“At Google I/O, people were abuzz over the new Google Photos app, which lets you store an unlimited number of 16-megapixel photos as well as 1080p videos—for free!” John C. Dvorak writes for PC Magazine. “This seemed awfully fishy to me. I’m not buying into any “all you can eat for free” cloud storage scams. Why does Google want all my photos?”
“New laws being proposed in the United Kingdom would require companies like Google to turn over this cache of photos to the government by simple request,” Dvorak writes. “And according to Edward Snowden, the U.S. government and its data collection programs are already in bed with companies like Google. So turning over my entire photo collection to Google amounts to letting two governments fish through my media.”
Dvorak writes, “Let me simplify it for you: Unless you are a Mac user who trusts that the computer has good intentions and you actually are comfortable not knowing what is really going on, you will hate this service.”
MacDailyNews Take: WTF?
This is a Google service, not an Apple service. Mac users, being smarter than Windows PC sufferers, hate this “service” the most, you bloated gasbag. We trust Apple. We distrust Google. It isn’t hard.
Ignore Dvorak’s wildly overreaching, disjointed, yet totally predictable anti-Apple/anti-Mac tangent. The rest of what he writes is dead on target.
“Google Photos is a discomforting program that, like many of the Google initiatives and perhaps like the company itself, gives me the creeps. It’s just too weird and awkward,” Dvorak writes. “And here’s a reminder: after you load your terabytes of images up to the Google cloud, the company might just bail on the program and shut down the service out of the blue. It’s done that with a slew of its ideas.”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Looks like the ol’ gasbag hasn’t lost the plot completely. Mostly, but not completely.
Always ask yourself, “What’s the catch?”
SEE ALSO:
Tim Cook attacks Google, U.S. federal government over right to privacy abuses – June 3, 2015
The price you’ll pay for Google’s ‘free’ photo storage – June 3, 2015
Apple CEO Tim Cook champions privacy, blasts ‘so-called free services’ – June 3, 2015
Passing on Google Photos for iOS: Read the fine print before you sign up for Google’s new Photos service – June 1, 2015
Why Apple’s Photos beats Google Photos, despite price and shortcomings – May 30, 2015
Is Apple is losing the photo wars? – May 29, 2015
How Google aims to delve deeper into users’ lives – May 29, 2015
Apple CEO Cook: Unlike some other companies, Apple won’t invade your right to privacy – March 2, 2015
Survey: People trust U.S. NSA more than Google – October 29, 2014
Apple CEO Tim Cook ups privacy to new level, takes direct swipe at Google – September 18, 2014
Apple will no longer unlock most iPhones, iPads for government, police – even with search warrants – September 18, 2014
U.S. NSA watching, tracking phone users with Google Maps – January 28, 2014
U.S. NSA secretly infiltrated Yahoo, Google data centers worldwide, Snowden documents say – October 30, 2013
Google has already inserted some U.S. NSA code into Android – July 10, 2013
Court rules NSA doesn’t have to reveal its semi-secret relationship with Google – May 22, 2013
Edward Snowden’s privacy tips: ‘Get rid of Dropbox,” avoid Facebook and Google – October 13, 2014
Looks like the broken clock happens to be right today.
He’s right, but for the wrong reason.
Maybe he’s feeling loopy eating too much sugar “donutts” this morning and not thinking clearly. Give him a few hours to digest and he’ll be right as rain again. 😛
Who cares about Dvorak’s opinion? That’s creepy.
#InTheMorning
Google is like Microsoft when it comes to the propensity for “me too” in response to Apple’s products. Competition is good but not when the competitors products are so lacking in user interface or compatibility or accessibility.
I am amazed that people don’t understand:
There is no such thing as a free lunch!
Google has a way to moneritize this info and it will NOT benefit you.
In the immortal words of Robert Heinlein, TANSTAAFL (There Ain’t No Such Thing As A Free Lunch). Aside from his psychopathological need to slam Mac users, Dvorak is right, Google Photos is creepy (as is anything done by Google).
I wouldn’t touch it with a ten foot pole. I avoid Google anything except YouTube (unavoidable) and Google Earth.
What i found fascinating was in the frothing comments. Anti-Apple has become such a bleeding religious movement that lunatic commenters are denouncing Dvorak as an Apple fanboy. WTF?
My gut feeling is that most of the most vitriolic Apple haters are relatively young and or new to technology. They’ve picked Windows for their home computers because that’s what they grew up with either at home or at school and were only peripherally aware that there were alternatives. The same goes for Android except that they went for Android because it was cheap and one step above a feature phone. Now they need validation of their choices from their peers who are also in the same boat. It doesn’t help that many new Apple users are smug assholes with short tempers.
I even see it here. I’ve been an Apple user for over 30 years and when Apple does something that I think is stupid, I voice my opinion. I couldn’t tell you how many times I’ve been accused of being a Windows or Samsung troll. I stopped taking this stuff seriously years ago. Dvorak surprises me because he’s older than I am and in his line of work should be far more objective than he is. I truly think that his perpetual dislike of Apple and its users is a sign of mental illness. We all have our likes and dislikes, but there’s no reason, especially for someone of his age and profession, to insult people who disagree with his likes and dislikes.
As for the commenters, I rarely pay attention unless it’s Anandtech or Ars Technica. Apple centric sites like this are also okay but it can be more volatile but occasionally really good conversations can begin.
Alright, that’s as sharp an analysis as I’ve seen. What’s most interesting about high tech is people’s reaction to it. And people seem to fall into different camps, armies of persuasion almost; like political parties. That’s what I see in the comments after articles like Dvorak’s: they don’t inform but they skirmish or proselytize or provoke. Like, a war of some kind is going on, but most of us are too genteel to take notice of it?
Political war? No, more like a religious war, much nastier. And easy to ignore by avoiding the comments areas of most sites.
I proselytize by example. My 2.5 year old original rMBP was replaced by the equivalent current top-of-the-line BTO rMBP with the ability to purchase another 3 years of AppleCare. Better graphics, faster processor and faster SSD. What better advertising than a happy customer?
This must be a decent product considering how much MDN keeps posting about it. LOL
#It was worth it!
Really… who didn’t know (or at least successfully guess) what the catch was as soon as they read about Google Photos?
“Let me simplify it for you: Unless you are a Mac user who trusts that the computer has good intentions and you actually are comfortable not knowing what is really going on, you will hate this service.”
Dvorak, you scraped that conclusion from the bottom of the barrel, must’ve been right beside your career!
Nice!
Exactly Jimmy. I read that line by Dvorak and felt the backhanded slap.
What
An
Ass
💩
Am I the only one here who isn’t so blinded by Apple fanboyism that s/he can’t see what Dvorak meant? There’s no typo. It’s clear he was taking a swipe at Apple, but what he’s saying is that it would have to take someone like a Mac a user, i.e., someone so devoted to Apple that they question nothing and trust everything, to be willing to use this new product from Google.
Quite right. Thus, those who ARE willing to use this new product from Google are infinitely gullible. Which makes them as easily led as the Apple sheep they ridicule. The word hypocrisy comes to mind. But Dvorak’s larger point is that regardless of tribe, this is a Bad Thing.
Have you been ‘Googled’?
‘Googled’ once meant to find relevant information through a search of web pages using the Google search engine by the user.
‘Googled’ now means to have all personal user data mined, as a result of Google web searches or use of Google apps, and be targeted by ads relevant to the personal information gleaned through such searches and use of apps, and have such information sold to 3rd parties.
If you use Google search or apps, you’ve been ‘Googled’!
You’re not using Google.
Google is using you.
You are Google’s product.
🖖😀⌚️
I think MDN misunderstood what Dvorak was saying, when MDN Editor wrote “This is a Google service, not an Apple service”
Paraphrasing Dvorak, he said “Let me simplify it for you: Unless you are a Mac user…you will hate this [Google] service.”