hotep's Profile

Also agree. I've had cellphones since their availability. The current business model relies upon passive customers. Our culture has devolved, as the result of no regulation and focused advertising, into sea of disconnected individuals. The perfect customers. Until 'something' shocks 'us' into unity, the corporative-entities will continue to lead 'us' around like sheep.

The low-wage 'phase' exists here (U.S.) too. And it's so 'we', wearing just the right shades, mousse and tats, sitting on our Ikea sofas, can flip though mindless iPhone apps, and waste energy while filling blogs with nonsense. When they come to get their share, will you go willingly?

Agreed. An Apple user from their beginnings, I have always appreciated their quality and design. I believe that their current laptop pricing is not supported by hardware/software costs. Now, if Apple was bold enough to start a trend by returning their manufacturing to the U.S., I'd pay much more without complaint.

Being a piddling middle-class consumer I feel disgust with the thought that billions of dollars is able to be in-play for the manipulation of internet fluff. This fluff did not exist 20 years ago and, if it disappeared tomorrow, we'd adjust in a couple of weeks. It's bad enough knowing that our nation is blowing billions weekly in Iraq, and now to see that these masses of money are also floating around to sway and influence, be it the twits at Yahoo, or the lobbyists in DC.

I hope the shuffle stays around. I've a shuffle, a nano, an 'old' iPod, and just succumbed to an iTouch. The shuffle is used everyday at the gym as it is easy to clip onto my t-shirt and seems impervious to banging around. The nano got little use and I gave it to a GF. The 'old' iPod is in the car with an FM transmitter and serves as a backup. The iTouch is a whole diff. world.

I've had mixed pleasure's at Apple stores in my travels. In Las Vegas I was able to fiddle with all the display items and not one employee ever asked if I wanted to know anything. They were all too busy selling multiples of IPods to folks from Italy. In Denver, the second I stepped into the store I was met by a friendly, and knowledgeable employee who demo'd the software I was interested in and discussed upcoming equipment. In Pasadena (CA) I was looking for the new mouse and found no employees that were not behind a cash register. I waited in a long checkout line to ask a mouse question and caused the employee grief as he had to delay a customer with cash-in-hand. In my small (by comparison)home town there is no "Apple store", but rather a well run local "Mac Superstore" where 'everyone knows your name' and all the employees seem to have the mix of salesman and technoman fairly well laid out. If I don't buy it locally, I buy it from the Apple website. hotep