“When I switch on my Apple Mac, the first thing I see on the screen is a smiling face – the icon of Apple’s operating system. It seems apt. Once the technology world’s underdog, Apple has become the consumer power-brand of the 21st century, a company that knows what real people want from their cutting-edge gadgets,” Julia Pierce writes for The Independent.
Pierce writes, “Apple has had reason to be cheerful. But the happy face on the screen of my MacBook laptop is starting to look more like a pained grimace. In recent months, court cases, faulty products and bad PR have taken the shine off these objects of consumer desire. Could the unthinkable be coming to pass? As David has become Goliath, has Apple lost its cool?”
Full load here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Leo” for the heads up.]
MacDailyNews Take: This piece should be used in university media classes to illustrate how to generate a hit piece. The Independent: Yellow journalism at its most obvious.
I don’t know if “Yellow Journalism” is the right term, but this is definitely a hit piece.
seriously, that steve jobs dude got mental issues, he behaves like he is a god or something, totally pathetic.
I won’t hit any related link so they won’t get what they want!
when’s the last time the startup image on a mac was a smiling mac?
How old is the machine this guy is using?
Umm, OS X systems do not boot with the Smiley face. The boot and the Apple logo pops up. OS 9 Machines and earlier had the smiley face, how old is this guys “Mac” makes me wonder if he really even owns an Apple product.
He’s using System 7.1
The first thing she sees on a MacBook is a smiley face? MacBooks use OS 9?
The first thing I see on any version of OS X is a dark gray Apple logo over a light gray screen; then the Mac OS X startup window with . . . ah . . . an Apple logo.
Honey, if you’re going to write a themed piece, be sure to know your theme well.
Drivel.Drivel.Drivel. Julia Pierce don´t have a MacBook that boots with a smiling Apple-face. Liar and pseudo-journalism. In Norway we call it Agurk-nytt. ( cucumber-news)
There’s something going on with men and the ass.
I can’t remember the last time i rebooted my PowerBook and actually looked at the screen, but isn’t the Mac OS logo on the splashscreen? That’s the one with the split dark blue/light blue faces that are smiling?
Okay, enough with the nitpicking…
This is clearly a “I want some hits on my never visited web site, so I’ll write a glaringly negative ‘story’ about Macintoshes and lure the clueless devils, thus boosting my hit count and allowing me to get a Frappuccino™ at Starbucks© while skateboarding home from ‘the office’ ” kind of article.
No dice, slacker…
Court cases are no basis of success or lack thereof. I could sue apple for not making blue iPods anymore but that wouldn’t mean a damn thing.
As far as faulty products go, it seems that in most cases if there are issues with Apple’s products they tend to fix them both on the manufacturing side and on the consumer end rather quickly.
Cool is a relative term.
Apple will always be cool as long as there are Dells, Gateways and Microsoft.
“But the happy face on the screen of my MacBook laptop is starting to look more like a pained grimace.”
An obvious lie. Yes, cucumber news. And not a radish in sight.
Geir werner,
Speaking of Norway, what intbdd ss, your take on the Consumer association extorting Apple to open it’s iPod system to Microsoft. How much do you think Microsoft paid those government workers?
This guy needs to look at Dell and then he’ll see why Apple systems are cool.
LAME
Unless he’s running OS 9 on that MacBook, he’s talking utter sh*t.
MDN is the real hit genrator. 99% of the articles here are just fluff.
“There’s something going on with men and the ass.”
I think that pretty much sums up how everyone on this thread feels about that article. Well done!
in a related story, said writer just woke up under a tree with a damn long beard.
What, like MDN has never written a hit piece like all of those articles that were deliberately designed to goad political opponents on both sides in the run-up to the 2004 Presidential Election.
The biggest problems with both parts of this piece in The Indy is that they’re typical of the Anglo-Saxon ‘build them up, knock ’em down’ school of thought and that the research is slightly outdated.
For instance, there is no acknowledgment of the judgement of the French courts that the proposed ‘anti-DRM’ law is unconstitutional and there is this kind of nudge and a wink that Apple must have been aware that FoxConn was mistreating its workforce and was directly responsible for the behaviour of its suppliers. It’s strange that the press in my country never seems to research the behaviour of British companies who have ‘off-shored’ with the same vigour, but I’m not sure I’d expect them to do anything else.
Also the logic of the pieces are relatively flawed: I’m not sure anyone’s opinion of Microsoft has gone up because of Bill and Mel’s philanthropy, much of which was fuelled by illegal monopolistic practices that for which Microsoft is still being penalised.
I don’t think it’s ‘yellow journalism’, it’s just bad journalism.
unthinkable?
no mac is cooler than a wicked fast pentium 4 with REAL megahertz and win xp media center edition and a REAL man’s remote that you can actually use instead of lose like that tiny apple toy.
too many mac laptops cacthing fire or getting hot or whatever it was, too many osx virus proof of concepts–which IS proof, look at the name.
real cool means products that dont scratch up easily, you dont see microsoft music players getting scratches, they use scratch proof plastic so why not apple?
only a few mac heads ever thought apple was cool, the rest of us know white is soooo boring and sad, look at dell if you want to see an all in one thats better/faster than imac, it looks like POWER!
lame core duos run cool because they r SLOW, look at the mhz, so what are you buying except “the cool factor” or should I say the “cool aid factor.
apple don’t even put their logo on the front of the imacs like dell does, ashamed you think, why put the name across the back like that?
Ampar –
For a lot of guys, you could say it pretty much sums up life in general.
“no mac is cooler than a wicked fast pentium 4”
A wicked lot of chicks dig me too as you guys have probably assumed by now because I know how to act cool and talk to a woman in a way that makes her feel special and also respected like the time I went into the library and there was a wicked lot of old chicks in there and I knew they would be wicked smart so I would have to appeal to their intellectual side which is cool so I went and found the biggest book I could find and dragged it over to a desk right in the middle of the library and I picked it up way over my head and dropped it onto the table and it made a wicked loud crack when it hit the table which was awesome because there was a chick sitting right next to the spot I picked and I guess she was reading because the horrifying clapping noise scared the crap out of her because she jumped and made a wicked loud EEEK which was cool because I could see she was starting to warm up to my boyish charm so I really tuend it on and told her DID YOU PI$$ YOURSELF BECAUSE IF YOU DID THAT’S COOL wicked loud which was cool and that’s when she started playing hard to get and she got up and moved to a table that was wicked far away but before she did she went over to the librarian’s desk and whispered something to her and I could tell she was telling on me because they were pointing at me and I started getting a little bit upset and I decided to act nonchalant by reading that book I picked out but it turned out that that book totally sucke because it just had a wicked shtload of maps and I couldn’t understand them and the writing was wicked small and I kept getting more and more nervous because that librarian kept gawking at me especially when I got bored of reading and just started opening the book and slamming it closed which was wicked loud and that’s how I knew it was cool but finally I had it with that librarian so I stood up on my chair and told her LOOK DAMMIT TAKE A PICTURE IF YOU’RE THAT FKN FASCINATED WITH ME I’LL PUT AN END TO YOUR NOSEY WAYS MIND YOUR BUSINESS I’M JUST TRYING TO STAND OVER HERE AND IMPRESS CHICKS BUT NOT YOU BECAUSE YOU PROBABLY SMELL LIKE THE ATTIC YOU STUPID JERK and I bucked up and put my head down like a running back and took off and I was going to smash into her but good except it took so long for me to get to the other side of the library where she was that I missed her entirely but nailed the top of my head directly into the side of her heavy wooden desk and it made a cracking sound even louder than the childish noises I was making with the book I had selected to peruse and she had a globe and four giant books about sweetbreads on her desk and they all slid off and smashed me in the head which totally sucked because I think I cracked the top of my skull again and it makes a sound like the box of fruity pebbles when I shake my head and I was lying on the floor thinking about how I always get screwed in situations like this and maybe I’m going to start looking for a counselor or an advisor to help me control my rage because I started yelling at the librarian HEY YOU STUPID OLD LADY FIGHT FAIR FIGHT FAIR GIVE ME A FEW MINUTES TO GO SMOKE A BUTT AND STRETCH MY LEGS AND HIDE IN THE BACK SEAT OF YOUR CAR AND WE’LL SETTLE THIS ONCE AND FO- and that stupid librarian hit me four times in the leg with her four foot ruler and she took off her shoe and used it to take out seven of my teeth and now I’m never tipping another librarian no matter how good the lapdances are
Correct me if I’m wrong but 10.0 to 10.1 still had the smily face in question and it was replace with the Apple symbol in 10.2.
No. Steve and Apple are cooler than ever you frickin’ idiot.
SAFEWAY HAS DECIDED THEY WILL GO ALL ORGANIC WITH THEIR PRODUCE STARTING JANUARY 2007
I agree with the article’s author to a certain extent. Apple is not what it used to be. It’s lost that “adventurous” edge it used to have. Specially as of late. It’s becoming what Microsoft used to be (and still is). A corporate monolith much like the one it portrayed itself bashing in the famours 1984 SuperBowl ad.
Since the iPod hit the big time, Apple’s been steadily getting both a bit too cocky and a tad too greedy for many folks out there. It’s clearly beginning to care more for the value of its stock rather than the value of its loyal customers. It’s closing more doors than opening new ones. Charging for things that used to be free. Eliminating software upgrade paths. Rising the costs of support, training and certification. Dunno… you can see it in the details. Go take a look at the reviews for Apple Remote Desktop in the Apple Store online. You’ll get the idea.
Anyway, I’ve been around Apple and Apple folks long enough to tell the difference. And I don’t particularly like it. On the other hand, I still like their products and will continue to support the brand as long as there continues to be merit in doing it. But, lately, I’ve found myself doing so with a frown and quite a bit of reservation.
Maybe someday, when Apple has learnt to beat Microsoft at its own game, perhaps there’ll be another company to come along and pick up where Apple left off. And become more Apple than Apple itself.
That’ll be the day I’ll peel off the Apple sticker off my window.
when you are all done giving your praise to the altar of Apple, try, oh please try to bring yourselves back down to earth to realize that there is some shred of truth in this article.
Hmmmm. Having just had my replacement iPod fail after only 2 months and been told tough, we’re not going to do anything, I can’t say I’m surprised at articles like this. Stand in my local dealer’s for an hour and listen to the litany of compalints about iPod failures andyou might begin to think there is something wrong with Apples quality control.
I’ve said it before, if Apple regards the iPod as a trojan to drive Mac sales they need to get the quality sorted pronto!! Otherwise the reputation of the one will rub off on the other.
David became Goliath? Not yet, dear Julia, not yet. Give it about three years.
no mac is cooler than a wicked fast pentium 4 with REAL megahertz<B>
As opposed to FAKE megahertz, presumably.
<B>and win xp media center edition and a REAL man’s remote that you can actually use instead of lose like that tiny apple toy.<B>
Ah, Win XP MCE: the particularly unflattering shade of lipstick on the pig that is Microsoft’s software engineering.
<B>too many mac laptops cacthing fire or getting hot or whatever it was
Unlike the Dell Grill-O-Matic 7000: do a hard days work scanning for viruses and then cook your meal all with the same appliance. By the way, cook your burgers after the flames have gone down and when the Dell has gone grey (or more grey, whatever)
real cool means products that dont scratch up easily, you dont see microsoft music players getting scratches
Actually, my problem is that I just don’t see Microsoft music players.
only a few mac heads ever thought apple was cool, the rest of us know white is soooo boring and sad, look at dell if you want to see an all in one thats better/faster than imac, it looks like POWER!
So you choose your computer according to the colour, are you sure you’re not a girl.
lame core duos run cool because they r SLOW, look at the mhz, so what are you buying except “the cool factor” or should I say the “cool aid factor.
Still believe the Megahertz myth, do you? I’d look at the actual performance on real-world applications myself, but that presumably requires literacy and I think I’ve spotted your problem…well, one of them anyway.
apple don’t even put their logo on the front of the imacs like dell does, ashamed you think, why put the name across the back like that?
Because when you’re sitting in front of the machine, you probably know what it is – and you probably need to be reminded when you go to buy a new one as they’re all so faceless.
When you put the logo on the back, it shows the people who are walking towards you that you have style and taste.
I don’t normally do the MW thing, but curiously this one is child.
if we all stop thinking of this article of “yellow journalism” and start demanding quality products, the sort of ipod batteries fiasco, Apple will never improve the customer satisfaction. and the point of the article is that as Apple gains marketshare, it will drive to get products out the door faster, sacrificing quality and customer service over revenues. is this really what we want Apple to become? another Dell.
It is up to US (as in you and me, and Ron and MDN) to make Apple accountable.
julia needs to get laid.
A couple of things.
Unless Julia Pierce is a pseudonym or has a sadistic mom/dad, the author of the piece is a she!
The author, despite being so very wrong about so very much, has a valid point. Or, some valid points. The nano incident was real. The MacBook yellowing is real. The incendiary laptops are real. There are other sides to each of the stories – the fact that the nanos were replaced, which she mentioned, being one – that show that, while Apple isn’t perfect, it is more responsive as well as less flawed than the three ahead of it in the sales race.
Apple needs to consider its future. Will Apple, without Jobs, be as directionless as Miami hopes Cuba will be without Fidel? Last time Apple was without Jobs, it devolved into a mere “computer company”, rather than holding its focus and drive to excel. Is it possible that Apple is drifting that way already? We Mac-lovers got that way because Apple products have tended to be better than they needed to be. More inventive, more intuitive, more attention to detail, more designed to inspire rather than to simply get the job done. Is Apple losing that edge?
Steve Jobs doesn’t act like a god. The media portrays him as one. The media is the one that has given him that image. Don’t be an idiot and learn to create your own opinions and thoughts. Don’t be a media lemming.
Why do you guys even waste our time with worthless articles like this one?
Those of you that demand yet greater perfection from a company that produces more ideas, products, software, ancillary devices and life changing ways of doing things deserve to be rubbed in the excreta of all those companies that can’t produce one third of what Apple can and does.
Give me a break. Apple is at the heights of achievement by anyones standards. And it isn’t resting on its laurels, it going way way further.
Idiots.
7up, it’s time once again for your pimple cream treatment.
Put it on “wicked fast,” (‘Kay) ’cause you’re starting to look (not to mention SOUND) a little zitty!
Yellow journalism? No, red journalism. The Independent is a loathsome British commie rag that despises all things American. But If Steve Jobs had been an incompetent loser, they would have loved him. Ignore this driveling idiocy article.
The Independent is such an Apple-hating POS.
Screw them!
fsck that fscking rag
fsck bill c–t gates too
and that bald fat c–t
fsck em all
“The nano incident was real. The MacBook yellowing is real. The incendiary laptops are real. There are other sides to each of the stories – the fact that the nanos were replaced, which she mentioned, being one – that show that, while Apple isn’t perfect, it is more responsive as well as less flawed than the three ahead of it in the sales race.”
True DLMeyer, however, the author of this article fails to mention (or more likely, realize) that none of this is new. Apple has NEVER been a “perfect” company, and there have been issues similar to the ones cited throughout their entire history. It comes with the territory when mass producing complicated products. Very few companies actually execute every phase of mass production, therefore, they have to rely on others to do it for them. Often the companies they rely on don’t have the same corporate values, and attitudes about quality, and many times various elements of the product can then be defective. It happens to everyone, but what separates the good companies from the bad is how they deal with those problems. Apple is very quick to fix them, and make things right for the customer. Other manufacturers take a “tough luck” approach. She tries to make it sound like this is a new occurrence though. It’s always been that way, and probably always will be.
Regardless, Apple has a rich history of making mistakes, which is part of what makes it such an interesting company. Have they lost their cool factor? Cool is in the eye of the beholder. Apple never said they were “cool”. They’re just doing things their own way instead of following in the footsteps of others. In my mind, that will always be cool.
Flappo!
That’s the sort of language I expect to hear Ballmer using as he launces another chair…
Wash your mouth out with soap RIGHT NOW young man!
Mark Garcia: “Correct me if I’m wrong but 10.0 to 10.1 still had the smily face in question and it was replace with the Apple symbol in 10.2.”
I believe you might be right. However, she said, “the happy face on the screen of my MacBook” which would mean it was preloaded with 10.4, Tiger.
Still a cucumber with no onions or radishes.
Let’s try and create some kind of bad ora or doubt about Apple by writing a rediculous article. All companies have lawsuits and product issues that need to be resolved. Dell’s battery woes are simular to Apple’s if not worse as the batteries that Apple gets don’t blow up in a ball of flames as of yet.
For me, the most telling part of the story is in the last paragraph:
“There are those who have been with Apple all along, and there are those who love their iPods, but who, like me, have never really liked Apple.”
I’m glad, since you never liked Apple, that you are objectively reporting on the company’s “coolness,” like you know….
Is “Julia Pierce” pseudoname for Ann Coulter?
Once one gets a defective Mac – one definitely has a different view on Apple.
I went from Apple fanatic to Apple “who cares” after my Mac laptop was a total lemon. 3 keyboards, two logic boards, new processor and some other parts.
I used to be first to buy the newest Mac….heck, now I look for reasons to postpone a new purchase.
Apple definitely lost its coolness with me.
tango: As far as I’m aware, Ann Coulter doesn’t moonlight as a writer for a Brit-commie rag.
(tango = pseudoNYM for “loser.”)
Hello all. Interesting stories, one and all.
But then, let us remember that Apple is a company, that needs to make a profit, etc. The have good and bad days. Unlike Microsoft who has bad days, bad days, and of course, WORSE days.
” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”grin” style=”border:0;” />
And on those bad days, just remember my friend with their NEW HP laptop. It only takes 8 specific steps to empty the trash. seriously. Neat.
” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”grin” style=”border:0;” />
PS about the writer of the above article. Well, I am guessing that she is a teen going thru puberty and is having one of those emotional days when everyone should curl up and die cause her life sucks.
” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”grin” style=”border:0;” /> Been there, knew the people. Nothing is ever OK, it all is going bad. Nothing left to do but wait to die.
OR, buy a Mac, cause life is too short.
” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”grin” style=”border:0;” />
N.
Ok once and for all people:
The Mac “smiley face” (sic) logo is actually TWO FACES.
The dark half-face on the left represents the Mac’s computer screen and the lighter face on the right (seen in profile) represents the USER.
Mac and user, both happy. It represents INTERFACE.
It intentionally evokes the Picasso style.
None of this is “made up” on my part.
It is stunning how few people have working gestalt systems capable of seeing this simple example of emergence. Is it the water?
Think different.
Oh, and is this guy using Mac OS 7, 8 or 9?
==
“When I switch on my Apple Mac, the first thing I see on the screen is a smiling face – the icon of Apple’s operating system.”
==
I don’t know about y’all, but I see a gray apple when I start up my Mac OS X.
Artistic license and editorials don’t mix, m’fer.
*shaking head* You sad little leftist, Tango! Are you getting all scaredy-waredy because mean ol’ Ann Coulter is out there invading your homelands and converting all your friends to Christianity? Bwhahaha. Ann Coulter knows her field inside and out. Julia knows nothing. There’s the first difference, right there, but you leftists seem to have such a hard time with obvious realities. Crawl on back to DailyKos!
I’m beginning to wonder if Linux Guy is channeling the spirit of Joe McCarthy or if he’s just off his meds.
According to him, anything or anyone that criticises anything American – including Apple – is part of the communist menace. And yet he uses software which was developed under a co-operative, almost socialist spirit. Strange really.
I think we (mac lovers) should just stand back, and watch as the windows world gets tired of a bad computing experience. And in the end, when apple still has a better OS, we should laugh at them. by the way, my mac is from 1999 and i have only upgraded the RAM, by 256 Megs. and I am running OS X, and running it well. I’d love to see any Windows computer from ’99 running XP with hardly any upgrades.
Yes, I hate Windows
Apple’s silence is deafening concerning the 10.4.7 fiasco. How quickly they release a solid 10.4.8 that fixes the problems is crucial, to assure Mac users they haven’t totally lost it technically. There’s no pressure on Apple, considering Vista’s continuing slippage, so it’s hard to understand how this has happened. Is OS X turning into Windows because of Boot Camp?
He uses an old system, and writes for The Independent — say no more.
I admonished this paper not so long ago for filling its front page with a “We’re Doomed” eco-porn non-story — while nestling above the masthead was a ‘Free air tickets to New York’ come-on for faithful readers.
Ha!
“The Independent is a loathsome British commie rag that despises all things American.”
LinuxGuy you should realise that to the average non-American a statement like that just makes you sound like a moron.
The Independent’s tagline used to be: “It is. Are you?”
What, crap?
The Indepedent is well known in the UK as being middle-class left, which is even worse than extreme left.
At least the extreme left stand by what they believe in (what they believe in is a load of socialist claptrap, but at least they believe in, and live it).
The middle-class left preach on about leftist inclusive policies, being soft on crime, soft on drugs, while at the same time being sealed up in their ivory towers drinking champagne and having dinner parties, safely protected from the chaos that their policies create.
His slip up with the smiley face shows that this is nothing more than an Apple-bashing-by-the-numbers, based on research that this idiot did about 10 years ago.
It could be worse, at least it’s not The Guardian.
Soft on Crime and Drugs? That explains why Britain has a much bigger problem with both than the US…now I understand. The Independent is a reputable media voice, certainly more so than the average web site. If someone has an opinion I fail to see what getting worked up is supposed to accomplish except illustrating the unwillingness of some to accept the fact there is a diversity of opinion on most issues.
LinuxGuy and Mac Prodigal Son “Yellow journalism? No, red journalism. The Independent is a loathsome British commie rag that despises all things American. But If Steve Jobs had been an incompetent loser, they would have loved him. Ignore this driveling idiocy article.”
Except it’s not. There are far more left wing papers over here. The Independent is so middle of the road on every possible issue it’s dubbed the “Indescribablyboring”. I wouldn’t worry about it hating Americans. It doesn’t hate anything. Or like anything either to be honest.
I’ll agree with your last point though. Ignoring this article works for me.
Could we please drag this out of the gutter? The writer of this article happens to be the mother of my children. Go ahead and disagree all you want; it is an opinion piece in a respectable British national newspaper about a computer manufacturer – it is hardly an affront to humanity or to a religious belief as some would seem to have it. Whatever you do, please do not descend into personal insults against the writer; it is genuinely hurtful to see someone you love degragated in such a way when they are merely trying to prompt a useful debate (and it is a useful debate if you care about Apple computers); moreover, such insults only degrade the insulter.
I would just like to clear one thing up: the whole first couple of paragraphs, which waffle on about how the first thing you see when you turn on an Apple Mac is the “Happy Mac icon”, were not written by Julia – they are the work of Independent subs who for some unfathomable reason altered the original draft. When we picked up the newspaper yesterday (Julia did not get to see the altered version before publication), the first thing I said was, “I cannot believe they changed that. Every Mac user out there is going to say, ‘The first thing you see when you switch on a Mac is a grey Apple’!” This poorly-altered opening is bound to detract from the article as a whole, but I ask you to read past that. The writer _does_ use a MacBook (it’s mine!) – she is not lying, although anybody reading those first published paragraphs could be forgiven for thinking so.
The main point, though, is this: I develop shareware software for OS X. Both myself and the author of the article use OS X as our OS of choice and we are a three-Mac household. Neither of us would even consider returning to Windows: the article was not written by a Mac-basher. But that does not make Apple infallible. Apple is not a religion; it is a computer company. They happen to make an amazing operating system and some very solid computers; they also happen to have some amazing software engineers who are incredibly helpful (I could name several Apple software engineers who have made very useful contributions to my shareware app; I doubt there are many major companies about which you could say the same). Unfortunately, for all of the amazing things they do, Apple also happen to have a very arrogant attitude when it comes to dealing with the press or with customers with out-of-warranty machines or with unrecognised problems. If you’ve never had to deal with this, then I envy you.
Apple get away with a lot because they have a vocal fanboy following who are more than happy to make personal attacks on strangers who dare to question their brand-of-choice; they cannot remain unchallenged forever, however. And this was the point of the article (which _was_ well-researched), as anyone who read past the first few paragraphs will realise: Apple have not dealt entirely well with its increased market share. The article was about calling Apple to account. Apple is a big, corporate business – it is not, as another writer recently pointed out, a worker’s co-op. I have no idea what “yellow” journalism is (although I personally don’t see “red” as an insult), but I do know that good journalism tries to call the goliaths out there into account. (But yes, I wish Apple was more of a goliath than MS too.)
Oh, and it seems that some people have got two different articles mixed up. Beneath Julia’s article there was a separate piece by somebody who said that they liked their iPod but didn’t like Apple; nowhere in the main article did Julia state that she didn’t like Apple.
I think there is an interesting debate to be had here. I just hope it can continue in a civilised way without personal insult.
the independent is actually a fairly objective news source most of the time
there is probably more to the options story than meets the eye
and certainly as apple transitions from underdog to top dog more entities will look forward to seeing them fall
remember the words to don henly’s ‘dirty laundry’:
kick ’em when they’re up, kick ’em when they’re down
KB, good man — I’m glad to see you stand up for your wife and clarify the confusion.
I actually came to this site to look for your response after seeing your blog entry. Glad I found it.
As for the first paragraphs… tragic things like that happen all the time. That was one of the reasons I dropped my freelance journalism. Too much editorial freedom to my articles (in a small town), while keeping my name as the article’s author. But of course, writing for Independent is a different level of professional recognition, one not many can ever achieve.
I do use a Powerbook, but frankly I treat Apple for what it is: a product manufacturer. As for the Macbook… I bought it, and then had to return it for all the quality issues it had. The only reason I use Apple is due to the innovative software, like the one you’re developing. Other than that, I don’t care about what branding my keyboard has.
Some people in this discussion took it a tad too far. I thought the Apple user crowd was supposed to be a bit more intelligent than that.
Cheers man.
Good for you for sticking up for the mother of your children. Some of the children on this board will get the point when they too are fathers (or mothers).
I’ve been writing for newspapers since before the Mac appeared, & I had one of the first 1984 batch to hit Britain. They’ve always been variable in quality control on first release. As far as the Indie subs are concerned, I’d give them hell. It’s out of order to put substantive changes under a reporter’s byline.
As to the vulgar semiliterate kiddies blatting away here… we don’t need to listen to people who think someone called “Julia” is a man. Nor do we expect rational thought from fanboys; if they were capable of rational thought they wouldn’t be fanboys, a liminal state of being — perhaps in some cases perpetual liminality — marked by inadequate autonomy and the need to reify the fictive attributes attached to a commercial product by marketing experts. In other words, the fanboys are suckers for the reality distortion field.
Fanboys: Julia’s old man just released the best piece of Mac shareware I’ve seen for years. His woman’s a reputable journalist. The Independent — for which I was a columnist for 10 years to for which I still write regularly — is middle-of-the-road liberal. An example of a “commie rag” would have been Pravda, or even The Morning Star. If you are going to try to take the moral high ground with a weak case, adopt a relentlessly elevated rhetorical tone; infantile insults don’t cut it. It’s considered polite to deploy spelling and grammer properly in a public discourse. Now carry on. I’l not be back. Too depressing.