Jobsian cult indoctrinates American children In the time-honored "hook 'em while they're young" marketing tradition, Apple is offering a summer series of free Apple Camp workshops at its US retail stores for youngsters aged 8 through 12. As part of its ongoing Youth Programs effort, Apple will offer four sets of three-hour workshops, focusing on music, movie-making, …
That would be better than setting up in all the shops, and a much better way of marketing it. Lot of kids would want on the Mac and not the RM (don't know what the Merkins have) machines.
But don't give away those naff little ones they use to do, the ones which looked like something a telly tubby would fart out, the proper full machines.
Good "work" el reg. No, seriously. Lets have a go at a company for giving kids something to do over the school holidays because of our own lame prejudices. Yes, there maybe be other options, but hey, damned if they do, and of course they are trying to hook kids in. It's not like they're telling the kids that Word and excel are the only options for word processing and spreadsheets, is it? Or that over exaggerating price differentials on products *based * on theirs. I've started to notice that the "fanboi's" are being outweighed by the retards predicting their (non)comments in the nerdy attempt at "being funny". Yeah, good one fellas.
And this is nothing like Microsoft advertising a five-year-old boy using a Windows computer to manipulate photos and send to his aunt!
It's yet another Microsoft 'Me, too' copying of a successful Apple marketing campaign of "I'm a PC, I'm a Mac".
If you want a discussion about ethics then at least Apple insist on parental involvement whereas Microsoft's ads aimed at children are indiscriminate.
This is not a pro-Apple post ... they're all at it! Macdonalds marketing aimed at kids? ... never!
Do I detect some sarcasm in "nothing puts sparkle in the eyes of a wee one more than charts and graphs" ?
When I was 8 to 12, I loved charts and graphs, more than bicycles, airfix and scalextric combined. But maybe that's why I ended up working in IT (and reading El Reg)....
They do similar thing in the UK and I took my seven-year old to a movie-making class in the Leicester store and he loved it. Without exception all the other kids already had Macs in the house and the staff were great with the kids. Not so much soft-sell as no sell.
Not sure I understand the slightly sour-faced editorial angle on this nice customer service stuff. I wish everyone who sold me stuff did after-sales service like this...
Apple run free workshops like this all the time in their stores, so why the surprise when they aim some at kids in the summer holidays? It's part of what they do. They also sell one-to-one tuition for about £80/year giving you an hour a week - so up to 52 hours for £80 for people new to using their computer or software, pretty good value.
And the point is that despite what all the Apple-haters drone on about, they sell more than just "pointless status symbols". They sell nice kit, with a proper OS, with plenty of support for the inexperienced or switchers. Customer service in Apple Stores is excellent in my experience, and providing workshops and other training is part of the whole package.
It's why dealing with them is such a pleasant change from being sold cheap crap by some spotty ignorant youth in PC World. Being sold good stuff by knowledgeable people who back up what they're saying by showing you what you can do with the products beats that experience hands down.
As for the ethics of Chinese production, I doubt if Apple are any worse than any other tech company: they nearly all manufacture in China or buy Chinese parts. "They all do it" doesn't justify what goes on, and I am not pretending sainthood for Apple, just pointing out that hurling that one at them while blithely ignoring all the other companies doing the same thing is typically inconsistent.
"Try mentioning 'Ethics' and 'Apple' in the same line to the employees/slaves at Foxconn in China. "
Because, of course, Foxconn only makes Apple gear and has nothing to do with PCs running Windows or Linux... right?
Right?
No wonder this industry is in such a bloody mess: it's populated by idiots. Switch your f*cking brains on for once; you're worse than all those users you love to whinge about on The Daily WTF! At least they have the excuse of not being alleged experts in the field.
Foxconn makes stuff for Nokia, Apple, Dell, HP and umpteen other manufacturers. Including that darling of the "netbook" age: Asustek! (Hello Linux fans! Squirming yet?)
This lack of contextual understanding is *why* we see so many retarded comments from morons who see only the current affairs fact-cannons blasting individual items at us like lead shot from a blunderbuss. No context. No joining of the dots. No "big picture".
Because most of us simply don't realise that the news media isn't in the business of doing our thinking and research for us. They're there to report the facts. Just the facts. And nothing else. YOU have to process these facts and refine them into the Truth. YOU have to do some legwork too.
For crying out loud, grow the hell up already! You're embarrassing.
"Because most of us simply don't realise that the news media isn't in the business of doing our thinking and research for us. They're there to report the facts. Just the facts. And nothing else."
That's a widely held opinion, perpetrated by said news media. Unfortunately, it's not quite correct. In reality, the news media is, by and large, entertainment. It exists, like all other companies, purely to make a profit for the shareholders.
"YOU have to process these facts and refine them into the Truth. YOU have to do some legwork too."
With the exception of the word "facts", never a truer word was spoken :-)
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