Apple's losing its mojo in a slow steady drip and there's going to be more of this if they don't get it together soon.
Apple used to be synonymous with premium equipment an a "It Just Works" experience. It made it really, really easy to just get the Apple version of anything knowing it was going to be good.
My parents need equipment, I get them an iMac, an Airport Extreme, iPhone, iPad, etc...knowing it's all just going to work.
And then somebody in the business unit started getting involved. Airport extreme is basically dead. They started trimming their product line so that they no longer have an option in every category like 17" laptops. They remove features that people don't want removed like the headphone jack and leave you with no other option aside from buying attachments or more expensive battery powered headphones. They started building in batteries in slices on the laptops they do sell, welding parts to boards so you can't open it up and change things out without paying somebody at an Apple store.
They started making design decisions that are almost purposely irritating like the new Magic Mouse. Look, it's got a rechargeable battery built right in! battery dies flip it upside down to plug in the charger and just wait until you can use your computer again. God forbid you put the charger on the front so people could use it as a wired mouse if they wanted/needed.
Let's not forget using $30 USB cords to charge your phone/mouse.
The combination of all these little decisions is what is finally driving me away after being nothing short of a fanboy for about 10 years. I'm just tired of having a company that I tend to disagree with lately trying to make decisions for me so I'm starting the slow exit from Mac life.
Laptop first (waves at Dell). Then a new router (waves at Asus probably). Then a new phone (waves at Samsung/Google).
And then, because the geeks in your friends lives tend to get asked for recommendations on what they should get for themselves...that stuff is probably going to spill over. I don't seem to be the only person feeling this way lately, so I hope whoever started making bottom line decisions at Apple is happy with the long term side effect.
I paid $12 on Amazon for 6 Travalo lightning cables on Amazon and I couldn't be happier with them. Lightning interface is legit (no notifications about unsupported lightning connector) and they're more robust than the official Apple cables.
I tried quite a few routers and if you are on a budget (or simply aren't fussed on giving $200+ for a router which is entirely fair) I found that the Asus RT-N18U is a fantastic device for the money. I attached my printer and external HDD to it and had almost no problems. The UI is better than most other vendors (Eero and Ubiquiti are still kings though) and on top of that they have a very decent mobile app as well.
As for Apple, I actually wanted to start investing myself in their ecosystem but as you very eloquently put it -- it seems the businessmen took over and things just go worse and worse with time. :(
Now I use a Mikrotik. The only downside is the UI is quite powerful and allows you to hang yourself if you're not careful. It's definitely not for non-engineers. However, it does get regular updates since it's targeted at a more professional market.
I've read about that too a while ago, thank you. I believe those should have been fixed by now but being objective, we really can't know for sure, so I am with you here.
Please note that I said "if you're on a budget or you're not fussed giving $200+ on a router" however. I am aware that there are compromises to be made when one doesn't buy professional equipment. Not disagreeing with you. Only adding nuance.
FWIW I won't be looking for other middle-ground solutions after I figure it's time to upgrade again (which is gonna be in the next 1-2 years maximum). I'll just go full in with the 5-pack of Ubiquiti and hope for the best.
Do you know of any exploits in the Ubiquiti firmware?
Well I guess "Fritzbox"-Routers do not work in the US. (At least some modems, might not work with all providers) But if they do you should probably look into them since they are stable, extremly stable and getting updates for at least 5 years if you buy the new product line. https://en.avm.de/products/
It's on my radar. I've been considering a fanless metal-box PC to use as a router, home entertainment system, and file hosting -- for a while now.
Even if I manage to squeeze $700+ for such a machine (and I don't want to buy something weak; I will invest in future proofing), the bigger issue for me is investing the time and effort. I know it'll make me a better programmer and sysadmin (I am an amateur sysadmin, won't deny that) but sometimes you just want stuff to work right away.
I'll get to it but yes, IMO that's the endgame here. Or buy a 5-pack Ubuiquiti and let it do its thing and use the fanless PC for everything else.
The machine doesn't have to be powerful at all, most of the consumer routers have ~1GB of ram and a few megabytes of flash. The machines I use don't cost much more than $100, I've never tried using something like the raspberry pi but that's only because I can never find a USB hub good enough to run WiFi with and my only pi3 is already dedicated as my desktop.
I know it doesn't have to be powerful but throughout my technical life I became sick and tired of having to restart routers every time they clearly show signs of temporary overload. If this is coming from potential hackers looking for holes, or my torrent client goes crazy once in a while, or the 2 live video streams + 2 low-ping games that me and my girlfriend are playing, or its logging subsystem is killing it because of slow memory -- I can't say. But I've grown weary of routers crapping out, even if it's once a month. So I'm gonna go all-in.
Plus I want to try and host a mail server and a website in the future as well, so I am looking for a powerful fanless machine that can do several things at once.
Apple used to be synonymous with premium equipment an a "It Just Works" experience. It made it really, really easy to just get the Apple version of anything knowing it was going to be good.
My parents need equipment, I get them an iMac, an Airport Extreme, iPhone, iPad, etc...knowing it's all just going to work.
And then somebody in the business unit started getting involved. Airport extreme is basically dead. They started trimming their product line so that they no longer have an option in every category like 17" laptops. They remove features that people don't want removed like the headphone jack and leave you with no other option aside from buying attachments or more expensive battery powered headphones. They started building in batteries in slices on the laptops they do sell, welding parts to boards so you can't open it up and change things out without paying somebody at an Apple store.
They started making design decisions that are almost purposely irritating like the new Magic Mouse. Look, it's got a rechargeable battery built right in! battery dies flip it upside down to plug in the charger and just wait until you can use your computer again. God forbid you put the charger on the front so people could use it as a wired mouse if they wanted/needed.
Let's not forget using $30 USB cords to charge your phone/mouse.
The combination of all these little decisions is what is finally driving me away after being nothing short of a fanboy for about 10 years. I'm just tired of having a company that I tend to disagree with lately trying to make decisions for me so I'm starting the slow exit from Mac life.
Laptop first (waves at Dell). Then a new router (waves at Asus probably). Then a new phone (waves at Samsung/Google).
And then, because the geeks in your friends lives tend to get asked for recommendations on what they should get for themselves...that stuff is probably going to spill over. I don't seem to be the only person feeling this way lately, so I hope whoever started making bottom line decisions at Apple is happy with the long term side effect.