I am dissapointed in my peers. For years I have always been told to stay away from Apple devices and the company in general. However, no one who said that actually used their devices, or used them but not recently (some had like iPhone 4s in the past). Their knowledge was always based on some 3rd hand impressions or internet related peer pressure.
I am in the EU, and Apple devices aren’t as popular as in the US, mostly everyone uses an Android phone and a Windows machine. That also led me using Android and Windows in my daily activities, for the last 15 years. After many phones, starting with HTC Wildfire, i have continously been let down by my phone every 1 to 3 years after purchase.
First i was buying flagships, then mid-high, then back to non-pro flagship variants. I was also trying diffenent brands; HTC, LG, Sony, Samsung, Xiaomi, Nokia, OnePlus. When my last phone died, and i had to buy a new one, i had no idea what to get.
Everything seemed bad, i had them, they look the same, software looks the same, i was afraid of picking a “wrong” phone again. Every single one of them had some issue i couldn’t get over. Either notification problems, bad battery life, slow performance on camera, issues with sharing stuff, fingerprint annoyances, restarts…
Mind you, not everything was on a single device. One had great battery life but i wouldn’t get messages sometimes, other was great but battery life was poor, and on most of them the camera was laggy or buggy.
1 year ago, maybe a bit more, it dawned on me that the only brand i haven’t used anything from is Apple, so i got a basic iPhone 13 to “check it out”, planning on using it for a week or two just to see what the fuss is about. I was using my Android device as the main phone, and the iPhone as a second phone, I wasn’t ready for the jump.
After a week i found myself doing everything on the iPhone apart from voice calls, so then i finally took the SIM and retired my Android phone. 6 months later, my Windows laptop battery died and the repair would cost more than what the laptop is worth. So i decided to purchase a thin and portable laptop with intention to install Debian on it, as i was done with Win11 bugs and “features”.
After looking for 2-3 weeks, comparing different laptops, i was set on a HP 14inch laptop with a price tag of about €1300. Then i remembered that i am still thinking with my peers in mind. They were enraged on how i “betrayed” them by switching to iPhone.
I decided to look up Mac laptops and found out that they are actually very similary priced as the one i wanted to buy. I got out and purchased a M2 Air, basic configuration. I had no idea about the iPhone-Mac compatibility and integrations. Found out about AirDrop and other features. I was in love with this new combo that, cliche, “just works”.
My “friends” literally went 180 on me just for the dumb reason of using one brand instead of the other. None of them has actually tried to use Apple hardware. They were mocking me about being “locked in”, “fallen for their marketing”, and other stuff. “How do you like your iCloud subscription?”, things like that.
I have to tell you, i do not use any paid service from Apple. I succesfully conected my Apple devices to my home server where i keep my files, photos, calendar and all the other applications on it. I am not locked in, i feel like i have even more freedom because some services work better than on Android or Windows.
Syncing works flawlessly, something that was always janky on Android.
Sorry for the long post.
I guess what i am trying to ask is, why so much hate? Why can’t a person decide for themselves? Why is macOS/iOS looked down upon regarding connectivity with other devices and services when that’s clearly not the case?
Why do people that have no first hand experience so vocal and opposed to the brand? Shouldn’t you at least try and then be the judge?
- Are you AI/bot?
- Wall of text = incomprehensible, would not read/5.
- It’s rarely about how good the devices are, but how much they cost + Apple’s two-faced moral model that makes people oppose/reject it.
- No why?
- Ok, i didn’t take any writing classes
- What does that have to do with a device? To each their own, but i wouldn’t choose my daily drivers based on a company. We almost all drive gas cars, and big oil=bad, same with a lot of other stuff in our life but people are somehow really worried about their phone brand
It always surprises me how many people go for the self burn. Whining about a few paragraphs of texts is basically admitting their literacy level or attention span is pitiful.
That said, people who don’t like Apple still have legitimate reasons. Stuff like being forced to use proprietary connector, their “walled garden”. Basically if you’re happy within the limits of how you think they should do stuff it’s great, but not everyone is. None of that has really changed.
Use what you like though. People calling switching to Apple if that’s what you prefer a “betrayal” are being ridiculous.
People from both sides bought into the relative propaganda.
Your general experience is consistent with what most say about Apple, regardless of big company values. We all know they are about nothing more than profits.
Isn’t it a company’s whole point of existence in this economy to gain profit?
I think you should talk to your friends about this, not us.
They know why they (appear to) judge you better than any of us can infer from reading your side of the story.
They are all anti-consumer though. Which mainstream brand is truly on the side of the consumer?
^ Exactly this. I was an Apple fanboy (perhaps even shill) until the iPhone 5S when my device had a bad NAND chip causing it to randomly and sporadically blue screen and reboot (as a PC user, the blue screen irony was not lost on me) and Apple jerked me around for 3 months until the phone was out of warranty and then told me I should have bought Apple Care on the phone even though the issue started before the 1 year warranty had expired.
I didn’t find this acceptable as I had written proof I’d taken the phone in to the shop multiple times during the warranty period, ended up calling their corporate office of the president where they worked with me to generate logs from the device and send them to Apple techs who would review it, at which point they came back and said “yeah it looks like the NAND chip is bad” and “but it’s out of warranty”. When I told the person from Apple this was ridiculous because I’d been an Apple customer for decades and I’d had umpteen Macs and Macbook laptops and iPhones and I’d never had this problem with any other Apple device (the whole point being the devices are 30% more expensive because they’re high quality and don’t have these types of problems), she cut me off and said “Apple doesn’t have a customer loyalty program, sir.” and dead-ended the entire conversation right there.
I took the 5S out to my driveway and smashed it with a hammer and went and bought a $200 HTC One E8 and I’ve been an Android user ever since and will never give Apple a penny if I can avoid it. The products were fine, the software was good, but the service/company is rotten.
Microsoft and Google are no different these days. In fact, they’ve always been this way.
Simply buy and use the tools that work best for yourself based on your experiences, as per OP.
My ADHD only allowed me to read the first two sentences.
I don’t have ADHD but same.
I might, but self-respect was definitely the active limiting factor here, so same.
If you like Apple and Mac, go ahead, use whatever you like. I think the hate comes from the hype attitude apple users typically have. They are a bit too hardcore about it and it gets annoying. I know, some bad apples spoil the lot (pun?) and I’m sure there’s Apple lovers who don’t go around preaching or trying to convert anyone. My sister loves her iPhone, yet I never heard her recommend me get one, or even brag about it.
Now you will have to understand different people value different things. For me, if you can’t sideload apps, if it’s too hard to jailbreak, if it’s too expensive, if I can’t run the niche software I need to run- I’m not going to bother. For these reasons I’m not an apple customer.
Finally, no, no haven’t used any Apple products lately. I think the last time I did was a Mac at uni some 5 years ago, and I’ve always found the interface counterintuitive. The mouse design is very uncomfortable. I don’t like their keyboards. Perhaps these things changed or maybe we have compatibility, but again, adding to the reasons in paragraph 2- I don’t see why I should bother.
I guess what i wanted to ask by creating the post is exactly what you are saying.
Why would you want to jailbreak a phone or sideload apps? Maybe you don’t have to? I was blown away by the amount of apps and features baked into the iOS and macOS, i had no idea that was the case.
And you can’t even know if you don’t try. Look at the amount of people saying, for example, you can’t have adblock on safari (you can), or that there are no automations on ios (there are).
I’m not trying to preach or to convert anyone, i’m just saying that i’ve been living under a rock and didn’t know about any features the ios/macos offer.
Also, apple products work just fine, sometimes better, with non-apple hardware and software.
Bluetooth devices especially.
What would I do without NewPipe? Can you run it on your iPhone? I’ve never experienced poor performance with my hardware, why should I pay triple the price? I didn’t need to jailbreak my current phone, but I did my previous one. I can’t even remember why I did, but I was happy I could. Some people like tinkering with stuff this way, the same goes for computers. Why would anyone pay more to get less enjoyment out of what they buy?
I understand you don’t need or care any of these features, and that’s fine. Most people love listening to Spotify on their iPhone, I’m cool with that. I don’t know what else needs to be understood here other than essential character differences. People are different.
Newpipe doesn’t have a version for iOS, the newpipe team decided it won’t support the os because it heavily relies on android api. Not to mention that you probably couldn’t easily install it even if it exists. Youtube without ads is available via safari though.
Nothing wrong with differences. I just wanted to point out that many of the things i thought i would be missing, i’m not, either because there is an alternative or because it’s in the os by default.
To answer your last question, an example, i paid more money to get less enjoyment from one of the computers i use in the “home lab”. I could’ve spun up yet another VM for some services, for free, but i decided to purchase a dedicated machine. It had to be small tho, so the only real option i had was the Intel NUC.
It costs triple of the DIY version, not to mention infinitely more than a “free” VM, but it was the right choice. CPU is soldered, you have to buy M.2 storage because no sata ports, and it takes SO-DIMM. I “could” buy a cheap AMD CPU and motherboard and reuse multiple sticks of RAM and SSDs laying around in the lab, but the power consumption and form factor were more important for the use case.
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Stop caring about what other people think about Apple.
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Start using paragraphs.
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Learn how to express your thoughts in a short and clear manner.
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Paragraphs.
Paragraphs?
Paragraphs!
I’m not reading that whole post, but in answer to the title. I just an android for my personal phone and an iPhone for my work phone. I’ve used both side by side for more than the last 10 years. Without a doubt the android phone is more functional and easier to use. I don’t give a shit about cameras, messaging apps, or brand loyalty. The android is more affordable and allows me to send texts, surf the internet, and watch YouTube without adds through vanced. I would never consider getting an iPhone as my personal use phone.
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I’ll consider an iPhone when they get rid of the giant notch and allow sideloading and more browser engines.
You can side load on iOS but the cert is only valid for 7 days then you need to refresh the certificate. You can use AltStore to do that automatically. Or get an subscription on one of those piracy sites that provide 1 year cheers or pay for an developer account.
No. To me, Apple is like Nazis. They look good but are bad. The end.
Brands are nowadays another way to communicate social status. Apple is the peak of conspicuous consumption hence the negative associations for some. Furthermore, Apple devices, although great for what they do, they come with numerous caveats. You’re limited on how much you can do with them. Great if you’re a newbie, not so great if you know your way round a computer and like for things to work your way. Their customer support used to be top notch but now it’s just an other outlet to force you into another expense. Over the past few years they’ve behaved very much against the interest of the consumer. So that didn’t help their public image among those who care about stuff like this. That is not to say their products are good. On the contrary, they’re great. Polished and generally, reliable. Until they’re not. Whatever you’re friend’s opinion know that it’s mostly based on their sense of identity and values.
I don’t know about the support part, i was on call with support for the first few days about basic functionality regarding the phone and the laptop and they were very polite and helpful.
Also, there’s a easily accessible user manual for every device and every function on their website, something that can’t be said for a lot of other brands.
My ex’s dad worked for someone that would get a new phone for each member of his family yearly and then would give his old phones to his employees. I ended up receiving year-old iPhones until 2020.
My local library had an iMac lab. I spend countless hours doing my work and hanging out there, all using iMacs. Eventually, I also bought an Apple Intel laptop with the awful butterfly keyboard, only to sell it a couple of months afterwards.
So I have tried Apple hardware. Up until 2020 it was the only smartphone hardware I ever used. It was the computer hardware I used for the vast majority of my middle and highschool years (heck, even in college there’s an iMac lab that I spent quite some time in).
I spent most of my life using Apple hardware with Apple software and when I switched to repairable hardware and libre software exclusively, my life improved.
Good for you. I switched to libre or at least alternative software which is (almost all) cross-platform compatible. I replaced almost everything apart from some niche software that only works on windows.
The day i can game on linux is the day windows goes to the VM just for that few pieces of software required for my business.
That said, mac comes with most of the every-day items preinstalled. Mail, spreadsheets and the likes. Windows on the other hand - not so much. Windows mail app can’t hold a candle to the mac app or even the ios app.
You need to pay for office for that. Same on android. I can do 99% of stuff without installing any app from the app store.
They were enraged on how i “betrayed” them by switching to iPhone.
Your friends need to chill the fuck out.
I’ve used Apple devices for work in the past (phone and laptop) although not for about 7 or 8 years and they were fine - bit of a learning curve as I have always been a Windows and Android person, but I got used to them, and those aspects of them that I found ideosyncratic (or just plain dumb!)
That said, it’d take a pretty big shift for me to want to go back to Apple by choice, but that’s partly because of cost and the sheer number of apps I’d have to buy to replace those I have.
But, if you want to go with Apple, it’s your call, and your friends should not be taking it so seriously.
I agree with the chilling, i think most people are on some death rampage to money and that makes them angry and irrational
I haven’t tried nor will I want to try Apple products for the following reasons:
Apple products seem to always have some critical design flaw under the surface, or even something I can only put down to deliberate malicious designed-to-fail, not-repairable shenanigans (soldered SSD, serializing even trivial parts like screen opening sensor, having high voltage backlight pin right next to low voltage signaling pin that connects directly to the soldered CPU etc).
The software is extremely locked down, I simply cannot function without Fdroid and installing packages straight from Github (how else am I going to extract the necessary encryption keys to use a gadget with an unofficial FLOSS application instead of the official spyware?). Android is not perfect, but at least I can hack it and mutilate it as I see fit and there are custom ROM-s. My next phone will probably run /e/ OS.
Plus Apple lacks the critical-to-me hardware like 3.5mm analog audio output. IR blaster is also nice to have when working with AV stuff that may not have the remote with them.
Last, but not least, they’re simply too expensive for me. I’m not willing to pay more than 300…400€ for a phone, and I don’t want to buy a mobile gadget used—demons only know what that thing has been through. And Apple desktop/laptop computers—yeah, well, just no. I like my standardized x64 architecture, where I can upgrade RAM and storage as I see fit for cheap and install whatever opsys I want, just fine thankyouverymuch.
I’m pro Mac OS. Anti iOS.
My main metric is can I run software on the device of my choosing. On iOS you cannot run your own software, there’s no f droid. That’s a deal breaker for me. So I don’t recommend it…
On Mac OS you can run whatever you want. And that’s fine.
It’s ultimately up to you, I don’t like seeing advertisements, I like to run my own software.
On Mac OS you can run whatever you want.
For now. I really think Apple has been letting the entire macos experience decay on purpose. Then, they’ll release a self-hosting xcode for iPad and old yeller the mac for good, as I am sure they have been dreaming of for years.
I’m anti-cloud for many reasons, privacy being one of them. I want access and control of my own files. I use Syncthing to sync my files between all my devices.
I would be unable to do this on iPhone as access to the file system is extremely locked down on iOS devices.
Not true, sorry. Using self hosted cloud and it works perfectly.
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Yes true, sorry.
I’d be unable to use Syncthing to properly sync my devices on iOS as it is completely locked down. You can’t run a daemon that’s always running on iOS and multiple apps cannot have access to the same files. Each app has their own little sandboxed playground.
I guess if that particular app doesn’t work then it doesn’t. But i have zero issues with syncing the Bitwarden vault, or Synology drive, Nextcloud, or Synology Photos. Maybe the issue is with Syncthing.
It’s because it’s not a cloud, it’s direct for sync. When I leave my house, and do not have internet I’ll have access to all my files because they’ve already been saved locally to my phone.
No cloud puts files onto your local filesystem until you download them to your phone manually. A syncing app will put them there.
