Peer Pressure
I don't have much to say about this strip except that I have been fighting the urge to buy an iPhone, and that I came very close to giving in last weekend. In the end, I resisted, but it was more due to the termination fee on my current contract than due to any will power on my part.
Let this serve as a warning to T-Mobile, Microsoft, HTC and Google. You have less than one year to come up with a product as compelling as the iPhone if you want my money.
Also, the iPhone user in this strip is my friend Rodney, who owns an iPhone and thinks I should get one.
This strip is the last of a series of six samples I produced in six days, to prove (to myself, primarily) that I could crank one of these out every day. The next couple of samples I'll post (next Friday) are a slightly different format, so look forward to that!
Thanks for your indulgence.
Let this serve as a warning to T-Mobile, Microsoft, HTC and Google. You have less than one year to come up with a product as compelling as the iPhone if you want my money.
Also, the iPhone user in this strip is my friend Rodney, who owns an iPhone and thinks I should get one.
This strip is the last of a series of six samples I produced in six days, to prove (to myself, primarily) that I could crank one of these out every day. The next couple of samples I'll post (next Friday) are a slightly different format, so look forward to that!
Thanks for your indulgence.
posted by Scott Meyer at Friday, September 14, 2007
113 Comments:
As someone who worked on Windows Mobile when the iPhone was unveiled, there are two obvious problems with the iPhone:
* can't change the battery...nuff said
* almost impossible to operate without looking directly at it. Think about those people that text with their phone under a table in a meeting or people who wear their iPod on their sleeve while at the gym and advance songs wimply by touch, you are screwed.
I should get a Wii
Of course, now that I know about your comic and enjoy it I want a new one EVERY SINGLE DAY!!
;-)
The battery is an issue for me, but the need to look at it doesn't bug me at all. I don't want it to use as a music player. If I'm buying a music player I want Plays for Sure compatability, as I am a napster user.
It's that web browser and the visual voicemail I'm drooling over.
i didn't bother commenting on s.a.'s blog when he asked for comments/suggestions, but i did want to share the opinion that you don't need any more of a 'hook' than you already have with the 'how to' format.
visually, the three-panel experiments look crowded, like how this afternoon i wrote out someone's address but underestimated how much room i would need on the envelope. but i assume that's fixable. regardless, they are very funny.
I love the three panel format with the commentary above each frame as opposed to only the first frame. It doesn't seem crowded to me. There are many sindicated comics that seem much more crowded. You are very talented and it shouldn't be long before we see you in print nationwide.
It's a fad, will die in 1-24 months.
I love your comic strip and its style. And I feel there's a strong theme in it, the theme being the situations we find ourselves in almost daily. I'm not sure why Mr. Adams (can't just say Scott here ;-) ) wants you to identify a particular "theme" in spite of there already being one!
I just bought a Sony Ericsson W580i. It does everything the iPhone does (except automagically sync to iTunes but there's third-party software which will do that if you're on the Mac and better things than iTunes if you're on Windows), plus it has a UI which doesn't require the use of both hands.
Also it lets you use the accelerometer as a gesture input for music control as well as a pedometer (with XBox-like "achievements" even!), and you can also use it as a Bluetooth modem for your computer.
Plus you can load WHATEVER MP3 YOU WANT as a ringtone.
The only real advantage to the iPhone is it has a somewhat higher-resolution screen.
I've been a fan of Sony Ericsson phones for years and this latest upgrade promises to be very very nice indeed.
On the subject of printing: Who reads comics in the papers anymore?
The iPhone is simply so far ahead of the pack that I dare you to spend one evening with an iPhone and not want to get one the next day. Anyone that is trying to compare it to any current smart phone is missing the point. It only has one input button, so all commands are entered on screen and can be done so with one hand, just watch someone who has had one for month, they fly. I might be missing something but I think that this is the only smart phone that does this.
Sorry, to be such a Fanboy, but I am a convert. I have seen the future, I can't go back.
Anonymous sort of hit the nail on the head - who reads comics these days? Older people and family people. I only read the funnies when I happen to be at my parent's house since they actually get a newspaper. Otherwise, I buy the compilations. I believe what Scott Adams might have had in mind when he recommended a theme is that newspaper comic readers today may not be looking for hilarity, but a level of familiarity and comfort. Garfield is almost never ha-ha funny, but it is consistent and reliable. Even Peanuts is being re-run, I think, for the benefit of the older readers to still feel connected to the funnies. A theme makes the reader comfortable, and perhaps that's more powerful than funny to the important newspaper demographic.
As far as the three panel format, it pains me to say that it does not seem as good as the old four pane comics. They are still better than 99% of the current comics, though. If I had never seen the four pane versions, I would think they were great. Since I have, though, they are very good in comparison.
Wow, what a rant. I must sleep now. One last thing, Scott M., in the words of Obi Won Kenobi, "You must do what you think is right, of course..."
All of the games for the Wii are kids games. Don't get the Wii. Get a PS3!
This was great! I was skeptical when Mr. Adams suggested Basic Instructions shrink itself to fit the alarmingly tiny dimensions of a syndicated newspaper strip but you've more than risen to the challenge.
Don't listen to the haters who complain about too many words. Verbosity for the win.
The second panel is much funnier than the third and the strip should thus be reworked so that it comes at the end. "can't lose what you don't have" is the laugh line.
Even with the cramped format, the errors in the caption of the second panel were glaring. I won't embarrass you further by repeating them here.
Still, I like your strip, and hope you continue to write it, and wish you much success.
Great going, you are really funny and your cartoon as Scott Adams's say are really funny and better than 90% out there.
Your comic strip is great!
Why don't you use the three/four panel format dilemma as an additional sales point? Make four, and offer it as 1x3, 1x4 and 2x2. Newspapers may like the options, as they have as well the one panel sized sudokus that they need to fit in.
Combining your 2x2 with two sudokus (giving something similar to (1x3) x 2) would be my favorite :-)
J. W. Poteet II the only reason he bought a wii in the comic was because of the price tag. its the whole point of the joke. dont let your ignorant fan boyness get in the way of a great comic.
*cough* http://www.vgchartz.com/?dg=1 *cough*
waaaay funny stuff. keep 'em coming. and, good luck!
I laughed at this comic
The iPhone is really neat. I will be the first to say that there are some stupid and obvious things that it SHOULD do and doesn't, but the things that it DOES do it does very well and the interface is sooo loveable.
Good news for you, though, Scott - you can just hack an iPhone and keep using T-Mobile, if you want. There are idiot-proof instructions for this all over the net, now. Too late for me, but not so much for you...
Hi,
Greetings from the UK! Firstly this is a great strip and I enjoyed both formats, this is a clever idea and I think it has great potential.
There was a comment about 'who reads the strips' well I do for a start but I am selective about the ones I read, as I have got older, it is less the obvious humour but more the clever humour like Dilbert and like yours.
The very best of luck, I look forward to buying a paper over here with your strip in it.
cheers
Nick
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What is a free gift ? Aren't all gifts free?
If ignorance is bliss, you must be orgasmic.
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The gene pool could use a little chlorine.
Beam me aboard, Scotty..... Sure. Will a 2x10 do?
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Build a watch in 179 easy steps - by C. Forsberg.
The gene pool could use a little chlorine.
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What is a free gift ? Aren't all gifts free?
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Clap on! , Clap off! clap@#&$NO CARRIER
Oops. My brain just hit a bad sector.
Suicidal twin kills sister by mistake!
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When there's a will, I want to be in it.
Calvin, we will not have an anatomically correct snowman!
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Build a watch in 179 easy steps - by C. Forsberg.
What is a free gift ? Aren't all gifts free?
Oops. My brain just hit a bad sector.
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When there's a will, I want to be in it.
The gene pool could use a little chlorine.
If ignorance is bliss, you must be orgasmic.
When there's a will, I want to be in it.
Give me ambiguity or give me something else.
Clap on! , Clap off! clap@#&$NO CARRIER
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Lottery: A tax on people who are bad at math.
Oops. My brain just hit a bad sector.
When there's a will, I want to be in it.
What is a free gift ? Aren't all gifts free?
If ignorance is bliss, you must be orgasmic.
Give me ambiguity or give me something else.
Suicidal twin kills sister by mistake!
I'm not a complete idiot, some parts are missing!
Give me ambiguity or give me something else.
C++ should have been called B
The gene pool could use a little chlorine.
The gene pool could use a little chlorine.
Thanks to author.
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