Rupert Murdoch Hates Google, Loves the iPad 412
Hugh Pickens writes "The Register reports that News Corp boss Rupert Murdoch, speaking at the National Press Club in Washington, reiterated his disgust at how search engines handle news and called on old media to rethink how their stories are distributed on the web. 'It's produced a river of gold, but those words are being taken mostly from the newspapers,' said Rupert. 'I think they ought to stop it, that the newspapers ought to stand up and let them do their own reporting.' Murdoch added that the iPad was a 'wonderful tool' for listening to music, watching videos and reading newspapers. 'It may well be the saving of the newspaper industry,' by making it cheaper to distribute content to a broader audience, Murdoch said. 'I'm old, I like the tactile experience of the newspaper,' Murdoch said. '(But) if you have less newspapers and more of these, that's OK. It doesn't destroy the traditional newspaper, it just comes in a different form.'"
Endorsement (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Endorsement (Score:5, Funny)
Right, except there's a logic to his madness. Murdoch loves the idea of people paying 15 dollars a month to read foxnews.com or the WSJ on the ipad. Its a tempting offer, I hear every new subscriber gets a free vial of Glenn Beck's tears and a used mustache comb once owned by Geraldo Rivera.
Yeah, we know who Rupert Murdoch sounds like (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Yeah, we know who Rupert Murdoch sounds like (Score:4, Insightful)
You American right-wingers have absolutely no idea how skewed to the right your politics are. It's so bad, France's president, who comes from their political right wing, thinks it's absurd that there was such strong debate about healthcare reform. In Canada, our opinions are similar, and this surely applies in most if not all other democratic countries. The people in the US that watch Fox News and take it seriously are utterly brainwashed. It's so bad from our perspective that I have friends who aren't convinced that such people really exist in significant quanitities in the US, because it's so hard to believe. We find it hard to understand how so many people are all drinking Kool-Aid like this.
This isn't to say that I wholeheartedly endorse the Democratic Party (of course not), but their political leanings are much saner from an outside-the-US perspective.
Re:Endorsement (Score:5, Insightful)
For once Murdoch and I have something in common. I'd love to see all Murdoch's sited completely covered by a paywall, I long for the day when I wont accidentally stumble across one of his poorly written tabloids which contains little more then thinly veiled propaganda.
Re:Endorsement (Score:5, Insightful)
I long for the day when I wont accidentally stumble across one of his poorly written tabloids which contains little more then thinly veiled propaganda.
Which 'content' in the overwhelming majority of cases they have not even created themselves (Murdoch's business model has no money left for good investigative journalists): they just syndicate the news from AP (which does get paid by Google) or steal it from some blogger (who does not get paid by Murdoch), add their propaganda to it (which Murdoch should be paying for for us to read. A lot.) and then they slap their advertisements on it (which Murdoch should be paying us for as well - my attention has value and Murdoch should not expect to be able to steal it for free).
Google on the other hand provides good functionality (a good, unbiased search index and good apps) in exchange for my attention.
Really, Murdoch should not feel so entitled to the resources of this world. He should compete for them like the rest of the planet does. Right now, as far as I'm concerned his business offer to me falls far short of being as competitive as Google's.
Re:Endorsement (Score:5, Interesting)
In case you missed out on the last 40 odd years, Murdoch didn't get rich by being honest and forthright.
But karma's a bitch, if a little slow moving.
Re:Endorsement (Score:5, Insightful)
Yes, uniquely amongst extremely rich people, he's not a nice man.
The Theory of the Leisure class (Score:4, Interesting)
It is really a shame that more people have not read The Theory of the Leisure class [wikipedia.org], it rails against plutocrats, football players and kept women. It intelligently argues for the role of design and creativity for human progress over the barbarity of endless profit making and risk taking. Sadly Veblen died as a recluse in the hills of Palo Alto drinking heavily and writing rambling editorials ever so often in the local newspaper, he had devolved into a troll. 2 months later the stock market crash of 29' happened, I think that deserves a " Ha Ha".
The hero of the book is 'The Engineer' and 'The New Woman' and they totally get it on. Come on go download and read it.
Re:Endorsement (Score:4, Informative)
I think you're spot-on. And so is Murdoch, kinda. At least the part about this being just a new medium in which to deliver his product. I think the way he would like to price it isn't viable in the long run but that's just me being cheap. I get free news from reputable newspapers for free in my mobile and on the papers' websites. I even get the actual dead-tree version for free with my groceries purchase so any subscription of more than a couple of dollars for something intangible and pretty much ephimeral by its very nautre won't appeal. I'm guessing a very large and increasing group of people will be on the same boat.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Hooray! No one will target content towards you! Goodbye /., you will be missed.
I would be interested to see how many people adblock /. and deprive this wonderful site of revenue. It's likely similar to the percentage that do so to Ars. [arstechnica.com]
Re:Endorsement (Score:5, Insightful)
Early after I made my Slashdot account I had adblock on but didn't pay it any mind, and then I saw the "thanks to you contributing positively to this board, you are eligible to turn off ads"
I felt it was such an honorable and honest system that I disabled adblock for Slashdot and didn't opt-out of the ads. It also made me disable it for other sites I appreciate, like Hulu or even Google.com. Reddit has a "Thank you for not using AdBlock" graphic in place of an ad sometimes. I think it's what Google was saying some time ago: adblockers aren't ruining free websites, people will eventually use them to block out annoying or undesirable ads while choosing to support the websites they would like to support.
Not that I'm saying this behavior is in the majority, but it might grow with the usage of AdBlockers.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Well, my problem is that although I'm "eligible to disable advertisement", I didn't disable it and yet they don't show up. I don't have Adblock installed either. It probably has something to do with NoScript, although I have the whole site allowed. I'll probably just subscribe when I start earning something :|
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
But I do use flashblock as I think advertisements don't need flash to reach me plus it's a noticeable drain on a slow connection.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
The problem I have is this...
Ads take up my allotted amount of data i can download per month.
If I hit 5gb on my phone or 250gb on my land line- I get penalized- not the advertising company.
I am okay with small, polite ads. I'm not okay with large ads, flash ads, etc.
They had an ad on another site which downloaded 30 jpg's and then flipped between them to make a rolling banner ad of different products. Every time I went to that page, it redownloaded every image. I didn't notice it for the first few weeks
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
No, it's like an Endorsement from Beelzebub.
The CEO of Microsoft didn't endorse it, at least not yet, that I know of.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
He did, it just got drowned out by the sound of breaking chairs.
Yeah. (Score:5, Funny)
I've kindof been on the fence about the iPad (yeah, it's kindof pricey, it's missing some nice peripheral features, and the app-lock might be inconvenient someday, but on the other hand, the featureset makes it seem like it'd be a good spot between e-reader and netbook for me, plus there's a cool array of audio/instrument apps that have grown up around Cocoa Touch over the last two years).
But now that Rupert Murdoch has endorsed it, I'm more interested in checking out alternatives.
Re:Yeah. (Score:5, Insightful)
If it's someone with a reliable track record, then yeah. In this case, it's Rupert Murdoch who has a track record of being reliable, in the sense that all he's endorsed in the past has been bad for me. I simply don't share his taste, and what's good for him makes the world worse off for me. ;-)
Re:Endorsement (Score:4, Informative)
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
I mostly watched The A-Team, and I've learned Murdock was a nice guy. And insane.
No, endorsement from its primary customer (Score:5, Insightful)
iPad's customer is big media. It is not us. Oh sure, many of us love the idea of the iPad but honestly look who is benefiting most from it. e-Book sellers now get to raise prices, even Amazon caved on this and many originally thought Amazon to be a bunch of money grubbing jerks for charging so much for an e-Book. Hell, Apple handed their end users right into the hands of the new consumer, big media, and the end users are rejoicing at being bent over a barrel.
So of course Murdoch loves it, a whole slew of new ways for us to transfer money to them and their friends. And we will be happy for it because we will look so cool at Starbucks and the student centers.
Logically... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Logically... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Logically... (Score:4, Insightful)
Paywalls are just a pain in the ass to deal with.
I don't object to them much on moral grounds as long as the fees aren't exorbitant.
But whipping out a credit card for a sub-dollar transaction is hardly worth the time it takes to track down my wallet.
Re:Logically... (Score:5, Insightful)
I was actually quite shocked when the Economist site went free. Beats me why - those were high-quality articles I was willing to pay for. As in, pay to access the site.
Here's what's not cool though: bitching that Google is stealing from you, when you're not even following Google's suggestion on how to prevent Google from indexing your content. That's just pure whining and ass-hattery.
Re:Logically... (Score:4, Informative)
I was actually quite shocked when the Economist site went free. Beats me why - those were high-quality articles I was willing to pay for. As in, pay to access the site.
Huh? They still charge for complete access [economist.com] - they've had partial free access since I first got a print subscription however many years ago, similar to Consumer Report's site and the Wall Street Journal.
Re:Logically... (Score:5, Insightful)
The whining is because he wants google to cut him checks in exchange for the status quo, but they know he needs them more than they need him.
Re:Logically... (Score:5, Insightful)
If The Times or other of his publications go behind a paywall then not only is he losing the random visitors but also his loyal visitors who suddenly pay for stuff they got for free previously. Needless to say ad revenue will fall through the floor and the site must rely on the patronage of subscribers to keep the site going.
Maybe there is a enough people who regularly fork out for his content that makes it financially viable, but everyone else will be quite content to get their news from the many hundreds of other news outlets providing similar / identical coverage. If someone needs a fix of right wing rhetoric they can get it from countless blogs. I hope his plans tank and tank badly.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Wrong. Google News creates value by aggregating the news.
I usually get my news from one of my national newspapers, but sometimes (especially with International news) I want to know how multiples newspapers reported the issue. Everyone's biased, reading multiple sides of an issue is the best way to get a broader view on a topic.
Besides, Google News only shows two or three lines of content. I always hav
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Posting anonymously because the mentality in slashdot...
I see. So you only stand behind what you say when you know its gonna be popular, eh? Seriously, if you are going to fling poo from the sidelines spare us the justification.
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
"Posting anonymously because the mentality in slashdot right now is to hate apple and to hate paywall"
because if you don't slashdot will...what? come to your house and kick your dog?
You post AC because you are either a Troll or truly a coward... or astroturfing.
The rest of you post is logically flawed, but I'm not going to explain it to an AC.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
The next logical step to ask is who paid him to endorse iPad. Google? Microsoft? ~
Re:Logically... (Score:5, Interesting)
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Re: (Score:2)
Well, that is a Godwin-ish comment.
The reductio ad Hitler issue is the fallacy that "if Hitler likes something, it must be bad" or "if Hitler disliked something, it must be good", and you're doing the same thing with Rupert Murdoch.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Logically... (Score:5, Insightful)
Not at all - it is not that Murdoch likes the iPad, but the reason he likes it. It is a locked-down device designed for passive media consumption.
If the fact that Murdoch is promoting the iPad really should be setting of alarm bells in your geek psyche.
The Sooner the Better (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:The Sooner the Better (Score:5, Informative)
Don't think we can ignore him. He may be an old bastard but he's an old bastard with teeth dripping venom and many elected representatives owe him something.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
When your mother named you dmgxmichael did your father object?
IOW: you're no less anonymous than any other coward on here.
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
On the contrary, an online identity can be just as persistent as a real one. Signing up for an account is just like getting a birth certificate.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Rubbish, just because your slashdot identity is not your real world identity does not make it the same as posting AC. People don't stalk AC for revenge modding, astroturfing purposes, etc, nor can they look up AC's comment history and use it against them, nor can they tag AC as friend/foe.
I personally recognise quite a few far-right nutters by their slashdot id, I don't mark them as foes but I also don't bother responding to their crap. There ar
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
In my estimation, it makes the
Re:The Sooner the Better (Score:5, Interesting)
That's why they investigated Madoff and brought about ...... uh, wait..... they ignored the information they were given about Madoff and did not investigate.
IMHO, traditional media has lost the right to claim that they provide an invaluable service through investigative journalism. Madoff isn't the only example where traditional media failed, there are many others. How did Drudge get started? Because traditional media would not touch a story, etc..
Suggestion for Rupert (Score:5, Insightful)
robots.txt
Re: (Score:2)
Re:Suggestion for Rupert (Score:5, Insightful)
Rupert's company knows [newscorp.com] about robots.txt. See, they allow everything.
And Foxnews is even kind enough to provide sitemaps targeted at facilitating Google [foxnews.com]
Rupert's mantra should probably be listen to what I say, (pay no attention to what I do)
Re:Suggestion for Rupert (Score:5, Insightful)
no way! Like the MPAA and RIAA before him. Rupert wants to have his cake AND eat it too.
He wants Google to stop pinching his content - but DOESN'T want them to stop indexing his sites.
He wants to stop others from pinching his content - but he WON'T stop pinching content from other FREE sites if it'll embellish a story. (eg. pics/quotes from Facebook tribute pages of people who've ended up in the news)
You WILL submit!
Yes of course (Score:5, Insightful)
It's no surprise the media loves a locked down device. If enough people have these kind of crippled devices, they can stop making content available online and require apps or subscriptions for everything. This also helps to explain the media's unabashed love for the iPad.
Re:Yes of course (Score:4, Insightful)
Agreed. This is where Apple has been going for a long time now, and the world of a locked down device, where you only access media through one controlled point, where all apps have to be obtained from one supplier who keeps a tight lock on what can be installed, that's a wet dream for Big Content. If you think about it, the most important aspect of it is that you can bar hacks that will unlock DRMd media. As long as you just had DRMd media, but freedom to install whatever software you wanted, and the ability to transfer files from machine to machine simply by copying them across, DRM was always going to be readily hackable.
What we are moving towards is a situation where you will buy your content from Apple only, you will not be able to copy it without Apple's consent, you will install no apps that Apple does not like. So DRM will really work. Not only that, but all the content will at last be family friendly and politically correct. No need to worry about nasty subversive political sites, or swimsuit pictures showing up unexpectedly.
Apple is far, far worse than Microsoft. Microsoft is an old fashioned tech company, similar in attitude to IBM or HP etc. Its anti competitive of course, very market share focussed. But it does not have this stifling desire to control what customers do and read, it does not worry much about what content is accessed by the products it sells which give it its market share.
Apple is not really, in spirit, a tech company at all, or rather, its a unique sort of tech company, its a tech company in the tradition of Walt Disney 1955. So it is always thinking, how to use its tech position to control what customers do, think and read. That is the fundamental aim to which all its design tends. Its natural allies are Big Content companies. It has sometimes been said that Apple had DRM imposed on it against its will. Don't believe it. DRM and lockin are central to the Apple value system, they are shared values with the content and media industries. It seems inexplicable to Apple fans that it should be trying to ban the reading of perfectly lawful publications on its devices. You have to realize that Apple thinks of itself as Walt Disney 1955, but who in the 21st century has chosen to deliver its family friendly and politically correct content via computers and tablets. This is all of a piece, part of the same thing. This is why your music was DRMd, even when the rights owners did not want it to be. DRM is central to the Apple vision of how the world should work, as is content censorship.
I read that you cannot activate the iPad from Linux. Now, why would that be, exactly....? Its because open source is the enemy for Apple, even more than for MS, because it represents intellectual freedom. That is what is really at issue here. Do you want to live in a world in which a sort of latter day Disney tells you what you can read? Most of the press and media do. They cannot wait to be part of that latter day Disney consortium. That's the appeal of Apple today.
The Slate article is spot on. Its come a long way, and its ended up, like many revolutionaries, turning into a far worse version of what it originally campaigned against.
Re: (Score:3)
Apple is not really, in spirit, a tech company at all, or rather, its a unique sort of tech company, its a tech company in the tradition of Walt Disney 1955.
Apple is the world's most successful tech company.
So it is always thinking, how to use its tech position to control what customers do, think and read.
Apple has never, once, told me what to think, and I own plenty of Apple kit, so I speak with actual, first-hand experience. This is in stark contrast to the Free Software types who never tire of telling me to fear Apple because Apple wants to control everything I do. The current groupthink nonsense is that I'm supposed to boycott h.264 in favor of an inferior codec, and that I'm supposed to shun the iPad because... Well, the because here is never quite coher
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
So their whole stated goal of removing DRM from the iTunes Store and never wanting it there in the first place... where does that fit?
Rip, Mix, Burn?
"We encourage you to back up your iTMS purchases [back in the days where they had mandatory RIAA-imposed drm] to Audio CD using iTunes as soon as you download them".
What about Apple's open source commitments? (and yes, they are doing *way* more than they are "legally obliged" to do).
"DRM and lock in" are not "central to the Apple value system" - they happen to
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
"So their whole stated goal of removing DRM from the iTunes Store and never wanting it there in the first place... where does that fit?"
It fits in marketing mostly.
Whilst Jobs was telling us he'd love to do away with DRM, and how he hates it, but can't get rid of it because the studios force it upon him, other online music vendors like eMusic, Play and Amazon were selling DRM free music with the blessing of the music industry and often at lower prices than Apple's DRM'd versions. So what Steve Jobs said abo
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
THe only thing you're missing is the good sense to ignore Internet morons who clearly have no idea wtf they are talking about. HINT: If they did, they would have used the word "sync" instead of "activate".
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
do you really think that change makes it more understandable? As far as I can tell the ipad won't work before "X" -- whether X is "activation" or "syncing".
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Since it's Rupert saying this... (Score:2)
...has anyone checked if he has a short position in Apple stock?
I mean if Rupert likes the iPad then, ipso facto, the iPad can't be a good thing. And that means Apple's stock is going down.
Re: (Score:2)
It still kills the traditional paper. (Score:2)
If, say, _anyone_ released an RSS feed reader for the iPad, newspapers are just as dead as they are now.
Oh wait, someone has... A quick Google search returns several.
It'
Re:It still kills the traditional paper. (Score:5, Funny)
It'
Damn, looks like the Old Media got to him before he could finish the post...
Not bloody likely (Score:5, Funny)
Unless newspapers delivered via iPad are going to consist of something other than lightly-edited wire stories and insubstantial fluff reporting, they're not going to be a whole lot more appealing than the paper kind, and arguably less appealing, since lining the bottom of bird cages with iPads will be prohibitively expensive. And don't get me started on how much it would cost to pack boxes for a move.
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
lining the bottom of bird cages with iPads will be prohibitively expensive
There's an app for that.
The other reason Murdoch likes the iPad... (Score:5, Insightful)
Online + Printed: $2.99/week
iPad only: $3.99/week
Anyone else see the problem here?
Re:The other reason Murdoch likes the iPad... (Score:4, Insightful)
The Ipad app includes mandatory douchbag hipster tax.
I suppose a subset of people who buy the Ipad also know how to use a web browser and thus can access the Online WSJ without the added tax.
Re: (Score:2, Troll)
Go ahead, Rupert, make our day (Score:5, Insightful)
reiterated his disgust at how search engines handle news and called on old media to rethink how their stories are distributed on the web.
Then do us all a favor and pull your tabloid rags off Google. What's stopping you? I'm sure the core of your readers will stay with you, it's the only source that tells them what they want to hear.
Re:Go ahead, Rupert, make our day (Score:4, Insightful)
Tabloid rags? WSJ? Geez, I'm as non-Republican as they come but you sound like an idiot saying that.
I'd prefer avoiding going into some redundant spiel, but basically:
Finally, I'm close friends with some journalists. People who've written for the NY Times and Village Voice, rags like Entertainment Weekly, and more local papers you probably don't know. These people do good work (though more rarely when it's EW or People), and some of them are having problems figuring out what to do once they can't do what they're good at. It seems very likely that we're entering into a period that will historically be known as the nadir of journalism, the time when something not under any one person's individual control lead to the loss of a generation of reporters.
Re:Go ahead, Rupert, make our day (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Go ahead, Rupert, make our day (Score:5, Insightful)
Actually he's trying to have it both ways, the headline and first sentence to be indexed by google, the link leading to the paywall.
I wonder if Google's super secret search algorithm has the ability to tell if this is happening (I.E. the page content essentially not being there) and degrade these results in relevance (which is what I'm asking a search engine to do, order the results by the relevance to the search string)
iPads as newspaper replacement (Score:2)
While I disagree with most everything Rupert Murdoch says, I think he's at least partly on to something with the iPad as a newspaper replacement. OK, let's ignore the fact that it's terribly overpriced for this function, but he is right in that many people would like something that's lightweight and portable. Build a device like that and make it cheap, and you may have a winner on your hands. People would be able to sit on a bus or train and read the publication of their choice, be it a traditional newsp
Re:iPads as newspaper replacement (Score:5, Insightful)
The executive, disgruntled, then asks: Why would a kid pay $100 for that device if he can get a comic book for just 15 cents?
Everyone laughs at Susan.
Re: (Score:3)
Actually today she'd be able to answer back: "Kids don't read comics anymore - we're targeting this at the 30-something adult male demographic" and be dead-on.
It seems like (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:It seems like (Score:5, Funny)
Re:It seems like (Score:5, Funny)
Sergei Brin: Last week we pulled out of China, and today we're pulling out of Rupert Murdoch.
Really... Wrong image there... Now I will have nightmares.
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Sergei Brin: Last week we pulled out of China, and today we're pulling out of Rupert Murdoch.
Really... Wrong image there... Now I will have nightmares.
Don't mind if I do...
When asked about his feelings towards one of his current partners Google, Murdoch proposed he and his old friends yank off the news they currently provide. Murdoch said he prefers (Steve) Jobs, and the warm embrace of Apple. He feels that the new iPad is (locked) tight enough that they may be able to avoid unwillingly spewing their content on loads of customers.
Re:It seems like (Score:4, Insightful)
We need a better free press (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:We need a better free press (Score:5, Insightful)
Indeed I have noticed that most of the breaking stories these days have come from Wikileaks. Although not technically news it's been much more informative then traditional rags that put a spin on everything.
Oh grandpa! (Score:5, Interesting)
He's like the elderly relative at Thanksgiving who keeps saying racist things that would make everyone uncomfortable but they're so used to it they just roll their eyes and say "Oh Grandpa!" Is there any way this guy could not get it less? He understood how to be a Newspaper tycoon, but these days that skillset makes him roughly as useful as a candlestick maker or a wheelwright.
He keeps saying all this crazy stuff, but the guys who actually run Newscorp keep doing the opposite, lucky for them. They could easily edit their robots.txt and keep Google out, but they're smart enough to not only let Google in, but to let users coming in from Google slip past the pay wall . . .
Re:Oh grandpa! (Score:5, Interesting)
if he was clever about it, he'd offer apple a partnership where ipad users get free subscription to all news corp material for a year, and fund an apple search engine to take on google. throw in digitised copies of historical papers as part of the search service.
Re: (Score:2)
Not surprising (Score:2)
There are an awful lot of similarities between Republicans and Apple fanboys. They're both submissive, they're both religious in their single-minded devotion. They both believe you must sacrifice freedom for security.
murdoch bough myspace (Score:2)
Yet again... (Score:2, Insightful)
Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)
It's almost as if he isn't reading Slashdot (Score:4, Funny)
Murdoch is avoiding the real story (Score:3, Insightful)
Murdoch has got it ass-about. The reason that print media is dying is that the classified advertising model that was so profitable for so long has died. Craigslist has done far, far more damage to Murdoch's business than Google ever has, and there's nothing he can do about it. The cover price on newspapers doesn't even get close to covering the printing cost, let alone profit.
Another thing, maybe he can see coming. Online media provides a way of measuring advertising efficiency, something that is not possible in print. Count the clicks. As corporate advertising etc is going online so bean counters can know it's effectiveness. Same goes for job ads.
Print is dying because its advertising is obsolescent, not because of Google. Murdoch must know that
Don't give them any ideas (Score:4, Funny)
'let them do their own reporting'
Well, I guess you wouldn't like it if they took up on that idea. They sure couldn't make a much worse job of it than you do.
this is one that murdoch can't win (Score:3, Interesting)
The sooner dead tree newspapers die the better. Google can't put them out of their misery fast enough.
funny... (Score:3, Insightful)
given that most "news" these days seems to be verbatim copies of press releases passed around by AP or similar agencies...
the investigative journalist are a myth these days, much the same as the rugged individual and other such concepts that US people wraps themselves in each day.
Re:I'm torn... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:I'm torn... (Score:5, Funny)
The only way this could get worse for Apple is if Osama Bin Laden reads his next set of crazy pronouncements off an iPad.
Re:I'm torn... (Score:5, Funny)
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
The only way this could get worse for Apple is if Osama Bin Laden reads his next set of crazy pronouncements off an iPad.
hitler beat osama to it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9_EcybyLJS8 [youtube.com]
Re:I'm torn... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:I'm torn... (Score:4, Insightful)
Only on Slashdot do people believe that consumers buy Apple products because they're "cool and hip".
Because usability is for pussies, right?
Re:I'm torn... (Score:5, Interesting)
It's only on Slashdot that Apple are treated as the number one company.
I've never understood the reason why they buy them - but let's be fair, I think you can forgive people's misunderstanding, when everytime we ask them, instead of coming up with actual reasons, objective examples of things it does better, instead we just get vague handwaving answers like "I can't explain it, it's just a new paradigm" or "You just have to use it, honest" (which incidentally reminds me of the religious argument "You just have to believe in Him, then you'll see the evidence).
It might not be reasons of "cool and hip", but "Buying it because my friend said it was the best, and I believed him" comes pretty close to that in my opinion.
So you say usability - give me an example of this?