01.05.11
Sociopaths at Apple
Summary: Apple’s parallel universe of distasteful attitudes, as covered in the latest news
FURTHER to the post about changed perception, more and more people become aware of Apple’s dark side and more reporters write about it too. “Apple support company sues customer for complaining,” CNET alerts despite Apple’s payments to it:
Returning to my inbox after the New Year’s break, I found it full of Greeks bearing rifts.
The national press, the tech blogosphere, even normal, ordinary human beings on Twitter are railing against Systemgraph, a support company officially approved by Apple to be its reseller and authorized service provider.
Dimitris Papadimitriadis, a physician in Greece, was apparently having a little trouble with his iMac, so he took it to Systemgraph in order to enjoy its authorized servicing skills. According to the Greek newspaper Proto Thema, Papadimitriadis discovered dark patches on the screen of his machine.
Keep it classy. In other news, The Register says that “Apple patent endangers unbiased product reviews” and it explains why:
Apple has filed a patent application for an online-store product-review system that turns the ideal of unbiased product evaluation on its head.
“The present invention relates to electronic commerce,” the application reads, “and more specifically to using the collective wisdom of a community to predict rankings for items for sale in an electronic store.”
Many “collective wisdom” product-evaluation systems currently exist, of course, from Amazon to Epinions to Yelp and more. Many more.
What makes Apple’s filing unusual is that the system it describes “provides an incentive for individuals in the group of individuals whose associated predictive ranking coincides with the actual ranking of the item.”
For those who do not know, Apple allegedly collaborates/pays a company which produces fake reviews. Last year we also showed how Apple bribed famous people to review the hypePad ahead of everyone else. Apple’s patent attacks on competitors (notably Linux/Android) is a subject we’ll get around to later in the week.
An Apple a day keeps reason away. █
