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@arstechnica We shall destroy everything you love and then sell you an overpriced gadget to replace it.

@arstechnica @eosfpodcast

“When people already feel that tech companies and executives are trying to replace them with generic machine-made sludge, it’s tone deaf at best to introduce a new product with an ad where a colorful, messy, tactile tower of art, instruments, and other creative tools is literally flattened to make way for a shiny, featureless slab of metal and glass."

[applause]

@arstechnica @eosfpodcast Imagine if they'd done that ad the other way around, so someone interacting with the device made a painting or an instrument grow out of the screen. Creative instead of destructive.

@arstechnica
One gets the impression that the Apple c-suite is in an isolated bubble away from the rest of humanity. Tbf, it's the same with most large corporations.

@godzero @arstechnica The capacity for such is a filtering mechanism for c-level candidates. It kept me out <mumble> jobs ago.

@arstechnica

Two classic Apple obsessions put them in this situation.

1) Their forever quest for “thinner” gadgets, whether or not they need it.

2) The total secrecy around unreleased products, even within the company. This gave them no option to run the ad by a test audience which would have given them a HUGE thumbs down before they embarrassed themselves by releasing it to great fanfare.

Did they manage to squeeze a LOT into an unbelievably small device. Yes, they did.

@arstechnica

Unpopular opinion:

Jimi Hendrix lit his guitar on fire. Some made a fuss, most of us understood that the important bit wasn't the guitar - it was Jimi. The talent and creativity was never in his guitar - it was in the performer.

I think most people got that the intended message was "look at all the neat functionality we can cram inside this tiny device". That was certainly the message I got.

Unfortunately, the other message I got was "this device is for content creators, not you". Here's hardware *significantly* more powerful than the Apple mac on my desk - that can't run any of my Apple mac software, at least without paying for it again. And the thing stopping it isn't tech - it's Apple's business model and that damned App store. That's why I can't run a vm with macos on my ipad. That's why I can't play windows games on my ipad (but can on my steam deck) - the damned App store.

Disappointing.

@arstechnica While I understand some of the sentiment, I also think people is taking this way too seriously. I found it funny and visually very well set up, a bit like “will it blend” on steroids.

Lighten up guys, I assure you, this is not the worst ad you will get to see.

@arstechnica The whole online world HATES "AI" and what will do to the internet, but no tech company seems to realize this fact.

@arstechnica I'm no fan of apple, but...

This whole thing shows that it is not your intentions that matter these days, but peoples perception of your intentions.

@arstechnica Apple produced one of the most famous commercials in history, which was an allegory about how Microsoft crushes creativity, with Apple throwing a hammer to break through the mundanity. I find it confounding that it occurred to no one at Apple that this new commercial could easily be interpreted to mean that Apple crushes human creativity.

@underthestars @arstechnica The ones who did kept their mouths shut, because they don't want to be in the next round of layoffs.

@arstechnica i didn't find it offensive at all, in fact i thought it was really impressive that they could create a scene like that entirely in software. THAT was the impressive part to me, as someone that does creative work and has moved my entire photo workflow to an iPad Pro only needing a computer to export for prints? i was excited.

my other work is as an IT specialist and i have been spending a lot of time in AI systems lately so my perspective is not as a working photographer.