Apple & Mervis Together Again: The First Diamond IPad

You may be aware that there are a growing number of people that are just a wee bit critical of Apple Inc. (ya think?), their products, their marketing and well, of Apple. You may also be aware that I have been a little sharp-tongued with the company as well. But this is just too easy, too big and to loud of a target to either ignore or miss.

A Diamond Encrusted iPad ?? Really???

Look I was one of the first to criticize the Hummer as blatant, juvenile and arrogant. The only reason for the Hummers existence was to allow the new class of greed priests to shove their wealth in our faces. The wealth that, as it turns out they stole from us and then got the government to bail them out. Of course, it also had that wonderfully ecological quality of being one of the least efficient cars on the road. But this is just going too far. Apple has always had an air of elitism that was the bastion of the publishers and artists. That was for the most part ok and some of the technology that Apple created was somewhat enviable. We've all seen the images of the musician sitting in front of the huge white mac monitor doing cool stuff and thought, "that would be cool!"

The Digital Diva

But lately Apple seems to be taking the elitist thing to a new marketing high with some of the things that they have done with the iPhone. As "prestigious" and "cool" as the iPhone has been hyped to be there is a laundry-list of shortcomings that continue even now with the release of the iPhone 3G, like the activation nightmare. Apple had distributed a shipload of original iPhones in the US when they first came out. That was the high point. The low point was that many of those customers ended up with useless iPhones on their desks. Apparently, Apple's activation servers were nailed to the floor, well, they cracked under pressure, anyway, and more than a lot people were left hanging. Some even for days. And most times, they had to pay for the activation that wouldn't activate.

It got so bad, that companies other than Apple were posting an activation work-around and tutorials, which brought rise to the unlocked iPhone-people realized there were other options than to put up with Apple. You would think they would have learned from that nightmare but they apparently did not, because they repeated it with the 3G. I wonder how the activation with iPad will go when it is finally released. If the past is any indication, not too well. So, if you want anything Apple, you just have to deal with the service they think you deserve. Which is not much.

"No, really?"

Well, with the iPad not yet on the shelves and pre-orders touted as "proof of its popularity," this Diamond Encrusted iPad comes along to remind us just where we fit in in the grand scheme of things. The "Worlds First Diamond Encrusted iPad." Add it to the collection of the diamond encrusted iPhone, and the Gold Plated iPhone and you've got your self a big pile of irreplaceable Apple products that are no better than any other Apple device because they still don not do anything except look pretty and that's even debatable. Come on, if I am going to pay that horrendous price for something, I at least want a USB port and flash ability!

Not Done Yet...

It still doesn't have HDMI and from a media intensive company that's just too strange. "It doesn't even have a USB port, dude! I mean, come on!" Additionally, it can't take pictures or video. From a media intensive company? Really? Even before the hapless AT&T customers line up to wait for service they are forced to endure this. The $19,999 diamond-coated iPad. It's been coated with 11.43 carats of G/H color diamonds. And, as Jesus Diaz from Gizmodo stated in his article, "100/100 in stupidity." In all fairness, this isn't the first time that an Apple product has been the target of the "Runway" treatment. While it's not Apple that is producing this (it comes from Mervis Diamond Importers) with how tightly they control (dominate) their partner companies you know that they approved it, or maybe even demanded it.

Epilogue, Hopefully

There are a host of Tablets coming out on the market, just troll through the CeBIT video's and watch the one about the $95.00 tablet. Granted, that is a distributor price and it's not much of a tech wonder, it does exist. The HP iSlate is still looming near and could eat Apples' for lunch, technologically speaking. So, you'd think that Apple would have learned. No, apparently they haven't. Oh, well, that's the price of being elitist.

References & Resources:
Engadget: World's First Diamond iPad Tries to Deliver that Magiacal Experience

Gizmodo: The Diamond iPad

Mervis Diamond Importers: The World's First Diamond iPad