Apple is publicly opposing a California ballot initiative that would deny marriage rights to same-sex couples. Apple announced Friday that it would donate $100,000 to the “No on Prop 8″ campaign, which opposes a measure to ban gay marriage that California voters will consider on Election Day.
It’s a good start, Steve, but 100 grand is nothing for Apple. I would have expected something a bigger statement — something that would have at least made headlines beyond just the Apple web site. Not to look a gift horse in the mouth or anything. It just sucks they didn’t do more.
“Apple was among the first California companies to offer equal rights and benefits to our employees’ same-sex partners,” the company said. “We strongly believe that a person’s fundamental rights — including the right to marry — should not be affected by their sexual orientation. Apple views this as a civil rights issue, rather than just a political issue, and is therefore speaking out publicly against Proposition 8.”
Safari cost me Phish tickets! Thats right, folks, you heard me: Lost. Phish. Tickets.
I was in the Ticketmonster — oops, Ticketmaster — queue, waiting and waiting. And waiting. And waiting some more. Finally, I thought to myself, “It’s been a while since anything happened.”
So, I brought up the Force Quit panel to make sure Safari hadn’t frozen … and it had! I quickly launched Firefox, but by the time I got back to the “Buy Tickets” screen, the show was sold out!
Safari just sucks. Not only because it crashed while I was buying Phish tickets, but because it crashes all the time!
Well, Apple took FireWire out of its most recent MacBooks. Even though I have a stack of hard drives — full of legacy project data — that are all FireWire 400-compatible, Mr. Jobs says, “Ahh, fugetaboutit.”
Well, as a good little Apple disciple, if they tell me that FireWire sucks and I don’t need it anymore, then I guess they are right. I guess that I don’t need all that legacy project data. I guess I don’t need all that extra space that I have on all my external FireWire hard drives. Who needs the extra empty hard drive space anyway - right? I mean who cares that my time machine backup is on a small FireWire hard drive. I’ll just spend all that extra cash I have(NOT!) on getting a drive that is usb 2.0 compatible. While I’m at it - I’ll just replace all 20 of those FireWire drives I have sitting around too.
According to macrumors.com, one of their users got an email from El Steveo regarding the lack of FireWire on the new MacBooks, he said, “Actually, all of the new HD camcorders of the past few years use USB 2.” Ok Steve, not only will I follow you blindly - but I’ll even go out and spend extra money on replacing my FireWire camcorder. I mean even though it shoots great video and is really easy to use and I love it, its more than two years old - so that must mean its bad.
I think the new macbook will be a great deal. Lets figure it out.
1- MacBook, 1599.00
2- new backup hd, 150.00
3- 9 external hds in various sizes, 1080.00 (120 X 9)
4- new camcorder, 599.00
So the grand total for my new MacBook will be about $3,428.00 . Not bad - maybe I’ll get 2 with all the money that I don’t have!
Who’s fault is it? Is it Steve Jobs aggressive deal making? This is one case where Apple really sunk itself.
If Apple was smart… first off they should have NEVER agreed not to enter the music industry when they were sued by Apple Corps(The beatles). I mean it sucks that they were sued in the first place - Paul McCartney can go suck a green apple for that one, but the fact still remains that they should have fought back harder. Because of this issue, they have fewer options, I’ll explain in a second.
Now the Apple has become such a powerhouse, the music industry has gotten more and more frightened of them and the 1 song model on the iTunes music store. In fact, the likes of Sony, Universal and Warner Music continue to withhold music from Apple, choosing instead to back iTunes’ rivals as a way of punish Steve Jobs for his lack of flexibility.
You might ask, why didn’t SONY get this much pressure with the walkman? Well first off, they didn’t change the album sales model (but they did do everything they could to make it proprietary - they just failed miserably because they suck too - ie Mini Disc), but secondly, they own a MAJOR chunk of the music industry.
Well, thats the solution, just buy a studio? Right? Well… WRONG, because of the terms of Apples settlement with Apple Corp dictate the Apple is not allowed to be anymore of a stakeholder in the industry than they already are.
Anyway, to cut to the chase, the studios are not only withholding music, they are also withholding important opportunities. If Apple does not ingratiate themselves as much as possible - another competitor is going to come along and de-throne King Jobs.
Not to beat a dead horse… but here goes. I WANT TO TETHER and if Apple didn’t suck, I’d be able to do it right now. As a matter of fact, Apple even had an app in its app store on itunes that did just this. Of course after they PUBLISHED IT, they quickly said “OOPS” and took it back.
The application is called NetShare by a company called NULLRIVER. You can see a demo of their app here below.
Anyway, like many other people I immediately went to the iTunes Music Store when I hear about NetShare. I was glowing with anticipation - even though I didn’t own and iPhone I was going to get this right away and make it my reason to get one!
Anyway, I quickly located the app in the store, went to click the purchase button, I could feel the hairs on my back stand up and do the wave as I brought by cursor over to the buy now button, as I let gravity take my finger and the mouse button began to depress a grin came to my face because I was thinking of all the mischief I could do, the mouse clicked…. Doh! Guess What?
APPLE SUCKS THATS WHAT! A message appeared saying, “THIS APP WAS REMOVED FROM THE APP STORE”. So i started looking for more info about this and went to the Nullriver web site and imagine what i found?
The NetShare info page was down, with only a comment from Nullriver stating:
“NETSHARE, BANNED FROM THE APPSTORE”
Anyway, my hopes were dashed. And since then it looks like Apple has decided they will not be allowing any tethering applications in the AppStore even though they do not violate the developer TOS. We are seeing a lot of similar reports from various developers who’s applications were abruptly removed and banned from the AppStore without any violations of the terms of service. This is all unfortunate news for the iPhone platform end-users.
I really don’t get it Steve. Its my iPhone - I should be able to do anything I want with it. This means ANYTHING. Sure, I might do things with it that nobody else would do, or things that you would not like… but the fact is that I own it and I should be free to do what I please. Otherwise, its like if next time you went into Macdonalds for a Big MAC, then after you bought it - I told you that you can’t eat it. You can only use it to brush your teeth and as a mode of transportation.
Why would Apple do this? Lets see, hmm, there is a restrictive license for iPhone developers, ok, so because of the License terms developers cannot create applications that sends / receive MMS (no matter the iphone doesn’t have it). They cannot create a video recording application (it doesn’t matter if the phone is capable or not).
Its so bad that developers are filling a petition online with the following message:
“To: Apple Computer
Dear Steve
As iPhone users we would like to express our dismay at Apple’s ‘vaguerisms’, ineptitude and arrogance in it’s recent dealings with ‘App Store’ developers.
We are of the opinion that Apple’s lack of communication and clarity over rejected apps and inappropriate use of ‘NDA’ Non Disclosure Agreements has become completely indefensible. Furthermore Apple’s reluctance to comment publicly on these very public issues is fast becoming a stain upon its character.
As your customers we have great concerns over the future of the iPhone and you should be aware that if ‘App Store’ developers decide to desert the iPhone platform en masse we will have absolutely no qualms in following them.
A positive statement from Apple on this subject is long overdue.
