Moaning Companies you've boycotted

[bickster]

What lock in with iTunes / iPod?

Neither product forces you to buy from the iTunes store

Plenty of places to buy legal mp3s which are perfectly useable with iTunes / iPod

Only thing that bugs me is lack of FLAC support but that's a really minor quibble

[Stevo985]

Google music, on the other hand, does look interesting.

 

Is it free?

[BOF]

iDump will take stuff from your iPod.

 

Google music, on the other hand, does look interesting.

 

Is it free?

It's google, it's free. Not sure about the 'All Access' bit though. Might be *shrug*

[bickster]

coda, on 24 May 2013 - 12:05 PM, said:

What annoyed me as an Apple customer was being unable to get my music from my ipod on to a new laptop. I won't be buying an ipod again (sorted the music problem but it seems an unnecessary step).

I store my music on a drive and transfer to ipod as and when required. I'd never even considered an ipod as my actual library. The drive is the library (shelves), the ipod is just a device (record player)

[BOF]

 

coda, on 24 May 2013 - 12:05 PM, said:

What annoyed me as an Apple customer was being unable to get my music from my ipod on to a new laptop. I won't be buying an ipod again (sorted the music problem but it seems an unnecessary step).

I store my music on a drive and transfer to ipod as and when required. I'd never even considered an ipod as my actual library. The drive is the library (shelves), the ipod is just a device (record player)

 

Me too. The notion of Apple controlling what I can do with anything I own is terrifying. Not to mention the obvious SPF issues around hardware failure.

[legov]

The Apple thing is they made great products, that were desirable and incorporated Fashion. Girls have to have an iPhone, the fact that there are better phones misses the point entirely. The iPhone 5 looks like a piece of jewellery.

That is as good a reason as any to buy a product you don't actually need to survive.

Not to survive, but a smartphone is probably the most important item to own after the essentials like clothes, food, a roof, heating etc..

Well I survived the last two years without using a smartphone (camera phones were banned in my camp) i got my current phone just 3 weeks ago Edited May 24, 2013 by legov

[LondonLax]

What do you do if your hard drive fails and you only have the music on your iPod left? You have to get a dodgy programme to allow you to upload your music onto your new computer.

Also, anything you download is stored with a random file name in a random folder so you need iTunes to sort it back out. Very frustrating.

[Stevo985]

 

Google music, on the other hand, does look interesting.

 

Is it free?

It's google, it's free. 

That's what I assumed.

 

I have a feeling I've asked about GOogle Music on here before and got the same answers, intended to try it and then just forgot all about it

[tarjei]

What do you do if your hard drive fails and you only have the music on your iPod left? You have to get a dodgy programme to allow you to upload your music onto your new computer.

Also, anything you download is stored with a random file name in a random folder so you need iTunes to sort it back out. Very frustrating.

I'm sure they made it that way on purpose, but why? It just seems like a plot to scare consumers away.

By the way, always backup anything you would hate to lose. Any hard drive can and probably will crash at some point. A year ago I bought a 3 TB hard drive before moving to South Africa. Loaded all my stuff onto it and took off. When I got it hooked up to my desktop in SA it worked for about 20 hours before it became unreadable(master file table corrupted and no rescue software could find anything).

Edited May 24, 2013 by tarjei

[Xann]

Only thing that bugs me is lack of FLAC support but that's a really minor quibble

 

I keep this on my toolbar. 

 

When you get the 'Open With' option when downloading a FLAC, select xACT and it craps out a copy in whichever codec you've set up next to the original file, or in the folder of your choice -  as you're downloading from the web.

 

Personally I choose AIFF, but it does the usual MP3 stuff too, saves pissing about later converting files between formats.

Edited May 24, 2013 by Xann

[LondonLax]

 

What do you do if your hard drive fails and you only have the music on your iPod left? You have to get a dodgy programme to allow you to upload your music onto your new computer.

Also, anything you download is stored with a random file name in a random folder so you need iTunes to sort it back out. Very frustrating.

I'm sure they made it that way on purpose, but why? It just seems like a plot to scare consumers away.

By the way, always backup anything you would hate to lose. Any hard drive can and probably will crash at some point. A year ago I bought a 3 TB hard drive before moving to South Africa. Loaded all my stuff onto it and took off. When I got it hooked up to my desktop in SA it worked for about 20 hours before it became unreadable(master file table corrupted and no rescue software could find anything).

 

 

I believe they did it to deter piracy.

 

As in, you couldn't just have your mate come round with his ipod and upload all his music onto your system. It treats everyone like potential criminals and frustrates your own consumer base though.

[CVByrne]

Google music, on the other hand, does look interesting.

 

Is it free?

 

All Access isn't free, it's subscription like Spotify. but it works with Google Music so you can store like loads of music locally so you don't need 3G to listen. 

[CVByrne]

 

coda, on 24 May 2013 - 12:05 PM, said:

What annoyed me as an Apple customer was being unable to get my music from my ipod on to a new laptop. I won't be buying an ipod again (sorted the music problem but it seems an unnecessary step).

I store my music on a drive and transfer to ipod as and when required. I'd never even considered an ipod as my actual library. The drive is the library (shelves), the ipod is just a device (record player)

 

 

 

Things are vastly different now than they were in 2004 and 2005. The wiping peoples iPod when connected to other peoples iTune etc.. itunes was a horror back then. Not to mention DRM (which wasn't apples fault). Sonys file management was worse. Not being able to drag and drop files like you would a zip drive, usb key etc.. was annoying. As was the need to convert to apples file format. They couldn't play wmv etc..

 

It's part of the control Apple maintains over it's products after you buy them, the whole "jailbreak" nonsense with the iPhone is a case in point. 

Edited May 24, 2013 by CVByrne

[PaulC]

Apples success has been in creating new products and a new market. The iPod, iPhone and iPad when they were launched were years ahead of the competition. Those 3 products have been the driver of Apples growth.

 

But when they go head to head on a level playing field, like they did with Microsoft & Intel in the 90s they are in trouble. But that was then and this is now. They have a massive user base and have inbuild an ecosystem "lock in" which makes it hard for many owners of many Apple products to leave. 

 

There is also plenty of space for new product lines and revenue streams like an iWatch and Apple TV, a budget iPhone. They may lose market share in the mobile space to Android, but they knew this was likely inevitable. 

 

They are a long way from being in trouble, they still make very good devices and sell shitloads of them. But the worry is say 5 years time when the innovation well is dry. 

 

Yes wasn't that the time Steve Jobs was not with the company?

[CVByrne]

No Jobs returned to Apple in 1996. But it did take time before his return could have an impact. He was key to the iMac which sparked Apples return to profitability. But the companies real growth has been aroind iPod, iPhone etc.. new products that are ahead of the rivals at launch. One must question how they will perform once innovation is dry and it's mererly competing on an even front. Apple have no manufacturing arm, they pay other comanies like Foxxcon to make their products and get the components from other companies (mainly Samsung but soon to change). 

 

It's a huge burden to design all levels of the product, software and hardware and have to buy components and still remain highly competitive and cutting edge. They failed before so it'll be very interesting to see how the get on this time around. But as I said earlier, loads of room for new product growth yet in new sectors like TV and Watch. 

[leemond2008]

I am tempted to boycott EDF they are f***ing useless

 

I pay £50 a month for my gas and electric which I know is pretty damn cheap but when you consider I live alone I am at work all day 5 days a week and normally out on the weekends I don't use a fat lot of it.

Each and everytime I update my meter readings it comes back and says something along the lines of 'you are £230 in credit however we are raising your direct debit to £85'

 

I phone them up each and everytime and have to argue the toss to get the pice dropped down, thieving b*****ds

[AndyC]

UK mail! What a joke of a company. They have failed to deliver a package 3 times now, every time we had to have someone stay at our house all day for us.

Avoid them at all costs.

[Jondaken]

Halfords is a good shout for boycotting. Completely despicable company.

 

Nestle and Coca Cola trumps all in terms of evil tyrants, bit harder to boycott those tho... i like my junk food too much to care about all the life's they are destroying.

[Rob182]

There's a little cafe next to where I work that used to do a breakfast offer of £1.99 for a bacon roll and a hot drink. They stopped doing that a few months ago and I rarely go there anymore.

Now, a Starbucks has been opened a stones throw away, and I have a feeling they'll bring the offer back.

I suppose I could call off my boycott, if they brought the offer back!

[useless]

I boycotted Rough Trade.