Do you own any Apple products, and what is your approach to them

[Laborant]

I was drawn in when I needed a tablet. At the time, Android was just out of the question and I did not want a Windows Tablet. (Made some bad experiences with a Thinkpad Yoga)
There, the obvious choice was the iPad. And as Apple announced the M1 iPad Pro 12.9. Nice screen, fast stylus (that was really important) and most importantly: Instant-On. Grab it and take a note.
After a long history with various Smartphone OSes (Symbian, MeeGo, BlackBerry10, SailfishOS and Windows Phone 8) Android did not really excite me. My Nokia 8 from 2017 felt laggier than my Nokia N9 (Maemo6 / MeeGo 1.2), I was impressed how Snappy iPadOS felt. 
Therefore, I then replaced my Nokia 8 after about 4 years with an iPhone 13 Mini - which after 2 years did not fail me once.
My internet/TV provider recommends an AppleTV as a TV box and I swapped my Garmin Watch with an Apple Watch for sports tracking by now... 

On the PC on the other hand... By the way, I use Arch.

[Stahlmann]

I don't plan on ever buying one of their products. Not because of hatred, just because i think their products on their own are horrible value and i don't see any value in the Apple brand itself. And if you buy one product, you will buy other products from them because that's how their walled garden works.

[Montana One-Six]

On 11/11/2023 at 10:49 PM, Kisai said:

 This is because the iPhone is the de-facto standard for smartphones, and everything has to meet the iPhone at parity or it's not a good device. 

I wouldn't consider the iPhone the standard for smartphones. It definitely was for a long time especially in the beginning but it has lost that "being the standard" designation for some time now. And I would argue that the last several years (~6-7 years) there really hasn't been one phone that I would consider being the true standard. I mean there are so many good phones on the market that make certain things better or even much better than others including the iPhone and vice versa. Plus even the iPhone has been "copying" features from others over these years.

On 11/11/2023 at 10:49 PM, Kisai said:

- Photo camera (which is good as most non-DSLR cameras, $400

Yes, but are there even people that still use these early to mid 2000s cameras anymore. I mean smartphones not only the iPhone have been replacing those things for almost 10 years now. Pretty much anyone I know that still has a dedicated camera uses DSLR or Sony alphas because they actually make much better pictures than any smartphone.

On 11/11/2023 at 10:49 PM, Kisai said:

- Music Player (Remember iPods? Remember CD players? Remember the Walkman? $100)

That is still missing a headphone jack and has no FLAC support. So for anyone actually wanting good quality Audio iPhones are not it. If you want that you better look for a second device or an alternative smartphone.

[Helpful Tech Witch]

On 11/11/2023 at 2:47 PM, Neroon said:

Do you follow the general criticism that LMG in general has on Apple products, or do you think they are unnecessarily harsh on them.

the thing with lmg is that they have a very fair stance on apple. They hate the bad things but still will use the products for what theyre good for, think linus using airpods or an apple watch (whihc was more a protest tbf). They critisize the buisness practices, the price (only on some things because some of it is completly fair), etc
But they praise the performance, the build qualities, and the software features, etc

[Stahlmann]

5 hours ago, htimsenyawed said:

That’s not a walled garden. 

Apple and their products are the best known example of a walled garden. They do everything they're legally allowed to to keep you within their own product line. They're constantly on blast for just that.

[WhitetailAni]

Disclaimer: I don't use modern Apple products. The newest Apple product I own is an Apple Watch Series 5, and it's paired to an iPhone 7. I have a MacBook from 2012.

 

That being said, about half my devices run modern versions of Apple's various OS'. And they work pretty darn well. My 7 runs iOS 15. Sometimes it's a bit slow, and Safari frequently has to reload websites due to the 2GB of RAM, but it doesn't bother me much. Yes, it's jailbroken - you think I'm still using watchOS 8? Legizmo is a great tweak and watchOS 10 is very nice.

 

My Mid-2012 15" MacBook Pro that I've upgraded with a 1TB SSD and 16GB of RAM runs Sonoma pretty well. Is it perfect? No, since I'm using a patcher. But it works for me. I would not mind having an M1/M2-based laptop - mostly due to faster Xcode build times - but I don't need one.

 

My Series 5 is a very solid watch. It doesn't have blood oxygen, or the edge-to-edge display, or the always-on compass for Waypoints, but it does the job as a watch that can make and receive calls, tell me the time, let me know if my offer on eBay got accepted, etc. It works great.

 

I am also one of the weird people to own an Xserve. Is it the best server? No, it uses Nehalem Xeons. Does it do what I need, that is: be a file server? Yes. It also runs a Minecraft server decently well. It's loud and power hungry and I don't really care. It's fun.

 

I know this isn't the case for all Apple product owners, but I buy them mostly because it's fun. They're better documented than most computers for repairing, for upgrading, for modding, and for generally fooling around with. All of my Macs have a stupid upgrade in some capacity - my 2006 Mac Pro has dual 3 GHz quad-core Xeons, 32GB of RAM, an HD 7970, and I use it to pass through audio it receives from its line in jacks. It was a fun upgrade process that I would do again. My Xserve from 2009 has three 6TB SAS drives, two Xeon W5590s, and 96GB of RAM. My Xserve RAID from 2005 has around 6.5TB in it. It's fun to upgrade them, to do things Apple didn't want you to do with them. That's most of the reason why I buy older ones, you can't do this as easily to newer ones. Can't just boot up Target Disk Mode, restore a macOS disk image to the Mac's internal drive, and boot up an internal build of Sierra that was used for testing on an AS MacBook - but you can on the 15" Mid-2012!

 

EDIT:
I forgot to talk about this. I love the "it just works"ness of Apple products. With macOS, I can go to Sharing, click the checkbox for File Sharing and Screen Sharing, and bam! I can transfer files from one Mac to another. It just shows up in Finder. I can remote into the Macs from that same sidebar - or I can do it from my phone!

If I want to access those shared files on a Windows laptop, well... it's tricky. And I couldn't get it to work.

 

AirDrop and Continuity are also insane features, especially for the years they're from - 2013 and 2014, respectively. You can just share photos locally between your Apple devices. Tap it on the device listing. Done. Works between Macs and iPhones, provided you're running iOS 7+ and OS X 10.8+ (10.7 does have AirDrop, but it's Mac-to-Mac only for some reason). Continuity lets you open a web browser on your phone and then the tab is just there on your Mac. You can share* Watch faces between you and another person with iMessage. It's quick and easy and simple and it makes my life easier.

 

*While the filetype may be .watchface, they aren't actual Watch faces. The Watch app on the phone is basically just a wrapper for the phone telling the Watch to do certain things, and .watchface files are no exception. They just give the Watch communication processes info on what to tell the Watch, and it does so accordingly - the Watch app doesn't interact with the watch face databases at all.

AW communication is really interesting.

[j.son19]

I mainly use Windows & Android but my one Apple device is a 2022 M2 Macbook Air. I get on with it fine, I got it because I use things that only run on MacOS for my education (Qlab, Logic pro, final cut pro).
I find MacOS is ok but I find a lack of small features annoying for example the lack of built in audio routing options and lack of windows snapping options. But it does other things very well like airdrop it's fast and you can send anything over it.

 

I don't really have a preference over either OS - it depends what task I'm doing

[Stahlmann]

12 hours ago, htimsenyawed said:

The walled garden comes from their hardware and software integration. Not the desire to buy multiple products if you buy one. 

When have i said it's by "desire"? The reason i've stated when you buy one you buy more is because they're integrated in a way that makes compatibility with other brands worse. That means to get the most out of an Apple product, you will need other Apple products.

[Stahlmann]

41 minutes ago, htimsenyawed said:

Well, yeah? That’s company integration. 
 

If you think Apple is the only company that encourages consumers to purchase their products because they work better together than with others..  You don’t pay attention.

 

This isn’t just computers, but every company does this. DeWalt and Milwaukee batteries aren’t interchangeable, every vehicle part is “proprietary” and discourages repair because an alternator for a Ford truck won’t fit a Honda Civic. 
 

Every argument made in the tech world, whether it’s against Apple for making things harder to repair, or against Microsoft for advertising and spying on their clean installs, happens in every other industry.
 

Especially the “walled garden” - which also exists within Android. Once you purchase applications on the Android store or purchase your cloud and photo backups, you’re less inclined to switch providers. 
 

I’m not defending one company over the other, but to act like the company you’re a fan of (which makes no sense) is better than another company is just silly and childish. 

Many companies do this, but very few go to the same lengths as Apple, especially in the consumer electronics market.

[vetali]

I own multiple Apple products. I approach them by using them.

 

If Apple starts actually taking gaming seriously like they say, and subsequently developers as well... I'll probably switch fully over to mac. Windows 10+11 have become ad riddled garbage with incessant popups trying to advertise a new feature that I don't remotely care about. At this point I'm kinda done tinkering with software on PCs. I'd rather come home, turn on the machine, and spend my free time gaming.

[NavyCobra1417]

On 11/10/2023 at 2:01 PM, _Omega_ said:

would maybe but airpods but as  they only have bad support on android im out... 

I use them with android and have a love/hate relationship. Their functionality is nerfed, and they're always desyncing to my pixel, but the ANC and pass-through are so far ahead of anything else on the market when I got them (late 2021).

 

Not sure what I'll do next for earbuds. Ideally I'll wait for a Pixel Buds Pro gen 2, since the Gen 1 anc is worse than airpods, but I could give Sony linkbuds S a try.

[ahmed29918]

In my opinion apple is a fraudulent and lousy company that resells cheap parts for high amount of price in order to bluff their gullible customers.

[Donut417]

5 minutes ago, ahmed29918 said:

In my opinion apple is a fraudulent and lousy company that resells cheap parts for high amount of price in order to bluff their gullible customers.

Have you ever used one of their products?

[NavyCobra1417]

36 minutes ago, ahmed29918 said:

In my opinion apple is a fraudulent and lousy company that resells cheap parts for high amount of price in order to bluff their gullible customers.

While I agree that Apple gouges their customers in some areas (i.e., SSD and RAM), they also use some of the highest quality components on the market in their products. Apple displays (MacBook Pro, iPhone pro, watch) are top notch (heh), and the build quality of their laptop chassis is unmatched by most windows competitors.

 

Apple charges a premium, but they're a far cry from "fraudulent and lousy".

[TheGreatestGazoo]

The first computer I ever used was an Apple II+ back in the early 80's in junior high school. Next computer I used was a 486/33 with Windows 3.1. Never got back into Apple until I got my first iPhone which was a 3G. Then I got an iPod Classic. I steadily have gotten more Apple products over the years and now I have a (work issued) iPhone 14, AirPods Pro, iPad Pro, several Apple TVs, Watch 6 and a M1 Mac Mini. I only got the Mac Mini to better support my wife and daughter that have Apple laptops and I was unfamiliar with MacOS. I kind of regret buying the Mac Mini as I don't use it much.

 

I am a Windows OS guy at heart though having had my own x86 computers for so long. I have a MS 2022 Server at home and 6 Win11 machines around the house.

 

Both Apple and MS have their strengths and weaknesses - it's great being able to use both when I want to get something done. Generally, Apple devices offer an easier and more seamless experience when consuming media (audio or video) than MS can provide. The only downside to Apple and media is that I can't natively get DTS sound out of them - I'll get PCM or have to go to Atmos. For a lot of music video concerts and movies, I much prefer DTS over anything Dolby.

 

LTT bashes on Apple often but doing that is generally a popular thing to do on gamer/enthusiast channels. Having said that, they realize that there is a very large audience for Apple products so have created the Mac Address channel that is fairly successful. But lately, there has been some growing love for Apple on the regular LTT channels because Apple has had some incredible success with their hardware since leaving INTEL. If top-tier games can be successfully developed for MacOS then those M-based chipped computers could end up being pretty good value compared to INTEL/AMD/nVIDIA built computers.

 

I'm no fan of the Apple pricing model and many if not most agree with me on that, but they are still extremely successful and have been the highest valued company in the world for some time now for good reason. I do like how they have been moving away from manufacturing most of their products in China and building factories in other places. I do also like how they realize their environmental impact is a very real thing and at least on the surface they appear to be working on addressing that issue, even if some of that is self-serving (i.e. no charger with phones anymore). 

 

Apple vs. MS. vs. Google is no different than Ford vs. Chevy vs. Chrysler. There are always going to be fans of each and some of those fans will hate the others. Others like me, are somewhat agnostic to it all and just use what works best for them.

[noied]

It’s entirely the convenience factor for me, it’s just easier to use a iPhone and Apple Watch than it is to use an Android and Android Watch. 

[emothxughts]

Last Apple product I had was a Mac Mini, the first generation one, handed down to me by my dad (whose current phone is an iPhone). Used it almost exclusively to play Marble Blast Gold. Wonder if there are any games that are like it, for PC of course.

[Sousuke]

Now, I'd hate to call myself an "Apple Sheep" as I know that Apple has serious issues regarding right to repair and their "Walled garden" approach to security. However, it works for me, I've been using Apple products partially since the iPhone 3GS (With short forays into Android with a Samsung Galaxy S2, S7, S8 & OnePlus One between the iPhone 5 and 6S).

Also had issues with Windows, I tried Mac OS X during the Vista days after using Windows since 95, returned to Windows 7 and then when Windows 8 was released, I returned to Mac OS X and I have never run a Windows machine as my primary computer again. However, I do have a RTX 3060 laptop for gaming as until Mac OS has major titles and backwards compatibility with some of the classic Windows titles, I'll never get rid of Windows in my tech collection.

 

So I currently run:

 

-16 inch MacBook Pro M1 Pro - Used for absolutely everything, its a power efficient tank of a laptop

-M1 Mac mini - Used as a home server these days

-iPhone 15 Pro Max - Not had many of the current issues plagued by this release but wish I kept my 14 Pro Max (I'm on a yearly upgrade programme with EE)

-Apple Watch Series 6 - Had since release day, have no issues or reason to upgrade

-Apple TV (4K, 2nd Gen) - Makes my Samsung TV's OS/UI look awful, with the easy integration with the rest of my setup, its just a great addition

-AirPods (2nd Gen) - I had AirPods Pro but the rubber that went into my ears caused a reaction so these are the best without them, do miss the noise cancelation

-AirPods Max - I bought these on a whim as I rocked Audio Technica ATH-M50 but they've exceeded my expectations, hopefully will be my main headphones for a long time to come (Better had with the price I paid!!

 

Windows has annoyed me enough to switch my primary OS to Mac OS and Android to me never met my expectations of integration to the Mac, Plus going from an iPhone 4 to Galaxy S2 was one of the WORST decisions I ever made, the S2 lasted a week before I traded it in for an iPhone 4S.

 

Apple has become stagnant though with their phone offerings and with the introduction of folding phones with them maturing to become compelling offerings, the iPhone 15 maybe my last.

 

Getting me to switch back to Windows however ... that'll take a miracle! 

 

[Neroon]

On 11/14/2023 at 8:21 PM, Stahlmann said:

Apple and their products are the best known example of a walled garden. They do everything they're legally allowed to to keep you within their own product line. They're constantly on blast for just that.

 

On 11/14/2023 at 9:33 PM, htimsenyawed said:

The walled garden comes from their hardware and software integration. Not the desire to buy multiple products if you buy one. 

I absolutely don't you think you need to get all the Apple products once you get one, but they absolutely do everything to keep you from buying other products.

 

Whether that be their longtime usage of proprietary connectors, their watches that are basically useless without an iPhone, and the exclusion of loads of standard physical and digital systems just to push their own products.

 

They have always, and will always, go out of their way to get you to use more Apple products. This in itself is of course normal for all brands, but with Apple I do feel that they punish you for using other products, Vs rewarding you for using theirs.

 

And within their line up there are some horrible choices. For example of you buy a new regular iPad you get USB C on it, now you can use their first gen pencil on it, their second gen won't work, even thought it's been years since it's release.

Now the second gen works with charging while magnetically attached to the iPad. The first one works through attaching a cable to it. That's right, a lightning cable.

Now you might think, well that's unfortunate, but most people have a lightning cable. But those are USB A, and to pair it you need to C to lightning. No worries though, Apple will sell you this simple connector for 10 bucks.

 

The point is, that if you fully go for their eco system it's gonna be great. If you pick your products well, they can be great in it's own bubble. But once you start just buying the products you want and switching them up over the years, you can find yourself severely limiting yourself and wanting to switch back to Apple just to get your products working alright again.

 

They are not the only player who does that, but that doesn't make them any better.

[Rocketdog2112]

Last year Apple bought the rights to several Peanuts holiday specials including.... 

It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown, A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving, and A Charlie Brown Christmas

and pulled it off the air waves absolutely destroying a 60 plus year old American tradition of watching these specials during the holidays for millions of people and their children. 

 

Sure, they were kind enough to offer it on stream for free for a couple of days... Thanks you heartless bastards. 

 

FUCK APPLE.

 

 

 

[cooky560]

I have one Apple device, I'm not massively interested in the whole Apple Eco system, but I like my iPhone

[Donut417]

1 hour ago, cooky560 said:

I have one Apple device, I'm not massively interested in the whole Apple Eco system, but I like my iPhone

The only thing I like about having an iPhone and Macbook is having access to iMessage on both. Its really convenient when I dont have my phone directly on me.

[infigo]

Got a 14 pro like a year ago. Its fine, nothing I would EVER pay that much for. But work pays for it. Iphone is just simply better in my work life, testflight, app logs so for work I can't really use anything other than iphone. To much hassle with apk files etc.

 

But things still annoy the bejesus out of me....but i feel like i am more tolerant to those issues today than a year ago...and even forgetting what most of my issues was when I started using it. At times I wanted to exchange the phone to a droid again. 

 

The issues are still there and if I would use a samsung for a year and then come back I would realize what they are again and get annoyed at it for a while all over again. Not that samsung or droids don't have their issues...and coming from that side I have probably grown up tolerant to those issues. 

But don't see the value in 1000$+ phones regardless....like a samsung a52 vs a top samsung s20 or 14 pro did not really differ much for me more than UI. Camera is nice though

[Rarity]

only apple device which i use constantly is the iphone 14pm.. the mac  laptops and desktops that i own are kinda old and were gotten more out of curiosity rather then the actual need for using them(with the exception of the ibook g3 i got in college) .. 

[Issac Zachary]

I have a (10-year-old??) iPad Mini that still works ok, except my main app I use on it has stopped updating.

 

My biggest gripe in the past with Apple is that as someone who works in adult education in our community I would often have videos and audio files to share with students to help them with their homework. Back when the first iPhones and iPads came out, if a student had one of those it used to be impossible to get the file onto his or her device. No SD card, you couldn't just plug it into a computer with the USB cable and transfer over, no Bluetooth capability, email and file sharing services would only stream to their devices (back at a time most people had limited data plans). I got to the point that students had to bring an Android or Windows device if they wanted part of their homework assignments.

 

My biggest gripe now with Apple is they don't have a lot of the things I'm interested in. I like FM radio. I like connecing my 3.5mm jack to things (selfie stick, headphones, amateur radio tranceivers, etc.) while still having the USB port open for other things (CAT control for tranceiver use, charging, etc.). There are also apps not available for iPhone that are for Android that I use. I'm also concerned about not being able to side load apps when governments decide to control app stores as a way to oppress minorities (I'm not naming countries or minority groups, but I have friends in countries this has happened).