I’ve often referred to the “Apple Straitjacket” (or sometimes, in a rush, misspelled as “straightjacket”–my bad :-)), meaning the artificial limitations Apple places on users of its products. Here’s some unintentional “damning-with-faint-praise” in an article on the iPhad from a writer who thinks that’s just dandy:
…none of the hardware in the iPad pushes the leading edge of design, it just does what it needs to do,” [RapidRepair CEO Aaron] Vronko said. “If you look at the Motorola Droid or Google’s Nexus One—which both have 512MB of memory—they’re pushing the edge of what hardware’s currently available. They want to make sure their devices can take on whatever people decide to throw at them, whereas Apple sits back and says, ‘What do we want this device to be able to do?'”
Exactly. While other companies have a desire to accommodate users needs and desires, Apple seeks to define users “needs” as whatever IT wants a user to “need”. (Sounds like The Ø! and his ilk, doesn’t it?) Straitjacket.
*feh* One more reason to mock Apple.
And another: note this evidence of planned obsolescence for the iPhad’s of early adopters:
One interesting bit, he said, was a section near the top of the iPad, near the light sensor. “I’d say that’s definitely designed to host a camera, [likely in a future model] six months or so from now,” Vronko said.
Just more reason to
Take a stand against vanity, conceit, and the cult of personality. Don’t be fooled by purveyors of dumbed-down, locked-down, semi-functional pieces of planned obsolescence. Computers and electronic devices are tools, not fashion accessories. They do not define who you are or what group you belong to. Any company or culture that insists otherwise is deeply creepy. Apple haters unite!
And more from another source:
You won’t hear much about price elasticity from the first wave of iPad buyers. They will buy the iTurd if Steve Jobs creates it. Apple, however, is targeting the masses. And the masses think in terms of opportunity costs. [As though I really needed to add the emPHAsis *heh*]
