Oh,
The other thing is my parents do not do the computer thing AT ALL.
Wondering if getting them one of these may help.
My dad would look at technical things
My mum would shop.
J.

Spongebob– actually what Apple get right is the user experience. The products work out the box, don't require you to hunt hundreds of drivers, if something is "compatable" with it, it actually is compatable. And there is less in the way of malware exposure so far. For people who want to use a lot of (non-gaming) functions they work brilliantly, and come with a suite of software which means you need very little else.

Sure you can get the same from windows – but you need to be able to roll your sleeves up and play around. Even more so with Linux (which I like).

There are a lot of posy fashion conscious gits who use Apple products. But there is a lot of geeky masochism amongst windows fans. By now a computer or browsing device should work as reliably and as easily as a toaster or tumble drier. Most Apple stuff does.

Don't get me wrong, there are things that drive me spare about the Mac OS, and I will always have a PC as well.But I do find most of the people who are down on Macs/Apple, haven't actually tried them.

Anyone with a financial head on their shoulders balks at Apple products, even if the hardware and software is very seductive.

Some people can tell the difference between price and value.

buying these overpriced mediocre performing machines

What a maroon. Have you actually tried comparing them on a like-for-like basis?

All I can say is try an iPad before slagging it off. I was skeptical at first but it really is a great gadget as it is just so much easier to use than an iPod touch or iPhone. It is the slickness of the software and not really the hardware that makes it so good. We all know that Apple hardware often copies what is already on the market and for the price is lacking but the user interface and way software works is just so good for a consumer product.. Yes PC's are good but Windows as a consumer product is rubbish. The way I see it now is the iPad if great for using apps in your house where the iPhone is great for when you are out and about.

Lastly the iPad is bloody quick at surfing the web, it is noticeably quicker than my iPhone or Macbook Pro at loading web pages.

Give it a few years and I bet the most of you will have one just like the iPod. Well that's my view anyway.

IU can't belive someone was just referred to as a maroon?!? this thread is getting out of hand!

As a fully paid up Mac hater, I have to say I'd like one. Looks great for web surfing while monging on the sofa, read the news while having breakfast, and watching the odd movie. Is it DivX compatible?

Mind you, I'm not sure I'd spend that much on a v1.0 of any new hardware product, and I'd rather wait til there's a little more competition out there before handing over the cash.

I can't see how it'd be easier than laptop for monging around surfing. It wno't sit on yor lap nicely will it, without you having to stare down at it?

sticky fingers leave such a stubborn stain

an iPad in use earlier

I can't see how it'd be easier than laptop for monging around surfing

That's exactly where I think it will be much better.

I've played with one a bit.

It was okay.

A bit funny to type on – more like point and press on a big keyboard – doesn't feel clever like the iphone keyboard. I could only really type quickly with a table to rest it on so i could use both hands.

You have to be dead careful about clean hands – it isn't like a laptop where you can eat a sandwich and play on it as the screen gets mucky really quick. This one had been played with by a good few people and it was really smudged.

It looks quite nice, although is way heavier than it looks which is odd.

I wouldn't want one as i already have a light laptop that i can use on the sofa, and use more than just a web browser on it, but i can see why some people might like having a very expensive and shiny web browsing tablet, and it performs that function quite well, although the screen angle is weird for typing if you're sitting back.

Joe

MrNutt not Apple's fault you dropped your PB down the stairs and didn't manage to take it up with them to service it for the other issue and you knew when you bought your 2k MBP that it has only 1year of warranty and yet you still bought it. My 12" PB is on its 7th year of life so seriously it means not much.

As for your Sony enjoy it and hope it never brakes – though if you bought it from JL you are in with a better chance to get things sorted – but if you have to ever take it up with Sony service, then you will understand what lack of service means.

And everything is overpriced if you can't afford it. Practicality does not come into it, it is only a decision of how much income you are willing to spend on a want.

You have to be dead careful about clean hands – it isn't like a laptop where you can eat a sandwich and play on it as the screen gets mucky really quick. This one had been played with by a good few people and it was really smudged.

Good point! I love my new touchscreen phone, but I'm not sure that covering your screen & what you want to look at with grease is neccesarily progress 😐

Why is the 3G version £100 more? That's insane!

Surely if they'd just made them all 3g compatible from the start (and they've obviously designed it that way) it'd cost just the same. You're not telling me that a sim socket, an aerial and some software costs £100!

sent from my iPhone

WONGAAA!!!!!

Surely if they'd just amde them all 3g compatible from the start (and they've obviously designed it that way) it'd cost just the same. You're not telling me that a sim socket, an aerial and some software costs £100!

I used to work for a computer company (I won't mention the name, besides it's pretty much defunct now) that sold IT systems to hospitals, local government, etc.

The mini systems in the 70s and 80s had been built by this company but by the early 90s they were buying Unix boxes and putting their own badges on them along with their software. They'd then run about 100 terminals off the one unix server. Naturally, if you wanted to run 200 or 300 terminals for a particularly large site, you'd need to pay more, so as well as more terminals you'd need a server upgrade. Having paid thousands for the extra terminals, you'd also need to pay for the server upgrade – which in some cases meant an engineer coming round, taking the back off, and flicking a DIP switch. In other words, they bought a load of boxes that were all the same from Motorola or whoever, but then provided a range of 'options' to the customer.

No, but they do know many of their customers are stupid fashion victims!
Apple Corp. spends huge sums getting their products to the shelves and making sure that they are covetted by those who like to make a statement about themselves.
These product are aimed squarely at those who shop with an emotive head, rather than a practical analytical head
Apple stores must cost a fortune to set up and run, but conversely who else gives you better access to try out technology on the high street before you buy? Great marketting.
Anyone with a financial head on their shoulders balks at Apple products, even if the hardware and software is very seductive.
Apple are great at aesthetics, ergonomics, building subscription and aftersales opportunities, but that's it. They know how to market!
I'm sure there are a few applications on the Apple platform which are vital to business and not available anywhere else, so in this case, buying these overpriced mediocre performing machines is understandable.

There is so much total bollocks spoken here. Macs were, first and foremost, business machines. Not the sort of cheap box used by drones in cubicle farms, but people doing serious processing on large files using Photoshop and the like. There is a PowerMac at work, now no longer used, that I started using in 1995. It's a twin processor 486 MHz with 1Gb of RAM, and an 8Gb h/drive. I used to p/shop 200Mb files quite happily, and that Mac still works. In fact we have a blue and silver Mac tower that's even older that still works. My PowerBook is still working fine after seven years, a mate's iMac is six years old and working fine, though he's just replaced it with a new 27" iMac. I've lost count of the number of PC's of various types that have been scrapped in the last two places I've worked, and by various friends. At one point last year there were ten PC's lined up waiting to get dumped. As far as the iPhone being a 'toy', it's the single most useful piece of electronics I've ever owned, I use it for everything, emailing, taking photos, checking weather forcasts, reading books, listening to BBC 6Music, Facebook, ordering concert tickets, browsing the web, spending time on here, tracking rides and walks with OS maps and GPS, and using the GPS and CoPilot when driving, and loads of other day to day stuff that no other portable devise has ever enabled me to do. Roll on the new 4G next month, my 16Gb 3G is crammed full, and I need more space for maps, books and music.

The iPhone is a work of genius! Mine is glued to my hand (not literally!) It's ace for casual web browsing, facebook, last.fm and streaming movies. Can't believe i never got one sooner!!

MrNutt:
one? nope my powerbook went the same way before it, it developed a fault where it would over heat and power off randomly, all things were pointing towards the logicv board on that too

…and yet you didn't think to get Applecare when you bought your new MBP?

An apple thread with a Count Zero proclamation, who'd a thought it? 😀

CountZero, do you realise you can do all those things for less on other phones, and all without giving your money to a c*ck.

Well I went for the HTC Desire which does Flash and has a proper camera.

Only Apple product I'd consider is a desktop i-mac. I just don't "get" the other products and i-pods just make me angry. If I want to be stuck with the same format and have pants, tinny sound, I can use our 10 year old £12 Morphy Richards radio we use in the bathroom. Or any of the last 5 mobile phones I've had.

They seem cheap to me, just spent £800 on a pair of wheels from Justridingalong, £1350 on a new Scott Spark frame (reduced from £2400) and £350 on an XTR chainset – makes the iPad look like loose change (and just pre-ordered the top of the range one which is still less than my wheels cost, all be it by only a £1).

Well I went for the HTC Desire which does Flash and has a proper camera.

More fool you.

http://www.roughlydrafted.com/2010/05/01/android-2-2-to-do-things-we-assumed-it-already-did/

Apple made seriously nice products that worked for designers etc and people who liked the simple (visual) easy to use formats (like me).

Then suddenly they realised they could turn this second aspect into fashionbook and stop pc's being so inanimate.

Jamie I was buying the premium line of Apples product, I put the first one down to bad luck but when you spend in the region of £2150.00 on a laptop I think its reasonable to expect it to last more than 22 months don't you?

I think its reasonable to expect it to last more than 22 months don't you?

Of course, but history had give you a hint that may not be the case. Don't get me wrong I will probably replace my MBP with something else if/when it dies. Mainly due to the price of the new ones plus the fact my MBP has had a optical drive fail and then have the replacement burn only discs it likes the smell of.

…but if i did get sucked back into Apples web i would defo buy Applecare.

oh I've had optical drive issues, had to continually reset the PRAM with some odd kind of game of 8 finger twister before it would work! Apple really know how to apply the sugar to a very bitter pill.

more fool you

Oh hang on – this 14 page review seems to disagree with you rather strongly…

http://www.techradar.com/reviews/phones/mobile-phones/htc-desire-679515/review?artc_pg=13

Some good points in that article DrJ but I'm not sure about the conclusion:

"Despite nearly three years of coexistence, Android hasn’t achieved a meaningful fraction of Apple’s App Store’s success, hasn’t even sold half as many phones.."

given this:
http://www.npd.com/press/releases/press_100

n this:
http://www.npd.com/press/releases/press_100

…erm.

http://technologizer.com/2010/05/10/helpful-infographic-android-pricing-vs-iphone-pricing/

Frickity, i mean this:

http://www.npd.com/press/releases/press_100510.html

and I assume that's US only data…..

Apple have us by the b411s and they know it. I said about a year ago that I would never pay £200 for a phone so unless they bring price down I wont buy one. Guess what I'm posting this on with just now…………….

Apple have us by the b411s and they know it.

You could always choose not to buy any Apple products…. nobody is holding a gun to your head.

There is a PowerMac at work, now no longer used, that I started using in 1995. It's a twin processor 486 MHz with 1Gb of RAM, and an 8Gb h/drive.

no, there isn't.

Dont really get the appeal of apple products

BUT !

I do get the pricing structure!

Ie make everything as expensive as possible the fanboys will still buy the products.

You could always choose not to buy any Apple products…. nobody is holding a gun to your head.

I'm well aware of this. But alot of people are followers of the latest craze. It's like peer presure at school. Whether it be the latest pair of trainers, the latest bike gear, the car with the right badge, or the latest hair style. Most of us in some way follow the latest craze. Apple know this too well and market thier stuff very well. They almost make out that you can live without it. Human nature tends to give in, in some way.

Some people dont care about it and like to be different but I would be surprised if anyone in here could say that in no way to they give into "fashion"

Apple have us by the b411s and they know it. I said about a year ago that I would never pay £200 for a phone so unless they bring price down I wont buy one. Guess what I'm posting this on with just now…………….

Ha Ha….did you HAVE to buy it? Do they have some compromising pics of you & are blackmailing you?? How do they have you by the balls??