No, no that wouldn’t. Steve would make an AR that was completely incompatible with everything else on the market. So not add ons as he would decide whet we ‘need’.
But they would come in pretty colors!
Until this week I would have said…
“Yeah but it would run like a champ” 
I’ve had no problems with 10.5 on all the systems I run it on (from 4 year old G5 to almost-latest intel based stuff). Very stable and it just works. 10.4 is still running on my 7 year old iBook that my son uses now.
You can have Mac OS. Just buy a Mac. They just work, get awesome reviews even in the PC mags for their HW, and in the class they are in, are about the same price as their name brand non-white-box PC brethren.
The OP complaints about the “Mobile Me” service are mostly justified. However, he has not given Apple time to get the problems fixed. They did screw up the roll out of the service, no questions asked. But it has been only 1 week since the official roll out. Hardly time for them to figure out where they screwed up and get it fixed. I was not a .mac user and am not a “Mobile Me” user so I don’t have first hand experience but many of the basic services are working but the new stuff is messed up. Yes they screwed up, but give them time to fix the problems. They did say they would give everyone an extra month of service for free to make up for it.
Regarding the iPhone. It really is the next best thing to sliced bread. I have a V1 iPhone and it has replaced 30% of my internet use I used to do on the computer and as a phone it is great – it just works. My more expensive fancy Nokia N95 smartphone had all these features on paper and more but the implementation and UI just sucked. The iPhone just works. And now the new V2 firmware (you can update your original V1 iPhone with it or get an iPhone 3G with it) opens up a whole new ball game with the App Store.
Re: translucent colored pieces. Apple has not had that in their lineup since around 2002. The “lamp shade” iMac was announced in Jan 2002. They’ve been white plastic, titanium, and aluminum since.
Disclaimer: I have never worked for Apple, but have been an almost exclusive Mac user since 1989 with a small period of co-existence in the late 90s when some stuff I was doing professionally only worked on Windows for a while. I am a registered Apple Developer though my paid program recently expired and I have not yet re-upped.
Chad
Actually, that is what M$ does. Their ARs would be completely incompatible with anything including their own previous versions.
Macs are more compatible with the world than most any mainstream system including Windows. They are easier to network, and easier to integrate into a Windows network. They use industry standard protocols, unlike M$ which mostly uses their own protocols and when they do use an industry standard one, they try and enhance it to make it incompatible with the rest of the world.
Just for the record, Windows is no less proprietary than Mac OS. M$ tightly controls the source code and everything about Windows.
I assume “Mobile Me” allows IMAP access? You can probably use Googles mail services to access your Mobile Me account.
Or why don’t use just use a real mail client like Outlook Express/Outlook or Thunderbird or whatever on Windows or Mail.app or Thunderbird or Entourage on a Mac?
Chad
Well it finally happend. I came out of the secret Mac admirer closet two weeks ago and bought a MacBookPro 15" laptop. Even though I feel dirty its the best computer that I have ever owned. I was considering the MobileMe service but now I guess not. Other than that - Buy a mac!
I’d be interested in knowing what is wrong with your iPhone?
My iPhone, which I got in Dec, started messing up once in a while. It messed up for good one day so I got online, made an appointment at the Apple Store for that night. I brought it in and told the guy it was messing up. He looked at it, tried a few things, and said, “yep, its messing up.” He types a few things on his computer, got me a new phone, activated it, and within 10 minutes I was walking out the door with a new iPhone. No Charge. No Hassle. Try that with any other cell phone.
That was about 6-7 weeks ago.
I wish I could tell you about a great service call with my Macs, but they have just run forever. Have never needed service. The iBook (Oct 2001), the iMac (Aug 1997), the G5 Tower and G4 Laptop (2004), the mini (2006), and now the Mac Pro and Macbook Pro (2007 Dec) just run and run (yes I still have the 1997 iMac but it gets used rarely now – runs 10.3). I did have some disk issues on the G4 Laptop but that was a SW issue and once I was able to run some utilities the Apple Guy told me to run, while I was on the phone, and the problems went away (that was right before the 3 year extended warranty ran out and I was making sure everything ran fine).
You can probably wait a few months for them to sort out issues and it will probably get better. I have never been an iTools/.Mac/Mobile Me user but it looks like they are finally going to take their services offerings seriously, now that they have the iPhone integration and it is more important to them.
Chad
Wow…that’s a lot of volume, but it boils down to expense. For the premium I pay for Apple, I expect it to work. If you haven’t figured out how to make your product work…don’t release it yet. Have they learned nothing from Vista? or any number of glitch-prone MS?
I also think you forgot a couple of things.
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I’ve been a fan of Apple for a long time, and if this was the first thing they boned, I wouldn’t have been that upset if they were legitimately trying to fix the problem. It’s been a recurring trend with them.
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I was told, that they weren’t going to fix it as they didn’t view it as a problem…to cutoff the entire corporate world from something that worked…to something that didn’t. Apple said that IE 6.0 is entirely incompatible with their new service. Unfortunately that’s about half the corporate world. Honestly that’s retarded.
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It’s a basic thing to provide simple webmail for $100 a year. If I have to configure a setup on Google mail I might as well just use gmail for free.
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Clearly they are more interested in the Iphone as their bread and butter, and they figure they can forget about loyal customers who’ve stuck by them through a lot. If they’re going to offer service similar to MS, I can get it for a lot cheaper.
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I’ve given them plenty of time, this has been going on for over a week. The decision to wholly outsource mm tech support has been abysmal.
I don’t disagree. I am not making excuses about it not working. I expect some folks may be out of a job after this whole thing is over…
However, there is a problem and so the best thing to do is to figure out a way to ameliorate the effects.
I also think you forgot a couple of things.
- I’ve been a fan of Apple for a long time, and if this was the first thing they boned, I wouldn’t have been that upset if they were legitimately trying to fix the problem. It’s been a recurring trend with them.
details please. I have more Macs than most and use (and host – I host WebObjects applications for others) Apple technology all over and am not familiar with other large scale failures. .Mac had periodic short term outages, which it should not have had, but show me a large email provider that has not had problems occasionally.
- I was told, that they weren’t going to fix it as they didn’t view it as a problem…to cutoff the entire corporate world from something that worked…to something that didn’t. Apple said that IE 6.0 is entirely incompatible with their new service. Unfortunately that’s about half the corporate world. Honestly that’s retarded.
I have no clue on this as I am not a Mobile Me or .mac subscriber. However, Mobile Me is a not a corporate email service and is not aimed at the corporate world. Corporate compatibility was probably not high on their list. If enough people complain and make a big deal about it, you will probably see some changes. They have enough problems now with the lame roll out of Mobile Me that they probably are not worried about that now.
- It’s a basic thing to provide simple webmail for $100 a year. If I have to configure a setup on Google mail I might as well just use gmail for free.
Mobile Me and .mac before it were a lot more than simple webmail. If that is all you were using it for, maybe it is best you find a different service that is free or low cost. The suggestion to set up Google mail to access your Mobile Me stuff was meant as a work around until Apple fixes the current problems. Unlike liberals, who live in a fantasy land and repeat their mantras so often they believe them (“the war is lost”, “we cannot drill our way out of this”, etc), I work to provide solutions to problems as they exist in reality. Accessing your Mobile Me/.mac mail through an alternative is a short term solution while they try and fix things. Their problems exist and bitching about it won’t change that, so why not try and find a work around until they get fixed?
- Clearly they are more interested in the Iphone as their bread and butter, and they figure they can forget about loyal customers who’ve stuck by them through a lot. If they’re going to offer service similar to MS, I can get it for a lot cheaper.
Ah, no. The iPhone is not their bread and butter. It is a component of a multi pronged strategy. OS X and the Mac computer line is their bread and butter and will be the main component of their focus for years to come. Remember the iPhone runs a specialized version of OS X.
They screwed up Mobile Me. Let them fix it. That does not mean the whole Apple experience is going down the drain. Like I mentioned above in another post. My v1 iPhone started acting up 6 or 7 weeks ago. Same day, I had an appointment at the Apple Store where the guy agreed with me and have me a new one. MS would not do that (if they built their own phone HW) and neither do any of the other phone companies or their carriers.
- I’ve given them plenty of time, this has been going on for over a week. The decision to wholly outsource mm tech support has been abysmal.
It’s outsourced? To where? The blame is on the engineering staff who released the buggy SW.
A week when you have major problems is not a lot of time. Believe me, I am a SW engineer person. Someone screwed up and that is not good. But that is reality so we need to work around the problems until they get fixed. If everything Apple did was like the Mobile Me experience, I would agree with you. However, it is not. By and large, their SW updates work, their OS works, and their SW works. I run my business 100% on OS X – Macs and iPhone (except for Windows in a VMWare window to run the corporate Turbo Tax – personal Turbo Tax runs fine on the Mac). I have not had any significant problems or issues at all in years.
Mobile Me problems suck. I agree. But extrapolating that to the entire Apple product line and experience is wrong.
It is like saying someone with a Colt who has had issues would be wrong to say that all Colts suck.
I personally know of 2 CTR stocks that no longer lock tight in the friction lock – one was out of the box and even after sending it back in to Magpul and getting it back it still had the issue the guy said so I took it back. The other was after about 5 times extending the stock and locking it. It stopped locking tight (this is on one of my demo builds). Do I go around saying Magpul sucks? No. I go around saying Magpul is one of the most awesome freaking companies there is. They truly are. Awesome products and awesome people and they treat me, as a dealer, right. But we all know they have a hard time shipping “on time” (I have yet to get any UBR and CTR have been on back order for a few months). But they are a freaking awesome company.
As far as computers go (and that is my field), Apple is one of the most awesome freaking companies there is. They occasionally have hiccups and there are things I would do better. Apple can fail. But they are still at the top in terms of software, UI, design, etc. They are not perfect (I am not a fanboy in the typical sense). But they believe in what they do and work to make things the best they can be instead of being run by bean counters who don’t care what you do as long as people buy it, which is how the typical PC company works including MS.
There. That is my rant for the day.
Chad
The difference between M$ and the Apple OS is that there is code in the OS to recognize if the CPU in your box is apple approved.
There are hacks available to run Mac OS on a normal home built computer system, but I do not trust the people who write hacks.
That is because Apple sells the Mac OS X for Macs. A PC is not a Mac. It is not a PC operating system. Apple is a systems company. M$ sells an OS for generic PCs and is a software company.
Well I’m glad you’re happy with Apple, but you’re not going to convince me that this is my fault, moreover there are MILLIONS of people like me.
I used to be happy with Apple, paying twice as much seemed like a bargain for something that worked as well as it did, without having the blue screen of death, but other things have cut into that value. You may have used Apple more than me, but I think if you read my posts you’ll see what I’ve demonstrated more than enough customer loyalty to be qualified to critique this release over a period of time to notice a significant decline in quality. I don’t blame engineering, I blame the suits.
I never extrapolated to the whole product line, but their decisions lately have been curious, or did you think the release of the 1st gen Iphone went well? How about screwing all those people that paid a premium to be the first, only to have Apple drop the price of the phone almost immediately? Likewise outsourcing their manufacturing to China and adopting Pentium was of dubious value. I understand that these were “business” decisions, but they’re not what they used to be.
As for support being outsourced, the engineering was bad (I could have lived with that) but the customer support was abysmal. I spent several hours on the phone and several more in chat support (mostly waiting), which easiliy represents an opportunity cost equal to $100. It wasn’t based in America all to learn that there was ZERO intention to have a simple, backup so that if nothing else, no matter where you were, no matter what equipment you had, you could still get access to your email. The flash and capabilities of the full mobileme, .mac is great, but they still have to provide the basic, fundamental functions. Then to offer a “free month” is an insult.
Again, if I pay a premium for a Colt, I want it to work better than an RRA and if there is a problem, for them to keep their customers in mind before making idiotic decisions. If it was just ONE Colt, I have no doubt Colt would fix the problem. If they introduced a new product line that didn’t work and trashed an old product that did, what would you think? I doubt you’d buy the new model. Remember New Coke v. Old Coke? Decades of solid performance have instilled significant customer loyalty, which they’ve blown in recent years. It would have been cheaper to keep them then try and win them back.
I used it as a backup for my itunes/pics and a myriad of other things, I wasn’t an “intense” .mac user, but I’m sure I represent the vast majority of users. If you don’t believe me, go check the apple.com forums to see how PISSED people are.
You’re obviously an intense Mac user, very versed in their work arounds, I’m probably higher than average, but the problem is you’re not the average mac user. Many if not most of them select apple for its ease of use/adaptability. If the average .mac user has to have your patience, experience, education and determination to make it work…than they’re deviating from their original business model, and the appeal they had for most of their users.
This has been the trend for the last few years and the abortive release of mobileme demonstrates that the problem is getting worse, not better.
I was considering getting one today…
What has been posted here today seems to be a pretty relevant theme across the major reviews…
Im due for a new phone…but I’ll wait
The Iphone/Ipod are their fastest growing product lines and have brought legions of new users to OS and Macintosh. Mac remains the bulk of their revenue, for now, but that is not where their marketing/business focus is.
Clearly they made a decision to focus here, to try and develop more Mac customers, than on retaining the loyalty they had already developed/market share previously. In short, they’re taking existing Mac customers for granted.
Which is as expected, this has been corporate policy for the majority of cell phone makers and service providers since the beginning…
But its working, my wife who is up for a new laptop (her dell is 8 years old), played with an I-Phone for awhile, now she wants a MAC Laptop out of the blue.
Very slick marketing on their part.
iTunes is the largest retailer of music in the U.S. The iPod is by far the most popular portable music player in the country. The iPhone 3G sold over a million units in the first weekend. The company even took the word “Computer” out of their name. As GSJ says, the computers/OS is not their only (or perhaps even main) focus.
I’ve been a Mac user for about two years now, and can’t ever see going back. Being at an Apple Store gives me the same contact high that I get at a well stocked gun shop.
There are certainly things about Apple which are imperfect. Some of them have practical reasons. For example, the limited/controlled hardware options in turn means far, far fewer compatibility issues. Remember, that’s Apple’s trademark … “it just works.”
Other issues are certainly profit-driven. Apple is a publicly owned for-profit corporation.
Compared to MS, Apple is St. Michael.
I’ve never used .mac so the MobileMe thing isn’t affecting me in any way. I’d like to see some documentation for the OP’s claim that “millions” of .mac users are unsubscribing, but I’m sure it’s a major flub on Apple’s part.
And fwiw, I’ve found OS X 10.5 to be perfectly stable. I upgraded from 10.4 at Christmas, so the first update was already released by then. Reportedly, 10.6 will have far fewer “sexy” improvements and a lot more nuts 'n bolts reliability & robustness improvements.
That’s what the word in the Apple forums has been, in fact so many had unscubscribed that Apple belatedly offered a “free” month. There are also articles on CNET/ZDNet to this effect. Do I have official stats that says it’s “millions” no, but many, many longtime subscribers are leaving and there is ample anecdotal evidence for that online.
That being said, the corporate world overwhelmingly uses IE 6.0, and so even if Apple doesn’t LOSE millions of customers, they made a decision to DELIBERATELY cut off access to millions of their corporate users.
Moreover when you go to the login screen there is a prominently displayed “reactivate your account” option where there didn’t use to be. Why would that be if it wasn’t a problem?
Will I ditch my MacBook/Ipod/Itunes because of mobileme? No, but I cancelled my mac subscription and instead of buying the new Iphone when my current cell contract expires next month (which I was going to do), I’ll get something else.
I’m apparently no longer their target market.
Here are some articles. Notice the tag is “mobileme” not “problems with mobileme” and yet every article regards the huge problems they are having and the poor customer support angering many customers.
http://www.macnn.com/tag/MobileMe
More fun on the apple forums.