I hate the tribalism regarding Apple products. There are loyal fanboys who won’t hear a bad word about Apple, and then there are Apple haters who criticise everything about them.

I wish we had some more nuance in this debate. The reality is that there are advantages and disadvantages to Apple products. I’ll outline a few:

Advantages

Long iOS support. Typically you can expect an iPhone to be supported for 5-7 years, which is well above the average in the industry.
No bloatware or adverts on the iPhone
Better privacy than Google Android/Microsoft Windows
High-end hardware, e.g. M1 chip in MacBooks.
User friendly design. Nice user experience.

Disadvantages

Overpriced. Seriously all Apple products are more expensive than the competition.
Anti-consumer business practices that influence the industry. They normalised removing the headphone jack and using non-removable batteries, which other manufacturers followed. Another anti-consumer practice is using their proprietary Lighting port, rather than USB (luckily the EU should be forcing them to adopt USB-C and removable batteries soon). Also, no SD card slot because they want you to use iCloud
Walled garden. No support for side-loading apps
Required to use iTunes to add/remove music to the iPhone, which is a problem if you use Linux (you’d have to use Wine to install the Windows version as a workaround)

[–] snowe@programming.dev 2 points 1 year ago (4 children)

I agree with everything you said except the lightning port. The lightning port came out 4 years before USB C did and it did a much better job than any other port on the market at the time. Apple wasn’t going to make that investment if they weren’t going to stick with it for a while, for one every iPhone user would hate having to switch cables again that quickly, but also there was no guarantee USB C was going to succeed. Apple even participated in creating the USB C spec, as I detailed in another comment. Honestly I think the lightning port is actually better than USB C for what it does: incredibly thin, non clogging, waterproof phone port.

They should not have used it for other junk like the fucking Magic Mouse or whatever other mice or keyboard peripherals there were used for.

[–] ejl@lemmy.lucitt.social 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

The issue isn't that Apple made the lightning port. The issue is that USB C has been standard on THEIR OWN DEVICES since 2012. I understand not wanting to switch immediately after introducing a new port, but I would argue that USB has been the clear winner ever since the Switch came out in 2017, which was still 6 YEARS ago.

Apple would not have changed to an objectively better port if it weren't for the EU regulations.

Also, lightning better than USB-C? A USB 2.0 port that transfers at 1/100th the speed? You're insane.

[–] snowe@programming.dev 1 points 1 year ago

It's literally impossible for USB C to have been

standard on THEIR OWN DEVICES since 2012.

It wasn't even announced until 2012, much less have any sort of spec. The spec wasn't even finalized by the USB Implementers Forum until 2014 - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USB-C

Apple would not have changed to an objectively better port if it weren’t for the EU regulations.

... they already switched on all their other devices. Why would they have not switched eventually?

Also, lightning better than USB-C? A USB 2.0 port that transfers at 1/100th the speed? You’re insane.

Yes. I don't give one shit about transfer speed, just like the majority of phone users (not just iPhone users - all phone users). You sync using the cloud. If you're using a cable to sync you are in the minority

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