Apple Sucks

Apple is the new Evil Empire, just as bad as Microsoft, only with a smiley face. At least Bill Gates never pretends he's nice. I prefer my bullshit straight up, thank you.

Why do I suddenly hate Apple? Because of iTunes. It's a fantastic product, I have it running right now (although I'm actually listening to my Yahoo radio; iTunes is just sitting there). It's got some fantastic features, it's the only mainstream mp3 player that allows you to rip cd's into pure, high-quality mp3's with no copy protection, and it's so easy to use. But here are two reasons why I hate it:

1. It makes you buy an iPod. Well, it doesn't actually MAKE you. Although you can't install iTunes without looking at an add of two very attractive teens who are happy together because they have iPods.  (I'm not kidding, that's basically what it says.)  But the point is, iTunes refuses to work with any mp3 player that isn't iPod.  So, the best mp3 software doesn't work with your mp3 player.  So you have two options: use the truly crappy software that came with your own mp3 player, or buy an overpriced and overadvertised iPod.
   Someone actually wrote an iTunes plugin that would force it to work with third-party mp3 players.  Boy did Apple shut that one down fast.  See if you can find the program "Bad Apple" anywhere.  If you win you get a cookie.  I'll get you started: www.badfruit.com.  Good luck.
2. If you buy songs from the iTunes online music store, you can't load them on your non-iPod mp3 player.  Apple doesn't actually sell you mp3's; they sell you m4p's.  It's a copy-protected mp4.  They used to sell mp4's, but people came up with converters so you could turn it into an mp3 and put it on your mp3 player.  Apple didn't like that, so when they came out with the new version of iTunes (which doesn't actually have new features) they changed the format to something that couldn't be converted.  Your only option is to burn a cd, and then re-rip it.  (But be careful, the default iTunes import format is their own nefarious format.  You have to manually change it to mp3.)  Oh, and you just wasted a cd in the process.  I know they're cheap, but it's way too much time and materials.  Oh, and when you do that, it writes over the original m4p's that you paid for.  So you'd better make damn sure that there aren't any scratches on the cd you just used, or else you just wrote over your good tracks with scratchy unusable tracks.  Yeah, this happened to me.  With an album I really liked.

So, screw iTunes.  I'll still use the software, but I'm not giving Apple my money any more.  And I'm not going to be buying a mac any time soon either.  They didn't invent the processors or the OS and yet they pretend that they're specialer somehow.

How am I gonna get my music?  I'll go to the local independent music store and buy actual CDs.  I'll get an actual album that can't be written over by accident, with album art and a box that looks pretty on my bookshelf, and I'll be supporting a local Haight Ashbury business while I'm at it, thank you very much.

J