>> ^spoco2:

So.. yeah... That's why I don't like the iPad. For what it's MARKETED as, it's shit.
For all the other things you could use it for over and above that... it's nice tech



Ahhh, so the truth comes out then. It's what it has been marketed for that bugs you and a lot of other people.

My only question about that is, Why Do You Give One Shit?

I mean, marketing is the very last thing I ever pay attention to in anything that I purchase. Hell, the entire hacker manifesto is based on using things the way you want, to achieve something other than its intended purpose. Marketing is the darkest form of evil, in my book. (Cue Bill Hicks rant about marketers). But then again, I don't have cable television, so I never see any advertisements anyway, and even when they're online, I just don't watch them.


I'll quickly debate your points:

1- Emailing/Typing - Yes, it's a bit awkward at first, but then again I learned the weird graffiti language for PalmOS back in the day, and we all learned T9. Putting this thing on my lap at an airport isn't the best experience ever, but it beats the hell out of using my phone, or having to lug a laptop around everywhere.

2- Movies - Again, it's not as awesome as my 52" 1080p at home. But it's not supposed to be. It's a smaller screen, and maybe not your ideal aspect ratio, but again, in bed or on the train it's a hell of a lot better than a laptop.

3- Photos - Yep. It's awesome, and I'm an avid photographer. Thing looks stunning.

4- Books - Again with the traveling thing. Being able to carry 100 books on a plane is fantastic. Doesn't beat an actual printed book, but it's a fanastic in-between.

5- Web - You and I can argue about Flash all day (I used to use Flash to build websites too, even worked on one of the very first Flash cartoons ever, through Macromedia/Spumco) Sometimes it's a bummer you can't watch a video, but I just change my browsing habits. I don't really miss Flash at all. Again, this is while traveling, or sitting in my garden, where I just read some blogs and visit videosift, respond to some emails, etc.

But, these are all complaints you have with the way Jobs likes to run his marketing. Me, I just don't pay any attention, and figure out how these bloody things can be integrated into my life. Again, I don't care one shit if the thing has an Apple logo, a Dell logo, or a freakin' McDonald's logo. Just give me the technology and I'll use it the way I want.


btw: This is all coming from a jailbroken T-Mobile iPhone PineApple user.

I've been following this one closely since we loan out laptops here as well... sans this spyware crap.

Some key points to mention
- Why the fuck is the school policing what the kids are doing at home? Seriously, if you "caught" a kid on a camera at home doing something bad, how does this equate to school disciplinary action?
- There are companies that handle tracking stolen laptops from within the systems BIOS/firmware so regardless of if you wipe the hard drive, it can still be recovered. This comes as an option on Dell laptops as well as others I can imagine. Using the webcam or tracking software from the OS is a moot point and silly. (Again, we don't even bother enabling this on the ones we loan out)
- Both of the sides in this case are pulling a he-said she-said pointing fingers at each other, either way I think neither side has been completely truthful about what has been going on.

The way we have dealt with it is they sign a form that says your grade will be withheld (as its assumed you are using it to help with coursework) if the laptop does not return. So far this has worked well for us, and in the case of say a high school like this with that many laptops perhaps they consider insurance to cover a few lost laptops rather than this.

Personally this really irritates me given that the schools using doublespeak claiming they have not been using the technology outside of stolen equipment, when a few articles I've read several students would say the light for the webcam would often come on randomly.

We have security cameras here for keeping track of equipment growing wings or incidents but that's exactly that. Nobody sits there watching everything all day waiting for something to happen. We have more important things to worry about.

>> ^dag:
OK sure- let's hate on Apple some more.
I remember when I was in sixth grade- it was really cool to hate the band Kiss. "Kiss Sucks" was scrawled all over the the wooden jungle gyms, on Pee-chees, carved into desks etc etc. I realized then, that their "Kiss hating" was more about social adjustment than actual dislike of the music.
Likewise, the blind hatred for Apple as a company, while very trendy I know, doesn't really make you any cooler in the eyes of your peers.
There, I said it. That feels better.


I think apple hate used to be fully legit when they used powerPC cpus, and overcharged for all their proprietary but equivalently functioning hardware.

These days, I have a quibble about having to front thousands of dollars to enter the apple "ecosystem". The google ecosystems is free (well, except my online soul gets sucked into the googlosphere).

The tablet pisses me off - if only because I figured my next computer would be an apple net book.

Prolly channelling some of the frustration from breaking a mac at work trying to make my dell mini9 a hackintosh

Good point. I suppose if Dell had designed this there would have been an actual handle I'd get a Windows tablet (if it was cheap) to use as a media extender. The storage on these things including the ipad is very small. I'd keep some working documents on it but most data would be on my main PC.

>> ^dag:
Yeah, I was pretty disappointed in the bezel too- have to think there is a method to their madness- and a valid UI reason why it's there. Even if you had a "temporary bezel" and let it go full-screen, it would be too hard not to touch the screen, triggering the controls.
The bezel on this thing is the handle. You need a safe place to grip it- where it's not going to inadvertently display your porn collection while you are carrying down the street. >> ^Deano:
Question.
This thing about the huge bezel or bevel or whatever.
Could you not have the screen extend to the edges but draw a border when you need it? If your fingers are on this virtual border nothing happens. Then the display could change to use the whole screen when playing a movie.
But I'm guessing the screen compromise is er a compromise.
Overall this is too locked down and lacks excitement. It's also expensive for what you get. It's an internet appliance not a multi-tasking personal computer without a keyboard.
Like others have said this would actually be a nice "My First Computer" for the PC illiterate.

Devo, meet Dell - Dell, meet Devo!
Now you kids run along and play nice...

>> ^yellowc:
Why do people still consider mentioning that "PC" is "Personal Computer" and that Macs are part of that?


Because hardware is hardware and software is software. Almost all home computers now, whether Apple, Dell, HP, self-built, run on intercompatible hardware. This is pretty cool actually, I just don't like the over-simplification that goes on in advertising.

As for comfort of use, as a lifelong Windows user who switched first to Ubuntu then OS X on the side, I have to say I never really got comfortable with Windows. The window management paradigm is cluttered and simply gets on my nerves. Exposé and the Compiz equivalent on Linux made for a user experience that was immediately more comfortable for me than I was with Windows, even as someone who had never used anything that didn't come from Microsoft. At the risk of terminal digression, I'd like to state the entire idea of a desktop is terrible, too, and this is something OS X does badly as well. I don't see why you would ever want anything put on your desktop since you'll just end up having to move a dozen windows out of the way to get at the desktop.

http://www.videosift.com/video/What-do-you-use-your-Dell-PC-for

Want to re-build this vid? I'll promote it for you... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KvreCcd0HZs

Yeah, paying for it to arrive quickly and having that not happen is shite. But, you know... equating it to a bit of 'fatherly love' seemed excessive

The last Dell I bought took 3 darn weeks to arrive. That was darn annoying seeing as it was a replacement for a stolen laptop, so I was laptopless that whole time.

Also, I would be in Australia, not Canada, never even been there, although want to go.

>> ^blankfist:
^Actually, I was hoping to get it today so I could install all my software for a job I promised to start tomorrow for a client. I still have a backup machine, but it would've been nice if Apple delivered when they promised.
As of this moment, they have NO IDEA where the computer could be. Seriously. That's some amazing service. And they told me I have to wait at least 3 days from the delivery date until they will "look into the problem". That's what they said.
Sometimes you need things when people promise them. Are you not used to people delivering what they promise in Canada, spoco?

Dude, you got a Dell.

I just think it mental that if you have a device that you use daily for very important things that you wouldn't understand its basic operation. Evan the most retarded of car users should know how to change a car tire , refill it with fule , lock the dores,check oil. the basic functoins of a laptop are as simple if not more simple."

Except with those basic things... like... lock the doors, you're talking about Turning the pc on and off, opening Word and Excel, sending email, running their virus scanner etc.

Opening up a pc and changing the ram is more like opening up your car and changing an oil filter. Not rocket science by any means, but you can't expect everyone who drives a car to know how to do those sorts of things.

In a perfect world you might, but each and every car does things differently, and things are in different places, use different tools to get to etc. etc.

Same with PCs, different brands (or the same brand over the years, Dells keep mutating their insides) have different layouts and different methods of getting things in and out.

Just because YOU find doing those things on a PC easy DO NOT assume that everyone does, or should.

Plenty of people who do not know how to do those things with a PC know a damn sight more about science or other technology than you ever will, so don't think that they are stupid or ignorant for not knowing, they just spend their time knowing other things.

The point being is that we have service stations and garages to take our cars to when they need a service and we SHOULD be able to trust them.

Same with computers.

And trying to suggest that people know what the beeps mean when a computer doesn't POST is ridiculous. I have to look them up because every damn motherboard/BIOS is different and if it's your only pc that's just done it, how are they supposed to be able to look it up?

It's insane assumptions like that which show that you expect ridiculous things of people, just because YOU happen to know about a certain field.

I didn't even know projects like that existed, and years ago that looks like something I would have definitely tried. However, with kids et al I just don't have time to muck around with the guaranteed issues there would be in running OSX on non Apple Hardware.

Pretty cool though... pretty cool

In reply to this comment by dag:
You should consider converting your Dell into a Hackintosh.


In reply to this comment by spoco2:
I completely agree with those sticking up for the Mac here.

While I have posted elsewhere (the sub $1000 laptop sift most recently) that Mac has zero entry level pcs/laptops, the comparison you're making here is a little off base.

I just bought myself a sub $AU900 Dell laptop, with a 15" screen. The cheapest Mac Laptop with a screen that size is $2600.

Comment hidden because you are ignoring dag. (show it anyway)

You should consider converting your Dell into a Hackintosh.


In reply to this comment by spoco2:
I completely agree with those sticking up for the Mac here.

While I have posted elsewhere (the sub $1000 laptop sift most recently) that Mac has zero entry level pcs/laptops, the comparison you're making here is a little off base.

I just bought myself a sub $AU900 Dell laptop, with a 15" screen. The cheapest Mac Laptop with a screen that size is $2600.

I completely agree with those sticking up for the Mac here.

While I have posted elsewhere (the sub $1000 laptop sift most recently) that Mac has zero entry level pcs/laptops, the comparison you're making here is a little off base.

I just bought myself a sub $AU900 Dell laptop, with a 15" screen. The cheapest Mac Laptop with a screen that size is $2600. That's an insane divide, and one I cannot justify at all.

The gap you're showing here though is not as much, and you would have to start weighing up the pros of the Mac.

For me, I would LOOOOVE iLife. iMovie and iDVD, from my brief playing with them, run absolute bloody rings around Windows Movie Maker and Windows DVD Maker.

Having unix type OS under the hood would indeed make my coding tasks easier also (running local servers etc.).

So these things ARE worth a premium.

Are Macs better built and more reliable? Don't really think so, recently when being with some Mac users, one of their quite new Mac Book Pro's fan was whirring away maniacally. I mentioned how noisy the Mac was compared to the Dell I was using (which I couldn't even hear) and he said that the fan was about to die, and it was a really common issue with the Macs.

Right.

Buying a Mac is NOT 'simply fucking rediculous[sic]', it is a matter of choice. If a PC does all you want, then yeah, you can get a laptop for a lot less. BUT if you start to value some of the software that Macs have included with them, and having a unix backend, then you may start to think the extra dosh is worth it.

YOU don't want one.

Why do you feel the need to loudly justify yourself to everyone and try to shout down those that think Macs are worthwhile? Seems pretty juvenile, and the sort of thing I used to do when I was 9 about my ZX Spectrum compared to Commodore 64s.

Really... and Apple lawyer complained about THIS?

THIS shows a reality... Macs are way more expensive than PCs, I just bought a Dell Laptop with a 15.6" screen for $AU891 (without my additions, $745 was how much I could have got it for). The cheapest Mac here in Australia is the MacBook at $1600! And, as she says, it has a 13" screen. To get a Mac with a 15" screen you pay.... $2600! That's a huuuuuuuuuuuuge difference in price. And while you get SOME things that are better, and you may think that it's worth that extra money, if all you want is a laptop to surf the web, do your schoolwork and (in my case), use as a portable DVD player for long trips for the kids when we go on holidays... then I think I'll be paying the $700-$900 rather than the $1600-$2600 price range please.

But Apple are allowed to run ads saying that PCs always crash but Macs don't? What a steaming load of crap.

THIS is fact, you can get a PC for a lot less than a Mac.

I'm sure people will now rant and rave about how the quality and features of a mac at that price are comparable to a pc of that price, but you're missing the point.

People want entry level computers

Mac does not make entry level computers

Maybe it isn't as it seems. It could be that he took that job in the USA, and it just got outsourced back to India. Now they are pissed off that they spent all that money and effort to move and get their green cards, just to lose it and get their old jobs back with Dell tech support.