Stop the madness! Please sign the “iPad is NOT Magical” petition
Apple Inc. has long been known to overuse favorable adjectives when describing its products, and while we as Apple fans have perhaps grown immune to words such as “revolutionary” and “amazing”, Apple’s insistence in using the word “Magical” to describe its new iPad is just unacceptable.
Even in today’s press release announcing the ship date would be delayed by a week, Apple insisted on using the term multiple times, as if something truly Magical would be susceptible to mortal production and shipping issues:
“Apple® today announced that its magical and revolutionary iPad will be available in the US on Saturday, April 3″, states the release. Steve Jobs goes on to say “We’re excited for customers to get their hands on this magical and revolutionary product and connect with their apps and content in a more intimate, intuitive and fun way than ever before,” when in fact the way the iPad allows us to “connect with their apps and content” is identical to the way we have already done for 3 years on our iPhones and iPod touches, albeit on a larger screen.
Using the term “magical” cheapens the iPad and makes Apple, a TECHNOLOGY company, rooted in science, look like a foolish snake oil salesman.
So please sign this petition to have Apple drop the term “magical” from its iPad marketing speak, lest your family be cursed for 1,000 years by the gypsies of good taste.
-Dr. Macenstein
Macenstein.com
Wow, I wish “Flash” were playing… get it? Flash?
Filed under: Apple Bashing, Apple Fanboyism, Awesomeness, OS X
I just happen to be experiencing a TON of beachballs today with my Adobe products (After Effects, mainly) and remembered this pic. (BTW, Photoshop is clearly hotter than Illustrator.)
[via 9gag]
Why is Apple treating apps differently than movies and songs?
Filed under: Apple Bashing, Cynicism, That's Weird..., WTF, stupid
For quite a few years now Apple has been selling R-rated movies and sexually explicit songs on its iTunes store. In fact, half of the current Top 10 movies on iTunes are either Rated R or Unrated for scenes of nudity and sexual content.
Currently 20% of Apple’s top 100 iTunes music chart are labeled as “explicit”, due to profanity and strong sexual material.
Despite having the same ratings and parental controls in place for Applications as they do for movies and music, two days ago Apple inexplicably decided to begin pulling all apps from the app store that contain “objectionable” sexual material. One developer, jonaeu from Chilifresh, whose “Wobble” app was pulled (despite not containing any nudity or even images of women) actually called Apple and received the following outline for what types of content are now too sexually explicit for the app store:
1. No images of women in bikinis (Ice skating tights are not OK either)
2. No images of men in bikinis! (I didn’t ask about Ice Skating tights for men)
3. No skin (he seriously said this) (I asked if a Burqa was OK, and the Apple guy got angry)
4. No silhouettes that indicate that Wobble can be used for wobbling boobs (yes – I am serious, we have to remove the silhouette in this pic)
5. No sexual connotations or innuendo: boobs, babes, booty, sex – all banned
6. Nothing that can be sexually arousing!! (I doubt many people could get aroused with the pic above but those puritanical guys at Apple must get off on pretty mundane things to find Wobble “overtly sexual!)
7. No apps will be approved that in any way imply sexual content (not sure how Playboy is still in the store, but …)
So what’s the deal? The cult horror classic “Last House on the Left” (iTunes link) has a very disturbing rape scene of teenage girls, but apparently that’s fine. However a shot of a woman wearing a bikini is now taboo. It’s fine for Apple to sell songs about “Fucking ho’s”, but a silhouette of a girl is now no longer allowed in an app.
What am I missing here?
Is it just me or isn’t letting “kids” buy movies and songs featuring celebrities that they idolize, acting out and speaking explicitly about sex far more damaging than allowing an app featuring CLOTHED WOMEN (albeit not wearing exactly snow pants) to be sold? Let me remind you, none of the apps being pulled by Apple currently contain ANY nudity, nor images of people having sex. In fact, despite having a 17+ rating, NONE of them actually contain anything that a PG-13 movie doesn’t. They simply show attractive women in bathing suits. However, there is full frontal nudity and full on sex available for sale in the iTunes Movie store.
Even more baffling is that, at the moment at least, Apple has allowed both the Playboy and Sport Illustrated apps to remain in the store. In fact, one developer who recently had his Bikini girl app “Box Score Babes” pulled posted this comparison between his app and the SI swimsuit app which is still available for sale.
The only logical explanation?
Well, actually I wouldn’t call it “logical”, but all I can think is that Apple is SEVERELY over-reacting to whatever bizarre letter writing campaign a couple of religious yokels have organized, and decided to clean up the app store to make their iPod touch more like “Nintendo”. Of course, this is a ridiculous argument as any kid old enough to have their own iTunes account (and credit card) knows how to type in “blow job” into the Safari browser and get ACTUAL sexual content on their iPod. In fact, most of them probably already know that Bing is even better for doing this. Whether we like it or not, this is not 1980, and seeing girls in bikinis with the word “Babes” under them is actually the tamest thing these kids are likely to encounter. To my mind, naming apps like these with the words “babes” or “boobs” is a good thing, as that is how they will appear on their parent;s credit cards.
But whatever the reason, Apple is really acting like a bunch of puritanical hypocrites here, and I just hope they come to their senses. And not just because we were 4 days away from releasing our official Mac Chick of the Month app.
… Although I’m not holding my breath. I can’t remember the last time Apple ever admitted one of their policies was wrong or changed their mind about any decision.
Oh, and by the way, you can buy the full 2 Live Crew discology on iTunes. And yes, the album covers feature girls in bikinis
Adobe: 7 million people attempt to download Flash each month to their iPhones
Filed under: Apple Bashing, Fight! Fight!, Opinion, Software
Adobe unleashed a pretty damaging statistic in the whole “You Suck” , “Well you smell!” thing going on between Apple and Adobe right now. Apparently despite Steve Jobs’ claims that Flash is on the way out, Adobe reports that over 7 million iPhone and iPod touch users attempted to install Flash on their iPhones in the month of December alone. Stats were measured based on unsuccessful attempts to install Flash from Adobe.com.
I’m not positive whether 7 million attempts directly translates into 7 million iPhone/iPod touch users – it’s entirely possible it’s just ONE GUY who really doesn’t get it – but I would imagine that it’s pretty obvious that at the moment at least, quite a few people would be willing to take a “buggy, crash prone” Flash implementation on their iPhone than none at all.
I know I misses my Webkinz!
[via SFGate]
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