Wednesday, February 03, 2010

The........iRag

More tales from the Apple MacSweatshop--


"""The 'genius' of Jobs is to take other people's work, brand it Apple then market the crap out of it to the mainstream (read: those oblivious of the Industry) as a new creation. This clearly works for them (8.7Million iphones last quarter) and shows the mainstream are made of really dumb people.

- The name 'iPad' is a trademark of Fujitsu Global, so look out for that war in the coming weeks. (Apple has absolutely no respect for other people's Intellectual property... remember the Cisco iPhone battle and the Creative iPod design battle to name a few?)

- The iBooks platform is Amazon's work.... RIP Amazon Kindle

- The device looks like a mixture of the Hanvon slate and the Crunchpad/JooJoo but not as good as either.

- Arm processor, no multitasking, no camera, 9.7-inch LED backlit display and only 10-hours max?

- Non-user changeable battery

- For USD800+ you get a non-multitasking sub-netbook (I never thought there would be such a category) with a capacitive touch screen, an arm processor and no keyboard, car kit, desk stand, case, dock etc as standard and included with only 64GB SSD and and unknown amount of RAM (512MB~1GB I suspect)...

- No Flash support (even though HTML5 is the future... more sites use Flash than HTML5, so shouldn't a web tablet support the 'more sites'?)

- No Camera

- No Built-in card readers (I mean it's 2010... why should I have to pay extra for a card reader)

- Unlocked 3G radio but uses Micro Sim card so you still don't have the freedom to choose your carrier

IMHO, anyone who needs a device in this genre and plunks good cash down for this iTampon over the x86 based JooJoo or other arm based tablets is a fool!

The battery is built in and in a device this size, there is plenty of room for more cells since there is no 'cartridge' system for a removable battery... apple seems to have opted for this as a way to keep production costs down, rather than a way to allow more battery life. I predict 3~5 hours of battery life with wifi on and couch surfing (which should be 10hours given how much space there is in a device this size with LED backlighting for more cells given it's a foil-packed built-in battery), and 2~3 hours with 3G on and mobile surfing.

Additionally, if you thought the glass screen on the ipod touch or iphone broke easily... drop, twist or squeeze the ipad once and see your money burn (more)... this is not Gorilla Glass that you'd find in well built consumer electronics, but cheaper regular glass (fitting of an over-hyped, poor quality, sweatshop manufactured Apple product)... again, that keeps the manufacturing costs down.

This Apple product is the furthest Apple has gone as far robbing the consumer blind is concerned... so it begs the question: Where does Apple draw the the line between good business and a complete lack of ethics?""""""


At least in terms of battery life, Kindle outperforms the iRag: like a week, compared to like 3 or 4 hours on the iRag. And Kindles, while still a scam (do reasonable people need an e-reader to enjoy Phoebe-Zeit-Geist, or their favorite B-Traven potboiler? Hell no), cost about half or less than the MacHeist--tho' the iPad does at least have net/wifi hook-up, unlike the Kindle (tho' they are light, and portable). With a Crapple, that means you get like 386 speed for only a grand or so. Then why not a laptop, anyway, since the iPad's are about as heavy.

However corrupt and venal Microsoft may be, the gear's cheap and it works, and GatesCo does kick down millions of shekels to charity (and poor 3rd world nations).

12 comments:

Unknown said...

Another fine Mapple-bashing whine.

It's truly insanely great. I predict it changes the world- just like the iPhone has. I love this company! Bless you St. Steve!

J said...

In keeping with MacDelusional tradition, you overlooked the political points (ie sweatshops). I don't lose sleep over it, but it's amazing how many liberal Mac users (and Windoze as well, actually) turn a blind eye to the labor issues of the computing biz.

Anyway, JobsCo knows a good hustle when he sees it. Kindles and e-readers are now hip, so time for the i-Rag. Heavy, overpriced, poor battery design, ripped off warez, etc.: the Crapple usual.

Unknown said...

Cite on the sweatshop charge? Location of manufacture doesn't necessarily imply a sweatshop. Quality of life of the workers - on and off the clock - is the determinant for me.

J said...

Note "MacSweatshop" in bright letters above the quoted article. That's called a Link. Then, scrolling down the linked page, note "sweatshop". That's called a Cite. It's been ongoing in various areas of the Krapple world for some time.

And your "determinants" are not management's concerns (besides, they are probably making below min.wage in US dollar terms). Apple wants to manufacture products as cheaply, and as quickly as possible.

An assembly plant in like San Jose or LA, paying ordinary wages to US citizens would cost them a fortune, and Apple would lose their profits on labor costs (oh no, another lost Chateau or Ferrari for Stevie McJobs...). So farm it out to sweatshops in Asia or Sur America, and they can still rake it in.

A similar situation held for the NAFTA deal: one reason American labor opposed it, and mgmt. generally approved. Ford or Chevy can farm out auto-assembly to Mexico and pay them half (or less) what the union boys get up in Michigan.


Yr first reading in Globalism 101.

J said...

Uh oh, BelleRonius the ex nursey student turned to Theatre major now claiming to be a business type and CPA (and..bookmarked). What fools these mormonics be.


Actually, that's an actionable charge in CA, which has pretty strict laws against fraudulent hicks like yr best buddy, karoake klown and salesman, BelleRonius. Being able to run a monthly spread sheet for a t-shirt, coffee mug and subluxated pen sweatshop does not make one a CPA at all. I doubt the Belle could figure out present and future value, or define amortization.

Forbes 66 said...

I probably didn't see your link because the style coloring makes them very hard to pick up.

"And your "determinants" are not management's concerns (besides, they are probably making below min.wage in US dollar terms). Apple wants to manufacture products as cheaply, and as quickly as possible."

Sounds like good business sense. The quality of life argument is that if the person's quality of life improves by getting that job then it's a net positive to them even if they might be earning far less than a person with the same job in the USA. I'm not denying the existence of sweatshops and exploitation, just pointing out that there are several factors to be considered.

J said...

Not a matter of style. Most blog links are a different color than the text. Here's it's, er, scarlet, instead of the Newt Worlds black.

Anyway, McSkabben with his usual pro-business, pro-silicon wally rant. Really, reading the comments of most KOS or TPM like centrist, pro-corporate "liberals" old Chomsky's criticism of democrats don't seem so misguided. (OR for the ding an sich, Marx on bourgeois ideology).

Farming out jobs to 3rd world sweatshops may be good for Jobs and Crapple management. It's not good for the workers in those sweatshops, though, granted, they might not have much of a choice: you either work for Apple or MSN,or Walmart, McDonalds, etc. at indentured servant wages, or starve. Taiwan, company town.

I don't lose sleep over it, but it's hardly different than all the eco-liberal whines about, say, Burger king, or cattle in the rainforest, etc other fast food joints. McCrapple--sort of the Burger King of IT (and that doesn't mean one approves of Microsoft, Intel et al. Just that Apple has acquired the reputation for ripping off workers, even technological workers).

Besides, the i-Pad from most reports (see Gizmodo as well) is another overweight, overpriced sled with a crap battery. A mini-Mac


As far as your baptist buddy's mail order fraud and lies about being a CPA (and other myths), that's not a personal matter. It's a matter of consumer rip-off, which the state Dept. of Consumer affairs investigates (as does the labor board).

Forbes 66 said...

BTW- your links are not scarlet in my browser (FF3). They are pale blue on a gray background, which makes them close to invisible.

J said...

Click it, and goes from pale blue to scarlet. But I might change the colors. ...done.


Gizmodo reasonably objects to the Apple price, the weight, i-Pad battery design, and ripped-off features--AND the sweatshop/labor issue. Not a matter of envy. Really, most of the tech. reviewers are too tame.

Some Apple and Microsoft engineers probably earn their money, yet they have for years stolen other peoples' ideas (starting with what, Xerox, originally).

Jobs himself is no engineer or scientist: he passed a calligraphy class, and what one BASIC class at city college in the 70s. That should bother us. Gates, Ellison dropped out like their 2nd year in college.

The IT billionaires are generally not scientists or programmers. They're successful hustlers.

Forbes 66 said...

I see links now! Thank you for helping out these aging eyes.

You know I'm mostly just pulling your chain on the iPad thing- cause I know how much you detest Jobs and Apple. I'm partial to Macs because they're my first desktop computer experience and I like their elegance, but I agree that Jobs is primarily a salesman- as is just about anyone who manages to do well in the business. I do respect him for valuing a good user experience and making it Apple's trademark.

As to the iPad, I think it is deeply flawed, but will nonetheless have a huge impact on the way people use information electronics going forward, just as the iPod and iPhone have done. At home, I'm constantly carrying my laptop from place to place and I'm almost exclusively doing web surfing and email. If I don't find a place to plug it in it will almost certainly end up dying on me and requiring a reboot. The advertised ten hour battery life for the iPad sounds great to me- even if it's really half that. The weight, also, seems fine compared to a laptop. In any case, I won't be buying one until at least second or third gen, just like with my iPhone. It may not even be an apple product, but I am sure it will be helped by the competition from Apple. They regularly seem to give the industry a kick in the ass and that seems like a reason to give them a little praise.

J said...

You sound like you have something else you want to say, apart from defending Crapple .

Maybe like something regarding Belle-Ron's lies, libel and criminal conspiracy? Or maybe you're a bit too involved in his little underhanded schemes, eh.

Btw, we have a line on his weird, conservative fundamentalist church in Sacto as well, which he attends regularly. Perhaps NW readers, all 20 of 'em, would like the Truth on Belle-Ron's connections to fundie xtians, mormons, probably the Klan....not to say his mail order fraud biz. Even his cheesy attempts at fiction are a lie (river horse, bull-sheet. plagiarized. Anyway...yr mafia crony's name "begemotya" just means ...little byatch Mattie, really. Simple diminutive. Is that like his second or third false ID? I wager, like a budapest-stein, fleeing the reds... )

(a bit mo' legword and it'll be known across blogdom....Bozonius has already been shut down at DU and exposed)

J said...

from "Joel": As a linguistic scholar I assumed you knew that begemotya is Russian for hippopotamus (aka the river horse).


бегемот = behemoth. Perhaps hippo in vernacular, but not exactly hippo-potamus, as in ancient greek (for river horse).Hippo's horse; potamus, river.

Anyway, linguists generally focus on one group of languages, indo-european, or asian, semitic, etc, and don't all specialize in cyrillic (like usually start with say latiniate, french, spanish, Deutsch, then move...east.). I read very little cyrillic... but ich kenne ein bitchin' Deutsch...Verstehen Sie?

Though "Motya" at least also is diminutive for "Mattie", and that could also be what Mattski was intending. Either way, BelchRon either just googled, or more likely plagiarized.

Btw, I receive a greater number of intelligent comments than does N-Ws. A few dozen paragraphs of syntactical noise from the D-wind machine, or Kitsch-harbor, rat-eyes, not to say the Belchronius does not equal informed commentary.

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