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Am I An Apple Fanboy?

Discussion in 'Fred's House of Pancakes' started by boulder_bum, Aug 20, 2008.

  1. dogfriend

    dogfriend Human - Animal Hybrid

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  2. boulder_bum

    boulder_bum Senior Member

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    Have you considered the Airport Express approach? If you have a bunch of Airport Expresses instead of iPods hooked to speakers throughout the house, then all you and your wife would need is an iPhone or iPod touch with the free Remote app. You figure there's less synching/maintenance involved, and you'd have full access to your entire library, not just what's currently synched!

    You just pull up what you want via Remote, which displays your organized playlists, etc., and it lets you choose the "Speakers" you want to play the music on (i.e. you choose which Airport Express you want to stream the music to). You even get cover art displayed in the "Remote"!

    [​IMG]
     
  3. TimBikes

    TimBikes New Member

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    I think you only qualify as a fanboy if you:

    • can't bring yourself to ever say anything negative about the Mac / Apple
    • slam Vista regularly despite never having used it
    • and insert "Well, with a Mac you can..." in every conversation possible, all the while not realizing how stupid you sound to PC users who can do all the same stuff on their machines.
    So I don't think you qualify.

    Nothing wrong with having some Apple products, just with having the annoying Mac attitude.
     
  4. boulder_bum

    boulder_bum Senior Member

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    What if I slam Vista regularly despite having used it since before it was even released to the public? Most of the issues have been resolved, but I still have a printer whose darn drivers crash my system!

    Vista (or rather programs and hardware running on Vista) has been nothing but trouble for me. :frusty:
     
  5. dogfriend

    dogfriend Human - Animal Hybrid

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    Well, with a Mac you can usually Print without crashing your system. :D
     
  6. nyty-nyt

    nyty-nyt Member

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    My signature photo says it all.

    15 years of Apple computers and products, zero problems. I still have the original iPod in use, among many other iPods, and it works just fine.

    I think the Prius is as close to an apple product as anything can ever be.
     
  7. TimBikes

    TimBikes New Member

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    Never had a problem printing with Vista or XP. But that's not to say others haven't. But then again, Mac users apparently have their share of problems too:

    Mac OS X and iPod Troubleshooting, Support, and Help - MacFixIt

    My only recent experience with a Mac was in trying to burn a bunch of jpgs from an iMac onto a CD. Talk about painful - finally after about 20 minutes of using the Mac's "intuitive interface" I figured it out. Even the teacher for whom I was doing it didn't know how - and she is a Mac user (by default) because the school put one in her classroom. Well, "put one in her classroom" is not quite accurate. She told me she was on her 4th i-Mac as the previous 3 all had problems and had to be replaced.
     
  8. TimBikes

    TimBikes New Member

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    If you were using a beta version, that could be the problem. I have Vista SP1 and the only trouble I've had was with firewall software from Computer Associates. It didn't play well with Vista so I installed something different and have had no troubles since. I was hesitant after being a longtime XP user, but for me Vista has worked out quite nicely.
     
  9. boulder_bum

    boulder_bum Senior Member

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    It's not beta, I just have a Microsoft software subscription (MSDN) that gets me software before the general public.

    I had Vista Ultimate 64-bit and iTunes wouldn't work for it, Visual Studio and SQL Server 2005 (Microsoft products) had trouble working with it. Some software won't even install, WHS Connector (another Microsoft product) didn't support 64-bit Vista and my old Microsoft fingerprint reader wasn't supported, either.

    My old NAS didn't support Vista's NTLM 2 authentication, Vista would try to screw up my iPod with a disk utility, etc., etc..

    I eventually got so frustrated I downgraded to 32 bit, but I still had a wireless N USB adapter that blue-screened my system and the HP WiFi printer that crashed my internet connection about once a minute (works fine on my XP laptop, though).

    Suffice it to say, I wouldn't necessarily rule out my next computer being a Mac. :p
     
  10. Tchou

    Tchou Member

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    I have at Home 4 desktop mac, 3 laptops, My first computer was a mac, I was a Windows network admin and still use pcs at work... but I never considerate myself as an apple fanboy... I prefer to use a mac because it suits me better, and give me less maintenance work so i can feel at home when I'm at home, (I would feel like at work doing maintenance of my own computers)...
    I had some hardware issues (Hard disk failures...) but this is not mac related...
    I just use the tools that suits me better, if someone asks me about macs I tell them what they want to know but I will never try to make someone change for a mac. they have to choose for themselves...
     
  11. dogfriend

    dogfriend Human - Animal Hybrid

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    Congratulations and Welcome. :D
     
  12. debos

    debos New Member

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    i work for apple, and let me tell you there's nothing more annoying than "fanboys" who love to chat it up try to out geek me.....AHHHHHHHH
     
  13. TimBikes

    TimBikes New Member

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    I went with 32 bit. It sounds like many programs are still not optimized for 64 bit, so I figured there was no point -- yet. Anyway, sorry to hear you are having trouble. I considered a Mac but at the end of the day it was just too much more money for too little, if any benefit for me. Plus having to re-learn a lot of things that are now second nature. But that doesn't mean it's not a good choice for others. It all boils down to personal preference - but my Vista experience overall has been good.
     
  14. OlsonBW

    OlsonBW New Member

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    No computer system is perfect. They are made by humans after all.

    Am I an Apple fanboy? I wouldn't call myself that anymore than I consider myself a fanboy of a tv brand. I don't drink the cool aid. I just find Apple products being just enough better at the things that I personally do are better.

    Yes there are some things like burning CDs that are just stupidly not obvious as to what to do on a Mac. Try moviemaker on a Windows computer then iMovie (I much prefer iMovie '06 as iMovie '08 seems to be for movies 20 minutes or less. Oh well.

    As for costing more. This is a myth if you compare same hardware to same hardware. Once you pick that low end Dell, etc, and upgrade it so that it has the same or very similar hardware as the Apple computer you will find the Dell, etc., to be very close to the same price or even higher. Plus you can run Windows, or Linux, or etc. on a Mac along side Mac OS X. You can't run Mac OS X on a Dell.
     
  15. TimBikes

    TimBikes New Member

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    Sounds like you made a good decision - I believe people should use what works for them, be it Windows, Mac, or Linux.

    However, I have to take issue with Mac costing the same. That has not been my experience at all. I researched a laptops recently spec'd against a MacBook Pro (same CPU, same memory, same screen size, larger HD on PC) and the PC was markedly less expensive (about $750 less).

    Or, take a mac-mini at $599. It has a Core 2 Processor (1.8 GHz), 1 GB RAM, and an 80 GB HD.

    For the same $599 you can get a Dell desktop QUAD Core 2.4 GHz, with 4 GB of RAM and a 500 GB HD.

    But if you like Macs, then by all means the difference is worth it. I won't argue that. Like I said - I think people should use whatever suits them best. But recognize that in most cases, the PC is less $ for equal performance or more performance at an equivalent price.
     
  16. Tchou

    Tchou Member

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    Did your PC had
    -a GEForce 8600M GT with 512MB of memory on it
    -Digital Audio in and out
    -Express card
    -IEEE 1394
    -IEEE 1394b
    -Wireless networking 802.11 a b g and n
    -bluetooth 2.1 with EDR
    -Gigabit ethernet
    -DVI port.
    -backlit keyboard
    -multi-touch trackpad
    -built-in webcam
     
  17. TimBikes

    TimBikes New Member

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    Very similarly spec'd:
    - ATI Mobility Radeon 3650 w/ 512
    - No on digital audio in/out
    - yes on Express card - BOTH sizes 34 & 54 (not just 34 like the Mac)
    - yes ilink 1394
    - yes on 802.11 a/b/g/n
    - yes on bluetooth 2.0 +EDR
    - 10/100 ethernet
    - HDMI port
    - no on backlit keypad
    - yes on trackpad, with right mouse and integrated fingerprint reader
    - yes on webcam

    Also - on the PC but not on the Mac:
    - 2 internal hard drives (320 GB total; secondary drive 200 GB 7200 RPM)
    - 5 in 1 card reader
    - Harman Kardon speakers
    - lightscribe DVD recordable drive
    - 3 GB RAM (vs 2 GB on Mac)
    - page up/down/home/end keys

    For me, I'll take the PCs $750 savings, the two hard drives, more RAM, the integrated card reader, right click trackpad, and HDMI port over the Mac's backlit keyboard and digital audio in/out. But if you like the mac, you like the mac. No problem. :)
     
  18. Tchou

    Tchou Member

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    I'll take gigabit ethernet, 1394b, and multi-touch trackpad over the card reader lightscribe, etc...
    Does Windows use the 3GB RAM ?
    on my machine only 2 of the 4 are recognized, (2 of the 7 GB on my desktop machine...)
    A DVI-HDMI converter ($5) easily solve the HDMI issue
    And Backlit keyboard, once you've tried it you don't go back...

    FYI Multi-touch trackpad allows for Left and Right click, scroll up/down and Left/right, zoom in/zoom out, and to rotate pictures in some applications...

    As you said everyone has to define his needs then take the tool that suits you better
     
  19. ranchogirl

    ranchogirl New Member

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    We currently have three Macs - one MacBook, and two iMacs. (My very first Mac was an SE - even before the classic - but my very first APPLE was the Apple 2E! Good times, good times...)

    Fwiw we also have several Windows-based PC's.

    Also have an iTouch and we briefly had Apple TV. And countless iPods.

    Yeah, I'd say we're loyal fans.

    Dh wants a Macbook for himself now too.

    We do run Parallels (only when needed).
     
  20. TimBikes

    TimBikes New Member

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    Based on your response, you are definitely not a "fanboy" either. ;)

    Anyway, I haven't plugged into an ethernet cable in about 5 years - all WiFi now. But the 1394b might be interesting and I can see the functionality of a backlighted keyboard. Touch might be nice, though I'm used to a right click pad and use it all day long. Also - I have to give credit to the Mac for a better battery. But I'm very pleased with the price/performance/functionality of the new PC. The Mac would be fun to learn (again) though. Last I used it was with my old Powerbook, which I liked.

    Oh - and to answer about the RAM - Windows uses all 3 GB - though I heard it is best to use equal sized pairings. Windows also has a neat memory-related feature called ReadyBoost whereby you can effectively turn external flash memory (through the USB or Card Reader) into system RAM. So if one needs more, you can simply increase the usable RAM by popping it in the card reader.