Rant about poor Apple hardware design

[Tallest Skil]

If you know nothing about the design of tower desktop computers, you might assume that the drive was external (eg in the monitor, or a usb add-on).

Fixed. We've gotten quite off topic. I think the premise was making fun of the "IT" techs that are too lazy to hold down a key.

 

[Ploki]

i really didnt want to read the whole thread.
but, isnt this keyboard eject key an old apple thing?
i mean at least few years old, the G5's had that .. dunno about G4's.

if you are used to PC's of course it seems stupid.
but hey, if you are ejecting on the keyboard for your whole life, pushing the case seems stupid as well

 

[fluidedge]

Fixed. We've gotten quite off topic. I think the premise was making fun of the "IT" techs that are too lazy to hold down a key.

or read the first 10 pages of a manual

 

[acquinn]

I love my mac pro and not having an eject button on the case just adds to its sexiness.

 

[jnc]

I sold my Mac Pro on eBay; once the guy received it he sent a follow up message asking how to eject... I had to find out the hard way, so should he! MWUHAHAHA.

 

[sash]

It has just taken three experienced IT technicians 10 minutes to find out how to insert a DVD into a PowerMac

Well, that's one of these situations, when one doesn't know whether to laugh or to cry... I'll better laugh.

 

[sash]

i mean at least few years old, the G5's had that .. dunno about G4's.

The very first G4 generation had an eject button upon the drive slot.

sash

 

[Digital Skunk]

The very first G4 generation had an eject button upon the drive slot.

sash

G3's as well.

The iMac G3 and Power Mac G3 both had them, circa 1998.

 

[Saladinos]

On one hand, I'll agree that Apple sometimes obsesses too much with a pretty hardware exterior, to the point where usability, connectivity and performance suffers. Through their obsession with thinness, smallness and flush surfaces, they're painting themselves into a corner. The last dozen or so Apple events hosted by Steve Jobs have all revolved around the same 'money shot' where Steve holds up some thingamabob and marvels at how THIN it is. Look how THIN it is! It's so incredibly THIN! So much THINNER than our last model and everything else on the market! You can't even see it from the side! You could stack fifty of these and it's still THINNER than a credit card!! Nevermind that it takes a rocket scientist to replace the battery, or that we omitted countless features, it's THIN!!! The crowning achievement would of course be the MacBook Air, so thin that it fits inside a manila envelope. The problem is that its thinness is the only achievement. In all other aspects, it's a trip 5 years back in time, with a puny and slow hard drive, virtually non-existent connectivity and a slow-as-molasses processor.

Actually, I don't agree with you. The Macbook Air's only achievement was thinness, because that was the motivation behind it. In fact, Steve talked about how a lot of other companies making sub-notebooks omitted features that Apple were determined not to (Remember it is a sub-notebook. People tend to get confused and compare it to the NEC Earth Simulator). Things like the screen size and keyboard size and battery life - which are all compromised in similar products.

Don't buy a MBA if you want power. It was never claimed to be powerful, and that's entirely not the point of it. The point is to be thin and ultra-portable, whilst improving where other manufacturers slipped up.