Indeed. I'm all for better workers' rights in the supply chain, and I think the client companies buying in stuff from sweatshops are the companies to put pressure on to improve that. So Apple should indeed be criticised for it. But here's the thing; they do actually do some work on this, and they publish their reports on it for anyone to see. It's not enough, and they need to do much more, of course. But absolutely no modern consumer electronics company has clean hands on this, and a lot of businesses benefit from the spotlight not being on them. Fact: if you own a computer at all in 2013, you've supported sweatshop labour.

Also, you don't find Macs here and there in studio - you find them in the vast majority of pro recording studios.  They are simply the de facto standard. It has nothing to do w/ posing... When you have a studio full of analog equipment and a humongous mixing board, incredible rooms and a collection of mics to die for, you don't have to rely on your computer to impress the customers...

Anybody trying to "make a statement" as you put it would probably be using a PC and making commercials for Dell. ;) 

So, if I try to strike a pose with my humongous board, all my outboard gear, and my collection of antique neumans, I don't need to strike a pose with my laptop computer? Naw, can't let up like that...

We have zero apple stuff.  I have built my own computers since 1987, except for my wife's two year old laptop, and we have Zen's for our music.

2 iPhones & an iPad here.  However, contract on one phone is up in March and the other in December - that will be thend of those.  We'll keep the iPad - it's handy.  And we'll keep the iPhones for games & stuff for the grandbabies.

Updated to the last OS version last week.  2 good but the wifes phone began to drain the battery in less than 15 minutes.  Took it by th iStore Sat and felt sick seeing the crowd and lines of people waiting for more Koolaid (insert TM).

Was told I had to have a reservation - go to that line.  Wait, "it will be an 1 1/2 before we can get you to a tech."  Okay, "I'll be back"  Go home but had to wait 2 hours to transfer 800 pics to the computer (I hate iTunes!).  Oops missed appointment - "now it's a 2 hour wait to have a rep wipe and reload your phone)"  I'd rather buy a new phone.
 
Waited 'til Monday when there was only a third of the Koolaid drinkers present.  "Wait will be 2 1/2 hours." What?
 
Done with the phones.  The Koolaid is sweet but too much of anything will kill you.  The good book says "man cannot live on Macs alone."  Viva Amiga!

i despise the way apple makes you go through them to get anything,that why im a pc.

John T


I'm curious about this idea that Apple somehow get away with bad business practices that others don't. Because exactly the opposite is true. Pretty much every news report you read about the horrible conditions at Foxxconn refers to them as an Apple manufacturer. But in actual fact, Foxxconn make stuff for everyone. They're close to impossible to avoid if you've got any kind of consumer electronics.

I didn't say that the media lets Apple get away with bad business practices. Of course they report it. My point was that despite these reports, Apple's image among the kind of young progressive types who normally speak out against such things wasn't tainted at all. Of course this says more about the general hypocrisy and moral inconsistencies of those who flaunt their ideological colors only when it suits them. 

Apple Corp is now one of, if not THE largest single company in the world. Yeah, they can force you to do a lot, and if they remain large as they are, they'll get away with "IT" for as long as they can. What I find interesting, is, for the longest time they were the underdog to Microsoft and the PC market, and people simply found it to be a "culture" or way of life to be different and "cool".

Microsoft really did themselves a huge favor by making Windows 7 what it is, and how much more efficient and reliable it is from their longtime stronghold via XP. I personally find Windows 7 much more reliable and stable than the Mac OS, and I can put whatever hardware I want in the machine from any major brand.

I'm not biased to Windows or MAC. If Ubuntu were further along, it could be a real contender. Unfortunately, Open-source has the drawback of anarchist-type development rules (relatively-speaking), which will taint the Open-Source reputation for years to come. Consortium methods don't always get the buy-in from everyone. Until then, Windows and Macs both will rule DAW's for years to come. If Dell/Microsoft win over Apple fans, I think they'll crap in their own pudding soon enough. They've done it before and are VERY GOOD at ruining their own reputation.  

dubdisciple


it's the inevitable backlash. Apple bashers have becomes as unreasonably irrational as the cult of apple worship. As you have stated , Apple is no more guilty of exploitative business practices than anyone else. Doesn't make it any more or less right, but illustrates the perspective one will look at these issues from is highly based on pre-conceived notions and prone to selective outrage.

Nobody here is claiming that Apple is more guilty than anyone else when it comes to dicey business practices. The point was about the reaction of a certain demographic to such practices. If the stories were about workers at Microsoft suppliers being worked into suicide or burning their hands on corrosive chemicals used to make screens, the reaction would be a lot different. 


I live and work in New York city among the kind of "progressive" types who talk about this kind of stuff all the time. The outrage at Walmart after the Bangladesh fire was huge, and it just made them even more determined to oppose any idea of Walmart moving into NYC. Then there was the revelation that the CEO of trendy Whole Foods is a free market capitalist who opposes Obamacare. The outrage was pretty intense and there were calls to boycott WF. But only because they don't wear the WF brand like a badge of honor, and they can just go down the road to Trader Joe's, which is now seen as way hipper than the corporate Whole Foods. I just don't recall any such kind of political outrage at Apple. 


I'm not "bashing Apple" at all. I'm just questioning the motives of a certain slice of their demographic. But at the end of the day, they can buy whatever they want and boycott whatever they want. 

You know, you couldn't have a better illustration of the jerkoff attitude that underlies this stuff than fwrend's stuff above suggesting everyone else in the store apart from him is a "kool aid drinker". Funny how he's in the same store with same products, but he's somehow smarter than everyone else. I'll tell you what runs it a close second though, and that's Sharke's claim to know for a fact that people en masse are indulging in some kind of political hypocrisy over Apple. Jaysus. Get over yourselves, chaps.

I mean, if you work with some actual real-life berks who actually do this, go and take it up with them. How many people are you talking about here? Four? Five? Ten?