“Apple’s stylish stores and computers, all of which feature unrestricted Internet access, have become such the hang-out and gathering place for MySpace junkies that the powers that be have elected to block the popular social networking site from its systems,” Think Secret reports.
Full article here.
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Serves em right…I have to block myspace when people are over so they just dont sit on it the whole time.
i can hear the chorus now…..
hallelujah! hallelujah! hallelujah! hallelujah! hall–e–lujah!
how do u block a website?
Praises!
I was in SF a few months ago, and mentioned here how all the Macs were being used at the SF Apple Store for MySpace bullshit. The little bastards were like a bunch of crack head, leeches addicted to MySpace, and stuck to the Macs.
Why is this latest social networking fad still around?!!!!!! Apple should ban teenagers who arrive in gaggles, from their stores too
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MySpace is there worst website ever made. Apple made the BEST decision when they blocked it off their computers. What once (maybe) was a website designed to “keep in touch”, it’s now full of skanky, vulgar, slutty, and inappropriate CRAP… anyway… good for Apple.
This makes perfect sense from a business standpoint. When the store becomes a place to hang out and use the computers for free with no intention of buying anything, you are inviting unprofitable people to crowd the stores and interfere with the sales process. This is a very good way of making sure the customer experience in their stores is good so someone can go in, get access easily to the computers, and decide what to buy. Apple simply will not put up with any BS in their stores – they strive to control the experience. A smart retailing strategy.
and on the other hand, what also makes perfect sense from a business standpoint is that all those kids killing time on MySpace are using Macs – even if it’s just using Photo Booth to take a smary picture and Safari to upload it to MySpace. But what, pray tell, do you think those kids will ask for when Mommy asks them what kind of computer they want? Much like OneToOne/ProCare, it’s a fantastic loss leader.
I’ve always thought Apple’s refusal to block MySpace, and its pointed directives to its stores NOT to, was very keen business strategy. They might not be buying anything right this minute, but oh, someday, they will. Get ’em hooked young!
This is something, say, CompUSA would do. Not Apple.
how do u block a website?
On a Mac, edit your /etc/hosts file, set the address for the domain in question to 0.0.0.0 I think there are also utilities that cna do it for you – anyone have suggestions?
At the network level, it’s done in a firewall box – that’s probably what Apple is doing in their stores.
@jjr
Most firewalls and routers have the ability to block URLs. Any packets addressed to a particular domain get tossed in the bit bucket rather than routed to their destination.
This is just going to hurt their cool image. Those teens are the ones going start college soon and will need a laptop. There goes Dell to the rescue!
Myspace is so lame…….
ummm..when I was working @ the Apple store it was a HUGE problem….and that was some 2 years ago…and at that time, Apple was have a open policy..it’s good to see Apple is going to block MYSPACE…too many kids just want to hang out and hog the machines and many times they scare off potential customers.
great job Apple!
JayRec, you are stupid and are full of crap. Get a life!
I agree with both “skeeter” and “”JayRec” that this is a mistake. I’ve worked at an Apple Store for almost 2 years, and I admit that the MySpace kids are annoying, but by and large, there’s still free computers to show to potential customers. All the kids in the mall flocked to the Apple Store, to use Apples, not to the Dell kiosk just a few yards away.
If corporate does deem this enough of a problem, I think that maybe they should block MySpace on certain computers so that the place isn’t overcrowded with MySpace users. That’s what my Store did unofficially – and it worked very nicely. It kept the entrance clear, enough computers free, and future generation of Mac-users happy.
Why were they using the Mac’s at the Apple store for MySpace?
Probably because they’re band from using it at home.
My daughters friends were coming over every morning before school to use our computers. They were caught and confessed that they weren’t allowed to use MySpace at home.
My wife and I put a stop to that and now they don’t use our Mac’s anymore.
Stupid decision. Those kids will go back to Pee-See.
Any argument that this will hack little Jr. highers and the like off to the point they won’t buy Macs, it holds no water.
1. They probably have a cheap PC at home, and could care less if they used a Mac, PC or any type of computer, they just know they go to the mall and usurp their parents authroity, and go to MySpace.
2. Perhaps they can go to Dell mall kiosks and do the MySpace thing there.
3. Some guys that enter the Apple stores that get onto Macs and go to MySpace to toll are seriously creepy.
In every way, this is a great move.
Here’s something to think about…. if there’s a gaggle of loud teenagers using the Macs to play around on MySpace, that may keep someone who is in the store to buy a Mac from having the chance to play around with the machine themselves. And if the potential buyer can’t play around with the machine, that’s a lost sale. So, I can see why Apple would do this.
Also, they may have had some complaints from other customers about teens and young adults lingering over the computers and displaying inappropriate MySpace pages. If that were the case, Apple has the right and(possible) obligation to block the site.
There is a lot of “questionable” material on MySpace, and Apple most likely doesn’t want it displayed in a public environment. It’s just another crazy lawsuit waiting to happen – “Sex offender meets teen on MySpace through Apple store – story at 11”, or “Child sees MySpace porn at Apple store, parents preparing to file billion dollar lawsuit”. I think Apple is making a good preemtive call here.
“why, you ask?” has it down pat. everyone loves to sue apple. it would happen. forget suing myspace, right? even though they’re the problem??
myspace is absolute garbage. kudos to apple for doing the right thing.
Apple is not blocking anything using any kind of technology. The staff are just going to monitor the use of the machines and see if kids are on myspace, and if so, then they are going to kick them off the macs.
That’s the last straw! From now on, I’m carrying my Cisco VPN client with me on my thumbdrive, just so I can go to an Apple store and access MySpace via my offices’s network!
Uhm… yeah!
Macs are availble in stores for shoppers, not surfers. That’s the reason public libraries, coffee shops, book stores, etc exist to provide general public access.
I doubt that these kids have the cash to buy their own computer and, should they have a Mac or PC at home, ought to use their machine at home.
It’s an Apple Store, not a child care center.
Hmmm another non story from a rumor site.
MW: Didnt as in this really didn’t happen to go down
re: Bob
i’m surprised your work actually allows myspace too, i know my work actually blocked it out right
I went to one recently to check up on some info, while away from home. I needed to get a bus sched and all websites were blocked. >.< I needed that schedule and there wasnt any place else to go 🙁
Mist of the little shits have Windows PC’s at home that are so busy being part of botnets sending spam that they wonder why their computers are so slow.
Macs are so fast…
Good decision Apple.
I wonder how it compares with Facebook useage? (Muxh more likely to be real Mac users in my experience).
Who gives a shit
The kids will still have photo booth to make them future mac users.
Unfortunately that’s an age where social convention and manners aren’t real dominant. I have many times taken my 6 year old into mac stores to play with them (a 21st century disneyland dad thing). BUT I always make sure we’re not taking the LAST computer and blocking serious customers.
But I am not a teenager (or so I think…)
Unfortunately most sites like Myspace are turning into C***.
Full of race hate posts towards uploaded-content from other countries etc.
Secondly blocking the site is good, hopefully those (kids) will now find-out & about how useful a computer can-be other then surfing the web! If not there are other kids arround
the world & within America that would die to own or use a computer for educatoinal & work purposes.
Most of the times I’ve gone into the Regent Street Apple Store in London to check out a Mac or demo a piece of software, I’ve had a long delay to get near a computer because of all of the foreign exchange students hogging the machines and checking their e-mails, booking flights, etc.
They’re such a pain in the arse.
It would be better if Apple reserved a number of machines in a ‘business/switcher’ area for those who just want to try them out…
I can’t wait to get a Macbook. How sad of me to look forward to getting a computer. I’m just fed up of my Windows machine. A pain in the arsehole it is!
Apple did absolutely the right thing here. Everytime I go to the Apple store…I swear some weird and creepy kid comes along and hoggs a Mac and surfs MySpace…you can tell that its MySpace becuase of the custom black page background with fluroscent coloured text which was made by some user…Its just so annoying. There are so many kids (young teens I would say) who do this, and it really does distract the potential Mac customer, who wants to try out a Mac. Its a good thing Apple is being proactive here, and is restricting access to the site before something stupid and inexplicable happens.
MySpace should be called MyHo’s. So many women have slutty images on their sites.
Yours truely,
DaPimp
Geez, what’s next? No looking at porn?!?
“Probably because they’re band from using it at home.”
Is that like, band on the run?
http://hop.com/
You know…I have never visited myspace. I’m on the internet everyday and never have had an urge to go there.
What’s so addicting about it?
I have MySpace blocked on my computers as well, just so I don’t accidentally somehow end up there. That site is depressing due to seeing how many youth are that dumb. Thank goodness there are still plenty of intelligent ones to make up for the stupid, ignorant ones that make up the bulk of MySpace users.
I’m always amazed at how badly people treat each other in these forums. Someone states their opinion, and they do so politely, and then someone who disagrees with it calls them “stupid”. Who raised these people?
MySpace is so yesterday.
The cool kids are all on Facebook now.
Get with the program. That Mac in front of you will not make you cool by itself. You have to do some of the work.
As I have seen with these responses… I too work for one of the TX Apple stores. The teens (most of them age 12-15) just snap their Photobooth and hog the iMac. When I sell a computer I have to literally move to another side to avoid the myspacers. They laugh and yell and when I’m trying to explain the importance of Applecare, .Mac, One2One, I’m fighting over the voices of 2-5 teens. On the note that they are potental customers, when will someone spend $1500 on a computer when all they do is myspace. These are not customers, they are called Free Internetters
MySpace my ass. The really cool kids are on dittytalk.com. Block that one Apple and you will have to answer to the Almighty. Nothing beats Christian alternatives to secular culture, especially music and social networking sites.
Thank GOD. It was annoying and it kept many would-be buyers from getting to look at and play on the Macs.
This is great.
I have lost count how many times I have been in an Apple store and asked the sales assistant to show me the new macs and have never had a chance to get near them because of the myspace junkies on the macs all day long.
I wonder how many sales Apple lost because of those junkies stopping people trying and then buying the macs.
Awwww….. =( I used to leave my page up on the 30″ displays when I was there. Damn you for thwarting my MySpace whoring. ;P
-c
MW: ‘series’ (of unfortunate repents)
@ Wisdom
Thank you, decency police!
The thing you have to keep in mind is that Apple’s stores are going to be absolutely mobbed soon with the launch of the iPhone. Not only will the new iPhone display take up additional computer space (the AppleTV already took up an entire section), but they want people in the store. With the MySpace kids, its almost impossible to take in there sometimes.
I’ve gone into our local store on a Friday night and 90% of the store was kids on Mac’s using MySpace, listening to the obnoxious music normally attached to it and making a bunch of noise using PhotoBooth.
And don’t try to tell me these kids are “future Mac users.” Most of them are in the store because their parents are too lazy to look after them.
If true, good move, Apple -thank you.
I think EVERYONE should block myspace.com
I’m sure that blocking MySpace is a big relief for all the Apple Retail employees who don’t have to chase the kids away anymore.
-jcr
I’m sure that blocking MySpace is a big relief for all the Apple Retail employees who don’t have to chase the kids away anymore.
-jcr
I’m sure that blocking MySpace is a big relief for all the Apple Retail employees who don’t have to chase the kids away anymore.
-jcr
I’m sure that blocking MySpace is a big relief for all the Apple Retail employees who don’t have to chase the kids away anymore.
-jcr
If it’s true, you bet your ass it’s a relief.
MySpave is lame anyway.. who the hell would myspace these days? Move on kids.. move on, as your others did from old stuff.. else you are just going to be as lame and old as what you stick too.
Welcome to the social.
iPhone WILL have portable MySpace that ROCKS.
educated guess
If I were Apple, I would set up Macs in the Apple Store to limit web browsing sessions to 5 minutes or something. That ought to be plenty to try out the features, and even do an emergency check of your email if needed.
Why in the world does anyone use MySpace? I don’t get it. It’s an absolute mess of graphics, pages are not readable because of the backgrounds, cheesy HTML and animation and music, endless popups and ads, hard to find content… And it’s mostly just bots and creepy male programmers pretending to be whores that want to be my “friend.” Why do kids like it? I mean I love sex and drugs and rock and roll and good social communities as much as the kids do, but what does that have to do with the mess of SPAM that is MySpace?
They should block Facebook er…..Crackbook too!
besides just blocking access to MySpace, they should disable Photobooth also. Every time I’ve been in a AAPL store, the machines have been tied up with the giggling, screaming, Photobooth crowd making it difficult at best to have a serious discussion about the merits of the Macs and OSX, much less the apps available. Maybe they need an “adults only” section of the store, like a theater room in high end hi-fi/video stores. Anyway, it’s a start, so hurray!!