John Albert said:
Apple manufactures serviceable and attractive products, don't get me wrong. But they also implement deliberate design decisions in their products that restrict their consumers' freedom of choice in the name of wringing every penny out of them in the form of various "Apple taxes."
IOW, you think they operate like every other company out there ??
Nope.
"Every other company out there" does
not treat their customers in such a cynical and manipulative manner. I already pointed out several of Apple's sleazy marketing tactics that are not generally used by most tech companies. But since Apple started doing it, some others have picked up on using the same kinds of contemptible tactics.
As for other companies, Sony is another one that comes to mind, that constantly tries to monopolize the market by creating its own standards and forcing everybody to pay licensing fees on them. Microsoft is another. I don't buy products from either of those companies, either.
But this thread is not about Sony or Microsoft. This thread is about
Apple.
WOW a whole $1.79 for a ipod cable ! That's highway f***ing robbery ! I wonder how much a samsung 30 pin cable
costs ?
Except they weren't $1.79 when the iPod first came out almost 11 years ago, were they? They were more like $15-20 back then.
By the way, don't think I didn't notice that you searched Amazon for the
cheapest Apple cable, and then compared that price with one of the
most expensive Samsung cables.
Either way, that Apple cable costs $1.79 that you wouldn't have had to pay at all, if Apple had designed their device to use a standard USB cable that the average computer user already has dozens of lying around the house.
At the time the iPod came out, most mp3 players used standard USB cables. The standard USB cable performs the
exact same function as the proprietary Apple cable. So why do you think Apple elected to go the extra trouble to invent their own super-special
official Apple iPod cabling? Do you think the Apple cabling is
better? Of course it isn't. They designed the thing that way just so users would be locked into paying an "Apple Tax" for special cabling for their oh-so-special iPods.
But I'm not just talking about the docking connector. There's also the absurdity that Apple's 3-conductor headphone/video plug has the wiring switched around so that any normal audio/video plug won't work; you need to buy a special Apple one for almost twice the price. That was my experience when I first bought my 5th Gen iPod, and it's still the case with the iPod Touches and iPads.
Again, what possible purpose could be served by switching around the tip-and-ring mapping of their 1/8" 3-conductor A/V jacks, if not to deliberately screw the customers out of being able to use any standard A/V cable, and making them pay extra for an Apple-licensed one instead?
Then there are the official Apple-licensed iPod automobile chargers, car stereo adapters, docking stations, etc. Of course nowadays you can get that stuff for dirt cheap behind the counter at any Osco, but all that stuff was originally very expensive when they first came out, far more expensive than your average car charger or cheap computer sound system.
Even if every one of these little items is only a few bucks more than the standard, non-Apple version would cost, that's just one way Apple nickel-and-dimes its customers to death with the "Apple Taxes."
Go to the Apple website and check out the prices on computer parts. See how much they gouge you for a standard OEM hard drive, compared to anywhere else you can buy them.
John Albert said:
- Building non-removable batteries into all their devices, prohibiting users from changing batteries as a warranty violation, and instead requiring them to submit their device for service from a licensed outlet at a premium price
Where is the outrage ? Where are the complaints ? Certainly people would stop buying the products if this were horrible ?
I, for one, already have stopped buying Apple products. The experience turned me off to Apple for what might well be the rest of my life. I also know quite a few people who feel the same way about Apple.
Most people, on the other hand, are idiots and suckers. P.T. Barnum recognized it, and so did Steve Jobs, judging by how he ran the Apple Computer Company.
Personally I think the battery issue is a red herring.
Personally, I think you need to learn the definition of "
red herring."
That issue is not a red herring. You're just calling it a "red herring" because you don't like having to admit the fact that I'm 100% correct about it.
You know what
is a red herring? Your insistent harping on all these other (non-Apple) companies, that I never even mentioned in this thread about Apple, instead of addressing the actual points I made in my post.
That's a red herring.
With any other laptop but an Apple, I can go out and buy a replacement battery if my laptop battery dies, and just swap out the battery in a matter of 2 seconds. With any other company's laptop, I can buy an extra battery in case my battery runs out while I'm on the road away from a charger. With any other company's laptop, I can order after-market batteries from 3rd-party manufacturers. Not with Apple. Why? Because they want you to ship your entire computer to them for repairs, or else take it into an Apple Store and pay another "Apple Tax" to have your laptop battery changed for you by a certified Apple "Genius."
I don't know any people IRL that carry extra batteries - AFAIK, they only exist in internet forums.
Nice
argument from incredulity there. Just because
you don't know anyone who ever carries extra batteries, that doesn't mean people don't do it, or that it's not intelligent and wise to do so.
I
always have replacement batteries for any laptop that I need to rely on for work. If you travel with your computer for work and might be away from a power source for extended periods, it's foolish not to pack extra batteries.
Certainly since removable batteries are so evil,
no other company would do that
I don't know what you mean by removable batteries being "evil." I certainly never said that. I've been arguing that replaceable batteries are a
good thing, not a bad thing.
I also don't understand what point you're trying to make with that link to a blog post about some guy's idea about Android phones.
It sounds to me like you're just going off on a rant, without even bothering to think about what you're saying.
John Albert said:
- Designing their media devices to require the use of extraneous commercial bloatware/middleware (iTunes) that asserts control over the users' own media collection and imposes Apple's marketing and advertising apparatus onto their own computer
I don't even know what to make of this ? Asserts control ? You mean organizes it for you if you check the box ?
ITunes takes over the task of organizing and categorizing the user's media library. If you use iTunes to rip a CD or download music, it automatically creates its own folders for the music to go into instead of allowing you to follow your own manner of organization. If you then move the media around to organize it however
you like it, iTunes won't be able to find it and it will mess up the entire system.
I don't know what you mean by "check the box." That was the default mode of operation for iTunes the last time I used it, about 5 years ago before I discovered RockBox.
ITunes is also terrible bloatware. My girlfriend still uses iTunes, and it is always bogging her computer down to the point where the entire machine hangs for sometimes a minute or longer. No other applications (even hogs like Premiere, AfterEffects or Maya 3D) cause that kind of a resource crisis on that machine.
ITunes is just as irritating as any website with pop-up ads. It shoves advertising in your face every time you open it. Dunno about how iTunes works on Macs, but it's a huge resource hog on Windows machines. It also leaves a number of processes running in the background, even after you close it.
You know IOS no longer requires itunes, either ?
I'm surprised to hear that iOS devices no longer require iTunes. My dad just got an iPad this past Christmas, and he spent all evening messing around in iTunes trying to get the thing all set up with all his music and all the apps he wanted.
If that is indeed true, then it's a step in the right direction for Apple. Itunes is total crapware.
Thank god google isn't ad supported and doesn't require you to have a gmail account and require you to sign up for google plus....
Who said anything about Google? This thread isn't about Google, it's about Apple. I really don't understand why you're suddenly shifting the topic from Apple to Google. You should get into the fish-canning business with all these red herrings of yours.
Anyway, it's true that you need to start a Gmail account to get the full features of Android, but there's no real requirement to use that account. The Android OS can handle non-Google email accounts as well. My Android phone does not require me to install any kind of software on my computer in order to transfer files, and it never shoves ads in my face. You don't have to sign up for Google Plus, either. I'm not on Google Plus, and my phone works just fine.
John Albert said:
- Employing destructive "synch" protocols in iTunes that can result in inexperienced users inadvertently deleting their own entire media collection from their own computer
What ? What does this even mean ? Apple is too complicated for even stupid people, but with drag and drop media you can't accidentally delete your files ?
"Apple is too complicated for even stupid people"? Where the hell did you get that from? I never said that.
I'm not a "stupid person." I'm not "computer illiterate," either. I've been using computers for over 30 years. I've used a wide variety of operating systems on a wide variety of platforms, and no, I have never had an operating system's file manager just automatically delete files from the original directory when merely dragging and dropping them from one directory to another.
The first time I used iTunes, it inadvertently deleted half my music collection off my computer hard drive with no warning, because I accidentally clicked a button to sync my library with the iPod. After a few minutes of hard-drive-crunching activity, about half my iTunes library (most of which songs had been painstakingly ripped from CDs prior to even installing iTunes) had exclamation points next to them. When I looked in the directory where they were supposed to be located, they'd disappeared—not to the trash or anything—they were just gone.
That was only my
first bad experience with that iPod. After a few incidents like that, I began to wonder why everyone was raving about how awesome Apple iPods were. I'm a fairly regular consumer of electronic gadgetry, and I have never felt the kind of buyer's remorse that I did within a month or so after that purchase. It wasn't until I installed RockBox and swore off iTunes altogether, that I started to feel a little bit better about the purchase.
John Albert said:
- Imposing poorly-conceived DRM schemes on media devices that make it difficult to recover files from the device without the use of specialized software
Unlike which media device that is DRM free ?? Not quite as good as windows
plays for sure ? Yeah, that worked out well...
Unlike
most media devices, that are DRM-free. Before the iPod came along,
all mp3 players were DRM-free, and most of them still are. I have installed RockBox on my own iPod, and now it's DRM-free as well.
Again, I didn't mention Windows. Why are you bringing up Windows in this discussion about Apple? You keep trying to deflect my criticism of Apple by mentioning all these other companies that have nothing to do with what I'm talking about.
John Albert said:
- Shoehorning users of iOS devices into relying on Apple's App Store to obtain software
Unlike android ? Sure, root your phone and sideload - just like you can jailbreak iOS and sideload.
Wrong. You don't have to root anything on an Anrdoid phone to install apps off the MicroSD card.
You can install any app you want onto an Android device, whether it's in the Android Market or not, right out of the box. Apple's iPhone is the
only smartphone that restricts users to installing applications only from its own proprietary marketplace. Not even Blackberry is
that draconian. And jailbreaking the iPhone voids the warranty.
That's is such a *stupid* criticism.
Maybe it's actually a rather smart criticism, and
you're just too stupid or short-sighted to see the wisdom of it.
No doubt most iOS users *hate* the app store and feel so *constrained*. It's such a crappy model that's why we have the android market and the amazon app store.
I didn't say an online software market is a bad model. That's another strawman argument.
I said that
restricting users of iOS devices to only obtain software from Apple's App Store is a manipulative model that limits its users' freedom of choice.
John Albert said:
- Exploiting the App Store monopoly to strong-arm developers and dictate to users what apps they can or cannot install on their phone
Again, unlike the android market ? Unlike Sony removing linux from the PS3 ? Like
MS limiting the xbox 360 playback ? Damn, why can't I install mario cart on my xbox 360 ????
Again, I never mentioned any of those other companies or platforms. Sorry, Charlie, that's another red herring!
And yes, it's totally unlike the Android Market, because the Android Market does not arbitrarily exclude apps from its repositories based on a vague set of rules, like Apple has been widely criticized for doing.
Also, Android users do not have to rely on the Android Market for their apps. I have at least 5 or 6 apps on my own phone that I installed myself without going through the Market at all.
Your argument about Mario Kart is about as asinine a strawman as I've ever seen. I never argued anything of the sort.
Seriously, I hope you don't buy RIAA music, MPAA movies, Sony, Samsung, MS, Nintendo, Motorola ... they *all* do things exactly like or analgous to what you have listed.
And yet this discussion is not about any of those companies or associations. All those arguments are red herrings.
