What if Apple is the enemy?

Last week I wrote about the Google terms of service and how it doesn't make them bad, or worse than anyone else, for that matter. There was another press release from the bay area last week, and now I am forced to admit that Apple is the bad guy and they are getting worse.


People who know me also know that I am, or possibly was, a huge Apple fan. Almost every personal computer I have ever owned has been an Apple Macintosh. Since 1991 I have owned exactly two non-apple computers. One was a generic tower that we used as a home computer from 1999 to 2001, the other is the cheap HP laptop I am typing this on right now.


On both Windows machines the experience is horrid in comparison. The interface of Windows is still light-years behind. The physical machines, especially laptops) are built poorly and lack basic design considerations like HUMAN FINGER SIZE and VISIBLE KEYS. However my MacBook Pro chose to die just as I got laid off from both jobs and was in the midst of writing my novel, so I was rushed into buying what I could afford. With $400 in my pocket I walked into Best Buy and walked out with this ugly utilitarian thing that only barely gets the job done.


Apple has made some incredibly positive decisions over the last fifteen years. OS X is chief among them. Moving to a flavor of UNIX has made the Mac OS better than any other. More robust, more secure, more flexible, and more versatile. OS X is running iPads, Macs, and iPods. There are still, a decade later, very few if any realy viruses written for OS X. I have also found the quality of the applications to be excellent and the physical machines to be smaller (and smaller) works of art.
Yet I may never buy another Macintosh again. Not now and not ever. Because the App Store and Mountain Lion may not be the death of Apple, but they are the death of my trust in their way of doing business. 


If Steve Jobs were alive today I'd tell him to his face that this course of action was bad for two reasons. One, it removes real motivation from Apple to make a better product, and two it removes all real innovation from independent software developers for the Macintosh.


Without question Apple has made the best music software, the best photo software, the best presentation software, and even the best integrated computing experience. Yet all of those innovations was through market pressures and some strategic acquisitions. As an example, iTunes was awesome because of hundreds of steps taken by the developers of Audion, MacAMP, and SoundJam to make their competing products better. However Apple bought SoundJam and destroyed the market with the closed iTunes system.


Mountain Lion, the next version of OS X makes that competition and innovation harder. It makes Apple an arbiter of what software is allowed, how much comptition is 'good' for users, and what elements can be changed later. This is a big deal, and I am angry as a consumer. If there had been any decent Android word processing software available, and there is not, I would have bought a ChromeBook. As it was Window 7 was my only real option.


Now some might say that I am overreacting and as Mountain Lion is presented today that is a definite maybe. However as Apple has closed more and more of its development and embraced more closed standards in the last five years. I see a very disturbing trend.


Now if I can just find a Windows laptop that doesn't feel like a Mattel Toy...

Google Is Not The Enemy

I got a gmail invitation about a decade ago. I had to get an invitation, because gmail wasn't open to the public yet. It was a long time ago. Google was still a new company, they had a shiny ethical statement and it wasn't thought of as a bad guy yet. Some people think Google is bad now, and some people want you to delete your Google data and jump ship before the policy unification goes into effect next month.

Seriously, get over it.

I made a conscious decision that all of this data was free and publicly available over a decade ago. Google is no better and no worse than any other internet search provider. I might venture a guess that all of this righteous indignation is generally a slowly dawning realization of what I surmised in 2001.

Nobody reads the Privacy policies, the EULAs, or the 'fine print' as it were anyway. Basically this discussion is about economics. If you aren't paying money for it then you are the product.

For decades we got used to 'free' radio and television. This stuff was free because we listened to soap and beer commercials. Content has never been free, we just didn't think we were paying, or realize we were paying. If you were paying Google for search and services with real money from your pockets I might understand your indignation. As it is today you just aren't paying attention to some basic facts.

Everyone is collecting this data and using it. Google is being honest enough to tell you. Facebook isn't any better. Neither is Yahoo, and neither is anyone else. They are all monetized by your eyeballs, your habits, and your searches. Facebook is worth a hundred BILLION dollars. This worth is all about your data.

One more thing, the government is collecting all of this data as well. Hundreds of political groups too. The government made it legal, and you can't stop them. Damn near every government is collecting all of this data and you can't stop them; not now and not ever.

Your privacy is, at best, the childish illusion of a buggy whip or a model T. They are cute, and quirky, but we are never going back to them.

You are the product. You have a cell phone, a computer, a tablet, and a television. Everything you do and every piece of data you generate is being sold right now. By your providers, your services, your companies, and your government. Choosing one company is no better or worse than choosing another. Google isn't your friend, but they aren't your enemy either.

So get over it.