Can someone please explain why imacs and apple products get such negative and horrible comments and reviews.

[theflyingwasp]

sorry 6th replicant when i say bad reviews i dont mean company reviews i just mean people ive spoken too

" im thinking of gettin that new superb looking 27inch i mac"

" dont mate they are s##t"

ive had that response numerous times from friends .i have no comeback as im clueless about computers .these are people who have been using computers for years .i just dont get it.

 

[Overdose]

sorry 6th replicant when i say bad reviews i dont mean company reviews i just mean people ive spoken too

" im thinking of gettin that new superb looking 27inch i mac"

" dont mate they are s##t"

ive had that response numerous times from friends .i have no comeback as im clueless about computers .these are people who have been using computers for years .i just dont get it.

Clearly, neither do some of the people you've spoken to.

I might consider giving credence to someones opinion if it was constructive in any way, but the 'I don't like it because it's EDITED' type comments are worthless.

 

[theflyingwasp]

thanks for the reply overdose.i think what it comes down to is jealousy .the 27imac is beautiful machine that does everything i need it for.most people that walk through the door at pc world only want a computer for general internet use .they all want the imac but realise they have a 500quid budget.

 

[Overdose]

If you need it for work, I can think of no other manufacturer that I'd recommend. It will work and look great too.

Enjoy it when it arrives, it's a great looking machine.

 

[6th.replicant]

theflyingwasp - no offence, but it seems that your friends are a) ignorant / ill-informed and / or b) can't afford an iMac?

If in doubt, and if you haven't already done so, ankle over to your nearest Apple Store and:

Appreciate decor that's not concieved to coerce punters to buy-and-depart pronto - eg, PC World, McDonald's et al

Talk to a sales assistant who's actually savvy re the products he / she sells and will not attempt to sell you a spurious 5-year guarantee

Demo / play with various iMacs while discussing with Apple Store staff which version suits you best

Transferring your 'valued content' from your old PC to your new iMac will be hassle-free and DIY or, IIRC, an Apple Store will do the job for you

Be aware if you buy an IMac, you'll be entitled to a free session with an Apple Genius, who'll demo / advise / answer queries using your iMac

If and when you decide to sell / upgrade your iMac, you'll obtain a decent price from Ebay, etc

Micr*s*ft Office / Word / Excel is not included, but there's a free open-source version, NeoOffice, which has frequent updates and opens / saves all Word / Excel docs - and can be downloaded from here

 

[Overdose]

Micr*s*ft Office / Word / Excel is not included, but there's a free open-source version, NeoOffice, which has frequent updates and opens / saves all Word / Excel docs - and can be downloaded from here

How does NeoOffice compare with LibreOffice? (both free BTW).

 

[MajorFubar]

sorry 6th replicant when i say bad reviews i dont mean company reviews i just mean people ive spoken too

" im thinking of gettin that new superb looking 27inch i mac"

" dont mate they are s##t"

That will usually be from people giving you Chinese-whispers tales, not first-hand experience. Most people who buy Apple products are perfectly happy with them. In fact in 2011, Cnet reported that a higher percentage of Apple owners were happier wth their computers than PC owners.

The biggest complaint I hear is that "Macs don't have enough games", which seems about as relevant as buying a Veyron and complaining the boot's too small to carry your week's shopping.

 

[rjb70stoke]

In my experience the people who "hate" Apple gear are the ones who, desperately want an iPhone, iPad, etc. but cannot afford them, and so stick with the cheaper option.

The Macbook Im typing this on is 6 years old this month, and still runs as well as it did back then. The only thing letting it down these days is the battery, which still lasts a good 2 hours of internet use. In all those years, a work colleague who falls into the hater category, has gone through 4 windows laptops at a minimum of £400 a time. Which compared to the £650 I paid for my Macbook from the refurb store, gives him a spend of £950 more. Not to mention the small matter of transferring all his data etc. 4 times, which Ive only had to do too my NAS drive once.

Buying a Mac, is a little akin to buying a Mercedes. Its a lot of money for something you could get an alternative for much less, but its always desirable, generally reliable, safe, and loses your money a lot slower than the cheaper alternatives.

Buy it and enjoy it.

 

[bigboss]

Micr*s*ft Office / Word / Excel is not included, but there's a free open-source version, NeoOffice, which has frequent updates and opens / saves all Word / Excel docs - and can be downloaded from here

Just to avoid any confusion - You can buy Microsoft Office for Mac same as you would buy for a Windows PC:

http://www.microsoft.com/mac

I personally found that NeoOffice does not open password protected Excel sheets as "read only". Any way to get round that?

 

[Paul.]

I've never understood why when buying furniture or clothing it's ok to spend extra on something with quality materials, car reviews often criticise certain manufacturers for their poor plastics in the dash and that's considered reasonable, yet when buying consumer electronics we can only compaire clock speed and ram etc and everything else is a waste of money? You may find a machine with the same processor as an iMac for less money, but you won't find something hewn from billet aluminium with precision unknown outside of aeronautics for less money...

Some people won't get excited about design, that's ok. If you do, then it makes no sense to take notice of the opinions of those who don't.

 

[nopiano]

Buying a Mac, is a little akin to buying a Mercedes. Its a lot of money for something you could get an alternative for much less, but its always desirable, generally reliable, safe, and loses your money a lot slower than the cheaper alternatives.

Buy it and enjoy it.

Good analogy. I switched to a MacBook a couple of years ago, and would be reluctant to go back (though have to when working, usually).

Also bought a Merc E-class, which is less per month than a Mondeo (say), so actually cheaper in the long run.

Less keen on the iPhones, as it happens, but am sure I could manage if I could afford one.

My hifi is mostly about 15 years old which bears out the 'costs more and lasts longer' point too.

 

[theflyingwasp]

thanks for the replys everyone going down to pc world at the weekend and im buying the whole bloody lot .imac 27inch,32g ipad4 ,5th generation ipod and apple tv .if i get any smart ass comments.im going to show people the replys on this forum.for my first computer i dont think you can do much better especially when its just for general use and music.

 

[chebby]

thanks for the replys everyone going down to pc world at the weekend and im buying the whole bloody lot .imac 27inch,32g ipad4 ,5th generation ipod and apple tv .if i get any smart ass comments.im going to show people the replys on this forum.for my first computer i dont think you can do much better especially when its just for general use and music.

I don't think it's really worth quoting forum comments at people who cant accept your home computing preferences. Just ignore the jibes and talk about something else. Who really wants the sort of friends who argue about computer brands anyway? Might as well argue about refrigerator choices or 'best lawnmower' (actually, I'm wrong, 'best lawnmower' could be quite interesting compared to Apple vs PC).

 

[jjbomber]

thanks for the replys everyone going down to pc world at the weekend and im buying the whole bloody lot .imac 27inch,32g ipad4 ,5th generation ipod and apple tv .if i get any smart ass comments.im going to show people the replys on this forum.for my first computer i dont think you can do much better especially when its just for general use and music.

Join Quidco first and place the order online to get cashback. It's only a couple of % but on an order like yours, that will soon add up.

As for the forum, you'll get used to it. You ask why people hate Apple and 90% of the replies are from people saying why they love Apple. That's the way it goes on here. Only 2 people tried to answer the actual question but hey, if MPs won't answer questions, why should we

Finally, your friends are only trying to help. As you say yourself in your original post, you can get the same elsewhere for half the cost. You can hardly decry your friends for pointing that out, even if it is a bit unsubtle at times. The important thing here is that you get what you want, rather than you get what they want. You seem to have a strong enough mind to do just that so good luck with your purchases.

 

[cheeseboy]

... especially when its just for general use and music.

nope, you can't do much better. But if you are just using it for general use and music, then so long as you are aware that you can do all those things on a mac mini with a massive monitor at about half the cost and still stay in the apple eco system....

 

[cheeseboy]

people hate apple because they are stupid. To hate an inanmate object is stupid, even moreso a brand.

Fanbois go both ways, and both of them are stupid as well.

If you're buying apple equipment to impress other people, again - stupid.

Just buy what you want, but so long as you are aware that you are paying a premium, which in some cases is just that - ie an identical device at almost double the cost in some cases, that there's absolutely nothing wrong with that.

On a side note having supported both Apple and Windows devices for longer than I can remember - Reliability is about the same on both to be honest, and that includes the os's as well. Both apple and microsoft have dropped some clangers in their time.

 

[hammill]

thanks for the replys everyone going down to pc world at the weekend and im buying the whole bloody lot .imac 27inch,32g ipad4 ,5th generation ipod and apple tv .if i get any smart ass comments.im going to show people the replys on this forum.for my first computer i dont think you can do much better especially when its just for general use and music.

Buy what you like mate, but unless it is a lot cheaper I would not buy anything from PCWorld from my own recent experience. They will spend ages trying to sell you over priced anti virus software and extended warranties (as they are compelled to do by management) as well as being under staffed and inefficient.

 

[jjbomber]

thanks for the replys everyone going down to pc world at the weekend and im buying the whole bloody lot .imac 27inch,32g ipad4 ,5th generation ipod and apple tv .if i get any smart ass comments.im going to show people the replys on this forum.for my first computer i dont think you can do much better especially when its just for general use and music.

Quidco is offering 7% cashback at PCWorld for the next 2 days on imacs. That is worth about £87, on a £1249 (+VAT) purchase price. It might be worth an evening visit in the next 48 hours, rather than wait until Saturday.

 

[eggontoast]

I think the negativity runs both ways, there are just as many 'haters' of Microsoft and PC's from Apple imac users.

After using PC's for more years than I care to mention, I can see why some of the older versions of Windows got a reputation for clunkyness. However IMO windows XP and Windows 7 have been pretty stable, I can't comment on Vista as I've never really used it. I think most peoples problems are down to not being able to use them properly.

With reference to Apple devices, I like there phones etc and think they are way ahead of Andriod which I find a bit homebrew. But PC's, I can take them or leave them. Style doesn't really come into the equation for me, its just a tool that gets chucked in a bag when not in use. Obviously everyone priorities are different though, just buy what you want and ignore the meatheads who probably want one but can't afford it.

 

[AnotherJoe]

The true value in any product is shown when you have a problem and customer support needs to be involved.

I have had far more problems with non Apple products, but when things go wrong, the resolution process is painless.

My Macmini was the most unreliable computer h/w i've ever owned (in fact the only h/w i've ever owned thats failed, and numerous times) and made worse by the poor customer service i received. So this perceived value people place on Apple products doesn't hold true for me. Their h/w is no better than alternatives, the s/w is no better, easier to use or reliable than alternatives, and the customer service is no better (IME) they are more often than not more expensive though...

+1

Apple's support is no better/worse than anyone elses. Their kit tends not to play nice with other manufacturers like tvs/amps unless you buy a extra box from them like an ATV (and even then its not great).

There are better/easier music+video solutions out there (including windows and the much maligned mediaplayer)

 

[6th.replicant]

Micr*s*ft Office / Word / Excel is not included, but there's a free open-source version, NeoOffice, which has frequent updates and opens / saves all Word / Excel docs - and can be downloaded from here

How does NeoOffice compare with LibreOffice? (both free BTW).

Haven't tried / wasn't aware of LibreOffice - cheers for the clue.

Was very happy with Neo', so much so I'm contemplating ditching Micr*s*ft Office/Word/Excel, which has dubiuos distinction of being the only program that crashes / has ever crashed on my Macs, although mercifully Word's never managed to crash OS X overall... ray:

 

[bigboss]

Micr*s*ft Office / Word / Excel is not included, but there's a free open-source version, NeoOffice, which has frequent updates and opens / saves all Word / Excel docs - and can be downloaded from here

How does NeoOffice compare with LibreOffice? (both free BTW).

Haven't tried / wasn't aware of LibreOffice - cheers for the clue.

Was very happy with Neo', so much so I'm contemplating ditching Micr*s*ft Office/Word/Excel, which has dubiuos distinction of being the only program that crashes / has ever crashed on my Macs, although mercifully Word's never managed to crash OS X overall... ray:

Hmmm....interesting. Microsoft Office has never crashed on my MacBook Po, and my previous MacBook which is in use since 2006.

 

[bigboss]

The true value in any product is shown when you have a problem and customer support needs to be involved.

I have had far more problems with non Apple products, but when things go wrong, the resolution process is painless.

My Macmini was the most unreliable computer h/w i've ever owned (in fact the only h/w i've ever owned thats failed, and numerous times) and made worse by the poor customer service i received. So this perceived value people place on Apple products doesn't hold true for me. Their h/w is no better than alternatives, the s/w is no better, easier to use or reliable than alternatives, and the customer service is no better (IME) they are more often than not more expensive though...

+1

Apple's support is no better/worse than anyone elses. Their kit tends not to play nice with other manufacturers like tvs/amps unless you buy a extra box from them like an ATV (and even then its not great).

There are better/easier music+video solutions out there (including windows and the much maligned mediaplayer)

In my experience, Windows laptops tend to get painfully slow over time (despite all the "cleaning"), and MacBooks remain fast even after 5-6 years of similar use.

 

[6th.replicant]

.. going down to pc world at the weekend and im buying the whole bloody lot .imac 27inch,32g ipad4 ,5th generation ipod and apple tv ...

Why not go to an Apple Store?? If you inform Apple Store staff you're a home-based worker - eg, journalist, designer, etc - you'll get a 2.5% Business Discount - no questions asked - which'll be a fair few quid on that little lot

 

[bigboss]

Also don't forget Apple's own refurbished store where you can get a significant discount.