iPhones - Not for bad guys.

[Cade25]

First apple Mack a computer inside a cheese grater and now this

[Video Beagle]

On 2/28/2020 at 4:53 AM, straight_stewie said:

But to the wider argument of using movies to create a brand image, have you ever noticed that this:

 

Is always the briefcase used to make hand-offs in spy movies?

It's a Zero Halliburton Slimline Aluminum Plus Attache and Zero Halliburton has built their entire image based on the use of this briefcase in movies. (the briefcase is widely used in the movie industry in general, not just for spy movies)

Man, I wish WISH had knockoffs of THAT!

[Fnige]

On 2/28/2020 at 11:54 AM, rcmaehl said:

Don't tag colonel_mortis but despite people requesting non-WYSIWYG editing in the features for a while, the editor will accept most HTML you put in it assuming it's valid. So I just took an existing quote and used inspect element to put the edited HTML I needed. Such as:

 

The following post will say Just Now until 4/20/2020

there did i do it

 

edit: nope

[Bombastinator]

14 hours ago, Cade25 said:

First apple Mack a computer inside a cheese grater and now this

The cheese grater Mac came out when?  The meshify c came out when?

[Master Disaster]

On 2/27/2020 at 12:15 PM, RejZoR said:

It's stupid nonsense. Same like with Youtube and their "advertiser friendly" BS. Like anyone is going to associate Coca Cola with Hitler because Coca Cola ad played before the Hitler's video of lets say his speech. Just the same as I'm not going to associate laundry detergents with James Bond because they rolled detergent ad in the middle of James Bond movie. It's like peak idiocy.

Remember that we live in a world where food has to instruct people to not cook the bag it's packed in. Peak idiocy is already a thing.

[Engineer.AI]

On 3/1/2020 at 1:35 AM, Video Beagle said:

 

Apple and "fair use" policies go hand in hand (and not in a good sort of way). Rich though, coming from a company who's entire business structure has been ripping off pre-existing tech, and (for lack of a better word) 'GENTRIFYING' them for common use.

 

Their foray into smartphones isn't exactly revolutionary, per se - Microsoft, for example, had already developed touch screen technology as back as 2001-2003. The rest of their tech (a focus on cloud based ops, increasing camera fidelity with every release, etc) were preset industry standards.

 

Apple commodified their releases in a way that COD or Assasins Creed did to their releases - making them frequent (annual), so that the consumer is always engaged with the brand; all while making negligible changes to their core product, with merely a design upgrade. They made their gentrification into a lifestyle, and sold it year after year.

 

Additionally, their 'selling points' of a device is rarely ever a revolutionary prospect (the last one that comes to mind is SIRI, way back). If anything, Apple is not unique to their niche in any way or form.

~Engineer.AI

[Bombastinator]

5 hours ago, Engineer.AI said:

Apple and "fair use" policies go hand in hand (and not in a good sort of way). Rich though, coming from a company who's entire business structure has been ripping off pre-existing tech, and (for lack of a better word) 'GENTRIFYING' them for common use.

 

Their foray into smartphones isn't exactly revolutionary, per se - Microsoft, for example, had already developed touch screen technology as back as 2001-2003. The rest of their tech (a focus on cloud based ops, increasing camera fidelity with every release, etc) were preset industry standards.

 

Apple commodified their releases in a way that COD or Assasins Creed did to their releases - making them frequent (annual), so that the consumer is always engaged with the brand; all while making negligible changes to their core product, with merely a design upgrade. They made their gentrification into a lifestyle, and sold it year after year.

 

Additionally, their 'selling points' of a device is rarely ever a revolutionary prospect (the last one that comes to mind is SIRI, way back). If anything, Apple is not unique to their niche in any way or form.

~Engineer.AI

Those ways or forms perhaps.  Any and all are big words.  Apple was famous for deliberately refusing to implement new tech tweaks on the grounds that they didn’t work well enough yet.  There was a great deal of “we could but we shouldn’t”.  Less these days.  Sort of a curation.  The whole point of apple is tech that doesn’t get in the way of other things.

[Engineer.AI]

2 minutes ago, Bombastinator said:

Those ways or forms perhaps.  Apple was famous for deliberately refusing to implement new tech tweaks on the grounds that they didn’t work well enough yet.  There was a great deal of “we could but we shouldn’t”.  Less these days.  Sort of a curation.  The whole point of apple is tech that doesn’t get in the way of other things.

I really love how you framed it. Nevertheless, this has been well known for quite some time. To their credit, they utilize the perfected versions of any tech in their devices - I'll give them that. Frankly, its not ALL Apple's undoing, the average iPhone user doesnt really care for customizability that much - they're content with the gentrification quite a lot.

~Engineer.AI

[Bombastinator]

Just now, Engineer.AI said:

I really love how you framed it. Nevertheless, this has been well known for quite some time. To their credit, they utilize the perfected versions of any tech in their devices - I'll give them that. Frankly, its not ALL Apple's undoing, the average iPhone user doesnt really care for customizability that much - they're content with the gentrification quite a lot.

~Engineer.AI

It the “just works” aspect. Apple is for people that don’t “do” computers, they just use them to do other things. The “gentrification” aspect is a bonus for Apple, but it’s something that just happened rather than something they went after.

[Engineer.AI]

28 minutes ago, Bombastinator said:

 The “gentrification” aspect is a bonus for Apple, but it’s something that just happened rather than something they went after.

LoL I couldn't agree with you more. What really grinds my gears, is that they run on an anti-piracy platform -  so much so, it takes the fun out of personalizing your own device. This, I believe, more than anything, will be their eventual downfall. Their devices live and die out of the box. Then an year later, just as the day it was born, it gets repacked into a box, possibly forever - experiencing no growth whatsoever.

~Engineer.AI

[Guest]

1 hour ago, Bombastinator said:

It the “just works” aspect. Apple is for people that don’t “do” computers, they just use them to do other things. The “gentrification” aspect is a bonus for Apple, but it’s something that just happened rather than something they went after.

Odd that many of us, including myself, that work with computers for a living use Apple products. The last thing many of us want is the hassle we see and have to deal with every day at the office to plague us at home. I don’t want to be sat in front of a screen for any longer than I need to, not do I need to waste hours customising my device for no other reason than I can. I know many experienced people like myself feel the same.

[Commodus]

3 hours ago, Engineer.AI said:

LoL I couldn't agree with you more. What really grinds my gears, is that they run on an anti-piracy platform -  so much so, it takes the fun out of personalizing your own device. This, I believe, more than anything, will be their eventual downfall. Their devices live and die out of the box. Then an year later, just as the day it was born, it gets repacked into a box, possibly forever - experiencing no growth whatsoever.

~Engineer.AI

I vehemently disagree.

 

Customization is nice, but you can safely say that the majority (maybe even the vast majority) of smartphone owners really don't care about it.  They're using their phones to call and text, to share their experiences with friends on Instagram, to play music during their commute, to capture a memory and maybe play a game or two.  It's what they do with their phone that matters, not what they do to their phone, and an iPhone does that just fine.

 

If you could grab a typical Android user off the street and look at their phone without it being incredibly rude, you'd probably be in for a surprise.  No, they didn't choose a third-party launcher; no, they didn't sideload apps; they haven't even fiddled much with the icon layout.  They might have chosen a new wallpaper or Samsung stock theme, and that's about it.  They treat it almost exactly like they would an iPhone.  Why?  Because to them, a phone is just a tool for accomplishing other, more meaningful things. They don't care about getting everything 'just so,' and frankly personalization shouldn't be that important.  There are occasional moments when iOS' policies can limit what apps do or force weird workarounds, but the lack of customization?  Not really on the radar for most people.

[dalekphalm]

3 hours ago, Phill104 said:

Odd that many of us, including myself, that work with computers for a living use Apple products. The last thing many of us want is the hassle we see and have to deal with every day at the office to plague us at home. I don’t want to be sat in front of a screen for any longer than I need to, not do I need to waste hours customising my device for no other reason than I can. I know many experienced people like myself feel the same.

Agreed - I used to be a hardcore Windows Mobile user. I even used Windows Mobile 6.5 (anyone who says it was good is simply wrong - Windows Mobile used to be good back in the Pocket PC type days - by the time 6.x rolled by, Android and iOS were well past it).

 

Windows Phone 7/8 were solid efforts, with some significant drawbacks. Windows 10 Mobile was a good try, but eventually died due to app support issues.

 

When W10M finally died, I considered all the options on the market - including Android. I almost went Android, but there were numerous issues I couldn't reconcile - one of which being fragmentation among OEM's, and the other being inconsistent OS updates. Most Android phones don't get updates past a year - maybe two. Some don't even get any updates at all.

 

And yes, of course, I could root the phone, put a custom ROM on it, etc etc etc. But I don't want to. As you say, I do this shit all day every day for work - I don't want to have to install a custom ROM on my phone just to get continued OS security updates and newer OS versions.

 

So I made the decision to go Apple. It was a good decision. My first iPhone was the 6s - loved it. My fiancee now uses it, and I have an Xr, which is (mostly) even better (only occasionally miss the headphone jack).

 

iOS to me works very well. Yes, the phone was expensive - but when I resell it in a few years, it'll retain a lot of value. That helps to offset the high cost to entry.

 

Plus, I can keep the Xr for years. I could easily keep it for 3-5 years without issues (at most, a battery replacement somewhere down the line). And I'll know it'll get iOS updates and security patches for at least 4-5 years.

 

The idea that one of the OS's is "better" or the "perfect OS" is ridiculous to begin with. One might be better or perfect for one user, and worse and imperfect for another user. They both have pros and cons, and to me, the pros of iOS far outweigh any cons.

[Engineer.AI]

14 hours ago, Commodus said:

I vehemently disagree.

 

Customization is nice, but you can safely say that the majority (maybe even the vast majority) of smartphone owners really don't care about it.  They're using their phones to call and text, to share their experiences with friends on Instagram, to play music during their commute, to capture a memory and maybe play a game or two.  It's what they do with their phone that matters, not what they do to their phone, and an iPhone does that just fine.

 

If you could grab a typical Android user off the street and look at their phone without it being incredibly rude, you'd probably be in for a surprise.  No, they didn't choose a third-party launcher; no, they didn't sideload apps; they haven't even fiddled much with the icon layout.  They might have chosen a new wallpaper or Samsung stock theme, and that's about it.  They treat it almost exactly like they would an iPhone.  Why?  Because to them, a phone is just a tool for accomplishing other, more meaningful things. They don't care about getting everything 'just so,' and frankly personalization shouldn't be that important.  There are occasional moments when iOS' policies can limit what apps do or force weird workarounds, but the lack of customization?  Not really on the radar for most people.

This might ring true currently, where individualism is not that appreciated (for lack of a better word) - unlike the epoch of the cell phone phenomenon, where there was variety in what was available in the market (colorful phones, flip phones, slim phones, LED phones, etc).
This modern trend to homogenize every smart phone (and subsequently every smart phone user alongwith), might change in the future - and frankly, I see this as a potential possibility. People, like their cell phones, have started losing on individuality. Somebody might be smart enough in the near future to recognize this, and capitalize on it.

Since people have grown so attached to their personal smartphone devices, it's only natural that they'll want to customize it as a form of expression if given a choice - which they sadly lack, in this current smart-device market (which honestly awaits a sea-change soon).
~Engineer.AI

 

[Bombastinator]

4 minutes ago, Engineer.AI said:

This might ring true currently, where individualism is not that appreciated (for lack of a better word) - unlike the epoch of the cell phone phenomenon, where there was variety in what was available in the market (colorful phones, flip phones, slim phones, LED phones, etc).
This modern trend to homogenize every smart phone (and subsequently every smart phone user alongwith), might change in the future - and frankly, I see this as a potential possibility. People, like their cell phones, have started losing on individuality. Somebody might be smart enough in the near future to recognize this, and capitalize on it.

Since people have grown so attached to their personal smartphone devices, it's only natural that they'll want to customize it as a form of expression if given a choice - which they sadly lack, in this current smart-device market (which honestly awaits a sea-change soon).
~Engineer.AI

 

I would say that’s well entrenched already.  Generally they do it to the outside rather than the inside though.  Hundreds of phone case mall kiosks attest to this.  Changing the look is easy.  Even on the inside.  Functionality might even follow.  If tech ever slows down enough to make such a thing portable between devices.

[Engineer.AI]

Just now, Bombastinator said:

I would say that’s well entrenched already.  Generally they do it to the outside rather than the inside though.  Hundreds of phone case mall kiosks attest to this.  Changing the look is easy.  Even on the inside.  Functionality might even follow.  If tech ever slows down enough to make such a thing portable between devices.

This surface level customization, as it stands, will just not suffice in the future. People will want more options (merely back covers will be seen as limiting and archaic). Apple will have to mend its gentrification ways - which is highly unlikely, since they'll prefer to break rather then bend (given that their entire aura is based around an ultra-simplified, bleached outlook).

~Engineer.AI

[Bombastinator]

14 minutes ago, Engineer.AI said:

This surface level customization, as it stands, will just not suffice in the future. People will want more options (merely back covers will be seen as limiting and archaic). Apple will have to mend its gentrification ways - which is highly unlikely, since they'll prefer to break rather then bend (given that their entire aura is based around an ultra-simplified, bleached outlook).

~Engineer.AI

I dunno.  People need a certain amount of consistency.  I hate it when I have to update my phone.  Things will be in different places and it’s annoying.  I could see it happening if the GUI was unchanging and portable though.  It would develop cruft and character, like the inside of old people’s houses.  Covered with pictures and momentous and stuff.

[Engineer.AI]

8 minutes ago, Bombastinator said:

I dunno.  People need a certain amount of consistency.  I hate it when I have to update my phone.  Things will be in different places and it’s annoying.  I could see it happening if the GUI was unchanging and portable though.  It would develop cruft and character, like the inside of old people’s houses.  Covered with pictures and momentous and stuff.

I see your point. Constant change is exhausting, agreed. 

 

However, seeing how recent trends in music, fashion, etc. are leaning towards over-the-top personal expression, the smart-device market will have to bend a knee sometime. When that happens though, it would be a game-changer.

 

Tell me, how can you distinguish your cellphone from the others in a pile? And how can you distinguish one persona, from the others in a crowd?

[Bombastinator]

5 hours ago, Engineer.AI said:

I see your point. Constant change is exhausting, agreed. 

 

However, seeing how recent trends in music, fashion, etc. are leaning towards over-the-top personal expression, the smart-device market will have to bend a knee sometime. When that happens though, it would be a game-changer.

 

Tell me, how can you distinguish your cellphone from the others in a pile? And how can you distinguish one persona, from the others in a crowd?

Over the top personal expression is not new.  That phrase in the song “stuck a feather in his cap and called it macaroni”? Macaroni was an over the top dress style.  The song makes fun of the severity of American dress at the time.

[Brennan Price]

On 2/27/2020 at 8:45 PM, Bombastinator said:

Some might.  They would have the same legal ability to..  I understand the “heavy” using one of a companies guns in a movie can drastically increase sales for that model though.

I feel like you've missed the fact that generally speaking, without bad guys, there would be no need for guns. Therefore stuck in a never ending cycle which I find quite funny. All the same though, there is a large part of the gun and weapons market that is unregulated, polar opposite to movies so I can see your point for sure