I love the Economists dry humour and attitude. The cover is a brilliant idea! It goes all biblical on the new Book of Jobs, in reference to the really old one!
I love the Economists dry humour and attitude. The cover is a brilliant idea! It goes all biblical on the new Book of Jobs, in reference to the really old one!
The organic movement has infiltrated our minds and told us for years that all those pesticides on "normal" apples are bad and dangerous for us.
The truth us that you hardly find truly untreated & un-sprayed apples in organic markets.
Most unsprayed apple would have very ugly looking brown spots and often a peel – not the healthy and shiny natural look we are used to.
Many organic orchards use copper spray to keep their apples in shape. Copper is not a pesticide, but certainly not beneficial for humans either and our water supply.
Mass Food Production is a tricky thing and we might have to accept that almost all forms of mass production will put a strain on nature.
It basically turned from a 1970’s brown box to an expensive pebble. And Apple still pretends it’s only a single button mouse – keeping up that old idiotic paradigm of fake simplicity.
Some “instruments” have a certain complexity to them: a computer keyboard needs all keys to work. And the Mac OS has been supporting right-clicks for a long time – but Apple still wants users to perceive the Mac as especially “simple” to use.
But it’s new multitouch mouse isn’t simple at all. It takes some training to get it right.
Click ad for more Apple Newton.
Lang before Smartphones computer vendors tried to sell us Personal Digital Assistants. The vision was there, but the hardware was too big and too slow to make it work.
Apple’s Newton was a brave experiment hardly anyone know anymore. I owned two Newtons, because I though the technology was fantastic. But for daily use it was crap.
Only a black & green display – but already with funky special effects. You could expand the Newton with special cards …
For text input you had to learn to write special characters so Newton could understand what you were trying to say. Apple scrapped that feature completely with the touch screen keyboard in the iPhone. You always needed that special pen to operate all these PDAs, which was pretty stupid. Although I am not a big fan of today’s touch screens, but they are much better than those pens.
The Newton died a quick and miserable dead. Apple didn’t try very hard to make it work.
Graffiti Gestures – bit odd at first, but it really worked after some training.
The Palm Pilot a few years later made the PDA market really fly. This was in a time, when cell phones were too stupid to be used to remember addresses, appointments or be synched with Outlook.
Some of the apps for the Palm (and Newton) were really great! The iPhone still hasn’t the same amount of good office applications and synchronization tools the Newton and the Palm offered. That is why I still consider the iPhone a lifestyle product and not a true mobile business tool.
I owned also a Handspring Edge – a small, but brilliant Palm clone. You could attack a pretty good portable keyboard to it – something the iPhone completely lacks as well.
In the end the Palm died as well. Better cell phones supplanted the address book and time management for which the Palm was mostly used.
And they offered eMail and Internet access the Palm struggled with for a long time. Plus cheap notebooks finally became lighter and affordable, so a bastard device like the PDA no longer made sense: there is no real middle ground between a good cell phone and notebook/netbook.
Ah, Claris Emailer – anyone remember that program on the Mac? It was great and it simply worked. It remember it very fondly and used it a LOT.
But back in the late 90’s our computers were puny compared to today’s powerful machines.
As much as I like John Hodgman, but all advertising campaigns have to end some day. Even the bad ones.
Apple think different and come up with something new.
Although there are some good spoof out there.
Today’s elections are fought in real life as well as in cyberspace. Campaign websites and special applications are as important as old school posters and TV ads for the candidates.
But the Obama iPhone Application really takes the cake.
First you have to own an overpriced gadget from a really snobby company called Apple.
Second you have to be computer literate and well educated to handle the bloody thing.
And third you need to willingly seek out and download that application via the Intranets.
Hardly something for your average red neck or these small town value Americans?
This is slowly becoming a seasonal thing: a new year a new iPod. Here is my excuse for buying a new one: four gigabyte was too tiny for my favorite tunes. Plus it helped to satisfy my technolust and stopped me from buying anything more expensive.
Overall the new iPod interface sucks. I still would prefer the simple old black and white screen with a super simple menu. I don’t need all that extra smart and shiny coverflow and graphic gimmickry. The inside of my pants have no eyes and I just need to see a list of what’s on the playlist. No more, no less.
Apple is currently diminishing the iPod’s greatest appeal: simplicity. Every new version tries to add some unnecessary bells & whistles.
Crap.
Wikipedia says that there are currently 7.500 different types of Apples. One would think that’s a lot, especially since most super markets only offer three or five different brands (how many can you name from memory?). According to some articles / sources we had over 10.000 or even 20.000 varieties not just a hundred years ago.
The problem of loosing bio diversity is very serious. Some varieties have genes that might withstand a new illness or virus that threatens a specific plant or animal.
Sounds to scientific to you? Just remember that we still don’t know what is killing bees in such huge numbers in the US and Europe. if we would loose some more bees plant pollination would be insufficient and food production would be greatly reduced. Hanger and starvation would be result for man and animals.
Another example: lets say a new fungus develops that kills most of the rice crops in Asia. A huge famine would be the result.
So we need bio diversity to ensure that some plants and animals are resistant to some threats – so we can cross breeds these species with weaker ones.
Every species and variety we loose is a direct threat to our own survival.
I very much preferred Apple’s marketing when it was based on it’s own technology instead of constantly bashing the PC / Windows.
Today it’s way too much focused on lifestyle or labeling PC users as stupid. Don’t tell I am an idiot because I DON’T use a Mac – you are not making any friends with me …
I am sick and tired of Apple getting all that hype for it’s new MacBook Air. My Samsung Q-35 is already 14 months old and isn’t considered a hot item these days. Here are some numbers to illustrate my point that Samsung built a great machine over two years ago that still is almost as good as Apples new Yuppie gadget:
Weight:
Apple: 1.36 kg
Samsung: 1.9 kg
CPU:
Apple: Intel Duo 2 Core / 1.6 Ghz
Samsung: Intel Duo 2 Core / 1.6 Ghz
Battery Life (according to official propaganda):
Apple: 5 hours
Samsung: 4 hours
Display:
Apple: 1280×800
Samsung: 1280×800
Dimensions:
Apple: 325 x 227 x 4 – 194 mm
Samsung: 299 x 214 x 27.4~35.8 mm
My Samsung has more ports (Ethernet, Modem, 2x USB, Firewire, PCMCIA card) and INCLUDES a DVD drive plus a slot for all sorts of memory cards (why is that missing in a Mac?).
The Mac has a built in video camera and better graphics card (no surprise two years later). The 80 GB hard drive is more or less identical. The Mac has a bit newer Bluetooth and WiFi, but not that much different or better.
The new Apple keyboards are terrible – dunno if the MacBook Air feels as rubbery as these. The Samsung keyboard is brilliant – since I write a lot this was an essential point for me.
The new trackpad in the Mac seems to be a big innovative plus, but I am not sure if it makes any difference while writing or designing. Most people use an extra mouse even while traveling – and hardly anyone does design work with Photoshop or Illustrator using the trackpad anyway.
The Samsung Q-35 is no longer available – but you can get it’s successor Q-45 under 1.000 Euro with more power, bigger drive, CPU and better graphics. The new MacBook Air will set you back 1.600 Euros with NO DVD drive …
I hardly can remember my first (cheap) stereo system which was all the rage back then. You simply had to had a decent HiFi system at home – just a simply tape and record player was not enough to grantee your social status. Every since the 80’s audio freaks have gone overboard with special preamps, super CD-Player and all that expensive boy toys.
In that context I find it cynical that most people are now hooked to cheap ass speaker system on their computers to listen to badly ripped MP3 files. So the new digital revolution actually was a downgrade in sound quality compared to audio CDs and a good stereo system.
But never mind. It’s small and portable or big and clunky on your desktop – but most of all it’s bloody convenient! So we see once again new high tech gimmickry to give is better sound. JBL, Apple and many others offer a gazillion highly evolved speaker system to play your hissing and badly compressed MP3 files in your living room.
Ah, the irony of high tech. But at least it looks cool when it sounds like shit. 
I liked the Mac cube concept. Overall our desktop machines are way too big. But I also think that laptops are not always the best ‘form factor’ either. I like to have my keyboard and monitor separate from the computer itself.
The iMac ‘lamp’ design and ‘PC-within-the-monitor’ designs are pretty practical as well – but your are stuck with fixed setup: you simply can’t replace the monitor or computer if it fails. You have the same problem with laptops.
But since monitors will be the biggest feature of all PCs in the future all designs will end up being built around this component anyway. And laptops and notebooks are outselling good old desktops now for several years. So the one in one machine is the future.
Hello I am a PC – and I am a Mac …
Apple has been playing the the same old tune: bad and unreliable PC – super cool and practical Mac. It’s just getting boring to repeat old flame wars again and again.
The more Apple insists on being cooler, younger and more reliable – the more it becomes a joke itself. We are now beyond coolness in your daily life’s – we simply want to work and are hardly excited about any new Geekery. Stuff has to work – and the PC’s simply work as well.
The iPod campaigns so far show how they can do it better: simply show the joy of using the product and it’s simplicity. Don’t even recognize the competition.
The Walkmen Generation had one big advantage over the iPoddies: their gadgets didn’t have an imposed sound barrier. The iPod has a clear loudness limit – which can be annoying while traveling in a loud environment.
But since everybody seems to be born with an iPod in their arse and earplugs instead of ears it’s a good thing. The Generation iPod will be mostly deaf by the age of 30. So less power to your headphones and earplugs might be a good thing.
And it might be nice to actually be able to get through to you – even when you have those super expensive Sennheiser plugs in your head. Total immersion in your own sound bubble is so unsocial you iPod zombie …
Artist: Christophe Gilbert
More and more deaf young people? Wired Magazine is spelling out the obvious – once again. I still can remember the same warnings when the first Walkmans hit the street and everybody went earphoned. Actually the worst thing that could happen to your ears is Techno Music and raves. Never been to any party that is really louder: base kicks so intense that they make your clothes wobble. So most modern digital devices have a loudness barrier anyway – they are not as loud as old walkmans or normal Hi-Fi equipment.
These were great machines – when Mac’s still were Mac’s – and PC’s absolute crap. How times have changed. Intel Inside – soon in every Mac as well.
Several months ago Apple released it’s browser Safari also for Windows. All those Apple Fan Boys wet their pants and predict that gazillions of user would switch and ignore Internet Explorer and Firefox forever.
What happened? Nothing. Safari was released for Windows, because Developers needed it for working on software for the iPhone (another world dominating success) and that’s about it.
My verdict: it’s a nice browser, helps me as a web developer to test my work, but still prefer Firefox and it’s flexibility over any other product so far.
As any old time Newton owner can attest you: not everything Apple designs is golden. Enter the iPhone – the most overhyped product launch evaaar.
If you told people thirty years ago that people would que to buy a phone you would have been locked away. As should these nerds and Apple fan boys who are willing to pay stupid amounts of money for an overdesigned gadget.
As long as coolnes and feature overkill rule the market we get more and more tech gizmos that do just the same, but more complicated and more expensive.
