* Torx screws: More stable and more resistant to stripping. With Amazon, you can get a set of screwdrivers delivered to you in 2 days and they probably cost a couple bucks. Most people never ever ever open their devices.
* Soldering RAM: A thinner, lighter, more portable device. On most of their consumer desktop machines, they still allow users to upgrade RAM.
* Non-removable batteries: Allows tight, custom battery layouts that take advantage of every inch of space to allow devices like the Macbook 12" to be possible. Basicaly allows for thinner, lighter, more portable devices while not sacrificing battery life as much. For the segment of the population that wants more battery life, you have external iPhone cases that come with batteries built (at expense of weight/bulk). With USB-C charging, you can now charge Macbooks with external battery packs. So in both cases, optionality is preserved for both segments of consumers.
Wasn't just torx screws, but tri-wings as well. They're not using them for the non-stripping properties, since they're not even places where they're holding things together.
You didn't mention the bits at the front of the hard drive.
If it wasn't so many things then maybe I could get past it, but when it happens so frequently, it becomes evident what they're doing.
If you want to open up your device and swap out the RAM, well, you're not even remotely representative of Apple's userbase and you should not be surprised that Apple doesn't cater to your wishes.
Ask yourself that question.
If you want that kind of control over your phone, Apple isn't for you, use a droid.
It really isn't.
Everyone knows torx are better anyway. They are less prone to stripping.
I used them on the house I built.
Any curious nerd will have torx bits already. Anyone else won't care enough to even want to open their Mac.
But during the Jobs days at least, despite Apple's reputation for user experience excellence, I think it was a company that was at best indifferent towards the experience of its users per se. What it was focused on was delivering a clean, powerful, beautiful device.
In a lot of ways, that focus created, as a side effect, a good user experience. Things like really smooth scrolling were born out of a desire to not have the device ever seem janky or struggling, for example, but it resulted in a pleasant user experience.
The App Store featured extremely strong reviews and protections to make sure that people's dumb apps couldn't screw over your battery or slow down your phone or otherwise compromise your experience. That limited utility, but created a clear, consistent, easy user experience.
In other ways, it led to shitty user experiences. My wife could never tell when her phone was ringing. Its ring was soft compared to Android phones and the vibration was much more subtle. But a loud ring or an emphatic vibration don't lead to a prettier, more iconic device. They'll never be features that a tech reporter will do a feature on. They're easy for other phones to do as well. So Apple didn't care.
The keyboard for iPhones was awful for years. Only a single spelling suggestion, no ability to get anything other than letters without hitting a chord key, hard to tell if you were in capitalization or lower-case. But it was a pretty, uncrowded keyboard, despite being just incredibly slower and more painful to use than equivalent Android keyboards. So Apple didn't care.
It was an interesting time, full of UI highs and lows for Apple.
I'm really confused by this.
First off, iPhones ring perfectly loud. Maybe your wife just turned down the ringer volume and never bothered to check?
Secondly, I don't see how ringer volume has anything to do with a "prettier, more iconic device". And what's more, you haven't actually provided any evidence whatsoever to substantiate your claim that Apple only cares about having an "iconic" device rather user experience.
> The keyboard for iPhones was awful for years. Only a single spelling suggestion, no ability to get anything other than letters without hitting a chord key, hard to tell if you were in capitalization or lower-case. But it was a pretty, uncrowded keyboard, despite being just incredibly slower and more painful to use than equivalent Android keyboards. So Apple didn't care.
I disagree that the keyboard was "awful". When it was introduced, it was hands down the best software keyboard. And I completely disagree that it was "incredibly slower and more painful to use than equivalent Android keyboards". Android keyboards experimented with new approaches, but an Android keyboard that one person says is great another might say is awful (for example, the whole crazy about dragging your finger around the keyboard, which I forget what it's called - some people love that, some people hate it). Apple was conservative with changing their keyboard, but they had a very good reason to, which is that any change they make has to be an improvement for the millions of customers they have, and has to be enough of an improvement to offset the fact that change in general is bad (because it screws up people's habits, which is particularly important when it comes to typing). So it's not that Apple "didn't care", it's that they didn't want to change the keyboard, which millions of people loved, without having a clear benefit.
And they did some more altruistic things beside.
But compared to their power and scale , has Apple been much more altruistic/benevolent compared to other companies ? Have they taken large risks for that ?
Instead, Apple shoehorns whatever they think is the right thing. The headphone jack is one example, the buy vs bring your own music is another. They do this because of both UX concerns and business reasons. But that's not all that matters, as Tim Cook just said, which is ironic.
Apple has often been secondary on UX. Not always - sometimes they can nail it. But it's been more often they miss, or backburner it over other priorities.
Do other companies suck more? sure. But apple has lost its way, or found a much more selfish one, and you see it play out in every gesture they make.
Sorry not sorry. Apple needs a kick in the pants.
Everything you've written so far is devoid of substance. I want to respond to your claims but I can't because you've given me nothing to drive the conversation forward with.
Anyway, i'm not anti-apple. Just... disappointed.
Seriously, I've never met a real person who didn't feel screwed by the planned obsolescence and painfully staggered hardware updates that lag behind the curve. Apple's beginning ideals != to the Apple of today.
That's simply not true, and it's a really offensive statement for pretty much anybody working at Apple. There's no company I can think of that cares more about the user experience than Apple, and here you are claiming that they're doing the exact opposite.