scattered technology news

lolwut? says:

I just meant the MP is the best for gaming out of all of the apple machines with the iMac coming in really close, however, apple DOES advertise MP as the ultimate gaming machine. I agree that it is the best for gaming out of all the apple products. But DEFINETELY not the best on the market.

Mac AI over PC AI? There should be absolutely no difference unless it was a buggy release. The only differences should be in AA, AF, basically graphical things due to the differences in OpenGL and Direct3D.

I think you should go to http://www.apple.com/games/hardware for info.

John says:

Ah, if you made it that way, the MacPro is wayyy better at gaming compared to iMac, haha.

Anyway, yeah. HP do not offer appropriate drivers for my model, I guess it has to do with it being the cheapest among the HP all-in-one printer during that time. Go figures.

Im going to try WINE for gaming :D. Hmm, if someone managed to create a DirectX version for Mac, it would be much better and easier to bring games into OSX

lolwut? says:

Also, try a software called Cider.

http://www.transgaming.com/products/cider/

It isn’t really free, but its known to bring windows games to the OS X platform more reliably.

Hope it helps.

John says:

Ah, thanks, you have quite a number of good apps, I like iAlertU, what happen if the software failed to recognize the same user?

John says:

yeah, If Im not mistaken it takes a picture of the user before he/she leave the laptop and only activates once the same picture is taken again right?

lolwut? says:

@Jean Well I personally went for the MBP for its light weight and extra VRAM. However, this comes at a cost of a SD card reader, a USB port(both kinda handy) and a large price difference. You decide what you want, the MBP can run both win and OS X so thats another up side. Not to mention its sleek and cool design. I would say the MBP is worth it if your not on a tight budget. The dell is a good deal as well but I just needed the extra VRAM for crysis ^_^

@John I don’t think so =s It’s just activated by the apple remote(menu button) and then when someone moves it, it makes a really loud alarm and takes a picture of whatever is in front of it. The only way to stop the alarm is to click the Menu button again.

lolwut? says:

yeah if it were up to me, get the MBP.

John says:

Hmm, okay lets take this from the hardware perspective and software perspective.

Because Dell allows you to configure your notebook screen, it is possible to have a higher resolution then MBP. My only concern about Dell displays is the quality, I heard A LOT of complaints about the M1530 screen quality that I decided that I wont be a cheap person by buying a Dell because its cheaper and have my notebook not to last for a period of 5 years, I want my stuffs to work for a long period and and not end up sending back for a display replacement. I know Apple SOMETIMES has display issues but usually its a software stuff and I heard that Apple customer service is the best, very helpful and friendly. Thats definitely a plus in my book.

Okay, now its the software side, I assume you are going to use Photoshop, somehow in terms of speed there is not much different between Windows and OS X into loading Photoshop, the difference is how do the application work in two different environment. I have used both Photoshop CS3 on Windows environment and Mac OS environment and personally I prefer the Mac environment. It makes stuffs much faster with all the features in Leopard. You can switch back between your web browser or MP3 player to your Photoshop by pressing two buttons (control + arrow keys). You have a bigger screen space compared to the Windows version (assuming both displays have the same resolution).

So I say go for Mac :D

lolwut? says:

John Said “have my notebook not to last for a period of 5 years”

There is no laptop that would stay up-to-date with the software and hardware for that long. By 5 years, its highly possible intel will have released a 4GHz Core 2 Duo, while Nvidia will have released a card with clockspeeds doubling the 9800GX2. These advances will have left the MBP in the dust. Please also note that apple updates their laptops quite regularly, a good example would be the recent beef-up of the iMac. Even though you can keep up to date on RAM and some software, you cannot keep up to date on graphic cards(just laptops, desktops can be updated), processors, chipsets and mobos.

So please, don’t tell me you expect any piece of hardware to last 5 years. I would laugh and laugh at you. Yeah, you’d still get by if you used it for 5 years with surfing the net and playing fairly old games(Crysis is new now, but will be like pacman in 5 years) but people would smirk and laugh if you were to be seen in public.

I used to have just a 3 year old laptop, and my friend’s laptop made last year doubled my boot-up speed and basic operating speed.

Sorry if I was a bit rude but I’m just doing it for your own good. Even if I didn’t say all this, you would find your machine in the dust within 2 years and you would most likely change yourself. I’m just trying to make you know what’s ahead.

lolwut? says:

Sorry If I misunderstood your point. But I had a hard time understanding the way you said things(no offense) D=.

Also, it is almost near impossible to upgrade a laptop like a desktop. The only REAL thing you can change is the RAM. You cannot upgrade a graphics card on a notebook. However, whereas on a desktop you can upgrade almost everything.

Again, I’m sorry ^.^

@Lucy, get the MBP. I watched a video on youtube confirming that glossy screens do not show the real colour.

Jonathan Pwu says:

Chances are, if you’re looking to buy one of these laptops, price is not that big of a factor since you have a big budget. Both laptops are on the expensive side, but both of them come with nice goodies and extras. The biggest difference between the two is the availability of the operating system: The Dell can’t run OSX. I was a longtime Windows user, but when I started school and was deciding on a new laptop, I chose a MBP because it ran OSX (and the option to run Windows when I’m into casual gaming).

John says:

yes, you can install OS X on the XPS, but believe me, you wont want to do your work in it cause the chances of something goes wrong after an updater or after inserting an external device is very high. I have done a hackintosh on my PC and somehow, when I go to Apple.com to download the latest version or safari, Apple detected my hackintosh as a PC.

Besides, this is a very subjective manner, a lot of people who tried hackintosh ended up buying a Mac if they really like it cause its not worth it troubling around an OS that you are planning to use everyday. I am on the even if your PC has OS X, the feeling is not the same as owning a Mac hardware + software. I tried hckintosh and Im going to be honest with you, I take a real Mac anyday or dont own a Mac or even tried (make my PC into hackintosh) if I cannot own one.

John says:

I agree with Neff, why is Ubuntu very famous? What happen to RedHat Linux?

John says:

What kind of school that requires to have OS X installed? I never heard of such thing, cuz not many people can afford a Mac.

John says:

Ah I see, that must be some fancy school then :)

Pc fANBOY says:

MACS SUCK DELL ROCKS APPLE RIPS OFF THEIR CUSTOMERS AND MAKES THEM PAY

lolwut? says:

hmmmmm…………….

What did I say about drinking jack……

yeah taht was my “friend”

Dudeman says:

People seem to be going for Macs just to run OS X. And most people want to use OS X because it:

1. Looks better.

2. Is user-friendlier.

I don’t get it. All OSes still use GUI principles set down decades ago. OS X, like Windows or X11 variants, still use textboxes, radio buttons, scroll bars, etc. There’s not much you can add to the point-and-click interface.

I admit, OS X looks nice, drop shadows and all that, ships with a few applications which make the UI a bit more friendly. But, is that friendliness worth paying hundreds of dollars for? I don’t think so. Maybe for the not-so-computer-literate like pre/primary school children. Windows has been friendly enough all this years, why the sudden change? And oh, spyware/viruses result, for the most part, from irresponsibe computer use; OSes are big and complicated, they all crash and they all have security holes, even OS X (In fact, it was the easiest OS to hack at a recent Hackfest).

Here’s a stronger reason for using OS X: It’s built on Unix but does not trade-off power for usability like other *nix OSes. Honestly, the ‘creative professionals’ Macs are targeted towards don’t care if it’s Unix. I don’t care much for it either since there a lot of free Unix-like OSes (Ubuntu, a Linux distro, being a hugely popular one) which ship with excellent graphical intefaces (admittedly, not as good-looking as OS X, but no less powerful).

If you’ve got a lot of money: buy a high-end MBP. Why the hell not? If you’re on a tight-budget, don’t even bother with lower-end MacBooks when you can get much more powerful Dells for the same price.

John says:

I admit that your review is totally unbiased. Well honestly, I have been using Windows for like 12 years and I never found the Windows UI friendly, I got my Mac for 2 weeks and I say that its UI and simplicity is light years ahead of Windows.

donthate08ter says:

@cl3m0ns Not when you can buy a copy of Leopard for $110…

DUDEMAN says:

I’ve had a change of heart. I said that low-end MacBooks aren’t worth buying. I was wrong. I need a portable 13″ laptop, and after getting an education discount, the MacBooks do, in fact, give better value-for-money. Although the XPS M1330s have 1 GB more ram, twice the hdd and a few ports, they have serious shortcomings (according to buyer reviews) in terms of design and reliabiltiy.

Adam says:

If anyone really wants to know the difference between the High End Dell XPS laptops, and the High End Apple Mac Book Pro laptops check the links attached. I also will highlight some points you will find in the links. You have to go into custom options on the links I have sent for each of these laptops if you want to see them the way I have described.

The Dell XPS M1730 specs
Price for Dell XPS M1730 with specs listed below without education discount $2,394
17 inch monitor
4 GB of ram at 667 Mhz running speed
6 MB of L2 cache
512MB Nvidia GeForce 8700M GT video card
200 GB hard drive at 7200 RPM
Intel Core 2 Duo 2.5 Ghz processor
Built In Blue Tooth
Vista Home Premium Operating System

Dell XPS M1730 link below, Just copy and paste the following line into your web browser and press enter to view.

Dell Configuration

The Apple Mac Book Pro 17 inch
Price for apple Mac Book Pro with specs listed below without education discount $3,049
17 inch monitor
4 GB of ram at 667 Mhz running speed
6 MB of L2 cache
512MB Nvidia GeForce 8600M GT video card
200 GB hard drive at 7200 RPM
Intel Core 2 Duo 2.5 Ghz processor
Built In Blue Tooth
Mac X 10.5 Leopard Operating System

The Apple Mac Book Pro 17 inch link below, Just copy and paste the following line into your web browser and press enter to view.

Apple Configuration

Mac offers a 10% education discount, Just type in Apple Education Discounts in the search browser of the Apple Store. I am not familiar with Dells education discount, and there is no easily found site for one. Maybe one of you knows of the site for the Dell education discount if there is one.

In conclusion it really depends on what you want to do with your laptop, on which laptop you should get. For Instance If you want to be a engineer you probably should get a Dell Because PCs run AutoCAD, Inventor, and other Engineering programs much more efficiently then Apple does unless you install windows to your apple, and even then Apples are not quite as efficient at running windows. Gamers should also go for Dells because there is a much larger gaming library on PCs then Apples. But if you want to be a Graphic Designer, or go into some type of Digital Imaging field, or photography, you probably want to buy a Apple because Adobe programs like Dream Weaver, Illustrator, Photoshop, and most other Graphic Design and photo type programs run much more efficiently on Apple computers.

Adam says:

I meant to say Apples are not quite as efficient at running windows as PCs. I have a friend who has a Mac Book Pro that is about 2 years old and has 4GB of ram, and I have a Dell Presario PC that is also around 2 years old that has only 2 GB of ram but my computer runs windows XP much more efficiently then his Mac Book Pro.

Both computers have similar processors with close to the same running speeds, and similar video cards. You would think that a system with 4GB of ram would do better but it does not. My only thought as to his problem is that the version of windows he is using may not be the best version for his Mac Book.

Dudeman says:

The distinction between MBPs and M1530s, in terms of functionality, is artificial. Both have roughly the same hardware and, both run Adobe applications (assuming you’d be using photoshop, etc.) just fine.

Apples used to be good for graphics in the 80s, that’s not true any more but the myth remains. Here’s what is true: MBPs look better, they come pre-loaded with OS X instead of Windows (which will make you more productive if you’re not that computer savvy), they have brighter screens, are lighter, and have a longer battery life. And finally, they cost significantly more. If money is not an issue, I would’ve picked the MBP. BTW, M1530s are 15″ as well.