Consumer Reports has evaluated yet another Apple product: Movie streaming from iTunes, in their September 2012 issue.
“Here Apple ends up second best, a point behind Vudu, even though the ‘Survey results’ make them seem identical,” Gene Steinberg reports for Tech Night Owl. “Movie selection is considered average, and price is, well, worse. Curiously, the video-on-demand offerings from cable and satellite providers — which are curiously not broken down by service — are rated as even more expensive, even though average cost, from $4.00 to $5.00 each, is the same as iTunes. I suppose CR might be referring to special VOD events, such as sports, but it’s hard to know since the article doesn’t explain the discrepancy, but that’s just typical for CR.”
“Amazon Instant Video gets an average rating on price even though the listed cost is the same as iTunes and VOD,” Steinberg reports. “Are you confused yet?”
Steinberg reports, “Oh, and one more thing: In reviewing desktop PCs with the new Intel Ivy Bridge processors, CR neglects to mention that the two Macs included in the review, two versions of the iMac, have not as yet been updated with Ivy Bridge parts. Despite that potential shortcoming, the 27-inch iMac still gets performance scores that are identical to the ones that do. There’s brief mention that a Windows 8 is coming, but nothing about Mountain Lion, which was announced long before this issue of CR was edited. Yes, it boggles the mind.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: The Depends-encased, Geritol-addicted Consumer Reports testers should stick to assessing things with which they are intimately familiar: Early bird specials, cars with the longest-lasting left turn signals, the best tennis balls for walkers, etc.
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‘the best tennis balls for walkers’ Hilarious!!!
I used to be an avid CR reader but they have never been able to adequately evaluated consumer electronics. In fact they grow increasingly unable to keep up with the changes in CE. Their CE testing may only be helpful to the most uninformed and non-discriminating consumers. They still do a good job of evaluating things like vaccum cleaners, ovens, and washing machines. Maybe they should just do an annual publication limited to just those type things that are only replaced once or twice per decade. That will work until Apple or an Apple-like innovator disrupts those markets, bringing those largely unchanged products into the modern age.
I have subscribed to CR for over 50 years and use their results as additional information only. They have always had a bias toward cheap and free. They also lean toward liberal causes. They love comparing apples and oranges. They never like to include expensive products in their evaluation which is ironic since this is the one thing that can be determined by the consumer.
Dear Consumer Reports: If you’re going to do something half-assed, don’t do it at all. Why don’t you just pretend Apple doesn’t exist. You’d being doing consumers a favor because you have yet to get a clue about Apple tech and why it either buries the competition with quality or has them running in an effort to keep up and compete.
IOW: Why be stupid when you can just STFU? 😯
Derek: please rewrite your post and submit it without the foul language. Most intelligent readers lose respect for your opinions when you show such a shortage of vocabulary when expressing yourself.
Ouch!
What foul language is that, then? Half-assed? If that’s what is considered ‘foul language’ around here by you, well, I have a feeling that you may be in for a bit of a shock.
Or do you mean ‘STFU’? Yes, it’s an acronym that includes profanity, but as written, it’s only your mucky little mind that sees the profanity, as you actually have to know what the letters stand for.
I would respectfully suggest that you get over your puritanical self and STFU. (Shut The Frack Up).
Why is it that people who would get a pounding if they indiscriminately went around telling strangers to shut the f@ck up feel that it’s acceptable behavior online?
I like the fucking foul language, comes across better. If you don’t like it, carry your ass.
well fucking said….313: spare us the evangelism.
Fuckin’ A!
No, fuck the Yankees!
Fuck that asshole Bloomberg!
Fucking shit ass fuck fucker!
One of my all time favorite movie lines was by Clive Owen in ‘Shoot ‘Em Up’ :
“Fuck you, you fuckin’ fucker!”
Fuck off.
Background:
@3l3c7ro trolls me on a regular basis.
His favorite rant has been criticism of my denigration of the US Corporate Oligarchy and it’s corruption of the US government into a state of Neo-Feudalism.
He has no conception of what I call ‘Positive Anarchy’, aka responsible freedom, or the self-destructive nature of customer abuse, aka Marketing-Moron behavior.
IOW: Just laugh at the guy. 😆
Oh and @3l3c7ro:
Why be stupid when you can just STFU? 😉
See you at the punch clock tomorrow…
This smells of a report being made up. IE: They are not reporting the facts but simply making them up.
I know that Amazon has the cheapest prices on “renting” a video. iTunes, it seems to me, the most expensive.
I would like to order from iTunes, but it’s difficult to “mess up” VOD, these days, and price and availability is the only differentiating factor. I just a soon, save a dollar.
CR? Wot a larf! The last one I saw was in a Kaiser clinic waiting room and it was 2 years old. Is it printed any more?