[lwdesign]

Quote

"Apple fanboi religion reality distortion field Kool-Aid HyperCard OpenDoc …" Ah HyperCard, ah OpenDoc, I do not remember a software product called "Kool-Aid", however. Must have run pre System 6, cause that was the OS on the first Mac I bought. ;-)

The "Kool-Aid" the Macalope refers to is an oblique reference to Jim Jones and the Jonestown killings/suicides by drinking poison-laced Kool-Aid, as well as the Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test from the early 60's (look 'em up on Wikipedia). The overall idea of "drinking the Kool-Aid" relates to people blindly following a leader or philosophy despite its destructive or dangerous direction. Apple fans have long been accused of drinking the Apple Kool-Aid by journalists who conceive that they only buy Apple products because they're either stoned or hypnotized into thinking Apple is cool.

[bettercitizens]

Quote

"Apple fanboi religion reality distortion field Kool-Aid HyperCard OpenDoc …" Ah HyperCard, ah OpenDoc, I do not remember a software product called "Kool-Aid", however. Must have run pre System 6, cause that was the OS on the first Mac I bought. ;-) The "Kool-Aid" the Macalope refers to is an oblique reference to Jim Jones and the Jonestown killings/suicides by drinking poison-laced Kool-Aid, as well as the Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test from the early 60's (look 'em up on Wikipedia). The overall idea of "drinking the Kool-Aid" relates to people blindly following a leader or philosophy despite its destructive or dangerous direction. Apple fans have long been accused of drinking the Apple Kool-Aid by journalists who conceive that they only buy Apple products because they're either stoned or hypnotized into thinking Apple is cool.

I am familiar with both. The part about blindly following Apple, inc. I do not get, is that provided people use Apple's products to help accomplish their work & goals they are using them as the tool of choice. As such that tool is an enabler and not used because it is cool, etc.

If there was no software to run on OS X and iOS it is doubtful that Apple would sell many devices. My take is that Steve Jobs learned the message of Steve Ballmer very well - developers, developers, developers, developers... and he did it with acting like a lunatic with sweat through shirt.

[davebarnes]

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The "Kool-Aid" the Macalope refers to is an oblique reference to Jim Jones

Flavor-Aid. Not Kool-Aid.

[bastion]

ingus, on 26 January 2013 - 08:20 AM, said:

Burns is totally wrong, and he missed an opportunity. The Surface Pro should in no way be compared to the Air. A product's positioning in a product line is not by itself sufficient to make that comparison.

Disagree. I think Surface Pro vs MB Air is the most apt comparison you can make. It's just one that he made very poorly.

Quote

One thing though... Can we call a digitizing pen what it is, and not just a "stylus". It's much more than that.

It appears to be a light pen along the lines of what a reasonably smart teenager could have built with a discarded Bic barrel and $10 of Radio Shack parts 25 years ago.

[ingus]

bastion, on 29 January 2013 - 07:31 AM, said:

ingus, on 26 January 2013 - 08:20 AM, said:

Burns is totally wrong, and he missed an opportunity. The Surface Pro should in no way be compared to the Air. A product's positioning in a product line is not by itself sufficient to make that comparison.

Disagree. I think Surface Pro vs MB Air is the most apt comparison you can make. It's just one that he made very poorly.

Quote

One thing though... Can we call a digitizing pen what it is, and not just a "stylus". It's much more than that.

It appears to be a light pen along the lines of what a reasonably smart teenager could have built with a discarded Bic barrel and $10 of Radio Shack parts 25 years ago.

One is a tablet with a touchscreen, the other an "Ultrabook", without one. One has a digitizing pen option, the other doesn't.
As far as styli, I'm not saying that the Samsung digitizing pen should be heading towards Stockholm in December, but it's certainly not a "dumb" conductive stylus. I don't know if it's a light pen, it's a Wacom style stylus and it's leaps and bounds better than the "dumb" variety. Having used both, there's no comparison.

This post has been edited by ingus: 30 January 2013 - 12:35 AM

[bastion]

Kennethfcooper, on 26 January 2013 - 12:39 PM, said:

Macalope, Is anyone making the argument that Disney's destiny is in the dustbin, because Steve is no longer on the board? If not, I wonder why not. A more compelling argument for this could probably be made.

Because as one member of Disney's board for 5 years, he exerted much less influence over Disney's actions and offerings than he did for Apple in the 14 years of his second stint as CEO. A board of directors isn't involved in the day-to-day operations of a company or the individual products they offer.

Disney's future will be scrutinized when John Lasseter leaves. That would be a more appropriate comparison to how people view Apple since Steve's death.

[bastion]

ingus, on 30 January 2013 - 12:32 AM, said:

bastion, on 29 January 2013 - 07:31 AM, said:

ingus, on 26 January 2013 - 08:20 AM, said:

Burns is totally wrong, and he missed an opportunity. The Surface Pro should in no way be compared to the Air. A product's positioning in a product line is not by itself sufficient to make that comparison.

Disagree. I think Surface Pro vs MB Air is the most apt comparison you can make. It's just one that he made very poorly.

One is a tablet with a touchscreen, the other an "Ultrabook", without one. One has a digitizing pen option, the other doesn't.

I think the differences between a Surface Pro and a MacBook Air are much less significant than the similarities. Add a practically-mandatory-yet-extra-cost keyboard to a Surface Pro and you've essentially got an "ultrabook" that happens to support (but not require) a pen-based interaction model. Product positioning aside, the physical and functional specs of the Surface Pro are well-aligned with the Air. Far more so than with any other modern tablet device.

[ingus]

bastion, on 30 January 2013 - 04:12 AM, said:

ingus, on 30 January 2013 - 12:32 AM, said:

bastion, on 29 January 2013 - 07:31 AM, said:

ingus, on 26 January 2013 - 08:20 AM, said:

Burns is totally wrong, and he missed an opportunity. The Surface Pro should in no way be compared to the Air. A product's positioning in a product line is not by itself sufficient to make that comparison.

Disagree. I think Surface Pro vs MB Air is the most apt comparison you can make. It's just one that he made very poorly.

One is a tablet with a touchscreen, the other an "Ultrabook", without one. One has a digitizing pen option, the other doesn't.

I think the differences between a Surface Pro and a MacBook Air are much less significant than the similarities. Add a practically-mandatory-yet-extra-cost keyboard to a Surface Pro and you've essentially got an "ultrabook" that happens to support (but not require) a pen-based interaction model. Product positioning aside, the physical and functional specs of the Surface Pro are well-aligned with the Air. Far more so than with any other modern tablet device.

Right! That's why I said what I originally said. It's a tablet, but can function as an Ultrabook. It supports two usage patterns. The hypothetical "iPad Pro" would as well.

[dcolley]

Yesterday, I was at a large mall. Microsoft had a desk out in the middle of the mall trying hard to imitate the Apple Store employees. There were five Microsoft employees standing around with two customers. The mall must of had 50,000 customers that day. I went down to the Apple Store, it was packed as always with about 400 customers. An hour later I passed the Microsoft booth and it had one customer. Someone said that the surface has had Apple like lines. Doesn't seem like that is the case in Texas.