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That was the argument back when os x was a good os, good luck with trying to convince anyone now that lion isn't closer to vista than anything else.

And this comes from a looong time mac user who's every lion farts more than roars on every single mac it's on. The few remaining advantages of os x are going to be lost on most users, and its current limitations and problems are very big. Just the fact that the usual scenario of word, excel, two browsers with ten tabs open each, takes oh about 1.5 to two times the ram on a mac than it does on windows should be enough for anyone not to chose os x.

I challenge anyone to put windows 7 on a mac, any mac, in bootcamp and run said scenario (even with flash disabled on a mac) and get back to me of what feels by far faster and more responsive.

Any mac currently running without an ssd and under 4gbs of memory would benefit immensely by installing windows on it instead.

These are sad news for us mac users, but true nevertheless. It's what happens when a company shifts all its focus on the moneymaker os, ios, and neglects its core product. It's what happens when a company grows immensely larger yet doesn't grow appropriately larger in its development teams.

Yeah, OS X is really falling behind... Windows 7 does have some nicer elements. I still wouldn't switch to Windows though, as over all OS X still feels more solid and has better software. However... as of Lion, OS X has been going down hill... turning into a toy OS half suited for a tablet half for a desktop and the link in between is very rough to say the least.

Companies should stop trying to replace desktops. Its not going to happen regardless. There is no way you can use a tablet as comfortably as a desktop. And touch is NOT more natural to use than a mouse. Its a big fad. The touch UIs and OSes have a place in the mobile world for sure, but they should not be attempted to be forced onto the desktop.

Apple needs to wake up and realize that the mobile fad won't last forever and they will still need to have a competitive desktop OS for many years to come.
 
"Similarities" are seldom accidental. Had HP's design been genuinely innovative, it would have been on the market long ago. It wasn't. The reason is pretty simple: HP still leads by the bottom line. Apple leads with passion that isn't managed by the board or otherwise forced to conform to economic constraints.

It still looks more like the old Sony to me.

Its funny how everyone is steeling Apple's keyboard. The rest of the machine looks like someone without design experience tried to copy the MacBook Air, but failed.

I believe you mean that they are copying, not coating it in steel. You should have written "stealing". You're concerned that they used the same keyboard style? That's reaching a bit far.:rolleyes:

Since you can legally run OSX, Windows, Linux and others on a MacBook and not OSX on a HP device, there seems to be a couple of differentiators HP is hoping for.

- OEM pricing of Windows (pre-installed)
- PC style ports
- Lower retail pricing, if that can still even be achieved.
- Corporate account alignment with HP itself

HP bids on a lot of corporate orders like you said. Beyond this Apple doesn't pay as much attention to drivers under Windows. Most of the time they're fine, but I wouldn't buy an Apple to primarily run Windows.

Wedge: A sony innovation
(I would say general idea, but taking apple's very loose meaning of the word innovation)

Damn you.... I wanted to bring that up:mad:. Apple's PR is pretty insane though. I never suggested the Air wasn't their design. It's just that anything that looks similar is now called a copy where it never works the opposite way. Manufacturers have always ridden trends. It's not anything new. It's just a new way to spin it.
 
Tell me this: when Asus came up with the, at the time, thin and small netbook, was it not innovative? Were small laptops in general not innovative until Apple came out with the Air?


You're not seriously comparing an Eee PC with an MBA are you? They are not even in the same category.

I have a Sony VAIO P... its tiny... would I try to use it like an MBA? No. The point is that the MBA is a full fledged laptop but very portable. Besides who said all that matters is size? We're talking about the design here I think too.

Update: Also wanted to answer your question -- sure some other laptops were innovative too, mainly from Sony. However really, Apple has been leading the whole laptop game since the beginning. Almost every laptop today is based on Apple's original designs.
 
I know what is missing in that picture

I think that the whole problem with that picture is that the laptop is not full of stickers with "Intel Inside" "Windows Vista Compatible" "NVIDIA Super Powers" "HP Rocks" "This Laptop has a Harddrive" "This laptop has DDR memory". In the later case of course, there is no valuable description of the voltage of the DDR memory and number of pins. And where is the Windows License sticker?

The stickers should have a removal protection that leave nasty a mark with scratches if removed. The latch for closing the top of the laptop should be huge, with sharp edges and ALWAYS be completely visible. Really big and robust with a plastic feel.

oh! and almost forgot, the HP logo does not stand out. It should be bigger, in the front, back, bottom and bellow the battery. Maybe engraved into the screen. Along the logo a description of what is HP

If they omit that, they are dumping away 30 years of PC history and making a Mac clone.
 
Very well put. Funny how all HP can say is "no we didn't, its slightly different", basically.

No they are not saying it's slightly different they are saying it's a LOT different if you factor in the form factor imposing that many similarities. Let me put it another way for you, because some people here simply refuse to read and understand:


In what way this laptop from hp in 2012
hp_envy_spectre_xt_ultrabook-500x394.jpg


is not the natural evolution of that laptop from hp from 2006, ie 6 years onward
32000604-2-440-overview-1.gif


The silver plastic has changed to silver mangesium, the wedge is there only again in magnesium and without the optical, black keyboard, black screen, and similar hinge design. Anyone not able to see how this is a natural evolution in hp's design with nothing to do with apple whatsoever is as deluded and hoodwinked by apple as one can get. Congratulations for this.
 
The whole "ultrabook" concept was clearly, shall we say, "inspired by" the MacBook Air. Whether it infringes on anything that should be "protectable" is another matter - perhaps Apple should just accept the sincerest form of flattery.

Well sure. But at least HP is trying. I think they can bring something unique to this market. I just wish they'd leave that damn Beats thing alone. Put some real audio hardware in there and not just a bass booster.

Same with some of the Android tablets out there. Sure the iPad was the first of it's kind, and some just copy it, but there are ones out there that I would actually consider if I wouldn't get an iPad.
 
No they are not saying it's slightly different they are saying it's a LOT different if you factor in the form factor imposing that many similarities. Let me put it another way for you, because some people here simply refuse to read and understand:


In what way this laptop from hp in 2012
Image

is not the natural evolution of that laptop from hp from 2006, ie 6 years onward
Image

The silver plastic has changed to silver mangesium, the wedge is there only again in magnesium and without the optical, black keyboard, black screen, and similar hinge design. Anyone not able to see how this is a natural evolution in hp's design with nothing to do with apple whatsoever is as deluded and hoodwinked by apple as one can get. Congratulations for this.

So the natural evolution to that older HP laptop is a Mac Book Air?
 
I still wouldn't switch to Windows though, as over all OS X still feels more solid and has better software.
That is subject from user to user or MAC to PC depending on the person and SW used.


However... as of Lion, OS X has been going down hill... turning into a toy OS half suited for a tablet half for a desktop and the link in between is very rough to say the least.
Don't worry, Microsoft is going to trying doing this with Windows 8, which I believe will be a failure on desktops.
 
You're not seriously comparing an Eee PC with an MBA are you? They are not even in the same category.

The latter Eee PCs were apparently pretty damn good. Admittedly, they weren't nearly as powerful as the proper-PC component Air, but they were small, portable laptops that showed up on the scene long before Apple's contribution.

Isn't the Air an extension of the ideas presented in the Netbook? The form factor is similar, the idea behind it is similar, so why is it that when Apple suddenly came out with a small laptop, everyone else who's followed is suddenly ripping off their idea?

Don't worry, Microsoft is going to trying doing this with Windows 8, which I believe will be a failure on desktops.

It's like all MS products. Every time they release a new OS, a whole bunch of people start screaming that they totally ruined everything that was good about the one that came before it. That is until the next rev after that shows up, then all the people who bashed the then new OS are used to using it, and this next version is the worst ever.

I'm using Windows 8 as we speak. The new additions aren't super exciting or anything, but it hardly ruins the desktop experience.

...cept for finding the damn off button.
 
That is subject from user to user or MAC to PC depending on the person and SW used.

I use both... but for work I know the Mac is far more productive.

Don't worry, Microsoft is going to trying doing this with Windows 8, which I believe will be a failure on desktops.

For sure, that's an obvious one.

----------

The latter Eee PCs were apparently pretty damn good. Admittedly, they weren't nearly as powerful as the proper-PC component Air, but they were small, portable laptops that showed up on the scene long before Apple's contribution.

Isn't the Air an extension of the ideas presented in the Netbook? The form factor is similar, the idea behind it is similar, so why is it that when Apple suddenly came out with a small laptop, everyone else who's followed is suddenly ripping off their idea?

Its a small but full-size laptop.
 
So no other company can make slim notebooks besides Apple?

Sure they can, just have the decency to make them stand out a little. But really who even cares? They can copy. By the time their copy is out, Apple has the next big thing being announced. Its as has been stated earlier in the thread: Apple isn't driven solely by making a profit, but by pushing technology forward... most if not all of the competitors just want to make a quick buck.
 
Bla bla bla, HP.
Bottom line, their PC's are crap.

Their ultrabook may be different from the macbook air, but the fact is that, if the MBA didn't exist, the ultrabook would NEVER look like this...

Why do I think HP is crap ?
Lots of people I know have complained, my dad in law just bought his wife a new HP laptop (with Core i5) with Windows 7 Home Premium and it runs like a dog whereas my wife's two year old Dell Inspiron with Dual Core pentium and Windows 7 runs like a dream (that's a Dual Core Pentium vs a Core i5 - can't be the processor so it has to be HP's crap they put on it).
 
Bottom line.. somebody might accidentally mistake the HP for an Apple. Not many people are that stupid. But, there are a few out there. Neither company is going to worry about the small minority who is oblivious that they've just booted in to OS X or Windows 7.
 
Apple may like to think that they own silver, but they don't.

Yeah nice move HP. This is what everyone is talking about, not the design or shape, but the color of your laptop lol.

He could of easily of said, "Apple may think they invented the keyboard, but they didn't." That's not what the argument is about.
 
I use both... but for work I know the Mac is far more productive.

You say that, but...why? Why is it more productive?

And you can't say "olol I have to spend as much time tweaking it as I do using it", or "olol, BSODs and stuff", because those are just BS excuses pulled out by people who don't know what they're talking about.

I'll happily admit OSX has a better UI overall. It's the reason why I'm considering switching to a Mac here in the near future. But when you're in a program, both platforms are functionally the same. OSX doesn't suddenly make a word processor type faster, or a 3D modeller model better. So why is it more productive?
 
Looks good. Wedge shape is certainly inevitable considering the size of ports and some components. Silver and black is copying, but just copying a color scheme isn't too much to get excited about. And silver and black is certainly not novel for computer and electronic devices.

But frankly who cares? I just looked this Spectre thing up. The thing is selling on HP for $1,400?!?!? What! HP, you do not play in that space. You are a budget solution player. Your $500 Pavilion models are what you will sell. People are not going spend a premium for your products. Why waste your time on this?
 
But I stopped using floppy drives with my Mac 2 or more years before Apple did. That means that I should have sued Apple for using my over 2 year old design of a Mac without a floppy drive.

Where did I say anything about legal action?

Floppies were just not reliable enough to store my hard worked data storage needs. I always made a second copy so that I would have a reliable backup if the first did not work. I stopped the floppy thing after my backup disk also would not open the file.

Good for you.

So did Apple copy me or did they just take the step to increase their computers reliability?

Timmy told his teacher that he didn't copy the answers off Jimmy's test because Billy told him the same answers after he took the test.

HP makes a Mac Pro killer just as many others do. HP's interior hardware is better than that from Apple. Things like 12-16 memory slots compared to Apple's 8. More types of included pci/e slots. The ability to hold many more interior hard drives plus 3.5" external assessable drives.

And this is relevant to the ultrabook specification originally outlined by Intel how?

The next step is to see if any of these great designs will work as a Mac Hackintosh. With the extreme lack of even any rumors of any new top end Macs, Mac Pros or 17" or larger MacBook Pros, it seems as if Apple is pushing us, or at least me to HP or other computer makers. Say numeric keypad on a 15" or 17" laptop.

You know, if you want to talk about hackintoshes and things like that there are discussion in this forum for that. Not every discussion has to revolve around what you want to talk about at this time.

Anyway, feel free to ignore how the ultrabook specification was originally conceived and make strawmen. I'm sure it is great entertainment for you even though it is completely separated from reality.
 
If Steve Jobs taught us anything, it's that the future belongs to the innovators. Whether HP deliberately "copied" anything isn't the issue; their design doesn't bring much innovation to the table.

"Similarities" are seldom accidental. Had HP's design been genuinely innovative, it would have been on the market long ago. It wasn't. The reason is pretty simple: HP still leads by the bottom line. Apple leads with passion that isn't managed by the board or otherwise forced to conform to economic constraints.

This is a very good point and deserves to be repeated. I've seen it firsthand.

Having worked briefly at a major company in the early stages of designing a new product to enter an existing market, I have to say the first thing that happened was everyone looked at what was out there already. We had endless meetings reviewing the competition deciding which features to copy and what the design would look like with a heavy focus on what was already done by other companies. The best from everything out there, while trying to avoid the worst. There was also a lot of issues with avoiding the patent minefield. There was some brainstorming about innovative features/design, but mostly these ideas got rejected as they were shown off to upper management. Not because they were bad ideas, but because they would be more costly to add. Vice presidents like to play things safe and save money wherever possible.

I stopped working there before the product was finished, but saw it later and basically it was identical to what everyone else had done already in the market. This was unsurprising. It was a good product, nothing objectionable about it, but hardly revolutionary. That was just the attitude there, and I'm sure at most companies. You do what's cheapest and meets the bare minimum, with a heavy emphasis on letting a few other companies do the hard work first. When somebody else takes the risk, and it pays off, you follow, then use aggressive marketing to carve out some business for yourself in the homogenized market.

The saddest thing about it, was it used to be Bell Labs, decades earlier.

There's still good engineers and heuristics/ergonomics/usability designers at a lot of these companies, doing good work and trying to push technology and design forward. The problem is the culture and management focusing on next quarter's profits, instead of trying to do something new from the ground up that's harder to sell but has the potential for huge growth in the long term. Thankfully Apple's management has more vision.
 
If Steve Jobs taught us anything, it's that the future belongs to the innovators. Whether HP deliberately "copied" anything isn't the issue; their design doesn't bring much innovation to the table.

"Similarities" are seldom accidental. Had HP's design been genuinely innovative, it would have been on the market long ago. It wasn't. The reason is pretty simple: HP still leads by the bottom line. Apple leads with passion that isn't managed by the board or otherwise forced to conform to economic constraints.

EXACTLY right!
First comes iPhone and suddently we see copy cats.
iPad comes along copy cats start doing the same.
Apple laptops start getting more and more popular, yeah you know the rest...

Just Like you say if these companies had a genuine passion they would have introduced such products before apple. HP Have been doing pcs for ages and all they did was boring plastic crap until they started the copy machine.
Still this is good for consumers but not to acknowledge they copy the leaders is being stupid.
 
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