So last year, I purchased a Mac Mini as a way to get my feet wet with Apple beyond the iPhone (to which I switched from a Blackberry). Prior to this, I'd been a lifelong PC user with no major problems to speak of. I didn't do rampant downloads, kept a firewall and virus protection on, etc. I did have a Dell die on me, but that wasn't a huge deal.
I'm not trying to start a war of words here with any fan boys; instead, these are just some thoughts I've had after using their products for a year.
1. From a software perspective, I like their products. OS X is good, although I must give a thumbs down, based on my experience, to Snow Leopard. I would repeatedly lose my Internet connection sporadically and without warning. Once I wiped my hard drive and returned the computer to the original state, no problems. So aside from that, I like their software.
2. Hardware is another issue. I have been fortunate so far that my Mini has worked. I had a kernel panic once but nothing since then. What I don't like about their hardware when compared to my PC: First, the slot-loading disc drives. Like many, I have experienced scratched discs. It is inconceivable to me that they let this go on for how many years and still no design fix? Unacceptable. Second, presumably because their form factors are so small, all of my discs eject hot to the touch. In my PC, this rarely happens. I wonder if this can degrade the quality of discs over time. No proof on that, just curiosity.
3. Heat buildup. Why is it that Apple products run so hot? Even my iPhone will get scary hot. I once had it in an open-top shirt pocket streaming music and when I took it out, I was scared that the battery might blow because it was so hot. No case on it either, so I wonder what happens when you stream music and have a case. Note, this was only streaming for 10-15 minutes when it happened.
I once considered an Imac and a Macbook until I saw how hot they get. Suffice it to say, I was shocked that watching ten minutes of a video on Hulu in the Apple store would make the bottom of a notebook uncomfortably hot to touch. If that happens on Hulu video, it doesn't bode well for what I can expect when compiling programs. I even once saw someone who wrote on Apple's support boards that she put a fan behind her computer to cool it down. Perhaps that is the ultimate example of product loyalty.
Even my little Nano gets way too hot when it is charging. I have a habit of only letting it charge for ten minutes or so because I don't trust it.
4. Design: I love the way my Mini looks sitting on my desk. But to go back to my comment earlier on the Macbook, the other reason besides heat that I passed is when they enclosed the batteries. It is unacceptable to me to have to haul my laptop into a store and hand over all my financial data and proprietary work to some "geniuses" and trust that everything will be ok. I am skilled enough with computers that I can swap my own laptop battery and I fiercely resent Apple telling me that I am not allowed to do that.
5. Quality control: Sadly, here, bad marks too. After ruling out the Macbooks because of heat and battery enclosure, I considered the 27 " imacs when they came out. Then I started to see rampant stories of screen issues, flash issues, etc. How can a company such as Apple that prides themselves on everything "just working" allow such garbage to happen? It's no small feat for anyone to pack up an imac and haul it back to your local mall to get it fixed. I realize the majority of them may be fine but there are enough issues that I don't trust it.
One disappointment I've had with quality relates to the power cord on the iphone. I've already had one separate at the ends from being coiled up in my pocket. So one day I compared the thickness/design at the joints of the iphone power cord and my Blackberry power cord (the latter of which never had any issues). Guess what? The Berry's power cord is thicker and has much more reinforcement at the joints. The iphone cost double what the Berry cost, so can I get you, Apple, to give up a few pennies of margin and make a power cord that can hold up to being coiled up?
6. Flash and headphones, etc: I am not going to start a war on flash. Some like it, some hate it. But it bothers me when my mini's browsers often crash when playing a flash application but my PC handles it just fine. I read Steve's note on flash, wherein, among other things, he blamed it for most of the mac crashes. Here's a news flash (pun intended): maybe it's not flash, maybe it's your computers that need work to be able to run it without crashing. Again, my PC, running Windows 7, is just fine when playing flash videos.
Also, why is it that a $40 pair of Apple's headphones have a cord that is 6 " shorter than a $10 pair that I picked up from CVS? I do not want to sit with my desktop in my lap when I need to use my headphones.
I put all this out there to see if others have had similar thoughts, not to get in a childish tug-of-war on if PC's or macs are better. PC's have issues too and I've experienced some of those. In my experience, neither one wins in a landslide, but for me, the advantage is PC, however slightly, for now. My PC seems more reliable, runs cooler, doesn't scratch my CD's, plays Flash, and can do more. I hope Apple can gets its act together because one year in, my thoughts can simply be summed up as "room for improvement."
I'm not trying to start a war of words here with any fan boys; instead, these are just some thoughts I've had after using their products for a year.
1. From a software perspective, I like their products. OS X is good, although I must give a thumbs down, based on my experience, to Snow Leopard. I would repeatedly lose my Internet connection sporadically and without warning. Once I wiped my hard drive and returned the computer to the original state, no problems. So aside from that, I like their software.
2. Hardware is another issue. I have been fortunate so far that my Mini has worked. I had a kernel panic once but nothing since then. What I don't like about their hardware when compared to my PC: First, the slot-loading disc drives. Like many, I have experienced scratched discs. It is inconceivable to me that they let this go on for how many years and still no design fix? Unacceptable. Second, presumably because their form factors are so small, all of my discs eject hot to the touch. In my PC, this rarely happens. I wonder if this can degrade the quality of discs over time. No proof on that, just curiosity.
3. Heat buildup. Why is it that Apple products run so hot? Even my iPhone will get scary hot. I once had it in an open-top shirt pocket streaming music and when I took it out, I was scared that the battery might blow because it was so hot. No case on it either, so I wonder what happens when you stream music and have a case. Note, this was only streaming for 10-15 minutes when it happened.
I once considered an Imac and a Macbook until I saw how hot they get. Suffice it to say, I was shocked that watching ten minutes of a video on Hulu in the Apple store would make the bottom of a notebook uncomfortably hot to touch. If that happens on Hulu video, it doesn't bode well for what I can expect when compiling programs. I even once saw someone who wrote on Apple's support boards that she put a fan behind her computer to cool it down. Perhaps that is the ultimate example of product loyalty.
Even my little Nano gets way too hot when it is charging. I have a habit of only letting it charge for ten minutes or so because I don't trust it.
4. Design: I love the way my Mini looks sitting on my desk. But to go back to my comment earlier on the Macbook, the other reason besides heat that I passed is when they enclosed the batteries. It is unacceptable to me to have to haul my laptop into a store and hand over all my financial data and proprietary work to some "geniuses" and trust that everything will be ok. I am skilled enough with computers that I can swap my own laptop battery and I fiercely resent Apple telling me that I am not allowed to do that.
5. Quality control: Sadly, here, bad marks too. After ruling out the Macbooks because of heat and battery enclosure, I considered the 27 " imacs when they came out. Then I started to see rampant stories of screen issues, flash issues, etc. How can a company such as Apple that prides themselves on everything "just working" allow such garbage to happen? It's no small feat for anyone to pack up an imac and haul it back to your local mall to get it fixed. I realize the majority of them may be fine but there are enough issues that I don't trust it.
One disappointment I've had with quality relates to the power cord on the iphone. I've already had one separate at the ends from being coiled up in my pocket. So one day I compared the thickness/design at the joints of the iphone power cord and my Blackberry power cord (the latter of which never had any issues). Guess what? The Berry's power cord is thicker and has much more reinforcement at the joints. The iphone cost double what the Berry cost, so can I get you, Apple, to give up a few pennies of margin and make a power cord that can hold up to being coiled up?
6. Flash and headphones, etc: I am not going to start a war on flash. Some like it, some hate it. But it bothers me when my mini's browsers often crash when playing a flash application but my PC handles it just fine. I read Steve's note on flash, wherein, among other things, he blamed it for most of the mac crashes. Here's a news flash (pun intended): maybe it's not flash, maybe it's your computers that need work to be able to run it without crashing. Again, my PC, running Windows 7, is just fine when playing flash videos.
Also, why is it that a $40 pair of Apple's headphones have a cord that is 6 " shorter than a $10 pair that I picked up from CVS? I do not want to sit with my desktop in my lap when I need to use my headphones.
I put all this out there to see if others have had similar thoughts, not to get in a childish tug-of-war on if PC's or macs are better. PC's have issues too and I've experienced some of those. In my experience, neither one wins in a landslide, but for me, the advantage is PC, however slightly, for now. My PC seems more reliable, runs cooler, doesn't scratch my CD's, plays Flash, and can do more. I hope Apple can gets its act together because one year in, my thoughts can simply be summed up as "room for improvement."
- but thanks for sharing your experiences.
