Saturday, May 22, 2010

If someone mentions Android, make sure you go totally nuts

Apple faithful,

It is 1984 all over again. Once again, we are under attack. This time the enemy is Google, and make no mistake — they want to kill us. They want it all.

Which is why, once again, I am calling upon all of you to join the jihad and fight the good fight. If you hear someone saying that they’re thinking about getting an Android phone, don’t just sit there! Spring into action. Get right up in their face and tell them how fucking stupid they are because iPhone is still a million times better than Android and they obviously don’t know anything about technology and they are so going to regret going to Android because it is totally crappy and flawed and immature.

If they already have an Android phone, just scoff at them for being so stupid and for making such an idiotic decision. I mean really get into it. Start foaming at the mouth. Scream if you need to. By all means make it personal. Make fun of this person! Mock them! Tell them you wish they could be forcibly sterilized by the state so they could not reproduce and pass on their imbecile genes. Your goal is to reduce this person to a puddle of tears — and, by virtue of this shaming, to make them want an iPhone.

Maybe you’re saying to yourself, Hey, why do I care what phone some other person uses? I know why I love my Apple phone, but maybe it’s not for everyone, and that’s okay. It’s a big world out there, people have different tastes, and I don’t care what kind of car they drive or what kind of wristwatch they wear, or how they dress, so why do I care what phone they use, blah blah.

Well, wait a minute. Hold up. You do care what phone they use. You just do. For one thing, you have a lot of money and time invested in iPhone. Hell, you waited in line for the damn thing. Remember that? And remember how cool and special and powerful you felt when you whipped it out in public and everyone around you was like, Whoa, is that the new iPhone? Are you some kind of wizard? Do you have magic powers?

Well, the magic is under attack. That’s why you care. It’s not about Apple. It’s about you.

So here’s what to do. If the person is a friend of yours, you say you are only attacking and insulting them because you care about them and don’t want to see them make a terrible mistake. If the person talking about Android is a complete stranger — say, someone at a nearby table in a restaurant that you’ve overheard talking to someone else — you are still well within your rights as an Apple owner to interrupt their conversation in the context of wanting to “share facts” and “set the record straight.”

If they give you shit about walking over to their table and ranting at them over what they considered to be a private conversation, just point out that they are the ones who started it, by criticizing Apple in a public place and spreading lies and FUD and false information about Apple products. Even if they were just talking about Android and did not even mention Apple, that in itself constitutes an implicit criticism of Apple, and you have every right to act.

Now for the talking points. We’re going to be sending these out in a mass email to iPhone owners, and also including the talking points on the home screen the next iPhone OS upgrade so you’ll have them handy wherever you go. But here are a few things you should say to counter the Android FUD:

* Why do you hate Apple so much? You seem really defensive, and angry. You seem to be taking this all so personally. You need to let go of your ego. Everything is not all about you.

* Apps. There are way more apps on iPhone OS. This will never change. Whatever the world looks like right now, that’s how it will be forever. Android will never catch up.

* Power users versus regular folks. Fair enough, you’re a super techie and can handle Android. Apple is designed for regular people who don’t want to worry about technology. By adopting Android, and helping Google succeed, you are hurting the regular folks who want to use Apple. Somehow.

* Vaporware. Android 2.2, aka Froyo, does not even exist yet. Unlike iPhone OS 4.0, which has already been demonstrated in public.

* Multitasking. You don’t need it. It’s a total red herring. When was the last time you did more than one thing on a phone? Also: Apple will have multitasking soon, so the point is moot.

* Music. You realize that playing music is one of the most important things a phone must be able to do, right? Well, Apple invented this thing called iTunes. Have you heard of it?

* Fragmentation. I’m trying to remember, how many versions of Android are there? Like sixty? And each one has a different user interface, and they’re always updating and changing and you have to go look up to see if your phone will run the new OS and it’s just so confusing and you’ll be tearing your hair out. With Apple, just one system. Simple. Ahhh.

* Google is big and evil and wants to steal all your personal information. Apple is all about freedom. And magical, childlike wonder.

* Flash. Apple won’t support it, Google will. Guess what? Flash drains your battery, and makes your phone so hot that it will set your hands on fire. So, yeah. You’re welcome.

* Porn. Did you know that Android was created by Google to help porn merchants sell dirty filthy porn on mobile phones so that porn-loving perverts could look at their smutty porn 24 hours a day and probably molest your kids?

* AT&T actually much better than Verizon. Faster 3G. Talk and surf Web at same time. As for dropped calls, all I can tell you is it has never happened to me or anyone I know, and the media has blown that issue way out of proportion.

* Browser. Forget the benchmarks that Google provides and just trust your own eyes. Safari is the fastest browser in the market. It’s 5-10x faster than any other browser.

* Ads. Ours are made by Apple. Theirs are not. Enough said.

* Spyware. You won’t get it on Apple. Android is crawling with it. Also, viruses. You’ll get viruses just by turning on your phone. If you’re on your home network, the virus could jump from your phone to every device on your network, even your WiFi router, and you will never get it out. The virus will spy on you and take pictures of you as you’re working and post those pictures on Facebook along with your credit card numbers, Social Security numbers, and a list of everything you’ve ever bought online. So, good luck with that.


Thursday, March 18, 2010

Scored an Android

Not the phone.  (Not yet– still hoping for a Nexus One.) But I did find a little Android dude here. They’re blind-boxed, which means you don’t know what’s inside, until you open ‘er up.  I’m hopin’ for green.


Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Early Nexus One sales just 865,000 short of iPhone sales

That’s John Paczkowski’s headline, and it’s so good I decided not to touch it.  That’s a header sure to put a smile on Dear Leader’s face, and a frown on the face of Squirrel Boy. The short version is, after 74 days on the market, they’ve moved 135,000 units. At the same time, Apple had moved a million units of the iPhone.  Motorola’s Droid did a better better than that.


Monday, March 15, 2010

Tim Bray wants to make sure you know he hates the iPhone

Tim Bray is the co-inventor of the XML Web standard.  So he carries a lot of weight. He has gone to great lengths to let the world know he is cuddling up to Android, (he now works at Google) and hates the iPhone a whole lot. How much?  Let him tell you, c/o this article on TechCrunch. Just more fuel on the Google-Apple fire. Update: Oops, here’s another shot in the war. Can’t keep up. Need a scorecard.

The iPhone vision of the mobile Internet’s future omits controversy, sex, and freedom, but includes strict limits on who can know what and who can say what. It’s a sterile Disney-fied walled garden surrounded by sharp-toothed lawyers. The people who create the apps serve at the landlord’s pleasure and fear his anger. (Ed.- who is he referring to?)

I hate it.


Saturday, March 6, 2010

You can’t tell the players without a scorecard

See if you can follow this.  This info c/o Search Engine Land.  They report that Yahoo is going to be the default search on AT&T’s first Android handset, the Motorola Backflip. So you have an Android device, and Android is Google’s deal, with Yahoo search.  Someone’s likely to get a terse memo on that.  Also, T-Mobile has dumped Yahoo as default search on their portal, and replacing them with Google.  My head hurts- does yours?


Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Android release postponed in China

Wonder why?


Monday, January 4, 2010

I thought the Android logo looked familiar

Kick the baby!


Tuesday, December 1, 2009

Android Developers Not Happy

Well, duh. It’s either Apple or Android, droogs. You wanna write for Windows Mobile? Thought so …


Android Developers Rewarded by Google

Kudos to the winners, but did you notice Apple never had to do anything like that to attract developers for the iPhone?


Sunday, October 18, 2009

From Motorola and Verizon, a lame new attack ad

I’ve said it before, when Sprint and Palm did this with the Pre — if the only way you can market your product is to compare it to some other product, you’ve already lost. Well, thanks for the free publicity, bitches.