Not pro Bono: Apple's audio junk mail made spammers' lives easier Apple's decision to push a new album by Irish boy band U2 into the iCloud libraries of millions isn't just egregious. It arguably plays into the hands of scammers. Without warning, the iPhone maker emitted Songs of Innocence with all the haste of a critical security update after the group's appearance at its Apple Watch and …
You can't say an Android "isn't my device", because I can make it mine as I please just by rooting.
However, all Apple devices, including their computers, are definitely NOT "your device". They are locked, unlocked, erased, and changed at will without need for your approval. Nothing you can do about it. And the moment your data hits one of their devices, it becomes Apple's data.
The most you can do in reality is rent Apple's devices. Something to think about.
Bollocks.
You can jailbreak an Apple device and achieve exactly the same security/freedom tradeoff as with rooted Android devices, if that's your thing.
Not that jailbreaking is for everybody, just pointing out that there is absolutely no difference between Android and Apple devices in this regard.
@AP
Reminder: Google remotely deleted 50 Android apps back in 2011. It was the 2nd time they had done that. Perhaps they have done it since. All for what they claim to be good reasons, but the example utterly nukes your point.
Those that fail to pay attention to history are left confused, heads full of strange ideas that are simply wrong.
(Disclaimer: Not a fanboy. Posted from my Nexus tablet. iPhone within reach. BlackBerry just a bit further. Kobo beside it. Android burner phone over there. You get the idea...)
You're all no fun.
Although yes, I kind of forgot about rooting, I haven't had to do it for years and does kind of negate my childish frippery. I'm blaming the stomach bug I have (I posted that from a rather uncomfortable toilet trip - enjoy that mental image).
Hugs and kisses
Raith
They are cunningly called Mozart Piano Sonata # or Mozart Symphony #. I have purchased 3 albums all have cunning name like Missa @ with Hayden or Bieber (no that one - the good that died in 1704)
as the composer. On what planet does Apple think I would remotely interested in (expletives deleted) U2 ? Maybe Tim & Bono share tax tips :-)
#is a number
@ is either Salzburgenis or Bruxellensis or Anguistis(Nelson Mass)
I applaud your taste in music*.
Though, if Apple has put U2 on your device, I'm considerably less impressed by your taste in technology :p
* However, I do also like - and my collection includes - modern(-ish) stuff as well as classical. I suspect I may be the recipient of some scorn for saying this, but that does include some U2 material.
Be prepared, next week, you are getting the new X-Factor single added, for free. They are going to insert it into your playlists randomly and you can only delete it after you have listened to it at least 10 times, and filled out a online feedback form signed and approved by Tim Cook and Simon Cowell.
iThings are for idiots that don't know any better, and this is just the beginning of things. Whilst Apple paid 10m for the U2 deal to spam everyone with the new album, regardless. The next logical step is for record companies to pay THEM to give exposure to this weeks favorite boyband.
Can't say I feel any sympathy, iPhone/iTunes users deserve everything they get really.
If it does, I'm thinking about using the Computer Misuse Act or any other law that says "you stay the f*ck out of the data space of my devices". It's reputational damage too, actually. Ugh.
Apple may still make reasonable products (albeit more Evolutionary than REvolutionary), but I really think their marketing people need to be replaced pronto. Whoever came up with this will be first against the wall when the revolution comes. Which explains the lack of it.
Sorry, confused myself there.
Is it clearly printer on the outside of the box?
Do the sales-droids hand me a written copy to peruse prior to me handing over my hand earned money?
No?
Then under Australian consumer law, it is illegal, and unenforceable. All terms and conditions of a sale must, by law, be made apparent to the consumer prior to the point of purchase.
This post has been deleted by its author
Lovin the Irish Boy Band joke.
As for why this happened. Last year, when they were about to elect a new pope, I was crossing my fingers that Bono would get it, as it was the position he'd been angling for all his life.
Alas, some other guy got the gig, and Bono was left with nothing, having to look for new ways to penetrate people's butts, and voila: suprise U2 downloads.
In fairness, they did some good stuff the 1990s.
Replace the word "Apple" with "KFC" or "Philip Morris" in this story, and you see it for what it is - a large corporation sucking up to a popular musical act to try and get some feel-good.
The "free" album deal is rumoured to have cost Tim Cook $100+ million, which just shows that Bono is still able to bullshit when it counts... The band's last album tanked (~1 million sales), yet still spawned a tour that drew 7.2 million punters. This one has already turned a profit (most of the costs of an album are in promotion and distribution), and that's before anyone has ordered the hats for the new tour... a tour that no doubt will be sponsored by iTunes.
1. Taking away songs they don't agree with politically
2. Adding shitty new songs you didn't ask for that you don't want.
How about I keep the music I want on a file server I own? Apple finds my behaviour worrying because they can't fuck with my files even though they dearly wish to.
OMG, you cant look at what music I have and work out what to sell me? It's such a fucking tragedy right? No, I will just figure out what music I like, on my own. How did humans cope with the burden of such weighty decisions before the corporation was invented?
And if I need to be reminded to buy your album, maybe that's because it's shit?
The U2 album didn't show up on my iPhone, iPad, or Mac.
My iTunes and my iOS devices are set to *not* download new purchases automatically, and are set to *not* show "purchases in the cloud" in my library. Cloud purchases are noted with a little cloud icon. They are tracks that haven't been downloaded, but which you are able to download if you wish.
When I turned on display of "purchases in the cloud", the U2 album became visible, but still wasn't downloaded. Then I turned it off again and the album went away.
If the tracks downloaded to your device, it's because you have your device configured to automatically download new purchases. If that's the case, I'm not sure you'd have a legal case against Apple for putting the files on your device.
The album isn't pushed into the iCloud libraries of millions, it's a link to the album, which is visible if you have "Show iTunes in the Cloud purchases" enabled. U2 net worth $838 million, highest grossing tour in 2011, bigger than the Rolling Stones, $700 million tickets sold over two years, total album sales 140 million. Apple $37.4 billion third quarter revenue and $7.7 billion profit.
He played the Irish card. I'm paraphrasing but he said of those complaining: "they don't care that some Irish guys worked their asses off to make this music"
WTF? No one was ever hating on them for being Irish, or even lazy. That essentially has nothing to do with why people are angry.
It's obviously a big surprise to him that anyone complained. (And to Apple too, they don't employ a diverse range of people at all, how could they presume to speak for millions on a musical preference?) My reaction would have been more like "oh well I should have known, it takes more than freebies to make people try new genres".
The Register 
Biting the hand that feeds IT
Copyright. All rights reserved © 1998–2024
