Sick to death of the bloody iPhone? Click here We have some absolutely splendid news today for those among your who are heartily sick and tired of the bloody iPhone - those very silly people down at Blendtec have done the decent thing and stuck the infernal device in the blender: Blendetec sticks an iPohone in the blender To enjoy the orgy of whirring destruction, have a …
Not only is it the most overated phone ever, but it is also not being released here for at least another five months.... and will be locked in with just one mobile phone operator!
Why is this even news in the UK, or the rest of Europe for that matter? Apple (who almost rival Sony as the 'King of proprietary') must be laughing at the free publicity!
Colin.
Our first poster appears to have been lax in keeping up with iPhone-related Reg articles recently. If they had, they'd be aware that one of the criticisms is that YOU CAN'T GET THE SODDING BATTERY OUT YOURSELF. Thus ensuring the phone's handy post-warranty planned obsolescence due to the battery's limited number of charge/discharge cycles and maintaining Apple's revenue streams by either selling you a new one or extorting huge amounts of wonga to change the battery for you.
Personally I don't think that Steve Jobs is an evil, grasping bastard. I think he just recognises that Apple users are too dumb to swap batteries themselves without breaking something important.
TeeCee (wearing flameproof suit in a hardened, underground bunker)
>Personally I don't think that Steve Jobs is an evil, grasping bastard. I think he just >recognises that Apple users are too dumb to swap batteries themselves without >breaking something important.
It's not dumbness, it's purely because the physical appearance of the phone would be ruined with a hatch on the back. I'm sure there's other ways of making it openable, but these could let in dust and get behind the screen.
If so many Apple users were dumb, you wouldn't see so much free software available for it. A stupid user would not be able to program a computer (and if you're not using Cocoa you will need to use Objective C which is quite daunting at first).
Lack of changeable battery is the norm for many products. But it does seem odd given the 2 year life span of this phone. I guess Apple are just trying to keep out the hackers.
I have an mp3 player and GPS unit with no removable battery. Many devices I own use a Lithium battery to retain memory and yet there's no hatch to replace it. Ok, they're not glued shut, but who keeps a phone long enough to need a new battery? I keep mine less than 6 months as I'm not on a contract.
Personally I have ordered an Open Moko as I'd like to work on mobile software.
"t's not dumbness, it's purely because the physical appearance of the phone would be ruined with a hatch on the back. I'm sure there's other ways of making it openable, but these could let in dust and get behind the screen."
Sorry, but there are plenty of ways of having a battery compartment without permitting the ingress of dust. No, from a design point of view, this is slack design to guarentee a good return rate. There's also plenty of ways of having a "hatch" without ruining the overall lines of the product.
"Lack of changeable battery is the norm for many products."
It's not the flaming norm' for a commercial item. Just because you have two items with sealed cases and non user accessible batteries does not make it the norm. The only serious piece of electronics I have where I cannot swap the battery is my Dive Computer. My MP3 player, my GPS, my cameras, my PDA, my phones - all have user accessible batteries. By far and away the majority (not all I grant you) of electronics has user accessible battery comapartments (might not be able to BUY the required battery but that's a different issue).
"but who keeps a phone long enough to need a new battery? I keep mine less than 6 months as I'm not on a contract."
Loads of people who aren't slaved to their phone as a flipping fashion accessory hang on to their phones. If it ain't broke, don't fix it.
PS Bravo once again to the Blendtec guys. Gotta smile when they blend something.
Giles: are you trying to say that instead of being so dumb that they can't change a battery, Apple fans are instead soooo dumb as to think that not having the ability to change a battery "so dust doesn't get behind the screen" is a unique selling point??? I disagree...nobody could be that dumb surely? Apple may be fairly good at selling to their target demographic...but nobody is so good to make that one stick.
Blending/blowing up/axing/otherwise gratuitously destroying overhyped toys is fundamentally cool and always will be...good on Blendtec.
It is in Turtleneck Land. Saint Jobs has been selling them fashion accessories without battery hatches since as far as they can remember (not vary far, I grant you that), so therefor it is the Law of Their Land . . until His Jobsiness decides otherwise.
And keep quite . . if you wake them up they only cry louder.
Quote from Giles
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It's not dumbness, it's purely because the physical appearance of the phone would be ruined with a hatch on the back. I'm sure there's other ways of making it openable, but these could let in dust and get behind the screen.
Reply:
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You
Can't
Be
Serious
On a side note, cheers elReg for this vid, I think I'll get naked and stroke myself all over now.
Oh wait, NSFW...
Oh come on of course Apple can sell not being able to get to the battery to their users as a bonus, this is the same company who:
1/ Used the lack of a screen on the shuffle as a selling point.
2/ Used removing floppy drivers before they were genuinely obsolete as a selling point.
3/ Use the fact that a lot of users need a none OSX os so will pay to add another and dual boot it as a selling point.
4/ Tried to use the lack of a second mouse button as a selling point ("right-click menus are bad/confusing/not pretty" etc).
5/ Used the fact they finally added enough buttons to the mouse (mighty mouse) as a selling point.
6/ Use the limitations on software developement as a selling point (more secure, more focused etc).
7/ Turned none upgradeable computers (iMacs) into a selling point (yes I have heard it argued).
Apple do a lot of very good things, and I don't dislike them for existing like a lot of Mac haters appear to. But I can't believe some of the rubbish Mac users will argue in a Macs defence, it IS like they are in some different illogical reality.
I don't plan on buying an iPhone, however, I have to say, as a cell phone owner from the mid 90s on (remember analog phones?) I can honestly say, I've never, ever, purchased a cell phone battery. It obviously isn't normal for the average user to need one. My current phone, a Treo 650 has a user replaceable battery. Why? I have no idea. I tend to keep my phones about two years (length of a contract here in the states.) And I've never had to purchase a replacement battery for a phone before, nor would I expect to for the iPhone.
"God, it's pathetic. You know a society's completely corrupt when people start destroying complex machines for fun. WItness Top/Fifth Gear for other examples of disgusting, mindless decadence."
Thus saith the guy using a computer or other device to view and IT news website.
If you're so concerned about decadence, sell all your possessions and go become a hermit in the woods...in the nude... Until then, quit being so dramatic.
Frank: Surely the iPhone is disgustingly mindless decadence. After all you could buy a $50 phone which does the things a phone needs to and donate enough money to feed a few poverty stricken families for a year.
Destroying an iPhone for entertainment is no worse than paying to watch some people throw a ball about.
This post has been deleted by its author
1/ No screen made it cheaper and smaller. They were right, the tiny screens on similar players were useless - they showed you only the current song, and if you didn't know that already why was it on your damn iPod? Besides, look at the sales figures.
2/ Floppy disks were already too tiny to store things on. Noone had really equated that with the fact they were unnecessary, though, till the iMac. All but the slowest vendors quickly fell into line.
3/ Seriously, what? Free advice: if you don't want OS X you've made a bit of a blunder in buying a Mac.
4/ If your user interface _needs_ contextual menus, it's a shit user interface. Features should be obviously advertised, not hidden away - something Microsoft is just beginning to learn. Contextual menus are permitted for two things: advanced, rarely used features, and duplication of items available elsewhere for quick access. Which basically means they're unnecessary.
5/ Ditto to my previous point. Anyway, the main feature of the Mighty Mouse is the scrollball, not buttons.
6/ Again, what? If you're talking about the iPhone (which I guess you must be), it already ha better apps than any other mobile device out there. Computer remote control, awesome multi-protocol IM from several developers, even a Skype solution. None of which can compromise the stability of the phone. Hey, I'd like an iPhone SDK as much as the next man, but you can't argue with what's been achieved!
7/ They're a selling point, alright, but a selling point for the upgradable Mac pros. They want you to spend more money - but provide a limited, cheaper solution for those with thinner wallets. You may have noticed how every company in the world does the same thing... :-/
and any other mac fan boys out there
trust me from a techie point of view you are retards
today i was called out of a server redeploy to sort out the graphics lots printer
what needed doing?
the belt unit needed replacing or in other words lift out all of the toner cartridges and one other module, as they can only replace one toner at a time i was needed....
in the mean time the work experience caffeine monkey managed to balls up an automated install not return from its undeserved lunch break and im still at work gone midnight, damn all macs (at least u aint linux nerds, but thats only a small mercy)
They should get a larger blender, so they can blend the UK PS3, ALL region-locked DVD player in a row, all Blu-ray / HD-DVD players that are incompatible to each other...
...and ultimately a New Beetle and a Prius. All those are overrated.
BTW, I guess Prius batteries are not user-replaceable either.
"A stupid user would not be able to program a computer"
Thanks for that, I very nearly ruptured myself laughing.
Only a mac fanboy could be so hoplessly naive as to believe that. Presumably because it gives you the impression that *you* must be smart, because *you* can write a program, I on the other hand reckon I could teach a monkey to code in ObjC given a few days and some bananas, and I have seven years as a professional codemonkey, so I should know.
If it were indeed impossible for 'stupid users' to program a computer, the world would be a much nicer place containing many many less gnarly excel macros and horrendoud MS Access databses, and all support staff would have long hair and smiles.
"Thus saith the guy using a computer or other device to view and IT news website."
I'm using my computer for many of its EXPLICITY desgined purposes. NO telephone was ever designed to be put in a FOOD blender.
"If you're so concerned about decadence, sell all your possessions and go become a hermit in the woods...in the nude... Until then, quit being so dramatic."
Ah I see, misrepresent what I said and then take issue with THAT - nice work! Smashing up cars/phones/games consoles is the single most pointless, mindless thing you can do with them. Why not go out and kill an animal instead? At least it'll try and protect itself from your stupidity.
I am curious as to whether you resmemble Beavis or Butthead more closely, though.
That seems to be a powerful blender, I would say... It seemed to never hesitate or anything. Oh well, what do I know. I don't even have a blender. Or an iPhone for that matter. Don't plan to get one either, at least in the next, say, 5 years -- played with one at the Apple store today for some 30 seconds, though, and it was fun.
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