Too Much Info

Remember when Apple instantly became a household name by airing the infamous “1984″ commercial during Super Bowl XVIII? The premise was that Microsoft had effectively become Big Brother and Apple was out to set the legions of PC lemmings free of Microsoft’s grip by offering truly user-friendly computers. To reinforce the point, a rather buxom female athlete slings a sledgehammer into a giant television screen, effectively short-circuiting Big Brother’s control.

Well, fast forward nearly a quarter century and Apple’s 1984 vision has finally come to light. People are flocking to Apple computers (as well as iPods and iPhones) like they’re going out of style and abandoning more mundane PCs like rats from a sinking ship.

Ironically, Steve Jobs & Co. almost didn’t pull the trigger on that original 1984 commercial. Company stakeholders so universally panned it during pre-screenings that Jobs seriously considered pulling the commercial altogether. But the commercial time had been bought and Apple aired the commercial just once during the Super Bowl’s third quarter.

But that’s all it took. The commercial was so sensational and profound, it’s been hailed as the greatest television commercial ever, and the rest, as they say, is history. But did that fateful turn of events truly help liberate computer users from Big Brother’s grip after all these years?

Apple, it seems, has become the new Microsoft and is starting to tick off users royally. Case in point: the new iPhone 3G. It’s the perfect phone for anyone wanting to surf the mobile web, due to its oversized touch-screen LCD and superior OSX operating system. But the Jesus phone 2.0 still has a ways to go in the user-friendliness department.

The biggest, yet simplest, example is in the phone’s inability to cut-and-paste text. That’s pure rediculousness in this day and age, but Apple says its not an important function, nor is it high on the company’s to-do-list. The iPhone faithful blindly agree.

Another obvious example Apple is becoming too big for its britches is with the company’s new MobileMe “push email” service. Apple brags that it’s just as good as Research In Motion’s legendary Blackberry push email service, but if you believe that then Dick Cheney has an oil field in Iraq he’d like to sell you.

First of all, MobileMe’s so-called push email capability doesn’t really push anything. It just periodically checks in with email servers during regular intervals. Second, MobileMe doesn’t even work half the time, with subscribers still complaining to this day about regular outages.

So what does Apple do? It chalks it up to planned downtime and says, “We So Sowee,” before calling it a day. That might have flew had it not been for the leaked internal memo from Steve Jobs himself, acknowledging MobileMe(ss) was perhaps released too early. Do you think!?

The proverbial icing on the cake happened last week, when Apple went on to acknowledge it pre-programmed a backdoor into every new iPhone allowing Apple to deactivate any software the company deemed too dangerous or unfit for owners to use.

The announcement came on the heels of the NetShare app fiasco, where Apple brass repeatedly pulled the $10 phone-as-modem app off of Apple’s online app store without any reason. If you don’t know what Phone-as-modem capability is, it allows your phone to serve as a broadband modem connection for your laptop.

Numerous iPhone users dared to openly complain and demanded the app be restored. Meanwhile, Mac lemmings defended Apple’s decision with the most idiotic of reasons, from breach of contract agreements with AT&T to Apple knows best.

JAYZUS CHRAST!!1 I think I know a better reason why Apple pulled the NetShare app: it’s called $$$.

So here we are today: Apple is now the truly hot computer company, launching innovative hardware and software seemingly every other day. But in order to stay in the black and appease company stockholders, Apple has become the Microsoft monster it once despised.

Even worse, Mac fanatics who once embraced “Think Different” don’t embrace anything anymore, except all the talking points constantly beamed out of Steve Jobs’ Reality Distortion Field.

Lucky for you, this Mac fanatic hasn’t gotten caught up in all the hype. Apple is a great company and builds great products, but they also have a responsibility to their customers, not just to the Board of Directors.

So until Apple becomes the cool Apple of old instead of the corporate sell out that it has become, I guess I’ll have to keep wielding my own 90-lb. sledgehammer around.