Oh boy, this ain’t pretty. Gawker’s Ryan Tate sent an email to Steve Jobs, frustrated by the whole “freedom from porn” thing. Jobs responded, and the two got into an email skirmish. It ain’t pretty, but it’s an interesting read.
Written By Tim BarribeauFeelance writer on the science and technology beat —you can find his work around the internet, and follow him on Twitter and Google+.
Gawker is the worst thing on the Net, and Apple is the new “liberal arts” Microsoft. I can’t choose a side, but it’s at least nice that Jobs is finally finding out that his crap does not smell like roses, and does actually stink.
Jobs has a right to run Apple the way he wants and force developers down a single path… should they “choose” to go with him. I think a lot of people are simply getting confused into thinking there are NO other alternatives.
This only goes to show how popular and important Apple products truly are. While his shit does have a little stench from a subjective point of view, the fact is that none of this would even be an issue if people didn’t “want” Apple products. While I agree Jobs has an even greater obligation to his customers as a direct result of Apple’s popularity, I disagree that he’s doing anything wrong. This is HIS opinion and vision of the company and he obviously feels the need to provide the best experience even if that means pissing off a few people along the way. What is so wrong with that? Isn’t that the drive and purpose in every single venture in the world?
I’m most definitely NOT a fan of censorship. I feel that Flash has become a horrible solution for media on the web and portable devices. But this entire ordeal goes far and beyond any of this petty technical BS. I truly believe that if people would “care” as much about medical technology as they do about what device Steve Jobs carries around in his pocket, we would have a cure for cancer by now.
I’m not sure any of these e-mails are true. But it’s nice to see someone give Steve a good tongue lashing. The only thing I took out of all this is that “his motive’s are pure”. Yeah purely about making money and squashing anyone who does not believe like he does. Apple has become become anything but what their old commercials from the 80′s said they wanted to be.
It appears that Apple has become the new Microsoft, but with a dangerous idealist slant. Great. It think I preferred it when I could stick to American currency symbols to insinuate that the evil empire’s ultimate motivation was money. Now I need to find the alt code for the English pound…
Or the Euro, that one works too, I guess. Stupid Appl€.
@Bob If you could provide some solid evidence to show us ANY company out there who’s number one priority is NOT to make money… I would be extremely surprised. Without a profit, there is no business plain and simple. And with Apple’s popularity, they must indeed turn a huge profit in order to stay in business.
I disagree with Ryan’s where he writes “it’s about imposing your morality” to Steve Jobs.
1. It’s about imposing his best effort to deliver the best user experience. It’s no different than YouTube choosing not to serve up porn, and I highly doubt that anyone would be able to write a credible email to the big three @Google or Marissa about Youtube, after a decade of growth. Despite the bloggers who then said they overpaid, no investment banker would be able to justify that conclusion at this point.
2. How could an investigative reporter claim that Mr. Jobs isn’t making his best effort to preserve the user experience?
He has a fiduciary responsibility to make his best effort on behalf of the company. He’s not a person who seems to take counsel of his naysayers.
I think that developers that want to risk a few thousand dollars writing an application that could be rejected know well in advance that there’s a probability that it will be rejected, and rightly assume that risk.
3. I’ll side with the guy who spend his last days on planet Earth trying to make the world a better place. It’s not like he craves the money, the respect of his peers, or the fame, and furthermore Mr. Tate’s overall tone is disturbing to me, personally.
@Krakajap
Sirius is a company that doesn’t make a dime.
Right
I’ll believe that when I see “proof” not just a simple claim. They provide a service and have no need to cover any operating costs???
Wow, I was on Gawker’s side with the whole iPhone prototype thing but this makes them look retarded. Steve Jobs totally owned Ryan Tate and kept a level head…at 2am.