The Spam Thread!

[cpd2009]

I see, though we should keep the upgrade path in mind as that'll eventually reach the point of being unusable.

If you do however intend to upgrade down the line, even a sub-200 dollar boost like what I did should do the trick, i.e. an ASUS PRIME A320M-K and a 2200G. Plus you get to keep the RAM and whatnot.

Since my mom will likely be retired and no longer working by the time the old HP AIO is unusable, those interim SSD/RAM upgrades should work fine. The current RAM amount is too little, and the E1-1200's integrated GPU takes away some of the already low RAM.

I may pursue the original idea of just swapping out Pearl's dual core with a quad-core Kaby Lake. I believe I have the necessary BIOS update for Kaby Lake CPUs to run. The board doesn't support anything newer than Kaby Lake though.

https://www.gigabyte.com/Motherboard/GA-...upport-cpu

[cpd2009]

I'll tell you... it's hard not to get seduced by Apple hardware even if you know about the shady practices the company engages in. In comparison to most PC hardware (except for MS produced Surface PCs), Apple computers really look amazing from the outside. Most PC laptops feel plasticky compared to the solid aluminum builds of a MacBook. Because of this, Apple hardware can be very appealing to those who are either tired of Windows 10's occasional hiccups or want something that doesn't look like a standard PC laptop or tower.

But, Apple tries hard to prevent the end users from repairing their own Macs (and by extension independent repair shops) and how it's making upgradability all but impossible on most of their models sans the bank-breaking $6,000 Mac Pro. But as I have mentioned before, I do like macOS itself and the outer hardware is at least well built using those unibody aluminum cases. The internals are a different story as explored by Apple critics like Louis Rossman and even Apple's own design choices. Remember the "butterfly" keyboards?

Relating to my recent trip to Best Buy, I was looking at two different computers. The first was a MacBook Pro, the newest model with the old "scissor" keyboard. I'll admit the much touted LCD Touch Bar looks really cool, and the base specs were rather decent if you don't mind messing around with external storage. But then that is where the "form over function" problems come in. The newest MBPs don't have USB-A ports anymore.... only three USB-C. This means you'll need an adapter or dock for connecting standard USB flash drives or, well, anything else that uses normal USB. The battery can't be replaced by the user, and you'd better hope that the 8GB of soldered-on RAM will remain sufficient as the years go on. The MBP was around $2,000 USD at Best Buy for what I'd imagine is the base model.

I then took a look at a MS Surface Pro 7. The one they had on display contained an Intel Core i5 series CPU, 8GB RAM, and a 256GB SSD. The bundle even came with a Surface type cover. The price Best Buy wanted? $999, about half the price of the MBP. And MS' own PC hardware is well designed and looks rather great compared to standard offerings from the likes of HP and Dell.

I nearly got a Surface Pro that day, if it wasn't for my application for their 24 month financing not approved. I nearly went for the MBP, but before I jumped the gun, I went and looked at the Surface Pro and decided to go for that. I may see if I can get financing through MS' "Surface All Access" plan, but if not, either I'd have to get lucky with the casino, or start saving up little by little. I should have enough by the time the Surface Pro 8 comes out.

---

I guess what I am saying is that I can't rule out buying an Apple computer or iPad at some stage. An iPad is a more logical choice since Android tablets suffer from fragmentation and not every app is compatible with every device. There is even an app called Procreate that is only $10 and is a rather cool professional drawing program.

Then again, Autodesk has made it's Sketchbook app free of charge and you can run it on an iPad, Mac, or Windows PC.

[huckleberrypie]

Yeah, if I wanted something from Apple I'd rather build a Hackintosh. Probably not the most intuitive thing in the world but considering the bang for your buck it might be worth the effort, or at least it is for some.

[cpd2009]

TFW when you look at iPad pro models, and you forgot that Samsung has their own line of pro Android tablets.

And their tablets include the pen in the box.

https://www.samsung.com/us/mobile/tablet...60nzbaxar/

[huckleberrypie]

TFW when you look at iPad pro models, and you forgot that Samsung has their own line of pro Android tablets.

And their tablets include the pen in the box.

https://www.samsung.com/us/mobile/tablet...60nzbaxar/

And it's no wonder why Google put Android tablet support at the backburner because apparently nobody cares. Didn't help that kids have moved on to using smartphones as opposed to dedicated tablets either.

[cpd2009]

TFW when you look at iPad pro models, and you forgot that Samsung has their own line of pro Android tablets.

And their tablets include the pen in the box.

https://www.samsung.com/us/mobile/tablet...60nzbaxar/

And it's no wonder why Google put Android tablet support at the backburner because apparently nobody cares. Didn't help that kids have moved on to using smartphones as opposed to dedicated tablets either.

I kind of wish Android tablets were a bit more popular since Apple now has a de facto monopoly on tablets. And as with their Macs, the prices on the iPad Pro's are rather hefty. The Apple Pencil itself is around $100 USD. Samsung gives you the stylus with their high end tablets and they also have a microSD slot, expandable up to 1TB of storage. So if I were to finally make up my mind and choose Android or Apple, I'd go with the Android solution here. I had an older Galaxy Tab in the past, and it was wonderful.

I think another reason why Android tablets haven't caught on is the flood of poor quality tablets on the market. At discount stores, you'll find Android tablets in the sub $100 range, with the cheapest ones going for less than $50. These bargain basement tablets tend to have poor battery life and slow performance. You also have to factor in literal no-name tablets that come with free malware installed. Google Play hasn't been the best in keeping malware out of their storefront as of late either.

Because of this, there tend to be far more of these bad tablets than good ones, perhaps giving Android a bad image among professionals. The only Android tablets that come close to rivaling the iPad are the Samsung Galaxy Tabs. But I rarely see a pro-level Android tablet in the real world or being used for a multimedia task like illustration or basic video editing. It's almost always an iPad of some kind.

There's also the Amazon Fire tablets, but I don't know if these would count since the Fires are meant for media consumption over office/multimedia work.

[huckleberrypie]

Yeah, it's something of a reputation problem exacerbated by poor application support. Android was designed with phones in mind on the onset, with the tablet interface being tacked on ex post facto. At least we get to play with those cheap door stops that come with malware, right? :V

[cpd2009]

This video is from a year ago, but it shows that MS may be taking hints from Apple's playbook when it comes to their own line of pro desktop PCs. (read: soldered on hardware and difficult to upgrade storage)

But at least we can still build our own PC towers though. Just add in a nice 4K monitor, wireless keyboard and mouse, and your PC setup may look just as modern and sleek.

[cpd2009]

Recently, in a blog that I read, the author brought up Mac computers, and so I emailed him regarding my constant indecision between PC and Mac.

The author is friendly, and he is rather open minded about the whole PC vs Mac debate. He pretty much said that I should use whatever I am more comfortable with, and with that, it helped clear up my thoughts a bit and reminded me what makes a PC more important.... the ability to actually repair it when something goes wrong.

Even if I did end up getting an iMac with the absolute perfect specs that could last up to 10 years, the inability to do your own repairs is what turns me off. I'm nowhere near an Apple store or an Apple Authorized Service Provider, so if it broke down, I'd have to be without a good computer for who knows how long.

At the end of the day, there's nothing wrong with using a PC or Mac. It comes down to personal preference, and I should stick with what I am familiar with.

To that end, I will try and save money for a Galaxy Tab S6. From the reviews I have been watching on YouTube, it's probably the only Android tablet that comes close to the iPad Pro.

[cpd2009]

May as well leave this ramble here too.

Out of the various kids book illustrators I follow on Twitter and Instagram, there's only two of them that use Windows PCs. The rest use Macs. Seeing that these are mostly older people, they probably developed their brand loyalty to Apple back when Macs still used PowerPC processors. Apparently, for a while, PPC Macs did have performance advnatages over x86 CPUs. That went away when Apple switched over to Intel CPUs in 2006. Macs are fancy PCs at this stage, yet these illustrators' brand loyalty lives on.

I guess another part is familiarity. If one has used a Mac, and only a Mac, for most of their lives, switching to Windows could be very difficult if they aren't too tech literate outside of Photoshop or Illustrator. The simplicity of macOS appeals to them and if their current iMac setups work for them, why change away from what they already know? You then have to think whether or not they are aware of the various design flaws that show up in MacBooks and other Apple products. Perhaps their brand loyalty is so strong, they willingly ignore these issues and stick with Mac? If macOS is all you really know for computers, it can be hard to change to a different platform. Adobe CS is more or less the same across any platform, but as for the OS itself, getting used to Windows Explorer can be intimidating at first if you are used to Finder.

I'd say that if my parents got an iMac in 1999 instead of a Gateway PC, I'd probably be biased towards Macs. It's that Gateway PC that helped me learn about the PC platform, and eventually how the insides are put together. And seeing as how I nearly let go of Pearl before deciding against it (with my mom's approval), I'm starting to value my custom built rig much more now. I also got back my Dell 1080p monitor, which is a wonder to look at.