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shteeve's picture

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shteeve

8 months ago

in Coal or Gifts aside, Santa Steve was on stage today. on Macgasm
i've been contemplating the purchase of a notebook for a while now. with regards to the new ones:

i use the chicklet style keyboard at work and already prefer it to anything else i've ever used - but thats a personal opinion and i respect the loyalists to the scissor switch style of previous mbp keyboards (also great to type on, but a pain to keep clean).

i work in video by trade, but not as a colourist, and i have a nice matte cinema display to hook up when it counts. my roommate has a glossy imac which looks nice enough to me, so again i'd be ok with the new models - but i fully support those who find it unacceptable. apple should have found a way to keep the matte option alive for people bothered by reflections and people who prefer it for colour work.

so technically i'd be ok with the new mbp, but i am irked for 2 reasons:
1) they cut firewire from the new macbook, which feels like a measure designed solely to force people who have already invested in firewire devices to pony up for the mbp when the macbook specs would otherwise meet their needs. shitty tactics in my book. the reduction to a single fw800 port on the mpb is a little more flexible, but still falls sort of a proper pro-level solution.

2) they upped the prices as you noted and hobbled the student discount... or ahem... the "parents who happen to be teachers" discount, now that i'm graduated ;) combined with their less pro-like qualities, this is a bit of a turn off.

so in conclusion, apple of late seems to exude a "screw the long term customer in favour of making new ones" approach, which makes me wonder if they'll retain their current ubiquity amongst media professionals. and yet, i'm still chomping the bit for getting hold of one of these new systems. they really are a bit of a cult, aren't they?

1 year ago

in iPhone 2.0 announcement made me really sad. on Macgasm
i'm glad you've justified it for yourself. :P your original point is still ridiculous, though. i have a rogers pay as you go phone and i begrudgingly spend $10 a month. not everyone is able to spare $90/mo to support their twitter habit.

the bottom line is that the iphone is what it is, a relatively luxury niche product. there is no reason the ipod touch cannot successfully inhabit its own niche (people who'd simply like a nice portable media player and don't need or can't afford a full blown internet communications device)
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macgasm's picture
macgasm I'm trying everything in my power to justify it at this point... but it's bloody difficult. My line of reasoning is that i'm stuck paying that price already, so it would be the same price to carry on. Sadly, that price does not include any Twitter messages. I'd be freak'n broke in no time. I haven't done much research on other carriers for data plans, but I know that my sister pays close to that amount for her Blackberry on the Telus network.

I think the key problem here is that Canadian cellular service providers just don't get that these have become consumer devices... and that it's not just businesses shelling out for these capabilities any more.

I think my logic in the post still stands. Maybe it's worth it now in Canada to keep the Touch around at the price that it currently is, but as data plans come down (god I hope they do), the divide will close. Product lines will need to be differentiated or altered to incorporate that, much like the difference between the nano and the classic has now. Much high capacities in the Touch will surely accomplish that.
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