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iPhone 4 Pre-Orders Wreaking Havoc On Apple Store
theappwhisperer was one of a surprisingly large number of people writing in this morning to report that the Apple store is having serious troubles taking pre-orders of the new iPhone 4. People are seeing the error page or just waiting an insanely long time to get pages back. Just imagine trying to do this from an iPhone in a major market!
It's not news, it's just a reminder that there's a new Apple gadget for sale and people should head over and spend, spend, spend. It's spam.
I think AT&T is the main problem, not Apple. But what ticks me off is this happened LAST TIME, when they rolled out the 3G. Do their network people not plan ahead for such things? What's IS Apple's fault, though, is the fact that I have to keep re-entering my cell phone account information (cell #, billing zip, and last 4 of SSN) EVERY SINGLE TIME. The Apple page ought to be smart enough to queue that information and let the computers keep trying AT&T, then getting back to me once it finally has the information from the AT&T servers it needs for me to tell it what plan I want to select, etc. Seriously, it would have been nice if you could have pre-applied for the pre-application, so that they could have selected a much smaller database which could handle the load, and Apple could have already had on their servers the data they need about my account to process my freaking order.
I remember a few years ago when people were lined up at Best Buy, Circuit City, and EB Games to get the XBox 360. Sony and Nintendo had similar results with their game consoles.
I don't think waiting in line to be the first to get one is limited to Apple products.
Here's a news flash. People wait in line to purchase a book (eg. Harry Potter, Twilight, etc) and to be the first to see a movie (eg. Star Wars, Lord of the Rings).
Waiting in line is not always a bad thing. I waiting in line with my daughter at every Harry Potter book release. It always came out near her birthday and it was fun to speak to other fans of the book. Now that she is grown, I look back fondly to the experience. Especially when she was waiting in line to read a book.
I've waiting in line for WoW Burning Crusades because I had nothing else to do and the EB Games was next door to where I was staying overnight on work travel. However, I usually wait until the next day or so because... well... its a game and there are plenty of copies.
Anyway, people will wait in line for anything these days and I don't see it as a bad thing - in fact we need more. Why? Anything that will get people out of their basements and socialize with other people in person can't be all bad.
Humans are funny.
These comments are my own and do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of my employer or colleagues...
See, a lot of the Slashdot crowd has chosen not to interact with real people due to a myriad of insecurities hidden by a superiority complex. This presents itself worst when they start to pant and whine about other people mentioning situations in which one is in forced proximity with other people with whom you may have to "socially interact". Mentioning any sort of situation like this causes bouts of anxiety fueled nerdrage in which the perceived aggressor is mocked and jeered through choked back tears of bitter, vitriol-fueled anguish on a playing field sympathetic to such unrealistic and unhealthy views (Slashdot).
Oh look, another hater who is too stupid to understand why people love Apple products and who misrepresents past Apple headlines. . .
Okay, please tell me exactly what is so much better about Apple products? I've used various technologies over the years and Apple's products are good but I can't really see this "massive" benefit everyone talks about.
As for shininess my new Toshiba looks just as sexy as any Mac (actually it gets more comments from people in the office over any Mac). Just about anything brand new these days if you spend the same amount of money as you would on an Apple product usually looks just as physically good. Feature wise Apple products have always had less features with the express philosophy that the features they bring to the table are more refined. Now, If you went back 10 years granted Apple was quite original but now the more technology grows Apple goes down the same vein as it's competitors and the more they become alike. The software, well okay it runs UNIX and to me this is always good but to say that Windows 7 is a poor operating system as much as it pains me to say it Microsoft has got it right for a change. My Toshiba laptop with touchscreen (pen also) works really well, my laptop has never been slow and it does everything the top of a line Apple does and just as seamlessly (in many cases much better).
It took me until the last 3 months to go out and get myself an iPhone. When I was first exposed to them I thought some of the things it brought to the table were good but it wasn't until I needed a new phone did I actually make the decision to get one. I think that's how a lot of people shop when it comes to phones because I don't see people regularly spending a marginal amount of money on something as "unimportant" to their daily lives as phone handset (it's really a luxury item). Unless the company you work for opts up to buy you a new phone the only real time the average person purchases a new phone is when their plan is up and the chance to grab a current handset is offered too them.
Their uniqueness put them this far ahead of their competitors but I don't think they are that unique anymore as the speed of which competing Tablet's are being created and released into the market is a fine example of this as we are expected to see nearly 50 brands of Tablets hit the market within the next 6 months. If anything its simply brand awareness now and I think that's why they keep at it with all this hype. They are sticking to what works well to sell their products and not really about the quality of the product because Apple knows how prominent they are and they know all too well which one they have to push. It's "product quality" vs "marketability" and I think marketability is now cheaper for them and easier.
It's odd that Flash is so heavily defended on Slashdot when its primary compelling end-user purpose (other than advertising, of course) is to act as a glorified DRM provider for video.
Everyone on Slashdot hated Flash, and would rip on it all the time, until it was announced that the iPhone wouldn't support Flash. That's when Flash became cool again. Lack of Flash support is just another excuse for Apple haters to keep on hating Apple, regardless of whether or not the like Flash.
Taking guns away from the 99% gives the 1% 100% of the power.