Rush Limbaugh: No, Mr. President, Apple did not have a glitch

13 years ago

Among other things, Mac, iPhone, and iPad user Rush Limbaugh on Tuesday discussed Apple and the company’s iOS 7 at length.

The 3-hour Rush Limbaugh Show airs daily on a network of approximately 590 AM and FM affiliate stations. The program is also broadcast worldwide on the U.S. Armed Forces Radio Network.

From the live on-air transcript:

RUSH: Obama just was in the Rose Garden. Listen to this. I think there’s somebody that lives in his head rent free.

OBAMA: Apple rolled out a new mobile operating system, and within days they found a glitch. So, they fixed it. I don’t remember anybody suggesting Apple should stop selling iPhones or iPads, or threatening to shut down the company if they didn’t. That’s not how we do things in America. We don’t actively root for failure!

RUSH: “We don’t actively root for failure.” Yes, we did. Yes, we did, and we still do. But Apple did not have a “glitch” in their operating system that anybody knew about. This is a gross mischaracterization. Apple did not have… Those of you who’ve loaded iOS 7, what’s the glitch? What went wrong? You can’t name anything, outside maybe your installation time. There’s no glitch with it. Not that you would notice.

RUSH: Only one out of every eight Americans even know the exchanges open today. That’s the most recent polling data I saw. Now, run the numbers hear in your head. Only one out of eight people know. Can you imagine if just two outta eight people knew and were trying to get logged on today? This is an utter disaster, and here’s how Obama addressed it moments ago in the Rose Garden. I want you to hear this again because I have additional comments.

RUSH: I know. I know. I live rent free in his head. Two things. In the first place, is anybody forcing you to buy an iPhone? Is anybody forcing you to buy an iPad? Is anybody forcing to you install iOS 7? Is anybody making you do anything with Apple? No. We are being forced to go to this stupid website. We are being forced into Obamacare. They’ve had three years to get it right, and they don’t have the slightest idea what they’re doing.

If we don’t buy an iPhone or an iPad or install iOS 7, will we be fined? Does Apple have an army of IRS agents prowling the country trying to figure out who is and who isn’t buying their product, and will then audit them if they don’t? No, that is not happening. For him to compare the mandatory purchase of health insurance from the government to Apple is disingenuous and dishonest. Apple also did not have a glitch.

Now, there may have been people who didn’t like it. There may have been people scared by it because it is a totally new user interface. Functionally it’s still the same, although it is a really cool improvement. I happen to actively love it. But that’s a personal choice or preference, and you don’t have to use it if you don’t want to, but there wasn’t a glitch. Do you know what there was? They had to issue a point update, the 7.0.2 update.

That’s because some troll was sitting out and found out that if you punch of ‘home’ button twice and then scroll up to the Control Center and hit on the Camera icon and then hit the ‘home’ button twice and the power button three times, you can get into the camera. There is not one user who’s gonna be go through any of that to try to use the camera. All they’re gonna do is hit the camera icon… Another person said you might be able to get into the telephone and make a phone call and then might have access to the contact list on the phone. But the hoops that people would have to go through to get that are huge. You know, somebody that’s sitting out there with pimples on his face and in his blue jeans or underwear all day long gets his phone.

He gets iOS 7 and sits there for 15 hours trying to figure out how to defeat it be with comes up with this convoluted thing and issues a story saying, “There’s a security flaw in the iPhone.” There was no glitch. This is common for updates in new operating systems. I’m not defending Apple, but I’m telling you: Apple isn’t forcing anybody to pay for their mistakes. Apple is not forcing anybody to buy their phones or their iPads or use their operating system, and Apple doesn’t fine anybody that doesn’t.

Apple’s never threatened anybody with jail time. For the president of the United States to sit there and compare his boondoggle of a program to the most valuable company in the world and the highest brand… Apple just zoomed past Coca-Cola in brand favorability, and ID. They’re ahead of Exxon as the most valuable. They’re worth more than any other company. But it’s all been because people have chosen their products. We don’t have a choice with Obamacare.

Not only did we not have a choice, we gotta put up with the incompetence that we run into and encounter when we’re forced to use it. “Apple Computer, you know, they rolled out a new operating system, found a glitch, and they fixed it. That’s what we’re working on.” Fixed the glitch? You wouldn’t know how to fix the glitch. You guys don’t even admit you got a glitch. That’s your problem.

By the way, folks, there is another difference between Apple and the government. When Apple screws up, they pay a price. If they were to release a rotten-to-the-core product, they’d pay a price. Nobody would buy it, they’d pay — when the government screws up, they never suffer. They raise taxes. The government screws up, we pay it. When the government screws up, they raise taxes. When Apple screws up, they don’t raise prices.

They don’t hire the IRS to go door-to-door demanding we buy whatever it is they’ve made. I mean, the audacity! I understand they’re targeting low-information voters, but for Obama and Sebelius to try to compare themselves and their silly little health care plan here — well, monstrous health care plan — to Apple or any other successful American business enterprise is ludicrous.

Full transcript here.

[Thanks to MacDailyNews readers too numerous to mention individually for the heads up.]