Why Apple is evil: Banning some open development

Posted on

Apple’s removed GNU Go from the App Store, as the GPL (which it is licensed under) conflicts with some of Apple’s requirements for the App Store.

I’ll note that this is completely legal, and in fact, to keep distributing it, Apple would have had to change their policies.

I’ll also note that I generally dislike the GPL, and even more so the zealots that think the GPL should be mandatory. The GPL does take choice away.

However, that doesn’t mean that writing restrictions that prevent GPL software from being used on the iPhone isn’t evil. If people want to use the GPL for their software, they should be allowed to.

Source: The Register

Why Apple is evil: Not taking legal tender for their products

Posted on

First things first, yes, I’m aware that “legal tender” is only required to be accepted to settle debts, and as the iPad is not provided until payment is made, Apple isn’t required to accept cash.

So, this is in the aftermath of a previous post, about people getting lifetime bans from buying iPads for buying too many. When that story broke, there were suggestions all over the place to just use cash.

Well, they actually went to the extent of banning cash (and gift card, apparently) sales.

Seriously, Apple, if people want to resell your item, what’s so wrong with that?

Source: Boing Boing

Why Apple is evil: Stealing ideas… from Microsoft.

Posted on

So, in 2007, Steve Jobs and Bill Gates were interviewed at All Things Digital 5. One of the topics was the future of computing. Bill Gates… spelled out exactly how the iPad today works, and predicted the death of the PC. Steve Jobs was sticking to a “personal computers will never die” stance, with slave devices to work with the PC.

Now? iPad and iPhone all the way.

Go figure.

Oh, and before anyone complains… yes, I know, Microsoft stole from Apple in the 1980s… and the 1990s… and the 2000s… but what it does mean is that Apple’s “revolutionary” computing idea… was pushed by Microsoft three years ago. Apple isn’t nearly as revolutionary as they claim, they just have better execution than Microsoft.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wuhHIqJyjY0

Source: Gizmodo

Why Apple is evil: Calling for an app, and then rejecting it when someone actually makes it

Posted on

Sorry about the lack of updates, I’m trying not to make stuff up, and stick to the facts. Sometimes there’s less news, so I won’t post if there’s nothing to post. But, now there is something to post. And this one’s practically kicking puppies evil.

Steve Jobs has publicly expressed interest in something like HyperCard on the iPad, and calling for someone to write it.

So, the logical thing to do… would be to write it.

Right?

Wrong. Apple will reject it, even if you work with them. What a good way to ensure goodwill among your developers – publicly call for them to develop something, and then reject it.

Source: Slashdot

My ideas for a social networking site that doesn’t suck

Posted on

In the wake of Facebook’s latest privacy screwup, I’ve started to think about ideas for something that could be better than Facebook – providing what people like about Facebook, while providing strong privacy, and with less problems.

The basis of my idea is “spheres.” Spheres would be loosely based on the idea of lists of friends, but with much more control.

Every user would begin with a public and a private sphere. Spheres would be like individual user profiles, but under the same account.

The public sphere contains information that is visible to the world. Anyone, not even a member of this site, could view content in the public sphere.

The private sphere, however, would only contain information that’s visible to those that have been granted access.

Now, this setup can scale to more granular levels. Let’s say you want to share some information with all of your friends, but some information with only some friends. Friends would only be able to see information in a sphere that they are granted access to – sub-spheres wouldn’t be visible, unless they were explicitly granted access.

You could also set the spheres up such that a sphere can cross the public/private boundary. I’m not quite sure of the mechanics of it at this time, but you could, for example, have a work sphere that has some public information, some private information.

I may have to invert the structure of the spheres, such that you can have multiple parallel spheres with both public and private sub-spheres, rather than two all-encompassing spheres with spheres inside. However, the idea is that you could have fine-grained control over all information that you post, and who can see it, in a simple, logical manner.

BTW, if anyone’s wondering why I haven’t posted a “Why Apple is evil” article lately, I’ve been running a bit short on content. My goal is one article per day, but I never said I wouldn’t make up for missed days with multiple articles. I don’t want to make stuff up, or rehash stuff excessively, so that’s why I haven’t posted.

Why Apple is evil: They can’t take a joke

Posted on

Really not much to report, but… Ellen Degeneres made a (mediocre, IMO) spoof of the iPhone ads. Apple was annoyed.

A non-evil company would ignore it if they were annoyed, or even joke about it.

An evil company would push the celebrity to take all of their comments back.

Source: Engadget

Why Apple is evil: FTC and DoJ rumored to be planning antitrust probe against Apple for language restrictions

Posted on

The rumor mill is churning out reports that the US Federal Trade Commission and Department of Justice are planning an antitrust probe, in response to Apple’s decision to restrict iPhone app development to certain languages, and locking out translation tools.

You know you screwed up somewhere when two US government organizations are fighting over the right to anal probe you.

Source: Ars Technica