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Apple Recruiting Sony VAIO Engineers?

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Apr 12, 2001
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Engadget claims that according to "a reliable source" that Apple has had trouble catching up in terms of intel-based designs for their upcoming PowerBook.

As a result, they are reportedly recruiting ex-Sony VAIO engineers to pull together a team:

...apparently they’ve hired a headhunting firm in Japan which has been trying to recruit as many current Sony VAIO and ex-Sony VAIO engineers as they can in order to have a team in place as soon as possible.
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Engadget's reliability for original rumors is unknown.
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2005/07/30/apple-recruiting-sony-vaio-engineers/
lilstewart92 said:
This is great. Sony + Apple = AWESOME.
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stealing engineers away from sony doesnt look like Sony + Apple but uhm, i must admit, that if this is true, its actually pretty cool.
 
Apple, which curently produce the best looking hardware need help form Sony engineers this Bull**** I mean come on, how challenging can Intel chips be after having experience with PPCs

I think this is false rumors. :D Don't beat me up for my opinion, Ok.
 
Yeah Sony does a great job of laptop design, although their latest incarnations have had some thermal problems, particularly the S3 & S4 Series (which I think is their best looking).
 
The question, if this is true, is why would Apple's engineers be behind the curve?

They've been tied up on an updated dual-core Powerbook (satisfying that exciting PPC based report) and are hence behind on the Intel versions...

or

they can't get the Intel MB's working as well as they hoped in a small enclosure

or

they're coping quite nicely but since they're planning global domination, they need a few extra bods and the Vaio people look good.

Who knows if any of those is right - let's just be thankful that they're headhunting Vaio engineers as opposed to Dell ones. And they don't leave the 'Intel' sticker placement in their hands... ;)
 
How different are they?

No tech guy here...why would it be that much different in engineering between the two chips???

I guess this is better than recruiting Microsoft programmers for the next version of OSX...
 
I really hope that these Intel PowerBooks will be faster than the last PPC update of the PowerBooks. I'm going to buy a 15" when Apple puts the Freescale 7448 in (hopefully) in September. I'm wary of these Intel processors. I want faster bus speeds and Altivec!
 
the real reason this is of interest is that it presents a time frame for the powerbook. at least..it might give an idea of a minimum wait time. if they are really pulling people in, then it cant be too soon can it?
 
Sony was hired by Apple to take the Mac Portable and miniaturize it. The result? The PowerBook 100. Just a bit of Apple history.
 
Surreal said:
the real reason this is of interest is that it presents a time frame for the powerbook. at least..it might give an idea of a minimum wait time. if they are really pulling people in, then it cant be too soon can it?
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That would be adding speculation upon speculation...that's pretty speculative. ;)
 
Surreal said:
the real reason this is of interest is that it presents a time frame for the powerbook. at least..it might give an idea of a minimum wait time. if they are really pulling people in, then it cant be too soon can it?
Click to expand...
Probably not a good sign for the Apple x86 notebooks if they are still putting together a design team.

It's a whole new set of design challenges that they will be facing, both in terms of the box and how to put the motherboard together.

Much easier to hire experienced talent than spend the time and money learning how to do it yourself.
 
well this is just for their powerbook (hopefully) which means they may already have a design for the iBooks. maybe the powerbooks will come with a better screen. just will mean i will need to buy another powerbook just that much sooner, if it has a better screen.
 
Not Really

Blue Moon said:
That would be adding speculation upon speculation...that's pretty speculative. ;)
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Not really.

If they are really just hiring design engineers then that means a minimum of 18 to 24 months to a final product. But it is hard to tell if they are really hiring Sony engineers for this purpose. I kind of doubt it.

Apple engineers should be able to design for intel however it could be that they are too busy woring on PPC products and iPods.
 
allpar said:
Well...I will say this...Vaio's probably the best built PC laptop...
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EEK, yeah sure, if you like horrible battery life and outdated overpriced hardware.

Everyone I know with a Sony portable has these problems + others.
 
Sun Baked said:
Probably not a good sign for the Apple x86 notebooks if they are still putting together a design team.

It's a whole new set of design challenges that they will be facing, both in terms of the box and how to put the motherboard together.

Much easier to hire experienced talent than spend the time and money learning how to do it yourself.
Click to expand...
I'm wondering too, if Blu-ray (Sony) DVD's future and video issues might not figure in, again if all is true?
http://news.com.com/Fox+movie+studio+backs+Sonys+Blu-ray+DVD/2100-1025_3-5811107.html?tag=nefd.top
X
 
I don't believe this story. I mean c'mon, as someone else stated already, Apple has mastered the tricky and hot PPC, these Intel chips should be relatively easy.
 
Great :)

Vaio's are the sexiest looking PC laptops by far, and i'd love for a Powerbook to have as much features as some of those Vaio's Sony has - X-brite screens, All the usual I/O, Thin, and hopefully still made of metal.
 
yeah right!

"...apparently they’ve hired a headhunting firm in Japan which has been trying to recruit as many current Sony VAIO and ex-Sony VAIO engineers..."

This sounds like some kind of hi-tech adventure movie... and do you think these Sony engineers are just going to jump ship to join Apple? :rolleyes:
 
As good as Apple design is, nobody does miniaturization better than the Japanese. Just take a look at the stuff from dynamism.com like the Panasonic W4, it's close to 2 pounds lighter that the 12" PB.
 
mobility3 said:
This sounds like some kind of hi-tech adventure movie... and do you think these Sony engineers are just going to jump ship to join Apple? :rolleyes:
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Actually, this happens all the time. Engineers and researchers, good ones that is, in high-tech fields are constantly being recruited by head hunters to "jump ship." Whether they jump ship or not depends on what Apple's offering them, mostly in terms of a paycheck.
 
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