Forums | MacLife

ScifiterX wrote:

Mac Books, iMacs & Minis aren't the whole of the choices now either.

Ya, one choice. Really when you boil it down Apple has 2 product lines, laptops and servers and if your needs don't fit in those two rather specific areas you are screwed.
I would also contend that Apple's presentation of the Mini and iMac line is deceptive at best and dishonest at worst because of the way they obfuscate the nature of the hardware involved.
The use of the "Extreme" lable on the 2.8 iMac cpu is a good example. While technically correct, in the context of a desktop machine Intel's extreme line denotes quad cores while the desktop dual 2.8 is just a plain Jane part. A plain Jane part which is faster than the "extreme" laptop part, cheaper too.
It gives people the impression they are buying something special when they really arent.

Last edited by Pariah (2008-04-17 6:10 am)

^^Yes and no.  While I'm sure that Apple does do some market research, I think they do pretty much whatever they want.  If a focus group says they want something, Apple puts a spin on it to make it more advantageous to them. 

While I love the idea of the iMac and Mini, they are designed to make Apple as much money as possible while still seeming advantageous to the consumer...

avkills wrote:

I wouldn't call the Mac Pro a server.  It is a workstation though; aimed clearly at professional content creators.

A headless iMac like computer with a upgradeable GPU and maybe 1 free PCIe slot is what Pariah is after.  Seems to me Apple should do that instead of the mini.

But maybe Pariah is a weird minority; I am sure Apple does focus group research, so I can't imagine they are dumb enough not to see the instant market for this type of machine.

-mark

I'm with Pariah.  I miss my old beige G3 tower, with the A/V in/outs, which I happily upgraded to a G4 and put a couple hard drives into and put in a Radeon GPU and maxed out the RAM.  That was a great machine.  Granted it was pretty pricy when it first came out, but I bought it used for under $500.  For a stretch there Apple had towers that were pretty close to $1000.  The frustrating thing is that these days the components are so cheap that everyone knows that Apple could make a very reasonably priced, upgradeable consumer tower, and make a handsome profit off it as well.

Its pretty clear this bird has flown the coop, but maybe it will be a wake up call for Apple.  Maybe they'll accede to the demand for such a machine.  While I love my imac, and I do value lower-consumption fine-tuning, there's nothing wrong with what Pariah wants, and its what I would have chosen if I'd had the option.

Hoax?  More like scam.

If memory serves, there use to be a couple teenagers selling Mac clones (after the official clones were killed off, of course). Could they be the same people?

Mr. T wrote:

Czachorski wrote:

Hoax.

And a damned good one at that!

I would have sorta liked to see it be real, fail miserably due to low interest, and me gain the redemption of being one of the few who understands Apple's strategy.

Last edited by Czachorski (2008-04-18 6:23 pm)

Czachorski wrote:

Mr. T wrote:

Czachorski wrote:

Hoax.

And a damned good one at that!

I would have sorta liked to see it be real, fail miserably due to low interest, and me gain the redemption of being one of the few who understands Apple's strategy.

Then you really must not want to hear that the demand was so high, the hosting company pulled the site down...

cnet wrote:

Psystar's store remained down on Friday, as its former payment-processing company expanded its explanation of why it pulled its services from the computer maker's site....

Merchant service accounts are set up based on the volume of transactions expected to flow through an online store, Goodrich said. Psystar went well over its expected volume for the year in just a couple of days, as Open Computer orders poured in.

more...

I actually don't think it was a hoax, since the orders were real, nor do I believe this is a scam.  It's in a scammer's best interest to keep a low-profile; not openly challenge a major computer corporation.  They might not necessarily be the best businessmen, however...  But even this remains to be seen.

Last edited by Mr. T (2008-04-18 7:16 pm)

We really have no clue on the actual volume bought. It could well be exaggerated if it indeed a hoax or scam. If not it was a very bad business maneuver on their part because a) it exposed them to attack by Apple's attorneys b) it exposed them to attack by OSx86's attorneys & c) caused them issue with their host.

I expect the first real commercial hackintoshs will first come out in Asia or Europe where laws might be less draconian.

Pariah wrote:

I expect the first real commercial hackintoshs will first come out in Asia or Europe where laws might be less draconian.

I know - how dare America allow inventors to protect their copyrights and enforce the constitution!

Czachorski wrote:

Pariah wrote:

I expect the first real commercial hackintoshs will first come out in Asia or Europe where laws might be less draconian.

I know - how dare America allow inventors to protect their copyrights and enforce the constitution!

The purpose of a copyright/patent law is not to protect inventors/authors -- rather it is to promote the advancement of science/arts.  Granting a time-limited monopoly to the inventor/author is a means of promoting advancement.  I'm not really making a point here -- just pointing something out that most people aren't aware of.

In any case, the EULA (which is what's being violated) doesn't have anything to do with copyrights or patents.  The enforceability of the EULA is debatable.

Czachorski wrote:

Pariah wrote:

I expect the first real commercial hackintoshs will first come out in Asia or Europe where laws might be less draconian.

I know - how dare America allow inventors to protect their copyrights and enforce the constitution!

Constitution?  Isn't that a bit of a a stretch?  (not trying to minithink this thread)