I honestly thought the post would get more comments than it did too. I post about boobs and all my readers want to do is talk about Miers and staged teleconferences.

Weird.

iPod Mammo?

I think "The Apple titPod" would have more cache'....

...or maybe "titPods" would be more apropo...

Why is it that marketers go bezerk only when ipod does something? I have a Cowon iAudio x5, and it plays video as well. When Portible Media Players (basically portable video players, that also play mp3s) came out, everyone said "what's the point".

Now that iPod is coming out with a video player, everyone says "OH HOW COOL".

What complete...and utter...trash.

iBoob

Think of all the fun the designers could have with that control...uh...knob.

Henry, I feel your pain.

Computers have always been -and will always be- about the user interface. If you really want to ask the right question, why the HELL is Apple the only company who can put a decent user interface on something? -- It ain't that hard.

Microsoft spends bazillions of dollars a year on UI research and every rev of every application is more convoluted than the one before.

Look at the WHOLE *NIX debacle. For whatever reason, people (developers) can't figure out user interfaces and users want little else. - Take FreeBSD for example. If you get the zealots out the room, FreeBSD is probably the best OS mankind has ever created. It presently has .0000001% of the market-share. (or somewhere about there ;-) WHY? Because the installer sucks. Great OS, but people can't use it.

But to swing back to your question specifically. The iPod is NOT an MP3 player. It is part of a system. ITMS, podcasting, vpodcasting et al. -- ALL OF IT is about making easier for non-tech people to use technology. Other players might have existed but HOW did you get content for them?

I'll give you a quote I've been telling people for over 15 years... And it is just recently that people "get" what I've been saying:

"Computers won't change the world when everyBODY has one, computers will change the world when everyTHING has one."

Jobs and his team found one device (portable media players) that was in sore need of a computer. For practical purposes at least, he's the guy that brought them together. (read: in a usable way)

It doesn't matter than FreeBSD is a work of art. It doesn't matter what else is out there. The usable one wins.

OK the above is assuming you really were asking a question you wanted the answer to. Other motivations need not apply.

Paul

[And Even the market domination of the Windows interface over the MAC user interface was -in the end- about usability. Sure in late 80's Mac's have the only interface, but they were selling for $6000 when PC clones were $3000. Fact of life..... The $3000 machine allowed more people to use it.]

Hee hee hee - boobs and computers, computers and boobs.

Meanwhile Fitz just exonerated Rove and no one at Wizbang but me seems interested in the biggest thing since Watergate!

Maybe Suzy can make a graphic of a computer with boobs and you can make it a Plamegate thread and we'll all be happy :)

Sorry BR, but the whole Plame/Wilson/Rove/Libby thing is no where near Watergate level. The left has tried to make it that to cover Wilson's lies but the rest is just not a case.

This is less of a case than even Lewinsky...and I thought that was a waste of time.

LOL! That was the first good laugh I've had today-er, and yesterday. Thanks.

Where can I position my head/face for stereo sound?

So, just where do you plug in the headphones?

Hi Faith+1, there's something big in the air... if Fitzgerald takes Plamegate, as I believe he will, all the way down to the CIA-forged Niger docs and their attempted setup of Pres. Bush and PM Blair. (See, for example, short item at 07:58 AM, "Will David Corn Eat His Words?".) The data in that link is the tip of the iceberg. Below it are reams and reams of prior research by many at Wizbang mainly since this July 05, and at JustOneMinute, where TM and his commenters have been gathering data and discovering the plot since 2003.

Corn looked decidedly rattled on FoxNews tonight, not his usual arrogant composure. He may very well be a target of the GJ himself for his complicity.

Guess I've made this a Plamegate thread now. Okay, Suzy, where's the graphics :) Revenge of the computer boobs!

Hee, I see JayTea has left the category "Filed Under..." blank, at least it's blank at this moment. Will it be a hybrid? Computer Boobs vs. Brainy Babes?

Damn, I just checked again and now it's Filed under "Linked Cosmos"... and here I thought it was Linked Boobs :)

I wonder if all the B-flats will be filtered out of the music.

Wish you could see me ROFWL, don! Who would've thought a tacky, techy thread could be so much fun...

And for the next installment on Plamegate... full exposure "over there while waiting for you guys" to come play :)

Paul, the user interface on many of the portable media players are just fine. In fact, the user interface on my cowon iAudio is awesome. I prefer my joystick to the clickwheel any day. Please get off your worship apple bandwagon and just like a product for what it really is. Have you even seen any of the other mp3 players out on the market? Personally?

I research up a storm before I bought my cowon iAudio X5, and it was the only one I saw where the user reviews completely blew out the editor reviews. It is very obvious that @ cnet, they love apple just as much as you.

posers.

oh by the way, I won't be available for a while, I finally got a ship. I'll be on the USNS Mount Baker (an ammunition supply ship), and I'm flying out to Dubai to meet the ship there. Wish me luck

Fair winds and following seas...
-Henry

Henry, you feel like family. Hope you'll be able to access the net over there. Bon voyage, go well.

OK Henry, It's all just apple worship. It is NOT that it is a better product. Na, the market is just stupid.

Just answer me this question... With the level of inane Apple hatred and when they have a whopping 5% of the computer marketshare; Where did all the Apple zealots suddenly come from to buy iPods?

Wouldn't the more logical explanation be that it was a good product?

And you accept that the market finds it a good product then maybe - just maybe- you might open up your gawd damn mind and really ask yourself why.

You asked why they were popular. I explained it. You clearly didn't want the answer you just wanted to bitch about Apple. That's sad.

Sorry if you prefer to play with your joystick rather than an iPod click wheel. OK fine. You asked a question, I gave you the obvious answer.

BTW I've owned MP3 players from 4 different companies and I own 2 iPods. I think I've had a fair exposure to the alternative.

but good luck to ya- check in when you can.

This thread is so funny, people all over cyberspace are laughing and adding to the fun… in a Plamegate thread, of course :)

(Over there at October 15, 2005 at 10:57 AM)

Yo Henry, If you're still around I have a link for you.

I said usability was the key. Gee what do you know. Read the whole thing but I think this one distills it for you:

-----------
Very simple... My teenage daughter paid her own money for an iPod and can use it easily. She walked into the Mac store (Glendale Galleria), played with one for three minutes, and could use it. No problem. She bought it. She now wants a Mac Mini.

She tried to use a PDA, with guidance, and still lost interest almost immediately. She said it was like trying to use a PC with ten foot chopsticks.

Apple == Ease of use. Zero learning curve to start. Like a toaster.
------------

The question is about PDA's but people talk about everything from cell phones to other media players.

ALL of them come down to one thing. Usability.

Repeat after me:

Usability. Usability. Usability.