Glory days at the apogee of American power in the heart of New Rome. People with a lot of time on their hands — the commercial cousins, I suppose, of us political bloggers — have been camping out in front of the Apple Store on 5th Avenue in New York since 5.00 AM yesterday. The phone goes on sale Friday at 6.00 PM.
There will probably be an eBay premium for early samples of the “Jesus Phone,” (another opportunity for some interesting cultural commentary in that nomenclature), so it is possible some of the line-sitters have a financial motivation (indeed, CNET has researched a number of CraigsList ads by people who will wait in an iLine for you, or trade a variety of things for an iPhone) but #1 denies it. You can watch a long, well produced interview with him, by some folks who want to help build iHype, by clicking on the picture below.
This is the face of 21st century American consumer capitalism. Observe, and ponder:
I am a committed Mac person, yet I know it’s not a great idea to buy the first version of any hardware Apple puts out (same goes for Windows software and OS updates). If I had a wicked lot of money I might buy a new iPhone–oh, hell yes, if I had a lot of money I’d buy one of them immediately.
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But since I don’t have a lot of money (though I do need a new phone), I’m going to wait through at least two more versions so they can get the bugs out.
The Great Firewall of China is blocking the video. Can somebody give me a brief summary?
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Consumerism in America is just plain out of control, and I believe that it’s hugely responsible for all kinds of American problems, ranging from not enough genuine family development due to the idiot box silencing conversation to environmental problems both in tUSA and in developing countries as a result of the crap we buy in our disposable world.
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As a nation, or homes are unnecessarily big, our cars are unnecessarily big, and our waists are unnecessarily big. Is it any wonder that we breath air polluted by so many coal fired power plants, we go to war in regions which are oil rich, and we suffer from heart attacks and diabetes at rates far higher than a generation or two ago?
It’s a phone, for crying out loud. Furthermore, isn’t buying Version 1.0 of any technology risky?
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Some months ago I walked by the Cambridge Best Buy, and morons of all ages were camping in line to purchase the Xbox or Playstation or whatever new game technology that just hit the market. One was dressed up in a Star Wars (I think) costume. It was like a Saturday Night Live skit.
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These weren’t 10 year olds, either. These were 20- and I think a few 30-somethings.
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Progressives? Likely. Losers? For sure.
its my experience that the group of people aged 20+ who play a lot of video games [enough to wait on line for a video game system release] fall into two categories:
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1. Sports game aficionados. They tend to be disinterested in politics.
2. The Star Trek|Wars|Gate crowd, who, if anything, tend to be libertarian.
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Neither group is likely to be interested in the right to choose, labor rights, or foreign policy, nor are they likely to be empathetic to ethnic nor religious minorities.
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That’s my experience, as a 20-something year old computer scientist and engineer, who’s had more than plenty of exposure to people who tend to fall into category (2).
One was dressed up in a Star Wars (I think) costume. It was like a Saturday Night Live skit.
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Do you remember the movie Rocky Horror Picture Show? It was a flop when it was initially released. It was a dumb movie. But later, the distributors figured out that they could make money by making it a HAPPENING! They scheduled it for midnight showings. They hired people to do silly things in the audience. And they made a fortune–a minor fortune, but a fortune, nonetheless–off their marketing.
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Going back to your point, perhaps the person who was dressed in a Star Wars costume had been hired by (whomever) to advertise the product. It’s not unusual.
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As far as I’m concerned, anyone who buys the first version of any computer product needs to have his or her head examined. A year later, maybe. Five years later, well, all right. Does anyone recall Betamax?
Keep in mind iPhone users will be limited to ATT as the ONLY available cariier.
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ATT – the same company that allowed the US Govt to secretly tap into their phone conversations without court approval….
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Not for me thanks –
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I’ll stick to my phone where I have to pick up the cradle, click it a few times and ask Mabel or Josephine (our two operators here in town) if they know whether the Jenkins are home or not…
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đŸ™‚
…really brings home to me just how incredibly judgemental progressives can be. People have passion for some new innovative product and, damn them, probably somewhere there is some injustice or suffering in the world. TV bad. Houses too big. Cars too big. Bad bad bad judge judge judge.
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I have to wonder what people like you would do if you possessed absolute power.
Each want a large intrusive government that enforces morality and makes us all better people more worthy of what we have. The right wing wants to control whom we may f–k, what we may do with respect to any consequences of that f–king, and whom we may marry. The left wants to control everything else.
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Each harbors a deep-seated contempt for the majority of Americans.
Fifth Avenue in June? Sounds like a perfectly pleasant place to be, frankly, if you can afford it (like, not stuck at work or anything)…