Apple is, quite literally, creating a hoard of mindless idiots

Hate Jobs.

Loves the Woz

 

Xerox and that guy who sold Gates the OS that became MS-DOS have got to be the biggest losers of the early personal computer era.

 

Back in university before the hardcore Iphone zealots appeared Mac people were still pretty damn scary.
The amount of times I was told that Photoshop on a PC is a pale imitation of how great it is on a mac, no reasons it was just "so much better" which when you're talking about a programme which was the same on both is impressive.

Their branding and customer loyalty is something beyond belief, I have not the foggiest how they manage it, I'm none too keen on a mac's desktop interface but I will give them that the Iphone interface is quite lovely for 90% of people unless they're doing something a bit more technical. But I find it worrying how I used to work with someone who had an iphone 3, sold it, bought an iphone 3s, sold it, bought an iphone 4 day 1 release off contract for £750.
And who has owned each Ipad and has an apple desktop and laptop at home, if the guy had money to burn I may understand but he was not getting much, its just he would happily spent most of his money on apple. This wasn't even someone who was the usual brand following fashion victim.

The amount of people I know who are planning to get the Iphone5 on day 1 (despite not knowing anything about it) is worrying too.
The way they open new shops with an almost american evangelical parade freaks me out too.

One of my friends once went to a group interview for a job at the apple store and the 1st question asked was.
"We'll go around the room and everyone please tell us how apple has helped enrich your life."
Their attach rate and fanbase isn't that of a brand but a cult.

 

I don't understand all that hate towards Apple, phones were slightly boring before the iPhone, all those promises around 3G services and applications they made it happen before anyone else in a usable form, all the tablets were an utter joke before the iPad, Apple's prime ability is take technologies, make them usable and make them desirable. Woz is nothing more than noise nowadays he comes out once in a while out of his hole and does his little catwalk and goes. Jobs was who he was but there were 1000s of people behind him to make products happen and they are still there.

I use Windows, Linux sometimes and of course Apple love it or hate, closed or open, Apple stuffs works for me well. There are choices, make yours according to what you like. If people get into a sort of cult around Apple then that's sad, camping outside of a store to get an iphone or an ipad that's very sad too. All my mates back home are all about Android, hate Apple, I hardly give a toss, you like Android, that's great, I think it's a cracking platform, but I don't get into a feud about Google. There are more important things in life than that, it's not about the product, technology, it's a about what you make of it, the rest is noise.

 

Summary of why i don't buy apple:

Apple entry MacBook (1799$): http://store.apple.com/us/configure/MD103LL/A?
Slightly better pc (1099$ if you upgrade the cpu to MacBook's one): http://www.sagernotebook.com/index.php?page=product_customed&model_name=NP6350

 

I always say I'd love to own an apple if somebody would sell a current one one to me for the price I can upgrade my PC. Just this summer I moved from a dual core 3200 Ghz with 6GB of RAM to an octal core 3600Ghz with 8GB of RAM. Motherboard CPU and RAM totaled about $350. Since Apple, and their proprietary progeny, won't let me do this I have no interest in moving over.

However much better Apple's mainstay media editing software may be just doesn't seem like it is worth paying such a huge markup.

 

Apple isn't all proprietary. They just make it hard for you to upgrade.
The iMacs, all of them since intel in 2006 have had upgradable processors (minus the 17")
The Mac Pro has upgradable processors, RAM and graphics cards. With a 10.7.2 upgrade, a GTX 570 can be used with little modification

But the new iMac's processors are impossible to get to, and you void your warranty. The graphics cards are upgradable too, but they're MxM and proprietary Mac EFI versions.

 

The new airs have ram soldered directly to the board

 

I can't force myself to be interested in these fan wars. I use a Macbook and I think it's a good computer - it does what I want it to do, it's realiable, it costs a lot but I can also sell it for more... what else would I want? I'd rather invest some more money and have less trouble, saves nerves and time and makes my life easier. I had been a Windows user for about 10 years when I decided to change and even though there are some things that annoy me about Apple's system, it's still nothing compared to Windows. Maybe Windows got better now (I changed from XP to OSX), but I don't bother trying it. Apple is ok.

 

It's just Blast Processing all over again.

 

LOL!!!

 

As you mentioned, it's the cult - that whole fanboyism, and the ridiculous price - basically treating a computer device as a fashion accessory. Sure, that's how they're where they are today, but it sucks. Still, I hate their attitude the most.

What really gets me is that everyone paints Apple and the two Steves as saints and innovators, which isn't always true.

Woz and Jobs were phreakers. They built blue boxes and made long distance calls, which allowed the user to route calls (for which you'd usually need the help of an operator) and make free calls.

Two years after Apple Computer was set up, Apple Corps filed a lawsuit against them, having used the Apple name and logo for 10 years by then as a trademark. Three years later, Apple Corps won. Apple Corps agreed not to enter the computer business and Apple Computer agreed not to enter the music business.

5 years later, Apple Computer forgot about this, adding MIDI capabilities to the Apple II. Apple Corps sued, and won.

5 years after that, they were sued again, and the terms were made very clear - Apple Corps sells music, Apple Computer sells devices that may be able to play music, but not music.

And then, 12 years later, iTunes Store was released - Apple selling music! So Apple Corps sued.... AND LOST!! WTF is that all about?!?!

Microsoft were said to have 'stolen' the idea for Windows from Apple, although Apple basically lost the lawsuit. However, Jobs had sneaked a peek at Xerox's GUI before making his own!

And now, Apple have sued Samsung for copying the iPhone! Umm, what?! Surely they should be taking Google to court, too? After all, it's their OS! And what about HTC and all the other companies that use Android?! But no... apparently it's just Samsung! And more to the point, it's over completely pathetic things - like the way you scroll down the page (WTF?) and particularly the way the page bounces at the end! AND THEY WON!!!

The iPod was NOT the first MP3 player. It was just one that took off. The Diamond Rio PMP300 came out 3 years before the iPod, and it was Diamond who were sued by the RIAA, who were worried about the implications of such a device. Oh, and let's look at the layout - kinda familiar, no?



The iPhone was NOT the first touchscreen phone. Or the first smartphone. Or the first phone to play music and/or video. In fact, the IBM Simon was a touchscreen smartphone with e-mail, fax and pager facilities and applications such as a diary, clock and notepad... and it was released 13 years before the iPhone! Again, it's just one model that happened to do well.

And, of course, the iPad was NOT the first tablet computer!

So yeah, Apple were innovative... a long time ago. They struggled... and then they released the iPod. And somehow, everyone went mad for this overpriced device. Basically, it was good marketing from Apple - their ability to create hype for some overpriced designer product. There were better products out there with more attractive prices, but the sheep went with the flock.

In a nutshell, what pisses me off about Apple is their arrogance. They stole ideas and got away with it... then sue people for doing the same to them! They deliberately went around an order not to sell music... and got away with it! And they produce overpriced crap, market it as some amazing designer item... and get away with it!!

 

I was referencing this story:

http://www.folklore.org/StoryView.py?project=Macintosh&story=PC_Board_Esthetics.txt&characters=Steve%20Jobs&sortOrder=Sort%20by%20Date&detail=high&showcomments=1

 

Well explained sir!

 

Fanboyism is stupid no matter what company it's about. I like Apple products, but I don't worship them, and I don't claim that they're perfect or that no other product even comes close. I'm even willing to agree that some Apple products are overpriced. Personally I'm willing to pay that price because of what they offer (Mac OS X, mainly), but I can understand why others might not. Also, if it were possible to install Mac OS X or iOS on non-Apple devices (legally and officially), I would probably never buy Apple hardware again.

 

Apple didn't invent:

The personal computer, many non existent companies sold kits to build you own personal computer. Heck the Apple I was demonstrated at trade shows along with other kits.

The GUI, Xerox and it's Alto computers was the first. Steve jobs said himself he took the idea from Xerox (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wdrKWArr3XY&feature=related).

The MP3 Player, Diamond Rio was the first, followed maybe by Creative Labs first MP3 player.

The Smartphone, IBM, Nokia, Palm, HP, RIM, and even Microsoft all had products and operating systems prior to 2007 even with touchscreens.

The Tablet, there are several touchscreen devices running Windows XP Table PC edition that were produced in 2002, and they probably weren't the first.


Apple was the first to make any great success on these ideas and as such many people believe that Apple did invent them. The creates a problem as some of Apple's biggest supporters (fanboy's) can get very loud. Apple itself perpetuates the issue by it's own approach to competitors and it's constant obsessive control over any possible product defects and image harm if such defect were acknowledge. Truth is I would probably own an Apple product if it weren't for these two issues.

In the grand scheme of things Apple wouldn't be were it is today without great inspiration from ideas outside of Apple. Neither would any of Apple's competitors when referencing Apple products for that matter. If any great successor of an idea is allowed to squash any competitors to a black hole for any ideas "copied" or derived ideas then we would soon run out of innovation.

 

To the OP: I think you misunderstand the meaning of the word "literally".

 

WINDOWS FOR PEN COMPUTING!!! It was a touch screen OS based on Windows 3.1, THAT wasn't even the first one.

 

Totally right, I do like the iOS very much everything runs nicely.

 

I hate Jobs for killing Flash.