Since Apple sells mostly notebooks these days, I would say the average Mac user's response would be "What's right click? Do you mean two fingered tap?"
I'm so used to the trackpad on my MacBook Pro, and doing two fingered scroll, two fingered tap and the quick corner thing for Expose, that I can barely use a desktop anymore.
I'll admit though, I haven't really taken to the newer three fingered swipe for forward and back while browsing, or the four fingered Expose thing.
Since Apple sells mostly notebooks these days, I would say the average Mac user's response would be "What's right click? Do you mean two fingered tap?"
I'm so used to the trackpad on my MacBook Pro, and doing two fingered scroll, two fingered tap and the quick corner thing for Expose, that I can barely use a desktop anymore.
I'll admit though, I haven't really taken to the newer three fingered swipe for forward and back while browsing, or the four fingered Expose thing.
I like the three fingered swipes for navigation, but I use BetterTouchTool to make four finger swipes move between Spaces. Works great.
My first Apple product was an iPhone 3G, I was so impressed I got an iMac and an iPad and now we have iPhone 4s in my house.
What I don't understand is why people react so harshly when there is like an Apple oriented news story or product launch. It seems irrational.
My guess is that it comes down to "Think Different" - not the Apple advertising campaign, but the way Apple creates products.
Most tech companies are engineering-led. They create engineering products for a technical audience. The engineers compete to include ever more wizardry.
But Apple is design-led. The designers set the goals, the form factor, how it will be used, and the engineering guys have to accommodate the design.
This produces devices that are a result of thinking differently. The products reflect entirely different priorities. User experience is given much more weight than feature count.
For example, I'd wager that Apple's iPhone engineers spent far more man-months on getting scrolling right, than trying to implement MMS.
I think it is those differences that actually offend people. Apple's products go into the world as statements. And for some, that statement is interpreted as :
Quote:
"we at Apple profoundly disagree with you about what is important."
For some, they just don't like being spoken to like that. It's as if Apple is telling them that they are plain wrong or stupid. And that's where the hostility starts.
But some people will find an excuse to take anything personally.
Well, I had some people over to my house and they wanted to watch south park. I powered up my iMac to go to the website and a couple were said things to the effect of "Ew, a Mac!". They left early and contact has really dropped off with them.
Granted, I don't need friends that petty, but maybe I should try to get more into the Mac/Apple community.
So there ARE people that douchy, AND they are over the age of 14?
College has changed since I went there...
It's quite horrible. I sincerely apologize for my generation. I've found maybe ten of them who are actually interesting people (read: don't bore me out of my mind with hollow conversation and predictable emotional responses to situations, much less act as though they're still infants).
So there ARE people that douchy, AND they are over the age of 14?
College has changed since I went there...
But ? looking at Apple's value, revenue, and profits ? college students clearly are totally inconsequential to Apple. Joe Blow, Jane Doe, and Auntie Meredith have picked up the slack and ran with it. That's where the big numbers come from.
But – looking at Apple's value, revenue, and profits – college students clearly are totally inconsequential to Apple. Joe Blow, Jane Doe, and Auntie Meredith have picked up the slack and ran with it. That's where the big numbers come from.
The way Apple does it simply makes more sense. When it's time for me to upgrade my computer, I sure as hell don't want to upgrade SOME of the components, leaving others behind. I don't want to upgrade the CPU, for instance, and still have slow RAM and FSB. I don't want to upgrade the graphics card and have an obsolete CPU. I don't want to upgrade parts here and parts there and maybe have compatibility issues or issues when a new version of the OS is released. When it's time to get a new Mac, I get a new CPU, new bus, new RAM, new I/O ports, new display technology... the works. It's simply more efficient to do it the Apple way.
I'm buying an Apple TV because being a Mac, iTunes and iPod user, all my media is encoded or converted to a compatible format. If I download an incompatible film, it's just a quick conversion away and voilÃ*, it works with all my Apple devices. It just makes sense to do it that way.
The issue with this approach is that there is no middle ground. A lot of what you're throwing away when buying a new Mac is actually still very usable, but you have no option but to throw it away since it is all integrated into one package. Equally, the older the machine gets, the more compromises you keep having to make until you can afford to replace the entire thing. For instance, I could buy a shiny new GPU and pop it into my 2.5 year old PC, and I'd be able to play the latest games on fairly high quality settings. If you wanted to play the same games on a 2.5 year old iMac (let's pretend said games are available), you'd either have to compromise on the quality of the game/graphics, or toss the whole thing out and buy a new one.
It always makes me laugh when Apple trump their environmental credentials as they are truly the masters of planned obsolesence. It's testament to their fantastic marketting ability that people would actually believe that Apple are remotely interested in their environmental impact short of a few token gestures to keep the wolves at bay.
The issue with this approach is that there is no middle ground. A lot of what you're throwing away when buying a new Mac is actually still very usable, but you have no option but to throw it away since it is all integrated into one package. Equally, the older the machine gets, the more compromises you keep having to make until you can afford to replace the entire thing. For instance, I could buy a shiny new GPU and pop it into my 2.5 year old PC, and I'd be able to play the latest games on fairly high quality settings. If you wanted to play the same games on a 2.5 year old iMac (let's pretend said games are available), you'd either have to compromise on the quality of the game/graphics, or toss the whole thing out and buy a new one.
It always makes me laugh when Apple trump their environmental credentials as they are truly the masters of planned obsolesence. It's testament to their fantastic marketting ability that people would actually believe that Apple are remotely interested in their environmental impact short of a few token gestures to keep the wolves at bay.
But in point of fact those billions of PCs that "could" be upgraded never are. The regular folk I know buy dirt cheap PCs and simply toss them when they start slowing down to unacceptable levels, due to whatever combination of the OS, malware, viruses, and newer, more demanding apps.
The entire commodity PC market is built on disposability, not upgradeability. Sell for razor thin margins at the lowest possible price, have a nicer one waiting on the shelf at an even lower price in a year or two. Upgradeability is just sort of a bullet point on the features list, something for the sales person to reassure the buyer with.
Most of the folks I know with Apple machines keep them running far longer than their PC using brethren, which is what really matters in the green picture.
But in point of fact those billions of PCs that "could" be upgraded never are. The regular folk I know buy dirt cheap PCs and simply toss them when they start slowing down to unacceptable levels, due to whatever combination of the OS, malware, viruses, and newer, more demanding apps.
The entire commodity PC market is built on disposability, not upgradeability. Sell for razor thin margins at the lowest possible price, have a nicer one waiting on the shelf at an even lower price in a year or two. Upgradeability is just sort of a bullet point on the features list, something for the sales person to reassure the buyer with.
Most of the folks I know with Apple machines keep them running far longer than their PC using brethren, which is what really matters in the green picture.
This is also true, but I can't say that that's the case in my life! I have PCs running for years, passed down through the family until they are eventually ready for the scrap heap. The oldest at the moment is an Athlon64 machine I put together in 2004, which'll be celebrating it's 7th birthday in about 6 months or so! I have also just retired the first ever PC I built for someone for money, which was a staggering 9 years old, and finally gave up the ghost!
I have to say I don't really know anyone with an Apple computer, but those who I know that own PCs tend to keep them for a lot of years before replacing them.
This is also true, but I can't say that that's the case in my life! I have PCs running for years, passed down through the family until they are eventually ready for the scrap heap. The oldest at the moment is an Athlon64 machine I put together in 2004, which'll be celebrating it's 7th birthday in about 6 months or so! I have also just retired the first ever PC I built for someone for money, which was a staggering 9 years old, and finally gave up the ghost!
I have to say I don't really know anyone with an Apple computer, but those who I know that own PCs tend to keep them for a lot of years before replacing them.
Sure, for what I think is a small subset of PC users upgradeability is very useful, and understandably so. I kept an older Mac Pro running for years but upgrading components, something I couldn't' do with an iMac or Mini.
But consider also that the entire computer market is swinging away from desktops altogether, and that more and more PC laptop manufacturers are following Apples lead by making their stuff smaller and lighter but less accessible. We're even seeing non-replacable batteries start to make some inroads in PC land. I think the old "but I can build my own for cheap/upgrade for cheap" PC advantage thing is rapidly becoming moot, if it was ever that significant. My impression is that the majority of folks trotting out that line had never cracked the case of their Dell or HP.
I have to say I don't really know anyone with an Apple computer, but those who I know that own PCs tend to keep them for a lot of years before replacing them.
Which shows that you shouldn't project. Statistically Macs are used twice as long as PCs before they get replaced.
they are truly the masters of planned obsolescence.
Bingo.
And say what you will about the 'advantages' of an all-in-one, but I'd feel pretty weird tossing out a perfectly good 2560x1600 IPS iMac display simply because Apple shipped it with a crappy, non-upgradeable GPU 4 years earlier.
And say what you will about the 'advantages' of an all-in-one, but I'd feel pretty weird tossing out a perfectly good 2560x1600 IPS iMac display simply because Apple shipped it with a crappy, non-upgradeable GPU 4 years earlier.
Why would you toss it - when 4 year old Mac's have such a massive value on EBay?
Comments
I'm so used to the trackpad on my MacBook Pro, and doing two fingered scroll, two fingered tap and the quick corner thing for Expose, that I can barely use a desktop anymore.
I'll admit though, I haven't really taken to the newer three fingered swipe for forward and back while browsing, or the four fingered Expose thing.
Everything to do with Apple is irrational.
Ha ha, that's a good one
Since Apple sells mostly notebooks these days, I would say the average Mac user's response would be "What's right click? Do you mean two fingered tap?"
I'm so used to the trackpad on my MacBook Pro, and doing two fingered scroll, two fingered tap and the quick corner thing for Expose, that I can barely use a desktop anymore.
I'll admit though, I haven't really taken to the newer three fingered swipe for forward and back while browsing, or the four fingered Expose thing.
I like the three fingered swipes for navigation, but I use BetterTouchTool to make four finger swipes move between Spaces. Works great.
My first Apple product was an iPhone 3G, I was so impressed I got an iMac and an iPad and now we have iPhone 4s in my house.
What I don't understand is why people react so harshly when there is like an Apple oriented news story or product launch. It seems irrational.
My guess is that it comes down to "Think Different" - not the Apple advertising campaign, but the way Apple creates products.
Most tech companies are engineering-led. They create engineering products for a technical audience. The engineers compete to include ever more wizardry.
But Apple is design-led. The designers set the goals, the form factor, how it will be used, and the engineering guys have to accommodate the design.
This produces devices that are a result of thinking differently. The products reflect entirely different priorities. User experience is given much more weight than feature count.
For example, I'd wager that Apple's iPhone engineers spent far more man-months on getting scrolling right, than trying to implement MMS.
I think it is those differences that actually offend people. Apple's products go into the world as statements. And for some, that statement is interpreted as :
"we at Apple profoundly disagree with you about what is important."
For some, they just don't like being spoken to like that. It's as if Apple is telling them that they are plain wrong or stupid. And that's where the hostility starts.
But some people will find an excuse to take anything personally.
C.
Granted, I don't need friends that petty, but maybe I should try to get more into the Mac/Apple community.
Seriously, those people are douches. I've never, ever met anyone that douchy in my life.
In fact, I find your story very hard to believe. Are you a troll in disguise?
In fact, I find your story very hard to believe. Are you a troll in disguise?
Stop being a child. I'm surrounded by people like that. It's called college. Either live with it or get into fights.
College has changed since I went there...
So there ARE people that douchy, AND they are over the age of 14?
College has changed since I went there...
It's quite horrible. I sincerely apologize for my generation. I've found maybe ten of them who are actually interesting people (read: don't bore me out of my mind with hollow conversation and predictable emotional responses to situations, much less act as though they're still infants).
So there ARE people that douchy, AND they are over the age of 14?
College has changed since I went there...
But ? looking at Apple's value, revenue, and profits ? college students clearly are totally inconsequential to Apple. Joe Blow, Jane Doe, and Auntie Meredith have picked up the slack and ran with it. That's where the big numbers come from.
But – looking at Apple's value, revenue, and profits – college students clearly are totally inconsequential to Apple. Joe Blow, Jane Doe, and Auntie Meredith have picked up the slack and ran with it. That's where the big numbers come from.
C.
I was going to say exactly that Carniphage
The way Apple does it simply makes more sense. When it's time for me to upgrade my computer, I sure as hell don't want to upgrade SOME of the components, leaving others behind. I don't want to upgrade the CPU, for instance, and still have slow RAM and FSB. I don't want to upgrade the graphics card and have an obsolete CPU. I don't want to upgrade parts here and parts there and maybe have compatibility issues or issues when a new version of the OS is released. When it's time to get a new Mac, I get a new CPU, new bus, new RAM, new I/O ports, new display technology... the works. It's simply more efficient to do it the Apple way.
I'm buying an Apple TV because being a Mac, iTunes and iPod user, all my media is encoded or converted to a compatible format. If I download an incompatible film, it's just a quick conversion away and voilÃ*, it works with all my Apple devices. It just makes sense to do it that way.
The issue with this approach is that there is no middle ground. A lot of what you're throwing away when buying a new Mac is actually still very usable, but you have no option but to throw it away since it is all integrated into one package. Equally, the older the machine gets, the more compromises you keep having to make until you can afford to replace the entire thing. For instance, I could buy a shiny new GPU and pop it into my 2.5 year old PC, and I'd be able to play the latest games on fairly high quality settings. If you wanted to play the same games on a 2.5 year old iMac (let's pretend said games are available), you'd either have to compromise on the quality of the game/graphics, or toss the whole thing out and buy a new one.
It always makes me laugh when Apple trump their environmental credentials as they are truly the masters of planned obsolesence. It's testament to their fantastic marketting ability that people would actually believe that Apple are remotely interested in their environmental impact short of a few token gestures to keep the wolves at bay.
The issue with this approach is that there is no middle ground. A lot of what you're throwing away when buying a new Mac is actually still very usable, but you have no option but to throw it away since it is all integrated into one package. Equally, the older the machine gets, the more compromises you keep having to make until you can afford to replace the entire thing. For instance, I could buy a shiny new GPU and pop it into my 2.5 year old PC, and I'd be able to play the latest games on fairly high quality settings. If you wanted to play the same games on a 2.5 year old iMac (let's pretend said games are available), you'd either have to compromise on the quality of the game/graphics, or toss the whole thing out and buy a new one.
It always makes me laugh when Apple trump their environmental credentials as they are truly the masters of planned obsolesence. It's testament to their fantastic marketting ability that people would actually believe that Apple are remotely interested in their environmental impact short of a few token gestures to keep the wolves at bay.
But in point of fact those billions of PCs that "could" be upgraded never are. The regular folk I know buy dirt cheap PCs and simply toss them when they start slowing down to unacceptable levels, due to whatever combination of the OS, malware, viruses, and newer, more demanding apps.
The entire commodity PC market is built on disposability, not upgradeability. Sell for razor thin margins at the lowest possible price, have a nicer one waiting on the shelf at an even lower price in a year or two. Upgradeability is just sort of a bullet point on the features list, something for the sales person to reassure the buyer with.
Most of the folks I know with Apple machines keep them running far longer than their PC using brethren, which is what really matters in the green picture.
But in point of fact those billions of PCs that "could" be upgraded never are. The regular folk I know buy dirt cheap PCs and simply toss them when they start slowing down to unacceptable levels, due to whatever combination of the OS, malware, viruses, and newer, more demanding apps.
The entire commodity PC market is built on disposability, not upgradeability. Sell for razor thin margins at the lowest possible price, have a nicer one waiting on the shelf at an even lower price in a year or two. Upgradeability is just sort of a bullet point on the features list, something for the sales person to reassure the buyer with.
Most of the folks I know with Apple machines keep them running far longer than their PC using brethren, which is what really matters in the green picture.
This is also true, but I can't say that that's the case in my life! I have PCs running for years, passed down through the family until they are eventually ready for the scrap heap. The oldest at the moment is an Athlon64 machine I put together in 2004, which'll be celebrating it's 7th birthday in about 6 months or so! I have also just retired the first ever PC I built for someone for money, which was a staggering 9 years old, and finally gave up the ghost!
I have to say I don't really know anyone with an Apple computer, but those who I know that own PCs tend to keep them for a lot of years before replacing them.
This is also true, but I can't say that that's the case in my life! I have PCs running for years, passed down through the family until they are eventually ready for the scrap heap. The oldest at the moment is an Athlon64 machine I put together in 2004, which'll be celebrating it's 7th birthday in about 6 months or so! I have also just retired the first ever PC I built for someone for money, which was a staggering 9 years old, and finally gave up the ghost!
I have to say I don't really know anyone with an Apple computer, but those who I know that own PCs tend to keep them for a lot of years before replacing them.
Sure, for what I think is a small subset of PC users upgradeability is very useful, and understandably so. I kept an older Mac Pro running for years but upgrading components, something I couldn't' do with an iMac or Mini.
But consider also that the entire computer market is swinging away from desktops altogether, and that more and more PC laptop manufacturers are following Apples lead by making their stuff smaller and lighter but less accessible. We're even seeing non-replacable batteries start to make some inroads in PC land. I think the old "but I can build my own for cheap/upgrade for cheap" PC advantage thing is rapidly becoming moot, if it was ever that significant. My impression is that the majority of folks trotting out that line had never cracked the case of their Dell or HP.
I have to say I don't really know anyone with an Apple computer, but those who I know that own PCs tend to keep them for a lot of years before replacing them.
Which shows that you shouldn't project. Statistically Macs are used twice as long as PCs before they get replaced.
Which shows that you shouldn't project. Statistically Macs are used twice as long as PCs before they get replaced.
They also maintain a great resale value.
C.
they are truly the masters of planned obsolescence.
Bingo.
And say what you will about the 'advantages' of an all-in-one, but I'd feel pretty weird tossing out a perfectly good 2560x1600 IPS iMac display simply because Apple shipped it with a crappy, non-upgradeable GPU 4 years earlier.
Bingo.
And say what you will about the 'advantages' of an all-in-one, but I'd feel pretty weird tossing out a perfectly good 2560x1600 IPS iMac display simply because Apple shipped it with a crappy, non-upgradeable GPU 4 years earlier.
Why would you toss it - when 4 year old Mac's have such a massive value on EBay?
C.