Category: rants

Microsoft is putting the final finishing touches on what is expected to be XP’s final service pack, and it’s about goddamn time. Service pack 2 was released in August 2004–which is centuries ago in computer terms. Last time I did a fresh installation of XP SP2, the system needed more than 80 critical updates before I considered my system to be even remotely secure.

I’ve been beta testing SP3, and I’ve been fairly impressed with it. My workstation at the office is running an old beta build, and I’ve had absolutely no problems with it. However, I upgraded the system from an existing SP2 install, so there were a few things that I missed.

Today, I installed XP on my home workstation using a slipstreamed SP3 RC2 CD–and found a few things that absolutely baffle me.

• Internet Explorer is still version 6. (6.0.2900.3311.xpsp.080212-0005) That’s right–a year after IE7’s introduction and a service pack later, and XP is still installing the bug-ridden misery that is IE6.
• Windows Media Player is still version 9. (9.00.00.4503, to be exact.) The current version? 11. (11.0.5721.5145)

As strange as these two items are by themselves, I was even more confused when I ran Microsoft Update–neither appears as an update. While this may well be intentional due to SP3’s release candidate status, it still seems bizarre to me.

At this point, there’s no chance that either IE7 or WMP11 will be included in the final release. Therefore, I’m forced to ask–what the fuck, Microsoft? You’re releasing the first serious update to XP in almost four years–so why wouldn’t you actually go to the effort of seriously updating it?

Update, for anyone who cares: I was about to post this to digg tonight and asked myself, “Why are people going to call me an idiot for writing this?” (They will, trust me. It’s just a matter of what half-baked, specious arguments they’ll come up with.) That’s when it occurred to me: IE7 and WMP11 aren’t included in SP3 because they require WGA validation. It would be far too easy to just download the redistributable SP3 install and get both programs that way.

That said, it’s still very strange that they don’t appear in Microsoft Update.

I bought an iPhone on August 17th for $599. Yesterday, nineteen days after I bought it, Apple dropped the price to $399. I’m really, really pissed. There’s a difference between a $50 initial price cut and dropping the price by a third straight off–I would have shrugged it off if this price cut had been $50, $75, or even $100.

I was fully expecting the price to drop eventually. I thought it would be a hundred bucks after six months, followed by another fifty here and there for the next year or so. As it turns out, Apple simply decided they’d rather just screw over all of their most loyal early adopters. They offered a product at an initially very steep price, fleecing anyone willing to pay it, then immediately reduced it by a third to pick up everyone else.

What does Steve Jobs have to say about this? “It’s technology.”

No, Steve, it’s not. It’s greed, and it’s a really excellent way of losing the trust of your customers. I had been eagerly awaiting the purchase of a MacBook once OSX 10.5 arrived, but now I’m going to go with another manufacturer. You fucked me, and now you don’t get any more of my money.

I’ve already tried calling AT&T to see if they’d offer a refund or a credit to my bill–they wouldn’t. I tried calling my bank to see if there are any consumer protections or price adjustments available on my debit card–there aren’t. Next up is calling Apple, then dropping by the AT&T store where I bought it for a “friendly chat.”

Update: Steve Jobs apparently received so many angry responses that he posted open letter to all iPhone owners. Apple is now offering a $100 credit towards any purchase in any Apple retail store, their online store, or iTunes.

Cynically, I can’t help but wonder if this entire fiasco and subsequent apology had been planned from the beginning. Even with this “generous” offer from Apple, they still stand to keep a minimum of $100:

• Since very few Apple products are $100 or less (the iPod Nano starts at $149, for example), Apple will receive an extra $49 from the sale.

  This, by the way, is why retail stores love to sell you gift cards: in order for you to fully redeem a card, you nearly always have to spend more than its value. If Aunt Millie gives you a $25 gift card to JC Penny for Christmas, you may have to pay $32 for jeans and a tshirt because the tshirt was only $19. Either that, or the store simply keeps Millie’s extra six dollars.

  If you use most of the credit without going over, Apple keeps your money.
  If you go over, you end up paying Apple even more money.

• Even if the entire $100 is spent on iTunes, only around $66 goes back to the copyright holder. (And only about $6 of that actually goes to the artist.)

  So Apple is really only giving up about $33.

• Some people simply won’t use the credit at all.

  And Apple keeps all $200.

• By only offering this credit to early adopters, Apple has picked out the cream of their client base–people who have money, and are willing to spend a lot of it on Apple products. By offering the credit to this very specific demographic, they know these people are much more likely to over-spend the credit, ala point #1.

Anyway, I still feel like Apple screwed me a bit, but I may end up using the credit toward that MacBook anyhow. Preplanned or not, I appreciate that Steve Jobs was willing to apologize for such a dick move.

And on that note, I apologize to all of you for whining about my ultra-premium phone.