apple sells hardware, how are they going to make money if they add this feature to already sold hardware?
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'Internet Recovery' Lets New Macs Install OS X from Blank Hard Drive
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apple sells hardware, how are they going to make money if they add this feature to already sold hardware?
Taking a wild guess there is probably a few gigs of flash memory which holds the BIOS app to run the program that will download the OS from the web, format the new hard drive and install it. For this reason this is probably why it is only available on NEW Macs going forward.
Really? A couple gigs? You honestly think that a EFI BIOS would be so large it dwarfs iOS? All it needs is some hard disk drivers, file system drivers, a network driver, and a small TCP/IP stack... in fact, most BIOSs already support PXE boot, basic networking support exists in many BIOS firmwares today.
A well-done firmware with these capabilities would be a few meg, remember you aren't building a full stack to support every capability an OS has... you just want to issue an HTTP GET, cache the results on an empty wasted spot on the HD (remember, the HD is most likely BLANK when you run this), and then execute the installer from that image.
That is one of the easiest things they could write.
Really cool feature, but it seems kind of lame they didn't extend this capability to at least the last generation of their products, especially the past Macbook Air since it has kind of been the show case machine for Lion.
You don't know that they won't, they do firmware updates every once in a while... remember, before today, there was no need for the firmware to do this, and there was no advantage to having the functionality if it had nothing to download. They likely focussed on their new products to ship on the same day, and will back port the feature.
True, it would be really awesome if they could add it in. It really is a awesome way to handle OS restores, jealous of the new MBA just because of that feature even though I'd possibly never use it lol.
Here is an example of Apple's marketing brilliance when it comes to pumping up their revenue.
"Newly-introduced Macs -- namely Mac minis and MacBook Airs introduced today -- have a new feature called "Internet Recovery" that downloads and installs OS X Lion even if your Mac has a failed or blank hard drive. Internet Recovery is only available on newly-introduced Macs."
The fact that you must have one of the specificied "new mac models" to enjoy this new way of OS delivery, is a stellar example of why Apple is so cash rich.
Their motto: Want this cool new feature? Then cough up the money, buy our new hardware, and you to will be one of the special ones that have the latest in tech.
While it contributes to the ongoing issue of the have's and have not's, Apple doesn't care.
It's all about making Apple the wealthiest, largest company on earth, an accomplishment they are well on their way towards.
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1191292/
"Newly-introduced Macs -- namely Mac minis and MacBook Airs introduced today -- have a new feature called "Internet Recovery" that downloads and installs OS X Lion even if your Mac has a failed or blank hard drive. Internet Recovery is only available on newly-introduced Macs."
The fact that you must have one of the specificied "new mac models" to enjoy this new way of OS delivery, is a stellar example of why Apple is so cash rich.
Their motto: Want this cool new feature? Then cough up the money, buy our new hardware, and you to will be one of the special ones that have the latest in tech.
While it contributes to the ongoing issue of the have's and have not's, Apple doesn't care.
It's all about making Apple the wealthiest, largest company on earth, an accomplishment they are well on their way towards.
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1191292/
Not exactly, by that logic older products would never get software updates, which they do quite frequently. Chances are this is something that could be added in with a software update.
I predicted that the at-the-time named OSX for iPhone would be renamed iOS months ahead
Will you all finally believe that I'm time travelling Steve from the future? All you have to do is use Disk Utility to burn the image you downloaded from the App Store to a DVD to do a clean install for a blank hard disk.
Cool feature, but it can mean hours to reinstall compared to minutes with a restore disk.
But the average user isn't aware of that. I think apple should include one click "create a bootable restore disk" that can go on DVD or thumb drive.
Heck, they don't even include it in all the models that are currently shipping, just the ones updated today. Sure it requires an update, but they couldn't get that ready for all models? I would hope that apple would have planned this months ago, if they were more organized they could have included the feature under the hood for a while and today been "surprise, machines from X on have it".
But the average user isn't aware of that. I think apple should include one click "create a bootable restore disk" that can go on DVD or thumb drive.
Heck, they don't even include it in all the models that are currently shipping, just the ones updated today. Sure it requires an update, but they couldn't get that ready for all models? I would hope that apple would have planned this months ago, if they were more organized they could have included the feature under the hood for a while and today been "surprise, machines from X on have it".
It's a nice feature, but it's extremely disappointing that mac's won't include a physical copy of OSX anymore.
There is the Mac App Store. Just wait... some $0.99 or $1.99 app will appear that does it. Or some free app that snarfs some of your data for payment.
But yes.. this a feature that Disk Utility should do for you if you want. Point it at an installer and then point it at a USB Thumb drive.
However, since Apple doesn't put much heavyweight copy protection on the OS I can see why they don't put a "make a quick copy for all your friends" feature into Disk Utility that is as simple as a button push. [ and probably why any Mac App store utility should do something else besides just this. ]
go buy a dell or lenovo
want updated drivers 6 months down the road for a budget model? too bad, only the new ones get updated drivers and new OS support. or you have to wait 6 months or more
Okay, I am quite disappointed that it's not available for MBPs and iMacs released in '11. Really disappointed.
You'd be surprised how advanced internet infrastructure in some of these "less-than first-world countries" is.
http://www.jamaipanese.com/top-30-countries-ranked-by-fastest-internet-speeds/
For some countries cities and villages separated by vast unpopulated areas, it was cheaper and easier to install cell towers instead of wired infrastructure, even before cell service was popular in the United States. This has given some of them a head start on broadband wireless internet.
Really interesting graphic! But what is your point? Or more specific, what do you think "first-world" means? As far as I can see all countries listed are "first-world"?
Just going along with the quoted poster's reasoning. Several smaller nations are ahead of the US in internet speed and infrastructure. As far as I know, Apple doesn't sell Mac's in Somalia or North Korea.
Just laughed: Iceland is ahead of the US lol