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Oh I am thinking alright!!!


G+_Ty N. (CoffeeTyTech)
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Don't need super fast memory to play music, local videos, open files, or store pictures. What is sadly true is that Google has followed Apple and is deprecating SD to apparently sell Google cloud services. My 16 GB Galaxy Note was doing fine, until Google Music All Access overwhelmed the available local storage with its stupid cache. Unsubscribed. Went back to the N7 Music App with my music happily on my 64 GB SD card.

 

This understates the Apple rip off. Each 16 GB Apple increase is $100. And SanDisk is expensive. Try Transcend on Amazon. Usually less.

 

And a hi! to +Damian Rau Not everything needs to run on Warp Drive.

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Ah, Damian Rau

 

There's a huge Apple Tax. 

 

Apples computers use off the shelf components, mostly Intel.  Apple charges much more for essentially the same "components.  That's the Apple Tax."

 

It is most glaring in the now relatively less important market for MP3 players.

 

The 16 GB iPod Nano is $149.

 

A Sansa Clip or Fuze+ (which accepts, horrors, an SD card for expansion) can be purchased for as little as $47.  Nice little devices.

 

$149 buys the Apple brand, packaging, and ecosystem.

 

Is the Apple UI better than the Sansa's?  Yep.

 

Is it $100 better?  Nope.

 

Apple Tax.  Pay it if ya' want, and if ya' got it.

 

Boogie on!

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Hi, Damian Rau A Ferrari as good as a Prius?  You're joking, right?  When do I need to go 125 MPH around town at 2 MPG and $25,000 a year of insurance?  The 52 MPG Prius has many advantages.

 

Do I care about the cost of milling aluminum?  Nah.  I've owned two MacBook Airs, and they are great feeling, rigid devices.  Ended up giving one to the Son in Law, other to the Daughter.  Now that the 11" model is down to $999, I'm thinking of buying again.  Except my cheapo Plastic Samsung Arm weighs less, has as a good a (non-backlit) keyboard, and when it breaks (which it will, I presume sooner than an Air with 3 year Apple Care, I'll have spent $329 (mine's the 3g model).

 

Nope.  A Chromebook isn't a Mac.  But thanks to the (free!) Google Remote Desktop, I can remote right into my Macs at home and work.

 

And work!  From anywhere.  For less money.

 

I also have that expensive Swiss watch my father gave me.  Spelled a lot like Timex.  The R watch is beautiful, Real Karet Gold accents in finely machined Stainless Steel.  Precision sealed movement.

 

Gunked up.  Sent it in.  $475.  Gunked up two years later.  Sent it in.  $475.  Gunked up one year later, they gave me a freebie!  Gunked up two years later, I bought a Timex.  $35.  Has an Indiglo dial that's good enough to way find in the night.  Keeps superb time.   $35.

 

Isn't "good enough" good enough?  Or should we all drive Lamborghinis and eat Sturgeon to extinction?

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Damian Rau Well, I'm having fun.  Hope you are, too.

 

Since you don't know me, or my lifestyle, or my demographic, I think you're off on cliff's edge suggesting I don't understand or appreciate the value in luxury items.

 

Years ago I was an early BMW adopter, long before they became Yuppie Mobiles.  So I'm in my lovely 2002, sun roof, Blaupunkt stereo, cocoa mats, and it starts to snow.  In frakin' Austin, Texas.  Its snows, and snows, and snows.  The snow melts and ics over.  Once in a lifetime?

 

Go figger, the Windshield Wipers on my BMW, the car made amidst the Bavarian Alps, ice up.  Then go klunk.

 

Broken.

 

What's broken?  A two pfenning cog gear made of pressboard.  In Bavaria they were probably free as in beer.  In the United States of America the whole wiper assembly had to be replaced.  No parts available.  Certainly no pressboard cog gear that would cost a pfennig or two in Allemagne. 

 

"Luxury product," luxury price.

 

Oh, there's Luxe and there's lux.  Ever hear of the Cadillac Cimarron?  GM slapped (American Design!) the Cadillac name on the Chevy Cavalier, one of the worst cars ever made, and sold it for luxury prices.

 

Certainly better, the Toyota Camry is remarketed upscale, with stretched wheelbase, as the Avalon, and also as the much more expensive Lexus ES 350.

 

Then there's Bentley Continental GT.  Under its beautiful sheet metal lurks a Volkswagen.  A nice Volkswagen, but nonetheless, a Volkswagen.

 

The economies of mass production are why this happens.  Intel chips and motherboards are slipped into fancy aluminum cases and sold as MacBooks for top dollar. Essentially the same Intel components, built into cheaper plastic cases and sold as Windows machines, sell for MUCH less.  The difference in value isn't the nice aluminum frame, but what it costs to avoid Windows without having to deal with the idiosyncrasies of Linux.

 

Now the rest of that stuff?  My last MacBook Air ordered directly from Apple shipped straight from Shanghai to me.  I suspect the only Americans who touched the sale were the UPS guy who handed it to me at my door, and the Apple Accountant (probably in Bangalore) who pushed the ka-ching! button to record Apple's profit.

 

All Apple's products are made in China.  In working conditions often reported as horrible. Tim Cook was recruited to Apple from IBM where he was the "China outsource master."

 

"Cheap Chinese parts cost jobs, using google products saves you money because your giving up data, etc. Big picture my friend."

 

* I do hope you pay attention to the data Apple collects from you, because it's no different than Google.  If you use Apple mail, Apple's scanning your ICloud mail.  Apple's recording your SIRI searches.  Dictating on your Mac?  Sending documents and photos to iCloud?iPhoto long ago memorized not only your face (you kindly identified yourself) but everyone you know.  Apple's recording where, when, and how fast your iPhone travels . . . 

 

Do you have an iTunes or Mac App Store account linked to a credit card?  Apple knows everything about you.  Send a "tweet" on Apple gear?  Apple knows.. Your music choices offer a wealth of demographic insight.  So do your videos, books, movies, and even App choices

 

Apple, Google?  comme ci comme ça 

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