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> By comparison, today's devices are slabs of machined aluminum and display panels. Functional? Certainly, but missing the whimsicality of these older machines.

> By comparison, today's devices are slabs of machined aluminum and display panels. Functional? Certainly, but missing the whimsicality of these older machines. I miss that personality. There's not much JOY in today's MacBook or iPhone. Hoping that we can see a return soon... My dad was a teacher with a whole lab of Macs that I was fortunate enough to grow up around. I remember each incarnation from the 68k on, and there was a definite excitement that bled into hardware design around the time of Mac OS X. For me it’s a bit crushing that I now associate Apple more with the face on the screen than the hammer thrower (Epic’s remake of the 1984 commercial nails it, regardless of the merit of their lawsuit). I have a personal app that would significantly streamline a big part of my work, but it uses private iOS APIs and the big struggle is managing the codesigning, entitlements, and provisioning profiles needed to let my own code run on my own (jailbroken!) device. We may just switch to android devices to get things done, despite our whole staff having iPhones. Either way, I’m told history repeats itself. I share the author’s hope that we’ll see a similarly exciting experiential breakthrough in computing in our lifetimes. Something that enables new possibilities, not just certain functions presented in a catalogue (as it were). Wherever that next company is in its formulation, I’m cheering it on from here. (Sent from an authorized, entitled, and provisioned browser that complied with all EULAs and ToSs on my slightly magical but possibly spying handheld computer)

uniqueid 6y ago
That whole section rings true... By comparison, the gap between a 2010 MacBook and a 2020 MacBook is shockingly narrow. Looking at this spec sheet from 2020 eyes, I'm imagining that this computer would run today's software reasonably well if macOS supported it […] It's also noticeable how innovative this iMac is from a design standpoint. My eldest daughter was born a year after this computer went on sale. I should have recorded her comments as she saw it. "It's sooo cute... why don't they make computers like this anymore?" I'm pretty sure that if they sold a Mac like this with modern components, she'd be first in line. […] By comparison, today's devices are slabs of machined aluminum and display panels. Functional? Certainly, but missing the whimsicality of these older machines. I miss that personality. There's not much JOY in today's MacBook or iPhone. Hoping that we can see a return soon...
- rangibaby 6y ago
  > I'm imagining that this computer would run today's software reasonably well if macOS supported it Retina displays, SSDs, and fast Wi-Fi are things you don't notice until they're gone
  - DaiPlusPlus 6y ago
    macOS makes 96dpi displays look bad. Text is fuzzy (by design) because Apple’s fontographers believe preserving the form of type is more important than maximising clarity by snapping form to the pixel grid, which is Microsoft’s rival philosophy. At higher resolutions this technique isn’t needed. For comparison, my Windows box has two HP Z27Q displays. These are both expensive 5K 27-inch panels that each need two DP1.2 cables (in MST mode) to drive them at 60Hz. In between the two is Dell’s latest 43-inch 4K IPS panel. The HP displays run at 192dpi/200% while the Dell runs at 96dpi/100%. All 3 displays are stunning. While the HP displays are noticeably sharper and are a pleasure to read and edit text on so is the Dell: the difference in Windows really doesn’t matter all that much. If I were to lose either models of monitor in a freak UPS explosion I wouldn’t be wanting sympathy for my very first-world-problem. And I need to give massive props to Microsoft for the well-thought-out multi-DPI support in Windows 10. My only qualm is I can never get the DPI override settings to work (and mstsc.exe needs more display settings besides a single checkbox). Stuff like that is why I don’t feel like I can comfortably switch to a Linux desktop right now. For example, last time I checked none of the production-quality display servers support mouse cursor scaling - is that still the case?
    - ultrarunner 6y ago
      Maybe it's just being on Macs for the last 20 (!) years, but I greatly prefer the type treatment on macOS. Windows looks very "computery" and low-quality to me. Maybe I just don't have a critical enough eye for type. Either way, I'm glad I have the choice. That said, I wouldn't doubt that Apple fully intends for people to buy their high DPI displays now. I wouldn't be shocked if they got "brave" again and dropped support for low DPI screens entirely (like they did for VGA). It seems to me there used to be options to control type rendering that have now been removed.
BuildTheRobots 6y ago
> Epic’s remake of the 1984 commercial nails it https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sakchvYbOvY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sakchvYbOvY edit: I wasn't aware of the epic remake of the advert and had to go looking. If this isn't beneficial to the discussion or isn't the right video can someone let me know please.
- ultrarunner 6y ago
  That was what I had in mind. Thank you for linking to it.

uniqueid 6y ago

That whole section rings true... By comparison, the gap between a 2010 MacBook and a 2020 MacBook is shockingly narrow. Looking at this spec sheet from 2020 eyes, I'm imagining that this computer would run today's software reasonably well if macOS supported it […] It's also noticeable how innovative this iMac is from a design standpoint. My eldest daughter was born a year after this computer went on sale. I should have recorded her comments as she saw it. "It's sooo cute... why don't they make computers like this anymore?" I'm pretty sure that if they sold a Mac like this with modern components, she'd be first in line. […] By comparison, today's devices are slabs of machined aluminum and display panels. Functional? Certainly, but missing the whimsicality of these older machines. I miss that personality. There's not much JOY in today's MacBook or iPhone. Hoping that we can see a return soon...

rangibaby 6y ago
> I'm imagining that this computer would run today's software reasonably well if macOS supported it Retina displays, SSDs, and fast Wi-Fi are things you don't notice until they're gone
- DaiPlusPlus 6y ago
  macOS makes 96dpi displays look bad. Text is fuzzy (by design) because Apple’s fontographers believe preserving the form of type is more important than maximising clarity by snapping form to the pixel grid, which is Microsoft’s rival philosophy. At higher resolutions this technique isn’t needed. For comparison, my Windows box has two HP Z27Q displays. These are both expensive 5K 27-inch panels that each need two DP1.2 cables (in MST mode) to drive them at 60Hz. In between the two is Dell’s latest 43-inch 4K IPS panel. The HP displays run at 192dpi/200% while the Dell runs at 96dpi/100%. All 3 displays are stunning. While the HP displays are noticeably sharper and are a pleasure to read and edit text on so is the Dell: the difference in Windows really doesn’t matter all that much. If I were to lose either models of monitor in a freak UPS explosion I wouldn’t be wanting sympathy for my very first-world-problem. And I need to give massive props to Microsoft for the well-thought-out multi-DPI support in Windows 10. My only qualm is I can never get the DPI override settings to work (and mstsc.exe needs more display settings besides a single checkbox). Stuff like that is why I don’t feel like I can comfortably switch to a Linux desktop right now. For example, last time I checked none of the production-quality display servers support mouse cursor scaling - is that still the case?
  - ultrarunner 6y ago
    Maybe it's just being on Macs for the last 20 (!) years, but I greatly prefer the type treatment on macOS. Windows looks very "computery" and low-quality to me. Maybe I just don't have a critical enough eye for type. Either way, I'm glad I have the choice. That said, I wouldn't doubt that Apple fully intends for people to buy their high DPI displays now. I wouldn't be shocked if they got "brave" again and dropped support for low DPI screens entirely (like they did for VGA). It seems to me there used to be options to control type rendering that have now been removed.

BuildTheRobots 6y ago

> Epic’s remake of the 1984 commercial nails it https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sakchvYbOvY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sakchvYbOvY edit: I wasn't aware of the epic remake of the advert and had to go looking. If this isn't beneficial to the discussion or isn't the right video can someone let me know please.

ultrarunner 6y ago
That was what I had in mind. Thank you for linking to it.