seawolf Posted April 16, 2014 Posted April 16, 2014 I wish they'd hurry up and add touch to their macbooks. I found an apple price list in one of my schools and someone had circled the retina macbooks and noted they were the touchscreen models. A red sharpie quickly resolved this misunderstanding! I still don't get the use case for a touchscreen on a laptop and desktop. It works great for a kiosk, but otherwise I've found it somewhat useless.
mac_shinobi Posted April 16, 2014 Posted April 16, 2014 (edited) I still don't get the use case for a touchscreen on a laptop and desktop. It works great for a kiosk, but otherwise I've found it somewhat useless. Me either unless like you said already it being used for a kiosk. Surely an iPad with one of those keyboard docks or an apple bluetooth keyboard and an iPad protective case, stand and kingston type lock would suffice ? Could even get an android tablet and do something similar like one of the google tablets / asus or whatever Edited April 16, 2014 by mac_shinobi
Arthur Posted April 16, 2014 Posted April 16, 2014 Surely an iPad with one of those keyboard docks or an apple bluetooth keyboard and an iPad protective case, stand and kingston type lock would suffice? Those peripherals essentially turn the iPad into a laptop/netbook with a touchscreen.
computerguy Posted April 16, 2014 Posted April 16, 2014 Just quicker for certain tasks or situations. Although a macbook air with a detachable lid that runs iOS would be properly handy, they'd never do it
matt40k Posted April 16, 2014 Posted April 16, 2014 I wish they'd hurry up and add touch to their macbooks. I found an apple price list in one of my schools and someone had circled the retina macbooks and noted they were the touchscreen models. A red sharpie quickly resolved this misunderstanding! I thought that, then like others have said, what would be the point? You've basically then be better of with a iPad! Which is a dedicated touch device. If they did that you'd end up with a OS trying to do too much - much as I love Win8.1, it does seem like it's trying to do too much. It was when I was looking at getting a touch screen monitor JUST for the metro homepage and still using a keyboard\mouse that it kinda sunk in. Still be great for a media centre PC, still I'd prob get a xbox one if I wanted to do that...
ICTDirect_Dave Posted April 16, 2014 Posted April 16, 2014 Yeah I still can't see a reason to make touch enabled laptops. Tablets for sure are great but there should be distinction between devices. Having a device try to do too much will detract from its overall functionality. Plus I hate the idea of having to poke a screen when sat at my desk. It'll never be as comfortable as a keyboard/mouse unless the screen is built into the desk surface at such a angle that makes using it natural.
Norphy Posted April 16, 2014 Posted April 16, 2014 I agree. Mac OS really isn't finger friendly, the window controls, buttons etc are smaller than they are on Windows boxes and they're too small to use comfortably on a touchscreen. Apple would have to adapt the OS to make it more suitable for touchscreens and eventually they'd just end up in the same mess that Microsoft are in at the moment, i.e. trying to shoehorn two interfaces into one OS and getting the worst of both worlds. No, it's better that they keep them separate. That way they can tailor the UX to how people are using the devices rather than trying to compromise between two completely incompatible interfaces. 1
mac_shinobi Posted April 16, 2014 Posted April 16, 2014 What about this then http://www.modbook.com/modbookpro
ICTDirect_Dave Posted April 16, 2014 Posted April 16, 2014 Ugh no! I get the idea, but the price is even more ridiculous than a stabdard mbp. Also it's a non-retina model with SATA3 SSDs, I'll stick with my iPad & mpb thanks. 1
featured_spectre Posted April 16, 2014 Posted April 16, 2014 What about this then Mac Tablet - Portable Tablet Computer for Creative Users | Modbook Pro That is nuts for a tablet price! I get that its somewhat unique, but wow! I don't even think Apple would do this! lol
Norphy Posted April 16, 2014 Posted April 16, 2014 (edited) What about this then Mac Tablet - Portable Tablet Computer for Creative Users | Modbook Pro It's a Macbook with a Wacom digitizer built in. It's meant to be driven by a stylus which is considerably more precise than your finger. My point still stands. That is nuts for a tablet price! I get that its somewhat unique, but wow! I don't even think Apple would do this! lol As expensive as this is, it's not entirely unreasonable considering that they have to buy the Macbook, disassemble it, throw half of it away, manufacture their own custom enclosure, re-assemble it and put in a digitiser. None of these things are cheap Edited April 16, 2014 by Norphy
featured_spectre Posted April 16, 2014 Posted April 16, 2014 Forever a Mac Fan - http://img829.imageshack.us/img829/7879/mact.jpg 1
ICTDirect_Dave Posted April 16, 2014 Posted April 16, 2014 Forever a Mac Fan - http://img829.imageshack.us/img829/7879/mact.jpg It's cute, but a bit old
Norphy Posted April 16, 2014 Posted April 16, 2014 I don't want to do this but anyway... You can't legally run OS X on anything but a Mac and even if you run it illegally the experience can be... interesting... to say the least. Hackintoshes are rarely 100% stable. Xeon CPUs are expensive. Registered ECC RAM is expensive. OEMs ALWAYS gouge you for upgrades. HP do it. Dell do it. It's not behaviour exclusive to Apple. Who the hell buys a Mac Pro to game on? If I buy a workstation from Dell or HP, it'll be obsolete in a few years time as well and I won't be able to upgrade one of those any more easily that I could a Mac Pro. That whole thing looks like it's been written by a 14 year old gamer who is obsessed with nothing but price and can't look at any use case but his own.
ICTDirect_Dave Posted April 16, 2014 Posted April 16, 2014 I don't want to do this but anyway... You can't legally run OS X on anything but a Mac and even if you run it illegally the experience can be... interesting... to say the least. Hackintoshes are rarely 100% stable. True & True If I buy a workstation from Dell or HP, it'll be obsolete in a few years time as well and I won't be able to upgrade one of those any more easily that I could a Mac Pro. Of course you could, you use me. I've got shedloads of workstation components
Norphy Posted April 16, 2014 Posted April 16, 2014 So if I bought a Dell Precision workstation today and in five years time I wanted to swap out the motherboard put in the current generation of CPUs, I could do that? Not from what I've seen. In my experience they use proprietary form factor motherboards. Yes, I'd be able to upgrade the CPUs, RAM etc to whatever the motherboard supports but I could do that with a Mac Pro. However that wouldn't be much of an upgrade. I'd still have to buy a new workstation if I wanted a meaningful upgrade.
ICTDirect_Dave Posted April 16, 2014 Posted April 16, 2014 the cases for the dells are pretty standard so yeah could could probably swap them out for a newer board, and I've got hundreds of dells to choose from Though I'm talking more about putting 56 series xeons in as upgrades for 55 series and such like. We do that all the time. and it's a significant upgrade if you're jumping from a 5520 to a 5650!
Norphy Posted April 16, 2014 Posted April 16, 2014 Yes but you could do that with a Mac Pro as well, albeit it's a lot more fiddly as you have to delid the CPU.
ICTDirect_Dave Posted April 16, 2014 Posted April 16, 2014 Yes but you could do that with a Mac Pro as well, albeit it's a lot more fiddly as you have to delid the CPU. True, we do ram and CPU kits for Mac Pros all the time but we're cheaper than Apple. 1
mac_shinobi Posted April 16, 2014 Posted April 16, 2014 Ugh no! I get the idea, but the price is even more ridiculous than a stabdard mbp. Also it's a non-retina model with SATA3 SSDs, I'll stick with my iPad & mpb thanks. Which is why I originally suggested a tablet with bluetooth peripherals ie keyboard etc I just posted that to show that it is possible ( if you have enough money ) and don't mind them taking apart the apple laptop to convert it into an MBP with the digitiser etc, it does state that it in-validates the apple warranty but they do cover you with there own one year warranty Yea I agree , easier to use a tablet
mac_shinobi Posted April 16, 2014 Posted April 16, 2014 (edited) True, we do ram and CPU kits for Mac Pros all the time but we're cheaper than Apple. @ICTDirect_Dave ?? For which year mac pro's , how much for and how much are each mac pro's etc etc. PM me if thats easier etc Edited April 16, 2014 by mac_shinobi
ICTDirect_Dave Posted April 16, 2014 Posted April 16, 2014 To clarify, we have components that will fit any mac pro that fits in the massive aluminium tower. So if you need an ECC RAM or Xeon CPU upgrade I'm your man 1
seawolf Posted April 16, 2014 Posted April 16, 2014 Forever a Mac Fan - http://img829.imageshack.us/img829/7879/mact.jpg Yes, Mac Pros have always been expensive, but there are a few reasons for that and a few things that make this (VERY dated, Circa 2010 at best) analysis overly simplistic and actually pointless. 1. The Mac Pro has one of the best designed and solidly built cases of any desktop computer ever made. It's a tank with very nice drive caddies, easy to add extra cards, drives, and RAM and a very effective, very quiet fan. It's also very nice looking. 2. ECC RAM is server-grade and not cheap. Xeon processors aren't cheap, especially when the Nehelem was just released. Who ever upgrades RAM from the manufacturer anyway when it's as easy to upgrade as it is in the Mac Pro? 3. Who buys 4 HDDs from the computer manufacturer unless it's for a server, SAN, or high-end NAS? It's always cheaper somewhere else. And it only takes a few minutes to install drives in the drive caddies in a Mac Pro. 4. Complaining about a small price premium over the best retail price available (or vs used GPUs no less) for GPUs, on a $3,000+ computer - give me a break. But, hey the author of this comparison is in luck now because they can save $2,000 off the retail price for the 2 GPUs offered in the new Mac Pro... 5. The Mac Pro lasts for eons, as it should for the price. The build quality is absolutely outstanding on them and I (or companies I have managed them for) have owned 12 PowerMac G5s and Intel Mac Pros since 2006. Each one lasted 8-9 years before I sold them or gave them away in the end. Only one had a hardware failure of any kind and that was in a G5 model that had the power supply go after 5 years. Repaired it and sold it 3 years later still going string. I have two early 2010 models that have not had a single problem and I expect they won't until I retire them in 2 years or so. So, yes you do pay a premium for a Mac Pro, but this is one case where you do get what you pay for. The new Mac Pro appears to make that case more than any Mac Pro before it too.
matt40k Posted April 16, 2014 Posted April 16, 2014 I'm actually getting tempted to get a Mac after reading this. Don't get me wrong, I love my Windows PC and it'll always be no1, but its tempting me. Can't decide if I should get a MacBook Air or a Mac Mini - the mini has the upgradable RAM, it's just the whole monitor issue. Urks me the new laptops don't even allow you to upgrade the RAM, just seems insane!
ICTDirect_Dave Posted April 16, 2014 Posted April 16, 2014 Get a Mac Mini, Direct connect to your TV using HDMI and then use your smartphone and the RemoteMouse app for control (or get the bluetooth keyboard and trackpad). They're great for a media hub, and just all round lovely really.
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