It doesn't say it is, and when I played it, I had to first watch what was plainly an ad and that was for another brand of "smart phone"*:
I enjoyed the video. iPhones — with some help from other smart phones? — have "destroyed" a lot of things and it gets funny as the list gets longer. Obvious things on the list: cameras, calendars, address books, maps, clocks (counted twice as alarm clocks and watches). Less obvious things: postcards, photo albums, compasses, levels. Less clearly destroyed things: taxis (but not hotels**). And the less tangible things that relate to human nature are kept upbeat: "small talk" and "shame and humility" (but not dinner conversation, civility, situational awareness, and attention span). In the psychological category, the closest they get to conceding a negative — as the music continues its peppy, happy beat — is "work/life balance" and "anonymity."
So... I enjoyed the video, though I'd probably prefer simply reading the list of things (as I've put it in the previous paragraph), but I was offended by what feels like a hybridization of advertising and journalism, I loathe the music's nudging to find the "destruction" terribly fun, and I hate the triumphant shallowness (unless I do my own work to see it as sarcasm and critique).
_______________________
* I put "smart phone" in quotes because it sounds as cutesy and dumb as "snail mail" to me, perhaps because I've always — as long as there have been iPhones — had an iPhone. And I rewatched the video, and the ad seems to be not for another brand of smart phone but for something like "the smart behind every smartphone." The name on this product is Qualcomm, and I still don't know why I should care about that and not just whatever the new iPhone is going to be.
** Because hotels are big advertisers in the NYT but taxis are not?
September 12, 2017
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After that video played another one auto-started - usually very annoying - about Chinese phone apps (focusing on superapp WeChat) that was really interesting.
Thank you for the list. I hate watching a video when I could just read a paragraph. THANK YOU AA
The iPhone is unmanly.
Men were not made to keep everything about them on a small touchstone.
Men were meant to spread their DNA in countless women, wherever they might be found.
Men were meant to tell their stories in bars, not text.
Men were meant to hold tools -- knives, wrenches, blowtorches -- in their hands, not an electronic purse.
If you need several tools in one you carry a Swiss Army Knife.
The iPhone does not have a screwdriver, a blade, a corkscrew and a toothpick.
I am Laslo.
The iPhone is a tool for the Feminization of Men.
Men: with your iPhone you can text like schoolgirls.
Men: with your iPhone your woman can always get in touch with you.
Men: if you are using an iPhone for anything other than watching porn you are doing it wrong.
I am Laslo.
I wonder how many people in the rest of the country still don't know -- despite the prominence of New York-set shows on TV -- that a New York taxi medallion is worth at least as much as a McDonald's franchise.
The difference being, of course, that (1) taxi medallion holders don't generally have a multinational corporation that can foot the bill for their advertising, and (2) that Michelle Obama and Michael Bloomberg notwithstanding, the fast food business, while regulated around the edges federally and locally, is still part of a mostly free market while NYC taxicabs ... aren't/
Also destroyed: Plots of hundreds of movies
Men: given the choice between an iPhone and a knife, take the knife.
Then, if you REALLY need an iPhone, you can take one at knifepoint.
I am Laslo.
I wonder how many of us smart phone users are using non-Apple devices? I'd go look up the numbers but am on my way out to work. I find it occasionally amusing that some iPhone users tend to be just the slightest bit shocked that the rest of us are out here in the wilds. A thousand bucks for the newest iPhone upcoming....
Also destroyed: Bar bets.
I have been seriously considering moving away from Apple for a bit now. I got sucked in because the law firm I was in supported Blackberries and then iPhones, but not Androids etc, because of security issues. Then, I just replaced them when they died. And, to integrate with them, I bought iPads. I have now bought 9 IOS devices, and use 4 of them at least weekly, if not daily - one iPhone and 3 iPads. I love the integration. Every couple days I use Find My iPhone to find one of them. Two nights ago, couldn't find the iPhone, so I grabbed one of the iPads, brought up that app, and pinged it. Meanwhile my partner went to call it (kinda a competition). She couldn't find it. The iPhone started beeping (it was under a napkin on the table), I called her phone (instead) and it was under the comforter in bed. And, a year and a half ago, my previous phone was stolen. I knew it wasn't misplaced because it showed up somewhere I hadn't been on the map. It was a simple matter then to kill it remotely, using the same app. We were in Casa Grande (that Dr K no doubt knows well from his frequent drives between Tucson and Phoenix), and was headed south, presumably for Mexico where it could be resold and reactivated. When I got the replacement the next day delivered, it was a simple matter to recover my old configuration, change the phone's name, and then backup with the new name. Plus, I love the integration - texts, apps, email, etc show up on all of my IOS devices.
But the company has gone SJW crazy. Plus, it crams design and marketing decisions down your throat. For example - I can't kill Siri. Can't delete it. Can just turn it off for a bit, and then get asked every couple days if I want to activate it. No - I don't want Apple having any more information about me than they have already. And esp not the type of info that Siri would send them. And I also don't like that IOS loads their own crippled apps, such as Safari, when one app opens a document or link belonging to another. But Google is worse - their primary job is data mining, and no one should be surprised that a day or two ago, they were caught gray listing conservative web sites like PJMedia, Powerline, etc. based apparently on wrongthought.
We shall see.
The iphone compass is not very accurate. You would be unwise to rely on it.
sean said...
"The iphone compass is not very accurate. You would be unwise to rely on it."
Makes my earlier point. The accuracy of compasses: something a Man would know.
I am Laslo.
The only thing I'd need a cell phone for is calling the phone company when the landline goes out, which isn't worth the money.
I have a knife though. Always in a pocket since grade school.
If you have an Android device, you might wonder if GOOG captures your WiFi name and password when they run backups. Hadn't thought about AAPL doing that.
"The iphone compass is not very accurate. You would be unwise to rely on it."
I keep a sextant handy, just in case. GPS had to do to Rand-McNally what Wikipedia did to Britannica. Smartphones are also "killing" the human brain's ability to do spatial mapping (navigation and sense of direction) because no one (I,still do) uses highway atlases to plan trips anymore.
rhhardin said...
"I have a knife though. Always in a pocket since grade school."
rhhardin: a Man's Man.
I am Laslo.
I have a knife though. Always in a pocket since grade school.
I once got in trouble in high school for carrying a pocket knife. Used it to cut open bundles of news papers. Had put it in my coat pocket and forgot about it. It fell on the ground when I was pulling my gloves out of the coat's pockets and a teacher saw it. Apparently, a small pocket knife can be used to kill hundreds judging from the reaction.
" Apparently, a small pocket knife can be used to kill hundreds judging from the reaction."
Yes it can, when wielded correctly.
I am Laslo.
Like any man, I have a sextant in the pantry closet and a bubble sextant in the basement.
A regular non-bubble sextant isn't much use on land unless you have a body of water to reflect the sun off of.
However I think my latest edition of the Nautical Almanac is from the 1970s. I'd be back to the longitude problem.
I always keep an astrolabe in my ditty bag.
Just for the record, I still don't own a mobile phone, and have never owned a mobile phone or pager.
It is possible to live without one.
I think "alarm clock" and "watch" are definitely separate items and should be counted as such. I do not use my cell as an alarm clock (at least not for waking in the morning) and still use an old Realistic for that. However, other than as an accessory for a suit worn to a wedding or job interview, I never wear a watch, and my phone functions as that for me.
Also, some of them are a bit cheeky. No one in their right mind would use an iPhone as a level when doing real carpentry work.
Android phone here. I prefer the third party apps, and I can sync wirelessly with my Drobo network storage and (get this) iTunes.
Google is a pain, but less of a pain than Apple.
One more tool Androids, at least, replaced-
Lightmeters. There are good apps.
If you still shoot film that is.
Smartphones definitely have destroyed 'small talk'. Its a good question what % of all conversation they have inhibited or destroyed.
Why You Love Your Smartphone - Qualcomm
https://www.qualcomm.com/invention/yoursmartphone
Scroll past the video.
Clandestine affairs, taking them from difficult to pull off to completely impossible.
Regarding "The iPhone is a tool for the Feminization of Men."
The new iPhone is making it easier for guys to love pink
""We see androgyny pop up in fashion in waves, and a tsunami is rolling into shore as we speak," he says. "Gender lines are blurring in fashion, so it’s no surprise that men are feeling more comfortable embracing colors that are traditionally prescribed as feminine. [They're] more comfortable embracing the rose gold iPhone color for [these] reasons."
The iPhone is making you a chick and you don't even know it.
I am Laslo.
The incompetent / level on my phone is good for only one thing: measuring the slope of the road I'm climbing, for bragging rights among other cyclists.
(Wow. Autocorrect changed "inclinometer" to "incompetent". I knew it would eventually prove its worth.)
I prefer Android.
When I decided to retire from the full-time practice of law, but continue on a part-time basis with clients that wanted that, the cell phone became an essential tool. I don't say smart phone, because for years I used a cell phone that did nothing but receive and place telephone calls. If I wanted to do email or research, I used my computer. But my clients knew they could reach me by phone. Then I took a foreign trip and learned that my dumb phone wouldn't work internationally, so I got a smart phone. And it had all these extra bells and whistles. Now that I'm fully retired, I don't get a lot of calls on my smart phone except from (a) friends, and (b) solicitors, many, many solicitors. But I can check my email or surf the web sitting on my ass in the living room, instead of going upstairs to my computer.
My take is that to some extent the smart phone is a minor convenience/attraction. Beyond that it will probably destroy our civilization.
Bruce
I have never owned an iPhone, and my last Apple device was a Lisa!
Remember Handspring and Treo? I had those. And Nokia.
Now I'm on my second Windows phone (Nokia 950), and I like it fine.
I'm surrounded by Android and iOS users, but since I'm not a big app user, nor a photographer, nor a portable digital music listener (still use FM car radio in my 1998 Ford), I see no advantage to switching.
Although I will probably have to choose from the duopoly next time. I'll probably go Android because I hate Apple more, but not by much.
>Remember Handspring and Treo? I had those.
I had one of the original PalmPilots, and switched to the Treo.
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