Re: Official Apple Thread

[Theicecreaman]

While we're at it, I'd like to take a moment to ponder the philosophical implications of the following fruit, a red delicious apple:



Note the conical curvature. I believe that its circular shape represents deep-rooted humanistic desires of the primitive sub-conscious to perfect the biblical allusions drawn from the collective unconscious to account for mankind's dichotomy with respect to holistic ideologies of postmodernist history that transcend the economical representation of a scientific phenomena.

But really, it's an apple

[Loki]

It's a red apple.

[Wonko the Sane]

It's a Red Delicious apple.

"The skin is thick and bitter and has to be chewed vigorously... this apple ranks close to the bottom when cooked... sold year round, so shop with skepticism. Delicious retains its cheerful good looks long after its flavor has departed."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_delicious_apple

[Theicecreaman]

[blivvy]

...Oh wait, that's not an apple

[time]

I hate the Apple domination of the entire marketplace. They make some great products, but even though the surface tablet looks amazing it'll fail cause it's not Apple.

[Wonko the Sane]

It won't fail because it's not Apple, it will fail if the user experience isn't as good as what Apple provides. People don't buy Apple products just because of the brand name. It may have started that way with diehard fanatics but their stuff is becoming popular among the general population simply because Apple takes the time to develop hardware and software together (a lesson Microsoft finally learned with this new surface tablet) so they work flawlessly together, and they take the time to create the best and simplest possible user experience.

I've known people who, just like you, hate Apple as a company because of the fanatics surrounding their products, but have in the last year or two bought Apple products because they're significantly better than the competition.

You really can't blame Apple because they figured out a formula that actually works. As far as I'm concerned, if a product fails it's that company's fault for thinking they can just copy something Apple did without investing the research and development time in the user experience and expect it to succeed. If they want to compete (and they should, because competition is good for us consumers) they need to learn to think of us as people using their devices, not as wallets stuffed with cash that we throw at new electronics.

Personally, I was a little worried Apple had started slacking in the innovation department due to lack of direct competition. When even the original iPad, now three generations old is better than every other similar tablet developed between then and now, what reason do they have to improve upon that design? We need these companies to start trying to compete with Apple on a user experience level so that the bar gets raised and we all benefit from the new innovations that will result.

[time]

I actually don't hate Apple for their success at all. I think that'd be kinda silly. I just hate the consumer attitude towards Apple. Their user experience is great, but I don't think that's what draws the majority of consumers to their products. I bought an iPhone after using an Android phone for about a year and weighing the differences and finding that the iPhone came out on top.

I personally know a lot of people who buy Apple products for no other reason than the fact that they are Apple products. You see them constantly in advertisements, in product placements on television, and in the hands of so many celebrities. It's become an indicator of status. Products might find some mainstream success due to their own merits, but quality alone will never lead to the amount of market penetration Apple has.

[Wonko the Sane]

Apple does have some really good marketing people. They also know how to design something that looks so good it makes your mouth drool, and they know how to change that design just enough every couple years to make you want a new one.

But think about it, if their user experience wasn't half as good as it is then no amount of marketing and clever design tricks would make their stuff this popular. It's really both combined. It starts with a really well designed product in both hardware and software and then they market the crap out of it and make you really want it.

There's really no other tech company that has learned to leverage that type of position. They're all stuck in an old-school Microsoft mentality of let's make something for cheap then sell it for a lot because there's no other competition so we can get away with it. Except now there is competition and that attitude doesn't work anymore. That's why they're all failing.

I really wish someone would slap them, or just run them all out of business so fresh new competitive companies can step up and start making actually competitive products. During the first two years of the iPhone, Apple was advancing the product by leaps and bounds because they wanted to stay ahead and define a new smartphone market. They succeeded, and because most phones don't even come close they've kinda been resting on their laurels a bit to be honest. I plan on upgrading to the next phone when it comes out 'cause I'll be out of my contract and need more space now, but if it doesn't have some decent new stuff I'll be disappointed. I'll get it anyway because I need it, but it just doesn't feel like it did when I went from the original iPhone to the iPhone 3G. At the time, it just felt like a huge leap forward. The 3G to the 4 was slightly less so, and I have a feeling that the 4 to whatever's next will be even less so.

So yeah I don't like the lack the competition either, but for different reasons I suppose.

[time]

I agree with you, Apple's done a good job at being the power player in the tablet/phone market. The 4s is my first iPhone so I can't comment on how dramatic the changes are, but I like it much better than my Droid 2. Microsoft is still on top in the operating system game and they're still releasing buggy and dysfunctional operating systems and patching everything up with service packs after the fact, which is an attitude that will only lose you customers when a decent alternative comes around.

I think it's funny that Microsoft seems to be the only one making a serious attempt at Apple's hardware domination. I think the Zune is the best demonstration of the fact that a good user experience alone is not going to get you sales. The Zune and the Zune HD were fantastic pieces of hardware (my friend had one and loved it, and I thought it was great as well) and look what happened to that line. I only hope they'll have more success with the Surface, it looks like a fantastic piece of hardware/software.

[Wonko the Sane]

From what I'm hearing as far as speculation in the tech industry, it looks like Microsoft may actually have a competitor on their hands. There's still a lot we don't know about it though and one of the big things it'll probably come down to though is price. If they don't at least match what Apple sells the iPads for then they could be in trouble.

The other thing I think will fail is their idea of putting full Windows 8 on the tablet. They've tried that before with tablets and, speaking from experience, a desktop OS on a tablet just doesn't work. The OS needs to be built from the ground up specifically for the tablet. Their lower end version appears to have some sort of tablet OS but they say the higher end model will have Windows. I really don't know what they're thinking. They're probably gonna shoot themselves in the foot with stupid thinking like that.

There's also very little we know about their tablet that wasn't part of some rehearsed presentation. And even the presentation wasn't without its failures:



So, basically:

[Wonko the Sane]

(right click, open image in new tab to see all four people)

[blivvy]

Lmao. Captain Picard is lightyears ahead

[time]

1968 calling! (2001: a space odyssey)

[Theicecreaman]

I feel not-like-a-geek for not having seen neither Star Trek shows nor 2001: A Space Odyssey

[Wonko the Sane]

You fail as a geek. Go back to geek school. Do not pass Go. Do not collect 200 dollars.

[Theicecreaman]

haha

[Wonko the Sane]

Hey Ice, if you don't have Fruit Ninja yet, they're giving away promo codes for free. It's a really fun game. Very fun when you can do across the table head to head multiplayer on the iPad But on your iPhone you can do Bluetooth multiplayer I think.

http://toucharcade.com/2012/06/22/if-you-havent-yet-grab-a-free-copy-of-fruit-ninja-now/

[Theicecreaman]

I'll check it out.

[Wonko the Sane]

Well this is interesting. I wonder if Apple really is planning on defending us poor helpless users:

http://www.cultofmac.com/175422/apple-patents-lying-to-those-who-are-spying/

[Theicecreaman]

Hey Ice, if you don't have Fruit Ninja yet, they're giving away promo codes for free. It's a really fun game. Very fun when you can do across the table head to head multiplayer on the iPad But on your iPhone you can do Bluetooth multiplayer I think.

http://toucharcade.com/2012/06/22/if-you-havent-yet-grab-a-free-copy-of-fruit-ninja-now/

I still haven't gotten my promo code yet...
It's been over 24 hours since I signed up. Weird. I'll wait a bit longer, then I'll do it from another email or something.
edit: okay, this is weirder. I tried doing it again, and it says that the code has already been redeemed and that I must check my email for instructions. Strange...

[Wonko the Sane]

Spam folder maybe?

[Theicecreaman]

Nope. Like I told you, I have a habit of checking my Junk mail folder whenever I check my email. It all goes in there anyways. I'll just make a BS account and do it like that...

[Theicecreaman]

http://www.pcworld.com/article/156234/turn_any_mp3_into_an_iphone_ringtone.html
Here's a nifty way to make ringtones out of your favorite songs. I just cut the song itself into 30 seconds of the part I wanted in Audacity, and changed the file extension to .m4r from its AAC version. But it's still pretty kickass.

[Wonko the Sane]

Yeah it's easy peasy. You can actually get longer ringtones if you want. You need a program that lets you browse the visible file system on the iPhone. Once you sync a 40 second (that's the actual max length of a ringtone, not 30 seconds) ringtone, open up the program (I have iFunBox but there may be better ones now) and just upload the exact same filename, except the full song or however long you want it to be. Replace the shorter file with the full one basically. I think they may be named funky things also instead of their actual names, so you sort by date or something as I recall. Just make sure you replace the file name exactly even if it's weird stuff.

Keep in mind, the reason ringtones are limited to 40 seconds by default is because after 40 seconds it goes to voicemail, so a longer ringtone is kinda silly and pointless for a ringtone. But let's say you want a full song as your morning alarm, do it to it!

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