This is so wrong on so many levels (that have been captured very nicely here in this thread).
...ambitious attempt to reinvigorate people to buying music online. Funny, that. I never realized Apple was having such a hard time with the iTunes store, being the number one retailer of music and all.
That's odd, considering my experience of no memory issues with Safari and rock-solid stability (especially compared to Firefox) is with lesser gear than yours (MacBook 2gb memory, Intel iMac, 2gb memory). I would venture to guess you've got hardware issues and Safari isn't to blame.
Sorry if my previous post was addressing two different posts as well, as it probably was, and one of them wasn't yours. My apologies.
"Real car guys don't drive BMWs". Are you serious? Do you even have the slightest idea what you are talking about, or are you far too superior to us carbon-burning heathens? I bet you drive a Prius.
I'll admit, I was not up to snuff on the current reviews of the BMW lineups, but in the past, CR has been laughably bad when it comes to reviewing things about cars that matter to people who are passionate about cars. My analogy would be Reader's Digest reviewing computer gear.
BMW has been given an unfair reliability stigma by past CR reviews, only because parts in the US cost disproportionately more than they do in Europe. That's because we Americans actually consider crap like Malibus and Tauruses as acceptable for our hard earned dollars, when the rest of the world says, WTF?...the most advanced country in the world makes THOSE cars? All we've got is the.....Corvette (dubious, even that).
Disclaimer: I drive a 2008 Mazdaspeed 3, because I couldn't justify the extra $20k for the BMW I wanted. I also drive a Ford Contour SVT. I "think" I'm fairly accurately described as a "car guy".
to me a car has no more "soul" than a vacuum cleaner, so I don't know what you are talking about. You don't get cars, fair enough. At least you don't go around trying to give impartial reviews on a very subjective manner. I'm not sure if you are trying to bait me into some sort of argument by inferring that I have some crazy minority view about cars, but last I checked (in the countries I've lived...US, UK and Germany) people are crazy about cars. Some people want to get from point A to point B. Might I direct them to Consumer Reports for their next purchase...
I agree with your post entirely. My problem with CR is that, after their very thorough and fair unbiased review, they make a lame attempt at subjectivity in the narrative portion. It shows they know nothing about those things that make a car great to those people who love cars. How else would you explain the lackluster reviews of cars such as the BMW 3-series, that seem to win award after award in nearly every automotive journal on the shelves? My answer is that CR values cup holders over handling, because you can count cup holders by looking, but you actually have to have an engineering background to setup/test/observe skid-pad numbers. Plus, most consumers just don't care. They'll go buy a Toyota Corolla/Honda Civic and drive them until they explode at about 500,000 miles anyway.
Buying a car without reviewing the repair history of that model IS crazy though, and I would never be able to talk myself into a car with a poor repair history, no matter HOW passionate I may be.
Consumer Reports is not a good source for video game reviews because they take the subjectivity out of their reviews. Video-gaming is very subjective and it will be impossible for CR to capture the nuances and evaluate them with any effect. This goes for ANYTHING that people have passion for. While CR does good, unbiased reports on the boring everyday items such as blenders and vacuum cleaners, their car reviews are awful and hold no water except with people who like to drive cars that have no soul...same goes for any video game review they'll attempt.
Your fanaticism is showing, young man. Thanks for the compliment (not a fanatic, but not a young man either).
The fact remains that Ballmer is completely spinning a statistic and this has NOTHING to do with Apple, nor did I imply it did. The only thing that Apple has to do with this is that they are nearing the 10% market-share, which makes it statistically impossible for Windows to have 100% of the market (unless, like I inferred, they start bundling Vista on a bootcamp partition for all Macs sold...even then, you still have the Linux variants stealing market share as well.)
I generally have no problem with CEOs who say things to put their company in a better light, but such transparent claims are an insult to the intelligence. As the leader of the largest technology company in the world, he should probably know that Vista is NOT selling on 100% of the world's computers. He DOES know this isn't true, which is actually a bigger offense than if he were just factually incorrect.
What disadvantage does Firefox have vs Safari? You assume features are more important than usability (maybe for you, not for me though). You also seem to be assuming that Safari runs the same on PCs as it does on Macs. Speaking for Safari on a Mac, it doesn't seem have the problems that the PC version does. It is by far, more stable and faster than Firefox. I personally prefer responsiveness and stability over plug-in features. Firefox crashes far too frequently in OSX for me (although it is my default browser in XP). When given the choice of faster, more responsive, more stable (Safari never crashes on my Macs) or lots of plug-ins, I'll take Safari any day.
While it was a bad PR move for Apple, what is the damage? Uninstalling Safari takes a few minutes...big whoop. It's not like it took over and became the default browser, rendering your 100 Firefox plug-ins useless after all.
Still using IE because my work intranet doesn't work on anything but...
Still using Safari (on my Mac at home) because it is the fastest and most stable browser of the four I've tried (probably more secure as well, but I can't be for sure). Regardless, I'll take responsiveness and stability over security any day.
I scored 130 on that test. Guess I'm not too bright.
I'm sorry, but wasn't it Apple that started making commercials that separated Macs from PCs? ...completely irrelevant to the evolution of the term PC meaning "IBM-compatible" from back in the 80s/early 90s. Plus, discerning Macs from PCs is not a new phenomena attributable to Apple TV commercials.
In other words, even though Apple does have the Mac vs. PC commercials, this conversation isn't about Apple...it's about the pathetically flawed logic of Microsoft's CEO and his blatant spin that is about as transparent as a jellyfish.
100% of new PCs eh? So Microsoft has started bundling Vista in OSX Bootcamp partitions?
Back in, oh, 1983-ish, I realized that PC stood for personal computer. Maybe Balmer will start calling Windows-based PCs IBM compatibles...that'll really show us how on top of the industry he is.
Start here...it was the first link returned from a Goolgle search for Mac OSX themes. (I hear Unsanity kinda broke under Leopard, though, so use at your own risk).
Now before you (or anyone else) point out the obvious that this is a third party solution, I would just like to let it be known that with my XP box I get the choice of Blue or Olive.
My mistake. Still, not telling the truth is far different than being factually incorrect, as the former implies that the truth is known, but one is withholding it. The later, well, the dude's just wrong and doesn't know any better, which is what I expect 99% of all disgruntled callers to be. I guess I have a grievance with ignorance being labeled as not being truthful.
See, you make my point exactly. What you are calling a lie, is not a lie. He is telling you something that is factually incorrect, making your job harder to accomplish. A misunderstanding, regardless of who's not understanding correctly is not a lie. I get a little suspicious when people start throwing the "lie" tag around, because if you stop and think about it, what does a user have to gain by lying during a tech support call?
iPods no longer coming with the CD for iTunes. Yeah, because you'd never download and install iTunes? Who uses CDs anymore? What is the value of including a physical cd versus the cost tradeoff of the materials required? At some point it only makes sense to stop shipping physical media that most people don't use. (What percentage of iPod users, for example, don't already have an iPod and iTunes installed?)
iPod batteries being the worst in the world. Says you. Just because a bunch of people bitched about batteries that died on SECOND GENERATION iPods (how many years ago was that, and please tell me you have proof that Apple made the deliberate decision to choose faulty batteries for sake of saving on costs). The last three gens of iPods (especially the flash based nanos have awesome batteries. Mine will play for DAYS between recharges.
Macbook monitors being 18 bit color (or whatever they were). The MacBook is a consumer level laptop with a more than adequate screen and resolution. Most reviews tend to agree that it is one of the best monitors in its segment.
1 button mouse for about a million years. Why would a 1 button mouse be any cheaper to produce than a two button mouse. Nice old argument too, considering Apple no longer makes one button mice.
Untreated keyboard lettering on the macbook (pro?) that rubs off. Citation?
Weakest screen ever for the early iPod nano (I think). Ever? Again, citation. It sounds like you've taken every complaint ever staked against Apple that has affected 1% of users and are just regurgitating it here.
Extensive use of adhesive tape in iMacs.
Plastic, plastic, plastic. What's the complaint? My iMac and my MacBook have been the best quality computers I've owned, especially at the consumer-level. Maybe the iMac is held together by tape, but its damned better than all the cheap silver screws my PC is held together with. And if you are complaining about the plastic, if only ALL plastic items I owned were like the iMac plastic...
White or black? (Or white?) So you expect Apple to make any color you want? A limited product line and options isn't cutting corners, it's running a business. You forgot brushed aluminum.
No 3G (soon though). More threads on/. than I can count address this. This is a performance tradeoff based on technical limitations, not a cost cutting measure.
Short cables on mice and keyboards. Cables on mice and keyboards?
Flimsy/weak power connectors (but omg magsafe!). Ooooh, I might have to give you one here. I had to replace my magsafe after 18 months. Whoopty friggin' dooo! (It was ridiculously expensive though, and all I needed was the end that plugs into the computer, but had to buy the whole cable.)
Blatantly insufficient heat sinks/fans on iMacs. Blatantly not true. Weekends at my house consist of two kids playing World of Warcraft non-stop for 20 hours at a time and the fan nary even fires up. The thing isn't even hot to the touch, outside of the screen itself.
These are all fairly recent, and if I had an Apple product in front of me I could list more. If I opened it up I'd be here all day. Better yet, I wish you'd have reliable sources. I've heard some of these things you say, but like I said, it sounds like you are just regurgitating the Apple-gripe-of-the-day.
I would have loved to made $40k a year in 1992 dollars when I graduated college. Problem is, I had to join the Army because there WERE no jobs in 1992, and the Army doesn't quite pay $40k a year for entry-level positions.
Lying through their teeth, or simply not understanding or communicating the same things you were? I can't think of the first reason somebody who makes the effort to call a support center would need to lie about anything. Very curious indeed.
Interesting. I eat most of that stuff you listed in normal portions and it doesn't leave me feeling hungry (5'8" 180 lbs.) Call me lucky, I suppose. Something to consider is spreading out food over the day. I eat a cup of oatmeal at my desk first thing when I get to work (probably has HFCS), coffee (loaded with real cane sugar...mmm) and a banana. Then about an hour later I have a yogurt (probably HFCS laden) and one of those fruit cup thingies a little bit later. I usually eat a sandwhich (cold-cut, or old fashioned pb&j) at 11:30, then usually a granola bar/candy bar in the afternoon before going to the gym after work. Then at home, a normal dinner with no regard to health value. Fried chicken, pizza, greasy burgers, pasta, pasta, and usually pasta. Human sized portions being the key. My wife and I eat probably the same amount of food between us that one person would get at an Applebees or an Outback Steakhouse joint.
Fat people are fat because they (most) want to be. Their problem though. Their right also. I don't agree, nor did my original post try to make the point that fat people are fat because they WANT to be. My only point is that being fat, or not being fat, can be controlled by the individual, unlike things like how tall you are or what your voice sounds like.
Fatness, more specifically, obesity, is one of the few physical traits we can control. To an extent we can hide ugly with makeup/surgery/clothes and we can go tanning or dye or hair, but that really is just a costume. We can, however, directly control or body fat content (to a reasonable degree, based on body types) by controlling what we eat and exercising. It is such an easy formula--some people just have a hard time following it, even though most people understand it (including my overweight 12 year old son).
Man, you people just don't get it. There is a huge difference in me being peeved that someone THINKS I'm trying to impress them with my gadgets and some douche who walks around TRYING to impress people with cheap, stupid gadgets. If the point is that we are trying to impress people with expensive gadgets, then why a $49 ear-piece? The only conclusion I've come to is these people have personality disorders and don't realize it isn't polite to blabber on about your personal affairs amid the general public. Every single person (be it ear piece or hand held) looks like a complete douchbag when using a phone in the middle of the grocery isle or at the table next to me at the restaurant. YOU AREN'T AS IMPORTANT AS YOU THINK, which is probably the reason they can't put down the $49 gadget in the first place.
So yeah, I get what you are trying to say...I look like some hypocrite being judgmental, and not wanting to be judged myself. That would be true IF I EVER DENIED BEING JUDGMENTAL MYSELF in the first place, which I haven't done in my post. Yes, I'm judgmental against people using phones in public, but their motives are far more in line (ooh, look at me, look at me!) with the original post's comment than the more normal activity of using a wireless laptop at a public WiFi spot.
(please see my response to Divebus' comment below). Windows users find Mac programs unintuitive, only because Windows users have been conditioned to using an unintuitive interface, i.e. "the windows way". This leads to people with years of skills invested in the Windows Way not understanding anything that does something differently, errrrr, more intuitively, because the Windows Way has redefined intuitive (for that user). Mac users find Windows operating systems and software to be unintuitive, because, well, they are. Either the software is written by geeks, for geeks and sold to normal people, or is just quickly distributed to the open market in order to make a fast buck (ok, that's my editorial comment, not supported in my research).
Given a blank slate of NO presumed knowledge, users can figure out and troubleshoot OSX systems much easier than a WinXP system (the findings of my research). One of the basics tenets of MacOSX design is to limit hidden features. Everything should be discoverable by the user by exploring the file menus (keyboard shortcuts and right clicks present, but not without a more overt file menu entry). WinXP and most 3rd party software development breaks this rule at almost every turn (my own company being one of the biggest offenders). This "intuitive" Mac way means that if a user doesn't know how to do something, they can just try everything in the menus and eventually figure it out. Well written, non-technical dialogue boxes help here too. Contrast that with, say, Microsoft Office on a PC... I would suggest that perhaps 25% of the MS Word features are completely hidden from the viewer until they make specific toolbars and buttons visible. It makes it nearly impossible to "discover" the potential of a software package (i.e., being "intuitive") when a quarter of the potential isn't even visible by default!
This isn't to say WinXP is bad, only that the inherent technical prerequisites required to smoothly operate an XP machine (learning and understanding the idiosyncrasies of XP) drive many people to flame wars against XP. Sadly, millions of people invest years of their lives learning these idiosyncrasies, so they bring overt biases to any discussion such as this one.
Ok, to be fair, these Apple problems seem to be present only on Windows boxes. Apple probably sucks at programming for Windows, and Windows just generally doesn't do a lot of things very elegantly, so they both share the blame a little bit.
The sneaking apps into downloads was cheezy, but again, a non-issue for the OSX version.
After looking at the list, there were plenty of examples that seem to be PC-centric. Outlook, Norton, Safari being installed without consent, Adobe PDF reader being a pain (OSX defeats that with built-in preview)
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...ambitious attempt to reinvigorate people to buying music online. Funny, that. I never realized Apple was having such a hard time with the iTunes store, being the number one retailer of music and all.Sorry if my previous post was addressing two different posts as well, as it probably was, and one of them wasn't yours. My apologies.
I'll admit, I was not up to snuff on the current reviews of the BMW lineups, but in the past, CR has been laughably bad when it comes to reviewing things about cars that matter to people who are passionate about cars. My analogy would be Reader's Digest reviewing computer gear.
BMW has been given an unfair reliability stigma by past CR reviews, only because parts in the US cost disproportionately more than they do in Europe. That's because we Americans actually consider crap like Malibus and Tauruses as acceptable for our hard earned dollars, when the rest of the world says, WTF?...the most advanced country in the world makes THOSE cars? All we've got is the.....Corvette (dubious, even that).
Disclaimer: I drive a 2008 Mazdaspeed 3, because I couldn't justify the extra $20k for the BMW I wanted. I also drive a Ford Contour SVT. I "think" I'm fairly accurately described as a "car guy".
Buying a car without reviewing the repair history of that model IS crazy though, and I would never be able to talk myself into a car with a poor repair history, no matter HOW passionate I may be.
ummm, half black...
Consumer Reports is not a good source for video game reviews because they take the subjectivity out of their reviews. Video-gaming is very subjective and it will be impossible for CR to capture the nuances and evaluate them with any effect. This goes for ANYTHING that people have passion for. While CR does good, unbiased reports on the boring everyday items such as blenders and vacuum cleaners, their car reviews are awful and hold no water except with people who like to drive cars that have no soul...same goes for any video game review they'll attempt.
The fact remains that Ballmer is completely spinning a statistic and this has NOTHING to do with Apple, nor did I imply it did. The only thing that Apple has to do with this is that they are nearing the 10% market-share, which makes it statistically impossible for Windows to have 100% of the market (unless, like I inferred, they start bundling Vista on a bootcamp partition for all Macs sold...even then, you still have the Linux variants stealing market share as well.) I generally have no problem with CEOs who say things to put their company in a better light, but such transparent claims are an insult to the intelligence. As the leader of the largest technology company in the world, he should probably know that Vista is NOT selling on 100% of the world's computers. He DOES know this isn't true, which is actually a bigger offense than if he were just factually incorrect.
While it was a bad PR move for Apple, what is the damage? Uninstalling Safari takes a few minutes...big whoop. It's not like it took over and became the default browser, rendering your 100 Firefox plug-ins useless after all.
Still using IE because my work intranet doesn't work on anything but...
Still using Safari (on my Mac at home) because it is the fastest and most stable browser of the four I've tried (probably more secure as well, but I can't be for sure). Regardless, I'll take responsiveness and stability over security any day.
I scored 130 on that test. Guess I'm not too bright.
Back in, oh, 1983-ish, I realized that PC stood for personal computer. Maybe Balmer will start calling Windows-based PCs IBM compatibles...that'll really show us how on top of the industry he is.
http://interfacelift.com/themes-mac/
Now before you (or anyone else) point out the obvious that this is a third party solution, I would just like to let it be known that with my XP box I get the choice of Blue or Olive.
My mistake. Still, not telling the truth is far different than being factually incorrect, as the former implies that the truth is known, but one is withholding it. The later, well, the dude's just wrong and doesn't know any better, which is what I expect 99% of all disgruntled callers to be. I guess I have a grievance with ignorance being labeled as not being truthful.
See, you make my point exactly. What you are calling a lie, is not a lie. He is telling you something that is factually incorrect, making your job harder to accomplish. A misunderstanding, regardless of who's not understanding correctly is not a lie. I get a little suspicious when people start throwing the "lie" tag around, because if you stop and think about it, what does a user have to gain by lying during a tech support call?
I would have loved to made $40k a year in 1992 dollars when I graduated college. Problem is, I had to join the Army because there WERE no jobs in 1992, and the Army doesn't quite pay $40k a year for entry-level positions.
Lying through their teeth, or simply not understanding or communicating the same things you were? I can't think of the first reason somebody who makes the effort to call a support center would need to lie about anything. Very curious indeed.
Interesting. I eat most of that stuff you listed in normal portions and it doesn't leave me feeling hungry (5'8" 180 lbs.) Call me lucky, I suppose. Something to consider is spreading out food over the day. I eat a cup of oatmeal at my desk first thing when I get to work (probably has HFCS), coffee (loaded with real cane sugar...mmm) and a banana. Then about an hour later I have a yogurt (probably HFCS laden) and one of those fruit cup thingies a little bit later. I usually eat a sandwhich (cold-cut, or old fashioned pb&j) at 11:30, then usually a granola bar/candy bar in the afternoon before going to the gym after work. Then at home, a normal dinner with no regard to health value. Fried chicken, pizza, greasy burgers, pasta, pasta, and usually pasta. Human sized portions being the key. My wife and I eat probably the same amount of food between us that one person would get at an Applebees or an Outback Steakhouse joint.
Fatness, more specifically, obesity, is one of the few physical traits we can control. To an extent we can hide ugly with makeup/surgery/clothes and we can go tanning or dye or hair, but that really is just a costume. We can, however, directly control or body fat content (to a reasonable degree, based on body types) by controlling what we eat and exercising. It is such an easy formula--some people just have a hard time following it, even though most people understand it (including my overweight 12 year old son).
So yeah, I get what you are trying to say...I look like some hypocrite being judgmental, and not wanting to be judged myself. That would be true IF I EVER DENIED BEING JUDGMENTAL MYSELF in the first place, which I haven't done in my post. Yes, I'm judgmental against people using phones in public, but their motives are far more in line (ooh, look at me, look at me!) with the original post's comment than the more normal activity of using a wireless laptop at a public WiFi spot.
Given a blank slate of NO presumed knowledge, users can figure out and troubleshoot OSX systems much easier than a WinXP system (the findings of my research). One of the basics tenets of MacOSX design is to limit hidden features. Everything should be discoverable by the user by exploring the file menus (keyboard shortcuts and right clicks present, but not without a more overt file menu entry). WinXP and most 3rd party software development breaks this rule at almost every turn (my own company being one of the biggest offenders). This "intuitive" Mac way means that if a user doesn't know how to do something, they can just try everything in the menus and eventually figure it out. Well written, non-technical dialogue boxes help here too. Contrast that with, say, Microsoft Office on a PC... I would suggest that perhaps 25% of the MS Word features are completely hidden from the viewer until they make specific toolbars and buttons visible. It makes it nearly impossible to "discover" the potential of a software package (i.e., being "intuitive") when a quarter of the potential isn't even visible by default!
This isn't to say WinXP is bad, only that the inherent technical prerequisites required to smoothly operate an XP machine (learning and understanding the idiosyncrasies of XP) drive many people to flame wars against XP. Sadly, millions of people invest years of their lives learning these idiosyncrasies, so they bring overt biases to any discussion such as this one.
The sneaking apps into downloads was cheezy, but again, a non-issue for the OSX version.
After looking at the list, there were plenty of examples that seem to be PC-centric. Outlook, Norton, Safari being installed without consent, Adobe PDF reader being a pain (OSX defeats that with built-in preview)