Why Apple Sucks…

Less is not always more: Apple removing the trackpad button is one more MacBook Pro “improvement” that sucks. I don’t care that the new trackpad is a smooth glass surface. I don’t care that they’ve considered sensitivity and audio feedback. (Yes, how the click sounds is actually listed as a selling point!)

I don’t care! I think this change SUCKS! It limits my ability and control the cursor and click and drag! Try using this trackpad with greasy potato chip fingers! IT’S IMPOSSIBLE!

Apple has offered sucky trackpad gestures that allow for clicking and dragging. Maybe the only decent thing is at least it has also allowed me to opt out of these options and stick with old faithful: the always dependable, trackpad button.

I feel as if i’ve lost a longtime friend. JOBS, WHAT WERE YOU THINKING!?!? Now I have to carry my mouse everywhere.

It’s NOT a sucky Mighty Mouse, either. I hate that thing … but that’s for another post.

Rainbow Apple Logo

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.”

Phish Logo

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!

I knew I should have used Firefox.

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.

Just yesterday, plaintiff Jai Sen filed a lawsuit in the Eastern District of New York. The lawsuit cites well-known consumer issues related to the iPhone 3G including AT&T network reliability issues and hairline cracks in the plastic case, both of which have been blog fodder since the iPhone 3G was launched. The lawsuit also notes the power draw of the iPhone 3G is more than AT&T’s 3G network can handle. Additionally, the plaintiff is hoping that the filing will reach class-action status.

This one will be interesting to watch. There have been so many complaints, starting from the initial release of the iPhone 3G, and those complaints are alive and well, despite multiple firmware updates.

That said, this one will be a hard one to prove. The burden is on Jai Sen to prove that Apple and/or AT&T deliberately misled customers. Hopefully the media coverage of the complaints in this lawsuit will at the very least force Apple to address the issues through new customer service policies.

Its also worth noting that the lawsuit also says that the plaintiff “has suffered injury in fact due to Apple’s defective housing used for the iphones resulting in the formation of hairline cracks in the Plantiff’s iPhone.”

What the plaintiff could have been doing with the iPhone to cause injury is a bit curious, and we prefer not to speculate; however, this hurts the validity of the whole complaint, so unless some legal magic happens, this lawsuit might not get very far.