Spending money on Apple products...even though I hate to do it

What does this have to do with Computers & IT?

It s a rant, but not an unfamiliar one. I too find myself periodically walking into an apple store and begging them to take my money so I can walk out with some piece of hardware. Am I a Mac Fan, not really I prefer linux. Do I like Macs and Ios, yes, as a mater of fact I do. To me the biggest appeal is deep integration of all things apple, deep similarity in UI between all things apple, stability across the board, relative simplicity and relative security. As much as folks want to hate, apple does all these things very well. The fact that their hardware is distinctive, has design commonalities across the board and generally looks good is an added bonus. As I see it, when you buy apple you really aren't buying products as much as buying into a product ecosystem, and that is the big part of their appeal.

In my case, I use the mac and other apple products mainly as family hardware, that everyone in the family can use and interact with each other in the same exact playing field. My own computers however are mainly linux (I do keep a windows rig since I use that at work), which I much prefer.

Would I prefer an android tablet over an Ipad, In theory, yes, but ask me today and I would say no. The reason is that as powerful as Android tablets currently are, Android itself still feels rough around the edges and somewhat unfinished when ti comes to tablets (not so on phones). I'll wait until spring and see what Icream sandwich and the latest crop of tablets made for it bring before deciding whether to buy an Android tablet.

Well people want Apple products which is why your being forced to code for iOS devices, it's what happens in a free market. I own a Droid X love it and never looked back however I have several Mac's that I will never give up. I also have a new I7 2600K gaming PC I built with a Nvidia 580 video card, SSD drive, etc and I work in IT on Linux for the Enterprise.

You have to roll with the times and it will always change, MS/X86 was king forever not so much anymore, HP was king of of the PC world, no longer, etc, etc. Today it's "fill in the blank" in 10 years it will be "fill in the blank"

Life is too short to rant about things you can't control... Be happy you aren't in the unemployment line...

I'm right there with ya SPCS

http://androidforums.com/computers/398539-quality-powerful-laptop-must-have-within-day-two.html

I think Isthmus summed it up well too

I only just now realized that I have never purchased an actual Apple product.

Damn this is a good feeling.

JaSauders said:

I only just now realized that I have never purchased an actual Apple product.

Damn this is a good feeling.

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^^^^^^^^^^^ What he said.

And no, it's not because I don't like Apple products (I do) but because I abhor the Apple business model as well as the fanbois

I agree with johnlgalt. Apple makes some nicely designed hardware, but I despise the business model, fanbois, and Steve Jobs (stay retired you pompous prick).

I hated pushing the "puchase" button for my wife's Macbook pro, but she had to buy it for school (all of her textbooks and school materials are on it).

There is only one reason Mac is "secure". Egocentric malware writers and crackers don't want to waste their time on something that will have little impact. Now if Mac gets more popular then you can be sure OS* will start getting attacked in one way or another more frequently.

Well if you dont want to buy Apple products, feel free to buy elsewhere. You can always go with the Zune for an MP3 player and a PC based tablet, both of which will be obsolete within a year Even the Android tablets dont sell why? Because they are garbage and are overpriced. I am sure people would spend their money elsewhere if companies made something worth spending money on. As for phones, as much as I dislike the iPhone, it blazed the trail for every Android phone we are holding. No smart phone before the iPhone did the countless things they all do now, like pinch to zoom and a million other things. Apple doesnt invent things really, they take existing tech, anticipate what people will want then design and market it like no one else can. Come up with something else if you want to change that, we'll be waiting...

psychotron said:

Well if you dont want to buy Apple products, feel free to buy elsewhere. You can always go with the Zune for an MP3 player and a PC based tablet, both of which will be obsolete within a year Even the Android tablets dont sell why? Because they are garbage and are overpriced

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Thread was just fine until this. These kinds of comments from Apple fans is the ONE big reason out of many that I will never own or use Apple products.

I wonder how an MP3 player can be outdated in a year, even 3+ years? It still plays the same standard MP3s, still sounds the same, etc. It's not like I'm leasing it for a year to replace the thing annually. Maybe it's the visual aspect, possibly a color LCD or it now has a different version number on it. Hmm, am I listening to music now or watching videos on a 1" display?

psychotron, " Come up with something else if you want to change that, we'll be waiting..."

Android is that sometime else and already is a better solution. Not only that, Android provides you with the freedom of choice to do what you want with your hardware and what you want to install on it.

I guess I don't fit into the All-Things-Apple mold. There is a god.

Well the thing is, Apple doesn't have some kind of magical hold on computer tech. Windows sales still destroy Mac. I assure you that if Microsoft or HP or Toshiba etc made an amazing product the public wanted, they would buy it. Where is that product though? All they do is sit back, wait for Apple to make something and create a market for it and then try to copy it. As I said, Apple didn't invent the MP3 player, the smart phone or the tablet but they could predict when the time was right for it, created a superior product and then created a market for it everyone else tried to get in on. Where are the new tech products from these other companies I listed above? Nowhere. They are just sitting around and waiting to see what Apple does next, only to put out a clone no one will buy.

psychotron said:

Well if you dont want to buy Apple products, feel free to buy elsewhere. You can always go with the Zune for an MP3 player and a PC based tablet, both of which will be obsolete within a year Even the Android tablets dont sell why? Because they are garbage and are overpriced. I am sure people would spend their money elsewhere if companies made something worth spending money on. As for phones, as much as I dislike the iPhone, it blazed the trail for every Android phone we are holding. No smart phone before the iPhone did the countless things they all do now, like pinch to zoom and a million other things. Apple doesnt invent things really, they take existing tech, anticipate what people will want then design and market it like no one else can. Come up with something else if you want to change that, we'll be waiting...

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Before you start to glorifying apple stop and think before you post. It is all a personal preference. Phones are taking away from mp3 players, even apple once mighty ipod have slowed down. Who said Android tablets don't sell? and they are all priced around the same as the ipad depending on the size and features. As for the iphone, I have an old palm than did more than what the original iphone could do. Four years later and it still do a lot of things that the iphone just started to do. If pinch to zoom, multi-touch is all you can think of that apple has to offered, then you don't know ANDROID. Android has offered more than the iphone since the G1 to present. Yes apple make some good products but that whole apple is superior is false, they have problems just like every other manufacture.

andruoid said:

There is only one reason Mac is "secure". Egocentric malware writers and crackers don't want to waste their time on something that will have little impact. Now if Mac gets more popular then you can be sure OS* will start getting attacked in one way or another more frequently.

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Long repeated refarin but not really true since the release of Lion. Prior to that it was not true at all with regards to viruses (which are the main issue that affects Windows rigs). Malware installed in other ways (usually because users installed it themselves) is a different story. apple did use to benefit greatly from lack of malware development. however since Lion that has changed dramatically. Now security is pretty thorough. Hard disks are fuly encrypted by default and application processes are all sandboxed. The same is supposed to be true of browser processes. Some have argued that in some ways Lion is actually more secure than your average linux distro, and that is saying something.

legacy said:

I agree with johnlgalt. Apple makes some nicely designed hardware, but I despise the business model, fanbois, and Steve Jobs (stay retired you pompous prick).

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He's still listed as 'Chairman of the Board'. http://www.apple.com/pr/bios/

If it wasn't for Steve Jobs, there probably would be no Apple as we know it today. If Jobs hadn't had come back to Apple back in 1997, they would have probably gone the same way as Commodore.

Presumably Tim Cook, Philip Schiller, Johnny Ive, etc. will do a much better job than John Sculley ever did.

Isthmus said:

Long repeated refarin but not really true since the release of Lion. Prior to that it was not true at all with regards to viruses (which are the main issue that affects Windows rigs). Malware installed in other ways (usually because users installed it themselves) is a different story. apple did use to benefit greatly from lack of malware development. however since Lion that has changed dramatically. Now security is pretty thorough. Hard disks are fuly encrypted by default and application processes are all sandboxed. The same is supposed to be true of browser processes. Some have argued that in some ways Lion is actually more secure than your average linux distro, and that is saying something.

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Again, Lion is new and not everyone who has a Mac has Lion; which makes for an even smaller percentage in the market. Malicious types just aren't as interested. Software will always be crackable doesn't matter who makes it or how protected it is by levels of encryption, firewalls etc. those are mere deterrents.

Just a simple example is running an OS in virtual, it used to be safe. Rebuilding a virtual drive is easy so if something happened, just reload the disk image. Then along comes malware that will detect if the OS in question is indeed on a virtual drive, it can then possibly attack the host OS and take down the entire system or network.

Overall, no OS is safe once malicious people can make a decent impact on production or business.