Linkinus is a pretty nice IRC client as well. I believe I got it on sale on the App Store for like $5. I'm sure it's more now though.
I definitely suggest HomeBrew over MacPorts and Fink. I've had much better luck with it.
TextWrangler is a great free editor. I use Sublime Text 2 for anything that I may need some standard editing. For more complex stuff or if I'm doing more than opening a single file, I prefer MacVim.
I'd rather be "stuck" with a solid, stable, and useful operating system on a device that needs to be reliable and always available.
Am I disappointed in iOS6? Yes, but not necessarily am I concerned that I'm "stuck" with it.
Primarily my disappointments are pretty geeky.
1) Not enough major advancements (inter-app communication)
2) It seems a bit weird to introduce so many non-developer features in the keynote, at a developer conference.
Regardless, I don't think we're "stuck" with it. I think they need to up the game for iOS 7 though, and if they don't then we may have a bit of a problem.
To be honest here. I carried a 5.5lbs PowerBook G4 around to college for a couple years. I hated it. I'm not a big guy by any stretch of the imagination (5'7", 120lbs) but as soon as I added books, paper, folders of hand outs and homework to the list of things I was carrying.. I really wanted the laptop to be lighter.
My last year of college was spent carrying a 2010 Air around with me instead of the PowerBook and it was a signficiant difference in weight.
You just have to realize that a laptop isn't the only thing people carry around. So 4.6lbs isn't a big deal, but when you add it all up then the number starts to increase. Extra savings is beneficial.
I think this is sort of similar to what I was explaining.
I was mostly talking about the detractors, but those that do like the display aren't exactly different in the end.
If I were a betting man, I'd say you would probably compare the old iPad to your crappy monitor. Perhaps not as crappy in terms of colors, but in terms of reading text.
It was reading text and technical PDF files that really made me purchase the new iPad. It's such a drastic upgrade in this department that I can't imagine ever going back to the iPad 1 that I gave to my mother.
I've not seen the display in person. But some initial take aways are this:
People kept saying that the iPad's Retina display wasn't worth it and that they couldn't see the difference. Then quickly proclaimed after a week or more of usage that they cannot fathom going back to the iPad 1 or 2 display.
I suspect the same is true of the new MBP display. While it may seem "ok" now. Give yourself time with it and you'll have a hard time going back to anything else.
Scaling is really needed at this point. Primarily due to the size of the screen. If the screen was larger then allowing the native resolution wouldn't be a problem. But at the current screen size (15") you would have a really hard time reading text.
There are images out there of each of the hiDPI resolutions including the 1920 resolution. On my 1920x1200 resolution 23" cinema display it is readable. But even I squint a bit at text on this display and it's 23". I can't even imagine trying to use that resolution at 15".
Sorry, but Apple's "we know better than you" attitude is spot on with this particular thing.
I've been an Apple user for years and bought my first Mac (PowerBook G4) about 10 years ago. My main computer is a Mac Pro (2006) and is in dire need of replacement. I'm pretty peeved that the Mac Pros are not on the upgrade list this week. But I will not argue with them about this particular choice in not allowing native resolution on the new MBP Retina display.
Native resolution on that display would be next to impossible to view easily.
Fragmentation at the API level is the real problem. Not at lack of "built-in features."
An app written for iOS 6 can run on the iPhone 4S, iPhone 4, and iPhone 3GS (not to mention the iPad 2 and 3, and the newest iPod Touches).
An app written for ICS can only run on those 7% of devices running ICS.
This is how fragmentation works. The only fragmentation happening on iOS is for the original iPhone, iPhone 3G, iPad 1, and the old iPod Touches.
The only one that I don't quite grasp is the original iPad. Running on the same processor as the iPhone 4 and is much faster than the iPhone 3GS. Color me somewhat confused by this one.
Right, I don't think "built-in features" are fragmentation.
If I have to change the way I write my application or can't include features in my application because most users don't have access to the APIs then that is part of what I'd call "Fragmentation."
When only a fraction of your users can take advantage of certain APIs then you have an issue.
I think it's perfectly acceptable that built-in phone features may be limited. You didn't expect to be able to keep the same phone for 10 years did you? Things change.
But two years is the standard contract length in the US. I'd expect phones to get updates for two years so that I can at least target the new APIs and gracefully handle it.
If I designed an app for Android, I'd have to target 2.3 because so few users are on ICS. But with the iPhone I can target iOS 5 and get a majority of users.
I think you show your own bias by even making this comment. Defensive much? This is why politics suck on hacker news.
I typically skim through every headline posted on HN to see what I may be interested in reading. I can't say I've ever seen a "conservative x is lying" type of post. Perhaps I'm just oblivious, but I've certainly never seen it.
Granted, I wish we'd just avoid the subject of politics, especially when there is no tech reason for it, on hacker news.
Has anyone done any battery comparisons between the LTE model and the wifi model? My bet is that the wifi model doesn't get much better battery life than the LTE model, at least not 60% more. A good reason for that increase in battery capacity is likely needed for the video upgrades, both the screen and the quad-core graphics.
A better comparison would be a LTE model running on LTE and then a similar comparison of the same model running on 3G instead. This would tell you what the difference in the two would really be like. My guess, it's probably not insignificant, but it probably isn't as bad as we see on Android phones.
I think a thing to remember is that Apple will probably iterate on this, much like any other technology, and make it better with each release. At least, that is my hope. I sadly don't have enough friends with iPhones to notice… so I'm stuck keeping my unlimited text messaging for the time being.
There have been rumors of iChat getting iMessage integration of some kind.
But I'd like it to be taken a step further. I'd really like to be able to have my phone in a charger a la a WebOS device and have text messages and iMessages go directly to my computer or iPad so that I could reply from there. The messages can go through the internet from those devices, or directly through the iPhone. I don't care which, so long as I have the ability to use my Mac and iPad without having to use my phone for every message.