Tag Archives: Apple

Computers/Electronics, Music

U2 and Apple, redux

Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall. (Proverbs 16:18, King James Bible)

So its been a few days since Apple’s “big” event and the unveiling of the Samsung sized iPhones and the iWatch…er… Apple Watch and the thing that had me most interested, the free U2 album Songs of Innocence.

It is that latter part of the event that has many people -for the most part very amusingly- up in arms.  Witness, for example, the fact that the “uproar” from the free album’s release and auto-download to iTunes now has Apple offering instructions on how to remove it from your iTunes que:

http://www.cnn.com/2014/09/15/tech/mobile/apple-u2-return/index.html

According to Heather Kelly, the author of the above article, the lesson Apple learned was that not everyone likes U2 or wants their album, even if it is given away to them free.

The second point she makes, though, is the more salient one: even those who do (like U2) really don’t like it when you put music in their libraries without asking.

The Biblical quote offered at the beginning of this entry is somewhat appropriate to this situation, though I’ll be the first to say Apple’s “sin” is far from biblical in its importance.

A week or two ago one of the biggest tech issues involved the hacking of many very famous actress/models’ phones (iPhones all, it would appear) and the subsequent releases of their private, nude pictures.  Apple’s security took a big hit with this invasion of privacy, yet only days later the company decides it’s a good idea to release a free U2 album (I agree with them there) and an equally great idea to have it automatically download onto everyone’s iTunes (here comes trouble!).

For in “automatically” downloading this particular album to your computer, it feels like Apple, this time on its own and without the aid of a hacker, decided to intrude into your computer and give you a piece of entertainment, whether you wanted it or not.  In effect, they went one extra step too far and have suffered considerable derision for it.

It is astonishing that Apple took what should have been a huge positive (look, kids, we’re giving away a free album from a very big and popular band!) and made it a negative by delivering that content without your consent.

Weird times we live in!

Computers/Electronics

You didn’t really ask for it…

A very funny parody video from Jackfilms regarding the new “iWatch”…er…Apple Watch:

Gotta admit, I”m on the side of those who wonder what the deal is with all this Apple worship.  In the previous years I’ve seen sarcastic posts from Apple fans who shook their heads and wondered why in the world android fans “needed” such big phones and/or bothered with the whole phone/telephone thing.  These devices, both of which have been available for Android phones, finally come out in Apple versions and those Apple fans who “poo-poohed” the Android versions now proudly boast how they’ve ordered the Apple versions of the exact same stuff.

Weird.

As for myself, I’m intrigued with the Windows phones.  Mind you, I don’t have one, but the idea of interlinking all my Windows stuff seems like a pretty good idea.

Then again, what do I know, I’m obviously a tech heathen! 😉

Computers/Electronics

Apple vs. Android…

Fascinating, and brief, article by Dan Lyons for The Daily Beast regarding the Apple vs. Android patent war and the possible outcomes…

http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2012/01/22/apple-vs-android-war-without-end.html

One of the most beautiful things about Captialism is that when companies fight head to head, the end result is usually a net benefit for consumers:  In theory, each company tries very, very hard to ensure their product is better overall (function, form, durability) than their competitors.  And if the products are comparable (or even identical), then consumers could also benefit from price wars.  After all, if the companies’ products are indeed identical, the only way to get consumers to buy one product over the other is by selling them for less.

With regards to computers and computer related products, unfortunately for Apple much of their technology -great thought it may be- was not created in a vacuum and it was only a matter of time before others would compete head to head with them.  Looking at Apple’s products, from my perspective the company has taken many common individual components (personal computers, touchscreen technology, cellular phone systems, etc.) and mixed them together to create their beautiful package.

The problem, for Apple, is that because the individual components are common, it is difficult to then turn around and say the overall package is somehow unique.  This is why I suspect Apple isn’t doing quite as well with their patent lawsuits as they probably hoped they would.

Then again, I’m far from some technological wizard and for all I know every bit of opinion presented above is dead wrong.  Regardless, I hope that Apple continues to make their beautiful products.  I also hope that the lack of success in their lawsuits against other companies encourages them to up their competition with the Android market and make even better products.

And I hope the Android makers do the same.

In the end, we the consumer will be the beneficiaries.

Computers/Electronics

Apple’s Cash on Hand

Yesterday Apple revealed the extent of their financial success during the past quarter.  And quite a haul they had:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/24/apples-cash-on-hand_n_1229529.html

The bottom line?  From the article:

The company posted a quarterly revenue of $46.33 billion and a quarterly net profit of $13.06 billion.

A net profit of 13.06…billion?!

What makes the above link worth clicking is that we’re offered 9 things you could pay for with this amount of cash.

Whether a fan of Apple products or not, there is little denying the amount of money the company makes is nothing short of staggering.