Are you getting sick of Apple Corporation yet?

Hey, I'm a fanboy. I admit it. I've loved Apple since their first Macintosh, and always was annoyed that Microsoft constantly tried to emulate them (anyone own a zume?).

But this proprietary crap is now beyond reason.

We all know that when you buy an Apple product you're expected to only buy songs from Itunes, and Apps from the App store. And Apple does everything they can to stop you from making purchases outside their company.

It's ticking me off. Sure, some of you will say, "I've told you so," but I'm still a fan of their products. They make excellent products and have always been the innovators that others copy.

But lately A couple things happened that really (excuse my French) pissed me off.

1. We own an Ipad. It's great. But I wanted to mirror it to my projector at work for teaching my fourth grade students. The Apple TV device (which isn't a TV), is a box about four inches wide and two inches tall that helps you wirelessly connect your Ipad to the TV. Of course, Apple wants you to buy another Ipad (the Ipad2) in order to mirror. With the first Ipad you can only watch Netflix videos, listen to music, see pictures and a few other things, but you cannot have perfect mirroring. On a single-income teacher's salary, I don't want to have to buy an Ipad2 when the first one is perfectly fine. Dang!

2. I got an Iphone for my birthday in September. Because my wife and I are on the same Verizon account (along with other family members, etc.), I went through her Itunes account. I was able to, obviously, have the same apps and songs she has on her Iphone. These are all apps and songs that were paid for, through Itunes and App Store, using money that I EARNED at my job. So what if it's my wife's account. I paid for them and therefore they belong to my wife and me.

However, I had a previous Itunes account of my own from years ago, and I paid for HUNDREDS of songs through Itunes. The Federal government didn't object to my wife and I combining our genes to produce children, but Apple doesn't want me to combine our Itunes libraries? Give me a break. These are songs that were PAID for, not stolen. They belong to ME. Yet I had to download special software from other parties to extract songs off my Itouch classic, put them in a folder, convert them to Mp3s, and then place them into my wife's Itunes library. It took several days and a ton of headaches to do this, but I wasn't about to throw away hundreds of songs that cost me hundreds of dollars.

3. Finally, a couple days ago Apple made a big announcement about textbooks. Itextbooks is going to "revolutionize" the textbook industry, and many major publishers are on board.

I was thrilled when I first heard about this, because I love technology and look forward to a time when all those pencils, textbooks, backpacks, etc. that clog up my classroom and bend little kids' backs would finally be put away. Obviously real books will survive, and you have to have pen and paper in a classroom, but technology can really simplify things and the possibilities are limitless.

Unless you're Apple, and then limitless becomes the enemy. Limiting is more like it.

Did you know that Apple's rules for Itextbooks claims that if you use their software to author a textbook that they are partial owners? They are entitled to get a percentage and you can only sell your textbook through them. They are also forcing you to convert your PDFs to their system so that they can only be viewed on their products. That's complete crap!

Does Canon get partial ownership of your photos if you use their hardware and software? Do they choose which site you can store those photos? Do they only let you sell your photos through certain portals, etc.?


So, to whom it may concern: I'm getting sick of Apple's crap, and if they continue this iron-fisted proprietary nonsense, I'll have to quit them.


Amazon might just kick their butts fair and square, and I'm not going to feel that bad for them.


Feel free to flag me, ban me, or whatever. But it felt good to write this rant.

Apple was dying before they brought back Steve; and Steve now is gone.
Can you see the obvious?

Let's examine some other industries that could learn from Apple.

Ford: They can make cars, pave their own highways, and produce gas. Only Fords can drive those roads and Ford owners are only allowed to buy Ford Gas.

Budweiser: They have their own bars. You can only buy their products. And you can only get together with women who drink their products.

Delta Plumbing Products: You buy their toilet. You can only use their toilet paper, and your toilet must be connected to their sewer lines, and you get charged extra if you have diarrhea.

Clomid: This is a fertility drug. Any children conceived with the help of this medication are partially owned by the drug manufacturer, and the company is entitled to a percentage of any money they earn over their lifetimes.

Colt: Any firearm they sell must use only their ammo, and you must give a percentage of your deer meat to them each time you hunt.


Owning Apple products is a lot like going on a cruise. You can only bring aboard what they let you, and then you have to buy their crap if you want to have a good time.

Grrr.

Luckily it didn't come out of my pocket, as my employer provided an iPad, and agreed, the proprietary nature of Apple has turned me off. WHY won't they support Adobe Flash? For my personal use it will be an Android-based tablet. If for nothing else, because I wish to use Helicon Remote for in the field focus stacking.

Mike, I couldn't agree with you more. I use Apple products, but I have always hated their BS about how they support education. Their monopolistic pricing reflects their true colors.

I work for a large community college where the lack of funds has finally required faculty and staff to justify the high cost of Apple products. We've reduced the number of Apple computers by more than 71% and have seen annual savings in the range of low to mid six figures.

Before everyone flames me six ways from Sunday...I personally own two Apple computers and an iPhone. But that's a personal decision, and has nothing to do with how Apple overcharges the public and the Education community.

I'll use their computers until I die, but I'm not really a big fan of their other devices and their proprietary bs.

I'll die before I use one of their computers.... Although, would die for one of their high-end monitors.

I've owned an Apple forever, while I do get annoyed with how they run things...I still cannot overlook how much I hate using a Windows based computer. Therefore, I stay.

This is part of the reason that no matter how hard they try, and how much money they actually make, Apple will never be more than a minority percentage of the computer market. Like or hate Windows, the hardware is less expensive, the software is available for just about every application, and you're not bound with all the proprietary crap. I ride the fence between a Windows computer system, and Android phone, and a recent purchase of an iPad2, mainly out of curiosity. I love the tablet format but the pain in the patootie that getting things in and out of the device is just stupid. I'm seriously ready to sell it because as nice as the concept is, I'm tired of having to jump thru hoops to simply use the damn thing. I had an iPhone when I was still with AT&T wireless, and while the phone was nice, having to drive 40 miles to the nearest Apple store and make an appointment to simply be seen whenever there was a problem with the phone, along with horrible AT&T cellular service, finally made me get rid of it. I might revisit the iPhone on Verizon eventually, but only if some of the ridiculous restrictions that AT&T was forced to accept to get the iPhone originally have been lifted.
All in all, interesting and innovative products, but they treat their customers like prisoners.

I'm on Verizon with my iPhone. No complaints there. I haven't had any dropped calls.

I still like Apple and will continue to purcahse their products. They work well.

Apple does what it does and charges what it charges because people still buy. They are a public company, priority on the stock holder, just like all public companies.

I have an iPad2 and the iPhone 4s. I switched to android stuff before and came back. Apple stuff is put together inside and out much better IMO, than other devices. Computers on the other hand, I don't like apple stuff.

If apple really wanted to be mass market they could be. Bugatti is also ok with selling less cars than Chevy......it's not always about volume. I don't think apple is chasing what some of you are describing.

A school doesn't need apple products. If they want them, pay for them. It's just business.

All Jobs did was keep the products interesting. His effects will remain for a while. He still wanted to make money.

Kodak used to behave like Apple is behaving now.

Look how that turned out.

Anyone want to buy some Kodachrome 64?

If it happens to apple then it happens. The beautiful thing is, another company will take their place.

Well if you bought the stock 10 years ago your certainly not sick of them since the value of the company went from $10 billion to $400 billion. The only company worth more day to day is Exxon/Mobil.

I actually think Apple deserves it's place in the market and whatever niche it carves out. Even after the stumbled with the PC (not licensing software like ibm-compatible) they did not let it stop them and have opened huge markets with the ipods an ipads. Most of what we are using today is available because of this. Plus the same guy brought us Woody and Buzz.