lkrupp

I was one of those who stuck with the Apple II line as long as I could. The end of the line was the Apple IIGS in 1986, two years after the Macintosh was introduced. GS/OS was an attempt at putting the Mac GUI on an Apple II series. I bought my IIGS shortly after it came out and was very pleased with its performance and GS/OS. I finally made the jump to the Mac when I bought a Power Mac 8100 with all the bells and whistles. I believe it was the Power Mac 7100 that started out with an internal codename of Carl Sagan, Sagan sued and the codename changed to “Butthead Astronomer”. Sagan sued again. 

glnf said:

lkrupp said:

substance said:

How is this app that much different any app that has 'everything-and-the-kitchen-sink' built into them (like Facebook had they not broken Messenger out into a separate app)? 

And why is WeChat so popular in China?  What's to prevent the latest and greatest chap app to come around in a year or two to knock it off its pertch?

Why so popular? Probably because the dictatorship wants it to be since it almost certainly has access to all data flowing through it. The Chinese people have no freedom of speech, no right to assemble to petition the government (think Tiananmen  Square), no right to a political opinion (unless it conforms to the dictatorship’s), no real religious freedom. Look what the dictatorship did to Tibet (a cultural genocide) and now the Uighurs (a physical and cultural genocide. Watch the latest PBS Frontline show). The Chinese people are only a half-step above the poor souls who were unfortunate enough to be born in North Korea.  

I live in Switzerland. I started using WeChat when working with a Chinese design company. It is simply brilliant. It is extremely convenient for communication, sharing files and organising work. It handles all sorts of file format, reduces the size and transcodes from one format to the other. You don’t even have to be aware of it. Just post, receive and distribute. It is totally clutter-free, transparent and responsive and there is a great (yet super simple) client for MacBooks. After a while I started noticing that quite a few of my colleges in Switzerland also love WeChat. It is not widely used here, so we (have to) stick to WhatsApp, Instagram and Facebook. But I wouldn’t mind doing all in WeChat. It really combines simplicity and ease of use in a hugely versatile, powerful and fun application. Shame it is also so problematic. 

All of those glowing praises without acknowledging that everything you did or said while using it  went straight to the totalitarian government in China. What, you don’t care

mazda 3s said:

Sheesh, that didn't take long. Can't we all just drop the cynicism for just ONE day and appreciate that these two are working together for the common good? I mean, damn!

I understand your position but realize many here don’t trust Apple or Google, or any tech company, when it comes to privacy. I personally think it’s way overblown especially in the case of the average individual. I think there’s way too much paranoia over the motives of Google and others. Bottom line it’s about advertising and marketing, not about creating personal dossiers on individuals for use in nefarious ways. That’s the realm of the dark web, hackers, identity thieves, and other douchebags. Google just wants to know what ads to send you and how much they can charge advertisers for doing it.

Funny how corporations react when they get caught at something, including Apple. It’s always explained as trying to do right by their customers. When my youngest son was working on his MBA at the Washington University Olin School of Business in St. Louis he told me about a class he was taking on just how to respond when you get caught with your pants down around your ankles. The professor set up various situations and asked the students to respond. My son said the majority of the class always seemed to prefer the cover-up route, obfuscation, and denial. Many of these students were already in positions of management at their respective companies. My son said the professor was aghast at some of the solutions. Honesty and straightforwardness was what he wanted to hear but didn’t. 

Rayz2016 said:

lkrupp said:

I hitched a ride on Apple’s bandwagon in 1982 with an Apple ][+ and have never looked back. There’s something about the company even today that I find fascinating. Now that Apple is a trillion dollar company it has its problems and foibles but at the core it’s still the company it was in the early days. In my now 38 years on the bandwagon I have been treated well by Apple in both purchases and repairs. They fixed my late 2013 27”  iMac when the spring assembly holding the head up broke, long out of warranty, at no charge, with apologies. They fixed my water cooled G5, also at no charge. And they replaced my Power Mac 8100 immediately when the power supply failed, no questions asked. 

You're clearly one of a kind.

If you ask people around here, walking into an Apple Store is just asking to have your dog shot.

That’s because ‘people around here’ march into an Apple Store with a chip on their shoulder, an arrogant know-it-all attitude, a hair trigger temper, and a feeling they can berate and abuse the poor rep at will, and  demand to be waited on hand-and-foot immediately. 

In the case of my Late 2013 27” iMac I brought it into my local Apple Store and patiently waited to be helped. I explained the situation and asked if there a repair program for the problem. The rep checked, said no there wasn’t, and there would be a $175 charge. I didn’t fly into a rage, didn’t curse, didn’t berate the rep  and tell them this was a known issue and thousands of iMac users were affected according to Google and they better not charge me a penney. I simply said okay, fix it. Two days later they called, said my iMac was ready, and there would no charge for the repair.