A couple of things about Apple products

As you may have noticed, Apple unveiled some new goodies yesterday. As you may not have noticed, I’ve written about two of them.

First up, FaceTime video calling in the iPod touch:

The big question is whether people want to see one another on the phone. I think the older generation hate the idea. I certainly do, but that’s because I have what’s best described as a face for radio and some really ugly friends.

And then, the sad tale of the UK Apple TV.

Badly dubbed adverts really annoy me. Faintly sinister firms make an advert for shoes or yoghurts or incomprehensible children’s toys in Germany, and instead of filming a new version for the UK they just do a half-arsed bit of dubbing that doesn’t even attempt to match the mouths to the sounds they’re supposed to be making. “Oh, who cares,” the advertisers think. “It’s only the UK.”

The Apple TV is a bit like that.


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0 responses to “A couple of things about Apple products”

  1. Judging from the second quote you’ve never watched a whole film in Germany ;-)

    Now that’s properly annoying, in particular if you know the original words. Not only is there the problem with mouth and voice, quite often also the translations are atrociously bad. Imagine trying to watch that for 90 minutes or so…

  2. Have you noticed the latest versions of these ads, where it’s not merely that they can’t be arsed filming a new version but they’ve actually filmed it specifically for use in multiple territories? The editing’s all arranged so that you see people’s mouths open as they start to speak but then it cuts to something else for most of their speech. It gives me the sensation that I’m missing something because the director keeps switching to the wrong camera. I prefer bad dubbing.