Regent Street blocked by iPad fanboi swarm Fair play to Apple - they might be turtleneck-wearing control-freaks but they run a lovely queue. Several hundred fanbois and at least one fangirl were queuing up this morning to get their hands on an iPad. The line stretched from the Apple shopfront on Regent Street all the way round the corner onto Hanover Street. And …
I wonder how many people in line were employed by PR firms working for Apple? This is standard Microsoft tricks too. (70% of the people inline for HMV Oxford street Xbox launch apparently worked for 2 top London PR firms...)
Still if it makes headlines and people are too stupid to see through it....
This post has been deleted by its author
funny that, i'm betting the percentage is 0.
the difference being that whatever you want to call them, sheep, fanbois etc, actually WANT the product and are prepared to camp out for them.
Is their want your want? probably not by the tone of your post, but that doesnt mean that they are wrong and you are right.
I'll be getting an ipad, not a netbook or another laptop, it will replace my aging MacBook whose sole purpose was for surfing on the couch and in the kitchen because I am of the personal opinion that it's what I need for the job I will use it for.
Did you read about the first chap in the queue - 17 years old from Essex, started queueing since mid-day Thursday, intended to buy a 32GB, but when his dad discovered he was first in the queue helped him buy the 64GB.
What a great story - can you imagine how happy that boy is now, bringing a 64GB version home instead of the 32GB which he would have been thrilled to have too? Put a smile on my face imaging his happiness, I'm sure that kid is so excited right now, and yet, you have the audacity to call him an idiot. How offensive of you. Feel better about yourself?
There is nothing more to add.
I'll believe that when I see one cogent and inoffensive position put forth on this forum by the anti-Apple-ites. Until then, I'll assume anytime they see someone talking about Apple products without derision they'll do what the chap before them did exactly, in the exact same way, mindless moving the cursor over the downvote button and clicking.
Put forth cogent and inoffensive opinions and act civilly (i.e. no ad hominems) and maybe they'll be viewed differently.
Until then there is no discussion with them, there is only their misbehaviours which need to stop. I'm interested in understanding more of the why of their position, not that they think I am an idiot undeserving of their respect.
I am one of the "mindless downvoters" you refer to. Yes, I despise Apple, to the point that not only will I never buy an Apple product, but I won't even allow people to bring one into my house.
The reason is two-fold, and takes some explaining. First of all, consider the insane level of control-freakery exhibited by Apple. Now Microsoft are certainly no poster child of freedom and openness, but next to Apple they look like a benevolent charity. At least I can write and distribute a Windows program without having to get Microsoft's approval and without having to pay them a license fee to do so. At least Microsoft don't attempt to tell me what I can and can't have on my machine (re: Apple's attitude towards porn, for example). Etcetera, etcetera - the issues surrounding Apple's oppressive control-freakery around their devices have been gone into ad nauseam.
Fine, you say, don't buy one. Apple aren't a monopoly, it's not like you don't have a choice. Yes, this is true, I have the choice not to buy Apple products. For now. Let me clarify that "for now" because therein lies the antagonism I and my ilk have for Apple "fanbois".
What angers me, and very likely most of the anti-Apple crowd if they could just express it, is not so much Apple's control-freakery, but the fact that so many millions of people are buying into it, thereby legitimising it. These people are establishing the standard that it is acceptable and profitable for companies like Apple to dictate to the public how the devices we pay for may and may not be used. I hold in contempt those PC do-gooders who call for stricter laws, for the same reason - they legitimise government oppression and undermine freedom and democracy. If it was a few lone bigots in the wilderness, it would be a non-issue - but when millions of people buy into dictatorial practices, in whatever form - it becomes a serious problem. It's no different to people refusing to buy coats made of baby seal skins - if you do buy one, many people will regard you as an arsehole, because you've funded the market for killing baby seals. In the same way do we regard Apple supporters, because they are funding a market for a company that takes away one's right to use a product how they see fit.
So today I may indeed have the choice not to buy Apple. But if so many people are okay with such a level of walled-garden control, will my having any choice in future retain any meaning, when every other company has gone the same road because Apple have shown that it works?
This, I believe, is why you see such bitter opposition to Apple and its supporters in these forums.
If millions of people wanted or needed to visit my house, your comment would be valid. What Apple does affects the world at large. What I do affects only the dozen or so people who visit me - and only one of those has an iPhone, and she knows me well enough not to bring it in with her.
I do not believe that asking people not to bring certain items into one's home constitutes "control-freakery", since anyone has the natural right to ask that people don't bring or do certain thing in their homes. Are you being a control freak if you refuse to allow someone to smoke in your house?
You talk utter shite my friend.
You can write any program you like (but I doubt you have the intellect) for the OS X platforms - I assume you intended to refer to the iPhone platform ?
In terms of the iPhone platform then yes you do have to follow the app guidelines - for the vast majority of users (read non geeks) this is a good thing and ensure the platform remains safe from the more salubrious content and free from malware crap.
If you believe that Microsoft don't intend to do something similar on Windows Mobile 7 (or whatever it's now called) then you are sadly mistaken.
The adoption rate of the iPhone/iPod Touch/iPad just show that what the majority of users want is diametrically opposed to the wishes of the geek powerusers.
Open your eyes and grab one of the latest Apple products - you might just enjoy the experience.
"An Apple staffer was handing out bottles of water to iPad-less refugees. He said his hands were hurting from clapping and his voice hoarse from cheering - he'd been working since 6am."
So he is paid to clap and cheer? Uh huh. Hmmmm. To what purpose? Does the shop open earlier, or the queue move faster, or do people buy more iPads if there is a vocal and appreciative audience? Or do the fanbois/goils need some warming up on this special day? Do they not clap and cheer enough spontaneously to satisfy the media or Apples' collective ego?
It's sounding a bit like the Windows launch parties, a little too Potemkin village / Disneyland unreal for my liking...
Nothing against Jobs / Apple, just sick of hype manufacture. Let the products create the good feeling, not the marketers.
Not one indiviual or unique thought amongst the lot of them.
A bunch of Geeks thinking that having an Apple toy will make them look cool.
A FAIL for the collective Gene pool, please do not let these idiots breed. In fact looking at the pictures of the queues most of them won't anyway
I'm not knocking the the tech, just the fools who queue up all night to get it.
....oh dear, you poor fanbois! I just returned from Croydon, with an iPad, no queues, no hassle, easy parking, blah, blah, blah. Curry's, Trojan Way, have three hundred units, and by nine o'clock they'd sold no more than thirty! Result. Now i'm gonna subject this intuitive tech to it's most stringent test to date, my 94 year old father! If he can use it, it truly is the Jesus device of all time and space, i kid you not...
Reminds me of the O2 late opening iPhone "hype"... I went to my local highstreet (where I could park after 6pm for free) and walked to the O2 store... Man on the door looked excited and went to hand me a numbered ticket. I brushed him aside and wandered into the shop, bought the 8gig MicroSD card I wanted, and wandered off again.
There were more staff that customers.
That's probably to one and only thing I would thank Apple for... Saving me 70p parking when i wanted that memory card for my Nokia... *snigger*
Re your father, mine isn't quite as old as yours, but I wouldn't trust mine with anything made after 1970... He'd have it in bits looking for the valves (vacuum tubes to those in the colonies)!
"He said his hands were hurting from clapping and his voice hoarse from cheering "
I find all this very uncomfortable, is it because I am British?
I know I shouldn't but it just doesn't seem right. I can clap and cheer with the best of them but not about standing in a queue waiting for a piece of tech.
Hell Yeah!
Accidently wandered into the Apple store in Thurrock on opening day, yes all these trendy lookalikes in t-shirts cheering made me feeling very British, ie stiff upper lip and "None of that Yankee nonsense here please you whipper-snappers!!".
My little girl was 5 at the time, screamed the place down 'cos all the fruit coloured employees scared her so much!!!
Whilst the first photo seems to show the expected mindless drones who will buy something with no obvious use, the second appear to show quite a few "old boys" who have either been sleeping rough and woken to find themselves in a queue, or have just wander over hoping that free water will soon be followed by a free hot meal.
Picked on up at Currys this morning. No queue (well three people) and they seemed to have good stock of all the models.
The staff had all been instructed to clap though, which was a little awkward. Erm.. yeah, thanks, you didn't clap when I bought a washing machine last month.
When I plan to treat myself to a nice shiny toy I do look forward to receiving it admittedly, but to get up at dawn and queue for hours is just unbelievably sad.
I could just about understand it if the thing was being given away for free, but queuing up for hours to spend lots of cash HAHAHAHAHA
Try "a murder."
(Well, they're 'crowing' about their perceived success).
(Let the fanbois look it up on Google. If they've access to a wifi point)
OK, Ok
I've done their homework. If they bought one this morning, the battery probably ain't much use yet.
http://www.pubquizhelp.com/animals/groups.html
As I was a little early coming home, I dropped by PC World. Not a sign of an iPad or any related information anywhere in the store, at all. Popped next door to Currys, exactly the same.
I mean, I wasn't really a serious purchaser, just a curious bystander, but WTF? Do they not want to sell me one?
GJC
a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush
The numbers of "tablet" devices projected to arrive inthe next 6 months is huge, and those that are here (Crucnhpad or whatever its being called this month) are failing miserably.
The HP Slate when it arrives will fall apart after a year, because thats how HP make stuff, BUT WebOS on the slate should be a good fit, I'd certainly like to play with one if the price is right.
The winners from the trailing group IMHO, are going to be the Android based tablets, as long as the user experience is concomitant across the range, otherwise it's going to splinter just like Android on the phone already has, with the same sort of backlash against the manufacturer's that has already been seen.
After following this for a while and weighing up the pros and cons of owning an iPad as well as an iPhone 3G, I popped off to the shops...
I came back with an HTC Desire.
It does everything that I wished my 3G would do/would want the iPad to do, and gets Flash in there as well. Ok, the screen's smaller. But my eyesight is 20/20, so I don't care.
I'm fed up with my 3G, nothing about the 4G has left me expectant, features of OS 4.0 (whatever device) have left me underwhelmed and if Apple's controls tighten anymore they'll be taking my calls and pre-screening my contacts.
Bye Steve. It was a fun 2 1/2 years, but the relationship's not working anymore. It's not me, its you...
Where did all the Beautiful People® go? These aren't the people I see on the Apple adverts; surely fat old anorak-wearers can't own shiny new Apple things? Can't Apple implement a nightclub-type selective door policy and only sell their stuff to uber-cool young attractive designer types?
Ooops, just excluded myself on 4 counts.
My brother used to work for a computer game-type store, he quit as every time something new came out it had to have a midnight launch and there was the expectation that all staff come in.
I find it odd that for something high-tech like this it requires something so low tech as to physically visit a store, just buy it on-line and a nice chap in a van will come and deliver it to your house / office without any hassle.
I pre-ordered an iPad. Not being unfamiliar with the Apple hype machine, I made sure to put my order in within a couple of hours of the online ordering system opening for business.
It arrived yesterday without any queueing, screaming, or drama.
Who *are* these people?!?
I have just remembered that last Saturday I had the misfortune to pass by the Abercrombie & Whatever cloth empire state building just off Savile Row and the show was pretty much the same with the difference that it happens each Saturday (so I am told). You must queue an hour to pay for an overpriced T-shirt while gym-pumped androgyns dance around you in the dark and perfume is sprayed around.
The need to part of a pack is a well established survival mechanism for the human species and this is the 21 century version.
That second photo is a tipping point waiting to happen and a PR disaster if it gets on the news tonight - those are real fanbois in the flesh, not PR ringers. I'd like to see Flat-Cap Jack (foreground, right of centre) whirling around in silhouette. Cool!
I'm sorry, but looking at that pic, I'm thinking the iPad's killer feature must be its wipe-clean screen.
A tard of fanbois, surely?
Meanwhile, on a continent somewhere down under, Apple screwed over their own dealers. Instead of their stock of iPads arriving, they received a message at 8am on the launch day telling them that iPads will only be available from the official Apple store.
To make matters worse, the Apple security guards pushed press snappers out of the way to let the official Apple TV crew get the prime position.
My guess is that Apple wanted some manufactured frenzy to hype the perceived demand. Shabby.
I think if you showed someone an iPad back in 1982/3 and asked which they preferred, a speccy or an iPad I think the iPad would win. Many households had one TV and you wouldn't be able to use the speccy all the time. Others had a portable, often black and white.
So if you showed someone back then a device with email, the web, 3D games, movies and music you can download (back in 1982/1983 it was all tape and vinyl, CD took much longer to become affordable) I think they would be astounded.
While you could program a spectrum, most people played games on them.
Any device is about the software, a Windows PC can't do much without installing some software. Same with the iPad. The pre-installed software does the basics, email, web, photo management etc..
No it didn't, the first Spectrum had a rubber keypad with "proper" buttons, not touch sensitive by any description.
It's much more basic forerunner the ZX81 (and ZX80 before that) had "flat" keyboards using membranes for keys. Not really touch sensitive either by any definition we'd recognise now - they were physical buttons that you pressed, just not very hard.
if I worked at microsoft - each apple queue event i'd be handing out water and food with big corporate logs's on and sun hats and the like - cheap free marketing at the comeptions expense. Have to love a free world.
How long into competition queue spam marketing becomes a coined phrase - think about it - static audience with time on there hands and would probably even have a friendly talk with the johovia witness's :). Cheap PR as well to be gained on the back of what is in essence free advertising or news about queue's. Though I suspect somebody in the World has the job title "corporate event queue supervisor".
If you worked at Microsoft you'd be running W7 launch parties and morris dancer love-ins in various city squares. Given the lack of derision cast at those activities, I'm left to believe people here attended one or more of those, or wanted to attend one but grandma's feet needed scraping that day.
No Flash, bad WiFi, Battery problems, no camera, costly battery replacement, no proper USB, No changeable memory card, locked into the Jobsian money machine.
These have to be the folks that regularly get scammed by the lads from Lagos (419)
For when he has them by the balls and their hearts and minds (v.small) do surely follow.
Apple really should be more careful over who is allowed to buy their products. The thought of some old anorak been allowed to even touch an iPad is enough to put me off. I really hope the powers that be allow Apple to take over ARM so no other manufacturer gets their dirty mitts on what belongs to Stevie Gob by his own decree.....
Do I qualify for one now, oh lord? I promise I will shave more often and help to stifle innovation.
What a pile of shite!!
In regards to the comments posted earlier,
In fact the ZX80 and ZX81 keys you had to push quite hard, and your fingers got very tired. Sometimes you would press a key too hard and then your 16K RAM Pack would wobble and crash the damn thing (in the case of the ZX81).
Still bluetac was always available and playing 3D monster maze was worth it, it was NOT however worth queueing around the block, in fact I think ZX81's were mail order only (at least initially).
Here endeth the correction.
NB the ZX80, ZX81 and ZX Spectrum all had membrane keyboards.
ZX81 had a flexible plastic surface with buttons underneath.
ZX80 was slightly different (used metal rather than plastic, if my memory serves me correctly - could be wrong).
ZX Spectrum had rubber keys and much easier to type. If you had used an 80 or an 81 for a long time, typing on one of these keyboards was the height of luxury, at least you thought so until you visited your friends house who had a VIC-20 (and all they had exciting to play on it was "bomber").
Zurich, Friday aftenoon: tame. They had a whole bunch of heavies around, but that turned out to be a nice, sunny day off for those guys. Didn't check the Data Quest store on the other side, though, because what I wanted was not in the official shop, and I knew they had it in Bern, where I needed to be the next day. So, I hit the shop, spent 5 minutes with a member of staff, most of which taken up by waiting for her to check stock - what I wanted wasn't in. No problem whatsoever - what got in the way weren't customers but the heavies :-).
Bern, Saturday: moderate (not a "proper" Apple shop, but their main distributor, Data Quest). You could still get in and out, and although there was a steady flow of Jobs tampons leaving the store it wasn't overly troublesome, like in Zurich they had all the buyers corralled in one corner of the shop.
I got my 15" Macbook Pro, which heralds a return to Apple for the first time since I built an Apple II (iPhone doesn't count :-).
I just noticed when looking at the pictures, they all look so miserable
They are not smiling, contemplating the second coming of our lord Biggus Jobbus, eagerly anticipating their forthcoming (rather overpriced) tablets
Well I suppose that I would be if I was buying into the Jobsian world of a product that I can't expand the memory, can't change the battery, can only by apps approved by the great Jobsy. Knowing that something better, with true multitasking, changeable battery, and less of a fire hazard is just around the corner.
People are trying to kill themselves to make sure that you have a total ownership experience when buying this product. Sweatshops O sweatshops work hard to build this dream machine :)
The UK Government is passing emergency legislation to allow the immediate and indiscriminate use of water cannons, smoke bombs and tasers when the next iPhone is released.
We must keep Regent Street open for decent, ordinary consumer folk, and any Android users who've found their way outside.
for the 3G iPhone, bought the first one sold in West London at the O2 store. It was a great fun time, made doubly so that I had nothing else to do as I was debating two job offers and was unemployed. Had a great fun, drunken time with two 20-something biotech grad students, and a drunken Irishman coming back from his grandma's wake carrying his 1.0 iPhone. I lost track of how much we drank or the food we consumed!
Fun to do once, but never again...
I just don't get the negative comments here though...it's NOT a computer, it's a personal media device, and the Rolls Royce of them. I would want one if I needed/wanted a personal media device, but I don't - I carry a heavy i7-based laptop anyway when I travel, and at home my main PC is more than adequate for any media viewing. BUT - I can see the appeal...
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