Why I argue against Apple products

[SoulKiss]

This originally was going into this thread.

Then it got too big, too lon, and provided too many places for derails, so I thought I would spin it off to its own thread.

So, let the rant begin...

I would like to spend a moment, before I recommend a device other than an Apple product, to re-itterate WHY I will never recommend them.

Control, pure and simple.

Apple have created a walled garden, Appleland if you will. They choose what you can do by controlling which Apps available, and what you can do with it. They lie, well dodge the truth anyway, constantly about the capabilities of their devices, either promoting features that dont work outside of the US, or saying that they are the first to do something when other people have been doing it for years (ok the previous version may not have worked quite so well, but thayt was usually due to the technical limitations of the time.

Add to this their approach to competiton, ie to sue them out of the market place if their device even looks remotely like their, and come on, all phones look a bit like each other, there is really only one design for the things - ie big screen on the front with some buttons, the point the took offence at was that the rivals little rectange had rounded corners, like their little box.

And yet their phones are good, solid, their products rarely crash and in the business world if you think someone is 'stealing' your ideas your sue to protect your business share.

I have an iphone and an andriod. The andriod is brilliant, but you can't beat the iphone for simple functionality.

No there isn't as much control and you have to do things as they are given to you, but it still works and is still a damn good phone.

The only issue I have with Apple is the cost.

The walled garden is one of the advantages - much better than the more open Android Marketplace for (many) users.

Its like Windows PCs - users break them because there is no quality control on what malware they can install. The walled garden and the way the software is written means little chance of anything malicious and badly written stuff is unlikely to cause stability issues on the device. WinPho 7 is similiar.

Could not suggest anyone buys android as its too buggy, techy and unless you bus a nexus device the software update roadmaps are awful - depends what mood the vendor is in at the time.

Used many androids, iPhones, Windows phone 5-7 and happy on iOS now, at work we are 100% Microsoft on the PCs, 50:50 iOS and WinPho7 on the smart phones.

All the big players in the mobile market seem to be patent trolling constantly.

Always fun to argue about.

[Fallout]

+1 SoulKiss. I don't hate Apple. I'm really not bothered enough by technology to let it pish me off, but the things that do annoy me a little bit are:

- The advertising campaigns. As you said, they like to 'suggest' they invented all this amazing stuff. All they've done is improved and commercialised existing concepts that were normally taken from the business sector.

- The price. They're the Audi of the computer world. They use the same components as everyone else (more or less) but sell at 50% on top.

- And they achieve this because of their branding. Somehow they have made iStuff cool, and the future, and if you don't have an iPod and an iPhone and an iPad, you're not cool, and you're behind the times. So there is a culture of fanboys/girl who swear by their apple devices, and wait in hungry anticipation of the next iPad, ready to shell out all their savings on it. When you buy an iPad, you're buying into a big fluffy corporate dream of amazing technology that will change your life. But you're not ... you're buying another type of computer, which will make you a fat geek. You've just been brainwashed by a giant corporation. iStuff is no cooler, nor more "the future" than anything else out there.

When people say to me "I might get an iPad, they look quite good", I think fair play. When people say to me "OH MY GOD. I CAN'T WAIT FOR THE NEXT IPAD. IT'LL BE AMAZING!" I want to poke them in their eyes and tell them to climb out of the corporate sphincter they don't realise they've climbed in to.

Personally, I just want ease and support. For computing I have a PC, not a Mac. For a phone I have an iPhone. It's the standard these days = lots of support, apps etc. plus the OS is the best for me.

I'm not a fan of iTunes though.

[timwilky]

It is apples restrictive practices that get me. It is my lump of technology. Why should the manufacturer tell me what I can or cannot do with it.

As a developer. I object to the hoops apple would have me jump through and what my development environment should be. Therefore I target android.

[SoulKiss]

Originally Posted by markc123

The walled garden is one of the advantages - much better than the more open Android Marketplace for (many) users.

Its like Windows PCs - users break them because there is no quality control on what malware they can install. The walled garden and the way the software is written means little chance of anything malicious and badly written stuff is unlikely to cause stability issues on the device. WinPho 7 is similiar.

Could not suggest anyone buys android as its too buggy, techy and unless you bus a nexus device the software update roadmaps are awful - depends what mood the vendor is in at the time.

Used many androids, iPhones, Windows phone 5-7 and happy on iOS now, at work we are 100% Microsoft on the PCs, 50:50 iOS and WinPho7 on the smart phones.

All the big players in the mobile market seem to be patent trolling constantly.

Always fun to argue about.

Android is too techy? Rubbish.

Yes I am a tech geek, but I cannot think of a single thing in Android that requires me to be that. I know many non-techs (my Dad for example) who are more than happy with their Android devices and dont call me to find out how to do basic stuff.

Last time he had to talk to me about it was the day he got it and he was looking for his email settings (I look after his email on my Mail server) and while I will admit that it may have been easier on Apple due to it dumbing things down, its not hard on Android, despite it using the technically correct name for things.

Yes as it gives you more options to do things, teathering for example, there are some more complex concepts to get your head around, but they are all fairly well documented and easy to understand.

Which bugs in Android have you come across, or are you just repeating what you have heard?

I have an Ipad, an android phone and a windows PC, I honestly think I have the best of both all worlds although I wouldnt mind adding a cheap netbook for running diagnostics and tuning on the bike.

You can add an external keyboard to the Ipad, either a bluetooth one or a plug in, the one thing you cant have is a mouse or trackpad which would be handy very occasionally.

[NTECUK]

Android has a cutie corporate logo and you can get it in a plush.
Nuff said

[Mr Speirs]

They are all owned by the same people now so it doesn't really matter.

Back in the day apple were very good, stable products specifically geared towards multimedia. Ten or fifteen years ago you wouldn't have even dreamed of running a recording studio on anything other than a mac. Anything else was far too unstable.

The walled thing soulkiss talks about was a thing apple did from very early on, primarily to ensure that only approved products were used with their computer to ensure their stability in pressure environments. For this stability you paid a premium...although you could buy custom PC's geared for studio work they generally cost a lot more than a standard G4/G5.

Nowadays however since intel and apple got together I've noticed my apple products have started to slow down after updates.

That's said using PC's infuriates me. I've been using macs for 11 years now and know them.
I have a MacBook, a G5 and an iPhone. I won't buy anything else but not because I'm a massive fan boy or nothing but because I like the way they work and I can't be bothered to work out how to work anything else...especially phones!