Apple is Steve Jobs, or rather, Steve Jobs is Apple. Many people like to point out that Apple employs a plethora of people who are all involved in the creation of Apple's form over function devices. But, let's be honest. History has shown that, without Steve, the company is nothing more than dead weight. Steve is the brains. Microsoft will continue to be successful when Bill Gates leaves for good. I have serious doubts that Apple will stay viable as Steve's health, unfortunately, continues to deteriorate.
As a result, most of my opinions of Apple are actually opinions of Mr. Jobs himself. Steve is a brilliant man. He understood that the digital music player would never work without PC software to accompany it. He recognized that iPod would never succeed without offering the device and software on his biggest competitor's operating system, Windows. And, most importantly, he knows how to market.
That brings me to why I love to hate Apple so much. Look up any of his presentations of the last decade and compare what he claims his products do with what his products actually do. He doesn't outright lie about his products, at least not often, but he does embellish the truth.
Let's use his latest unveiling as an example. This past Wednesday, Steve Jobs officially announced the iPad 2. He claims it's a complete redesign of the original iPad. The differences in the Nintendo DS and the DSi are bigger than the difference in the iPad and the iPad 2, both in software and hardware.
Aside from the fact that the iPad 2 doesn't have a reflection or cast a shadow,
I'm pretty sure this redesign isn't a redesign at all.
Steve commonly refers to his products as magical. The iPad 2 is no exception. If you're going to be honest, the iPad is a giant iPod Touch. It's even running the same operating system. What's hilarious about this is that Apple and their followers were very quick to point out that the Samsung Galaxy Tab was (and still is) running a non-tablet specific version of Android. This is something that Google has addressed with Android Honeycomb, the only tablet specific operating system currently on the market.
This brings me to my next point of complaint: Apple followers. Steve's drones repeat his message without fail, almost like those Jehovah's witnesses that just won't leave you alone, even though you point out, using their own literature, that they're wrong. A quick visit to Gizomodo's coverage of the iPad 2 event will show you that most Apple fans can't see what's sitting right in front of them. IGN, a publication I read often and respect, repeated Steve's words as gospel. Even my good friend, Paul Skidmore, plans on selling his old snake oil and purchasing the "completely redesigned" snake oil.
Consumer Reports had this to say about the iPhone 4, TWICE!
The Verizon iPhone 4 closely resembles the original AT&T iPhone 4 in many positive respects, including offering great multimedia functionality, a sharp screen, and the best MP3 player we've seen on a phone. Unfortunately, it also shares with its sibling the possibility of compromised performance in low-signal conditions when used without a bumper or case.
As noted earlier, there have not been widespread reports of reception difficulties with the Verizon iPhone 4, and Verizon's network, unlike AT&T's, has received above-average scores from our readers for the reliability of its voice service in the past. (Those scores reflect data gathered before the launch of the Verizon iPhone 4.) But given our findings, we believe the possibility exists for individual users to experience the problem since low signal conditions are unavoidable when using any cell-phone network.
For that reason, we are not including the Verizon iPhone 4 in our list of recommended smart phones, despite its high ranking in our Ratings. Although Apple no longer offers a free case to buyers of the iPhone 4, as it did for a time after the problem was first discovered on the AT&T version, the company has said in the past that it will consider requests for a free case from customers who buy the phone and subsequently experience reception problems.
Ask an Apple fan what he thinks of the iPhone 4's performance. They'll swear on their mother's grave that the iPhone 4 suffers from no such problem and blame the carrier, despite the overwhelming evidence that says that the problem is Apple's shotty antennae design.
Apple also claims to be an innovator. In the early days, Apple borrowed (stole) the mouse and graphical user interface from Xerox. Apple improved on the portable music player, created in the 1950's. You can argue that those weren't digital, but it's still the same idea. Even if you just look at digital audio players, the iPod was far from the first. The Dock in Mac OSX is simply Microsoft's Windows Quick Launch Bar which was first introduced in Windows '98. Tablet PC's have been around for over a decade; modern day smart phones that Apple modeled the iPhone after almost as long. What Apple does is market these products well and makes them popular.
Before the iPod, very few people used portable music players. Before the Dock, no one used the Windows Quick Launch Bar (except me and the other few nerds who knew of its existence). Before the iPhone, smart phones were for enterprises using Windows Mobile, Blackberry, or Symbian. Before iPad, no one cared that there was a tablet market. They didn't create any of these things. They merely improved on a template that someone else already had laid out.
I hate Apple's operating systems. Apple builds operating systems for idiots. Ask any level headed Mac user and they'll tell you just that. Macs are idiot proof. As a consequence, you give up a significant amount of freedom. The file structure in a Mac is a complete nightmare to work with. But it can be, because you aren't supposed to use finder to locate your media; you're supposed to use iTunes. You aren't supposed to use finder to locate your documents; you're supposed to use the documents tab. It doesn't matter if your Kanye West albums are in a folder labeled "Doofenshmirtz Evil Incorporated" because you're supposed to use iTunes and an iOS device to find and listen to your music. Windows' file structure is easy to navigate. So when iTunes or Zune Player dumps Skillet's Awake album into a folder labeled "Compilations" I can easily locate it and move it. I don't have to. Zune and iTunes know where the album is and have labeled it appropriately within their respective UIs, but it's nice to know that I can easily fix this nuisance. Yes, messing with the file structure can create big problems if you don't know what you're doing. Likewise, messing with the file structure is why I can fix my PC with little or no professional help and you have to take your Mac to an Apple Store.
What Apple does right is hardware. The MacBook Air, though a completely useless piece of over priced junk (hold up, Mac heads, I say this about all PC's that lack a proper optical drive, that includes Windows powered netbooks), is sexy hardware. MacBook Pros are solid beasts. And MacPro towers make we wish I could make love to a machine. The sooner you get Mac OSX off of it and put Windows 7 on it, the sooner you get to actually tapping the full potential of that hardware. If I could run Android on an iPhone 4, I'd tell Motorola where they could stick it. Apple's hardware is king. It's solid. It's beautiful. It's what the PC world hasn't figured out.
Many people will point out that Apple has apps and apps are what matter. I'd be a fool to argue with them, though I don't agree entirely. Windows doesn't rule the PC market because Windows is awesome.Windows rules because you do can anything and everything on it. By the way, Windows is awesome, that's just not the reason that it's king. Wii isn't king because the Wii remote and channels menu are awesome. The Wii remote is awesome and the channels menu needs some huge tweeking. Also, out of the big three, Nintendo's online strategy is the worst. The Wii is king because it has appealing software. iOS isn't king because iOS is awesome, because iOS sucks. iOS is king because there's literally an app for that. An app for what, you ask? Exactly. There's an app for whatever you define "what" as. As an OS, iOS is to Android what the N64 memory card file management system is to full blown Windows. But that doesn't matter, because iOS has apps.
I call 'em like I see 'em. Any level headed Mac user, all two of them, will agree because these things are simple truths. iTunes is a bloated nightmare that needs a desperate overhaul from the ground up. Stock Mac OSX isn't half the operating system Windows is. Stock iOS is barely an operating system, especially when compared to Blackberry, Palm, and Android. But none of that matters because Steve Jobs said it doesn't matter and you believe him. It also doesn't help that Google and Microsoft have failed to create the type of ecosystem that Apple has created, though Google is well on their way. Android devices already far outnumber iOS devices both here in the US and worldwide. It's only a matter of time before this app gap is closed.
So, I don't hate Apple. I don't even hate Steve Jobs. I wish him and his company well and I hate that Steve is sick. Apple and Jobs make companies that I favor work harder. Windows wouldn't be where it is today without Apple. Android might not even exist if not for iOS. Apple is doing many things right. But I'd be lying if I didn't say that what they're doing most right is pulling the sheep skin over your eyes.
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