Abandoned Microsoft for Apple

[Nebor]

Well, Microsoft finally drove me away. I haven't owned an apple product since I mothballed my Ipod Nano in favor of a Zune HD. I've had a Sony Xperia with Windows Mobile 6.5, then a Samsung Focus, and then a Nokia 920. I've also got an Xbox One, a Surface Pro 1 and a gaming desktop running Windows 8.1.

I was traveling for work for the past few weeks and the wireless at my hotel would lock up the wireless adapter on my Surface Pro 1 every 15 minutes. I ended up having to use my Nokia 920 as a hotspot for the whole trip (used like 11gb of data.) Also the $130 keyboard (I have both types) for it hardly ever works. It either doesn't make a connection, the connection drops or it drops and gives you "aaaaaaaaaaaaaaa." So I went to look at the Surface Pro 3, looked online and saw people complaining about the wireless adapter on it too. So I grabbed a 64gb iPaid Air 2 for $500 out the door and ordered a $35 keyboard\case for it online.

I was immediately impressed with the amount of technology you get with the iPad for $500. Thumb scanner login? As opposed to repeatedly connecting my keyboard to try to type my password on the Surface? Also, the fact that Microsoft Office products are just as good on the iPad and they're free while I'm paying $108 a year to use them on my Surface. Also, the battery life is 10+ hours vs 3.5.

So 3 days later I went and grabbed an iPhone 6 64gb for $800 at AT&T. The setup was pretty easy (though it's annoying that it doesn't sync your various settings\accounts over from the iPad.) How is it possible that the Xbox One Smartglass & Xbox music apps are better on the iPhone than on Windows Phone? Same for all the MS Office apps. What the heck is Microsoft doing? No new flagship phone for 2 years and giving away their apps to competitors? Not to mention the iPhone actually works with the voice control and other settings on my Porsche. My Nokia simply would not hear anything when I tried to use voice control. I threw on a $140 Element case and a $6 screen protector and this thing looks pretty slick. And the armband I got for running with it is better than the Nokia one too.

So I'm cancelling my $108 a year office subscription, and my $108 a year Xbox Music Subscription (I'll sign up for Apple Radio premium when it's available) and my $60 a year Xbox Live Gold (required to listen to Xbox music on your Xbox.) It's baffling to me that MS has bungled tablets & mobile so hard. If I didn't have a massive Steam library, I'd replace my desktop PC with a Mac too at this point. It's so frustrating to me that I had every Microsoft product and they barely worked together (try streaming some music from your PC to your xbox, or phone to xbox,) meanwhile Microsoft was developing better versions of their apps for Apple. /rant

 

[notposting]

Preach it, brother.

The worst part is the MS apologists like Thurrott, imo -- they will point out all of this stuff individually but somehow make a vastly different sum decision at the end.

 

[Crono]

It sounds like you are the one feeling abandoned by Microsoft.

But yeah, Apple is pretty good at providing a consistent experience across their devices... which frankly is a lot easier, I assume, when you only have a few products and limited hardware to support in each category. If that's all you need, it's a blessing to be in the Apple camp and you'll have less issues if all your friends, family, and acquaintances are all Apple, too. Apple also has the third-party app development and peripheral/vehicle integration advantage over Android and Windows Phone.

Microsoft is getting better at their services, but not with everything. Xbox Music is much more buggy and annoying to use than Zune was (and despite all the Zune hardware jokes, it was better than the iPod and iTunes ever was, in my opinion). Stupid thing keeps giving me download errors and giving me duplicates of albums, no matter what I do with the settings. Spotify is virtually hassle-free and superior to Xbox Music now, even on Windows Phone.

Microsoft is much better than Apple with their cloud services, otherwise. And they are becoming good at supporting the other platforms, as you pointed out. They are balancing their hardware and software strategies more, but it's clear they know that it's their services and software that individuals and businesses use, and doing cross-platform right is one their goals right now.

 

[notposting]

Watched Zune (thankfully, never bought the hardware, was *this* close) both hardware and software wither away on the vine.

WHS v1 was brilliant. Naturally, infighting completely gutted it for the second release and that was it. Few hundred dollar server version as a "followup"? Thanks, MS.

Media center -- idiots wasted that. I started in the Vista days, I think with a single core Sempron, eventually had a nice setup with one of the early MS remotes (could power on the TV, great ergonomics, was quickly abandoned, of course), had MyMovies integrated with the WHS, commercial skipping, HDHomerun, Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hulu, custom layout, the works.

Naturally, MS never worked on it...had some abortive effort for 3rd party boxes with embedded at some point. An open plugin and mod system, solid support, and keeping up to date, they could have OWNED the STB industry.

People would come over, not recognize the slick case under the TV in the entertainment center as a PC, not recognize the interface at all, but be stunned at it. DVR, movies, the speed, everything. "What is this?" they would ask. "It's Windows," I would answer.

Now we just have a refurbed Roku 2XS and Fire Stick ($19 deal) on our TV's. Got my wife a newer iPod Touch. Have some Kindle Fires. Have an Echo. Have Prime and since I picked up two years of Prime for $72 each I'll probably roll savings into their Music service to upload nearly everything to the cloud for ourselves. Will probably keep PC's on Windows I assume, tablets other, and probably switch to an iPhone at some point. And likely keep using MS services - email, cloud, etc. (But not MS, those retards couldn't code their way out of wet paper sack with music stuff at this point.)

Arghhghhjahjakshkdjshakj

(just got a couple of MS hardware pieces though - Amazon had a sale on keyboards/mice last week - got the 2nd gen portable keyboard and a couple of mice. Nice stuff)

 

[Commodus]

I'm more positive about Microsoft, but you are illustrating an important point: it's all about the ecosystem.

Windows fans will be quick to defend the Surface because it runs on a desktop platform, but that only matters if the hardware, OS and apps all work together in harmony. Clearly, that isn't quite the case on the Surface. Apple is pretty religious about not only having fast OS updates, but introducing matching hardware features and ensuring compatibility in places like your car.

To be fair, Microsoft is in an awkward position right now. It's waiting on Windows 10 to improve a lot of things, including its apps. The superior software on other platforms is more an admission that the company has to get mindshare on the devices people actually use, not those it would like people to use. I admire Satya Nadella that way. Ballmer's big problem was his sincere belief that everyone 'naturally' loves Windows, and that there was no point to supporting competing platforms in a big way because the market would inevitably restore the Windows monopoly.

 

[zerogear]

Well, Microsoft finally drove me away. I haven't owned an apple product since I mothballed my Ipod Nano in favor of a Zune HD. I've had a Sony Xperia with Windows Mobile 6.5, then a Samsung Focus, and then a Nokia 920. I've also got an Xbox One, a Surface Pro 1 and a gaming desktop running Windows 8.1.

I was traveling for work for the past few weeks and the wireless at my hotel would lock up the wireless adapter on my Surface Pro 1 every 15 minutes. I ended up having to use my Nokia 920 as a hotspot for the whole trip (used like 11gb of data.) Also the $130 keyboard (I have both types) for it hardly ever works. It either doesn't make a connection, the connection drops or it drops and gives you "aaaaaaaaaaaaaaa." So I went to look at the Surface Pro 3, looked online and saw people complaining about the wireless adapter on it too. So I grabbed a 64gb iPaid Air 2 for $500 out the door and ordered a $35 keyboard\case for it online.

I was immediately impressed with the amount of technology you get with the iPad for $500. Thumb scanner login? As opposed to repeatedly connecting my keyboard to try to type my password on the Surface? Also, the fact that Microsoft Office products are just as good on the iPad and they're free while I'm paying $108 a year to use them on my Surface. Also, the battery life is 10+ hours vs 3.5.

So 3 days later I went and grabbed an iPhone 6 64gb for $800 at AT&T. The setup was pretty easy (though it's annoying that it doesn't sync your various settings\accounts over from the iPad.) How is it possible that the Xbox One Smartglass & Xbox music apps are better on the iPhone than on Windows Phone? Same for all the MS Office apps. What the heck is Microsoft doing? No new flagship phone for 2 years and giving away their apps to competitors? Not to mention the iPhone actually works with the voice control and other settings on my Porsche. My Nokia simply would not hear anything when I tried to use voice control. I threw on a $140 Element case and a $6 screen protector and this thing looks pretty slick. And the armband I got for running with it is better than the Nokia one too.

So I'm cancelling my $108 a year office subscription, and my $108 a year Xbox Music Subscription (I'll sign up for Apple Radio premium when it's available) and my $60 a year Xbox Live Gold (required to listen to Xbox music on your Xbox.) It's baffling to me that MS has bungled tablets & mobile so hard. If I didn't have a massive Steam library, I'd replace my desktop PC with a Mac too at this point. It's so frustrating to me that I had every Microsoft product and they barely worked together (try streaming some music from your PC to your xbox, or phone to xbox,) meanwhile Microsoft was developing better versions of their apps for Apple. /rant

Not defending Microsoft by any means, but your reaction is way out of proportions. I'm personally calling shens on the "type keyboards" not working considering I own SP2, Surface 2 and SP3. (And yes, I also had iPads). Wireless issues is 'sorta' legit because of BT interferences, but it doesn't drop or doesn't make connection, it does however, slow down the wifi, should you have interference (which I haven't).

iPad and Surface Pros are different animals to begin with. One is a curated closed "appliance" device, the other is a full blown PC that happen to be in a tablet interface. (And _seriously_ connecting type cover just to type the password?!, You can create picture passwords and PIN passwords, so this complaint is again, completely over the top).

I will cede Windows Phone, since Microsoft seem to be prioritizing their services towards Android and iOS market, simply because they want to be perceived as a SaaS company nowadays, and it would be foolish to withhold their service on the larger marketshare platforms (which unfortunately, to the neglect of Windows Phone.)

As for Streaming music from PC/XBox/Anywhere... I honestly think you just don't know what you're doing. OneDrive streams fine to my phone, as does XBox Music Pass, and I don't even have full MS Ecosystem. Between Plex, XBox Live/OneDrive and whatever cloud things you could have done. And to be perfectly honest, I see this whole rant as either a huge case of PEBKAC or trolling.

Full disclosure, I own devices from all three companies.

 

[notposting]

As for Streaming music from PC/XBox/Anywhere... I honestly think you just don't know what you're doing. OneDrive streams fine to my phone, as does XBox Music Pass, and I don't even have full MS Ecosystem. Between Plex, XBox Live/OneDrive and whatever cloud things you could have done. And to be perfectly honest, I see this whole rant as either a huge case of PEBKAC or trolling.

Xbox Music is a big steaming turd apple if you have any of your own music. The apps on PC and WP are steaming horse turds. Doubling music, changing tags, not reading tags correctly, changing or ignoring art, it's just an unqualified disaster. Even the Onedrive upload is just a hot mess of maybe it reads it, maybe it will read the art.

Nothing else has a problem, every tag done right, hell, 7MC/WMP/Zune/WP7 don't even have problems. Not sure wtf they did but since XBM launched, well, there should be some firings.

 

[zerogear]

Xbox Music is a big steaming turd apple if you have any of your own music. The apps on PC and WP are steaming horse turds. Doubling music, changing tags, not reading tags correctly, changing or ignoring art, it's just an unqualified disaster. Even the Onedrive upload is just a hot mess of maybe it reads it, maybe it will read the art.

Nothing else has a problem, every tag done right, hell, 7MC/WMP/Zune/WP7 don't even have problems. Not sure wtf they did but since XBM launched, well, there should be some firings.

Can't speak for your experience, but so far mine has been fairly pleasant, but I'm mainly using streaming.

XBox Music Pass isn't the same using the app as the default music player, however, the ones that I've uploaded via OneDrive works well as well, and shows ID3 tags and album art fine, even with other languages. (https://gamesided.com/2015/03/19/xbox-music-adds-onedrive-support-upload-music-collection/)

 

[notposting]

Ha, the Xbox One can't do background music? Wtf, MS?

(didn't know that until reading that link)

 

[Artdeco]

Preach it, brother.

The worst part is the MS apologists like Thurrott, imo -- they will point out all of this stuff individually but somehow make a vastly different sum decision at the end.

Yep, I now have only one MS device after literally decades of MS only. I have an Atom powered Windows tablet I spent $150 or so on so I can jailbreak my iDevices.

What finally killed me was the subscription crap. My only tech related subscription is Spotify.

 

[KeithP]

Switching to Apple from MS for better wifi stability is like switching from a Ford F150 to a Chevy Silverado because you were looking for something easier to park.

-KeithP

 

[ControlD]

Whatever makes you happy. If you prefer the Apple experience then go for it.

I went through this whole thing a few years ago myself. Bought a Mac, iPhone, iPad. Bought my wife a Macbook Air. Over time I learned the grass on the Apple side isn't necessarily greener. I don't use any Apple products anymore, but I still think they make nice stuff (except the Air, that thing is a serious POS considering the money I spent for it). My daughter uses my old MBP and iPad now so she's probably going to be a future Apple customer I suppose.

Anyhow, enjoy your new toys!

 

[Artdeco]

Whatever makes you happy. If you prefer the Apple experience then go for it.

I went through this whole thing a few years ago myself. Bought a Mac, iPhone, iPad. Bought my wife a Macbook Air. Over time I learned the grass on the Apple side isn't necessarily greener. I don't use any Apple products anymore, but I still think they make nice stuff (except the Air, that thing is a serious POS considering the money I spent for it). My daughter uses my old MBP and iPad now so she's probably going to be a future Apple customer I suppose.

Anyhow, enjoy your new toys!

What didn't you like about the MBA?

 

[touchstone]

Yeah MS has managed to nearly scare me off a few times but I always come back, enjoy the punishment I guess. The worst part is the Xbox IMO.... because their service is expensive and then on top of the service, you pay for more services. Subscriptions upon subscriptions, who told MS that people enjoyed 'renting' software?

 

[Seven]

I have recently purchased a netbook with the Windows 8.1 and I am impressed. I also have a desktop with the Win 7.

The system is pretty smooth. I don't see the problem with the start button. The home screen is useful, I mostly hit Chrome or something else. The built in apps OneDrive, OneNote, Weather, Mail are freakin awesome and syncs easily between android devices.

 

[touchstone]

wrong thread

 

[ControlD]

What didn't you like about the MBA?

It's my wife's computer, so I don't use it much. She really likes the form factor but things that are less than ideal:

(1) The trackpad has broken twice even though she uses a mouse 90% of the time
(2) The fan sounds like a leaf blower
(3) This might be a OSX / third party driver thing, but actually getting USB devices to connect and reconnect without a reboot is a 50/50 thing at best. Probably more like 10/90.
(4) The screen is OK at best. She doesn't care but it is pretty washed out compared to any other device in the house.

Really, only issue #1 is what I would call serious. I believe the case on this particular copy must have a machining defect for it to keep eating trackpads. I thought the trackpad must just be different than the one on my MBP because of the thin factor (it never depressed very far at all), but now I am thinking this computer has never been right.

 

[touchstone]

the MBA hasn't been updated in ages and ages, if you want an apple laptop you go pro or go home. The new macbook is a toy and the macbook air is ancient (and also somewhat of a toy)

 

[Crono]

the MBA hasn't been updated in ages and ages, if you want an apple laptop you go pro or go home. The new macbook is a toy and the macbook air is ancient (and also somewhat of a toy)

The new Macbook is pretty much the new Macbook Air. I'm guessing Apple figured they wanted to charge more for it and resuscitated the plain "Macbook" moniker.

 

[Nebor]

Not defending Microsoft by any means, but your reaction is way out of proportions. I'm personally calling shens on the "type keyboards" not working considering I own SP2, Surface 2 and SP3. (And yes, I also had iPads). Wireless issues is 'sorta' legit because of BT interferences, but it doesn't drop or doesn't make connection, it does however, slow down the wifi, should you have interference (which I haven't).

iPad and Surface Pros are different animals to begin with. One is a curated closed "appliance" device, the other is a full blown PC that happen to be in a tablet interface. (And _seriously_ connecting type cover just to type the password?!, You can create picture passwords and PIN passwords, so this complaint is again, completely over the top).

I will cede Windows Phone, since Microsoft seem to be prioritizing their services towards Android and iOS market, simply because they want to be perceived as a SaaS company nowadays, and it would be foolish to withhold their service on the larger marketshare platforms (which unfortunately, to the neglect of Windows Phone.)

As for Streaming music from PC/XBox/Anywhere... I honestly think you just don't know what you're doing. OneDrive streams fine to my phone, as does XBox Music Pass, and I don't even have full MS Ecosystem. Between Plex, XBox Live/OneDrive and whatever cloud things you could have done. And to be perfectly honest, I see this whole rant as either a huge case of PEBKAC or trolling.

Full disclosure, I own devices from all three companies.

Link
Link
Link
Link

There are tons of very long threads on plenty of forums documenting the Type Cover problems on both SP1 and SP2. Frequently the keyboard just doesn't work, or causes the machine to reboot. There are also tons of threads about the wifi just disappearing from Network Connections on SP1, SP2 and SP3. Another fun occurrence would be when I had the keyboard connected, the machine would crash\restart randomly, then only sort of halfway detect the keyboard so I couldn't login from the start screen. It wouldn't give me an onscreen keyboard or respond to the type cover. So you have to restart again.

I have Plex, as well as all the other Microsoft services and products you mentioned. Plex works great on the Xbox One. I didn't say I had a problem streaming music to my phone. Try playing a song or video from your Windows Phone to your Xbox. Then watch someone do it with an iPhone and an Apple TV.

I was all in with MS for 10 years and they've gotten worse. (Remember how well "Play To" used to work before Windows 8?)

I appreciate your multiple insinuations that I'm some sort of moron though. Shouldn't you be using Linux with an attitude like that?

 

[Nebor]

Can't speak for your experience, but so far mine has been fairly pleasant, but I'm mainly using streaming.

XBox Music Pass isn't the same using the app as the default music player, however, the ones that I've uploaded via OneDrive works well as well, and shows ID3 tags and album art fine, even with other languages. (https://gamesided.com/2015/03/19/xbox-music-adds-onedrive-support-upload-music-collection/)

As others said above, the Xbox Music pass & OneDrive Cloud sync are rife with problems. Some songs will always, inexplicably, give you syncing errors, download errors, etc. I spent days and days trying to fix those issues, only to have the same issues from my desktop PC crop up on my Surface Pro.

I'm less than a week into owning Apple stuff, I paid $25 for their cloud Match service and all of my music is synced to iCloud with no issues on my iPhone, iPad and iTunes on the PC. I spent about an hour fixing album\artist names so that iTunes could recognize everything. Not bad out of 60gb of music.

 

[Nebor]

Ha, the Xbox One can't do background music? Wtf, MS?

(didn't know that until reading that link)

Yeah, so if for example you're playing Tetris or Fibbage with a group of people, the only way you can get music is by dedicating 1/4 of the right side of the screen to a music player (Xbox Music, Pandora, etc.) using the Snap feature.

 

[sweenish]

Is this supposed to cautionary? Revelatory?

Because I see no point. You're also comparing old hardware to new hardware. You were also using the old hardware in such a way to make yourself frustrated. "Have to" plug in keyboard for password? Ignoring the soft keyboard, the PIN and picture methods completely? Sounds legit.

There are some legitimate hardware issues in there, keyboard issues have been addressed since SP3. It also gets near iPad-like battery life and is magnitudes of order more powerful. Complaining about the Office subscription, but fine using tablet apps? If you don't need full office, use office online or any of the other myriad other suites.

All this thread says to me is that you had been wanting the switch for a while and had just been looking for excuses.

I'm glad you're happier. But this story is pointless.

 

[arod]

You will find that there are just as many quirks when it comes to apple products as ms.

Each ecosystem has things it does better than the others and worse.

 

[quikah]

Also, the fact that Microsoft Office products are just as good on the iPad and they're free while I'm paying $108 a year to use them on my Surface.

They changed this? I thought you couldn't edit on the iPad without subscription?