What Apple used to stand for, and what they stand for today

What they used to stand for: Clever hacks, exploration, creativity, making stuff, freedom, designed to benefit the hacker and the user

What they stand for today: Consumerism, restriction, walled gardens, control, designed to benefit the content producer

Best symbolism of the former? The Apple II. The lid isn’t even screwed down, just pops right off. BASIC, and in some versions (depending on available space,) an assembler and disassembler in ROM. Manuals with schematics and source code.

Best symbolism of the latter? The iPad. Sealed tight, Apple doesn’t even swap the battery, they replace the entire unit. Programming is only if you pay to play, and even then, your code has to be approved by Apple. Allegedly, DRM baked straight into the CPU, so Apple can in theory control every single piece of code that you run on it.

Which would you prefer?


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