Worst of the Week: The line between good and evil

Hello! And welcome to our Friday column, Worst of the Week. There’s a lot of nutty stuff that goes on in this industry, so this column is a chance for us at RCRWireless.com to rant and rave about whatever rubs us the wrong way. We hope you enjoy it!
And without further ado:
I guess there is really no way around it as this week has been dominated by device news and more specifically the launch of Apple’s latest iPhone iteration, the awesomely named iPhone 4. (You would think that with all the money Apple spends on perfecting the design of their devices they would throw a few sheckles to a division to come up with better names. What about Crown Victoria. Has a sense of elegance as well as reliability to it. Hey, what do you expect for free?)
While this has become an annual event since the launch of the first iPhone way back in 2007, this year’s festivities took on a more humorous tone for me as our own features editor Matt Kapko decided that he could not live without having the latest iPhone in his possession post haste. Unlike many that are up on the latest and greatest in technology by using the “Internet” to order their electronic goods and thus avoid mingling with others for hours in a line outside an Apple store, Kapko took the bold step of waiting in line for his precious.
(Word on the street was that those smart enough to order their iPhone’s online received them a few days early. I am sure they used that advantage to rub it in the face of their fellow nerds at their weekly Dungeons and Dragons get togethers. Will have to check with Kapko for confirmation.)
From the sounds of it, Mr. Kapko needed only 10 hours to finally get his hands on the new device, 10 hours that it is unlikely he will ever get back. Well thought out young man.
One nice thing to report is that unlike previous years, it did seem that the news coverage of people standing in line for weeks ahead of the device’s launch was kept to a minimum and thus we were not barraged with images of lonely, bespeckled men camped outside of every Apple location decked out in their cleanest Boba Fett t-shirt. A good thing as these types of activities seem to attract the copycat type that can only extend this sad tradition.
I mean, what’s the fascination with this standing-in-line business? Don’t these people have jobs? Families? Friends? (Maybe you shouldn’t answer any of those.) Is it really that fun to stand behind/next to/near total strangers for weeks/days/hours on end? Maybe I am a bit anti-social, but I can barely stand an elevator ride with strangers, let alone mingling for hours with nothing to talk about other than why they had to change it so that Greedo shot first.
I still remember covering the first iPhone launch, and after taking pictures and talking with people standing in line for that device, I still could not get my head around the “why” part of the whole equation.
(Sure, I did stand in line for a couple of hours to catch the Star Wars movies, but that’s Star Wars, something that was so awesome that you would be foolish to not stand in line to see. Heck, even my wife was more than willing to deal with being near the typical Star Wars riff-raff to catch the flick on opening night, and she is not a big fan of Sci-fi riff raff. Though this information makes it apparent that I may just be the sort of person willing to stand in line for hours talking about the whole Greedo/Han “situation.”)
But, all this line standing for the iPhone? Really?
Hasn’t the novelty of that thing worn off yet? Aren’t there like a million devices now that do the same thing? Why do I seem to have so many questions?
Despite my pleading, I suspect the next iPhone launch will follow a similar pattern of line forming. All we can hope for is that instead of lining up for the iPhone 5, those who just have to have the latest from Apple will be waiting for the iPhone Jar-Jar addition.
OK, enough of that.
Thanks for checking out this week’s Worst of the Week column. And now for some extras:
–Verizon Wireless unleashed a new video this week hyping its recently unveiled Droid X smartphone that includes all sorts of details on the device. The video, which seemed well produced, also includes “real” people nearly losing control of their bodies in sheer amazement at the Droid X’s amazing amounts of embedded memory and ability to add even more; both its bigness and smallness; and its ability to access more than 65,000 applications. (Oh my goodness!)
You can’t blame Verizon Wireless or Motorola for attempting to generate as much hype – real or staged – as possible surrounding the device, what with its unveiling the day before the new iPhone was to launch. And from looking at the specs and the device itself, it does look pretty cool. But, how can anyone still be moved to such hysterics over any sort of technological advancement anymore? I thought we were to the point where unless a device actually turns into a robot or a time-travel machine we were unimpressed?
–A report this week from Frank N. Magid Associates and mobile social gaming network OpenFeint found that Americans will spend $168 million on “virtual goods” this year. From what I can discern, virtual goods are virtual, as in not real, items that people buy while they are playing video games to make those games “better.” So they are like things you buy in the real world, also known as “stuff,” but different in that they are not real. Aren’t we in a recession or something? What the hell are people running around buying things that are not even real?
I welcome your comments. Please send me an e-mail at dmeyer@ardenmedia.com.