Yeah, I agree. It's more likely some of these people claiming to know so much about the history of the computer industry were born in 1984. Commodore 64, various Apple II's, Atari XL's (soon to be followed by the Amiga and Atari ST's) ... by 1984 there were a bunch of PC clones ... even Dell existed. Serious price competition as well.
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DoubleTwist Turns The Tables on Apple in '1984' Commercial Remake
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I doubt Double Twist could afford Ridley Scott to make their ad - for those complaining about the quality. It makes its point cleanly and without the dated (retro?) look of the 1084 Mac ad.
Since the benefits are coming to Mac users first, I'm looking forward to something that will make my iPods MORE useable. If it just ties crappy mp4 players to iTunes, there's nothing to see.
If it lets me organise my own files MY way and makes iTunes less of an inflexible database that doesn't scale and doesn't work the way I want - this is good news.
If it pushes Apple to open up iTunes and make it more flexible and friendly, this is even better news.
I totally understand that iTunes exists to sell iPods and I'm happy to buy iPods (because they work), but iTunes is just dumb and trending the wrong direction in design ('smart lists' rather than files and folders - imagine Finder with all files in one folder and we have to 'file' them under tags, yech! This has to be nipped in the bud before iTunes/iLife stupidity spreads to the whole Mac OS).
If it opens iTunes up to more files and formats and different streaming services or sources of media, also good. (Or if it pushes Apple to do same.)
If it makes iPhone easier to use, or just able to know if I've listened to a podcast or not (you'd think that would be a no-brainer, but apparently not, Apple), that would be good, too. And likewise if it pushes Apple to -think different-ly.
As someone wrote earlier, competition is good. Bring it on.
Since the benefits are coming to Mac users first, I'm looking forward to something that will make my iPods MORE useable. If it just ties crappy mp4 players to iTunes, there's nothing to see.
If it lets me organise my own files MY way and makes iTunes less of an inflexible database that doesn't scale and doesn't work the way I want - this is good news.
If it pushes Apple to open up iTunes and make it more flexible and friendly, this is even better news.
I totally understand that iTunes exists to sell iPods and I'm happy to buy iPods (because they work), but iTunes is just dumb and trending the wrong direction in design ('smart lists' rather than files and folders - imagine Finder with all files in one folder and we have to 'file' them under tags, yech! This has to be nipped in the bud before iTunes/iLife stupidity spreads to the whole Mac OS).
If it opens iTunes up to more files and formats and different streaming services or sources of media, also good. (Or if it pushes Apple to do same.)
If it makes iPhone easier to use, or just able to know if I've listened to a podcast or not (you'd think that would be a no-brainer, but apparently not, Apple), that would be good, too. And likewise if it pushes Apple to -think different-ly.
As someone wrote earlier, competition is good. Bring it on.
dragonmantek
macrumors regular
IBM was far from being "only choice" back then... Let's not forget that Commodore C64 was available around that time, and it was the best selling personal computer in the history of computing... No computer has surpassed even today. Wikipedia sez:
"During the Commodore 64's lifetime, sales totalled 17 million units, making it the best-selling single personal computer model of all time.[4] For a substantial period of time (1983-1986), the Commodore 64 dominated the market with between 30% and 40% share and 2 million units sold per year,[5] outselling the IBM PC clones, Apple computers, and Atari computers."
Yeah, it's always a bad sign when a 60 second film has 35 seconds of credits. It screams amateur and self-indulgent.
boyplunder
macrumors regular
dXTC
macrumors 68020
I haven't seen the video (workplace firewall blocks streaming media), but the screenshots remind me slightly of the graphics used by KMFDM.
That aside, this doubleTwist thing may see use in my household. My wife tried out the iPod Touch at the Apple Store the other day and wasn't terribly impressed; if it had the camera that the nano had, she may have gotten it, but no dice. So she's sticking with her Sandisk Sansa e250 for now. Only problem is, she's stuck with Windows Media Player (aack!) as her syncing app; although her e250 can playback video, WMP won't sync it, and the Media Converter that came with the Sansa is even worse than WMP. If doubleTwist can fully recognize the Sansa, her player may yet see new life.
That aside, this doubleTwist thing may see use in my household. My wife tried out the iPod Touch at the Apple Store the other day and wasn't terribly impressed; if it had the camera that the nano had, she may have gotten it, but no dice. So she's sticking with her Sandisk Sansa e250 for now. Only problem is, she's stuck with Windows Media Player (aack!) as her syncing app; although her e250 can playback video, WMP won't sync it, and the Media Converter that came with the Sansa is even worse than WMP. If doubleTwist can fully recognize the Sansa, her player may yet see new life.
zombitronic
macrumors 65816
What do you mean by "doesn't scale"? Please explain what you mean by this and what it is that you're hoping DoubleTwist will do.
Well, you 'file' your music with tags so that it can be organized in a variety of ways. By artist, by year, by genre, etc. But in reality, your library is organized in folders. Just take a look inside your iTunes Music folder. In a way, the Finder also operates this way. You can sort your files by names, dates, size, kind, etc. So what's the problem and what's this iTunes stupidity that you're referring to? And again, what are you hoping that DoubleTwist may do about this?
Eidorian
macrumors Penryn
~~~ ♥ moe moe kyun ♥ ~~~
Seriously though, they should have stuck with the original hammer toss. I don't like that new character.
this guy operates on the theory that the world owes him a living-all hackers do;
Trouble is they never have anything to GIVE-they take
very doubtfull, but once he gets big YOU CAN BET he will change his tune
"Stealing from content providers is not kosher!"
Trouble is they never have anything to GIVE-they take
very doubtfull, but once he gets big YOU CAN BET he will change his tune
"Stealing from content providers is not kosher!"
iTunes/Apple/Steve Jobs/Steve Jobs' dog/Whatever is evil because it/they won't/I can't blah de blah de blah. Okay. Got it. I don't really have a dogcow in that race (Though my gut reaction is, "So go use something else. Plenty of fish in the sea".)
However, the commercial. Just bad. No wit. No style. No production values. And now days you don't need Ridley Scott for a decent amount of any of those things. Remo. Whitewall Studios. If I had made something that half baked, the only credit I would have hung on the thing would have been "Made by Alan Smithee".
If almost as many people are talking about how embarrassing your promo is as are talking about the point you're trying to make you've taken one step forward, but shot yourself in the foot along the way.
However, the commercial. Just bad. No wit. No style. No production values. And now days you don't need Ridley Scott for a decent amount of any of those things. Remo. Whitewall Studios. If I had made something that half baked, the only credit I would have hung on the thing would have been "Made by Alan Smithee".
If almost as many people are talking about how embarrassing your promo is as are talking about the point you're trying to make you've taken one step forward, but shot yourself in the foot along the way.
whooleytoo
macrumors 604
I like the idea of doubletwist; but the last time I looked at it (on the PC) the UI was absolutely awful. At least it looks substantially better these days..
I'm glad there are people on here that actually understand the history of the computer industry. It is very annoying to be painted a fanboy by those that are completely ignorant of the way things went down! 🙄
Yes sir haha! 😛
Easy there, fan boy!
What are these dozens of alternatives that you're referencing? Care to provide some links? I'm not aware of anything, other than an iPod or iPhone, that Apple plays nice with. What are these dozens of alternatives that you know of that seamlessly integrate with the Apple "experience"? If Apple didn't make it next to impossible, you wouldn't have companies like doubleTwist or the makers of the Palm Pre essentially hacking iTunes to make it work (and then have Apple breaking the functionality at every opportunity to maintain their chokehold).
Apple is adopting a lot of very unsettling practices in my opinion. Taking part in the Apple "ecosystem" is a choice, sure - but shouldn't I have the choice to get the best experience out of any device I choose to use with my Apple computer and not have Apple intentionally handicapping their competitors on their operating system?
jzuena
macrumors 65816
By operating system I assume you mean iTunes, since that is the only place Apple handicaps 3rd party hardware. But third part hardware from RIM, Palm (other than the Pre), and licensees of Microsoft (other than their own Zune) work fine when the 3rd party (or some other third party) makes OS X software to interface their hardware. Microsoft decided not to port their Zune sync software to OS X and Palm decided not to make Pre sync software at all. Microsoft wants Zune sales to lead to Windows sales, which is fine (and exactly what Apple hopes iPod sales will do with Macs). Palm bet the house on tricking iTunes into thinking the Pre is an iPod. Palm should be ecstatic about DoubleTwist... it will do what they were too lazy to do for themselves: provide a music syncing conduit for their hardware. If DT adds Zune support it would allow Mac users to use Zunes, too, since Microsoft is the one intentionally handicapping their competitor in this case.
Yes, Apple has become this way. However, nobody is required to use iTunes -- there ARE alternatives...
eastercat
macrumors 68040
I'd never heard of doubleTwist before, but I like the idea of how they want everything to converge and be a iTunes, Facebook and the kitchen sink as well.
Too bad the commercial felt so disjointed.
