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I don't think people are aware of ARM's histroy. The ARM processor was first created for the Acorn Archimedes in the late 80s, which was a personal computer way faster than the IBM clones of the day. The first mass production PC with a true RISC processor.

Even when that minority platform was on its last legs the StrongARM chip of the mid 90s again saw Acorn boast a machine faster than the Intel PCs of the day.

ARM chips are just plain better designs than Intel's hoary old system. But their extremely low power consumption made them perfect for the embedded space and that's where the company headed. They could have targeted the desktop space or the server space but with other chip dominant there what would have been the point? They had success in embedded markets so targeted that space and the rest is history.

With big players like Apple signed up to use desktop and server class ARM chips I have no doubt the company would out-innovate Intel for years. It's just better, slicker, cleverer tech.

I more than agree with your comment. On the mobile what is more important is battery life. What is CPU power worth if you could only last 2 hours? Decent processing power and longer battery life is what Apple is looking for.
 
This would be a huge mistake on Apple's part. I realize that Jobs claims that nobody needs a real computer, that the age of the PC is over and so forth... However, Intel and x86 have been challenged by "newer" and "more efficient" instruction sets dozens of times--and every single time Intel has emerged victorious and the venerable x86 design has not simply survived but thrived. Due to the popularity of smartphones, both Microsoft and Apple are rushing to compile their mainstream OS for the ARM architecture; but realistically, x86 and Intel are the industry leaders and represent the state of the art in microdesign. All the smartphones in the world aren't going to end the dominance of the x86 architecture.

Edit: from the sound of the article on Arstechnica, it sounds like Apple has already made a decision to abandon Intel/x86 and switch over to all ARM. I'm not so sure about that, seems a little fishy, but if turns out to be true, then we only have around 2 more years of being able to use Mac OS in research/professional environments. After that it's ARM/App-Store only, no more open source or cross-platform applications. That would be sad...other Unix-based solutions just don't have the elegance and ease of use that Mac OS does. But I still don't believe this one rumor--I don't think Apple is just going to piss away a decade of R&D and optimization work with the x86 architecture, nor are they going to destroy their tight relationship with the single largest, most important and most powerful technology company on the planet simply because of the iPad.
 
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BS that Apple will replace Intel with ARM on ALL MBPs. It wasn't too long since the Intel transition was complete.

ARM cannot match the power of the Intel mobile processors. Maybe Apple will use these in Airs or Macbooks. Macbook pro? No a chance, not unless Apple stop catering for power users and "Pros".

News flash, Apple doesn't give a toot about their power users anymore. If they did, we would be seeing IPS screens(or at least an option) on the 15in and 17in MBP, and iMac. Plus we would see more power out of the iOS devices, not to mention more Pro software and accessories. I bet right now somewhere in their offices they have some version of Final Cut running on an iPad way better than it could ever run on an Garbagetel machine. Now WHEN they move(they would be dumb if they didn't) to ARM based cpu we will see the Pro line, that was slowly being killed by Garbagetel flourish again.
 
Must hurt you then that aside from a few synthetic benchmarks that leveraged some obscure benefit of Altivec, the Intel garbage was always superior to the PowerPC and the m68k before it. ;)

Seriously, there is no logic behind Intel hate. Windows and Microsoft hate I can get, I won't touch the stuff. But Intel made some great CPUs and still do.
I see another one being misled, keep drinking the koolaid man, just keep drinking it. Performance means nothing if the product is garbage. You can make poop go 200mph and handle like its on rails, but it is still poop, same thing here. If I had my way every one would be using quad core G7 power macs and G6 Powerbooks and we'd see true harmony in the world.

The funniest part is thinking about that other rumor of Apple moving to Intel parts for iToys. Intel has ARM experience in their StrongARM line-up :


Again, I'm pretty sure this rumor is that Intel is going to startup ARM processor manufacturing again. Someone mistook this as Apple moving laptops to ARM instead of what this is really about : Intel is going to manufacture Apple's ARM designs.

That poor guy is going to have an heart attack if Intel does this. It's not like all electronics advertise the manufacturer of every component they use. At some point, his peanut allergic self is going to come into contact with the peanut butter.

You would think, but I spend time and research to make sure to avoid anything that had intel's doing with it. Even if Apple goes with an ARM based cpu made by Intel I'd still be happily use my PPC based machine. Come one people stop drinking the koolaid and demand Apple to say much the intel garbage.
 
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iMacs, Mac Pros, Macbook, Macbook Pros are all PCs .. :)

( PC = Personal Computer )

I was talking about some of those custom built machines they spec to equal a mac so they can run OSX for cheap, on potentially better hardware. I really thought about doing that, but then though naw, I'll just wait and see what upgrade Apple has for the Mac Mini and keep things simple.
 
And that is the biggest blasphemy of them all. I really despise that osx86 project that helps people ruin the good name of OSX and put on garbage based PCs.



Yup, and those that do, need to be prosecuted to the full extent of the law and plus spend a week being Steve Job's butler or maid.

Umm... why? Macs are PCs now... they use the same hardware... and it shows. The kinds of problems people have nowadays on their Intel Macs NEVER happened with anywhere near the frequency they do now when PowerPC was the game in town.... honestly, those things never broke down. Intel macs do it constantly.

What's the difference?
 
Umm... why? Macs are PCs now... they use the same hardware... and it shows. The kinds of problems people have nowadays on their Intel Macs NEVER happened with anywhere near the frequency they do now when PowerPC was the game in town.... honestly, those things never broke down. Intel macs do it constantly.

What's the difference?

Is not it obvious? It's Apple. Have you ever seen broken Intel processor? I did not think so.
 
What is the deal with you people? If you don't like it, well, don't buy it. Change is inevitable. I will not lecture about pros and cons since all of the people here are geeks. But Apple is a corporation and needs to make money to serve their stockholders. Switching to ARM architecture may not be moving backwards at all.

There is nothing wrong with using intel, there is nothing wrong about ditching powerpc in favor of intel. There will never be wrong about ditching x86 in favor of ARM. It is just business decision.
 
Umm... why? Macs are PCs now... they use the same hardware... and it shows. The kinds of problems people have nowadays on their Intel Macs NEVER happened with anywhere near the frequency they do now when PowerPC was the game in town.... honestly, those things never broke down. Intel macs do it constantly.

What's the difference?

LOL, its ****** QC on Apples part. You really think Intel causes the problems?
 
Umm... why? Macs are PCs now... they use the same hardware... and it shows. The kinds of problems people have nowadays on their Intel Macs NEVER happened with anywhere near the frequency they do now when PowerPC was the game in town.... honestly, those things never broke down. Intel macs do it constantly.

What's the difference?

How many Macs have you heard or read about being returned for a defective processor? Probably none. Now go browse the Windows pc forums and look for the same. Same answer, none. Whatever problems people have with Macs or any other brand has next to nothing to do with Intel.
 
LOL, its ****** QC on Apples part. You really think Intel causes the problems?

I have to agree on that, I've had two Macs, one G4 iBook (1.25 GHz) and one iMac (C2D 2.0 GHz) that fried their motherboards. In both cases shortly after warranty lapsed, which was frustrating.

That's two out of five Macs I've had that just die on me because of faulty chips.

Also I've had four iPods, only two worked for any amount of time; my first 'classic' iPod got the hard-drive click after only a few weeks and my first iPod nano never held a charge. Apple did replace the nano for free, for the record, and the classic was refunded.

Point is; Quality control at Apple is... not that impressive. iPods are usually replaced without much argument, but the Macs generally survive long enough for the warranty to expire, at least, so I have to pay for those.

I do feel that Apple is excused if a Mac fails because of bad HD or RAM, but when the chipset of the motherboard fails, it is a bitter pill. That is lack of QC.
 
News flash, Apple doesn't give a toot about their power users anymore. If they did, we would be seeing IPS screens(or at least an option) on the 15in and 17in MBP, and iMac. Plus we would see more power out of the iOS devices, not to mention more Pro software and accessories. I bet right now somewhere in their offices they have some version of Final Cut running on an iPad way better than it could ever run on an Garbagetel machine. Now WHEN they move(they would be dumb if they didn't) to ARM based cpu we will see the Pro line, that was slowly being killed by Garbagetel flourish again.

The is the funniest post I have seen in a while.

The iPad2 is the MOST POWERFUL tablet on the market right now.
Not enough power out of iOS - Not sure how you arrive at that.

IPS in the iMac? LOL - the iMac has an IPS display.

Pro software? Apple just demoed the new FCP which everyone in the industry is touting as revolutionary.
 
I have to agree on that, I've had two Macs, one G4 iBook (1.25 GHz) and one iMac (C2D 2.0 GHz) that fried their motherboards. In both cases shortly after warranty lapsed, which was frustrating.

That's two out of five Macs I've had that just die on me because of faulty chips.

Also I've had four iPods, only two worked for any amount of time; my first 'classic' iPod got the hard-drive click after only a few weeks and my first iPod nano never held a charge. Apple did replace the nano for free, for the record, and the classic was refunded.

Point is; Quality control at Apple is... not that impressive. iPods are usually replaced without much argument, but the Macs generally survive long enough for the warranty to expire, at least, so I have to pay for those.

I do feel that Apple is excused if a Mac fails because of bad HD or RAM, but when the chipset of the motherboard fails, it is a bitter pill. That is lack of QC.
I don't know if you are trolling or what, but your experiences are certainly not the norm. Apple products are the most reliable in the industry. Apple is consistently at the top of consumer satisfaction surveys.

Is this to say that Apple does not produce lemons. Most certainly not. Anything made by the hand of man can fail. The only question is "How often?" Macs and the iDevices are the most reliable that you can buy.
 
Links to support the first claim? Any evidence that the second claim is related to the first?

27539_129633857075985_2924_n.jpg


BAM! Concrete Proof. (Hold on I can do better)

As long as you're happy with yellow screens, anyway.

As long as you're happy with any non-highend IPS screen. ;)
 
The is the funniest post I have seen in a while.

The iPad2 is the MOST POWERFUL tablet on the market right now.
Not enough power out of iOS - Not sure how you arrive at that.

IPS in the iMac? LOL - the iMac has an IPS display.

Pro software? Apple just demoed the new FCP which everyone in the industry is touting as revolutionary.

What the fudge are you talking about "Ipad 2 being the most powerful tablet on the market right now".

How about actually reading and looking up information or at least saying "The Ipad 2 is one of the more powerful tablets on the market right now".

Example

The ipad 2 uses the ARM Cortex-A9 MPCore CPU and a dual-core PowerVR SGX543MP2 GPU. (0.7 MP camera) (512 MB ram)

The blackberry playbook uses the cortex 9 cpu. (1 GB ram) (5 MP camera with support for 1080p) mini hdmi. lower quality GPU.

Motorola Xoom: Similar to the playbook. Tegra 2 with 1 GB ram.

Galaxy tab: similar to the playbook and xoom.

ASUS has announced a quad core tegra 3 tablet for august.

Asus Eee pad transformer also uses the cortex 9 cpu. The resolution is higher than the ipad 2. It has a really nice dock that will boost battery to 16 hours and has some actual ports. A micro sd slot. 5 MP camera

One tablet much more powerful than the ipad is the asus eee slate. It is frankly humongous at 12 inches and only has 4.5 hours of battery (weighs almost twice what an ipad weighs) yet it has a intel i5 470um processor and up to 4 GB of ram. Ports which the ipad does not seem to have include 2 USB, card reader and mini hdmi. The thing is a beast. It is very expensive at over a grand. 2 MP camera. Needs full fans and is probably noisy yet it is a tablet that is much more powerful than the ipad 2.

So many devices use the tegra 2 chipset.

All these devices with the exception of the eee slate are pretty much similar. The ipad is not in any way special (for its hardware).
 
I don't know if you are trolling or what, but your experiences are certainly not the norm. Apple products are the most reliable in the industry. Apple is consistently at the top of consumer satisfaction surveys.

Is this to say that Apple does not produce lemons. Most certainly not. Anything made by the hand of man can fail. The only question is "How often?" Macs and the iDevices are the most reliable that you can buy.

Their quality is average.

Its their customer service which is good. The apple stores where they fix the problem on the spot, the hassle free (compared to other companies) apple care, etc.

They tend to be at the top because they actually fix the problem (which invariably occur in all electronics) with a minimum of hassle. Calling dell of some other computer company will get you a guy in India with a bad accent who is reading off a card and has no idea what you are asking him.

But really, looking at the most reliable they only differ by a couple percent which comes down to luck.


notebook_reliability.jpg
 
I don't know if you are trolling or what, but your experiences are certainly not the norm. Apple products are the most reliable in the industry. Apple is consistently at the top of consumer satisfaction surveys.

Is this to say that Apple does not produce lemons. Most certainly not. Anything made by the hand of man can fail. The only question is "How often?" Macs and the iDevices are the most reliable that you can buy.

I don't know if you're serious or not, but since roughly 17% of Macs fail after 3 years, I think I'm quite within spec (perhaps a bit on the unlucky side) to have had 2/5 Macs fail on me within that time. It should have been only 1/5 statistically, but we can't all be lucky.

At least Apple has good customer service when something happens within warranty and even sometimes outside warranty, they sometimes offer some slack.

Macs and iDevices are certainly not the most reliable that you can buy, I'd say that they rather follow the current Apple policy of being "good enough" and the difference between Apple and other companies is mostly in good customer service.

It is both amusing and sad that you think that anyone who claims Apple products are less than the best on the market is trolling. They malfunction like everything else, and about 1/5 within 3 years.
 
I don't know if you are trolling or what, but your experiences are certainly not the norm. Apple products are the most reliable in the industry. Apple is consistently at the top of consumer satisfaction surveys.

Is this to say that Apple does not produce lemons. Most certainly not. Anything made by the hand of man can fail. The only question is "How often?" Macs and the iDevices are the most reliable that you can buy.

Except the fact when any of apple's products have HARDWARE issues they circumvent it by the cheapest means necessary.

For example, 2007 iPod Touch had a coating problem in which blacks would appear inverted. Instead of a recall like a ethical company would do they released a update that changed the gamma settings to try to hide the problem.

2007 iPod Nano/Classic were the pits as well, they were barely functional. iTunes 7 would freeze every 2 minutes when you tried to transfer songs to the classic, ratings and playcounts would not transfer correctly, there was a endless reboot problem with the initial batch.

There have been several hardware issues relating to video cards/monitors and apple releases firmware to "fix" the hardware issue.

iPhone 4 antenna issues, they released cheap bumpers to cover the issue instead of issuing a recall. The white iPhone 4 still has the same issue. Apple cheaply tried to justify the antenna problems by making a bunch of youtube videos of other competitors phones that did the same thing.

Not only is apple poor in quality control they have no ethics and will do anything they can to save a buck. Furthermore they've become so arrogant that they just throw out their products without any quality control and let the public be their test subjects.

As far as the ARM processor thing for their laptops, it really doesn't matter to me because I wouldn't ever spend that kind of cash on a apple product.

I love the 6th gen nano, the iPod Classic don't get me wrong they both work good now..but I'm not blind and I can see how unethical the company really is.

Sad thing is, any other company did what apple did the media would be all over it, but since Apple manipulates their image (heavy moderation on their discussion boards, cut people from events if they don't like their reviews of their products, etc.) it is perfectly acceptable for them to do it.
 
I just want to say that the nerd rage on this thread is a gift to any fan of comedy. Fingers crossed that it does not lead to any stabbings.
 
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