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Note that MS is dropping the standalone Zune hardware, and moving the Zune interface into Windows Phone 7.

If your phone can do it all, why make standalone music players?

They exist for the real music addicts. I really believe that if there is an iPod that will be the first to disappear it will be the Touch.
 
I wasn't aware that other countries looked down on products manufactured here, that's a shame.

Most don't, but for the average Whereverian, two questions spring to mind when seeing a US flag on the side of the box:

1) shouldn't I really be buying stuff made right here in Wherever?
2) Alright, so the case was screwed together in the US, but isn't this still just Chinese engineering at its finest[1]?

At least Apple, with their 'Designed in California' motto, are being honest.

[1] Case in point, since someone already mentioned them, Chrysler. Their chassis were largely warmed over obsolete MB tech. Half their 'made in the US' line isn't. And, like just about everyone else in the industry, the lion's share of components in those cars came from global supply lines. It's remarkable given how much Chrysler had to do with things that they could still f-ck it up. :(
 
Why in limbo? The "phone part" of the Iphone is widely acknowledged to be craptastic.

I'm a big proponent of Android, but I will admit that the music player portion isn't exactly the most user friendly. Makes me miss my 3GS.

Hopefully they redesign it a little in future iterations.
 
Why in limbo? The "phone part" of the Iphone is widely acknowledged to be craptastic.
True enough, I am still in search of a mobile internet device with a camera. The iPad 3G comes close except in price, size, and the mediocre camera.

I am not willing to frivolously spend money on such an endeavor just to return it to the store. I already feel guilty enough about my many product returns to the point where I believe my card number is just shy of being blacklisted. Thank god for cash.

I have a good inner circle of friends but our jobs and relationships are really killing what free time we have to game. That limits my desire to an Alienware M11x to have something portable for games.

The internet just needs to get to the point where it really is everywhere as a public service before I really buy into it. Sadly we are not there yet.
 
Why use Japanese companies over American Companies. If they are made in China by a Japanese company why would that be cheaper than an American company being made in China? Also if the plants are in Japan they are just as expensive or more to produce in Japan as it is in the U.S. Have you seen any cameras or t.v's made in Japan for the U.S? Japanese people will not buy a t.v or camera etc if it's made outside of Japan, that why they pay much more for products made in Japan. If they are not going to make them in their U.S. make them in China for the lowest cost.

Perhaps because the Japanese supplier is the only company that can make the part well? Maybe they have the secret sauce, or just a serious patent portfolio.

If Apple are sourcing from a company, it's because Apple have done the math and decided that company offers the best deal/quality.
 
Yes, didnt you know?

Every country outside the US lives in poverty, where families must raise 17 children to send them out to work, and must fight to the death over food.

Maybe Japan was a stretch, but the part about China is absolutely not an overstatement.

Or perhaps the entire debacle at Foxconn has fallen on deaf ears?
;)
 
I agree. Given the last Ford we purchased leaked and after 6 months of trying to fix it, the Ford dealer said "well, everything leaks" and said they'd give a good deal on it to trade it in if we wanted. And the last GM we had stalled every morning when you were pulling out on to the road and the dealer said that it was "just the way the car was made," and could never fix it I wouldn't buy an American made car unless they started getting good reports both for quality upfront (they just sound cheap compared to a Honda, Mercedes, Lexus, Porsche, or Toyota) and for quality over 5-6+ years of ownership. And the previous American made cars we had were of similar low quality.

So for the last 11 years, I've been buying non-American. It is too bad, but the quality is not there. I even looked at one with a friend in November and it was the same deal.

An iPhone made in the US would be double the price due to high taxes and regulation. Quality, who knows, but the cost would be prohibitive compared to everyone else. It would be the fastest way for Apple to kill itself. If Apple *could* do it, they would, but it is impossible.

It is competition - if you can't compete on quality or price, you are out of luck. Unless you can get a handout.


Quality would probably go down.
 
I agree. Given the last Ford we purchased leaked and after 6 months of trying to fix it, the Ford dealer said "well, everything leaks" and said they'd give a good deal on it to trade it in if we wanted. And the last GM we had stalled every morning when you were pulling out on to the road and the dealer said that it was "just the way the car was made," and could never fix it I wouldn't buy an American made car unless they started getting good reports both for quality upfront (they just sound cheap compared to a Honda, Mercedes, Lexus, Porsche, or Toyota) and for quality over 5-6+ years of ownership. And the previous American made cars we had were of similar low quality.

To be fair (and way OT) Ford really do seem to have upped their game, and GM are at least trying.

I'm actually seriously considering the new 2012 Focus, or the Fiesta as a second car. I wouldn't even have looked in Ford's direction two years ago.
 
The batteries of note are probably for the nano/shuffle, not the touch. Hence why the supply isn't a problem yet with the iphones.

Try to remember, people who post these things, there's several types of ipods.
 
so much for even a semblance of journalism from this site

It is unclear why only Apple's iPod line is cited in the report, as virtually identical lithium-polymer batteries are used in the iPhone and iPad. Similar technology is also used in Apple's notebook batteries, although those units may not utilize the pliable polymer manufactured by Kureha in their construction.

Well pick up the phone and ask them, or investigate this somehow. It's unclear in as much as you haven't done your job of researching this...
 
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8F190 Safari/6533.18.5)



Nanobots in the bloodstream!

It aint hardcore, unless it's hexacore, mega-giga-byte son
 
Hard for me, even as an Apple fan, to weep too much for a company that chooses to do business overseas isntead of here in America, employing Americans.

Hopefully the situation in Japan improves -- for reasons beyond this.

ah nothing like starting the day with a bit of ignorance. :cool:
 
ah nothing like starting the day with a bit of ignorance. :cool:

+1 to some reality check.

This thread shows a lot of over simplification of how economies works and what is actually causing job loses.
 
Things are only getting worse in Japan...

Hopefully everything gets under control

Yeah after they radiate themselves to mutation, and then the rest of the world, they 'll get it under control.

At some point the global community should hold the nuclear manufacturers responsible for crimes against humanity. This is not only a Japanese issue that they 've been handling with half truths and botching it up. This concerns the world. When Chernobyl hit we where blaming the "bad" commies for concealing the truth, and it's the same and worse from Japan twenty five or so years after...

Anyway best of luck to the Japanese people, I wish them courage, but I think the japanese government has a lot to answer for to the rest of the world. Had this happened in some other supposedly authoritarian regime, say Libya, you 'd have had foreign occupation to resolve the dreaded nuclear threat. Alas it's not, and the rest of the world is focusing on their oil in Libya. Billions of dollars for arms are spent against Libya, surely, some global task force with the same amount of money would have handled the nuclear threat much much better in Japan as well as helping people out who 've suffered as a result of the earthquake and tsunami... but it seems people are not evolved enough to care for the future of humanity, but for the short term future of their oil investments they act faster than lightning.

Really disappointing.
 
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No, "best wishes" for our Japanese friends.

"Prayers" to the flying spaghetti monster are a waste of time - put the people of Japan into your thoughts, don't involve some ficticious deity.

Yeah, if you are to believe in a deity, you should first consult with uber belief commissar Aiden Shaw to allow you to say a prayer. :rolleyes:
 
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