Other Have I missed the point of Apple products?

Disclaimer: I am being genuine in my requests here. If you take my comments as inflamatory or intentionally negative (basically, sounding like a hater), that is simply my frustrations bleeding through. I don't want to start a flame war, or debate which is better, PC or Mac. I want to know more about why Apple do what they do from the people who could give me the best answer: Bit-tech apple users. At the first signs of flaming or trolling, I'll be asking for the thread to be closed as it is simply not my intention to bash Apple products.


Why can't I download apps to an iPad without connecting it to a PC with iTunes?


A little bit of background:
I've been given an iPad in my job to explore the potential applications within an educational setting.

I've been given four months to get to know the tablet and the accompanying software and so far (five days) I have only used it for casual, personal use while I get the hang of it.


This is where my problems begin: It wont allow me to download ANY apps or update many of the existing apps without hooking it up to a PC with iTunes.

Surely this is a design flaw for a table computer.


I am not a fan of the painfully simplified and locked down apple products, but I have been as unbiased as I possibly can be of late due to the volume of apple products I've found myself using through the course of my job.

I just can't understand the need to go running back to the mothership and ask daddy Jobs for permisssion when I want to do something with an Apple product.


Can you explain what I'm missing that makes Apple products so fantastic?



So far, when it comes to my recommendations for the possible application of the iPad, I'm more inclined to recommend that we consider other tablet products, namely the Asus Transformer. Or, not at all.

 

I have a friend with a MacBook Pro. We mock him all the time, because one of my friends got a laptop of greater spec for ~1/2 the price.

I think that whopping great Apple logo is where the money is made. Let's be honest, apart from (I'll admit) the fact that they are well designed, nothing else means they are worth getting.

 

I feel your pain. I also work in education and was given an iPad.

See this thread.

 

It makes you look cool i guess...

I could never justify an apple product other than USED and great priced

I got an ipod lately from the marketplace the minute i got it i wiped the software and replaced it with Rockbox i really hated having to use itunes it just organized my music awful i hated ever second.

Alot of people consider them more reliable but i could put up with one blue screen a year for a system literally double the spec or more

 

Apple products are mainly aimed at people with a low level of technology knowledge. People know that they are paying a premium but for that extra cost they get really good in store help for free, easy to use hardware and software with very few issues when it comes to plugging in the camera after a family holiday.

Apple stuff works for its target market, if people can't appreciate that the market exists and accept the fact that the Apple products have a valid place in the market then I believe that they are wrong.

No product works for everyone, Apple kit is prohibitive if you want to do anything outside of what Apple originally intended it to do.

 

As a teacher who has used an iPad in an educational setting let me give my 2 cents, but I may be wrong. I bought my girlfriend the MacBook Air 1 year ago because she was struggling to write her articles on a PC. Not because she is incapable, but because she does not use what I would call a "logical organisational method", yet she always knows exactly where all of her files and pictures are.

From what I can see, the Windows OS is very much centered on placing things in folders appropriately, something with they have tried to improve with Windows 7 and are making more progress in Windows 8. But I have to say (as a full Windows lover) the search function in the Mac OS works much better than the Windows one if you know the name of what you are looking for. I am terrible with names in general (not very helpful as a teacher!) but I have noticed the a disproportionate number of Mac users are. This is why they prefer the Mac OS.

Back to your question of why the iPad is so arsey about using itunes: Apple is playing to the fact that most people who buy an iPad will have a Mac, so they are playing to the larger portion of their market. Yes, they could have included a genuine file manager system, but they got away with it on the iPod, the iPhone and the iPad's operating system is not really different. So from their point of view, why spend time and money changing a system that they have convince people to use?

I myself have a lovely Windows PC, but for my work I use a MacBook Pro (required for iApp dev) and have an iPod. With my iPod i hate the fact that I can't drag and drop songs, but I accepted the need for iTunes do to the masses.

If you are asking whether this is right or wrong, then it is wrong. I system should work for all, not just your own customers and "fanboys" but they have found a system that works. Charging more than the market rate is something that everyone has done for centuries if they are offering something that public opinion finds more pleasing (generally aesthetically) and so they are entitled to do it as we live in a capitalist society (good or not is a different topic).

So yes, it is a design flaw, but purposefully placed to make the lives of many "easier" and those of us who see how things could and should work seem ridiculous. But, overall enjoy the iPad while you can, I found it to be an excellent tool in an educational setting (teaching English in Japan to Junior High School students, and now in Turkey to senior executives) with a lot of potential, even if it is difficult to use at the start. Only recommendation I could make to someone developing Apps for this would be to improve the Starter Manual! As a lover of all things tech I am able to teach myself how to use various programmes, but many of my fellow teachers get confused.

Sorry for the long essay, but I hope this helps.

 

i think the biggest selling points for apple devices is the simplicity, I've heard people calling the iphone something along the lines of "a fisher-price phone" because of the simplicity of the design and interface, these people actually might it as an insult, but really for most people its really a good thing, there is plenty of people who just want a phone that works, they don't care about custom roms, jailbreaking etc

for me personally the thing that i appreciate about apple devices is the build quality, i've never owned an iphone, but i have been tempted purely because of the build quality, i look at my phone (Sony Ericsson arc) and compare it the iphone 4 and the differences in build quality is vast, this more or less applies to all apple products, for example compare a MBP with the vast majority of laptops out there and difference in build quality is significant.

also whilst obviously apple products do come at a premium, they also resell at a premium, compare the selling prices of second hand apple stuff to a comparable competitor and usually the apple product will sell for much more, so even though you pay ,ore for apple stuff you have more chance to reclaim some of that later.

 

I bet the battery life on the laptop is no where near as good as the MacBook, and he will be the one chuckling when he comes to sell it and the resale value is still very good.

The reason I bought an MBP was because they are bloody nice machines, very well built, battery life is great and when I come to sell it I will get decent money for it. I got the MBP and 3 years Apple care for ~£900, which yes to be fair is quite a lot of money for the spec, but it is such a joy to use and the points already highlighted make it worth it for me. Also being a developer, I wanted something new to develop for, so OS X and iOS apps were the logical choice to try.

I kind of happened upon my Mac Mini after a swap which satisfied my friends need for a netbook and satisfied my need for a little media centre (which currently never even gets turned on).

I would never buy an iMac or a new Mac Mini, purely because I don't see the value in them for me personally, but after having had a MacBook I can't see myself using another laptop.

I have not been caught up by the iPad or iPhone craze, I use an Android phone and I love it. But I can completely see the appeal of iOS, it is far too polished and accomplished to ignore, it does many things much better and much easier than other phones/tablets, if a little limited.

Basically the point in Apple products is that they provide a premium product, and charge a premium for it

 

*fixed emoticon*

 

Wait for iOS 5. it will be 100% PC independent.

 

Not really. When I bought my Dell Latitude E6400, back in the days where Apple was using the Core 2 Duo CPU in the Mac Book Pro. My laptop had everything that the MacBook Pro has, down to the back light keyboard. I have 10 hours of battery life with this. Mac Book Pro, isn't even close. I recall 7 or 8 hours.

Plus:
-> My system was much cheaper.
-> My system is cool operating (fan never spins, unless I play hours of Flash video, or play a game). Yes you can put it on your lap just fine.
-> System specification where a bit higher than the Mac Book Pro, including the GPU (well a tiny bit faster Nvidia GPU).
-> My system came with a 3 year warranty AND next business day on site service... Apple comes with 1 year.. and you need to ship it, if you don't have an Apple store, and you have to wait a while to get your system fixed. I get a tech guys at my door, when I want, and I can supervise the process.
-> My system came junk free as it is a business class system
-> System body is in magnesium alloy.
-> Weight feels a bit lighter, even with the 9-cell battery attach
-> I can have a second battery attach at the bottom (battery plate), for even longer battery life. (I did not buy it)
-> I have the ability to use a dock station
-> I have VGA, normal size Display Port, and eSATA
-> 1 screw bottom metal panel, allows full internal access to the system. With a couple of few screws you can even pull out the motherboard... very serviceable, almost as good as a desktop computer
-> non-glossy screen
-> Quiet, 0 flex keyboard.
-> Small power adapter.. not as small as the Mac Book Pro, but smaller than most PC's
-> I already dropped it in my apartment, carpet with concrete on top, it hit the corner of the laptop, where the base and palm rest touches... not even a dent or crack or even scratch (well the carpet avoided any scratched)
-> Port location is smart: Large plugs on the back, small one on the side, nothing in front.
-> OS disk (not recovery) provided, with driver disk.
-> 16:10 aspect ratio.

My laptop is almost 3 years old, and I don't want to sale it, or even replace it. Run Win8 perfectly too. So I really don't care about selling my system.. I don't need to, as it works perfectly.

Drawback:
-> It's 14inch instead of 13inch.
-> No option (at the time) for higher screen resolution above 1440x900.
-> Touch-pad isn't as good as the Mac Book Pro, but better than most laptop out there, but they are better touchpad for PC's.

My point, is that it IS POSSIBLE. It's hard to find these PC gems (based on my observations, they are mostly under the business line), but they do exists and you can't generalize, based on Best Buy crappy overheating HP with a life span of 30min system.

 

Thats some fancy new age design?!

 

What bugs me about the iPad is this:

Receive e-mail with word attachment......


...that's it. Still not managed to work out a way of saving it from the e-mail for later retrieval and use. I mean.. wtf? Probably in the top ten of things you most want to do with a mobile computing device.

Mine is no longer jailbroken due to iTunes updating iOS without me realising it was doing it. (too tired and busy, and too click happy while at work). So am now back to having a pretty useless IPS screen I can browse the web on.. and check mail... and not be able to save any of the attachments

 

Oh LOL! Nice catch! +rep
I mean concrete at the bottom, of course.

 

I have no trouble at all downloading and updating apps from my iPad. There is no need to hook it up to your PC for this.

 

It would also be good to have it sat on my desk streaming BBC news, but of course I can't because Apple refuse to acknowledge Flash's existence. All I can say is, I'm glad I didn't pay for it.

 

What word software do you have running on it?

 

I used to blindly hate Apple products for their apparent price premium, but have mellowed over the years and learnt that they are actually better for some people (usually the useless tossers who spend all day on Facebook but hey ). The seamless connectivity between Apple devices is actually really good and always simpler than the PC method. My brother has a 27" Mac (last generation IIRC) which suits his needs perfectly and the screen is fantastic - it's also surprisingly good at playing games, even the more demanding ones.

Macs aren't for me though. I like to have a rig that destroys modern computer games and Macs simply do not offer this, either the hardware or at a sensible cost. Macs tend to use the last generation of GPUs and still charge the launch prices for them.

A final thought. Though Macs aren't seen as useful for 'serious' computing, two of the best computer scientists I know use Macs to write their code on. No, they don't work on pointless little apps - rather they are working on advanced topology optimisation - the kind of stuff that makes a normal person's brain melt.

 

That's your answer