Are any of you beginning to hate Apple, for whatever reason?

[TSE]

I don't hate Apple, but have certainly lost confidence.

1. My 2008 Macbook pro had to be thrown away because defective gpu.

2. My 2011 MacBook pro has to be repaired for defective gpu. I was called a liar by the genius on the last day of my warranty since he couldn't recreate the issue in 5 minutes. Spent the semester with a computer that had to be restarted three times a day when the gpu started acting up. Couldn't do anything since I was at college in Iowa and couldn't afford to be without a computer. Day after finals week the computer completely died on me due to the bad gpu. Came back for break and they tried charging me for a repair despite the story I told them. Had to speak with two managers for fifteen minutes. Everyone I dealt with made it seem like I was a criminal and finally when they decided they were going to repair it for free even when they initially denied I had a problem under warranty they made it seem like they were doing me some huge favor.

3. iOS 8 on my iPad 3 has slowed it down to a crawl.

 

[stiligFox]

I'm still a big fan of Apple, but the bugs in the latest OS X and iOS offerings are starting to get annoying. It's often things that we have to put up with for a long time.

I've also gotten tired of Mac hardware always behind behind on tech and under powered when it's released; I've finally built a Hackintosh that is more appropriately powered for the tasks I want for it. At this point I accept any bugs though, since they could be either Apples or my fault. I won't blame Apple for issues I have by doing something they can't control!

But yeah, the amount of bugs iOS 8 has is appalling. Yosemite is good but there is still lots of work that needs to be done.

 

[grahamperrin]

Monday morning

Apple … a lack of passion, sterility in recent years

… when Apple had passion and an identity. …

… independence is frowned on, creative client base is ignored, just to be like Microsoft, google, Android, and the mass market - in other words no identity or passion …

I think I know what you mean. Rewind to September:

… I wonder, is the perceived sterility an unintended result of an excess of caution by the company?

Certainly, the 2013 news that a CEO of Burberry was to be Senior Vice President of Retail and Online Stores for Apple was completely unexciting to me. (That's absolutely not to offend Angela Ahrendts – I don't know her – it's more, a reflection of my lack of interest in Burberry … another web presence that appears very sterile to me.) …

I'm out of my depth here, and it's probably a stupid viewpoint, but I still can't shake the bad, gut feeling that I had in October 2013 (long before the Yosemite experience). Something like:

"Getting someone in from … Burberry? With a Donna Karan background? To sell Macs? That's just weird …".​

Consider the Apple Store (UK) at five points in time …

1. 2009, Christmas – products galore, a good amount of information (including costs) at a glance
2. 2013, Christmas – costs, but there's less information and fewer products
3. 2014-11-18 – costs, but there's less information and it feels like there are fewer products (massive images mean fewer products per screen)
4. 2014-11-24 – for Apple products, costs have disappeared
5. 2014, Christmas – still no costs ("Who needs that level of distraction at a shop front?"); it's more seasonal than ever before (Apple! Yay! Reindeer, teepee! Let's play cowboys and indians for Christmas! Buy! Buy! Children! Want!) and there's yet another transient throwaway marketing slogan that makes me cringe
6. Burberry – massive images, no costs, people swanning around in a fantasy world, ladies touching each other in trench coats open to the thighs with no skirt visible … yeah, I know, some readers will be tittilated by all of that (plus Kate Moss agape more often than smiling) but that's just sex selling – not to be confused with a producer's passion for a product

– and frankly, when I look at all of that, I reckon that web content in the Apple domain would be better now – at least, in the Apple Store – if they had got someone in from the Daily Mail.

Yeah, the good old days, when things were more like … the best Mac hardware, the best Apple software, information, well organised.

Now we have, instead, the Apple Store as you see it – in-your-face pictures of generally good hardware but too little information and no hint that the software for the costliest hardware is – according to App Store reviews in some countries – not even 'OK'.

How to reduce confidence and alienate a customer

I don't hate Apple, but have certainly lost confidence.

… I was called a liar … Spent the semester with a computer that had to be restarted three times a day when the gpu started acting up. … after finals week the computer completely died on me due to the bad gpu. … they tried charging me for a repair … two managers … Everyone I dealt with made it seem like I was a criminal …

Wow.

An experience like that would end my association with a brand.​

Capturing the imagination

… imagine if someone *different* again appeared in the market, pushing excellence and independence in personal computing.. That would be something to look forward to. …

YotaPhone 2 is capturing imaginations, and this month it became reality (launched in London). OK so it's not a PC, and it's too soon to say whether there's excellence, but yes:

• my plans to spend hard-earned money on an Apple device were shelved (by the Yosemite experience) and now I'm almost certain that I'll spend that money instead on Yota hardware.

Not politically correct, but true

… no real competition in the tech market. Either buy a PC and still pay the Windows tax, or buy a Mac ecosystem and settle with dumbed-down software. …

I hesitate before using the word 'dumb' but every time I see it used in connection with Apple's development of Yosemite, I silently agree. For a change, I'm breaking that silence

Seriously

I don't hate Apple but I have come to realise they are not a serious computer company - although I only realised after spending thousands and thousands of pounds on their computers over the years. Use Apple computers if you must but avoid putting all your eggs in one basket, you'll just get let down in the long run.

Not a serious computer company? … What are you smoking?

Speaking for myself: right now, nothing.

I don't imagine that Apple people were spaced out on cannabis or whatever for the Yosemite experiments, but I do have near-endless puzzlement about the lack of sense to Apple's approach. That –

– that's another area where I see Apple no longer taking a serious approach.

… hoping Linux will have applied the final polish needed to make it as user friendly as OS X and the natural choice for the world's desktop computers.

Some aspects of the open source environments (and there's more than just Linux to consider) are already more polished than Apple's software.

Critically: in some areas where Apple closed source goes horribly wrong at a basic level – and continues to build upon that wrongness – open source gets the basics right. Not necessarily right first time, but the openness about major problems (example: Official PC-BSD Blog » Open Letter to the PC-BSD Community Regarding Upgrading to 10.1) and about changes of direction (example: GNOME Epiphany (predecessor to Web) – A heads up about extensions in 3.8) is less likely to alienate the customer than Apple's silence around the ill-fitting one-size-fits-all approach.

Non OS X Alternatives to OS X Yosemite

How to reduce confidence and alienate a customer

… I am displeased with the direction they're going when it comes to Macs. …

Yeah. And no offence to potential fans of Apple Watch or Apple gaming hardware, but if the company appears to put more effort into novelties than into the problems it has caused to many Mac users: the little confidence that I have left will be shredded.

I don't imagine that Apple intended this effect, but as things have turned out: the company is playing a dangerous game – and because it's a game, I'm prepared to view the Apple Watch as a toy.

Apple can play with that toy, but if that playtime runs parallel to carelessness towards the loyal Mac user base, without which Apple would have sunk years ago, my association with the brand will end.​

OSx86

… my gripe is not with OS X, but being strapped to Apple's hardware. Not sure what you mean by "open", please explain. Unless I buy or build a "hackintosh", what options do I have? …

… feedback, as I just did saying I finally wouldn't be buying a Mini to replace my dad's computer, but instead would settle on a hackintosh. …

I'm writing this on the best Mac I've ever owned - not my Mac Pro, iMac, or a MacBook Air but - a Hackintosh. I suppose one day Apple will attempt to block Hackintoshes …

… I've "built" a rig (online) with a 4.0GHz Quad i7-4790K, 16GB RAM, 250GB SSD, 1TB HDD, 2GB GTX 760 and a 1080p 24" screen for under 1500€, less than the high end 21.5" iMac that has half the RAM, no SSD, a 2.7GHz Dual Core i5 and a 1GB GT 750M...

I'm considering going back to Windows (been testing Windows 10, I like it so far), which is going to be hard because I really like OS X, but I can get a much more powerful machine, with user replaceable and upgradeable parts for a much better "bang for my buck". And if I ever feel adventurous, I'm choosing high compatibility parts for Hackintosh. …

… tired of Mac hardware always behind behind on tech and under powered when it's released; I've finally built a Hackintosh that is more appropriately powered for the tasks I want for it. At this point I accept any bugs though, since they could be either Apples or my fault. I won't blame Apple for issues I have by doing something they can't control! …

For your consideration: Hackintosh section

 

[Liquorpuki]

I don't hate Apple

But to me it looks the brand is slowly eroding and they're turning into an incremental innovation company. Incremental innovation = what happens before tech companies fall of a cliff

Of course the iWatch can prove me wrong

 

[Lord Blackadder]

Don't expect things of a corporation that it doesn't provide...Apple is a moneymaker, like any corporation. Apple might have more flair than most other corporations its size, and its products are more visible than most, but it remains a legal entity designed to act as a vehicle for profit. Apple doesn't care about you personally, and it only embraces humanity or social issues insofar as it must in order to a) comply with regulation and/or b) sustain an image for marketing purposes.

I'm not sure whether it's healthy to either love or hate a specific corporation.

 

[iMacFarlane]

I don't hate the company, but I'm done buying their products. I need longer useful lifetimes for my software. Recently bought a small form factor PC with Windows 8.1 and it's amazingly stable and powerful.

I was disappointed when Rosetta was killed with Lion. I was let down when installing newer revisions of iOS resulted in reduced performance on my phones. I was disgusted with the entire paradigm of iOS 7+. The recent Mac Mini was the nail in the coffin for me, though. I'm not telling Apple to F off, I'm replying to their saying it to me.

Oh, and 2014 only has 1 day left in it. Will Apple reveal "the most exciting product line" Eddy Cue saw, because I still don't see it . . .

 

[MkVsTheWorld]

I wouldn't say I'm starting to hate Apple, but I am displeased with the direction they're going when it comes to Macs.

I upgraded the RAM on both AFTER purchase on my two machines (08 iMac and 09 MBP) and I can open both to get a bigger HDD or an SSD if I decide to. I can replace them if they fail too.

These days, Macs have gotten more expensive (at least in Portugal), I'm forced to pay Apple's price at the time of purchase to upgrade the RAM and SSD (in Portugal it's quite cheaper AFTER) and if any of those components fail, I can't replace them myself since they're soldered. And if they fail after the warranty...well, new logic board or new Mac...

That's exactly how I feel. I have the last MacBook Pro (2011) that allows upgradability AND could have an anti-glare screen. I switched to Apple back in 2007 and recently have been turned off by this shift towards nonupgradable products, which is obviously done for higher profits. The removal of anti-glare was also obviously because it wasn't that popular.

Unfortunately, I think this shift shows a fundamental difference between Steve Jobs and Tim Cook. Steve Jobs simply didn't cater to shareholders as much as Tim Cook does. That's why we're seeing the Mac line becoming practically disposable now. This is because shareholders want more profit and Tim Cook delivers that.

Don't get me wrong, I like Cook from a humanitarian standpoint, ie LGBT supporter, pushes for better factory conditions, treats Apple employees well, etc. I just don't like electronics being so disposable.

 

[Lord Blackadder]

I don't hate the company, but I'm done buying their products. I need longer useful lifetimes for my software. Recently bought a small form factor PC with Windows 8.1 and it's amazingly stable and powerful.

I don't see a huge difference between Windows and OS X these days in terms of basic performance and stability. I run several flavors of Windows/OS X/Linux these days between work and home and I am not "amazed" at any of the differences between them. They each have their advantages and disadvantages for certain tasks. OS X is probably still my favorite but I'm not an evangelist. Frankly I'm rooting for Linux because it's free.

Windows machines will always be cheaper than Apple at the low end - but Linux blows Windows out of the water in that arena.

My biggest beef these days is how buggy, resource-intesive and generally bloated Microsoft Office has become. I wish I could completely switch to some version of Open Office but I keep finding myself required to work with Office and it sucks.

 

[Solomani]

Are any of you beginning to really hate Apple, for whatever reason? I have my reasons, but what about you?

Nope, never hated Apple. I do hate Taco Bell since I got food poisoning there once.

As for Apple, I've owned several Apple devices. Only once did I have an Apple product go bad on me, but Apple quickly replaced it since it was under warranty.

 

[yellow]

I hate Yosemite. Does that count?

 

[mercuryjones]

Not sure how you can hate a company, unless they are doing something that severely impacts the earth and how we live. Apple is a hardware/software company that doesn't, by itself, impact our life on earth. Some of their suppliers that they use might do so, but then, you should hate on them and not Apple.
Unless you subscribe to the "everything is Apple's fault" newsletter, which some on the web tend to do.

 

[maflynn]

Not sure how you can hate a company.

You haven't been around in the 90s then? The hate towards MS by apple users was renowned and only eclipsed by the hate towards apple from windows fans.

People hate companies, regardless of the reasons.

 

[mercuryjones]

You haven't been around in the 90s then? The hate towards MS by apple users was renowned and only eclipsed by the hate towards apple from windows fans.

People hate companies, regardless of the reasons.

Yes. I was around for it. And I still didn't hate Microsoft. I didn't care for how they did business, but that's far from hating a company.
If you find yourself hating a company, you might want to talk to someone about it.

 

[grahamperrin]

Hatred of Microsoft's problematic problem-reporting process

… the 90s then? The hate towards MS …

For me during that period the worst things about Microsoft were:

• jaw-dropping misunderstandings of Apple technologies
• excruciating failures of Microsoft web interfaces to problem reporting – those failures, I did hate (and I wonder how many other people never succeeded in reporting problems).

 

[Lord Blackadder]

Apple is a hardware/software company that doesn't, by itself, impact our life on earth. Some of their suppliers that they use might do so, but then, you should hate on them and not Apple.

You can't make billions of dollars without having some sort of impact. Apple indirectly employs tens or even hundreds of thousands of workers to manufacture its products, and hundreds of millions of people have bought them. So the way wool does business has a big impact on a substantial fraction of humanity and they are responsible, either directly or indirectly, for most of those changes.

 

[ratzzo]

Not sure if hatred or just pure annoyance. It's the little things: removing 32GB options and leaving the 16 GB (which ends up being around 12GB) on the iPhone lines. Macbooks without HD screens seeing how Windows laps have had these since forever. iPads that cannot stream to a Chromecast without converting to the old-fashioned Quicktime format .m4v.

Lastly, marketing that all devices get updated on day one, but purposely removing features that could have been added (Siri on the 4S was one).

Of course, all of these have business in mind... but you have to agree, are quite the annoyance. The thing is, the majority of the customer base will upgrade to an Apple product anyways, and Apple know how to get advantage on that front.

 

[maflynn]

Not sure if hatred or just pure annoyance

Its apple's attitude of late. Removing options for the consumer, making arbitrary decisions that really scratch your head, such as forcing iOS developers to remove the ability to mange folders on iCloud (even though their own iWork apps do).

 

[grahamperrin]

iCloud and much more in the mix, benefit of the doubt to Apple

Imagine a third party app for OS X that must use system-wide file access coordination to work with documents in iCloud.

Recently for a third party app:

… - Fixed an issue that caused a crash when opening iCloud containers with large number of files

Who knows how large?

Who knows – with certainty, based on the developer documentation (above) and other relevant technical knowledge – exactly what can happen in the aftermath of a third party crash with so large a number of files with system-wide file access coordination and iCloud services for multiple platforms with diversity for Mavericks and Yosemite and so on in the mix?

I don't know.

In areas such as those, with the unknowns, I like to give Apple the benefit of the doubt:

• it is reasonable for an Apple policy to limit the extents to which some third party apps can work with iCloud.

Postscript

There's a filecoordinationd aspect to this week's https://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?p=20533397#post20533397 under Excel Opening As Read Only. We all know that Microsoft software for OS X is bug-free, right?

 

[Tech198]

Apple suport

Every time i go on the phone, or Live chat, i always feel i'm wasting my time, (and i'm usually right in all cases)

Apple gives you, by "you" i really mean "I", the "run-around" by offering features (eg using Airplay as the only mentioned to stream photos to an Apple TV or iCloud), which is simply not the case. I was waiting for an Apple expert to suggest iTunes, but they didn't..

I dunno. Maybe Apple knows these older/less well-known features are in iTunes, just Apple wants the customer to use the better technologies out there, and if they never mention the other way(s), users won't ask. Or Apple may just assume that people have done their research before they speak to them..

Well.. that kind of defeats the purpose of Support in all areas now doesn't it.

When you keep going back, you may eventually get to someone who just understands u better...

But that's like all industries...... so i can't really fault Apple for this. Or can I

 

[kazmac]

Well, I can update my feelings with an increasing disillusionment. iP6 which I stupidly bought on contract, is just a mess with 8.1.2 - which I upgraded to weeks ago. I finally went to the genius bar and they did nothing to help. They had no fixes for iTunes crashing - yup we did yet another factory restore and diagnostics found no problems.

As far as Mavericks, I am stuck with it. I just hope the 2010 iMac lasts another year or so until I can determine if it's worth going forward with Apple. Thankfully not so many crashes and seize ups, but, I wish I would have never upgraded from Mountain Lion. ML made my then 3.5 year old iMac fly was smooth and almost reminded me of SL.

At any rate, I was okay with the occasional hardware issue; those things happen from time to time, but the buggy software and now questionable hardware designs (iPad Air and this thinness bs) along with rush jobs/decreasing QC make me a bummed chicky. On top of that, Apple starting to push itself as a fashionable, trendy brand also disappoints me. All they care about is money and image these days.

And if that continues, not sure where I will be after this phone and iMac run their course.

 

[kingtj]

Apple ain't what it used to be .....

I definitely don't "hate Apple" .... In fact, it's almost all I use, except for the rare occasion I have to resort to booting my lone Windows PC at home (usually to update some product via a USB cable, when the manufacturer refuses to write any OS X software for it).

That said? Sure, there are a number of reasons I'm not exactly thrilled with the direction Apple has taken the company and product line. To name a few issues that come to mind:

1. Better support needed for OpenGL so 3D graphics software and games will perform equivalent to their Windows counterparts.
2. Get your act together with cloud based services. The number of outages and issues with iCloud related services is unacceptable. I know Apple doesn't have the same number of resources for cloud computing as Google, but they need to strive to be a contender in the same tier.
3. Listen to the demands of the public a little bit more. People constantly ask for a mid-range "mini tower" type of Mac .... Something with the ability to open it up easily and upgrade video cards and CPUs as well as RAM and hard drives or SSDs, but not a Xeon based workstation class machine like a Mac Pro. The iMac isn't ideal for people who have their own displays and don't want to be forced to buy another as part of the system. The Mac Mini is too "entry level", by contrast -- and winds up serving a different segment of the market.

By contrast, I just don't see anything better on the "other side of the fence", so I'm still a supporter of Apple's products.

 

[huck500]

As others have said, I don't hate apple, but I find myself slowly moving away after ~25 years of using apple products.

I do love my 13" macbook Pro, and I think I'm sticking with apple laptops for now. Love Yosemite, too. I will say that I don't use apple software very much, though.

Now for the dislikes:

1. Apple Store. Oh my god, what a nightmare. I went to buy an iMac for my mom, walked into the store, tried to find an associate, but they were all helping people sync their phones or something. Went back to the entrance, and a guy there put me in a queue. There were like 10 people ahead of me. I just wanted to quickly pick up an iMac, it would have been their quickest sale all day. I went to best buy and waited like 30 seconds, was out in a minute.

I guess the stores are for people who need lots of help, so I should just go elsewhere.

Also, iPad just doesn't cut it for me anymore. I spent too much time trying to make the iPad work for me by jailbreaking and finding workarounds for various things (emulators, flash). I picked up an nvidia shield tablet on black monday, and it just does everything I need it to. I can play Dreamcast games on it, for god's sake. Plus optimized Portal! (Not saying this is apple's fault, I just chose the wrong device to begin with.)

TBH, I'm thinking of going to an android phone as well, maybe a Moto.

3. Cloud services... I've gone all in with Amazon, because of the unlimited photo storage that comes with Prime. I got an Echo for Christmas, so I switched to Amazon's music service as well. Google docs for cloud documents. Apple's not the best at any of this stuff.

I still think their hardware is amazing, but that's not enough anymore... and I don't wear a watch.

 

[mercuryjones]

As others have said, I don't hate apple, but I find myself slowly moving away after ~25 years of using apple products.

I do love my 13" macbook Pro, and I think I'm sticking with apple laptops for now. Love Yosemite, too. I will say that I don't use apple software very much, though.

Now for the dislikes:

1. Apple Store. Oh my god, what a nightmare. I went to buy an iMac for my mom, walked into the store, tried to find an associate, but they were all helping people sync their phones or something. Went back to the entrance, and a guy there put me in a queue. There were like 10 people ahead of me. I just wanted to quickly pick up an iMac, it would have been their quickest sale all day. I went to best buy and waited like 30 seconds, was out in a minute.

I guess the stores are for people who need lots of help, so I should just go elsewhere.

Also, iPad just doesn't cut it for me anymore. I spent too much time trying to make the iPad work for me by jailbreaking and finding workarounds for various things (emulators, flash). I picked up an nvidia shield tablet on black monday, and it just does everything I need it to. I can play Dreamcast games on it, for god's sake. Plus optimized Portal! (Not saying this is apple's fault, I just chose the wrong device to begin with.)

TBH, I'm thinking of going to an android phone as well, maybe a Moto.

3. Cloud services... I've gone all in with Amazon, because of the unlimited photo storage that comes with Prime. I got an Echo for Christmas, so I switched to Amazon's music service as well. Google docs for cloud documents. Apple's not the best at any of this stuff.

I still think their hardware is amazing, but that's not enough anymore... and I don't wear a watch.

You do realize that you could have purchased the iMac yourself, via the Apple Store app, paid for it, and would have had it waiting for you when you were ready to go, right? You don't have to wait around for associates.

 

[Negritude]

Are any of you beginning to really hate Apple, for whatever reason? I have my reasons, but what about you?

I don't hate Apple, but I do hate sycophants who make endless excuses and justifications for everything they do.

 

[Ulenspiegel]

No hatred, just some reservations.