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| | ==Explanation== | | ==Explanation== |
| − | The comic starts to set up a joke about the "phone wars" between the {{w|iPhone}} and phones that run the {{w|Android (operating system)|Android}} system (in this case the {{w|Motorola Droid}}), but instead just brings up a serious point criticizing the {{w|consumerism}} this "war" stems from. In the last line of panel 2, [[Cueball]] refers to the slogan "There's an app for that" from Apple's iPhone marketing.
| + | This comic references the "phone wars" between the iPhone and phone that run the Android system. The third panel references the fact that, officially speaking, the iPhone is a closed system which does not guarantee entry into the official store, yet anyone can acquire an .apk file that will install an app into an Android phone. |
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| − | Then the third panel makes a joke anyway, at Apple's expense: apparently, this "enlightenment app" was rejected from Apple's app store, which is the only supported way to put third-party software on an iPhone. Apple has become infamous for rejecting apps from their app store without adequately explaining why. (Users of iPhones can sideload third party software using {{w|iOS jailbreaking|jailbreaking}} or {{w|iOS SDK|developer tools}}, but both are quite complicated.)
| + | Cueball has a point in the second panel. After consuming a lot, would you not want to actually give back to the community that gave you all the ever-fancier toys? Would you not get a pleasure from actually constructing and contributing something yourself? Would you want to feel useful about yourself? |
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| − | In the title text Cueball succumbs to the consumerism and marvels at the Motorola Droid's high (at the time) {{w|Pixel density|pixel density}}. Apple responded 9 months later by releasing the {{w|iPhone 4}} with a 326 ppi {{w|Retina Display}}. (Higher pixel densities are now standard for smartphones.)
| + | {{Incomplete}} |
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| − | This comic was written at the start of the modern smartphone era, when first the iPhone and then Google's Android platform had popularized user-installable third-party apps for smartphones. Previously third-party smartphone apps had been much rarer as they were hard to [https://www.theregister.com/2010/10/22/nokia_explains_symbian_strategy_we_translate/ develop] and [https://www.theregister.com/2009/05/28/ovi_review/ install], and smartphones themselves had been considered quite hard to use. iOS and Android, running on touchscreen smartphones with considerably more hardware resources than earlier smartphones, had [https://arstechnica.com/staff/2008/03/cant-help-falling-in-love/ encouraged] the development of third-party apps and their sale on app stores, with Apple advertising [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=szrsfeyLzyg "there's an app for that"] to showcase the range of apps available for its phones.
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| − | Although the concept of an app that delivers "something more than the pale facsimile of fulfillment brought by a parade of ever-fancier toys" sounds ridiculous, [https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/reviews/best-meditation-apps/ mindfulness apps] have since become reasonably popular.
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| | ==Transcript== | | ==Transcript== |
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| | :Cueball: What if I want something more than the pale facsimile of fulfillment brought by a parade of ever-fancier toys? To spend my life restlessly producing instead of sedately consuming? | | :Cueball: What if I want something more than the pale facsimile of fulfillment brought by a parade of ever-fancier toys? To spend my life restlessly producing instead of sedately consuming? |
| − | :Cueball: Is there an app for ''that''? | + | :Cueball: Is there an app for THAT? |
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| | :Megan: Yeah, on both. | | :Megan: Yeah, on both. |
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| | {{comic discussion}} | | {{comic discussion}} |
| − | [[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]] | + | [[Category: Comics featuring Cueball]] |
| − | [[Category:Comics featuring Megan]] | + | [[Category: Comics featuring Megan]] |
| − | [[Category:Smartphones]]
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