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Sons of Macintosh - shaking the Apple family tree

When the original Apple Macintosh debuted in 1984, it carried a $2,495 price tag - roughly $5,250 in 2008 money. Ever since, the debate has raged over whether Macs are more expensive, feature-by-feature and capability-by-capability, than their PC brethren. And what a meaningless debate it is. Here at The Reg, we subscribe to …

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Anonymous Coward
Anonymous Coward

@Fecking iPhone...

"I have just been summoned by my boss to explain to him why his mobile bill has gone up nearly 1000% (that's not a typo) since he got his iPhone.

I walked into his office- There he is sat at his desk with a perfectly fine PC and large LCD display connected via a nice fast DSL connection to the internet...

...and he's watching fecking YouTube videos on his fecking iPhone."

Ummm there are no data charges on any iPhone contract in the uk (assuming you're in the uk) unlimited free data transfer is included in the contract including free wifi, this includes any video streaming.

Ed Gould
Boffin

Mac Head - NOT

My friend convinced me to convert to Macintosh when IBM withdrew support for OS/2. I guess I got caught up in the hardware changeover from G4 to G5. I was NOT a happy camper because of that. If I had been told that it was on the horizon I would not have bought a G4 I might have waited the 3-4 months but either my friend was mislead or wanted me to convert no matter what.

The first thing I will say is I am more or less a happy convert, not ecstatic mind you. The first thing I would like to say that MACs are woefully under equipped when it comes to memory. Every new MAC I have gotten I have had to have 16 GB installed on it either by the factory or as a part of the order. My environment demands that, I do not know about others.

My latest G5 when I ordered it I had to additionally buy a bigger video card, for some reason MAC video cards are woefully underpowered and memory constrained.

I also ordered a wireless keyboard and mouse that was the biggest mistake *EVER* with MAC. I tried for two weeks to get used to it for get it It works do not get me wrong I do not train easily is probably the real reason it did not work.

The other thing that I find lacking in MACs is that the HD they sell is woefully inadequate for my environment and I had to order extra internal drives. I also have external drives that are extremely simple to connect (fire wire is GREAT!) although I found out that one of my external drives has to have special software installed on the MAC. MAJOR NO-NO and of course the vendor did not disclose this so I am at a loss that they can say they are MAC Compatible when at best the statement is a bit off, IMO.

The cost of upgrading OS's is about 100 bucks but IMO there is little reason to as none of the new features are needed. MAC OS X is as solid as they make them. OS/2 was probably a bit better but I cannot complain about OS X (except the upgrades maybe).

Apple's SAFARI is average IMO. Nothing great but it works. A lot like OS/2 Netscape it just works except for idiotic sites that test for SAFARI and then complain about it not being compatible. Companies that do that are on my list of companies to avoid that means not buying from them of anything.

I agree with most of the article Apples idea of being a generous philanthropic company is almost laughable when it should be out on the forefront. Apple needs a lot of polishing in that area.

Is a MAC worth it? Yes just for the OS alone. I was really surprised with the transition from OS9 to OS X it actually made the computer more responsive and better able to recover from application crashes. Right now I only have one application that can crash OS X in OS 9 it was 12+ that caused crashes. Even the crash is not easily reproducible so I can't blame the software company. I have had reasonably good luck with software vendors (except 1) in OS X so I cannot complain too much.

Could OS X (and Macs) be better sure but that could be said about any OS (or hardware). I really do not have to boot any more and that is a god send (except for major software upgrades).

I will go along with the idea that MAC is superior to windows any day. And to add an extra comment that makes MACs better is the networking is simple (at least for me).

Sabahattin Gucukoglu
Thumb Down

I Think You Should Know ...

Current MacBook and MacBook Pro no longer include overlay numeric keypad. It is the will and the way and the sin of the messiah to banish such a superficial inconsistency of symmetry (he did it because he wanted the MacBook keyboards looking just like the new wireless keyboards, apparently) into the furthest deepest darkest regions of the hereafter. Gone's the floppy and right-click in his image, and now the numlock and the numpad ... What's the world coming to?

So anyway, you can forget number-intensive tasks. Did Apple ever dig that? Some popular programs like ProTools equally struggle because of this, so watch out. Just so you know, in case you get stuck trying to use it, especially in Windows. I need a numpad for my screen readers ... There is none; you'll need an external keypad. Damnation!

I like my MacBook 13-inch PVC cover, but it's the OS I went for really. I'll not go on and on about what I find annoying, though there are some things I just can't believe even got through to market, because that's OT. But, I do think the price is worth badgering about. I'd hate the Apple Fanbois to think the hardware was somehow special, because it isn't. It works but it's not miraculous or blessed or anything like that, and you're paying a very handsome price for, well, the Apple Experience be that in software, integration, looks, whatever. As the article says though, you paid that price because you wanted those things.

Cheers,

Sabahattin

Ivan Headache

@No love for the Mighty Mouse?

"- it's annoying in that you can't lift the mouse off the surface and hold a button down at the same time -"

Pardon? It would be a pretty pointless mouse if you couldn't do that. Just practice a bit - it's all in the finger positions.

With regard to the scroll ball. It does get erratic - particularly in the scrolling-down mode (i.e the most important direction). The solution is so simple - take a piece of slightly damp (not wet) kitchen roll (or if you have access, a paper towel from the bathroom), place it flat on a surface then invert the mouse so that the ball is on the dampness. Now scrub the mouse violently

around as if you were a kid scribbling on your sister's homework for 10 to 15 seconds. As a rule that clears the problem and the ball works as it should.

Against the mouse, I find I get more wrist and lower arm pain with this mouse that with any other I've used.

Someone earlier made a comment about component prices and concluded that the case was a rip-off. Could that person explain what he/she meant? In English "rip-off' can have two meanings. One meaning 'a copy of someone else's work' passed off as your own, the other meaning 'grossly over-priced'.

I can't think of another computer company that makes a case anything like an Apple case that could be ripped off and also I don't know how you can price the case when you can't actually buy one.

Having taken many computers apart over the last 15 or so years, I can honestly say I have yet to see another manufacture who engineers their cases as well as Apple does. The current Mac Pro being possible the best engineered case ever.

Anonymous Coward
Unhappy

"Is a MAC worth it? Yes just for the OS alone."

But why pay the stupid price for overpriced hardware when the Hackintosh can do the job at a fraction?

I tried to move over a few years ago but as I enjoy gaming to it was a waste of time. The Mac's will stay a minority machine for many more years to come.

Daniel Palmer

Stopped reading at..

"Apple produces solid, reliable hardware"

That is hilarious! I wonder what part of anything Apple produce is rock solid? Most of the laptops have cases so flimsy that if you actually move the machine around the screen will crack. You pay a premium to for the prettiness factor and your membership of team mac fanboi and nothing else.

David Kelly

@AC re: Is a MAC worth it?

"But why pay the stupid price for overpriced hardware when the Hackintosh can do the job at a fraction?"

Maintaining a hackintosh requires time and effort and, for those of us whose time is valuable, the amount of time spent messing about with patches etc. actually works out way more than the initial hardware cost.

BTW you'll find (if you do a bit of research) that Mac prices are not very different to those of other brands if you don't add any extras to the machines.

sleepy

Just passing through . . .

Apple fully understands that it's just passing through the present on the way to the future. Complaints about Apple and its products are often the result of Apple compromising the present to enable future transitions. To take just one example, Apple keyboards are clearly converging with multitouch panels (even as speech input evolves in the background). Proper old fashioned clacky keyboards are available from third parties, but that's not where the mainstream future lies.

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