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Apple Blacklists "Rumor Promoting" Publications
Billy_D_Goat writes "Talk about control, Apple has now decided it can block users from recieving media passes at MacWorld Expo It blacklists these users by deciding if they run "rumor promoting" publications. This includs the webmasters of sites which have little to do with rumors or speculation such as Graphicpower.com/." Probably
just bitter cuz Steve's thunder seems to get stolen at every show, and
their lawyers can't seem to stop it ;)
at future shows. I think they will learn their lesson from the backlash they will get about this. MacWorld has had their own rumors, but they are not being barred.
These sites will just have to sit one out. I will be interested to see what happens at this show. Something big must going to be going down.
...doesn't seem like a wise idea on Apple's part. Why would you restrict access at ALL to a Mac convention? You could do that if you had an overpowering presence in the computing world... but seeing as Apple hasn't had that since 1984 , it just seems bogus to me. Restricting access for your own fans and users just seems like a daffy idea to me. Lordfly
hookers and grits.
So? Apple can do what it likes. It runs the expo, and decides who gets the media passes.
It makes sense for them to not give special access passes out to those who they know are going to publish only the negative aspects of the expo. Obviously, they don't like bad press.
Really, they are just trying to get the media they allow special access to print more balanced reports. You can't say fairer than that!
But threatening the press is never good. "Never get into an argument with someone who buys ink by the barrel."
Don't go to MacWorldExpo(tm). Don't support Apple(tm).
Who is ever going to be turned away from LinuxWorld(tm)?
It must be sooo hard for Apple to deal with having such an enthusiastic fan base that they're willing to go to such great lengths to get previews of products. I feel sooo sorry for Steve Jobs and crew that they have to "put up" with this kind of thing.
I think I'll stick to PC hardware and Linux instead of a company that obviously doesn't value its user base.
It's their show, and they can do anything they want. Nobody's free speech rights are being infringed upon, since this is a private event. Apple is only trying to stop the wild speculation that diminishes the surprise of Jobs' announcements.
qslack.com
The list itself was created by someone who works at apple.
Actually if you read the article on www.graphicpower.com, the blacklist comes directly from Apple. IDG then enforces this.
IDG was directed by Apple to blacklist the sites. Nathalie Welch, from Apple's PR group, directed which sites were on the list. I don't know where she got her list from, but it's interesting to note that she herself worked at MacWEKK magazine before coming to Apple, so this is in no small way one person calling the kettle black.
My guess is that Jobs told her to do it.
Kevin Fox
Why is it so wrong for Apple to protect their own products from being leaked before Apple gets a chance to release them? Apple is just looking out for their best interests in this case.
IDG's doing this anyway, not Apple. They are probably doing this because of some fear that Apple could bring some sort of legal action against them for what other publications invited to IDG's expo might publish.
Is this the right answer? No. Do I agree with this answer? No. This will probably be repealed next year anyway. But doesn't Apple have a right to protect their products?
Does anyone else find it amusing that at the January Macworld Expo, not only did Apple goad users into rampant speculation with their 5 day home page teaser campaign (changing the home page tagline to "Way Beyond the Rumor Sites" and the like), but that, in the end, the night before the keynote, the story was leaked by Time Magazine, who let out pictures and an Apple-sanctioned expose of the new iMac and iPhoto?
The rumor sites had nothing on them in January, and for all Apple's teasing, it was their own media partners who fucked up, but you don't see Time or Newsweek getting their credentials pulled.
One has to wonder what the point of this action is. After all, the damage that a rumor site does is done by the time they would get anywhere that a media badge would get them, unless Apple's planning on showing the press something cool under an embargo date which, given the Time debacle, you'd think they'd be ever less likely to do.
Kevin Fox
Did you read the link? Here's quotes:
IDG: Dear Scott, Recently, you received an automated message from the registration system for Macworld Conference & Expo. This message erroneously stated you were registered for the event. We're contacting you to alert you to this system error, and we are unfortunately not able to offer you a media badge *snip*
GP: Unacceptable. I do not understand how this conclusion was made. Sure, there is the occasional "pre-Macwolrd Expo Predictions," but GraphicPower is most certainly not a rumor and speculation site. *snip*
IDG:Scott, We've done all we can to accommodate as many media as possible for Macworld. It's *never* in our best interest to turn away legitimate members of the media, such as GraphicPower, as your stories fuel attendance for future shows. However, Apple has tremendous pull over who we can allow into the show as members of the media. They deem GraphicPower a rumor site and, as such, demanded that we pull your media credentials. IDG World Expo cannot reverse this decision. Call me at 617-937-2532 and I'll explain the exhibits-only pass to you. - Rob
From the site: "Further research, phone calls, and e-mails turned up these facts:
"GraphicPower is not being singled out, but rather this blacklisting policy has been exerted on several Mac centric Web sites that are news and information sites, not rumor sites.
"The blacklist was given to MS&L only just Monday, and they had to scramble to notify press people who had received confirmation of their media status of the change.
Not everyone who has been blacklisted has even been notified.
The black list was compiled by Nathalie Welch of Apple's PR department.
"After a few hours of hell raising on my part, Robert Halpin of MS& L, was in a lot of very hot water with Apple for revealing to me via E-mail that it was Apple who deemed GraphicPower a rumor site. He begged me to give him the list of people who I had sent E-mail to regarding the press blacklist. Later still in the day, he changed the story, saying that IDG World Expo, not Apple, was pulling my media credentials because GraphicPower had not posted new content recently enough... an obvious lie given that he had already documented that it was Apple who compiled the black list."
And it goes on.. but it is clear that despite what IDG wants people to think, Apple had a big part in this.
slashdot!=valid HTML
Perhaps I am in the minority here, but we are only talking a press passes. Apple would be within rights to deny press passes to any particular person or group. They are not restricting overall access, just special press privileges.
Clearly, this is still a bad pr move... at least among the mac fanatics. But let's be real, we don't go to the rumor sites to read apple press releases. We (or at least I) like to surf the rumors sites for the pure humor, and occasionally a tip into what apple's thinking. Knowing of course that until 48 hours before the announcements the "information" has is more than often wrong.
But let's remember... This is really only pissing off the people that run the "rumor" sites who enjoyed (and rightfully) one of the few perks they get. For the average rumor site surfer, it means nothing. For the average mac user... less than nothing.
I think that this move is in line with apple's move from mac fanatics to well informed macintosh advocates. While this might piss off some people, in the end, I think the over all trend is good for the OS...
but inside information.
Remember, revoking the ability to have news coverage of the actual event could dissuade otherwise respectable news organizations from attempting to scoop each other by accidentally acquiring and disseminating ILLEGAL information for someone else's leverage in financial markets.
If the famous Microsoft deal had been leaked back when Jobs took over, there would have been financial mayhem if someone acquired the inside info. If I remember right, the stock doubled the day of the announcement.
Apple legal probably came to the (justified) conclusion that not dissuading the rumor sites was a de facto invitation (i.e. liability) for their own employees to pimp their insider status.
Game: Player 'Donald J Trump' now has AI skill level 'experimental'.
but this doesn't ban them from the show.. it just revokes their press pass. Well that is NORMAL.
Press passes are handed out to those whom you want to report on the activities.
Nothing is stopping any of these poeple from going to the show and reporting on everything anyway.
with all this Positive Press....
it makes me want to switch...
::.. check out some Cell Phone Reviews
Read the linked article.....the story that it is IDG is a COVERUP that was given out AFTER the guy was told that Apple was organizing the blacklist. He was also given an email address of the person who provided the list of sites/people to be blocked. That email address was from APPLE.COM
Yeah, its all IDG's idea and not Apple....my ass.
I'm out of my mind right now, but feel free to leave a message.....
I like rumor sites a lot. I read a number of the Mac rumor sites religiously because I'm constanly curious to find out what's next and when. But I support Apple in doing whatever it needs to to cut back on the flow of future info. Why?
Back when I was a mere bouncing boy I had this wonderful portable computer called an Osborne 1. 1mhz cpu. Two floppy drives, a 300 baud modem and a CRT all running CP/M (DOS without subdirectories for you youngins). All this in a portable case the size of a suitcase. I loved the thing and did much productive playing of infocom games on it. (I had DBase 2, but could never figure out why I'd want such a thing).
Then came tell of a NEW Osborne coming out in, like, six months or so. And this one would run PC-DOS!!! Almost instantly Osborne went out of business. Their cashflow dies as people canceled their orders for "old" computers and planned on waiting for the new one. And along came this _other_ company selling their 'compaq' briefcase computers. I imagine Adam Osborne was pissed.
The moral of this story? Rumors can kill companies, and while Apple isn't small enoght for that to happen easily, I know for a fact that I've told people to "wait a month" to buy a mac based on rumor reporing of a new Powerbook coming real soon now. So, go Apple. Feel free to limit the rumor folks. And rumor guys, please keep working. I'd just die without my inside scoop.
It's also the building of expectations that are too high or just plain wrong. There've been at least a few MacWorlds where what Steve did present wasn't nearly as big as what the rumor sites had been saying. I think the 'new' iMac had been expected at least a few events prior to its appearence, and DDR pmacs have been rumored about since shortly after they first hit the PC market.
... the Eric Cartman marketing tatic.
"You can't get into my amusement park!"
It's there show..
If they think your publication doesn't reach enough people or meet there criteria they don't give you a pass.
It used to be circulation was used (you print and distribute so many copies...), but with the web it's cheap to publish, so everyone with a web site probably wants press credentials..
people should stop whining..
I'm not trolling...
Yes, yes you are. As a result, I'm ignoring your post save one point:
Everyone says look how stable the Apple OS is, of course, it only achived that by dropping all their old code and building upon BeOS.
Mac OS X has absolutely nothing to do with BeOS. Darwin is a combination of FreeBSD 3.2 and NeXTStep. BeOS got bought up by Palm, not Apple.
Assuming that statement in itself wasn't a troll to begin with, you may want to actually check your facts before forming yet another "Apple is only good because..." statement; like every other moron who dumps on Apple while not having actually used a Mac in the last five years.
Hippies smell.
It has nothing to do with "diminishing the surprise of steves keynote".
I ALWAYS tell my friends to "Wait till macworld" to buy macs. (if its close to macworld). However this attitude CLEARLY hurts apple. Apple is trying to stop the osborne effect.
The real press is just that--paper, ink, subscriptions, ads, circulation. Websites are not the press. Now that the dot bombs are going belly-up, Apple and others have figured out that there's nothing to gain by assisting the unfettered electronic publishing of rumors and innuendo that happens here and at other Mac rumor sites.
CEE5210S The signal SIGHUP was received.
The issue isn't quite as clear-cut as the people at graphicpower.com or thinksecret.com might suggest. True, it's not entirely fair to deny access simply on the basis of what MIGHT happen, but Apple knows that these sites have definitely been apt to post very real (and hence very secret) information before a MW expo. Last year we saw a genuine (if somewhat muddy) photo of the Quicksilver PowerMac case, and of course there have been multiple other instances of information being exposed days in advance. Denying press-level passes may prevent the rumour sites from getting information at the show that would be under NDA for the press (but would likely be leaked at some point by a rumour site).
I've heard though that a press pass isn't always ideal. Supposedly, Apple employees fasten their lips about some things when they see a press badge, but will sometimes give important info off-the-record to someone who only has a badge to visit the exhibits. I'm sure Apple wouldn't like that either... but it's easier to deny (or ignore) a few names and clock speeds than a photo!
Who knows, this may even be a very sneaky (if not entirely smooth) PR stunt. Remember how MW San Francisco had that "way beyond the rumour sites" hype leading up to it? Denying press passes may be a way for Apple to suggest that there's something particularly juicy being shown at the expo, whether at the keynote or behind closed doors.
One thing I do know: graphicpower.com acted very immaturely with their response. Beyond the colourful language and shutting down the site, the vow to 'use the existing computers forever' is a joke. You can be sure that the person or people from the site will probably either scream for mercy at the prospect of buying a Windows (or even Linux) system, or will be getting another Mac within two years.
Ummm. The ability to talk to people face to face? Maybe hear something official yet "off the record"? Jeez. Maybe even a chance to get out of the house for a bit? :)
First, I think Apple / IDG are smoking something funny if they think this is a good idea. I mean, yeah, Apple does have to clamp down on leaks and such. Anyone who doesn't understand Apple's necessity to do this really doesn't understand their business and should shut the hell up. But is this a good way to do it? Shit no.
After having said all that, l have a few comments on the "way to go Apple, shooting themselves in the foot again...This is why Apple will go out of business...The entire world is in chaos because Apple did it again!" crowd that has crawled out of the slashdot woodwork for this one.
Imagine it's, oh, five years ago. I come to the slashdot crowd and ask the following question:
What would Apple have to do to earn some of your business and respect?
Can you imagine? After the flames and guffaws died away I might get some answers like these.
"Sure. Call me when they open source some of their products."..."If they would only use more standard hardware I might think about it"..."If they had one or two killer apps that made everyone stand up and take notice"..."maybe when I can run Apache and Gimp on it. As if."
And let's flash forward to today when all of those ridiculous-sounding ideas have come true. Does the average slashdotter have one iota of additional respect for Apple? I've yet to see it. Frankly I think Apple could make a completely open source, totally off-the-shelf hardware-based, fit-in-your-pocket, fanless, never-crash, artificial intelligence, world changing computer that also levitated, kept your breath fresh and costs $1.99 and most here would sneer at it still.
Parting shot - Libertarians shouldn't use the Internet until they're prepared to discuss how a Libertarian society would have ever created it.
You like your Macintosh better than me, don't you Dave? Dave? Can you hear me Dave?
that this says "Apache: Apple Blacklists "Rumor Promoting" Publications" Folks, although Apache may now run on OSX, this should be Apple. [mandatory complaint about suckage of editors here]
--pi
The graphics / multimedia stuff is getting ported, if one wants hardware quality comparable to Apple, be prepared to spend a lot of time checking out published and user reviews of things like motherboards, cases, power supplies, but it's possible.
I've been seriously considering Apple... but if I want to buy from a company that tries to control its own press, I might as well buy an AMD box and run XP on it.
As I said, it's becoming a marginal choice, and I'm not a Mac fanatic.
If Apple continues to blow off its fanatics, they may find their fanatics discovering that the choice between *nix/86xxx and Mac-unix-OS/Gx is also a marginal one, and that they'll be trying *nix/86xxx .
Didn't Apple almost kill itself once already by blowing off their hard-core users? Do they learn from their mistakes?
Tech Public Policy stuff
in a way i can see how they do this. why have an NDA if you are going to fire the people that leak info, yet reward the people they leak to? the story is that Apple pushed for this "lockout", but supposedly for whatever reasons Apple was going to tighten up on the sheer number of press passes in general. in they are going to do that i would think the web only rumor sites are the first to go.
the one crazy rumor site behind the iWalk fever, spymac.com, responded to this news by saying they totally see where Apple is coming from.
weather or not you agree with Steve Jobs being a control freak, he did get the company back in the black. he does seem to require a lot of control over things, and i guess it works for them. it is odd that they are doing this, though they have been strangely slack on sites showing screen shots and info on Jaguar (the next OS upgrade due out in late summer). you figure pushing Jaguar is going to be a big part of MacWorldNYC in 2 weeks and theya re letting a lott of that info out (where they used to make people pull screen shots within a few days).
anyway, they do seem to be a little silly with the tightness on passes, but in a way you can't be too suprised that they are not the happiest with sites that make a living off of people that violate they Apple NDA.
The choice is even more marginal now.
Tech Public Policy stuff
"Without the innovations of Apple, we would still be using dos based OS's."
They certainly popularized the WIMP GUI, but they didn't invent it (PARC), and its likely that someone else would have brought WIMP to the masses.
You were mistaken. Which is odd, since memory shouldn't be a problem for you
Actually switch "apple" to "microsoft" and it would change a "You what!" story into a "I'm not supprised" story.
Do you mind, your karma has just run over my dogma.
Am I missing something? Why is this under the Apache section?
"Save the whales, feed the hungry, free the mallocs" -- author unknown
Did Apple install a surreptitious mod_macrumors to block out traffic to Mac Rumors sites.
Please change this to the apple section of the site. Hate the awful poop and purple color scheme for the Apache section
So Apple behave like a proprietary software/hardware company and try and control information. Big deal. They are not a charity or a co-operative, but a company.
Sorry, folks - he may be a bit freaky, but RMS is right - proprietary software and hardware hurts us all.
No, this is not a flame. It is a reminder. This is how companies behave. This is how they are supposed to behave. And this is why free software/OSS (I don't buy into the theology, just the liberation) exists.
Get over it.
Okay, you're not meant to grouse about unaccepted submissions, but this joke was too tempting not to make ;-) I posted this several days ago, and I have been blacklisted! Nooooooo!
mogorific carpentry experiments
Someone needs to clue Jobs into the fact that the Mac market is way too small for him to be pulling this kind of shit over and over. Is he trying to alienate EVERY last Mac user (hint: there's not too many left)?
What a fucking idiot.
I don't work at Apple, but I do work with the press at my job a lot.
If this is like other trade shows, the media passes are free to the legitimate press (or are a lot cheaper than a regular attendance badge), and they offer special access to some events. Thus, one wants to limit access to the badges to legitimate reporters. Why would you want to do this? Oftentimes we'll talk to the press about stories "under embargo", meaning they can't publish information on something until a certain date. A legitimate reporter can be counted on to respect the embargo (though I can think of a case when they didn't, the bastard!), but some joker who pretends to be a reporter can't be counted on to do the same thing.
Apple is not blacklisting these rumor sites; someone involved in MacWorld Expo is just cracking down on giving away media passes to web sites that pretend to be real journalists. Oftentimes these web sites are basically being run by some guy who publishes unsubstantiated rumors onto the web. I don't read Graphic Power, but it's certainly not in the league as real media sites like Macworld, MacCentral, MacAddict, eWeek, CNET, etc.
Despite how these guys call themselves part of "the media", it takes a lot more than a domain name and a few articles to call yourself a journalist so you can get a media pass. Media passes are intended for journalists, and giving them away to every wank that can upload some screenshots and half-baked opinion pieces is unnecessary.
If someone were blacklisting the sites, they wouldn't be able to purchase a general admittance pass to the event at all. But in the Graphic Power story, they were encouraged to pay for the attendance fee to get in, like person who wanted to attend the show.
The web sites supposedly blacklisted are more like blogs than real news sites, and denying them a media pass makes sense to me. Next you'll have the geek that runs http://www.startrekfans.com or whatever demanding to be invited to press-only screenings of the new Star Trek movie.
To me this is a good illustration of why Apple is apparently not too happy with the fanboy sites. Even though these sites might sometimes might post something interesting (seemingly good for Apple), they can be a bad source of publicity if they aren't given the special treatment they think they deserve (like coveted media passes to a trade show). And as we all know, Heav'n has no rage like love to hatred turn'd. Nor Hell a fury, like a fanboy scorn'd.
Insert simplistic political, ideological, or personal proselytization here.
Speculate 10 different things you expect Apple to do and 7 of them will be spot on. They can't tout innovative or revolutionary products because their "innovations" are obvious.
The flat panel iMac was not revolutionary. Hell, we were all expecting them to build one the year after the bondi arrived. The fact is they could have done it then. The were very late with that "revolution".
DDR support on the desktop. Obvious. They'll say it's a revolutionary new step to insure their voracious G4 gets fed data. Sorry, 2 years late is not a revolution, it's joining a crowd that has already passed you by. With a 133 non DDR fsb, the G4 can't take advantage of the bandwidth anyway, except in pairs, which is required to keep up with a plain old single processor x86 machines anyway.
Basicly, rumors prevent Apple from spinning their mediocre hardware into revolutionary and inovative crap. Since Apple's performance figures are all about spin without substance, the journos catch it in the teeth.
Apple will never deliver what we expect them to. Unless we expect crap hardware. I predict there will be more crap hardware announced at mac expo. They will not let me down.
OS X is not slow. OS X is great, it's just running on crap hardware!
If voting were effective, it would be illegal by now.
More FUD from PPA, who's still bitter that she was unable to properly run OSX on her old iBook [check her old posts, kids]. Where are my Moderation points when I need them?
...." /first/, or to do something in a novel way.
/that/ long to fabricate injection-molded neoprene sleeves.
..."
... genetic acheivement. However, when you pose as knowing what you're talking about, but you're really full of shit, you should be sure to understand that someone's going to knock you down.
PPA, to counter your babbling:
" I, for one, couldn't care less about what Apple is trafficating with the press badges and who's going to get the scoop of what's cooking in Cupertino. For some time, I just gave up on the rumors of what's happening on the platform. It's not that I don't like the Mac. I own an entry level iBook. "
-We can safely ignore this part, as it is irrelevant.
"But I'm getting tired for lake of interesting software (games)"
-WarCraft 3? Neverwinter Nights? Return to Wolfenstein? UT? Q3? D2? I wonder which games PPA is into. M$ Flight Sim?
"slow overpriced systems"
-More baseless FUD. PPA equates MHZ rating with the racing stripes on riced-out Hondas. It sure makes 'em go FASTER!
"inability to deliver when new stuff is announced"
-Say what? "Announced" by whom, an Apple 'rumor' site, or Apple Corporation?
"Last time I visited an Apple store, I almost ran away: I am scared of hospitals and was almost terrify about the look of their clinical displays."
-I suppose having psychoses is a legitimate reason for hating Apple, but it doesn't lend credence to your technical statements.
"The fact that Apple is secretive
-Apple is secretive because they must be. They have a tiny fraction of a huge industry, and oftentimes their only way to success is to do something
"no third party accessories were available for the [iPod]"
-This is true, for PPA's stated reasons, but moot. Third-party accessories quickly came to market, as it doesn't take
"somewhat killing the inventive side of addon shops"
-Wildly incorrect statement, but has nothing to do with the main topic. Besides, third parties have just as much right to existence as Apple Corporation --that is, none. Those who can adapt will. Those who can't will die.
"If the g5 was out"
-If the G5 was out, Blizzard would release the Diablo2 1.10 patch and Hell would also freeze over. Again, PPA displays her love of racing stripes and tinfoil spoilers. There is no real need for the G5; the G4 demolishes AMD and Intel chips that run at twice the G4's clockrate in some tests, and conversely the G4 is demolished by the same chips in other tests. What matters is code optimization and the actual real-world uses of the chips.
"Imagine if Apple had as much market share as Microsoft
-Yes, and I'm sure that if PPAcorp had as much market share as Microsoft, she'd be just as ruthless as Microsoft, except all our devices would be Palladium-encoded to force us to watch anime 24/7.
"The only trouble is that [Jaguar] won't work well on system that were bought last quarter."
-Here, PPA based her research on rumors gotten from those EVAL REWMOR SITEZ, and meant to point out how the iBooks won't run Jaguar at all. Sadly, she doesn't understand that "recommended" doesn't mean "unsupported."
"Insanitely great marketing folks!"
-I'm not quite sure about this one. Maybe the Babelfish translator didn't work out.
"I happily run Linux on my 2001 iBook."
-And here we finally have it, Pinkpineapple's true credentials: she's definitely an OS X expert, because she runs LUNIX!
PPA: I'm really proud of you for being a girl. That's a fine
http://unxmaal.com
Apple's market share is increasing, and they are one of the few consistently profitable hardware companies. I don't always agree with Steve's decisions either, but there's a chance he knows what he's doing.
How to solve most of our problems: 1.Lots of nuclear plants. 2.Cure aging.
Well, I guess 1984 wasn't like 1984, but it sounds like 2002 is.
To my recollection--and checking a few "computer history" websites seems to back me up--Osborne wasn't killed by rumor sites, Osborne was killed by itself.
The new machine you're referring to was the Osborne Vixen. It could read PC-DOS disks but wasn't PC-DOS compatible; it was another CP/M machine, touted as being better than a PC (and perhaps given 8086 and even some 80286 competition, it was). The Vixen was preannounced by Osborne itself, nearly a year before they were ready to go into production (perhaps because the machine was actually being designed by a consultant rather than in-house). People stopped buying the Osborne 1 waiting for the Vixen, yes, and that did contribute a lot to Osborne's collapse, yes... but that contribution was Osborne's own fault.
It's not that Apple is trying to stop news from getting out. It WILL get out. But this is mostly a matter of marketing and revenue in terms of news control. Apple loses cash when "blog journalists" go in on press passes. They also have, as you said, info that's not yet for press--pressed.
I think it's mostly getting people to pay what they should pay. It does have to do with news control. Hey, it's their company. They will reap the rewards and wrath of the users looking for news.
Vos teneo officium eram periculosus ut vos recipero is.
More people tend to favor libertarian viewpoints than "liberal" or "conservative."
ROTFL! And you call Mac users fanatical!
You like your Macintosh better than me, don't you Dave? Dave? Can you hear me Dave?
Chalk up this error to a snoozing editor. Apache comes alphabetically just before Apple on the topics list.
-- thinkyhead software and media
Seems like the publisher of GraphicPower is ticked-off mostly because his feelings are hurt. He considers his site to be a "serious" site, which I don't doubt. Someone at Apple considers his site, MacInTouch, MacFixIt, and others to be "rumor" sites, which is a major stretch, no matter what hacks their editors may be. How-ever poorly Apple has decided to characterize its decision I don't think it's a bad one.
MacFixIt is a great site, but it's not the "legitimate" press, in Apple's view. Its editor gets dozens of emails daily informing him of troubleshooting issues end-users are having. He takes this information and distills it, and eventually it makes it into the next edition of "Sad Macs, Bombs, and Disasters." The site is an avocation and a research tool. As far as I know its editors do not belong to any reporters' union or press club.
Of the dozens of Mac Sites I regularly visit, only a scant few actually break stories based on press-releases received directly from Apple. Most of them include a short blurb and a link to ZDNet, the Wall Street Journal, or even MacCentral (MacWorld's breaking news site). With enough time on my hands even I could do that.
I believe the use of the term "rumor sites" was a political misstep by Apple, but will I miss GraphicPower or Scott McCarty? Hardly. I'd prefer to visit the sites that are run by mature individuals with a sense of humility, who can deal with Apple's oft-quirky timing and Jobsian mode of expression. Let these little pissed-off people go find something to do that's less dangerous to their fragile egos.
-- thinkyhead software and media
Apple hasn't ALWAYS been like that, though in 1997, when Jobs took over, things might have gotten different.
Also, Apple will never be as bad as MS. Apple sticks to open standards, and shares some of their own inventions, like FireWire. Apple doesn't try to crush their competition like MS in every market.
Apple doesn't crack down on software or try to restrict the user. Take the iPod for example; aside from the flimsy copy protection, all there was was a "Don't steal music" label on the box. Seriously.
>DDR support on the desktop. Obvious. They'll >say it's a revolutionary new step to insure >their voracious G4 gets fed data.
It's about damn time that somebody ported Dance Dance Revolution to the desktop. If this is true, I'm dumping my PC for a Mac.
144l. ph34r my 133t l3g4l 5k1lz!
I'm a bit surprised about one issue in this discussion, namely, the idea that Apple has the "right" to control the dissemination of information about Apple produced products. Whatever happened to press integrity? Why are media organizations acquesing to "embargos" of information provided to them by Apple? Don't they realize that all they are doing is writing Apple's press releases for them, and giving Apple greater credibility by publishing them in "independent" media? Is it whoring for ad dollars?
I know that we all go koo-koo for the cocoa puffs of new technology, but why on earth would any self-respecting journalist sit on a story fed to them by a corporation? Alleged journalists are allowing themselves to be used as an arm in Apple's ad campaign. (I should say that Apple isn't the only corporation that does this, but this story has brought to light Apple's heavy-handed control of information.)
I wonder what would have happened to the first I-Mac mouse (the completely unusable round hockey puck) if someone in the media has the cojones to tell the world in advance about how much it obviously sucked (I have tried to use one - you can't tell which way it's pointed without looking). This is perhaps just a small example, but the way journalists treat the computer industry is sort of like the way that pre-Vietnam journalists treated government. The public is not served by the ra-ra journalism that leads to the lastest Apple product being featured on the cover of Time Magazine. Time's crime wasn't breaking the embargo early - it was agreeing to an embargo in the first place.
Wouldn't you love to see at least one journalist in a major news organization write about Apple, or Microsoft, or anyone else, and say, "I used it, and it's just not any good. Don't waste your money."
This kind of makes me wish that oldmanmurry was still around.
144l. ph34r my 133t l3g4l 5k1lz!
Up until this release I was in the market for a new Powerbook. Now, I've mailed Apple and told them that they have just lost me as a customer. Make no mistake, I think OSX is by far the nicest OS around today, but I'm tired of a company that is so frightened of the very sites that drive it's sales presenting more RDF than Steve Job's himself.
Apples hardware is fine. In realworld day to day tasks, I don't need a 2GHz Laptop, but the price is always high and PC's are simply cheaper and Linux seems to run fairly well on a crop of PC laptops.
I'm tired of Apple and it's antics. It's OS, no matter how good, hasn't helped get me a job.
It seems a high price to pay for a toy.
Very funny! This definitely requires a poster version. Your site (like tubes) ROCK!! :)
Vos teneo officium eram periculosus ut vos recipero is.
OK so there's a bunch of sites with no access to press passes as they may have had previously. Just what -does- a press pass give the holder?
:)
I'm pretty neutral on the whole thing - except for daft huge bold text on some rumour sites saying they've been blacklisted from macworld. Makes it sound like there's no way to even get a look at the floor. I might get a bit more upset if I knew what benefit a press pass gave
a grrl & her server
i agree the clones would probably have done more damage in the long run. i don't know if the hardware still pays for the OS development (OS X selling really well), but it sure does pay for the purchasing/developing/tweaking of the iApps. Apple would be hard pressed to make money if there were clones and people could still get iTunes, iPhoto, iMovie, Appleworks for free as well as all the bundled apps with OS X itself. all they would get is the fee from the clone maker and the OS sales. as much as it killed competition in the marketplace (generally a good thing), i think it was the only option at the time.
on a side note as of last year it was still being reported that Microsoft was still making more money from Apple products than Apple themselves. i do not know if it still holds true, but it kind of puts things in perspective when you think of profits of hardware vs software. i'm not saying people can't profit from hardware, but it's a strange mess.