When did Apple Become Uncool?

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The author of this editorial wants to know when Apple became so “uncool?” Hmmm, where should I start?

Was it when the company brought the hammer down on iPhone tinkerers, "bricking" jailbroken iPhones? Was it when the company began threatening to delete applications from the app store because it didn't like how they were developed? Or when it asked the cops to raid the house of a blogger who wrote about an unreleased product? Or when a Pulitzer Prize winner's cartoon was banned from the app store? Or when Apple's "no nipples on your iPhone" policy led an edgy fashion magazine to dub its censored iPad version the "Iran Edition?"
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I dont ever remember them being cool. Now its a fad thing to get an i-Whatever
 
Better question: Why do people still defend Apple? To be different? Because they have too much money? Because they like closed platforms? They don't like to think for themselves and would rather have Jobs do it for them?
 
It lost its coolness for me when it popped up in every classroom. As much as I loved Oregon Trail I couldn't stand having to use macs.
 
Apple for me is something of a status symbol, their devices "look" cool but function a bit horrible.. crashes here and there and practically zero compatibility with 99% of the applications out.
 
Apple is not cool, imo, because of it's mindless fanbase that floods every forum, every blog, etc. with vicious lies about MS, and ad-homs MS every time they speak of them. "MS donates money to fund cancer cures" becomes "M$ bribes the poor dying people" etc..
 
Parmenides said:
exactly. About when high school computer labs and classes consisted of Macs. And we found out that the PC's could do so much more, like play Quake.
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yea i got memories of playing LAN games of quake2 in high school in the computer labs. great times:) hid the game in a common folder and just renamed 'quake2.exe' to 'paint.exe' and the idiots couldn't figure it out lol
 
Parmenides said:
exactly. About when high school computer labs and classes consisted of Macs. And we found out that the PC's could do so much more, like play Quake.
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At my highschool only a few teachers used Mac's. Students used IBM PS2 computers.
 
niconx said:
At my highschool only a few teachers used Mac's. Students used IBM PS2 computers.
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Same.

In middle school we used a Commodore 64. In high school we used IBM PS2 for Computer class and Macintosh for Computer Graphics class.

The school library had a few Amiga, Commodore 64 and Apple IIc and IIe.
 
Apple products aren't what has become uncool about the company. Its Jobs. His heavy handed, draconian and arbitrary rules hinder the abilities of his company's decent products because he has decided that he is more of a fashion guru than a guy that sells gadgets.

There is still a simple elegance to the products, but his policies have forced the company into a niche, which will only get tighter and smaller as competitors produce more products that are open and allow people to use them as they want to, not as Jobs wants them to.
 
Mephisto_kur said:
There is still a simple elegance to the products, but his policies have forced the company into a niche, which will only get tighter and smaller as competitors produce more products that are open and allow people to use them as they want to, not as Jobs wants them to.
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But, have you noticed....Jobs keeps finding new "niches". As long as he keeps doing that, he wins. I'm not sure what is after the iPad....but it will be interesting to see.
 
Depends on whether you think "Status Symbol" is cool or not.
 
Mephisto_kur said:
Apple products aren't what has become uncool about the company. Its Jobs.
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BINGO.

I was going to say it was the day when they hired him back.


Their products alone aren't as despised by me (I carry an iPhone- only because there's no decent Android devices on any networks here) as their company.
"Microsoft, start your photocopiers" banners hung at their events and stuff? It's just the smug attitude. Even after the smear campaign against Microsoft, Microsoft came back with Windows 7 and royally kicked Apple's ass (as evidenced by Apple's lack of interest in the Mac lineup nowadays). I think people are getting wise to their nonsense. I can be watching TV with your general public, and they're sick of the commercials, too.


The flip side of this, is yes: Jobs brought them the new iPod/iPad/iPhone lineup, which is obviously their biggest success. Could Apple have done it without Jobs? I'd probably say so, but nobody will really know.
 
Trepidati0n said:
But, have you noticed....Jobs keeps finding new "niches". As long as he keeps doing that, he wins. I'm not sure what is after the iPad....but it will be interesting to see.
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What niche does the iPad fill?
Seems like he's creating products for niches that don't exist.

I want a device in my pocket (a phone). If I'm going to throw a device in a bag, I want a fully featured laptop in there, not some touchsceen underpowered nonsense device without a keyboard.
 
apple is about as cool as a turtleneck sweater

are the tech retarded people starting to realize apple is shit?
 
TexUs said:
What niche does the iPad fill?
Seems like he's creating products for niches that don't exist.

I want a device in my pocket (a phone). If I'm going to throw a device in a bag, I want a fully featured laptop in there, not some touchsceen underpowered nonsense device without a keyboard.
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This is why jobs make more money in 7 minutes than you will your whole life. My sisters in-laws now have two ipads. They are in their 70's and so much wanted to be able to engage in the web and send emails but a computer (mac or PC) terrified them. About an hour playing with an iPad, they ordered two from the Apple store, both with 3G. The whole issue was solved instantly and simply.

1. Optimized machine for web/email...CHECK
2. Not having to worry about internet stuff like modems, routers, etc...CHECK

I think you need to understand the word NICHE before you post again. You are not the niche....people my sisters in-laws are. Why should they not be catered to as well...or are so important that the world should design around you?
 
TexUs said:
What niche does the iPad fill?
Seems like he's creating products for niches that don't exist.

I want a device in my pocket (a phone). If I'm going to throw a device in a bag, I want a fully featured laptop in there, not some touchsceen underpowered nonsense device without a keyboard.
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Tablet PC is a niche, but yeah, I'm not convinced it's been filled.
 
Jobs is a pretty good visionary and he has good taste when it comes to designs and ideas, but he can't do PR for shit and he tends to be quite the control freak.

Face it, if it wasn't for Apple, we'd still be using beige cases and tapping on Palm V.
 
Trepidati0n said:
This is why jobs make more money in 7 minutes than you will your whole life. My sisters in-laws now have two ipads. They are in their 70's and so much wanted to be able to engage in the web and send emails but a computer (mac or PC) terrified them. About an hour playing with an iPad, they ordered two from the Apple store, both with 3G. The whole issue was solved instantly and simply.

1. Optimized machine for web/email...CHECK
2. Not having to worry about internet stuff like modems, routers, etc...CHECK
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My iPhone does both of those. So again, there's no niche that it fills.
The iPad is simply nothing more (though it does run smoother than) an iPhone with a bigger screen.

srangara said:
Tablet PC is a niche, but yeah, I'm not convinced it's been filled.
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It's not a tablet PC device though. It can't come close to the functionality of a Windows 7 netbook.
 
TexUs said:
My iPhone does both of those. So again, there's no niche that it fills. The iPad is simply nothing more (though it does run smoother than) an iPhone with a bigger screen.
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You are so blatantly arrogant. A 70 year grandma and grandpa are supposed to look at an iphone? There is a niche....they are part of it. Stop thinking the world should revolve around you and your ideals.
 
Personally I'd rather have a netbook with 3g than an ipad. The ipad would be fun to play with for a week or two, but the netbook would actually be used and is much more practical. the iphone was a home run for apple. When it first came out it set the standard, but it's too restrictive and competitors came out with more open, better phones after a couple years. One thing I'll never understand is the ipod. About the only thing it had going for it was a slightly better interface and pretty plastic. There were many cheaper, better quality units out at the same time or before that weren't bricked once the battery died.

Anyway apple was never cool, in my eyes anyway. It's proprietary nature and being overpriced for what you get being the top two reasons why.
 
When did we start listening to anything that Yahoo Tech writers have to say?
 
Netrat33 said:
Because black cases weren't around before Apple? :confused:
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Oh you mean that one black case in the sea of beiges? I forgot about that one. :rolleyes:

I'm not talking about special order cases we tend to buy. I'm talking about computers people generally buy from mom and pop stores which were the places to go back then.
 
Apple became contemptible when they started making their products to be utterly disposable and to last 12 months before needing to be replaced.

I hate how unreliable the the iPod/iPhone is (I've yet to meet an iPod fan who hasn't gone through at least 3 in the last 5 years), how extremely limited Apple's warranties are (spontaneously-imploding screens counting as "external damage" not covered by warranty) and how the battery is not user-replaceable.
 
Trepidati0n said:
You are so blatantly arrogant. A 70 year grandma and grandpa are supposed to look at an iphone? There is a niche....they are part of it. Stop thinking the world should revolve around you and your ideals.
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Have you used both?
They work the exact same. Your argument is moot.
 
TexUs said:
Have you used both?
They work the exact same. Your argument is moot.
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I think he means a 70 year old grandmother generally have poor eye sights and needs a bigger screen to see her emails.
 
Being "terrified" of computers is not a valid argument to say that iPads are better for them. It just means that they gave one product a try without giving another a try. I know plenty of old folks that use Windows XP for the simple things without too much issue.
 
i think they are only not cool amongst people who have essentially mastered a level of computer/windows usage; understanding hardware power, understanding software tweaks, defragging, drivers, updates, firewalls, antivirus, files, filetypes, etc.

those people, us people, like the flexibility to do whatever the fuck we want with our purchased technology; to make decisions between running norton antivirus and getting an extra 20 frames per second in crysis, to cut an paste from one program to another, to modify and collect media files from whatever source we are intelligent enough to acquire them from. we hate losing those options, its how we use a computer.

but i believe closed systems have their value. they serve as a stable base for other things to be built upon. directx gave us high end games, adobe flash gave us "video game-like" interfaces on the web, apple's hardware-software combo, gave us a revolutionary phone interface.

and apple sells simple usablity at a premium, the same premiuim ludites will pay for norton, windows onecare, aol simplified internet, geek squad game install. these are ludites we all laugh at.

but some people just want to drive their car, not learn everything about them to build their own and then tweak their transmission to gain two miles per gallon.
apple is targeting the car driver market, not the car mechanic market. and there are more drivers than mechanics.

eventually these apple highly optimized design elements will leak over into a more open environment, kinda like the mouse. and i like technological and interface improvements where ever they come from.
 
Well, Jobs killed off the independent local Apple Dealers and service departments. He killed off NuKernal the same day it was supposed to be given to developers, and shoved his old NeXT OS into it's slot. Luckily that one turned out fairly decent.

And some of the BS I heard at corporate seminars at the local Apple Corporate Office I won't even bother to repeat.

So my Vote is Apple became un-cool when Jobs took back over in the 90's. He destroyed the decades-long sales and support structure in favor of big-box and "Apple" Stores.

And since when has MAP pricing EVER been cool...
 
Azhar said:
Oh you mean that one black case in the sea of beiges? I forgot about that one. :rolleyes:

I'm not talking about special order cases we tend to buy. I'm talking about computers people generally buy from mom and pop stores which were the places to go back then.
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*Snicker* You mean like how they carried those black and many unique cases? They just costed more.

...sort of like Apple.
 
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