Jobs Plays It Frank 254
Siqnal 11 writes "Wired has a feature about Jobs meeting with resellers at the expo, and how honest he was with them. To quote the article 'Jobs gave frank and honest answers to tough questions in this time of trouble for the company and its partners, they said. "
Re:Fucking Jobs - Fucking stupid slashdot article (Score:1)
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Re:not just talking about apathy (Score:1)
of course I'd sell my left testicle for a 750mhz cube with the cinema display... Seriously... Anybody want a testicle?
--Gfunk
it's a shame (Score:2)
Re:20 bucks (Score:1)
"Of course, yeast is technically an animal..."
No. Yeast are fungus. Unicellular fungus. As different from animals as plants are.
Re:The hell? (Score:2)
I mean
To me, being able to buy a 10/100/1000 machine with AirPort, FireWire, 2 USB busses, easy-access case, four empty PCI slots, and a good AGP graphics adapter with both analog and digital outputs for $1600 is a steal. It's got an amp built in as well that hooks up to some really nice Harmon-Kardon $59 speakers. It will also power and feed USB to an Apple display (LCD or CRT) through the video card, and has three empty hard drive bays and one empty removable bay. And a CD-RW built-in. And a nice keyboard and an optical mouse. And it will take 1.5 GB of RAM. Sweet. CPU's are also upgradeable. And it comes with iMovie, iTunes, and CD-RW writing software included. Probably a free Mac OS X upgrade, too.
Or, you could get a $1200 PC and add 10/100/1000 to it for $400 and forgoe the FireWire, AirPort, optical mouse, etc. Personally, I like it that all this shit just shows up, ready-to-use, in each new PowerMac I get.
Re:Use of profanity... (Score:2)
I think I speak for everyone when I tell you to go fuck yourself, you fucking miserable fuckwad :^)
Eric, who was once told by a crewmate "You like that word, don't you?"
Re:20 bucks (Score:1)
Re:not really news but ... (Score:1)
DVD mastering is expensive now, but it isn't *that* expensive. Agencies like the one I work in can well afford the $20k it would take to setup a basic mastering station. Hell, the whole idea is to bill the clients so if it generates revenue it doesn't matter if it costs $40k.
I think right now the lack of demand by clients (*everyone* has a VHS deck and a lot of have Beta decks) -- you can master DVDs, but nobody wants them. Plus it has a one-off element to it; we have a gang of 6 Beta decks that can be turned into a dupe farm and generate a lot of 2 minute reels with little intervention. Doing DVDs one at a time for even a dozen count would get tedious..
I agree fully though that the ability to simply make DVDs on the desktop is a pretty cool thing. I just wonder if Apple will be able to keep it an exclusive for long.
Re:not really news but ... (Score:1)
Finally, a good use of the G4!
Re:SuperDrive? (Score:1)
Re:"Frank" is not the F word he used most... (Score:1)
How do you know he didn't put that front on to get exactly the reaction you have? He had to know that it would get out.
-Jason-
In all honesty - (Score:1)
This is not news. The rest of the article was news - it actually highlighted some truly interesting points from the conference. But this? Oh, no, Steve said bad words... I'm gonna tell his mommy. Get over it people. That was not, nor should it continue to be the focus.
Re:Which is exactly his point. (Score:1)
Re:Which is exactly his point. (Score:3)
We had a Dell rep come in once who offered us pen-knives and T-shirts and told us how wonderful, reliable, excellent, etc. Dell products are to which we said "sure, but we'd personally go bankrupt recommending them over other boxes that actually have a markup." The guy was stunned.
If your business model is based on volume, (in actual fact, you make more on ringing up that $40 game than you do the box it runs on) don't expect just because the guy who's selling at the store is forced to wear a suit or uniform, that he actually cares about sitting the customer down, getting him or her herbal tea, and chatting ad nauseam about the benefits of L2 cache vs L1 cache or whatever. In fact, the most successful salespeople there are totally ignorant of computers, they just go "want fast? Buy the P4!" - cause the computer is mostly sold on enthusiasm and how much the salesman smiles and nods his head - cause for him, there's a big margin, and the clueless customer doesn't know any better (otherwise he'd be putting his dual Athlon machine together himself) it's supposedly a win-win situation. I couldn't live with myself anymore, so I quit.
Apple should get out of store sales ALTOGETHER and just send salespeople into graphic design stores and elementary schools every now and then, with web presence and demo days.
That's nothing (Score:1)
On a related note, most computers here still run Windows 95.
Are you fucking stupid?! (Score:2)
Fuck.
- A.P.
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* CmdrTaco is an idiot.
Bad analogy (Score:1)
buying a car is no longer the worst purchasing experience. Buying a computer is now number one.
This statement isn't true for me (nor most geeks), but I suspect it is probably true for many. Undoubtedly, bad salespeople have a lot to do with this, but equally to blame are uninformed consumers.
Consider the process most people go through in buying a new car. For most, it's a process measured in weeks and months. They read Consumer Reports, they shop around for different makes/models, they ask people who own similar cars what they're experiences are. When it comes time to buy, they visit several dealerships, not hesitating to drive out of town in many cases.
Now, buying a computer. There are some who go to great lengths to get informed, but the vast majority don't. They see an add for a cheap HP in the Sunday paper. Maybe they call their nephew "who knows about computers" to get his opinion. But usually, the first words out of their mouth when they meet the salesman are "Is this a good machine?"
My point is that people still rely too much on computer salesmen for their buying information. Most people don't trust car salesmen any farther than they can throw them: why should it be any different with computer salesmen?
In the end, this will all probably work itself out anyway. Customer service is a commodity, driven by supply and demand like everything else. If customers aren't happy with the service they're getting, they'll take their business elsewhere. Retailers will respond in kind.
Re:Smart Ethernet Port (Score:3)
Re:SuperDrive? (Score:1)
He's right (Score:3)
Jobs was talking about first time buyers' experiences. These superstores can't afford to hire anyone with sufficient knowledge because there's not enough money in retail to keep them. I challenge you to walk up to the first rep you see in CompUSA and ask them the difference between a Mac and a PC and post the response you get. Jobs is the CEO of a company whose products are being terribly represented in the largest retail market in the field. I'd swear too.
Re:it's a shame (Score:2)
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Re:Honesty is now news? (Score:2)
Chris
Re:Smart Ethernet Port (Score:2)
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Use of profanity... (Score:4)
The hell? (Score:2)
Gigabit ethernet cards are $399 on pricewatch, and I'm sure gigabit ethernet chips, when bought in bulk, are probably about $30 or so, if that. The logic itself costs next to nothing, that's why ultra160 on a motherboard adds barely anything to the price of the board, whereas a U160 SCSI card from Adaptec will set you back $300.
Now is a great time to shop around. . .
- A.P.
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* CmdrTaco is an idiot.
Expletive (Score:2)
Who knows? But I do agree, the only meat to the story was the new Titanium and the digital capture to disc standard for the DV Macs. Why in the world nearly the entire first page was devoted to Jobs swearing, who knows?
Both Wired and Slashdot felt the need to make that bigger news than an all-digital video presence in the consumer computer market.
Dragon Magic [dragonmagic.net]
Re:not really news but ... (Score:2)
So does a AMD Thunderbird.. how does the G4 compare there?
Re:Use of profanity... (Score:5)
"Rats. I am most displeased with the repair job depot maintenance did on this jeep." translates cleanly in NCO jargon to
"Fuck! The fucking fuckers fucked the fucking fuck up!"
Eric Fucking Remy
Fucking Jobs (Score:4)
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Offtopic? (Score:2)
But, is this story even remotely on topic for Slashdot? I fail to understand how this is "news for nerds". Less even "stuff that matters".
This is National Enquirer material. Cut it out.
Karma karma karma karma karmeleon: it comes and goes, it comes and goes.
Re:Honesty is now news? (Score:3)
Not quite. This is news because being blunt and honest is nearly unheard of in the corporate world in general. (If Jobs was actually doing that.) Try to imagine Gates (or Steve Case or Ivan Seidenberg or W. C. Ford or whoever) talking without sounding like he's running the latest version of MS CorpSpeak 2000.
Good points, though... (Score:2)
You make this sound as if this could actually happen anytime soon. They have $4 billion in the bank
Steve is dealing with a changing world that is not bending to Apple the way it used to because the younger generation doesn't remember the "old" Apple and, frankly, couldn't care less
I would agree with you, to a point. The catalyst, though, is Mac OS X. It's drawn interest from all sorts of people that didn't give a thought to Apple before. Maya is certainly one of the most visible, and had quite a sizeable/packed booth at Macworld Expo last week. But I was also quite surprised to see Roxen [roxen.com] there!
With Mac OS X and software like iDVD, Apple has a much more compelling story that it has had in some time. And except to see the advertising change accordingly. After March 24, there will actually be very good reasons to own a Mac beyond it just sucks less than Windows.
- Scott
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Scott Stevenson
WildTofu [wildtofu.com]
What it's about (Score:2)
I bet he also eats spotted owls and pushes old ladies into oncoming traffic.
This is just silly. The guy doesn't even take a salary, and didn't even have stock for some time after he came back to the company. He doesn't need money. He works at Apple because it's his baby. Anything eccentric thing he has done as the head of Apple's has been a function of that. I wish the CEOs of other large corporations cared half as much about their company's products as Jobs does about Apple's. It's an extremely personal issue to him.
The worst thing you can say about him is that he is fanatical about people experiencing Apple's work as he intends. He holds contempt for retailers that do a poor job of displaying Macs, or rumor sites that announce products outside of the context of an event. Though, if I was involved in such a project for 12-18 months, I would probably feel the same way.
- Scott
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Scott Stevenson
WildTofu [wildtofu.com]
Evolution and apps (Score:2)
And in reality, OSX shipping last fall wouldn't have done anyone any good. There were virtually no native apps at the time. The press would have slammed Apple hard for that one. At MWSF, though, there were plenty of booths running native software.
- Scott
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Scott Stevenson
WildTofu [wildtofu.com]
He says it's Apple who created this themselves. (Score:2)
not just talking about apathy (Score:4)
I heard a guy one time tell a lady that the iMac didn't have Ethernet, and would she be interested in a PC that does?(hint: iMacs have always had 100mbit Ethernet) Also, I constantly hear salespeople tell customers that Macs have no software.
The other thing is that apparently no one in the entire store knows how to use a Mac, so they always sit there frozen or turned off. I have personally intervened probably five times where I overheard salespeople telling a customer something completely false about a Mac, and felt the need to say "actually..."
My guess is Apple retail sales would increase by at least 15% if salespeople would learn how to use a Mac, and stop criticizing them constantly.
Re:MacCentral had much better coverage. (Score:2)
I was impressed.
Refrag
Re:Jobs (Score:2)
I have said it before, I'll say it again. Apple doesn't do a lot of marketing research. Apple produces what Apple thinks is COOL -- "insanely great," as they say.
Sometimes, Apple produces products that the world is ready for -- things that are cool AND useful. For example, the iMac, the original LaserWriter, and maybe now the cheap DVD authoring. Good stuff. Clever stuff. Useful. Foresighted.
But sometimes, Apple produces something that is cool, but NO ONE WANTS. Best example: the Newton. Foresighted. Clever. Crippled by price and size. They were impressive toys, especially the 2000 series, but they were too early and too expensive. No one outside Apple understood PDAs until later. Even Apple didn't understand them totally.
Apple stays in business ONLY because their instincts about what's cool/useful overlaps with what people WANT often enough to turn a profit.
If Apple ever got their act together, they'd be a real force in the market, instead of a niche player. But they haven't learned yet that they can't force us into something we're not ready for. (OK, *I* was ready for the Newton, but most people weren't.)
Example: Quicktime 4.0 (Score:2)
http://www.iarchitect.com/qtime.htm
The issues with the other products are similar.
Re:MacCentral had much better coverage. (Score:5)
As a salesperson, there is ZERO point to selling Macintosh.
I don't know what kind of moron Jobs is where he thinks salespeople have the time and trouble to sit there and demonstrate a product. In order to make anything over $27,000/yr you basically need to run around, ringing up anyone you see carrying a box - you don't get paid a percentage of the sales price, you get paid a small percentage of the "profit". $25 profit on a $2,000 computer is $2.50 in your back pocket, so to make min wage you have to sell two an hour. I only know one person who made a decent living at it, and he basically just went up to people and said "are you buying that" and if they said no, he'd leave and sign up the next guy, leaving customers who WANTED attention to poor stiffs like me who'd yap for an entire hour to some geriatric sod who expects $400 off his machine cause he's a good haggler, not realising that all Macs are basically sold under cost, which means NO commission, no pay, your profitability numbers go down, and you lose your job.
You see more Macs sold when they're being liquidated, cause you're paid a percentage of the selling price, not the profit, and at Christmas, where you pay a "spiff" of $75 to get someone to buy a Mac. But it's damn hard, cause people are like: "But it won't run Windows" and you suddenly realise you could just unload a PC on these people and sell two more in the time it takes to get over the sales resistance on the Mac and actually make a living.
Re:not just talking about apathy (Score:3)
Refrag
Re:it's a shame (Score:5)
Obsessive is a bunch of non-Mac users instinctively complaining about the lack of multiple buttons on every single Slashdot story that comes up dealing with Apple. Like one of Pavlov's dogs, really.
Who's obsessive now?
- Jeff A. Campbell
Re:Offtopic? (Score:2)
I don't care about Jobs' mouth; I do care about the problems with retail. He has my sympathy for them.
D
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Re:not just talking about apathy (Score:2)
That's why I think Apple stores should carry stock on at least iMacs and possibly iBooks. There's very little customization going on on those two products to begin with, so they make perfect sense.
Refrag
Re:not just talking about apathy (Score:2)
Refrag
Re:not just talking about apathy (Score:2)
No better way to sell a sequestered OS and hardware to sequestered customers than through a sequestered store (read: no competition).
Re:MacCentral had much better coverage. (Score:2)
Honda didn't show me a VW. Honda didn't try to make my wife look at an accord rather then a Civic. They did try to convince her to buy a 4 door rather then two door, and the "wrong" color. But not very hard. (they had no two doors in the lot in the trim line she wanted, and they only had the wring color too). [of corse I'm guilty of making my wife look at things other then the Honda Civic]
Volvo didn't try to sell me a VW or Audi even though they were in the same dealership (in the same big room even). They didn't even point me at a diffrent color or trim line. Then again I actually wanted something off the lot.
Of corse the last time I bought anything (modestly costly) at a retail chain they questioned my choice. I bought a DISH reciever to replace my existing one, and they wanted to sell me DirectTV. I wanted the Phillips 60hr TiVo and they wanted to sell me a Sony 30 (or the Sony + DirectTV 35).
Which is exactly his point. (Score:3)
It's the execs at the meeting of topic that created the environment you describe - so who better than them to bitch at?
Re:Apple are an evolutionary dinosaur. (Score:3)
As far as being stuck in the 1980's and a control freak, I think you have aptly described Microsoft. Here in the 21st century, we don't have to be limited to one OS and one application platform just to have compatiblity. We don't have to be limited to one word processing program to share documents. We now have this thing called the Web, and you can have any OS you like, as long as it also speaks TCP/IP. If it speaks Unix as well, then that's better still. Given that, wouldn't we work towards more diversity, rather than less? Why would we want to throw all of our eggs into the Microsoft basket? Especially now?
As far as open software and hardware, the hardware developer notes for the new 2001 pro models were released today. They use standard stuff like AGP, PCI, gigabit ethernet, USB, FireWire, standard RAM, ATA hard disks, yada, yada, yada. What is so hard about this stuff? Even the "Mac BIOS" is open
I can't believe you want Apple to drop PowerPC CPU's in favor of Intel CPU's in the same post where you accuse them of being stuck in the 1980's. First, there would be no 1" thick, 5-hour battery life PowerBook G4 if Apple used Intel CPU's. Maybe you are happy running a slow Intel notebook on wall power all the time, but I really prefer not plugging in my notebook at all. Why do you think Apple took the lead in wireless networking? Because they have been shipping notebooks with 5+ hours of battery life for years
I don't know about you, but to me, big, fan-cooled boxes with monster CPU's and serial and parallel ports seem anachronistic
As for a
Apple is in great shape for the future. It's the present that they are having trouble with, as they lead up to Mac OS X's release. How many Windows users are going to rush out and buy new Windows 2000 machines two months before Whistler comes out? How many bought Windows 3.1 machines two months before Windows 95 came out? Not too many. Apple is in that situation right now. If they had been able to release Mac OS X on time, perhaps it would be a different story and they wouldn't have their first unprofitable quarter in three or four years and we wouldn't be condemned to hear Wintel know-it-alls pronounce Apple dead again. Like Compaq never had an unprofitable quarter! Ha.
Re:Offtopic? (Score:2)
I have a Cube (Serial no 2784) with NeXT Dimension board (to a black Fimi monitor), sound box, a N2000 printer, and a NeXT Station Color ("color slab").
I have recently cannibalized the HD and memory of the color slab (and some from an old Mac II, rev. A) to make the Cube work. The Cube was salvaged from a computer scrap yard-like store.
The Color Slab is in super-mint condition, and am holding on to it for the day I'll find/get more hardware to make it run again (it was my main NeXT box 'til I got my Cube).
Karma karma karma karma karmeleon: it comes and goes, it comes and goes.
Re:So what? (Score:2)
Jobs saved Apple by coming up with something other than beige boxes. You may not care what color your computer is, but they reinvigorated sales like you wouldn't believe.
- Jeff A. Campbell
He's fired most of his HI guys... (Score:2)
Re:MacCentral had much better coverage. (Score:3)
Actually, I just recently picked up one of the new iMacs at a CompUSA. While it was frustrating, it was not for the reason you gave...
In my experience CompUSA has very few Mac people. So I was free to wander in, put an iMac box in my cart and wander up to the cash register without being bothered by a single sales person. But my problem was that I had to find the model I wanted in a huge stack of boxes with mixed colors and models.
I'm actually suprised no one approached me when I started shifting their tower of iMac boxes across the showroom floor to dig the one I wanted out!
Re:SuperDrive? (Score:2)
"The wheel turns, does it not, Ambassador?"
I'm more apt.. (Score:2)
So he said a couple of expletives. I'd rather that than the fucking shpeel about how they screwed up and what the future holds in a candy wrapper. Steve Jobs in essence has probably done the best thing he could have ever done. He's showing that he has balls and is not afraid to say when fuck ups occur. The odd thing is that I've never ever liked Mac's but their recent boxes have got my mouth watering; from now on I'll keep an eye out for Apple. It sounds like shit will be going uphill soon.
Re:Wonder what Jobs thinks of Ginger? (Score:2)
Though to be fair, Dean Kamen hisself has said that the whole Ginger thing was blown out of proportion [yahoo.com].
Re:20 bucks (Score:2)
If he won't put any meat or meat byproducts into his body (militant vegan) - it's a reasonably safe bet that he doesn't drink either.
Perhaps a lack of critical protiens has set his brain chemistry off-kilter?
Re:"Frank" is not the F word he used most... (Score:2)
Any manager who took an employee to task for it, especially in public, would be ignored.
Don Negro
Re:Profanity (Score:2)
The moment an important leader utters references to profanity, the rules of communication change and a whole new media game starts. Reporters may feel a bit more free making comments about Jobs. I would say, "shit is going to hit the fan."
Re:Apple gets its inspiration from... (Score:2)
Back in my day...
Re:Profanity (Score:2)
Generally agreed, though I honestly have trouble labeling Steve Jobs as "weak-minded", regardless of what I think about how he runs Apple...
information wants to be expensive...nothing is so valuable as the right information at the right time.
Re:Fucking Jobs (Score:3)
Either he was truly shocked and disgusted with the situations he was encountering...
OR
He was trying to re-invent or re-market himself.
If truly the former, I think I'd buy stock in Apple: that kind of reaction to idiocy should result in him digging deeper, kicking ass and making things Right.
If the latter, then I'd run from the stock: nothing will change, he'll lose respect, and the whole thing will go down the crapper.
This is Jobs we're talking about... so *either* scenario is equally likely. How much do I feel like gambling today...?
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Re:PLEASE DON'T QUESTION THE ONE-BUTTON MOUSE! (Score:2)
> the bundled $60 mouse that came with your
> computer. Go to the Apple store and check the price.
And how many copies of Windows have you paid for but never used? That kind of stuff is always a wash. Most PC's (including previous Mac models) come with atrocious mouses and/or keyboards and many, many people replace one or the other. Besides, Macs have such good resale value, he can sell that Pro Mouse on eBay and probably get $50 for it.
And what are you doing at the Apple Store, anyway? Are you one of those sad and lonely closeted Mac users who runs Wintel but drools over Macs and then says "if only they had a two button mouse"?
Re:Grow the fuck up! (Score:2)
Who cares if he spoke Swahili or did a jig in order to communicate more effectively with them? So what if he swears?
Sometimes I really worry about what our newfound abilities to record almost EVERYTHING will do to us when some of us don't like what they see in our new digital mirror. How free are we when a guy says fuck a few times and 50 other people on Slashdot condemn him for being "unprofessional" and "vulgar"? C'mon.
Re:MacCentral had much better coverage. (Score:2)
Re:Offtopic? (Score:2)
I think many people feel the big boxes are cheaper just because they're big; in my experience, this is simply not true.
I do, however, love to go to Fry's, where I can find ten different brands of, say, PCMCIA ethernet cards all under one roof.
D
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Re:MacCentral had much better coverage. (Score:2)
Apple has a pretty strong brand identity, and people go into CompUSA asking about Macs and they don't get answers to their questions or a demo of the features, they just get told "you don't want one of those, come over here and buy a Compaq". That's not good customer service. For the first-time buyer especially, this is damaging for them and for Apple.
Re:Apple are an evolutionary dinosaur. (Score:2)
MacCentral had much better coverage. (Score:5)
That buying a Mac at CompUSA and Sears et al. is an exercise in futility and frustration. If you go to a car dealership, they don't steer you away from the model you ask for to show you another brand and try to bullshit you while they do it.
I think Apple should sell on the Web and exclusively through its Mac retailers like MacZone, MacMall.
Screw the pimply-faced, rat-assed, pig-ignorant kids who try to screw the Mac customer for the sake of an idiotic loyalty to someone who has ripped off their parents out of of billions of dollars.
Much better take on the story here at MacWeek: (Score:3)
It's interesting how the story on MacWeek focuses on Jobs blasting retailers treatment of Mac customers, whereas Wired's story focused on Jobs's cussing.
Every rule has an exception, and this is the only rule with no exceptions! Huh? -- Spatch
More news links (Score:2)
Jobs gave only one example of a specific retailer -- that of Circuit City -- in which Apple had verified customer experiences where sales people had deliberately steered customers from the Apple store-within-a-store area and toward Windows-based products. Jobs called such situations "unacceptable."
The independant dealers were actually pretty pleased to have this meeting. This was not a challange to them. Many of the smaller independent dealers give good service to Mac customers. Its the big box stores that don't know crap about computers, but we already know that. This really aimed at John Q. Public who doesn't know much about computers and is looking for an easy to use first computer.
POIU
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Re:MacCentral had much better coverage. (Score:2)
***spit take***
LOL, you are either being insanely sarcastic or have little experience shopping for a car!
not really news but ... (Score:5)
as everybody has been saying, what Jobs said in his meeting with resellers isn't really news for slashdot. however if you read the rest of the article, especially the 2nd page, there are some good quotes about the importance of the DVD burning capabilites of the high-end G4s. this actually is interesting news.
it hasn't really been talked about much, as burning DVDs is not something any of us would be planning on doing (unless we're pirating DVDs). but if you look past the WaReZ kiddies, you'll realize that this is actually an important technology.
from the article: "I'm starting to think this is as important as the LaserWriter was to desktop publishing.... It's revolutionary." while i hardly think it's "revolutionary," it is important.
up until now, mastering DVDs (that can play on consumer-level players) has been prohibitivly expensive. now Apple has made this available to a huge market for a measly $3500. i personally know many people at advertising agencies and training firms that would love to put their material on DVD as opposed to VHS, but have been holding off until the price comes out of the stratosphere.
considering the fact that in the past Apple has had the highest markup on their most expensive machines, i think they're going to rake in a lot of cash from this machine. this is also a great use of the Alitvec engine on the G4, and one of those (few) situations where it really does run considerably faster than a P4. at any rate, it's a good move for Apple.
- j
The Crapple of old (Score:2)
Re:not just talking about apathy (Score:2)
They definitely need to do something to counter the general ignorance that people have about Apple. They've changed a lot in the past few years, and with the release of Mac OS X, the remaking of the entire company will be complete. A 2001 Mac running Mac OS X is almost entirely a different machine than a 1997 Mac running Mac OS 8.1 or whatever it was. Different OS, different peripherals, support for all kinds of standards rather than not. They need to say "come in and meet the new Apple" with these stores. They have great brand identity. I heard that the new stores will just have big Apple logos on each side of the door, products in the windows, and no text.
Re:Honesty or Obfuscation? (Score:2)
> Trailers in QuickTime while you wait.
That is just so funny. I laughed a lot at that.
Many Slashdot readers won't know that there were movie trailers in the Mac OS X Public Beta install. The other one was Charlie's Angels, I think.
Yes, get OS X out there. I hope they offer it as an optional preinstall in March. Get with it. I know five or six people putting off a regular Mac purchase, waiting for OS X. No wonder their sales are down. They fucked up. They fucked up big time.
At least it is really, really good (I've run Public Beta and a couple of Developer Previews before that).
The difference (Score:2)
The car salesman knows he's lying to you!
Re:MacCentral had much better coverage. (Score:2)
Re:not really news but ... (Score:2)
Thing is, the video is already digital, and you edit it digitally, so going real-time to analog stuff is very, very un-hip. Once you've encoded the data, it's just a matter of loading in blank DVD's, or go to an outside service for that
Everybody I've talked to in creative media wants one NOW. I already ordered one. Jobs is right about it enhancing the utility of the digital video stuff you already own. Digital camcorder and DVD player are now united by a SuperDrive Mac, no outside help required. No expertise even required if iDVD fits your needs. I'm sure DVD Studio Pro will be pretty easy for anyone who knows video or multimedia, as well.
Re:Fucking Jobs (Score:2)
Here's Jobs on the experience of buying a computer compared to buying a car: "At least you can go to an auto dealer and test drive a fucking car," the dealers reported him as saying.
On Apple's (AAPL) poor education sales this year: "We fucked up. We fucked up big time."
And when told by dealers that Apple changed a policy (only 3 years ago) of allowing resellers to reprint Apple's ads in local papers, he said, "You're fucking joking?"
Unless he really was a troll... ironic if he was...
Re:20 bucks (Score:2)
Jobs' views are crucial in a profitless PC market (Score:4)
Let me tell you from experience that the PC market, Apple included, is almost profitless at this point. There are so many reasons not to sell computers, which is why I think that Jobs has to get into reseller's heads that selling Macs is not a losing battle.
Most of the people who sell Macs don't make a lot of money from it, regardless of the markup. People are not willing to pay for PCs with inadequate anything right now, no matter how revolutionary Apple is.
Jobs' presence was made because he wants to assert people that he is trying to do his best to get Apple back into shape. If Apple dies in the process, he wants history to remember that he gave it his best shot, even risking a PR nightmare by using profanity in front of his dealers.
He's a smart guy; those of us who have seen Apple's latest reports know that Apple is in a little bit of trouble. Steve is dealing with a changing world that is not bending to Apple the way it used to because the younger generation doesn't remember the "old" Apple and, frankly, couldn't care less. It's an uphill battle, but, if he can't do it and fails, I don't think anyone could have done it better.
--
Jobs and cursing... (Score:2)
First statement about the car - no context, so I can't judge that.
Second statement about Apple screwing up big time - sure, I'm sure he'd be upset.
Third question - it was a pretty ridiculous question.
So... let's be fair. He's not being quoted, and he's casually chatting with people, and he's talking about how his company screwed up big time, and also replying to a rather ridiculous question. Sheeesh...
Re:Apple are an evolutionary dinosaur. (Score:2)
Hah! Tee hee! Hoo! Okay. I was buying into this post at first. Then, I got to this part:
Hee! Right. Microsoft, which pressures OEM's not to change the bitmap displayed on boot, and not to load competitors' software at the factory, isn't a control freak. Bill Gates, as notorious a micromanager as ever has worked in tech, isn't a control freak. IBM, I'm suspicious of. Compaq, couldn't tell you. But Microsoft?
Hee hee! Hee. Hoo. Microsoft, the company that broke Kerberos [linuxworld.com]? The same company that threatened to sue a competitor for benchmarking them [zdnet.com]? Okay. With my Rod of Lordly Moderation, I dub this post -1 Troll, +4 Funny. Take the net gain to your Karma and go back under your bridge.
Re:Honesty is now news? (Score:2)
Apple has never made a yellow (lemon?) iMac. It was the strawberry ones that no-one wanted. They're selling them as aquariums [redlightrunner.com] now.
Jobs (Score:2)
Sounds to me like the fucking profanity was as much as anything else a sign that Jobs was fucking serious about being fucking honest.
Marketing Strategies (Score:2)
Now some of the strategies may go back to the 80's. Personally I do not care. If it still works, why drop it?
True, you have to watch the new technologies, and make sure you do not get obsoleted out. But I wonder if part of Apples' problems came from some sort of departure from the original core idea of "Insanely Great" etc. i.e. - Focusing on innovative, almost inspirational technology.
There is this weird possibility too, that if MS goes forward with the .NET strategy, in effect abandoning Windows as a desktop only product, that companies like Apple may wind up owning the desktop. A long shot, to be sure, but weirder things have happened. And Apple does not have to abandon the desktop to expand as a company.
In the weirdest of all scenarios, Apple could survive MS.
SuperDrive? (Score:4)
I'm a confused consumer. Imation better sue Apple...
Re:OK but the 'See Also' is the Real Keeper (Score:3)
Office on OS X was always a no-brainer. Some in the media have tried to make an issue out of it, but it's not. Microsoft make a TON of money off of Mac Office. If they killed a very profitable product, they would have to give a reason why, and if that reason was to drive people to Windows, that's not good for them, legally.
A couple of years ago, MS dropped their program of trying to convert Mac users, and since then, have created some really good software for the Mac. IE 5 for the Mac is head-and-shoulders above the Windows version. It's really good. Office 2001 is much-improved from 98 as well. The extra time they're taking on the OS X version should pay off in it being a really well-behaved OS X app that follows all the conventions.
Copyright Violation the last reason I'd use DVD-R (Score:3)
up until now, mastering DVDs (that can play on consumer-level players) has been prohibitivly expensive. now Apple has made this available to a huge market for a measly $3500. i personally know many people at advertising agencies and training firms that would love to put their material on DVD as opposed to VHS, but have been holding off until the price comes out of the stratosphere
Here you hit the nail right on the head. Copying DVDs is very uninteresting (except for my legally purchased copy of Galaxy Quest given to me for xmas, in which I'd like to incorporate the "cutting room floor scenes" into the main movie, a "FreeUser's Cut" if you will). BUT I have a lot of footage I've taken over the years which I'd like to do some NLE on and then save to DVD, with english subtitles on portions in languages most of my friends don't speak.
Then there is the recording of television broadcasts direct to hard drive via a sony media converter, which I can then edit the commercials out of, save to DVD, and put in my video library. I would never buy each and every episode of Babylon 5, but if I can simply record and burn them, four episodes to a disk, I'd much rather do that than use Hi-8 or VHS, or even miniDV (which is also susceptible to dropouts over time).
Recordable DVD is way, way overdue, and I may well run out and buy a high end G4 when it hits the street. In fact, I would have done so already, if I could have had it shipped overnight instead of in "7-10 weeks" according to applestore.com.
Re:not really news but ... (Score:2)
Worth noting that the PIII 1 GHz requires about 45 watts, and the Athlon 1.2 and P4 1.5 require over 50. The G4 7410 needs 7 watts at 500Mhz and the 7450 needs 10 watts at 733MHz. That's why Apple doesn't have to put fans in their boxes. These are really nice CPU's
20 bucks (Score:2)
C'mon Bob...pull into the expo...I wanna check this out.....
Re:Fucking Jobs - Fucking stupid slashdot article (Score:2)
Re:"Frank" is not the F word he used most... (Score:2)
Besides, how much you can swear without offending anyone is very country-dependent. Brits swear like it helps them to breathe, while in the US, one swear word raises every eyebrow (then the killing starts
Jobs was speaking in a situation where the people he was talking to just wanted honest, direct, from the heart opinions to help guide them through a time when sales are lagging at Apple (no Mac OS X yet is the big thing, I believe) and throughout the industry (also Windows Me malaise while people wait for Whistler). It's quite likely that his willingness to open up and talk frankly impressed them as much as the content.
Smart Ethernet Port (Score:2)
The machine also has an intelligent Ethernet port that can tell if it is plugged into an Ethernet network or directly into another Mac, which ordinarily requires a special "cross-over" cable.
I think this is pretty amazing, as I have never heard of this before, but I am not super up-to-date on network hardware.
Is this actually common?
Re:Are you fucking stupid?! (Score:2)
I mean
Also, Apple's towers all come with gigabit ethernet (for the past six or eight months), and gigabit ethernet is auto-sensing. Even though they haven't fit gigabit ethernet into the 1" thick notebook, it's nice to see the auto-sensing feature make things simpler for the future.
Re:not really news but ... (Score:2)
I think it's called "raving"...
Re:it's a shame (Score:2)
Re:Smart Ethernet Port (Score:2)
It's worth noting that a PC from the same era as your Quadra probably won't have any kind of networking, or it may have Token Ring instead of Ethernet. Or it may have only the slow Ethernet.
Fact is, every Apple computer for the last year or so has had two built-in networking systems, Ethernet and AirPort. Both are standards. Before that, they had Ethernet alone for three or four years. They are very easy to network with each other and to get on the Internet.
Re:Smart Ethernet Port (Score:2)
Dumbass
By the way, the tower Macs have four empty PCI slots, an AGP slot for the graphics adapter, and a modem slot that comes with a 56k modem, but can also take specialty peripherals (like an old-style serial port). Gigabit ethernet, FireWire, 2 USB busses, 802.11 wireless networking, and sound (including an amp) are built-in and don't take up slots. The PCI slots are all 64MHz, 64-bit, and do over 200MBs. What is there to complain about here, really? For most people, that would be four empty slots that just stay that way. For audio or video people, it is plenty except in some special situations, and you can get a Magma expansion chassis to give you six more slots in that case. One of my PowerMacs has a SCSI card added, and one has a Pro Tools card