What's wrong with Apple products?

[pipTheGeek]

My vague dislike of Apple started way back when I was doing a GCSE math project. To set the scene a little, at school we had a room full of Acorn A3000 computers. All of which were running RISC OS 2. I was visiting my mum over the holdidays and had this project to do. I used her BBC B to run some simulations rather than hand calculating stuff that the less geeky in my class had to do. (I think I was the only programmer in my maths class at this time). I then had to type it up on their Mac. Can't remember what it was but it was back before they discovered colour. I found it much less easy to use than RISC OS, and just couldn't understand why you would spend so much money on something that had no advantage. (I should mention that I still think RISC OS 3 is the easiest to use OS I have ever used, I really liked its inter-application transfer mechanism)
I'm also a little backwards with regards to what a PC should look like. I prefer a box, and a monitor. I'm not a fan of the recent Mac designs that I have seen, although I don't really follow them because I could never afford one.
I agree that the iPhone and iPod are very nice devices to use but they are too expensive for me. Also, I don't like following any sort of fashion, so the fact they are popular puts me off. Last time I owned anything popular was when I had a 3310.
I do however use iTunes at home. Not to buy music because I object to the DRM, but just as a media player. This is mostly because I like apps that follow the conventions of a windows app, ie it should have menus! And none of the other media playing apps that I have found manage that. I do mildly object to the fact that iTunes has an iPod helper service running that I feel I shouldn't need, nor do I need all the iPhone management code that is in iTunes, but hey, it still sucks less than WMP.

Sorry everyone, turned into a bit of a rant. Basically I don't like Apple
1) because their products give me nothing extra but charge more
2) I like to be different, and that isn't possible with Apple. If they release something that is a huge flop then I might buy it.

[Bluecube]

Personally, I think the PC vs Mac fanboy-ism is hilarious on both sides.

The only real reason people hate Apple is shockingly; the same reason they hate Microsoft. Because they're big and someone else likes them.

Selective quoting I think this is an excellent summary of the situation!

One of the reasons I started this thread was because I've found myself gravitating towards Apple products recently. I've had a Macbook for some years now, signed up for an iPhone a few months back and am waiting for the expected i5/i7 update to the Macbook Pros before I lease one of them. I'm not sure why I'm heading to Apple totalitarianism but I think it's down to the fact that I really like the way Apple products work. They do everything I want without any fuss or tantrums and they do it with a certain degree of style... I know they're overpriced (especially the PC range) but I don't give a monkeys. To me Macbook Pros especially are the sheer peak of coolness and style and OSX is just fabby!

Of course, I could change my mind tomorrow cause I sure as hell ain't no fanboi.

[TooNice]

Also, I don't like following any sort of fashion, so the fact they are popular puts me off. Last time I owned anything popular was when I had a 3310.

Don't you see the irony with that point of view though? By allowing the 'popularity' of a device affect your judgement, you still end up a fashion 'victim' because it is still influencing what you buy (by influencing what you won't buy). Furthermore, I wouldn't call the number of people who tend to go against what's popular as 'small', and I would even consider a 'fashion' by itself: it may be more popular to buy popular products unconditionally, but it is also very popular to avoid popular products unconditionally.

Still, what do you mean by menu (regarding iTune)? Do you mean File, Edit, View and so on?

[Fraz]

I certainly don't hate Apple. I hate the puritanical, card-carrying, fully-indoctrinated Apple fanboys though.

Things I dislike about Apple are:

1) rubbishrubbishrubbishrubbishy adverts
2) Overpriced - especially for upgrades
3) Software that really isn't as perfect as they'd like you to think
4) Sometimes the lack of customisability - you must do as we say!
5) I'll never forgive them for the mighty mouse, one of the worst (in every single way) yet most expensive mice imaginable.

They do make excellent and reliable work machines though, particularly the macbook pros which are built like tanks.

[Mike Fishcake]

The only real reason people hate Apple is shockingly; the same reason they hate Microsoft. Because they're big and someone else likes them.

Exactly. Forum argument fodder

I don't get why some people get really arsey about OMG TEH MONEY MAKARS and defensive about what are essentially large international companies who are ALL in it to make a profit. Apple, Microsoft, Intel, AMD - not exactly beardy socialist fairtrade workers' cooperatives, are they?

I like Windows 7. It just works. I like my iPod touch. It just works. I couldn't care less who they were made by.

[Honest]

There is defiantly an over the top anti-apple bias here. tbh i used to suffer from it too, cooing about my Touch HD and sticking the boot into apple for any reason

well the whole mobile industry moved on when the iphone came out (even WM will be later this year!) I need to get a new phone and ended up with a iphone. If you jailbreak it its a great phone not just for the masses but for people who like tech as well.

Now there are many reasons I still dont like apple but im not so over the top like some childish comments on this thread anymore. I mean really, is this meant to be a joke?

If you are happy with a fashion device that makes phone calls and has some crappy games on that you want to waste your life playing then I agree, it works, get an iphone

The point is that most people who rant and rave about how good an iphone is vs any wm or android usually haven't used an wm or android phone... It's not just hexus that recognises this, pretty much the whole informed online community, only the uninformed/sheep buy iphones

Well working in the IT industry, like many professionals I read pcpro lets have a look at what they say about the iphone;

Verdict
Not a revolutionary upgrade, but one that finally makes the iPhone the smartphone to own

http://www.pcpro.co.uk/reviews/smart...ple-iphone-3gs

They A list the phone in a group test against every other smart phone.

Or why not have a look at anandtech.com, where they go into more tech detail than any other review site ive seen. They rate both the iphone and macbook really highly (indeed the guy who runs the site has both i believe)

If the comment was meant to be a joke i do apologise

[TheAnimus]

The problem I have with mac users is easy to simplify.

I find it hard to explain to many non techie people what my job is, I don't work in IT (thou I'm considering the easy life atm!) I implement and advise on high performance trading platforms, and general front office infrastructure.

The easiest way to explain it, and has often been done by my friends "some kind of technology geek". The problem is most apple users will then say "oh you must use apple".

This is what gets me, no one who owned a piece of computing perfection like a sony P series vaio would ever dream of saying "oh you must use sony stuff"......

Something has gone VERY wrong in the minds of many of the apple loving. People like Hex get miffed with me because my idea of server farms and his don't line up at all, I might seam like some kind of windows numpty to him because 90% of what I do is on the MS platform right now, and strangely that 10% that isn't is far more costly, to the point in my last role I was advising removing it! The difference is I would never blindly say to someone "oh you must like windows then?" or "oh you must think .Net is awesome"....

So thats the apple fanboies, then there is the firm.

Look at the iPad it does nothing well, the screen is very low quality, you don't want it for viewing films, ebooks the battary life is to short..... Yet people are been told they want it before its out. Tech blogs where slating the HP offering before the apple one had even been announced.

The way apple control the press surrounding their stuff pisses me right off.

[Fraz]

the screen is very low quality

That's probably the only very wrong thing you've just said. It's nice to see an IPS panel on something like this. Admittedly, it could probably be a slightly higher res? Maybe not. One thing I'm fairly sure of though is that the screen is quite good.

[JPreston]

I don't like Apple because I associate the brand with ergonomically nice but underpowered and overpriced tat that is marketed at technologically-illiterate posers and meejah students. It's the over-pricing that mainly irritates me. Companies like Asus and Acer do a good job at making products that are appealing and accessible to normal folk at fair prices. £700 for an ipad? Ridiculous

I'm no fan of microsoft particularly but when you look at (say) the smartphone market objectively you'd have to start with a very peculiar outlook to conclude that the single Apple offering is a better buy than any of the offerings from HTC, Samsung, LG etc.

[kalniel]

That's probably the only very wrong thing you've just said. It's nice to see an IPS panel on something like this. Admittedly, it could probably be a slightly higher res? Maybe not. One thing I'm fairly sure of though is that the screen is quite good.

It might be nice compared to full sized cheap TN monitors, but portable devices are moving on to OLED displays now that look a lot nicer than IPS LCD.

[shaithis]

I don't hate Apple but I do hate Macs.....with a passion.

I wouldn't be without my iPod and if I wasn't used to having 120GB of music with me all the time, I would have probably bought an iPhone by now (went with a far cheaper Android phone instead and kept my portable music separate)...

But the Macs are overpriced PCs, hell, they even come with bootcamp so you can run Windows natively on them.....Why? Because these overpriced PCs will not run a huge amount of software out there and you have to buy a copy of Windows to load onto our over-priced PC to use all that software.......oh, and that's before we start talking about the limited hardware choices available for this silly price tag.......


Sorry to any Mac users but you must be dumb to pay extra to have your hands tied (IMHO of course )

[Mike Fishcake]

Sheesh... and people complain about smug Apple users...

[Syllopsium]

My considered opinion is that Microsoft don't always treat their customers well, but Apple care even less..

Apple are basically a hardware company. Microsoft are a software company. Apple are particularly quick to bury criticism of their product and stick to a ridiculous company line, even in the face of significant evidence to the contrary.

PowerPC owners? Dropped like a hot potato.. Intel Mac owners may have decent backwards compatibility, but any of the user base who decided not to buy new hardware quickly found itself out of the loop. OS X Tiger is less than five years old, and already completely unsupported (including security fixes). Windows? Supported for at least ten years..

I'm not sure I believe the hardware is that wonderful, either, with one exception : the Mac Pro.

The Mac Pro is expensive, but for what it is actually pretty good value for money (provided you buy third party memory). It is of course another issue why apple don't ship a reasonably mid tower which doesn't use laptop components, like the iMac and Mac Mini do.

PK

[TooNice]

Windows? Supported for at least ten years..

Windows ME lasted less than 6 years.
Windows 98 lasted 8 years.
Windows 95 lasted just under 6.5 years.

Windows 2000 and XP may well be the exception (3.1 can be rounded is close too I suppose), mainstream support for Vista will end in April 2012, meaning less than under 5.5 years. And unlike XP or even 2000, I don't expect an extension.

Mind you, it is still better than 5 years, I can go with that.

[Fraz]

It might be nice compared to full sized cheap TN monitors, but portable devices are moving on to OLED displays now that look a lot nicer than IPS LCD.

Some people are never happy...

Seriously though, do you *really* expect a 10" OLED screen on a device in this price bracket? Maybe I'm out of touch OLED screen prices, but I think you're being just a tad unreasonable...

[Syllopsium]

Windows ME lasted less than 6 years.
Windows 98 lasted 8 years.
Windows 95 lasted just under 6.5 years.

Windows 2000 and XP may well be the exception (3.1 can be rounded is close too I suppose), mainstream support for Vista will end in April 2012, meaning less than under 5.5 years. And unlike XP or even 2000, I don't expect an extension.

Mind you, it is still better than 5 years, I can go with that.

I'll grant you the non NT based OS figures you quote are accurate.

Vista is supported until 2017 (security fixes only for several years), XP till 2014, Windows 7 till 2020.

PK