Goat Day 9: $10,000 Watches for All
5Hi kids. I'm feeling much better today. Still have a bit of a cough, but I don't feel like death warmed over. Let's switch things up a bit...
THE FEED BAG
Thanks for the well wishes. It was nice that people actually care how a goat feels. And I had no idea @Matthew would have Glen talk about Sick Days in today's Meh video. So that's kind of a cool coincidence.
Now, on to today's topic.
THE APPLE WATCH, OR "WHY?"
Apple had their special event today to introduce the new Apple Watch, plus showed some updates to their other things... And then brought out Christy Turlington Burns for some reason.
The good? Well, Apple TV is now down to $69! Sweet, right? Well, you'll need to pony that up if you want to to get HBO Now, which costs $14.95 a month and only exists on the Apple TV. But hey, no more cable, right? You know what would've been cool? A NEW AppleTV. How old is that sucker? I think it has guts from an iPad 2 in it.
The new MacBook was also introduced.... Which didn't replace the MacBook Air. It also removed a shit-ton of ports, and now all you have is a USB-C port. So yeah, good luck keeping a whole cadre of dongles on your person. Of course Apple did this because they want to push wireless file transfer and stuff, but please.
They also introduced something called a "Force Touchpad".... So get ready for a ton of Darth Vader Trackpad memes. I'm just here to warn you.
And then we get to the creme de la creme.... The Apple Watch. Yeah, it looks kinda cool...And hey, it helps Christy Turlington Burns run half marathons in Africa! Yeah! But then the price...
$349/$399 for the Sport Models... OK. Steep, but not exactly out of the realm of possibility.... I don't like the bands, so maybe the other version will be more in line with this price.
$549-$1099 for the regular versions... I'll get to that in a second.
And the one that kicks you in the naughty parts hard: The Apple Watch Edition.... Starting at... STARTING AT... $10,000. That's like two Yugos... Or what you pay in a leased vehicle. $10,000. Yeah. Do you at least get into some sort of club with that? Who spends that much money on a fucking watch? AND IT'S NOT REALLY A WATCH! It's just a computer on your wrist that displays the time.
But honestly, who are they marketing the $10K Apple Watch to? Celebrities? Yeah, wear that and further push yourself away from the common folk. Rich Kids? Nice, now you have a target on your wrist for watch thieves. Warren Buffet? He already has a Rolex, most likely.
But that's a fun complaint... How about the middle of the line watches going for $549 to over a grand??? Why would you buy this? YOU HAVE A SMARTPHONE ALREADY.
Watches diminished in popularity because of the phone. You basically are carrying around a pocket watch when you have a phone, so the need for a watch becomes more of a fashion statement. The watch was dead. So why is Apple betting that people will want to wear watches again? Because of Fitbits? Samsung Smart Watches? These things cause rashes and you know that person who always has to fiddle with their watch band because it's too loose. At least FitBits are thin and don't seem as cumbersome as a silly Apple Watch.
If I were you, I wouldn't buy this. This is a first generation product that's trying to force fashion changes onto you. It's overpriced, even for people who use Apple Products as fashion statements to begin with, and quite frankly, it's too fat and clunky.
It was the biggest head scratching moment I've ever had at an Apple event. I guess they're allowed to do stupid things... They have $175 billion in cash reserves sitting in a room somewhere, where I don't doubt Tim Cook swims in a la Scrooge McDuck. I suspect that pool of money may become a bit shallower.
TODAY'S PRODUCT
I bought a router! Still available, so you can't blame me yet. I've used Netgear Routers for years. I've never had a problem with them. And yes, while this is a refurbished model, one of the cool things you can do is you these to create wireless repeaters in your own home. This is really cool when your WiFi doesn't reach your entire house.
TODAY'S QUESTION
What fad product or service did you buy that you regretted? It doesn't have to be instant regret, but it could be something you look back on years later and go "Why did I buy that?" For me, it was an HD-DVD Add On Player for the XBox 360. There's nothing better than purchasing an electronics accessory that's outdated within 2 years.
Until tomorrow.... BLEAT!!!!!
- 10 comments, 11 replies
- Comment
Not that many techie things I really regret, because most of them were fun to play with, if nothing else. Some years ago I had this "brilliant" idea to replace the clocks in my house (other than antiques and appliance clocks, which don't have the option) with atomic clocks. The idea was that they would stay accurate within a minute and automatically shift time for DST. Oh, except that the ones with batteries needed them replaced every 3 months, or the clock became erratic. Or the one that habitually lost the lock on the time update and just sat there with its hands spinning endlessly. Or the one that somehow locked on to an update 2 time zones away so was always 2 hours off. But the real irritation was when the new DST dates kicked in and I found 2 clock radios were programmed to shift on the old change dates, not the new ones. Other than the ones in computers and TV, I now have one atomic clock - a tiny Seiko alarm clock that has been working flawlessly with only 2 battery changes in 14 years.
Glad you're feeling better. but now you've made me not feel so good. My head hurts. blah, blah Apple Watch is expensive, blah, blah. I tried, I thought I would be glad you're back but I was wrong. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad you're in good health but I wish you had the courtesy not to jeopardize mine.
mini-disk player, worst purchase ever. it was between iPods and CD's. a very unnecessary step but I was in high school, I thought I was cool.
Knowing what I know about Warren Buffet, he probably has a $35 Timex.
@PocketBrain He actually wears a Rolex most of the time . . .
And a nice one at that. He's also been known to wear Bulova (slumming) and Patek Philippe. When I am up around Omaha I frequently see him while dining out when visiting and when he's just out banging in his hood he usually doesn't wear a watch.
@Pavlov Awwww, he isn't nearly as cheap as I imagined him to be. Probably a gift of one of the many boards he sits upon.
Also, seriously, they somehow managed to work a little bit of appliance white paint onto the $10k Gold Edition Apple Watch... precisely why I wouldn't put the standard edition on my wrist for the asking price. Unless the thing comes with no less than six troy ounces of 24k gold, not exactly a sound investment. It will become quite the expensive paper-weight the first time you wash your hands. Also, keep in mind, it's first-generation Apple product, so about 3rd generation of the product family in the real world. Apple never does anything first. They usually get it right, albeit much more expensively.
Oh yeah, the thing, the product... hmmm, I'd say a Sony Tablet P. Great idea, but it was immediately abandoned by Sony (who has a great track record of abandoning shit I purchase from them) about sixty seconds after I bought it. Two-screen folding Android tablet. Not enough made to even stir up a developer support community. The special feature was only supported by Sony's proprietary software, and, did I mention, they abandoned the product?
I like purple.
$15,000 for an Apple watch? Fuck that. For that money I'll buy a Rolex GMT Master II and an Explorer II, then have two family heirlooms to pass down to my kids. An Apple watch will be obsolete in two years like an iPhone. A real timepiece will last decades with proper care and service.
@jsh139 Or a down payment on a cottage. Or your teen's first car. Or...
Gee Bill two for two. First the sick day video and now the watches? It's like you work there or something!
@mehdaf I just have the pulse of pop culture. I promise tomorrow's journal entry will be so obscure, there's no way Meh has a different take on it.
I did buy a 3D tv a couple of years back... but damn it, Archam Asylum is badass in 3D
I seriously regretted buying the last fuku. It was garbage and broken stuff. It really kinda made me mad. The up side is that I no longer give a shit about getting one in the future.
@BillLehecka Apple is going to sell the watches faster than they can make them. Including the gold ones. Personally, I'll wait a year or two to see how they pan out. I no longer need to have the latest thing.
@SSteve Apple is not going to sell the watches faster than they can make them. They will, however, sell them faster than they do make them. Artificially inflate the value of something by controlling its scarcity. This generates the illusion of value, and they can continue to charge 50% more for the same things other manufacturers make.
@PocketBrain
I like purple.
I've been into computers since I put together my first one about 35 years ago. I mean literally put it together, soldered the components onto the motherboard. A Sinclair Z-80 running a Zilog processor at a blazing 1 MHz with 1K ram. But in all these years of SCSI2 gadgets and stuff like Jazz and Bernoulli drives my most regrettable purchase is my iPhone 6. Got it for the wife for Christmas but it was too big for her Vera Bradley clutch so I went out and got her a 5s and kept the 6 for myself. I want my android back. Now don't get me wrong, I prefer Apple computers. I've got a G3 and a G4 Power PC, a lime green clam shell, an old white Power Book, a Macbook Pro, and 3 Mac Minis. All still working just fine thank you. But for tablets and smart phones I want Android.
I like purple.
@Barney Didn't you used to love purple? And now you have "friend zoned" purple?? Say it ain't so! Next thing we know you will be all meh about purple, and that is an awful thought.
@rockblossom The world is not ending. I love and like purple.
I'm waiting for American Time to come out with an Android watch.