Apple new product rumours and general news

[editor]

Although I guess they justify it to themselves because its not exactly expensive to upgrade to the next OS, wasn't 10.9 £25, where as windows 8 is nearly double at £45...

£25 for me. Microsoft had it on offer for ages.

 

[sim667]

£25 for me. Microsoft had it on offer for ages.

Ah fair do's...... but its not a permanent price, and they offer different ones which are more pricey.

OSX is just one price for everything....... infact just having looked it up 10.9 is actually free to upgrade.

e2a 10.7 and 10.8 are £14 each, so you could actually upgrade 10.6 to 10.9 for under £30..... you can probably do it free if you really want to though I'm sure.

ee2a You can upgrade straight from 10.6 to 10.9 for free straight from the app store.

 

[UnderOpenSky]

Do newer versions of osx need more grunt to run? If so I can see why people may stick with an older OS I'd they are happy with their hardware.

 

[beesonthewhatnow]

http://support.apple.com/kb/ht5842

 

[Lazy Llama]

As far as I can see, the most recent machines that can't run a later version than 10.6 (Core Duo machines) were discontinued in late 2006.
The old Core2Duo machines can run at least Lion (10.7).

 

[UnderOpenSky]

Fair enough. So 6 year old machines? Does it run nicely though on that?

 

[Lazy Llama]

Fair enough. So 6 year old machines? Does it run nicely though on that?

Not much difference in performance between 10.6 and 10.7 on Core 2 Duo according to this review. Some people say Lion was faster than Snow Leopard.

 

[Structaural]

Still on Snow Leopard with my aging mac pro (mid 2007). It's got a 32-bit EFI so won't run anything higher than 10.7 (Lion - which I hate, perfectly happy still with SN). As far as I'm aware Snow Leopard doesn't have the bug that needs to be patched anyway...

 

[Kid_Eternity]

Do newer versions of osx need more grunt to run? If so I can see why people may stick with an older OS I'd they are happy with their hardware.

Four years is a very long time for me to have one machine (my former turn around was 18-24 months) but if I had a machine from 2009 back I'd definitely be thinking about a new machine than wondering why Apple aren't supporting SL...there is a balance between being forced to update too quickly and those who take bloody ages to update holding others back!

 

[RedDragon]

I imagine this might irritate Mr Cook, although he did score a few points for telling climatechange-deniers if they weren't happy with Apple's green agenda to invest elsewhere.

Meetings with Cook could be terrifying. He exuded a Zenlike calm and didn't waste words. "Talk about your numbers. Put your spreadsheet up," he'd say as he nursed a Mountain Dew. (Some staffers wondered why he wasn't bouncing off the walls from the caffeine.) When Cook turned the spotlight on someone, he hammered them with questions until he was satisfied. "Why is that?" "What do you mean?" "I don't understand. Why are you not making it clear?" He was known to ask the same exact question 10 times in a row...Cook also knew the power of silence. He could do more with a pause than Jobs ever could with an epithet. When someone was unable to answer a question, Cook would sit without a word while people stared at the table and shifted in their seats. The silence would be so intense and uncomfortable that everyone in the room wanted to back away. Unperturbed, Cook didn't move a finger as he focused his eyes on his squirming target. Sometimes he would take an energy bar from his pocket while he waited for an answer, and the hush would be broken only by the crackling of the wrapper.
"Haunted Empire: Apple After Steve Jobs," which will be published on March 18 by HarperBusiness, an imprint of HarperCollins.

WSJ

 

[Structaural]

Is there any CEO who's not a tosser?

 

[editor]

I imagine this might irritate Mr Cook, although he did score a few points for telling climatechange-deniers if they weren't happy with Apple's green agenda to invest elsewhere.

He sounds like an utter dick.

 

[elbows]

Four years is a very long time for me to have one machine (my former turn around was 18-24 months) but if I had a machine from 2009 back I'd definitely be thinking about a new machine than wondering why Apple aren't supporting SL...there is a balance between being forced to update too quickly and those who take bloody ages to update holding others back!

Depends on the machine really, let alone the user. There were times around a decade ago where I would buy Apple hardware and find I needed to replace it just a few years later, if I was unlucky with where the technology roadmap was going. Eg the change from PowerPC to Intel chips.

The Mac Pro from 2008 I have is still going strong, and the Macbook Pro from 2009 only needed a SSD drive to make it feel like its still a very nice machine in 2014. Both of them have been upgradeable to the latest OS without issue. They have therefore proved to be more than acceptable value.

The first Macbook I got after the switch to Intel chips is still alive too and used by my mum, but it does fall victim to the inability to upgrade OS past a certain point and the looming lack of support for that OS. I am not going completely mad about this because of how old the machine is, and because its just one of those timing things, the first generation of their Intel-based tech that became obsolete rather quickly as things leapt on fairly quickly.

So some of the users who will suffer from Apples decision are in this group, victims of bad purchasing timing many years ago. The other small pool of people stuck on that version of OS X are those with a 'if it aint broke don't fix it' mentality who never went for upgrades, or those who are for whatever technical reason (including professional ones e.g. in the music industry) forced to keep a machine around with an old OS to ensure compatibility with their old hardware or old versions of apps.

I would still be happier if the likes of Apple and all other companies tried hard to squeeze out as many years of support for old hardware and software as possible. Of all the potential reasons why progress is 'held back', a company with the resources of Apple being forced to do patches for an old OS for several more years is very low down the list. I am a big fan of progress and new stuff in IT, but sneering at those who are moving through the world of IT at a much slower pace really winds me up. Those who do not wish to (or cannot afford to) hog the fast lane of technological progress are a completely valid section of the user base who deserve to be respected and whose needs should be taken into account by the products & tools on offer.

Despite personally embracing on many occasions the fetish of the new gadget, my wallet sometimes acts in accord with the above sentiments. I have for years refused to give Apple any money for a new iPhone because I thought they ruined the performance of my iPhone 3G at least a year too soon. And I will refuse to get another android phone for quite some time since they screwed my ability to keep my Nexus up-to-date after owning it for 2 years. I know there are often actual hardware limitations of certain generations of device that caused these unfortunate premature cut-offs, but even so as a strong believer that software has an important responsibility to keep hardware useable for as long as possible, I will put my money where my mouth is on this issue.

 

[Kid_Eternity]

Is there any CEO who's not a tosser?

Nope. Which is why it's amusing how silly people get over particular ones over other ones. You have to be a certain character type to make CEO of a massive company and have done some pretty brutal shit to get there.

 

[beesonthewhatnow]

iOS 7.1 has just been released.

http://www.apple.com/ios/ios7-update/

Nothing major that I can see, unless you own a Ferrari and want to use the new Carplay feature...

 

[Kid_Eternity]

My 5S is a little snappier.

 

[Kid_Eternity]

Don't like the circles etc for answering the phone, very fiddly and annoying....

 

[gabi]

I imagine this might irritate Mr Cook, although he did score a few points for telling climatechange-deniers if they weren't happy with Apple's green agenda to invest elsewhere.

Re, the chocolate bar thing... I remember sitting through meetings with a client a few times who had a way of scaring the fuck out of us by pulling out a banana, slowly peel it, slowly chew it and then responding. I kinda liked the performance tbh Even those his response was usually always cunty.

 

[Kid_Eternity]

Yeah really not a fan of the circles for answering the phone...very odd design decision...

 

[Lazy Llama]

If it works better than the slider, which quite often didn't work at all, then it's okay by me.

 

[RedDragon]

I need to update my phone this year - if Apple copy Samsung with a 5.7"incher option for iP6 than I'll be a happy man.

 

[RedDragon]

Time magazine republish that interview Jonathan Ive did with the Sunday Times - nothing earth shattering other than it's unusual for him to give them.

 

[Sunray]

If it works better than the slider, which quite often didn't work at all, then it's okay by me.

I suspect like you after some moments trying to slide the slider and it refusing to go fully to the left, the button is an improvement.

I need to update my phone this year - if Apple copy Samsung with a 5.7"incher option for iP6 than I'll be a happy man.

I too would like an iPhone thats 5" or so but with the same res as my iPad mini, so iPad apps work OK.

 

[Kid_Eternity]

Time magazine republish that interview Jonathan Ive did with the Sunday Times - nothing earth shattering other than it's unusual for him to give them.

I swear he does the same interview every six months and everyone flips out claiming it's rare he does interviews...

 

[beesonthewhatnow]

I too would like an iPhone thats 5" or so but with the same res as my iPad mini, so iPad apps work OK.

I'd quite like them to leave it as it is. It's a phone, it lives in your pocket. Compact is good.

 

[elbows]

I'd quite like them to leave it as it is. It's a phone, it lives in your pocket. Compact is good.

Thats a great reason to keep selling ones that are approximately the current size. No reason not to offer a larger one too though, since there is obviously some kind of demand for it and they are giving the already hugely strong competition an open goal by not releasing one.

 

[Kid_Eternity]

I'd quite like them to leave it as it is. It's a phone, it lives in your pocket. Compact is good.

Have to say I'm no fan of the super size phone thing, I like my phone being easy to use with one hand and I have a tablet for bigger screen stuff...

 

[editor]

I'll never go back to a squinty little iPhone-sized screen, whatever the manufacturer.

 

[skyscraper101]

I agree with KE. I think the iPhone is the perfect size. I was quite into getting a phablet size device not long ago but I've figured they're just not practical for one handed use. I don't feel a smaller size is a compromise, much the opposite in fact.

 

[mwgdrwg]

Have to say I'm no fan of the super size phone thing, I like my phone being easy to use with one hand and I have a tablet for bigger screen stuff...

Neither am I. I think the 4.2 inches of my Z10 is perfect. The missus' Xperia Z Compact is also great. Fits nicely in the pocket and one haded operation is perfect.