New Apple Lust Objects for 2010 and onward

Unless you (not you you, the generic you) bought an iphone last week and had no knowledge of this week's announcement, you still have the product you paid good money for so suck it up.

i bought an ipad the year it came out, and then within a year a new ipad came out, effectively splitting the market for ipad cases in two. now, at least half of the ipad cases on the market no longer fit with my ipad.

what if dewalt made screwdrivers with new heads every three years?

But that means they're equally shafting the two-year contract victims who queued for an OG iPhone and then a 3gs too. Pissing off your super-early adopters doesn't seem wise, either.

The 3G was really just a 2G with UMTS and a plastic back, wasn't it? Surely anyone buying a 2G-only phone in 2007-2008 would know what they were getting into? I mean I get the early adopters being pissed off, but they're early adopters so

Yeah, but in the grand scheme of ~consumerism~ I think number of "customers who want expensive new shit to look like expensive new shit" >>>>>>> "customers wary of first-gen Apple hardware"

Yeah I agree, it's only people like my dad who think like that.

They can be fed up because they're being asked to pay top bux for something that looks 18 months old, I think is the point.

imo that's only an argument that works in a monopoly or a vacuum, especially now with HTC and Samsung leading the charge on incredible phone kit. Unless you're so heavily invested in the Apple app store that you stand to lose about $200+ worth of licensed software that you still use, jumping to Android is easy.

i bought an ipad the year it came out, and then within a year a new ipad came out, effectively splitting the market for ipad cases in two. now, at least half of the ipad cases on the market no longer fit with my ipad.

what if dewalt made screwdrivers with new heads every three years?

― funk master friendly (moonship journey to baja), Thursday, 6 October 2011 09:30 (1 minute ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

That's a fair point. As I mentioned upthread I can't find a screen protector or an armband for the ipod classic I bought last week. Trouble is, it gets murky when you blame Apple/Samsung/Nokia/Sony/iriver/etc for the behaviour of case manufacturers.

The 3G was really just a 2G with UMTS and a plastic back, wasn't it? Surely anyone buying a 2G-only phone in 2007-2008 would know what they were getting into?

I dunno -- I got a 2G iPhone, and I wasn't surprised when the 3G came out a year later. I *was* surprised when the 3Gs was just an internal refresh. Now, though, it looks like they're doing a 2-year refresh and I'm on the bad side of it. Didn't know I was getting into that. Not that I care a lot, but the "Apple lust objects" bit of me would def prefer to get some all-new shiny in return for my price-gouging.

imo that's only an argument that works in a monopoly or a vacuum
Jumping to Android is easy, but then you end up on Android, trying to turn off your wifi before your battery runs out and installing anti-virus.

But either way, I think it's still true. Apple is offering for sale one of the most expensive phones out there, and it looks 18 months old, while the competition are churning out new phones. That should be more pressure for a new form factor, not less.

but then vahid would have to buy a new case

I'm mostly worried that Apple will now stop giving a shit if anything runs well on a single-core CPU.

And you know, buy a Kindle Fire instead! ;)

which is stupid, there is a principle at work in not buying a new case

cases serve absolutely no purpose at all

indeed, so why constantly change them.

Does the 4s vs 5 matter technically? Not a bit. Does it matter in terms of status signifier? Hugely, and you'd expect Apple to be aware of that.

See, this is the bullshit of physical design versus technical capability. Apple manufactures the same form factor for laptops for years, until a significant technological change is afoot or they think it warrants a redesign, and very few complain when their new laptop is the same as the old one.

To me, it doesn't matter a bit whether the 4s looks like the 4, only that it is technologically up-to-date. I mean, in an ideal world, the best fucking Apple phone design ever would happen and we'd spend the rest of our lives taking it in to have the internals swapped out with better once, or to have them repaired when they went bad. That is the timeless design you're speaking of.

To me, the fact that cars change their designs not to accomodate new technology or to be safer or more aerodynamic, etc. is due to a consumer obsession with novelty. I mean, no one wants a 1998 Ford Taurus forever (and the Taurus was the poster child of keeping the same design for a loooong time), but if I could get the design of a Citroen or whatever with the newest engine and tech....

The flip side is it that people who actually know shit about iPhones will recognize the superiority of a 4s in some way, and differentiate them from the plebeians who think you just have an iPhone 4. It's the technology version of people who recognize that some high-end shoe is not the same as a department store knockoff.

BTW has anyone confirmed if the 4s uses the same cases as the 4? That'd be nice.

^^ the only person on ILX who understands me

Do you ever feel mildly annoyed that you're wearing really sweet jeans that will last forever and you can wear their selvedge selves every day and dude on the sidewalk can't tell the diff and then you run into some girl who knows and you have a convo on aesthetics? See these things count.

Also, fuck Apple for this skeumorphic design shit on the Calendar app imo

Also the iOS 5 Music app (no more iPod app!) on the iPad seems to have a little wooden rail on either side that isn't AS BAD but still grates

Apple is offering up to $200 in trade in for your iPhone 4. I bought the iPhone 4 on release, can upgrade for $18 + cost of phone minus the trade in/recycle buy back from Apple. Seems like i'm going to be getting the new model for about $50-100 bucks. Not a bad deal, imo.

My 3gs looks like it went through a small battle so it's probably not worth much these days. I may try to sell it!

my 3GS has a cracked plastic back :[

hurl it at a brick wall

i played with the silent switch one too many times on my 3GS, now it just vibrates all the time for no reason

steve jobs just died

http://twitter.com/AP/statuses/121730495347294208

:(

Fuck cancer.

Also, fuck Apple for this skeumorphic design shit on the Calendar app imo

Probably ironic to say at this juncture (rip) but the Find My Friends app thingo has the same faux-leatherette rubbish theme going, ugh. Just amazing that they think it's a good look, especially after the Games Centre backlash.

does anyone have any thoughts on verizon vs. sprint vs. att?

base-level plan looks like $90 for verizon (thats... a lot), $80 for sprint (unlimited data), right now im on att at around $70/mo (200 mb/mo), but it sucks

Those prices are fucking insane.

Have you ever measured your data for a month (in the settings) to see how much you use? If you don't use video or whatever 200MB might be plenty.

yeah i keep my data under 200 MB on ATT pretty easily

otoh it sucks

iPhone might be Apple's biggest markup yet. When you compare the price of an unlocked handset to a not-that-different iPod Touch, or an iPad, it doesn't work out well. 64gb 4s is not far off a MacBook Air!

I used 2.7 Gb last month somehow

iphone contracts in britain seem so much cheaper than elsewhere. they are obv nuts in the u.s. i thought that was just down to the relative lack of competition, but it's pretty much the same in germany.

awaiting o2s tariffs with bated breath

I have the early Verizon plan w/ unlimited data, 450 minutes, 250 txts and I spend about 97/mo. I don't think I've ever used close to a gig.

if all was equal id switch with verizon but thats an extra $480 over two years so that i can get better service.

sprint would be an extra $240 for better service, but who knows how well their 3g network will be able to handle all the iphones

i suppose the argument to switch to verizon now is that they have the best 4G service and i want to be locked in at these rates when the LTE iphone drops

Just under halfway through the month and I've used.... Good lord! 1.43MB!

how often do people here go over 200MB? i can apparently get that + free weekend calls for €15/month

whoa the two major networks here are selling the 4S unlocked, so you get the contract discount but you can still put in another sim when overseas (which was the reason i was planning to buy from apple)

My usage last year seems to have often gone over 500MB/month, this year it's down to 50 on average. Probably 'cause I used to use Spotify at work over 3G, now I use the work wifi.

Guess I'm working from home next Friday to wait for my phone delivery.

a $200 credit on the 4 makes the upgrade much more sensible (there is no way I am not getting the largest GB possible when I do eventually upgrade)

So many gee bees

so nobody has really strong feelings about verizon sprint or att im guessing

I only know AT&T, which is mostly reliable in Boston

I JUST WANT SOMEONE TO MAKE THIS DECISION FOR ME

I've been on the same network since 1997 (Cellular One -> Cingular -> AT&T) so my answer is "stick with AT&T because they're really all the same"

I switched to Verizon shortly after they got the iphone 4 and have been happy. I think there was once I wish I could surf and talk at the same time but I can deal with once every six months or so. I had AT&T before that but not the iphone; the number of dropped calls and dead spots every time I went to NYC is what made me switch, because it looked for a while that I'd end up moving there. Now that I'm in Dallas (the home of AT&T) I realize I could have stayed with them, but I've had no problems with Verizon since arriving here so I don't need to switch back.

I don't like Verizon, for no particular reason, and Sprint is kind of a toss-up for me and I'm already on AT&T... so I stuck there for now.

yeah see i am in NYC and i am not a huge fan of the dropped calls thing

I'd go to whichever network has more of your friends/family on it

^^Good call on that. My whole family is on Verizon which is definitely a plus.

My whole family is on Verizon, so that's crucial, and I'm in NY and Verizon reception is totally fine.