illa romza

It's entirely possible to turn a brand around of course, as VW demonstrated with �koda, it's only 15 years ago that �koda was still the punchline to almost every joke.

if any car company has shown to have any knowledge about badge engineering/branding it's VW AG
skoda is the obvious recent example of the last 15 years
but compare it to what they did to Audi since 1980 ?
the best way to describe pre 80ties audi ? the famous morris marina quote from Top Gear:
"I'll guarantee that nothing exciting, vibrant, dynamic, new, creative, hopeful or beneficial in any way to humanity has ever been done, thought of or driven to in that drab, dreary, entirely beige, wilfully awful pile of misery."

believe it or not back in the 70ties Opel actually had a trendy, sporty and young reputation/image not unlike Audi has today

in fact i have some old magazines around from the early 70ties and its hilarious to read if you compare the raving reviews Opel got in the past with todays "not as bad as other cars but still cheaper than a VW" reviews



Doesn't say much really does it. ;)

I think you highlight the real issue in the rest of your post. But it doesn't just affect Opel. And that is perhaps GM's biggest problem of all.


it's not exactly GM alone:
yes VW are really bland looking too, but opposed to many GM vehicles if you take the badge away you would be still able recognize that the vehicle is a VW ... with some of the new Opels i'm not so sure (Chevrolet at least got that hideous split grill),
Ford actually isn't any better. their latest fiesta very much looks like a 8 year old peugeot from the front. hardly surprising their sales havent quite lived up to the last models sales afaik


It's not really streamlining when you have something like 6 suv/off-roaders in your range a'la Nissan is it? ;)


true but looking at nissan i would say they are streamlining themselves out of the european market ;)
yes they are selling the GT-R in europe and launching their own luxury brand Infiniti... for what ? to follow the "success story of 20 years Lexus europe"
so they will be selling luxury cars , fake offroaders, a single halo car without any interesting cheaper car to buy ? seriously the new micra is bringing the bland back to the brand .. at least the old micra was a hit with young women
i really like nissan and some of their last decade stuff but i feel they are going back to their 90ties role in europe. and remembering my grandfathers old nissan ... please don't go there
(it could be worse: like mitsubishi dropping the EVO)


Not if the Spark is anything to go by. Fortunately as the i10 proves, being Korean isn't the problem. ;)


at least hyundai finally realised that those names they were putting on their models weren't the brightest idea in 95% of all cases

regarding testing/timing the cars on the N�rburgring: knowing that Audi, BMW and Mercedes have an gentlements agreement not to publish their timed laps i think it's quite a hollow victory for some brands to publish theirs

the argument for that silent agreement ? they don't want "a horsepower arms race"... look how well that has turned out

Conversely, I could see them offering different quality versions for those broadbandless people similar to different quality versions of trailers, so who knows. I'm just anxious to see what they'll be offering on the 12th. It's very exciting.
I agree on the excitement, and the potential for different quality options*, but I don't think even their current video offerings are attractive to anyone without broadband, since the typical 30 minute show would take ~4 hours to download. A 2 hour movie would then still take 16 hours to download on dial-up. I don't think so.

By comparison with a 3 Mbps pipe you should be able to download the same show in ~4 minutes or 16 minutes for the movie.

EDIT: * I wish they'd give us a lossless option for iTMS audio too.

B

...
Broadcast TV is a business model from the 50s which needs to die. But if you *really* want your TV content determined by the marketeers of ant-acid remedies then stick with your DVR. Stick with Celebrity Love Spacktard. Cheer it up for American Idle. Wave pom poms like a sixteen year-old for the vacuous, empty spam that the networks churn out, to fill the gaps between revenue-generating advertising.
...


Dead on, in my opinion.

Huh? Why would a BR drive make any more heat than a 12x or 24x DVD drive? Hint: it won't. It's a disc that is the same size and weight and spinning at the same speeds... the only change is the wavelength of the laser reading the disc. Decoding the data will take some juice, which will make some heat, but no more than any other CPU intensive task.
Some of the reading, decoding, DRM, error control tasks will certainly happen in the drive itself, rather than CPU. More bits to process and faster data to send through the bus would certainly create more heat.

As I mentioned before about the lower spec FB-DIMMs only using one of the onboard buffers to improve latency (single gate / single rank), there are quite a few of these out there - especially in the 512MB capacity!

Here's the technical overview from Intel (http://www.intel.com/technology/magazine/computing/Fully-buffered-DIMM-0305.htm).

Anandtech had this little tidbit (http://www.anandtech.com/mac/showdoc.aspx?i=2832&p=1) about single vs. dual rank modules.

While single rank FB-DIMMs are somewhat discouraged, they are quite common on the market. Kingston ships single rank FB-DIMM parts that are nearly 30% cheaper than their dual rank parts. Some of their products are labeled as such, some aren't and who knows what you're getting when buying from a third-party vendor without specifically comparing part numbers, etc.. I am under the impression that the 512MB (as well as the 1 and 2 GB) modules from Apple are all dual rank. However, how do we tell for sure about modules from the cheaper vendors like 1-800-4MEMORY, or RAM4LESS, etc.. I guess we can try to ask for more detailed specs, but I've tried that before from RAM4LESS and all I could get is that "our modules are guaranteed compatible..."

So I guess I can't be in the guard or reserve...

Not at all, provided you meet the requirements. I was merely pointing out that a Director of IT posted on a Mac forum asking how to remotely access his network.

Based on your posts, I question if you meet the age requirements of this forum.

I told you all !!!! $499 headless Mac - here it comes and marketshare will grow...welcome back Apple !!

http://www.petitiononline.com/rumi04/petition.html

Miles better than them 'If you don't own an iPhone...' ones.

Very nice.

What music genre do you dabble in? And what monitors are those? Do they sit that flush out of the box or did you hack the stand off in favour of some armature?


I'd say most of the stuff I do is indie rock, shoegazer and some electronic style stuff. No real strict genre.

I have two 24" HP monitors that are on their original stands and sit like that right out of the box. You can adjust the height but I like it at the lowest, that way I get a bit more sunlight in.

The other lone monitor is a 21" Viewsonic. That one I did remove the stock stand and now it's just sitting on a hard case that one of my microphones came in and is just leaning up against the wall. A bit ghetto but it doesn't look too bad.

Apple Store UK is down. "Back within the hour".

PilotWoo

Our power went out so we went out to get something to eat. I got a vent double chocolate chip frappuccino with a blueberry scone.and now our power is back on!

Updates are expected very soon boys and ghouls! My dealer at a Mac Online Store just sent me an e-mail announcing a $100+ price drop on MacBook Pro laptops.

Dude, the MBP was updated in late April of this year, why would you think it'll be updated four and a half months later??

Because Apple is no longer in a hardware reality distortion field.
Because the MBP is a part of a Pro line, and the consumer iMacs have merom.
Because merom easily swaps in place of yonah at the same price.

I'm hopeful for the new MBP rev. They could have introduced C2D MBPs today - why didn't they? Maybe they're doing more than just a processor change, which might be why the iMacs got their update first. (Apart from the 24'' iMac, the rest of the iMac line is largely untouched.)

Do people seriously have that many songs?!!! seriously?!!!

220gb = 50,000 songs?!!!!! That is totally not necessary.

Apple discontinue that dinosaur! It makes you look bad to just have it on your website.

220GB of FLAC songs is not 50,000 songs.

Yeah. Being a guy I was raised that it comes with being a male.

Kind of sucks because none of my friends know how to drive a manual, so if my car was taken for the night no one else could drive. Ditto for long car rides.

I feel that coupes should be manual and the rest autos, except for 2 door suvs (wrangler, D90). Just my opinion.

Mmmm, Golf TDI. Cracking cars. I went for the bargain option - Golf GT TDI mechanicals in the slightly smaller Skoda Fabia. Some american friends who run older Merc diesels we had over were very surprised by the refinement and power of it.

Wikipedia (yeah I know!) have some more information on the RA420 -
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chevrolet_Cruze#Powertrains. Appears to be quite popular unit with the Far Eastern manufacturers. A little surprised Chevy/Daewoo/GM went to VM when they've got their own joint manufacturing operation with FIAT as used in the Opel/Vauxhall ranges.

This ad will never work. People want ads that make them feel like teenage boys. I know this from Android ads. Steel and lasers, Apple. Steel and lasers!

Actually that is why it does work. Because it isn't steel and lasers. If you go back and watch the ad again at least twice there were medical tech references and at least one 'learning' tech. Apple is pushing these types of things to get rid of the 'it's a toy, talk. And the folks that decide to put iPads in a hospital or a school are often older folks and zippy steel etc doesn't appeal to them

7. iMacs will get:

Core 2 Duo E6700 - 2.67 GHz (4 MiB L2, 1066 MHz FSB) and
Core 2 Duo E6600 - 2.40 GHz (4 MiB L2, 1066 MHz FSB)
Man, that sounds good! I'll take one. To take away, please. Djeez, I am so ready for a new iMac! :o

let it go about microsoft, they won, get over it. It just seems petty to hold on to some nonexistent fight for something that has already been decided. Both companies make lots of money. Just out of curiosity what industry sector do you work in because it's apparently not the IT space.
"Delightful."

This is the key word here.

Apple's priority is to delight the user. Now "delight" invokes a lot things - some emotional, tactile, things which might even be disparate.

But when you apply that priority to consumer tech, it brings together a lot of requirements to achieve this - how the device must feel; how it must look - say, on a stylish glass table or beside modern sculpture; how the UI should function; colours, fonts . . . the list goes on.

This is why Apple is so successful. They don't focus on bringing to market a competing device that ranks high on spec sheets. They simply focus on how to delight the user.

Thus, you get something like the iPad. While the competition still can't figure it out. Priorities, people . . . it's all about priorities.

Will I be able to get a reasonably priced apple laptop with merom, 802.11n, blueray burner, possibly HD, and leopard (or whatever 10.6 is called) in late 2007 or early 2008?

Well you know you'll get merom and leopard by that timeframe. Personally, I believe you'll get 802.11n and a blueray option as well - and with a blueray option should come HD as well.

Still the same
http://i989.photobucket.com/albums/af18/ssaulsbu/IMG_0984s.jpg
2.4ghz 15" MBP Late '08
iPhone 4 16GB

To each his own. But come on. 497 days worth of music? That's almost a year and a half of listening to music 24 hours a day without listening to the same song twice. I think you'd have to replace the battery before then.

You still don't get it. It is having all your music with you. The choice to play anything you feel in the mood to hear , not that you play it all from start to finish.

I could never get enticed into high end, multi-purpose glasses unless they came bundled with OS X and I could navigate through it using just my mind. :)

Especially when you take into account that all designer sunglasses and big brands like Oakley are made in the same factory in Italy...

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704518904575365362932852610.html

million = mio