A Journey of 100 Feet - Windows to Apple

[Tony Zona]

What does the secret repair program cover and how do we take advantage of it?

[Tom Bender]

So nobody was impressed with the movie?

[Rod Sheridan]

I’m not computer literate, however last year I bought a Mac laptop and an IPad.

The IPad is great for this sort of use, and I’m using the laptop a lot now.

Learning the shortcuts took some time having spent so much time on Windows.

What really surprised me was the ease with which the IPad, IPod and computer integrate almost magically through my Apple ID.

That I think is the brilliant part of Apple’s approach

[Mike Kreinhop]

So nobody was impressed with the movie?

Do you mean the Helen Mirren movie The Hundred-Foot Journey? If so, I haven't seen it, but after viewing the trailers on YouTube, I will.

[Jim Becker]

In case you didn’t already know this, there’s a “secret” repair program that Apple has, to repair/replace the keyboards on late-2016+ 15” MBP’s (IOW. All of them for the past 4 years) for 4 years after date of purchase. I’m so grateful that I was able to mothball this Spawn Of Satan and buy a new 16” MBP. The keyboard was just that awful. I had to use an external for any serious work.

I actually don't use the keyboard "on" my 15" 2019 MBP very much...only when traveling. It's used like a desktop here in my office with a separate 27" high resolution monitor, an Apple wireless keyboard and an Apple wireless "MagicMouse". I agree that the keyboard on the laptop isn't ideal and that it might be frustrating to some folks. But honestly, I've hated the keyboards on nearly every laptop I've ever used, no matter what the brand and OS in play.

[Doug Dawson]

What does the secret repair program cover and how do we take advantage of it?

Google “Apple butterfly keyboard repair program”. BTW you have to replace the whole top of the machine w/those 15” MBP’s. Apparently even something as simple as pollen in the air can mess it up. Good riddance to it. And good riddance to Jonny Ives, who designed it.

[Stan Calow]

True. They made a mistake in assuming thin was more important than reliable. I am writing this on MacBook Pro, and have learned to keep a can of compressed air handy at all times. However, I still prefer the Apple integrated systems and won't go back to Windows.

[Tom Bender]

Yes, either they have changed the movie title or my memory has slipped a cog.

[Ronald Blue]

Some of my issues with Apple from back in the infancy of computers was their attempt to monopolize the market. Those old enough to remember that Apple went after any company that cloned one of their computers forcing them out of business. IBM on the other hand allowed every upstart to clone their PC's. As a result the market took off like a rocket and PC's became dominant. So they were only a tiny player for many years because of this. Why would hackers waste time on such a small percentage of the digital world. They have gained some traction slowly over the years and guess what. They now get some of the attention of the hackers and malware purveyors. But business still runs on Windows. My company while they switched to iPhone's for mobile communicating runs only Windows PC's whether in desktop or laptops. We have thousands by the way. The business world still runs on Windows.

[Bert Kemp]

I can't figure it out why people pay the prices they do for apple whats an Iphone cost 6 7 800 dollars my phone cost 129$ and my service plan is 18$ a month so tell me what your facny high priced phones and expensive service plans can do that mine can't. Fact is My daughter has an Iphone and we sat at the table one night comparing things our phones could do and mine will do things hers doesn't . this was last summer when I was visiting her . So don't ask me what I dont remember but really they both do just about everything. Oh maybe Iphone has a better camera but can you tell the difference between a photo my cam took and one an iphone took with your naked eye I doubt it

[Doug Dawson]

I can't figure it out why people pay the prices they do for apple whats an Iphone cost 6 7 800 dollars my phone cost 129$ and my service plan is 18$ a month so tell me what your facny high priced phones and expensive service plans can do that mine can't.

iPhones don’t have Android on them. Big security issue. I agree they’re way overpriced.

BTW, my unlimited cell phone plan costs $20/month for life (Altice) using AT&T’s network.

BTW BTW, Jupiter is the brightest star in the night sky right now, about 30 degrees above the southern horizon here at the latitude of San Antonio, Texas. Saturn is also visible to the naked eye a few degrees to the left of it, and Mars (it’s the red one) is visible about 15 degrees to the left of that along the ecliptic. A good reason to get up in the middle of the night. I highly recommend the iPhone/iPad app “Sky Guide” if you need more help. If you live in the city and can’t see them, that’s just horrible.

[Ronald Blue]

iPhones don’t have Android on them. Big security issue. I agree they’re way overpriced.

Doug do you know someone who has had an issue with security on their Android device? I don't. People who have trouble with security on their phone likely also have the same issue on a computer. Falling for every bogus email/link they receive or come across. Ironically my company as previously stated supplies us with iPhones. However almost all of us use Androids as our personal phones.

[Jim Becker]

Ron, there are a number of exploits that have hit Android devices, but that's generally from when folks "side-loaded" applications from sources other than the Google Play Store. That's not a risk with iOS because it's not possible to "side load" applications and even "jailbreaking" isn't a think anymore. Android's advantage is that it's licensed to run on devices from multiple manufacturers, although that's also a curse since pretty much only Google's phones have native, unadulterated Android on them. Phone manufacturers and carriers modify Android to their own whim and that makes OS upgrades difficult over time.

People are passionate about their preference for iOS or Android just like many folks prefer Windows over MacOS. And some are devoted to Linux. No problem. I'll take iOS any day over Android for a variety of reasons. Others will feel the same way about Android. I'm the same way for MacOS. I tolerate Windows (and honestly Win10, is a huge improvement over what came before it) but it's unlikely I'd go back to running a Windows environment as my default. I don't care about the initial cost of the devices because they last a long time in my experience as compared to all of the non-Apple computers I've owned over the years. And the combination of MacOS and iOS operates seamlessly for me as I move between devices. I appreciate and actually use that to my advantage.

[Curt Harms]

Doug do you know someone who has had an issue with security on their Android device? I don't. People who have trouble with security on their phone likely also have the same issue on a computer. Falling for every bogus email/link they receive or come across. Ironically my company as previously stated supplies us with iPhones. However almost all of us use Androids as our personal phones.

I too wonder if the security issues with Android are overstated -- as long as the Android version you're using is supported. An Android 5 phone will likely work just fine today but it hasn't seen a security update in probably a 2 - 3 years. So an Android 5 device will be susceptible to any exploits that have appeared since probably 2017 or so. I don't use a phone for anything beyond talk, text and basic web stuff. Anybody who hacks my Android phone isn't going to learn much beyond my contacts, And those can be found in the 'phone book'. No financial or health records to be found.

A related issue with Android is updates are the responsibility of the manufacturer and some are better than others. Google has the Android One program which guarantees security updates for a period of time if the manufacturer made it part of the phone. Beyond that the way to be sure of having currently supported Android phone is to be sure your current phone is still supported by its manufacturer. If it's not it's time to buy a new phone. And this is why Android phones are sometimes called "landfill phones".

[roger wiegand]

I've been a mac and unix user since ~1985, VMS before that. I've used plenty of Windows machines along the way, generally when some IT department required them. The Mac/Windows debate these days pales in comparison to the explosion that erupted when we bought a VAX and installed it with an ethernet cable running down our hallway in a previously pure IBM environment in a Fortune 100 company. You'd have thought the world was coming to an end. It got even worse when I put a Sun 1 workstation on my desk. A computer outside the data room? Horrors! Fortunately upper management (and it went to the top) understood and believed the business case we made for scientific computing having different requirements than the business side.

Anyway, the one time I got to be king and declare a platform for our company my answer was "whatever". People bought what they were comfortable using, we had a great IT contractor who handled everything without a glitch, they were of the opinion that there was no cost difference to having one, the other, or mixed. Some of our guys were actually doing some serious computation on their machines so the tricked out Lenovo laptops we bought were about the same price as Macs. In the final analysis the cost of laptops for users was dwarfed by the investment in the hardware in the server room. As far as I can tell everyone was happy, a situation I'd never seen with regard to a computing environment!