Apple Releases $300 Book Containing 450 Photos of Apple Products (theverge.com) 146
Apple has a reputation for releasing "revolutionary" products that carry higher price tags than competing products. Today, the company hasn't made that reputation any better as it has released a "$299 coffee table book" that contains 450 photographs of Apple products. The Verge reports: It's a hardcover edition, bound in linen, and is available in two sizes: $199 for a smaller 10.20" x 12.75" version, and $299 for a larger 13" x 16.25" edition. The book is simply titled Designed by Apple in California -- a name that somehow manages to be both humble and incredibly pretentious at the same time. The photos inside are all new images shot by Andrew Zuckerman, and will show off 20 years of Apple design "in a deliberately spare style." In a press statement, chief designer Jony Ive described the book as "a gentle gathering of many of the products the team has designed over the years," and hoped that it would serve as a "resource for students of all design disciplines." The book is published by Apple itself, and is dedicated to the memory of Steve Jobs. It is, undeniably, an act of corporate vanity publishing on an impressive scale, but it's one Apple deserves to get away with more than pretty much any other tech company. No one denies that when it comes to industrial design, Apple earns the praise it gets. That aside, though, the book's publication does show a certain amount of self-interest, navel-gazing, and even arrogance from Apple -- themes that were also present in September's unveiling of the new MacBook Pros. It's all very well to feel proud of the successes of the past, but we'll be interested to see if the company can justify releasing another such book 20 years from now.
Over priced like most apple stuff! (Score:3, Interesting)
And is at college text book pricing levels.
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If there are people who will buy it, can you really blame them for making it? They would be dumb not to, really.
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Probably ____________ supports
Re: Over priced like most apple stuff! (Score:1)
A fool and their money...
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And many people will still buy it. smh...
Pfft...I'm waiting for next year's Apple Book S, it will be thinner and lighter and will have some of it's pages courageously removed.
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And many people will still buy it. smh...
Pfft...I'm waiting for next year's Apple Book S, it will be thinner and lighter and will have some of it's pages courageously removed.
If you are waiting to buy an Apple product, you are doing it wrong.
Re:Over priced like most apple stuff! (Score:5, Funny)
Just wait for the Samsung copy. Watch out for the paper cuts.
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And the spontaneous combustion.
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If you wash a Note 7 in their machine, does it counter-act each other?
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How much is the E-book version? (Score:2)
I have given up buying slaughtered tree books for quite a while now, no matter how elegant they may look on a coffee table. So if this is worth buying, it would have to be on my Kindle. Which brings me to the question - how much does the E-book version cost?
Not that I'd necessarily buy it - just curious! Apple has enough of my cash to date
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E-book version?
You're reading it wrong.
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Then borrow it from a library. Then we only need one tree-based book for hundreds of people.
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I thought we would be swapping from wood pulp to hemp. Basically the by product of the happy go lucky market ;). No dead trees required, just the logical market change as hemp becomes legal again and Dow chemical bleaches and wood processing chemicals, take a market nose dive. Hemp does make cheaper and better paper. So mandate hemp paper, to reduce waste in the MJ industries.
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You can grow non-psychoative industrial hemp today, it's preferable because you won't have to surround your fields with armed guards.
Feel free to buy as much as you want from Canada if you think it is so cheap and drive the evil tree-based paper industry out of business.
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Sort of. You have to buy the Special Edition iPad Pro and it will be included. Only $2000.
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You can often save money over the Kindle version by buying used print books. It's always worth checking. If the book has been in print for more than a year, there are quite often used copies available for stupid low (~$4) prices, which, even including shipping, are lower than the Kindle price, which does not decrease with time.
That being said, I, too, prefer the Kindle copy of most books I buy for casual reading, though I will buy hard copies of "keeper" books.
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I have given up buying slaughtered tree books for quite a while now, no matter how elegant they may look on a coffee table. So if this is worth buying, it would have to be on my Kindle. Which brings me to the question - how much does the E-book version cost?
Not that I'd necessarily buy it - just curious! Apple has enough of my cash to date
You want to "read" a book with lots of detailed high-quality photos on an ebook reader? As for the price of ebooks for Kindle: https://www.amazon.com/Free-Electron-Lasers-1997-International-ebook/dp/B01DRWT1BG/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1479330071&sr=1-1&keywords=ebooks+for+kindle+for+free&refinements=p_n_feature_browse-bin%3A618073011 [amazon.com] - only $325.26.
Finaly a reasonably priced mac book (Score:5, Funny)
oh wait..
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Yeah, they've been soldered to the binding
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- 450 pages of paper storage
- Full HQ laser color printing
- 1 year limited warranty guaranteed
Disclaimers: USB slot, SD card slot, Monitor, Keyboard, Mouse, Charger, Batteries and Everything Else are not included. It takes Real.Courage.
The future book (Score:5, Funny)
It'll be organized by year, and start out with the iPhone. Then the iPad. Then the Unibody MacBook Pro.
However the final 80% of the book's pages will be filled with photos of watchbands.
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Don't forget iPod socks.
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For those of you following along at home, iPod socks were a real thing, sold as an official apple accessory at one point. In probably 20 color/pattern combinations. This is not a joke (or it is, but the joke is that it's real)
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Wow! (Score:4, Insightful)
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Personally, I'm waiting for "Assembled by FoxConn in China using Children" to come out. It's only $29.95.
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That's what the updated cover will read when this hits the bargain book rack at Barnes and Nobles.
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It's all ripped off from Braun, LG and Samsung anyway.
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Less than $1 per page for hipster iPorn.
I think the real hipsters are past iStuff. Now it's all about ironic low-end Android, or even better Blackberry.
navel gazing ? (Score:2)
"does show a certain amount of self-interest, navel-gazing, and even arrogance from Apple"
Nothing wrong with that !
By the time you open it, there will be a new ver (Score:2)
Yeah damn expensive coffee table books (Score:2)
Don't buy the Apple book, buy something that's a lot more reasonable and not so self indulgent:
Hip-Hop: A Cultural Odyssey (Hardcover) [amazon.com]
It's only $7,777.02 for a new copy.
I'm guessing the the people writing and reading this story don't know anything about the coffee table book market. $300 is nothing.
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I see it's only $1879 used, a steal! I'll order two!
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It's only $7,777.02 for a new copy.
Yeah but the $3.99 shipping charge is outrageous!
Apple reaches its final form: Hot Topic. (Score:2)
Burn down, burn down Hot Topic
https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
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just pictures of the final product, as you will find them in the store. Ridiculous.
Ohh, you already have your copy?
Finally! (Score:5, Funny)
We can literally close the book on Apple.
Uh Oh... (Score:1)
Anyone remember the 20th Anniversary Mac?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
That was a $7500 (in 1997) priced, under-powered piece of desk jewelry that was released at a point when Apple nearly went out of business.
This may be history repeating itself with Microsoft Windows replaced with Google Android.
Smells of desperation (Score:2)
Fluff companies spit out to distract from the mounting evidence they are out of ideas and lost at sea.
The more interesting retrospective will chronicle the rise and fall of Apple. They have been coasting financially on the success of the products from Jobs era. That will eventually run its course and only then will we know if they can continue to produce at the level established during Jobs tenure.
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In today's market, non-exponential profit growth = doom.
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Like all Apple product features, the second edition of the book will be deleted, get one while you can!
Hubris. (Score:1)
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New corporate headquarters (Score:5, Insightful)
The old saw was that when corporation builds fancy new corporate headquarters, it is an indication of an "edifice complex" and a red flag.
The combination of a fancy new building _and_ a self-aggrandizing book seems dangerous to me.
An Wang's "Lessons" was published in 1986, about five years before Wang collapsed...
"The Ultimate Entrepreneur: The Story of Ken Olsen and Digital Equipment Corporation" came out in 1988, the year DEC merged with Compaq... it's a little hard to date the "collapse of Digital."
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The old saw was that when corporation builds fancy new corporate headquarters, it is an indication of an "edifice complex" and a red flag.
http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/google-reveals-plan-futuristic-headquarters/story?id=29281704 [go.com]
$300 for 450 product images = $0.66/product (Score:2)
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I know you are joking, but...
A few months ago I came across what is probably Apple's cheapest product - the $9.99 MagSafe-to-MagSafe2 converter [apple.com]. It's actually quite handy if you've got any older Mac power supplies and don't want to spend $70 for a backup MagSafe2 adapter.
Even more expensive upgrades... (Score:4, Interesting)
Gentleman's Special Interest Literature (Score:2)
It's a hardcover edition, bound in linen, and is available in two sizes
Given the likely market, wouldn't a wipe clean cover be more appropriate?
More dongles for you (Score:2)
The existence of this $300 book pretty much sums up everything that's wrong with Apple and its priorities.
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At least we know what they have been concentrating on instead of refreshing their desktops.
Denial (Score:2, Insightful)
No one denies that when it comes to industrial design, Apple earns the praise it gets.
Apple does not deserve praise for its designs.
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And why is that? "Because they're ugly" is not a valid answer.
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Because they value form over function, and the form is tired and boring.
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That's only the last few years.
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Do you not remember the lamp-style iMacs?
The removal of optical drives?
The countless port changes?
The one button mouse?
Revolutionary? (Score:3)
Apple has a reputation for releasing "revolutionary" products that carry higher price tags than competing products.
Revolutionary? You mean by removing stuff people want? Let me fix that for you...
"Apple has a reputation for releasing proprietary products that prioritize looks and simplicity over functionality and flexibility and also carry significantly higher price tags than competing products."
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I predict a flop (Score:2)
In a year's time, they'll be going for $50.
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Or worth a bunch more, like the original AppleDesign book which is now a collector's item:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Appled... [ebay.com]
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You hatebois can say what you want but I'm considering buying this so I can sell it in five years or so for a big profit when it shows nostalgia from times gone by.
Egomaniacs (Score:1)
A resource for design students (Score:2)
So they can design products that Apple can sue for design patent infringement.
Here's the proof! (Score:2)
Corporations MUST be people, because only humans can be narcissistic, and this is some serious mirror gazing. It'll be interesting to see how many acolytes cough up the scratch for this outrageous self-love letter.
Apple is not a tech company (Score:2, Insightful)
Apple is not a tech company, they are a fashion company that sells tech-related luxury goods. Calling them a tech company is like calling Gucci a textile company.
And the best thing is: (Score:2)
People will actually buy it. :-)
Pr0n for Posers (Score:2)
Hipsters across the world are frantically writing to Santa.
Final chapter (Score:1)
This is the end. Their hubris knows no limit, so it is time for them to take a huge fall. Let's not buy any more iPhone 7's, that will teach them!
New and innovative book ... (Score:1)
The book is just a collection of pages held together with giant binder clips because Apple has Revolutionized the Design of a Book.
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Do they also sell a fitting table, the only table this book can be put on to be read?
It's designed to sit on a Microsoft Surface... the ORIGINAL Microsoft Surface [wikipedia.org].
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HiDPI displays like those 27" iMacs do need those 2500x2000px images. However, a "non-retina" iPhone like an iPhone 4 won't benefit from anything bigger than 320x480px. The Verge needs to learn about true responsive design which requires srcset in their img tags.