Apple announces a new line of iPhones, and the annoying pretentious yuppies all descend on the Apple Store in New York.
Oh, wait…
Apparently, middle men are paying poor people $30-$60 above the sale price for the phones — so I can sympathize with the people standing in line. With the police treating them with contempt, not so much.
Maybe what Apple should do is have a price that changes over time: charge $10K per phone on the first day of release to gouge the status-seekers who just have to have the latest phone (which really isn’t that much better than the last version — I’m still using an iPhone 4, which is a great piece of technology, and adequate for my needs), and then drop the price by a little bit each day, until it drops to the semi-exorbitant normal cost. Apple would make more money, the rich people would be thrilled, normal middle-class people wouldn’t lose anything by waiting six months. We all win!
Except the poor people, who lose a chance to get paid a few bucks to sleep on the sidewalk. But they always lose, anyway.
I’ll just leave these here:
Alibaba’s Massive I.P.O. Reveals Wall Street’s Rigged Game (Thinkprogress)
The 1% has bought its own internet (Alternet reposting Guardian)
Guy in the end:
I don’t really get the sense of worry about poor people sleeping on the street for two days so that pretentious yuppies wouldn’t have to sleep on the street for two days, but a sense that the guy making that comment doesn’t like the image of poor people waiting to buy phones and reselling them.
It just… not classy. And if anything, iPhones are supposed to be classy.
Two questions: it’s unclear to me what message authors of the video were trying to send. I’m not sure it was: look at another way poor people are humiliated because they need money, even though that’s how I see the practice. So, what was the message?
Um, I forgot the other one. I’ll get back to you.
The police… ugh.
I doubt they treated iPhone lines like that when it was still cool for pretentious people to wait for their newest toy by themselves.
Apologies, this is off topic, but why did this post warrant a “Read More”? Wasn’t that long. Just made me waste two clicks, just like most posts since the new site. Is this to serve more ads or am I missing something about its function? Can somebody please explain? Thanks.
Somewhere a plutocrat is laughing. They’ve managed to convince people that buying a new smartphone from Apple is “upward mobility” – meanwhile, across society, social services are being cut back and fewer and fewer people are saving for retirement.
Apple could just launch their products online at a randomly selected time approximately a week before the they hit stores. That way the first people to get the new phones would be those who happened to get to the store page early. I suppose poor people could be paid to sit and F5 the page. This would probably be a nicer job than having to wait in line for two days.
You could also think of evil socialist solutions to poverty like offering poor people tax-funded jobs, or education, but let’s not get crazy!
[OT]
johnrockoford,
I’m guessing that was because of the youtube video.
And really, “wasting” two clicks? There are first world problems and then there are things ridiculous enough to put on mock first world problems lists.
I suggest you relax dear Beatrice.
It’s OK, you know, to have conversations about all sorts of stuff, even frivolous stuff, and even to criticize practices and products without the self-righteous coming out of the woodwork to assume that if you’re not weeping over climate change all the time you must be a self-centered privileged prick. Believe it or not, I can both entertain anguish about major world problems and annoyance at life’s small inconveniences, at the same time, without any dissonance. You should try it.
And yes, I find additional clicks an inconvenience. Most normal people do. I remain curious as to why almost every post recently has a seemingly pointless “Read more” — even when a video is not present. If somebody can answer — without trying to pick a fight over my audacity to ask the question — I’d appreciate it.
johnrockoford #8
Patronising much?
(You realise the “read more” is standard for blogs, yes?)
Well, if you think about the number of folks who use hand-held devices instead of regular PCs, you might have some compassion. Long main pages take time to reload, and with limited bandwidth, smaller is better.
Cut your attitude.
johnrockford @4:
I’m truly baffled that you actually asked this. Surely you’re aware that some people, probably MANY people read Pharyngula to hear PZ’s thoughts on a given issue. By clicking the ‘read more’, you get to read PZ’s thoughts on this issue–
@8
Patronizing much? How the hell do you know if she is or isn’t relaxed?
johnrockoford:
Some people have problems with videos auto-playing. There’s been a great outcry about that problem, with no perfect fix.
Out of respect for that consistent feedback, videos are typically placed below the fold.
As to the video, I see poor people making a bit of cash. Beyond that, like Beatrice, I’m kinda stumped as to what point the makers were trying to make with it.
johnrockoford (apologize for the misspelling of your nym above) @8:
You’re doing the same thing here that you did with your patronizing comment to Beatrice. You’re projecting your preferences and understanding onto others. Beatrice responded to you in a way that made you think she needed to relax, despite the fact that you have not the first clue what her emotional state is like (and really, telling a woman something that amounts to “fix your emotional state” is messed up). Now you’re claiming to know what “most normal people” think, which you have no way of knowing. We get it, you’re annoyed by additional clicks. Don’t project that onto others, especially since many of us *do* understand why there’s a ‘read more’ link, as explained by Nerd above.
johnrockford, please acquaint yourself with the commenting rules. There are two open threads at Pharyngula, where if you must complain, are appropriate for such posts. A topic thread is not an appropriate place. Open thread 1, Open thread 2.
Protip: do not tell anyone to relax, chill, or calm down. Learn to accept criticism. Do not use intimate terms of familiarity, such as dear with people you do not know.
Pteryxx:
Wow. Words fail me.
To be honest, I hate hiding half a post below the fold. I read almost exclusively on a mobile device, and putting a fold in usually results in more loading times and more data used (having to load a long page once is simpler than having to load many short pages). I supposed if I commented on every single post I might prefer the fold, but even then I’d probably just use the next/prev post links and bypass the main page entirely.
Only speaking for myself here.
Back to topic, it seems like almost any way you go the poor are still going to get screwed. *sigh* It always seems to boil down to needing complete economic revolution to solve the problems. Sure, there are things that can help, but these only lessen the symptoms, and the rich still have the power. Problem is it always seems like a lot of people are fine acting against their own interests when it comes to the economy.
It was one thing to mock the yuppies who stood in line for hours to get one of these devices first, but sadly it seems the yuppies have determined that they can still get their precious status symbol first by paying someone a tiny pittance to stand in line for them. I’d love to see Apple address this in some way (switch to requiring online registration and distribute based on a lottery system, perhaps?), but they get a lot of benefit to having these devices seen as an elite status symbol, so they may not.
All I know is that I’m pissed off that they discontinued the iPod Classic. My trusty iPod of 7 years died just a few days ago; the one device that keeps me sane through the drudgery of daily office work. Now I can’t find a replacement that will hold all my media that is portable and I can afford!
“But you can keep all that data in the Clo…”
No! Sing me no songs of the glories if the Cloud! The Internet is no where near as ubiquitous, secure, or reliable enough yet for me to trust it for storage. I live in Milwaukee, not fricken LA or New York. That and I can only afford a mobile data plan capped at 1 GB and my employers block wifi in the office (security issues, they claim). No, I need something with a hard drive with at least 80 Gigs of media dedicated storage that will fit in my pocket and cost less than $300.
In the meantime, I’ll just go slowly mad at my desk in silence.
Akira MacKenzie:
You could think about having the privilege of spending 300 bucks on a device for media, and the net access to make it worthwhile.
Matrim @ 17:
Yeah, me too. I just figured PZ has a reason for doing it. /OT
@Akira,
Plenty of people fix iPods or sell refurbished ones, and you should be able to find some on kijiji or ebay. Alternatively, you can get new music players or even some old model phones that take microSD cards up to 64GB (plus their internal storage).
johnrockoford,
No, actually I don’t feel the need to relax. I was a bit harsh, I can’t deny that.
I just watched a video about poor people trying to earn some money by sleeping on the street, being harassed by cops for being a poor person and realizing that even people who ostensibly are on their side (like video makers and that dude at the end) seem to be framing the issue as “ugh, way to ruin your image, Apple”.
All because some other people are the kind who need to get the newest iSomething toy the moment it comes out, who can afford it at a ridiculous price, but can’t be fucked to actually wait to buy it by themselves now that it isn’t an in thing any more to sleep in front of the Apple store.. So they will pay some more so that someone else, who can’t even think about having the newest iSomething will be humiliated and mocked for sleeping on the street and buying something they can’t actually afford.
But you wasted a click and felt the need to complain about it. Here, right in this thread. Not even in the Lounge or in Thunderdome. Here, where you didn’t even mention the actual topic of the post.
Yeah, I feel so sorry for you, you perfectly normal person who felt the need to state they are normal which was an interesting thing to point out there.
Stay classy, dear.
Iyéska:
Yeah, I know, “First World Problems.” Still, with a low-paying job as crappy and mind- numbing lay boring as mine, you need something to keep the monotony from getting too monotonous .
Edit: mind- numbingly
ck,
I have such a hard time deciding whether this would actually be any good.
What would that mean for the people in the video? They wouldn’t earn those 30$- 60$. Sure, they wouldn’t live through the kind of humiliation police put them through, but they would still need money. They would still be poor, and without society changed a hell of a lot, police and others would still find ways to humiliate and harass them.
So yuppies wouldn’t have a chance to exploit someone’s poverty for their convenience. That’s a plus. But I’m not sure how much that plus is worth. You and I wouldn’t see that line, would have that much less of a chance to know about the state people live in. Out of sight, out of mind, and yet they would still be at the same point of poverty and need.
For some perspective: SNAP benefits average less than $1.50 per person per meal. $30 is the equivelent of about twenty meals, if the US government is to be believed.
$30 can ease the desperate terror of survival for a little while.
Akira MacKenzie:
I have no doubt. Still, it’s never a bad thing to remind yourself of your privilege, eh? See TMM’s @ #28 for a bit of perspective.
Beatrice, an amateur cynic looking for a happy thought wrote:
True, but I just don’t see this particular instance being a catalyst for changing anything. From both the right and what counts as the left, there’s only likely to be calls to remove these people by force at this point.
I suppose it counts as a bit of irony that people in poverty are making the phones, and are now also standing in line to purchase them, all in service of the wealthy.
ck,
I agree that this is just a minor blip and no catalyst. I just don’t know what would be best for people in the line.
To be honest, I fail to see why even the wealthy are bothering with the IPhone 6 at all, far less using the poor as middle-men to wait in line for them. From what I’m seeing, the only major difference from the IPhone 5S is that the screen’s a bit bigger, unless you get the IPhone 6 Plus, which has an even bigger screen (and is apparently a ‘phablet’, as it’s too big to be a phone, but not big enough to be a tablet, like Samsung’s Galaxy Note). Then again, it’s always seemed a bit obvious to me that Apple are always trying to make their new device seem like a completely unheard of, brand-new, must-have shiny thing, even when there’s not actually all that much difference from their previous one, or when they’re pretty blatantly simply coming out with their own version of something that competitors have already released.
In a nation that worships the Almighty Dollar the only virtue is having more money, the only sin, having less money. Seeking money is is an act of holy contrition and supplication to the Almighty Dollar.
Money defines the boundaries of your freedom to be and do. No money, no freedom.
Iyéska @ 29.
I take your point.
I still have my iPhone 4. Works fine for me.
But the whole iPhone phenomenon isn’t an isolated trend peculiar to Apple, as most people who use computers should already know. Pressuring you to buy the latest upgrade of this or that piece of software, or in this case hardware, is standard fare for computer companies. Microsoft, Apple’s old arch-nemesis, is a horrible offender at this too. I remember that Windows 7 was still fresh when 8 came out, and next year they’re sending out Windows 9. This constant upgrading has practically become a business strategy across the industry more than anything else.
So is Apple only making a limited number of iPhones such that if you don’t stand in line for two days to get one, you never ever will be able to get one because they will all be sold out?
@32,
For the same reason they’ll have a luxury car, SUV or sports car , or anything else that is far more than they need. It’s so that they can been seen with it. No, they don’t need a top-of-the-line Macbook Pro in their briefcase, but what would their peers think if they pulled out last year’s model, or (gasp, horror) a cheap PC laptop?
Brandon Pilcher wrote:
There was a three year gap between Windows 7 and 8, which was pretty standard for Microsoft. Windows 8.0 had a short life (one year) before being replaced with 8.1, but at least it was a free upgrade for Windows 8.0 users. The gap between Windows XP and Vista (which everyone skipped) was the anomaly. In fact, it’s this gap that has made it so difficult for many businesses and individuals to switch away from Windows XP. Having multiple versions of Windows out there meant that businesses tested on multiple platforms before sending things out. When Windows XP became the only version out there, they stopped testing and apps started relying on bugs and misbehaviours of XP.
I hope that woman doesn’t end up being deported for whatever her minor infraction was. I’ve read that there are many undocumented Chinese people in NYC. Many many years ago, on my first visit to NYC there were a few elderly Asian women like her with some of their wares on blankets on the sidewalk near the WTC. A cop walked up to them, kicked their merchandise and roughed them up to get them to move on. He was a dick. I wondered if he treats all grandmothers like that. I was pretty shocked.
Wow I’m out of the loop. Today I was walking to supermarket in Seattle past an Apple store with a huge line going down the block. I asked a random person what’s going on (my first thought was some famous person signing autographs). He told me about the new iPhone. As I walked away, I could hear him turn to his friend and say “How could someone not know about the iPhone”.
I guess I’m getting old. Also I only own a basic cell phone that I use solely for phone calls and text messages. And I’ll start teaching a bunch of 19 year olds next week to make me feel even older.
I am so not looking forward to being shown one of these things by a proud owner. All those fantastic new features that are so old hat to someone who has been in IT for 40 years. Its a phone with a computer attached – its can do computery things if you like squinting at computery things.
If its anything like the iPhone4 it will be crap as a phone too – people who stay in our holiday cottages have to walk a half mile up the hill to use iPhones while all others seem to work fine here.
Status symbols for – well people who can afford personalities.
It’s worse than that: For a good couple of weeks, the iPhone 6 is, in practice, going to be worse than a 5S runing iOS 7.1. Early adopters always get to deal with the kinks, and the situation is made worse by Apple’s ridiculously draconian policies towards 3rd-party developers.
At the company I work for, our iPhone app has so many problems with iOS 8 that we are telling people not to upgrade if they use our app a lot. (And let you think our app sucks, while some of the problems are our fault, the most egregious one is 100% iOS 8’s fault — and no way we could have anticipated it, because the iOS 8 Beta was much better in regards to this bug) We’ve had fixes for the most serious problems since a week ago last Friday, but of course you can’t just release an update to your users, no no no… It’s gotta percolate through Apple’s app approval process. We’ve found more iOS 8-specific bugs since then, and probably will be looking at a raft of iPhone 6-specific bugs next week as well — but even if I find fixes for all of them, there’s going to be a lag before we can get those into the hands of our users.
Yeah. Wait a couple weeks. Really.
Brandon at 35:
It is a strategy, with a name (planned obsolescence), that companies use in their regular marketing. They’re doing it on purpose. So are companies that sell “re-usable” squirt bottles that break within six months of regular use, and that sort of thing.
Shoot, I’m a few days late, but if anyone with mod privileges who can see e-mail addresses for registered accounts can put Akira MacKenzie in touch with me, I can probably repair zir old-school iPod for the cost of shipping and parts. I’ve been repairing (and sometimes building from parts) iPods for years now, usually doing conversions from the mini hard drives to flash disks or battery replacements/upgrades to higher-capacity batteries. Ze could also consider sending the dead iPod to one of the parts sites, as many of them also do repairs. I usually use iDemiGods for parts, though I also comparison shop a number of suppliers in case prices are significantly lower at one (I’ve had good service from iDG, so a few bucks difference usually doesn’t matter to me in exchange for using an outlet I trust to not scam me, send poorly-packaged parts, etc.). I actually have some spare parts from disassembled iPods at this point, so depending on what’s wrong, I might not even need to order anything (they’re just taking up space so I’m happy to give them away). Please feel free to share my e-mail address with zir.
Akira MacKenzie, if you see this and want to contact me directly, you can message me on Facebook – that’s my real name and my current profile picture is me with black x’s taped over my eyes and my tongue hanging out (the result of an afternoon with construction paper and a friend who wanted to take pictures mimicking emoticons).