iPhone queue ‘superficial and pretentious’ says queuing fangirl Apple Stores have started selling the iPhone 5 in Australia, the country where this kind of thing happens first thanks to accidents of geography and the location of the International Date Line. Your correspondent was there and can report that, in the suburban store he visited, the sale was an orderly affair. Our first …
That was the Broadway store... That Apple Store is inside the shopping centre and Centre management wouldn't allow the queueing inside the store.
At the "Standalone" Apple store in the centre of Sydney people had been queueing since last weekend. We have the same fanboi idiots here that they have in the US.
Joke icon because it is the iPhone5 the biggest joke played on the fanbois yet.
@Stanislaw
No, I think I am right to use 'less' in this instance, less is used when referring to something that can’t be counted or doesn’t have a plural, to quote Albert Einstein “Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the universe.”, since the level of stupidity is infinite, and we are talking about the iDiots, it is uncountable and therefore 'less' is the correct comparative to use (or is it a superlative?)
I'd also like to offer you my most enthusiastic contrafibularities for the helping me to get learned gooder English like what it ought to be spoke and embiggening my vocabularly.
We all work together, we're one big happy family here, we're a TEAM!
Until your job gets outsourced to some third world shithole for a tenth of your wage, then it's "there's the fucking door sunshine, security will escort you off the premises to make sure you don't fuck with the computers."
Absolutely, Johnny. That shit makes me sick too.
If you want a phone that works, your choice has always been cheap dumbphone, such as a Nokia with a goddamn monochrome screen and lasts for weeks.
I would definitely not say you need to spend hundreds on an iPhone 5 to achieve working calls, or are people really that stup... don't answer that, of course, she was waiting in a long line to buy a phone.
"If you want a phone that works, your choice has always been cheap dumbphone, such as a Nokia with a goddamn monochrome screen and lasts for weeks."
Don't be so literal.
A 'phone that works' means 'A phone that I can easily use the full functionality of'. That is what Apple do: They make phones that any feul can use. That is why they sell to masses of people who otherwise are often very non-technical: They are simple to operate and require no faffing.
It's not my cup of tea, but that's a major contributing factor to their popularity. It's like the difference between stereo with a hundred buttons and twiddly bits and one with an 'on' and a volume button. Some people don't want to fiddle: They want a simple experience.
Battery in BlackBerry Bold 9790 lasts for a week, if one is using it only for few calls and not much else. Same battery as 9900 but slower (i.e. frugal) CPU. It's also briliant at texting (thanks to proper keyboard) and the reception is good, as are other traditional phone qualities like switching calls, contact book or phone log. So I would say, (some) BlackBerries work great as a phone.
Of course some will grumble about poor choice of apps in RIM store or imminent death of the platform, but it is not app store, or platform, which makes great phone (unless you own an iPhone).
iphones are not my cup of tea either but i recommended one for my dad because again, it just works. He doesnt want to do things outside the box but he does understand the internet, email and taking photos and videos. It is easy for him to use his phone and mac and can do everything he wants on them both.
I personally dont like the extra expense or walled garden approach but I can appreciate her sentiment.
I hear this a lot, but I find that Android on ICS and above is very easy to use, as does my not-really-technical-i-just want-to-send-a-text-and-check-facebook girlfriend.This was maybe not the case a few years ago but I think times have changed.
I'm sure I read a study once which compared how a 'virgin' user would perform tasks on iOS and Android, and I think it was really close. They measured things like hunting around to find the correct button etc.
I find the amount of comments for these articles from people who want to defend apple whilst distancing themselves from their products to be most amusing, keep them up.
Infact I may even write my own.
"Yes but you have to remember this is what Apple do well, they make functionality easily accessible to the masses, whilst not my sort of thing and i would never own one i can understand the appeal."
Priceless.
Just listened to the BBC World Service 'reporting' from the queue at the Regent street shop. Some seriously fucking scary people there including one who flew from Sweden to London to buy his iHit, apparently to show his thanks to Apple for blah, blah blah. Scary, scary shit. Like the Borg after a collective Masters at a version of the Royal College of Art where they only admitted people under six years old and closed down the Union bar.
I've owned a dozen Macs, even have an iPad, but if I ever end up like that, someone please shoot me.
When these twatty students eventually venture out into the real world and out from under the umbrella of parent sponsored roofing, they will find they cannot afford a deposit on a house.
Then I'm sure they won't be thinking 'If only I hadn't spunked $1200 on two phones'. No, I'm sure they'll be thinking 'Wow, why do deposits need to be so huge, what will the government do about it?'. If they bought it on credit, they probably won't even realise that they helped cause the larger deposit situation in their own little way.
I heard a similar argument yesterday and I really think it's wrong. (Yesterday, young people couldn't afford mortgage deposits due to buying expensive laptops).
Here in the UK, for an average house, you need £16,000 to £32,000 deposit. Any other purchases pale in comparison, credit or debit card.
My wife and I earn well above average, and don't think we could have afforded our house if we didn't get on the ladder in the 0% deposit days.
You aren't thinking correctly. Yes deposits are stupidly high now, however thinking 'this is only £100 here, £500 there' isn't going to get you anywhere. Thinking 'If I don't spend that £500 on something that I don't really need as I could use a much cheaper option, I can then put the money I save into a savings account' will probably in a few years let you reach the point where you do have enough money in that account for your deposit.
Thanks for telling me I'm not thinking correctly. You failed to put in any actual evidence or your thought process however.
For starters, not buying £500 on VISA doesn't give you £500 to save.
Let's say the average spend is £500, and people are spending it "here and there", it still no way gets to deposit levels. Someone would have to be "not-spending" / saving £500 for 5 years for a £30,000 deposit.
No one is buying an iphone every month. I'm not sure anyone on the current average wage could save £500 a month; certainly not an individual.
This is crap!
I recently brought a £250k house with a £12k deposit..
Some banks will offer a mortgage with 5% deposit, on top of that there are literally dozens and dozens of schemes to help first time buyers. Either government backed, or actually assistance provided by the housing developers.
I recently brought a £250k house with a £12k deposit..
The trouble is that a lot of people have so much debt, often from non-essential purchases, that they don't have enough disposable income to buy a place as too much of their income is tied up in servicing loans or credit cards. This is the price of a consumer culture and this bizarre belief in an ever expanding economy.
Run-of-the-mill IT bods do NOT make much money in Silly Con Valley. Try US$33 to 40K/year with a 2 year ("AA") degree and 5 years in the business. IF you can find such a job. A decent[1] 650-750sqft one bedroom one bath apartment in Mountain View, Sunnyvale or Cupertino costs ~US$1400/month. Given our current tax rates, that doesn't leave a lot of room for beer. Or gas/petrol, for that matter.
Systems engineers, system administrators & security administrators, on the other hand, with 6+ years of Uni and a handful of productive years in the business can pretty much write their own salary ...
[1] "Decent" defined by me as "far enough from a freeway to get some sleep" and "has space & hookups for personal clothes washer & dryer"[2] and "not a slum"[3].
[2] I will never understand[4] why people spend useless hours in laundromats when they can be productive when doing laundry at home ...
[3] Yes, there are slum-lords in Silly Con Valley.
[4] But then I don't understand the whole iFad thing, either ;-)
Here in the UK, for an average house, you need £16,000 to £32,000 deposit. Any other purchases pale in comparison, credit or debit card.
I know family members with well in excess of £16,000 on their credit cards. They moan about not being able to buy a house, yet think nothing of spunking several grand a time on long haul foreign holidays, the latest technology or as a deposit on a new car every couple of years, since they see those as utterly essential to their quality of life. In comparison, I decided a home was a bit more essential. As a result I use a six year old computer I got as a freebie from work, drive a fifteen year old car and holiday closer to home. The computer allows me to do everything my relatives do (admittedly I don't play the latest games on it), the car gets me to work just as well as their shinier ones, and a holiday in Southern Europe gets me just as much sun as in the Far East.
I use a six year old computer I got as a freebie from work, drive a fifteen year old car
I'm much the same, except I just don't go on holiday (admittedly I have become something of a workaholic) but I still can't afford a deposit!
I went overdrawn once a little while back and got hit with charges, which took me over the next month, and again... etc.
I've no problem with going without the latest and greatest, but my ability to save was knackered by the bank until very, very recently. I know a lot of people who have high levels of debt, and mine pails in comparison, so I'd never worked out quite where all my money was going until I totted up the value of the charges. Sometimes the cards are stacked against you and it takes a while to sort out the resulting mess.
Part of the problem now, from what I've seen (when we last moved I did look to see what kind of mortgage I can get) is that you just can't borrow enough from most lenders. The banks being more responsible has the knock-on effect of a lot of people not being able to borrow enough to actually afford a house (though it might just be prices in my area). Round here £60,000 might just get you a static caravan on a nice park, but won't get you much more than that.
Back to the point, a house is pretty much top of my priorities list, but it's a long, long way off unless I or a family member come into a serious lump of money. The money that would have gone towards a deposit has instead lined the bank's pockets as a result of a blown head-gasket costing more than expected. Still c'est la vie, I try not to be bitter, it's not like the world owes me anything, with some luck my claim will be successful and I'll get at least some of that money back!
I think most people understand the issue, but to those who don't..
I used to live in a council house. My first priority was always the rent and then the bills. Then it was fags and food. Times change and the fags are gone, but mortgage is still #1. then bills.
Even though I now earn a decent rate as a contractor I wouldn't dream of blowing good money on a couple of glossy phones, like someone else said elsewhere I also drive a beaten up old car that is reliable, I don't go on expensive holidays, or if I do it's once every 5 years or so.
I see people with i-Pads, i-Phones, expensive cars/clothes etc. and when I find out what they do for a living I wonder how on Earth they can afford it when I can't. The answer is that they can't.
"How are you supposed to save for a house deposit in this situation? Must be because they are twatty."
My comments were aimed at students (or anyone really) prepared to pay a premium for the latest shiny, but then complain that they can't afford to get on the housing ladder and live at home until they are 40.
Your comment referred to a group of people struggling becuase of high tuition fees.
Two different things.
Even if you take the fees out of it, its still difficult to save anything as a student and do a good job at your course what with 0 income + 1000s of survival outgoings.
I agree with you about people wasting money on the latest shiny make things better and then complaining about not being able to save.
Still it takes years (3 or 4) to get on the housing ladder even if you do nothing (except for pay rent, transport to work and food) - which is what i'm doing.
@AC 11:54
When the 'consequences' are £1000's in charges (no exaggeration), then yeah I'm complaining. In one month, the bank took £500 (more than 75% of my wage at the time). As well as you budget, there are things that crop up that simply cannot be avoided (don't fix car, don't get to work, don't earn money - and no, there's no option of lift). Had a similar discussion with the bank at one point, they felt £5 disposable income was sufficient to mean you should never go overdrawn. What if I fall ill and have to pay a NHS prescription charge (£7.20) says I? If it's a cold, fine, shouldn't be wasting the doctors time. If I run out of the painkillers that make every day bearable? Hmmmm bit more tricky there, even the bank aren't quite willing to say "your disability, your problem).
Going slightly over and getting charged a reasonable rate? fine. Going slightly over and then getting financially raped? not fine.
As I said before, no issue with paying my debts and paying my way. I don't waste money on pointless shite (though I did make some poor decisions when I was younger), but all that's been happening is the bank have taken a substantial percentage of my wages each month, ensuring that the next month they'll be taking the same (or bigger).
Incidentally, since I moved bank things have been gradually improving. I had to use my new overdraft to pay the debit balance on my old account, so still hit charges, but the new bank have proven it's possible to charge sensible amounts that don't risk driving you to financial ruin quite so much. Given the amount the old bank were taking (on average) each month, I'd have to have 30 payments bounce against the new account. So yeah, I blame the bank a bit given that their charging behaviour was bordering on abusive.
They were far worse before the test case, but I'd stay they still fall short.
Incidentally, I notice you don't seem to have the balls to put a name to your judgemental comment, so frankly fuck you and the horse you rode in on!
er what about the young people that don't spend their money on rubbish yet still need to find a house deposit.
E.g. undergrad course £9,000 a year x 3 years
Postgraduate course £5,000
Also students have to pay rent whilst they are studying, I paid about £4,000 a year x 3 years, 12k....
Should students be working fulltime whilst doing a course to pay the rent? How can they complete their coursework the highest standards? At uni I saw people dedicated to uni (not having to work) 100% getting a first, those working part-time getting 2:1s and 2:2s.
It is even more important you have the time to do the course properly now it costs £27k minimum.
How are you supposed to save for a house deposit in this situation? Must be because they are twatty.
Once you have graduated, the first couple of years you will need to rent, adding to the time it'll take to save a deposit.
Is it only me...or does the whole brain-washing of both the staff and the customers seem just a little creepy. Its like they had Derren Brown consulting on staff training techniques. The congratulatory hand-shaking for the first sad customers who queued took the biscuit.
This hype is about a phone that isn't that great (to me anyway) with a marginally better-than-average app store.
It's not brain washing - it's just a bit 'American' and to be honest ask yourself would you rather be greeted / served by someone who (at least appeared) happy to help / see you or someone sullen faced / who could not be ar$ed.
The staff in Apple stores are typically all pretty friendly, helpful and knowledgable - makes a change to many similar stores you could go into.
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I recently went into TGI Fridays for a beer and a burger.
On someone else's table it was a birthday meal.
The staff sang an overly enthusiastic song for somebody's birthday.
It all seemed too fake and cringeworthy. Rachel off of friends off of office space sprang to mind.
If it had been a local establishment, they'd have either quietly sent down an extra dessert (which I have had happen in a nice local restaurant) or grumpily not care (which seems to cover the local greasy spoons).
I'd rather have genuineness than US-imported fakeness (yes, I know, I could've ate somewhere else etc)
They would probably smile (as no doubt they have to deal with many other 'comedians') and I suspect would still be polite - you would probably walk out with a new iPhone. I've owned Samsung phones and other Android phones and in comparison they are junk and the service poor - I'm not being without a phone for a month again (Samsung) and to be sent a poor quality refurb.
I've owned Samsung phones and other Android phones and in comparison they are junk
Odd, the people I know who've moved from iOS to Android have said exactly the same thing about iPhones, though I suspect that Apple's customer service quality probably is higher. In an idealistic world, of course, you'd never need to interact with their support because the phone would be reliable and easy to use. Doesn't really hold true for anything in today's world though.
My own experience has been of wanting to throw iPhones against the wall, but then I'm not really your typical use case. I guess I take certain functionality for granted, and when it's not present (or buried somewhere) it's very easy to discount the phone as shit. Still, if it works for you, great! We've got customers with iPhones and are expected to support them, so I'll never be free of the things, but at least I don't have to use one as my main phone.
Ordered mine - arrive at 5 past 9 this morning - no bother at all. Initial thoughts is that it's good it's the same width as fits my 'human' hands just find. It's slightly longer but does not look like much - extra row of icons a nice though. What you do get is how solid / well made it feels - considering it's got a bigger screen yet it's around 20% thinner and lighter - and it does feel a lot lighter when compared to a '4'.
The 'cult of scientology' and 'Apple' are one and the same, what a very sad and wierd video that I can only assume brainwashing is involved or something to do with pay related to creepiness. But judging by the clenched fist recognition by the guys in the queues this is American and they lap it up.
I always thought it was wierd in Apple, but that is just scary.
'Big brother icon' because the cult of scientology will try and correct my posting no doubt.
We either need a zombie icon to denote brainwashing or something defacing a picture of derren brown?
As long as we're opening the article to read, and possibly clicking on Ads the stories will keep coming regardless of how many comments are posted.
Personally, I find they give me some amusement. Whilst I'm not a fan of iStuff, I'm not rabidly against them. Helps me feel a little more balanced to see people tearing the shreds out of each other over a 'shiney'. Particularly important considering I'm probably quite unbalanced compared to most people I know.
Yes, El Reg, you're doing me a Mental Health Service by continuing to fan flamewars, though if you want to go from NHS to BUPA level treatment you're going to have to supply me with popcorn!
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