Slashdot Asks: What Do People Misunderstand or Underappreciate About Apple? (fastcompany.com) 487
In an interview with Fast Company, Apple CEO Tim Cook says people who have not used his company's products miss "how different Apple is versus other technology companies." A person who is just looking at the company's revenues and profits, says Cook, might think that Apple "is good at making money." But he says "that's not who we are. In Cook's view, Apple is: We're a group of people who are trying to change the world for the better, that's who we are. For us, technology is a background thing.
We don't want people to have to focus on bits and bytes and feeds and speeds. We don't want people to have to go to multiple [systems] or live with a device that's not integrated. We do the hardware and the software, and some of the key services as well, to provide a whole system. We do that in such a way that we infuse humanity into it. We take our values very seriously, and we want to make sure all of our products reflect those values. There are things like making sure that we're running our [U.S.] operations on 100% renewable energy, because we don't want to leave the earth worse than we found it. We make sure that we treat well all the people who are in our supply chain. We have incredible diversity, not as good as we want, but great diversity, and it's that diversity that yields products like this. What do you think?
We don't want people to have to focus on bits and bytes and feeds and speeds. We don't want people to have to go to multiple [systems] or live with a device that's not integrated. We do the hardware and the software, and some of the key services as well, to provide a whole system. We do that in such a way that we infuse humanity into it. We take our values very seriously, and we want to make sure all of our products reflect those values. There are things like making sure that we're running our [U.S.] operations on 100% renewable energy, because we don't want to leave the earth worse than we found it. We make sure that we treat well all the people who are in our supply chain. We have incredible diversity, not as good as we want, but great diversity, and it's that diversity that yields products like this. What do you think?
Here come the trolls... (Score:5, Insightful)
This whole article is clickbait trolling, getting the fanboys out to bloviate about how the Apple ecosystem is more than the sum of it's parts, and the haters to then reply about how that is comical horseshit, proven by single anecdote; etc.
Welcome to the new Slashdot.
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This whole article is clickbait trolling, getting the fanboys out to bloviate about how the Apple ecosystem is more than the sum of it's parts, and the haters to then reply about how that is comical horseshit, proven by single anecdote; etc.
Welcome to the new Slashdot.
OK, I'll try to answer honestly without being a fanboi or "hater".
"We don't want people to have to focus on bits and bytes and feeds and speeds. We don't want people to have to go to multiple [systems] or live with a device that's not integrated. We do the hardware and the software, and some of the key services as well, to provide a whole system. We do that in such a way that we infuse humanity into it."
I want to be able to focus on bits and bytes when I want to. I don't care if systems are integrated unles
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proven by single anecdote
Well, my iPhone did swell up and busted the case, but I can't praise the old ImageWriter LQ enough! It could even print PostSript.
Well, you can praise a wonderful Imagewriter Driver, actually.
It "simply" rasterized the PS output, and the ImageWriter (still a FINE Dot Matrix Printer!) simply "painted" the resultant rasterized image onto the paper.
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So you mean:
Less stuff than the Old Slashdot. Lame.
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Lets get real. The slashdot apple stuff, was Apple PR staff trying to fill slashdot with hype marketing and slashdotters reacting by attacking Apple PR staff, not by attacking them but by attacking their messaging. So more discussion and verbal fencing rather than arguing. Most slashdotters could not give a fuck about Apple (unless they want to stick it to M$ for what ever reason they choose), just another tech company but hype marketing is annoying as fuck and fully deserves to be taken to pieces by sticki
Is The Article's Title For Real? (Score:5, Insightful)
All in the Past (Score:3, Insightful)
There USED to be something special to misunderstand or underappreciated.
But that's all done now.
Apple is now just another HP or Dell
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There USED to be something special to misunderstand or underappreciated.
But that's all done now.
Apple is now just another HP or Dell
Seriously?
HP or Dell writes their own OS and Application Software from the ground-up (HP's shitty Printer and Scanner crap doesn't count!)?
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The Light is out at Apple.
Cook is a mere reflection of what used to shine.
Apple is coasting on decades of momentum, and slowing down with every "new" product that isn't actually new.
Re:All in the Past (Score:4, Insightful)
Apple is coasting on decades of momentum, and slowing down with every "new" product that isn't actually new.
Really? What technology company do YOU run?
What consumer products have YOU designed that have sold millions upon millions of units?
Thought so.
Why does it matter? What is the relevance? Say one is able to rattle off a subjectively impressive list of them would it make OPs statement any more or less true?
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Naw, and I think you just illustrated the point I'm about to make.
HP, Dell, ASUS, Acer, et al. Those are hardware-only companies. They produce computers to Microsoft's specs and Microsoft takes care of the software. Got a low-budget laptop? Crap video drivers from three years ago won't play nice with the latest update? Want to run that game but the specs are too low? Too bad. Should have spent more money. Hell, MS won't even guarantee Windows will run on any given system, let alone an application.
Apple is both a hardware and a software vendor. They create the hardware and the software together for maximum compatibility. Does everything work all the time? Hell no. Do things fail in bunches because Apple's vendors got cheap? Hell yeah. Is Apple perfect. Nope. But, if you buy an apple system you can bet the OS will run flawlessly on that hardware and you can bet that any problems your apps have are from the app vendor and not from Apple.
Tl;Dr. People assume Apple is just another PC maker these days but Apple is an OS maker, too. The OS and the hardware go hand in hand at Cupertino.
FINALLY, an AC that I can agree-with!
Kudos!
Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Is The Article's Title For Real? (Score:4, Informative)
Likely flamebait, but I'll bite:
My assessment of Apple:
Pros: simple to use, appealing and reliable hardware, decent hardware-software integration, frequent software updates, generally secure, mature ecosystem, privacy tolerant
Cons: expensive, limited features, highly controlling, abandoned product lines, erratic decisionmaking
Expensive? You mean like the iPhone X, that costs a whopping $50 more than the Samsung Note 8?
Limited Features? Like FOUR USB-C Ports on a Laptop, for an aggregate 80 Gb/s I/O bandwidth, and which can be easily and inexpensively broken-out into a MYRIAD of different configurations, up to FIFTY-TWO SIMULTANEOUS "Legacy" Ports?
Highly Controlling? Like for example, the fact that, since iOS 8, Apple has officially allowed "Sideloading" of Apps on iOS Devices, both through Open Source XCode Application-Building, and through the loading of precompiled .ipa files using Cydia Impactor, which runs on every desktop platform?
Abandoned Product Lines? Every OEM drops products and sometimes whole product-lines. So?
Erratic Decision-Making? As compared with, say, Microsoft? Yeahrightsure...
Re:Is The Article's Title For Real? (Score:5, Insightful)
So that you can carry a dongle for everything that your device ought to do built-in, like the $70 dongle just to get HDMI output for watching movies in your hotel room. Limited features.
Like the fact that we had to scream for an entire decade to get that capability.
Every vendor doesn't build the only products compatible with their OS, or require that all iOS apps be compiled on Macs. Ever try to set up a build/test farm now that the XServe is discontinued? See also "Highly Controlling".
I'm not sure what the GP was thinking about here. Apple's decision-making is pretty self-consistent. As of late, it has resulted in some rather bizarre outcomes, but the logic resulting in those bizarre outcomes was self-consistent, and thus not erratic.
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HDMI is legacy now. The Reality Distortion Field is strong with this one.
Re:Is The Article's Title For Real? (Score:4, Insightful)
Pros: A much more sensible application packaging model than Windows or Linux, resulting in fewer conflicts and other surprises; a robust, extensible driver architecture (Mac only) that again has fewer conflicts and other surprises; generally reliable hardware (with a fair number of notable exceptions).
Cons: frequent software updates and an inadequate bug fix rate.
Getting regular software updates is useful in that it is always improving, but it is also annoying, because updates involve not using the device for potentially an extended period of time (sometimes as much as half an hour on spinning-rust Macs). I'd rather have fewer, larger updates, with the exception of security updates, which should be tiny and should install quickly.
The major updates make the problem even worse. Apple provides security updates for the last two OS releases. That used to mean you could go four to six years without doing a major OS upgrade, so if something is broken, you had half a decade to deal with it. Now, if something gets broken by a major update, you have two years to find a replacement. And when support for your hardware gets dropped, you have two years to buy a replacement.
And it feels like the bug fix rate really isn't keeping up with the bug creation rate lately. Yesterday, I ran into a bug where some test code wouldn't compile, and there was no obvious reason why. It turns out Apple left out a couple of very important parentheses in a number of their XCTAssert macros. Somebody filed a bug about it (rdar://14504007) in 2013, and almost five years later, they still haven't fixed it, even though the fix should be zero-risk and would literally take seconds to fix. Checking the change into their build system would take longer than the fix.
One of the things I consider important when it comes to judging the quality of software is whether the manufacturer fixes the bugs that I care about. Obviously, bugs that affect the most users must have the highest priority, but that doesn't mean the other bugs shouldn't eventually get fixed. Unfortunately, at Apple, it is common for projects to gets cancelled with crazy numbers of bugs still open (and then closed as NTBF). I'm not sure if their bug triaging processes are simply inadequate, if they just don't have enough people to fix bugs, or if they are just introducing too many new bugs (and thus running out of time to fix old ones), but either way, when something can be fixed in minutes and it still hasn't happened after five years, something is very, very wrong.
And it isn't just developer-facing bugs, either. If you've ever used CarPlay and sworn when your car starts playing music as soon as you get into the car, there's an open bug asking for a switch to turn that off. That's a pretty big annoyance for a *lot* of people, but the bug is still unfixed after almost two years.
Re:Is The Article's Title For Real? (Score:5, Insightful)
Easy to use. Won't do most things.
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I am thinking it must be a slow news day and the article's title is a big fat troll to start an Apple flame-war.
ANY Article with the word "Apple" in the Title is enough to do that around here...
The Russians must have good estimates (Score:3)
It would take a lot of convincing (Score:5, Insightful)
Which part am I mistaken about?
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From all outward appearances they are pretty much exactly the same as any of their competitors. Worse in some ways. They appear to make their products in other countries and import the products into the USA. They appear to evade paying taxes whenever possible. They try to force customers who have paid for an imported hardware product to only buy software from their store. Which part am I mistaken about?
You missed the infused humanity!!
Infused greed (Score:2)
You missed the infused humanity!!
No, he was just pointing out that today the bit of humanity that Apple infuses into its product today is greed....and possibly a love of dongles.
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The important outward appearance that's different is that they're not making money off your data by advertising. They have a pretty strong track record of protecting your privacy, not deliberately mining your data.
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The important outward appearance that's different is that they're not making money off your data by advertising. They have a pretty strong track record of protecting your privacy, not deliberately mining your data.
BINGO!!!!
Re:It would take a lot of convincing (Score:5, Informative)
I think that is just marketing. If you read their privacy policy it is actually pretty bad. It's basically the extreme case of "all your data are belong to us" and we'll use it however we want.
Apple considers the "unique device identifier", "location", and "search queries" as non-personal information which they can do anything they want with including sell. They consider information that is personal as non-personal (even your location) and even if they did consider it personal, they say they share personal information for marketing purposes.
Non-personal information according to Apple:
"We may collect, use, transfer, and disclose non-personal information for any purpose."
"At times Apple may make certain personal information available to strategic partners that work with Apple to provide products and services, or that help Apple market to customers."
"Apple and our partners and licensees may collect, use, and share precise location data, including the real-time geographic location of your Apple computer or device."
Source:
https://www.apple.com/legal/pr... [apple.com]
Re:It would take a lot of convincing (Score:5, Insightful)
From all outward appearances they are pretty much exactly the same as any of their competitors.
This is the misunderstanding. Apple does have one fundamental difference from its competitors. (BTW, the examples of corporate bad behavior you cited are correct and are pretty common.) Apple has a core belief that "making the whole widget" is an inherently superior idea because it allows you to provide an end-to-end QA and user experience. Steve Jobs said it himself, multiple times; it's also why practically his first act after coming back to the company was to kill the Mac clone market. If you complain about Apple's walled garden, you fundamentally misunderstand their strategy because they don't see it as a limitation but as their core differentiator.
If you don't like walled gardens, don't buy Apple products. But don't pretend like it is a tactical error on their part. It's their entire strategy. And you can make the argument either way about whether making the hardware + the OS + the store + the services is better or not, but it's the one thing that defines Apple. We have even seen their competitors adopt the same idea in some cases - see the Surface or the Pixel phone - so there must be at least something to it. But it's what Apple is 100% committed to.
Most companies can become very successful if they ever pull a single "rabbit out of the hat" - a category-defining product (even if it isn't first to market). And that's all most companies ever get, even if they're lucky. Apple under Steve Jobs pulled three rabbits out of the hat:
Three rabbits makes you the biggest company in the world by market valuation. Apple has been coasting off the backs of those products ever since. But still nothing has changed their "build the whole widget" approach and most likely nothing ever will.
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That might be true now (Score:2)
What Apple had was an expensive device that everyone could see you owning. This is similar to what Beats by Dre did, and it's exactly why Apple bought them.
Now, I don't find Apple devices play that much better together then Windows ones. My kid is all Apple (iPhone, iPad, Macbook
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but they got their start as a Veblen good.
I assure you they did not start that way [bott.org].
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From all outward appearances they are pretty much exactly the same as any of their competitors. Worse in some ways. They appear to make their products in other countries and import the products into the USA. They appear to evade paying taxes whenever possible. They try to force customers who have paid for an imported hardware product to only buy software from their store.
Which part am I mistaken about?
As you said "The same as any of their competitors." Except for your mis-statement ... to only buy software from their store".
"Try to force customers
Macs have NEVER been "Apple Store Only".
iOS Devices haven't been "Apple Store Only" since 2014.
So, demonstrably incorrect.
It's a UNIX & FOSS (Score:3, Interesting)
Clang, LLVM, WebKit, launchd, Grand Central Dispatch. CUPS web interface went from "13 year old with HTML" to "This is usable" after Apple hired the developer.
I left Apple product a while ago. But I can say for almost certain that I wouldn't have the career I have now or a household running FreeBSD/Linux if it wasn't for OS X' underpinnings.
Ironically I've actually used some of my PPC knowledge at work because a lot of embedded automotive controllers are based on the e200 cores.
Dear Tim Cook: Fuck You (Score:5, Insightful)
We're a group of people who are trying to change the world for the better, that's who we are. For us, technology is a background thing.
This pretty concisely sums up everything that is wrong with the tech industry: this sort of smarmy hubris is why everybody else wants to repeatedly smack Teh Tech Bros with a length of hose.
Here's a realistic answer (Score:5, Insightful)
People don't appreciate that:
1. It's much harder to create good industrial design than it is to copy it. When the Macbook Air was released, it was breathtaking. So were the first few iterations of the iPad and the iPhone. After the first big wins, it gets much harder to play the "smaller, faster, more storage and sleeker" game.
2. Technology matures. Many people rant that Apple's innovation around the iPhone and iPad has slowed. Of course it has, because all of the obvious things have been done over the last decade. It's like automobile technology -- once manufacturers figured out where all the basic components needed to go, they have cheerfully chugged along for decades with gradual improvement.
3. If you're the market leader, there is no value in going down-market. Apple does an outstanding job of maintaining margins without resorting to selling a bewildering array of phones at all price points in a desperate attempt to gain market share. Nobody wants a Samsung J3 or an LG K4. They're cheap pieces of junk that you only buy if you can't afford a decent phone.
4. Maintaining and developing iOS is a massive undertaking that Apple's competitors (with the exception of Google) don't have to undertake. We've seen Samsung's attempt at a third-party OS, and it was dismal.
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When the Macbook Air was released, it was breathtaking.
Wow, dude, it's just a laptop. You really need to get out more.
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1. It's much harder to create good industrial design than it is to copy it. When the Macbook Air was released, it was breathtaking.
Are you serious? Breathtaking? Lenovo T series was already better than MacBook in every way when Air was released.
2. Technology matures. Many people rant that Apple's innovation around the iPhone and iPad has slowed. Of course it has, because all of the obvious things have been done over the last decade.
What innovation? A computer encased in a display and touch screen for human interface. When people say Apple innovated what precisely...specifically are they referring to? I always hear about how innovative companies are but nobody ever bothers to explain exactly what the hell they are talking about. What is innovative about a painful to use slow physical interface that makes productive wo
Not invented here syndrome (Score:5, Insightful)
We don't want people to have to go to multiple [systems] or live with a device that's not integrated
When your device doesn't integrate with anything else then your device sucks. There is a standard called USB why don't you use it? Apple is an extremely annoying company with the "not invented here" mentality. If I have to bring a different cable for every iDevice everywhere I go I will not buy your product.
might think that Apple "is good at making money." But he says "that's not who we are
It's easy to make money when you don't pay any taxes.
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Should have stayed with "good at making money" (Score:2)
Apple (Score:5, Insightful)
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Not quite. You can still buy a $10 pair of headphones, you just can't use them easily with your iPhone
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It's a crock (Score:5, Interesting)
Case in point: I was just given an iPad (company anniversary gift). It's my first Apple device. After a month of trying to get it to work for me, I'm probably going to have to turn it into a streaming/gaming device for my kids. Why?
Apple's trust model is broken. On iOS, apps are assumed to be not trustworthy, so they put them in a sandbox. This means one app can't access another app's local files. On the other hand, for some reason, the cloud is assumed to be trustworthy. If I use iCloud, Dropbox, OneDrive, or any other cloud provider, I can open and save files to any cloud folder.
I've spent a couple years de-cloudifying myself because as we all know, the cloud is just somebody else's computer. According to my philosophy, therefore, the cloud is inherently untrustworthy, and I don't want my data on somebody else's computer. This is why my devices have local storage: to hold my data. If I want to share it, I use Syncthing (https://syncthing.net) and I can then access it on the local storage of one of my other devices. I'm therefore not sharing todos, notes, files, or anything else I choose not to share with Apple, Google, Amazon, or anybody else who may decide at some point to mine my data.
On Android, I have the choice to configure my device this way. On my iPad, I do not. It is, essentially, then, not my device. It's Apple's. It's bound to their trust model, which says Apple is trustworthy (their apps can access the new "On my iPad" file selector), but 3rd party apps are not (even sync apps like Resilio Sync or Syncthing). Their trust model, therefore, makes the device useless to me.
Sure, what Tim Cook says has some truth to it: if I were willing to share all my stuff on other people's computers, I would be able to use the iPad without thinking about "bits and bytes and feeds and speeds." But their "whole system" means sharing personal life data to an unprecedented extent with Apple. That's not bringing humanity to computing. That's giving over our humanity to be stored by one or more corporations. It's a classic example of forging an easy path for Lemmings to go--where? And that's the problem. We don't know if we're heading for the safe exit or dropping off the cliff.
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I don't want my data on somebody else's computer.
Oh my gosh, can you enumerate over all the terrible ways that Apple could misuse your family photos in furtherance of their own profit?
I'm extremely curious, because I've bought a new tinfoil hat and I'm desperately searching for any reason to use it.
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I don't get your rant.
Why don't you simply switch off sharing via iCloud? Like everyone else does?
And why do you like DropBox but hate iCloud?
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To be correct, iCloud doesn't back up a lot of data. Like HealthKit data is NOT backed up. Or passwords. Or anything sensitive.
Remember, if it's backed up, it's potentially available to law enforcement via a request. It doesn't matter if it's encrypted or whatnot, if Apple holds it, Apple may have to give it up.
And there ar
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Apple is really (Score:4, Interesting)
Don't get me wrong, I do have 2 macs and a Developer ID and do iOS development work for In-House deployment. In addition to the other development work i do.
But from top to bottom, it is all about regulation (by Apple) and control (by Apple). Those who have not been through the development process from beginning to end. Have no idea how many hoops you need to jump through. I think one spends almost as much time getting the app deployed. As is spent developing it. And things are changing all the time. Such that even the individuals at Apple give bad advise about how to go about things. But I will also say, this they do try to help
I will also say this, while the learning curve was very steep. Now that I know my way around quite well. The 2+ years of on the side self education was worth it.
Just my 2 cents
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We misunderstand everything (Score:2)
And underappreciate nothing.
Easy.
Seriously? (Score:2)
The operating system (Score:2)
Im only half joking.
One underappreciated thing (Score:2)
They don't use systemd, do they? At least not yet.
I'm not an Apple fan, I'm an Amiga guy... (Score:2)
...but you gotta understand why Apple is still a player:
What alternative do you have today? Android? Pc? If that was left - there's really no competition to drive innovation forward.
Apple appeals to people who wants their technology to be not only functional, but pretty. It's like you're buying a lifestyle choice, you're not only purchasing a computer or yet another phone - you're buying a fashion statement, and you can still do what others do - but with less fuss and less nerding around drivers, updates, v
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I think viruses dont spread on Linux is not so much due to the OS as the user base. Windows is used by the proleteriat who will do stupid stuff like sticking a USB drive into a computer. Linux is the preferred choice of nerds who follow good security practices as second nature so virus writers in the Linux space have to be masochists or the Gautam Buddha because they definitely are going to get the satisfaction of seeing their wares take off. Windows is a lot more rewarding to malware writers.
Treat well? (Score:2)
"We make sure that we treat well all the people who are in our supply chain." Because all of those not treated well all ended up jumping to their deaths at the Foxconn factory.
personal experience (Score:2, Interesting)
Flamebait question, but I'll bite:
When I switched to Apple about 10 years ago, I thought I'd dual-boot Linux and/or Windows on it, and check out OS X out of curiosity. That I'm still buying their stuff is as good an evidence as I have that they are doing something right, at least as far as my experience is concerned.
It turned out that I never installed Linux, and the Bootcamp Windows install was used mostly for games, and then less and less, and the most recent iMac I bought doesn't even have one anymore.
So
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"The first thing I noticed on my first Mac was that drag & drop actually worked!"
What? Seriously, this is like the dumbest thing I have ever seen someone saying favorably for a Mac.
I own a Mac for development and it's like using an OS from 14 years ago. Dated, dumb-down and designed for shaved apes.
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Tim is right that Apple considers technology to be simply the tool that enables them to do the actual thing that needs to be done. For a nerd, that is at first difficult to get, but more normal people get it immediately. They don't buy a phone for the CPU or the graphics performance or the memory size. They buy it to make calls, take pictures, check their calendar (and today, to use whatever app is hip this week).
Yet, isn't it funny that iPhones regularly trounce the competition in exactly those performance metrics?
WTF? Seriously? (Score:2)
What a bizarre meta article ...
Anyway:
The whole point about Apple is that anyone gets it within a few minutes of using their devices. That's Apple. If you don't get Apple, no amount of explaining will help. Even people who have solid reasons to steer clear of Apple appreciate Apple.
This question is awkward and pointless in so many ways it's almost metaphysical.
Yeah. Sure. (Score:2)
Which is why your hardware has to be thrown out every three years because you refuse to allow it be upgraded which would extend its life.
Which is the manufacturing process to create your products involves scooping out giant holes in the ground to extract small quantities of rare minerals, and all the resultant waste products.
Which is why you just built a huge flying saucer for your headquarters, chewing up who know how many resou
Apple is not a technology company (Score:2)
Apple is a consumer electronics company.
It was founded by a Product guy not an engineer
They dont care about being innovative and the first to come out with a feature - they almost never are the first on anything
Their focus is on making a device which just works which even the dumbest user cant screw up too badly.
They will copy the innovations of others, round out the rough edges, simplify, dumb down and make something which meets the needs of 80% of the target market
They do not invest in core engineering re
Bullshit (Score:2)
Apple is all about moving money into their own pockets. Nothing more, nothing less. Stop making profits if you want to convince me. Until then, apple is no better than any other company out for my money, or any thief or robber.
Here is a huge misunderstanding about Apple (Score:4, Interesting)
They're easy to use.
I have never ever found an Apple product easy to use. My brother convinced my parents to ditch their Win7 machine for a Mac. I warned them against it, saying I couldn't help them with it if they did. They got it anyway. And it's been a disaster. I get all kinds of questions that I have no idea how to answer because I don't live in that universe. I am sure a Mac person would be able to easily help them, but they got it under the pretense that it was so easy to use that you didn't need any support for it. Now it could be that it is just my brother's misguided advice, because he's a dumbass. He can't help them either, but pretends like he can.
I got my daughter an ipod a few years ago, and she used it for facetiming her friends who had iphones, as well as music. It was fine, but to get music on it was a nightmare, every single time I put more on there for her. I never ever got it to work smoothly. Since she got her own phone (android) it's simple for her to get music.
I seriously don't understand how people think their products are easy to use.
But I run linux, so i know I am likely the odd one out.
What people underappreciate about Apple (Score:2)
They used to say that about IBM, but it applies to Apple too. To be fair, I've had iPhones for years and I have an iMac at home and I do like the iMac. I think Time Machine is a really nice, hugely user friendly backup program that has worked really well for me when I've needed it. It hasn't been too hard to get stuff to work on a Mac, unlike Windows where, well, you know. Macs are good computers for people who might be, uh, technically
You're underappreciating it wrong! (Score:2)
Tim says: to underappreciate Apple products correctly you should exclude the following list of violated principles and values:
Those are childish and unrealistic ideals, you would be nothing less than a stallmanite
Easy Answer (Score:2)
Everything.
But I don't think that most people actually MISunderstand. More like "Willful Ignorance".
Some people constantly and reflexively run to the most over-the-top, avaricious, out of all reasonable control and above all, SINISTER, "motives" behind each and every utterance, change, mistake or announcement that Apple makes.
That, and the constant meme of "Well, I can do that for $10" or "Nobody but (100s of millions of) sheeple buy CRapple Products."
It just gets old. Apple certainly isn't perfect; but if
Complete and utter bullshit (Score:2)
If Apple truly wanted to "change the world for the better" then they wouldn't be focusing on a business model revolving around pushing non-upgradeable, non-repairable, non-recyclable computers and electronic devices with built-in planned obsolescence, along with technological and marketing pressure to "encourage" users to throw them away and replace them every two years. Along with a cult-like marketing campaign that carefully grooms their userbase into treating their products like fashion-statement status-
Obsolescence - fact or fiction? (Score:2)
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Just consumer stuff (Score:2)
What people underappreciate (Score:2)
Declare independence (Score:2)
Apple. Isn't that that company run by that dead guy that said "I will spend my last dying breath if I need to, and I will spend every penny of Apple's $40 billion in the bank, to right this wrong. I'm going to destroy Android, because it's a stolen product. I'm willing to go thermonuclear war on this."?
Apple still behaves like the post-mortem vehicle of Steve Jobs' hatred. Towards Google but also towards everybody getting in its way, including their own employees. Apple is a patent troll that makes some of
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I love fingerprints all over my screen. So awesome. Every smudge, every streak. All computers should look like that, especially ones with 15 inch and larger screens.
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...your taxes then?
Why? What obligation does Apple have to give money to the government outside the legal minimum in taxes they're required to pay? If Apple can take advantage of a loophole that allows them to legally avoid paying taxes, more power to them. If you're paying more taxes than you are required to, you're an idiot.
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...your taxes then?
Why? What obligation does Apple have to give money to the government outside the legal minimum in taxes they're required to pay? If Apple can take advantage of a loophole that allows them to legally avoid paying taxes, more power to them. If you're paying more taxes than you are required to, you're an idiot.
Maybe so, but how does that jive with:
TC: For a casual observer who hasn’t been a user of our products, the thing that they might miss is how different Apple is versus other technology companies. A financial person just looking at revenues and profits may think, They’re good [at making money]. But that’s not who we are. We’re a group of people who are trying to change the world for the better, that’s who we are."
Apple exported hundreds of billions of dollars of profit from the US to foreign holdings in such a way that NO government would tax that money. Apple didn't give it to charity. They didn't use it to fund scholarships. They didn't start a foundation to cure diseases or house the homeless, or any other purpose that could "change the world for the better". They didn't even pay dividends to investors. Instead, they stuck it under their mattress.
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The biggest taxpayer was the most profitable: Apple, which reserved $15.8 billion for income taxes on $59 billion in operating income.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/c... [forbes.com]
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What applications just work? I use Inkscape a lot and it is brutal to use on osx, yet it works on windows and linux just fine. It's the same with almost any open source application I buy. Sure I could pay $50 for a text editor on osx and it would work, but in that case I would expect an expensive application to work anywhere.
And so that's APPLE's fault?
How, exactly?
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Man, posting a story like this to the Slashdot of today, all I can say is:
It's a Trap!
I haven't noticed a recognizable change in the average Slashtard Apple-Hater in the past 5 years here.
What do you see that's different?
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I know what it's like to be misunderstood and underappreciated. Like Apple, people often fail to grasp just how awesome I am. BECAUSE THEY JUST DON'T LISTEN.
Anyway, I hope Apple perseveres and doesn't give up because some day they'll get their due and the haters and losers will have to come crawling back on their knees and admit they were always wrong about Apple - that scrappy little underdog company that just never gave up.
Honestly, since I know you have Apple gear, I can't tell if you just forgot the sarcasm tag, or if that's how you GENUINELY feel...
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In a world dominated by Facebook and Google, Apple is hands-down the most privacy and security-focused major vendor. There's something important to be said for that.
Yup. And they have long-ago realized that that position is actually a MARKETABLE FEATURE. Thus, they have every reason in the world to CONTINUE to hold onto that DIFFERENTIATION.
I just wish the Slashtard Apple-Haters would see that.
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when I was learning electronics Apple was closed to all and IBM PCs were open to experimenting and 3rd party software. I've hated Apple ever since.
Never had an Apple ][ then, I suppose.
Just LOOK (Score:4, Funny)
What, are you people blind? It's right between the audio jack and the quick-release tab for the replaceable battery. I swear, what a bunch of trolls.