Steve Jobs nominated for iMessiah!

[Brett Cottrell]

In a stunning move, Apple devotees announced plans to nominate Steve Jobs for iMessiah. iTechies and iNerds everywhere rejoiced in the news, and showered each other with Slurpees and Mountain Dew in their parents’ basements. The fact that Steve Jobs is dead has done little to diminish their fervor in his candidacy, and in fact plays into their campaign strategy of resurrecting him at the next Consumer Electronics Show. “It’ll be awesome,” said Stayman Winesap, a long-time Jobs disciple. “He’ll pop out of an iPhone and introduce himself as the only iMessiah who can deliver us from Microsoft and lead us to the promised iLand.”

[Mutatis-Mutandis]

I don't get the Microsoft vs. Apple war. Frankly, I think it's the height of childishness when one decides to take up the mantle for one giant money making corporation and belittle another giant money making corporation. When it becomes a true animosity against people just because they use a certain computer, it's just ridiculous.

And, incidentally, it seems, 90% of the time, it's Microsoft users bashing Apple users.

[MystyrMystyry]

I think it's because even nerds need heroes MM. And Steve was lot more agreeable than Bill. The software and hardware of Apple was delivered more professionally with consistently fewer bugs and rarely needing patches before it was functional. In the hardware aspect there was a distinctly 'civilised' touch (even though my personal preference is for muscle computing, and hang the duco). Sort of brawny Herakles for Sparta and brainy Theseus for Athens, which with hindsight both have their merits and neither was a total failure in the other's specialty.

Some people like the simple slim design of Bang and Olufsson stereos, others want seventy band graphic equalizers, volume knobs that go up to 11 and a speaker bank that would do a Marshall stack proud - an imposing monument to technology in their own living room (like me - Tchaikovsky just doesn't seem real unless I can tweak the levels and heighten the tubas, kettledrums and cannons. (Though I don't have a system quite like that at present, I've never said 'never again' - I sold up for travelling reasons)

But having said this it's still a matter only of how good your ears are naturally, because the knob twiddling means nothing once your hearing's re-adjusted to the new settings (about 3 to 5 seconds). Likewise the Apple-Microsnot (apparent) war - it's as inconsequential as Celtics vs Glasgow - but to see or read Pirates of Silicon Valley lends a perspective of how the (combined?) rivalry has shaped personal computing for the better.

Wether you're an iphone afficionado or not, you have to accept that prior to its introduction smartphones were limited in functionality to what the telcos would let us have, but Jobs kicked the applecart (NPI) into the air with the defiant cry: 'It's time WE told them what WE want a phone to be!'

Milestones often get overlooked in the annals of history, but the fact is WE all owe Apple and SJ a lot of thanks for giving us options unthinkable only a few years ago.

Someone suggested that if the Internet was an Apple product that MS had no part in it would be a lot saner but an incredibly boring place to be - and I agree: a team of wizards in a cave may arrive at a lot of spells over time, but an open world full of everyone giving their input and ideas will come up with far more far faster even if some are not so good.

Apple aren't the enemy, they're a necessity.


(Actually as a footnote when Jobs was working on the Mac he essentially divided the company in two in order that there would be an internal rivalry between the sides to encourage internal creativity and quality, and maintained this throughout - amazing foresight!)

[Mutatis-Mutandis]

I use a MacBook Pro as my computer. I've had it for a year after using PCs all my life, and I'll never go back to a PC. I've had no major problems with my Mac. I use an iPhone. I get someone having preferences for one product over another. I, too, like good speakers. I don't have a huge speaker system, just a small Bose set, but it sounds good. I don't understand someone who wants to listen to music horribly tuned on crappy speakers, but I don't get mad--I shrug my shoulder and say "whatever," and move on.

[MystyrMystyry]

I probably would too if they made them gruntier, or at least allowed greater customisation. There's already an over-abundance of ace software to choose from so that's not really an issue (except for gaming!), and an aura that pc's don't possess.

Rolls Royce vs omnipresent VW Beetle - put me down for the Roller.

As for speakers the advent of mp3 players and decent earbuds have put an end to the need for shaking the neighborhood in the process of hearing something at the volume you like (for some reason I'm thinking of Mr Spock on the bus when they travelled back to the 80's)

Actually those 90% you cited - are they the same 90% that rail against just about anything and/or everything?

Probably.

I got thinking about the Mac phenomenon while I was shaving, and it occurs to me that the original reason Jobs may have split the company was to not fall into the PR disaster Coke did when they went all out with New Coke. They hadn't even considered that the majority mightn't be interested in a flavour change - just arrogant 'We're Coke and were telling you what you like!'

Well, people at least knew what Pepsi tasted like and though at the time it may have always been second choice, suddenly sales skyrocketed (though only in preference).

Jobs would have thought that The Apple II has loyalty and brand appeal - just because we like the mouse and icon OS doesn't mean everyone automatically will, a lot of potential customers having just bought an otherwise superceded model, he didn't want to leave them out. Which also seems to be the reason for the S model iphones: so those who had just bought the 3 of 4 don't feel totally ripped off by being tied to a two year contract before they can upgrade.

But thanks Steve for allowing us to surf the real web (and not that WAP nonsense) anywhere, anytime!

[Mutatis-Mutandis]

Off topic, but I did not link the word "Bose" in the post above. Weird.

[JuniperWoolf]

If you hold your mouse over the link, it says that it was put there by VigiLink. Sh*t!!! Ad garbage is going to infest our very posts now?!? Ugh...

[OrphanPip]

Probably has to do with licensing agreement with vBulletin. (someone has to pay for this somehow, I guess)

[billl]

I remember being impressed the first time I encountered Bose equipment. However, walking by the Bose store in an outlet mall recently, I was struck by how overpriced the stuff was. There's plenty of better options out there.

Bose is an awful choice.

[Darcy88]

The way Jobs was portrayed in the mainstream media in the days following his death you'd think he was the messiah. Completely ignored was the fact that he outsourced jobs to China, where Apple products could be manufactured in sweat-shop or near-sweat-shop conditions, including the use of child labour, thus helping to take the company into the realm of mega-profits. He epitomizes to me the best and the worst of American industry.

[MystyrMystyry]

Ah but that would change everything, and one of the features of globalisation is contract bidding - who can manufacture the product or part for the lowest possible price. You may say they should have become Apple emloyees and been paid an award wage, but here it is simply (you can google the maths because I'm busy): iphone built in China $600, iphone built in USA $14,000, iphone built in China for American award wage $600,000

I know which one I'd prefer.

Modern economics is incredible - literally!


I don't know anything about that linked brand, and I'm not about to find out...

[JuniperWoolf]

I remember being impressed the first time I encountered Bose equipment. However, walking by the Bose store in an outlet mall recently, I was struck by how overpriced the stuff was. There's plenty of better options out there.

Bose is an awful choice.

Haha, now that's an advert!

[Mutatis-Mutandis]

I remember being impressed the first time I encountered Bose equipment. However, walking by the Bose store in an outlet mall recently, I was struck by how overpriced the stuff was. There's plenty of better options out there.

Bose is an awful choice.

I disagree. They make really good stuff, and it lasts.

The way Jobs was portrayed in the mainstream media in the days following his death you'd think he was the messiah. Completely ignored was the fact that he outsourced jobs to China, where Apple products could be manufactured in sweat-shop or near-sweat-shop conditions, including the use of child labour, thus helping to take the company into the realm of mega-profits. He epitomizes to me the best and the worst of American industry.

The media does this with everyone.

[tonywalt]

Steve Jobs RIP, but as far as the hero worship goes, I have little time for it. Both he and Bill Gates were difficult to work with, egomaniacal and rude, but having power and money absolves all. I have seen quite a bit of film showing Gates berating employees in front of others in a humiliating way.

I also found the employee rallys to be a bit grotesque (looked like scenes from 1984) with the employees clapping feverishly with crazy grins. The fact that he created rivalry within the company (keep 'um insecure and competing with themselves breeding higher production is hardly genius) would not make him a pioneer. Many leaders used and use that technique and it's one of the environements that any successful dictator has to create. I realise, of couse, he was elected in his position.

[Mutatis-Mutandis]

I do always get a kick out of people cheering and going nuts when he shows everyone the new iPhone or whatever. Makes me think of this.