An Apple a Day
An Apple a Day
Over the past few years, the Apple Company has come out with an assortment of products appealing to the masses of people around the world. One of the leading providers of personal entertainment, new products are introduced frequently. It seems like almost daily there is something new and exciting appearing on the company’s homepage. From the very first white and generic looking iPods to the recently released versatile iPhone, Apple has taken over many parts of our daily lives. If you want music, or a way to call a friend or check your e-mail on the go, Apple has a product for both. With all of Apple’s entertainment products, sometimes it is hard to remember that they are primarily a computer company. Beginning in late March 2007, Apple will embark on a new frontier, home entertainment.
During my junior year of high school, the halls were usually jam-packed with students walking to class and socializing during the brief moments they had between classes. As the school year went on, the hallways became crowded with something else. It seemed as if everyone had a brand new iPod. Although they were not exactly new, they were just becoming popular, and Apple had just introduced the new multi-colored line of iPod minis. The iPod minis at the time came in blue, pink, green, silver and gold, and were less expensive than other iPods as they had a smaller amount of memory.
For my seventeenth birthday, I wanted nothing more than an iPod. I did not care if it was a mini, or what color it was, I wanted to have the ability to carry music around with me and to have the “cool” factor that having an iPod gave its owners. On my birthday I received a bright pink iPod mini, and for the first few days I had it, I only had been able to figure out how to get one song on it. I walked around school for days listening to “Jessie’s Girl” by Rick Springfield on repeat, but I did not care that I was continually listening to the same song. It was the fact that I was listening to music at all, and that I had one of the most coveted products on the market at the time. Two years later, I still use my iPod often, but not quite as religiously as I had at first. New and improved versions began to offer more options with longer lasting batteries, color screens, different prices and more.
As Apple’s new Apple TV begins to invade living rooms around the world, it brings the ability to stream music, pictures, and movies from computers through home entertainment systems. It is the only way consumers can play movies and music they have purchased through Apple’s own online iTunes store anywhere other than on their computers or portable devices. Apple is quickly becoming a huge part of American culture, as nowadays it is difficult to find an average American person who does not own an Apple product. Is Apple slowly taking over the future of America and becoming a monopoly over various industries? How long will it be before we see people walking their iPets down the road, or flushing their iToilets? Where is the line drawn for technology going too far? I personally believe that Apple has greatly influenced today’s culture and the lives of many, and I enjoy using my iPod as well as iTunes on my computer, but there has got to be a point where enough is enough, or sooner or later we will all be part of an Apple driven iWorld.
For more information on this topic, visit www.Apple.com or http://scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?alias=apple-invades-the-living&chanID=sa003. This article can be found online at http://heyheyyouyou.livejournal.com/