I always saw myself as a PC person and one of the main reason was the tendency of Apple to adopt proprietary interfaces. In my view this tended to stifle 3rd party innovation and increase costs.
However over time Apple moved over to industry standards such as USB and IDE and when it became possible to run Windows, I became very interested.
I need a new laptop and had decided to buy a Macbook only to find the Apple seem to be reverting to their bad habits. The Macbook has a proprietary dc power connector and Apple are unwilling to licence the technology to third parties. Not only this but they have decided in their wisdom not to make a car adaptor.
If I buy a new Macbook, I want to use it on my Sailing boat. An Invertor is not a solution because it would drain too much power.
So Apple, I am not quite convinced that you have lost your arrogance and I may not be buying a Macbook after all. A great pity because in every other respect the Macbook is exactly what I need and I was looking forward to finding out about the Mac software environment. Who knows you might have converted me ? But now this isn't going to happen because you won't let me buy an efficient car adaptor.
I guess a Macbook isn't going to feature in any solo round the World Sailing adventures for similar reasons and what good publicity that would have been!
By the way, one of the reasons I just bought an ipod is exactly because you HAVE licensed the interface and there are so many third party devices that one can attach.
I realise that there is a third party adaptor using a converted power cable, but it is very expensive, only available mail order from US and it looks extremely ugly. Apples are supposed to be "convenient" my idea of "convenient" is something I can buy at my local Apple store for a reasonable price.
I originally posted this on the official apple forum and it was immediately deleted by Apple. Says it all really.
However over time Apple moved over to industry standards such as USB and IDE and when it became possible to run Windows, I became very interested.
I need a new laptop and had decided to buy a Macbook only to find the Apple seem to be reverting to their bad habits. The Macbook has a proprietary dc power connector and Apple are unwilling to licence the technology to third parties. Not only this but they have decided in their wisdom not to make a car adaptor.
If I buy a new Macbook, I want to use it on my Sailing boat. An Invertor is not a solution because it would drain too much power.
So Apple, I am not quite convinced that you have lost your arrogance and I may not be buying a Macbook after all. A great pity because in every other respect the Macbook is exactly what I need and I was looking forward to finding out about the Mac software environment. Who knows you might have converted me ? But now this isn't going to happen because you won't let me buy an efficient car adaptor.
I guess a Macbook isn't going to feature in any solo round the World Sailing adventures for similar reasons and what good publicity that would have been!
By the way, one of the reasons I just bought an ipod is exactly because you HAVE licensed the interface and there are so many third party devices that one can attach.
I realise that there is a third party adaptor using a converted power cable, but it is very expensive, only available mail order from US and it looks extremely ugly. Apples are supposed to be "convenient" my idea of "convenient" is something I can buy at my local Apple store for a reasonable price.
I originally posted this on the official apple forum and it was immediately deleted by Apple. Says it all really.