“The signs are all there: The technological superiority. The ruthless march to galactic domination. The musical devices that from a fashion standpoint would be the perfect accessory for any Stormtrooper uniform. Once but the student (see their classic 1984 ad, their PC vs. Mac ads and oh, everything else that’s ever come out of their mouth), it seems that little ol’ Apple finally could be turning into the Master,” Charles Coxe blogs for Rolling Stone.
Coxe writes, “Consider the recent evidence that goes well beyond the limited world of desktop computers:”
• The announcement of the impending iPhone: So now Cingular (which was just bought out by original Evil Empire AT&T) gets to be the exclusive provider, forcing everybody to figure out how to dump their current wireless plan and switch over.
MacDailyNews Take: No evidence of “evil.”
• To this date, Apple has sold 90 million iPods and more than 2 billion individual songs through the iTunes store.
MacDailyNews Take: Success is not evidence of “evil.”
• Steve Jobs announced Tuesday that he has asked the record labels to scrap their proprietary DRM software that prevents music from being shared, as he feels it’s ineffective and merely hampers consumers from being able to listen to music how they please. Sounds good, right? Well, it’s propaganda. Lost in his release is that that the largest source of proprietary DRM software is Apple…
MacDailyNews Take: The music cartels required Apple to placed DRM on the files before they would allow Apple to sell their contracted artists’ music. No evidence of “evil.”
• Apple… officially warned PC users to avoid installing Microsoft Vista… until Apple gets around to updating the iTunes software in the next couple weeks or so.
MacDailyNews Take: Ooh, “wait a couple of weeks,” pure “evil.” Quick, get an exorcist on the iPhone!
• Apple has reached a deal with Apple Corps Ltd. which will allow the entire Beatles’ catalogue to be purchased from iTunes.
MacDailyNews Take: No evidence of “evil.”
“The fact that Apple now seems to be calling all the shots is more than a little bit unnerving. First they dominate publishing, Web design, and music, then TV and movies, mobile phones…when Steve Jobs flips the switch, the all-seeing ‘i’ will be everywhere. When you wake up tomorrow to find a folder with a question mark where the sun used to be, don’t come crying to us,” Coxe writes.
Full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Readers too numerous to mention for the heads up.]
Charles Coxe has produced as meaningless a piece of pap as anything we’ve seen in quite some time. Unless it’s meant to be humorous – in which case it also fails – it’s just a nice, catchy headline with nothing substantive underneath.
Now there’s an empre I wouldn’t mind being a part of. Hopefully we’ll take over the world and rid ourselves from the windows world!
’tis rather interesting how success is equated to evil so much in today’s society. Sometimes that is indeed the case; often it’s not….
Come on, haven’t you guys ever heard the term “tongue in cheek”?
So, what … you are going to run into the open arms of Microsoft because you “think” Apple is evil.
You are stupid.
WTF!! This guy is a freakin moron….sheesh talk about a very overpaid loser. What happened to covering wild parties etc? Has this jackass ever been to a party? Minutia like this is for other publications…I am shocked that this sloppy crap slipped by the editor. Slipped! I shoulda done a face plant!! LOL! What a noob!
This guy must be on high test, a throw back from the sixties probably.
Wow man, Apple is the food of the Devil man.
>Come on, haven’t you guys ever heard the term “tongue in cheek”?>
That saying is now changed to, ” zune in cheeks.”
AND… WTF is wrong with Apple calling the shots anyway Mr. “I dont go to cool parties” Coxe? Seems like Gates and Co did a great job of fscking it up for most noobs why not let the real professionals take the fsckin wheel for a change. It definitely wont hurt!! OMG! I just realized why this tool is writing about Apple! Apple is officially a rockstar now!! W00t!!! Grats Apple! Grats Steve
” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”wink” style=”border:0;” />! Coxe do everyone a favor and stfu!
The ENTIRE BEATLES CATALOG?
Does this guy know something we don’t? Who made THAT announcement? I’ve heard the rumors of a limited number of tracks, remastered..available for Valentines Day. I’ve heard the rumors of a limited number
of tracks from SOME albums. Where did the news of the Entire Catalog come from?
This guy is a clickwhore©
PR
Apple is the new “return of the Jedi” stupdi!
I think charles is the only one who gets it. This isn’t meant to be taken seriously. Lighten up people.
Zune in cheek? May I be the first to say, “Eeewwww!”
MDN: “image” as in, ” That’s an image I didn’t need this early in the morning.”
rolling stone is a total faakin joke
the same rag that in it’s list of all time top guitarists put eddie van halen at no. 70 ??!?
and a talentless loser like the edge ahead of a bona fide genus like jeff beck
crap mag
Who reads Rolling Stone anymore?
Horrors! Apple has sold zero iPhones and is already an evil empire. On that basis, RIM, Nokia, MOT etc. are eviller. They’ve sold more.
Evil is as evil does.
With regard to “Apple… officially warned PC users to avoid installing Microsoft Vista… until Apple gets around to updating the iTunes software in the next couple weeks or so.”
Apple users have been waiting for a year for MS to produce a universal version of Mac Office.
MS is delaying the Mac version Office for six months after the release of the Windoze version.
This is the definition of “pure evil.”
From an end user perspective Apple would be evil if they took my money for poorly designed, shoddy, insecure imitations of much better technology, like our friends at Microsoft. They would be evil if they forced me to use their proprietary file formats at every turn, like our friends at Microsoft.
Instead, Apple supplies me with well designed, high quality, innovative products which use freely available industry standard file formats including MP3, AAC, JPG, PNG, PDF, TIF. No lock-in for me. I am happy to use their hardware.
Microsoft reminds me of sour nerds who have no social skills and don’t know how to make friends outside of intellectual bullying & intimidation. They are the kids who didn’t know how to get along in the sandbox and would crush your sandcastle so they could feel better about themselves. This is how children act when they don’t have the patience or skill set to make a decent sandcastle of their own. I don’t know if this makes Microsoft evil, but for me they’re irrelevant. I choose to ignore them because their product is uninspired and their behavior is so negative.
If you have to say you’re “people ready”, you aren’t people ready.
this is what you get when you use the m$ measuring stick of success/evil on apple
m$ is successful without doubt but their products suck
apple is the same but their products don’t suck
Apple has signed their own death sentence. Their hardware quality is poor and getting rave reviews on the internet like this:
http://www.zedshaw.com/rants/apple_sux.html
The only place Apple hardware gets good reviews is on pro-Apple blogs and sites. It will only be a matter of time before Apple quits selling computers, tries to make it in the world of digital media and slowly withers away and dies. Right now Apple is just riding the Big Wave. Guess what happens when the Big Wave hits the shore?
Piracy is still way bigger than Apple in the world of digital media. Apple could die today and nobody would really notice except the .00005% of the world population that are Apple fans.
What do you expect from Rolling Stone? They have consistently reduced the culture of music to the lowest common denominator of conformity, bling, and tits n’ ass (see their groundbreaking work legitimizing Snoop Dogg’s ‘side career’ as a pimp); they haven’t had their finger on the pulse of much for a looooong time. ‘Zound’ like anyone you know?
Rolling Stone covered (Kate) Moss…
I think that should settle it.
” When you wake up tomorrow to find a folder with a question mark where the sun used to be, don’t come crying to us,””
WTF is that supposed to mean? First of all, this rarely happens. Secondly, even if Apple is ‘calling all the shots’ as he implies, at least there’s now a company that is dominating a market segment that at the very least gets products right.
Look at MS. Their influence and dominance still is vastly greater than Apple’s and yet day by day the users of Windows just gleefully skip along taking another bite of the shit sandwich that has been served up to them by Redmond. No complaints, just acceptance because thats what ‘everybody uses’ and there is some sort of sick comfort in mass misery.
Apple has a big chunk of influence in the music industry. Big deal. Having to listen to music is a pasttime, not essential like using and OS on a daily basis. People should be happy there is a company that works hard to get it right and stop complaining and sending out FUD articles like this to get page hits.
Ironically, my MW is ‘quality’. I’ll take Apple quality over the alternative any day.
I for one welcome our new Apple overlords!
“The only place Apple hardware gets good reviews is on pro-Apple blogs and sites.”
– Yeah like PC magazine. (4 out of 5 in most reviews) Their pretty Apple centric Huh?, What the hell are you smokin I hate??
oh man, some feller named zed said apple “sux”. sounds credible to me!
mw: deal. when life deals you lemons, go buy some apples and make apple juice.