My Issues With Apple Since Switching

Nawlins · Oct 8, 2003

I switched in July 2003 - bought a 12" Powerbook (first generation, 2nd generation wasn't released at that point) with Combo drive. Here are my complains about Apple:

AppleWorks
1. It didn't come with my Mac - 12" Powerbook, first generation, which was a major pain in the ass. How does Apple expect college students to use their computers for word processing? iBooks come with AppleWorks, but I knew I wanted a Powerbook because of speed concerns (though I probably would've gotten the 14" iBook over my Pbook if I could do it over again).
2. The underline, italic, and bold features are not as easy to use as Microsoft Word.
3. Changing fonts isn't as easy as Microsoft Word. In Word, I can simply type the name of the font I want instead of scrolling through the massive list in AppleWorks.
4. There are still major compatibility issues with the latest issue of Microsoft Word. AppleWorks does not let me save in the .doc format, only in the .cwk.doc format, which won't open on any version of Microsoft Word.

iTunes and iTunes Music Store
1. iTunes is extremely easy to use (especially burning Cd's), but I really wish it organized the songs with drop-down menus like Kazaa does (I'm a former Kazaa user), or, at the bare minimum, arrange the songs so the artist appears before song titles. It's really annoying to have to scroll through my entire library if I wanted to go from 'Tom Petty' to 'Barenaked Ladies,' for example.
2. That being said, songs should be arranged alphabetically instead of alphabetically based on the year they were released. I've deleted the album information from a lot of my songs so they're in alphabetical order for each artist, it's just much easier that way.
3. There needs to be a pause in between songs when they're playing in iTunes. Often I have my music on shuffle, and I hear the beginning of a very hard song cutting off the end of a soft, peaceful song. The lack of a pause is annoying and unnecesary.

Why doesn't Apple invest more money to develop a better word processing program for its computers? They could design a really high-quality WP program to compete with Word, price it for slightly less, and make a bunch of money.

iChat
1. I really like how I can change everyone's screen names so I can view their real name on my buddy list. However, I wish the buddy list appeared with the names closer together so lots of scrolling through buddy lists becomes unnecessary.
2. The sounds on AIM for Windwos are much better than the ones on iChat.

The Computer Itself
A true delete key would be nice. The delete key found on my Pbook is like the backspace key on Windows-based PCs, which isn't like the actual delete key on Windows, which is what I'm looking for.

Apple Mouse
The Apple Mouse is really uncomfortable because it's shaped in a way that provides zero support for the palm and knuckle area of your hand. I avoid using Apple-designed mice when I can.

iPod
I like music a lot, and would like an mp3 player that could store all my music. I only have about 420 songs on my computer, and I'll never fill up 5 gigabytes worth of music. That's an insane amount. If Apple designed iPods with smaller storage capabilities that came with a dock and remote, I'd probably buy one. But I'll never spend $300 on a product I can't use to its full potential.

Dont Hurt Me · Oct 8, 2003

you need a subscription to MacAddict or perhaps Macworld Mag. most all your issues can be solved but sorry you didnt get appleworks. that should come standard. read up on itunes

bousozoku · Oct 8, 2003

It may take a little time, but then, it always does when becoming accustomed to something totally new.

AppleWorks has been fine when exporting to MS Word. I always use Word 97 since that seems to be the last format that works with every product I've used. As far as Apple creating a more powerful word processor--they had one--MacWrite and it was discontinued. There are many alternatives. It's not imperative for Apple to provide AppleWorks on every machine when most professionals would probably not use it.

iTunes music can be sorted several ways. Click on the column heading to change it.

If you don't like the sounds or other things about iChat, you can still use AIM. You can also use AIM groups in iChat, if you want to cut things down a bit so there's less scrolling to be done.

You should buy a magazine subscription or a book or two to become familiar. There's a lot you can do with what you have. You just need to find things.

Jays · Oct 8, 2003

you can change the pause between songs in Itunes in the iTunes preferences that is the crossfade slider.

Daveman Deluxe · Oct 8, 2003

Delete key: press "fn" and delete at the same time.

iTunes:
You can sort by any criteria displayed in the window by clicking on the appropriate column heading.
To introduce the pause, go to Preferences, click on the "Advanced" icon and uncheck "Crossfade Playback".

crazzyeddie · Oct 8, 2003

You do know that you can buy the full MS Office suite for $150 as a student...

Most people find the Mac OS X version of Word to be better than the Windows version.

Also, if you want the PC to read the Word files that Appleworks saves, simply remove the .cwk part... so File.cwk.doc becomes File.doc

jermsmingy · Oct 8, 2003

use the search field

in the top right or your itunes there is a search field type the song, artist, or album and it will automatically start finding the song you want.

iJon · Oct 8, 2003

yep most of your problems can be solved. office can be bought real cheap with your discout. if you dont like apple's mouse buy another one. try out adium if you do not like ichat. as for the ipod, the market you are looking for is the market apple doesnt want to provide for. apple has had great success selling 300+ dollar mp3 players, which is why they are number 1. but yeah, your just new to the mac, it will take time. just keep reading this site and work with people who own macs if you know anyone. you will catch on and learn all the tricks and tips soon enough.

iJon

Nawlins · Oct 8, 2003

I'm a college student, I don't have hundreds of dollars laying around to throw down on Microsoft Word, a new mouse, and other programs...

While I recognize there are alternatives to the things I'd like to be able to use on my computer, it would be nice if Apple included those things on their comptuers, because there aren't any negative characteristics about the things I listed, and there are a few positive characteristics.

And a lot of professionals, especially people who work in office environments, could use a sweet word processing program.

Crazyeddie:

I've tried saving my AppleWorks files like that before, and it hasn't worked. The computers in the library here have Microsoft Office 2000 (the worst one they made), so that might be why it hasn't been working. I'll try again tonight.

jxyama · Oct 8, 2003

i know this is kind of nitpicking but if you read the fine lines, you'd have noticed that PB doesn't come with AppleWorks. i understand your desire to have a word processor app installed on your PB, but you need to check the facts first. iBook, as you've found out, does come with AppleWorks.

as for the mouse, i agree, i am not a big fan of apple mouse. it's a cool design but not the most functional. you should have tried out the mouse as other mice do work with macs...

i understand that you don't have the money lying around. most of us don't. it probably would have been better to have read the fine lines and budget yourself accordingly. too bad you had made your purchase before coming here more often - many of us could have alerted you to your needs and recommended an ibook and a non-apple mouse...

as for ipod, i'd look around for an used 5gb or 10gb ones. with luck, you might find one for less than $200. you can either fill it with 400 songs encoded at a higher bitrate or back up your crucial documents. if you get one, you won't be under-utilizing it. you'll find a way to get the most out of it...

btw, i imagine that people who work in an office environ wouldn't settle for AppleWorks. they'd probably demand Office. (btw, did you try OpenOffice? that's free...)

AppleMatt · Oct 8, 2003

Originally posted by Nawlins
I'm a college student, I don't have hundreds of dollars laying around to throw down on Microsoft Word, a new mouse, and other programs...

You'll find that not many Mac users like the Mac mice. I'm not sure what you mean about not having the cash to drop on a new mouse...you bought an Apple mouse...probably the most expensive mouse you can get spec wise, and you also say that you avoid using Apple mice whenever you can. So why did you buy it? Sell/return it and get a wireless Logitech mouse. Dream to use and lots of beer money left over.

As others have said, the rest of your issues don't really exist and are easily solved, just read around the Software section of this forum and you'll pick it up in no time. As you get more confident you'll discover how-to replace those iChat sounds with the Windows ones you know and love

I use my iPod for back-ups aswell as music. Remember, as a college student if your laptop gets nicked the insurance will replace it, but it won't replace the work that gets nicked with it. At the very least back-up to CD-RW and send it home.

AppleMatt

slowtreme · Oct 8, 2003

It's unfortunate that you did end up purchasing Appleworks. I would have asked around "So what do I get out of Office for that extra 70 bucks?"

pepeleuepe · Oct 8, 2003

Re: My Issues With Apple Since Switching

Originally posted by Nawlins

iTunes and iTunes Music Store
1. iTunes is extremely easy to use (especially burning Cd's), but I really wish it organized the songs with drop-down menus like Kazaa does (I'm a former Kazaa user), or, at the bare minimum, arrange the songs so the artist appears before song titles. It's really annoying to have to scroll through my entire library if I wanted to go from 'Tom Petty' to 'Barenaked Ladies,' for example.
2. That being said, songs should be arranged alphabetically instead of alphabetically based on the year they were released. I've deleted the album information from a lot of my songs so they're in alphabetical order for each artist, it's just much easier that way.

All the suggestions above are true, but also try pressing the "Browse" button in the top right of iTunes. It pulls pulls down two new windows so you can browse by artist, album, or song name.

tutubibi · Oct 8, 2003

I guess you already have AppleWorks but just in case somebody else is in the same situation like you:

Consider OpenOffice (http://www.openoffice.org) instead of MS Office or AppleWorks.
It's free and nice alternative to paid applications.

yamabushi · Oct 8, 2003

Yeah Appleworks needs to be much better than it is. It was okay back in the day when it was known as Clarisworks but it's showing it's age.

My sister is a college student and she bought an iBook. After becoming frustrated with Appleworks, she gave up and eventually traded her iBook for a Dell.

I tried to tell her about Office:Mac but she wasn't willing to cough up that much dough. So, I tried to tell her about some free or cheap software options but she didn't really think they would be good enough for her. BTW she has had plenty of problems with the Dell. What should I do? Buy her a new Mac? I'd like to but...pricey.

Personally, I miss my Powerbook 140B. It worked great for typing papers. Awesome keyboard and trackball.

panphage · Oct 8, 2003

For the $80 dollars you spent on the apple mouse and the $80 you spent on AppleWorks you could have got Office X for students. Of course, I'd recommend you skip both the mouse and Office and use OpenOffice.org, it really is quite good. My only complaint is that it copies MS Office/Win (which I hate) too much. Proprietary document formats are SO 1999 anyway. Time to move on and use an open, XML-based format...like OpenOffice does.

Another take on your complaints:
Apple bundles a ton of well-thought out, working, easy to use software with their machines. You can edit DV right out of the box and you're complaining about the word processor...which Apple DOES bundle with their *consumer* machines for no added cost. In the windows world, you'd be paying $200 for a Word-compatable word-processor (OK, it IS word, so it's REALLY Word-compatable.)

I've got 9.75GB full on my 15GB iPod. So people's needs are clearly different.

jxyama · Oct 8, 2003

Originally posted by demagalhaes
Originally posted by Nawlins
I'm a college student, I don't have hundreds of dollars laying around to throw down on Microsoft Word, a new mouse, and other programs...

have you tried XXXX, i get all the software that i need for free! i know it is stealingbut we the students, can steal to buy later, when we get a salary!

you are going to love the mac anyway!
regards

eck. sure, you will buy all those software later...

if you are going to steal, the LEAST you can do is not advertise how. it's not right.

Rower_CPU · Oct 8, 2003

Discussion of warez/serials is not allowed.

Nawlins · Oct 8, 2003

I have not purchased any mice made by Apple - I just don't like them.

AppleWorks was $40 on Apple's website after the education discount, which means Office would be $100 more, not just $70 more. And I bought the Powerbook because it's a much faster machine. I can burn a CD significantly faster with my Pbook than with any iBook, for example. If the Pbook is truly a "professional" notebook computer, then Apple would've included word processing software, since it's something many, if not most, professionals use. Look, I realize you guys are trying to defend a company you obviously like very much, but my complaints are certainly legitimate - there's no reason why Apple should not include word processing software, when they stand to make a lot of money by designing a program that could be much better than Word/Office. They have everything to gain and very little to losee.

While having DV capabilities built-in on my Pbook is pretty cool, most college students can't afford to buy a DV camera anyhow (note: emphasis on most here, I realize some college students can afford to pay hundreds of dollars on a camera, but most can't). My major and other studies don't require the need for a DV camera, so I really would never use one, since I don't have the money to pay for something like that to use for amusement or entertainment.

iJon · Oct 8, 2003

Originally posted by Nawlins
I have not purchased any mice made by Apple - I just don't like them.

AppleWorks was $40 on Apple's website after the education discount, which means Office would be $100 more, not just $70 more. And I bought the Powerbook because it's a much faster machine. I can burn a CD significantly faster with my Pbook than with any iBook, for example. If the Pbook is truly a "professional" notebook computer, then Apple would've included word processing software, since it's something many, if not most, professionals use. Look, I realize you guys are trying to defend a company you obviously like very much, but my complaints are certainly legitimate - there's no reason why Apple should not include word processing software, when they stand to make a lot of money by designing a program that could be much better than Word/Office. They have everything to gain and very little to losee.

While having DV capabilities built-in on my Pbook is pretty cool, most college students can't afford to buy a DV camera anyhow (note: emphasis on most here, I realize some college students can afford to pay hundreds of dollars on a camera, but I can't). My major and other studies don't require the need for a DV camera, so I really would never use one, since I don't have the money to pay for something like that to use for amusement or entertainment.

i am going to disagree with you. many customers i work with dont care if their powerbook or powermac can type papers, obviously you are a college student and have to type most likely. plus most customers i have who buy a powermac and powerbook can afford to shell out for office and have no problem with it. look, apple is already giving you your laptop at a discounted price, 40 bucks isnt bad for appleworks, 100 more isnt too bad for office either. if money is such an up tight issue you should buy thinkfree or download openoffice which is free. and technically apple did include a word processor, its called texedit.

iJon

Nawlins · Oct 8, 2003

And most of the people I've talked to who use word processing software tell me they won't buy a "professional" Mac unless it has word processing software on it. I don't know anyone who uses a computer who doesn't do word processing on it. Even if you don't type reports or papers on a regular basis, you might still have to write notes, letters to loved ones, or type a resume. There are many uses for a word processing program that Apple could capitalize on, even if it feels many people don't need it. Think about this issue for a moment - Apple has nothing to lose by making a competitive word processing program. Apple could only gain from the situation, because they could make Microsoft look really stupid if they design some word processing software that's better than the one Microsoft has been making for years. Don't kid yourself, Text Edit is not a true word processing program. It doesn't have nearly the same kinds of features as Word or AppleWorks. You already conceded AppleWorks has a bunch of flaws - so why shouldn't Apple design a better word processing program? Apple is screwing up now, it's their burden to design a better product. If you want to argue that Apple products are only for the wealthy, that's fine. But that also might be a reason why Apple only controls 3-5% of the computer market in the U.S. (Apple says 5%, most independent sources say about 3%). There's obviously reasons why so many people don't like Apple. Because Apple seems to be doing most other things correctly, I suspect the lack of a solid, dependable word processing program could be driving consumers away As for OpenOffice, I'm downloading it right now, and I will post soon to let you know what I think.

iJon · Oct 8, 2003

Originally posted by Nawlins
And most of the people I've talked to who use word processing software tell me they won't buy a "professional" Mac unless it has word processing software on it. I don't know anyone who uses a computer who doesn't do word processing on it. Even if you don't type reports or papers on a regular basis, you might still have to write notes, letters to loved ones, or type a resume. There are many uses for a word processing program that Apple could capitalize on, even if it feels many people don't need it. Think about this issue for a moment - Apple has nothing to lose by making a competitive word processing program. Apple could only gain from the situation, because they could make Microsoft look really stupid if they design some word processing software that's better than the one Microsoft has been making for years. Don't kid yourself, Text Edit is not a true word processing program. It doesn't have nearly the same kinds of features as Word or AppleWorks. You already conceded AppleWorks has a bunch of flaws - so why shouldn't Apple design a better word processing program? Apple is screwing up now, it's their burden to design a better product. If you want to argue that Apple products are only for the wealthy, that's fine. But that also might be a reason why Apple only controls 3-5% of the computer market in the U.S. (Apple says 5%, most independent sources say about 3%). There's obviously reasons why so many people don't like Apple. Because Apple seems to be doing most other things correctly, I suspect the lack of a solid, dependable word processing program could be driving consumers away As for OpenOffice, I'm downloading it right now, and I will post soon to let you know what I think.

right now it isnt a good idea for apple to make their own processor. they will piss off microsoft and all they have to do is strip office away from apple and the mac os is in a world of hurt, even if apple makes their own, and microsoft could easily lock them out with formats not accesible to apple. plus i know lots of people who dont do word processing on their mac, and many of them are power users who get powerbooks and powermacs. obviously we know your problem by now, you are mad because you had to spend 40 dollars for typing. now im not going to say your cheap, because your a student and college is all about saving money and managing it. you could have gotten a slower compuer with typing software, or you can get a fast computer with no typing software, this is the way it is and you chose the faster computer route. enjoy appleworks, if you dont buy word from your local campus store when funds allow, if not buy thinkfree office or see if you like that openoffice. if nothing is good for you than i dont know what to tell you, go buy a dell with word on it, nothing will get solved here complaining to us. also, go return your apple mouse and get a real mouse and put the saved money back in your pocket.

iJon

Phil Of Mac · Oct 8, 2003

Re: My Issues With Apple Since Switching

Originally posted by Nawlins
iPod
I like music a lot, and would like an mp3 player that could store all my music. I only have about 420 songs on my computer, and I'll never fill up 5 gigabytes worth of music. That's an insane amount. If Apple designed iPods with smaller storage capabilities that came with a dock and remote, I'd probably buy one. But I'll never spend $300 on a product I can't use to its full potential.

It's called backups. Think of it as an external FireWire hard drive that plays music, too

Originally posted by Nawlins
While having DV capabilities built-in on my Pbook is pretty cool, most college students can't afford to buy a DV camera anyhow

Here at WSU you can check them out at the computer labs.

Originally posted by Rower_CPU
Discussion of warez/serials is not allowed.

Question: If warez can't be discussed here, then why the incessant discussions about music piracy? What's the diff?

Flowbee · Oct 8, 2003

Originally posted by Nawlins
As for OpenOffice, I'm downloading it right now, and I will post soon to let you know what I think.

Oh goody... I can hardly wait. While you're at it, let us know if you've figured out how to sort and search music in iTunes.

Nawlins · Oct 8, 2003

Originally posted by Flowbee
Oh goody... I can hardly wait. While you're at it, let us know if you've figured out how to sort and search music in iTunes.

Thanks for the absent minded criticism. I know how to search for songs in iTunes, however, I think the drop-down style of Kazaa is easier to use because the person using the computer does not have to switch between typing and pointing/clicking the mouse (it usually requires 2 hands to do both). I find the method of drop down boxes to be more efficient, and thus easier to use.

Give me a reason why the search feature is better, instead of just making fun of people you disagree with.

My Issues With Apple Since Switching

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