[Closed] What's so good about Apple stuff?

Right click on the thing you want to change and follow the instructions.
Is it that different on a Mac?

No idea, I've never used a Mac.

iPhone and iPad only for years.

Regarding the "it just works" thing, and people saying it's "bullshit marketing"

It may well be, for some people. But my mum recently got an iPhone after having a HTC oneM8 and before that she had a windows phone of some type.

She never got to grips with either of the last two as she just couldn't figure out how to do things (despite lots of help and guidance) and as a result used them for calls and texts and almost nothing else.

Three days with the iPhone (first time apple user, and no help from anyone) and she is on Facebook, has set up her iTunes and bought some music, she's getting news alerts from various sources she's chosen, set up her iCloud sharing with other family members etc etc.
She's set up her car Bluetooth for the first time ever. Along with loads of other stuff.
All without the usual frustrating tutorials from other people that she's needed.

I've no doubt for most of us, more tech savvy types, we can do all that on most devices, but she couldn't previously, and now she can.

So for her, it's far more intuitive, and "it just works"

Windows does something Apple doesn't.

Games would be the obvious one I suppose.

I know plenty of people who run Windows alongside OSX on their Mac out of necessity (the Parallels system is pretty bloody slick to be fair). The reverse isn't true.

This is one of the advantages of having the lion's share of the market, Windows is the first platform most people will develop applications for. (The downside of course is it's also the first platform most people will develop malware attacks for).

Windows is the first platform most people will develop applications for.

and iOS is the first mobile OS that people will develop apps for, followed by Android and almost never windows mobile...

So on a par with Android then? Waiting for the impressive bit

Is it though? I was under the impression that apple had this feature far in advance of android having it, and it's a more complete restore.

Maybe android has caught up.

Games would be the obvious one I suppose.

Is that still as big an issue? I'm not a gamer and genuinely don't know the answer, but I see more and more games on the Mac App Store these days. Are those that aren't available for Mac available for a games console? Or, to ask another questions, are there any games that are PC-only?

She's set up her car Bluetooth for the first time ever. Along with loads of other stuff.
All without the usual frustrating tutorials from other people that she's needed.

As for cloud doing Spotify on the plane now, it's the future.

[quote=Cougar ]

It doesn't seem to happen with owners of other devices

Yeah - but that's actually better 😉

We're doing this again because it's almost time for the early rumours for the iPhone8 coming out in September...

[quote=nealglover ]Regarding the "it just works" thing, and people saying it's "bullshit marketing"
It may well be, for some people. But my mum recently got an iPhone after having a HTC oneM8 and before that she had a windows phone of some type.
She never got to grips with either of the last two as she just couldn't figure out how to do things (despite lots of help and guidance) and as a result used them for calls and texts and almost nothing else.
Three days with the iPhone (first time apple user, and no help from anyone) and she is on Facebook, has set up her iTunes and bought some music, she's getting news alerts from various sources she's chosen, set up her iCloud sharing with other family members etc etc.
She's set up her car Bluetooth for the first time ever. Along with loads of other stuff.

Hmm, but I'm not seeing how any of those things are actually easier on iOS than Android - different maybe, but they involve a very similar process on both (BT has already been mentioned - the vast majority of the pain there will be with her car, at least it was for me, on an Android phone you just turn it on and click on the available devices, much the same as with iOS). Something else is different.

Maybe android has caught up.

I've had several android phones on two year contracts. Two years is plenty of time for things to significantly improve.

Three days with the iPhone (first time apple user, and no help from anyone) and she is on Facebook

Pretty sure the FB app is basically the same on all platforms. And HTC - they were terrible when we had one in the house.

Manufacturers can customise Android devices. This is part of the difference here - they can make them significantly worse if they want. So you shouldn't be judging Android vs iPhone, you should be judging HTC or Samsung etc vs iPhone.

genuine LOL at @gofasterstripes! Where did you get my photo from? Keep meaning to dig my (NOS virtually unused, hi-spec Amiga 1200) out. That is the best platform, for sure!!

Is it though? I was under the impression that apple had this feature far in advance of android having it, and it's a more complete restore.

i like the fact that the computers offer low cost of ownership. my post from the MBP thread a few weeks ago.

"people moan about the cost but with the high resale value of the old machine (£650 for a 4 year old laptop) plus the vat off means its will cost less than one days income for each of the next 3 years of its working life, and thats not factoring in its value at the end of the 3 years either.”

from my business point of view it would be idiotic to step outside the apple ecosystem for what i do.
i wouldn’t save any money and my productivity would drop with no gains further down the line. and when i look at the numbers again I’m staggered that something so cheap can be so productive and generate income. if a MBP was double the price (and its resale value went up the same) its still only costing 1.5 days income a year to use.

thats my reasons for ownership, i appreciate there are instances where vanity/desirability and marketing are the big influences not productivity.

the fact people get so wound up about computers is quite amusing though.

Nuts to the computer, I think I want your job.

Hmm, but I'm not seeing how any of those things are actually easier on iOS than Android -

My point is, it doesn't matter if you don't see how it's easier.

SHE does see it.
And for her, it's allowed her to get loads more things done than her old "confusing" android device. Even though she had lots of help with the android device, and virtually none with the iPhone

different maybe, but they involve a very similar process on both (BT has already been mentioned - the vast majority of the pain there will be with her car,

It's the same car. Only the phone has changed.

The obvious conclusion is that it is not the car that was causing any problems.

To be clear. I know how to do all those things on pretty much any device, as would most of us here.

But she doesn't. However with an iPhone, she somehow managed to do al of it herself with no help at all.

I'm not saying Apple are better than Android phones at everything, as I don't really care if they are.

But in this case "it just works" is quite appropriate.

Nuts to the computer, I think I want your job.

He's probably not talking about profit per day (but that wouldn't sound as impressive, and self-aggrandisement is very important to MrSmith).

It's the same car. Only the phone has changed.

The obvious conclusion is that it is not the car that was causing any problems.

Yes, it could have been the phone. But I've had the same thing going from Android to Android.

Point is, you cannot lump all Android phones together, as I said before. And this is probably an issue for Android itself as one manufacturer can produce a piece of crap and any users who buy it will then think Android itself is rubbish.

Same issue for Windows tbh.

Windows, MacOS, iOS, Android etc. Hard to say which is best but without the Apple products the others wouldn't be as good as they are. I use Windows and Android for work and cost reasons but I'm aware that I've indirectly benefitted from Apple's game-raising activities.

There was something on the Radio the other day about Steve Jobs needing an oxygen mask and asking for several examples to be brought so he could chose one that had an acceptable level of "design". He was obviously a fussy bugger but we all benefit from that design obsession to some degree, and only Apple users have to pay for it.

without the Apple products the others wouldn't be as good as they are

Whilst that's undeniably true, I'd suggest that it's unfair to place that accolade solely on the shoulders of Apple. They've been innovative sure - they pretty much invented the tablet market - but the industry cribs ideas from each other all the time. We might never had OSX or Windows if it weren't for Xerox, for instance.

You've seen this in action on this very thread; "my phone is great because it does X!" - "er, my different phone has been doing X for ages."

you cannot lump all Android phones together

Same issue for Windows tbh.

You can tell people they shouldn't lump all Android phones together, but they will. People out shopping for a smartphone or a computer broadly have two choices: Apple or Android and Apple or Windows. You and I both appreciate that Windows and Android are just operating systems, but the OS is useless without the hardware. As many have alluded to, Apple blend both hardware and OS together to make it much harder - nay, impossible - to buy a duffer. That confidence for the buyer is worth the premium.

Point is, you cannot lump all Android phones together, as I said before. And this is probably an issue for Android itself as one manufacturer can produce a piece of crap and any users who buy it will then think Android itself is rubbish.

This is true, but it's also a fairly compelling reason, for someone (like my mum) who doesnt know which android device will be a piece of crap, to stick with Apple.

[quote=nealglover ]My point is, it doesn't matter if you don't see how it's easier.
SHE does see it.
And for her, it's allowed her to get loads more things done than her old "confusing" android device.
...
But in this case "it just works" is quite appropriate.

It's an interesting anecdote, but there's probably somebody out there with a similar anecdote going the other way (apart from that they're not saying anything about "it just works"). Because with the car BT in particular there really is no difference in the process on the phone, and it's incredibly simple. The obvious conclusion being that the difference is mainly with your mum, not the phone.

The obvious conclusion being that the difference is mainly with your mum, not the phone.

Pretty sure she's the same mum.

She looks the same at least, and she's driving the same car.

It's an interesting anecdote, but there's probably somebody out there with a similar anecdote going the other way

You may have noticed, I said "in this case"

I'm aware other people also have phones (and mums) and differing views of both.

But thanks for the heads up.

You need a control Mum, Car and Phone Neal, then you could be sure what it was.

Neal's mum:

[img] [/img]

You need a control Mum, Car and Phone Neal, then you could be sure what it was.

I'll ask around and see what I can sort out.

Pretty sure she's the same mum.

She looks the same at least, and she's driving the same car.

That's what [i]they[/i] want you to think!

TBH, the car connection thing has been a massive issue across the industry.

Apple had something like 4 different versions of bluetooth to develop, test and launch across their entire product range in 2009/2010. It's generally a bit harder per version, and you have a few hoops to jump through with Apple before they'll let you say "iPod compatible" or whatever. But then that's it. 4 versions, new version every couple of years. (they might be on 6 or 7 versions by now)

Android had, at the same point in time, about 900 versions. Just in the European markets. Easier to sort out per item (about 50% saving in actual workload and hoop jumping) but still, several decades work, compared to the 12-18 month process to get everything sorted (HW/FW/SW) for iDevice compatibility.

iDevice isn't any "better", it's just far more controlled.

I hate it.

Part of that problem is the bluetooth 'standard'.

aracer - Member

Neal's mum:

About to open the search bar with a three finger tap?
She's got the knack! 😀

matt_outandabout - Member

Arguing?
What else is there on STW. Next you know someone will have to talk about [s]bikes[/s] electric mopeds....

🙂

After buying 4 XPS laptops over the years, then using a Macbook Pro 15 at work for a few years, I think I've had it with Windows on laptops. My new high specced XPS 15 9560 is boxed up and ready to send back to Dell (7700hq + 512gb NVMe SSD + 16gb ram). If anyone is selling a late 2013 or newer Macbook Pro, let me know 🙂

The only bonus of the XPS over the 4 year old Macbook was the GPU, which really doesn't bother me for my work. The Macbook is faster, lighter, thinner and runs cooler. I find the trackpad bigger, range of gestures far better supported and the keyboard is flawless. This stuff makes a difference, a minor clockspeed difference on ram or CPU generation, really doesn't.

Sadly Dells support is dire, their returns guy just didn't show up on the day he was due. They've arranged another driver to come on Monday, I've been fighting for 2 weeks now just trying to get rid of it.

VR is seriously demanding on graphics hardware, even on PC your looking at throwing in a £600 graphics card if you want to run at reasonable settings /frame rates.

I'm not sure that's true, a developer friend has a £750 pc with £150 graphics card for his vr setup, though he might not be chasing benchmark stats.

without the Apple products the others wouldn't be as good as they are

Whilst that's undeniably true, I'd suggest that it's unfair to place that accolade solely on the shoulders of Apple. They've been innovative sure - they pretty much invented the tablet market - but the industry cribs ideas from each other all the time. We might never had OSX or Windows if it weren't for Xerox, for instance.

You've seen this in action on this very thread; "my phone is great because it does X!" - "er, my different phone has been doing X for ages."

The "standing on the shoulders of giants" goes on and on. Xerox "invented" WIMP devices before Apple but Apple were such a big player in bringing these things to market, particularly the smartphone, and raising expectations. Huawei might be able to come close for a fifth of the price but left to their own devices (pun slightly intended) they'd be producing the sort of crap interfaces that you used to get with Sony mini disc recorders. Mind you Apple seem to be quite capable of producing awful interfaces too, but they always look nice.

Why is it so difficult to do a screen shot on a Mac book? Why can't you right click and have it as an option?
It's all press this,hold this, lick your nose,rub your head. I have to look it up every time,then I have to look up which is the shift button.
We are not all beardy non sock wearers.
****s.

It's all press this,hold this, lick your nose,rub your head. I have to look it up every time,then I have to look up which is the shift button.

'fuxupwitchoo, dude?

😉

Also, for those that don't already have a bit of Windows with their Apple but fancy trying it - 25% off VMware Fusion 8.5

Ends today at 11:59pm Pacific Time, so 6.59am tomorrow.