Apple Thread - The most overrated technology brand?

[FuckedUp]

They remind me of pustules, like the phone is diseased or something.

Though to be fair, my phone has three cameras and is an LG V40. But those cameras are all in a line across the back. That phone also has a surprisingly powerful and high quality internal speaker and reportedly very good quality DACs but I've not done a frequency response graph or anything so couldn't verify that.

Okay, so it doesn't get the same benchmark scores as an Apple hipster toy. But who gives a shit. Explain to me why I should care so long as it's good enough. I mean, in the world of PCs you don't get a 64 core Threadripper unless you're doing hardcore number crunching or professional grade video editing or similar. And I've never understood why you might want it for "gaming" because 99% of mobile games are faeculent. But then that's not the point. CONSOOME PRODUCT, THEN GET EXCITED FOR NEXT PRODUCT. That's the Apple way, right?

- The iPhone has been historically behind the times with both form factor and screen resolution. They still are only on 1080p when most Android phones have had 1440p since the middle of last decade - my last phone before my current one was a Galaxy Note Edge and that was on 1600p and that came out in 2014. Similarly, they and their fanboys scoffed at the first big Android phones in 2012 when the Galaxy Note and the LG G3 came out, but now small phones are the exception rather than the rule. Android has historically been ahead in functionality as well - you could do split screen and multiple cameras long before Apple came along with it, but now they've done so it's a HuGe InNOvAtIOn.

Am I the only one who doesn't feel the need to spend $1k so their phone can have 8k rez and run PS3 emulators? Just get an off-brand $100 phone, this isn't 2014 anymore

 

[Ginger Piglet]

Am I the only one who doesn't feel the need to spend $1k so their phone can have 8k rez and run PS3 emulators? Just get an off-brand $100 phone, this isn't 2014 anymore

I only paid £340 for mine. Grey imports FTW.

I believe Sony did put out a 4K phone back in 2016 but it was cheaty 4K in that it only played 4K video content natively; everything else was upscaled.

 

[Pissmaster]

Am I the only one who doesn't feel the need to spend $1k so their phone can have 8k rez and run PS3 emulators? Just get an off-brand $100 phone, this isn't 2014 anymore

It sure seems like that but trying to follow mobile news just gets you a deluge of shills pushing the latest and greatest whatever the fuck because the markup for new phones is fucking enormous, and there's not much of a used market for them due to firmware updates arbitrarily axing support for apps that would otherwise work fine. Apple's iOS is especially bad about this. Any kind of discussion of phones online is either that, or people saying "my older/cheaper phone works just fine, why would I want to drop four figures on a fucking telephone?"

Okay, so it doesn't get the same benchmark scores as an Apple hipster toy. But who gives a shit. Explain to me why I should care so long as it's good enough. I mean, in the world of PCs you don't get a 64 core Threadripper unless you're doing hardcore number crunching or professional grade video editing or similar. And I've never understood why you might want it for "gaming" because 99% of mobile games are faeculent. But then that's not the point. CONSOOME PRODUCT, THEN GET EXCITED FOR NEXT PRODUCT. That's the Apple way, right?

It really is. Apple's mastered the mantra of getting idiots excited for next product because reasons, and acting like they're a part of a class-based society where anyone with the latest Apple bullshit is just better than those without. Still using an iPhone 7? Psh, filth, you might as well be using any Android. Now shine my shoes, nigger.

I'll give them one thing, their cult-like marketing is unparalleled.

 

[ToroidalBoat]

So let me get this straight: the iPhone has no removable battery, no SD card slot, no headphone jack, and not even a file browser... yet people still buy the overpriced things?

 

[Pissmaster]

So let me get this straight: the iPhone has no removable battery, no SD card slot, no headphone jack, and not even a file browser... yet people still buy the overpriced things?

They added a file browser in a recent version by the name of "Files", but it's not really good for much. It just seems to be geared towards bouncing files back and forth between your iCloud account, though the usefulness of that is a big fat zero if you don't pay for extra space. iCloud still only gives you 5GB for free (when even Mega.nz's free tier does 50gb), and there's no adding other cloud storage services to the Files app. That 5GB's also going to be taken up by a partial backup of your phone, anyway, so you're very limited without paying for extra iCloud space.

A thing about trying to use iOS today in any serious capacity is that, while it's possible to avoid paying for iCloud, everything's just such a bitch to use without it. Want to back up your photos? Cough up some cash for iCloud and do it in one click and keep your memories on the cloud, or plug it into your computer and put up with the absolute bitch that is MacOS' photos app. Or just plug it into a Windows machine and drag and drop everything onto your hard drive. But if you want to keep all of your backups locally, you still have to wrestle with iTunes, an increasingly dated and terribly designed program that only really still exists so you have a free option for backup, so they can say "You don't HAVE to pay for iCloud, buuuuuuuuuuuuuuut-".

But yeah, no removable battery or SD card, though there's never been a single iPhone/Pad/Pod that ever supported one. The removal of the headphone jack was said to be because of space concerns, but that's bullshit, since why don't they just take out the Lightning port too and switch everyone to purely wireless charging? And why do many Androids still have headphone jacks? Why can the Galaxy Note 9 have a headphone jack and a full stylus and still be a top-of-the-line phone?

 

[He Who Points And Laughs]

Iron Sky absolutely nailed the cult of Apple

 

[ToroidalBoat]

[the rigamarole of copying files]

No wonder so many hipsters are convinced cloud computing is "totally the future of storage" and "storage media is going out."

 

[Splendid]

Isn't iTunes scheduled for deprecation soonish?

 

[Coffee Shits]

Isn't iTunes scheduled for deprecation soonish?

Looks to be that Apple is going whole-hog on ruining macOS with Catalina.

iTunes is going places.

Download macOS Catalina for an all‑new entertainment experience. Your music, TV shows, movies, podcasts, and audiobooks will transfer automatically to the Apple Music, Apple TV, Apple Podcasts, and Apple Books apps where you’ll still have access to your favorite iTunes features, including purchases, rentals, and imports.

Now, instead of just one iTunes, you get four.

 

[Ginger Piglet]

They added a file browser in a recent version by the name of "Files", but it's not really good for much. It just seems to be geared towards bouncing files back and forth between your iCloud account, though the usefulness of that is a big fat zero if you don't pay for extra space. iCloud still only gives you 5GB for free (when even Mega.nz's free tier does 50gb), and there's no adding other cloud storage services to the Files app. That 5GB's also going to be taken up by a partial backup of your phone, anyway, so you're very limited without paying for extra iCloud space.

A thing about trying to use iOS today in any serious capacity is that, while it's possible to avoid paying for iCloud, everything's just such a bitch to use without it. Want to back up your photos? Cough up some cash for iCloud and do it in one click and keep your memories on the cloud, or plug it into your computer and put up with the absolute bitch that is MacOS' photos app. Or just plug it into a Windows machine and drag and drop everything onto your hard drive. But if you want to keep all of your backups locally, you still have to wrestle with iTunes, an increasingly dated and terribly designed program that only really still exists so you have a free option for backup, so they can say "You don't HAVE to pay for iCloud, buuuuuuuuuuuuuuut-".

But yeah, no removable battery or SD card, though there's never been a single iPhone/Pad/Pod that ever supported one. The removal of the headphone jack was said to be because of space concerns, but that's bullshit, since why don't they just take out the Lightning port too and switch everyone to purely wireless charging? And why do many Androids still have headphone jacks? Why can the Galaxy Note 9 have a headphone jack and a full stylus and still be a top-of-the-line phone?

I went into the big Apple store in Plymouth in 2017 and grilled one of the sales NPCs about the lack of headphone socket and how to charge your phone and listen to music at the same time (not that you'd want to with a fucking iPhone, their distortion is twice that of current gen Android flagship phones and worse than some middle of the road phones) and asked where the socket was. The sales NPC (who deserves that title because they're told exactly what to say to customer objections word for word) said that Apple decided that a "hundred year old" standard needed updating and that they were being "courageous" in "leading the way" on this.

Firstly, Bluetooth audio sounds pants. It has hiss reminiscent of shit tier tape decks. Wired always sounds better.

Secondly, things persist for 100 years because there is no need to change them. It just works. You don't see people saying that the 4' 6" railway gauge needs updating because it's 150 years old, do we. No we do not. The 3.5mm plug is a design that works perfectly for what it needs to do.

Also, cloud storage is utterly pointless. You can either insert an SD card into an adjunct to the SIM card drawer, like my LG and most Sammies since the Galaxy S7 have had, and have inexpensive file storage of indefinite lifetime, or you can upload to THe ClOuD and have your files held to the vagaries of data signals, Apple's servers not dying (they use Linux, lol, because Apple servers are utterly without merit whatever), and every so often they get hacked and your collection of nudes is sprayed across the internets. The latter costs more in the long run also.

"Oh, but you can access it across all your devices!" say the NPCs.

Seen one of these? It's a USB card reader. Your argument is invalid.

Why tech publications don't slate iProducts as the overpriced shite they are is only explicable by Apple payola or that they employ hipsters.

 

[Absolutego]

I went into the big Apple store in Plymouth in 2017 and grilled one of the sales NPCs about the lack of headphone socket and how to charge your phone and listen to music at the same time (not that you'd want to with a fucking iPhone, their distortion is twice that of current gen Android flagship phones and worse than some middle of the road phones) and asked where the socket was. The sales NPC (who deserves that title because they're told exactly what to say to customer objections word for word) said that Apple decided that a "hundred year old" standard needed updating and that they were being "courageous" in "leading the way" on this.

Firstly, Bluetooth audio sounds pants. It has hiss reminiscent of shit tier tape decks. Wired always sounds better.

Secondly, things persist for 100 years because there is no need to change them. It just works. You don't see people saying that the 4' 6" railway gauge needs updating because it's 150 years old, do we. No we do not. The 3.5mm plug is a design that works perfectly for what it needs to do.

Also, cloud storage is utterly pointless. You can either insert an SD card into an adjunct to the SIM card drawer, like my LG and most Sammies since the Galaxy S7 have had, and have inexpensive file storage of indefinite lifetime, or you can upload to THe ClOuD and have your files held to the vagaries of data signals, Apple's servers not dying (they use Linux, lol, because Apple servers are utterly without merit whatever), and every so often they get hacked and your collection of nudes is sprayed across the internets. The latter costs more in the long run also.

"Oh, but you can access it across all your devices!" say the NPCs.

Seen one of these? It's a USB card reader. Your argument is invalid.

Why tech publications don't slate iProducts as the overpriced shite they are is only explicable by Apple payola or that they employ hipsters.

Would you prefer they gave you the honest answer?

Spoiler: Why Apple got rid of the headphone jack

Battery life and mobile cpu performance has tapered off somewhat and our users are now complaining that all the horribly optimized 3rd party apps they run drain their batteries too quick. When we tried capping performance on those apps to try and boost battery life, they took us to court. So now we're doing whatever we can to cram the biggest, baddest battery in each of these phones, and the 3.5mm jack was the biggest single component left for us to eliminate. Did no one notice we also built a whole haptic feedback system for the same phone to save us a few millimeters on the home button? We know 99% of our audience will jump at the chance to buy another vaguely futuristic doodad in the airpods to lord over their peers, and those of you who are for-real bothered by it can go buy an Android already.

 

[ToroidalBoat]

I went into the big Apple store in Plymouth in 2017

What do you kiwis think of Apple stores in general?

I vaguely remember when they first opened, they had quite a bit of hype. There was one in Ginza (Tokyo) that had quite a line.

The stores themselves haven't changed much in almost 20 years.

 

[Floop]

Apple cult in a nutshell

 

[ToroidalBoat]

Apple is fairly innovative in at least one way: they're the only company I know of with a cult-like following among the customers.

 

[Never Scored]

Am I the only one who doesn't feel the need to spend $1k so their phone can have 8k rez and run PS3 emulators? Just get an off-brand $100 phone, this isn't 2014 anymore

I usually buy a used phone that's compatible with Lineage OS for like $100 and then use the F-Droid store for apps. Fuck Google and Apple.

 

[Notgoodwithusernames]

whelp my Mac has decided to go full autistic. Chrome wont work, Mac cleaner wont work Ive been locked out of icloud and imessage and my apple Id password doesnt work

 

[ToroidalBoat]

whelp my Mac has decided to go full autistic.

Remember those "switch to Mac" ads back in the '00s?

"It doesn't freeze, it doesn't crash." lol

 

[Feline Supremacist]

Remember those "switch to Mac" ads back in the '00s?

"It doesn't freeze, it doesn't crash." lol

It went full soy like this I'm a Mac ad, it trooned out.

 

[Ex Cummunicated Sasser HD]

What do you kiwis think of Apple stores in general?

I vaguely remember when they first opened, they had quite a bit of hype. There was one in Ginza (Tokyo) that had quite a line.

The stores themselves haven't changed much in almost 20 years.

I remember when you could go into an Apple Store and you would be looked after... I used to buy the 2.5Ghz Liquid Cooled G5 Macs with leaks for next to nothing, (because they used to leak the green fluid everywhere, or were at risk of it) and take them in to any store, and they would swap them out no questions asked for the highest spec Mac Pro's... Then the iPhone came out, and they are now a glorified phone shop... I used to buy leaking and rusting 2.5's for £50-100 a pop, and every time, it was no questions asked, straight swap for an Intel Mac Pro instead... Now you can't even buy anything without an "appointment"...

 

[ToroidalBoat]

Now you can't even buy anything without an "appointment"...

I guess they haven't changed much physically then.

What would Apple be like had they never invented the iPhone?