The grass is always greener. I’ve had some technology envy before. The great thing about technology envy is that it doesn’t have to exist. With money, you can be the most envied tech guy on the block. I’ve been envious of guys with natural talent (Olympians, guinness book record holders) I’ve pretty much never complained when someone had a nicer computer than me or a faster car or if Microsoft or Apple decide to change something that I don’t like because, with money, I can simply buy my way out of the situation. Trust me, technology is engineered to get us to spend money. That’s just a fact.
When I see people complaining about technology, I can usually find a solution for them that involves them spending more money. You don’t have to go out and train for months to run a triathlon or go to school for 8 years or actually do anything. Just skip a few meals, cut back on your electricity use and take the bus to work and what you’re complaining about won’t be a problem cause you can buy your way out of the situation.
Easier said than done? Not really.
- I wanted an iPad. I sold my MacBook Air. I bought an iPad.
- I wanted a pair of Shure SE530 earphones. I sold all 5 of my current headphones that were sub-par that I’d collected over the years and had enough money to now buy the $600 ones.
- I wanted a bigger monitor. I spent weeks searching Craigslist and eBay till I found a bigger one. Then I literally got a 2nd job working as a waiter for 4 weeks over the summer to save up the $800 I needed.
In all three situations, I never ONCE went to an online message board or comment on a blog saying, “this sucks! Dell just released a 24″ update 18 months ago and now they have a new one out! Shure has the balls to charge $600 for headphones? WTF! The iPad is $499. Damn. This sucks! It’s so overpriced and the Apple tax is strong!.”
No. I didn’t do that. I just spent the money. I didn’t spend an hour blaming Apple for making a phone with a glass screen. When I dropped it and I broke, I paid the full $499 price to have it replaced. That’s how this works. It costs money to have the latest and greatest stuff.
Hey, if I get beat at a 400m race, I have to spend weeks training and preparing to try again. I may learn that my shot legs or genetics keep me from being a good runner and then accept the fact that my body isn’t built to be a sprinter and there’s nothing I can do about it. Posting how much you hate Apple for not doing something or charging too much is just stupid.
———
Today, Apple stated that original iPhones and iPhone 3G models (and 1st & 2nd gen iPod touch devices) won’t be able to do multi-tasking in iPhone OS 4.0 that ships this summer. The reason wasn’t that Apple was greedy is simply the fact that those devices, which only have 128mbs of ram, can’t do multi-tasking effectively do to system limitations.
Users were pissed.
- 1st Gen iPhone ship date: June 29th, 2007
- 2nd Gen iPhone ship date: July 11th, 2008
So a device that’s 2 to 3 years old can’t run the next generation of the iPhone OS. Dang that sucks! Here are what some users are saying:
My hatred for Apple only increases after seeing this. Apple doesn’t care about the consumer, it just wants his money. These features should have been, and most certainly could have been, in the second generation iPhone.
Apple had no reason to hold these features out, other than for it to get the consumer to buy a new product just so Apple could make money.
Adam, is this really how “Apple” people need to think? I can definitely see the logic, but holy cow… Becoming a slave to technology to line someone's pockets with revenue is just a terrible message to convey, let alone comply with.
I agree but I'm conveying it because it's true. The sheep philosophy is already extremely clear and there's simply no going back now.
Every time a new Apple or Google product is released / refreshed I get inspired to write another post with my doubts on where this is all headed. But honestly there's not much we can do at this point other than completely unplug from the grid. I've made my choice though as you can see in this post.
I guess what it really comes down to, aside from UX opinions, is how long do you expect to own a device & use it to it’s full potential prior to upgrading. Televisions, I expect to own for 5 years, cell phones, 2 years (at most if I can help it), laptops – somewhere in the middle. I can’t speak for everyone, but I’d say these durations are a safe generalization for a good number of folks.
That said – I do agree, people need to STFU & just upgrade their gen1 iPhones, those things needed to be upgraded when they hit the shelves… as it was mainly a platform to launch the appstore, not really the “iPhone experience”…
hmmm… ok, not to be a devil's-advocate here… but can't help thinking…
how do you KNOW that's not Apple's strategy?
like… how do you know with 100% confidence
that they're not sitting in their closed board room
with their marketing strategists devising a plan
of mobile and computing world domination to
be #1 in the next decade?
TOTALLY AGREE!
There are many many books out there that talk about guys who have leaked info that the US government has been testing things that we call 'camera phones” or “3G” or “wifi” since the 40s. things that our population wasn't ready for then but we are now and how it's all masterminded for control and blah blah blah.
The thing is, one part of me, the part that is no longer surprised when he hears something that sounds ridiculous because I don't think anything is impossible now. “Oh the oil companies influenced this president to give guns to these guys to control oil prices in the US 20 years from now? Yeah that would make sense.”
I tend to believe both sets of thought. One is that the kids in Stanford right now will be creating or are creating what we're going to use tomorrow. The startups are creating what's hot tomorrow and that's how it will be but then another side of me doesn't pass the fact that some of this crap has been around for years in a bunker and we're finally ready for it.
So yes I agree with you but only because enough people have written what you're saying and because nothing surprises me anymore. I don't get all caught up in things like tiger woods cheating on his wife? Yeah that makes sense. he's a billionaire attractive guy and didn't have enough self control to say no to the beautiful women who were throwing themselves at him. I'm not on his side at all but i'm not gonna be like, OMG he did that?!?!?! because people cheat all of the time.
Maybe I'm just rambling now but long story short. you're probably right.
oooh I like the last paragraph.
Music to my ears.
Actually… you could turn the last sentence into 2 words (eliminating “probably”) and you'll quickly become my best friend! hahaha
seriously though… those are 2 words put together that'll make any woman like you :)
#Really! #TryIt
:)
oh and this reply had like 20 line breaks. dang. it looks ugly now. don't know why disqus totally made it look bad :(
Probably my least favorite blog post of your's that I have read, Adam. No offense.
I'm never offended. what upsets me is you didn't share your thoughts at all. tell me exactly what's on your mind and what you agree with so I can learn something.
oh and half way thought his post (no joke) I almost deleted the whole thing and didn't post it. I actually forgot why I started writing it. So maybe I agree with you that it sucks :P
Well, honestly, part of the problem with it is that you have been very public in the past about your credit score, which was considered very low. I find it fairly logical to believe that the mindset you conveyed in this blog post is probably contributing to that, since (to my knowledge) student loans aren't contributing to your debt.
Keep in mind, I'm only saying this because you posted it on Twitter. But regardless, after you posted that, I saw more and more examples of very expensive things that you have bought, some of which might have been replacing older things, but some others that seemed extremely pricey for someone with a credit score like that. I'm not claiming to know what I'm talking about here, but the pairing up of the info you posted about your credit score with this blog post translated to me as someone who is advocating a frivolous lifestyle of spending money one may or may not have at the benefit of having the latest technology.
I could be wrong here; you could have done a lot to fix your credit score. But it wasn't that long ago and it seems like you tend to spend fairly large amounts of money on tech items despite your debt. So this blog post kind of rubbed me the wrong way. Regardless of how you choose to spend your money, you have to keep in mind that a lot of people do work very hard for what they have, regardless of whether or not it is the latest, greatest gadget. They just don't want to shell out several hundred dollars to get features that really should be possible on their current devices. RAM or no RAM, Apple could be doing more to support their devices. To think that this strategy ISN'T at least majorly influenced by the desire to force upgrades would be foolish. Apple is a corporation whose primary goal (like all corporations) is to make money. Forcing people to upgrade by making their old phones lame by comparison is a good business strategy. They have some of the best minds working for them in technology; for them to at least add basic functionality to older models would be no problem, even if they didn't deliver all the bells and whistles of the latest models. It would still provide incentive for people to upgrade (technolust) but it would build the morale of their customers by at least making it appear that they cared about people who have bought their products in the past.
Well. Two points here.
Apple is a corporation so yes, the shareholders are a priority but if they alienate users enough, no one will be around to buy the products so they have to remain mindful of that as well. However, Apple is allowing earlier devices to update to OS 4.0 they're just not allowing multi-tasking and what point is it that they do finally cut off the first gen iPhone? When users are begging for more features but they're trying to support a device that's no longer bringing any money in. It's a difficult and very fragile scale. I remember when OS x.5 leopard came out, they finally stopped supporting machines that were a certain number of older machines and users were pissed but it was the price of evolution and moving forward. that's technology and I really think that they do a good job supporting old tech and keeping users with 3+ year old technology current. I mean really it's up to the developers. Apple may be leaving old users behind but the developers can potentially not adopt the new APIs and keep developing for OS 3.0 which means those users won't be left out. That might happen. The great thing now is that the users and developers appear to be under apple's control but there's still a lot of freedom. the jailbroken community is huge and until Apple starts forcing developers to publish 4.0 specific apps, the 1st gen iPhones that are 3 years old in July will still have 180K+ apps to choose from.
regarding my spending habits…maybe it's a tough thing to read because of your current situation. my ex girlfriend gave me hell about this quite a bit because she had student loans and I was out buying a $500 pair of computer speakers. My use and spending habits have changed a lot in the past few years. I mean really. It's hard to convey that in words without sounding completely conceited (which does happen a bit when i constantly tweet about myself). My financial situation has improved. I admit that when I'm older, my quality of life as far as gadgets and travel is concerned WILL change. That's life. Your focus and quality of life shifts from expensive dinners and trips to florida and instead you care more about taking care of your children and looking after your aging parents. those mean more than the latest gadget. I know my choices in life will evolve as I grow older because I can read blog posts from 4 years ago and see those changes in how I respond and react to life and weigh in on decisions.
so in regards to your distaste with my “bitching” and then “idiotic spending” I think it's varying just like if you were born to a certain kind of parents and certain lifestyle and certain friends some things would seem normal. I think it comes down to this and it's one thing I've learned about living so transparently online. there are over 6 billion people in the world. Most people keep to themselves and only expose their true feelings to one or two people in their lifetime. Others are exposed because of their choices (celebrities, CEOs, politicians) and others simply have something to say and something to share. I'm in the 3rd category. I won't tackle your criticisms head on because it's a waste of time. I have always enjoyed your feedback wholeheartedly but I have learned that if you explain yourself to everyone when realistically you both just have different viewpoints and ways of life, you're wasting each other's time. This guy was born into poverty and the other into the life of luxury (silver spoon). both don't understand how each other lives that way and if they met, it would take a lot for them to see eye to eye. If I simply shared nothing, you and I could be best friends due to a mutual understanding of the human struggle that we all go through. As soon as I start tweeting about my vegetarian, homosexual lifestyle and my cocaine habit and how I can't go to Cancun this year cause my stock didn't do so well, thse are things (all or one of these things) that might tick you off.
I think we can all agree that life is hard and we're all just trying to get by. My therapy is writing this blog and some people read it. others don't. I think though you can agree that by my response that I do truly care about everyone in my life (including you) and I want you to keep leaving comments cause it makes me thing and realize where I made mistakes and things I need to improve upon. Thanks Drew for the comment :)
I appreciate the response and I found most of it satisfactory, but don't put quotes around “bitching” and “idiotic spending” because I did not utter those words. Quite the contrary; I didn't call your spending idiotic or say you were bitching. I didn't even use any profanity. I just said that this blog post was a bit was a bit double-edged, only referencing things that you had made public in the past.
Thanks for the response regardless.
No problem. I get enough hateful message here anonymously that I try
to respond and read between the lines. Wasn't sure if you were just
being nice and meant something else. Ya know? I kind of wish old blog
posts would expire. Things I wrote a month ago sound like they were
written by a different person. I'm changing a lot every year.
Thanks again for reading.
Trust me, Adam, if I had a hidden goal to insult you or troll you, I wouldn't have been following you for the last year and a half after working on Adam's Block. It was legitimate concern about the post, not meant to troll you.
#respect :)