johnnyvegasusc
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WHY APPLE FAILED FOR ME
BY JOHN SKANDROS
I am twenty-two years old and have been using an Apple computer since I was in elementary school. My first computer was an Apple Performa, which carried me throughout High School. I have been a faithful customer to Apple throughout my life, arguing against those PC lovers who despise the computer. Throughout half of my academic career at the University of Southern California, I worked on a blue clamshell laptop, which I was poked fun of for in class when it became outdated. Even though it became slower and more outdated as every month passed by, I stood loyal to the computer because it was a part of who I was…it is what I grew up with, even though I knew how to work a Dell.
Upon my acceptance into the USC Cinema Production Program and a part time job in the film and television department at Parsons, my family decided to help me buy new computer. With money saved from various minimum wage jobs and with the help of my mother, I chose the new Apple dual 1.8 G5 because I thought it would carry me throughout film school and my career. This was less than one-year ago.
So, the story begins. After three months, the DVD burner wouldn’t function, which I had to have replaced. And now when I play DVD’s, the picture is pixilated and looks like a downloaded version of a movie. The cord on the keyboard and the mouse is so short and could never reach from my desk to the USB ports, so I had to buy a blue tooth with a wireless keyboard and mouse (I should have just bought a USB hub).
The icing on the cake happened last week. I was editing a film project for the cinema school ( Final Cut Pro HD that I paid for, system 10.3.5), when half the project suddenly went media offline. I looked in the capture scratch folder and two clips I had logged were completely gone…GONE! Also, half of the render files were erased as well…and since I was using magic bullet editors with extensive color correction, it amounted to over ten hours of rendering…completely vanished! I conducted a search and they were nowhere to be found. I am not a novice when it comes to final cut pro or apple computers, and something like this should not have happened.
After a short panic attack, I called Apple in hope of finding help. I explained to them what happened and they had never heard of such a thing. Even after buying the apple care protection plan and spending over $5000 on this system, they said that my three month grace period was up and that I would have to pay a two-hundred dollar one time fee or six hundred dollars for the year, even for a student. Now, that is a ridiculous amount of money for a kid on financial aid. So, for ten hours of panic and puking in the bathroom (since the project was due the evening of that day), I had to re-capture the footage and re-edit everything, which I had been working on for four weeks. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to finish in time…not only because the computer erased my files, but my blue tooth connector kept turning off and on causing the wireless keyboard and mouse not to function…and, final cut pro would quit every time I tried to print to video. I have kept my computer in top shape, I have plenty of space on my drive, no viruses, and I followed every precaution that I knew from experience and from the manuals so that my computer would function properly. After many wasted hours, it finally worked.
So because of all of this, Apple cost me my grade in the class, embarrassment, and my loyalty. I am so angry and so afraid to even edit on my computer again. I even have defended Apple to my co-workers at Parsons, since they are running old PC’s with Premiere. I have kept pushing for them to upgrade their systems to the G5 with Final Cut Pro HD, which I will no longer continue to do, after what happened. I’m sorry if I sound completely bitter, but I feel betrayed. It was really a horrible experience and something I never want to go through again…I hope that no one has to go through what I did. Yes, I wish I would have had a backup drive…God forbid if I were editing a feature or a longer project…or a project for work…I would have lost my job. This was only a 5-minute project!!!!!!!! Apple, you have ruined a loyal customer’s faith in you.
John Skandros
USC School of Cinema-Tv
Skandros@usc.edu
BY JOHN SKANDROS
I am twenty-two years old and have been using an Apple computer since I was in elementary school. My first computer was an Apple Performa, which carried me throughout High School. I have been a faithful customer to Apple throughout my life, arguing against those PC lovers who despise the computer. Throughout half of my academic career at the University of Southern California, I worked on a blue clamshell laptop, which I was poked fun of for in class when it became outdated. Even though it became slower and more outdated as every month passed by, I stood loyal to the computer because it was a part of who I was…it is what I grew up with, even though I knew how to work a Dell.
Upon my acceptance into the USC Cinema Production Program and a part time job in the film and television department at Parsons, my family decided to help me buy new computer. With money saved from various minimum wage jobs and with the help of my mother, I chose the new Apple dual 1.8 G5 because I thought it would carry me throughout film school and my career. This was less than one-year ago.
So, the story begins. After three months, the DVD burner wouldn’t function, which I had to have replaced. And now when I play DVD’s, the picture is pixilated and looks like a downloaded version of a movie. The cord on the keyboard and the mouse is so short and could never reach from my desk to the USB ports, so I had to buy a blue tooth with a wireless keyboard and mouse (I should have just bought a USB hub).
The icing on the cake happened last week. I was editing a film project for the cinema school ( Final Cut Pro HD that I paid for, system 10.3.5), when half the project suddenly went media offline. I looked in the capture scratch folder and two clips I had logged were completely gone…GONE! Also, half of the render files were erased as well…and since I was using magic bullet editors with extensive color correction, it amounted to over ten hours of rendering…completely vanished! I conducted a search and they were nowhere to be found. I am not a novice when it comes to final cut pro or apple computers, and something like this should not have happened.
After a short panic attack, I called Apple in hope of finding help. I explained to them what happened and they had never heard of such a thing. Even after buying the apple care protection plan and spending over $5000 on this system, they said that my three month grace period was up and that I would have to pay a two-hundred dollar one time fee or six hundred dollars for the year, even for a student. Now, that is a ridiculous amount of money for a kid on financial aid. So, for ten hours of panic and puking in the bathroom (since the project was due the evening of that day), I had to re-capture the footage and re-edit everything, which I had been working on for four weeks. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to finish in time…not only because the computer erased my files, but my blue tooth connector kept turning off and on causing the wireless keyboard and mouse not to function…and, final cut pro would quit every time I tried to print to video. I have kept my computer in top shape, I have plenty of space on my drive, no viruses, and I followed every precaution that I knew from experience and from the manuals so that my computer would function properly. After many wasted hours, it finally worked.
So because of all of this, Apple cost me my grade in the class, embarrassment, and my loyalty. I am so angry and so afraid to even edit on my computer again. I even have defended Apple to my co-workers at Parsons, since they are running old PC’s with Premiere. I have kept pushing for them to upgrade their systems to the G5 with Final Cut Pro HD, which I will no longer continue to do, after what happened. I’m sorry if I sound completely bitter, but I feel betrayed. It was really a horrible experience and something I never want to go through again…I hope that no one has to go through what I did. Yes, I wish I would have had a backup drive…God forbid if I were editing a feature or a longer project…or a project for work…I would have lost my job. This was only a 5-minute project!!!!!!!! Apple, you have ruined a loyal customer’s faith in you.
John Skandros
USC School of Cinema-Tv
Skandros@usc.edu
love PC ... NO MORE APPLE... go get a PC and get AVID or vegas you will be much much happier 