Member-only story
Stop Defending Apple. It’s Ridiculous.
Wake up and smell the anti-consumer practices for a change.
My first Apple product was an iPod Video (5th Gen), and I loved it. It worked great while being sleek and portable, and I could even watch video at a whopping 320x240 QVGA resolution! (Hey, it was great at the time. I’m old.)
It was at that time I fell in love with Apple products, and part of me was always a little jealous of my friends with other Apple devices, I think.
Over the years, I added to that collection: A MacBook Pro, the first generation iPod Touch (which I loved) — and then the second and fourth generations, an iPhone, eventually an iPad, and then another iPad… And fast forwarding to today, a MacBook Pro, Apple Watch, iPhone, iPad Pro, Apple Pencil, AirPods Pro 2, and a Magic Trackpad.
So I do love my Apple devices. But Apple as a company?
That’s another story.
Over the past several years, Apple has made a stream of anti-consumer and anti-repair decisions that I simply cannot respect. Frankly, that’s their right as a business. They can choose what to do with their products, and if people (like me) choose to buy them, then so be it.
But it’s time to stop defending them when they take away freedoms and impose arbitrary restrictions.
Upgrades? What upgrades?
In the past, replacing the storage drive or system memory of a Mac was a relatively simple and easy process. In fact, that’s something I loved about my 2007 MacBook Pro. I was able to upgrade my RAM in about five minutes. And the storage drive? That was replaceable too.
Even the battery could be popped out without any screws or tools. It was beautiful.
But then Apple started soldering in components. No longer could we upgrade the memory in our MacBooks. Soon even storage drives were soldered in.
Gone were the days of being able to upgrade your MacBook as your needs grew. Suddenly you had to buy all of the power you needed up front — forgetting about upgrading later.
And worse, if a component failed (as they absolutely can) you’d be stuck having to wait for Apple to repair it —…
