Comment by dijit | Hacker News Reader

Comment by dijit | Hacker News Reader

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Apple seems to have (more than others at least) attempted to deliver things that people actually value.

It often feels like there are two factions working against each other in Apple.

One faction believes they know best, and have a specific aesthetic in mind when designing products (for example that Magic Mouse that charges on the bottom, which was a design decision to prevent people using it as a wired mouse).

Another faction seems to try to bring what humans actually want to technology.

Everyone says they want a fast computer that can compute half the galaxy, yet, when they have such a machine they become jailed to their desks in a semi-portable manner.

Everyone says they're fine with 5-10hours of battery life, but when you give people 18hrs suddenly everyone talks about being "free", which is something I experienced myself.

It's hard to reconcile, since some people seem to hate apple almost as a religion, and they have some really great points! But nobody seems to be competing with Apple on the same terms. There is no other manufacturer of computer equipment that has a whole package which isn't a letdown in most areas, usually beating Apple products in 1 or 2 categories.

Whether that be chasing the numbers (i9 5GHz!, 128G OF RAM!), some feature which is pretty good but not really fleshed out fully or "being a brand" and the aesthetics that go with it (Sony Vaios, for example).

The charge port on the underside of the Magic Mouse catches a lot of flack but I don't really think it's a big deal. I had a Logitech mouse that charged that way and it was never an issue. It charged at a rate of 1 hr use / 1 min charging (and I assume Apple's performed similarly), so even if it ran out battery while in-use it was not a big deal to recharge.

> But nobody seems to be competing with Apple on the same terms. There is no other manufacturer of computer equipment that has a whole package which isn't a total letdown.

Very true. For the last 10 years, I've been looking at alternatives to Macbooks in the Windows ecosystem: there is none that gets the whole package well. With every alternative I've considered, there is always something they get wrong and Apple gets right. There is a lack of care for the end-to-end user experience which is quite fascinating. The closest I've found are the Surface laptops.

Other companies haven't even figured out how to get a trackpad as good as Apple's. If they can't even get the trackpad right there's no hope.

Yes, the trackpad is a great example :) And also a reliable sleep and resume. Vents in the screen hinge instead of below the laptop, to let you use your laptop on your laps. A keyboard with no flex when you type. Etc.

> for example that Magic Mouse that charges on the bottom, which was a design decision to prevent people using it as a wired mouse

This is actually not an issue at all. The surface of the mouse gets really close to the surface so fitting a charge port isn’t easy.

The os tells you the battery level so I’ve never had one die in over 10 years of use (same back when I had to put in AAs). So I just plug it in at night and it’s fine by the morning.

You can charge it pretty quick too. I really wish we had an update to it though to add wireless charging. There were wireless battery packs for the last version (The AA battery one) which worked great.

A mousepad that charges would be neat. Comically, I find that I’m back on mousepad, not because of the need for traction or resolution but just to define a little bit of workspace.

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