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The Cult of Apple

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Spud

Diamond
Joined
Jan 12, 2006
Location
Brookfield, Wisconsin
Sure Apple makes some good products but they are also quite good at creating a trendy/cult followiing. I just do not get why anyone would spend hours waiting outside , just to get an Iphone. Imho some people just want the expereince and some are addicted to getting the latest and greatest ASAP. Somewhat the same phenomena with people waiting for hours for Harry Potter books.

" Cult of Apple: Why the must-have brand triggers brain reaction 'similar to religious devotion' "

Apple brand triggers brain reaction 'similar to religious devotion' | Daily Mail Online

I have avoided getting Apple products but other members of family have them. I recently got an Imac G5 with a high-end photo scanner I bought , and there are some annoying design deficiences, such as: not have a left & right click mouse and not having a hardware enabled eject for the Optical drive. It seems like Apple put form over function.
 
I jumped on the Apple wagon n 2010 starting with an ipod someone gave me. Then I got a 1st Gen AppleTV, then a MacMini, and lastly a MacBookPro in late 2010. Other than an Apple TV 3rd gen, I don't use any of them anymore. While Apple fronts that it is "high-end" with 20-35% higher prices, they throw in the bottom barrel components in their pc's and laptops. It wasn't until a month ago that my hardly used laptop stopped charging that I began investigating the issue (I had already replaced the hard drive and upgraded ram once out of warranty) that I started to realize the lack of give-a-shit by Apple (at least in their laptops).

My issue comes down to 25 cents worth of resistors going bad because they were either underrated or cheap. Of course, I now have to decide whether to spring for a decent SMD rework station to fix my 4 year old laptop, or just say screw it. Genuine replacement parts are dumb expensive. Apple is a hardware company that does not want it's gear to last; they need you to continuously go out and overspend every 1.5 years.

I have also found that trying to get information from Apple is impossible, and the overwhelming majority of Apple users on various forums always default to "Just take it to the Apple store." F - That.

I've learned quite a bit in regards to fixing Apple gear from this guy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sfrYOWlKJ_g

I think he sums it up pretty well in regards to Apple.
 
The Apple Magic Mouse (which is the standard mouse)'has a right click function. You may need to go to the control panel to enable it.

My keyboard has an eject button. Is this what you are asking for, or do I misunderstand?
 
The Apple Magic Mouse (which is the standard mouse)'has a right click function. You may need to go to the control panel to enable it.

My keyboard has an eject button. Is this what you are asking for, or do I misunderstand?

The standard Mouse I have has no buttons , the whole top body of the mouse acts as a left click button. Unlike a PC mouse, there aren't left and right buttons and a scroll wheel.

The keyboard has an eject button but I was referring to the computer case not having an eject button for the Optical drive, like you find on PC desktops and laptops.
 
The standard Mouse I have has no buttons , the whole top body of the mouse acts as a left click button. Unlike a PC mouse, there aren't left and right buttons and a scroll wheel.

Right. The buttons and wheel aren't there, but the functions are. So?
And you can always buy a USB mouse with the buttons and wheel, if you want one.
 
Apple like some companies deliberately prevents some non standard accessories or functions to never work on purpose that give a chance of problems
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MS Windows often has problems because accessories are giving problems for example WiFi problems caused by router being blamed on computer when it really is the router WiFi at fault
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back when Windows 95 came out Zip disc drives would not work. needed a software driver installed for Win95. yet Windows 95 got blamed when in it really was accessory problem
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when operating system says hardware will not work because it does not meet minimum standards then the OS does not get blamed. same with any software programs that are installed when OS says it cannot install because it does not minimum standards then OS does not get blamed. not to mention flash having security problems at least once a month last 5 years
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the cult of minimum standards prevents 98% of operator frustration. thus why Apple banned flash for internet browser. it was causing problems being blamed on computer or OS when it was really a flash problem
 
I recently got an Imac G5 with a high-end photo scanner I bought , and there are some annoying design deficiences, such as: not have a left & right click mouse and not having a hardware enabled eject for the Optical drive. It seems like Apple put form over function.

An awful lot of "form over function" arguments against Apple come from Windows users who don't understand how OS X works. It's a fundamentally different UI, and the function is not always achieved with the same approach. Doesn't mean it's not there. Similar with the iPhone vs Android crap. The vast majority of Androids supposed customisability comes in the form of UI tweaks, not functionality.

You need to realise first of all that you have a 10 year old computer with an 8 year old OS. I think that old mouse is a single button, but I haven't used one in a long time. Multibutton support has been in the MacOS for decades, but the OS was (is) heavily geared towards keyboard shortcuts and right click contextual menus were not used much as they are in windows. The current (although its been around for years now) mouse is a multitouch surface with no physical buttons that can be configured to do pretty much anything you want. It's really nice, if a little small for my hands.

When you get down to it, there is no such thing as a hardware eject on optical drives, short of the mechanical force eject with the paperclip, which is present on Macs as it is on any other PC. Whether the eject button is on the keyboard/drive/screen the function is the same.

I agree with you about the queuing for hours in the rain on launch day thing. That's weird, although not necessarily exclusive to Apple.
 
An awful lot of "form over function" arguments against Apple come from Windows users who don't understand how OS X works. It's a fundamentally different UI, and the function is not always achieved with the same approach. Doesn't mean it's not there. Similar with the iPhone vs Android crap. The vast majority of Androids supposed customisability comes in the form of UI tweaks, not functionality.

You need to realise first of all that you have a 10 year old computer with an 8 year old OS. I think that old mouse is a single button, but I haven't used one in a long time. Multibutton support has been in the MacOS for decades, but the OS was (is) heavily geared towards keyboard shortcuts and right click contextual menus were not used much as they are in windows. The current (although its been around for years now) mouse is a multitouch surface with no physical buttons that can be configured to do pretty much anything you want. It's really nice, if a little small for my hands.

When you get down to it, there is no such thing as a hardware eject on optical drives, short of the mechanical force eject with the paperclip, which is present on Macs as it is on any other PC. Whether the eject button is on the keyboard/drive/screen the function is the same.

I agree with you about the queuing for hours in the rain on launch day thing. That's weird, although not necessarily exclusive to Apple.
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different OS and it acts different or needs things done differently. try ubuntu linux it works but definitely many things done in different ways
 
And since even Microsoft itself jumped on the Apple bandwagon with their Microsoft stores, they are trumpeting people lined up outside to get the latest versions of THEIR products. (Much shorter lines, though...)
 
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different OS and it acts different or needs things done differently. try ubuntu linux it works but definitely many things done in different ways

I've been around a lot of different operating systems. While some Linux DE's are built around similar principles, OS X remains an outlier in that the UI is very sparse, as are the physical machines. Users who aren't already familiar with the OS tend to assume a gross simplification or lack of functionality, or that it's that way purely for aesthetics. OS X tends to offer visual cues for only the most common things, with advanced functions hidden behind keyboard shortcuts or mouse gestures, the goal being an unobtrusive UI that doesn't get in your way when you're actually working.

It's not for everybody, but there are valid reasons to prefer it.
 
I've been around a lot of different operating systems. While some Linux DE's are built around similar principles, OS X remains an outlier in that the UI is very sparse, as are the physical machines. Users who aren't already familiar with the OS tend to assume a gross simplification or lack of functionality, or that it's that way purely for aesthetics. OS X tends to offer visual cues for only the most common things, with advanced functions hidden behind keyboard shortcuts or mouse gestures, the goal being an unobtrusive UI that doesn't get in your way when you're actually working.

It's not for everybody, but there are valid reasons to prefer it.
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just saying different OS and people expect it to operate exactly like Windows
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heck i have trouble going from Windows XP to version 7, not sure why they always change things. MS office ribbon bar i absolutely hate and they can say all they want it is better, if i could switch back to old way i would do it in a heartbeat.
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MS office default to online help when many computers have no internet is a down right dumb decision of MS to not detect internet access first and just switch to offline help by default. talk about easy frustration of operator
 
I think it's fine to not want to buy Apple stuff, but don't act like they don't make great products. I know what it takes to make the kinds of products they put out and I know they have to deeply care to do it. To act like it's all just marketing and their products are just whatever, is really stupid.
 
Buy what you want.

I buy ten dollar aftermarket mouse's (mice) for my apple computers and they have right and left click buttons, and scroll wheels, and they work perfectly with apples.

But really, buy what you want.
 
Buy what you want.

I buy ten dollar aftermarket mouse's (mice) for my apple computers and they have right and left click buttons, and scroll wheels, and they work perfectly with apples.

But really, buy what you want.

Got a $7.99 mouse from Target for the Apple:D
 
Re. Hardware eject.
The G5 doesn't have it. No little pinhole to stick a paperclip . It all seems to be software based, which can be an issue if the computer doesn't boot up and you need to get a repair disk in

Even for a G5, it makes no sense to have a single button mouse .

I just returned a Linksys USB network adapter because it wouldn't work on Apple and Linksys says they do not make a USB adapter for Apple. So I got a Netgear powerline adapter now instead. Everything seems way more complicated / hidden on the Apple. Can't figure out where the clean disk and defrag utilities are.

Couldn't figure out how to launch internet Browser but clicked on Mac OS X under Apple icon and it launches ; doesn't seem like that would be the standard method to launch browser. It is running Safari.

The G5 also has far less USB ports than a Windows machine.

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I know Apple makes some good products but some of the attraction seems to me to be Apple's shrewd marketing. One thing Apple is good at is aesthetics , even though their minimalist and modernist design isn't really new, but they made it affordable while a company like Bang & Olufsen isn't affordable to the masses.
 
Re. Hardware eject.
The G5 doesn't have it. No little pinhole to stick a paperclip . It all seems to be software based, which can be an issue if the computer doesn't boot up and you need to get a repair disk in

OK, I could be wrong about the pinhole. My old 2010 MBP has one, but it was the last model to have an optical drive anyway.

There is a firmware force eject built into all macs since the original PowerPC models. Hold down the mouse button when you power on. It will eject before it tries to boot.

I just returned a Linksys USB network adapter because it wouldn't work on Apple and Linksys says they do not make a USB adapter for Apple. So I got a Netgear powerline adapter now instead. Everything seems way more complicated / hidden on the Apple. Can't figure out where the clean disk and defrag utilities are.

There is no clean disk or defrag. Both are automatic background processes. Not sure what kind of network adapter you're needing, unless someone deliberately removed the wireless card - wireless and gigabit ethernet have been built in on all macs for many years.

Couldn't figure out how to launch internet Browser but clicked on Mac OS X under Apple icon and it launches ; doesn't seem like that would be the standard method to launch browser. It is running Safari.

Safari is the internet browser. It's the globe-like icon that should be in the dock by default. Maybe you should make a new user account to get everything back to default settings.

The G5 also has far less USB ports than a Windows machine.

Totally arbitrary! I have no idea how many USB ports are on an old iMac but plenty of PC's only have a couple of ports.

Remember that the last G5 was made in 2005. That's Pentium 4 / Windows XP era.

Honestly it just sounds like you're looking for reasons to hate it! It's ancient in computer terms, and nobody is forcing you to use it :)
 
OK, I could be wrong about the pinhole. My old 2010 MBP has one, but it was the last model to have an optical drive anyway.

There is a firmware force eject built into all macs since the original PowerPC models. Hold down the mouse button when you power on. It will eject before it tries to boot.



There is no clean disk or defrag. Both are automatic background processes. Not sure what kind of network adapter you're needing, unless someone deliberately removed the wireless card - wireless and gigabit ethernet have been built in on all macs for many years.



Safari is the internet browser. It's the globe-like icon that should be in the dock by default. Maybe you should make a new user account to get everything back to default settings.



Totally arbitrary! I have no idea how many USB ports are on an old iMac but plenty of PC's only have a couple of ports.

Remember that the last G5 was made in 2005. That's Pentium 4 / Windows XP era.

Honestly it just sounds like you're looking for reasons to hate it! It's ancient in computer terms, and nobody is forcing you to use it :)
Yeah I read about some methods to eject the Optical drive , but my point is that they are still clumsy ways to eject.

The Wireless adapter was a Linksys N300 wireless USB adapter . Only way for me to connect to the Net is wirelessly. I thought there might be a wireless card but if try to connect without using the Powerline adapter, it doesn't work.

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I don't hate it, the case design is nice, and a whole lot better than Windows machines . My point is that it isn't just manufacturing prowess ; Apple engages in marketing techniques that of a more malicious/manipulative nature. Like how Apple employees are required to wait outside their stores during the opening of a new product, pump up the crowd , pat customers on the shoulder/back to create a sense of euphoria . It's all like something burrowed from cults , charlatans / religious leaders.
 
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