So Apple came out with a bunch of new toys.
Correction: Apple came out with a bunch of old toys in new packages. Let’s see: An MP3 player, smaller than a pack of gum. Yep, it has been done before. A medium-power computer that costs less than 500$? Really, there are too many links to present in a snarky way. You can find far more powerful machines for less on Froogle.
So what’s my point? Am I an embittered Linux PC user jealous of the slick line of designs that Apple has come out with? No. I’m all for making your stuff pretty. As a geek, I like the fact that Apple based their latest OS on Unix, even if it takes quite a bit of work to get it to a state that a diehard *n?x user would call usable. What I don’t like is that people are deluding themselves into thinking that they are buying something on the forefront of technology. I’d like to say that Apple is presenting their products as something they are not, but the ads are actually pretty honest: “You can already do exactly this, but now you can do it with style.” It’s just the users, perhaps suppressing some guilt at shelling out more dough than they ought for pretty packaging, who decide that Apple is all bleeding-edge.
The iPod is a perfect example: I keep hearing people talking about the iPod as if it were a breakthrough, as if it were the first hard drive-based MP3 player on the planet. In fact, it is (arguably) the slickest-looking. It’s not the most featureful, it’s not in any technical sense the “best”. But it does have a hell of an ad campaign. Do I think people should not buy iPods? Fuck that, I like to have pretty things as much as the next person. Buy an iPod. But don’t delude yourself into thinking that this is something new.
And then there’s a whole community of people rallying around the iPod and “inventing” supporting technologies for it. “Podcast” is a new term that’s been bandied around the internet over the past… months? A year, maybe? Before that it was known as “audioblogging”. Yes, I’m afraid so. Adam Curry and Dave Winer did not invent audioblogging. They coined a word. The success of the iPod was what made audioblogs so popular, and the creation of an easy interface to it made the technology accessible to the washed and manicured masses. But if you are a podcaster or a listener don’t fool yourself into thinking it is anything more than an MP3 version of the millions of people on Blogspot or Livejournal.
Anyway, a point. I think I’m supposed to have one of those. My point is, buy Apple’s machines, if you can justify spending the extra money. But know why you’re buying them. It’s okay to spend more for glitz, but know that you are.
