Ignorant Beliefs about Macs

Blue Velvet said:

"Macs aren't compatible with the Internet because the Internet runs on PCs"

He went on to say "... and they only come in girlie colours, anyway"

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That's pretty bad.

I got just a little pissed off when a bio teacher from my H.S. out of the blue referred to my Firewire Graphite iBook as a toilet seat. My H.S. was (and prob. still is) 100% PC-pro, because 0% Macs were being used for anything current. Maybe my 4 years there inspired some...since the new computer techie there is a Mac man.

One professor at my college told us to use mp3 format audio files because, "Macs aren't compatible with WAVs and Windows computers can't play AIFFs" I'm certain that OS X can handle WAVs fresh out of the box. Can't Windows computers handle AIFFs fine too? Or would you have to install QuickTime?

Not as bad as some of the ones said here, but many people don't understand what iTunes is. Some people think that the program costs money and that it has no other functions besides the iTMS. Worse still, others believe that it forces you to pay for all the mp3s you already have when you install it.

That they believe that bs trojan made by intego was actually something.

Well, this doesn't quite fit, but I just had to share it because it just happened today.

I work a fair amount at home - mainly because I get a whole lot more writing and (Java) coding done on my Mac than I do on the Windows machines at work. Anyway, one benefit of working at home is that I can occasionally leave during the day and no one needs to know. Today, I went with my wife and daughter to Newburyport, MA, a cute sea-side town about a half-hour away from me.

After lunch, while my daughter was playing on a nice outdoor jungle gym with other kids (I gave my wife some time to look around on her own), I sat down on a nearby bench to catch up on some work email. And, yes, I was keeping an eye on my daughter. Anyway... I sat down next to a guy with some obviously new, probably Centrino-based Dell laptop. He watched me take out my 1999 Lombard PB and then told me - with a smirk - that he couldn't get any wireless signal, and that there was "no way I would with that old thing." So, I thanked him, woke up the PB, logged onto work, read email, called my boss, told him I'd gotten his last mail (asking for a document), told him I was sending it to him as we spoke, sent it, then thanked him for letting me know he'd received it. I then checked out CNN.com to see what was happening. When my daughter needed my help for a second, I set the PB down - intentionally so the guy could see the screen. When I got back, he asked me how in the world I got signal there, when he couldn't detect anything. I just smiled and said "hey, it's old, but it's still a Mac".

I kept browsing - and I know it was eating him up that his brand-new toy got zero signal.

Then, later, I got up and walked away, calling my brother about an email he'd sent - he just got a new 23" ACD to play with at work. The guy on the bench was not pleased; I think he kept pretending to work just to try to save face. I felt pretty good about myself.

Had he not been such a dick, I might have told him a few things:

(1) I have two cell phones. The one I used to call work was my (duh) work phone. The one he did not see - my personal cell - was clipped to my belt, with Bluetooth enabled.

(2) I had a Bluetooth dongle on the PB that connected to the phone, letting me browse.

These things might have made him feel better. As it is, though, I have to wonder what he was thinking.

I love the twist at the end of that story with the bluetooth dongle. Although, I think it would have been cooler if you really did get a signal when he didn't.

I know someone who insists that Mac OS X sucks because it is based on UNIX. He firmly belives that UNIX is unstable, slower, and less secure than Windows.

He also claimes that Macs can't use GIF, JPG, FTP or Apache.

Make them stop... please make the fanboys stop...

Jalexster said:

I know someone who insists that Mac OS X sucks because it is based on UNIX. He firmly belives that UNIX is unstable, slower, and less secure than Windows.

He also claimes that Macs can't use GIF, JPG, FTP or Apache.

Make them stop... please make the fanboys stop...

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It's a sad fact that the only people to blame for the ignorant beliefs of macs are Apple themselves, if there marketing department stopped focusing so much on how macs look and started showing people what they CAN DO and that pc's and macs can live together quite happily, it will never change.....

I've had people swear blind Microsoft doesn't make Office for Mac, and when I've shown them they've insisted that Microsoft don't make it it's out-sourced, and that it's not compatible with the PC version anyway, and it's years out of date etc etc.

I don't bother with them in the end.

AppleMatt

Elan0204 said:

I love the twist at the end of that story with the bluetooth dongle. Although, I think it would have been cooler if you really did get a signal when he didn't.

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Well, yes - that would definitely have been better. But I would have been embarrassed sliding my old PCMCIA Dell-branded (God forbid) 802.11b card into the slot - the Lombards don't support AirPort.

As it stands, though, the guy's left thinking his system is crap. I really would have told him, but he was so arrogant and smug I just couldn't make myself do it. If I go back and find him there with a new PowerBook, still unable to get a signal, I'll feel bad... for the PB.

enclave said:

It's a sad fact that the only people to blame for the ignorant beliefs of macs are Apple themselves, if there marketing department stopped focusing so much on how macs look and started showing people what they CAN DO and that pc's and macs can live together quite happily, it will never change.....

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Hear, hear! God, I wish Apple would consider letting people know what Macs can do. One thirty-second commercial, properly written, voice-over by Jeff Goldblum, that's all it would take. Yes, they're pretty. Yes, they connect to the iPod. But, really, they actually can do work. Frustrating....

jsw said:

Hear, hear! God, I wish Apple would consider letting people know what Macs can do. One thirty-second commercial, properly written, voice-over by Jeff Goldblum, that's all it would take. Yes, they're pretty. Yes, they connect to the iPod. But, really, they actually can do work. Frustrating....

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That's so true, as much as I hate that guy I agree...

The saddest part of your story jsw, is that due to the skewed Centrino commercials, that guy probably bought that laptop because he thought he COULD get a wireless internet signal anywhere and everywhere!

stoid said:

The saddest part of your story jsw, is that due to the skewed Centrino commercials, that guy probably bought that laptop because he thought he COULD get a wireless internet signal anywhere and everywhere!

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Well, I thought the saddest part was that my laptop was over 5 years old, but whatever....

I think it's unfortunate if people buy laptops - PC or Mac or otherwise - under the belief that they'll get signal everywhere, especially if they're led to believe they'll get free signal everywhere.

Of course, I guess it's up to them to do their research. The ads are just ads. No one - hopefully - thinks that buying an iPod will make them able to dance, even though everyone in the 'pod commercials can.

Blue Velvet said:

I also have been told with solemn authority:

"You can't upgrade them -- like putting a new hard-drive or memory in"

Don't know whether to laugh or cry...

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These lies were furthered by this movie. "On the Mac, when it's time to upgrade, just pick it up, throw it away, and go buy another one."
Yeah, you've probably seen it. But it's a personal favorite.

yeah those centrino commercials are really full of it; they make people who arent knowledgeable or saavy enough to do research think they can access the web anywhere anytime

flase advertising

jsw said:

But I would have been embarrassed sliding my old PCMCIA Dell-branded (God forbid) 802.11b card into the slot - the Lombards don't support AirPort.

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Heaven forbid, indeed.

Maybe if you do find him there with a new powerbook it will have bluetooth built in, and you could then reveal your secret.

jsw said:

Hear, hear! God, I wish Apple would consider letting people know what Macs can do. One thirty-second commercial, properly written, voice-over by Jeff Goldblum, that's all it would take. Yes, they're pretty. Yes, they connect to the iPod. But, really, they actually can do work. Frustrating....

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Good point. I'm the only Mac user in my family, and I have to correct them all the time about this stuff. Apple really needs to work towards correcting all these misconceptions. I wonder where people get all these wrong ideas from anyway.

jsw said:

These lies were furthered by this movie. "On the Mac, when it's time to upgrade, just pick it up, throw it away, and go buy another one."
Yeah, you've probably seen it. But it's a personal favorite.

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I've never seen that one before. It's funny, and it is kind of true about the mac gaming stuff.

virividox said:

yeah those centrino commercials are really full of it; they make people who arent knowledgeable or saavy enough to do research think they can access the web anywhere anytime

flase advertising

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Word for word, my thoughts exactly.

Slightly off-topic I guess, but how would I go about using my built-in bluetooth to get dial-up internet anywhere? I have T-Mobile cell service right now (thanks to the 'rents). I'm guessing I'd need a Bluetooth enabled phone instead of this cheap POS Nokia that they gave me for free for signing up What's a cheap BT phone, and will ANY Bluetooth phone work, or do I can I only get certain ones? Also, does it cost any more than just using plan minutes?

stoid said:

Slightly off-topic I guess, but how would I go about using my built-in bluetooth to get dial-up internet anywhere? I have T-Mobile cell service right now (thanks to the 'rents). I'm guessing I'd need a Bluetooth enabled phone instead of this cheap POS Nokia that they gave me for free for signing up What's a cheap BT phone, and will ANY Bluetooth phone work, or do I can I only get certain ones? Also, does it cost any more than just using plan minutes?

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One thread that discusses it can be found . There are others - just search for them. I connect using a Nokia 3650, which was free using an Amazon/T-Mobile rebate last year. I use T-Mobile, and have the tzones Pro package. Internet access costs me nothing additional and uses no minutes. However, it's slow (average <20kbps, with peaks to 27kbps) and unreliable (sometimes connect for 30 minutes or more, sometimes get dropped every two minutes).

Absolutely

enclave said:

It's a sad fact that the only people to blame for the ignorant beliefs of macs are Apple themselves.....

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True. I'm constantly annoyed that people, even Mac enthusiasts, constantly downplay the power of anything minus the Power prefix, as something that is suited for little more than email and iPod. I see Apple Store employees constantly perpetuating this myth, perhaps to push higher sales, and have always been dumbfounded. Several people I've known (average computer users) have been turned off to Macs because they can't afford a Powerbook or Powermac, which they've been led to believe are the only Apple computers which can handle more than the most trivial tasks.