I guess my current policy on #VisionPro is that anyone bragging (humble, or otherwise) about owning one, wearing one, or generally promoting it in any way is very likely to get an insta-block from me.
This glasshole bullcrap needs to become as onerous and shunned as cryptocurrency crap has become.
Because on some level it's the same shit. It's selling people hype. And once you bought hype, you try to sell it to the next person, to prove to yourself it was worth it, to fight the hype-buyer's remorse.
The difference is that in this case it's a multinational corporation who is benefitting, not some randos with monkey avatars. :blobcatfingerguns:
inb4 "but it's an interesting piece of technology! might be used for great things!"
Are you talking about cryptocurrencies/NFTs, or the #VisionPro? Because both are technologically nifty, sure, but at the same time the hype around them is just so unbearably dank.
The magical hypothetical use-cases remain hypothetical, while the dank hype flood is quite real, and someone is making loads money off of it.
Come back when something actually, truly, interesting comes out of it. :blobcatcoffee:
inb4 "you can't call them 'glassholes' as the device is not called 'glasses' but 'Vision Professional 3.11 for Workgroups'" or whatever
I get to call the xerox machine down the hall a xerox machine because it's functionally a Xerox machine clone. Yes, it's more advanced, as the tech improved over the years.
VisionPro is a Google Glass clone. And you know what? I might just start calling it "Apple's google-glass", to fuck with Google's trademark and Apple's self-image as oh-so-innovative. 👍
Within 6mo NGOs that have limited resources and actually important stuff to do — you know: saving lives, fighting world hunger, that sort of thing — will have to waste their precious time and resources responding to clueless donor requests like: "integrate the Visor Pro or whatever it's called to better fulfill the mission? while you're at it, could you add some AI on a blocking chain?"
Hype, like sewage, trickles down and accumulates below.
@wiktor I've been working for NGOs most of my professional life. This is not a hypothetical.
In one conversation that I was privy to, years ago, the phrase "space-based blockchain" was used, non-ironically (and yes, we're talking about outer space here). Don't ask, as I also have no clue.
@rysiek The hype surrounding its announcement was largely non-existent, now that they are out there there is a lot of attention, but the reviews I have seen were not exactly breathless.
@rysiek There have been more ridiculous status symbols. It is also a bit early to call them glassholes, Google glass was actively marketed as something you could use in a douchey way, my understanding is that Apple is not meaning for the Vision Pro to be used as a device that is on your head every waking moment. Am cautiously optimistic about its use in for example telemedicine or field servicing.
Apple's ads seem to show people having it on in random everyday situations, no?
Regarding actually interesting use-cases, like telemedicine or field servicing, sure, that would be swell, but overblown hype would IMVHO hamper such use-cases.
@rysiek k, are all the vr headsets bad, or just this one? Didn’t get up to date with vision pro shenanigans yet, wanted to buy oculus so i can move my ass from time to time and play some beatsaber, but i have to know who won’t shake my hand afterwards
@rysiek@parismarx@karafuto Don’t fight an idea whose time has come! Some things in life are inevitable despite our objection!. And trying to stop them can exhaust the energy you lack because the idea has infinite energy!
@rysiek@parismarx@karafuto
What’s up with all this negativity? Just let people enjoy themselves. This world is a dumpster fire already. Let the Apple fans have some fun with their new toys. 😵💫 #visionpro
@rysiek ah the whole big corporations shouldn’t listen to laws or government orders argument. Yeah, that’s a super cool world you want there. Next you’ll be telling me Dow Chemical should just dump chemicals in a river because they don’t need to follow local laws either! Maybe Apple should have kept the Lightning connector and told EU to eat 💩?
I know… you think Apple should abandon China (one of the biggest user bases) because VPN’s have to be configured manually in the OS settings now.
@Bryan if you scroll just a bit through my timeline you will notice I want corporations to be tightly regulated.
I believe Apple and other gigantic multinationals are in an impossible position, ethically. But they themselves worked very hard to put themselves in that position. So they don't get to cry "bad China told us to!" at this point.
We can insist Apple follows, say, GDPR or DMA, and at the same time complain when they follow oppressive laws in China, Russia, or the USA.
@Bryan or, to put it differently, if Apple follows some obnoxious anti-trans regulation in the USA, or the new anti-LGBTQ+ law in Russia, does that mean they get to "wash their hands" because "it's the law"?
Was Apple's cooperation in the PRISM framework all honky-dory?
It's not a simple "either-or", either corporations follow all regulations everywhere, or get to not follow any. I think we are intelligent, moral beings and we can deal with nuance. If we choose to, of course.
@Bryan and finally, seems like Apple is okay with implementing the China VPN app ban well, but regarding DMA or right-to-repair they are throwing one tantrum after another, and do what they can to implement them as maliciously as possible. 👀
Curious how that works, right? I wonder if they did some math and decided that the VPN app ban won't cost them much, but the pro-consumer regulations in the EU are a huge problem to their bottom line. 🤔
You bet I am going to keep calling them out on that!
@rysiek@Bryan though yes, technically it's "that and other bits and pieces of regulations and administrative requests from the Chinese government", including but no limited to removing 🇹🇼 emoji from their device sold in Mainland China.
I would not be surpried if it turned out that at some point some censorship related bug like this is being exploited in the wild.
But sure, let's compare holding Apple to account over this kind of stuff to letting Dow Chemical off the hook, or let's trivialize it by saying "VPNs can be configured manually". 🤷♀️
@rysiek@Bryan Oh no, VPN cannot be configured manually here, unless I only want L2TP, which is trivially blocked by Internet censorship.
I would need an Apple ID in another country, which is now almost impossible to register w/o a phone number in that country. I also need to BUY (damn it I hate Apple walled garden so much) a VPN app that supports traffic obsucation protocols needed to bypass censorship. It's a pain in the arse that I made me stick with Android (or Linux, thanks @postmarketOS ;) ) if I ever want SOME Internet freedom on my mobile devices.
@Orca@rysiek
I really hope you both get out of whatever funk you’re both in. As a reminder this thread started because some people were happy to enjoy a new product from a tech company.
All that bitterness, rage, anger, sadness, or whatever you both are going through… I’m sorry. But try to look at the positives in life.
It’s easy to tear down. It’s hard to create and build. Do something productive with your lives. Try smiling for starters. 🙂 Enjoy life. 💪 Enjoy tech. 🧑🏼💻
@Bryan there's plenty of positivity in my life, and plenty of tech I enjoy, thanks. It just happens not to involve Apple.
And if anyone wants to enjoy Apple products, great, have fun. I am just strongly disinterested in the incessant hype. 🤷♀️
Glad we moved from trivializing the issues at hand to "enjoy tech". That's progress. Maybe one day we meet somewhere around "all tech is political". :blobcatcoffee:
@Bryan@rysiek
I can't. Even at the moment I am chatting with you, a part of me are still worrying what if the censorship circumvention program run into a exception and started throwing every packet out of the physical interface of my phone (instead of sending them obfuscated) and burn me, or the obsucation protocol got recognized by the GFW.
And some other businessman says it's okay to throw its userbase under the bus because "it's good for business".
Well, sure, obviously it's more profitable to cooperate than to fight (and flight), but what must we give in return? My, our freedom, from fear of state repression?
@Bryan@rysiek
How am I supposed to be happy, when one of the biggest mobile device manufacturers decided to lock the whole world away from me for more money, when all I ever want is to read Wikipedia and reddit (to solve Linux problems and find HRT information ) whenever I need/want to?
@Orca@rysiek
I went to Beijing 4 times a year at Apple and I can tell you all your fellow citizens working at Apple feel the same. You of all people should know that there is little Apple can do as a foreign company in China.
In the US voting in an election is often picking between two pieces of garbage. You hold your nose and pick the least worst candidate. The same concept happens with government/business.
Arguing strongly with bureaucrats in private often works. But sometimes it doesn’t.
Add comment