Interesting Statement by Adam Savage of MythBusters

[vinay427]

Hey,

I was just reading this month's issue of Mac|Life and saw the article about Adam Savage, from MythBusters. The following statement about the iPhone was interesting to me. What are your opinions on the matter?


"I have nothing to say to my friends with BlackBerries, who say, ‘Where the f** is copy and paste on the iPhone?’” he says. "I have been so well served by Steve Jobs’s unwillingness to add dumb features--that it’s so elegant and simple. It’s OK for me to wait two years for copy and paste. The iPhone is a beautiful, beautiful machine."

Article Link

The above quote is right below the third picture, the one with him and his MBP.

EDIT: It's just interesting to me that some people think this way. They're willing to give up a useful feature and be somewhat embarrassed in front of their friends, all for the sake of believing the Steve Jobs is always right. Why do you think he was booted from Apple at one time? People didn't like his attitudes and choices. He only ended up coming back because NextStep, his product, appealed to Apple.

vinay427

 

[IgnatiusTheKing]

I don't understand. Why did that freak you out?

And how old is this article?

 

[cellocello]

Is he happy or sad or mad or joking or frustrated or what?

 

[vinay427]

I don't understand. Why did that freak you out?

And how old is this article?

"Freaked out" probably wasn't a good choice of words. I edited it, see if "interesting to me" is better. The article is in the newest "September 2009" issue of Mac|Life but their interview may be older.

Is he happy or sad or mad or joking or frustrated or what?

Who? Me or Savage?

 

[labman]

it say's in the article

that 3.0 wasn't out yet and now it's out so I am not sure where the op is going! Adam being a Big Mac nut though we need to send some Mac Myths into him.

 

[vinay427]

Sorry, I realized I wasn't clear enough at all. First, try reading the edit in the OP. Tell me if you still don't get it.

 

[QCassidy352]

it's a good point. most people don't care about the features that we on MR yell and scream about.

 

[vinay427]

it's a good point. most people don't care about the features that we on MR yell and scream about.

Thanks for being the first to understand! I agree.

 

[djjclark]

...
They're willing to give up a useful feature and be somewhat embarrassed in front of their friends, all for the sake of believing the Steve Jobs is always right.
...
vinay427

Embarrassed? Not sure how you get that emotion from the quote. I tend to agree with him - Apple/Jobs has certain expectations when it comes to features and it is something you have to live with which many people do.

 

[vinay427]

Embarrassed? Not sure how you get that emotion from the quote. I tend to agree with him - Apple/Jobs has certain expectations when it comes to features and it is something you have to live with which many people do.

I got the word embarrassed because in the quote it said that all his friends on BlackBerry's have CC&P. Normally, if you're the odd one out (in terms of a bad thing) it can be embarrassing to many people.

You don't have to live with it; you can get another phone. The thing that is the most important in the quote IMO is when he says that "I have been so well served by Steve Jobs’s unwillingness to add dumb features". Being well served by not having "dumb" features doesn't make sense to me. That's one of the reasons the iPhone is hailed as so easy to use and simple. It doesn't have many features that an old BlackBerry or even an old WinMo device have. Therefore, it serves a different market, which I get. But don't consumers deserve at least CC&P, or is that too complicated to put on to the iPhone to keep it simple?

 

[sinsin07]

I'd be curious to know why it took 2 years for something a basic as cut and paste. For a company that makes one of the slickest interfaces for desktops, leaving out cut and paste is a mystery. I use cut and paste everyday on my iphone. I mean even a 9 year old Palm 3 had cut and paste. MMS is something else, as it affects more than just the iphone interface.

Now if I could only get AVRCP.

 

[vinay427]

I'd be curious to know why it took 2 years for something a basic as cut and paste. For a company that makes one of the slickest interfaces for desktops, leaving out cut and paste is a mystery. I use cut and paste everyday on my iphone. I mean even a 9 year old Palm 3 had cut and paste. MMS is something else, as it affects more than just the iphone interface.

Now if I could only get AVRCP.

Exactly. It didn't take two years for them to develop it (I hope). It took two years for Steve Jobs to realize and admit that he was wrong, that people do need some "business" features.

 

[ZBoater]

They also took their sweet time providing a Search function.

Apple marches to their own beat, and whether you like it or not, they are successful. They may not rule the world (yet), but they are a successful and profitable company.

Now, PLEASE fix Outlook synchronization....

 

[vinay427]

They also took their sweet time providing a Search function.

Apple marches to their own beat, and whether you like it or not, they are successful. They may not rule the world (yet), but they are a successful and profitable company.

Now, PLEASE fix Outlook synchronization....

Well, clearly I don't like it , but annoyingly they are still successful. I saw this comment on an Boy Genius Report article (I think) that said that Apple has just turned into a dictatorship. The guy was a huge Apple fan in the beginning (like me), bought some Apple products (like me), loved them for a while (like me), then eventually realized with the iPhone that Apple only cared about it's success, like almost every other company out there. It didn't care about it's customers or it's product. If it cared about either, would we have had to wait this long for CC&P or Search, among other features? It then hit me that that guy was right on. I soon figured out that the Apple that I knew was gone, and was replaced with a money obsessed Steve Jobs controlled corporation.

 

[Nugget]

I've had 3.0 since they day they released it and I've never once used cut and paste. It's simply not a feature I care about.

As QCassidy352 rightly points out, its absurd to infer what "the market" thinks from sampling the opinions on this forum.

 

[thelatinist]

EDIT: It's just interesting to me that some people think this way. They're willing to give up a useful feature and be somewhat embarrassed in front of their friends, all for the sake of believing the Steve Jobs is always right.

I don't get this from the quote at all. He wasn't saying, "Steve jobs is always right, so if he doesn't want copy and paste that's okay with me." What he's saying is that he believes in the simple, elegant interface concept of the iPhone and is glad that Steve Jobs isn't trying to cram everyone's pet feature into it. This is a design philosophy with which I agree.

Don't get me wrong, I think copy and paste has improved the phone, and true multitasking would be nice; but at the same time I have to say that copy and paste is not as elegant as the rest of the multi-touch interface, and I don't want them rushing to add a clunky taskbar to the elegent home screen just because the new processor could probably handle it.

 

[vinay427]

I've had 3.0 since they day they released it and I've never once used cut and paste. It's simply not a feature I care about.

As QCassidy352 rightly points out, its absurd to infer what "the market" thinks from sampling the opinions on this forum.

They don't care because they believe that Steve Jobs is right, and they live with it, stuck with that belief.

Also, because it's not a feature that you care about doesn't mean that others don't. It's a feature that has been on just about every smart phone for many years, and you're saying "the market" doesn't want it? Do you really think that BB, Microsoft, Google, Palm, etc. wasted their time for a feature that "the market" doesn't care about?

I don't get this from the quote at all. He wasn't saying, "Steve jobs is always right, so if he doesn't want copy and paste that's okay with me." What he's saying is that he believes in the simple, elegant interface concept of the iPhone and is glad that Steve Jobs isn't trying to cram everyone's pet feature into it. This is a design philosophy with which I agree.

Don't get me wrong, I think copy and paste has improved the phone, and true multitasking would be nice; but at the same time I have to say that copy and paste is not as elegant as the rest of the multi-touch interface, and I don't want them rushing to add a clunky taskbar to the elegant home screen just because the new processor could probably handle it.

I understand that, but here's my philosophy. The iPhone isn't as simple as many people think. The main reason it's simple is because it's lacking these features that every other smartphone has. When 3.0 came out, I had a problem (and still do) with the Copy/Paste small black window popping up every time I want to do something, and I doubt I'm the only one. When they added CC&P, things became slightly more complicated and annoying (at least for me). That's why I think comparing the iPhone's simplicity to the BB, especially in things like e-mail, is completely unfair.

 

[-aggie-]

They also took their sweet time providing a Search function.

Apple marches to their own beat, and whether you like it or not, they are successful. They may not rule the world (yet), but they are a successful and profitable company.

Now, PLEASE fix Outlook synchronization....

I guess I agree, but still, cut copy and paste are just something that most people need at one time or another. We also need a search feature for inside the body of emails, and file space for documents, and...,,

 

[jmpage2]

You are missing the gist of what he is saying.

What Savage is saying is that the iPhone OS is so easy and intuitive to use that you are willing to overlook small oversights that would cause massive frustration on other vendors devices.

I see nothing in his statement that indicates that he believes SJ is "always right" about everything.

Your post makes you look foolish OP.

 

[11800506]

You are missing the gist of what he is saying.

What Savage is saying is that the iPhone OS is so easy and intuitive to use that you are willing to overlook small oversights that would cause massive frustration on other vendors devices.

I see nothing in his statement that indicates that he believes SJ is "always right" about everything.

Your post makes you look foolish OP.

+1

That's exactly what I was going to say, until of course I read that you said it.

He's not implying that he thinks Steve Jobs is God, only that the iPhone is so easy to use in other ways that it is easy to excuse something simple like copy and paste missing.

 

[vinay427]

You are missing the gist of what he is saying.

What Savage is saying is that the iPhone OS is so easy and intuitive to use that you are willing to overlook small oversights that would cause massive frustration on other vendors devices.

I see nothing in his statement that indicates that he believes SJ is "always right" about everything.

Your post makes you look foolish OP.

I get that, but I'm saying that shouldn't people care about any features? Is simplicity all they care about on a smartphone? That's what dumbphones are for. They don't have many features but are even simpler to use than the iPhone (in most cases). Should the iPhone realy be considered a smartphone? It only has a few things that the average American (European dumbphones are even better, from what I've seen) dumbphone doesn't have. Name those things, as many as you can think of. The big one is the App Store, but again dumbphones have that to a degree, but fine, I'll start you off on that one.

I realize I went off on a tangent there, but I got a little carried away.

 

[sinsin07]

They don't care because they believe that Steve Jobs is right, and they live with it, stuck with that belief.

Also, because it's not a feature that you care about doesn't mean that others don't. It's a feature that has been on just about every smart phone for many years, and you're saying "the market" doesn't want it? Do you really think that BB, Microsoft, Google, Palm, etc. wasted their time for a feature that "the market" doesn't care about?



I understand that, but here's my philosophy. The iPhone isn't as simple as many people think. The main reason it's simple is because it's lacking these features that every other smartphone has. When 3.0 came out, I had a problem (and still do) with the Copy/Paste small black window popping up every time I want to do something, and I doubt I'm the only one. When they added CC&P, things became slightly more complicated and annoying (at least for me). That's why I think comparing the iPhone's simplicity to the BB, especially in things like e-mail, is completely unfair.

I guess I agree, but still, cut copy and paste are just something that most people need at one time or another. We also need a search feature for inside the body of emails, and file space for documents, and...,,

I agree with you both. I can't say I know much about the Steve Jobs history, I don't really follow him or Gates. My only Apple product right now is the Iphone. What I can say is I like having Jobs and Apple around as it keeps Microsoft at bay to a point. I would hate to see no Apple. When the first iphone came out I wanted one, but the lack of some features and high price lead me to the Treo. Once I read this year that everything I wanted was coming, I jumped on board.

Slide To Unlock, how slick is that. How many itinerations of winmobile did we see, but nothing as cool as Slide To Unlock. For you grizzled old Iphone users, this is probably something you grown board with, but I still get a small kick out of it. I just don't get why we can get Slide To Unlock, but have to wait for AVRCP

 

[thelatinist]

I understand that, but here's my philosophy. The iPhone isn't as simple as many people think. The main reason it's simple is because it's lacking these features that every other smartphone has. When 3.0 came out, I had a problem (and still do) with the Copy/Paste small black window popping up every time I want to do something, and I doubt I'm the only one. When they added CC&P, things became slightly more complicated and annoying (at least for me). That's why I think comparing the iPhone's simplicity to the BB, especially in things like e-mail, is completely unfair.

Dude, you just made Adam Savage's point! Adam loves the simplicity and elegance of the iPhone interface, which is not loaded with things that complicate it. I feel the same way, and while I like copy and paste I recognize that it makes things more complicated and I shudder to think what a nightmare it would have been if Apple hadn't taken its time on implementation. You are making no sense.

 

[The Californian]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but don't you think that Apples long-suffering with perfecting products and/or features is a major contributing factor as to why Apple doesn't have "Vista-Like" problems?

Of course I would love to have all of the features I want now, but I would rather wait until the feature is perfected instead of it being incredibly frustrating do to a poorly thought out rapid release.

 

[sinsin07]

Dude, you just made Adam Savage's point! Adam loves the simplicity and elegance of the iPhone interface, which is not loaded with things that complicate it. I feel the same way, and while I like copy and paste I recognize that it makes things more complicated and I shudder to think what a nightmare it would have been if Apple hadn't taken its time on implementation. You are making no sense.

Adam Savage has no point, especially with the type of work he does were paying attention to detail is important. Cut and paste does not complicate the interface. You still have all your icons lined in rows and in columns. How does Bluetooth Profiles spoil the user experience? If you don't want to use it, don't go into Settings. MMS, how does that spoil the user interface? If MMS is that complicated were people are going to now get all befuddle, then those people would probally get confused by an Etch A Sketch or the Slinky,