Why Apple is low quality and not for professionals or people who work

[scottrichardson]

I’ll just say I think the myriad professionals who make a living using their Apple devices for work will argue strongly against whatever you’re spouting. I’ve owned dozens of Macs over the years and while one or two have had some issues, considering my use of Macs is going on over 30 years, they have been fundamental to my success as a professional across multiple industries. If they are garbage, they are great garbage 😀

 

[segfaultdotorg]

Maybe someone else that's doing "work" in Apple Books can help you out…that is…if there's anyone else in the world doing "work" in Apple Books.

He's not using Books, he's using iBooks... See here:

Just added notes and marks to hundreds of pages of PDFs over the last week in iBooks.

Perhaps if OP would upgrade to something newer than 18 year old hardware, he wouldn't have all these problems!

 

[antiprotest]

Somewhere along iOS 17 I also noticed the problem where when I swipe the volume all the way down in control center, it would go back up at least a little. I swipe down again, it goes back up. It didn't do that before iOS 17.

 

[Siliconguy]

Pages isn't made for work. Numbers isn't made for work. iCloud isn't made for work. None of this is reliable.

I certainly can't argue with that. I ditched all three of them and keynote as soon as I got logged in the first time. iCloud mangled two Macs and an iPad before I gave up and switched it off.

As Zathras said, "This...is wrong tool."

So I use Libreoffice on the Macs and my own personal cloud for file sharing and backup. Entering my contacts twice is a nuisance, but at least then they stay correctly organized.

Oh yes, way back in the day iTunes Match messed up the media box and the main Mac as well when I used that for a bit. That took ages to sort out after I cancelled it having upgraded my album rips and formerly protected music.

 

[DHagan4755]

This whole "Apple is garbage" stuff reminds me of that old story about the patient who says to the doctor, "it really hurts when I do this." And the doctor says, "Then don't do that!"

 

[segfaultdotorg]

This whole "Apple is garbage" stuff reminds me of that old story about the patient who says to the doctor, "it really hurts when I do this." And the doctor says, "Then don't do that!"

True, but, that's kind of the medical equivalent of "you're holding it wrong!"

 

[Spidder]

Apple bad because iBooks and volume slider? What the hell are you talking about?

And to the rest of your rant: Apple is a greedy company that tries to do the bare minimum while trying to get maximum profit out of it… like every other for profit business. And the highly consolidated markets in almost every sector enables Apple and other megacorps to make ludicrous amounts of profit for sometimes even less then the bare minimum.

Don’t want that? Go vote for politicians that want to regulate those markets. Complaining on a random internet forum wont help.

 

[klasma]

This whole "Apple is garbage" stuff reminds me of that old story about the patient who says to the doctor, "it really hurts when I do this." And the doctor says, "Then don't do that!"

The problem is the other systems are also garbage. The only way to win is not to play.

 

[MazingerZND]

People who aren't very well versed in tech tend to use the wrong apps and then blame the apps for not doing what they want them to do.

 

[Curtisalan]

Just added notes and marks to hundreds of pages of PDFs over the last week in iBooks.

I noticed the app behaved weirdly … (sometimes closing the document and reopening it automatically. I didn't have this under iOS 16 - ever!)

Didn't think too much about it.

Now I noticed that only the work I did today was saved. I've been doing 40 pages a day on average so hundreds of pages of work was lost. And you can't do anything about it - it's all in the cloud. Things like these have been happening more and more often with Apple products. You simply can NOT rely on them! Apple isn't reliable! I was EXPECTED to do a specific work and take care of it, now I’m here starting at 0 again???! Wow!! That’s so IRRESPONSIBLE of this company, if you’re doing something of value or important, DON’T use Apple!!! It’s way too risky, you can’t rely on them. Who is going to pay me for all the work that was lost? How am I going to be presenting my work to my partners next week? We have a fricking schedule, I don’t know if apples realises this, but there’s people who actually work on this planet and need WORK devices, not shiny devices to look at!

The other day, my iPhones volume was going to maximum automatically all the time while I was in a room full of people in a conference with important people. I couldn't lower it, it would instantly go up again … holy! Thank god nothing was open or being played accidentally, people would have looked at me. That's another example of the unreliability of Apple products. Having trust in Apple products is VERY dangerous! Don't trust them, they're not safe, they’re not on your side in crucial moments.

- Apple is not high quality, it is high garbage
- Apple is not for people who work. It is for Instagram "influencers".

I've been an Apple user for 25 years. The only thing that keeps me from changing to someone else is 1) the dependency of the micro-universe and 2) the lack of options because of the oligopolic situation on this market.

I am glad to hear the European Union is slowly dismantling monopoly-like companies like these. At this point the only thing I want to see is them being ripped apart! Free way for the free market and hopefully goodbye cheap companies like Apple!

Edit: Oh and what I noticed is that dictatorship is part of apples culture. I remember I complained about something like this before and they banned my post on their support forums.

Now while searching for my issue with iBooks and the disappeared notes and highlights, I stumbled across quite a lot of topics with the same issue on apples support forums, and quite some of them had been edited by moderators (it said „reformulated by moderator“). They did this to me as well (including deleting entire topics/posts) and want to keep it all super happy and as if we were in paradise.

The harsh truth is that it’s a hardcore dictatorship. You can’t vent your issues with their products to them. That’s, from a business perspective, absolutely irrational because business philosophy is rationalism and rationalism means being open to all informations. You want to get ALL infos there is out there!

What they’re doing is saving money in development and quality but selling their products for more money: https://www.statista.com/statistics/267728/apples-net-income-since-2005/

Their net income has kind of almost doubled from 2020.

This company is cancer and needs to be shut down as soon as possible. Their products are cheap to make and easily substitutable if the government breaks their monopoly position.

Apple is trash.

I use Apple products for work and it's great. The problem with this post isn't that it's invalid, it's that you have a personal workflow that doesn't jive with Apple but pretend (out of ignorance or willing delusion I don't know) that EVERYONE who "works" or is a "professional" has the exact same issues as you. It would be no different from me saying that Apple is perfect for all professionals and working people because it happens to work for me.

If you're a professional you find the tools that work for you to get your work done. If that's not Apple I have good news for you: there's Microsoft and--even better--a whole community of fantastic linux users with suites of productivity software that are usually free. You're time is much better spent finding the software and hardware that works for you than making long hyperbolic complaints about a company whose products you're under no obligation to use.

 

[Black Tiger]

Define professional. So I guess all the broadway musicians who use Apple computers and software for their mission critical performances aren’t professionals? Only people who edit PDFs and do office jobs. Got it. 9/10 problems people have with computers is, in my experience, user error. Apple makes excellent computers used in a variety of settings without any issues, or at least, no more issues than any other computer and usually less.

 

[bunty07]

Why in the world would you use iBooks for pdfs especially for work? But you are right, apps should function well if it has particular features. But if you are using your iPhone or iPad, Notes app will work better than iBooks or even the native files app can work if you don’t want to download pdf expert or something else from the App Store.

 

[J.A.K.]

I am currently writing/typing five fiction novels consisting of 400 or more pages each.
seems to me that the pages software is better than windows what ever they call that
which I previously used in 2019-20 with hitches while creating content for web pages for a internet company in NYC.

while 'working at home doing the "lockdown"
I would type on Pages, export PDF or word then email the text to the designer.

so yes
a writing professional can use pages successfully,
sorry about this!

As a fellow writer, I believe one should use whatever tool or method works for them to get the writing done.

However, I would still recommend something else, like Highland 2, for such projects.

 

[subjonas]

Sorry for your loss, OP. I didn’t read all of your post or all the comments here, but just wanted to share how I prevent situations like this in case it’s helpful for you (or others) in the future.

And of course, it’s all about backup. More specifically versioned backups. Not sure what device you used, but for me, I won’t do work on a device unless it’s capable of versioned backups. That’s almost my only baseline requirement actually, because no matter how much or how little work you do, without versioned backups, you’re playing with fire and it’s only a matter of time until you’re burned.
A Mac is a work device to me because it has Time Machine (which does versioned backups). And it has served me well so far, much better than the Windows machines I’ve used.
iPad however doesn't have anything like TM so I don’t really consider it a work device. However, as a workaround I can back up my iPad to my Mac every so often which will save versioned copies of the iPad backups in TM, and in some cases depending on the app I am able to retrieve lost information. It’s an involved workaround though, and risky because data is not always retrievable. Another possible workaround is only using iPad apps that continuously stay synced to their Mac app counterpart, which gets backed up to TM. But I’m not sure what is required to set that up, it’s only a thought at this point. It again, because it doesn’t have a built in dependable system, I won’t use it for real work.

With a good backup system like Time Machine in place, one shouldn’t ever lose more than an hour of work in most data loss situations.

 

[redheeler]

I am currently writing/typing five fiction novels consisting of 400 or more pages each.
seems to me that the pages software is better than windows what ever they call that
which I previously used in 2019-20 with hitches while creating content for web pages for a internet company in NYC.

while 'working at home doing the "lockdown"
I would type on Pages, export PDF or word then email the text to the designer.

so yes
a writing professional can use pages successfully,
sorry about this!

You would likely be fine on Linux with an open-source office suite. In fact my work could be done fine on Linux too. Any IDEs I want to run will work there, Docker works on Linux, Zoom works on Linux, I can run Teams as a web app, etc.

The bar really isn't that high for a lot of types of work. If you're not happy with one platform then switch to another. Unlike mobile and the stranglehold there by companies like Apple and Google, there is still a decent amount of choice and variety on desktop.

 

[redheeler]

He's not using Books, he's using iBooks... See here:

Perhaps if OP would upgrade to something newer than 18 year old hardware, he wouldn't have all these problems!

I wrote and ran some C code on my iBook not too long ago, it's still possible to do work on them 😂

 

[Jumpthesnark]

... you'd expect (at this price) that the software has a certain quality and level.

"At this price?" The software OP has been complaining about is free.

 

[motorazr]

Just added notes and marks to hundreds of pages of PDFs over the last week in iBooks.

I noticed the app behaved weirdly … (sometimes closing the document and reopening it automatically. I didn't have this under iOS 16 - ever!)

Didn't think too much about it.

Now I noticed that only the work I did today was saved. I've been doing 40 pages a day on average so hundreds of pages of work was lost. And you can't do anything about it - it's all in the cloud. Things like these have been happening more and more often with Apple products. You simply can NOT rely on them! Apple isn't reliable! I was EXPECTED to do a specific work and take care of it, now I’m here starting at 0 again???! Wow!! That’s so IRRESPONSIBLE of this company, if you’re doing something of value or important, DON’T use Apple!!! It’s way too risky, you can’t rely on them. Who is going to pay me for all the work that was lost? How am I going to be presenting my work to my partners next week? We have a fricking schedule, I don’t know if apples realises this, but there’s people who actually work on this planet and need WORK devices, not shiny devices to look at!

The other day, my iPhones volume was going to maximum automatically all the time while I was in a room full of people in a conference with important people. I couldn't lower it, it would instantly go up again … holy! Thank god nothing was open or being played accidentally, people would have looked at me. That's another example of the unreliability of Apple products. Having trust in Apple products is VERY dangerous! Don't trust them, they're not safe, they’re not on your side in crucial moments.

- Apple is not high quality, it is high garbage
- Apple is not for people who work. It is for Instagram "influencers".

I've been an Apple user for 25 years. The only thing that keeps me from changing to someone else is 1) the dependency of the micro-universe and 2) the lack of options because of the oligopolic situation on this market.

I am glad to hear the European Union is slowly dismantling monopoly-like companies like these. At this point the only thing I want to see is them being ripped apart! Free way for the free market and hopefully goodbye cheap companies like Apple!

Edit: Oh and what I noticed is that dictatorship is part of apples culture. I remember I complained about something like this before and they banned my post on their support forums.

Now while searching for my issue with iBooks and the disappeared notes and highlights, I stumbled across quite a lot of topics with the same issue on apples support forums, and quite some of them had been edited by moderators (it said „reformulated by moderator“). They did this to me as well (including deleting entire topics/posts) and want to keep it all super happy and as if we were in paradise.

The harsh truth is that it’s a hardcore dictatorship. You can’t vent your issues with their products to them. That’s, from a business perspective, absolutely irrational because business philosophy is rationalism and rationalism means being open to all informations. You want to get ALL infos there is out there!

What they’re doing is saving money in development and quality but selling their products for more money: https://www.statista.com/statistics/267728/apples-net-income-since-2005/

Their net income has kind of almost doubled from 2020.

This company is cancer and needs to be shut down as soon as possible. Their products are cheap to make and easily substitutable if the government breaks their monopoly position.

Apple is trash.

Same boat. Similar timeline. Different usage issues, but if boils down to this:

Apple terms and conditions offer zero promise that the software functions as intended or even reliably.

While Apple has grown so far financially, they seem to have gone the “pragmatic” route of what they test catering to the mass majority of their user base, that installs a few social media apps, sends messages and takes photos. Any default app, should you dare use it and create significant quantités of files within, seems to fall apart.

When I’ve asked Apple support about the issues encountered, I’ve been told (default app) wasn’t really intended to be used for that many notes / photos / voicemails / messages/ etc.

I understand there are significant challenges in designing robust apps to work with a wide range of content, but wasn’t the point of buying Apple something that looked nice, did what it said it does (out of the box), and likely will last an extended lifetime?


Anywho. Apple isn’t likely to change how it runs anytime soon. They need to have a major competitor come up; an alternate OS or whole unit that’s is more robust.

Even a utility app or apps to repair and optimize internal databases would go a long ways. Or a disk utility, besides running a restore or update from computer in hopes it runs a disk repair.

Edit, if anyone gets bored, there’s always Apple.com/feedback.

I keep hoping if enough users request a way to repair iOS (something more granular than restore/reinstall) Apple will consider it …

 

[motorazr]

Outside of a few specific exceptions, Apple builds consumer-grade software, not professional software. Don’t expect free software to be a viable replacement for your professional needs.

You make an excellent point.

There are a lot of great apps out there from many developers.

I feel like it’s harder to find some of them nowadays, despite the App Store, but I can’t put my finger on why.

— also, once upon a time, iLife and iWork suites were paid software. I felt like they functioned * much * better when they were a sold product, not a given freebee - but again, could just be my uses changed. Hard to tell.

 

[Chuckeee]

This whole "Apple is garbage" stuff reminds me of that old story about the patient who says to the doctor, "it really hurts when I do this." And the doctor says, "Then don't do that!"

I think a better adage would be:

“It’s a poor craftsman who blames his tools.”

 

[motorazr]

I think a better adage would be:

“It’s a poor craftsman who blames his tools.”

I never liked this analogy.

In the case of a Mac, or some of the Apple software that’s been installed and updated for 20-25 years, it’s more like a Swiss Army knife you’ve carried around and replaced over the years, and now you noticed you’re new one is missing a bunch of the tools, the scissors are locked down (?!), and the knife it still contains is very lovely to look at, but the blade is only sharp at the point.

Alas, the craftsman here realized he thought he purchased the same tool as before, but failed to notice the changes this manufacture implemented. His tool is now less useful for the intended task.

Did is stretch this out enough? I feel the OP original sentiment, but it’s a tough position I think a lot of tech is in right now. Things work differently, maybe not as well the way you used to use it, and finding a new right way is harder without something like one-to-one. Today at Apple is cool but it isn’t one to one, for learning new ways to solve your specific task ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

[Boeingfan]

It is true that the Apple 'office' apps are not in the race competing against MS. Sad but true. MS Office is #1 and for good reason.

 

[Sami13496]

It sounds to me that you are better or off with Windows and older Office where you can File > Save. Good luck!

 

[Sami13496]

One more thing if you wanna try out. As a Mac user I use Google Drive Apps for “office” work. I mean Google Docs, Sheets and Slides. Very similar to MS office but works through browser and autosaves everything.

 

[Unami]

It's not 100% reliable, but what is? I have to use Windows at work now and it's not really better. What's annoying with apple is that's it more or less a black box. If something goes wrong - especially with iCloud - you're often ****ed. And when you're calling their suppirt you're often met with a wall of dead smiles.

Or, like you mention, Adobe. It's buggy and bloated. I have to use premiere at work and I have to restart it ar least once a week because something suddenly stops working (usually with their new text tool). In recently installed a .1 update and it suddenly all my video playback was choppy and wouldn't really work anymore. But it's still the goto software for many professionals, and it's per definition the crap we have to put up with. There's not really anything else like photoshop out there.

But there's still differences to apple. I recently spent a day on adobe support with a guy who was actually helpful. And, if an update doesn't work, you can usually rollnot back without much effort (and file formats are often a little backwards compatible as well).

Apple just slaps you on the head with a buggy update and then you can either manually reconstruct your old system, or wait for weeks. If you're lucky. Or buy new hardware, because the update you just did broke compatibility with some of your other, older devices.

And they have gotten worse with this over the years, as they have gotten worse with manufacturing hard to repair stuff (i just fixed a homepod-mini cable for $10 because they built it none removeable and wanted to throw it away and sell me a new one for $100), essentially reducing the value of their products while driving prices up. So, yeah, thank god the EU is doing something although we cam already see Apple not only dragging their feet but actively sabotaging it, with the added benefit that it's even worse for theor customers.