I generally don’t pay much attention to the various Apple announcements. I’ve never been an early adopter, and in any case my basket is always pretty well full up with the old, dried-up fruit of Cupertino’s loins (see G4 AGP Graphics Power Mac, circa 1999).
But I watched today’s hoopla from the Steve Jobs Theater, because my man Hal Walter and his boy Harrison got a little screen time in a short video made to pitch the Apple Watch Series 5.
Regulars here will recall that Harrison is on the autism spectrum and uses music to help him focus while running cross country and track for the Custer County Schools. Since Harrison is an Apple Fanboi First Class, it goes without saying that it’s an Apple Watch feeding the earworms to his headphones.
Hal will have something to say about it all directly over at Hardscrabble Times. But speaking for myself, it was pretty damn’ cool to see the kid’s image splashed all over the screen behind Tim Cook after the video ended. Have a peek.
Tags: Apple, Apple Watch, Hal Walter, Hardscrabble Times, Harrison Walter
Mad Blog Media 
September 10, 2019 at 1:07 pm |
Speaking of the sexiest TV ad for a Congressional candidate I’ve ever seen…my district, too.
September 10, 2019 at 1:11 pm |
very, very cool.
September 10, 2019 at 1:12 pm |
Love that you get the chance to vote for such a badass woman Khal!
September 10, 2019 at 1:27 pm |
Me too, Sharon. I generally fight with my fellow Democrats tooth and nail, but that’s why Will Rogers said “I am not a member of any organized political party. I am a Democrat”.
What it boils down to is the Elefinks will undoubtedly, if history is any predictor, run someone to the right of Atilla the Hun in the 3rd District, which is a very blue district. I knew some really good, centered, GOP folks in Los Alamos but they were increasingly iced out of power in this Age of Trump. The GOP has been emasculated to a few right wing loony tunes from what I can see.
Therefore, its a foregone conclusion that we will elect a Donk. Who is the best Dem? Right now, I think it is Plame unless someone better shows up and so far, the rest of the field is a clown car.
And no, not even my dog would vote for me.
September 10, 2019 at 1:39 pm |
Serna has been a disaster of a DA up here. Only other person on the list I’ve heard of with some Fed credentials is John Blair, and this is all I know about him.
https://www.abqjournal.com/1355627/john-blair-enters-3rd-cd-race.html
September 10, 2019 at 6:00 pm |
https://www.emilyslist.org/candidates/teresa-leger-fernandez-20
September 10, 2019 at 1:35 pm |
She’s got my vote!!!!
September 10, 2019 at 1:41 pm |
Hal’s a cool guy known for a variety of accomplishments, but to me, he’ll always be the guy who used the quadratic equation to teach his kid to catch a ball.
September 10, 2019 at 1:51 pm |
Wow. Watching that clip of Harrison gave me goose bumps, and I don’t even know him except through this wonderful blog!
September 10, 2019 at 1:55 pm |
Uh, what did the kid get from Apple for the use of his image, etc? Valerie Plame should be running for president!!!! She’d have Don the Con peeing his Depends!!!!
September 10, 2019 at 2:58 pm |
Seeing Harrison using techie stuff like the Apple Watch in a useful way is very cool indeed. I am in awe of Hal’s patience, persistence, love, and understanding.
September 10, 2019 at 4:57 pm |
Yeah, the kid is all about the Apple stuff. He’d like to work for the outfit some day, as I understand it.
Look for Hal to go into greater detail on how the deal went down as soon as he has a minute to catch his breath. He’s wearing a sixpack of sombreros these days.
September 11, 2019 at 8:15 am |
Their Watch thingy is an interesting piece of equipment. Jony Ives sold it as a fashion accessory, with a $20,000 gold option. Tim Cook sold it as a continuation of your connected, always-on life. But COO Jeff Williams was quietly hiring medical researchers. When Warren Buffet, who knows a thing or two about the insurance market, started buying stock, it was clear what direction they were going. Apple rightfully deserves mocking for their planned obsolescence and semi-recent focus on style over function. But they’re second to no one when it comes to accessibility.
September 11, 2019 at 8:56 am |
Yep, just like dope dealers worldwide…all about having the stuff ready when the addicts need it. Apple deserves mocking for lots of reasons but I’ll skip all that and just continue to not buy anything they sell.
September 11, 2019 at 5:24 pm |
Folks can play “too cool for school” all they want, but I work with kids for whom this shit isn’t about having the latest, it’s about just getting through life. You watch a kid with zero control over her arms navigate with voice commands, and then help a girl with sight limitations to use VoiceOver to find the right icon, and it changes ones attitude real quick. All of a sudden, it doesn’t matter that much if those kids won’t get off my lawn.
September 12, 2019 at 12:51 pm
And nobody but the wizards of Apple can provide this? THAT I find hard-to-believe, but the closest I come to being a member of any cult is probably related to Campagnolo products, despite the fact that too-damn-much of it is made outside of Italy these days.
September 11, 2019 at 8:34 am |
I’ve always argued that while Apple products may be pricey, they’re just the ticket for the user who doesn’t want to spend a lot of time under the hood. That’s worth a few extra bucks to me.
That’s still mostly true, though the recent focus on lighter and thinner must drive the engineers witless when it comes to keeping the products from catching fire in the middle of an iMovie edit.
September 11, 2019 at 9:06 am |
I am still an Apple fan when it comes to desk tops, laptops, tablets, and routers. The rumors are the production of the latter is ending. Why am I a fan? Security, ease of use, and reliability of software, firmware, and hardware. I have a desktop, my current iMac, that is still working fine and runs updated software after 7 years. Patrick has Apple bits and pieces that have run much longer than that and do what he needs them to do. Patrick may be an outlier among Apple users. His wallet is locked up tighter than……
September 12, 2019 at 12:54 pm |
I hear this all the time. They gave the wife an Apple something and plenty of her students opt for them when laptops are handed out at the college. But her Apple thing causes no less frustration for her than the “other” one did and the kids’ Apples are in the tech shop as much as the “other” ones. And all of ’em still try the “computer ate my homework” ruse, no matter what gizmo it is!
September 11, 2019 at 6:35 pm |
Shoot, Paddy me lad. I got guitars I’m not playing and mics I’m not woofin’ into. Last thing in the world I need is more crapple from the Apple.
September 11, 2019 at 9:06 pm |
Yep, me too. But, I thought you would finish the last line.