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Longtime apple fan asking- is it just me, or...

A

austincolby

macrumors member
Original poster
Jun 16, 2004
31
0
I've been an apple fan ever since I got my first 17" G4 laptop. I loved that computer. In fact, I still love it- 7 years later, and its still in service.

But...

I've gotten a lot of apple gear since, and I am about ready to throw in the towel on the 'new' apple.

Ever since that first great laptop, each new apple item i've gotten has gotten progressively worse in terms of quality.

After that first g4 laptop, i've gotten i) a g5 imac (wireless never worked right), ii) an original intel 24" imac (ongoing fan noise problems, and HD crash after 2 years), iii) an intel minimac (HD crashed on me after 1 year), iv) an intel 20" imac (powersupply problems, random intermittant loss of power after 2 years), v) a 12 month old Macbook Pro (keyboard and mouse freeze up randomly, key fell off the keyboard), vi) a 40gb appletv ('loses' the computer it is synced with 2x a day, forcing me to restart both the appletv and the syncing computer), vii) a 3g iphone (horrible wireless- with full bars, drop one out of two calls- plus random seizing up, freezes, lagging, etc.), viii) a 6 month old 24" iMac (horrible fan noise/clicking, buggy wireless connections to airport extreme base station, etc.), iix) a 3 year old macbook (only works when plugged in- battery system is dead).

Wasn't apple supposed to 'just work'? I'm about to throw in the towel and head back to M$ land. I went the apple way because things were supposed to 'work' (what the hell is up with iChat btw? why doesn't it ever work right?), but that initial promise has been increasingly unfulfilled.

Am I the only one that is seeing what is happening to our beloved apple? Where did the quality control go? What has happened to just 'working' right? Why is every piece of equipment I have purchased over the last 7 years falling apart?
 
I've had good machines consistently. The only one with serious problems was a first generation PowerMac G5, which Apple took away and upgraded for free.

Right now, I'm running a Time Capsule, AirPort Express, AppleTV, Mac Pro, MacBook Pro, MacBook, iMac and an iPhone 3G with zero issues. Everything, as you said it should, just works.

As for your iPhone issues, I'm guessing you're in the US? I've heard a lot of bad things about AT&T. O2 in the UK are pretty good.
 
I understand the OP's frustration but the idle threat about switching back to a Windows PC is little ridiculous don't ya think? After years of owning Macs don't you have a lot of Mac software by now? Not that easy to move back to Windows. PC users won't switch to Mac because they have a lot of software tied to Windows. It's not that cut and dry.

Anyways, sorry the OP is having so many issues with Apple products. I have had very little issues and I've been using Macs for the last 11 years. I too had the first 17"Powerbook G4. I had the iMac G4 sunflower, iBook G3 white, PowerMac G5 dual, iMac 24" aluminum and the Macbook Air Rev B and a Time Capsule. I haven't seen Apple's quality dip very much at all over the years.

The 17" Powerbook G4 had it's share of issues as well. The lid never sat evenly when closed. It looks warped. Noisy fans (not a defect really), GPU makes screeching sounds and Apple sent a bunch of them out with stuck pixels.

My Air and my 24" iMac work great. The HDD did fail in my iMac after 8 months of owning it and I was shocked but no issues with wireless ever on any of my Macs over the years.
 
I have my first Macintosh a mid 2007 black MacBook, and it has had it's hard-drive replaced, replaced cooling fans and MANY MANY hours of Apple's diagnostics done to/on it.

Thank God for AppleCare, but no I do not this it is just you I think Apple has grown a lot in popularity and unfortunately the quality of their products has suffered a bit. Not too much but you are correct the older Macs were much better quality than the newer ones.
 
I think that given enough people, there's going to be ones that hit a streak like that with any company. I've had near flawless performance from my personal Apple products (besides battery replacement I've had to replace 1 motherboard (Bondi Blue iMac) and 1 Airport card). I've never even had a hard drive fail, hell my old SE sitting in a closet booted up last year and still ran a couple of the programs on the machine.

On the flip side, everything I've ever purchased that's from Sony has broken, and I have no idea why. Given my experience I'm loathe to pile on any company which repeatedly gets high CS ratings, and expect some pain due to the randomness factor. It's either that or believe in curses ;) .
 
Nope, I agree with the OP. Apple's QC has gone down, their innovation has gone down, their lineup sucks, their price per performance ration is horrible.

I have been using Apple since the PowerMac G4 1.42 GHz. Paid $1299 for it new. Never again has Apple had a tower configuration like that at that price. Everything else works fine in theory, but a lot of times craps out like Windows, just for a different reason.

The software is still what keeps me on the Apple camp, but if MS and others keep producing better and better stuff, I may consider replacing my bread and butter systems with cheaper Windows alternatives too.

As of now, I can't and won't, but I can with the my regular joe schmoe stuff.... (i.e. opting for the far superior Sony TT over the Macbook Air)
 
Digital Skunk said:
Nope, I agree with the OP. Apple's QC has gone down, their innovation has gone down, their lineup sucks, their price per performance ration is horrible.

I have been using Apple since the PowerMac G4 1.42 GHz. Paid $1299 for it new. Never again has Apple had a tower configuration like that at that price. Everything else works fine in theory, but a lot of times craps out like Windows, just for a different reason.

The software is still what keeps me on the Apple camp, but if MS and others keep producing better and better stuff, I may consider replacing my bread and butter systems with cheaper Windows alternatives too.

As of now, I can't and won't, but I can with the my regular joe schmoe stuff.... (i.e. opting for the far superior Sony TT over the Macbook Air)
Click to expand...


sad but true.

I bought my new MBP early 2008 for 1499 refurb because that is a reasonable price. and even that is at risk because of the NVIDEA problem. I won't spend more money on macs than that anymore because they are not at a quality level or performance level to justify that for me. The design maybe is worth it for some, not for me. The current trend to get less and less features and thinner and thinner computers is not my thing.

the software is still great but i have also there the problem that there is a lack of features and quality (it go much better with iwork09 and ilife09 and snow leopard looks promising).

my iphone needs regular restarts like a windows machine, mobile me is still a hit or miss. the userinterface of my iphone could be better (switching off autocorrection should not be hidden in settings. i need to switch it on and off quite often because i mail in different languages. same is true for the wifi on/off switch.

my ipod nano 16GB still forgets where i left off on an audiobook once in a while. i need to unplug my radiotransmitter from the ipod, hit play and plug the transmitter in again to be able to hear something on my radio.

the ipod touch works fine so far. it just ticks me off that i can't charge it from any of my 4 old ipod chargers. it says not the right type of charger although i can charge my iphone with them.


so there are a lot of small things but at the moment apple is still the better deal. however if windows 7 and goole webapps and picasa get better and better then it's good bye apple.:(
 
andiwm2003 said:
sad but true.

I bought my new MBP early 2008 for 1499 refurb because that is a reasonable price. and even that is at risk because of the NVIDEA problem. I won't spend more money on macs than that anymore because they are not at a quality level or performance level to justify that for me. The design maybe is worth it for some, not for me. The current trend to get less and less features and thinner and thinner computers is not my thing.
Click to expand...

That's my thing right there. I DO need performance to go along with the great software that is available. I do tax my systems from time to time and i know that the hardware in many PCs would dust the Apple counterparts due to connection options and processor/GPU specs.

There was a time when there were differences between one Mac system (Dual 2.0GHz PowerPC G5) and other PC systems (XPS 4.0GHz Pentium) and users could debate back and forth as to whether one was better or worse due to clock speed, OS, cache size, etc.

Now with Intel, they are one in the same. The OS on a dual 2.53 GHz chip isn't going to run tasks faster than the OS on a QUAD 2.53 chip.
 
I have owned 2 iMacs, a PowerPC version and an Intel one, both the white versions prior to the ALOE-MIN-I-UM as Jonathan Ive would say and they worked just like "champs". I have since owned a Mac Pro 2008 that has worked brilliantly, two iPod Shuffles, 2 iPod 5th Gen, 1 iPhone 1st Gen, one AppleTV and all have performed excellently.

I am often struck at how many problems some posters have. I just think it is down to bad luck...but don't fear, if you had no bad luck perhaps you would not have any at all...;)

Oh and this one will really zing ya, I have been using Windows Vista Home Premium edition and that OS has been singing along like a bird via bootcamp...go figure!
 
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