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Randogg

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  1. I hope so. I have to say I'm a bit disappointed in the iMac Pro. Not that I would actually buy one, but I would have thought they would have allowed for some upgrades on a machine marketed to professionals. That and the cooling system is not as good as I would have liked to have seen. I'm hoping that they make something that has some sort of new idea that will push the industry a bit.
  2. Respectfully I disagree with you with regards to improvement since Jobs died. The second generation Mac Pro has been left to languish for 4 and a half years now. I can't imagine that Jobs would have allowed that. The company seems to have lost focus since his passing. Apple typically isn't bleeding edge with regards to components, but they were never this far behind when Jobs was at the helm.
  3. Point B is the one I'd like to focus on. Apple has been successful in tying people to their ecosystem. Amazon, Google, and Microsoft have tried, but are not able to duplicate this. The ecosystem argument has been one of Apple's strengths for many years, even back to the 80's. Both hardware and software used to be considerably more expensive than it is now. For example, if you bought Photoshop in the late 80's you used a Mac because the PC did not have the same capabilities at the time. Going forward, due to the expense of the software when professionals would upgrade they would stick with the Mac. With the iTunes store, Apple was able to duplicate this with home users.
  4. XenosTech, D13H4RD2L1V3 is correct in a sense. The thing is, Apply historically does not innovate in the traditional sense. They refine things. This is a key value of the brand. The list of examples is very long. -The original Apple computer (now colloquially referred to as the Apple I) was an improvement on already existing technology. Granted Woz was innovative in chip design at the time, it was still existing tech. -The Lisa, and later the Macintosh were refinements of technology from Xerox PARC. They did the GUI better, a bit more affordably, and brought it to the masses. -Desktop publishing for journalism was introduced by Apple. The Macintosh provided the first WYSIWIG system. -The original three Powerbook laptop computers were significantly better than anything on the market when they came out. -The original iMac redefined simplicity in setting up a computer. -The iPod was not the first digital music player, but it became the most popular. -The iPhone slaughtered Blackberry. Even now, when many Android phones are technically superior the entire industry still follows Apple (the notch). -Apple's trackpads are superior to anything available on the other side. -I could go on much, much longer. Apple had its share of missteps as well. One that comes to mind is the Newton. The device created the Personal Digital Assistant, but was never very popular. It paved the way for Palm and other companies to introduce smaller competing devices. The recent Mac Pro is a bit of a joke. But still, Apple can be described as innovative.
  5. I was probably a bit too kind in my description of Apple's treatment of the Mac Web. Quite frankly, even in the late 90's when the company needed all of the positive press it could get, Apple was horrible to the Mac Web. That is one of the reasons that it is so surprising that they have traditionally been so defensive of Apple. LTT typically advocates for the consumer. This may be part of that. I have seen them go on tirades and rail against companies with onerous repair policies in the past. This could be part of that. I like to think that LTT is not going crazy with clickbait as that has never been their MO in the past.
  6. I have been following Apple pretty closely since the mid 90's. I have only ever had one Apple product die on me that I was the original owner of, and I have owned several of their products. I was an Apple fan before Steve Jobs came back when everyone thought they were going out of business. I have used Macs from the Macintosh SE to the G4 Mac Mini. I have also owned multiple iPhones, and iOS is my preferred mobile platform. Having said all of that, what happened to LTT does not surprise me. Apple has always put rather onerous requirements on their authorized service centers. Apple hardware has always been somewhat specialized, hence the need for certification in the Apple world. Even Dell and HP which use some proprietary things in their systems (PSUs with non-standard pinouts among other things) are not as difficult to deal with as Apple's hardware. Apple wants it that way. In the late 90's when I was attending the University of Georgia I did some "under-the-table" work for a guy that was trying to get certified to repair Macs. I don't think there was a service center close by, but because he was not selling Macs he could not be authorized to repair them. Even without the certification he did a ton of work because he was so close to the University. He did not have a contract with the University or any departments, but he did do work for pretty much every department there. Apple has also always had very expensive replacement parts. I remember many times seeing replacement motherboards for Macs cost as much as the retail of a new Mac. This was happening all the way back in the mid-90's when it was normal to spend $2k for a mid-level system. I have also followed what can colloquially be termed "The Mac Web" since the 90's. Sites like Mac OS Rumors, Accelerate Your Mac, Apple Insider, and Low End Mac have been around for many years and all fall into a category of sites that could be considered Apple Evangelists. They typically have content that is favorable to Apple (Lowendmac.com has turned into more of a community and info resource than news). However even I was surprised at how hard the Apple Insider and Mac OS Rumors articles were towards LTT. This is especially true as traditionally Apple has been no friend to the Mac Web. The fact that Apple will not sell them replacement parts is just absurd.
  7. I'm not as familiar with Marques Brownlee or Jonathan Morrison. iJustine on the other hand is essentially an Apple Evangelist. Her criticisms of Apple products are no where near as harsh as Linus's. In other words, from what I know of Apple I can't see them sending him things on the same scale as iJustine.
  8. Apple is not going to provide samples for someone like Linus in the same way they would for someone like iJustine. Apple is and always has been a bit of a propaganda machine. Now they are big enough and powerful enough that they can essentially ignore marketing to Youtubers in a way that a company like Asus or Gigabyte cannot.
  9. Linus has often mentioned that the Canadian marketing departments are rough to deal with. There was even a joke in one of his videos about establishing a US office just over the border so that they could deal with the US marketing departments.
  10. You would be surprised at how many companies allow this. I know a couple of guys who work IT for some major companies where I live (one of them even wrote an O'Reilly book on Xenserver). They both love and hate Macs. They love them because typically they don't have as many calls on them. They hate them because when they do have a call on them they are unfamiliar with them and/or they cannot be repaired through what they consider normal channels. In my time I have encountered a great many creative professionals (photography, both still and motion; musicians; graphic artists; publishers; etc) who know all of the ins and outs of their other equipment such as cameras, but are absolutely clueless when it comes to computers. Often they are married to a particular software package on a particular platform. If they have been using Macs for a long time then the cost of the learning curve to switch platforms may outweigh the cost of a new iMac Pro.
  11. There are multiple ways to assure continued care for you family. As you said, one is not necessarily more correct than another. I find it obvious from Floatplane that you have a different endgame than some of the other Techtubers. The following is a conditional statement based on what little I know of the business models of Kyle, Paul, and Jay; if I was a Youtube personality, I would most likely be more like them with a small operation. I have no desire to run an empire or be responsible for multiple people as the person where the buck stops. I would be one that would look towards life insurance as a major option. Linus has set up a company that obviously does things many of us enjoy, but can branch out into other things. I wouldn't be surprised if his company is taking on projects other than what we see attributed to them through LTT. It is pretty obvious that Linus is a savvy businessman who understands his business inside and out. He hires the technical expertise needed to cover things he is not strong in. He is a good example of growing a business. It is also awesome that he is working to build something that can continue without him. I have seen firsthand how not taking these sort of steps can be a nightmare if something happens to the key person. A family friend's husband owned a very large plumbing company in the southeast US. Unfortunately this man smoked cowboy killers at a rate of more than a pack a day for many years. He went to sleep one night when he was in his late 40's and did not wake up. His wife had always run the "business" side of things, but beyond that she did not have the knowledge necessary to continue. Their son had recently come of age, and had been working with his father from a very young age. Unfortunately he did not have the respect of the other men in the business. The business failed very shortly after. The insufficient pre-planning forced that family to sell many of their assets. It was a bad situation. Kudos to Linus for planning to keep the same thing from happening to his family.
  12. The opteron boards seem to be harder to find in a form factor that is usable.
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