peharri
Nov 25, 09:06 PM
Consider this. Let's say Apple does something along the lines we're predicting, and sells their phones. Before we plunk down our money, we go around to the various cell carriers and inquire if they'll let us bring our phone to their network. They say either "NO!" or "Not at this time."
The only mobile carriers in a position to do this are the cdmaOne/CDMA2000 ones (Verizon, Sprint PCS, etc.) If Apple makes a GSM or UMTS phone, the carrier has little or no say in whether you use it. T-Mobile and Cingular will, by next year, be running both types of network in the US, and both already run GSM.
The real influence the cellphone companies (at least, the ones not stuck in the 1980s as far as their network infrastructure goes) have on phone purchasing is the ability to subsidize phones that fit their model. This, in practice, usually means rebranding. Cingular is pretty good on that score and rarely insists on more than some ugly logos printed on the phone (unfortunately their network is not the greatest GSM implementation in the world.) T-Mobile, in my experience, is somewhat worse, though not always for bad reasons. For example, they'd probably insist on "My Faves", a proprietary five person phonebook, being grafted on to whatever UI an "iPhone" has, in return for any substantial subsidy.
The fact Apple can't expect carriers to subsidize their phones is one issue they have to deal with. I'm more concerned though with Apple becoming a minority player, with its phone tied to a music store whose success was, in major part, to do with the giant marketshare it had, and thus Jobs's ability to force the labels to compromise on prices.
What would make absolutely more sense is for Apple to simply start up their own network. They've already acquired some assets in this area, haven't they? So why not bide their time until they can really roll the thing out? And since it is relatively common practice for cell towers to have more than one (sometimes several) carriers' equipment mounted on them, Apple could buy into who's-ever network they needed to get one of the "lesser third party" broadcast equipment sets that's already out there among the masses.
Apple would need not merely infrastructure but spectrum to actually start a carrier. They have neither.
Purchasing a carrier is an interesting pipe dream and would terrify the crap out of most shareholders. Mobile telephony is a long term thing, with very little return on investment yet for most people who've invested in it. It's not even a good time to get involved, most companies are rolling out 3G networks and 4G, in the shape of WiMAX, is already being released in some areas.
Were they to do the carrier thing, the best they could hope for would be to be an MVNO. This would be a major change of business model. It has so many ramifications I don't know where to begin.
The only mobile carriers in a position to do this are the cdmaOne/CDMA2000 ones (Verizon, Sprint PCS, etc.) If Apple makes a GSM or UMTS phone, the carrier has little or no say in whether you use it. T-Mobile and Cingular will, by next year, be running both types of network in the US, and both already run GSM.
The real influence the cellphone companies (at least, the ones not stuck in the 1980s as far as their network infrastructure goes) have on phone purchasing is the ability to subsidize phones that fit their model. This, in practice, usually means rebranding. Cingular is pretty good on that score and rarely insists on more than some ugly logos printed on the phone (unfortunately their network is not the greatest GSM implementation in the world.) T-Mobile, in my experience, is somewhat worse, though not always for bad reasons. For example, they'd probably insist on "My Faves", a proprietary five person phonebook, being grafted on to whatever UI an "iPhone" has, in return for any substantial subsidy.
The fact Apple can't expect carriers to subsidize their phones is one issue they have to deal with. I'm more concerned though with Apple becoming a minority player, with its phone tied to a music store whose success was, in major part, to do with the giant marketshare it had, and thus Jobs's ability to force the labels to compromise on prices.
What would make absolutely more sense is for Apple to simply start up their own network. They've already acquired some assets in this area, haven't they? So why not bide their time until they can really roll the thing out? And since it is relatively common practice for cell towers to have more than one (sometimes several) carriers' equipment mounted on them, Apple could buy into who's-ever network they needed to get one of the "lesser third party" broadcast equipment sets that's already out there among the masses.
Apple would need not merely infrastructure but spectrum to actually start a carrier. They have neither.
Purchasing a carrier is an interesting pipe dream and would terrify the crap out of most shareholders. Mobile telephony is a long term thing, with very little return on investment yet for most people who've invested in it. It's not even a good time to get involved, most companies are rolling out 3G networks and 4G, in the shape of WiMAX, is already being released in some areas.
Were they to do the carrier thing, the best they could hope for would be to be an MVNO. This would be a major change of business model. It has so many ramifications I don't know where to begin.
DwightSchrute
Jul 22, 02:44 PM
Why does everyone want Apple to change the enclosure of the MBP when it's already perfect?
scottsjack
Apr 21, 04:03 PM
As an MP owner it of course sounds great to me. I really get sick hearing about iToys, some of which I own and love. If Apple would produce both the traditional Mac Pro and a rack mount version each configured to their specific duties that would be the best. As a mat screen user it's either Mac Pro, Mac mini or Windows for me. In spite of the fact that Windows 7 is pretty great to use I'd MUCH, MUCH rather stay with Mac.
peeInMyPantz
Jul 30, 10:37 PM
5 megapixel seems unrealistic for a cellphone camera right now, but it would sure be nice, I have a 1.3 megapixel camera on my phone, just because it's 1.3 megapixels doesn't mean it's good quality, how do we know that the 5 megapixel camera will be any better? could be as grainy or worse as a low end VGA/megapixel camera :( but knowing Apple, some people will pay a shiny red cent for high quality camera anyways (esp Apple fans)
I disagree for inability to do texting, say if you are in a different country, where it costs say $3/minute just to call someone, or 50c just to send a text message (receiving is usually free), big difference if you just want to send a message of "I'm at the door" or "I'm leaving right now", I'm currently paying for long distance since I'm in a part of Canada that is not my home region, any time someone not from the area I'm in calls ME, I pay for it, and any time I call someone from home, I pay for it as well, so text messaging has really cut down on bills, I don't go over my minutes as much anymore with texting, since 90% of my calls were 1 minute or less calls, so thats where text messaging comes in handy. Although I would rather use a blackberry-like device with free email (if there was such thing, or have an email-only plan that doesnt require a data plan, like text messages)
y not? there are already 6 mega pixels camera phones
I disagree for inability to do texting, say if you are in a different country, where it costs say $3/minute just to call someone, or 50c just to send a text message (receiving is usually free), big difference if you just want to send a message of "I'm at the door" or "I'm leaving right now", I'm currently paying for long distance since I'm in a part of Canada that is not my home region, any time someone not from the area I'm in calls ME, I pay for it, and any time I call someone from home, I pay for it as well, so text messaging has really cut down on bills, I don't go over my minutes as much anymore with texting, since 90% of my calls were 1 minute or less calls, so thats where text messaging comes in handy. Although I would rather use a blackberry-like device with free email (if there was such thing, or have an email-only plan that doesnt require a data plan, like text messages)
y not? there are already 6 mega pixels camera phones
ChrisA
Nov 26, 09:25 PM
If the tablet had built-in Bluetooth and could use a wireless keyboard and mouse then it could replace a notebook computer. Maybe the keyboard snaps on and acts as a cover for the tablet screen. Maybe it's like a Macbook that come apart at the hingebut also you can write on the screen. You have to figure Apple is doing something different but yet this thing still runs the same Mac OS X Leopard as the other Macs.
ste1989
May 9, 09:41 AM
I don't know if anyone has mentioned this so far, but to me it is very obvious the reason why some features will be free.
The iChat and a/v integration on the next iphone.
Obviously iChat needs either a mobile me email address, or an AIM username, or some other less common ones.
Needless to say, AIM is not very popular outside of USA. Everyone uses hotmail or gmail afaik.
If they really want to plug the new iChat, they need to get as many people using it as possible, so therefore the @me email addresses will probably become free, and maybe more features with it
The iChat and a/v integration on the next iphone.
Obviously iChat needs either a mobile me email address, or an AIM username, or some other less common ones.
Needless to say, AIM is not very popular outside of USA. Everyone uses hotmail or gmail afaik.
If they really want to plug the new iChat, they need to get as many people using it as possible, so therefore the @me email addresses will probably become free, and maybe more features with it
kre62
Apr 18, 04:13 PM
Call me crazy, but I think this might lend creedence to the thought that iPhone 5 will come out this summer...
How are these connected?
Well I've been thinking that Apple really wants to show the world, investors, etc, that it can still keep secrets after the i4 debacle last year. I think its possible they have changed suppliers in an atempt to stop the leaks. They might also be fueling the disinformation campaign that puts the 5 in October.
The fact that they are now suing Samsung, and waited this long, might give validity to this theory, as they did not want to sue them while Sammy was still a key supplier for them.
Something to think about.
How are these connected?
Well I've been thinking that Apple really wants to show the world, investors, etc, that it can still keep secrets after the i4 debacle last year. I think its possible they have changed suppliers in an atempt to stop the leaks. They might also be fueling the disinformation campaign that puts the 5 in October.
The fact that they are now suing Samsung, and waited this long, might give validity to this theory, as they did not want to sue them while Sammy was still a key supplier for them.
Something to think about.
kavika411
Mar 29, 08:59 AM
Also, why would I only want my music accessible when I have internet? Any road trips from where I live (Utah) generally put me in EDGE territory which won't be consistently fast enough to stream the audio at enough quality, let alone the fact that there are several dead spots along the way. I'll stick to having my music on my iPhone. No buffer, no stutter, no data usage. Oh, yeah. That. Data usage. With carriers bottlenecking you now, you think they'll favor Amazon cloud delivery for people who want to stream their music all day long? They (Amazon) will probably also do some more compression on the files so it'll sound like listening to your music in a tin can.
I have similar concerns. I'm betting (and I may not be saying anything new here) that Apple will roll out (1) free storage for all iTunes-purchased content, (2) an additional free 10 gigs, (3) tier pricing for additional storage as opposed to Amazon's dollar-per-gig, and (4) it only works - at least initially - when you are on wifi, similar to Facetime. I know that last part will be a deal breaker for a lot of people, but I believe they will be giving this storage/streaming away free for purchased items plus 10 gigs of other stuff at least and, therefore, it will have at least some value since it is free. And I do believe it will be a free method for wireless synching somehow.
Anyway, jus' speculatin'.
I have similar concerns. I'm betting (and I may not be saying anything new here) that Apple will roll out (1) free storage for all iTunes-purchased content, (2) an additional free 10 gigs, (3) tier pricing for additional storage as opposed to Amazon's dollar-per-gig, and (4) it only works - at least initially - when you are on wifi, similar to Facetime. I know that last part will be a deal breaker for a lot of people, but I believe they will be giving this storage/streaming away free for purchased items plus 10 gigs of other stuff at least and, therefore, it will have at least some value since it is free. And I do believe it will be a free method for wireless synching somehow.
Anyway, jus' speculatin'.
maclaptop
May 4, 06:01 PM
i would rather have a disc or flash drive.
+1
+1
ivladster
Apr 18, 04:18 PM
The fact that they are now suing Samsung, and waited this long, might give validity to this theory, as they did not want to sue them while Sammy was still a key supplier for them.
Something to think about.
Actually Apple just recently got granted those designs for iOS and iPhone 3GS, they were waiting for US Patent Office to approve them.
Something to think about.
Actually Apple just recently got granted those designs for iOS and iPhone 3GS, they were waiting for US Patent Office to approve them.
macman312
May 4, 08:41 PM
pro: one less disc to keep track of. my family already lost my iWork disc.
cons: what if i want to format the hard drive and restart from scratch? or even just archive and install? what if i completely replace my hard drive? what if i want to sell my mac and get a new one, would i retain the license or would the buyer get it? how would they reinstall the OS after I wipe the hard drive? how long is this going to take to download? will we be able and authorized to burn our own install DVDs from the downloaded software?
No I doubt apple will let us burn our own CD's. Although it is possible. Also I have 4 computers I am planning to put lion on. If I have to download it on each computer it will use all of peoples internet usage up (say it is a 5GB download thats 5*4=20GB) although I have 1TB of usage that won't be a problem just a pain.
SO apple please make it available at your stores and I will be in line on the day it comes out to update my new macbook pro
@KnightWRX- The internet was barley out in the 90's let alone downloading software
cons: what if i want to format the hard drive and restart from scratch? or even just archive and install? what if i completely replace my hard drive? what if i want to sell my mac and get a new one, would i retain the license or would the buyer get it? how would they reinstall the OS after I wipe the hard drive? how long is this going to take to download? will we be able and authorized to burn our own install DVDs from the downloaded software?
No I doubt apple will let us burn our own CD's. Although it is possible. Also I have 4 computers I am planning to put lion on. If I have to download it on each computer it will use all of peoples internet usage up (say it is a 5GB download thats 5*4=20GB) although I have 1TB of usage that won't be a problem just a pain.
SO apple please make it available at your stores and I will be in line on the day it comes out to update my new macbook pro
@KnightWRX- The internet was barley out in the 90's let alone downloading software
Multimedia
Jul 24, 11:55 AM
I sold my PowerMac dual 2.0 last week for top $$ before the new ones are released. Have you ever met anyone who made a profit on a computer 9 months later? Bought the dual processor from the apple store *right* after the dual cores were announced. They took $500 off. I can't believe what people are paying on eBay knowing that the change is days away. But, they still got a great machine below current market value.So how much did you sell it for and what technique did you use to sell it? :)
BYW I would advise against selling a G5 Quad no matter how much more powerful the Intel Quad is. The first and only PPC with 4 cores is a true collectors' item that I would encourage anyone to buy instead of a Conroe Core 2 Duo Mac Pro. 4 cores trumps 2 cores no matter what the processor.
Wonder if that's true or not. :confused: :eek:
BYW I would advise against selling a G5 Quad no matter how much more powerful the Intel Quad is. The first and only PPC with 4 cores is a true collectors' item that I would encourage anyone to buy instead of a Conroe Core 2 Duo Mac Pro. 4 cores trumps 2 cores no matter what the processor.
Wonder if that's true or not. :confused: :eek:
Nuvi
Apr 18, 04:08 PM
couldn't Samsung simply get back at Apple by NOT making Apple's stuff? I mean, come on.
Unfortunately they could. At the moment part manufacturers hold lot of power especially when in comes to screens. In all honesty I find it very strange that Apple hasn't found some other way to deal with Samsung.
If Apple wants high resolution AMOLED screens for their future products then Samsung could easily say "No" just because even with their current pace they are working very hard trying to meet the demand. For example HTC was forced to use Sony SLCD screens for some of their products because Samsung couldn't manufacture enough AMOLED screens to meet the demand for all of their customers.
Unfortunately they could. At the moment part manufacturers hold lot of power especially when in comes to screens. In all honesty I find it very strange that Apple hasn't found some other way to deal with Samsung.
If Apple wants high resolution AMOLED screens for their future products then Samsung could easily say "No" just because even with their current pace they are working very hard trying to meet the demand. For example HTC was forced to use Sony SLCD screens for some of their products because Samsung couldn't manufacture enough AMOLED screens to meet the demand for all of their customers.
tekmoe
Sep 16, 03:07 PM
Quick question,
Is it possible to order online and pick up in a specified store when available?
This would be the most convinient way for me to purchase when the new MBP's come out.
unfortunately, no. wish that option was available.
Is it possible to order online and pick up in a specified store when available?
This would be the most convinient way for me to purchase when the new MBP's come out.
unfortunately, no. wish that option was available.
CalBoy
Apr 14, 03:02 PM
One thing I don't hear in the raising taxes discussion is what we should do with capital gains. That's the reason billionaires pay a paltry 15%. Almost all of their income comes from the selling of assets rather than a salary. Their money works for them, rather than the rest of us who have to work for our money. And for that, we reward them with a super low tax rate. :rolleyes:
It's time to raise the capital gains rate and make it progressively tied to income taxes.
It's time to raise the capital gains rate and make it progressively tied to income taxes.
mi5moav
Sep 11, 01:46 PM
I just want to laugh at everyone when they release the Quicktake videocamera with a 60Gig HD and HD 1/3 CCD. What a beautiful videocamera. Life is good. Of course probably won't see this till Photokina but oh, well.
Next Tuesday
Sep 15, 07:07 PM
Of course MBPs are being updated... I BOUGHT ONE TODAY! :rolleyes:
-Matt
Cross your fingers.
-Matt
Cross your fingers.
Noodlefarmer
Apr 26, 02:39 PM
"15.5" Vaio: 2.4Ghz Core i5, 4gb of Ram, Radeon 5470 512mb $860 Aug/2010. A mac with similar specs, and a weaker GPU would have cost me around a $1,000 extra, so I've been Apple free since Aug 2010.
And yet you can't stay away.
Sad.
And yet you can't stay away.
Sad.
mdriftmeyer
Apr 23, 11:56 PM
They use a lot more CPU time to process though. A JPG can be quickly converted to a bitmap and sent off to the GPU, a vector image has to be rendered before conversion to bitmap. Just imagine moving your mouse over the Dock with magnification on, each icon would need to be re-rendered for every time the mouse moved one pixel. With bitmaps, it's all done by the GPU. When there're hundreds of icons on display at once, that will probably become quite CPU intensive. I'm not surprised KDE supported it, it's open source, and we all know Linux is the king of feature creep.
You said yourself that wallpapers should be vector graphics. And by that, I presumed you meant the background in the subject of the thread. Safari supports SVG, but imo, it's not really a big thing that there's no support for it as a wallpaper. It's not the first thing people think of when they list Snow Leopard's shortcomings :P
What intelligent Developer would use the CPU to convert Vectors -> Bitmaps when they have a GPGPU to do the heavy lifting? Certainly not Apple.
You said yourself that wallpapers should be vector graphics. And by that, I presumed you meant the background in the subject of the thread. Safari supports SVG, but imo, it's not really a big thing that there's no support for it as a wallpaper. It's not the first thing people think of when they list Snow Leopard's shortcomings :P
What intelligent Developer would use the CPU to convert Vectors -> Bitmaps when they have a GPGPU to do the heavy lifting? Certainly not Apple.
ALUOp
May 6, 01:41 AM
This is total BS.
ARM CPUs are far far behind Intel's non-Atom series in terms of performance.
This is due to their RISC architecture. That's also why they consume less power than x86.
If you're saying in 2 years ARM's performance may catch up to current Atom, then, it may be possible.
But compared with Core i series? It's the biggest joke I've ever heard.
ARM CPUs are far far behind Intel's non-Atom series in terms of performance.
This is due to their RISC architecture. That's also why they consume less power than x86.
If you're saying in 2 years ARM's performance may catch up to current Atom, then, it may be possible.
But compared with Core i series? It's the biggest joke I've ever heard.
Tilpots
Apr 9, 09:44 PM
Then we can end this on agreement. I don't believe in it too. My wife should keep her job if and only if she continues to do it well not because its near impossible to fire tenured staff. But don't think I missed your sarcasm...
Yeah for common ground! Our relationship just hit an inception point and I think things are looking up. :)
Yeah for common ground! Our relationship just hit an inception point and I think things are looking up. :)
Andronicus
Mar 28, 09:53 AM
Sort of relieved no iPhone 5 announcements, Im firmly bogged down into a 2 year contract.
There will be an iPhone 5 annoucement. Don't believe everything you read.
There will be an iPhone 5 annoucement. Don't believe everything you read.
SactoGuy18
Apr 16, 12:30 PM
Flat taxes are always very regressive, basically the reason why this is a bad idea, is that the people it effects are mostly the ones who can't afford it. and the rich will just sit on their money and not spend a lot and not benefit the economy.
I'd almost agree but if you look at the Forbes flat income tax plan, the plan has a very generous initial income exemption before the no-deductions flat income tax kicks in (somewhere between US$42,000 to US$44,000 for a family of two adults and two dependents). As such, that right there makes this plan progressive, since low-income households are no longer subject to income tax.
And best of all, with essentially all those complex deductions, exemptions, credits, etc. no longer in the tax code, it means income tax forms will be simple enough that the whole thing for most taxpayers will be not much more than a postcard! :D Just the savings in income tax compliance costs would mean potentially hundreds of billions of dollars now can be used for more productive purposes.
I'd almost agree but if you look at the Forbes flat income tax plan, the plan has a very generous initial income exemption before the no-deductions flat income tax kicks in (somewhere between US$42,000 to US$44,000 for a family of two adults and two dependents). As such, that right there makes this plan progressive, since low-income households are no longer subject to income tax.
And best of all, with essentially all those complex deductions, exemptions, credits, etc. no longer in the tax code, it means income tax forms will be simple enough that the whole thing for most taxpayers will be not much more than a postcard! :D Just the savings in income tax compliance costs would mean potentially hundreds of billions of dollars now can be used for more productive purposes.
phatpat88
Jul 30, 02:12 AM
Frankly, I don't buy engaget's report.. a "tech-unsavvy friend" sounds like complete BS. All the pros that would do something like that for apple would certainly be tech savvy, they have to now...