend the lid and screen (it was in my laptop bag when it happened), the keyboards they had back then had paint issues (I just finally threw mine away and found a replacement, but it's not for my model, yet still works), and you cannot easily upgrade them yourself without sacrificing the lid and some of the little bits of hardware attached (the lid sides have bent and it won't go back in properly).

And these are not machines that you can have next to you in a cafe or have food nearby. I don't even recommend them to students. Anything you drop on them seeps through, right into the motherboard and hard drive. Heck, even the genius who replaced my SuperDrive got a piece of the lid stuck in it.

They are expensive, but for a good reason. You know what would happen if they sold these machines to everyone? Lots! They are computers that you have to be responsible with. They aren't toys for children like the iPad or iPod can be.

I'm $699 closer to getting another one though. Heh.

And iOS 5 is being delayed because they're still working on getting iCloud ready.

[jackastor]

Originally Posted by Dylrob

For those who haven't heard yet, Apple has just announced the next major version of iOS. It will reportedly include over 200 new features, including an overhauled notification system which now more closely resembles Android's.

Details can be found here:
http://www.engadget.com/2011/06/06/a...l-the-details/
http://www.engadget.com/wwdc-2011/ap...ds-on-preview/


I must say this makes the iPhone look a whole lot more attractive to me now. What are your thoughts?

Stanza craps out with ios 5.0 beta..


regards

jack

[Ryvyan]

I was on Tiger then upgraded to Leopard on my Macbook which is becoming obsolete by current softwares requirements; pretty sure that iOS 5 would kick us to the curb in terms of compatibility.

On the Notification Centre: it is awful. If it gets moved to the iPhone, all I can say that now the "fun" has been taken out of an iPhone for me and become what I associate the "work" side of my life with. We are now really slaves to the master (I know we were enslaved the moment we bought into Apple's products, but they have always seem more casual). Of course, it is only a small feature and I hope to be able to ignore it when I get my iPhone 4GS/5.

The other stuff seems alright; good job on making the volume button dual-use.

--

By the way, on the price of Mac vs PC... I feel that once you purchase (genuine) virus-scan software in your PC and take into account the amount of time needed to run them and perform defragmentation and other seemingly necessary tasks (I was once reprimanded for not taking time out to care for my PCs, which makes me mad up till today), you'd have had your Mac paid. You can earn money, but not time.

[vaughnmr]

Originally Posted by Ryvyan

By the way, on the price of Mac vs PC... I feel that once you purchase (genuine) virus-scan software in your PC and take into account the amount of time needed to run them and perform defragmentation and other seemingly necessary tasks (I was once reprimanded for not taking time out to care for my PCs, which makes me mad up till today), you'd have had your Mac paid. You can earn money, but not time.

My virus-scan software is free (and it's one of the best out there) and it runs in the background, I don't have to do anything. My defrag software, also free, takes only a few minutes to run, and is hardly needed even after a month.

I did want to buy a Macbook once, it was $1500, but I needed to be able to run my cad software. So, add Windows 7 ($100), add memory (Apple only supplied 2gb, needed 4gb - $500), add hard drive (Apple supplied 250gb, needed more for partioned drive - $500). That's $2100 without buying any other mac or windows software. Instead I got a Toshiba AMD laptop on sale for $550, runs cad like a champ even now a year later. And I upgraded the hard drive for $55 and memory to 8gb for $145. Thank god I didn't have to waste all the time getting bootcamp to work with the cad software, those that tried are still having problems...

[Ryvyan]

Originally Posted by vaughnmr

My virus-scan software is free (and it's one of the best out there) and it runs in the background, I don't have to do anything. My defrag software, also free, takes only a few minutes to run, and is hardly needed even after a month.

I swear Windows and me ain't good friends I wish I can say something similar, but my PCs really do start lagging out of the box regardless of how I try not to exert it. And I've never not paid for anti-virus software on a personal computer, but that was years ago. Apologies for not being in the loop about Windows software anymore!

p/s: I don't understand Windows 7 and the newer Office format. I like Windows XP a lot, so it was like a new learning curve when I had to use the new stuff back in the office.

I did want to buy a Macbook once, it was $1500, but I needed to be able to run my cad software. So, add Windows 7 ($100), add memory (Apple only supplied 2gb, needed 4gb - $500), add hard drive (Apple supplied 250gb, needed more for partioned drive - $500). That's $2100 without buying any other mac or windows software. Instead I got a Toshiba AMD laptop on sale for $550, runs cad like a champ even now a year later. And I upgraded the hard drive for $55 and memory to 8gb for $145. Thank god I didn't have to waste all the time getting bootcamp to work with the cad software, those that tried are still having problems...

Ahh that's quite an unfair comparison. Another peeve I have are people who insist on spending more money on a MacBook to run Bootcamp when they have a specific program they want to run that is pretty much Windows only at that point in time. It's like buying shoes one size too small; it's not going to be a perfect fit. If you want a Mac to be cool or whatever reason when you have a program that does not exactly work on OS (even if it was Bootcamp), please be aware that it is a silly decision.

On the upgrades, I depend heavily on external hard drives and I'm still using the original 1GB RAM on my 4 year-old MacBook. It is still purring along on a less-than-optimal 10% free hard disk space... for the past 2 years or so. That said, I could have bought memory sticks off the shelf and upgraded it for cheap but am too lazy to do so; note that there are plenty of DIY videos that demonstrate the replacement easily enough. I watched a few a year or so ago, and it was simple enough even for me to handle.


Take a leaf out of someone's signature around here: (paraphrased) buy the e-reader that suits the types/formats of your existing e-books, not based on their name/brand.

Not trying to be a horrible person here, but you raised a very unfair comparison and I needed to speak up.

[vaughnmr]

No problem, Ryvyan. I have to say that MSF got their stuff together with Windows 7, it's night and day better than XP or Vista. I've had my laptop running hard for 1.5 years, and it's just as fast as the day it was born. It runs cad (Autocad/Autodesk Revit - 3d architectural software), video processing, Photoshop, etc. like a champ. Here's what I got for $550: 17" LED screen, 320gb 5400rpm hard drive, 4gb memory, AMD dual core/ATI video card (hardware accelerated), eSata, Win7 64 Home Premium. Yea, it doesn't have an aluminum body, but really I could care less, my carbon fiber plastic looks pretty cool too. Upgraded to 7200rpm hard drive and 8gb memory for $200 last week, and this thing flies now. At the time, a 17" Macbook Pro was like $2500 or so, and it wasn't THAT much better than what I ended up with. And yes, most cheap Win7 laptops (with Intel integraded graphics) are performance dogs, I lucked into this one.

Also, to be fair, you should be looking at the software you need to run, at the time I wanted to try Apple OS and hardware, but also had to run my needed applications. In that specific case (needing Win7 and CAD also), the Apple Tax (both in cost and time) was a little bit too much. For many people, this won't apply.

Just giving my thoughts, I think many users make blanket comments (from both camps, from what I've seen) that are not really accurate.

[Ryvyan]

Originally Posted by vaughnmr

Also, to be fair, you should be looking at the software you need to run, at the time I wanted to try Apple OS and hardware, but also had to run my needed applications. In that specific case (needing Win7 and CAD also), the Apple Tax (both in cost and time) was a little bit too much. For many people, this won't apply.

That said, I can understand your application of logic. I had a MacBook when Sims 3 was released and the graphics wouldn't show up properly because of graphic cards incompatibility. Apparently, they might actually show up if I run it on Bootcamp. I was half-tempted to run it there (the other half wants me to buy a MBP ) but I didn't because it was quite lame to do so. I continued playing even with the poor graphics anyway

If you need Win7 and CAD, always buy the machine that works best first. Wait for MB prices to drop and get one if you really want to try Mac OS, or play around with a refurbished set. No point spending all the money on a decent machine (MB) to run an OS (Bootcamp) that's sub-standard on said machine when there is a decent compatible OS already installed

It's like trying to use Apple OS on a PC - NOT GONNA HAPPEN.

Just giving my thoughts, I think many users make blanket comments (from both camps, from what I've seen) that are not really accurate.

Yes! Just like the ereader camps too haha, Nook vs Kindle... zzz...

There are people who put Apple down because the programs they bought wouldn't work in Bootcamp, and there are people who put Windows down because they perceive it is cool to like Apple (I can't think of any other reasons). All I'm saying is that both are decent OS, and it's awesome that we have the choice to choose between them for our individual needs.

[Razi]

Originally Posted by Ryvyan

There are people who put Apple down because the programs they bought wouldn't work in Bootcamp, and there are people who put Windows down because they perceive it is cool to like Apple (I can't think of any other reasons). All I'm saying is that both are decent OS, and it's awesome that we have the choice to choose between them for our individual needs.

Now how is this for a reason:

I bought an iMac G3 DV500 in year 2000. All my kids used it, I used it, upgraded it to OSX when it came out in 2002 (or was it 2003?) and it was like running Windows XP on a P1 machine back then. Still it slogged on, never let me down, I never had to format the hard disk or add to its 512MB PC100 DDR!!! Try running Win XP on a P1 800 Mhz PC with 512 MB RAM. Yesterday I put it in the attic because the power button had started playing up and the iMac was taking up valueable desk-space. All my four kids literally grew on that machine enjoying endless hours of Reader Rabbit, Jump Ahead and Blinky Bill educational games. I was so impressed with that machine that i bought an iPod first gen back when they came out. 8 years of usage and abusage untill the connectors for firewire port got worn out (it was used in the car on daily basis which involved plugging in and out of chager all the time). Bought my first iPhone exactly 2 years ago. All kinds of experiments with different jailbreaks were conducted on this excellent gadget and it survived everything. Since the year 2000, I have had at least 4 or 5 Windows laptops with hours of frustrated, slow and unstable computing. Heck, even OS 9.0 was more advanced than any version of Windows I have ever used, at least it never slowed the machine down and never attracted virii. Let's do the maths now. 4 laptops at £500 each (including antivirus subscription, the free ones are not as good as, say Kasperski, for instance). That's £2000 spent excluding the cost of time spent on defragging, running virus scans, loss of data because of crashes and re-formats, changes of hard disk drives because all the rubbish that Windows gathers which fills the space without your knowing and all those endless security updates to the OS. £2000 would have bought me a very good Macbook and it would have lasted 10 years as Apple products are reliable as far as my experience is concerned. In two hours, my iMac will complete its first 24 hours in the attic. I will never throw it because the memories attached to that machine are too beautiful to let me part with it. Incidentally my friend phoned yeaterday to tell me that his Compaq Evo desktop had stopped opening applications while complaining about system being low on memory and pagefile size (the usual complaints), I sent him to buy more RAM. A P4 1.8 Ghz machine couldn't handle Win XP without extra RAM!!!

[Ryvyan]

Razi, I was stereotyping and pointing out what I feel about specific groups of people who do the Apple vs Windows products nowadays.

My friend had her Powerbook for over 8 years, bringing her through some of the most heavily utilised periods of her life (pre-u and university) so I can understand the durability. The only reason she upgraded to a MBP was because new programs she want to use no longer support the old OS.

It has been argued that the quality of the physical build may have gone down of late, but the software and its compatibility with hardware (especially memory) is still pretty awesome. My hard drive did die TWICE in its first TWO years, but I was overly rough with it and moving it around before it goes to sleep completely (which would take 5 seconds off my life each time). I was too cheap to spring for a SSD, but have used a bit more brain in terms of hard drive care and no problems since then.