They already did this in the UK about 6 months ago, replacing the existing couriers with Amazon Logistics. Which incidentally, is a plain white van, here anyway.
Where before you could track your package and get told within an hour when it'd turn up and get regular updates (unless it was a cheap item which they sent via Royal Mail), now you're told on the day that it's out for delivery and that's the extent of the "tracking". It can turn up any time that day. Be careful what you wish for, as I find this a step backwards. They're also more strict in my experience - if you get something like a mobile phone, they insist that YOU are there in person with ID. So that means you have to get a day off work to wait for it and can't just have your family member who's already at home receive it, or if you get it delivered to work they have to track you down (so in places like mine where you could be anywhere in the factory and they have to wait for you to respond to a call out, they'll be less inclined to continue allowing personal deliveries)
I can only go by the UK version of course, the US policies and systems could be completely different.
On the plus side, you tend to know audibly when your package has turned up. Obviously a carrier is a carrier, they all do much the same thing, but there is something unique about the exact noise of the sliding van door, the amount of time they seem to need to rummage around looking for your package, and the "bleep!" of the barcode scan they do just before they ring the bell. It wouldn't surprise me if they trademarked the "Amazon Delivery Noise Pattern":)
I was just recently researching Dell XPS laptops which are notorious for this, and some of my thoughts were "That's why you pay more for Apple hardware I suppose, they'd never let anything with coil whine out of the door"
Oh the times they are a changin'. That's why I don't buy their stuff any more, you're no longer paying more for better quality (which IMO I genuinely think used to be true, for a little while). You're paying more for the same old crap as everything else. Back to paying normal prices for the same old crap instead, thanks!
Turning away from Apple is exactly what I've done. Between things like this, a lack of innovation (they like to spread things thin so they have at least have *something* to talk about next year) and things like the headphone jack, eventually I said "no more". Apple like to push and push and push and see how much they can possibly get away with, and sooner or later they're going to cross that line for a lot more people.
The thing is, once they do cross that line, it snaps back, like elastic, putting them well into "I'd need a very good reason to buy Apple products again" territory. All these "just a headphone jack" kind of things add up. Each year you think "oh they've only ruined X or removed Y, that's okay, I didn't *really* need that anyway" and put up with it because new shiny thing with some amazing new feature. Except they haven't done the "amazing new feature" part for white a while now. Then you look back on all the times you've made a compromise like that or risked antennagate (had, was real) / bendgate / touch disease and basically see a mountain.
I'm glad someone else got started, as you said everything I wanted to say but in far fewer words than I usually churn out!
But hey, say way too many people, at least we can "send 'em back" - only most of the people they have in mind came from countries outside of the EU, many were actually born here, and those that did come from the EU are (thankfully) probably going to be able to stay via new agreements. So, didn't really help racists much either. There's the immigration concern where I'll not jump to racism accusations as "let fewer people in" isn't quite the same thing as "send the buggers back".. but that's unlikely to change either, as we're looking likely to still need free movement in the new agreements so.... yep. Let's hope the world doesn't just shrug and say "you're not actually as special as you think on that little island mate"
Sorry, I did miss that bit. Obviously too busy projecting the way I dumbed myself down onto you to read properly!
Hmm, that's the second time I've had this exact discussion in about 10 minutes:) Personally, I'm not angry, and indeed... just not buying it is what I'm doing. I think though, maybe a lot of the people are still fans of Apple at heart and want to see them do better? It's okay to not like what a company you're a fan of does. Occasionally, they might even listen (okay, that's not too often with Apple). They've always pulled this kind of thing so I don't think they're going to change, but one issue is there's so little incentive to actually put up with it - where previously you'd say something like "okay that's a little irksome but I can live with it because they're the first to properly implement $new_tech and I really want my hands on it, and the £15 adaptor I'll factor into the cost, now!", it doesn't currently appear that they're doing much that's new and innovative, yet are still creating new compromises. It's a shame, and it'd be nice to see them make us 'forget' about these things again.
To add, my similar story is when I had one of the older iMacs and eventually a sort of 'cloud' of dust adhered itself to the wrong side of the glass, so I had a slightly murky area between the display and the glass. I booked an appointment, drove 100 miles to my nearest Apple store, and showed the Genius - who promptly removed the glass with a couple of suction cups, wiped it down with a microfiber cloth, put the glass back and handed it back. Problem solved. If only I hadn't seen everything as an excuse to switch my brain off and not do anything for myself.
I've been there, in the Apple RDF, bought their products for quite a while, just recovering...
Looking back, it's pretty shocking that we dumb ourselves down (no offence, I did much of the same) to the point that we find ourselves taking a phone to a 'genius' to remove fluff from a headphone port. Re-learn basic electronics like how pieces of metal pushed together conduct electricity, get a few tools and some compressed air and isopropyl alcohol and think for yourself again, you'll be glad you did:)
Just got out of the RDF. Would previously have believed their inevitable implication that this is the only decent way to make it water resistant, and would've believed the "we need the custom chip that we charge manufacturers a licensing fee for so that we can protect your device from being harmed by dodgy Chinese knockoffs" that I recall hearing about Lightning.
Yeah fair point that. I'm also thinking back to when I originally switched TO Apple, and one of the justifications I made at the time was that I was paying more so they could afford to actually be better. Better policies with manufacturing, better quality control, better customer service, etc. This has proved repeatedly not to be the case.
Yeah that's pretty much why I moved away. It used to be that you paid a bit more to be ahead of the technology curve (software as well as hardware). Now you pay more for something prettier and with a privacy and security focus, which is good, but that's it. Dell make a nicer Ultrabook (XPS 13) and Google tends to be a year ahead with mobile stuff (intelligent photo search being one example). A classic thing that winds me up with iOS is still not having weekend hours for its Do Not Disturb mode. It'll be touted as a major feature one year to much applause and cheering in a keynote while 'droid has had it for years...
I'm no Apple fanboy (just actually switched most my stuff away) but it's worth noting that the Register are well known for having an anti-Apple bias in their reporting.
Other companies use the same manufacturers - I would argue that consumers in general wanting lower priced tech is causing this, not specifically Apple - they just get a lot more scrutiny with being such a huge tech company.
Honestly if being a "leftie" means not being an obnoxious fucking prick like you, GOOD, I'm as far left as you can get. You, and every other Trump supporting, racist, xenophobic, sexist wanker who hides behind "oh no you're calling a racist a racist, I'm so offended!" are showing your true colours right now, and it's kind of shocking the number of you, but at least we know who to avoid. You're less than worthless, you're dragging society back into the dark ages - please go and kill yourself before you do any more harm.
It's called being a shithead. Aren't you the prick who was "lol I'm disrespecting genders" a few posts above? You're about as 'left' as Trump, and merely think you've been successful in your really bad trolling. Fine, I'll stoop to your level: go fuck yourself
Well, I suppose if you consider equal treatment and opportunities for all races and genders to be regressive, for example (yes, I know some extreme types just want to replace patriarchy with matriarchy instead of aiming for fairness and balance, but see my other comment), then it can be seen as a subjective term. I've always seen increasing justice as a positive development for mankind, and am not yet used to the idea that it's a bad thing.
I've heard Hilary is just as bad. There is however a world outside of the United States, of which I'm a part, so I don't have the pleasure of trying to decide which candidate is the better demon spawn than the other.
One of the things I agree with "the left" on is their point about prejudging and generalising huge groups of people and treating them all like caricatures of the worst examples they can possibly think of. Obviously they usually talk about not assuming that all 4 billion or so people of Islamic faith are itching to commit mass murder (at which they get the internet equivalent of being spat at (aka called an SJW) and accused of sympathising with terrorists), but it also applies to things like this - suggesting that everyone left aligned is a full-on raving rhetoric-spouting loon who posts on that blogging site with the pictures (I think I have an account, never got into it). #notalllefties, and all that. Yes, there are problems with that on this side too (comparing people to Hitler for being concerned about immigration numbers for example) but it seems our lot have been instantly dismissed as "regressive leftie SJW, go back to tumblr" for showing even the slightest hint of a liberal thought, so many times now that they've completely given up even trying. I'm actually surprised to see my comment at +3, and not -1.
I think what I'm saying is that just because a particular subset of screeching lunatics gets all the attention right now (because it's more entertaining, I guess) it doesn't completely invalidate everything that has even the slightest liberal roots, or necessitate a return to how things were 100 years ago before we started saying that maybe people shouldn't be treated with elevated suspicion because they're black, or that actually there are a number of reasons why being more careful with the planet's resources and the amount of pollution we put out is actually quite a good thing for the world, etc.
3 or 4 years ago everyone would've been saying this... but now we're in this era where "leftist" is unanimously used as an insult and the US is about to elect President Trump, all progress is going out of the window. Thanks Gamergate!
Back in around 2003 when I bought my first Apple product (the awesome iPod 3rd gen) yes, they used to make the high price tag worthwhile by throwing in the adapters, dock, even cleaning cloths, everything you could need. This was a while ago. Not long after that they switched to only including the bare minimum product and charging like wounded buffalo for all the adapters and accessories.
It also has the antenna band removed from the back for aesthetic reasons (despite the fact you'd probably throw a case on it), meaning a weaker signal. These are, apparently, the "things we can't live without" (http://www.cnet.com/uk/videos/tim-cook-says-the-iphone-7-will-give-us-things-we-cant-live-without/)
Slashdot Mirror
They already did this in the UK about 6 months ago, replacing the existing couriers with Amazon Logistics. Which incidentally, is a plain white van, here anyway.
Where before you could track your package and get told within an hour when it'd turn up and get regular updates (unless it was a cheap item which they sent via Royal Mail), now you're told on the day that it's out for delivery and that's the extent of the "tracking". It can turn up any time that day. Be careful what you wish for, as I find this a step backwards. They're also more strict in my experience - if you get something like a mobile phone, they insist that YOU are there in person with ID. So that means you have to get a day off work to wait for it and can't just have your family member who's already at home receive it, or if you get it delivered to work they have to track you down (so in places like mine where you could be anywhere in the factory and they have to wait for you to respond to a call out, they'll be less inclined to continue allowing personal deliveries)
I can only go by the UK version of course, the US policies and systems could be completely different.
On the plus side, you tend to know audibly when your package has turned up. Obviously a carrier is a carrier, they all do much the same thing, but there is something unique about the exact noise of the sliding van door, the amount of time they seem to need to rummage around looking for your package, and the "bleep!" of the barcode scan they do just before they ring the bell. It wouldn't surprise me if they trademarked the "Amazon Delivery Noise Pattern" :)
I was just recently researching Dell XPS laptops which are notorious for this, and some of my thoughts were "That's why you pay more for Apple hardware I suppose, they'd never let anything with coil whine out of the door"
Oh the times they are a changin'. That's why I don't buy their stuff any more, you're no longer paying more for better quality (which IMO I genuinely think used to be true, for a little while). You're paying more for the same old crap as everything else. Back to paying normal prices for the same old crap instead, thanks!
Turning away from Apple is exactly what I've done. Between things like this, a lack of innovation (they like to spread things thin so they have at least have *something* to talk about next year) and things like the headphone jack, eventually I said "no more". Apple like to push and push and push and see how much they can possibly get away with, and sooner or later they're going to cross that line for a lot more people.
The thing is, once they do cross that line, it snaps back, like elastic, putting them well into "I'd need a very good reason to buy Apple products again" territory. All these "just a headphone jack" kind of things add up. Each year you think "oh they've only ruined X or removed Y, that's okay, I didn't *really* need that anyway" and put up with it because new shiny thing with some amazing new feature. Except they haven't done the "amazing new feature" part for white a while now. Then you look back on all the times you've made a compromise like that or risked antennagate (had, was real) / bendgate / touch disease and basically see a mountain.
I'm glad someone else got started, as you said everything I wanted to say but in far fewer words than I usually churn out!
But hey, say way too many people, at least we can "send 'em back" - only most of the people they have in mind came from countries outside of the EU, many were actually born here, and those that did come from the EU are (thankfully) probably going to be able to stay via new agreements. So, didn't really help racists much either. There's the immigration concern where I'll not jump to racism accusations as "let fewer people in" isn't quite the same thing as "send the buggers back".. but that's unlikely to change either, as we're looking likely to still need free movement in the new agreements so.... yep. Let's hope the world doesn't just shrug and say "you're not actually as special as you think on that little island mate"
Sorry, I did miss that bit. Obviously too busy projecting the way I dumbed myself down onto you to read properly!
Hmm, that's the second time I've had this exact discussion in about 10 minutes :) Personally, I'm not angry, and indeed... just not buying it is what I'm doing. I think though, maybe a lot of the people are still fans of Apple at heart and want to see them do better? It's okay to not like what a company you're a fan of does. Occasionally, they might even listen (okay, that's not too often with Apple). They've always pulled this kind of thing so I don't think they're going to change, but one issue is there's so little incentive to actually put up with it - where previously you'd say something like "okay that's a little irksome but I can live with it because they're the first to properly implement $new_tech and I really want my hands on it, and the £15 adaptor I'll factor into the cost, now!", it doesn't currently appear that they're doing much that's new and innovative, yet are still creating new compromises. It's a shame, and it'd be nice to see them make us 'forget' about these things again.
Quite useful if you play Pokemon Go or Ingress in the UK. Also a lot of people seem to end up dropping them into puddles.
I have a Nexus though which is not stated to be water resistant so I just put it in a sandwich bag.
Don't get me started on blaming the EU for everything. I'm going to miss all the rights they've been protecting for us when we leave :(
To add, my similar story is when I had one of the older iMacs and eventually a sort of 'cloud' of dust adhered itself to the wrong side of the glass, so I had a slightly murky area between the display and the glass. I booked an appointment, drove 100 miles to my nearest Apple store, and showed the Genius - who promptly removed the glass with a couple of suction cups, wiped it down with a microfiber cloth, put the glass back and handed it back. Problem solved. If only I hadn't seen everything as an excuse to switch my brain off and not do anything for myself.
I've been there, in the Apple RDF, bought their products for quite a while, just recovering...
Looking back, it's pretty shocking that we dumb ourselves down (no offence, I did much of the same) to the point that we find ourselves taking a phone to a 'genius' to remove fluff from a headphone port. Re-learn basic electronics like how pieces of metal pushed together conduct electricity, get a few tools and some compressed air and isopropyl alcohol and think for yourself again, you'll be glad you did :)
Just got out of the RDF. Would previously have believed their inevitable implication that this is the only decent way to make it water resistant, and would've believed the "we need the custom chip that we charge manufacturers a licensing fee for so that we can protect your device from being harmed by dodgy Chinese knockoffs" that I recall hearing about Lightning.
Yeah fair point that. I'm also thinking back to when I originally switched TO Apple, and one of the justifications I made at the time was that I was paying more so they could afford to actually be better. Better policies with manufacturing, better quality control, better customer service, etc. This has proved repeatedly not to be the case.
Yeah that's pretty much why I moved away. It used to be that you paid a bit more to be ahead of the technology curve (software as well as hardware). Now you pay more for something prettier and with a privacy and security focus, which is good, but that's it. Dell make a nicer Ultrabook (XPS 13) and Google tends to be a year ahead with mobile stuff (intelligent photo search being one example). A classic thing that winds me up with iOS is still not having weekend hours for its Do Not Disturb mode. It'll be touted as a major feature one year to much applause and cheering in a keynote while 'droid has had it for years...
It's 3 years ago, but Dell and Sony were mentioned here http://www.bloomberg.com/news/...
as well as them being a spinoff from Asus.
I'm no Apple fanboy (just actually switched most my stuff away) but it's worth noting that the Register are well known for having an anti-Apple bias in their reporting.
Other companies use the same manufacturers - I would argue that consumers in general wanting lower priced tech is causing this, not specifically Apple - they just get a lot more scrutiny with being such a huge tech company.
Soandso has asked you for more gems in Team Fortress Facebook Edition!
nope nope nope nopity nope
Honestly if being a "leftie" means not being an obnoxious fucking prick like you, GOOD, I'm as far left as you can get. You, and every other Trump supporting, racist, xenophobic, sexist wanker who hides behind "oh no you're calling a racist a racist, I'm so offended!" are showing your true colours right now, and it's kind of shocking the number of you, but at least we know who to avoid. You're less than worthless, you're dragging society back into the dark ages - please go and kill yourself before you do any more harm.
It's called being a shithead. Aren't you the prick who was "lol I'm disrespecting genders" a few posts above? You're about as 'left' as Trump, and merely think you've been successful in your really bad trolling. Fine, I'll stoop to your level: go fuck yourself
And your response is typical of rightists. No substance, just hate. Yay, tribalism!
Thanks, I'm so informed now. Thanks for knowing everything about the motives of every left leaning person!
And the amount of complaining you do about all getting generalised as racists etc. The amount of hypocrisy in the tribes is ridiculous
Well, I suppose if you consider equal treatment and opportunities for all races and genders to be regressive, for example (yes, I know some extreme types just want to replace patriarchy with matriarchy instead of aiming for fairness and balance, but see my other comment), then it can be seen as a subjective term. I've always seen increasing justice as a positive development for mankind, and am not yet used to the idea that it's a bad thing.
I've heard Hilary is just as bad. There is however a world outside of the United States, of which I'm a part, so I don't have the pleasure of trying to decide which candidate is the better demon spawn than the other.
One of the things I agree with "the left" on is their point about prejudging and generalising huge groups of people and treating them all like caricatures of the worst examples they can possibly think of. Obviously they usually talk about not assuming that all 4 billion or so people of Islamic faith are itching to commit mass murder (at which they get the internet equivalent of being spat at (aka called an SJW) and accused of sympathising with terrorists), but it also applies to things like this - suggesting that everyone left aligned is a full-on raving rhetoric-spouting loon who posts on that blogging site with the pictures (I think I have an account, never got into it). #notalllefties, and all that. Yes, there are problems with that on this side too (comparing people to Hitler for being concerned about immigration numbers for example) but it seems our lot have been instantly dismissed as "regressive leftie SJW, go back to tumblr" for showing even the slightest hint of a liberal thought, so many times now that they've completely given up even trying. I'm actually surprised to see my comment at +3, and not -1.
I think what I'm saying is that just because a particular subset of screeching lunatics gets all the attention right now (because it's more entertaining, I guess) it doesn't completely invalidate everything that has even the slightest liberal roots, or necessitate a return to how things were 100 years ago before we started saying that maybe people shouldn't be treated with elevated suspicion because they're black, or that actually there are a number of reasons why being more careful with the planet's resources and the amount of pollution we put out is actually quite a good thing for the world, etc.
3 or 4 years ago everyone would've been saying this... but now we're in this era where "leftist" is unanimously used as an insult and the US is about to elect President Trump, all progress is going out of the window. Thanks Gamergate!
This.
Back in around 2003 when I bought my first Apple product (the awesome iPod 3rd gen) yes, they used to make the high price tag worthwhile by throwing in the adapters, dock, even cleaning cloths, everything you could need. This was a while ago. Not long after that they switched to only including the bare minimum product and charging like wounded buffalo for all the adapters and accessories.
It also has the antenna band removed from the back for aesthetic reasons (despite the fact you'd probably throw a case on it), meaning a weaker signal. These are, apparently, the "things we can't live without" (http://www.cnet.com/uk/videos/tim-cook-says-the-iphone-7-will-give-us-things-we-cant-live-without/)
Twitter just gained the magic of friendship? It needed it.