A Lost iPhone Shows Apple’s Churlish Side (NYT)

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/03/business/media/03carr.html?src=me&ref=business

A Lost iPhone Shows Apple’s Churlish Side
By DAVID CARR
^{Published: May 2, 2010}

Journalists are already getting warmed up for the next big Apple event, the Worldwide Developers Conference in June, where they will most likely get a look at the next generation of the iPhone.

But there might be fewer people lined up, and not just because we got a peek inside the new model when photos of a prototype were leaked on a blog two weeks ago. We also got an unflattering peek inside the company itself. (...)

Officers from the San Mateo County Sheriff’s Office kicked in a journalist’s doors and confiscated computers. Apple didn’t do the kicking, but it apparently filed a complaint — not seeking the return of their phone, which they had already retrieved, but information. (...)

Apple executives have often behaved as though the ultimate custody and control of information lies with them, and the company has gone to extraordinary lengths to protect its interests. Yet for all of its spectacular achievements, Apple is exhibiting a remarkable tone-deafness in the issue at hand. As Apple is changing into a media company, as well, its Silicon Valley brand of aggression is running up against its broader ambitions. (...)

Apple has an admirable history of innovation and marketplace performance, but this time the company and Mr. Jobs are drawing attention for all the wrong reasons. Everyone knows that it is his show, his call. But in engaging the long arm of the law on behalf of his corporate interests, Mr. Jobs may lead us to think, um, differently about Apple’s growing cultural dominance.

More at link.

Me, I'm only ever going to buy a tablet if it acts like a computer, i.e., I can develop and install software on it without having to ask "Mother may I".

[foxfeet]

1. Apple has a churlish side? Who knew?

:sarcasm:

[Blue_Tires]

2. That was a dickish move on Apple's part

But I haven't yet been convinced that Gawker didn't play a role in "finding" the lost phone -- A thief stealing a prototype only to sell it to Gawker for $5,000 (assuming that is the truthful amount paid) doesn't make sense at all...

[wolfgangmo]

3. Rigggghhhhht.

So someone stole a prototype, then sold it - both felonies BTW. And when apple files a complaint and the law acts on that law it shows just what a monster apple is?

I don't buy it. It's faulty logic. A crime was committed involving actual and intellectual property. So let's blame the victim.

They had it coming. They make "sexy" computers.

[blogslut]

5. Look, I agree the seller of the phone and Gizmodo

...did bad things. The guy that found the phone should have just turned it into the bar or taken it to the police department like a responsible adult. Gizmodo shouldn't have bought the thing.

However, the police raided Chen's home after the phone had been returned to Apple, after photos and descriptions of the phone had been plastered all over the Internet, after they had taken the thing apart and displayed the guts of the device for all the world to see. It's not like Mr. Chen took the precious prototype to Google and sold the design for one billion dollars.

The raid on Mr. Chen's home was dick-waving overkill on the part of Apple. They might as well have busted into his house and peed on his rug.

[frylock]

8. that rug really tied the room together

[blogslut]

10. Is this your homework, Larry?

[winstars]

20. DUDE!!!

[Johonny]

18. So Apple controlls the police?

The guy was under investigation for a crime. The police apparently got a warrant an was investigating a crime. I don't see a big deal here.

[frylock]

19. apple is on the steering committee for REACT..

i'll let you draw your own conclusions.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ynews/ynews_ts1795

[onehandle]

4. LOL! The lines will be longer than ever. Sounds like wishful thinking to me.

Apple haters just hate Apple.

[frylock]

9. and apple lovers..

well...

[Confusious]

16. Hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil.

Apple is all unicorns and rainbows. "Oh your not going to sodomize me with a broom stick? Isn't apple wonderful!?"

[ProgressiveProfessor]

12. Apple corporate ethics make Philip Morris look good

Great design can never totally cover that kind of evil. They make great products in Chinese sweatshops. My ethics won't let me buy them, yours apparently do.

[onehandle]

13. Glad to hear you are posting this with good feelings.

Or do you actually have a computer and it's made from twigs and berries?
______________________________

Working in a Chinese sweatshop for HP, Microsoft, Dell and IBM

A report issued by human rights activists reveals that young migrant workers are labouring under sweatshop conditions for IBM, Microsoft, HP and Dell in a factory in China. Twelve hours a day, seven days a week, the people who put your keyboard keys into place are paid 60 euro cents an hour to do it. And they're not even allowed to raise their heads or go to the toilet...

Taiwanese-owned Meitai factory in Dongguan City, Guangdong province (southeast), employs two thousand young workers, 75% of them women, to produce computer equipment including keyboards and printer cases for Hewlett-Packard, Dell, Lenovo, Microsoft and IBM (as we go to press IBM and Dell are yet to confirm this). The damning research, published online by the National Labor Committee, was carried out between June and September of 2008, and updated mid January 2009. When we contacted the companies cited in the report, only Microsoft and HP replied to say that they had been made aware of the report. Both gave similar statements about their commitment to the "fair treatment and safety" of workers contracted to produce their software.

"They’re not even allowed to raise their heads or put their hands in their pockets"

The young workers sit on hard wooden stools twelve hours a day, seven days a week as 500 computer keyboards an hour move down the assembly line, or one every 7.2 seconds.

http://observers.france24.com/en/content/20090212-working-hp-microsoft-china-serving-prison-sentence-sweatshop-dell-ibm-china

[Confusious]

17. Read the part before

You do know where apple gets it's parts.

And the same goes for every other computer corp.

[nadinbrzezinski]

14. You realize I can say that about DELL,

oh what about HP?

Or my Hi Tech Boots I bought the other way?

This is a corporate culture that has to change.

But unless your computer is made from twigs and nuts, it may even be made at the same facility, using a nameless work force that builds these things for MANY companies.

Oh and I hate that, but WE, yes WE kemosabe, are partly responsible... we WANT cheap junk

[ProgressiveProfessor]

21. I agree with the manufacturing parts, but going after journalists?

Apple has a history of it while Dell, HP, M$ and others not nearly as much

[kgnu_fan]

6. i do love apple

[PBS Poll-435]

7. I am sure the same thing has happened over at Mattel.

nt

[Initech]

11. I'm seriously considering a Nexus One for my next phone.

[Lucian]

15. Nah.

That's outdated. Buy a Droid Incredible (if you're on Verizon).