It's official. With the emphasis on casual use, digitards are bypassing the PC as their digital hub. I guess computers are too much work, even when they're designed to be slacker engines.

So once again, thalo.net is ahead of the curve. I predicted this. Why even HAVE computers if they don't really do squat but manage your digi-devices? Let your TV or your Xbox do the heavy lifting. People who spend all day texting or taking digital snapshots of their friends, don't have to worry about using software apps like pros do.

So once again, it's going to be PROS that rescue this part of Apple's market share. So I don't think it's too much to ask for a pro-capable operating system. With less casual use happy horseshit.

I was just playing with the new stationery templates in Mail. This is something I could really use, IF I could create my own letterhead. That Apple didn't think of this, is just such a major eye roller.

Maybe you can recruit new members here:
http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=500

It's the iPod launch thread from 2001.

Fucking hilarious (Diamondbacks!) when you think of 1 how wrong the naysayers were (as far as its success) and 2. how the fanboys were gushing over 5GB the size of a brick.

Now, as always, these make me wonder how brickish and ridiculous will the current stuff look 7 years from now (as it always will).

I think you guys here have 7-years-from-now filters on and do very well at deriding current items as fads or flukes, seeing things as they will look years from now. Must be fun on a date!

I'm a pragmatist, if the device today does what I personally need it to do, it's accepted. I know it will always look too-big/slow/tacky years later as design tastes change. (boy does that sound wrong coming out of a dating metaphor! lol)

The contempt in that thread isn't about design, it's about Apple's course.

quote:

(Thread titled: NO!)
Great just what the world needs, another freaking MP3 player. Go Steve! Where's the Newton?!
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iPoop... iCry. I was so hoping for something more.
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HAH!

All you wusses waiting for a Newton replacement I TOLD YOU SO IT WAS A MEDIA PLAYER CHARGED BY FIREWIRE.
BOOO YAAAAHH!
AHAHAHAHAHAHHAH~!
Diamondbacks kick ASS too!
---
Sounds very revolutionary to me.
hey - heres an idea Apple - rather than enter the world of gimmicks and toys, why dont you spend a little more time sorting out your pathetically expensive and crap server line up?
or are you really aiming to become a glorified consumer gimmicks firm?
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This isn't revoltionary!
I still can't believe this! All this hype for something so ridiculous! Who cares about an MP3 player? I want something new! I want them to think differently!
Why oh why would they do this?! It's so wrong! It's so stupid!
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what a load of tripe!
gee! an mp3 player with a HD! how original! kinda reminds me of a JUKEBOX i once knew..
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$400 for an Mp3 Player!
I'd call it the Cube 2.0 as it wont sell, and be killed off in a short time...and it's not really functional.
Uuhh Steve, can I have a PDA now?
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No F-ing Way
All that hype for an MP3 player? Break-thru digital device? The Reality Distiortion Field™ is starting take off.
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But here is the ULTIMATE time machine statement:

quote:

If the ipod is only the world's most baddass MP3 player then I don't know if I'm really going to stand in line to buy it, I have a cd walkman and a burner already, and besides that now that I don't have a dotcom job anymore I need that $400 to pay car payments and rent.

bwahahahahahah funny for like 5 reasons....takes me back!

I guess that thalo.net provides me with a take-the-beer-goggles-off opportunity for buzz-free advice from people that are looking out for my own good.

But often one just wants to get laid and such advice is a drag.

Hence, I like my iPhone even though I know there is a skinnier and sexier version coming down the line someday.

quote:

Sounds very revolutionary to me.
hey - heres an idea Apple - rather than enter the world of gimmicks and toys, why dont you spend a little more time sorting out your pathetically expensive and crap server line up?
or are you really aiming to become a glorified consumer gimmicks firm?

Obviously this guy isn't going to win the Kreskin award for prescience. But still, to me, a portable mp3 player is ho-hum because I don't want one. On the other hand, compared to Apple sorting out it's server line, portable mp3 players are hugely interesting to me. So I guess we all want something a little different. And as it turned out, a whole lot of people wanted the type of portable mp3 players that Apple produced. Words like "innovative" and "think different" are too open-ended and subjective to really mean anything the way most people are using them. Like this guy…

quote:

I want something new! I want them to think differently!
Why oh why would they do this?! It's so wrong! It's so stupid!

Someone define what "think differently" really means. It's ultimately just a marketing slogan. And it seems to have worked on this guy because he thinks it means something specific. He charged the word with his own meaning.

But in regards to this topic, we've had pocket calculators since the 70's, and those had relatively sophisticated electronics in them. I would say that, if anything, the personal computer will continue to exist, although it might not be seen as such since its resources and computing power will be distributed among a number of devices, virtual or otherwise. Maybe that's analogous to the internet. A CPU built in the 80's, or one today, can (if each could run a functional browser) see the internet the same. The smarts is "out there" for the most part. One might guess that the makings of a personal computer will be here for a long time because we'll always need a screen, keyboard, and other input device.

Yeah, such advice is a drag... and wasting money is the great American passtime.

I think maybe when you start combining ideas like getting laid, spending money on promises and dreams, and so forth, with something as clear, cut and dried as technology (it either works or it don't), you're pretty far gone.

You'll recall I wasn't a naysayer for the iPod. Back when it was simply a music player, I found it a well-designed, functionally clear gizmo. It was what it was. It's not something created to increase my productivity, it's an entertainment device, and I always judged it as such.

Meanwhile, I never blamed Apple's success with crap like the iPod, for their complete pooch-screwing of OS X. OK, I understood that their whole corporate strategy had shifted to casual use and entertainment... and I resented that when it came to judging their pro-CPU offerings, but it's not the iPod's FAULT that OS X sucks. I still say there's no reason we can't have both fun and productivity. The problem is, Apple's laziness, and their tendency to sell proof of concept items as commercially viable products.

As I've said, oh, maybe a majillion times: if stuff worked, you wouldn't hear a PEEP out of me. I'd be too busy using Apple products to be CRITICIZING Apple products. If Leopard had turned out to be my holy grail streamlined pro-capable OS, I'd be too busy to rant at how shitty it is.

As things are now, though, it's a pretty easy target. It's the same-old same old Apple bullshit. Add more interface, demo more bells and whistles, without really making any true improvements to the software. When in doubt, tweak the skin.

The iPhone is an easy target too, because right from the getgo, it banks on the coolness factor before the functional factor. It's more about being a twiddle-toy than a phone.

If I ruled the world and made the decision for Apple, your iPhone would have been a fucking great CELL PHONE, first and foremost. It would have worked with most every carrier (so being more about the hardware than the contract)... secondary functionality like email and web browsing would have been better implemented, and stuff that didn't really MATTER, like music playing, would have just been left off.

Sometimes product crossovers are too much of a drag. I don't need my phone to sell me music. I'd have rather seen a GPS navigator included as part of a phone, than I would an MP3 player. I'd rather see a phone as a serious communication tool, and not simply a way to slack off. There's enough fucking fun in the world of digi-gizmos. I feel like we keep getting served up dessert, and never a main course.

I think maybe when you start combining ideas like getting laid, spending money on promises and dreams, and so forth, with something as clear, cut and dried as technology (it either works or it don't), you're pretty far gone.

I think if you do some back-checking you'll see that I'm on record predicting the iVibrator. I did not say it would at the time, but I think now that such a device will also play mp3's. And I would think these two functions could go together. Imagine a rousing John Philip Sousa tune. Might even throw in a webcam. What other crossover functions would make sense? I really don't think you need a web browser, but there might be something else useful.

Mine was the iPud... an MP3 player you wear on a cockring. Which only plays appropriate music:

"Turning Japanese", "Let's Get it Up", "(I can't get no) Satisfaction", etc.

And it's aligned with another product iAgra, where you can order the little blue pills wirelessly.

I want to see a combination garage door opener, GPS locater, and bottle opener. Ha! Beat that!

How about a combination dessert topping and iPod screen cleaner?

How about a combination dessert topping and iPod screen cleaner?

LOL. Now you're talkin'. But you have to send it back into the company to get it refilled.

How about a pocket calculator, floss dispenser, and rubber stamp?

This is it. I've finally figured out the killer app for multi-function multi-use multi-gadget portable electronics. I think it would be killer to combine a camera with an apple corer with a dog whistle (electronic…tunable to any frequency up to 100,000 Hz).

Why are you looking at me like that?

Okay, this one is a hit for sure: A breathalyzer combined with a cork screw combined with a cigar cutter. I'm even thinking of throwing in a calendar function.

LMFriggin'AO! Brilliant. Add an olive-pitter and I'm there.