Apple has removed all reviews from their website and it might be my fault.
On November 13th Apple unveiled the new 16inch Macbook Pro. Most Apple fans were excited to see that this laptop fixed many of the issues with the previous version like the keyboard, cooling, and the reintroduction of a physical escape key. Patrick and I were happy about the updates, but were still upset that Apple is using exclusively Thunderbolt 3 ports on the laptop.
Having to carry around a bunch of dongles is annoying, but it would be acceptable if the dongles were reliable. In our experience, the dongles have never been reliable. We decided to make a video talking about our experience using Apple-branded, and third party USB C dongles.
As you can imagine, the response to this video was split. Windows users who have never even used the Macbook before took our side, and Apple fanboys downvoted the video and said that we were either Apple haters or we didn't own the right dongles.
To prove that I was neither "out to get Apple," or just an idiot, I made a second video. In this video went to Apple.com and went through the reviews of every single dongle on their website.
One day after releasing this video Apple removed every single review from its website.
Here is my response.
It seems unlikely that a company the size of Apple would be nimble enough to revamp a website in one day. At the same time, it seems unlikely that this is all a coincidence. I honestly don't know what to believe.
Whether this is my fault or not, I feel like the situation is even worse now. Instead of addressing the problem, Apple has simply hidden the complaints. I love Apple products, I own a bunch of them. I just want them to work reliably.
All these problems. Apple and the dongles. Should be exposed in such videos. It is really necessary to do so. Sincere thanks for doing that.
The only problem I have with Lee’s 2 videos is, he seems to be making it Too personal.
There is a problem we agree, and should be exposed. But his style makes me think it’s his personal problem with Apple. Even it is his problem, it would be more professional to approach this more objectively as an outsider, so it becomes more acceptable by us the audience. This would eliminate the fighting tone as well a little bit. And will make the points and comments more powerful.
So that, then, maybe Apple will finally accept and make a public apology for their stupid idea of introducing all these adapters and taking the accessibility away from us. :)
Personally, the only reason why I still have not upgraded my MBP 2014.
Fighting tone, too much of a personal approach = Apple hiding away comments and likely fighting back with other childish actions. Same story we saw when we were children.
Business as usual for Apple. Anytime something fails, Apple claims it is a user error. Apple fans are among the least critical bunch on the planet.
So they (Apple) did not like the reviews and just deleted them? Nice.
The reviews posted to Apple were generally useless.
I literally never read one that was helpful or informative. The reviews were overwhelmingly negative and became a forum for bitching about things like switching from the myriad ports of previous computers to technology like Thunderbolt 3 without a whit of understanding of the reasoning behind those decisions and the technical advantages that came with that transition.
Personally, I'm fine with it. The reviews were not helpful in my purchasing decisions.
I'm with you, Lee. I hate the dongles.
I'm pretty sure that companies with over a trillion dollars in market capitalization don't react in less than 24 hours to the online ponderings on a photo website. This is brought into serious focus considering that literally tens of thousands of people have complained (beginning in 2016) about the need for dongles with USB-C ports only)
I don't see anything particularly wrong about "claiming" that they might have removed the reviews because of something Lee wrote ... but realistically I think we all know that's essentially impossible.
You're not that important dude, relax.
Your stupid article also has a click-bait title, and what does this even have to do with photography? This is why I visit this site less and less.
Try getting your photographs off your sdcard when the cardreader doesn't want to connect. We have a MacBookPro at our work (and a couple of HP Omen) but the dongle hell really exists.
The Omens (much heavier and bulkier) have several ports and sdcard reader.
I love Apple products, I own a bunch of them. I just want them to work reliably
Why then keep buying them?
Any product I previously bought that was not reliable, I dont buy from again. Simple as that. Prices are at a premium and I would expect better performance and reliability. Otherwise im not being a sucker again. I guess fanboyism can overcome any flaw
I have no use for Apple products anyway.
Honest and the feedback has been ignored, I have apple products which don't work and support said go to a store to prove its genuine...
I've had issues with USB C only devices before like with the Dell XPS 13 (don't know what year it was) someone else had. We had a flash drive and an HDMI cable for a display. We wanted to project something but of course no one brought any adapters.
(apologies for the anonymity)