I wonder if there will be a good second market for consoles stuffed to the hilt with games. Could be some good deals about later in it's life. Gamers really need to resist buying new shiny if the industry is trying it on. There's plenty of quality unplayed games out there for most of us.
Batteries, motor, drive train, controller, wiring looms wont be as mass produced as regular parts and research and development would owe them more at the moment.
In the past, electric cars were actually subsidised.
Car dealers make very little profit on each unit, instead they are rewarded for volume and make most profit on after sales.
So no it shouldnt be cheaper. If Apple wanted to make cars, they would price them at least 30% more expensive than this to keep with their business model.
The DS lite was still selling for £140 just over a month before the DSi released at £149. Here on mainland Europe they sold for a long time (still do) side by side with that small price difference. As they did in the USA $129 v $169.
LIke I said before, the extras on the DSi were certainly worth it to the millions of parents who wanted to keep their kids amused for that bit longer You could perhaps argue that serious gamers were/are happy to make those savings to focus purely on games.
The UK is a fierce market and I imagine you got your lite for £99 after a knee jerk supermarket fire sale. In which case the DSi would have looked overpriced. If you're savvy enough, you'll scan all the hot deal websites, bargain forums for the right prices anyway. I believe Morrisons were doing DSis for £99 around Xmas time, with similar good deals on the XL. or the recent Amazon £129 3DS bundle. Totally unheard of on mainland europe and out of Nintendo's control. Hence why I would spring to their defence.
My point was that too many mature gamers were wrongly criticising Nintendo for not making the DSi worth the 'upgrade' to them. I dont think these people really know themselves what market they are in. To me its the "demand shiny new tech" market, which is owned by Apple. With Nintendo continually stubborn in giving us the proper wow factor, but then they are a defacto toy company, not a big boys toys company like Apple have are become. I would love to see Nintendo do an Ipad or iphone, with their innovation on top, but its not the price point or market they like to do business in.
"£40 for a Vita game, vs £5 for Shadowgun on my Asus Transformer Prime."
I would expect people who post here, to be slightly more savvy than to pay RRP for console games. Even if you don't like shopping online, following many of the hot deal websites or bargain forums, Tesco, Morrisons and Sainsburys always end up knocking a good £10 or £15 off.
Still, quoting the £40 RRP seems to be winning a lot of arguments at the moment. Just as it did when PC gamers often tried to justify the expense of a PC v Xbox 360 gaming.
I've yet to pay over £23 for a 360 game and have some real quality for that money.
You should also consider the technology inside the VIta for the subsidised price, compared to the extra £200 + you pay for your less portable gaming device.
At the end of the day, most of us only have a certain amount of time and money to spend gaming anyway.
"13. House Alarm ... GPIO hardware interfacing to existing alarm zones .. remote monitoring/alerting .. PIR / door monitoring for movements .. runs off same alarm supply with ups."
"So you're implying that school PCs *should* be available for hacking code during school hours, when you should be learning Math and English. Someone that can't do basic math, read, write, or speak well isn't going to do anyone any good and isn't going to get a job, even if he can program"
___________________
The team clearly criticised the I.T curriculum of UK schools and wanted programing to be available where word and excel were being taught instead of the programing availble in the past (when the team were at school)
I thought this would be the last place to find posters calling the RaspberryPi 'computer' "just a board" and that people wont know what to do with it, collect dust etc.
It has RAM
It has bootable onboard removable storage
It has a CPU and GPU
It has HDMI
It has 3.5mm Audio out
It has USB 2
It has Ethernet
It is more populated than a barebones PC at ebuyer, but low power and a tiny form factor, giving it even more possibilities.
The distributors are selling kits to let you have it up and running as a fully functional computer on delivery day.
If you still think its just a board for devs and geeks, you need a history lesson.
Our IBM compatible PCs started life as a business machine with green screens and no sound.
There are less powerful biege boxes over 10 years old still being used, nosier and consuming more electricity. This is a fully functional computer if you buy the bundle.
What is a computer used for? Not enough space to answer?
You didnt need to be a Ninty fanboy to see the PSPGo would fail.
IMO its largely about being in the right place at the right time and now they have the thorn in the side that is Apple.
I dont think Sony have ever got over Nintendo inventing the Gameboy.
Nintendo are very good at distancing themselves from trends, fashions and what other people are doing, or at least pretending to.
Before Apple took over , Sony probably had the best brand names in gaming. I think it went to their heads. Their best ever gaming product is still the PS1 and that only started with a joint venture with Ninty.
Why the hell couldnt they have used one of those mini SSDs found in hte Dell minis. They could have easily turned it into a proprietary connector to make the money back they need.
Parents will be the biggest buyers of the Vita eventually. I doubt they will give two hoots how many megapixels the camera has. They want to shut the kids up and Sony wants to save a few pennies.
If the camera is not good enough for your needs, buy the likely better version in a couple of years that Sony will need to update to keep up with the times for newer gamers coming in. Newer gamers who will be exposed to faster and flasher smart phones.
"The DSi was a decent machine but I think most of Lite owners (I would include myself in this) would have said that it was definitely worth the extra cash – the new features were too minor."
______________
The DSi was not an upgrade path for you DS lite owners.
It was an updated version of the platform to give a better choice for consumers (mostly parents) inline with other shiny gadgets appearing. It amazes me how selfish older gamers are in criticising Nintendo for their updates not being worth it, when new gamers are coming into the hobby all the time, and are likely to go for the most upto date system, especially when it was only 20 euros more for the extra features Nintendo added with trying to keep up with the times.
The cameras, media software, SD card slot, online store and web browser, were a very welcome choice for parents to keep little Johnny amused that little bit longer and well worth the extra 20 euros. My Nephew still often messes around with the recording software and still wants tunes converting to their silly audio format. And some of the photos he's taken whilst wandering off are pricless, crap quality or not.
If you felt the DS Lite lacked too many features, perhaps you shouldn't have bought it in the first place? I doubt the biggest buyers of the new handhelds, the parents, will give it as much thought though.
I doubt I will be buying the PSvita because I feel Sony havnt quite got it right. Hopefully they will produced an updated version that ticks all the boxes, if not, theres still a hell of a lot of video games out there I still havnt played.
On the contrary. My Samsung NC10 feels more comfortable sitting on my lap in the lay down position on the couch with one hand on the superb little keyboard and one hand on the top quality external mouse. A keyboard and mouse unbeatable, by any tablet at any price. I like to chill or veg out sometimes and I hardly need to move with this setup.
Ive never been comfortable holding a book up to read laying down, and neither am I holding and fondeling a tablet computer whilst laying down on the couch.
Netbooks are far from dead. They are less produced now purely because the manufactures want to make more money elsewhere. Ask yourself how we coped before tablets? Or why tablets didnt catch on nearly a decade ago when Microsoft aimed them at a genuine market.
My Netbook can do everything my powerful desktop can, using the same software, most of it free, albeit slower with some lag. But its what, four years old? and cost £175 + £20 for the MS mouse.
No reliabilty issues here whatsover. The NC10 also runs Snow leopard, which came with an Apple sticker to make me feel better about myself.
So long as you're enjoying the cut down and restricted IOS over full operating systems and productivity on similar sized devices, thats all that matters I suppose.
A waste of time and money research. I could have told them there's a big difference between playing Wii bowling, baseball and tennis (providing your style is get up off the floor), than sitting at the desk playing COD with a mouse.
"motion-controlled videogame systems do very little to help kids fulfill their daily exercise requirements"
Who said they did 'fulfill' those requirements?
A walk in the park doesnt fulfill those requirements, but Im sure the medical team would agree it is a healther option than sitting on the sofa twiddling thumbs.
Samsung need to speak to the right marketing companies. IMO they need to change their image and highlight a new highly desirable brand, taking the emphasis off the 'Samsung' brand and logo.
Or anyone else who wants to compete with Apple for that matter.
Nintendo made a reasonable attempt with the Wii design and brand, but it seems they are not interested in evolving lifestyle products like Apple. Nintendo are obviously restricted by being a defacto toy company, with an audience of all ages..
There seem to be very few of us who realise the ipad is first and formost a toy for grown ups. That is not meant to belittle Apple or ipad owners. It's a very, very lucrative market, even in a long recession. If you don't believe it, ask yourselves then if there is a hole in the market?
Secondly it's a fashion accessory and a feel good type of gadget, that hits all of our desire buttons.
Starting with the most simple of strategies, hiking the price to make the product look more desirable and let the followers who can afford it do the rest.
Nobody was interested in tablet PCs nearly a decade ago, when Microsoft aimed them at the business market. Concentrating their multi-media efforts on the desktop computer, of all things.
It's only common sense and the way Apple drip feed tech and restrict their products that stop everyone else from jumping on board.
Apple have now established themselves like the BMW brand, only with a vastly bigger mark-up. Both are almost worn like an item of clothing.
I think competitors could do worse than look at the designer lable clothing industry in how to compete.
Ironically though, unlike BMW, it's still cheap chinese electronics built in the same factories using the same components as their rivals. Samsung being their biggest supplier.
Add approx £200 to equip the Air with the same ports the reviewer bigs up. Plus no USB 3 on the mac. Thats already the price of another shiny gadget to bring it up to spec.
Apple might have the better software, but who cares when this whole market is aimed at fashion victims and show offs. Home computing never used to be like this. I'll stick to hackingtoshing a £400 old school laptop and put up with this flexing of cases mystery that seems to have everybody concerned all of a sudden.
The Vita is subsidised to the tune of £300 (uk), which gives you TEN full price games as an early adopter, or Twenty if you can wait until they are discounted by big supermarkets like Morrisons and Tesco.
I think I bought about 11 games for my PSP, which satisfied my portable gaming needs.
A £500 i device, playing hundreds of 0-£2.99 games, with aweful touch controls, doesn't always equate to great gaming value.
If you still don't like the vita, compared to the shovelware on the i devices, there is a lot of value still to be had from retro gaming on an ipad using the Wiimote as a classic control pad.
I think the reason theyre picking on Apple, is compared to the others mentioned, Apple are massively profitable. Selling products at the luxury end of the market, in the ipads case a product many people use as a toy.
New mass produced cars barely have a mark-up, for the person who brought that struggling industry into it.
What about not falling for the high price tag, metal case fad? and make do with plastic cases, that really have not been the weak point of laptop build quality. The majority have broken hinges and dodgey power supplies or power sockets.
Hopefully the RaspberryPi will put an end to the vain use of computers.
Metal cases are not innovation, they are what was used pre-plastic fabrication. It's a fad, similar to the clear coloured cases Apple made for it's vain users in the 1990s.
Apple also predicted the future was tablet PCs and Netbooks were dead, only to reduce their screen sizes of their proper computers to that approacing Netbook.
Macs may hold their value, and as their fans regularly point out, PCs of similar or slightly higher spec are almost given away for free, but this begs the question, why not take a PC off someones hands for free than fork out £500 for a used Mac?
Trust me, the increase in Mac sales will coincide with the amount of people who don't know what is good about a Mac. Fashion victims. You've always been able to buy better quality MP3 players than an ipode cheaper, and notice the high percentage of ipod owners who still use the inferior packaged ear buds.
If you don't mind a few niggles, run hackingtosh on your free hardware and buy OSX for £28 online.
Stop bickering. The team really want to get this manufactured in the UK eventually. I believe it was too high risk to have the *first batch*produced in uk.
If it's as succesful as the good reception so far,I don't see why they couldn't have say a model 'c' version made in UK and charge a bit more for it. I would be up for that. It's about time the consumer also did their bit for the country than to buy all their toys from china and the Raspberry foundation seem perfect to offer that choice.
The i7 Macbook is £1549. I don't care whether it's built like a tank, it will never leave my house. The same way I would never carry £1500 around in my wallet.
A core i7 is also more power than I will need on my lap or coffee table. My i7 mini tower was £429, it's metal and also creaks if you push it hard enough.
I hope this new fashion of metal cases and high price tags affords us longevity where laptops traditionally fail. My experience with laptops, is the plastic cases far outlasting their metal hinges, power supplies and 'great feel' keyboard keys. Speaking of which, IBM model M keyboards were mostly plastic and refuse to die after 18 years of hammering.
I remember the era when we had 'Home Computers' that had custom graphics and sound, integrated Midi, audio ouputs etc. Consoles, that were basically Home computers with no keyboard and a simple OS. Then there were PCs with no custom graphics and bleep bleep sound.
They could have had it Gold plated at Goldgenie for about 3 grand. See the problem there? Or do you want composite materials? Plain old metal is so 1950s.
Unlike the PS3 and Xbox 360 (released earlier) The Wii was designed to fit a low price point, a small size and be a quiet running machine and last but not least make a profit from the off.
Nintendo are tight, they avoided DVD playback because it cost money. They used as little as possible RAM and flash storage as that was expensive too.
Nintendo should be commended as a business for not only acheiving their goals, but bringing new gamers into the hobby and older gamers back into the hobby with the Wii's simplicity, fun and retro gaming side.
Most of the criticisms of the Wii come from the Playstation generation, who would've never had entered the hobby if Sony hadn't made gaming trendy.
NIntendo design a console to play the games they wan't to design. I imagine if they end up like Sega, the constant mario rehashes will still out sell the constant rehashes of war hero and boy racer games. One of the biggest fails in gaming, is Microsoft's under use of the RARE studio and lack of flagship game or character.
Let's not forget, new generations of gamer are born all the time. Nintendo has always been ready for them, as opposed to trying to keep up with the likes of the Apple sheep. Who wish the 3DS to be more of a lifestyle object, which the likes of Blackberry, Samsung, Motorola, Sony, Asus are contstantly trying to battle with Apple with their latest 'look at me' gadget.
What I love, is the way that Apple fanboys claim there is something special about the manufacture of their machines comparing them to the likes of BMW. But as you rightly point out, they are made by the same people, with many of the same off the shelf internals as other systems.
There was nothing else a Netbook could have been but a mini Laptop.
When Netbooks were all the rage, there was a demand for a small form factor that could run windows apps at a lower price point.. Traditionally, small form factor costs more money, but that was broken with the Atom chip.
Tablets have been around Donkeys years and have only become fashionable thanks to Apple, their excellent software and the iphone.
It's all very well bashing Netbooks, but the truth for their demise, is to extract more money from the 'i' generation, as traditional computing needs make way for that 'must have' better looking gadget and ever more efficient social networking.
My 2 Netbooks are 3 and 4 years old, cost £190 and £150 respectively (£250 machines found via hotukdeals) They run Windows 7, Office 2007 and will both run Snow Leopard if I'm in the mood. They also make excellent media players, as does the still popular Nettop
Windows 8 and ultra books, may as well start the battle on the catwalk. And with many people happy to dismiss a £250 Netbook for a £500 tablet, there's certainly no need for manufactures to worry about profit margins.
I just read this review and think what's wrong with a laptop anyway?
The Atari 800 was the true predecessor to the Amiga and came 2 years earlier than the C64.
It would probably be the more popular machine today, looking at how far the Mac books have come due to sturdier build quality and high price point. Something that crippled the original 800, certainly on the UK market. It also suffered quite a bit of media bias in the UK.
Register
47 posts • joined Thursday 5th January 2012 12:17 GMT
Re: But seriously...
Posting from, ISS?
Warlords in Africa for 20 years? or 100s ?
Console
I wonder if there will be a good second market for consoles stuffed to the hilt with games. Could be some good deals about later in it's life. Gamers really need to resist buying new shiny if the industry is trying it on. There's plenty of quality unplayed games out there for most of us.
Crammed in
Luckily the electric car industry wont revolve around the UK and its piddly streets and houses.
van-roy@hotmail.co.uk
First impressions, good.
and heads up for Osmos and World of Goo only 49 euro cents
Re: Expensive or not?
Batteries, motor, drive train, controller, wiring looms wont be as mass produced as regular parts and research and development would owe them more at the moment.
In the past, electric cars were actually subsidised.
Car dealers make very little profit on each unit, instead they are rewarded for volume and make most profit on after sales.
So no it shouldnt be cheaper. If Apple wanted to make cars, they would price them at least 30% more expensive than this to keep with their business model.
@Euchrid
The DS lite was still selling for £140 just over a month before the DSi released at £149. Here on mainland Europe they sold for a long time (still do) side by side with that small price difference. As they did in the USA $129 v $169.
LIke I said before, the extras on the DSi were certainly worth it to the millions of parents who wanted to keep their kids amused for that bit longer You could perhaps argue that serious gamers were/are happy to make those savings to focus purely on games.
The UK is a fierce market and I imagine you got your lite for £99 after a knee jerk supermarket fire sale. In which case the DSi would have looked overpriced. If you're savvy enough, you'll scan all the hot deal websites, bargain forums for the right prices anyway. I believe Morrisons were doing DSis for £99 around Xmas time, with similar good deals on the XL. or the recent Amazon £129 3DS bundle. Totally unheard of on mainland europe and out of Nintendo's control. Hence why I would spring to their defence.
My point was that too many mature gamers were wrongly criticising Nintendo for not making the DSi worth the 'upgrade' to them. I dont think these people really know themselves what market they are in. To me its the "demand shiny new tech" market, which is owned by Apple. With Nintendo continually stubborn in giving us the proper wow factor, but then they are a defacto toy company, not a big boys toys company like Apple have are become. I would love to see Nintendo do an Ipad or iphone, with their innovation on top, but its not the price point or market they like to do business in.
Re: Price, Price, Price!
"£40 for a Vita game, vs £5 for Shadowgun on my Asus Transformer Prime."
I would expect people who post here, to be slightly more savvy than to pay RRP for console games. Even if you don't like shopping online, following many of the hot deal websites or bargain forums, Tesco, Morrisons and Sainsburys always end up knocking a good £10 or £15 off.
Still, quoting the £40 RRP seems to be winning a lot of arguments at the moment. Just as it did when PC gamers often tried to justify the expense of a PC v Xbox 360 gaming.
I've yet to pay over £23 for a 360 game and have some real quality for that money.
You should also consider the technology inside the VIta for the subsidised price, compared to the extra £200 + you pay for your less portable gaming device.
At the end of the day, most of us only have a certain amount of time and money to spend gaming anyway.
Re: Amazing how much better
Amazing that those games make me realise I'd be just as happy cranking up a £20 Amiga off an auction site. Enough money left for a good holiday.
ASBO
"13. House Alarm ... GPIO hardware interfacing to existing alarm zones .. remote monitoring/alerting .. PIR / door monitoring for movements .. runs off same alarm supply with ups."
You're from the UK right?
Re: Re: Pre-Order
Fairly professional. The immediate pre-launch and launch were a balls up though.
No emails sent to subscribers, instead many people found out via HUKD.
Displayed the choice of two distributors to buy from. With option 2 not selling any.
I remember reading this was supposed to be 'available' on 20th Feb, but delivery still looks like 2 months away.
Re: @Mike Flex
"So you're implying that school PCs *should* be available for hacking code during school hours, when you should be learning Math and English. Someone that can't do basic math, read, write, or speak well isn't going to do anyone any good and isn't going to get a job, even if he can program"
___________________
The team clearly criticised the I.T curriculum of UK schools and wanted programing to be available where word and excel were being taught instead of the programing availble in the past (when the team were at school)
A board?
I thought this would be the last place to find posters calling the RaspberryPi 'computer' "just a board" and that people wont know what to do with it, collect dust etc.
It has RAM
It has bootable onboard removable storage
It has a CPU and GPU
It has HDMI
It has 3.5mm Audio out
It has USB 2
It has Ethernet
It is more populated than a barebones PC at ebuyer, but low power and a tiny form factor, giving it even more possibilities.
The distributors are selling kits to let you have it up and running as a fully functional computer on delivery day.
If you still think its just a board for devs and geeks, you need a history lesson.
Our IBM compatible PCs started life as a business machine with green screens and no sound.
Re: Re: I cant wait for mine!
There are less powerful biege boxes over 10 years old still being used, nosier and consuming more electricity. This is a fully functional computer if you buy the bundle.
What is a computer used for? Not enough space to answer?
photo
Without viewing the large photo on each order page? I would say a couple of drunks maybe.
Re: Re: Real pi's tomorrow - not pre-orders
"What will you be using to power this briefcase?"
A wild guess, a battery?
only alright, Apple are cleaning up
You didnt need to be a Ninty fanboy to see the PSPGo would fail.
IMO its largely about being in the right place at the right time and now they have the thorn in the side that is Apple.
I dont think Sony have ever got over Nintendo inventing the Gameboy.
Nintendo are very good at distancing themselves from trends, fashions and what other people are doing, or at least pretending to.
Before Apple took over , Sony probably had the best brand names in gaming. I think it went to their heads. Their best ever gaming product is still the PS1 and that only started with a joint venture with Ninty.
loading times
Why the hell couldnt they have used one of those mini SSDs found in hte Dell minis. They could have easily turned it into a proprietary connector to make the money back they need.
Two steps forward, one step back.
Re: 1.3 MP ?
Parents will be the biggest buyers of the Vita eventually. I doubt they will give two hoots how many megapixels the camera has. They want to shut the kids up and Sony wants to save a few pennies.
If the camera is not good enough for your needs, buy the likely better version in a couple of years that Sony will need to update to keep up with the times for newer gamers coming in. Newer gamers who will be exposed to faster and flasher smart phones.
Re: @Annihilator
"The DSi was a decent machine but I think most of Lite owners (I would include myself in this) would have said that it was definitely worth the extra cash – the new features were too minor."
______________
The DSi was not an upgrade path for you DS lite owners.
It was an updated version of the platform to give a better choice for consumers (mostly parents) inline with other shiny gadgets appearing. It amazes me how selfish older gamers are in criticising Nintendo for their updates not being worth it, when new gamers are coming into the hobby all the time, and are likely to go for the most upto date system, especially when it was only 20 euros more for the extra features Nintendo added with trying to keep up with the times.
The cameras, media software, SD card slot, online store and web browser, were a very welcome choice for parents to keep little Johnny amused that little bit longer and well worth the extra 20 euros. My Nephew still often messes around with the recording software and still wants tunes converting to their silly audio format. And some of the photos he's taken whilst wandering off are pricless, crap quality or not.
If you felt the DS Lite lacked too many features, perhaps you shouldn't have bought it in the first place? I doubt the biggest buyers of the new handhelds, the parents, will give it as much thought though.
I doubt I will be buying the PSvita because I feel Sony havnt quite got it right. Hopefully they will produced an updated version that ticks all the boxes, if not, theres still a hell of a lot of video games out there I still havnt played.
This post has been deleted by its author
Re: fad eh?
On the contrary. My Samsung NC10 feels more comfortable sitting on my lap in the lay down position on the couch with one hand on the superb little keyboard and one hand on the top quality external mouse. A keyboard and mouse unbeatable, by any tablet at any price. I like to chill or veg out sometimes and I hardly need to move with this setup.
Ive never been comfortable holding a book up to read laying down, and neither am I holding and fondeling a tablet computer whilst laying down on the couch.
Netbooks are far from dead. They are less produced now purely because the manufactures want to make more money elsewhere. Ask yourself how we coped before tablets? Or why tablets didnt catch on nearly a decade ago when Microsoft aimed them at a genuine market.
My Netbook can do everything my powerful desktop can, using the same software, most of it free, albeit slower with some lag. But its what, four years old? and cost £175 + £20 for the MS mouse.
No reliabilty issues here whatsover. The NC10 also runs Snow leopard, which came with an Apple sticker to make me feel better about myself.
So long as you're enjoying the cut down and restricted IOS over full operating systems and productivity on similar sized devices, thats all that matters I suppose.
"The research team said they were unsure"
A waste of time and money research. I could have told them there's a big difference between playing Wii bowling, baseball and tennis (providing your style is get up off the floor), than sitting at the desk playing COD with a mouse.
"motion-controlled videogame systems do very little to help kids fulfill their daily exercise requirements"
Who said they did 'fulfill' those requirements?
A walk in the park doesnt fulfill those requirements, but Im sure the medical team would agree it is a healther option than sitting on the sofa twiddling thumbs.
Image is everything
Samsung need to speak to the right marketing companies. IMO they need to change their image and highlight a new highly desirable brand, taking the emphasis off the 'Samsung' brand and logo.
Or anyone else who wants to compete with Apple for that matter.
Nintendo made a reasonable attempt with the Wii design and brand, but it seems they are not interested in evolving lifestyle products like Apple. Nintendo are obviously restricted by being a defacto toy company, with an audience of all ages..
There seem to be very few of us who realise the ipad is first and formost a toy for grown ups. That is not meant to belittle Apple or ipad owners. It's a very, very lucrative market, even in a long recession. If you don't believe it, ask yourselves then if there is a hole in the market?
Secondly it's a fashion accessory and a feel good type of gadget, that hits all of our desire buttons.
Starting with the most simple of strategies, hiking the price to make the product look more desirable and let the followers who can afford it do the rest.
Nobody was interested in tablet PCs nearly a decade ago, when Microsoft aimed them at the business market. Concentrating their multi-media efforts on the desktop computer, of all things.
It's only common sense and the way Apple drip feed tech and restrict their products that stop everyone else from jumping on board.
Apple have now established themselves like the BMW brand, only with a vastly bigger mark-up. Both are almost worn like an item of clothing.
I think competitors could do worse than look at the designer lable clothing industry in how to compete.
Ironically though, unlike BMW, it's still cheap chinese electronics built in the same factories using the same components as their rivals. Samsung being their biggest supplier.
You thought right.
Add approx £200 to equip the Air with the same ports the reviewer bigs up. Plus no USB 3 on the mac. Thats already the price of another shiny gadget to bring it up to spec.
Apple might have the better software, but who cares when this whole market is aimed at fashion victims and show offs. Home computing never used to be like this. I'll stick to hackingtoshing a £400 old school laptop and put up with this flexing of cases mystery that seems to have everybody concerned all of a sudden.
So you're assuming 1. Small business can't make a lot of money and 2. They don't need a capable performer, that is solid and dependable ?
£1,149.00 with VAT claimed back.
VAT
So it's aimed at businesses, who've obviously made the decision to go with windows. That's £1,149.00 then, for a pretty capable business machine.
Why there are comments about gaming, Apple macs and having to have money to burn I don't know.
Think about it
"Overpriced portable gaming" ?
The Vita is subsidised to the tune of £300 (uk), which gives you TEN full price games as an early adopter, or Twenty if you can wait until they are discounted by big supermarkets like Morrisons and Tesco.
I think I bought about 11 games for my PSP, which satisfied my portable gaming needs.
A £500 i device, playing hundreds of 0-£2.99 games, with aweful touch controls, doesn't always equate to great gaming value.
If you still don't like the vita, compared to the shovelware on the i devices, there is a lot of value still to be had from retro gaming on an ipad using the Wiimote as a classic control pad.
First Gen?
Which CPU and GPU's, were being fitted to the first Generation Netbooks to compete with the intel Atom?
I think the reason theyre picking on Apple, is compared to the others mentioned, Apple are massively profitable. Selling products at the luxury end of the market, in the ipads case a product many people use as a toy.
New mass produced cars barely have a mark-up, for the person who brought that struggling industry into it.
Invest in Aluminium stocks
What about not falling for the high price tag, metal case fad? and make do with plastic cases, that really have not been the weak point of laptop build quality. The majority have broken hinges and dodgey power supplies or power sockets.
Hopefully the RaspberryPi will put an end to the vain use of computers.
Metal cases are not innovation, they are what was used pre-plastic fabrication. It's a fad, similar to the clear coloured cases Apple made for it's vain users in the 1990s.
Apple also predicted the future was tablet PCs and Netbooks were dead, only to reduce their screen sizes of their proper computers to that approacing Netbook.
Macs may hold their value, and as their fans regularly point out, PCs of similar or slightly higher spec are almost given away for free, but this begs the question, why not take a PC off someones hands for free than fork out £500 for a used Mac?
Trust me, the increase in Mac sales will coincide with the amount of people who don't know what is good about a Mac. Fashion victims. You've always been able to buy better quality MP3 players than an ipode cheaper, and notice the high percentage of ipod owners who still use the inferior packaged ear buds.
If you don't mind a few niggles, run hackingtosh on your free hardware and buy OSX for £28 online.
"Have with finished with the national stereotyping yet?"
__________
"And of course the French will be very insulted by all of this, but do nothing about it. Except stare prissily through the smoke of their Galoise."
Any new species will be on French dinnner plates by the next morning.
Stop bickering. The team really want to get this manufactured in the UK eventually. I believe it was too high risk to have the *first batch*produced in uk.
If it's as succesful as the good reception so far,I don't see why they couldn't have say a model 'c' version made in UK and charge a bit more for it. I would be up for that. It's about time the consumer also did their bit for the country than to buy all their toys from china and the Raspberry foundation seem perfect to offer that choice.
Plastic has served me well
The i7 Macbook is £1549. I don't care whether it's built like a tank, it will never leave my house. The same way I would never carry £1500 around in my wallet.
A core i7 is also more power than I will need on my lap or coffee table. My i7 mini tower was £429, it's metal and also creaks if you push it hard enough.
I hope this new fashion of metal cases and high price tags affords us longevity where laptops traditionally fail. My experience with laptops, is the plastic cases far outlasting their metal hinges, power supplies and 'great feel' keyboard keys. Speaking of which, IBM model M keyboards were mostly plastic and refuse to die after 18 years of hammering.
After more than 10 years of broadband, finally a faster connection than our european neighbours!
I remember the era when we had 'Home Computers' that had custom graphics and sound, integrated Midi, audio ouputs etc. Consoles, that were basically Home computers with no keyboard and a simple OS. Then there were PCs with no custom graphics and bleep bleep sound.
I think the ipad has more DNA from a console.
Great, so we can carry on pumpng shit into the atmosphere. Breathe easy everyone.
They could have had it Gold plated at Goldgenie for about 3 grand. See the problem there? Or do you want composite materials? Plain old metal is so 1950s.
So it's now Netbook money, but still not as useful.
What games do you consider to be hardcore on the SNES?
And be outdone by a whole new bunch of competitors, every year? The share holders will love that.
Price point
Unlike the PS3 and Xbox 360 (released earlier) The Wii was designed to fit a low price point, a small size and be a quiet running machine and last but not least make a profit from the off.
Nintendo are tight, they avoided DVD playback because it cost money. They used as little as possible RAM and flash storage as that was expensive too.
Nintendo should be commended as a business for not only acheiving their goals, but bringing new gamers into the hobby and older gamers back into the hobby with the Wii's simplicity, fun and retro gaming side.
Most of the criticisms of the Wii come from the Playstation generation, who would've never had entered the hobby if Sony hadn't made gaming trendy.
NIntendo design a console to play the games they wan't to design. I imagine if they end up like Sega, the constant mario rehashes will still out sell the constant rehashes of war hero and boy racer games. One of the biggest fails in gaming, is Microsoft's under use of the RARE studio and lack of flagship game or character.
Let's not forget, new generations of gamer are born all the time. Nintendo has always been ready for them, as opposed to trying to keep up with the likes of the Apple sheep. Who wish the 3DS to be more of a lifestyle object, which the likes of Blackberry, Samsung, Motorola, Sony, Asus are contstantly trying to battle with Apple with their latest 'look at me' gadget.
What I love, is the way that Apple fanboys claim there is something special about the manufacture of their machines comparing them to the likes of BMW. But as you rightly point out, they are made by the same people, with many of the same off the shelf internals as other systems.
At a price though
"this is really what a Netbook should have been"
There was nothing else a Netbook could have been but a mini Laptop.
When Netbooks were all the rage, there was a demand for a small form factor that could run windows apps at a lower price point.. Traditionally, small form factor costs more money, but that was broken with the Atom chip.
Tablets have been around Donkeys years and have only become fashionable thanks to Apple, their excellent software and the iphone.
It's all very well bashing Netbooks, but the truth for their demise, is to extract more money from the 'i' generation, as traditional computing needs make way for that 'must have' better looking gadget and ever more efficient social networking.
My 2 Netbooks are 3 and 4 years old, cost £190 and £150 respectively (£250 machines found via hotukdeals) They run Windows 7, Office 2007 and will both run Snow Leopard if I'm in the mood. They also make excellent media players, as does the still popular Nettop
Windows 8 and ultra books, may as well start the battle on the catwalk. And with many people happy to dismiss a £250 Netbook for a £500 tablet, there's certainly no need for manufactures to worry about profit margins.
I just read this review and think what's wrong with a laptop anyway?
Atari 800 32 years old
The Atari 800 was the true predecessor to the Amiga and came 2 years earlier than the C64.
It would probably be the more popular machine today, looking at how far the Mac books have come due to sturdier build quality and high price point. Something that crippled the original 800, certainly on the UK market. It also suffered quite a bit of media bias in the UK.