Ask questions to The Digital Bits team (Bill Hunt, Jeff Kleist et.al.)

[Jeff Kleist]

If you had a bajillion, you could purchase Apple and spend years destroying it piece by piece "In my hands I hold an Apple1, hand traced by Steve Wozniak. In front of me, is a 60 story drop into a pit of molten lead. Can the magic box survive better 600 degrees or 600 feet?" Will it blend?"

I always think that the "change the channel" thing only really works on paper. If people are unhappy enough to speak out against something, typically nothing short of burning will suffice

[Doctorossi]

Originally Posted by Jeff Kleist

I always think that the "change the channel" thing only really works on paper. If people are unhappy enough to speak out against something, typically nothing short of burning will suffice

Fair enough and virtual bajillion dollars where your mouth is, I guess, but I can't really understand the vitriol in the first place. If ever there were an example of a good 'don't like it, just ignore it' candidate, to me, it might be Apple. Unless Steve Jobs assaulted your sister, I can't see what he's done more egregious than assaulting your eyes with the occasional garish iTunes ad. And if tacky ads are your issue, let me point you at one Mr. Gates, shopping for churros.

[Jeff Kleist]

Jerry Seinfeld still got $15 million for those ads too, no matter how horribly unfunny his show might have been outside of the soup nazi

I've detailed a lot of Apple's sins. They are absolutely not a cruising force. Just backtrack it

[MerrickG]

Uh Oh

[Doctorossi]

Originally Posted by Jeff Kleist

I've detailed a lot of Apple's sins.

Yes, and I've also detailed my disagreements with your assessment of them- no reason to re-chew that stuff. I just don't see how it amounts to 'burn the house of villains down!' because I hope you will at least agree that, for whatever terrors you ascribe them, they do produce a product with some vision behind it (even if it's not your vision). What would we be left with without them? Dell? Acer? Brilliant business minds like Carly Fiorina's?

Thinking back on your arguments, I'm guessing you're going to suggest that they're the ones who aren't playing fair in the marketplace. And there, we're just going to keep disagreeing. You and me 'n' the facts.

Originally Posted by Jeff Kleist

They are absolutely not a cruising force.

Sorry, you've lost me with that term.

[Jeff Kleist]

They're not just cruising along minding their own business

They produce a product with one vision: To take advantage of gullible people by selling them a religion, and have tried, multiple times (and only mostly succeede) in monopolizing digital media. On top of that, their pay structures hurt a lot of artists, not the ones at the top but the middle range ones badly

I have a lot of friends in Japan who make signifigantly less money for example, because their royalty percentage of that $0.99 is lower than it is for a CD. The same thing exists here (check weird al's FAQ). While they're not hurting for money, they're also not being rewarded like they should be for each sale of their music. It's not just piracy, but iTunes has cut the nuts off of a lot of people's paychecks. A lot of these guys could have performed for 10 years, and with what they saved taken a little time off, go behind the scenes, that sort of thing. Now they have to live a horrible never-stop lifestyle far longer to achieve the same goal, with the same money being paid and the same unit sales.

When Jobs dies, which undoubtedly will be soon, Apple is going to fall to pieces, though it'll probably take 5 years or more to lose momentum before, like Nintendo, they're back to selling to the faithful and Android rules the roost (not that Google has people's best interest at heart either. They just want to track your activity to the minute detail and sell the info). I'm not the only one with champagne on ice for it, because no one is going to be able to terrorize the employees with the zero accountibility that Jobs has. Apple succeeds because he has millions of members of his church, puts out a decent product, and viral marketing does the rest. As someone said, Jobs can shit in a box, call it iPoo and sell a million of them.

And that's all I'm going to say about it

[Esox50]

Love all the tech talk...but would much rather prefer a nice rumor mill update we can come back here and discuss.

[MerrickG]

Now that the Apple subject is over, maybe we should ask if the original versions of the original trilogy of Star Wars will come to bluray?

Ok maybe not.

Here is a more reasonable question:

Is it reasonable to assume that we will get much more info and specifics on Star Wars at Comic Con.

Also do you know if a LOT of the deleted scenes are never-before-seen or stuff that has been publicly available at one time.

The lightsaber RotJ deleted scene that was recently shown, I had no idea it existed.

[Jeff Kleist]

Love all the tech talk...but would much rather prefer a nice rumor mill update we can come back here and discuss.

You just got one. One world exclusive scoop at a time

[Doctorossi]

Originally Posted by Jeff Kleist

I have a lot of friends in Japan who make signifigantly less money for example, because their royalty percentage of that $0.99 is lower than it is for a CD.

How's their Napster/bit torrent percentage doing? Maybe you haven't noticed, but the CD bit the dust.

Originally Posted by Jeff Kleist

Apple succeeds because he has millions of members of his church, puts out a decent product, and viral marketing does the rest. As someone said, Jobs can shit in a box, call it iPoo and sell a million of them.

Jeff, I don't want to go back and forth with you on Apple yet again, but I do want to say this. Most of your arguments about them are at least semi-educated and would be, IMO, reasonable conclusions for smart people to draw if they're not really looking deeply enough at the specifics. However, I have a hard time with the idea of someone with your intellectual grasp putting forth the above. Do you really believe that? Do you really think Apple's products would last more than 12 minutes on basic competency and marketing alone?! Apple is practically the only tech company that doesn't even have to put much substantial product info in their advertisements because the products largely explain and sell themselves. How can you do that without an outstanding product? If it were that easy to brainwash millions, every tech company could and would do it and Apple wouldn't be kicking their butts. If it were that easy, every other client company of Chiat/Day would be producing Apple's results. It's one thing to sell a million people a can of Coke with a flashy ad; it's quite another to sell them a $2000 computer.

[Jeff Kleist]

How's their Napster/bit torrent percentage doing? Maybe you haven't noticed, but the CD bit the dust.

CDs still sell fine. Their unit sales are not the issue, it's their cut of every dollar. And mind you, I'm talking about artists that are popular here, they don't live lavish lifestyles whatsoever. Shouldn't they receive the same cut they do on CDs?

Do you really believe that? Do you really think Apple's products would last more than 12 minutes on basic competency and marketing alone?!

Doc, I'm happy to address that issue with lots of specifics, however I do not think it's appropriate I do so in the public forum as many may find the examples I give offensive.

Short answer: Absolutely. Far less worthy products have been far more successful with less. Please PM me if you wish to continue that line

[Penton-Man]

Good to see this thread thriving once again. Seems Jeff’s back from Japan with no worse the wear....given the earthquake(s) and tsunami.

Tell me Jeff, without doing any ‘research’, off the top of your head, for the next BDA meeting in June, given the venue, which is not in Japan just to be clear, do you think it’s a good idea for me to bring my bicycle along with me in order to get some off-road riding in (even on-road, if you think it’s a ‘bike-friendly’ locale) while I’m up/down/over thereabouts and if not, could you recommend any other outside activities or fine restaurants, etc. of which I could partake/sample?

I like specifics.

[jd213]

Originally Posted by merrick97

That is too much to hope for. Because it makes absolutely no sense to do so.

It didn't make sense to do so for the original movie DVDs, but that's exactly what they did. I wouldn't be surprised if the later seasons sold better anyways.

[Anthony P]

Originally Posted by Doctorossi

Maybe you haven't noticed, but the CD bit the dust.

can you tell me when? funny thing is I can still buy new CDs that say 2011 on them.

Apple is practically the only tech company that doesn't even have to put much substantial product info in their advertisements because the products largely explain and sell themselves.

lol. You do realize that real tech people want to know the details while brainless fanboys don't need any of it. Take something simple like a movie on disk. To a brainless fan "Oh it has movie X" to none brainless fan "so what is the transfer, whjat audio, what extras......." right? Star Wars, LOTR..... we all know the movie and it is self explanatory but we all want the to know the smallest possible detail about it and so the digital bits and other news places have full specs on them.

If it were that easy to brainwash millions, every tech company could and would do it and Apple wouldn't be kicking their butts. If it were that easy, every other client company of Chiat/Day would be producing Apple's results. It's one thing to sell a million people a can of Coke with a flashy ad; it's quite another to sell them a $2000 computer.

no one said it is easy, but obviously Apple has managed to do it, maybe they have the apple from Assassins creed . Most people that know and care a bout a computer want the specs, but the rest go "wow it has an apple logo and it is thin" and that is all that matters.

[Jeff Kleist]

It didn't make sense to do so for the original movie DVDs, but that's exactly what they did. I wouldn't be surprised if the later seasons sold better anyways.

It was so they could learn the restoration/cleanup toolset. They started with the easiest and worked back so by the time the hard ones came up, they'd be set to go.

[Uxi]

Originally Posted by Jeff Kleist

Jerry Seinfeld still got $15 million for those ads too, no matter how horribly unfunny his show might have been outside of the soup nazi

Now you're mad. There are dozens of hilarious episodes. "These chips are making me thirsty." The Kramer in LA 2-parter. The Little Kicks. The Game. off the top of my head.

I've detailed a lot of Apple's sins. They are absolutely not a cruising force. Just backtrack it

I still don't understand why they're still in BDA, course, don't imagine they participate much... but they should be kicked out if they're not going to help at all. Or maybe they are and it's behind the scenes?

[jd213]

Originally Posted by Jeff Kleist

It was so they could learn the restoration/cleanup toolset. They started with the easiest and worked back so by the time the hard ones came up, they'd be set to go.

Oh, OK. That makes sense, and I think I remember you mentioning that before.

Still though, I'd put a best-of collection or any of seasons 3-7 on preorder, but would wait for a sale for 1-2.

[Doctorossi]

Originally Posted by Anthony P

can you tell me when? funny thing is I can still buy new CDs that say 2011 on them.

You can also buy new LPs that say 2011 on them. That's not really my point, though.

Originally Posted by Anthony P

the rest go "wow it has an apple logo and it is thin" and that is all that matters.

It must, then, be some sort of bizarre inverse miracle that Apple wasn't producing similar numbers in the early '90s. I guess it's only the gullible masses of this generation who are walking zombies to the amazing Apple 'cool logo means I automatically empty my wallet' epidemic.

For that matter, is the Apple logo even cool? I associate it with great products, but I don't really care for it beyond that. I'd rather have the SGI logo on my hardware and they're dead as a doornail. I can't even begin to fathom the power of this incredible Apple logo over people who aren't deluded like me into thinking the actual products are anything better than mediocre. "Too bad I wasted so much money on this decidedly average computer... at least I've got an awesome logo!"

[PeterTHX]

Originally Posted by Doctorossi

I can't even begin to fathom the power of this incredible Apple logo over people who aren't deluded like me into thinking the actual products are anything better than mediocre. "Too bad I wasted so much money on this decidedly average computer... at least I've got an awesome logo!"

That's eactly what Jobs is counting on with the relaunch of Apple TV.

"Forget Blu-ray. Forget 1080p, lossless audio, extra content. Just stream it on our box! Use iTunes!"

If Jobs & Co. weren't making anti-Blu statements I'd give your argument some credibility, but you're defending someone who outright wants to control our entertainment choices. First how we get our music and now how we get our video. The fact that Netflix is making inroads streaming must keep them awake at night thinking of ways to kill it.

[Doctorossi]

Originally Posted by PeterTHX

That's eactly what Jobs is counting on with the relaunch of Apple TV.

1) The relaunched Apple TV is $99.

2) The relaunched Apple TV really ain't selling that hot, despite the unprecedented 'Incredible Apple logo now only $99' factor.

Originally Posted by PeterTHX

If Jobs & Co. weren't making anti-Blu statements I'd give your argument some credibility, but you're defending someone who outright wants to control our entertainment choices.

Even if I agreed with this premise, I'm not sure how that would make Jobs & Co. different from everyone else in the electronics business.