For anyone only buying Apple stuff, or actively avoiding it, you’re missing out. Try different things, and discover new features, and even new ways of doing things.
Like the boyfriend upthread who’ll only watch AppleTV. Sigh…
I teach on Macs. They work. But I use a lot of different brands.
I missed the new Supes ‘N’ Lois show, so I just now turned on the TV, told my Amazon Fire Stick to load the CW app, and was watching in less than a minute.
A Roku or Amazon Fire is only like $30-50. Buy one for the poor guy.
Another reason I stay away from Apple products is when they break, it’s a huge hassle. My daughter’s iPhone broke once. We ran to an Apple store expecting to leave with a fixed phone. What happened was that I could either wait 2+ hours or make an appointment for a few weeks out. Waited the 2 hours just to be told we’d have to call Apple. Spent an hour or two on the phone to be told it needs to be sent in and the turn around time was 2-3 weeks. Even with giving them a CC to get a replacement which would be refunded when they got the return still meant she was without a phone for about a week.
When I tell people (Apple owners), I get a quizzical look and nearly the same response “what do you expect? How is that any different than your phone?”. Well, with my phone I can take it to any Verizon store. If the line happens to be too long, there’s another Verizon store likely within a 15 minute drive (The two closest Apple places are about an hour apart). Then, they’ll either fix my phone or if they decide it can be swapped under the warranty, they’ll hand me a new one.
Since I got my first cell phone, I’ve never gone without it for any length of time. I’ve never had to send it in and every time I’ve brought it into a store with a problem, I walked back out with a working phone less than a half hour later.
When my daughter had to send hers in and be without a phone for a week, coupled with the two hour wait at the Apple store, that sealed Apple’s fate for me. As far as I’m concerned, that’s unacceptable customer service.
OR… you could just go to any Phone Fixin’ R Us place. I’ve had cracked screens replaced, a headphone jack replaced and a completely dead iPhone fixed (needed a complete circuit board replacement), all at little places with names like UbreakIfix.
Most of those were done in about a half an hour (painless, because UbreakIfix is right across the street from Graham Crackers Comics).
I would never go to an Apple Store (or any big corporate store) if I were in a hurry. Little Mom ‘n’ Pop shops for the win!
If we’re just going to talk about why we use or don’t use Apple: I mostly don’t use Apple products because of the expense. For what I need, a $50 phone is fine, and I could build a computer far cheaper that could do what I want with less fiddling. To do what I’d want to do, I’d need Windows, as that’s where most of the older games are. And I plan to keep using my computer for more than the 5 years Apple plans for when it does complete architecture shifts.
I am also a tweaker. I fix things that annoy me about my experience. It’s why I was willing to make those userscripts to fix things–it’s something I would already do for myself. I thus don’t like being locked down. Even if I don’t really use it much, I want to be able to get under the hood, so the only iDevice is one that I could have jailbroken. I won’t even buy an Android phone/tablet I can’t root.
I also don’t like the idea of all apps having to come through a specific store. I have apps from outside the Play Store on my phone. I have extensions from outside the Chrome store on my webbrowser.
Finally, I loathe ads. I think the vast majority are immoral, more about tricking you into wanting something than trying to let you know about something you might need. I always stop them. Currently, that is the main reason I use a rooted phone and install apps from outside the app store.
Ironically, if the Epic lawsuit goes through, I’d be more likely to try an iDevice. At least that would allow me to install outside apps and possibly even tweak things. If I can completely block ads–then the smoother feeling UI experience on iOS would be nice.
I ranted earlier about how American products suck but Apple, in my experience, is one US brand that really does have good quality and durability. The only problem I’ve ever had with iPhones is gradual obsolescence. I’ve dropped it more times than I can count and have never had problems with internal components not working. I did have a case which kept the screen from getting cracked, but I’m referring to the guts of the unit itself. It’s pretty durable, not that I’m recommending anyone toss it off the Empire State Bldg or anything.
I stopped using Apple because what they make and what it costs, as well as how it’s differentiated from the rest of the market, no longer provides value to me. In 2006, a Core 2 Duo laptop was literally about the best laptop I could buy, for both Windows and Mac. Good hardware (great touchpad by comparison to other laptops), compatibility with both the all-Apple environment I was in and my own long history of Windows, and actually comfortably portable. I bought a 2011 MacBook Pro and it had several hardware failures. In addition, that’s about when Apple started a crusade of thinness, port removal, and user-unfriendly behavior. So I haven’t bought one since, because what I want from a computer is no longer what Apple sells.
Similarly, I like my Android-based phone. Started with a Nexus and now I’ve gone through a couple different Motorolas. Reasonably cheap, unlocked, and finally able to find something with basically all the features and design choices I wanted. Now, I do have an iPad Pro, but that’s because Comcast made me a great offer. A new iPad now (well, then) paid for in 24 installments of $5 a month. That said, I really don’t like a number of the iOS design choices compared to Android. But as a pure media consumption device (streaming video, mostly) it’s fine.
I’ve done that for when her screen has been cracked. Well, I did that the first time it cracked. Then I bought a kit and have since replaced her screen twice on my own (never in my life have I seen such tiny screws). But in this case the phone bricked itself while under warranty.