Screw you, Apple
 

Looking at my desk, I realize I have given Apple way too much of my money. I am typing this from a Macbook, I use an iPhone, and all my music travels faithfully with me in my iPod. Something about this just isn't right.

Back in the day Macs just sucked. Nothing was compatible, they froze all the time, and were just generally a pain in the ass to use. Then sometime around the end of the 20th they picked up their game and made some quality products. Their business picked up. Then they got cocky. While my Macbook seems to be doing just fine, I know others have not had the same luck. iPhones and iPods, however, are just freaking atrocious. This is where the point of this thread comes in.

I've been a faithful iPod user for years. I started with the U2 special edition (because it was black and had a red click wheel, which I thought looked badass). That lasted until I felt like upgrading to an iPod video with a whopping 60GB. That sucker lasted a good 4-5 years before crapping out on me. Now, that's a good lifespan for a tiny piece of hardware if you ask me. So I'm thinking...ok I'll stick with Apple for my music listening needs. I grab myself a 160 GB iPod classic, happy I can once again carry around most of my music. It lasts for a year (albeit with a few glitches) until the thing corrupts a week after warranty and I'm stuck with a very expensive paperweight. Being lazy and broke, I never attempted repairs.

Months pass and I get a new one for Christmas for my girlfriend. It falls a short distance (nothing my old iPod couldn't take...I even have some stories about its rough existence)...and BAM white screen of death. If you don't know what this is...well, you are lucky. After some searching, I find this is a very common problem amongst iPod classics and iPod touches alike...even with small impacts. That's 2 freaking expensive ass iPods in 2 years. Of course, I take it in and they are convinced I dropped it (granted, I did...but it wasn't anything that should have ended its life). Warranty voided.

Oh hell no. I want my ****ing iPod. I crack the sucker open, adjust the LCD ribbon (which would be the most logical place to look first) and BAM it works again. Party. Someone picks it up, flops it on the couch, and its the white screen all over again. I open it again, it starts working again, and I go about my day. A week later and I'm staring at the ****ING white screen again. That's where I'm at today.

So I guess this thread serves the dual purpose of complaining about Apple's increasingly shoddy craftsmanship and seeing if anyone has some advice on permanently getting this thing fixed. I've posted this elsewhere, but I wanted to see if you guys had anything to say. If I open it again, I want it to be for good. The parts in there are so fragile that I fear I will really screw something up every time I do it.

One thing to note...the second time I opened it I noticed the ribbon kind of stuck to the hard drive with something a bit sticky...I don't know if this would have anything to do with what's going on but worth mentioning.

So yeah...screw you, Apple. Why do I have to love the iPhone so much?

Hmm. My Classic is about 4 years old now and haven't had a problem. I'd be angry if it crapped out on me any time soon...

I've had my 64 gig iPod Touch since December, and other than it being completely open-source-unfriendly, I love it and have had no problems. I've purchased a rubber case for it, and have dropped it countless times with no problem.

That said, many of my friends have had broken/bricked iPods, so I feel like this thing may be a ticking time bomb.

3rd gen iPod Touch motherlover. It freezes fairly often and I don't really use it for anything other than browsing and music, but it's a fairly good product. It's also durable as hell.

On the other hand, Macs are useless pieces of trash. Why anybody prefers them to Pcs is beyond me in every way.

I've had my iPod Classic for over four years now and there's not a hitch with it. Even the battery life is still fairly decent. I wouldn't give much of a toss though if it crapped out because I didn't pay a penny for it. I'm not entirely sure what to make of Apple products. Something about the whole grey metallic construct of Apple products in recent years seems cold and soulless and the software seems pretty much the same.

I'm using a Mac Mini most of the time in work to develop iPhone and iPad apps (yeah I'm a hypocrite), I find OS X to be a very awkward operating system and the Apple keyboards themselves are a nightmare to use. One of my biggest problems with Apple software is that it is so closed and restrictive, you even have to get a license from Apple just to test a simple software program on an Apple device. Android is open-source and there's so much you can do with Android devices and they're way more fun to use. Then again an Android device is far more likely to get fucked up from dodgy software than an Apple device so their restrictions do have a purpose.

I run through a lot of iPods. And I don't think I'm particularly clumsy, I just think they are not built to last. The term "timed obsolescence" comes to mind.

Apple are one of the main culprits for planned obsolescence, I'm surprised my iPod has lasted this long so that's a big screw you to Apple. I had to write an essay on the ethics of planned obsolescence about a year ago and it's all pretty much a smart way for electronics manufacturers to sell as many products as possible and maximise profits. Designing a product so that it fails just outside the warranty period so that the customer would possibly buy a replacement is a pretty low thing to do, but there's nothing to stop them really.

My sister still uses the iPod Touch my dad found on the road around 2 years ago. It's scratched all to hell (the back and sides, not the screen) but works wonderfully.

It's sort of the nature of form follows function. :D It's one of the basest principles in design, but not many truly follow it. I imagine what you said could definitely be a factor. They don't exactly exude warmth or people friendliness. It's all very exacting and logical. I personally love it, but I'm biased. I know Jony Ive gets a lot of inspiration from Dieter Rams, who's pretty incredible. If you look up some of his stuff, it's all black, white, silver/gray, with occasional flourishes of wood.

I've owned the same 8GB nano for three years. It's been rained on, sweated on, dropped on the sidewalk several times and had a drink or two spilled on it and it still works perfectly fine. I've been pretty impressed honestly. I haven't noticed any decline in battery power either (cue battery to stop holding a charge tomorrow).

I'm really not a fan of Apple products at all. Usually, Zune for my music needs, PC for my computer needs, and BlackBerry for my cell.

My entire family have iPhones, various iPods, etc. They still use PCs, though.

I'm not saying they're crap at all - I'm just saying that they've never appealed to me.