IreneW

rmoo said:

This is just a pique of nationalist pride. The U.K. had no problem with a Japanese company buying ARM and similarly would not have cared were it a Taiwanese, Canadian, Australian, South Korean, German etc. company. No, just as long as the bloody yanks don't get their filthy paws on it they are fine. It was only when Nvidia made a bid for the company that one of ARM's founders and a bunch of other people claimed "it is imperative that we not allow the U.K.'s most prominent tech company to leave our shores." Except they already did that when Softbank bought it. 

Fine, go ahead. Block the deal. But I hope they realize that when that happens, no one else is going to rise up and buy ARM for anywhere near what Nvidia is paying. Intel and AMD don't need Nvidia. Google and Microsoft are not hardware companies. Apple has their own IP and now Qualcomm does too (Nuvia). MediaTek and the rest are simply content to license Nvidia's mediocre IP ... they don't need to pay $40 billion for the cow when they can get the milk for licensing fees. 

When ARM's original co-founder tried to raise the money to come up with a competitive counteroffer to Nvidia, he didn't come anywhere close. He just slinked away. Well here is the deal: RISC-V is going to put that company out of business soon anyway. Right now RISC-V's two biggest problems are a lack of big money backers and a limited instruction set. Even with those issues, the latest RISC-V cores perform at about the same level as ARM's Cortex-A78. There is also already a C++ compiler for RISC-V and work to port Java (OpenJDK) to RISC-V is well underway, as well as work to get Javascript working on it also. When RISC-V becomes viable, all of the major companies will be able to use it to design much better CPUs and GPUs than are possible with ARM Holdings' Cortex-A, Cortex-X and Mali. And the value of ARM Holdings will plummet.

So go ahead U.K. Have your fun with your temper tantrum over the inability of EU countries - current and former - to create a tech sector that is competitive with the United States, Japan, and even smaller countries like South Korea and Taiwan. Ah, the economic benefits of socialism! By doing this you are actually preventing Nvidia from wasting $40 billion.  

slurpy said:

This judge seems like a moron. 

tmay said:

IreneW said:

AppleZulu said:

Of course, the bottom line remains: Apple leadership has said repeatedly over the years that they're not interested in making a hybrid 2-in-1, so that's the answer.  Nope.

Well, to be fair, they actually made a 2-in-1 when the iPad got a keyboard and cursor. It is just a quite crippled 2-in-1, as it lacks a few basic functions and key applications.
That being said, I agree with the original premise that using a horizontal touch screen, far away behind a keyboard, is really poor UX and bad ergonomics. However, that is not how most people use these devices, they tend to flip between the input modes (just like with an iPad).
One of my laptops at work is a cheap Asus convertible, and i have to say it works perfectly fine both as a tablet for presentations, drawing (and content consumption), and as a developer tool with third party peripherals and extra screens.

Well, to be fair, they actually made a 2-in-1 when the iPad got a keyboard and cursor. It is just a quite crippled 2-in-1, as it lacks a few basic functions and key applications.

Your statement isn't accurate and is in fact, quite disingenuous. 

Apple sells an accessory that gives some of the capability of a 2 in 1, ie, keyboard input, and touchpad cursor, though Apple does not call that a 2 in 1.


For Fuck Sake...

"One of my laptops at work is a cheap Asus convertible, and I have to say it works perfectly fine both as a tablet for presentations, drawing (and content consumption), and as a developer tool with third party peripherals and extra screens."

You just murdered your argument, since you are in fact using multiple devices anyway. Wasn't the 2 in 1 supposed to eliminate those extra devices, and still retain productivity?

Perhaps you want the 2 in 1 only when you require some mobility, or maybe some other limited role for 2 in1's...you know, like the "crippled" iPad with its accessory keyboard that people seem to go everywhere with.

AppleZulu said:

Of course, the bottom line remains: Apple leadership has said repeatedly over the years that they're not interested in making a hybrid 2-in-1, so that's the answer.  Nope.