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Steve Jobs Says PC Folks' World Is Slipping Away
theodp writes "Provoked by an iPad ad promising a 'revolution,' Valleywag's Ryan Tate fired off a late-night missive to Steve Jobs. Jobs responded, and the two engaged in an after-midnight e-mail debate over lockdown, Cocoa vs. Flash, battery life, and whether 'freedom from porn' is a bug or a feature. 'The times they are a changin',' quipped Jobs, 'and some traditional PC folks feel like their world is slipping away. It is.' Tate was unswayed by the Apple CEO's reality distortion field, but did come away impressed by Jobs' willingness to spar one-on-one over his beliefs — at two in the morning on a weekend."
Sounds to me like Jobs just got trolled hard. 10/10 for Ryan Tate.
Hehe, I will say that in the last image of the email exchange, Steve Jobs really zinged Tate.
Julie Moult is an idiot.
Doesn't really surprise me at all. Steve wants a controlled user experience and geeks want the freedom to do whatever the hell they want to do. The two clash. Steve is right though, we don't have to buy his devices, so don't. It's that easy. I do like Steve's quote at the end of the exchange, however. For as many people bitch about Apple here, there aren't enough that actually go out and do something about it. Even if you're not a developer, you can still vote with your wallet. If you want to drive FOSS to greater prominence, either help by using it or help by creating and fixing it. Complaining about Apple on the internet won't do much. Creating or helping to improve FOSS is only real way to stick it to Apple.
What Jobs is saying, is that he's finally found a way to reach the masses of computer noobs that Mac has been aiming for all along. The problem with the original Macs is that they required someone to actually use a computer.
Now that he's turned computers into toys, he can finally get "Grandma." But this doesn't really change anything in the computer world.
It's something to brag about for sure, on a marketing level. On a features level, he succeeds only by not having them. Kind of like how McDonald's succeeds by not having a steak dinner.
Jobs' empire is falling down around him.
AAPL: $253.82 Market Cap: $230.96B P/E: 21.54.
How can I get an empire to fall down around me like that?
-jcr
The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
This guy just wrapped up all the common complaints that Adobe and the non-Apple customers want you to believe what's wrong with iPad, and sends off a profanity laced alcohol induced email exchange to see if he can out wit Steve Jobs.
I'd say that Steve stayed pretty much on message with what he's been always saying, even without his PR department to filter out his intent. And the blogger just looks like, well, a troll.
Steve Jobs seems to ignore everything that caused products to be successful: Price to performance. Lets see here the iPad
The iPad costs ~$500, a cheap notebook costs $300-400, paying $500 for a notebook usually gets you a fast, powerful notebook. With a notebook I'm not limited by stupid design decisions, even Microsoft lets me do what I want and doesn't restrict programs. If I want to install an emulator, thats fine. If I want to install Photoshop, thats fine. I don't have to worry about petty squabbles about how Flash is sooooo evil and destroying the world! I can just choose to install Flash or not. With a notebook I can pay ~$5 for a USB card reader rather than $30 for a single-format card reader. With a notebook I have choices of just about everything else, I'm not locked into expensive hardware.
The iPod won marketshare for having a good UI and being small. The iPad has a decent-ish design and decent UI. However, when I can get a laptop with a UI that I've been using for most of my adult life... Why change? The iPad runs expensive applications, a laptop runs free applications.
I think I'm not alone in thinking how annoying it is to have common-sense features be added in at a later date which would have already been done with a simi-open platform.
No one wants real applications! We will never have an iPhone SDK! After all, programs are -terrible- to run. No one wants an alternate browser! No one wants copy/paste! No one wants multi-tasking!
Sorry Steve, I don't understand your opposition to common sense. I have an iPod touch because at the time it was the cheapest wi-fi enabled device to have a good internet experience on the go with some games/music/movies. I'm not going to get an iPad because there are cheaper devices that do a -ton- more.
Taxation is legalized theft, no more, no less.
"As much as I enjoyed watching SJ take that clown to school, it probably isn't a good idea for him to do so since there's likely to be litigation against his employer in the near future."
Jobs was doing well until he brought up porn.
Porn has been published in every medium known to man since the beginning of time. We have literally found porn cave paintings. Porn is nothing new, and will continue to exist. And as long as it's existed, kids have always gotten their hands on it.
Steve acting as if it was some new fad that Apple is attempting to stem is disturbing. I'm not saying they need to start putting porn in the app store, but c'mon, Apple stopping sideloading so they can keep the iPhone free of porn? There are already ways of getting porn on the device (web), and kids can very easily jailbreak the thing to load on whatever they want. Apple is making a dumb stand on principle.
He told the Gawker editor that he'd understand if he had kids. One has to wonder if this is a result of a bad experience Steve has personally had with his family, and not so much a business decision.
Yeah, -1 squared is 1. So, is woosh an uprate now, or are you just bad at math?
Sent from my iPad.
Hari Seldon wrote all about it.
E
If the iPad can provide the functionality they need, and contrary to the false statement, free p0rn(who wants to pay for an app to pay for p0rn anyway) and let the kids write papers with a bluetooth keyboard and not have updates fail because MS cannot verify via WGA an accuse the user of theft, then why buy anything else?
I feel a little disturbed that I can't change batteries, add memory, or write my own programs like I can on my Mac, but then I don't fix my own car anymore either. The worlds moves on, and one either moves or gets run over. And just look at the unemployment rate in the US to see what happens to those that get run over. Sure you can hold rallies and complain about taxes and blame the immigrants, but you are still run over.
"She's a scientist and a lesbian. She's not going to let it slide." Orphan Black
Past performance does not indicate future results.
-- $G
Well, sure there's going to be porn on the iPhone too, but Apple's not going to be the company that delivers it. Frankly, I can see where he's coming from on that, because the last thing a company of Apple's size needs is a pretext for puritans and politicians to bash them over.
-jcr
The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
Didn't we despise Microsoft because of how successful they were?
Maybe you did, but my objection to them was for the multiple crimes they committed, and the dismal quality of their products.
-jcr
The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
Ok, tell me this though.
How are you going to get the thing to print? Not everyone has a wi-fi enabled printer, myself I still make do with a parallel port printer. Do I print things? Not often, but occasionally I need to for work and the like.
Are you going to enjoy being locked out of the web? There are tons of flash games out there, tons of flash movies, etc. What benefit are you getting to accept it?
Are you going to be broke paying for applications? It is entirely reasonable to not have to pay for a single application without pirating on a PC/Linux. Almost every pay program has a free alternative on PC/Linux. On the other hand, due to Apple's draconian policies, a paid app may be the only app "approved" to do something.
What about storage? The average person is going to have GB worth of movies, music, documents, photos, etc. Flash memory is -expensive-. Also, how are you going to transfer things to the iPad? And backups? What about durability? If a component of a PC fails, its easily replaced. Nothing is truly "fatal" if you have the money.
The iPad makes a passable secondary "computer" but as a primary computer? I'm better off with my 7 inch EEE 701...
Taxation is legalized theft, no more, no less.
are they willing though? the iphone and ipad don't go even close to replacing a PC, i'd say he's managed to get them to expand their gadget collection, not replace a real PC
If you mod me down, I will become more powerful than you can imagine....
What Jobs is saying, is that he's finally found a way to reach the masses of computer noobs that Mac has been aiming for all along. The problem with the original Macs is that they required someone to actually use a computer.
Now that he's turned computers into toys, he can finally get "Grandma." But this doesn't really change anything in the computer world.
It's something to brag about for sure, on a marketing level. On a features level, he succeeds only by not having them. Kind of like how McDonald's succeeds by not having a steak dinner.
I agree.. and yet you can't even boot, for the first time, a 3G iPad without connecting it to a computer with iTunes. WTH were they thinking with that?
Steve probably wouldn't like the comparison of Apple to Mickey D's, and he wouldn't ever admit that Windows is a steak dinner compared to anything by Apple. But I think the comparison is very astute. If McDonald's tried to add a steak dinner and a wine list to their menu, it would go over like a lead balloon. They succeed by doing a very small set of things well (matter of opinion, I know). But no one wants to live in a world where McDonald's is the only restaurant... Not even the CEO of McD's.
Kinda hard to get any money then, without ATMs? Or driving a car (same goes for public transportation). Or getting up on time without your radio clock.
Negative freedoms: the biggest load of BS to infect pop sociology in the last century. When someone claims to offer or desire "freedom from" anything, run for the hills, because they are either too naive to understand the costs or too traumatized to care. Neither viewpoint is healthy.
How are you going to get the thing to print?
People still print things?
... and then they built the supercollider.
And an openable hood.
No, not really, the steak dinner is still the more appropiate analogy.
Having hand cranks wouldn't serve much (if any) purpose on a modern car, so truly most people *wouldn't* want it. Steak dinners, however, are actually desireable and there's a sizeable market for them still. In the case of PCs they're the corporate world, which may love to lock down their employees' computers but despise having them locked from *them*, and for the variety of tasks corporations need computers for, an Apple toy (sorry, "appliance") will never be enough.
But Jobs' and the Apple fans' dismissal of the business sector isn't surprising. That's why Microsoft considers Linux, and not Apple, its biggest threat: because Apple's ideology of dividing the world between 'geeks' and 'consumers', refusing to even acknowledge the existence of the corporate market, is what ultimately locks them from being more than an 'also ran' first to IBM and now to Microsoft.
Wake me up when the corporate world abandons regular computers in favor of Apple's toys. But not before.
No problem is insoluble in all conceivable circumstances.
Many people do enjoy manual transmissions, though I don't, so I see your point.
However, the largest component missing is an option other than the App Store. This move is akin to selling a car with the hood welded shut. While some higher-end models might get away with it (Rolls-Royce, BMW, etc), it's still something I'd be very wary of buying. Modern BMWs are to the point where you physically can't even get an oil change, let alone change the radio, without going to a BMW dealer (at BMW prices) -- you're actually locked out of your own engine.
I don't have a problem with it being a simple device for simple people. I do have a problem with the fact that it's actually a federal crime to tinker with it, let alone try to sell apps or other accessories for it without Apple's stamp of approval.
Don't thank God, thank a doctor!
1.) I think you overestimate the number of people on insist they must keep using their old printer. Basic printers are pretty cheap these days. I'm sure someone will come out with some kind of adapter for older printers, anyway.
Its easy enough to find a cheap printer. Its hard to find a fast-ish printer where you won't be paying double the price of the printer next time you buy ink...
2.) Not everyone is going to care that they can't play Flash games or that they occasionally can't used some old site.
Yeah, you know old sites like Hulu, Homestar Runner, Newgrounds, South Park, etc. Yeah those sites never get updates. I mean, Hulu? That is totally old school.
Yeah, there is going to be a Hulu app "sometime" but that sometime has lasted for quite a few years now...
3.) Plenty of free apps on the AppStore. Most of the others are pretty cheap.
But you never really know what quality those "free" apps are. There are very few really free apps as in full versions and ad-free. Even then, the user ratings are skewed and reviews don't help.
Plus, with a lack of customization and control, its hard to get things to work if they fail the first time.
4.) MobileMe.com, Time Capsule, Apple TV.
A) Upload is slow, B) Expensive, C) too little storage.
Taxation is legalized theft, no more, no less.
The problem is that "something different" may not be good.
Obligatory car analogy: It would be like trading in your 10 year old car for a new one that looks cool and is comfortable, but is completely autopiloted, and only lets you out at certain stops. Businesses have to apply to the car maker so the car would stop at their brick and mortar store. And without warning, this can be taken away, so if someone used to stop at a Target, they wouldn't have that option tomorrow and only get Wal-Marts. Continuing the analogy, someone patches the ECM with a steering wheel to allow manual control, but the next year's cars always come with protection against that.
People trading their computers in for what are effectively game consoles means that they are trading their freedom to run what they want, when they want for an environment locked down and managed by someone else who can do anything they please.
My question is: Do we want to go this route of sacrificing openness for ease of use? Yes, viruses and Trojans are a nuisance, but do we want to trade our relatively open computers for what would essentially be terminals, locked to some for-profit corporation's motives and future? For me, it is a no-brainer. I will keep my computer, and my phone will be on an open platform. If Android phones become unrootable or impossible to put custom ROMs on, I'll move to the Nokia N900 and encourage others to follow.
Do we want all our computers to be like PS3s where at any time, functionality can disappear at a moment's notice like the "other OS", and there would not be a single thing we can do about it? I'm sure the usual antagonists of open computing would love a wholesale move to a locked down platform, but is that where we want to take computing as we know it? Do we want to move to a computing model where what we buy, we are only permitted access to whatever the company allows on a whim? Yes, PS3s have no virus or spyware problems, but we are trading freedom for security here, and in the end, we will end up with neither.
steve gets a little market share and it goes to his head.
here in the real world, he hasn't hardly made a dent in personal computing. I'd admit he has cornered the wanky new toy gadget market, that's about it.
Your comment is strangely reminiscent of Microsoft's attitude towards Netscape circa 1994. "They've cornered the wanky new Internet market, but that's about it."
"Convictions are more dangerous enemies of truth than lies."
Go out, buy nothing but an iPad and tell me how good your computing experience is 12 months from now.
Me? Wouldn't work at all (which is why I don't own one). For my mother, older sister, an elderly couple who's network I manage and about twenty other people I can think of? It would be perfect (and make my life much easier).
Freedom from programs that steal your private data. Freedom from programs that trash your battery. Freedom from porn. Yep, freedom.
WAR IS PEACE
FREEDOM IS SLAVERY
IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH
Nice job combining those bottom two, Steve. How did the CEO of the company that produced the 1984 commercial go from that to this utter drivel?
I am free from programs that steal my private data on my PC if I choose to be.
I am free from programs that trash my battery on my PC if I choose to be.
I am free from porn on my PC, if I choose to be.
Do you see the difference Steve?
WAR IS PEACE
FREEDOM IS SLAVERY
IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH
The most amazing part of this entire thing is the complete role reversal. The running woman in 1984 no longer represents Apple or its products. She is now represented by the PC and its many forms with the drones being Apple users basking in their "freedom". You never have more freedom when you have fewer choices. NEVER.
This is the very reason I won't buy Apple's products. The doublethink being presented here by Steve goes against everything I believe computing should be about.
"What do you despise? By this are you truly known." --Princess Irulan, Manual of Muad'Dib
/)
Given the success of the iPad thus far, I'd say that for some users, the answer is "yes." Not everybody needs a terminal prompt with root access. Not everybody needs 100% access the the OS's most fundamental settings. Not everybody needs their platform to do everything imaginable.
It's quite simple: either you like the iPad or you don't. If you do, good for you. If you don't, buy something else. Last I checked, nobody has been forced to buy an iPad.
Government's idea of a balanced budget: take money from the right pocket to balance...oh who am I kidding?
or copy it to a USB key.
The iPad has a USB port now?
As as I said, an adapter is likely to pop up sooner of later if there is enough demand for it.
Sooner or later though. What I don't understand is why people would be so reliant on others to -eventually- produce things that they can get for cheap right now.
Hulu isn't even available where I live. Give those other sites a couple of years...
But why wait a couple more years? Its becoming clearer and clearer that the iPad is a crappy device and Jobs doesn't want to change it. There are so many disadvantages for a few advantages. Lets see, its small, it runs iPhone apps and it... um... has a touch screen?
Doesn't seem to stop people paying for software, though. There are also plenty of review sites around the net.
Ok, what is the last piece of PC software you have bought? For me, I guess it would have to be a sealed copy of Windows 3.1 just for the vintage-ness for about $2 at a garage sale about 4 years ago.
For any "functional" software it was so long ago I don't even remember.
And review sites are good... sometimes. However, its becoming harder and harder to identify which sites post legitimate reviews and how many have skewed reviews because of various factors (differing skill levels, bribes, personal favorites, etc)
I'm talking about the near future here, which is what the article is about.
In the near future, I think prices will have fallen to where Android or Linux are the only platforms that make sense for every non-PC device.
Taxation is legalized theft, no more, no less.
There is a difference between Apple delivering porn, and Apple attempting to stop everyone else from delivering it.
Sure there'ss a difference, and Apple isn't trying to stop anyone else from delivering it. Try it for yourself: go to any porn site with Mobile Safari. Apple's not going to host porn apps on the App store, and that's a good business decision.
-jcr
The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
Your comment is strangely reminiscent of Microsoft's attitude towards Netscape circa 1994. "They've cornered the wanky new Internet market, but that's about it."
Are you sure that's the analogy you want?
I mean, in the end, Microsoft did ruthlessly crush Netscape.
wtf? How does free software equate to software anarchy? How does free software equate to sex free computing? How does software anarchy equate to sex free computing?
-- Even if a god did exist, why the fsck should I worship it?
I feel your pain, I really do.
But what if your old car would go to random places all of a sudden and crash into brick walls at random times? And when you went out to browse your porn half the time your car would get a flat tire while you were out there and a bunch of punks would beat it up and you'd spend hours and hours getting it to work halfway decently.
So Steve Jobs glides up in his gleaming white Gulfstream V jet and says, "Hey, I have a cool car that drives better than anything on the planet. We make sure you can drive on this excellent network of safe roads, and leave the potholed, poorly made old style ones behind. You know, I'm sorry, but not only did those maintenance guys do a lousy job, they had no taste."
So you take a look at his roads and sure enough, everything is gleaming and works and there are no strange brick walls to be found, anywhere. But ... there is something missing ... something important!
"Where's the porn?" you ask. "And how about Rush Limbaugh and National Review?"
"Oh, the porn hurts the kids, and National Review makes fun of our sacred cow Obama(tm), You know, we are all Democrats here, even if we don't quite admit it," he says. "Don't worry, though, you can use Safari to browse any web site you want."
"And you know what, we know you want to look at porn and we're a big company and can't approve of that garbage. But all you need to do is run Safari or the movie player and you can find that junk you want, just not on our shiny roads. So you go a little out of your way for it, but your experience is still safe and when you're back you will be assured that your car will still work, instead of get banged up."
And isn't that funny, that might just be better for porn, actually, because you are always safe. How many native porn apps do you have on your computer? I would bet, none. How many porn web sites do you visit? If you are concerned with this issue, probably quite a few. The point is, the makers of porn are not stupid, and they will bring you what you want.
The App Store does have some downright sad speech restrictions. My Obama IQ game, for instance, was not approved until after the 2008 elections were safely passed. Pretty pathetic, no? Not that one anti-Obama game was ever going to tip an election one way or the other, but the sales would have been nice to get.
Complete freedom of speech is preserved on the Internet. The App Store is not a vehicle for free political or sexual expression, and to me, that's OK. As long as you can browse the web, you are free.
Some people who argue against Apple just don't realize how horrible a task it is to eradicate a piece of spyware from a Windows computer. I used to work in IT and my experiences in trying to devirus a computer were just plain horrible and pathetic. Fortunately I've been an almost exclusively Apple user for many years and since I started being one, my computing experience has become far better and smoother and more fun.
So I have a balanced perspective. Would it be nice if the new iPad was totally free? Sure.
But isn't the App Store a great invention, something that helps even small developers like me make a few bucks?
In the past couple of years I have bought far more App Store applications than Mac applications, and most of my Mac applications were made by, guess who, Apple. App Store applications are cheap, and they are easy to buy and use, and a lot of fun. And most of my App Store applications are from small developers, not Apple. So if you are looking at which business model serves the small developer, it might just be Apple's.
This is not a perfect world. It's a tragedy that evil people deliberately set out to ruin other peoples' computers in pursuit of a few bucks. But they do, and the iPhone software model stops them cold. If you're sick of having to be paranoid about evil people running your computer, you might prefer if it was run by Steve Jobs, as opposed to running it yourself.
That's a trade a lot of people want to make, and I'm sorry, I really can't blame them.
D
I think that O'Brien's reversal of the motto is more appropriate for Apple: SLAVERY IS FREEDOM. By giving up the right to make "grander" or "higher-level" choices, the user gains the perception that his device will be taken care of for him as far as its software is concerned. By voluntarily becoming a slave to Apple's App Store-iPhone OS ecosystem, the user gains peace of mind, and he gets to say he uses an iDevice to boot.
Keep your eyes to the sky.
Hardly a dent in personal computing? You may be forgetting the whole "windowing system" thing. Also, prior to that, the design of the Apple II drove the entire market for years and shaped everything about the PC including the formfactor.
He's certainly smoking some good crack lately though. Hoo boy.
Intolerance for ambiguity is the mark of the authoritarian personality.
Dear artard,
You and your two friends can enjoy not buying apple products, but to my mind a new class of product by definition introduces more CHOICE to the market than was previously available.
There are probably more important things to stand against.
Sounds like Communism.
And so if Apple goes away that leads to more choice for consumers in what way? They get to choose between Microsoft and Microsoft? Because the reality is that Linux isn't truly consumer grade yet.
http://www.rootstrikers.org/
If you believe the fact that they included a browser with their OS was even the primary issue, you haven't been paying attention.
What new class? If you mean the iPad, no, sorry to put a dark spot onto your world view, but His Jobsiness did not invent the keyboardless touch PC.
Rudolf Hess edited Mein Kampf. He was the very first grammar nazi.
the iPad DOES replace a PC for a large amount of people. Take off your slashdot-coloured glasses, and you'll realize that most non-technicals just use their PC to update their facebook, surf the web, and jot a few quick emails.
Dear dickhead,
Not all of us are willing to blow $500+ on a device that doesn't enable us to do anything we couldn't do before.
I need a laptop to get my job done. I need a mobile phone for a variety of reasons. I can't think of a single damn reason why I need a $500 tablet.
Until you get that not all of us are willing to spend $500 on gadget porn, you won't grok why some people think the iPad is a tremendous waste of money and attention.
Wake me up when the corporate world abandons regular computers in favor of Apple's toys. But not before.
Why would I want a computer that the corporate world is enamored with? I'm a human, not a corporation.
they'll put up with it just fine.
some of them will even like it, and some of them will simply pretend they like it to justify the cash they spent.
Did they? Take a look at the history of the Mozilla Project.
Only if you're both capable and vigilant. Most people aren't able to really be safe from spyware.
That was true about 4-6 years ago. With a more modern operating system (Linux/Vista/Win7, heck even XPSP3) the technical threat is drastically reduced. The biggest problem has always been user attitude and actions, something which is often WORSE on Mac than it is elsewhere due to the prevalent belief that "Macs can't get virus/malware!". When users stop running as admin and stop clicking pretty screensaver ads then we'll have made some real progress, but that's a social problem, not technical.
Only by forgoing things like YouTube.
That's funny, because I can watch 720p video on YouTube and see about 25% CPU usage. Not bad for HD video playback. Of course if I'm worried about battery I can drop to SD or just save a link and watch the video when I'm plugged into the wall. You don't even have that option with the iPad.
Apple actually provides an alternative.
Um, no, they don't.
But your kids aren't.
It's my job as a parent to ensure my kids don't access material I deem appropriate. No matter how much some people might wish it were the case, neither a computer nor a TV is not a parental replacement. Besides, why should Apple decide what is "porn" and what isn't? Is an anatomically-correct human body reference app "porn"? Would it be rejected from the app store? Better break out your Magic 8 Ball to find out.
"What do you despise? By this are you truly known." --Princess Irulan, Manual of Muad'Dib
/)
Seriously? This is easily one of the stupidest fucking discussions I have ever seen on this site. Every dumb ass analogy there is has been used. Every unnecessary soap box has been stood on.
Hate the closed nature of the iPad and iPhone? Don't buy them. Do those devices simply not meet you business needs? Don't buy them. Think you know more about marketing a device than Apple? You're fucking deluded.
Is Apple somehow preventing you from buying and using other devices and services? No.
So what the fuck is the big deal?
I own a Mac. I love it. All the best computers I have ever owned have been made by Apple. They meet MY needs and have done so better than any other computer. Will you have the same results? Honestly, I don't give a shit. I have an Android phone. I love it. It has a physical keyboard, I don't need iTunes to use it, the ssh client was free, it's an AT&T exclusive and I can currently run Pandora in the background. See what I did there? Apple's product in that space didn't do what I wanted it to so, instead of freaking out about it and crying about Apple's "stupid" policies, I bought something else. Until that choice no longer exists, the rest of this talk about closed versus open systems and censorship and walled gardens is utterly pointless.
Besides not really being the brains behind any of Apple's success (frankly, I'd credit Woz and others), he has clearly failed to learn from past mistakes.
The original Mac was YEARS ahead of any PC at the time. Literally, vastly superior. But by pricing them too high, and locking in control over the OS and over the ability of devs to write for it, the PC inevitably surpassed it in sales almost over night.
Fast forward a decade, and the same battle is happening again in the smart phone market. Besides being locked to AT&T, arguably the WORST cell provider in the nation, his hardware is over priced, and again, he's stuck with this outdated idea that vendor lock in is somehow going to guarantee Apple's success. There is literally no chance of that, and in fact, iPhone et al are doomed to failure absolutely by not providing a free and open platform for other vendors to write apps for. Android is clearly going to continue to dominate sales, and inevitably win the over all battle, just like Windows did last time.
Why does anybody even listen to Steve any more? Just because he's first to market? It's not like 8,000 other monkeys didn't have the idea for the iPhone before he did. He just got it to market first. BIG DEAL.
Steve is clearly too arrogant to grasp even the mildest of fundamental truths about human nature, particularly as it relates to sales and market share. Even the Mac Fanboys are getting sick of his blatant stupidity and selfish draconian lock in attempts, that will of course only serve to ensure that Apple fails, long term.
I hold very few opinions. I hold information based on observation and fact. If you wish to disagree, please use facts.
Surely it is your choice to buy a iProduct from Apple or to buy it somewhere else?
As the consequence of the choices you make you will get particular freedoms. And like all freedoms, any freedom brings with it some limitation. **Absolute freedom does not exist.**
We make a choice because of what we expect to be the consequence of this choice: The freedoms **and** limitation we think we can accept. So, If you don't accept the consequence then you should choose differently.
In old eastern germany you did not have the freedom to voice your opinion, but if you did people would listen. In current germany you have the freedom of expression, but now nobody listens anymore unless you are a VIP.
Freedom without at least some limitions does not exist. You never choose for or against some particular freedom, the choice is always about the freedoms you do want, and the freedoms you don't want.
What I cannot create, I do not understand
See, this is exactly what he meant. I hate how online commenting is this massive shitstorm of people hiding behind made up names such as "bigdik69" and "cooldood1987" (guess when they were born), who are we to constantly pick at what others do? If you dont like Apple products, dont buy them, its simple. Can you imagine if people were this way with the world outside tech? Example, everyone knows that US cars have this stigma of being crap, but would every car fanatic spend their every waking hour to mail postcards saying "hey Ford, ur cars suck!!!111!!!"? More than any modern company (straight research facilities aside), perhaps Apple has given the world the most in terms of everyday technology.
.mkv warez, and the iPad and its mono speaker make me irritable to everyone around.
By all means resent the horrors of the iPod, iPhone, iPad. I know our lives have been ruined by their success. I rue the day Jobs and co decided to put a 5GB hard drive in a plastic and metal casing, I cant sleep at night over the iPhones refusal to play my
I'm a proficient Apple user, I have seemingly iEverything, and am quite happy. Of course I understand why some (a small percent of the market) refuse to have something that is "closed", I enjoy the Apple products I have.
I have a healthy respect for Android, I hope it does very well. As far as I know, not a single Android device has been sold in New Zealand. I've seen one or two of the crappier models at stores, but none of my friends have one. I cannot wait for the EVO 4G to arrive (for my American friends).
I think companies competing with Apple should focus on the things that Apple DOESNT do, on the things they provide. I think "droid does" was a good idea, although it was a little...geeky? By all means continue this line of ads! Many "Apple Haters" mention "oh that Apple, its all marketing". Well, if Apple supposedly makes up a tiny 5% of the PC market, how come they have such mindshare? Hey Dell, Microsoft, HP, get off your butts, spend some bucks on ads eh? They have the money to compete, yet they DONT.
Put yourself in Steve Jobs shoes (New Balance 991's, do you know the uniform of any other CEO, past or present?), he must receive thousands of emails a day from ingrates, "how cum da Iphone is not on Verizon? LAAAAAAAAAME!". Computer companies dont owe us diddly. Either support a company who makes choices you AGREE with, or even better, start your OWN company, in your parents garage, with a close friend. Who knows, perhaps you will one day have a private jet, billions in the bank and an army of jackasses hounding you day and night.
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How long do you think "most non-technicals" will put up with typing on an uncomfortable, unresponsive piece of glass? Five emails, maybe ten?
I bet it's longer than they've put up with writing 160 character messages using 12 buttons.
Until so many people have chosen slavery that freedom becomes impractical or illegal. See software patents, h.264. It's important to make people aware that when they choose Apple, they choose to get locked in to a platform that dictates what they can and can't do, and that is deliberately designed to make it expensive to switch, and designed with forced obsolescence in mind.
Steve said: "And you might care more about porn when you have kids" My kids are the greatest thing in my life. I wake up every day and praise the Universe for blessing me with such wonderful children. And I wouldn't have them without porn.
You have to be an idiot to not get that "freedom from porn" means when you don't want it.
The HTML5 Web is right there on all Apple devices and they all play video. You can get all the porn you want if you want it. Everyone knows this.
App Store is supposed to be an alternative to the Web. It's supposed to be different. It's supposed to be managed because the Web is unmanaged. One is ying, one yang.
I'm really tired of the totalitarianism of "open technology." The fact that App Store is managed opens it up in a different way: it's open to consumers, businesses, technophobes.
The stupidest part is you have people who are knocking Apple praising Google for Chrome OS being open, even though the C API on Chrome OS is Google-only, totally closed, and all of Apple's systems have HTML5. So if you get an iPad and ignore App Store, you still can run all the HTML5 apps that run on Chrome OS.
The thing is, the PC industry is full of failure. Monopolies (Microsoft, Adobe), viruses, technical bottlenecks (e.g. BIOS, XP, IE) and a complete lack of design and ease of use. Anything that's done differently in mobile is welcome. Try anything other than just porting the fucking PC to a phone. I don't see how anybody has a right to criticize App Store when nobody has come close to competing with it.
Basically: prove Apple wrong or STFU. That goes for App Store, and for the completely vaporware FlashPlayer for Mobiles. Make a phone app platform so good that Apple copies your "openness" and make FlashPlayer for Mobiles so good that Apple pleads to have it on their devices or just STFU. The whining from the PC industry is incredible.
The parent is not saying that Apple products should be legally banned. He's saying why they're bad, and why you shouldn't use one. All he's doing is providing a negative review of a product.
Why is everyone making such a big deal about a supersized ipod touch?
Create a company. .... ....
Put together some MIT licensed software and create yet another OS.
Designed computers after 70's Braun industrial design.
Made it work well.
Got people to buy his products due to great marketing.
Decided not to want Flash.
Decided it could only be programmed with their own API's.
Made money.
So what's so revolutionary about making a sleek tablet pc? Nothing.
I like that he wants to kill Flash, but that's about it. So in the meantime I can browse the web freely with my Linux netbook and desktop and not have to worry about an electronics company.
Next...
Here be signatures
Much like having optional slavery introduces more choice to the job market than was previously available.
Some people can see farther than 5 minutes ahead. Pity you aren't one of them.
No problem is insoluble in all conceivable circumstances.
That last paragraph is exactly why Apple devices are locked down. You can't mess up your iPhone or iPad unless you deliberately set out to do so.
It's a good deal for a lot of people. Admittedly, almost none of then are Slashdotters. In my case I have both an iMac and an iPad and love both of them for what they do.
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Thank goodness FOSS has no central governing force, for if it had it would cease to be FOSS. You can't understand that to be "governed and free" is an oxymoron?
You can lead a man with reason but you can't make him think.
To be fair, most companies are, from a government perspective, either a despotism or an oligarchy. More likely, in the meantime, nepotistic and kleptocratic.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
The problem with the original Macs is that they required someone to actually use a computer. Now that he's turned computers into toys, he can finally get "Grandma." But this doesn't really change anything in the computer world.
I know you're trying to deride what Apple's doing by using the word "toy", but I think you're kind of right and I think Jobs would even agree with you on a certain level. What Apple has been aiming at since the original Mac is that they're trying to take the computer out of computing.
Jobs' vision for the future of computing, like it or not, seems not to include people consciously thinking about computers as computers. Instead you just have various devices and tools which do various things using fairly natural interactions. You're imagining that, in the future, you'll still be thinking, "Oh, I want to look something up online. Let me sit down at my computer. Oh, I want to check my calendar. Let me sit down at my computer. Oh, I want to type up a report. Let me sit down at my computer."
Jobs, on the other hand, is imagining a future where you think, "Oh, I want to look at a web page. Good thing I have my handy web-page-viewer-thingy. Oh wait, I want to check my calendar. My calendar-thingy is in the other room, let me go grab it. Oh, I want to write a report. I'll go use my report-writer-thingy that's sitting on my desk."
Now many of those thingies may actually be the same physical device, but that's not the point. The concept is that, when you're working with your calendar-thingy, it's a calendar. It's not a computer running a calendar application. In your mind and in how you interact with it, it *is* a calendar. It looks like a calendar and works like a calendar, and it's no harder to use than it is to use a paper calendar. The report-writer-thingy would have the capabilities of a real word-processor, but it wouldn't be any more confusing than using a typewriter; adding a picture is no more confusing to our monkey brains than cutting a picture out of a magazine and gluing it into your report.
So it's not really that he's trying to turn computers into toys, but he's trying to turn them into tools. You want your computer to be a blank slate to fill in with whatever tools you want, and I understand that. Jobs wants to make computers that are ready-made tools, developed to do specific things very well, and I understand that too.
Now Apple is doing the exact same thing MS did back in the 80's and getting a free pass.
I guess those who do not learn from history.
Calling someone a "hater" only means you can not rationally rebut their argument.
To quote Mr. Jobs, "Real artists ship". $99 for a smartphone? It's expensive? You know of a cheaper one, equally capable? To paraphrase, bullshit artists bullshit, real artists ship..
People listen to Steve because he delivers the goods.
Ask Me About... The 80's!