Linked by Universal Mind on Fri 6th Aug 2010 16:16 UTC
The "Macs are too expensive" argument is one of the most tiresome and long-lived flamewars in internet history. Obviously, Apple makes a premium product and charges premium prices, and you can always find a computer from another vendor that seems to match or exceed specs that costs less. But if you look at Apple's Mac Pro line, and compare it not so much to other vendors, but to the past lineup of Mac Pros, you discover some very unpleasant truths that help explain why Apple is enjoying record earnings for their Mac line, but doing so to the detriment of some its most loyal and valuable customers.
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Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/22/13 22:23 UTC
"Sony gave the PS4 50% more raw shader performance, plain and simple (768 SPs @ 800MHz vs. 1152 SPs & 800MHz). Unlike last generation, you don't need to be some sort of Jedi to extract the PS4's potential here. The Xbox One and PS4 architectures are quite similar, Sony just has more hardware under the hood. Weâll have to wait and see how this hardware delta gets exposed in games over time, but the gap is definitely there. The funny thing about game consoles is that itâs usually the lowest common denominator that determines the bulk of the experience across all platforms. On the plus side, the Xbox One should enjoy better power/thermal characteristics compared to the PlayStation 4. Even compared to the Xbox 360 we should see improvement in many use cases thanks to modern power management techniques." AnandTech does its usual in-depth thing.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/22/13 13:38 UTC
"The Verge has learned that HTC's Chief Product Officer, Kouji Kodera, left the company last week. Kodera was responsible for HTC's overall product strategy, which makes the departure especially notable on the heels of the global launch of the make-or-break One. It's not just Kodera. In the past three-odd months, HTC has lost a number of employees in rapid succession." I really hope HTC pulls it together.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/22/13 13:30 UTC, submitted by JRepin
"It is with huge pleasure that the Debian GNU/Hurd team announces the release of Debian GNU/Hurd 2013. This is a snapshot of Debian 'sid' at the time of the Debian 'wheezy' release (May 2013), so it is mostly based on the same sources. It is not an official Debian release, but it is an official Debian GNU/Hurd port release." Important note: 75% of Debian packages are supported bu Debian GNU/Hurd. Impressive.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/21/13 22:06 UTC
"The first killer app was VisiCalc. This early spreadsheet turned the Apple II from a hobbyist toy to a business computer. VisiCalc came with room for improvement, though. In addition, a new architecture and operating system, the Intel-based IBM PC and MS-DOS, also needed a spreadsheet to be taken seriously. That spreadsheet, released in early 1983, would be Lotus 1-2-3, and it would change the world. It became the PC's killer app, and the world would never be the same. On May 14, IBM quietly announced the end of the road for 1-2-3, along with Lotus Organizer and the Lotus SmartSuite office suite. Lotus 1-2-3's day is done." Impressive 30 year run.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/21/13 21:45 UTC
"There's a disconnect between how Apple CEO Tim Cook sees his company's tax strategies and how some members of the US Senate view it. That became clearer than ever today after Cook and two other Apple executives testified before Congress, explaining why they're holding most of their international income in Irish subsidiaries like Apple Operations International, which declare no tax residency anywhere in the world. AOI hasn't filed a tax return anywhere in the world for the last five years, yet it earned $30 billion in income from 2009 to 2012, according to a Senate report released yesterday." Just because something is legal, doesn't mean it's just. Apple, Google, Microsoft, and many more - these companies might not be breaking any laws, but it's obvious to anyone that what they are doing is scummy.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/21/13 15:53 UTC
The new WebKit Opera for Android has been released. "Opera 14 for Android is built on top of Chromium 26, with a total overhaul of the UI in native code, making it fit well with the latest Android design guidelines. Go get the build from Google Play or point your browser to m.opera.com, and give it a spin!"
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/20/13 22:43 UTC
The Verge pointed me to a blog post by Leap Motion - which reveals how their Kinect-like motion control works with Windows 8. "From the second you plug in your Leap Motion Controller, you'll be able to browse the web and interact with your computer just by moving your hands and fingers in the air. With Leap Motion technology and Windows, you can do everything that's possible with multi-touch inputs - without actually touching anything. This also means that existing applications in Windows 7 and 8 will respond to your natural hand and finger movements. Soon, we'll show you how Leap Motion will work with Mac OS X." Quite cool.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/20/13 21:50 UTC
PocketNow interviews Marc Dillon, and there's an interesting note about why Jolla is keeping the display properties under wraps: "We're leaving some of those details out because we do understand that there are a lot of really big players in the market and they tend to take certain components in the market and dominate them. We created the ability to actually be able to run Sailfish on multiple hardware displays and be able to swap components, so this is part of the demand and supply planning phase. We are committed to this industrial design which is a 4.5-inch display, an 8 megapixel camera on the back and a front-facing camera at the front, and the exact specs of the display we'll provide when we're close to delivery." Something you rarely hear anything about.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/19/13 23:15 UTC
"This is my NeXTstation Turbo Color booting the Mac System 7.1 Operating System using a hardware add-on called 'Daydream'. The Daydream has a Mac ROM and a few custom ICs in it and hooked up to the NeXTs DSP port. Turns your NeXT into a full fledged 68k powered Mac." So cool.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/19/13 23:11 UTC, submitted by Drumhellar
"The NetBSD Project is pleased to announce NetBSD 6.1, the first feature update of the NetBSD 6 release branch. It represents a selected subset of fixes deemed important for security or stability reasons, as well as new features and enhancements. Please note that all fixes in the prior security/bugfix updates (NetBSD 6.0.1 and 6.0.2) are also in 6.1."More News »
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2010-07-31
Yes MacPros are very overpriced. I started using Macs in 2005 too and got hooked to the slick OS, UI etc. But back in 2005 the difference between an iMac/MacBook Pro and a similarly configured Dell/HP as about $200-300. Which was ok for me given the nicer user experience.
I never bothered to compare the MacPro with a similar config earlier. After reading this article I did quick comparison today - it is not pretty (at the end of the post).
Compared to a (assemble yourself) similar tech config (except OS) MacPro is ~59% more expensive!!
Does anyone have similar comparison for an iMac or MacBook Pro equivalent?
Yes Macs are more expensive - but I have enjoyed using them. Prior to Macs I used Debian, Ubuntu, almost exclusively (I was a grad student with lots of time to tinker :-)). And at work Windows XP. By far Mac OS X has been the most trouble free experience.
Yes I have heard the arguments - Win7 is great and that Ubuntu can now configure almost anything painlessly. Once in a while I check those out again and still find them a little short of the OS X experience. But that alone is not enough to justify a 59% markup!! So I will almost never buy a MacPro.
(Win7 - I have to use it at work and it is dog slow on my very decent desktop.)
I do not need a quad/oct core beast for even the development work I do. Infact, I would like to develop on a machine config that is closer to what my users will run the application on so a Mac Pro is certainly out.
As part of my day job I have analyzed/benchmarked several client applications. They are *not* highly threaded (2-3 threads at most, and do not scale). Cinebench and Povray are exceptions that scale with the number of cores. Most other applications are not - this is from practical experience benchmarking and studying applicatons.
Unless you have a special application, that you use, which will scale to 8 threads etc it is not worth buying a 8-threaded beast. Even four threads will be over kill for most people but it is not too expensive.
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A config similar to a Mac Pro (with a ATI card) that is priced $2700
Intel Xeon E5640 2.66GHz 12 MB L3 $799.99 [1]
ATI Radeon HD 4870 $144.99 [2]
2GB Kingston SDRAM ECC DDR3 1066 - $69.99 [3]
1GB should roughly be - $35
Hard Disk: $74.99 [4]
DVD writer: $31.99 [5]
Motherboard: $139.99 [6]
Keyboard: $29 [7]
Mouse: $19.95
Case etc (I'll be generous): $150
Win7 (Home Premium) = $199.99
$800+ $145 + 70 + 35 + 75 + + 32 + 140 + + 29 + 20 + 150 + 200 = 1696
Total: 1696
(2700-1700)/1700 = 59%
1. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819117232
2. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150436&cm_...
3. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820134942&cm_...
4. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136319
5. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827106335&cm_...
6. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128412
7. http://www.amazon.com/Microsoft-A11-00337-Natural-Keyboard-Elite/dp...
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