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 (nobody)...and 275 guests Last 5 registered Oplandisks nothingstar N_loop yipe foxtrotromeo Browse members... |
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My critique of these products doesn't really have anything to do with the products themselves. In fact, I use iTunes occasionally and have alot of friends with iPods who seem happy enough with them. What irritates me is this warm, fuzzy, colorful, urban feeling of camaraderie and nirvana that they are trying to create. The commercials depict hip, open-minded, break-dancing metrosexual profiles dancing around in ambiguous neon spaces to whatever feelgood, corporo-indie track is trendy at the time and seem to say: 'If you listen to trendy, Zach Braff-approved wankshot on our new $700.00 U2-themed iPod, you can be just like the sophisticated and hip youth you see here!' The worst part is, it's working! So many people are throwing their money at Apple it's amazing. Like I said, I don't really have a complaint with the product so much as I do with the advertising style, although I do wonder why people would buy iPods which deals primarily with AAC files as opposed to a more universally compatible mp3 player.. if you're going with the whole digital thing. But I digress. I saw an advertisement, possibly pre-iPod but definitely post iTunes, which said the following: 'Rip. Mix. Burn. The new iMac with iTunes + CD-RW. Take your favorite songs, put them in the order you want and burn a CD. After all, it's your music.' The problem here is, they are basing their entire company around this multimedia, loosey-goosey, mix-n-match lifestyle. They are commodifying music even further than it was already by emphasizing the user's 'right' to 'use' the music how they choose, and mix it how they want. It's portrays music as something that is just another product fitting into the uses and gratifications model and emphasizing ownership. 'It's *your* music.' It's not! You 'own' a legally released *copy* of a copyrighted recording which, in some cases, was assembled the way it was for a purpose and a specific effect. Not to mention that half the people who use these programs are college kid |
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s who probably downloaded the music in the first place. The entire movement is draining any last dredges of artistry from the very recordings they promote. I'm all for convenience, but in some cases the idea of mixing-and-burning is just inappropriate and shouldn't be universalized in such a way that every type of music is fair game to come up in your perfectly formatted, homogenized playlist. This was only exacerbated by the ludicrous iPod 'Shuffle'. Basically, there's nothign wrong with portable music players, I'll probably end up buying one myself eventually. The convenience factor is immense. I just don't think that these mediated forms should actually replace the originals and that people should talk about what they have in their 'iTunes' before they talk about what artists and albums they enjoy. It is for a combination of infringements on all these points that iPod/iTunes has left a very bitter taste in my mouth. |
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relax guys! |
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Until recently the iPod was easily the best MP3 player on the market. It plays MP3's even though iTunes uses AAC due to DRM. The success of the iPod is due to it's quality...popularity does not necessarily mean misguided masses. |
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What we need is counter-propaganda. Film yourself dancing around in your bedroom carrying a ruggedly heterosexual violinist on each shoulder. That'll show them. |
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valid point, although most people I know did not buy an iPod based on it's superior quality. still, quality is a point I neglected. I guess my main point was no so much inferior product specifications but the effects of the product on society and the means used to promote it. fleet: :) |
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None of that stuff can be blamed on Apple anyway, it's just a really good advertising campaign. They are well within their rights to advertise the lifestyle change because there clearly is one. They gave people freedom to ruin their music experience and they chose to so it. |
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Yeah I get all wound up over advertising too sometimes. At least the iPods aren't SUVs burning a metric kilofuck of irreplaceable fossil fuel just to go to the walmart and buy more fried lard. |
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yeah i definately have a problem with people using it as a status symbol instead of just an mp3 player. like i actually have 40 gb of mp3s that could fill up an ipod, most people who get as status symbols usually barely have any |
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yes, you do put it into perspective! I suppose at least iPods don't run on uranium or elephant tusks. Dannn_: *definitely* a lifestyle change.. and not a good one from my perspective. and yes, I was using Apple as the whipping boy for a lot of commodification that started with Napster and Winamp and Rio players I guess. this one just strikes me as the most heinous from a cultural and aesthetic point of view. |
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It's all bogus, the only solution is to fast for two weeks, get some amputees, give them pills, teach 'em about hinduism, karma, reincarnation, teach them yoga, give them syphilis, get each of them to signup at freeipods.com, and get a free Ipod! |
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I agree with Uzim. But I really want a scroll wheel, it's just so natural. I wish there were more options. |
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So let me get this straight with the iPod shuffle; you put songs on there, but you have no way of telling what song is currently playing, which song will be next, and you can't go forward in any order;, it's just always on shuffle? |
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Time to mix things up. Meet iPod shuffle, the unpredictable new iPod. What will it play next? Can it read your mind? Can it read your moods? Load it up. Put it on. See where it takes you. Choose from pocket-size 512MB or 1G models starting at $99(1) and surprise yourself. iPod shuffle: Smaller than a pack of gum and much more fun. Random is the New Order Welcome to a life less orderly. As official soundtrack to the random revolution, the iPod Shuffle Songs setting takes you on a unique journey through your music collection — you never know what’s around the next tune. Meet your new ride. More roadster than Rolls, iPod shuffle rejects routine by serving up your favorite songs in a different order every time. Just plug iPod shuffle into your computer’s USB port, let iTunes Autofill it with up to 240 songs(2) and get a new experience with every connection. The trail you run every day looks different with an iPod shuffle. Daily gridlock feels less mundane when you don’t know what song will play next. iPod shuffle adds musical spontaneity to your life. Lose control. Love it. Whoa dude! Hip! Way 2 B! |
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nope; there are next and previous buttons, and you can play the tracks in the order you've put them in your ishuffle instead of the controversial shuffle mode. you can use an autofill function to put tracks randomly in your ishuffle, or you can create a playlist, or drag and drop etc. (using itunes). so i guess there's plenty control. you're right however that you can't tell what's currently playing. the ishuffle has no display, so if you don't know what the track is by hearing it, you're lost. and yes, that's a BIG disaster. it simply means that you don't know your mp3's and you didnt bother to check what tracks you put in your ishuffle. a big, big disaster indeed |
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i fucking hate apple shit. i hope all the ipods blow up and put a permanent scar on the smooth face of mediocraty. |
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I think about it like that aswell but lets face it, all a company wants is money and therefor they need to advertise and I guess it was a succesfull campaign, although no-one really knows if they sold as much without the campaign mappatazee: "I agree with Uzim", is he your imaginary friend? |
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never saw an add on the telly for it |
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sounds like a coca cola commercial though, and sucks horribly therefor |
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..it can't be blamed on Apple..? how does that work? they choose which advertising agency to use, don't they? they give the "okay" to a campaign, don't they? well.. DON'T THEY!?? |
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that I really don't believe, Lee. it's just another commodity that most people who buy it don't really want or need. there are cheaper options available that are at least of the same quality, yet iPod keeps selling like a bitch. it's being sold by good advertising and hype. |
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People are always going to be greedy. But as far as the iPod goes, aesthetically it was spot on from the outset. In terms of functionality it was spot on from the outset. Form and function. That is why it started to sell. Yes a lot of it is hype driven now, but a lot of the iPods success has had nothing to do with Apple itself (for example every fucking mainstream R&B or hip hop video had the singer/rapper molesting one). I see no reason towards the negativity. As for the Shuffle...well I do think that is a hype driven fad based marketing ploy. But every company would do it if they were in the position, and the price they are charging for it is competative for what is essentially a 'designer product'. |
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this thread is about the advertising, not whether iPod sells though. |
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i didnt know why is it so good then? it's just another mp3 player i thought what's the best now? |
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i likes my ipod. it makes me more attractive to the opposite sex. and the same sex too! |
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yep but the campaign is no different (at all) than any of the other manufacturers are attempting to run...Apple was just targeted because of its popularity. |
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I'm pressing charges - my iPod turned me into a silhouette. |
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ipod sock, jeez |
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I think it has more to do with this namby-pamby idea that Apple is the Good Side to Microsoft's the Dark Side, so they shouldn't do evil things like just being a big corporation that is trying to make as much money as possible. |
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qrter - it's not Apple's fault that people want to enjoy their music as mp3s, or in random order, or as playlists or whatever. They just facillitated it. And the advertising campaign is not misleading or wrong, it's good marketing, I don't know why anyone would be bothered by it... maybe the ads are annoying to you but that doesn't really mean anything apart from during those 20 seconds you watch it. |
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i don't understand what the problem is, Apple is a company simply marketing its products... and to massive success. Can you argue that their marketing isn't good when they are BY FAR the most popular mp3 players available, they must be doing something right. Their marketing might annoy you but i'm pretty sure they don't give a shit and why should they... and what the hell is the big deal anyway that you need to write 2 full posts compaining. I have an iPod mini which is pretty amazing, its one of the new ones with 20 hours battery life. as for the Shuffle, for its target audience its perfect, Just because it doesn't fit your personal needs doesn't mean it doesn't fir other people's. I had a shuffle for a few weeks and managed to put 10 high quality albums on there and managed to navigate the tracks pretty easily. I ended up selling it and getting a mini ipod as I wanted more music and the menu's but for jogging and just general listening its perfect and its so smal you can't even feel it in your pocket. I'd even consider getting one again in the future if I can afford it. |
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Please tell me, with the iPod Shuffle is it possible to put an album on in the correct order and skip through tracks in order? |
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wow, you agreed with me before i even started to type my mind!! °_° crazy. i don't see why the iPod & iTunes ads would be especially to blame, every ad can be blamed or almost... chocolate bars are more likely to make you fat than a record-beating sport champion full of energy, lingerie won't make you look sexy if you're not sexy to begin with, travels won't make you have big grins on your face and lead you to sunny skies all the time, people are not smiling all the time and full of energy at the office, drinking soda doesn't give you special powers, playing lottery is so unlikely to ever make you rich, etc... |
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seeing as this discussion was about uviol finding the iPod campaign annoying, it was silly to say that Apple can't be blamed for this, it IS their campaign after all - this was my point. personally, I find these ads as annoying as any other. the hype round iPod is annoying to me though, but that's pretty much because I find all hype annoying. |
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yes |
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my ipod is broken, life's horrible without it, so silent and unanal. |
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but doesn't a normal iPod have a shuffle function? that would be weird, if you had to buy a new iPod just for a shuffle function. |
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i reckon the ishuffle is a bit too weird for you guys. and that's fine. the world is a weird place after all, isn't it? all these weird people and things and stuff. perhaps you'll get used to it...eventually it's like listening to the new ae. at first it seems crap and fake, but after a while... seriously though: you can stick it right in an usb port and use it as a hardisk. it's very convenient. |
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I want Apple to rule the universe for ever, so I'm all for it. |
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no, what I meant was - doesn't a normal iPod have a shuffle function? I would say it's a basic function of any audioplayer. |
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yes it has a shuffle function you can even choose to shuffle an album, an artist, a genre, a playlist or all songs |
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hey, you're not expecting me to give you straight answers here, are you? |
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..so.. what actually is the difference then? I'm really confused now. |
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no iScreen and smaller in size and storage |
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and you can plug it in directly into a usb 2 port, no need for any cables. |
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It's true, my complaint was mainly against the repulsive culture that has arisen thanks in part to the mp3 revolution. This culture was perfectly summarized by the iPod commercials (which have very much in common aesthetically and ideologically with the abysmal Coca Cola C2 commercials you see in theatres, like big speculated a few posts ago). It's 'hip,' it's 'postmodern,' it's 'individualistic,' it's 'free-thinking,' and yet it's a manifestation of big-ass corporations (ie Coke, iPod) which have taken these ideas and coughed up the most disgustingly optimistic and idiotic commercials I have ever seen. They emphasize everything I hate about our culture. They're marketing to the people who will see a Mitsubishi commercial and then run and download the song and add it to their iTunes and 'rock out' to it when they are chatting on AOL instant messenger the next day. As you can see, this is part legitimate complaint and part personal vendetta, so I'll leave it at that and acknowledge some level of bias. Bottom line: the ads are annoying as fuck, to me, and I know they annoy alot of other people too. |
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and it doesn´t have a 'line out', right? |
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no, its too small to have one |
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..but.. the beautiful cables.. ..such.. beautiful cables.. |
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so it's just a smaller iPod and they try to market it as if it's something new? ha ha! |
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