Monday 2 November 2009

An Open Letter To Steve Jobs...

Steve.

I have been an Apple User for several years, my first iPod was the second generation of this now famous MP3 player, then getting my MacBook, then my current MacBook Pro. A lovely 17 inch matte screen. I was so happy to bring it home.

My history with Apple withstanding, i can allow for certain mishaps to be overseen in light of the bigger picture, the bigger picture being a clean, happy, workable interface that I am happy to stick up for in any of these infamous Mac/PC debates that the Apple advertisements endorse as much as they can.

But when an Operating System is upgraded to be noticeably and obviously WORSE than its predecessor, and there is nothing that can be done to reverse back to the way things were, then I have to take a step back and look at what I am constantly fighting to protect in my circle of friends.

Since my upgrade (if you even try and attempt to call it that) to Snow Leopard i have had so many problems, ones that where never evident in regular Leopard, or even Tiger, the operating system i started on!
There are several faults, none of which you want to own up to, but you are painfully aware of them, so i won't bother listing the details. But i know you know they are there Steve, and you are just praying that no real Mac Lover will split hairs about these minor issues, and assure them that a software update is just around the corner...

You have made me (and other alienated mac users) so dependant on using the technology. Even stemming down to your almost pathetic "Im a Mac, I'm a PC" adverts, you are constantly driving a wedge between the two operating systems, creating a conflict that wasn't there before! But i guess that this is ALSO good for your marketing and im sure your stocks have never been higher.

There is nothing i can do. Absolutely nothing. There is no way that my MacBook can handle the amount of music that your new iPod "Classic" can hold without doing MORE freezes than usual, so with a sizeable library of songs i have no choice but to put them all onto my iPod, I mean god forbid it would get rid of it all. I've been collecting music, transferring all my old CD's and selling them, downloading from your precious iTunes store and yes, illegally downloading some albums, if not most of them. Thats the way the industry is going, get over it Steve.

With a library as large and extensive as that, I would assume they would be safe on a new iPod Classic, but in all fairness, i would have done better sticking with my elderly relic iPod that had every button separate to each other, 5 separate buttons? Johnny Ive must be cringing at the thought that he designed such a primitive navigational tool!

I had an iPhone too. A lovely shiny first generation iPhone. But with everything with a silver lining, there is always a cloud;
Within a month of the release of the 3G, and with the 3.0 firmware update it stated to drop calls, the battery life died within an hour, the apps, that where sold to me as phase two of Operation: Minority Report where slow and difficult to use on my now aged iPhone Prime. resulting in this iPhone being tossed in the drawer with other Apple products, rendered unusable by the mere passage of time.

This is NOT progression! this is making things more difficult for everyone involved! New users to Mac will be so irritated by this that they will convert back to their archaic PC, and older Mac users like myself just find themselves infuriated over what is now a cannibalised version of the Mac OS that they hardly recognise anymore!

I equate Snow Leopard with Vista. There, i said it. Its an update that was not asked for, nor was it needed. You had progressed with Leopard and now you have ruined it. But these faults that we are all having, I can't help but think you see these as benefits, or don't see them at all, like a band made of 17 year olds who ignore all the bad reviews. Its immature and it does not help progress your company in a way that is beneficial to us, the users.

But none of that really matters to you anymore does it Steve. Every one of your followers would have happily given up their liver for you because you have created computing heaven for them. But even if they have faults with their machines, they still won't complain. After all these years of sticking up for Apple and promoting its features, its a hard back peddle. Mac users just stick with the faults, because they don't want anyone knowing they exist. When they are so painfully obvious.

You are no different from Microsoft in your approach to "Change". You run these new features by complete imbeciles, who either don't know the first thing about what is good for the average user, or a user in a certain field. WE are the users and Steve, we are not impressed.

You NEED to cut the bullshit Steve! I mean just look at your new Magic Mouse advert. Just look! its embarrassing to see a 20 minute long advert showing the features of a Mouse, its just a mouse! something you have got wrong for many many years, and no amount of multi touch can change that.

When you get it right your products speak for themselves, and if they don't, the users speak for you. We praise what you do right when you get it right. You don't need to be still driving this divide between the two companies of you and Microsoft, you don't need to give endless reasons why we need a product, because we know instantly what is good, you have taught us that!

But im stuck now. Stuck in a vicious whirlpool that I can't even begin to paddle my way out of. Your iPhone fucked me over by dropping calls and deleting music and messages, encouraging me to buy a new one, your iPod deleted all my music, but i am so adjusted to an iPod that my senses cant even start to comprehend another mp3 player, and now Snow Leopard has degraded me to shouting into pillows and punching walls in infuriation, and all i can do is write this in the vein hope that someone will read it and think that enough is enough, and Apple needs to change.

1 comment:

Ollie Bostock said...

thats a long one. i think even a certain york film maker (who shall remain namless) would struggle writting more than that.