Let me first state clearly that I am a first generation Apple and Mac user and loved every minute of every year of it ( until recently ). This warning is necessary as it may not be evident in the following Post. *Sigh*
Earlier today, Apple CEO Tim Cook unveiled the newest products to be on sale by September 19. I know the cult around the brand but I wonder if some people were disappointed if only a little. The products are … well, products really and the innovation is mostly in the software. A new piece of that was also revealed called the Apple Pay.
The iPhones, plural because there are two, are a perfect example. The basic iPhone 6 with a 4.7 inch screen is an iPhone 5 in disguise …
Click for link to iPhone 6 article.
and the larger 5.5 inch screen iPhone 6 Plus. Of course they got smaller although I should specify thinner on account of the Plus and because the trend is in bigger phones at the moment anyway. The phones and tablets are apparently on a collision course to similar sizes. The A8 chip makes them faster but users will be glad to hear that the battery gains 50% autonomy over the iPhone 5’s.
So new phones that are another facelift on the same old thing. Then comes the Apple Watch :
Click for link to Apple Watch article.
Nifty, huh? Small, cute and so Apple. It contains most of the phone’s functions too. And Tim Cook called it “so much more”. Despite not enthused by the design myself, I’d tentatively agree if it wasn’t for two details. First the lineage since hundreds of designs of an Apple watch are around on the Net with brilliant ones in the lot and yet Apple played it safe :
Most of this :
was made to fit into this :
and added this :
Wow! iGenius at work? I mean this :
iPod shuffle wrist case was even available ( here ) for the IPod Shuffle 6G so quite predictable if you ask me!
But the second detail or objection if you prefer should top it :
You have to own an iPhone 5 C or S or 6 or 6 Plus for the watch to work!
Yes, you read right that 349$ ( or more if you choose gold plated but comes with six wristbands in either case ) small clumsy piece of kit is but an extension of the main thing that gives you easier access to it.
And then comes Apple Pay. In essence, it also consolidates old stuff. You could put credit cards in your iTunes before but will now only need to photograph them with the iPhone 6 and confirmed by the banks to use them. From there they move to another app. You swipe your iPhone at the store and confirm with your fingerprint smudging the Retina screen. The info is not recorded or so Apple swears nor shared with the store and event specific passwords are generated for each use. Other services will add over time. Still, Cloud payment right after their iCloud was the victim of picture thieves, the move is either ballsy or ill-inspired. http://www.cnet.com/products/apple-pay-ios/
If the watch idea lives on, if the customer base grows ( since most people by now have ditched watches for the clock in their cell phones remember? ), one can easily guess that a sooner than later version will integrate everything. A watch/phone/mail and browser with eWallet and a mix iPad/MacBook Air would cover most people’s needs with computers at home and the office. Then, that, maybe I’ll applaud.
But the most worrisome aspect is that of the upcoming September 19 great mass consumption event, the great mass of Apple believers. That green sabbath, I find quite disturbing. As I said earlier, I am a long time Macintosh user. Mac user, not Apple disciple, mind you. I bought Macs because they fit my needs. I had been raised on IBM machines ( from mainframes on ) but the home computer was always a Mac. I remember the first program made to allow seamless exchanges of texts between the 2 platforms, LOL. When Internet came along, I had friends in graphic design and websites creation and very office had both. I’d almost say that they are like a pair of screwdrivers with different heads or tips. Surreptitiously since the great iMania began however, the trend of making machines as short lived ( through design changes and software for instance ) as the Phones, Pods and Pads has dimmed my enthusiasm. Asking for a replacement video input plug for a May 2005 iMac and getting told it was a bit old for spares in July 2010 was distressing too. A desk computer of quality should last much longer in my honest opinion. Phones, no problem they fall way too often and iPods get wrecked by the first unsupervised teenage wash load! ( Yes, I know, I should be glad he washed his clothes by himself but empty the frigging pockets darn it! ) There are vintage cars on the road for Pete’s sake, don’t make computers throw away Apple please.
But the real blame lays with the frantic apostles and zealous proselytes of the iBranding. It is their fashion inspired devotion to always owning the last model that fuels Apple’s re-inventing the packaging of the wheel every eighteen to twenty-four months regardless of the ridiculous prices. The best proof of their sickness or simile ( bad ) faith being that they are equaled in delirium by the antis, some of which post regularly their hatred of Apple while never having owned and in many cases used a Mac. They too are blinded by the gadgets. If you want a sane relation to apples, buy one at the store tomorrow morning and eat it proudly on your way to work and if not, buy sour grapes but for the love of gold ( plated Apple Watches ), keep my computers out of it.
So that I would like to suggest to Apple that they emphasize the differences between both lines, from corporate choices down to marketing. Add any flogging vowel from any flogging alphabet as a prefix to your toys but keep the Macintosh a name and product line in another frame of reference? And even then, don’t build desktops as if they were tablets. Until they can be made 100% bio-degradable, I refuse to consider it proper for computers to be throw away iTems!
And yet, on the 12th, the supporters’ fervor will show me wrong on pre-order day, iKnow.
Sigh, Tay.
Definitive Lapse of Reason 