Why Apple is evil: Claiming that jailbreaking caused an iPad to dangerously overheat

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This is a disturbing one.

A reader of The Tech Report has reported that his iPad’s charging cable melted, and the iPad itself got dangerously hot – to the point that he reflexively dropped it, causing the screen to crack.

So, he took it into his local Apple Store, expecting a replacement.

But that didn’t happen.

The Apple Store rep noticed a Cydia icon on the screen. At that point, the reader was told that his device was completely not covered under warranty, and that the crack also meant that it wasn’t covered – never mind that the crack was caused by the overheating incident.

Here’s the thing. Let’s say that the iPad did overheat due to software. It should still have thermal protection circuits to protect users from fire hazards. The fact that those failed means that Apple should at the very least make this go away, because otherwise it’s bad PR. Oh, wait. Apple didn’t make it go away, and now it’s bad PR time.

The other thing is… Apple has a burden of proof, under the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act, that the jailbreaking caused the machine to fail. If they can’t prove it, then they’ll be forced to replace the iPad.

Seriously, Apple, this is just getting ridiculous. (And there’ll be another article later today.)

A simple hypothesis about society, and why there’s so many problems nowadays

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I’ll just come right out with my hypothesis: As the number of people involved in a system increases, the odds of that system failing increase.

Why, though?

Here’s what I’ve seen that leads up to that hypothesis.

The first thing to look at is bureaucracy. Bureaucracy is when small, competing systems form within a larger system, and those competing systems get in the way of each other, when they should be working together towards a common goal. Bureaucratic systems evolve due to specialization – which is usually a good thing – one person can’t control everything in a large system, so other people have to specialize in it. The problem is, get enough people, and then you’re split into different teams that don’t work closely together. At that point, they’re actively competing against each other, and they’re having to cover their asses against one another – the spirit of working to further a cause goes away, and instead self-preservation is the name of the game.

This happens in companies, non-profit organizations, and governments. Continue reading “A simple hypothesis about society, and why there’s so many problems nowadays”