{"id":981,"date":"2009-08-10T23:36:40","date_gmt":"2009-08-10T15:36:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nargalzius.com\/blog\/archives\/2009\/08\/10\/give-our-apple-back\/"},"modified":"2009-08-10T23:36:40","modified_gmt":"2009-08-10T15:36:40","slug":"give-our-apple-back","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/nargalzius.com\/blog\/archives\/2009\/08\/10\/give-our-apple-back","title":{"rendered":"Give our Apple back!"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Lousy title, I know. But I can&#8217;t help but feel so disappointed with Apple as of late. <\/p>\n<p>Little by little, just as I&#8217;ve stated in a(n inaccurate) <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nargalzius.com\/blog\/archives\/2007\/01\/13\/keep-it-up-steve-and-youll-lose-your-fans\">previous post<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>Seriously, someone should file an anti-trust case against these guys for monopoly. I&#8217;m baffled as to why Microsoft is the only one being scrutinized for such &#8220;practices&#8221; &#8211; when Apple seems to have been doing it since the release of the iPod.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>That was written January 2007 (and I&#8217;m sure their practices have been going on longer than that) But it looks like the world is finally seeing Apple as a &#8220;bad guy.&#8221;<!--more--><!-- \/\/ --><\/p>\n<p>You know what breaks my heart the most? I actually <strong>believe<\/strong> in their products&#8230; what I don&#8217;t believe in is their &#8220;actions&#8221; of late.<\/p>\n<p>I was willing to get on board the whole &#8220;benevolent dictator&#8221; <span class=\"footnote_referrer\"><a role=\"button\" tabindex=\"0\" onclick=\"footnote_moveToReference_981_1('footnote_plugin_reference_981_1_1');\" onkeypress=\"footnote_moveToReference_981_1('footnote_plugin_reference_981_1_1');\" ><sup id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_981_1_1\" class=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text\">1 <\/sup><\/a><span id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_981_1_1\" class=\"footnote_tooltip\">Ok, we all know he&#8217;s an asshole, but we can&#8217;t deny that what he demands is the best for the company and its customers<\/span><\/span><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_981_1_1').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_981_1_1', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top right', relative: true, offset: [10, 10], });<\/script> aura Jobs had led Apple with, because bottom-line was that <em>innovation<\/em> was what fueled Apple. They tell us what we want and a lot of times they turn out to be right. It&#8217;s like a parent to a child; the child bitches and moans, but at the end of the day, the parent knows best.<\/p>\n<p><em>That&#8217;s<\/em> how I saw Apple when I decided to switch over.<\/p>\n<p>But that didn&#8217;t mean I was aware of how undemocratic it was; I just was willing to put up with it for as long as what they did turned out to be what was best for technological evolution.<\/p>\n<p>Now, it&#8217;s just getting ridiculous. How much of a control freak the company&#8217;s getting with regards to the App Store, how monopolistic it has always been with iTunes functionality, etc. It has gotten so severe that even normal people are now noticing it.<\/p>\n<p>What&#8217;s utterly frustrating is that the reasons why we &#8220;believe&#8221; in Apple, are <em>still<\/em> there (or at least we hope they are); that is to say <strong>they still make best-of-breed products.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The reason why they&#8217;re so profitable, or why they got their iconic status despite small market share, is precisely because <em>their products speak for themselves.<\/em> Simply put, it didn&#8217;t fucking matter if there was competition, because they still had, and made, <strong>better<\/strong> stuff.<\/p>\n<p>They got in the cellular industry so late in the game, but look at how the iPhone is killing everyone else; isn&#8217;t that proof enough that they&#8217;ve got the chops to take on the competition on a level playing field?<\/p>\n<p>But now, they&#8217;re trying to <em>squelch<\/em> the competition; which suggests that they&#8217;re now &#8220;driven&#8221; for all the wrong reasons. What the fuck is Apple so afraid of, that it has to resort to such monopolistic practices? <\/p>\n<p>So what if Google makes kick-ass voice-based applications? The Apple I know wouldn&#8217;t [be a hypocrite and] <em>ban<\/em> applications simply because they &#8220;duplicate features of their applications&#8221; (or applications that they might release in the future), the Apple I know simply takes on the challenge and releases better stuff.<\/p>\n<p>Then there&#8217;s the whole lack of transparency when it comes to explaining inconsistencies in their policies. As a moderator of a board that has its share of &#8220;nitpickers&#8221; I can understand the need for making exceptions and forcefully applying authority&#8230; but at least we <em>try our best<\/em> to explain ourselves when people get concerned.<\/p>\n<p>Apple on the other hand, denies applications left and right, and doesn&#8217;t even take the time to work out a solution should the developers want to &#8220;correct&#8221; whatever issue that got their applications banned\/rejected. That&#8217;s just <em>tyranny,<\/em> plain and simple.<\/p>\n<p>This isn&#8217;t the Apple I know. What the fuck happened to the Apple we all knew? Maybe its soul was located in Job&#8217;s old liver, who the fuck knows. But all I know is that this oppressive, paranoid monster is <em>not<\/em> the Apple people have grown to accept (and even love).<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;ll end with some food for thought; excerpts from Jason Calacanis&#8217; &#8220;newsletter.&#8221;<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>Years and years after Microsoft&#8217;s antitrust headlines, Apple is now\nthe anti-competitive monster that Jobs rallied us against in the\ninfamous 1984 commercial. Steve Jobs is the oppressive man on the\njumbotron and the Olympian carrying the hammer is the open-source\nmovement<\/p>\n<p>Apple will face a user revolt in the coming years based upon\nMicrosoft, Google and other yet-to-be-formed companies, undercutting\ntheir core markets with cheap, stable and open devices. Apple&#8217;s\nlegendary comeback ability will be for naught if they don&#8217;t deeply\nexamine their anti-competitive nature.<\/p>\n<p>Making great products does not absolve you from technology&#8217;s cardinal\nrule: Don&#8217;t be evil.<\/p>\n<p>It also doesn&#8217;t save you from Scarface&#8217;s cardinal rule: Never get high\non your own supply.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote><div class=\"speaker-mute footnotes_reference_container\"> <div class=\"footnote_container_prepare\"><p><span role=\"button\" tabindex=\"0\" class=\"footnote_reference_container_label pointer\" onclick=\"footnote_expand_collapse_reference_container_981_1();\">Notes<\/span><span role=\"button\" tabindex=\"0\" class=\"footnote_reference_container_collapse_button\" style=\"display: none;\" onclick=\"footnote_expand_collapse_reference_container_981_1();\">[<a id=\"footnote_reference_container_collapse_button_981_1\">+<\/a>]<\/span><\/p><\/div> <div id=\"footnote_references_container_981_1\" style=\"\"><table class=\"footnotes_table footnote-reference-container\"><caption class=\"accessibility\">Notes<\/caption> <tbody> \r\n\r\n<tr class=\"footnotes_plugin_reference_row\"> <th scope=\"row\" class=\"footnote_plugin_index_combi pointer\"  onclick=\"footnote_moveToAnchor_981_1('footnote_plugin_tooltip_981_1_1');\"><a id=\"footnote_plugin_reference_981_1_1\" class=\"footnote_backlink\"><span class=\"footnote_index_arrow\">&#8673;<\/span>1<\/a><\/th> <td class=\"footnote_plugin_text\">Ok, we all know he&#8217;s an asshole, but we can&#8217;t deny that what he demands is the best for the company and its customers<\/td><\/tr>\r\n\r\n <\/tbody> <\/table> <\/div><\/div><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> function footnote_expand_reference_container_981_1() { jQuery('#footnote_references_container_981_1').show(); jQuery('#footnote_reference_container_collapse_button_981_1').text('\u2212'); } function footnote_collapse_reference_container_981_1() { jQuery('#footnote_references_container_981_1').hide(); jQuery('#footnote_reference_container_collapse_button_981_1').text('+'); } function footnote_expand_collapse_reference_container_981_1() { if (jQuery('#footnote_references_container_981_1').is(':hidden')) { footnote_expand_reference_container_981_1(); } else { footnote_collapse_reference_container_981_1(); } } function footnote_moveToReference_981_1(p_str_TargetID) { footnote_expand_reference_container_981_1(); var l_obj_Target = jQuery('#' + p_str_TargetID); if (l_obj_Target.length) { jQuery( 'html, body' ).delay( 0 ); jQuery('html, body').animate({ scrollTop: l_obj_Target.offset().top - window.innerHeight * 0.2 }, 380); } } function footnote_moveToAnchor_981_1(p_str_TargetID) { footnote_expand_reference_container_981_1(); var l_obj_Target = jQuery('#' + p_str_TargetID); if (l_obj_Target.length) { jQuery( 'html, body' ).delay( 0 ); jQuery('html, body').animate({ scrollTop: l_obj_Target.offset().top - window.innerHeight * 0.2 }, 380); } }<\/script>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Lousy title, I know. But I can&#8217;t help but feel so disappointed with Apple as of late. Little by little, just as I&#8217;ve stated in a(n inaccurate) previous post: Seriously, someone should file an anti-trust case against these guys for monopoly. I&#8217;m baffled as to why Microsoft is the only one being scrutinized for such &hellip; <p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"http:\/\/nargalzius.com\/blog\/archives\/2009\/08\/10\/give-our-apple-back\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Give our Apple back!&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p><\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-981","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-technology"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/nargalzius.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/981","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/nargalzius.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/nargalzius.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nargalzius.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nargalzius.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=981"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/nargalzius.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/981\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/nargalzius.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=981"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nargalzius.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=981"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nargalzius.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=981"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}