• Cyborganism
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      138 months ago

      Wasn’t that always the case? I mean compared to my IBM PC clone, mine did way more and cost way less. And it was upgradeable. And mine could play games.

    • @DJDarren@thelemmy.club
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      58 months ago

      Gaming aside (though that particular gap is beginning to close) I honestly can’t think of anything I’ve wanted to do with my various Macs over the years that I couldn’t because of macOS.

      The closest I can get to is running radio station playout software, but that was less something I needed to do, and more an itch I fancied scratching at that moment. Other than that, my Macs have always had a way to do exactly what I wanted with them.

  • 0^2
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    8 months ago

    Guess it’s as good a place as ever to remind everyone who uses Patreon that if you are subscribing through Patreon app on iOS that prices are going up in Sept by 50-60% and if you want to save money go through the actual website. This is Apple charging more not Patreon.

    Edit: Apple is forcing Patreon to abide by the 30% Apple store fee this going through Patreon App on iOS will increase costs for end users by at least 30%; easiest solution is subscribing through the website, still being able to access content through the iOS app.

    https://www.imore.com/apps/your-next-patreon-sub-might-cost-more-if-youre-paying-with-iphone

    This is a common trend actually, don’t subscribe to services through Apple iOS apps if you want to save money. And to a lesser extent Android.

    • @fossphi@lemm.ee
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      358 months ago

      The monopolistic shenanigans aside. I hope that companies also learn from this and have functional websites again and stop forcing people to apps. It’s gonna a be a win win

    • @tyler@programming.dev
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      68 months ago

      Apple is not charging 60% more. That is patreon. How this drivel spreads is beyond me. Apple charges 30%. This has been pretty fucking consistent for a decade. Patreon is telling creators to raise their prices because they (patreon) aren’t going to take the loss, they’re going to force it on their userbase. Patreon could easily just eat the 30% or even 15%, but that would cost them profits so they don’t. And then they claim Apple is costing users a 60% price increase. Fucking ridiculous.

      • @soupuos@sopuli.xyz
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        78 months ago

        If they’re (Patreon) eating 30%, wouldn’t they lose money per transaction? I assume they take less than 30% of each subscription currently.

      • @Prime@lemmy.sdf.org
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        68 months ago

        You are mistaken there. 60% increase means that patreon gets just as much as they get now, because 60/160 is approx 30%.

        Also, just eating 30% margin is absolutely a problem and far from easy

        • @tyler@programming.dev
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          I’m not mistaken. Even Patreon doesn’t claim the apple change will cost 60%. https://support.patreon.com/hc/en-us/articles/11111747095181-Creator-fees-overview

          And 60% of 160 is almost 40%, nice rounding down there to make your numbers sound better. And what the fuck does that have to do with anything anyways??? 30% of 100 is 30%. I’m saying that the creators shouldn’t have to do anything.

          Why does Patreon even have a fucking app!? There’s no need for it at all. This ridiculous rise of companies creating useless apps just so they can harvest your info in addition to the info they’re already harvesting from you just signing up.

    • Johanno
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      38 months ago

      The most annoying thing is that in apples terms of service you are not allowed to tell people that you could go to the website for cheaper prices. Or if you don’t offer payments through the app store why you are doing it. (because of apples stupid fee)

      Android isn’t really better, but at least you are allowed to link to websites that function out of the play store payments.

      • @Balooog@discuss.online
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        28 months ago

        I don’t disagree on the Patreon app point, but I sub to like 6 podcasts and never visit the app or website. For me it’s very much an RSS feed experience via my preferred podcast app.

    • Mbourgon everywhere
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      28 months ago

      It’s also PATREON fucking up. I’ve got a couple people i follow that are moving to Ghost as a hedge.

      • @TheKingBee@lemmy.world
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        8 months ago

        ghost?

        nm I looked it up myself.

        Why aren’t more people on ghost? It’s a stupid name for what it does, but the $9 a month and keeping the rest is a great deal if you have more than a handful of subscribers.

        • @corbin@infosec.pub
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          38 months ago

          Ghost managed hosting gets more expensive as you get more subscribers, I don’t think Patreon does. You also have to set up the payments processor yourself (usually Stripe), and if you self-host, you need to set up an email service like Mailchimp. Ghost also has much more basic community features than Patreon, and doesn’t do per-user RSS feeds, so stuff like subscriber-only podcasts are more difficult.

      • Mbourgon everywhere
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        17 months ago

        Since I got downvoted on this - among other things, Patreon is removing the “per post” subscription model. One of the people I follow sent: “This is the second time in as many years that Patreon has screwed up my business”

  • HEXN3T
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    388 months ago

    Does a small handful of things extremely well, is otherwise stupidly limited by choice and costs way too much.

    Think different, even if it means thinking worse.

      • HEXN3T
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        428 months ago
        1. Best trackpads. By far. Gaming? Use a controller. I will die on this hill.
        2. All of their OSes are a great user experience. They’re stable, they’re intuitive, and–most importantly–they’re aesthetically pleasing.
        3. Logic Pro.
        4. Actually, basically every app that Apple makes is pretty good. I would swap out the majority of the software on my Pixel for Apple apps if it wasn’t proprietary and exclusive.
        5. iPhone videos are outstanding. My Pixel can’t match my old 13 Pro’s video, and it’s a newer phone. Photos are also slightly worse here, but not after some editing.
        6. Objectively better build quality if you ignore planned obscelecense. My MacBook just feels well built. It feels sturdy and durable even if a speck of dust can kill the display, and every factor of the build is just better than anything else available. Phones are mostly up to spec, but my Pixel just doesn’t feel as nice as my old iPhone, especially the objectively worse button and camera layout.

        Mostly everything else? No. I can’t install cool FOSS projects on my phone, or know what’s running on it. I prefer Linux as an OS, but not any DE compared to macOS. I’ve also had some periods where stuff doesn’t just work, such as iCloud fucking my free space and wiping almost my entire system when I try to fix the issue as per instructions I was given by an employee. Then, there’s just that Apple is gross. I don’t need to explain that, or anything about repair. Else… the closed source software is excellent closed source software. The unrepairable, proprietary hardware is excellent hardware.

        They’re just a few steps from being better than any other company or project… a couple of several thousand mile long steps.

        • @MotoAsh@lemmy.world
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          108 months ago

          Number one is because they’ve patented the trackpad sol noone else can use the newer style. Number 6 is madecompletely moot by the high price and the fact that many other vendors have laptops with BETTER build quality. Especially if you factor in all the engineering missteps they seem to constantly make.

          Doubt me? Just look up Luis Rossman teardown videos. He’ll show you actual macs from customers, that he takes appart onscreen, and shows you exactly how Apple makes extremely basic engineering mistakes.

          Don’t like him? Look up anyone else that gets under the hood of Apple products without being in Apple’s cultish parts program.

          • HEXN3T
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            …The speck of dust comment was, I kid you not, a direct reference to Louis Rossmann. I avoid GrapheneOS due to one of his videos. I use GrayJay. I suggest his repair store to others. The point is the outward build quality–the body–and not smaller internal components. Others are undeniably better… but my hands aren’t touching those components. They’re touching the shell. Keyboard. Trackpad. Glass. That was the point being made.

            In other words… ratio.

            EDIT: I’m searching Kagi for anything related to the trackpad comment… and this just seems unsubstantiated. Apple doesn’t own gestures. Nothing burger here. Quite a shame. I was ready for a heated debate, but dinner’s already been served.

        • DominusOfMegadeus
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          28 months ago

          Excellent summation, mate. I would have agreed with 2 even five years ago. Sadly not anymore.

          • HEXN3T
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            38 months ago

            Yeah. I don’t have an iPhone anymore due to this downward trend. I still think macOS holds up well now, though, despite their insistence on killing off old app support for no reason.

            Also, I’m a musician. Linux has nothing up to par with Logic, and going Windows is utterly stupid. Best option right now, or I’m out my literal largest hobby… unless I start making stuff oldschool style.

            Not gonna lie. If I had the equipment and knowledge, I would.

      • @Carnelian@lemmy.world
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        228 months ago

        Macs are like uncannily good at real-time audio processing, also audio and MIDI routing in general has less friction. Less tinkering in general when connecting external synths

        Like with anything you can find tons of people online who have no issues with their windows based production setup, YMMV. But macs are ubiquitous in the music space, from my experience I think it’s deserved

      • Snot Flickerman
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        118 months ago

        My Linux nerd friend swore by Intel Macs for recording/mixing music for years.

        He hasn’t tried the Apple silicon macs at all though.

        • @prettybunnys@sh.itjust.works
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          78 months ago

          I’ve been in the unix and Linux world for 10 years now, with forays into administering windows when necessary.

          I currently write software for Linux hosts, I have tux tattooed on my chest, literally.

          Today the only laptop I’d purchase is an Apple silicon machine.

          The only thing I miss is i3.

      • @SteveFromMySpace@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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        They certainly hold their value if you are somebody who sells their old hardware for upgrades. I’ve traded up on several occasions for a not insignificant discount.

  • @Eiri@lemmy.world
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    You know, it’s not always, but apple does sell things that are price-competitive with similarly performing competing products.

    Some iterations of the Mac Mini have been hard to beat with a tiny PC with similar performance.

    The M1 MacBooks had some surprisingly cheap options for the relatively premium laptops they were.

    Samsung’s Ultra phones tend to cost more or less the same as the Apple Pro Max phones.

    The main difference is sometimes just that Apple doesn’t make low-end or low-mid-range, or sometimes not even anything below “relatively high-end”, products in a particular category.

    • @moonburster@lemmy.world
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      108 months ago

      Can confirm on the MacBook side. My girlfriend got a m series macbook and it’s better than anything in it’s price range. That device is so snappy while having a battery life that’s incomparable to anything with windows

      • @DJDarren@thelemmy.club
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        118 months ago

        I’ve owned 4 MacBooks. A white plastic one, a 13" MBP, a 15" MBP, and now a 15" M2 Air.

        I’ve had the Air for a year and I still can’t wrap my head around how it’s technically in a class below the fully specced 15" 2015 MBP, but outperforms it in literally every way. Don’t get me wrong, I understand that, even without Apple Silicon, computer tech jumped on in leaps and bounds in the 8 years between my last two, but the performance difference is astonishing.

        Sure, it’s a lot of money for an ‘entry level’ laptop, but this fucker is going to last me ten years or more. When Apple no doubt drop OS support for it in a few years, Asahi Linux will almost certainly be rock solid enough to fully replace macOS.

    • @zik@lemmy.world
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      28 months ago

      Samsung offers a lot more models so they tend to have a higher high end and a lower low end than Apple.

  • Boomer Humor Doomergod
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    228 months ago

    A study from 2022 found that deploying Macs in the enterprise has a lower TCO than Windows. Mainly because they have to buy less extra software and they don’t need as many IT staff to support them. Also, employees with Macs are more productive and do better on their performance reviews.

    • nfh
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      98 months ago

      I don’t see this mentioned there, but that Apple has largely ignored enterprise works out as a strength; other companies wrote and open sourced pretty good tools. That can result in tools that better meet your needs, and generally will result in a lower TCO.

      • Boomer Humor Doomergod
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        148 months ago

        And since Macs are just UNIX machines under the hood, a lot of those open-source things are already built-in or can be added without much trouble.

    • @cramola@sh.itjust.works
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      28 months ago

      Depends on the enterprise. If you’re a 1 user to 1 device shop maybe. If you’re an institution with shared devices…good fucking luck, be prepared to enter device management hell

      • @sandbox@lemmy.world
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        48 months ago

        MacOS supports PAM and LDAP just like any enterprise-class UNIX system, as well as lots of enterprise class device management tools such as InTune.

        If you know what you’re doing, it’s more manageable than Windows, even.

  • RickRussell_CA
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    198 months ago

    Well, that button probably dates from the late 80s or early 90s, when Apple was comparing Macs to branded IBM PS/2s and such that were sold to schools and enterprises.

    And they weren’t wrong, at the time. Those PS/2s were fuckin’ expensive.

    • @linkhidalgogato@lemmy.ml
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      apple was never cheaper than their competition, and when IBM got into PCs they were also not even comparable in quality anymore. Reality is that even in the early days apples was also more expensive and they relied on a dedicated fan base to sell their trash, to be fair they sorta earned their reputation in the super early PC space with actually good products but when IBM came in, it had better PCs at lower prices and apple was basically riding on pure brand power. Then they had a few good hits with the ipad and later the iphone (tho the ipad was not as significant at the time as people seem to think it was looking back) and now they have been entirely eclipsed when it comes to phones and are once again reliant on hype and brand recognition.

      It is not a unique history by any means but i feel it is especially egregious considering just how shit apple products are and how expensive they are.

      • RickRussell_CA
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        108 months ago

        So, I lived through that time, and I supported computers professionally during that time. I started working at a university help desk in 1989.

        It’s easy to go back and look at Apple products and white-box PCs of the era (or quasi-legit clones like Compaq, HP, Gateway, etc) and say, “oh, on specs, the Apples were MASSIVELY overpriced – you can get a much better deal with the PC”.

        The problem was that PCs were nowhere near on par, functionally, with Macintosh.

        • Networking. We were running building-wide Appletalk networks – with TCP/IP gateways – over existing phone wires YEARS before anybody figured out how to get coax or 10base-T installed. We were playing NETWORK GAMES (Bolo, anyone) on Mac in the late 80s.

        • And when they did… what do you do with networking in DOS? Unless you ran a completely canned network OS (remember Banyan, Novell, etc. ad infinitum?) and canned apps specifically designed to work with it, you were SOL. Windows 3.0 and 3.1 were a joke compared to System 7.

        I configured PCs and Macs for the freshman class in 1995. For the Mac? You plug the ethernet port in and the OS does the rest. For the PC… find a DOS-compatible packet driver that works with your network card, get it running, then run Trumpet Winsock in Windows 3.1, then… then… it was a goddamned nightmare. We had to have special clinics just to get people’s PCs up and running with a web browser, and even then, there were about 10% of machines we just had to say “nope”. Can’t find a working driver, can’t get anything working right. Your IRQs are busted? Who fuckin’ knows. I ran the “Ethernet Clinic” until the late 90s, when Windows 98 finally properly integrated the TCP/IP layer in the OS.

        • Useful software on the Mac had a pretty consistent look & feel. On the PC? Even in Windows 3.1, it was all over the map. You might have a Windows native program, you might have a DOS program that launches in a console window, you might have a completely different graphical interface embedded in the software (Delphi apps, anyone?). Games were using DOS into the mid 90s because getting anything working right in Windows 3.1 was a total fuckin crap shoot.

        Windows 95 started to fix things, finally. And Windows XP would finally bring an OS with stability comparable to Mac (arguably WIndows 2000 as well, but it was never really offered on non-corporate PCs).

        The short version is: that $3000 Mac could do a lot more than that $1800 PC, even if the specs said that the CPU was faster on the PC.

      • @pimeys@lemmy.nauk.io
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        28 months ago

        At the same time Windows is going down the drain, so if you compare removed to that it definitely has an edge. And that 8GB Air is not that expensive either… And fanboy can tell you it can swap to SSD so fast blah blah…

        But if you have the knowledge to use Linux, there are less and less reasons to go even near removed computers…

      • @bluewing@lemm.ee
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        28 months ago

        You for got to mention the free and heavily discounted prices to get Mac computers into schools to get kids hooked on them. Which is something they still do to this I think.

    • @zik@lemmy.world
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      18 months ago

      There’s a reason why no-one bought IBM PS/2s. They were horrible value for money.

      The real competition at the time was the thousands of other brands selling PCs. By that time IBM was plummeting in sales and other companies were selling most of the PCs. That’s where 95% of the market was.

      • RickRussell_CA
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        17 months ago

        Certainly, but Apple was comparing itself to other computer companies with international reach, not to the white box PCs coming out of the Floppy Wizard store in the strip center.

        • @zik@lemmy.world
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          17 months ago

          A lot of larger companies like Compaq etc. were making “respectable” PCs by then and selling them in big quantities in direct competition to IBM.

  • @corbin@infosec.pub
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    168 months ago

    The M2 Mac Mini is $599, or $499 if you can get the education discount. There is not a (new) Windows PC in that price range that has the same performance (especially performance-per-watt) and Thunderbolt 4. The M1 MacBook Air is getting a bit old, but it’s on sale for $600-700 pretty often and will knock the socks off most PCs in that price range, especially in build quality.

    Apple’s pricing gets ridiculous when you try spec’ing up with certain memory or storage upgrades, sure, and most internal upgrades are a no-go. The base models of most of their computers are incredibly competitive, though.

    • @LANIK2000@lemmy.world
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      228 months ago

      At 600 you can get a computer with an actual graphics card. The only outstanding feature of the M1/2 macs is the very low power consumption, the rest is quite subpar.

      • @orca@orcas.enjoying.yachts
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        8 months ago

        It’s really up to personal preference but I’m a big fan of the metal unibody of Mac laptops. While my friends’ PC laptops plastic bodies were starting to separate and show wear, my laptop was still looking mint. That alone also helped determine how long I kept a Mac laptop going (I was on a 2017 MBP 13” up to just recently and the body is still near mint).

        So while it could be perceived as a simple cosmetic preference, it was also about the longevity of the laptop’s use.

        That said, I have an ASUS ROG Zephyrus that has a pretty solid body, despite being plastic. Some of them have gotten better, but a lot are still flimsy crap.

        It’s the same reason I prefer the body of my iPhone, vs the multitude of plastic Android flagship phones I churned through back in the day. The G1 still holds a place in my heart though and had a metal body (and I still have it in its original box!)

        • @LANIK2000@lemmy.world
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          28 months ago

          I don’t want to downplay or invalidate any of your preferences, but you HEAVILY miss represent the competition. Have you seen a non apple device in the past 5 years?

          Other companies make metal body PCs now. From the dinky cheap ass laptop I bought just for fun, to my sister’s proper gaming laptop, there’s plenty of metal+glass laptops out there. And when it comes to android I only really follow Samsung, Sony and Google, but at least those 3 have had metal+glass flagship phones since I care to remember. (looked it up, Sony: 2013, Samsung: 2015, Google: 2018)

      • @corbin@infosec.pub
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        8 months ago

        A $600 PC with a dedicated graphics card is probably going to have a worse CPU than an M2 or M3 Mini, and probably no Thunderbolt. You would only be cross-shopping a PC like that with a Mac Mini if you were thinking of graphically-demanding productivity work, like video editing or Blender. If it’s for gaming then the Mac wouldn’t be in the running at all.

        • @LANIK2000@lemmy.world
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          7 months ago

          Except for their low draw and thus unmatched battery life on portable devices, the M chips are honestly not impressive performance wise. Not really the appeal, even tho Apple is trying tooth and nails to pretend that that’s a selling point with their unlabeled graphs.

          I mean if you really don’t want a GPU (which IMO is a must, given proper hardware acceleration which makes up for any CPU short comings, but I digress), that leaves you with a much bigger budget for the CPU, and now it’s no longer close enough to the M chips, but an absolute slaughter.

    • Johanno
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      88 months ago

      Well now I just need apple to provide a real os.

      I use Nixos btw.

    • Boomer Humor Doomergod
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      38 months ago

      If I’m buying a Mac personally I always buy a refurbished one. The machine has the same warranty but you save a couple hundred bucks.

  • @kersplomp@programming.dev
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    This post was maybe true 5 years ago, but PC laptops have really started to suck. My macbook air was only $300 and it’s way better than my work’s $1k+ Dell laptop in terms of performance and battery life.

  • @Got_Bent@lemmy.world
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    118 months ago

    I had an Apple ][+ in 1982 and an Apple ][c in 1984.

    Cost less is a relative term depending on application.

    They were cheaper than full business model IBM computers (who hadn’t much entered into the home computer market) but significantly more expensive than other home offerings such as commodore or (shudder) radio shack.

    • @xthexder@l.sw0.com
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      38 months ago

      My username is from playing Thexder on my grandparents’ Apple ][gs. I had a lot of fun learning Basic on that computer.

  • Sabre363
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    108 months ago

    Does more, lol. Think Apple might need a dictionary considering iPhone is just barely getting home screen customization and the Mac mouse actively works against doing anything.

  • @GooberEar@lemmy.wtf
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    108 months ago

    It’s true! My last mac cost me nothing because it was provided by my job. And the case popped open after the battery swelled within a year of me getting it, something my personal laptops have never done before.

    • @KellysNokia@lemmy.world
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      38 months ago

      That tends to happen when the laptop battery is kept at a high temperature for long intervals.

      My work laptop security doesn’t play nice with Windows Update, so “update and shut down” actually does “update and restart” and proceeds to incinerate the laptop in my bag until the battery is exhausted.

      Took me a while to figure out why my batteries would turn pillow so frequently.

      • @GooberEar@lemmy.wtf
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        38 months ago

        I don’t really ever travel with my laptops, at least not to put them in bags. I think the Mac laptops had a known issue with defective batteries, though.

  • @foggy@lemmy.world
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    78 months ago

    Original iPod: Clunky, ugly, not the most storage.

    But using jt will remind you of playing with nipples.