I carry a Leatherman Micra in my pocket all the time, have a Leatherman Wave in my glove compartment, butter knives and a serrated bread knife in my kitchen drawer, and steak knives and a big cleaver in a block on my kitchen counters.
If I could only have one, I’d get the Leatherman Wave. If I could have two, I’d add steak knives. One more? I’d add the butter knives. And so on, and so on, and so on.
When people could only get one thing, the logical choice was to get the computational equivalent of the Wave (only less awesome), but some people can get by on the steak knives, or a small sampling of different knives, and it’s really okay. Then there are people who just want the whole complement, and of course, there are people who just have an unhealthy fixation on getting lots and lots of knives.
Yes, this is a strawman, but I think it fits. (Or is a strawman specifically meant to deceive? I’m not sure; maybe it’s an analogy or an extended metaphor).
Context: I work from home. I have a v. Expensive thinkpad for work and a v. Expensive Dell laptop for home stuff plus various Mac and pc desktops around the house. I also have a super powerful desktop in my office about 1000 miles away.
I had long had my eye on a kindle but was hesitant to get a single app device. I got my iPad pretty much just to read books and surf the web. It performs both of those functions to my entire satisfaction.
I was pleasantly surprised to find that video is awesome - especially for things like bloggingheads and TED. I fully expect that all of my video needs will be met by my iPad and I will cancel my cable and send back the DVR (right after the world cup).
The onscreen keyboard is adequate - but not delightful - for things like SDMB and email. But with the keyboard dock, it is adequate for all of my typing needs. I haven’t used my Dell laptop for a month and just gave it to my wife.
I just got back from a weeklong trip to my office where I used my iPad for almost everything except programming. My goal for my next trip is to not even take my laptop with me on my next business trip. To make that possible, I will need to purchase keynote, a remote desktop app and the external monitor dongle thingie.
About the only things that I can’t do on my iPad - and still need another machine for - are programming in visual studio and recording music in garage band. Until i find a decent wordpress app, i’ll still use a laptop for blogging because ipad and wordpress don’t get on well together.
To recap:I use my windows desktop for programming and a Mac mini for GarageBand. I use my iPad for everything else. I no longer need my dvr, cable tv, or two expensive laptops.
I don’t think that will be possible for us in Australia, because our TV and mobile internet systems are inadequately set up to take advantage of that. This could contribute to the iPad’s downfall over here (and any other country in a similarly limiting state).
Then realize that apple has moved a vast majority of their computer sales (iPad, iMac, Mac Book Pro) to a billet CNC process. They’re the first (and as far as I know, still the only) computer company to apply such a simplifying process in their laptop design.
it looks like, for the quarter ending 12/29/07, they made 1.3 million laptops. Sales have increased year after year, even with the recession.
So 5.2 million (under estimated 2007 numbers) Laptops a year, in a 14 step CNC process. I’d say they did a pretty good job of productionizing it for the masses.
I can’t BEGIN to tell you how it improves longevity in a laptop, simply by reducing stress on the internal components.
I’ve seen plenty of billet stuff being made, I have NOT seen millions of billet products being made a year, directed at the consumer.
Machining metal is a hobby of mine, I was impressed.
It makes a great display for charts and airport information. It wouldn’t take much to use it in connection with xm weather and a gps connection. Having a kneeboard that can display this would be a HUGE HUGE hit.
Well Apple may have decided for me…The 64GB with WiFi and 3G is today priced in the UK at £700, which is $1050 US, yet in the US the same model costs $829. Holy UK premium Batman!
whoops ok so the UK price includes sales tax so it’s not quite the excess I thought it was.
*“First, we really found that it’s not just a larger iPhone,” said Ken Case, founder and CEO of The Omni Group. “There’s room for content, and interaction with gestures, that you couldn’t do on smaller real estate. It’s a larger iPhone the way a swimming pool is a larger bathtub.”
*
I think it’s a good idea to wait and see what other companies come out with. I guess if you don’t mind buying a different model in 6 or 9 months then you don’t have to wait.
I never bothered to look around. My reasons were this:
[ul]
[li]I’ve been an Apple user since 1987, and an owner since 1990.[/li][li]I’m tired of shit not working with my Apples.[/li][li]iPhones work perfectly with my Apples.[/li][li]App store.[/li][li]Ability to jailbreak and unlock (I travel, so need a world-phone).[/li][li]Prior experience with an iPod Touch.[/li][li]Prior experience with PalmOS devices (ever since my Palm V in 1999).[/li][/ul]
So I didn’t bother to look around, but I certainly didn’t jump onto any bandwagon. I got what works for me.
My neighbors have boats, Corvettes, 1956 Chevys, some undetermined Bellaire, Jetskis, motor homes, etc., and I don’t know how many of them have iPhones or use Macs. I’m not interested in keeping up with them, and they don’t know enough about me to keep up with me.
you mentioned these. and I still don’t see the improvements in large scale CNC Production. The stuff in the video could have been done 20 years ago.
All I see on that video is simple cnc stuff. My niece could program that in autocad. And if your impressed by machining aluminum, well what can I say. That is the easiest thing to machine. You don’t even need coolant if you do it right.
Then you have not been looking. Seriously if your are impressed by machining aluminum.
Where are the improvements in production?? Apple probably farms this out to China that are running 30 plus year old machines with tolerances as loose as the county whore.
Except, you know, they tolerances ARE pretty damn good. Take a look at them sometime. Shit, look at the choice of screws they use. Take a mic to every laptop in every Apple store and measure the tolerances of the bottom plate to the laptop body.
I’m impressed with machining aluminum in two ways: They’re the first to use it the way they do. Admit it. And they do it in volume.
Here’s my Curriculum Vitae: I have a Civil Engineering degree (structural), I’m a CISO for a State Government, I race cars, I futz with metal in my spare time. I am immersed in computers. All OSes, all sizes. Ubuntu, Windows 7, OS X, yadda yadda.
Apple makes good stuff.
Wink-your-eye smiley all you want. You sound like this guy:
For as much as MY bias is showing…so is yours. :rolleyes:
Yes, but where is the improvement in CNC technology that was being touted up thread? The choice of screws? Really? Are you really going to argue with a machine shop owner on this issue?
I picked up a .357 Magnum at a pawnshop more than twenty years ago that had some screws on the side, but no apparent side plate.
It was only some years later that I found that if you hold the weapon sideways (side plate down, screws out), by the barrel, and gently tap upward the butt with a mallet, the side plate would drop out as pretty as you please.
And then I saw a miracle of CNC milling. What a perfect seamless fit. So close that I am slightly skeptical that the plate would fit an identical revolver well—it might have been hand-fit after the machining process.
On a scale a few orders of magnitude lower than Apple, but in stainless steel nonetheless (one of the more annoying metals to machine). Made in the 1980s.
Apple products are pretty, and I really do like their machining, but as with many products, they aren’t the first to use each technique—but they do it with more flair and polish. And they tell you all about it, while distracting us from less-pretty topics such as iPad printing.
