Sunday, May 29, 2011

blue sky

blue sky. at the sunny lue sky and
  • at the sunny lue sky and



  • benjayman2
    Apr 9, 01:41 PM
    The knockoffs don't break? j/k

    lol Definitely seen a lot of videos of broken solos not too many studios though. In real person the only studio I saw snapped was at a best buy near me, but every display model there is usually halfway broken there :p My cousin and coworker have had their studios for over a year with no issues. Regardless at $80 I couldn't pass it up. It was definitely a form over function kind of purchase, but were on MR anyways, most purchases fall in that category on this thread :D





    blue sky. Blue blue sky by ~Eevee90 on
  • Blue blue sky by ~Eevee90 on



  • 8CoreWhore
    May 2, 02:38 PM
    your correct, based on Steve Jobbs response to this which was pure BS we can never trust that the files do NOT get sent out, so with this and their sweat shops in china i think enough activists, governments around the world and companies will shut apple down, so its not just Congress coming to ask Apple why it was still there after a year ago when they where sued for using it to COLLECT POLITICAL VIEWS:

    Lets see why :

    Wikileeks, Wall street, Oil Giants, allot of these people used macs and iphones, I think Congress is doing the right thing indicting Apple for violations of privacy on US and foreign citizens becuase if they do nothing other nations will pull the plug forever, Israel already is planning a blockade on the devices

    --
    I agree.

    It's sad to see so many down vote your statement - a statement that is an advocate for people and democracy.

    Too many people here are more patriotic to corporations than they are to themselves. Sad, sad, sad.

    iSteve caves to the likes of Al Franken. Yep. Too Funny.

    Maybe Al can get Apple to put a real GPU back in the MBP13? I'm off to email him. Wish me luck!

    Apple responded to the people, not Al.

    I suppose you care more about the corporations desire to build massive databases, to commoditize every detail about us.

    Are we merely targets for advertising, or are we human?





    blue sky. Wilco - Sky Blue Sky
  • Wilco - Sky Blue Sky



  • *LTD*
    Apr 23, 07:13 AM
    Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3_2 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Mobile/8H7)

    RP:

    All you have shown is a deep-seated fear of advertising. And it's been stated that Apple doesn't actually collect this data, so it isn't even being used for iAds.

    How exactly, specifically, will this cell phone tower tracking info compromise your personal safety? What exactly is there to fear? There must be something more than targeted advertising, which is at best an annoyance you have to live with anyway.





    blue sky. Blue Sky Lotto
  • Blue Sky Lotto



  • thegreatluke
    Aug 7, 07:59 PM
    What school. I logged in under education and it is $649 for the 20".
    Apple is usually slow to update things like Education pricing etc.

    The Edu price will go down within a few days. :)



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    blue sky. Picture of Big Blue Sky,
  • Picture of Big Blue Sky,



  • kgtenacious
    May 2, 03:52 PM
    Are we merely targets for advertising, or are we human?

    Yes.





    blue sky. lue sky Royalty Free
  • lue sky Royalty Free



  • slb
    Sep 12, 01:19 AM
    If it's just Disney, then there's not much point. The reason iTMS succeeded from the start was that it was simple and it had the largest library from which you could purchase single songs.

    The iTMS didn't start with the largest library or all the record labels on board.* Having Disney also means the studios it owns, like Miramax.* There will be a healthy selection of films for a first start.



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    blue sky. Blue Sky :: Acceptable
  • Blue Sky :: Acceptable



  • TeppefallGuy
    Aug 1, 08:40 PM
    I spent 15 minutes registering for an account only to find out that The Daily Show is off limits for Norwegian buyers. I then tried to buy a DVD - only to discover that the DVD is US zone only. The Apple DVD player will not play it without a zone switch. And max is 4 times per OS install.

    The only way I can get The Daily Show is:

    1 - $$$ porn package from cable company
    2 - YouTube
    3 - Piracy

    I'm not 12 years old.. I don't have the time to pirate anything. So the only TDS for me is on YouTube. Quail hunting with the VP !!

    iTunes+DRM == Avis. You don't own ****. So... in Norway... DRM ! It's a crime !!

    Also.. The default M4A bit rate used by iTunes is a joke. You have to be 80 years old not to notice the huge difference between a CD and a standard iTunes M4A track.





    blue sky. Blue Skies Wallpaper Desktop
  • Blue Skies Wallpaper Desktop



  • dongmin
    Oct 19, 03:08 PM
    Do you believe that the perpetual delay of Microsoft's Vista OS is allowing Apple to temporarily grab up some of the markey share? I'm not saying that people who would otherwise purchase a Wintel machine are switching to Mac because Vista is not out, but rather that some percentage are waiting to buy their new Core2Duo machine (or other upgrade to their current box) until they can get an full release version of Vista preinstalled on it.

    Just a conjecture, but I thought it was worth considering. I suppose we'll find out in the first two quarters of 2007 when Microsoft decides that they're ready to release that bad boy on the world . . .

    [JDOG, your post came in while I was still typing mine . . . sorry for the repeat]We're talking about hardware here, not OS. So Vista should have very little effect on Apple's PC marketshare, unless of course Vista's release encourages people to buy new PCs from Dell, HP, etc.



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    blue sky. Beneath The Blue Sky - Bright
  • Beneath The Blue Sky - Bright



  • mixgrafix
    Oct 19, 12:33 PM
    My retail business was closing due to issues in the travel industry, and I decided to purchase Apple stock at that time. I had lost close to 500,000k in my store closing, and I was at the lowest point of my life. I bought the original iPod the day that it came out, and everyone for a year told me how they had loved it. I had always loved Apple, and I put my faith in Steve Jobs little iPod. Everyone was amazed at the size and incredible fidelity that it had. I knew that this would pay off one day. Everyone was laughing at me when I did this, including my broker. He told me that I should have invested in Dell because they were on the way up.

    Let's do this math.

    Original Investment - $94,070.00 for 11,500 shares

    11,500 x 2 after the split last summer = 23,000 shares

    23,000 x 78.71 at todays rate = $1,810,330.00

    $1,810,330 - $94,070.00 = $1,716,260.00 stock worth.

    I have not sold one share. Now who is laughing. Thank you iPod.





    blue sky. reflects a sky of lue.
  • reflects a sky of lue.



  • a17inchFuture
    Sep 12, 03:17 AM
    no, I wouldn't prefer osx media player, i'm not saying that I would prefer anything different, imedia would make more sense, but there's no way apple would change the name of there most well known software.

    Yeah, for the time being, I think iTunes is still safe. I can imagine some change at some point -- iLife was once just a bunch of individual applications, maybe they'll go a similar route, and start calling it the iMall or some **** (obviously not that), and just have the individual "stores" as subheadings the way the tv store is now.



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    blue sky. Paper Crane Under Blue Sky
  • Paper Crane Under Blue Sky



  • Branskins
    Apr 15, 08:31 PM
    I really want this!





    blue sky. lue sky grasses
  • lue sky grasses



  • kcmac
    Mar 28, 05:45 PM
    If you have a great app, you may not need the App Store to help market it. So why give Steve 30% when you don't need to.

    Now that there is an app store, that is pretty much where I look. The invisible man led a lonely life.



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    blue sky. Blue Sky, Blue Water
  • Blue Sky, Blue Water



  • Joshuarocks
    Apr 8, 07:36 PM
    I'm a current employee at Best Buy and thought I'd offer my two cents on a few issues.

    First, I don't really like Best Buy. I got a job there to work for around 4 hours a week to get the generous discount. It's particularly generous when dealing with open-box items. Even so, I am miserable leading up to heading in and I do not enjoy the time that I spend there. Thankfully, I have a good full-time job plus a lot of side work and I'm planning on quitting in the next month or so as the thrill of the discount has long worn off.

    That said, I have no problem being very open and honest about Best Buy and my experiences there.

    In regards to the iPad situation, I haven't been in since this issue came up and won't be in for awhile, so I don't really know what the buzz is on this matter exactly. I do know that they wouldn't put a freeze on selling new iPad 2 stock if they regularly had it for a random promotion, if only for the very reason that many think caused the initial problem: quota.

    I'm betting 1 of 2 things happened:

    1) They did indeed get in trouble with Apple for something. Sure, it's possible, and it's the easiest reasonable conclusion. I don't know why this would be though, and I'm skeptical about the whole hording thing. And again, this is coming from someone who has access to the inventory systems and all the places that would hide "horded" iPads. Plus, I have a good enough relationship with multiple managers (ones who know the score about Best Buy in an objective world...) who would be honest about this with me.

    Generally speaking, when they say there are no iPads for sale, there are no iPads for sale. It's really that simple. Demand is real, and supply is lacking. When we have them for sale, they're in the cages, and this would occur after passing through the pre-order system. White Verizon iPads tend to be the ones most often available, usually just a couple, and they're gone almost immediately all the same.

    Another factor in the equation though is processing shipments. I saw someone noted that after an open-box controversy between two customers, the manager was able to procure a new iPad 2 for a disappointed customer when apparently there were none for sale. Well, there probably weren't. He either bumped someone back on the pre-order list to be nice to the pissed off customer in the store or perhaps a shipment came in on the truck that had yet to be processed and he worked it out with the ops team to get them to process one so he could get it out. Oftentimes the managers do actually try to make the customer happy, even if it's somewhat unreasonable. The ops guys have their procedures, and it's rarely slimy in intent so much as rooted in overall efficiency, so sometimes a shipment won't go to the floor for sales until the next day because the processing takes time. If the manager pushes to work something out in that situation, the manager is doing you a favor and pissing off some ops guys to do so.

    Anyways, on to the 2nd scenario...

    2) This is what I'd really venture to bet is the problem: the pre-order system is a huge mess. It was a rush job authorized by corporate at the last minute and handled by less-than-informed employees who were also in a rush. From day 1 it was clear that problems were going to creep up, and they absolutely have. Nobody in store is happy about it. The employees don't like telling customers that they have to wait on a pre-order list, they don't like the 48 hour pickup window, they don't like having to deal with customers pissing and moaning and crying about conspiracy theories when only a 64 GB white Verizon iPad 2 is available once in a blue moon when a pre-order turns it down. It's not fun, for anyone, and unfortunately, there's nothing we can do about it.

    So what I'm guessing is really happening is that Best Buy is just digging out of this pre-order mess as fast as possible and skipping anything else until they get past the ramifications of a stupid decision. Considering there's little to skip seeing as supply is so low and we rarely have the most in-demand models available anyways, it's easier for them to just bow out of this for a couple of weeks and in a sense re-launch the normal sales when supplies are less constrained and they don't have a stupid pre-order process hanging over their heads. It's a cut and dry move that will allow them to gear up again in a more normal, focused way. Considering how things have gone there in the last month in dealing with anything iPad related, this might be the best decision for them.

    All in all, Best Buy is Best Buy: a brick and mortar retailer lost in an internet-connected world. Best Buy isn't nearly as evil as they are lost and longing for the 20th century. Sure, there's a lot of margin on accessories, but it's because there's more often than not no margin on anything else. They don't make much money at all on TV's and Computers anymore. If they're on sale, and at Best Buy, almost everything is always "On Sale," it's likely at cost or within a few dollars of cost. There's little margin in the shrinking physical media world either. The only departments with major products that have margin still are appliances and for certain stores, musical instruments. This is why Best Buy will likely be dead in 5 years if they don't drastically change their business model. They did a better job at adapting to the new world than other electronics chains, but they haven't done nearly enough. It's not an easy business at this point though as it has as much to do with dealing with suppliers suffering the same pinch and customers who want to have it all but don't want to pay for it.

    Also, in regards to stupid employees and sleazy mangers, yeah, they do exist. But more employees know their stuff than you might think. And there are quite a few managers who actually do care about trying to do a good job and help the customer.

    As far as the employees, the biggest shock to me after working at Best Buy was realizing that so much of the supposed employee ignorance has more to do with incessantly having to dumb things down to the most absurd of levels with customers. 90% of the people who come in are nice people who just don't know much of anything about what they're buying. You have to learn to communicate on their level and not over-complicate things for them. It's easy to get stuck in that default mode and you have to actively snap yourself out of it on the rare occasion when you get customers who can actually hold their own in a conversation about the technology. And make no mistake, it's a huge relief for most of us when that happens because most of us that work there actually are pretty excited about the technology.

    Now on the other hand, sleazy managers and supervisors can screw so much of this up. While most of the employees aren't making a career out of working at Best Buy, the sups and managers typically are on some level at least, and it takes a certain, umm, level of person to get, err, stuck, yes, at that level if you know what I mean. There's a lot of inconsistency in these types of people. If you get good ones though, they tend to hire good employees and foster a good environment for customers. My store has good management. It's the only thing that makes it remotely tolerable to me. The employees actually know their stuff and are honest with the customers. They also work as a team because the management pushes it and thankfully we don't have commission to muck things up. And customers do love us for it. You'd be shocked by how often a selling relationship turns into a friendship practically at our particular store. We get invited out after work all the time. Honesty goes a long ways, and when you're helping people save money by making sure they make a smart decision for their needs, it goes a long ways. And our managers are objective enough (and not locked into Best Buy corporate brainwash mode) to know that the only thing Best Buy has to offer over Amazon is the possibility of a good customer service experience. They do all they reasonably can to ensure that it happens.

    But again, this simply isn't the case everywhere at all, and it so often boils down to the luck of the draw on management. Good managers hire good people leading to good teams leading to generally happy customers and good sales. Bad managers hire their dumb friends, play games with customers, lie, cheat, and usually they don't put up good numbers.

    At the end of the day though, the good stores and the bad stores are equally screwed because the industry is a mess, the world is changing, and Best Buy corporate utterly and completely lacks the talent and leadership to be innovative in the 21st century. They refuse to reasonably acknowledge change, they're too scared to piss off manufacturers who have lines all across the store that vary dramatically when it comes to success and quality, and they're wildly inconsistent and disorganized with their processes and as they put it, "solutions." As said, if things don't drastically change, and I don't believe they will without a major shift in leadership, they'll be dead in 5 years. It's a sinking ship. I'll be happy to be out of there.

    Again, I don't think they're near as evil and corrupt as they are just lost. When you're lost, things can get confusing real fast. Bear in mind that oftentimes when employees appear aloof, they're probably confused because corporate changes things all the time and does little to help keep us informed of these changes. Also, don't mistake conspiracy theories for sheer stupidity. Like we saw in this whole conversation, people will say some wild things. It's easy to think it from the outside. I can assure you from the inside, that oftentimes what looks like scheming and maneuvering is really just disorganization, stupidity and/or confusion due to the muddled processes and the ever-foggy way in which corporate outlines these processes.

    I don't blame people for not liking Best Buy. I don't like them either. Just go easy on the guys on the floor and in the back. Unless they're the total goof-off employees which do exist, what you're pissed about is probably not their fault at all.

    The only "Worst Buy" I am against is the one in Owings Mills, MD where they discriminated against me just because of a small disability. Pending a court case with corporate on this matter.. and I used to work for them back in 2005 and left them on a great note. Eligible for re-hire.. then tried to go back to them(Owings Mills) and the manager was very disrespectful and also discriminatory.

    I plan to have that store shut down permanently.





    blue sky. Gibsons Solitudes Blue Sky
  • Gibsons Solitudes Blue Sky



  • Apple Corps
    Sep 30, 11:38 PM
    ...If Jobs wanted a modern building - which by the way, I prefer to Jackling House - then he should have got his rich ass moved to another large plot and built his modern glassbox there, after he sold Jackling House to somebody who wanted to live in that and respect local conservationist's and planning authorities' wishes...

    That house was a dilapidated piece of junk with little "history". The local conservationists and planning authorities had to raise hell about something to justify their existence.

    BTW - there are not that many large plots in the area. Steve earned the money - he bought the property - get the clods out of the way.

    Steve does not suffer fools :rolleyes:



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    blue sky. peaceful dreams lue sky
  • peaceful dreams lue sky



  • applebum
    Aug 5, 12:09 PM
    I was thinking, ( always a dangerous activity).

    There IS one thing that could make me switch over to the cross platform compatibility side of this argument.

    That would be if the CC of Norway enforced it ACROSS THE BOARD!

    My first MP3 player was a Creative Zen Micro. The only reason I have an iPod is because when I switched to Macs, the nice people at Creative Labs informed me that their sync software DID NOT SUPPORT MAC OS.

    I can't even access Sony's Connect music store on my Mac. I'm told I need to "upgrade to Internet Explorer 5.5 or higher". (Upgrade to IE??? Bwahahahahaha!!! Those silly wabbits. :D)

    I have a couple of programs I used in my PC days that are completely useless now, they won't run on Mac OS. Why not? I bought them! I paid for them! What right do these software companies have to lock me into a single platform?

    I have, at last count, 317 files on my comp with the extension .xls. If I should decide I prefer to use Lotus, will I be able to open these files as is? Or will I have to take the time to convert them to XML format? Will I lose any of the custom formatting these files contain? ( I honestly don't know. I'm just beginning to learn the ODF stuff. Beside, current version of Lotus appears to be Windows only!) And these files aren't something I paid for, they are my own creations!

    I'd be more than willing to see Apple surrender some iPod sales, (given the quality of the product, I don't think it would be much), if it would remove the single largest block against switching to Mac OS; the availabilty of software! Then the OS's could compete on other planes; features, ease of use, quality of computing experience, stability, etc. All of which would be, dare I say, good for the consumer?

    Maybe I'm just a silly dreamer, but imagine the boon to Mac and Linux users if all these software development companies were forced to make their products interoperable, with the same functionality, and price.

    What a beautiful place the world would be! :cool:

    dsnort - finally, someone has hit the nail on the head. A standard DRM does not help ALL consumers - only those using Windows. This is why I see these rules/laws as fluff. There has to be 2 parts to any law before I will see it as positive. First - the law must insist on OS Neutrality. Meaning, if you want to have an online music store, it must work on Linux, Mac, and Windows. You make a music player, then it must have drivers or work on Linux, Mac and Windows. Once you have that, then let's get a universal DRM that is used by all these music stores and all these music players. Until both things happen, these laws do not help all consumers. And isn't what these laws are supposed to do - help the consumer???

    My household has nothing but Macs. If these "laws" were enacted and we suddenly had a universal DRM, it would NOT help me as a consumer. I would still only be able to use iTunes, as none of the other big music stores (Sony, Yahoo, Napster, Real, Microsoft, Walmart) work on a Mac. I could perhaps buy a different player, but that would only help if that player had drivers or software that would work on a Mac.

    These "laws" seemed to be created by Windows using politicians who don't truly understand what it would take to be fair to ALL consumers. It seems that they only care about whether Windows users get all the bells, whistles, and benefits. So I say leave it the way it is until it will help everyone.





    blue sky. lue sky Royalty Free
  • lue sky Royalty Free



  • zephxiii
    Dec 19, 08:31 PM
    CDMA is not even close to being the dominate tech in cellular in China.



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    blue sky. Blue Sky Series I
  • Blue Sky Series I



  • Dunepilot
    Nov 17, 08:04 AM
    Yeah, it looks like the logo of one of those local computer stores that are packed to rafters with boxes in a tiny shop with opaque-coated windows and put out pricing brochures on coloured paper folded neatly in half down the centre.

    You know the ones of which I speak.

    hahahaha. I'd built up a full mental image before I even clicked the digitimes link. Great post.





    blue sky. glass and lue sky
  • glass and lue sky



  • minnesotamacman
    Sep 12, 08:06 AM
    Think they will close the store this morning to update the laptop line??? or will they do it when they close the store during the live session?





    blue sky. Flowers and Blue Sky
  • Flowers and Blue Sky



  • kresh
    Oct 31, 02:52 PM
    What on Earth are you talking about? What are people stealing in the Arn's summary? The modified code isn't capable of running OS X, and until they closed the source, Darwin worked on most generic x86 platforms anyway.

    Someone fixes a lack of functionality that existed in previous public versions and you call it "stealing"? WTF?

    Because they fixed it with the intent to use it with Aqua. They will be stealing Aqua. I sincerely doubt anyone will go through the trouble just for command line only.

    Even the blogger that was mentioned has a screen shot of Aqua running. There's the theft for ya :)





    Highland
    Aug 2, 11:33 AM
    Norway is doing you all a favor. Do not act as stupid ass consumers with no brain. It is your right when you by music to listen to i where ever you want it too.
    You payed for it didn't you so now it is yours ....
    DRM is ******** and it takes away your rights as a consumers.

    Act now stop that ********.

    One more thing. At least we have the freedom and our goverment tries too help.
    VERY WELL SAID.

    A couple of points people always seem to miss.

    #1 -- This is not solely about iTunes. It isn't an attack on Apple... it's FOR ALL online music stores.
    #2 -- "Just buy CDs" DOES NOT cut it. They won't be around for much longer.

    Stop being such asses and realise that proprietary DRM on music, video, pictures or digital books is a really, really, ridiculously stupid thing for consumers and society. I'd rather have no DRM, but if we have to, let's make it something that everyone can use.

    Also... this isn't being driven entirely by Apple. The content owners are as much, if not more to blame. We all need to start speaking up about this or we're going to REALLY regret it in a few year's time.





    Padraig
    Jul 21, 09:31 AM
    We do? You've tested them all?

    Show me another phone that can drop calls from just the position of one finger. Nokia have their problems at the moment, but their reception has always been rock solid.

    As for people being surprised at Apple's childishness, have you forgotten about the douchetastic "I'm a Mac campaign".





    ddrueckhammer
    Sep 12, 08:41 AM
    I can't imagine why Apple would have an event like this if there was going to be only Disney content available.

    Especially, if they don't have better prices or selection than the Amazon store released last week. Also, if they don't offer renting they are crazy. Who will buy a movie for $14.99 off of the internet without the media? I have actually rented a movie from the Unbox store and despite a crappy UI, problems starting the download, and having to use an S-video cable to connect my laptop to the TV, I found the experience better than expected. 90minutes downloaded in 1.5 hours and available to stream in 25 minutes is more than acceptable for me.





    iOS v Android
    May 3, 01:47 PM
    And why is this on mac rumors.

    Does it really matter what the competition does.





    finnns2000
    Oct 7, 04:11 PM
    To each their own, I suppose. Personally, I dislike modern-looking houses. When we built our house, I wanted it to look like it had been here half a century.

    I still don't consider my house a mansion, though. When I think of a mansion I think of fragile decor (not childproof), rooms decorated just for show (formal dining room, etc), immaculate landscaping, a garage without a drop of oil on the floor, a wet bar, and either a room devoted to the display of taxidermy or a room filled with musical instruments that no one plays.

    I don't mind the older Ivy League look for a place but imo it's time to move forward and discover the "future" that we all used to dream about. Floating cars, modern structures being the majority, etc.



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