Gasp... Air! Too many Apple smug fumes...

[woodchuck]

Coming up for air!!! I was just over at the apple community forums to troubleshoot a problem with my wife's iPhone. Good god some of those people treat Apple products like a religion. "It can't be a problem with iOS. It is the most secure OS on the planet" WTF!!!!!

[adam1991]

it's funny--right before I read your post, I was on an Apple forum myself and found this:

http://www.tuaw.com/2014/02/21/5-produc ... tes-iphon/

At least some people are able to make fun of themselves lightly.

That all being said, there's plenty of smugness to go around. Plenty of people wrap their lives around something equally silly and smugly declare their brand of religion to be Truth. And by religion I'm not talking about deities and centuries old books; I'm talking about computers, operating systems, cars, diets, you name it.

No, such smugness is owned by no particular group.

Usually the "smug" label is thrust upon a group of people by another group that declares it so simply because the second group feels threatened somehow.

What I don't understand is defining yourself and your self worth around something like an operating system or a gadget. Can't people simply participate in the world without being defined by the things in which they participate? "John? Yeah, I know him. He uses Winbloze." That's just silly. John may also be working on a cure for cancer, but we're too busy separating the world into "us" vs "them" in silly superficial terms because for some reason we really need a "them" in order for "us" to exist.

I have seven Macs in the house. The only Windows box I have is for WMC duties. I bought my first smartphone last year and bought Android, because I switched jobs and found myself in a pure Gmail environment and figured I'd maximize the integration level. It wasn't even a price thing, as I spent as much as I would have on an iPhone. I say, the right tool for the job at hand, whatever that job is. I'm not going to the Screwdriver Forums and spread unicorn farts about how wonderful a screwdriver is, and how stupid those hammer users are. Use the right tool to move forward in life and LIVE. Stop using external crap like a phone or a computer operating system or a car to define who you are and aren't.

[adam1991]

As long as we're on the topic...

I was just browsing, and found this:

http://www.businessinsider.com.au/best- ... ter-2014-2

I don't know what's worst: that he spent the cash to move from an iPhone 5 to a 5S, that he thinks the fingerprint thing is "by far the most fun new feature" (and apparently worth the money he spent to upgrade), or that he thinks that the iPhone and this pedometer app are unique in this respect.

I just went over to Google Play, where I found dozens of pedometer apps. The first one I clicked on didn't indicate any need for GPS or a magical unicorn fart chip.

I have to believe this guy wrote for clickbait, because I hate to believe that he believes in what he wrote.

[makryger]

The thing that bothers me the most is that apple decides exactly what users need, and then apple followers take it as gospel. I can't tell you how many times people looked at their 3.5" phone (up until the iphone 5") and said "yeah, this size is all you need in a phone- any bigger and it wouldn't be right." Now they all have their largeri phone 5's and the rumors are saying apply will continue to go bigger. "OMG, its got retina display!" Every phone has a retina-like display nowadays. Just because apple markets it like that, somehow its worth buying an iphone. How many people swooned over the iphone wallet- something that other apps could do already, and yet it doesn't need NFC. Non-removal batteries, the fingerprint reader, the low-end camera, the non-changable keyboard (Seriously? A keyboard that doesnt switched between capital and lower case letters?), the uncustomizable home page... it's just all, and users see all these things as "features".

Now I'm trying to deal with iphone users on my family plan having mysterious downloads at 2am of dozens of megabytes while they're asleep- with no good way to locate the culprit.(Google shows you all the data usage, and allows you to turn off background data on an individual basis).

[kingwr]

The thing that bothers me the most is that apple decides exactly what users need, and then apple followers take it as gospel.

This from a community clinging to an 11 year old product long since abandoned by its manufacturer. I am not sure which is sadder.

[makryger]

The thing that bothers me the most is that apple decides exactly what users need, and then apple followers take it as gospel.

This from a community clinging to an 11 year old product long since abandoned by its manufacturer. I am not sure which is sadder.

While it still might be sad, I'd consider them polar opposites. On one end, apple makes a product that they think is the most amazing thing ever, and users follow like sheep... On the other hand, microsoft makes a product that they think is the worst thing ever, and users disagree.

I would be happy to switch to a new all-in-one system that saves me money and has a better user interface as soon as one comes along.

What are you using these days, Kingwr, for online streaming/dvring/physical media playing?

[adam1991]

The thing that bothers me the most is that apple decides exactly what users need, and then apple followers take it as gospel.

While I don't disagree, this is really no different than the Ford/Chevy redneck argument. If they're happy with what someone else tells them they need, how does it impact me? It doesn't. And it doesn't change the facts that I learned when trying to put a ringtone onto an iPhone a few weeks ago.

That particular experience, frankly, makes me think that the old joke about changing a light bulb is true. How does an iOS user change a light bulb? He doesn't--he celebrates darkness as the new God-given standard. And please remember, I have seven Macintosh computers in the house and have been a Mac user since 1988.

If you really want, I can tell you my ringtone experience.

[adam1991]

The thing that bothers me the most is that apple decides exactly what users need, and then apple followers take it as gospel. I can't tell you how many times people looked at their 3.5" phone (up until the iphone 5") and said "yeah, this size is all you need in a phone- any bigger and it wouldn't be right." Now they all have their largeri phone 5's and the rumors are saying apply will continue to go bigger. "OMG, its got retina display!" Every phone has a retina-like display nowadays. Just because apple markets it like that, somehow its worth buying an iphone. How many people swooned over the iphone wallet- something that other apps could do already, and yet it doesn't need NFC. Non-removal batteries, the fingerprint reader, the low-end camera, the non-changable keyboard (Seriously? A keyboard that doesnt switched between capital and lower case letters?), the uncustomizable home page... it's just all, and users see all these things as "features".

Now I'm trying to deal with iphone users on my family plan having mysterious downloads at 2am of dozens of megabytes while they're asleep- with no good way to locate the culprit.(Google shows you all the data usage, and allows you to turn off background data on an individual basis).

I get it. Yes, like I said there are people who center their lives around something and take the effort to try to denigrate you because you don't. But like I said, that shouldn't impact you.

This behavior, by the way, isn't new. Remember this? Maybe not:

http://www.forevergeek.com/wp-content/u ... 50x455.jpg

Steve Jobs fired people who disagreed with him on this horrible piece. And many consumers just ate it up because "that's what Apple gave me". A round mouse with no real indication of direction? Really? And then this design suddenly "disappeared" like a Soviet political dissident, and suddenly the new design was handed down from God Himself and nothing was ever said about the big mistake. Apple's done quite a bit of that, and some people--some people--follow along and drink the kool-aid.

But many don't. And the ones that do, don't affect me in the least.

Like I said, I got an Android phone because it's what made sense for my situation--and I use it. I agree with your keyboard sentiment completely, but that's only because I *must* accept the silly on-screen keyboard in the first place. Apple screwed the world on that one; I used to have a Blackberry, and let me tell you for real use--business use--nothing beats a Blackberry with a keyboard. Nothing. I tolerate the screen keyboard because I must, because the electronics world is consumer-based and Apple is the king of consumerism and defines trends like this for everyone else to follow, because no one else dares even to try to innovate.

I guess that's worth giving Apple a pass on--innovation. NOBODY dares to innovate anymore except Apple. Yeah, sometimes they drop the ball (and it drops long and hard). But at least they do it. Everyone else follows. BTW, as far as I know Apple is the only one who's putting SSD on the motherboard and linking it directly to the CPU. HUGE speed gains there. Everyone else is just using SATA.

What I really wish for on my Android phone is some Blackberry-like functionality with respect to dialing conference calls (and phone calls in general from anywhere on the screen, from any application). Those of you who do this know what I'm talking about. The failure of Android or any of its spinoffs (such as TouchWiz) to do this is a huge, huge failure indeed.

[makryger]

Well, the reason it bothers me (despite using an android phone) is that (at least in the past), what the iphone does dictates design for the rest of the industry, including android phones. (kind of like what you mentioned about the physical vs screen keyboad).

For example, I keep waiting for the iphone to add NFC, not because I care about iphone users having NFC, but because then the industry will take notice and say "huh, maybe NFC is the next big thing", and before you know it, every store has contactless payment. That I can actually benefit from. When Google wallet with NFC comes out, it barely makes a dent. When Isis comes out, it barely makes a dent. But when the iphone with NFC comes out- it will suddenly be cool, and every store will start putting in contactless payment options.

[adam1991]

Even worse, when iPhone comes out with NFC it will be touted far and wide as an all-new, never before imagined innovation and suddenly Apple will want royalties on each and every NFC-based payment terminal installed and transaction processed. And the price of everything will go up as a result.

And Google will sit there with a dumb look on its face, wondering what was the license number of that truck that hit it.

As smart as Google is, they've missed the boat on the whole PT Barnum showman front man thing. Anyone who thinks they can compete with Apple based solely on technology, is missing the whole thing. It's not the technology in and of itself--hey, a Macintosh is a collection of parts that is readily available to any corporation willing to buy them and put them together the right way--it's also how the technology is implemented and, most importantly, how everything is communicated to the customer.

I believe the Macbook Pro (and Air!) is worth the money, because I know how it's engineered and I've had several of them and have witnessed first hand that it's a well engineered, highly reliable piece of gear. I would happily buy the same thing from Dell, if they'd bother to try to compete on that basis instead of trying to be the fastest to the bottom on price. (Oh, and that Dell would have to come with Win7.)

I will also admit that Apple has stumbled and dropped the ball periodically; not every piece of hardware I've gotten went through the unicorn fart tunnel, and as a result I've had some failures. But I do recognize those things happen; it's not that it fails, it's how Apple responds that makes a huge difference. I have stories going back 20 years, some of them doozies. And I have a story that involves my wife, an orange popsicle, and a courtesy replacement motherboard and optical drive that won Apple some serious, serious gratitude on my part.

So while it's not perfect, it's a nice place to be. That being said, I do grumble on how Apple is moving everything toward an iOS-type experience--but then, I also complain about Win8 the same way. Overall we need this "everything's a touch screen/tablet/phone" mentality to STOP, and have the industry give us desktop computers and operating systems back.

Now, get off my lawn.

[STC]

*talks to Siri"

Everything is okay.

[blueiedgod]

The thing that bothers me the most is that apple decides exactly what users need, and then apple followers take it as gospel.

This from a community clinging to an 11 year old product long since abandoned by its manufacturer. I am not sure which is sadder.

It's called being ahead of its time. Microsoft doesn't have patience to let the rest of the world catch up to its innovation. 11 years ago when WMC was launched only a handful of individuals considered using their PC to view and record tv. Sadly, as more and more people got on board, Microsoft lost interest in waiting for the masses, just as WMC was gaining critical mass. That's usually a problem with big corporations, they have inertia, once the plan to obsolete WMC was out in place, it is very difficult to stop it.

What other PC based DVR software out there works with copyright protected content? Microsoft is going to have to pry it from my cold hands, or stop the guide support, before I give it up. And then, we'll switch to non protected content with whatever is available. But one thing for sure, we are not going to rent 6 cable boxes/DVRs ever!

[mark1234]

...just as WMC was gaining critical mass.

Media Centre was never anywhere near gaining critical mass. Not by a country mile. In my real life I know a few geeky people. I can count on the fingers of one hand how many ran Media Centre over the years. I don't need any fingers to count the number of non-geeky people I know who ran Media Centre.

Frankly most people struggle just with the concept of using a HDMI cable to connect their laptop to their TV. But they all happily run their Sky+ or Tivo boxes.

[kingwr]

What are you using these days, Kingwr, for online streaming/dvring/physical media playing?

I am using DirecTV Genie (HR44) and a Roku 3 with a Harmony One remote. The DVR also supports 3 Genie Clients (C41) and two H22s. I also have an AppleTV, mostly for AirPlay. Don't use any physical media anymore, but I do have a Blu-ray in the stack.

I am currently on new customer pricing and getting a great deal for one year, an OK deal for year two, and then back to paying out the wazoo for year three. I will be switching at the end of year two, maybe back to UVerse (if they have fiber to the curb by then). But I don't ever see going back to Media Center unless something miraculous happens. I am too use to 1080i perfect picture TV with ff/rew and skip forward/skip back at clients, 1080P perfect picture VOD, and 5-tuner goodness. Plus my cable goes out far more often (based on Internet connection) than dish rain fade occurs.

[blueiedgod]

Coming up for air!!! I was just over at the apple community forums to troubleshoot a problem with my wife's iPhone. Good god some of those people treat Apple products like a religion. "It can't be a problem with iOS. It is the most secure OS on the planet" what the heck!!!!!

You have to understand that this is who apple caters to.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BMsLArefSOw

Compliments of Opie and Anthony show.

"Everyone else is waiting, so I decided I wanted to buy Apple 5" "I like how it is designed, it has the apple on it, it is silver, and white... it's really cool and ehanced" "I am not willing to buy any other phone right now, I want Apple 5"

[adam1991]

dude, that's completely staged.

[makryger]

As Shakespeare said, "All the world's a stage"...

[STC]

Hey I love my Apple products. I run Windows on an Air (domain). Build quality is superb and it still looks and feels as new as the day I bought it. Also I have a knackered iphone4. Wife has an iPad mini.

You can label me a fanboy although no way near the level of the OPs post

[blueiedgod]

dude, that's completely staged.

O&A are not known for staging things. They got kicked off the terrestrial radio a few times for doing stuff.

Things like parking a glass sided buss full of strippers in front of Waldorf Astoria when Bill Clinton was staying there, or having a couple have sex at St. Patrick's Cathedral on live radio, or packing a bus full of homeless people (who were given boose and $100 to spend) and taking them to Roosevelt field or Shot hills and setting them free there (homeless shopping spree)

[adam1991]

yeah, I know O&A. Listen to them all the time.

That was staged.