Apple Nag

I’ve used your products primarily since March 1, 1984 when I bought my first original Macintosh and ImageWriter printer. I was proud to be a Mac owner because it was so superior to the alternatives.

In the subsequent years leading up to the present time I became a Mac bigot. Everything else was not only not good, it was trash and I wondered how anyone could use that crapola.

Then Macs started going downhill with quality problems in the hardware and software. Macs just sucked less. I stopped doing unpaid sales and evangelizing for you and kept pretty quiet. When people asked me what kind of computer to get, I would no longer say, “Get a Mac”, I’d say, “What do you want to use a computer for?” I often told them to buy a PC.

(more…)

I’ve been fortunate in my career to never have worked for tyrants. Sure, I’ve worked for some bozos, but never someone who got their kicks from intimidation. Or someone who yelled at me while spraying spittle in my face. Or someone who threatened to fire my sorry ass unless I did this or that by some impossible deadline while sacrificing my family and social life, or my health.

I’ve never worked at Apple.

(more…)

I see you’re offering a “free” iPod Touch if we buy a Mac for university. There are two things wrong with this ad, and no, one of them is not the ubiquitous asterisk and “Terms apply” gotcha.

There’s no such thing as a free iPod

Again, you’re proving you’re no different than most other retailers in deceptively saying that the iPod is free. It’s not free, it’s included in the price. Well, actually, it’s worse than that. We have to buy it at the retail price and you will rebate up to $259. Since the cheapest Touch retails at $259 that doesn’t cover the taxes now does it? So it ain’t free, is it?

It’s also just a rebate, which means you’re bribing us with our own money. We pay you. You hold on to millions of dollars of our cumulative money earning interest for weeks. We waste our time filling out your stupid rebate form and sending it in (don’t get a single character wrong or it’s grounds for rejection). You give us our money back sometime while we worry about if you’re using a shady rebate company that will conveniently “forget” to send the cheque. We’ve still paid the taxes and you’ve stolen our time.

Clearance

And, for those who don’t follow your product release cycles, you neglect to mention that this is the older generation model that will be replaced with the next generation in — oh — October. Once all the kids are back at school and have had to purchase the Mac and iPod.

Fine, fine, it’s a nice way for you to clear inventory before the new model comes out. Why not be up front about it or just discount the Mac price by $259? Then we save on taxes and don’t waste time on sucky rebates. Right, because your cost is a heck of a lot cheaper than the cash price, so it’s really costing you nowhere near $259 to make this offer.

You demean yourself with every one of these deceptive tactics.

It’s been reported that Microsoft received a call from someone at Apple telling them that the laptop hunter ads were misleading. Another petty action. So you lowered your prices a teensy bit to make the MS ad just slightly incorrect and suddenly this is worth a call to Microsoft? Good grief, this is a rounding error.

While you see iTunes Store tracks priced at $0.99 and a MacBook at $999 we all know that you’re doing what virtually every retailer does and deliberately try to mislead consumers to think the product is cheaper. I don’t fall into that trap. I say that you sell songs for a buck and have a $1000 laptop. Even I’m wrong because by the time you add on sales tax to the MacBook, the price is noticeably higher. Far higher than the price difference that triggered your call.

Don’t you have more important things to worry about, like — oh heck, don’t get me started.

What’s up with trying to disable Palm Pre syncing with iTunes? Are you guys so afraid of Palm and their miniscule market that you’re willing to expend programmer resources to try to block the Pre?

When I was managing software developers I made it clear that I didn’t mind if they put Easter eggs into the code as long as they wouldn’t damage the company’s reputation when they were discovered or leaked. A bit of humour is good for the soul and can make a monolithic company a bit more human.

But there was one caveat. If there were anything other than cosmetic bugs in the code, or if we missed a deadline, I was going to be P.O.ed about them wasting development time on fun when the serious business of robust code or meeting commitments was getting the short end of the stick. There’s a bit more to this discussion, but I don’t want to digress any more.

My question to you is this — why are you directing effort at the Pre when you have so many defects in iTunes and syncing with iPods, particularly my 2G Shuffle? Just look at your own support forums for a huge list of bugs. Get your own house in order before you worry about the Pre — it’s just an Easter egg.

Or are you threatened that much?

I’m only partly kidding when I say that this Dilbert cartoon perfectly captures my experiences with many of your products lately. I don’t think I can wait for Snow Leopard and will soon be required to do an archive and install on my MacBook in the faint hope it will cure the OS X problems.

I’ll still be left with all the problems with iTunes, Shuffle, and Apple TV of note.

Update 2009-07-04: I completed the A&I last night and have noticed various problems this morning including the return of problems I had earlier. My conclusion is that these are endemic bugs in Leopard that I can only hope will be cured by Snow Leopard. If not, well, why not?