iPhone: Is it worth it?

[txa1265]

So basically what you are saying is it is very subjective but you agree?

I was saying that 'better' between iOS and Android was subjective, and that 'cheaper' is only for the low-end Android phones or crappy carriers and therefore not really applicable...

... and also that you have demonstrated a monolithically anti-Apple stance to the point of having called anyone who buys Apple products stupid ... so obviously your blind bias makes any comparison you make regarding anything compared to Apple fall somewhere between suspect and useless.

 

[Korplem]

I have an iPhone 4 and love it. I can wholeheartedly recommend it.

I might caution you against a jailbroken iphone though. I THINK it will be unable to access the app store but on the flip side you can download apps from elsewhere on the interwebs. And, if you're just a regular user, you do want the app store.

 

[GothicGothicness]

… and also that you have demonstrated a monolithically anti-Apple stance to the point of having called anyone who buys Apple products stupid … so obviously your blind bias makes any comparison you make regarding anything compared to Apple fall somewhere between suspect and useless.

I guess you are trying to prove another of my points… since you obviously can't read or perhaps you need to read something several times before understanding it? Anyway if you go back and read it again, perhaps you'll see that I have not called everyone using apple products stupid.

I however think they make overpriced products which are severely limited and locked to the apple store / iturns and so on.

As a side note I use an apple product myself... which is a ipod shuffle I got for free... the first thing I had to do with it was hack it so it could play mp3's..... I found that quite funny.

 

[txa1265]

I guess you are trying to prove another of my points… since you obviously can't read or perhaps you need to read something several times before understanding it? Anyway if you go back and read it again, perhaps you'll see that I have not called everyone using apple products stupid.

Hmmm ... let's see, why could I possibly have come up with this reading disability?

This still doesn't explain why someone would get an IPAD instead of a netbook?

just confirms how stupid people are.

Oh yeah - because you actually DID say that! If you would like to now say that is not what you were intending or apologize for misinterpretation, that is fine and I certainly understand that - we all say things that are too easily taken out of context.

I however think they make overpriced products which are severely limited and locked to the apple store / iturns and so on..

I understand that is your opinion. And I can understand why p[eople - especially those who don't like/trust Mac to begin with - would feel it is a major issue.

Honestly, the so-called open vs. closed thing with Android and iOS is blown out of proportion as I have never had an issue with apps on my Apple stuff.

But technology is subjective stuff - the Zune HD, for example, is *sweet*, but I was so tied into iTunes apps and stuff that I couldn't make it worth the price. Palm Pre Plus is sweet phone, but the crappy OS penetration means not havign required apps. And so on.

As a side note I use an apple product myself… which is a ipod shuffle I got for free… the first thing I had to do with it was hack it so it could play mp3's….. I found that quite funny.

If you had to 'hack' any iPod to play MP3's ... well, I have no idea what to say other than it makes absolutely no sense. I have been playing MP3's on iPods since 2001 ... I had one of the first Mac-only iPods, and many others since, and can play MP3, MP4, AAC, WAV, FLAC, and so on.

 

[GothicGothicness]

Originally Posted by GothicGothicness View Post
This still doesn't explain why someone would get an IPAD instead of a netbook?

just confirms how stupid people are.

Oh yeah - because you actually DID say that! If you would like to now say that is not what you were intending or apologize for misinterpretation, that is fine and I certainly understand that - we all say things that are too easily taken out of context.

How exactly is saying getting an ipad INSTEAD of a netbook is stupid, saying that EVERYONE using apple products are stupid? First of all there are other apple products than the IPAD, second of all several people such as you are using IPAD as a luxury on top of the netbook. Third I had already appologized for using this kind of wording.

If you had to 'hack' any iPod to play MP3's … well, I have no idea what to say other than it makes absolutely no sense. I have been playing MP3's on iPods since 2001 … I had one of the first Mac-only iPods, and many others since, and can play MP3, MP4, AAC, WAV, FLAC, and so on.

I have a third generation shuffle, if you copy your mp3's to the device it won't play them. However fortunatly someone made a little .exe file you can run which rebuilds the database and after that I can play my mp3's. Perhaps there is an apple way to do this also, I do not know. Anyway the way I see it… for an mp3 player you should just need to move your music to the device and it should play it…..

 

[zzajin]

several people such as you are using IPAD as a luxury on top of the netbook.

Several?

I think txa1265 is the only person to mention they have an iPad and netbook.

I don't believe txa1265 has classified it as a luxury item either.

 

[Lucky Day]

I bought my first cell phone last year, a blackberry, and watching what these kids do with the iPhone I've regretted it.

The GPS (instead of WiFi) on it I discovered is mostly a dud because I have no interest in paying $30 a month for a data plan.

But recently I've discovered the difficulty to install anything, even free apps, without one (I've since figured out how). The kids informed me that RIM is taking a page out of the heavy handedness of Apple in trying to force a data plan.

I've also discovered the real advantage of the BB is the security that no other company has and this is why they are facing the wrath of many countries while other providers are not.

 

[txa1265]

I don't believe txa1265 has classified it as a luxury item either.

Actually I am pretty sure that I consider BOTH a netbook and an iPad as luxury items. iPad because it *cannot* be a standalone computer ... and netbook because it is a lousy value compared to more powerful but cheaper alternatives.

 

[Raggie]

You might want to consider an iPod Touch as an alternative, if you don't need the phone capabilities on the same gadget. An iPod Touch is almost the same product as iPhone, but cheaper and no phone companies in between. I keep a cheap Nokia for phone/texting and an iPod Touch, and I'm really loving it. It's so responsive and easy to use that I've used it much more than I thought I would. It's really fast just to quickly check my mail or the weather report. The web browsing is surprisingly good. There are so many apps that go for 78 cents in the store and there's plenty of free software as well. Everything just works so well.

About the mp3's, I'm not sure what's the point of jailbreraking and iPod to move music on it manually, when iTunes works just fine IMO. I have more than 1000 mp3's and I can't imagine trying to hadle it without iTunes. I love playlists. The iTunes/iPod combo works very well for audiobooks, and it's really handy how iTunes downloads the latest episodes automatically for every podcast you've subscribed to.

 

[txa1265]

I have a third generation shuffle, if you copy your mp3's to the device it won't play them. However fortunatly someone made a little .exe file you can run which rebuilds the database and after that I can play my mp3's. Perhaps there is an apple way to do this also, I do not know. Anyway the way I see it… for an mp3 player you should just need to move your music to the device and it should play it…..

You mean you failed 'RTFM 101'? iPod = iTunes. Period. Please don't blame apple for your own desire for technology to work the way YOU want rather than the way it does. It has been nearly a decade since the first iPod, there are hundreds of millions of them out there, and they all behave the same ...

 

[GothicGothicness]

I acctually tried installing iTunes, big mistake. not only did it slow down my PC, take up all of my PC's memory, have a sucky interface it also messed up my browser with crapware which took me 1 hour to get rid of…. I am never installing that virus again.

Edit: It might have been fixed up, I tried it 3 years ago.....

Please don't blame apple for your own desire for technology to work the way YOU want rather than the way it does.

Every other mp3 I know allows me to just put the music on the device and it will play, so I am blaiming apple for making things not work as expected. Besides sometimes you can't even install itunes, for example with a linux computer… so you acctually have to install windows or have a mac to use it pure and utter stupidity. Yeah it is possible to run itunes under wine and such a things but that's a lot of work too. It acctually plays the music quite well after I managed to hack it though…. not as good as my other mp3's but still.

 

[txa1265]

But recently I've discovered the difficulty to install anything, even free apps, without one (I've since figured out how). The kids informed me that RIM is taking a page out of the heavy handedness of Apple in trying to force a data plan.

In the US with most carriers you don't even get a choice … smartphone = data plan. You have to activate the phone, and when you do if it is classified as a smartphone BAM! $30 or $45 a month extra.

I've also discovered the real advantage of the BB is the security that no other company has and this is why they are facing the wrath of many countries while other providers are not.

That is also IMO the only reason RIM has survived … they are our 'corporate standard' because of the security and encryption and so on …

 

[txa1265]

I could talk about specifics, but it really doesn't matter. Many people don't like iTunes, and I know personally it works better on Mac than on PC, but that is all besides the point.

Bottom line is that we have to start by saying that before iTunes, there was essentially no digital music available to buy (and by 'none' I mean very little, scattered, and expensive). Record companies were pulling into their shells and piracy was rampant.

iTunes saved the music industry (we can debate whether much of it was worth saving another time). But as always, the greedy record companies demanded concessions - to allow for $0.99 songs, they demanded DRM and a music player system that was protected and encrypted.

When record companies saw how powerful Apple was becoming - in other words, they saw that they couldn't raise prices - they started offering DRM-free deals to others like Amazon ... and leveraged that to force Apple to let them raise prices, which has led to widespread price increases. The industry said that only new releases would be higher priced, older stuff would drop to $0.69 and the mean price would remain at $1 a song ... but *everything* my kids buy is $1.29 and even 'What a wonderful world', a 43-year old Satchmo song was raised to $1.29!

And THAT is how we ended up moving from open hard-drive systems (heck, I had one of the first hard drive systems from Archos and it was like navigating a PC to play music and everything was manual load!) to encrypted systems. No one else has even close to the market share of Apple in both music and hardware, and therefore they are both a leader and a target.

As for iTunes, I very much agree that they should have a fully optioned out install, allowing someone who just wants to sync music to have a iTunes-lite, then add Quicktime, the store, App support, Bonjour (which Adobe force-installs as well ... and I have to constantly remove from my work PC!), and so on as needed.

 

[Raggie]

Gothic, I've used iTunes on both PC and Mac for much longer that 3 years, and I've never had any of the problems you listed. Really, iTunes is one reason why I have an iPod. Once I got comfy using it, there's no going back. I'm a heavy music/podcast/audiobook listener partly because iTunes/iPod makes it so easy for me. It's not perfect, but what music software is?

 

[txa1265]

but what music software is?

Isn't it obvious? Anything but Apple!



Actually, there was a good article (I think it was Matt Miller at PC World) about using a Zip utility to manually extract the installers from the big iTunes installer and install just what you need. Since we use iTunes on our Macs and PCs at home for a variety of iPods, watch movies, use apps and the store, stream audio and video all over the place ... we actually need everything included.

 

[Korplem]

Every other mp3 I know allows me to just put the music on the device and it will play,

Actually, I think Zune also requires you to go through the Zune software (rather than drag and drop onto it like a drive). I actually like the Zune software better than iTunes but they never released a Mac version...

 

[GothicGothicness]

Actually, I think Zune also requires you to go through the Zune software (rather than drag and drop onto it like a drive). I actually like the Zune software better than iTunes but they never released a Mac version…

That makes two in that case, and of course I am even more critical towards microsoft in that case since they neither have a mac or linux version. I never used zune so I wouldn't know.

It's not perfect, but what music software is?

Try spotify, IMHO it is vastly superior to anything else for music, at least anything I tried. Don't know about podcasts and such a things though…. might be big advantage of itunes.. but I never listen to those.

Gothic, I've used iTunes on both PC and Mac for much longer that 3 years, and I've never had any of the problems you listed.

Perhasp they were system specific in that case…. didn't your files begin to play in quicktime and pictures in your browser open in quicktime and such a things after you installed it, and didn't you keep getting bothered by update popups? didn't it take much resources and memory while running and a long time to start up? if it didn't 3 years ago….. like I said must have been system specific… I would think I got a virus version or something if it didn't do any of those things… but I downloaded it from the official site…..

 

[txa1265]

Try spotify, IMHO it is vastly superior to anything else for music, at least anything I tried. Don't know about podcasts and such a things though…. might be big advantage of itunes.. but I never listen to those.

But Spotify is a non-owning music source, right? That is completely different. It also does about 25% of what iTunes does.

Oh, and is available to about 1% as many people as iTunes.

Perhasp they were system specific in that case…. didn't your files begin to play in quicktime and pictures in your browser open in quicktime and such a things after you installed it, and didn't you keep getting bothered by update popups? didn't it take much resources and memory while running and a long time to start up? if it didn't 3 years ago….. like I said must have been system specific… I would think I got a virus version or something if it didn't do any of those things… but I downloaded it from the official site…..

Must be your PC ... I have been using iTunes for 9 years and have installed it on literally more than two dozen computers running Mac and Windows, from OS 9 to the latest OS X, Windows 2000 through Windows 7, laptops and desktops from Apple, Dell, Toshiba, IBM, HP, Alienware, and so on ... and NEVER had any of those issues. Heck, iTunes is much better performing and behaved than stuff like MS Office, Adobe Flash or Acrobat, and many others ...

 

[Thrasher]

I have had all the issues GG had with iTunes on the PC. This was a while back, as well. On the Mac it currently works fine.

I like my iPod, but I really hate that I can't sync my iPod with iTunes on BOTH my Mac and PC. The iPod SW is different for each platform. It's one or the other. That's an inexcusable design.

 

[txa1265]

I have had all the issues GG had with iTunes on the PC. This was a while back, as well. On the Mac it currently works fine.

I like my iPod, but I really hate that I can't sync my iPod with iTunes on BOTH my Mac and PC. The iPod SW is different for each platform. It's one or the other. That's an inexcusable design.

Not anymore - it used to be that it was formatted Mac or PC, but now they are all FAT32 or something like that so they are universally usable.

As for the issues, I assume that is 'format hijacking' ... I just installed a new Windows Media Player and it did the same thing. Most apps either ask or simply steal associations. I have had many apps do this to me. You are right - it is bad design ... but certainly not an Apple-specific thing.