A cable descrambler may cost between 55 dollars and 450 dollars, depending on its quality feature and amount of ‘service’ provided….

Your post is very informative….

I also have to add that many of Apples products are just pure crap. The mighty mouse that came with my mac. Crap. Over-priced products is the mantra of Apple. Although their OS is reasonably priced and you don’t have to kiss Bill Gates’ feet to activate it. You can walk into any cafe/resaurant with wifi and instantly pick out the “Macatrons” before you even spy what they are typing on. Metrosexual men with short hair and black-framed glasses wearing trendy shoes. Often sporting the “cool” stubble. Mostly hangers-on of their by-gone college days. There is also that aura of superiority that emanates from their self-rightousness! Of course not ALL Mac people are like this. Just walk into any Apple store in this country. The first thing you will say to yourself, is “damn, this is really 2001 Space-Odyssey-ish…and totally gay!” The next thing you will say is “geez…HOW much is that?” Then you will accosted by an employee–a Macatron wearing a black shirt and tight pants, who believes he is serving “the cause” just because he is being paid minimum wage by Mr. Steve Jobs! HA!

Nope. No repressed hostility there! Keeerist. You need to get out more….

Yes, I agree–OSX is simply awesome. I just have a problem with Apple’s pricing and often-times poor quality. I also run Ubuntu and XP AND the beta version of Vista (have too many computers at home). I’m done with Windows. I’ll never buy another PC (or build one)–but I have to admit that my Zen has much better sound quality than my iPod.

I am going to the Leopard Developer’s Conference in Atlanta in a few weeks. I’ll take pix of the Macatrons for you! HA!

Sounds like someone has some issues they need to work out. ;)

Look. I don’t own any apple stuff. No iPod, no Mac. I don’t even have iTunes for Windows because I don’t like their DRM. However, I am honest enough to know when I see a good product. OSX is absolutely a breeze to work with, having had both Windows and Linux boxes in my house, and then working on my Father’s new Powerbook, the overall experience was much nicer on the Powerbook. Apple has the UI thing down COLD. They absolutely blow away both Windows and Linux in the ease-of-use department.

Yes, they have had a few QC problems, but the iPod is not “known for” it’s ability to break any more than any other player is. In fact, the Mini is much MORE durable than your average MP3 player due to it’s aluminum enclosure. If Apple really made inferior products, no amount of marketing in all the world would be able to make the iPod the market leader.

That’s Capitalism at work, my friend. The consumers decided that a simple-looking, easy to use product with a clean UI was what they wanted. If they didn’t want that, then all the crufty, button-encrusted, chrome-coated, oddly-shaped other players that were and are available out there would be doing much better than they are. The point is that those “iPod Killers” aren’t. It’s disingenuous to sit there and call all iPod users “Macatrons” just because they chose the market leader.

My 60 year old Father, who lives in a small town in PA bought an iPod. He wanted an MP3 player so he could listen to MP3′s of the business seminars he attended and to classical and acoustic music.

He said he checked out a bunch of different MP3 players, but liked the iPod because it was easier to use, and more intuitive. It also had better storage capacity and was smaller, all this at a COMPARABLE price to competing units. He made an educated choice based on the available information, and he chose iPod. He loves it too.

When he needed a new laptop, after spending years working with Windows machines, he chose a Powerbook. Again, he chose it after spending WEEKS reviewing his options. He loves it and has no regrets leaving the Windows world.

Is my 60 year old, business-suit-wearing, business-seminar-attending, balding, father a “Macatron” now? No, and your stereotype is just that, a stereotype. Like most stereotypes it’s founded on BS and bluster, rather than real facts.

Apple has made, and continues to make, some fantastic products. Are they all great? No. Some of the early iMacs were underpowered and poorly made. Does that mean All, or even Most of their products are that way? No. Apple actually has a reputation for making VERY GOOD products. No amount of marketing can make up for poorly made product. Word-of mouth advertising is still the most powerful in the world, and if word gets out your stuff is crap, well then you’re done. (See Firestone tires for a recent example of this) If Apple made crap, they would be done as a Computer and Electronics maker. They might survive as a niche OS maker, but not as a hardware maker if a large percentage of their product was crap.

Ultimately, it comes down to a matter of taste and personal preference. If you don’t want a convergence device like an iPhone, then don’t buy one. It doesn’t make the iPhone a bad device, it just makes it not what you personally need in a phone.

That’s Capitalism at work. Customers making educated decisions on what they want to buy based on the choices and information available. Ain’t it great?

Never discount anything Apple does, because they almost always do it better than anyone else.

HA! Nope. The iPod is known for it’s ability to break. Their mice have always been trash. Their built-in screens don’t make it past two years without fading. I’ve been using Apples at school for nearly ten years. I’ve seen firsthand the problems that are inherent in their over-priced products.

There are any number of mp3 players out there that sound MUCH better than an iPod. And now Apple is touting their shuffle as the “smallest mp3 player in the world.” Whatever. There have been thumb-drive players out for YEARS that are just as small and sound better too.

The one thing that Apple does best? Brainwash and market! HA!

Now, I must return to…my iMac! Hehehe…

Frankly, those of you poo-poohing the iPhone are missing the point. The iPhone is what PDA’s and so-called “Convergence” devices have been promising for YEARS. It’s a powerful, intelligent device that actually does what it says it will do, and does it well, with an easy to use UI.

Never discount anything Apple does, because they almost always do it better than anyone else.

My Palm Treo 650 already does all that. And has for years.

I have a 2GB SD chip I put movies and stuff on that I can watch if I’m bored.

I have a keyboard for the type-ity type-ity

and I can call people on it.

Yes Mr. Jobs, Welcome to 2005.

I have no interest in an iPhone. I have zero interest in a blackberry or a palm or whatever. I even hate my stupid “flip phone.” My wife and I want a simply phone that doesn’t flip, but that is out of the question–Verizon doesn’t even carry them!

Yes, all the “Macatrons” will rush out to buy one. But look what has happened with the Sony PS3–no one wants one because no one wants to pay $600 for “blue-ray” technology.

Cingular.

Tying this gadget to one network was stupid.

You should all know that in the presentation Al Gore’s name was on the appointment demo page…. gag!

Bob on January 10, 2007 at 6:09 AM

And Steve played an Al Gore voicemail during the presentation. Al “couldn’t be there” because he was in Nashville training people on his slideshow/presentation….

That and the NYT site matter how much here? It’s not like Steve isn’t name checking Disney every 20mins either. If Apple & friends insisted on cramming this stuff down our throats then I’d care.

But if you bother to look at the way Apple does business, you’ll find they’re a prime example of a capitalist company. They make their products, do their business, and live & die by the market. Just because they do it with a different style or emphasis on marketing & presentation doesn’t mean they’re not just as profit driven as anybody else.

This thing bores me.

The new iPhone…or Melissa Theuriau?

Slublog on January 9, 2007 at 7:32 PM

Melissa of course. No contest there.

I’ve been looking into the once-mentioned 8525 from Cingular, as it would do everything for me (phone + pda, as my Axim has died), but even that price is $399. Now they want how much for an Apple product? I don’t have a single Apple product. Maybe I should just get a cheap camera phone and then a cheap pda instead of the 8525.

Any tech-heads care to impart knowledge on me, I’d happily take it.

The one flaw with this device however is the fact that putting a big touch screen up to your ear makes it pretty dirty ( skin and hair oil) very quickly. But that’s what a earpiece is for. I would have thought that that would have been part of the design – integral earpiece with microphone.

Anyway let macheads have their fun… yes Jobs is genius – not! He just know how to make his sheep squeal like little school girls and then takes their money. The system works, so let it be.

You should all know that in the presentation Al Gore’s name was on the appointment demo page…. gag!

That there is worth something to me. If I remember to get directions before I leave then I’ve got to deal with printing them out to take with me. Why am I dealing with paper again?

RE: jummy, it’s 4GB and 8GB of flash storage, not 80 or 40.

About $200 for a nano, about $100-$200 (or more) for a smart phone with similar features. Figure $400 total if you’re going for a better phone.

You’re still missing the massive screen (160pixels/inch!), the usability, and probably the wifi connectivity. Additionally, only the higher end smart phones are likely to play as nicely with your desktop computer. The final icing on the cake is the iPhone being a good video playback device; those Verizon commercials that show video on a flip phone are just silly.

Cingular, online, shows several Blackberries and a couple Treos at $99-$149. All are outclassed. There are several $200-250 phones.

The best matchup is the Cingular 8525 for $399 after mail-in rebate. Twice as thick with a slide-out QWERTY. It only gets to 2GB storage after adding an SD card for $50, and perhaps can take a bigger card for more $$$.

The 4GB iPhone is $499. There are indications user apps will not be loadable, though nobody has really gotten their hands on one yet (the floor models @ the Expo are in glass globes). The interface demo movies are just plain amazing.

Maybe it isn’t worth another $100 over the 8525 for some people. Maybe both are too expensive and you can do with a dumb, educated, or semi-smart phone for less money. But watching this thing in action is like seeing flying cars roll off a GM assembly line. It is just plain cool.

Nobody has gone whole hog with a phone design like this because the devices have worked well enough and throwing in faster connectivity, better cameras, and bluetooth has worked well enough. I don’t care that the iPhone is “only” EDGE. I’ll buy one because the future is here, with shiny touchscreens on tiny devices that just work the way you want them too without having to dig through a user manual.

And that is why Apple will sell several tons of these phones.

if you want to be turned off by this phone….go to the Demo from link above and click on the “break through internet” demo thing. The first thing they go to while surfing net in Safari is the New York Times and the “Democrats Take Congress” headline then zoom in on a closeup of Nancy Pelosi.

jp on January 9, 2007 at 8:12 PM

Yeah, I noticed – they sure focused on that, didn’t they? That ugly picture of San Fran Nan smiling like she had just won the lottery.

Can’t see either of them having much impact on the price of bullets in Baghdad but these are sorta cool anyway: Scientists sculpt “Thinker” … 20 microns high Apple reveals iPhone…

On the other, 24IQ-handed side of things, Greenpeace has utterly failed to realize how much they hurt themselves, their causes, and their sympathizers with all the cheap stunts and crap propaganda. They rated Apple “less green” than several other manufacturers because Apple had fewer press releases and made fewer promises. Meanwhile, actually investigating Apple’s practices reveals the company to be in the forefront.