How Genius is Genius?
September 9, 2008 |
Today Apple made some waves and refreshed all of their iPods and dropped iTunes 8 onto the intertubes. Considering none of the “announcements” were surprises due to Apple’s new lack of leak plugs, I was ready to try out the Genius feature before I knew that I could. Did you follow that? I hope so because I’m not going to try and re-write it. Anyway, the Genius feature is pretty good, pretty intuitive and puts together a nice playlist based on the selected song. It couldn’t, though, put together a playlist based on the Dr. Horrible soundtrack. Oh well.
But this isn’t going to be a review of iTunes 8 and the Genius feature. It’s a look at the name itself. I’ve got a huge problem with it. Other sites around the web are arguing over Apple’s use of the word “funnest” in their new iPod marketing, but I think the use of Genius is a much bigger mistake on Apple’s part.
Anyone who has ever walked into an Apple Store knows that the word Genius is not new to Apple. Apple uses the word to describe it’s tech support people. Computer broke? iPod showing the sad face? Go see a Genius at your local Genius Bar. Makes sense considering a genius should know what to do. Apple has effectively branded the word genius to demote support for your Mac. Now, with the launch of iTunes 8, they are telling us that it also means something that can pick songs for you. I mean, it’d be stupid to walk into the closest Apple Store, wait in line, and then ask a Genius to recommend some music for you. But maybe that’s what Apple want’s us all to do.
I might be looking too much into this, but I think Apple is making a mistake here. The iTunes feature could have easily been called something else leaving the Genius moniker for the support folks at the local store. What do you think? Did Apple make a mistake using the word Genius or am I just overreacting? Let me know in the comments.
Overshee
September 9th, 2008 | 9:12 pm
You know, I wondered the same thing. I wasn’t quite sure why they felt the need to use “genius” again. Whatever though, I won’t argue too hard, it works well enough for me.
Nick Tabick
September 9th, 2008 | 9:37 pm
While I’m not as hung up on the name as you are (and I’m not trying to make that sound like a bad thing; they should never have reused a current moniker), I also think that there’s more to Genius than meets the eye.
Given that Genius is still young, I would be tempted to compare how it performs against the suggestion engines built into Winamp (for music you have) or online services like Last.fm (for music you might like) and how/why it makes those suggestions.
And I wonder what certain language enthusiasts might say about Apple’s use of “funnest” in their advertising campaign…
Justin
September 9th, 2008 | 10:41 pm
The ironic thing about “funnest” is that it’s not even in the Apple Dictionary which is built into OS X.
It will be interesting to see over the next few days how the system evolves, as it’s supposed to combine info from the rest of the universe, and pinpoints better recommendations.
Though, the name still bothers me (obviously).