Apple Thread - The most overrated technology brand?

[Get the rope Macaulay!]

the whole ecosystem is amazing if it does what you want and you commit to it

imagine being one of these people that got a imac like 20 years ago and just being able to keep mostly the same shit on your various devices this entire time, like a literal Ilife because of how easy it is to transfer it all to the cloud then bring it up on your phone and you still have the first music you downloaded from itunes and shit like that. Like nostalgia wise thats sort of neat and a good part of the "walled garden" they were also the first about "power on and go"

VPN into my home network which VPNs into AWS and has pihole set up on my router. Works fine.

that seems like a lot, but i only think that because i use youtube for music, if you have apple music and only need youtube for the rare video on mobile i guess its good enough.

like video editing, recording and writing songs, writing books and screenplays, etc.

i forget the specifics but their video editing program was top notch, same with garage band, while windows gave you either basic bottom tier shit or nothing at all. the fact that all their creative stuff came pre-installed and is super easy to use and everyone uses it means windows basically doesn't even try to compete and what companies that do just suck at it.

its like how there are plenty of competitors to steam but not really because of them being so early and got it right on most things that its hard to compete. Every professional place uses Apple for that reason. Obviously windows has excel but even the apple vs pc commercials admit yeah pc has word and excel and apple can't compete with that but the other stuff just blows the spreadsheets out of the water. Obviously a lot of stuff is now open source and cross platform nowadays but in the windows xp-8 days it was easier to just get a mac than try to attempt stuff in creative fields on a windows computer.

people forget even pre-GPU popularization, like in the 2000s it was Mac all the way for video editing and music, while ad blockers and streaming was window's field. does OBS even work on a Mac?

 

[Susanna]

that seems like a lot, but i only think that because i use youtube for music, if you have apple music and only need youtube for the rare video on mobile i guess its good enough.

It's more than you need. If you just want YouTube, any of the hundreds of free adblocker apps is sufficient. They'll redirect your DNS queries and strip out anything going to an advertiser, works just fine.
My setup is so convoluted because I like doing things myself, and because my government blocks a few things I want to use. If I only wanted ad-free youtube (and ad-free internet in general, or ad-free phone apps) I'd skip those steps and just use the wireguard app to connect my phone to my home router, which has built-in pihole. Or I'd use one of the apps. The extra step with AWS is just to let me bypass government blocks.

 

[Almighty Space Duck]

does OBS even work on a Mac?

Yes it does, but I can’t think of any reason to use it for local recording when Command + Shift + 5 is a thing.

 

[AnOminous]

Not all iPhone 16s have this dissolving glue system though. I think they’re testing a few different methods before settling on a choice next year.

Unfortunately the price point is now the dealbreaker.

 

[Roland TB-303]

What is it that causes some people to say that apple products(macbook and imac mainly) are better for creative endeavors? I mean like video editing, recording and writing songs, writing books and screenplays, etc. I know a couple of creative types that swear by them. Is there anything to their assertions? I know very little about Apple computers and have always just used windows, but I'm not asking the question in bad faith.

This isn’t so much true today but back in the day musicians relied on MacBooks for performing live because they were specced out, rarely crashed and never had audio driver issues like Windows had with ASIO or whatever the fuck. MacOS has a built in MIDI and audio routing utility which is super handy for advanced setups. Windows laptops back then were shite and Ableton would always crash on them, not what you need on stage or in the studio. Plus macOS was and still is plug and play for most if not all audio interfaces, equipment and MIDI gear I’ve ever used, no need to install third party bloatware just to use your own gear. The day I got one I never looked back because the last thing you need when you’re feeling creative is to install drivers.

 

[The Ugly One]

My wife's MB Pro suddenly decided it is incapable of allowing the Samsung monitor plugged into it to go any faster than 30 Hz. When Macs decide to be petulant about 3rd-party hardware, they're dog shit.

 

[Benzo Samurai]

My experience with MacOS and MacBook pro, been using it for a couple of years:

• stable, secure, very few bugs, never had OS level crash, apps have hung like 3 times over the course of 3 years
• ridiculously and childishly strict and limited 3rd party ecosystem and OS config options
• very good performance (fyi dont play videogames),
• no heat/fan sound *ever*, it takes a lot to even feel the machine slowing down doing anything.
• very overpriced tbh, it just feels like a well-performing yet autistically strict and somewhat esoteric linux distro
• very shitty support for external monitors, you have to hunt for esoteric autistic mac-specific cli instructions to manually enable/disable shit

All in all, a well supported linux distro on a machine with decent specs + ARM CPU is a better choice because of price and config options.

I do, however, find it more enjoyable to use than windows. The UI is quite concise compared to windows, kind of reminiscent of XFCE4 in that regard.
It also performs better and does not have the issues that windows have (having to quit processes manually, restarting explorer.exe and so forth)

 

[Almighty Space Duck]

My wife's MB Pro suddenly decided it is incapable of allowing the Samsung monitor plugged into it to go any faster than 30 Hz. When Macs decide to be petulant about 3rd-party hardware, they're dog shit.

What does BetterDisplay say about it? Should be possible to tell if it's macOS being fucky. The 14 Day trial should be enough to test with. If you decide to buy it, because frankly it's a must have if you plug a bunch of screens into any MacBook here's a 30% off code - C2C8E3DD .

 

[Joe Swanson]

very overpriced tbh, it just feels like a well-performing yet autistically strict and somewhat esoteric linux distro

That's because MacOS is a BSD Unix system, and Linux only exists to be a free and open source alternative to Unix

 

[Doggo]

Did you know you can take screenshots on the watch?

It’s off by default, but when you switch it on, pressing the crown and side button at the same time will take a screenshot.

 

[reptile baht spaniard rid]

What does BetterDisplay say about it? Should be possible to tell if it's macOS being fucky. The 14 Day trial should be enough to test with. If you decide to buy it, because frankly it's a must have if you plug a bunch of screens into any MacBook here's a 30% off code - C2C8E3DD .

everyfucking time I've had a problem with a display on mac it's because the monitor was sending batshit EDID and macos believed it, or the cable was shit. The cable is always shit.

It’s off by default, but when you switch it on, pressing the crown and side button at the same time will take a screenshot.

it used to be on by default; my photos timeline is filled with fucking watch screenshots from 2016 or something because I used to trigger that shit all the fucking time by accident.

 

[Doggo]

Unfortunately the price point is now the dealbreaker.

Yeah, but I find that Apple products last a while. Plus Samsung stuff isn’t massively cheaper anyway, and tends to not get as many updates over its lifespan.

everyfucking time I've had a problem with a display on mac it's because the monitor was sending batshit EDID and macos believed it, or the cable was shit. The cable is always shit.

I have a little portable display that uses mini HDMI. It’s quite touchy and will drops the connection if you touch it at all. It has USB-C, but only for power. For my next display, I want it to have USB-C for everything.

it used to be on by default; my photos timeline is filled with fucking watch screenshots from 2016 or something because I used to trigger that shit all the fucking time by accident.

Huh, the more you know. Though I’m not sure how you’d trigger it accidentally, it seems like a pretty deliberate thing you have to do, but maybe I’m missing something.

Edit: and I now have Apple Care on the watch. I paid upfront for 2 years, and I feel a lot better now. The coming iPhone will also definitely have Apple Care.

 

[Poppavalyim Andropoff]

 

[Get the rope Macaulay!]

but back in the day

and the joke is that "back in the day" is like the entire 2000s and lots of the 2010s era. Windows didn't have their shit together for the longest time (and still don't in many areas) but especially for if you actually want to use your computer for music or video editing or lots of other stuff. Especially when it comes to tech problems too. Apple can and will solve whatever stupid concept you have meanwhile Windows openly tells you to get fucked if you tried using its windowsanswers website and most of your solutions coming from the various tech forums than anyone from microsoft.

 

[AnOminous]

Yeah, but I find that Apple products last a while. Plus Samsung stuff isn’t massively cheaper anyway, and tends to not get as many updates over its lifespan.

I've never had an Apple product I got new last less than 10 years. I had one that lasted 20. The main issue is when they declare it EOL and quit supporting it, but with their laptops, you can usually install some lightweight Linux.

I have a little portable display that uses mini HDMI. It’s quite touchy and will drops the connection if you touch it at all. It has USB-C, but only for power. For my next display, I want it to have USB-C for everything.

My main display problem was hooking up a Mac to an HDMI TV and using the TV for sound output too. Every few months it randomly stops outputting sound and I have to fiddle with it for a while. It always seems to require a different solution.

 

[reptile baht spaniard rid]

The main issue is when they declare it EOL and quit supporting it, but with their laptops, you can usually install some lightweight Linux.

I’m going to be real fucking annoyed if the only way to Linux the M1 is by using gayfaggotLinux.

I wish apple would just officially unofficially support Linux directly.

My main display problem was hooking up a Mac to an HDMI TV and using the TV for sound output too.

Apple actually tries to respect a bunch of the HDMI spec that nobody bothers with - including copy protection and other faggotry.

An HDMI splitter (basically HDMI to HDMI or even go to SDI) usually fixes that. The cheaper the better as it’s less likely to implement the whole spec.

 

[Betonhaus]

I wish apple would just officially unofficially support Linux directly.

When Intel and AMD started trying to submit their drivers to the kernel they got their shit pushed in and were told to burn the drivers and do it again. Apple's pride won't let them experience that.

 

[reptile baht spaniard rid]

When Intel and AMD started trying to submit their drivers to the kernel they got their shit pushed in and were told to burn the drivers and do it again. Apple's pride won't let them experience that.

They don’t even need to go that far, just release some shitty drivers for BSD under a GPL compatible license and let the autists do the rest.

 

[Nguyen Van Phuoc]

very shitty support for external monitors, you have to hunt for esoteric autistic mac-specific cli instructions to manually enable/disable shit

Tell me about it, I have this nice LG Ultrawide monitor but for whatever reason my MacBook refuses to play nice with the monitor speakers, they barely work and when they do you can’t control the volume from the computer for whatever reason. DisplayLink docks are also awful, transparencies become nonexistent and the OS just becomes very laggy to use.

In other news, Vision Pro is going to be winding down and will likely be discontinued. (archive)

 

[Kulee Baba]

I just came back from my Mom’s house I set up the AirPods Pro 2 for her and had her do the hearing test. The test said she had moderate hearing losing in her right ear. She says it’s a marked improvement and was happy to now have the tv at a lower volume.

Major Win for Apple to do this and innovate on the hearing aid market. I only spent $180 on the AirPods 2. She wasn’t looking to spend $1600 when her hearing wasn’t that bad. This is one of the best things Apple has done in years. For Kiwis with senior citizens I recommend checking it out.