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Re: Ultrabook portables

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On 2015-11-09 2:52 PM, Lloyd Parsons wrote:
> On Mon, 09 Nov 2015 12:10:58 -0500, Ezekiel wrote:
> 
>> "Big Fish in a Small Crotch" <bigfishinasmallcrotch@myself.com> wrote in
>> message news:1xihng4k8f0sc.1aix5jvbn4ota$.dlg@40tude.net...
>>> On Mon, 9 Nov 2015 11:22:22 -0500, Ezekiel wrote:
>>>
>>>> So I decided to upgrade my aging laptop. It's an older Acer i5 that's
>>>> pretty big and weights about 6 lbs. I have a full desktop and plenty
>>>> of CPU+storage on the network so I don't need a really powerful
>>>> machine. Decided to go with something light and portable.
>>>>
>>>> Factors were:
>>>>   Size and portability - Extremely important SSD drive - Must have
>>>>   Battery life - important DVD-Drive - Do not want at all High res
>>>>   display - very nice to have Touch screen - nice to have Gaming - N/A
>>>>   100% silent (no CPU fan) - nice to have
>>>>
>>>> I looked around and decided to go with a Macbook. Not a Macbook Air
>>>> and not a Macbook Pro, but the small 2lb Macbook like this one :
>>>> https://www.apple.com/macbook/
>>>>
>>>> It only weighs 2 lbs and is about a 1/2" thick. Not entirely sure but
>>>> it might be the smallest/lightest ultrabook available. The display is
>>>> 2304x1440 and the battery last 7+ hours in real life usage. The only
>>>> other laptop that I considered seriously was the Dell XPS-13 which was
>>>> a close 2nd.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> What I like:
>>>>
>>>> The Touchpad is the best I've ever used. Period. it's as smooth as
>>>> glass because it is glass. It has the force-touch which is very cool.
>>>> When you press hard (adjustable) it actually feels like the touchpad
>>>> "clicks' down.
>>>> But it doesn't move or click at all. it just feels like it does. Try
>>>> it out if you can get your hands on one from a friend or at an Apple
>>>> Store. You'll be absolutely convinced that it clicks down even though
>>>> it doesn't move at all. (The amount of "click" feedback is also
>>>> adjustable.) Fantastic touchpad in every way.
>>>>
>>>> The screen is excellent and the battery life easily gives me a full
>>>> day of usage. The 802.11ac wireless is way faster than the Acer's
>>>> 802.11g and the backlit keyboard is also something the Acer didn't
>>>> have. There's no CPU fan and it has an SSD so it's always 100% silent.
>>>>
>>>> All the hardware works perfectly. Open or close the lid and it does
>>>> the right thing. The power button works and I spent exactly zero time
>>>> messing with acpid or apcupsd. It works the way it's supposed to right
>>>> out of the box.
>>>>
>>>> The hardware, build quality and fit-and-finish is top notch. It looks
>>>> and feels like a well build device.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> What I don't like:
>>>>
>>>> No Mag-Safe connector. The Macbook Air that my wife stole from me 2
>>>> years ago has one but this Macbook is so thin that there wasn't room
>>>> for one. So it charges with a USB-C connector but I would prefer a
>>>> Mag-Safe.
>>>>
>>>> Since there's no room for Mag-Safe give it a lightening connector
>>>> which is pretty ubiquitous for people with other iDevices. I don't
>>>> want yet another different cable with a USB-C connector.
>>>>
>>>> Not easy to open the lid. Maybe my hands are too big but it takes a
>>>> fine touch to open the skinny little thing.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> The Apple eco-system or walled garden:
>>>>
>>>> Say what you want about this but it "just works" and works incredibly
>>>> well and easy. When I powered it up and set it up for the first time
>>>> it asked me to sign-in with my Apple-ID. Done. Finished. Nothing else
>>>> to setup, configure, edit, whatever.
>>>>
>>>> Once I signed in with my Apple ID my email, calendar, contacts,
>>>> text-messages, photos, documents, shared-photos, todo-list, music and
>>>> everything else was synced with my iPhone. I didn't need to configure
>>>> a half-dozen apps individually. Everything that I need to stay in sync
>>>> and share across devices was done.
>>>>
>>>> Maybe I don't get some fine level of control that 1% of users might
>>>> need.
>>>> But 99% of users won't care because "stuff" they otherwise would never
>>>> be able to setup on their own "just works" with very little to no
>>>> effort.
>>>
>>> That's the thing about Apple. It just works and you don't have to mess
>>> with it.
>>> Of course you have to accept the Apple way of doing things but it works
>>> so well most people don't even care.
>>> All my kids you Apple Mac machines of various types and they never
>>> bother with the OS at all. Everything backs up to the cloud and is
>>> synced across their various devices.
>>>
>>>
>> Someone could "roll their own" solution and get something like this
>> working for just about any app and device. But in most cases it's going
>> to require a level of technical knowledge that most people don't have.
>>
>> With Apple it's a 1-stop (and 1-step) solution if you use their apps.
>> Their apps being mail, contacts, calendar, etc. It's all stored in their
>> cloud with your Apple-ID so when you setup a new device you simply login
>> and all of this is taken care of for you.
>>
>>
>>> About the only complaint I have heard is when a new version of iOS
>>> comes out and they have so many pictures and apps on their phone there
>>> isn't enough room to install the update.
>>> Easily remedied though.
>>
>> There's basically nothing that any product can do when there's 500-megs
>> of free space left and you need to download a 600-meg software update.
>> The solution is to not do the update over-the-air and to plug the device
>> into iTunes. The update will temporarily move some data from the
>> phone/tablet to the laptop, install the update and then move the data
>> back. Short of trying to compress data locally to make more room,
>> there's not much chance of getting around the low disk space.
>>
>>> Compare this to Linux.
>>> Linux is a freaking disaster when it comes to user friendliness.
>>> There is a thread over in alt.os.linux.ubuntu where some poor sap is
>>> asking how to sync his phone with Linux via wifi or BT. You have to
>>> read the replies from these Linux loons. It's literally hysterical.
>>>
>>> That thread is *the* poster child for not using Linux.
>>
>> I've never tried this on Linux. On Windows it's up to the app as to how
>> "friendly" it is to syncing with external data. I've managed to get
>> things working for the most part but it took some time and some
>> tweaking. But with the Macbook it just works without having to do much
>> more than just logging in with your Apple-ID. It gets all your
>> settings/preferences from their cloud and sets up you desktop apps to
>> work. Very nicely done.
> 
> Windows 8/8.1/10 do something quite similar though not quite as complete.

Windows 8 to 10's implementation is pretty good. I like how my choice of
intro wallpaper as well as all of my other settings are saved and
transferred to every new device. It saved me time customizing.


-- 
Slimer

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Thread

Ultrabook portables "Ezekiel" <zeke@nosuchemail.com> - 2015-11-09 11:22 -0500
  Re: Ultrabook portables John Gohde <john.h.gohde@gmail.com> - 2015-11-09 08:40 -0800
  Re: Ultrabook portables Big Fish in a Small Crotch <bigfishinasmallcrotch@myself.com> - 2015-11-09 11:59 -0500
    Re: Ultrabook portables "Ezekiel" <zeke@nosuchemail.com> - 2015-11-09 12:10 -0500
      Re: Ultrabook portables Lloyd Parsons <lloydp211@gmail.com> - 2015-11-09 19:52 +0000
        Re: Ultrabook portables "Ezekiel" <zeke@nosuchemail.com> - 2015-11-09 15:11 -0500
          Re: Ultrabook portables Lloyd Parsons <lloydp211@gmail.com> - 2015-11-09 20:15 +0000
        Re: Ultrabook portables Slimer <.m@nsn.s> - 2015-11-09 16:48 -0500
  Re: Ultrabook portables Lloyd Parsons <lloydp211@gmail.com> - 2015-11-09 17:10 +0000
    Re: Ultrabook portables "Ezekiel" <zeke@nosuchemail.com> - 2015-11-09 12:14 -0500

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