Apple, iPad, money, politics, and hippies

In case you were living under a rock this past week - Apple finally announced what had to have been the worst kept secret in history.  The iPad 2 is finally official and going on sale in less than a week.  

When Steve took the stage to offically announce iPad 2 - the hipsters rejoiced as their savior from “complex technology” (and their paychecks) took the stage to reveal how Apple was going to milk another 500 - 800 dollars out of them this month.  Nothing is more fun to watch than a hipster who foams at the mouth as he lusts over a new hipster item which every one of them will have in less than a week.

But what is probably more disturbing than anything else - is that with everything else going on in the world - the iPad 2 took up a majority of the online news cycles.  We have protests around the world, civil unrest, state budgets in the red, and the hipsters sit foaming at the mouth for their newest piece of technology.

Now - I can’t continue without being totally honest.  I am seriously considering getting an iPad 2.  I have finally found room in my life where it could be of use - and I do have an idea for an application I would like to do on the iPad which wouldn’t work on the iPhone.  I will note - I DO NOT have an original iPad.  I didn’t get into the hype of the “magical” iPad before it was released.  Instead I have observed the device after it had been released - playing with it here and there - and critically considering getting it (it is not a light investment).

With all that is going on in the world - it never fails to amaze me what goes through the social spheres which I am connected in and the online news networks.  While the protests and civil unrest have a few stories which appear on the front page - the majority of this past week was devoted to the iPad.  People debated in forums and chat rooms whether it was worth purchasing, what the advantages of the device over the previous iPad was, as well as speculating on the total ram of the device.

And yet….

And yet we have people protesting across the world for their freedom from oppressive governments.  Something that you would normally associate hipsters with taking up the cause for.  Instead they are glued to Steve Job’s black turtle neck getting their marching orders for the next few weeks on where to devote their cash.

Life does continue to go on - but somtimes its good to stop and observe what is going on in the rest of the world.  We can’t always continue on with our plans in life - just look at how thousand’s of people’s lives have been disrupted by protests and the like around the world.

And while people protest for their freedom from oppressive govements around the world - public workers in Wisconsin are protesting due to them having to pay a little more into their benefits.

What have we devolved into as a society where we don’t even protest for worthwhile causes anymore.  What we have become is a group of hippies - wanting to protest anything we can in the name of “sticking it to the man.”

With all of this going on - its been funny to see a recent trend of people crying foul of parents raising their kids how they choose to do so.  Stating instead that kids should be raised gender neutral - how dare a parent decide to raise their daughter to like dresses and pink?  That is just “destroing” civilization - at least according to them.  Let parents raise their kids how they want.  If they want to allow their daughters to like pink frilly dresses and have imaginary tea parties then let them.  If they choose not to - then let them.  To them I say - get a job hippie.  

It’s time to de-hippify life.  Lets get back to reality.

Apple's new moto: We say no to customer service

I find this funny….not in a haha sort of way but in a “WHY I Oughta….!” way.

I’m currently working on a blog post about mobile computing, and how I enjoy and love it.  

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not going to stop using mobile computing.  But after today’s experience I’m rethinking on what platform I’ll be doing this computing on.

This story, like most others right now, involves two red-headed step children in one family.  There is ATT, my current provider and holder of my monthly bills.  There is Apple, maker of my 3g iPhone, and representative of clean evil.

So to setup the story, I’m going to assume a few things:

1. You know when the iPhone 4 pre-launch order/reservation was
2. You know what an iPhone is

While at work on Tuesday morning, I noticed the Apple store going down.  I had arrived at work a little early to start on some work so that when the store came back up, I would be able to take five minutes out of my night to order the phone.  I knew when it was coming up (3am central, 12:00am pacific) and around 3 started refreshing the page every few seconds like every nerd was at that time of the night.  One one of the refreshes the page took a little longer than normal to load and then….the store was up.  I quickly hit the pre-order links on apple’s site and went through the process.

When the site went to hit ATT’s server to verify my account, it couldn’t and asked if I wanted to pick up the phone in store.  I told it yes, and got my reservation.  I noticed when I did, however, that the page said I owed 599 dollars, not the 199 for a contact renewal I should have.

Odd.

I decided to wait through the day to see what the news/forums had to say about this.  I assumed since they couldn’t ping ATT’s server that is why the high price and it would be corrected on launch day when I pick it up.  Until I started reading blog posts/forum posts stating I had to call Apple to correct the problems.

Being proactive, I called Apple’s 1-800 number at night.  

And this is where my hatred for Apple has started to grow.

I called Apple’s number the first time and waded through the prompts figuring out which one I needed and finally selected the correct sequence.  I go through, and then was greeted with a message that there were too busy and couldn’t answer my call.  I thought they were going to say right away and put me in a que.  No, they meant they couldn’t answer my call at all and hung up the phone.  

Odd….

So I called again and got the same message before I got to the prompts.  Again I was hung up on.  No que?  No waiting on hold?

I called a total of 17 times, each time save the last I had a variation of either being told immediately I couldn’t get in line or going through the prompts all the way and then being told to go away by apple’s voice.

Finally on the 17th try I got through, and spoke to a support representative.  He informed me that I would need to call both ATT and the apple store I was picking up the phone from, and that only the place where the phone was being shipped could change it, and they couldn’t at the main support place.  

Odd…..

Flash forward fifteen hours to ten o’clock on the 16th of June.  I call the local apple store where I am picking up my phone.  I was informed by the person on the line that I had to call ATT to correct the issue of pay 600 on the day of pick.  

Odd………

I called ATT and was working with a very helpful representative(let me be clear here, ATT has in my experience always been helpful- im blaming all of the fubar of this iPhone launch mess solely on Apple after my experience today - even the website issue) who went through their supervisor, and even called the ATT store in question to find out from them what she needed to do to help out and fix the issue (the apple store rep didn’t so much as offer to transfer me).  She called, spoke with the same store, and was told I just need to go in on day of pickup and use my social security number and all will be well.

What?

 Apple needs to get their stories straight.  They need to figure out what the correct answer is and give it to their employees.  I know I’m not the only one confused by this as there are others asking and receiving contradictory information on this.  Apple, you need to figure out for your loyal fans - most of whom pay the extra premium to have your hardware and software, and most who are willing to put up with long lines on launch day - what the answer really is and let us know.

Apple - which is it?  Yes/No/Yo?

Differences in tech

Differences in tech between the past and now:man how things advance!

Update on Friday, April 16, 2010 at 7:44PM by Paul

To be fair, I think the iPad will be a great item for use at a school - once text book publishers start doing school books.  But until iPhone 4.0 comes to the iPad it isn’t going to be that useful.  And of course since I do have an iPhone, its just a duplicated piece of tech I won’t need.  Now, for parents on the other hand, I think it may be a good idea to look into these items for them.  It may be perfect for the previous generation for use.

This shouldn’t be called the iPad, it should be called the iGranny - since the perfect target audience is grandmas!