Windows XP forum: Windows and I Cloud Apple Misinformation----

I do believe you if you say that iCloud currently is not compatible with the Consumer Preview of Windows 8. But I really doubt if it will still be incompatible with it when Windows 8 is on sale in October 2012 or so. Are you sure about that?

Kees

I will just say that having worked as an Apple tech in the past (just not for Apple) you can't really take a lot of what they say at face value sometimes. I was told by some of their cream of the crop tech support people, who worked their way up from the store level, that it's not possible to put 10.6 back on a system that had been upgraded to 10.7, but I did it pretty routinely for a month or two. The special recovery partition was still there, but as it wouldn't hurt anything, I didn't worry about it.

So I'm going to go with Kees on this one, and say that there was likely some minor communication breakdown between you and the Apple CS rep. I am quite willing to believe they only meant that it's incompatible with the preview versions of Windows 8 out. I have no doubt that as soon as Windows 8 goes gold, official support will be given.

As for XP... It's a 10 year old OS come August, and it's been showing its age for some time now. Truth be told, XP should never have been allowed to become so entrenched, but it's a bit late for that. In any case, we're coming up on the third major Windows release since XP, so how long exactly should companies be expected to keep supporting legacy systems? I'm sure if you looked hard enough you could find some people still actively using Windows 1.0. So should Apple be expected to make a copy of iTunes that works with Windows 1.0 just because there might still be a few holdouts? When exactly is it acceptable for a company to drop support for an OS? Maybe after you personally wouldn't be inconvenienced by it?

With Microsoft planning to end all support for XP in the very near future, and the fact that XP's architecture is so dated, it will become an increasingly expensive proposition for Apple (or anyone else really) to continue to support XP.

If you want to keep using XP, that's your choice, but you need to accept the consequences that come with that choice, such as being left behind by the rest of the computing world. Compatible programs have already slowed to a trickle, and one day they will stop completely, if you don't count malware. So either suck it up and move up to a more recent version of Windows or be prepared to accept the consequences associated with sticking to a dying platform.

I'm not here to defend Apple. They've royally ticked me off, being a company full of high maintenance drama queens. The true face of Apple is like a distillation of all the worst attributes of every major horror film psycho killer, combined with a really haughty attitude. The face they show the public is a facade, and a very thin one at that. Ask anyone who has ever had to deal with Apple on the business side of things, and you'll probably have a hard time getting them to shut up. I will be ready with the popcorn when Tim Cook becomes the latest CEO to oversee the demise of a once great company, and Apple learns the lesson in humility it first learned around 2000 when it was only a few months from insolvency, but has subsequently forgotten. However, in this particular instance, I grudgingly have to side with them.

One possible reason for support reps being told to say it unequivocally will not work with Windows 8 until Windows 8 is in the hands of consumers, is so they don't open themselves up to having to support the consumer preview of Windows 8. Odds are it works just fine, and you'll find plenty of people using iTunes on Windows 8, but the official line will be it's not supported until launch day of Windows 8, so that they don't have to support an unofficial release of Windows.

I am absolutely not going to argue the point that Apple has once again gotten a bit full of itself, and I'm sure another lesson in excessive hubris is waiting for them in the near future. Only this time there won't be a Steve Jobs to rescue the company, and it will likely join the dustbin of failed tech companies. The whole focus on the customer thing is a facade within Apple, and anyone who has ever dealt with them on the business side of things will tell you as much. I have dealt with some of the top level executives in the company, and to say that they are ********* is to insult all the true ********* in the world. Megalomaniacal might not even quite cover it. They exist in their own little alternate reality where everyone should be THANKING them for the royal shafting they were just delivered. People should be falling all over themselves with gratitude for the random and inconsistent nature Apple has for enforcing its rules, including the ones they just seemingly make up on the spot, then land on you for not following exactly.

Tell the decision makers at your company to ask around a little at other companies who have dealt with Apple. If anyone knows someone who works for an Apple repair place, to ask them about it. And if someone wants to give Jason Hsi at Apple a swift kick to the teeth with a steel toed boot, my hat's off to them. I would never ask anyone to do it, but if someone is going to do it anyway, I can certainly understand where they are coming from.