What Do You Hate About Apple?

[Henri Gaudier]

My biggest gripe is the poor customer service. On occasions I've had to wait easily for an hour plus just to speak to someone. Now this is a huge rip-off - charging people to queue! Especially when your new expensive computer is dead. I know ... it's the modern world. The staff can be very "programmed" too. A bit like here really ... criticise and get flamed. Secondly, the reliability is quite poor for a premium price product. I think the DOA figures are about 1 in 10. I've had problems with every machine I've owned and I've had 8 or so. Sometimes very serious problems. You just shouldn't expect that at this price point. I've got synths/samplers and hifi that's 25 years old that I haven't had a minute of problems with. Even my Atari 1040 is going strong. Yet my 2.5 year old €1600 iBook is scrap as the cost of repair makes no financial sense. Which leads me to poor green policies. Not enough solid politics from Apple on green affairs. The prices. Even when taking TTC/VAT into account Apple is screwing it's European customers. And the iTunes pricing is a scandal. Finally, it's focus away from computers with those bloody tv's and phones. Start a seperate division and recruit accordingly. Don't take people of Leopard and the new iMac etc. There ... Flame ON!!!

 

[Eraserhead]

My biggest gripe is the poor customer service.

I really don't see the problem with Apple's customer service (I live in the UK), and generally find it better than most other companies. I'm always polite with them, and although they get me to try stuff again it's not a big deal, they generally seem to sort my problems.

I agree about .Mac and Apple's inability to make a mouse.

Though I'm not sure about the Mac Mini, are there any similarly sized machines that compete on features? Personally I think they should have made it bigger like a shuttle PC as that would enable them to be competitive with it.

 

[astrostu]

I hate newbies who come on the Apple board and start threads like "What do you hate about Apple?" If I hated Apple, I would not be here. But then, I am not a MS/Dell troll, trying to pass myself off as an Apple user/fan.

I assume you're referring to me, so I'm going to take the opportunity to rebuff you. Granted, I haven't been posting on these forums for a long time, but I've been reading the MacRumors.com website since 2001, and I've been reading the forums since they opened. I've been using Macs since 1993 when we had our first IIsi, and I've been exclusively Mac since. I was also an officer in the Mac club on campus when I was an undergrad. So believe me, I'm very pro-, but after using them for 15 years and looking to purchase a Mac Pro at some point in the next few months, there are some things that I don't like about them and I was curious about what others didn't like, as well.

[edit] You can also look at my other posts which pretty clearly indicate I'm no MS troll. [/edit]

 

[3nm]

safari

it's a pain to use it compared to FF.

 

[dejo]

safari

it's a pain to use it compared to FF.

It what way? Details please.

 

[JNB]

All the attention given to the iPhone. Did the iPod receive all this glory? (This is a real question, I didn't follow Apple much until '05). Apple seems to have forgotten about the product that brought it out of the abyss.

The product that "brought them out of the abyss" was the original iMac in '98, the first new equipment release after the Second Coming of Steve.

The iPod was pretty much either misunderstood or completely dissed in '01, as nobody had the foresight to see what it or the market could be like. the iPhone is getting the press precisely because of the Grand Slam that Apple hit with the iPod, and its innovation and vision since. They are a thought leader now in the minds of more than just a select few.

...poor customer service... ...the reliability is quite poor for a premium price product. I think the DOA figures are about 1 in 10... ... poor green policies. Not enough solid politics from Apple on green affairs... ...prices...

The customer service around the world is definitely a hit-or-miss proposition - steady complaints to Apple France in your case, and from others there will make a difference.

Reliability is actually well above most manufacturers, and a claim of a 10% failure rate is, quite honestly, patently absurd. We hear more about it on the Forums because we talk about it. You rarely see folks posting, "OMG! My Macbook works!" It's not worth discussion.

"Green" policies? You may have been drinking too much of the Greenpeace kool-aid. Apple's actually been far ahead of the "demands" of those fools (http://www.apple.com/hotnews/agreenerapple/), but you don't turn around manufacturing processes or methods in a day, week, month, or even a year. It's called availability of parts, and supply chain. Besides, they're a corporation, not a government, so I prefer that politics be kept out of my computer.

Which leads directly into the prices. All the change you clamor for comes at a cost. R & D has to be amortized somehow, and developing new products is always expensive. If Apple sold ten times as many computers, prices would drop, but so would quality.

 

[heehee]

The mouse. They work great, but they are not very comfortable to hold.

 

[JNB]

The mouse. They work great, but they are not very comfortable to hold.

I'm beginning to believe that Steve has a secret dictate that all Apple mice must suck, for some unknown nefarious reason.

• The original soap bar
• The hockey puck
• the white all-button iMac mouse
• Mighty Mouse

I have NEVER had an Apple mouse that wasn't immediately replaced. Well, except for the one that came with my Fat Mac. Kind of a dearth of accessories in 1985...

 

[SC68Cal]

safari

it's a pain to use it compared to FF.

Safari has some serious bugs in it. Big time.

I use Safari, because it's Cocoa, but I keep in mind that it's not the best in the business.

For some odd reason, I hate the FF mac version, but love the FF Windows version. Don't know why. Just seems like the FF windows version's GUI is a bit "thinner"

 

[Mac-Addict]

My biggest gripe is the poor customer service.

Ahh The AppleCare side of Apple or as I call it "AppleDon'tCare" .

 

[Muffin87]

You CANNOT use the iMac screen as if it was an external monitor.
Built-to-order options on the apple store has the same priceVSquality as high fashion handbangs. 400€ for the iMac 750 GB HD? I could buy it for 216€ on the net.

 

[Vluminator]

No no no....

I know Apple must maximize profit from their machines due to their niche role in the computer market, but it seems like now is the time to change strategies. Since Apple is now competing head-to-head with other Intel machines, why not introduce the same lines of computers as are available from Dell, HP, Gateway, etc.?

That would not be a wise strategy and I am convinced Apple knows that. They need to maintain or even better, increase their differentiation otherwise they will commit commercial suicide.

Apple needs to be different and even more important, to appear different. The moment they make "me too" machines it will only come down to price.

 

[paddy]

The GMA950

 

[3nm]

It what way? Details please.

too many little annoyances here and there:

i.) it tends to display nothing until 90% of the web page is loaded

ii.) hard to tell if it's actually still loading since the status bar is the address bar. how elegant!

iii.) at times when it does display the contents before it finishes loading, mousing-over a link will make that link *disappear* . again you are stuck with safari loading stuff that you don't need instead of going to the desired page

iv.) why can't i move tabs around in tab bar?

v.) searches in the search box will open google in the current tab, instead of a new tab

vi.) though it launches faster, safari generally loads sites slower than FF. i know many are saying the otherwise, so it might be the illusion of (i).

vii.) at times safari thinks that there's no internet connection while FF, mail.app, and adium connect just fine

viii.) should have the option of forcing all popups and links that open in new windows to open in new tabs instead. after all, what's the point of tab browsing?

ix.) instead of letting me to choose where i want to save my downloads, it saves everything in the same flipping default place. as if i want to save p0rn in the same folder for skool stuff, or everything on my desktop!

x.) the way it blocks popups is all or nothing

xi.) buttons can't be placed between the address bar and search box

 

[3nm]

Just seems like the FF windows version's GUI is a bit "thinner"

i hear ya. i think that's b/c windows' GUI is a lot thicker than OS X.

i use customized themes for both OS X and FF, so GUI is a not an issue for me.

 

[Henri Gaudier]

Reliability is actually well above most manufacturers, and a claim of a 10% failure rate is, quite honestly, patently absurd. We hear more about it on the Forums because we talk about it. You rarely see folks posting, "OMG! My Macbook works!" It's not worth discussion.

"Green" policies? You may have been drinking too much of the Greenpeace kool-aid. Apple's actually been far ahead of the "demands" of those fools (http://www.apple.com/hotnews/agreenerapple/), but you don't turn around manufacturing processes or methods in a day, week, month, or even a year. It's called availability of parts, and supply chain. Besides, they're a corporation, not a government, so I prefer that politics be kept out of my computer.

Which leads directly into the prices. All the change you clamor for comes at a cost. R & D has to be amortized somehow, and developing new products is always expensive. If Apple sold ten times as many computers, prices would drop, but so would quality.

The failure rate was something I read here. I think Apple came second in the reliability stakes but it was with something like an 85% success rate. Which obviously, if you flip it, means around 15 in a hundred are duff. Can't be bothered to validate that but it's here somewhere. I'm hungover and it's too much ....

Green policies. I don't understand the accusation of GP being fools. We all should demand greener products with longer lives, more upgradeability etc. All companies will have to adopt these principals or we are all done for. In comparison to what could be done, companies and governments are doing next to nothing. Latest G8 anyone? As for the time of turning around a business to be green - all of this has been known for decades - even in popular culture and not academia - Soylent Green - with Chuck Heston in 73. You can't keep politics out of a computer or anything for that matter. Anything worth 100 billion dollars cannot be not a political force. Factor in dumping in China because of their slack environmental protection laws and you have "politics"

And the R&D amortize line is a misdirection. Of course they need to be recouped but by all is my assertion.

All this was written BC too ... before coffee.

 

[Father Jack]

I hate the delay in releasing iWork07 (?), iLife and of course Leopard.

FJ

 

[miniConvert]

My only dislike (not hate) is that they're very consumer orientated in terms of their support and need to make a little extra effort to be business friendly.

Businesses can't ship off entire machines to be repaired - they need next day callout as offered by many other computer manufacturers.

However, with my Mac Pro, Apple have been very good to me in shipping a replacement graphics card and later a replacement hard drive within 24 hours for self installation. They've been frighteningly efficient, and the troubleshooting was far less tedious than I have had to go through with Dell many, many times.

 

[Queso]

Only gripe is the way they refused to license Fairplay DRM despite their customers and other media providers all calling for it. As a result, the streaming world went with Windows DRM and Mac users are locked out of Internet TV and other services.

 

[~Shard~]

I hate the delay in releasing iWork07 (?), iLife and of course Leopard.

Hopefully all three will be related now. I could see Apple moving away from the yearly naming convention for iLife and iWork and instead see them perhaps releasing "iLife Leopard" and "iWork Leopard" to take direct advantage of some of the new features and functionality in the new OS.

 

[sikkinixx]

The feeling that Apple is kinda of ignoring it's computers now. I know they aren't really, they just updated the laptops and the rest should geta refresh soon or maybe a new design but stil...it just feels like it's a second thought to pushin iPods and iPhones and tv and the such.

Buying Apple products is the worst part period. I just got an unopened CD 20" iMac (clearance for cheap) but deciding to buy it was so hard because of all the new iMac deign rumors and the like circling around. I saw my uncle drop over $2k on an iMac only to see the update under a month later with better stuff for $1500. So he had this near new computer that he paid $500 too much for that was a lesser to the new models. I don't pay full Apple retail prices anymore, refurb or clearance rules. I never bought a iPod video because "the full screen one is a month or two away!!!" now I have waited so long I'm sticking it out till the end!

 

[Mr. Amiga500]

1. I hate the fact that Apple considers Canada as part of the US. If you order any Apple product in Canada, it comes in "US English" and has default US settings. Canada does not use "US English". In the UK, Australia and New Zealand, they get "International English", so why not Canada??

2. I hate how Apple software has very few configuration settings. I certainly don't want Apple software to be like Windows where there are millions of settings, but if you change them it screws up everything (or mysteriously reverts back without warning). But there are many times (especially in iTunes) where the program doesn't work the way I want it and a few optional settings would make my life much easier. Hell, even my ancient Amiga software is far more configurable.

I hate newbies who come on the Apple board and start threads like "What do you hate about Apple?" If I hated Apple, I would not be here. But then, I am not a MS/Dell troll, trying to pass myself off as an Apple user/fan.

I hate people who post mindless things like this. This is a valid thread. People can like Apple, but still hate some things about it.

Are you one of those zombie Apple lovers that can see no wrong in Apple? That's far worse than a newbie.

 

[~Shard~]

The feeling that Apple is kinda of ignoring it's computers now. I know they aren't really, they just updated the laptops and the rest should geta refresh soon or maybe a new design but stil...it just feels like it's a second thought to pushin iPods and iPhones and tv and the such.

Totally agree. Up until the MacBook and now MacBook Pro updates, we hadn't seen any hardware updates from Apple since last November I believe! And yes, I'm not counting the extra processor option for the Mac Pro as an update because it wasn't.

A company can only focus on so much though and still do it well. Obviously (rightly or wrongly) the focus as of late has been on AppleTV, the iPhone and Leopard so the iSuites and Mac hardware have taken a back seat. With the recent updates to the portable lines, hopefully this is a sign of things to come and we will indeed be seeing a redesigned iMac soon along with a new kick-ass Mac Pro.

Oh yeah, and then there's the Mac mini... I have a feeling it is going down the same road as the G4 Cube...

 

[zephead]

It's not something I really hate, but just some minor annoyance: They refer to all their products as if they were people by leaving out the word "the" before the name, as in "The reason why we're so excited about iPhone" as opposed to "The reason why we're so excited about the iPhone". There was another thing too, but I forgot what it was.

 

[HawaiiMacAddict]

Aloha everyone,

As a veteran Windows user from 1989 up until August 2006 (of course, I still have to use Windows at work, but I'm PC-free at home), I've noticed a few differences between the two OSs.

One other person has commented on the one thing that kind of drives me up the wall about Apple - notably the silence coming from Cupertino. As a former Windows user, I'm quite used to Microsoft being extremely noisy, what with the constant press releases concerning their products, other company's products, beta releases of their software, etc... Apple, on the other hand, is kind of like the NSA, where secrets are king. Of course, that's not all bad - it really builds up the suspense for both the press and the Mac-crazy fanbois users like me

On the other hand, that same paradigm extends to the OS each company creates as well. Conversely to my observation above, the system quietness of Mac OS X is much preferable to the noisy environment of Windows. The Windows System Tray is one of the worst offenders. For example, I run Windows in a Parallels VM on both my iMac and MacBook Pro. I use AVG for my anti-virus protection (it's free!), and the first thing it does is gain internet access to check for any upgrades. I do NOT need some stupid bubble window in the system tray to tell me that my AVG software MAY be out-of-date (I know it is already - after all, since I don't run Windows every day, if AVG indicates that it's up-to-date, there's definitely something wrong). I also don't need another bubble window telling me that AVG is upgrading itself, when AVG is actively upgrading itself. It's almost as if Windows assumes its users are complete and utter idiots.

Mac OS X is much better in that regard. Everything is much more seamless, and even if using 3rd-party software, seems like a part of the total package vice something just thrown in.

To sum it up, the ONLY thing that irritates me is the lack of information flowing out from Cupertino. If that means that I will continue to be amazed at WWDCs, MacWorlds, special events, etc... and continue to be able to purchase incredible machines and outstanding software, then so be it. I absolutely LOVE the Mac experience and only wish I had made switch earlier!

HawaiiMacAddict