Sensible Erection | Apple is doooooomed

Wednesday, 10 March 2010

quote [ While hard to picture now, Jobs and company will one day, maybe soon, fall out of step with fashion. Growth will stall. Fair-weather investors will flee to sunnier stocks. Loyal fans will become embittered. Smelling blood, critics will get even nastier. ]

tee hee

IGN has a gameplay p/review of Civ V:

http://pc.ign.com/articles/107/1075587p1.html

[humour] [by foobar@5:41amGMT] [+4]

Comments

Tang said @ 5:57am GMT on 10th Mar [Score:5 Insightful]

Isosceles Lock™ said @ 6:17am GMT on 10th Mar
Saxon Hale will fuck your mother so hard that he will retroactively become your genetic father.

Cakkafracle said @ 7:03am GMT on 10th Mar
I don't own my mac to play games with.
I own my Wii and Playstation for games
but, you know, whatever floats your bouts

Naruki said @ 7:06am GMT on 10th Mar
Boots. Whatever floats your boots. Can't let those suckers sink or your feet will get soggy.

willrogers said @ 8:27am GMT on 10th Mar
Yeah, you own Mac products so you can use Flash-based applications, videos, etc.

Tang said @ 6:20pm GMT on 10th Mar
he pwns at farmville

bluetu3sday said @ 6:30pm GMT on 10th Mar
Farmville is a complete bastardization of everything Harvest Moon has stood.

MmmFiber said @ 9:18pm GMT on 10th Mar [Score:1 Underrated]
Harvest Moon was the shit.

G. W. Bush said @ 1:27pm GMT on 10th Mar [Score:2]
So you enjoy playing fps games with a less then adequate aiming device ?

skainsmate said @ 12:46am GMT on 11th Mar [Score:1 Interesting]
Right, because FPS games are the only games worth playing?

sacrelicious said @ 1:40am GMT on 11th Mar
so you enjoy playing your top-down strategy games with a far-from-ideal cursor control?

eIfish said @ 6:21pm GMT on 11th Mar
There are more than two genres of games. Go get yourself a DS.

sacrelicious said @ 12:01am GMT on 12th Mar [Score:1 Informative]
of course there are. the point is that some (indeed some of the most popular) genres of game are ideally suited to mouse control, and clumsy with a pad.

Barnabas_Truman said @ 8:26am GMT on 12th Mar
Any game really worth playing is worth playing with keyboard or joystick.

skainsmate said @ 2:59pm GMT on 12th Mar
I'll take Smash Bros. on a Gamecube controller anyday.

anagramophone said @ 3:06am GMT on 11th Mar
personally yeah, pretty much--video games are for satisfying my reptilian hindbrain; life keeps the rest plenty busy. so what i'm trying to say is: fuck a thumbstick, dawg.

DarkShadowRavenDragonGrrl69 said @ 8:52pm GMT on 11th Mar
And I'm guessing you only watch popcorn flicks and only read Dan Brown novels/don't read at all.

anagramophone said @ 9:46pm GMT on 11th Mar
...and you'd be wrong, but i forgive you your assumptions.

jamesdiemer said @ 2:49pm GMT on 11th Mar
I've been complaining about this fact for years.

eIfish said @ 6:23pm GMT on 11th Mar
Get over it. No 80s action hero, let alone real human, can run and aim like in a mouselook FPS.

This is especially galling in the supposedly realistic FPS that are en vogue.

sacrelicious said @ 6:53pm GMT on 11th Mar
I did not realize we were only playing video games that replicate what real humans can do. my bad.

eIfish said @ 7:36pm GMT on 11th Mar
I'm just going to name drop Call of Duty (1 through 6), Farcry*, Half Life, AvP (the new one or the old one), Rainbow Six (again, 1 through 6), and everything id has ever created.

Normal. Humans.

In all the games I've listed, you play someone that's supposed to have the abilities, at best, of an action movie hero. As in Commando, not as in The Matrix**. Because the control method is too accurate to simulate a human, most of them introduce artificial inaccuracy to the weapons to make up for it.

* he can do all the mouselook shit even before he turns into a werewolf.
** Hell, Gordon's supposed to be a physicist.

sacrelicious said @ 8:13pm GMT on 11th Mar
so basically these are *characters* who are *for the purposes of the game* are normal humans, but in reality have super-human abilities. such as the ability to jump 20 feet, the ability to fall 50 feet and walk away, the ability to get shot a bunch of times and not bleed out while running and jumping, the ability to operate weapons efficiently with no experience or training, the ability to heal ones self from critical injuries with nothing but a first aid kit...

so basically what we're talking about is the *illusion* of realism, and I don't see how mouselook aiming is any more unrealistic than those other abilities.

also, many of those games are pc native, and some pc-only when they were released. that means native mouselook in most cases. so they're supposed to play that way.

eIfish said @ 11:17pm GMT on 11th Mar
all of those games were PC-native/PC-only*. Reread.

There's stuff you can accept characters doing, and there's stuff that you can't. If you're going to have ten headshots in ten seconds, then you need some kind of narrative device to explain how come your action hero is such a good shot. Doesn't have to be plausible, but you have to do something. You certainly can't have everyone in the whole entire world doing it. If you saw a war movie with everyone circle-strafing while sniping, you'd call them on it, right?

But every single character in a PC FPS, no matter what their background, shoots like that guy in X-Men.

* The vast majority of PC FPS nowadays feature 'real humans'. I can only think of a few exceptions: Deus Ex (superhuman cyborgs), Serious Sam (cartoon humans). Halo and Shadowrun don't really count.

sacrelicious said @ 11:48pm GMT on 11th Mar
if the action needs to be justified by a narrative for you, then you're better off watching a movie or reading a book. a game succeeds or fails on the strength of it's gameplay. period. narrative is supplemental, and most the time only gets in the way of the game.

that said, every FPS presumes that the character you are playing is an expert in whatever weapon he wields, be it by experience, luck or natural talent, otherwise the wave after wave of trained military personnel Black Mesa is sending after a single scientist will win without much contest at all.

and now that we've established that it would take an expert of the highest order in the use of a sub-machinegun to take out a multitude of military platoons that have him cornered, ten headshots in ten seconds is hardly unprecedented by military snipers. that's actually much *more* realistic than the later conceit which we must accept to play the game.

teknokracy said @ 7:44am GMT on 10th Mar
With the noted exception of Assassin's Creed II

willrogers said @ 8:26am GMT on 10th Mar
Unless you're a pirate, in which case, Skidrow rules.

symmetrian said @ 8:18pm GMT on 10th Mar
Working fine for me.

Barnabas_Truman said @ 5:24pm GMT on 10th Mar
Dwarf Fortress, Battle for Wesnoth, Freeciv, Spaceward Ho!, Weird Worlds in Infinite Space, Fallout, Fallout II, Lugaru, Starcraft, Warcraft III, Uplink, Darwinia, Defcon, Multiwinia, an arcade emulator, a NES emulator, a SNES emulator, and a Sega Genesis emulator all work just fine on my Mac. What else do I need?

Actually I do miss Arcanum. But I think that's the only one.

Nihil said @ 8:07pm GMT on 10th Mar
List of Windows games.

If you're saying that you aren't interested enough in gaming to bother with installing Windows, then no problem.

If you're saying that you're unwilling to spend the money for the hardware or for the software necessary to play more of those gazillion games I linked, then no problem.

If you're saying that there are no games other than Arcanum which you can't play on a Mac but would love to, despite you enjoying insanely hardcore games like Dwarf Fortress or the first two Fallouts, then I'm going to call a truly astronomical quantity of bullshit on you, sir.

Barnabas_Truman said @ 3:52am GMT on 11th Mar
Yeah, pretty much just Arcanum. Oh, and I wish Ambrosia (and to some extent Interplay and Electronic Arts) would update all its old games for OS X, but that's a different issue.

DrowJones said @ 5:26pm GMT on 10th Mar
Oh yeah, Heavy Rain on my PC kicks some serious arse, just like my PC version of God of War III will do, too, I'm sure.

Nihil said @ 8:09pm GMT on 10th Mar
Hey, now, I'm quite confident there will be a working PS3 emulator available for Quantum Windows around 2020 or so.

MmmFiber said @ 9:55pm GMT on 10th Mar
The average 128 bit encryption(symmetric) can take decades to break brute force style. With quantum computers that would be much shorter. Just think about that when your PS3 emulation is being interrupted by scriptkiddies.

damnit said @ 1:06am GMT on 11th Mar
the best they could manage are 2 cubits. They're guessing they can progress far enough in 10 years to surpass the most powerful supercomputer, but they still have to stabilize the squared cubits differently each time.

sanepride said @ 5:56pm GMT on 10th Mar
Of course the downside of this is the implication that while PC users are sitting in dark basements playing all these games Mac users are actually out and about enjoying real life and maybe even getting laid.

Not that I want to add to the Mac smugness factor...

kishi said @ 6:07pm GMT on 10th Mar
By "enjoying real life and maybe even getting laid," do you mean "complaining about Microsoft and telling people how their Mac is better"?

symmetrian said @ 8:19pm GMT on 10th Mar
Or calling tech support without knowing the first fucking thing about their computer because they were told Macs were "easy to use" and so they shouldn't have to learn how to use them.

Komrade said @ 8:30pm GMT on 10th Mar
Or cutting out that bullshit ilife "lifestyle" marketing and admitting that Mac users are usually the douchebags who go to bars just to show off their latest bit of trendy fashion, take as many myspace-style pictures for their blog/facebook as their phone can physically hold, twitter about how long their piss took and just generally being a smug arse who's just chosen a particular metal and plastic box to supply their need for some concept around which they can rally.

IT'S A COMPUTER, NOT A SURROGATE FOR A LIFE.

sanepride said @ 12:49am GMT on 11th Mar
Thanks guys. You've made me feel a lot better about sitting here in my dark basement playing games on my PC. :)

skainsmate said @ 1:00am GMT on 11th Mar
Yes, absolutely. Make gross generalizations about the users of a particular platform in the most insulting manner possible. I can do it too:

Everytime a PC user bashes Mac users, I wonder exactly which aspect of themself they're so insecure with. No other reason to get so ardent about your fucking computer.

I used PCs from 7th grade (our family's first computer) until senior year of college. Then, being a music major, I bought a MacBook Pro. I'm not going to tell you it's better than any PC with equivalent hardware. I will tell you that it's endeared itself to me in myriad ways and that I love it, love it, love it.

I don't look down on PC users in any way. I just like my computer, and wish that simple fact didn't cause the same rabid response in other gamers as my affection for my boyfriend causes in the homophobic.

skainsmate said @ 1:02am GMT on 11th Mar
(And yes, I run the non-Mac-friendly games I own on a Windows partition. So what?)

damnit said @ 1:13am GMT on 11th Mar
Here's a Facebook conversation with my friends.

A: You guys seriously thought I was gonna buy a macbook?? Lolz
->C: lol no need when u got the pumpac
->S: i almost clicked the "remove friend" button :P
->C2: I would never think such blasphemy

It's not that PC users are generalizing Mac users. The mac vs. pc Ads and other commercials are the ones speaking on you guys' behalf.

skainsmate said @ 5:32am GMT on 11th Mar
John Hodgman is one of my favorite authors (and audiobook narrators).

Even if he "is a PC," I imagine he's got mad mac swag. What a gig.

And the Nerdier Than Thou persona he portrays on those commercials are exactly what gets unwittingly channeled by those the commercials upset. Hassling the mac guy, always acting better than him. Yes, it cuts both ways, and yes it's a commercial for Apple, but those commercials should, if anything, encourage people not to be such d-bags to each other.

Complain about hipsters who don't care enough about the True Spirit of Gaming if you will, but everytime you bash a mac user you're playing the same part Mr. Hodgman gets paid to lampoon.

Don't prove you're smart by listing the reasons your computer is better than mine. Prove you're smart by recognizing that what you're trying to do is list the reasons you're better than me.

skainsmate said @ 5:52am GMT on 11th Mar
This was not directed at anyone in particular.

Komrade said @ 5:36pm GMT on 11th Mar
I'm glad my point wasn't entirely missed there. I was *trying* to satirize the whole iLife concept, not generalize about every single mac user on the planet.

Subtlety is HARD on the internet.

LeslieH said @ 2:47am GMT on 11th Mar
Wait, before you 'close the deal,' you show off your Mac? Wow, who's the nerd in this scenario? I would never think of using my computer to sway a potential sexual partner, and I must say, I wouldn't really want to get caught up with someone who only hooked up with me due to me having an obvious issue with being a spendthrift.

Also, my computer room is not in my basement, but actually on the second floor of my house with a lovely private balcony.

f00m@nB@r said @ 10:04pm GMT on 10th Mar [Score:1 Funny]
http://www.apple.com/support/bootcamp/

dual-boot with windows.

kishi said @ 12:41am GMT on 11th Mar [Score:1 Underrated]
"Macs- So superior, that we'll even set it up so you can use Windows to do all those things we can't."

anagramophone said @ 3:09am GMT on 11th Mar
what? you're not making sense!

EPT said @ 8:47am GMT on 11th Mar
Dual-booting for games doesn't work. I tried that with win/lin - I'd prefer linux for the get-at-it-ness, but windows is needed for games. I ended up never booting into linux because rebooting means you lose your apps and have to reinitialise them etc.

I've seen a colleague using a mac with a mac bar at the top and a win bar at the bottom, running native win and mac apps simultaneously. I'd be surprised if it could do that well for graphics games but it is pretty cool in its own right.

eIfish said @ 8:04pm GMT on 11th Mar
VMWare claim it works for Gears of War, Call of Duty, etc.

I think it should be possible to use a KVM and a graphics card PCI-routed to the guest only ( see http://www.eecs.umich.edu/~bengheng/pubs/vgapt_techreport.pdf ), and achieve 80-90 percent of native performance, but it strikes me as a bit hacky, and you need a motherboard with an IOMMU.

EPT said @ 10:12pm GMT on 11th Mar
To be honest I haven't tried anything with 3D graphics on a vm for a couple of years, and it really, really sucked back then.

jamesdiemer said @ 2:50pm GMT on 11th Mar
Steam for mac comes out in april, valve plans release all their games on mac also.

bystander said @ 6:05am GMT on 10th Mar
ROFL!

Has this guy realized that Jobs & Cie was basically doing the same act back in the '80s?

Then he lost the company, did a startup (NeXT) that basically appealed only to gnurus, yet eked along on the cool factor, then made his come back at Apple, then made Apple's come back, and can probably do it again?

The man manufactures dreamware faster than you can say "passing fad."

I suggest you wait 'till the stocks take a dive from the tablet letdowns, then buy in and wait until the 3rd generation tablets redefine people's expectations & standards, like the iPhones did.

rndmnmbr said @ 6:15am GMT on 10th Mar
He'll be making magic only as long as that bum liver holds out.

sanepride said @ 6:33am GMT on 10th Mar
Y'know he got the bum liver replaced with a shiny new one.

darkener said @ 7:05am GMT on 10th Mar [Score:3 Underrated]
If only the imac, iphone, ipod, or iAnything were as modular.

pel said @ 9:45am GMT on 10th Mar
I think he meant the new liver *came* from a bum.

CapnSilver said @ 6:06am GMT on 10th Mar [Score:4 Underrated]
I want this to be true if only to spite hipsters.

rattus said @ 9:28am GMT on 11th Mar
hipsters can't afford macs.

Also this: http://unhappyhipsters.com/

sanepride said @ 3:28pm GMT on 11th Mar
Oh I dunno. The glum hipsters in those photos appear pretty well off.

swiggy said @ 6:15am GMT on 10th Mar [Score:3 Insightful]

danshyu said @ 7:53am GMT on 10th Mar [Score:2]
The fact you can customiz/upgrade the TF2 turret says a lot about PCs.

pel said @ 9:43am GMT on 10th Mar
Not to mention that it shoots 360 degrees and can't be trivially knocked over by looking at it funny.

ENZ said @ 5:33pm GMT on 10th Mar [Score:1 Insightful]
I thought that was a Virtual Boy when I first looked at it.

Chop-Logik said @ 5:59pm GMT on 10th Mar
Ah, but it is easily sapped by spies... requires vigilance and an attentive technician.

EPT said @ 10:24am GMT on 10th Mar
Funny thing is that despite the slick looks, mac hardware is only middle-of-the-road in terms of reliability.

sanepride said @ 6:35am GMT on 10th Mar [Score:1 Funny]
Oh, they'll be OK as long as they can keep coming out with ever-more gigantic versions of the iphone.

Naruki said @ 11:43am GMT on 10th Mar
Coming soon, the iDoor! Try not to walk into it.

sanepride said @ 5:57pm GMT on 10th Mar [Score:1 Funny]
And despite it's huge size -

You still can't change the fucking battery!

Barnabas_Truman said @ 9:08am GMT on 11th Mar [Score:1 Funny]
Apple: it makes a better Door than Windows.

Ankylosaur said @ 6:57pm GMT on 10th Mar [Score:4 Funny]

ScoobySnacks said @ 6:42am GMT on 10th Mar [Score:5 Funny]

teknokracy said @ 7:43am GMT on 10th Mar
Also, apparently widescreen isn't the cool thing anymore, even though EVERY SINGLE COMPUTER, ELECTRONICS AND GADGET MANUFACTURER HAS TOLD US IT IS FOR THE LAST FIVE YEARS.

Chop-Logik said @ 8:26am GMT on 10th Mar [Score:1 Insightful]
No no, widescreen is cool.. but now we add tallscreen to it as well!

mrcucumber said @ 3:53pm GMT on 10th Mar
And the glossy screen shit...

SnappyNipples said @ 11:27am GMT on 10th Mar
Don't forget blu-ray, Macs can't play those yet.

b said @ 6:50pm GMT on 10th Mar
farmville: fuck off
hulu: fuck off
cnn: there's plenty of newsites
bang bros: the internet is for porn. i think ipad users will be fine.

kishi said @ 7:00pm GMT on 10th Mar
Yeah! Why would you want to use things that aren't Apple-approved!

b said @ 10:25pm GMT on 10th Mar
honestly, i don't even know what to say about this.

farmville works fine, as far as i know, on macs, as does cnn.com and most porn vids.

hulu doesn't work for me simply because i do not live in the US.\

i'm not sure why anyone would think that those flash based videos wouldn't run on a mac. maybe because the ipad doesn't support them? maybe people should just get a laptop then?

anyway, i'm not defending the ipad, i think it sounds like an interesting device, but i can't for the life of me figure out why anyone would want a giant iphone that's not a phone and not a laptop but some bastard hybrid of the two with less functionality.

damnit said @ 1:15am GMT on 11th Mar
iPad runs on a bloated iPhone OS, so no Flash at all.

sacrelicious said @ 1:44am GMT on 11th Mar
is what he's saying.

damnit said @ 2:50am GMT on 11th Mar
yeah, I'm not in the reading mind state right now.

willrogers said @ 4:44am GMT on 11th Mar
But the reason neither have flash and will not likely have it in the near future is because Apple is run by a bunch of pricks that hate their customers and want complete control over them and their products.

Contrast it with a company like Google that releases products open source and wants to be consumer and developer friendly.

Just look at how Apple is fighting jailbreaking iphones compared to how Android phones are basically open source or at least without an active effort to go after Android users doing what they want to their own phones.

rattus said @ 8:58am GMT on 11th Mar
That and flash is a sewer of malware.

Nihil said @ 8:12pm GMT on 10th Mar
Problem is, the FarmVille demographics (compulsive but unskilled Internet users) is exactly the kind of demographics the iPad is supposed to cater to.

damnit said @ 1:16am GMT on 11th Mar
5 Creepy ways videogames are trying to get you addicted

sacrelicious said @ 2:13am GMT on 11th Mar
you're missing two key points:

1) while three of the four are hardly unique, irreplaceable web presences that are the only game in town for their niche, each and every one of the four is an extremely popular web presence that is a go-to source for a great many users of it's particular niche. ergo, it is idiotic to make a mass-market consumer-grade computer that can't use them.

2) they are all using flash. now if they were the only sites using flash, well I suppose that would be a small price to pay. but they are not. in fact, as it turns out an awful lot of sites use flash. 99.99 percent of sites with video content use flash to display that video content. three of the sites represented are video sites. and those three are standing in for innumerable others.

but no, you keep polishing that turd.

teknokracy said @ 7:45am GMT on 10th Mar
1) Don't believe ~~most things~~ anything the Globe and Mail says.
2) Sure, people are just going to up and stop buying Coca-Cola... and they haven't really innovated anything in 20 years!

willrogers said @ 8:24am GMT on 10th Mar
You're right about #1 but #2 is a bad analogy.

Coca-cola is a beverage company that makes non-durable goods, while Apple is a technology company that makes durable goods.

Coca-cola makes new products all the time but their biggest selling product is something literally called "classic."

Apple is a technology company that constantly has to update and reinnovate as computers get faster, smaller, more portable, cheaper, market saturated, etc.

They aren't anything alike.

themanwhoeatslettus said @ 9:16pm GMT on 10th Mar
also most people do not remember exactly new coke tasted like.

Bob Denver said @ 12:28am GMT on 11th Mar
New Coke is what we've got now. It actually was more popular but badly presented. It's also why I no longer drink Coke...

willrogers said @ 4:40am GMT on 11th Mar [Score:1 Insightful]
True, the current coke is different from the original stuff, but the stuff called New Coke was completely different and pretty much tasted just like Pepsi, which is why Pepsi got really pissed at Coke about it.

eIfish said @ 7:23pm GMT on 11th Mar
AIUI, New Coke was just Diet Coke but with sugar instead of sweetener.

So you could just go to the chemist and get some HFCS and add it to Diet Coke.

noaaltwynn said @ 10:59pm GMT on 10th Mar
Coca-Cola "Classic" doesn't actually exist in the States anymore, not since they switched over to using that High Fructose Corn Syrup garbage instead of real sugar.

You can even look at the Coca-Cola cans and see that the "Classic" branding is gone.

val said @ 4:26am GMT on 11th Mar
A durable good is expected to last at least three years... I'm not sure computers and phones qualify.

eIfish said @ 8:06pm GMT on 11th Mar
A computer or phone will probably be uncool after three years, but it damn well better still work.

anagramophone said @ 8:53am GMT on 10th Mar [Score:1 Insightful]
the death of apple has been 'inevitable' since the early nineties.

EPT said @ 10:26am GMT on 10th Mar
Likewise the death of Microsoft (well, maybe late nineties). None of the main players are going to die anytime soon.

Krutz said @ 1:55pm GMT on 10th Mar
The only thing that might change Apple's status (if at all) is the departure of Steve Jobs. Microsoft has already made Bill Gates ancillary to the company, if not the brand. Does Steve have an heir apparent?

* (The Asshole FKA Morris) said @ 3:41pm GMT on 10th Mar
No..

EPT said @ 8:33pm GMT on 10th Mar
It'll change it a bit. Gates was only ever the 'boss of microsoft'. Jobs is the 'saviour of apple', and mere rumours of illness sent the stock price tumbling. Whether or not Apple as a company survives his departure, the great unwashed will think it far more significant.

rattus said @ 9:30am GMT on 11th Mar
MS has been on a fairly steep downward slope for years.

EPT said @ 12:34pm GMT on 11th Mar
By steep, do you mean mild? They're still #1, and they still have their 'killer' business apps. OpenOffice is a laugh when it comes to using it collaboratively. Given that there are still plenty of companies using software from the 90s, mere inertia is going to keep MS happily in business. They aren't going to die anytime soon.

eIfish said @ 8:12pm GMT on 11th Mar
I think referring to the product, rather than the company. In my opinion, they're in the Mercedes phase, and it'll still be a few years before their reputation catches up with their product.

It's an easy and simplistic conclusion to jump to, that Gates ==> XP, Balmer ==> Vista, but I'm not touching the veracity of it with a barge pole.

EPT said @ 9:47pm GMT on 11th Mar
Reputation and product? Have you noticed that Win7 is markedly lacking in the detractor column? There's still the philosophical detractors (licensing, lockin) but the OMG This Is Shit detractors are far, far fewer. Win7 seems to be a solid product. Likewise, the office apps, for corporate use, are simply unmatched, and the office apps contribute heavily to MS coffers and reputation.

eIfish said @ 4:10pm GMT on 13th Mar
As I said, it's in its Mercedes era. Mercedes had a good reputation with good products, then a good reputation with bad products, then a bad reputation with good products, then an okay reputation with good products.

Microsoft is between steps two and three: it won't really feel the pain until/unless more corporations roll out Vista. It would be best for everyone if they skipped from XP to 7, but who knows what'll happen?

kitten said @ 9:03am GMT on 10th Mar
Oh the comments for that article... Foaming at the mouth Apple fans...

Ronin.ca said @ 9:38am GMT on 10th Mar
Your probably right about them, but does this mean that I can discount everything anyone says against apple by saying "windows fan boys"?

I'm just curious.

Misanthrope said @ 9:51am GMT on 10th Mar
There are more than two options.

jerv said @ 5:34am GMT on 13th Mar
It never ceases to amaze and amuse me that damn near every one of Apple's fanatics think that every PC on the planet runs Windows.
Those that are smart enough to acknowledge the existence of Linux do so in such a derisive way that I can't help but laugh at the irony of them running a gussied-up BSD kernel.

rndmnmbr said @ 10:20am GMT on 10th Mar
I should be one of those Apple fanboys, since I have Photoshop open nearly all the time. However, damn this Dell I have at work runs Photoshop slick as a whistle.

kitten said @ 10:20am GMT on 10th Mar [Score:1 Insightful]
I am not discounting their comments, I am just laughing at how strong the reaction is. Like to identify yourself so hard with a consumer product...I don't know... it's like an acceptable religion to be an Apple Fanboy.

kitten said @ 10:21am GMT on 10th Mar [Score:1 Insightful]
And by that I mean, some of those fanboys probably laugh at how Muslims/Christians/etc get all worked up about things.

Krutz said @ 2:08pm GMT on 10th Mar
It kind of reminds me of something a comedian once said in front of a brick wall on A&E:

(In a redneck voice) Y'all can say what you want about America, my momma, an' even Jesus, but you leave Elvis outta this!

anagramophone said @ 2:51am GMT on 11th Mar
acceptable to whom? heretical bastards...

Sarahbear said @ 5:46am GMT on 12th Mar
*shakes head*

Yes I know them.... 2 work for Apple in Cali now, and they spent college years working in the retail stores.

I call them Apple Bitches.

ahPook said @ 10:43am GMT on 10th Mar
I remember when the Newton was going to sink Apple. Now it's the iPad.

CapnSilver said @ 11:50am GMT on 10th Mar
When I was in year 8, so like '97, I knew a kid with a Newton. What the fuck is a 13 year old going to do with one of these things anyway? Organise his oh so many contacts?

anagramophone said @ 3:03am GMT on 11th Mar
went to a public school didja guv'nor?

metternich said @ 11:27am GMT on 10th Mar
I'd just like to point out that Apple still only has a small fraction of the computer market, and a fraction of the cell phone market. I think the fact that a lot of consumers just want to check email and do web-related tasks makes the transition to apple easier (less fear over software compatibility)

It is still a trendy product and a pricey one. I get that, but there's a huge fraction of the market they could grow into if these kids with their iPods grow up and buy their first laptop, it may be an apple. There could be a whole new generation of FanBoys.

Rorschach said @ 4:02pm GMT on 10th Mar
Sure, but, as a college student, I can tell you that the overwhelming majority of people who drag their laptops to class use MacBooks. At least 3:2. All of these people will probably use Macs their whole life.

Frankly, I hate Macs. My productivity goes right to shit when I have to use one at work. The idea that you can be more productive on a Mac when you're doing "creative" stuff is total BS. It's not because I don't know how to use them, either, because I do, I started out on a Mac when I was pretty young.

the belt said @ 5:33pm GMT on 10th Mar
What are you working on where the OS makes that big of a difference on your productivity? In my experience on both Mac & Windows, Photoshop is Photoshop, Flash is Flash, Powerpoint is Powerpoint, etc. When is that not the case for you? Is the hate just because you don't like the look, the feel, the interface? I think those can be annoying on Macs, but annoying enough to make your productivity "go to shit"?

Honest questions, just curious.

kishi said @ 6:13pm GMT on 10th Mar
What classes are you taking? From what I've seen, it's about 9:1 PC to MacBook.

shiney things said @ 8:21pm GMT on 10th Mar
I have also mostly seen macbooks in classes. Granted, I'm an engineer, so in most of my classes I see no laptops. In Art classes, and Intro level classes, though, the macbooks come out like its rutting season.

Sarahbear said @ 5:42am GMT on 12th Mar
Yea, mmmk! Let's take a step back and rationalize this...

The Mac/PC ratio is likely to vary by state/school/class/major/age group/etc.

SnappyNipples said @ 12:11pm GMT on 10th Mar
In education the Ipad might make it. Itouch is used in many classrooms in many subjects. Many teachers are receiving technology grant money to implement technology in the classroom. What makes the Ipad better than the Itouch is a larger screen for group use. I know two high schools locally give out Itouch to their students to keep. With it they can get all assignments and turn in homework from any wifi source. I do believe they give them to their juniors and seniors also they're magnet schools.

the belt said @ 3:57pm GMT on 10th Mar
The iPad has a market in physicians' offices as well.

kishi said @ 6:15pm GMT on 10th Mar
I talked to one of my friends who teaches about this when it was announced. The cost and the software limitations are too much for most schools.

* (The Asshole FKA Morris) said @ 1:35pm GMT on 10th Mar [Score:1 Underrated]
We considered a Mac laptop after Xmas.....but the gateway laptop running windows 7 for under $400 beat the Mac by being $800 cheaper....that said, I love Macs..I just won't buy one.

revchoppy said @ 2:01pm GMT on 10th Mar
What is it about Macs that they can't get the price to a more reasonable level?

* (The Asshole FKA Morris) said @ 3:49pm GMT on 10th Mar
Mac Users who will willingly pay 3-5x as much...If I could sell a niche product that costs the same to make as the competitors for 3 x more, I wouldn't change either.

When we first opened our office 18 years ago, the decision as to which platform we would use was on the table. We werea start up, no venture cap..tight budget.

On one hand putting a mac on everyone desk would give us immediate networking, messanging...

On the other, our office was small and you could walk over a floppy in about the same time as putting it on the server....

The cost of putting a 486 on everyones desk?
$7,200
The cost of putting a Mac?
$18,000

I have had 3 computers on my desk since then, my current one is 5 years old and cost under $900.00

sanepride said @ 6:02pm GMT on 10th Mar
Well there's the mystique, but mainly it's the proprietary nature.

How many manufacturers are there in the world that produce computers that run Windows, Linux, etc.? Not to mention that you can always just buy the components and build one yourself.

And how many make Macs?

There's your answer. Good old market competition.

rattus said @ 9:32am GMT on 11th Mar
I think everyone should use two decades old information to prove their points about things in the now.

Macs have a lower TCO than windows. It's a fact (now anyway. Likely not 18 years ago where you seem to be spending some time lately).

Adam said @ 2:15pm GMT on 10th Mar
They could if they want. They use the same commodity hardware that everyone else uses. They charge more because their customers are willing to pay more.

The original Macbook had the same Intel GMA 950 graphics, the same CPU, same SATA hard drive, same memory, same EVERYTHING that laptops costing half as much had at the time, for instance.

Krutz said @ 2:56pm GMT on 10th Mar
They're selling a brand, a lifestyle, and a community. It's like a fraternity where you can expect some level of instant friendship, but none of the parties with beer and sex.

anagramophone said @ 5:13pm GMT on 10th Mar
hardware margins are razor fucking thin. how, besides charging more, are you gonna pay for all that highfalutin design?

rndmnmbr said @ 11:09pm GMT on 10th Mar
That's just it. I'm not paying for highfaultin design. I think the appearance of your computer is a waste of time. I want a computer to do things with.

Functionality should always win out over form.

Ronin.ca said @ 11:14pm GMT on 10th Mar
Make your own clothing?

I mean all it's for is to keep you warm and protected from the elements..

Bob Denver said @ 12:25am GMT on 11th Mar
Enjoy your Yugo much?

anagramophone said @ 2:55am GMT on 11th Mar
i meant to emphasize the highfalutin software design more than that of the hardware. os x is the best part of apple, inc. (fwiw, currently, i do not operate any macs.)

b said @ 2:51pm GMT on 10th Mar [Score:1 Insightful]

mrcucumber said @ 3:59pm GMT on 10th Mar [Score:1 Insightful]
I fucking hate at&t. I want an iphone simply for the apps and consolodating gadgets, but I'm not getting one anytime soon with the shitty service and the obligatory overpriced data plan.

Rorschach said @ 4:03pm GMT on 10th Mar
Verizon has an obligatory data plan that costs exactly the same as AT&T's.

eskimonoise said @ 4:32pm GMT on 10th Mar
either get an iphone and unlock it for any network, or if it's just the apps you're after, get an ipod touch

anagramophone said @ 2:55am GMT on 11th Mar
fuck at&t so hard

anagramophone said @ 2:57am GMT on 11th Mar
...in the axe-wound you've gashed in its fucking face

rattus said @ 9:33am GMT on 11th Mar
so ebay one, pwn it, and run it on t-mobile like everyone else.

mrcucumber said @ 8:20pm GMT on 11th Mar
They average anywhere from $275 - $600, used, new, unlocked or not (3g 16 gb). Who wants to pay that kind of cash for used device? I've seen one new, unlocked for $1,600 (who would fall for that?). Get one used, unlocked or not, all scratched up and who knows what it's been through with no warranty- overpriced so the original user can recoup data plan costs? Get one new overpriced? There is no real difference in cost getting one used, so you in effect by a new one for what it would cost you to get it from at&t.

gozar said @ 4:24pm GMT on 10th Mar
Lisa: Dad, do you know what Schadenfreude is?
Homer: No, I don't know what "shaden-frawde" is.
[sarcastic]
Homer: Please tell me, because I'm dying to know.
Lisa: It's a German term for "shameful joy", taking pleasure in the suffering of others.
Homer: Oh, come on Lisa. I'm just glad to see him fall flat on his butt!

Barnabas_Truman said @ 5:28pm GMT on 10th Mar
So the article pretty much sums up as "buy low, sell high"?

sacrelicious said @ 1:48am GMT on 11th Mar
considering how often investors buy into the hot stock (by definition, the high stock), and panic-sell it as soon it falls (ie, when it's low), I think the wisdom bears repeating.

bluecalx said @ 5:59pm GMT on 10th Mar
Yet another person "in the know" about technology and Apple, likely to get their predictions horrendously wrong.

rndmnmbr said @ 11:11pm GMT on 10th Mar
Even an educated guess is still a guess.

Sad that modern capitalism is wholly dependent on being able to accurately predict the future.

sacrelicious said @ 3:18am GMT on 11th Mar
but an educated guess is still educated.

here's the thing: what goes up must come down. a stock that soars to heights never before conceived of does not just keep going up. that's stupid. no, it goes up, then levels back down to a more realistic stock price, and then everyone goes "well that was fun while it lasted". and that's the best-case-scenario right there.

warning that a stock that's valued so high is going to come back down soon is like warning that by the end of the day the sun will go down. however, such obvious warnings seem to be necessary in the case of the markets, because people do seem to want to believe that a their stock will do nothing but go up, or that their pet company will never make a single misstep except for the missteps it made before but those were in the past and this is the new regime run by the same guy who ran the old regime and the newton was different because it wasn't an e-reader and this is nothing like Lisa cause it's problem was overpriced and under-capable oh wait so is this.

Wax said @ 12:18am GMT on 11th Mar

Barnabas_Truman said @ 4:04am GMT on 11th Mar
My 1999 iMac has crashed irrecoverably only once--the second time I turned it on. Lost everything on it (not much), reinstalled everything, and it's never given me another problem since. It still works fine and I keep it around for old games that don't work on OS X.

I'm afraid I can't say the same about the two Mac Minis I've burned through in the last five years. Wonderful OS but the hardware just doesn't seem as sturdy as it used to be.

sherlock said @ 7:20am GMT on 11th Mar
I have a 17" Powerbook G4 from the year 2003. I have never had a single crash with the machine, including kernel panics. Currently I am using it as a server -- it has been running for nearly a year straight and has handled upwards of a quarter million connections. This is a 6 and half year old Mac. Let me repeat: this is a 6 and a half year old Mac.

EPT said @ 8:48am GMT on 11th Mar
Could you repeat it once more? I'm in the cheap seats.

Barnabas_Truman said @ 9:10am GMT on 11th Mar
I think my mom was still using the Performa 400 we got in the early 1990s in her elementary school classroom until she retired last year.

DarkShadowRavenDragonGrrl69 said @ 8:55pm GMT on 11th Mar
My Windows XP computer from 2001 never crashed until I installed Windows Vista in early 2007. And it never crashed after I reinstalled it about a month later.

proppat said @ 11:59pm GMT on 11th Mar
Just to clarify, a crash doesn't mean that your computer breaks and it's not limited to random OS restarts or BSOD type situations...a crash means that an application closed unexpectedly, stalled out where you had to force it to close, etc. I honestly refuse to believe you have any computer with any operating system for 6 years and have not had a crash of any sort. I own PCs, Macs, and have systems with Linux and they all have their fair share of problems at times.

eIfish said @ 4:15pm GMT on 13th Mar
You have a wildly different definition to the rest of the world.

In real life, even Helen Keller Mode technically isn't a crash. And modern computers don't crash, unless they've got an Intel/PowerVR GMA500.

FrankenBlog said @ 4:07am GMT on 11th Mar
I can't even take that article seriously. It's bloody laughable. And fuck all the polarized PC/Apple BS. I have a Mac that I love and I have a PC that's "eh". I prefer the Mac but each has their strengths.

Good luck to all the phone companies that think they'll outsell the iPhone though.

sacrelicious said @ 4:19am GMT on 11th Mar
it's unsinkable! who ever heard of a berg made outta ice anyway?

satanspenis666 said @ 4:20am GMT on 12th Mar
Angry face

EPT said @ 8:20am GMT on 12th Mar
Given the corporate slogan, that should have been an Intel logo.