I know that they aren't getting my money for a while because I fear betting on the loser. So, I'll wait, as will most of people I know. Nobody wants to give either side a try.
All this bickering about the Quad part. Lets see, each core has their own L1 cache and a shared L2 cache. A shared L2 cache actually increases performance. On top of that, they have high speed, on chip, interconnects. So, two cores on the same CPU perform equally or better than a two cores on two CPUs. So, shame on Apple for claiming that the four xeon system will perform equally or better than any other four xeon system. The BASTARDS!
If your mouse won't do the two finger scroll or your have the Whining issue from the brightness of the display, call up apple and have it fixed. The only thing they won't fix is the CPU whine. (Just make sure you tell them to replace your inverter board if you have theh brightness whine.)
Comparable Laptops on the market: * Dell XPS M1710 Starting $3,000 * Lenovo ThinkPad T60 (closest at only 14.1" and no DL burner) $2,200 * Sony VAIO FE590PA (closest at 15.4", no DVI out, no dedicated VRAM, 512 RAM) $2,200 * Fujitsu N6410 (only dual 1.66, no bluetooth) $2,000
The Core Duo is expensive sorry to say. There is no mythical $900 out of the box Core Duo. Those are single core Pentium M machinem which can't hold a candle to a Core Duo. While the Macbook Pro 17" is by no means "cheap", its by no means extremely over priced.
You can't even compare strait out hardware prices. OS X has a developement cost, and it is not cheap. Dell doesn't have to write an OS. They just liscense it from Microsoft, pay a minimal fee, and move on. OS X is sold to many less people, so those people have to pay a little more to cover the developement costs. Same with iLife. These programs don't write themselves.
Oh yeah, and the whole "Glad to see I am not the only person seeing Apple's plan to sell their piece of shit hardware as the "BMWs" of computers is back firing." Explain to me how record sales last year and this for Apple is backfiring?
I love how people are like "Oh this is stupid, you can just emulate it on your xbox/computer." Honestly, how many people do this? Not many. This brings the old systems back to people who don't know that emulators exist, or where to find roms, or even how to use a PC (let along mod an xbox). Which, lets be honest, is most people.
I know for a fact that my father (50 yrs old) would love to play the old games, but put him infront of an IE browser and say "find marble madness and play it" he would give up after 10 minutes, but he would pay 2 bucks to get it without hassle.
Its the same idea behind iTunes, make something easy and fast, people will pay for it. I know I can find the song in MP3, but, hell, I don't really feel like dealing with finding it.
There will be no way Apple could open the DRM up. That would break contracts with the RIAA. No offense to the rest of the world, but do you think an American Corperation, making most of its money off of Americans is going to give two shits about France?
Sigh, sometimes I just have to shake my head. The basic problem is that the CPUs are not being used in any form of low power mode. They are being used as generic X86s. This means they are running SIGNIFIGANTLY warmer than they do in OS X. The same basic concept happens when you run a game or other CPU intensive application. The CPU cannot use any of its tricks to cool down, so it warms up. Is it dangerous? Running Warcraft makes my Macbook burning hot to the touch, but they are made to handle these high temps. For it to damage anything, it has to get REALLY hot. 140 degrees F is a walk in the park to electronics. If it gets hot enough to damage, the firmware steps in and turn the machine off. So, no, Windows will not melt anything and the fans work just fine.
THEY ARE NOT OS CONTROLLED!
Could you imagine what would happen if lets say something really strange happened, like windows locked up on a laptop. When was the last time we had thousand of laptops burting into flames? Lets think people before we speak.
"I've found myself using my PC for a lot of conversations lately, and I'm also considering recording a podcast to share with anyone who will listen. There are tons of USB headset / microphones out there, and I'm hoping someone has some solid recommendations based on experience. I'll consider both headsets and standalone mics, by the way, but I'd like to keep the bill under $100 if possible. Help!"
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