Willow’s older brother, Adam, arrived yesterday to the UK. Adam lives in San Fransisco, and like many many many people living in the US, Adam has an iPhone. Drum roll. So yesterday, for the first time, I got to lay my hands on the iPhone. Drum roll.
So how was it?
Well, to be honest; a bit boring. After have played with it for about 5-10 minutes, I found myself in the kitchen cutting up the onions for the Lasagna.
Even though the iPhone hasn’t been launched yet, Apple announced a few updates:
CUPERTINO, California—June 18, 2007—Apple® today announced that iPhone™ will deliver significantly longer battery life when it ships on June 29 than was originally estimated when iPhone was unveiled in January. iPhone will feature up to 8 hours of talk time, 6 hours of Internet use, 7 hours of video playback or 24 hours of audio playback.* In addition, iPhone will feature up to 250 hours—more than 10 days—of standby time. Apple also announced that the entire top surface of iPhone, including its stunning 3.5-inch display, has been upgraded from plastic to optical-quality glass to achieve a superior level of scratch resistance and optical clarity.
After the WWCD (World Wide Developer Conference) 2007, where Steve Jobs gave a sneak preview of the next version of Apples operation system Mac OS X Leopard, apple.com got a fresh look and feel. The presentation of Leopard and the new look and feel of the website proves the rumors about the death of Aqua. Aqua is the name given to the previous GUI (graphical user interface) for Mac OS X operation system theme. Aqua got introduced in 2000 with the first version of the operating system, Mac OS X Public Beta, and was intended to complement the look of the original semi-transparent plastics of the iMac. It has lived with us for almost a decade, way beyond the semi-transparent hardware, so I believe it’s the right decision to move on.
Apple.com is, to me, a bit of a blue-print for how to do a website correctly. It is as well put together as any of their products. Most if it is basically just simple prioritisation and common sense, but, I’m afraid, on today’s world wide web, that is becoming a rare thing… thinking about it, it’s not just websites, quality in general is getting less common and less appreciated. Anyway…
The advantage Apple has is that they are their own client; they have experience; they know what they are doing and they have something to communicate and their website is not financed by advertising.
There’s no distractions. Links and promos are contextual. They force the use of their navigation. They are not afraid to use the fact that visitors like to interact with the interface. They guide their visitors to content, and don’t just make sure everything can be accessed from everywhere all the time.
So, having said all that, one of the most notable changes when visiting the new apple.com is the new navigation bar. The mother of all tabs has left the building together with the Aqua style. The Aqua tab navigation can be tracked back to as early as February 2000, a few months ahead of the introduction to Mac OS X Public Beta. That’s about the same time as I got my first Macintosh, a Apple Power Macintosh G4 400 MHz.
The nice thing with the navigation on Apple.com is that users actually use it.
The new navigation has not only changed appearance, it has been slimmed down a bit. The sub navigation has been removed, as well as Quicktime, .Mac and Mac OS X from the main navigation while iPhone, Mac, Download and a search field has been added.
So from this:
To this:
A second thing I like to highlight is the newly added mega-bread-crumb footer. This not only shows you where you’re at, but where you can go and what’s related to where you are.
Even if this might seem a bit dull, it is an innovative navigational device. They decided to put the “dull” (or less current) stuff at the bottom instead of cranking in a massive complex and confusing header navigation at the top.
Last, and third, the javascript candy. It’s juicy. And it’s add to the overall experience and behavior of the site. And even if they introduce new user behaviors, they haven’t underestimated the intelligence of the visitors.
EMI (and Apple) have caused a bit of a stir since they announced, on Monday, that they will be taking off the software lock, (also known as DRM — Digital Rights Management), on their entire catalogue on the Apple iTunes Music Store in exchange that the prices will go up.
The fact that “The Big Four” (EMI, Universal, Sony BMG, Warner) are cock-suckers is nothing new. They have always been a dark-brown layer of shit disguised with suit-dressed cock-suckers making shit loads of money by marketing and distributing, in most of the cases, shit to people who just don’t know better.
I’m trying to be honest here.
Now, I don’t want to be like “a Total Apple Preaching Sucker”, but, the way I see it, Apple isn’t trying to join “The Big Four”. Apple are putting a magnifying glass over the whole thing, and erasing some layer of suit-dressed cock-suckers to reveal the shit that lies underneath.
And yes, Apple are doing this because this would benefit themselves more then anyone else. They are ahead of there peers, and the earlier the barrier is broken the more they will earn money from it. Apple is NOT doing this for world peace; to lower the CO2 emissions or stop the power struggle in the Middle East.
But… the music industry… even the porn industry has more morals and ethics.
The way I see it, it’s the evolution of an industry that has been around for a very long time, and sadly ended up doing things for the wrong reasons (read: Greed) and are now paying the price. The movie industry is standing in line. So is the mobile-phone industry. Advertising industry.
Things happens. One thing leads to another. The cause of an event. Life goes on.
I don’t think Justin Frankel knew what impact the WinAmp player would have on the music industry. Neither did Shawn Fanning with his Napster. Max Martin with his plastic 120bpm popsongs. Elvis. Rolling Stones when they sold their ass and smudged the line between Rock ‘n Roll to Pop teamed up with Tommy Hilfiger on their 1999 tour.
A one, a two, a one two three.
“People used to make records, as in a record of an event. The event of people playing music in a room. Now everything is cross-marketing, it’s about sunglasses and shoes or guns or drugs you choose.”
/from the song Fuel by Ani Difranco
Personally I will keep on doing the illegal act of downloading music. I will keep on buying and supporting artists I respect and appreciate. I will go to concerts. I will buy albums from iTunes Music Store when I feel the artist deserves the statistics.
Think about the software industry…
They have always been digital.
If it’s a choice between eternal hell and good tunes and eternal heaven and new kids on the fucking block … I’m gonna be surfing on the lake of fire, rocking out… high five at Satan every time I pass the motherfucking shore.
“Come on, Bill, they’re the New Kids. They’re so good and so clean-cut and they’re such a good image for the children.” Fuck that! When did mediocrity and banality become a good image for your children? I want my children to listen to people who fucking rocked! I don’t care if they died in puddles of their own vomit. I want someone who plays from his fucking heart!
/Bill Hicks
Hopefully, in my life time, the music industry will be able to stand up straight. Hopefully soon, it will stop eating fleas from its mate’s head. Hopefully, at some point, it will respect its self as an art form, and do what it does best.
Create emotions.
During Topshop’s London Fashion Week, a theft occured. Two black apple macbooks went missing from the venue at Covent Garden. Both these macbooks were set up to automatically upload photos taken using Photobooth to Topshop’s flickr account and the Topshop London Fashion Week website.
Now imagine our enjoyment when yesterday we noticed some new faces on our flickr account.
If you happen to have any information on the possible perpetrators, leave a comment here or here (Flickr) .
Yeah, even if today was my first day back at work, I feel no need to complain, firstly because I purchased Nine Inch Nails tickets, then a trip to Florida and just a few minutes ago, a new computer.
Nine Inch Nails is one of those bands that I have always wanted to see. Ever since they (or should I say he?) converted my former skepticism towards music without traditional instruments (drum, bass, guitar) with the song ‘Closer’, I have been a huge admirer of the work of Trent Reznor.
The Florida trip was a bit unplanned. Willow’s grandpa is living his last, and opportunities to visit him is a race against time.
So Willow and I today booked tickets for January.
And… finally - I have ordered the computer I have been waiting for since 22nd of June 2006.
When I first was looking into buying a new laptop I had a hard time deciding which one to buy. The small (MacBook) The medium (MacBook Pro 15″) or The bad boy (MacBook Pro 17″). Felt a bit like, and reminded me of, how it was to select players on the 8 Bit Nintendo NES hockey game.
After a bit if research (asking around and thinking) I decided to go for The bad boy - the 17 inch MacBook Pro.
Should arrive in a week or so.
From rob @ podcast 411 podcast on the speculations that Apple was trademarking the generic term podcast.
I wished people out there, when you are writing these blogs, you take some time and do some real journalistic research before you go out and start claiming things that just plain aren’t true.
If you have a bigger audience reading your blog - i agree: you have the same responsibility as any major magazine to make sure what you are claiming is true. The fact that you might manage the art of copy-and-pasting, should never be seen as an advantage - and never to be used as a weapon in a battle of trying to generate content.
