It's possible they are making their own chip, but wouldn't it be ironic if they went with Sigmatel (who bought Rio). Maybe then they can finally get gapless playback and a decent mp3 player.
Why are Madonna's ticket prices so high? Because she still thinks she's the Material Girl from the 80's and 90's. If there is an equivalent term for "Jumping the Shark" in music, Madonna has definitely done it.
When you need to 1) change your video (re: American Life) because you're scared of what people might say, you've lost your edge (as Madonna was always controversial before)
2) French kiss both Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera on live TV, you are in desperate need of publicity
3) Cause Guy Ritchie to go from making "classics" such as Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, Snatch., and arguably The Hire: Star to drivel such as Swept Away and Revolver, you're obviously a bad influence on the creative process.
She has decent album sales (compared to her last album) so she feels it's OK to overprice her tickets, and as long as idiots keep paying those high prices, she'll get away with it. Then again, how else will she pay for that $10 million Swarovski encrusted disco-fied crucifix?
That my experience differed from the grandparent's. Can't you read?
It still has to do with a good customer service rep and it's not indicative of the individual company.
My experiences differ and that is all I offered. And it is indicative of the company if formal surveys indicate that most people have had positive experiences.
That's nice, there are formal surveys that say eMachines have the best initial setup experience next to the almighty Apple experience so I guess eMachines are #2!
That's about as juvenile a comment as I've seen. Individual effort matters in the long run, but institutional mores affect the behavior of individuals in ways both direct and indirect, from which project they are working on, to how much time is dedicated to QA, to whatever.
Explain how it's juvenile. It seems the "institutional mores" negatively affected the *three consecutive* CSRs the person a few posts above spoke to... Regarding time dedicated to QA, do you think Apple has a "sit & chat with our customers" policy? They try to solve the problem & get you off the phone as quickly as possible, just like other companies and their customer service.
Your friend is either an idiot or a pussy, probably both. What, is he scared the Apple employees are gonna jack his ass if he dares show it off?
revscat: "That's about as juvenile a comment as I've seen."
I think my friend values his job a little more than having an "I work for Apple but use an iRiver product" type stance, it's only a DAP after all and not worth losing his job or getting reprimanded over IMO. Do you think his boss (or any boss from any company) would want their employee using a competing product in front of their customers? It may not be the best business practice.
It was unveiled by CEO Steve Jobs on October 23, 2001 as a Mac-compatible product with a 5 GB hard drive that put 1,000 songs in your pocket.
Also, it wasn't a "fad" when it first came out, as most of the people buying the iPod when it was first released were Apple fans. It wasn't until 2004 when there was a huge jump in sales.
Well, they had a hard time figuring out which battery I needed, and so after being put on hold for 15 minutes I hung up with the intention of calling them back the next Monday (this was on a Saturday.) Well, about 10 minutes later they called me back to tell me my battery was on its way. FedEx delivered it that coming *Monday*. I have never had a company call me back, and I think that ranks right up there with the best customer services experiences I have ever had.
What's your point? It's not an isolated experience with a good customer service rep and it's not indicative of the company. I just had a similar experience with DELL about 20 minutes ago.
Simply, I need a motherboard replaced on a system (it's under warranty), they told me it would be sent (and I hung up,) but apparently they are having problems with their dispatch system. The CSR I was talking to called me back about 8 minutes later (he got my answering machine) to apologize that there would be a delay, left me his name, his phone number, his e-mail address, and his supervisors phone number & e-mail address (in case I wanted to complain for the error/delay, which technically isn't even his fault) and he'll also call me back when they are able to send out the motherboard.
I called his supervisor to commend the CSR for his service, as he definitely didn't have to call me back to inform me about the delay (of a few hours I'm hoping.)
Does that mean Dell now has better support than Apple or vice versa? Probably not, they both have similar support, but it's the individuals that make most of the difference.
...and in case you're wondering, I have friends that work doing tech support & customer service for Apple, Dell, HP, IBM, and a few other big companies, they are no different. The only ironic thing is most of them don't use their company's products (one friend has to hide is iRiver when he walks into the Apple store.)
That, and they also have terrible business practices (PayPal that is.)
You'd think PayPal would have learned from previous suits but the bad publicity this situation will bring is far worse than a $9.25 million settlement.
Slashdot Mirror
It's possible they are making their own chip, but wouldn't it be ironic if they went with Sigmatel (who bought Rio). Maybe then they can finally get gapless playback and a decent mp3 player.
When you need to 1) change your video (re: American Life) because you're scared of what people might say, you've lost your edge (as Madonna was always controversial before)
2) French kiss both Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera on live TV, you are in desperate need of publicity
3) Cause Guy Ritchie to go from making "classics" such as Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, Snatch., and arguably The Hire: Star to drivel such as Swept Away and Revolver, you're obviously a bad influence on the creative process.
She has decent album sales (compared to her last album) so she feels it's OK to overprice her tickets, and as long as idiots keep paying those high prices, she'll get away with it. Then again, how else will she pay for that $10 million Swarovski encrusted disco-fied crucifix?
So cacheing recently visited pages improves performance. It doesn't improve performance when it's eaten most of my RAM.
It still has to do with a good customer service rep and it's not indicative of the individual company.
My experiences differ and that is all I offered. And it is indicative of the company if formal surveys indicate that most people have had positive experiences.
That's nice, there are formal surveys that say eMachines have the best initial setup experience next to the almighty Apple experience so I guess eMachines are #2!
That's about as juvenile a comment as I've seen. Individual effort matters in the long run, but institutional mores affect the behavior of individuals in ways both direct and indirect, from which project they are working on, to how much time is dedicated to QA, to whatever.
Explain how it's juvenile. It seems the "institutional mores" negatively affected the *three consecutive* CSRs the person a few posts above spoke to... Regarding time dedicated to QA, do you think Apple has a "sit & chat with our customers" policy? They try to solve the problem & get you off the phone as quickly as possible, just like other companies and their customer service.
Your friend is either an idiot or a pussy, probably both. What, is he scared the Apple employees are gonna jack his ass if he dares show it off?
I think my friend values his job a little more than having an "I work for Apple but use an iRiver product" type stance, it's only a DAP after all and not worth losing his job or getting reprimanded over IMO. Do you think his boss (or any boss from any company) would want their employee using a competing product in front of their customers? It may not be the best business practice.
From the almighty Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ipod
Also, it wasn't a "fad" when it first came out, as most of the people buying the iPod when it was first released were Apple fans. It wasn't until 2004 when there was a huge jump in sales.
What's your point? It's not an isolated experience with a good customer service rep and it's not indicative of the company. I just had a similar experience with DELL about 20 minutes ago.
Simply, I need a motherboard replaced on a system (it's under warranty), they told me it would be sent (and I hung up,) but apparently they are having problems with their dispatch system. The CSR I was talking to called me back about 8 minutes later (he got my answering machine) to apologize that there would be a delay, left me his name, his phone number, his e-mail address, and his supervisors phone number & e-mail address (in case I wanted to complain for the error/delay, which technically isn't even his fault) and he'll also call me back when they are able to send out the motherboard.
I called his supervisor to commend the CSR for his service, as he definitely didn't have to call me back to inform me about the delay (of a few hours I'm hoping.)
Does that mean Dell now has better support than Apple or vice versa? Probably not, they both have similar support, but it's the individuals that make most of the difference.
The only ironic thing is most of them don't use their company's products (one friend has to hide is iRiver when he walks into the Apple store.)
However some people prefer Opera because it's .... link 1 .... link 2 .... link 3 .... link 4 .... link 5 .... link 6, September 16th 2005
1) more secure
2) faster
3) Is actively worked on -from Mike Connor, an important Firefox developer
4) smaller (3.7mb vs 4.7mb)
5) less bloat/ram usage
That, and they also have terrible business practices (PayPal that is.) You'd think PayPal would have learned from previous suits but the bad publicity this situation will bring is far worse than a $9.25 million settlement.