
How Apple Does Controlled Leaks - prat
http://www.macobserver.com/tmo/article/how_apple_does_controlled_leaks/
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pohl
What's more interesting to me is how they avoid unintended leaks. I've been
told of a keycard system that knows if two different people are working on
different components of a product, and won't let them into a particular room
with each other at the same time, lest they put 2 and 2 together...like, for
example, if one person is working on a touch screen and another is working
with cell phone transmitters.

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prat
That's a very strange/sad way of working. At work, I have always known the end
product toward which I am building. I can't imagine working with so many
firewalls.

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RyanMcGreal
OTOH given Apple's track record, employees can probably just tell themselves,
"Whatever I'm working on, someone smarter than me is overseeing it. I'm sure
it will be awesome."

That's got to be more encouraging than knowing exactly what you're working on
and despairing as a result.

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algorias
If being treated like a child works for you, that's great. It doesn't for me.

If those rumours are true, Apple must be an incredibly stifling and
frustrating place to work for smart, creative people.

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Estragon

      Apple must be an incredibly stifling and frustrating place to work for smart, 
      creative people.
    

I agree. And yet, they keep producing all this innovative stuff. It's a
paradox, to me.

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wallflower
For those who missed it (I was wondering why people were now saying March):

"Apple to Ship Tablet Device in March"

[http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142405274870358090457463...](http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703580904574638630584151614.html)

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jcnnghm
It's behind a subscription wall. Do you know what the suggested pricepoint is?

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thaumaturgy
Apple's putting its toes in the water with a $1,000 price tag.

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jcnnghm
Ouch... That's about $400 more than I'd probably be willing to pay for a
decent tablet. I wonder what kind of use-cases they're envisioning.

~~~
SwellJoe
_That's about $400 more_

You could also view it as a ~$100 discount on the Mac OS X tax, if it's only
$400 more than equivalent Windows or Linux tablets. Apple laptops tend to be
about $500 more than similarly equipped laptops from other manufacturers (my
last Dell was $626 cheaper than an almost identically equipped MacBook Pro).

Of course, I don't know what Windows and Linux-based tablets are actually
going to cost, so the Mac OS X tax may be more or less on tablets. I guess
we'll see when the tablets start hitting the market in reasonable numbers.

I'm not entirely sure I see the use case for a tablet at any price...though I
have a netbook, and like it, and have a Kindle, and like it (but the insane
battery life is a primary factor for the Kindle; a tablet won't be able to
come close). So, I may figure out uses for a tablet when they're more common.

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jstevens85
I find that some people have an Aspergers-like view on laptops. If two laptops
have the same processor, HD size and RAM, then they're identical.

But of course there are other important specs like the materials used in the
construction. Alluminium is more expensive than plastic and far stronger and
sturdier. A thinner laptop is also much more expensive. It requires thinner
DVD drives and fans. Motherboard components need to be shrunk. Need to use
smaller, more expensive capacitors. A smaller, more dense battery with the
same capacity. The same core temperature with a much smaller thermal envelope.
Minimalist design. None of this is trivial and adds significantly to the cost.

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SwellJoe
It's OK.

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cmgarcia
This article shouldn't be surprising to anyone with their ear to the ground
for Apple news, but it certainly was nice to read from the former Senior
Marketing Manager for Apple.

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andrew1
A small slightly pedantic point, but that should be 'a Senior Marketing
Manager' rather than 'the Senior Marketing Manager'.

The Senior Marketing Manager is, I imagine, a very important person. A Senior
Marketing Manager is, well, a manager in the marketing department who is in
some sense 'Senior'.

~~~
blantonl
sigh... small pedantic point?

