This is innovation? Brain-picking those who have written the code that you shunned in the first place? I won't make any snarky comments outside of what some might perceive as a snarky post to begin with, but sheesh, Apple's hubris is galactic in size, compared to their product, at least when maps are concerned.
Look...the Apple vs Android/Google/Samsung/YoMama spectacle has dominated the geeksphere for quite a while now. It's given Bloggers and Pundits a reason to quit drinking for a while and actually write something.
By the way I am a blogger. If you were offended by that last sentence, please don't run with scissors and adopt a puppy....they are good therapy.
Sides have clearly been drawn and we've had fun taking swipes at each other over which phone is best and trading blows with "Yur kit is teh suk". iphone users have been accused of being mindless sheep and Android users have been depicted as slovenly neckbeards who live in their mom's basement and scratch themselves in pubi...I mean public.
However the War of the Phones has gotten ugly. I have a good friend who owns both phones. He's a Geek Extraordinaire and he loves gadgets. He doesn't care who makes them...he is simply a fan of technology and wants to explore and enjoy tech, regardless of who's name is on the shell.
He is well-known and respected for who he is and what he does but recently, he's encountered what many would agree to be a physical threat. Why? Because he owns an iphone. It's to the point where he doesn't want to attend a well known Android gathering because he's been "outed" as an "isheep".
Threatened....Really?
But I don't dislike him for his choice in a phone. I'm not going to stop doing business with him just because I don't agree with his choice in technology. And I sure as shit am not going to come anywhere close to physical violence over it.
I don't like Apple, I despise Apple. Steve Jobs was brilliant, but I don't care how smart Steve Jobs was. I think Steve Jobs was a bully and a tyrant. I think Apple has come to a point, as all smartphone manufacturers and designers have....unless they are going to invent a way to implant our phones and computers inside of our heads, innovation has pretty much peaked in the handheld device category. "innovation" has plateaued and criticizing either camp for the lack thereof is just a meaningless escalation of the argument.
I believe what it all boils down to is ego. From the Sanctified Air of the Corporate Boardroom to the checkout lanes of the local Tech-R-Us stores, none of us want to be seen as "wrong" or "inferior" in our choices of product or purchase decisions. But when we think that physical confrontation is justified in order to defend our decisions, then it's time to step back and re-evaluate the whole us-against-them mentality.
Yeah, I think this kind of behavior is hardwired into us as humans, but so is logic and the ability to reason. I will continue to point out the absolute over-the-top behavior of Apple, and you will undoubtedly have some fun at my expense. That's OK, I put on my big boy pants this morning so have at it.
But in the end, I don't really think less of you for your choice in gadgetry, unless you insist on making it personal. When it comes a time where we will only say to each other on line what we would really say to each other face to face, I think we've reached a point where our choice of phones won't really matter anymore.
Just sayin'
All-Righty Then
4 comments:
Ken, I've got an office-full of people just like this. It's all they've talked about for a month, getting the new iphone, and now when a couple of them do get one, it's b**ch, b**ch, bi**ch. It seems like the big kablooie is indeed mapgate and how poorly it works. On the apple map app, half of our other office complex is in Puget Sound.
I don't like apple either, and mostly for same reasons you don't but it's hard to feel sorry for a bunch of people who pin their self-worth on owning the latest and greatest ishiny. It's pathetic really.
Chelle
I don't own a smart phone, not an iThingy nor an Androgynous Android. I have a very old decidedly non smart mobile phone.
The other day a rep from my telco phoned me and offered me an upgrade to my current account, and... a choice of Android smart phone, the options included a Samsung Galaxy Note. I know that the Galaxcy Note 2 is now available in Australia, but my telco was offering the first version. I told them I would happily contract for the note 1, so long as they upgraded me to the Note 2 when it becomes available through them.
They told me they can't do that, so I said "too bad, no sale, call me back when you are prepared to give me what I want.
So I still don't have a smart phone, I still have my ancient non smart phone, in combination with my netbook, I can do everything I want.
I exchanged phones the other day with a co-worker in the next cube for about 30 minutes and really, I cannot figure out what the fuss is all about. I got the Samsung Galaxy II after my contract with my iphone 4S expired and my only regret is that I got the iphone in the first place. It took me 6 months to get a replacement phone to correct the antenna (you're holding it wrong) problem and when I did get the replacement phone, it refused to recognize the standard SIM card the first time I rebooted it after the email app crashed. It took me almost 3 weeks to get my local "Genius's" to fix that issue. I didn't fool with the maps or anything. I just wanted to see what was "new and magical" with the iphone 5.
The only thing that could even come close to being considered "magical" is Apple making a couple hundred dollars disappear from a user's wallet to replace all the chargers and adapters that worked perfectly fine in his old phone.
I have to use an iPhone for work and I hate it. Yet I still recommend the iPhone to many people. The reason? Simple: the iFamily of gadgets are perfectly designed for task-oriented people. The reason I personally hate them is because I am a technology-oriented person.
Apple's ecosystem of "it just works" does not work for me. I do not want my computer-driven devices to obfuscate any of their technology from me specifically because I understand the technology. And because of that I have certain quirky preferences. "It just works" just gets in my way. The defaults alone are enough to drive me mad! And drop-down lists? Please! Give me a text box! Let me do it my way!
But for those people who say "I just need to make a phone call and check emails" and they cannot be bothered with how cell technology works, the iPhone is a great phone. It gets in the way of technology, not your tasks. Get in, do your thing, move on with your day.
And really, does everyone on the planet need to know how cell technology works? Call me crazy, but I would rather my surgeon and even my garbage person remain completely focused on their assigned jobs, thank you very much. Tweaking your phone's battery life and trying to outsmart Apple's Maps app are "tasks" better left to the professionals. Everyone else? Just buy an extra charger and use Bing like Tim Cook said to do. Life is too short to carry the world on your shoulders.
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