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Apple Quashes pBop

Posted by pudge on from the oops dept.

mojotunes writes "The pBop (nee pPod) MP3 player mentioned on Slashdot a while back has been officially pulled by its creator StarBrite Solutions, apparently because of legal pressure from Apple. Well, duh. Who didn't see that coming?"

2 of 69 comments (clear)

  1. The Peoples' Hate Affair with Apple by Crash+Culligan · · Score: 5, Insightful
    Then it gets immediate bashing from both pro-Apple and anti-Apple camps - how ugly, dysfunctional and stupid it is! Then we see an avalanche of various clones of the new Apple gizmo for Linux or Windows. And finally we hear a common outrage when Apple sends its famous "cease & desist" letters and the avalanche indeed ceases and desists.

    Yeah... says something, doesn't it?

    So the sequence is:

    1. Apple creates something
    2. People claim that the design [sucks | is ugly | is useless | is stupid | won't sell | clashes with my duvet]
    3. The thing in question sprouts wings and takes off (metaphorically)
    4. People copy the crap out of it
    5. Apple sends in the lawyers
    6. People stop copying
    ...right?

    Step 1 is natural; they design stuff. Step 3 isn't guaranteed, but they seem to come up with quite a few hits, now don't they? Step 4 is also quite natural; if one of something is good, then a copy of it will work almost as well with a fraction of the effort! Step 5 is natural given step 4; if they don't protect their designs, then everybody will make money off of the popular ones. And step 6 is natural because, hey, lawyers are involved.

    That leaves step 2: people saying that Apple's designs are bad. It farts liberally in the face of step 3, so it must have something to do with step 1: the fact that Apple made it.

    And now I'm scratching my head and wondering why.

    What does Apple do that makes them so evil that people will decry their products without even a second glance? Why do certain journalists feel the need to predict its imminent downfall for verging on 30 years? How do so many become so thoroughly programmed to be so hostile?

    And no, I don't have the answer. That's why I'm asking.

    --
    You cannot truly appreciate Dilbert until you read it in the original Klingon.
    1. Re:The Peoples' Hate Affair with Apple by oneofthemany · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Good question, I suspect that apple get no more criticism for its new products than any other company, it just tends to be that apple's launches are higher profile and so, as a consequence, is the criticism.

      Perhaps another answer is that apple takes more risks with its products and produces genuinely 'different' things, and new 'different' things are (almost) always challenged before they are accepted.