Thank You, Apple. No, Seriously.

Apple Denies Free Political Speech

As you can see not only are none of the statements defamatory, they are all factual.

By denying me this application Apple is now making an in-kind contribution to Henry Waxman by denying his competitor a modern tool for political communication. They are stifling my right to free political speech and they are carrying water for the Obama administration.

It is also relevant to note that Apple pulled all of their advertising from the Fox News channel: http://galiberal.com/?p=8939&cpage=1

Clearly people who work at Apple are likely to be the kind of creative people who may tend to vote Democrat and hold liberal views, but this goes far beyond that. This experience with Apple clearly shows that there is a political agenda going on within the culture of the company, and business decisions are subject to Apple’s political views.

First, I need to state this: Democrat, Republican, a pox on both their houses! I voted for Nader — every time.

That said, this is one time I’d like the Republican to win. Because he’s now pissed off. And pissed off politicians who get into power do something about what pissed them off.

In iAd Is The Coming Fall Of Apple, I wrote:

The thing is this, Apple. Once you start rejecting political ads, you’re going to wake up all those slumbering politicians who haven’t been giving your plans any scrutiny.

I had never considered that a politician would want to advertise via an app. So this speeds up Apple’s day of reckoning.

Thank you, Apple. Keep riding that Gatekeeper Abuse express train.

Additional:

A Note To All Corporate Ass-Kissers

Previously at Mike Cane 2008:

Apple Forfeits eBooks By Banning A Comic Book!
Apple And A Tale Of Two Bannings
Apple Bans ANOTHER Book From App Store!
Apple Approves Of Shooting Nurses In The Face!

Previously at The eBook Test:

Apple: Get The Hell Out Of Your Own Way!
Another Day, Another DoubleDumb Apple Book Rejection!
Apple’s Two-Faced Censorship At Work Again
A REAL Justification For Apple Censorship?

Previously here:

The Latest Outrageous Apple Book Rejection!
Apple: Think What Now?
Apple Rescinds Book Ban
Steve Jobs: Keep Saying No!
Apple Is Scaring Publishers And Writers
Steve Jobs: Abandoning A Principle?
Dear Steve Jobs …
Cory Doctorow Was Right
When Steve Jobs Wrote A Letter
The Trillion-Dollar Web Question
“What Are My Options?”

iAd: Worse Than I Said It Would Be

Having been ripped off again by a member of the Me-Too Media today (by someone so low I won’t even link to him), I had to come to my own blog to show someone else why I have a “Me-Too Media” Category.

And that caused me to remember what I wrote earlier that everyone disbelieved at the time:

Me-Too Media: iPad Ads

Everyone seems to have forgotten Apple’s acquisition of a mobile ad purveyor. You think that won’t be used? The ad display framework will be built into future versions of Safari.

Emphasis (as italics) in the original.

I thought it would be only within Safari.

Apple went and put in inside the entire damned operating system itself.

Where are all those people who were so smug in the Comments here?

I wrote that on March 9, 2010.

Less than a month later — on April 8, 2010 — Apple announced iAd.

Keep being “Me-Too.”

That’s why no one reads you.

One Apple Change And Kaboom!

The world is still going absolutely crazy over this:

3.3.1 — Applications may only use Documented APIs in the manner prescribed by Apple and must not use or call any private APIs. Applications must be originally written in Objective-C, C, C++, or JavaScript as executed by the iPhone OS WebKit engine, and only code written in C, C++, and Objective-C may compile and directly link against the Documented APIs (e.g., Applications that link to Documented APIs through an intermediary translation or compatibility layer or tool are prohibited).

This guy has the most plausible explanation: Jobs makes a valid point: intermediate layers hinder the progress of the platform.

However, this one — Bravo, Apple — must be acknowledged for its sarcastic irony:

… all developers who wish to submit apps hold at least a 4 year degree in computer science. Just imagine a world where any kid can work out of his garage and build an application with an original language, or bit of hardware, that snubs its nose at the establishment – anarchy would ensue.

As a non-developer, it took me days to finally get to the point where I found an explanation that made some sense. There were those who offered tweeted explanations, but none of them were convincing because they came from people who generally don’t see Apple doing anything wrong (even when Apple does!).

How could a PR disaster like this happen? Apple has to know that developers are very noisy people when they feel they are being wronged. Clearly an explanation was needed, but no official statement was ever made. Although Steve Jobs replied to emails, why was it even necessary for him to address this issue personally? That’s what PR people — if not simply Developer Relations — handle.

Why do I bother to keep it alive on this blog too?

Because, at some point, Apple is going to change the TOS for iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad users. This is inevitable in order to accommodate the data collection required to properly serve up iAds.

So Apple had better have a plausible, clear, and sympathetic story all ready for when that day comes.

Will iAd Kill Paid Apps?

I don’t think it’s coincidental that Twitter just acquired Tweetie. That app will now go from being US$2.99 to free. There is no way to justify that drop in price other than to foresee it having ads in it. Someone has to pay. As a certain cult likes to remind everybody: TANSTAAFL.

A stream of revenue trumps a one-time payment every time. Period. End of story.

IBM selling its big computers was only the beginning of the money it made. It made recurring money from services for those computers. In the same way, before its bankruptcy, General Motors’ GMAC — its car financing division — made more money than the car manufacturing end.

Because, it’s worth repeating: A stream of revenue trumps a one-time payment every time. Period. End of story.

So that US$2.99 a pop that Twitter seems to be “giving up” suddenly becomes a sky’s-the-limit price for everyone who uses that app because of all of the iAds that will appear in it.

Is this going to be how the future will look?

User: Hey, I really like your app, but I can’t stand ads. Is there a version I can buy?

Dev: Sorry, no.

User: But didn’t it used to be $3.99? I’d be willing to pay twice that for no ads!

Dev: Dude, you don’t get it. We make like a hundred bucks from the ads off each user of our app. There’s no way we can afford to sell it anymore!

iAd Is The Coming Fall Of Apple

The Grand Machinations of Apple and Steve Jobs are about to run into the sharpest knife in town.

This knife has two blades.

One is called Real Life.

The other is called Reality.

And they cut without mercy.