I own an iPad and an Android tablet.  The iPad is a little smoother in operation and has a better app selection, but I still feel very limited using it.  I find myself falling back to my older Android tablet for a lot of things (any website that has Flash, for instance), but neither tablet even comes close to fulfilling my computing needs.  There's just no good replacement for a physical keyboard yet for getting serious work done, and the screen size is too small on a tablet for more complex apps as well.

^ MS has an app (OnLive Desktop) that allows you access to a fully operational windows desktop on the iPad. That, and a portable keyboard make it more functional for business purposes if I'm traveling light but still think I need to do a little work. They're marketing it to gamers as well, because you're flexing Microsofts remote servers, which are doing the processing. They are projecting a responsive desktop image to the iPad (forgive my non-tech description), and all the processing is happening remotely, so the speed is much faster, and you're not wearing down your tablet's processing speed.

 

It's $5 / month for the full service, but it gives you full MS Office, and access to flash (and Hulu w/out a subscription, I might add, since Hulu thinks you're accessing via a desktop). I've been very pleased with it.

I own an iPad and an Android tablet.  The iPad is a little smoother in operation and has a better app selection, but I still feel very limited using it.  I find myself falling back to my older Android tablet for a lot of things (any website that has Flash, for instance), but neither tablet even comes close to fulfilling my computing needs.  There's just no good replacement for a physical keyboard yet for getting serious work done, and the screen size is too small on a tablet for more complex apps as well.

 

which android table?  I have an Asus Transformer infinity and the new ipad.  The Asus kills the ipad!  I also like the Nexus 10 better than the ipad.

Btw for the first time ever in years I plugged in an ethernet cable to my computer to download Mountain Lion faster as opposed to the wireless I've been using the past 3 years.  Of course they installed the jack years ago in the worst place and on the opposite side of the room from the cable jack.  Makes no sense.

^^ I would get a Nexus 10, if I were purchasing an Android tablet today. Lame that they skipped expandable storage, though! Everyone is starting to copy the worst things Apple does.

Apple's obstinate attitude toward expandable storage, porting of other devices, etc is what will cause more customers to turn away.  Now that so many other devices have caught up to their phones and tablets, they can't continue pricing their higher capacity devices at hundreds more. 

 

 

Google not offering expandable storage has nothing directly to do with Apple and everything to do with the services they provide. They want you using their web applications and services because that's what Google does better and/or cheaper than anyone else at this point, and how they make their money. Exceptions being Amazon and Microsoft, but the former doesn't compete broadly, and MS's cloud Office products haven't made the leap from business to home solution yet.

Apple paved the way in showing just how profitable it could be to cripple your products in creative ways to encourage/force consumers to spend money on things they wouldn't need to buy otherwise. They were also the first to apply this to expandable storage and to tie that idea with their iCloud.

Apple paved the way in showing just how profitable it could be to cripple your products in creative ways to encourage/force consumers to spend money on things they wouldn't need to buy otherwise. They were also the first to apply this to expandable storage and to tie that idea with their iCloud.

 

The first?  Really??  Google has been using the cloud from jump, the cloud is the backbone of their mobile OS.  Look at Gmail, your gmail, contact, tasks are stored in the cloud no more syncing as you had to do with Apple or Microsoft.  Having said that, please explain to me how Apple was first?

Apple paved the way in showing just how profitable it could be to cripple your products in creative ways to encourage/force consumers to spend money on things they wouldn't need to buy otherwise. They were also the first to apply this to expandable storage and to tie that idea with their iCloud.

 

What you're calling "crippling" is actually just Apple removing "features" that the market has shown they don't care about. Apple has removed optical drives from all of its new laptops, and they're selling great, because the general public doesn't care that much about optical drives and would rather have a thinner, ligher laptop. Some geeks care, but most people don't.  The same is true with the removal of replaceable batteries, ethernet jacks, upgradable RAM, and upgradable storage. It's nice to have those things on a desktop machine, but for a laptop or tablet, most people will just prefer the light, thin device with great battery life over something you can tear apart and upgrade.

Apple paved the way in showing just how profitable it could be to cripple your products in creative ways to encourage/force consumers to spend money on things they wouldn't need to buy otherwise. They were also the first to apply this to expandable storage and to tie that idea with their iCloud.

 

The first?  Really??  Google has been using the cloud from jump, the cloud is the backbone of their mobile OS.  Look at Gmail, your gmail, contact, tasks are stored in the cloud no more syncing as you had to do with Apple or Microsoft.  Having said that, please explain to me how Apple was first?

 

Re-read. I said they were the first to eliminate expandable storage. Maybe that is not true, sorry to insult your Google fanboyism. I have an Android and not an iPad, but I have things I hate about both. Whoever did it first sucks. And I don't mean cloud computing, but removing expandable storage with the goal of selling cloud storage.

 

What you're calling "crippling" is actually just Apple removing "features" that the market has shown they don't care about. Apple has removed optical drives from all of its new laptops, and they're selling great, because the general public doesn't care that much about optical drives and would rather have a thinner, ligher laptop. Some geeks care, but most people don't.  The same is true with the removal of replaceable batteries, ethernet jacks, upgradable RAM, and upgradable storage. It's nice to have those things on a desktop machine, but for a laptop or tablet, most people will just prefer the light, thin device with great battery life over something you can tear apart and upgrade.

 

Most people do not own an Apple, so that's certainly not what the market says. The market is not monolithic. Regardless, people appreciate when things are less expensive. Even people who buy iPads probably wish the storage were expandable. Especially people who buy a model above the base (= the same product but with a few overpriced GBs added on).

What are people doing with tablets that needs all this storage space?  Videos or something?  I don't have one and I have no idea what I would do with one if I did have one.  I've still never downloaded a movie or video to a computer because I don't watch them. 

 

Also, I don't really know why somebody would want to expand storage or RAM on a laptop after they've bought it.  If you have enough of a change in your job to where you really need a higher performing machine, buy a new one. But that can't be more than 1-2% of laptop owners. 

 

Travis is correct in stating that Apple, etc., are making products that respond to the market, and as I said last week the computer market is no longer nerds who like to take things apart and put them back together.  It's couch potatoes and jocks who use computers to watch movies and update their facebook profiles. 

The market clearly wants greater storage amounts, since apparently a lot of people by 32 and 64GB tablets when the base models are typically 16GB. The idea that people would rather shell out $100 for an extra 16GB when they could just buy a high quality 16GB (micro)SD card for about $10 is laughable. I would think movies are the primary driver of people wanting lots of space. Music and games are up there as well.

 

I bought some extra RAM when I bought a laptop last year because the post-market memory was cheaper. Manufacturers charge out the nose for the same components you can buy much cheaper after market. This is a perfect example of the fact that this "convenience cost" is more akin to price-gouging. Only, when the product can't even be upgraded after market, it is a step further. It's all about preying upon people's stupidity. If they knew that undoing a couple screws and popping in a memory stick was as easy as it is, no one would ever get RAM upgrades from the manufacturer. Or maybe they would, since the manufacturer would charge a more reasonable price for the upgrade -- they must get bulk discounts on the RAM units, after all.

 

I suppose people want specifically for their devices to need proprietary tools for opening them, right? It's just a response to the market!

http://www.techdirt.com/blog/wireless/articles/20110125/02072212812/apple-using-special-new-screws-so-you-cant-open-your-iphone.shtml

 

They want you to be dependent upon them for everything. To nickel and dime you (or Grant and Benjamin you) for every thing they possibly can. They intentionally cripple devices and dupe consumers in order to do so.

I went to the Mac store tonight to see the new iMacs.  They're great, of course, although the bigger size seems way too big for everyday use.  It's for graphic designers and a few others, otherwise it's almost clumsy.  I'll be getting the 21.5" size.  Also I checked out the track pad and I'll probably get one just to say I tried it, even though it's fairly expensive.  Apple is also selling an external CD/DVD drive that matches it for I think $79. 

I went to the Mac store tonight to see the new iMacs.  They're great, of course, although the bigger size seems way too big for everyday use.  It's for graphic designers and a few others, otherwise it's almost clumsy.  I'll be getting the 21.5" size.  Also I checked out the track pad and I'll probably get one just to say I tried it, even though it's fairly expensive.  Apple is also selling an external CD/DVD drive that matches it for I think $79. 

 

I have a 27", I love the screen size.  I'm do look at a lot of graphics and layouts, but I love the size.

>I love the size.

 

No comment.

 

Meanwhile I rescind part of my previous post.  The track pad is free when you buy the computer instead of a mouse.  Also, Apple has been quite slick in how they have rolled out the new iMac variations.  Do you get more ROI if you buy the faster processor, more RAM, or the fusion drive?  It's exactly that kind of confusion that marketers love, because if you make just one of those $200 upgrades, are you getting the full benefit of it without one of the other $200 upgrades?  It looks like you can currently spend as little as $1299 or as much as $2200 for the fully tricked out 21.5" iMac. 

 

 

 

>I love the size.

 

No comment.

 

Meanwhile I rescind part of my previous post.  The track pad is free when you buy the computer instead of a mouse.  Also, Apple has been quite slick in how they have rolled out the new iMac variations.  Do you get more ROI if you buy the faster processor, more RAM, or the fusion drive?  It's exactly that kind of confusion that marketers love, because if you make just one of those $200 upgrades, are you getting the full benefit of it without one of the other $200 upgrades?  It looks like you can currently spend as little as $1299 or as much as $2200 for the fully tricked out 21.5" iMac. 

 

 

That’s the thing Mac does to force people to pay up.  PC’s have such minute price differences because there is a plethora of options for every single component, from fans to cables to motherboards, etc. and each has a price range from cheap plastic crap to top of the line.  Mac’s base components are all of decently high quality, and not customizable in the least, which is why even the cheapest options are so expensive compared to the cheap PC’s. 

 

But the short answer is no, unless you get all of the upgrades none of them are worth their individual markups, and “worth” is a subjective word because as a guy who has always built my own computers since I was 10, I know what these upgrades cost.

 

>I love the size.

 

No comment.

 

Meanwhile I rescind part of my previous post.  The track pad is free when you buy the computer instead of a mouse.  Also, Apple has been quite slick in how they have rolled out the new iMac variations.  Do you get more ROI if you buy the faster processor, more RAM, or the fusion drive?  It's exactly that kind of confusion that marketers love, because if you make just one of those $200 upgrades, are you getting the full benefit of it without one of the other $200 upgrades?  It looks like you can currently spend as little as $1299 or as much as $2200 for the fully tricked out 21.5" iMac. 

 

 

 

 

You are much better off buying the minimum from Apple and buying third-party to upgrade what you can. The problem is that with iMacs, it is very difficult to upgrade the hard drive, although the RAM is easily upgradable. On the newer MacBook Pros, you can't even upgrade the RAM as it is soldiered directly onto the board. (As discussed earlier, making the internals into one piece makes things way thinner, and only a small percentage of customers will make a fuss about the lack of a removable battery and upgradable RAM.)

 

That's why I'm trying to hold out for the next Mac Pro, which is still like a "traditional" PC case, with multiple hard drive bays, RAM slots, etc. (Although for my laptop, I'm perfectly fine having a non-upgradable MacBook Pro.)

Just bought the wife a discountinued fully loaded 17" MacBookPro on MacMall. It's not bleeding edge but it should suit her Graphic design needs fine for a few years. This is by far the most expensive computer I have ever bought. And it was $700 off...

 

Still in shock. I may have to go and spend a grand on ski equipment to make me feel better...

>The problem is that with iMacs, it is very difficult to upgrade the hard drive

 

The problem right now is that they are not offering anything other than the 1tb hard drive.  So if you pay for the most expensive one so that you can do video you'll never have enough hard drive space to do anything significant.  I imagine that the thunderbolt cable connection to new drives is probably pretty fast but not as fast as an internal hard drive, and might get buggy with video. 

 

>although the RAM is easily upgradable

 

I don't think that you can with the new iMac's, the back looked completely sealed.  http://www.macrumors.com/2012/10/23/21-5-imac-has-no-user-upgradable-ram-27-has-four-accessible-ram-slots/

 

 

Also, in the two weeks or so that the 27" imac has been available, they have already expanded the options available, now with a 3tb fusion drive option, 768gb flash storage, and at least two or three other things.  I clicked everything and you can spend $4,249 if you want to. 

 

I'm worried that it's going to take at least 6 months for similar options to appear in the smaller one, since I don't really want the bigger one. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pathetic they wouldn't offer an SSD in this day and age!

>The problem is that with iMacs, it is very difficult to upgrade the hard drive

 

The problem right now is that they are not offering anything other than the 1tb hard drive.  So if you pay for the most expensive one so that you can do video you'll never have enough hard drive space to do anything significant.  I imagine that the thunderbolt cable connection to new drives is probably pretty fast but not as fast as an internal hard drive, and might get buggy with video. 

 

>although the RAM is easily upgradable

 

I don't think that you can with the new iMac's, the back looked completely sealed.  http://www.macrumors.com/2012/10/23/21-5-imac-has-no-user-upgradable-ram-27-has-four-accessible-ram-slots/

 

 

Also, in the two weeks or so that the 27" imac has been available, they have already expanded the options available, now with a 3tb fusion drive option, 768gb flash storage, and at least two or three other things.  I clicked everything and you can spend $4,249 if you want to. 

 

I'm worried that it's going to take at least 6 months for similar options to appear in the smaller one, since I don't really want the bigger one. 

 

Interesting, I didn't know they don't offer all of the same upgrades on the 21" model. With the 17", you can get a 1TB or 3TB hard drive, or a smaller SSD.

 

Thunderbolt drives are amazingly fast (essentially as fast as internal drives) but there are few on the market right now. As more PCs get Thunderbolt ports, I think the market for them will pick up.

 

 

Pathetic they wouldn't offer an SSD in this day and age!

 

I believe you can choose an SSD, a HDD, or a "Fusion Drive" (Apple's new thing where it automatically manages your files, and puts frequently-used files on the SSD for better speed).

A Mac bundle offer that expires midnight 12/24

https://www.mupromo.com/?ref=13406

Utilities, a couple games, a financial app  & some creative stuff.

I am not promoting the site or any of the software, just letting MacFiends know.

Bizarre. My wife's MacBook pro arrived last Friday. She opened the box, put it back and has yet to turn it on. She's been begging for her own computer for years.

Ouch.  That's an expensive paperweight.

We got our grandfather an Amazon Kindle.  When he opened it up he thought it was "a mirror".  He didn't recognize at all that it is an electronic device!  He also still thinks that google is "goggle". 

Ouch.  That's an expensive paperweight.

Oh she'll use the hell out of it once she gets CS5.5 for it. I am not worried about that. I just don't understand how you can not want to play with a shiny new toy. She did that with one of the original ipod touches that I had won at a conference. That was before that App store and it was only 16GB. I had an almost full 60GB ipod, so it really wasn't much use to me at the time. So I gave it to her, and it sat there. Once the apps were available I took it back, hehe.

 

I am actually looking forward to it because I am obligated to play tech support on our home PC right now. I know nothing about macs.

For you slackers still running PPC hardware, Adobe CS2

http://www.adobe.com/downloads/cs2_downloads/index.html

Or, for that matter, if you're still running WinXP.....

^ So let me get this straight, that is basically the full Adobe Suite, complete with serial numbers for registration, for people with old hardware/OS's?

 

I have Win7 Professional, which I have read somewhere is capable of emulating some older Windows version(s) (I think XP included). Do you know if that's true? And if I can run this software?

 

It would be nice to have a real copy of Photoshop, even if it's an old version.

Well, that press conference was a downer. Yet again a lot of hype for basically nothing new.

 

Apple keeps spoiling all of the goodwill it earned under Jobs.

Well, that press conference was a downer. Yet again a lot of hype for basically nothing new.

 

Apple keeps spoiling all of the goodwill it earned under Jobs.

 

The press conference was a downer because everything they announced was leaked over the past few weeks. Although the iPhone 5C is not a big deal from a technical perspective, I think it is huge from a marketing perspective. Lots of people that previously would have got the "free with contract" iPhone are now going to spend $99 to get the 5C simply because of the colors. As far as the 5S, it's exactly what everyone expected. This is a mid-year for Apple; this was not their year for a completely redesigned-from-the-ground-up iPhone.

I was hoping for some Macbook Pro announcement although I'm hopeful there will be one by the end of the year.  Our four year old one is getting long in the tooth and I'm looking forward to a lightning fast solid state hard drive.

I was hoping for some Macbook Pro announcement although I'm hopeful there will be one by the end of the year.  Our four year old one is getting long in the tooth and I'm looking forward to a lightning fast solid state hard drive.

 

I would expect a late October announcements with new iPads, MacBooks, a Mac Pro, and whatever other new product they have up their sleeves.

No discussion of new, innovative hardware. Not a drop. I understand October is when the new Ipads will be discussed, among other things, but they should have offered something today. Give us ANYTHING on the iwatch, itv, ireader, iglasses, icar...I don't care. Anything. Instead we got boring, boring, boring.

No discussion of new, innovative hardware. Not a drop.

 

Is the fingerprint reader and 64-bit processor not new or innovative?

Not for the average consumer. They're just extras that don't really change the product all that much.

 

Compare that to say a dedicated electronic reader running on electronic paper or the fabled iTV. Now THAT would have the Internet and consumers go crazy.

 

 

No discussion of new, innovative hardware. Not a drop. I understand October is when the new Ipads will be discussed, among other things, but they should have offered something today. Give us ANYTHING on the iwatch, itv, ireader, iglasses, icar...I don't care. Anything. Instead we got boring, boring, boring.

 

This basically sums up why the tech press is "disappointed" by most of Apple's announcements. Unless they announce a completely new category of product, it's "boring, boring, boring." It doesn't matter if they announce upgrades to all of their existing products this year, people demand something shiny and new!

I was hoping for a battery upgrade, water resistantance, wireless charging and maybe some other features I couldn't think of. Faster processor and fingerprint lock are nice upgrades and ios7 does look a bit better than 6.

It's been years since they announced something shiny and new, whereas other companies are at least attempting to evolve and try new things. Samsung has the watch, Google the glasses and driver-free cars, Nintendo the Wii U remote, HP 3d printers, Microsoft Windows 8. At least they're trying different things rather than making mild alterations to existing technology. These companies are thinking outside the box while Apple is nestled comfortably in the box...which is a complete flip of how Apple became so dominant in the first place.

It's been years since they announced something shiny and new, whereas other companies are at least attempting to evolve and try new things. Samsung has the watch, Google the glasses and driver-free cars, Nintendo the Wii U remote, HP 3d printers, Microsoft Windows 8. At least they're trying different things rather than making mild alterations to existing technology. These companies are thinking outside the box while Apple is nestled comfortably in the box...which is a complete flip of how Apple became so dominant in the first place.

 

The iPod was released in 2001. The iPod was released in 2007. The iPad was released in 2010. I would not expect another brand new category of product from them until this or next year (at the earliest).

Well, that press conference was a downer. Yet again a lot of hype for basically nothing new.

 

Apple keeps spoiling all of the goodwill it earned under Jobs.

 

The press conference was a downer because everything they announced was leaked over the past few weeks. Although the iPhone 5C is not a big deal from a technical perspective, I think it is huge from a marketing perspective. Lots of people that previously would have got the "free with contract" iPhone are now going to spend $99 to get the 5C simply because of the colors. As far as the 5S, it's exactly what everyone expected. This is a mid-year for Apple; this was not their year for a completely redesigned-from-the-ground-up iPhone.

 

I've never been an early adopter of technology. I want it proven and cheap; I've never been able to impress anybody I know by purchasing off-the-shelf possessions anyway. But these days people are starting to give me a really hard time about owning a phone that's just a phone, like I'm stupid or even irresponsible. They send me stuff constantly that I can't open. I'm not really looking forward to the increased bill or actually forking over money to buy a phone, but $99 is a lot easier to digest than some of these others. I don't really like Google outside of search and Youtube, so those phones were out.

>really hard time about owning a phone that's just a phone, like I'm stupid or even irresponsible.

 

The only reason I ended up getting a smart phone was because I broke my flip phone punching somebody in front of the Mad Frog while talking on said flip phone.  When I went to the cell phone store the next day they suckered me into taking the free smart phone, but my monthly fee went up to about $70.  Meanwhile shortly after the mugging and new phone work gave me a free circa 2003 flip phone.  I can actually hear people and the battery lasts more than a week. 

The cost of a smartphone is nothing compared to the monthly fee, so you might as well get whatever hardware you like if you're going to get one. I haven't had one since around 2007. They seem to have degraded in value-for-money since, from what I can tell (every plan had unlimited data back then). I'm happy with a $10/month flip phone. I have a nice laptop for home use and a cheap refurbished tablet for carrying around, neither of which have monthly fees (other than home internet).

 

Too many "must-have" gadgets these days, all designed to be obsolete within a year, two max. All with restrictions created not by the hardware specs but the software/firmware. With a subscription model for anything they can get away with. I used to like to keep up with gadgets, but nowadays I'm content to hold back. No sense in encouraging these greedy behaviors; manufacturers used to make things with the goal of making the best product so people would buy it, and now they make things with the goal of intentionally crippling them in as many ways as are profitable.

^ Id tend to disagree.  Updating a phone every 20 months is a part of life. Who cares about the cost or plan when a younger generation is dumping pricier commodities.  Car ownership is down.  Home ownership is down.  With most folks connected these days on tablets and phones I see no reason to go cheap on a phone, and the cheapest data plan is all you need.

 

I had a friend who said a similar thing, and how he didn't need a fancy phone. But on a recent visit he brought a duffle bag that looked like a mini-radio shack. So much redundant technology.  A point and shoot camera, an MP3 player, flip phone, a GPS...  Why?  Why spend all that money on various electronics and fill up my surge protector with a ton of chargers when that can all be merged into one simple, powerful, tiny little device?  When you upgrade a phone, you upgrade all these other utilities.  How you listen to music, communicate with friends and family and take photos. 

 

And I don't buy the "intentional crippling" argument. They can handle a few reasonable sidewalk landings. Throw any device on the sidewalk and report back. The flip phones of the 2000's broke more easily than smartphones.  I also still see folks walking around with the first generation iPhones, which means the OS and software still work on older handsets.

I'm not getting rid of my iPod just because I got a smart phone. It's worth 10% of what the phone costs, is lighter, has actual buttons (er, a "clickwheel") that you can feel without having to look at the screen. I'm not going to chance eating it on asphalt while running just to change songs. And if i drop it nothing bad happens because it weighs 2 oz. The last thing anyone wants when they run is a bulky, expensive item tagging along. Lately I've also found myself doing dirty, strenuous physical labor AGAIN (thanks Pickaway County upbringing, you've just kept giving since age 12) that would be rough on the phone even with cases and screen protectors. The last thing I need is them telling me my warranty is void because I am constantly sweating all over the phone.

 

If something bad does happen to an iPod on the other hand, I can buy another iPod from my own business for like $40.

Wait IOS 7 is just like the old Palm Pre OS. my wife just upgrade her 4S, and I was shocked when I played with it and its just like the old Palm OS on how it handles Apps.

i suspect apple of pulling a little bit of intentional planned obsolescence in their bug fixes. suddenly my 4S google and safari drop out more often. the sound gets wonky now, etc. -- in other words just enough aggravations like that pop up to bug the hell out of you so you will pony up and buy the 5S.

 

^ I still use my first gen iPad, and while it works fine most of the time, it shuts down much more frequently as Apple updates its OS, forcing all the apps to modify up to the new OS parameters. They're getting too bulky for the old girl to handle anymore.

^^Ugh, you just brought up the memories of my contacts randomly being deleted and the only fix was to upgrade to IOS 6....

 

 

The 20th anniversary of Myst

 

The game was developed on Mac Quadras beginning in 1991, with 3D renderings in StrataVision 3D and Macromedia MacroModel. Finishing touches were done in Photoshop 1.0.

 

http://www.tuaw.com/2013/09/27/the-20th-anniversary-of-myst/