Apple iPhone

[Lenny]

Hey, don't look at me, I refuse to touch an iPod with a ten foot barge pole! I've not a nice little Sony MP3 player that's lasted me four years. And my Sony Ericsson is a brilliant phone, which I'd only replace with an updated model. Yeah, I like Sony.

 

[Commonmind]

I think debasing Apple's products has become somewhat trendy, which is a bit ironic considering that's generally the reason why people have come to dislike them so much.

I own an iPod, have used Macs most of my life and I find Apple is inherently a company that develops and delivers products to their consumers. That's really all they can be faulted for. And since the formula has been working for them, it's not very economical (read: smart) for them to "think differently" and do it another way. PC manufacturers cater to their consumers in the same exact manner (have you seen the eVGA FTW edition motherboard? Almost as pretentious, just as cheesy). The difference being that one camp (PC users) tend to think their somehow above the marketing fold and believe themselves to be objective consumers whom are more intelligent about their buying decisions. Funnily enough, this is the same mentality they spend the majority of their time insulting.

 

[Lenny]

I've got more of a problem with the customers, actually. The number of really arrogant, obnoxious Mac users and iPod owners I know who think the sun shines out of their arse becase they've got a Mac over a PC, or an iPod over any other MP3 player (granted, it's not usual these days, with the MP3 player market much more diluted, but in the early days it's all you heard)... gah. That's the attitude I've come to associate with Apple. I know it's generalisation, but it's what I see more often than not. And because I see that type of customer, I don't want to buy the product and become like them... there's also the fact that when the iPod came out there were loads of problems with it which really put me off. The same goes for the iPhone (and then you've got things like a 2 year contract just to use the damned thing).

 

[Commonmind]

You'll get no arguments from me in that department; their customers are generally a snobby bunch. I was more or less making the point that, in most cases, the PC users who complain about Apple products are inadvertently exuding the same attitudes and the same pretentious behaviors. They believe their platform is better, that they're smarter consumers because they buy products which they've decided are superior and one of their reasons for disliking Apple comes from their dislike for the aesthetic, yet they have their own tastes and what they buy adheres to those tastes just as is the case with an Apple customer.

I guess because I use both platforms on a daily basis and pick no favorites I have the luxury of seeing things from the outside. Both camps are out of their minds.

(And I should've clarified, Lenny, that I wasn't responding to your post)

 

[Highlander II]

I have an iPod, but I bought it to save both my sanity and avoid sending myself to jail for having taken out an evil co-worker.

I have no use for an iPhone (and I don't have the cash for it in any case).

I have no issues w/ Mac, other than the lack of the right-click function (b/c I use the hell out of it), otherwise, I'd consider an air-book (or whatever it is) - b/c it's uber!thin and way cool. But, alas, I can't afford that either.

 

[Commonmind]

The lack of a right-click function is contextual; it's a different platform and not really necessary (using the hell out of it on a PC isn't going to mean you use the hell out of it on a Mac, in other words). Though you can use any mouse you want with a Mac, so if you want to emulate that same interface experience you can do so. Now, it's been about 15 years since I actually bought a PC as I've been building mine for quite some time, but even the last PC I purchased (a Compaq Presario, I believe) came with a mouse and keyboard that made it to the bin quicker than the instruction manuals which told me how to connect them to the PS/2 ports. Same thing goes with the Macs I've owned -- which has nothing to do with the right-click functionality as much as the ergonomics of their mice and keyboards, which are horrendous.

 

[Lenny]

(And I should've clarified, Lenny, that I wasn't responding to your post)

I was just taking the chance to throw in my thoughts on the matter, really.

---

The MacBook Air... nice bit of engineering, but completely useless. Come on, 1 USB port? No DVD drive? Nor a firewire port, or an ethernet port. And it costs £1,199 ($1,799) for the base version?! It's more a street cred, look-at-me-I'm-rich-enough-to-throw-money-away, brag-worthy gadget then a useful machine. The fact that you can get laptops that are about the same width (I think Asus have made one?), with more things, and are probably the same price if not cheaper, makes me laugh at the MacBook Air. Sure, it's thin, it's 'cool' in its own way, but... "meh".

 

[Highlander II]

Honestly - I haven't spent much time looking at computers - desktop or laptop - beyond the 'hey, that's kind of neat' in the photos/ads, since I don't have any $$'s to throw at one.

So, it's nice to get the 'eh, it's cool, but really a bunch of junk' info!

 

[Lenny]

Seing as we've got the Tech forum now, whenever you want to know something, start a thread and I'll get back to you with what I know, or Commonmind might, or OR, or HappyJoe, Liesha, Momoka, or maybe even all of us. Seriously, we don't mind.

 

[Commonmind]

I'd definitely lend a hand where it was needed. And If one of us doesn't know the answer to something, there's a darn good chance we can point you in the right direction, at the very least.

Where the MacBook Air is concerned, it is made exactly for those types of people. Like Voodoo PC's, Falcon-Northwest PC's, and the score of other PC boxes that are considerably overpriced for what comes in the actual machine.

 

[Highlander II]

Honestly, the biggest appeal of the Air is that it's thin and light. Which, I have found, there are lots of others like that. None of which are in my current price range. ('Free' is a price range, right? *g*)