Surface screen is easy to crack? Aren't they using the latest gorilla glass?
I was baffled about the tech industry response to the Surface 4 and Book. They're nice, but the mostly overwhelmingly positive response was odd. Prices seemed like they had gone up quite a bit which barely seemed to get mentioned. I almost wonder if that's actually not behind it, that people need a high price to justify praising devices. Some of it seemed to just be delayed "oh, the Surface is actually successful, then it must be good!" response as well since most seemed to have written them off as a failure after the first gen fiasco.
Actually Dell and HP have some Apple quality computers. In fact the HP Spectre X360 is basically out-Apple-ing Apple. Exceptional quality, good battery life, can even pony up for a matte black and copper (or maybe bronze) ish scheme (which looks very good), and on top of that it rotates around and works ok as a tablet (and it'll be getting an OLED display option sometime soon). And on top of that price wise is pretty damn solid as well, can find great condition refurbs with good specs for like half price fairly frequently.
Unless you're talking about stuff like bendable iPhones, or having to use bumpers because Apple couldn't be assed to test their fucking phone's ability to connect to cellular networks while being held in people's hands. Is that the Apple quality you're talking about? But, but they're using aircraft industry aluminum! And look now you can get it in rose gold!
And I actually kinda like Apple's stuff, but they're not doing anything that other companies aren't (that really matters, and other companies are doing equal if not more amount of things that Apple isn't) and you can absolutely get comparable quality stuff for similar (sometimes better) prices. There is no perfect device, be it phone, tablet, laptop, or desktop.
At this point the people acting like Apple is just better and the people acting like Apple is just mediocre at excessive prices are both wrong and equally annoying. Doubly so since technology is a constantly moving market so they're all going to be in flux (. The absolute dumbest thing is how companies have convinced consumers, whose only concern should be getting the device that best fits their needs/wants for the best price, into having discussions like this constantly.
Apple deserves credit for pushing computing companies to improve, but they're not revolutionary anymore and frankly have been quite stale in that they're essentially offering the same formula for their devices for years now. In most ways they've actually fallen right in line with the Dell's and HPs in that they're just waiting for the behind the scenes development to offer something new (stuff like OLED, SSDs).
Fact is, across the board we're getting better products than ever in computing, but we've also been seeing a year to year stagnation compared to the rapid pace it used to move at. Even the few really impressive technologies that crop up any more take years and years to really make a difference (OLED is taking forever to take over, VR is just in its infancy, and stuff like wearables are coming out so half-baked that its almost sinking the market).
This is very true.
I love my late 2014 15" MacBook Pro (Retina). Fantastic device through and through.
But, Apple has become complacent in the laptop market. Their "MacBook" line (the 12" non-Air, non-Pro line) is a joke IMHO, I just don't understand its position in the market.
For a long time, Apple dominated the laptop market when it came to overall hardware and build quality. They've let other manufacturers catch up without reinvesting in additional change. If the 12" MacBook was supposed to be some kind of answer, it fell on deaf ears.
They need OLED, for sure, but to be fair, it has been slow to adopt for laptops, for good reason. And Apple has a good reason to remain on the sidelines for the tech thus far: the tech still needs maturity to be featured on a production-quality device. Apple has always prided itself on displays ready for production in creative endeavors... hell, the OS was designed around those factors in the first place.
I don't doubt that an upcoming refresh will feature Thunderbolt 3 with USB 3.1 TypeC ports, because I expect they'll adopt the latest Intel chipsets soon.
Apple is always slow to adopt the latest and greatest, but once they feel it is ready for maturity, they take it and run with it. They'll dominate the OLED laptop market in due time, I'm sure of it... unless Tim Cook's Apple has completely failed to follow the guidance of Jobs. Jobs was no godsend, but he saw the utility in ensuring there was an appeal to those who created artwork, be it audio or visual, in any capacity.
And that's another point: the OS badly needs some tinkering to remain relevant in the new world. Don't get me wrong, I have come to really love OS X and find it a terrific Unix-like OS, but, the new paradigm is touch (and in general a new approach to UI). OS X has remained the same in the general User Experience for the past decade, and I suspect OS X is what is holding back Apple from adopting some of the new paradigms for UX and UI. They need to dig deep into OS X and tinker with some core code to get it ready for touch and other things, there's no easy fix.
I hope they succeed, because Apple's prior success is what has driven the resurgence of high-quality Windows laptops. There were previously laptops with quality and durability as a major focus, but they had major trade offs. An IBM Thinkpad was a tank - but it was awfully inelegant and had terrible trackpads in comparison. And sorry, those nibs were never my thing. Neat, but worthless when compared to a proper large trackpad with great gesture support. Microsoft has been trying to adopt greater gesture support, and in Windows 10 it has come a long way, but it still relies upon drivers to get the job done well.