It's a stay-at-home day today, so I thought I would look into improving the performance and generally upgrading some old iPads and iMacs I have been given for the rummage sale this spring. Hmmm... can't do. Even though I was able to bring the samples I had up to new factory condition and then run them through upgrades, they still wouldn't upgrade past a certain point. I know all you Apple fans out there know that this happens... if you have an Apple device that is something like 6 years old it will become a brick because the operating system isn't supported. Unlike all other computing device manufacturers, it is not possible to replace the Apple operating system with another operating system, some derivative of Linux, the same operating system core platform Apple uses, to extend the life of the device and improve performance.
Over the years- and I mean couple of decades- I have serviced Apple products, I have received many of the company's devices that had unexplained glitches that made them unusable. After they had been given up as dead by their owners I would do a postmortem on the machines. Sometimes I was able to bring them back to life by replacing defective parts. Other times, I knew what the defective parts were, but it was too difficult to replace the part- the devices were not designed to be repaired, though the original owner had paid those excessive prices for the device in the first place.
A flashback to my experience with computers- I was on the design chips for the CPUs that went into all computers and computing devices. I was on the test teams that devised the tests for the wafers, chips, motherboards, and computers- for 25 years. Before that starting 67 years ago, I have been designing, building, and programming computers- many from "scratch." b I was also involved in the transfer of the technologies to other countries, with the ultimate manufacturer being some sweatshop in China, with software developed in India. I saw and could measure the quality going downhill. After I retired and began servicing computers as a hobby, I experienced first-hand the quality issue of all computing devices. But Apple is the worst case because it cost so much to begin with and left no "off ramp" to repair or reinvigorate.
Apple products are overpriced and of poor quality- the quality shortcomings seemingly by design. If you've stuck with me this far, then watch the following Youtube video for proof of my claim: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AUaJ8pDlxi8. (The video is in the list on the right side of this blog page.) The video is 24 minutes long, but it really makes the case I have been trying to make. If I had time, I would make a companion video with my own war stories.
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