are apples any good, or just for nerds and posers?

[nick mercedes]

The iPad Mini is a smart gadget

"Most gallingly, Apple’s senior vice-president of worldwide marketing, Phil Schiller, actually joked about how quickly your expensive pride and joy becomes yesterday’s news earlier in the event announcing a raft of updates to the company’s MacBook and iMac lines: “Isn’t it incredible how a new thing makes the old design look instantly old?” No, Phil, it’s been your business model for years and it’s that speedy obsolescence that’s getting old."

What's the hype around Apple computers and phones all about?

Why do they cost so much, and why do people buy them?

Are they worth it?

 

[V12]

uh oh, did you just open that can??

Will not pass judgement yet until I have tried one but I think i'd rather keep the nexus 7 with it's better quality screen and lower price.

I'm certainly not pro apple but the best defence for them is that although they are very expensive to start with, they do hold their value well and can often be sold on 2 or 3 years down the line for a healthy sum.

 

[redbaron]

For me - they are good as they are tactlie and more importantly too expensive for lesser people to own. Which is basically the mercedes branding encapsulated in laptop.

Phones dont count as they are like C63's nobody owns them you just sign a bit of paper and it magically appears...

 

[renault12ts]

Like any laptop I believe they will do the job you buy it for...well.

But, there is a significant number of buyers who will be in the upgrade game...and Apple love those people. All my daughters have Macbooks...but none have fallen into the upgrade trap...the oldest one is 5 years old.

 

[redbaron]

Like any laptop I believe they will do the job you buy it for...well.

But, there is a significant number of buyers who will be in the upgrade game...and Apple love those people. All my daughters have Macbooks...but none have fallen into the upgrade trap...the oldest one is 5 years old.

your 5 year old daughter wants to upgrade her macbook?

 

[brucemillar]

The thing with Apple is you have to use the product to really get what it is about it.

I am now an Apple convert. Fact is that their product is simply intuitive. Once you start to use it you start to wonder why you didn't use it previously. People can argue hype etc. If it is hype then I would like some of the same as it is clearly extremely successful hype.

I mentioned in a previous post about watching new users pick up Apple and how quickly they start to use it. That is compared to other products on the market.

 

[Nik_Endeavour]

The iPad Mini is a smart gadget

"Most gallingly, Apple’s senior vice-president of worldwide marketing, Phil Schiller, actually joked about how quickly your expensive pride and joy becomes yesterday’s news earlier in the event announcing a raft of updates to the company’s MacBook and iMac lines: “Isn’t it incredible how a new thing makes the old design look instantly old?” No, Phil, it’s been your business model for years and it’s that speedy obsolescence that’s getting old."

What's the hype around Apple computers and phones all about?

Why do they cost so much, and why do people buy them?

Are they worth it?

To condense a very very long debate that goes on on the internet(s)

1. They look good (in an Audi sense)
2. The are decent computers (like an Audi)
3. They are a bit shy on the spec side but charge 3 times more (like an Audi)
4. The sales reps own then and show off to compensate for the lack of manhood (like an Audi)
5. They have a following of people that would buy them no matter what just because the other fanboi (apple followers) has just bought one (a bit like an Audi)


On a serious note though in my opinion as a geek (software developer, it lecturer and teacher and web designer)

1. MacBook Pro - very decent piece of kit. I could not find a comparable windows laptop that looked that sleek and had the same spec for the same amount of money (I own one) - battery life is great too
1.1 - New MacBook Pro with retina display - Great display and very good like above but new mag charger connector (means you have to buy new stuff if you already own chargers) but not different in spec. Also all parts are glued with resin (means you CANNOT upgrade even the RAM unless you pay 4 times as much for it during the order stage, unlike the last one where you can double it for £25 from crucial.com)
2. iPad3 - Very very good piece of kit but expensive and in less than 6 months obsolete because they just blimming bought out the 4 which is faster
Its on par with a Samsung Galaxy Tablet though but think of the Galaxy as the Golf and this as the A3
The retina display is beautiful, its light and its thin and battery lasts for ages
3. iPad4 - Like above - i wished I had one but I am not shelling out for it until the iPad3 is dead. New lighting connector means that you would have to buy at least an adapter to make it work withanything else that used the traditional connector (on second thoughts i like my iPad3 better)
4. iPad mini - A pile of crap to milk the cash cow that is the Audi drivers. It essentially the leftovers from the iPad2 parts bin (low resolution screen - res = circa 1997, old processor) and priced nearly 40% more than its worth - You are better off buying a Google Nexus one
5. iPhone5 - Like the iPad mini brings nothing new but creates a new way to make money for apple (lightning connector). Instead of glass brings aluminium back (year that is never going to scratch) - Better off buying a Galaxy S3 or a Motorola Razor


Disclaimer: No Audi drivers were harmed during the making of this post

 

[trapperjohn]

Thank you Nik. Great to have the inside line on a confusing array of stuff out there.

Looks like Galaxy SE or Motorola Razor for me then. I believe Santa may be taking care of the rest for me.

 

[Ted]

It's not about being a geek.

Mrs Ted is a complete technophobe. She can't do ANYTHING on a computer/laptop. Even on her own account on a laptop she would constantly moan about not being able to understand it, too slow, cant read the small writing etc. She also used to accidentally download all sorts of crap - toolbars etc etc.

Now she has an iPad. She loves it. She can do anything she wants on it - ebay, shopping, googly stuff etc. She can even pinch and zoom! I never have to help her, and I don't get all of the phone calls telling me the laptop is broken.
As has been said - you don't get it until you have used one. Then you know why people rave about them.

Negatives? Within two hours she had learnt how to download apps. Within two days she had downloaded about twenty apps. All of them were shopping apps :/

 

[Paul/]

I think a lot of the Apple magic is a heritage from the early days of PCs, when Apple established a loyal userbase of professional creative types who wanted a computer as a tool for their art (graphics/music/writing) and who didn't want to lose productive time learning about or tinkering with (upgrading/fixing) their computer. Apple were the user-friendly, stable yet still innovative alternative to MS & PCs. Many were also bought by those making a statement against the apparent monopoly of MS & PCs. Apple became the cool and hip alternative to the generic products of the soul-less megacorps.

Since then, those tangible USPs have morphed towards out-shinying Sony, still with innovation but no longer unique. It's interesting that the brand that once appealed to people because they weren't nerds, now has such apparent nerdish appeal. Perhaps nerdishness has also morphed, less exploring and tinkering with the inner workings of gadgetry, more just fetishing it.

 

[V12]

Thank you Nik. Great to have the inside line on a confusing array of stuff out there.

Looks like Galaxy SE or Motorola Razor for me then. I believe Santa may be taking care of the rest for me.

My Galaxy S3 just got a whole lot better with the "Jelly Bean" update.

Faster, smoother and better battery life. There are also some new features, but I couldn't care a less about those. Highly recommended.

 

[Nik_Endeavour]

Try this for a comparison:

iPad mini vs Kindle Fire HD vs Nexus 7: full specs | News | PC Pro

 

[jaymanek]

I love my iphone for facebook, apps etc, nothing beats it for the toys, so makes a good personal phone.

As a business phone id end up throwing at the wall... typing is simply too difficult without a proper keypad.. im afraid blackberry still win for me as a work phone...

 

[st4]

Once you have Mac you never go back. I've got iPod that's lasted 8years. iPhone and MacPro. The later I intend to run for a decade.

Apple do change update the products regularly but that doesn't make what you already have worse, just older. If you like what you have don't upgrade. Apple don't make you.

 

[This is Pete]

Technically wise, Apple goods are generally well designed and well styled.

But, they're very good at selling obselescense. When you buy something from them, you do so in the knowledge that in a year or 18 months, Apple will announce a new product that essentially the same, but better. Apple knows that most of its customers are very style aware, so will invariably buy every new generation product as it comes out (less so with laptops, more so with iPhones and iPads)

 

[Sp!ke]

I have to get deep down and dirty with PC's and Macs for a living as well as all flavours of smartphones.

I have come to the conclusion that those that don't really get on well with technology buy Apple products and then swear by them to the point of being obsessional.

Those that actually understand the hardware they are buying and aren’t afraid to get stuck in, tend to be more open minded and look for most bang for buck, which generally means buying some other product.

Thats not to say that one is better than the other though as it depends on your outlook and ability. As an example, If I were to advise my mother on what to buy, I would likely suggest an Apple product as for many reasons this would be the best product for her. Given the same conundrum with my son, I would suggest the opposite.

 

[Alex]

I have to get deep down and dirty with PC's and Macs for a living as well as all flavours of smartphones.

I have come to the conclusion that those that don't really get on well with technology buy Apple products and then swear by them to the point of being obsessional.

Those that actually understand the hardware they are buying and aren’t afraid to get stuck in, tend to be more open minded and look for most bang for buck, which generally means buying some other product.

Thats not to say that one is better than the other though as it depends on your outlook and ability. As an example, If I were to advise my mother on what to buy, I would likely suggest an Apple product as for many reasons this would be the best product for her. Given the same conundrum with my son, I would suggest the opposite.

I get on with technology very well (thanks to my sys admin past) and I use Macs in my business and at home - for me it is just much more time saving. Searching through the documents or emails is a breeze and automatic realtime backups are invaluable.

That said I'm a BSD fan and use it for all my networking needs (web, email servers etc).

Getting a new server now and guess what's that going to be... a Mac (either Pro or Mini) with a few VM's running Windows and FreeBSD.

 

[Sp!ke]

I use Macs in my business and at home - for me it is just much more time saving. Searching through the documents or emails is a breeze and automatic realtime backups are invaluable.

I have those things also without the need for a mac and I'm not tied into a single vendor.

Talking of email though, Office for Mac is very poor indeed with missing functionality and frustrating weaknesses.

 

[fredT]

I have a few apple products, but im not sure what i think..

They are getting very predictable and the userfriendlyness is sometimes overstated. For example it keeps saving alot of my photos and homevideos twice. I have hundreds doubled up
Dont really like itunes and the way you are locked up.

The upside for me is i havent had a virus for 3 years, and the macbook (pro) is still performimg very well. My last laptop was dead by that time. I dont understand why windows is so sh!t and apple so good when it comes to viruses

 

[Nik_Endeavour]

I dont understand why windows is so sh!t and apple so good when it comes to viruses

Let me explain it as if I was a cybercriminal:

Windows OS: 90%+ of computers on the planet
MAC OS X: 5% of the computers on the planet

I write a virus that is distributed via SPAM. for every 1 million spam emails I sent I get 1% that bite.

Lets say there are 100 million computers on the planet. 90% x 1.000.000 = 900.000 Windows

5% x 1.000.000 = 5.000 OS X

I have to spend time to write the virus (lets say 1 week), resources and most importantly I have to find vulnerabilities. OS X has got just as many as Windows just let drones to figure them out.


Actually windows is better security wise than OS X. There are just not enough viruses for OS X because nobody bothers to write one. Apple's advice is actually dire and very misleading if not criminally negligent that you should not worry about Apple viruses.