There wasn't as much sustainable stuff at Macworld as there was even last year, except for the Greenpeace protestors outside, and big booths showing off Google Earth/Sketchup software and MacKiev's cool satellite weather application. I did learn that the way to measure the purity of the silicone in your iPod cover is to stretch the plasticky material. If it's clear, as pictured here, good news. If it's milky, clouded with white, then yuck. However, although there aren't any phthalates in silicone, it stays in the ground forever once you toss it.
On another note, Apple's ad campaign for its latest invention is ripping off Christian billboards circa 1999. Can God sue?
Look at my footage below: the oglers at Macworld are venerating the new iPhone as if tears and blood were streaming from its Magic Touch screen, imparting a telepathic message of eternal life and everlasting forgiveness. Instead, the gadget comes with a mortal battery, it demands a contract with a devilish telecom, and nobody's even touched it. Get real, people. It's a phone...oh yeah, and a music player and an "breakthrough Internet communications device." It can't feed or clothe you or detoxify your drinking water. Before I leave this earth, maybe I'll see a crowd like this one oohing and ahhing and elbowing over some new invention that actually helps people and the planet.
Maybe I'm forgetting that Apple's inventions just might usher in world peace! After all, as singer John Mayer said after Steve Jobs' keynote address--in the greatest WTF?! moment of Macworld (apart from the media's frenzied stampede up the escalators): "You know, Steve Jobs and Apple are making life more fun. It's the exact opposite of terrorism." Golly.
Okay, I love gadgets, but even I think every single new gadget coming out nowadays is a bit excessive. So it's a tad cumbersome to carry around a mobile phone, camera, music player, and a PDA (did I forget anything else?), but come on, whoever said everyone needs to bring those things everywhere all the time? Combining all those things in one shiny new gadget will definitely make lots of people drool with desire, and convince them enough to discard their perfectly serviceable things. Tsk tsk. Wasteful.
Posted by: Lynn | 2007.01.18 at 03:02 AM
Oh how we are on the same page on this one. I just posted a wee rant about the iPhone on my blog (todbrilliant.com if you're THAT bored). What gives with people that they get that obsessed over a product that duplicates the benefits of myriad nearly identical products? Umm. .the world is dying folks - this phone isn't going to help make things better. Idiots. . . sometimes I think we deserve our fate. Then, I wake up and paste a smile upon my weathered face and soldier on! Where there's a will, and a copy of Lester Brown's "Plan B 2.0: Rescuing a Planet Under Stress and a Civilization in Trouble," there's a way!
Great post. Totally spot on.
Posted by: todbrilliant | 2007.01.13 at 10:18 PM