• Security incident: ISF was recently accessed by intruders. Please change your password, and change it anywhere else you used it. Read more

What's so fantastic about Apple?

I *********** hate Dilbert.

Nice persecution complex, though. That's always a good look.

I'm not disparaging Mac users. Like I said, I have a machine that runs Mac OSX right here at home. I just refuse to spend my money with a company that operates like that.

Hopefully, with Steve Jobs out of the picture, they will change their market strategy.
 
I just enjoyed that particular parody of OS stereotypes. And btw I consider Apple products to be rather like modern Jags - quite nice but overpriced. And I agree with most of what you said. As it happens my HP laptops battery is dead and I need a new one and damned if I'm going to hand it over to someone in a shop that I wouldn't take as a trainee.
 
I'd like to mention Intel’s »UltraBook« initiative here:

»Ultrabook: Intel's $300 million plan to beat Apple at its own game«

Exactly one year and two days ago, I had to choose to replace my trusty 10 year old iBook G3 with a Linux-based laptop/notebook, or with a MacBook Air. My aim was long battery life, no optical or mechanical drive (i.e. SSD), good display and good keyboard. I chose the MacBook Air 13'', because none of the non-Apple alternatives came even close.

If I had to choose again now, after one year and with the Ultrabook initiative in progress, I might be able to switch to Linux. But all my work would be still ahead of me: which Ultrabook model is best supported by the existing Linux drivers, which comes without optical drive etc.?

Further, I just like Apple's near-perfect power management, the BSD layer (which allows me to work just as I would with Linux), the pre-installed Oxford dictionary/thesaurus, the fonts and their Quartz rendering I'd be missing elsewhere (ClearType and FreeType, meh).

While the MacBook Air is my 4th Mac (the first three, while slow, still work, they just won't break), I'd never buy iPods, iPads or iPhones due to the restrictive policies that Apple, a US-based corporation, wants to dictate even to European customers.
 
TheL8Elvis said:
From your link:
"Android smartphones on AT&T do not have the option to allow non-Market apps to be installed. "

Thanks for proving me wrong ?

I agree, there is no point in continuing to go around and around.
Click to expand...

Your claim was "The majority of them are locked to the market.". Is AT&T now "The majority"?

Also, the line right after the one you quoted is "That's not to say they can't be installed, it's just that AT&T doesn't want you to have the potential security issue of allowing non-market apps."

It then goes on to show you how to very easily install non-market apps.
 
Lamuella said:
Your claim was "The majority of them are locked to the market.". Is AT&T now "The majority"?
Click to expand...

No, it's not. But, let's go back a little further, the original claim was that you could sideload via sd card on android and that it wasn't locked. Both carriers and manufacturers do this. I can go try to track down exactly how many and see if we can get > 51 % ... I think I probably can. At any rate, apple is not alone in doing it, and I don't buy the argument that any company doing it makes a them 'anti-consumer'.

Lamuella said:
Also, the line right after the one you quoted is "That's not to say they can't be installed, it's just that AT&T doesn't want you to have the potential security issue of allowing non-market apps."

It then goes on to show you how to very easily install non-market apps.
Click to expand...

Right, and it's simple to jailbreak an iphone and install non-app store apps. And really easy to not pay for any apps and install them all for free. But no doubt apples motivating factor was to f*** over consumers. And of course, on the iphone, they can do anything they want, because the carriers have absolutely no say on what phones are allowed on their network, right ? The issues are so much complex than 'apple limits your freedom with the app store therefor they are bad.'

And, you can actually compile and install anything you want on your phone. Apple is only limiting your distribution through the app store by blocking unsigned pre-compiled binaries. If you want to write a program that does whatever you want and install it on your apple iphone or ipod touch, you can. And you can get your friends UUID and then he can install it as well.
 
/\/\arko said:
Exactly one year and two days ago, I had to choose to replace my trusty 10 year old iBook G3 with a Linux-based laptop/notebook, or with a MacBook Air. My aim was long battery life, no optical or mechanical drive (i.e. SSD), good display and good keyboard. I chose the MacBook Air 13'', because none of the non-Apple alternatives came even close.

If I had to choose again now, after one year and with the Ultrabook initiative in progress, I might be able to switch to Linux.
Click to expand...

I don't understand, if you want a Linux OS, why not just install Linux on your MacBook? Try booting it from a USB flash drive with Puppy Linux (or any other Linux distribution designed to run off a USB flash drive) installed to see if it works.

Can you boot a MacBook from USB?

TheL8Elvis said:
At any rate, apple is not alone in doing it, and I don't buy the argument that any company doing it makes a them 'anti-consumer'.
Click to expand...

I don't think anybody is claiming that any of Apple's "restrictive" business practices are unique to apple. As far as I can tell, the argument is simply that apple employs these practices to a far greater extent than most other businesses.
 
Last edited:
TheL8Elvis said:
No, it's not. But, let's go back a little further, the original claim was that you could sideload via sd card on android and that it wasn't locked. Both carriers and manufacturers do this. I can go try to track down exactly how many and see if we can get > 51 % ... I think I probably can. At any rate, apple is not alone in doing it, and I don't buy the argument that any company doing it makes a them 'anti-consumer'.
Click to expand...

You might want to step back and take a deep breath and rationally compare who has done what e.g. carriers versus manufacturers. I think you may be letting your emotions run away with you in this thread.
 
So, if forcing you to get all of your software through the Apple Store is such a great idea, why don't they do that for their desktops? No more downloading software from websites; now, you have to get it all from the Apple Store. No worrying about malware or viruses!

I am sure that the MacOS users would appreciate this "convenience".
 
Apple's success derives from equal parts design/innovation, clever marketing and proprietary architecture that feeds a cultlike following. I've owned and/or otherwise used their computers for my work for years, and beyond ease of use - which can't be dismissed - I've never understood the slavish devotion.

r.e. the PowerMac/PowerPC: not bad machines really, if you worked in a hybrid office like I did.
 
Brian-M said:
I don't understand, if you want a Linux OS, why not just install Linux on your MacBook? Try booting it from a USB flash drive with Puppy Linux (or any other Linux distribution designed to run off a USB flash drive) installed to see if it works.
Click to expand...
I haven't tried it myself, but google suggests it is not trivial, though perhaps in the last few months they have ironed much of it out. There are kernel patches, and a lot of settings that took people quite a while to figure out and to script into a fairly easy installation. Thunderbolt is still not working (no support whatsoever), and people are having wonky issues with the trackpad, displays, and keyboard. Probably in 6 months to a year this will be a perfect suggestion.

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/MacBookAir4-2
 
CynicalSkeptic said:
How did you feel about Objective C? I've done nothing more than a Hello World app for each platform, and I was totally turned off by Objective C.
Click to expand...

I found it weird. After learning to do memory management all over again, I found it acceptable. The version of XCode I started with wasn't smart about how to add [ for you automatically, which was really annoying. The newer versions are smarter about that, which helps.

After learning how the NS library code is structured, it got easier as well. I prefer plain C++, but I like Obj-C better than C#.
 
While I think Apple makes some good boxes, and they're not as overpriced as they used to be, I do agree they seem to be trying to lead the pack in draconian control measures.

For example, it looks like they want a cut of every penny you make off any publication created with their iBooks Author software.

http://www.zdnet.com/blog/bott/appl...ense-agreement/4360?tag=content;siu-container

Now granted, this is free software and their obvious goal is to get books that they can sell through their store. And, obviously, no one has to use it. I suppose you could look at the software not as ebook publishing software, but instead as simply the required software to put a book on Apple's store.

But still, to me this does seem a little over the top.

Personally, I'm not that wild about OSX, I gave the Mac laptop I had to my daughter, and I use Windows 7. But honestly, there's really not much difference in functionality or reliability that I can tell. Of the 100 or so computers I'm tasked with supporting on a daily basis, 3 or 4 are Macs, and I've had about the same number of hardware and software problems with them as with the windows boxes.

Viruses are the one thing I don't get on the Macs, but I don't get those on the Windows 7 boxes either, only on the older Win XP units.
 
KwamiFabu said:
Apple's success derives from equal parts design/innovation, clever marketing and proprietary architecture that feeds a cultlike following. I've owned and/or otherwise used their computers for my work for years, and beyond ease of use - which can't be dismissed - I've never understood the slavish devotion.

r.e. the PowerMac/PowerPC: not bad machines really, if you worked in a hybrid office like I did.
Click to expand...

To be fair, though, OSX is as difficult and frustrating for me to use as Win7 is to someone who's never used it. And I grew up on Macs.

I find that OSX is less intuitive: I like that the symbols in the upper right hand corner of my window illustrate what the button does, not just different colored circles; I like that when I close a program on my Windows computer that it actually closes the program, etc.

OSX is certainly not more "user-friendly" it's just less able for someone to get into and screw around with. Not to say that a Win7 box can't be setup the same way (see: permissions), but that's also very restricting on the user who doesn't need those hard-coded controls.
 
JimOfAllTrades said:
While I think Apple makes some good boxes, and they're not as overpriced as they used to be, I do agree they seem to be trying to lead the pack in draconian control measures.

For example, it looks like they want a cut of every penny you make off any publication created with their iBooks Author software.

http://www.zdnet.com/blog/bott/appl...ense-agreement/4360?tag=content;siu-container

Now granted, this is free software and their obvious goal is to get books that they can sell through their store. And, obviously, no one has to use it. I suppose you could look at the software not as ebook publishing software, but instead as simply the required software to put a book on Apple's store.

But still, to me this does seem a little over the top.
Click to expand...

I cannot believe the uproar about this. If you use Apple's software to format the book, you're sure it will work on their devices, and they don't charge you for the software. Then, they ask a mere 30% cut in exchange for making the book available to every iOS device on the planet.

They don't even prevent you from publishing elsewhere, you just can't use the version formatted with their software. Why is this so bad, especially since the software is offered free of charge?!?

I think it's a fair deal that makes the barrier to entry for publishing with them very low.
 
Almo said:
I cannot believe the uproar about this. If you use Apple's software to format the book, you're sure it will work on their devices, and they don't charge you for the software. Then, they ask a mere 30% cut in exchange for making the book available to every iOS device on the planet.

They don't even prevent you from publishing elsewhere, you just can't use the version formatted with their software. Why is this so bad, especially since the software is offered free of charge?!?

I think it's a fair deal that makes the barrier to entry for publishing with them very low.
Click to expand...

"A mere 30%"? For using what is essentially a jumped-up word processor?

Plus, that's not "a mere 30% cut in exchange for making the book available to every iOS device on the planet" as there's no guarantee they will sell your book at the end of the process. If they do choose not to sell it, then the only thing you can extract from the work and use elsewhere is plaintext.

I'm a writer. I don't think there's a power on earth that could get me to use this authoring software.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Share this page

ISF - Join now!

Every member here is approved by hand. No bots, no spam, just people who care about evidence and honest debate.

Membership is free!

Create your free account

Back
Top Bottom