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orange23

macrumors regular
Original poster
Oct 14, 2020
118
176
As 1st generation Apple loyal fans, I own numerous Apple products across all product lines, however I increasingly feel Apple Corp is giving me up...

First macbook butterfly keyboard makes my fingers so uncomfortable, then iPhone's OLED screen really irritate my eyes, now Airpod 3 tips just too big for my "small" ears...

It makes me feel I'm just not the right type of target profile for Apple's engineers, after so many years....
 

Spock

macrumors 68040
Jan 6, 2002
3,522
7,567
Vulcan
The first computer that I ever used was an Apple II so I have been using Apple products for a VERY long time and they have released products that just don't fit for me personally either and that is what's great about competition, you have choice. If you don't like AirPods, you have other options.. Beats or Bose or JBL or one of the hundreds of other headphones brands. Also, Apple no longer uses the butterfly keyboard and the iPhone SE is a great phone that is LCD and rumors have been going around that a new SE that retains the LCD is in the works.
 

Boyd01

Moderator
Staff member
Feb 21, 2012
7,947
4,879
New Jersey Pine Barrens
Got my Apple ][ in 1978, Fat Mac 512k in 1985. All I can say is that my 2018 Mini and iPhone 12 Pro Max are two of my favorite Apple products ever, no problems at all. No problems with my previous 2013 MacBook Air, 2012 quad Mini or iPhone 6s Plus either. Fortunately, I missed the whole butterfly keyboard era. Never could use those in-the-ear type earphones, too uncomfortable and weird for me.

But we're all different, so perhaps the time has come to move to a different platform?
 

ackmondual

macrumors 68020
Dec 23, 2014
2,446
1,151
U.S.A., Earth
Loyalty to a company is weird. Just get the device that works best for you and doesn't hurt your feelings.
This sort of thing does hit you, but you adapt...
I got the iPod Touch 3 to 5, and a used iPad Air (1st gen from 2013). Never got another iPod Touch since the screen remained at a dinky 4". The iPad Air (1) never got updated past ios8, but TBH, its battery has seen better days. I recently got a 9th gen iPad after about 5 years. If I can get my Apple ID account set up again (need to change email from one that I can no longer access).

Love my Chromebook. If it dies, I'm setting aside $300 to get a new one

Love Android on the phone side. Gonna stick with that, and try out some of Google's flagship Pixels.
 

satcomer

Suspended
Feb 19, 2008
9,115
1,977
The Finger Lakes Region
Sometimes developers especially Audio plugin makers ALL seem to hate the M1! I mean only a handful of audio plugins made then abandon the program! They mostly seem like Fly by night software charlatans!
 

ApfelKuchen

macrumors 601
Aug 28, 2012
4,335
3,012
Between the coasts
As they say in The Godfather, "It's not personal, it's business." They've made various choices over the years that happen to not fit with you personally.

It's not common that the same person would a) have very small ear canals, b) dislike the feel of the butterfly keyboard, plus c) have issues with OLED displays - there's nothing in particular about any one of those things that correlates with the other two. So, I'd suggest that Apple's engineers haven't targeted you in particular, because those three things do not fit a single profile.

AirPods Pro come with ear tips in three sizes. If the Small is too large, you could let Apple know through their comments page. However, I'd imagine the company is already quite aware of what percentage of people can be comfortably fit by the sizes they provide, and have probably decided that supplying ear tips in more sizes would not be productive (let's say, comparing the cost of including a pair of extra-large and extra-small ear tips with every set of AirPods to the number of people who would actually need those sizes).

As to the butterfly keyboard - a new Mac would not have it, because you are hardly the only person who turned out to not like it, so the butterfly is gone. You could that say Apple has already listened to its customers.

But finger pain from using a particular keyboard? I'd suggest that a short-travel keyboard like butterfly requires a lighter touch. Back in the days of manual typewriters I learned to pound a keyboard with the best of them, but I also learned a very long time ago to use a light touch on computer keyboards - in my case a lighter touch meant less stress in my neck and shoulders. If you press harder than necessary, that excess force tends to rebound to your body. A short-term fix for this may be to use an external keyboard that's more to your liking. The long-term fix... throughly try-out the keyboards on new Macs to see if they're better suited to your needs.

OLED displays... Clearly, there are people who are affected; I see the posts. Apple has been using OLED because of superior battery life and that it actually looks really good to a very large percentage of users. All I can say is that there will be other display technologies in the future (because that's the nature of the world), and perhaps you'll be less sensitive to whatever comes next. But it also may be that the same techniques used in OLED will continue, because the benefits for the vast majority of users may not outweigh the affect on those who are sensitive to those techniques.
 
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