Microsoft Offers $650 To MacBook Users Who Switch To A Surface Tablet (techcrunch.com) 130
After Wednesday's announcement of their new Surface Studio tablet, Microsoft launched a campaign to entice MacBook users to try Surface tablets. An anonymous Slashdot reader quotes TechCrunch:
Essentially, the company is offering MacBook owners $650 toward a Surface Pro or Surface Book, if they trade in their Apple laptop. Sure, it's all promotion, but it's the sort of gag that affords the company opportunity to showcase its perceived advantages over Cupertino as the company looks to appeal more and more toward creatives -- a category long dominated by Apple.
The offer is only valid through November 7th, according to Microsoft's official rules, and the deal does not extend to iPads.
The offer is only valid through November 7th, according to Microsoft's official rules, and the deal does not extend to iPads.
exploitation (Score:2, Funny)
Seems like I can trade in old mbp's I no longer use, resell the surface pro on ebay and get the cash for a new mbp.
Only problem: I don't think I could move the surface pro's profitably (or perhaps at all).
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if it was their new and stupid MBpro, the one with emoji bar, the exchange would make more sense.
What joke would you use if they hadn't shown Emojis as ONE of about a dozen different things the Touch Bar could be used for?
Oh, and you mean the "stupid" laptop with the 80 Gbps-worth of I/O throughput?
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Has it gone up that much? Last I checked a big mac was only $4.
You're forgetting that most people buy the fries/drink combo - so it's more like $6.50. What Microsoft doesn't realize, however, is that Excel screwed up again and shifted the decimal point two places.
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Excel was a program for the Macintosh years before it became available for Windows.
Microsoft made a LOT of money selling office software for Macintoshes before Windows even existed.
Did Excel screw up, or did your Mac just run out of memory?
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Unlike the Mac Pro, which is assembled in Austria?
Who can show the most eloquent dis-respect? (Score:2)
Definition: gag [google.com]: choke or retch. Synonyms: retch, heave, dry-heave.
So, the Microsoft Surface Tablet is a "gag" of a tablet? Was the writer of that article unconsciously showing his disrespect
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Gag as in "makes you gag if you have to use it" or "gags when you try to do anything on it"?
Trick question, it's both.
Ask the NFL (Score:1)
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The machines in question just happen to be Surface Pros. The problem that frustrates them is the network. They could be Thinkpads, or iPads, or Macintoshes, and they would sutter the same connectivity problems the the Surfaces do, so the jocks would still be raging about them.
I suppose we should all do research about Human Interface Design. Which happens to be technology, btw. But WTF does that have to do with poor networking infrastructure in sports arenas??
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How do you know this? why is everyone else not throwing away their mobile devices ? do you think they haven't bothered to create mobile hotspots near the field ?
Re: Ask the NFL (Score:2)
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So you're saying the Surface things are as valuable as most US Football wives and girlfriends?
Re:Networking/implementation issue mostly (Score:5, Insightful)
Microsoft has done something very bizarre to WiFi in Windows 10. I have network dropouts on Wifi routers that have worked consistently with Androids, iOS devices and earlier versions of Windows. It actually has been extremely frustrating, as we're using some Lenovo Windows 10 mini-PCs plugged into TVs for advertising services and playing videos at some locations. Windows 10 is constantly "semi-forgetting" networks, so it shows the network as visible, but won't autoconnect. Sometimes a reboot fixes it, but the usual solution is to forget the network and then rejoin, sometimes with a reboot. We've experienced the same thing with several laptops that were upgraded to Windows 10, and we chalked it up to old drivers, but these Lenovo devices come with Windows 10 preinstalled, and a pretty new devices so I don't buy the notion that it's a driver issue. In fact, I got a Windows 10 7" tablet when I bought my new notebook from the Microsoft Store, and it suffers the same issue on occasion, losing the network, and I have to tell the OS to forget it and then usually I can bring it back, but it's a pain.
I'm positive that the rewritten WiFi modules in Windows 10 are just plain buggy. In fact, everything about Windows 10, even the new start menu, seem very fragile, and it takes little more than an update or some setting change to lead to the UI getting fucked up. My latest favorite is my Start menu suddenly becoming transparent. Go on the net, and lo and behold, it's an issue, with a fix which worked for me, but according to reports, may not last long. I've had other issues with Edge and start menus where the solution literally came down to "Cook profile, start from scratch".
Windows 10 has some technical advantages, but since they adopted the sort of "perpetual beta" release model, the quality assurance has gone right down the shits. It feels like they're releasing updates that haven't been fully tested, and then relying upon the telemetry to phone home and tell the mother ship that some UI update has broken some installs.
Re:Networking/implementation issue mostly (Score:4, Insightful)
Windows 10 is constantly "semi-forgetting" networks, so it shows the network as visible, but won't autoconnect. Sometimes a reboot fixes it, but the usual solution is to forget the network and then rejoin, sometimes with a reboot.
I don't use Win 10 but I have several friends that report the same thing. It just drops the connection randomly. Some people step away for a moment and come back and the connection is visible but no longer connected.
Oftentimes reentering the password doesn't work (it always says it's "wrong", even when we know damn well it's been entered correctly). As you mention, they usually have to to forget the network and then rediscover/rejoin it. This happens with both laptops and desktops.
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Perhaps you could tell the Redmond shill who modded me a Troll.
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Perhaps you could tell the Redmond shill who modded me a Troll.
Oh, he/she already knows, that's why they're doing it.
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It's a conspiracy. Microsoft not only wants to sabotage your wifi, they want to keep it a secret while doing so.
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Windows 10 is constantly "semi-forgetting" networks, so it shows the network as visible, but won't autoconnect. Sometimes a reboot fixes it, but the usual solution is to forget the network and then rejoin, sometimes with a reboot.
iOS seemingly has the exact opposite problem. I will tell it to forget certain networks (like the crappy wifi on our Sounder commuter trains), which will work... for a day or two. But then a few days later the phone will start auto-joining them again.
I do have "ask to join networks" disabled, although that's not quite the same thing anyway.
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I noticed Win10 does not like realtek hardware. Hell, neither does FreeBSD or Linux :-)
I am not giving MS a hail marry pass on this but rather Win 10 might seem to work the right way rather than code around hardware bugs or have hardware code around windows bugs which has plauged Unix on x86 since the freaking dawn of time.
On intel wifi Windows 10 works fine. Older hardware that is Win 7 certified has been problematic with updates and other things from what I observed. Especially bios based motherboards and
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We've experienced the problem on some pretty varied hardware so while I think driver issues may be part of the problem, I think Microsoft has some culpability here. After all, "test for Internet" usually means pinging some hardcoded addresses and seeing if they respond, so if you have an outage of any kind, that could produce a false flag. I've certainly see iOS, Windows and Android devices complain that a connection has no Internet, but I've never had any of them disconnect me, and sometimes I've been happ
What does it showcase? (Score:2, Insightful)
Reeks of desperation.
People won't use our products unless we PAY them (Score:4, Interesting)
> it's the sort of gag that affords the company opportunity to showcase its perceived advantages over Cupertino
To me it's the exact opposite of being perceived as better, it's "people who have tried Mac don't want to use our products, we have to PAY them to use ours." Part of Apple's marketing of iOS devices is that they are unapologeticly more expensive, they are positioned as "premium" products. Microsoft is going the exact opposite way.
Many years ago when I launched my first hosting company I didn't want to deal with "bad" customers, people who don't pay, send spam, attract DMCA notices, etc. I wanted to offer a professional service for professional webmasters, so I made it invitation-only. You could host with us only if we knew you or you had good references from people we know. As it turned out, NO potential customer EVER turned down an invitation to host their site with us; the exclusivity turned out to be a great marketing bit. It wasn't false exclusivity, BTW, since we weren't spending 80% of our time dealing with BS from a few PITA customers, we were able to provide excellent service. Anyway this thing from Microsoft is the opposite. "Nobody who has tried Mac wants our product, we have to pay people to take it" is what I see.
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What a scam. Convince your customers to pay more so they won't appear to be one of the unwashed masses out in public. Then claim they will have a superior experience. While slowly removing features from subsequent generations of the product, and increasing the price.
"You are fortunate that we are willing to take your money." Suckers.
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... I launched my first hosting company I didn't want to deal with "bad" customers, people who don't pay, send spam, attract DMCA notices, etc. I wanted to offer a professional service for professional webmasters, so I made it invitation-only. You could host with us only if we knew you or you had good references from people we know. As it turned out, NO potential customer EVER turned down an invitation to host their site with us; the exclusivity turned out to be a great marketing bit. It wasn't false exclusivity, BTW, since we weren't spending 80% of our time dealing with BS from a few PITA customers, we were able to provide excellent service.
Thank you for the advice!
I don't want my own web startup to turn into the 'next' Mega-Upload or whatever, but to be a service that caters to a specific market. This is the way to do it. I can cater to my specific 'type' of clientele, and not worry about leechers who would pay, but then inundate me with DMCA take-downs.
Great advice!
I'd be glad to share 20 years of mistakes (Score:2)
I've been running web-centric business since the mid-1990s, so I've have opportunities to make plenty of mistakes, and do a few things right. I'd be glad to share my lessons-learned if you want to chat some time, tell me about what you're doing.
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I've been running web-centric business since the mid-1990s, so I've have opportunities to make plenty of mistakes, and do a few things right. I'd be glad to share my lessons-learned if you want to chat some time, tell me about what you're doing.
Will do. I've never PM'd anyone here on /., and can't find any such button. Plus my email is private. How to take a discussion offline w/o telling the world about it?
Trade in? (Score:5, Funny)
Microsoft is desperate both to get their hands on some decent PCs, and also to get rid of Surfaces...
Re:Trade in? (Score:4, Interesting)
Microsoft is desperate both to get their hands on some decent PCs, and also to get rid of Surfaces...
I like my Surface Pro 4; I run all my development VM's on it and take some fantastic notes in meetings. Only issue I ever had is scaling when un/docking on non 4K monitors.
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I have been impressed by some of the Surface hardware, but I'm just done buying stuff that says Microsoft on it. I don't want their fucking logos in my life. Windows 10 spyware edition was the last straw. I've been mad at Microsoft for one thing and another since forever, and I'm sitting at Windows 7 right now, but this is the end. My only friend, apparently.
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Microsoft is desperate both to get their hands on some decent PCs, and also to get rid of Surfaces...
That offer would be pretty nice if the Surface came preloaded with Linux.
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You can only get the Linux Surface if you turn in a MacBook that has been stripped and upgraded to Linux.
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The offer would be nice if you had a broken mac from this page https://microsoftsurfacetrade.... [cexchange.com] and they still allowed a trade in. Not that there is any worth in that surface but hey broken mac get a shitface and sell it, I'd bet it would be close run thing on whether you would make a profit on the hugely overpriced surface. Then again why are they so desperate for working MACs, what is going on at Redmond with the softies ;D.
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Shoot (Score:5, Interesting)
Compared to the new MacBook Pro the Surface tablet is probably faster too :-D
Sadly they both have the same dual core cpu but the MS one is 1/3 the price. FYI I own a surface pro 3 and Ubuntu runs great on it! No you did not misread that if anyone wants to run it on a thin and light form factor I recommend it. I still have Windows 10 as well for my Netfix apps which are are handy on a plane.
Re: Shoot (Score:2)
It would habe been a better idea to offer a lower amount of money to switch from iPad to Surface.
What I really hate about my iPad is returning an hour latter to a tab in the browser for a Story I want to read and have to wait for it to fully reload.
On Surface with Windows it does not happen, ever.
"Then Apple Happened"? (Score:3)
Er, so MS managed to show off probably the best tool for creatives/artists at a fairly good price - totally bespoke design.
Apple? Another laptop, almost identical in performance and features to the one from 3 years ago, but more expensive, with a retina touchpad instead of a touch screen. Plus they kind of overlooked the fact a lot of people like to plug their phone into their laptops to leech power for charging. So there's a dongle for that.
Yeah, that "happened" I guess...
No they're not (Score:5, Informative)
They're offering up to $650. My not-very-old Retina Macbook Pro is only worth $475, and I do not a $899 Surface Pro to be trading "up".
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Agree on the up to $650. I went to the trade-in site [microsoftstore.com] and see an old Macbook A1181 trade-in is only $75. Of course that device was released in 2009.
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Also note that the condition states: "The housing must be completely intact without cracks or missing parts, and cannot have any etchings or asset tags."
It's very normal for Apple laptops to develop hairline cracks in the case in certain area -- like around the hinge in white plastic Macbooks.
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They'll only have my Aluminum macbook when it's a burning heap of toxic chemicals.
I still like it a lot. Kids still use it as their primary machine (running Linux Mint 18) and it's certainly fast enough for light browsing, playing music on banshee, and as a Kodi client.
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Yeah, its a fucking joke. Just for shits and giggles I looked up my late 2013 MBPr and they offered $50
Uhh, no. I can toss it up on craigslist for $650 and have it gone in a few hours if I really wanted to...
That and clicking on the text for the model number brings me to a page for a completely different model, so there is a good chance that the whole page / database is screwy.
Re: No they're not (Score:2)
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They're offering up to $650. My not-very-old Retina Macbook Pro is only worth $475, and I do not a $899 Surface Pro to be trading "up".
$899 is the starting price. If you want one with specs of a comparable mac, you will be spending more. LOTS more. Do a comparable of one of these to a Mac, with the same specs, and you will find that the 'equivalent-spec'd' Microsoft product if far more expensive than an identically spec'd Mac.
Bad business. (Score:3)
You know it's bad when you have to try and coax people into using your product.
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Really. So I guess Coca-Cola is doomed, then. Hey, marketers and advertisers: Over here, I think we've found a real chump!
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Really. So I guess Coca-Cola is doomed, then.
Coca-Cola will pay you money to purchase their products? I'd like to hear more about that!
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But... Does it run Linux? (Score:2)
I might do this if I could install Linux on it.
Since my MacBook became old and sluggish, I've been using a Chromebook and love the touch screen. Now that Apple has revealed it's long overdue (and underwhelming) MacBook updates, I'm looking for an alternative but I just won't ever use Windows... ever.
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I just won't ever use Windows... ever.
In Soviet Windows 10, Telemetry uses you!
All I want to know (Score:2)
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Exactly. I don't really get this deal at all. In general if you've picked a Mac of any kind, it's because you like the operating system and UI; it does what you want in the way you want. Windows 10, even by the mediocre standards that Windows GUI has come to represent, is a horrible hackneyed UI. Yes, the software library is certainly bigger, but if you've been a long time Mac user, that's not likely a selling point at all.
I just don't get Microsoft. First they get into the hardware business, pissing of OEM
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It's always good when the experts on the Windows OS (Mac users who boast they would never touch a Windows computer) are in the room explaining why it is so bad.
I just don't get Microsoft.
Right. But you sure have an opinion about it.
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Oddly enough, Microsoft is succeeding. They had a record quarter, and have had some pretty innovative stuff come out these past few months, be it Windows Server 2016, the additions to W10, the new computers, and other announcements. However, from what I've seen, the main cash cow is Azure because a lot of companies have a philosophy of "only server we should have is the router fabric to the cloud provider." Office365 is also no slouch, because it takes the pain of running Exchange and moves it elsewhere.
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I'm sure you haven't worked with O365 then. It takes away the pain of running your own Exchange server as well as all logging and troubleshooting capabilities and when you talk to MS, they just say that's the way it is intended:
Global limit of 3 IMAP connections to the service: as intended
All your users are on the same (overloaded) server: as intended
Sent/Draft folder not syncing between devices: as intended
Syncing your folders from IMAP to O365 fails after a few hours: as intended
Your UI changes every mont
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I've been a Mac guy way longer than a Windows guy for my main computing, pretty much all of the nineties up until a couple of years ago. And as of today, I like Windows 10 better than what OS X has become. Both OSs have their idiosyncrasies to get past and both have their strengths, but overall Windows has way more going for it.
Its clean, simple, and fast UI has really grown on me -- it'
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You certainly write a lot of anti-Apple posts for a guy who claims to have until recently been a big Apple user.
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Recently was about 3 years ago and I still use my MBPro 17" to play my music( I hate the newer iTunes, go-figure, but it still does some things right ), comparability testing, and on occasion Logic.
If you want to see why I'm not a fan of Apple now days, just look at what they've done to the Mac. Look at what they've removed from their computers and their OS in recent years. Look at what you get now days when you b
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As I said to MightMartian, I was a Mac guy. Apple is no longer in the business of pushing their computer business forward it seems, other than they need something to support iOS development. So now I'm here, a former Mac guy using a Windows PC full-time.
Money making proposition? (Score:3)
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Print a screenshot on a color laser and glue it to the broken computer's screen.
Bet they take it. Also change the model # with a sharpy.
You didn't choose to pay the MS store employees minimum wage, they did that.
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If your Macbook is worth second hand more than $650 you're not currently in the market for a new device, especially not a downsized PC tablet hybrid thing.
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Horrible deal (Score:2)
Somebody might get the impression that they can trade their very old and/or broken Mac and get $650 worth in MS bucks. They would be horribly mistaken. The old Macs fetch $75. And less if they are broken.
To get $650, you have to trade in a used Mac that is worth about $1,000 on the market.
What is not to like?
didn't Gandhi talk about this? (Score:2)
"first they ignore you. then they laugh at you. then they fight you. then you win."
So it looks like MS has finally made it to stage 3.
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No, Gandhi never talked about competing brands of personal computer hardware. He would be upset that people use catch-phrases from his ideology to battle about which brand of consumer items is superior.
Furthermore, it is not an ideological issue. It's about different brands of computer.
Powerbook? (Score:2)
Can I turn in my Powerbook 165C? I think it has System 7 on it.
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Can I turn in my Powerbook 165C? I think it has System 7 on it.
I traded a powerbook of about that era for a 1980 280ZX once.
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Must have been one heck of a Datsun.
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Must have been one heck of a Datsun.
It had bad electrical problems and this was before I knew anything about that (I know nominally "everything" about automotive electrical now, and know what to ask and where to look up the balance... but this was over a decade ago and I've done a lot since then) and then I crashed it, RIP.
Since I love to blather about cars I will point out that the 280ZX was a pretty cool kind of poor man's Jag, the 2+2 layout meant it was kind of ugly but it was cheaper on insurance. And that 2.8 liter straight six wasn't s
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Back then anything Datsun in auto parts was out-of-this-world expensive. Though I loved my Datsun 310 (the near opposite of a 280ZX) for years.
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Why doesn't MS make their S/W better instead? (Score:3, Informative)
I had been using an old Macbook as my primary system for my day job, however I was forced by my employer to upgrade. The newest version of MacOS X supported on it was still so old that the anti-virus software that my employer uses was no longer being updated for it. All of the upgrade choices ran our corporate-build of Windows 10, so I ended up with a shiny new Windows 10 laptop.
I figured that it wouldn't be a big deal. Most of my work involves VPN'ing into a corporate network and ssh'ing into Unix-y/Linux systems where my real work is done. But, after a couple of months of this, I am ready to buy a cheap, used (but new enough for anti-virus upgrades) MacBook to do my work on.
There are just too many stupid bugs in Windows (when switching between displays and display modes, the desktop manager resizes windows to the smallest width and height even after switching to a larger display until restarted) and really annoying inconsistencies between applications (is consistent cut-and-paste behavior really so hard to implement?). And, then there is the battery life. The laptop nominally has a 10-hour battery, but, using it the same way that I was using the 9-year-old MacBook with a 5-year-old battery, I am getting less time between needing to recharge than I did with the MacBook (2.5 hours max). There may be ways to get the new Windows laptop to work as well as the old Macbook did, but shouldn't it just work well out of the box?
I just checked to see what MBPs they accept. (Score:1)
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You do realise that trade-ins on anything always pay under the market value? Vehicle trade-ins are particularly notorious for this. The difference comes from the extra value ascribed to the existence of a guaranteed buyer.
Selling your second hand laptop online may well net you more cash than trading in to Microsoft, but you'll have to deal with all the associated hassles of doing so. This means that for you it may not make sense, but for others (time poor, high-income job, afraid of strangers, etc...) it ce
NFL (Score:1)
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They probably would be interested in the reverse deal : Paying 650 per device more and get ipads :)
What idiot would fall for this? (Score:3, Funny)
Let's trade a nice $2500 laptop for a $600 paperweight. Even 5 year old MBPs have higher resale value and have way better performance than their product and they're not even offering that much for it.
Carbon-copy (Score:5, Informative)
These things are almost detail-for-detail copies of the MacBook, iMac, and iPad lines. Only, they look a bit clunkier.
And the best part of all is that they are manufactured by Lenovo. You know, IBM's former laptop brand, sold to a Chinese conglomerate. . . and Lenovo products are notorious for coming with spyware and malware pre-installed.
OK, here is the best part, actually. You must send in your charger along with the functioning Mac laptop. Those things cost $65 to $85 all by themselves! Add in that that $650 is only a discount coupon to the purchase of Microsoft's clone of the MacBook Pro you are ditching. And of course, you only get the full $650 discount on a really recent Mac laptop. An older one. . . Well, you would get more on ebay for it than this 'trade-in value' that Microsoft is offering.
Last, there are many restrictions. The display must have no dead pixels. None. No scratches. Must boot up. No property ID tags. The list of restrictions goes on and on.
This is just PR, and a bad deal for someone looking to sell/trade an extra laptop they have sitting around. (I have 6.) You will get more cash money by selling your old laptop on ebay than by taking up Microsoft on this "deal" – and all the back-doors you'd expect from Lenovo and Microsoft.
In sum, the offer is insulting. If I trade in my fully-loaded Mac to get a Microsoft (Lenovo) clone of that Mac that has the same specs of what I am trading in (1 TB, 16 GB RAM, etc.), then the price is at least $3300! That is more than I paid for my Mac with similar specs. . . a couple of years ago! Why does this myth of Macs being expensive persist? Sure, you can buy a cheap computer, or a cheap car. Neither is the same as a well-designed and reliably manufactured laptop or car. You can buy a Camry or a BMW. You can buy a Dell or a Mac. I digress. . .
In any case, a Mac can dual-boot to run OS X, Windows, or Linux. Just partition your drive and go. I run Windows, when required, from a sleek Micro-SD card that does not stick out. I use Fusion, enabling use of Windows and OS X simultaneously, thanks to my two dual cores. And it's sand-boxed, so no Windows sploits can breach my main system (OS X).
It works seamlessly. I switch between Windows and OS X in a programming class that I teach: I use the environment that a given student is using on their laptop. The API is running on both OS's, as well as Firefox on both, and some others on the OS X side. It is so dead-easy to switch between them on the fly, during lab-sessions of a class.
No one will take this "offer" from Microsoft. You would get less than you gave away. And be stuck in Windows-only. Ick.
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This is just PR, and a bad deal for someone looking to sell/trade an extra laptop they have sitting around. (I have 6.) You will get more cash money by selling your old laptop on ebay than by taking up Microsoft on this "deal" – and all the back-doors you'd expect from Lenovo and Microsoft.
In sum, the offer is insulting. If I trade in my fully-loaded Mac to get a Microsoft (Lenovo) clone of that Mac that has the same specs of what I am trading in (1 TB, 16 GB RAM, etc.), then the price is at least $3300! That is more than I paid for my Mac with similar specs. . . a couple of years ago! Why does this myth of Macs being expensive persist? Sure, you can buy a cheap computer, or a cheap car. Neither is the same as a well-designed and reliably manufactured laptop or car. You can buy a Camry or a BMW. You can buy a Dell or a Mac. I digress. . .
In any case, a Mac can dual-boot to run OS X, Windows, or Linux. Just partition your drive and go. I run Windows, when required, from a sleek Micro-SD card that does not stick out. I use Fusion, enabling use of Windows and OS X simultaneously, thanks to my two dual cores. And it's sand-boxed, so no Windows sploits can breach my main system (OS X).
It works seamlessly. I switch between Windows and OS X in a programming class that I teach: I use the environment that a given student is using on their laptop. The API is running on both OS's, as well as Firefox on both, and some others on the OS X side. It is so dead-easy to switch between them on the fly, during lab-sessions of a class.
No one will take this "offer" from Microsoft. You would get less than you gave away. And be stuck in Windows-only. Ick.
That is a wonderful post, and so elegantly shows the unsung, largely under-appreciated real-world advantages of using Macs.
Creatives? (Score:2)
I think what we need is for these people to stop doing that and try to be innovative and think new forms, shapes and concepts. Then maybe they wouldn't call the 7'th generation of slight improvements of a product for a breakthrough and a revolutionary design.
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Ever noticed that these "creatives" mostly seem to be copying apple? I think what we need is for these people to stop doing that and try to be innovative and think new forms, shapes and concepts. Then maybe they wouldn't call the 7'th generation of slight improvements of a product for a breakthrough and a revolutionary design.
So you think that a new (at least to the MacBook Pro, if not the world), multitouch, graphical interface device that doesn't require ANY onscreen real-estate to be actualized and Instantiated is a "slight improvement?"
This is not like the dumb Microsoft "Dial", where you have to stick a nasty chrome hockey-puck ONTO YOUR SCREEN, and then spin it around as a proportional controller of some sort. And what if you want TWO "Dials"? Or THREE...?
But instead, the Touch Bar on the MacBook Pro allows a nearly in
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The use case : people need to plug in a mouse, a USB2 drive, sometimes an SD card.
The answer : you've got four external PCIe 4x / USB combo ports but you need two or three adapters or a USB hub and an adapter. That works but that sucks. Though you may get a USB-C mouse.
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http://portal.acm.org/citation... [acm.org]
http://users.erols.com/rwservi... [erols.com]
It is nothing new, nor revolutionary. Yes it has been improved a lt since the early days, but it is still the same concept.
If you can't improve something with 30 years or more of technological advance you need to take up echo-farming where no progress is acceptable and using a paperclip for a novel use is still revolutionary.
still in denial (Score:1)
Incentives, hard sales, even Hawaii Five-O spots... still can't sell the POS.
Here's a thought, dump the really bad OS and make something real instead of trying to bolt onto a really bad foundation. Great stuff on top of crap is still crap.
Your really big chance was back in the late 1990s when you were being sued. Should have sold the OS to IBM for say a billion, then upgraded the OS to Linux. It's a win win win. You guys get a really good OS under it, Linux users get office, IBM gets screwed again. What mor
Tablet, you say? (Score:1)
"Up to" (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Speed and features aren't really at the forefront, unless you consider the pen and touch input as new features. What is at the forefront is runtime. A few years ago, 4-5 hours was a great run time for a standard battery on a "powerful" machine. Now everybody pretty much complains if you don't get 8 hours of real-world use on the top (fastest) hardware model. Power has given way to battery life, like some kind of perverse MPG war, leaving those who want portable workstations wondering what happened to their