(*written up the day before the launch of the Ipad 2)
For those of you who are expecting a long drawn rant or fan-boyish propaganda about the new Ipad 2 thats coming out tomorrow : you can go and click on a some porn site right now. This is not going to be yet another piece of writing on the blogosphere (hate that word) that tauts to know all about Apple’s “successor” to its first succesfull tablet. I admit, i am an avid Ipad user, and with the addition of the Zaggmate keyboard to the mix, I’ve written quite a few posts on the little sucker. As a matter of fact, i’m writing up this post right now on … the Ipad.
So, am I at the very edge of my seat awaiting the “word of god” from Cupertino tomorrow ? Am i hopping up and down forum threads chatting and predicting how “great the new Ipad is going to be ?” Did I blank out the time slot of the announcement in my calendar with the words “IPAD 2” encircled with more hearts and sparkles then a teenage vampire ? .. Sorry .. no.
Quite frankly, I don’t really care that much. If the “prophecy’s” we see on the internet are true ( Apple is having a harder and harder time keeping these things a secret) then we are looking at a thinner, double-camera equipped and PERHAPS retina display enabled Ipad that is going to be more expensive then their current model. Looking at specs and build : an XL version of my Ipod Touch ( At 300 euro’s one of the most versatile devices you can buy). But even if the new Ipad came with dancing playboy bunnies that would chant my name every time I press the home button… It would still be an Apple product produced by an Apple company.
And the one thing Apple is increasingly standing for is a monolithic, greedy and proprietary company with only its own interest at heart. Now i KNOW what you are saying : “Bohoo Knightwise, EVERY company thinks of money.” That is true, but the way Apple is doing it lately is really starting to … annoy me. I say “annoy” because I’m not yet at the point where I am actually embarrassed to pull out an Apple device in public. This being said, the point where I was PROUD to do so and would PRAISE Apple for its superior products, has long gone.
I like Apple because of their hardware quality and the fact that their operating system is conveniently built to help me get things done. Without my first Ibook there would have never been a Knightcast podcast, no KWTV, no blog. But I am NOT one of these fan boys who proclaim their “Ownership of an Apple product ” as a surrogate for the loss of their virginity or their ticket to “being hip”. That train has come and gone my friends. Apple is too omni-apparent to be special anymore, It has become the Myspace of computer hardware Omnipresent. I USE Apple products, but I am perfectly capable to hold my own in real AND cyberspace without them.
What DID always bug me was the “locked down padded cell” that is called IOS. The fact you need Itunes for everything AND including scratching your behind. The fact you need a fracking cable to sync up content to a device that is directly connected to your network via Wifi … (I need not go down that rabbit hole, do I)
But then there is also the economical “strategy” that Apple is starting to roll out. Sure they want a cut for every song that is sold via the Itunes store. Sure they want a kickback for every app sold in their App store. Sure they want 30 percent of every piece of content that is sold THROUGH that app afterward… Whoah , wait , WHAT ? So as a developer I have to MAKE a “magazine app”, pray to the Big Steve in the Sky (He’s not there yet, but its a matter of time unfortunately) that my app gets in, give 30 percent to Apple for every copy of the app thats sold, but also need to give them 30 percent of EVERY COPY OF MY MAGAZINE sold via my App ?
Whats next ? Do I need to give Apple 30 percent of the income of my children ? Do i need to send them 30 percent of my doggies poop too ? Let me get out my checkbook then !
The thing that pisses me off ( yes, bad words ANOTHER thing Apple forbids in their walled garden ) is that Apple is rising to these insane, megalomaniac-like tactics. Only the underdog of the industry ten years ago, poo-poo-ing Microsoft for their “big evil corporate policies”, Apple is now rapidly becoming the “Louis 14th of their ever expanding technological archipelago” At what point did “fame and power” take an elevator ride to some corporate CEO’s head and set in motion this ridiculous strategy ? Sure, Apple is the cutest girl at the prom, Everybody wants to dance with her even though she is a stuck up bitch. But that doesn’t mean she gets to pick your pocket while dancing with her and get away with it ?
So I put my ear to the ground of the technological inter-sphere and wait for the thundering sound of protest. The ominous sounds of hundreds of developers, Apple consumers and content creators rattling out a million lines of protest on their keyboard.. But it remains horribly quiet. “Meh , whatever, its not like we have a choice” a stray developer shrugs at me. I try my best to forget EVERYTHING i EVER learned in history class to prevent myself balking: ‘Don’t you see whats happening ?”
For slowly but surely history is repeating itself. In the real world, freedom is seldom taken, it is GIVEN away to the authorities. Power is seldom established, it is accumulated. Monopolistic closed source money hungry software companies seldom arise overnight… they grow incrementally because their consumers are “ok with it”.
For me personally, Apple has crossed the line. I’m not a hardliner who is going to denounce all Cupertino based products from now on, but I DO however speak out that I disagree with their policies and tactics. My personal protest against their megalomaniac “30 percent of everything” will be to speak out AND to keep from walking into the proprietary trap. I’ll keep my Android phone close by, Will run Ubuntu on my Macbook and forgo the purchase of a DRM’d book for iBooks. But what is most important is that “I am aware and concerned” whats going on with Apple. I’ll be watching that stuck up pretty girl at the prom and frown if she treats people like crap. If they are ok with it, that is their prerogative. But as for me ? Sure, Ill buy her a drink, Sure, we’ll dance a bit.. But when she asks if she can have 30 percent of my good memories when I’m 45 ?? I’ll say .. screw you girlfriend !
And as an added bonus @podfeet just shot me the link to this PERFECTLY matching video 🙂