You joked about it

[Lurker guy]

You thought he didn't have the nerve to do something so manipulative and generally stupid.

Well, what do you have to say now?!

Also THINNER and LIGHTER
COMPLETELY ALTERING EVERYTHING WE KNOW ABOUT TECHNOLOGY.

 

[Jonkku]

Who was joking?

Because I know that Apple and Steve in particular are just a moneyhogging "business".
And that they somehow have a lot of stupid money wasting consumers who will buy their new products just because it's new.

Spoiler

 

[Lore]

Haha, I'm not planning on getting this. The iPad is just a huge iPod Touch, and I have no reason to get one, no matter how fast it is.

I especially don't want to buy a 499 tablet that is essentially obsolete in a few months.

Oh well, at least Apple can say that they have the thinnest phones AND the thinnest CEO...

 

[theeboredone]

 

[finalark]

That's Apple for you, releasing the same item every year or so only with very minor modifications for the highest price they can put it out at.

I think I just described Madden.

 

[Peeze]

Yet people will be lining up for this in droves

 

[theeboredone]

Yeah, kinda sad how people fall in line for the same kind of product every year. Not just talking about Iphone/Ipad, but things like Madden, Pokemon, etc.

Though I'm not going to lie, where I leave with a meh or impressed, I always look forward to what Apple has to present. Whether it's simple upgrades to their macbook lineups, or something new. I'm interested to see their upcoming 3 Iphone line up. Iphone Nano. Iphone 4GS. Iphone 5 I think?

 

[Crimson King]

I bought myself a Xoom a few days before this was announced, and it's amazing how the Xoom is already pretty thin, has two cameras, is dual core, can be upgraded to 4G, and has expandable memory, as well as a real tablet based operating system, but Apple gets all the attention. The most damning thing of the iPad2 is the fact it lacks 4G capabilities, and rumors were rampant before the iPad2 was announced that the iPad3 would be out by December. Without a 4G radio and the fact AT&T and Verizon are going big into 4G this year and next year, I can see Apple doing a iPad 4G by the end of the year.

Also, my wife has the iPad and we used to have iPhones. She had to rebuy apps that were on iPhone but had a iPad version, or the iPhone version was really pixelated it (fixed that with RetinaPad though). On Honeycomb, it is the same app. Apple is just money hungry, and I am done with their stupidity.

 

[theeboredone]

Yeah, I do enjoy my MyTouch Android OS. Though the battery can take a big hit when you're running multiple widgets, I can get through a full day by managing it accordingly. Plus, Android is open source, so there's a lot more to do customization wise, which I enjoy quite a bit.

 

[Pikaville]

People who buy any Apple products are just stupid.

You can either build or buy something far superior if you shop around.

Seriously, who pays 1200 euro for a laptop that doesn't even have a HDMI out port anyway?

 

[Gatlin]

It's funny, because I can totally see an "iMat" coming out and becoming a new entertainment system, replacing Twister and DDR.

 

[Fuelbi]

Makes me feel bad that I'm one of those suckers that fall for those Apple products.

God man, if everything in my house was an Apple product, I would have it like that... yeah I'm that much of a fanboy >_>

 

[Crimson King]

People who buy any Apple products are just stupid.

You can either build or buy something far superior if you shop around.

Seriously, who pays 1200 euro for a laptop that doesn't even have a HDMI out port anyway?

This.

I bought my Macbook in 2008 when my Dell's motherboard died. Having had the Dell less than 2 years, that was simply unacceptable. The Macbook cost about $1500 for the 15", and it had problems from the get-go, but I had learned that Mac wasn't as bad as I assumed after getting an iPhone.

First, Wi-Fi from day one was spotty at best. When I moved into my own house last year, I'd disconnect for 5 seconds to 1 minute every 5 to 10 minutes. I called Apple, and they said I'd have to get a new service plan before they could even look at my device. When I declined, they said it's probably an AT&T issue. I called AT&T and they said it is definitely an Apple issue, and they have heard it before. So, I just dealt with that. It sucked, but oh well. I also went through 3 chargers. The first two had what's called cable joint rot where (if you own an iPhone or iPad, you probably had this happen) the cable rips from the connector. My boss is an electrician and said it was basically designed to fail because it lacks support even the cheapest of cables have. K... I added heat shrink to my second charger, and it lasted for about 6 months before it wouldn't charge. My third charger was redesigned to not put as much strain on the joint, but that's $160 later. That's ridiculous.

The final straw came when my optical drive stopped working. I looked up replacements, and it was about $50 for a new one, but I didn't have the tools, so I called Apple. They wanted to charge me $600 for a new optical drive. I laughed hard, bought an Acer for $400 (more space and faster), installed Ubuntu, and never looked back.

Apple basically lavishes on two ideas: their products are expensive so it's a public statement, and that everything is "easier" on Apple. Everything is easier if you do it within the intended purposes, but try connecting an Android phone to an Apple using ADB (which I used to root) or try running WINE or any myriad of things not designed by Apple for Apple. The iPhone was even worse because after I jailbroke it I still couldn't change SMS tones.

Basically, Apple relies on a market of total suckers who either are super lazy when it comes to devices, are easily roped into buying things for appearance, or have to be out of the so-called "mainstream." Once you get away from the Apple hivemind, you kind of see how bad their devices really are. The iPad 2 is really fast, GPU-wise, so unfortunately, we'll see a lot more games in the future designed specifically for the iPad 2, but with any luck, Android will continue to be a strong competitor. Android is beating iOS in market share, and as long as that continues, the Apple stranglehold will diminish.

 

[Lore]

Ck, you're totally right. My school got a ton of macs as part of a grant, and I loathe them. My hate partially stems from the fact that I severely dislike the OS (Ubuntu is amazing, but even xp seems better to me than whatever macs use), but the hardware itself is overpriced and quickly obsolete.

I will admit, though, that I enjoy my iPod touch. Of course, I only like the app store and web browsing, so if it didn't have those two things, I would have just gotten another Sansa for music.

 

[Crimson King]

Ck, you're totally right. My school got a ton of macs as part of a grant, and I loathe them. My hate partially stems from the fact that I severely dislike the OS (Ubuntu is amazing, but even xp seems better to me than whatever macs use), but the hardware itself is overpriced and quickly obsolete.

I will admit, though, that I enjoy my iPod touch. Of course, I only like the app store and web browsing, so if it didn't have those two things, I would have just gotten another Sansa for music.

I only had to use Macs twice: once for a graphic design class and once for a technical writing class. The former were Power Macs which are designed for graphic design. My teacher was a HUGE Mac user as well, so after his class, I felt a lot more proficient with them, and my graphic design work was much easier on the Power Macs. Sadly, they stopped making PowerMacs, and the ones you can find are super expensive.

The iPhone was cool until I got a Droid. Droid blows away iOS.

 

[Lore]

Yeah, haha, old macs are pretty great. The newer ones, though...

Anyway, I would get a Droid, but I don't feel like paying extra for a data plan or whatever.

 

[Crimson King]

You get unlimited data on Verizon which is cheaper than AT&T and has the best service. I know on AT&T it was $30 for unlimited data + like $20 for text. Verizon is just the $30 for unlimited data, which AT&T doesn't do anymore.

 

[Budget Player Cadet_]

The final straw came when my optical drive stopped working. I looked up replacements, and it was about $50 for a new one, but I didn't have the tools, so I called Apple. They wanted to charge me $600 for a new optical drive. I laughed hard, bought an Acer for $400 (more space and faster), installed Ubuntu, and never looked back.

Happened to me too, but I looked for a new one and it cost $200. Couldn't afford it. I did manage to crack my machine open and put it back together, which was good practice for the future, in any case. This issue of CD drives just failing to work/CDs getting stuck in there is really, really common. Like, 2-3 of my friends with macbooks have had it too. And it's not an easy or cheap problem to fix.

But I have to disagree when I hear that apple is bull****. Yes, it's not an ideal system. However, this macbook has been chugging away for a good 2-3 years now, which is not just above average for my computer life, it's out-right amazing (my last two laptops lasted about 8 months, combined–I am not good with viruses). The OS is very fast and works really well for everything except third-party support (CURSE YOU C++!!!).

That said, I would absolutely not recommend the same computer to my friends. It's worked well for me, but I'm really fairly easy to please and fairly willing to put up with bull****. Like, this macbook hasn't had a CD drive since last december. No, not 2010.
The issue is, for the most part, unless you're trying to do serious work (this is all that I would recommend a macbook for, as they're very stable and easy), the OS has little to offer. Want to play a video game? You have to emulate windows OS. It should be kind of telling when a computer has software built-in to perfectly emulate its biggest competitor. Third-party support is horrible! I work on brawl hacking a lot, and not getting parallels was simply not an option with me: I NEEDED to have it. No in-house support for C++ or .net is really, really bad. It's like no in-house support for Flash.

Recently I have been having this irritating issue where the screen darkens completely for no good reason. It is beyond annoying. I have to turn the brightness all the way down, crank it up slightly, and hope the screen doesn't kick out again. I don't know what the cause is, but it's driving me CRAZY.

 

[Crimson King]

I'm happy with Ubuntu on my Acer. Thanks to Dropbox, I can upgrade every six months or just install Linux Mint and never have to do it. Also, I am playing with Linux From Scratch.

Compatibilty-wise, I am better than on Mac because most stuff was ported to Linux, has an alternative, or WINE works. For games, my custom desktop, with SLi-mode, has 4 boots, one being Windows 7, so I am good.

 

[Lore]

You get unlimited data on Verizon which is cheaper than AT&T and has the best service. I know on AT&T it was $30 for unlimited data + like $20 for text. Verizon is just the $30 for unlimited data, which AT&T doesn't do anymore.

Really? That's amazing; how much is regular phone service + texting in addition to that?

 

[Crimson King]

On my plan, I have two Droid Xs + data plan for $167. That's 700 minutes a month (free to other Verizon users), unlimited texts, and, for now, and unlimited 3G data. There are lower minute plans that are cheap, but I needed a family plan.

I've heard 4G phones will have a 5GB data cap for $50 a month, but I bet you can talk them into unlimited 3G. If not, I am going to T-Mobile. Last month, I used 11GB...