Apple Inc (AAPL)

[Tex]

re "full featured"

I acknowledge that the phrase hasn't got a hard-and-fast meaning, but generally I expect it to mean -- and I intended it to mean there -- possessed of qualities one doesn't find on the discount end of the product spectrum. Interestingly, Apple's notebooks today rated a front-page link on CNN.com, above the fold:
http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/ptech/11/17/review.macbook/index.html

Some things I'd expect on a "full featured" notebook:
* actual onboard storage capable of accepting applications, media files, etc. without immediately having to jettison the drinking water as excess ballast. XO hasn't got much of this. Apple's notebooks now have the possibility of hundreds of gigs internally. I still blink when I think about this. It's an order of magnitude more storage than Apple shipped on its first firewire notebook.

* hardware-accelerated graphics with dedicated video memory to keep everything looking/feeling snappy when GUI apps and quality font rendering are at work all over the screen (and several layers of windows beneath what's visible). Apple's new NVidia chipset is pretty slick in this regard, it seems.

* no-compromise networking. Apple has had wireless built-in, and ethernet built-in, for some time now. As recently as last year I saw Dell models being sold with extra charge for certain network cards ... like you'd want to save $20 on the future of your connected machine. The new MacBook has 802.11n that is 802.11a/b/g-compatible, and 1000-Base-T via wire.

* a real processor, so you can work rather than wait for hourglasses or the like. The multi-core Intels shipping in the MacBooks are fast and good at handling the multithreaded stuff that ships with all Macs. The OS is also good at keeping them saturated.

* real RAM. The bus speed is part of this, as is the amount of storage. Good bus speed means decreased opportunity for bottlenecking, and quantity is important to prevent swap-thrashing and to keep the system behaving as one expects (despite opening numerous applications). OLPC's RAM quantity suggests it's really intended for fairly lightweight use. This isn't a criticism of the project: learning to program computers doesn't require badassed computers, just a decent compiler. Look at the stuff we used to send Man to the moon. Oh, wait -- that was a set of slide rules, wasn't it? At any rate, several gigs of RAM in a notebook is nice enough to call it full-featured in this day and age, and the 128MB situation on OLPC makes me wonder that the objective of the program isn't to force code refactoring to address resource constraints. Think of all the wattage we could save worldwide if everybody's code were more efficient ...

* adequate I/O. In this era of USB-everything, it's probably acceptable to have a couple of USB 2 ports -- especially if the processor speed is good enough that it can keep up with the CPU overhead of USB while doing other things. In the case of weak machines that don't have a system to which to offload I/O overhead (SCSI, Firewire, etc.), a weak CPU is tantamount to poor I/O. The video out jacks are important for presentations, and I note Apple's offering has got them.

* spiffy "extras". Luxury brands are distinguished in part by the frills they offer. In the case of Apple, things like the new machined case that give the machine a "more solid" feel, and the multitouch trackpad (the UI improvement over bizarro 3-and-4-key finger jujitsu is really nice), and the not-destroying-your-notebook-when-someone-trips-on-the-cable power adapters, are all nice finishes. As is a keyboard that lights up so you can see the keys in the dark. I mean ... nice.

At any rate, there are doubtless other "full featured" things you might like on a notebook -- like the ability to drop it from a moving vehicle without damage, and so on -- and there are firms that offer them. Apple isn't unique. Apple is just an apparently rare bird in being able to keep a full-featured product in Amazon's top-seller list. Others on the top-seller list aren't making the money Apple is, that's for sure -- even if their margins were as good (which they aren't).

Anyway, that was what I had in mind. Obviously, "full featured" doesn't have a spec sheet, as it moves with the times. Depending what you use your machine for, the spec list you would use as a minimum would be a bit different than another's. To each his own

Take care,
--Tex.