Apple doesn't feel as good as it used to

[0989382]

I'm a big Apple fan, but I really really hate to admit that my new MacBook Pro and iPhone setup isn't as great feeling as my first ever white MacBook and iPhone 3G did all those years ago. Am I just bored of having everything integrate perfectly?

The build quality is amazing, still and I don't know where else I'd look for it on other platforms. MacOS feels like it's been stagnating, which, to be fair I can deal with - if it ain't broke don't fix it. Though it's not just as snappy, responsive and stable as I remember Leopard and Snow Leopard being. It's hard to explain what I mean, but just earlier whilst in Preview filling in a form it was lagging every time I was copying and pasting text boxes and I don't even think it's an issue Apple will ever notice to be able to fix?

I miss the programmes like iChat which were scrapped in favour of iMessage, which again is fine, but remember when you could have all your IM accounts on there? Regardless of what platform your friends used?

I used Windows earlier this year and really didn't like it. Perhaps it was the mid-level specs and build quality? Microsoft doesn't seem perfect either. Things don't integrate as well as Apple's Mac and iPhone. But should I perhaps go back to Windows? I enjoy my Mac but sometimes I think it's just an expensive toy and perhaps it's overkill.

I do a lot of studying which is research and using office suites, not exactly demanding. Pages and Apple's software is just such a pleasure to use compared to Office. The battery on this thing is great to, but it is my understanding that the divide is not as big as it once was between Apple and Windows laptops?

Not sure if it's the boredom of having the perfect machine possibly? But I've been tempted to look at something like a ThinkPad as it requires less care and maybe I won't be so upset when it fails vs this expensive, beautiful machine.

 

[MacDawg]

I think for the most part, whether it is computers or phones, what once was considered amazing and unthinkable is now commonplace and mundane. We used to look at a laptop and marvel at the size, weight, screen, power and be astonished at what it was capable of doing. Same with phones when we could first hold such power and connectivity in our hands. Now we are tempted to look at them and say "is that all there is?" Our thirst and hunger for something new, exciting and dare I say "magical" is no longer satisfied, and likely never will be again until significant breakthroughs in artificial intelligence and virtual reality become available and consumed by the masses.

 

[Partron22]

There Is no next killer app.
Unless you're a writer, a programmer, doing serious research or building your own cnc shop, an iPad is about all you need.*
The various marketplaces will resettle within a decade or so, but right now is a very fraught time for people with serious needs.
============
*Yes, I know I left some holes.

 

[scoobs69]

There Is no next killer app.
Unless you're a writer, a programmer, doing serious research or building your own cnc shop, an iPad is about all you need.*
The various marketplaces will resettle within a decade or so, but right now is a very fraught time for people with serious needs.
============
*Yes, I know I left some holes.

I would disagree. Right now is a great time for people with serious needs.
Intel Xeon - up to 28 cores + Scalable
Intel Skylake-X - up to 18 cores
Intel 8700K - if you don't need the PCIe lanes, this is a beastly little CPU

AMD EPYC - up to 32 cores and 128 PCIe lanes
AMD Threadripper - up to 16 cores for $1,000 USD
AMD Ryzen up to 8 cores on the cheap
AMD Ryzen Pro

There is seriously something for everyone at nearly every price point.

Graphics cards (today are expensive), but if you're patient, you can get insanely good graphics cards for not a lot of $$$.

PCIe NVMe M.2 drives? Wasn't long ago you'd have to set up a RAID of 7200 RPM drives to get half the speed of the Samsung 960 NVMe M.2 SSD. And now those little gum stick drives plug directly into into your MOB without cables and wires.

PCIe 4.0 is due sometime in 2018, then PCIe 5 in 2019 or 2020, with insane bandwidth. Imagine running 2 NVMe drives off of one PCIe 4.0 lane. Or the breakneck transfer speeds that could result by the end of 2018?

....There are so many options available for power users, and you can build a cranking workstation for less than $1,500 USD. Up your budget to $2,000, and it's insane what you can build. $3,000? How does a 12 core m=

 

[pastimage]

I would disagree.
....There are so many options available for power users, and you can build a cranking workstation for less than $1,500 USD. Up your budget to $2,000, and it's insane what you can build. $3,000? How does a 12 core m=

We need to talk! I would rather drop 2k and have something like the new imac pro toy selling for 5k!

I want to agree and disagree with the original poster. Yet I can only speak from what I feel. I loved apple before Jobs died. Under the hand of this muck running the joint now things have gone south, IMO. My macbook still kicks ass and if I only could use the letter P on it that thing would be my daily user. My old imac is still acceptable but damn if the software and os has not become wonky. way back when, we had one that was nothing but dial-up and couldn't even be upgraded and it kicked ass forever and was only ditched because of super cool tech and cable high speeds.

Yeah, great, they can be smaller and weigh less and all that jazz but they don't impress me and the feel is way off, like the op said. the forced apps and such, the entire lifestyle of it. I recall the old days the glory days and things were different. Now, it's just a bunch of hipsters and some crap on Wall Street. I don't know. I am not typing and expressing well what I want to say. I will say things are not the same.

 

[bopajuice]

I'm a big Apple fan, but I really really hate to admit that my new MacBook Pro and iPhone setup isn't as great feeling as my first ever white MacBook and iPhone 3G did all those years ago. Am I just bored of having everything integrate perfectly?

The build quality is amazing, still and I don't know where else I'd look for it on other platforms. MacOS feels like it's been stagnating, which, to be fair I can deal with - if it ain't broke don't fix it. Though it's not just as snappy, responsive and stable as I remember Leopard and Snow Leopard being. It's hard to explain what I mean, but just earlier whilst in Preview filling in a form it was lagging every time I was copying and pasting text boxes and I don't even think it's an issue Apple will ever notice to be able to fix?

I miss the programmes like iChat which were scrapped in favour of iMessage, which again is fine, but remember when you could have all your IM accounts on there? Regardless of what platform your friends used?

I used Windows earlier this year and really didn't like it. Perhaps it was the mid-level specs and build quality? Microsoft doesn't seem perfect either. Things don't integrate as well as Apple's Mac and iPhone. But should I perhaps go back to Windows? I enjoy my Mac but sometimes I think it's just an expensive toy and perhaps it's overkill.

I do a lot of studying which is research and using office suites, not exactly demanding. Pages and Apple's software is just such a pleasure to use compared to Office. The battery on this thing is great to, but it is my understanding that the divide is not as big as it once was between Apple and Windows laptops?

Not sure if it's the boredom of having the perfect machine possibly? But I've been tempted to look at something like a ThinkPad as it requires less care and maybe I won't be so upset when it fails vs this expensive, beautiful machine.

First time I have ever read that someone is board with the “perfect machine” and now asks for advice about what to do?

 

[belvdr]

Think about it this way. Just ten years ago, personal computing was still growing by leaps and bounds. Smart phones were becoming more ubiquitous and desktops were falling out of favor with many consumers. It was a time when major changes were taking place every year.

Today, the whole market isn't changing much, except for specifications. You get minor updates but no real show stoppers, from any manufacturer. Honestly, the tech market, for me, is a bit of a cash cow now. Nothing gives me the wow-factor any more.

 

[pastimage]

Think about it this way. Just ten years ago, personal computing was still growing by leaps and bounds. Smartphones were becoming more ubiquitous and desktops were falling out of favor with many consumers. It was a time when major changes were taking place every year.

Today, the whole market isn't changing much, except for specifications. You get minor updates but no real show stoppers, from any manufacturer. Honestly, the tech market, for me, is a bit of a cash cow now. Nothing gives me the wow-factor anymore.

Yeah, there was a lot of growth back at that time and there is still a lot of growth but in different areas. I know for me that is not what I am talking about. I guess for me it is more that I recall a day when I had to download or install all kinds of fixes and security updates and OS for windows stuff, having to have something always looking for malware and spyware not to mention a new trojan every other day. I finally had enough and went to a mac and had no issues forever. Now, I have to get new software to keep my mac going constantly. Apple seems to be putting out a new os as often as windows. Part of what I loved is now missing. That old fashioned reliability factor. To be honest tho, If I were to think of it, I might find that even if I had to change software and such, my windows computers may have actually lasted longer than my macs, some not all.

 

[belvdr]

Yeah, there was a lot of growth back at that time and there is still a lot of growth but in different areas. I know for me that is not what I am talking about. I guess for me it is more that I recall a day when I had to download or install all kinds of fixes and security updates and OS for windows stuff, having to have something always looking for malware and spyware not to mention a new trojan every other day. I finally had enough and went to a mac and had no issues forever. Now, I have to get new software to keep my mac going constantly. Apple seems to be putting out a new os as often as windows. Part of what I loved is now missing. That old fashioned reliability factor. To be honest tho, If I were to think of it, I might find that even if I had to change software and such, my windows computers may have actually lasted longer than my macs, some not all.

I haven't had that experience since Windows 9x. From XP on (Vista excluded), it's been stable, with Windows 7 being one of the best. I don't see reliability being much of an issue; the bigger issue is keeping these things secure, which requires more updates.

I think many of the later macOS releases are being released quickly to enhance the user experience with the latest watch or phone features.

 

[0989382]

I wish the attention to detail in terms of reliability was still on macOS. Plus things like the little two finger gesture to rotate photos that used to be on iPhone is gone now in Photos, I feel Steve Jobs would have fired somebody for forgetting to bring features like this into the successor software apps but now it's tolerated

 

[raqball]

Apple is done innovating. They are now all about catering and creating for what I like to call the Starbucks crowd. I know this is a Mac forum and people constantly bash Windows and post made up issues and stories about Windows but it's solid these days and in many ways it's easily surpassed MacOS.

I giggle when people say Apple is still innovating and they throw out the touchbar as an example. Ah, um,, that idea was already done and failed by Lenovo several years ago. All Apple did was steal it and market it....

Macbooks are no longer competitive in the computer market. Sure Apple still sells plenty but most of these sales are to the above stated Starbucks crowd. Some are locked into the Apple eco system and buy just because they don't want to shell out what could be thousands of $$ in new programs or they don't want to learn the Windows equivalent of these programs.

Build quality has went downhill and it went there fast! MacOS is now littered with more issues than Win 10 and iOS is still far behind Android in many areas. I have an iPhone and I like it but I don't use it with blinders on either.

At this point it's clear Apple does not care about the Macbooks any longer. They want people to buy iPads instead. I would not be surprised at all if at some point Apple just scraps the MacBook's altogether.

With MacOS your options are limited. Take what Apple sells or nothing! Don't like the crappy KB that has a high failure rate? Oh well... Give Tim your $$ and deal with it!

At least with Windows 10 you have plenty of choice. Want a 2 in 1? Done and in a wide range of price points. Want a detachable screen? Done! Now choose your specs! What a powerhouse gaming machine? Done! Want this, that, or the other? Done!

Meh... I tried another MacBook Pro last week because I missed MacOS. The KB failed after 3 days. 3 flippin days! I am just glad it failed while I was still within the return window. I am now done, done, done with Macbooks. I still have my iPhone but I also have an Android that I switch back and forth between.

Apple, in my opinion, no longer cares about Mac's. It's all iPhone and iPad and I don't see that changing anytime soon.

 

[MacDawg]

Guess there is nothing left to do but climb back into bed, pull the covers over my head and curl up in a fetal position