Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Apple Lowers Prices on PowerBooks...12" and 15"

Originally posted by -hh
FYI, you got those quotes transposed. How annoying :)
Click to expand...

Whoooops...sorry about that, it's trying to negotiate many threads again, I should stick to one. (I originally put "to the poster who said", but then deceided it was rude :))

My point with the 533Mhz is to hightlight it because the average Joe is simply not aware of it.
Click to expand...
Perhaps not, but I'm sure that eventually, they will stumble across it. Personally when I get a new machine I'm looking at every single file, check box and hack I can get at, but I realise not everyone is as interested (or sad) as me.

I see your point on the advertisement, of battery life at least, but I think everyone takes it with a pinch of salt. Catalytic converters only work in cars when they've reached 150/240 oC, do car companies advertise "catalytic converter...greatly reduces harmful emmissions...um...only on long journeys though. cough."?

Thanks for the PC card ideas, also to the other poster (not risking messing up names again!)

Security devices is a good idea, one that I hadn't thought of.

AppleMatt
 
i *think* refurbs listed on the Apple Online store is not always a refurb...

example: i remember lowest end 700 MHz iBooks coming up in the refurb section after they were speed bumped to 800 MHz. these could be:

1) brand new, never delivered
2) brand new, delivered then returned unopened during the 10 day policy
3) delivered, opened and returned during the 10 day policy

i know many of us who visit a site such as MR would definitely return a machine if upgraded within 10 days of purchase, but i am not so sure about "average" consumers. i'm kind of tempted to think that they wouldn't bother checking... so maybe many of these refurbs fall under category 1) and are actually brand new...

they got the same warranty as a brand new machine. so i think they are a good deal whether they are sparkling clean brand new or not... Just my opinion.
 
Thanks for the clarification.

Guess I'll wait three weeks and if no 970s are announced...will snap up a 1 GHz $1300...
 
while the UK has just received reductions today... £100...

The gap between US and UK prices increase as it is now £300 of a price difference that is $490!

In the US I am sure you could bye a computer for that...
 
Originally posted by jxyama
battery life is listed as "up to x hours" and NOT "x hours."
Click to expand...


Sure, but its called fraud when the consumer can not reasonably achieve the advertised claim.


FWIW, my business Laptop is a Sony VAIO (505 something) and I've never gotten anywhere even close to their "up to" battery life claims, no matter what settings I've tried. Its more than merely "damn annoying" to only get ~1 hour from a "3 hour" battery. Suffice to say that we're not buying any more Sony's.



-hh
 
Originally posted by -hh
FWIW, my business Laptop is a Sony VAIO (505 something) and I've never gotten anywhere even close to their "up to" battery life claims, no matter what settings I've tried.
Click to expand...

I get 8 1/2 hours out of my new ipod. Thats with it running all day, flipping through songs and using the back light. So, mine gets better battery life than claimed. But lets get back to the topic.
 
-hh

nothing in the specs says you'll get the battery life up to x hours (implying it's the upper limit) under "regular" use. it's a MAXIMUM. if a laptop achieved the max. battery life under regular use, it's not really the maximum, is it?

since "regular use" would be different for everyone, it would really make some users with more demanding "regular" use mad if the advertisement said "x hours under regular usage" and they didn't get it. it's far safer for the companies to list the max. they reasonably achieve and assume that people understand the conditions it was achieved under.

besides, if only apple advertised the typical battery life (instead of the max.), other companies would grab that information and run with it.

i think calling it a fraud would be a bit strong. i see your point and frustration, but i don't think it's worth fuming over...

btw, i've gotten as much as 4.5 hours on my 12" PB (with an advertised max. of 5) when i used very light apps, not much HD access, no wireless and screen dimmed.
how long have you had your vaio? battery performance degrades quite noticeably, you know?
 
why the 17" price wasn't dropped...

so everyone can stop their guessing, the reason why the 17" price wasn't dropped is stated in this CNN article:

http://www.cnn.com/2003/TECH/biztech/06/03/apple.prices.reut/index.html

in short: ..."Joswiak said that Apple did not cut the price of the 17-inch PowerBook because it was still a good value at that cost.

"It's going strong at that price," Joswiak said. "It's been selling very well." "

hope this clears some stuff up...

i'm waiting for my 15" 970! BTW... has anyone been over to the education store lately? if you buy a laptop and iPod together by Sept. 23rd, you get a mail in rebate for $200... that's a sweet deal, considering the substantial discounts you're already getting in the education store.
 
Originally posted by jxyama
nothing in the specs says you'll get the battery life up to x hours (implying it's the upper limit) under "regular" use. it's a MAXIMUM. if a laptop achieved the max. battery life under regular use, it's not really the maximum, is it?
Click to expand...

This discussion is very much like debating automotive MPG.

Particularly since before the EPA published how the MPG test was to be run, various manufacturers were free to define their MPG test however they liked, and some "cheated" in order to claim high benchmarks.

One classic example from circa 1970 was a Volkswagon TV advertisement for their Beetle (the original one) where they showed how they were able to get it to achieve 80+ MPG. They then said that that while that test was technically true, it was highly unrealistic, closed the ad with the statement of "An HONEST 30mpg" (sic).

In Computers, there have been "oddities" found in various benchmarks, including some video card manufacturers who specifically optimized their chipsets for known benchmarks, even when this was found to hurt real-world performance.

We have the same problem today with Laptops. From my casual obserations, it appears that many "battery life" tests are nothing more than playing DVD movies, with 90% of the systems in hibernation.



since "regular use" would be different for everyone...
Click to expand...

Sure. But the problem with power conservation measures (such as the clock cyling on the 12" Powerbook & others) is that ethically, this is a slippery slope: once you start making "cheats", at what point do you stop?

For example, I saw a news report ~6 months ago in which it was revealed that a laptop manufacturer found that in order to make the claim of "watch the Matrix twice on one charge", they had to turn off essentially ALL of the processes, including much the OS.

So with such insight, can we at least agree that any battery life claim has to at least have the entire OS up and running?



i think calling it a fraud would be a bit strong. i see your point and frustration, but i don't think it's worth fuming over...
Click to expand...

Sure. My point is that if we don't complain, then they don't know that its something that's making us upset. The only good news here is that Apple is pretty much the "least bad" of the laptop manufacturers IMO in this regards.

-hh
 
-hh

yeah, agree with you on most counts. perhaps computer vendors can (simultaneously) come up with a certain standard operations and show the battery life on that. (playing dvd with a default player, ripping a cd, surfing the web, etc., something consumers can relate to.)

i liked how iPod ad clearly states what standards they used for the number of songs capacity. (128 kbps, 4 min. per song.)
 
Originally posted by jxyama
-hh

yeah, agree with you on most counts. perhaps computer vendors can (simultaneously) come up with a certain standard operations and show the battery life on that.
Click to expand...

Hmm, i see a new type of relative metric being birthed here. Others of this type:

# of olympic sized swimming pools that could be filled by <something>.

# of <time increments> said pool would take to be filled with <some flow>.

# of libraries of congress that can fit on a <storage media>/be transferred per <time unit>.

# of <items> that could fit on the head of a pin.

# of times light could travel around the world while <occurance> takes place.

# of years it would take all the computers in the world, working in unison, to solve <some problem>.

<some fraction/multiple> of distance to the moon <some stack> would reach.

# of rods to the hog's-head a <vehicle> can acheive. (potentially meaningful only to Abe Simpson).

Apple had a print ad when the tibook came out claiming you could watch Austin Powers twice before the battery ran out. so I propose a new metric:

# of times you could play <some crappy movie> on <some portable> on a single charge.

This is incredibly important information for armchair speculation. I mean, we all know how many hours you can power a tv with the energy saved from recycling a single aluminum can...
 
Its more than merely "damn annoying" to only get ~1 hour from a "3 hour" battery. Suffice to say that we're not buying any more Sony's.
Click to expand...

To be fair, Sony Vaios are pretty darned sturdy for non-Apple lightweights of 3 lb or so. I think you'll find if you strip out all the video and Firewire software it runs a lot longer. First thing I do on a new Vaio is spend about half an hour removing the free goodies they provide - because the people in my company don't do video editing. If I had a choice, I'd get ibooks for everyone...or those 12" machines. But it's Wintel-only so they can bellyache about how their computer crashed while on the raod and they wasted x hours getting it back...or lost everything.
 
Originally posted by andyduncan
Hmm, i see a new type of relative metric being birthed here. Others of this type:

# of olympic sized swimming pools that could be filled by <something>.

# of <time increments> said pool would take to be filled with <some flow>.

# of libraries of congress that can fit on a <storage media>/be transferred per <time unit>.

# of <items> that could fit on the head of a pin.

# of times light could travel around the world while <occurance> takes place.

# of years it would take all the computers in the world, working in unison, to solve <some problem>.

<some fraction/multiple> of distance to the moon <some stack> would reach.

# of rods to the hog's-head a <vehicle> can acheive. (potentially meaningful only to Abe Simpson).

Apple had a print ad when the tibook came out claiming you could watch Austin Powers twice before the battery ran out. so I propose a new metric:

# of times you could play <some crappy movie> on <some portable> on a single charge.

This is incredibly important information for armchair speculation. I mean, we all know how many hours you can power a tv with the energy saved from recycling a single aluminum can...
Click to expand...
There's also...

# of <item> that can fit into a VW Beetle

or back in the day...

# of times <computer> is faster than the original IBM PC AT, or in this crowd # of times <computer> is faster than the original Mac of '84
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back