Anecdotes work both ways. Apple recently locked and forced a reset of Apple ID accounts for no reason.[0] This happened to my elderly mother at an incredibly inconvenient time, making her phone completely unusable, and the phone was set up for her by my elderly father, who had had strokes since then, and couldn't remember the account password, and had lost access to the email address. I spent hours on the phone begging Apple to help, and they could do nothing but direct me toward recovery Web pages that had long, mandatory waiting periods. It took weeks for my mom's phone to no longer be a useless brick, and it very nearly didn't work (they already denied one request without explanation). Even sending them proof of purchase from the mobile carrier, as they demanded, was rejected. All in the name of "protecting" the user.
I provided the link to the Forbes article to multiple representatives, including a senior advisor. None of them admitted to knowing anything about it, even a week later. It was reported on various Apple news sites as well.
So, no, I cannot in good conscience recommend buying an Apple device. Even if you pay for it, it effectively does not belong to you, and Apple may suddenly disable it at any time, for any reason, without warning.
Its interesting to me to think that when Steve Jobs was still around, the iPhone was always on the cutting edge of design and tech features. You constantly heard the tech media saying how far ahead Apple was of its competitors in terms of features and camera specs.
Once Jobs passed and Tim Cook took over, everything changed. Now they're years behind other companies in terms of features and specs. It took them years to have wireless charging, even longer to have simple widgets - stuff Android phones had as standard features for years.
I've stayed away from them for the reasons you pointed out and the fact they just seem so far behind, even on features that have become standard on every other manufacturers handsets. Now its painted as "Apple sees what other companies are doing. They sit and wait and let other companies vet features and tech before integrating them into their handsets - its a very smart approach."
It seems like they still haven’t said what happened. I was in a restaurant at the time and first I knew was my Apple Pay wouldn’t work. Awkward is an understatement… thankfully I just happened to have my wallet on me that time, I don’t always though!
Complying with the user preferences would be a good one.
My elderly dad doesn't use his iPhone for anything sensitive and it is not even password protected. If that phone gets lost I will replace it. He doesn't need his apple ID to be "protected" by Apple this way.
AFAICT, this feature requires the recovery contact to also use an Apple device, which does not help us. It seems like another way to try to lock users into using Apple.
The device in question had no locking enabled of any kind. The associated Apple ID account was locked by Apple without warning, and so the phone itself was locked for any use other than emergency calls.
Apple was for a looong time known to not honor Norwegian consumer protection laws. They've gotten better, but they've been worst in class here for a decade. Edit: two decades. Found this article from 2006 about how they refused to repair ipods after a year, even shops selling Apple stuff used to have problems because they had to fix things at a loss themselves https://www.vg.no/forbruker/teknologi/i/8300w/apple-og-forbr...
I actually believe that's why Apple adoption was fairly slow compared to the hype I was reading about in other countries. No official Apple stores, and most electronic chains didn't want to touch them.
Top consumerism right here: being proud of a purchase.
I don't know who started this, I only remember that one could be proud of an achievement or of making something. Being proud of purchasing something; it just sounds as impossible as drinking space shuttles.
Nobody was talking about "being proud of purchasing something". What you replied to was an allusion to some people being proud of refusing to buy an Apple product.
The phrase "swallow your pride" is literally a call to abandon pride as a motivating factor.
I never mentioned Apple. Sure, proud of _not_ purchasing is another level of this, and then _accusing_ someone of being proud to (not) purchase rounds the circle I guess.
Apple does plenty of anti-consumer stuff too. My last Apple product is my ipod nano. I swore off them after they shipped a firmware update specifically closing the loophole that allowed me to manage the song library without itunes. I have a whole separate rant about itunes. I replaced it with a sandisk player for a third of the price. Surprisingly, it worked much more smoothly, had fewer annoyances, and had an FM radio.
How is paying extra a solution to the problem of having to pay to get their phone fixed? Insurances exists for other brands as well (or through the store you buy from).
