Irony(?): it's priced high relative to "professional" pure-play drawing apps like SketchPad and Brushes, but by omitting needless features like color and brush controls and adding the one feature of collaborative diagramming, it's probably going to be more valuable to me than either of those other apps, which I mostly use to goof around with my daughter.
I think it's debatable whether colors and brush controls in a sketching app are "needless" even though they may be needless for 37signals very narrow internal use case.
actually I know you were having a laugh - even commented with the rest of the guys here how I found your answer funny. Fact is, however (and I'm sure you know this), quite a bunch of people take that as arrogance.
Personally, I don't care - I agree with your policy on doing less (if your vision is in fact to do less with a product). The fact that some consider it arrogance (as I was alluding to) doesn't mean I do.
(your downvote on my comment was not necessary, but this explanation of my comment might have been. Apologies for the misunderstanding, if there was one)
Erm. I'm not sure exactly what Apple hardware you think is incredibly simple, but having recently looked at Mac vs. Wintel laptops, I can assure you that the Mac laptops are incomparably better engineered.
Personally, I use computers for many, many hours per day, and the little things really add up. Maybe you don't care about that, and you just want the right CPU and hard drive. If that's the case, more power to you.
I hate Apple on principle (1st gen purchase, 'they' mean it when 'they' say not to buy 1st gen!), but I can't seem to find anything to compete with their hardware.
As the owner of a Lenovo work horse, I'd have to respectfully disagree. It's rugged, powerful and has survived freezing weekend/overnight conditions that have damaged macbooks. If something had actually failed, I could have easily swapped it out.
I was just trying to make the point that 37Signals and Apple have a similar reality distortion field.
> Personally, I use computers for many, many hours per day, and the little things really add up. Maybe you
> don't care about that, and you just want the right CPU and hard drive. If that's the case, more power
> to you.
My MacBook has been used heavily for four years, and is going strong. The screen, keyboard, and touchpad feel great. The screen is vibrant, with a wide view-angle. The operation of the hinge, the magnetic power adapter, and the layout of the ports is good. The sound is unequaled, in my experience, in a laptop form factor.
I don't know if it survives freezing. I don't really care, though, since I use my laptop on my lap, which isn't freezing.
It sounds like you care more about edge-case exposure issues, which are relevant to you. I care more about the daily user experience.
I've read many posts slagging Apple for overpricing, but when I examine the components, it's as good a deal as any. For example, most cut-rate Wintel laptops have utterly crap screens, something you don't know until you use a better one, and yes, I know Lenovos are [were?] said to use some good ones.
I think the price also reflects though that they don't actually need to sell this to anyone, it's already paid for itself in improving internal process. The people it's mainly aimed at using campfire, I'd imagine would pay for it whether it was 99 cents or $10 if it is useful in improving business process.
Adobe Ideas is free: http://blogs.adobe.com/designandweb/2010/04/adobe_ideas.html