Apple sells world's most expensive flash drive You can now purchase Apple's Mac OS X 10.7, aka Lion, on a flash drive for $69 – and, yes, it's the exact same operating system that's available at the online Mac Store for $29.99. The USB thumb drive is available through Apple's online store, where Apple explains that the $69 lets you install the company's new OS without a …
Where have you been the last few years?
"Exposed core" (for want of a better term) USB sticks have been around for a heck of a long time now.
"There is only one allowed and approved USB connector.". What? You mean as in: A, B, mini-B, micro-A and micro-B?
This type is in theory non-standard, but then I don't see a USB logo in the pic anyway.....
Either Apple users are plain stupid, have too much money or are bone idle - no one in their right mind would pay that amount for a USB stick - my god they give-away the damn things at Conference's - obviously they do not have a nice Apple Logo.
As for Lion and US$30.00 for a DL, forget it.
I've had Lion running since early July, its a GM developer copy and installed on a small boot partition on my HDD - 4.2G in fact. Problem solved.
Total cost to me, US$0.00.
Now admittedly, I had to pay a hefty premium for all my Apple hardware - Mac Mini, two 27in iMac's and Macbook - but software is not an issue.
Still, if your favoured consumers have more money than sense, what do you expect!!!!!
I run a Lion partition on all my computers and they are backed-up via Time Machine - these externals are also Partitioned and have Lion Installed as a Boot Disc - Problem totally solved.
If people can afford to run Mac's, then they need to run external HDD's, make the external a Boot Drive and work off the external, i.e., don't utilise internal drive - seems mad, but works for me.
Also, plenty of copies of Lion all over the Internet and given Apple has too much money in my opinion I'm not giving them anymore - there hardware is great, I pay a premium - but no way will I pay stupid sums for Software.
Snow leopard (Required to download the Lion update): $30
Lion: $30
That leaves the 8GB USB drive costing $9.
You also get the benefit of not having to install Snow Leopard first as you do with the downloaded update. Leopard users can update directly without having to buy Snow Leopard.
Please try to get your math right before just outright "bashing" something you don't understand.
I'm supposed to be buying "Lion" their new version right?
So you accept in your math that you owe Appull money for their last version ALSO... and you preach about not understanding....? (oh and the old version still costs as much as the new version....
Think it is u and appull that don't get the math
Oh and I'm sure just to nitpick if apppull buys say 100,000 of these damn keyfobs, I'll bet they are not costing the retail shelf price of $9, try more like $1-2 in bulk.
(BTW Ubuntu = $0 so nyah!)
"Think it is u and appull that don't get the math"
He's saying that if you buy the USB stick you can install Lion (the new version) if you have Leopard (the previous but one version)
If you want to upgrade via download from Leopard, you have to buy Snow Leopard and then download the upgrade.
The cost of buying snow leopard + the lion upgrade is 9 dollars less than the USB stick.containing the retail version of Lion.
"(BTW Ubuntu = $0 so nyah!)"
If you want support though you have to pay 88 pounds.[1]
When the fk did charging for software become seen as such a crime, as a programmer it makes it awfully hard to pay the bills. ;)
1 http://shop.canonical.com/product_info.php?products_id=715
I get what he is saying, you don't get that I am disagreeing with the concept that to buy version C (newest version) of software you have to buy version B first just because you are using version A. Appull users seem to accept this "pay us for everything no matter what" concept without questioning it. Even M$ didn't make you buy the last version to get the newest one.
Does it really seem reasonable to you to buy a old version as a poll tax? Put the concept on cars: I have a 2009 Benz, and want a 2011 model, but I have to buy a 2010 first? Only with software could a company even try such a sham.
My luddite wife and young children use Ubuntu with no need to pay anyone for tech support - (and no I don't help them, they are teaching me, i HAVE to use M$ for work and games. ) not sure why you think it must cost 88 just because it is offered.
Agree fully with you though that charging for Software is a reasonable and good thing, and would like to see people compensated for their work. But when a perfectly good community supported OS is out there, the purpose of buying one is lost and really just relates back to control, rather than function. (You do know apple is just BSD underneath anyways don't you?) I would rather pay for apps and software that run on that OS. However I seem to be able to find free software to do almost all that I want/need to do so far.
I would think only businesses would ever purchase this support, or people with more money than time.
"Leopard users can update directly without having to buy Snow Leopard."
The Ts and Cs still require Snow Leopard to be there (the minimum req's are OSX 10.6.6). There is no (legit) upgrade path from Leopard to Lion, you are paying for exactly the same product that you're downloading from the App Store, but at a $39 premium. Our math[s] skills are just fine thanks.
Plus regardless of this, you know fine well Apple could sell a DVD version for a helluva lot cheaper.
If you are a poorly paid IT worker it is probably not worth the money. Cheap and easy to download and install. Cost represents maybe represents an hour or even 2 of paid work. If you are self employed and earning top dollar, say a writer, journo, designer etc. uses a computer for work but not tech' savvy then $50 this could represent a very minutes of work time. Better value to pay the price, update your macbook, get on with work.
If you want to install Lion from scratch it's not a bad deal and makes the process quick(er) and painless. If you have a fully working system / Internet connection you would just download the update to Lion from Snow Leopard.
It's really not that expensive and if your time is valuable - very worthwhile.
I never really understand why people whinge about price - you do not HAVE to buy it.
A company selling stuff with a mark-up? Surely not!
I bought myself a Blu Ray player a couple of weeks ago from a "high street electrical store" and was asked if I wanted a HDMI cable because one wasn't supplied in the box. A gold plated cable from them cost £30 but it came supplied with a little bottle of screen cleaner.
Similar HDMI cable from Tesco: a tenner.
I hate to break it to you Apple deniers but companies do this a lot. Kinda page one of "Economics, How to Make a Profit". And, like many others have said, this is a bargain if installation is allowed on a fresh disk, without Snow Leopard being on there first...
For business this is what has been needed for the last few years.
This will install 10.7 onto 'nearly' any intel Mac, one OS installer for all.
Anyone that has been dealing with enterprise Apple deployments will know its been a real ball-ache for quite a few years.
This will simplify it back to 'how things used to be'
Not that i'm deploying 10.7 to ANYONE for 12 months..
Haven't you realised Paul, EVERYTHING Apple do is evil and wrong? Apple being good at marketing is evil as how dare they advertise their products. Apple making money is evil as how dare they run a business that makes money. Apple making products people want to buy is evil as how dare they sell things people actually want.
Its a well known fact that Microsoft, Sony, Google etc are all just in the business for the fun of it and always have the publics best interests at heart, so much so they give everything away at cost price. Wait, whats that you say? They dont? They want to make money as well but just aren't as good at it.. well I never.
As usual with Apple products, don't want, don't buy, give the rest of the world peace.
It's amazing how many people forget it's not the late 90s anymore isn't it.
As someone who was firmly on the PC side of the PC/Apple debate ("What? Even your clone is horribly overpriced and underpowered?!? Is Mac OS really worth it?") I think Apple have really shown how to do a lot of stuff right over the last few years.
They've managed to both grown their computer business substantially and enter 2 established markets with competent aplomb, then ride a global recession without having to devalue their brand in any way in order to survive. Many companies could take note here.
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