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50 Comments
- Seaton, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5My 2 Cents:
My stepfather bought a new iMac. The iMac eventually developed a modem problem. Because he lives more than 1 hour from the nearest Apple Store, they asked him when he would like someone to come over to fix the problem. Yes, they still make house calls. The tech could not fix the modem problem and came back the next day with a new iMac, and transferred all the files for my stepfather.
When I got my new iPod direct from Apple, I had a "bad" earbud. I called Apple and they overnighted me two new sets of earbuds for free.
The bottom line is you get what you pay for. Do people get treated better at a Mercedes-Benz dealership than at the Chevrolet dealership? Yup, you betcha! You spend the money, you get better quality products, if the products are not up to snuff, the problems are usually resolved with less headache.
I'm a former Mac user who switched to an HP laptop because at the time, the money I spent on a 17" laptop could have been used to buy a 12" Powerbook. The reason geeks and techies like Windows based computers is because Macs require very little user intervention. You open the box and it just works. You install new software and it works. Has anybody complained about upgrading the Mac version of iTunes 5.0?
Running XP is like playing Russian Roulette with a water gun. Most days, you just start your computer and everything works. Some days, I pull that trigger and get a face full of water. No, it's not going to kill me, but really agitates me. - zb0430, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Took the words right out of my mouth, stukdog.
Goat2, is there not something to be said for innovation, and perfecting existing technology? Microsoft tried some innovation with Vista, see what happened?
"This company [M$] is dead in the water..."
-John C. Dvorak
It is very close to impossible to directly compare hardware costs for the Macintosh platform versus the PC.
To compare an equivalent PC to a dual G5 system, you need a dual Opteron PC. VERY EXPENSIVE. Possibly even more so than the dual G5 Mac. And please God, use some flavor of Linux on that machine...
Remember, folks, the PowerMac's are intended for professional/enthusiast users, so stop complaining because of the pricing; it's to be expected. Don't complain to Apple because you're poor. Get out and make something of yourself.
Whew. Now to the post... This headline is a bit overzealous. Why do people expect so much of Apple's innovation and so little of Microsoft? Seriously, they're human, give it a break. A revolutionary "bomb" isn't going to be dropped every week. A dual core, dual processor PowerMac would be very nice, and would exceed my expectations. Can you imagine the stress these guys must feel with all these damn zealots demanding innovation every week? - JDOG, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2This is a misleading headline. There's not a "bomb" to be dropped, just a PPC processor upgrade to the 970 dual-core chip...something that was expected to happen back in April but couldn't b/c of production issues.
A "bomb" would be a 3+ ghz PPC G5, 5th gen iPods, an actual iPhone, an Apple tablet PC or the revival of the Newton. - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Zax: Your tastes are your tastes, but take a look out how many design awards (including D&AD) that Apple receives every year. Working on XP and OS X I can tell you I get anywhere from 50-70% more done on my Mac without downtime in years. Regarding price, I shell out way more maintaining and upgrading desktop pcs than I do getting a new powerbook every 2-3 years.
jkfan: Your statement is just naive. Systems fail. Support and turn-around are the deciding factor. Unlike MS's baby steps, Apple continues to push the bar and release stable and innovative products. Dell's consumer support is no where near Apple's (although Dell has exceptional enterprise support), and unlike the horrendous finger pointing experienced with PC manufacturers, Apple supports the full spectrum of their systems and compatible products.
Bottom line is Macs run OS X -- the best desktop operating system in existence. - hao2lian, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1"Mac OSX doesn't have "little bits of FreeBSD." It is entirely BASED on BSD UNIX (and not the free version) and it is NOT open source."
Pedantry: Partially not open source. Parts of the backend and of the system software are open source (Darwin and WebKit come to mind.)
Video iPod rumors have been around so long they might as well an in-joke by now. - mikataur, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1You mean well, but there are a lot of factual errors in your provacative post.
> Get some facts strait here:
A strait is a stretch of water, you mean "straight."
> Mac OSX doesn't have "little bits of FreeBSD." It is entirely BASED on BSD UNIX (and not the free version) and it is NOT open source.
Incorrect. Mac OS X consists of a kernel kernel called XNU which incorporates Darwin, a FreeBSD 5.x derivative. Read the following site for more information: http://www.kernelthread.com/mac/osx/
Darwin is entirely open source and can be downloaded and compiled. Links for its download are available here: http://developer.apple.com/darwin/
> Comparing a PC as a Honda and a Mac as Porche is a completely retarded and moronic comparison.
Not in the sense that *most* PCs consist of engineering and finish tailored to a low price point. Macs are engineered and finished to a more elegant degree. Compare the presentation of a typical entry-level Dell machine to an iMac G5. While both are broadly equivalent in performance, the IMac is far more aesthetically appealing, and works better at managing photos, video, music and other digital consumer gear. With that comes a price premium.
> A proper comparison is a MAC is a Porche with the engine from a Fiat.
The PowerPC G5 chip is not an underperforming chip.
> Macs are over priced compared to PCs since when it comes hardware the G4s and G5s are slow.
MHz for MHz, both a G4 and a G5 will outpace a P4 of the same clockspeed.
Just as an AMD chip with lower clockspeed exceeds the performance of a P4 of higher clockspeed. Just as a Pentium-M... It's the megahertz myth. It isn't easy to compare performance based on MHz numbers across different chip architectures.
> A dual G5 isn't equivalent nor even equal to a dual Optron you RETARD.
Yes it is. You may not want it to be true, but that doesn't make anyone who compares a top of the line Dual G5 or Xserve's performance favorably a retard, you are simply insulting someone because you don't know your facts.
> How many MACs do you see out there running as servers anyway?
Xserves have been very popular and are well regarded.
> Why in the hell do you think Apple is switching to Intel CPUs now? Because IBM can BARELY clock their CPUS to 2ghz.
2.7GHz is the current shipping clockspeed. It is not slow, the G5 is a powerful chip. They are switching for the lower power requirements for laptops. The G5 chip generates a lot of heat. Intel have put more research into producing performance with less heat and Apple needs to take advantage of this.
Apple will be using IBM, Freescale and Intel chips for the next few years. (IBM PowerPC G5 in high-end desktops and the Intel in laptops.) The article here is actually about the dual-core G5 expected soon. That architecture will be used for some time before the Power Macs go Intel.
> Macs are plagued with old slow hardware that's about 10 years old now that PC users have already upgraded past now.
For the G4, there's a glimmer of truth there, but it's more like 1.5 years than 10 years, and only when you look at bus speeds for the G4, which has indeed been left behind. Bus speed is not everything.
You're completely off the mark when it comes to the G5, which whalloped the bus speed of the P4 when it was introduced.
> However they PRICE this hardware as if it's new technology. The only true high tech and leading edge hardware Apple uses are in their iPods.
No, Mac users are paying for the *whole* solution. That is, a well engineered, well performing solution that incorporates both quality hardware and extremely good software that works well out of the box.
> At least now Macs with Intel CPUs, chipsets and motherboards, they can enjoy dual channel DDR2(3)RAM, a FSB that's faster than a 486's clock speed. And likely support newer interfaces like SATA, and PCI-E card slots.
Macs have had SATA since 2003. The G5 has a very fast FSB. There's no reason PCI-E couldn't be used with PowerPC if it offered a clear benefit, it has nothing to do with the processor.
> Ah hell I'm rambling.
True! - Braddeharder, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1The PowerMac is not going to be replaced with a intel anytime soon. The smaller form factors will be the first to be updated. If you are wait for a PowerMac Intel, you will be waiting for a while.
The move to intel is not going to happen over night. - petrax, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1We do tons of audio recording (not Podcasting), We'll be buying some new G5 systems with PowerPC Chips just before the change. We will not be moving to Intel Macs for a least a few years after the high-end Intel Macs come out at the end of the transition. Might pick up a Mac Intel Mini when they come out to start moving our custom AU plug-ins and custom DSP drivers for Logic, Soundtrack and Digital Performer to Universal Binaries.
- Elektra, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2And you're just a hypocrite blhack, you asked me to name a reason, and I did, and it was a factual reason. I don't get any kind of malware or spyware because I know better than to use most Microsoft products under Windows, but you seem to be a Windows fanboy so you must know that already...and excuse me, would you prefer I call it malware? adware? hijackware?, spyware is just a general term for all of these and more, sure, it's becoming more popular among the AOL newbies, but so is BitTorrent, and wow, nice insult on the whole uh, "stupid white plastic buying sheep" thing...it made no sense whatsoever...thanks for making a pointless post asking for a point that you didn't care anything about in the first place?, people like you make Digg look bad.
- anagami, on 07/02/2008, -0/+1"a "bomb" would be if they dropped their outrageous prices."
ad to any other PC vendor what Apple gives as standard and you will realize that Macs aren't expensive price to performance. - pftqg, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1"So why the hell would I want to buy anything Apple if it just meant that what I bought from them will be replaced by something better in 6 months?"
Um. What? That's life! Why would you buy an expensive $genericpc, when a better one will replace it in 6 months?
And let's face it expensive is quite relative. - Rocky21743, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Apple's on fire.
And guess what...video iPods will be released within the next 4 months. - trooz1, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1Yes, mac seem expensive, and they are. But you are paying for the whole package, the whole shebang. Excellent hardware AND excellent software (iLife anyone?) The hardware and software are tightly knit, and the experience just works. I bought an iBook to replace my Windows laptop, and have absolutely no regrets. Screw all that hype fanboy elite zealot *****. I like my mac. Why? Because it's good for ME. If Windows is your thing, good! But for now, I'm not lookin back.
"Face it, by buying a mac you feel as though you are an elitist. You are not, you are a stupid white-plastic buying sheep." If you want to call someone like me a sheep, suit yourself. I have better things to do than listen to ranting morons like you - jesusphreak, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1>>> And let's face it expensive is quite relative.
Well, if you compare Apple hardware to a PC of the same power, Apple is relatively more expensive. - quasipalm, on 10/12/2007, -3/+3wah wah, every Apple story gets the same crybaby comments:
1) i'm too broke for apple (get a job!)
2) i don't like apple (who cares!) - Cyrealm, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Gotta clear out the bulk of those remaining G5 processors to make room for the Intel's.
- Absalon, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0it's probably going to be the video ipod, since alot of people spoke out that they were expecting it instead of the nano, then ipodlinux already got video working on older models(video on 3g b/w video) so apple probably might even just release a firmware upgrade for all existing ipods to be able to play video..sounds reasonable to me anyone agree?
- stukdog, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2wow, the high quality comments are becoming quite popular on digg. Well done everyone.
- stlcadet11, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0geez, have enough time on your hands
- anjinash, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0I'm not fanboy'ing, but ignorant comments like "get a job!" get under my skin. Me, personally, I work TWO jobs and go to school. I pay rent and bills. Dropping a lot of cash into a Mac just isn't going to happen anytime soon. To imply that the people who can't afford a Mac are all deadbeats is pretty arrogant and offensive. Some of us don't have mommy and daddy buying us all of our expensive toys. Try getting out in the real world and dealing with real financial problems before passing that kind of judgement.
The car analogies don't hold much water for me, but if you must... then I'd rather have an affordable and reliabl car which, if it breaks down I won't have to buy a whole new car or send it to the manufacturer, rather I'd want to be able to get the needed part and get it running again as fast and as cheap as possible. In that case... I'll stick with PCs. - anagami, on 07/02/2008, -0/+0"Whew. Now to the post... This headline is a bit overzealous. Why do people expect so much of Apple's innovation and so little of Microsoft? Seriously, they're human, give it a break. A revolutionary "bomb" isn't going to be dropped every week. A dual core, dual processor PowerMac would be very nice, and would exceed my expectations. Can you imagine the stress these guys must feel with all these damn zealots demanding innovation every week?"
You make a valid point there. - Elektra, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Um, 99.99% less chance of ever getting a virus or spyware?, and at the other end of the spectrum, sheer elegance and innovation, you may not be computer illiterate, but you make the points of an 8 year old at recess, and really, have you ever heard of a little thing called NeXTSTEP?, Mac OS X uses at least 90% of NeXTSTEP, sure, it has some UNIX/FreeBSD in it, but it's OPEN SOURCE, read my text, YOU CAN'T RIP IT OFF IF IT'S OFFERED FOR FREE
- zb0430, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Wow, with people like mikataur here, I don't even have to defend myself against a moronic, unbacked troll. I thank you, kind sir.
It dumbfounds me how people who "claim", or put on the front that they're computer literate still fall into the MHz myth. The G5 is definitely not an underperforming chip. Don't sell it short at 2 GHz, either. I'll bet IBM and Apple have a G5 running at 3 GHz under some hardcore cooling tucked away in a development facility somewhere.
Don't be overly suprised if they manage to pull 3 GHz out of their hats before the G5's lifespan ends. It would definitely need to be water cooled, obviously, but it could be possible. - lollerskates, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Osborne effect? What Osborne effect? Apple will not have such an effect, they have a monopoly in the digital music industry. 70 percent of digital music players and the same percentage in the internet music store market has to count for something.
- SilentSpyder, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Macs are just cooler looking, and have a better OS. That's why I have one. I wish they'd drop the prices, but they wont.
- stealthboy, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1To all the "Macs are too expensive" cry babies, just remember this simple truth: You get what you pay for. It's that simple.
Do you compare a Honda Civic to a Porsche 911 and only complain that the Porsche is too expensive? Seriously now. Use some common sense and quit your whining. - rjespo, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0What always holds me back from getting the power mac is that it's overpriced. The iMac and even the powerbooks are not much more expensive than an analogous PC product. But the power macs start at 2 grand for the *crap* model, and go up from there. Maybe .... MAYBE if more than just the premium model gets the dual core chip and benchmarks show a significant performance advantage, sales will pick up.
- blhack, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0oh, and elektra, please understand that the VAST majority of malware that you get on your computer is NOT spyware. The term Spyware is used by companies like AOL because it has the word spy in it.
- Mudcrutch, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1a "bomb" would be if they dropped their outrageous prices.
- blhack, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0hey elektra, i'm not much of a windows fanboy as i do not run any form of the mircosoft windows operatingy system.
sorry. - goat2, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1"wah wah, every Apple story gets the same crybaby comments:"
and every Microsoft story gets the same crybaby bitch ass comments:
1) security wah wah spyware wah wah (quit being a ***** idiot)
2) they steal their ideas (thats how every business is when it comes to competition.. adapt or die!) - kblowers, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0Although the G5 is a nice system...until it's the release of the Intel based systems I really don't care and don't see a point in buying one...
- j_bellone, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0Microsoft is not dead in the water, and Dvorak is just making and idiot comment for god knows what reason. Microsoft as a company entirely makes something like $300 per second.
- saysaknow, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1A iBomb or a crapple?
- hypeiv, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0I don't know how is more lame... the people who bitch about apples being too expensive... or the people who think the difference between apples and PC's is the same as the difference between porsche 911's and honda civics...
get real people there is some middle ground to all this. - goat2, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1yeah, who the ***** is dvorak and why the ***** should i care
- archer75, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0No point. Still overpriced and soon to be out dated and unsupported. Waiting for Intels.
- FRAGaLOT, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0Get some facts strait here:
Mac OSX doesn't have "little bits of FreeBSD." It is entirely BASED on BSD UNIX (and not the free version) and it is NOT open source. For the most part OSX is just the GUI over BSD. Like GNU on Linux.
Comparing a PC as a Honda and a Mac as Porche is a completely retarded and moronic comparison. A proper comparison is a MAC is a Porche with the engine from a Fiat. a PC could be compared with anything since you can do anything you want with a PC. You're stuck with a Mac as is, since a mac will always be a mac.
Macs are over priced compared to PCs since when it comes hardware the G4s and G5s are slow. A dual G5 isn't equivalent nor even equal to a dual Optron you RETARD. How many MACs do you see out there running as servers anyway? Perhaps more so now with OSX, but Macs are geared towards end users anyway. Not network admins.
Why in the hell do you think Apple is switching to Intel CPUs now? Because IBM can BARELY clock their CPUS to 2ghz.
Mac's are already like PCs. They use IDE hard drives (SCSI where?) motherboards with AGP slots for AGP videocards (Virtually the exact same video cards PCs use) and PCI card slots. It uses SDRAM (but not DDR ram) like PCs used about 5 years ago. So the CPU was the only thing left that needed to be changed.
Macs are plagued with old slow hardware that's about 10 years old now that PC users have already upgraded past now. This is probably why OSX is so smooth and stable since it uses OLD hardware that Apple has gotten used too, and taken for granted.
Of course one of the reason why MACs are so stable is because of the closed hardware architecture, ALL with standard parts, and almost never deviate from previous versions. Windows has to conform to every possible Pc configuration that's possible, so it can't be completely stable.
However they PRICE this hardware as if it's new technology. The only true high tech and leading edge hardware Apple uses are in their iPods.
At least now Macs with Intel CPUs, chipsets and motherboards, they can enjoy dual channel DDR2(3)RAM, a FSB that's faster than a 486's clock speed. And likely support newer interfaces like SATA, and PCI-E card slots.
Ah hell I'm rambling. - ThomasNewman1, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0yeah ok lets see.
- idunno, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0This used to be a great site until it turned into iDigg. Every page has atleast 2 stories about these products which remind me so much of "The King's New Clothes". Free Kool Aid for everyone.
- speel, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0imagine they suprisingly release the intels =O omgosh id get one
- jesusphreak, on 10/12/2007, -2/+0So why the hell would I want to buy anything Apple if it just meant that what I bought from them will be replaced by something better in 6 months?
It wouldn't be that big a deal if their stuff wasn't expensive, but it is. - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -2/+0Apple seems to model it's release cycle along the lines of the fashion industry. Several weeks of hype, followed by a big splashy rollout that only the media and fan-boy bloggers care about and the whole thing repeats again in a few weeks.
Forgive me if I'm not thrilled. - aleves, on 10/12/2007, -2/+0Does anyone care? Just release the Intel version.
- omnithrope, on 10/12/2007, -3/+0Wow.
What a bunch of *****. - [Zax], on 10/12/2007, -3/+0My 2 cents: Macs are slow, ugly & expensive and their users represent 4.8% of the market.
- blhack, on 10/12/2007, -3/+0i have never, ever....EVER gotten a piece of spyware on my computer.
EVer.
nope, not even ONE time. so that advantage goes out the window. I'm talking about 'innovations'. for crying out loud the gui looks like fvwm-crystal hooked up with gnome and shat OSX out.
Face it, by buying a mac you feel as though you are an elitist. You are not, you are a stupid white-plastic buying sheep. - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -3/+0
> just remember this simple truth: You get what you pay for.
Well, ***** yeah... I mean that a Tautology. The only way you're not going to get something you paid for is if someone steals that something from you. Duh...
> Do you compare a Honda Civic to a Porsche 911
1 "word", three letters: NSX. Don't confuse brand with value; it's a common mistake that the average consumer fall for each and every time.
> like playing Russian Roulette with a water gun
man, that's classic. Come on over to my place and we'll play with a loaded semi-automatic. You go first. - SmeRndmGy, on 10/12/2007, -3/+0wow apple is releasing a new computer that is slower than the machine i bought 3 years ago! as an added bonus apple's machine also costs almost twice as much! what exciting news. lets all buy it anyways because it will match our ipods!
- blhack, on 10/12/2007, -3/+0will somebody please name ONE, just OOOOOOOOOONNNNNE advantage to owning a mac...please? i stil don't see any. yes i have used them. Yes i wanted to throw it off a building, no i'm not computer illiterate, yes i can afford to buy as many of them as i would like....they farking SUCK BALLS!
Gentoo Linux....really, honestly, is there anything that mac has NOT stolen from linux? Why pay a couple hundred bucks for what you can get for free.....oh yeha i forgot, white plastic.
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