Lucky ba*****! I dropped my MAcbook Pro about a foot, it dented the corner, and Apple wanted $1200 from me just so I could keep my Applecare. Makes me with I had the foresight to get a reliable PC
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Has Apple become Microsoft?
- Thread starter DoNoHarm
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Lucky ba*****! I dropped my MAcbook Pro about a foot, it dented the corner, and Apple wanted $1200 from me just so I could keep my Applecare. Makes me with I had the foresight to get a reliable PC
Source? They have been highly successful with their developer relationships on the iPhone - look at all the money they are making them.
I certainly agree there.
Using an EULA to unfair advantage in this case doesn't apply to Apple with Psystar - they simply dictate where/how their OS can be used - they have a right to do that given it's their creation; Psystar began abusing OS X in full knowledge of what was condemned in the agreement. That's hardly exploitative. M$'s on the other hand...
Lucky ba*****! I dropped my MAcbook Pro about a foot, it dented the corner, and Apple wanted $1200 from me just so I could keep my Applecare. Makes me with I had the foresight to get a reliable PC
Of course it'll cost $1200. It's a unibody, which only means that Apple now has to replace nearly the entire thing to fix a problem.
And don't even think about breaking your keyboard.
It used to cost me around AUD $150 to fix it. Now I don't know, but I don't want to find out.Seriously, imagine the uproar if we weren't talking about Apple, and we were talking about Nokia, or any other mobile phone company. If mobile phones broke on the 1st or 2nd drop, I'd go through one every few months.
I've dropped my white plastic MacBook indoors. It was sitting on top of a table. No damage whatsoever. Plastic really does have its advantages.
I like how you said M$
This puts things into perspective.
In general we will see how the Supreme Court stacks up on EULAs. In general, the Democrats want to let the software companies have more control in the business world. The GOP is more the friend of the brick and mortar blue chip businesses of old.
It's not completely an exaggeration when Al Gore said he invented the internet. He allowed for many friendly loopholes and incentives for the high tech industry, much to the anger of the old guard, brick and mortar GOP. It was nuts for the GOP to even suggest Al Gore was the elite. He may have had the west coast Silicon Valley on his side, but the GOP had oil, auto, lumber, fishing, retail, tourism, defense, shipbuilding, and securities firmly on their side. Who is the elite again?
With a virtual, non tangible product, Apple's OS X, dictating terms over a factory hard good (Prystar) in a field that has strong ties to the defense industry and aerospace (a place where David Packard had ties), the law will shape due to political ideology.
Though I am liberal and voted Green Party in 2008, and very much admire Apple board member Al Gore, I believe in American business and it's ability to have a pretty broad leeway in doing business, however not Bush-Cheney style.
Let Prystar do its thing and let free enterprise decide if Prystar can stand on its own. Legally in American contract law, software companies can ask that you don't replicate and sell the stuff, but to dictate what machine can run it is a illegal contract of adhesion (U.S., UCC)
Of course it'll cost $1200. It's a unibody, which only means that Apple now has to replace nearly the entire thing to fix a problem.
And don't even think about breaking your keyboard.
Seriously, imagine the uproar if we weren't talking about Apple, and we were talking about Nokia, or any other mobile phone company. If mobile phones broke on the 1st or 2nd drop, I'd go through one every few months.
Exactly. Aluminum is pretty, but pretty isn't what I need.
To me, they can make the next line of Macbooks in beige plastic for all I care, like those old Toshibas, and that would be fine by me as long as I run OS X, and not Windows.
Personally, of all operating systems I have used, I love Tiger the best. Leopard is not bad but I like the black arrows under the dock icons in Tiger much better. But that's just me. There are probably improvements in Leopard over Tiger. But so far, I am yet to find any negative issue in Tiger in the two years I have used it.
I used Jaguar for years and thought it was pretty good, but really only marginally better in some ways than XP, but quite a bit better than XP in other ways.
I used to pay more attention to outer shell appearance, but OS functionality and ease of use is what I care about most.
Just my personal opinion, of course, but...
I think Apple's products cover a good ground. The only products I think is truly overpriced are the 13" MacBooks, when you could get the same specs, plus Firewire, for $999, albeit in a plastic case, and the 17" MacBook Pro ($3,000 for a stock laptop? What are you smoking? The top end stock MAYBE, but there's 17" laptops for much less out there, and while I'm not saying Apple should match their prices, the 17" should be $2,300 AT THE MOST.)
The Mac Pro is wildly overpriced for what most people want it for. But for what components are actually inside it, the price is very reasonable. This is the ground Apple is severely lacking right now - the Mac tower that everyone wants, for the price that goes with it, not the Mac tower that's insanely powerful and for a good price - for the few people who want/need that kind of power. In other words, release a Mac Pro with a lesser CPU (Core 2 Duo or Core i7, not a Xeon) and a good graphics card, for $1,000-$1,500.
Finally, the Mac mini. Many might think it's overpriced for what it delivers, and by merely looking at the specs, I'd have to agree. But I look at the whole picture - the size, the ports, how versatile the little guy can be, and I think it's relatively well-priced. Sure, maybe a $100 drop would hit the sweet spot, but it's not as overpriced as some would claim, in my opinion.
I didn't discuss the iMac because I think it's in a kind of a category of it's own. The prices, I think, are pretty damn good for what you get - very good actually, and just about perfect for it's audience. I love mine, so I might be biased, but I think the people who complain about the iMac and prices are the ones who are forced to buy the iMacs because it's the closest thing to the "Mac Pro-For-Everyone", or "Mac Midtower" or whatever we call it those days (more specifically, the Mac tower I spoke about above, for $1,000-$1,500).
In conclusion, I think Apple isn't really turning into the next Microsoft. They opened up their hardware a ****ing LOT since the Intel switch (we can run Windows or Ubuntu on their hardware for God's sake) and OS X has always been the same since it's inception, so there's no insidious "dictatorship attitude" creeping up on us. If you think OS X is too limiting, 1) it's always been there, there's nothing new (in other words, you've been hiding under a rock, or stuck in Windows-only World for the past 10 years), and 2) go check out Terminal.app, and the plethora of apps you can use to customize OS X, run X11 apps, and more.
On the hardware side, I think the only key thing Apple needs to do to cover the bases they should be covering, is to add a "consumer" tower, and lower the MacBook (aluminum) prices. Oh, and fix that damn 17" MacBook Pro prices so that it's not "Oh hai guise, I'm from the '60's and 17" screens are a million dollars!".
I'm leaving the App Store alone, because that's a completely different part of Apple than the hardware/OS X part, and to be honest, I don't think they even planned to allow an App Store in the first place, so I think they're pretty un-Microsoft, considering they went from "No way jose" to "Everyone is welcome! Well except a few of you...", which is a gigantic leap, ya know? Give them a little time, I'm sure they'll iron it out eventually.
I think Apple's products cover a good ground. The only products I think is truly overpriced are the 13" MacBooks, when you could get the same specs, plus Firewire, for $999, albeit in a plastic case, and the 17" MacBook Pro ($3,000 for a stock laptop? What are you smoking? The top end stock MAYBE, but there's 17" laptops for much less out there, and while I'm not saying Apple should match their prices, the 17" should be $2,300 AT THE MOST.)
The Mac Pro is wildly overpriced for what most people want it for. But for what components are actually inside it, the price is very reasonable. This is the ground Apple is severely lacking right now - the Mac tower that everyone wants, for the price that goes with it, not the Mac tower that's insanely powerful and for a good price - for the few people who want/need that kind of power. In other words, release a Mac Pro with a lesser CPU (Core 2 Duo or Core i7, not a Xeon) and a good graphics card, for $1,000-$1,500.
Finally, the Mac mini. Many might think it's overpriced for what it delivers, and by merely looking at the specs, I'd have to agree. But I look at the whole picture - the size, the ports, how versatile the little guy can be, and I think it's relatively well-priced. Sure, maybe a $100 drop would hit the sweet spot, but it's not as overpriced as some would claim, in my opinion.
I didn't discuss the iMac because I think it's in a kind of a category of it's own. The prices, I think, are pretty damn good for what you get - very good actually, and just about perfect for it's audience. I love mine, so I might be biased, but I think the people who complain about the iMac and prices are the ones who are forced to buy the iMacs because it's the closest thing to the "Mac Pro-For-Everyone", or "Mac Midtower" or whatever we call it those days (more specifically, the Mac tower I spoke about above, for $1,000-$1,500).
In conclusion, I think Apple isn't really turning into the next Microsoft. They opened up their hardware a ****ing LOT since the Intel switch (we can run Windows or Ubuntu on their hardware for God's sake) and OS X has always been the same since it's inception, so there's no insidious "dictatorship attitude" creeping up on us. If you think OS X is too limiting, 1) it's always been there, there's nothing new (in other words, you've been hiding under a rock, or stuck in Windows-only World for the past 10 years), and 2) go check out Terminal.app, and the plethora of apps you can use to customize OS X, run X11 apps, and more.
On the hardware side, I think the only key thing Apple needs to do to cover the bases they should be covering, is to add a "consumer" tower, and lower the MacBook (aluminum) prices. Oh, and fix that damn 17" MacBook Pro prices so that it's not "Oh hai guise, I'm from the '60's and 17" screens are a million dollars!".
I'm leaving the App Store alone, because that's a completely different part of Apple than the hardware/OS X part, and to be honest, I don't think they even planned to allow an App Store in the first place, so I think they're pretty un-Microsoft, considering they went from "No way jose" to "Everyone is welcome! Well except a few of you...", which is a gigantic leap, ya know? Give them a little time, I'm sure they'll iron it out eventually.
I agree with you. I think people are over thinking the Apple position here. Apple is in no way remotely close to Microsoft. MS has dominated the OS position for quite some time now, and that makes it the target. IMO had MS not screwed up so bad with Vista (communication-wise), Apple would be in a LOT of troubles right now. Apple has managed to develop a certain image that acts like some sort smokescreen, but the bottom line in both cases is money period.
Precisely. It is a fine line between the two, but the difference is that Psystar is violating terms of the agreement by then reselling the computers, possibly replicating the OS in order to do so.
Simply installing it on your own private system isn't really the issue.
What if I bought a Psystar PC with a legal copy of windows, then purchase a copy of OSX and they install it for me? legal or ilegal
With the rumors abounding of a "netbook" option, I think it's high time that Apple broke into the largest computer market: the mainstream "economy" class.
Apple has been targetting First-Class flyers for far too long. They're good at it now, they know how to do it, they're successful at doing it... but that's the thing. As a company, they should know that people who fly First Class are the minority.
There is absolutely, hands-down, without-a-doubt no more commonly heard excuse among the general population for not buying a Mac than... "They're too expensive." Sure, some people complain about gaming, but they are not the most prolific voice. Time and time again, I hear someone complain or gripe about Windows, and I suggest a Mac only to hear, "I would buy a Mac, I really want to... but they're too expensive."
I think that Apple needs to release two products... one of which would be revolutionary and a paradigm shift for the company:
Product #1: Netbook
They're probably already doing it, but they need to design a great-looking, Apple-esque cheap laptop computing solution. The Air is a great First Class flyer's option, but it's cost-prohibitive to most. If Apple releases a cheap but elegant netbook, they'll catch a huge section of the market that has routinely said "no" to Apple's lineup.
Product #2: A mid-class tower model
Call it the MacTower or whatever, they'd catch one of the largest "niche" segments of the computer user base, the guy who buys a computer that loves to upgrade and offer additional components. This would be the option for small-time video editors and graphic designers, for the guy who wants to expand his ever-growing collection of [legally purchased] HD movies via extra internal HDDs, for the guy who wants to be able to upgrade his graphics card for future gaming, and for the hobbyist who lives to tinker around with the insides of a computer.
Apple has been targetting First-Class flyers for far too long. They're good at it now, they know how to do it, they're successful at doing it... but that's the thing. As a company, they should know that people who fly First Class are the minority.
There is absolutely, hands-down, without-a-doubt no more commonly heard excuse among the general population for not buying a Mac than... "They're too expensive." Sure, some people complain about gaming, but they are not the most prolific voice. Time and time again, I hear someone complain or gripe about Windows, and I suggest a Mac only to hear, "I would buy a Mac, I really want to... but they're too expensive."
I think that Apple needs to release two products... one of which would be revolutionary and a paradigm shift for the company:
Product #1: Netbook
They're probably already doing it, but they need to design a great-looking, Apple-esque cheap laptop computing solution. The Air is a great First Class flyer's option, but it's cost-prohibitive to most. If Apple releases a cheap but elegant netbook, they'll catch a huge section of the market that has routinely said "no" to Apple's lineup.
Product #2: A mid-class tower model
Call it the MacTower or whatever, they'd catch one of the largest "niche" segments of the computer user base, the guy who buys a computer that loves to upgrade and offer additional components. This would be the option for small-time video editors and graphic designers, for the guy who wants to expand his ever-growing collection of [legally purchased] HD movies via extra internal HDDs, for the guy who wants to be able to upgrade his graphics card for future gaming, and for the hobbyist who lives to tinker around with the insides of a computer.
Legal.
But Prystar may charge you a small fee.
Install OS X yourself.
PS - If it's anything like the federal Dell case, chances are is that Apple may be supplying Prystar OS X for some sort of price. Price and Terms, now and in the long run, may not be agreed upon and many a lawsuit has happened over those two issues. After many years, we will hear the nitty gritty truth to what is really happening and what really happened so far.
Things are rarely, if ever, as black and white as the press makes it seem. If Apple really didn't want Prystar doing something "truly" illegal, Prystar would not be in business or pissing Apple off with some activity. This can be a legal tightrope for a long time. It reminds me of when the record industry tried to stop blank cassettes from being sold to the public. Apple can only have reasonable terms and conditions with OS X.
I have my iMac and MacBook...I do not plan to purchase any new computers for a while.
I sold my iPhone and got a blackberry, simply because I got bored, and hated the keyboard.
Not an Apple fanboy, I just use what fits my needs. I won't ever leave the Mac, but I gave iPhone 2 chances, and it still failed to deliver.
I sold my iPhone and got a blackberry, simply because I got bored, and hated the keyboard.
Not an Apple fanboy, I just use what fits my needs. I won't ever leave the Mac, but I gave iPhone 2 chances, and it still failed to deliver.