Linked List: June 17, 2012

Sunday, 17 June 2012

Why Are Apple Laptops Becoming Harder to Take Apart? ★

Rafe Colburn:

There are a lot of tradeoffs that go into product design. When it comes to laptops, there are capabilities (display resolution, processor speed, storage space, battery life, and so on), size and weight, cost, and upgradeability. Apple seems to have gotten the impression that upgradeability is the factor that people care about the least, and I suspect that they’re right.

Exactly. Tell me how this is any different than the move away from swappable/user-serviceable batteries.

‘An Endless Drive Toward Progress’ ★

Nicole Chaves:

I’d argue that Apple’s push toward devices that are more about the human interface and less about the components is a form of a categorical imperative, a rule for acting that has no conditions or qualifications — that there is no line, there is only an endless drive towards progress: more portable devices that get the job done with less thinking about the hardware.