What, no thread yet on Apple's latest monstrocities?

[alva]

You dont buy awful lamp just because it illuminates well do you?

No if I buy it to make the living room more nicely looking.
Yes if I buy it to be able to read my book in optimal conditions.

Then again, if I want to improve to look of said living room, I'll buy a pretty painting or antique piece of furniture, not a 'puter...

[Asher]

http://news.com.com/Make+your+own+iPod+Shuffle/2061-1041_3-5534037.html?part=rss&tag=5534037&subj=news.1041.20

Make your own iPod Shuffle
January 12, 2005, 2:18 PM PST

Apple is selling iPod Shuffles as fast as it can uncrate them, but not everybody is thrilled with the new $99 MP3 player, which skips previous iPod niceties such as a display.

Web wag "Mhusson" has posted a pictorial tutorial for turning your old hard drive iPod into the functional equivalent of the new Shuffle. Make sure you have a PostIt note ready.

As far as we can tell, however, the instructions neglect the critical Step 4 to match the Shuffle's wee bit of storage capacity: Delete the first 2,000 songs on your device.

Also in the not-impressed camp is Sim Wong Hoo, CEO of Singapore's Creative Technologies, whose Zen Micro MP3 player has stolen a little thunder from the iPod Mini in recent months.

Hoo told business publication Channel News Asia that the iPod Shuffle reminds him of the MP3 players Creative was selling four years ago.

"I think the whole industry will just laugh at it," he said. "It's worse than the cheapest Chinese player. Even the cheap, cheap Chinese brand today has display and has FM...I think it's a non-starter to begin with."

[Agathon]

I'd say he's scared ****less. Creative sells well in Asia, but is owned elsewhere - mainly due to it's being crappy imitations of Apple's stuff.

And Asher is the odd one out. Paul Thurrott and John Dvorak, notorious mac haters, have been upbeat on Apple's new stuff.

[Asher]

Originally posted by Agathon
I'd say he's scared ****less. Creative sells well in Asia, but is owned elsewhere - mainly due to it's being crappy imitations of Apple's stuff.

Why would he be scared ****less, seeing as Creative's sales are at record levels?

With new products like the Zen Micro and Zen Micro Photo, I think they'll do very well for themselves -- in addition to the far more practical and user-friendly MuVo line compared to the Shuffle...

Part of the reason the iPod is doing so well is the high price. It becomes a pseudo-status symbol.

Using a display-less tiny bubble-gum sized player is no status symbol. It screams "I couldn't afford the real thing".

Not only does it lack the iPod's status-symbol attribute, it lacks user friendliness and practicality.

And Asher is the odd one out. Paul Thurrott and John Dvorak, notorious mac haters, have been upbeat on Apple's new stuff.

That's not how I interpret his comments.

http://www.windowsitpro.com/windowspaulthurrott/Article/ArticleID/45058/windowspaulthurrott_45058.html

Creative's Zen Micro is an iPod Mini killer with better looking colors, a cool slider controller, better battery life and storage capacity, FM radio playback and recording, and a voice recorder. And we had fun watching Creative sell the Zen Micro to the "norms." We don't usually sit through booth demos, but the girls with the Zen Micro holsters caught our attention and, well, you know. So we sat through the demo. We found it amazing to hear Zen's sell job, which was a combination of product name repetition and constant comparisons to the underpowered iPod Mini. Pretty effective, we thought, minutes before we purchased two units. No, not really.

[Agathon]

What you think is irrelevant, as you're insane.

Creative's HD products are inferior, hideous, knock-offs of Apple's stuff that come with crap software. Their flash players will soon be marginalized by Apple's cheaper flash ipod.

Enough for uncool people like you, with no sense of style or design, but not for most folks.

[MRT144]

Originally posted by Agathon
I'd say he's scared ****less. Creative sells well in Asia, but is owned elsewhere - mainly due to it's being crappy imitations of Apple's stuff.

And Asher is the odd one out. Paul Thurrott and John Dvorak, notorious mac haters, have been upbeat on Apple's new stuff.

or maybe because asia values value over aestheticly overpriced crap.

[Asher]

Originally posted by Agathon
What you think is irrelevant, as you're insane.

Creative's HD products are inferior, hideous, knock-offs of Apple's stuff that come with crap software. Their flash players will soon be marginalized by Apple's cheaper flash ipod.

All software I've seen bundled with players is usually bad. iTunes is no exception. While I don't like the Creative software, at least it doesn't hijack my system with 3 useless processes and increased boot time, in addition to a ridiculously large interface and poor multiformat support...

Enough for uncool people like you, with no sense of style or design, but not for most folks.

That's rich -- a fat balding university instructor defining what cool is...

[Kontiki]

Christ, you two are like a couple of cartoon characters that do nothing but fight. You spend the whole day arguing about this, take a break for some sleep, then start again first thing in the morning.

[Asher]

Kontiki...it is morning, and we are starting again after a break.

[Spiffor]

Originally posted by Kontiki
Christ, you two are like a couple of cartoon characters that do nothing but fight. You spend the whole day arguing about this, take a break for some sleep, then start again first thing in the morning.

And that's for our greatest enjoyment

[Koyaanisqatsi]

Originally posted by Agathon
And Asher is the odd one out. Paul Thurrott and John Dvorak, notorious mac haters, have been upbeat on Apple's new stuff.

Without getting into this too much--since, frankly, I think both the shuffle and the zen are bad ideas--Dvorak is an idiot.

[Mr. Nice Guy]

What, no thread yet on Apple's latest monstrocities?

That's because you-know-who has been away from home without Internet access for 5 days. . .
























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[Agathon]

Without getting into this too much--since, frankly, I think both the shuffle and the zen are bad ideas--Dvorak is an idiot.

I know. The other member of the evil triad, Rob Enderle, was true to form.

I imagine Thurrott and company liking them has doomed these products. Everything they've hated has done quite well.

[Mercator]

I wondered where I had left my lunchbox, apparently Steve Jobs found it.

[Agathon]

Liar, you could never afford such a trendy lunchbox.