Letters to the Editor
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Like the so-called liberal media
Jack forgets that the Apple hate runs deep and runs true, both in the media and in the population at large. Journalists may get caught up in the Jobs show, but every other minute there's a story about Apple dying, exploding, sucking, overreaching, etc.
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How about the past hwere the press hammered Apple?
What no real tech news around?
Its funny you push this crap from some other site. The press in the past bashed Apple to death. How soon we forget. Every time they put out a new product it got trashed by the tech news people. How many articles every six months right on cue did someone write about Apples imminent demise. Even the ipod when it first came out got trashed until the public said different. Only recently with the publics support have they come on the Apple train because they put out good products that people want. Its that simple. I bet you were a die hard pc guy pissed that they'rer not dead. grow up.
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Dear me, follow the money flowing into Slate
The so called media has been pretty universal anti iPhone or neutral at best despite what could be called potential consumer demand and interest. I swear if I read more article complaining that the iPhone can't make bread, drive my kids to school, fix ED, balance the checkbook and sing all the arias from Die Fledermaus I'll throw my laptop at the ceiling. At this point you really really have to wonder how much of this criticism is real and how much is stealth paid-for PR. And Slate is just a bunch of posers and fools always a day late to the party and then they jump in and remind you how smart they are. They must be getting tips from Howard Anderson at the Yankee Group, or Gartner for that matter.
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Zzzzzz.....
"A big part of it, of course, is CEO Steve Jobs, who could affix a matte-white Apple logo to a pot of gruel and make us beg for seconds." Sheesh. Yeah, the hype is justified, and it's got little to do with Job's salesmanship. Apple took the stumbling MP3 player market by storm, with ONE product done right. Having a reputation for "doing products right", Apple announces their foray into cell phones, and demos an evolutionary/revolutionary (you choose -- actually, the market will) product. Those who looked at the demos on Apple's site said "Holy Sh*t -- someone figured it out, FINALLY".
It's a big story, seeing how every person between 6 and 90 in the developed world seems to have (a) a cell phone and (b) an iPod strapped to their hips, and if the iPhone delivers - it'll be a long-term success for Jobs & co.
The last "pot of gruel" with an apple logo that I recall was the Newton, and it was more like a plate of Sushi in 1975; a bit before its time, but heck, kinda tasty.
So yeah, for a tech reporter, a business reporter, a "lifetsyle" reporter, even a fashion reporter... it's a very big story with its share of drama. Now, Mr. Manjoo, can't you come up with something a little more original to write about?
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Stone Steve
When somebody like Steve Jobs, who produced the first computer ordinary people could use, and whose life story is more inspirational than something our best novelists could invent, gets too big for his Levis, what we really need are some hit pieces on him. I for one am distressed that the reporters are slobbering all over him, and wish they could at least make fun of him on a personal level, if they can't do a hit job on his company because of the innovation and vision. Maybe we could get Rush Limbaugh on it?
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the Emperror's new Clothes / the Emperror's new Phone
I really don't get the hype of the iPhone. All conventional wisdom of the mobile idustry and Human-Computer interaction reseach indicates that it's a bad idea.
For one - when it comes to handsets, Form Factor is king. The iPhone is just too big and clunky to fit onubstrusively in your pocket. And if you're willing to trade pocket space for bells'n'whistles, there are already state-of-the-art (but not exactly bestselling) models like Nokia's N9x series.
Secondly - no buttons? A touch screen interface? A couple of decades of research into touch screens have shown us two things:
a) They're a poor replacement for actual buttons. Buttons give haptic feedback - you feel them "click", and the brain processes those impulses much faster than it processes pure visual input.
b) To the degree that touch-screens work: the bigger, the better. A normal computer screen is too small for comfortable touch-screen interaction.
So, in practical terms: you can't dial numbers or write SMS'es nearly as fast or comfortably on a touch-screen as on a keypad.
OK, the iPhone has one innovative feature: it's actually multi-touch and also accepts gestural input. So you can use two fingers instead of one. That would be really neat when you actually have a whole hand free to gesture with. Thing is that mobile phones are usually designed to be operated with a thumb only, and most of us consumers prefer it that way, seeing as how a mobile phone is often used while carrying a bag or drinking coffee or flipping through papers with your other hand.
So the iPhone is basically a clumsy, feature-poor PDA. Should you buy one? No. If you really want those features - consider a PDA or high-end mobile phone, or a regular mobile phone with the Opera Mini web browser. But will it sell? Absolutely. Will the Apple fans be disappointed? Never to your face.
The rest of us, though, are in for some good laughs as we watch the fanboys and fangirls clumsily trying to manipulate their clunky iPhoneys while trying to look cool.
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Um. Right.
"Steve Jobs, who produced the first computer ordinary people could use[...]"
I can only laugh at that statement. Unless you think "ordinary people" could afford a $2000 Apple II in 1982 and completely discount the far more affordable (and color) Commodore 64s, Vic 20, Timex Sinclairs, TRS-80s, etc., your statment is simply laughable. Apple has ALWAYS been out of reach of the masses and in fact would be out of business now if they had not targeted college students (who took out loans to buy em) in the 90s.
And to this day, iPods, the yuppy status symbols of the millenium are overpriced just like everything else Apple has ever created.
$500 phone? Kiss my Ass. At&T only? Kiss it again.