Just my *OPINION* on Apple over the years.

1)      OK, sorry, Hope the following doesn’t rub anyone the wrong way.

2)      I apologize in advance if I get my facts wrong; I think that the “gest” of what I am saying is accurate, at least from My Perspective.

3)      Jobs Created Apple

a)      Made pretty fonts (Stanford Speech)

4)      Jobs ousted

i)        Company almost disappeared

ii)       Made their own O/S

iii)     Made their own hardware

5)      Jobs back

i)        FIRST GLIMPSE of Mac Marketing Machine – “A5 chip so powerful, they can’t sell them outside the country because they can be used for smart bombs.” Or some derivative of that. Sure you can say this was Meme but the reality is that companies push Meme or we never hear about it. (Just my opinion)

ii)       Attempts to fix their O/S – has trouble.

6)      §  Creates the Cat line of OS’s Total reboot on their O/S

i)        Hardware is insufficient and cost prohibitive to continue in house

7)      § APPLE now uses the same hardware that everyone else does.  But doesn’t even use the good stuff, Where is the Mac with the i7 Extreme Edition?

i)        Ultra-portable and lightweight devices emerge

8)      § New OS for portables, iOS?

9)      § Apple Marketing in full swing.

a)      “No one has ever done this before” meaning NO ONE at Apple ever has before. Tablets and Touchscreens go back to late 70’s?

i)        Cut and Paste on mobile devices, RIM did that since Jump Street.

ii)       Ability to resize windows from any corner, Windows 3.1 did that right?

iii)     IOS 5 brought the “Notification” pull down; I have had this since Android 1.6 (My first droid device, 3 years ago?)

b)      I love how Apple says they are the first for so many things when in reality they are just re-treading things.

i)        Desktop Products are being molded to fit closer and closer to the new “mobile” iOS.

c)       Jobs gone

i)        No more direction from the real Genius behind the company. (His passing is sincerely a loss for us all, he drove Apple and made the market more competitive, it is a shame he is gone before he grew old.)

10)   §  They will execute his “5-10” plans , probably poorly

i)        Portable devices and desktop will merge together, “Ultra-Laptops” which are really tablets big enough to house robust laptop components but still skinned like an iPad.

11)   § Everyone will follow suite. (Toshiba, Sony, etc…)

i)        When this well runs dry, Apple will be gone. Or at least take on a form that none of us will recognize.

b)      I know I sound angry, and I am a little. Apple marketing is awesome. They convince people that they have done something FIRST and BETTER than anyone else could have ever done it. The reality is that in years past hurdle costs and economic feasibility of certain products simply wasn’t what it is today. They are not innovators, they are clever opportunists.

And the Royal Wedding is over....

It was a very nice ceremony indeed. As I watch the wedding I kept thinking, "we in the states have Kim K and Lindsey. What is wrong with us?" I guess that is it, English have their monarchy and we have our celebrity figures.



At a time when the English economy is believed to be heading down the same path of the United States in the last couple years, I wonder if the real motivation behind this was to occupy to hearts and minds of the masses.



Well, it will be at least a week or two before this event dies down. I am sure the planners of this event have successive photo opps and such that will keep this at the top of the brim.

I never do this, but I can't help myself this time....

I got a satisfaction survey in my Inbox today. When I gave Dodge a terrible review in their survey, I was prompted to give them some details as to why I felt the way I did. Below is the email I typed up. Perhaps I am unreasonable? I don't know but what I can tell you is that in this case, asking me to fill out a survey has just upset me all over again. So here it is - My emailed response back to Dodge about my $25,000.00 2008 Dodge Ram 1500 QuadCab with the "Premium Sound" and Hemi.

Why am I not MORE likely to recommend Dodge?

Well, this is my third Dodge and not until THIS Dodge did I feel this way. My first two Dodge
Vehicles were great. Exactly what I believe a car should be. In my opinion, a
car should be reliable, of moderate comfort to me and passengers and somewhat
appealing to look at. My latest Dodge is only appealing to look at. Inside the
truck lurks a nagging and persistent problem that 2 of your Dealerships could
not resolve and that I must NOW live with throughout the rest of my time with
this truck. Something so small has metamorphosed into a problem so big that
there is not one occasion I get into my Dodge that I am able to escape it. As such,
it has generally ruined 2 of the 3 things I personally look for in a vehicle.  That lurking beast is the car stereo! I have
taken the truck to 2 dealerships a total of 4 times to have the speakers
throughout the truck replaced. They continue to "blow-out" and the
dealerships lead me to believe that I am the problem. Even when my settings are
such that the music I listen to sounds nothing like it should? I had one
dealership customer service representative get into my truck and tell me, “It
sounds fine to me.” The only problem with that diagnosis is that IT ISN’T YOUR
VEHICLE and THE OWNER THINKS IT SOUNDS LIKE CRAP!!! “Premium Sound” my foot!

I have been told by other car stereo shops that there is
fault within the system in my truck and time and time again, the dealership
replaced the damaged speakers, slapped it all back together and insisted that
there was no problem. Well, now I am out of warranty and not inclined to pay to
have the speakers replaced on my own, so I have adjusted the settings to
eliminate all bass from the stereo and leave the volume at or below a third of
its normal range. What is most sickening is that even while listening to TALK
RADIO the speakers blew out one time. So, NOW, EVERY TIME I get into my truck,
I am unable to enjoy one of the most rudimentary pleasures one can experience
in their vehicle. Something as simple as enjoying my favorite radio station is
a creature comfort not found in my Dodge. My 2008 Quad Cab Dodge Ram 1500 with a
Hemi is evidence that with all the engineering genius down at Dodge, something
as simple as the stereo missed the mark. You might say, “Matt, that isn’t our
stereo.” My reply would be simple. “It’s in my Dodge, and you chose not to
stand behind it.”

In today’s Global Marketplace I would think that customer
satisfaction would rule the day. At Dodge it doesn’t. You know, each of those
times I took my truck in I had to call the dealership day after day to get
feedback on the repair. Quality of work, Customer Service, communication – Not present
at the Dealerships I went to. It was almost like I was at the post office. The
attitude appeared to be, “The work keeps coming so who cares!?” No urgency, no
dedication to delivering on what was promised to the customer even when what
WAS promised was a simple “Phone call later today to let you know what the
status is.”

I remember just when my truck went out of warranty. My wife
and I discussed our experience so far with the truck. It has been so dumb! No
transmission problem, no engine problem. The stupid stinking stereo is all we
are talking about. I told my wife, the truck retails for 25k and the stereo has
been such a HUGE problem. The Stereo! It is like the Mouse and Lion in the
Jungle. Only this time instead of the Mouse setting the lion free from the
trap, he stuck around and made annoying sounds until the lion went insane.

So while I am not sure who all will read this, one thing I
am certain of is that when you are done reading this you will finish your day
and go get into your car to go home and will probably enjoy listening to whatever
station it is you enjoy while I will be sitting in my 25 thousand dollar truck,
stuck in traffic, listening to a radio station that sounds like it is coming
through a tin can because all the bass tones are removed in fear of blowing out
the $400 dollar each “Premium Sound” speakers found throughout my truck and
counting the days until I can sell this PIECE OF SHIT Dodge and find another
Brand to invest in.

By the way, I am going to be posting this on my blog, I will
send out a Tweet from my twitter account with the hash tags #Dodge #Stereo so
that anytime people search for #Dodge on Twitter, this article will appear.
Give it a try.

You know....what if.....

Much like so many of us are participating in Twitter these days what if there were ;one day;  a "market place" for labor that we all participated in? I know we do now but we don't really, we look for a job and conduct ourselves under the banner of a company. In my example you know, you tweet about what it is you do, a continuous stream , a sort of , "letting your little light shine" if you will. Then a third party, some independent body would come in , evaluate you , then "verify" you. "This person is who they say they are." Then people could conduct business with you with confidence. A BBB for the new age of technology. No more traditional companies, no more "big bidness" making selfish decisions for itself. No more of the nastiness we all as worker bees hate without looking you in the face and telling you why these changes are needed? People working together , doing business. What if.....

A thought or two on headphones

 

Well,
it has been a long journey. Looking for the right headphones has spanned a
couple years’ worth of trips to Best Buy and a couple days of internet
searching. After several purchase and return moves at Best Buy I first went
with some Sony MDR-EX300's. (About $80) The bass was deeper and the sound was
great compared to the stock buds that come with the Zune 80 GB I was
using.  When the ZuneHD came out I
upgraded my Zune. For a short time believed that this was as good as it could
get.

Nagging
at me was the idea that I could get better headphones. I wanted my music
experience to be even more rich with tonal range and louder than I could get
stock so I even tried to purchase a portable amplification unit for use with
MP3 Players. I did some research. The amp didn’t help. GIGO was definitely in
full effect. The Amp took poorly compressed audio files and made them loud. It
was returned.

I
started to look around at different industry websites related to Pro-Audio
equipment and sound reproduction and compression. How could I differentiate
between the different products if I didn’t really even understand what was on
the box right?

Well
after some additional “taste tests” I settled on the Monster Turbines. “Man, it
cannot get any better than these things.”  Small amount of sound leakage from the driver
units. Nice cord holding them all together. Great power response; they are
plenty loud on my MP3 Player. The Sony ear buds were great and still are in use
when traveling.

Hey
what’s better than those Monster Turbines? How about my recently acquired Dre
Beats Studio’s. Ok, these things leak sound like you wouldn’t believe. People
next to me tap me on the shoulder and when I lift the headphones off my head
they say, “I love that song.” But with that in mind, I don’t care. They are
awesome. The bulk of the Studio’s makes use while traveling burdensome. I would
hate to break them, so they typically get used at home.  When I travel I use the Turbines.  Whether it is with my COWON x7 or V5HD, The
Turbines and the Studios are amazing.

My OLD Samsung YP-T9J Sounds Better then my iPod Touch 4th Gen.

Just found and plugged up my old Samsung YP-T9J and after a few minutes of charging I loaded some tracks. Expecting to hear a MAJOR fall off in sound quality from what I have become accustomed to, being that I have all the Zunes, an iPod Touch 4th Gen and the Cowon X7, I was blown away. It sounds better then all my other players with exception to the Cowon x7. It has an EQ, 3D Settings and Bass Boost. The Audio is great! There is no fall out from the other frequencies as the bass and treble are adjusted.

Nice Job Samsung.

The headphones I am using for this comparison are the Monster Turbines and also the Dre Beats Studios. The new Baby Anne CD is killing my ear drums while I move about.

New Baby Anne Album

Just downloaded the new Baby Anne (@Octanebaby)Album, Bottom Heavy. Did the preview thing before I hit purchase, and after a couple tracks I knew I had to get it. Huge fan of Icey (@DJ_Icey)and this stuff is very similar in style.
You can get it from iTunes.

Just a thought...

When did it become so popular to bash the US?

Random Thoughts.....

Are cities becoming a series of systems meant to keep a labor force under control and plentiful? Really seeing the worst of big business these days. So many heads have rolled simply to increase profits by a few percent. Now we are NOT talking about changing the ink color on a PNL Statement from Red to Black, we are talking about incrementing the % Profit positivly to improve stock holder returns, in the short term.

I am glad to see Obama attempting to stimulate small business. Small business it seems will be the salvation of the US Economy. Who else is hiring?