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A Decade of Apple Oddities
harrymcc writes "It's been exactly ten years since Steve Jobs stood on a stage at Apple and explained to a surprisingly small group of journalists that his company was going to make a music player and call it iPod. Technologizer's Benj Edwards celebrated the iPod's first decade by rounding up a dozen iPod-related oddities, including the iPod-powered tooth cleaner, an iPod mount for a semi-automatic sniper system, and the classic 1958 Dieter Rams Braun FM radio that may have helped inspire it all."
Why has there been so much Apple crap here on Slashdot lately? I'm not saying that there shouldn't be a story when Apple does something of a technical nature that's notable, but most of these stories are totally irrelevant and very boring.
There's nothing special about iPods. They're a digital music player, just like every other digital music player out there. People have modded them for many years now, and many of these same "hacks" were done using portable CD and tape players well before then. None of this is remotely interesting, even to those of us who enjoy such hacks.
Can we please have some interesting content here for once? Something not having to do with Apple or American politics, perhaps? Maybe something involving science or math in some way, or maybe even engineering?
I understand that being in the eyeball-grabbing game, a site must post an avalanche of apple related stories especially around new or upcoming marketing drives, so I'll just state that I wish it wasn't so, that the site wasn't in the eyeball-grabbing game, but in the game of building a quality community. And I'll just leave a friendly reminder:
Take heed! Apple is evil. They are out to lock you in and to destroy your freedom.
Some of my favourite people are from th US; Vonnegut, Chomsky, Bill Hicks.
For myself, I could do without a constant stream of articles listing things he may or mat not have designed personally. If Apple release something new and interesting then by all means post it, but I think everyone here knows what an iPod is.
If God forks the Universe every time you roll a die, he'd better have a damned good memory.
Why? He wasn't reviewing what it was to become. Seems a fair opinion giving the time and context.
The fact remains, however, that the iPod was lame and continued to be lame until it got wireless. And it didn't have much storage space. Also, it was DRM-laden back then, too.
It remains the case that Apple's business plan floats along on a big fat gasbag of marketing hype. Mr. Jobs flirted with new-age cult crap in his youth, and learned how to do that stuff pretty effectively. To the degree, even, that True Believers will write this comment off as coming from a Hater.
Apple's Macintosh, the basis of everything they have become, was founded on the principle that it was a 'hacker proof' machine. And yes, they meant 'hacker' in the old, good sense. It was hyped long and hard as a 'just use it, no screwdriver required, or even permitted' system.
Many of us have said 'fuck that' for decades.
It's been exactly ten years since Steve Jobs stood on a stage at Apple and explained to a surprisingly small group of journalists that his company was going to make a music player and call it iPod.
In 'B' school (yeah yeah, heard it all before) we had a Harvard test case about the PC industry which included Apple Computer, Inc. To make a long and boring story short, the test case basically left Apple for dead saying it had no chance competing in the PC industry because of the slim margins (they all do), small market share, etc ....I mentioned that Apple has other things going on and they'll keep kicking. The prof kicked in "as a computer maker, No.They should liquidate" But before I could finish my point - pointing out the iPod and the change in direction of the company - some fangirl kicked in about the wonders of Macs and blah blah blah blah ....
I was trying to make a point that Apple was no longer a PC Computer maker and they were a personal device maker. And Apple Computer eventually changed their name to Apple, Inc.to reflect that change in direction.;
I learned two things in my MBA cap class: I just wasted 2+ years on a shit degree. Apple fans can be such conformists.
Also, it was DRM-laden back then, too.
Actually, it wasn't, since the iTunes Music Store opened in 2003, while the first iPod came out in 2001. The DRM was added in an update (along with support for AAC).
Unless you count the lack of support for copying back the music from the iPod as DRM. There were many programs out there that could do it, though (the files were in a hidden directory on the iPod's disk).
"The fact remains, however, that the iPod was lame and continued to be lame until it got wireless. And it didn't have much storage space. Also, it was DRM-laden back then, too."
No, the fact does not remain. It had 5Gig - a massive amount for a pocketable player at the time. Forget CD player-sized Nomads, the correct comparison is to pocket-sized Diamond Rios and similar. They had 64Mb and 128Mb typically (my memory fails, there might have been 256Mb ones as well by then).
DRM-laden? Rip, Mix Burn was the advert - you ripped your own CDs, DRM-free. The iTunes Music Store came later than the iPod.
It's perfectly possible not to like them without falsely belittling them.
Cheers,
Ian
Seriously 13 slides and zero good content even on the first page. I'm not clicking through that shit.
To say that they're a digital music player is backwards: the rest of the world would say digital music players are bad ipods
I owned a Diamond Rio & Creative Nomad, 2 years before the iPod was ever sold. I enjoyed them more than the first iPod, and I still would take the music management software that I had to use for them over any version of iTunes.
I say this as a iPhone owner. I don't hate Apple, but I hate the incorrect praise they get for inventing things they did not invent.
Grammer Nazis - I mod you "troll" unless you actually add something on-topic. Yes, I know I have mispellings in my sig.
Oh, the Ferrari is special: it's an overpriced, unreliable, impractical car for guys who feel inadequate. Kind of like Apple products.
I say this as a iPhone owner. I don't hate Apple, but I hate the incorrect praise they get for inventing things they did not invent.
Nobody with a clue is saying Apple invented the digital music player. Even Apple never claimed to be first. Apple created their own because the ones that were on the market pretty much sucked and they saw an opportunity. And they were right, the competition did pretty much suck.
What Apple did bring to the party in the case of the iPod was a complete system. There were devices that were good and there was software that was acceptable but NOBODY made a good version of both and made them work together. Furthermore, prior to 2001 USB 2.0 was not widely available which meant that most other devices had to sync using very slow connections. The original iPod used Firewire which actually mattered a lot at the time because it allowed syncing of the library SO much faster. Everyone fixates on just the iPod or just iTunes but they don't consider the whole system which was the key to Apple's success. THAT was their innovation.
As a basic transportation appliance for moving a standard family unit with accessories and groceries from point A to point B, the Ferrari sucks ass. The Corolla provides 1000x the value for that purpose.
For recreational driving, having fun, going fast, showing off, the Ferrari wins. Some people will never appreciate any of those things and struggle to rationalize why anyone would ever waste money on a sports car. Finding nothing in their own psychological inventory, they project feelings and motivations familiar to them, such as issues of "inadequacy", particularly sexual inadequacy. ("He has that fancy car to compensate for his small penis, ha ha!") Such projections reveal at best a lack of experience, perspective, and imagination; at worst a small-minded pettiness brought on by envy that someone else would have the means to waste so much money on such a frivolity.
Apple is where it is because they did the visual interface work that geeks traditionally couldn't be bothered with. I'm seeing lot of anti-Apple articles, but they're based on patent actions, or problems with walled gardens, or the Apple-fans, etc. I'm not seeing many articles laughing at the actual design of iPhones. They deserved to be where they are, compared for example with Microsoft's fumbling on the non-gamer entertainment side.
Is it just me but are we riding the "maturity curve" of tech, away from fun hacking unfinished chaotic projects towards "too old to do that stuff anymore?"
My first Journal Entry ever, in 8 years! http://slashdot.org/journal/365947/aphelion-scifi-fantasy-horror-poetry-webzine