Agreed. Every big bank in America should be seized and run by people who know what they are doing. Not by coked up gamblers.
Don't stop at American Banks! They are all at the same game ... and what really irks me is even when they get caught red handed they never seem to be treated like other criminals!
you don't protect your business forming alliances with other boneheads. Your protect your business by creating innovative products that are so good that people desire desperately. This is where Apple will crack them.
They are selling "smartTV" stuff that is dumb, boring, complex and cannot be controlled fully by a mouse with half a brain. In the past every people could control a TV. Then they created the remote control and started adding shit to it. Now you have remote controls with 50 buttons that even people who understand that, struggle to remember where to change the channels and the volume, that are the only two things you really need 95% of time in a remote. This kind of stuff is where they will crack and sink like Titanic.
The Apple automobile
The Apple personal water craft
The Apple biplane
The Apple space shuttle
The Apple sex doll
The Apple fashion accessories
The Apple living room sofa
There's no end to the kind of silly rumors that people could start.
I'm sure if they had the will and the time Apple could manage any one of these and improve them greatly. Imagine the doll ... upload your play list to iCloud ... your family can share this account by using the same ID and password ... oops!
So, what, when all these stupid rumors don't come true, where is there left to move? "Apple is making a game console"? I guess they could always go back to that one. What else do consumers buy? What do they generically "like"? I guess Apple could be getting back into speaker systems. Or microwaves.
I think the short answer is, anything they want to.
Whatever inspires them. Wherever they can make a difference. And of course, make s living (and then some) doing it.
One thing easily overlooked about Apple is what drives them. It's really about making COOL and USEFUL stuff that improves or enhances lives in some way, and does so in the simplest, most elegant way possible. It's a very Zen approach to functional minimalism...
I could see a future Apple "car" … they might not manufacture it, or have a complete hand in the engineering of the motor, brakes, etc… but imagine a really "smart automobile" that's integrated through both software and hardware innovation to integrate with the rest of your life -- the continuity of your days -- in ways we could only imagine now. We're rapidly heading towards "hands free driving", more accessible and desirable public transportation, new fuel and engine tech… What are you going to do on road trips where you don't have to drive? iPad comes in pretty handy at times like those. If it's also integrated with the car and its controls? mm-hmm… If Apple got involved with that, brought their culture to it? Wow…
Plenty of other areas too. I think Tim Cook dropped a hint recently… They're moving into small appliances, of course! Refrigerators and Toasters. Hey, he seemed pretty knowledgable about what worked together and what didn't… must be the result of RESEARCH, yes? heheh… )))
But really, if it extrapolates from where they are and is a logical step, I'd say watch for it…
EDIT: Ugh… Do I like that the new editor works with Safari 6 again? Sure. Would I trade all of those features away to have the old image uploader back? The one that actually works? …Maybe.
Don't stop at American Banks! They are all at the same game ... and what really irks me is even when they get caught red handed they never seem to be treated like other criminals!
Sorry ppl off topic ... back to Apple TV
Don't worry, I think we're all pretty much on the same page with you on that score… but yeah, about those televisions…
EDIT: Ugh… Do I like that the new editor works with Safari 6 again? Sure. Would I trade all of those features away to have the old image uploader back? The one that actually works? …Maybe.
"We've learned and struggled for a few years here figuring out how to make a decent phone," Ed Colligan apparently laughed about with John Markoff last Thursday morning. "PC guys are not going to just figure this out. They're not going to just walk in."
Great quote. The article was pretty short and worth posting here. The smackdown the article author throws down is classic as well:
-----------------------------------------
"We've learned and struggled for a few years here figuring out how to make a decent phone," Ed Colligan apparently laughed about with John Markoff last Thursday morning. "PC guys are not going to just figure this out. They're not going to just walk in."
Ed, baby, sweetheart, a couple quick reminders. First: it's not hard to beat "decent," especially when your phones are on the 2004 cutting edge of design and you still haven't managed to slim it like a Q or WiFi it like an HTC. Second: PC guys already did figure it out -- that's why you're running Windows Mobile on your phones, remember? Not that we really have to continue, but third: as John Hodgman and Justin Long would have us remember, the sad, disgruntled differences between"PC guys" and Mac guys tend to transcend borders and cultures.
Gates isn't Jobs, and Steve's phone certainly isn't going to be riddled with the same issues as our beloved WinMo. No, the iPhone will have its own set of annoying issues, but believe you us, Ed, Apple will "just walk in," so you'd better have a fewand-one-more-thing-s up those sleeves of yours if you're thinking about stopping a mass defection.
Don't stop at American Banks! They are all at the same game ... and what really irks me is even when they get caught red handed they never seem to be treated like other criminals!
Reminds me of a quote:
"Isn't it great to live in a society where the penalty for lying to a congressman can be up to 30 years in jail, but the penalty for a congressman lying to you is another two years in office."
-Peter Schmuck, re Roger Clemens -
Can't anything be done about this move to Huddler? All regular posters complain. Totally OT post of me, but maybe (for the) better as opposed to a PM. Are you able to have someone at AI address this issue? It sure seems to be an issue, especially when AI's moderators complain, in concert with their members.
The speaker wasn't a blunder. It was an experiment. A hobby device, much like the Apple TV box has been (although we can now suspect that, due to the recent upgrade, it might be moving out of that status).
In its current form, the Television as we've always known it, really is an "idiot box". A Smart TV, and one which Steve Jobs might have envisioned, could add tremendous value to the idea. Maybe even move it toward its original ideal as a "centerpiece for news, entertainment and information", except now, not just "Broadcast to you" but fully interactive, customized on-demand content, much of which could even have been created by you. Add a super intuitive, simplified interface and… yeah. Leaps forward happen like this. It did with the iPod, the iPhone and now the iPad… the MacBook Air was laughed at (what? no optical drive?? Ha!!) and now is the aspirational norm… the iMac… a thing of beauty on top of pretty awesome performance.
I wouldn't declare the future Apple Television dead before it arrives. Not based on their track record of the past four or five years...
Don't get me wrong, I'm interested to see what they come up with. But there is very little margin on the hardware side of television and I have a hard time conjuring up TV hardware that would be so superior to what I have that I'd pay a premium for it. But as you point out, they've pulled it off before.
Meanwhile, mounting evidence in recent months suggests Apple is poised for yet another mult-year head start on the competition, with financial analysts and reports out of the Far East indicating that the company plans to begin ramping production of its first Smart TV designs later this year for an introduction no later than early 2013.
And Apple must be absolutely loving the fact that everyone, from pro-Apple bloggers (AppleInsider) to traditional media (New York Times) to their future TV industry rivals (LG et al) is focusing on what the Apple television might look like. And on what components it might contain. And the LGs of the world think that circling their wagons by creating their own smart TV app standard and building out some cloud storage might help them survive.
In other words, everyone is looking only skin-deep. Have LG and Changhong signed deals with the major movie and TV studios in Hollywood and New York City? Doubt it. Negotiating with entrenched content providers is time-consuming, costly, frustrating, and requires serious consumer electronics and entertainment industry leverage. (And negotiations take even longer when you need translators.) Do LG and Changhong have the cash to build out their smart TV infrastructure around the world? Doubt that too. Even if they do have the money, are they willing to gamble it all on something that may never make a profit? It could take years to build out modular data centers like Apple has built in North Carolina and is planning to build in Oregon and Texas.
Those are just two of the harder problems to solve: securing content deals and building out the massive infrastructure. I'm sure there are plenty more.
Now if only Apple were entering the banking industry .... Talk about and industry that needs starting over!
I was thinking about that last night....
Actually, it's likely the payment card industry. The ultimate smart card is a smart phone. PIN enabled, Internet connected. If Apple can disintermediate the cards and go right to the banks... Apple disintermediates PayPal, Amazon, Visa and Mastercard. gets their 'float' and say, half of the 2-3% per purchase the Payment cards charge the 'merchants' and sends the other half to the banks.... With the advent of passbook and NFC, big money.
It's a pretty simple app to generate a 'single use' credit card number for purchases which points to your AppleID iTunes account. Apple then goes right to the bank with nightly debits to your bank account, manages a line of credit for you...
In a couple years, Apple will be approaching 'big bank' status with the amount of cash reserves. If they started to offer a 'credit card' (at 11.7% interest)... that's a pretty good rate of return on that idle cash.
My concept would be a smart entertainment system, not just TV, all controlled from my iPad. You would teach it all of your components, iPod, stereo, DVD, BluRay, computer, Cable etc and then a single icon would let you bring up which one(s) you want active, and in what context. So, play a Bluray movie on the TV, but run the sound through my stereo system: set up a Skype call, show it on the TV and send/show designated photos to the other person. Teaching the system to do each of these combinations might use an Automator-like training system.
you're on the right track. but of course consumers don't want to have to "teach" - or learn - anything. they want it all to Just Work.
which is happening already. all STB's connect to your home LAN nowadays by wifi or ethernet, and iOS apps are available for their UI. Tivo, Comcast and other cablecos. even the XBox now (Sony PS3 and Nintendo are still holding out, the fools). A/V receivers/home theater systems will be next, altho they have been much slower in incorporating the necessary LAN connectivity.
but many of the TV OEM's now want their own "walled gardens" of proprietary smart TV setups. they want to mimic Apple, and lock you into buying all your hardware from them. Sony is the farthest along - and it sells its own Android tablets as well as offering an iOS UI app.
so beyond apps for UI control of each component, everything is reality fragmented right now.
Now if only Apple were entering the banking industry .... Talk about and industry that needs starting over!
Apple gets 30% of all transactions. As it's their standard contract, no one can do squat about it.
Apple singlehandedly pays off the entirety of the national debt less than a year later. That's WITH the Medicare stuff they never report (the hundred trillion we actually owe).
Very true, and the way they look at it is once the customer buys the TV, they have made their money and it is time to move on to the next sale. There is no support after the fact of regular updates or bug fixes or anything like that. Where Apple would be committed to pushing out firmware and bug fixes if issues arise... I believe they would treat it more like another computer than just another typical TV.
Also, concerning the margins issue people always bring up. We all know that Apple can charge more for their products, and they do so for a good reason. That is because they are always higher quality, they have the supply chain relationships to get cheaper parts, and they know we will buy them (at least I will). This, along with the revenue from the content deals they will be selling through the set, puts them in a unique position to possibly make a good profit in the TV market.
That's not exactly true. I recently purchased a Panasonic plasma and have since received one update. So it looks like at least Panasonic is getting on the ball instead of getting run over by it.
Comments
Collusion with the stated intent of thwarting competition. What could go wrong?
I am not sure Apple plans to make a TV anyway. They plan to change the entire industry.
Like Apple did with Music and Amazon did with books. It is not all about, or even primarily about the device.
Don't stop at American Banks! They are all at the same game ... and what really irks me is even when they get caught red handed they never seem to be treated like other criminals!
Sorry ppl off topic ... back to Apple TV
you don't protect your business forming alliances with other boneheads. Your protect your business by creating innovative products that are so good that people desire desperately. This is where Apple will crack them.
They are selling "smartTV" stuff that is dumb, boring, complex and cannot be controlled fully by a mouse with half a brain. In the past every people could control a TV. Then they created the remote control and started adding shit to it. Now you have remote controls with 50 buttons that even people who understand that, struggle to remember where to change the channels and the volume, that are the only two things you really need 95% of time in a remote. This kind of stuff is where they will crack and sink like Titanic.
I'm sure if they had the will and the time Apple could manage any one of these and improve them greatly. Imagine the doll ... upload your play list to iCloud ... your family can share this account by using the same ID and password ... oops!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tallest Skil
So, what, when all these stupid rumors don't come true, where is there left to move? "Apple is making a game console"? I guess they could always go back to that one. What else do consumers buy? What do they generically "like"? I guess Apple could be getting back into speaker systems. Or microwaves.
I think the short answer is, anything they want to.
Whatever inspires them. Wherever they can make a difference. And of course, make s living (and then some) doing it.
One thing easily overlooked about Apple is what drives them. It's really about making COOL and USEFUL stuff that improves or enhances lives in some way, and does so in the simplest, most elegant way possible. It's a very Zen approach to functional minimalism...
I could see a future Apple "car" … they might not manufacture it, or have a complete hand in the engineering of the motor, brakes, etc… but imagine a really "smart automobile" that's integrated through both software and hardware innovation to integrate with the rest of your life -- the continuity of your days -- in ways we could only imagine now. We're rapidly heading towards "hands free driving", more accessible and desirable public transportation, new fuel and engine tech… What are you going to do on road trips where you don't have to drive? iPad comes in pretty handy at times like those. If it's also integrated with the car and its controls? mm-hmm… If Apple got involved with that, brought their culture to it? Wow…
Plenty of other areas too. I think Tim Cook dropped a hint recently… They're moving into small appliances, of course! Refrigerators and Toasters. Hey, he seemed pretty knowledgable about what worked together and what didn't… must be the result of RESEARCH, yes? heheh…
But really, if it extrapolates from where they are and is a logical step, I'd say watch for it…
Quote:
Originally Posted by digitalclips
Imagine the doll ... upload your play list to iCloud ... your family can share this account by using the same ID and password ...
EDIT: Uh… hello? Huddler? Animated GIF? So… animate it…
EDIT: Ugh… Do I like that the new editor works with Safari 6 again? Sure. Would I trade all of those features away to have the old image uploader back? The one that actually works? …Maybe.
Quote:
Originally Posted by digitalclips
Don't stop at American Banks! They are all at the same game ... and what really irks me is even when they get caught red handed they never seem to be treated like other criminals!
Sorry ppl off topic ... back to Apple TV
Don't worry, I think we're all pretty much on the same page with you on that score… but yeah, about those televisions…
Quote:
Originally Posted by jragosta
The Apple automobile
I'd probably buy one if was electric or hybrid AND cool… iCloud integration, navigations, hands-free driving, iTunes on the road? yeah….
The Apple personal water craft
Based on Steve Jobs' yacht design?
The Apple biplane
Ha! Triplane! Only the best for our Apple products.
The Apple space shuttle
Richard Branson would be onboard for that one...
The Apple sex doll
No, I have enough gear-pr0n as it is….
The Apple fashion accessories
We already have oodles of those...
The Apple living room sofa
Siri… activate the foot massager. Ahhhh, thank you SIri...
There's no end to the kind of silly rumors that people could start.
You forgot a few:
- Apple Airlines
- Urban Trains, designed by Apple in California
- Apple has cracked the Transporter: Introducing the new iBeam.
- You're right, there's no end to it!
I miss Firefly!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Rot'nApple
Famous. Last. Words.
"We've learned and struggled for a few years here figuring out how to make a decent phone," Ed Colligan apparently laughed about with John Markoff last Thursday morning. "PC guys are not going to just figure this out. They're not going to just walk in."
Great quote. The article was pretty short and worth posting here. The smackdown the article author throws down is classic as well:
-----------------------------------------
"We've learned and struggled for a few years here figuring out how to make a decent phone," Ed Colligan apparently laughed about with John Markoff last Thursday morning. "PC guys are not going to just figure this out. They're not going to just walk in."
Ed, baby, sweetheart, a couple quick reminders. First: it's not hard to beat "decent," especially when your phones are on the 2004 cutting edge of design and you still haven't managed to slim it like a Q or WiFi it like an HTC. Second: PC guys already did figure it out -- that's why you're running Windows Mobile on your phones, remember? Not that we really have to continue, but third: as John Hodgman and Justin Long would have us remember, the sad, disgruntled differences between"PC guys" and Mac guys tend to transcend borders and cultures.
Gates isn't Jobs, and Steve's phone certainly isn't going to be riddled with the same issues as our beloved WinMo. No, the iPhone will have its own set of annoying issues, but believe you us, Ed, Apple will "just walk in," so you'd better have a fewand-one-more-thing-s up those sleeves of yours if you're thinking about stopping a mass defection.
-----------------------------------------
Classic!
Reminds me of a quote:
Quote:
Originally Posted by digitalclips
I miss Firefly!
Same here....
Can't anything be done about this move to Huddler? All regular posters complain. Totally OT post of me, but maybe (for the) better as opposed to a PM. Are you able to have someone at AI address this issue? It sure seems to be an issue, especially when AI's moderators complain, in concert with their members.
Quote:
Originally Posted by tribalogical
The speaker wasn't a blunder. It was an experiment. A hobby device, much like the Apple TV box has been (although we can now suspect that, due to the recent upgrade, it might be moving out of that status).
In its current form, the Television as we've always known it, really is an "idiot box". A Smart TV, and one which Steve Jobs might have envisioned, could add tremendous value to the idea. Maybe even move it toward its original ideal as a "centerpiece for news, entertainment and information", except now, not just "Broadcast to you" but fully interactive, customized on-demand content, much of which could even have been created by you. Add a super intuitive, simplified interface and… yeah. Leaps forward happen like this. It did with the iPod, the iPhone and now the iPad… the MacBook Air was laughed at (what? no optical drive?? Ha!!) and now is the aspirational norm… the iMac… a thing of beauty on top of pretty awesome performance.
I wouldn't declare the future Apple Television dead before it arrives. Not based on their track record of the past four or five years...
Don't get me wrong, I'm interested to see what they come up with. But there is very little margin on the hardware side of television and I have a hard time conjuring up TV hardware that would be so superior to what I have that I'd pay a premium for it. But as you point out, they've pulled it off before.
be afraid. be very afraid.
Quote:
Originally Posted by AppleInsider
Meanwhile, mounting evidence in recent months suggests Apple is poised for yet another mult-year head start on the competition, with financial analysts and reports out of the Far East indicating that the company plans to begin ramping production of its first Smart TV designs later this year for an introduction no later than early 2013.
And Apple must be absolutely loving the fact that everyone, from pro-Apple bloggers (AppleInsider) to traditional media (New York Times) to their future TV industry rivals (LG et al) is focusing on what the Apple television might look like. And on what components it might contain. And the LGs of the world think that circling their wagons by creating their own smart TV app standard and building out some cloud storage might help them survive.
In other words, everyone is looking only skin-deep. Have LG and Changhong signed deals with the major movie and TV studios in Hollywood and New York City? Doubt it. Negotiating with entrenched content providers is time-consuming, costly, frustrating, and requires serious consumer electronics and entertainment industry leverage. (And negotiations take even longer when you need translators.) Do LG and Changhong have the cash to build out their smart TV infrastructure around the world? Doubt that too. Even if they do have the money, are they willing to gamble it all on something that may never make a profit? It could take years to build out modular data centers like Apple has built in North Carolina and is planning to build in Oregon and Texas.
Those are just two of the harder problems to solve: securing content deals and building out the massive infrastructure. I'm sure there are plenty more.
Quote:
Originally Posted by digitalclips
Now if only Apple were entering the banking industry .... Talk about and industry that needs starting over!
I was thinking about that last night....
Actually, it's likely the payment card industry. The ultimate smart card is a smart phone. PIN enabled, Internet connected. If Apple can disintermediate the cards and go right to the banks... Apple disintermediates PayPal, Amazon, Visa and Mastercard. gets their 'float' and say, half of the 2-3% per purchase the Payment cards charge the 'merchants' and sends the other half to the banks.... With the advent of passbook and NFC, big money.
It's a pretty simple app to generate a 'single use' credit card number for purchases which points to your AppleID iTunes account. Apple then goes right to the bank with nightly debits to your bank account, manages a line of credit for you...
In a couple years, Apple will be approaching 'big bank' status with the amount of cash reserves. If they started to offer a 'credit card' (at 11.7% interest)... that's a pretty good rate of return on that idle cash.
Quote:
Originally Posted by MACT
My concept would be a smart entertainment system, not just TV, all controlled from my iPad. You would teach it all of your components, iPod, stereo, DVD, BluRay, computer, Cable etc and then a single icon would let you bring up which one(s) you want active, and in what context. So, play a Bluray movie on the TV, but run the sound through my stereo system: set up a Skype call, show it on the TV and send/show designated photos to the other person. Teaching the system to do each of these combinations might use an Automator-like training system.
you're on the right track. but of course consumers don't want to have to "teach" - or learn - anything. they want it all to Just Work.
which is happening already. all STB's connect to your home LAN nowadays by wifi or ethernet, and iOS apps are available for their UI. Tivo, Comcast and other cablecos. even the XBox now (Sony PS3 and Nintendo are still holding out, the fools). A/V receivers/home theater systems will be next, altho they have been much slower in incorporating the necessary LAN connectivity.
but many of the TV OEM's now want their own "walled gardens" of proprietary smart TV setups. they want to mimic Apple, and lock you into buying all your hardware from them. Sony is the farthest along - and it sells its own Android tablets as well as offering an iOS UI app.
so beyond apps for UI control of each component, everything is reality fragmented right now.
Quote:
Originally Posted by digitalclips
Now if only Apple were entering the banking industry .... Talk about and industry that needs starting over!
Apple gets 30% of all transactions. As it's their standard contract, no one can do squat about it.
Apple singlehandedly pays off the entirety of the national debt less than a year later. That's WITH the Medicare stuff they never report (the hundred trillion we actually owe).
That's not exactly true. I recently purchased a Panasonic plasma and have since received one update. So it looks like at least Panasonic is getting on the ball instead of getting run over by it.