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<p>My daughter has an Android and she was overseas this summer. The rest of us have iPhones. </p>
<p>Whatsapp allowed us to communicate together as though we were using iMessage. Our texts were all free and provided indication when they were received. </p>
<p>Mine use WhatsApp when she was studied abroad. FaceTime actually more useful. We an iPhone family because the kids can teach us tech stuff if we use the same phone type.</p>
<p>“How did they get busted?”</p>
<p>No idea. The first one, I suspect power surge during the storm. The guys at Micro Center said their lifetime was about a year. So I just got a new one. When the second got busted a year later. I gave up and went back to Apple. The end of diversification.</p>
<p>For Costco members, I was told today, they currently only have a price for those with Verizon - the 6 will be $179. They don’t have a price for those with AT&T (which is me), but they suspect it will be in line with the Verizon price. So for $20 less, I may go there as opposed to the Apple Store, which I had planned on doing. </p>
<p>BTW… I guess a lot of people don’t know that Costco is now carrying Apple items - have been doing it since June.</p>
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Not true at all, the warranties are a year but the projected lifetimes are much longer. I am an EE by training, I have friends and family who have worked as technicians and engineers on consumer electronics, and the quality of components and manufacture for Apple is no higher than it is for the other major brands. The only difference I’ve seen is that Apple is specifically designed to be throwaway, whereas most other brands make it relatively easy to replace “common fail” components.</p>
<p>I have non Apple routers. My parents have 5 routers in their house, with one Apple. The only fickle one is that Apple one that serves my mother’s MacBook and printer. It is the only that requires maintenance and babysitting as the planned updates are creating issues. I expect some Apple fanboy to tell me that it might be an issue of faulty settings, but the reality is that routers are not meant to be complicated. The Linksys and Netgear work just fine with two for more than 5 years. </p>
<p>As far as Apple superior build, someone might explain how that translates into the crappiest chargers, the worst and most expensive batteries, and the awful trackpads that require upgrades after a couple of years for related overheating issues. That quality is just a myth supported by a customer base that is upgrading the stuff often. In my office, we toss the Apple stuff away before two years of use. We support the planned obsolescence because it is cheaper to replace than to mess with it and lose productivity. </p>
<p>I just bought my mom her THIRD charger since 2011. And fourth if you count one non original that did cost only 20 bucks. Why can we not get a charger with cables that do not break? </p>
<p>That may be. But the hassle isn’t worth the bother. It may be fixable but if I have to pay someone to do it, I am not saving much money by getting it repaired instead of replacing. It may be a small part that can easily be repaired if you knew. If you don’t, it is an inconvenience that’s not worth the time and aggravation. In all I spent about $150 for two routers that stopped working after a year and about $100 for AirPort that’s still going strong for more than 5 years. It’s more economical and a great relief not to deal with malfunction.</p>
<p>I’ve never really understood the Apple/i-everything obsession. It’s interesting to watch though! </p>
<p>I’ve had a Linksys router for 6 years, no problem. My parents’ is close to 10 years old- also no problems. </p>
<p>Three things:</p>
<p>I LOVE Apple products ! No desire to ever go back to a PC or NonApple phone.</p>
<p>I didn’t know Costco had Apple again! Going to have to check that out - all stores??</p>
<p>Will be expecting a report on the 6 , 6+ after the19th to give those of us waiting a bit to consider this purchase the low down.:)</p>
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This is one of the problems with cheap electronics manufactured in foreign countries for tiny wages - since repair is performed locally at much higher base wages, it encourages disposable electronics and contributes to the mountains of waste polluting the third world. But you are correct that repairing most of this stuff isn’t worthwhile, except…</p>
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A lot of the parts I am talking about ARE easily replaceable - the most obvious being batteries. Every other company in the world has easily replaceable batteries that even my tech-unsavvy mother could replace. Apple alone made the choice to make the battery a permanent installation, a deliberate choice made because (a) they profit more from a replacement phone than from a replacement battery and because (b) Apple users alone seem willing to tolerate this extortion.</p>
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Every single item produced has a failure rate, and you got some bad rolls of the dice on your routers. I do not think your experience is at all typical - everyone I have talked to who works regularly with consumer electronics sees a higher cost of ownership (including repair and/or replacement) with Apple products than with most other major brands. There are a few areas where Apple products are genuinely superior (for example, iMac’s are beautifully designed for multimedia work, if that is what you need them to do), but for the most part they are hard to justify simply on cost.</p>
<p>For some of us, we’ve been into Apple since the dark ages, when PC ruled the world and Apple was out. It’s strange to see how the company’s image and products have changed since the 1980s. People were not sleeping outside of stores to buy Apple products 30 years ago. I bought a Mac in 1984, and have been an Apple person ever since. My need for tech support is definitely much greater now than before – the products are glitchier and not as problem-free or as intuitive as in the early days. But I’m happier with my Apple computers than with any PC I’ve ever used.</p>
<p>My 5S is still fine – I upgrade every other year, but I might skip this cycle next year because I don’t know that I want a bigger phone. </p>
<p>I did not buy a Mac in 1984. I was not born yet! I did, however, play on the LISA that was gathering dust in the garage. I also had one of those Apple that seemed to have been built by and for the Smurfs. Forgot the name but it was the same crap we had in school. The very best computer we had at home was an Amiga. It did multitasking when Apple and Microsoft where still trying to expand their memory uses. The Amiga could use memory banks 100 times larger. The non-Apple computers were just more fun to assemble and OC. Peer to peer networks made gaming parties fun. Few games worked in the “smart” Apple. They were obviously built for the technology challenged people. Hence their relative success among graphists and educators. </p>
<p>My take is that the iPods and iPhones saved Apple from being a mediocre niche player. Its success in design has never masked its annoying idiosyncrasies. They are best when “borrowing” good ideas and making them pretty. Innovations are dwarfed by inept ideas such as non removable batteries and other closed systems. </p>
<p>Better computers? Better phones? Hardly. Technical support? Look how reported problems remain unaddressed for YEARS. Every IOS update results in months of problems. They are plain uninterested in their customers. </p>
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<p>Can’t blame routers for failing in power surge situations like that. That could have taken out any electronic item…including Apple routers. Incidentally, I just replaced a motherboard in a client’s corporate notebook because of an electrical surge which also took out his adapter and surge protector. </p>
<p>The first router I got was a Linksys WRT54G several years ago. I’ve only replaced it because I found a more capable/featured version for a substantial discount and a friend needed a router badly after his prior router died from a water spill. </p>
<p>It’s still running strong as of today. </p>
<p>Me waits. :)</p>
<p>I’d love to hear the real world reviews of these fabulous pieces before I plunge into buying one. Been there with my 5. Never again!</p>
<p>I talked to the Costco guy a few weeks ago. At that time he didn’t know which ones they’d be carrying, so I went ahead and ordered today. I wanted the 64</p>
<p>Online Costco doesn’t have 6 plus.</p>
<p>Fascinating conversation. I am one of those dinosaurs that still has a dumb phone. Am going to uprgrade to inevitableworld as soon as I have some spare time. This thread is reinforcing my decision to go Android when I do get one.</p>
<p>Love my iphone 5! And my ipad Air. I have no interest in upgrading to the 6, as the 5 works very well and still seems brand new to me. My Dd held on to her 4 for years until last year when we gave her the 5s for Christmas.
garland, I’d recommend going with whichever one your kids/family uses, because I do think that they communicate better within brands. I just tried to send a photo to someone down the block who has an older android and the photo bounced back “undelivered.” But the same photo went through to my son’s iphone in northern ca instantly. </p>
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That is an Apple phenomenon. I know a bunch of people operating a variety of brands and ages of non-Apple products without any problems at all. You are talking about Apple-to-Other, which can indeed have problems. Apple essentially wants you to have only friends who are also Apple users.</p>
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<p>Same here. The postage-stamp-sized screen of the iPhone would drive me insane. I’m not willing to sacrifice that much real estate for the “prestige?” of having one. (But then, I buy purses strictly on functionality, not label. 
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<p>Signed, satisfied owner of a Samsung Galaxy</p>