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Why does apple hate customisation

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Just curious to what apple has against customising?

when they first released the iphone you couldnt have your own wallpaper, when every phone at the time and before it had the option, its not like they forgot.

you cant use songs in your ipod on the iphone as a ringtone, alarm, or text message tone without going through a long process or downloading an app that helps you do it.

every mac except the mac pro has no way of upgrading your graphics card, which is a big deal for a lot of people

In OS X lion theres no option to change the theme of the computer, everything has to be grey

which leads me to believe apple has something against customisation, it kinda reminds me of the film equilibrium. just wandering if you guys could shed any light on this. i understand with the macs a little as it forces people to buy new ones but still, combined with everything else just seems a little strange.
 
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I guess I never really cared one way or another just like the trouble free it works.
I save all my tinkering for Linux and maintenance on Windows.
 
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when they first released the iphone you couldnt even have your own wallpaper, when every phone at the time and before it had the option, its not like they forgot.
Aren't you a couple of years late on this argument? This horse has already been beaten to death.

you still cant use songs in your ipod on the iphone as a ringtone, alarm, or text message tone without going through a long process or downloading an app that helps you do it.
There list of ringtone/sound apps are almost endless.

every apple product except the mac pro has no way of upgrading anything other than the hard drive
As apposed to...HP? Dell? Sony? Toshiba? Who?? What else are you going to be upgrading on a laptop, the processor? You missed the RAM. LOL!

In OS X lion theres no option to change the theme of the computer in a anyway at all. you can't even have custom icons on folders, everything is grey.
Shame that a lack of knowledge would lead to such false statements. You should at least do some fact checking.

which leads me to believe apple has something against customisation, it kinda reminds me of the film equilibrium. just wandering if you guys could shed any light on this. i understand with the macs a little as it forces people to buy new ones but still, combined with everything else just seems a little strange.
I have one question for you, since you already got to ask us- Why cause a stink up, when the simple solution would be to buy something else that satisfies your needs?

If I had my own company, I would want to be in full control of something that I made, not just be simply known for selling a piece of hardware so that the customers could whatever they wanted to it . There are plenty of other computers, mp3 , phones to fill your need if Apple doesn't fill your needs.
 
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Aren't you a couple of years late on this argument? This horse has already been beaten to death.


There list of ringtone/sound apps are almost endless.


As apposed to...HP? Dell? Sony? Toshiba? Who?? What else are you going to be upgrading on a laptop, the processor? You missed the RAM. LOL!


Shame that a lack of knowledge would lead to such false statements. You should at least do some fact checking.


I have one question for you, since you already got to ask us- Why cause a stink up, when the simple solution would be to buy something else that satisfies your needs?

If I had my own company, I would want to be in full control of something that I made, not just be simply known for selling a piece of hardware so that the customers could whatever they wanted to it . There are plenty of other computers, mp3 , phones to fill your need if Apple doesn't fill your needs.

lol you obviously took this to heart a little, i'm sorry im not trying to "put down" apple or anything. i love my imac and use it everyday for my work. I'm trying to figure out what their reasoning behind it is, personally it doesnt really bother me too much as i use my computer mostly for productivity. but i was at a friends and he was using linux and he had a really cool theme on it and showed me some of the options you have for customising it. After looking at it i tried to customise my mac a little and realised that it's really restricted, and it seems to be a trend with apple products (i also have and iphone and an ipod). So i was wandering if anyone else had any theories, because i understand that a company would like to be in control of there hardware to some respect. Like in what manner software can be run on it ect... but i dont fully understand why they would care whether the window frames were blue or grey or what you use as a ringtone?

No one is beating a dead horse or trying to cause offense, and no i didnt realise that you could change folder icons, but if you can it doesnt seem very obvious. and yes it would be nice to be able to upgrade your graphics card like you can with other computers and laptops but i did over exagerate a little. finally you cant look past the fact that the new operating system theme is practically absent of colour, which some people like to have.
 
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...and then some people long for the day when our society is color blind. Can't please everyone! ;)
 

cwa107


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Not sure what your point is. We're not affiliated with Apple. Why don't you ask on their forum?
 
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I think it would be kind of harsh to send the guy to the official Apple forums. I doubt he'd get much of an answer other than: "you've been banned for asking too many questions... resistance is futile".

Come on guys, I do think that the OP has some valid questions and isn't coming off as a troll or anything. It's the kind of questions that one would have after having used Win or Linux for years. If I really cared about the level of customization which was brought up, it would drive me nuts... luckily I care more about things like a stable OS, being able to work with amazing efficiency (which IMO has lessened with Lion).

I don't really think that any of us can really answer the "why's" initially posed, in terms of customization other than the fact that Apple likes to run a tight ship. Tight to the point of restricting people from doing things which MAY run the risk of putting their device or OS in danger. But this is just an assumption, not a fact. I'm reaching this conclusion based upon why Apple claim they don't want people to Jailbreak their iOS devices. That could all very well be nonsense though.

I think the real point is the simple fact that none of us know why, and that's the most appropriate answer IMHO.

Now, as for upgrading hardware... As has already been said, you can upgrade hardware just as much as is logical for you to be able to. With MacBook Air's, everything is soldered to the logic board, so you're out of luck there. With the MacBook Pro's, you can upgrade the memory, hard drive and optical drive (replace it with an SSD). Same thing goes for the iMac unless of course you can get your hands on a mobile GPU which will be compatible. This also goes for the processors. They're both made to work specifically with the logic board, since there is no bios on hand in order to change the parameters needed for such an upgrade.

Doug
 
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thanks for the honest opinion man, i was starting to think i wasnt getting through. luckily im the same as you in that respect, i much prefer a stable OS as i do a lot CPU intensive audio engineering. Just seems illogical for apple to prevent any sort of customisation solely because "they dont like it", there must be a reason, after seeing what ubuntu has OS X looks rather pale.

I fr one think it would be really cool if apple released a themes SDK where you could make Dynamic wallpapers, cool windows and a more personalised dock

yh your probably right on the hardware side, but on the older macs u were able to upgrade the graphics cards aswell which is big deal if your into gaming or video processing where an upgrade can make a massive difference
 
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Just curious to what apple has against customising?

when they first released the iphone you couldnt have your own wallpaper, when every phone at the time and before it had the option, its not like they forgot.

you cant use songs in your ipod on the iphone as a ringtone, alarm, or text message tone without going through a long process or downloading an app that helps you do it.

Not true. That said, I don't care for iOS for other only somewhat related reasons - Android guy here.

every mac except the mac pro has no way of upgrading your graphics card, which is a big deal for a lot of people

Every Mac except the Mac Pro is a notebook or ultraportable/all-in-one. They use laptop form factor motherboards, which don't allow this. The same holds true for any Mac mini sized desktops or all-in-ones you find from other manufacturers. ATI was looking into standardizing a drop-in replacement graphics card setup for laptop motherboards a while back, but it didn't really go anywhere. I think some iMacs were compatible with that setup for replacing the video card a while back, but I'm not sure the current ones are.

In OS X lion theres no option to change the theme of the computer, everything has to be grey
There are many OS X themes you can easily install. Lion is brand new, so some of them need to be updated to work properly, as is the case with any OS the first month after it releases. If you're upset that it doesn't come pre-loaded with other Apple-made themes and are ignoring the vast number of user-made themes available (as well as the associated ability to make themes yourself), I think you and I have very different definitions for "customizing." It's actually easier to change things like application and folder icons in OS X than it is in Windows or most Linux distros in my opinion.

which leads me to believe apple has something against customisation, it kinda reminds me of the film equilibrium. just wandering if you guys could shed any light on this. i understand with the macs a little as it forces people to buy new ones but still, combined with everything else just seems a little strange.
I guess I've already shed light on this: Your belief is based on false assumptions that two minutes of Google searching could have remedied. I guess that reminds me of Equilbrium in a different way. ;)
 
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Equilibrium is such a good movie...

D.
 
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I customized my iMac when I bought it from apples website lol they did the work for me. I picked what I wanted and they made it happen. I just wish they had more games to utilize the full potential of my graphics card but even then Im still satisfied.
 
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I would recommend the OP read up on the subject of Apple History and specifically on Steve Jobs. It will all become clear.
 
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In reality OS X is much much easier to customize than Windows ever has been. You can quickly change icons with little to no fuss, you simply have to know how to do it. Check out the desktop screenshot threads in the Image board on this forum, you'll see all kinds of customized desktops.

Images, Graphic Design, and Digital Photography - Mac-Forums.com

I guess we've forgotten about the ole Powerbook 1400. It had a clear panel you could pop out and put your own designs in the lid! Nobody was doing that stuff at that time. Realistically, MOST people aren't going to be tinkering around with designs and customization.

I think we often forget that people outside of the "geek" culture really have no interest in some of the things we squabble about. Majority of the people that buy computers buy them because they are pretty looking as is. The ones that have other visions for the design of the computer will be the ones that tear it apart with their bare hands and makes it their own.

Same goes for the Mac. There's many ways to customize the software and hardware, you just have to be willing to get your hands dirty. I've modified several Macs over the years, light mods, custom Apple logo cutouts, LED lid bases for Mac Minis, different colored Apple logos in the notebooks, etc. etc. You can do it, just don't expect Apple to hold your hand. I don't think they should either. I, like most people, quite enjoy the aesthetics of the current Macs. They are freaking slick!
 

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