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Apple's attention to detail
- magicseth 16y agoMy wife can't stand having little LEDs on all over the place. We've hidden our wireless router, our battery charger and everything. One night my laptop was on the floor as we were going to sleep, and I said, "Oh! Let me put away my MacBook," and she said, "Don't worry about it, I find it soothing." This is definitely a detail that is appreciated.
- Mongoose 16y agoTotally agree with your wife, for the most part. I always cover the exposed LEDs on my various devices before going to bed. However when I'm not trying to sleep, my MBP's pulsing light is mesmerizing.
- Groxx 16y agoMy tower has a blue power-LED. To cover it up, I stuck a dark post-it over it. Still too bright. 5 layers later, and it was about 1/2 the brightness of my MBP's snoozer. About right for a dark room. A couple months later, when I packed my tower up for xmas vacation... the post-its were bleached white, all the way through, in front of the LED. Way too much power. My MBP? Still too bright for the night, IMO, but I tend to like dark. It's at least not annoying, like damn-near every other light-emissive device in my house at night.
- smokinn 16y agoMy router and desktop are both black with blue leds. Best solution? Electrical tape. You can't even see it unless you look close and I really couldn't care less about the led. If the router isn't working I'll know.
- zmmmmm 16y agoHeh, I can't stand any kind of blinking light. This whole trend has me going nuts every night as any random peripheral not utterly killed dead and smashed with a hammer is liable to suddenly decide to start blinking in the middle of the night and wake me up.
- will_critchlow 16y agoMy wife is the same. She doesn't seem to appreciate my comments that I close my eyes to go to sleep and so don't notice the LEDs.
- Locke1689 16y agoWell now I know why I spent a half hour just staring at that stupid light when I got my new MBP. There was something about the radiance pattern -- now I know. Seriously though, that's a brilliant feature. Most companies wouldn't give the time or money for developers to come up with that.
- deleted 16y ago[deleted]
- jakewalker 16y agoThere's a great scene in Objectified about the indicator light on a MBP (or, in that case, perhaps an Air) and how it appears and disappears when needed. Viz.: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t0fe800C2CU#t=04m40s http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t0fe800C2CU#t=04m40s
- threepointone 16y agothat's one of the things I really like. It's not just the breathing timing, in fact. They could've slapped on an LED that did this behavior. But they hid it behind the body, perforated tiny holes into the body, such that when the light goes out, you can't even make out that the light exists. Beautiful.
- mark_h 16y agoCame here to post just that. The other thing I liked about that Jonathan Ives bit was how he went beyond the physical aspects and talked a lot about how much effort they went into the construction process as well. No one else in the documentary even mentioned that as far as I can recall. (Incidentally, that reminded me of this: http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/smartabstractions http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/smartabstractions For example, Paul Bucheit worrying about disk access times)
- lanstein 16y agoIves -> Ive Bucheit -> Buchheit
- mark_h 16y agoOops, sorry :S Both looked wrong while I was typing them too, and I never checked... I should never rush comments.
- andreyf 16y agoPaul Buchheit worrying about disk access times It baffles me how anyone can program a server without worrying about disk access times, much less a service like Gmail. Similarly, what do designers spend all of their time doing if they aren't worrying about the construction process? Nobody cares how pretty your design is if you can't mass-produce it at low cost.
- JJMalina 16y agoMy MBP is asleep whenever I am, and the light is actually kind of soothing right before dozing off.
- dkasper 16y agoWas going to say the same thing!
- deleted 16y ago[deleted]
- jrockway 16y agoI'm surprised that not everyone notices that. The first time I saw a Mac in sleep mode I immediately realized that it was breathing in a relaxed manner. (It seemed so obvious I never even mentioned it to anyone, so I don't know if anyone else noticed.) The other day, I noticed that my friend’s Dell laptop had a similar feature but with a shorter fade-in-fade-out period. Its rate was around 40 blinks per second, or the average respiratory rate for adults during strenuous exercise—not very indicative of something in sleep-mode. As to why Dell didn't copy it exactly... perhaps they reviewed the patent and decided they would get in trouble? Personally, I think we should not personify our computing hardware. It's a tool, not your friend. When my machine goes to sleep, its lights turn off. If I want to wake it from sleep, I press the power button. If it was off instead of asleep, I would press the same power button. No need for an LED to tell me what's going on.
- jonhohle 16y agoBut why did try to copy it at all? Why not go in another direction completely?
- ars 16y agoJust how many different ways can you make a light blink?
- albertzeyer 16y agoThere are infinite many ways of doing so. :) For example, somewhat like the Fibonacci sequence like it is incorporated in the Lateralus song by Tool. That would be awesome.
- bouncingsoul 16y agoSee, you're already limiting yourself. The object isn't to indicate sleep with a blinking light, it's to indicate sleep. A sleeping computer could softly snore. Or the logo text on the lid could blur like tired vision. Neither of those is a blinking light.
- jonhohle 16y ago> It’s interesting how a lot of companies try to copy Apple but never seem to get it right. I think many companies see the features (windows flying around in Exposé, brightly colored window management buttons, pulsing status light, etc.) but don't understand that generally Apple doesn't just throw something in for looks and has thoroughly researched and iterated internally on a particular solution. At the expense of sounding fanatic, generally an Apple feature looks the way it does as a result of its function. (What is the problem: make window management easy. how is that solved: make all open windows easy to see by spreading them out). When other companies attempt to copy, they look at what Apple's solution looks like, not realizing what it _does_. (e.g. Areo Flip 3D: what should it look like: windows flying all over the place. what problem does this solve: ???)
- DavidSJ 16y agoCargo cult UIs.
- danilocampos 16y agoThat's exactly it. Instead of copying Apple's intent, competitors instead copy the result without ever giving a moment to consider the original motivation. This reminds me of a post by Tog or someone similarly luminary. He explained that the Mac OS submenu behavior arose from multiple iterations, refining until everything worked easily. A big part of that was letting the user move their pointer at an angle into the next submenu region. A Fitts' law consideration -- this didn't require the user to be too methodical in their movements through the menus. Then, when Microsoft borrowed the UI, getting into submenus required the user to exactingly follow the path of the currently-highlighted menu item in order to traverse into the next. Breathe the wrong way and your whole drill-down progress just disappears. Microsoft's solution? Insert a brief delay as you hover over a drillable menu option. Result without intent. As it happens, this reminds me of the UI for Windows Phone 7. It's like a suit said, "Hey, go design me something that looks really modern. And hip. With sans serif fonts. Apple uses those right? They're really hip." And we end up with a UI that looks more like a magazine layout than a tool for using your phone.
- Timothee 16y ago
- dieterrams 16y agoThe moment I realized the LED was mimicking breathing (I first experienced it with a white iMac) was the moment I realized just how far Apple goes to make computers for humans. Truly personal computers. This is the kind of stuff that gets people lining up for new Apple products, not some silly brand whoring or desire to be hip and fashionable. Admittedly, they made the LED way too bright on the earlier MBPs, such that it would distract you if you were trying to sleep in a dark room. The newer MBPs have gotten the brightness just right, however. Also, none of this ignores the fact that Apple routinely privileges superficial aesthetics over ergonomics, utility, etc. (Magic Mouse, hard edges on MBP, glossy displays), but that rarely stops the whole package from being the best on the market.
- verisimilitude 16y ago"The newer MBPs have gotten the brightness just right, however." That's because the sleep LED adjusts to the ambient brightness. Try this: watch that LED in a dark room, then turn on the lights, keeping your eye on it. You'll notice it gets quite a bit brighter in reaction to the light.
- danilocampos 16y agoNothing pisses me off more than when people say "oh, that Apple, they're just good at marketing." The truth is that they're good at making great things that are genuinely fun to use. That kind of stuff sells itself.
- megablast 16y agoWhen somebody says that, they are either a Microsoft/Google fanboy trying to rile you up, or they just don't understand what makes something great.
- philwelch 16y agoTo be fair, on top of that, they're also really good at marketing. But their marketing is only effective because it has a sincerity--they're genuinely proud of the products they make. I bet you can tell when someone is trying to fake that.
- Timothee 16y agoAnother nice thing about that LED is that it's white (as opposed to bright green in a lot of laptops) and it's softened (meaning that you can't really point out the exact point where the LED is hiding, making the whole shape homogeneous).
- endlessvoid94 16y agoI remember realizing that nothing on the iPhone ever, ever blinks into or out of existence. EVERYTHING transitions. When you turn the orientation in the camera app, the little flash button and flip-camera buttons don't simple become horizontal...they fall down gently. The damn thing never blinks.
- xutopia 16y agoYou just reminded me of those folding cellphones that were popular when cellphones first became really popular. They had this useless blinking led that just bugged the hell out of me!
- treblig 16y agoYou just perfectly described a 2010 Blackberry.
- usaar333 16y agoActually blinking/transitions are two things I really prefer about Android over the iPhone: 1) Notification blinking: It is quite useful to have an indicator that there is a missed call/email/text message without having to turn on the screen. 2) Transitions: I run my phone with every transition disabled. I never found much value with the phone being unresponsive for 100 or so ms as it animates.
- dnewcome 16y agoLenovo went to a lot of effort on the battery/charging indicator, but they just managed to make it as complicated as possible. http://lenovoblogs.com/insidethebox/?p=79 http://lenovoblogs.com/insidethebox/?p=79
- andreyf 16y ago<looks over at MBP charge indicator> Well, it's plugged in... I can tell because I see the plug in the computer. And it's charged because the light is green. Blinking light? Seriously?
- CamperBob 16y ago<Cool story, bro> A few years ago, a friend got one of the first of the x86 iMacs with integrated displays. Initially I thought it was a neat design but still didn't "get" what the big deal was about them and Apple's design ethos in general. I picked up the small handheld remote that came with it, and frowned. "Hmm, OK, it comes with a remote media control. That's neat, but it's just one more rarely-used gadget that's going to get lost in the clutter on peoples' desks. What they should have done was, oh, I dunno, put a magnet in the side of the monitor frame to keep the remote out of the way when it's not needed, you know, like this..." snap "Oh." I bought 100 shares of AAPL that night. </Cool story, bro>
- levesque 16y agoWas the cool story bro really necessary? This isn't 4chan...
- CamperBob 16y agoIt's a self-deprecating device, used to indicate that the post was intended purely as a topical anecdote which should be taken or left at face value, and not as a general recommendation to buy stock based on individual product features. :-P
- akshayubhat 16y agois breathing light really a requirement? I would prefer faster and cheaper computers. IMHO I find Apple computers to be equivalent of SUV's. You can get a descent laptop at nearly 20-30% cheaper from Dell/HP/ASUS. Maybe only Americans can afford such frivolity. The difference in price between a good Dell laptop and Apple one is same as wage for 1-2 months for a middle class person in most parts of the worlds.
- omgsean 16y agoWhat do you need faster for? Unless we're talking about gaming or rendering I would rather have a computer that loads Firefox half a second slower than one with a clunkier UI and less attention to detail. >Maybe only Americans can afford such frivolity. Tell us more about how you're better than us, please.
- megablast 16y agoRight, except the "SUV" is smaller, looks nicer, has a better OS, etc... And you can buy a HP/Dell that costs exactly the same as your Mac, if you looked at the more expensive end of their lineup. Apple does not make cheap computers. HP/Dell make both. And who really cares about faster these days?
- weaksauce 16y agoFaster is just one part of the whole experience. Buy a ssd and put that as your main drive in a mbp and you will have a faster computer and one that is aesthetically pleasing. The trackpad on the mbp makes it usable as a laptop without any peripherals. The fact that I can have my mbp sleep and wake with a reliability is one of the largest selling points to me. Every windows computer I have ever owned has consistently failed me on this point. Edit: I guess I should make it clear that I am agreeing with you.
- madars 16y ago> Every windows computer I have ever owned has consistently failed me on this point. Ever tried ThinkPad? :)
- thought_alarm 16y agoAh, yes. The anthropomorphic elements of Apple's HCI design. I think this is just Apple applying those same software HCI principles to their hardware design. It's merely one more tool in Apple's arsenal that their hardware competitors lack.
- moondowner 16y agoI smell a bit of fanboyism in the article. Yes, Apple have an eye on detail (but they aren't the only one on the earth, for sure), yes, they patent they findings so they can be the only kids on the block with that particular cool look.
- webginja 16y agoif their attention to detail is so good, then why are the edges of their laptops sharp as hell? #fail
- webginja 16y agoMaybe they could mimick the sharp edges on my wrists with some sort of blinking device.
- kenjackson 16y agoThis is interesting, but I hardly think it is unique. I would expect Microsoft to have done lots of work with their mice and keyboards. I expect IBM likely did simliar work when coming up with the ThinkPad (a 15 year old form-factor, which is still the best laptop form factor money can buy). Even car manufacturers have very similar types of research. It's cool to see the patent, but from what I know of various people who work in usability, this sort of thing is not at all unusual.
- there 16y agolenovo has a site where (mostly) david hill posts about the design of their products, including the thinkpad. hill worked on the thinkpad while at ibm and continues to at lenovo. http://lenovoblogs.com/designmatters/ http://lenovoblogs.com/designmatters/
- kenjackson 16y agoIn looking at my ThinkPad it got me thinking as to why IBM didn't blink at all. And I'm not sure, but I have a theory. I have other devices that blink to indicate that something is happening to them, and I always seem to catch them at the state when they're not illuminated. And, while this state only lasts for a second or less, I often get brief anxiety that something isn't charging or whatever. IBM went with the constantly illuminated moon. I've never laid down to sleep to it, but its worked as a great, at a glance, indicator that the computer is sleeping, and not off or on.
- MaysonL 16y agoThe thing is: the sleep indicator doesn't go all the way off when pulsing. It goes to very low, and back up, but never off until you wake the machine.
- rimantas 16y agoAlso if machine is on, but display is off, it just glows constantly to let you know it's awake :)
- drtse4 16y agoThis got me thinking that the thinkpad is the only true polar opposite of the macbook from the aesthetic/usability/functionality point of view...
- decode 16y agoOn the (somewhat new) T410, there's a ring around the power button that does the breathing blink thing when the laptop is in sleep mode.
- fara 16y agoIt's a great idea, but no one else can use it. I don't like the fact of patenting even the frequency of a blinking led. It keeps adding constraints for competition, which is nice for Apple but I wouldn't celebrate it.
- psnj 16y agoFunny, that pulsing light drives me nuts. If I'm in a darkened room with my MBP, I have to cover it or turn it to face the other way.
- silversmith 16y agoWhat model (silver or black screen frame/keys)? I have older one (silver), and the thing is like a lighthouse in a dark bedroom. However, they supposedly fixed it in the newer models.
- baddox 16y agoThe Dell blinks faster not because Dell doesn't pay attention to detail, but because they don't want to deal with patent nonsense.
- edwincheese 16y agoWhy didn't they think of other way to represent a sleeping state but resembling Apple's blinking light?
- photon_off 16y agoI've always been curious: does anyone else dart their eyes back and forth to determine if a light is blinking or not?I feel like it might be my superpower. I can spot 60hz no problem. When I first saw the MacBook indicator, it was a lot of fun to finally see my talent put to use in an additional dimension. I remember seeing the modulation and thinking: oh cool, the entire duty cycle remains constant as they increase the on while decreasing the off.
- trop 16y agoFrom the patent ("Detailed Description of the Preferred Embodiments"): "The electrical pulses as shown in FIG. 3 have varied pulse widths because of the operation of PWM, and their actual pulse widths depend on the associated sinusoidal duty cycle function. The PWM frequency used in this embodiment is 125 Hz. In fact, preferred frequencies include any frequency sufficiently greater than that can be effectively distinguished by the human eye. However, power consideration for portable devices further prefer PWM frequencies to range within, for example, 100-200 Hz. ... It was determined through experiment that increasing the duty cycle according to a non-linear function gives the most pleasing visual effect while a simple linear ramp does not seem as natural."
- photon_off 16y agoThis is consistent with what I claim. I never sad the apple indicator light was 60hz, I was just using that as an example as it's a very common frequency; I notice it especially with antennae, bridges, buildings, etc. Take a camera and set the shutter speed long enough so that you can blur the light, and you'll see the blinking effect that I do. The patent can claim it's not noticable, but it's pretty noticable to me. Interesting that they market even in their patents.
- trop 16y agoYes... Motion pictures, for example, are 24hz-30hz, which is just enough to get rid of noticeable flicker, but still risks strobing during fast camera movements.
- jbronn 16y agoiTunes needs some of this attention
- Parabola 16y agoThat Apple patent the article is about is probably why Dell didn't copy the feature exactly.
- novon 16y agoApple is the best exmaple of a company that is lead by design. Their products aren't a confusing maze of options and complexity where anything goes, but instead holistic human-friendly devices that are a perfect balance between form and function. Not everyone will be happy with the compromise of "configurability" in favor of "usability" - but the incredible success of Apple products can not be argued with, society at large agrees with simple humanized technology, and will increasingly demand products and services that display good design traits.
- jerf 16y agoAnother error I've seen: I had a Dell that had a pulsing indicator, and it had an acceptable frequency, but the LED behind it only had 8 levels, linearly powered. You could very clearly see the transition from levels 0-1, 1-2, and 2-3, after which (due to the linear driving) the transitions became very unclear, simultaneously making the transition annoyingly sharp and "pulling back the curtain" and letting you too-easily see the implementation details. Apple (and my current Sony VAIO) gets this right; I can't perceive the transition points between levels, and somebody properly accounted for the way we see brightness nonlinearly.
- famousactress 16y agoThe fact that they _patented_ light-pretends-to-breathe annoys me to the point of not really being able to bask in the genius of the idea.
- smiler 16y agoProbably more out of defense than attack
- bodski 16y agoUmm defensive, just like these ones? http://i.engadget.com/2010/03/02/apple-vs-htc-a-patent-breakdown/ http://i.engadget.com/2010/03/02/apple-vs-htc-a-patent-break... Unless you meant out of defence of the right to make more profit, in which case yes I totally agree, completely defensive.
- famousactress 16y agoSad, but true.
- ZachPruckowski 16y agoI think this is an example of a decent patent - it's minor, but it's clever, non-obvious, and a clear improvement on the product, while not encroaching much on the solution space. You can still have a blinking light, or any of a handful of other solutions, just not a blinking light at a specific frequency.
- jodrellblank 16y agoI plugged my iPhone headphones into my MBP. The volume control works. The play/pause button loads, plays and pauses iTunes music. The Apple Bluetooth keyboard has an option in OS X to show the battery life. It does not when connected to Vista.
- mkramlich 16y agoApple's UX quality and attention to detail definitely helped make me a convert. Or a re-convert: I started with Apple II+, then got into IBM/Microsoft PC's, then came back to Apple a few years ago. This is why I'm frustrated by the UX of iOS 4.0 running on my iPhone 3G. It is plagued with these unpredictable freezes, especially in Safari, which makes it unusable sometimes. We're talking total UI non-responsiveness for anywhere from 15-120 seconds, right smack in the middle of you're doing something. Very let down by them in this area. I've already learned of an unofficial way to downgrade back to 3.x, however, I've been reluctant to do it because I have some legacy contract projects who want me to support 4.0, so I need to keep something running it. Other than this issue, though, Apple provides an awesome UX and has been a no-brainer choice over Microsoft -- a company I had also noticed many times in the past was copying the surface aspect of what a competitor did, often Apple, but not getting the fundamentals right, and making themselves look like idiots.
- danudey 16y agoOff-topic, but have you tried the 'disable everything you don't search for in spotlight' workaround? I've heard it works wonders, and the more you can disable the better. Not entirely sure why. You can google for the details (if there are any more than what I've listed already).
- mkramlich 16y agoyes i did that. and have restarted and restored a few times. i still get the mysterious temporary freezes. i've read the Apple forums discussions, my impression is that all of the "fixes" reported by endusers (except rolling back to 3.3) are just lucky happenstance and/or the person in question didn't test it long enough afterward so was still in honeymoon period. thanks for suggestion though! (we should def not continue this thread since off-topic)
- zmmmmm 16y agoThe big place where I notice this is in the "flick" scrolling on Android vs iPhone. Android just has this very tiny jerkiness, a just slightly less natural motion. I can't even define what it is about the motion, I just know it is perfect on the iPhone and almost but not quite on Android. (And for the record, I love Android and would gladly cast every iDevice I own into a fire if I didn't need them for work).
- frickingphil 16y agoSomewhat related, Android does not bounce back at the end of lists. The list simply stops scrolling...which is rather ambiguous considering if the phone lags, it looks like you're at the end of the list...and then suddenly it starts scrolling again
- jemfinch 16y agoOf course Dell's blinking light timing was different. They didn't want to violate Apple's patent.
- techiferous 16y agoSpeaking of attention to detail... "12-20 breathes per minute" should be "12-20 breaths per minute" "40 blinks per second" should be "40 blinks per minute"
- deleted 16y ago[deleted]
- eps 16y agoPerhaps this exact patent of Apple is the reason why Dells are blinking faster. And not because they failed to copy Apple properly as the blogpost implies.
- prewett 16y agoIt probably is why, and it indicates that they failed to copy Apple properly: Apple chose the rate to correspond to a restful breathing rate. As I can attest from a quick test, 40/min is more like someone exercising, hardly a soothing assurance that the Dell is happily sleeping. Furthermore, blinking is not very smooth, either. Dell apparently saw the idea "visually indicate sleep mode". So what Dell has is a blinking indicator light that happen to mean "in sleep mode". What Apple has is a light that intuitively means "I'm happily resting and saving power. When you want me again, open me up and I'll be right where you left me." The first time I saw Apple's light, I immediately knew what the computer was doing. If I saw a Dell blinking a lot, I would have no idea if it meant "sleep mode", "charging", "charging in sleep mode". The blink rate might even be how quickly it's charging or how much it needs to be charged. So yes, Dell did a bad copy.
- lazugod 16y agoHis point was that the patent, rather than some incompetence on Dell's part, may be what is preventing them from using a slower blink rate.
- eps 16y agoPerhaps this exact patent of Apple is the reason why Dells are blinking faster.
- loewenskind 16y agoThe first time I really noticed that Apple just has a different level of attention to detail than I, an electronics customer, am used to seeing was with my iPad. I listen to foreign language lessons on part of my commute and have for several years. After I got my iPad I transferred everything there and started listening as normal. For some reason (don't remember why) I needed to stop listening. So I pulled the headphones out, dig the iPad out of my bag to pause the player since I don't want to miss anything. As I take the iPad out I'm expecting to hear someone speaking but they're not. I pause for a second but nothing. I open the case to make sure I didn't accidentally pause it somehow and check the volume. Volume is fine and some other app was in the foreground. I switch to the Ipod app and sure enough, it was paused. Seems so obvious but no other device I've owned did this (I've never owned an iPod or iPhone).
- jsvaughan 16y agomy g5 imac won't go to sleep because the capacitors in it have leaked, periodically in its life cds have been trapped in it which wouldn't eject from the command line, i've had two old style keyboards that have broken completely because of small spillages on them, the mouse that came with the g5 was a worse at detecting movement than an older ms mouse.. i could go on. I bought it expecting engineering attention to detail, what i got was cosmetic attention to detail.
- elblanco 16y agoAt risk of getting massively downvoted (since almost everybody else in this thread who refuses to participate in the Apple lovefest is down -4 right now)... I really dislike this community conflation of attention to aesthetic detail with "detail". Apple does fantastic work on aesthetics. Wonderful little details like the pulsing sleep led. Their hardware is generally pleasant to look at, their OS...though starting to show its 9 year old age still holds its own. While important, and often imitated, aesthetic detail is a superficial kind of detail. And it's not wholesale "attention to detail" not matter how many breathless fan posts in blogs on threads there are. Apple products in general have a great many areas where they have piss poor attention to actual detail, and let it slide for years without attention and instead build a marketing campaign around the font they use on their keyboards. They substitute shiny too often for substance and the vast majority of Apple fans fall for it, "ooh shiny!". There isn't even a single post here in this thread (and there are 171 right now) that says something to effect of "This LED thing is cool, but Apple drops the ball on <insert xyz widely known problem>". And that list of problems is long and ranges in everything from technical issues to hardware reliability to usability problems to yes...aesthetics. Instead we get north of 170 posts, all breathlessly agreeing that they wish Apple could have their child. Aesthetic detail is "nice to have" but not a "must have". Detail in other areas are probably more important. And sadly, Apple often falls down in those areas. It doesn't really matter if my MBP is cut from a single piece of aluminum and the leds pulse at some certain rhythm when its asleep. It's far more impressive to me that when I open it up, it resumes in under 10 seconds (which BTW is thankfully one of those areas that Apple did turn the attention to detail gun on, Macs sleep and resume fantastically better than any Windows machine I've ever used). But it also matters to me if I have to send it back for repair due to manufacturing defect more often than my dell -- particularly if I've paid a huge price premium to have a pulsing sleep led, the damn thing better be more reliable than a $12 toaster...and sadly it isn't. I'm certainly not claiming the opposite, that other vendors and software makers are better than Apple in the detail department. Just that Apple has many failures as well, but the community of Apple users religiously ignores those little problems without a peep -- a massive display of this phenomenon is on display here. They stop recognizing that their stuff is just stuff, and Apple makes stuff that's pretty nice to use, but in the end it's just stuff and it's full of flaws. just trying to provide the voice of reason here
- Marticus 16y agoI prefer David Thorne's take on the Macbook Pro.
- sumeeta 16y agoThe author misspelled MacBook :(
- voxcogitatio 16y agoIt's amusing watching the author use purple prose over a single blinking LED. I bet if Steve Jobs gave him a turd he would describe it as "that which makes the flowers grow, with a heady aroma".