Who here bought an iPad even though they dislike Apple products?

[Matth3w]

I very much despise Steve Jobs and usually (no offense to anyone here) the "Mac Nazis" that are obsessed about everything Apple related. The people at the WWDC yesterday shouting "We love you Steve" made me want to gag. I used to joke that the iPad should come with a pair of Birkenstocks and a Starbucks gift card.

But then I tried it out and it's been the most amazing tech device I've bought in I can't remember how long.

I'm still disliking Apple as a general whole, but I've converted enough to the "dark side" that if Verizon offered the iPhone (which they won't but it's just a hypothetical) I would buy it up in a heartbeat.

Just wondering how many people here are Windows/PC users that have had to eat a little crow with their friends and/or colleagues for purchasing this device?

 

[figmo10]

I don't care anything about Apple or its management. Same with Microsoft or Ford or ConAgra. I've never owned an Apple product before this iPad and mightn't own anything else. I don't get misty about corporations unless they're paying me dividends.

 

[Pingles]

I don't so much dislike Apple as I felt burned when they turned their back on the Newton.

Hadn't bought anything Apple until my iPhone last year.

 

[Teacher's Pet]

I don't necessarily hate apple, I had an iMac back in the CRT days, and my parents owned a television production studio so I have been around some macs. But I wasn't a fan is the iPod or the iPhone, although I give credit where it's due and recognize the impact the iPod had on the music industry. I had one the first gen iPhones and I didn't keep it long.

I've been building PC's for years and have been perfectly content with them. I like to do what I want with my computer. If I wanna multitask and it's going to slow down my computer or cause it to explode, then I want to be able to make that decision and deal with the consequences. I don't want apple to tell me I can't.

Although I was ok with apple computers and wouldnt have minded having a desktop, I didn't dream I would fall for the iPad. I figured it was just a big iPod, and fanboys would buy them no matter what.

But my birthday came around at the same time the 3G was being released and I had to pick out a new gadget to get myself, it's a tradition. I decided Id get the iPad and play around with it a few months mostly because I didn't have a better idea, and the kindle was only 10 bucks cheaper. I had been wanting an ereader. So I said "I'll hang on to the iPad until the HP windows 7 tablet comes out, then I'll get the tablet and give this to my girlfriend.

I wasn't even really excited about it, it just wasn't that big of a deal. Boy was I WRONG!!! Within about two hours, I had told everyone I knew "this is the best present I've ever bought. I don't know how I ever lived without it."

It's one he'll of a device and Im a changed man because of the iPad. I wish the iPhone had a physical keyboard like the tilt because I like a real keyboard for texting without looking at the screen. But, I'll likely still give the new iPhone a chance, just because they did such a dam good job with the iPad.

 

[MikesTooLz]

When I was in highschool I Hated MAC's. I thought the user interface was ugly and not verry usable at all. There was a MAC fanatic in on of my webdesign classes. He would always talk about how great apple is and I would just laugh at him.

Then apple launched there OS X operating system and I was like wow thats a big improvement, but I still never used macs until a little over a year ago I decided to just bite the bullet and get a MAC mini since I'm a computer tech I want to at least have some kind of MAC OS knowledge. The Switch over from windows PC to Mac only took about 2 days for me to get the hand of most of all the stuff on the Mac.

And guess what, its been almost one year that I have turned on my $2,000 Windows PC maybe 5 times just to play a video game (my windows pc has a killer graphcs card). I have only been using my Mac Mini at home.

I'm starting to like apple more and more as time goes on and how I keep seeing apple doing things right and microsoft doing things completely wrong. I had the iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS. Now that I Have my iPad I got rid of the iPhone and probably wont get the iPhone 4 because of what AT&T is pulling with their removal of unlimited data and uping the early termination fee's to around $325.


It kills me how steve leaves out features people want and expect to see in new device releases and then adds them in the following model. But I do understand how steve could be right about how they aim for getting the best product for a specific price point and some things just cant be done right then for there specific price points.

I think its really great how apple does there computer line. They have a set of devices at different price points. MACBook, MACBook Pro.... and instead of making tons of different models they have schedualed refreshs. So next year they will have the same lineup of MACBOOKs, MACBook Pro's, etc.... for around the same price. But as techology prices come down that update and add new things so you get more for the same price.


What other computer company offers free training work shops every single day. I have to say that their customer service is greate and they cover their products for a year. You have a problem, they fix it or replace it no questions asked.



Apple is really starting to grow on me and I'm hating MS more and more.

 

[charriga]

I became anti-Apple the first time I sat down at an Apple IIe--"What do you mean there's no DOS prompt?"

A few years later it was reinforced when had to attend a workshop in a Mac lab--"What's wrong with these mice?"

I do have an ipod nano. But i-tunes and the app store make me crazy.

Microsoft keeps making it harder to get inside my computer, but I still like it better for computers. I must admit, the iPad is a slick toy and I'm really enjoying it.

 

[cherhall]

I absolutely love my iPad and iphone, but just cant get into Mac computers. I have tried twice, once years ago and again last year. But I always go back to my PC. The iMac I bought last year looks nice, screen is gorgeous, but I just don't care for the OS or lack of software.

 

[Seadog]

The first thing to know about the company is that its mission in life is to create great, easy to use products. This statement might seem ambiguous, but it's packed with some very powerful meaning. Jobs revealed this guideline at his MacWorld keynote in 2001, stating that the Mac would become the center of a digital lifestyle. At the time, we assumed he meant the Mac computer—it turns out that he meant the Mac OS.
Indeed, since then the Mac OS has become the center of the Mac, iPod, iPhone, and now the iPad. Jobs has a single code base to work with, which lets him create all types of products. Having a single core OS that is consistent throughout devices is Apple's second basic tenet. Once you learn the Mac UI, you can pretty much operate any other product in Apple's line. I cannot emphasize how important this is. In fact, this is a security blanket for Apple users. They may not articulate this when asked why they like the company, but it's one of the major reasons they keep buying Apple products.
The third basis tenet of Apple's strategy is the creation of receptacles for the Mac OS. Today the list includes the Mac, iPod, iPhone, and the iPad. But you can be sure that when Apple introduces new versions of Apple TV or any other new product line, it will also be built around the Mac OS and will be tied to Apple's ecosystem of software applications and services. These applications and services are designed around strict guidelines so they can conform to Apple's consistent UI, making them easier for consumers to understand and use. You can also be sure that these devices will be elegantly designed, another key driver for Apple's products.
If you keep these guidelines in mind, it's pretty easy to anticipate what Apple will bring to market. These principles drive the company's R&D efforts and eventual products. The actual form factors of these devices are always a mystery until they're actually announced, of course, but all take advantage of the Mac OS, its UI, and the company's ecosystem of software and services.
The mystique, ultimately, is tied more to Jobs than to Apple. Although he is back at work and in the public eye more often, Jobs is still a very private person. But he is well known for his role in commercializing the personal computer and reinventing the MP3 player. He's a legend around the world. The fact that he doesn't talk much about himself, combined with the company's penchant for secrecy, lends an air of mystique to the whole thing.

This is an excerpt from a columnist about the mystery of Apple. It may give an impression of trying to grant Jobs an aura of sainthood, but Steve Jobs is someone that has a vision. He is like many great people, in that he has focus on something specific, and has the brains and resources to make it happen. In every field, there are those who can design great things, those who can organize groups of people, and those who perform great feats. It is very unique to have someone that can cut through the thousands of permentations of potential products and cut through what is relevent and what is not. Like Jobs or hate him, his track record is impressive.

 

[henry2]

when the ipod came out i went and bought it for i like the music player and i like the fact that i could try and fill up a 240 gb hard with music but could not ..

then 2007 era i bought the apple iphone and was amazed with the phone tech at the time..for my work life had been print out a sheet of paper from the mobile printer unit from map quest and then follow the directions to the work site..not with apple iphone and basic gps ..

then i got basically hacked and i was pp----- off about beening hacked a lot of the data i had stolen ..for i had been a pc guy for years also i was basically get tired of the so caled bugs and fixs and other things that you got a daily or weekly update when you log onto the internet to start to view the web for something ..

a good friend who is the socalled mac fan took me to a apple store and he basically walked me through how to use a mac in the store in about 15 mins of playing around with the imac unit in the store.. i had the basics of how to use the imac right then and there along with him saying that mac platrom is a more closed base system than a windows base platform os system .. my friend was laughing when i was standing there with the credit card in hand saying to the saleperson ..i want this and this and this and when it was all said and done it ..it was about $.4000.oo dollars later for a mac .i do take the buying of a computer lightly so i know that it going to last me a long time in my life ..belive me when i said this i could belive after 15 years of useing a windows products person..

iam going over to apple i told my friend he was laughing for most of the people who have been windows user after getting a mac say the statement why did i wait so long for a mac .. i use a imac as both a computer and tv watching when iam home with a simple device and antanna unit for watching a little tv here and there ..

when i saw the apple ipad and how it performed on the news and watching any youtube video i could find on it and reading any one wrote about it ..i knew i wanted one for the basic reason of haveing a bigger screen and simple to use os system like the iphone aliong with the fact most of the programs i allready had on the iphone will fit onto the ipad and be able to use them also ..

iam a fan i not know ..do i like apple products yes but for me it a basically love hate thing at times ..for i love the simple to use products but hate itunes and the ways it controls things ..

 

[henry2]

my thoughts on a camera and other do dads on the ipad is because of the battie life and how much os space they eat up with the programing of the camera system ..

i do i want a camera on the ipad no .. will there be one in the future yes ..but the smartest thing apple can do is keep it the set up that is has now ..for you going to make it to a point where it going to eat up space on the hard drives with the os system and add weight to a good device that allready great as it is.

 

[Matth3w]

I don't think I could ever switch to all Apple computers. I like the abundant software for the PC and the easier ability to build my own rather than overpaying in an Apple store for something I can pay a lot less to build on my own and put Vista/7 on.

And for the people hating on Vista/7...I really think people just don't know how to use computers, because my computer hasn't crashed once since Vista came out for anything other than stupid use...like when I was trying different core voltages overclocking my current machine. Of course, I don't visit stupid sites, I don't install bloatware on my PC, I keep it backed up, protected, defrag'd and never have any issues at all. And that's for both 32 and 64 bit versions. The only snag I had was when Vista x64 FIRST came out, I had a hard time with drivers, but that's a manufacturer issue not MS.

It works flawlessly for me.

Personally I like more control not less. Apple seems appealing to some because it does a lot of stuff for you and supposedly makes it easier. But I prefer to do it myself, even if it takes more time. I borrowed my SIL's Macbook when we were home for our wedding and just didn't really care for it.

LOVE my iPad though.

 

[deoknam]

I never like apple products. Ipad is my first apple product that i owned. I thought Mac computers are not user friendly. Or maybe i have been spending a lot of time with windows. I have changed computers over the years. And never once did I consider buying a Mac. Until iPad came out, now I have been neglecting my pc. I haven't updated it anymore. Guilty!

 

[sunking]

I swore that I would never buy another Apple product when I replaced my old iPod with an Archos 604 many years ago. Flash forward to April and hear me trashing Apple and the iPad at launch. I visited my local Bestbuy about two weeks ago and saw all of the fanboys at the Apple demo table and thought to myself "let me see what the fuss is all about" and after having the device in my hand for about 10 seconds and I knew that I had to have one. I ordered one online at the Apple.com store (32gb 3G) and got a delivery date of June18th. Being the impatient guy that I am, I visited my Bestbuy this past weekend and found that they had the 32gb wifi in stock....so what do I do...I buy it of course. So, here I sit, typing this on my 32gb wifi unit and anxiously awaiting the arrival of the 32gb 3G unit. I will give this wifi iPad to my wife when my 3G gets here.

So...from Apple basher to owning 2 iPads in the course of about a week.

 

[Matth3w]

I owned an Archos 5. Archos is a piece of shit. And the customer service is atrocious, quality control is atrocious...everything about that device aside from the fact that it holds a ton of movies is atrocious.

 

[Blueroomelectronics]

When I was in highschool I Hated MAC's. I thought the user interface was ugly and not verry usable at all. There was a MAC fanatic in on of my webdesign classes. He would always talk about how great apple is and I would just laugh at him.

Then apple launched there OS X operating system and I was like wow thats a big improvement, but I still never used macs until a little over a year ago I decided to just bite the bullet and get a MAC mini since I'm a computer tech I want to at least have some kind of MAC OS knowledge. The Switch over from windows PC to Mac only took about 2 days for me to get the hand of most of all the stuff on the Mac.

And guess what, its been almost one year that I have turned on my $2,000 Windows PC maybe 5 times just to play a video game (my windows pc has a killer graphcs card). I have only been using my Mac Mini at home.

I'm starting to like apple more and more as time goes on and how I keep seeing apple doing things right and microsoft doing things completely wrong. I had the iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS. Now that I Have my iPad I got rid of the iPhone and probably wont get the iPhone 4 because of what AT&T is pulling with their removal of unlimited data and uping the early termination fee's to around $325.


It kills me how steve leaves out features people want and expect to see in new device releases and then adds them in the following model. But I do understand how steve could be right about how they aim for getting the best product for a specific price point and some things just cant be done right then for there specific price points.

I think its really great how apple does there computer line. They have a set of devices at different price points. MACBook, MACBook Pro.... and instead of making tons of different models they have schedualed refreshs. So next year they will have the same lineup of MACBOOKs, MACBook Pro's, etc.... for around the same price. But as techology prices come down that update and add new things so you get more for the same price.


What other computer company offers free training work shops every single day. I have to say that their customer service is great and they cover their products for a year. You have a problem, they fix it or replace it no questions asked.



Apple is really starting to grow on me and I'm hating MS more and more.

Almost exactly my sediments. I recently bought a MackBook Pro just to write apps for the iPad. My high end Win7 PC hasn't been turned on since.