50 cent in talks with Apple over low-cost computers - Page 3

No, she doesn't do this. Whatever I may think of her otherwise.

And your parochial prejudice is hanging out. From what little you know of places other than your own.

Wow.

Nothing like a little generalization to bring out the accusations of racism and prejudice.

Lighten up ppl. It's all in good spirits and generalization is the only way to define anything (except me of course).

Melgross,

Your original statement about bling and your response above are the type of statements I took exception to. People think about the things you are posting.

Yup that's the exact origin.

I listen to 50 from time to time (not really a fan or anything but I listen to pretty much everything) and in a lot of his early music mixtapes and such you can hear him be genuinely happy to have money.

I swear to god things like "look at these stacks, i got money, i got money!"

I can't even blame them because to them it's like winning the lottery, except you can't walk around with your new huge house for everyone to see so they do it with ice.

The problem is when songs go to far and try to suggest it's drugs and violence and NOT rap that brought them all that money.

But everyone believe it or not there are less and less people saying garbage like that now. Instead now they say they manucature music like it was crack, the cook it up and sell it and get rich. Which unfortunately for black people like me isn't much better of a thing to say.
But if someone is reading in between the lines or paying real attention to lyrics you understand that, but most people don't and turn off their ears once they hear the name of a drug.

I think gangsta and bling have some roots in "the underpriveleged socio-economic strata" but these days its move into the mainstream means it's not always about being poor, or being in a violent inner-city neighbourhood, or stuff like that.

It has grown and spread into pop culture and with that taken on all sorts of weird and different meanings, symbols, impressions...

Something tells me that Fiddy and Apple have different views on product design

Paris Hilton knows how to spell? She only knows how to be a blonde, lose her addresses book, and get laid. Other than that she's a complete bimbo. Oh, and have a retarded crap show too.

You can take exception to it if you like. But there has been a great deal written about this in magazines, AND, in sociology journals, as well as music mags that specialize in Gansta' Rap, and Hip Hop. The conclusion, even among those who are part of the "bling" culture have publically agreed with it. My statements merely reflect those bits of imformation.

And I hope that people think about what I post, even if they don't like it.

I don't know how much of the phenomena exists in Toledo Ohio, though I would think not much. But, here in NYC, it is a common thing to see on the street. This is where it originated, and there is plenty written about it.

Sometimes the truth isn't racist, it is merely the truth. Bling exists within a certain group of "stars". When you look at that group, you can do your own catagorizing. It has nothing to do with race itself, but it does have to do with certain individuals, and the street culture they come from, and are pandering to.

This arose from the "pimp look" that was popular in poorer parts of the city earlier. Those people, and those selling drugs were the ones making vast amounts of money, and flashing it with "pimpmobiles" fut coats, expensive watches, big diamond rings, girls on their arms, etc. The poor street kids found those people to be worth emulating.

When these music stars came from those areas, they too emulated that look, because their audience wanted them to, and it gave them "street cred".

You don't want to believe it? Fine, you don't have to. But, read up on it sometime.

ahh i wanna bone paris hilton and buy the fiddy mac. 8)

These things often make it into the popular culture. But then it loses its uniquenss and becomes mainstream.

Look at another phenomenum. For several years, the sport shoe companies used to have vans go into the poor neighborhoods in the city, and give out the most expensive pairs of shoes to the poor kids.

When the middle class adults saw those shoes on those kids, they would go out and buy them.

Why? It's hard to tell, but the thought was that those kids had that "street cred" I mentioned earlier. The middle class guys didn't know that those shoes were given to those kids, so the thought that the shoes must really be great if those kids had spent all that money on them, I suppose.

That practice has died down as of late, but it was a phenom during the late '80's through at least the late '90's.

Don't be fooled. That bimbo act, is an act.

All the more disturbing for being an act.

Well, she's not the only blond that has had one. "Dumb blond" is a standard phrase, even though it means nothing. But, many girls have been raised to act dumb. Too bad that so many men around the world can't cope with smart women.

So, she has made a good deal on money off this. Who are the dumb ones?

My information is a bit different. Those shoe manufacturers gave their shoes to the neighborhood drug dealers. Following the fashion trends set by the drug dealers, the poor children bought their shoes.

But, to the point, every socioeconomic group has its own definition of luxury. For inner city youth, it might be expensive athletic shoes and glittery dental work. For Yuppies, it is any number of things. Starbucks coffee comes readily to mind. For people with a little more money, it is a house the size of a hotel.

The notion that this stuff isn't going on in Toledo, Ohio is just plain wrong. It goes on everywhere--be it Big City, Smalltown, USA, or Farm Land, Iowa.

The takeaway message here is that little is to be gained by discussing stereotypes. Most people in this country waste money. However, the American economy depends on it. If suddenly Americans started living within our means, the economy would collapse.

The ones that buy into her act, feed her wallet, and to a degree her and those like her for perpetuating the problem. "That's the way it is, I might as well capitalize on it" is the adolescent viewpoint, "This is a problem, how do I work against it" is the adult viewpoint.

And without further information, 50 cent's campaign to get Macs into inner cities may very well be a solid effort to change some priorities in inner citiesor reinforce the majority that want their kids to have a solid backgroundand if so, kudos.

Well, no. It's been pretty well known what was going on. No drug dealers were involved.


That's true in every developed country. But, this a very specal group of people, most all are involved in the music business, and most are somehow involved with RAP and Hip Hop.

Yes to both points.

Maybe Apple will sponsor a "50 cent across america" concert series in Best Buys all over the country to promote Apple BB sales channel and the new "Mac50's." Though of course there will be that tenth of a percent of customers that will have to be told that, no, a Mac50 is not an upgrade to the Mac-10.

Lock this fucking thread already.

This place is turning into macrumors.com.

What? A </sarcasm> tag was needed?

No, no, I don't think so.

It's a strange story without all the facts wilco, and some of us at least are having light hearted fun with it.

Chill the frig out.

Heh. It was user SpamSandwich's lighthearted suggestion that started the prediction way back. So lighthearted fun IS good.

It's better here, I like Ai because I can be silly without having to use macrumors.com forums where there are over a hundred posts just as silly as me. Most people on Ai are not so silly so it's a good mix on Ai.

Yeah, wilco, chill the frack out.

BTW, Apple + BestBuy + 50Cent + special offer on 50Cent G-Unit Sneakers = Good Times for All. Get MarketShare Or Die Tryin.

50 cent seemms to be improving everything but the rap world

Yes, there were.


What is a very special group of people?

Although, I think we can agree that it is most over the top in rap, and hip hop, I cannot agree that in music it is most in rap. Watch vh1 for a week and you will see what I mean.

It's going to take more than him to do that.

Well, you can state that if you like, but if you show where you read that it would be more interesting. That certainly wasn't the intention. Reebok was a client of mine at the time, and they didn't do that.


I described that already, please read back.

I also did say that these things move into the mainstrean eventually. That is starting to happen.

I won't comment on your client's direct actions, but the neighborhood retail shoe stores most certainly provided complimentary shoes to the local drug dealers. And it was their intention.

Starting?! You don't get out much, do you?

Now you are talking about local shoe stores. I don't know what the local store might do, but it certainly wouldn't be authorized by the shoe company. These vans were not shoe store vans, they were owned by the shoe companies themselves.

As for your second remark, all I can say is: Very funny!

A ghetto emac would be like government cheese. It might be ok, but nobody would want one. I see a very cool, very portable tablet sort of device that would be inexpensive only because of its limited specs. I see all the cool hip hop kids hanging out and communicating, even with those standing right next to them. I see rich rappers paying for WiFi in their chosen neighborhoods. I see every kid in the world wanting these. I see buying stock and getting rich.

Oh, there could be a detachable screen for more convenient use at home for actually doing homework and all. You really don't need much power and speed for that.

I would just like to see a no frills $399 package. That is what I am seein parents buy in these neighborhoods. It doesn't have to be the most powerful computer just cheap. Oh and complete (monitor, cpu, keyboard, mouse).

Something like this:

Dimension B110 Date 6/24/2006 5:56:22 PM Central Standard Time Catalog Number 29 Retail 19 Catalog Number / Description Product Code SKU Id

Dimension B110: Intel® Celeron® D Processor 325 (2.53 GHz, 533 FSB) WB325H [221-9758] 1

Operating System: Genuine Windows® XP Home Edition

Memory: 256MB DDR SDRAM at 400MHz 256

Hard Drive: 80GB Ultra ATA/100 7200RPM Hard Drive 80

CD or DVD Drive: Single Drive: 48x CD-RW / DVD-ROM Combo Drive
Floppy Drive: No Floppy Drive Included
Monitors: 17 inch E773 (16 inch viewable) Conventional CRT E773
Video Cards: Integrated Intel® Extreme Graphics 2
Sound: Integrated 2.0 Channel Audio IS

Dell sells this basic box for $349 today before a $50 Reabte. I think there is another thread on this board about apple offering a basic box. I do know I read a headline this week at lowend mac about whether it is time for Apple to offer a basic machine. I say it is past time. This should have been the first intel mac to be inroduced. It should have also been released with boot camp or parallels standard. I think there would have finallly been a bump in marketshare with that release.

I don't know how often it needs to be stressed that Apple will hopefully NEVER do something as evil as selling a Netburst CPU.

256mb ram is WAY to small for any decent OS X experience. Gotta be 512mb minimum, IMHO.

I agree.

It's really not enough for XP either.

The interesting part is that those looking at the Vista beta are saying that at least 1GB is required for the Vista experience.

What's even better is game sites have found that many games don't play as well as they should until 2GB is added (rubs hands in glee!). Maybe when it's out they will stop looking at us with those smirks.

Yeah it is but you are missing the point. The point is the price. We don't have a mac near that price with everything included. Until we do we will still be looked at as over priced. I don't think this machine is for most of us on this board, unless we are looking for a second machine for a small child who has an xBox360 in his bedroom. All s/he needs it for is WP, email and the like. Personally I would like to see a minimum of 512 but to keep it in a basement price 256 will probably be what it ships with and make a little money on add ons. Dell gave me three oppurtunities to upgrade this machine before they would give me a summary of it's specs 256mb is definately not enough.

I would argue that Apple is not really after the customer that considers the price more important than the functionality. Which is not to say having cheaper Macs is out of the questionI'm just saying that Apple would have to build the machine with a DVD burner and 512MB RAM and price accordingly to not dilute their brand with what essentially would be new customers.

Is it worth the goodwill to build these machines and subsidize them a bit to catch the right price point? Probably. Apple earned a lot of brand equity with their Apple IIs in education.

[QUOTE]Originally posted by melgross
What's even better is game sites have found that many games don't play as well as they should until 2GB is added (rubs hands in glee!). Maybe when it's out they will stop looking at us with those smirks.


Chasing Gaming hardware on PC has taken me to a dark, dark expensive place I don't want to be at. However.... I've got a year old system now, but with the right research and overclocking heatsinks and 1GB Half Life 2, Half Life 2 episode 1, LOTR: Battle For Middle Earth 2, NFS: Most Wanted... It makes it all worth it.

Vista requiring 1GB is bollocks. And I just don't get Dells all coming "standard" with 256mb ram and then maybe. *maybe* when you buy it you'd choose the free upgrade to 512mb instead of a DVD-writer or somethin'.