Maybe for Apple but others have figured out how to do more ports without adding weight.

And Apple used to do it as well which was why I bought the 12" G4 a few years ago.

You know, it's kind of funny, I hear all the time from Apple fans that everybody is switching to Apple, that now everybody who is anybody uses an Apple yet Apple still has <10% of the market. The conclusion I come to is that you all are observing the same <10% of people.

I guess the key is in the "everyone who is anyone" bit, huh?

Why make that choice when you don't have to - because my laptop could have been 2.6 lbs instead of the 2.8 that it is? I bet that difference is pretty close to the weight of the RJ-45 dongle I bet many Apple users carry with them yet without the space the dongle takes up.

Here is my biggest problem with doing away with physical media. With a Blu-Ray or DVD I actually own the disc and short of selling tickets to a showing of that disc or selling copies I can do pretty much anything I want to with it. I can easily transport it, I can loan it out to friends, and I can sell it whenever and to whomever I wish.

With online/cloud media I am severely limited as to what I can do with the movies and software I have purchased and if I bought through iTunes I am further limited as to even the software environment in which I can play/listen/view what I have purchased.

What is to prevent media/content providers from in the future selling you restricted use or self-expiring media at what are now normal prices or you can upgrade to non-expiring media for a premium price? I remember Microsoft talking a few years ago about eventually just, essentially, renting or leasing their software like Office. That was more-or-less impossible with physical media, much more possible with non-physical media.

I'm just reporting on what I saw. Maybe because the flight was out of LA, and LA (along with SFO/NYC) has a disproportional Mac market penetration?

I'm guessing your laptop could have been under 2 lbs if all the useless, kitchen sink stuff had been removed...

There's tradeoffs for everything. For entertainment, I'm liking the 2tb hard drive that sits next to my desk that contains all of my media, and can stream to any TV in my house, vs the old Sony 300 dvd changer that was limited to my family room, and got jammed anytime the dog bumped into it.

iTunes is one of the easier content delivery services, and most (if not all) of the files are no longer copy protected, can be played on pretty much any platform, and can be re-downloaded (thanks to iCloud) if or deleted. Hate Apple? Amazon tracks your purchases too. Will wal-mart replace that lost copy of..Lost?

But keep in mind that if you sell or loan your DVD, it better be to someone in the same region. Otherwise, you're breaking the law. Besides, the last time I loaned a movie to someone it was a VHS copy of Home Alone to the teenager next door, in 1993 or so. I don't think I got it back. And the last time you sold your old DVD content was when? Oh, wait, its not that you will, its just that you can.

I'm hopeful that the netflix type service in the future can/will be able to stream everything. So, if I want to watch that first season of Joanie loves Chachi, I can. Without waiting. Without having to resort to ebay or a torrant.

Software, your rental future is already here. Google Apps for free, or $50 a user a year. Office365 for $72 a year... a lot more affordable than plunking down $300 or so for the first edition of office, and another $200 or so every two-three years for the latest upgrade...

Just because they removed the optical drive as a built-in feature doesn't mean you have to buy music, movies and software or services from Apple, or that you can't use an optical drive. Is that what you're implying?

So yeah, the short reply was

Those that think icloud offers a service they want will use it, and if they want more storage than comes with it, will pay for it. Those that don't, won't.

If you are saying that they will probably do a very good job of integrating the icloud service with the rest of their hw and sw, sure I agree with that. Only you seem to be saying in a negative way. That's fine, you're entitled to your opinion and I'm entitled to

Did the netbook make cloud services ubiquitous? Why not? They don't usually have optical drives either. How do people survive without them?

-David

"Have to", no.

Make it relatively hard to do so that the soft option is to rely more and more on their cloud/online/storefront pay services, yes, I am saying that. Well, me and Time, cnet, PCWorld, etc.

Apple are doing exactly what DHS and TSA have done. DHS gives us all the "option" of opting out of using the nude-o-scopes but they make the opt-out process so onerous that the vast majority of people just go along and submit to the scanners.

[1] Netbooks were always niche products and are being quickly supplanted by pads and [2] I never suggested that every single CE device should have an optical drive.

Finally, do I hate Apple? Yes and no. I really like their design and R&D half but hate the corporate and marketing half which is why I only currently own two of their products as opposed to the typical Apple fanatic who I suspect likely owns four or five products at a time.

For example, I think that iTunes is one of the crappiest, most piss-poorly and cloddishly designed pieces of software I have ever encountered, not because I am an Apple hater but precisely because I am forced to use it with the two Apple products that I do own.

You're entitled to your opinion, no matter how ridiculously warped I think it is.

I find it very easy to buy music from amazon.com among other places and pretty trivial to hook up a usb optical drive to any computer that doesn't have one and needs one. I can't remember when I needed to use one last. Mine is just sitting here gathering dust.

Basically you think they are the evil empire. (or more accurately, you are probably worried that they have that power.) In those terms, this might be an interesting discussion. But we all realize there's always something else waiting in the wings should they abuse their position.

-David

Why the roll eyes?

[1] The analogy was rather clever IMO given the airline travel nature of this forum and [2] it is exactly the same tactic - again, as pointed not only by myself but by just about every respected tech writer out there: They give you two choices but make one of the choices so unattractive that you choose the other which just happens to be the one they really wanted you to make in the first place - and which also happens to be the choice that makes them more money - imagine that.

No, basically I don't.

I think they are a company that has really pushed the envelope in terms of CE design and aesthetics and UI but one that is radically over-hyped and have a disproportionate amount of influence given their <10% market share.

I think they make some very good products, some mediocre products, and some crappy products.

I also think that this disproportionate influence gives them a type of breathtaking arrogance, an arrogance that, for example, prevented that disabled woman in California on public assistance from buying an iPad, someone who otherwise could not afford a computer to connect to the outside world and who had literally saved her pennies to buy that iPad, and was denied just because she only had cash and no credit or debit card.

I know that doesn't quite fit into the average Apple fanatic's black-white, love-hate world view [about all things Apple] but there it is.

So why does this minute market share company bother you so much that it drives you to post things like this?

That's the thing, isn't it?

IMO, you keep using terms like "apple fanatic" and it really doesn't do much for your credibility. There's a lot of normal people that use their products and like their products, and I don't think they are all fanatics about it. But the way you use the term just doesn't seem very flattering to you. It seems like you have to revert to name-calling to try to make your point, but it really just doesn't work.

Anyway, for me, this argument has been fun, but it's run it's course.

-David

I used to think that too, until I started using iTunes on a mac. Not surprisingly, it just works.

Dear Lord. Is that the best you can do? Doesn't Target sell iPads?

I have a friend of mine who is a senior manager in a tech company which produce security software for windows. When a colleague ask why he use a macbook, he told him, "So I don't need to deal with this kind of $hit."

I don't miss regedit.

In fairness to Microsoft, Windows 7 has been flawless for me. They took a decade too long, but they finally caught up to OS X.

Funny thing about all of this - I keep referring to Apple, Sony, HP, tech in general, etc. and you keep referring to me personally.

You just referred to me personally eight times in a six sentence post - why is that I wonder?

My definition of a generic "Apple fanatic" is someone who seems to almost have their identity as a person wrapped up in associating themselves with - in this case - Apple products, the Apple "culture" etc.; See - I really am special - I use a Mac.

Many of these people seem to have a need to attack other people who do not share their gospel as if they were defending the faith from heretics. Someone dares to criticize Apple, or an Apple product and the Apple fan responds by attacking the person - that's how religious fundamentalists behave.

Weird.

Not at first they didn't, but that's not really the point.

Go view the news video and tell her to wheel her arse to Target. It was kind of funny to watch it play out though. When asked for a response the first Apple spokeshole basically said, we are Apple, we do what we want. The second spokeshole took a different tack when that didn't go over so well. I think they eventually gave her an iPad.

[shrug]

lol, excellent!

You deflected the entire technical/marketing/market share argument and tried to make it all about me, by using little comparisons and not quite saying it, but making it quite clear what you meant. Well done sir!

-David

Again - why are you making this about me?

Do you see my criticism of certain aspects of Apple's corporate behavior and some of their products as some sort of attack on you personally?

Strange.