Apple Charging $5 To Enter Stores

DC_DEEP

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Fuck Apple.
Even though it's not true, I wouldn't enter an Apple store even if they paid me five dollars.:rolleyes:

Yeah, it's only exceeded by the snobbery of Apple users.:rolleyes::biggrin:
Hmm. Really?

Oh, Chico8 let me count the ways...maybe it could do with the fact that whatever apple product you buy will be obsolete in 3 years. They pushed back the new OSX for that greed-inducing iPhone you froth over. And speaking of the iPhone the price to replace the battery is insane not to mention you need to send it to their plant and for all you illegal downloaders that may not be result in some legal problems down the line.
Interesting "facts." I got my first computer (Mac Plus) in 1987, and used it quite happily until I upgraded in 1994 (that's 7 years) to a PowerMacintosh 6100, which I used happily until I upgraded in 2000 (that's 6 years) to a Mac G4 Gigabit Ethernet, which I am still happily using. My partner has had to replace his PC 4 times since 2000; his brand-new HP had the C: drive die of hardware failure 1.5 months after he bought it, and my ancient Mac still run Photoshop more than twice as fast as his brand-new HP. He was making fun of my (smoothly-functioning) Mac even as he sat cursing his PC for "misbehaving."

I, and most Mac-users I know, don't really care what anyone else chooses to use. The most rabid foaming-at-the-mouth computer users I have known were PC loyalists harrassing Mac users.

I'm still undecided about the newer Intel-based Macs, and have seriously considered switching to PC when I replace my G4. I'm by no means a Luddite, but I really have no interest in iPod or especially not in iPhone. I want my phone to send and receive phone calls, period.

Oh, and I think this thread illustrates perfectly what I said above about the PC snobs v. Mac snobs...

As for the OP, I will not pay $5 to walk into any store.

Pecker, you were correct about it sounding like something from The Onion. It reminds me of one of their "headlines" about 4 years ago: "Microsoft Patents Ones and Zeros."
 

dong20

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Everyone here is talking specifics, with the millions of units out there that means nothing. Drives will fail, people will install conflicting software, behave stupidly etc.

I've used Macs and PCs over the 10-15 years they each have their strenghts and weaknesses, neither is better than the other and each platform has it's diehard supporters. Mac is perceived as expensive, in some regards rightly so, PC's are percieved as cheap and unreliable again there's justification in that. There is so much hype and embedded stereotyping on both sides it's almost impossible to have a half way sensible discussion.

I think Macs do look nicer but from a infrastructure/system management and supportablility perspective I simply find PC's better suited to the task most businesses do. From a usability angle, it's just a matter of getting used to a different mode of interaction.

I may buy one of the new Intel machines, that way I get the best and worst of both worlds.
 

DC_DEEP

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So true, dong20.

For quite a few years, I worked in a division of a tech company that performed outsourced data management (other companies would send us their data, and we processed it for them.) My particular division handled OCR operations. For image capture, we used a Kodak scanner connected to a SunSystems/Unix box. For image editing/pre-OCR, we used Macs. For OCR and conversion, we used PCs. From there, the data files went back to the Sun machine, then into storage. It was all handled on a Netframe network. I typically had to go back and forth between the SparcStation and a Mac, and I was responsible for scanning, work distribution on the server, and sending the finished product to our marketing division.
 

earllogjam

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There seems to be a convergence of Mac and PC these days because of their shared duo core processor. I run Windows on my Mac using Parallels Desktop and it is not an emulator program so my Windows software runs just as fast as on a PC. My Mac turns into a PC when I need it.

I am a born again Mac user with a 10 year hiatus. I needed a cheap desktop unit and the Mac Mini fit the bill perfectly and I got a free printer. Who says Macs are expensive? There really isn't much of a difference that I can tell so far.
 

DC_DEEP

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I am a born again Mac user with a 10 year hiatus. I needed a cheap desktop unit and the Mac Mini fit the bill perfectly and I got a free printer. Who says Macs are expensive? There really isn't much of a difference that I can tell so far.
That used to be the perception, but is becoming more and more true.

Way back when, if you bought a Mac and paid $2000, you got a machine that had sound and graphics and networking built in. A PC only cost $1000, but your sound card would only make one sound - the beep - and there was no graphics or networking. You had to find the right cards, figure out how to set the dip switches, install everything, find the correct drivers, install them, hope you did everything in the right order, re-write your configsys.com and your autoexec.bat files, cross your fingers and hope it worked... plus, you just spent another $800. So, back then, your off-the-shelf Mac had a slight performance and ease-of-use edge, and cost only very slightly more than the PC you had to soup up to have an equivalent model.

Now that the PCs have all the goodies factory installed, the price gap is MUCH more noticeable, since the $2000 Mac and the $800 PC are a lot more functionally comparable.
 

chico8

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You my friend are incorrect there are Viruses for Macs and their is even an a company that produces Anti-Virus software for Macs (Made by the same company as Macafee)

Everything has flaws, nothing is perfect.

In my 15 years of owning a Mac, I've never had a malware problem and I've never purchased anti virus software. There are proof of concept malwares but not a single one, and I repeat, not a one has proved to be viable in the real world.

I'm not saying that Macs will never have a problem but as of now, OSX is the safest OS out there.

When people say that Macs are more expensive, I quite rightly point out that I don't have to buy anti virus software. How much does that add to the true cost of ownership?
 

chico8

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Now that the PCs have all the goodies factory installed, the price gap is MUCH more noticeable, since the $2000 Mac and the $800 PC are a lot more functionally comparable.


If you compare comparable Macs against comparable Dells, there's little or no price difference. Apple does not sell low end computers and that's where the difference lies. Dell's market share and stock price continues to fall because they specialize in low end, low margin PCs. Apple's market capitalization has skyrocketed because they sell high end, high margin pcs.

I'd like to see an $800 dell that comes close to the functionality of a $2000 Apple.
 

Mr. Snakey

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Hmm. Really?

Interesting "facts." I got my first computer (Mac Plus) in 1987, and used it quite happily until I upgraded in 1994 (that's 7 years) to a PowerMacintosh 6100, which I used happily until I upgraded in 2000 (that's 6 years) to a Mac G4 Gigabit Ethernet, which I am still happily using. My partner has had to replace his PC 4 times since 2000; his brand-new HP had the C: drive die of hardware failure 1.5 months after he bought it, and my ancient Mac still run Photoshop more than twice as fast as his brand-new HP. He was making fun of my (smoothly-functioning) Mac even as he sat cursing his PC for "misbehaving."

I, and most Mac-users I know, don't really care what anyone else chooses to use. The most rabid foaming-at-the-mouth computer users I have known were PC loyalists harrassing Mac users.

I'm still undecided about the newer Intel-based Macs, and have seriously considered switching to PC when I replace my G4. I'm by no means a Luddite, but I really have no interest in iPod or especially not in iPhone. I want my phone to send and receive phone calls, period.

Oh, and I think this thread illustrates perfectly what I said above about the PC snobs v. Mac snobs...

As for the OP, I will not pay $5 to walk into any store.

Pecker, you were correct about it sounding like something from The Onion. It reminds me of one of their "headlines" about 4 years ago: "Microsoft Patents Ones and Zeros."
No my comment was more directed at the Apple company. A Mac is fine with me. I know people that have them and love them. I am one who thinks Bill Gates should be in jail. Dont even get me started about him.................:cool: :biggrin1:
 

Mr. Snakey

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Hmm. Really?

Interesting "facts." I got my first computer (Mac Plus) in 1987, and used it quite happily until I upgraded in 1994 (that's 7 years) to a PowerMacintosh 6100, which I used happily until I upgraded in 2000 (that's 6 years) to a Mac G4 Gigabit Ethernet, which I am still happily using. My partner has had to replace his PC 4 times since 2000; his brand-new HP had the C: drive die of hardware failure 1.5 months after he bought it, and my ancient Mac still run Photoshop more than twice as fast as his brand-new HP. He was making fun of my (smoothly-functioning) Mac even as he sat cursing his PC for "misbehaving."

I, and most Mac-users I know, don't really care what anyone else chooses to use. The most rabid foaming-at-the-mouth computer users I have known were PC loyalists harrassing Mac users.

I'm still undecided about the newer Intel-based Macs, and have seriously considered switching to PC when I replace my G4. I'm by no means a Luddite, but I really have no interest in iPod or especially not in iPhone. I want my phone to send and receive phone calls, period.

Oh, and I think this thread illustrates perfectly what I said above about the PC snobs v. Mac snobs...

As for the OP, I will not pay $5 to walk into any store.

Pecker, you were correct about it sounding like something from The Onion. It reminds me of one of their "headlines" about 4 years ago: "Microsoft Patents Ones and Zeros."
Macs are fine with me. My comment was directed at the company. I am one who thinks Bill Gates should be in jail. Dont even get me started.......................:smile: :biggrin1:
 

dong20

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Macs are fine with me. My comment was directed at the company. I am one who thinks Bill Gates should be in jail. Dont even get me started.......................:smile: :biggrin1:

Pray tell, on what grounds? Sharp practice, selling dodgy, goods making obscene amounts of money, poor taste in eyewear? Many of the world's businesses and businessmen would be locked up on those grounds. Come to think of it...
 

AlteredEgo

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This is ridiculous! I've been to Apple stores and never encountered the unruly hordes of people. Perhaps they should wait 2 months until the iPhone frenzy dies down a bit, to do something so divisive.

I was at the Apple store in South Jersey the day after the iPod Nano came out. It wasn't full of people. As a matter of fact, so many employees asked if they could help me I was more annoyed by them than other customers in the store.

The last sentence of the article kind of gives it away as a gag. But the 24 hour Apple store in Midtown Manhattan is even crowded at 3AM on a weekend night. I've been. The first time was when my cat chewed through the power cord for my laptop and I desperately needed it. If you want to see a line down the street to get into an Apple store, just hit up the one next to FAO Schwartz in the middle of the day during the week. unbelievable.
 

technopeasant

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I wouldn't buy a Mac if they paid me.

It's funny now that they really use the same hard drives, DVD drives and small parts on the board as PC's except for that one little hardware ASIC that lets you run Apple software. Apple is nothing but another PC with a pretty little apple on it now that it was inevitable that they change to Intel processors. They need windows to be compatable with other PC's and I just read last month that Apple had just released a a large fix for security flaws in Osx. Sounds like another software company right now scrambling to fix flaws in it's operating system.

It's overrated. overpriced, to arragont and to much alike a PC to bother with the difference. If it weren't for OSx there would be no apparent difference.
 

CPearl

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The last sentence of the article kind of gives it away as a gag. But the 24 hour Apple store in Midtown Manhattan is even crowded at 3AM on a weekend night. I've been. The first time was when my cat chewed through the power cord for my laptop and I desperately needed it. If you want to see a line down the street to get into an Apple store, just hit up the one next to FAO Schwartz in the middle of the day during the week. unbelievable.

Exactly - I went to the Apple Store in Soho, as I was interested in purchasing an iMac, but I couldn't get close to a single computer, as they were all being used by people checking their e-mails, etc.