[La Lydia]

I love my Big Tent of Apple. It is large, comfortable, sleek, well furnished, my toys are colorful and fun — and it has never collapsed on me.

[ctdonath2]

Flip side is that “closed digital ecosystem” is a very comfortable place where you can do what needs doing with little fuss. No need to spend prolonged periods trying to decide between a gazillion products that do the same thing just a little differently and with endlessly varying compatibility issues.

Can you do everything within the Apple ecosystem? No.
Do you really WANT to do everything? _really_?

[Swordmaker]

"Bad Apple: Five Classic Apple Marketing Tactics That Lock You In"

It's FUD... PING!

Thanks to Defiant for the heads up...

Mac Ping!

If you want on or off the Mac Ping List, Freepmail me.

[SkyDancer]

Whenever I go into a store selling software there’s a huge section for PC’s and a very small area for MAC stuff ... and when something good comes out there’s a sign that says something like “coming to Apple soon” ...

[Blueflag]

I’d file this article under “REALLY WEAK ARGUMENTS”

point 1: the Apple stuff really works

point 2: everybody waits on Gates.

point 3: People don’t b!tch about Apple and th Apple OS; but almost everyone complains about the MS experience.

point 4: the guy who wrote this article has apparently never owned and maintained a premium brand car.

[mmichaels1970]

Consumers could either shell out the cash for a new iPod or pay Apple as much as $100 (plus shipping) to put a new battery in their existing device. In June 2005

Ruh roh. My mom bought an iPod for my daughter. I didn't know that I couldn't change the battery in it. So we just throw iPods away when the battery goes?

[The_Victor]

Nor is Apple the only vendor to use one product as leverage to push others onto consumers (let's declare Microsoft the champion there).

Of course, when Micro$oft does it, it's illegal.

[Bob]

Back in the mid-80s (not sure which year), I had an idea for a simple hardware addon board for personal computers. I was faced with a choice whether to develop it for the IBM PC or for Apple's products.

I soon discovered that the specs for the PC's ISA bus as well as the source code listing for its BIOS ROM had already been published and were publicly available. I also discovered that, to make a legal Apple-compatible board, I would need to negotiate a license agreement with Apple's corporate headquarters.

By the end of one weekend, I had a hand-built prototype board installed in my PC and had the initial software running. Had I chosen to go the Apple route, I couldn't have even gotten the legal paperwork started by that point.

[word_warrior_bob]

Microsoft’s crappy OS forced me under the Apple tent, I’m happy there.

For all the PC tinkerers who build their own computers and know how to take care of them, good for you. I don’t care to know how to tend to my computer, or how to fix my car or put a new roof on my house.

[Dr. Sivana]

If you wanted to move the songs you bought at a buck apiece to a cheaper player from a competing manufacturer, you had two options: an onerous process in which you burned your songs to a CD and then reripped them as MP3s, or quasilegal software that essentially did the same thing using your hard drive instead of a disc.

Audible, who has close to a working monopoly on downloadable audiobooks, has the same problem. And it is a LOT more pain to burn a 20 disc audiobook and then convert to MP3 than it is a few songs. (audible is available on PC/Mac and iPhone)

[USMCWife6869]

I’ll say it. I love my iPhone, I don’t care that I have to use iTunes to get my songs and my apps (My Miller Lite one is my fave right now LOL) and I have great luck with AT&T.

[Revolting cat!]

I eat a Fuji Apple every day.

[Mad-Margaret]

They call it a tent; I call it a fortress. And I feel very secure with my Mac and other Apple products. No viruses, no trojans, no worms here.

And I’m still going strong with my iBook G4. I absolutely love my iPhone 3GS (but hate AT&T). Mobile Me brings it all together quite nicely.

[rwfromkansas]

I do wish you could get imovie to work on Windows. It’s a great program.

Macs are great, it’s just the darn closed system that can get annoying.

[jonno]

Don’t like iTunes?

Try Sharepod - a great freeware tool:
http://www.getsharepod.com/download/

[TheStickman]

This article is inane.

[Tribune7]

I use a Mac and I gave save my doc in just about any format including doc.

You want an example of "lock in" do something in Publisher.

[aMorePerfectUnion]

Gee, that must be why Apple is doing so, so, so poorly!

:-)