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Links against Apple Inc.

Last Updated: 14-April-2007

Introduction

Some years ago, I talked with my friend and partner for Technion projects about the computer world. I asked him if he thinks Mac OS X is better than Windows and he told me that he’d rather not try it because he doesn’t trust Apple. Since then I noticed more and more abuses from Apple and things they’ve been doing wrong. The Apple community is full of hubris, believes Mac OS to be superior and cannot see the abuses from their parent company.

In this page, I’ll try to collect all the bad links about Apple.

  1. Freecode “Desktop *nix Users Find No Solution in OS X” - why OS X is not an adequate replacement for the Linux desktop. “OS X is not Unix.” (14-September-2002).
  2. “Learning from Kaleidoscope” - Apple decides that Mac OS X is too cool to have themes, and moreover, hunts for Aqua-like themes on the Net and requests their removal.
  3. Info World: “Apple closes down OS X” - Apple hid the source code for the Mac OS X kernel (“Darwin”). They later revealed it again, but then relicensed it under a non-free/non-open-source licence, which forbids a lot of common use.
  4. Apple sues companies for using the “trademark” of “pod”.
  5. Joel on Software’s story about Pete and Gena - illustrates the fact that Apple lacks a lot of Windows’ (and Linux-based desktops) usability improvements.
  6. FairPlay - the Apple iPod and QuickTime DRM (“Digital Restrictions Management”)
  7. Mac OS X’s tar and other programs meta-data brain-damage - makes it incompatible with other UNIX clones, and breaks CPAN modules.
  8. Linux-IL thread (in English) about the lack of BiDi support in OS X applications
  9. chromatic on “Switching Back” from Mac OS X to Linux - very insightful.
  10. WWDC 2007 Keynote News - a bit against the iPhone.
  11. “A Picture’s Worth 100 Million Users” - about the Safari for Windows.
  12. iDon’tPhone
  13. “Apple Safari for Windows: The world’s slowest web browser” from Joel on Software - a little about Apple’s advertising regarding its products’ performance.
  14. Eight Things I Absolutely Hate About Apple by Noah Gift on OnLAMP.com.
  15. Apple Cuts Off Linux iPod Users - Apple does not want for programs other than iTunes to access newer iPod. (And it also mentions that newer iPods encrypt their firmware, to prevent replacing the OS).
  16. “Mac OS X is a Harsh Mistress” - a journal entry by perrin.
  17. Coping with Mac OS 10.5
  18. “Leopard’s tar is broken”
  19. “.Mac iDisk going crazy, again.” - from Ask Bjørn Hansen’s blog.
  20. Slashdot.org: “Apple Fixes ‘Misleading’ Leopard Firewall Settings”
  21. A Little .Mac Security Flaw - Apple deletes posts regarding a serious security flaw and doesn’t answer requests to get them done.
  22. “Should Apple Give Back Replaced Disks?” - Apple replaces a failed disk for a customer for a pay, and then doesn’t give back the original, risking data theft.
  23. Apple Patents ‘Buy Stuff Wirelessly, Skip Lines’ Tech
  24. Apple QuickTime DRM Disables Video Editing Apps
  25. Apple Cripped its DTrace Port so it won’t be able to trace iTunes
  26. rjbs: “Reinstalling Leopard - Not So Bad” - re-installing just to get Mail.app to work.
  27. Apple Sends Cease-and-Desist To the Hymn Project - Apple abuses the Law System to protect the iTunes Digital Restrictions Management scheme.
  28. “Apple Software Update” - Apple pushes Safari to Users of its Windows Software
  29. “Safari 3.1 For Windows Violates Its Own EULA, Vulnerable to Hacks”
  30. “iPhone SDK Rules Block Skype, Firefox, Java”
  31. “iPhone’s Development Limitations Could Hurt It In the Long Run”
  32. jonasbn - “iPhone Trouble”
  33. “Apple Error Leaves iPhone Developers In the Lurch”
  34. “Safari ‘Carpet Bomb’ Attack Code Released”
  35. “Mozilla Firefox 3 Release Candidate 3 Works Around Mac OS X Bug” (from MozillaZine).
  36. “Apple just gave out my Apple ID password because someone asked” - by Marko Karppinen.
  37. “Mac OS X Root Escalation Through AppleScript”
  38. “Apple Still Has Not Patched the DNS Hole”
  39. “5 reasons to avoid iPhone 3G” - by the Free Software Foundation.
  40. mir - “On OS’s and user friendliness”
  41. “iPhone 3G in BE WTF?!?!?!? [parte deux]” - by beatnik.
  42. “iPhone: The Last Straw?” - by Ovid.
  43. “Two Black Hat Talks on Apple Security Cancelled”
  44. Psystar Will Countersue Apple - a Mac clone maker claims that Apple engages in anti-competitive business practices.
  45. “Psystar Retains Law Firm with Pass Success Against Apple” - about the Apple law-suit against the Mac clones.
  46. “Apple vs. Psystar” on Shachar Shemesh’s .blog (in Hebrew)
  47. “Real Dan Lyons: Really Good” - about Apple’s PR people.
  48. “The Value of Open Platforms (aka Why I Don’t Own an iPhone)”
  49. The iPhone SDK and free software: not a match - about the restrictions of the iPhone SDK. (15-April-2008)
  50. Pudge - iTunes / Front Row Updates (10-September-2008)
  51. “iTunes 8 a Real Killer App: Taking Down Vista” (11-September-2008)
  52. “iPhone Takes Screenshots of Everything You Do” - from a talk about iPhone forensics. (12-September-2008)
  53. “Apple Rejects iPhone App as Competitive to iTunes”
  54. “Apple Declares DRM War on Sneaker Hackers” (14-September-2008)
  55. “Users Report Faulty WPA in 2nd-Gen iPod Touch” (14-September-2008)
  56. “Apple Bans iPhone App for Competing with Mail.app” (21-September-2008)
  57. “Apple Adds NDA to App Store Rejection Notices” (OSNews.com) (24-September-2008)
  58. “SDK Shoot Out, Android vs. iPhone” (25-September-2008)
  59. Hockenberry: App Store Policies are ‘Killing Our Enthusiasm’ (29-September-2008)
  60. Steve Jobs Patents “The Dock” - the thread contains other insightful comments. (8-Octboer-2008)
  61. “Lawsuit Between Apple adn Psystar Moves Toward Settlement” (19-October-2008)
  62. “Apple Not Accepting Opera Mini on the iPhone” - from OSNews.com. (29-October-2008)
  63. “Why Developers Are Switching to Macs”
  64. open dot dot dot - “Mac Fanboys Face the Music (and Video)” - about DRM restrictions in iTunes-downloaded videos. (20-November-2008)
  65. To develop for the iPhone (in Hebrew) (22-November-2008).
  66. “App Store Lessons: Try and Try Again”
  67. “BluWiki Seeks iPodHash Author, Hopes for Help from EFF” (23-November-2008)
  68. “Psystar Case Reveals Poor Email Archiving At Apple” (23-November-2008)
  69. talash - “ipod” (29-November-2008)
  70. “Apple Quietly Recommends Antivirus Software For Macs”
  71. “Apple Hits Psystar with DMCA Charges” (2-December-2008).
  72. “Grey Lines Mar MacBook Air Displays” (5-December-2008).
  73. “France Orders Break Up of Orange iPhone Exclusivity Deal” (18-December-2008).
  74. “Will People Really Boycott Apple Over DRM?” (22-December-2008).
  75. “Psystar Claims Apple Forgot To Copyright Mac OS” (22-December-2008).
  76. “PsyStar Claims Apple’s Mac OS X Copyright is Invalid” (24-December-2008).
  77. “Switcher’s lament: The case against Mac” - by Rafe Needleman on cnet. (5-January-2009).
  78. “Apple Hints at Legal Action Against Palm” (22-January-2009)
  79. “Palm Quietly Responds to Apple’s Quiet Threat” (24-January-2009)
  80. “(OS X 10.5)--” by Nicholas (30-January-2009)
  81. “iLife Quietly Moves Intel Dual Core Only” - on OSNews.com (4-February-2009)
  82. “Is Apple’s Multi-Touch Patent Valid?” (7-February-2009)
  83. “MacBook Pro Graphic Cards Failures” - on Ovid’s Journal (13-February-2009)
  86. “Safari 4 Beta: UI Disaster” - on OSNews.com (28-February-2009)
  87. OSNews.com: “First Unauthorised iPhone App Store To Open Up Shop” (07-March-2009)
  88. Slashdot: “Apple’s iPhone Developer Crisis” (08-March-2009)
  89. OSNews.com: “What is the Issue in the Psystar Case?” (09-March-2009)
  90. Slasdhot: “The Realities of Selling on Apple’s App Store” (10-March-2009)
  91. “Miller on Mac OS X, Chrome, Firefox, Economics” - about exploiting Safari and other browsers on Mac OS X. (20-March-2009)
  92. Slashdot: “Apple and AT&T Sued, Again, Over 3G” (20-March-2009)
  93. Slashdot: “iPhone App Refund Policies Could Cost Devs” (28-March-2009)
  94. “Apple Sued Over Legal Threats to Wiki Operator” - on OSNews.com (27-April-2009)
  95. “The iPhone is Not a Netbook: ‘I can’” - on OSNews.com (27-April-2009)
  96. OSNews.com’s “Week in Review” - “This all is just further evidence of the decay in quality on Apple reporting.” (10-May-2009)
  97. “Apple Refusing Any BitTorrent Related Apps?” - on Slashdot (11-May-2009)
  98. “Apple Hires Former OLPC Security Directory” - “His hiring comes at a crucial time for a company that ties security to its marketing campaigns despite public knowledge that it’s rather trivial to launch exploits against the Mac.” (14-May-2009)
  99. “9 Month Old Critical Java Vulnerability Still Not Patched in Mac OS X” - on OSNews.com (19-May-2009)
  100. Slashdot.org: “Safari 4’s Messy Trail” (23-May-2009)
  101. Slashdot: Apple Bans RSS Reader due to Bad Word in Feed Link (03-June-2009)
  102. OSNews.com: “Snow Leopard” - “[Snow Leopard] will be available coming September for All Intel Macs, past and present (so, as expected, no PowerPC).” (08-June-2009)
  103. Joel on Software: “Platform vendors” - covers the “15 Apps Rendered Obsolete by the New iPhone 3GS” article. (10-June-2009)
  104. Slashdot.org: “Hackers Find Remote iPhone Crack” (16-June-2009)
  105. OSNews.com: “WWDC: ‘A Giant Middle Finger to iPhone Developers’” (16-June-2009)
  106. Hetz Ben Hamo: “A few words on incorrect calculations regarding the iPhone in Israel” (in Hebrew) (17-June-2009)
  107. O’Reilly Broadcast: “Big Learning Curve for iPhone Development” (22-June-2009)
  108. Andy Armstrong: “Safari 4 likes clicking” (02-July-2009)
  109. LeaukiProg: “iPhone debug zombies and finally VMware” (06-July-2009)
  110. “How Apple’s App Review is Undermining the iPhone” - on OSNews.com (20-July-2009)
  111. “Apple Tries to Downplay iPod Fire Incidents” - on OSNews.com (22-July-2009)
  112. all“Apple Rejects Official Google Voice iPhone App” - on OSNews.com (28-July-2009)
  113. “Apple: Jailbreaking Could Crash Transmission Towers” - on OSNews.com (29-July-2009)
  114. “SMS Hack Could Make iPhone Vulnerable” - on Slashdot.org (30-July-2009)
  115. “Apple Keyboards Vulnerable to Firmware Hack” - on OSNews.com (1-August-2009)
  116. “Apple Balks, Finally Relents, At Possible User Queries of Dictionary App” - on Slashdot.org (5-August-2009)
  117. “Apple Tried to Block Article About Steve Jobs” - on OSNews.com (17-August-2009)
  118. “Mac vs. PC” - the Next Screenplay - on Ido Kanner’s Blog (in Hebrew) (26-August-2009)
  119. “Snow Leopard Missed a Security Opportunity” - on Slashdot.org (16-September-2009)
  120. “Squatters Abusing iPhone App Store” - on Slashdot.org (9-October-2009)
  121. “Respected Developers Begin Fleeing the [iPhone] App Store” - on Slashdot.org (19-November-2009)
  122. Paul Graham: “Apple’s Mistake” - about the ongoing frustration of developers with the iPhone App Store. (20-November-2009)
  123. “Malware Could Grab Data From Stock iPhones” - on Slashdot.org (4-December-2009)
  124. “Why Apple Denied the Goolge Latitude App” - on Slashdot.org (2-January-2010)
  125. “Apple Sends Cease & Desist Letter to Valleywag” - on OSNews.com (14-January-2010).
  126. “New iPhone Attack Kills Apps, Reroutes Web Traffic” - on Slashdot.org. (2-February-2010).
  127. Slashdot.org: “Apple Sues HTC For 20 Patent Violations In Phones” (2-March-2010)
  128. Google, HTC Respond to Apple Lawsuit (OSNews.com) (3-March-2010)
  129. Slashdot.org: “Where Android Beats the iPhone” (4-March-2010)
  130. Slashdot.org: “Apple’s iPhone Developer License Agreement Revealed” - with many atrocious restrictions. (9-March-2010)
  131. LWN.NET: “Schwartz: Good Artists Copy, Great Artists Steal” - about Apple’s patent-infringement claims history. (10-March-2010)
  132. Slashdot.org: “Apple Blocking iPhone Security Software” (11-March-2010)
  133. Tim Bray: “Now A No-Evil Zone” (about joining Google to work on the Android) - “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.” (15-March-2010)
  134. OSNews.com: “HTC: We Will ‘Fully Defend Ourselves’” - about Apple’s patent threats towards HTC for supposedly violating their Smartphone patents. (18-March-2010)
  135. “Apple: Worse for open source than Microsoft?” (23-April-2010)
  136. “Sam Watkins’ Apple Page”.
  137. GPL Enforcement in Apple’s App Store (25-May-2010)

  138. Slashdot: “Apple Blindsides More AppStore Developers” (1-June-2010)

  139. Slashdot: “How To Get Rejected From the App Store” - “From executing interpreted code, to using Apple’s APIs without permission, to designing your UI, each transgression has been abstracted from real-life rejections — for the most part because Apple seems to be making up the rules as it goes along.”(3-June-2010)

  140. Open dot dot dot - “Why the iPhone Cannot Keep Up With the Android” (7-June-2010)

  141. Oded Arbel: “Did you hear that the iPhone 4 was released?” - “Yes, but it [= video conferencing] was real 8 years ago as well – a long time before even the first iPhone came out!” (8-June-2010)

  142. Ars Technica: “Mozilla evangelist: Apple HTML5 demos harm the open Web” - Apple blocks other browsers from accessing its HTML5 (an upcoming web standard) demos. (8-June-2010)

  143. OSNews.com: “Apple Specifically Blocks Google’s AdMob from iOS” (8-June-2010).

  144. OSNews.com: “AdMob CEO: Apple’s Policies Will Hurt Users, Developers”

  145. Slashdot: “Apple Quietly Goes After Mac Trojan With Update” (19-June-2010)

  146. Slashdot: “Apple Wants To Share Your Location With Others” (22-June-2010)

  147. Slashdot: “iPad Left Vulnerable After Record iPhone Patch Job” (22-June-2010)

  148. “What’s Apple Doing With Geolocation Data?” (28-June-2010)

  149. Hetz Ben Hamo: “And Here Started the Troubles of the iPhone 4” (in Hebrew) - about the defective “Retina Display“, the scratchy glass, and the loss of reception when holding the phone.

  150. OSNews.com: “Finally, Someone Does Proper iPhone 4 Antenna Testing” (1-July-2010)

  151. Hetz Ben Hamo: “How Apple Are going to manipulate iPhone 4 Owners” (2-July-2010) (in Hebrew) about Apple’s claim that the signal strength was miscalculated.

  152. Slashdot: “Apple To Issue a ‘Fix’ For iPhone 4 Reception Perception” (2-July-2010)

  153. Alberto Simões - “Modules and commands with the same name” - Mac OS X’s HFS+’s lack of case-sensitivity bites you in the hand. (4-July-2010)

  154. Slashdot: “Proximity Sensor Presents Latest iPhone 4 Issue” (5-July-2010)

  155. OSNews.com: “10 Reasons Why the PC Is Here to Stay” - countering Steve Jobs’ recent pronouncement that the iPad signals the end of hte PC era. (6-July-2010)

  156. OSNews.com: “10 Ways Curated App Stores Undermine Developers” (9-July-2010)

  157. OSNews.com: “Apple Loved You [Mac] Pro Users; Loves Your Money More Now” - about how the Apple Mac Pro has become much less worth it. (06-August-2010)

  158. Slashdot: “Apple Wants Patent On Video Game-Based iBooks” (13-August-2010)

  159. LWN.net: “EFF: Apple seeking to patent spyware” (24-August-2010)

  160. OSNews.com: “Apple Violated Facebook’s Terms of Service” (2-September-2010)

  161. OSNews.com: “‘Apple Is Not Fighting Jailbreaking’: Wait, What?” (30-August-2010) - “Apple fought hard to maintain jailbreaking as an illegal activity, and now Gruber is seriously arguing that all this was, well, just a joke? Didn’t happen? A figment of our collective imagination? I guess we’re seeing revisionist history in the making here. Fascinating. ”

  162. “5 Things Linux Does Better Than Mac OS X” - PCWorld Business Center - “On security, customization, hardware, reliability, and price, Linux blows Apple’s contender out of the water.” (30-September-2010)

  163. Perlmonks.org: “Broken Perl installation on Mac OS X” - Apple uses paths with whitesapce which confuses some UNIX tools.

  164. Slashdot.org: “Beware the Garden of Steven” - about the new Apple-curated Mac Apps Store which is similar in spirit to the infamous iPhone store. (22-October-2010)

  165. OSNews.com: “Copyright Infringement Claim Filed to Apple Over VLC” - controversy about whether one can distribute some open-source applications on the iPhone app store. (1-November-2010).

  166. OSNews.com: “Apple Exits Server Market” - many of the comments are insightful. (5-November-2010)

  167. Slashdot.org: “When Your Company Remote-Wipes Your Personal Phone” - someone’s personal iPhone got remotely wiped by their employer by mistake due to an MS Exchange integration mis-feature. (23-November-2010)

  168. OSNews.com: “Apple Kills Faster MacBook Air Replacement Drives” (30-November-2010)

  169. “Noise to Signal” Cartoon: Non-profit giving: is there an app for that? - about Apple’s policies towards applications of non-profits in its iPhone. (6-December-2010)

  170. Oded Arbel: “Android, iOS - who stole from who?” - about Apple's one-way street of allowing themselves to copy good features and interesting ideas from everyone else, while not letting others copy from them. (23-October-2011)

  171. Hetz Ben-Hamo: “A few words about Bezalel and the MacBook Pro Saga” (in Hebrew) - about why it is outrageous to demand that students buy an over-priced Apple computer at 9,000 ILS (2,400 USD or 1,800 Euro), in order to study at a design school.

  172. Haavard: “Apple using patents to undermine open standards again” (9-December-2011)

  173. OSNews.com: “Apple’s Education Event: On the Road to Vendor Lock-in” (19-January-2012)

  174. OSNews.com: “European Independent Apple Resellers on Verge of Bankrupcy” (09-February-2012)

  175. Glyn Moody: “Would Steve Jobs Have Approved? Artist Offers His Apple Monologue, Performance Rights, For Free” (16-February-2012)

  176. Ars Technica: “If Android is a ‘stolen product’, then so was the iPhone“ - about the touch screen innovations that predated the iPhone and were copied (or “stolen”) by it, and the fact that Apple is accusing the Android vendors of violating its patents. LWN.net coverage. (23-February-2012)

  177. OSNews.com: “Depending on an application store for your income” - due to a technical glitch at Apple, Bryan Lunduke’s Mac developer account was terminated, and his applications were removed from the Mac App Store, and Apple has not been communicative about it for two weeks. Also some notes that one does not normally uses the application store’s interface to learn about applications contained there. (15-March-2012)

Jokes

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