November 16th, 2008

Are MacBooks starting to look like HPs?

Posted by Jason D. O'Grady @ 6:52 pm

Categories: MacBook, PC notebook

Tags: Hewlett-Packard Co., Apple MacBook, Notebooks, Hardware, Notebooks & Tablets, Jason D. O'Grady

Separated at birth?

Steve Urkel sent me the following email:

I was at a relatives house and someone saw my MacBook and said “Hey, I’ve got that HP also.” He was halfway joking, but his comment did point out a few things:

1. PowerBooks have always been very unique and immediately recognizable. But with this new design then I could see how people can easily mistake it for a plain old PC notebook. And after looking at his ‘06 HP next to my ‘08 MacBook then I’m realizing even more how ordinary the new models are.
2. In all your latest “glossy” rants, people seem to be getting defensive and missing the point because they feel it is an attack on Apple. This picture points out that the argument isn’t Apple specific because ANY machine that follows the glossy trend suffer from the glare issues.

I couldn’t agree more.

October 5th, 2006

Sony recalls notebook batteries

Posted by Jason D. O'Grady @ 9:18 am

Categories: Battery, PC notebook

Tags:

CNet News.com's Candace Lombardi reports that Sony is planning to announce a massive battery recall. Sony manufactures the rechargeable Lithium Ion batteries cells found in almost every major notebook computer sold today.

According to the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC):

The recall will encompass all possibly defective batteries, including those previously announced by manufacturers for specific notebook computers.

The Sony recall isn't expected to expand beyond notebook computer batteries.

This brings the total number of notebook batteries recalled to 7.8 million. Virtually every major notebook manufacturer has been plagued by this problem.

- Dell (4.2M) - 14 August 2006
- Apple (1.8M) - 25 August 2006
- IBM/Lenovo (526,000) - 28 September 2006
- Toshiba (830,000) - 29 September 2006
- Matsushita/Panasonic (6,000) - 05 September 2006
- Fujitsu (287,000) - 04 October 2006
- Hewlett-Packard* (135,000) 14 October 2005 and (16,000) 20 April 2006
- Hitachi (16,000) 06 October 2006 (UPDATED) 

*This is interesting because Sony and Hewlett-Packard issued a joint statement stating that "because of HP's PC system configuration, HP notebooks using Sony battery cells are not prone to overheating issues that have recently been observed."

Sony needs to be more accountable for their QA practices and re-assure consumers (and notebook manufacturers) that their batteries are safe.

September 21st, 2006

Sony rips off MacBook design

Posted by Jason D. O'Grady @ 5:00 am

Categories: MacBook, PC notebook

Tags:

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, but Sony may have taken this one a little too far. The consumer electronic giant’s latest notebook looks like a blatant ripoff of Apple’s wildly popular MacBook.

The VAIO N10-Series is for everyone who wants a practical, general purpose notebook for use at home or as a student. It represents excellent usability without frills, but – and this is key – it remains very much a VAIO at heart. One look at the clean, classic design makes that clear.

MacDailyNews posted a story about Sony’s new shockingly derivative notebooks:

We did a genuine "Grade A" double-take when we first saw the press release images. Right down to the chiclet keyboard, no less! When companies do this, it really draws attention to their lack of original ideas and their inability to innovate. See Microsoft’s Windows Vista, for example: It’s Windows XP dressed up to fool the general public that it’s "just like Apple’s Mac OS X." Now poor Sony with this OS-limited, can’t-run-Mac OS X-but-obviously-wishes-it-could, knock-off spawn of a MacBook Pro and a MacBook. 

I know that Sony designed the original PowerBook 100 for Apple, but that’s no excuse for this type of flagrant plagiarism. We’ve come to expect iPod clones from no-name hacks, but to see this from Sony is just sad. Jonathan Ive and the Apple design team must be having fits over it. Steve Jobs to legal team "Release the hounds!"

Sony’s press release and images can be found on their European site.

Do you think that Apple will/should sue?