I don't understand the appeal of...

[TordelBack]

I was mentally composing a detailed response to Noisybast, but then I remembered the hellish half-term queue I'd stood in when buying my Prog at lunchtime and suddenly didn't have the heart. 

[Dandontdare]

?

DDD & Flip:

Deep breaths, yeah?  Calm and serene, calm and serene.  I'm sure neither of you intended offence, let's just shake hands and move on and forget about it.  This place is only meant to errupt into misunderstandings and grumpiness when Scott's here, let's not show him we can do without him, eh?

Fair do's - I just thought it was a bit of a leap from "don't see the appeal of"  to "subhuman scum"

To get back to the theme of the thread, (and this will cause much disagreement) I don't see the appeal of i-phones. I don't like the shape or design of them on an aesthetic level and I'm sick of being told it can do all these "essential" things that I've never felt a need for. Eveytime someone shows me their latest hilatrious 'app' (hate that word) I usually comment along the lines of "ooh - a fake lighter/pint of beer/lightsabre? That's DEFINITELY worth £35 a month!". many appleheads nod enthusiastically as they haven't downloaded the 'sarcasm detector' app.

The only one that does appeal is the one that identifies music tracks by simply holding the phone up to a speaker. How reliable is it? Does this work always/usually/never?

[Mike Gloady]

It was a bit of a leap, but hey we all get a little over enthusiastic now and then.  Anyway, let's forget about that.

No, I don't get iphones either.  That application (not so hard to say or type the WHOLE word, is it techy apple types?) sounds good though.  

The only thing I want my phone to do is
1. call people/recieve calls
2. text messages
3. take photos (I'm a new comer to this but seeing my real camera is big and cumbersome, you don't always have it when you see something cool).
4. Go online, usually here or facebook, when bored on journeys.
5. play tetris.
That's it.

[Jim_Campbell]

Does this work always/usually/never?

There are a couple. The one I have -- Shazam -- is usually spot on. It correctly identified the track playing in a different room of a crowded pub on a Saturday night. It also tells you the album it's from, provides a link to iTunes if you want to buy either the track or the album, and geo-tags your location so you can go back and see where you were when you heard it ...

The Maps application is practically as good as GPS and, since I have .mac/Mobile Me, my e-mail, address book, calendar and internet bookmarks are synched across phone, laptop and desktop.

Since all my business comes via e-mail, and I'm the bottom of the lettering food chain meaning that I get a fair amount of last minute/deadline panic work, this is all invaluable to me.*

Cheers

Jim

*No, before anyone jumps in, I am not saying that these features are unique to Apple or the iPhone. Nonetheless, setting them up required ticking approximately one check box on each machine, and has been hassle-free ever since.

[Tanky]

I look fucking amazing in my skinny jeans  8)



...


Carry on 

[Mike Gloady]

You really don't! 

Kidding.  Horses for courses, innit?  I don't get them personally and think they look daft, but we're CLEARLY in the minority if so many folks are wearing them (and presumably think they look good).  That's why I like this thread, it's permission to admit to not understanding things that seemingly everyone else does. 

And in that spirit.

I don't get Douglas Adams or Terry Pratchett.  Which may well mark me out as a lone voice amoung sci-fi geekery, but I don't care.  I've never enjoyed anything by either of them, and I've read a lot (thanks to the library, think i'd have cried if I'd paid money to read them).  Neither writer has ever made me care about a character, made me laugh or made me think.  Presumably these are among their intentions and, while I appreciate they're obviously more talented than me and that lots of other folks enjoy it, neither writer works for me.  Sorry.

[Peter Wolf]

You really don't!  

Kidding.  Horses for courses, innit?  I don't get them personally and think they look daft, but we're CLEARLY in the minority if so many folks are wearing them (and presumably think they look good).  That's why I like this thread, it's permission to admit to not understanding things that seemingly everyone else does.  

And in that spirit.

I was going to say the same thing.It is horses for courses and some girls do look good in skinny cut jeans.

As for myself i am not going to wer anything that i look shit wearing like baggy or loose cut jeans.

[Noisybast]

I don't see the appeal of i-phones.

See, now iPhones I can agree with you on. Stupid bloody status symbols for teenage girls and people with more money than sense.

Strike one: I have an iPod. The 80gb one. It currently houses 46.7gb of music. An iPhone isn't going to be of much use as an MP3 player, then. And yes, before you ask, I do listen to it all.

Strike two: I hate mobile phones with a passion. I am by nature a curmudgeonly, antisocial type, and resent having to interact with people any more than is absolutely necessary. Why would I want to lumber myself with what is essentially a tracking device for chatty people? And yet I have, because that's what people do.

Strike three: Why on earth does anybody need an application on their phone to keep track of where they parked their car? Cars are a) large and b) expensive. Those two factors alone should make misplacing them rather unlikely. While I will concede that some of the available apps would be genuinely useful to some people (the GPS one for hikers, for example), I've yet to meet anyone who actually uses an iPhone app for anything other than novelty purposes.

Bah...

[Christov]

This whole thread is starting to smack of 'I hate the modern world, it smells funny'.

But I don't blame any of you, there are some bloody stupid trends and some bloody stupid technology kicking about.

[Jim_Campbell]

See, now iPhones I can agree with you on. Stupid bloody status symbols for teenage girls and people with more money than sense.

Fuck off. Seriously.

If I didn't have a portable device on which I could receive my e-mail immediately, I would face the choice of either losing business every time I needed to go to the shops, or be tied to my desk or laptop from my UK clients' business hours starting up -- 8:30 to 9:00am -- to my US clients' business hours concluding -- 11:00 to 12:00pm.

The doesn't specifically require an iPhone, but it does require a device in that broad class and, as someone already using the .mac/MobileMe service, I get push e-mail -- something not widely associated with a consumer device -- as part of that package.

Which isn't to say that there aren't a lot of arseholes with iPhones, obviously, but the fact that YOU don't see value in it doesn't mean that there ISN'T value in it.

Cheers

Jim

[wild-seven]

Whoa, calm down Adolf!

Godwin's Law enacted in your first thread, wild-seven!  Outstanding (if inevitable)!

*sniffle* I'm so proud!

[Mike Gloady]

I'm very annoyed by the vapid teenagers who treat things like iphones/blackberrys etc as status symbols, but the joke's on them - they're never going to use the large amounts of functionality they're paying for, so they already are recieving their punishment and they're so stupid they don't even realise it.  The ultimate irony was the other day, on a bus, a kid was crowing about his loudly and showing it off to his mates.  It struck me he'd probably be driving a souped up capri (or whatever modern equivalent) if he hadn't chained himself to such a technological albatross he'd never get the full benefit of.

Many people I know are in Jim's position, where they really need to be contactable easily, often and in a variety of ways (the main people I can think of are a self-employed tradesman and a recently qualified doctor, both need access to calls/email etc anywhere at any time).  In that circumstance, they're not just handy they're invaluable. 

[Noisybast]

Fuck off. Seriously.

Hey, I did say: "While I will concede that some of the available apps would be genuinely useful to some people (the GPS one for hikers, for example), I've yet to meet anyone who actually uses an iPhone app for anything other than novelty purposes".

[Mike Gloady]

Kate, honestly, how PROUD are you? 

First thread and already a bone of contention has arisen TWICE!

[wild-seven]

Kate, honestly, how PROUD are you? 

First thread and already a bone of contention has arisen TWICE!

I can't put it into words, I'm choked up! Another thing I've decided that I can't see the point of is handbags (I'm a rucksack girl myself) that have straps which are too short to put over your shoulder meaning you have to carry them in the crook of your arm and cause you to knock into everyone. Oh and the woman with the pushchair who shoved me out of the way earlier - yes, it WAS you I swore at