Cool or Fascist?
The following is my most recent article for the West Of community newspaper. I have added an additional bit at the end outlining my experience with the Apple Store.
Apple, whether you like them or not, has a reputation for putting out “cool” products. I personally don’t understand it myself, but that is beside the point. Freedom of choice is a great thing and people should be able to exercise their rights as they like. But as I started looking into Apple’s growing pile of apps available for either their phone or tablet, I started realizing that Apple does not share my belief in freedom of choice.
All of the applications available for download to their devices from the I-Store have to be approved by the powers-that-be at Apple. This may seem like a good thing at first glance, that way the consumer knows he is getting something that will work the way it is supposed to and has no chance of downloading anything with malicious code in it. At a deeper glance, though, Apple maintains a much tighter grip than just good code. Apple has a problem with all sorts of apps not because of the way they are programmed but because of what they have to say. Apple has denied a number of submitters because they violate their restrictions on language. Largely, political cartoonists fall under this umbrella, as well as political candidates.
Possibly the best example of this was the New Yorker’s attitude when they proposed an app to let readers access the magazine’s content. This app was denied because the magazine sometimes runs controversial political cartoons as well as political commentary. Apple denied their app as it stood and David Remick, the editor at the New Yorker simply said, “the hell with it.”
In another instance a dictionary application, Ninjawords, was presented to Apple for approval. It was rejected on the grounds that it contained language that Apple censors did not approve of. Apple said that the app was denied because it contained “vulgar language.” What dictionary doesn’t? I thought that we got over censorship laws like this at the beginning of the twentieth century when books like James Joyce’s “Ulysses” were banned. Eventually that ban was overturned by the courts, but Apple seems to think that it was a good idea because they banned a Ulysses app on the grounds of language. This presents us with the slippery slope problem. Who is to define what language is vulgar or not? A number of politicians’ apps have been denied because they are said to contain inflammatory speech.
In the iconic Apple commercial a revolutionary is seen throwing a hammer through the screen upon which is shown the face of “big brother.” But now it seems that Apple has traded places and has become the censor, the restrictor, turning off the spigot of what it doesn’t like at the cost of free speech.
In a related move, Apple has allowed independent authors the ability to upload their books onto the I-Store platform for sale to the general public. Again, at first this seems like a good thing. However, any files uploaded for sale have to be done so from an Apple computer. Primarily, I thought this was just a marketing ploy, but then I found out that what really happens when the file is uploaded it is fitted with Apple’s own DRM (digital rights management) protocol. This will restrict users from making copies of the file.
The interesting thing is that the purchaser has fewer rights with the electronic version of a book than with the physical book itself. If I buy a book at the store, then I can do what I like with it to include loaning it to a friend, giving it away, or even, depending on the book, reselling it. All of this is impossible with the digital version. As a writer, I want people to have the ability to copy my ebooks and send them to others, that way more people will become familiar with my writing, increasing the chances of better sales when the next book comes out.
To me, Apple’s policies seem more the actions of dictators than those who are deemed “cool” by so many. Perhaps it’s time Apple changed their tag-line to “Apple: Restricting the rights of others to suit our own needs.”
Before the writing of the above article, I had a reason to go to the Apple Store downtown. A friend of mine wanted an I-Pad and since he couldn’t get one in his own town, and since I was to spend the weekend there, he suggested that I buy one for him and bring it down. He transferred the money and I went to work. The store itself is fairly easy to find and on a July day downtown the air conditioning was set at a welcome fifty degrees (so it seemed). I walked into the store, a little apprehensive, since I don’t understand the appeal of Apple’s offerings and that I had been trying to talk my friend out of buying one. There were plenty of people milling about and it seemed that half of those in the store worked there. This should make for a quick job, in and out just the way I liked it. I located the I-Pad table, I knew which model I wanted, and started looking around for the boxes. But Apple doesn’t keep any inventory out in the display room. I guess that stacks of boxes enabling the customer to help himself, wouldn’t fit in with they stylish concrete-gray color of everything else in the store.
I went to the back of the store where there were more workers congregating but nobody really seemed to be doing anything. Finally, I managed to nab one of the employees and told her what I wanted. “Are you checked in?” What? Apparently, somebody can’t just walk in and help themselves, they have to be assisted, and the first step of being assisted is checking in. I was taken back to the front of the store where I gave my name to the attendant there. “It shouldn’t be too long a wait, there are only three people ahead of you.” Really? I started waiting. I am good at waiting mostly due to an overwhelming abundance of patience, and due to the fact that I always carry my sketchbook with me.
Forty minutes later (after I had seen two of the people ahead of me leave saying they couldn’t wait any longer), one of the many clerks came and asked me how he could help me. I told him which model of the I-Pad I wanted. He started to tell me why I should want the next model up, the one with the 3G, but I cut him off. He told me I could look at pouches while he went back to get the item. No thanks. When he got back and asked how I was going to pay for the model, I said cash. He had to get on his headset and actually ask if he could take cash for an I-Pad. Finally, I walked out of the store. This was the most unsatisfactory customer service experience I have ever had. If I had walked into Best Buy looking for some type of computer, I could have easily pulled it off the shelf and been out of the store in under five minutes.
I am not going to guess at why Apple seems to want to endlessly extend their customer’s time in the shop. I won’t be going back, no matter how good a friend asks me to.
