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It cracks me up when people claim that an Apple product is "just a computer". It is not.

It is a way of life; an identity. It is a way to show the world just exactly who you are and what you are all about. A rebel - a member of a small, exclusive club that KNOWS what is best and good and right.

It proves that you have good taste. It proves that you have more money than most people. It shows the world that you are made of The Right Stuff.

Anybody can buy a Microsoft product, but it takes a special, superior type of person to buy an Apple product. Albert Einstein used Apple computers. Mahatma Ghandi. John Lennon and Martin Luther King.

They all were people who Think Different.

my wife's cousin's 9 year old son has an iphone. and his parents are on government assitance. medicaid, welfare, the works
 
Heh....

Actually, I'm not sure if iGrip is partially serious here, or just going for some irony?

All I can say is, as a LONG time PC Windows (and before that, MS-DOS) user who made a pretty much wholesale personal switch to the Mac around 2000-2001, there's more than one grain of truth to this.

When I first got into computers as a hobby, it was the middle of the 1980's and dozens of companies were competing for your money, hoping to have the "best" personal computer on the market. Apple was just another player in that whole scene really, right along with Commodore, Atari, Radio Shack, Texas Instruments, and others. Nothing ran anyone else's software, so customers had to "choose a side" and stick with it, hoping it remained successful.

All of the PC clones put an end to that era, but only Apple soldiered on, stubbornly offering an alternative to anyone they could convince to use it.

By the mid to late 90's, it really looked pretty foolish to choose Apple. You were purposely spending more money for less functionality and much less useful software. They were mainly selling to people who never used anything else and were afraid of change.

But Jobs came in and cleaned house, offering a whole new product lineup running OS X and changing the landscape. All of a sudden, Apple really had something worth looking at again. So yeah, to me, the "new Apple" was NOT "just a computer" at all. It was a rebirth of an ideal the company had from the beginning but slowly failed to deliver on as the years passed.

Today? Apple has gotten so much positive press for what they've accomplished, it's become almost cliche. It's kind of a faux status symbol now, and too many people own their products to call it "exclusive" anymore. But it DOES show a kind of "good taste", in my opinion. It shows an appreciation for an operating system that bucked the trend and for computers where style still matters. (Everyone else trying to design a computer with good looks borrows heavily from Apple's latest choices!)

Is it a "way of life"? Probably no more than the Linux or other "open source" fans could call their computing choices a way of life. But as much as computers are part of our daily lives, it's an important choice.


It cracks me up when people claim that an Apple product is "just a computer". It is not.

It is a way of life; an identity. It is a way to show the world just exactly who you are and what you are all about. A rebel - a member of a small, exclusive club that KNOWS what is best and good and right.

It proves that you have good taste. It proves that you have more money than most people. It shows the world that you are made of The Right Stuff.

Anybody can buy a Microsoft product, but it takes a special, superior type of person to buy an Apple product. Albert Einstein used Apple computers. Mahatma Ghandi. John Lennon and Martin Luther King.

They all were people who Think Different.
 
I love how Apple employees are speaking "on the condition of anonymity" about internal policies regarding secrecy. Ironic much?

I always consider "anonymous employees" to mean Apple commenting on a topic themselves without having to qualify it or to deliver a certain message.

Which would you believe? A direct PR announcement where Apple says they're serious about Apple security and will be much more strict ( after just saying that 3 months ago ) or an anonymous "leak" of things being "tough around here now that we have all these new stringent security factors! Whew this is hard work!"

I do believe Apple is doubling down on security, and did indeed start all of this when Tim Cook said it... it just takes longer to get control over 3rd parties... you have to wait until contracts are renegotiated, or be in a leveraging position.

Will we ever get a massive shock like the original iPhone announcement again? Probably not...
 
Funny

You really think the iPhone 5 "leaks" were really all leaks? You don't think Apple wanted people to hold off on the GalaxyIII and were feeding information to try and keep them?

I'm sorry. The iMacs, 13"rMBP, and iPad 10" revisions are about the best Apple can do these days.

The 5 and the iPad 8" had selective releases of information on a regular basis to hold off sales on competing products.

Fairly standard practice in this type of environment. Just tryin to Minimize Risk. :apple:
 
Its not just the size, but also the location, of the supply chain that leads to the massive number of leaks.
 
It cracks me up when people claim that an Apple product is "just a computer". It is not.

It is a way of life; an identity. It is a way to show the world just exactly who you are and what you are all about. A rebel - a member of a small, exclusive club that KNOWS what is best and good and right.

It proves that you have good taste. It proves that you have more money than most people. It shows the world that you are made of The Right Stuff.

Anybody can buy a Microsoft product, but it takes a special, superior type of person to buy an Apple product. Albert Einstein used Apple computers. Mahatma Ghandi. John Lennon and Martin Luther King.

They all were people who Think Different.

I filled out my application to buy a Mac over six months ago and I still haven't heard back, is this normal?
 
It cracks me up when people claim that an Apple product is "just a computer". It is not.

It is a way of life; an identity. It is a way to show the world just exactly who you are and what you are all about. A rebel - a member of a small, exclusive club that KNOWS what is best and good and right.

It proves that you have good taste. It proves that you have more money than most people. It shows the world that you are made of The Right Stuff.

Anybody can buy a Microsoft product, but it takes a special, superior type of person to buy an Apple product. Albert Einstein used Apple computers. Mahatma Ghandi. John Lennon and Martin Luther King.

They all were people who Think Different.

Yes, you are special and unique. You are just as special as the other 250 million people have bought an Apple device! We are all special!!!
 
On a tangentially related note. Supplier value chain leaks and insider espionage– while accounting for the lion's share of unauthorized release of product knowledge; they are not the only possible source.
Much belittled is the awesome power of the collective subconscious and it's modern embodiment- Group Think.
The more vociferously that a global community of interest participates in the future-think of innovation, the close in coincidence that their guesses, prognostications and wishes come to products actually in development.
I find it amusing that only three weeks ago, more than a few members of this forum were declaring rumors of a MacMini "Pure Fantasy" :)

Sounds a bit like someone who heard a professor mention Jung in class and then made faulty assumptions based on a misunderstanding of the concept of the collective subconscious. Or perhaps you actually read about the studies done to explore this idea, and mistook the results.

Regardless, neither group think, nor the collective subconscious refer to the type of mechanism to which you allude (some kind of transcendent global consciousnesses which permits people in disparate places to connect their thoughts unknowingly). This is an interesting idea, and it has been around for a long time, but this has nothing to do with group think or the collective subconscious (or collective unconscious as it is generally translated).

Group think is, more or less, bias toward consensus: if everyone else around an individual believes or wants "X" that individual is more likely to believe or want it as well. The collective unconscious, by contrast, refers to psychological associations which exist within the minds of individuals despite having had no personal experience with the thing in question. For example, the association of "demonic-looking" faces as scary. The concept of the collective unconscious is really just a tool for bridging the gap between neurology and psychology, as it reinterprets evolutionary "drives" as psychological phenomena.

Source: PhD in Neuropsychology
 
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If Apple and Tim really cared about our country and less about short term profits, they could bring back production here, at the same time virtually eliminate product development secrecy and counterfeits/IP copying, they could do it.
But it would call for major investment in robotics and design to change from the standard manual intensive product assembly line. All major electronic companies from HP to Apple should invest at the university level to develop the future of electronic manufacturing here in the USA.
The tax codes should be changed; the corporate tax rate on profits should be based upon the percentage of your product that is sourced and built in the USA. If your product is 100% sourced and built in the USA, then your tax rate is less than 5%. If your product is 100% sourced and built in other countries, your tax rate should be 70% and higher.
 
the only way to counter this is to announce products and THEN start manufacturing them...leading to at least a few month waiting time. I'm not sure people would want that

No way I would trade the announce/launch tactic Apple loves for some silly notion of secrecy.
 
The only way I see for Apple to have control of the products prior to the announcement is to only produce prototypes in house, use those for the product announcement then start production. Of course this will delay the initial product ship date by months even with the preorder and staging of the parts needed.
 
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You can't sell computers today if you tell them what is coming out tomorrow

Yeah, it's a long time since the Osborne. I don't think many consumers care all that much, and everyone knows new stuff comes out regularly anyway. If the iPhone 6* was fully leaked tomorrow, people would still buy the 5.











* Excuse me - iPhone 5s ;)
 
You don't? Probably because you follow Apple rumors and not MS rumors. Everyone knew what MS was going to announce at their event before it happened. The surprise was the Touch cover. Much like the Smart Cover was a surprise at the iPad 2 event.

People need to stop acting like there aren't "surprises" anymore at Apple events. Just because you saw a blurry picture of the outside hardware design, that means you know EVERY detail about the product I guess.

I do follow MS rumors... No one knew MS was going to create the Surface... that's why MS pissed off a bunch of other companies that supports Windows... I could careless about a cover... btw I never assume!
 
Thats it I am switching over to a less successful company with a smaller supply chain, so i can be surprised again.

Now....Where is my nearest Microsoft store?
 
Lol..

I just love these

"According to a handful of Apple employees who spoke to us on condition of anonymity,"

Maybie they don't know the meaning yet.... Saying "condition if anonymity" then telling everyone is hardy a secret anymore...

Oh well...

At least Microsoft has their secrecty down pat.

Apple never stood a chance, never will, regardless of how "secure" they reckon they are.


But then again...... I just love rumors......... (Even though i din't believe all of them.)
 
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"The more you tighten your grip, the more leaked parts slip through your fingers"

I love how how Apple keep doing things that you can tweak star wars quotes to make them seem like the Empire.... Im waiting for the Lawsuit and forced recall of a product so i can make exhaust port jokes....
 
"The more you tighten your grip, the more leaked parts slip through your fingers"

I love how how Apple keep doing things that you can tweak star wars quotes to make them seem like the Empire.... Im waiting for the Lawsuit and forced recall of a product so i can make exhaust port jokes....


"Use the force Apple... Use the force."
 
Personally I'll take leaks over product announcements that are made months before a product actually ships. They could no doubt get around the supply chain issue if they weren't building the things before announcing them, but in the end of the day I like the fact that lately preorders for devices have gone up within about 72 hours of an announcement and for flagship devices the product is available within the fortnight.

The recent iPod refresh's seemed to have a lot less known about them from what I can recall, presumably because they had a ship date a fair bit later than the announcement.

In many cases I don't find the leaks to occur that far in advance anyway.
 
Personally I'll take leaks over product announcements that are made months before a product actually ships. They could no doubt get around the supply chain issue if they weren't building the things before announcing them, but in the end of the day I like the fact that lately preorders for devices have gone up within about 72 hours of an announcement and for flagship devices the product is available within the fortnight.

The recent iPod refresh's seemed to have a lot less known about them from what I can recall, presumably because they had a ship date a fair bit later than the announcement.

In many cases I don't find the leaks to occur that far in advance anyway.

I blame Gizmodo to an extent for the leak frenzy... After they paid 5 grand for the iphone 4 the prices of the leak market seem to have gone up substantially for employees to take such risks...
 
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