It's no secret that I hate Apple.
I absolutely hate them. I hate their products, I hate their marketing, and I especially hate the snobby Apple aficionados who cling to their heretical belief that posessing an Apple product is akin to transcendance into a higher plane of existence, full of bliss, wisdom and really cool technological gadgets.
So it's always fun to hear about the hypocrisy and criticism of Apple about various products. This particular article is talking about an update on the iPhone that makes it more like an iHole to throw money in.
Apple works really hard to make themselves as user friendly and accessible as possible - like the Nintendo Wii targeting people who have never played a video game before with intuitive, motion sensored controls. The irony of the situation is how incredibly unfriendly Apple products are to anyone who knows more about electronics than how to push an on button. Apple computers are notoriously difficult to upgrade or build from scratch - unless you want to take a crowbar to the casing and then break into an Apple compound for spare parts, you're obsolete computer is not salvagable in any way; the only way to upgrade an Apple computer is to throw it out and buy a completely new one. Apple iPods are strange contraptions that require Apple-only servicing (Dantzel once contemplated melting the casing of a broken iPod with her welder to try and tinker with what's inside; anything short of that won't work) and will only upload Apple iTunes music. The iTunes player is clunky, annoying and only plays certain types of files - even their software is infuriatingly elitist.
And now, the iPhone can be shut off by Steve Jobs himself if you ever download any third party software to improve your phone.
Wait, what? What ever happened to electronic freedom? Consumer rights? Good, old fashioned corporate competition to help drive research, development and progress in applications for the phone that was supposed to revolutionize the industry?
Of course, you've got various responses to a Class-Action Lawsuit someone is trying to form against Apple for purposely destroying the usability of their iPhones. You've got your Apple fanatics defending their beloved company's decisions, though their logic and argument is cripplingly silly. The vast majority live in a prepetual fear under Steve Job's ever-reaching shadow. After sinking $600 on a phone, I'd be afraid to of seeing my product go up in flames. Says one user:
"I would love to tinker with my iPhone, but it's not worth bricking it or voiding my warranty. Anyone who turns his shiny new phone into an iBrick by messing with the firmware AFTER he was warned and demands compensation... well... I have no sympathy."
But there are the brave who, though they did buy a brand new phone whose only real advantage is that it has a cool touch screen, speak out against Apple's rediculous slaps in the face to their own consumer market. Says one brave soul:
"I'm afraid I'm not with Apple on this one. Seems to me that Apple's usage terms are onerous and unreasonable (can't put a file on your iphone which is as much a handheld computer as it is a telephone or an ipod?) What, we live in the digital equivalent of the iron curtain?"
Apple has never really believed in digital or consumer freedom from the beginning. They are the masters of spin and image, selling fairly mediocore or average products with a few new features that catches the eye of the restless and bored. And these products (of which are usually almost double the price - if not triple - of what you could get the equivalent of elsewhere) are ruled with the iron fist of the man clothed in a mysteriously black turtleneck, most likely cackling madly from his office suite, as he shuts off phone after phone for the truly odiously offensive crime of trying to make his product better.
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4 comments:
I must disagree. Apple products, especially in the mp3 player arena are much better than their competitors. which is why they control a majority of the marget share. Take the iPod touch. Is there any other mp3 player that has a touch screen, can access internet, in such a refined manner. Its like toyota. Toyota is the world biggest car company because they make the best cars. Reviewers consistantly say that despite a higher price, iPods are the best mp3 players out there. SUre, they aren't perfect (no iPods translated yet), but as far as mediocracy there are other companies much more guilty than apple. As far as limited third party upgrades, meh. THey come out, but as long as my computer/imac/macbook does what i need, i am happy. Not need to fool with the innards. Life is too short for that (i'd rather be flying the plane). Do I sound like i've been brainwashed yet?!! Its bliss!!
FOr the record though, i just own a shuffle :)
iPods are the greatest marketed mp3 player in the world.
The touch screen takes a while to get used to, and frankly, I find it annoying. It's very hard to turn your thumb just right so that you can scroll down one file.
The iPod connects to the internet, but it connects through iTunes, which is a very annoying and controlling program. The reason why iPod controls so much of the market is because they eliminate all competition by rigidly dictating what can and can't go on your iPod - and no surprise that only Apple products can be downloaded on there.
And iPods also break very easily. They're notorious about it.
Consider the fact that you can get just as good an mp3 player for 100 dollars less, and I'd say Apple is committing highway robbery. Yes, iPods have more features such as the touch screen, but is it really worth an extra hundred dollars?
That's just the thing. Apple products are very easy to use. However, if you ever want to improve on an Apple product or tweak it, it's increasingly difficult to do so. What's wrong with creating an easy product that you can also tweak? If you're so confident in your product, why don't you let the competition actually have some room to develop instead of keeping an unhealthy chokehold on the media industry? Steve Jobs often talks about consumer and digital freedom, but it's all just press talk. His actions certainly show otherwise.
A few things, esp. about the iPods
If they are commiting highway robbery , why do people buy them?
Because they are great to use. Are you forced to use iTunes? Nope. Winamp will upload to an iPod, as will several other programs, some made just for it like Floola.
Also, about the iPhone, as far as I have read, and I could be wrong, but what I've read isn't that the update bricks phones with 3rd party software, only phones that have been hacked to work on other carriers. Now, if this is right or wrong can be debated, but all across the globe most carriers forbid you to unlock their phone untill a certain time has passed, and I'm sure AT&T is pressuring apple to make sure their contract together is kept.
I don't understand the bitterness, I mean, don't buy apple products then.
I've used windows all my life, I learned to use linux a few years ago, and I bought a mac laptop a year ago. I've built most of my computers myself. So far, out of any computer I've ever used, I enjoy using the mac the most. I could go into specifics, but there isn't any need.
I must agree, however, that I hate snobby apple users. I've met them, and dealt with them my entire life. I find ones that even used apple during their "dark ages" of truely useless computers the worst.
I find this kind of hate similar to the hate people have for Microsoft (but for different reasons.) It's just wasted air.
I've heard the "ipods are notorious for breaking" but I wish I could find some statistics. It sounds like people talk about it all the time, but my last 3 mp3 players all broke, from different manufacturers, and my ipod is still ticking. Now this is just anecdotal evidence, but like I said, i want to see stats.
I do agree with you about the tweaking of it. however, you can run linux on your ipod if you want. You can install 3rd party apps without getting your phone bricked, if you don't hack it to use other carriers, as far as I can tell.
mac computers are not for people who want to take them apart. They are like laptops - i mean the imacs use laptop parts. Now, the pros you can do alot more with. So, if you want to build your own computer.... um... build your own computer.
I guess I just don't understand why someone who isn't forced to use them is so mad about it all. using all of the big 3 OSes, out of choice, I'm content with the strengths and weeknesses of them all.
It's not so much the product itself that makes me mad, is as much as the people who come up and ask me why I haven't bought an iPod yet.
It's more so the fact that Apple is so good at spinning things they can actually make less choices look good. And the fact that people completely buy their marketing scheme.
People continue to buy iPods and they are the number one seller for mp3s, but that doesn't mean it's a superior product by any means. It's just marketed really well. But it's not just marketed really well; Apple breeds a demographic of snobbery that is almost unbearable. So many Apple users suddenly become "experts" in electronic gadgetry when before they bought any Apple product, they knew very little on the subject. The fact that so many people act like their Apple products will revolutionize the world and end global warming and poverty and has slayed all their personal demons and monsters in the closet and adds +5 to their charisma score and then in an incredibly rude and condescending manner ask you why you haven't switched to living in a completely Apple ruled world is infuriating.
The bitterness is less from the company, and more from the types of people who use them. And the thing is, Apple encourages this kind of blunt evangelism to convert people to their cause. They don't sell electronics anymore - they sell an image, and an incredibly annoying image at that.
Apple has done an incredibly good job infiltrating college campuses, and so I am surrounded daily by such people who ask me why I have a "regular" mp3 player and not an iPod or why I won't sell both my kidneys to afford an iBook, and it only adds to my simmering wrath.
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