Current Apple Rumors

[nfotxn]

You see Apple will buy Universal Music such that they can supply their tiny minority of Mac users and style sheep sporting iPods with legitimate music downloads. Because you see only Mac users are savvy enough to have a "digital lifestyle", PC users are fighting off blue screens and doing unfabulous things like entering data into spreadsheets. Like purchasing a major label is a justifiable cost to provide iPod and Mac users combined with digital downloads. Whatever!

Don't get me wrong, I really like Apple's products and always have enjoyed their elegance and attention to detail (the price on the other hand..). But the sort of mindless trendiness and absurd air of supperiority amongst the Apple Cult Elite is just downright maddening. The demographic is some odd bastard fusion of yuppie and hippie with the bazaar ability to be both economically elitist AND morally condescending!

It comes down to the fact that I don't make that kinda money and probably won't for a long time. I'd love to drive a BMW or Mercedes but unfortunately my budget barely covers a bus pass with a student discount. And that my friends is where Apple falls so terribly short. Apple's idea of democratizing their products is preying on students and their new found lines of credit or selling eMac with built in planned obsolescense to our schools and raking in our tax dollars. Not that many VARs really have the customer's best interest in mind but at least the margins aren't as absurd and the product is less proprietary.

Regardless I don't plan on writing about Apple rumors in the future. Infact I feel rather dissident with Internet rumor culture in general these days. It's all so fake, speculatory and without much credibility.

Comments

[drmrdave.livejournal.com]

Wait a second...I read it on the *Internet* - it MUST be true :)

Apple

[tcbear.livejournal.com]

I will say up front that I'm not an Apple user.. I have used Macs..in school mostly, and like using Macs for the most part...I do think that their interface has always been better designed logistically...and they seem to write better software for the most part. With that said, somehow Apple has managed to make the fact that their machines are for the most part overpriced for the everyday consumer, and a lack of competition in their market, due to their proprietary system architechtures, and software into some twisted badge of honour.

The problem is that Apple seems to have a fixed market, they know who they need to go after...just like your Mercedes and BMW's and they are no longer making a big push to expand beyond a very comfortable client niche. As far as I can tell anyways. Whether its borne of mindless trendiness, or just economic reality, I've see Macs being in the hands of the Architechs, Trendy Musicians (who have disposable cash reserves)...Mac traditionalists, and people who have a fair amount of salary in people and arts related fields. They just no longer seem interested in an average consumer..having ceded that to the PC's.

Someday I hope to be able to get one...and use it to set up a music studio..when I can afford to do that however..I'll be able to afford serveral different machines for specific tasks. I know I'm nowhere near that level of a)sophistication or b) monetary entitlement.

I'm sorry for the bit of bad news...and I understand where the student bus pass thing is going ..trust me...I've been there..and to a certain still am..though I don't get the discount anymore. Whether this rumour happens or not, would seem to me to have little effect on the course Apple has decided to take.

Take Care Of Yourself,

Tom

[gusmacroy.livejournal.com]

I agree, Apple shouldn't make good-looking products, and should lose money selling slightly-cheaper, low-margin hardware to many people, like Gateway and HP, and Apple owners should be apologetic about their high incomes, and use their computers in shame and ignominy.

[nfotxn.livejournal.com]

Where did I say that they shouldn't make those products? It's great to have choice but beign told by a Mac user that I should give up value and buy some lame underpowered iBook or iMac or else i'm just beeing a sheep is sorta ironic. It's like being told to finance a cheap Mmercedes instead of a Honda because they're soooooo much better.

[gusmacroy.livejournal.com]

You can tell such mac users that anyone who has a checking account and doesn't think they are already a slave is clearly seriously mistaken, and you can know that it's true in your heart and rip MP3s faster than them, too.

[jrjarrett.livejournal.com]

But the sort of mindless trendiness and absurd air of supperiority amongst the Apple Cult Elite is just downright maddening.

<Looks down nose, condesendingly, at Brodie>

Ah, poor deluded young bear.

</condesenscion>



I have been, and always will be, a die-hard Mac user, since I heard about Macintosh Pascal in my CIS 102 class in the dim depths of late 1984. I had been using my college roommate's DEC Rainbow CP/M / MS-DOS machine to do Pascal coding, and it bit. When I heard how Macintosh Pascal had this hand that would step its way through the code and show you where you were...I was sold.

I have a different opinion about your statement, selling eMac with built in planned obsolescense to our schools and raking in our tax dollars. I have managed to get so much more life out of the seven Macintoshes I have owned in fifteen years than people I know with PC's. And I'm the kind of guy who wants faster, better, more, now, now, now! I now have a DP 1Ghz G4 tower that supplanted a beige G3 Desktop. And I had that G3 for four years. The only reason I got a new Mac was 'cuz I wanted one. For web surfing, video chat, email, it is still just fine...even image processing, it's not bad. Ok, the latest and greatest dusts it, but it worked for me. IOW, I think you get MUCH more life out of a Mac than a PC because of the way Apple has handled OS upgrades.

The move to OS X is going to force a lot of turnover to newer machines...but a) why do it if what you are working with works for you? b) I'm guessing that people that make that jump would be going from the original Bondi Blue 233MHz G3 iMac, or less --those machines are several years old now.

You have a valid point about the priciness of Apple products, when you think about the PC world in general. Sure, you can go get yourself an eMachines or some "no-name" brand PC made of commodity components for $200-$500 (I know, I just did this a couple days ago for a Linux project I want to do). But I think it's more valid to compare a Sony to an Apple, and then you find the price vs. component comparison closer.

My $.02 (USD )

[dizzi-d.livejournal.com]

"Apple has never made any offer to invest in or acquire a major music company," said Jobs in the statement. "The press statements this morning attributed to Vivendi board member Claude Bebear are untrue, as Mr. Bebear has confirmed in a later report. Beyond these comments, we will abide by Apple's policy of not commenting on rumors."

Actually, Apple I don't know that apple *can* own a music company... At one point, Apple Records (i.e. The Beatles) sued Apple Computer for trademark infringment because the computer company broke their earlier agreement not to add sound to its computers. The previous settlement granted them exclusive rights to use the name "Apple" in connection with any type of music copmany. The case was ultimately settled out of court.

Apple computers - ever since the first true music-capable system - have included a system sound called "sosumi" as a final "screw you" to Apple Records :)

[ranger1.livejournal.com]

Apple Computer settled the "thou shalt not do music stuff" issue with Apple Records Ltd. several years ago. I don't think the details were made public, but most industry observers agree that Apple Computer no longer has legal restraints in that market space.

[dizzi-d.livejournal.com]

I assumed that it had faded significantly over time, but I couldn't google a significant source of definite information about whether it had completely gone poof or not.

[ranger1.livejournal.com]

Apple does indeed prey on its customers. Given that everyone else does too -- HP, Dell and, duh, that huge company in Redmond -- it's a moot point.

I see variations of this PC user diatribe from time to time and I just don't get it. What is it about Apple that gets their panties in such a twist? Ford owners don't freak when Infiniti announces new models. Why does it matter if Steve Jobs, unholy offspring of P.T. Barnum and Napoleon, continues to run his little technochic empire? If the PC computing experience was so good -- or even satisfactory -- I'd think that none of them would care. And yet they do. Quite fervently. Sometimes I think PC users talk about Apple more than Apple's own customers.

I recently bought a RAM upgrade and was reminded that there is no one-size-fits-all in computing. If I want that faster CL2 DIMM, it costs extra. Do I choose the $65 DIMM from some unknown company called Fly-By-Night Industries, or the $75 one from the well-reputed Kingston Technologies? Do I care if the tips are gold-plated?

Each person has different needs, a different idea of "value". Macs ain't for everybody. Anyone who says different either works at 1 Infinite Loop or needs to get a life.

FWIW I think the rumor is wrong. Then again, Apple has done many things lately that I considered unthinkable: renaming iTools to .Mac (*gag*), killing MacWorld Boston (bastards!), bringing in Al Gore to sit on the Board of Directors (no snarky comment needed).

Hypocrisy with a capital H

[cub4bear.livejournal.com]

But the sort of mindless trendiness and absurd air of supperiority amongst the Apple Cult Elite is just downright maddening. The demographic is some odd bastard fusion of yuppie and hippie with the bazaar ability to be both economically elitist AND morally condescending!

Mindless trendiness? This coming from someone who writes his online journal entries in his Palm Pilot? Weren't you the one who was drooling over some wireless Palm docking thing the other week?

Not that many VARs really have the customer's best interest in mind but at least the margins aren't as absurd and the product is less proprietary.

Give me a break.

By this logic, you must simply LOVE the people who run Wal-Mart. Low margins on everything and nothing proprietary. Oh wait, aren't soft leftists supposed to hate Wal-Mart? I'm confused!

It comes down to the fact that I don't make that kinda money and probably won't for a long time.

"A famished fox saw some clusters of ripe black grapes hanging from a trellised vine. She resorted to all her tricks to get at them, but wearied herself in vain, for she could not reach them. At last she turned away, hiding her disappointment and saying: 'The Grapes are sour, and not ripe as I thought.'"

Apple's idea of democratizing their products is preying on students and their new found lines of credit

Whatever. You'll be drooling over my Cube next time you're over.

[brianrdu.livejournal.com]

I don't know where this rant is coming from. Are you picking on the underdog or what? Most of the innovation in the computer industry (and beyond, because their influence has extended way out there) comes from Apple. Doesn't matter what you can't afford. They do make a consumer line of products. And they make iPods for both platforms. If they do start this music service (and they are, there's an announcement on the 28th), then they are expanding their horizons in terms of profitability. Care to elaborate with the planned obsolescense remark on eMacs? There's much power and expandability under the hood there (I'm talking ports, not upgradeable processors) for very little money.

[celticstarlight.livejournal.com]

Love my Macs. Could care less about My Sony Vaio.My Mac works,my Sony spends most of it's time fixing itself.
Its a big world so just use what you enjoy.