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IRecognition: I am no longer Apple's Target Market

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Re: IRecognition: I am no longer Apple's Target Market

#71
post #14

To all of those complaining about the new Apple devices, this is what you should do. You should vote with your wallet. I don't think that you are going to change Apple's mind, but this is the only way they'll listen. Personally, I think they are to far gone by now. The money pouring in has simply been to much to ignore. It's not the computer for the rest of us any more...It's the computer for the rest of them... (I a…

> To all of those complaining about the new Apple devices, this is what you should do. You should vote with your wallet.

But then how will people know I have Taste?

Re: IRecognition: I am no longer Apple's Target Market

#72
I don’t agree with the point on convergence. It seems clear to me that Apple is not turning OS X into iOS. It’s still very much a WIMP interface best suited for keyboard and mouse. Windows 8 is a good example of PC/tablet convergence, and however much you like or dislike that approach, it’s the opposite of what Apple is doing.

On some other points I do agree, like the gluing down and lack of expandability/repairability.

Re: IRecognition: I am no longer Apple's Target Market

#73
post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know if you can justify statement like that from the proposed evidence. The App Store and iTunes Store are pretty damned successful services, whether you like them or not. iCloud is not a joke, it does it's job well for the 99%. I turn on my new phone, enter my apple id, and I have all my settings, apps, etc synced and ready to go.

That is true, but they all represent somehow the older version of connected software, as a pure extension of the device rather than a service on it's own. iCloud works great for a device as an invisible backup, but you can't use it to share files, co-operate, publish, share data between applications, etc. And I'd say the popular web services of today are so because they integrate across services and socialize the usa…

Agreed. The Maps fiasco is a great illustration of how Apple have an institutional blind spot around the complexity of doing online, data-driven services right - and won't invest (despite $120bn in the bank) properly to deliver these. This is the single biggest thing that relegates them to "just a consumer electronics" firm - and as we know, CE firms are lucky to have 10 years on top.

The other interesting data point is the bidding for the new TLDs in summer 2012 (http://www.marketingmagazine.co.uk/news/rss/1136468/Amazon-G...). Amazon and Google bidded on 150+ new TLDs between them. Apple? With $120bn in the bank, they applied for... .apple. Even Microsoft understood the potential importance of this more than Apple (they applied for 5 or so - .live, .docs, .bing etc).

Re: IRecognition: I am no longer Apple's Target Market

#74
post #4

As far as the non-upgradability of the rMBP, I don't think it's as much of a dealbreaker as some people, but Apple really could've done better. Develop a new type of low profile memory module and SSD, I'm sure some people would complain but it would be replaceable/upgradable.

Apple butchered the standard SATA connector so you can't use third party SSDs from OCZ, Mushkin, Transcend, AData, Kingston etc. Only one vendor, OWC (MacSales), ships a compatible SSD, but of course you can't use it in non-Apple laptops which have a standard SATA connector. Picture in article here: http://www.mactrast.com/2012/11/apple-ssds-and-the-fusion-dr...

Manufacturers will come up with adaptors or compatible drives, shouldn't take long

Re: IRecognition: I am no longer Apple's Target Market

#75
post #41
post #12

What's weird is that this has been a running argument for almost the entire existence of Apple. Here's the thing though -- Apple hasn't changed. They are simply closer to their goals then ever. I'm not saying it's right. But computer as an appliance? That's the dream! In the 80s we would argue on Usenet that the WIMP interface was too simplistic, and that real computer users stuck to the command line only. Now, in 20…

I think it is not so much "computer as an appliance" which is the issue but the fact that you can do less and less with your computing devices, or that they become, in the end, more convoluted to use because of the design choices made. Like, turning a desktop computer operating OS to a tablet-like OS is just plain stupid and is a loss of efficiency. Otherwise I agree with you, Apple has not changed a bit. Some people…

>but the fact that you can do less and less with your computing devices

Actually you can do a hell of a lot more today.

Could you do HD video, real time 3D graphics, music, use thousands of modern APIs and languages with performance of several Gazillion flops in multiple cores, connect to everywhere on the planet, etc, with an Apple II, or a Mid-nineties IIci?

Besides the 1000x more powerful graphics and soundcard, you also have 100x more powerful programs, pervasive networking, tons of peripherals, from cheap printers to linux based robots and a FULL BLOWN UNIX underneath.

Re: IRecognition: I am no longer Apple's Target Market

#76
post #7

A serious Mac-head going Ubuntu. I am also surprised, and I've been running Linux since before Ubuntu even existed, back in the before-time when Red Hat was the default distro. But I refuse to be a partisan anymore. I remember when Apple was ... well, remember Mac OS 8? Remember the time before the iMac? Those computers made me wonder how newspapers ever got published. So I'm happy the Mac people have (mostly) usable…

I haven't used Ubuntu in two years. Is it true that there are now ads in it? Edit: I am referring to this http://yro.slashdot.org/story/12/09/22/1319216/ubuntu-will-n... I haven't seen them first hand, but I was hoping someone might give their opinion here.

I clean-installed Ubuntu 12.10 last weekend. Out of the box it has an Amazon icon in the side 'dock', I removed it and don't remember what it does. Searching with the 'dash' search box does bring up results from Amazon. The alt-f2 run box, while looking the same as the search box except for saying "run a command" instead of "search", does not perform the Amazon searches. Personally I wouldn't really consider it obtrusive, especially since I've been living with alt-f2 and dock autohiding. I had to go out of my way to find out how to bring up the ads.

Aside from that, I'm pretty disappointed with the desktop environment. It's pretty but managing windows is a pain (can't easily alt-tab into a specific terminal window, for instance; it also hijacks Alt key to enable menu item search). I'm looking to replace it soon, but then again I'm probably not the user Ubuntu is primarily targeting these days.

Re: IRecognition: I am no longer Apple's Target Market

#77
post #71
post #14

To all of those complaining about the new Apple devices, this is what you should do. You should vote with your wallet. I don't think that you are going to change Apple's mind, but this is the only way they'll listen. Personally, I think they are to far gone by now. The money pouring in has simply been to much to ignore. It's not the computer for the rest of us any more...It's the computer for the rest of them... (I a…

> To all of those complaining about the new Apple devices, this is what you should do. You should vote with your wallet. But then how will people know I have Taste?

The thing that's been keeping me from buying an Apple device is being associated with their users. This "better than you" attitude is something I just can't stand, it's repulsive. Instead of being ashamed that they wasted $3000 on a computer they could have had for $500 (and could have donated the other $2500), they feel smug about it? WTF!

Re: IRecognition: I am no longer Apple's Target Market

#78
post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can devs sign apps with a self-signed root? If that's not possible, it's a closed garden already. And even if it is we can't be certain that they won't change it to App Store only in the future.

Users can disable the check.

For now. All the apps out there are still signed with Apple's cert.

Re: IRecognition: I am no longer Apple's Target Market

#79
post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What is so wrong with iCloud? It does exactly what I want it to do - back up my phone and sync my data between devices. Maybe people try to use it for more than this?

I can tell you what is wrong with iCloud. It's supposed to be a sort of magical data sharing, but apparently it's only partially magical when it comes to OSX. Go ahead, make a keynote deck, or numbers spreadsheet. Save it to "the cloud," now go look at your ipad or iphone. Where the hell is it? So much for magic. Sharing is a royal pain in the ass with iOS. The gyrations I have to go through to move data from an ios…

Couldn't agree more. How about photos, something supposedly mainstream?! Have fun recreating all the events/albums/locations on each device. It's just a pain to deal with. Instead, I save my iPhoto library on Dropbox so that I can sync it between devices. Sub-optimal, to say the least. Apple services have always been underwhelming.

Re: IRecognition: I am no longer Apple's Target Market

#80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is true, but they all represent somehow the older version of connected software, as a pure extension of the device rather than a service on it's own. iCloud works great for a device as an invisible backup, but you can't use it to share files, co-operate, publish, share data between applications, etc. And I'd say the popular web services of today are so because they integrate across services and socialize the usa…

Agreed. The Maps fiasco is a great illustration of how Apple have an institutional blind spot around the complexity of doing online, data-driven services right - and won't invest (despite $120bn in the bank) properly to deliver these. This is the single biggest thing that relegates them to "just a consumer electronics" firm - and as we know, CE firms are lucky to have 10 years on top. The other interesting data point…

This is the single biggest thing that relegates them to "just a consumer electronics" firm - and as we know, CE firms are lucky to have 10 years on top.

Yeah this is the thing exactly. Amazon and Google are essentially content plays in mobile. Devices can come and go but as long as people are using their services they're making money.

Apple is a hardware play and that gave them a big first-mover advantage but unless they can keep coming up with iPhone/iPad level home runs that advantage deteriorates quickly. I will never buy anything in iBooks, for example, because I don't want to be limited to Apple's devices to read my books, even if I do currently have an iPhone, iPad and MBA.

They do have some platform tie-in with iTunes Music but the writing is on the wall there. Subscription models are the way forward.

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