Pharyngula

Posted by: Christian Burnham | July 15, 2007 4:48 PM

The Bible, wrapped in the Stars and Stripes....

Will it blend?

Posted by: Rick @ shrimp and grits | July 15, 2007 5:09 PM

n iPhone? Nope ... that inspires no feelings in me at all.

If the guy had tried to blend a Sharp Zaurus or an HP 200LX, though, I might have shed a tear.

Posted by: themann1086 | July 15, 2007 5:20 PM

My reaction when I first saw this:

"NOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

Posted by: The Physicist | July 15, 2007 5:28 PM

Now, that was funny, only because of the herd mentality of the social being. I think we need to teach people more Philosophy in schools to avert the peer pressure of the materialistic society. We have become no more than recources for the State and big Corp. I am friking sick of it. There a friking laws against Jay walking and none where I live about using a phone while driving.

I'd like to see the statistics if the exist, on what percentage of vehicle accidents involved people on ther phones. I have one of those Trac Phone (no contract pay for minutes up front), and I think technology is great, but mine is only used is exigent situations. Not talk to aunt Pearl about her new curtains while driving down the road.

Posted by: Callandor | July 15, 2007 5:40 PM

Those short videos are surprisingly addictive of his.

But when I saw this I immediately thought of a simple line: "Not an iPhone! That's like blending god!" Heh, what a crazy guy. Though he does have a kick ass blender.

Posted by: Cecil | July 15, 2007 5:44 PM

Invalid HTML, how embarrassing. Here's a working link.

Posted by: Bruce Thompson | July 15, 2007 5:59 PM

Play it backwards and it's a creationists view of evolution. Include the blender guy and it's ID, since he's wearing a lab coat.

Posted by: chembob | July 15, 2007 6:21 PM

Baloney Tim! My iPhone is the single coolest gadget I've ever owned and I've had a few. I just read this blog and responded using it.

Posted by: kvinther | July 15, 2007 6:51 PM

Shouldn't that be iCringed?

Posted by: Marion Delgado | July 15, 2007 6:57 PM

Wow! kvinther and I just proved ESP is real, you skeptatheistics!

Posted by: ArtDecoDalek | July 15, 2007 8:44 PM

I have looked upon the face of true evil, and it wears hideous glasses.

Posted by: Doc Bill | July 15, 2007 9:46 PM

Notice how long the iPhone stays on while being blended.

Posted by: Julia B | July 15, 2007 10:07 PM

I like the item description in the Ebay listing, particularly the Condition: Used. Talk about understatement.

Posted by: JJR | July 15, 2007 10:45 PM

"Takes a licking and keeps on....oh never mind, then."

Reminds me a little of the shtick w/ the "Bass-o-Matic" that Dan Akroyd put thru its paces on SNL in the 1970s...

...Anyhow, as far as the YouTube vid, man, that's actually quite an environmentally toxic brew he has there...lots of iPoisonous iWaste....i wouldn't breathe in that crap if I were him. His lab gear was completely insufficient for the task; needs a protective cover for his mouth and nose, for starters, and true lab goggles...frack, basically good hazmat gear. yeech.

CM: my sentiments exactly, btw.

Posted by: A | July 15, 2007 11:39 PM

There's a lot of wondering about the destruction and waste of destroying a perfectly good iPhone, but y'know, most companies' ad campaigns cost a LOT more than $600, and that is precisely what the "Will It Blend?" series is - advertising for the blender featured. I see much more to complain about in the thousands of dollars spent on scouting, acting, filming, etc etc in many epic ads on television.

Posted by: rob | July 16, 2007 12:59 AM

I don't think it is a waste, really....

$600 is not a lot to pay for the publicity they got out of it. (although I seriously doubt anyone will actually pay a lot of money for the blended phone). And if they got 60,000 people viewing the site, thats a penny a person to advertise to them (or just to entertain them)...not bad. It's no different than a movie where cars crash for our entertainment.

So Timothy, why again should we be mad at Apple for working hard to make a product that got a lot of people excited? Are you just bitter that you were never able to come up with anything interesting enough for anyone to care about it?

Posted by: John C. Randolph | July 16, 2007 3:05 AM

I liked the punchline: "but I've got another one!"

-jcr

Posted by: Arnosium Upinarum | July 16, 2007 4:50 AM

Funny how the violent destruction ('smoothie' setting) of a complex organized material object into a black powder induces an automatic cringe.

Nothing is safe - here today, gone tomorrow. Right away I imagined a mouse or a puppy or a human preemie in there...or a cuttlefish. CRINGE. Can't help it. Then my associations expanded to other worthy enterprises like, say, NASCAR or demolition derby or Burning Man or sand paintings or war-waging militaries and so on and on.

Gotta give it to us humans: we're fucking insane. Just about as good at building things up as we are at tearing them down. Just for laughs. Hilarity.

The second cringe I got was when that lab-coated imbecile opened the cover releasing the colloidal smoke without wearing any protective breathing apparatus. There were batteries (and lots of other components) in that thing that have a very interesting composition...

Cancer risk just for laughs. har har.

Posted by: jan andrea | July 16, 2007 9:09 AM

But... but... the battery!! ACK! Just imagine the awfulness that's in the dust! GAH!!!!!

I see Arnosium got there first, of course, but that was my first thought... THE BATTERY! NOOOOOO!

I couldn't care less about the overpriced toy.

Posted by: Paul A | July 16, 2007 9:32 AM

Woo-hoo! I've viewed Apple as the new Microsoft for some time now thanks to their locking down of their products (iPod + iTunes, iPhone + AT&T) and refusal to open up their toys to external software providers. Also the smugness and uber-hype is just too much to bear.

On a related note I have a couple of friends who work for a printing company in Edinburgh and they were forced to buy a couple of iMacs for the designers some years ago. They're still referred to as Etch-A-Sketch's by everyone else in the company :-)

Posted by: mojojojo | July 16, 2007 9:45 AM

I don't get it. What is point of expending so much emotional energy--either love or hate--over a machine?

Posted by: Steve_C | July 16, 2007 10:34 AM

Suuuuure you do.

My new 20" iMac is coming tomorrow suckas!

I know new iMacs are due very soon... but this one is a gift.

Posted by: Steve_C | July 16, 2007 10:50 AM

Everything does if you have a big enough blender... or wood chipper.

Posted by: Donalbain | July 16, 2007 11:33 AM

"Most important product release of the decade"? How on earth do you get that idea?
It's a phone. It's not even a ground breaking phone. Its just a pretty phone. Its not going to change anything, which, it can be argued the iPod did. At least the iPod was an early adopters toy for listening to digital music and was part of the whole change in that field. The iPhone is nothing like that at all.

Posted by: Steve_C | July 16, 2007 12:06 PM

The iPod is just a digital music player and the Macintosh was just an all in one computer...

It is too early to say if the iPhone changes the cell phone world. It's not just a phone however.

Posted by: rob | July 16, 2007 12:20 PM

"Most important product release of the decade"? "How on earth do you get that idea?"

Feel free to suggest your candidate for most important product launch of the past 10 years. Seriously...you got one for us?

And btw, you say it is "just a phone", but it is also an internet browser, media player, etc. What is interesting about it (to those of us that find it interesting) is the user interface, which is works dramatically differently than any comparable product, and is sure to be copied by all the competitors. Obviously, you don't highly prioritize user interface, but lots of people do.

Posted by: Donalbain | July 16, 2007 12:24 PM

More important consumer product of the decade.. I would suggest that the Wii has more potential to be that than the iPhone. At least the Wii changes something. It only changes the way people play computer games, but that is something at least.

Posted by: Rick @ shrimp and grits | July 16, 2007 1:02 PM

Isn't there an Aqua Teen Hunger Force episode about the iPhone?

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-3104370847913563527

... and it will change the way you think and live, forever.

Posted by: Donalbain | July 16, 2007 1:32 PM

I am not so sure.. a phone that I cant use without taking off my gloves? That isnt very likely to take off in a big way in the north east of Scotland!
And you seem to be missing the point that I am making with the iPod. Before the iPod, people simply DIDNT listen to digital music on the move to any great degree. After the iPod people do. That is a fairly big change.
You wont get anything LIKE that with the iPhone. People ALREADY do what the iPod lets them do. And I am not sure that the user interface will be such a big deal. It isnt as if phones are horrible, difficult things to use now, so you cant compare it to the start of the GUI with computers. And you can't compare it to the Wii, because the Wii fundamentally changes the things we do with a computer game. They used to be sedentary, sat down things, now they are active, physical things. That is a MAJOR change. The iPhone is still just a phone.

Posted by: Steve_C | July 16, 2007 2:10 PM

I haven't heard of any Treos with wifi built in...maybe a blackberry?
And only at the high end.

To say you can get a device with most of the same features for a third, is crap.

Posted by: Rey Fox | July 16, 2007 2:45 PM

"I really don't think an exclusively touch-screen interface is a good idea for any device"

Me neither. But that might be because I'm somewhat fastidious about my screens. Every time I think of the iPhone, I think of it covered with greasy finger smears. Imagine if your kid ever got a hold of it.

Posted by: swangelok | July 16, 2007 6:42 PM

When we talk about phones there is only one company, Nokia

Posted by: Ichthyic | July 16, 2007 11:31 PM

Regardless, as far as being a successful launch, nothing compares to it in terms of the interest it has gotten (which, admittedly, isn't justification for being interested in it).

shorter:

marketing works.

as to the Iphone istelf...

like i said in the original Iphone thread:

just give it about 6 months, and you'll find clones from other companies that work better, are more flexible, and about half the price.

give apple credit for having the wherewithal to spearhead the issue, but just like with mp3 players, you'll find far better options available soon enough.

THAT'S what I'm looking forward to.

Posted by: Steve_C | July 16, 2007 11:56 PM

Apparently the N95 isn't as good...

http://www.microsoft-watch.com/content/desktop_mobile/its_not_iphone_its_my_phone.html

Do you know why the iPod has 70% of the DMP market years after it's launch?

It's the interface... it's the software... it's the complete package. No one has managed to duplicate the success. That's not just due to marketing.

Clones? You mean like the Zune? Hehe.

Introducing the best way to protect your iPod or iPhone...

http://hideapod.com/

Posted by: Ichthyic | July 17, 2007 12:14 AM

Do you know why the iPod has 70% of the DMP market years after it's launch?
It's the interface... it's the software... it's the complete package. No one has managed to duplicate the success. That's not just due to marketing.

no, you're right, it's not just marketing, it's also the fact that there is inertia involved; once one person gets an IPod, others will follow. It IS however, the marketing that made it "cool" to begin with, and continues to attempt to make it look so as time goes by.

Having tried several dozen different kinds of Mp3 players, there are MANY with far better features and quality, for less price, than the Ipod variants.

your argument is like saying the reason Windows maintains its popularity is because of its interface or features.

uh, nope.

Posted by: Ichthyic | July 18, 2007 1:22 AM

It's the entire experience...

so, if you're creative enough not to NEED the "experience" of "itunes", then you hate apple?

You're funny.

dude, do you get paid by apple to advertise here?