i hope steve jobs falls headlong into his own bony ass

[chronovore]

More fun in the new world: The place which advertised out-of-warranty iPhone repairs does not, for some reason, repair iPod Touch.

A long story, short: my iPod Touch headphone jack went flaky 3 weeks ago, which was 6~7 weeks past its one-year warranty. Apple wants 23,200 yen to give me a refurb unit, but recommended buying a new, same-capacity unit for 29,980 yen. Because of a 100 yen headphone jack. I have been pissed off since then.

Last night I called the US support line, and they reiterated the same policy: After 12 months, "it is a gamble" to own the iPod without extending the warranty through AppleCare, and the cost of my unknowingly cast bet is 199USD. This advice was not endearing.

During lunch today, I took a rushed trip by train to Nipponbashi to again visit the shop which had been closed on Tuesday. This time it was open, but the first thing the guy said was "Oh, this is an iPod. We do iPhones..."  He was helpful and gave the old college try to open the iPod, but the sucker-grip used for iPhone didn't work, and jimmying it with a guitar pick didn't have any more luck. He couldn't get it open and was worried about warping the case, especially since they didn't carry replacement cases. At this point, I'm considering shipping it to one of the US-based, third party repair places, then getting them to ship it to my sister, and having her bring it with her in June.

Also "at this point," I'm pretty sure that my current set of Apple goods are the last ones I will buy. Apple suggesting that a 13-month-old, 500USD piece of kit should be repurchased over a headphone jack, combined with the cascade of problems my refurb PowerBook had, with which Apple dealt so gracelessly, Apple is no longer the apple of my eye. My planned iPad purchase, my MacBook replacement for the still-ailing PowerBook, are no longer in the works. If Softbank gives me a free iPhone I won't refuse it, but I'm done sending Apple my money.

Comments

[ferricide.livejournal.com]

wow, that's fucking terrible. i bought applecare for my macbook, since i carry it all over the place, but i've just relied on the base warranty for my iPhone and iPod, and they've been solid as anything.

i'm surprised given the popularity of apple products in japan that there's... one shop, and it doesn't handle iPods. surely there are other options?

[chronovore.livejournal.com]

There are more shops, almost certainly -- the "Nipponbashi expert" at my work recommended this place because he assumed iPhone repair = iPod Touch repair. Which it should, actually. There are also online businesses which will accept shipped iPods to them, so I'll be looking into that with my wife's superior Japanese reading ability tomorrow.

I have AppleCare on my iMac, after the PowerBook problems I mentioned above. Those were interesting, because my friend-at-Apple said he couldn't figure out with the 4 or 5 problems it eventually had, why Apple didn't just REPLACE it, which they apparently do in most cases of repeated failure. So them not being good about that influenced my reaction here, certainly.

But I've actually cooled off a little since last week; my wife pointed out that my anger is likely redirected, suppressed anger at my work for the last few months, since I was too busy and had no time to myself. After thinking about that bombshell for a few moments, I said, "Well, Apple is charging too much for this repair, but you're right."

So I've been thinking about that as well since then.

[clevermanka.livejournal.com]

When I was shopping for an MP3 player, I went out of my way to avoid purchasing an Apple product.

Fuckers.

[chronovore.livejournal.com]

What did you end up getting, and why did you work to avoid Apple?

[clevermanka.livejournal.com]

I got a Creative Labs Zen and I've been thrilled with it.

I hate proprietary platforms. And Apple doesn't just promote its proprietary systems and software, it revels in them. Blah. It's not quite as bad as it used to be, but their elite-hipster attitude has always left a bad taste in my mouth.

[chronovore.livejournal.com]

I'm not bothered by system-exclusive elitism any more than Lego bricks not working with any other building blocks. It's easy to see why it bothers people; hell, it bothers me when Sony tries to push their own closed system stuff, mainly because it feels like there is already a widespread (or soon-to-be) solution which Sony gleefully ignores at the expense of their consumers.

Historically, Apple's closed system are a vanguard, where other systems soon follow. Where systems already exist, Apple tends to go out of their way to work with existing, mainstream items with which compatibility is desired (see: printer drivers, Windows networking).

However, with the iTunes Music Store becoming increasingly inaccurately named, as applications, movies, books, etc. being sold through it, I grow proportionately concerned about their secretive nature and its affect on their relationship with third-party developers.

It is not just possible, but increasingly common for independent app developers to butt up against Apple's own software plans, because one of Apple's central tenets is "no replication of Apple provided functionality." This means if a developer sees a gap in functionality in iPod OS 3.0 and makes a cute little app which deals with it, if Apple chooses to address that gap on their own (YAY!) they will deny listing the app which provides the same functionality (BOO!). Apple's plans for their devices tend to be entirely, intentionally opaque to anyone outside the company. Not only that, it's entirely feasible that Apple uses the metrics of sales from their store to determine the desirability of natively addressing the functionality offered by any given app.

But, despite all this, I see Apple's defensive posture as a weapon which has repeatedly benefited then as they stay ahead of Microsoft's technical accomplishments in the OS and handheld markets, still leaving MS to play continual catchup, and looking like a "me-too" effort.

I also feel much of my initial "blast off" burn on my anti-Apple sentiment was fueled by the four months of overtime I'd worked. My wife speculated that I was displacing my intense frustration with working so much overtime, feeling trapped and obligated to work overtime despite contractual agreement that such obligations do not exist, feeling that I'd not seen my kids more than a few minutes each day for all of Winter... Anyway, Apple is shitty for only offering one, official, 200USD path for customer resolution of a 2USD hardware failure. Yeah, that's crappy, but the Touch is otherwise... untouchable in terms of functionality.

I'm not back in love with Apple, but I'm willing to let it back in the house even if I'm not ready to share a bed. Please don't read too much into this analogy, esp. with the reference to Steve Jobs' bony ass in the initial subject. It's purely platonic.

[clevermanka.livejournal.com]

I'm willing to let it back in the house even if I'm not ready to share a bed.

Made. Of. Awesome.