the brownhaze: the dsutbin of the internet

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since 18/9/2003

Monday, July 14, 2008

Who gives a rats turd about the Iphone anyway.

I’ll put my hands up, I am not an fan of Apple and its form-over-function approach to devices which has proved so popular with the gadget buying public. But even with that in mind, how have they managed to bewitch so many called hard-nosed journalists in to thinking that the Iphone is intrinsically brilliant and beyond criticism?

I am subscribed to a number of newsfeeds on Google reader (if you don’t use google reader yet, start using it now) that are relevant to my interests, such as new and interesting gadgets. I read the sites Gizmodo and Engadget, both of whom are so enamoured with, no matter what way you slice it, a media phone that they cant shut up about any little insignificant detail that comes to their attention. More features are written about this phone (that is swish to look at, but for me, pretty impractical) then any other device or gadget…. apart from perhaps the fucking Macbook Air.

Surly I cant be the only person who finds this a bit or and pretty irritating. You can imagine that if these pages did feature after feature about the Nokia N95 people would be scratching their heads wondering what all the fuss was about.

They may as well just repeatedly have a feature of various staff members knocking one out over an Iphone, apart from every 5th post which could be the editor knocking one out over a mackbook Air.

Jesus.

Edit:

And while I am on the subject. They have just released the 3G Iphone and everyone is going on about how brilliant this is. People are queuing round the block to buy one. Why are people saying this is great and not saying “3G has been around for years, why are you just releasing this now. Why do I have to buy a second Iphone just to have almost out of date tech like 3G?!?!?!”

Twats

Labels: *sigh*, apple, soap box

Monday, June 30, 2008

Trojan heralds OS X's 'new phase of exposure to malware' | The Register

Trojan heralds OS X's 'new phase of exposure to malware' | The Register

hahahahahahahahahha......

...hahahahahahaha, etc

Labels: apple

Friday, April 18, 2008

The Apple "i" - CollegeHumor video

The Apple "i" - CollegeHumor video

you dont know what it does, you dont even know if it does anything. But its from Apple, and its shiny, so you will buy it.

Labels: apple

Tuesday, April 15, 2008

Apple is even more evil them Microsoft.

It is a well understood truth that Microsoft are evil (or at least it is within the Apple and Linux fanboy-sphere). This is because they have lots of money are attempt to get a monopoly on various technical fields. Which may be true, but they don’t attempt to force you to only run their software on specific hardware. Apple, on the other hand, do. This has lead to good news and bad news.

Good news: The people that make the operating system and the software also make the hardware, so they no exactly what to write when they are coding their software, there is no excuses for any sort of compatibility problem on a Mac.

Bad news: they cost a bleeding fortune, and are a nightmare to get repaired or purchase components for. Lets do a little Apple vs. Microsoft comparison.

(it should be noted that you don’t have to run Windows or OS X (apples equivalent to windows) on either box, but they are included in the price, it should also be noted that you cannot buy Apple hardware without buying OS X, you can with non Apple kit, which is good if you want to run Linux (which is free) like me).

Lets start off at the budget end of the spectrum, the Mac Mini vs a cheap “windows” box. Bare in mind that the Mac Mini is very small (hence the name)

Apple Mac Mini Core 2 Duo 1GB 120GB DVDRW
£495.42 inc vat

Acer Power FH Pentium Dual Core 925 1GB 250GB DVDRW Windows Vista Home Premium
£239.98 inc vat

That is a difference of £255. I guess if you really want a small desktop. But then, you could go for a Shuttle small form factor desktop.

Now, lets have a look at the higher end of the market in laptops. Interestingly, I am using Dabs.com to get these prices. Dabs stocks 11 Apple PC’s and 313 non Apple PC’s. which one do you think I will find the best deal on?

Apple MacBook Pro Core 2 Duo 2GB 250GB DVDRW
£1,608.79 inc vat

This is the most powerful Macbook on the site, lets have a look at some of its stats:

Processor
Clock Speed 2.5 GHz
Multi-Core Technology Dual-Core
Type Core 2 Duo
RAM
Installed Size 2 GB
Storage Hard Drive
Capacity 250 GB
Display
Diagonal Size 15.4 in

For a similar price you can get this:

Sony VAIO AR61ZU T8300 4GB 500GB
£1,629.99 inc vat

Loads of money again, but lets see what you get for your pennies.

Processor
Clock Speed 2.4 GHz
Multi-Core Technology Dual-Core
Type Core 2 Duo
RAM
Installed Size 4 GB
Storage Hard Drive
Capacity 250 GB
Storage Hard Drive (2nd)
Capacity 250 GB
Display
Diagonal Size 17 in

Ok, so you get twice the ram, twice the storage (and an actual second disk) and a much larger screen.

I am not even going to start on the Macbook Air, largely because I don’t think I can compare it to anything, apart from a stack of porn mags, or the emperors new clothes or something. (incidentally, the macbook air is £1,189.96, that is more expensive then the Sony desktop replacement laptop above *sigh*)

Ok, so apple have products that are more of a fashion statement then a good computing product (iphone anyone) but the real evil bit is yet to come.

Since apple started using Intel processors (the same a s windows computers) in their Mac products, the way has been opened up to potentially sell computers running OS-X (which the fanboys all think about when relaxing in a gentleman’s way) on non apple kit, this, of course, makes it much cheaper and much more expandable. Infact, the OpenMac as it was called weighed in like this:

Psystar Open Mac:
• 2.2 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo CPU
• 250 GB Hard Drive (7200 RPM)
• 2 GB DDR2 667 RAM
• Intel GMA 950 integrated graphics
• DVD+/-R Optical Drive
• 4 USB ports

Ok, that’s better stats then the Mac Mini, what about the price:
$399 so, I guess about £200. That’s a saving of almost £300 over the Mac Mini. Obviously, Apple didn’t like having their monopoly challenged, so they got them shut down see this story

http://www.news.com/8301-13579_3-9918069-37.html

how evil is that.

Labels: apple, geek, soap box

Thursday, January 24, 2008

“Review” of the Mac Book Air

Apple have just release their “ultra portable” Mac Book Air, which is basically a very, very flat Ibook. You cannot change the battery and it only has one USB port on it, only got a 60GB disk. Like a lot of Apple stuff, it looks really nice, but has some pretty major usability issues.

This video is of its launch. Unwired, for it is they who made the video, review a bunch of things in a normally pretty even handed way. Unfortunately they decided to send a guy who owns an iPhone to this event. QED, a Mac fanboy.

The Mac fanboy is a particularly obsessive creature. If Apple released the iTurd, a white, shiny, plastic covered dog egg, the Mac fanboy would still rush out and buy it by the truckload. This kind of almost religious fandom is demonstrated when Steve Jobs (their messiah) opens an envelope (containing the as yet un revealed mac book) to which the crowed cheer and whoop… the opening of an envelope.

The unforgivable thing is the guy from unwired is pretty much knocking one out over this laptop all they way through his little demo, not exactly impartial. I love the bit where he ask how much it is, they say “£1199” (baring in mind that the EEEPC ultra portable is only £200) to which is says “wow twelve hundred quid is pretty impressive” implying that its reasonable price.

He then signs off with “I’m going to have mine on order very soon”. This makes me hate Apple in an irrational way.

Labels: apple, geek, soap box