While I agree the Zune is a decent consumer electronic device, it is hardly good enough to spur Apple into making better products. Why should Apple worry when all Microsoft does is make a copy of the last iPod version a year late, for two years in a row now? At this rate, Microsoft will be selling touch Zunes for Christmas 2009!
I'll add to the anecdotal note: I haven't seen a single Zune since they've been on sale. I live in Austin, TX (hardly a hick town) and previously in San Antonio. The only Zunes I've seen have been the ones in the very full cases in the electronic stores, because nobody is buying them.
Well considering all the anti-Mac types out there still clinging to the 5% market share line, I would say selling millions of Macs each quarter for the past 8 quarters shouldn't be considered a "failure" either, yet the perception is still there. Nobody buys Apples except college students and artists, right?
I'd argue that P2P networks are what brought MP3s and digital music to the mainstream, and Apple has nothing to do with that.
That is the most intellectually dishonest post I've read in months. How can you dismiss the impact the iPod has made on the music industry??? I've been alive since the 60s, and the only things even remotely close to being as big as the iPod were the advent of VCRs, then CD players. Nothing else has changed the scene more drastically than the iPod. Hell, mp3 devices existed long before the iPod, but none of them affected the way we consume music like the iPod has. Even if you've never touched an iPod, the impact of iPods on modern culture is inescapable.
By the way, non-geeks have no idea what P2P even means but they sure do know what an iPod is.
Apple and Jobs either bought them up or used marketing to put them out of BUSINESS.
Or Apple just stopped licensing the OS to them, which is what really happened. That hardly qualifies as marketing or buying them up, since that's not what happened.
Well, Macs cost more because they are consistently #1 in things like usability, longevity, quality, etc. etc. I have a hard time finding any evidence to the contrary that Apple products aren't consistently tops in their class when it comes to quality. Some of us don't mind paying a bit extra for that luxury. Otherwise we'd all be driving Fords now, wouldn't we?
Well, Apple is thankful that Microsoft has created yet another horrible clone of an Apple product. If anything, Microsoft is showing the world how good Apple products really are.
So you make the perfect point for not including the FM tuner standard. You spent $30 for an add-on to your iPod that the overwhelming majority of users don't want to pay $30 for. The point is, Apple designed their product with the CAPABILITY to add a tuner for the small segment that wants one, without punishing the rest of us with stuff we don't want.
Respectfully I disagree. The iTunes music store was presented over two years after the iPod was released.
You can respectfully disagree, but you are still wrong. iTunes was there from day one for Mac users (OS 9) in 2000. PC users had to use some jukebox software that Apple bundled for them (once they made iPods for the PC) but that was for a very short time.
I don't know anybody (yet) who has bought a Mac because of their pleasant iPod experience, but I can say the pleasant iPod-Mac integration (throw in the iPhone too) sure does solidify my position as a Mac user. Not as if Apple is afraid they are going to be losing existing customers to Microsoft OSes...
Yeah, iPods are like, totally cool....if you are 13. The gym I go to has probably 100 iPods going at any given time. Most adults really don't care if you have an iPod or not, so the cool factor really is a non-factor.
Care to support your claim? I'm supposed to believe that a company that is famous for databases and spreadsheets is going to provide better audio than a company that is famous for graphic design and audio/video production? I'm not saying you are wrong, I'd just rather see some facts before I accept this otherwise monumental paradigm-shift.
The only difference between Apple's iPod "monopoly" and the Microsoft OS real monopoly is that people actually CHOOSE to buy the Apple variant. People WANT an iPod because they work well. Nobody ever talks about wanting XP because of how great it is. The fact the third party market makes more iPod jacks than "universal" ones isn't Apple's fault, either. The third party is just responding to demand. Good luck with your proprietary Zune USB cable, by the way.
You post exemplifies why Microsoft is being lambasted. The product isn't THAT bad, but the corporation is totally screwing everything up about it. I take offense to the fact that they are merely clones of the last generation of iPods (with a pretty bad interface and font selection), but other than that, they are decent players. Only Microsoft could screw these things up this badly.
Bad cut scenes come from one thing: bad games. Cut scenes can add to the depth and layers of a game, ala Warcraft II. The only thing I see wrong with cut scenes is when they are superfluously added as "filler" or are done as an afterthought to "fill up to CD-ROM".
I didn't say I was an atheist. My character matters not in this discussion because there are millions of people who are perfectly good citizens that don't rely on religion to give them direction. The fact that I am one of them is purely anecdotal. I don't need religion to know that sleeping with my neighbor's wife is wrong, or that murdering somebody is reprehensible. Doing these acts makes one a failure of society, regardless of the religion. I have a crazy church friend that asked me what is keeping me from committing sin, when there are no repercussions if I don't believe in the bible? The answer is simple: right and wrong are not a monopoly of the church. Also, I'm a strong enough person that I don't NEED a stupid set of rules set by old white men thousands of years ago to run my life successfully. Why is this so hard for the religious zealots to understand?
Your post is just a small insight to why we have a health care crisis in the US...damned hyperchondriacs should be forced to pay for EVERY insurance plan like mine that goes year after year without ever being used.
Oh man, my home stereo system is gonna sound SWEEEEET after I drop $99 for four of these bad boys! I dropped about $10k for my home stereo equipment and it isn't quite cutting it. I bet these plastic outlet covers will do the trick!
Of all the items on the list, at least that one would actually work as promised. They look nice too...hell, my drumset is made of beech, and it is a lovely wood. Then again, I have 5 beech drums that altogether only cost $1000, so it would be hard to justify two radio knobs for the same price.
Excellent observations! I start to worry when people actually start agreeing with my posts en masse. That is usually a sign that I've taken the easy and intellectually dishonest route. My more contentious statements seem to have the most truth to them. If someone yells "Fanboi!" at me, I consider it a successful post (as long as I'm not really being a fanboi, of course).
Slashdot Mirror
While I agree the Zune is a decent consumer electronic device, it is hardly good enough to spur Apple into making better products. Why should Apple worry when all Microsoft does is make a copy of the last iPod version a year late, for two years in a row now? At this rate, Microsoft will be selling touch Zunes for Christmas 2009!
I'll add to the anecdotal note: I haven't seen a single Zune since they've been on sale. I live in Austin, TX (hardly a hick town) and previously in San Antonio. The only Zunes I've seen have been the ones in the very full cases in the electronic stores, because nobody is buying them.
Well considering all the anti-Mac types out there still clinging to the 5% market share line, I would say selling millions of Macs each quarter for the past 8 quarters shouldn't be considered a "failure" either, yet the perception is still there. Nobody buys Apples except college students and artists, right?
Uh, yeah, that's why the Apple iPod Nano (4gig) is #1? Maybe you have a different definition of "top spot" than I do?
By the way, non-geeks have no idea what P2P even means but they sure do know what an iPod is.
Well, Macs cost more because they are consistently #1 in things like usability, longevity, quality, etc. etc. I have a hard time finding any evidence to the contrary that Apple products aren't consistently tops in their class when it comes to quality. Some of us don't mind paying a bit extra for that luxury. Otherwise we'd all be driving Fords now, wouldn't we?
Well, Apple is thankful that Microsoft has created yet another horrible clone of an Apple product. If anything, Microsoft is showing the world how good Apple products really are.
So you make the perfect point for not including the FM tuner standard. You spent $30 for an add-on to your iPod that the overwhelming majority of users don't want to pay $30 for. The point is, Apple designed their product with the CAPABILITY to add a tuner for the small segment that wants one, without punishing the rest of us with stuff we don't want.
Ooops, and I'd be wrong too. Didn't see the "store" part of your post. My bad. ITMS was launched in 2003 with iTunes 4.
I don't know anybody (yet) who has bought a Mac because of their pleasant iPod experience, but I can say the pleasant iPod-Mac integration (throw in the iPhone too) sure does solidify my position as a Mac user. Not as if Apple is afraid they are going to be losing existing customers to Microsoft OSes...
Yeah, iPods are like, totally cool....if you are 13. The gym I go to has probably 100 iPods going at any given time. Most adults really don't care if you have an iPod or not, so the cool factor really is a non-factor.
Care to support your claim? I'm supposed to believe that a company that is famous for databases and spreadsheets is going to provide better audio than a company that is famous for graphic design and audio/video production? I'm not saying you are wrong, I'd just rather see some facts before I accept this otherwise monumental paradigm-shift.
The only difference between Apple's iPod "monopoly" and the Microsoft OS real monopoly is that people actually CHOOSE to buy the Apple variant. People WANT an iPod because they work well. Nobody ever talks about wanting XP because of how great it is. The fact the third party market makes more iPod jacks than "universal" ones isn't Apple's fault, either. The third party is just responding to demand. Good luck with your proprietary Zune USB cable, by the way.
You post exemplifies why Microsoft is being lambasted. The product isn't THAT bad, but the corporation is totally screwing everything up about it. I take offense to the fact that they are merely clones of the last generation of iPods (with a pretty bad interface and font selection), but other than that, they are decent players. Only Microsoft could screw these things up this badly.
Bad cut scenes come from one thing: bad games. Cut scenes can add to the depth and layers of a game, ala Warcraft II. The only thing I see wrong with cut scenes is when they are superfluously added as "filler" or are done as an afterthought to "fill up to CD-ROM".
As if anyone other than a few random geeks on the web have even ever HEARD of slashdot. Please, you aren't THAT important.
I didn't say I was an atheist. My character matters not in this discussion because there are millions of people who are perfectly good citizens that don't rely on religion to give them direction. The fact that I am one of them is purely anecdotal. I don't need religion to know that sleeping with my neighbor's wife is wrong, or that murdering somebody is reprehensible. Doing these acts makes one a failure of society, regardless of the religion. I have a crazy church friend that asked me what is keeping me from committing sin, when there are no repercussions if I don't believe in the bible? The answer is simple: right and wrong are not a monopoly of the church. Also, I'm a strong enough person that I don't NEED a stupid set of rules set by old white men thousands of years ago to run my life successfully. Why is this so hard for the religious zealots to understand?
Your post is just a small insight to why we have a health care crisis in the US...damned hyperchondriacs should be forced to pay for EVERY insurance plan like mine that goes year after year without ever being used.
Oh man, my home stereo system is gonna sound SWEEEEET after I drop $99 for four of these bad boys! I dropped about $10k for my home stereo equipment and it isn't quite cutting it. I bet these plastic outlet covers will do the trick!
Of all the items on the list, at least that one would actually work as promised. They look nice too...hell, my drumset is made of beech, and it is a lovely wood. Then again, I have 5 beech drums that altogether only cost $1000, so it would be hard to justify two radio knobs for the same price.
Excellent observations! I start to worry when people actually start agreeing with my posts en masse. That is usually a sign that I've taken the easy and intellectually dishonest route. My more contentious statements seem to have the most truth to them. If someone yells "Fanboi!" at me, I consider it a successful post (as long as I'm not really being a fanboi, of course).