Tag Archives: consumerism

What Annoys Jeff This Week?

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So it’s Thursday and by now you’re surely wondering what annoys Jeff this week. From a host of things, here are the three that made the final cut this time around:

1. Religious zealots. Every religion since the dawn of time has been based on what it’s followers (or creators) considered some kind of “revealed truth” about the universe and our place in it… and mostly, the central tenant of most major religions is the same: Try not to be a doucebag. The problem arises when people make an addendum to this basic philosophy and you end up with something more like: Don’t be a douchebag, unless the person you’re acting like a douchebag towards doesn’t subscribe to every particular detail of your system of beliefs. I’m not known as the most laid back guy in the world, but at the end of the day, if you’re nice to me, I’ll be nice to you. Jesus, Vishnu, Buddha, and Mohammed all seem to agree on that point. So yeah, don’t be a douchebag zealot, regardless of who hears your prayers.

2. First world problems. I don’t need a new iPhone. I definitely don’t need a $600 new iPhone. I’m not even particularly impressed with the incremental design improvements the leaks have shown this time around. And yet somehow despite those three pieces of evidence to the contrary, I really, really want to order the new iPhone when it’s launched next week. Not even my best mental gymnastics can manage to transform this from a “want” into a “need.” And lord knows I’ve tried. That a slightly lengthened form factor, a marginally larger screen, and a couple of as yet unknown new bells and whistles can cause me this much gnashing of teeth is an impressive tribute to the power of marketing… and a slightly disturbing testament to my priorities.

3. It’s not the end of the world. I’m constantly amazed at people’s misguided assessment of their importance in the grand scheme of things. Nothing makes me want to bang my head against the keyboard more than people who spend all day lost in a haze of everything they do being an emergency. Things worked just fine before we showed up and unless you’re actually the next Einstein of your field, they’re keep going along in more or less the same direction long after we’re all singing with the choir invisible. The sooner you come to grips with that fact, the less bothersome these nominal “emergencies” become.

It’s all about the hype…

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Compared to the iPad announcement back in March, the expected announcement tomorrow the next-generation iPhone is just around the corner seems to be practically drifting gently into that good night. That’s to be expected, I suppose, as most people aren’t all that interested in new tech until they can actually hold it in their hands. That’s well and good. Tomorrow is more of a holiday for the early adopters among us anyway. Of course there are too many rumors to speculate on at the moment, but it would appear to be reasonable to expect a wholly new form factor, a higher resolution display, more powerful processor, two cameras, and, of course OS4. Most everything else seems up for grabs, including the date when it will actually be available for sale. Rumors on that are everything from the day after tomorrow to June 27th. My personal guesstimate is leaning more towards the end of the month. Any earlier than that and we’re almost certainly be hearing rumors circulating about delivery plan or other pre-sale groundwork being put in place. Hopefully mid-afternoon tomorrow, I’ll at least know when I need to schedule leave later in the month.

As a rule, I hate to feel like I’m on the receiving end of a sales pitch, but for me at least, iPhone is a product that has basically sold itself. Given Apple’s iterative method of introducing product improvements, I’m really looking forward to seeing what extras are in store (multitasking, please? Please?). I’ve given the phone a pass on alot of things because what it does, it does so well, but I’m really needing this version to bring most of the loose ends together. Maybe that way I can continue to forgive AT&T’s god-awful service and crippling data limits.