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Apple Rant (Mild)

    Hey, everyone. It's no secret that I am an Apple fan. I love gaming on the I-Pad and the whole thing. I was proud of Apple the other day when they stopped Big Fish Games from initiating the subscription gaming deal on the app store.
    However, it seems that I can see a bit of a change in the general spirit of the company. I read a quote from Steve Jobs biography to the effect that Steve was not thrilled with the direction he foresaw the company moving under some of the people at the top.
    Since Steve has left us it seems that there are quite a few of the developers on the store taking little liberties with app updates and in-app purchases. Things that, while not dishonest or illegal, are a bit unsavory. With the former regime, the customer always was a factor in the decision making process. Apple really 'got it' about how to treat people.
   Forgetting the app store for the moment, let me talk about the I-Cloud. Are they trying to force everyone into being a part of the cloud? I recognize its convenience and technological brilliance. I don't like to be force-fed anything. I opted out of using the cloud when IOS 5 rolled around. All my devices have slowed down. When I plug in my I-pad to my PC, I get a message box. It states: This device can not be used because it is not signed up for the mobile device program. That is probably not the exact wording, okay? I gather that I can't sync to my computer because I am not a Cloud person. This started just the other day when the update for Safari and something else came out. What was that, 5.2 or 5.3? Whatever.
    Don't get me wrong, I can still use my I-Pad for all the stuff I do with it. Play games, read news, buy and read books, surf the web, blog, buy and listen to music and a hundred other things. As far as I can tell, the only major 'punishment' for not being in the cloud is I can't sync stuff to my computer. I really don't care about that. It may just be that as a non-tech person, I am seeing things in the wrong light. As a guy who watched 'Conspiracy Theory' and didn't think Mel Gibson was all that weird, maybe I am hypersensitive. Why does it seem that powerful people want to know our every move? Why does anyone want to know every time I play a game, which game I play, who I play it with, which article I read? How long is it until the profilers of the world go nuts and build a file on everyone who reads 1984, Atlas Shrugged and Das Capital, then plays zombie games for more than an hour a day? My point is merely that my man Steve's hand is no longer on the tiller and I think I can tell it. Wow. Nice imagery. I could see Mr. Jobs at the helm of a sloop, with his hand on the tiller and watching the sails fill or luff. Whatever. I just hate to think of Apple's boardroom conversation going like this, "Well, we've built one of the most amazing companies in the history of the world, how can we destroy it ?" A little guy raises his hand and says, "I know. Lets forget what got us to this place and start to aggravate our customers."
   Thanks for reading my weekly (?) rant.
   I'm CE Wills
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