Pretty much, yeah. I got an iPad 2 a week ago; I was at Target and saw their prices, then did a quick price check/stock check online at a local Microcenter store and found a better price there. So we drove over to that store and bought it. This past weekend, I wanted a case for the iPad, so since we were Christmas shopping at a mall that had an Apple store, we stopped in. I think I lasted two minutes before I hauled ass out of there. They had insane crowds and a pitiful accessories selection compared to the third-party options available at other stores. Back to Microcenter.
I wasn’t bashing Apple as much as equating them to Microsoft. It’s the religious fervour that surrounds Apple that I find sickening. It’s like the old Ford vs Chevrolet pissing contests.
Isn’t it widely recognized that IBM deserves the kudos for that one?
No. It was Apple that defined the PC. But they didn’t really invent something new to do it. They just did it better. There’s no single inventor of the PC, any more than a single inventor of the car.
No, Apple was first. Boy do you make me feel old. Here is an impartial link with the dates:
http://www.roughlydrafted.com/RD/Home/158E7FA2-7B50-45E0-BD80-BEBC7C5E8CA6.html
Ignorance fought, thanks!
the Apple II was a great machine and Woz deserves the credit for creating it.
Steve Wozniak, “Yeah, I never got that turtleneck thing.”
the Apple II, Commodore PET and TRS-80 were all out in the same year.
Back in the good old days (ie the 80’s) those were all electronics stores. Selling stereos and receivers and Macintosh amplifiers and JBL and KLH speakers (just to name a few) and reel to reel tape decks and turntables… the list was long. Cool stuff.
I think it’s important to point out that many of those people in the apple store are getting their Apple products fixed at the genius bar. The crowds are buying things as well, but many are just waiting around, fiddling with gadgets, while their phone gets reformatted, or their laptop is diagnosed. The crowds speak to the popularity, but also the fact that the stores function as repair centers as well. If Microsoft were to do the same thing, I would imagine they could drive more sales in addition to drawing more people to their stores.
You’ve gone full retard.
3.5" Floppy:
HAHA OH WOW (ignoring that floppy was used since 1971 and 3.5" was just another version to put in your computer).
GUI:
Do you know what a GUI is?
USB:
Designer: Compaq, DEC, IBM, Intel, Microsoft, NEC and Nortel
Ignoring that Macs didn’t even support USB for a very long time, what a joke.
Thunderbolt:
Designer: Intel
Made for Apple, yes. Adopted by anyone other than unique Mac users? No. We see how well they did with IEEE 1394.
Touchpad:
“The touchpads included in Apple Computers’ PowerBooks were based upon Cirque’s GlidePoint technology; another early adopter of the GlidePoint pointing device was Sharp. Later, Synaptics introduced their touchpad into the marketplace, branded the TouchPad. Epson was an early adopter of this product”
WiFi:
What?
Handwriting recognition:
"The first commercially available tablet-type portable computer was the GRiDPad from GRiD Systems, released in September 1989. Its operating system was based on MS-DOS.
In the early 1990s, hardware makers including NCR, IBM and EO released tablet computers running the PenPoint operating system developed by GO Corp. … This recognition system was later ported to Microsoft Windows for Pen Computing, and IBM’s Pen for OS/2."
GUI phone:
Do you know what a GUI is?
Did you bother to look any of this up or were you just masturbating to the macrumors post you lifted your list from?
Everything you listed was used in the computer market by other companies before, or at the same time as, Apple.
MacOS is full of so many bugs since their last service pack, that you paid for, that a friend of mine bought a Dell, with Windows on it, to get away from MacOS - and it just works (in fact, it works much better). His new computer cost a total of $280 and it’s much more powerful than his Apple brand PC. His new computer uses less power, costs less and is more powerful. IT JUST WORKS.
Oh yeah, how many times did you call Apple, when you got your auto-installed spyware a couple of months ago, before they finally admitted to the spyware existing and giving you a patch to remove it?
MS has never claimed to have invented these things, they are software developers. Mac zealots do often make those claims, though.
Steve Wozniak did not invent the personal computer.
For pretty much every major consumer electronics device (MP3 players, PCs, tablet computers, smartphones, regular old cellphones) that have come out in the past 40 years they have been the result of lots of incremental changes or adaptations of existing technology that were minor enough to not be especially notable but over time represented a big technological change.
In grade school we learned that Edison invented the light bulb and that A.G. Bell invented the telephone and the mind naturally assumes all inventions are like that. The reality is that isn’t the case. (And not to totally blow your mind, but Edison didn’t invent the first incandescent light bulb and there is strong evidence Bell may have actually not invented the first telephone but he was first to patent.)
Anyway, I have said this before:
Microsoft is one of the most profitable companies on earth. They had record 4Q revenue reported in Oct. with record net income. (People regularly act like Microsoft is going bankrupt, they aren’t even close.)
Most of their income is driven by products that have small marginal cost to sell (software), for that reason they are a cash heavy business. One of the things they do with that cash is make bets on lots of new product and business ideas. Many of them don’t work, but some of them do.
Long term I’m not sure that’s an inferior approach to what Apple does with its excess cash (stockpile it in a manner in which it essentially generates 0% ROI.)
As an investor I should also note the great thing about owning Microsoft stock is they always pay dividends like clock work, so regardless of the stock price on any given day you keep making money. Apple hasn’t issued dividends anytime in recent memory (if ever) so all of your gains from holding Apple stock are purely theoretical (until realized.)
I can’t wait until next year when Apple invents LTE for the iPhone 5.
that is correct he did not. i never said anything close to that.
you quoted my post and all i gave him credit for was the Apple II. so i don’t see where you could claim i was saying he invented the personal computer.
you could buy a home computer prior to the Apple II, Commodore PET and TRS-8 machines though at a high cost, more limited functions or having to assemble a kit (or buy assembled at a higher price).
You seem to be the only zealot here. (Masturbating at macrumours, really? And tossing out an unverififiable statement like, “Mac zealots do often make those claims…”) To preempt any claim that I’m a zealot for Apple, I’ve been buying PCs since the 80s, and never owned an Apple product until a phone 3 years ago. For the last six years, I’ve mostly used Linux, before that I had an MSDN membership. I don’t know about Apple’s latest operating system, I can say I had a lot less frustration with Snow Leopard than my daughters with Windows 7.
All that has been claimed here is that Apple has done a great job of identifying technologies, along the line of Edison with the light bulb. Edison did not invent the light bulb, but he recognized its value, and created the first commercially viable one. To adjust your “history” into neutral language:
“Oh yeah, how many times did you call Apple, when you got your auto-installed spyware a couple of months ago, before they finally admitted to the spyware existing and giving you a patch to remove it?”
I know MS has installed spyware. The one that bothers me the most is “MS Advantage”. Yeah, an advantage for them. They and Intel have been notorious. I’m not sure about Apple. Are you talking about the phones tracking positions - just like Android phones? Both did it for the same reason, IIRC the difference being that Google collected the info, and Apple did not.
“3.5” Floppy:
HAHA OH WOW (ignoring that floppy was used since 1971 and 3.5" was just another version to put in your computer)"
Are you really claiming that the 5.25 inch floppies are the same technology as 3.5 inch? Surely you are brighter than that, since you can type on a keyboard. That’s like claiming since magnetic tapes were invented, no one has invented a new magnetic storage device. And from whence the 1971 date? 8" was 1967, 5.25 was 1976, and yes, Apple was first to put 3.5 on a PC, in 1984. (You could claim the 5.25 is just another version of the 8, but not the 3.5.)
“GUI:
Do you know what a GUI is?”
Why do you take umbrage at this? Yeah, Xerox invented it, but they never even attempted to market a computer, and dropped all of their work on the floor. Apple was the first to market a windowing operating system, and the first to use a mouse.
So this statement: “Everything you listed was used in the computer market by other companies before, or at the same time as, Apple.:” is just flat out wrong.
You are correct about USB. Apple introduced a faster standard, but was essentially irrelevant in the market place at the time. They reluctantly moved from Firewire to USB, when USB 2.0 was demonstrably superior.
I would bet real money that Apple was the first major manufacturer to ship a computer with on-board USB - the original iMac in 1998.
It’s true if you say “Personal Computer.”
FWIW, I’ve used an Alto.
I meant to quote SlowMindThinking, my apologies, I misclicked.
It was not a commercial product. I said Xerox never marketed it. (I meant the mouse with the windowing system, since it is the tandem that is so powerful.) I was addressing that “everything was used in the computer market…”