Why exactly are macs so overpriced? (3 Viewers)

[Mormon Nailer]

that reads like defensive mac fanboy garbage to be honest.

The only bit that makes a bit of sense is the resale value and that only backs up the fact that they are expensive

I think when he wrote the article the world was in the middle of a huge wave of Vista hatred and he had enormous horn on for his iPhone.

The thing with PC's is that you can do what you want with them - I have always found the Apple universe very limiting, and it is only getting worse and worse. I hate the fuckers and wouldn't support them even if their machines ran twice as fast as my PC and cost half as much.

They are slowly killing the computer.

 

[HMD]

Does anyone have a good explanation for this?

The last couple of years i've bought all the computers for my workplace, mostly macs but a good few pcs and i've found that there is a difference in price of a couple of 100 for a decent machine but it's not enough to make me want to change to working on windows over osx. IMO it's a much better working environment

 

[Mormon Nailer]

The fact is that the world is divided between users of the Macintosh computer and users of MS-DOS compatible computers. I am firmly of the opinion that the Macintosh is Catholic and that DOS is Protestant. Indeed, the Macintosh is counter-reformist and has been influenced by the ratio studiorum of the Jesuits. It is cheerful, friendly, conciliatory; it tells the faithful how they must proceed step by step to reach -- if not the kingdom of Heaven -- the moment in which their document is printed. It is catechistic: The essence of revelation is dealt with via simple formulae and sumptuous icons. Everyone has a right to salvation.

DOS is Protestant, or even Calvinistic. It allows free interpretation of scripture, demands difficult personal decisions, imposes a subtle hermeneutics upon the user, and takes for granted the idea that not all can achieve salvation. To make the system work you need to interpret the program yourself: Far away from the baroque community of revelers, the user is closed within the loneliness of his own inner torment.

Now!

 

[ann post]

9 pictures paint a thousand million threads.

 

[Mormon Nailer]

 

[maims bond]

 

[Lefty Frizzell]

 

[Wilbert]

They are slowly killing the computer.

Very slowly. Almost 90% of the world use Windows.

 

[Mormon Nailer]

Very slowly. Almost 90% of the world use Windows.

Yes but via the iPhone and the iPad people are being used to computers as locked down devices you cant change and rather than tools they simply become delivery vehicles for stuff moderated and controlled by Apple.

Take for example the lack of outrage when they removed porn from the appstore -I mean come on, without porn it's not the interweb.

And it's more than just the Mac - what about iTunes and the iPod - more and more of our culture is flowing through Apple.

People who get all het up about piracy might care to reflect on the fact that Apple now has the record industry by the balls in a way Napster and TPB never did. In fact the loss of revenue that record companies whine about has more to do with people being able to cherry pick the good songs off an album on iTunes rather than being flogged an hour of fillers on the CD.

 

[Wilbert]

Take for example the lack of outrage when they removed porn from the appstore -I mean come on, without porn it's not the interweb.

And it's more than just the Mac - what about iTunes and the iPod - more and more of our culture is flowing through Apple.

People who get all het up about piracy might care to reflect on the fact that Apple now has the record industry by the balls in a way Napster and TPB never did. In fact the loss of revenue that record companies whine about has more to do with people being able to cherry pick the good songs off an album on iTunes rather than being flogged an hour of fillers on the CD.

There was probably no outrage about removing porn from the app store because there are a million and one places people can go to fulfill their porn needs.

I think record companies will take iTunes over Napster any day of the week. Even if people are cherry-picking on iTunes, they're still paying.

I like Apple's stuff and I don't feel limited by the limitations. I can understand if people do but there are a lot of alternatives. If you don't want an iPod or an iPhone there are thousands of alternatives.

 

[Mormon Nailer]

I like Apple's stuff and I don't feel limited by the limitations. I can understand if people do but there are a lot of alternatives. If you don't want an iPod or an iPhone there are thousands of alternatives.

I just spotted this a few minutes ago.

http://www.boingboing.net/2010/04/15/apple-blocks-pulitze.html

It's true what you say that people can go elsewhere, for devices at least. But as Apple morphs from a device manufacturer to a media company that will become harder and harder.

 

[Wilbert]

I just spotted this a few minutes ago.

http://www.boingboing.net/2010/04/15/apple-blocks-pulitze.html

It's true what you say that people can go elsewhere, for devices at least. But as Apple morphs from a device manufacturer to a media company that will become harder and harder.

Blocking that app is pretty silly but I guess, like any shop, they can refuse to stock things they don't like.

 

[Mormon Nailer]

Blocking that app is pretty silly but I guess, like any shop, they can refuse to stock things they don't like.

Yes but it's a bigger issue than some shopkeeper deciding not to stock a product. There are anti-competition and net neutrality problems. Would you say that the Windows/Napster thing was just a shopkeeper deciding not to stock a product? Apple are starting to get into the ad business as well now and given that they have an enormous headstart on everybody else in digital media distribution they have the ability to make an awful lot of mischief.

Some people are comforted by the benign paternalism of Apple toward the user. I'm not - I find using their stuff limiting and frustrating and resent a useful tool being censored down to consumer gadgets.

 

[Mormon Nailer]

Good summary here:

http://www.slate.com/id/2250993

I think this quote sums it up for me...

"aren't buying a computer when you buy an iPad, you are buying a 16GB Walmart store shelf that fits on your lap—complete with all the supplier beat downs, slotting fees, and exclusive deals that go with it—and Apple got you to pay for the building."

 

[RSJ]

There's a lot of controversy going on at the moment also about how apple limit developers as regards not only what languages they use for their apps, but the ones they use and then translate into the ones that are used for apps. Plus have you seen the shit they're pulling on HTC? They're saying they infringed their copyright of "Unlocking A Device By Performing Gestures On An Unlock Image". Which, as that report points out, is "every touchscreen phone ever". People go on about Microsoft being evil in the browser wars by bundling IE with their OS, but there's almost nothing you can do with an ipod without Apple getting involved - i paid 234 pounds for an ipod, but i can't load music on without their software, i can't load other developers apps without signing up to apple, and i can't open the case AT ALL. It's just serving to give people the idea that technology is none of their business.

 

[Mormon Nailer]

There's a lot of controversy going on at the moment also about how apple limit developers as regards not only what languages they use for their apps, but the ones they use and then translate into the ones that are used for apps. Plus have you seen the shit they're pulling on HTC? They're saying they infringed their copyright of "Unlocking A Device By Performing Gestures On An Unlock Image". Which, as that report points out, is "every touchscreen phone ever". People go on about Microsoft being evil in the browser wars by bundling IE with their OS, but there's almost nothing you can do with an ipod without Apple getting involved - i paid 234 pounds for an ipod, but i can't load music on without their software, i can't load other developers apps without signing up to apple, and i can't open the case AT ALL. It's just serving to give people the idea that technology is none of their business.

Exactly.
It always struck me as odd that Apple were regarded as the nice fluffy friendly computer company and Microsoft the evil empire.
Yet Windows has always been an open platform that anyone can write and install software on, you can add whatever peripheral you like etc.

What apple are doing with the app store and the iAd thing is to do an end run around the internet - by being able to run adds within applications you have less reason to call on a browser and your experience of the internet is now funnelled through approved apps and iTunes - instead of google you have the app store.

I find it a frightening prospect

 

[RSJ]

The ad thing i find particularly worrying - i really feel like i'm renting the ipod off apple instead of owning the thing.

 

[Mormon Nailer]

Not just that but everything I buy on iTunes for it is ephemeral and transient and will be lost to some future change in technology, even though it costs pretty much the same as a CD.

 

[Wilbert]

I just spotted this a few minutes ago.

http://www.boingboing.net/2010/04/15/apple-blocks-pulitze.html

It's true what you say that people can go elsewhere, for devices at least. But as Apple morphs from a device manufacturer to a media company that will become harder and harder.

http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.c...-a-mistake-in-rejecting-pulitzer-winners-app/

 

[RSJ]

http://news.cnet.com/8301-27080_3-20002317-245.html

It's even a little scarier with (apple) because they try to market themselves as more secure than the PC, that you don't have to worry about viruses, etc. Anytime there's been a hacking contest, within a few hours someone's found a new Apple vulnerability. If they were taking it seriously, they wouldn't claim to be more secure than Microsoft because they are very much not. And the Apple community is pretty ignorant to the risks that are out there as it relates to Apple. The reason we don't see more attacks out there compared to Microsoft is because their market share isn't near what Microsoft's is.