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Apple's solutions in search of problems


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Apple's solutions in search of problems
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torifile
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2007-03-18, 09:32

I don't know what made me think of this last night. Maybe it was thinking about the AppleTV, idunno. But I was going through my mental catalog of things that Apple's put out that didn't seem to have an obvious need. The AppleTV doesn't really fit into this category, but it got me thinking: what has Apple released that seems to address an issue that we don't have?

The one that really stands out to me is Inkwell. I know it's a reincarnation of a previous tech, but why do we have it? Does anyone use it? Is it there for a particular reason?

What else ya got?

If it's not red and showing substantial musculature, you're wearing it wrong.
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julesstoop
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2007-03-18, 10:54

I've got an original Apple QuickTake camera down here.
It was expensive, slow, low capacity and offered poor image quality. In those days nobody in their right mind would use those for serious or even casual photography. It simply had no market besides a few extreme gadget maniacs.

Little did people know what the future might bring. Apple did forsee, but (as often with Apple) a little too early.

A black hole is where god divided by zero.
http://settuno.com/
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Brave Ulysses
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2007-03-18, 11:37

Quote:
Originally Posted by julesstoop View Post
I've got an original Apple QuickTake camera down here.
It was expensive, slow, low capacity and offered poor image quality. In those days nobody in their right mind would use those for serious or even casual photography. It simply had no market besides a few extreme gadget maniacs.

Little did people know what the future might bring. Apple did forsee, but (as often with Apple) a little too early.
The Apple Quicktake was the first digital camera on the mass market. It was also very popular in education. It's replacement, the Quicktake 200 was a very nice camera... for the times.

Quote:
Originally Posted by torifile View Post
I don't know what made me think of this last night. Maybe it was thinking about the AppleTV, idunno. But I was going through my mental catalog of things that Apple's put out that didn't seem to have an obvious need. The AppleTV doesn't really fit into this category, but it got me thinking: what has Apple released that seems to address an issue that we don't have?

The one that really stands out to me is Inkwell. I know it's a reincarnation of a previous tech, but why do we have it? Does anyone use it? Is it there for a particular reason?

What else ya got?
Inkwell is very useful if you are using a pen and pad to do artwork and you don't have to put it down to write a few quick lines of text.
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Kickaha
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2007-03-18, 12:11

Quote:
Originally Posted by Brave Ulysses View Post
The Apple Quicktake was the first digital camera on the mass market. It was also very popular in education. It's replacement, the Quicktake 200 was a very nice camera... for the times.
Agreed on both counts - I have a 200, and it *still* has the best low-light performance I've ever seen in a consumer level digital camera. It pulls out detail in a variable light situation like nobody's business. It was a rebranded Fuji DX-7, IIRC.

Quote:
Inkwell is very useful if you are using a pen and pad to do artwork and you don't have to put it down to write a few quick lines of text.
Yup. I had a shoulder reconstruction a couple of years ago, and couldn't move my arm out of an awkward position in a huge brace. I mounted a Wacom on the end of the brace, since I *could* move my hand somewhat, and used Inkwell for mouse and text entry for six weeks. It actually worked rather well.
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torifile
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2007-03-18, 14:08

Well, that seems like an awfully niche use for something that was touted as feature when it was first released. Granted, it's a great use, but it's doesn't seem as though it's really solving a significant problem. And without a 3rd party device, it's useless. (Are there other techs like that? That is, there's no utility to it without using a 3rd party's product?)

Anyway, getting back to the original discussion, are there any other techs that I'm forgetting?

If it's not red and showing substantial musculature, you're wearing it wrong.
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Banana
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2007-03-18, 14:41

Would Automater count?
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rasmits
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2007-03-18, 15:11

Mac Mini (waa, my computer is too big)

I second the Automater vote.
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Banana
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2007-03-18, 15:20

Oh, and maybe we should consider the first iMac.

YOUR COMPUTER DOES NOT HAVE A FLOPPY DRIVE! YOUR COMPUTER DOES NOT HAVE A FLOPPY DRIVE! <insert mass hysteric here>

Thank God they made the move and pushed the floppy drive to obsolence a bit faster...
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GladToBeHere
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2007-03-18, 16:21

Quote:
Originally Posted by torifile View Post
...what has Apple released that seems to address an issue that we don't have?
I no longer really consider the Apple of the 90s a part of today, at least in a products sense. The 90s were a series of general misfires. Today, Apple seems to bend markets, not jump headlong into something that's so new people don't know what to do with it. To me, they rethink products and make them more user friendly.

I'll probably get slammed for this, but I think the Newton was a bit ambitious for its time, too. It was a harbinger of things to come, but the tech just wasn't far enough alone to really have a market for a device its size, weight, and capability (or lack thereof). I have two of them that I play with every once in a while-- like 'em a lot, but realize more and more how they just were off the mark when they first came out.
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Schnauzer
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2007-03-18, 16:31

20th Anniversary Mac
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Ryan
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2007-03-18, 16:33

Quote:
Originally Posted by Schnauzer View Post
20th Anniversary Mac
That wasn't a solution or technology as much as it was a commemorative item. So, I don't really think it counts.
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Brave Ulysses
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2007-03-18, 16:44

Voiceprint password
Sherlock (It STILL ships with Tiger and new computers.... does anyone use it?)


The best example ever.... iReview. God that was dumb.
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rasmits
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2007-03-18, 16:47

Sherlock still ships? Most of the channels don't work anymore, at least for me. I thought Dashboard replaced it.

Sherlock has pretty much always been useless.
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torifile
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2007-03-18, 17:16

Ah, yes. iReview. That was dumb.

I know this is old skool, but what about those techs like hypercard or cyberdog or whatever. That was before my Apple time but I'm sure some of you were left wondering about them.

Sherlock was poorly executed, to be sure, but it seemed to fill a need. So it was a solution to a problem that existed (the difficulty aggregating info from multiple sources). It stunk (didn't it also cost money? Or was it just a cookie to upgrade to OS 9?) but there was a need for something like it.

If it's not red and showing substantial musculature, you're wearing it wrong.
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Robo
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2007-03-18, 17:36

HyperCard? Useless?

And Sherlock is still the fastest way I know of to check movie showtimes. And yes, it's still included with new Macs.

But iReview, yes, that was...stupid. I hadn't even heard of it until now, but the Wiki makes it sound like the most useless thing ever:

Quote:
Originally Posted by Wikipedia
Its failure to generate traffic is generally attributed to...the idea most individuals would typically not spend time reading others' opinions of websites when they could quickly generate their own opinions by visiting the sites themselves.
Double failure points, because Steve Jobs was at the helm at the time.

As for the Apple TV, I don't think it will be as successful as the iPod, but it'll fill a niche. Apple just needs to get the word out about it - it's being quite overshadowed by the iPhone.

and i guess i've known it all along / the truth is, you have to be soft to be strong
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rasmits
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2007-03-18, 17:55

Quote:
Originally Posted by Roboman View Post
And Sherlock is still the fastest way I know of to check movie showtimes.
I used to use Sherlock only for that very reason. But have you tried "movies:zip" in Google?
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Banana
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2007-03-18, 18:47

If we're going to talk old school, I suppose eWorld could count- IIRC, it was revolutionary compared to what AOL, Compuserve had to offer, in terms of eye candy and user experience?

I'm kind of surprised everyone have such low opinion of Sherlock- I thought it was very useful back in OS 9 days, as it did pretty well as Spotlight would have done....
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psmith2.0
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2007-03-18, 19:32

I downloaded - about a year ago - a neat little movie showtime/location Dashboard widget called RAD Movie Times, right from Apple's site (third-party widget downloads). It lets you view by theater or movie (based on the zip code you enter in its info box on the back). I use it all the time.
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cosus
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2007-03-18, 20:25

What of the ipod shuffle? Displayless and less storage capacity.

Another thing this thread reminds me of is an article in the WSJ talking about Vanilla Coke. A product no one ever asked for and an advertised ingredient that was already in coke.

Retired 8 years ahead of schedule.
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chucker
 
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2007-03-18, 20:28

Quote:
Originally Posted by cosus View Post
What of the ipod shuffle? Displayless and less storage capacity.
Hugely popular. You'll find many people who actually agree with Apple's assertion: the lack of display doesn't matter at all because 1) they know what songs are on there; they don't need to look at the title to figure out what it is, and 2) within the environments they use them in (such as jogging, etc.), pulling it out to look at the screen would be a distraction anyway.
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cosus
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2007-03-18, 20:47

Well, I mean that when it was put out, did anyone ever wish for something of those specifications?
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Kickaha
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2007-03-18, 20:59

Something tiny, durable, and wearable? Hell yeah.
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cosus
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2007-03-18, 21:06

Well, I was still thinking more along the lines of screenless.
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chucker
 
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2007-03-18, 21:07

1) Less is more.
2) Users don't know what they want.
3) See 1).

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cosus
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2007-03-18, 21:14

I give up! Hell, I still never found a need for an ipod, as far as I'm concerned they're all useless devices. :P
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rasmits
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2007-03-18, 21:15

No, cosus is pretty much right. I never expected the screenless rumors to be true, and when it did turn out to be screenless, I thought it was really stupid, as did most initial responses I read outside the Apple community.

Of course it turned out to be quite the opposite of "stupid".

You had me at asl
.......
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chucker
 
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2007-03-18, 21:20

Oh, absolutely. Upon first glance, taking such a crucial feature away doesn't just seem like a radical step; it seems like an idiotic one.

Dumbing down an interface, however, has many advantages. Consciously, the user notices how flexibility is being taken away, and perceives this as negative. Subconsciously, however, the opposite happens: each interface item ultimately corresponds to a choice that has to be made. Because many people react to an overwhelming amount of choices with anxiety and either ask someone else or just give up altogether, removing such choices (and therefore, such interface items) is beneficial especially in situations where the choices would not do much to help.

The iPod shuffle is such a case. A display and a scroll wheel would strongly encourage you to scroll through the list to pick your next song. By taking this ability away from you, you are no longer confronted with the problem. You can still skip over songs, but otherwise, you simply follow a linear, predefined playlist which, while listening to it, you don't have to worry about at all.
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Chinney
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2007-03-18, 21:32

Hell, I don't use 2/3 of the software shipped with my Mac and I have no idea what it does.

But maybe I've got problems...and could use a few solutions.

When there's an eel in the lake that's as long as a snake that's a moray.
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cosus
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2007-03-18, 22:03

Lord! I do hate you people.
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joveblue
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2007-03-19, 01:29

Quote:
Originally Posted by cosus View Post
What of the ipod shuffle? Displayless and less storage capacity.

Another thing this thread reminds me of is an article in the WSJ talking about Vanilla Coke. A product no one ever asked for and an advertised ingredient that was already in coke.
I LOVE Vanilla Coke!!! I can't believe it's not more popular!

As for the Shuffle's screenless-ness, I thought it was the solution to the problem that people wanted cheaper iPods. The lack of screen reduced the cost and extended the battery life.
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