By SN
Monday March 24, 2008
|
Salon – Farhad Manjoo – March 18, 2008:
Mossberg’s column ran for about 900 words; just 70 of them, or 8 percent, by my count, suggested anything even approaching negative criticism. Apple loved the review so much that it excerpted it in advertisements. Apple CEO Steve Jobs quoted it in his speeches. But Mossberg says that his mailbox told a different story. Several Apple fans felt slighted. What did he have against Apple? they wanted to know.
|
“It’s funny — even if I write a generally positive piece about Apple, I still get more complaints from Apple partisans” than from opponents, Mossberg says. He has even coined a term for the effect. “I call it the Doctrine of Insufficient Adulation.”
If you’re non-partisan, this is all you could want from a tech reviewer, and Mossberg and Pogue’s style likely accounts for their enormous popularity. But many fans of Apple often seem to want more. They care little for honest opinion. They want to pick up the paper and see in it a reflection of their own nearly religious zeal for the thing they love. They don’t want a review. They want a hagiography.
I’ve suffered this first hand. Whenever I think about purchasing an Apple product and attempt to discuss the pros and cons with an Apple-fan, I’m always attacked. Even the suggestion that there might be a con is seen as an act of war from me. Reminding them that I might want to buy does not calm them down in the least. “Might” just isn’t good enough for them. You’re either 100% behind them or you are an enemy. I think I’ll stick with reason and logic versus blind-faith when purchasing tech, if the fanatics don’t mind. |
#13 modern? heck, Mayans & Romans loved sports, I’m sure older civilizations did too.
#18 I want you to say something like this. Vista sucks!
Now, repeat after me: mac is just another pc clone, mac warranty is a scam and steve only wants my money.
C’mon, say it! the truth will set you free.
Thank god you didn’t have a mirror when you posted that.
#20 our point (and by this I mean anyone not a macfan) exactly
# 14
http://tinyurl.com/2lbpjd
Right on! You beat me to it!
Apple fanboys hate the PC because it has all this great software available they can’t use on their second rate machines.
Addendum to my comment to #13:…and they loved sports to death, literally.
Can you imagine mac fanatism in those days? H”e desecrated our Lord Steve. Send him to the lions!”
#14 & #22 That would make me black then?
Apple makes great laptops and iPods, and that’s just about it. Oh… and an iPhone for dweebs. They have no desktops to speak of (the mini is a joke, and the $2700 starting price of their ‘real’ desktop is a different type of joke). Their peripherals are so overpriced and limited that nobody in their right mind buys them.
Mac fans rave about the included software, but always end up suing something else besides what is included.
The hardware is just as unreliable as any similarly priced laptop.
They charge $200 for the same memory upgrade that I can get for $50 elsewhere, and fanboys are stupid enough to pay it at the store.
They are always cutting edge, but always with the wrong choices. For example Firewire has been abandoned. No eSATA to be found anywhere.
You get the same response when talking to an open source or web 2.0 zealot. For them or against them – there is no middle road and no plus and minus tally to consider.
Just move on and forget them.
Dan
I’ve seen this back in the pre OSX era (version 8 or 9). I supported a QA lab – mix of Windows 95, Windows NT 4, Mac and some other stuff. Watched people reinstall MacOS on a daily basis and talk about how much they loved their Mac and it was so much better than Windows. While the Windows devices had their challanges, doing DAILY OS reinstalls was not one of them.
Anything that breaks everyday would never get my endorsement. I decided these people liked fiddling with their PC more than doing their real job.
#26, Awake:
all those facts don’t change a thing.
Lifestyle products are bought for one reason and one reason only: ego.
Actually, the buyers will tell you exactly why they’ve bought that product: to make others envious.
Oh they won’t tell you so in direct terms, but just go ahead and diss Apple, BMW and the likes in a crowd where there are owners. Sooner or later, you’ll hear “oh you’re just envious that you can’t afford one yourself”. Here you have it. Plain and clear. That’s their thinking: if you don’t own one, you must envy those who do. And being envied is quite good for the ego, as we’ll all agree.
So leave those poor souls alone. If they feel better for what they own, good for them, good to lower the suicide rate, good for Steve Jobs and, ultimately, good for us.
pj
#2, Please tell me you are being sarcastic about “Apple products never break”.
Trust me they do, I have a rack full of them (G3s & G4s),that I’m working on right now (well after this morning break).
The laptops are nasty little boogers to take apart, lots and lots of screws.
# 25 pedro said, on March 24th, 2008 at 7:07 am
#14 & #22 That would make me black then?
Yes. Obviously, everyone is either white or black.
I don’t care what hardware anyone uses.
I do have a question, why woud anyone buy a device like a phone or a MP3 player where you cannot change the battery without taking it to the apple store?
I just don’t get it why people by things that become extinct just because the battery cannot hold a charge any more. Would you buy a car that you would have to take it to a car dealer once a year to buy a new battery which can only be change at the dealer? The out cry would be huge, but apple lovers do this every day.
#31, Dan,
the battery case really isn’t a very good one.
There’s tons and tons of such devices where you cannot, without some skill, replace the batteries. That’s just a result of miniaturization.
The one thing that always amazes me is: why do you go buy a product (iPod) that you know you’ll have to use this second product from the same company (iTunes) to use it and with this second product, you will only be able to shop at that same company’s online store (iTMS) or you buy a phone (the iPhone) where you know that you will only be able to get Apps from that same company etc. etc. etc.
Apple has built what Microsoft has always been trying to and is currently shred to pieces by the European Union. And despite the fact that this all is very consumer unfriendly, most consumers happily buy the stuff and applaud!
That, not the batteries, is the real limitation of Apple’s product line.
pj
#6 – Euhh. Some people are just so dam proud of themselves for taking the road less travelled.
People should be proud of taking the road less traveled. It’s just that buying into marketing hype and being a rabid consumer is hardly a less traveled road.
After changing over a couple of years ago, I can at least start to see where they are coming from. I do find that if someone asks me what kind of computer to buy, I do get a little annoyed when the come back with a Compaq instead of the iMac that I recommended. The thing is, I know that I’m going to be the one they call every day with “hey, this little thing popped up from my Norton telling me something is getting ready to cut my penis off and take away my birth day, what do I do?” I’m going to be the one spending several hours every month or so cleaning out spyware for them or trying to find out why Vista keeps freezing.
That said, people that have purchased Macs on my advise DO have issues too. Always hardware related. A lot easier to deal with though, and not nearly the volume.
#35, sb:
actually, I’ve achieved about the same by switching to Linux. And the funny thing is: you completely forget about all those quirky ways that Windows forces you to remember.
I can today, honestly, say that I have no idea about how to do things in Windows….
pj
Mac fanatics? Religion fanatics? That’s nothing.
Post something even remotely negative about CATS on a blog or forum, then you’ll see who’s drinking the Kool Aid.
The worst thing about Apple are the Apple groupies. P.S. I’ll never forget the mooing! lol.
dedicated to the truly macfans in here, I give you Shiny mac. It should be sung to the tune of Safety Dance.
Buy a mac if you want to
We can leave your friends behind
‘Cause your friends don’t have and if they don’t mac
Well they’re no friends of mine
I say, we can go to a macworld
A place where they will never find
And we can act like we come from out of this world
Leave the real one far behind
With a mac
We can go to a macworld
The life is short and so am I
And we can dress real neat from our hats to our feet
Act surprise with Steve Job’s cry
Say, own a mac if you want to
If we don’t nobody will
And you can act real rude and totally removed
And I can act like an imbecile
[Refrain]
I say, buy a mac, buy a mac
Everything out of control
Buying mac , buying mac
We’re doing it from store to store
Buy a mac, buy a mac
Everybody look at your macs
Buy a mac, buy a mac
Everybody takin’ the cha-a-a-ance
Shiny mac
Is it a shiny mac
Is it a shiny mac
S-s-s-s H-h-h-h I-i-i-i N-n-n-n Y-y-y-y
Shiny mac!
We can buy more macs if we want to
We’ve got all your monies and mine
As long as we keep buying, Steve’ll never lose it
Everything’ll work out right
I say, buy more macs if we want to
We can leave your friends behind
‘Cause your friends don’t have and if they don’t mac
Well they’re no friends of mine
[Refrain]
Is it that a mac, oh is a shiny mac, we should buy more macs, we should wear more mac, we should eat a mac, we should sleep with mac, ’cause is a shiny mac
Oh, is a shiny mac!
Posted with an iPhone…NOT!
Thanks #39 Pedro,
Now I can’t gat that damn song out of my head…