Apple

Uh, tools are consumer devices. All of them are, at some level, objects to be purchased or acquired and then used . Yeah. I'm also not very sorry to use things which help me get stuff done, thereby supporting the devil. (But then, I'm an atheist.)



I take it you've never tried any of the painting apps available for the iPad or the iPhone, then. You should totally do that, or Google a few artists who have.

But yes, please do call us mindless consuming zombies. That will win us all over, instead of annoy us because you obviously know what we all do well enough to characterize us in negative terms which could only be formed from a political viewpoint instead of an informed one.

Geek concerns aside, dying of pancreatic cancer is a horrible fate.

In the end, Steve Jobs ended up becoming the computing big brother he warned people about with that expensive TV ad in 1984. But perhaps that matters little, some people like the products of his company, and they decide Apple gets to be the one who parts them from their hard earned money.

As I said somewhere else, don't hate the player, hate the game... etc, etc.

apple gets my money since i get my valuable time back from the shoddy, overly complicated, rapidly changing pretzel logic of their competitors. i am more than equitably compensated.

and Steve gets my well earned thanks. their products were not always like this, but for now; they are the best.

And what alternatives do you recommend?

For pretty much every product apple sells there are alternatives. So I don't know what to recommend, since I have no clue what your requirements are.

I personally am not a big fan of walled gardens, but my wife loves her iOS devices. For tastes, there are colors...

Ok, what alternatives would you specifically recommend instead of any MacBook[Pro|Air]? I haven't bought anything yet but the learned opinion of a guru like you is most welcome to help me save money [and later troubles as well].

There is a huge matrix of products and options in the marketplace. Just the MacBoo Pro vs Air are two very different product categories, for example.

It all depends on what you're looking for performance-wise, your own personal tastes to aesthetics/ergonomics, price range, battery options, etc, etc, etc, etc.

I have both a Macbook Air and a Thinkpad, neither of them are perfect, but they both get the job/tasks I need them for done.

Hi,



I've been pleased with both my Thinkpad X200 and PowerBook G4 12" before it.

My requirements center around small, light and keyboard quality.


Regards,
@ndy

I agree. Computer-driven devices have lost the "fringe" niche they once owned. They are like a toaster or VCR. Easy to use. Good an doing certain tasks, but less programmable without specialized tools---not really for "computing" in the sense of number crunching for most folks.

For a short while (1990-2010?), everybody wanted/needed faster processors/graphics and engineers and scientists benefited from the consumer-driven demand. It may be that CPU's are getting close to "fast enough" for the casual consumer (i.e. real-time video rates) although there probably is some more room for "smaller" and "prettier".

Unfortunately as number crunchers, CPUs/GPUs are still at least two-three orders of magnitude below for what is needed engineering simulation. If scientific vs. consumer demands go off in different directions, it will be high-performance computing users that will be left hurting for funds.

Ironically, whatever small HPC market that remains could use probably a company like what SGI once was.

Back on topic. I think we all owe Steve Jobs a big thank you for helping making computers sexier, more powerful, smaller and easier to use. He was the enabler that got the new technologies into all our hands. Forget the iPhone, think about:
- the 1st personal computer (Apple ][)
- the 1st mouse on a PC
- the 1st GUI on a PC
- the 1st laser printer on a PC
- the 1st MS Office (Word for Mac in 1984, six years before Windows)
- the 1st compositing desktop (OS X)
- the 1st on-line music store

Not to mention a zealous love of miniaturization and elegance of design.

I don't know if we all realize how much we will miss his relentless drive in the market, even if us "purist of computing" feel as though something special and secret was lost when Jobs brought the screaming masses to geek-sheik. Oh well, you can't have it both ways.

I also loved him as the counter-point to the heavy-handed, drab, and clumsy Microsoft-monopoly.

Now the small-minded and greedy can see how long it takes them to gnaw away at the empire Jobs built.

...and the same with Excel in '85 and PowerPoint in '87, though the latter was an acquisition. I was in college at the time, and it seemed like there was a cool, innovative, new software title for the mac coming out every week back then.

I guess I would add to the list:
- 1st touch screen on a phone
- mag-safe plug on a laptop (cause I love it!)

I'm sure the NeXt cube had some other firsts I don't know about.

Anyway, what an innovator!

Not quite - Palm Treos had touch screens several years before iPhones came out, though obviously the iPhone implementation was more sophisticated.

I'll drink to that! My Powerbooks have been victims of terrible falls because of my klutziness and their traditional power adapters. I can't tell you how many times my Mag-safe adapters have fallen harmlessly to my floor, while my MacBooks/MBPs remained comfortably on the desk/table!

And the Ericsson R380 years before that, in 2000. And if you don't mind being tethered to a landline, we can go back to 1993 for the Siemens NotePhone, which ran Apple's (but not Jobs'!) Newton OS.

.tsooJ

I believe squeen was referring to this Apple concept phone from 1983. Since Jobs was on the Macintosh project at the time, he probably can't take credit for it.

I think in almost all the "1st"'s there was a true (forgotten) processor. He was just quick to adopt, (expertly) refine and market. Almost never did Apple play "catch-up". It was a real talent.

I think T.S.Elliot once said, "Good poets borrow, great poets steal."

You may be thinking about the Picasso quote: "Good artists copy, great artists steal."

BTW, the quote has nothing to do with plagiarism. Picasso was referring to nature/reality, not other people's work.

It is interesting that it is western capitalism that decided that you can steal ideas.

Frankly, I don't like (auto-)biographies at all. AFAIR, I've never read any before. But recently I'd picked up Isaacson's book nevertheless and I must confess I do enjoy it indeed...

Anyone else on here got into it?

I got it and read it. I did like it

I read it between Christmas and New Year.

One thing that struck me was that while he (apparently) was obsessed with every detail of his products and tried to create a lasting company as a legacy, he didn't seem to put a lot of time into his children. IMHO, your children are the ultimate challenge and legacy.