Forums | MacLife

Its not the case, but what's inside that counts.

Last edited by CrashingtehWarehouse (2008-01-15 9:31 pm)

Light Speed wrote:

Has Apple lost it's core focus?

Yeah, everyone is going to be disappointed until Apple closes the gaps in their hardware line.  The MacBook Air closes none of the HUGE gaps in their line.  The need for an upgradable consumer tower is still unaddressed.
To be fair they did just make an OS release and MacPro update, and a number of their programs were updated today.

Apple Computer, Inc. is now Apple, Inc., and they weren't kidding when they changed the name.

What do you want to see in a new Mac Pro? The design works. If you want to get picky, PC towers haven't fundamentally changed for twenty years (creating much difficulty with internal wire messes and poor cooling). Intel has tried, but it hasn't caught on. I'd say the same for the MBP. It's a simple, clean, functional design.

About all Apple could do would be to change purely for aesthetic reasons, which is essentially what PC manufacturers have been doing. There are new colors and such, but basically the same old tower. When technology changes and changes to the case design need to be made to accommodate them, I would bet Apple will make them. Until then...

robco wrote:

PC towers haven't fundamentally changed for twenty years (creating much difficulty with internal wire messes and poor cooling).

No smurf - I'll have to photograph the inside of my new tower tomorrow.

One of the things that has impressed me with the Shuttle is the cooling. It puts the CPU near the side with a fan blowing air directly across the heatsink.

One of my computers is in a HP Pavilion case - 8240 or something like that - it has a case fan with a tunnel and elbow to blow directly down onto the CPU. I don't use it because modern CPUs - the HSF is too tall, but I've been thinking about cutting the plastic so it fits. Other than the case being fugly, it is a nice design as far as case cooling is concerned.

The other problem with modern PCs is most of them do not have proper facilities for cooling the north bridge. It's all passive cooled, but the PCI cards can interrupt air flow over the heat sink. There really should be a small fan mount to force air.

And with the new video cards, they need to bite the bullet and redesign the case. You can not use the PCIE-x (or PCI) slot next to the PCIE-x16 slot without reducing the cooling on the video card.

PC cases (and mobos) should be re-designed to have extra space between the PCI Express x16 slot and the expansion slot next to it.

Yes - SATA is a HUGE improvement over ribbon cable. When I replace my ATAPI DVD-ROM with a SATA burner, part of my wire mess will be reduced. The floppy cable is a problem, I may disconnect it and only connect when I need it (very rare, but still happens on occasion - I sometimes buy old ttf font packs at thrift shops)

With cheaper power supplies though, the SATA sometimes slides out too easily. In mine it is solid, but a number have people have had issues with them coming out, especially gamers that take their boxes to lan parties. That was never an issue with PATA or SCSI.

Alien wrote:

Apple's making craploads of money, and you're all complaining they're doing it wrong.

Here's some news for ya: Apple exist to make money. Not to please you.

,xtG
.tsooJ

yes but if they did please me they could have more money.

Alien wrote:

Apple's making craploads of money, and you're all complaining they're doing it wrong.

Here's some news for ya: Apple exist to make money. Not to please you.

,xtG
.tsooJ

Why should anyone but a stockholder care? A consumer should only be concerned about whether a company serves their needs. A companies health is not a consumers concern.

Unless you relate to consumer electronics companies like sports teams, but then that would be stupid.

The Apple Mac Pro case is an extremely elegant design. It's accessible, easily worked in, it's a sweet dream. What gets plugged into it's innards is pretty good too.

The core focus of Apple, like it is at Microsoft, is to make money. They finally realized that and during the past decade have been successfully focused. They are just a lot better at satisfying customer needs and soothing the emotional focus of customers than is Microsoft.

dreamkast0r wrote:

Apple has not lost its core focus, it has changed its core focus.  The users who were loyal to the company in the 90s are no longer its target demographic, and Apple is positioning itself to be a larger boutique electronics and entertainment company within the next decade.

This is pretty much true. Apple's stock has been soaring, their profits increasing, their marketshare growing in every market they sell in. There's a lot of complaining coming from the people who used and loved Apple products in the 20th century, though. It's pretty clear that Steve Jobs does not care about the users that Apple catered to in the 80s and 90s. He doesn't want the days when every school had a bank of Apple ][+ or IIe boxen in their lab. He wants Apple to be in the category of Prada and Gucci.

He needs to watch out so in a decade Apple will not be in the category of Starter.

That said, I bet Woz happier by the year that he's not connected to Apple any more.

Woebgon wrote:

Corect me if I'm wrong, but didn't Apple just introduce a new Mac Pro recently.

You're wrong. Speed bumps are not new machines.

Last edited by Tallgeese (2008-01-16 11:18 am)