Anybody misses the old Apple?

[whooleytoo]

I'm not sure about the old/new durability of Macs. We bought 4 first-gen MacBook Pros about 6 years ago and they were of absolutely rubbish quality. Random shutdowns, bulging batteries, socket->adaptor power cables failing, adaptor->Mac cable failing and/or melting through the insulation.

So I was very nervous getting a MacBook where the battery couldn't be user-replaced easily; but the new ones are far, far better, IME.

I do think Apple has given up on 'pushing the design envelope' with the Mac hardware. Now it's incremental updates in line with the rest of the PC industry, usually with nice, but safe and evolutionary designs. Their main focus in that area seems to be miniaturisation, but I'd take a real Ethernet port and a slightly larger battery any day rather than a few millimetres off the device thickness.

One downside of Apple entering other markets (online media downloads, music players, phones, tablets, maybe TVs?) is that they no longer seem bothered about supporting 3rd party products. E.g. if the iPhone didn't exist, you can be sure they'd have a decent syncing solution that would work for most phones; but with the iPhone on the market, you either buy an iPhone or you're on your own.

 

[Alameda]

I think all notebooks were plastic until MacBook Pro came out. I saw a Lenovo IdeaPad laptop at the store yesterday which looks exactly like a MacBook Pro. They ought to call it an IdeaWeRippedOffFromApplePad. Why can't these people come up with their own ideas?

 

[maflynn]

I think all notebooks were plastic until MacBook Pro came out.

Nope.

Apple had the Powerbook that was made of aluminum like the MBP, and before aluminum they had a titanium powerbook.

 

[Alameda]

Nope.

Apple had the Powerbook that was made of aluminum like the MBP, and before aluminum they had a titanium powerbook.

What's in a name? Sure, you might find one metal Toshiba from 1995 or whatever, but basically all notebooks were plastic -- maybe with a metal frame -- until Apple came along with Something Different

 

[maflynn]

What's in a name?

I'm just saying that the MacBook Pro was not the first metal laptop from apple.

 

[Alameda]

I'm just saying that the MacBook Pro was not the first metal laptop from apple.

Indeed. Right you are.

 

[rorschach]

No, I think they've improved a lot. As a few others have mentioned, the build quality on the computers has improved immensely.

My titanium PowerBook, as much as I loved it, had to be repaired 8 times until I had to contact executive customer relations and demand a replacement.

My next Mac laptop, the last titanium PowerBook before the aluminum line, (which they gave me as a replacement for the one I mentioned above) kicked the bucket within about a year and a half.

Both those computers had issues with the hinges.

I got an aluminum PowerBook G4 after that and it had to be repaired several times, including two logic board replacements and an optical drive replacement.

The white MacBook I had next, the first Mac I bought post-iPhone, was much better but still had a few issues (plastic case developed minor cracks and the palm rests became discolored.)

My late-2008 unibody MacBook Pro lasted for 3 solid years and in fact still runs fairly well even with Mountain Lion (three OS upgrades later).

As for iPods, the old ones were scratch magnets. I bought my first iPod in 2003 - it was the 3rd gen with the touch buttons - and within a few days the back and front were covered with scratches just from putting it in my jeans pocket. I carry around my iPhone today with no case and there's barely a scratch on it -- even having been in my pocket with keys and coins.

The old designs (1998 to around 2005-ish) had that "wow" factor, but honestly I think it worked because they needed to really differentiate themselves. They don't need to do that as much anymore, so they can stick to making good, solid machines that work well.

 

[lowbelly]

Wow, apple 10 years ago was not good. You've got a bad case of nostalgia.

 

[G51989]

Wow, apple 10 years ago was not good. You've got a bad case of nostalgia.

How wasn't Apple 10 years ago good? I loved my G4 tower, ( still have it ) and a year or so later I got my Dual 1.8gzh G5 ( still have it ), then later on I got a Quad 2.5 G5 ( Still have that to ), they were great computers.

I also had a G4 Powerbook, and a slightly older Pismo, they were both great laptops, not as powerful as my PC laptops of the time were, but I used them more than my PC laptops for sure. ( This is before XP SP2, when XP started getting incredible. )

Whats so bad about those computers? I used them for a long time, and had great success.

Hell the first Mac I ever bought was a used iMac G3, which I still have. Awesome machine. Not as powerful as my PC of the time was, but a great computer.

 

[Alameda]

Hell the first Mac I ever bought was a used iMac G3, which I still have. Awesome machine. Not as powerful as my PC of the time was, but a great computer.

Mine was a Mac SE, back when PC's could draw 40x80 characters of text onscreen.

For a long time, Apple made some absolutely fantastic products. After my Mac SE came models like the Mac IIcx, which was the most fantastic industrial design: You could disassemble the entire computer by removing a single screw -- I mean, it was great, you just popped the lid open, took out that screw (which you didn't need to put back, really), and you could take out the hard disk, floppy disk (we had them back then), the RAM, the motherboard, power supply, everything. And you could reposition the rubber feet to make it sit on its side if you wanted. It was, honestly, the best industrial design for a computer ever, and the best for a long time to come. Apple began a gradual decline after that, especially with their plethora of Centris models, and operating systems that just weren't much better than the last, and their very slow transition from Motorola to PowerPC. I upgraded my Centris 610 Mac into a PowerMac with an expensive motherboard upgrade, and the result was a slower computer. This was around 1995, when Microsoft released Windows 95, Apple was declining badly. It wasn't until Jobs came back and began the refreshes, and then the bullet-proof OSX, that Apple began to rebound, in my opinion.

Today, I certainly think Apple products are better than ever, but this thread makes a good point: The desktop/laptop products that defined the company just aren't center stage anymore. And that in itself is ok, but Apple has the resources and Microsoft is in the declining state right now where Apple could take over. It would take a lot of effort and years of time, but they could do it. Unfortunately, I don't see that level of effort coming out of Cupertino. About ten years ago, Apple's strategy was to sell Macs as better media computers -- they came with photo editors, video editors, music editors, and they were great machines for families and schools. Now I see them all over my company, even though my company won't pay for them. Apple is definitely becoming an increasing presence in corporations. I'd like to see Apple capitalize on this with a five or ten year plan to overtake Microsoft. I tested Microsoft Windows 8, and while it has some huge UI problems, it has one big advantage: They ported it to ARM, and it's the same OS on the desktop as it is on the tablet. So unlike an iPad, a Microsoft tablet with a keyboard and mouse can perform desktop tasks on the road. Editing PowerPoint, Word and Excel docs will be very realistic, and it represents a huge paradigm shift from Apple's content-consumption-centric design of the iPad. As a counterpoint, however, while Microsoft lets us perform the tasks we want to perform, it's a very half-baked UI design. It's more like quarter-baked.

 

[roadbloc]

Nope, the pre-intel macs were garbage.

Errr.. what? Have you even used any? Macs were at their prime during the G4-G5 era with OS X Tiger. My PowerBook still screams while my 2008 Core2Duo MacBook broke after two years.

The build quality they used to have is something I miss from today's Apple products.

 

[SvK]

Ive been with Apple since the Macintosh 1983.

 

[carlgo]

iDevices are annoying to many people, as is the technology that make them so.

Computers didn't bother people and were often used for a purpose.

 

[nspindel]

Worth mentioning that Apple that some around here seem to miss so dearly, that only made computers and didn't focus on these annoying iDevices.... was just about bankrupt doing so. Apple is a publicly traded corporation. As such, it exists for one reason and one reason only - to make money for its shareholders.

Black and white movies used to be wonderful, too. If a modern movie studio tried to make nothing but black and white films, they'd go broke.

Get over it....

Edit: Also worth mentioning that I've been using Apple computers since before the first Macintosh. I'm an old Apple II guy. Not just someone who bought an iPhone and hopped on the bandwagon.

 

[Alameda]

Apple's computer business was very profitable under Jobs' leadership. I love the iDevices, I just would like to see the Mac continue to flourish.

But to be fair, I just saw a review of ultrabooks from Apple, Samsung, Lenovo and HP, and the MacBook Air came out on top. It's impressive that Apple still beats everyone else's products, even though the Air's basic design is well over two years old.

 

[GKDAIR]

Apple is doing better then they ever have before.

They've practically made an ecosystem out of technology, made it user friendly and hassle free.

You can play a movie on your iphone and stream it directly to your 1080p 65' TV. They made a 9.7 inch screen have a million more pixels than an HDTV.

Seriously...how are people not blown away by that?