bart_calendar ([info]bart_calendar) wrote,
@ 2007-06-30 09:24:00
Previous Entry  Add to memories!  Tell a Friend!  Next Entry
iWhat?
Rome Girl is going nuts reading reports and watching videos about the iPhone.

I don't get it.

Why spend $599 on a cell phone when you can get a perfectly good one for like $100?

I've never seen her do anything with a cell phone other than call people and send texts.

I mean I get wanting cool techno things.

For example, I'd kill for a device that I could run through my TV and DVD player if it would let me isolate tracks/instruments on concert films I watch (to, say, figure out exactly which riffs are Kirk's and which are done by James), but if I spent the money on it, I'd at least be doing something with it that I can't do without it.

But it looks to me like if you got the iPhone you'd still be making phone calls and sending text messages.

You'd just be doing it on a touchpad instead of with a series of buttons.

What am I missing here, people?

(Post a new comment)


[info]radiumhead
2007-06-30 12:40 pm UTC (link)
You're not missing anything.It's marketing hype, everybody wants one because everybody else wants one.You get a phone for $100, you get an ipod for $100 (or a no name mp3 player for $50)-end of story.

(Reply to this) (Thread)

[info]bart_calendar
2007-06-30 12:51 pm UTC (link)
Glad I'm not the only person who finds this bizzare.

Camping out for like a Star Wars film or something I can see - because you want to find out what the fuck happens before your friends spoil it for you.

But... camping out to get an electronic device simply means you'll be the first person on your block to find out what the problems and glitches with it are.

(Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)

[info]owlgarden
2007-06-30 01:40 pm UTC (link)
Ah, no, you're not the only person who finds this bizarre

(Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)

[info]bart_calendar
2007-06-30 01:52 pm UTC (link)
Hey, where have you been?

I've missed you!

(Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)

[info]owlgarden
2007-06-30 03:27 pm UTC (link)
Today I am not going to Pride! I've just been busy, and not around computers very much.

(Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)

[info]bart_calendar
2007-06-30 03:40 pm UTC (link)
OK.

I just miss it when the cool girls don't stop by that often.

Good luck at pride! Get laid if that's what you are looking for or be proud if you aren't looking to hook up! Or both!

(Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)

[info]owlgarden
2007-06-30 04:00 pm UTC (link)
I'm avoiding pride as the ex will be there :( I know I'd bump into her however many people are at it.

(Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)

[info]bart_calendar
2007-06-30 04:31 pm UTC (link)
Gotcha.

I misread your comment.

Avoiding exes is a good thing - unless you can run into them while you are making out with Angelina Jolie.

(Reply to this) (Parent)

[info]bart_calendar
2007-06-30 04:32 pm UTC (link)
It's too bad you are not near here since Blonde Lesbian is newly single.

(Reply to this) (Parent)

[info]incuidicetutto
2007-07-01 11:08 am UTC (link)
I was not excited about it until I was reading about it, and did further investigating on the pinch.

I want something like that. NOW. I want to do the pinch, ALL THE TIME.

(Reply to this) (Parent)

[info]mattg
2007-06-30 12:41 pm UTC (link)
It does about a million other little things, but the big thing you're missing is that it's also an iPod.

(Reply to this) (Thread)

[info]d_willrobinson
2007-06-30 12:48 pm UTC (link)
My blackberry play 4G of mp3's. It has for about a year, now.

(Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)

[info]mattg
2007-06-30 12:52 pm UTC (link)
Congratulations.

(Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)

[info]incuidicetutto
2007-07-01 11:08 am UTC (link)
LOL.

Did you get one?

(Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)

[info]mattg
2007-07-01 11:21 am UTC (link)
No, but I'd love to have one. I've actually recently been shopping for camera phones (my phone is provided by my employer and doesn't have a camera) and iPods (I have a 1st generation iPod shuffle and I'd like one with a display). The iPhone would fit my needs nicely.

Can I borrow $600?

(Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)

[info]bart_calendar
2007-07-01 01:32 pm UTC (link)
It's been a long time since this household had $600 at any given moment!

(Reply to this) (Parent)

[info]bart_calendar
2007-06-30 12:48 pm UTC (link)
But... she already has an iPod...

(Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)

[info]mattg
2007-06-30 12:56 pm UTC (link)
I'm not trying to sell you one. I'm just saying that it's a phone + iPod with a pretty revolutionary interface all in one convenient little package.

(Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)

[info]bart_calendar
2007-06-30 01:01 pm UTC (link)
But, here is the thing. If iPods didn't exist I'd understand why people were going so gaga over this.

But, it seems to me that everyone who wants this phone already has an iPod so I don't get what the benefit is.

It would be like if I had to choose between a $600 television with a built in DVD player or the same television for $200 without the DVD. I'd be like, "Dude, I already own a DVD player."

(Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)

[info]mattg
2007-06-30 01:07 pm UTC (link)
You might make a different choice if you wanted to carry both around in your pocket all the time.

(Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)

[info]cyntata2672
2007-06-30 02:17 pm UTC (link)
I do and it's not a problem. I think it's cool, but the limited cell provider and the fact that it is first generation makes me unexcited. I'll let people with money to burn test out the first generation. I might it get it down the road. I also have a love hate relationship with cell phones. I don't want my music listening interrupted by someone calling.

(Reply to this) (Parent)

[info]d_willrobinson
2007-06-30 12:46 pm UTC (link)
Steve Jobs' Apple marketing brilliance is perhaps the biggest feature, no?

Do I really want fingerprints on my screen is perhaps the biggest drawback, yes?


In my town the Cingular store (soon to be AT&T again or soemthign like that) put out barricades and hired cops for crowd control! I never saw more than a few people, but then again it's the 'burbs, not the trendy in-Town, so most people are a little less influenced by things like brilliant marketing.

(Reply to this) (Thread)

[info]bart_calendar
2007-06-30 12:49 pm UTC (link)
But... it's a first generation Apple device which means the batteries will probably explode or something...

(Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)

[info]d_willrobinson
2007-06-30 12:50 pm UTC (link)
Oh come now, repeat after me: "Apple products always work. Apple products always work. Apple products always work." It's the modern mantra; get with the program; resistance is futile.

(Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)

[info]bart_calendar
2007-06-30 12:51 pm UTC (link)
My memory is that almost all the first generation iPods were recalled.

(Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)

[info]gentlemaitresse
2007-06-30 01:00 pm UTC (link)
<makes note to replace your memory chip, as you're obviously working with an old model>

(Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)

[info]bart_calendar
2007-06-30 01:05 pm UTC (link)
LOLOLOL.

I just checked.

their batteries were fucked up.

(Reply to this) (Parent)

[info]elshastorm
2007-06-30 04:44 pm UTC (link)
I'm really a huge fan of Apple and based on experience, Apple products do always work. However, after some light reading I've discovered that the main problem with the iPhone is that if you use all of its nifty features, your battery life is only about 4 or 5 hours. So then why do I want those features if they will render my phone useless?

♥

(Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)

[info]d_willrobinson
2007-06-30 07:05 pm UTC (link)
My iPod nano didn't work out of the box, and they blamed my Wintel computer. I later fixed it by rearranging mapping letters of network drives. (iPods must by alphabetically last, for no good reason.)

It's lot's of hype to live up to, poor iPhone. I still can't fathom wanting to touch my screen. Maybe 3rd or 4th generation will start to live up to the fanfare, like most other products, except the Apple Lisa, which never quite made it.

(Reply to this) (Parent)

[info]incuidicetutto
2007-07-01 11:07 am UTC (link)
It's the pinch. The pinch has enraptured me.

(Reply to this) (Parent)

[info]prolium
2007-06-30 02:51 pm UTC (link)
About once a month I'll see a campout lineup outside the Best Buy downtown for a new Wii or Playstation or autographed CDs from the current favorite. That's life. People get excited about stuff that I have no interest in. Get over it.

I don't know exactly how the pile of hype over the iPhone compares with the release hype over new video game players, but Apple seems to have moved the bar. I'd guess that 'respectable' media types (who help generate the pile - e.g. Mossberg and Pogue) feel more credible about hyping a 'smart phone' than they do about hyping a mere game.

(Reply to this)

it's that hunter-gatherer thing from their primitive side
[info]mrflash626
2007-06-30 02:59 pm UTC (link)
My wife is exactly the same.

She _always_ wants shiny new gadgets.

I figure she has some primitive decorate-the-next overactive gene left from our ancestor days, something that attracts them to pick up stuff, say 'how cute!' then buy it.

...and you notice? Advertisers _know_ it! Take a look at a purse, shoe, and such. They almost always have something that is shiny or glints on it for women.



(Reply to this)


[info]texmorgan
2007-06-30 05:03 pm UTC (link)
Personally I expect more from Apple. I mean their phone really isn't doing anything the Motorola KRZR can't do and it's been out for a while and didn't cost me a dime.

The only perk I see to the iPhone is that you get to become an iDiot. Here's a scary fact I bet most people didn't know: Apple iTunes is the 3rd largest retailer of music behind Wal-Mart and BestBuy.

(Reply to this) (Thread)

[info]charlotte_webb
2007-06-30 07:55 pm UTC (link)
Why is that scary? I would have actually thought they were ahead, considering how much easier it is to download a song than to shop at Wal-Mart. :-)

(Reply to this) (Parent)

[info]sui_generis
2007-06-30 09:41 pm UTC (link)



Take a look over at [info]jpeace's blog if you want to see somebody totally swept up in the hype, to a religious fervor.


(Reply to this) (Thread)

[info]bart_calendar
2007-06-30 10:21 pm UTC (link)
I do my best to avoid cult members.

(Reply to this) (Parent)
Insane
[info]bart_calendar
2007-07-01 12:40 am UTC (link)
You WILL tap the wrong key every sixth or seventh character. You will NOT insert punctuation, capitalization, or correct spacing. You don't know how to spell for shit. And yet when you hit return, what you wanted to type is there on the screen, properly spelled and formatted. It's weird, bypassing the secretary in your brain that insists on lurching towards the backspace key every 300 milliseconds.

Is there a planet where that paragraph makes sense in a review of anything?

(Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)
Re: Insane
[info]sui_generis
2007-07-01 07:00 am UTC (link)


Well, I think it makes sense -- he's saying it has a good autocorrection feature.

(Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)
Re: Insane
[info]bart_calendar
2007-07-01 01:34 pm UTC (link)
I think it's generally a bad idea for a reviewer to assume that his readers can't spell, using spacing or understand punctuation. Particularly if he's going to make one of his words all caps.

(Reply to this) (Parent)

[info]prolium
2007-07-01 11:48 am UTC (link)
Is the lineup for a product-launch / big-movie-premiere just an urban North American phenomenon or do they do it in Europe as well?

(Reply to this) (Thread)

[info]bart_calendar
2007-07-01 02:40 pm UTC (link)
They did it for the Wii.

But I understand that better than for a phone. You want to be able to beat the new Mario/Zelda levels before your friends do - and having it eariler gives you an advantage.

I'm not sure the advantage of having hte iPhone a day or two early is.

(Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)

(Anonymous)
2007-07-01 03:15 pm UTC (link)
I don't either. But then the Mario/Zelda think wouldn't hook me either.

Part of the line up thing is reinforced by the line up coverage itself. The first guy in line at one of the New York stores wasn't an iPhone enthusiast, but rather a first-guy-in-line enthusiast. Others in line were there to promote their websites. Plus there were a number of paid sitters.

At suburban stores it was apparently no big deal to just show up and walk in.

(Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)

[info]bart_calendar
2007-07-01 03:23 pm UTC (link)
Interesingly nobody lined up for Playstation 3.

(Reply to this) (Parent)

[info]thejuishgirl
2007-07-01 02:27 pm UTC (link)
my favorite ebay iphone listing:

New Rarest, Unique Apple IPhone 8GB Money Can Buy:
Serial Number Translates to"Toyzsex" in Leetspeak !!!

starting bid $5,000
OR YOU CAN BUY IT NOW FOR $5,000,000

(Reply to this) (Thread)

[info]bart_calendar
2007-07-01 03:06 pm UTC (link)
What is Leetspeak?

(Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)

[info]thejuishgirl
2007-07-01 08:41 pm UTC (link)
you've gotta click the auction. there's a wikipedia entry link to that same effect.

(Reply to this) (Parent)

Create an Account
Forgot your login?
Login w/ OpenID
English • Español • Deutsch • Русский…