Saturday, December 20, 2008

Human stupidity knows no limits.

It's a well known Bertie (Einstein) quote that goes like: The universe and human stupidity are infinite... eh... though, I am not so sure about the former...

That came to mind as I was reading this story. A dude, called Rob, had his iPhone stolen from him as he was at his dry laundry shop (literally going to the cleaner's, that is...).

"He immediately chalked it up as gone forever, and proceeded to purchase a brand new one that same evening. It was the next day when unfamiliar contacts began to appear on the new phone. The (not-too-bright) thief was unwittingly supplying him with names and phone numbers of his or her closest friends, via the magic of MobileMe synchronization from the stolen phone to the cloud and eventually to his new phone. "It didn't take long for me to realize that MobileMe was leading me right to the thief!" wrote Rob."

Now tell me... is it that you got to be stupid to be a 'criminal' or is it that often some stupid people get so desperate and then eventually turn into 'criminals'? Don't know which way it goes... one thing is for sure... human stupidity knows no limits. Einstein's law of human nature proven right, again.

The deeper meaning of this story though is that MobileMe is just flyin'! Works like a charm. Makes possible moving important records from any desktop (PC, or Mac) to the cloud, back to a laptop or iPod Touch or even the iPhone! And back to the cloud! Happens almost instantaneously, most of the times. If you manage to set up the sync preferences properly in all your environments, MobileMe becomes an ideal strategy for syncing your mails, contacts and calendars, to name a few goodies... the best backup on the planet for your most critical stuff. No worries about stolen laptops, iPhones, or whatever, or Blue Screens on Windows garbage gear. It all comes together with a push from the cloud. I am convinced, this 'service' is even more valuable to Windows users than to us ol'time loyal Mac-lovers. All you got to do is buy an iPhone or iPod Touch and an annual subscription of less than 100 bucks onto MobileMe. The rest is sef-explanatory. Lose your phone like Rob did? Buy a new one and restore in seconds. No messages lost or contacts or agenda events. Got a new PC for X-mas (one of these unbelievable netbooks...)? No problem. Install the Control Panel MobileMe app and up you are. Configure Outlook for the MobileMe account and all your cloud folders find their way into your new gear within minutes. All are level set... there's a law in hydrodynamics that does the same with free fluid surfaces in a series of tubes... what's called again? Jeez, I used to PhD in these things and I even forgot the alphabet... oh, aging pains, oh, Alzheimer's...

The Apple Ecosystem approach to succesful marketing. Offer complete solutions and you'll master the world! This is the Steve Jobs first law of Marketing. Brings to mind a good deed I did yesterday. I was on Skype messaging with a dear friend and, knowing her recent buy of an iPod Touch, I am like: "Do you use 'Air Sharing'?"; she goes, "What's that?". I'm like, "C'm on, this is the best app ever since iPint"..."So, what does it do?", she sez... I'm like, "How do you transfer files from your Mac to your iPod Touch, like PDFs, PPTs, 'n stuff?"... Here it comes: "I... email them to myself", she sez, "too much trouble, I know, and hard for large docs"... "I know", I sez, "Trust me, try Air Sharing and pass the word"... "I'll have to do that" she goes... "Many thx, I gotta go now"...

See, it's not always useless subjects people chat about on IM sessions... IM is a serious platform for viral marketing, passing the word kinda-thing... not?

In conclusion, another lesson learnt today: If you happen to 'find' or 'steal' an iPhone or iPod Touch and don't intend to return it to their lawful owner, then, install iTunes on y'r pathetic Windows PC (Mac users don't steal things) and do a factory reset... but, I guess, that's too complicated for double digit IQ morons who'd do that sort of thing...

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