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News & Opinion
Linus Torvalds Loves His 11" MacBook Air
Linus Torvalds, the father of Linux
In a lengthy email interview with TechCrunch's Scott Merrill, Linux
creator Linus Torvalds allows that he's a bit baffled at how nobody
else seems to have done what Apple did with the MacBook Air - even
several years after the Air's first release.
Torvalds pronounces the Air "special" and "ahead of its time",
elaborating that he wants his office to be quiet, with the loudest
thing in the room the occasional purring of the cat, and that when he
travels, he wants to travel light, contending that a notebook weighing
more than a kilo (2.2 lb.) is less than ideal, but at least his
11.6" MacBook Air comes
very close to the magical 1 kg limit.
Torvalds attributes Apple's hardware success to focus, noting that
Apple has rather few SKUs compared to most big computer manufacturers,
and this allows the limited variety of machines Apple does build to be
better than average - a kind of focus that takes guts. He says he's not
an Apple fan, because he thinks they've done some really bad things,
but that he has to give them credit for not just having good designers,
but the guts to go with it, adding that Steve Jobs clearly had a lot to
do with that.
The Linuxmeister expects the MacBook Air form factor will be taken
for granted in a few years. His love for thin-and-light notebooks long
predates the MacBook Air, and it's not like Apple made up the concept,
Apple just executed it well. We could say the same of the iPod, the
smartphone, and the iPad.
Link: An Interview with Linus
Torvalds
Blogger with Failed MacBook Pro Takes on Apple in
Court - and Wins
Blogger Seattle Rex reports that a while back Apple sold him a
$4,000 MacBook Pro with a defective Nvidia 8600M GT GPU, and when it
was discovered that the machine was defective, Apple refused to take it
back and issue a refund, instead promising to replace failed 8600M GT
boards up to four years from date of purchase, and when the board did
fail after three years, Apple refused to replace it, using the fact
that the machine wouldn't boot (due to the failed logic board) to deny
the repair and tried to charge him a tidy sum to have the GPU replaced
notwithstanding that Nvidia
pays for the full repair cost.
Rex sued Apple and, to make a long story short, prevailed in court.
However, the details of what transpired are fascinating and a
cautionary insight on what a consumer is up against in product
liability disputes with Cupertino. For one thing, Rex came to a
realization that Apple has a strong expectation that its users will not
be tech-savvy and, consequently, seems used to infantilizing and
bamboozling its customers with silly and nonsensical explanations of
highly technical matters.
Even though he's glad things turned out the way they did, one
question still nags: "Why did it have to come to this?" - especially
since one of the Apple lawyers admitted to the judge that it wouldn't
have cost the company anything to fix his computer, since Nvidia foots
the bill for every defective GPU board they replace. So why did Apple
send two presumably highly-paid representatives to court to try to make
sure Rex got absolutely nothing? And why did Apple fight so hard
against him when they were clearly in the wrong.
"As far as I can tell," says Seattle Rex, "Apple spent all of this
time and money, solely to be a bully," asserting that "Apple has become
the Orwellian nightmare that it warned us about some 30 years ago. A
huge vehicle of sameness backed by legions of newthink practitioners,
gleefully cheering as Big Bully annihilates one thoughtcriminal after
another."
Link: Seattle
Rex vs. Apple: The Verdict Is In
AnandTech: Ivy Bridge CPUs 'A Bridge to a New World
of Notebooks'
For definitive and authoritative reviews of Intel's new Ivy Bridge
CPU offerings, check out what AnandTech's Anand Lal Shimpi and Ryan
Smith have to say, citing "a reasonable increase in CPU performance, a
big step in GPU performance, and a decrease in power consumption," and
noting that while the previous generation Sandy Bridge silicon was a
bridge to a new architecture, Ivy Bridge connects a different set of
things and will serve as a bridge to 22nm technology to come with the
next generation Haswell - a bridge to a new world of notebooks that
will be significantly thinner and more power efficient than what we
have today, and nothing less than the next chapter in the evolution of
the PC.
Link:
The Intel Ivy Bridge (Core i7 3770K) Review
Rumor Roundup
Next MacBook Pro's Battery Life May Improve with
New Power Management Technologies
International Business Times' Lisa Eadicicco reports that in
addition to speculation about an overhauled design and Intel's latest
generation Ivy Bridge CPUs for the anticipated MacBook Pro redesign,
improved battery life may also be in the offing. Ms. Eadicicco cites an
AppleInsider report that Apple is exploring new power management
technologies that would allow devices to be "more efficient and run
even longer on battery power," and has advertised a new job position
for a "Senior DC-DC Power System Design Engineer," whose duties would
primarily involve "(advanced) DC-DC power design and development for
Apple's next generation Macintosh platforms, spanning from notebook
computers, desktop computers, servers and standalone displays."
Link: MacBook Pro Release Date 2012:
Battery Life May Improve with Apple's New 'Power Management
Technologies'
'Heavily Redesigned' Mac Laptops Coming with Ivy
Bridge
International Business Times' Dave Smith observes that it's been
quite some time since Apple overhauled its MacBook Pro laptops, but
several sources close to Apple are currently telling customers to hold
off on buying a Mac, as Apple is expected to roll out "heavily
redesigned" laptops in the coming months powered by Intel's latest Ivy
Bridge chip, as well as featuring second-generation Thunderbolt I/O
connectivity, a lighter and thinner frame, better battery life, and
possibly even a full surface trackpad.
Smith cites Wall Street Journal columnist and veteran Apple watcher
Walt Mossberg advising: "If you're thinking of buying a new laptop this
spring, my advice is to think again. Apple is overdue for redesigned
laptops, especially in its MacBook Pro line, and it is a good bet that
new, possibly heavily redesigned, models will begin appearing later
this year. Current Macs will likely be upgradable to [Mac OS X 10.8] Mountain Lion, but
if you buy now, you'll miss out on the likely new hardware." '
Mr. Mossberg is quoted noting that Ivy Bridge CPUs are claimed to
offer much faster graphics performance without sacrificing battery
life, and that "While some Ivy Bridge laptops will be available very
soon, the new chips won't show up in large numbers of consumer laptops
until around June. So, even before Windows 8 appears, many consumer
laptops you buy now will be outclassed by similar machines that will be
introduced this summer."
Smith also reports that Ivy Bridge silicon will not only boost
graphics power and multimedia processing by some 65% over the last
generation Intel chips, but is also the first CPU developed by Intel to
employ 3D transistors and the first to natively support USB 3.0.
Sources from Apple's Asian supply chains claim the new MacBook Pro
laptops will feature a Retina Display resolution of 2800 x 1800 pixels
compared with current MacBook display resolutions ranging from 1680 x
1050 to 1280 x 800.
Link: Apple MacBook Pro Release Date
2012: 'Heavily Redesigned' Mac Laptops Coming with Ivy Bridge, New
Thunderbolt
17" MacBook Pro on the Way Out?
New rumor/speculation buzz this week suggests that the 17" MacBook Pro model
will be discontinued later this year after being passed over for the
anticipated redesign its 13" and 15" will soon receive.
KGI Securities Ming-Chi Koi analyst is cited predicting on Monday
that Apple will drop the largest MacBook Pro model due to recent slow
sales. Apple has offered a 17" professional laptop model since the
17" PowerBook G4
debuted at Macworld Expo in 2003, evolving through several PowerPC
iterations and two distinct Intel-based form factors. The current 17"
Unibody design was originally released in October 2008 and has received
several speed bumps and updates over the past three and a half
years.
Publisher's note: Despite ongoing rumors that the desktop Mac Pro will be discontinued due to
poor sales, it hasn't happened yet. With prices starting at $2,500 and
rapidly shooting skyward, it's a very profitable machine that also
keeps pros buying Macs, so Apple has no good reason to discontinue it.
Ditto for the 17" MacBook Pro, which has the same starting price as the
Mac Pro. dk
Link: Apple Will Finally Kill Off
the 17-Inch MacBook Pro This Year - Analyst
Link: Apple Predicted to Discontinue
17-inch MacBook Pro
Tech Trends
Could Ultrathin 'Value' Notebooks Threaten Intel
Ultrabooks' Success?
PC Mag's Tim Bajarin suggests that PC vendors will release cheapo
thin-and-light laptops that will undercut the price of Intel's
Ultrabooks.
Bajarin notes that major Windows PC makers are using Intel's
Ultrabook spec to design some of the best laptops ever seen in the
Windows space, models that represent the future of all
clamshell-based laptops, but that vendors can't use Intel's Ultrabook
trademark unless their laptops conform to the chipmaker's established
specifications, which include Intel chipsets, and that means Ultrabooks
come at steep prices ranging from $699 to $1,199.
However, he says says that some of PC vendors are planning new sleek
and relatively thin laptops they're calling "ultrathin value notebooks"
that should be priced somewhere in the $349 to $599 range, further
noting that laptops selling in the $299 to $599 price range currently
represent 70% of all laptops sold around the world. Bajarin also notes
that these "ultrathin value notebooks" will not be just upsized
netbooks, but that many of the designs he's seen - especially ones
powered by certain AMD processors - are actually pretty powerful, and
while a bit thicker than the Intel Ultrabook's maximum of 22nm, they
represent a vast improvement over today's thicker laptops, although
perhaps with not quite the battery life you would get in a real
Ultrabook.
He also expects some Windows on ARM (WOA) notebooks to debut priced
at no more than $599 and cites obvious concern that if a raft of
low-cost ultrathins come out about the same time as Ultrabooks, they
could undermine Intel's target for Ultrabooks to become 40% of the
notebook market over the first year they're available.
Or not.
Link: Could Ultrathin
Value Notebooks Threaten Intel Ultrabooks' Success?
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