This seems like an insane amount of work and expense for a sight gag

[astro]

The New Apple Wheel Notebook (http://www.theonion.com/content/video/apple_introduces_revolutionary)

[Joey P]

I'm gonna guess it's not real and that the people 'playing' with it work for the onion.

ETA, by 'not real' I mean...I mean I know it's the onion, but I'm gonna guess it's just a computer running an mpeg with a facade over the keyboard.

That being said, I want the next gen. It's four ounces lighter due to not having a hard drive, wheel or screen, especially since I'll just be using it for dicking around.

[Mangetout]

ETA, by 'not real' I mean...I mean I know it's the onion, but I'm gonna guess it's just a computer running an mpeg with a facade over the keyboard.I agree - especially as one obvious part of the gag is that it's actually difficult to control - any discrepancies between what appears on the screen and what the user is doing on the (fake) wheel are obscured anyway. Out of the whole video, there are only a few seconds in total where the screen can be seen at the same time as the user's interaction with the wheel.

That being said, I want the next gen. It's four ounces lighter due to not having a hard drive, wheel or screen, especially since I'll just be using it for dicking around.I want this one - it's virtually unbreakable, unless dropped or hit.

[guizot]

Did you see how cool the predictive text sentences are? For example, "The aardvark asked for a ride."

I'm just like the guy in the piece: "I'll buy anything that's shiny and made by Apple."

[DMark]

They aren't too far off the mark.
Isn't the whole point of Apple to create a world where people no longer have to understand language and jst srt 2 rt lk illtrt iDiots?

[Mangetout]

That's Nokia, not Apple, really.

[Caught@Work]

Everything is just a few hundred clicks away.
I love it.

[Buckler of Swashing]

Did you see how cool the predictive text sentences are? For example, "The aardvark asked for a ride."


My favourite was 'The abortion went well.'.

[billfish678]

I
I want this one - it's virtually unbreakable, unless dropped or hit.

Yes, a great feature, because people never drop something meant to be carried around :dubious:

[Martiju]

Yes, a great feature, because people never drop something meant to be carried around :dubious:

c def 4 whoosh...

;)

[billfish678]

c def 4 whoosh...

;)

oops

got me :smack:

[Bijou Drains]

A funny comment I heard recently about Apple was : When you walk by the Apple store you can actually see the smugness billowing out the door.

[NicePete]

"It remains to be seen if the Wheel will catch on in the business world where computers are used for actual work and not just dicking around."

Heh.

[Bosstone]

The production values the Onion brings to bear on these video spots never fails to impress me.

[friedo]

The production values the Onion brings to bear on these video spots never fails to impress me.

I'm especially impressed by the female anchor, who does a perfect newscaster elongated-terminal-vowel. "What's-his-face at the convention, has moooooooore."

[Swallowed My Cellphone]

The news ticker is hilarious. "Study finds horseback riding just an expensive form of sitting."

[msmith537]

I like how the smallest 8 GB version is $2,900. I can't wait until it comes out in 3 to 15 months.

[Alienhand]

Did you see how cool the predictive text sentences are? For example, "The aardvark asked for a ride."


My favorite was “The ass brayed at the moon.”

[Peter Morris]

"the assumptive agricultural expert eyed our absinthe suspiciously"

[guizot]

The production values the Onion brings to bear on these video spots never fails to impress me.Me neither. That's why the video Onion pieces are so priceless. It's not "an insane amount of work and expense," because they make it look so real, and the actors play it so real, that if you weren't listening to what they are saying, you'd think it were just another news piece about "technology." Then you listen to what they're saying, and the cognitive dissonance hits you--and that's the basis for the greatest satire. Once that happens, you see the point they're making (though that point is often simply about how inane T.V. "news" is (http://www.theonion.com/content/video/man_who_crossed_nation_in_balloon)). It's worth all the expense and and work, and it's a lot more than a mere "sight gag."They aren't too far off the mark.
Isn't the whole point of Apple...They're completely on the mark.
"Our goal is create products that are simple to use, and nothing could be more simple than a single, giant button."

"We’re giving customers features they don’t even realize they want yet."

I'll never understand why Apple users put up with the condescension Apple heaps on them.

"It comes in colors." Really? Then I guess I'll buy one. What colors do you have?... to create a world where people no longer have to understand language and jst srt 2 rt lk illtrt iDiots?Not language, just the very technology they're using. Apple users have the same needs as any other computer users. But Apple wants to appeal to the people who refuse to even try to understand the very machines they are using.

Think different? No, more like, "Don't think."I'm especially impressed by the female anchor, who does a perfect newscaster elongated-terminal-vowel. "What's-his-face at the convention, has moooooooore."Yes, they've clearly done their homework. You have to appreciate that attention to detail.

[Ethilrist]

But Apple wants to appeal to the people who refuse to even try to understand the very machines they are using.
Back in 1980 or so, I was trying to sell computers. Our store didn't have the rights to the Mac, but we did have Apple II and Apple III in our store. I gave up trying to sell computers after somebody walked into the store and said, "I want to buy a computer that I don't have to learn how to use;" I told him there's no such animal, and he said he was gonna go buy a Mac because the ads said he wouldn't have to learn how to use it.

Things haven't changed much in 28 years.

[Bijou Drains]

Macs came out in Jan of 84 so they are now 25. Around the same time Apple put out the Lisa which was $10k and similar to a Mac but it was a bomb, very few people bought them.

[Švejk]

Me neither. That's why the video Onion pieces are so priceless. It's not "an insane amount of work and expense," because they make it look so real, and the actors play it so real, that if you weren't listening to what they are saying, you'd think it were just another news piece about "technology." Then you listen to what they're saying, and the cognitive dissonance hits you--and that's the basis for the greatest satire.

a Dutch news site recently posted the Onion's clip about a little girl who was collecting money to run a McCain hate ad (http://www.theonion.com/content/video/precocious_youngster_sells). I'm looking for it but it seems they withdrew it in shame. I remember though that the first ten people posting comments at that site thought it was ridiculous that parents allowed their kid to do that before someone came along to point out it was not actually true.

[Gangster Octopus]

Apprently this tech writer (http://www.fudzilla.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=11259&Itemid=38) believed it.

[guizot]

a Dutch news site recently posted the Onion's clip about a little girl who was collecting money to run a McCain hate ad (http://www.theonion.com/content/video/precocious_youngster_sells). I'm looking for it but it seems they withdrew it in shame. I remember though that the first ten people posting comments at that site thought it was ridiculous that parents allowed their kid to do that before someone came along to point out it was not actually true.That wouldn't be the first or only time that a website posted a link to an Onion piece, and the first knee-jerk reactions were by people who actually thought it was real.

[Bosstone]

Apprently this tech writer (http://www.fudzilla.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=11259&Itemid=38) believed it.Given the editorial comment in parentheses at the end of the entry, I'm inclined to believe the writer's tongue was welded to the inside of his cheek while writing it.

[Peter Morris]

Me too, but what does 5k on Digg mean?

[Gangster Octopus]

Given the editorial comment in parentheses at the end of the entry, I'm inclined to believe the writer's tongue was welded to the inside of his cheek while writing it.

That editorial comment was added after the fact. On Digg there was screenshot of the original without the final comment. I see no reason to think it was tongue-in-cheek. Might have been, I guess, but he wrote it too straight up to be effective.

[Illuminatiprimus]

It was the end of the piece where the news reader said with a concerned look on her face:

"Coming up: Police warn that the sudoku kiiller will kill either one, four or nine victims next."

That completely killed me, I nearly fell off my chair.

I'll buy anything that's shiny and made by Apple Priceless.

[Peter Morris]

That editorial comment was added after the fact. On Digg there was screenshot of the original without the final comment.

The editorial comment was <<Ah, so this is your cunning new way of getting back at me. Thanks a bunch, at least it got you 5k on Digg.>> It seems that the editor thinks the author isn't actually serious.

I still don't know what 5k on Digg means.

[MissMossie]

Me too, but what does 5k on Digg mean?
As of right now, the article has 6313 "diggs" on digg.com (http://digg.com/technology/popular/30days). I would imagine that at the time the comment was written, it was closer to 5k diggs.

[Scissorjack]

It was the end of the piece where the news reader said with a concerned look on her face:

"Coming up: Police warn that the sudoku kiiller will kill either one, four or nine victims next."

That completely killed me, I nearly fell off my chair.

Priceless.

Yeah, that was fucking hilarious, in the old Onion tradition of ludicrous but snappy headlines with no story, where the fun is in imagining the backstory yourself.

[Rack-a-Bones]

My favorite was “The ass brayed at the moon.”

"The absinthe arrived by airmail."

That was one of the better Onion videos/articles I've seen recently.

[Garfield226]

They aren't too far off the mark.
Isn't the whole point of Apple to create a world where people no longer have to understand language and jst srt 2 rt lk illtrt iDiots?
I'm not sure what you're getting at: by default, the iPhone actually corrects misspellings in some cases (though not as egregious as you've made here), it takes more time to capitalize in the middle of words (and thus would tend to discourage that habit), capitalizes words at the beginning of sentences, capitalizes standalone "i"s, and adds apostrophes in commonly used words. So while people may continue to "write" like that, their messages would likely be substantially improved by using the iPhone.

[Hilarity N. Suze]

As of right now, the article has 6313 "diggs" on digg.com (http://digg.com/technology/popular/30days). I would imagine that at the time the comment was written, it was closer to 5k diggs.

And...that means?

[Rack-a-Bones]

And...that means?

You can read their long description here (http://digg.com/about/) but the short version is Digg.com is a web site that compiles popular content on the web. Next time you're out surfing around look at the blogs and articles and you'll frequently see "Digg this" button to press if you want to report it as popular. The higher the Diggs the more notice it is getting.

You've heard people talk about how many hits a web site gets. A "Digg" is similar.

[Illuminatiprimus]

I'm not sure what you're getting at: by default, the iPhone actually corrects misspellings in some cases (though not as egregious as you've made here), it takes more time to capitalize in the middle of words (and thus would tend to discourage that habit), capitalizes words at the beginning of sentences, capitalizes standalone "i"s, and adds apostrophes in commonly used words. So while people may continue to "write" like that, their messages would likely be substantially improved by using the iPhone.The point about conditioning people to spell badly may be wrong, but I think DMark was on to something about Apple being a company that tries to produce technology that requires little to no understanding of how it works. Obviously for a lot of people (particularly Apple patrons) that's a big selling point, but for those of us that are a bit more tech savvy it's a limitation.

Again, that fake comment about buying anything Apple makes that is shiny rings quite true when you consider how the iPhone became the "must have" gadget amongst people who care about such things. You'd think it was the only next gen phone out there or phone capable of using the net/playing music or something. Talking to people who are interested in having one a major selling point of the device seemed to be that it was cool, rather than what it could do better than its competitor models (which makes me a little :dubious: considering its astronomical launch price).

[Rigamarole]

For me the Onion can be very hit or miss, but that was great.